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Arifureta Zero, Vol. 2

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

In my review of the first book in this prequel series, I said that it was Miledi’s book and Miledi’s series. Here I’ll go further: I think that Miledi is meant to compare directly with Hajime. Yes, in terms of personality, she reads more like a horrible fusion of Shea and Tio, but as we see a lot in this book, even more than the last one, she is wedded to her ideals and prepared to do anything in her power to preserve them, even if that means taking on the Church, a bunch of pirates, or even a giant seas monster with her ungodly gravity powers. (Ungodly would suit her fine, I think). As for Oscar, he has Hajime’s snark down pat, but after this book we really know who he’s meant to be. He’s Shinpachi from the Gintama series. No, really, the author even straight up ripped off the glasses joke. Oh yes, and we get a new Liberator as well. That’s her on the cover.

The author suggests that the seemingly sweet big sister type who’s really a sadistic tease is a surprise for this book, something which… isn’t true, but whatever. Meiru is a lot of fun, though, and is not only a big sister to her captured real sibling, but also to a huge pirate family that she heads up. Yes, it’s Arifureta does One Piece. Miledi and company are arriving at the city the pirates work out of to find the next Liberator, and after a host of misunderstandings that eventually get resolved, find she… doesn’t want to join them. Well, that’s fine, we went through this in the first book. Till then, there’s sea monsters that get attracted to Miledi’s magic, and casino capers, etc. Of course, eventually the Church is ordered to destroy these pirates once and for all, which leads to the last half of the book, which is one giant melee battle that is highly entertaining provided you love 120-130 pages of fights.

Honestly, I’m surprised there isn’t a much higher body count in this prequel. We already know it’s going to end badly, and it always seems like there’s going to be some dead innocents, but so far the author has done a pretty good job of having them saved at the last minute. (There are a couple of Oscar’s orphan kids who are in a coma from the last book, but Meiru may be able to save them too). In fact, despite the grim Church and the ever-present threat of death, this is a fun book – I would say of all the Arifureta books, this one balances the wacky humor and the thrilling serious plot the best. Miledi is annoying as hell, but not to the reader, just to the characters – an important development! Even the art is really good, showing off both the silly and dramatic (the picture of Miledi giving the finger to the villain may be my favorite).

This is a long book, like most of the Arifureta series, but for fans, it’s a must read. Even casual readers who are turned off by Hajime being Hajime in the main series may want to give the prequel a shot.

Bookshelf Briefs 2/4/19

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DIVE!!, Vol. 1 | By Eto Mori and Ruzuru Akashiba | Yen Press – Tomoki Sakai has loved diving since the second grade, when he was awed by the diving of another boy named Youichi Fujitani. Now, six years later, he and Youichi are both members of Mizuki Diving Club, which is in trouble as the new president of the sporting goods company that sponsors it is considering shutting it down. Enter their new coach, Kayoko Asaki, who hopes to keep the MDC open by sending one of its members to the Olympics. To this end, she starts training Tomoki hard since his natural flexibility gives him an advantage. So too does his work ethic, but this does little to soothe the wounded pride of his long-time teammates Ryou and Reiji, who think the coach is playing favorites and refuse to acknowledge that they’re slacking off in comparison to Tomoki. There’s not much else to say about DIVE!! at this point, but I’m intrigued. – Michelle Smith

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: The Complete Manga Collection | By Yoru Sumino and Idumi Kirihara | Seven Seas – Out of all of the versions of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, including Yoru Sumino’s original novel and its various film adaptations, it was the manga series that provided my introduction to the story. A touching friendship develops between two high school students—Sakura, who has a terminal illness she is hiding from everyone but her family, and an extremely introverted classmate who discovers her secret. The end of the story is known from the beginning, but I Want to Eat Your Pancreas takes a startling turn to get there. Even though it’s foreshadowed, initially it feels a little unfair, but that’s exactly the point and the characters have to come to terms with it, too. So far I’m unfamiliar with the other incarnations of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and therefore can’t offer a comparison, but the manga adaptation is a pretty solid work on its own. – Ash Brown

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: The Complete Manga Collection | By Yoru Sumino and Idumi Kirihara | Seven Seas – Shiga Haruki is an introverted kid who claims to have no interest in other people. Odd, then, that for the majority of the series he substitutes his own name with whatever he assumes other people are thinking about him. His outgoing classmate Yamauchi Sakura is intrigued, and when she comes upon Shiga reading the diary in which she has written about her terminal illness, she seizes the chance to get to know him. Gradually, she draws him out of his shell, and it’s really gratifying to see him start to display passionate emotion when he senses that her diagnosis has gotten worse. Knowing her changed him for the better. My one complaint is that, after a pretty random plot twist, the story just speeds along to the end. I might have to check out the original novel to see if the pace is any more leisurely. Definitely recommended. – Michelle Smith

Manga Plus | By Various Artists | Shueisha – I’ve never reviewed an app here before, but this is a biggie. Shueisha how has all of Shonen Jump out Sunday afternoon—yes, including the tiny “unlicensed” series—as well as selected Jump Plus and Square titles, such as Blue Exorcist. This is day/date with Japan (it really is—don’t make me explain it again). It allows you to see obscure series you’d never expect over here, like theatre nerd series Curtains Up, I’m Off. And you can see the latest popular Jump chapters too, and marvel at how freaking awesome (and strong!) Uraraka was in the latest Academia, or the snugglepiles in the new Neverland. This is basically the app all of us have been waiting for, and it’s free! Go read it now. – Sean Gaffney

Murcielago, Vol. 9 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – The first third of this volume wraps up the previous arc, and does it pretty well. It also gives us even more hints that Hinako is some sort of experimental child a la A Certain Magical Index‘s darker volumes. The majority of the book, though, is much lighter in tone, with Kuroko and Chiyo’s relationship resolved much faster than I expected (Chiyo admits she sort of likes Kuroko when she’s being… well, Kuroko), and also a beach episode that then segues into giant robots that destroy the apartment complex! It’s very silly and filled with large-breasted women acting cool, which is two of the things that people read Murcielago for, and has a an over the top lesbian sex scene with Kuroko and Chiyo, which is another. Fun. – Sean Gaffney

Now Loading…! | By Mikan Uji | Seven Seas – This is a new yuri series from Seven Seas, and given it’s also the final volume you know not to expect too much. It’s cute. It’s basically New Game if they actually went in that direction explicitly. We see a game company with a bright-eyed newbie and a game designer with a tragic past… well, OK, it’s not tragic, it’s just “reality happens, this is Gametown.” Sakurazuki ends up kissing Takagi at the end of the first chapter, and the rest of the book shows how they slowly talk about how and why that happened and maneuver their way into being a couple. There’s also a beta couple of two other employees, which is cute. This will make you smile, but you’ll likely forget what happens in a day. – Sean Gaffney

Spirit Circle, Vol. 6 | By Satoshi Mizukami | Seven Seas – This final volume wraps up the Fortuna life, which is as terrible as possible, and then heads back to the present, where unfortunately Fortuna has hijacked Fuuta’s body. Things are not looking good for this not ending in death. But then a tragic prediction ends up going horribly… not tragic at all, and the day is saved by a butterfly net that the alien couple gave our heroes, which is a sentence that only makes sense if you’ve read this series. Kouko theoretically gives Fuuta a final kiss and then leaves him to Nono, but let’s face it, given those last wishes from Rune and East, we know what’s really going to happen. This was an awesome series, just the right length—just like the author’s prior series, in fact. – Sean Gaffney

The Voynich Hotel, Vol. 3 | By Douman Seiman | Seven Seas – The series continues to veer between terribly silly, terribly dark, and somewhat nauseating. There’s a sense of everything coming to a head here, and that’s the case, but honestly I was struck by how many more people survived than I was expecting. This is probably as close to a happy ending as The Voynich Hotel was going to get, and there’s potential in both the adventures of the now adult detective gang as well as Elena (who I keep thinking of as Maria because she looks just like Maria in Zetsubou-sensei) and Tarou ending up as a couple and opening up to one another. Not for the faint of heart, but if you like weird and heartwarming, this is a good series to check out. – Sean Gaffney

Yuri Is My Job!, Vol. 1 | By miman | Kodansha Comics – I’m very happy that Kodansha has begun licensing yuri titles (or, yuri-adjacent, at least), but I really wish they’d started with anything other than this. Hime Shiraki is a cute first-year high school student who has cultivated an angelic façade in order to snag a billionaire husband. But aside from her looks, she has nothing going for her, so when she’s manipulated into helping out at a café where the waitresses pretend to be prim and proper ladies from an all-girls private school, she proves largely incompetent. What’s worse (and supremely frustrating) is that she fails to comprehend that anyone other than her might be putting on an act, so when a coworker speaks harshly to her in private but gently in front of customers, she is utterly baffled. Honestly, it’s just bad. I liked no one and it was a chore to make it through a single volume. – Michelle Smith

Pick of the Week: Shoujo, Kino, Boogiepop and Mari

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SEAN: There’s a ton coming out that I’m interested in. Light Novel-wise, we have the 2nd Bakarina and the debut of Classroom of the Elite. And there’s the new Kino’s Journey manga. But yeah, there’s also a ridiculous amount of Viz. Including Oresama Teacher, which I still love to bits. It’s my pick.

MICHELLE: There are lots and lots of shoujo releases that I’ll be eagerly devouring, but since volume seventeen of My Hero Academia will mark the first time I’m all caught up on the series, I’m going with that!

ASH: It’s not manga, but I’m very excited for the chance to finally read the fourth and fifth Boogiepop novels, so the second omnibus in the series is my pick this week!

KATE: Yikes–that’s a lot of good stuff arriving in stores next week! If I had to single out one title for praise, it would be Inside Mari, a body-swapping story that takes the idea of waking up in someone else’s body seriously, rather than a set-up for tacky jokes about anatomy and clothing. The first volume was honest to the point of squirm-inducing, but it was also compulsively readable — just like Shuzo Oshimi’s other work (The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, The Drifting Net Cafe.)

MJ: I am a huge fan of the anime adaptation of Kino’s Journey and was devastated about the cancellation of the novel series way back when, so that has to be my pick this week. I don’t always love manga adaptations, but in this case, I can’t feel anything but excitement and so much hope. Maybe too much hope. Time will tell.

ANNA: I have to go for the shoujo, but I can’t choose between Ao Haru Ride and Shortcake Cake because they are both so good! They are my picks of the week!

For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams, Vol. 1

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By Kei Sanbe. Released in Japan as “Yume de Mita Ano Ko no Tame ni” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

This author has previously written the mystery thriller Erased, a series which I could see was very well done and I could also see was probably not for me. This feels like the same sort of thing – even without a hardcover-style release to make it fancier, this manga just seems “important” as you read it. The art is compelling, the characters are, if not likeable, at least someone you want to follow. Senri is our “hero”, a young man who in his childhood had his parents brutally murdered. He also had an older twin, who hid him from this (in fact, the father was abusive, and the twin was hiding him from the abuse – the murder was incidental). Senri always had a connection with his twin, in a “psychic powers” sort of way, but shortly after this he gets a vision of his brother being killed, and that’s it for psychic connections. So how does he grow up? Consumed with vengeance, of course.

There’s a common trope in manga where you see the hero, supposedly a bad guy, who beats up other, scummier villains to show off that he’s really good deep down. The manga fakes us out by making it seem that grown up Senri is the same… but no, he’s actually in league with the bullies, and is extorting money. I mean, he needs SOMETHING else to do beyond trying to track down his parents’ and brother’s killer. (They may not, in fact, be the same killer, but I’m guessing.) He runs on suppressed rage, and is fascinating to read but also somewhat exhausting. He also seems to have little regard for human life, unsurprisingly, and there are a couple points in the book where he’s driven to almost murder in his efforts to find out what happened back then. He also gets beat up a lot. He’s a very grim protagonists, in all senses of the word.

Fortunately, we also have Enan, the saving grace in this book. She’s Senri’s childhood friend, as they were in the same orphanage after his parents were murdered. She’s from a tragic home as well, as her dad was a murderer and her mother killed herself because of the harassment – which she gets as well, because we all know that children are their parents. Senri does not believe this, and says so, possibly the one nice thing he does in the entire book. As a result, Enan is his best (and it seems only) friend, and yeah, probably likes him romantically, though that doesn’t really come up. She’s there to prevent him from turning evil, and has a ways to go, frankly. I liked her a lot. Usually these sorts of characters are fresh-faced innocent types, but Enan is a jaded “gal” sort, though she’s good with kids in her daycare job. I hope nothing horrible happens to her.

As I said, this may not be the sort of title I want to keep reading. But it’s good, and I am interested in seeing what happens next, assuming Senri doesn’t die from the skull fracture he seems to get at the end of the volume and the rest of the series is just light music played over blank pages. Fans of dark thrillers will absolutely want to check it out.

Log Horizon: Krusty, Tycoon Lord

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By Mamare Touno and Kazuhiro Hara. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

It’s been a long time since the last volume of Log Horizon – almost a year. It may be even longer till the next volume as well, as there’s no sign of it in Japan. That said, this is a big volume for fans of the series, as it’s the first volume that has not actually been animated. As such, it will prove to be entirely new material. Appropriately, it focuses to a large degree on Kanami’s party, who were the subject of the 9th book (which was adapted the least by the anime), and have now reached the equivalent of Mongolia. But as you may have guessed by the title, the other major participant in this volume is Krusty, who is having memory issues but is not letting that stop him from living the easy life, as he’s essentially in the game equivalent of heaven being waited on by cute animal person servants. The book’s main thrust has a scheming villainess try to pit the two parties against each other.

The book mostly succeeds, but it is worth noting, once again, that there is a truly ridiculous amount of gaming chatter and discussion in these volumes, and that it can quickly get tedious, especially when you’re in the middle of a large battle. Classes, levels, aggro… I don’t really care. But someone cares, and that someone is Elias, who we get to know a lot more about in this book. From the last book, we know that he labors under a curse that means he never gets the last hit in – he can’t be the one to kill the monsters. Of course, since Log Horizon was a game, and he was one of the bigger NPCs, it makes sense. The players make the big kill. But here we see how this weighs heavily on him, and also how his party seems to have been broken, and possibly killed, simply by hinting at their very nature – Elias, throughout the book, seems to be shying away from thinking that he’s just an NPC in a game.

So it’s pretty easy to get him to go all out against Krusty, who’s perfectly happy to have people think he’s a villain if it gets him a good fight. We get a lot of Krusty’s own background from Earth here too, and it fits with his personality to a T. Krusty really can’t stop Elias, especially given he’s dealing with his own curse. Kanami is there to be Haruhi Suzumiya and not much else. I like her, but she’s completely at peace with everything about herself, so is terrible at this sort of thing. And Coppelia is still pretty much monotone. That leaves Leonardo, still a frog and not a turtle, to deliver the big verbal cooldown speech to Elias. I won’t spoil it, as it’s easily the best part of the book, and made me smile quite a bit. When Log Horizon isn’t pouring verbiage into its worldbuilding, it can be pretty heartwarming.

We’re almost entirely in ‘the China server’ this volume, with only one chapter back in Akiba to show us that Raynesia’s noble friends are all getting engaged, which I suspect means that an arranged marriage is in her future. Her noble friends also think she’s in a relationship with Krusty, which she’s not. In the next volume, whenever that may be, I suspect we’ll be headed back to Shiroe and company. Till then, enjoy this look at what it means to be “cursed”, and how to resolve it.

Outbreak Company, Vol. 7

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By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

For the most part, I tend to wait at least a day before writing a review of something. Reflection can be a good thing, and so sometimes my opinions on Twitter – which are as I read – don’t match up with what’s here. And, let’s face it, this volume had an uphill battle to win my affection in the first place. I enjoy Outbreak Company a great deal, but not for the fanservice. Thus when you have a volume that, in one way or another, doubles down on such things, you’re going to be losing me. That said, it is not without interest. If you can ignore the fact that the entire first story seems to revolve around Minori’s tits, it’s actually a lot of fun, and there is some actual suspense in there briefly – that turns out to be undercut. It’s Outbreak Company’s excuse to do a beach episode with swimsuits, something it admits within the text, and as such is fine. The other two stories were a bit more problematic with me.

The second story should have easily been my favorite, as it’s an emotional character-driven piece. It’s also from the POV of Myusel, which makes for a great change. We’ve known since the first book that she’s half-elf, but the subject of her parents has never come up. Now, all of a sudden, due to changes in the family, her mother has arrived (she’s the elf) and wants Myusel to leave the mansion and come live with her. Myusel, we know, really does not want to do this at all, but runs up against everyone seemingly thinking it’s a done deal and accepting that it has to happen. And if Minori and Shinichi are already arranging for her replacement, how can she say no? I was struck by how obtuse everyone was being in this part. Frankly, as a reader, Myusel’s depression could not be more obvious if she’d tried, and the fact that the characters all assume she’s fine with it really bothered me. Do they really know her all that well? This was well-written but the characterization just felt… off.

The third story was apparently written with the help of one of the author’s female assistants, who is a fujoshi. He clearly said to her “I want a story where Minori is going through BL withdrawal, make it as exaggerated as possible.” And boy howdy, that’s what happened. Again, the issue I have is with the characterization. I’m fine with Minori being like this. Though the constant chants of “homo, homo” are perhaps a bit… insensitive, shall we say, they certainly fit with a certain type of fujoshi. I was more annoyed with this essentially turning into a fujoshi zombie movie, with Minori infecting everyone else in the story (even Myusel, though she holds out at first, for reasons that everyone but Shinichi understand) so that the entire cast are suddenly mindless BL maniacs. Yes, that’s the exaggeration, but it didn’t sit well with me. That said, if you enjoy over the top comedy, this may be your favorite segment. It’s certainly that. And OK, the “Vitamin BL” gag was very funny.

This was certainly a volume of short stories. There were some interesting parts, but I am hoping that next time around we get back to the main plot.

Manga the Week of 2/6/19

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SEAN: There’s record-breaking cold, snow squalls, high winds… it’s a nightmare out there in the United States. Stay in and read some manga!

First, apologies to Denpa for missing them last time. Inside Mari 2 is out this week.

ASH: Whoops, that was an oversight! Denpa is doing great work. I’m looking forward to reading more of Inside Mari.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has its first print releases! They put out a few via Seven Seas before, but these are straight from the publisher. You can get How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord and In Another World with My Smartphone Vols. 1-2 next week.

ASH: Oh, I had missed that J-Novel Club was starting to directly release books in print! That’s good news for me.

SEAN: They also have a new digital debut. Cooking with Wild Game is the combination isekai and cooking title that everyone has been waiting for. It’s also got a hefty number of volumes, so settle in.

J-Novel Club also has new volumes for My Next Life As a Villainess! (2) and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles (3).

Not sure if Kodansha has any February debuts yet, but digitally we do see the 4th and final Can I Kiss You Every Day?, the 10th and final Liar x Liar, the 5th Magical Sempai, the 6th digital volume for The Quintessential Quintuplets, the 2nd Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Apprentice, the 5th You Got Me, Sempai, and the 22nd Yozakura Quartet.

Print-wise, Kodansha has a 4th Boarding School Juliet and a 2nd Eden’s Zero.

Seven Seas has a digital light novel debut – the print will follow this spring. Classroom of the Elite is hideously popular in Japan, but had not been licensed over here, possibly as it’s not an isekai, fantasy, or magical academy story. There is an academy, though, as you may have guessed.

They’ve also got a print omnibus of the 4th to 6th Boogiepop light novels, a print version of the 9th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash novel, a 3rd manga volume of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, the 4th volume of the Kobayashi Maid spinoff Kanna’s Daily Life, a 3rd Soul Liquid Chambers, and the 4th Toradora! Light novel.

ASH: This Boogiepop omnibus includes material not previously released in print in English (books four and five). I’m very excited.

SEAN: Speaking of unlikely licenses, Vertical has the first Kino’s Journey manga. A very popular series, we will try to forget what happened with Tokyopop and the novels and read this manga.

MJ: Okay, this has my attention. Hm.

SEAN: GIANT PILE OF VIZ! No debuts, though, so let’s talk shoujo and then shonen. Shoujo-wise we have Ao Haru Ride 3, Oresama Teacher 25 (yay!), Shortcake Cake 3, Takane & Hana 7, and Yona of the Dawn 16. A lot of Manga Bookshelf favorites.

MJ: I’m definitely in for Ao Haru Ride and Shortcake Cake.

MICHELLE: I am literally going to read every one of these!

ASH: That’s mostly true for me, too. Oresama Teacher and Yona of the Dawn is where I’m starting, though.

ANNA: I’m excited for the shoujo!!!

SEAN: On the shonen end, we have Black Clover 14, Black Torch 3, Food Wars! 28, the 10th and final volume of the 3rd Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Stardust Crusaders (don’t worry, Diamond Is Unbreakable follows and has much the same cast), the 3rd Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, the 17th My Hero Academia, the 89th One Piece, the 8th volume of The Promised Neverland, and a 2nd volume of We Never Learn.

MICHELLE: I have really been enjoying catching up with My Hero Academia . I love it so and volume 17 will be the one I finally get current with!

SEAN: Are you reading manga next week? Or are you frozen solid?

Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 1

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Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits, Volume 1 by Waco Ioka, Midori Yuma, and Laruha

Ordinary girl suddenly discovering a world filled of spirits or yokai and having her life altered forever is a common trope in shoujo manga, it is subgenre that can be relied upon for some interesting storytelling. However, is there room for more translated yokai titles after such great series such as Kamisama Kiss and Demon Prince of Momomochi House?

Kakuriyo:Bed and Breakfast for Spirits is a light novel franchise with an anime adaptation as well, so that accounts for the multiple credits on the managa, which sometimes makes me a bit nervous. Aoi Tsubaki had a charming but shiftless grandfather who recently passed away. She goes about her daily interrupted by her visions of strange ayakashi, and she feeds homemade snacks to the more harmless ones. As she passes a shrine she sees an ayakashi who looks like a young man wearing a demon mask and she hands him her bento box after he complains that he’s hungry. When she passes by the spot later on that day to retrieve her bento, she finds it decorated with a fancy hair ornament and new wrapping cloth. A gate opens up and the ayakashi grabs her wrist, saying “Welcome to Kakuriyo, my darling bride.”

bed and breakfast for spirits

Kijin is an ogre and the master of Tenjin-ya, an inn for ayakashi. When Aoi refuses to become his fiancee, she offers to work at Tenjin-ya to pay off her grandfather’s debt, except none of the ayakashi in charge of the various functions of the inn are willing to hire a human. Aoi then meets Ginji, a nine-tailed fox with a series of different forms and he becomes her unofficial guide to the spirit world. As Aoi begins to become more aquainted with her strange new world, one constant that she takes with her is her joy in preparing food for people. I found the slice of life and food elements in this story entertaining. Where this title falls a little flat compared to similar series is the art. It works just fine, but without that something extra present that readers can find in the whimsy of Kamisama Kiss or the lush detail of The Demon Prince of Momochi House. I always hope that the opportunity to portray a spirit world will cause an artist to go wild with creativity and innovative character designs, but I wasn’t finding that in this series. I’m hoping though that the fact that the manga is an adaptation of a light novel series will mean that the plot will compensate for the art being less creative than I’d like for the subject matter. I did enjoy the setting in this first volume and I’m curious to see how the story unfolds.

In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 12

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

It’s actually been a while since I’ve had a volume of Smartphone that didn’t irritate me in some way. Touya does not take the time to wipe out and entire country full of evil cliches here, which helps a lot. Instead, we get what are essentially a bunch of short stories, as always – Smartphone has an ongoing plot, but it sort of judders along, and gets abandoned whenever the author feels like it. Here Touya investigates the hidden island discussed in prior volumes and makes contact with them; deals with a return of the creepy soul eating monster, which he now knows is being controlled by the rogue God (the one bit of ongoing plot here); travels to another dimension to help a group of phantom thieves; and tries to resolve a political romance. In between there’s time for a forest that’s being taken over by bad guys (and fanservice), and a puppet show. A very leisurely Smartphone, in other words.

The art is… mostly good, except for that cover, which has creeped me out ever since I first saw it in the original Japanese. Yae and Leen’s expressions are just deeply wrong. In any case, the fiancee horde actually gets a fair bit to do here, with each of Touya’s missions except the third one involving him traveling with one or more of the girls. The third, the one in the alternate world, honestly reads sort of like a backdoor pilot for a different series, and given most of the thieves are cute young girls, it’s likely for the best that the fiancees didn’t come along. They’re still not married, having a couple years of waiting to go, though after a fertility device works as planned (Sue’s getting a little sibling), Touya does take the time to ponder having children with his wives, and the wisdom of perhaps staggering them out a bit so he doesn’t have 8 kids at once. And, let’s face it, Linze’s puppet making ability, and the show that follows, runs on pure adorable. I won’t even complain about the forest of monsters that involves licking the heroine’s butts, though I will roll my eyes a bit.

As for Touya, the author has found a nice balance between him doing ludicrous things and his getting called out on doing ludicrous things. Given Touya’s lack of emotional range (he’s the sort to say “that makes me mad” in the same vaguely cheery voice he uses for everything), everyone around him has to pick up the slack a bit. This is shown off best in the final story, where he is forced by circumstances to fight a 10-year-old girl who is very strong in both fighting and magic and has grown rather proud and arrogant as a result. He’s asked to teach her humility… and he does, literally saying “it’s time to dunk on a 10-year-old”. Leaving aside how weary I am of terrified girls wetting themselves in Japanese series, the fight is hilarious, as is the reaction of everyone else, which is basically “I know we told you do to this, but eeeeeehhhh.” Poor Touya, once again history’s greatest monster.

If you’ve been avoiding Smartphone because it’s been leaning a bit too hard on the genocide sort of thing recently, this is an excellent volume ot pick up. It’s relaxed, fun, and features Touya being ludicrous.

Pick of the Week: Dreamy Picks

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MICHELLE: There are a few digital volumes from Kodansha that I’ll be reading, but my official pick is the debut of For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams. MJreviewed it in our latest Off the Shelf column and I am definitely intrigued.

SEAN: I’ll be going for another in the Monogatari Series this week. Koimonogatari is a bit of a fakeout, allegedly about Senjogahara trying to stop the possessed Sengoku but in reality it’s a character study of minor-villain-returned Kaiki Deishuu. The novels not from Araragi’s POV are always great.

ASH: Like Michelle, For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams is my pick this week. I enjoyed Erased, so I’m curious to read another dramatic mystery by Sanbe.

ANNA: I agree, For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams is intriguing to me this week.

MJ: I’m definitely on board with all the interest in For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams, which I reviewed in last week’s Off the Shelf, but I feel like it’s my job to say, “CLAMP still exists” so I’ll make the new omnibus edition of Wish my pick for the week. I’m looking forward to a new translation, and Dark Horse always does a beautiful job with these omnibuses, so I’m sure it will look fantastic.