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Urusei Yatsura, Omnibus 3

By Rumiko Takahashi. Released in Japan in two separate volumes by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Camellia Nieh. After the soft reboot of this series with the arrival of Shutaro Mendo, Takahashi is going back and trying to see how she can work the pile of characters she introduced at the start back into the series, while also introducing new and hilarious regulars. Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not. The first half of this volume succeeds in re-integrating Sakura into the cast, now the high school nurse in addition to a shrine priestess, and we also meet Mendo’s rival Tobimaro Mizunokoji, a baseball-obsessed samurai type who is after revenge but is too dim to get it. (He’s…

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The Right Way to Make Jump

Most books about the manga industry fall into one of two categories: the how-to book, which offers advice on how to draw proportionate characters, plan a storyboard, and buy the right pens; and the how-I-became-an-artist story, which charts the emotional ups and downs of breaking into the manga biz. The Right Way to Make Jump takes a different approach, pulling back the curtain on the production process. And while that process is genuinely fascinating, The Right Way’s presentation suffers, ironically, from the fact that it began its life as a series in Weekly Jump. Our guide to the manga-making process is artist Takeshi Sakurai, who depicts himself as a spazzy, anxiety-ridden thirty-year-old who traded his dreams of becoming a professional manga-ka for a more predictable, less demanding life as an onigiri…

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In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 16

By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson. It is very telling – and a bit sad – that a chunk of this book is some of the best Smartphone prose I’ve seen in some time, and it’s the part narrated by someone else, with Touya absent. I do worry about the afterword, where the author and editor discussed cutting this bit as it did NOT feature Touya or his fiancees. I get the sense that we’re looking for different things in this series. Rest assured for Touya fans, though – if there are any Touya fans left – that he gets a lot to do here,…

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Manga the Week of 8/28/19

SEAN: This week’s Manga the Week of comes to you live from Stanfield International Airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We start off with J-Novel Club, who have new volumes of An Archdemon’s Dilemma (7) and Der Werwolf (5). Kodansha’s print volumes include Attack on Titan: Before the Fall 17, Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight 9, L*DK 13, and Witch Hat Atelier 3. ANNA: I love Witch Hat Atelier! ASH: It really is such a lovely manga. SEAN: The digital debut next week is Atsumori-kun’s Bride-to-Be (Atsumori-kun no Oyome-san (←Mitei)), a shoujo/josei series from Dessert. The author has also done House of the Sun. Country girl chases after a guy she likes by moving to Tokyo. MICHELLE: I was looking at this earlier. It looks somewhat cuter than some…

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Bookshelf Briefs 8/21/19

Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter, Vol. 4 | By Reai and Suki Umemiya | Seven Seas – Aside from praising Iris’s innovations, this volume focuses more on the political end of things than the commerce end. Iris ends up attending the ball, and it goes better than she expected, mostly as the Queen Dowager is in her corner. In fact, honestly, things may go a little TOO well—the entire ball seems engineered to show off how the guy who dumped and exiled Iris is a hothead idiot, and Yuri seems to be doing an excellent job of manipulating the country into… running itself into the ground. But how invested should Iris be in all this, especially as she has to look out for her own nation, because there’s war on…

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Crest of the Stars: A War Most Modest

By Hiroyuki Morioka and Toshihiro Ono. Released in Japan by Hayakawa Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino. When we left Jinto and Lafier, he was locked up in an evil Baron’s swank apartment along with the evil Baron’s sympathetic father. What follows for the next third or so of the book is a well-executed action movie, as we get escapes, chases, battles to the death, a clever use of propellant, and the two of them reunited and on their way once more. Unfortunately, it would appear that “drop Jinto off and continue on her merry way” is just not in the cards for Lafier, as the delay means that there’s now a huge war that they have to somehow get through. They’re able…

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A Certain Scientific Railgun, Vol. 14

By Kazuma Kamachi and Motoi Fuyukawa. Released in Japan as “Toaru Kagaku no Railgun” by ASCII Media Works, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Nan Rymer, Adapted by Patrick Sullivan. Out of the ‘core four’ heroines in Railgun, Uiharu Kazari has probably gotten the least amount of focus time. She’s the hacker friend of the bunch, and would be the weakest esper except that Saten is a Level 0, and Saten is also outgoing whereas Uiharu isn’t. But we’re past the events of Index 15, where Uiharu stared down a dangerous Level 5 in order to protect a child (and got a broken collarbone for her troubles), so we know that she’s made of sterner stuff. As a result, she…

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Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, Vol. 3

By Rifuin Na Magonote and Shirotaka. Released in Japan as “Mushoku Tensei – Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Paul Cuneo. Adapted by JY Yang. A lot of people had talked about the influence of Mushoku Tensei on other reincarnation isekais, and I must admit after the first two volumes I wasn’t seeing it. If anything, this series is more interesting for what it doesn’t do, as we see Rudy training up as a child, and at the end of this book he’s still only eleven years old or so. The subplot with Eris in the second volume also seemed fairly unique. But then there was that cliffhanger, with everyone and everything being scattered to the four winds. Unfortunately, we…

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Ao Haru Ride, Vol 6

Ao Haru Ride Volume 6 by Io Sakisaka I’m enjoying the way this series presents young romance with a sense of nostalgia mixed with compassion. Futuba’s heightened awareness of memory and lost time as she attempts to get to know Kou after not being in contact with him for years has her approaching school milestones with great introspection as she attempts to find just the right moment to confess her renewed feelings. Complications loomed at the start of this volume, as it is clear that Kou has gotten himself a bit enmeshed with a former classmate named Narumi, who is leaning on him as her main source of emotional support. Narumi shows up at the school festival, and Futuba tries to figure out what sort of relationship she and Kou…

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