Manga Bookshelf

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Sean Gaffney

Paying to Win in a VRMMO, Vol. 1

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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.

You would think after reading all of the light novels currently out in North America about games, either with people trapped in them, transported to them, or having worlds based on them, that I would be used to things by now, but Paying to Win in a VRMMO reminds me once again: I’m not really a gamer. I get the aggressiveness of microtransactions due to playing Candy Crush Saga, but that’s as far as it goes. And while it’s refreshing to actually see a book where people play a game they can actually log out of at the end of the day, it also means that more than the usual amount of prose was expended in regards to items, levels, attack names and types, and the like. Don’t get me wrong, the fights were exciting, especially the final one, it’s just hard for me to get into it as much when I’m seeing “he swiped his inventory to grab another sword”. But I suppose that’s VR for you.

Our hero is the man on the right, Ichiro, a young obscenely rich man who is also a genius, having graduated Harvard at age 13 (which is the usual requirement for fictional geniuses). Sadly, the fact that he can easily do anything has led him to be bored by almost everything. Then his second cousin Asuha asks for his help with a problem she has, one that needs to be solved by playing the popular VRMMO “Narrow Fantasy Online”. Ichiro has no reason to refuse, so agrees, pays an obscene amount of money to get an arcade version of the game put into his highrise penthouse, pays an obscene amount of money to get the cool character traits he wants, and pays an obscene amount of money to level up to obscene levels. He does all this rather coolly and stoicly, with the occasional bemused grin. Luckily, he finds something in the game that, for the first time perhaps ever, really challenges him. That someone… is Kirito.

Pardon me, my apologies. That someone… is Kirihito, one of many gamers who base their stats and appearance on “a certain famous light novel hero”. The main reason to get this book is probably for the almost-litigious-but-not-quite parodies of Sword Art Online, which keep coming fast and furious – the idea that most newbies play as Kirihito (this book’s version of WcDonald’s), the high-level Kirihitos who team up and become a sentai team, complete with pose (the illustration alone is worth the price of the book), all the way to “King Kirihito”, who may not like that nickname, but is the only other person in this game who can challenge Ichiro, and is also the source of the problem that Asuha would like to solve. (Also, if you’re going to be broadly satirizing SAO that much, perhaps choose a name other than “Asuha”, maybe?)

To be honest, while I enjoyed the book somewhat, I found the characters wanting. Kirihito’s real-life self was probably the most interesting, and I approve of the author leaving it up to the reader to choose their gender. Ichiro unfortunately grates a little too much with his “I earned this money myself, so can use it to solve all life’s problems and none can complain” ways, which get called out a bit in-book, but are mostly shrugged off. Asuha is very passive throughout the book, which is very frustrating given that one of the major cores of the book is getting her to stop being so passive – I didn’t really feel the satisfaction I was supposed to. And the otaku maid just wasn’t over the top enough for me to find amusing. The writing is good, and the jokes are excellent, but Paying to Win needs some better character development stat.

Captive Hearts of Oz, Vol. 1

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By Ryo Maruya and Mamenosuke Fujimaru, loosely based on the novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Angela Liu. Adapted by Lianne Sentar

One of the big sellers about 5-6 years ago on the late lamented New York Times Manga Bestseller charts was Alice in the Country of Hearts and its 87 billion spinoffs, based on a number of otome visual novels by creator QuinRose. In fact, one might argue that for a while the market was a bit glutted with Alice manga. Sadly, when QuinRose’s business went under, so did the rights to her series, and therefore we’re not seeing any more Alices over here. That said, they were a big hit for Seven Seas in particular, and they decided to reach out to the most popular artist for the series, Mamenosuke Fujimaru, and ask her if she could create a similar styled manga based on the Oz series by L. Frank Baum, which Seven Seas had recently done a version of with manga-style illustrations. And so we have this new manga, in which Dorothy finds herself in a mysterious new world and is soon surrounded by handsome men.

The strengths of this book are somewhat similar to Fujimaru’s Alice titles. Her art is excellent, and the pacing and action flows very well. The characters are mostly likeable if not all that fleshed out yet, as is typical for Volume Ones. We get the addition of a brother-sister team of Crows, who have a complicated tsundere-ish relationship with the scarecrow that I quite liked, and led to the best moment of the book, in which Dorothy pretends to be an evil villain in order to lure them out. Best of all is the hint that one of the witches, Locasta (you know, the one who no one remembers) is trying to change the way that the story goes, and we get the suggestion that the Land of Oz is something that runs on rules of storytelling rather than logic, in a very similar way to the Alice books.

The weaknesses of the book also crop up. It’s wearing its heart on its sleeve, frankly – we can’t do Wonderland, so here’s Oz with very similar attempts at dark themes and a harem of young guys. Unfortunately, the premise, at least so far, seems to lack the Alice series’ caustic and complicated heroine. While she has her moments, Dorothy is simply too nice and sweet, and you’re reminded that the best Alice books showed us the truth behind everything in the world – that the world was created as an escape to help her run away with a reality too tragic to deal with. I’m not entirely sure whether something similar is going on here, but if so, there need to be more hints that Dorothy is more than what she seems, rather than just Oz being more than what it seems.

That said, this is still the first volume, and I’m perfectly happy to get the next one to see how things developed. In the meantime, Alice fans will definitely enjoy this, I think, even if it feels a bit “lite” compared to its inspiration.

My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World: The Half-Baked Vampire vs. the Strongest Little Sister?!

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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.

The second volume of a series like this one was always going to be tricky. The seeming big reveal of the first book was that Yuichi, the supposed “average high school student” protagonist you get in these sorts of harem stories, was not remotely average. In fact, given the oddballs we saw in the first book, I had mentioned that the closest we had to a normal person in the cast was Aiko, who happened to be a vampire but was otherwise the fairly typical “shy cute girl” stereotype. Of course, as we find in this second volume, Aiko is far from normal either, even if she towers over the other eccentrics in her family in that regard. “Half-Baked Vampire” is your first impression, and the book tries hard to make it stick at the end, but I’m not buying it.

I’d argue this book isn’t as good as the first. The character of Yuichi’s younger sister Yoriko seems to be added for the sole reason that series like these always have little sisters who love their big brother just a little too much, and she doesn’t play any role in the plot besides getting jealous of Aiko and being too clingy. (You’d think she was the “Little Sister” in the second part of the subtitle, but no, as we find out, that is not the case.) There’s a lot of rambling discussion of the nature of murder and various other thought experiments by Mutsuko, whose tendency to exposit whenever it’s needed is her worst character trait. Girl who likes isekai continues to get so little to do that I can’t even remember her name. And poor Natsuki, the villain of the first book, is now reduced to playing the straight man role that Aiko played in the first book, as Aiko is too busy being the heroine.

Where the book succeeds is in analyzing the plot and character tropes you find in “Middle School Syndrome” types and, if not exactly deconstructing them, at least making you think about them in a different way. Honestly, much of the time the book reads as if it was written by Mutsuko herself, being the sort of self-insert you get from first time fanfic writers in their teens. Mutsuko may be the most interesting character in the series, which is fitting given she’s in the main title. I loved her discussion with Natsuki of those downbeat endings that seek to be dark for the sake of gritty realism, and how much she hates them – I agree 100%. At the same time, as Natsuki gradually realizes just what training Mutsuko has given her little brother, and how little it occurs to her to wonder if this is actually abusive or insane, we begin to see a dark core to Mutsuko, which I’m not sure if the author intends or not. She gets the final scene to herself, taking out the “power behind the throne” villain with a literal railgun, as suits her personality. She’s horrible and fascinating, which is fitting given that she’s an expy of Haruhi Suzumiya, who was the same.

In the end, this is still a silly harem series, but I enjoy it best when it’s taking a look at the stereotypes of such series, or asking us to examine the characters further to see how seriously we’re supposed to take them.

Manga the Week of 2/22/17

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SEAN: Not only is next week a Yen Press week, but the other publishers have a bunch of stuff too. Get ready to be buried again.

J-Novel Club has three titles. Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash has a 2nd volume, and continues to be the “trapped in another world” title that is SERIOUS BUSINESS.

The debut this week is How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, which could be good but whose title makes me very wary. Realist Hero sounds only a few story steps from a Dark!Grey!Independent!Harry fanfic.

And we get the 2nd and (so far) final volume of Occultic;Nine, from the creators of other badly punctuated works.

Kodansha is doing a mass re-release of the Ghost in the Shell manga, featuring Ghost in the Shell 1, 1.5, and 2. No, it doesn’t have the hardcore lesbian sex scene, as I know someone will ask. The creator requested it be removed. It’s still good. Get it if you don’t have it.

ASH: It’s been a long time since I first read the original Ghost in the Shell manga! Along with Message to Adolf and Blade of the Immortal, it was actually one of the first manga that I ever read.

SEAN: And they have a 6th Inuyashiki as well.

Seven Seas has a quartet of titles, beginning with a second volume of Magia the Ninth.

ASH: The first volume of Magia the Ninth was absolutely ridiculous but I couldn’t help enjoy myself. I’ll definitely be picking up the second and final volume.

SEAN: There’s also a 6th volume of Magica Swordsman and Summoner, one of those titles that I sort of stick my fingers in my ears and go ‘lalala’ when I see it.

The debut is Magical Girl Site, another in a genre I am so sick of it’s beyond belief. If you like the 8th iteration of cute young girls dying in violent ways, here it is. Again.

And in the complete opposite direction, we have the 2nd volume of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, which remains yuri-ish despite the best efforts of the English dubbers of the anime.

ASH: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the first volume.

SEAN: Vertical has a 5th volume of Devil’s Line.

Viz gives us a 2nd Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, one of the newer Gundam iterations.

ANNA: I still need to read all the volumes of Gundam: The Origin that I hoarded.

ASH: I’m ashamed to say that there are a few volume of The Origin that I have left to read, too.

SEAN: And an 11th Tokyo Ghoul, which should outsell everything else on this list combined.

And there’s also a 7th Ultraman.

And then there’s Yen Press. As with previous months, we get most of their titles except one or two which are delayed a week (so don’t panic, Nozaki fans). Yen On has the 10th A Certain Magical Index. Will the entire world be forced to be Roman Catholic? Naruto never had cliffhangers like that.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? has the 2nd volume of its side story based on Aiz Wallenstein, Sword Oratoria.

Yen On’s debut is KonoSuba: God’s Blessings on This Wonderful World!, an abbreviation of Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! (which I am happy to never type again). It’s a “trapped in another world” novel, but as you can see by its first volume subtitle, Oh My Useless Goddess!, it’s a broad parody of such titles.

And a 3rd volume of Psycome, in which the protagonist’s somewhat obsessed little sister joins the cast.

Oh yes, and three more Spice & Wolf volumes digitally, as the catchup really takes off.

Yen’s manga releases begin with the third Aoharu x Machinegun. Will we finally get the gender reveal that is probably long overdue?

ASH: Another series that surprised me with how much I enjoyed the first volume; I should probably catch up and see if I continue to like it.

SEAN: Onward and Onward and Onward goes BTOOOM!, now up to Vol. 16.

Corpse Party: Blood Covered has a 4th omnibus, and must be running out of corpses for the party. Someone will have to run down to the store.

MICHELLE: Hee! And that is the most amused I’ve ever been by Corpse Party!

SEAN: And we get a 5th Volume of Dimension W.

ASH: I’m still not sure if Iwahara can tell a coherent, cohesive story, but I did enjoy the first couple of volumes of Dimension W.

SEAN: Erased makes its debut, and it’s a hardcover omnibus. Dark time-travel thriller, from what I understand.

ASH: Now this I am very interested in reading.

SEAN: Fruits Basket has a 10th omnibus. We are rocketing towards the climax!

MICHELLE: After ten months, you’d think I’d be accustomed to the speed of this release, but you’d be wrong.

ANNA: Nice!

SEAN: KonoSuba, mentioned above, also has its 2nd manga volume.

Believe it or not, there are still Madoka Magica spinoffs, though they’re slowing down. Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Sadness Prayer’s 2nd volume sounds like the rest of the genre the main series inspired: bleak.

Rose Guns Days Season 2 Volume 2 is still not as good as Higurashi or Umineko.

I know very little about Smokin’ Parade except it runs in Kadokawa’s Young Ace and looks grim.

Spirit & Cat Ears is from my old nemesis, Comic Alive, so expect fanservice and cuteness, in that order.

Lastly, we get an eighth volume of Trinity Seven.

With the Manga Bookshelf team breathing a sigh of relief that at least there’s a Fruits Basket they can use for Pick of the Week, what will you be getting?

ANNA: Apparently, all of Kodansha’s josei and shoujo digital releases from last week!

One Piece, Vol. 81

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

In almost all respects, this volume of One Piece is leagues better than the last one. It’s the start of a new arc, which means that the chaos that Oda now writes as a matter of course is a bit more tightly controlled. There’s amazing fights, mostly in flashback. There’s great humor, mostly involving the two leaders of Zou and their animal characteristics. Our heroes get to actually be heroes, and we are reminded once again that Luffy’s piracy is not about raping and pillaging. There’s also surprising drama, as we find out about the extent of Big Mom’s power (complete with a shout-out to the movie Se7en) and her reach. And, perhaps most important of all, Sanji gets a last name.

This is more important than it sounds. Of the original ‘main’ cast of One Piece, it was noteworthy that three of them were never given family names, which might imply there’s some lingering backstory to be had in the future. After all, we never met Nami’s birth parents, and Usopp’s father is still presumably bumming around with Shanks. And then there’s Sanji – or rather, Sanji Vinsmoke, who happens to be one of a family of famous assassins. We don’t actually get too many details here, and I’ve no doubt we’ll be meeting them soon, but I like that Oda is able to riff on details that he wrote literally over 70 volumes ago in an “I meant to do that” way – namely that Sanji was born in North Blue, and getting from North to East (where he met Luffy and the others) is not an easy thing, As for Sanji’s decision to leave the Straw Hats in order to forcibly be married off… well, that’s what this arc is about, no doubt, and I don’t doubt he’d sacrifice himself to save the crew. (Note Capone threatens Nami first – he knows Sanji well.)

We also see the Sanji side of the Strsaw Hats arriving at Zou in the aftermath of the battle with Kaido’s underlings (we’ve still not really dealt with Kaido much, but as is pointed out, no doubt they will need to face him soon – along with Big Mom), and right away they’re making a humanitarian effort to save lives and help people. I always enjoy it when the Straw Hat Pirates show off their innate goodness, and this isn’t even in a “we’re saving the kingdom” way – if that had been the case they’d have arrived earlier. There’s also a tremendous reveal right at the end of the volume, which I won’t spoil, but Usopp and Nami’s tears, as well as Luffy’s huge grin, pretty much spell out how I felt about it. It was amazing.

So all in all we’re back to excellent volumes of One Piece, and I couldn’t be happier. Next time we get more anthropomorphs, and try to decide which direction the plot will go next – there are many ways it could go.

Chihayafuru, Vol. 1

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

It has become very difficult these days, as manga fandom expands and grows more varied, to state outright that a series will “never be licensed”. Sure, there’s still a few holdouts that can boast that – I’m looking at you, Hajime to Ippo – but for the last few years we have lived in a renaissance of “oh my God I never thought we would get this title!”. In particular, seeing josei series on a regular basis is something that is welcome and heartwarming. And, in fact, Chihayafuru pulls off a troika. It’s josei, running in Kodansha’s Be Love, which has almost never been mined for licenses; it’s a big comeback for the author, whose career was on ice after a plagiarism scandal – this is her magnificent return. And it’s also a sports manga, something which may not be obvious when you look at its cover, but really sinks in after reading the first couple of chapters.

Of course, you could argue we’re overlooking another big reason why this was an unlikely license, which is the subject matter. This is a manga about a group of kids and their love for Hyakunin Isshu Karuta, a Japanese game that combines memory with one hundred famous poems – you’re given the start of the poem, and need to find the card with the second half of it. It requires speed, smarts, and a certain amount of guile – there’s a lot of smacking of cards here that made me raise an eyebrow and wait for a foul to be called, but that never happened. Playing this game is our heroine, Chihaya, whose name is similar to the start of one of the poems. She’s a brash tomboy who tends to always say what she’s thinking, which gets her in trouble. She’s friends with Taichi, a smart young kid with an oppressive mother – he carries both a chip on his shoulder and a crush on Chihaya. And then there’s the new student Arata, made fun of for his heavy local dialect (which is nicely adapted here by Ko Ransom – I’m reminded somewhat of the way Sweden has been translated in Hetalia, only more coherent) but a whiz at karuta. He gets the other two kids involved, and Chihaya in particular discovers that her speed and acute hearing are a boon.

Fans of the anime may be surprised to see that this entire volume takes place in elementary school – the adaptation made this a flashback after introducing her in high school. It’s still a good start, introducing the strengths and weaknesses of our leads, and having a romantic triangle that pretty much isn’t yet because they’re kids, but you can see it bubbling anyway. Unfortunately, everything comes to an end with Taichi going to a different middle school, and Arata having to move again due to the health of his grandfather (a world-famous karuta player). Will they ever meet again? Signs point to yes. In the meantime, with its engaging characters, dynamic art, and the ability to explain a complex sport/game without getting bogged down in exposition, Chihayafuru is a must read. It’s digital only, but if enough people get it, print may be feasible. Go get it, it’s worth it.

Bookshelf Briefs 2/13/17

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Assassination Classroom, Vol. 14 | By Yusei Matsui | Viz Media – Japan enjoys using abusive parents for the sake of drama, but they sometimes have difficulty following through on this, and a lot of the time the parent is easily forgiven and it’s shown that the right thing to do is really to respect your parents after all. This shouldn’t be surprising, particularly in a Jump title, but Western fans might find Nagisa’s mother’s quick turn to the good fairly unrealistic. And judging by the cliffhanger we see here, we may be about to get the tragic flashback that shows how the school principal ended up being the sort who will literally destroy lives in order to better educate. I betcha two to one he’s easily forgiven as well. Despite this, still very recommended. – Sean Gaffney

Black Clover, Vol. 5 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – After gradual improvements from volume to volume, this one is a bit of a step back, as we resolve one plot a little too easily before moving on to the next. Asta’s kidnapping is taken care of in a perfunctory “I needed a cliffhanger” way, and the villains get away to live to fight another day. The best of them is Sally, a sort of Evil Hange Zoe who is perfectly happy to drain magic permanently from a bunch of kids FOR SCIENCE! Things pick up in the second half, when said young kids are kidnapped in a very pied piper sort of way. Unfortunately, Gauche, another Black Clover member, has a sister complex which is explained and deconstructed, but that doesn’t make him any less irritating. A wildly variable volume. – Sean Gaffney

Fire Force, Vol. 2 | By Atsushi Ohkubo | Kodansha Comics – I’m still somewhat torn about this series. The characters are fun and the premise is good, and any manga series about firefighters is always welcome, even if we need to make them cool supernatural firefighters. That said, the move to Kodansha has overall been a very mixed bag, as this is simply visually less arresting than Soul Eater, though you can see him trying. The fanservice is also greatly amped up, not a surprise given that it’s Shonen Magazine, but something of a surprise after a series that ended with a giant boob joke. I guess he still had more to do. Overall, this is pretty good, and worth investigating further, but I’m not sure Soul Eater fans will be enjoying it as much. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 16 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – The running gag of the series was that the main heroine was barely in it, but we’re finally starting to see that change with this new volume. Erina was always going to be Best Girl, much to the frustration of some fans, and it was therefore surprising how little she did over the course of the series. Now Daddy Dearest has come home to roost, hijacking the school and impressing his cooking theology on the student body, who I expect will get winnowed down very soon. He’s also shown to have been abusing Erina since she was a child, and his return is very much unwelcome by the now former head of the school, who begs Soma to save his granddaughter. I expect a far more serious arc next. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 7-8 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | VIZ Media – What does any character in a sports manga do after suffering crushing defeat? Try to get stronger, of course. Everyone’s got their own wall to surmount, and Kuroko and Kagami realize they must get stronger independently before they’re able to rely on each other again. Kuroko, in particular, lacks any other skills aside from passing, so it takes him a while to figure out what he needs to do. But, because this is sports manga, he does figure it out. Also figuring things out is Kise, whom we spend a great deal of time with in the second half of the book, as Seirin wraps up their training camp with a trip to watch Kise and Aomine duke it out in the tournament. It’s definitely entertaining, though I can’t help but note some members of the Seirin team get a lot less attention than other guys on other teams. – Michelle Smith

One Piece, Vol. 81 | By Eiichiro Oda | VIZ Media – Man, it is such a relief to finally be done with the Dressrosa arc! In this volume, the two halves of the Straw Hat crew reunite on the island of Zou, populated by talking animal people called minks. I liked the way the story of the conflict there was related after the fact to the new arrivals, including the departure of Sanji, who has taken off on his own to take care of a problem related to his hitherto-unknown past as the son of the leader of an evil army. The problem is, he might end up making an enemy of one emperor of the sea while the Straw Hats have been gearing up for conflict with another. Luffy is far more concerned about losing Sanji as a crewmate, but I really loved the scene of the whole gang back again, debating what to do. And hey, it wasn’t Dressrosa! – Michelle Smith

Say “I Love You,” Vol. 17 | By Kanae Hazuki | Kodansha Comics – All right, Asami’s relationship troubles ended a lot more positively tan I expected, and Mei and Yamato are able to patch things up as well. And we’re even getting the next generation, as the grumpiest cast member, Aiko, is also the first to get pregnant. Given the series ends in the next volume, this is unsurprising. It does mean that the bulk of the dramatic lift is done by Megumi, who remains the one cast member whose life is still unresolved. It’s getting resolution now, but not really in the way that she wants. She and her French boyfriend break up (good, I never liked him), but this means she’s now getting almost no work at all. I doubt the series is going to end darkly, but given the last volume is months away, I worry. – Sean Gaffney

Toriko, Vol. 37 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – This is Toriko‘s final arc, and it’s the first time that I’ve ended a volume thinking “Thank God this is almost over.” The manga has become tedious, as it’s come to suffer from massive cast expansion at the expense of the regulars (Bleach Syndrome), and we’re getting a bunch of fights which feel like recapitulations of fights we’ve seen done better before. I did enjoy seeing Komatsu bond with a young poor kid who lives with his (as it turn out, missing) mom, but then he disappears so that we can move to another locale for more shonen battle rage. This eventually happens to all Jump series (even One Piece lately with Dressrosa), but it’s a shame to see it happen to Toriko. – Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 4 | By Mizuho Kusanagi | VIZ Media – Once again, Yona of the Dawn reminds me of various different shoujo manga, but in a good way. Yona, along with her three male companions, is searching for the other legendary dragon warriors in a very Fushigi Yuugi way, even while she insists (in a very Basara way) that she’s not the incarnation of the Crimson Dragon King. When they do finally track down the Blue Dragon, he’s shunned by the villagers and forced to wear a mask to hide his powerful eyes, and given a sad backstory with an atmosphere that reminded me a bit of Natsume’s Book of Friends. I suppose all these comparisons show that Yona is not exactly the most original story ever conceived, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t extremely enjoyable, and I will always appreciate Yona’s insistence on being able to protect herself. – Michelle Smith

Pick of the Week: Chihayafuror

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MICHELLE: I have wished for an English release of Chihayafuru for nearly a decade now. It’s josei, it’s long, it’s about an obscure game… all of the things that made me sure I’d love it made it an unlikely licensing prospect. And yet Kodansha came through! I must say, I am already deeply loving their ramped-up digital initiative. I will surely be checking out Tokyo Tarareba Girls and Springtime with Ninjas (and Germany o/~), but Chihayafuru simply must be my pick this week.

SEAN: Absolutely Chihayafuru, if only so I can cross another title off my “this will never be licensed” bucket list.

ANNA: Michelle has said everything I would about Chihayafuru. As someone who loves josei manga, I wish more of it would be translated, and I’m delighted about Chihayafuru.

KATE: Since Michelle and Sean have already mentioned my top picks for the week, I’m going off-list to honor the late, great Jiro Taniguchi, who passed away on Saturday. A quick glance at online retailers like Amazon reveals that many of his manga are out of print. Two great titles that are still readily available are A Distant Neighborhood, a lovely coming-of-age story that’s funny, wise, and unsentimental, and Guardians of the Louvre, a handsome, full-color manga exploring the Louvre’s history.

ASH: Kodansha’s digital offerings of late really have been fantastic! I’ll throw in with everyone else and declare my top pick to be Chihayafuru. I’d also like to join Kate in highlighting some of Taniguchi’s work: A Distant Neighborhood is a personal favorite of mine as is his collaboration with Baku Yumemakura The Summit of the Gods.

MJ: From deep beneath a pile of snow, I raise my fist and shout, “Chihayafuru!” Yes, Chihayafuru.

Overlord: The Bloody Valkyrie

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By Kugane Maruyama and so-bin. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

There is a glut of light novels at the moment based on the game stats premise, be it “trapped in a game” or that the world simply works like a game. This includes Overlord, which manages to be a combination of both. At its best, Overlord shows us the cognitive dissonance between what Ainz is thinking in his head and what is actually happening, or what his minions are actually doing without his knowledge. At its worst, it gets bogged down in long grinding fights that are simply collections of spell moves. Overlord seems to be very much in the Dungeons and Dragons mode, which is fine for worldbuilding, but to keep the mechanics of it as well means that for non-gamers, the climactic fight can get amazingly tedious at times. Which is not what you want to hear about what you’ve spent the entire book building to.

This book also spends a large amount of time away from ainz – he doesn’t show up till a third of the way in – and thus also shows that the book is best when it focuses on him. I can see why we had the extended prologue – the plot is that his minion Shalltear has been mind-controlled, so we need to spend a fair amount of time with her at the start so that we actually get a sense about what the mind control really means and can try to care about her. Unfortunately, this is Overlord, a series made up of evil villains. And so Shalltear is a monster, who only seems sympathetic because the humans that she lays to waste here are a bunch of thugs who like to rape and rob young women. Her best moment was when she ran into one of the humans Ainz met in Book 2, who has one of his potions. This accidentally saves the girl’s life, as Shalltear has no idea why Ainz gave it to her, and so doesn’t dare kill her.

We are at the “this is successful, go ahead and expand your subplots” point in the series as well, so we get a few characters who show up and I suspect will be plot-relevant later on. This includes the somewhat ineffectual king, whose only ally seems to be his noble soldier (who we met in Vol. 1 thanking Ainz for defending the village). There’s also the king’s young daughter, who is gorgeous and beloved and I suspect has a lot more to her, and the daughter’s somewhat overly serious and twitchy bodyguard. And there is the unfortunately named Brain (it’s OK, the bodyguard’s name is Climb), who has spent much time training to be the strongest only to run into someone who completely breaks him to bits with no effort at all. The humans in this book tend to be cannon fodder, but he actually gets away, so we’ll see if he shows up again.

As I indicated, this is best when focused on Ainz and his inner monologues, meaning it’s the middle third that held my interest most. Overlord is still a series well worth reading. But it could stand a good editing, and eventually I will have to get used to the fact that it’s a bunch of bad guys power-tripping.

Secret of the Princess

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By Milk Morinaga. Released in Japan as “Ohime-sama no Himitsu” by Shinshokan, serialized in the magazine Hirari. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jennifer McKeon, Adapted by Shannon Fay.

Morinaga Milk’s books are simply nice. They’re sweet. They put a smile on your face. They are not the most original books in the world – in fact, they sometimes have so many cliches that they rack up a Yuri Trope Bingo before they’re halfway done – but they’re smooth reads, and you don’t have to worry about serious tragedy befalling anyone. There is angst in this volume, don’t get me wrong, but it’s the sort of book where one of the heroines threatening to kill herself by jumping off a roof is treated as a loving confession rather than an actual suicide attempt. If you try to attack too much reality to this, it begins to come apart, but that’s the point. It’s yuri fantasy.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. At an all-girls school, Fujiwara is the tall, athletic, cool, one-quarter Western beauty who all the girls admire. She’s also just accidentally destroyed the principal’s expensive vase. This is witnessed by Miu, a girly young first year whose mother has drilled into her that the secrets to catching a good husband. Of course, at an all-girls school, men are thin on the ground, so Miu has no idea how actual dating works. So, in exchange for her silence, she asks Fujiwara to pretend to date her so she can discover how this all works. Of course, she doesn’t consider the jealousy of her fellow students, or Fujiwara’s own loneliness and need for the social interactions that she gains with Miu, or, of course, her own growing and conflicting feelings.

Miu can be a weak part of this book – she’s a bit hard to take and frustrating, though she improves as the volume goes on. This is complete in one book, and a short book at that, so there’s not really much time to slowly develop anything. Fujiwara fares better, having a home life that seems to be mostly filled with maids (of course she lives in a rich mansion, have you read this genre before?) and her friend Hirosawa, who is also a short-haired beauty with a fan club but is second to Fujiwara. (The shoujo dynamic of the blond taking second place to the brunet lead seems to be reversed for Yuri titles.) Other than that, there’s not much to talk about – they date cute, break up when they start feeling guilty about the “falseness” of things, get back together dramatically, and end up in bed (though fleetingly – for the most part, this is pretty squeaky-clean.)

So it’s not mind-boggling, but it’s nice to see some sweet titles coming out here after a year of Citrus and Netsuzou Trap. And we have more from this author coming up next month as well. I suspect it will be sweet, fluffy, somewhat insubstantial, and yuri. Much as this is.

Strike the Blood, Vol. 5

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By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Bourque.

As always, Strike the Blood does what it wants competently and efficiently, with good pacing and a nice balance between the hero and his various female leads. And yet it continues to be one of the most frustrating light novel series that I follow, because it is content to be simply that. There’s potential for a lot more here, and at times the series looks as if it’s going to show you that potential… and then it backs off, content to give us a comedic perverted parent, or a bath scene with a giant nosebleed, or Yukina saying her catchphrase again with all the well-crafted timing of a Swiss watch. Strike the Blood is what it is, and thus I will never get to experience what I have with most other cliched light novel series, which is the joy of seeing the books get better as they go along.

This is the second half of a two-part arc, and as such we hit the ground running, with less development and more fights. Sadly, this also means less development for Yuuma, who is injured enough to be shunted to the side for the majority of the book, until the climax where she shows up to use her clone status against her mother. There is talk of the idea of her being a disposable tool being wrong, which would probably read a lot better of the author weren’t treating her like a disposable tool, using her to help resolve things at the climax and then cheerfully writing her out to go serve time as an accessory. We also finally meet Kojou’s mother, who is unaware (possibly) that he is a vampire now, and is an absurdly youthful genius doctor mom who has a tendency to feel up girls for fun. I called this “TV Tropes: The Novel” last time, and that hasn’t changed. His mother is there to provide gropes and exposition, and stop Yuuma from dying.

As for the plot itself, as the villain cheerfully admits, half of it is an excuse for a giant runaround using minibosses to build up tension but never actually do much beyond sort of threaten the hero and heroines and then get dealt with. I was happy to see Asagi get something more substantial to do – she remains my favorite of the three main heroines, and her solution to the first miniboss battle showed off her smarts (with the help of her AI that controls the entire island). Sadly, the main villain herself is less interesting, which is especially irritating as she didn’t have to be. There’s suggestion of a deeper story between her and Natsuki, and we even see a brief flashback, but it’s just spice to show why she hasn’t merely killed everyone before this. If we’d gotten an entire chapter devoted to Natsuki and Aya’s school days and what led to her descent into mad villainy, I might have praised it. But we don’t.

I keep hoping this will get bad enough for me to drop, but it’s far too efficient for that. It has dropped a new novel in our laps, and we will read it, vaguely enjoy it, be disappointed at what could have been, adn then forget about entirely until the next book. Sigh.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 4

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

Yona of the Dawn started off pretty serious, given the nature of its plot. It always had some humor, but in the midst of regicide and fleeing from a murderous former trusted friend, you can understand why things were a bit edgy for a while. But now Yona is collecting allies, and learning to shoot a bow, and things are looking up even if she is occasionally still attacked by bandits or led into deathtraps by terrified villagers. This allows the author to bring in a lot more humor – the third volume already had a lot of this, but this one finds almost the perfect balance between action fantasy, tragic backstory, and hilarious shenanigans.

the hilarity tends to come from three different places. First we have Yun, the resident tsukkomi of the group, who keeps them from dying in the middle of the woods and tries to provide actual common sense among a group that sorely needs it. His line in snark is good, but it’s his offhand introduction of himself as “genius pretty boy” that made me giggle most. (And he’s not wrong – this is a very attractive cast in general.) Hak and Gija, meanwhile, are both attracted to Yona, though they either won’t admit it or aren’t aware of it, so this naturally puts them at each other’s throats. Luckily it’s in a comedic way, and I was reminded a couple of times of the dynamic between Legolas and Ginli – particularly with counting the number of dead bandits. And there’s also Yona, whose humor comes when she steps away from her princess and savior mode in order to, say, beat her would-be lovers across the head, or insult a squirrel’s name. This is a very amusing book.

This does not take away from its other qualities, though. We meet another Dragon Warrior here, and his past is tragic and filled with violence, and I suspect meeting Yona will be the best thing that ever happens to him – though you may need to convince him a little more first. It’s easy to be terrified of someone who’s different from you, especially if they have a mysterious power that can seemingly kill people. Luckily, nameless Blue Dragon (he was too unloved to be given a name!) is found by Yona and company. There are also lots of fights interspersed through the volume, which Yona does not take part in, though she is getting better with a bow. I like the scene where Hak admits he hates the idea of her learning to fight but loves the idea of her learning to be stronger – it strikes a nice balance between the patriarchal “women shouldn’t be doing this” and his growing respect for Yona as a young woman.

I’m not sure how long it will take to convince the Blue Dragon to come with them – not long, I expect, it’s not like he has much tying him down – but I eagerly await things being resolved in the next book. Must-read shoujo fantasy.

Manga the Week of 2/15/17

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SEAN: OK, I know why we’re all here, but god forbid I not do this in alphabetical order by publisher, so…

MICHELLE: *sits on hands*

ANNA: *taps fingers impatiently*

SEAN: Dark Horse gives us a 4th volume of Fate/Zero, which has been getting darker and darker by the volume.

J-Novel Club has gotten to the point where we’re getting 2nd volumes. My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World may be very light novelish, but I found it a lot more fun than expected. Look forward to Vol. 2.

Their debut is Paying to Win in a VRMMO, which for once seems to feature a total immersion VR world that DOESN’T trap the players inside it.

OK, what you’ve been waiting for. Kodansha announced a few digital-only titles, and one was a long-coveted “this will never be licensed because it’s too Japanese” series, Chihayafuru. The story of a girl and her Hyakunin Isshu Karuta growth… what’s too Japanese about that? A josei series from Be Love magazine, everyone will buy this or I will personally come to your house and stare balefully at you.

MICHELLE: I’ll bring the cricket bat.

ANNA: I am SO excited, this is one of those titles I thought would never come out here.

MJ: This, this-y, this this. This this.

SEAN: We’re also getting the digital debut of Springtime with Ninjas, a shoujo title from Nakayoshi that I feel bad for, first because it pales next to Chihayafuru and Tokyo Tarareba Girls, but mostly because I won’t be able to read it without adding “And Germany!”.

MICHELLE: And now I won’t, either! :)

ANNA: I enjoy shoujo ninjas!

SEAN: As hinted, we also see Tokyo Tarareba Girls debut. Also a josei title, this one from Kiss magazine, it’s by the creator of Princess Jellyfish, and is award-nominated and fantastic.

MICHELLE: This is one I didn’t know I needed, and now I’m so eager. I will give Springtime with Ninjas a chance, too. Mostly to show my appreciation to Kodansha for the josei, though, I admit.

ANNA: I did not know about this either but josei titles are a must buy for me.

MJ: Well, huh. yes.

SEAN: Those are all digital-only, though if they sell well I hope that will change. In print we have the third volume of vampire manga Happiness.

ASH: I’m definitely someone who prefers reading in print, but I’m thrilled that these manga are being translated at all! Also, even though I’m a little weary of vampire manga, I am liking Happiness so far.

SEAN: There’s also a 6th Heroic Legend of Arslan, which I need to catch up with one of these days. I feel bad that I clamor for Silver Spoon while ignoring this.

ASH: It’s a pretty solid historical fantasy series, though I do join you in clamoring for Silver Spoon.

SEAN: And a 2nd volume of the odd yet compelling Nekogahara: Stray Cat Samurai.

Speaking of odd (but not always that compelling), One Peace has a 3rd Kuma Miko.

Seven Seas has four volumes out next week, including a 4th Hour of the Zombie.

Re: Monster is one of the weirder male power fantasies I’ve ever read, so I may give Vol. 2 a try, though I’m wary.

Seven Seas has been doing a LOT of yuri the last few weeks. The one-shot volume next week is Secret of the Princess, from popular author Morinaga Milk. It ran in Shinshokan’s Hirari.

MICHELLE: Hmm… Maybe on this one.

ASH: I have enjoyed many of the creator’s other manga, so I should probably give this one a look, too.

SEAN: And a 4th Shomin Sample, which no doubt will have a girl showing us her panties on the cover.

SuBLime’s 3rd volume of Ten Count is still not about boxing.

MICHELLE: Definitely not.

ASH: Nope.

ANNA: Indeed, no.

MJ: I am skeptical. Though not regarding its lack of boxing.

SEAN: Vertical’s To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts’s 4th volume does feature beasts, though, I believe.

Viz time. Hayate the Combat Butler makes me happy to see it even though it comes out so infrequently. Bring on Vol. 29!

Magi does not have the ‘only twice a year’ issue Hayate does, which is why we’re seeing Vol. 22.

Lastly, there is a 6th Monster Hunter: Flash Hunter.

Well, this was more exciting than I’d expected a few days ago! What are you getting next week?

MICHELLE: A plethora, apparently!

Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension: The Hero of the Unlimited Bath

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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 Dan Luffey.

One of the benefits of rock-bottom expectations is the numerous ways you can be pleasantly surprised. Light novels in general, particularly those licensed in North America, tend to cater to the older teen/younger adult male reader. “Isekai” books, where our hero is transported to another world, are already a hoary cliche. And let’s face it, this was advertised as a harem novel which features the hero bathing with any number of girls. It had the potential to be bad on a monumental scale. Luckily, it isn’t. Now, don’t get me wrong. The plot is still as traditional as heck, it applies that weird harem logic whereupon our hero is deeply in love with a girl till she vanishes from his sight and the next one comes along, and there is endless talk of butts, boobs, and naked flesh. That said, let me tell you why I actually enjoyed this.

First of all, there is the twist in the premise. Yes, this is a standard “Japanese kids brought over to fantasy world to save the kingdom from invasion by demons” plot. Each of the five summoned (though we only really deal with two, our hero and first heroine) get a power that is supposed to help then become a hero and destroy evil. The snag is that Touya’s power is the ability to open a door to a standard Japanese bathroom wherever he is, with unlimited supplies of water, shampoo, etc. The fun here is seeing not only how he uses this in the ways you’d expect (he’s in medieval fantasy land, so the idea of shampoo is amazing to them), but also in ways that would never occur to you (the final boss battle in the book, which is so hilarious I don’t want to spoil it). Touya is a clever kid, and I like how he keeps thinking of both the strengths and weaknesses on his useless power. (Note this isn’t a hot spring or public bath – it’s a bath you’d find in a home, and seats two if they’re very friendly.)

The other, even more surprising thing is how the main characters actually communicate with each other. This is a harem adventure, after all. You expect tsunderes left and right, the hero tripping and falling into boobs, lots of lecherous grins, etc. But no, Touya is a normal teenage boy. Which means that yes, he thinks of sex all the time. But it’s not taken to any pervy extremes. More importantly, he actually communicates with the women he meets! Consent is super important throughout this book, and I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to type that. Over and over again Touya tells the girls the nature of his magic bath, the fact that he has to be *in* it to have it work, and that yes, nudity will probably be involved. He asks if they’re OK with this at every single step. And they are, of course, though they’re nice girls too. In fact, Touya and Haruno falling for each other, although swifter than you’d like, is really cute and sweet. They even kiss! Halfway through Vol. 1! What kind of harem adventure is this?

A few more minuses – in addition to the basics I mentioned in the first paragraph, there’s that odd Japanese idea that thinking about sex AT ALL makes a person a ‘pervert’, which I’ve come across in more works than this. And once again we get a hero who has to emphasize over and over that he’s not gay, just in case the presence of other men in the narrative – even if they’re giant lizardmen – might cause the reader to question their sexuality. But overall, this was a lot better than I expected, especially on the romantic end. I’d still only recommend it to male readers, but if you’re wary of the ‘traditional’ harem story, you should give this one a try.

Kindred Spirits on the Roof: The Complete Collection

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By Hachi Ito, Aya Fumio and Toitentsu, based on the visual novel by Liar-Soft. Released in Japan in two separate volumes as “Okujou no Yurirei-san” by Shinshokan, serialized in the magazine Hirari. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Amy Osteraas; Adapted by David Liederman.

The success of Kindred Spirits on the Roof as a visual novel was one of the big events of 2016 – indeed, I even reviewed the game here – so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Seven Seas would pick up a manga adaptation of it. What is a surprise is that this isn’t just the usual manga adaptation of the visual novel itself; instead, you get two long stories that take place the year after the game happened, featuring new characters but with many cameos and supporting appearances from our heroines we know and love. This, of course, also allows the authors to hook up new couples, something that wasn’t likely to happen if they focused on the already resolved game pairings.

This was released in Japan as two separate volumes, “Side A” and “Side B”, by two different artist teams. As with many series that follow this path, the A side is better. Shiori is a shy student with a talent for art who is trying to recover from her best friend confessing to her the previous year. They haven’t spoken since, though it doesn’t appear to be because Shiori isn’t interested (certainly not in THIS series, at least), but because she has no idea what to say or how to react, and also she’s a giant introvert. Luckily, she’s in a class with Hina and Seina, two of the visual novel’s heroines, and they can help give her perspective and also talk about their own experiences. As this year’s cultural festival comes up, Shiori finds the courage to tell Maki how she really feels. The festival also gives us an opportunity to have everyone else cameo, even the girls who had graduated (and the ghosts, though they’re reduced to sort of smiling down on the new lesbians from heaven, as one does).

The second half isn’t quite as gripping, though it isn’t actually bad or anything. Chiharu is also a new first-year, and she’s a fan of yuri pairs (boy, did she come to the right school). When she sees two upperclassmen try to get members for the quiz club, she’s enthralled… not by quizzes, but at the thought of what a cute couple they’d make. Joining the club, she finds a kindred spirit (see what I did there?) in Tokino, who is taller and more reserved but also a yuri fan. If this manga weren’t so light and fluffy, this would be a recipe for disaster. But it is light and fluffy, and so Chiharu and Tokino turn out to be correct, and resolve to help push their two sempais together… and possibly learn something more about their own relationship. There are fewer cameos here, so things lean more heavily on the new girls.

Both stories are cute and fluffy and not too deep, and filled with cute fluffy high school yuri. I do think that anyone who wants to read them should play the game first; it adds to the experience of knowing who all these people are. If you have played the game, you’ll definitely want to buy this.