Manga Bookshelf

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Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Shoujo and Nuclear Power

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SEAN: Lately it seems Pick of the Week is overflowing with choices, which is always a good thing. I’ll go with the debut of Anonymous Noise from Shojo Beat. For years I’ve been a fan of Hana to Yume series, and so I have high hopes for this new one. Plus that’s a fantastic cover.

MICHELLE: Oh, man. What a tough choice. I am looking forward to Anonymous Noise, and to another volume of Natsume’s Book of Friends, but I suspect that, when it makes its biannual appearances, it’ll be Skip Beat! that always ends up my official pick of the week.

KATE: I just ordered a copy of Ichi-F: A Worker’s Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. If any medium seems well-suited to telling such a harrowing, personal story, it’s manga. I might need to read the first volume of Anonymous Noise as a chaser, though…

ASH: I’m definitely interested in Anonymous Noise, too, but I’m with Kate this week. Ichi-F is a fascinating, important, and personal work that gets my pick.

ANNA: I ordered Ichi F for my library, and I’m excited about Anonymous Noise as well. However, Skip Beat! is such a special series, I can’t imagine not picking it for Pick of the Week.

MJ: There are a number of potentially interesting titles on the list this week, but the one that sticks out for me most is definitely Anonymous Noise. I’ll admit I’m a sucker for music-themed manga, and this is no exception.

Bookshelf Briefs 3/6/17

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A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Vol. 5 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Arata Yamachi| Seven Seas – A lot of the Science side of the Index series involves trying to break past impossibilities, and death is always one of the biggest of those. We get some villain motive here with Hishigata, who is doing all this to make sure his dead little sister can return to life. Of course, as Estelle tries and fails to get across, that is NOT his dead sister but an evil force possessing her corpse (the reader knows this as she grins evilly when he’s not looking). As for Accelerator himself, he finally manages to save Misaka 10046 with only massive property damage in his wake, but we still have the final fight. Which Estelle will be joining as well. Excitement and adventure and really wild things, as always. – Sean Gaffney

Masamune-kun’s Revenge, Vol. 4 | By Hazuki Takeoka and Tiv | Seven Seas – Masamune makes great strides here, but a lot of it is by accident, and he’s got absolutely nothing on Neko when it comes to manipulation, mostly as despite his professed motive of horrible revenge on Aki, he’s still a nice guy for the most part who you know is never going to be able to go through with it. Indeed, he’s poking at Aki’s memories trying to see if she recalls “Pig-Legs,” though the cliffhanger suggests that will backfire on him spectacularly. The scene in Neko’s bedroom between her and Masamune is the best in the manga so far, and shows off the hero at his best. As for humor, there’s Aki’s foul-mouthed secretary and a hysterical test of courage gone wrong. Better than it looks. – Sean Gaffney

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Vol. 2 | By coolkyousinnjya | Seven Seas – It’s honestly hard to find much to say about this even in brief format, as it’s light as air. That’s not to say it’s not good—I actually enjoyed it quite a bit—but it wears its slice-of-life monster series agenda on its sleeve. We do get to hear a bit about how, even if this series does end up with a yuri relationship between Kobayashi and her dragon, it’s still only transitory, owing to the lifespan of dragons and humans. We’re also reminded that Tohru is not the typical dragon by the appearance of her father, which allows Kobayashi to actually take a stand and show some real emotion for a change. But for the most part we get equal amount of comedy, heartwarming, cute monsters, and yuri tease. For fans of those. – Sean Gaffney

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 20 | By Yuki Midorikawa | VIZ Media – I hope describing a manga as “lovely” doesn’t suggest that it is also dull, because this volume of Natsume’s Book of Friends is very much the former and not at all the latter. In this installment, Natsume and Nyanko-sensei (who is looking especially adorable!) help a yokai with a jar stuck on his head, find a lost hairpin for a heartbroken mountain god, protect a house from scarecrow yokai who want to make it their own, and beautify a tiny shrine to entice a traveling god to visit. I continue to love how sympathetic Natsume is to the plight of yokai—a trait that earns him the notice of a mysterious man Natori consults on the scarecrow case—as well as how he’s still so grateful to have friends who know his secret and help him out. I hope we don’t have to wait another year for the next volume! – Michelle Smith

The Prince in His Dark Days, Vol. 3 | By Hico Yamanaka | Kodansha Comics – After spending some time with Itaru in volume two, volume three brings us back to Atsuko’s point of view. After learning her secret, a rich guy named Daigo demands that Ryo let him have her for the night. Ryo agrees, but luckily Daigo is only trying to be a rich jerk, and is utterly undone by Atsuko’s tears. Ryo, meanwhile, is obviously being changed by his association with Atsuko, for even though he still puts Itaru first and foremost—as demonstrated by his zeal in tracking down the parties responsible for spreading vicious rumors about Itaru online—he still feels an impulsive need to rescue her that he ultimately heeds. I can only assume they will end up a couple, since the next volume is also the last, but covering that much ground in one volume will probably be tricky. We shall see! – Michelle Smith

Rose Guns Days Season Two, Vol. 2 | By Ryukishi07 and Nana Natsunishi | Yen Press – We continue to deal with the fallout from Season One, as it becomes clear that the Chinese are moving in on Rose and company, even if it means going against Lee. And what’s more, they have a pawn in Rapunzel, who has regained her memories after a traumatic incident, though she’s keeping that from the rest of our gang of Roaming Wolves. Of course, that doesn’t mean that she’s suddenly turned evil, and in any case Rose’s empathy means that any attempted assassinations are not going to be happening regardless. I suspect the next volume will involve a lot more violence and more things going wrong, and it’s questionable if our new protagonists will even survive. Gripping at times, but very variable. – Sean Gaffney

Sweetness & Lightning, Vol. 4 | By Gido Amagakure | Kodansha Comics – The approachable-yet-delicious fare featured in this volume includes pork shougayaki (which looks amazing), sweet potato crepes, kinpira gobou, okonomiyaki, and beef stew. I like how, almost in the background, we see Kotori making friends at school, as they’ve noticed her love of food and ask her to help with their festival booth. Tsumugi, too, navigates some pre-school friendship drama, and I predict that one grumpy-looking little boy will be cheered by food in the next volume. What I love best, though, is how conscientiously Inuzuka-sensei takes his role as father, carefully demonstrating for Tsumugi that you don’t give up when things are hard, and always explaining why she’s being scolded. Another lovely title for me this week! – Michelle Smith

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 1

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By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan by Overlap, Inc. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

There is a certain variety of story that has been seen more and more often lately. It usually is fanfiction, but as we’ll see, doesn’t always have to be. It usually involves the author (almost always a young male in their late teens or early 20s) reading a work and liking the general idea, but feeling the execution just wasn’t… badass enough. Or the main character was friends with the wrong people. Or the world was run in a nonsensical way, and things would be far better if everyone just had more common sense and thought things through. (These stories also usually involves a large number of heroines deciding they’re OK with sharing the love of the hero in happy polyamory, possibly as they were mostly written by late teen-early 20s boys.) The most famous example is probably Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, but if you’re looking for something along those lines but in an original work, Realist Hero may be right up your alley.

“But wait,” you say, “I thought you said this wasn’t fanfiction!” Indeed, it’s an original story in the isekai genre, of a young man summoned to another world to defeat a demon king, but who instead puts his college learning to good use teaching modern politics, economic theory, and the essentials of running a city to good use, becoming the king and ending up engaged to the crown princess seen in the cover. “But… that’s Saber, right? Saber Red, to be precise.” Don’t be silly, that is not Saber Red. It merely looks just like her. Not a surprise, as the illustrator’s pixiv page basically contains the cover for Realist Hero 1 and a ton of Fate/GO art. That is Princess Liscia, who warms to our hero over the course of the book, acts as a student for all the modern ways he’s teaching them, and in return teaches him about the little known facts of their fantasy kingdom, like the polyamory. Which is probably fortunate as he also gets a hot elf bodyguard and singer/temptress/big sister figure to fall for him (I’m ignoring the loli for the moment), and seems to be adding a feisty young dragonet noble, manipulative princess of the country next door, and tsundere thief to the mix in future books.

I’ve been fairly glib in this review, but I will happily admit the book is something of a hoot to read. It wears its heart on its sleeve, and while I wish it would tone down the Machiavelli (using The Prince as a guidebook on how to run a country is never, IMO, a good idea, especially as some scholars think The Prince was meant to be satire), the lead is actually likeable and not the massive jerk you sometimes see in these sorts of stories. His suggestions are sensible, but don’t always work out perfectly, and I like the fact that we move forward over several months as the book progresses. (There’s also a narrative device where sometimes we hear “little did they know that in thirty years time, this would become etcetcetc.”, which I also liked.) If you’re looking for an isekai that’s light, breezy fun (though the second volume implies there may be war on the horizon), this should fit the bill nicely.

Erased, Vol. 1

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By Kei Sanbe. Released in Japan in two separate volumes as “Boku Dake ga Inai Machi” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

I didn’t really know much about this going into it at all. The author is known for dark psychological stuff, and this title certainly qualifies. It also had an anime, which I also haven’t seen. I was thus unprepared for what a good, solid mystery series this would be, with several surprising fake-outs, both plot and character based, and a likeable but very flawed lead hero. It also seems to be examining child abuse, something I’m always pleased to see in Japanese manga, though sometimes I feel it only glosses over the root issues. That doesn’t seem to be the case here, though, and Erased is not only well-written but emotionally raw – it took me a while to finish the volume as it was hard to read in one sitting.

Our hero is Satoru, a wannabe manga artist who unfortunately is somewhat withdrawn and reserved – his manga fails because he doesn’t put enough of himself into his work. We gradually discover this is partly due to a tragedy that happened to him as a child, which he has been repressing memories of. His non-manga job is pizza delivery boy, where he has somewhat stilted conversations with his cute co-worker, who he feels is too young for him and in any case isn’t interested in him anyway. He also has a strange ability to “fix” things that are about to happen, which may or may not be tied into the past tragedy he had. When a tragedy is about to occur, he times loops for a few minutes till he can identify and fix what’s going to happen. Of course, sometimes he’s not there to fix things. And when his mother is murdered, partly as a result of something he thought he’d fixed, he collapses and finds himself back in elementary school, reliving his childhood to try to erase the original tragedy.

Satoru is not all that likeable a hero, but in a character development sort of way rather than an aggravating way. He’s our POV character, so for a time we tend to agree with him – in the early pages, his mother comes across as rather pushy and annoying, and it’s only as the series goes on that we see how smart and together she really is. As a kid he still has the memories of his 29-year-old self, but manages to act like a child most of the time anyway – I particularly liked his thinking something blunt and saying it aloud without realizing it at the same time. We also meet the truculent and reserved Kayo, who was the girl whose murder was the start of the tragedy he’s now trying to prevent. His attempts to stop the murder, save her from an abusive household and bring her out of her shell are awkward yet heartfelt, and seem true to life – or at least as true to life as a Peggy Sue time travel mystery can be.

This is being released here, I believe, in four omnibuses, and I’ll definitely be picking up the second one. It makes for unnerving and difficult reading at times, but it does what you want a new series to do – it makes me want to read on to find out what’s happening next.

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Vol. 2

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By Ao Jyumonji and Eiri Shirai. Released in Japan by Overlap, Inc. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

As I have observed many times in the past in my reviews, I am not all that much of a gamer. Sometimes this makes it hard to follow various aspects of Japanese light novels, many of which depend on knowledge of how RPG systems work. But it also means that I may not have the patience for the sort of level-raising behavior that these games, and subsequently these light novels, involve. This second volume does a lot of character building work, and by “a lot” I mean that Haruhiro, Ranta, and to a lesser extent Merry get more development. It’s good development too, as this series has a lot of reflection on the best way to act like a leader or a team player. This does not obscure the fact, however, that the plot of this second volume involves “kill things” for the entire length of the book.

For all that I complain about Ranta, sometimes Haruhiro can also be annoying fro different reasons. He’s never really had to lead before, and has no idea how the mindset of a leader works, and so is constantly doubting himself and criticizing his decisions when things go wrong. He seems to think that this is just him rather than the norm, but I think the problem may simply be that “leader” types never get the inner monologue that we get from him here, and in fact also think about these things all the time. Stepping back and looking at things from an outside perspective, we see he is getting better at making decisions, takes responsibility, and his battle skills are also improving. I think Merry can see this best (I don’t see this series as having much romance, but if it did, they’re the obvious pair).

Speaking of Merry, she’s able to put a few of her own demons to rest in this book, though she notably does not get an inner monologue. Ranta does, though, which confirms a lot of what we already know about him. He’s hotheaded and stubborn, but also tends to act this way as a pose half the time, and is frustrated that the rest of the group doesn’t understand him better – especially as Haruhiro seems to understand the other party members fine. But Haruhiro and Ranta have a complex relationship, more than just boke and tsukkomi, and only time is going to fix that. Luckily, the near loss of Ranta at the climax of the book seems to have united them a bit more closely (if he gets paired with anyone, it’ll be Yume, who’s already sparring with him in best Ranma and Akane tradition).

So good characterization, and the fights are pretty good. That said, if we don’t get something actually happening in the third book besides “kill things, level up”, I may let this series go. It’s a good examination of how “trapped in an RPG world” would go if it were realistic, but it’s sometimes simply too realistic, i.e. it’s a slog.

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Vol. 1

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By Tsunami Umino. Released in Japan as “Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Kiss. Released in North America digitally by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Rose Padgett.

It is a rare series that can immediately win me over within the first five pages. In fact, I’ve long been an advocate of giving series a chance beyond one volume, especially if they are of the “horrible person is changed by the plotline of the manga” type stories. But sometimes I start a manga and I know immediately I’m going to fall in love with it. This is that sort of manga – when I saw Mikuri being “interviewed” about the difficulties she’s having with her life, and realized that she was imagining this in her head, I grinned. And when I saw this would actually be a recurring thing, I cheered. Not only are these segments some of the funniest in the volume, but they also serve to help deepen the characterization of the main heroine, who is otherwise very matter-of-fact and calm. It’s a great device.

The premise is laid out right at the start. Mikuri kept doing college because it was hard to find a job, but now she’s post-grad and still can’t find work, and even temp agencies aren’t working out. She’s living with her parents as well, which proves to be problematic when they decide to retire to the country, meaning she needs work and a place to stay NOW. Luckily, she’s been doing a part-time job cleaning house and basically functioning as a wife-figure for Tsuzaki, an introverted guy who tends to say what he thinks and has minimal social skills. They get on fairly well (it helps that Mikuri’s degree is in psychology, so she’s much better at reading people than the average manga protagonist), and suddenly it becomes apparent that this is a solution to her problems. They could marry on paper, and she could function as a full-time wife (minus wifely duties, so to speak) and get health benefits and the like.

In case you hadn’t already guessed, this is a josei series. It is, in fact, the sort of josei we don’t usually see brought over here – a lot of the josei we’ve seen in the past few years I’ve defined as “shoujo with adults”, as you find the same love misunderstandings, fretting, and breakups that you would in a high school shoujo magazine. This seems more grounded in the real world – indeed, a big surprise for me is how little romance there is in this first volume. Clearly the endgame will be getting these two quirky kids together for real, but I like how it’s a slow burn, and that we’re starting to see it on his end but not on hers. In fact, it’s even bluntly laid out in their agreement that they can see other people as long as they’re discreet. That may be tested soon, as it appears that Tsuzaki’s co-worker may be starting to fall for Mikuri, and his other co-worker seems to have realized their marriage is not a genuine one.

The supporting cast is also good – I particularly liked Mikuri’s aunt, who shows that you can regret not having a romance when you’re in your fifties but still have a happy and fulfilling life. Tsuzaki’s friend Numata is also gay, and occasionally acts the stereotype, but even this is subtler than I was expecting. What I’m left with is a good story with great characters and an interesting style, one that I really want to see play out in future volumes. It also has a live-action series under its belt, so apparently did pretty well in Japan as well. Read this, you’ll love it.

Manga the Week of 3/8/17

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SEAN: There’s been a lot of digital-only releases lately – first from Yen, and now from Kodansha and J-Novel Club. Kodansha in particular is picking up a lot of old Del Rey series that I haven’t been mentioning here and finishing them in digital mode. For example, Gakuen Prince is getting a rush release of new volumes for fans of trash – um, I mean dramatic shoujo. I’ll try to keep up, but may forget – apologies if I miss your favorite.

Meanwhile, let’s talk new volumes rather than rescues.

Ichi-F: A Worker’s Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is the important release of next week, being pretty much what its title says, though it’s a memoir of someone involved in the cleanup, not the initial disaster. It should be fascinating.

ASH: I got my hands on an early copy and it is indeed fascinating. Important, too, as you mentioned, and it strongly resonates with what I’ve heard about Fukushima and the recovery efforts from my friends who live in the area.

MJ: Wow, this sounds intense.

SEAN: Interviews with Monster Girls has become popular now that its anime is running, good timing for Vol. 3.

We also get a 4th volume of Ninja Slayer Kills!.

And a 2nd digital-only volume of fluffy Nakayoshi series A Springtime with Ninjas.

Kodansha finishes up with a 3rd volume of sports manga Welcome to the Ballroom. (Everything is sports manga if you squint enough.)

MICHELLE: I’m super happy that sports manga seems to be having its day, and I look forward to more Welcome to the Ballroom in particular.

ANNA: Me too!

MJ: When the sport is dancing, I’m always more interested.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a 5th volume of popular spinoff A Certain Scientific Accelerator, which features even more property damage.

And a 4th Masamune-kun’s Revenge, also the winner of the “it has an anime this season” sweepstakes.

More Nichijou from Vertical! A 7th volume that will make you want to draw sharks.

And now Viz. So much Viz. Starting with the debut of Anonymous Noise, a new manga from Hana to Yume by the author of Nosatsu Junkie and Monochrome Boys and Girls. I’ve heard it leans heavy on the drama.

MICHELLE: I haven’t read her other titles, but I’m looking forward to this one.

ANNA: The cover looks great. It is at the top of my to-read pile.

ASH: The cover is great and I can’t resist the music connection.

MJ: I’m very much on board with this.

SEAN: Bleach has a 69th volume, though any readers who might make a dirty joke have long since abandoned it, I suspect.

ASH: Heh.

SEAN: Bloody Mary recently announced it’s finishing in Japan. Here’s Vol. 6.

Everyone’s Getting Married has a 4th volume of no one getting married, or at least that’s my guess.

ANNA: I love this series, it is much more thoughtful than the title suggests.

MJ: Maybe I should check this out after all?

SEAN: Haikyu!! has a 9th volume. Expect grueling training montages.

MICHELLE: I’m always happy to get a new volume of Haikyu!!.

ANNA: Yay!

ASH: Woo!

SEAN: A mere three years after the last volume, we get a new volume of Hunter x Hunter. I try not to mock the mangaka as much, as I know he’s got tremendous back issues, but still. That’s a long time between volumes.

Kimi ni Todoke’s 26th volume. Will we approach a climax soon?

Naruto: Sasuke’s Story: Sunrise is another in the series of Naruto novels we’ve been getting.

Speaking of delays, it’s been over a year since the last Natsume’s Book of Friends, so this 20th volume is very, very welcome.

MICHELLE: Man, so much good stuff this week! I need a Natsume fix.

ASH: I really need to get caught up with Natsume.

SEAN: Nisekoi’s 20th volume is starting the climax, so we need to start letting down the other heroines gently.

One Piece has a 19th 3-in-1, and I think is reaching the three year time skip.

I’m torn. I love One-Punch Man, but am always bored by tournament arcs. Which will prevail with Vol. 11?

ASH: If nothing else, at least the artwork will be great.

SEAN: Platinum End has a second volume to try to convince me to read more of it.

ANNA: I will approach reading this cautiously.

MJ: Same. Ugh. I wish Takeshi Obata would pair up with someone new so I didn’t have to feel so sketchy about it.

SEAN: Skip Beat! has a 38th volume, which features, be warned, the dreaded “let’s explain why the parent was abusive” flashback.

MICHELLE: I’m still so happy to see it, and finally deal with this aspect of the story.

ANNA: Me too. Always happy to see a new volume of Skip Beat!

SEAN: Tegami Bachi finally comes to an end with the 20th and final volume.

Lastly, a title I sometimes forget, we have a 7th Yo-Kai Watch!.

Want a whole lotta Viz? Next week is your week. What’re you getting?

Occultic;Nine, Vol. 2

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By Chiyomaru Shikura and pako. Released in Japan by Overlap, Inc. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Adam Lensenmayer.

This volume of Occultic;Nine does what it needs to do, which is begin to draw together the many and varied elements of the first book and show they’re all part of the same main plotline. It does actually shift genres a bit, as signposted by the end of the first book; that one may have been a mystery, and there are certainly still mysterious elements, but this second volume crosses over into outright horror much of the time. Unfortunately, its faults are still carrying over from the first book as well. While it does begin to draw together said elements, everything still changes viewpoints and tonal shifts a bit too much for my liking. And it’s still left with Yuta Gamon as the protagonist, and he’s really, really aggravating – yes, it’s deliberate, but that doesn’t actually make it easier to take.

To be fair, he’s had a bad day – he’s right in that any sane police officer who has his presence in the room and his fingerprints on the murder weapon would have arrested him by now. Luckily we have another one of the eccentric cast members as the detective, and he enjoys playing with his food, I guess, preferring to torment Yuta with cryptic conversations. Unfortunately, Yuta’s coping mechanism is to double down on being obnoxious, something which is fine by Ryoka, who still gets nothing to do this volume, but is starting to worry his new friend Miyuu, who was already somewhat wary of him (her friend basically says he’s a creep and why do you care?), but he’s falling back into familiar behavior patterns to cope, even if they’re bad ones. Also, he clearly hasn’t read any genre fiction at all, or he’d know that introducing everyone to the mystery radio voice only he can hear was never going to fly.

As for the main plot, the corpses in the lake that were briefly signposted last time become a big deal when they’re discovered this time around, and the clever reader will start to realize what’s actually going on when it takes forever and a day to actually identify said corpses. There’s a lot of somewhat interesting talk about acceptance of the occult versus looking for an actual realistic reason for said corpses, but the fact that said reason also sounds ludicrous and the reader is also getting the mystery organization of evil talking about their corpse plans tends to ruin it. Again, as with the first book, the ending is the strongest part – first, the darkest and most horrible part of the book (which completely rips off the movie Se7en, but is still well written), and second, the final revelation that Yuta figures out when he gets all the names of the bodies in the lake. What will Volume 3 bring us?

Good question, but one we’ll wait a while to answer – the third volume is not out in Japan yet, and I suspect the author is concentrating on finishing the visual novel, which is due out this year. In the meantime, there are bits of good and bad here. I’d recommend it to fans of this creator.

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, Vol. 6

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By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan as “Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Gangan Online. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Leighann Harvey.

In terms of the Nozaki-kun fandom, one of the fortunate things about it is that there really aren’t very many ship wars. For the most part, this is because the main pairings in the manga, even though none of them are actually romantically paired, are so blindingly obvious – Nozaki and Sakura, Hori and Kashima, and Seo and Wakamatsu. The one wild card has always been Mikoshiba, and it’s therefore no surprise that fan writers love him. I’ve seen him used as an alternate pairing with Sakura, just in case she ever tires of Nozaki (doubt it will ever happen, but hope springs eternal), and I’ve also seen quite a few Nozaki/Sakura/Mokoshiba OT3 fics. But the addition of Nozaki’s brother Mayu gave BL fans someone new to focus on, and this volume must have delighted them, because not only are Mikoshiba and Mayu comedy gold but they’re also very, very shippable.

A lot of the humor in Nozaki-kun relies on building from previous gags and characterizations, as you’d expect. Mikoshiba is the inspiration for the heroine in Nozaki’s manga, so when Nozkai discovers he’s getting cute texts from someone else, and that he’s responding as “Mamiko”, he gets fired up in the best Nozaki way. Meanwhile Kashima is having trouble dealing with her new role, which requires “wistfulness”, and when given the choice between Sakura’s practical advice and Nozaki’s romantic, thinking like a writer advice, she knows exactly who to turn to. Nozaki has the brilliant idea (no, really, it is this time) of having her avoid and not speak to Hori for three days. Sure enough, this nearly kills her just by the end of one day – and, even better, Hori is somewhat poleaxed by it as well.

Elsewhere, we get Wakamatsu’s amazingly inept acting, the dangers of playing a visual novel and not using the default names, and Miyako’s fellow mangaka relationship with Nozaki continuing to be misunderstood by the guy who’s crushing on her… who, because this manga is very close-knit, turns out to be Seo’s big brother. We also meet several other author’s in the magazine that Nozaki’s published in, and they all seem to have their own eccentricities, though they can all agree on one thing – Nozaki’s manga is generic and dull. Honestly, it’s something of a surprise it hasn’t been cancelld by now, but I think that the ‘Nozaki tries to find the idea for a new series’ plot is being saved for a rainy day – that and the tie-ins to real life are too much fun to drop. Possibly best of all, Mikoshiba needs to have someone pretend to be his girlfriend, and each of the three main options are hilarious.

Nozaki-kun remains hilarious, and the hilarity is because of its character-based humor. Unless you can’t stand anything to do with 4-koma or tsukkomi-0style humor, you should be reading this every time it comes out.

Very few tanukis this time around – we are running a tanuki defecit.

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 10

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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

This picks up immediately after the end of the previous volume, as befits a two-part arc. In fact, Kamachi helpfully provides a recap for anyone who may have somehow skipped the previous book. I had wondered if we’d get more athletic events for the festival, but no, sadly the festival is mostly offscreen for Touma, as he spends 4/5 of the volume chasing after Oriana Thomson, watching her nearly kill his friends, and arguing with her on the nature of doing good and how it’s impossible for everyone to share the same view, ethics, or religion – it’s all influenced by their own head. Luckily, the Roman Catholic Church is coming to the rescue to change everyone’s minds into their own! For some strange reason, Touma objects to this…

Introduced in this volume: no one! Given this is the second in a two-parter, we get no new characters. That said, Lidvia certainly gets a lot more to do here, and she’s really not a pleasant person at all, though when given Lady of the Tiger choice she at least attempts to do the right thing by choosing Lady AND Tiger. We also see Laura Stuart (or rather hear Laura Stuart) at her most devious and cunning – Lidvia has a long way to go to get to Laura’s level. Himegami also gets a larger role in this book, and it once again reflects on her status as a “failed heroine” – she wants to do romantic things with Touma, but he’s too busy saving the world, and in the end she ends up an innocent victim who Touma doesn’t even have the time to rescue – Stiyl and Komoe-sensei have to do it. (I will simply ignore the ship tease between Stiyl and Komoe in this book, because eurgh.)

Luckily she’s cheered up by Index, who also gets very little to do this book, but that’s by design, as most of the Magic Side know that Index is a plot maguffin and so they have to keep an eye on her to see what’s going to happen. Of course, finding out Touma is once again getting himself hospitalized without her knowing anything makes her grumpier. I find Index far more tolerable in prose form – no offense to Yuka Iguchi, but I think Index herself simply sounds less stupid in the books as opposed to the anime. She’s the emotional core of the series, and it’s her purity that inspires many other characters – most obviously Touma and Stiyl here. (She also gets a great line about Peter Pan when looking at the youthful looks of Touma and Mikoto’s mothers, which the anime sadly cut.)

The book itself does its level best to conceal its big secret: this entire runaround was pointless, and chasing after Oriana was meant to be a distraction. Luckily, like follows like, and pointless follows pointless – for all that Lidvia succeeds in her ritual, it’s useless due to Academy City’s fireworks show lighting up the sky. I think one reason Index is so upset is that she could have saved him a lot of running around and injuries by simply having hm ask her, but then when you’re a walking magic wikipedia… In any case, a good volume, and less magic theory than the 9th book (though we still get some, mostly related to astrology). Next time, Index Does Italy!

Bookshelf Briefs 2/27/17

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Anne Happy, Vol. 4 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – I am beginning to wonder if the goal of this class filled with luckless idiots is not so much to improve their bad luck as to simply get them to find joy in little things anyway, as this fourth volume mostly involves a school trip that ends up in a giant keep away gave of tag, with the losers sleeping outside and foraging for food. Take a wild guess which team ends up losing. There’s also Karaoke (Anne breaks the equipment by merely attempting to use is) and woodcarving (Anne is quite good, but it shatters fairly easily). In order to appreciate these sad sacks, one must turn the brain off, but if you do, it can be cute and adorable, and a culture festival sounds fun. Recommended if you like moe stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Fate/Zero, Vol. 4 | By Gen Urobuchi, Type-Moon, and Shinjiro | Dark Horse – One of the biggest reasons to read Fate/Zero is too see the contrast in heroes between Shirou, the naive, hardheaded yet lovable hero of Fate/Stay Night, and Kirutsugu, the cool, pragmatic, “greater good” protagonist of Fate/Zero. And while Saber falls pretty hard for Shirou, it’s pretty clear that Kirutsugu fills her with rage and disgust, which is very well drawn here by Shinjiro. I also enjoyed seeing Irisviel’s attempts at being his balance, which I suspect are doomed to failure, and was weirded out by Sola-Ui, possibly as she looks like Bazett and has a crush on Lancer like Bazett. Oh yes, and we have more lovingly detailed child murder. Fate/Zero is classic Gen Urobuchi, which is to say death and pain, but so well-written. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 8 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – In general, most sports manga that revolve around “it’s our chance to win the big tournament” invariably involve losing in the first tournament they try to win, because otherwise the manga would be quite short. And so it is for Haikyu!!, as despite various stratagem, and almost having a shot, our heroes still go down to defeat. But they can learn from it and let that frustration fill them with the desire to improve. And the graduating teammates may stick around a little longer after all, if they get permission, because yes, college is important, but this is volleyball. All that and we get cool poses, facial grimaces galore, and so much sweat you could float down it in a boat. Haikyu!! is powerful and fun to read. – Sean Gaffney

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 23 | By Julietta Suzuki | VIZ Media – I’ve always enjoyed Kamisama Kiss, but I was never particularly excited about it. That has officially changed with this volume. Suzuki-sensei manages to strike the perfect balance between action, plot resolution, and feelings. Instead of the focus being on Tomoe and Nanami’s relationship, it’s on the friendship Tomoe and Akura-Oh once shared and how both of them were able to change through coming to love and understand humans. It’s quite lovely, actually. Creepy Yatori, who still looks like a villain out of Basara, is still in play, though, so our heroes are not entirely out of the woods yet. Having a high-quality ending like this really bolsters my opinion of the series as a whole. – Michelle Smith

Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear, Vol. 3 | By Masume Yoshimoto | One Peace Books – Kuma Miko is becoming a lot less weird and a lot more moe. Unfortunately, this has the effect of also making it far less interesting, as the story beats it’s hitting are ones that we’ve seen done better elsewhere (albeit with fewer talking bears). It also means we pay more attention to the interpersonal relationships, which can be somewhat creepy (Yoshio towards Machi, which is thankfully called out by Hibiki) or disturbingly co-dependent (Machi and the bear). We do get an occasionally funny gag (“they’ll throw rocks at me!” seems like country naivete till it gets a callback. I’m beginning to be reminded of another series set way out in the country, Non Non Biyori, and am asking: is there a point to this? – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 7-8 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | Viz Media – The crushing defeat from last volume still weighs on both Kuroko and Kagami, and Kuroko in particular is finding it hard to move past and get to the next level. Luckily there are ways to fix that, such as INTENSE TRAINING. We get sand basketball, which is as rough as it sounds, and poor Kagami running and running and running and then running some more. And then we get to watch more of the winner’s in the tournament, as the battle between Aomine and Kise, which is incredibly badass, and also helps to show that yes, Kuroko and Kagami DO have a ways to go. Luckily, we’ve a number of volumes to go as well. Having this and Haikyu!! coming out at the same time means we’re hitting similar beats, but they’re both good. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 22 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – The heroes of Magi are filled with shiny shonen idealism, and they run up hard against the cynicism of the real world in this volume. Even Sinbad, who’s been presented till now as at least a reasonable ally, is starting to show signs that he may be, if not just as bad, certainly just as problematic. Alibaba is not yet strong enough to refuse offers that he can’t refuse. To the rescue comes Aladdin, who gives everyone a giant flashback to show what happened in the universe he’s from, a parallel one where humanity is fighting evil Mr. Potato Heads, and we also get Solomon and Sheba, because I was wondering when they would show up in this manga clearly influenced by Biblical as well as Arabian Nights myth. Magi is terrific; you should know this by now. – Sean Gaffney

Maid-sama!, Vols. 13-14 | By Hiro Fujiwara | VIZ Media – Y’know, Maid-sama! is certainly not a great manga, but damned if it isn’t immensely satisfying when things finally happen! I suppose that’s owing to the fact that Misaki is a stubborn tsundere, which can be frustrating, but I cannot deny that her confession of love and Usui’s reciprocation, followed by their becoming an official couple and eventually revealing their status to the school is all the sweeter because it took so long. There’s plenty of other stuff in this volume, including a school trip with appearances by random supporting characters and more boring drama about Usui’s family background, but even the plot wherein he transfers schools for his final year is redeemed when Misaki is 100% not cowed by some rich girl claiming Usui is her fiancé. The endgame is afoot! – Michelle Smith

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, Vol. 6 | By Izumi Tsubaki | Yen Press – I suppose it might seem like an insult to say that this volume of Nozaki-kun is pretty much the same as the others, but I actually mean it as a compliment. Tsubaki continues to spin out amusing scenarios for her characters with no dip in quality. In this volume, Nozaki is doing a lot of research into horror themes, in anticipation of having to incorporate some into his manga, but there are other silly gags like Wakamatsu being transformed into a confident guy via an eye patch, doing summer homework at Nozaki’s house, and finding a suitable girl to pretend to be Mikoshiba’s girlfriend in order to persuade a persistent admirer to back off. Each new volume of this series is like the best kind of brain balm and I’m grateful for it! – Michelle Smith

Pick of the Week: A Short Month Long on Picks

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ASH: Originally my pick for this week was so clear! I simply couldn’t pass up a gorgeous, deluxe box set of the Revolutionary Girl Utena manga (even if the contents might not live up to their presentation). Alas, the release date has been delayed until April. That being the case, I’ll fall back on one of my favorite manga series currently being released; Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun never fails to delight.

SEAN: I loves me some Nozaki-kun too, and I’m also very interested in the digital debut of House of the Sun. But my choice is the 2nd volume in Nisioisin’s Bakemonogatari novel, featuring Suruga Monkey and Nadeko Snake. There will be words. Oh so many words.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely interested in House of the Sun, and several other titles from Kodansha, but what I’m most asquee about is the continuation of Nodame Cantabile in digital-only releases, starting with volume seventeen!

KATE: My pick is the fourth volume of Sweetness and Lightning. It isn’t in the same league as my all-time favorite food manga — really, can anything top Oishinbo? — but its sincerity and appealing characters more than compensate for the occasional ham-fisted scene. In fact, I’m getting hungry just thinking about Sweetness and Lightning right now…

ANNA: I think out of everything coming out this week, I’m most excited about Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun. Bring on the wacky antics!

MJ: I’m always on board for more Nozaki-kun, but this week I have to join Michelle in celebrating the digital return of Nodame Cantabile! I was devastated when that series was dropped in the US, and I’m beyond thrilled to see it back, even if it won’t be able to fill my physical manga shelves.

Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 29

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By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by John Werry.

Hayate Ayasaki is a very good butler. That’s pretty much the premise of the entire manga. As a butler, he’s smooth, always knows what to do, and provides the girls he waits on with whatever they desire. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that’s why they fell for him, as in fact each of them has different, non-butler reasons for that. But it’s striking if only because in Hayate’s other role as a harem protagonist in a romantic comedy manga, he’s absolutely terrible. He’s very good in terms of what Hata needs to convey in the writing. But much of Hayate’s so-called “bad luck” can also be put down to wishy-washiness, cowardice, and the complete inability to understand the trembling of a pure maiden’s heart. It’s why we’re 29 volumes in and disasters keep piling up for him.

The disaster doesn’t happen in this particular volume, but we know that at some point in the near future, Ruka is going to discover that Hayate is a guy, and there will be hell to pay. Of course, this is played for max comedy – every time he thinks he can confess, she says the one thing that stops him from doing so – but it’s still a case where you want to put your face in your hands. She also, by the way, is trying to earn a large pile of cash to get herself out of debt because her parents are suckers – a similarity Hayate is quick to catch on to. It’s not the first time Hata has done this – Hina, too, has lost her birth parents due to “we abandoned you because of our debt” – but that at least had the excuse that it was part of his original outline for the series. Ruka’s past seems more like overegging the pudding.

The rest of the volume is for the most part a series of one-shots focusing on the cast, which I think Hata enjoys best. Alice talks with Hayate, and there’s some discussion of who she is, but not much – she says she’s lost her memories of Athena, but clearly knows she *is* Athena in some way. Also, don’t let dogs eat chocolate. Wataru and Saki also have money troubles, and even Sayaka literally loaning them a giant pile of money doesn’t help, particularly when Hayate gets involved. Speaking of Sayaka, she’s rather annoyed to find that the position of “Nagi’s (relatively) sane best friend) has been stolen by Chiharu, particularly since Chiharu is HER OWN MAID. As for Maria, well, she gets nothing to do except pose naked for the camera as pre fanservice, something Hata lampshades almost immediately. These are all pretty good chapters, not hilarious but quite amusing.

In the end, though, the plot will have to advance soon. Ruka will find out Hayate’s gender. Athena will eventually stop being a girl. And, one assumes, the manga will end. It’s coming to a close in Japan, but Viz still has a long way to go. See you in the fall for another volume.

Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? On The Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 2

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By Fujino Omori and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Gaiden – Sword Oratoria” by Softbank Creative. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Gaippe.

After a first volume that was good but a bit too much side story by the numbers, the second volume of Aiz’s book series ups the ante, and really shows us how similar and yet totally different Aiz and Bell both are. This is less tied into the main series than the first book was – we can tell it’s at the same time as Book 2 due to Aiz giving Bell a lap pillow (at the suggestion of her companion) when they find him collapsed. And that’s all for the best, as we begin to develop the rest of Loki’s badass crew, including Loki herself, who is allowed to become a bit of a detective as she tries to track down who’s responsible for the plant monsters we saw in the prior book. That said, the core of this book is all Aiz, as she finally finds someone she can’t defeat, and it nearly breaks her.

Frustratingly, at last for the reader, we never get a name for this mystery assailant, who is clearly set up to be an ongoing antagonist. She’s definitely in charge of the plant monsters, though, and is strong enough to take out Aiz, though to be fair she’s already injured when they fight. Their main battle happens barely halfway through the book, though, so it’s not the point. The point is not just that Aiz lost but that Aiz lost to someone who knows the name of her mother, Aria. Aiz’s past is a mystery to the reader, though we know she’s been dungeon crawling since she was seven. Here we see a flashback to happy family times before that, and can sense there’s a tragedy here we haven’t quite heard about. More to the point, that trauma combined with the loss drives Aiz to make a suicidal charge on one of the lower floor bosses, which she insists on taking out all by herself. It’s an absolutely brutal sequence, and it’s also fascinating to see Aiz actually struggle given how perfect she’s seen to be in the main series.

As for the rest of the cast, they all get their cool moments. Lefiya still has a tendency to need rescuing, but is less self-deprecating here, and helps out Aiz more than once. (She’s also still very gay for Aiz, something I doubt will ever go anywhere but I also suspect will continue as the books go on.) They have their own murder mystery to solve, but unlike Loki’s the murder is not that mysterious, just gruesome, and the culprit shows herself almost immediately. There’s also some nice little world building and ties to prior books – Hermes’ follower who pops up here as an incidental part of the murder investigation reveals that Hermes is having her hide her higher status, something that doesn’t surprise me at all knowing him, and we meet Ouranos, the God who rules the city, and he’s one mysterious character.

Honestly, not much else to say beyond this is a really good, enjoyable book from one of my favorite light novel authors. Also, lots and lots of cool fights. Fans of the series have to pick it up. It does have a typo in regards to Lefiya’s level at the very end (she’s a 3, not a 5), but I’m ignoring that because the book was so much fun.

Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 10

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

Yen Press’ rush release of these omnibuses has been a bit disorienting at times, and because I’m giving each of them full reviews it sometimes feels like I was only just talking about the last book and here’s another one. (It’s been about 3 1/2 weeks since I reviewed Vol. 9). That said, one can never, ever run out of things to talk about when discussing Fruits Basket, so no worries on that end. As Takaya herself says, we’re beginning the home stretch here, and many mysteries are being cleared up now that the biggest of them all has been revealed. We see why Kakeru has been so on edge around Tohru, and finally meat his semi-mythical girlfriend Komaki (who for a moment looks as if she may stay with a ‘hidden face’ before getting revealed a bit later), and we get Kyo starting to explain exactly why he feels tremendous guilt and pain when he thinks about Tohru’s mother.

Speaking of Tohru, this volume is probably her low ebb. Her inability to reveal the fact that she loves Kyo is shown to have explicit ties to her idolization of her mother and the trauma of her passing, as well as a somewhat understandable complete misunderstanding of how loving someone actually works. Shigure, who in the past gave her nice, calm, friendly advice, is perhaps getting a bit too attached to her, as he now proceeds to slam at all of her buttons at once, trying to break past her traumas and get her to admit what she doesn’t want to. It hasn’t worked on Akito, and there’s no reason it’d work on Tohru, but it does show how he may feels about her now, and winds up with Shigure wondering, to the reader’s horror, what might have happened if he’d dreamt of Tohru rather than Akito.

As for Akito, well, much of the book is spent with her holed up and avoiding everyone, having a massive sulk after recent events. We finally get some backstory regarding his father (who reminds me of Yuki quite a bit, something I think Akito herself is also aware of), as well as, unfortunately, more insight into Ren, who we see Akito seems to get her selfishness and tendency towards insane tantrums from. Akito at least is seeing the cursed Sohmas gradually break away from her – more on that later – but Ren is given no real reason for her abusive nature beyond being a petty, selfish and violent person. Her attack on Akito is unfortunately, not so much for her as because it gives Akito a knife, which leads to bad things later on.

I’d mentioned two more curses break here, one right after the other – Momiji and Hiro’s. Hiro, possessing an actual warm and loving home life and with his angst over Kisa and Rin mostly being resolved, is not much of a surprise, and the revelation is quite heartwarming. Momiji is more startling, particularly in the somewhat unrealistic way he’s grown up and, frankly, become almost unrecognizable – I’ve talked before about when Takaya’s art morphed from its early Furuba faces to late ones, and despite her hurting her hand after Vol. 8, I think it’s more around here that we see it. Momiji is no longer cursed, but of course he can’t return to his family, and he already knows he’s not going to win Tohru’s love, despite his words to Kyo. So what’s left is a deep loneliness, but also a yearning to make a brilliant future for himself.

More to discuss, as always! Ayame angering an already angry BL fandom by admitting that Mine is his girlfriend, and showing off some casual cruelty towards a love confession when he was in high school that will make your jaw drop (Hatori is appalled, Shigure just amused). Kagura may barely appear in the series anymore, but she makes her appearance count, getting upset at Tohru waffling about her love for Kyo to the point where she belts Tohru in the head – which a) should give Tohru a concussion and possibly hospitalize her, given this is Kagura, and b) leads to a wonderful bit where Rin witnesses this and loses her shit, screaming that Kagura has no right to hit anyone. (Kagura, very pointedly, apologizes to Rin but not Tohru.)

And now everything is terrible, basically. (I didn’t even talk about Shigure’s scenes with Ren, in which acid meets… well, even more corrosive acid.) Kureno is stabbed (and hey, that maid wasn’t fired after all!), Akito is walking around town with a knife and not in the best frame of mind, and Kyo is telling Tohru that he a) thinks he killed his mother, and b) thinks he killed HER mother. Can things possibly get worse? Hell yes. In any case, Fruits Basket: still wonderful.