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Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Our Favorite Yearly Pick

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MICHELLE: It’s the first week of August and that can mean only one thing: my annual opportunity to pick Kaze Hikaru! I am also super excited about the new volume of What Did You Eat Yesterday?, however.

ASH: As Sean recently noted, there’s lots and lots and lots being released this week. Shoujo, shonen, seinen, and even josei manga are all represented and I’m reading SO MUCH of it. However, the release that I’m perhaps most interested in this week actually isn’t manga at all but Shinsuke Nakamura’s autobiography King of Strong Style.

SEAN: I suspect Anna will also be picking Kaze Hikaru, so I’ll pitch in for her and make my pick the lucky 13th volume of Yona of the Dawn. Every volume deserves to be read and reread, like a favorite childhood story. I love it to bits.

ANNA: It is such a tough choice because I love Kaze Hikaru and Yona of the Dawn so much! But with only one volume of Kaze Hikaru coming out a year, I have to take the opportunity to highlight it whenever I can. It is such a great, underappreciated series.

KATE: Kaze Hikaru. ‘Nuff said.

Bookshelf Briefs 8/6/18

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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1 | By Koyoharu Gotouge | Viz Media – Well, that escalated quickly! Tanjiro, an earnest young man helping to support his loving but struggling family, returns home one day to a gruesome scene of blood and death wreaked by demons. One of his sisters survived, though she is now destined to become a demon herself. Desperate to save and protect what remains of his family, Tanjiro turns to the life of a demon slayer. The more I read of Demon Slayer the more I had the feeling that I had encountered parts of the story somewhere else before (except perhaps for Tanjiro’s superior sense of smell). But even so, it was an engaging first volume. Even if a series seems to be relying heavily on well-established tropes and familiar training montages, done well it can still be a great read. Demon Slayer might be one of those manga, but it also has the potential to be more. – Ash Brown

Devilman VS. Hades, Vol. 1 | By Go Nagai and Team Moon | Seven Seas – In addition to being a sequel to Nagai’s original Devilman story, Devilman VS. Hades is a crossover with the Mazinger franchise. To some extent, Devilman VS. Hades can be read as a standalone work—the most critical information needed to follow what’s going on is included within the series itself—but some basic familiarity with Devilman and/or Mazinger doesn’t hurt. (Fortunately, several incarnations of both franchises are readily available in English.) In Devilman VS. Hades, Devilman has literally fought his way through Hell to free the souls of those he holds most dear, unleashing a horrifying new apocalypse in the process. Devilman, Akira Fudo in his human form, must now face enemies old and new while navigating the grotesque and hellish landscape. Devilman VS. Hades is only three volumes long so the first understandably moves along at a fairly quick pace, but at the same time it can seem bizarrely unfocused. – Ash Brown

Dreamin’ Sun, Vol. 7 | By Ichigo Takano | Seven Seas – So, yeah, the prodigal lawyer dating the high school girl was never going to be a popular decision, and when you throw in the house basically being used as a dormitory for troubled souls, it’s not hard to see why Fujiwara’s father has decided to come in and bust it all up, since Shimana did not listen to his wise counsel an go away forever. That said, he’s an obstacle rather than a dad, and so we’re not thinking about how to appeal to his better nature, but how to surmount him. As for Shimana and Fujiwara, well, if nothing else his emotions are getting more immature when he’s with her—which may not be a bad thing. This is no orange, but it’s still good enough to keep reading. – Sean Gaffney

Dreamin’ Sun, Vol. 7 | By Ichigo Takano | Seven Seas – I can’t make up my mind whether I want Shimane and Fujiwara to succeed as a couple or not. Complicating this is the fact that neither of them can seemingly make up their minds, either. It’s totally reasonable that there’d be a lot of fluctuation and vacillation in a teen romance, but coupled with the swift pacing of this series, I just end up with a serious case of shoujo whiplash. As it stands, Fujiwara’s father seems determined to split them up, and Fujiwara is attempting to fall for Shimane and is sure that he will, given time. Meanwhile, I thought it was kind of interesting to see why Fujiwara’s friend, Miura, might’ve agreed to interfere on Fujiwara’s father’s behalf. I don’t really believe the series will end with Shimane heartbroken, but I’m not convinced this relationship will bring her happiness, either. We shall see. – Michelle Smith

Durarara!! re: Dollars Arc, Vol. 2 | By Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Aogiri | Yen Press – I will note the biggest disappointment in this volume right off the bat: because it’s compressing events so much, it cut the bit with Shizuo using a car as cover by kicking it along in front of him, a highlight of the anime. Other than that, this is a decent adaptation, though I think I’d give the anime adaptation the higher marks. I did like seeing how just because the runaway Akane has been “retrieved” by her father does not mean that the problem is solved—Narita is good at showing that childhood trauma can stay with you forever and is not easily fixed. Especially in DRRR!!, where everyone is sort of broken. This moved way too fast, but is otherwise good. – Sean Gaffney

Fate/Zero, Vol. 6 | By Gen Urobuchi, Type-Moon, and Shinjiro | Dark Horse – I’m not sure why we had a year’s delay between the last volume of Fate/Zero and this one, but I’m glad we’re back with it, even if it continues to be a very bleak war. That said, nothing is too depressing as long as Alexander the Great is in it, and going from the discovery and destruction of the room filled with dead and tortured children to a three-way drinking discussion between him, Saber and Gilgamesh is mood dissonance of the finest kind. It was an excellent discussion, and reminds readers who are familiar with the original Fate series just how messed up Saber’s vision really is. As for the cliffhanger, will Tokiomi actually do something? GASP! Not for the squeamish, but excellent. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 6 | By Rin Mikimoto | Kodansha Comics – This is a relatively serious volume of KMatSoM, which means we get very few SD-faces and no discussions of butts. It makes sense, given we’re up against some things that could spell trouble for this burgeoning relationship. No, not Shu; she’s taken care of fairly quickly by the classic shoujo tradition of the heroine just being far too nice and sweet to be horrible to. No, the main issue is Funny Bone and their past with Kaede, and the apparently death of someone in Kaede’s past—which he starts to tell Hinana about as we close this book out. I expect we may be entering whole volume flashback territory next time, but we’ll see how it goes. Does this mean no butts in volume seven either? – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 31 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – To no one’s surprise, Alibaba’s financial renaissance is running into serious trouble after a strong start, as Sinbad is not about to let him get the Kou Empire back to its former strength. Alibaba can try to avoid the rumors and come up with new and more fascinating items, but it’s more interesting seeing him meeting up with old friends, some of whom have gotten married and had children. Of course, the two most important friends of his have been missing for a while… and we finally catch up with them, and see that Aladdin has finally grown up all the way. He’s got his hands full trying to deal with Arba and her ability to possess people and take them over. Will we finally see them reunite next book? Signs point to yes. – Sean Gaffney

Murcielago, Vol. 7 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – We’re taking a break from serial killers to deal with terrorist organizations long thought dead, but the output is the same—lots of gore, lots of dead people, this time mostly in the Diet and the police, along with a few innocent bystanders. Kuroko is trying to deal with this, but she’s a bit upset—yes, it looks like she’s actually worried—that Chiyo is finally moving on from her. She’s probably right to worry, and I’d say she should try to better herself except this is Murcielago. The main reason to read this series remains the gratuitous violence and the action sequences, and yes, there’s also a sex scene near the end, featuring Kuroko and the girl from the very first volume’s extra chapter stealing an escort girl and having their way with her. Sleazy and it wears it proudly. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 14 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – I really like how Bakugo’s rage issues are shown to be a major issue that he needs to resolve, but they’re also not something that makes him a villain or means he can’t have hopes and dreams. He gets frustrated at Izuku’s drive as much as Izuku was chasing after his strength, and so the two are now even more “fated rivals.” They’re also given confinement for a few days, meaning, oh no, Izuku is behind in classwork. He also gets introduced to a few third years, whose powers are fun and also strong, and the school explains that due to the villains growing in power (indeed, we meet the next Big Bad here as well), it’s time for internships! Can Midoriya and his still-learning quirk make the grade and get him work?. – Sean Gaffney

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Vol. 2 | By Kagiji Kumanomata | Viz Media – I continue to be quite entertained by this series, though its lack of any real plot or characterization makes it a bit harder to review. The reader needs to accept that the Princess’ various antics to get a good night’s sleep are going to verge on the cruel and awful every single time, but given that most of the demons that she abuses for their functions can resurrect, it’s clearly meant for humor. We branch out a bit from pure sleep this time, as she enters an athletic competition (being in shape leads to better sleep) and suffers from—horror of horrors—dry skin! I shudder to imagine anyone taking this seriously, but as a giant goofy “what horrors will she commit next” series, it’s fantastic. – Sean Gaffney

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Finest Hour

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

As has been noted before, Tanya the Evil’s world is essentially an odd mashup of World War I Europe, with appropriate touchstones. That said, it’s perfectly content to mess with the timeline in order to move things along, and the third volume does this incredibly quickly, moving from World War I to World War II in the space of about three months. The victor may have changed, but the players are much the same, though we do get a few new – and more obviously inspired by real life history – characters. The “Duke of Marlborough” is Winston Churchill, complete with color illustration in case we didn’t get it (not to mention the subtitle of the book), and Tanya’s new commander in the African – sorry, Southern Colonies is “von Romel”, which is almost TOO on the nose. And of course there’s Tanya and her crew, who manage to almost single-handedly win the war only to see peace remain elusive. In fact, Tanya’s desperate plea to let her unit stop the Republic from getting away is probably the highlight of the entire book.

We begin with a giant slaughter, as is usually the case in these novels that make no bones about war being hell – at least for Tanya’s opponents. She and the 203rd are literally shot at the enemy on giant rockets, and they proceed to lay waste to most of the republic’s main forces as well as their HQ. It is amusing to see Tanya’s constant cynical, worried POV as the group essentially walks in and walks right back out almost unharmed. There are times when she is unaware of how good she is. So all that remains is to sign a peace treaty and negotiate the end of the war… something not done by the military, alas. The cease fire allows the Republic to regroup and the Commonwealth to stop pretending they don’t care, and thus everything is for naught. As for Tanya, she regards being sent south as a punishment for her freak out at the generals, but when we see them scheming it, it’s more that they just don’t have any real resources, so need to use the 203rd to have any chance of doing anything. The Empire is running out of money and resources.

And we may be getting a new player into the game. The Unified States have been mostly neutral here, but they also have Mary Sue, the daughter of Anson Sue, who Tanya fought and killed back in the previous book. Mary is unaware of this, but she is extremely patriotic and also has a buttload of magical talent, so is ready to fight and die for her country. In terms of the series, she promises to be something of a rival to Tanya, which is good as lately there has been the sense that nothing can stop Tanya once she gets going. It will be nice to see her have a bit of a challenge. Mary Sue seems sweet, but given that we already have the ‘sweet girl’ card in this deck with Visha, I suspect that won’t last long. The illustrations also make her look a bit possessed, to be honest.

Tanya the Evil is still wordy as all get out, and I’d honestly only recommend it if you’ve read military biographies and histories before. But if you want to know what happens after the anime ended, this is the volume to start with, as the anime wraps up about 3/4 through this book. I’m still waiting to see how all this turns out.

Black Torch, Vol. 1

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By Tsuyoshi Takaki. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Jump Square. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Toshikazu Aizawa and Colin Leigh.

A lot of the first volume of this new Jump series looks like a prologue, because in a sense it is. In fact, I’d argue that it might have worked better if it were done as a flashback after a few chapters featuring the titular special unit that our hero ends up getting drafted into. As it is, I enjoyed this volume but I’m left a bit dissatisfied as it feels like the story hasn’t quite started yet. There is a bit going on here to make folks want to read more, though. Jiro is somewhat standard Jump style, but “can talk to animals and is also a ninja” is a pretty good starting point, even if he does end the first chapter with a giant hole in his chest. There’s also Ichika, who manages to deal with a “I hate people who belittle me because I’m a woman scene” with her dignity mostly intact, which always pleases me.

We not only have ninjas here but also Mononokes, which seems to be sort of animal demons. Jiro rescues a small cat who turns out to be one of these, and also the only one in the series to date who’s not evil. Unfortunately, when you team up with the one “not evil” monster, you get hard looks from the team hired to take out monsters, which includes grumpy Ichika and her boss, the Captain Gotoh-esque Shiba. They’re the Oniwabanshu of legendary historical fame, now busy being bodyguards and also hunting down these monsters, which have recently popped back up. After a mostly deadly fight, Jiro and Rago are now fused, so he’s something of a trouble spot. That said, he’s pretty good in a fight, and has mononoke powers while still fighting for goodness and niceness, so he’s allowed to join the new team.

There are apparently two more team members we haven’t met, and as I indicated before, I think this feels more like “Part 1 of 2” than other Jump series of this sort. I like Ichika, despite her “I need to properly emphasize my rack for the readers” costume (which is even lampshaded). She seems to be the daughter of a ninja clan family who’s been dealing with “but you’re a girl” her entire life, and it’s made her a big angry and reluctant to accept help. Needless to say, the moment she mentions this, she’s put in a situation where she’s in dire straits and needs help. That said, she shows she’s a damn good fighter, and gets in the final blow, so I think it was pretty well handled. I suspect these two will be the lead “couple”, but I also expect any romance will be about 10th on the list of things this manga wants to do. It’s here to kick ass and take names, not flirt it up.

Add it all up and you have a decent first volume, and one I’d recommend to fans of things like Blue Exorcist. I look forward to the next volume, which should show what the series will actually be doing going forward.

So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 3

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

So yes, readers more familiar with future events in Spider So What were probably laughing at me in my previous two reviews. I admit to being completely taken in. It was easy enough to assume that the spider’s climb up through the dungeon was happening around the same time as the rest of the plot we were seeing on the surface. Except, of course, that doesn’t make sense at all, because the plot on the surface has been happening over the course of the last eighteen years or so. Whereas we’ve more or less been following the spider’s journey up the dungeon since birth, and it has… well, not been eighteen years. So yes, all of my desires for the spider to get to the top and join up with the main plot are somewhat embarrassingly for nought. She IS in the main plot… as the head villain. That said, there’s still something weird going on here.

As always, this is a book of two halves, alternating. The main plot deals with our spider doing what she’s been doing, slowly moving upward and fighting monsters. The interesting thing going on here, which the reader is only partially let in on, is that after her Taboo level reaches 10, she’s apparently given hidden insight into the nature of this entire world. Unfortunately, her hyperactive teen narration does not actually tell us much about this, presumably because spoilers. It likely has something to do with the two mystery “admin” figures we see, one of whom – D – looks to be behind a lot of what’s going on. *are* they trapped in a game? It doesn’t seem likely. The other big news here is the spider’s fight against the dragon that terrified her so long ago – this time, he’s stronger and tougher, and the fight is probably the highlight of the book. It is amusing seeing the spider’s immaturity here compared with what we see in the epilogue.

The other half of the plot involves everything going wrong for Shun. It’s not enough that his brother is dead, but Hugo, the arrogant jerk from last time, seems to have now mind controlled most of the kingdom into doing his bidding and killing the traitor. This includes, seemingly, his little sister, and also his best friend Katia, who is still dealing with a bit of gender dysphoria here. Things go very bad for our heroes, but, oddly enough, not as bad as you’d expect, as several times the villains essentially allow them to get away. They even comment on this. That said, there are a lot of genuine casualties. I wonder if it’s simply that the reincarnated folks are the ones that can’t be killed? In any case, there’s a lot going on here, and most importantly, it helps distract from spider going on about her stats in the main story, which is still happening constantly.

Unsurprisingly, firing off ta few big plot guns pays off, and this was easily the best volume of Spider So What to date. I look forward to seeing what’s happening next, both with the spider and the humans.

One Piece, Vol. 87

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By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Ah, it’s another of those “200 pages of fighting” One Piece volumes. It’s quite enjoyable, but as always somewhat hard to squeeze out 500+ words on it. But let’s do our best. First of all, the cover lies a bit. Looking at Bib Mom there, you’d think that she was in full control of her faculties as she’s attacking everyone else. Nothing could be further from the truth. Luffy and company have come up against some tough ruthless villains in the past, but I don’t think any have quite felt like a giant Force Of Nature as much as Big Mom here once her cake is destroyed. And, as we’ve seen from the flashbacks before, she also has no qualms about completely devouring any allies that happen to be in front of her, either. It’s no surprise that everyone’s immediate goal at the start of this book is “run away”, and for once Luffy even agrees with them – for a while.

We should probably address the other big thing that happens in this book. The old “nobody dies in One Piece” credo has been a bit on the decline since the events of Marineford, but it does merit saying that MOSTLY nobody dies in One Piece. So seeing what happens towards the end of the book here still manages to be a surprise – indeed, there’s a bit after the event when Nami thinks that we’ve somehow managed to have a last-minute escape… but no. Fortunately, Jimbei is with them now and is able to inject a bit of “yes, we’re all grieving, but may I remind you of the fact that we’re about to die?” into the proceedings. As deaths go, it’s not quite up there with the Big One from many volumes ago, but it is pretty sad.

Let’s also talk Charlotte Pudding. Well… I dunno. She seems to be swinging back and forth between a Charlotte who loves Sanji and wants to save him and a Charlotte who wants to see Sanji and everyone else fall to Big Mom’s Pirates. Sometimes she’s swinging back and forth between the two by the second. I’m not sure if this is meant to be Dissociative Personality Disorder, but I rather doubt it – I suspect it might be Oda simply having fun with the “tsundere” archetype. It’s honestly not a very good character twist. Much better handled is Nami, who I always love seeing brutally manipulate people to get what she wants. The Straw Hats are not true-blue Shonen Jump heroes, but all have major flaws and foibles, and I enjoy seeing Nami’s intelligence come to the fore whenever she does this. Also, nice lightning.

With Luffy going back into the mirrir to have a huge battle with Katakuri, it doesn’t look as if we’ll be escaping Big Mom anytime soon. But that’s fine, this arc is already better than the Dressrosa arc, and I look forward to seeing how Luffy gets out of this one, because I’m fairly certain Katakuri is about to hand his ass to him.

Manga the Week of 8/8/18

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SEAN: August is here, and it’s punishing. There’s lots and lots and lots.

So much I have trouble keeping up. Apologies to-J-Novel Club, as I should have had the 15th Invaders of the Rokujouma!? On last week’s list – it’s out this Friday.

As for next week, their debut is Lazy Dungeon Master. It’s an isekai, but this time the hero is in charge of a dungeon full of monsters beset by adventurers. “Hero” may not be the most accurate description.

They’ve also got a 7th Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, and the 3rd and final volume of Me, a Genius?.

Kodansha has some print in amongst their avalanche of digital. The 4th Colossal Edition of Attack on Titan, Descending Stories 8, the 4th and final Fairy Tail: Blue Mistral, and the 2nd print volume of Tokyo Tarareba Girls.

MICHELLE: Man, I’ve really gotta catch up on Descending Stories.

ASH: Same! I’ve greatly enjoyed what I’ve read so far. Also, hooray for more Tokyo Tarareba Girls (in print)!

ANNA: Yay!

SEAN: On the digital front, there’s a lot more. The debut is My Boy in Blue (P to JK), a Betsufure shoujo series that seems to be the police equivalent to My Boyfriend in Orange. But it’s won awards, so sounds interesting.

MICHELLE : It gives off a *very* similar vibe.

SEAN: And we also have All-Rounder Meguru 7, Beware the Kamiki Brothers! 4, Black Panther and Sweet 16 8, Can You Just Die, My Darling? 3, A Kiss, for Real 3, and Space Brothers 32. Man, the manga bust years seem so long ago…

MICHELLE: So much!

SEAN: Quirk books has a YA Attack on Titan novel written by Rachel Aaron, Garrison Girl.

Seven Seas time. On the light novel side, we have a 5th digital volume of Boogiepop, and a 3rd digital edition of Make My Abilities Average. On the print side, we have the 2nd print volume of MMAA as well, and the 3rd Arifureta novel. And both print and digital is the 2nd Toradora! Novel.

ASH: Oh! I didn’t realize the new Boogiepop volumes would be released so quickly! Definitely picking the omnibus up when it comes out in print.

SEAN: Manga-wise, we’ve got a 2nd Devilman vs. Hades and the 8th Lord Marksman and Vanadis.

ASH: I’m liking all the Devilman manga being released these days.

SEAN: Vertical has a 13th volume of What Did You Eat Yesterday?, delighting Manga Bookshelf folks who have found Pick of the Week a bit thin on the ground lately.

MICHELLE: Yay!!!

ANNA: Woo hoo!

SEAN: And, as always, there is Viz. The shonen debut is Black Torch, a fantasy series from Jump Square involving talking with animals and ninjas.

Also out on the shonen front are Black Clover 12, Food Wars! 25, Haikyu!! 26, the 8th hardcover of the 3rd arc of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, the 13th Kuroko’s Basketball 2-in-1, a 14th My Hero Academia, One Piece 87 (Christ, 87 volumes…), Platinum End 6, The Promised Neverland 5, and the final 43rd volume of Toriko.

MICHELLE: Dang.

ASH: Lots of good shonen stuff.

ANNA: Awesome!

SEAN: The shoujo debut sounds pretty sweet – literally. Shortcake Cake is from Margaret magazine (yes, actual Margaret! Not Betsuma or Ribon!) about a girl with a hideously long commute to school who moves into a boardinghouse full of guys. This actually looks better than it sounds (or at least less of a cliché).

MICHELLE: Somehow, I had missed this one! I typically like stuff from Margaret.

ANNA: Looking forward to this!

SEAN: Other shoujo. It’s August, so it’s time for our annual release of Kaze Hikaru! This is Vol. 26! It came out in Japan in 2009! But it’s awesome, and I thank Viz for continuing it.

MICHELLE: I can’t believe I actually forgot about this!

ANNA: Every year I look forward to the annual Kaze Hikaru release. It is SO good!

SEAN: And there’s Takane & Hana 4, Vampire Knight: Memories 2, and Yona of the Dawn 13.

ASH: Lots of good shoujo stuff, too!

ANNA: Indeed. My kind of week!

SEAN: Lastly, not manga but coming from Viz Media, we have King of Strong Style, the biography of renowned wrestler Shinsuke Nakamura.

ASH: This is supposed to be pretty great. I’m not especially into wrestling, but I still plan on picking it up.

ANNA: I picked up the ARC at ALA. My friends who like wrestling are super stoked for this.

SEAN: That’s a lot! But also a lot of awesome. What’s in your bookshelf by next week?

WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?, Vol. 1

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By Akira Kareno and ue. Released in Japan as “Shumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Morate Ii desu ka?” by Kadokawa Shoten. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt.

There are probably a few people, familiar with my reviews, who are surprised I even picked up this title at all. And it’s true, these days when I see a girl on the cover who, let’s be honest, looks sort of like a magical girl and is crying while staring at the reader, my initial though is to run away. But unlike Magical Girl _________ (please fill in the blank with the Madoka Magica clone of your choice), the essential premise of WorldEnd does not seem to be “let’s torture and kill off these empowered girls one by one for the delight of the audience”. Instead this is a much quieter, softer series, at least so far, that shows us the consequences of surviving the apocalypse, and what happens to kids who spend their lives treated as a living weapon when they find out they’ve been doing the weapon thing incorrectly. It’s not for me, but it’s very, very well done.

After a brief prologue where a young man and his not-quite-girlfriend (who calls him Daddy for reasons that make sense in-story but still makes me uncomfortable) debate the cliches of the soldier going out to face their final battle, we get to the meat of the book. Far in the future, humanity is extinct thanks to an attack by some sort of race. In the process, the other races on the planet (elves, dragons, etc.) all became far less powerful, and we’re now at the point where they can’t even live on the surface anymore. So they build a large number of floating islands, and everyone lives up there, dodging (mostly) any attacks by the Beasts living on the surface. Here those with no distinguishing features (like scales, fox ears, etc.) are treated poorly as they remind the others of humanity. Our hero is Willem, one of those people, who is hired to be the overseer of a bunch of kids at a facility on the outskirts of the islands. Then we find out who the kids actually are and what they’re supposed to do. Then we find out (though we probably guessed) who Willem really is.

For a series that is not my thing, I have to say that I found this book extremely readable. The prose is well-written and translated, and has some excellent turns of phrase. There is an aura of melancholy over the entire book, but that doesn’t stop it from having moments of humor. The kids are cute, and I really like the troll who is their other overseer/team mom. Willem himself is that sort of “deliberately oblivious to others’ feelings” sort, but this is called out right away – in fact, the book deconstructs a lot of the wartime cliches that you’ve read about before. And I liked Chthollly’s journey as well, as she is taught for the first time to NOT WANT TO FIGHT, but goes to fight anyway. The result of the battle is unknown at the end of the first book, but the result is not the point.

It wasn’t really till the epilogue that I realized that, despite how well-written the book was, I was not going to read more. It’s just not my kind of series. But if you don’t mind a book that screams “I will be beautifully tragic”, then I absolutely recommend WorldEnd, which has good depth of characterization and a nice style. You want to see these broken girls and their broken caretaker succeed.

Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General, Vol. 1

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By jin. Released in Japan as “Zannen Onna-Kanbu Black General-san” by Fujimi Shobo, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dragon Age. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Timothy MacKenzie. Adapted by T Campbell.

Sometimes, when reading a manga title, you’re looking for something well-crafted, with gorgeous art, sophistication, and character development. Something that will not only entertain you but make you think. And then there are those other times. Times when you look at the reading pile and say “I need something obnoxiously loud and over the top”. If it’s the latter you’re after, I’m pleased to tell you that Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General is right up your alley. Another in a current trend of Western Superheroes done in a Japanese manga way titles, Miss Black General will not win any points for subtlety, and you need to be prepared for a lot of sexual innuendo. But I found myself laughing far more than I expected throughout this tale of a desperate young fangirl who has joined the side of the villains so that she can have the hero she idolizes force her to submit.

Our “heroine’, who I don’t think is ever actually named, is part of a rather pathetic organization of evil, headed up by a masked leader and his Riza-Hawkeye-esque assistant. She also has three interchangeably faceless minions to help with her schemes, and later on they pick up an eccentric mad scientist who you can tell is eccentric as she has those thick spiral glasses that manga artists love to give “nerd” characters. Together, they are there to take over the world! Sort of. In fact, most of Miss Black General’s plans seem to involve confronting the local hero, Braveman, and embarrassing the hell out of him. She’s his biggest fan (indeed, at the end of the book we see her bedroom and the narrative calls her a “shameless otaku”, and seems to be doing this half-hoping he’ll end up doing something inappropriate. He never does, despite her informing Braveman that she’s a virgin and despite her impressive figure. But that’s OK, there are still battles to win and evil to spread! Except the problem is that even without Braveman around to leer over, she’s still a bad villain.

It should not be particularly surprising that I enjoyed this, given its similarity to another series I adore, Excel Saga. I doubt that Miss Black General will ever get the depth that Excel had at her best moments, but that’s fine. The way she acts and reacts to things is funny. There’s also Braveman, who is absolutely nothing like a certain DC Comics-copyrighted character, thank you very much. Supposedly a stolid hero of justice, you get the feeling he started to dress as a hero so he could stop being arrested by police – he has the face of a thug, and whenever he’s out of uniform he ends up in trouble. There’s no real plot development to speak of aside from the organization recruiting the mad scientist midway through the book. We do see Braveman and Miss Black General meet each other out of uniform, but neither recognizes the other. But that’s fine, we’re here for gags.

This isn’t exactly Hamlet, as I indicated above. But god, it’s big dumb fun, and I want to read more volumes of the ludicrous Black General and her attempts to defeat/woo the stiff, long-suffering Braveman. Recommended.

Bookshelf Briefs 7/30/18

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Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, Vol. 2 | By Inio Asano | Viz Media – If the sight of Oran’s drooling face on the cover of this volume doesn’t inform you that this is one of those weird manga titles, nothing will. That said, for a manga about aliens infiltrating the Earth, and the Earth’s rather violent response to this, there’s a lot that’s grounded in reality here. The gang’s friend Kiho is dating a guy, which puts her on the outs with the rest of her (single) friends, and also causes friction when her boyfriend turns out to be a bit fond of conspiracy theories. Possibly my favorite scene in the volume is when the girls all go to their friend Ai’s house and met her four identical siblings… and one goth guy who calls himself the Black Knight, which meets Oran’s immediate approval. A lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 3 | By Afro | Yen Press – We’re still working on the characterization of anyone not named Nadeshiko or Rin, but for the most part the third volume will please readers who enjoyed the first two, as it combines chatter about camping with the camping itself—though honestly, Rin’s driving to get to the camp ends up occupying most of the time. Sadly, a trip with Nadeshiko is turned into a solo trip because she gets a cold, but on the bright side we may finally be luring Rin’s eccentric friend Ena to go along on the next trip. The long-term plotline seems to be to get Rin to be interested in camping with other people… but it’s certainly a long term project, as we’re three volumes in and we haven’t seen a group effort yet. Next time? – Sean Gaffney

My Boy, Vol. 2 | By Hitomi Takano | Vertical Comics – As with the previous volume, I recommend skipping the afterword. If you do, then My Boy continues to be a touching story of a young woman who’s got a newfound family in a young neglected boy. The problem here is that Mashuu already HAS a father and brother, and her hanging around with him all the time is inevitably going to be seen as creepy at best. One scene, where Mashuu can’t contact his brother, has Satoko going into his home and the entire scene has you holding your breath waiting for something horrible to happen. It still, may, in fact, especially now that her coworker is noticing the attention she’s giving Mashuu. I don’t like him. The manga is very good, though, and so far is avoiding obvious pitfalls. – Sean Gaffney

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, Vol. 2 | By Yu Tomofuji | Yen Press – We return to the adventures of the most earnest sacrificial princess ever. Last time I mentioned that I felt the author might have grown up reading Fruits Basket, and that feeling hasn’t gone away—Sariphi isn’t quite as shiny as Tohru, but she still tends to try to overdo it in order to avoid disappointing anyone. In this case, though, it almost leads to her death. Fortunately, she’s gaining more allies in this book, as we meet her friend Amit, an alligator woman with a big heart, and the phoenix she summons, which is both adorable and hilarious—he needs to be animated so that I can hear his accent. Shoujo fans will enjoy this cute fantasy romance. – Sean Gaffney

School of Horns, Vol. 1 | By Mito Aoi | Yen Press – We’ve seen an endless amount of magical academies in the last few years, but there’s always room for more. This one has students divided up based on the horns they have on their heads—each type determines the magic. Our hero is half-human, so his horns are smaller than the other students (does this remind you of anything?), but in addition his powers seem to mess with others, meaning he’s a strange fifth type of magic user. Yes, it’s the old “bullied kid ends up being the really special one” story, but the main reason to read this is the slowly developing relationship between Eru and Rihito, who are sort of Deku and Todoroki-esque. This didn’t reach out and grab me, but it’s certainly pleasant enough. – Sean Gaffney

Shojo FIGHT!, Vol. 4 | By Yoko Nihonbashi | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – The fallout from the Kokuyodani team’s participation in volleybetting is going to be long-lasting, it seems. Part of their punishment involves living at the school for a month and undergoing intense training (including fasting, which supposedly “cures any illness”) and practice games against teams that believe the worst rumors. After one of these, Neri has a major attack of the angst and runs off, but after a good talk (and more!) with Shigeru, she seems finally on the verge of overcoming her past trauma, and actually tells Inugami and Odagiri what happened with her old teammates and lets herself enjoy volleyball again. And now that she seems to be on the road to better mental health, there’s enough time to give several other characters a bit more fleshing out in this volume, which is very welcome. I really enjoy this series. – Michelle Smith

Takane & Hana, Vol. 4 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – There’s a lot less snarking in this book, but maybe I’m getting used to the fact that this is never going to match the hilarity of its start. What it does do is develop both the plot and characters—Hana is not quite ready to admit she has romantic feelings for Takane, but she’s getting there. Meanwhile there’s a new secretary at Takane’s business whose job it is to try to break them up—unfortunately, he’s a nice guy at heart, and his heart isn’t really into this, especially when Hana does not back down immediately. And lest you forget that Hana is in high school (and believe me, that is the premise), there’s a culture festival! Maids! Butlers! Cross-dressing! And Takane, being a giant ass. Which is what I’m here for. – Sean Gaffney

Toriko, Vol. 43 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – Toriko has finished, and it goes out the same way it’s always been—the food love is so much more interesting than the fighting. The first half of the book wraps up the fighting, including even giving the hapless Zongeh a part to play, but honestly I was ready to skip to the back half, where Toriko and his friends indulge in his Full-Course Meal, all prepared by Komatsu and HIS friends. There is also Toriko and Rin’s wedding, but again, I wonder if that was suggested by editorial fiat to avoid having the series seem too gay—the manga is all about the relationship between Toriko and Komatsu, and everything else is secondary. In the final pages, they even go off on a sort of honeymoon together. In space. – Sean Gaffney

Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty, Vol. 5 | By Megumi Morino | Kodansha Comics – Having whisked Shizu away from the hospital, Tetsu heads for his grandfather’s place by the beach, whereupon many revelations ensue. There’s a lot here that I didn’t expect to learn until the next (and final) volume, including the truth of what happened to Tetsu’s mom and why he’s been so desperate to earn money. What’s even better is that not only do readers learn these things, but so do Tetsu’s father and sisters, and everyone resolves to work harder as a family so that no one member feels the need to sacrifice everything for the sake of the others. There is one thing they don’t know, though, and it was such a great surprise that it makes me want to reread earlier volumes for hints. I’ll miss this series once it’s gone, but I bet the conclusion will be great. – Michelle Smith

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, Vol. 3 | By Tadahiro Miura | Seven Seas – This continues to be a title that you should only read if you are a teenage boy in search of something to get you horny. That said, I’m not that market at all, and I’m still reading it. I think it’s simply that compared to other series in this genre, I find it more tolerable—especially its lead, who continues to not be the standard Keitaro clone who plagues this sort of title. In fact, most of the girls spend more time fondling each other than they do the lead—and no, that doesn’t mean there’s any hints of yuri. These girls all want Kogarashi. But as with my last review, I will admit that Yuuna is a good series for those who want harmless comedic fun and like huge breasts. – Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Wandering Off the Map

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MICHELLE: There’s not much on the manga front this week that really calls to me, so instead I’ll devote my pick to a charming graphic novel that came out a couple weeks ago. The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins is adapted from a great podcast in which three brothers play Dungeons & Dragons with their dad. The graphic novel cuts out most of the out-of-character interaction and presents as more of a straightforward fantasy story, but with loads of jokes (and profanity). Also, it’s the first graphic novel to score the #1 position on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction list! Check it out, won’t you?

KATE: I’m with Michelle: this week’s manga list is just not ringing my bell. So I’ll use today’s column to shamelessly plug one of my favorite ongoing series, Hiromu Arakawa’s Silver Spoon. It’s funny, wise, and surprisingly serious at times, but so well done that you will laugh AND cry at least once per volume. The first three volumes are available right now, giving you a chance to catch up before volume four arrives in August. Not convinced? Here’s what I had to say about volume one.

SEAN: I will stick with the actual list, but I’ll go with prose this time around. I keep waiting for it to get so dark I lose interest, but through the last two volumes, The Saga of Tanya the Evil has proven to be an excellent, if very long, read. I look forward to the third novel.

ASH: While I certainly have plenty of reading to catch up on, it is an extremely rare week that there isn’t at least one release I’m looking forward to getting my hands on. This week that release is the most recent omnibus of I Am a Hero. Even having grown tired of the inundation of zombie media, I still find this series to be one heck of a ride.

ANNA: There isn’t much coming out this week that I’m interested in, which is good, as I’m going to use the time to get caught up on my reading. One recent release that is non-manga that I think is cool is Viz getting into translated amigurumi books! San-X Crochet Patterns is my pick.

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 18

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Eita Mizuno. Released in Japan in three separate volumes as “Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Requiem of the Golden Witch” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Last time we finally got the answer to the riddle of the Epitaph, as well as the revelation of who Beatrice is, though that answer required jumping through a few hoops to avoid showing us a face. For the conclusion of this penultimate arc, however, the answers come fast and furious. In fact, one complaint of the audience that had read the original visual novels is that they’re a bit too much like looking at the answer sheet. When Clair and Will face off, we get her declarations, and we see his sword bluntly cutting them off. But the floating words literally stating what happened in the first four arcs was added to the manga especially. Apparently fans had started to get a bit over the top about how there was no real answer to the arcs, and this was Ryukishi07’s response (he worked closely with the mangaka for the last two arcs especially). And here we also find out the truth of what REALLY happened in 1986. Though, like Ange, I don’t think you’re going to like it.

One of the things that was made very clear was that Kinzo’s magic was money. Money is what has the power to make miracles. And so the solution to what really happens, once you realize that the parents actually put their heads together and all solved the epitaph together, is depressingly obvious. What’s more, it mirrors some of the battles in the prior arcs. Jessica’s fistfights against Kyrie and Ronove contrast with her pathetic demise here, having her face literally being beaten to a pulp. (There’s always a gore warning for Umineko, by the way, but this volume is particularly bad.) Natsuhi also doesn’t get a chance to fight back, and her death starts the chain of everyone else’s. As for the identity of the culprit, I’ll avoid mentioning it here, but I will say that we discover, as the reader was well aware, that Bernkastel’s goal is to see everyone suffer for her own entertainment, and given who she’s been “helping” for so long, you can probably hazard a guess. That said, I’m not sure EVERYTHING we see is exactly what happened. There’s a conversation between two characters about Ange that seems a bit too on the nose to not be “dialogue provided by Bernkastel”, to be honest.

Even Lion doesn’t manage to escape Bern’s mass slaughter, as Bern reveals that even in the ONE universe where Lion exists, their fate is also preordained. That said, three cheers for Will, who says what we all want to hear: mysteries that just end unhappily for everyone are not fun to read. Will is there to bring the reader hope, even if it means losing an arm and fighting along with Lion against Bern and her nightmarish army of cats. (Lambdadelta is there too, but honestly she’s more a passive audience member than anything else. She enjoys it, but it’s all Bernkastel’s show.) But still… we’ve got one big arc to go. We know what really happened in 1986. Is there any way to give Ange a happy ending in 1998? Bern says no, and she says it in red, so it’s going to be tough. (I recommend the digital version for that page, by the way, as the color red is actually used for the statement, and it gives it a lot of impact.)

Clearly the answer, however, is not to take the opposite tack either. We should not see an arc that shows us how everything was all happiness, sunshine and rainbows in 1986, not after everything we’ve seen involving the Ushiromiya family. But there’s no way anyone’s motivations would be that misguided. Right? Tune in next time for Twilight of the Golden Witch, aka “don’t mention this arc in the presence of an Umineko fan”. Same time, same publisher!

Manga the Week of 8/1/18

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SEAN: Remember, it’s not really August 1st but July 32nd! Treat this as a 5th week, which means expect oddball stuff.

ASH: I rather appreciate oddball stuff.

ANNA: Maybe time to make a dent into my unread manga piles!

SEAN: Cross Infinite World has another debut. Despite not being your “standard” light novel, it’s a mouthful. Dawn of the Mapmaker: The Surveyor Girl and the Forbidden Knowledge.

Dark Horse gives us a 7th omnibus of I Am A Hero.

ASH: This is such an intense series!

SEAN: Kodansha Comics is pleased to announce that finally, after nineteen months, thanks to the sacrifice of twenty-thousand Kodansha editors who valiantly gave their lives so that you, the reader, might experience it, we finally have the 5th and final omnibus of Attack on Titan Junior High. (salutes, cries)

ASH: Indeed, a great achievement.

SEAN: In other Kodansha print titles, we have the Attack on Titan Season 2 Box set, the 8th Clockwork Planet manga, a 5th volume of Ninja Slayer KILLS!, and the 14th UQ Holder.

Perhaps sensing the market begging for mercy, Kodansha has only one digital title this week, another debut: The Prince’s Romance Gambit. Not to be confused with The Prince’s Black Poison, I’ve heard this title (which ran in Aria, then Nakayoshi – or possibly the other way around) is very silly.

MICHELLE: Hm. Better silly than cringey, I suppose.

ANNA: Glad there are no new digital titles I want to read since there are so many digital titles I haven’t read!

SEAN: Seven Seas’ new debut is also very silly: Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General. This runs in Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Age, always a strike against a new title for me, but I found its attempts to be ecchi fairly harmless. At heart this title would rather be ridiculous. Also, that’s totally not Batman. You must be imagining things.

They also have a 7th Dreamin’ Sun, the 3rd Made in Abyss, the 3rd Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka (which just got an anime announcement), the 10th Non Non Biyori, The Testament of Sister New Devil 9, and a print release of the 3rd Occultic;Nine novel which J-Novel Club already released.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Dreamin’ Sun. It’s been a little while.

ASH: I really like this J-Novel Club/Seven Seas partnership.

SEAN: Yen Digital has a couple ongoing series, with the 16th Saki and the 17th Sekirei.

They also have three light novels, one of which is a debut. The title – and I am not making this up – is WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?. A human is the sole survivor of an apocalyptic future. There’s various new races around, but they don’t need him. And when he joins the military he finds they’re training girl fairies as weapons. I’ll be honest, this sounds FAR too dark for me, but we shall see.

There’s also The Saga of Tanya the Evil 3 (also fairly dark) and So I’m a Spider, So What? 3 (not quite as dark).

Does this interest you? Or is there simply too much manga still?

ASH: Never too much! Mwahaha!

ANNA: There is, indeed, a lot.

Fruits Basket another, Vol. 1

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By Natsuki Takaya. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Alethea and Athena Nibley.

There are some stories that cry out for sequels, leaving loose ends and plotlines that would easily carry a new series forward with exciting, fresh ideas. Then there are series that ended nearly perfectly, with pretty much everything resolved, and the idea of a sequel fills you with foreboding and a sense that it’s going to ruin the franchise. Such a series, I’m afraid, it’s Fruits Basket another, the next-generation sequel to one of the most beloved manga of all time. Note I said next-gen: apart from one or two minor characters in small roles (Hanajima’s brother is a teacher, for example), don’t expect any of the original cast in this first volume. Instead we see the sons and daughters of Sohma, who are blissfully not cursed, happy and content, and living the good life at the same high school their parents went to. There’s even a Sohma fan club run by the daughter of the Yuki fan club president. Into this lovely arrangement comes Sawa, our heroine.

The late, lamented Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei introduced a girl named Ai Kaga, who thinks everything that she does is a bother to someone else and makes her feel tremendous guilt. It’s meant to be a parody. That said, if you took Ai and made her 100% serious, you’d come close to Sawa in this first volume. Sawa lives alone with her mother, whose absence is hinted to veer towards actual neglect. She suffers from amazingly low self-esteem, not helped by various childhood incidents that have only reinforced it. Now she’s in high school, but she’s late her first day because her landlord yelled at her for something that’s her mother’s fault. If Tohru was a ray of sunshine and hope into everyone’s lives, then Sawa is a black cloud floating overhead. Fortunately, she soon runs into Mutsuki and Hajime Sohma, the sons of Yuki and Kyo respectively. Soon she’s blackmailed into being on the Student Council and hanging out with more and more Sohmas, incurring the wrath of the girls of the school even as she wonders “why her?”.

The biggest question I have with this series is “why was it written?”. No, seriously. What new story needed to be told here beyond “oh look, Sohma kids!”? If Fruits Basket sometimes felt a bit like “every new Sohma gets to reveal their backstory and angst before being healed by the power of Tohru”, this is meant to be the exact opposite – despite the occasional stab at Mutsuki and Hajime having a “rivalry”, the fact is that the next-gen Sohmas are happy and content. Which is good, y’know, because we don’t exactly want to Fruits Basket main characters to be horrible parents, but it’s also fairly boring. As for Sawa, you can tell that Takaya is trying not to simply write Tohru Mk. 2, but her self-hatred really is through the roof – she’s not plucky like Tohru (or, for that matter, Sakuya and Liselotte) and so she simply grates.

There is a hint in the cliffhanger ending that we may see a Sohma who is not happy and content (Shigure and Akito’s kid – gosh, what a surprise), but for the most part the first volume of Fruits Basket another commits the cardinal sin of being deadly boring. And while normally I wouldn’t be pissed off about that sort of thing, the fact that it’s a sequel to one of my favorite shoujo series AND it’s also put Liselotte & Witch’s Forest (which I’d rather be reading) on hiatus just makes me more annoyed. If you loved the original Fruits Basket, preserve your memories and give this half-baked sequel a miss.

The Voynich Hotel, Vol. 1

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By Douman Seiman. Released in Japan by Akita Shoten, serialized in the magazine Young Champion Retsu. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Alethea & Athena Nibley. Adapted by David Lumsdon.

I had heard buzz about The Voynich Hotel before it was licensed, mostly that it was dark and funny. Weird probably also came up, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I probably should have been. Before it is dark or funny (though it is both of those things), The Voynich Hotel is STRANGE. A lot of the time it’s content to be a mild gag comic about the staff and residents of a hotel in the South Pacific, but then people start getting killed, or selling drugs, or investigating the secret legend of the three sisters from this island’s past (one of whom seems very familiar). And in amongst this we manage to have the start of a vaguely sweet romance between a guest who’s hiding from… something, and one of the maids, who is cute and innocent and one of those is a lie. I’m not even sure where this series is going, save the fact that I suspect there will be more deaths soon.

Our hero is Taizou, a Japanese man who arrives at the hotel hiding from his old way of life. He ends up passing out, but is taken care of by the two maids who run the day-to-day affairs of the hotel: Helena is cute and spunky and excitable and also Maria from Zetsubou-sensei, and Berna is stoic and deadpan also also a Rei Ayanami clone. The cook is trying to kill herself and anyone else she can get to go with her, the owner wears a Mexican wrestling mask, and the residents are equally eccentric – you might say the manga artist was normal, except he’s trying to write a manga and make deadlines while living on this island. There’s also an assassin, and three more arrive during the course of the first book. The assassins are mostly what drive what there is of a plot, but for the most part you’re here to see weird people be funny.

Fortunately, I found it very funny, though you’ll need to set your sense of humor dial to ‘sick’. Leaving aside all the deaths, I have to say that Berna’s ringtone grossed me out but also had me in hysterics – let’s leave it at that. There are also a lot of “shout out” references in this volume, most of them blatant. Helena takes Taizou’s temperature with her head, which he says is so cliched even Mitsuru Adachi wouldn’t do that anymore… wait, no, he would. The police officers who parody Isaac Azimov’s Bailey and Olivaw are also a hoot, though they remind me that Seven Seas has once again rated this series T when it clearly isn’t – there’s no nudity, but reader beware. Possibly the strangest thing in the book, though, is that Taizou and Helena’s growing relationship is rather sweet – well, once she puts on a different shirt, that is.

The Voynich Hotel was very popular scanlated, so I worry that it will suffer the fate of other popular scanlated series licensed over here (I’m looking at you, Franken Fran). It requires a strong stomach at times, but the skewed tone of this series tickled me, and at only three volumes, I’m quite willing to read more.