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Der Werwolf: the Annals of Veight, Vol. 2

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By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

I’m always pleased when a second book in the series proves to be even better than the first, and that’s definitely the case with Der Werwolf. I enjoyed the first book quite a bit, but the second volume steps up its game, showing off Veight’s political and diplomatic skills in the first half, then pulling the rug out from under the reader with a plot twist I wasn’t expecting for a few more books yet. Perhaps best of all, there’s virtually none of the typical isekai cliches in this book – probably as the “I’m from Japan” part is still mostly irrelevant. There’s no gamer terminology, dungeon levels, and the romance is kept very much on the back burner – i.e. there isn’t any yet, though there’s clearly a few women who like Veight. Instead, we are simply reading a fantasy book. It reminds me a lot of The Faraway Paladin, and fans of one should enjoy the other.

At the start of this book, Veight is interested in expanding his allies on the Southern half of the continent, so reaches out to a pseudo-Arabian city along the coast. As with the first book, we occasionally get the viewpoints of other characters (though I wish they were marked off in the text a bit better – it can be tough to tell when we’ve left Veight’s viewpoint and when we return), and that helps here to show off the rock and the hard place that the other city is caught between, and also how Veight thinking that he’s being calm and reasonable is seen by other people as Veight being threatening and terrifying. In fact, there’s a running gag here, even more than the first book, of Veight saying he’s “just a vice-commander” and denying that he’s anything special, despite constant evidence to the contrary. It would be annoying if he were doing it deliberately, but he means it, so it’s just funny.

The second part of the book is much darker. We’d been introduced to the concept of a Hero arriving and challenging the Demon Lord at the start, but this proved to be a false lead (though it did get us another cute girl character, the stressed-out mage who can do illusion magic). Then a real hero does show up, and things go badly very quickly. It’s great to see how the concept of a hero here, in a book essentially narrated by “bad guys”, is that of a fiercely destructive force that none can stand against except the Demon Lord himself. Even more intriguing, there’s clear backstory between the hero and the Demon Lord, apparently involving a woman… but we never really get to find out what it is, except it’s made the hero hell bent on revenge. Actually, I’ll be honest here, I was expecting things to get even MORE dark, but thankfully things got a little better at the end, and Veight gets to go on being the most humble yet awesome vice-commander ever.

This is a pretty long-running series in Japan, so we have a ways to go. This pleases me, as reading these volumes is a treat. I highly recommend Der Werwolf to anyone who enjoys good light novel fantasy without the “light novel” cliches.

Bookshelf Briefs 12/18/18

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Ao Haru Ride, Vol. 2 | By Io Sakisaka | Viz Media – Changing yourself is hard. As is high school. As a result, much of this volume revolves around Futaba’s good intentions and attempts to make everything somehow work out not succeeding very well. We are definitively introduced to what appear to be the rest of the core cast, though some of them are still mostly ciphers. The main story is still about Futaba and Kou, and they can’t really go backwards. Still, do they want to go forwards? Trying to fall in love while also trying to make friends and get through school is the reason most high school romances don’t work out. Still, this is shoujo manga, so they have a leg up on real life. I’m enjoying this series so far, even though it’s more dramatic than I expected. – Sean Gaffney

As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Vol. 4 | By Matoba | Yen Press – Since my last review, the anime has come out, and while I’m watching it and quite like it, there’s no denying it’s a bit of a bomb in the Western fandom. But I’m sorry, the series is just so cute and fluffy it can’t help but put a smile on my face, except when the shotacon shows up, when I flick pages fast till she’s gone. There is a lot of focus here on Molech, the loud and outgoing demon who is the quintessential obnoxious extrovert stereotype. Since I can be like this at times as well, though never to this level, I can sympathize. Mostly, though, you read this to see Beelzebub and Mullin have adorable crushes on each other, and to see Belphegor’s disastrous crush (and bladder issues, which I could also do without). Not good, but I don’t really care. – Sean Gaffney

The Delinquent Housewife!, Vol. 2 | By Nemu Yoko | Vertical Comics – The first volume had the focus on Komugi, the housewife who’s trying to hide her delinquent past. The second book looks more at Dai, her brother-in-law who is falling in love with her despite himself. I will admit, I’m more interested in Komugi’s past than I am Dai’s crush on an older woman. The reason that Dai’s family hates delinquents so much is one of those things that seems minor but to the people involved is a huge deal, and I like that Komugi gets that immediately. She’s just a nice girl, and I think she should eventually win over the family, assuming her husband ever returns. Will that happen? Good question, and I suspect we’ll get more love comedy chapters before it’s answered. – Sean Gaffney

The Honor Student at Magic High School, Vol. 9 | By Tsutomu Sato and Yu Mori | Yen Press – The trouble with side-story manga like these is that they eventually have to follow the plot of the main series. Which is fine, and it’s nice to see Tatsuya being cool, but watching the main cast of this series sit in the audience and cheer him on is not really the reason I want to read this manga. Fortunately, we get to see Honoka’s match before this, which was not in the novel, and it’s pretty nifty, showing off her abilities to a good extent—she’s no Miyuki, but there’s a reason she does so well. As for Miyuki, we get the scene where she mocks Erika for having a brother complex, but I dunno, I don’t feel it plays as well in this format. A lesser volume of a good series. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 29-30 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | VIZ Media – Kuroko’s Basketball comes to a close in this fifteenth and final omnibus. It’s the Winter Cup finals and Seirin is facing off against Rakuzan, a formidable team that not only includes Akashi but three of the “uncrowned generals.” There is a fair bit here that is ridiculous, like spectators being able to discern when a player has activated his “wild instincts” or accessed another level of “the zone,” but there is also a lot to like, including some welcome spotlights on background players like Koganei and Izuki. I confess that I sniffled when a certain person in the stands yelled encouragement when Seirin was about to give up. And then everyone learns a valuable lesson about teamwork. Ultimately, Kuroko’s Basketball wasn’t the best sports manga I’ve ever read, but it was consistently entertaining and comes to a satisfying conclusion. – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia, Vol. 16 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – I was right about this being all action, and there’s a lot of cool fights throughout, though I wish Uraraka and Tsuyu got more to do. That said, even Midoriya doesn’t get quite as much of a spotlight. Instead we get Kirishima, who’s dealing with his quirk still being a work in progress. We get his past in this volume, where he’s a lot meeker and more indecisive guy. It’s nice to see someone like Kirishima, clearly a different person in middle school, contrast with his classmate Ashido, who is pretty much exactly the same then as now. That said, the bad guys are doing pretty well for themselves, and our heroes still aren’t anywhere near Eri. Oh, and here comes Himiko Toga and her orgasm faces again to make things creepier. Solid volume. – Sean Gaffney

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 7 | By Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu | VIZ Media – The underground shelter that the kids find at the coordinates provided by William Minerva turns out to be amazing—beds, hot water, clean clothes!—but not only is the man himself not present, they’ve got to contend with a mentally unstable guy who made the escape himself thirteen years ago and whose companions all died in a mysterious manner. By the end of the volume, he’s agreed to guide Ray and Emma to the next place while plotting to kill them and has purposefully set a bunch of man-eating creatures on them. This guy is pretty fascinating, and I continue to love the problem-solving elements of the series and the intelligent lead characters, but my favorite aspect is just how badass Emma is getting. Some of the shock value in this series has subsided, but it’s still a really terrific story. – Michelle Smith

Takane & Hana, Vol. 6 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – This volume introduces a big wrench in the plot, and it’s just at the right moment, too. Takane was starting to get a bit too far ahead in the relationship, and when you have something like this, with an adult businessman and a high school girl, you just can’t let the power balance get too one-sided. So I approve highly of Takane’s grandfather’s actions, even as they seem to completely break Takane, who we see is far more reliant on having lots of money than even the reader had previously expected. As for Hana, well, she may be falling for him, and admitting it to herself, but let’s face it, it’s all about that last scene, which made me laugh with glee. I love it when these two smug at each other. – Sean Gaffney

Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, Vol. 2 | By Fumita Yanagida | Seven Seas – The expansion of the cast comes at just the right time, as we’ve got a number of volumes still to go, and I know that Tomo and Jun aren’t going to be getting together in any of them. So it’s nice to see that we also have another hilariously oblivious relationship involving Carol, who is not nearly as airheaded as she acts, and her childhood friend Kosuke, who thinks of her as a little sister, much to her exasperation. We also get to see the seemingly perfect and stoic Misuzu get jealous, something that is so unusual that everyone seems to be commenting on it. I am very happy with this series as it does not focus entirely on the romance between Tomo and Jun (or lack thereof), but Tomo’s friendships. – Sean Gaffney

Versailles of the Dead, Vol. 1 | By Kumiko Suekane | Seven Seas – I’m a little worn out on zombie fiction, so it takes a bit more to secure my interest in a series than it simply emerging from that particular subgenre. In the case of Versailles of the Dead, that something extra is cross-dressing and 18th-century French court intrigue. Albert is the twin brother of Marie Antoinette, close enough in appearance that he has on occasion served as her body double. When Marie dies while traveling on her way to become Queen, Albert once again takes her place. There is quite a bit going on in Versailles of the Dead—palace infighting, demonic possession, political and religious schemes, supernatural plots, and the beginnings of a revolution to name only a few prominent elements—so much that the series hasn’t completely found its footing yet. But it’s more than enough for this dark historical fantasy to compel me to read the second volume. – Ash Brown

The Young Master’s Revenge, Vol. 4 | By Meca Tanaka | VIZ Media – “All I can do is try my best to become worthy of her. In order to achieve that, I’m abandoning all my pride and learning to love turtles.” Man, I’d forgotten how dumb The Young Master’s Revenge is. Tenma loves Leo, but she’s convinced he’ll reject her once she admits it, since he told her as much earlier in the story. Leo loves Tenma, but he thinks she hates him for how he treated her. A lot of stupid misunderstandings ensue and then they finally get together—after he learns to embrace the turtle-inflicted scars on his butt as precious memories—and I just honestly could not care less. At least it’s over. – Michelle Smith

Pop Team Epic: Second Season

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By Bkub Okawa. Released in Japan by Takeshobo, serialized in the magazine Manga Life Win. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Yota Okutani and Maya Rosewood.

It’s hard to get all the humor at the start of the second volume of Pop Team Epic without all the buildup that came with it. Pop Team Epic, the manga, was pretend cancelled, and the author was going to start a new work in the magazine called Hoshiiro Girldrop. There were even some promos for it. Then we get the chapter you see in this volume, and, well, surprise! (It wasn’t much of a surprise – everyone expected something fishy.) Now, of course, we not only have the anime using the series for its previews, but there’s also doujinshi anthology books with other artists writing genuine Girldrop stories. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an OAV at some point (well, yes I would, no one does OAVs anymore). With all that said, Girldrop is just the opening gag here, and the rest of the volume gives the reader what they want – more of Popuko and Pipimi.

Fans of the anime will be pleased to know that they will still recognize quite a few gags, although a lot less than the first volume. The Undertale stretching head gag is here (in fact, a lot of the video game stuff is seen here) as well as Popuko ordering latte art. For the most part, though, these gags were left out, and so the reader can enjoy them in their original environment. There aren’t a lot of gut-busters, but Pop Team Epic doesn’t really go for gut-busting humor. It’s a nerd manga that revels in its nerdness even as it tears down nerds gleefully, knowing that having its cake and eating it too is part of the reader appeal. And for those who look for that sort of thing, there are again one or two strips that imply that Popuko and Pipimi really like each other, though this is never going to be a comic that will commit to yuri in any way that isn’t present for a gag. I am also very fond of the “Holy shit, you’ve ruined it, like everything you do” strip, which definitely falls in the category of “too real”.

Towards the end of the volume, it’s become clear that the anime had been greenlit, and so we get a number of strips making fun of that fact. There is another “fake cancellation”, which also didn’t stick (I suspect Vol. 3, when it comes out, will be called “third season”. There’s also some mocking of the fact that Popuko and Pipimi aren’t cute or moe enough for the anime market, and are being replaced with more “natural” moeblobs – the anime did actually mock this, with the hegemony scenes at the end, showing off the yuri schoolgirl series that PTE is never going to be. And so Popuko and Pipimi, shunned by their own production companies and publisher, end the manga in a literal cage, making one last joke about bad ratings before the end. I have no idea how good the ratings were in Japan, but PTE definitely became a bigger phenomenon, both in Japan and the West. How will a third volume deal with the fame? God knows, but for now please enjoy more of this shitty manga.

Pick of the Week: Invitation from a Pick

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MICHELLE: Hm… I think this week I’m going to go with Elegant Yokai Apartment Life. I started watching the anime recently and it’s charming and weird, which has vaulted the manga to the top (well, near the top, at least) of my to-read pile.

SEAN: I’ve heard good things about Invitation from a Crab, and am also interested in After the Rain. My pick, through, is for the 8th and final Kagerou Daze light novel. The books may be very short, and based on a series of songs, but they’ve also got disparate characters uniting and trying to change their fate – something I’m a sucker for.

ASH: The quirky and artsy Invitation from a Crab is definitely one of my top picks for this week, the other being the deluxe release of Abara.

ANNA: Abara wasn’t on my radar at all before but I’m curious about it! That’s my pick!

MJ: Like Ash, I’m pretty torn between Invitation from a Crab and Abara, and I’m not sure I can choose just one.

Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch (If You’ve Got a Ringer), Vol. 2

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By Tsukikage and bob. Released in Japan as “Darenidemo Dekiru Kage kara Tasukeru Maou Toubatsu” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Caleb DeMarais.

The good news here is that everything is just a bit more toned down than the first volume. Sure, Ares spends much of the book frustrated and gritting his teeth, insulting the hero and companions at every turn, but he never runs into them, so it’s more tolerable. Toudou and company likewise are a lot more likeable than the first book (knowing Toudou’s secret helps), and I like their resolve even in the case of crippling fear and dealing with insane priests. And no, I don’t mean Ares, though he’s clearly not all there either – in fact, given Amelia also seems to exhibit some eccentricities this volume, I’m wondering if being in the Church means that sanity is an optional extra. But no, instead the second volume is spiced up by the arrival of Gregorio, a smiling nightmare of a crusader who seems ready to restart the inquisition. For once Ares seems to genuinely have something to be frustrated about.

We start where we left off, with our heroes trying to level up in an area known for tombs and undead. Sadly, two of the three in the hero’s party are terrified of the undead – including the hero. Area and Amelia try to help them out by finding an apprentice priest to join their ranks. Sadly, there isn’t one available, so Amelia grabs the cutest orphan she can find at the church and Ares forcibly has her killing (restrained) undead till she’s at least Level 10. That said, mostly what Spica does in this book is sit back and marvel at what is going on around her. Particularly once Gregorio arrives. He’s very devout, to a manic extent, very sure of his faith, and very ready to kill anyone who is not faithful enough. Which, given “faith” to him means “strength”, is not good news for Toudou, who’s still dealing with being rather low-level. Can Ares manage to intervene before Gregorio decides to purge them all?

The high point of the book is Spica, who is a fascinating study in what happens when you take an orphan girl with little to no power and then put her in situations where power is needed and she constantly feels useless and pathetic. You expect her to break, and arguably she does a bit, but once again Demon Lord Ringer has a last-minute reveal that’s so good I don’t want to spoil it. It absolutely makes sense for the character, though. As for everyone else, the hero’s team is a lot more likeable this time around, and we get a lot more from their perspective. This allows the narrative to not hammer on Ares’ asshole qualities quite as much, to an extent that I can almost start to feel sympathy for him. Almost. Also, Amelia, I think you’re going to have to throw him onto a bed and straddle him in order for him to get a clue about your feelings.

It’s a good second volume, and I’m liking this series a little more now. It keeps surprising me. If you can tolerate Ares, as well as endless discussion of levels and buffs, it’s a good read.

Ao Haru Ride, Vol. 2

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Ao Haru Ride Volume 2 by Io Sakisaka

When reading the second volume of this series, I found myself thinking about how the characters in Ao Haru Ride are different from some of the unusually self-aware protagonists that occasionally appear in shoujo manga. Teens with involved thoughts about the condition of being teenagers are fairly common, but Ao Haru Ride is concerned with issues of time and memory, and how memory can be a constructed choice in a way that feels refreshing to me as a reader.

As Futuba enters her second year of high school, she still struggling to find her niche. Her attempt to ingratiate herself with a small gang of judgemental girls didn’t work out well for her, and she wants to develop real friendships. She makes a point of being friendly to Makita in an attempt to head off a resurgence of rumors and finds herself a topic of gossip. Joining her and Makita in the new class are the enigmatic girl Murao, the boisterous Aya, and Kou. Futuba decided to throw herself into class leadership after hearing about a school-sponsored leadership retreat, and she’s joined by her new classmates.

Ao Haru Ride

Kou isn’t too happy when he realizes that he’s signed up for a trip that his older brother Tanaka is overseeing as a teacher, but he and Futuba reach a sort of understanding about their previous middle school crushes, as he warns her that he’s different now, and she starts appreciating Kou in the present without expecting him to match up with her memories. Futuba is also extremely conscious of making new memories on the trip, as the not-quite-friends-yet group goes through the typical outdoor activities to encourage class bonding. She makes sure that everyone gets together to watch the sunrise, knowing it is the type of memory they will treasure later.Ao Haru Ride’s are unusually insightful and self-reflective, which makes this a shoujo romance manga with so much emotional depth. Kou points out to Futuba that things come easier for him because he just doesn’t care about anything, and the fact that she’s struggling to make things better means that she’s a better person than he is. Futuba in turn notices all the times that Kou’s innate kindness shows through his acerbic exterior.

This series is inching up the list of my all time shoujo favorites after the fourth volume. There’s the potential for more drama to develop as the new group of friends starts to come together, but with Kou and Futaba being such uniquely thoughtful protagonists, I’m looking forward to seeing how they deal with all the issues of high school life. Ao Haru Ride is such a special series, I’m glad to have the chance to read it.

So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 4

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

I’m still not quite sure about where out spider girl stands in terms of the current timeline (my current guess is that she’s the “white” girl rather than the demon lord, despite personality differences), but the two timelines are definitely starting to converge a bit. Or at least the spider is out of her dungeon… mostly… and starting to see the world. More to the point, much as I like seeing the spider’s adventures fighting things, I’ve become far more interested in the rest of the reincarnated kids, who are (mostly) all reunited at the Elf Village this volume. It’s a shame that the Demon Lord is about to annihilate all the elves. And also that the kids at the elf village feel rather strongly that they’re being used by their teacher. Which… may be true? Certainly Ms. Oka is not the pillar of goodness and light that, say, the teacher from Arifureta is.

On the spider side of things, she gets to the top of the dungeon, but the battle between both her mother and a higher spider that her mother calls in to help means that most of the time she’s shuffling back and forth between the dungeon and outside, fighting a mostly losing battle against various enemies. With a character as overpowered as our spider girl, there has to be a balance to show that she has it tough as well, and we certainly see it here – she’s decapitated twice, and is constantly at death’s door… and this is AFTER gaining the power of immortality, which she rightly assumes is not quite as great as it sounds. We also see one of her rare overconfident decisions, as she goes to fight the final battle against her mother with just better stats, not realizing that her mother is even craftier at traps.

Still, spider battles are not as interesting to me as the adventures of Shun, Katia and company, still trying to deal with the fact that Hugo has mind controlled the kingdom into making them public enemies. They go to the elf village to regroup, but that requires going through the dungeon to get there, which means running into some of our spider girl’s leftover selves. It’s not really clear how she pulls this off, but given it’s about 18 years later it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s just that powerful. In any case, there’s no battle with the heroes, but her mere presence – and announcement that she’s a reincarnation – is enough to stun everyone. Things don’t get better when Ms. Oka explains the mechanics behind this world and what the elves are doing to ensure that the gods/administrators don’t win. Honestly, their plans just sound mean. You can see why the other kids are sort of angry about being told to farm and never get strong. I don’t blame them.

We end with a bit of a cliffhanger, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t have to worry about remembering most of these kids for much longer. Meanwhile, our spider has finally met another reincarnation… and she’s a vampire! Will the two plots finally converge? Well, now that we’re out of the dungeon, we can hope things move a bit faster. And hey, not NEARLY as many stats in this book! Excellent news!

Ne Ne Ne

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By Shizuku Totono and Daisuke Hagiwara. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Taylor Engel.

The artist here may be familiar – the same one also draws Horimiya. The author is relatively unknown, however, and this did not take off the way Horimiya did – it’s just one volume total. But to be honest, that seems about right. Not that I didn’t enjoy this series, it was very cute and had some great humor. But you get the sense when reading it that future volumes would have been much the same – it’s the sort of series that only resolves when the main couple gets together, and has no plot except “will they finally get together”, so ongoing volumes would have felt a bit like it’s dragging it out. Of course, Ne Ne Ne has a bit of a head start on those other cute romantic comedies, in that our heroine starts the book off married to the hero. Why aren’t they involved physically? Well, it’s an arranged marriage, and she’s a bit too young. He’s also awkward, and inexperienced himself. Basically, they’re both naive blushing cuties.

There’s a supernatural element to the series as well, but it feels very tacked on. I’ve talked before with some isekai series how the “brought to another world” aspect feels halfhearted and tacked on, and to be honest the yokai stuff in Ne Ne Ne feels much the same. It seems to be an excuse to have Shin, the male lead, wear a mask all the time to make him a bit less nebbish. We never really get a good explanation as to why – he says it’s to make him less easy to possess, and you get the sense that if the series had gone on this is the direction the authors may have taken it in. As it is, though, the supernatural is not the reason to read the book. They treat a wounded fairy, he points out dragons flying in the sky that normal people can’t see, etc. The real meat of the story is in the embarrassed romantic flirting.

Shin is told by Koyuki’s overprotective father that he’s not to try anything with his wife till she’s twenty, but we’re never quite sure how much younger than that she is. At least a few years, I’d expect – she seems pretty young, and has a bit of a complex about getting older as quickly as possible. Like many newlyweds in Japanese ‘arranged marriage’ stories, there’s also a frisson of ‘Do you even like me at all?’ to the proceedings, though that’s entirely on the part of the characters – the reader knows immediately that they’re perfect for each other, though I agree with the dad that they should wait for now. There’s humor in seeing the local villagers mistake Koyuki for Shin’s maid (and then, when he corrects them, becoming the big gossip of the day) and Koyuki pouting when Shin says something unthinkingly. But they actually communicate pretty well, and there are no difficult problems to get past.

Ne Ne Ne may be only one volume because of that. This is a story of two people who are married and really like each other. And they all lived happily ever after.

Manga the Week of 12/19/18

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SEAN: It’s the last big push before Christmas. What’s out next week for last-minute gifts?

Denpa has two new titles. Futurelog is a Renge Murata artbook, and looks AMAZING. (I saw it at AnimeNYC). It’s the character designer behind Last Exile and Blue Submarine No. 6, among other things.

And for those who like more ‘artsy’ manga, there is Invitation from a Crab, a one-volume collection of stories that ran in Hakusensha’s Rakuen Le Paradis.

ASH: I’m really looking forward to this one!

SEAN: Ghost Ship gives us an 8th To-Love-Ru Darkness.

MICHELLE: For the antithesis of ‘artsy.’

SEAN: Haikasoru has the 8th volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which I believe will be the opposite of a laugh riot.

J-Novel Club has the 3rd Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, the 12th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, and the 8th The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, the last of which is now caught up to Japan, I believe.

ASH: So not too far behind, then.

SEAN: Kodansha has, I believe, the Battle Angel Alita box set and Mars Chronicle 5, unless they’ve been pushed back again.

Digitally there’s no debuts, but there is a plethora of ongoing series. Back Street Girls 6, Black Panther and Sweet 16 9, Chihayafuru 13 (watches Manga Bookshelf briefly perk up), DAYS 11, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 9, Giant Killing 15 (OK, now it’s just Michelle paying attention), Space Brothers 33 and Tokyo Revengers 2.

MICHELLE: *snerk* Yep, there are three titles there that I’m following avidly, plus Elegant Yokai Apartment Life, which I intend to read sometime soon. I started the anime and it’s quite charming.

ANNA: Yay for Chihayafuru!

SEAN: One Peace gives us a lucky 13th volume of The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has a 4th volume of Arifureta’s novel in print. There’s also the 16th Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, a 14th Monster Musume, an 8th Mushoku Tensei manga, and the 14th My Monster Secret 14.

Vertical has its 2nd After the Rain volume.

MICHELLE: Woot. This is also on my short list.

SEAN: Viz debuts Abara in one complete deluxe edition. This is by the creator of BLAME! and Knights of Sidonia, and ran in Viz’s Ultra Jump. Expect sci-fi weirdness.

MICHELLE: Ooh! This wasn’t on my radar at all.

ASH: The previews I’ve seen look very nice.

ANNA: Woah, what??????

SEAN: Viz also gives us the 2nd volume of the 20th Century Boys Perfect Edition and the 8th Tokyo Ghoul: re.

Lastly, Yen On has a bunch of light novels that didn’t come out this week for some reason. Coming to a close, we have the 8th and final volume of Kagerou Daze (though the story continues in the manga… and then the anime… trust me, it makes sense in context) and the 3rd and possibly final volume of Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon. There’s also Accel World 16, Baccano! 9, The Irregular at Magic High School 10, and Sword Art Online 15.

Is Osamu Tezuka in your chimney? I hope not. That would be weird. What are you getting?

ASH: … that would be weird.

Durarara!!, Vol. 11

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By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

If you enjoy scenes where one character tears down the motivations of another character, you’ll love this volume of DRRR!!, because that’s almost all it is. Yes, by the end of the book the plot guns are finally going off (or in some cases blowing up – nice cameo, Vorona), but most of this book is still buildup and dialogue. Izaya confronts Anri about her own nature, how she “uses” Saika, and her aggressive passiveness (yes, Anri can be very aggressive about not doing anything), to the point where she almost has a nervous breakdown. Izaya also confronts Mikado about what he’s trying to do with the Dollars – turns out Mikado is not ready for life entirely on the dark side either, and in order to maintain the excitement he craves, he needs to remain balanced on the edge between safety and danger. And Masaomi is forced, once again, to confront his past and the past of his gang, which looks to resolve itself in a series of beatings.

The cover implies hot Saika-on-Saika-on-Saika action, and to be fair, that is what we get, though the action is somewhat limited. Having been released from her “guard Celty’s head” duty, Haruna is free to try to find her true love, the creepy high school teacher, and also confront Anri, who dared to be loved and rejected by him. Midway through this battle, Kujiragi shows up, seemingly to try to get Anri to “sell” her Saika to her, but in reality we know why she’s really there – she’s angry they scared off the cats. Kujiragi’s stoic love of cat stuff (and later, as we discover, cosplay) is a charm point, but like so many, many others in Narita’s universes, she’s a villain who knows it and is content to be villainous even as she tries to escape. Anri, to be honest, spends most of this confrontation staring in confusion – she’s already mentally exhausted from Izaya tearing her apart, and how she has Kujiragi saying she’s far too nice to be wielding someone like Saika – which is true, but just taking Saika and leaving Anri normal won’t solve her issues. Anri doesn’t even get to go home and have a nice sleep, as Masaomi’s girlfriend is lying in wait outside her apartment.

Anri is the “main character” of this volume, but there’s other things going on, not least of which is Celty’s head being used to set everything in motion. Izaya is delighted and somewhat appalled by this turn of events. Meanwhile, Shizuo is out of prison, but after seeing Vorona stealing the head, he thinks she’s working for Izaya, and finally seems to be snapping. Unlike the anime, Shizuo and Izaya have rarely personally confronted each other in the novels – they just want to never see each other. I suspect, though, that the climax of these books will finally feature what fans want to see. No, not that. What non-BL fans want to see – Izaya getting the shit beaten out of him. As for Celty, she, like Anri, is having trouble coping with everything around her at the moment, and the cliffhanger ending (there’s about four cliffhangers at the end of the book) shows her about to snap as well. Is everyone going to get angry and snap at the start of the next book? And will Erika get Kujiragi to cosplay for her?

Fans may be familiar with these events from the anime, but I still urge them to get the books as well, as the examination of everyone’s psyches works better in prose format than spoken aloud.