Manga Bookshelf

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Sean Gaffney

Otherworld Barbara, Vol. 2

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By Moto Hagio. Released in Japan as “Barbara Ikai” by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine flowers. Released in North America by Fantagraphics. Translated by Matt Thorn.

The second and final volume of Otherworld Barbara has a lot less actual Barbara in it, but that doesn’t make it any less strange. We don’t see as much of the city in Aoba and Dr. Watarai’s dreams because their own current reality is far too busy. We get a lot more revelations regarding Johannes, the guru who turns out to be responsible for a great deal of the plot. We find that Akemi, Dr. Watarai’s ex-wife, is more than simply “slightly hysterical” as I said in my last review, but borders on genuinely disturbed. And various events that seemed to be happening on Barbara, or on Mars, overlap with other events happening on Earth, so that by the end we have an emotionally rewarding but logically befuddling series of reunions. But it’s fine, because the emotional payoff is what you want here.

Despite all of the immortality research, past lives discussion, and reincarnation theories that pop up in this book, at heart it remains about Dr. Watarai’s awkward yet heartfelt efforts to bond with his son Kariya. He’s not very good at it, and Kariya is also not very good at accepting his father, and the tension between them feels very real. Kariya has several forces pulling at him here, none more so than the dream spectre of Aoba, who urges cannibalism without really going into detail about why it’s such a good idea. And then there’s the question of whether Dr. Watarai is Kariya’s real father – Akemi said he was, but she’s backtracking now, and saying “I did DNA tests that I totally didn’t fake honest” is not really the best reassurance. As it turns out, there really *is* something to the whole “eating hearts” thing, though fortunately we don’t have to go quite that far.

So much of Otherworld Barbara relies on being pulled along by the mangaka without asking too many questions, and it’s actually rather exhilarating. I’m sure that if I sat down and reread the entire series in one gulp most of it would make sense, but I am not actually sure I want to do that. There’s a certain joy involved in being just as confused as everyone else as to what’s actually going on, why Johannes is a young handsome middle-aged man but also an old guy who never leaves his room; why Kariya and Taka seem to swap bodies and lives, and what happened to Laika’s parents, which I admit caused me to say “Oh, come ON”, so that may have been one too many trips to the well. The art also serves the title well, being sensible and direct when it needs to be but gorgeous and evocative when hitting high emotional moments. The faces in particular stay with you, particularly Akemi’s 57 varieties of anger and rage.

Mostly, though, Otherworld Barbara makes me long for more works by Moto Hagio. I want to be pulled along by her as she lays out another story again. This, Heart of Thomas and A Drunken Dream just aren’t enough. What about a They Were Eleven rescue? Or A Cruel God Reigns? I bet Fantagraphics could pull off Marginal, it’s short and offbeat enough for them. Basically what I’m saying is, I think I’m addicted to this author. You should be too.

Manga the Week of 9/6/17

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SEAN: September begins, and it’s back to school with a giant crush of manga. As always.

Dark Horse has a 3rd volume of Psycho-Pass prequel Inspector Shinya Kogami.

J-Novel Club gives us a 5th digital Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash novel, which… may not be depressing? Possibly?

And there’s also a 6th Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, which gives focus to our favorite underground priestess.

Did you know that Pumpkin Scissors is still running to this day? Somehow? It’s true! Kodansha is still rescuing it digitally with Vol. 13.

MICHELLE: I did not!

SEAN: On to non-Del Rey stuff, we have a 5th volume of GTO Paradise Lost, the latest in the author’s “no matter what I try to write, only Onizuka seems to sell” sequel.

ASH: I’ll admit, although I greatly enjoyed GTO, I haven’t really been keeping up with the sequels.

SEAN: And a 3rd Kounodori: Dr. Stork, which I am now behind on. Yay!

We also have two debuts from Kodansha digitally, that actually came out this week but Kodansha dropped them secretly as always. Black Panther and Sweet 16 (Kurohyou to 16-sai) is a Nakayoshi title that nevertheless seems very racy. It also has a weak female lead and pushy male lead. Ergh.

MICHELLE: Pass.

ANNA: I feel like I have seen this too many times before…

SEAN: And Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (Youkai Apato no Yuuga na Nichijou) runs in Shonen Sirius, and is what it sounds like – protagonist moves into an apartment filled with yokai.

MICHELLE: Hm. Maybe.

ANNA: That sounds promising, but I have a high tolerance for yokai titles.

ASH: As do I, for that matter.

SEAN: You want print? How about the 8th Sweetness and Lightning?

MICHELLE: Yay!

ASH: The series is such a delight! (And yes, print, please!)

SEAN: And there is also the 2nd Waiting for Spring for shoujo fans. Its first volume was unoriginal but soothing.

MICHELLE: I think there’s room for a series like that in my heart. I plan to read volumes one and two together.

ANNA: I have the first volume and haven’t read it yet, but soothing shoujo sounds nice.

Seven Seas has an 11th Arpeggio of Blue Steel, which continues to be the Tom Clancy novel of anthropomorphic personifications.

The debut next week is Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, the 2014 manga sequel that apparently updates Harlock for the 21st century. Despite the fact that it runs in Champion Red, I look forward to it.

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving this one a try, too.

SEAN: And there’s the 8th Golden Time. Still a soap opera, still enjoyable to me.

And Tales of Zestria has a 2nd volume.

ASH: Whoops, I’d already forgotten about this series (probably because it’s based on a video game I’m not particularly familiar with), but it seems like it could have potential.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 2nd Mobile Suit Gundam Wing manga, which continues to adapt Endless Waltz.

And now for Viz. So much Viz. Starting with the 4th Anonymous Noise, which I hope features some nice screaming.

MICHELLE: Volume three was the first time I had a “this is actually kind of cool” moment, so I will keep going for a little while to see if that becomes a trend.

ANNA: I think it has gotten better as the series develops, and I enjoy the screaming scenes.

SEAN: Bloody Mary’s 8th volume is not about vampires!… wait, yes, sorry. It is.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

ANNA: SO behind on this series, but I enjoyed the vampire angst in the early volumes.

SEAN: Boruto has a 2nd manga volume, which I imagine means the anime has already long since passed it.

Death Note gets an all-in-one edition, and at 2400 pages it comes close to taking the crown for best blunt object.

ASH: I really want to see one of these in person, just to see how it’s put together. I’ve been assured that the spine will hold up, but what about the readers?!

SEAN: Everyone’s still not getting married in the 6th Everyone’s Getting Married.

ANNA: I so enjoy this series. Hooray for Shojo Beat’s stealth josei publication practices!

SEAN: Haikyu!! 15 is out. But you knew that, as it’s a monthly. It’d be weirder if it weren’t out next week.

MICHELLE: I actually have a nice little pile of Haikyu!! to read now. I expect a mini-marathon will be great fun.

ANNA: I have a difficult time reading this series because my kids steal each volume.

ASH: Like Michelle, I’ve (unintentionally) been preparing for a mini-marathon as well. But I do enjoy Haikyu!! so incredibly much.

SEAN: Kimi Ni Todoke crawls to its conclusion some more. I dearly love it every time I read it, but admit that I wish it would hurry up.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I still can’t tell whether it’ll end after high school or actually follow the characters into their college endeavors.

ANNA: I need to get caught up!

SEAN: It’s the end for My Love Story!!, which has a lucky 13th volume to end on. Will the rain in Spain defeat our separated couple? Will we get a sweet happy ending! (spoilers: we will.)

MICHELLE: I’m counting on it!

ANNA: Such a great series.

ASH: It really is wonderful!

SEAN: And Nisekoi is also almost-but-not-quite done with this 23rd volume.

Chibi Sasuke’s Sharingan Legend is a superdeformed parody that aims to show us the humorous side of Sasuke. It should be about 4 pages long, then.

One Piece’s 21st 3-in-1 takes us to Fish-Man Island, so it’s slowly catching up with the main volumes.

One-Punch Man’s 12th volume will have some quality punching.

ASH: Excellent.

SEAN: And speaking of Quality, QQ Sweeper finally gets its sequel/reboot with Queen’s Quality. I love this author, so definitely want to read this.

MICHELLE: I’m glad this is finally out!

ANNA: Yay!

ASH: I’ve somehow still not managed to finish QQ Sweeper, but I’m glad we’re getting Queen’s Quality, too!

SEAN: Skip Beat! has a 39th volume, which I hope wraps up the arc with Kyoko’s mother.

MICHELLE: I just read it and it’s great. Of course.

ANNA: Skip Beat is always great, but I am also not fond of Kyoko’s mother.

SEAN: Lastly, it’s not a long Viz list unless it ends with a Yu-Gi-Oh volume, and we get the 2nd of “Arc V” here.

Got your pencils and paper? Or tablets and digital pens, whatever the kids use these days. Also, manga?

Sword Art Online, Vol. 11: Alicization Turning

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book that more perfectly summarizes the best and the worst of Sword Art Online in one handy gulp. The high points of this book are excellent, and the low points are incredibly frustrating. Put together, though, we have a series that continues to intrigue even as the main cast that isn’t Kirito continues to be entirely absent – Asuna gets a few pages in the middle, but for the most part we are entirely in Kirito’s fantasy world here. Fortunately, the first half of the book or so gives another break from Kirito’s first person, as we get a long stretch narrated by Eugeo, who is nice and earnest and a good contrast to Kirito. I was expecting that we would see more training at the knight academy, probably ending up in the giant fighting tournament that had been lampshaded earlier. But then things went entirely off the rails.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first. We have yet ANOTHER instance where female characters are captured and threatened with rape, so that we may see how irredeemably evil the villains are (Kawahara’s villains remain his giant weak point – he can’t write nuance) and also justify Kirito’s violence towards them. This is even more annoying because we’d barely gotten to know Tiese and Ronie, so the threat doesn’t have as much of a reader impact as it did with Asuna and Shino, assuming the reader impact cannot just be narrowed down to “rolls eyes, sighs”. And then due to the plot moving on, we don’t see the girls after this, which just makes it more blatant it was done for pure “damsels in distress” reasons. I understand in the original webnovel this was taken from, the girls actually were raped – thank heavens for small favors that this was changed. SO BORED WITH RAPE THREATS, KAWAHARA.

Of course, disposing of the two villains does mean that the plot makes a right turn, as now Kirito and Eugeo are captured by the Synthesis Knights and brought to the Central Cathedral… which was their goal, to be fair, but probably not as prisoners to be judged. Things pick up a great deal here, as we find that Alice (remember Alice?) is one of the knights, but doesn’t seem to remember Eugeo at all. Kirito takes up the narration again here, and it works out well, showing off his smarts in knowing when to push hard on “this is a game world with game rules” – breaking the chains was particularly good. What’s more, after a long and highly interesting fight scene that shows us the knights may in fact be brainwashed, we are given a long, long infodump by a new character that actually feels realistic and welcome, telling us a lot more about the Underworld, how it got its start, and the evil woman now at the head of it all.

In the end, this is book 3 of a 10-book arc, so there’s a limit to how far it can take things. But once you get past Kawahara deciding that nothing adds to drama quite like rape threats, it’s enjoyable and fun, with excellent fight scenes. Just… get a new gimmick. I beg you.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 4

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By Hirohiko Araki. Released in Japan as “Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Evan Galloway, original translation and adaptation by Alexis Kirsch and Mayumi Kobayashi.

For all of the cool fight scenes and new arrogant villains, there is a certain sameness to Stardust Crusaders that I just can’t seem to escape from. It doesn’t help that this arc of JoJo’s is essentially a road movie/extended chase scene, and so we don’t really get much plot beyond “who will turn up in which Middle Eastern town to attack our heroes?”. To be fair, some of those villains are interesting, and there’s a lot of “the villain thinks they will be saved by the main villain, but no, they are just another pawn” here, but I’ll tell you; reading Jotaro’s story is a lot like traveling across the Midwest and staying at the same Holiday Inn with the same wallpaper every single night. Fortunately, there is the art if nothing else; JoJo’s always LOOKS really cool.

As I’ve observed before, there is a huge love of Western music that we’ve seen throughout the series, particularly in the naming of its various characters (mostly villains, but let’s not forget R.E.O. Speedwagon too). It reminds me of a previous old-school manga Viz used to release back in the day, Bastard!!. And just like that series, some of the names have to be changed to avoid litigation. Here we have Enyaba on the cover, who is Enya with a -ba added to her name to let us know she’s a wizened granny. There is also Dan of Steel, who is named after Steely Dan, of course, and like the item the band named themselves after, he proves to be a giant dick. An enterprising young fan could probably give us a nice JoJo’s soundtrack filled with songs from the bands and artists mentioned here. It also helps to emphasize the ‘road’ feel of this storyline.

The fights are the same, filled with action and horror, also continuing the body possession from last time. Fortunately, there is also a helping of humor, some of it gross (Polnareff and his tendency to need to use the bathroom – which rebounds nastily on him here) and some of it amusing if a bit sad (Joseph was always street smart rather than intelligent, but a lot of times here he becomes stupid for the sake of the gag). The humor is needed to offset the grisliness of the battles here, with many of the villains being taken out in highly grotesque ways. For all that Dio is meant to be the main villain of this arc, and I’ve no doubt he will be appearing in the final volumes, so much of this is like a video game where you have to battle endless mid-boss after mid-boss. The journey here in JoJo’s is definitely more important than the destination, and therefore this volume gets the same opinion as the others: I liked it, but like the first two arcs better.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 8

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By Satoshi Wagahara and 029. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Well, I’d talked about how much I love the daily life scenes in this series, and that’s still true. The author even throws in a classic one right at the beginning just to soften us up. But yeah, those days are, if not gone for good, at least gone for now. Because one of Maou’s larger flaws is tending to act impulsively and worry about consequences after the fact, and so the events of the 6th book are coming back at him with a vengeance. I won’t say that he ends the book completely defeated, but what with most of the cast being captured or incapacitated in some way, things aren’t looking good. I also said in the review of Vol. 6 that I suspected we’d be headed back to Enta Isla, and while we aren’t there yet, it’s very clear that we’re setting up a book or two over there next time. Fortunately, despite all these events, the writing remains first rate.

Yes, that’s a new girl on the cover, and if you think she looks like Alas Ramus, you’re on the right track. Her personality seems to be ‘hyperactive child’, despite appearing to be about 13 or so, and Maou has a lot more trouble dealing with her, which doesn’t bode well for his fatherhood skills when Alas Ramus grows up. (Can Alas Ramus grow up?) Of course, Maou is a little bit stressed out, mostly as Emi and Alas Ramus returned to Enta Isla for a visit and have not come back, despite it being well past the time she said she would. Leaving aside the wisdom of Emi returning to Enta Isla after the events of the previous books (Emi is fairly straightforward, so I can see her doing this), the absence makes Maou realize just how much Emi is a part of his life now. Of course, he doesn’t realize this right away, but takes most of the book, and a few talking tos by Chiho and Suzuno, in order to grasp it. Oh yes, and the worst part – he’s trying to get a motor scooter license (for the job, of course), and was so stressed he failed the exam! Which means more expenses.

Emi’s absence is not just noted by the fantasy characters, of course. First of all, if this takes much longer she’s going to need to look for a new job, as she’s currently AWOL at the call center. Secondly, Rika is very upset about the whole thing, and she runs to Ashiya is case he knows anything and ends up caught up in the attack on Japan that the forces of evil have launched to destroy Maou’s “demon generals”. The book balances on an edge as to whether Ashiya is going to tell her all about them or not, but of course he’s spared the choice by the bad guys showing up. The last half of the book has a lot of cool fight scenes, which if they ever do Season 2 of this series will look quite good animated, and Chiho gets to act cool. Still, there’s no getting around that Maou is in trouble, Emi is in trouble, Ashiya is in trouble, and those who can help are either too human or too injured. Excellent stuff, but now we have to wait to see what happens next.

Bookshelf Briefs 8/28/17

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Black Clover, Vol. 8 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – This one’s all fighting, but the fighting is really good. There’s, if not genuine casualties, at least genuine damage (I wonder about Kahono’s voice in the future), and a minor villain who’s easy to hate and makes you root for Asta to pound him into sand. Noelle also gets to level up, and we get a lot more attention paid to Finral and Vanessa, two of the Black Bulls we hadn’t really seen beyond surface impressions. Vanessa is ‘the older drunk girl,’ and it’s hard not to think “Fairy Tail ripoff,” but she’s quite likeable, and Finral’s “I am secretly terrified” is also relatable. And through it all there’s Asta, carrying on and never giving up even when all common sense tells him it’s useless. This has actually gotten quite good, if still unoriginal. – Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 39 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media – What an uplifting volume of Skip Beat!. Saena’s flashback comes to a close and Kyoko’s feelings about her mother have settled somewhat. She has accepted that she’s always going to want to attain her mother’s love, and even more calmly determined to achieve her acting goals. And so now we move into the next arc, where Kyoko is evidently going to be auditioning for a role on the samurai drama Moko will have a part in whilst also investigating a Love-Me case involving an actress using shady means to eliminate the competition. There’s some good stuff with Ren and Sho in this volume, but mostly it’s about Kyoko declaring her ambitions with clear-eyed focus, and I will never not love that. – Michelle Smith

Toriko, Vol. 39 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – As always, the more that Toriko is about strange and bizarre foods and the preparation thereof, the better it is. As such, I definitely enjoyed the first half, showing us Komatsu and company managing to do the impossible once again through his sheer power of food love (I also enjoyed the joke where he briefly got his old, volume one nose back), more than the second half, which featured Toriko and Starjun doing a lot of shonen battle moves in their face-off against the battle wolf. We also get some backstory for Neo and his all-devouring appetite, which gives a nice dose of creepy horror in an otherwise standard shonen series. Toriko is still enjoyable, but I admit I am counting down till its end. – Sean Gaffney

What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Vol. 12 | By Fumi Yoshinaga | Vertical Comics – How much you enjoy volume twelve will likely depend on how much you can tolerate the petulant antics of Mr. Kohinata’s boyfriend, Wataru, also known as “Gilbert,” who throws a tantrum for a stupid reason and runs off to hide in a café for a month waiting to be found. This does lead to the most tension-filled moment in the series for some time, in which Mr. Kohinata makes a pass at Shiro, and though I’m disappointed that Shiro even considers it, he’s obviously unwilling to jeopardize his relationship with Kenji. Of course, there is cooking throughout, though some recipes seem strange to me (cabbage and sardine spaghetti?) and a new clerical worker at the law firm who has figured out Shiro’s sexual orientation, but doesn’t seem inclined to broadcast the information. Still extremely good, even with Wataru and the sardines. – Michelle Smith

Yowamushi Pedal, Vol. 6 | By Wataru Watanabe | Yen Press – Oh, how I do love this series. The initial drama involves Onoda being involved in a crash and ending up in last place and having to pass one hundred riders in order to rejoin his teammates and take over pulling them up the mountain so that Makishiba, who has been waiting for another climber to rely on so he could give attaining the mountain checkpoint his all, can race one last time against Toudou from Hakone. Toudou is a comical character, but I absolutely loved the joy he and Makishiba experienced just to be facing off against each other again. Dialogue isn’t deep (think “Sharghh!!”) but the mutual respect and gratitude is. Also, I am 1000% positive doujinshi exists for this pairing. Can’t wait for the next volume! – Michelle Smith

Pick of the Week: Scrounging for Choices

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SEAN: Despite the large number of manga available this week, my pick is the latest book in the Monogatari Series, the 2nd Nisemonogatari. I enjoy this series despite its fanservice, but this one may be challenging even with that. Toothbrushes out!

MICHELLE: As Sean predicted, the new releases that appeal to me the most are Kodansha’s digital sports manga. Days is shounen fun, but Giant Killing offers a seinen slant that makes it unique and my pick for this week.

KATE: I’m backing Michelle’s play by picking Giant Killing and Days, too. I’d love to see even more sports manga available in English, and supporting Kodansha’s digital publishing efforts seems like the best way to encourage them to be bolder in their licensing choices. We need manga about golfing, running, synchronized swimming, mountain biking, kayaking, sailing, speed skating, agility training, sled dog racing… the possibilities are endless!

MICHELLE: I’m still holding out hope for Mitsuru Adachi’s Rough, too. (Though not from Kodansha, obviously.)

ASH: Were I a digital reader this would be a great week of releases for me with new volumes of Giant Killing, Saki, and Space Brothers coming out. Limiting myself to print releases though there’s not much that I’m super-excited about, but I am very curious about the debut of Kigurumi Guardians.

ANNA: There’s not a ton out there that I’m reading this week, although I’m very happy that more sports manga is being released. I’m picking Altair: A Record of Battles volume 3, because that’s what I’m most likely to read… someday!

Manga the Week of 8/30/17

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SEAN: STUFF!

ASH: Lots of stuff!!

SEAN: J-Novel Club starts us off, with a second volume of color-coded heroine series Demon King Daimaou.

And also a second volume of Infinite Dendrogram, which seems to be… just about a gamer in a VR world. What, he’s not trapped or anything? Pff.

Another Del Rey rescue bites the dust with the 21st and final volume of Alive.

ASH: It’s been a long time since I’ve read the beginning of Alive. Now that the series has been completed, maybe it’s time I revisit it.

SEAN: Aho Girl was amazingly stupid but amusing, so I look forward to Volume 2.

On the digital front, Altair: A Record of Battles has a 3rd volume.

And on the Michelle front, there’s a 4th DAYS.

MICHELLE: Heh, you know it! Also, I really do need to read Altair.

ASH: Same!

ANNA: I haven’t read the first volume of Altair yet, but I will!

SEAN: The title that nobody remembers (even Amazon, who hasn’t listed it), we get a 3rd DEATHTOPIA from the creator of Cage of Eden.

More Michelle volumes with a 5th Giant Killing.

MICHELLE: Seinen sports manga is such fun!

ASH: I want this series in print so, so much! The anime adaptation was great, too.

SEAN: House of the Sun got of to a fast start but slowed down after that. Here’s a 6th book.

MICHELLE: I’ve started this series but struggled to connect with the characters. I haven’t given up, though.

SEAN: Briefly back to print for a debut. Kigurumi Guardians is a shoujo title from Nakayoshi, but its creator, Lily Hoshino, is better known for her BL titles. No surprise then that this manga has a lot of pretty boys.

MICHELLE: I’m hoping this is fun.

ASH: Hoshino’s manga can be a little hit-or-miss for me, but I’m definitely curious.

ANNA: Hmm, I am curious too!

SEAN: Another forgotten by Amazon digital title, B&N lists a 29th Space Brothers volume. Apologies for forgetting to mention the first 28 or so. It’s a great series.

ASH: Yes!

SEAN: Seven Seas has a sea of titles next week, including three debuts. The first is Absolute Duo. It’s based on a light novel. It’s from Comic Alive. It takes place at an academy filled with fighting. My lineface can possibly be seen from space, but I’ll add it just in case. :|

MICHELLE: Heehee.

SEAN: Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor is another debut this week. It’s based on a light novel. It’s from Shonen Ace. It takes place at an academy filled with fighting. :|

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: A Certain Scientific Accelerator has hit its 6th volume, and despite ALSO being a spinoff of a light novel title that runs in an otaku-oriented magazine and taking place at an academy filled with fighting, I quite enjoy it.

Theoretically, Don’t Meddle with My Daughter should get points for at least NOT being based off a light novel or taking place at an academy of fighting students. However, it runs in Young King and apparently has two doujinshi sequels by the author that are actual porn, so let’s just say my hopes are not high. It’s about a retired superhero mom who returns to action to protect her daughter, who is now taking over the family business, so to speak. Oh yes, it’s also by the creator of Dance in the Vampire Bund. It’s almost the perfect anti-Manga Bookshelf title.

MICHELLE: Sounds like it.

ANNA: It could be the Manga Bookshelf Kryptonite.

SEAN: And along the same lines, we have a 12th Monster Musume, which can be very ecchi. And not only that, but…

Yes, we’ve hit the trifecta of vaguely H titles, an 8th Pandora in the Crimson Shell! BINGO!

On the Vertical front, there is a 9th Cardfight!! Vanguard, which has fights… with cards! (Yeah, yeah, shut up.)

Vertical also has the 2nd Nisemonogatari novel, Tsukihi Phoenix, which features the youngest of the Araragi siblings, though honestly Karen’s toothbrushing scene will likely get all the attention. Also, are fans still going to be dagnabbit mad? Probably.

Yen has some digital titles, with new Corpse Princess (12), Gesellschaft Blume (2), IM: Great Priest Imhotep (2), and Saki (12). Something for everybody.

ASH: Saki!

SEAN: And of course there’s always a Yen straggler, and next week it’s Dimension W’s 7th volume. Why they always delay one or two books to the next week, I dunno. It’s one of those manga mysteries.

As you can see, there is much to choose from, though my colleagues may be staring at this and saying “Yeah, um…” So what are you getting?

Cosplay Animal, Vol. 1

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By Watari Sakou. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Dessert. Released in North America digitally by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Rose Padgett.

Of of the more encyclopedia manga reference sites out there, Baka-Updates, has its listings of manga divided into tags, and I’ve frequently found myself looking at the work of a specific author or genre and wondering which tags were commonly used. In addition to the obvious ‘shonen’, ‘shoujo’, etc, there are things like ‘love triangle’, ‘strong female lead’, etc. And a lot of the shoujo titles tend to have the word ‘smut’ attached to them. These are the shoujo titles that run in order-skewing magazines like Sho-Comi or Dessert where the relationship expands to include sex fairly rapidly, and includes it often. A few years back you’d never have seen these sorts of titles over here, but now we have a certain number of them, mostly from Viz; Ai Ore, Butterflies Flowers, and the like. That said, while I have seen young women surrendering to passion, driven by their desires, and having a grand old time in these books, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a heroine quite as horny as Rika in Cosplay Animal.

Rika is a college girl with a fetish for costumes, particularly school uniforms – and I mean fetish, we hear over and over again about how much it turns her on. One day she posts to a hookup site and starts talking with a high school boy who’s having relationship issues, and as they talk she texts a picture of her in her old school uniform. She decides to go see him, and finds that not only is he super hot, he also works as a waiter – another uniform! Of course, at first he thinks she’s a high school girl. Then, when he finds out the truth, he finds her fetish a bit lame. But eventually they work things out, and now Rika is dating a guy who will not only agree to have sex with her in a uniform, but can give her multiple orgasms. The end! Only, of course, not the end.

This volume has only Cosplay Animal’s first-chapter, which is clearly a one-shot, and its one-chapter sequel, also clearly meant to be a one-shot. Something about the series made the editors reward it with a longer run, and I’m pretty sure it’s Rika, who is simply straight up ridiculous. The series verges on being completely horrible but it isn’t quite, and what makes it compulsively readable is that Rika really is that over the top – if she were a more realistic, emotionally fragile young shoujo heroine this would be tasteless. As it is you can’t even get offended because of the silliness. That said, the manga cannot sustain this pace forever, and I can’t help but notice that it ran for 14 volumes. Something is going to have to give to fill up that space. I hope the character development is just as whacked out as the start was.

There are also three unrelated short stories at the end of this, which in fact take up more room in the volume than the main series. Cockblocked! is memorable mostly for the title, and features a girl trying to have sex with her older tutor but having difficulties due to a past family trauma. Servants of the Flesh deals with two young people in different schools, one male, one female, who have the same reaction to being called ignorant virgins a while back – to learn EVERYTHING IT IS POSSIBLE TO KNOW ABOUT SEX. Of course, they are still virgins. Sparks fly when they meet each other trying to help a friend at each of their respective schools, and end up being super hot once they both take their giant nerd glasses off. Again, it’s the sheer ludicrousness that makes the short work, though it gets buried in sex info because of the leads. The Touch of an Angel, the Kiss of a Devil is the most ‘normal’ story in the book, and therefore the dullest. I wonder if it was the author’s first, it seems so generic.

Cosplay Animal is a fun manga to read, but be warned: do not have any expectations of it being anything other than pervy shoujo froth. If that’s what you’re looking for, Rika is here for you.

My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World: The Strongest Little Brother’s Commonplace Encounters with the Bizarre?!

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By Tsuyoshi Fujitaka and An2A. Released in Japan as “Neechan wa Chuunibyou” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

Well, we’ve reached the 5th volume, which is usually around when a lot of light novel series decide to give us a series of interconnected short stories, and that’s the case here, as our heroes’ club advisor (who is the villain from the prior book, returned to be a counselor for Yuichi for reasons I won’t bother to get into as they’re stupid) explains that the other villains will probably have a rest period before they try to attack again and restart the main plot. Of course, Yuichi is who he is, so this doesn’t mean that his life becomes a normal romantic school comedy. Every week brings a fresh new series of supernatural things for him to punch, rivals to take down, and girls to rescue. Why? Well, because he is who he is, trained by his older sister.

As I’ve discovered with a lot of these short story books, the rule of thumb is that the longer the story, the better it is. This means the book gets better as it goes along, as the final two stories are definitely the longest and best. But it also means you start by wading through a lot of drek. The first story (and connected prologue) attempts to show us that Kanako and her writing career is still relevant to the plot, but I’m fairly sure that’s not the case – mostly it’s there to make fun of light novels. We then get a story of a yokai who tries to seduce men, but looks like a little girl, which at least keeps the lolicon jokes down to a mere 2-3 per page, but is otherwise meh. The third story introduces a friend/lackey of Mutsuko, who has new powers she wants to test on Yuichi. The main thrust of the story is that the girl is very fat, which Yuichi seeks to remind us of constantly. I was more amused by her constantly slipping into different types of over the top speech patterns – it reminded me of the otaku from Oregairu, and distracted me from the endless fat comments. The other yokai stories are so dull I’ve already forgotten them.

The last two stories, though, are decent, and help to make the book at least get a low passing grade. The story with Yoriko attracting the attention of a delinquent, and then a yakuza with a thousand men at his command, is merely an excuse to see how ridiculous things can get, which honestly is why I read this series in the first place, so I was quite pleased – they got very ridiculous. Also, their mother is Kasumi Tendo – I was very disappointed she didn’t say “Ara, ara”. The final story deals with spirits, and whether Yuichi can punch them with his manly fists of justice (answer: of course he can). It’s more of a hodgepodge than the previous story, seeming content to throw plot ingredients into a nabe pot and see what comes out, but it was also fun, even if the ending was slightly predictable (I say slightly only because I guessed the wrong ghost).

The cliffhanger may be the most interesting part of the book (which doesn’t speak well of it), seeming to introduce Yuichi’s next major foe, a protagonist from a different world who honestly reminds me of the hero from Little Apocalypse. (Boy, wouldn’t that be a crossover?) Also, don’t think I didn’t notice Natsuki simply vanishing midway through the book. We’ve only got two more to go in this series, so keep reading if you’re a fan. Otherwise, skip it.

Bookshelf Briefs 8/21/17

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Behind the Scenes!!, Vol. 4 | By Bisco Hatori | Viz Media – I’m still vaguely enjoying this series, but I must admit I’m far more into it for the special effects department and studies about film-making and acting than I am regarding the main characters. Izumi’s amnesia really doesn’t seem like anything other than a necessary plot twist to drag things out a bit… and even then, he still gets the cookies in the end. More amusing is the brief cameo by Ranmaru’s parents, who are the opposite of what everyone was expecting, including the reader. But perhaps most importantly for the female readers of this manga, Goda cuts his hair! I enjoy this while reading it, but it feels like a “victory lap” series, the sort of thing an author writes after finishing a big hit. – Sean Gaffney

Descending Stories, Vol. 2 | By Haruko Kumota | Kodansha Comics – I knew that somewhere along the way we were going to get an extended flashback showing us the youth of Yakumo, but I wasn’t expecting to see it so soon, or for it to take up the majority of this volume. It’s told very well, making both Bon and Shin very sympathetic and likeable, and also introducing another woman who will no doubt become even more important in the third volume. More to the point, though, the series still at its heart continues to be about rakugo, and we see several examples of the art throughout the book, showing what’s good about it and what its flaws are—and also showing us how far Yotaro has to go to remotely get near competent. Not falling asleep would be a good start. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 14 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Answering my question from last time, Daichi is not THAT injured, but injured enough so that he has to sit out the rest of the match—he’s lost a tooth. And so we get to see Ennoshita come in to take his place, which means that most of this book is about Karasuno struggling to regain its rhythm with a new person where their captain should be, and said new person trying to find a way to help them and not completely panic. (We also see the complete panic—Yamaguchi gets a point, but chickens out rather than do the serve he’s been training on. I expect more of this later.) And of course we get to see Karasuno move on to the next game, and I expect the next book will start by showing us who their opponent will be. – Sean Gaffney

Maid-sama!, Vols. 17-18 | By Hiro Fujiwara | VIZ Media – Maid-sama! ends at last. Much of what happens here is fairly predictable. Misaki rescues Takumi from England, but not before he realizes that his Walker relations aren’t actually that bad. There’s a proposal, and intense studying for exams, and Misaki realizing that she no longer needs to hide the fact that she works in a maid café. The bits that aren’t predictable are sometimes ridiculous, like the fact that Takumi supposedly befriended some pigeons who helpfully obstruct the paparazzi, but also sometimes nice, like a small moment (a single panel, really) in which a study-fatigued Misaki lets herself lean on Usui and tells him a few of the things that’re distracting her, trusting him to get them done. Also, Suzuna and Hinata make progress! This definitely wasn’t my favorite series, but it had its moments. – Michelle Smith

Nirvana, Vol. 1 | By Jin & Sayuki (Zowls) | Seven Seas – This new series feels like a cross between a standard reincarnation manga—a girl dies in a plane crash and is resurrected as the reincarnation of a goddess—and Magi, featuring a lot of the same Middle Eastern feel of that series. As you can tell by its presence in a Bookshelf Brief, I don’t have as much to say about it as I normally would, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad—it’s a decent series, with some nice fights and interesting backstory. The plot is clearly going to be “let’s gather together all the scattered heroes,” the sort of thing that could run for three volumes or twelve depending on how well it sells. And Yachiyo is likeable enough, though I suspect her “must help others at all costs” will get into major trouble down the road. – Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 7 | By Mizuho Kusanagi | VIZ Media – With the expanding cast, working together with pirates, and Yona genuinely being badass and intimidating, Yona of the Dawn continues to evoke the Basara feels, and that is very much a compliment. As the volume opens, she and Yun have infiltrated a human trafficking operation by posing as merchandise, and though her dragons are on hand to rescue her, it’s Yona who terrifies and then neatly kills the head bad guy. It’s super satisfying! I also loved that when she later has a surprise run-in with Su-won, she’s terrified, yes, but also thinking of seizing the moment to get revenge for her father. She’s come such a long way, and now I’m even more excited to see where the story goes from here! – Michelle Smith

Pick of the Week: Food, Glorious Food!

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MICHELLE: It is happy cruelty that this week I am forced to choose between Chihayafuru and What Did You Eat Yesterday?, both of which I love intensely. I think we will probably see another volume of Chihayafuru before volume thirteen of WDYEY, as it won’t even come out in Japan until next month, so that gives Yoshinaga the slight edge this time. But really, get them both.

SEAN: My pick this week is the final volume of Blood Lad, which I’ve definitely enjoyed more than I expected to. It feels like it’s just about the right time to end it, too. Also, Fuyumi cover!

ANNA: Chihayafuru is an easy pick for me. I am so happy this series is being translated!

KATE: There’s only one manga on my plate this week: volume two of Delicious in Dungeon. It reads like an episode of Martha Stewart Living crossed with a MMPORG, mixing action scenes with tips on how to get the most of giant scorpion meat. (Who knew it was good for tempura?)

MICHELLE: Oh, I didn’t even mention that or Yowamushi Pedal! So much great stuff this week.

ASH: There really are so many great manga being released this week, making it extremely difficult to choose just one! So, I’ll cheat a little and pick a subgenre instead–give me all the food manga you’ve got! Both What Did You Eat Yesterday? and Delicious in Dungeon are very high on my list and I’m definitely looking forward to sinking my teeth into them. (Not literally, of course.)

Queen Emeraldas, Vol. 2

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By Leiji Matsumoto. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Zack Davisson.

These Emeraldas stories we see in this second omnibus tend to be fairly stand-alone and separate from one another, connected only by the interlocking narration of our titular heroine – indeed, sometimes the narration gets so interlocking it’s hard to tell when the chapter breaks are, which I’ve no doubt is somewhat on purpose. This is a long, endless journey through space. There’s no real destination, there’s no particular character development – Emeraldas is who she was at the start, and Hiroshi Umino may be hiding his identity behind a fake name, but is still essentially the same as well. So what you get in this volume is the delight of the scenery along the way, with Matsumoto’s sparse yet compelling art portraying a vision of space that its readers long to visit, even though they know that, since they aren’t Emeraldas, it’s likely they’ll end up as dead as most of the people in this book.

If you’re wondering where this takes place in the Harlock/Emeraldas/GE999 canon, the answer is “slightly early”, as we get a few shots here of Emeraldas observing (and really, that’s pretty much all she does) a short, teeth-filled man who faithful readers know is Tochiro, who will eventually be the love of her life. For the moment, though, the reader merely observes him dealing with life in a very Wild West-influenced outer space – much as Emeraldas is a grand Wagnerian opera, there’s also a large chunk of Hollywood Western to it as well. Of course, we’re not actually telling the story of Tochiro and Emeraldas yet, so which they interact, they eventually move on, just as everyone else does. Emeraldas is an anthology, and as such rarely stops to take on backstory. Still, it’s great to see him.

The series ends with a few short stories. The second one feels very much like the rest of the book, and is quite poignant. The first one… does not. I’m sure that in a collector’s sense the Matsumoto fan is delighted with its presence in this book, if only for the sake of completeness. As someone who’s read the rest of the series, however, the story of Emeraldas and her goofy female pirate crew running into Harlock and his male crew in an effort to find a treasure map feels like finishing off dinner at a 5-star restaurant with a bag of Doritos. I’m not sure if this story came out well before the rest of the book – I’ve been burned saying things like that before. But it FEELS like an earlier work, and while it’s quite funny in places, and it’s nice to see Harlock, I found its presence in the end simply jarring.

But that does not take away from the grandeur of the main work, and it’s been a treat reading Queen Emeraldas in English. It’s even more of a treat knowing that more is coming, as we have Harlocks both new and classic in the near future. Can a Galaxy Express 999 re-release be far away? (OK, probably, yes, it can.) In any event, classic manga lovers, fans of space opera, or even pirate kids will greatly enjoy this series. Long may she sail through the stars, narrating gravely as she goes.

Paying to Win in a VRMMO, Vol. 4

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By Blitz Kiva and Kuwashima Rein. Released in Japan as “VRMMO wo Kane no Chikara de Musou suru” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

Despite the fact that everything I either wanted or predicted would happen in my previous reviews turned out to be wrong, this ended up being probably the strongest volume in this series to date. Once again Ichiro is somewhat sidelined, this time by design – both parties have asked him to stay out of their design battle, which he does. In addition, I had predicted doom if Nem ever met Iris in real life – and lo and behold, that happens right at the beginning of the book. It’s OK, though, because this book ends up being a bit of a character piece, looking deeply at the life of a rich woman with tremendous talent but few friends or social skills, and a bipolar teenager (she says so herself, I might add) with a lot of drive and slightly more friends and social skills, but far less talent and likely headed for burnout.

The parts devoted to Nem are quite good, if a tad predictable, and I appreciate that she has the self-restraint to crush Iris in the game rather than Airi Kakitsubata in real life. As for Iris, I’m starting to see why the author mentions fans after the first volume wondering where she was. She’s such a car wreck in action, with astounding highs and devastating lows, that everyone around her defines her mood swings as her most well-known trait. I also appreciated the narrative acknowledging that as she is, she likely doesn’t have what it takes to make it as a designer – that may change now that she’s friends with Megumi, but even Ichiro admits that she falls short on the talent side. (Speaking of design, I appreciate the detail that these books go into showing off the careers of Iris and Megumi and what goes into creating custom fashion – there’s a lot of little anecdotes that help the whole thing feel more realistic.) And best of all, Iris still isn’t remotely showing signs of falling for Ichiro. I love that she still regards him as really annoying more than anything else.

The battle itself is closer than you’d expect, but Nem is a newbie to the world of NaroFan, while Iris is more familiar with “how would a gamer react” rather than “how would a normal human react”, so she comes very close, though in order to do so she does end up humiliating Sakurako, whose new character ends up being exposed a bit too much for her comfort. (There are also a few lines where Iris mocks the “old” Megumi, and Megumi and Sakurako’s reactions make me wonder if the author was poking at his editors for saying that the light novel reader hates women over 25.) Even Felicia is getting development, showing that she’s ready to break away from her cousin and achieve great things on her own in the game, something which ironically finally garners praise from him that she’d long coveted.

As I said, the only one who seemed to stay exactly the same is Ichiro, though you might argue that for once he appreciated his tactlessness a bit more than usual. Still, the cliffhanger leading to the next book seems to indicate that we’ll see more of him in it. The series is only six volumes long, so I’m quite happy to see what happens next. I wasn’t even as irritated by Ichiro this time around as I normally am, although that could also be a flaw in the work, given who he is.

She and Her Cat

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By Makoto Shinkai and Tsubasa Yamaguchi. Released in Japan as “Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Afternoon. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian.

The first thing that occurred to me after I finished She and Her Cat was that I felt that it would have been a much better book without the cat. I later changed my mind, but it has to be said that those who pick this up thinking it’s another cute animal book like Chi’s Sweet Home will be brutally disappointed. The cat exhibits some signs of cleverness in it, but is pretty much just a cat in the end, and the relationship with a kitten is the weakest part of the volume. That said, the volume is still absolutely worth getting because of the titular She, an office lady named Miyu who lives in her apartment with her cat and her regrets, possibly not in that order. Her life is laid out for us by Makoto Shinkai, who apparently created this in 1999 as a 5-minute animation and then expanded on it with both this manga and another anime series.

The reason I came to appreciate the cat is the way that the cat is also serving as the eyes of the reader… but because it’s a cat, doesn’t really understand much from Miyu other than surface emotions such as depression, exhaustion, or happiness. We understand more as a reader, having lived through similar moments in our lives, but the empathy comes from seeing Miyu’s life in miniature, rather than through any monologue that she has. There are a few scenes we see without the cat, and they are conveyed normally through dialogue – the only way we see into Miyu’s head is via either the words she says or the cat’s thoughts. She starts off cheery if harried, then suffers through a deep depression as things at work go sour and she’s reminded that her other friends have married by now.

Because this was written by Makoto Shinkai, I was uncertain if it was going to have a happy ending or not. But he specializes more in bittersweet than anything else, so though Miyu may entertain suicidal thoughts while under the bridge towards the end, things mostly work out thanks to a Neko Ex Machina. I like the fact that we end with her life swinging back up again, doing a lot better at work, and rejecting the proposal of a co-worker because she doesn’t love him, rather than because getting married is what she has to do now. Miyu finds being an adult as hard as the rest of us do, but she’s muddling through with the help of her cat, and I think it’s very inspiring to those who deal with feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness. And of course there are also scenes of Miyu playing with her cat, rest assured.

For fans of Makoto Shinkai, this is an obvious buy. I’d also recommend it for those who find themselves muddling through the day somehow, and wondering if it’s OK to be living like this. Even if the reader doesn’t have a cat, they may find an answer here anyway. (Also, why don’t you have a cat? Cats are awesome!)