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By Hikaru Suruga and Gun Snark (Nitroplus). Released in Japan as “Shingeki no Kyojin Gaiden – Kuinaki Sentaku” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Aria. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Given what the fandom is like, both in the West and in Japan, a spinoff of Attack on Titan featuring Levi is possibly the most obvious moneymaker in the history of time itself. He’s the most popular character by a factor of two over everyone else, and his backstory has not been covered by the main manga itself (though that may be changing soon). Based on a visual novel that was released with one of the DVDs, this manga tells the story of how Levi came to join the survey corps, what his motivations may have been, and his complicated relationship with Erwin Smith, the other lead character shown here.

Not that those are the only two characters. Levi is shown to be living in the underground slums as we open this volume, surviving with the help of some purloined vertical maneuvering gear and two other friends. The friends are a lot of fun. Isabel is young, full of spunk and energy, and a tomboy that Levi probably sees as a younger sister type. Furlan is more sensible, and seems to be the one with the plan the three of them come up with – Levi is a bit too pinpoint obsessed to really be far-thinking. The three of them make a very good team, both before and after they join the survey team. That said, the narrative is telegraphing Isabel and Furlan’s deaths by the end of the next volume, so I will be VERY surprised if they both make it past Volume 2.

The other half of the narrative is Erwin and his political machinations, which is something that we already get plenty of in the main story, but it’s always nice to see. The Survey Corps is constantly in danger of being dissolved, so he has to resort to scurrilous means of getting what he wants (including blackmail and threats). His recruitment of Levi and his friends is important – he needs people not only talented enough to kill titans, but driven enough to kill them. Levi certainly qualifies – the final battle with the titan at the end of this book is riveting, and shows off how talented Levi and his friends are in comparison to everyone else.

You could argue that Levi is a little too perfect and awesome, and you’d be right – but given this is a title dedicated to showing him off, and it runs in the shoujo magazine Aria, what did you expect? (Yes, No Regrets is a shoujo title. Shelve it next to Kitchen Princess.) There’s not only a lot of fast, thrilling action but scenes such as Levi getting dressed up in his ‘cleaning clothes’, which serves no point except to have the reader go ‘kyaa!’. You just roll with it, and you’ll find it’s a lot of fun. For those looking for other cast members, you won’t find many – Hange is here, but she only appears a couple of times and has no lines. But that’s OK, as Levi and Erwin can carry this on their own.

For Attack on Titan fans, particularly those who like Levi, this is a must-buy. For anyone else, it’s worth a shot – the Titans themselves only pop up towards the end, and most of the volume is devoted to setting up the odd mentor relationship between Erwin and Levi. It should end with Volume 2, so I’m expecting a lot of bad things to happen next time.

By Ichihei Ishibumi, Zero Miyama, and Hiroji Mishima. Released in Japan by Fujimi Shobo, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dragon Age. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Given that the front cover of this new series features a cute young woman with bat wings, and the back cover features that woman plus another one hugging a slightly drooling young man, you can possibly guess not only the genre of this series, but also the plot. It’s your classic harem comedy, with lots of added fantasy this time, where the goal is to see how many different types of women you can have fall in love with the hero without any actual fornication occurring (as even Dragon Age would likely pass on that). So given that, what does High School DxD offer that separates it from Haganai, or Haruhi Suzumiya, or Zero’s Familiar, etc.?

Issei, our hero, seems fairly typical. He’s more at the lecherous end of the scale, constantly going on about breasts and talking about the fact that his dream is to one day have his own harem. Typical loser high schooler, which is why it’s something of a surprise to see him on a date with a gorgeous beauty as the story opens. Who then grows huge black bird wings and stabs him through the chest with a spear made of light, killing him dead. Luckily, he’s in the right series, as he manages to get resurrected and turned into a devil by Rias, the queen of the school and also, as it turns out, a devil. He’s now recruited to her team, along with several other stereotypes, in order to grant wishes for people in exchange for a price.

There’s a bit of discussion of Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils, and, as is typical with Japanese manga that discusses wars between Heaven and Hell, the narrative is firmly on the side of the devils. To be fair, our villains are all carefully chosen to be ‘Fallen’ – a Fallen Angel and an excommunicated exorcist – But I’m fairly certain that when the Angels themselves are introduced, we’ll be seeing them as the enemy as well. I was less impressed with the discussion of Sacred Gears, which is essentially the superpower that each devil has. Humans have them too, and it’s noted that all the really famous people through history are famous because of their Sacred Gear, rather than through, y’know, actual human effort. I’ve always disliked this school of thought, and didn’t like seeing it here.

There is a LOT of fanservice here, as you would expect. Rias is naked quite often through this volume, and does not appear to be remotely embarrassed about Issei seeing her naked body. We also have Akeno, a classic yamato nadesico type who turns out to be a sadist deep down (another common trait in hentai manga, and thus in this toned down harem variant), and Koneko, an Ayanami Rei clone. Interestingly, the last member of our team so far is Kiba, who is male, and reminds me of Koizumi Itsuki from Haruhi a whole hell of a lot, right down to Issei constantly denigrating him in his narration. I assume Kiba will NOT be joining Issei’s harem, though I could be surprised.

At the end of this volume, notably, Issei has not saved the day even once, and his power is shown to be so low that everyone boggles at it. This will change. It’s that sort of story. Not sure if we’ll add victim of the volume to the harem team (she’d fit right in, being a clumsy nun sort of character), but we will no doubt find out in the next volume. As for the series itself, it’s recommended to those who like harem fanservice series with a light fantasy tinge, though given the pages expended on worldbuilding here, the fantasy may be more important than I expect.

Also, I have no idea what the DxD is supposed to mean.

The Darkest Night Vol 1 by Earithen and Gena Showalter

available at: https://www.emanga.com/detail?itemid=1397

Usually when I read Harlequin manga, I haven’t read the books they’ve been adapted from, but in this case I have read a few volumes of Gena Showalter’s Lords of the Underworld series before trying out the manga adaptation. As you might expect from the title, this is a contemporary paranormal romance. Ashlyn is hanging out in Hungary, intrigued by local rumors that angels live in a mysterious castle in the woods. She’s tormented by her psychic abilities and is seeking peace. She’s been alone almost all her life due to her psychic powers, and was raised as a bit of a lab rat as opposed to growing up with a normal family. Alone in the woods, Ashiyn encounters a tall, dark, brooding, and handsome man who seems to enjoy lurking about while carrying a variety of weaponry. Ashlyn thinks that Maddox is extremely hot despite the blood he is splattered with, and she notices that the voices in her head go quiet when she’s near him. True love!!!!

Maddox takes Ashlyn back to his castle, only for her to discover that his large group of roommates are also equally hot and tormented. It turns out that they are suffering various eternal conditions due to a curse, and each embody a negative so Maddox has to be chained up and killed every night, only to be resurrected the following day. Even for someone familiar with the source material, there’s too much backstory to be contained in just one manga volume, and the explanations of the Hunters the Lords of the Underworld fight, the women that tempt them, and something about Pandora’s box sort of derail any forward momentum with the plot and make the motivations of the characters a bit opaque. I don’t remember this being quite as much of an issue in the novel, so I think it is just very difficult to shoehorn that much worldbuilding into the number of pages allowed by the manga format.

The adaptation by Earithen is good, with distinct character designs for all the Lords of the Underworld. Maddox looks appropriately tormented and Ashlyn is charming and innocent. I was amused by the number of panels where Maddox totes Ashlyn around by balancing her on one of his arms. There are a few panels here and there with awkward poses, but for the most part the art is better than usual for a Harlequin manga adaptation. I feel like generally historical or contemporary Harlequin manga get translated into English a bit more often than paranormals, so it is nice to see emanga branching out a bit more into various romance subgenres.