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Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 10

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By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

Character development is something that you want to see in a good story. It’s something we’ve seen throughout Yona of the Dawn. For all that people were chanting “badass sword princess!” when the series was originally licensed, it’s taken a while for Yona to get from her sheltered princess to that point, and she still has a long way to go. And that means that character development happens even with the villains, provided they aren’t meant to be the standard “I am so evil I have to die” sorts. That’s why this volume is devoted almost entirely to Tae-Jun, the arrogant Fire Prince who has been dealing (badly) with thinking that he killed Yona back at the beginning of the series. He’s always been played for comic relief, and there’s certainly still some of that here – his puppyish devotion to Yona makes us uncomfortable but also makes us laugh. But there’s a larger story to be found here, which is the suffering that the kingdom has been going through.

Yona has slowly been realizing what she wants to do for this kingdom, but it’s not something that she’s really able to fully achieve as a bandit. Tae-Jun could really make more of a difference, though it’s worth noting that even he has to disguise it as “searching for the bandits and making the towns better as a result”. The peasant towns we’ve seen the last few volumes are really struggling, as every able young man is now gone to the army, leaving almost no one left to keep everyone eating and surviving. There’s a heartwarming moment with an old woman who bitches and moans about how bad Tae-Jun is at backrubs and everything else he tries to do, but Yona notes that it’s mostly just bluster. But later on, we hear that the old woman has died. This isn’t a magical cure, where Yona or Tae-Jun start to do the right thing and everyone magically gets better. People still die. People still suffer.

Tae-Jun’s soldiers are also seen throughout, and don’t have quite as much of a leap, as they go from “we are devoted to our lord even if he’s like this” to “we are devoted to our lord and oh look, he’s doing things now”. That said, they seem perfectly content to help the villagers as part of finding the bandits, once they get over their initial “if we come near them, we will get sick and die” phase. (Which, truth in manga, does actually turn out to be somewhat true – one of the soldiers seems to pick up a bad case of “con crud” fairly quickly.) As for Yona and the others, they realize that they need things that aren’t in the Fire lands, so are off to find them, and presumably to start a new arc. In the meantime, everyone who’s been reading Yona of the Dawn will enjoy this, and appreciate a more nuanced look at a former goofy villain.

Pick of the Week: Fish, Spiders and Distant Stars

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MICHELLE: By now, it probably goes without saying that I will definitely be getting the new volume of Chihayafuru, so I will instead pick Voices of a Distant Star. I never read it the first time around, but I remember MJreally loved it. The your name. movie made me cry buckets, so I bet I will probably love this story, too.

SEAN: I’m definitely picking up Voices, but my pick this week goes to Giant Spider & Me. A combination of food manga, sweet slice of life, and post-apocalyptic survival, it feels like every new trend we’ve had brought into one title.

KATE: I’m exited about the return of Voices of a Distant Star, and charmed by the idea of a slice-of-life story about a girl and her giant spider, but my must-read manga this week is Fukushima Devil Fish, a collection of short stories by Susumu Katsumata. And yes, the Fukushima of the title refers to the nuclear plant that experienced a partial meltdown after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake; according to publisher Breakdown Press, the anthology includes “two stories from the 1980s on the subject of ‘nuclear gypsies,’ the men who labor under oppressive conditions to maintain Japan’s fleet of nuclear power plants.”

ASH: I’m certainly curious about Giant Spider & Me since learning that it is in fact a food manga but, like Kate, Fukushima Devil Fish is what takes priority for me this week.

ANNA: There’s a ton of great manga coming out this week, but I’m most interested in Voices of a Distant Star, since I wasn’t able to catch it the first time it was released.

Bookshelf Briefs 2/19/18

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Assassination Classroom, Vol. 20 | By Yusei Matsui | Viz Media – So in the end there is no easy way out, and no happily ever after. Oh, the kids survive, though it’s a bit touch-and-go for Kayano, who tries to protect Koro-sensei and gets impaled for her troubles. But no, what it means is that, despite Koro-sensei taking care of the bad guys, with one very satisfying death, he still has to be killed—and, given the entire premise of the series, the kids have to kill him. We’re at the climax of the series, which is apparently rather awkward in volume format—expect a lot of padding in the final volume. Still, for fans of this series, this may be a bit of a tear-jerker, but it feels right, and will also make you smile. (Though please stop with the “Kayano has a small chest” jokes, please.) – Sean Gaffney

Behind the Scenes!!, Vol. 5 | By Bisco Hatori | Viz Media – This was a much stronger volume of the series, though I admit that sometimes I have trouble remembering who is who—this is what happens when you catch up to Japan so quickly. Here we see the pain of unrequited love, and how for the most part there can be very little you can do about it other than pine, especially when you love is pining for someone else. That said, the core of this series is still its special effects, which branch out here into scene design as our heroes run into a school with a lot of ideas but no idea how to convey those with an actual budget. The end design was quite clever, showing off the desperation that frequently drives genius when pushed to a deadline. Solid. – Sean Gaffney

Black Clover, Vol. 10 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – As it turns out, permanent damage is pretty easy to heal when you live in a world of magic and you’re also the main character. Black Clover is never going to win any originality awards, and will likely never rise above “good.” But it also doesn’t plumb the depths of some series—it’s pacy, knows how long to do an arc for, and is also not afraid to bring in characters introduced in the light novels when it wants to, which might be a bit of a wrench for North American readers who know Viz doesn’t really license Jump light novels unless they’re Naruto. Meanwhile, Noelle levels up, and Asta tries to solve things by talking rather than punching (shame it doesn’t work out). Black Clover is fun if you’re a teen who’s never read Jump manga before. – Sean Gaffney

Dokudami Tenement, Vol. 1 | By Takashi Fukutani | Black Hook Press – Thanks to the efforts of Black Hook Press, a niche publisher based out of Tokyo currently focusing on gekiga and more obscure manga, the beginning of Fukutani’s most popular and successful series Dokudami Tenement is now available in English. The first volume includes the manga’s prologue and three stories—”Sun Is Shining,” “The Fetishist’s Lament,” and “Midnight Mover”—in addition to an introduction by Mitsuhiro Asakawa, a short biography, and a list of Fukutani’s publications. Dokudami Tenement began serialization in 1979, Fukutani incorporating semi-autobiographical elements into his stories about Yoshio Hori, an unemployed twenty-six year old living in a decrepit apartment building in Tokyo. It’s a funny and entertaining series, although at times admittedly lewd and crass; the characters somehow manage to be both appalling and sympathetic while the manga explores social and economic issues of the time period with a biting sense of humor. – Ash Brown

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 22 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | VIZ Media – The advancement exams in Hokkaido continue and the resisters have survived until round three, when they must go up against members of the Council of Ten. Yukihira is having a rematch against Hayama, who defeated him in the Fall Classic, and their theme ingredient is bear. Despite a lot of focus on how the boys manage to overcome the stinky attributes of bear and create delicious dishes, I have to say I’m still not particularly keen to try it. We get the typical fanservice of clothes being blown off by flavor, but I could’ve done without the really awkward explanation for why the Nakiri family has this reaction. It was still entertaining, though, and I really liked that Yukihira acknowledged that he’s a better chef now because Hayama defeated him in the past. Beyond that, I remain “meh” about this Central arc. – Michelle Smith

Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, Vol. 15 | By Yomi Hirasaka and Itachi | Seven Seas – The first half of this volume continues the giant high from the second half of the last one—these are probably the best scenes in the series. After getting his ass kicked by Rika, Kodaka finally stops ignoring Sena and tells her the truth—he loves her, and wants to do lots of naughty things to her, which… sort of pleases her, ish. But he won’t date her, because it would ruin the Friendship Club. Which, honestly, is getting pretty ruined even without dating, as Yozora has finally sunk into deep depression and run away, all the way to… Kodaka’s house. The manga says—possibly to stop readers abandoning ship—it will have a different ending than the polarizing light novel. We’ll see how that develops next time. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 20 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – Karasuno is engaged in their first five-set match against formidable opponent Shiratorizawa and they’re approaching the limits of their endurance. Kageyama’s accuracy is suffering, and though Tsukishima (who has apparently become my favorite character) continues to make some awesome moves, he ends up injured and in the infirmary for the beginning of the fifth and final set. Can the team pull off victory without him? Well, it’s not surprise that we don’t know the answer to that yet, since Haikyu!! is always pulling off excruciating cliffhangers, but once a rested-up Kageyama returns to the court, it certainly seems possible, as he and Hinata execute a spectular quick set that narrows Shiratorizawa’s lead to one point. As exciting as ever! – Michelle Smith

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 6 | By Hirohiko Araki | Viz Media We’ve finally gotten to Egypt, but alas, Dio still eludes us, as we continue instead to plow through a series of mooks trying to stop our heroes getting there in time to save Holly (who long-time readers may have totally forgotten about, to be honest). There is some very amusing comedy, as our heroes’ new ally is a Stand User who’s a dog—a very eccentric, unlikeable dog. The dog manages to do something that hasn’t happened the entire series, which is briefly make Jotaro interesting. But be it Youssou N’Dour, Oingo Boingo or Chaka Khan, no amount of unsubtle 80s music references can stop our heroes. Will we finally see Dio next time? Probably not, but hey. JoJo’s fans will want to read this. – Sean Gaffney

Kase-san and an Apron | By Hiromi Takashima | Seven Seas – The physicality of Yamada and Kase-san’s relationship is dialed back in this new volume, possibly due to being serialized in a magazine, Wings, which is slightly less OK with it. The yuri cuteness is still there, though, and this remains probably the best of our ongoing “girls in high school like each other and start dating” series. There are few surprises—the fact that Kase-san hadn’t dated her sempai seemed fairly obvious to me—but the emotions seem real, the girls are both sweethearts, and you root for them. I had thought this was the final volume, but apparently it is continuing on an occasional basis, so we may see a new volume. A must-read for yuri fans. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 19-20 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | VIZ Media – It’s the Winter Cup quarterfinals, and Seirin is up against Yosen. Most of the first part of the volume is Kagami suddenly evolving amazingly in response to Yosen’s strength, entering “the zone” in a way that is visible to the audience and demonstrating an ability to replicate moves belonging to the Miracle Generation. It’s over-the-top but still an exhilarating finish as Seirin manages to win by one point. After meeting Shogo Haizaki, a former Miracle Generation member who lost his position to Kise, we progress to the first semifinal game, between Akashi’s Rakuzan and Midorima’s Shutoku. Turns out, Midorima and his teammate Takao have a sort of Hinata/Kageyama (from Haikyu!!) past and even a quick set equivalent! It’s pretty spiffy, but is it enough to beat Akashi? Stay tuned! – Michelle Smith

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 19-20 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | Viz Media – As you might expect, loving basketball is better than not loving basketball, and therefore those with passion—particularly in a sports manga—will always beat those who have talent but little drive. And so our heroes advance, and get the rest of the volume to watch the competition. I admit I wasn’t wild about the section in the middle, though at least Alex freed herself on her own, and Shogo made a particularly unpleasant antagonist. But now we’re on to the other semifinal, with our old friend Midorima, who is not going to win because we have already seen Seirin play them, but it’s a nice thought. Two-thirds of the way through the series, and it’s still exciting, though it does make me realize that the final game could indeed be stretched a lot. – Sean Gaffney

Nameless Asterism, Vol. 1 | By Kina Kobayashi | Seven Seas – My interest in Nameless Asterism was piqued when I heard that the series includes both yuri and boys’ love elements. Turns out there’s cross-dressing involved, too, which also holds some appeal. The story revolves around Shiratori, Washio, and Kotooka, three young women who have become particularly close. They’re not all aware of it, but Shiratori has fallen for Washio, Washio has fallen for Kotooka, and Kotooka has fallen for Shiratori. On top of that, there are boys they like and who like them, too. It’s not so much a love triangle as it is an increasingly complex love ouroboros with feelings of friendship and romance in delicate balance. Nameless Asterism is a slowly paced but sweet manga with characters who genuinely care for one another. Future volumes of the series promise to reveal even more complications as the various relationships continue to evolve. I’m curious to see how it unfolds. – Ash Brown

Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 6 | By Kiseki Himura and Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – I’m enjoying the fact that Himura, the artist of this manga, is being allowed to do his own thing a bit more. We’re curling back to the book plot, as Kirito runs up against a smiling villain named Morte who has a plan to sow discord. The manga has always felt more like Asuna’s story, with Kirito acting as a Greek Chorus, and we continue that here. Also, Argo is back, which makes me very happy, as I love Argo. Most adaptations of light novels don’t really need to be read if you’ve already read the prose, but this is an exception. And there’s also quite a bit of fanservice for those who like that. Great stuff for SAO fans. – Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 10 | By Mizuho Kusanagi | VIZ Media – Man, Mizuho Kusanagi could teach a masterclass in how to not only redeem a former antagonist but make you love him fiercely. Yona and friends have been masquerading as bandits to protect poor villages in Fire Tribe lands from exorbitant taxes. Tae-jun is sent to deal with them and, after many comical reactions whilst in disguise, his genuine relief upon learning Yona is alive is massively endearing. This whole volume is about his gradual rehabilitation; initially, he cares only about Yona and can’t see the suffering around him, but eventually his eyes are opened and he spearheads a campaign to bring much-needed government support to the people. Yes, he still cares a lot about what Yona thinks of him, but he’s also truly changed, earning the loyalty of his troops in the process. I may have shed a few tears. – Michelle Smith

Takane & Hana, Vol. 1

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The opening pages of Takane & Hana offer a uniquely Japanese twist on the meet cute: the couple in question are set up by a marriage broker who thinks she’s introducing a twenty-three year old beauty to a twenty-six-year-old bachelor. The bride-to-be, however, is a sixteen-year-old high school student who’s posing as her older sister — don’t ask — while the potential groom is an impossibly handsome jerk who’s angry that his family is pressuring him to settle down. Guess what happens next? If you said, “Opposites attract!”, you wouldn’t be wrong, though the course of true love hits a few potholes along the way.

I’m of two minds about Takane & Hana. My fifteen-year-old self adores Hana for being so smart and sassy, the kind of girl who says devastatingly true things and still manages to stay in other people’s good graces. My forty-five-year-old self, however, feels uncomfortable with the ten-year age gap between its lead characters. While Yuki Shiwasu cheerfully acknowledges the troubling power dynamic between Takane and Hana, she wants to eat her cake and have it, too: Hana’s incisive comments are supposed to level the playing field with the older, more experienced Takane, making it OK for the two to flirt, date, and kiss. At the end of the day, however, the economic and educational gulf between Hana and Takane still seems vast, making Takane seem like a predatory creep for preferring the company of a mature sixteen-year-old over a woman his age.

I know, I know: I’m humorless. A killjoy. A big ol’ capital-F feminist. But in a moment when we’re having serious conversations about power and consent, I’m having difficulty getting caught up in Takane and Hana’s romantic shenanigans, however much Hana sounds like a teenaged Rosalind Russell, or how wonderfully elastic Takane and Hana’s faces may be. Takane & Hana is unquestionably someone’s guilty pleasure — just not mine.

Takane & Hana, Vol. 1
Story and Art by Yuki Shiwasu
Adaptation by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane
VIZ Media, 200 pp.
Rated T, for Teens

Clockwork Planet, Vol. 3

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By Yuu Kamiya, Tsubaki Himana, and Sino. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by fofi.

Last time I said that reader sympathy was largely shifting away from Naoto and towards Marie. I’ll go further this time: Marie is why I’m reading this series. There’s actually some decent not-Naoto characterization in this volume, as RyuZU begins to actually appreciate who Marie is and AnchoR is able to realize that she is not merely there to be a giant Mass Weapon of Destruction (though she possibly wishes she learned that lesson a bit earlier). But it’s Marie who the reader follows throughout the book, as she’s now become the star far more than Naoto has. This despite the fact that, like Naoto, she too is shown to be something more than human – after she angrily rants about his amazing hearing one too many times, Naoto comes right back and mentions how Marie’s eyesight is just as ridiculous, and allows her to perform equally impossible tasks. They may not be a romantic pairing (though AnchoR calling them her parents is not helping), but together they are a force of nature.

The basic plot of this series has been the same over the three books, as this book picks up shortly after the end of the second one. Things are looking very bad for our terrorist heroes, who are up against a very crafty enemy, who knows both when to show off its amazing power and when to step back and simply watch the government fall apart. The scenes with the cabinet were viciously satirical, and you get the feeling that the authors are no great fans of politics in general. Meanwhile, RyuZU is out of commission, Halter and Vermouth are down to brains and heads, (and not necessarily both), and Marie is constantly feeling as if the end has finally arrived. Naoto gets frustrated with this, mostly as he’s no0t that type of personality (which is why his characterization suffers – where can he go from here?), but I feel for Marie, as this is indeed a horrible situation it’s impossible to get out of. Luckily, with her, Naoto and his “wife and daughter”, they can achieve the impossible with a bit of effort.

The afterword suggested that this volume was mostly Kamiya’s work, and I’m not surprised, as there are elements of the book that are rather sleazy, particularly everything involving Vermouth, who is absolutely horrible and yet absolutely hilarious. This volume is also considerably longer than the others, and is one of the longer light novels on my phone – when it hits print, I’ll estimate it may be around 300 pages. There’s a lot going on here. That said, almost all the plot threads get wrapped up nearly – in fact, a bit too nearly. If I didn’t know there was a 4th volume of the series I’d swear that this was the final one, and I wonder if their editor made it end like this just in case they were late with the manuscript one too many times. In the meantime, I understand the anime was not well loved, but fans might want to give the novels a try, as they’ve gotten very good indeed.

Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale, Vol. 1

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By Kikori Morino. Released in Japan as “Owari Nochi, Asanagi Kurashi” by Mag Garden, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Alterna pixiv. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Adrienne Beck. Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

I suppose I should not have been surprised. We’ve seen BL titles that are really cooking manga. We’ve seen Shonen Jump cooking manga, both with monsters and without. We’ve seen dungeon crawl cooking manga where you eat the monsters, and fantasy manga where you’re eating dragons. Heck, even the monstrous Fate/Stay Night franchise, which has always had a heavy element of cooking involved in it, has given in and offered us pure slice of life foodie manga. And now we see Giant Spider & Me, which is a post-apocalyptic story of life after the Earth seems to have suffered a great disaster that left the cities flooded. Except it’s really a slice-of-life heartwarming story about a girl and a giant spider bonding and learning more about each other. Except, well, it’s really about the food. Update your recipe cards, because you’ll be adding new entries after reading this.

Our heroine is Nagi, a young girl who lives alone in a cabin in the woods, about a medium-sized walk away from a grand view of the flooded remains of a large city. Theoretically she lives with her dad; in actuality, he’s been out exploring for a long time and has not come back, so she’s living by herself, foraging, and making do. (There are mentions of other villages, and a stranger shows up in the last chapter, so there are still people around.) One day she runs into a large spider, which as you can see by the cover is VERY large – about the size of her dining room table. I appreciated the fact that she was actually terrified for a while – in titles like this, usually the protagonist is a girl who has no sense of danger or fear, and I liked that Nagi is aware that yes, this is a GIANT SPIDER. That said, it rapidly becomes clear that said spider (quickly named Asa) acts more like a puppy looking for a new home, and after Nagi takes pity and invites it back to her place, the bonding begins.

The cooking and slice-of-life war for supremacy throughout this first volume, until perhaps the cliffhanger at the very end, which seems designed to be a cliffhanger more than anything else. Nagi is sweet and elf-sufficient, and a good cook. Asa, as I said earlier, acts like a rambunctious puppy at times, knocking things over and such. That said, they’re also able to protect Nagi from more dangerous and less adorable predators, so it’s not entirely a master/pet relationship – it’s meant to be a budding friendship. There are also hints that we might eventually hear what happened in this world, and expand the cast a bit. That said, this isn’t the sort of series you want getting too complicated. It’s a story of a girl, a spider, and delicious food. Not much else is needed.

Takane & Hana, Vol 1

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Takane & Hana Volume 1 by Yuki Shiwasu

This month has been crazy busy for me, so I haven’t had as much time to read manga as I would like. But there’s nothing like the first volume of a new shoujo series to break me out of a reading slump! Originally I was a tiny bit skeptical about the couple featured in this manga, because it features a high school girl and a businessman. But if Dengeki Daisy can easily convince me that the best companion for a young orphan is an older emotionally damaged janitor/hacker, Takane & Hana can certainly do the same for its unconventional couple.

As I started reading the first few pages of this manga, I was impressed at how many awesome facial expressions and comedic situations Shiwasu was able to pack into the first few pages. Hana is being dragged to a marriage meeting with the heir of a business empire because the chairman happened to catch a glimpse of her older sister while he was visiting her father’s struggling subsidiary company. Hana and her dad look incredibly stressed, and they have an amusing exchange where she wonders “What’s the plan for if he falls in love with me?” and he reassures her, “You don’t really have the looks to make that happen.”

Takane Saibara shows up and turns out to be incredibly good-looking, but not so wonderful with social skills, commenting that he doesn’t like all the makeup Hana is wearing to disguise her age. She jumps up, throws her wig in his face, and stalks off yelling that she isn’t interested in him. Takane ends up deciding to spend more time with Hana, showing up at her house with an oversized bouquet of roses and pointing at her while declaring “I’ve taken an interest in you!” Takane attempts to sweep Hana off her feet by bullying her into wearing a designer dress and taking her out to an expensive restaurant, expecting her to be impressed by his display of wealth. There’s a great one-panel sequence where Hana calmly tears Takane to shreds by psychoanalyzing him, saying that he isn’t charming enough to attract anyone but gold-diggers who dump him quickly, but he doesn’t want to face reality so he just goes around saying that he hates women all the time. Takane actually manages to apologize to Hana for his remarks, but it seems like it is the first time he’s actually said “I’m sorry.” to a girl.

The dynamic between Takane and Hana is what I absolutely loved, as he’s emotionally stunted, and she’s incredibly insightful and self-assured. He doesn’t pursue anything physical with Hana, seeming content to show up with ever more elaborate bouquets and gifts, while she manages to get him to agree to a date where he cosplays as a commoner. Their odd encounters actually force them to get to know each other as people, and Hana finds herself unexpectedly jealous when she contemplates the idea of Takane dating another woman. The first volume of Takane & Hana packed in a surprising amount of emotional development and funny moments in just a few chapters. It might not be as overly sweet and over the top as My Love Story!!, but if you’re looking for a funny new shoujo series to add to your manga collection, Takane & Hana definitely delivers.

Manga the Week of 2/21/18

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SEAN: There are some tasty treats coming out next week, so let’s just jump right in.

Perhaps not tasty per se, but definitely interesting is Fukushima Devil Fish, which Breakdown Press is putting out. It’s by the late creator of Red Snow, and is subtitled “An Anti-Nuclear Manga”. I think it’s more of a collection rather than a story in itself. It doesn’t get more indie than this.

ASH: I’ve been waiting for this one for a while; I’m looking forward to finally getting my hands on it.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has the 2nd volume of isekai harem fantasy How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, which is, well, good if you like isekai harem fantasy, and bad if you don’t.

There’s also a 3rd volume of Occultic;Nine, which I’m hoping will make a bit more sense and will try not to kill off the entire cast, though the barn door may already be open on that one.

Kodansha has only one print release this week, that being the 4th volume of That Time I got Reincarnated As a Slime.

They do, however, have a plethora of digital titles. We get All Out!! 5, Chihayafuru 9 (sooooo far behind), Cosplay Animal 4 (I need to finish 3, I enjoy this quirky, smutty series), Fuuka 16 (its end was recently announced). Hotaru’s Way 5, Kasane 10, and The Prince’s Black Poison 3 (as recently recommended by Japanese shoujo manga editors).

MICHELLE: I’m definitely down for All Out!! and Chihayafuru and really need to check out Hotaru’s Way, too. I confess The Prince’s Black Poison had looked like something I wouldn’t be keen on, but maybe I should give it another look.

ANNA: I’m soooo far behind with Chihayafuru too, but I love it.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a monstrous number of titles out next week. Let’s start with recurring volumes as we see Bloom Into You 4, Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage 3, the 5th print light novel of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Lord Marskman and Vanadis 6, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka 2, NTR: Netsuzou Trap 4, and Tales of Zestiria 4.

MICHELLE: I need to get caught up with Bloom Into You.

ASH: Bloom Into You for me, too. I’ll likely be picking up more Captain Harlock as well.

SEAN: Ending next week is Kase-san and, which has its 4th volume Kase-san and an Apron due out. I think it’s still having occasional online shorts, so there may be a 5th down the road, a la Orange, but this is it for now.

And there’s two debuts. The first is a classic example of current trends, with Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale, which is, no lie, an adorable sweet slice of life story about a young girl and a giant spider after the apocalypse. There will be tea. Or at least espresso.

ASH: I just recently learned that food is a major part of this series, which of course bumped it up even higher on my list!

The second is a lot more retro. Some of you may remember Saint Seiya… pardon me, Knights of the Zodiac from way back in the Viz days. Now Seven Seas has Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho, a new series by the same writer with a different artist, featuring an all-female team. It runs in Champion Red, but I am not holding that against it. Should be interesting.

MICHELLE: Hmmm…

ANNA: I have a very similar reaction.

SEAN: Speaking of classics, Vertical is rescuing Voices of a Distant Star (from the creator of your name) and reprinting it with new translation. It’s complete in one volume, and it’s guaranteed to be bittersweet.

MICHELLE: I never did read this the first time.

ANNA: Me too! I’m curious about it.

SEAN: Viz has some more Gundam for us with a 6th Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt.

And they also have a 3rd Tokyo Ghoul: re.

So, devil fish? Tea with spiders? Slime power fantasies? Or time-dilated romance? We cater to every taste.

Baccano!, Vol. 1

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There are two things you need to know before you read this review. First, I’m a ride-or-die Godfather II fan, the kind of person who’s obsessively watched Robert DeNiro’s performance as the young Don Corleone more times than I can count. Second, I am not a Light Novel Person, despite my repeated efforts to embrace the format.

I disclose this information because Baccano! is a manga adaptation of a light novel series set in Prohibition-era New York, where rival families — one from Sicily, one from Naples — run guns, booze, and card games. That meant there was a 50% chance I’d love this series, since the premise screams “Manga Godfather!”, and a 50% chance I’d hate Baccano!, since the manga was conceived as a tie-in product for the novels’ hardcore fans. What I didn’t expect, however, was just how inept the adaptation would be; I assumed that my objections would be to content or characterization, not a sloppy, hole-filled (holy?) narrative. Shinta Fujimoto’s storytelling, however, is serviceable at best and amateurish at worst, cramming too many events and characters into volume one. The result is a jumbled mess of introductions, reunions, and exposition masquerading as conversation; I spent as much time backtracking two or three pages as I did moving forward, relying on the Wikipedia to demystify poorly explained plot twists, not the least of which is that some characters are immortal. 

Superficially, the artwork seems more polished than the narrative, but a close examination reveals just how perfunctory Fujimoto and Katsumi Enami’s character designs really are. The Martillos and Gandors are so blandly drawn that nothing about them reveals about the characters’ ethnicity, social standing, or profession, let alone the time period in which the story unfolds. The same is true for the physical environment. A few establishing shots depict fire escapes and brick buildings, but Fujimoto seldom provides much in the way of period detail, nor does he convey just how densely settled Little Italy was in the 1920s.

His lazy world-building is most evident in chapters two and three, when Firo Prochainezo, a foot soldier in the Martillo Camorra, tracks an assassin through the tumult of the San Gennaro Festival in much the same fashion as Don Corleone pursues Don Fanucci in The Godfather II. In Coppola’s hands, these scenes are bursting with the activity of brass bands and puppeteers re-enacting San Gennaro’s martyrdom, a vibrant pageant of Sicilian Catholic tradition. In Fujimoto’s version, however, the festival looks about as exciting as a high school pep band rehearsal, with a few token shots of musicians and festival goers. Worse still, Fujimoto has difficulty making these scenes an organic part of the story, inserting them into a potentially suspenseful cat-and-mouse game that unfolds in the alleyways of … well, it’s supposed to be Little Italy, but honestly, it looks as much like Sesame Street as any real city.

About the best I can say for Baccano! is that it clocks in at a mere 160 pages; anything longer would seem as eternal as the characters themselves. I know I’m not the intended audience for this manga, but the series’ die-hard fans — those who read the novels and watched the anime — surely deserve a more artful tie-in than this disastro totale.

BACCANO!, VOL. 1 • ORIGINAL STORY BY RYOHGO NARITA, ART BY SHINTA FUJIMOTO, CHARACTER DESIGN BY KATSUMI ENAMI • TRANSLATION BY TAYLOR ENGEL • YEN PRESS • 160 pp. • RATED T, FOR TEEN (LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE)

The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress, Vol. 2

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By SOW and Zaza. Released in Japan by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by Bookwalker. Translated by David Musto.

It took me a while to get into this volume of the series, but once the main plot got into gear it practically flew along. I felt uncomfortably like Sophia while reading this. She’s the soldier and childhood friend of Lud’s who wants him to return to the military rather than trying to atone for his crimes by baking bread in some town in the middle of nowhere. Lud, over the course of the book, realizes that’s not why he’s doing this, and that being a baker and seeing people happy *is* what he wants going forward. That said, I have to admit that the book really comes alive once the terrorists arrive and things turn a bit Die Hard. Lud may be a baker, but he is also an excellent soldier. That said, I was also pleased that a large amount of the saving the day fell to both Sophia and Sven, who have no need for Lud to come and rescue them.

The book starts off at the bakery but doesn’t stay there long, as fantasy not-Germany is trying to win over its conquered people and therefore is having a party on the not-Hindenburg, and they want Lud’s bread to be part of that. Of course, there are a few small problems. 1) Lud will have to give an interview, and his smile still terrifies people. Luckily, Sven takes over with help from some hair dye and glasses. 2) His former commanding officer/childhood friend is there as well, and she wants him to join the military again so he can be with her… um, I mean do what’s he was meant to do. 3) This is all a publicity stunt, so once Lud actually boards the airship he finds himself cruelly mocked and belittled. And of course 4) Terrorists have boarded the ship and are going to crash it into a major city, killing thousands. Add in Milly, the angry girl from the first book who now has a massive crush on Lud, and has stowed away, and you have a lot going on.

There is, of course, a bit of a harem here, but given Lud’s personality, nothing is really going to come of it. That said, I wonder how much of Lud’s obliviousness is genuine – there’s a clear moment here where he reveals he knows exactly who Sven really is, to her surprise, but it’s just as quickly forgotten. I suspect he’s trying to keep things as they are, which is always a dangerous thing to do in Japanese series – “I wish things could stay like this forever” is a classic death flag. The series also has some very interesting worldbuilding in regards to the supposed “peace” after the war, and how fragile that really is, especially if some of the soldiers who know nothing else are trying to stir up war again. I could have done without the dickhead terrorist stripping and threatening Sophia with rape, the go-to standard for “I want readers to see my villain is eeeeeeevil”, but at least she kneed him across the room and stepped on his goolies, rather than get rescued by Lud. Sophia can take care of herself.

I still wish I could change the font in Bookwalker’s app to a different one, but the translation seems much improved in Book 2. It also comes with a very short story about the world of the series. If you’re looking for a light novel that’s not quite the same as the “standard”, but still has enough tropes to be comfortable, this is an excellent series to read.