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Frau Faust, Vol. 1

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By Kore Yamazaki. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Itan. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Stephen Paul.

There is a scene towards the start of this manga where the title character is quizzing her protege about the history of their land that he had read. He parrots what he learned perfectly, but she quickly corrects his facts, saying that the actual reality wasn’t what was in the history books. This is something every kid growing up is going to come across sooner or later – certainly my generation learned a very whitewashed history in elementary school – and is always well worth pointing out. Don’t always take facts that you’re given at face value. The manga itself is another example, as it takes place seemingly in a world where the classic story of Faust is well known. But into this story comes our heroine, Johanna Faust, who most certainly is not the antihero we expected. And as we get further into the story, we find that a lot of other Faustian bargains may also be more than they seem.

The narrative of this story is not unfamiliar to manga readers, or indeed any reader of classic stories. Frau Faust comes to a small town on a mission, and happens to run into a boy, Marion, who’s being chased for stealing a book. After helping him escape, he explains that it was in fact his family’s book – their stuff was sold off, and he was trying to get it back. Needing a pasty – sorry, partner in order to achieve what she wants, she decides to become his tutor for a few days, and quickly blows his mind with both what she can teach and the way that she teaches it. Of course, she does have an ulterior motive in mind – she needs a pure-hearted boy like him to invite her into the local church, there to meet the demon Mephistopheles. Or at least a part of him. And their relationship seems to be somewhat more complicated than you’d expect.

As mentioned on the front cover, this is by the author of The Ancient Magus’ Bride, another series I greatly enjoy. This is a bit less introspective, but just as concerned with the nitty gritty of magic and the supernatural. And as you would expect with this author, the artwork is evocative and attractive, giving Faust and her co-stars excellent expressions. As for Faust herself, I was sort of expecting her to be a sly woman who turned out to be a big softie at heart, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen quite so fast, and the second and third chapters had moments of real sweetness in them. Be warned, like a lot of first volumes of shoujo and josei series (this is the latter – Itan is a supernatural/fantasy-oriented josei magazine), there is an unrelated short story at the end. But it’s good, dealing with a young girl whose family has divorced, whose mother drinks a lot, and who isn’t quite as mature as she wants to be, and her encounter with a museum of oddities. The mood fits well with the rest of Frau Faust.

I’ve been looking forward to this series since the moment I heard it was licensed, and it did not disappoint. Definitely any fans of fantasy should pick it up, but even if that’s not your thing give it a try. This makes you want to read the next volume right away.

The Irregular at Magic High School: Summer Vacation Arc +1

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By Tsutomu Sato and Kana Ishida. Released in Japan as “Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

Yes, just like Maou-sama and DanMachi in April, it’s now Mahouka’s time to have a short story collection. As such, the stories in this volume are highly variable. That said, there are two that manage to be relevant to the ongoing story, so I’ll deal with them separately. As for the rest, we get a story with the grumpy guy who hates Tatsuya, Morisaki, who rescues a young woman from being abducted and then has to be her bodyguard; Eimi, who we met in the Competition stories, having a nasty amusement park encounter with thugs trying to steal her family spells; Ichijou and Kichijouji trying to recover after their loss last time, and making annoying lolicon jokes simply as Ichijou’s younger sister likes George; and a jaw-droppingly syrupy date between Tatsuya and Miyuki that seems to do nothing but take the incestuous subtext this series is filled with and rub it in your face. These stories are all readable but not great.

The first story in the collection, which is a beach episode, also starts off pretty fanservicey and pointless, and seems to be about Honoka trying to attract Tatsuya’s attention by almost drowning herself, which backfires in a typical anime “you saw my swimsuit fall off” way. The surprise, and actual plot relevance, comes towards the end. First of all, Shizuku, who’s mostly been in Miyuki’s corner, decides to ask Miyuki the rude question: does she like her brother in a romantic way? The answer is not really satisfying to me, but very much in character for Miyuki, so that’s acceptable. Better is Honoka actually working up her courage and confessing, and Tatsuya’s honest answer: he’s incapable of emotions like that. Of course, this is not stopping her from carrying on liking him till she finds someone better, as Tatsuya says he’d feel the same way about anyone else. I honestly wasn’t expecting one of the main pairings of this series to be shot down this fast, and it’s somewhat refreshing.

The longest story here is the last one, which deals with the fact that Mayumi is retiring, and would like to pass on the Student Council President position to someone she trusts. Hattori is the first that comes to mind, but he doesn’t want to do it. This leaves Azusa, but she’s simply too terrified to do it, having always been the meek one in the group. This is eventually resolved by one of the most blatant yet hilarious scenes in the book, which I will try not to spoil. More importantly, the successor is also carrying on Mayumi’s will by seeking to eliminate the prejudice against Course 2 students by allowing them to hold Student Council Positions. It’s a good reminder of the prejudice that still exists in many ways, which we haven’t really focused on since the first book. It also shows us that Miyuki’s immaturity is still hanging around, and that she can be TERRIFYING when lashing out – there’s a reason she wasn’t chosen to succeed as President. Yet.

The Irregular at Magic High School has likely locked in its audience already. If you enjoy the series, you’re going to pick up and enjoy this. If you’re one of those who despise Tatsuya, this is not going to change your mind (I didn’t even get into the politics occasionally on display here). Recommended to the former group – this isn’t an easy series to hate read, so the latter should move on.

Bookshelf Briefs 9/11/17

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Absolute Duo, Vol. 1 | By Shinichirou Nariie, Takumi Hiragiboshi, and You Asaba| Seven Seas – In general, fans tend to dislike a couple of things in the manga they read, especially Western fans. The first is the tsundere female lead, and the second is the super-powered male lead. Not sure yet whether we’ll get the second, but Absolute Duo seems to be free of the first. Unfortunately, that does sort of make it clear why manga and light novel authors enjoy writing tsundere female leads—the conflict here is rather mild and undramatic, with our hero fighting against a nice girl, and when she loses, she just… says bye and leaves. As for the actual heroine, she’s nice and shy and sort of self-sacrificing. Absolute Duo is decent, and I like everyone, but if you didn’t see another volume you’d barely care. – Sean Gaffney

A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Vol. 6 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Arata Yamachi| Seven Seas – I said last time we were down to the final fight, and we’re still on it by the end of this volume. Index is filled with long, drawn-out battles, but in Railgun and the main series they tend to be separated by more mundane matters. Accelerator, true to its antihero, never really lets us relax, and humorous escapades are at a minimum. It also makes it rather difficult to review. I mean… the fights were cool? I actually understood the action, which is not always the case with heavy action manga. The villain is bad and you want to see them go down? And I’m pretty sure one of our team of heroes is going to die, though I’m also pretty sure it’s the girl who’s already dead. A good spinoff that’s not as good as Railgun at its best. – Sean Gaffney

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 2 | By Ryoko Kui| Yen Press – I’m enjoying this second volume more than I did the first, I think. We get a bit more backstory on the characters which makes them a bit more likeable, and Marcille is no longer whining at absolutely everything. On the opposite tact, Laios gets to do some truly ridiculous things showing that he’s a lot more impulsive than we expected (and we get flashbacks showing that his sister really was a major part of their party—I wonder if she’s actually died by now?). And Senshi, while he’s still the wise sage of the group, is also shown to sometimes be wrong. But of course the main draw here is the ridiculous food, detailed in loving “this is actually a cooking manga” detail. A lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Girls’ Last Tour, Vol. 2 | By Tsukumizu| Ywn Press – This volume sets itself up much like the last one did, with about 2/3 devoted to Chito and Yuuri’s slice-of-life adventures among the ruins of the world, and the last third has them meeting with another living person and helping them try to achieve a dream. Both times they do this the dreamer fails, though it’s not really the girls’ fault. It does make me wonder what sort of mood the author wants to convey here. There are occasional scenes of Yuuri being an airhead or Chito a grump in that Chika and Miu sort of way, but the air of melancholy you’s expect to hover over this world is more prevalent here. Is there an endpoint the author wants to get to, or when they run out of cute situations will we just have the girls quietly die? Good but odd. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 15 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – Karasuno has advanced to the semifinals of the Miyagi Prefecture qualifier tournament. Will their next opponent be Aoba Johsai or Date Tech? Readers are treated to some of that match-up before Aoba Johsai emerges victorious. There are some nice moments here, particularly one in which Kageyama actually admits to Hinata that he’s scared to face Oikawa again and a brief interlude where Sugawara is brought in to shut down a high-scoring newcomer, but not quite as many as in the last volume, which fleshed out background team member Ennoshita. There’s no such thing as a bad volume of Haikyu!!, and this has plenty of excitement and a cliffhanger ending, but the final page suggests I will like next volume’s payoff even more than this volume’s setup. Looking forward to it, as ever! – Michelle Smith

Kase-san and Shortcake | By Hiromi Takashima | Seven Seas – Well, the girls have gotten together in book one, and gotten to know each other more closely in book two. Book three has a double shot of plot, with Yamada realizing that Kase-san is going to a Tokyo university on a sports sholarship, while she’s going to a local college. This… really doesn’t sit well with her, and she frets about it as best you can do when your manga is meant to be cute and fluffy. We also deal with Kase-san wanting to take things further physically, but not wanting to pressure Yamada, and being somewhat stymied by Yamada’s complete ignorance of what to actually do—at one point, she even googles how to have sex with a girl, with hilarious results. Still adorable and fluffy even when everyone is crying. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 3 | By Canno | Yen Press – We’re back to the first volume’s couple at the start of this new book, and it’s become pretty clear that their story will tie into all the others we see in this series, which is also why it’s not official as such. Ayake is still overdramatic and difficult to like, though you sympathize with her having to deal with the blase Yurine. As for Yurine, she’s dragooned into the gardening club, which is short on members and about to lose its garden to the sports clubs. And, as it turns out, is also being sabotaged. Luckily, Yukina is the utterly straightforward sort of ojou-sama type, and so it doesn’t end quite as badly as it possibly should. The series continues to detail how absolutely EVERY girl at school is falling for another girl, but that’s not uncommon in this genre. – Sean Gaffney

Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade, Vol. 6 | By Koyuki and Mamare Touno | Yen Press – It is not a good sign when the best, most interesting part of the spinoff is the one that’s basically telling the events of the main series. I have no doubt that we see Raynesia because she’ll be interacting with our heroes in future volumes, but seeing her and Krusty here made me wish that we had a side series focusing on them instead. Instead, we get a predatory lesbian who seems to be in the West Wind Brigade for only that reason, though Soujiro can still calm her down. The other minor plot is the newbies training at the beach, and how Kawara may not be a dependable sempai but that her type of personality is probably just as good in the long run. I wish this was more consistent. – Sean Gaffney

Murcielago, Vol. 3 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – This series continues to be super violent and super uncaring about the status of its victims—TWO loving fathers are graphically butchered, one right next to his daughter, and we don’t even stay behind to see the horror and grief. It’s all about the killing and the killers. Now, that does not mean that we can’t have fun—seeing Kuroko go to town is the purpose of this series, and it’s nice to watch her be cool and take down actual monsters. And you get the feeling that the next volume, involving Kuroko infiltrating a girls’ academy, will be funnier. But you really need to not really care what happens to anyone at all in order to get into Murcielago. It’s pure rush, but the rush is filled with sociopaths. – Sean Gaffney

One-Punch Man, Vol. 12 | By ONE and Yusuke Murata | VIZ Media – Even though hero-hunting Garo is on the cover, he barely appears. Instead, this volume mostly consists of glimpses of Saitama’s progress through the martial arts tournament intercut with various heroes fighting against a slew of monsters. Genos handles quite a few himself, including a skittering bad guy called Roach Awakening who is wonderfully icky, and it’s also fun to see a few other Class-S heroes in action, especially Watchdog Man, who I bet would get along well with Saitama when and if they actually meet. The tournament stuff is okay, and the action scenes are great, but it all seemed to zoom by so quickly without leaving much of an impact. I’m not sure what exactly I’d change about it, though. Could the answer be as simple as Saitama doing more punching? Maybe so… – Michelle Smith

Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Vol. 6 | By Akiko Higashimura | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – The last time I reviewed Tokyo Tarareba Girls, I found it to be majorly depressing. As a result, I let a few volumes accumulate and, honestly, kind of dreaded reading them. To my surprise, I didn’t find them depressing at all, despite Rinko and friends still being in the same awful relationships as before. I think the difference is that they’re beginning to see the truth, and there’s a strong suggestion that they’re going to do something about it. In this volume, for example, it’s Key to the rescue again as he helps Kaori finally (hopefully) break free of Ryo. Interestingly, though, when Rinko seems about to reunite with Mr. Hayasaka—and they’re genuinely cute together—and Key is poised to intervene again, I suddenly found his interference very unwelcome. Very eager for volume seven! – Michelle Smith

Yowamushi Pedal, Vol. 6 | By Wataru Watanabe | Yen Press – As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of those sports series that runs in a shonen magazine whose Western audience is predominately female, and the BL fandom is huge. (Pity poor Kanzaki…) I was not really expecting to see quite as much of why the BL fandom was huge till I got to this volume, the last half of which is Makishima and Toudou’s race, which may in fact be the gayest thing I’ve ever seen in a non-explicit manga. It’s incredible. The first half is also very good, involving Onoda getting into a crash which leaves him in last place, and having to pass 100 bikes in order to catch up. Which he does, because of course he does. The series is a pure exhilarating thrill ride, and I desperately want to read more. – Sean Gaffney

My Week in Manga: September 4-September 10, 2017

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My News and Reviews

Last week I took a short family vacation so I wasn’t really online much, but I did announce the winner of the Vertical Comics giveaway before disappearing to the land of limited Internet. The post also includes a list of the manga that have been released (or will soon be released) by Vertical’s manga- and anime-related imprint, Vertical Comics. I’ve been pretty busy over the last few weeks, so I’m sure that I’ve missed out on plenty of news and announcements. Do let me know if there’s something that I should really be paying attention to or need to catch up on!

Quick Takes

Kigurumi Guardians, Volume 1Kigurumi Guardians, Volume 1 by Lily Hoshino. I actually haven’t read very many of Hoshino’s manga despite a fair number of them having been translated into English. Hoshino is probably best known as a creator of boys’ love manga, although she was also notably the character designer for Manwaru Penguindrum and her seinen series Otome Yokai Zakuro received and anime adaptation in 2010. Kigurumi Guardians is Hoshino’s most recent series, a prettily drawn but rather strange shoujo manga when it comes down to its story. Hakka Sasakura is a pure-hearted middle school student who, along with two of her schoolmates, has been paired off with a living, breathing, giant stuffed animal which transforms into a beautifully handsome man and back when kissed. This, of course, is all in order to save, or at least protect, the world from creatures from another dimension which steal the hearts of humans. The charm of Kigurumi Guardians is largely derived from the fact that the series’ doesn’t take itself or its weird humor very seriously at all. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to have much depth to it either. Or at least not yet. The ending scene of the first volume would seem to imply that there’s much more going on than might be initially assumed from the series’ inherent and deliberate goofiness.

Oresama Teacher, Volume 1Oresama Teacher, Volumes 1-6 by Izumi Tsubaki. I absolutely adore Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, so while waiting for new volumes in that series to be released I figured it was about time that I finally gave another of Tsubaki’s manga a try. And because as far as I know Tsubaki only has three series (all of which are available in translation), my choices came down to The Magic Touch and Oresama Teacher. Although I’ll probably still read The Magic Touch at some point, ultimately I decided to pursue Oresama Teacher first, mostly because I have a huge soft spot for delinquents in Japanese popular culture. I really should have picked up the series much sooner; I’m loving the manga and its tremendous heart. I find Tsubaki’s sense of humor in Oresama Teacher to be similar to that in Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun–played fairly straight while still being completely ridiculous with a cast filled with incredibly endearing characters. Granted, some of them can be pretty asshole-ish at times, too. The plot wanders around a fair bit, mostly for comedy’s sake, but the series generally follows Mafuyu Kurosaki, an ex-gang leader who is attempting to clean up her act by transferring schools and trying to become a “normal” high school girl. This proves to be rather difficult when her homeroom teacher and newfound friends all have pasts as troublemakers, too.

Manga in AmericaManga in America: Transnational Book Publishing and the Domestication of Japanese Comics by Casey Brienza. Relatively few academic writings have been specifically devoted to the North American manga industry; so far, Manga in America is both the first and only book-length work to tackle the subject. Although it was published in 2016, Manga in America was originally written in 2012. There have been some significant changes and developments in the United States manga industry since then, but the book is still an informative and valuable ethnographic study. A significant portion of the volume and Brienza’s research was informed by a series of confidential, in-depth interviews that were conducted with seventy people who had experience working within the industry. Manga in America is undoubtedly the most comprehensive look at the North American manga industry that I’ve seen in a single volume, providing insight into all aspects of what Brienza terms the “domestication” of manga. Licensing, translation, editing, sales, design, and more are all addressed as is the historical context of the industry and possible future developments. Overall, Manga in America is accessible to a general audience although some sections will likely be more interesting or meaningful to readers with some familiarity with sociology.

Pick of the Week: Butlers, Cosplayers, and Sunspots

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SEAN: It’s a light week with no first volumes. A few books I’m looking forward to, but I’ll be Don Quixote again and give my pick to Hayate the Combat Butler. All my other lost causes have either ended or been dropped, but Hayate is still there, trickling out.

KATE: Whoa… I reviewed the first volume of Hayate back in 2006, when I was writing for PopCultureShock. I remember enjoying it, reading a few more volumes, and then… well, I think I lost track of it. Sean’s comments, however, reminded me that VIZ has been good about continuing series that never quite found the audience they deserved. (See Kaze Hikaru.) So my vote goes to Hayate the Combat Butler as well.

MICHELLE: My pick this week goes to the final volume of Complex Age. It’s been riveting and it’s been truly upsetting, but my hope is that it’ll end on an empowering note, too. I’m looking forward to it!

ASH: I’ve never actually read any of Hayate the Combat Butler (although perhaps I should). However, I have read the first part of Complex Age and found it to be surprisingly relatable and personally meaningful. I’m a few volumes behind in reading the series, but I join Michelle in choosing the final installment as my pick this week. I’m very glad that Kodansha Comics brought the series to my attention.

ANNA: It is such a light week! Of the titles that are coming out, Complex Age is the series that I’m most likely to finish, although like Ash I need to catch up. That’s my pick as well.

MJ: I’m still in catch-up mode from the summer when I was directing an opera, and since there’s nothing on this week’s pack that really grabs me, I’m going to dig back into the stuff I missed and finally take a look at One Peace Books’ I Hear the Sunspot. It sounds like exactly my kind of BL (if it is, in fact, BL). So let the catching up begin!

Art of Pokemon Adventures

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The Art of Pokemon Adventures by Satoshi Yamato

The young children in my house have firmly moved on to Yu-Gi-Oh from Pokemon, so this book did not immediately get stolen which is sometimes what happens with the manga that arrives in my house like Haikyu! or Kuroko’s Basketball.

However, as an art book I do think this would appeal to Pokemon Adventure fans. It is a solid book with full-color illustrations printed on glossy paper, with plenty of fold-out posters. Along with the finished art, plenty of sketches are included so the reader can get a sense of how the drawings evolved from idea to finished illustration. Line art is also included, as well as a couple sample panel layouts and some color guides for the characters. The librarian in me appreciated that an index was included in the back of the book, so all the illustrations can be matched up with the manga that they originally appeared in. A bonus short manga chapter concludes the volume. I thought the production quality of this volume was solid, it made me think I should check out other Viz art books.

Queen’s Quality, Vol. 1

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Queen’s Quality Volume 1 by Kyousuke Motomi

I was very happy when I saw that Queen’s Quality was licensed shortly after the earlier series QQ Sweeper. Motomi has a quirky and slightly warped sense of humor that makes her shoujo series stand out. Queen’s Quality starts out at what felt like a faster pace than QQ Sweeper, as many of the plot points that were only dangling or hinted at in the earlier series get pushed forward dramatically in the first few chapters of this volume.

Fumi continues her life as an apprentice sweeper, learning the tricks of the paranormal trade from her friend Kyutaro and his family. While they practice cleaning everyday rooms and objects, they are also training for dealing with exorcising the demons that can get inside human hosts, causing them to act cruel. There’s a focus on personality and inner character in this series, as people who might be mentally weak or who have a tendency to be cruel end up leaving a door open for evil to get in, and their worst personality traits are magnified.

Another sweeper named Takaya Kitahara shows up to visit the Horikita family, and he provokes Fumi’s hidden Queen power as part of a test. Kyutaro is able to bring her back to herself, but seeing her power manifest is frightening. Kyutaro resolves to stay by Fumi to support her, but he’s told that he can’t ever remind her of the past that she’s forgotten, when they used to be childhood friends. Kyutaro’s response to this is to emotionally withdraw even more than usual, causing Fumi a great deal of distress as she doesn’t understand why he’s acting deliberately cold towards her. Fortunately his family has their best interests at heart, and they send the young couple on a mandatory and hilariously awkward shopping trip/date as an assignment, and their friendship is salvaged.

One thing I like about Motomi’s series is that there’s always a psychological element to be found in the stories, and they don’t rely quite as much on external situations or antagonists. While there are certainly forces at work trying to turn Fumi into an evil queen, the bad guys aren’t really as interesting as the fact that Fumi is going to have to draw on her emotional reserves and face the darkness that’s inside her, the same as any human. Fumi and Kyutaro talk at the end of the volume, and she asks if he’s afraid of her. He replies “Everyone has dark thoughts…or parts of themselves that they can’t control.” He vows that if she has to head into the darkness, he’s going too. This relationship dynamic is so interesting to see in a shoujo series, and it is why I’m so impressed with Queen’s Quality.

Nisemonogatari: Fake Tale, Vol. 2

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By NISIOISIN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by James Balzer.

Despite being almost as long as the first in this series, Karen Bee, the second Nisemonogatari book, Tsukihi Phoenix, only got adapted into four episodes for the anime. As you can imagine, therefore, there’s a lot of content that got omitted or severely cut in order to fit it into the timeframe, particularly in the first half of the volume. As such, anime fans will find much to enjoy here. In particular, I think they’ll be amused at Araragi’s description of Senjogahara post-Karen Bee, who he describes as no longer caustic and sharp-tongued at all but now sweet and devoted, and how all of her formerly cruel and spiteful actions (which, let’s face it, the reader is aware were broken attempts at flirting) are replaced with normal girlfriend responses. Anime fans may be wondering what the heck happened, since the next time we meet Senjogahara in the series she’s still much the same.

In fact, Nisioisin seems a bit conflicted about the series getting turned into an anime – there’s a sense he tries to take things too far here in order to avoid having the anime continue, though obviously that didn’t work. Nisemonogatari has a reputation for being the sleaziest of the series, though, and it’s not inaccurate. Most of that reputation comes from this volume, which features the now infamous “toothbrush scene”, where Araragi and his sister Karen have a bet that he can’t brush her teeth for five minutes without her crying out. It’s obviously meant to suggest sex, and in particular incest, which earlier in the book Araragi had been mocking himself. Several times in the book he says that he feels no sexual desire towards his sisters before doing something sexual to them (he later steals Tsukihi’s first kiss, which horrifies her). Araragi is becoming a somewhat unreliable narrator, to be honest, though we won’t really see how much till later books in the series with other character’s narration.

This volume features his “younger younger sister” Tsukihi, who so far has been defined mostly by her temper and her mood swings, which we certainly get plenty of here. It’s also a good introduction to her personality in another sense – Araragi notes that Karen is the one with the actual sense of justice, while Tsukihi “just likes to run wild”, and it’s true – she tends to go along with what others do rather than making her own firm choices. The reader may wonder how much this ties in with the main plot, which suggests that – surprise, surprise – Tsuhiki is not who she seems. In the end, though, this book is about family in the good ways as well, which means that it’s not just about suggestive incest but also about loving your family even if they’re not what you thought they were – and Araragi, as a human who still retains vampiric powers, should know about that. Here he goes up against Kagenui, a “specialist” like Meme Oshino who specializes in eradication, and Yotsugi, a deadpan reanimated corpse who is her assistant. We’ll see a lot more of Yotsugi, not so much of Kagenui.

Speaking of Yotsugi, we can briefly talk translation. The issues are much the same as Karen Bee – dagnabbit mad is still there, and it’s still really annoying, but it didn’t appear as much as I feared. Tsuhiki also sounds like Yosemite Sam when she catches Araragi and Karen brushing teeth, but that’s more clearly deliberate comedy, and the anime watcher likely heard the heavy ‘fake accent’ she was using then, so it makes more sense. As for Kagenui, she too uses a fake, overdone accent, but it’s subtler, and the translator seems to go with “old-time Northern England”. It doesn’t jar much at all, and reminds me how much anime subtitles tend to gloss over accents. Speaking of which, Shinobu still sounds old-timey, as she always does, whether she’s Kiss-Shot or no.

Overall, I was quite pleased with this volume, a few issues aside. It also does sort of feel like he was trying to wrap up the series once more, but he failed again, and now tells us he has two more stories after this to write, about Hanekawa and Hachikuji. In fact, the Hanekawa story grew so large it got split into its own two-part book. Stay tuned for Nekomonogatari Black in November, when we FINALLY see what happened Golden Week.

Captain Harlock, Space Pirate: Dimensional Voyage, Vol. 1

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By Leiji Matsumoto and Kouiti Shimaboshi. Released in Japan as “Captain Harlock – Jigen Koukai” by Akita Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Champion Red. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Zack Davisson.

When I’d heard that Seven Seas had licensed this 21st century Harlock reboot, I said that if they really wanted to impress folks they would go get the original manga from the 70s – which they proceeded to do, and that should be out in 2018 or so. That said, that doesn’t make this any less interesting. I’m not sure how much input Matsumoto actually had on the finished project, but it certainly feels just like it should. It’s a retelling of the original series, featuring Harlock’s fight to protect what he values most, as well as picking up a new crewmember whose father was killed. We see an Earth that has fallen, if not into ruin, then at least into disrepair, as the only people who gave a damn have long since left for space, leaving behind the corrupt and uncaring, mostly. And, of course, we have the florid dialogue, which may be the chief highlight.

I haven’t yet read the original, so I’m not sure how much of this is just a straight up remake of the original and how much is updated content. I did like the beginning of the story, which seems to be framed by a sympathetic reporter as she interviews people about what they think of Harlock. This not only shows off the varied and different opinions that they have, and introduces a large majority of the cast, but it also lulls us into thinking that she may be the viewpoint character – nope, it’s a fakeout. But quite well done, and reminds us that the enemies we’re facing here are the Mazon, a race of female humanoids who seek to destroy Harlock. They’re not getting very far in that regard. After this we meet the actual viewpoint character, Tadashi Daiba, who may look familiar to anyone who’s seen a Matsumoto manga – diverse character types is not his specialty, thought Tadashi does at least manage to be taller than some of the others we’ve seen.

I’d previously reviewed the two volumes of Queen Emeraldas, and noted that it felt like reading a manga adaptation of a Wagner opera. There’s some similarity here, but it also definitely has the feeling of a 21st century work, rather than something from two generations ago. I’d say this is more of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, with big gestures and dramatic confrontations galore. Every like is declaimed rather than spoken, as if each of the characters knows that they are part of an ongoing lyrical poem that will only end in destruction. This is not to say that this is 100% depressing – Harlock’s crew are a bunch of goofballs, with the exception of the stoic second mate, and Harlock explains to Tadashi why they’re goofballs much of the time in a very good scene.

The art looks fine – I imagine Matsumoto tests out potential artists to see how well they draw his “ugly” characters, though the odd bone structure of some of Harlock’s crew gave me pause. If you’re a Matsumoto fan, this should make you pretty happy. And if you want to find out what the fuss is about Harlock, this is a good start.

The Asterisk War: Quest for Days Lost

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Melissa Tanaka.

Another volume of Asterisk War brings along with it more of the same, and honestly these books are so short I frequently wish that Yen had decided to omnibus them, especially since the plot to this volume is essentially “more tournament arc”. Nothing particularly surprising happens – even the cliffhanger ending is signposted from the moment we meet the sweet innocent girl who’s the victim of it. There is cool fighting by tactics. There is cool fighting by unlocking the next level of abilities. There are also Saya and Kirin, whose fights we don’t see until the final chapter. I have a sneaking suspicion how that will turn out, but it’s also part of the cliffhanger ending. So yes, nothing whatsoever new here, but as always the prose is readable, it’s not too offensive (though there are a few stereotypes), and fans of this sort of thing will eat it up like candy and then move on.

One thing I did like is Julis (who is reminding me more of Rin Tohsaka every volume) managing to get Ayato to have a reason to fight and win that isn’t just “well, I guess I’ll help her achieve her goal”. The drive to succeed, to surpass, to go beyond your limits requires something to strive for in these sorts of stories, and given that Ayato is, if I’m being nice, sot of bland it’s especially important for him to have this. He’s on a quest to find his sister, but there’s always been an undercurrent of “she must have had a good reason” that’s stopped him from really investigating. If the tournament ends next volume (which it looks like ti’s shaping up to do), I expect we’ll get more answers, though whether we get his sister is another matter.

Both major battles in this book are against students from Chinese Stereotype Academy, aka Jie Long Seventh Institute. We get both a noble fighting pair who are simply very good at what they do, and a team of twins who are very good at what they do but are also jerks. They don’t cheat per se, but they hammer on weaknesses and love to break their opponent. Dishonorable is a good word for them. Needless to say, Ayato and Julis fight against them near the end of the book, and the fight is probably the best part of the novel, even if, once again, the lack of surprising things happening is clear. If I were to tell you that the twins have a reaction that’s basically “This… this CANNOT BEEEEEE!” towards the end of the fight, I’m sure you would just sigh and nod.

Kirin and Saya are here as well, and Saya gets a flashback that shows off her childhood with Ayato, but honestly it’s harder to develop these two as their personalities are naturally passive – likely that’s why we didn’t see their fights till the very end. In any case, this volume of Asterisk War may not convince uncertain readers to keep going, but it also won’t make them decide to drop it once and for all. It’s still the equivalent of having a Peppermint Patty for dinner. Tasty, but you really want a lot more.