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The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 9

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By Gamei Hitsuji and Yuunagi. Released in Japan by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

This was, for the most part (I’ll get to the one really annoying bit at the end) a solid volume that gave fans what they wanted: Suimei back on Earth and reconnecting with everyone, and the three main heroines marveling at life in a science-based world and eating lots of delicious sweets. I will admit that those who like the battle scenes in Too Far Behind might find it wanting – the only battle here is about 3/4 of the way through, and it’s a one-way curbstomping. But honestly this is meant to be a pure fanservicey break before we go back to confront the Big Bad, and as such it functions fine. It also introduces us to a new heroine, though it doesn’t appear as if she’s going to be a love interest. Hydemary, Suimei’s disciple, is the girl on the cover art (with the series’ third artist, by the way, which may be why it was so late in coming), and she’s both more and less complex than I was expecting.

I mentioned three main heroines – Hatsumi does return with the rest of them, but spends the entire book essentially recuperating with her family, so is not participating. Her family being a set of terrifying swordsmen who work with Suimei’s family, the whole “we went to a parallel world” explanation is accepted very rapidly. (Reiji and Mizuki stayed behind, and we briefly hear about Suimei mind controlling their parents and the school to smooth things over, which ergh.) As for the other three, Liliana gets her cursed eye fixed at last, though given that it’s fixed by a mad scientist otaku it apparently got a few bells and whistles added to it. Also, she’s still wearing the eyepatch, because of course she is. Lefille learns that the best thing for her swordplay right now is to take a break and not obsess over winning, two very good pieces of advice. And Felmenia basically gets to immerse herself in books and sweets, but that’s good enough for her.

The main plotline involves Suimei, after telling the Magician’s Society sending Suimei (after he briefly explains where he was – they don’t really care) to stop a group who are trying to revive a God somewhere in Germany. Suimei keeps putting this off, much to the irritation of Hydemary, who has had to deal with a) him being gone for 6 months or so, b) him returning with a bunch of other girls; and c) her own self-worth issues, as she’s a homunculus, and thus while she has all the knowledge of the world her experience is minimal. Honestly, I was expecting this to be bigger than it was – I expected her to turn evil for a bit, whereas a pep talk was all it took to cheer her up. It helps that she’s about seven years old in actual years, and thus not a romantic partner – at least not that we can tell. Suimei treats her like a wayward but loved child.

The book ends with a side story showing how Suimei and Hydemary first meet, which was fine except when it turns out her creator was once pals with Hitler before he went bad. Keerist. The whole “Hitler was under the control of other magical forces” plot is very hard to do without being offensive, and it’s impossible when it’s done as a brief dash of backstory before it’s dropped. I really didn’t need to know Hyudemary’s creator was an ex-Nazi. That aside, though, we nearly wrap up the Earth arc and are set to return to Felmenia and company’s home – this time with Hydemary, as well as someone else who is evil and appears to be hitching a ride. When will we see it? Will it have a 4th artist? Who knows? But this was a pretty good entry in the series.

Knight of the Ice, Vol 1

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Knight of the Ice Volume 1 by Yayoi Ogawa

I think Tramps Like Us (Kimi Wa Pet) started coming out here in the mid 2000s, and 15+ years is a long time to wait between Yayoi Ogawa series. Fortunately for anyone in the need of sports-based josei distraction in these trying times, Knight of the Ice serves up plenty of Ogawa’s off-kilter humor along with workplace romance hijinks. The heroine of this story is Chitose, who works at a magazine. She’s so incredibly tiny that she’s sometimes mistaken for a child, which causes her some problems in the workplace.

Knight of the Ice

Chitose’s childhood friend Kokoro is a champion figure skater, who is able to keep up his flawless facade on the ice only when Chitose is present to cast a magical girl spell on him by quoting the anime they were both obsessed with as children. Having to suddenly disappear right around ice skating championships also causes problems when Chitose has to duck out of work without any clear explanations. Her boss Sawada keeps making references to her tiny size by giving her a nickname that references the Moomins, but he also seems to be a little more aware of Chitose as a woman than he should be. The set-up of a figure skater with severe performance anxiety is funny by itself, but Ogawa also adds additional humor with Kokoro’s domanatrix-like manager, and the occasional appearance of “Yayoi Ogawa”, an old school friend of Chitose who occasionally appears to offer commentary and life advice. Ogawa’s art is distinctive and energetic, capturing Kokoro’s graceful poses along with plenty of emotional outbursts and quieter moments of romantic confusion. Ogawa does a good job slowly setting up the potential love triangle between Chitose, Sawada, and Kokoro. Her quirky sensibilities make this first volume extremely engaging. I’m on board for this whole series!

Pick of the Week: Cross-Eyed

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MICHELLE: I am a little wary of Star⇄Crossed!!, since the creator’s other series to be licensed here was not my thing, but its wacky premise has undeniable appeal in these dark days. I hope I love it.

SEAN: I’ve been enjoying J-Novel Club’s line of shoujo light novels even more than I expected to. As a result, the series I’m most looking forward to this week is the debut of The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap, which if nothing else has KITTIES!

KATE: Any manga that has Erica Friedman’s endorsement is automatically on my must-read list, so my vote is for The Conditions of Paradise.

ASH: I’m certainly interested in everything that’s been mentioned so far, but my pick this week goes to the second volume of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun with it’s quirky characters and interesting takes on yokai.

ANNA: I’m throwing in with Michelle and picking Star⇄Crossed!! too!

MJ: While I’m very much interested in The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap, I’m going to have to go along with Anna and Michelle this week. Star⇄Crossed!! looks like everything I need to battle the social-distancing blues!

Kakushigoto: My Dad’s Secret Ambition, Vol. 1

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By Kouji Kumeta. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Monthly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America digitally by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Kouji Kumeta, back in the olden days when he was romanized as Koji Kumeta, wrote a series called Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei that was dear to my heart. Featuring a despairing teacher, his eccentric class of students, and overanalysis of Japanese trends and cliches, it ran for 30 volumes and features a very surreal, quite disturbing ending. Sadly, it sold less and less well over here in North America, and petered out with the fourteenth volume. But now, moving from Weekly to Monthly Shonen Magazine, we have a new series from Kumeta, starring a father who desperately wants to hide his profession from his elementary school-aged daughter… because he draws ecchi manga. Indeed, his most popular series, Testicoooool, probably gives you an idea why he does not want his daughter to know this. That said… despite the more realistic premise, this series is for fans of what Kumeta does best: overanalyse things to death, make obscure references, and draw striking poses of most of the characters. The art continues to be fantastic.

There is, to be fair, more of an attempt to hold to the plot and characterization of the title than there ever was with Zetsubou-sensei, which was an excuse for anything to happen. Most of the chapters are about two things: Kakushi’s attempts to hide his manga profession from his daughter and actually drawing the manga with his assistants, and Hime’s school life with her teacher and the cast of Zetsubou… OK, yeah, there’s no getting around that. Hime’s classmates are very obviously elementary school versions of the girls from Zetsubou-sensei. I spotted Chiri, Akira, Nami, Kafuka, Manami, Maria, Matoi… they all have slightly different names, of course, but even then, “Riko Kitsuchi” is clearly “Chiri Kitsu” swapped around. He’s having fun. That said, apart from Riko being a bit overbearing, they don’t ACT like their counterparts. It’s pure fanservice.

Hime’s mother is not in the picture, and Kakushi is shown to be a single parent. This allows him to occasionally be a “harem protagonist”, though like most of those he’s clueless about it. Hime’s teacher clearly has a crush on him, one chapter has him accidentally winning over several single women in the area, and a high school girl trying to be an idol, who finds that Kakushi actually listens to her rambling, might be a stalker in the making. That said, Kakushi only has eyes for his little girl, who he is deeply overprotective of. Many of the chapters show him trying to watch over her and make sure she isn’t bullied by the other kids (which is not going to happen, mostly as Hime is a sweetie pie). As for whether she will find out… well, the manga begins with her, as a high school girl, having the secret deliberately revealed to her, and the end of this volume implies that’s because Kakushi has died. (I’d say that ending is too dark for a comedy manga, but then remember how Zetsubou ended, so maybe…)

It’s the in between that counts, though, and this series ended up running for twelve volumes. I’ll be reading more, though I admit I read it for the creator, not the characters or plot.

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest Short Stories

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By Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Shouhenshuu” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen

This was not the Short Story collection I expected, to be honest, at least not till the final third of the book. What it is is a rounding up of most of the very short stories that the author wrote for giveaways, store-exclusives, etc. A lot of series have these, few bring it out as a real volume. (J-Novel Club has quite a few of them as Premium Extras for subscribers, and indeed I think a lot of these originally appeared as exclusive extras in earlier books.) The book breaks down in four sections: the first are short-short stories taking place within the timeline of approximately Books 1-5 of the main series; the second is an alternate universe where the characters are at a “magical academy” type school; the third has three short takeoffs on popular fairy tales; and the fourth is the short story written exclusively for this book, which has the main cast (along with Myu and Remia) ending up in the crossover event we all wanted to see.

The cover features Hajime, reminding us why he’s rarely on the cover as he looks far more chuuni than grimdark; and Myu, whose character trait in this volume is to show off how she’s taking after her “daddy” despite only having been around him a short time. As for the content… I’m gonna be honest, while these were cute, about 2/3 of the book does not lend itself to a review. There’s lots of harem fights, there’s characters being dorks, there’s indiscriminate destruction of anyone who would dare go after Myu, etc. The Academy/Fairy Tale chapters are even less important, so I’ll skip them entirely. I did enjoy the chapters showing Hajime’s parents, first in a flashback showing off their otaku occupations (honestly, they remind me far too much of the parents from Outbreak Company) and then showing how upset they are at their son’s disappearance.

The main reason to get this is the last story, which has the cast, taking a final voyage with Myu (and Remia) before leaving her behind, and ending up spirited to a cursed city by a phantom whale that seems to only communicate with Myu. Unfortunately, the monsters here are too powerful for this group to handle. Yes, even Hajime. Fortunately, this whale can also reach back… in TIME! Yes, you guessed it, the cast of Arifureta meets the cast of Arifureta Zero, with Miledi being somewhat baffled as to why everyone hates her, Meiru becoming a total siscon about little Myu, etc. Eventually they do team up to take down the Big Bads, and we see Miledi and Yue comparing themselves to each other, as do Oscar and Hajime. Sadly, due to plot contrivance, they don’t remember the meeting afterwards, but hey. (This story also serves to show that Remia’s “ara ara” personality is for show, as if we hadn’t guessed, and also that she may be falling for Hajime for real.)

So in the end, this is pretty light and fluffy, and not an essential purchase. But it’s reasonably fun, and the last quarter was quite entertaining. Arifureta fans should like it.

Something’s Wrong with Us, Vol. 1

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By Natsumi Ando. Released in Japan as “Watashitachi wa Douka Shiteiru” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Be Love. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Sawa Matsueda Savage.

One of the first things I noticed when I began to heavily overanalyze manga artists is that shoujo artists started out in the magazines for younger readers – the Margaret, Nakayoshi and Hana to Yume types – and then, after many years of long and faithful service, graduated to the magazines for adult women – You, Be Love, and Silky. I used to wonder if it was like being kicked upstairs into the House of Lords. I suspect it may be more that the josei magazines come out with far less frequency and are thus easier to handle on a schedule basis. The reason for this drawn out prologue is that this new series is by Natsumi Ando, famous – or infamous – for her shoujo potboilers that ran in Nakayoshi over the years, such as Kitchen Princess and Arisa. And now she’s “graduated” and started a series for Be Love, which seems to be doing quite well given it’s 11 volumes and counting over there.

Nao is a happy young child, who adores her mother, a sweetsmaker who has take a job at a prestigious sweets shop. She’s shy, but makes friends with the cute young boy who’s the heir to the business. Then there’s a murder, which Nao witnesses, and the very same cute young boy accuses her mother of the murder. Fast forward to Nao at age 21, still dealing with PTSD from the murder, her mother having died in custody meaning Nao can’t hold a job, suddenly finding work at the very same sweets shop, whose young heir is now gorgeous… and about to get married. That said, the family seems to be as cruel and overdramatic as ever, and Tsubaki is no exception. Can Nao find out why her mother was framed all those years ago? And can she do it while being used as a pawn… and possibly fall in love?

I will admit that I tend to start off enthusiastically reading Ando series and then gradually lose interest, and I’m not sure if this will be the same. It’s a very good start, though. Ando has used dark, dramatic arcs before, but rarely from the start, and Nao being 21 rather than a teenager helps lend heft to the murder accusation and aftermath plot. Tsubaki seems like the sort of asshole who will gradually be shown to have a nice side deep down that we see in many of these series, but so far he’s hiding it pretty well, and he has a MUCH harder hurdle to clear than simply “I am a rude jerk” to win Nao’s heart. I am expecting, given the nature of the series, that his accusation of Nao’s mother is not all that it seems, and in fact the entire family looks like they wanted a scapegoat… and may want one again. Given that “like accused criminal, like accused criminal’s child” is a thing in Japan, I am in fact expecting it soon.

I haven’t mentioned the sweets, for which I apologize. This book is also all about sweets, and the endnotes are mostly about the nature of them – these are Japanese sweets, not Western. They do help relieve a bit of the darkness that this series exhibits. If you liked Ando’s shoujo drama, her josei drama should definitely appeal. As for me, we shall see how long I last with this one.

Bibliophile Princess, Vol. 1

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By Yui and Satsuki Sheena. Released in Japan as “Mushikaburi-hime” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alyssa Niioka.

The great thing about first-person narration is that not only is it a good way to get inside the head of the main character, but it can also be used to obfuscate, and even to fool the reader entirely. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie is probably the most classic example, but Japanese light novels are also filled with narrators who conceal and/or lie about their own thoughts. Fortunately, Elianna Bernstein is not that sort of narrator. No, instead her narration is sort of like a puffball, floating alongside events while missing the point of most of them. This is especially true of the first half of the book, when she tries to figure out why everyone is avoiding her – particularly her fiancee, the prince, who seems to be charmed by another woman. Now, it should come as no surprise to the reader that this proves not to be the case (indeed, so little surprise that I’m spoiling it here). But the journey it takes to get there is funny and sweet.

Elianna comes from a family of book-lovers – indeed, they’re famous for it, and their family are also knowledge brokers of a sort. She does not seem, at first, to be the same – indeed, it’s hard to get much of a sense of personality out of her beyond “loves to read”. She herself tells us about kids calling her “the library ghost” due to her pale complexion, and the current nickname of Bibliophile Princess is only a mild step up. Now she’s seeing her fiancee with another woman. This is it, right? The end of their engagement. Even if it means… shudder… giving back the book that Prince Christopher once gave to her. But is that what’s really going on? What’s more, is Elianna really just an insular book-loving heroine? Or is she actually changing the entire nation in many and varied ways… and then promptly forgetting about what she said as she’s moved on to her next book?

The book is in three parts. The first is Elianna’s narration of the “cheating” story, and reads like a standalone short story that an editor told her to expand into a novel. The second comes from other narrators, showing us other perspectives on Elianna, particularly the prince’s. Then we’re back to Elianna, mostly, for a third chunk which also reads like a short story, about a traveling book fair and its people. The first part was the most fun, but I think the last story was the strongest, as it gets into themes of racial prejudice and poverty, as well as seeing Elianna suddenly become an action heroine when she hears someone is about to burn a pile of books. It also shows Elianna gaining depth beyond the fun airhead we saw at the start – her uneasiness as she realizes that she can’t remember the first meeting between her and Chris is well handled.

Not only did the first chunk of the book read like a done-in-one short story, but the book feels like a standalone novel. Still, there are more novels in the series, and I’ll definitely want to read more. Elianna is fun to read, even if, as the author notes, when not reading a book she seems to look at people with a question mark over her head.

Also, Christopher, and particularly Prince Chris, reads terribly to me. I wish he’d been an Edward.

Manga the Week of 3/25/20

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SEAN: It’s getting near the end of March. Are you getting some manga delivered to you?

Dark Horse debuts the Dangan Ronpa 2: Goodbye Despair manga, which I believe tells the story from the POV of the actual lead this time, as opposed to the semi-antagonist.

J-Novel Club continues its rollout of shoujo light novels with The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap (Fukushuu wo Chikatta Shironeko wa Ryuuou no Hiza no Ue de Damin wo Musaboru), another series from the Arianrose label. A young girl ends up in another world, abandoned by her “friend”, trapped on a dangerous land, and turned into a white cat. But does she let that get her down? Hell no!

ASH: It make me happy to see more shoujo novels being translated.

SEAN: They’ve also got Ascendance of a Bookworm’s third manga volume, and Outbreak Company 13.

Kodansha’s print debut is Yuzu the Pet Vet (Yuzu no Dobutsu Karte), a Nakayoshi series about an 11-year-old who lives at her uncle’s pet hospital. She’s scared of animals, but wants to help out. Can she slowly come to love them? This looks, pardon me, goddamn adorable.

MICHELLE: It does. I wonder if it’ll be a little too cutesy for me, but I will definitely be checking it out.

ASH: I plan on giving it a look, too!

ANNA: It does sound cute!

MJ: Oh!

SEAN: Also out in print is Cells at Work: Code BLACK 4, If I Could Reach You 4, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 2, and The Seven Deadly Sins 37.

MICHELLE: I liked the first volume of Living-Room Matsunaga-san. I’m glad it’s getting a print release.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to give it a try.

SEAN: The digital debut is Star⇄Crossed!! (Oshi ga Watashi de Watashi ga Oshi de), which is from the creator of Kiss Him, Not Me! and looks to be about as bananas as that one was. It runs in Betsufure, begins with the hero and heroine dying, and features bodyswaps via kissing.

MICHELLE: I am so down for this. I hope it doesn’t involve ludicrous, spontaneous weight loss as a plot point.

ANNA: That sounds hilarious.

MJ: I’m so ready for this.

SEAN: Other digital titles next week: Altair: A Record of Battles 16, Boarding School Juliet 15, DAYS 17, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 19, I Fell in Love After School 2, Vampire Dormitory 3, and Watari-kun’s ******* Is About to Collapse 4.

MICHELLE: I really need to read Elegant Yokai Apartment Life.

SEAN: Seven Seas has three debuts. The Conditions of Paradise is a short-story collection from celebrated yuri artist Akiko Morishima. The stories ran in Comic Yuri Hime.

ASH: I’m curious about this one.

MJ: I am, too!

SEAN: Cosmo Familia is by the artist of the Madoka Magica manga, and appears to appeal to that demographic, but replaces magical girls with alien invaders. This one runs in Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara Forward.

We’ve already seen the PENGUINDRUM manga, and the PENGIUNDRUM anime, now enjoy the first light novel volume as well. This is an early digital release.

ASH: I’m sure I’ll get around to reading this once it’s available in print.

SEAN: They’ve also got Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average?! 8 (print) and 9 (digital), Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 12 (print), Machimaho 5, Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious 3, and the 3rd Skeleton Knight in Another World manga.

Square Enix gives us a manga version of a light novel Yen On is releasing, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town. The novel was a lot of fun. The manga runs in Gangan Online.

ASH: It does sound like it would be fun.

MJ: It does!

SEAN: Vertical has a 14th volume of Devils’ Line.

Yen On has three titles. A Certain Magical Index 22 is the final volume of the first Index series… is it the end of the Index novels in North America as well? There’s also Do You Love Your Mom? 5 and You Call That Service? 2.

And Yen Press has a pile of manga, though no debuts. Instead we get Bungo Stray Dogs 14, Cocoon Entwined 2, Hatsu*Haru 11, Kiniro Mosaic 10, KonoSuba’s 10th manga volume, Laid-Back Camp 10, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected’s 13th manga volume, Smokin’ Parade 7, So I’m a Spider, So What?’s 7th manga volume, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 2, and Triage X 19.

MICHELLE: The first volume of Cocoon Entwined was atmospheric and intriguing, and I very much look forward to more!

ASH: I just recently read the first volume of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun and kind of loved it, so I’ll definitely be picking up the second.

SEAN: Does any of this ring your chimes?

Bookshelf Briefs 3/18/20

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Dr. STONE, Vol. 10 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – Dr. STONE thrives on ridiculous ideas, of course, but that does not mean that it cannot briefly pause when bad things are happening. Tsukasa is saved from immediately dying, but he is still dying, and the only solution that Senku can come up with is to cryofreeze him. This is handled rather well, though Senku is not shown to the reader when he is being emotional about it. After that,things get ridiculous again, as we need to go searching other continents. This means ships, which means unstoning the world’s most ridiculous ship captain, who iss also an arrogant SOB. Fortunately they have Yuzuhira, who can transform into JoJo when she is doing anything with sewing, be it bodies or sails. A ton of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Ex-Enthusiasts: MotoKare Mania, Vol. 3 | By Yukari Takinami | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – At 27, Yurika Namba is obsessed with “Makochi,” a guy she broke up with five years ago. When they meet again at her new job, she discovers that the real Makochi is not like her fantasy version. After initially trying to forget him by dating someone else, by volume three Yurika has told Makochi that she has feelings for him and is trying to project as much “cool girl” as possible so as not to scare him away from the prospect of a relationship. At first, I thought I might not like this series, as Yurika came off as unhinged and stalkery, but as it has gone on, I’ve come to enjoy it quite a bit, especially the fanciful sequences where various facets of Yurika’s brain (and sometimes Makochi’s!) debate and comment on what’s happening to their hosts. I’m intrigued to see where this goes next. – Michelle Smith

In/Spectre, Vol. 11 | By Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase | Kodansha Comics – I had been joking about whether “Kotoko is terrible” was a running theme in this book (along with “Kotoko is thirsty”), but it looks like it may be the actual main plot, as Rikka’s machinations seem to be to get Kuro to realize what a horrible person she really is. This is a tall order, mostly as I think Kuro has realized this from the beginning. In the meantime, we get the end of the family murder mystery, which is done very well with lots of twists and turns and Kotoko being the perfect arrogant detective. I particularly liked the granddaughter, who is the one who comes off as the least self-serving (and the only one who didn’t plot to kill her grandmother). All this and a nyotaimori reference. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 13 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – The festival starts but doesn’t end in this volume, and we have several interlocking plots. Kaguya wants to confess but doesn’t. Chika is busy being herself and trying to find a balloon thief. Ishigami manages, somehow, to accidentally confess to Tsubame, which is a problem as she wants to concentrate on gymnastics and not dating but also doesn’t want to hurt him. And then there’s Shirogane, of course, who finally, in the cliffhanger, tells Kaguya he’s leaving to go to Stanford. This is all done with the usual heaping helping of humor, of course, but it’s also heartwarming that the reader has come to prefer the emotional character moments to the gag moments. Will we finally get a confession in the next volume? – Sean Gaffney

Stravaganza: The Queen in the Iron Mask, Vols. 2-3 | By Akihito Tomi | Udon Entertainment – This is one of the more frustrating series I’ve read in a while. The art is absolutely gorgeous, with amazing backgrounds and scenery, and some good action sequences. There are some horrific moments that bring to mind Attack on Titan and its better moments. But then there’s the constant nudity and sadism that is also throughout the books—the author seems to love to put the queen in danger and have her menaced/stripped/flogged by various bad guys. Rape does not come up, thank goodness, but it’s still annoying, because I’d love to recommend this to a wider audience, but once again it’s a series for those who really like the nude female form. Shame. – Sean Gaffney

Takane & Hana, Vol. 13 | By Yuki Shiwasu | VIZ Media – Finally, finally, Takane and Hana manage to honestly admit their feelings for each other and become a couple. I loved Takane’s silent fist-clench of relief and joy, as well as some of the dialogue that follows, like Hana telling her father “He means the world to me,” and Hana’s mother being concerned about her daughter’s future options being limited. (Takane awesomely tells Hana, “Do whatever you want to do. The only difference is that I’m at your side.”) The family trip to Okinawa gets a little silly, with Hana working herself up to ambush him with a kiss again, but there are nice moments as well, and I appreciated the reminder that Takane is really not going to try anything physical with her at this point in time. I had a few volumes to catch up on for this review, and now I’m bummed not to have any more. – Michelle Smith

What’s Michael? Fatcat Collection, Vol. 1 | By Makoto Kobayashi | Dark Horse – When I was first introduced to What’s Michael?, it was after the series had already gone out of print in English and was difficult to find. I am thrilled that the manga is being released again, making it available to a wider audience. The first “fatcat” omnibus collect the first six volumes of Dark Horse’s previous edition with no real changes, as far as I can tell. It also includes a newly written essay by Zack Davisson which provides additional context for the series. What’s Michael? may simply be one of the best cat comics that I’ve read. Generally episodic in nature—although with some recurring characters and running jokes—Kobayashi perfectly captures not only the peculiarities and personalities of cats but also those of their human admirers. Some of the stories are more fantastic than realistic but What’s Michael? is a manga that is consistently funny and solidly entertaining. – Ash Brown

Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On?! ~A Sign-on-the-Line Wedding Story~, Vol. 1

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By Tsuredurebana and Rin Hagiwara. Released in Japan as “Dareka Kono Joukyou wo Setsumei Shite Kudasai! ~Keiyaku Kara Hajimaru Wedding~” by ArianRose. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mattias Hirsch.

Sometimes you go into a book with expectations. Perhaps the book is part of a new line of romance novels for young women the publisher is putting out. Perhaps the title features the words ‘wedding story’. Perhaps the cover, which shows the heroine in a wedding gown and a handsome young man, draws you in. Perhaps you read the manga version, which is available on the Renta ebooks site, and every single chapter was filled with a breathless romantic description of what was happening. Indeed, the book does indeed hit all these points. There is indeed a wedding. There are balls where the heroine shines. There is another woman, constantly trying to call out the heroine so that she can prove who’s top dog. There’s even the tried and true “hero asks for marriage of convenience and then gradually falls in love anyway” plotline. The startling thing about this book, though, is that its heroine, Viola, starts the book completely uninterested in romance and Cercis, the hero… and ends it the same way.

Viola is the daughter of an Earl whose landholdings have fallen on hard times, and is used to doing most things herself with a minimum of fuss and servants. She is rather startled when Duke Cercis arrives at her door with a proposal. Well, more of a contract. He has a woman he already loves, but she’s a dancing girl and therefore he can’t marry her and his family won’t approve. So Viola is to be his “show wife”. Viola, after securing enough funding to save her family’s debt, agrees very matter-of-factly, and a year later they are married and she’s living in a fabulous mansion. Wondering what to do with herself at first, she’s soon winning over the servants (and indeed dressing as one), cutting back on the extravagant meals, brightening up the gardens and house, and putting her own stamp on everything while the Duke and his lover live in the cottage elsewhere on the estate. All well and good… but why is the Duke coming over more and more often?

Viola’s narrative voice is all over this book, and it’s a fun one. She has a fair amount of snarkiness to her, but there’s also a heaping helping of unawareness, and those two don’t usually go together. She’s the sort to describe herself as scrawny, plain and flat-chested, and has absolutely no idea why her maids, when given the opportunity to put her in real fashion and jewelry, go absolutely ga-ga. The answer, of course, is that Viola’s scrawny and flat-chested is everyone else’s tall and willowy, and she looks fantastic dressed up. She doesn’t put on airs, she actually cares about the people around her, and she shows absolutely no interest in getting involved with the Duke and his mistress. Indeed, I was sort of hoping for more Duke and mistress – there’s a running gag where the mistress keeps showing up looking for the lady of the manor and runs into Viola (dressed in her normal black “maid dress” and therefore unrecognizable), but for the most part the book is content to gradually work its way up to the inevitable breakup that comes when the Duke realizes he does love Viola after all.

This leads to the climax, where the duke confesses his love, and Viola says she doesn’t really think of him that way. Given that the series is nine volumes long to date, one would assume he will eventually get his point across, but if he’s going to be wooing her, he’d better try a bit harder – rewriting their contract (which had said she, as a “show wife”, could also have lovers) to say she can only love him is not a terrific start. Still, the combination of the oddly shaped not-romance and the intelligent (if somewhat too self-deprecating) heroine makes me want to read further.