Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Sean Gaffney

Mythical Beast Investigator, Vol. 1

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By Keishi Ayasato and Koichiro Hoshino. Released in Japan as “Genjuu Chousain” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Famitsu Comic Clear. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Angela Liu. Adapted by Ysa McFarlane.

As if the shot of the adorable young woman sitting politely in the forest with her red-eyed demon flayer behind her weren’t reason enough to believe this might be a wee bit darker than expected, it’s also written by the person who wrote Torture Princess. Then again, that may actually be par for the course in this genre. We’ve seen an extensive amount of “cute young thing is introduced to (or is already part of) supernatural world manga series, and almost all of them tick the ‘darker than they seem’ box. The Ancient Magus’ Bride, The Girl from the Other Side, etc. The world is filled with wonders, but the world can also easily kill you – or worse. Fortunately for THIS world, we have Ferry, the titular investigator, who is traveling the countryside looking for villages that are having issues with monsters and fixing them, along with her bodyguard Roxy Music… erm, sorry, Kushuna, who seems to be a monstrous rabbit demon.

Ferry, of course, will tell you she’s not an Official, just a Member of the investigative team. That said, she certainly has the knowledge and will to do a good job. The first part of the story concerns a wyvern that is rampaging in a village, which is unusual for this sort. Ferry quickly finds that the wyvern had a “ribbon maiden” by its side, and that she was very quickly sold out to bandits by the “save our own hides” villagers. As such, well, the wyvern is upset. Fortunately, Ferry also has Kushuna, who is theoretically more cynical and hard-boiled than she is, and tells the wyvern to essentially stop throwing a temper tantrum and go and rescue his girl. This actually turns out to be a running theme of the manga, as we run into some other villages that instinctively fear and despise monsters and beasts, only to find either a) they’re not as bad as feared, or b) they were never dangerous to begin with.

This does change with the final story, which also serves to give us a cliffhanger. Here we have an actual beast that is killing young children, and the father of one of these children bent on revenge. One of the really nice things about this series is showing off how Ferry thinks about her job and how to do it, and that it’s not merely “stop the problem”. In this case, that’s part of it, but she also needs to help the father work through his grief and do so in a way that is not “after I kill this monster, I will die”. Kushuna is there to do Ferry’s dirty work, but the good thing about Ferry is that she is well aware that the dirty work exists – he’s not protecting an innocent or anything. Ferry just happens to be very, very good at her job. Or at least, I am assuming so, unless she gets eaten by the water horse, which is the cliffhanger.

If you enjoy these sort of pastoral fantasy monster sort of tales that Seven Seas has created a niche market for, this is another good entry. I’ll be getting the next volume.

Pick of the Week: Catching Up

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ASH: Even when it’s a relatively quiet week, there are still plenty of manga being released which have caught my attention. The debut that I’m particularly curious about and that I will make my pick this week is Magus of the Library. As a librarian myself, I generally get a kick out of reading about my fictional counterparts. (Granted, sometimes I get immensely frustrated instead…)

MICHELLE: While there are definitely things I like coming out next week, I’m not wildly enthusiastic about any of them, really. I reckon I’ll go with the sixth and final volume of World’s End and Apricot Jam for being a much more wholesome version of a girl involved with the lead singer of a band than I anticipated.

SEAN: My pick is the 4th volume of Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, which has become one of my favorite 4-koma series. It’s funny and has heart.

ANNA: My pick is my stacks of unread manga. Maybe this is the week I will get caught up on something!

An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, Vol. 6

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By Fuminori Teshima and COMTA. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

Come on, you weren’t really expecting a normal volume where Zagan and Nephy go on a cute little date, right? Especially after seeing that cover. No, here we get the inverse of two volumes ago. Foll wants to grow up faster (so that she can be more powerful and protect Zagan), so Gremory suggests using a spell much like the one she uses to swap ages. The trouble is, as Foll’s a dragon and thus magic resistant, Zagan has to help by pouring mana into it. This causes… bad things to happen. Now Foll’s a busty 18-year-old, Zagan’s a little kid, and Nephy is pissed… when she’s not snuggling her now adorable l’il fiance. Fortunately, unlike when this happened to Nephy, Zagan is still of sound mind and with the proper memories. Unfortunately, no one knows how to fix this. Maybe the inter-species conference under the sea will be able to help? And does this mean they really have to rely on airheaded Selphy?

There’s a lot of good stuff in here about having more than one side to a person. It’s not clear if the spell/curse on Foll and Zagan actually affects them mentally, but certainly Zagan is a lot more petulant in this body, possibly because everyone is trying to snuggle him as he’s such a cute kid. The lesson learned here, though, is that just because he can do everything himself doesn’t mean he should – and that his loved ones want to stand on equal footing with him, not stand behind him while he protects them. This applies to Foll, who pretty much knew that there are no quick and easy ways to grow up but gets the valuable lesson drilled into her anyway, as well as to Nephy, who is still attempting to figure out her place in this world when it’s not just her and Zagan. Amusing as it was to see her calm fury several times during the book, the most significant scene may have been her reuniting with Nephteros and figuring out how they’re going to speak to each other going forward.

It’s possible that I’m making this book seem more serious than it is. My mistake – it may be the funniest book in the series. With Zagan as a kid, he has to get a new outfit, and you know what that means – it’s dress-up doll time with Manuela. Zagan’s horrified reaction when he realizes that Manuela and Gremory have met and are friends already is hysterical… actually, as usual, any scene with Manuela is great, leaving aside her sexual harassment. Also, those scenes with angry Nephy really are great, as she has the standard “smiling calmly while the top half of her face is shadowed’ ojou-sama style anger. It fits her well. I also really liked Selphy here, who is normally very much the ditz, but also shows signs of understanding the other cast members and getting them to open up.

Slave chokers and molesting sales clerks aside, this remains an excellent and fun light novel read. And it’s not an isekai, for those that try to keep track of such things.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, Vol. 7.5

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By Wataru Watari and Ponkan 8. Released in Japan as “Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatte Iru” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jennifer Ward.

There are quite a few .5 volumes in Japan, but whether they get licensed or not is another issue. They’re almost always short story collections, meant to be read but not affect the overall storyline (hence the .5), though this is not always the case (Rokujouma’s .5s are not skippable.) There are a lot of DVD/Blu-Ray sets in Japan that come with extra stories or novellas by the author that are lately published by the original publisher (see Devil Is a Part-Timer or this series) and some are expanded and turn into genuine later volumes (Baccano!). Sometimes the rights (given they were written for the anime production company) may make it harder to bring out over here… and short story collections also might not sell as well to begin with. To sum up, sometimes you’ll see these licensed and sometimes you won’t, but we can be grateful to have this collection, which takes place at various points between Vols. 1-7 and (mostly) has Hachiman behaving himself.

Miura’s on the cover, but does not really feature in the story, except to get really jealous of an underclassman who seems to be in Hayama’s club and is also cute. I suspect we’ll see more of her later. In the meantime, the wraparound stories involve the club answering Dear Abby-style questions, all of which are from “anonymous” people whose identities are nevertheless very obvious. The larger short stories involve the club having to do a magazine special on weddings, which ends up having Komachi run a bride competition among Yukino, Yui, and Shizuka. (By the way, if “I am an unmarried teacher” jokes are not your thing, feel free to skip this entire volume, as they’re omnipresent.) We then get an adaptation of a Drama CD story that continues after Vol. 3, showing the cast partying at an arcade. The longest story involves the cast helping the Judo Club, whose have a now graduated member returning and abusing the team. As often happens, Hachiman immediately sees the solution. As always happens, Hachiman makes sure everyone hates him in solving it.

There’s a lot of Komachi and her Komachi Points in this, and it’s clear that she’s shipping Hachiman with Yui – not that this is really going anywhere. Honestly, Yui and Yukino is the ship which gains the most ground in these short stories, but the author’s not going in that direction either. Instead this seems to be a pretty leisurely look at the character tics we know and love. Hachiman is cynical, Yukino is… well, also cynical, Yui is shiny. The drama CD one may be the weakest, partly as adaptations always tend to suffer a bit like this, and partly as I don’t care about Chiba Prefecture. The Judo story reads most like the novels, and is the best, though also relied a bit too much on “Zaimokuza is gross” for my tastes. Hachiman[‘s solution is excellent, and his implementation is equally awful. It’s the series in a nutshell, really.

The 7th volume ended on a cliffhanger, and it’s annoying that we aren’t getting that resolved. But I’m happy to read about these characters, and as I said, till the very end Hachiman seems to actually be fairly tolerable. A good read.

In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 15

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

Readers of Smartphone will be delighted to hear that absolutely fuck all happens in this volume. I say “delighted” because readers of Smartphone have by now realized the inverse quality ratio: the books get worse the more that there is actual plot in them. For an example, I point to the 14th volume, or any of the others where Touya commits genocide and then says “la di da”. (He says that here as well, but it’s for the running gag.) But when Touya spends the whole time wandering around the world seeing what’s going on, helping out a country or two for the heck of it, and continuing to be the blandest light novel protagonist to ever get nine wives to want to marry him… it’s surprisingly decent. I will ignore the Native American stereotypes we get towards the start, mostly as they don’t get nearly as bad as Realist Hero. No, this is just Touya chilling.

I mean, obviously SOME things happen. We continue to see that there are people in this world who do not like Touya or his nation in it. They try to use a magical wood that causes beasts to go insane, but are discovered and stopped almost immediately, because that’s the kind of light novel you are reading. Touya helps another country (with the aforementioned Native American types) from attacks by giant squid, and shows them how delicious squid can be when cooked. There is a second beach party, which reminds the reader how frigging big this cast has gotten. (Honestly, even WITH the cast list at the start, I’m still trying to recall names much of the time.) And the reverse world is still fighting the Phrase… or rather the new Golden Mutant Zombie Phrase, thanks to that annoying God. The actual Phrase are (try to contain your shock) holed up in Touya’s castle eating snacks. That said, Ende wants to get stronger, and so the God of Punching Things, who looks remarkably like Ryu from Street Fighter, something that is lampshaded, is there to help him (and Elze) get stronger.

Again, this book is never going to actually be good, but when it’s not jokingly having Touya be callous as fuck, it can be fun. It’s like walking through your favorite trashy dollar mart. I was amused at how there’s a suggestion that Touya may have been seduced and the fiancees’ reaction is essentially “we know you don’t have the guts”. We keep swapping out fiancees to try to give them equal screen time, which works better when there’s character development, but I’ve given up on that. Everyone is what they are. We also meet the Mikado of Eashen, who turns out to be a gorgeous young woman but thankfully does not appear to end up in Touya’s orbit. Oh, and Yae’s brother gets to prove he is manly enough to have a fiancee.

As I said, there’s nothing that really happens here. It’s a bunch of normal, boring old Smartphone antics. Which makes it one of the safer ones to read. I admit I’d kind of like to see the wedding soon, though, but I suspect I have a few more volumes to go.

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 19

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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

Just as Index 17 and 18 formed a two-parter, this is essentially the second part of the 15th book, where GROUP battled against ITEM and all the other dark student organizations used by various Academy City folks for Black Ops. They ended up on top, but as you can imagine, that made some people very unhappy. As a result, one of the Board of Directors is trying to deal with them, especially Accelerator. Meanwhile, Accelerator continues to be a really nice guy while insisting he’s a horrible villain. He’s rescuing abused teenage girls, triaging pregnant mothers, and saving little kids. Indeed, the little kid he saves has to literally point out what a hero Accelerator’s being to get the “good guys” to do anything. Are there any good guys in Academy City? Mikoto, maybe, but she’s not in this book at all. Maybe it’s Hamazura, who insists he’s just a thug as much as Accelerator insists he’s a villain. But what Hamazura really is, and this book cements it, is the third male lead in Index.

Introduced in this volume: Stephanie Gorgeouspalace, who bears possibly the silliest name in all of Index. Also, Aiwass, who we’ll definitely be seeing more of. There are a few more of the Aztec teens, as well. Sadly, again, Yen Press has not licensed the Index short story books, which is where we first met Stephanie. Or the Railgun shot story book, which is where we first met Tochtli, though I think she was retroactively written into the Railgun manga as well, like Xochitl was. This takes place at the same time as Books 17 and 18, when Touma is in England dealing with the British Royal Family. It ends with Touma, Accelerator, and Hamazura all separately going to Russia, where we’ll no doubt get the 20th volume. It’s also worth noting that there are only three volumes to go after this one in the main Index series… of course, we also have Index New Testament. Its sequel. Also 22 volumes.

As I said, Hamazura is explicitly called a protagonist by Kamachi in the narrative here, as if it weren’t obvious enough. He also gives the author an opportunity to do a real romance. Touma is, of course, oblivious to his 642 love interests. Accelerator is too self-loathing to even think about a relationship, and Last Order is a daughter to him, not a lover. But Hamazura, despite all the banter and pseudo-flirtation with Kinuhata (who is twelve, making this my least favorite part of the book), is in love with Takitsubo, and she with him. Of the three “threatened” relationships at the end of this book, it’s the romantic one. Accelerator and Last Order are the familial one, and Touma and Index… well, they’re the titular one. It’s also interesting to have it pointed out that, while Touma and Accelerator are part of Aleister’s BIG PLANS, Hamazura is not, and his interference with Mugino (who comes back from the dead to try to kill him some more, and even looks just like the Terminator here) could pose a big problem in the future.

Mostly this book is filled with cool fights, giving Kinuhata more to do (despite my dislike of her underage teasing, she’s developed very well in this book), an analysis of what it means to be a hero, as seen through two guys who don’t think of themselves as one, and setting up the pieces for the last three books, which are a three-parter. It’s a solid entry in the Index series. It also means we are one book away from one of my favorite Index characters being introduced. Is she the best? Well, no, she’s the absolute WORST, actually.

(Final note: I love this cover, one of the best in the entire series. The contrast is fantastic.)

Daytime Shooting Star, Vol. 1

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By Mika Yamamori. Released in Japan as “Hirunaka no Ryuusei” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions.

It has to be said, when it comes to shoujo heroines, I have a type. Strong-willed, seemingly blase about life but capable of flipping out when needed, being as accepting and loving as a bunch of puppies in a park, and usually coming with a seemingly darker but also fantastic best/friend/rival character. This is present in Daytime Shooting Star, a series I was initially wary about (student/teacher romance is hinted at, though it’s uncertain if it will actually go anywhere) but turned out to be far more fun than I expected. It’s got a lot going for it. Country girl in the big city, seemingly stoic but in reality easily shy and embarrassed male lead. The teacher, the other male lead, waffles back and forth between mentor, teasing friend and love interest depending on the scene. And it has a good mix of light and dark moments. If you’re trying to cut back on the ongoing manga you read every two months, this one won’t help you do that at all.

Suzume is our heroine, a country girl who’s lived her whole life in the same remote town with the same friends. She skips class a lot, and has no real desire to do anything but watch the stars and ignore the guy who’s clearly crushing on her. Then her parents are sent to Bangladesh for work, and she can’t come and can’t life by herself. So it’s off to Tokyo to live with her uncle, and as you can imagine she’s somewhat overwhelmed, though not nearly as much as I’ve seen in similar titles. She meets this huge dork who turns out to be her homeroom teacher; the cook guy everyone likes, who’s secretly terrified of girls; and the cute girl who says she wants to be friends and invites her out to go bowling… and if you guessed she’s secretly a bitch in sheep’s clothing, congratulations, you can write shoujo. And if you further guessed that Suzume would win her over with the power of FISTS AND LOVE, you can write even better shoujo.

Suzume is the main reason I really enjoyed this. She’s equal parts naive and blase, and there are a few good scenes that show this off, such as when the girls in gym attempt to bully her only to find that in fact she IS really good at sports. As for the teacher, so far she may find him attractive but he seems mostly to be interested in making sure that she grows as a person… and gets good grades, as it turns out skipping class all the time means she’s abysmal in school. As for Yuyuka, I have another type, and it’s absolutely the “I am a villain so why do you associate with me” person who is gradually revealed to be good at heart. We haven’t seen the good at heart yet, but there were hints we will, and I think these two girls will be good for each other.

I finished this book wanting to read the next one immediately. Which is all you can ask of a debut, really.

Manga the Week of 7/10/19

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SEAN: This is the first of two relatively quieter weeks, manga-wise. Relatively.

Blade of the Immortal has its 9th Omnibus edition from Dark Horse.

ASH: Still a great way to get into the series; some of the individual volumes are getting really hard to find!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has some more print debuts. Last and First Idol and JK Haru Is a Sex Worker in Another World, both very much off the beaten path from the usual harem isekai, are out in print. I recommend Last and First Idol to hard SF fans, and JK Haru to isekai fans who are prepared something a bit darker and more mature.

ASH: I don’t have a particular interest in idols, but I do have an particular interest in winners of the Seiun Award, so I might have to get around to reading Last and First Idol now that it will be available in print.

SEAN: Debuting digitally is Record of Wortenia War, which from what I understand is very much ON the beaten path – but hey, fans love to read that sort of thing these days.

They’ve also got Ascendance of a Bookworm 2, Full Metal Panic! 2, and Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! 2. It’s a Volume 2 bonanza!

Kodansha debuts Magus of the Library (Toshokan no Daimajutsushi), which is from good! Afternoon. The author also does 7th Garden. Elf kids meet librarians in a manga that reminds me a bit of Magi in its feel.

ASH: I’m always ready to read about fantasy librarians!

ANNA: Is the art the same as 7th Garden? Because I dig manga librarians, but not so much male gaze…

SEAN: Writer is artist here, yes, same as 7th Garden.

In print, there’s a 4th Hitorijime My Hero.

MICHELLE: I’m happy that this series has improved a lot since its first volume.

SEAN: On the digital-only front, we have Kira-kun Today 9 (which I think is the last?), Ran the Peerless Beauty 5 (which is not the last but is caught up to Japan), and World’s End and Apricot Jam 6 (which is definitely the last).

MICHELLE: Ran is so very charming. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of World’s End, too, which I liked more than anticipated.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Mythical Beast Investigator (Genjuu Chousain), the latest in a string of “mild supernatural world” titles along the lines of How to Treat Magical Beasts and the like… except it’s apparently by the author of Torture Princess. It ran in Kadokawa’s Famitsu Comic Clear.

ASH: Huh, I hadn’t made the author connection yet, but I am curious about the series.

SEAN: Also debuting is the manga adaptation of Skeleton Knight in Another World.

And we get the 6th Arifureta novel in print, Himouto! Umaru-chan 6, the 7th Make My Abilities Average! Novel digitally, and Tomo-chan Is a Girl! 4, one of my favorite new series.

SuBLime has the 2nd volume of Coyote and the 6th volume of Roadrunner… erm, I mean Crimson Spell.

ASH: I actually really like Crimson Spell in all its drama-filled, smutty ridiculousness.

ANNA: That has been low key on my radar but I haven’t checked it out yet.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 2nd volume of the Knights of Sidonia Master Edition.

From Viz, we have Case Closed 71, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 5, Radiant 6 and Rin-Ne 30.

ASH: I need to catch up with Twilight Princess. (I’d also really like to see some of Akira Himekawa’s original works licensed at some point.)

SEAN: And we get the last of Yen’s delays from June, as The Irregular at Magic High School 12 and Sword Art Online Progressive 6 are both out from Yen On.

Turns out relatively quiet still has an awful lot. What are you getting?

Bookshelf Briefs 7/3/19

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Candy Color Paradox, Vol. 2 | By Isaku Natsume | SuBLime – I liked this volume of Candy Color Paradox more than I expected to, which was a pleasant surprise. When Kaburagi’s sister, whom he hasn’t seen in eight years, turns up, it at first seems like Onoe is going to go along with her suggestions to take Kaburagi down a peg, but he resists and attempts to reconcile the siblings instead. Next, to keep Kaburagi from having to do one of the deceitful assignments he occasionally undertakes to get a big scoop, Onoe does it instead, leading Kaburagi to treat him coldly for a while—since the major reason he likes Onoe is that he is largely incapable of deception—until they finally talk it out. In her author’s notes, Natsume-sensei says this was originally intended to be the final volume, and it certainly feels that way. I’m not sure we need more, but I reckon I’m intrigued enough to continue. – Michelle Smith

Dead Mount Death Play, Vol. 2 | By Ryohgo Narita and Shinta Fujimoto | Yen Press – Given this is from the author of Baccano! and Durarara!!, a certain amount of crazy antics are expected, but it really boggles the mind how bonkers this series gets, particularly its strange obsession with sharks. We also get introduced to a possessed mechanical pencil, but the bulk of the volume is spent realizing that Polka’s family is still around and has its own issues, and that the Corpse God needs to deal with those if he’s going to continue to use said body as he sees fit. This includes saving the lives of two supposedly creepy but actually really sweet twins—twins appear in Narita’s works a lot. There’s some nasty gore here, as you’d also expect, but I really am liking this title more now. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 36 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – I sense the author may be feeling a little bad about all the times that she’s made Alibaba the laughingstock of the manga, given how much he’s praised in this volume. We continue to truck along with the final confrontation, as Sinbad agrees to Alibaba’s suggestion… but David is not taking this lying down, leading to a very funny “no, it is I who am controlling you!” war. That said, it’s a little hard to save the world when everyone in the world wants to die and thinks you’re traitors, which is the situation we end up with in the second half. I admit I am rather annoyed that Morgiana is not participating in this final battle, and given that the next volume is the last I don’t see that changing. Will still get it to see how this overall very good series ends. – Sean Gaffney

Missions of Love, Vol. 17 | By Ema Toyama | Kodansha Comics – I’ll be honest, this is starting to feel pretty dragged out. Yukina having to reveal to Shigure that she writes cell phone novels and has been using her life (and his) as material is obviously the big climax, but we aren’t there yet, so instead we see Hisame back in jerk mode, as he tries to redo all the earlier scenes Yukina had with Shigure and “rewrite” those memories with ones featuring him. If nothing else, this shows off his own immaturity. As for Akira and Mami, they get a cliffhanger… I assume. We get a cliffhanger moment, but it’s only two-thirds through the book, and we cut back to Yukina for the rest. Is Akira dying? Confessing? Moving? In any case, perhaps because it comes out slower now, I am more weary of this potboiler. – Sean Gaffney

Monster and the Beast, Vol. 1 | By Renji | Yen Press – The genesis of Monster and the Beast is the result of Renji looking for a fantasy BL manga about a middle-aged man and a non-human, not finding any, and so deciding to simply create one. Cavo is the titular monster, a large and powerful but sensitive and kind-hearted demon who leads a lonely, isolated life since everyone is afraid of him. (Cavo is an absolute dear.) The beast in the title refers to Liam, a sexually insatiable man who doesn’t seem to have a fearful bone in his body and who delightedly hits on anyone and everyone regardless of gender or apparently even species. This tends to get him both out of and into a significant amount of trouble. Various circumstances bring the two together, Cavo acting as Liam’s protector and guide as he flees his pursuers. I’m curious to see how the drama and their so far chaste relationship develop. – Ash Brown

Monster and the Beast, Vol. 1 | By Renji | Yen Press – Theoretically this is the latest in a mini-manga genre we’ve seen of monsters and humans falling in love despite obvious differences. In reality, it turns out to be the latest in a different but equally popular genre, the uke being dragged around by the ridiculously charismatic seme. The uke in this case is the monster, who rescues Liam, a mature gentleman who looks like he stepped out of Ristorante Paradiso, and finds that Liam was in fact, trying to have a good time in the woods with the other men, but it was going badly. The reason to read the book is Liam, who is bisexual and loves to show it off, and the monster’s mind-blown reactions to him – as well as a bit of tortured desire. Not sure how this will play as an extended series, but I liked it. – Sean Gaffney

Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, Vol. 4 | By Fumita Yanagida | Seven Seas – There’s a lot of backstory in this book, as we find out how Tomo, Jun and Misuzu all met as kids, how Jun could easily mistake Tomo for a boy, and the bond that forms between them. Back in the present day, though, things are still in stasis, but that may change after a trip to the beach, which involves Tomo actually wearing a bikini top and doing things like licking ice cream off her shoulder, which gets Jun to realize that hey, maybe his tomboy friend who can kick his ass really IS a girl. The other reasons to read this series are Carol and Misuzu, who may have risen to become my favorite supporting characters in a manga. They bounce off each other so well. This is fantastic 4-koma. – Sean Gaffney

Whenever Our Eyes Meet…: A Women’s Love Anthology | By Various Artists | Yen Press – Typically, the characters in this women’s love anthology are professionals, like office workers, café owners, postal clerks, etc. Most of the stories are about the start of a relationship, be it through reuniting with a former coworker in a taxi cab or having a one-night stand turn up in the office the next morning or what have you. It’s pretty cute, but the problem is that the stories are far too short to get any real sense of the characters or for the formation of couples to mean much of anything. My favorite story involved the café owner and an artist, since they had unknowingly mutually inspired each other by being passionate about their work, and my least was the two-page (!) story about a married mother who cheats with a female part-timer. All in all, this just isn’t a keeper for me. – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 2

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By Kouhei Horikoshi and Anri Yoshi. Released in Japan by Shueisha. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Caleb Cook.

The second of the My Hero Academia light novels is set at the training camp, so around Vol. 8-9 of the main series. It ends right before the villain attack. As such, as you might gather, it’s as light and frothy as its predecessor. The goal here is to tell standard “summer camp” stories that Horikoshi would like to do in the main series but hasn’t got the time for. So we see Momo tutoring the left-behinders of the class at her palatial mansion; the long bus drive to the training camp; Mineta being the worst – again; The girls of 1-A and 1-B (well, half of 1-B) having a combined slumber party; the boys of 1-A and 1-B having an arm wrestling contest/pillow fight; and Iida trying to find his glasses without waking anybody up. There’s no earth-shattering character revelations here, but if you want more of the cast being fun goofballs, you’ve come to the right series. It also reads more like it was written for teens rather than younger kids, which the first volume had an issue with.

Let’s just get this out of the way; Mineta is in this, and has just as large a role as the first book, including the third story being dedicated to his continued efforts to try to peep on the girls. I get that the author wants a comedy pervert in the cast for humor reasons, but you can’t have Aizawa bitching about how half-hearted heroes will be expelled from UA on the spot and keep Mineta around as a serial sexual harasser. The girls beating him up is not really sufficient punishment either, nor is having him groping Tiger, the transgender man from the Wild Wild Pussycats. It’s frustrating because, in the bus trip chapter, we do see that he does have the power to tell a compelling (if perverse) story, and keeps the rest of the class on tenterhooks waiting to see what comes next. There’s more to do with Mineta than this. If he’s only going to be this, get rid of him.

The main reason to pick this volume up, as someone who also dabbles in the fandom of My Hero Academia, is the shipping. There’s nothing “official”, no, except for Uraraka’s crush on Deku, but there’s lots of subtext if you know where to look for it. The first chapter sees Jirou worrying that Momo’s mother disapproves of her, and it reads exactly like meeting the girlfriend’s parents. Likewise, Bakugou tutoring Kirishima will make fans of that ship happy, and I was also pleased to see Bakuygou’s two middle-school bullying friends show up, and observe how much he’s actually mellowed out, despite getting thrown out of TWO studying places. As for the slumber party, Ashido is of course trying to make it all about romance, but unfortunately the girls in UA aren’t really into that right now. Aside from the brief IzuOcha I mentioned, there’s some KamiJirou tease, some Kacchako tease, and, perhaps most oddly, Ashido/Dark Shadow shipping from the rest of the girls, a ship so rare I don’t even think it has a name. This was fun.

These books are meant to be something that are fun to read (Mineta aside) and supplementary to the main storyline. This one does a good job. The next volume seems to be set right after moving into the dorms, so that should be fun.

Side-By-Side Dreamers

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By Iori Miyazawa. Released in Japan by Hayakawa Publishing. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

As with another Hayakawa title released last year, Last and First Idol, I’d say that this book might be more rewarding for those who are looking for a really good science fiction book rather than those who are looking for yuri. It’s there – the two leads gradually realize their love, and there are hints of another couple (that never go past that), but I suspect anyone buying this wanting, say, Madoka Magica or the like are going to be disappointed. That said, I greatly enjoyed it as a science fiction story, and would recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different from the standard light novel. (Being a Hayakawa title, this is a straight novel, with only one illustration of the cast, and no interior pictures.) That said, if you worry about getting too much sleep, or not enough, this book’s themes and imagery are probably not going to quiell any fears – your lack of sleep may secretly be destroying the world. Sweet dreams.

Our main heroine, Saya, has been suffering from abysmal insomnia for the past few months, and it’s destroyed most of her school and social life. One day, while staggering to the nurse’s office to lie down and not sleep, she runs into Hitsuji, another girl in her school who has no trouble sleeping at all – she can drop off anywhere, and in fact the rest of the people around her might sleep too. Saya finds herself lying next to the girl and for once, actually sleeping… which leads to her dreaming of a world where she and Hitsuji are lovers who are fighting creatures called Suiju. As it turns out, Hitsuji and some other girls are Sleepwalkers, who have the power to hunt those creatures in dreams. Which is important, as the creatures seem to be trying to break out into the real world… and if they do that, the real world won’t stay that way. Can Saya, whose insomnia can be weaponized, help? Or will she make things worse? And can she and Hitsuji acknowledge their feelings outside of dreams?

There is some fantastic and imaginative dream imagery in this book, as it shows the way that dreams can drift from one thing to another and often have their own bent sort of logic. It can be hard to even realize that you’re not dreaming – particularly for Saya, who tends to get caught up in her dreams a bit too much. The Suiju at first just seem like standard easy-to-kill monsters, but as the book goes on it becomes clear that they’re pulling the girls into a trap, and the dreams become a lot more like nightmares. The last third of the book or so has the reader (and the characters) trying to figure out whether they’re awake or asleep. I will note, though, that the ending to the book is very abrupt – VERY abrupt. I think it works all right, but it does feel a bit like the author wanted to be a bit arty and mysterious, and this was the best way to do it. Things are resolved? Maybe?

As I said, as a yuri title this is cute but not much else. As a science fiction book, though, it was great fun to read. I hope we can get more Hayakawa titles in the future.

Pick of the Week: Dreaming of Shoujo

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MICHELLE: Despite the Pretty Little Liars vibes of its concept, the mere fact that Daytime Shooting Star ran in Margaret is sufficient for me to award it my pick of the week. I deeply hope I’m not skeeved.

SEAN: I want that too, and will always welcome Oresama Teacher and Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, but my pick this week is Side-by-Side Dreamers, because yuri science fiction novels are something I’d like to see more of.

KATE: I’m still reeling from last week’s enormous bounty, so I’m going to pass on recommending anything new. Ask me when I’m climbed out from underneath the big stack of books next to my bed…

ASH: I’m likewise behind in my manga reading, however many of the shoujo releases from Viz will still be added to my ever-growing stack this week. I’m easily furthest behind with Oresama Teacher, but it’s such a delightful series that I have no qualms with making it my official pick.

ANNA: I’m always excited for shoujo debuts like Daytime Shooting Star, but when looking over the week I’m most interested in reading the second volume of Snow White with the Red Hair, which seemed endearingly quirky based on the first volume. I want to see how the series develops.

Infinite Dendrogram: Blue Blood Blitz

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By Sakon Kaidou and Taiki. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

First off, it has to be said: that is a deeply ludicrous and yet amazing hat and cloak combo that the Princess is wearing while she’s out secretly saving the world – though it seems the only one who doesn’t figure out who she is is Ray. I’d mentioned in my last review that the Princess is set up as a sort-of-but-not-really love interest for Ray, and that holds true here: Ray continues to be almost asexual, and it’s made clear that his role in Altimia’s story is to get her to trust Masters again so that Altar might actually be able to defend itself in the upcoming war. That said, she and Ray do make a very good combo team, and I’m sure we’ll see more of her eventually. Also amusing in this volume is Ray and Nemesis taking down an extremely cliched villain from the “This-this cannot be!” school of acting, and the revelation about who he is in real life fits 100%.

The girl on the cover is another of Ray’s new weapons/abilities/allies, but in terms of this story she shows up, demonstrates her FIRE PUNCHING, then goes away again. More interesting are the revelations about Tom Cat, the clone-making adventurer that we met in the previous book. His actual identity is more of a surprise than I expected, but works well in the context of the series/world. It’s still unclear how much of Dendrogram is “this is an unusually complex game with a deep deep backstory” and how much is “this is an actual world that we have somehow made into a game”, but the author is enjoying making us try to figure it out. Hopefully next time we will have fewer doomsday weapons. That said, I did very much enjoy the weapon having slept for 2000 years and no longer able to recognize what humanity is till it sees something that is reminiscent of its former time. It was cheesy but very effective.

There’s an anime coming soon, and I really do wonder how a fandom that’s not familiar with him is going to deal with Ray. His chuuni tendencies aside (and we do get some more making fun of his Evil Overlord Outfit), he really is the ridiculously OP hero that most fans of fantasy works profess to hate. He has an easier time than he’s had in the last few books here – he may be pushed to the brink once or twice, but there’s never any real sense he’s in trouble, and it helps that he’s found out that his magical robot horse is also doing cool (if mysterious) stuff to save his life. Without the usual Altar masters around to show that there are people even better than Ray, he gets more of a big fish in a small pond book here. It works well for this book, but I hope next time we see him either in real life or the game getting shown that he has a ways to go.

Dendrogram is always fun to read, and this volume is no different. At times I can’t follow the worldbuilding (a wiki of some sort is likely needed), but it’s still definitely recommended.

The Asterisk War: Conquering Dragons and Knights

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Even if you hadn’t already figured out what the result of the Gryps competition, the subtitle of the volume may clue you in. Our heroes this time take on Jie Long’s Dragon Warriors, a team seemingly set up to look like they stepped off the screen of a videogame. The winner of that battle goes on to face Saint Gallardsworth’s team of Arthurian types, though I’m honestly not sure if Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table ever had an obvious princess-curled tsundere quite like Laetitia. Things are not helped by the events in the previous volume, which have left most of Team Enfield feeling particularly exhausted. Of course, this is exactly the time when a typical cliched shonen series would have its cast each reach the next level, pull new abilities out of their asses, and go on to crush the competition by virtue of being really, really shonen about it. And never let it be said that Asterisk War does not go for the easy answer, as this is exactly what happens.

Kirin has the cover image this time around, and while the author apologizes in the afterword for sidelining her from the final fight, I have a feeling that was meant to be partly ironic, as the fight against Jie Long is Kirin’s finest hour to date. Honestly, I was expecting Ayato to pull things off again, but to be fair, he was needed for the next fight along, and Kirin had not had a spotlight in some time, so it’s justified. Much as it’s talked about in terms of being able to see the way the fighter’s prana is behaving, her new ability essentially boils down to “can predict moves better”, which is fine. No one cries out for gritty realism in a magical academy fighting manga – at least I hope they don’t. Instead you ask for cool, and that’s what we get here… at the cost of Kirin being bedridden for the rest of the book. And possible getting yelled at by her family, there’s a cliffhanger involved.

We then go up against Team Lancelot, though not before we see Ayato meet a mysterious masked man who professes to be the one who put his sister in her coma. He’s a trickster mentor of the finest water, and his presence (and assistant) seems to hint that Ayato’s story will be tied up with Sylvie’s again pretty soon. That said, the best part of this second half was seeing Ernest finally give in and embrace his inner selfish asshole. His weapon involves being pure, noble and chivalrous, but doing so was clearly pressuring him in ways that were obvious to see. It was one of those things where the reader, who knows his character type, was waiting for the other shoe to drop. He also becomes far more interesting, even though it may be Percival who we follow going forward. (Sorry, Laetitia, you have “always a side character” written all over you.

In addition to Kirin’s family cliffhanger, we also get Ayato getting a call from his father right at the end. Still, despite that, I suspect that the next volume will be a lighter, breezier one to help relax after this arc. If you’re enjoying this beach read of a light novel, this is an excellent pickup.

I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse, Vol. 14

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By Namekojirushi and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Ore ga Heroine o Tasukesugite Sekai ga Little Mokushiroku!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mana Z.

There is a plot twist about 2/3 of the way through this volume that pretty much manages to make me drop my main complaint about the book, which is that it’s simply too short. Even by the standards of Little Apocalypse, not one for large page counts, this is ridiculously short. It’s also got a cliffhanger, making me wonder if it might originally have been combined with the volume after it. The first third is relatively sedate… for Rekka, not the reader. We know there’s a problem because the huge cast list of heroines we see at the start of each book has almost all of them scribbled out – including R. Only seven heroines make the cut for this book, leading us to wonder what it is about them that makes them important… or rather, unimportant, as it seems they’re what’s left over after most of Rekka’s memories of the last six months have been wiped.

Technically not a new heroine on the cover, nor is she played by Jodie Whitaker, but The Doctor is the creator of both L and R, and is interested in their welfare – as well as that of Rekka. Sadly, events in the future are reaching a turning point, with the extremists deciding now is the time to kill Rekka in the past, even if they have to use giant robots to destroy the town. And that’s what we get, as a baffled Rekka and his remaining heroines try to evacuate and figure out what’s going on. Fortunately, Rekka eventually gets his memory back, and we find out what happened to R, but the other missing heroines remain missing for the entire book, nor do we know where they are. (My guess is the future, where Rekka ends up heading at the end of the book.) Even his parents, who show up in this book for the first time since the start of Chapter 1 or Book 1, aren’t able to do much but slow the enemy down.

As I noted earlier, I really liked the twist we get here, which is that Rekka should NOT be having to deal with all these heroines at once. The gimmick of the series – that he uses one heroine’s problems to solve another’s problem – was never meant to happen. The seven heroines who aren’t mindwiped/kidnapped are there because they’re the heroines he was SUPPOSED to originally save. They’re the “easy mode” heroines. (Notably, this does NOT include his childhood friend, removed even from her parents’ memories.) They’re heroines that Rekka could save using only his own human abilities and those of the heroine herself – I mean, we do still have a shrine priestess and nun with very lethal weapons around. If nothing else this helps us to be impressed with what Rekka’s achieved. The question is, though, what changed everything? Does it have to do with Rekka’s “helper” being R, not L?

Again, readers need to prepare for being able to finish off this book in only an hour. But if you don’t mind the length, this is a suitably fun and interesting volume as we head towards the series’ climax.