Michelle Smith

Sean, Anna, and Michelle present a smattering of briefy goodness.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Vol. 2 | By Aya Shouoto | VIZ Media – At first, I thought this must be a short series, since Himari and Aoi already have feelings for each other by chapter four, but it’s not especially so. Thankfully, the pace slows down a little more toward the end of the volume, as Himari transfers into a new school. Curious classmates follow her home to her notoriously haunted house, and after a bit of comedic drag by the bishounen occupants, we learn that one of the visitors is already dead. It’s a nice bit of creepiness that will carry over into the next volume, hopefully boding well for more stories of a similar nature down the pipeline. Too, I liked the too-short bonus story of how Aoi came to reside within Momochi House. I am intrigued and will continue to follow this series! – Michelle Smith

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 8 | By Yoto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – I leave out contributor Yuki Morisaka in these briefs for reasons of space, but it’s fairly clear that she’s a second food expert on this title. The addition of the recipes makes sure that the series doesn’t get too ridiculous with its culinary competitions—when Alice uses liquid nitrogen to prepare her bento meal, it’s lampshaded that the bento recipe provided is a “super-easy” version of same. As for the contest, after Megumi’s spotlight last time, this time it’s Soma that gets to move on—though Megumi does have a not-so-shocking realization about her feelings for him. The question is not whether Soma will get past Alice—the nature of the title is not going to have him lose here. It’s how that makes us want more. – Sean Gaffney

Knights of Sidonia, Vol. 14 | By Tsutomu Nihei | Vertical Comics – Perhaps it’s an understatement to say that things are not looking good for the crew of the Sidonia. Spurred into the offensive against a huge cluster ship by the fact that it will only get bigger if they wait, two attack fleets are dispatched without injured ace Tanikaze and soon more gauna materialize to destroy half of them. Still more gauna threaten the Sidonia and, oh yeah, there’s a rogue crazy hybrid out there to contend with, as well. It’s a tense volume and I love that I can actually believe that Nihei really will allow humanity’s last hope to perish. My sole quibble is that when the captain tells Tanikaze about his origins and seemingly attempts to seduce him he has basically no reaction to the former and we never see response to the latter. You’d better not cheat on Tsumugi, you jerk! – Michelle Smith

Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 14 | Original Concept by Hiro Arikawa, Story and Art by Kiiro Yumi | Viz Media – As ever, the basic premise of Library Wars is essentially ridiculous, and as a result it’s pretty hard to care about all the plotting the gang is doing to get an author whose freedom of expression is being denied to a foreign embassy so that he might defect. And yet, this setup does result in some terrific moments, like Shibazaki being omniscient (to anyone familiar with Suits, Shibazaki is the manga equivalent of Donna), Iku slinging an injured Dojo over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and the impossible-not-to-love two-page spread depicting a certain couple’s first kiss. Library Wars is very far from deep, but it is fun, and I expect that the next and final volume will offer up some satisfying resolution. Wonder if VIZ will release the sequel! – Michelle Smith

My Little Monster, Vol. 10 | By Robico | Kodansha Comics – Remember just one volume ago, where sweetly, slowly developing high school romance reigned supreme? Quite adeptly, Robico turns things on their head in volume ten. It’s Yuzan’s birthday, and his scandal-prone famous father is adamant that Haru attend the party for the sake of public appearances. He goes, and it’s awful, but before then we get some much-needed insight into Yuzan’s perspective. All along, I kind of thought Haru’s effortless academic superiority was just a throwaway attribute, but it turns out that it’s the source of all his problems. Young Yuzan envied Haru so much that he contrived to get him thrown out of their father’s house, and when Haru learns that Shizuku is jealous too, he can’t take it. It’s an excellent, though upsetting, volume and I absolutely love feeling that a happy ending is not a foregone conclusion. Even more strongly recommended than previously! – Michelle Smith

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign, Vol. 6 | by Takaya Kagami and Yamato Yamamoto | Viz Media – This volume continues to show a bit of world building and backstory as Yu and Kimizuki face the demons inside their cursed weapons to gain yet another level of power. The political machinations in the Japanese Imperial Demon Army and the vampire nobility are also explained a bit, as Yu and Mika are set up for yet another confrontation. I enjoy the blend of character development and demonic weapon vs vampire action in Seraph of the End, mostly because there’s are more interesting storylines in this manga than the typical shonen action title. – Anna N

Toriko, Vol. 30 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – I do wonder if the reason for the big romance advancement this volume in a series where romance, let’s face it, is way way down on the list of importance was to dial back the series’ burgeoning BL fandom in Japan. Jump often gets accused of pandering to BL fans. Toriko isn’t Gintama, but they too can’t quite resist making fun of it—when Toriko accepts Rin’s proposal, Sunny straight up asks what about Komatsu? And Komatsu has dinner with a cute, like-minded chef not long after that. I think it would have more impact if Rin had been given a larger role in the story to date, but it’s still pretty heartwarming, particularly as it’s not the “I have no idea what I just agreed to” proposal acceptance I was assuming. – Sean Gaffney

Sean and Michelle present another round of Bookshelf Briefs!

Assassination Classroom, Vol. 6 | By Yusei Matsui | Viz Media – It’s unsurprising that there are people in Class E who are somewhat resentful of what Koro-sensei is trying to do. The entire class, as we’ve seen, is not of one mind, and Terasaka is perfectly happy scraping along at the bottom. Of course, Koro-sensei can win anyone over, though it also takes some tough love from Karma as well. Things are going pretty well for our heroes, though, which is why it’s time to introduce a new villain—this one the son of our main villain, the school principal. Asano is there to ensure that Class E does not make headway in the school exams. I’m not sure if he’ll succeed, as the class making headway would result in their promotion, which would make it hard to continue the series. Good stuff. – Sean Gaffney

He’s My Only Vampire, Vol. 4 | By Aya Shouoto | Yen Press – Aki’s pursuit of the seven stigmas needed to gain the power to wake his slumbering brother continues, despite the objections of a pair of angels, culminating in the acquisition of a third stigma and the apprehension of the serial killer who’s been on the periphery since the beginning of the series. This is an entertaining volume, largely due to some manipulation of shoujo tropes. A classmate goes missing, and ordinarily we would expect the heroine and friends to succeed in rescuing her, but that does not happen. Then we get the “our leads fill in for a school drama performance” plot, including Aki in drag, but this old idea is made fresh by the lurking supernatural menace. Of the three Aya Shouoto series coming out presently, I like He’s My Only Vampire the best. The tone is darker and more consistent and plotting feels more sure-footed as well. Recommended! – Michelle Smith

Kokoro Connect, Vol. 5 | By Sadanatsu Anda and CUTEG | Seven Seas – Being an ongoing light novel series whose manga was going to end here, I’m not surprised that Kokoro Connect has a very open ending that doesn’t really resolve the main love triangle or Heartseed. But it does continue to do what it does well, which is put its cast through the wringer—particularly Inaba, whose self-loathing turns out to be just as bad if not worse than Iori’s sense of self issues. The weak link here is Taichi, whose “knight complex” gets called out here without nearly as much development in the narrative. Still, it’s a solid ending that leaves things open for a second series (though one hasn’t happened as of yet in Japan). A surprisingly emotional romantic comedy with psychological underpinnings. – Sean Gaffney

Love at Fourteen, Vol. 4 | By Fuka Mizutani | Yen Press – As the focus expands slightly to show us other students in this series, it’s clear that not only do Kazuki and Kanata have the whole ‘mature’ thing going for them, but their own love affair is the only one that’s going relatively smoothly. There are issues like a need for closeness and face time, but given they’re both fourteen that’s understandable. To contrast this, we have the ongoing teacher/student relationship that knows it’s wrong but just can’t stop itself, the yuri writer whose Kanata fantasies are getting more robust, and the standard “why the hell won’t he notice me, dammit” girl who’s growing her hair out for the clueless guy she likes. Honestly, the main couple is the main reason to read this—the rest grates. – Sean Gaffney

QQ Sweeper, Vol. 1 | By Kyousuke Motomi | VIZ Media – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Here we have a Kyousuke Motomi shoujo manga featuring a custodian with past trauma for which he blames himself and the plucky orphan who is recruited to work alongside him. Happily, while there are obvious similarities to Dengeki Daisy, the tone of QQ Sweeper distinguishes itself nicely and its lead characters are distinct, as well. (Also, while Kyutaro describes himself as “the custodian of the Genbu Gate,” it’s not really a janitorial position.) I particularly like Fumi, both in character design and personality, especially her unabashed pursuit of a rich husband but unwillingness to get in the way of true love. I’m still positive she and Kyutaro will end up together, but for now I love that she’s not even considering him romantically, despite telling him “you’re special to me.” I really enjoyed this debut and look forward to more! – Michelle Smith

Sean tackles a big pile of briefs and Michelle… doesn’t.

Chocolate Cosmos, Vol. 1 | By Nana Haruta | VIZ Media (digital only) – Judging by the title, you might assume that Chocolate Cosmos has something to do with desserts, but so far, that does not appear to be the case. Instead, readers are introduced to high school first year Sayuki Sakurai, an academic slacker with an unfortunate case of resting bitch face, who just wants to experience a “heartwarming” kind of love, like she’s read about. It would seem luck is on her side when she meets a cute, sweet guy at the beach, but alas, he turns out to be a teacher at her school, Katsuya Hagiwara. The entire second half of the volume is Sayuki and friends trying to establish a club with Hagiwara as their advisor. As much as I generally don’t care for student-teacher romances, this one is chaste enough—and more of an ensemble piece—to be appealing in a comfort-food shoujo kind of way. I will probably keep reading it. – Michelle Smith

Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, Vol. 12 | By Yomi Hirasaka and Itachi | Seven Seas – Once again I am impressed by how far this series will go to remind us how screwed up its main cast is, particularly Yozora, who undercuts what should be a really awesome moment with unrepentant theft. Even when a character is shown to be better off than we expect, such as Kobato being admired and respected by her classmates, it’s something that Kobato herself can’t accept, preferring to drench herself in fantasy and attacks on Maria, who is fast becoming her best friend. Oh yes, and Sena and Kadota are engaged, in a scene in a church so drenched with awkward sexual tension that even Christ himself tells them off. Still a hilarious comedy with dark undertones. – Sean Gaffney

He’s My Only Vampire, Vol. 4 | By Aya Shouoto | Yen Press – I will give the author credit for at last attempting to keep the ‘they still have to go to school everyday’ aspect of this increasingly dark and twisted manga going, and there are some standard ‘manga’ plots such as Kana having to stand in for the drama club when one of their members goes missing. That said, it’s the aforementioned dark, twisted bits that make this volume more interesting to me—said missing girl ends up as part of a surprisingly high body count, the Angels who oppose Aki are, unsurprisingly for Japanese manga, rather unholy, and the stigma of Lust carries a whole barrel of unhealthy implications in its story. Don’t let the fluffy cover fool you—this is pretty dark vampire action stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Kimi Ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 22 | By Karuho Shiina | Viz Media – Shiina’s series began by discussing how difficult it was to make your feelings known to a person that you love—or even a close friend—and even now twenty-two volumes later, with half the cast finally hooking up, communication troubles still drive the majority of the plot. Kento has now been told what Ayano wants to do, and realizes he’s been selfish, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a full reversal. Likewise, Chizu and Kazehaya are facing a separation from the person they love that is devastating each of them in its own way. Add to this some wonderful scenes with Sawako and Kurumi inspiring each other, and a Big Damn Kiss, and this ends up being another fantastic volume. – Sean Gaffney

My Neighbor Seki, Vol. 4 | By Takuma Morishige | Vertical Comics – As this series goes on, it is starting to slowly expand its universe, although the majority of the volume is still ‘what is Seki doing in class and what is Yokoi’s reaction.’ Yokoi’s impulsive actions end up inadvertently causing her to end up in Seki’s bedroom, and we get to see more of his sister. We also once again see that to the rest of the class, it’s Yokoi who’s the weird one—a reputation not exactly helped by Goto’s somewhat obsessive artwork depicting the many faces of Yokoi. As for Seki himself, what amuses me most is just how often his flights of fancy end up coming back to bite him in the end—it’s not just Yokoi, though she helps. Sometimes it’s his own karma. – Sean Gaffney

Sword Art Online: Progressive (manga), Vol. 3 | By Reki Kawahara and Kiseki Himura | Yen Press – The pointless fanservice that is a mild part of the novels is given a tremendous amount of focus in the manga, leading to Kirito being out of character (the underwear gag) or just pure otaku pandering (the cream-bun bukkake scene). This is irritating, because when the manga decides to use the novel as a stepping stone to tell its own story, it does a very good job. Argo continues to be a major part of this story, which is good as I love her character, and I also like how it fits in the side story ‘The Reason for the Whiskers’ in its own continuity. Still, overall the fanservice left such a bad taste in my mouth that I’d recommend the novel unless you enjoy service for service’s sake. – Sean Gaffney

Sean and Michelle are briefin’ it again with titles from Seven Seas, Kodansha, and VIZ.

D-Frag!, Vol. 6 | By Tomoya Haruno | Seven Seas – This is a gag comedy, one that mostly revolves around a few tsukkomis among a large group of bokes. As such, it amuses me when this is lampshaded over and over—Kenji is told that, more than the loud people fighting, it’s his constant comebacks that are causing a headache; and we meet Kenji and Noe’s mother, who proves to be just as much of a straight man as they are. In fact, this volume may have TOO many new characters—the cover shows “Kussie-sempai,” a girl with a creepy expression but good intentions, and we also meet Roka’s younger (and much taller) sister, who has a huge sister complex. That said, who all these people are isn’t important—they’re all funny, and that’s what counts. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss of the Rose Princess, Vol. 6 | By Aya Shouoto | VIZ Media – There’s no denying that Kiss of the Rose Princess has on occasion been kind of lame, but I find that I’m less critical of its flaws these days. It’s not merely that I’ve given up on expecting it to be something it isn’t, though that’s part of it, but having defined villains to go up against—the fake rose princess and her four fake (though no less bishounen) knights—and the romantically suggestive scenes that inspire various of Anise’s knights to achieve their “first awakening” power-ups have provided new energy and focus that is decidedly welcome. Okay, true, I am still utterly baffled as to why these fellows all love her, and it seems pretty obvious who she’s going to end up with in the end, but I think the series deserves credit for its improvement. Now I’m genuinely curious to see how the story is going to wrap up. – Michelle Smith

Love Stage!!, Vol. 3 | By Eiki Eiki and Taishi Zaou | SuBLime – So far, Love Stage!! has been about 99% love, 1% stage. In this volume, Izumi makes his celebrity debut and the job offers start pouring in, but we don’t see what comes of any of that. Instead, he spends most of the volume figuring out just exactly what it is he feels for Ryoma, whom he learns had to work quite a bit harder than he let on to get Izumi’s favorite mangaka to give encouraging feedback on Izumi’s laughably lame manga creation. I do like how they finally get together, especially Ryoma’s happy tears, but dangit, I want to see some acting! As it stands, Love Stage!! is a pleasant though fluffy BL romance, but I keep wishing for it to go in the “Izumi finds the thing he was destined to do” direction. Maybe it still will, now that Izumi and Ryoma are an established couple, but I’m not holding my breath. – Michelle Smith

Non Non Biyori, Vol. 2 | By Atto | Seven Seas – I really do wish this cast was just a little bit older—Hotaru being an eleven-year-old with the body of a seventeen-year-old for fanservice purposes will never stop being creepy —but that’s probably the only annoying thing about this peaceful, character-driven slice of life series. The ‘in the middle of nowhere’ aspect still takes precedence—there’s a very funny chapter dealing with waiting for the last train home, and Renge’s older sister trying to show off how awesome everything is in the big city where she goes to school (only to be undercut by Hotaru being an actual city girl). It’s not on a level of Yotsuba, or even K-On!, but it’s friendly enough, and despite the attempts at mild fanservice there’s no indication anything genuinely untoward will happen. – Sean Gaffney

Requiem of the Rose King, Vol. 2 | By Aya Kanno | Viz Media – Richard in this manga is being redone from the ground up—not just because of the ambiguous gender, which is made even more ambiguous in this volume, but because Shakespeare’s Richard III was a villain from the moment he was first seen on stage in Henry VI Part 2, and only got worse as he went along. We’re meant to feel bad for this Richard, though, whose grief and rage lead him to taking the life of a soldier with a family—and then becoming an unstoppable monster of death. Henry and Margaret, on the other hand, are dead-on in the way they’re portrayed from Shakespeare. This is well done, but I suspect folks unfamiliar with the original may end up getting more out of it. – Sean Gaffney

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Vol. 4 | By Miki Yoshikawa | Kodansha Comics – Now that we’re actually talking about witches, they’re popping up more and more frequently. Here we see Meiko, who has the ability to form a sort of telepathic hivemind, and Maria, who can see the future (much to her detriment). That said, what the creator is really good at in this series is making every situation far more complicated than it first appears, for maximum frustration and embarrassment to all involved. That said, we may be running into a bit of a problem—everyone here is too nice for their own good, and Yamada is perhaps the worst offender. The drama arrives quickly but leaves just as quickly. This is a series in desperate need of a larger villain. – Sean Gaffney