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Archives for April 2018

The Irregular at Magic High School: Yokohama Disturbance Arc, Part 2

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By Tsutomu Sato and Kana Ishida. Released in Japan as “Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

Last time I mentioned I did not want any more romantic comedy hijinks, and it’s safe to say I got my wish, though that does not necessarily translate into a better book. The focus of this book is the Thesis Competition and the terrorist attack that disrupts it, and I think the entire problem with the book can be summed up by the fact that the competition never finishes after the attack and we never find out who won. It’s irrelevant. That actually pops up pretty frequently in this book, as we see moments that seem like they’re going to lead somewhere or develop a character… except they don’t. They’re there to “look cool” and that’s about it. (Honoka gets hit particularly hard with this.) The exception to this, as always, is Tatsuya. Miyuki seems to long for people to treat her and her brother as normal people rather than superhuman monsters, but it’s getting a tad difficult as the books move on.

As noted above, we start with the Thesis Competition, with our heroes going second to last. Their presentation is awesome, and yet here comes Third High and Cardinal George. But before he can start… explosions, invaders, rampaging monster trucks crashing through the walls. (This may – may – get wrapped up in a book or two with an offhand mention, but I will assume that First High wins. Did Third High even get to present again? “Yeah, look… um, can you just mail it in? We promise we’ll give it equal attention, but everyone’s kind of moved on.”) The rest of the book is taken up with repelling the attack, and, to its credit, it’s only about half “Tatsuya solves everything by dint of superpowerful magic awesomeness.” The rest of it is the rest of the cast contributing in their own little way, from actively killing terrorists with giant swords to using the power of Daddy’s Little Girl to summon helicopters to rescue civilians.

And yes, I said killing. There is a whole lot of bloodshed in this book, as the terrorists (whose identity I will try to keep a secret, in case someone anyone hasn’t guessed) amount to a bunch of cannon fodder. The cast take to it based on their personalities and strengths – Erika and Leo are basically fine with it, some of the others less so. Fortunately, absolutely none of our heroes are hurt all that badly – two of them get mortally wounded, but fortunately Tatsuya pulls out an “I can reverse this” magic that puts them back together again. I tend not to gripe about super overpowered heroes as much as the average light novel fan – I mean, if you’re reading this genre you have to basically accept it – but I admit to rolling my eyes a bit at this. Miyuki helpfully tells us how much pain it causes him, which is all very well and good, but it might have been nice to see that from his point of view, rather than just assume “stoic endurance”.

As the book ends with Tatsuya literally being the trigger of a nuclear magic explosion, one wonders where we’re going to go from here. Not back to the thesis competition, as Book 8 is apparently a prequel taking place three years earlier. In any case, while it is filled with cool battle scenes and the like, I didn’t enjoy this volume quite as much as the previous ones. It’s OK for the other characters to treat Tatsuya like some inhuman God, but don’t let the author do it as well.

CITY, Vol. 1

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By Keiichi Arawi. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Morning. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

It’s always interesting when an established author ends their popular title and moves to a new company to start something new. In the case of Keiichi Arawi, creator of Nichijou, he’s moved to Weekly Morning for this new series, which has a significantly older readership than Young Ace, his former home. That said, I don’t think Nichijou fans need to worry too much about things getting overly serious or normal. CITY contains most of what readers love about Arawi – bizarre situations, a cast filled with overreacting idiots, and the occasional page that reminds you that the author may be at his best when designing backgrounds. And if you already miss Yukko and Mio from his previous series, rest assured, Midori and Ayumu will have you scratching you head and saying “they seem strangely familiar”. Basically, everything you liked before is here again, except perhaps for Mai. (I miss Mai.)

As the title suggests, this is a story of various characters living in the midst of a reasonable-sized city. And I say ‘characters’ rather than people because it’s obvious from the first that funny gags are what’s on the menu. Midori is sort of a main character, the way Yukko was sort of the main character of Nichijou, but as the book goes on it shows itself as more of an ensemble piece. Which is for the best, most likely, as Midori can be difficult to take in large doses. She’s lazy, conniving, and hyperactive, and also has a streak of bad luck, all things that make her very funny, but we haven’t really had any of the heartwarming moments in Nichijou that made us open up to the cast. Probably as this first book is establishing said cast and locale, rather than expanding on them.

There are others in the cast. I mentioned Midiori’s best friend Ayumu, who is meant to be the “normal” one by contrast, but seems to have a few silly interests. There’s a family restaurant, which Midori starts to work at in an effort to pay her rent, staffed by a boy who relies a bit too much on horoscopes. There’s an over-earnest police officer who tries to do the right thing but frequently ends up way over his head. There’s a young woman whose name isn’t given but who is basically Nano from Nichijou without a screw in her back, and she’s sweet and ditzy and obsessed with point cards. There’s even a manga artist and editor, though given the manga artist’s series gets cancelled in this first volume and they replace him with someone far more famous, I’m not sure how long that will last.

CITY likely needs a few more volumes to play out before I know whether I’ll enjoy it as much as I did Nichijou. But the basic elements are all still there, and I still found myself smiling as I read it. Arawin fans will definitely want to check this out, as will fans of “quirky” manga.

CITY, Vol. 1

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CITY, Keiichi Arawi’s latest series, charts the misadventures of Midori, a feckless undergrad who’s behind on the rent, in debt to her roommate, and surrounded by “not-quite-ordinary people.” In a last-ditch effort to stay in her apartment, she hatches several get-rich schemes — betting on horses, entering a photography contest — all of which backfire in spectacular fashion. That premise sounded ripe with comic potential, so I decided to pick up a copy of volume one.

I’ll be honest: I had a hard time reviewing CITY, a manga that seems to be tickling everyone else’s funny bone but mine. Though I could appreciate the skill and imagination behind Keiichi Arawi’s work, I found CITY too frantic to be amusing, thought-provoking, or interesting. My frustration boiled down to two basic observations about Arawi’s methods — first, his unwavering belief that repeating gags is a surefire strategy for laughs, and second, his unwavering belief that certain types of jokes subvert convention when, in fact, they’re just as cliche as the conventions they’re spoofing. Nowhere are those two tendencies more pronounced than in his depiction of Midori’s landlady, a feisty old broad who goes to violent lengths to collect the rent. A karate-chopping grandma sounds hilarious in the abstract, but you’ve seen this gag done better elsewhere, most spectacularly in Kung Fu Hustle, where the regal and ridiculous Yuen Qi steals the show from under Stephen Chow’s nose  — something that can’t be said of Midori’s landlady, whose shouting and punching barely distinguishes her from her equally batshit neighbors.

It’s only in the quieter interludes, when the focus shifts from Midori to her neighbors that Arawi’s flair for the absurd manifests itself. In “Officer,” for example, a neighborhood patrolman finds himself under citizen’s arrest for a theft he was asked to investigate. The officer’s placid expression and deadpan delivery contrast sharply with the physical and emotional indignities of his job, his beatific expression unbroken by the ordeal of being hog-tied by an overzealous mob. Another modestly amusing interlude — “Wako Izumi” — focuses on a control freak who’s distraught by the loss of a restaurant point card. Like the officer, Wako proves an unreliable narrator, her impulsive, weird behavior contradicting the Sgt. Friday-esque tone of her internal monologue. These moments of surrealism aren’t funny, exactly, but they at least feel original, something that can’t be said of the tired slapstick jokes and strenuously unpleasant main characters.

Verdict: Your mileage will vary. See my colleague Sean Gaffney’s review for a different perspective on CITY.

CITY, Vol. 1
Art & Story by Keiichi Arawa
Translated by Jenny McKeon
Vertical, Inc., 166 pp.
No rating

Bookshelf Briefs 4/2/18

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ACCA 13-Territory Inspection Department, Vol. 2 | By Natsume Ono | Yen Press – I’m not entirely certain how seriously I should be taken the plotting against the crown here, or indeed the crown’s own attempts to overthrow ACCA. It does seem like Jean has no shortage of people who hate him and want to see a) his department obliterated and b) him arrested for treason. The trouble, of course, being he’s not actually plotting any sort of coup. In fact, he seems to be doing his job more because he has the hots for his superior officer more than anything else, although that’s as much of a lost cause as his own junior who has a crush on him. ACCA is a great series to read, but I don’t think I quite feel the sense of ominous danger I’m meant to. It needs a corpse or two. – Sean Gaffney

Battle Angel Alita: Deluxe Edition, Vol. 2 | By Yukito Kishiro | Kodansha Comics – Having previously read only a portion of the sequel/alternate ending Last Order (parts of which I greatly enjoyed although as a whole the series didn’t overly impress me), I never quite understood the immense popularity of Battle Angel Alita. But now, thanks to the deluxe, hardcover edition from Kodansha Comics, the original manga is back in print in English and I finally get it. The series is terrific, with an appealing lead, intense action sequences, and a striking and visually imaginative cyberpunk setting. The story of the second omnibus (most closely equivalent to the third and fourth volumes), turns to the dangerous and deadly sport of Motorball. After a tragic end to her first romance, Alita leaves behind her life as a bounty hunter to become a rising star of the game. Her search for identity continues as she strives to find purpose and meaning in who she is. – Ash Brown

A Centaur’s Life, Vol. 14 | By Kei Murayama | Seven Seas – I’ve said this before, but the longer this series goes on, and the less the main cast appear in it, the more I suspect that the anti-war story with the frogs that he has going on is the story he really wanted to tell, only he had to write about 7-8 volumes of fanservicey monster girl antics in order to get the series so popular he could get away with it. This is not to say we don’t still see Hime and company, or that there’s not fanservice—just look at the first chapter. But there’s more and more of the warfare in this book, and as it goes on it’s becoming clear that the participants being centaurs or frogs or angels is irrelevant to war being hell for all concerned. Easily the strangest monster girl series coming out these days. – Sean Gaffney

The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Vol. 11 | By Aya Shouoto | VIZ Media – Anyone expecting any sort of evolution of Aoi and Himari’s relationship in the wake of his confession at the end of volume nine will be disappointed, since here we are in volume eleven and the gang is primarily focused on getting control of a spreading darkness at the back of Momochi House. Himari is learning more about what happened to the previous Nue(s) and what fate might await Aoi, too, but for the most part this volume just has a lot of battles between Aoi and his immediate predecessor, whose body has been resurrected by his one of his shikigami. I appreciated the BL vibes I got from them during their final panel, but otherwise this volume was a trifle meh. – Michelle Smith

Flying Witch, Vol. 5 | By Chihiro Ishizuka | Vertical Comics – There actually is some plot development here, as Makoto is starting to get jobs, though the job amounts to ‘babysitting.’ More importantly, Chinatsu has been watching witches and magic for some time, and apparently her body is allowing her to use mana now, meaning… she can become a witch! For the moment that just amounts to squirting people with water, but I’m sure that the series is going to have a lot more to do with this going forward. Other than that, and the affirmation that there really is not going to be any romance in this series, even one-sided, thankyouverymuch, and that it is content to have chapters like “try to cure hiccups.” For fans of Yotsuba&! and similar series. – Sean Gaffney

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 4 | By Satoru Noda | Viz Media – There is… a bit less gore this time around, though that’s mostly relative. In fact, at times the genre of Golden Kamuy seems to be switching with every volume, as this time it’s turning into a political thriller, as there’s a lot more focus about what to do with the gold once it’s found, as well as showing off that the comedy relief character, while still funny, may be a bit less goofy than we expected. But rest assured there’s also lots of what brought people to Golden Kamuy in the first place—cooking wild anmals, lots of discussion of poop, and the occasional bloody death and cool action shot. Also, please do not let your heroine get kidnapped by eagles. She is far too valuable. Thank you. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 5 | By Canno | Yen Press – Another volume, another relationship, this one featuring the classic forgotten childhood friend. Sawa and Itsuki are entertaining on their own, but there’s no real drama as to whether or not they’ll get together The best part is that Sawa takes a while to struggle with “oh, yeah, I guess I do like her this way,” rather than having an immediate epiphany like some other couples we’ve seen. We also get more attention devoted to the main couple, as we see Ayaka dealing with her Education Mama and her frustration at not being able to be number one… even if she’s not sure that should be her goal anymore. This is not the best yuri manga out there, but it’s pretty solid overall. – Sean Gaffney

Twinkle Stars, Vol. 5 | By Natsuki Takaya | Yen Press –Twinkle Stars, Vol. 5 | By Natsuki Takaya | Yen Press – And so, Twinkle Stars comes to a sometimes painful, sometimes lovely close. Just when Chihiro has finally accepted his feelings for Sakuya, he gets a surprise phone call from Sakura, who has actually been awake for some time. He’s afraid that she’ll try to kill herself again unless he shows her what he learned from Sakuya—that kindness and warmth are not an illusion—and so he chooses to leave for Tokyo to be by her side. Not before Sakuya realizes that he’s in love with her, though—in a majorly tear-inducing scene!—and not without telling Sakura that he can’t consider her his girlfriend anymore because he’s fallen in love with someone else. There’s a lot of self-sacrificing going around, including Sakura eventually realizing that she alone can make Chihiro happy… by setting him free. This was such a great series and I look forward to rereading it in the future. – Michelle Smith

Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty, Vol. 3 | By Megumi Morino | Kodansha Comics – Well, that cliffhanger from the last volume went nowhere fast. Instead, we deal with Tetsu’s love of soccer, and the fact that various circumstances led him to leave the team despite that love. This has not sat well with some friends of his, and Shizu and her ghosts end up being dragged into things in order to get him to reconcile with the team. This is pretty heartwarming, and also shows us that Shizu is getting better at being herself when she’s outside, even if the ghosts still occupy her body much of the time. We’re now halfway through the series, and I suspect things may get a little more serious towards the end, so it’s nice to see something like this that is serious yet easily solvable. Also, Shizu’s cute. – Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Manga Strikes!

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MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to so much this week! Ace of the Diamond, Chihayafuru, Promised Neverland, My Hero Academia, to name but a few. However, seinen romantic comedy from Mitsurou Kubo wins in my book. It’s gotta be Moteki. Plus, you get the first half of the series in one package. Nice!

SEAN: There is, frankly, an embarrassment of riches this week. including every single Shojo Beat title, as well as The Promised Neverland, which will be brilliant and make me suffer. But yes, I’m going with Moteki, a title we would never have seen here if not for Yuri on Ice taking off the way it did. I’m not complaining.

KATE: Moteki and The Promised Neverland are my must-read manga of the week. If I had to choose just one title, though, it would be the third volume of The Promised Neverland, since previous installment ended with a game-changing revelation.

ASH: I’m actively following so many of the series coming out this week! But when it comes to the pick of the week, debuts tend to get most of my attention, and so Moteki it is for me! (Although I’m also rather curious about Kenka Bancho Otome… )

ANNA: There’s a ton of great stuff coming out this week! It makes it so hard to pick! Like many others I have to give Moteki the edge though.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Plus Ultra

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

So in the afterword to the second volume of Tanya the Evil, the author talks about how much his editors and readers want to see more of the guys in the cast rather than Tanya herself, and how he is adamant about keeping Tanya front and center. And I get that, he’s correct as far as it goes. But I also understand the feelings of the others, because too much Tanya, particularly when we’re smiling and nodding along with her point of view, is not only overpowering but actively harmful to a degree. The Saga of Tanya the Evil works best when it shows us the disconnect between what Tanya is thinking and what the rest of the cast thinks she is thinking, and there are several very amusing moments here where we see that. But it’s not nearly as many as the first book, and pure, unfiltered Tanya, which we get here for long stretches at a time, risks the reader coming over to her point of view. Which is not, I suspect, what the author is going for.

The title is, as are all the titles in this series, Latin, and means “further beyond”. It’s also the national motto of Spain, one of the few countries in Europe that doesn’t have an equivalent here. The “plot” of the second volume reads almost like a book of short stories, and those who expect to see more of Tanya vs. Being X beyond her constant grousing are going to be disappointed. Instead, Tanya and her unit perform like the A-Team, dropping into war zones and magically coming out successful even when they’re unaware of it. We hit the Tanya equivalents of Romania, Norway, and France here, and also take a little bit of time to perform a few wartime atrocities. There are occasional flashforwards to reporters discussing these events as history, and it’s made pretty clear that history is not going to be happy with Tanya’s actions. It’s also made pretty clear the Empire is not going to be on the winning side when the war eventually ends. Now that we’re getting England… sorry, The Commonwealth into it, who knows where the books will take us next?

But again, as I said, there’s a whole lot of Tanya point of view in this book’s 7,963 pages. (That’s a slight exaggeration, but is is punishingly long. Readers may feel better knowing that, although all Tanya volumes are long, none in the future are QUITE as long as this one.) There are a few exceptions – we’re introduced to a new recruit whose job is to boggle in horror at war and Tanya (possibly not in that order), and we also meet a man who looks like he’s being set up as a major antagonist, Anson Sue (whose daughter, god help us, is named Mary Sue)… except he’s promptly killed off without Tanya even knowing who he is, so the whole thing ends up being anticlimactic. We occasionally see some of the Empire higher-ups, or a brief POV of the other side. Even Visha gets very little to do in this book besides be Tanya’s adjutant. The readers want more of the other characters because it provides some balance and different coloring. All Tanya is like eating potatoes every day.

I’m still not ready to drop this series, which is odd given “this is too dark” is the main reason I tend to drop light novels these days. I think Tanya’s odd historical and military tone works in its favor – the book may be filled with ludicrous amounts of discussion of ammo, shells, and the rules of war, but its dry tone sets it at a remove from the actions it describes. And I can’t deny that I find Tanya fascinating, and I’m still not sure how much the author wants us to like her. If you enjoyed the anime (which I admittedly haven’t seen), I can only imagine this is a must buy, as there’s lots of stuff that must have been cut to ribbons in adaptation. As for me, I will read on, but I can’t deny that at the end of the day one word comes to mind reading The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Exhausting.