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Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Such Treacherous Picks

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KATE: I freely admit that any manga title that includes the words “treacherous piano sonata” has potential, but Golden Gold‘s blend of horror and folklore sounds like a safer bet for me; I’m 100% less likely to nit-pick about the author’s musical knowledge (or lack thereof).

SEAN: One of the benefits of Kodansha Manga’s ludicrous digital manga release schedule has been a lot more josei. After so many high school romances with brooding boys, I want to read series about two adults, with a brooding MAN. And so my pick is Such a Treacherous Piano Sonata. Great cover, too.

MICHELLE: I share Kate’s trepidation about Such a Treacherous Piano Sonata, I’m afraid, so I’ll instead award my pick to the sixth and final volume of Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku. I really enjoyed the first two volumes then life happened and I got behind, so I look forward to starting afresh and devouring the whole story at once.

ASH: I seem to be on the same page as everyone else this week with a distinct interest in Such a Treacherous Piano Sonata, although I may have a higher tolerance of liberal interpretations of music in manga. That being said, I join Michelle this week in choosing Wotakoi as my pick, since it will be my last opportunity and I’ve really been enjoying the series.

ANNA: I’m going to throw caution to the winds and just go with Such a Treacherous Piano Sonata!

MJ: I’m pretty interested in X-Gender, but even though josei romance is very hit-or-miss for me, I am irresistibly drawn to Such a Treacherous Piano Sonata. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of musical nitpicks, but somehow the older I get, the more tolerant I become of such blasphemy, so I’ll give it a shot.

A Tale of the Secret Saint, Vol. 3

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka. Adapted by Matthew Birkenhauer.

I think I’m going to have to give up and accept that this series is never going to be quite what I want it to be. It will continue to have broad comedy and horrible tragedy rubbing elbows with each other, and not always be successful at blending. It will also consist of about half the actual book I want to read, and half side stories and extra stories. That said, now that I have done that, this was a pretty good book, giving us an extended flashback showing us exactly what life with Serafina was before her tragic end. Unsurprisingly, she’s a lot like Fia. We also meet Serafina’s aide, the Blue Knight, and learn of a near tragedy that happened a few years before said tragic end, which involves a pandemic and an uncaring government doing nothing to stop it because racism. Again, I think this was written before COVID, but…

That’s Serafina on the cover, by the way, rather than Fia, as well as Canopus, her Blue Knight. The book starts in the present, though, with Fia being invited to join Cyril as he returns to his homeland of Sutherland… which is also the homeland of Canopus, so Fia is interested in going so she can visit his grave. Unfortunately, Cyril’s parents were both of the Bad Royal variety, and as a result the populace has a seething hatred for knights in general and Cyril in particular. This may change with the arrival of Fia, who happens to look exactly like the sacred saint that they venerate. Can Fia manage to keep her true identity a secret, find out about Cyril’s tragic past, and attempt to assuage the population? Especially given there’s a return of the pandemic she fixed three hundred years earlier…

The answer to at least one of those questions proves to be no, though it also ties in with a rather vicious cliffhanger, so I won’t talk about it much here. (The cliffhanger is on Page 177 of 225, which is why I find the side stories kind of aggravating). There’s a rather serious look at racism here as well, especially in the “300 years ago” sections. The Sutherland people are actually an island people who moved there, and they have darker skin as well as slightly webbed hands – which, as you might imagine, leads to a lot of rage and disgust – the ever popular “filthy” gets used – and also gives us a hint as to why Serafina’s family ended up betraying her in the end (hint: because they’re bad people and she is not). I will admit that the introduction of the 13th Brigade Captain, which I honestly barely noticed at first, proves to be a bit convenient – but that’s only in hindsight, so I’ll have to give it a pass.

Fia is still deeply dippy a lot of the time, but that may change with the next book, which might force her to be more serious. Till then, this was better than the first two volumes.

Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I’m Gonna Tell Her How I Feel!, Vol. 6

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By Rhythm Aida and nauribon. Released in Japan as “Buta Koushaku ni Tensei shita kara, Kondo wa Kimi ni Suki to Iitai” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Zihan Gao.

There’s a bit if a soft reset with this volume, if not in terms of plot than in terms of tropes, and I must admit that I found the first half of the book quite irritating because of it. Slowe is trying his best to stop the anime plot and to manage to confess his feelings to Charlotte, but he does NOT want to be a hero, and the world seems determined to put him in that slot. As does Charlotte, much to his chagrin. It’s frustrating and you sympathize with him… but going home and eating himself back to nearly his original weight is not a good response to that problem, and you feel even more for Charlotte and the others who have to deal with him running away from his problems. Even when he gets back to the academy, things are mostly “why does no one understand how I feel” for seventy-odd pages. Because you don’t tell them being the answer Slowe does not want to acknowledge.

Having asked to think about the Queen’s request for him to be a Guardian Knight, Slowe then returns back to the Denning domain… which proves to be a mistake, as everyone is assuming that he will naturally accept it. Including Charlotte. After trying to overeat his way out of the problem, he manages to strike a deal to return to the academy… but everyone else there (except maybe the headmaster) expects him to accept it as well. There’s also a new teacher (this school goes through teachers like Seven Spellblades) who has a chip on her shoulder and seems to despise Slowe. Meanwhile, to the shock of nearly everyone, Nanatrij has called off her war with the South after events in the previous two books. Unfortunately, some of her subordinates are not willing to accept this.

The main reason that Slowe is dragging his feet only comes out halfway through the book, which is the fact that Guardian Knights are meant to be celibate. (Presumably as they’re guarding the royal family, and you want to avoid “situations” with the Queen and princesses.) Indeed, the current Guardian Knight had a lover he had to abandon. So to Slowe, hearing Charlotte’s enthusiasm for his taking the position is like a knife to his heart. Of course, it’s his own damn fault, as he knows quite well. He’s too cowardly to confess his feelings, and he has not actually told Charlotte what being a Guardian Knight entails. He actually gets close to a confession this time around… but sadly the plot messes it up. As for the new teacher, well, I was also annoyed at her a lot of the time too, to be honest. She was far too much of a sucker.

So yeah, this wasn’t bad, but I had a sort of low-grade irritation while I was reading it. We’ll see what happens next with the Guardian Knight thing when the next book comes out.

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 11

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by M.B. Hare.

Another light and fluffy volume, though we are given a hint of the next major villain as Ellelaura has a noble who hates her… and hates Yuna, albeit for different but related reasons. He’s clearly going to be an antagonist at some point, but is merely shown off here in order to provide SOME drama in a book that otherwise meanders even more than a volume of Kuma Bear normally does. As for Yuna, she’s still doing her best to be blase about everything, but it’s getting harder, especially when it gets shoved in her face by multiple people that all the things she’s done, such as the tunnel, or the various new dishes, or taking out an entire noble family, cause lots of problems for the King and other nobles afterward… problems that Yuna herself has remained blissfully unaware of. That said, despite her feeling a bit of guilt over this, I don’t expect ‘The Bear Becomes a Civil Servant” to be a subplot here. Yuna is who she is.

The main plot of this volume is that the Academy is having a school festival, and Shia would like Yuna to come. This ends up roping in Noa, Fina, and Shuri as well, with Yuna acting as their bodyguard. Which, of course, means she has to walk around in the bear suit, which embarrasses her more than usual this time around, as the festival feels very much like the ones she… did not go to back in Japan. Honestly, most of the second half of the book is Yuna getting it ground into her face how much she is NOT a normal teenage girl. Yuna helps Shia’s group by suggesting they make cotton candy, an unknown quantity in this land. She also meets Flora’s older sister Princess Teilia, who has been someone upset at the rest of the Royal Family for hearing all about this amazing bear girl but never meeting her.

If that doesn’t sound like a plot, that’s because it isn’t. I’m happy everyone gets to have fun, but the main drawback to this volume is that there just isn’t any conflict at all. Previous volumes had a contract between Yuna’s fluffy antics and some surprisingly dark storylines, but that does make this one seem a bit shallow. I also urge Fina’s parents and Yuna to do something about that girl’s self-esteem, as there’s “I am modest” and then there’s this. Even as Fina shows off how she’s the best monster butcher in the land (and yes, how to butcher a monster is a booth at the festival), she still acts as if she’s going to be thrown in the dungeon the moment she makes a wrong move. She needs some confidence.

We’ve only finished the first day of the festival, so I assume it will continue into the 12th volume. But before, that… yes, it’s 11.5, featuring short stories posted to the web, original short stories, designs form the artist, and more. So I guess we’ll leave Yuna is festival mode for a few more months.

Your Forma: Electronic Investigator Echika and Her Amicus Ex Machina

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By Mareho Kikuishi and Tsubata Nozaki. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert.

Possibly the most difficult type of book for me to review falls under the category of “excellent book that is nevertheless not for me”. I can recognize the worth in this title, and think a lot of people should check it out, especially if you like the darker side of light novels such as Eighty-Six (whose author recommends Your Forma). That said, this is going to be my only volume of this series, which very nicely wraps up as if it was a single book. (It was a contest winner, and those usually do.) First, its genre, however sci-fi its coating may be, is police procedural, which I usually do not vibe with. Secondly, one of the two leads annoyed me throughout the book. Now, that’s deliberate on the part of the author, and there’s a very good, realistic reason behind it. Nevertheless: annoyed. That said… damn, this was compelling, and I loved Echika, the brilliant but broken cop who keeps losing partners as they injure themselves trying to keep up with her amazing brain.

In an alternate version of our present everyone has Your Forma, which is basically a sort of VR overlay in their head. Unfortunately, that also leads to things like viruses that make the user see horrible blizzards and puts them into the hospital. Echika and her partner are diving into the minds of the infected to try to trace where it came from. Sadly, her partner passes out, as I noted above, when Echika is simply too fast for him. Since she has done this for several partners in a row, her chief is a bit tired of it, and partners her with an Amicus – which is to say an artificial human. The question of just how self-aware they are is very much up in the air, and Echika for one despises them, for reasons that seem to have something to do with her past. Can Harold prove his worth to her and turn this into a fun Caves of Steel-esque book? Or is there something more sinister going on?

First off, as I noted above, I know there are some people who will want to know this, so: Your Forma is indeed a cop book, and there are cops here who do questionable things, including our two leads. So YMMV there. Echika’s past is something that comes out little by little as the book goes on, and her cold, seemingly emotionless exterior is chipped away by Harold’s charming, sensitive… and manipulative questions, as he needs to break through her facade in order to get what he wants. Honestly, as a long-time reader of books with realistically human robots, the question of whether Harold was a “real” person was one I took as read, and I think as a reader we’re supposed to. This also means I’m allowed to think that he’s an asshole a lot of the time frequently to provoke Echika into a reaction. The fact that he’s very charming while doing this does not really change it.

I do recommend this book to fans of crime dramas or sci-fi. The world it carves out is excellent, the action and set pieces are also excellent, Echika is terrific.

Bookshelf Briefs 6/10/22

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Boys of the Dead | By Tomita Douji | Kuma – Enticed by the cleverness of the “Zom-BL” portmanteau, I bought this volume without really knowing anything about it. Almost immediately, I experienced buyer’s remorse, for Boys of the Dead is unremittingly bleak. I don’t just mean all the gore and violence and cannibalism—that’s Zombie 101—but rather the depravity and desperation. None of the couples has anything like a healthy relationship. In the first story, a victim of kidnapping and rape grows sympathetic to his abuser. In the second pair of stories, a guy digs up his zombified boyfriend and then procures human flesh for him to eat. And in the final chapters, a journalist encounters a pair of brothers in an incestuous relationship that ends gruesomely. For all my reservations, though, I must admit that reading Boys of the Dead was a unique experience and not one I’m likely to forget anytime soon. – Michelle Smith

A Bride’s Story, Vol. 13 | By Kaoru Mori | Yen Press – The twins are on the cover, and they do get a fun arc which shows us that they are settling in to being actual good wives while also not losing their chaotic energy. That said, it’s hard not to come out of this volume feeling extremely disappointed, as Smith and his fiancée are forced to abandon their return trip to see Amir and Karluk. The Russians are making headway into the area, bandits are everywhere, and in some instances poor and hungry villagers are taking to banditry to survive. It’s nowhere for an Englishman to take a young woman, no matter how good she is with horses, so they finally board a boat to India, presumably to return to England. And what of Amir? Well, that’s next time, I assume. – Sean Gaffney

Interviews with Monster Girls, Vol. 10 | By Petos | Kodansha Comics – The end of this volume seems to announce that the next book will be the final one in the series, so it’s no surprise that this one focuses on the two women who have gotten the most focus in the series: Machi and Sato. Machi’s plot does not involve her crush on her teacher—they all seem to have given up and are helping Sato get closer to him—but instead involves connecting her head with her body, if only for a day. She finds it an interesting experience, but ultimately is happy how she is. As for Takahashi and Sato, at long last, they both take that first step and admit they’ve fallen in love with each other. And with that, it really seems safe to wrap things up, which will be next time. Good stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 18 | By Tomohito Oda | Viz Media – The inevitable comedown after the awesomeness of the previous volume, mostly as Komi and Manbagi realize that just because they have vowed to both fight for Tadano’s love does not make them any better at actually confessing to Tadano. Komi comes closest near the end, but is stopped by the dreaded “random folks walking into the room.” Elsewhere, this volume reminds us just how large a cast this series now has, and that the author is pretty good at juggling it and still keeping us interested. Hell, even Yamai got to do something that did not immediately make me skip to a non-Yamai chapter, which may be a first. Unsurprisingly, it did not involve Komi. – Sean Gaffney

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 1 | By Nene Yukimori | Viz Media – This is an odd mix of Teasing Master Takagi-san with Komi Can’t Communicate. Our protagonist, Shiraishi, is one of those ‘kids with no presence’—even his teachers frequently mark him absent as they don’t notice he’s there. But he has one girl who notices—the titular Kubo, who keeps trying to get him to try new ways to stand out and actually attract attention. This also involves a lot of teasing, which is where Takagi comes into play. That said, these are high schoolers rather than middle schoolers, and Kubo is a lot thirstier than Takagi—the crush she has on Shiraishi is really obvious throughout the volume. If you’re looking for another volume in the “cute shonen romance” genre, this is a good choice. – Sean Gaffney

Medalist, Vol. 4 | By Tsurumaikada | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – I always feel like John the Baptist with this series, so here we go again: this was a stellar volume of Medalist. The art was amazing in showing off the speed and artistry of the skating, our heroine got to have some big achievements, and the coach got to demonstrate to everyone that he’s not just some failure but a brilliant skater in his own right. We also get another rival for the series in a boy who can’t even bring himself to put down any goals for the future as he’s so overwhelmed by a legacy, but fortunately he is shown the correct way through the power of shonen sports manga. I realize that Kuroko’s Basketball and Haikyu!! have more cool guys, but don’t sleep on Medalist; it’s a knockout. – Sean Gaffney

New Game!, Vol. 13 | By Shotaro Tokuno | Seven Seas – First off, answering my question from the previous brief, I do not think an “oh, they got married when the laws changed” in the afterward is QUITE what Kou and Rin fans were looking for. That said, in the end this isn’t a yuri series but a 4-koma about a game company, and it stays on that brand till the end. The book has one huge high point, which is Aoi winning her first “art competition” ever (this is even lampshaded), and forcing Hotaru to experience the agony of feeling second-best and envious for the first time. The rest is a series of wrapping up the game and moving offices pages. New Game! was a fun series, but like many 4-komas with all-female casts, I don’t think the author knew what to do with the yuri fanbase. – Sean Gaffney

Our Teachers Are Dating!, Vol. 4 | By Pikachi Ohi | Seven Seas – This is the final volume in the series, and there’s really only one way that it could have ended in these modern times, and that’s with a wedding. The proposal is cute. The wedding is lovely. The honeymoon is sexy. The conflict is minimal—Saki’s family is delighted with her choice, and the main worry there seems to be that her sister is one of those “interesting” cooks. Asuka’s is a bit more difficult—they want her to quit teaching and inherit the family business—not only is she staying a teacher but she’s marrying another woman! That said, there are no real long-term issues with them being a couple, because this is a series that runs on fluff. It may not be realistic, but who cares? – Sean Gaffney

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!, Vol. 1

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By Touko Amekawa and Wan*Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuukimama na Hanayome (Hitojichi) Seikatsu wo Mankitsusuru” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich. Adapted by Aysha U. Farah.

The word ‘villainess’ has always had a loose definition to begin with, coming from a theoretical character in an otome game that never really existed, and usually being some variation on “mean girl”. Even that doesn’t really apply anymore. The villainess, for the most part, now seems to be any young woman who gets publicly shamed and has her engagement broken by a prince. We meet Rishe here, and there’s certainly no sign that she’s done anything wrong, but the script nevertheless plays out as we know it. Of course, as the title of the series implies, this is not her first rodeo. This has now happened to her SEVEN times. Perhaps she’s been reading a lot of villainess novels as well, and they’ve all blended together so much she keeps coming back to them. Amusingly, the “why” of the loop is irrelevant – it’s there to make her more awesome.

As noted above, Rishe Irmgard Weitzner is publicly shamed by her fiancee, who calls off their engagement to that he can marry Mary, a poor girl new to nobility. Having now done this SEVEN times, and knowing her parents will shortly be disowning her and barring her from the house, she tries to bolt back home to grab her things before this occurs. Unfortunately, she runs into Arnold, the Crown Prince of a different country, who had also been attending. He’s fascinated with her, mostly as she doesn’t seem to have any awe of him at all. Indeed, she wants nothing to do with him – every single time loop she’s lived to the age of twenty and died, and it’s either indirectly or directly because of him. This time, though, something new happens – he wants to marry her. Maybe, if she goes along with this, she can find out what makes him want to wage the war that keeps killing her…

I had a ball reading this. Rishe is definitely on the “smart” end of villainess protagonists, mostly as she’s lived 5 years of a different life seven times. First she was a merchant, then an apothecary, etc. She even disguised herself as a man to become a knight… but Arnold ran her through. In this particular loopy, Arnold seems, around her, to be the standard shoujo manga love interest. Unfortunately, he also seems to have a destructive streak about him, and Rishe can’t quite figure out what’s behind it. The antagonist of this book is his younger brother Theodore, who seems to be the stereotypical “evil sibling” but also turns out to have greater depths than anticipated. I also liked how many of the characters in the show who are seen to be “betraying” someone are doing so because they’re poor and desperate – this book is not afraid to show us the disparity in class.

At the end of this volume, Theodore may have resolved some of his issues but Rishe is still a long way from learning the truth about Arnold. I definitely look forward to more volumes of her finding out. Recommended for villainess fans, romance fans, and mystery fans.

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 2

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By Shoji Goj and booota. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Eric Margolis. Adapted by Veles Svitlychny

It’s been almost a year since the first volume of this came out, and honestly I think I had forgotten how annoying Haruka’s narration can be. And trust me when I say that GOD, it is annoying. There’s only so much stream-of-consciousness you can take before you want someone to settle on a thought. That said, in this second volume, as a consequence of trying desperately to seek depth in this series, I am starting to notice a few things. Haruka’s blase discussion of how he effortlessly takes out every single monster disguises the fact that he pretty much immediately comes up with a very clever plan (based often on his Japanese memories) and executes it. We also see him refer to someone by their actual name. In the first volume it was because we were meant to know they were a Bad Guy. Here it’s for the opposite reason. Sorry, Class Rep, but there’s a new girl on the cover and she’s taken a lot of Haruka’s firsts. And he calls her, once or twice, by name.

After a few random chapters where Haruka tries to avoid getting lectured by the rest of the class, he winds up falling to the 100th floor of the dungeon by accident. (Unlike Arifureta, there are no classmates trying to kill him – indeed, all twenty girls in the class are clearly in love with him, especially Class Rep). There he meets and battles the Dungeon Emperor, a Dullahan, Lich AND Deathling whose stats are so high even Haruka can’t see them. That said, of course he defeats them anyway… and then accidentally used Servitude on her. Yes, her, the skeleton emperor is a girl, whose name is Angelica but who Haruka tends to call ‘Miss Glare Armor Rep’. Now the two of them have to fight their way UP through the dungeon, battling insanely powerful monsters, while the rest of his class tries to fight their way down to get to him.

Given that you see her as a pretty young girl on the cover, I kept waiting for the big moment when Haruka would find something that would magically give her body back. Instead, due to the fact that the POV is entirely from him and some textual/art trickery, it turns out that it had been happening right under our noses and we missed it. This was very clever. He also gets lucky with her at the end of the book, which also surprised me. I admit the servitude thing bothers me a bit, but it doesn’t seem to really influence Angelica all THAT much – the humor of half the book comes from his seeing Miss Glare Armor Rep staring at him with, he thinks, the same look he gets from the rest of the cast, but it’s really just her being in awe of him – and falling in love with him. That said, the rest of the cast (who are increasingly showing themselves to be, if not as eccentric as Haruka is, pretty damn eccentric) also are not glaring as hard as he thinks.

So yes, plowing through the narrative diarrhea is still worth it, and I must admit I wonder what’s going to happen next. The poor little town with a dangerous dungeon they were in is now a rich little town with a former dungeon. Will we see other cities now? Will this mean the town will stop having everyone carry around clubs? And will Haruka call anyone but Angelica by their actual name? The third volume may take as long to come out as the second did, but I’ll be reading it.

Manga the Week of 6/15/22

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SEAN: It’s Hurricane Season! Are you being rocked? Are you being racially profiled and imprisoned? Or are you reading manga?

Airship, in print, has the 5th Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter.

And in early digital they have Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 17 and Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 4.

Ghost Ship gives us DARLING in the FRANXX Vol. 3-4 and Do You Like Big Girls? 4.

J-Novel Club has new volumes. We get Ascendance of a Bookworm 19, Cooking with Wild Game 17, The Emperor’s Lady-in-Waiting Is Wanted as a Bride’s 4th manga volume, Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire ♀ 5, and Slayers 14.

ASH: I am so far behind, but yay Bookworm.

SEAN: Kaiten Books has, this week, the 2nd Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant! manga digitally. I missed it. Sorry!

ASH: Keeping track of all these releases is no easy feat!

SEAN: Kodansha has print volumes for BAKEMONOGATARI 14, Peach Boy Riverside 7, Penguin & House 3 (the final volume), Rent-A-Girlfriend 13, and Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku 6 (the final volume).

MICHELLE: I look forward to binging the conclusion of Wotakoi.

ASH: Same! I’ve really been enjoying the series.

SEAN: Debuting digitally is Golden Gold, a Morning Two series from the creator of Kokkoku: Moment by Moment. This is apparently a very weird supernatural horror-ish story that takes place on an island.

The other digital debut is Such a Treacherous Piano Sonata (Yo ni mo Fujitsu na Piano Sonata), a josei series from Be Love. A classical music manager has never really felt much for any men she’s dated… but then she sees a classical pianist and he arouses her interest… and other things. Can she guide his career and also find romance?

ASH: Music-related josei manga, you say?

ANNA: Hello!

SEAN: Also digital: The Fable 3, Giant Killing 31, Police in a Pod 13, This Vampire Won’t Give Up! 2, Tokyo Revengers 26, Watari-kun’s ****** Is about to Collapse 11, and Yamaguchi-kun Isn’t So Bad 6.

One Peace has the 18th manga volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas debuts the manga version of The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash (Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita), based on a light novel which is coming later this year from Seven Seas. It runs in Comic Corona, and is about a tamer who no one wants to associate with, so, well, she picks up trash. And a slime. Don’t get this confused with the very similar Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life.

The other debut is X-Gender (Seibetsu X), from Kodansha’s Young Magazine the 3rd. Our protagonist is in their thirties, and realizes they are attracted to women… but also that they’re non-binary. Can they find romance?

ASH: Very curious about this one.

SEAN: They also have How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 14, I Can’t Believe I Slept With You! 2, A Tale of the Secret Saint 3, and Yakuza Reincarnation 2.

Tokyopop has Puppy Love (Shippo no Koi), a BL one-shot from Gentosha’s snappily titled LOVE xxx BOYS pixiv. A corporate worker who is being exploited by his company finds happiness at a pet shop… and the worker there seems familiar. Could he have been a dog in his previous life?

MICHELLE: Ew.

SEAN: Udon has a sweet artbook for fans of the Fate franchise, Fate: Return to Avalon: Takashi Takeuchi Art Works.

ASH: Artbooks are nice.

SEAN: Viz’s debut is Marvel’s Secret Reverse, a team-up between Iron Man and Spider-Man, which I only mention here as it’s by the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

There’s also Call of the Night 8, Deadpool Samurai 2, Komi Can’t Communicate 19, Rosen Blood 3, Sakamoto Days 2, and Yakuza Lover 5.

Yen Press debuts The Fiancee Chosen by the Ring (Yubiwa no Eranda Kon’yakusha), from Flos Comic. A young woman who only goes to engagement parties to look at the embroidery suddenly finds a ring thrown at her – by a knight. How does she deal with this?

And they have I’m the Hero, but the Demon Lord’s Also Me 4 (the final volume) and Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria 17.

Reading manga? Or still confused by my opening line? (don’t blame you…)

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: Guiding a Lost Saint with a Magical Revolution

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

It can be difficult to know when to step in. You see your friend is having issues and struggling. You want to help them. But they insist that they’re fine and they can handle it. You want to trust them… but then it’s too late and they’ve started to break. And you’ve got to play catch up. That’s basically what we see here, as Stella, whose lack of self-confidence was forecast in the previous volume, completely implodes in this one, running away from the school and collapsing in self-loathing. It’s not hard to see why – she’s surrounded by once-in-a-lifetime prodigies, and even her one other normal friend is now leaving the school for a cushy management job. Meanwhile, Stella works hard… but in series like these, hard work does not necessarily mean success. Allen knows how she feels… and honestly suffers from many of the same issues, though he hides it better. Can he help her recover?

This series continues to build on previous volumes nicely. They’re still trying to decode the encrypted diary, and have managed to work out all the love love romance entries, but not the ones that are actually relevant to them. We get to know Allen’s hapless friend Gil, who is involved in a battle for the Dukedom that he really doesn’t want. We also meet Gil’s bodyguard, who I have a sneaking suspicion will either be dying or needing to be rescued soon. Being unable to say anything because of magical contracts never works well. And of course we have people underestimating Allen… not least of whom is Allen himself. He regards the fact that he’s not a noble as an insurmountable mountain that he can’t cross, and that seems to be the main reason why he’s so cool with Lydia, who clearly is ready to marry him at the drop of a hat otherwise.

Allen’s a good teacher as well, which comes as a horrific surprise the the rather conservative teachers of the school, who find that the students who took his classes are already leagues ahead of what they should be learning. I really liked that he framed the big battle with Stella vs. Caren, Ellie and Tina as a learning experience, and we see how everyone – including Stella – has become just that much stronger afterwards. Of course, it’s not all training, as he also gets the chance to take Stella out for a date, which amuses him as the entire town is clearly enchanted with her and she notices this not at all. The subplot with Felicia was also good, though it did have a bit of the “let’s mention her breasts as often as possible” crap that comes with so many other light novels. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders – and she’s also joined the Allen harem.

I know there are folks who are annoyed at the harem aspect of this, given that Lydia and Allen clearly have a “inevitable” thing going on, but I doubt it’s going away anytime soon. This is quite a fun little series regardless.

Pick of the Week: Alices, Gundams and Food

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SEAN: Given the recent kerfuffle regarding Seven Seas, it feels awkward to pick a title of theirs for Pick of the Week. But the union has said they are not asking readers to boycott at this time. So I will be picking The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, because I love the author, love the content, and it is one of my most anticipated titles this year.

MICHELLE: I really disliked The Flowers of Evil, but Blood on the Tracks has won me over to appreciating Shuzo Oshimi. So, this week I’ll pick Welcome Back, Alice and hope that it’ll be great.

KATE: I have a love/hate relationship with Shuzo Oshimi’s work: I think he’s a terrific artist, but I sometimes find his works just too… pervy, maybe?, so I’m going to pass on Welcome Back, Alice for now. The title I’m most excited about is The Men Who Created Gundam, which looks like a fun version of DMP’s old Project X series–think Cup Noodle with jokes and hijinks.

ASH: As far as debuts go, Seven Seas and Denpa seem to have the market cornered for me as I’m interested in most (but not all) of those releases. That being said, I’m probably most excited for the newest volume of What Did You Eat Yesterday? to come out.

ANNA: I’m not sure how I missed The Men Who Created Gundam because it sounds like a hoot. That being said I’m not going to pass up the chance to pick the latest volume of Yona of the Dawn.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Viribus Unitis

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan as “Youjo Senki” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Richard Tobin.

Credit to the author for knowing his key strengths. He is very good at having our heroes assume something about the enemy, and then cutting to the enemies’ viewpoint and seeing that this is 100% incorrect. Missing the real point and assuming the worst are The Saga of Tanya the Evil’s bread and butter, and we get a ton of that in this volume. Tanya is seriously thinking about defecting now, but worries that she doesn’t bring anything to the table and other countries don’t know who she is… despite her being the most infamous soldier of them all. She and the rest of the battalion assume that the Commonwealth are sending their new recruits to be meat shields as part of some sinister plan… but it’s just the fact that the battalion catches them completely flat-footed. And everyone on the Empire’s side is trying to see how to end the war in a way that will not destroy the country or inspire a revolt among the populace… but this war is no longer winnable.

Tanya is all over the place this volume with her battalion. First she travels back to the Federation side where she has to help with a very clever and convoluted plan of Zettour’s that requires her to essentially be a decoy. Then she has to go all the 3way back to the West, as Romel has a master plan to hit the Commonwealth where it hurts, in their Navy… a plan which also requires Tanya and her group to essentially be a tasty distraction. Both times things work a bit too well simply because Tanya and her fellow soldiers have gotten inhumanly good at what they do. Sadly, this book is no longer about military victories but about political victories. And those are in short supply. The military can’t help there. The foreign office, with all the diplomats, is trying to do something about three years too late. And Rudersdorf still seems very hung up on a plan that is 100% treason.

Fans of Visha will be happy to see she gets some time here, mostly hanging by Tanya’s side during the battles, though we also get Tanya trying to lecture Visha on how to end the war, something that does not go very well – Visha, like the rest of Tanya’s soldiers, is a bit of a meathead when it’s not about battle. There’s also a lot of focus here on Drake, the Commonwealth soldier who’s currently allying with the Federation… at the request of the Commonwealth, which makes it all the more irritating they think he might be turning communist by simply being near them. One character is interesting merely by her almost total absence. Mary Sue is here, but we don’t see her except as a sheer force – literally. Once again she sees Tanya and goes for the kill, and no one can stop her. She doesn’t need a face, or even a name anymore. She’s pure magical vengeance, here to smite Tanya down. I don’t know when the final confrontation between them comes, but it won’t go well.

There’s a new translator here as well, and the book still reads pretty well, though it’s a bit more… staid, I guess. It can be hard to make the dry military chronicle parts of this book sing on the page. Still, definitely looking forward to the next volume, as we see if we really will go down the dangerous route we’re headed.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 6

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By Riku Misora and Sacraneco. Released in Japan as “Choujin Koukousei-tachi wa Isekai demo Yoyuu de Ikinuku you desu!” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

I am tempted to simply cut and paste the first paragraph of my last review here, because it applies even more. The middle section of this book is some of the bleakest, most cynical stuff we’ve seen in this series to date… and it’s a series that’s rooted in cynicism, so that’s pretty impressive. The Reform Party leader is seen as well-meaning but naive, and gets taken to the cleaners by the more experienced nobles. The leader of the interventionist party is a figurehead who has no idea what her supposed allies are planning behind her back, and when she finds out, well, bad things happen. (More on that later). As for Tsukasa and company, well, they get the confirmation they need that something is rotten in Yamato, and have to make a graceful retreat courtesy their powerhouse Aoi. It would be a dark but strong book in the series… were it not for the climax. Instead, I almost feel like dropping it.

Meeting with the leaders of Yamato, and after a brief game of Spin the Bottle that is the sole attempt at humor in this book, Tsukasa and the others get confirmation that, indeed, the nation is so peaceful and happy because of mind control – and that Princess Mayoi is driven by a fierce hatred and contempt for everyone around her. Making their escape, they end up reconnoitering with the resistance unit, which has far more resistance than Tsukasa expected. At the same time, the election heads to its conclusion, and unfortunately is being entirely controlled by Glaux, the noble who is manipulating both sides, plotting murders, and also selling out his country to boot. Fortunately, the cover up of one of his murders is not as smooth as he thinks, especially with Keine on the scene.

The dramatic revelation of just how evil Glaux really is was predictable, but well-handled, and Tetra’s murder was brutal and tragic. I knew Keine was going to be involved in some way, and when she didn’t show up until later I assumed it was going to be to help with the time of death at the autopsy, which it was. That said… Tetra showing up alive at the end of this book is jaw-dropping in its awfulness, and feels like a betrayal of the reader. I already don’t like Keine to begin with because she strikes me as the biggest sociopath among the prodigies, but I acknowledge she can work miracles. But there’s miracles and then there’s impossibilities, and please do not stab someone through the heart, then chop at their neck, then leave them for days, and expect be to be happy that they were somehow resurrected. It’s absolutely ludicrous, and makes the whole election feel pointless. I hated it.

At the time of this review the 7th volume of High School Prodigies is not solicited yet, and perhaps that’s for the best. I need a break to get the taste of this book out of my mouth.

Manga the Week of 6/8/22

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SEAN: As June continues, what varieties of manga do we see before us?

Yen On debuts Your Forma, a sci-fi detective story that asks the question: what if getting 5G wireless injected into you from a vaccine was actually real? and it spied on your every sense? This could be very good or very bad, and I suspect that depends entirely on the politics of the writer.

ASH: Hmmm. The genre certainly appeals to me, but I suspect you’re right.

ANNA: Yeah, going to skip this one and I’m generally in favor of sci-fi goofiness.

MJ: I feel a little “yikes” on this one.

SEAN: Also from Yen On: The Eminence in Shadow 4 and Sword Art Online Progressive 8.

Yen Press, meanwhile, has new manga volumes. Adachi and Shimamura 3, Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 4, Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One 7, Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! 13, and A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School! 11.

Viz debuts Ghost Reaper Girl, a Shonen Jump + series by the creator of Rosario + Vampire (though under a different pen name). Chloe wants to be an actress. But she’s 28, and her window is closing. Can she find fame as a ghost reaper, though? Note that this series is being published flipped at the request of its creator.

ASH: Interesting! Not much seems to be flipped these days, let alone at the creator’s request.

SEAN: Chainsaw Man is also ending with Vol. 11, though a sequel is in the works. We also see Black Clover 29, Ima Koi: Now I’m in Love 2, Snow White with the Red Hair 19, and Yona of the Dawn 36.

MICHELLE: I’m always here for VIZ shoujo.

ASH: For sure!

ANNA: Viz shoujo saving the week for me!

SEAN: Tokyopop has A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation 5.

Hope you like debuts from Seven Seas, there are a ton of them.

I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl (Osananajimi(♂) wo Onnanoko ni Shiteshimatta Hanashi) is from Ichijinsha’s Comic Pool. A boy trying to practice his makeup technique has his best friend offer to be a guinea pig… but the results are more than either of them could have guessed. Despite the light-novel-ey title, this looks like fans of LGBT should enjoy it.

ASH: I’m definitely curious about this one.

SEAN: Namekawa-san Won’t Take a Licking! (Name Raretakunai Namekawa-san) is from Comic Yuri Hime, and features a bullied girl who decides, for her high school debut, to become a delinquent. Unfortunately, now she attracts the attention of the disciplinary officer. I am always wary of yuri series described as hilarious.

ASH: A different sort of delinquent manga than is often seen, it would seem.

SEAN: Nightfall Travelers: Leave Only Footprints (Yuuyake Trip) is from Houbunsha’s Comic Fuz. Two high school girls investigate supposedly haunted areas of their town and grow closer. The art is apparently the reason to get this.

ASH: I’ll admit, the premise intrigues me, too.

SEAN: This Is Screwed Up, but I Was Reincarnated as a GIRL in Another World! (Yoku Wakaranai Keredo Isekai ni Tensei Shiteita You Desu) is a manga from Kodansha’s Suiyoubi no Sirius, based off a novel (not yet licensed, I believe). I’ve been told it’s another one of those “this becomes fluffy slice-of-life isekai assuming you can get past all the sexual assault and threats of slavery at the start” series. Sigh.

ANNA: No thank you!

MJ: oh my god.

SEAN: Lastly, The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This (Futari wa Daitai Konna Kanji) is a yuri series from the creator of Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto). A 30-year-old writer and a 22-year-old actress are living together as a couple, and we see their everyday life. This is extremely comfy and fun. It ran in Gentosha’s Comic Boost.

MICHELLE: Well, at least one of these appeals to me.

ASH: I rather liked Whispered Words, if I recall correctly.

MJ: This sounds actually great.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Monologue Woven For You 2, the 13th and final volume of New Game!, and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 5.

Kodansha has MORE Shuzo Oshimi in print next week, with Welcome Back, Alice (Okaeri Alice). This runs in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, and got a digital release in February, but the print came fast. Three childhood friends have what seems like a standard love triangle… then one of them shows up dressed as a girl.

ASH: Somehow missed this being licensed!

MJ: I don’t know what to expect from this. Maybe great?

SEAN: Also in print: Cells at Work! Baby 4 (the final volume), Interviews with Monster Girls 10, Lovesick Ellie 4, Orient 9, Sailor Moon Naoko Takeuchi Collection 2, SHAMAN KING Omnibus 9, Sue & Tai-chan 4, Vampire Dormitory 5, and What Did You Eat Yesterday? 18.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more What Did You Eat Yesterday?!

ASH: Indeed!

MJ: YESSSSSSSSS

SEAN: The first digital debut is The Shadows of Who We Once Were (Nare no Hate no Bokura), a survival game manga from the creator of Until Your Bones Rot. It’s from Weekly Shonen Magazine, and… it’s a survival game manga.

The other digital debut from Kodansha is Joy, a BL manga from Kodansha’s Honey Milk. A shoujo manga artist is asked to write a BL work… and also discovers his assistant is gay. Maybe he can get inspiration for the BL by a fake relationship?

MJ: Oooo, this…

SEAN: Also digital: The Abandoned Reincarnation Sage 3, Changes of Heart 2, Chihayafuru 32, Girlfriend, Girlfriend 9, Kounodori: Dr. Stork 24, Love After World Domination 4, My Master Has No Tail 6, Oh, Those Hanazono Twins 2, and The Transcendent One-Sided Love of Yoshida the Catch 2.

MICHELLE: Insert habitual Chihayafuru squee.

ANNA: Gesticulates in celebration of the series, then transitions to despair at being so far behind.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has some print releases. We get Ascendance of a Bookworm’s 10th manga volume, By the Grace of the Gods 9, The Faraway Paladin 4, In Another World with My Smartphone 22, Marginal Operation 10, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! 10, Otherside Picnic Omnibus 3, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 6.

J-Novel Club’s digital debut is a manga, The Saga of Lioncourt (Lion Coeur Senki), which is from Takeshobo’s Kissca. Office worker reincarnated as a warrior in a middle-ages era setting.

And also Forget Being the Villainess, I Want to Be an Adventurer! 3 (the final volume), How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 16, A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life 3, Marginal Operation 13, and Otherside Picnic 7.

Ghost Ship debuts World’s End Harem: Fantasia Academy, a spinoff of a spinoff of the series that is for everyone who wants to bone 10,000 women who adore them. This is apparently a high school AU version.

Also from Ghost Ship: Ero Ninja Scrolls 3 and Might as Well Cheat: I Got Transported to Another World Where I Can Live My Wildest Dreams! 3.

Denpa has two new releases. The Men Who Created Gundam (Gundam Sousei) ran, appropriately, in Gundam Ace. It’s a done-in-one omnibus about the creators of Gundam… but expect comedy.

Vampeerz: My Peer Vampires is a Sunday GX series about the love between a teenage girl and a vampire… I think. The description is vague, but I mean, title.

ASH: Count me curious.

MJ: Same.

SEAN: And Airship has two early digital titles, including a debut. 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! (Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuukimama na Hanayome (Hitojichi) Seikatsu wo Mankitsusuru) is, yes, a villainess novel. But this time our heroine has done this a lot. She’s lived full lives. She’s done different occupations. She keeps getting killed. Now, on her 7th try, why not marry her killer?

We also get the first volume of Classroom of the Elite: Year 2.

That turned out to be a whole lot. Thoughts?

High School DxD: Ragnarok After School

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By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

If you’ve read the previous volumes, you know what the plot of High School DxD is: breasts. Everything else is secondary. That said, it is a shonen battle manga, which means that the breasts are not even there to titillate the reader or make them horny. They’re there as a weapon in Issei’s arsenal. Indeed, every new book brings with it a new breast power-up, and so we may as well talk about Issei loving breasts the way that we talk about Izuku using All Might’s Smash moves in My Hero Academia. It’s also very telling that, in universe, Issei’s shtick is popular with little kids rather than women. The kids don’t really get the sex part, they just see him busting out cool moves. It also shows off Issei as someone who really should mature a bit more before he starts getting his harem… something he seems to know anyway, rejecting Akeno’s offer to sleep with him because she “looks sad”. If you’re going to do a harem, do it properly.

Our heroes have been busy lately, as a bunch of heroes/terrorists keep showing up to try to fight them. The motivation of the other side is rather baffling till they figure out that they’re trying to force Balance Breakers by repeated combat. Which is, well, a tad unethical. That will have to wait for future books, though, because Odin is in town, supposedly here to meet with the Japanese gods but more accurately to go on a pub crawl and look at large-breasted women. (Notably, his hot Valkyrie bodyguard, Rossweisse, is not good enough – indeed, he abandons her at the end of the book.) Not everyone wants Odin to talk with other gods, though, and Loki shows up prepared to stop things by force if necessary. And he’s brought Fenrir with him. As a result, well, the subtitle of the book is accurate.

We finally get Akeno’s backstory here, and is it a bit disappointing at how normal it is. Well, as normal as a backstory can get when your relatives murder your own mother in front of you, but it really boils down to “I hate daddy because he’s never home” to a much larger degree. That said, things get resolved a bit too quickly here, and it feels like the author, having shown us how Akeno acme to hate her father, now feels it’s not necessary anymore. As for the rest of the book, well, lotsa fights. Indeed, we even get enemies teaming up, as in order to stop Loki, Vali and company are brought in, with him agreeing to put off his fight with Issei in order to fight someone equally badass. I did like his scoffing at Issei’s idea of peace, and pointing out that would be a nightmare to people who live for battle. Not everyone wants a Happy Harem After.

This was not quite as good as previous books, feeling a bit like it was filling in time. It did introduce Rossweisse, but she doesn’t do much here aside from whine and moan, so I assume we’ll develop her in later books. Average DxD, which is to say below average in terms of normal light novels.