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Kenka Bancho Otome, Vol 1

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Kenka Bancho Otome by Chie Shimada

Kenka Bancho Otome has many elements that I like present in a single manga. There is a reverse harem scenario in which a girl has to dress as a boy! It is an adaptation of an otome game, and I enjoy the occasional otome game (still playing Ninja Shadow). Also, there is punching and juvenile delinquency involved, and I do greatly appreciate shoujo manga heroines with the ability to perform acts of physical strength.

One thing I found absolutely hilarious was the way the set-up for the whole manga was taken care of in about 5 panels. Hinako, an orphan, is about to start her high school career at an all girls school, when she brushes against a boy who fakes a violent fall. The mysterious boy’s manservant tells her that he has broken his arm, and Hinako is forced to attend his school entrance ceremony in his place. Conveniently, the “injured” boy is Hinako’s doppleganger. She finds herself dressed as a boy, attending an all boys school for juvenile delinquents. Hinako is cosplaying as Hikaru Onigashima, the son of a yakuza boss, whose family obligations require him to become the boss of the school by beating up everyone around him. I sort of wish the rest of the manga took place at such a breakneck speed, but I’m sure that would not be practical to execute.

This being an adaptation of an otome game, handsome boys of different types are introduced in short succession. There’s the mysterious dark-haired uppperclassman with a secret shared past with Hinako, a sporty exuberant boy who blushes all the time, a silent boy with hidden depths, and a flamboyant rock star. I can’t remember their names because the characters are not really all that memorable, but that’s not really the point! Kenka Bancho Otome steps through many standard shoujo plot points with a breezy charm and attractive character designs. It did make me wish that the game was available on android, because I totally would have played it after reading the manga. On that level, I think the manga is a success. It was fun to read, mainly because I’m always up for punching and reverse harem manga. On the other hand, any otome game adaptation isn’t going to have the emotional depth of a manga like Hana Kimi or the hilarity of a series like Oresama Teacher. So Kenka Bancho Otome is nice and diverting, when someone might be in the need of a pleasant distraction, which is a mood I find myself in most of the time.

Pick of the Week: Brides, Kings and Tigers

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SEAN: While I’d argue that The Bride Was a Boy is the most important title this week, and Requiem of the Rose King probably the continuing series of the week, I have been waiting for the Toradora! novels for so long that there’s no question that it is my pick of the week. Put a Taiga in your tank!

KATE: I agree with Sean: The Bride Was a Boy should be on everyone’s reading list, and it’s my top pick for the week. For continuing series, though, I gotta rep for Shuzo Oshimi’s Happiness, one of the most compelling horror series I’ve read in ages. The sixth volume was a masterclass in when to tell the story just through pictures, and when a few words really add value. The sixth ended on a hell of a cliffhanger, so I’m glad volume seven arrives this week.

MICHELLE: Definitely put me down for The Bride Was a Boy, as well. However, what my heart most wants just now is another serving of Sweetness & Lightning .

ASH: As previously mentioned, The Bride Was a Boy is one of my most anticipated releases of the year, so it’s the obvious pick of the week for me! But as everyone else has pointed out, there are some really great ongoing series being released this week, too.

ANNA: The Bride Was a Boy sounds like the standout release this week, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to mention Requiem of the Rose King which can always be relied upon for plenty of surreal kingmaking drama.

MJ: I gotta join in with Anna here. I love Requiem of the Rose King too much to pass up the chance to speak its name loudly to the universe. It’s my pick by default.

One Piece, Vol. 86

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

Food has always played an important role in One Piece, from Luffy’s voracious appetite to Sanji’s chef skills. And in this arc we’ve seen the dangers of food as well in a kingdom where everything is edible. But I don’t think we’ve ever quite gotten as terrifying as Big Mom and her backstory, one of the most truly unnerving and creepy moments in the entire series, especially because it’s implied – we don’t quite see it, as we’re seeing things from Charlotte Linlin’s point of view. Big Mom is certainly the villain of this arc, but I’m not sure we’ve seen a villain quite as psychologically damaged from a very young age as she’s been, and it makes her ravenous appetite far less of a joke than it had previously seemed (and it was always meant to be disturbing). Kudos to Oda for getting really, really dark here.

Elsewhere in the volume, it’s becoming more apparently that Jimbei actually IS going to be a new crewmember, provided he manages to survive the upcoming battle without a tragic sacrifice. This is actually rather interesting, as he’s the first semi-serious crewmember to be added since Nico Robin. Jimbei’s really cool here, standing up to Big Mom and refusing to cower, and I’m actually looking forward to seeing what he brings to the crew. Admittedly, the gender imbalance of the crew is starting to show itself a bit as well. Maybe we can get Vivi back? It’s certainly not going to be Charlotte Pudding, who despite her best efforts to be super evil, and her genuine irritation at Sanji’s goofy pervert persona, is backsliding into being a good person. I’m not sure how happy I’ll be with this, we’ll have to see.

As for Luffy, I have to hand it to him, that was a very clever (and funny) way to crash the wedding, and shows that he’s starting to strategize rather than just burst in fists akimbo – or rather, he still bursts in but works strategy into it. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned (big surprise there), and it looks as if we’re settling in for the long haul, introducing several of the Charlotte family to no doubt battle our heroes one by one and show off their quirks… sorry, Devil Fruit Powers. I have to say I won’t cry if Capone ends up dying (though it’s always hard to have actual named characters die in One Piece), given that his plan to take out Big Mom relied on basic mental cruelty. I was also amused at the Straw Hat Crew (even Nami!) all sleeping like the dead before the big event, because, as Jimbei points out, they’ve been running flat out for days before this.

I suspect the next couple of volumes are going to be pure chaotic fighting, though hopefully it won’t go quite as long as Dressrosa. Still, this was a stronger volume of Once Piece than we’ve seen lately, and I look forward to seeing how that chaos plays out. Definitely recommended for fans.

Also, the Grand Line has a Pleasure District? How adult!

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Vol. 2

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By Fuse and Mitz Vah. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken” by Micromagazine Publishing. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Here I am, back with a book that I found deeply frustrating with occasional bursts of promise in its first volume. I have now read the second volume, and the promise is starting to bear fruit – I was more interested in the worldbuilding this time around when it wasn’t trapped in statland, and the occasional moments in the book that are dramatic action scenes or dialogue are decently well told. The problem is that the deeply frustrating parts of the book are still there and still deeply frustrating – in fact I found them even more frustrating because the rest of the book had improved around them. Our slime hero is still a very boring, matter of fact hero whose chief interesting bit is that he really seems to underestimate how amazingly overpowered he is. And he still goes on about stats. On and on and on. I am not a gamer, and I honestly don’t care if your Flame Throw stat has evolved into Flame Hurl when you level up. Spider So What did this too, but that heroine has personality to carry me through it.

We begin with our slime helping his goblin followers build their village, which has now become about the size of a town. They run into some ogres, who are attacking the goblins on the basis of mistaken identity, something that Rimuru tries to correct but to no avail. Fortunately he’s able to defeat them all fairly handily, to the point where they too want to follow him. After naming them (which knocks him out – you’d think he’d learn) they become Ogre Mages, and are various degrees of fantasy types – the noble leader, the smooth ninja spy guy, the cute princess, and (oddly enough) the sexy secretary, who even gets a business suit but unfortunately may not have the temperament for it. And it’s probably a good thing he gained new allies, as he discovers than an army of 200,000 orcs is coming down and destroying everything in its path. Can Rimuru and his allies, along with some lizardmen and a dryad or two, stop the creation of a new demon lord?

Again, the bits of the book that are not discussing RPG stats are better this time around. Even Rimuru is more interesting, though I wish he had a personality that would evolve beyond “well, huh. That’s a thing.” The ogres are a more interesting secondary cast than the goblins from the first book, particularly Shion (who is a bomb waiting to go off, I suspect) and Soei, the cool ninja. The lizardmen also are complex, and two of the major villains of this arc get to have nuance and be more than just the typical Japanese “Mwah ha ha!” isekai villain. But… I’m sorry, there are large chunks of this book that are boring as hell. It’s a very lengthy book, probably close to 300 pages in print, and if you cut out Rimuru wanking on about his powers and levelups it would be 1/3 of that size and a much, much better book.

Still, it’s improved enough that I will be giving it a third volume, though I will likely skim the stats as I did here. If you like isekais and don’t mind RPG nerdery, Reincarnated as a Slime should appeal to you.

The Bride Was a Boy

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By Chii. Released in Japan as “Hanayome wa Motodanshi” by Asuka Shinsha. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Beni Axia Conrad. Adapted by Shanti Whitesides.

I will admit that when I first saw that this was licensed, my feeling was that it would be something more along the line of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, i.e. very stark and autobiographical. While it is autobiographical, I could not have been more wrong about it otherwise, as this title might best be described as “fluffy”. (The cover was likely a clue I just wasn’t picking up.) The title also makes it sound as if this is meant to be BL, which it isn’t. The emphasis should be on the ‘Was’ in the title, whereas I suspect most readers would see it as “Good Grief, the Bride Was a Boy!”, Kermit-style. But our author, Chii, is a woman who was assigned male at birth, and this manga is her story of exploring that, then transitioning, and finally getting married.

Chii’s art is cute and adorable, as is Chii, and the story flows along fairly well. Each chapter is followed by a brief ‘guide’ regarding transgender touchpoints, such as Gender Identity Disorder, LGBT, gender transition, etc. The story itself starts off with Chii meeting her future husband, though he was more “love at first sight” than she was. The husband is something of an amusing dork, but he’s very understanding, even when she explains to him that she’s a cisgender woman who was born as a man. We then flash back to various points in Chii’s life; growing up and realizing that she didn’t feel the same as the other guys around her; doing research and dating both men and women; and then starting the steps of transitioning and explaining things to her family and friends. The manga then ends with the wedding in question, which goes very well, even if Chii ends up crying when she said she wouldn’t.

If this all sounds somewhat undramatic, I won’t argue with that; it’s hard to take issue at the story since it’s autobiographical, but things honestly went very smoothly for Chii throughout this process, with her immediate family and her boyfriend/husband loving and supporting her no matter what. That said, it is nice to see this sort of story portrayed as happy and sweet, rather than like a YA novel with heavy drama. If you’re a reader who is not up to date on the various aspects of transgernderism, this is also a very good read, getting into greater detail on Sex Reassignment Surgery (which Chii does have, though it’s a tough decision – she ends up flying to Thailand to have it due to the high cost in Japan) and all the legal hoops that have to be jumped through in order to make things official in Japan.

This really ended up being a fun, educational read, and I’m definitely glad I picked it up. Chii’s art style is cute (her husband’s less so – we get a sample), and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to read about a transgender protagonist or even just a “meet cute and get married” story.

Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!: Crimson Magic Clan, Let’s & Go!!

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

Another new KonoSuba novel, another obscure yet nerdy subtitle for the volume. This one never even got licensed in North America at all, it’s for the kids’ series Bakusō Kyōdai Let’s & Go!!, which is about mini-car racing. Fortunately, the novel itself has no actual car racing, but it does introduce us to the rest of Megumin’s Crimson Magic Clan, as we head to her hometown after there is news of an attack that will destroy the village. As it turns out, Yunyun and Megumin are the staid, sensible ones in this group, which consists entirely of overdramatic nerds living out their grand magic fantasies – only they actually have magic power to back themselves up. Even Megumin’s parents don’t escape this, though they’re more concerned with her relationship with Kazuma. And, as it turns out, it’s a good thin they came, as there really *is* a demon invasion happening, though at first it seems like the Clan has it under control.

Despite Yunyun being on the cover and jumpstarting the plot, this is not really her book, it’s Megumin’s. And Kazuma’s, of course. I’ve talked before about how his group feels more like a close-knit (if dysfunctional) family than anything else. That’s definitely changing here, as Megumin explicitly says that she’s fallen in love with him, something that Kazuma somehow manages not to quite understand. it’s a bit difficult for Megumin to admit it anyway, mostly as Kazuma is still several shades of terrible at times, though usually every time he tries to do something stupidly selfish it comes back to hit him in the ass. But Kazuma is Kazuma, so you also see exactly why it is that she fell for him anyway. Darkness is likely in the same boat, though this isn’t her book, so we don’t get much of that and instead get more of her being totally useless at anything except defense. As for Aqua, I’m relieved to say that there is no sexual tension there whatsoever. Let’s keep it that way.

This is the first book that hasn’t (yet) been adapted into an anime, but the adaptation, when it comes, should go very smoothly – there’s going to be a lot of fun set pieces here. Leisure Girl was particularly amusing, and the female orcs wanting to ravish Kazuma is a nice reversal of the standard fantasy “orcs want to rape the women all the time” trope. There’s also a few nice fights, particularly the one at the end, even though it consists of the whole Clan essentially dodging the demon lord while Kazuma tries to figure out what can stop them. The best scene, however, is right at the end. I will try not to spoil it, but it involves Megumin recognizing her own shortcomings and trusting Kazuma to help her get past them… and Kazuma realizing that Megumin’s happiness is more important. It’s really sweet.

Next time, to Darkness’ horror, we will be meeting the princess of this land, and I have no doubt fresh new disasters will ensue. Till then, KonoSuba remains a funny, light read, and anyone who likes to see the standard fantasy light novel tweaked on the nose will want to pick it up.

Manga the Week of 5/9/18

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SEAN: Are you going to Toronto Comic Arts Festival? You should! And here are some manga coming out next week you can read on your way there.

ASH: I am! It’s a great time.

SEAN: Ghost Ship debuts a new series called Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Spring (Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san). It’s a Weekly Shonen Jump series, but apparently too hot for Viz, so Ghost Ship has it. Expect a lot of ghosts and a lot of nudity.

J-Novel Club has the 3rd How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord (anime coming soon) and the 8th In Another World with My Smartphone (anime now over).

Kodansha, print-wise, has the 7th Happiness (which I have to assume has caught up with Japan) and the 10th Sweetness and Lightning.

MICHELLE: I am definitely in the mood for some warm-hearted food manga!

ASH: Same! I’ve been really enjoying this series.

SEAN: Kodansha Digital gives us new volumes of Grand Blue Dreaming (9) and GTO Paradise Lost (8).

Their debut is Heaven’s Design Team (Tenchi Souzou Design-bu), which runs in Morning Two, and is apparently about a team creating new kinds of animals. It looks pretty weird.

MICHELLE: It does. I hope it’s a good weird.

SEAN: Seven Seas itself debuts two big titles. For manga we have The Bride Was a Boy (Hanayome wa Motodanshi), a story of a husband and wife from the wife’s POV, in which she talks about being assigned male at birth, transitioning, and falling in love. It’s complete in one volume, and looks great.

MICHELLE: I’m definitely looking forward to this one!

ASH: Yes! This is one of my most anticipated titles for the year.

ANNA: Interesting!

SEAN: There’s also the light novel debut of Toradora!. I love the manga series, but sadly the manga only comes out once every 235 years now, so I am pleased we get to read the novels that it’s based on. Out digitally too! (Insert Toradorable joke here.)

SuBLime has a 3rd volume of A Strange and Mystifying Story. I hope it lives up to that name.

MICHELLE: If I recall rightly, around here is where the story began to improve for me.

ASH: This is the last volume that was previously translated; I’m looking forward to reading more of the series.

SEAN: Titan has another volume release of the Sherlock manga that’s been running in Kadokawa’s Young Ace. This one is The Great Game.

Vertical has an 11th Ajin.

Viz has possibly the most Manga Bookshelf week it’s ever had, with just two releases. We get the debut of the re-release of Fullmetal Alchemist in hardcover with extra sketches by the author, though I will let people know that yes, Shou Tucker is still in it.

ASH: I am incredibly tempted by that new edition of Fullmetal Alchemist.

SEAN: And we also have an 8th volume of Requiem of the Rose King, which STILL has not killed off Henry. The last volume was the best yet, so I am hankering to read this. (Yes, hankering. it’s a thing.)

MICHELLE: As a Southerner, I use “hankering” fairly often. I also sometimes “reckon” and “mosey.” :)

ASH: Requiem of the Rose King is well-worth hankering after.

ANNA: Such a great series!

SEAN: There’s also some Yen titles delayed from April. Wolf & Parchment is the Spice & Wolf light novel spinoff, and it has a 2nd volume. There’s also a 3rd DanMachi: Sword Oratoria manga, and a 5th Kagurui – Compulsive Gambler.

And to round things off, we see the debut of Star Wars: Lost Stars, a manga adaptation of the YA novel by Claudia Gray that runs as a manga from LINE Communication, which makes me suspect it’s phone-based. I am always open to more Star Wars.

See something here that floats your boat?

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, Vol. 1

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By Tadahiro Miura. Released in Japan as “Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Ghost Ship. Translated by Kayla Albarado. Adapted by David Lumsdon.

When I was first researching this manga, more than one site told me that it was “the spiritual successor to To-Love-Ru”. Which makes sense. Jump usually has one title that is written purely for the sake of teenage hormones, and for years To-Love-Ru was the one. And so, perhaps after briefly checking to make sure none of the cast are based on anyone’s wife, we have Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, an ecchi Jump title which offers pretty much a lot of the same things that To-Love-Ru gave the reader. There’s a guy surrounded by a bunch of hot young girls. There is an awful lot of tripping and falling into boobs. There is a lot of violence towards the lead guy by said girls after that happens. And no doubt most of them will fall for him, though so far we only have the titular ghost. It’s Harem Comedy 101.

Our hero is Kogarashi, who has had a pretty unlucky life – he’s easily possessed by spirits, and it’s made his life very difficult, as well as made him very poor. Fortunately, he’s learned (almost out of necessity) to be an exorcist so that he can deal with these things. He’s also found an inn with attached hot springs where the rent is dirt cheap – because, of course, it’s haunted. He meets the residents, all of whom are gorgeous girls, and also the girl haunting his room, who is a cute fluffy-headed poltergeist with a bad habit of making things float around her when she is flustered, which is most of the time. Yuuna is a cute girl, so Kogarashi can’t exorcise her. Instead he befriends her, which works out even better (and also makes her fall head over heels in love with him). Then we discover the other residents are also… not ghosts, but various types of supernatural entities or those that deal with them. Can he get along with everyone? And what about school?

As you might be able to guess, this is not exactly the most original title in the world. At the same time, it has a job to do and does it well. Everything is in the standard ecchi harem language, but there was no point where I was bored or turned off by any of the various goings-on. Kogarashi is more of the “confident” Jump hero in the Luffy/Soma tradition, which makes a nice change from the meek nerds that usually inhabit such titles (as, for example, To-Love-Ru). Yuuna is as you’d imagine, but I did like the way she was translated/adapted, as she uses a certain amount of “Scooby-Doo” style exclamations at times, which is amusing as she’s a ghost, but also apropos as it shows she’s older than she should be. We’ve barely met the other residents yet (there’s a demon slayer who I still call Motoko as she hasn’t really differentiated herself from the Love Hina character), but I’m sure that will come soon.

So this won’t win any awards, but if you’re here for amusing comedic romance with lots of large breasts, and don’t mind no actual romantic resolution for 25 volumes or so (because did I mention it’s a comedic romance manga?), this could be the title for you.

The Queen’s Thief, Books 4-5 by Megan Whalen Turner

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A new installment of The Queen’s Thief is here! That proved an excellent incentive to reread the first three books (which I deeply love) and finally tackle the fourth book as well as the handful of short stories that’ve appeared as paperback extras.

A Conspiracy of Kings
A Conspiracy of Kings is a coming-of-age story for Sophos, the sweet, scholarly boy we met in The Thief who also happens to be the heir to Sounis. Some of the barons are in revolt, and when the villa in which he’s staying is attacked, Sophos tries to save his mother and sisters but ends up captured himself. Although he’s resourceful enough to escape and hide out amongst enslaved field hands, he nonetheless is bitterly self-critical and sure his father is disappointed in him (as usual). And yet, throughout the course of the novel, he exhibits a great deal of courage, makes some hard choices, and—though still the sweet, scholarly boy underneath—ultimately becomes a worthy king.

A Conspiracy of Kings strikes me as a simpler book than The King of Attolia, probably because Sophos is earnest and idealistic rather than guarded and secretive, though that’s not to say that he’s incapable of carrying out a secret plan or clever strategy. The book does have an unusual narrative style, beginning in the third person with Sophos already in Attolia, switching to first person as he tells Eddis his story up to that point, going back into third while everyone’s together in Attolia, going back into first when he returns after claiming the throne and fills Eddis in again, and then back into third for the ending.

It occurs to me that as The Queen’s Thief series continues, the further we’re getting away from Eugenides. The Thief was first-person from his point of view, The Queen of Attolia was third-person, The King of Attolia viewed Gen and his relationship with the queen through the eyes of a palace guard, and now we have a story about Sophos in which Gen appears occasionally and spends some of that time behaving with icy formality. I appreciate the expanding world the characters inhabit and genuinely enjoy spending time with everyone, but I do love Gen best and hope the focus returns to him someday.

Thick as Thieves
After waiting so long for a new book in the series, learning that it would be about Kamet, the slave of the Mede ambassador Nahuseresh, was somewhat of a disappointment. Now, I feel compelled to apologize to the author because I really should’ve had more faith in her. Kamet is a smart, distrustful protagonist with somewhat of a superiority complex and his evolution throughout the novel is fascinating.

Thick as Thieves is most similar to the first book in the series, since it involves a road trip peppered with storytelling. An Attolian soldier has been dispatched by Eugenides to steal Kamet out of spite, and after initially planning to decline the offer of freedom (thinking of all the power he will one day wield after he is gifted to the next emperor), Kamet is forced to accept after learning that his master has been poisoned and that he must escape quickly or face torture and execution. A Goodreads reviewer describes what follows as “bloodshed, betrayal, and bromance,” and I really cannot improve on that description. Although he initially thinks the Attolian is an idiot and plans on ditching him at the earliest opportunity (rather than return to uncivilized Attolia) he comes to like and respect him very much. I also love how one little piece of information lets readers know exactly who this soldier is, although Kamet does not use his name until near the end.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but that’s the part of the book that really shines. (Alas, the road trip does drag a little in parts.) There are quite a few surprises—including one satisfying “I knew it!” moment—and the conclusion is both sniff-inducing and exciting, as conflict is still brewing between the Empire and the small countries on the peninsula, though the latter (thanks to Eugenides) appear to have acquired some powerful allies. This is such a great series and I hope we’ll see Kamet again in what follows.

The short stories:
“Thief!”, originally printed in Disney Adventures Magazine in 2000, is a prequel short story about Eugenides as a kid. There’s not much to it, but I liked seeing Gen interact with his older brother and favorite sibling, Stenides.

“Eddis” was included in the 2007 paperback edition of The King of Attolia. In it, nine-year-old Helen—wonderfully described as round, solid, sturdy, and not too bothered by the fact that she isn’t pretty—slips away from the palace to go exploring. Her destination is a desolate temple where she is visited in the night by a trio of gods, who refer to her as “the last Eddis.” It’s a neat story that not only fleshes out Helen’s background a little bit and explains why she uses the masculine “Eddis” rather than “Eddia,” but ties in nicely with her motivations in A Conspiracy of Kings.

“Destruction” was included in the 2011 paperback edition of A Conspiracy of Kings. In this brief story, we witness the ceremony to dispose of Hamiathes’s Gift in the fires of the Sacred Mountain in Eddis. Frustrated Sounis is in attendance as is Attolia, who never takes her eyes from Eugenides. Scant though it is, I find I appreciate having a mental image for this occasion, as well as the moment in which Eugenides achieves certainty that the stone is really gone.

“Knife Dance” is included in the new paperback edition of The Queen of Attolia. In it, a juggler named Druic is coerced by his jerk of a brother to perform a certain Eddisian knife dance—”one of the Mysteries of the Thieves”—for the court of Attolia. Both the king and his god have something to say about it. I liked this one, and the ending was very satisfying.

“Wineshop” is included in the new paperback edition of The King of Attolia. It’s extremely short and depicts Eugenides enjoying his final moment of anonymity before coins bearing his likeness enter circulation and how Teleus spoils it all. There’s one part of it that makes me wonder if Eugenides knew that was going to happen. It would not surprise me.

Sword Art Online, Vol. 13: Alicization Dividing

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

As you might gather from the title, Kirito and Eugeo are divided throughout the book, as the cliffhanger from last time leaves Kirito and Alice hanging off the edge of the tower, and Eugeo needs to go on by himself to duel the last of the Integrity Knights there to stop them. This once again allows the author to alternate between third-person Eugeo POV and first-person Kirito POV. I’m not entirely certain if the hate-on fans have for Kirito is as omnipresent in Japan as it is here in the West, but I get the sense that Kawahara is playing with the reader a bit here. Eugeo is the straightforward, pure, noble type hero and Kirito is the snarky little cheater. Possible the funniest moment in the book is when Kirito wears Eugeo’s sword, and he and Alcie talk for a bit about how difficult using two swords actually is. Kirito doesn’t bring up his past as he feels embarrassed by it. Even Kirito is sick of Kirito. That said, Eugeo does not end up in a good place either.

As I said before, Kirito and Alice end up hanging off the tower by their swords, and have to find a way to climb up about twenty floors. This allows them to snark at each other, bond during fights, and of course for Kirito to tell Alice what’s really going on with the Integrity Knights. I will note that this scene should look fantastic when animated, though I suspect my fear of heights will mean I would never be able to watch it. I was most interested in how Kirito and the author are both telling the reader to think of Alice Zuberg, the little girl and childhood friend, as a separate person from Alice Synthesis Thirty, the Integrity Knight. Kirito knows that saving the former means killing the latter, and is feeling increasingly bad about that. More to the point, Eugeo is clearly there for Alice Zuberg… but Alice the Integrity Knight is obviously being set up as another of Kirito’s love interests.

Speaking of Eugeo, his fight against Bercouli was pretty awesome, and I was amused by the idea of a time-traveling sword slash. Eugeo gets the better of him in sort of a double suicide attack, but unfortunately is then found and brought to the administrator, whereupon he runs up against the necessity of the plot. Kirito and Eugeo are both great protagonists, but there can be only one Kirito in Sword Art Online. And come on, you know that the two friends were going to have to battle at some point. So yes, much as we’d like Eugeo to be strong and throw off the obvious brainwashing, he falls, and the cliffhanger shows that he is now an Integrity Knight with his memory removed. (Speaking of which, Alice, Eugeo and Kirito all have flashes of Kirito being present in their childhood – something Kirito clearly doesn’t recall now. I do wonder what’s going on there.)

So we’re all set up for friend vs. friend next time around. Will they finally be able to take down the Administrator? Well, possibly not, as we’re only now at the halfway point of the Alicization arc. One last thing: Kirito and Alice discovering the true nature of the Senators may in fact be the darkest, most horrifying scene Kawahara has ever written. Well done. I shuddered.