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By Tomo Takeuchi | Published by Kodansha Comics

In the immortal words of Sir Paul McCartney:

Ballroom dancing made a man of me
One, two, three, four
I just plain adore your
Ballroom dancing, seen it on TV
I got what I got from ballroom dancing
Big B.D.

Feckless Tatara Fujita isn’t especially good at anything, and doesn’t know what he wants to do after middle school. One day, as bullies are hitting him up for cash, he is saved by Kaname Sengoku, who mistakes Fujita’s perusal of a poster advertising a part-time job for interest in an adjacent dance studio ad. Fujita is summarily whisked away to the studio, where he learns that one of his classmates, seemingly studious Shizuku Hanaoka, is not only a student there but one of the top amateurs in the sport.

For, indeed, this is a sports manga. Once Fujita sees a recording of Sengoku in action, he vows to change. To him, dancing is (not yet anyway) about personal expression but about self-improvement. He wants to gain poise and self-confidence, and once he decides that’s what he’s going to do, he works very hard. This isn’t one of those manga where the protagonist has some great talent, for even after weeks of lessons, he’s still not great, but there’s a glimmer of something about him that intrigues Sengoku. When he and Fujita later attent a tournament that Hanaoka is competing in, Sengoku taps Fujita to fill in when her long-time partner mysteriously disappears.

Although I don’t often comment on the art in manga, I found Welcome to the Ballroom to be quite interesting in that department. It almost seems a bit shoujo at times, with the lovely way the dancing is depicted, but then it must remind you that it’s shounen by throwing in a panty shot. I also found it refreshing that the cute love interest doesn’t stay on the sidelines or manage the team—she’s very talented and focused, with dreams of her own. (Lamentably, her ambitious plans to study abroad are later revealed to be for the benefit of her partner.)

I’m excited by the prospect of the world championship qualifying tournament that’s coming soon, though I hope we see it in more detail than the introductory glimpses we’ve had thus far. Alas, there are not thirty-plus volumes of this to look forward to either, since the series is on hiatus after eight volumes in Japan. Nevertheless, I do recommend it and look forward to more!

Welcome to the Ballroom is up to eight volumes in Japan, where it is presently on hiatus. Kodansha will release the second volume later this month.

By Fujino Omori and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Gaiden – Sword Oratoria” by Softbank Creative. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Gaippe.

First of all, boy is that title unwieldy. It’s certainly an accurate translation of the Japanese, though ‘Side Story’ might be more accurate. It’s a way to let the reader know this is not part of the main series dealing with adventurer Bell Cranel and his goddess Hestia. Instead, this series will focus on Bell’s idol and inspiration, Aiz Wallenstein, and the adventures of her Familia under Loki. Aiz has been something of a cipher throughout the series, so it’s great to see her get more focus, even if she gets a bit less development than I expected.

Most of that is simply due to the function of her personality – Aiz is not stoic, as she’s seemed in some of the main series novels, but she is very emotionally repressed. We get a bit of her backstory here, though it’s seen in a dream, so is very vague, and she admits to herself that one reason she takes such an interest in Bell (this novel takes place at the same time as the events in Book 1 of the main series) is that he reminds her of the way she was as a little girl. We also get some good examples of how she fights alongside her team in a much lower level than Bell has ever been to, and to no one’s surprise, she is miles above everyone else – even her own badass partners.

The other girl on the cover is Lefiya, a Level 3 elf who fills the role of the newbie in this book. Admittedly, being Level 3, she’s miles above where Bell and his companions are in the main series. However, when you’re a Level 3 surrounded by Level 5s, you tend to feel useless, especially when you only do magic and are easily distracted. As you’d expect, she gets a few failures at the start of the book, and a big success right at the end – she has a bit of a rulebreaking power, and isn’t afraid to use it to save her friends. She’s also possibly gay, though as ever in Japanese media, the line between lesbian and just akogare is deliberately obfuscated – honestly, I suspect it’s the latter.

As I noted earlier, the book takes place at the same time as the first in the main series, and gives us some extra insights – Bete, the drunken lout who insulted Bell in the first volume, showed that he was VERY drunk when he did this, and feels horrible about it. He is a jerk, but not THAT much of a jerk. And Loki and Freya have some very interesting conversations which read better now that we’ve seen future volumes, and show off just how capricious these gods are. And just as Freya is sort of kind of the main antagonist in the series to date, the side story gets Dionysus, who I’m pretty sure we’ll be seeing more machinations from in the future, as he sets a dangerous monster on the Loki team and almost kills everyone there.

This is not quite as good as the main series, as you can sort of hear the author working a bit too hard to connect the dots to fit this book in seamlessly with the main series. But it’s still a lot of fun, and Danmachi fans will absolutely enjoy it. I’m hoping we continue to learn more about Aiz and Loki Familia as we go along.

By Kazuhiro Fujita. Released in Japan as “Kuro Hakubutsukan” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Morning. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Zack Davisson.

Kazuhiro Fujita is one of the more famous Japanese manga artists that have never been published in North America till now. Part of the reason is that his two main series, Ushio and Tora and Karukiri Circus, both suffer from being over 30 volumes long and, even worse, being a Shonen Sunday series, a notoriously difficult sell over here for anyone not named Rumiko Takahashi. Fujita’s titles tend to have a supernatural bent, and this one is no different, an anthology series he wrote for the seinen magazine Morning about a museum of oddities and its beautiful but very eccentric curator. One night a ghost arrives to tell his story, which involves a young woman named Florence Nightingale who can see spirits, and is begging for death…

While there are a few creepy moments, at heart this is not really a horror series. This is about a young woman who is tormented by the strictures of society who is able to move past it and find new determination with the help of her new bodyguard, who just happens to be a ghost. the ghost, The Man in Grey (referred to as ‘Grey” by Florence), is a former duellist with a love of the theatre. Florence comes to him because she can see Eilodons, invisible creatures that lurk over everyone and seem to take in all their anger, hatred, fear, etc. Florence not only sees them but knows she has one of her own, which is tormenting her. She makes a deal with Grey to kill her – but he doesn’t want to do it yet, preferring to wait till she’s at her deepest moment of despair. Which will surely come along. Really soon. Any day now.

Those familiar with the story of Florence Nightingale may be laughing up their sleeve a bit by now, and indeed most of the humor in this series involves the ghost getting increasingly frustrated at Florence’s sheer spunk and determination – there are several moments when he could easily kill her, but she’d just die happily and at peace, and what’s the point of that? So instead he assists her to occasionally attack other eilodons that are in opposition to her (her parents, etc.), but mostly to act as a sounding board and snarky narrator of asides. Meanwhile, Florence manages to succeed at her true calling, nursing, and ends up in the middle of the Crimean War… where she runs into Le Chevalier D’Eon, who is not only also a ghost, but is surely delighted to be featuring in yet another Kodansha series released in North America. (No, it’s not a crossover, D’Eon is a real historical figure.)

I don’t have much to analyze here except that this is a solid, well-written book that had me turning the pages rapidly. The art is at its best with the expressions, be they Grey’s increasing frustration, Florence’s shift from hollow-eyed and suicidal to determined and powerful, or even the increasingly loopy and amusing reactions of the curator of the Black Museum, who I hope we see more of. (There is also a fair bit of nudity, be warned – it is a seinen series.) It’s also a handsome hardcover of about 300 pages long, and the translation is of course excellent. It’s just a great example of why this artist is so popular in Japan, and I am greatly looking forward to the second (and final?) volume.

By Natsuki Takaya. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

The end of this omnibus is the halfway point in the Fruits Basket re-release, and you definitely get the sense that we have turned a corner. While I’m not sure that Takaya-san had worked out exactly how long she was going to make the series, I think here is where the ending she wanted firmed up in her mind and she began to take steps towards achieving it. And that means that Tohru, who had been suffering a bit from drifting through life after the death of her mother, acquires a new purpose, and becomes surprisingly driven to achieve it. Or perhaps it’s not so surprising, given that Akito is the one who sets her in motion with a violent rejection of her very self.

The first half of the book is still set in the summer vacation beachhouse, as Akito works hard to ruin everyone’s vacation. But we find that success is not as easy as it once was. Kazuma explains to Tohru later on that Akito has an effect on the other zodiac, that words that could be brushed off if someone else said them affect them to their very core. But we actually begin to see a bit of that unraveling here. Haru seems to be so worried about Rin that he doesn’t react as much to Akito’s jibes about being stupid. Momiji is willing to defy Akito to avoid getting Tohru hurt. Even Kyo, whose self-loathing reaches another peak here, finds that a rare meeting with Akito doesn’t have the pull that it once did. The curse is explained in mroe detail than it’s ever been here, but we’re starting to see the start of it breaking.

And Tohru wants to be the one to do it. Akito’s little speech, which is long and violent (her cheek is scratched hard enough to draw blood) basically amounts to “Fuck off”, actually does the opposite of what it intends – mostly because it reveals what Kyo’s eventual fate will be. The Furuba fandom had been somewhat equally divided between Tohru/Yuki and Tohru/Kyo, but I think this book is where people began to realize that the triangle was already being broken up. Partly due to Yuki continuing his own separate, non-Sohma subplot (which still hasn’t quite gotten off the ground, though we did meet the always wonderful Kimi, who I will be praising more as the serious goes on, because she’s hilarious), but also due to the fact that it’s clearly Kyo’s fate that makes Tohru want to push to find out about how to break the curse more than anything. Seeds are being sown.

Speaking of seeds, we also meet Rin here for the first time properly, though she’s still something of an enigma, and notably does not receive the same treatment as the other Sohmas to date – meet, reveal their emotional trauma, get bathed in Tohru’s healing waves. Rin is a massive ball of rage, and will not be the sort to simply wilt under Tohru’s good cheer. I suspect a collision in the next book, particularly as Rin has discovered what Tohru is looking for. And some seeds have ended up not flowering after all, as Kagura discovers when she admits to herself that Kyo is never going to accept her affection, and manages to pour her heart out to him in an actual, real date free from her usual over the top violence. Her broken confession that she felt better being around Kyo because of the cat’s scapegoat nature is heartwrenching, but Kyo’s sympathetic, lukewarm response may be even more so.

As always with an omnibus, I feel I’m leaving more out. I never did talk about the mysterious Ren, who is mentioned here and seems to be the one that finally sets Akito off to go attack Tohru. And then there’s the school counseling sessions, when the parents arrive to discuss their children’s futures. Tohru’s grandfather is laid up with a bad back, so Shigure goes in his place, which leads to as much hilarity as you’d expect when he clashes with Mayu. (Also note his fantastic expression when she tells him he’s not even nice to the people he loves.) But overall, an excellent omnibus, possibly the high point of the entire series, and certainly a sign that we are going to start tying up our loose ends soon, even if some of them are going to resist that for a long time to come.

Oh yes, Tohru and Uo’s faces when Hanajima mentions that Kazuma is hot. Those are also a big highlight. See? I can go on and on.