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Sean Gaffney

Chihayafuru, Vol. 4

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By Yuki Suetsugu. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Be Love. Released in North America digitally by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Ko Ransom.

The sign of a good series is that you care about the characters as if they were real people, and take joy in their triumphs and grieve at their setbacks. This can sometimes backfire, however, when you see the setbacks coming and think to yourself “Oh noooooo!”. The moment I saw Chihaya’s head throb, I knew immediately what was going to happen by the end of the volume, and it hurt. This is why this review is running somewhat late, because I really did not want to read what I knew was going to happen. It comes after a half volume of small triumphs and achievements, as they quality for the National Tournament, win over their faculty adviser, and slowly come together as a team, each character getting a little bit more to do and more for us to identify with. Then I saw that throbbing head. And I said “…she’s sick.” And yep. SO FRUSTRATING.

Arata gets the cover this time around, and fortunately also gets a chunk of the narrative, as we get to see the strong relationship he had with his grandfather from his POV, helping to explain why he was so devastated he abandoned Karuta. It’s portrayed very realistically: his grandfather is a vibrant, active guy who loves Karuta, but then he has a stroke, which brings memory loss and rehabilitation. And of course, this being a manga and thus obliged to observe the occasional cliche, he goes to the tournament and leaves his grandfather alone for a few hours. We all know how that’s going to turn out. It really helps bring Arata into focus and remind us that he is eventually going to be a major player in this series again, and I imagine seeing Chihaya and company here will act as a catalyst.

As for Chihaya, she does her best, and tries hard to hide her illness form everyone, but in the end they have to forfeit after she collapses. Naturally, after waking back up, she’s completely devastated, and I suspect Vol. 5 is going to have a lot of depression and self-hatred. We’ve been seeing a lot of sports titles over here lately, and usually when there’s something like this it’s a physical injury, such as a sprained ankle or somesuch. Of course, they usually deal with physical sports such as basketball or volleyball. When you have something like Karuta, which is a lot more physical than I expected but still played seated and relying primarily on memorization and strategy, a fever or nasty cold can be just as bad as that sprained ankle. It’s to the credit of the team that they kept playing after she had to forfeit, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ll pick up after the tournament and deal with the fallout.

Chihayafuru remains one of the best digital titles Kodansha is releasing at the moment, and I hope my review of Vol. 5 (already out) will come sooner rather than later.

The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains

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By Kanata Yanagino and Kususaga Rin. Released in Japan as “Saihate no Paladin” by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by James Rushton.

I’m reviewing this as one giant book, but it actually came out as two books here, called ‘Primus’ and ‘Secundus’ – in fact, Amazon thinks that those are the titles, and forgot about the whole Rust Mountains thing. It works better to see them as one big book, though, which is what the author intended. The first volume simply stops, and the second picks up right where it left off – there’s no real attempt to separate them. As for the plot, our square-jawed hero and his elf friend are here to take down an ancient dragon, helped out by some old friends and some new dwarves, including one who becomes Williams’s squire, despite being of royal blood. He is told repeatedly that if he fights the dragon now he will die, and he should gain more power and influence by letting a few people be killed so he can take it down more easily. As you might imagine, that is not how William rolls.

William is the star of this series, and the narrative fits itself around him, meaning it too tends to be like he is – straightforward, a bit humorless, and painfully, PAINFULLY earnest. This is actually the main selling point of The Faraway Paladin, which is miles away from any other fantasy light novel we have out there – there’s not an ounce of cynicism or irony in it. William is Good and True, and he can do impossible things thanks to the help of his friends, the training of his parents, and MUSCLES, which he points out are awesome several times throughout the book. The closest we get to cynicism is the villain, who is a very well-done ancient dragon, and would very much like to tempt William into allying with him to that he can sow chaos. He should know better.

The book reads quickly, and the action sequences are very well done, with no confusion about what is happening at any time. I was a little annoyed with the introduction of a tsundere elf girl, whose sole purpose seems to be to get rid of the ho yay that existed between William and Menel (there’s a lot of teasing of William for not having found a girlfriend yet, further driving the point home). Al is a good addition to the cast – it fits that someone like William gets a squire that’s almost as serious-minded as he is, and the two work well together. The translation is also good, though the Kindle version I have has both the dragon and the Gods speaking in bold text, which can get very confusing when three of them are all speaking at once – perhaps one should have been italicized instead.

Again, if you want to read a light novel but are thoroughly sick of the cliches of the genre, this is an absolute must-read. It’s the Lord of the Rings starring Superman, basically. I look forward to seeing where it goes next.

Pick of the Week: Autumn Manga

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MICHELLE: Although it technically came out last week, it wasn’t really on my radar ’til this week, so I’m going to go with Kokkoku: Moment by Moment. I don’t read a lot of seinen thrillers, and this one sounds interesting!

SEAN: I’ve always been a big fan of Nichijou, so my pick this week will be the Bold volume of Helvetica Standard. Will it be strange? I hope it’s strange.

KATE: With Halloween right around the corner, my vote goes to Until Your Bones Rot (Hone ga Kusaru Made); it sounds a little like I Know What You Did Last Summer, only nastier. I’m not sure if Kodansha will be releasing it on Tuesday, though, since Amazon and ComiXology seem to have scrubbed all references to the series from their pages.

ASH: There’s not a lot coming out this week that I’m actively following, but I did enjoy the first half of Assassin’s Creed: Awakening and am curious to see how it ends. (I was initially drawn to the manga due to the involvement of Kenji Oiwa who was also the artist of the manga adaptation of Otsuichi’s Goth, which may be even more seasonally appropriate.)

ANNA: It is my known tendency to go for whatever happens to be light and fluffy shoujo and I’m not going to stray from tradition. My pick is the second volume of Beasts of Abigaile, because I feel it is important to celebrate the month of October with reverse harem werewolf manga.

Bookshelf Briefs 10/16/17

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Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 5 | By Yuji Terajima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – It’s been a while since the last volume of Ace of the Diamond and I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it! Eijun, who began the series as a hothead, has matured without losing the emotional side that makes him sympathetic. Seeing him not only grow from Chris’ tutelage and execute one truly amazing pitch during their last inning of play together but then bawl his eyes out when he makes varsity and Chris doesn’t is, honestly, pretty darn sweet. He may be brash, but he’s a good kid. Even better, we get more insight into Furuya, who is currently stronger in pitching but lacks in people skills. I love that he doesn’t see himself as better than Eijun at all and is, in fact, motivated by him to try harder. This is such a good series and I delight in the knowledge that there are 40+ volumes still to come. – Michelle Smith

Chihayafuru, Vol. 5 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Well, this volume is lacking on miracles, as the Mizusawa High team makes it only a couple more rounds without Chihaya (who has fallen ill) before they are defeated. Still, there’s another day for the individual tournament, and it’s here that Chihaya meets the reigning queen, Shinobu Wakamiya, a high-school first year who trounces Chihaya by a twenty-card margin. This is completely what Chihaya needs, though, since now her dreams have achieved a solid shape: do what it takes to beat Shinobu. Taichi, meanwhile, is determined to attain his class A ranking so that he can face Arata. I absolutely love that he’s decided to devote his entire self to karuta now and look forward to all of the intense rivalty to come! – Michelle Smith

Descending Stories, Vol. 3 | By Haruko Kumota | Kodansha Comics – OK, there are extended flashbacks, and then there are flashbacks that make you think “why didn’t you just tell this story instead?,” and I think that’s what we have here. Don’t get me wrong; I’m greatly enjoying Kikuhiko and Sukeroku’s story, and the love triangle that seems to be bubbling beneath them both. I also liked the extended rakugo performance we saw here, a reminder that that’s really what the series is about. But I admit I sort of agreed with Yotaro in the afterword—isn’t this his story? I wouldn’t blame the reader for having forgotten all about him by the time we get back to the present in what I assume will be the next book. Good, just oddly paced. – Sean Gaffney

Flying Witch, Vol. 3 | By Chihiro Ishizuka | Vertical Comics – I have to admire a series that is always peaceful and soothing, yet not boring. In this volume Makoto and her cousins visit a cafe recommended by Akane, where the waitress is a shy ghost and where Makoto meets a witch her age named Anzu. She receives a hideous souvenir t-shirt from Akane, shows Nao cute edamame blossoms, and picks a plethora of radishes. A witchy newspaper delivers news about a flying whale, which the girls go see. Then they leave when they get hungry and go home to have hotcakes. And that’s it. Makoto can’t even summon any worries to ask about during a fortune-telling session. But, y’know, I’m okay with that. Plus, there are cute cats, one of which turns out to be an anthropology buff. There are times I’m definitely in the mood for manga like this. – Michelle Smith

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 20 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – Erina gets the cover here, and the bulk of the story as well. We’re finally starting to dig deep into her psyche, after so many volumes casting her as cold, grumpy, annoying, and unlikable. It stems from abuse, naturally, and also being exposed to Soma’s father, who showed her there was a different way to view food. That said, I suspect most Food Wars! fans have said “too little too late,” but that will just lead them to heartache. Meanwhile, to no one’s surprise, Soma did not win against the top chef of the school, but it’s alright as he gets out of his punishment on a technicality. Now we head to the next set of exams, and if you don’t do things the Azami way, you’ll be expelled. So now what? Can’t wait to find out. – Sean Gaffney

Giant Killing, Vol. 6 | By Masaya Tsunamoto and Tsujitomo | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – ETU has managed their first win of the season, and the fans are fired up. They manage to extend the streak to two games, but Sera is growing frustrated with his inability to score and his journey from self-doubt to determination progresses throughout the volume. Meanwhile, the old faithful trope “the previously unmentioned injured teammate returns” comes into play, with oddball Natsumi making his debut. It’s interesting to see a tried-and-true sports manga staple alongside the elements that make Giant Killing stand out from others in its genre, namely that a pro soccer season is way different from elimination-style tournaments, allowing the narrative to swiftly hop from match to match, sometimes skipping a few, as Tatsumi assesses the team’s mood after a series of draws. As a result, this series continues to feel fresh. – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 16 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – Karasuno has reached the semifinal round of the Miyagi Prefecture qualifier and it’s a rematch with Aoba Johsai, which turns out to be an immensely entertaining nail-biter that goes to three sets. Hinata and Kageyama potentially discover a new move they can work on in the future, each member of the team gets a triumphant moment, and Yamaguchi overcomes his nerves to achieve his first success with the jump floater serve. I always love it when characters who’d been somewhat in the background get their turn to shine, and I also loved that we actually got to see some interaction and evolution amongst the Aoba Johsai team, making one even root for them a little bit. Be forewarned, though: there’s an excruciating cliffhanger at the end of this volume! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 16 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – After seeing Yamaguchi choke under pressure last game, the highlight of this book is undoubtedly the start of it, where he manages to push past that failure and show off the serving that he’s learned—and it’s terrific. As for the rest, it’s back and forth and down to the wire, as we knew it would be. Aoba Johsai are really good, and we get a few flashbacks to show us that they’ve had their own ups and downs just like our heroes—including a player who tends to get FILLED WITH RAGE who desperately needs discipline, and manages to do it himself here. And of course loving shots of volleyball, which you can tell the author really loves. Looks like well see the end next time—who will pull it off? -Sean Gaffney

Juni Taisen: Zodiac War

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By NISIOISIN and Hikaru Nakamura. Released in Japan by Shueisha. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Nathan A. Collins.

I wasn’t sure what to make of this when I first heard of it, and now that I’ve finished it, I’m still not quite sure. It was written two years ago, and the anime is just coming out now, so it seems like it wasn’t written solely to be a TV tie-in (Nisio has done those before, writing books in the Death Note and xxxHOLIC franchises). But honestly, it doesn’t have the same strong authorial voice that I’ve grown used to from the Monogatari and Zaregoto series – if nothing else, it has far fewer puns. If I’m going to be honest it feels like it’s a book that was written because a bit of cash was needed, and someone said “can you write us a battle royale-style book that we could potentially use later?”. Even Nakamura’s illustrations are a bit disappointing, as they’re basically just character design – if you’ve seen the cover, you’ve seen the illustrations.

That said, this isn’t that bad a book, and it gets better as it goes along. As I mentioned, the plot is essentially a Battle Royale, as 12 fighters of various types and backgrounds, all seemingly connected with the Chinese Zodiac, have been brought together to fight each other to the death, with the last one standing getting anything they wish. At first it seems like the morality discussions we get, both via internal monologue and external dialogue, are merely padding while we wait for the battles, but as the book goes on it becomes clearer that the battles are padding for the morality discussion. This should not be a surprise, given this author – even in this book, which does not feature too many incredibly talkative people, there’s still a lot of discussion about the nature of good and evil, and what it means to be a good person.

The nature of the series means that even talking about what a character says towards the end of the book can be spoiling, given it’s a ‘kill someone off every chapter’ sort of book. I will say that it’s exactly as advertised – the start of the book said 11 of the 12 would end up dead, and sure enough, that’s what happens. This includes the worst of the bad guys and the most sympathetic of the good guys. It does seem to indicate that, while wars are bad, pacifism is not necessarily the best ideal you can strive for – one of the characters, Monkey, reminds me an awful lot of Tsubasa Hanekawa, and that may be intentional. My favorite chapters were towards the end, as two of the better fleshed-out fighters discuss doing the right thing, and it’s the only time in the book you actually want to see more than one person survive – for the most part, these aren’t nice people.

Watchers of the anime will likely get even more out of this series – Nisio gave each fighter a one-page “biography” in the book, but the anime is expanding said biography to give a lot more backstory to everyone. Likewise, there’s a sequel manga running at the moment in Jump, which I believe Viz has also licensed. And they just announced a sequel novel to this book, with (presumably) a new cast. So in the end maybe this was meant to be work-for-hire to create a franchise. Still, it’s not without interest.

Manga the Week of 10/18/17

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SEAN: There’s a little something for everyone next week, though let’s start with something announced too late to be on last week’s list.

Kodansha continues to defy me, so their new digital release is already out: Kokkoku: Moment by Moment, an award-nominated thriller that ran in Morning Two. Seems to feature time stopping?

MICHELLE: This one looks pretty interesting!

MJ: This is the one thing on this week’s list that possibly interests me.

ANNA: I agree, I am intrigued by this title.

ASH: It does seem to have great potential!

SEAN: In titles actually out next week, J-Novel Club has the 4th volume of the runaway hit (at least comparatively) How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom.

Back to Kodansha, which has a whole pile of ongoing digital: new volumes of Hotaru’s Way (4), House of the Sun (8), Kasane (6), and Peach Heaven (7).

MICHELLE: I am slowly working through House of the Sun and it’s growing on me.

SEAN: They’ve also got some ongoing print, with a new Inuyashiki (9) and Nekogahara: Stray Cat Samurai (3).

ASH: I’ve fallen behind on both of these series, but I did get a kick out of the first volume of Nekogahara.

SEAN: Their new digital release next week is Until Your Bones Rot (Hone ga Kusaru Made), a disturbing series that was originally run on MangaBox. Seems to be horror?

ASH: I’m always ready for more good horror manga.

SEAN: One Peace has a 9th volume of The Rise of the Shield Hero. Will his fall come soon?

Seven Seas gives us a 2nd Beasts of Abigaile, whose first volume I seem to recall I found intriguing, and a 3rd Ghost Diary, which I found slightly less intriguing.

ANNA: I liked the first volume of Beasts of Abigaile and will check out the second. It is fluffy paranormal reverse harem fun!

SEAN: Their debut is another in the Hatsune Miku franchise, called Hachune Miku’s Everyday Vocaloid Paradise. As astute readers might guess by the ‘chu’, it’s a superdeformed comedy title.

Titan has the 2nd, and I believe final, volume of Assassin’s Creed: Awakening.

ASH: It is the conclusion, which surprises me a little; there’s a lot to tie up from the first volume!

Vertical gives us a semi-spinoff of Nichijou, Helvetica Standard, which comes in two volumes. The first, Bold, debuts next week. It seems to be part artbook, part spinoff, part other?

Viz has a 19th Terra Formars, as well as a 9th Ultraman.

And they also debut Tokyo Ghoul: re, which as far as I can tell is more of a continuation of Tokyo Ghoul than a sequel.

So wassamotta for you this week?

Spirit Circle, Vol. 1

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By Satoshi Mizukami. Released in Japan by Shonen Gahosha, serialized in the magazine Young King Ours. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jocelyne Allen, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

I greatly enjoyed Mizukami’s last series to be published over here, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, and so was definitely looking forward to this. The first volume is very much a manga of two halves. In the first half we set up the situation and meet out heroes and find out what grudges they may have against each other. That said, this is also a tale of reincarnation. And so the second half of the manga is seeing Fuuta’s past lives, which are various types of tragic so far, and seeing him grow as he slowly starts to remember things. Being a first volume, I’m unsure whether the bulk of the series will be the war between Fuuta and Kouko or the flashback lives – hopefully it will continue to be somewhat balanced – but it’s off to a pretty good start, and is only six volumes, so is unlikely to wear out its welcome.

Our hero, as seen on the cover, is Fuuta, a nebbish dude who can see spirits. Our heroine is the girl on the BACK cover, Kouko, a new mysterious transfer student ™ who initially seems rather cool and standoffish but once Fuuta gets to know her proves to be much worse. Because after she throws him headfirst down a flight of stairs (as you do), he suddenly finds himself flashing back to his previous lives, reincarnation style. No, they aren’t long-lost soulmates – in fact, long-lost enemies is a better term for it, and in the two lives that we see in this initial volume, Fuuta’s past selves make life miserable for Kouko’s past selves – or in some cases simply kill her outright. Helping the two of them are two ghostly familiars – hers is older and serene, his is the bubble pinkette on the cover.

The familiars are a weak part of the book so far – Juno, the pink girl, seems to fulfill no function Except to be bubbly and cute in a series with two rather dour leads. The strong part of the book are the previous lives – the second one in particular could almost be a different, separate manga, and shows Fuuta’s rather bitter and cynical past self, cursed by the witch he killed (Kouko, of course, who was literally making a medicine to save a village, but hey, witch) and living a rather desolate and depressing life, till he is redeemed to an extent by an abandoned child. I’m not actually sure if Kouko and Fuuta will get set up romantically, by the way – certainly she’s not fond of him right now, and the past lives both seem to hint of a connection to some other girl (who, if she’s in the present, we haven’t seen yet). Indeed, a romance may not be the point of this at all.

This first volume does its job quite well – it’s good, and I want to read the next one. That’s really all you can ask for in a new series.

Bookshelf Briefs 10/9/17

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Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 20 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | VIZ Media – There really was zero chance that Soma’s contest with Eishi Tsukasa would end with Soma becoming the new first seat, but still, I didn’t expect that to fizzle out as much as it did. Thankfully, the rest of the volume makes up for it. I really enjoyed the scene between Erina and Soma in which she a) eats the totally delicious-looking tempura egg rice bowl that he makes and b) comes to completely reject her father’s plans for the homogenization of Totsuki cuisine. It’s great to see her fired up and training other students how to pass Central’s exams. (Also, by the end of volume 20, the cast is only at the end of the second term of their first year. We’ve hopefully got a long run ahead of us!) – Michelle Smith

Flying Witch, Vol. 3 | By Chihiro Ishizuka | Vertical Comics – I was right, the idea that this series has a plot was laughable. Nothing much continues to happen in this third volume, though we do expand the cast a little more with the addition of a secret cafe for supernatural beings, run by a mother/daughter combo and their shy ghost waitress, who is probably the cutest thing in the volume. There’s no real romance to be seen—Kei barely exists in the manga, and when Akane briefly thinks he has a girlfriend, it’s shot down immediately. What people are reading the series for is the cute girls doing magic (sometimes) very peacefully and seeing impressive sights, such as flying whales that resemble ancient civilizations. Flying Witch is a calm oasis, though risks putting you to sleep. – Sean Gaffney

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 2 | By Satoru Noda | Viz Media – The joke I’d heard about this volume was that the manga decided to turn into a foodie series, and there is an awful lot of attention devoted to the preparations of the wild animals that our heroes kill and eat while in the jungle. It also shows off their chemistry, and when we visit Asirpa’s village we find that they are very much in favor of hooking the two of them up. That’s unlikely to happen right away (if at all), though, as Sugimoto decides that it’s unfair to take her away from her loving family and friends and immediately goes out and gets captured and tortured. He’s a self-proclaimed immortal, but that doesn’t mean we can’t graphically show what he goes through, so it’s a foodie manga with a gore warning. Very good, though. – Sean Gaffney

In/Spectre, Vol. 6 | By Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase | Kodansha Comics – I thought this was going to be the final volume, and it does wrap up the novel it’s adapting, but apparently more stories are coming, though I wouldn’t believe Kotoko as to the content. Things wrap up nicely here, with the artist finding new and entertaining ways to show off what is basically a giant internet forum argument and make it a compelling mystery, as well as showing the sordid creepiness that comes from strangers raking over the past of a broken family. Also, the romantic triangle is resolved with no surprises whatsoever—the most interesting girl wins easily. I had a lot of fun reading this series, and am delighted that there will be original stories coming after. – Sean Gaffney

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 25 | By Julietta Suzuki | VIZ Media – Another shoujo manga comes to a close, this one with a more satisfying ending than some, though it be full of fast-forwards. Nanami has been allowed to remain at Mikage Shrine until she finishes high school, and before that time is up she and Tomoe decide to get married while they’re still ayakashi and kami. I’m grateful that one of her friends brought up that getting married as a teenager is not generally a good idea, but I find that I don’t mind it in this case, since they’ve been through so much together. The ending is satisfying and bittersweet, a combination I really appreciate. Too, if you get the limited edition of this volume, it comes with a snazzy hardcover extra including an illustration gallery and a bonus manga! I’ll miss this series, and look forward to reading Suzuki’s next work. – Michelle Smith

Plum Crazy!: Tales of a Tiger-Striped Cat, Vol. 2 | By Natsumi Hoshino | Vertical Comics – Much like Flying Witch, it’s hard to even fill up a Bookshelf Brief with what happens in this volume—cats are cute!—but I’m going to try anyway as it really is a fun series, and Plum is a very sympathetic heroine even as she’s getting bitten and scratched and otherwise pummeled by the tsundere kitten Snowball. You can tell the author is very good at observing cat behavior, both on their own and with groups of humans—the reaction of the kids at the ballet school to “NEW KITTY!” was hilarious. There are a few sweet moments as well, but for the most part this series is going to be a mild tickle to the funnybone, as you smile and nod your head at the wacky cat antics. – Sean Gaffney

Princess Jellyfish, Vol. 6 | By Akiko Higashimura | Kodansha Comics – Most manga is more or less predictable—readers pretty much know what to expect with a sports manga or shoujo romance. Princess Jellyfish is an exception. At the end of the last volume, at which point Kuranosuke was hit hard by the reality of the fashion business, I never would’ve guessed at the place where the characters find themselves at the end of this volume. It’s too good to spoil, really, but I’ll mention the standout moments are Shu delivering Kuranosuke’s dress to his mother in Italy, where we see how much she really does love her son, and a certain character saying to herself, “So this time, I’ll be the one. I have to save everyone.” Reader, I sniffled! I have no idea where this story is going, and that is truly delightful. – Michelle Smith

Welcome to the Ballroom, Vol. 7 | By Tomo Takeuchi | Kodansha Comics – Last time I said that Ballroom‘s fault was that it tended to hammer on the angsty drama a bit too much, and this volumes takes that drama and doubles it. Honestly, it was pretty hard for me to plow through, particularly the first half. I really enjoy watching the dancing and the art is terrific, but there needs to come a time when we see our leads genuinely enjoying themselves, and they’re both just wallowing in misery here. It’s even piled on with their major rivals going to Germany instead of coming to the competition they were going to meet up at. Sports titles always get like this, and I know we’re going to have to have a breakthrough next time, which will be amazing. But only read this to get to that. – Sean Gaffney

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, Vol. 3

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By Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou” by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

This was a relatively good volume of Arifureta provided you understand what genre you are reading – it’s a teenage power fantasy of the strongest kind – so let me get the weak point out of the way straight away. It’s not hard, she’s sitting on the cover. Judging by Arifureta fans’ reaction, I’d expected to dislike Shea, introduced last time, but instead I really found myself taken with her. Tio, introduced in this volume, is not nearly as fortunate, mostly as she’s a walking sex joke (it’s a sad state of affairs when the buxom bunny girl is NOT the walking sex joke). She’s a dragon person who is mind controlled to kill the party that Hajime and company are tasked to rescue, and is unsurprisingly very hard to kill. Hajime, who as we know prefers overkill anyway, ends things by shoving a giant spike up the dragon’s bottom… which apparently not only dispels the mind control, but triggers her masochistic side. She spends the rest of the book making the standard “your abuse turns me on” jokes. Also, if you’re going to develop a heroine, don’t do it at the end in an extra story. It just looks like you forgot to.

Leaving Tio aside, the rest of the book is much better. The teacher of this sent to another world bunch, Aiko, gets the bulk of the development, and honestly probably should have gotten the cover, especially as I suspect she’s eventually going to be part of the inevitable harem, though I’m not happy about that. She still has a tendency to be a bit too much of a ripoff of Komoe-sensei from Index, but her desperate idealism and desire to help everyone she meets – as well as all her students, even when they’ve turned totally insane or (in Hajime’s case) become cynical and bitter. In fact, she’s far stronger than you’d expect, and when she goes up against Hajime to convince him to do the right thing and save the town, it’s him who blinks first. Yue also helps here, saying that the Hajime she fell in love with is not someone who will kill for no reason. Having taken the hero as dark as we can, it’s time to start bringing him back to the light.

That will take some time, and may never completely happen, though I particularly liked his reasoning for killing the villain at the end, even though he was dying anyway. Hajime, Yue and Shea continue to be the most broken trio ever, and Shea has now fully integrated herself into their little group (though he still won’t sleep with her.) If you read a series in order to see the hero overcome hardships and struggles, this is so not the book for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoy seeing a ridiculously overpowered twink waltz his way through a fantasy world and occasionally be reminded that he once had an actual soul, and don’t mind him abusing nearly the entire cast, you should enjoy this quite a bit. I would not go as far as Yue and say that Hajime is a tsundere, though. Maybe he’s a tundra.

Pick of the Week: Zodiac Killers

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SEAN: I must admit there’s not a whole lot that’s inspiring me in this week’s list. I’m interested in Spirit Circle for sure. That said, I think my pick this week will be for Juni Taisen: Zodiac War. It’s rare that I choose what is essentially a ‘kill the cast one by one’ genre, but the creators are luring me in, so I am intrigued.

MICHELLE: Ch-ch-ch-Chihaya! I love Chihayafuru so much, and I’m dying to see what happens with Arata, now that he’s begun to think he can best honor his grandfather by continuing to show the world his style of play. I literally have geekbumps thinking about it.

ASH: I’m with Sean this week, and largely for the same reasons. I’m certainly interested in Spirit Circle having found Satoshi Mizukami’s Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer to be enjoyably quirky and even powerful at times despite its uneveness. But the release that I’m most curious about is Juni Taisen: Zodiac War simply because of the creators involved.

KATE: Add me to the “meh” column again. Instead, I’ll point budget-conscious manga readers to VIZ’s big JoJo sale. The first three story arcs — Phantom Blood, Battle Tendencies, and Stardust Crusaders — are on sale at the VIZ website. If you’re looking for a wallet-friendly way to catch up on the first eleven volumes of the JoJo saga, this is a great way to do it. Word to the wise: this is a digital-only initiative.

ANNA: And I’m going to join Michelle in picking Chihayafuru! This is one of those series I thought would never be translated so I’m delighted to celebrate each volume being released here.

MJ: The pickings are slim for me this week, but I am fairly interested in Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, based mainly on its artist, so that’s what I’ll go with.

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 25

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By Julietta Suzuki. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Tomo Kimura

I haven’t done a full review of Kamisama Kiss in over 7 years, but it’s always been near the top of my want to read shoujo titles, and I’m impressed with it for lasting 25 volumes, which is more than four sets of Karakuri Odette. (Does anyone recall that series? It’s been about one fandom generation since it came out.) I was wondering what the author was going to do with this final volume, given that almost everything was resolved in the previous book. And it’s true, this is a victory lap of a sort, a light and cheerful final volume devoting itself to wrapping up the romances and getting Nanami and Tomoe married and living in the human world. It’s well worth the read, though, as it’s a well-told victory lap, and will put a smile on your face.

You’ll note the cover art is a bit different from the ‘wedding pose’ cover that the regular edition had. I picked up the Limited Edition, which comes with this alternate cover and a separate, hardcover minibook that features all the color pages from the series, as well as an epilogue chapter taking place several years later. I think it’s worth shelling out for the extra edition – the art is gorgeous, even if pretty small (this is still the size of a regular manga volume) and we also get one of those ‘extra chapters’ that always tend to happen in Hana to Yume series but so rarely get collected into North American (or indeed Japanese) volumes. Without spoiling anything, fans of Akura-Oh and Ami will absolutely want to pick up the Limited Edition.

As for the main event, I like how it shows that even after all this time, Nanami still has a tendency to sublimate her own desires if she thinks Tomoe will be uncomfortable or dislike anything, and I like the fact that the entire cast serves to clamp down on that and give her the epic wedding that she (and the series) deserves. As for the other human x supernatural pairings, Ami and Kurama is left up in the air, mostly as Kurama has not gained as much experience with human emotion as Tomoe has, but it’s pretty clear that she’s not going to be moving on. As for Himemiko and Kotaro, they’ve got a few more things conspiring to keep them apart, including some of what Nanami has dealt with before (the “they must be unhappy, it would be best if I left them” feelings), but they also have a very good reason to stay together, and the result is dealt with subtly but will put a smile on your face.

As will the entire volume, really. Kamisama Kiss has had its fair share of drama, and so after all the near deaths and trips to the afterlife it’s a relief to see such a sweet ending. Admittedly Mizuki may not agree with me, as Nanami and Tomoe becoming human means a parting from the spirit wold, but even that may be only a temporary thing, we discover. As with most really good manga, finishing this series makes a reader want to go back and start over from the beginning.

Manga the Week of 10/11/17

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SEAN: The fields are full of dancing, full of singing and romancing, cause the manga never stops.

Dark Horse has a 6th omnibus of Oh My Goddess!, the only title to rival Dragon Ball for most re-releases.

J-Novel Club finishes up the 3rd volume of The Faraway Paladin, which was large enough to be split into two books, and this is the second.

ASH: I’m really hoping that Seven Seas might consider teaming up with J-Novel Club for a print release of The Faraway Paladin like they’ve done for other titles.

SEAN: Kodansha Digital is truckin’ like the doo-dah man. We start with a 3rd Aoba-kun’s Confessions.

MICHELLE: I am beginning to sense a trend with these musical references…

SEAN: As the Gods Will’s 2nd Series (the first, which I will always mention, was never license) has a 21st volume.

Chihayafuru’s 5th volume makes me feel guilty I haven’t finished the 4th yet.

MICHELLE: Yay!

ANNA: Double Yay here!

SEAN: Clockwork Planet has a 5th manga volume, and it’s also in print, novelty though that be.

Also in print is a 6th Fire Force.

Back to digital, we have the 2nd Magical Sempai, reminding us that honorific use in translation is still a hot button issue.

And there’s an 8th Real Account.

On to Seven Seas, who have the 3rd print edition of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash’s light novels, previously released digitally by J-Novel Club.

They also have a 5th Lord Marksman and Vanadis.

The debut next week is Spirit Circle, a new shonen title from the creator of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. It’s a story of ghosts and reincarnation, and ran in Shonen Gahosha’s Young King Ours. It also had a Crunchyroll digital release.

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving this one a try! Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer was such an odd series, but I rather liked it.

SEAN: SuBLime gives us a 3rd deluxe edition of Finder.

And an 8th World’s Greatest First Love.

Titan has collected a 2nd volume of its Sherlock manga adaptation that runs in Japan. Sherlock: The Blind Banker is out next week.

ANNA: We’ve picked these up at my library, and I think they circulate well.

SEAN: Vertical has a 10th volume of Ajin. Happy double digits!

Case Closed reaches Vol. 64. If we convert to Base 10, it’s reached 100 volumes!

Gangsta has a 3rd volume of its Cursed spinoff.

ASH: I hope to see more of the main series, but the spinoff is likewise compelling and incredibly dark.

ANNA: This reminds me that I bought the first two volumes of this series. Need to get caught up ASAP!

SEAN: Viz is also releasing a novel. Juni Taisen: Zodiac War is written by Nisioisin, creator of the Monogatari and Zaregoto series, and has illustrations by Hikaru Nakamura, creator of Saint Young Men. It also has an anime that just began. Its subtitle is its premise, from what I understand.

ASH: My curiosity is certainly piqued based on the creators involved.

MJ: I have to admit that “Saint Young Men” is the first thing on the list this week that has caught my eye at all. So yes, I’m in for something illustrated by Hikaru Nakamura.

SEAN: And a 26th volume of Magi involves a lot of fighting, I expect.

MICHELLE: At least the flashback is over!

SEAN: Lastly, more double digits boasting, as Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter reached that milestone.

This stack of manga has everything delightful and everything you need. What are you getting from it?

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 7

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

For the most part this book is just a straight up sequel to the fourth volume, with the drama club getting together with our heroes to put on a second play featuring the Blue Knight and the Silver Princess. Like the fourth book, there’s a lot of focus on Theia and Harumi, who compare and contrast even more with each other. And like the fourth book, everything gets derailed by Theia’s rival Clan, who’s out for revenge and has a better gun now. Oh yes, and can fly. That said, for about 4/5 of this book there’s not really all that much happening, and it seems to be content to be a Christmas-themed book showing how well everyone gets along now while seeding possible things for future books, such as Ruth pointing out that serving Theia as her Knight would involve Koutarou moving off-planet.

Ruth is on the cover of this volume, so you might expect to see her get a story in Vol. 8. That said, she does get plenty to do here, mostly acting as support for Theia and trying to nudge Koutarou in the right direction, though there is an amusing side plot of her wanting to get stronger so she can defeat the sentai warrior from last book – who was, of course, Shizuka, who feels uncomfortable about all this. That said, neither Ruth or Shizuka are part of the harem (yet), and so the bulk of the development goes to Harumi and Theia. Harumi is still trying to get Koutarou to treat her as less of a sempai and more of a friend – i.e., the way he treats Theia, which she explicitly is jealous of. Theia does not think about Harumi that much, but that’s likely because she’s unaware of the plot twist we all saw coming: Harumi is in some way possessed by or a reincarnation of the Silver Princess from Theia’s past, and as the end of the book makes clear, Koutarou is literally the Blue Knight.

The climax of the book involves the performance of the 2nd play, complete with Yurika as the most pathetic dragon ever (she’s back to being useless here, though smartens up when actual danger arrives, and the fact that she hasn’t realized her feelings for Koutarou yet helps her keep it together more). The play is, as I said above, interrupted by Clan, who remains petty, spiteful, and very easy to dislike. And then comes the climax of the book, which was a big surprise. Not the actual events, those were the least surprising thing ever. No, I was surprised that the book kept going past where I expected it to. Let’s just say there was a really obvious place for a cliffhanger, but the book chose to go a few more pages and actually resolve most of its built-up tension. It actually worked quite well.

I’m enjoying reading each volume of this series as it really puts an effort into showing how each of the characters is slowly maturing and gaining confidence and strength, as well as bonding with each other. Technically it’s a harem comedy, but the harem all get along, and there’s no real rush to confess, mostly as few of them have even admitted their feelings to themselves. It works very well as an ongoing series, doing the #1 thing such series should do: make you want to read more. That said, I’m pretty sure the next volume won’t feature Ruth, as it’s Vol. 7.5, and tells the story of what happened to Koutarou and Clan during the climax of this book. Be careful when searching Amazon to get the right order.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 8

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By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

This volume of Yona can be divided into two parts. The first sees Yona finally fulfill the first part of the prophecy, gathering the last dragon, and then trying to figure out where to go from here. The second takes us back to the kingdom where we see what Su-Won is up to, and figure out that he’s a far more ambiguous figure than everyone may thing (both reader and characters within the series). Both parts work equally well, and you get the sense that the author is declaring this the “end of Part 1/start of Part 2′ for the series, as Yona gets a new purpose that will still manage to keep her wandering around from town to town, and Su-Won shows that he is not a pacifist like Yona’s father, but that doesn’t mean that he’s gearing up for blood and carnage either.

After the epic adventures to find the various Dragons in prior books, it is very much an anticlimax to have the last one, Zeno, just pop up and say “OH HAI!” to our heroes, then join them on a whim. It’s intended on the author’s part, of course, and the rest of the cast are just as thrown off their game by this guy who seems like a giant flake but can occasionally show a flair for the serious, and also does not seem to have the deep emotional bond with Yona that the others do. Honestly, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if he turned out to not be what he seemed later on, but for now I’m content to go along with Zeno as he’s fun. We also return to Ik-Su the priest once Yun realizes that they’ve fulfilled the prophecy but nothing has actually happened. This leads to Yona questioning what she wants to do – does she want to regain the kingdom for her father? Well, no, she wants to help other towns in need. I suspect that’s what we’ll be doing for a while.

Meanwhile, back in the kingdom, we see a rather grumpy general, Geun-Tae, who is depressed that even though there’s a new, supposedly not pacifist king, he’s STILL not fighting in great battles. This allows us to see Su-Won’s too clever by half manipulation from another point of view, and that other point of view paints Su-Won as a clueless idiot. The audience already knows that’s not true, of course, so the chapters instead show how, in a mock war game, Su-Won can win the trust of an important ally, and also how he listens and pays attention to everything and uses it to better the kingdom. Su-Won is turning out to be a really good king, and therefore Yona’s decision is going to be even more difficult. (Also, I must resist calling Su-Won Henry IV.)

As always, there’s even more that I didn’t get to talk about, like Geun-Tae’s adorable tea-loving wife, and Yona deciding to learn how to swordfight by stealing Hak’s sword in his sleep, which goes about as well as you’d expect. The series remains compulsively readable, and even though it’s on the fasttrack with a release every two months, it still feels too long between volumes. More!

Bluesteel Blasphemer, Vol. 3

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By Ichirou Sakaki and Tera Akai. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

In general, authors do not read my reviews and listen to my suggestions, mostly as they’re Japanese and the book has already come out several years ago (and also because I rarely have anything constructive to recommend). But sometimes I can’t help but read a book and think to myself “wow, the author listened to me!” even if it’s not true. Such a book is this volume of Bluesteel Blasphemer, which I called ‘highly adequate’ last time. It still is, but the harem stuff I didn’t like is lessened (though watch out for the ‘tee hee everyone thinks he’s a lolicon’ scene at the start), Yukinari is getting more character development and a better class of villain going up against him, there’s some well thought out setup for the final book, and most of all, after suggesting last time that Berta needed a hobby, she gets one here. I wasn’t expecting it to be crack sniper, but hey, needs must as the devil drives.

The girl on the cover is Angela, a Holy Knight who’s there to be even more zealous and driven and to show off how much Arlen has changed, despite his still being mostly a jerk. She mostly faces off against Veronika, a former princess turned mercenary whose past… absolutely does not catch up with her in any way, so I assume that it’s being saved for Book 4. It does give her interesting backstory, though, which I suspect is its main function. Yukinari, meanwhile, is having to adjust his thinking, as he’s been solely devoted to protecting himself and Dasa and that’s about it. Now that he has to protect two villages and the denizens thereof, his fighting style has to change, and he has to rely on others far more. He seems to come to terms with this fairly quickly, though he’s of the stoic, no real personality style of Japanese light novel heroes, so heavy angst is not really going to come into it.

Berta’s development really pleased me, and is the highlight of the book. She’d been there in the first book as the sacrifice who wasn’t, and then in the second feeling rather useless and trying to offer her body to Yukinari mostly as she had no idea what to do with her life. You got the sense she was in the book to be the large-breasted option in the harem. But here Yukinari tries to make a sniper rifle, and because of its awkward design (he’s working from memories of his past in Japan, and is not as familiar with this type of gun) neither he nor Dasa are really very good with it. But Berta, who has never shot anything in her life and thus has no bad habits to overcome, turns out to be a crack shot… provided she’s shooting non-living targets. She’s just too sweet. Fortunately the threat of her friends being killed and getting shouted at by Arlen help steel her resolve, and she’s able to save part of the day. She also, after a talk with Veronika, realizes that hey, she is doing all this for Yukinari as she loves him, rather than because of a misguided sense of duty. Honestly, she should have been on the cover.

So overall, a bit better than the previous two books, and worth your time if you’re following the series. That said, I’m ready for it to come to an end in Book 4, which will feature the most obvious villain of all time – so obvious, in fact, that the author assumes in his afterword that we’ve already guessed who she is. I’ll be here to read it.