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My Next Life As a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 4

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By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Shirley Yeung.

This is a stronger volume than the previous one. The reader gets the sense that the author has decided on a forward path after previously ending the series with two volumes and then extending it out. Now, arguably there might be some frustration with Katarina getting confessed to at the end of the last book – and the end of THIS book – and being able to forget about it merely by being mildly distracted. It borders on disbelieving. But this is the sort of series we are reading, and we all know that the moment Katarina realizes everyone loves her and she has to do something about that, the basis of the series would stop. So on that front, things are much the same. Fortunately, we don’t add another person who falls madly for Katarina’s dense yet forthright personality this time around. We do get what seems to be an ongoing villain, though, and we also see that Katarina might be able to do more than just be really nice at people until they give in.

The premise for this book is that Keith is kidnapped by forces unknown, who leave behind a note saying he is running away from home. No one really believes he would do this, except of course Katarina, who is already getting hammered by her mother and servants for being too… well, too much like herself. So she resolves to go find him, and a crack team heads out composed of herself, Jeord (who is still trying to get her to react to his declaration of love), Maria (whose light magic is super useful here), Larna (who remains entertained by Katarina, but also wants to see what’s really going on) and Sora (the villain from last time, he’s now there basically to get in Jeord’s way so everything remains status quo). Oh yes, and Alexander the Ugly Bear, a magical device/familiar that really does not like Katarina, and the feeling is mutual. Can they find and rescue Keith/ And is there more dark magic at the cause of this?

As I noted above, the book feels more confident in its characters. Katarina can still be a blockhead much of the time, but there is a sense that she is maturing, just not in the field of romance. She has minimal talent in Earth Magic, but one scene towards the end suggests that, with the help of certain artifacts she happens to buy at a flea market, she can do a lot more to fight the forces of evil. This is important going forward, because clearly she’s going to join the Ministry, and “because she makes me laugh” was not really a good enough reason. There needs to be more to Katarina’s life besides “who will she end up with?”, and this is a very good start. I also liked the brief look we got at the series’ new villain, Sarah, who feels incredibly creepy and broken and who I suspect might be a tough nut for Katarina to crack.

Not quite as deeply silly as it has been, I still greatly enjoyed this volume of Bakarina. Will everyone finally graduate in the next volume? I want to find out.

Manga the Week of 7/24/19

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SEAN: It’s too hot to be outside. Stay indoors and read manga.

ASH: That is a really good idea.

SEAN: Dark Horse gives us the third volume of Eromanga-sensei.

J-Novel Club has a quartet of releases, including the final volume of If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord, which will tell us once and for all if it’s Bunny Dropping us or not. (The cover says yes, the blurb implies no.) We also get Amagi Brilliant Park 6, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 3, and Lazy Dungeon Master 6.

ASH: “Bunny Dropping” is such an evocative turn of phrase.

ANNA: I know that Bunny Dropping is something I wish to avoid.

SEAN: Kodansha, in print, has Gleipnir 3, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 2, Love in Focus 3, The Seven Deadly Sins 33, To Your Eternity 10, Waiting for Spring 11, and Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches 19-20, which is at the “we don’t publish sales numbers but it’s down to twice a year and omnibuses? Yikes” stage.

MICHELLE: Love in Focus has been pretty cute and I look forward to its third and final volume. It’s been a while since I’ve read any Waiting for Spring, too.

ASH: I agree, Love in Focus has been been pretty cute and enjoyable so far. And yikes indeed in regards to Yamada-kun, et al. I really got a kick out of it initially, but the series unfortunately couldn’t seem to sustain itself after so many restarts. To Your Eternity, however, remains astonishingly good (and frequently devastating).

SEAN: Kodansha, digitally, debuts The Great Cleric (Seija Musou), which is based on a light novel and is about a salaryman who suddenly finds himself in another world. The sheer originality of the plot has won me over.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: It also has has the 10th and final volume of Can You Just Die, My Darling?. There’s also Boarding School Juliet 11, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 15, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 7, My Boyfriend in Orange 7, and Tokyo Alice 13.

Seven Seas wraps up The Bride and the Exorcist Knight with the fourth volume, and Citrus with the 10th. There’s also a pile of other titles. Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare 2, Dreamin’ Sun 9, Toradora! light novel 6, A Certain Scientific Railgun: Astral Buddy 2, New Game! 6, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen manga volume 2.

MICHELLE: I shamefully admit I still haven’t read the first volume of Our Dreams at Dusk.

ASH: The first volume was phenomenal; I’m really looking forward to the second and subsequent volumes.

ANNA: Just tried to order it for my library!

SEAN: Udon has the 10th Persona 3 manga.

ASH: I’ll admit, I enjoyed what I’ve played of the game more than I enjoyed what I’ve read of its manga adaptation.

SEAN: And Vertical gives us a 12th Witchcraft Works.

Viz has Children of the Whales 1-11 out digitally, as well as élDLIVE 10.

Yen has pretty much divided most of their releases into two weeks, this being the first. Almost all the debuts got shifted late, so we mostly get ongoing series next week.

Yen On has 86 ~ Eighty-Six~ Vol. 2, Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch (If You’ve Got a Ringer) 4, Do You Love Your Mom (and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks)? 3, Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One 2, and WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? 4. They’re also releasing A Sister’s All You Need 1-4, previously a print-only title, digitally.

On the manga end, there are two debuts that did not get shifted. One is a spinoff, Goblin Slayer: Brand New Day. The other has perhaps the most awkward manga title I’ve ever seen, as it’s called Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howling Moon. This runs in Bessatsu Dragon Age, and is by the writer of Trinity Seven and the artist of Highschool of the Dead and Triage X. Eeeeeeeee. Despite this, I will attempt to give it a try. It’s apparently about a morally ambiguous magical girl. NOT HELPING MY ANTICIPATION.

ASH: That is quite the title and premise.

ANNA: Huh.

SEAN: In addition to those, there’s Angels of Death 7, BTOOOM! 25 (second to last, please end please end please end), A Certain Magical Index’s 18th manga volume, DIVE!! 3, Nyankees 3, The Saga of Tanya the Evil’s 7th manga volume, and Teasing Master Takagi-san 5 (as well as 1-4 digitally, as this was also print-only till now).

ASH: Interesting to see something released in print before being release digitally these days!

SEAN: What manga cools you off?

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, Vol. 7

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By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I have a bit of a shameful confession to make. I don’t really care that much about the plot of Make My Abilities Average. Well, that’s not true. The girls’ ongoing adventures interest me, and I definitely want to read the 8th book to see Mile going home to where Adele came from. But all the stuff with Gods and millennia-old ancestors and the like kind of put me to sleep. It’s nice that the author wants to show there’s a genuine reason behind Mile getting reincarnated this way, but I feel it’s a bit unnecessary. It doesn’t matter what the religious cultists who kidnap Mile’s favorite catgirl are after, what matters is that they do it and Mile now has to stop them. It also doesn’t help that Mile goes to interrogate the cultists – and thus find out bits of the aforementioned plot – while wearing a school swimsuit, something so mind-bogglingly stupid even the rest of the Crimson Vow ignore it out of pity and just go back to bed.

The book is still funny, though most of the humor can be divided into two parts. The first is funny characters and situati0ons, as you want and expect. The second are scenes that all end with someone saying or doing something overpowered and the rest of the cast saying the equivalent of “Nandeyanen?!”. Boke and tsukkomi humor is clearly very important to the author, and it helps that any of the Vow, not just Mile, can be the boke at times. It does feel a little tiring after a while, though. Mile is also filling her observations with otaku humor as always, including references to Thunderbirds and The Rocky Horror Picture Show that I suspect may have been adapted away from some really, really obscure Japanese thing. We’ve also gotten so used to the cast that some of the funniest moments come when they don’t act as you’d expect, such as Reina becoming all soppy.

It’s not hard to see why Reina does this, though. Hot-tempered and stubborn as she is, she’s also the most “normal” of the Crimson Vow, and it’s wonderful seeing her boggle at the teamwork of the Servants of the Goddess, who are also all women and the same rank as the Vow but get through battles using their meager skills and perfect teamwork, as opposed to our four overpowered idiots just smashing through any obstacle. It’s exactly the kind of hunting party Reina dreamed of before she met Mile, and thus it’s no surprise that she starts to see the leader of the other party as a big sister figure (well, no surprise to us, it certainly surprises the rest of the Vow). The Vow also helps to fend off a very dangerous enemy: Mavis’ family, who want to marry her off. This problem is solved through the simple but hilarious plan of talking up Mile, who is even MORE awesome than Mavis and has even MORE of a noble background. Mavis isn’t too happy about that, though…

The humor might not be as top-tier as it once was, but this is still a lot of fun, and I definitely want to see what comes next.

Full Metal Panic!: Rampaging One Night Stand

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By Shouji Gatou and Shikidouji. Released in Japan by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

The FMP! novels mostly seem to have the same conceit for their titles: a Japanese word, followed by an English phrase. (OK, I think “Fighting Boy Meets Girl” was all English.) This is translated for the benefit of the English-speaking reader, and can, of course, lead to thwarted expectations. There are no one night stands as the word is commonly used in this book. The title refers to the fact that the main action in the book takes place over the course of one evening. And there certainly is a lot of rampaging, as the premise involves a huge, skyscraper-sized AS called the “Behemoth”, which is awkward but unstoppable, especially when piloted by Takuma, a troubled young man who is also somewhat mentally unbalanced. Things aren’t helped by the fact that, due to various attacks by Takuma’s terrorist friends, Sousuke’s commanding officer, Tessa, is forced to hide out in his apartment. And much as the action is interesting, it was Tessa meeting Kaname that provided the best part of this book.

Last time I mentioned that Kaname is a rare “angry girl heroine” who fans actually love, and Tessa is along the same lines, the “nice girl” rival character who, while not disliked by fans, has almost no one shipping her and Sousuke instead of Kaname. This book helps to show why, as I had forgotten how much it contrasts Tessa’s excellent command skills (and her abilities as a Whispered, something only hinted at in this book) and Tessa’s mediocre-to-poor skills as a girl falling in love. Indeed, the “nice girl” part of her is absent a lot of the time, as her pretending not to be Sousuke’s commanding officer in order to piss Kaname off is rather mean (and she has to apologize for it later), and she and Kaname have far more of an antagonist stance with each other than I’d remembered from when I first experienced this years ago. Heck, Tessa even declares her rivalry to Kaname at the end. Add to this her feelings about her brother Leonard, and she’s a fascinatingly complex character.

As for Kaname, use of her Whispered abilities are kept to a minimum here, meaning she spends most of the time as the bright, refreshing normal girl. As with the first book, she’s alternating between being attracted to Sousuke and finding him the most aggravating person in the world. This is not helped by his attempting to apologize to her by offering her heroin, so she can sell it for money. Yes, this is an actual thing that he does, and I’m pretty positive the anime cut that. Sousuke, while still doing things like this, has at least developed a finely-honed “Kaname is about to get really angry” sense, though most of the time – like when Tessa comes out of his shower while Kaname is there – there is nothing whatsoever he can do about it. That said, the “which of the two ladies do you like better?” choice offered by the villains doesn’t even register with him, as he makes the choice based solely on combat reasons.

Unlike a lot of action series with a romantic sideplot, most people read or watch FMP! for the romance. They won’t be disappointed with this one, a solid second volume that establishes a love triangle but also makes it clear who the winner will be.

Daytime Shooting Star, Vol 1

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Daytime Shooting Star Volume 1 by Mika Yamamori

We haven’t had a ton of student-teacher shoujo romances being translated here recently, but perhaps series like Dengeki Daisy and Takane and Hana have paved the way. Suzume has a comfortable, slow-paced life in the country. Her classmates are all as familiar to her as siblings, and she feels free to randomly ditch class and go up on the roof of her school building to stare at the sky. Unfortunately her routines are about to be disrupted, as her parents announce that they have to go abroad for her father’s work, and they are sending her to Tokyo to live with her uncle. Suzume ends up getting lost on her way to her uncle’s house and an eccentric young man wearing a goofy hat helps her out. It turns out that Shishio is a friend of her uncle’s and her teacher! This amazing coincidence isn’t terribly surprising. The contrast between Shishio’s mannerisms when he’s off-duty and when he’s at school is amusing.

Suzume initially has a hard time fitting in with her new school, but she makes a quasi-friend in Mamura, the boy she ends up sitting next to in class. He has a almost pathological reaction of terror in response to any contact from girls. She also makes a frenemy in the form of Nekota, a girl at school who sets up a fairly weak way of deliberately excluding Suzume from a weekend outing with her classmates. When Suzume realizes what is going on, she decides to charge in and confront the issue. Shishio keeps showing up at odd moments when Suzume is feeling down, and while she’s clearly developing a hidden crush, she has plenty of other things on her mind as she attempts to deal with adjusting to life in Tokyo.

Yamamori’s art is attractive and stylish, and I enjoy the varied way Suzume is portrayed, as she swings from being timid in a new environment, to cool and confident on the volleyball court, to desperately trying to cover up evidence of a girlfight. Suzume is an engaging heroine, and I’m looking forward to see what happens next as the relationships between the characters develop more.

Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 6

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

There’s not nearly as much Kirito/Asuna shipping in this second volume of this two-parter, but that’s fine as I actually was getting into the game part for once. Kirito is dealing with things that puzzle him on several fronts. First, and pun intended, there are the puzzles, including the last boss being a nearly insoluble game of sudoku. Secondly, there are the changes from the beta, meaning Kirito can sometimes be caught doing the wrong thing. Thirdly, the player killers are messing things up by killing NPCs and forcing the game into a completely different direction. And lastly, and most importantly, the NPCs are simply far too complex and realistic to be explained by simple programming. It’s not just Kizmel anymore – we also meet a young girl and her mother whose backstory is too thought out and only makes sense if Aincrad’s inhabitants had been around long before the players were trapped there. All of this disturbs Kirito, a gamer who really doesn’t want to accept NPCs with their own agendas and emotions, more than Asuna, a non-gamer who simply accepts it for the most part.

We also meet another group of players, who are meant to seem sinister but in the end appear to be mostly innocent but easily tricked. They were part of the group trying to stay safe at the Town of Beginnings, but that’s a lot harder than it sounds when you need money for food and shelter. Again, it’s a reminder that a big reason that Kawahara is writing this expansion of this original series is to deal with all the things that he never did when it was just one short book. We also see the flip side of Kirito and Asuna bonding so much with Kizmel, which is that the bad guys can also bond with the NPC bad guys. In fact, one can argue that in this book the villains win for the most part, as the infiltrator of Lind and Kibaou’s groups gets away, and the fallen elf collects the keys that they had been trying to collect. Basically, each book is building on the next, and I’m sure we’ll see both Kizmel and the fallen elves again.

The funniest part of the book involves Kirito meeting an NPC sage who teaches him the meditation technique… which involves NOT eating the hamburg steak directly in front of him. The amusing thing is that, when Kirito tries to calm his mind by thinking about food, the sage rejects it, but when he reflects on his time in the game with Asuna, that’s perfectly OK. Asuna is still denying that she and Kirito are a couple when confronted, in a typical tsundere way, but there’s no question that she trusts and feels relaxed around him where she doesn’t with anyone else. And there’s also Kizmel, who seems to confidently be trying to work them into a threesome – I say confidently as she seems confident neither of them will go for it.

So we get a new floor next time around, but it may be a bit of a wait again, as I don’t think the 7th book is out in Japan yet. There’s a lot of open questions, though. Biggest of all – when did Saber Asuna change to Lancer Asuna?

Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 1: Daughter of a Soldier, Vol. 2

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By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

This was a stronger volume than the first one, which I already liked quite a bit. The reason for this is that Myne has essentially accepted this world and who she is in it, and thus does not spend quite as much time railing against her weak body and her fate of being in a world with no books. There’s still a number of times when Myne gets discouraged by everyone being faster/stronger than her, but it isn’t as exhausting this time. It helps that Myne is starting to succeed, and she and Lutz are managing to make their paper dreams come true, help create and invent luxury items for their benefactor, learn the ins and outs of trade, and even make friends with a cute nobleman’s daughter. Unfortunately for Myne, she still has THE DEVOURING, a sickness that seems like it will eventually kill her, and the cure is so expensive that even nobles think it’s super expensive. Can Myne survive?

The highlight of the book, easily, was Lutz confronting Myne about who she really is. Urano getting reincarnated in a weak, sickly girl (who apparently had dreams of living in modern Japan) is all very well and good, but there’s too much dissonance for a child who observes her as closely as Lutz has. He angrily calls her out, and it’s interesting – and a bit horrifying – too see Myne offer to essentially commit suicide to solve the problem… though that won’t get the “real” Myne back. Thankfully, Lutz ends up accepting the new Myne, but we’ll have to see how this goes going forward – Benno also seems to have figured things out, but Myne is not ready to open up to him yet.

The book also gives us a lot more detail about the world Myne is a part of, setting up what is a long series of books. There are other cities, but most residents will never, ever go beyond the one they live in. Marriages can be difficult as well – a side story tells us how Otto met and married his wife, and it involved the fact that she was about to be married off to someone that she wasn’t fond of but could not reject or it would impact their family and business. Fortunately, she and Otto seem to get along well. (Honestly, most of the women and girls we’ve seen in this book are pretty strong characters.)

One last thing to note – through two volumes, there’s not really all that much that I would consider objectionable in a standard light novel way – no hot springs peeping, casual lechery, etc. Myne notes that Otto’s wife has large breasts, but that’s about it. It is, in fact, a novel you could quite happily give to a young teen or older child and have them tear through – though it might not be exciting watching Myne make paper, there are a few action scenes here and there. Briefly. Ascendance of a Bookworm’s second volume is better than its first, and is a good read for anyone who loves books. I can’t wait to read the third book, which ends “Part 1” of Myne’s story.

Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, Vol. 2

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By TAa, based on Fate/Stay Night by TYPE-MOON. Released in Japan as “Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace Up. Released in North America by Denpa Books. Translated by Ko Ransom.

Admit it, you’re surprised this review is here at all. Let’s face it, if ever there was a manga series that cried out “review the first volume, then do the subsequent ones as Bookshelf Briefs”, it’s Emiya Family, a series that has zero plot and static characterization. And yet that doesn’t make it bad – indeed, its lack of plot and the fact that the characters are all basically “lovable cooks” is its main selling point. We don’t want to be reading about Sakura’s abuse at the hands of her brother, we want to be getting gags about how seaweed reminds Rider of Shinji’s hair, and Shinji’s complete lack of presence in this volume. (At one point, Sakura is described as “Matou’s sister”, and it took me a bit to realize they meant Shinji.) If you loved Fate/Zero and its grim darkness, this is obviously not for you, but it’s a great antidote. Heck, even Saber Alter shows up here ready to eat rather than ready to kill.

First of all, a sad note for those who were hoping this emulated Fate/Hollow Ataraxia a bit more: Kotomine Kirei seems to be alive in this universe. One of the joys of FHA was that everyone was alive and living in peace except for his dead ass, and I will miss that. Also, please, no mapo tofu recipes. Gilgamesh also gets a brief cameo, and we may be seeing more of him in the next volume. Archer continues to be absent from the main series, but in a special chapter that ran in a different magazine, helping Otoko not fall to her death on the steps to the shrine and making delicious food that tastes oddly like Shirou’s for some reason. And while Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family mostly concerns itself with the “original” cast, it is also a giant advertisement for the universe in general, so it’s no surprise that there’s also a Fate/GO extra chapter with Mash asking Archer and Boudica how to cook dragon meat stakes. We even see Jaguar Man! (I also like that the book did NOT offer an alternative meat to dragon in the recipe. Go kill a dragon to cook this properly, dammit.)

The entire series, of course, is based on the original Fate/Stay Night visual novels, and the large, LARGE amount of cooking that goes on there. Here we see that Shirou’s cooking has become almost legendary among the school, to the point where the student council get fired up at the sight of his fried chicken nuggets. There’s also the Christmas episode with Berserker, but I will admit that the anime’s vast expansion of that chapter works better. This is still sweet, though. I was also highly amused at Lancer being aggravated that Shirou is not banging Rin, and spending his meal trying to get the two of them together. (Sorry, Lancer, status quo is the norm here.) And Sakura doesn’t get as much to do, but I was sort of amused by the chapter where she gets upset at the Servants never gaining weight when they eat, unlike her. (Everyone assures her she looks fine, and I’m sure if Rin were there she’d add that it all goes to her chest.)

Again, unless you only read Fate for tragedy or battles, this is almost the perfect manga to pick up. It will leave a smile on your face and a growl in your belly.

Bookshelf Briefs 7/10/19

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Haikyu!!, Vol. 33 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – The game ended! It was an incredible finish too, and once again I praise the author for having a good feel for keeping the pace exciting and yet also making the action clear. Hate to spoil it, but our heroes win the match, though we end up following the losing team right after the game, showing how this defeat is going to make them get stronger. I really liked the twin (you know, one of them) telling Hinata he was going to set for him one day—it’s a reminder that they could take this past high school. But the break is brief, as by the end of the volume we’re in another battle against Nekoma, and I get the feeling that this one will also take several volumes. Still, I’m up for it. This remains a terrific sports manga. – Sean Gaffney

Himouto! Umaru-chan, Vol. 6 | By Sankakuhead | Seven Seas – OK, it turns out Ebina’s “confession” was that she’s been searching for her brother, who left home to become a chef. I wasn’t too happy with the suggestion that she’s got a crush on Taihei as he reminds her of her brother, but other than that this was pretty sweet. We’re also given yet another cliffhanger ending, as it turns out that while Umaru is best in the class for the normal kids, there’s an accelerated program with someone who’s shorter, cuter, blonder and smarter than Umaru. I sense a new rivalry coming. Which is somewhat inevitable given Umaru has converted everyone around her into friends already. This is still a bit slight, but it’s cute and fun. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 9 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – This volume is filled with plot, and it’s all about Ishigami. At last we get his backstory and find out what happened to make him into the beaten-down misanthrope he was introduced as. As you might imagine, it involved scapegoating and punishing the wrong person, completely breaking his spirit. Fortunately, there’s an athletic festival going on, and when one member of his team hurts their ankle, he has to fill in. Does he win? That’s less important than that he tries hard, gets his team to root for him, and—and this was fantastic—sees their faces, which till now have been “faceless” people around him. If there’s one drawback, it’s that the balloon chapter made a poor closer. But overall, a fantastic volume. – Sean Gaffney

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 4 | By Waco Ioka and Midori Yuma | Viz Media – It was never going to be as simple as opening a nice restaurant. Aoi’s new place is beset by sabotage and trickery, from signs pointing in the wrong direction to assassins trying to kill her to literal BANANA PEELS on the steps. We also see Aoi learning about food, in the best foodie manga tradition, and also learning more about her grandfather and his relationships with the other spirits, and just how long-lived they are. There’s a bit of romantic tease when they tour the local izakayas, but for the most part Kakuriyo is content to be a slow-burner that is interested in Aoi and food, not necessarily in that order. That’s fine with me. – Sean Gaffney

Monster and the Beast, Vol. 1 | By Renji | Yen Press – Cavo is a hideous monster with a pure heart, so when he witnesses what appears to be a sexual assault in the forest in which he lives, he intervenes. Liam, the apparent victim, proves to be charming and sexually voracious (he’s the beast of the title) and immediately propositions Cavo. After discovering that Liam is unreliable, Cavo guides him to a nearby village and falls in love with him on the way. So far, so sweet. What I thought was interesting, though, is that once they reach the village, Cavo must remain in hiding while Liam goes out every night and beds various people. We learn that he’s well aware that Cavo loves him, and is content enough to remain together, but also has no desire to change. That’s not the outcome I expected, so I’m interested to see where this goes. – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 2 | By Kohei Horikoshi and Anri Yoshi | VIZ Media – This is soooooo much better than the first volume of the School Briefs light novels. Set just before and during the training camp arc, the stories depict the kids during their free time as they try to distract a motion-sick Aoyama on the bus, throw a slumber party, have an arm-wrestling tournament, etc. There’s lots of intermingling between classes 1-A and 1-B, which I appreciate very much, especially the slumber party at which the girls would rather contemplate which of the boys’ quirks they’d like to try than which boy they’d like to date. Mineta continues to be even more awful than he is in the source material, this time in a premeditated and predatory way that’s genuinely alarming. Aizawa lectures him off-camera at least, but he really ought to’ve been expelled. In any case, I’m sufficiently swayed enough to come back for volume three! – Michelle Smith

The Right Way to Make Jump | By Takeshi Sakurai | VIZ Media (digital only) – Four years after Takeshi Sakurai gave up on manga and became an onigiri maker instead, he gets a call from his former editor suggesting they collaborate on a nonfiction series about how Shounen Jump is made. This one-volume manga is the fascinating result. Sakurai and his editor interview people at the printers and paper manufacturer as well as cover and logo designers and various editors. There are pictures of the editorial offices in Japan as well as VIZ headquarters in San Francisco, and a brief visit to Kohei Horikoshi’s studio. It’s all super interesting—I particularly loved learning about all the neat machines that were invented specifically to handle producing Jump—while being fun and amusing, as well. I’d recommend it to any manga fan, but especially to Jump fans. – Michelle Smith

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 2 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – Shirayuki passes her exam, which means she’s now working for the Prince. And you know what that means—it’s time to solve crises by working yourself until you nearly die without bothering to tell anyone, in the best shoujo heroine tradition. Fortunately, she has other people around her. Unfortunately, she also has the First Prince, who has returned to the kingdom and apparently is intent on making his brother miserable, and also making Shirayuki do pointless tasks. I’m sure eventually she’ll win him over, but that point is not yet. There’s also a lengthy short story at the end, set in modern times and about a trio who become a duo after tragedy strikes. It was decent, but I wish these were full of Shirayuki. – Sean Gaffney

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 2 | By Sorata Akiduki | VIZ Media – Shirayuki begins work as a court herbalist apprentice, and her very knowledgeable boss also happens to be twelve years old. She wins him over with her powers of empathy, and I appreciate that she manages to be both nice and very clever, as she’s able to figure exactly what’s been making the soldiers ill at a fort under Zen’s command. The back cover calls this a love story, and I’m sure we’ll get there eventually, but I really appreciate that what we’ve got so far is a mutual inspiration story. Both Shirayuki and Zen are compelled to help people and end up spurring each other on. “I need to be the sort of man she’ll never turn her back on,” Zen resolves. And then his crappy older brother comes home and begins to interfere. This is a fun series so far! – Michelle Smith

Versailles of the Dead, Vol. 2 | By Kumiko Suekane | Seven Seas – Two volumes into Versailles of the Dead I’m not sure that I actually understand what’s going on, but I still feel oddly compelled to read more. In part this is due to the fact that Suekane really knows how to create an atmosphere. While dark and unsettling, Versailles of the Dead can also be surprisingly sensual, Suekane’s artwork capturing both the horrific and the beautiful—at times simultaneously—to great effect. The decadence of the 18th-century French court and the gruesome death and undeath both inside and outside of it are all strikingly illustrated. The second volume develops existing plotlines (while ignoring others) and introduces new elements to an already full story. Versailles of the Dead has so much going on that it hasn’t quite managed to pull everything together into a cohesive whole yet, but it might be starting in that direction and I can’t seem to look away. – Ash Brown

Manga the Week of 7/17/19

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SEAN: This may be the smallest week I’ve seen in years. Under 20 titles!

ASH: I’m astonished!

SEAN: Haikasoru has the 9th Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

ASH: The penultimate volume!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a trio of popular series, with How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 9, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 8, and My Next Life As a Villainess! 4.

In print, Kodansha has the 4th Quintessential Quintuplets (which is getting a 2nd season of anime soon) and a 4th Yuri Is My Job!.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to get around to Yuri Is My Job! at some point. Maybe the time has come.

SEAN: Digitally there is Altair: A Record of Battles 11, Mikami-sensei’s Way of Love 6, The Quintessential Quintuplets (yes, again) 9, and Tokyo Revengers 9.

Classroom of the Elite 3 is out digitally from Seven Seas. Yup, that’s it. They backloaded all their releases to the end of the month, Yen style.

Tokyopop has a 5th Futaribeya and a 5th Konohana Kitan.

The big debut this week is from Viz: Beastars. This award-winning manga runs in Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shonen Champion, and takes the idea of anthropomorphic herbivores and carnivores battling it out and transplants it to high school. It’s apparently the Next Big Thing, so get right on this one.

ANNA: OK, I’m not going to argue with this.

MICHELLE: I’m not entirely sure it’s for me, but I intend to at least give it a try!

ASH: I’m very curious about this series as I have heard very good things about it.

SEAN: Viz also has Children of the Whales 11, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction 6, Fire Punch 7 (I thought it had ended. I was sadly wrong), and Terra Formars 21.

ANNA: More Dededede is always good!

ASH: Truth! Asano’s work really does leave an impression.

SEAN: Lastly, Yen had a bunch of stuff here when originally solicited, but it all drifted to later in July, leaving Gabriel Dropout 7 as the only non-rescheduled title. Which makes it the winner!

Still catching up on stuff? Or does something catch your attention?

MJ: I’m directing an opera, so I won’t be reading anything that isn’t an adaptation of Giacomo Rossi adapting Aaron Hill adapting Torquato Tasso. But it looks like I’m not missing that much.

Kokoro Connect: Nise Random

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By Sadanatsu Anda and Shiromizakana. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Molly Lee.

This volume had its work cut out for it, at least in regards to me. The title translated as “Random Fakes”, and it’s not spoiling anything to let you know that we get a pile of “Heartseed’s magic lets me impersonate another person so that I can quietly destroy their lives”. This plotline makes me very uncomfortable, always has, and so I was cringing through a large part of the first third of this book. Fortunately, the author knows that our heroes have been down this road before, and we eventually end up going in a completely different direction. What the book really is is an extended character study of the new first-years, going into their personality quirks (and flaws) in a much deeper and more traumatic way than the short story volume ever could. The book trusts that you will go along with the author’s good judgment and understand that these are good kids at heart. Unfortunately, with Chihiro, I worry the reader may give up and just quietly hate him.

We pick up after the start of the plot has happened offstage. Chihiro’s narration reveals that he has been approached by Heartseed (who, let’s remember, the main cast has NOT QUITE told the newbies about yet) and offers his usual “I will give you a power, entertain me” bargain. The power is the impersonation tactic I mentioned above. Unfortunately, Chihiro is still dealing with being cynical, arrogant, and bitter, so he resolves to screw up the Club as much as possible. Fortunately, there are a few plot twists that get in the way. The first is that the club (minus Taichi, who admits he was being stupid) have been down this road too many times to not realize something’s going on with Heartseed. Secondly, when it comes right down to it Chihiro is a lonely kid who breaks pretty easily, and when he realizes that things are going bad and they’ll catch him, he tries more drastic tactics. Which have more drastic effects.

Chihiro is not the only main character in this book, of course, as we also get Enjouji’s POV for several scenes. She’s a more tolerable type, being the “why would anyone be interested in me when I am so normal and ordinary” girl. This is why she admires Taichi so much, besides his voice, as he has that ability to unite everyone around him. (This comes as a surprise to Taichi, who is still going through a bit of an identity crisis, and this book REALLY doesn’t help.) I liked the constant ship tease between her and Chihiro, even though it may not go anywhere – we’ve all seen the two friends who everyone just assumes are a couple even though they really aren’t. As for flaws in the book, well, Chihiro pretending to be Taichi and getting Inaba to strip was a bit beyond the beyond, and I kind of feel she didn’t get mad enough at him afterwards. (You could argue he wasn’t punished enough for his actions, but a) everyone agrees Heartseed is really to blame, and b) he already hates himself so much punishment would feel odd.) Honestly, lovesick Inaba really doesn’t work for me at all. I like her with Taichi, but not like this.

So despite its premise, this ended up being an excellent volume in the series. It’s definitely worth picking up, especially if you liked the anime.

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 1

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Komi Can’t Communicate Volume 1 by Tomohito Oda

I tend to be a little leery of shonen comedies, but I found Komi Can’t Communicate both amusing and endearing. I think in general I tend to have better luck with Shonen Sunday series like this one as opposed to Shonen Jump titles. Komi Can’t Communicate is told though the point of view of Tadano, a timid freshman who just wants to get through high school without standing out too much after some disastrous attempts to distinguish himself in junior high. However, as is fairly typical for any manga protagonist wanting a normal high school life, this doesn’t end up happening.

He meets his classmate Komi, who is held up as the class princess due to her beauty and aloof nature. But as he encounters her by the lockers and in the classroom, Tadano begins to realize that she’s not silent because she’s stuck up, she actually has a psychological condition that prevents her from talking to people. They find a fairly adorable workaround by having a conversation through writing on the chalkboard, and Tadano vows to help Komi achieve the goal of having 100 friends. This unfortunately means that Tadano is going to have to ramp up his own social skills if he’s going to serve as a friendship wingman to a girl who is having such difficulty with verbal communication.

I enjoyed the way Oda’s art showed Komi’s body language as she struggles to get through school, with her poses that could be mistaken for snobbishness or extreme social terror at the same time. She also sometimes reverts into wide-eyed chibi mode when something happens that is particularly alarming. In their quest for friendship Tadano and Komi meet Najimi, a classmate who appears to be gender fluid, but who is a totally social butterfly and the most popular person in school. While enduring the awkwardness of high school creates plenty of comedic situations, I thought that the first volume of Komi Can’t Communicate actually had a great deal of heart, which made it much more fun for me to read than a comedy that’s more mean-spirited. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Tadano and Komi at their extremely quirky high school.

Mythical Beast Investigator, Vol. 1

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By Keishi Ayasato and Koichiro Hoshino. Released in Japan as “Genjuu Chousain” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Famitsu Comic Clear. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Angela Liu. Adapted by Ysa McFarlane.

As if the shot of the adorable young woman sitting politely in the forest with her red-eyed demon flayer behind her weren’t reason enough to believe this might be a wee bit darker than expected, it’s also written by the person who wrote Torture Princess. Then again, that may actually be par for the course in this genre. We’ve seen an extensive amount of “cute young thing is introduced to (or is already part of) supernatural world manga series, and almost all of them tick the ‘darker than they seem’ box. The Ancient Magus’ Bride, The Girl from the Other Side, etc. The world is filled with wonders, but the world can also easily kill you – or worse. Fortunately for THIS world, we have Ferry, the titular investigator, who is traveling the countryside looking for villages that are having issues with monsters and fixing them, along with her bodyguard Roxy Music… erm, sorry, Kushuna, who seems to be a monstrous rabbit demon.

Ferry, of course, will tell you she’s not an Official, just a Member of the investigative team. That said, she certainly has the knowledge and will to do a good job. The first part of the story concerns a wyvern that is rampaging in a village, which is unusual for this sort. Ferry quickly finds that the wyvern had a “ribbon maiden” by its side, and that she was very quickly sold out to bandits by the “save our own hides” villagers. As such, well, the wyvern is upset. Fortunately, Ferry also has Kushuna, who is theoretically more cynical and hard-boiled than she is, and tells the wyvern to essentially stop throwing a temper tantrum and go and rescue his girl. This actually turns out to be a running theme of the manga, as we run into some other villages that instinctively fear and despise monsters and beasts, only to find either a) they’re not as bad as feared, or b) they were never dangerous to begin with.

This does change with the final story, which also serves to give us a cliffhanger. Here we have an actual beast that is killing young children, and the father of one of these children bent on revenge. One of the really nice things about this series is showing off how Ferry thinks about her job and how to do it, and that it’s not merely “stop the problem”. In this case, that’s part of it, but she also needs to help the father work through his grief and do so in a way that is not “after I kill this monster, I will die”. Kushuna is there to do Ferry’s dirty work, but the good thing about Ferry is that she is well aware that the dirty work exists – he’s not protecting an innocent or anything. Ferry just happens to be very, very good at her job. Or at least, I am assuming so, unless she gets eaten by the water horse, which is the cliffhanger.

If you enjoy these sort of pastoral fantasy monster sort of tales that Seven Seas has created a niche market for, this is another good entry. I’ll be getting the next volume.

An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, Vol. 6

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By Fuminori Teshima and COMTA. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

Come on, you weren’t really expecting a normal volume where Zagan and Nephy go on a cute little date, right? Especially after seeing that cover. No, here we get the inverse of two volumes ago. Foll wants to grow up faster (so that she can be more powerful and protect Zagan), so Gremory suggests using a spell much like the one she uses to swap ages. The trouble is, as Foll’s a dragon and thus magic resistant, Zagan has to help by pouring mana into it. This causes… bad things to happen. Now Foll’s a busty 18-year-old, Zagan’s a little kid, and Nephy is pissed… when she’s not snuggling her now adorable l’il fiance. Fortunately, unlike when this happened to Nephy, Zagan is still of sound mind and with the proper memories. Unfortunately, no one knows how to fix this. Maybe the inter-species conference under the sea will be able to help? And does this mean they really have to rely on airheaded Selphy?

There’s a lot of good stuff in here about having more than one side to a person. It’s not clear if the spell/curse on Foll and Zagan actually affects them mentally, but certainly Zagan is a lot more petulant in this body, possibly because everyone is trying to snuggle him as he’s such a cute kid. The lesson learned here, though, is that just because he can do everything himself doesn’t mean he should – and that his loved ones want to stand on equal footing with him, not stand behind him while he protects them. This applies to Foll, who pretty much knew that there are no quick and easy ways to grow up but gets the valuable lesson drilled into her anyway, as well as to Nephy, who is still attempting to figure out her place in this world when it’s not just her and Zagan. Amusing as it was to see her calm fury several times during the book, the most significant scene may have been her reuniting with Nephteros and figuring out how they’re going to speak to each other going forward.

It’s possible that I’m making this book seem more serious than it is. My mistake – it may be the funniest book in the series. With Zagan as a kid, he has to get a new outfit, and you know what that means – it’s dress-up doll time with Manuela. Zagan’s horrified reaction when he realizes that Manuela and Gremory have met and are friends already is hysterical… actually, as usual, any scene with Manuela is great, leaving aside her sexual harassment. Also, those scenes with angry Nephy really are great, as she has the standard “smiling calmly while the top half of her face is shadowed’ ojou-sama style anger. It fits her well. I also really liked Selphy here, who is normally very much the ditz, but also shows signs of understanding the other cast members and getting them to open up.

Slave chokers and molesting sales clerks aside, this remains an excellent and fun light novel read. And it’s not an isekai, for those that try to keep track of such things.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, Vol. 7.5

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By Wataru Watari and Ponkan 8. Released in Japan as “Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatte Iru” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jennifer Ward.

There are quite a few .5 volumes in Japan, but whether they get licensed or not is another issue. They’re almost always short story collections, meant to be read but not affect the overall storyline (hence the .5), though this is not always the case (Rokujouma’s .5s are not skippable.) There are a lot of DVD/Blu-Ray sets in Japan that come with extra stories or novellas by the author that are lately published by the original publisher (see Devil Is a Part-Timer or this series) and some are expanded and turn into genuine later volumes (Baccano!). Sometimes the rights (given they were written for the anime production company) may make it harder to bring out over here… and short story collections also might not sell as well to begin with. To sum up, sometimes you’ll see these licensed and sometimes you won’t, but we can be grateful to have this collection, which takes place at various points between Vols. 1-7 and (mostly) has Hachiman behaving himself.

Miura’s on the cover, but does not really feature in the story, except to get really jealous of an underclassman who seems to be in Hayama’s club and is also cute. I suspect we’ll see more of her later. In the meantime, the wraparound stories involve the club answering Dear Abby-style questions, all of which are from “anonymous” people whose identities are nevertheless very obvious. The larger short stories involve the club having to do a magazine special on weddings, which ends up having Komachi run a bride competition among Yukino, Yui, and Shizuka. (By the way, if “I am an unmarried teacher” jokes are not your thing, feel free to skip this entire volume, as they’re omnipresent.) We then get an adaptation of a Drama CD story that continues after Vol. 3, showing the cast partying at an arcade. The longest story involves the cast helping the Judo Club, whose have a now graduated member returning and abusing the team. As often happens, Hachiman immediately sees the solution. As always happens, Hachiman makes sure everyone hates him in solving it.

There’s a lot of Komachi and her Komachi Points in this, and it’s clear that she’s shipping Hachiman with Yui – not that this is really going anywhere. Honestly, Yui and Yukino is the ship which gains the most ground in these short stories, but the author’s not going in that direction either. Instead this seems to be a pretty leisurely look at the character tics we know and love. Hachiman is cynical, Yukino is… well, also cynical, Yui is shiny. The drama CD one may be the weakest, partly as adaptations always tend to suffer a bit like this, and partly as I don’t care about Chiba Prefecture. The Judo story reads most like the novels, and is the best, though also relied a bit too much on “Zaimokuza is gross” for my tastes. Hachiman[‘s solution is excellent, and his implementation is equally awful. It’s the series in a nutshell, really.

The 7th volume ended on a cliffhanger, and it’s annoying that we aren’t getting that resolved. But I’m happy to read about these characters, and as I said, till the very end Hachiman seems to actually be fairly tolerable. A good read.