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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On.

I’ve talked before about the way that Japanese manga and light novel series have to be planned out from the start with multiple ways to end, depending on popularity. If the series bombs, there’s the fast “wrap it up in 1 volume” ending. If it plays out as a minor hit, you get a medium-sized ending which develops the plot and characters more. and if it’s a big, big hit – as Index was – then you get to start to take out all your chess pieces and shuffle them around the board, confident that you have the time and audience to stretch and let things simmer for a few volumes till you can fire off all your plot guns. With this volume of A Certain Magical Index, we see Kamachi hitting that point. There’s a whole lot here that is relevant to later volumes down the road.

Introduced in this volume: Hyouka Kazakiri, Aiho Yomikawa, Sherry Cromwell. This takes place literally one day after Book 5 (in fact, we see Touma returning to Academy City at the start of this book), so the timelines for the spinoffs are still the same as the previous book.

While I said that this volume has a lot of setup for future plots down the road, a casual reader wouldn’t necessarily know that, as this is Kamachi’s smoothest work to date, with a minimum of bolded words and encyclopedic dissertations on the nature of superpowers. That isn’t to say that they’re absent, of course, but they blend together better with the story proper, as Komoe lectures Touma on diffusion fields while also reminding him of what’s truly important – saving anyone that’s in front of him. (This also leads to the funniest moment in the book, where Mikoto and Index finally meet each other and realize that they’re both “I didn’t ask to be saved but he saved me anyway” girls in Touma’s nonharem.) The absence of Last Order and Misaka Imouto also means there are less weird speech quirks for the translator to deal with.

This is also, for once, an excellent volume for fans of Index herself. She’s used very well here, showing off her childish side but also demonstrating that childish does not mean stupid, as she manages to go head to head with a giant golem for several minutes. She’s also exactly the sort of all-loving friend that someone like Kazakiri needs. Kazakiri herself is an extremely clever idea, but she’s also a sweet kid, and you feel for her when her sense of self is blown out of the water by Sherry Cromwell and her desire to start a war. As for Sherry herself, it strikes me that this is the first Index villain whose main motivation has simply been revenge. It’s also a misplaced revenge – as Touma hints, Sherry really wants to be stopped, but has to let it be known just how insanely dangerous letting the Magic and Science sides intermingle is.

We also see Aleister Crowley again, and he gets to show off his “mwahaha, just as planned” side to a disbelieving Tsuchimikado. As the mastermind behind most of what has gone on in the past several volumes, he’s clearly the Science Side’s final boss. I wonder if he has an equivalent on the magic side? (Foreshadowing: your key to quality literature.) In the end, there’s simply lots for the Index fan to enjoy here. Good fights, Kuroko being cool briefly (and lecherous, but I’m putting off that rant for a bit), Touma managing to stay out of the hospital for once, and, in perhaps the best moment of the book, Touma, turning his catchphrase he uses against antagonists – “I’ll smash that illusion of yours!” – and motivating Kazakiri by showing her that her own illusion “isn’t something that can be broken so easily!”.

It also breaks the even-numbered curse at last. Definitely recommended for Index fans, and those who like superhero books with 87 million characters.

By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan as “Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Gangan Online. Released in North America by Yen Press.

There are certain benefits to doing a series that is entirely devoted to gags. The expectations that you have as an artist are significantly different from, say, a shoujo title like the one Nozaki himself draws. What’s most important is the punchline. As a result, though, you can be free to use other standard manga tropes without worrying too much about what the fan or editorial reaction will be. Thus Nozaki-kun has any number of ‘pairings’ within its pages, which are used and abused for gag purposes and don’t need pesky things like development or depth. That’s for fans to write in their fanworks (and believe me, they do.)

Sakura’s crush on Nozaki is an excellent example of this. Its intensity never wavers, but the focus on it can change. In the first chapter of the volume, when Nozaki takes her out to examine clothing he can work into his series, and asks her bluntly to wear a sailor uniform so he can see how it looks on her, you wonder what she sees in this somewhat dense lunk. But then we get scenes such as the art class, where all the girls draw Mikoshiba in ridiculous fantasy poses they want their boyfriend to be in but Sakura has him posing as Nozaki drawing. Or when Miyako draws Nozaki in a giant tanuki costume in a vain effort to stop her insane editor’s demands, and Sakura is entranced by it, that you realize that no, she is not the sensible one here either.

If there is a sensible one in this manga, it may just be Hori, who also gets a chapter devoted to his bizarre relationship with his drama underclassman Kashima. Even though Nozaki is not particularly keeping his manga a secret, it has become one for most of the characters working on it. As a result, when Kashima catches Hori walking around with Nozaki’s manga, she thinks it’s because he really likes shoujo manga. This, bizarrely, leads to several pages with Kashima as the tsukkomi – as I said before, any of the main characters can be the setup or punchline depending on the joke. There’s also slightly less violence here, as we focus instead on Kashima’s adoration or her sempai contrasted with Hori’s complete inability to deal with her ‘prince’ antics.

And then there’s Wakamatsu and Seo, as the last of our main cast is introduced in this volume. While I love all the main ‘ships’ in Nozaki-kun, I will admit this one is my particular favorite, and it also revolves around secrets. Wakamatsu is a first-year basketball player who gets abused on the court by Seo, still being brought in to show the teams what not to do. Off the court, he’s become entranced by the singing of the school “Lorelei”, which helps him when he has trouble sleeping. The gag is twofold; 1) he doesn’t realize that Seo *is* Lorelei, and 2) he has no idea how to communicate his frustration to her, so resorts – as Kashima does – to reading shoujo manga for advice, which results in the funniest scene of the entire book, his rooftop “confession”, complete with oven mitts.

So misunderstandings galore are the fuel for this comedy. Nozaki doesn’t know Sakura loves him, Wakamatsu doesn’t know that Seo is his rival AND crush, and Kashima and Hori simply have no idea how the other one thinks at all. It works well, and I continue to giggle aloud as I read the series. Always a treat.

Also, there are still tanukis.

QQ Sweeper Volume 2 by Kyousuke Motomi

This was easily one of my most anticipated second volumes, because Motomi’s Dengeki Daisy is an all time favorite manga of mine, and found the first volume of this series both delightful and intriguing. I was interested to see how the story would develop further, now that the premise had been set up in the first volume.

One of the things I enjoyed greatly about Dengeki Daisy was the theme of emotionally scarred people gathering together and healing each other, and I was happy to see that carried through to this series but executed with new characters and new situations. While there’s a bit of a monster of the week aspect to the plot as Fumi and Kyutaro join together to spiritually cleanse a student who has been stricken by bad feelings, the core of the manga focuses on the (not yet a) couple learning to trust each other. This volume delves a bit more into Kyutaro’s past and the brief respite he experienced during a stressful time by making a new friend who might have been Fumi, pre-amnesia. At the same time, Fumi’s memory loss and recent history with people she’s befriended turning on her and claiming that she’s cursed is making it difficult for her to settle in to her new role.

There are still mysteries to unravel for the young protagonists, and there’s a hint of a sinister paranormal plot against them that I’m sure will be explored more in future volumes. Motomi’s quirky touches like the revelation of the identity of Kyutaro’s guardian owl and the illustrations of young teens heading into high-stakes supernatural battles armed only with cleaning supplies make this series fun to read. I’m very glad that QQ Sweeper was picked up so soon after Dengeki Daisy ended, so I didn’t have to feel too deprived!

By Hirohiko Araki. Released in Japan as “Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz Media.

Because everything is so ridiculous all the time, it can sometimes be hard to remember how influential JoJo really was on the Weekly Shonen Jump era. Yes, JoJo has its predecessors as well – we’ve seen sink-or-swim training since the dawn of time – but most of the story and fight beats here are something you’d see in your average One Piece or Bleach. Indeed, I have to wonder if Aizen decided to carry out his evil plan after reading “It as me, Dio!” a few too many times. That said, One Piece and Bleach may go over the top a lot but they still can’t touch JoJo, where every single page is a dramatically shouted moment, and even the evil Nazis have retirony moments.

Joseph also needs his Speedwagon-esque sidekick, of course (made somewhat odd by Speedwagon actually being there at the start), and for that we have Caesar Zeppeli, who starts off as a typical Italian lothario who does not like Joseph at all, but they quickly bond when they have to battle the ancient villains who are trying to regain power or somesuch. There is a plot going on throughout the book, but it comes secondary at all times to the ridiculous poses, dialogue, and characters. Speaking of which, I was quite happy to see that Joseph and Caesar’s training mentor is female – Lisa Lisa, a young woman who does not let herself get lost in emotion (see what I did there?) when it comes to honing the pair’s hamon skills. I hope she survives, as she’s very cool.

There are still some moments of drama and horror – we’re near the start of World War II, so there’s a lot of Nazis running around, and they get the majority of the corpses in this volume. Mark, JoJo and Caesar’s young driver, is quickly marked for death the moment he shows us a locket with his girlfriend in it, and saying he’s about to propose is just icing on the cake. And a whole bunch of Nazis get their life energy drained out of them in a rather unsettling sequence. I would argue that the Nazi villains are perhaps not being treated as seriously as they should be, but that would imply that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure should treat something seriously, and I can’t really get behind that.

The majority of the last half is taken up by JoJo battling one of the major villains, Esidisi (yeah, it went there. We also got Loggins and Messina in this volume as well), which shows off JoJo’s quick thinking and rashness. The best moment of the whole volume may be when JoJo’s trademark “you’re about to say this” schtick is used against him, a fact that I think wounds him more than any physical pain. In any case, this is just as overblown, manly and ridiculous as ever, and if you like Jump Manga you should enjoy it immensely.