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Bookshelf Briefs 4/17/19

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Bloom Into You, Vol. 6 | By Nakatani Nio | Seven Seas – The bulk of this volume is the play, and I was very much reminded of the play in the Kare Kano manga, which filled much the same function. We see a woman wondering which of the “sides” she sees was the real her, and the answer of course is to look forward. It’s really well done, but it’s uncertain how this will affect relationships between Touko and Yuu. We’ve seen Yuu struggle to define how she feels towards Touko—and indeed love in general—and now she seems to have her answer, but it’s not making her very happy. (I do love the brief POV of her older sister, who gives her good advice and resolves to support Yuu whenever she decides to admit it to her family.) Still great. – Sean Gaffney

Chihayafuru, Vol. 16 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Mizusawa has managed to win the team portion of Nationals! Chihaya’s tearful happiness is heart-wrenching, and I loved that she was able to remind Arata of the joys of competing with teammates. She seems to have fractured her right index finger, however, and though she makes it through the first couple of rounds of the individual tournament by playing left-handed, when facing Shinobu she chooses to go with her right. She makes one really impressive play, but then the pain is too much and she loses by a huge margin. Still, she’s made an impression on Shinobu now, and we see how much it would mean to the latter to have a friend her age who doesn’t expect her to go easy on them. Meanwhile, Taichi has made it to the Class B finals and Arata will soon move to Tokyo. Tune in next time! – Michelle Smith

CITY, Vol. 5 | By Keiichi Arawi | Vertical Comics – After a fourth volume with a long-running story, we’re back to brief snapshots in this volume, which means, of course, it’s not quite as good. A lot of gags land. I liked the photography session chapter, as well as the one with the soccer team’s “accidental” ball control. And the names of the Tekaridake Troupe made me giggle. But a lot of this is random for randomness’ sake, and features recurring bits that I’m not as fond of, like the manga artist who is likely meant to be Arawi himself. I suspect he’s trying not to make it too much about the “main trio” as he wants to avoid having it be Nichijou Mk. 2, but the main trio are where the best chapters lie. Still worth reading, but very up and down. – Sean Gaffney

Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, Vol. 4 | By NISIOISIN and Akira Akatsuki | Viz Media – I didn’t brief the second and third volumes of this, but you can likely guess what happens. In this, the final volume, we’re down to the last few survivors. The best part of the book is the section dealing with, in my opinion, the two best characters—Tiger and Ox. Their backstory, and the discussion of “how to do the right thing,” resonates strongly. Sadly, the zombie rabbit and the almost deliberately personality-less Rat take up most of the end of the volume, and that’s not quite as good. In the end this seems to have been Nisioisin’s attempt to write a Battle Royale-style story, and it works best with his Medaka Box partner on it, but four volumes is definitely enough. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 4 | By Hideyuki Furuhashi, Betten Court, and Kohei Horikoshi | VIZ Media – As a neighborhood department store plans to reopen after a monster attack, Pop is invited to take part in a celebration. Makoto parlays this into an appearance from Captain Celebrity and, meanwhile, Hachisuka plans to crash the party with her Trigger-augmented monsters. I probably should’ve guessed the reveal about Hachisuka here, especially considering what happened with her classmate before, but it was fairly cool. I liked learning more about Knuckleduster, and it was nice seeing Pop give a competent (and pretty heroic!) performance at the concert. I’ll likely keep reading this series, as I enjoy how it’s fleshing out the world, but I am a little bummed that I just don’t love any of these characters like I do the kids in the main series. They’re not complex enough. I guess nothing will ever really measure up to the original. – Michelle Smith

Takane & Hana, Vol. 8 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – The rule of thumb for this manga seems to be that whenever one of the two leads decides to seriously romance the other intentionally, it never quite goes the way they want it to. That’s certainly the case in this volume, where Takane is still on the rise, and he’s not quite out to romance Hana—he just wants his revenge. As a result, he runs her ragged, in what’s probably the funniest chapters of the book. I’m not sure how I feel about the final cliffhanger, though, which seems to be another setup on the part of Takane’s grandfather. The series is 16+ volumes in Japan, so it could simply be the author setting in for the long haul. As long as the power balance is kept even, this is still great. – Sean Gaffney

Wonderland, Vol. 2 | By Yugo Ishikawa | Seven Seas – At heart, this is survival horror, which is not really my thing. As with a lot of things that are not really my thing, I have a number of exceptions to the rule. And Wonderland is so weird and trippy that it fascinates me more than it depresses me. As could probably be predicted, Alice may be responsible for what’s actually going on here, even if she’s not telling the main group that. The “main group” also gets winnowed way down here—Yukko even loses her dog, though he does show up later, in the funniest scene of the book (especially for long-haired dog owners). And of course I haven’t even mentioned Alice’s evil twin, who can turn babies into ZOMBIE BABIES. Wonderland is a trip. It deserves its title. – Sean Gaffney

Kitaro: Kitaro’s Yokai Battles

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By Shigeru Mizuki. Released in Japan as “Gegege no Kitaro” by Kodansha and Shogakukan, serialized in various magazines. Released in North America by Drawn & Quarterly. Translated by Zack Davisson.

This is not the first time that we’ve seen Shigeru Mizuki write himself and his family into a manga. Heck, it’s not even the first time he’s been in Kitaro. But the story “Oboro Guruma”, which is the highlight of this volume, really takes it further and involves Mizuki in the most metatextual way possible. At a coffeeshop he’s going to to avoid work and family (remember, no one puts himself down quite like Mizuki does), he runs afoul of the yakuza, but is saved by… Kitaro and Nezumi Otoko, who are in the same coffeeshop. He brings them home and lets them stay with his family, and they start to bond with the local neighbors. But then the entire town is covered in a strange gas, isolating it from the rest of Japan. The story alternates between what’s actually happening (it’s a yokai – try to contain your shock) and how Mizuki is dealing with it (by being somewhat weak and lazy – again, try to contain your shock).

Every single review of these titles I seem to talk about Nezumi Otoko, so I will confine myself this time to noting that the volume opens with him seeing Kitaro on a horse, hitting him over the head with a club, dope slapping him, and stealing the horse. It’s so beautifully in character I wanted to cry. Instead, though, I will talk about Kitaro, who actually isn’t at his best here. Kitaro tends to be a cypher at the best of times, and while he can sometimes be pretty righteous for the most part he tends to go with the flow in a stoic sort of way. The usual Kitaro way of fighting is to somehow get killed/beaten up, come back in a weird supernatural way, and then find a way to defeat the yokai that did him harm. In this volume, though, he really seems to be put through the wringer, and there’s less of him being clever.

Kitaro as a manga tends to be somewhat silly, particularly in the resolutions, and this one tops itself quite a bit. I was highly amused at Kitaro almost getting killed by having teeth spit at him, and the poop gags that tend to be rife in shonen manga of this period are here as well, as at one point the victims of a yokai are excreted. Topping them all, though, is Kitaro getting the crap kicked out of him, to the point where his head is covered in bumps (cartoon-style)… and then having those bumps launch as missiles to counterattack. It’s so incredibly silly, and yet it also shows off the sheer brilliance of Mizuki’s imagination. He may confine himself to yokai here, but you see why – despite telling essentially the same story over and over (a yokai is doing bad things, Kitaro stops it), the series is never boring.

I believe that the next volume, out early next year, will be the final one in these omnibus collections. They’re all worth picking up. Kitaro is a style of manga that is both very reminiscent of the late 60s manga style and yet also timeless. It’s also very re-readable. Highly recommended.

No Game No Life, Vol. 8

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Komen.

It’s a No Game No Life volume, so you sort of know what you’re going to get by now. A lot of faffing around and being stupid and/or appalling while Steph (and the reader) tries to figure out what Sora and Shiro are thinking. Sora being reprehensibly perverted, and honestly I think him being a cowardly virgin deep down makes it MORE annoying. The fact that this is a writer who writes awkward prose in Japanese being translated awkwardly into English, meaning sometimes you have to go reread the previous paragraph to figure out what was just said. In amongst this, however, there are the usual good things lurking near the bottom, including a good discussion of war games vs. actual war, and the “villain” of the book, whose road towards becoming more emotional in her constant inquisitiveness is a good one in the end. And Steph. Steph is always good, though you have to put up with her being constantly belittled by everyone in the world.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Sora and Shiro (and Steph) being forced to replicate the last War and understand how it was resolved. This is, of course, impossible, mostly as, despite the obvious attempts by the narrator to make us think it in Book 6, Sora and Shiro are not Riku and Schwi, nor can they be. More to the point, as Sora point out, there’s a big difference between a game of war and war in reality: a game ends. When you “win” in war, you have to think about what happens next, unlike your typical game of Axis and Allies. Moreover, while this is going on on Old Deus’ gaming board, the remaining players are all trying to betray each other in the real world, which doesn’t go well. For anyone. And then there’s the matter of the traitor who was mentioned before, which is actually one of the subplots I felt was handled quite well.

In any case, by the end of the book we have what appears to be a new regular, and we also have some old “friends”, Chlammy and Fiel, who are also going to be hanging around now that Sora has, in effect, ruined their lives. Steph helped, and possibly my favorite moment in the book was when she looked away guiltily – but not that guiltily. Steph may dislike Sora’s perversions – I do as well – but she gets how he thinks, and was the first to point out a major aspect of [ ]’s gaming strategy, as well as Tet’s, which is to have fun. A lesson that everyone else in the cast, as well as many “serious” gamers in real life, could use. Of course, now that we’ve resolved this plot another is coming, as we appear to be gearing up for another invasion by …German robots?

As ever, No Game No Life remains intensely frustrating and annoying (everything about the elves in the war game was appalling and awful, and I don’t care that it was deliberately so), and it’s genuinely difficult to read at times. But there are moments when you can see the talent of the author shine though, and they’re excellent. Mildly recommended.

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 1

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By Kamome Shirahama. Released in Japan as “Tongari Boushi no Atelier” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Morning Two. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Stephen Kohler.

With a title like this, it’s tempting to leave the review at (flailing around) PRETTY!, which is certainly true, but there’s more to the title than the art – the story is also quite compelling, and I’m enjoying the characters. That said, boy is it pretty. I suspect most people were drawn to it by the cover, and the inside is even better. This is a world of magic, though at first our heroine doesn’t seem to have any. But there are magic pools and the like. And there are witches, who are both male and female here. Coco desperately wishes she was a witch, but doesn’t seem to have the power, despite having been sold a mysterious magical book at a fair years ago by a mysterious masked stranger, something that is completely not suspicious at all. So you can imagine her delight when a real witch shows up one day, and she gets to observe how magic is made. The delight has consequences, though…

For the most part, this is a title filled with whimsy and wonder, and Coco is a bubbly, happy hero. I say for the most part because the circumstances that lead to her becoming a witch are creepy and scary, and essentially a child’s worst nightmare. Fortunately the witch from the earlier chapter is able to help her, and she gets taken away to magic school to essentially start starring in Harry Potter. She gets a few new friends, and also a roommate who really does not like her, in the best boarding school tradition. Most of this volume hinges on the fact that Coco has absolutely no training in this sort of thing whatsoever, and things that are common knowledge to all witches are new to her. This allows the reader to receive an explanation, of course, but also helps to show off how Coco seems to be a prodigy as well – she soaks up the information quickly, and can extricate herself from life-threatening situations.

The rest of the cast is not as fleshed out as Coco, but it’s a good start. Mostly we focus on Qifrey and Agott. Qifrey seems to be the sort of pleasant mentor who will have a bit of a dark side later on, sort of like Dumbledore (well, hopefully not THAT much like Dumbledore). Agott makes the stronger impression, and it’s not a good one at first, with the line “such a shame about your mother” wriggling with unspoken contempt. Agott and Coco are meant to contrast heavily, and Agott is also clearly meant to be the favored student who gets shown up straight away by the new girl. Will they eventually bond as friends? Not sure, but things aren’t looking good right now, as Agott sends Coco out on a deadly test and does not seem to be punished for it at all.

So, to sum up: magical fantasy, spunky young protagonist, rivals and companions, a mysterious past, and excellent artwork. It’s a terrific start to a series.

Durarara!!, Vol. 12

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By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Around about the time that Shizuo is seen to punch a forklift out of the way, it struck me that he is one of the most beloved characters in DRRR!! solely because it is set in “reality”. Now, it’s an urban fantasy, but you know what I mean. If Shizuo were a NEET who died and was transported into the world of DRRR!!, it would be appalling. He’d be the most overpowered male power fantasy imaginable. Heck, he even got a love triangle (of a sort) devoted to him a few volumes ago. All we lack are monsters… oh wait. This whole volume explores one of the series’ main themes, which is what makes a monster and what makes a human. Celty spends almost the entire book in a state of pure emotional rage, not even remotely resembling a human being. Anri is still (always) thinking that she doesn’t think or feel the way “humans” do. And then there’s Izaya, who finds the idea of Shizuo offensive, but let’s face it, is the most monstrous of them all.

Getting back to Anri, the scenes with her and Saki are some of my favorites in the series, if only as the whole thing is so anticlimactic. Saki arrives trying to gauge if Anri is a threat. Why wouldn’t she? Masaomi talks about her constantly, she’s cute, and is literally defined in the DRRR!! universe by her large breasts. But of course Anri is a sweetie-pie with no self-esteem, and once Saki gets that everything gets more relaxing. Anri also takes a large step forward by being the first of the trio of friends to actually break their “agreement” – she asks Saki to tell her about Masaomi’s past. Given that said agreement has only hurt everyone involved, I have to approve. Of course, Anri is still hiding some things (Saika is not brought up in front of Saki), but it’s still a step forward, and might lead to her making a big emotional leap forward.

Narita confessed in the afterword that this was meant to be the final volume and it got too long, which is not a surprise – there’s no more setup in this book, and though there are strings of long conversations as always, they’re not there to drop hints for the future. Haruna’s teacher is trying his hardest to become the Big Bad of the series, using Saika to possess half of Ikebukuro and create a “zombie attack”, but I suspect his chances of making us respect him are nonexistent. We’re far more interested in the final fight between Izaya and Shizuo, triggered by Izaya’s attempt to kill Shizuo accidentally injuring Vorona. The fact that Izaya is finally going to try to kill Shizuo is mentioned several times in the book by various groups and people, and they all have the same reaction: Izaya is going to commit suicide. Given that the two rarely confront each other in the novels, I expect the fight to be epic.

Oh yes, and Mikado’s got a gun, so things ain’t never gonna be the same. I didn’t talk about Mikado at all this book, but given that I suspect the 13th and final volume will revolve around him, it’s best to save something for later. Till then, enjoy a very good DRRR!!, though I’d sort of like it if Anri’s breasts weren’t a separate character of their own (complete with the usual “lol, molestation is funny!” interior art).

Manga the Week of 4/17/19

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SEAN: A Week of much excitement and prizes!

Dark Horse has a Berserk light novel (light? Berserk?) called The Flame Dragon Knight.

ASH: Ha! Surprising no one, I’ll be picking this up.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a 13th Little Apocalypse and an 8th Outbreak Company.

Kodansha doesn’t seem to have any debuts, but we do get Aho-Girl 12 and Sailor Moon Eternal Edition 4.

Digitally there is All Out!! 9, Altair: A Record of Battles 10, Back Street Girls 10, DAYS 13, Kira-kun Today 6, Ran he Peerless Beauty 2, and Tokyo Revengers 6. I’m definitely reading another Ran.

MICHELLE: Me, too!

MJ: Okay, I still haven’t read the first Ran, but I need to!

MICHELLE: It has a certain Kimi ni Todoke quality about it.

One Peace has a 10th manga volume for polarizing title The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Seven Seas has a digital light novel debut with Restaurant to Another World (Isekai Shokudou). I’ve read the manga on Crunchyroll’s site, so am looking forward to a prose version. You can probably guess the premise.

ASH: You can probably guess that I’ll be giving the series a try later this year (when it debuts in print).

SEAN: They’ve also got the 4th Clockwork Planet novel (print edition), Getter Robo Devolution 3, Himouto Umaru-chan 5, and If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord 3 (manga version).

This should have been on last week’s list, but Sol Press have 2nd volumes for their light novels Battle Divas and Strongest Gamer.

ASH: I’d forgotten about Sol Press!

SEAN: Vertical Comics debuts Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest (Hokuhokusei ni Kumo to Ike), the newest series from the creator of Ran and the Gray World, runs in Harta magazine, and is apparently as gorgeous as its older sister manga.

MICHELLE: Ooh, neat!

ANNA: I haven’t read the second volume of Ran and the Gray World yet, but I suspect that series is going to be too male gazey for me, I’ll be checking out reviews of North-by-Northwest.

MJ: Sign me up for this!

SEAN: Viz, as if to say to hold off on Pick of the Week till they show up, debuts a Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind artbook, as well as a new Junji Ito Story Collection, Smashed.

ASH: Smashing!

MJ: Oooooooh that artbook…

SEAN: And they have the 5th Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, the 6th and mercifully final Fire Punch, a 9th Golden Kamuy (which can be as disturbing as Fire Punch was at times, but draws me in far more), and Tokyo Ghoul;re 10.

ASH: More Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction and Golden Kamuy for me!

ANNA: I’m excited for more Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction!

SEAN: Are you excited. I’m excited. (And I just can’t hide… sorry.)

Bookshelf Briefs 4/10/19

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Akashic Records of Bastard Magica Instructor, Vol. 6 | By Hitsuji Tarou, Tsunemi Aosa and Kurone Mishima | Seven Seas – I was sort of hoping that Rumia would do something other than hang around and get saved, but alas. Most of the character work in this goes to Re=L, whose past turns out to be not quite her own, and the brother she’s so devoted to also turns out to be not what he seems. It’s filled with tragedy and manipulation, but fortunately Glenn is able to see her through it. And thus we move on to the next arc, which seems to be introducing a dead past love for Glenn… who happens to be a dead ringer for Sisti! Who is pretending Glenn is the man she’s going to marry. This remains middle-of-the-road manga, but it’s still interesting enough to make me get the next book. – Sean Gaffney

Berserk: Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1 | By Kentaro Miura | Dark Horse – Due to the price point, Dark Horse’s deluxe treatment of Berserk will likely appeal most to already established fans of the series (a group to which I belong), but it is a striking release nonetheless. The first deluxe omnibus collects the first three volumes of the manga in a single, massive, hardcover tome with a large trim size that showcases Miura’s artwork. There isn’t really any new or added content, although the covers of the individual volumes are included as color pages. It’s been a while since I’ve read Berserk from the beginning. The initial chapters feel a little directionless at times, nothing more than an excuse to have an astonishingly badass swordsman with a mysterious but obviously tragic backstory taking out demons, but soon the manga builds and coalesces into something truly epic. What remains constant is that Berserk is a violent, brutal, horrifying, and frequently disturbing dark fantasy. – Ash Brown

My Hero Academia, Vol. 18 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – This is definitely a manga of two halves. The first is serious as can be—we have a major hero death, Mirio does NOT magically get his powers back, and Eri is saved but traumatized. Our main cast are changed as well… Ochaco now wants to save people as a main goal, and Kirishima also notes he’s shaken up. Fortunately for the reader, we have the back half of the manga, which introduces the REAL Camie (whom Toga had impersonated) and has the Remedial Hero License Exam… which involves winning over a class of spoiled kindergarten brats. It’s pretty hilarious all round, with some great gags and also showing us that Bakugo CAN learn and grow as well. An excellent volume of an outstanding series. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 1 | By Kohei Horikoshi and Anri Yoshi | VIZ Media – The things the cretinous Mineta says in this prose spinoff are so vile that they eclipse the things he says and does in the manga/anime, and that’s really saying something. I appreciate the reactions from some classmates, like Tokoyami glaring at him with “utter contempt” and Kaminari getting a chance to show that his own horniness has limits, but I must remind the author… Mineta didn’t have to get this much of the spotlight, you know? Anyway, Parents’ Day is at hand (which makes for some drama at the end of the volume) but first several of the boys rescue a girl at an amusement park while three of the girls go to a supermarket. The latter story was promising until was revealed that the shoplifter they caught had crapped himself. So puerile. I wanted to like this but in the end it just pissed me off. – Michelle Smith

My Monster Secret, Vol. 15 | By Eiji Masuda | Seven Seas – This mostly expands on the new plot twists from last time. Shiho is still trying to find a way to avoid fate, which doesn’t work, but she, Mikan and Nagisa all reveal their secrets to each other at the same time, which is probably the funniest scene in the book, and leads to a lot of “yeah, so, most of us are supernatural in some way” scene. There’s also a summer beach chapters, which leads (chanks to Akane) our main couple getting left behind and stranded. They grow closer, there’s a kiss…. and then there’s a bite. Now it’s time for Akane to point out that biting for vampires isn’t just kissing, it’s a lot more serious. And finally, a reminder—again—that Youko is a vampire. Are we finally going to dark places? – Sean Gaffney

Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu, Vol. 3 | By Natsuya Semikawa and Virginia Nitouhei | Udon Entertainment – The “cute food manga” is still there, but things get a lot more dramatic in this third volume. We actually get some backstory for Shinobu, the heir to a restaurateur who is fleeing and arranged marriage, and Nobuyuki, her restaurant’s cook who had just quit. In the fantasy world, the asshole villain from last time is back, and trying to get the izakaya shut down—and its owners executed—for the beer they’re selling, as it’s actually lager, which is illegal in this world. This is one of those “every minor character who had loved their food comes together to help” plots that I really love, and it makes this volume the best of the series to date. – Sean Gaffney

That Blue Sky Feeling, Vol. 2 | By Okura and Coma Hashii | Viz Media – Noshiro may be a giant bundle of extrovert, but that’s not always a good thing, as this volume demonstrates. Whether Noshiro is gay or not is still up in the air—certainly Sanada thinks he’s straight—but his attempts to solve Sanada’s problems just lead to more problems, as Ayumi and Sanada cannot go back to what they were before, and underclassman Makoto (who has a giant crush on Noshiro) is another spanner in the works. Noshiro has to be reminded that “Oh, he’s gay!” is not just something you can say in a modern Japanese high-school environment… and Sanada has to be shown that it’s not the end of the world. Still surprisingly sweet. – Sean Gaffney

UQ Holder, Vol. 16 | By Ken Akamatsu | Kodansha Comics – After a Vol. 15 that I gave a full review to as it wrapped up Negima properly, we’re back to the actual main cast of UQ Holder, who have been shown how to abuse time travel by Negi and company and are now abusing that for their own ends. It’s a good philosophical argument held here—we can’t save everyone vs. can we just let everyone die? We also get some insight into Jinbei and Gengoro and what kind of immortality they have, as well as the type of person they are—though honestly, Akamatsu tends to lean towards “battle crazy” a whole lot. One other thing I want to note is that, now that UQ Holder comes out in a monthly magazine rather than weekly, and the chapters are longer, it’s much better paced. – Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 17 | By Mizuho Kusanagi | VIZ Media – A new arc begins in this volume, as the five-tribe council agrees to war with South Kai in order to reclaim Kin Province, lost in a previous war. Yona and company have befriended a kid from Kai and, after helping him get back home, witness firsthand the atrocities committed by the Kai soldiers after their defeat by Kohka. Meanwhile, several of the dragons have fallen ill and there is ominous talk (and, later, a bonus story about) what happens to the existing dragon when a new one is born. They decide to hide the fact that they are short-lived from Yona, and it’s perhaps because this put the idea of their demise into my head that I completely fell for a fakeout that ensues. I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the mysterious Zeno, and continue to love this series very much. – Michelle Smith

Accel World: Cradle of Stars

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By Reki Kawahara and Hima. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jocelyne Allen.

For the most part this is a “downtime” volume of Accel World, a breather after the action of the last few books. We get Niko and Kuroyukihime coming over to Haruyuki’s house for a sleepover, where he suddenly goes into great detail about his family, presumably in order to make a future arc not come out of nowhere. He and Takumu are also confronted by a classmate who wants them to join her in running for the student council, something that really hammers on Haru’s “I hate myself” buttons. There is, of course, a pool episode, with swimsuits galore and Haruyuki accidentally seeing more than he should. Nega Nebulus adds to its ranks with the Chocolat Puppeter trio (complete with an explanation of why her name is written wrong in English). And we get a big confrontation with the Green team, as they discuss how to defeat the Acceleration Research Society. The cliffhanger shows that one of Green’s group is very familiar to Nega Nebulus. Who could it be?

…and then it promptly shows us who it is in a short story set after the main book, where we see a younger Kuroyukihime getting ready to level up to Level Nine with the help of her teacher and companion in Nega Nebulus. It does sort of undercut the cliffhanger considerably. I’m also not sure I like our teasing creator suggesting something that clearly isn’t going to be true. Kawahara is already well aware that fandom thought Kirito and Asuna were Kuroyukihime’s parents, and went out of his way to shoot that down. But here we see a mysterious black figure, with two swords as his main feature, who pretty much describes himself as a sword, and who occasionally shows signs that he’s not in elementary school like the rest of them (such as his knowledge of what a pencil is). It screams “COULD THIS BE KIRITO?!” so much that it clearly isn’t, but I’m not sure I appreciate the author trolling in quite this way.

We see Nega Nebulus expand a great deal in this book, as I said earlier. In addition to Chocolat Puppeter’s group challenging Haruyuki so that they can ask to join their group (which leads to the funniest fight in the book, as even Silver Crow shows he is not above eating his way out of a problem), Metatron’s “bug” form is introduced to Kuroyukihime and Fuko, and there’s a brief amusing confrontation as to who gets to be his master/teacher. Haruyuki’s life in the Accel World is expanding, with friends and loved ones. He’s still having trouble transitioning that into the real world, though, despite the basketball game a few volumes ago (which is brought up here) and despite everyone literally pointing out all the great things he’s been doing. Once you start regarding yourself as pathetic, it’s really hard to stop it, and I appreciate that we’re seeing this with Haruyuki, even if it can be frustrating.

So, since the cliffhanger was sort of given away after the fact, the real question for next volume is why is their old friend now working for the enemy? Also, wasn’t he trapped in the palace the way that the others were? And will Haruyuki run for office? Or finally choose a level-up bonus? Still a good series, despite my criticisms.

Oh yes, and don’t spend 15 pages building up why the next world will be a Space world and then have it NOT be a Space world. What was the point?

Space Battleship Yamato: The Classic Collection

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By Leiji Matsumoto. Released in Japan as “Uchuu Senkan Yamato” by Akita Shoten, serialized in the magazine Bouken Ou. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Zack Davisson. Adapted by J.P. Sullivan.

There’s been a wonderful glut lately of both classic 70s manga and also Leiji Matsumoto’s works (frequently those are the same thing). We got Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas, and we’re getting the modern rewrite of Harlock. And now we’re getting the original Space Battleship Yamato, with the modern version of that coming out this summer. No sign of a rescue of Galaxy Express 999, but I suspect that’s more complicated. In the meantime, it’s time for more of the best of what Matsumoto has to offer as a manga artist… and also the worst, as Matsumoto is not perfect, nor is this collection. But it does give you exactly what the title promises: Space, and lots of it. Impressive battleships sailing through space. And, wonder of wonders, and ending that, although rushed, actually wraps up the series! Unfortunately, that ending is 1/3 through the book, and the actual ending is the open non-ending we’ve come to expect from Matsumoto.

For those who are unaware, Yamato was conceived as an anime, and Matsumoto was brought into it later on in development. He quickly made it his own, though, and the manga began about a month after the anime started. (The anime was also “adapted” into Star Blazers, for those with long memories…) The premise has aliens dropping radioactive bombs on Earth, and the only ones who can stop them is the Earth Fleet… which isn’t doing so hot. Fortunately, they have a secret battleship, Yamato, that can battle the Gamilans, as well as try to seek aid from mysterious blonde-haired, gorgeous, and mostly dead alien babes. (This isn’t Harlock, so the gorgeous aliens aren’t evil here.) Together with trusted old Captain Okita, young and impetuous yet destined for greatness Susumu Kodai, and only woman in the Earth Fleet Yuki Mori, they will defeat the Gamilans… and then have to escape Earth after it grows smug and proud in the aftermath.

The main reason to get this manga, in my opinion, are the many pages of the expanses of space. Each chapter features at least 5-6 pages of just space, planets, and stars, and it’s here to show off the wonder of it all. Characterization, on the other hand, fares less well, with everyone pretty much matching to a type. There’s a sense this is trying to adapt an anime rather than be its own thing (which may be true). In addition, I have to say it, I’m not a fan of the way Matsumoto uses humor. His leads tend to be the brooding, serious types, so he balances it out by having the dumbest Milton Berle-style comedy, complete with drunken vets butchering pigs, etc. An exception to this is the robot Analyzer, who would be an R2-D2 ripoff if this weren’t a good three years before Star Wars. His snarky comments did spark amusement from me, especially when they verged on verbal abuse.

This doesn’t really hit the heights that Harlock and Emeraldas do; it tries to be majestic, but can’t quite make it. But it’s entertaining as a space opera, and I do love those expanses of darkness with only stars. If you enjoy Matsumoto, give this a try.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Abyssus Abyssum Invocat

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

The subtitle of this volume is translated as “Hell Follows Hell”, or more colloquially, one mistake leads to more. Tanya learns that here in a book that shows off how imperfect all the sides are. Tanya herself, due to her rabid anti-communist mindset (and the salaryman inside her, who I honestly tend to forget about most of the time) is slow to realize that the not-Russians fighting them are actually fighting for their homes and native land… not for communism. This is huge because it changes the entire way they have to fight the enemy. She also runs into Mary Sue for the first time, and while there’s clearly a much larger fight still to come, it’s a difficult battle that depletes her elite unit of a quarter of its entire force. (That said, rest assured all the characters whose names we can remember survive.) And of course Britain and Russia are having their own issues with lack of manpower, lack of supplies, lack of materials… we’ve reached the attrition stage of the war.

The cover art has Tanya standing at the gravesite of the soldiers who fell in that battle, and it reminds us that just because the title is “Tanya the Evil”, and Tanya frequently does morally reprehensible things, does not means she is 100% black of heart. She cares about her subordinates, mourns them, and has long passed the Tanya of the first book who was merely looking for “meat shields”. Likewise, General Zettour, at the end of the book, as he attempts to coerce/cajole the separatist parts of the Federation to join them, thinks that as a good person, he’s appalled, but as a soldier fighting for the Empire, he’s willing to be evil. A person who commits mass murders but feels really bad about the whole thing is still a mass murderer. And, on the other side of the coin, we have Mary, who is bright and shiny and filled with thoughts of revenge and I suspect is so naive that she will be led by the nose whenever she runs into someone manipulative.

Other things to note: as I feared, Loriya is still around, and still a pedophile. It’s not played for laughs as much, but still disturbing. Speaking of which, the soldiers joke at one point about Tanya marrying Visha for her coffee-making skills, and Tanya briefly ponders whether, as a male mind inside the body of a young girl, he would qualify as gay or not, but then promptly decides to not think about it. Which is fine, I won’t either. Tanya is twelve. In fact, the fact that Tanya is twelve comes up an awful lot here: after four volumes of mostly having everyone ignore the fact that she’s so young, we get a bunch of scenes to reinforce it: she can’t interrogate the Federation prisoners as they won’t take her seriously, she can’t get into the celebratory party at the Officer’s Mess as she can’t drink, etc. It’s a nice reminder that the basic premise of this entire series is meant to be, deliberately, very screwed up. War makes people send a child to battle.

I’ve heard that Tanya light novel fans and Tanya anime fans disagree quite a bit, and I suspect this book definitely falls on the reader side, being interesting more for the discussion of warfare than for the short, yet well-written battles. There’s also a lot of great wartime sarcastic banter between the soldiers here, which I enjoyed. For those who don’t mind long, lecturing tomes, this is still very good.

Ao Haru Ride, Vol 4

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Ao Haru Ride Volume 4 by Io Sakisaka

Oh, the agony of teenage love triangles! Ao Haru Ride explores this in the form of two best friends having crushes on the same boy, but the unique twist here is that they actually manage to remain friends as they wrestle with their emotions. The fact that one of the characters is dealing with profound loss creates a backdrop of melancholy that makes the teen romance have a timeless and nostalgic quality.

Ao Haru Ride 4

This volume delves more into Kou’s backstory as the recently formed friend group of Futuba, Yuri, Shuko and Aya are determined not to let Kou fail out of school. Kou’s issues are not because of a lack of ability, but he has difficulty getting himself to truly try at anything. Kou is still struggling with the death of his mother, and the reader gets a flashback to see how he was put into a caregiving role during her illness at a young age. Kou’s walls of isolation from his friends don’t last forever as Futuba is determined to get through to him. There’s some great paneling and action sequences as they tumble together down a hill in a scene made for a romantic movie. As Kou embraces Futuba, she stays still so he won’t be embarrassed by her seeing him cry.

One of the earlier themes in Ao Haru Ride is Futuba’s difficulty relating to traditionally feminine behaviors, and this is brought out again when the group decides to attend a summer festival together. Yuri shows up looking strategically adorable in a yukata, and Futuba starts to feel jealous. But when Kou sees another boy talking to Futuba it is clear that he’s not as indifferent as he pretends to be. Yuri observes his reactions, but the girls continue to affirm their own friendship even while navigating their crushes. Overall, this series just continues to be wonderfully executed shoujo. Sakisaka excels at capturing quiet moments between the characters that show the glimmerings of first love.

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 9

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By Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu. Released in Japan as “Yakusoku no Neverland” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Satsuki Yamashita.

At long last, we get to meet the famous William Minerva… or at least his echo. I liked the self-awareness that both Emma and Lucas had when they got to the elevator and went “…really? An elevator to freedom/ Is it THIS easy?” No, of course it isn’t that easy. In fact, it turns out that William Minerva may no longer be with us, though that doesn’t stop him from leaving a recording that helps our heroes to buckle down and not give up. It also reveals that this WAS meant to be a safe harbor, and it’s the demons who corrupted Goldy Pond and turned it into a hunting ground. There’s lots of odd otherworldly touches in the early part of this book, like the literal pond of gold whose water doesn’t get you wet, that reminds the reader that The Promised Neverland is as much science fiction as it is horror or mystery.

Meanwhile, I’ve been saying ever since he was removed ffrom the plot that Norman would prove to not be dead, and that is the case. That said, the chapter featuring him is one big “what the hell?” after another, and is meant to plant seeds, especially given that one of the kids in Emma’s group at Goldy Pond (who seems to have a learning disability) keeps repeating Norman’s number. How long has it been since the start of the series? Norman’s in much the same place he was at the first volume – solving tests, amazing folks with his intelligence, and trying to escape even though it’s even more impossible than it was at Grace Field. What’s more, the guy who’s his minder is the same guy who betrayed “William Minerva”. And, lest you forget that Promised Neverland is also a horror title, there’s that two-page spread of the room of experimental humans Norman walks past. In just one chapter you get about thirty things to think about.

Back at Goldy Pond, the next hunt has been scheduled early because the demons want to eat Emma SO BADLY. Fortunately, our heroes are prepared for it, and so we get a few chapters of the kids showing they’ve been holding back and taking out the mook demons. This includes one who leers at the reader and says “How Cute”, which makes me wonder if this homage to Kaguya-sama was in the original Japanese or if this is just a Viz invention. There’s lots of scenes of the kids seemingly cornered only to win out in the end, which I will happily read over and over again, and not every battle runs along the same lines, which is important in a long-running shonen title like this. That said, I doubt this series will be going to 90+ volumes like One Piece. But it is going to double digits, as the cliffhanger shows Emma confronting the strongest and cleverest of the hunting demons.

I hope I don’t need to repeat myself: Promised Neverland is consistently excellent, and I like how it’s really showing off that just because it left Grace Field (the cliffhanger to the first anime season) does not mean it’s all over. Essential.

Four New Shoujo Series from Kodansha

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Note: With the exception of Love in Focus, these are digital-only releases.

Love in Focus, Vol. 1 by Yoko Nogiri
Having really enjoyed Nogiri-sensei’s That Wolf-boy Is Mine!, I was happy to see another of her titles get licensed. Alas, it’s another short series.

Mako Mochizuki is entering her first year of high school and has been invited by her childhood friend, Kei Akahoshi, to attend a school almost four hours away from home by train. Both of them are really into photography, having been taught by Mako’s grandfather before he passed away, and this school has a photography club with a professional for an advisor. Furthermore, they both live in a boarding house occupied almost entirely by club members. The one outlier is another first year, an introverted guy named Mitsuru Amemura who claims to hate photos.

I really enjoyed Mako as a protagonist, and probably will always enjoy a lead character who’s truly passionate about something (and good at it, too). I also liked that it’s the way she sees the world, and her ability to find beauty in the smallest things, that convinces Amemura to open up about his past and consent to be her photographic subject. I could definitely do without Kei and his pissy possessiveness of Mako (even if he did invite her because he understood how lonely she was at home without her beloved grandpa) and hope that we’re not going to be expected to buy into a love triangle scenario.

It’s true there are shades of Shortcake Cake in this story, but it’s distinct enough that I intend to follow both of them. Also, this one has a really cute dog.

Love in Focus is complete in three volumes. Kodansha will release volume two in English in May.

My Sweet Girl, Vol. 1 by Rumi Ichinohe
My Sweet Girl has a fairly generic premise: Tsugumi Koeda (her last name means “twig”) is a short, skinny girl who believes she’s not the kind of person who gets to fall in love. “No guy has ever looked at me as a girl in my whole life,” she narrates, but this changes when she meets popular Masamune Sena, your standard princely shoujo love interest, who inspires her to begin expressing her femininity more overtly.

On the one hand, I liked Tsugumi’s insecurities about her physique and that she thinks things like, “I never, ever want to show my body to Masamune-kun.” Her wariness of being led on and her gradual realization that it’s okay to be more true to herself are good, too. On the other hand, the execution of this storyline at times leaves a lot to be desired. So many times, background characters will pipe up with cruel comments out of the blue and it feels so unrealistic. Like, random passing fifth graders berate Tsugumi for her appearance, and a group of boys who knew her in junior high interrupt her summer festival outing with Masamune just to call her a stick. We get that she faces some adversity, but this is verging on lame. Too, I lost track of how many times Tsugumi falls down, is knocked down, or passes out. It happens A LOT.

There’s enough to like about My Sweet Girl to entice me to return for a second volume, but if she falls down half a dozen more times in that one too, I probably won’t proceed to a third.

My Sweet Girl is ongoing in Japan, where the ninth volume has just come out. Kodansha will digitally release volume two on Tuesday.

Ran the Peerless Beauty, Vol. 1 by Ammitsu
Are you despondent now that Kimi ni Todoke has finished? Are you looking for a series with a similar feel? Look no further, because Ran the Peerless Beauty is here!

Ran Takamine is seemingly perfect. She’s beautiful, rich, extremely smart, and athletic. She’s also been deemed undateable, as boys are too intimidated to talk to her, expecting her standards to be sky-high. In reality, though, she’s a sweet girl who works really hard and is completely inexperienced with boys. When she accidently sprays Akira Saeki with a hose while diligently performing her duties for the Gardening Club, she’s surprised by how cheerful he is about it.

Gradually, they become friends, bonding over their love of flowers. Akira’s father runs a flower shop and his ambition is to get good enough to create bouquets. Ran joined the Gardening Club to help “sensei,” but adds, “I had the feeling that I’d rather be around flowers than people.” Akira can see that, rather than being snooty, she’s just a bit awkward.

What reminds me of Kimi ni Todoke is both Ran’s classic beauty and her attitude. Her male classmates won’t make eye contact with her, but not because they fear being cursed but because she shines too brightly, but she’s really just a normal person with her own weak points. Akira is sunny despite some scary family circumstances—it’s not until late in the volume that Ran learns his mother is in the hospital—and encourages Ran to come out of her shell a bit.

I can see this evolving into quite a lovely story, and I am so here for it. I also hope to learn more about Akira, his circumstances, and how he sees Ran. We do at least know that their growing feelings are mutual, which is nice.

Ran the Peerless Beauty is ongoing in Japan, where the fifth volume has just come out. Kodansha will digitally release volume two later this month.

World’s End and Apricot Jam, Vols. 1-2 by Rila Kirishima
The blurb for the first volume of World’s End and Apricot Jam wasn’t very encouraging. “After breaking into Anzu Shinohara’s apartment and smashing his already broken keyboard, Hina Sakata quickly finds herself in his debt. As she works to pay him back, Hina finds out that Anzu is a vocalist in a band and becomes entranced, wanting to explore more of his unkown world.” It’s all technically correct, but suggested to me something more Sensual Phrase-y than what actually occurs, to my great relief.

Hina lives with her father, who is ostensibly the manager of an apartment building. He spends his days getting drunk, however, so she takes over his duties so that he doesn’t lose his job. One of their tenants is the slovenly guy in #304, who turns out to be a singer in a band. He’s also full of contradictions—and I don’t mean his transformation from “goofy weirdo” to “charismatic vocalist”—as he finds himself repeatedly drawn to Hina only to pull himself back at the last second.

It’s true that Anzu’s indecisiveness plays with Hina’s emotions, but it does truly seem to be unintentional. He’s in his twenties and has done a lot of things that he’s not proud of. (“I’m no good and a liar.”) And here is this girl, so sweet and great, whom he comes to care for in a way he hasn’t cared for anyone in a long time, and yet… is it right to encourage her feelings when she’s an innocent and might be better off without the baggage of his past and his angst?

Ultimately, I liked this series a lot more than I was expecting to. I also like that it’s a fairly short series; these sorts of scenarios can get tiresome when they go on too long.

World’s End and Apricot Jam is complete in six volumes. Kodansha will digitally release volume three on Tuesday.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

The Asterisk War: Whispers of a Long Farewell

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

Last time Saya stole Claudia’s thunder a bit, but in this volume Claudia definitely takes the spotlight: this is her book, and we get glimpses of her childhood, how she’s been changed and affected by wielding the Pan-Dora, and just what her REAL wish it, as everyone agrees it can’t simply be “I want an interview with a known political prisoner”. In fact, it’s a lot more close to home than that, and a lot darker. That said, in amongst the darkness we do get some good fights, as Ayato finally has to face off against his roommate, who turns out to be from a family of ninjas, to the surprise of absolutely no one. And of course the other girls are somewhat stunned at Saya admitting her feelings directly to Ayato, and are wondering what comes next, though honestly, knowing how harem titles work, they should not be surprised the answer is “not much.”

I did give Saya credit for confessing last time, but it’s hard to take “you don’t have to answer me right away” as anything more than backing away at the last minute. That said, that’s more on the author than on Saya herself, and she’s right that she doesn’t want to affect the Gryps team while they’re still competing. Julis and Kirin are both providing what little humor is in this volume with their reactions, which are pretty much exactly what you’d expect. Additional lightness is provided by Laetitia, Claudia’s childhood friend and “rival”, the sort of rival that you always see in these sorts of things, who is constantly talking about defeating Claudia one day but in reality is caring and worried. Just because I really enjoy each new volume of Asterisk War does not mean it isn’t hitting each cliche with perfect precision.

The bulk of the book stems from Claudia’s somewhat open declaration of war last book, and the Powers That Be deciding that things are so dangerous now that assassinating her in a very obvious way is actually the lesser of two evils. Fortunately, she’s clever and able to avoid getting killed right up till Ayato can show up. Unfortunately, Ayato is related to her REAL wish, and to his horror, it’s a bit of a death wish. As I said before, given what Claudia endures is using her Orga Lux, it’s unsurprising that she’s gotten somewhat jaded and tired – she’s seen being killed by the entire cast, including Julis, Kirin AND Saya. But not Ayato, and this leads to the second confession of the book. I’ll be honest, I did briefly wonder if the author had the stones to kill Claudia off. But honestly, having her survive was not only the more cliched (and thus Asterisk War) option, but it allows for a really lovely it where Ayato asks what she plans to do now, and she literally has no idea – she hadn’t imagined surviving.

I’m not sure how her newly “repaired” relationship with her mother and the rest of the PtB will go, but I do know that the next book will have the next tournament bout, and it’s not good news for our heroes – Claudia and Ayato are very depleted on resources. Are they really going to lose? OK, probably not. But Asterisk War remains good frothy fun, with some really good character development this time around as well.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 17

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By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

This volume of Yona of the Dawn doesn’t quite reach the absolute heights of the previous two. Of course, since that downgrades it to merely “excellent”, there’s no need to worry. We start a new arc, as it turns out that one of the latest outbreaks of war is happening right where Yona and her crew are going to next. Imagine that, huh? (Seriously, there’s a wonderful self-aware moment midway through this volume where Yona wonders what her life would have been like if Hak and Su-Won had not been at odds, and she realizes she’d be a sheltered princess in the palace, not caring about the outside. Moreover, there would be no Yona of the Dawn. And so, as a reader, we are delighted that instead Yona is out and about and doing things like “Starving child? Huh. Better shoot down a bird from the sky for him to eat!” without even batting an eye. This is the Yona I want to read about.

The starving kid is what kicks off the story – he’s from a village that is now part of the Kai Empire, but decades ago was part of the Kohka Empire. Shifting borders happen all the time when large nations are at war, and one of the points of this book is that people don’t care enough about the little villages along the border that are forced to deal with all this. For the most part the village has tried to stay out of the way of everyone, but that’s not going to work anymore, as, having suffered a humiliating defeat, decide that rather than let Kohka retake the land they lost, they’re going to burn it to the ground and kill everyone in it. Fortunately, they’ve got the Happy Hungry Bunch in town. Unfortunately, almost the entire group is down with a bad illness.

Hak is not ill, but even he can’t take on a huge group of soldiers all by himself. Yona is fine as well, but Hak knows very well this is not a fight for her no matter how much she’s improved – the numbers are too bad. And then there’s Zeno, the last of the not-ill group, who has been, for the past several volumes, “the goofy one” for the most part, who has to fly into action after all the others (including the sick guys, who try their best but are severely underpowered) are taken down and Yona is surrounded, and… well, immediately gets a sword through the chest. Ow. Fortunately, it turns out that Zeno has a few secrets of his own, though given that it’s part of the cliffhanger, it will be till the next volume before we get to see that. There’s also a short story at the end showing Jaeha’s past with his predecessor, which again reminds us of the difficulties of being a Dragon.

Yona is always exciting and fun (even in the most serious of scenes, there’s usually one or two asides that are hilarious – my favorite this volume being Yun’s “I know I’m a great catch, but I’m a boy.” Rest assured, this volume of Yona will keep you thoroughly entertained.