Manga Bookshelf

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Sean Gaffney

No Game No Life, Vol. 6

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Komen.

The author says in this afterword that this 6th volume was very last minute, as the anime was coming out soon, they needed something quick, adn his editor suggested that he do this flashback explaining the past of Disboard that he had laid out for “some point in the future”. I applaud the editors, because it’s an excellent choice, and ends up giving us what is easily the best volume in the series to date. Told by the God Tet (in disguise) to Izuna (mostly so that she can break in and point out the obvious similarity between the stars in the past and our current stars), we get a “grim and gritty” backstory that actually works for more than just “being dark”, showing us the horror of the war-torn land and why it was worth sacrificing so much in order to ensure it became the game-ruled world it is today.

Of course, we’re not necessarily dealing with an entirely new cast – as Izuna testily points out, Riku and Schwi are clearly analogues for Sora and Shiro, and Couron is Steph’s distant ancestor and the founder of their kingdom. This allows readers to get a good visualization of them, even if the personalities don’t quite intersect – Schwi is pretty dead on for Shiro, but Riku is basically Sora if he’d been broken by reality even more. As for Couron, she’s Steph without the abuse, and therefore perfect. Indeed, a lot of the “ha ha the writer thinks this is funny” fanservice is absent from this book, as the war setting means that it’s hard to trot out the sexual perversions and humiliation of Steph. Yes, Riku is teased about being a lolicon, and there’s a few “dying a virgin” remarks that Sora would be proud of, but that’s about it. This book knows now is not the time.

We also, by the way, see Jibril, and in many ways she’s the villain of the book. We knew that her past life before the Games became the rule was filled with a lust for blood and carnage, and her fight with Schwi here shows off her impatience and tendency towards overreacting, even if it ends up doing her harm in the end. That said, we also see that she’s definitely different from the other Flugel, even if it will take Sora and Shiro to really drag her potential forward. Much of the book is Riku doing what Sora normally does, which is to say plan an elaborate series of moves that end up winning the game for humanity. Tet says Riku and Schwi are stronger than [ ], as their world didn’t have the “game rules”. Sadly, this also means that they’re not granted protagonist immunity, so be prepared for some tragedy as well.

This was an excellent book, and the big downside to it is that it shows off that the author can be really good when he wants to be, but frequently lets it get buried under a need for fanservicey jokes and stupid anime tropes. Book 7 (which is in December, NGNL has settled into twice a year now) returns us to Sora and Shiro, and it will be nice to see them again, but I hope we can keep some of the added depth and gravitas we saw here and not just have a series of jokes about Steph’s tits. If you want to test out the series, though, 6 is the way to start, oddly enough.

Manga the Week of 8/9/17

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SEAN: Stuff, stuff, stuff! So much stuff!

Dark Horse gives us a new volume of Drifters, the 4th. It comes out sporadically, so I will no doubt have to refresh my memory about what’s happening besides cool old famous people reincarnated and fighting each other. Actually, no, that should do it.

ASH: Let’s see, the last volume was released in English in… 2014. I didn’t expect that we’d ever see more of the series! I suspect that last year’s anime adaptation may have something to do with that.

SEAN: And there is a 4th omnibus of “Like Evangelion, only stupider” spinoff manga Shinji Ikari Raising Project.

J-Novel Club has a new debut, but it may seem familiar: Clockwork Planet, whose manga adaptation Kodansha has been releasing. This is their first Kodansha license, and will hopefully open the way for more in the future.

And we have the 4th In Another World With My Smartphone, which I hear is where the plot really kicks off.

Kodansha has titles both digital and print. Digitally we have the 2nd Altair: A Record of Battles, which is clearly not on the fastrack like some other digital titles.

ANNA: Good reminder for me to read the first one!

MICHELLE: Same!

SEAN: And the 2nd Aoba-kun’s Confessions as well.

I was unprepared for the Attack On Titan: Before the Fall adaptation to be this long, but here we are, Volume 11. Huh.

ASH: I’ve fallen behind, but I do largely like how the manga further develops and expands the story and characters from the original light novels.

SEAN: Back to digital with the 5th Full-Time Wife Escapist. Will these two poor communicators finally get together?

ANNA: I enjoy this series!

MICHELLE: Me, too. I’m always happy when I see a new installment on the schedule.

SEAN: And L♥DK has hit double digits, and presumably has not run out of ways to frustrate its heroine.

Seven Seas has the most titles out next week. There’s a lucky 13th volume of Devils and Realist.

And the 2nd print volume of the light (hah!) novel Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid will try to ride out the post-anime depression with its 4th volume.

The debut next week is Nirvana, an action fantasy with a “trapped in another world” veneer, the gimmick being the protagonist is female for once. It’s written by Jin, the creator of Kagerou Daze, and runs in Comic Gene.

Not Lives gives us a 6th volume. Has the cast diminished yet?

Also at double digits next week is Servamp. (poses) Vampires! (peers around, crickets chirp) Could it be the running gag has gone on too long?

ANNA: Maybe we need more mermaids or pirates.

SEAN: SuBLime has a digital-only release next week with Am I In Love Or Just Hungry, from popular author Akane Abe.

In print, they have the 2nd Deluxe Edition of Finder.

And the 5th volume of Ten Count, which has managed to irritate most of Manga Bookshelf by now.

ANNA: Yeargh.

ASH: I’m still reading it, though I completely understand why people dropped the series. The character’s relationship is far from healthy–right now to me it actually reads more like a horror manga and less like a romance.

SEAN: Viz has a 5th digital release of The Children Nowadays, whose existence I keep forgetting.

In print, they have the 21st volume of Itsuwaribito, which must be reaching a climax of some sort, I say as if I read past Vol. 1.

And a 2nd Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

ASH: I’m enjoying this adaptation so far; I’m also glad that it doesn’t end with the second volume.

SEAN: Magi has reached 25 volumes! In Japan it’s wrapping up, here we still have a ways to go.

MICHELLE: I’m always kind of relieved to hear a series is ending. It’s probably the reassurance that I’ll actually get the complete story.

SEAN: Lastly, we have a 9th volume of Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter, which wars with Yu-Gi-Oh in how often it ends a Manga the Week of column and leaves me with nothing to say.

What do you say? Anything for you next week?

Twinkle Stars, Vol. 3

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By Natsuki Takaya. Released in Japan as two separate volumes by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

I laugh heartily at my comment in the last review that Hijiri was absolutely perfect. She’s still my favorite, but this omnibus seemed entirely designed to show off that no, Hijiri is not perfect, that she is arrogant and headstrong and coming from a definite position of privilege, and when combined with the genuine fear she has of seeing her best friend get hurt again, it naturally leads to a bad confrontation. Which does, at least, get us Chihiro’s backstory, and the girl that he was supposedly in love with, Sakura. The love that it was, though, was a deeply unhealthy one, something the reader is well aware of as it plays out. Takaya is always at her best when showing off emotional pain, and we get that in spades here – there’s a suicide attempt, mostly successful, and implications that Chihiro also has suicidal thoughts. Fortunately, Takaya also writes Pollyannas, and that’s exactly what’s needed from Sakuya here.

Back to talking about Hijiri, literally everyone in the book realizes that she is doing the wrong thing and calls her out on it. First Yuuri, then Saki… it’s something that only she can do, being rich enough to basically have Chihiro’s entire past investigated to make sure that he’s not going to be causing Sakuya pain. And then, when she finds out about Sakura, his old love, telling her about it. Then she compounds it by refusing to admit what she did was wrong. It takes everything tat we’ve loved about the character for the last two omnibuses and turns it on its head, showing off the unpleasant and negative sides that her personality can have. We also learn how she first met Sakuya, and how her curiosity about those who felt pain turned to guilt and horror as she realized what that really means. Oh yes, and thankfully the crush on the teacher is not going to happen.

As for Chihiro, he’s more of a Yuki than a Kyo, if you know what I mean. It’s always a challenge to see someone repressing all their past emotional wounds and scars and not have them turn out somewhat flat, and again, Takuya is a master of doing this the right way. His confrontation with Sakuya at the reservoir is the highlight of the book, as we see that his obsession with Sakura (even the names are similar – at least in romanji) to an eerie degree) can turn to hatred as much as it does to love. Sakura is also a lonely child with a tragic past of abuse, like half the cast here, but she’s not written in a sympathetic way. I’ve no doubt she’ll wake up at some point, and I do wonder if she and Sakuya will ever meet.

Twinkle Stars gives fans of this author exactly what they want – deep emotional heartache and catharsis, calling out abuse for what it is, and showing that just because someone has a tragic past does not mean that their current joy and happiness has to be faked. I can’t wait to see where this goes next.

Durarara!!, Vol. 7

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By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Sooner or later in the life of every light novels, you get the volume that consists of short stories, usually because the author is still figuring out where to take the series next. And so it is with DRRR!!, which gives us 4 stories here surrounded by Izaya recuperating from his stab wound he got last time in the hospital, where he runs into a girl that literally everyone has forgotten, including him (and the creators of the anime, who were unhappy to see this, I imagine). The ‘theme’ of these stories seems to be Ikebukuro on holiday, and indeed, Narita has discussed the idea of the city as a character in the volume before. And of course there’s also some setup and moving of chess pieces for future books, most obviously in the story with Shizuo and Tom, which gives them a new co-worker.

First, though, we have to deal with the story nobody wanted. I think if you were to ask Western fans in particular which DRRR!! characters they never want to see or hear from again, the insane triangle of Namie, Seiji and Mika would likely top the list. And what’s worse, Narita has them in your face here, never letting you forget how much Namie wants to screw her little brother, or that Mika is seriously looking to EAT CELTY’S HEAD so that she can get closer to Seiji, or that Seiji… well, no, Seiji continues to be a nonentity. He gets some depth here, of a sort, but his main theme still seems to be “what do these two see in him?”. It’s not the most pointless story in the book, but it is the most disturbing. We then get a look at the backstory and current life of Akabayashi, the yakuza with a sweet cane and missing an eye we’ve seen in the previous book. He deals with the fallout from Akane’s kidnapping, stops some drug dealing on his turf, and escapes an attempt on his life with ease. He’s here to be incredibly cool, and succeeds. He also has a surprising tie to Anri, which is good as the “main” trio of teenagers otherwise make very minor to no appearances in this volume.

The best story in the collection, even if you don’t love her (which I do) is the third one, in which Vorona is cooling her heels at Russian Sushi and wondering what to do with her life now that she’s been beaten and humiliated. The answer? Join Shizuo and Tom in shaking down local deadbeats who rent porn and then never pay for it or other such offenses. Tom is rather startled at how good Vorona is at beating others up, and impressed at her wikipedia brain. Shizuo (who does not recognize her as the woman who kidnapped Akane, as she was wearing her motorcycle helmet) is just happy to be able to mentor someone. And Vorona is watching Shizuo closely, seeing how he manages to be stronger than everything else, and deciding that he’s her “prey”… much to the displeasure of Akane, who has decided that she needs to take out Shizuo as well, despite the fact that she really likes him. (It is implied that getting kidnapped on top of the family revelations kind of broke Akane, but that’s Narita for you.) This story is filled with humor and unnecessary violence, and the book is worth getting for just this one.

We end with a cute, if completely pointless, date between Shinra and Celty, who have gone off to the mountains to get closer but keep getting interrupted by the rest of the cast calling Shinra for one reason or another. This mostly serves to remind us that, eccentric as they are, these two are the least screwed up couple in the series. The book overall is marking time, but it’s still worth reading, provided you don’t mind the author occasionally reminding you that he loves to read horrible people being horrible at each other.

Bookshelf Briefs 7/31/17

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Blue Exorcist, Vol. 17 | By Kazue Kato | Viz Media – Well, Yukio is STILL keeping things a secret, though it’s getting very hard. Much of this volume belongs to Shura, who comes from a family who, due to a curse, tend to live to 30, give birth, then die. Sadly, Shura isn’t giving birth anytime soon, and is pissing off the local god her family made this bargain with. To the rescue come Rin and Yukio, which gives us an opportunity for them to hash things out and at the same time resolve absolutely nothing, as well as remind us that Rin is the standard shonen protagonist. I really could have done without young Shura going topless and trying to seduce Father Fujimoto, though. This is a pretty good volume, but not as good as the arc before it—it still feels like it’s marking time. – Sean Gaffney

Giant Killing, Vol. 3 | By Masaya Tsunamoto and Tsujitomo | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – ETU’s pre-season match against Tokyo Victory continues, and it’s great to watch the team gaining confidence and enthusiasm. The fans agree, and after Tsubaki makes a mistake that grants their opponents a 2-1 advantage, it’s former captain Murakoshi who reinvigorates everyone’s hopes. Next, Tatsumi talks big at a press conference, slaying the crowd with jokes and promising to spice up the soccer world and then, at their first game of the official season, ETU ends up losing 4 to 1. There’s no way ETU’s road to success would be smooth, but I do still relish the moments of triumph when they come. In this volume, there’s a great two-page spread when Murakoshi scores, for example, followed by a two-pager of reaction shots. The pacing of this series is masterfully exhilarating. If you like sports manga, you should be reading this! – Michelle Smith

Liselotte & Witch’s Forest, Vol. 5 | Natsuki Takaya | Yen Press – This is an interesting volume of Liselotte & Witch’s Forest, in which quite a lot happens. Initially, the focus seems to be on Vergue and his hatred of humans for their rejection of him, and there’s a great scene in which Anna expertly manipulates him into coming to tea. (It gave me Hanajima/Kyo feelings, actually.) Engetsu, Anna and Alto, and Vergue all get a little more backstory, none of it good, and then Engetsu whisks Liselotte off to see the village festival, where she spies her brother and promptly flees. While she’s busy dealing with a new witch on the scene, Engetsu sits down for a conversation with her brother, Richard, about his plans for Liselotte. Pretty exciting, right? Eager for the next volume, right? Well, too bad. This series has been on hiatus since 2013. Join me in feeling very grumpy about that. – Michelle Smith

My Monster Secret, Vol. 7 | By Eiji Masuda | Seven Seas – While we do get another character introduced in the form of the world’s worst fallen angel, for the most part this volume continues to do what it does best—tell really funny stories about supernatural high schoolers who are super awkward. Fortunately, after the events in the last volume, Asahi and Youko make up, though it takes being stranded in a snowstorm and a bad cold to break past the discomfort. Youko’s father also shows up to play the world’s most dangerous game of Life, and though we keep getting hints that we’ll find out how he and Youko’s mother finished high school, we never do. The funniest chapter, though, is the competition to see who can be sexiest, which needs to be read to be believed. Great stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Welcome to the Ballroom, Vol. 6 | By Tomo Takeuchi | Kodansha Comics – I was right that Chinatsu was going to be partnering with Fujita berfore long, but it’s not smooth sailing—in fact, it’s the opposite of smooth sailing. Fujita’s been spoiled by having perfect partners till now, and Chinatsu’s struggling as before this she was the lead as she only danced with other female partners. Learning how to be a good lead is harder than learning how to copy others, especially as Fujita finds it’s the GUY they look at in the prelims, and if he and Chinatsu can’t sort this out it’s all over. Add to this the gorgeous artwork, which continues to show off the dancing to its best effect, and you have a gripping series, even as it pours on perhaps a bit too much angsty drama. – Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Shining Wind And Twinkling Stars

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MICHELLE: It’s that time of year again! I’m very interested in the conclusion of Otherworld Barbara as well as I Hear the Sunspot and She and Her Cat, but I am simply unable to pass up my annual chance to squee about Kaze Hikaru. I agree with AshLynx, who expressed a wish that VIZ would start making the annual release a 2-in-1 volume. Otherwise we won’t catch up to where Japan is now until I’m retired!

SEAN: I can’t break with the yearly tradition. It’s definitely Kaze Hikaru as my pick. My goal is for it to sell well enough that we might see it… dare I hope… TWICE a year!

ANNA: Kaze Hikaru all the way for me as well. I love that series!

KATE: Add my name to the chorus of folks recommending Kaze Hikaru. I’m glad VIZ continues to publish new installments, but second Michelle’s request for a slightly faster release schedule. The East Coast will be underwater before we get the final volume here in the US!

ASH: Despite its slow release schedule, I’ve still somehow managed to fall behind with Kaze Hikaru. And so while I do plan on reading it because I do like the series, my pick this week (perhaps surprisingly) actually goes to Twinkle Stars. Although the series is a little trope-worn in places, I found the first two omnibuses to be both compelling and emotionally resonant.

H. P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories

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By Gou Tanabe. Released in Japan by Enterbrain, serialized in the magazine Comic Beam. Released in North America by Dark Horse Comics. Translated by Zack Davisson.

This is the first in a series of Lovecraft adaptations that are still being done in the pages of Enterbrain’s oddball magazine Comic Beam, home of Emma, Thermae Romae, and other hard-to-classify series. The mangaka, Tanabe Gou, has specialized in adapting horror titles to the comics page, and just reading a few pages into this volume will show you that he knows his stuff. This volume collects three of Lovecraft’s more well-known short stories and turns them into fairly gripping horror manga, with plenty of the author’s tortured, overdone prose, but not so much that you want to stop reading (as I frequently do with Lovecraft). Thankfully, the nameless horrors in these particular stories also don’t feature Lovecraft’s awful brand of racism that has led fans to back away from him a bit in modern times. You can enjoy them for what they are: scary stuff with no reasonable explanation.

We begin with “The Temple”, which takes place in WWII – something which may puzzle readers, as the story was written in the 1920s. The ‘about the author’ at the end mentions that Tanabe moved the action up a few decades, and honestly it works even better that way – the original U-Boat Captain was so villainous he may as well have been a Nazi. they find the head of an old Grecian statue on a dead British soldier, and its presence gradually makes the crew of the U-Boat lose its sanity – not helped by the captain shooting “traitors”. Soon he ends up discovering Atlantis underwater, and where that statue really came from. In “The Hound”, two men who enjoy grave robbing for kicks find a jade amulet and take it back to England, where they are soon haunted by the ghastly beast that they may have killed at the gravesite. Finally, in “The Nameless City”, there’s only our narrator, exploring a city in Arabia that no one dares go near, and finding (all together now) eldritch horrors beyond his comprehension.

Honestly, the plot is pretty much irrelevant. What matters most here is mood, and Tanabe nails it, particularly in The Hound, which I found the best of the three stories. The sense of an encroaching doom that will engulf our characters (all male – women rarely if ever appear in a Lovecraft story) grows more and more with every turn of the page, and the few actual shots of violence are striking. Lovecraft stories are about the unseen, the imagined, and the unimaginable. Therefore a lot of adaptations risk becoming silly by showing said unshowable evil and having it not measure up. Tanabe has just the right amount of balance, as The Temple relies on its narrator’s own villainous depths, and The Hound is glimpsed mostly in shadow and corners. The Nameless City does draw a few monsters in detail, but its viewpoint is still firmly on the narrator (and the amazing vistas that he’s passing through).

Lovecraft is not for everyone, and I would not blame people from passing simply based on the name. But if you like horror and want to read something really creepy and offputting, this is an excellent adaptation. He’s done more of these – I think The Colour Out of Space was also adapted – and I hope it does well enough that we see more.

Kagerou Daze VII: From the Darkness

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By Jin (Shinzen no Teki-P) and Sidu. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Each volume in the series has competed to see who in the Mekakushi Dan has the worst childhood, and we may have a new winner with Kido, who gets the focus here. The book is divided into two parts that it goes back and forth between, like previous volumes in the series. The main story continues, with Shintaro, the Mekakushi-Dan and a newly revived Takane trying to find a way to stop Tateyama – or rather, whatever is behind Tateyama – and figure out how to stop this whole mess. This is interspersed with Kido’s childhood, being a child of an affair whose mother then dies several years later, causing her to be taken in by her rich father. Kido is an introverted self-hating mess, which honestly fits pretty well with what we’ve seen of present-day Kido, so the flashbacks work pretty well. Luckily, she also has a big stepsister looking out for her. Unluckily, this book is called “From the Darkness”.

Kido’s sections are the strongest in the book, doing a good job (despite the author’s self-deprecation in the afterword) of a realistic young girl resented by most people in the mansion, ignored by her father, and waiting to be abused by a sister that she’s sure hates her. But Rin does not, in fact, hate her, and after a series of painful to read but oh so accurate scenes of Kido wondering when the next blow is going to fall, she gradually begins to open up to the other girl and speak. Unfortunately, her dad is not merely cold and withdrawn, he’s rather unhinged, something which I wish was written in a slightly less abrupt way – the shortness of these books means that sometimes motivations get either left out or reduced to a villain monologue, and in this case it’s the later, as Kido’s father insanely expounds on why he went mad. After tragedy strikes, Kido finds herself in Azami’s realm, where Azami – rather startled to be meeting someone – realizes that Kido has one of her Eyes, and tries to explain as best she can. This section works much better.

Things don’t get much better in the main storyline, where we learn that you rarely gain a cool cyborg body without its creator having the ability to take the body over and turn it evil. Balanced against this is the reunion of Shintaro and Takane, who has to explain why she did what she did as Ene – which is fairly heartwarming – and why she ACTED like she did as Ene – which is the funniest part of the book. Unfortunately, while Shintaro’s plan to take out Tateyama is a good one, as I said, it reckons without one of the group being possessed. And so how we end the book with Shintaro dead, Kido dead, everyone else presumably about to die, and the realization that Book 8 not only may be the last but also isn’t out in Japan yet. This will have to satisfy Kagerou Daze fans for now, but I think it will do a fine job.

Also, will Seto ever get developed?

Princess Jellyfish, Vol. 5

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By Akiko Higashimura. Released in Japan in two separate volumes as “Kuragehime” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Kiss. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Sarah Alys Lindholm.

I realize that it is coincidence, but frequently the volume of Princess Jellyfish that I am reading is there to answer the questions and concerns I mentioned in my review of the previous volume. Last time I talked about wanting Kuranosuke to have to deal with consequences and be thrown off his game more, and I also mentioned the market for the jellyfish dresses being upscale and not for people like Tsukimi. Lo and behold, in this volume Kuranosuke is not only dealing with once again being told how hard it is to be a successful clothing maker in the world today, but also has to stand by and suck it up as Shu and Tsukimi get close enough to start dating, although given the two of them are still talking at cross-purposes a bit, I’m not sure if that’s going to be an endgame. And yeah, what fashion would Amars, the most unfashionable, wear?

Amars is actually pretty impressive here; for all that they may whine and complain a lot (especially Mayaya), they’re very much involved in both saving the apartment complex and getting the jellyfish brand out there. And the biggest worry of the book, how they will react when they hear that Tsukimi and Shu are going out, also turns out to less of a crisis than expected – Shu is, after all, the son of a politician and being groomed for greater things. Ergo, a political marriage would be a godsend for the rest of Amars. Of course, as a reader I’m not entirely convinced that Tsukimi would make a very good politician’s wife. As for the dresses, now that we’ve established the high-end dresses, we need cheaper stuff for the casual buyer. But what if the casual buyer is Amars? Would they wear this stuff? Not a chance. So.. what WOULD they willingly buy?

This volume features not one, not two, but THREE characters slowly realizing that they’ve fallen in love, each with different impact. Tsukimi is the most obvious, adn I’m still not sure it’s sunk in for her, or even if she grasps what it means going forward. The proposal certainly hasn’t sunk in. Inari, meanwhile, hears from Shu that he has a “fiancee” at the apartments, and is horrified not just at the idea that one of those girls (she doesn’t know which one) could have bewitched him but that it hurts her enough for her to realize that she has genuine feelings of love for Shu as well. As for Kuranosuke, I think he’s the furthest behind, as he’s not really admitting to himself at all how he really feels about Tsukimi even as he distances himself by saying he’s the “sorcerer” who placed a spell on her to make her a “princess”. Which is all very well and good, but sounds pretty cowardly to me.

They just announced the manga is wrapping up in Japan this fall, though we still have a few omnibuses to go to catch up. In the meantime, it gets better with each volume, and if you haven’t picked it up yet you should.

I Saved Too Many Girls And Caused The Apocalypse, Vol. 4

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

Life as a parody can be difficult, especially when it’s unclear whether you are a parody or not anymore. Little Apocalypse started off being pretty blatantly a parody of all of those harems with piles and piles of women, as well as titles where the male lead goes around “rescuing” the girl of the week (hi, Index). But as the volumes have gone on I think it’s safe to admit that sometimes it tends to forget this and just tries to be a straight up harem action novel. You can usually tell by the fact that the author is forgetting to include R’s sarcastic asides for dozens of pages at a time, and it’s R that reminds us that Rekka’s frustrating indecision and waffley-ness is not actually bad writing but a deliberate decision. That said, I would not blame those who hate indecisive male leads from dropping the series, though I do wonder why they started it in the first place.

We’re back to three girls on the cover, and the author brags in the afterword about having made it to double digits on the heroines. That said, one of the previous ones doesn’t even get mentioned, and a second is only mentioned in passing. As with Negima, all heroines are important but some heroines are more important than others. New heroines this time include Rosalind, the blonde loli vampire that you knew we were going to get sooner or later, and who serves as the main antagonist (though she’s also a heroine); Silver Slayer, a homunculus trained to destroy Rosalind who has been chasing her the last two hundred years or so; and Chelsea, a mage who is desperately searching for a way to save her dying little brother. Add to all this Hibiki (from Book 3), who actually brings Chelsea to Rekka; Lea (from Book 2), who’s there to provide some muscle; and the main three heroines from Book 1, who likely always will be the top heroines.

And then there’s Rekka, who continues to be the savvy-only-when-necessary male lead. As with most of these books, the first half drags quite a bit as we set up the pieces, and the second half is much better as the pieces all interlock and Rekka can deal with them all at the same time. When Rekka is fretting about having set up dates on Sunday with all the girls at the same time, the book sadly falls into the exact cliches it’s meant to be making fun of, and is not as interesting. (Also Christ, I hope he went to buy Harissa some clothes after this.) For a book that’s so low in page count, there’s a lot going on in each one – I didn’t mention the evil genie, or the Philosopher’s Stone. The author knows how to bring a situation to chaos and let it play out. He now needs to work harder on what to do when everything is at rest. Recommended for those who can tolerate a wishy-washy male lead, written by design. If you can’t, avoid this series with great avoid.

Manga the Week of 8/2/17

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SEAN: The Dog Days of August begin with a manga pile worthy of an entire dog show.

Cross Infinite World has been releasing some shoujo light novels digitally, something I had shamefully forgotten till now. They have a release next week of AkaOni: Contract with a Vampire.

ASH: Oh, shoujo! I’d forgotten as well. It’s great to see these being released.

SEAN: Fantagraphics has the 2nd and final Otherworld Barbara omnibus, and I really really want to get it. Sadly, I actually ordered it from Amazon rather than Diamond, and for once Diamond is ahead of the game here.

MICHELLE: Woot. Looking forward to this one.

ANNA: Can’t believe I missed the first one, well now I can get both!!!!

ASH: Likewise, I’m going to have to wait for my copy, but I’m always excited to read Hagio’s work.

SEAN: J-Novel Club will be releasing the 3rd How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Take a shot for each mention of Machiavelli.

And we get our monthly Invaders of the Rokujouma?!, the 5th volume in that long series.

Kodansha Digital gives us a new Del Rey rescue with the 20th Alive.

Kodansha has a 22nd volume of Attack on Titan, which finally gives us a beach episode.

ASH: Hahaha! Does it really? I admit, I’ve fallen a bit behind in reading Attack on Titan.

SEAN: GTO: Paradise Lost has a 4th volume digitally.

As does suspense title Kasane.

There’s also 2nd volumes for new series Kounodori: Dr. Stork and Love’s Reach.

One Peace has two debuts hitting comic shops next week (and bookstores a bit later). I Hear the Sunspot (Hidamari ga Kikoeru) is from Printemps Shuppan, running in the mostly BL magazine Canna. This isn’t BL, and appears to be about a student with hearing loss. It seems interesting.

ASH: My copy of I Hear the Sunspot actually arrived early. I’m very curious about the manga and hope to read it soon.

ANNA: Huh, that does sound interesting.

SEAN: They also have a light novel debut, Mikagura School Suite. It seems to be a Battle School title, based on a series of Vocaloid songs.

Seven Seas has a 3rd Magical Girl Site, which despite its title is dark horror.

And there’s a 3rd There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor, which is comedy fanservice just as its title implies.

Udon has a 6th volume of Persona 3.

Vertical has a done-in-one manga debut. She and Her Cat is written by Makoto Shinkai, so expect a bittersweet ending, but it should be very good.

ASH: As many Shinkai manga are, I suppose.

MICHELLE: Of course I am entirely down for this.

ANNA: Done in one manga are certainly nice sometimes!

SEAN: And now it’s time for Viz. The 17th Assassination Classroom has the kids arguing about whether they should assassinate in the classroom, fittingly.

There’s a 4th Behind the Scenes!!, which I continue to be a bit lukewarm on.

And an 8th Black Clover, which will feel even more like Fairy Tail now that Fairy Tail has ended.

Bleach’s 3-in-1 release hits Book 20.

And Food Wars! has a 19th volume – will things continue to be ‘darkest just before the dawn’?

Haikyu!! continues its monthly release with its 14th volume. The Japanese release is around Vol. 27 or so, so we’ve a ways to go before we catch up.

MICHELLE: I’m eager for both Food Wars! and Haikyu!!.

ASH: I’m still loving this series, and loving that it’ll continue to be released monthly for a while yet.

ANNA: I clearly need to go on a big volleyball binge.

SEAN: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has another hardcover of its least impressive arc with a 4th Stardust Crusaders.

ANNA: I love these hardcovers and the insane action of JoJo’s.

SEAN: Rejoice! August means Kaze Hikaru, which may be only one volume a year but it tries harder!

MICHELLE: Yaaaaaaaaay!

ASH: I plan on picking it up!

ANNA: I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!!

SEAN: Kuroko’s Basketball has its 13th/14th volumes out in this omnibus, which will involve the characters playing basketball.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

ANNA: I thought they were all pastry chefs!

SEAN: Maid-sama! has come to an end with this 9th omnibus. Will Misaka be able to kick ass and take names? And how much blushing will we have? (Answer: so much.)

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to the finale.

SEAN: My Hero Academia is one of Jump’s biggest hits, containing a cast filled with characters everyone loves, and Mineta. The 9th volume ships next week. (Seriously, everyone hates Mineta.)

One Piece’s 83rd volume will continue to develop Sanji’s predicament and upcoming marriage.

Platinum End’s 3rd volume will be there for hardcore fans of this manga team.

So Cute It Hurts!! is almost over, as the 14th volume is the penultimate one.

Toriko is also almost over, though the 39th volume shows we have a few more to go.

Vampire Knight: Memories is the debut from Shojo Beat. It’s nice to see the author return to her most popular world, I guess, though I worry it’s because she wasn’t able to duplicate that success.

Yona of the Dawn’s 7th volume continues our PIRATES! theme, though I do not believe ninjas, zombies or robots feature.

ASH: I think I’m okay with that.

ANNA: I so enjoy Shojo Beat’s fantasy manga.

Yu-Gi-Oh! never quite ends, as this is the 11th 3-in-1 and we’re still not near the end.

Lastly, Yen Press has one straggler, as the third Twinkle Stars omnibus finally shuffles onto the scene, looking furtively at its shoes as it apologizes for being so late.

MICHELLE: <3

ASH: I quite taken with the first two omnibuses, so I’m glad the third is finally here!

ANNA: Maybe I will finally read the first two volumes that are stacked up on my to-read pile!

SEAN: Which of these titles dog your footsteps?

Generation Witch, Vol. 1

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By Uta Isaki. Released in Japan as “Gendai Majo Zukan” by Ichijinsha, serialized in the magazine Comic Rex. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jill Morita. Adapted by Janet Houck.

It’s been nice to see the ‘slice of life’ genre move, to a certain extent, beyond ‘a bunch of female students living their everyday high school life’ in recent years. We’re seeing slice of life manga with actual twists, and one of the more current ones, fitting in with manga’s current obsession with anything supernatural, is “slice of witch life”. Flying Witch is an example of the ‘pure’ slice of life genre, with regular characters and an ongoing plot, but now we also have Generation Witch, which is more of an anthology series, each new chapter featuring a new witch and new issues. This works in the book’s favor, as it allows stories to have more resolution than they otherwise might have, and also lets the stories be a bit more depressing and dark than you’d sometimes see in slice of life.

The premise is that this is a modern-day Japan, but in a world where about 1% of the population have magical powers of some way, shape or form. The world, somewhat surprisingly, seems to have adapted to this very well, and witches are quite popular and cool. This first volume shows us a series of stories that are basically ‘what is life like around someone who can do magic?’ We start with a traditional witch (complete with broom), who’s also an overprotective older sister, trying her best to save her sibling from a guy who might be a new friend but in reality turns out to be just another pervert. The longest story in the book, taking up about half of it, involves a young man who was teased for his dreams of using magic as a kid (his powers matched an anime girl), and so is trying to live like a normal person. We all know how that ends, he runs into a very eccentric witch who wants him to join her club which helps find people’s lost things.

The last couple of stories take a much more serious turn, and show the dangers of magic powers. The first is a somewhat disturbing story of a young salaryman who goes home to his “daughter”, who turns out to be his childhood friend who he promised to marry as a kid. Sadly, she’s a witch who can’t control her powers, which means a) she can’t leave the house, and b) she won’t grow beyond a little girl. But he’s with her anyway, in a thankfully chaste way, and it’s a bit melancholy how he tries to assure himself that he’s been very lucky. The last story is let down by the fact that we can see where it’s going almost immediately, but shows us a young girl who can see the future and her budding relationship with her classmate, and ends in tragic fireworks.

This was pretty solid, if not groundbreaking. The idea of an anthology series about witches is a good one, and this also looks to be 5 volumes and done in Japan, which seems just about right. If you like witches and don’t mind that sometimes there aren’t happy endings, this is a good book to pick up.

Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension: The Ancient Seawater Baths

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By Nagaharu Hibihana and Masakage Hagiya. Released in Japan as “Isekai Konyoku Monogatari” by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sophie Guo.

Last time we had a large focus on the adventures of Haruno’s party; this time they’re absent (except to get mentioned in the cliffhanger) and the focus is solely on Touya and his party. To be honest, for the first half of the book I wished we’d cut away a couple of times – while fighting mutant hermit crabs and stopping scheming merchants at an auction is all very well and good, there’s no denying that the volume tends to meander for over half the book till it gets to the plot it came here for. One it does hit that plot, though, things pick up, and the second half works much better, and introduces us to a new girl, though she’s not new to Touya: it’s his sister Yukina, who passed away three years earlier back on Earth, now resurrected into this world as a demon girl.

Oh no, I hear you cry, a little sister character in a harem series. And you are correct to do so, though the narrative is very odd in that respect. The illustrator is certainly down with Yukina as a sexy young thing, and we see Touya blushing at her – in the illustrations. Likewise, the afterword has the author bragging about how he finally got the “not related by blood yet related by blood” sister into the harem (she’s resurrected as a demon, see, so technically no longer Touya’s blood relation). What’s pushing back against this is Touya himself, who in the narrative shows absolutely no sign of seeing Yukina as anything but a little sister, even when they’re bathing together. Obviously, this will likely change, but for the moment Touya and Yukina read like a normal (if overly close) pair of siblings. Though she does get to do the jealous “cling to his arm and stick out her tongue at a rival” pose. So there’s that.

Speaking of Yukina, sometimes in this series, despite the depth that the author gives to the backstory and concepts, I feel as if he’s writing it very linearly, and I ended up thinking that here; Yukina and her death should have been foreshadowed at least two books earlier, particularly as it gives an answer to “why doesn’t Touya really care about getting home?”. Elsewhere, the bath levels up again a few times. Sometimes it’s sensible – we finally have toilets (with bidets), and the tub is now big enough to fit Yukina in along with everyone else – and sometimes it’s just silly, like the sink tap that dispenses orange juice and udon broth, which just puzzled me. Touya is a little annoyed about the blessings of the Goddesses being “had a really nice bath”, but honestly, he does pretty well with that bath. Don’t be ungrateful.

In any case, they now have a submarine, courtesy a mad scientist, which may come in handy as the cliffhanger reveals that Haruno and her party are in trouble. The 5th volume just came out in Japan this month, so I’m not sure how fast we’ll see it here. But, sibling love aside, Mixed Bathing remains a nice, relaxing isekai with attention to character and narrative. One of J-Novel’s best current series.

Bookshelf Briefs 7/25/17

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Dreamin’ Sun, Vol. 2 | By Ichigo Takano | Seven Seas – First of all, I get what the author is trying to do with Zen, and yes I know there are guys like that in real life, but oh my God I want him OUT OUT OUT of this manga, he is making me very unhappy. Aside from that, this was a decent second volume, mostly focusing on Shimana’s burgeoning love, though there are signs of a larger plot, mostly involving Taiga, who remains the only adult in the room (which is sort of sad, given I’m sure we haven’t even begun to dig into his own issues). Shimana herself can be hard to take, but she grows on me as the book goes along. You can tell this came out before orange, which is stronger, but this is still quite a decent book. Only lose the moments of Zen. – Sean Gaffney

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Vol. 4 | By Tsunami Umino | Kodansha Comics (digital only) –Mikuri and Hiramasa make incremental progress toward genuine couplehood in this volume, particularly when Mikuri’s aunt gives them a voucher for a night’s stay at a swanky premium inn. I am always delighted to see that, beneath Hiramasa’s stoic exterior, there exists an inner spaz with the hots for Mikuri. At one point, it gets the better of him and he plants a smooch on her, which he’s then incapable of explaining. Meanwhile, Mikuri has realized that she loves him, but while he’s reining himself in lest he drive her away, she worries she’s just forcing her desires on him. After the kiss, there may be hope, but she’s just too scared to admit her feelings. In less capable hands, their failure to communicate and just get together already would be supremely frustrating, but somehow Umino provides just enough payoff to make it work. Looking forward to volume five! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 13 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – We’re still in the middle of the qualifiers, and our heroes are taking on a team that likes to have FUN when they play. I was honestly expecting them to get curbstomped, but this isn’t that kind of manga (or sport, really) and once again Karasuno has to work hard and try new things in order to break through and beat them. We see how other teams can try to use their own moves against them (though I doubt they’ll be trying Hinata’s wall-jumping anytime soon). Then we go up against a normal, good team who’s simply well-disciplined and OK in all aspects—as noted by everyone, a bad draw for the eccentric Karasuno students. Will they win? And how injured is Daichi? Excellent shonen sports. – Sean Gaffney

Honey So Sweet, Vol. 7 | By Amu Meguro | Viz Media – How much you enjoy this volume will, I believe, depend on how much you sympathize and see yourself in Miyabi, who has absolutely no idea what to do with the feelings she now has and is also filled with social anxiety, leading to several bad choices throughout this book. I felt bad for her despite her being aggressive about trying to steal Taiga, because we know she has no hope whatsoever. Meanwhile, Nao is noticing what Miyabi is doing but is repressing her own feelings, which fortunately she gets told quickly is the WRONG thing to do. What follows manages to be sweet and cute, even if it’s about a girl trying to break up an already established couple. Nothing is fluffier than this series. – Sean Gaffney

Liselotte & Witch’s Forest, Vol. 5 | By Natsuki Takaya | Yen Press – Sometimes it is hard not to read this series and see echoes of Fruits Basket in it, particularly in this volume, as Vergue is acting an awful lot like Kyo. Fortunately instead of Liselotte, his interaction is with Anna, who gets to show off more of her true self and browbeat him into thinking about his circumstances. It’s probably the scene I liked best in the volume. Liselotte is not having an easier time of it; she’s traumatized at seeing her brother at the festival she’s trying to quietly spy on, and she finally meets up with the Woglinde, who magically gives Liselotte back her hair but I have no doubt is likely going to be more of an antagonist than anything else. Save up, as we’re caught up with Japan, but still good. – Sean Gaffney

Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, Vol. 9 | By Keiichi Arawi | Vertical Comics – Again, so much of the humor in Nichijou is about things simply being strange and bizarre for their own sake—you may let out a laugh at the bizarre goings-on, but this is the type of manga to inspire headtilts and chuckles more than tears of laughter. We get a flashback to Yukko and Mai meeting Mio, who is starting at a new school and is not prepared for it to be as super weird as it is, and also flashforwards to the future, where the Professor is going to school, Nano is keeping house, and strangely Nakamura is living with them. Oh yes, and in separate chapters, Yukko and Mio almost die. If you love Nichijou, you’ll love this. If you don’t, well, you likely dropped it long ago. – Sean Gaffney

Princess Jellyfish, Vol. 5 | By Akiko Higashimura | Kodansha Comics – It’d been a while since I read any Princess Jellyfish and I’d kind of forgotten how wonderfully unique it is. I haven’t read a story where a bunch of otaku work so hard at a real-world challenge, but they’re really trying to make a go of this clothing line. Meanwhile, Kuranosuke, who’s been the voice of encouragement this far, is getting a dose of reality on the state of the apparel business. I also love how Tsukimi has begun to change (and even to date!) and that Jiji, too, is getting out into the world and rediscovering some practical skills. I hope this series ends happily, but I appreciate how much detail we’re getting on the complexities of what they’re attempting, even if it means success is unlikely. Very highly recommended. – Michelle Smith

The Water Dragon’s Bride, Vol. 2 | By Rei Toma | Viz Media – Not quite as disturbing as the first volume, but this is still a very dark and dramatic manga. We learn that Asahi is not the first person to have been spirited away to this world, and that the one she finds out about (a female doctor) never returned home and is buried there. Not the sort of thing you want to find out if you’re missing your mom and dad. As for the Water Dragon, he’s as annoyingly petulant as ever, making sure Asahi is not killed off, drowned, etc. but also treating her like an annoying pest, to the amusement of his fellow gods. I expect more romance in future books, as we end with the ever popular “10 years later,” showing us Asahi all grown up. Solid. – Sean Gaffney

A Certain Scientific Railgun, Vol. 12

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By Kazuma Kamachi and Motoi Fuyukawa. Released in Japan as “Toaru Kagaku no Railgun” by ASCII Media Works, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Nan Rymer, Adapted by Maggie Danger.

Warning: the first paragraph of this review, above the picture, is spoiler-free for the most part. After that I will not only be spoiling the volume itself, but also A Certain Magical Index 15, which comes out in May 2018 from Yen On. Most Index fans know this spoiler well, but for the casual readers among you who have only read Railgun, stop after the first paragraph. This is a solid Railgun volume, with thankfully little to no fanservice (Kuroko is absent, which helps). It’s a book of two halves, the first of which features Saten and Frenda meeting by chance and bonding over canned fish, then getting caught up in a nasty situation because Saten has once again been mistaken for something more than she is. The second half sets up a new arc as Mikoto and Misaki investigate a girl who is yet another Secret Project of Academy City’s endless array of mad scientists. Railgun readers should enjoy this.

OK, spoiler-free time is over. THIS BOOK HAS SO MANY DEAD PEOPLE. A lot of what Kamachi has been doing with Railgun (and unlike most spinoffs of popular light novels, you can tell he has a major hand in this series) has been to fill in the blanks between Index volumes where Touma wasn’t around, not just from Mikoto’s perspective but also others. He’s also taken a lot of the cast and expanded their roles immensely to give them depth, and no one’s a more obvious example of that than Frenda. We’ve seen Frenda multiple times through Railgun, first as a villain in part of the Railgun-only Sisters arc, then again in the Railgun anime ending helping Mikoto take out a Big Bad, and then various spotty cameos. Now she gets a big focus story as she works to help save Saten – despite the fact that she wonders why the hell she’s doing this – from the machinations of SCHOOL, a dark organization which is using Indian Poker for its own nefarious ends. Frenda really is likeable here, and when she and Saten text each other at the end, you smile, hoping she’ll turn up again.

But to the reader of Index Novel 15, which came out 8 years before these Railgun chapters, this is tragedy. Because Frenda dies, ripped in half as revenge for being “a traitor”. The “One Week Later” at the end of the arc, showing Saten texting Frenda and getting no response, and seeing Uiharu at her door instead, is horrible, and meant to be incredibly depressing. Also, note that Uiharu’s shoulder and arm are in a sling – I suppose I should be grateful that Railgun isn’t going to cover that as well, as that’s also an Index 15 thing. Oh yes, and SCHOOL will, with one exception, also be entirely dead by the end of Book 15 (and in one case, good riddance – my lip curled when I saw Kakine on the page). As I said, this volume is crawling with people who, in the main series, die horribly. It CAN be read without knowledge of those events, and is still quite good. But for those who know what happens next, the first half of this volume is very different. I definitely recommend coming back to it later on after you read Index 15.