Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Picks, Picks, Picks

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MICHELLE: I suppose Ace of the Diamond technically came out last week, but it didn’t feature in our week-of discussion ’til this week, so… I am totally picking the first volume. Shounen sports manga that’s already complete in Japan? Yes, please! (Also, because I am greedy, can we get Big Windup next?)

SEAN: “Complete” being an iffy term – remember Ace of the Diamond Act II is currently running in Japan. In any case, my pick of the week has to be the final omnibus re-release of Ranma 1/2. Re-reading the entire series has reminded me why I was so obsessed with it twenty years ago, as well as making me feel I had good reason to move on. I’ll still miss it. Also, Ryouga x Akari 5-evah.

MICHELLE: Oh, jeez. I was totally unaware.

KATE: I’ve been impressed with Kodansha’s digital manga initiative, so I’m planning to check out both volumes of House of the Sun this week. Like most of the MB gang, I’m also intrigued by Kodansha’s latest sports acquisitions, though a small and solipsistic part of me wishes these manga focused on the exciting worlds of (a) running (b) rowing or (c) golf. Now that would get me off the couch!

MICHELLE: I would definitely like to see those sports, too. And I hold out hope for Mitsuru Adachi’s Rough, too.

ASH: I’m not much of a digital reader, but I must admit Kodansha Comics’ recent offerings may very well end up changing that. I enjoyed the anime adaptation of Giant Killing immensely and I never expected All-Rounder Meguru licensed, so those two series have definitely caught my eye as picks (even if technically they were released last week). And since we’re talking about sports series we’d like to see, someone give me a competitive marching band manga!

ANNA: Complex Age 4 is the most interesting thing to me coming out this week, although I also happily celebrate greater sports manga availability.

Kase-san and Morning Glories

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By Hiromi Takashima. Released in Japan “Asagao to Kase-san” by Shinshokan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hirari. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jocelyne Allen, Adapted by Jenn Grunigen.

I’ve always said (perhaps a bit too often) that as long as something is well-written and enjoyable, it doesn’t matter that it’s a hoary old cliche. And likewise, with the yuri genre, just because something is as Story A as it gets does not mean its sweetness and cuteness are in any way diminished. This series is no exception, being light as air but ever so tasty. The girls are nice, their incipient romance is nice, and there is a shot of someone silhouetted against the setting sun, because if you’re going to throw in romantic tropes, you may as well use the kitchen sink as well. All of this adds up to a fun series that will make you smile.

As the author notes in the afterword, the magazine this series runs in is generally about yuri one-shots, and its very easy to tell this is a series of shorts about the same two people. (In fact, future volumes will be “Kase-san and _______” rather than a Vol. 2 or 3.) Kase-san is the tall sporty girl on the cover, a track star and school idol who also has some odd rumors hanging around her. The other girl is Yamada, who is shy and fretful and has a very low self-opinion of herself. You know the sort – there’s no way they could ever be interested in little old me. They bond over flowers, which Yamada is planting at the school, and then there are bike rides and shopping for shoes and blushing. So much blushing. Because, of course, these two girls are really into each other.

Most of the drama, such as it is, revolves around Yamada’s low self-esteem and how it leads her to almost sabotage her own friendship. Luckily, Kase-san is not as clueless as some of these archetypes can get, and so is able to, if not realize what is going on, at least rescue Yamada from being desperately sad. I liked the idea of the marathon, as it allows Yamada to work to improve herself, even though that gets torpedoed by a bunch of jerks running over first her flowers and then her. The volume is done from Yamada’s perspective, though I’m hoping a future volume may have a flasghback showing Kase’s own thoughts on their relationship. It all builts up to a confession and kiss in the nurse’s office, with Kase uncharacteristically unapologetic and Yamada crying in relief.

It’s safe to say that not much happens here – honestly, I’m having trouble filling out my word count. But I’m just so pleased to see Seven Seas putting out stories like these and Kindred Spirits on the Roof rather than “yuri for guys” like Netsuzou Trap. Cute girls meet and like each other. In the end, they kiss. Thankfully, this is not the end, as we’ll see Kase-san and Bento soon. for now, just revel in the adorable.

Manga the Week of 3/15/17

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SEAN: A relatively light week next week, relatively being the operative term. But first, let’s double back and look at titles out THIS week that weren’t announced till the weekend.

Remember how we used to say you couldn’t sell sports manga over here? Or 40+-volume series? Clearly digital-only is a good way to test the waters on flouting that rule. Case in point: The debut of Ace of the Diamond, a baseball manga that ran in Shonen Magazine from 2016-2015, and then, like many baseball manga, started up again with Season 2. It will be interesting reading a non-Adachi baseball series.

MICHELLE: !!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!

ANNA: Interesting. I don’t know if I’m up for 40+ volumes but I will check it out.

SEAN: All-Rounder Meguru is a mixed martial arts manga from the creator of Eden: It’s An Endless World, though hopefully a bit less bleak. It ran for 19 volumes in Evening magazine.

And Giant Killing is another 40+ volume manga, this time about soccer, that runs in Weekly Morning. Naturally, being long-running sports manga, the primary audience in the West for these titles will be female BL fans.

MICHELLE: !!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay! I might even try All-Rounder Meguru, while I’m at it.

ASH: Wow! Kodansha is really killing it (sorry, I couldn’t help myself) with the recent digital releases! I’m very excited to see Giant Killing and All-Rounder Meguru being added to the mix.

MJ: I doubt I have the patience for either of the epic sports manga on this list, but I like watching Michelle’s squee.

MICHELLE: I will likely always have an abundance of squee for sports manga.

SEAN: Also, Persona 3’s 3rd volume from Udon moved up a week without me noticing. Whoops.

ASH: Can’t really blame you for that; sometimes I wonder if Udon even knows when it will be releasing something…

SEAN: Now onto titles actually out next week. J-Novel Club has some more volume twos, as we get another I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse, which presumably adds more girls.

We also get the 2nd Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension, which is probably the biggest surprise of all J-Novel’s titles for me as I really enjoyed it.

Kodansha has a 4th Complex Age, which mixes cosplay and drama quite well.

ASH: I’ve been fairly consistently surprised and impressed by Complex Age.

SEAN: They also have the 2nd digital volume of House of the Sun, which seems to be on a much faster publishing schedule than the other new digital volumes.

MICHELLE: Ooh! I’ll definitely be checking out these two.

SEAN: One Peace has a 9th volume of not-really-yuri series Maria Holic.

Seven Seas has the debut of Hana & Hina After School, which is really yuri. It’s by Milk Morinaga, probably the most prolific yuri manga artist in terms of North American licenses.

They also have a 2nd Seven Princes of the Thousand Year Labyrinth, which hopefully continues to be, as I called it, “the most Comic Zero-Sum series ever”.

ASH: That really does seem to be an apt description.

SEAN: SuBLime gives us a new side story for Don’t Be Cruel, subtitled Akira Takanashi’s Story, though it’s unclear who this volume will focus on. (How’s my deadpan?)

MICHELLE: Heh.

SEAN: And they have the 8th volume of the Finder Deluxe Edition.

ASH: While this is the eighth volume, it’s the first one to be released since SuBLime took over the series. (Previously, it was released by Digital Manga.) The actually first volume in this edition will be released later this year; it’s nice that SuBLime isn’t making readers wait for the most recent content.

SEAN: Vertical has a 5th volume of Mysterious Girlfriend X, which I think is approaching its climax.

Viz not only has the 3rd Legendary Edition of The Legend of Zelda, which has both Majora’s Mask and A Link to the Past, but also the first volume of the latest in the series, Twilight Princess.

ASH: Unlike some of the other games (I’m a bad Zelda fan), I’ve actually played Twilight Princess. I’m looking forward to its adaptation.

SEAN: At last, the final omnibus of Viz’s re-release of Ranma 1/2! It even ends with a wedding! Don’t let that fool you, though, this is still Takahashi at her most Takahashi. Still well worth reading.

ASH: I’m still very happy that Viz found a way to keep Ranma 1/2 in print.

SEAN: And there’s a 23rd volume of Rin-Ne, which apparently will have a surprise announcement in Japan soon. New anime season? Spinoff? They found Sakura’s repressed rage?

As I said, light week is relative. What’ll you be getting next week?

Bakemonogatari: Monster Tale, Part 2

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By NISIOISIN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Ko Ransom.

One of the things I enjoy about the first few volumes of the Monogatari books is that each new story begins with the girl from the previous story having a long conversation with Araragi where they basically take on the role they’ll play in the books from this point forward. In the previous volume’s Mayoi Snail, Senjogahara showers Araragi with abuse and teasing affection. And here we have Suruga Money, in which Mayoi reappears and begins to function as Araragi’s sounding board and life advice coach, and Nadeko Snake, in which Kanbaru shows off that she was actually holding back in her own story, and becomes the only person in the cast who can be more perverse than he can. (This works in Japanese publication order, by the way, and continues at least through Nekomonogatari Black, which starts with a long scene with Araragi and his sister Tsukihi.) The first two books introduced Araragi and began to give him a “harem”, so to speak – this second book expands on that.

The stories in Bakemonogatari were originally written as short stories for a magazine, and it shows – each story has the introduction at some point of Araragi, Shinobu and Meme Oshino and explains his nature, for readers who had not read the previous stories. Not that Shinobu plays a part in this book – she’s still silent, apparently sulking as Oshino is stealing her Mister Donuts stash, and functions mostly as a maguffin to power up Araragi so he can battle oddities. For the most part, each story in this is devoted to showing us the new girl. This works quite well in Kanbaru’s case. Her overly solicitous politeness is perfectly translated, and you also see the frustration and rage she normally keeps well-hidden. She’s a good kid. She’s also a “pervert”, i.e. happy to talk about sexual matters with Araragi till she’s blue in the face. And she’s a lesbian, something she admits herself, though the text goes on to use the alternate term “sapphist”, which, as Araragi points out, is the same thing. (One could argue she flirts incessantly with Araragi in the following story, but I maintain that she mostly does this for appearance – much like many other characters in Monogatari, especially Araragi himself.) Her story is the strongest, flagging only when we have to read a very long battle scene from Araragi’s narrative POV – it gets tedious, and makes you realize why Nisioisin does so much dialogue – he’s better at it.

As for Nadeko… without spoiling anything about future volumes, we’re left with an okay story that works best when Nadeko isn’t in it. Araragi and Kanbaru’s banter at the start is probably the high point of the book. Nadeko herself is painted entirely as a shy, innocent victim, forever looking down or away from the two of them. Her “monster” problem is quite sexualized, which is uncomfortable given she’s only in junior high, but if that really makes you uncomfortable you’d better jump off now before we get to Nisemonogatari, as it will only get worse. In the context of future volumes, there’s lots of subtle clues and hints in here, a few of which I think are deliberate. But without that context, this story sometimes just lies there. It’s the weak link of the five.

The third volume will contain only one story, Tsubasa Cat, and you can probably guess who stars, though if you read these two volumes and think we’re finally getting a flashback to what happened during Golden Week, you’d be wrong. It also doesn’t have quite as much Kanbaru, which is a relief even though I love her. The translation is, on the whole, excellent throughout, but Vertical has decided not to have honorifics, and as such Kanbaru’s constant “Araragi-sempai” is turned into “My senior Araragi”, which is fine initially, but after the first hundred or so times you realize how OFTEN she uses his name, and it begins to wear. (Mayoi’s “Mister Araragi” works better.) I understand why they chose not to have the honorifics, but I suspect I might find it a bit more comfortable if Kanbaru’s use of -sempai was removed rather than adapted, even if that affected the politeness level. Other than that, though, this is good volume of Monogatari, if not quite as good as the other two.

Fate/Complete Material, Vol. 2: Character Material

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By Type Moon. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Udon Entertainment. Translated by M. Kirie Hayashi.

I didn’t review the first of these artbooks when it came out three years ago for several good reasons. I wasn’t really into Fate then, I almost never buy artbooks in general, and I’m not sure exactly how I’d have reviewed it, except to point at it and say “Oooooh, pretty!”. The first volume is subtitled “Art Material”, and is what it says, showing off the big cutscenes and promotional materials for the visual novel. It’s gorgeous, and I recommend it, but you can’t talk about it for 500 words. That’s not a problem with the second artbook just released by Udon. This gets deeper into each of the characters in the original game, showing all their sprites, discussing their character with the writer and illustrator in great detail, talking about the weapons used in the VN, and also showing off the original character sketches and commenting on them. There’s a lot more text here.

For the most part, this book limits itself to the characters from the original Fate, though it does assume that the reader is at least aware of its sequel, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, as Bazett comes up in the ‘character relationship’ charts and is mentioned once or twice. We get long sections devoted to each of the three heroines, reminding you just how many sprites there are of each of them. Shirou, obviously, gets far less page time, as being the player character his sprites were rarely seen. We discuss why everyone loves Saber and how on earth she does her hair up like that (they agree she uses magic to achieve it), how much the strength of Rin as a complete character took the creators by surprise, and also how difficult they found it to distinguish Sakura and not make her main design “too boring” (the dangers of being the good, sweet girl).

Other surprises that I found within were the fact that Taiga, one of the most comedic characters in the game, was originally going to be a mature “big sister” type – and also get killed off, potentially. Needless to say, when the Taiga we know came into being the death got deep-sixed, and instead we get things like the Tiger Dojo. If you look at the character sketch section, you can see Taiga’s original design, and in fact it’s Ayako – something the authors readily admit, the illustrator just repurposed the old Taiga sketches for Rin’s friend. I was also amused at the discussion of Rin’s other friends, who only appear in the opening prologue. You wonder why they bothered to have sprites at all, and the creators explain they were told to add some as it was felt there just weren’t enough characters.

There’s three more artbooks after this, though I don’t know if Udon has licensed them all. The third shows us backgrounds, Tiger Dojo stuff, and the new CG and sprites added for the PS2 version; the fourth goes into all the other Fate spinoffs that aren’t Ataraxia (at least, spinoffs at the time the book came out, which was six years ago), and the 5th is the Ataraxia-focused book. If they’re anything like the job Udon has done with this artbook, they’ll be a treat. Essential for Fate fans.

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!