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Captain Harlock: The Classic Collection, Vol. 2

By Leiji Matsumoto. Released in Japan as “Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Harlock” by Akita Shoten, serialized in the magazine Play Comic. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Zack Davisson. Adapted by Snati Whitesides. This second omnibus of Captain Harlock settles down a bit, with a lot less goofy comedy but also without the tragedy that I was expecting. What we end up getting are a series of scenes/arcs of the Arcadia and its crew going after the Mazon in deep space, and having adventures. It reminds you that manga titles back in the day were far more concerned about any casual reader being able to pick up and follow along even after missing the previous seven months. There’s not a lot of intercontinuity here. That said, it’s certainly…

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Clockwork Planet, Vol. 4

By Yuu Kamiya, Tsubaki Himana, and Sino. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by fofi. This volume gives a lot of attention to Halter, who has tended to serve as the realist and voice of reason for our little band of terrorists. To be fair, this role seems to be his by default; Naoto and Marie are such shiny idealists it’s a wonder you can look straight at them without going blind, RyuZU would destroy the world if Naoto asked her to, and as for Vermouth… yeah, let’s not. So it’s fallen to Halter to explain that, in fact, the world does not end up being sweet and caring just because you wish really hard. Especially when they’re in the steampunk Thailand, where…

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Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 14

Yona of the Dawn Volume 14 by Mizuho Kusanagi I always put down each volume of Yona of the Dawn feeling like Kusanagi has just served up a master class in plot and character development, but I felt that way even more in this volume, which shows Yona traveling to visit the Water Tribe and confronting some very serious issues along the way. As soon as they arrive on Water Tribe land, Jaeha takes the opportunity to invite Hak along to visit the Red Light District, because the women of the Water Tribe are legendary for their beauty. Yona’s cloaked reactions as this conversation unfolds underscores how much she cares. Hak turns Jaeha down, and Jaeha heads out to explore the city solo, sensing that something is very wrong with…

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MachiMaho: I Messed Up and Made the Wrong Person into a Magical Girl!, Vol. 1

By Souryu. Released in Japan as “Machigatta ko wo Mahou Shoujo ni Shite Shimatta” by Shinchosha, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Kurage Bunch. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by David Musto and Wesley Bridges. Adapted by Jennifer Geisbrecht. Longtime readers may be rather surprised I’m reviewing this at all, as I’ve made no secret of my distaste for the current genre of “Magical Girl Splatter”. Technically starting with Madoka Magica (which I have far less of a problem with), the more recent Magical Girl titles – all meant to be read by teen or adult men – seem to have an audience that wants to see cute girls get mentally broken and then killed off in gory ways. It’s not so much a deconstruction of the…

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Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 16

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis. We’re now in the 2nd half of this long series of light novels, and the author is taking the time to wrap up the plots. Sanae was first, mostly as her plot tied into others and was fairly easily resolved. Yurika and Maki’s has honestly barely been touched beyond introducing various strata of evil magical girls, and there’s a sense there’s much more to it. Theia’s is, most like, the main plotline, and thus is not wrapping up anytime soon. And that leaves Kiriha’s, and unfortunately, it’s really not as good a climax as I’d like. I mentioned last time that Kiriha’s antagonist was a…

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Plus-Sized Elf, Vol. 1

By Synecdoche. Released in Japan as “Elf-san wa Yaserarenai” by Wani Books, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Gum. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jennifer O’Donnell. Adapted by David Lumsdon. As those who follow me on Twitter know, I frequently make comments about manga as I’m reading them, before I do a review. This are usually glib, off-the-cuff, and not meant to be taken seriously. Case in point: while reading Plus-Sized Elf, I noted that it was an odd combination of a fetish manga and an exercise manual, and several people actually sounded more interested in it than they were. So I want to clarify here: we’re talking about 85% fetish manga and 15% exercise here. You have to really, really like seeing large breasts, large…

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Manga the Week of 10/24/18

SEAN: October continues to push out new titles to break our banks. First, I missed another release in last week’s list. Out tomorrow is the 6th Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress from Bookwalker. Dark Horse has a debut I’m excited about. Mob Psycho 100 is by the author of One-Punch Man, and this time he’s also the artist. It runs in Shogakukan’s Ura Sunday, is based off the webcomic, and is about a psychic boy. MICHELLE: Ooh, interesting! MELINDA: This also sounds interesting to me! ANNA: Me too! ASH: Yup, count me in! SEAN: J-Novel Club has some ongoing series, with a 4th Infinite Stratos, a 2nd Kokoro Connect, and a 3rd volume of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer. Kodansha print debuts another Fairy Tail spinoff, Lightning Gods. Kodansha digital is…

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How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 7

By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan by Overlap, Inc. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann. This is a strong volume of Realist Hero, getting back to what most people reading the series are here for. No, not harems, though there’s a lot of that going around. No, not sex, there’s none of that here. But diplomacy gets to be front and center again, as Souma and his entourage end up traveling to not-Turkey to see what that nation is all about. There they find themselves designing syringes and scalpels, dealing with a boisterous yet forward-thinking young prince, heading off the discovery of quite a nasty dungeon (and seeing what it does to the poor villagers who lived next to it), and negotiating a…

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Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 14

By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane. As I’ve mentioned before, Jaeha is my favorite of the Dragons, and I suspect I’m not alone there. He fits into a lot of characterization buckets that appeal to me. Indeed, he frequently puts himself in those buckets, behaving a specific way either because he wants to be seen that way, or in order to distract from how he’s really feeling. And traveling with Yona and company is troubling him, as he’s falling for Yona hard, which would be fine except that a) he totally sees the writing on the wall with Yona and Hak,…

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