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Manga the Week of 7/5/23

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SEAN: Hot hot heat. Must be July.

Viz gives us a debut, Like a Butterfly (Hibi Chouchou) is the latest from the author of A Sign of Affection and Short Cake Cake… except it’s not, it actually came out before both of those. A gorgeous high school girl is also shy and doesn’t like attention… so promptly falls for the boy who refuses to look at her. This looks sweet.

MICHELLE: I’m here for it.

ANNA: Surprising no one, so am I!

ASH: Likewise interested.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Blue Box 5, Dr. STONE 26, The Elusive Samurai 7, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible 8, Moriarty the Patriot 12, My Love Mix-Up! 8, One Piece 103, Romantic Killer 4 (the final volume), Tista 2 (the final volume), and Vampire Knight: Memories 8.

Square Enix has A Man and His Cat 8.

ASH: I should probably catch up with this series; I did enjoy what I have managed to read.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Classroom of the Elite: Horikita (Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e √Horkita), a spinoff AU series that focuses on Horikita, which may surprise anime fans who thought the series already focused too much on her. It ran in my nemesis, Comic Alive.

They’ve also got The Ancient Magus’ Bride 18, Berserk of Gluttony 8, Gap Papa: Daddy at Work and at Home 2, Kemono Jihen 6, Let’s Buy the Land and Cultivate It in a Different World 4, Made in Abyss 11, Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn 16, and Versailles of the Dead 4.

MICHELLE: I didn’t realize volume 18 of The Ancient Magus’ Bride was coming out so soon; I’ve been working my way to getting caught up to 17!

ASH: Always glad to see a new volume of The Ancient Magus’ Bride!

SEAN: There’s some print from Kodansha. Drifting Dragons 14, EDENS ZERO 23, In/Spectre 18, Lovely Muco! 2, Noragami Omnibus 6, To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts 14, and Yuri is My Job! 11.

ASH: Drifting Dragons is another series that I’ve been enjoying but need to catch up on.

SEAN: The digital debut is My Wife is a Little Intimidating (Boku no Oku-san wa Chotto Kowai), a Comic Days series based on a Twitter comic. The description reminds me a bit of We’re New at This if the wife were… well… intimidating, rather than stoic.

And there’s digital for The God-Tier Guardian and the Love of Six Princesses 9, How to Grill Our Love 3, Life 5, MF Ghost 15, Matcha Made in Heaven 6, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Aqua 2, Sakura’s Dedication 4, The Transcendent One-Sided Love of Yoshida the Catch 3, and Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 9.

ANNA: I’ve been eagerly awaiting the next Matcha Made in Heaven!

ASH: I haven’t read the first volume yet, but I still love the series’ title.

SEAN: No new series for J-Novel Club, but a whole lot of ongoing ones. The 100th Time’s the Charm: She Was Executed 99 Times, So How Did She Unlock “Super Love” Mode?! 2, The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent 2, An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride 16, the 2nd manga volume of A Cave King’s Road to Paradise: Climbing to the Top with My Almighty Mining Skills!, Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte Disc EX (the final volume), Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers 8, the 5th manga volume of Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers, Let This Grieving Soul Retire 2, Magic Knight of the Old Ways 5 (the final volume), The Misfit of Demon King Academy 4 Part 2, My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex 7, the 4th manga volume of Rebuild World, A Royal Rebound: Forget My Ex-Fiancé, I’m Being Pampered by the Prince! 2, and To Another World… with Land Mines! 7.

ASH: Wow! That is a whole lot!

SEAN: Ghost Ship has Love is an Illusion! 3 (OK, not technically Ghost Ship), Please Go Home, Miss Akutsu! 2, and World’s End Harem: Fantasia 9.

Apologies, missed this last week. Fantagraphics has a one-shot, Minami’s Lover (Minami-kun no Koibito), a Garo manga from 1986 about a high school couple who struggle with everything when she becomes six inches tall!

ASH: Oh, yes! I just got my hands on that one!

SEAN: Dark Horse has the 9th Blade of the Immortal Deluxe Edition. (It got bumped.)

ASH: I’ll be picking it up whenever it’s actually released.

SEAN: And Airship, in print, gives us Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 3 and Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut 5.

We also get early digital for The Case Files of Jeweler Richard 5 and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 23.

That’s it? Not too bad!

The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, Vol. 8

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By Bisu and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo wa Kyou mo Hata o Tatakioru” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Esther Sun.

Last time I wondered if this final volume in the series would be a victory lap, or if we would have one last plot twist for Rosemary to deal with in order to save her life. As it turns out, there’s nothing to worry about, this is pure fluff, an absolute victory lap that consists entirely of everyone praising Rosemary to the skies while she herself acts like a lovestruck teenager and frets that she’s about to screw everything up at any moment. Spoiler: she doesn’t. There’s always been an element of “everyone thinks of the best possible reasoning for our heroine’s behavior” to this series, but it’s tended to be balanced by action sequences or suspense. Here there’s none of that, and even the romance is handled fairly early, so it really is just wedding prep, wedding, and having all the other love interests get a narrative bit about how sad they are but how happy they are for Rosemary. The word “schmoopy” was invented for books like this.

After the events of the last book (and reassuring herself that her cat is not in fact dead), Rosemary spends the bulk of the first half of this book recuperating. Of course, that does not mean that she’s not doing things. First of all, she and Leonhart finally confess to each other with words and everything, and get across that, rather than merely tolerating the other’s presence, they are in fact giant dorks in love. This means there’s a wedding coming!… in two years time. While we wait for that, she says a final farewell to Kanon (who goes back to Japan, though she’ll return for the wedding itself) and concentrates of learning how to become a duchess, because the status gap between princess and count is too large, so they’re giving her a duchy to solve the problem. And, of course, there’s the hospital and medical schools. Plus, y’know, the rest of her harem.

As with prior volumes, the books alternate between Rosemary and various other characters. Most of this is what you’d expect, but we do meet Leonhart’s family, the most interesting part of the book. They’re husband, wife, and three sons, Leonhart being the eldest, and the men in the family all have the quirk of being uninterested in romance till they meet the one woman who they will love the rest of their days. As such, they’re a bit worried about Leonhart, as the princess might be trying to selfishly coerce him. Then they meet Rosemary, who is practically perfect in every way, and are quickly adoring her like everyone else. If you are the sort of person who is bothered by this, I assume you dropped the series long ago, but with no serious plotline to balance out the praise, it gets to be a bit too much even for me.

In the end, they get married and the book ends. I was wondering if we’d get a flash forward to the future, which we don’t in terms of Rosemary, but I did like the epilogue, which shows what her real legacy will be. So yes, I enjoyed this series, a good one for a combination of “avoid my fate” reincarnation and suspense thriller.

The Manga Review: Love Is All You Need

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With the Fourth of July right around the corner, and two big conventions on the horizon, there were only a handful of real news stories this week. The biggest? Tokyopop just launched an imprint for romance manga called LoveLove, which will offer “age-appropriate content for readers ranging… from 13+ to older teens (16+) to ones aimed strictly at mature readers (18+).” The first title—The Black Cat & The Vampire—arrives in stores on October 12th… Jujutsu Kaisen has sold a staggering 80 million volumes worldwide… Masashi Kishimoto is hard at work on a new Naruto story… and the NBA will be introducing a line of t-shirts, satin jackets, and hoodies that allow fans to express their love of My Hero Academia and their favorite basketball team.

AROUND THE WEB

Kate Sánchez praises Netflix’s new adapation of Ōoku: The Inner Chamber for “staying true to the original manga” while “using animation to bring Yoshinaga’s vision to life with a vibrancy” that “can only be done in animation” [But Why Tho?]

Laura Grace posts a new installment of the Shojo Alphabet with a list of great series beginning with the letter “I.” [ Beneath the Tangles]

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Barefoot Gen, Asahi Shimbun traces out the publication history of Keiji Nakazawa’s classic drama. [The Asahi Shimbun]

Over at Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman interviews Ryo Sumiyoshi about his fantasy series Centaurs. [ANN]

Also worth a look is Christopher Farris’ interview with Jun Mayuzuki, author of After the Rain and Kowloon Generic Romance. [ANN]

Alex, Vrai, and Tony dedicate the latest episode of Chatty AF to Yuri Is My Job!. [Anime Feminist]

If you’ve been curious about the Mangamo! digital platform, check out Gee and Ray’s in-depth review. [Read Right to Left]

Not manga, but relevant: Kazuma Hashimoto traces out the history of the JRPG label, noting the degree to which it influences consumer behavior in the video game marketplace. “It’s clear that the mainstream only courts a specific idea of Japan as being acceptable — often reinterpretations of feudal Japan, largely spanning from the 1500s to late 1800s, when the samurai were still part of Japanese society,” he observes. “This extends to what Japanese-made games Western publishers will support… and this diminishes the rich tapestry of games released under the ‘Japanese role-playing game’ umbrella in order to fulfill a fantasy for non-Japanese consumers.” [Polygon]

For more commentary on the “othering” of Japanese media, see Tony Yao’s essay on how Americans perceive manga, and perceive Japanese culture through manga. [Drop-In to Manga]

REVIEWS

Over at The Comics Journal, Tegan O’Neill reviews Minami’s Lover, new out from Fantagraphics, while Hagai Palevsky tackles the Eisner-nominated horror series PTSD Radio. Elsewhere on the web, Tony Yao gives a “shout out” to Manga in Libraries: A Guide for Teen Librarians… Adam Symchuk reviews two indie titles, The Rabbit Game and Words Bubble Up Like Soda… and the crew at Beneath the Tangles offer pithy assessments of Bloody Sweet, Heavenly Delusion, and Scribbles.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, Ongoing, and OOP

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: The Second Coming of Shooting Star and the Final Showdown in the Eastern Capital

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

OK, I will admit, the author cleared the bar that I had set up for them. I’ve already grumped quite a bit about Lydia’s character arc during the last two to three books, and I had certain expectations of how it would resolve itself. I did not like those expectations, but I had them. Lydia was going to go berserk, everyone would make the terrible decision to kill her, and then Allen would return and talk her down. Thankfully, that is NOT what happened – at least not the last part. Lydia manages to get talked down by all the other love interests yelling “snap out of it, you idiot” at regular intervals till she does. This allows her to be part of the final battle, which I appreciated. Of course, I might be less grumpy if we ever learned more about Lydia and Allen’s past than anecdotes. Surprisingly, Tina doesn’t get much to do here either. Honestly, the love interest with the most focus is Lynne, as Narrator #2.

The rebellion is going very badly for the rebels, who decide to stake it all on one last battle for the Great Tree. Fortunately for those defending it, reinforcements are coming from all over the land. Unfortunately, Allen is still missing and presumed dead, meaning that most of the love interests are moping, and Lydia is… well, not in her right mind, we’ll put it that way. As for Allen, he’s trying to get the approval of an ancient ghost, and then has to battle the real enemy behind all this – the Church. (I know, the church, evil, in a Japanese light novel? Try to contain your shock.) Unfortunately, he may have finally come across something which really IS too much for him, as opposed to all the things he handles with ease while saying they’re too much for him. He may be forced to… ask for help.

Yeah, the final part of the book is basically “what if we all battled the final boss together?”, though the boss in this case is just a created monster thing. There was decent stuff in this book, but I won’t lie, I’m happy to see the back of this arc. In addition to Lydia running amok, I was also not fond of a death fakeout near the end, which was done purely to give Allen the rage and despair to fight even harder, but if you’re going to do that, don’t just do a “just kidding” afterwards. In the end, honestly, no one we care about died, or was even injured. One minor character’s father was kidnapped, which may be what starts the next arc, but other than that everyone does fine. A bit more than fine, honestly – Stella has become so overpowered I may have to start calling her Allen soon.

So yeah, good riddance to this arc, but I still enjoy the series. Next volume apparently stars Lily, the “Maid” of the Leinster family, and I am hoping will let her do something other than be comedy relief, because that’s all she’s done so far.

My Happy Marriage, Vol. 4

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By Akumi Agitogi and Tsukiho Tsukioka. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon” by Fujimi L Bunko. Released in North America Yen On. Translated by David Musto.

There is generally a habit in books, whether they’re “mysteries” or not, of trying to conceal a surprise twist. Keep the audience guessing, don’t let them figure out what the twist is until it’s too late. In practice, this is quite hard to pull off, and tends to lead to rolling of the eyes once the big reveal happens. As such, I always appreciate when a book doesn’t bother to do that and just says “let’s give it away on page 1”. Which is exactly what happens here, as there’s a traitor in the group that’s trying to protect Miyo, and the number of people tat it could possibly be amounts to one person. So we see that person approached by the villain immediately, in a prologue, and know who it is. Which is good, as it can then help with that this author really IS good at, which is giving readers an ulcer as they wait for the bad things to inevitably happen.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Miyo and Kiyoka beset by a man who claims to be her real father, and is also really, really smugly evil. Now Miyo can’t be left on her own , so she starts going to work and coming home with Kiyoka every day. She also gets a bodyguard, Kaoruko, one of the few women in the military in what is a very misogynistic unit. This means that Miyo has to deal with a) all the other members of the unit badmouthing Kaoruko and telling her to stay in the kitchen, and b) the fact that Miyo is associated with a family no one trusts and everyone seems to despise. You get the sense that the title of the series is getting further and further away, especially as they’re still not actually married yet.

So yeah, this book runs on dread. Not the dread of a horror novel, but the dread of a book about an abused daughter who is still viewing herself as the absolute worst being attacked on all sides. She has Kiyoka, who does the best he can, but she really needs more allies. Sadly, the one friend she makes, Kaoruko, turns out to be one of Kiyoka’s former potential fiancees, and clearly still has feelings for him, which sends Miyo into another spiral of self-loathing. Now, she does get one scene late in the book where she stands up and lets the sexist soldiers have it, but it’s sort of like eating a riceball made of needles in order to get to the tasty plum inside. Why read the series at all? The needles are also VERY tasty. This author knows how to write depression, anxiety, and melancholy, and Miyo is an extremely well-drawn woman.

So yes, we’re still not happy, and one subplot hints that we may see more double (triple?) agents. But this is still really good angst. The anime debuts next week, and should be exquisitely painful.

An Introvert’s Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me!, Vol. 3

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By Yuishi and Kagachisaku. Released in Japan as “Inkya no Boku ni Batsu Game de Kokuhaku Shitekita Hazu no Gal ga, Dō Mitemo Boku ni Beta Bore Des” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Satoko Kakihara.

It would appear that this series is going to be four volumes long, so if you were waiting for the payoff where they both finally confess to each other the one secret that is mentally destroying them both, well, you’ll have to wait a bit more. That said, almost everything else gets wrapped up here. Having finally confessed to both sets of parents that they’re going out, and getting approval from both of them, there’s not really much standing in Yoshin and Nanami’s way. Well, OK, there are a few things. Yoshin is still getting advice from his gaming group friends, and feels bad he hasn’t told Nanami about them. And on a more serious note, when Nanami asks him to drop the honorific when he talks to her, he chokes up and can’t quite do it. Is it repressed trauma? Or is it just another case of kids being jerks?

After dealing with the rumor mill at school, which says that either Yoshin has broken up with Nanami, is cheating on Nanami, or is in a harem relationship, we get to the bulk of the plot. Yoshin and Nanami’s parents have decides to take both families on a trip to a hot springs. That… really is the bulk of the plot, these aren’t complicated books. They go to the hot springs several times. They dress up in kimono/yukata and get a rickshaw ride around the town. There’s a few “whoops, I fell asleep and my hand is touching your stomach” moments, the punchline being that she’d prefer if he was groping her boob as she worries about her weight. There’s a cherry blossom viewing. And there’s what I mentioned above, as Nanami is convinced she’s done something to hurt Yoshin, but really it’s … well, as I said above, kids being jerks.

Sorry to spoil the one plot twist in this book, but it turns out that when he was in elementary school he asked a girl if he could call her by her name without an honorific, and she mocked him for it, then the whole class did. This seems mild, but it reminds you that they’re called formative years for a reason, as it led to him basically shutting himself off from other people for years. And, of course, not telling anyone about it. Sadly, I understand those feelings very well. That said, because this is the series it is, by the end of the book he’s managed to get over it, mainly because Nanami is sweet as pie and will forgive him anything. Oh yes, the other minor conflict from previous books is also mentioned – yes, the girl on his gamer group had a crush on him, but once she meets Nanami she pretty much gets over it.

So all that’s left is admitting “I did it for a dare”/”I know”, and the series is over. That will take another book, thoguh I’m pretty sure that book will also be filled with sweet, adorable moments. Which are basically the reasons that people read this series.

YashaHime: Princess Half-Demon, Vols. 1-2

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YashaHime: Princess Half-Demon epitomizes what I dislike most about IP-driven entertainment. It’s a manga adaptation of an anime sequel to a popular series, made with little involvement from the original author. Though the scriptwriters have created new characters and plot lines for the sequel, YashaHime feels more like the product of a focus group than an organic continuation of the story.

Like InuYasha, YashaHime begins in present-day Tokyo, where one of Sesshomaru’s twin daughters is living with the Higurashi clan. There are a few hints that Towa is troubled—she’s bounced from school to school, never really fitting in with her peers—but she valiantly tries to be a normal teenager. The sudden appearance of a demon at the Higurashi’s shrine sets the plot in motion, whisking Towa back to the feudal era and reuniting her with Setsuna, her fraternal twin, and Moroha, her cousin. Once back in her own time period, Towa joins Setsuna and Moroha on a quest to locate a set of “mystical pearls” and solve the mystery of what happened to their families.

There’s real potential in building a sequel around Sesshomaru and InuYasha’s daughters, but the authors skimp on meaningful character development. Setsuna, for example, is stoic and surly like Sesshomaru, while Moroha is boastful and loud like InuYasha; only Towa feels like a fully realized character. Towa is depicted as a shojo prince, decked out in a white pants suit and cropped haircut that lend her an aura of gender-bending cool—a point reinforced in the early chapters of volume one, when Towa is showered with notes from adoring female classmates. Beneath her cool exterior, however, Towa is haunted by the gaps in her memory, as she struggles to fit in with her adoptive family.

The other big drawback to YashaHime is that the authors lack Rumiko Takahashi’s gift for imaginative, economical storytelling. They shamelessly mine the original series for ideas, staging several action sequences that recall the earliest chapters of InuYasha. (Remember the three-eyed crows? Or the centipede demon who kidnapped Kagome? They’re back for another turn in the spotlight.) In between the demon-wrangling and the unfunny sight gags, the authors fall back on long-winded conversations to reveal how the three girls were separated from their parents, over-explaining everything to such a degree that the story groans under the weight of expository dialogue.

About the best I can say for YashaHime is that Takashi Shiina has done an admirable job of capturing the charm of InuYasha‘s character designs while making them look a little more up-to-date. Though Shiina’s linework is more angular than Rumiko Takahashi’s, the characters strongly resemble Takahashi’s original creations. All three leads have features that recall their famous fathers—Setsuna’s fluff is a particularly nice touch—while the human characters from InuYasha have aged in a naturalistic fashion. The demons, too, are drawn with care; Myoga, Jaken, and Kirara are all immediately recognizable.

I wish I enjoyed this series more, as I’ve been an InuYasha fan for almost twenty years. Part of the reason I loved the original series was that it felt like a real work of imagination, with odd flourishes of horror and genuine moments of pathos. YashaHime, by contrast, is so beholden to Takahashi’s original text that it never takes the kind of creative risks that would elevate it beyond the level of corporate doujinshi. There’s nothing as deeply unsettling as the sight of Naraku’s flesh bubbling in a cauldron, or as poignant as Kikyo and InuYasha’s final conversation; everything has a warmed-over quality, even when Shiina and Katsuyuki Sumisawa’s script explores new ground. Not recommended.

YASHAHIME: PRINCESS HALF-DEMON, VOLS. 1-2 • STORY AND ART BY TAKASHI SHIINA, MAIN CHARACTER DESIGN BY RUMIKO TAKAHASHI, SCRIPT COOPERATION BY KATSUYUKI SUMISAWA • TRANSLATED BY JUNKO GODA • ADAPTED BY SHAENON K. GARRITY • LETTERING BY JAMES GAUBATZ • VIZ MEDIA • 200 pp. • RATED TEEN (Fantasy violence, horror)

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Nightingale

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By Hajime Kamoshida and Keji Mizoguchi. Released in Japan as “Seishun Buta Yarou wa Nightingale no Yume wo Minai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

When I first saw the title, I wondered why we were getting two “singer” books in a row, and wondered if we’d be hitting all of Sweet Bullet. But no, this is not “Nightingale” as in “sang in Berkeley Square”, it’s “Nightingale” as in “Florence Nightingale”. I’m not sure if the author is TRYING to hit every single fetish, but it’s certainly true that, after commenting on the miniskirt Santa he met last time, he has to deal with several nursing school students this time around. Including, unfortunately, his old nemesis Saki. Fortunately, both of them have grown up to the point where they can actually tolerate each other in short bursts. As for the actual person who stars in this volume, we’ve seen her before as well. She was briefly in Sakuta’s high school in the “other universe” in Book 9, and he briefly saw her at college last book. And, as it turns out, she’s heavily connected to his past.

After briefly meeting up with Yuuma and Rio for a day outing, and confirming that Yuuma is quite happy being written out of the series, Sakuta goes back to trying to solve the problem of Touko Kirishima and the resurgence of Adolescence Syndrome. Of course, this being Sakuta, “trying” is perhaps too strong a word. What he ends up finding is that Ikumi Akagi, his old classmate from junior high, has been going around doing good deeds. Horrifying, right? It turns out that these good deeds are connected to a social media tag where people confess prophetic dreams, and Ikumi has been using that to try to stop the bad prochecies from coming true. This bothers Sakuta, who has first hand experience about why doing that can be a terrible idea. That said, what’s more bothersome is the fact that she’s making him remember what happened back in junior high, i.e. the events that led to the main plotline of this series.

This isn’t a harem series. Really. Sakuta has remained faithful to Mai the entire time, and the two have several lovey-dovey scenes together. It’s just that Sakuta has that combination of a bad-boy personality combined with good-boy actions that leads everyone to be drawn to him. Ikumi is no exception, and I actually want to be circumspect here, because I thought a lot of the aspects of her syndrome, as well as the cause and resolution, were very clever in a series that’s already pretty clever, so I don’t want to give it away. At heart, this is about how hard to can be to live up to your own expectations. Ikumi feels she failed Sakuta in junior high, and has never been able to get over it. Sakuta always feels like he’s doing the wrong thing, especially after going to the other world and finding a Sakuta who seemingly did everything right. We are our own worst critics.

Good stuff, even if it still feels like a series that ended at Book 9 and the publisher is locking the author in a room until they write more because it’s got movies coming out.

Pick of the Week: Edges, Goodbyes, and Homunculi

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MICHELLE: Psychological josei drama from Kyoko Okazaki? Gotta be River’s Edge this week.

SEAN: Much as I would love to pick the Okazaki, I know it’s gonna be too dark for me. So I’ll go with the final volume of The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, one of the better villainess series I’ve been reading.

KATE: Someone has to pick Good-Bye, Eri, so I’ll do it. Them’s the rules.

ANNA: I’m ready to go dark with i>River’s Edge.

ASH: Homunculus is one that I’ve been curious about for a while now, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to pick up another work by Kyoko Okazaki, so it’s River’s Edge for me, too!

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle, Vol. 4

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By Hiromu and raemz. Released in Japan as “Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Evie Lund.

It was once said, a couple decades ago, that no one would ever license a sports manga because it wouldn’t sell. Nowadays, given the enormous number of people who obsess over series like Haikyu!, that seems a bit ridiculous, but it was true. I’m not entirely sure if there are a large number of unlicensed light novels that follow baseball or basketball teams the way that manga does, but I’m inclined to say probably not. And we certainly don’t have them licensed over here. You’re allowed to dungeon crawl, or try to break off your engagement so you don’t die, but please don’t mention the K word. And by K I mean Koshien. That said, Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle is notable for having a LOT of jocks in its cast, by the nature of its premise. And it’s this fourth volume that drills right down to the heart of the jock, showing us what it means to dream big, and also balancing the harem again with its shortest member.

We’ve known since the start of the series that Chitose used to play baseball but quit. Now the team is back, begging him to come back as their star is injured, and won’t be ready in time for the first knockout game. Chitose, needless to say, is rather pissed off about this, as he had reasons for leaving the team – which, you’ll be grateful to hear, we finally hear about. He’s also dealing with the girls’ basketball team, which has a new captain, Haru, who’s a taskmaster and is pushing the others past their limits – which they hate. It’s needed in order to make them a better team, but it also makes Haru a very convenient target. Will Chitose manage to help Haru to reconcile things with her basketball team, and can he do that by giving in and playing his last ever baseball game? Even if it means breaking himself to do it.

The series’ best feature remains its ability to convince you, in each new volume, that the girl being focused on is definitely the one who should “win” the Chitose romantic partner sweepstakes. Last volume I said that Asuka was written out in the third book as she was so far ahead of the others. (As it turns out, she’s still around, though Chitose is mooning over her less.) In this volume, it feels like he and Haru also really belong together – they’re birds of a feather, basically, and a reminder that “opposites attract” is not always true. The book is also very good at showing the frustrations of the high school athlete. Haru is a fantastic basketball player. But she’s 4’9″, and there’s simply no way to make up that difference in height in a sport like that. As for Chitose, well, he’s cool. The best scene may have been when he’s wavering back and forth on what to do, and when he tries to do an uncool option Haru chimes in “I don’t like this Chitose.” It was adorable.

So yes, the light novel for normies remains excellent. We’ll see what the next volume brings – Yuuko is on the cover, will she be the lead girl?