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Toradora!, Vol. 6

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By Yuyuko Takemiya and Yasu. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Will Holcomb.

Sadly, I’ve caught up with when I started to review the manga version of this series, hence the annoying 2 at the end of the URL. In the meantime, we were always going to get a book devoted to Kitamura at some point, and this is the book. Like Minori, he’s a seemingly goofy and eccentric friend, though his iss more genuine and less of a mask than Minori’s. The start of the book sees him devastated by a (hidden to the reader) declaration from Sumire, the current Student Council President. Unfortunately, after he snaps out of it he seemingly goes off the deep end, dying his hair blond and stating he’s not running for student council. thus shocking the entire school. Ryuuji and Taiga may be the only ones who can help him, but what is that help going to entail, and will it mean that the new student council president actually has to be Taiga?

That’s Sumire on the cover, and I suspect that fan opinion of her may be divided. She’s shown to be a flawed character whose reasons for doing what she did are in character but also immature. Unfortunately, we’re not shown that till the very end of the book, in a fantastic and brutal fight with Taiga (which ends with Taiga suspended for two weeks); till then, we’re told over and over again how perfect she is, and when she’s not absent from the book she’s making the situation worse. I liked her arc, but many might think “too little too late”, especially as she’s seemingly also written out here. Speaking of divided opinion, Kitamura gets this book for character development, but just like Sumire that involves being an immature child for most of the volume, doing things like “becoming a delinquent” as a cry for attention from someone who won’t give it to him. You sort of which Taiga would have beaten him up as well, though that’s not going to happen.

Much better handled are the rest of the main cast. Minori is still clearly recovering from the events of the last book, and still trying to find her feet around Ryuuji. I have suspicions about that, but will save it till it’s more obvious. Ami is simply fantastic, being at her bitchy arrogant best while also showing that she too is changing, though she’s not very happy about it at all. (Minori and Ami is a fan ship, and there’s a nice, if short, scene here for that ship). And then there’s our main couple, Taiga and Ryuuji, who have not yet realized that they love each other but both have independently realized that they can’t imagine living without each other. The series is now in its second half, so we need to start heading towards endgame. Taiga too has matured… though perhaps not enough to avoid getting suspended for beating the shit out of a fellow student.

So an excellent volume of Toradora… except that the two characters at the center of it are being very difficult and stubborn. Still worth reading.

One Piece, Vol. 91

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

Oda is very fond of writing chaotic scenes, and the last few arcs have all consisted of “start slow, then work to lots of chaos’. But the period of slow starts is decreasing, and we’re barely halfway into this volume before Luffy, reuniting with Zoro, is doing things at his own pace and upturning everything, mostly as we’re present in another country where evil bad guys are lording it over everyone while the poor and downtrodden starve. And, let’s face it, beating up those evil bad guys doesn’t really get old. It is worth noting, though, that Luffy has matured a great deal since the start of the series, and particularly in the last few arcs. Sure, he still doesn’t listen to anyone and does his own thing, and He’s still happy-go-lucky, but his reaction to Otama’s condition and the state of the country itself show a maturity that I really like seeing in him. You’re starting to see him turn into someone who CAN be the Pirate King.

This is the first time in ages that we’ve had the entire Straw Hat crew assembled, but aside from Zoro, the rest of the “missing” crew from the last few books remain missing here. But that doesn’t mean we’re not making new friends and introducing old ones. Otama is the cute and spunky little girl who made a promise with Ace years ago and now finds that Ace isn’t able to fulfill it. But that’s why Luffy is here. There’s also Okiku (get used to the O- prefix), a samurai who is gorgeous and also really tall, but does not let that get in the way of excellent sword skills and wanting to protect people. Trafalgar Law is around, still trying to achieve things quietly and sanely and still running into Luffy making that impossible. And we also have Basil Hawkins,k the fortune-telling pirate who seems to be working for the bad guys here, and who briefly gives Luffy and Zoro a run for their money till the cards say they get away.

And there are also some classic Oda scenes here. For everyone who thinks that the man is losing his touch, I urge you to take a peek at Holdem, a member of the Animal Kingdom Pirates who has a living Lion Head on his stomach, and the fact that the lion head proceeds to, when annoyed, punch Holdem in the nuts… forgetting that they are also the lion’s own nuts. That sort of goofy, juvenile gag requires a fantastic imagination. And it’s not just used for gags. The revelation towards the end of the volume as to the fate of Kin’emon and his compatriots, and where they really come from, is the sort of thing that you might protest breaks the story a bit if it weren’t handled with the deftest touch. And yes, there’s also Kaido, who really deserves that cliffhanger with an amazing two-page spread appearance showing off “I am the villain” vibes.

91 volumes in, One Piece has started a new arc that has me riveted already. I wonder how many volumes it will be? (Answer: many, many volumes.)

86 –Eighty-Six–, Vol. 2: Run Through the Battlefront [Start]

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By Asato Asato and Shirabii. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert.

Fans of Lena, the star of Vol. 1 of this series, may be disappointed, as this is not a sequel to the previous book but an interquel – it explains what happened to the rest of the squad between when she last saw them and the epilogue, and thus Lena only appears at the start and end in a “she’s still in the Republic” sort of way. That said, this is still a very good volume of Eighty-Six, combining the mechs and battle scenes with more look at warfare, what makes us fight, and how even well-meaning people can try to impose their own wishes on others. It’s not as unrelentingly bleak as the first book, but it’s not a laugh riot, either – Eighty-Six will always be about as serious as its male lead, Shin, who may be with a different army but still has some of the same problems. And then there’s the Legion, the enemy soldiers whose attack near the end of the book feels like they’re trying to cause our heroes to simply give up in despair. There’s a lot of them. (Well, they are Legion, after all.)

The girl on the front is Frederica, who is a “mascot” for Shin’s unit, the Federation Army’s way of getting troops to bond with each other by giving them an adorable kid to look after. It’s not clear if this is actually true or not – Frederica’s the only one we see, and her situation is certainly one where a great cover story would be needed – but in any case, she fulfills some of the role Lena did in Vol. 1, attempting to get the other Eighty-Six to think about something besides fighting until they inevitably die. At least she’s just trying to get them to consider it, though – their main benefactor, Ernst, after rescuing them from certain death, is ready to have them retire and become good little civilian boys and girls, and is appalled when they all, to a man, decide to re-enlist. The trouble is that not only have this group been soldiers so long that anything else seems deeply off, but they know the Legion better than anyone else, and won’t allow others to take up that fight.

The Federation is better than the Republic in many ways, so there’s less explicit racism here towards the Eighty-Six, but that does tend to mean that it’s implicit. The soldiers are unnerved at both the Eighty-Six’s combat prowess (particularly Shin) and their stoic demeanor, and use the word “Eighty-Six as a slur several times throughout the book. “Monster” also comes up, and it’s clearly a point of tension that the Eighty-Six could have chosen to retire and never fight again. That they’d fought enough. But is it enough? The Legion are attacking in greater and greater waves. Where do you draw a line that says “that’s fine, you can leave it to everyone else now”? Especially if you’re Shin, with his seemingly psychic connection to the Legion.

This series continues to be what it was in the first book – unrelentingly grim but not despairing, and making me want to read more even if it is depressing much of the time. As you can tell by the subtitle, this is the first of a two-parter, and I suspect by the end of Book 3 we’ll be back to where we were with Lena reuniting with everyone.

Ryuko, Vol. 1

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If you’ve been jonesing for a stylish thriller that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Eldo Yoshimizu’s Ryuko might just fit the bill: it has the pulpy soul of a Kazuo Koike manga and the brash attitude of a James Bond flick. And while Ryuko never quite achieves the simmering intensity or cohesion of Lady Snowblood and Crying Freeman, it does hold its own against Koike’s best work thanks to its audacious action sequences and cool-as-ice heroine who’ll stop at nothing to avenge her mother’s kidnapping.

Running in tandem with the kidnapping storyline are four —maybe five — other subplots, all connected to the Soviet-Afghanistan war. There’s gun-running and opium harvesting, Soviet malfeasance and CIA chicanery, and some other elements that, frankly, don’t make a lot of sense, though they provide sufficient justification for the imaginatively staged combat. Anyone hoping for a few helpful lines of expository dialogue will be frustrated, as the characters are so laconic they seldom utter more than a few words before throwing a punch or brandishing a gun.

The real star of Ryuko is Eldo Yoshimizu’s artwork, which deftly synthesizes Japanese and European influences without slavishly copying them. His female characters, in particular, have the undulating hips, flowing locks, and determined scowls of Leiji Matsumoto’s most lethal heroines, while the male characters’ appearances owe a debt to the rugged manly-men that stalked the pages of Hugo Pratt, Takao Sato, and Goseki Kojima’s adventure stories. Not surprisingly, Yoshimizu lavishes his greatest attention on Ryuko, swathing her in barely-there dresses and leopard-print catsuits–an artistic decision that makes her look cool, but seems impractical for dodging bullets and karate-chopping enemies.

But oh, Ryuko’s fight scenes! They’re worth the price of admission, as they showcase the full range of Yoshimizu’s talents as a draftsman, veering sharply between naturalism, suggestion, and pure abstraction. In this sequence, for example, we see the young Ryuko ambushing a group of Soviet soldiers:

In the first panel, the tank is drawn with utmost specificity, allowing us to appreciate its sheer mass and its weaponry. The subsequent panels, however, are more gestural than the first, as we glimpse Ryuko silhouetted against the explosion, her age and gender completely obscured by the brilliant flash of light behind her. In the final panel of the sequence, Yoshimizu uses two horses to frame the action, rendering them as bold patches of black, with just a suggestion of a nostril and an eye, their demonic appearance echoing Ryuko’s own fierce resolve. Other sequences, such as this one, are even more abstract, dispensing with a grid in favor of fluid, overlapping images; in a particularly effective gambit, Ryuko’s arm forms a kind of panel boundary between the first stage of the attack — a knee to the stomach — and the second, in which she flips and pins her opponent:

Even Ryuko’s hair plays an important role in helping us understand what’s happening in this confrontation. In the first sequence, her hair swings around her face and shoulders in a naturalistic fashion, but in the final panel, her hair looks like a furious nest of snakes, each poised to strike her victim. That shift is subtle but important, a nifty metaphor for just how quick and lethal Ryuko can be.

For all the verve with which these scenes are drawn, Ryuko‘s characters never quite register as flesh-and-blood people. Yoshimizu has provided them with backstories, but the characters’ behavior is so steeped in action-movie cliche that their motivations for shooting and punching are almost immaterial. The story’s breakneck pacing doesn’t allow anyone much time for introspection, either; the few flashbacks to Ryuko’s childhood separation from her mother are the only genuinely emotional moments in the story. Still, no one reads trashy thrillers for a deep exploration of the human psyche; they’re looking for an over-the-top story that serves up generous helpings of car chases, gun battles, and fist-fights, the more outlandish, the better. On that front, Ryuko performs admirably, infusing a shopworn revenge plot with the sensual swagger of old-school classics like Lady Snowblood and Lupin III. Recommended.

RYUKO, VOL. 1 • ART AND STORY BY ELDO YOSHIMIZU • TRANSLATION BY MOTOKO TAMAMURO AND JONATHAN CLEMENTS • TITAN COMICS • NO RATING (PARTIAL NUDITY, VIOLENCE) • 256 pp.

Manga the Week of 8/14/19

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SEAN: It’s the last few weeks before school starts! Take a manga vacation with these titles.

ASH: Wooooo!

SEAN: Dark Horse debuts the modern retelling of Space Battleship Yamato, or Star Blazers as it was known in the states. We keep that title here with Star Blazers 2199, and this book is an omnibus of the first two Japanese volumes. It’s a Kadokawa title, from Newtype Ace.

ANNA: I have a lot of Star Blazers nostalgia.

ASH: It’s been really interesting to see how many original series and their modern reimaginings have been released of late.

SEAN: Denpa has the 5th volume of Inside Mari.

ASH: Shuzo Oshimi’s work is pretty tremendous, too.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has one debut and one spinoff debuting next week. The new title is Middle-Aged Businessman, Arise in Another World!. It is what it sounds like, but the interesting thing here is that a) he stays middle-aged, and b) he’s already married a goddess and had kids BEFORE he’s sent to another world. It’s also only two volumes long.

The spinoff is JK Haru Is a Sex Worker in Another World: Summer, a set of short stories that are, I believe, licensed directly from the author. JK Haru was very open-ended, so this should be very interesting – and hopefully a bit less bleak.

J-Novel Club also gives us The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 2, In Another World with My Smartphone 16, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 6.

Kodansha, on the print side, has the 28th volume of Attack on Titan.

ASH: It feels like it’s been a while!

SEAN: Digitally there’s a lot more. The debut is The Knight Cartoonist and Her Orc Editor (Orc Henshuusha to Onna Kishi Mangaka-san), a Shonen Magazine Edge title whose title is its plot. It’s 3 volumes long.

There’s also Ace of the Diamond 23, All-Rounder Meguru 11, the 11th and final volume of Black Panther and Sweet 16, the 2nd My Pink Is Overflowing, Peach Girl NEXT 5, The Prince’s Romance Gambit 5, Pumpkin Scissors 22, and a 10th Tokyo Revengers.

MICHELLE: I had been awaiting more Ace of the Diamond!

SEAN: One Peace has a 4th Hinamatsuri.

ASH: Still a ridiculous in a good way series.

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts, but we do get Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 4, Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage 9, Classmates 2: Sotso Gyo Sei, the 2nd Classroom of the Elite novel (in print), MachiMaho 3, and Ultra Kaiju Humanization Project 3.

ASH: The first volume of Classmates was lovely, so I’m really looking forward to the second (and third).

SEAN: Fourth Generation Head: Tatsuyuki Oyamato is the new debut from SuBLime. It’s done in one, and is about a yakuza discovering new parts of his sexuality. (Yakuzuke?)

Vertical has a 3rd volume of the Kino’s Journey manga.

Magi comes to an end with its 37th and final volume. I will miss it. Viz also has the 6th Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition, Komi Can’t Communicate 2, Record of Grancest War 4, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 8.

MICHELLE: I have a small stockpile of Magi volumes so I can have one last binge.

ANNA: I have a giant stockpile of Magi and look forward to reading it eventually…

SEAN: Lastly, Yen Press has the last of its delayed from June/July titles. Yen On has The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, a stand-alone novel that was made into an animated film, a genre Yen has specialized in lately. I’ve heard very good things about it.

ASH: As have I! I’m looking forward to giving it a read.

SEAN: And Yuri Life is another of Yen’s new forays into niche genres, this being another short story anthology by various artists about adult women in relationships. Which, trust me, still hasn’t gotten old. More of this.

ASH: I likewise approve.

SEAN: Which of these would be best read while lying on a beach?

Cocoon Entwined, Vol. 1

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By Yuriko Hara. Released in Japan as “Mayu, Matou” by Enterbrain, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Beam. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

Hair.

I suppose I should go into a LITTLE more detail, but honestly, after reading the first volume of this new series, “hair” is going to be what everyone takes away from it. It is hair-drenched and hair-permeated, a story about a private Japanese Girls’ Academy whose very uniforms are created using the hair of their seniors, but even there you get the sense that the story is somewhat irrelevant, an excuse to simply draw hair in every possible way. Even the cover art gets into it – the front cover may look relatively sedate, but turn the book over and you can see the hair of the two leads tangling into each other, trying to be the best metaphor that hair can be. Which is good, as hair gets to be a metaphor for a lot here. In addition to hair, the story focuses on three students at the school, two of whom are what you’d expect, and one of whom seems to have wandered in from some other manga.

Saeki is the girl who crosses over into both storylines, the “prince” of the school because the school needs one, rather than due to any desire of her own, though she plays the part even as it exhausts her. She gets closer to Yokozawa, who is our “normal girl” viewpoint character, though Yokozawa’s tongue is a lot more acid than this sort of character usually is. They like each other. The third cast member is Hoshimiya, the granddaughter of the headmistress, who spends her days locked in her room and seems to have a far more casual attitude towards hair than the rest of the school (seriously, you can be expelled for your hair being too short). Hoshimiya seems to be ethereal to the point of ridiculousness, and even when she and Saeki escape the school and go all the way to the local docks, there’s no real escape.

This is, of course, meant to be a yuri manga. Yokozawa clearly likes Saeki, and the book ends with a kiss, albeit the usual “they’re sleeping but I can’t resist” sort. Saeki and Hoshimiya also clearly have doomed chemistry in that Sei-and-Shiori sort of way. That said, you could also argue that the story is horror. Aside from a few exceptions like Saeki, most of the cast is the traditional long black haired heroine, which fits the private school setting but is also a trope in Japanese horror stories. The gimmick of the student’s shorn hair being used to make the uniforms of the incoming students is milked for all its worth, with the uniforms seeming alive and described as breathing, and it is meant to be dream-like and erotic but also a bit creepy. Hoshimiya herself also makes me think of horror, and it’s worth noting that we never clearly see her face. Don’t be surprised if she ends up being a ghost or a Zashiki-warashi of some sort.

This was a riveting if somewhat baffling read. I’m definitely getting the second volume, but I’m not sure if we’ll stick with this cast or see it expand to other couples. That said, you don’t read this for the couples, you read this for the hair. Hair will definitely star in the second book.

The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’s Heroes: Damn You, Heroes! Why Won’t You Die?

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By Sakuma Sasaki and Asagi Tosaka. Released in Japan by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

I didn’t have high hopes for this title going in. Despite assurances from the publisher that it wasn’t THAT kind of dirty, the title still didn’t inspire confidence. It was also the most traditional “isekai” of this month’s debuts. But as frequently happens with things I read, as I got further into the book I found myself warming up to it. This is mostly thanks to the main hero, Arian, who is bright and shiny and yet also lonely and needs a friend. Had the book gone with the original set of heroes we meet, who are rather quickly dispatched, it might have been unbearable, just watching a Japanese guy with nothing to stop him become a sadist because it’s fun. (Indeed, we’re seen other light novels like this, though mercifully few have been licensed.) But Arian’s inner goodness causes Shinichi, the protagonist, to reach down and find his inner ethical sense, and so the last third of the book is actually pretty good, despite the appearance of yet another lecherous and corrupt bishop from a questionable religion.

Our hero is Shinichi, a standard young Japanese protagonist whose backstory is merely hinted at, but who seems to relish the opportunity to let loose in the situation he’s now in. He’s been summoned by the demon king to a) eliminate the heroes who keep attacking, and b) find delicious food for his cute daughter, as all the demon world food tastes awful. With the help of a sharp-tongued maid who rains abuse on him at every opportunity, he’s soon able to dispatch the first group of heroes through his prior knowledge of old-school RPGs and also by being a complete and utter bastard. However, the remaining hero that’s left to attack is not only far more talented than the previous heroes, but she’s also cute and a kind, good-hearted person! Can he find it in himself to trick her and save the demons?

There are, of course, still a few big flaws in the book. Despite a last-minute attempt to give him some inner monologue, the bad guy of this volume is (apologies for spoiling, but it’s obvious the moment he appears on the page) your standard corrupt and evil priest, in this case a bishop. Celes, the dark elf maid who accompanies Shinichi on his tasks, is so much like Ram from Re: Zero that I was almost calling the hero Barusu. Possibly as, while he shows signs of depth that may be explored in future books, Shinichi really doesn’t do much to stand out until, as I said, the last third or so of the book, where he uses his sadistic cleverness for good rather than evil. Well, OK, for the good of the demons, but they’re more interested in better food than attacking humans. On the bright side, I liked the relationship between Arian and Shinichi, though I’m sure it will be walked back a bit in the next book. Her immediate infatuation feels in character.

This isn’t the greatest light novel out there, but it gets better as it goes along, and there’s hints of some depth down the road. Recommended for isekai fans.

Bookshelf Briefs 8/6/19

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Dr. STONE, Vol. 6 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – So it turns out that the current non-turned-to-stone population are all descended from Senku’s dad and the rest of the crew of the space shuttle, which is honestly more about Byakuya’s faith in his son to eventually save the day even if it takes hundreds of years. Back in the present, Tsukasa and the followers that he’s amassed are planning to invade the village and destroy what Senku has accomplished, but little do they know that Senku has the power of RIDICULOUS SHONEN SCIENCE on his side. The best thing about this volume is that we’re starting to see the non-Senku cast actually come up with inventions—the water wheel revelation was great, and Senku knows it. Dumb fun, masquerading as smart fun. – Sean Gaffney

Farewell, My Dear Cramer, Vol. 1 | By Naoshi Arakawa | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Midori Soshizaki and Sumire Suo played girls’ soccer for different teams in middle school, but Soshizaki is so taken with Suo’s play that she volunteers to go to whichever high school Suo chooses. Suo, accustomed to being the only one really trying on her team, feels kinship with another girl on a lousy team, and so she and Soshizaki both end up at Warabi Seinan, whereupon a couple of other talented players show up along with a new coach, since the current one sees no future in girls’ soccer and isn’t interested in doing his job. This was a pleasant start to a series, but the soccer action isn’t as easy to follow as in other titles I’ve read, and it quickly veers away from the two leads to focus on another teammate. I’ll definitely keep reading, though! – Michelle Smith

Love in Focus, Vol. 3 | By Yoko Nogiri | Kodansha Comics – I had forgotten that this was a series that ended in three volumes, but I would have remembered anyway given the rapidity with which Kei and Mako get together and just as quickly break up. “Let’s date first and fall in love later” rarely works in shoujo manga, especially when you’re the blond, who almost always loses out to the brunet. That happens here as well, as dating Kei does help Mako realize her feelings—for Mitsuru. That said, though the plot beats were very predictable, I thought Mako and Mitsuru’s dialogue was sweet and pure in a shoujo sort of way, and I also liked how the “stalker” plot was resolved. As with the author’s previous series, this was decent but not good enough for long-term. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 20 | By Kohei Horikoshi | VIZ Media – I’m sorry to say that I just can’t muster up much interest for Gentle Criminal and La Brava, the villain and his acolyte who get in Midoriya’s way when he’s trying to get back to campus in time for class 1A’s performance at the school festival. Once their fight is finally over, though, it’s time for the feels. The focus on Jiro here is pretty brief, but oh so welcome, and that two-page spread of her smiling so radiantly while performing is incredible. And then, just a few pages later, there’s Mirio who is suddenly moved to tears because Eri, the girl he sacrificed so much to save, is having the time of her life. I love Mirio and Eri together, and I also love Aizawa rushing to be with Todoroki when his dad, now the number-one hero, is injured on live TV. Plus, there’s Hawks! This volume has much goodness. – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia: Smash!!, Vol. 1 | By Kohei Horikoshi and Hirofumi Neda | VIZ Media – I’m not really a gag manga sort of person, so I didn’t expect much from My Hero Academia: Smash!!. But despite the warning from creator (and Horikoshi assistant) Hirofumi Neda that it was going to be crude, I actually thought it was quite fun! It follows along with the early events of the main story, up until the first attack by the League of Villains. Often, familiar scenes are subverted in some way, like All Might’s “you can be a hero” moment turning into a sales pitch for vitamins, but sometimes they’re expounded upon in genuinely intriguing ways, like showing how Yaoyorozu used her quirk in the fitness tests Aizawa devised. (I also liked that her classmates now prefer Yaoyorozu brand erasers.) Also, I think one panel features a tiny puking Jesus. To my surprise, I’m looking forward to volume two! – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 5 | By Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court | Viz Media – This volume definitely felt like the fifth book in a four-book series, a constant danger when something gets really popular. Knuckleduster’s plot is resolved, and so he very pointedly, with one or two exceptions, withdraws from the series. Instead we see Pop Step and the Crawler trying to be vigilantes on their own and rapidly coming to a realization, which is underscored by licensed heroes yelling at them—they’re not powerful enough to do much more than get in the way. That said, I did enjoy seeing Midnight in her “casual” clothes, and the kid singers were very cute. A series that has turned a corner but not yet hit the next long straightaway. – Sean Gaffney

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 1 | By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka | Seven Seas – The manga adaptation of one of my favorite recent light novels didn’t have to go very far to impress me, just adapt the novel as well as it could. There’s obviously stuff that’s cut to fit (Katarina’s parents’ relationship gets a one-panel explanation), but it handles introducing the main cast well, and cuts the “alternate POV” parts which would have made the manga repetitive. Best of all is the prose short story at the end, seeing Katarina having a nightmare about the villainess her otome game self is supposed to be, and the bad choices that she makes which our Katarina can’t stop her from despite yelling inside her head. Definitely get this if you like the novels. – Sean Gaffney

The Quintessential Quintuplets, Vol. 4 | By Negi Haruba | Kodansha Comics – This is moving at a galloping pace for a romantic comedy, especially one with quintuplet heroines. There’s the bad—Ichika pursuing her dream would mean leaving school, which would mean Futaro losing tutoring money—and there’s the worse—various people getting bad, bad colds due to the weather and circumstance, which leads to a mass search for Itsuki and a bedside vigil for Futaro, whose cold of course turns out to be the worst of all. We also get another flash forward reminding us that he does eventually marry one of them, but continuing to not tell us who. Don’t expect that to be resolved till the final page of the series. For fans of harem comedy/dramas. – Sean Gaffney

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, Vol. 6 | By Yu Tomofuji | Yen Press – Anubis has finally given in and allowed a trial period for Sariphi to be Queen Consort. Unfortunately, we then see the problems that this causes, which is that the majority of the populace still isn’t ready for a human girl as the Queen. Fortunately, Sariphi is made of pretty stern stuff, and even when she’s down there are folks who can cheer her up. This allows her to resolve the fractured relationship between a mother and daughter, as well as give Amit the courage to give a token to her beloved Jor, even though as a soldier he may not be able to return that love. Honestly, this does continue to remind me a lot of Fruits Basket, but that’s not especially a bad thing. – Sean Gaffney

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san, Vol. 1 | By Honda | Yen Press – My first exposure to Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san was through its anime adaptation. I’ve not actually watched the show, but I’ve seen enough screencaps of the titular skeleton dramatically reacting to a wide range of customer service exchanges to reasonably expect that I would love the original series. And, after reading the first volume of the manga, I can definitively say that I absolutely do. To a large extent the manga is autobiographical, based on Honda’s experiences as a clerk in the manga department of a large Tokyo bookstore. It provides entertaining insights into the life of a bookseller, showing the challenges presented by customers, publishing schedules, corporate management, and just trying to keep the shelves appropriately stocked. This could be rather dry as a subject, but in Honda’s hands the portrayal of bookselling is delightfully humorous, intense, and over-the-top in a way that is both engaging and still incredibly honest. – Ash Brown

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san, Vol. 1 | By Honda | Yen Press – I’ve seen the first few episodes of the Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san anime and this is going to be one of those rare occasions where I have to admit that I kind of like the anime more than the manga. Certainly, Honda-sensei depicts the bookstore (specifically its manga department) as a place way more hectic than I ever anticipated, but that frenetic energy (and the kookiness of his often-foreign customers) just translates better to the animated medium, I think. That said, this volume has a lot to recommend it, particularly if you want a glimpse of what Japanese booksellers think of the global readership manga has obtained. Read it, but maybe watch it, too. – Michelle Smith

Waiting for Spring, Vol. 11 | By Anashin | Kodansha Comics – I’d long been wanting more basketball in Waiting for Spring, and I finally got my wish in this volume. The latest tournament has begun, and if the Seiryo boys want to repeal the no-dating rule, they have to win. They make it to the finals league, where they’re up against Aya’s team, Hojo, and though Seiryo ends up losing, there’s still hope due to the structure of the tournament. Aya realizes his kind of love expected Mitsuki to never grow or change whereas her love for Asakura inspires her to try new things and set goals for herself, so he seemingly steps aside though he does talk about returning (he’s apparently moving back to America) once she’s grown up. Anyway, this is a cute series that I like a lot and though I don’t expect many surprises from its final two volumes, I nonetheless look forward to reading them. – Michelle Smith

Pick of the Week: Crime and Superheroes

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SEAN: My Hero Academia’s 19th and 20th volumes have what may be my favorite “light” arc of the series. As such, the 20th volume, like the 19th, is my pick. If only for those two faces. You know the ones I mean.

MICHELLE: Courtesy of the awesome Shonen Jump vault, I’m all caught up on My Hero Academia now, so volume 20 is actually a reread for me, but it’s a testament to the greatness of this series that I’m still looking forward to it. The light arc concludes, and is definitely great, but I also really enjoyed finally getting to meet a mysterious hero who’s been hinted at and finally makes his debut in this volume.

KATE: After being publicly shamed for my tendency to plug the same manga over and over — notice I resisted the temptation to type “again” — I had to bring my Recommendation A-Game this week. My pick is Ryuko, Titan Comic’s first foray into serialized manga. It looks like the sleazy, brutal, fast-paced stuff that Kazuo Koike used to pump out by the truckload, and I can’t wait to read it. The cover alone is swoon-worthy!

ANNA: There’s so much great shoujo coming out this week, it is hard for me to single out just one title. But I have to admit when looking over everything coming out that I’m always most enthusiastic about Yona of the Dawn, so volume 19 of that series is my pick!

ASH: So many series that I’m following have new volumes this week, making it very difficult to choose where to start. So, thanks for the reminder about Ryuko, Kate! I’ve been very curious about that series, enough to make it my pick, too.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Nil Admirari

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

Sometimes war can be filled with pitched battles, back and forth action and excitement, and sometimes war can be filled with not a heck of a lot happening except people talking about tactics. The same holds true for Tanya the Evil, especially in this sixth volume, where action scenes are kept to an absolute minimum in favor of dialogue, inner monologue, and a lot of grumbling about the futility of war. Which, it has to be said, makes for a book that’s a bit of a struggle to get through at times. Most of the time Carlo Zen balances his dry military tactics prose with other scenes that pick up the pace, but we don’t have that here, so some of this book is simply boring. But not all of it. There is, once again, the threat of peace on the horizon, and Tanya is all for it, though she’s not the one in charge, and you get the sense that von Zettour is not simply going to agree to anything that isn’t “we win, and then discuss terms”. Winning, of course, is not happening right now.

The title is Latin once more, and means “Nothing Will Surprise Me”. That’s put to the test in this book, which sees the nation of Ildoa getting involved – seemingly to be a neutral broker for peace, but in reality looking to get the best deal for themselves by playing both sides. As the Empire is not-Germany, Ildoa is not-Italy, though their political leader seems to be nothing like Mussolini so far – Carlo Zen is avoiding the main Axis villains in this series. The Empire is understandably rather wary of Ildoa, who put on a show of strength that actually shows off that they don’t have much strength to back it up. Still, an overture for peace is a start. Certainly it’s what Tanya wants, to the surprise of everyone – possibly the funniest scene in the book is when she talks with Visha, Weiss and the others in her unit and realizes how they’re all warmongers, not realizing who trained this into them.

On the other side, we have the Commonwealth and the Federation still making very awkward allies, as they come to the realization that the Empire is far stronger than they had expected. (The Empire, of course, is coming to the same realization about their enemy.) Colonel Drake appears to be the Lergen of the Allied side, and he has his own Tanya analogue in Lieutenant Mary Sue, still bright and idealistic and shiny and driven by sweet, sweet revenge. “The Saga of Tanya the Evil” is a Western title, albeit one approved by the author, I believe – the Japanese title, Youjo Senki, translates as “The Military Chronicles of a Little Girl”. Tanya is evil in the sense that she’s working for the Empire, and she can be morally reprehensible at times, but she knows about war and why things happen. Mary Sue, though, can’t believe everyone doesn’t think the way that she does, and she’s a headache to everyone around her. I really want to see her and Tanya fight again – perhaps I should watch the movie.

So there’s a lot of talking but little forward movement in a book which sees Tanya’s unit going from the Federation to the Empire Homeland and then up towards the Entente Alliance in an effort to win the war. Which Tanya knows isn’t happening, but she can’t convince anyone else. A necessary read for fans of the series, but it’s really dry and dull at times, I admit.