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Koyomimonogatari: Calendar Tale, Part 02

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By NISIOISIN and VOFAN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Daniel Joseph.

There are spoilers towards the end of the review for the end of the book, which is hard to talk about without spoiling.

The second half of Koyomimonogatari feels like it’s sliding slowly towards a darkness that you really don’t want to see. The first half of the collection (i.e. the first book, as Vertical split it in two) was fairly lighthearted and bantery, with only Nadeko’s story coming across as ominous. But as we get into the events of the 2nd half of Araragi’s school year, and things take a darker turn, it’s no surprise that the short stories do as well. The exception to this, oddly enough, involves Shinobu, whose donut-filled discussion with Araragi ends in a punchline so sweet that I’m glad it was delivered by the matter-of-fact Hanekawa. (Hanekawa is away almost the entire book, but the magic of cell phones means she can still be there to provide Araragi with the right answer. Honestly, these two need to see less of each other, it’s not good for them.) But even Tsukihi’s story involves a presumed extra person in the tea ceremony ghost story, and the last two stories almost end up defining everything that goes before them.

NISIOISIN said in the afterword that he wanted to have a look back at the series as he wrote this, and, as with the first book, there’s a lot of foreshadowing and backshadowing going on here. This is particularly true of Nadeko, who isn’t actually in these stories (she had hers already) but of course ends up lurking in the background as her main story took place from late October to early January – almost a three-month chunk. We saw that in the original stories through the point of view of Kaiki and Nadeko herself, but here we see Araragi’s own perspective on things, which is rather fatalistic, something that is no longer surprising with someone like hm. Araragi would be perfectly fine sacrificing everything he has to help someone who needed help, and I wonder how he and Shirou Emiya would get along. (Oh God, the idea of Araragi as Archer is horrific and hilarious.)

The last two stories in the book focus on two of the heroines that aren’t in the “harem” per se. Kagenui is there to try to help Araragi solve his “I’m turning into a real vampire” problem, but there are other forces getting in the way here, mysterious and unknown though they may yet be. (That said, it’s Ogi. Come on, of course it’s Ogi.) As such, the ending of her story has her removed from the plot – it’s called Koyomi Nothing, which fits as there’s a blank space where an ending should be. As for Koyomi Dead, well, the story spoils you as to what’s going to happen from the start. Gaen is the final heroine, in more ways than one, and her pragmatic disposal of Koyomi is both in character and also mind-boggling. (I like how she says that Shinobu won’t go on a rampage after his death because she’s seen the bad future where she does. Um, correct, but she can still kill YOU, Gaen.) It does solve Koyomi’s problem, though!

This is a pretty big cliffhanger, ending with Koyomi seemingly in the afterlife (Mayoi’s presence implies that). Unfortunately, folks are going to have to wait a while to see how it’s resolved, as we’re once again going back in time to fill in gaps. Owarimonogatari 1 will show us how Araragi first met Ogi, and also delve into why he became such a misanthrope before the series began. In the meantime, enjoy these short stories that shed light on why he is who he is now. (No, not dead. You know what I mean.)

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 14

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By Satoshi Wagahara and 029. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

As hinted in my previous review, this does not give us the next installment of the main series, but is another series of short stories that are interspersed throughout the series’ timeline. Most of them, with the exception of the last one, were published in magazines, something that happens quite frequently in Japan but is not always collected into a volume, and even when it is sometimes is not picked up in North America (hi, Index). As you can imagine, the stories here range from merely OK to quite good. None of them are too serious and none of them really advance the plot, but they’re fun and make you smile. Ashiya’s reaction to winning a pressure cooker in a contest is as hilarious as you’d expect given his frugality. Maou finds buying a new phone to be a lot more difficult than he expected, as he has memories attached to the old, broken one. And Maou also bikes a lot, so needs new pants, in possibly the slightest story here.

Three stories do get a little more depth, though. In the first, which takes place between the first and second books, Chiho meets up with Emi, Albert and Emeralda for sushi and they discuss Maou’s past, why he hasn’t erased her memories, and Chiho’s own feelings for Maou. This is well done but also feels a bit unrealistic in terms of Emi’s personality – it feels like Vol. 13 Emi is overlaid with Vol. 1 Emi so that she doesn’t explode in rage. The funniest bits are probably Albert and Emeralda experiencing conveyor belt sushi and revealing their hideously large appetites to us. Another story deals with Kisaki’s past, as when the manager of the Sentucky Fried Chicken across the street comes into McRonald’s (with Sariel in tow, of course), Kisaki literally throws her out, and has to face disciplinary action. The revelation that they have a past is not exactly surprising, but it’s fun. I really liked the revelation that she’s stalling her career a bit because she’s debating asking Maou to join her in her dream. I suspect that ain’t happening, though.

The best story is the last one, the only one written especially for the book, which shows us Emilia’s life after arriving in Japan for the first time. Naturally, she’s chased all over the place by cops, particularly when she tries to live in a park and drink from the central fountain. She ends up at a familiar apartment building, though it’s empty at the moment, and the moment she broke into it I knew exactly what would happen, but that didn’t make this less funny or endearing. I am somewhat relieved that she did not drive her realtor namesake into an institution or get her fired, as I was expecting one or the other. It also helps to emphasize how, when not driven to kill by the likes of Olba, Emi is really a sweet, kind person at heart. Even when she’s being a samurai ghost.

So this is not essential in terms of plot, but is a nice, fun read with more of the characters you know. Next volume should get back to the plot, and has a Christmas theme – will it come out by Christmas Day?

Daytime Shooting Star, Vol. 2

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Daytime Shooting Star Volume 2 by Mika Yamamori

I can usually tell if I’ll like a series after I read the first volume, but after two volumes I can more easily decide if I really like it. The second volume of Daytime Shooting Star still features plenty of angst over a potential student-teacher romance, but the supporting cast was featured a little more and I started to find this series endearingly quirky.

The second volume opens with the shoujo staple of a school trip, and when Suzume finds herself accidentally trapped in a ravine with Mamura the boy who is pathologically afraid of being touched by a girl, they actually have a couple moments of conversation. Suzume passes out just in time for Mr. Shishio to come to the rescue, and Yuyuka quickly figures out that Suzume has a crush when she visits her in the aftermath of the forest adventure. Yuyuka’s offhand gestures of friendship and blunt personality are a useful contrast to Suzume’s tendency to get lost in thought about her new life. There’s a hilarious scene when Suzume is studying and Yuyuka’s usual social mask slips as she launches into a tirade and Suzume grabs Mamura’s arm in a desperate attempt at distraction. Yuyuka then finds herself beset with a group of boys who follow her around in hopes of being berated. In the meantime, Mamura seems to have gotten over his fear of girls, but only with Suzume.

This volume sets up an entertaining soap opera with plenty of humor as well as more quiet moments of reflection. I’m also enjoying the art in Daytime Shooting Star, Yamamori’s character designs have a touch of whimsy, and she easily shifts from more cartoonish exaggeration to panels that highlight contemplation and internal emotion.

Become You, Vol. 1

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Ichigo Takano’s orange may be one the of best shojo manga published in the last ten years, offering readers a vivid, sympathetic portrait of five friends who get an unexpected chance to save a suicidal classmate’s life. Though orange explored dark emotional terrain, it was never mawkish; instead, orange ended on a hopeful note that showed younger readers that life goes on after tragedies big and small.

Become You, Takano’s latest series, mines a similar thematic vein, this time focusing on two emotionally damaged boys who form an improbable bond through music. And by “improbable,” I mean Taiyou and Hikari are temperamental opposites who initially seem ill-suited for friendship, let alone artistic collaboration. Taiyou is one of those only-in-manga characters whose dogged optimism shades into fanaticism—the kind of character who calls everyone his friend, and wears down skeptics with his relentless overtures. Hikari, by contrast, is a classic Character With a Secret, a former prodigy who abruptly abandoned the piano despite (or perhaps because of) his phenomenal success, keeping his classmates at bay with blunt comments. Naturally—by the immutable laws of Shojo Manga Plot Mechanics—Taiyou tries to recruit Hikari for a band, despite the fact that Taiyou is a tyro guitar player.

At first glance, Become You seems to be following a well-worn path in which an enthusiastic novice persuades a reluctant genius to mentor him, in the process drawing out his teacher and helping his teacher recover something that he lost—say, his joy in playing the tuba, or his relationship with an estranged family member. But Takano adds an interesting wrinkle to this familiar plotline: midway through volume one, we learn that Taiyou originally wanted to be an artist, but lost his desire to paint after being bullied by a teacher. In the aftermath of this encounter, what Taiyou really wants is to be good at something—anything, really—and will work diligently towards achieving that goal, even if he shows little or no aptitude for his chosen pursuit. Equally important, Taiyou is just as emotionally vulnerable as his would-be mentor, even though Taiyou papers over his anguish with bright smiles and cheerful comments.

As with orange, a magical plot device brings Become You‘s principal characters together–in this case, a mysterious cloaked figure who presents Taiyou with an electric guitar and words of Yoda-like encouragement. It’s not entirely clear if Taiyou is fantasizing or having a premonition, since his guardian angel looks an awful lot like Hikari. And while the ambiguity of these scenes has little impact on the reading experience, they occupy more space than the time-traveling letters did in orange—a mistake, I think, because Taiyou’s daydreams don’t add any special urgency or poignancy to the story. By contrast, orange‘s letters served a twofold purpose, setting the plot in motion and highlighting all the small ways that innocent comments or decisions could hurt someone as fragile as the suicidal Kakeru.

The other drawback to Become You is that Takano doesn’t seem to know much about music. Taiyou, for example, cheerfully states his intention to attend a “music college,” but lacks the rudimentary skills to play in sync with a metronome or sight-read sheet music. (He also seems blissfully unaware that conservatories require an entrance audition.) The concert sequences are similarly revealing: though Takano draws attractive, animated characters, and can put them through their emotional paces, she struggles to make Taiyou and Hikari’s musical performances come to life on the page, either by showing the physical effort necessary to making a sound—embouchure, hand position, posture—or by drawing convincing crowd shots that convey the impact of the music on listeners.

I’m not ready to give up on Become You just yet, however, as Takano has something worthwhile to say about pursuing activities for emotional fulfillment, rather than for personal achievement. She also explores the idea of artistic mentorship with honesty, acknowledging that the teacher-student relationship can have a profound effect on how a young artists finds his voice; any violation of that compact—an unkind comment, a dogged insistence on doing things the “right” way—can leave deep scars and stunt one’s artistic growth. Here’s hoping volume two strikes a better balance between the magical realism and the realities of being a musician. Tentatively recommended.

BECOME YOU, VOL. 1 • STORY & ART BY ICHIGO TANAKA • TRANSLATED BY AMBER TAMOSAITIS • SEVEN SEAS • RATED TEEN • 200 pp.

Pick of the Week: Cats, Lizards, and Househusbands

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MICHELLE: It’s really tough to choose between the debuts of The Way of the Househusband and Cats of the Louvre, but since the latter is complete in one volume and I won’t have the chance to choose it again, I’ll go with that. There really is a lot of good stuff coming out this week, though!

SEAN: Again, I’d love to pick both Househusband AND Cats of the Louvre. But this is the last chance I’ll get to sing the praises of Dorohedoro, whose combination of gore, gratuitous nudity, and fantastic art, plotting and characterization has been a joy to read. Thank you to Viz Media for sticking with it while other Ikki titles died on the vine (remember Kingyo Used Books?).

ANNA: Househusband for me! The premise sounds hilarious and I’m looking forward to it.

KATE: It’s Cats of the Louvre and Way of the Househusband for me, too; it’s been too long since we had a new Taiyo Matsumoto release in English!

ASH: Viz in particular has SO MANY great releases this week! Cats of the Louvre is a definite must, I can’t wait for the debut of Way of the Househusband, and Dorohedoro is a longtime favorite of mine. So, I guess my pick this week is Viz?

MJ: Okay, I gotta go with the cats. Cats of the Louvre is by far my top choice this week.

Aria the Masterpiece, Vol. 3

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By Kozue Amano. Originally released in Japan by Mag Garden, serialized in the magazine Comic Blade. Released in North America by Tokyopop. Translated by Alethea and Athena Nibley and Katie McLendon.

Having given a long introduction to the main character of Aria – the city itself – Amano can now set about fleshing out the cast. Of course, the fleshing out is done at the exact same “slow pace” that the rest of the series has, but we do get two new regulars at the start of this third omnibus. Alice is from Orange Planet, the main competitor to Aika’s Himeya and the top gondolier company in Neo-Venezia. (Great gag when Akari asks about Aria Company and is reminded they have two employees.) Alice is one of those people who is really good at what she does but also somewhat introverted and bad at people skills, which has left her much like a prickly cat – well, prickly in a different sort of way than Aika, who’s more of an angry cat. Alice, naturally, attempts to tell Akari and Aika to go away when they first meet. Also naturally, Alice is totally unable to resist Akari’s natural in your face niceness and becomes a friend.

The other main character we meet in this volume is Aika’s mentor Akira. She’s there to underscore the fact that the gondoliers in Aria seem to get apprentices who blend well with them… or in some cases mirror them. This is readily apparent with the hit-headed Akira, who arrives after Aika runs away from her harsh training and decides to hang out with her crush, Alicia, instead. Naturally, we find that Akira and Alicia have a very similar relationship to Aika and Akari, complete with not allowing things and their competitive nature. Fortunately, Akira and Aika make up fairly quickly (it turns out Aika is actually the heir to the Himeya Company, which is one reason Akira is so strict) and she mellows out a bit for subsequent appearances. I will note it does seem odd that Athena is not mentioned several times, particularly when Alicia and Akira take their changes – and Alice – to the beach, but of course that’s hard to do when you aren’t written in yet.

The rest of the book contains more of the usual reasons to read Aria. There’s ‘sense of wonder’ chapters galore here, one of the best being a treasure hunt where the three girls run around the city finding clues and hints. As you’d expect, Akari also has another run in with Cait Sith, this one brought about by being outside on the hottest day of the year. Don’t drink that cold milk too fast, you’ll get a tummy ache. Oh yes, and we also meet Woody, who is a minor character whose main feature is that he looks – and acts – a lot like Vash the Stampede from trigun, something I suspect is mostly unintentional. And of course there’s the main reason to buy these books again – the larger trim size and nicer paper mean that it’s a treat to look at, and you want to go back and go over the art in slow motion after you finish it.

The next omnibus will have Vols. 5-6 of Aria, aka right before the series originally got cancelled by Tokyopop. Let’s hope it does better the second (no, wait, third – sorry, ADV Manga, no one remembers you) time around.

Baccano!: 1705 The Ironic Light Orchestra

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By Ryohgo Narita and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

In general, those who are really obsessive about the Baccano! series fall into two camps: anime obsessives and light novel obsessives. The anime obsessives tend to stick to the 1930s, which is, after all, what the anime adapted, with the exception of one episode. The light novel obsessives, though, really love the non-1930s books and their deep look at some of the more… broken members of the cast. In particular Huey Laforet, the “mastermind villain” of some books in the 1930s, last seen escaping from Alcatraz, and Elmer C. Albatross, who loves to try to make everyone smile but has something distinctly wrong with his way of thinking and moral compass in regards to smiling. They both cried out for an origin story, and we get it in in this, the first of the “1700s trilogy”, and possibly the most anticipated book since the series was initially licensed. This is the story of a city in Naples, Lotto Valentino. In particular, three students who are learning alchemy at a secret library: Huey, Elmer, and Monica Campanella. And let me say this: they are written as the OT3 you never knew you wanted.

The subtitle is, of course, a take on the 70s band ELO, aka the Electric Light Orchestra. No, Monica’s not the meek-looking brunette in the foreground; that’s Niki, a teenage girl and slave who spends most of the book awaiting her longed-for death, only to run into the power of Elmer and decide to live a little longer after all. Monica’s the blonde inn the background. You get the sense that Narita may have had the idea of Niki and Elmer as a beta couple to Huey and Monica, only to find that he simply could not remove Elmer from their orbit. I was rather startled to see how much of this book read like a genuine rom-con, and even the darker moments are about “will you still love me if you find out my SECRET” stuff. These are three adorable kids who, well, hate the world and want to destroy it in many ways. Elmer isn’t quite like that, but it’s clear that if it would make everyone smile, he’d be totally fine with the world’s destruction as well. Cute broken kids.

There are other things going on in the book, of course. Huey’s past is told via flashback and is a tragic nightmare, revolving around the just-dying out practice of witch-hunting in Europe. Monica’s is barely touched on, and I suspect we may go into it more in the next book. And Elmer’s is also just barely touched on, likely as it would simply be TOO horrific to do anything but merely glance at it. Remember, none of these folks are immortal yet (except, oddly, their teachers, who seem to be immortal from some other source than the one we know), so bad, permanent things can still happen to them. There’s a woman-loving Count who is an odd combination of Isaac Dian and Chikage from Durarara!!. There’s also a young gang member named Aile, who seems familiar but we’re not sure how familiar till the end. This book is a great example of why you shouldn’t read this series in chronological order by date. And a main plotline that reminds me a bit of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

The end of the book really makes you want to see the ongoing adventures of Huey, Monica and Elmer, which is why I hate to break it to you, but we’re jumping forward again. This time we go all the way to 2002, to see Firo and Ennis’ long-awaited (no, seriously, very, very long awaited) honeymoon on a luxury liner. Surely nothing can possibly go wrong!

Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!: Crimson Fate

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By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

This is another one of those books where the last sixth or so of the novel completely dwarfs everything that comes before it, so let’s use the time before the cover art to talk about the rest of it. Despite wanting to hang around the mansion and do nothing aside from get involved in wacky binding adventures with Darkness, Kazuma is coerced into going to a nearby castle that is beset by another Demon General. This one seems familiar to Kazuma, as he’s seen her before in the hot springs about five books ago. She’s also very familiar to Megumin and Yunyun, for backstory reasons that drive a lot of the plot. The demon general keeps blowing up the castle every day with Explosion. Fortunately, they have Aqua’s extraordinary public works gifts (no, really, not making a joke here) and also the ability to beat her at her own game. But whose Explosions are best? And oh yes, will Megumin find time to confess?

I’ve always been impressed with Konosuba, despite the occasional murmur of other girls, keeping itself to a simple love triangle. Megumin and Darkness both love Kazuma, despite his… well, Kazuma-ness. That said, one of these girls is MUCH MORE POPULAR among fans than the other. And it has to be said, at a base personality level that leaves out eccentricities, Megumin and Kazuma are the most compatible and similar. Here she does confess, and though there’s no kiss there’s a little snuggling. He also says he loves her back, but she accurately points out this is because he doesn’t want to upset her, and his own feelings are somewhat ambiguous. I was very amused by his apologizing to all the other waffling harem protagonists he always yelled at for not jumping the girl’s bones in manga he read. I also liked Megumin and Darkness inviting him to wash their backs at one point knowing he’s never going to actually do it.

ARE they now together? Well, Kazuma is wondering that himself at the end of the book. The author, though, implies that they plan to put romance on the back burner for the next volume, so it might be a while before we see any further development here, and in any case, few people are reading KonoSuba primarily for the sweet romantic bits. This isn’t good news for Darkness, though she does get an extended scene at the start of the book, possibly to apologize for doing almost nothing else the rest of the book. Darkness is Kazuma’s “type” more than Megumin, but her own eccentricities, i.e her masochism, is much more difficult to turn off than Megumin’s chuuni behavior, so a realistic relationship doesn’t seem in the cards. As for Aqua, once again the story emphasizes how they’re like brother and sister and not romantic. Which, honestly, thank God. That said, Aqua’s skills at building walls in this book may be the best part of the volume. Stop being a goddess, become a foreman!

As with the last book, this one ends with a cliffhanger where Princess Iris writes to say that she’s being married off. No way Kazuma lets that happen. In the meantime, enjoy a very good KonoSuba volume, essential for Megumin fans.

Manga the Week of 9/18/19

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SEAN: It’s time to do the list in reverse! Why?

Because I wanted to start with Viz’s ridiculous amount of new titles out next week. We begin with the eagerly anticipated The Way of the Househusband (Gokushufudou), a series about a former yakuza who is trying to stay straight, nut… stuff keeps happening. It runs in Shinchosha’s Kurage Bunch.

ANNA: I am excited for this!

MICHELLE: I love the cover for the first volume.

ASH: Personally, this is one of my most anticipated debuts of the year!

SEAN: No Guns Life is a science fantasy series from Ultra Jump, and is apparently much like many other Ultra Jump titles in that vein.

Speaking of Ultra Jump, we also get Levius, a done-in-one series that actually ran in the late lamented Ikki, but has moved to Ultra Jump after this volume. It looks like Battle Angel Alita for MEN.

ASH: I generally enjoy Ikki titles, so I’ll be giving this one a look.

SEAN: And for those who wanted Taiyou Matsumoto, author of Tekkon Kinkreet and Sunny, to draw cats, here is Cats of the Louvre, a Big Comic Original series that’s also done in one.

MICHELLE: I am here for this.

ASH: Yes! More Taiyou Matsumoto is always a good thing. This is also part of the same series that brought us Hirohiko Araki’s Rohan at the Louvre and Jiro Taniguchi’s Guardians of the Louvre.

MJ: Okay, this is necessary in my life.

SEAN: As if that weren’t enough, Dorohedoro is ending with its 23rd and final volume. I’m amazed how obsessed I became with this violent series about a busty sorcerer and her lizard-headed pal, but I love it to bits.

ASH: As do I. I’m so glad this series survived the unfortunate fall of Ikki.

SEAN: And Viz also has Children of the Whales 12, Beastars 2, and 20th Century Boys Perfect Edition 5.

ASH: Wow! It really is a great week for Viz manga! I am really looking forward to seeing where Beastars goes next.

Vertical also ends a series with the final omnibus of May-December romance After the Rain, and they also have the 13th Ajin.

MICHELLE: I’ve been meaning to read After the Rain. One of these days.

SEAN: Seven Seas’ debut looks trashy but I am well-informed is more slice-of-life than anything else: Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out (Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai!) runs in Kadokawa’s Dra-Dra-Dragon Age, a spinoff magazine to the already trashy Dragon Age, and is about an aggravated college student and his teasing busty underclassman.

They also have a 3rd volume (digital for now) of Restaurant to Another World’s light novel; Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka 7, Magical Girl Site 10, Made in Abyss 7, The Ideal Sponger Life 3, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom’s 4th print light novel, and Dragon Quest Monster + 4. Of that pile, Ideal Sponger Life is most interesting.

One Peace has a 2nd volume of I Hear the Sunspot: Limit.

ANNA: I need to read the first volume!

ASH: It’s good! I’m happy to get to read more of the series.

MJ: There can never be too much of I Hear the Sunspot!

SEAN: Kodansha’s print debut is If I Could Reach You (Tatoe Todokanu Ito da to Shite mo), a more drama-laced series than usual from Ichijinsha’s Comic Yuri Hime, about a teenage girl in love with her brother’s wife.

In print, Kodansha also has The Seven Deadly Sins 34, Magus of the Library 2, and I’m Standing on a Million Lives 3.

ASH: Oops, I haven’t read the first Magus of the Library yet. Better get on that before I get too far behind.

SEAN: Digitally the debut is the first of FOUR digital-only spinoffs of exiting franchises. Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure is what it sounds like.

There’s also Tokyo Alice 15, The Quintessential Quintuplets 10, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 6, The Great Cleric 2, and Defying Kurosaki-kun 12.

J-Novel Club “debuts” The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress, a series previously exclusively released through Bookwalker. It’s had another editing pass, and now is available on all platforms.

There’s also The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 9 and Amagi Brilliant Park 7.

Lastly, Dark Horse has Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, an adaptation of the side story game starring Naegi’s little sister. It ran in Famitsu Comic Clear.

I assume you’re getting something from Viz this week. What else?

Fate/Grand Order: mortalis:stella, Vol. 1

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By Type-Moon and Shiramine. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha, serialized in the magazine Comic Zero-Sum. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Sometimes you really have no choice but to do a series of spinoffs. Fate/Grand Order is huge, the visual novel/game that everyone is playing on their phone or tablet these days. Well, everyone but me, of course, as while I started it, and liked the visual novel aspects, the”pick these cards and see if you win” part drove me nuts. That said, I like to think I have enough of a passing familiarity with Fate in general that I’d have no issues with this. It does approximately the right things, adapting the start of the game, where you as a player (you’re male in this adaptation, because in general Fate adaptations don’t go the yuri route) arrive at a top secret facility for a top-secret mission, assisted by your new friend and possible love interest Mash. Sadly, halfway through the book everything blows up and you end up in a Fuyuki that’s had the Grail War go horribly wrong. Unfortunately, this is also about where the manga loses me as well.

Some of the problems seem to be things I suspect I’d have issues with in the original as well. Mash is a fairly passive, bland female protagonist, some of which is explained seemingly by her origins, but we don’t really get into those here. She turns out to be a Servant of some sort, but doesn’t seem to be the Saber or Archer sort. She needs the sort of development that you get in a visual novel which can use 20 hours of text to go deeper, and she’s not getting that here. Likewise Ritsuka is a ‘you are the player’ sort of protagonist, which means that he’s also fairly bland, as PCs never have much personality so that the reader/player can overlay themselves on them. He’s sort of Shirou-esque at times, minus the complete lack of self-worth. Perhaps most aggravatingly, a death scene that I think is meant to be both horrifying and tragic is so confusing, and the person being killed got so little attention, that it ended up being “what just happened?” more than anything else. Sorry about the black hole, Olga. Whatevs.

It’s not all bad, of course. Lancer is here and is awesome, though amusingly he’s not Lancer, but Caster. (I suppose I should call him Cu Chulainn instead, really.) He grumbles several times about this totally not being a class he’s best at, and I can’t blame him really. On the bright side, he’s also missing Lancer’s tremendously bad luck stat, meaning he’s allowed to be competent and do things. It’s also nice to see Archer (erm, EMIYA, I guess) and Saber Alter (Arturia Alter?), who are there to show off that this is a Fuyuki gone wrong. And we get the first of the main reason a lot of people play Fate/GO, which is too see famous historical figures as hot babes. Leonardo da Vinci is pretty hot. Honestly, if this were 9-10 volumes long, like Fate/Zero or Stay Night, I’d be more inclined to cut it some slack. But it ends in Vol. 2, and as a result I’m not even sure it was worth starting. Play the game instead.