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Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy

By Sanzo. Released in Japan as “Imomushi Shoujo to Komyushou Danshi” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Gene Pixiv. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Alexandra McCullough-Garcia. I’m not sure what I was expecting going into reading Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy. I knew the basic premise, but that’s about it. I think I expected a cute, slice-of-life thing with heartwarming moments. I also expected by the end of the book everything would be back to normal. Neither of those things happen, and in fact the book goes to a lot of dark places that I wasn’t expecting. That makes it a richer experience, though, and even as I was reading along and going “holy crap”, I was appreciating what the author was doing, peeling…

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Outbreak Company, Vol. 4

By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach. This is quite a short volume of Outbreak Company, and as such it doesn’t really do a heck of a lot to advance the forward plot. Its main thrust can be divided into three: 1) Due to the soccer game from last book being filmed and then leaked onto Youtube, Shinichi and company have to figure out how to cover up something that’s already gone viral; 2) Petralka is starting to burn out a bit, and her advisors aren’t really sure how to deal with a teenage empress; and 3) the author has realized that Minori hasn’t really had much of a backstory, and thus has Shinichi actually notice…

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Little Witch Academia, Vol. 1

By Trigger, Yoh Yoshinari and Keisuke Sato. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Ace. Released in North America by JY. Translated by Taylor Engel. Despite this being another franchise where I’ve never actually seen the anime, I knew quite a bit about it to begin with. It was a Kickstarter series that blew up into a full-fledged TV anime, it’s been described as “Harry Potter if they were all girls”, and Akko/Diana is the preferred ship, I am told. Other than that, I was ready to be charmed by this manga, which is coming out here under Yen’s “JY” line, so is definitely being marketed to younger readers. Which I can see, as kids will love this. It’s a good title for adults as…

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Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Vol 1

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Volume 1 by Kagiji Kumanomata This manga was an unexpected delight. I was initially curious about Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle due to it being a Shonen Sunday title, which is a bit of a rarity. I feel like fantasy comedy series can be a bit hit or miss, but I found this title quite entertaining, mostly due to the way it subverts the whole idea of kidnapped princesses. Syalis is the kidnapped princes in question and while the people in her kingdom pine for her and a idiotic knight vows to rescue her at the start of each chapter, she is solely concerned with getting some good rest. The demon castle lacks high quality pillows and bedding, and she is determined to…

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Manga the Week of 6/27/18

SEAN: 65 titles. Sixty. Five. Titles. Next. Week. MICHELLE: Holy crap. ANNA: Yikes. ASH: That’s amazing. SEAN: Ghost Ship has a 5th To-Love-Ru Darkness and a 2nd volume of Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, thus continuing to be the “Shonen Jump Titles Too Hot For Viz” publisher. J-Novel Club has the 6th volume of If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord. Kodansha’s got a lot. Print-wise we see some series we haven’t seen for a looooooong time. Air Gear (last seen one year ago) finally comes to an end with its 37th volume. L♥DK (last seen 10 months ago) has its 11th volume. And Missions of Love (last seen 13 months ago) has a 15th volume. This doesn’t seem to be “caught up with Japan”,…

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Napping Princess: The Story of the Unknown Me

By Genji Kamiyama. Released in Japan as “Hirunehime ~ Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari ~” by Kadokawa Shoten. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Yota Okutani. We’ve been getting a lot of these sorts of books lately, the novelization of a popular animated film. Well, for some definition of popular – your name sort of hovers above everything else. But we’ve also gotten The Boy and the Beast, and we’re getting Fireworks: Long Title Here in the summer. And now we have Napping Princess, a book that adapts the film of the same name that came out in 2017. It’s a quick, breezy read with a likeable lead heroine and a few very interesting plot twists about two-thirds of the way through. It does, however, suffer from a…

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The Manga Revue, 6/18/18

Twice the reviews! Twice the links! This week’s Manga Revue is bigger and badder than the last one, as I weigh in on the latest installments of The Promised Neverland and Silver Spoon, and round up manga reviews from around the web. Before I get down to the reviews, however, I want to warn the spoiler-averse reader that it’s impossible to discuss either Neverland or Spoon without divulging a few plot details. Caveat lector! The Promised Neverland, Vol. 4 Written by Kaiu Shirai, Illustrated by Posuka Demizu Translated by Satsuki Yamashita VIZ Media Rated T+, for older teens One of the pleasures of reading The Promised Neverland is its crack pacing: Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu have a knack for the perfectly timed reveal and the pulse-pounding action sequence. Volume three was a rare misstep for the series, saddled with…

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A Certain Scientific Railgun, Vol. 13

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 Maggie Danger. I’ve talked before about how the Railgun manga is far more tied into its parent than most other spinoffs I’ve seen. For one thing, it actually feels like it’s written by Kamachi. Most spinoffs tend to have the original writer simply give approval to stories that the artist has come up with themselves (the Nagato Yuki spinoff is a good example), but events in this book and the previous one are interconnected with Index’s 15th novel. Not only that, they enhance the novel itself – the last book saw Frenda…

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The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 3

By Gamei Hitsuji and himesuz. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki. I didn’t mention it in my review of the previous volume, but a large chunk of that book was taken up with the journey of the actual hero, Reiji, and his adventures trying to destroy the demons. Given that the basic premise of this book is that we leave the hero by the wayside and follow his secretly more powerful best friend, it’s impressive that the author it not only coming back to the hero occasionally but also treating him seriously. Reiji wants to help this world, despite the fact that he’s not from it and that everyone not in his party seems to be a cynical bastard of…

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