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Manga the Week of 3/27/19

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SEAN: Another huge week. Lots of Kodansha. Lots of Seven Seas. Lots of Yen. Lots of everything.

Denpa has a 3rd volume of Inside Mari.

Ghost Ship gives us a 5th Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs.

Kodansha’s digital debut is Asahi-sempai’s Favorite (Asahi-senpai no Okiniiri) is a Betsufure title that – try to contain your surprise – has a popular boy teasing an easily flustered girl. Sometimes a bit too much.

There’s also a PILE of ongoing digital. We have Ace of the Diamond 21, Ao-chan Can’t Study! 5, Black Panther and Sweet 16 10, Boarding School Juliet 9, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 11, Hotaru’s Way 8, I Want to Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 4, Kakafukaka 5, My Boy in Blue 7, and Tokyo Alice 9. That’s a lot. I follow Ao-chan and Kakafukaka.

MICHELLE: I’m only following Ace of the Diamond currently, but there are several in this list I *want* to read if time ever permits.

ANNA: Honestly, there is too much manga, and I am so far behind, it is tricky to even contemplate reading everything I am mildly interested in.

SEAN: For print, we only have Yuri Is My Job! 2.

ASH: I somehow missed that this was an ongoing series!

SEAN: Seven Seas has a digital-first light novel debut this week. Skeleton Knight in Another World is another in an odd trend of “I’m in a fantasy world as a living skeleton” series, this one an isekai. If you thought “I wonder if it has a gorgeous elf woman”, five more points.

Seven Seas also has Arpeggio of Blue Steel 14, Bloom Into You 6, A Centaur’s Life 16, Dragon Goes House-Hunting 2, Dragon Quest Monsters + 2, Hour of the Zombie 8, My Monster Secret 15, New Game! 5, and Wonderland 2. Lots I like in that pile.

MICHELLE: I need to read Dragon Goes House-Hunting!

ASH: I was legitimately amused by the first volume.

SEAN: Vertical has a 5th volume of CITY.

Yen has a light novel debut with 86–eighty six–, a title so nice they said it twice. It’s a dark little story about an invisible district, suicide bombers, and constant warfare. I’ll give the first volume a try, but it sounds like not my thing at all.

Yen On also gives us Accel World 17, Durarara!! 12, and The Saga of Tanya the Evil 5, which may equal the page count of AW and DRRR!! combined.

Yen Press has a debut manga with Plunderer, a Shonen Ace title from the creator of popular but unlicensed series Heaven’s Lost Property. As such, I expect a lot of fighting and a male lead who’s a pervert. Let’s see if I’m right.

And the Yen Press Players! We get Alice in Murderland 10, As Miss Beelzebub Likes 5, BTOOOM! 24, The Devil Is a Part-Timer! 13 (manga version), Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler 9, Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl 8, Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade 11 (a final volume), WataMote 13, One Week Friends 6, Re: Zero Arc 3 Volume 6 (manga version), Taboo Tattoo 13, A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School 6, and Triage X 17.

A stack of stuff! Stoked? Or stunned?

MICHELLE: Yeah, stunned. Very stunned.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, Vol. 2

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By Dachima Inaka and Iida Pochi. Released in Japan as “Tsujo Kogeki ga Zentai Kogeki de Ni-kai Kogeki no Okasan wa Suki desu ka?” by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America digitally by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Here we are with the second volume of everyone’s favorite parody. Last time, I was very pleased with the over the top humor and the fact that, desp[ite “lol incest subtext” being the premise, the book did not lean overheavily on any actual incest subtext. That’s still the case with the second book, which is not QUITE as funny but still has lots of amusing moments. Now that it’s an ongoing series, the author has to figure out how much it can rely on “this is a parody” and how much it actually has to take its plot seriously. Sometimes it doesn’t succeed – there’s a couple of stock fanservice moments in the middle of the book that are meant to be funny but made me cringe. Fortunately it fares better with its ongoing plot, which is comparing and contrasting Mamako to other moms in this game and realizing that she is, in fact, pretty awesome.

As the cover might have warned you, this second volume gets Mamako into a sailor suit school uniform. Our heroes find their next quest involves taking a week of school at a stock high school with NPC Teacher guy and a class so generic that their faces are literally ASCII art. Technically it’s kids-only. In reality, Mamako is there as an “observer”, and of course can’t resist taking up the spotlight and embarrassing her son. Also there is a pretty newcomer, Medhi, and her own mother (who is named “Medhimama” throughout the book, but I’m assuming that’s shorthand, as opposed to Mamako’s blatant actual name). Medhi is saddled with a classic “Education Mama” to the nth degree, who insists she be number one in everything. And while Medhi seems to be taking this with grace and patience, in reality she’s a seething cauldron of resentment waiting to go off.

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: the middle of the book has Mamako briefly molested by a tentacle monster, though it doesn’t get very far. There’s also a scene where Mamako has to apologize to customers for something (school festival booth), and her bouncing breasts are leered at quite a bit. These two tropes are not particularly part of what Mom Isekai is parodying, and so I am less inclined to give them a pass. They’re bad. Also, and possibly running the risk of taking this series too seriously, the relationship between Medhi and her mother is pretty abusive and toxic, a fact explicitly spelled out. As a result, I was a bit annoyed that Medhimama was possessed by some sort of illegal “dark item” (it came up last time as well, if I recall) that made her much worse. This makes it sound like the abuse was not her fault, which isn’t what the author wanted to say, I suspect. On the brighter side, the relationship between Mamako and her son is much better in this volume. He’s a good kid, and she’s a good, if overly affectionate, mom.

I still enjoyed this volume in general, even with my carps above. Those who like wacky parodies will still enjoy it, those looking for hot hot mom-son love will probably be frustrated. And it definitely needed more of Mrs. Shiraaase, who appeared far less this time around.

Ran the Peerless Beauty, Vol. 1

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By Ammitsu. Released in Japan as “Takane no Ran-san” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Friend. Released in North America digitally by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Nate Derr.

One of the running themes of this blog has been about how a manga can be good even if it is not original. Trying to describe Ran the Peerless Beauty simply by the plot and characters alone might have a reader who’s very familiar with shoujo rolling their eyes and moving on, or at least asking how much it felt like reading a secret, 31st volume of Kimi ni Todoke. (Answer: a whole lot.) It’s true that the premise does not really surprise. But I enjoyed this first volume immensely. The romance was sweet, both leads are nice people who get along with a minimum of teasing. Ran is introverted without being a shrinking violet. Akira is ‘the popular guy’ but lacks the ego that frequently goes with it (I’m looking at you, Hatsu*Haru.) It’s also frequently funny without actually being a comedy. It’s kind of like finding a new burger place. It’s still a burger and fries, but man, it’s tasty. You want to come back.

We are introduced to the titular Ran, who is tall, gorgeous, gets great grades, is good in sports, family is well-off, etc. She’s so maxed out on perfect attributes, in fact, that most guys never even try to approach her. It doesn’t help that she’s fairly stoic and introverted. She’s on the school’s gardening committee, but that’s more to fill out its ranks than anything else. One day, while watering flowers and thinking about other things, she accidentally soaks one of her classmates, Akira. He’s a popular guy in her class, nice, talks to everyone… grades not so great, but hey. He thinks she’s cute. He also has a dark secret. OK, not so dark. His family runs a florist shop, and he’s very good with flowers! Ran discovers this, and the two gradually become closer.

I like these two a lot. Ran is sort of like a less intense Sawako, as she soon comes to appreciate things around her and open up to Akira. Akira is the sort of boy you’d call ‘refreshing’. The rest of the cast hasn’t quite opened up yet (Ran’s best friend is there to be the extrovert to her introvert, but we know little about her except that she had a boyfriend, then broke up with him.) Mostly, though, I enjoyed this so much as I did because of the little stylistic things. The artist has lots of side comments and funny background events that reminded me of the old cluttered Hana to Yume manga. It’s not a comedy per se, but there’s lots of funny bits that come from this, and I like that Ran’s family is a normal goofy shoujo family. Best of all may be the portrayal of the Student Council, who are all, men and women, the complete cliche of the “student council member”, as if they were chosen based entirely on their looks.

So yes, the plot is “cute buy meets cute girl and they cute together”, but that’s fine by me, and I found a great deal to enjoy here. There’s far too many Kodansha series that are digital only for me to keep up with, but this is going to be one I’ll definitely make an effort on.

Bookshelf Briefs 3/19/19

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Behind the Scenes!!, Vol. 6 | By Bisco Hatori | Viz Media – This is coming to a close soon, and you can sort of tell—despite the plot complication showing us that Goda still really wants to direct, there’s just not a lot of special effects work here. Instead, we see the romantic pairings start to resolve, though resolve does not, in this case, mean “start a relationship.” I like this, as it shows how it can be difficult but not impossible to carry on working and being friends with someone after you’ve been rejected. Ruka, though, may have a tougher row to hoe here, and I have a suspicion that her arc is going to be the resolution of the series. Which is in the next volume, hopefully coming out a bit sooner than the year between books five and six. – Sean Gaffney

Dr. STONE, Vol. 4 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – This is a Shonen Jump series, and I think that fans of Dr. STONE are simply going to have to accept that we are not dealing with science, but with SCIENCE!, shouted like the Thomas Dolby song. In other words, leave your disbelief at the door, it is not welcome here. Meanwhile, we do find out why the girl wears a watermelon on her head—she’s half-blind without glasses, which don’t exist here. Glass is important, as it will allow Senku to help save the girl, but before he can do that, there’s a tournament arc coming up, which everyone enters with lots of “we will fix the bouts” plans which all get torpedoed instantly. This series is pure dumb fun, almost JoJo-esque at times. – Sean Gaffney

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 9 | By Izumi Miyazono | VIZ Media – Despite the fact that Asuka suggested that she and Ryu break up at the end of the previous volume—having seen how he flourished in Washington, DC and not wanting to hold him back—there was really zero chance that the series would end without them tying the knot. Apparently, they had a three-year separation where they were still in love but focusing on work and didn’t talk at all. They meet again at their friends’ wedding and suddenly it’s proposal time! It’s pretty anticlimactic, but there were things about the final volume I did like, like Kamiya assuming Asuka was crying over the breakup only to find her clear-eyed and also that Asuka came to appreciate her challenging job and changed her mind about quitting to be a full-time homemaker. I’d probably read something else by this author. – Michelle Smith

Fate/Zero, Vol. 8 | By Gen Urobuchi, Type-Moon, and Shinjiro | Dark Horse – Given this is the eighth of fourteen total volumes, we are at last starting to cull some of the cast, and thank goodness it involves Caster and his master being taken down, though honestly I could have done without the “Jeanne forgives me for killing all those little kids!” bit. We also get to see how overpowered Gilgamesh really is, as if we didn’t know that already, and find that the Lancer/Sola-Ui team is also getting removed from the equation. We do finally get more Tokiomi, at last, but ugh, he’s a really horrible father, even if you aren’t a Sakura fan. Since I am, I regard him with revulsion, even as I know that Kariya is on the losing end here. Well-written apocalypse manga. – Sean Gaffney

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Four-Panel Comics | By Hiromu Arakawa | VIZ Media – This slim volume collects not only the four-panel comics from the 27-volume Fullmetal Alchemist manga series—about which I’d forgotten everything save for a memory that Alphonse was drawn very cutely—but also those included in DVD releases for the first anime and Brotherhood and “rare strips from Japan.” The contents are organized by source. Some strips are more amusing than others, of course. Jokes about Edward’s height became tiresome, but I did like quite a few of them, particularly one in which a gorilla dude is disappointed that a lion dude doesn’t have toe beans and the one featuring some sheep terrorism. The volume is certainly cute and a must-have for completists, but not earth-shattering. It does make me want to reread the series, though! – Michelle Smith

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 8 | By Satoru Noda | Viz Media – Sometimes Golden Kamuy ditches its dark humor or its politics or its action adventure or even its food. Yes, sometimes it’s pure horror, and that’s what we get for a lot of the first half of this volume, which is stomach-churning. I imagine anyone who would have truly been upset by this long since dropped the title, but Edogai (who premieres at the start of the volume and is dead by the end of it) is a real piece of work, and leads to some of the grossest art in the series. Thankfully, it’s not all taxidermy gone wrong, and there is a bit of food, as well as an exciting and lethal mining adventure. But I must admit, I’m hoping the next volume steps back just a bit from seeing how horrifying it can get. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 31 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – It’s not going to be easy for Karasuno, who lose the second set here, and need to find a way to regain the momentum. That said, the other team is really good. Here we see how everyone has evolved to use their bad habits for good—Kageyama’s drive to win and succeed no longer is at the expense of everyone else, and Tsukishima’s insults and sneering are almost weaponized, too. The art is also getting more assured, showing off some really nice angles and making you want to go see a volleyball game in real life. But I gotta admit, in the end this is a lot of pages about a volleyball game in progress, which means I enjoyed it but don’t have a heck of a lot to say. – Sean Gaffney

The Quintessential Quintuplets, Vol. 2 | By Negi Haruba | Kodansha Comics – This series runs on—in fact its main reason for being is—pulling a shell game to see which heroine will win. As such, we need to balance out the heroines. Since Miku got so much attention last time, we move to the others. Nino is upset that Futaro can read her like a book. Itsuki bonds with his younger sister at an arcade, and gets the “wow, we look like a family” picture. And Ichika, the short-haired twin, has to deal with an acting audition being at the same time as a festival, meaning she has to break a promise with her sisters. This isn’t all that original, but I like everyone—even Nino, who’s written to be unlikable here. A fun romantic comedy where I’m still not sure who wins. (My money’s on Itsuki.) – Sean Gaffney

Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, Vol. 3 | By Fumita Yanagida | Seven Seas – This may be rising up to become one of my favorite 4-koma manga of all time, as it moves from strength to strength. This despite the revelation that Carol’s mother had her when she was thirteen years old (which is commented on as creepy in the text). We find that, just as Tomo takes after her mother, so do Misuzu and Carol with their respective mothers. As for Tomo and Jun, well, she stays the night at his place, and later on bonds with him while dressed in a nice dress and wig (so he doesn’t know it’s her). They’re adorable and awkward. We also get to see what good friends our main trio are coming, and while I like Jun, and wish I could see more of Kosuke, I’m delighted with that. Excellent title. – Sean Gaffney

In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 13

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

Smartphone continues to be a series with two very different types of interlocking plots. The first is the “main” plot, showing Touya battling the Phrase, deducing what’s actually going on in this world, and traveling to other worlds and having adventures. The second is Touya basically wandering around, goofing off, and leisurely talking with everyone in his kingdom. The problem is that the author is very good at the second thing but consistently falls down on the first. Oh, the Phrase battle was pretty good, except for one consequence which I’ll get to later. But when Touya comes back to the Reverse World, he promptly runs into a villain. Stop me if this surprises you… the villain is insane to the point of mad laughter, gleefully kills tons of innocents, and is also a bit of a sexual deviant. Touya learns that her personality might be degraded due to the golem she’s contracted with… but then undercuts it by saying “no, I think she’s like that anyway” so as not to upset readers with that fetish. Guh.

Sorry to say that despite the cover we do not get to see Touya and his fiancees racing early 20th century cars around the kingdom here. The majority of the book is supposed to be the Festival that Touya set up last time, and we do get to see the front end. It’s pretty fun, with baseball tournaments, shogi tournaments, lots of shops, lots of food. Touya gets to walk around with a fiancee or two, chat, and just be his usual bland self. It’s refreshing, and it makes it more entertaining when he has to actually try hard NOT to be his bland self. The best joke in the book has him walking with Hilde, one of his more insecure fiancees, and having to reassure her that he loves her by saying it out loud. This gets back to the others… and he now has to say it to all of them, something which causes him to nearly break down in embarrassment. It’s really cute.

Unfortunately, despite setting up for an entire festival (and even bringing God down from Heaven), the Phrase show up somewhere in the smoking remains of not-China and Touya and his mecha army have to go take them out. The plot here is actually interesting. The Phrase seem to be having a civil war, with Phrase that have been infected by the evil God killing the non-infected Phrases in a way that reminds me of the old Dalek civil war in Doctor Who. We also see the return of Gila, the arrogant Phrase construct who looked to be a reoccurring villain… till Touya killed him here, cutting that off pretty rapidly. Touya also has to use God powers to do it, meaning afterwards he falls unconscious… and we miss the entire rest of the festival as a result. This really irritated me, especially as Touya rattled off all the stuff that happened in a couple of paragraphs.

So, cute but also frustrating, bad villains but good fiancees and a bland hero who is at his best (and worst) when he tries not to be bland. In other words, typical Smartphone.

5 Centimeters per Second: one more side

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By Makoto Shinkai and Arata Kanoh. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Kristi Fernandez.

(This review is based on a review copy provided by the publisher)

I hadn’t initially planned to review this, mostly as I’ve never seen the 5 Centimeters per Second movie, and if I read the manga it was so long ago I’ve forgotten it. But I’m familiar with the author from the your name spinoff he wrote, which I enjoyed, and he also has a Voices of a Distant Star novel coming out over here this summer. So I gave it a try, and I’m glad I did. I knew going in from the start that the overall mood of the book would be ‘wistful verging on bleak’, of course. This is Makoto Shinkai we’re talking about, the creator who surprised everyone by NOT giving your name a bittersweet ending. 5 Centimeters per Second tells the story of a boy, Takaki, and a girl, Akari, who meet as kids, fall in love, separate, try to stay in touch, meet one more time in an ultra romantic scene… and then never meet again. This book tells the story from different perspectives.

I’ll be honest here, I liked Akari a lot more than I liked Takaki. This is deliberate, I suspect. It’s one reason why I think my favorite part of the book was the start, showing us Akari’s perspective of life as a shy, introverted child who had to transfer schools. Her emotions are raw, and mention is made of wanting to “disappear” but not actually having the wherewithal to kill herself, which is really bleak given she’s about nine. Transferring schools is a lot more common in Japan than it is in the West, and the lessons given here on how to fit in – and how hard it is – read very true. Takaki is at his best here, helping Akari with some sound advice and an ear to lend, but even at this age we can see how he tends to withdraw from her when things get too close.

The second part of the book is Takaki’s, showing his middle school life after he moves down South to Tanegashima. He meets a nice girl who falls for him hard, and he clearly likes her, but is also deliberately not doing anything. This compares nicely to the third part of the book, which has interlocking POVs, where he meets a nice woman as an adult who falls for him hard and he clearly likes her but is also deliberately not doing anything. Takaki seems trapped in that one moment he had with Akari at the station when they were thirteen (twelve? Around there), and it’s only at the very, very end of the book that he seems to grow past it. Akari, on the other hand, blossoms into a confident, happy young woman, marries a nice guy, and has a wonderful life. Seeing this made the ending less bittersweet than I’d expected. Sure, young love didn’t work out. That happens all the time. But, helped by Takaki’s advice as a child, Akari has become a wonderful young woman.

I’m not sure how this complements the movie, but I’m pretty sure fans of it will want to pick this up. The prose is gorgeous and evocative, worth the price of the book alone. I’ll definitely want to get more of this author’s take on Shinkai’s works.

Skip Beat! vol 42

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Skip Beat! Volume 42 by Yoshiki Nakamura

With such a long running series like Skip Beat! once it has caught up with Japan, the wait between volumes is long enough that I temporarily lose track of of the plot. But within just a few panels, my memory gets triggered and I’m back in the story again. In this case seeing Ren’s reaction to learning that Sho kissed Kyoko made the wait between volumes all worthwhile. It is always amazing how well Nakamura can portray someone attempting to be stoic when they are filled with turbulent emotions.

Skip Beat 42

Kyoko meanwhile has her own battles to fight, and Skip Beat! always excels when she has to fight for a role. She’s in the middle of a rigged contest, trying to get a role alongside her beloved Moko. Kimiko, the niece of the producer, is determined to use any advantage against Kyoko and she plays up an imaginary relationship with Ren just enough that Kyoko becomes totally distracted and forgets to focus when she’s receiving directions for the next stage of her audition. Moko ends up saving Kyoko by altering her body language just enough that Kyoko is able to intuit the rest of the scene, and she ends up turning in an impressive performance.

One of the most entertaining part of this volume was seeing Ren’s manager accompany Kyoko throughout the audition process. His interior thoughts as he observes Kyoko’s reactions and starts building up theories about Ren and Kyoko’s relationship are priceless. As the audition progresses, Kyoko is able to battle through her emotional turmoil and fully inhabit her character. One of the things about Skip Beat! that I enjoy so much towards the start of a story arc is being able to look forward to all the impending drama. Kimiko seems to be engaged in a strategic retreat, I’m guessing that she’ll return to cause even more chaos. Ren and Kyoko haven’t met yet since Sho kissed her, so I’m looking forward to that scene, I’m guessing in two more volumes or so? Skip Beat! always manages to draw the reader in, and even though the big confrontations and resulting emotional growth for the characters doesn’t happen right away the series always delivers.

Captain Harlock: The Classic Collection, Vol. 3

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By Leiji Matsumoto. Released in Japan as “Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Harlock” by Akita Shoten, serialized in the magazine Play Comic. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Zack Davisson. Adapted by Snati Whitesides.

In many respects this is Daiba’s story more than Harlock’s, and we’ve been following his journey and not really going back to show how Harlock got started, got the crew together, etc. That said, just because we started with Daiba doesn’t mean we get a satisfying ending for him – or anyone. A lot of Matsumoto series, I’ve found, tend to best be described as “a cutout of a larger, more epic tale”, even when they’re being epic tales themselves. And so this volume wraps up with not much having changed, except that we’ve possibly found the Mazon are more similar to humanity than anyone expected – except, of course, the reader. The Arcadia, with its main cast all intact, set sail to further adventures and battles, which we, as a reader will not see, because Matsumoto wrapped up the manga at this point, probably so he could concentrate more on Galaxy Express 999.

A lot of the back half of this volume is concerned with the life and death of Tochiro, who frequently appears posthumously in the Harlockverse (he was in Queen Emeraldas as well) but rarely shows up in the flesh. His death looms over everyone, and is handled with such reverence and dignity that when a rogue Mazon tries to attack Arcadia while they’re at his gravesite, the Queen literally throws her off the ship, where she falls to her death, because let’s face it, these are pirate ships more than spaceships. It’s a bit ridiculous, but fits with the overall mood of the book, which is brooding, somber, and oh so serious. Aside from the occasional stab at humor, such as everyone’s collections falling over in a battle, or Kei getting fall down drunk at one point, the laughs of the last two books are mostly gone. (There is a short Harlock/Emeraldas story added after the main events here, which is meant to show them as almost Rule 63 versions of each other. I didn’t enjoy it much, but it DOES have humor.)

As for Daiba, well, he’s trying hard to grow and learn everything as fast as possible, and that’s not going very well, though he is rather clever. Harlock seems to be grooming him as a sort of heir at times. He also helps to discover the Mazon’s involvement with the Ancient Pyramids, as the Wagnerian myth takes a slight detour and also shows off the Mazon as sort of dandelion spores that will gradually infect everything in the galaxy. Not the world’s most original plot, but that’s fine, as you’re reading a story about space pirates, so originality is not why you’re here. The dialogue continues to be ripe, even with the seriousness, and I think it may actually work even better if you read it aloud in a stentorian voice, sort of like William Daniels as Captain Harlock.

The modern-day reboot of the series, Dimensional Voyage, is still going strong, and adding a bit more depth and characterization that isn’t in this original. But if you want the definitive mood for Harlock, it’s hard to beat this three-volume set, which is dramatic and stentorian to the last. A classic slice of manga history.

Amagi Brilliant Park, Vol. 4

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By Shouji Gatou and Yuka Nakajima. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

I’m still trying to figure out why I find Amagi Brilliant Park so hard to like but difficult to drop. Part of it may simply be an issue that I have with several light novel series, notably Index: the author is trying to be funny but I’m not laughing. As with the third volume, this book consists of one long story and several shorter ones. The long story gives us a deeper look at Bando Biino, one of the part-time staffers we’ve met before, whose gag was that she always wound up bloody due to accidents. The story behind this could actually be very depressing and chilling if the author wanted to (and the afterword hints that he was talked out of doing so), as it turns out that she’s under a very nasty curse that influences all of those around her. The trouble is that the resolution to this is a) a sexually harassing doctor who isn’t as funny as the author imagines, and b) a ritual that is really a parody of TV quiz shows, which is DIRE.

The problem is that when the author isn’t trying to be funny, this is actually rather good. Biino’s situation is horrible, and seeing her perky optimism slowly break down is devastating. We even get some depth added to Tiramii, the lecherous dog mascot thing, who takes a non-lecherous (mostly) shine to Biino and resolves to help her. There’s also some intriguing stuff with Seiya, who spends much of the story irritated at Biino but not to the extent that he actually does anything about it, which is hinted to be due to his strong resolve – the curse can’t make him abuse her. And then we see Biino’s brother, who has now been released from an institution he was put into after trying to kill her, now out, recovered, and ready to love his sister – they’re not really related! – and you just have to facepalm. It feels like I’m reading something where the dials are set in precisely the wrong positions to be fun.

The rest of the short stories run along the same lines. The best shows a curious (and possibly jealous) Isuzu tailing Seiya as he goes to a meeting with what turns out to be his stepsister, who is trying (unsuccessfully) to patch things up between him and his father. Seiya is normally default obnoxious, and it’s nice to see that this comes from a very real difficult childhood, which is not simply easily resolved by a cute little sister type. The one story played entirely for comedy involves one of the park’s staff (a dinosaur mascot thing) trying to make a promotional video of the park, and being told to make it less dull. This is done for pure comedy, which sometimes does actually work (Isuzu’s ongoing reactions) and sometimes doesn’t (everything else).

It’s possible that I’m just a grumpy cuss, and certainly those who watched the anime and enjoyed it should like this. But I really think the author’s strengths lie in more dramatic writing, and all Amagi Brilliant Park does is make me miss Full Metal Panic.

Manga the Week of 3/20/19

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SEAN: Thanks to Yen spacing out its releases more evenly this month, we get TWO crushing weeks in a row instead of just one. So what’s in the first crushing week?

Bookwalker has a 7th volume of shogi and young girls light novel The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done!.

Dark Horse has, theoretically, Eromanga-sensei 2. (OK, I’ll stop now.)

J-Novel Club gives us the 13th In Another World with My Smartphone, a 4th Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, and the 10th Demon King Daimaou.

Kodansha is making up for being virtually invisible the last two weeks. First, we have three debuts, two in print/digital and one digital only. We’ll start with Gleipnir, a seinen manga from Young Magazine the 3rd, which is about a young man who discovers that he can turn into… a heroic dog mascot thing? Not sure what’s going on here, but one thing I can guarantee, which is the girl who’s the other lead will be beloved by Japan and hated in North America.

Love in Focus (Renzu-Sou no Sankaku) is a shoujo-ish manga from Aria (the magazine of shoujo-ish titles). A girl chooses a high school for its photography program, but also gets involved in teen romance. It’s only 3 volumes.

MICHELLE: Love in Focus is by Yoko Nogiri, whose That Wolf-boy Is Mine! I really liked. I’m looking forward to this one.

ASH: I plan on checking it out, too; I liked what I read of That Wolf-boy Is Mine!.

MJ: I’m up for this!

SEAN: Lastly, the digital debut is Ran the Peerless Beauty (Takane no Ran-san), a shoujo title from Betsufure about a girl who’s so beautiful and stylish that no one approaches her at all… except one guy, of course. This actually looks pretty cute.

MICHELLE: It does!

ANNA: I am for sure curious about it!

MJ: Well, okay!

SEAN: Print Kodansha also has Again!! 7, Aho-Girl 11, Hitorijime My Hero 2, the 3rd Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, and a 16th UQ Holder.

ASH: I’m a bit behind, but I’m looking forward to more Again!!.

SEAN: Digitally there is also All Out!! 8, Back Street Girls 8, Kira-kun Today 5, A Kiss, for Real 8, and Tokyo Revengers 5.

Seven Seas also has a debut next week, and a single-volume debut to boot. Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart (Gesshoku Kitan) is from Akaneshinsha’s Opera magazine, and thus a must buy. It’s BL but also horror, and is from the author of Go For It, Nakamura!.

MICHELLE: I am so looking forward to more from this author!

ASH: Go For It, Nakamura! was one of my favorite releases from last year. Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart is supposed to be completely different in tone, but I love a good horror manga, too, so I’m excited.

MJ: Okay, yes, definitely!

SEAN: Seven Seas also has another light novel for The Ancient Magus’ Bride: The Silver Yarn; the 9th volume of Citrus; a print edition for the 5th Make My Abilities Average light novel; The 3rd and final volume of the True Tenchi Muyo! light novels; and a 2nd Versailles of the Dead.

ASH: I’ll be picking up The Silver Yarn. The first volume of Versailles of the Dead intrigued me enough that I’ll be picking that up, too.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 4th and final volume of The Delinquent Housewife!.

MICHELLE: I’ve been collecting these volumes as they’ve been coming out. Maybe now that it’s complete I’ll actually read them!

SEAN: Viz has a surprise for you! Not only do we get Gangsta 8, the first new volume in two and a half years, but we also get 1-8 digitally now as well! They also have 20th Century Boys: The Perfect Edition 3 and Children of the Whales 9.

ASH: I’m very happy to have a new volume of Gangsta being released!

ANNA: Also super excited about =Gangsta!

SEAN: And so we have Yen Press. We’ll start with Yen On, who moved a few titles (including the month’s debut) to the week after, but that still leaves a lot. The Asterisk War 9, Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch 3, Do You Love Your Mom? 2, The Irregular at Magic High School 11, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 13, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (which sounds like a horror title), Magical Girl Raising Project 6, So I’m a Spider, So What? 5, and WorldEnd 3. That’s a lot of light novel.

There’s a bit of manga as well, of course. The debut is a side story, as we get the first volume of Angels of Death Episode 0. A prequel, I assume. And we see Bungo Stray Dogs 10, Chio’s School Road 3, Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler 9, the 10th manga version of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, a 5th Smokin’ Parade, the 5th volume of the manga version of So I’m a Spider, So What?, and the 5th volume of Sword Art Online spinoff Girls’ Ops.

That is a lot, I just compressed it well. What are you getting?

The Ideal Sponger Life, Vol. 1

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By Tsunehiko Watanabe and Neko Hinotsuki. Released in Japan as “Risou no Himo Seikatsu” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Wesley Bridges. Adapted by Jessica Cluess.

Well, here we are again with another isekai. They tend to be male power fantasies, but this one’s even more blatant about what it is than most. Based on an (as yet unlicensed) light novel, our hero is a Japanese salaryman working for a shady company and not enjoying his life, until he’s transported to another world! (Not hit by a truck, which is honestly what I was expecting.) There he meets the beautiful and busty Queen, ho explains why he’s there. Due to plot reasons, he has royal blood from the other world in him, so he needs to marry the queen and get her producing an heir. That’s all he has to do. Despite this world being pretty patriarchal, he’s not required to rule the land a la Realist Hero or anything. He’s savvy enough to realize that’s the catch (she wants to rule herself, not pass a baton), but decides to go for it anyway. Of course, this being an isekai, he immediately is an influence regardless.

It has to be said, even for a male power fantasy this one’s pretty nice to the hero. He’s briefly threatened by guards when he approaches the queen, but that’s about it. She happily explains everything to him, and even allows him to return to Earth for a month so he can settle his affairs and say goodbye to his family, which is more than 90% of isekai heroes get. He also thinks ahead, taking a portable generator and tons of books/CDs/DVDs/a fridge with him when he goes, as he knows this is standard fantasy world. I’m assuming there will be the typical adventure things later on in the series, but for the moment he is there to marry and knock up the queen. Which he does, or at least presumably. He also needs to learn the language, as it turns out that while he can hear everyone in Japanese, they aren’t really speaking it – it’s a magic ability he has. This means learning to read and write, and also teaching Excel Spreadsheets to the kingdom, which I suspect may win him enemies.

Given that we see it on Page 1 (in a sort of premonition), it should not be a surprise that there IS sex in this, which isn’t 100% explicit but gets as close as it can to that line. I’ll be honest, I was expecting more plot to interfere in the actual consummation, since I’ve seen this type of thing before, but no, this time both hero and heroine are actual adults, and the whole point is to produce an heir, and so coitus ensues. This also allows us a brief look at the queen, Aura, when she isn’t wearing the queenly mask, as we see her on the wedding night trying to act smooth and seductive, but once she’s alone in the bedroom she shows off a blush that suggests she’s just as innocent as he is. Nor is he a majestic lover, either – while they both seem to have happy sex, the line “I guess this means you’ve finished” seems to imply it was better for him than for her.

I’ve heard this series described as “come for the boobs, stay for the political intrigue”, and that seems accurate. Certainly the latter is what motivates me to try another volume. There’s some good setup here, assuming you can get past the sex scenes and objectification of the queen that’s also in these pages.

Division Maneuver: A Hero Reincarnated

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By Shippo Senoo and Nidy-2D-. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Andrew Cunningham. Adapted by Dayna Abel.

I’ll freely admit, I had not originally planned to read or review this at all. We have come to a point in the North American light novel market where you simply can’t read absolutely everything. And that cover made me say “Oh boy, another masturbatory aid for teenage boys!” But I had a gap in my schedule before Yen’s March light novels hit like a bat to the head, and I thought “OK, I guess.” In the end, it balances out that I’m pleased that I read the book, and I’ll likely pick up the second (and final) volume. So I’m here to tell you about why yet another book with teens in powered suits at a magical academy is something that you might want to take notice of, rather than, say, Infinite Stratos, or Seirei Gensouki, or The Asterisk War, etc. And I will also warn you that my first impression of the book is ALSO very true. If you’re reading this book, hope you like endless descriptions of boobs.

So once there was a hero. He was a bit headstrong and stubborn. He fought to save the Earth from hideous tentacle monsters (who thankfully only want to eat humanity, not do anything else with it) and he sacrificed himself to take out the evil queen monster. Unfortunately, she’s not quite dead. So he’s reincarnated back into the world as a young man and resolves to get stronger and try again. The big problem there is his new self has virtually no magical aptitude. Fortunately, he runs into his old teacher, who also happens to be the headmaster of the magical academy for awesome magical students. She trains him in fencing, martial arts, and the like to the point where even though he has virtually no magic, he can still beat most everyone. When he arrives at the school, he joins an elite unit, learns to actually use teamwork (something his former self was bad at), and falls in love with his sempai, who is also the little girl saved by his former self right before he died.

I’ll start with positives. Hanabi, the heroine, is not the sort of heroine I was expecting when I picked up this book – cool, hands off, tsundere, constantly yelling at the hero, etc. She’s a bit battle hungry, actually, and falls in love with Kuon faster than he does with her. He’s 13, by the way, which makes this relationship a bit “ergh” (she’s 18), but nothing seems to happen beyond making out. I also liked her best friend, who is a standard character type, but it’s one I like. Honestly, by the end of the book I was thinking that some of the cast were going to die – it gets fairly brutal at times. Now for the downside… well, you saw the cover. The color illustrations merely exacerbate it. Hanabi is a walking pinup and the author and illustrator want you to know it. Kuon thinks about her breasts all the time. It gets very aggravating for anyone over the age of 19. Oh yes, and our hero has no magic aptitude – except that he can STOP TIME. Which is apparently a martial art? I dunno.

So I liked the character relationships and plot enough to read more, but unfortunately, the fanservice and the questionable romance mean we once again have a light novel that I can only recommend to its intended audience. Teenage boys, go get it.

Takane & Hana, vol. 7

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Takane and Hana Volume 7 by Yuki Shiwasu

This volume continues to explore how Takane and Hana deal with his changed circumstances as he adjusts to live as an ordinary businessman. It is a slightly more serious volume than usual, but there’s some great character development.

Takane and Hana 7

Hana continues to show up at Takane’s shabby apartment to feed him dinner, although he’s started to get a little better about fending for himself without the advantages of his former wealth. They share a genuine moment of connection when Takane says “Thank you” without his usual posturing and bizarre grimaces. Hana immediately checks to see if Takane might be coming down with a cold because she’s stunned at his behavior. One thing that this descent into poverty confirms is that Hana is indifferent to Takane’s wealth and status. She’s been commenting all along that his over the top gifts and lifestyle doesn’t impress her, and her willingness to hang out with him in poverty just reinforces everything she was saying earlier. Takane might not totally internalize this shift in their relationship, but he actually starts acting less arrogant in his job, and starts making moves to pull off some complex business deals independently. Takane and Hana eventually achieve a sort of new normal in their relationship, and the roles get reversed a little bit when she gets sick and he has to take care of her. This continues to be an entertaining series, and I’m finding this shift away from over the top wealth-related shenanigans to have more emotional depth and resonance than I was originally expecting. I’m curious to see if the series continues to have more of this emphasis on the character relationships or if it goes back to more broad comedy. Shiwasu is executing this series so well, I’d be fine with either option!

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, Vol. 7

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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.

After the bleakness of the last volume, it’s good to see that this one is at least slightly more light-hearted, though as always the author can’t seem to resist ending on a downhearted note. That said, things are a lot warmer here, and the extra side-story that adapts a drama CD even tries to retcon the last book by showing that Hachiman was eventually roped into an after party anyway. This brings together most of the main protagonists, and features what may be the funniest part of the book, where Hachiman’s “hobbies” are found to be wanting (people watching doesn’t count) and they try to find him some new ones. It does reinforce a running theme of this series, though, which is that as much as Hachiman wants to push everyone as far away from him as possible, there is a growing core of people who worry and care about him. The trouble is, some are also falling for him, and at this point, that’s not a good thing.

It’s time for the traditional trip to Kyoto, with temple visits galore, something that has most people excited, even Yukino, who seems to be far more into the trip than she pretends. That said, the Service Club also has a new request, and it puts the “romantic comedy” back in the spotlight. Tobe, best known so far as “Hayama’s #2”, is in love with Ebina, best known so far as “that BL fangirl”, and wants to ask her out, but is nervous, so wants to enlist the help of Hachiman’s group. Needless to say, given this group, this involves 2/3 crushing verbal abuse and 1/3 sympathy, and even Yui is finding it hard to bring the sympathy. The trouble is, as it becomes apparent, Ebina does not want that sort of relationship – not now, and not with Tobe. And that makes everyone nervous, because the way Hayama and Miura’s cliques are set up, if a confession results in awkwardness and pulling away, it will destroy both groups.

If you guessed the solution to this was “Hachiman taking things on himself so as to deflect everything to him”, then congratulations, you are familiar with how this series works. That said, much as it was interesting to see a more serious and even poignant side to Ebina, the “main” romance is mostly there to highlight the main love triangle of Hachiman, Yukino and Yui. There’s plenty of ship tease between him and both girls here, as he holds Yui’s hand as they go through a dark and creepy temple set, and sneaks out for ramen with Yukino and Shizuka (a chapter that features Yukino at easily her cutest and most vulnerable in the series to date). But, just as everyone knows with Ebina and Tobe, the reader is aware that if the love story advances further, the core friendship of these three is going to be broken. Especially if Hachiman keeps up his “please crucify me” solutions to everyone’s problems.

So the question is, what’s next? Can the Service Club maintain its status quo? Well, my guess is yes, as the next volume is “7.5”, and is a collection of short stories. (Note that unlike, say, Devil Is a Part-Timer, these .5 volumes were not released as DVD extras, and are therefore able to be licensed here.) That said, this seventh volume of OreGairu is a bit less bleak, but you’re starting to see that the train is rushing forward towards a final destination that may simply be “crash”.

Bookshelf Briefs 3/11/19

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The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 10 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – Welcome to the first volume of Chise Potter, though hopefully we won’t get a Professor Quirrell. Chise gets settled in at college, choosing a dorm by choosing cats, which in my opinion is how every college should do it. Elias follows along, of course, as a teacher, and there’s a gaggle of new characters, most of whom I didn’t really get much from at all. Chise is, thankfully, much less awkward at being social than she used to be—in fact, it’s her roommate who’s the tough nut to crack. That said, most of this volume was pure setup, and I suspect it will read better after I’ve read the next two. I’m definitely grateful that this series is continuing, though, and it’s worth the eventual reread. – Sean Gaffney

Cutie Honey: The Classic Collection | By Go Nagai | Seven Seas – My first real introduction to Cutie Honey was through Shimpei Itoh’s modern manga adaptation Cutie Honey a Go Go!. It was a fun series, so I was looking forward to delving into Go Nagai’s original manga from 1973. Fortunately, along with an essay by novelist Hirayama Yumeaki and an afterword by Go Nagai, Seven Seas has collected the entirety of Cutie Honey in a single hardcover omnibus. Cutie Honey is an entertaining if somewhat absurd series. Much of the manga’s humor tends towards the lewd and admittedly some of the jokes aren’t as socially acceptable as they may have once been. Between the titular heroine’s transformation scenes and the frequency of characters’ clothing being ripped to shreds, there’s a fair amount of nudity in the action-oriented manga. Since the cast is primarily made up of women, it’s mostly female nudity, but the men aren’t immune from sudden clothing loss either. – Ash Brown

Durarara!! re: Dollars Arc, Vol. 4 | By Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Aogiri | Yen Press – Once again, I’m left feeling that the anime and novels handled this material better—the wait between releases doesn’t help, plus the author’s plotting, which involves everything happening at once, makes the manga more diffuse and confusing than it has any right to be. The best bits probably involved Ruri and Shizuo’s brother, who bond over their difficulty with basic human emotions, like so many other Narita couples. Last time I said Izaya was about to jump start things, but he’s absent from this book, meaning that it meanders a bit too much. It really needs someone making everyone’s lives miserable again. Which I’m sure will happen soon. Maybe. – Sean Gaffney

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 9 | By Izumi Miyazono | Viz Media – The final volume of this series ties up everything that’s been getting in the way of Asuka and Ryu getting married. Ryu decides he does love Asuka and resolves to return and fight to save their relationship. Asuka realizes that she doesn’t have to get married NOW and uses that to spend three years doing so well at her job that she can now take a year off to get married and have a baby and NOT have to worry about being fired for being a married woman. Heck, even Asuka’s friend who was perfectly happy to not get married is getting married. So in the end the title proves to be true, and you’re really happy to see the two of them finally work everything out. A very good josei series, bring on more of them. – Sean Gaffney

Hakumei & Mikochi: Tiny Little Life in the Woods, Vol. 4 | By Takuto Kashiki | Yen Press – I joked on Twitter that after the girls from Girls’ Last Tour died, they were reincarnated as Hakumei and Mikochi, and while Hakumei may be a bit too sensible for that to map exactly, there is very much the sense of exploration across both volumes, even though the two should be more familiar with their setting. We meet Mikochi’s sister in this volume, who is a writer and a tease, not in that order. There’s a festival chapter (sort of), a hot spring chapter (sort of), and a chapter which will make you cry at the death of a coffee grinder. In short, most of why readers read this series is on full display here. I enjoy this more and more with each volume, and always smile as I read. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 7 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – There’s some good comedy here at the head and tail of the book. My favorite chapter was probably the one involving Miyuki, who is no longer sleep-deprived, losing the bags under his eyes—which terrifies everyone and makes Kaguya realize that her love of them may be a fetish. But the bulk of this book is to introduce a new major character, Miko, the girl on the cover who is super earnest and also super awkward. She’s running against Miyuki in the election, and her ideas are great but her stage fright isn’t. Fortunately, Miyuki takes a page from Hachiken’s book and makes himself the bad guy to fix things—fortunately he wins anyway. I want to see how Miko adds to the dynamic. – Sean Gaffney

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 2 | By Waco Ioka and Midori Yuma | Viz Media – I enjoyed this second volume more than the first, not uncommon with Shojo Beat stories. Aoi’s still having trouble getting anyone to give her a job, but after she gives some home-cooked food to a passing drunk who turns out to be really important, she’s making important connections. More to the point, Aoi compares her story explicitly with Beauty and the Beast, and she’s not wrong. There’s also a jealous woman who attempts to sabotage things and is caught and about to be humiliated. That said, that’s the cliffhanger, and I’m fairly certain Aoi’s going to save her with the power of niceness. I am OK with following this yokai series now that Kamisama Kiss has ended. – Sean Gaffney

Maiden Railways | By Asumiko Nakamura | Denpa – Somehow, I’d gotten the impression that this was a girls’ love anthology, but in reality, only one couple depicted herein fits that bill. Instead, we get stories about a pickpocket helping an inattentive husband make up with his wife, a girl who’s moving away seizing the moment to confess to a boy, a ghost with lingering regrets, and a guy whose wife thinks he’s cheating on her because he works late and brings home cake. Trains figure prominently in each story—in a couple we get some detailed timetables as one party tries taking a different train to catch up with someone, but in some stories the action is just rooted around a train station, or perhaps about a beloved late relative’s model train set. They’re all low-key and they’re all enjoyable, even if they ultimately don’t leave a strong impression. I look forward to Doukyuusei by this author, coming soon! – Michelle Smith

Skip Beat!, Vol. 42 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media – Kyoko’s audition for the role of Momiji continues. She’s emerged victorious over the scheming Kimiko in terms of swordfighting, but that alone isn’t enough to convince the director to cast her. Overhearing another actor deduce that Kyoko likes Ren, Kimiko manages to convince Kyoko that Ren is in love with her, with nearly disastrous results. There are some frustrating things in this volume, like Kyoko almost telling Moko about her feelings for Ren but chickening out and her taking in some intel about Kimiko liking some other guy without actually questioning her conclusion that Ren’s secret love is Kimiko. I know, I know. Shoujo gotta shoujo. But I am just so ready for some real movement on this point, as much as I love seeing Kyoko kick ass career-wise. Soon, please? – Michelle Smith