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Manga the Week of 1/16/19

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SEAN: The third week of January has the most variety. What’s in it? Well…

Dark Horse gives us a 2nd volume of Wandering Island.

ASH: Oh, excellent! The first volume was lovely.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has more ecchi monsters with a 6th volume of Yokai Girls.

J-Novel Club revs it up after a brief winter break, with Amagi Brilliant Park 3, Demon King Daimaou 9, and Infinite Dendrogram 8.

Kodansha, in print news, has the 9th Clockwork Planet, the 5th Golosseum, the 11th Sweetness and Lightning, and a 2nd volume of Die Wergelder. There’s also Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches 17-18 – seems to be omnibuses now, after a long break.

MICHELLE: Hooray for more Sweetness & Lightning!

ASH: Yes, Sweetness & Lightning is a delight! I’ll also admit that I’m looking forward to the next volume of Die Wergelder in all its violent, pulpy glory.

MJ: I feel like I need to check out Sweetness & Lightning if both Ash and Michelle are such fans.

SEAN: Digitally we see Back Street Girls 7, Kira-kun Today 3, A Kiss For Real 6, Shojo FIGHT! 6, and Tokyo Revengers 3. I know which one of those Manga Bookshelf wants.

MICHELLE: Yep, though I also intend to read A Kiss for Real at some point.

ANNA: One of these days I will get caught up on Shojo FIGHT!.

SEAN: Seven Seas gives us, finally, the 2nd No Game No Life manga, which was delayed for years in Japan. There’s also a 5th Please Tell Me, Galko-chan!.

Udon has the 9th Persona 9… erm, Persona 4.

Vertical hits us with the 2nd APOSIMZ, and a 10th Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

Lastly, Viz puts out its “cool person” titles, as we see Children of the Whales 8, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction 4, Fire Punch 5, and Ultraman 11.

ANNA: Looking forward to Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction.

ASH: Same.

SEAN: I’m interested in quite a bit of that. How about you?

MICHELLE: A more modest amount, methinks.

Off the Shelf: Shoujoriffic!

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MICHELLE: Hey, MJ! You know what time it is. Time for my first really terrible joke of 2019. Are you ready?

MJ: Michelle, I was born ready.

MICHELLE: Okay, then. How do you find Will Smith in the snow?

MJ: Um. I don’t know, Michelle. How do you find Will Smith in the snow?

MICHELLE: You follow the fresh prints!

MJ: Okay, I know that was a terrible joke, but since I’m a pretty big fan of the Fresh Prince, I can’t help but appreciate it.

MICHELLE: It is exceedingly terrible but somehow it makes me happy! Anyways, we’ve once more dusted the cobwebs off the shelf because there’s some new manga we want to talk about. Would you like to go first?

MJ: I would! So, I just finished reading Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, which was adapted from the light novel series of the same name and as such, comes with a slew of credits: art by Waco Ioka, original story by Midori Yuma, and character design by Laruha.

Aoi was adopted as a kid by a man named Shiro whom she describes as her grandfather. Shiro was a notorious philanderer, who wandered Japan fathering countless children with his many lovers, so he was hardly wanting for progeny of his own, but he raised Aoi faithfully, even providing for her college tuition after his death. Now alone, Aoi is prepared to make it on her own, but before she can even begin, she’s kidnapped by an ogre named Ōdanna, who whisks her away to the Ayakashi (spirit) world. As it turns out, Ōdanna is the proprietor of a well-respected inn, which Aoi’s grandfather once trashed on a bender. Unable to pay for the damage, Shiro promised Aoi’s hand in marriage as compensation, and Ōdanna’s come to collect. When Aoi refuses, she is offered the opportunity to work off the debt herself, but to do so, she has to find a job somewhere among the Ayakashi, most of whom hate humans, especially her grandfather.

Manga adaptations of light novels are not usually a big draw for me, but they’re also a bit of a rarity for Viz, so I figured it was worth a shot, especially since the supernatural setup is the type of thing I generally enjoy. My immediate reaction was regret. This adaptation begins with pages of narrated exposition that may work perfectly well in the novel but are clunky and awkward in manga form. The setup feels rushed, as though the artist knows that it’s awkward and wants to just push through it to get to the parts of the story that will be easier to tell, which unfortunately renders Aoi as a pretty generic protagonist with no personality in particular outside of a soft spot for Ayakashi and an interest in cooking.

Thankfully, the artist does seem to find their footing about halfway through the volume, and there are some fairly compelling mysteries set up, especially regarding a shape-changing nine-tailed fox named Ginji, who seems to be a friend. Or is he?

MICHELLE: My immediate reaction to your summary is that Shiro sounds like quite the asshole!

I’m sorry to hear that it gets off to a disappointing start. Are the mysteries sufficiently compelling that you think you’ll bother to pick up volume two?

MJ: Shiro indeed seems to have been quite the asshole, though certainly there is a lot of mystery surrounding him as well. For instance, he carefully taught Aoi how to avoid being kidnapped by an ogre, which would indicate that he never intended to surrender her as “payment” after all, and I get the sense that there’s more to the story than Aoi’s being told. And yes, I do think I’d give it at least one more volume. As lukewarm as this began, by the end I really did want to know what was going to happen next. Would Aoi find a job? Is Ginji as harmless as he appears? And what’s up with Akatsuki, the inn’s cranky general manager who really hated Shiro, and his adorably tousled hair?

Oh, and lest our shoujo-loving readers fear, despite being an ogre, Ōdanna is a total hottie with red eyes and cute little horns, which honestly is kind of a disappointment for me, but will probably sit well with the intended demographic.

MICHELLE: Probably. I should also note that a 26-episode anime version aired recently and is available on Crunchyroll last I heard.

MJ: I suspect that an anime adaptation might be more effective, especially for the exposition sections, so perhaps that’s the way to go. I will stick with the manga a bit longer, though!

So, would you like to share what you’ve been reading, Michelle?

MICHELLE: Continuing with the VIZ shoujo trend, I just finished the first two volumes of Shortcake Cake by a duo creating manga under the name suu Morishita. The series runs in Margaret, which is typically a very good indicator that I’m going to like it.

Ten Serizawa is from a very small town where local schools only go through junior high, so she’s had an extremely long commute for her first month of high school. Her long-time friend Ageha has been trying to persuade her to move into the boardinghouse where she lives and finally, after visiting the place, Ten agrees. Because this is shoujo manga, it turns out that the gorgeous, bookish boy that all the girls are obsessed with turns out to live there, too. His name is Chiaki Kasadera.

By the end of the second volume, it’s clear that Ten likes Chiaki, but how we get there is a pretty interesting and complicated route. One of the other boarders is a flirtatious boy named Riku Mizuhara, and he’s intrigued when Ten shuts down his attempts at flirtation. Soon, he’s developed a crush on her that she finds out about almost immediately. She rejects him and to his profound credit, Riku backs off. “I don’t want to pester her and make her hate me.” Chiaki, however, wants the two of them to be happy, so when Riku’s estranged little brother Rei—a wholly odious and imperious little shit who calls Ten by the name “Ugly”—commands Ten to be his girlfriend (just to make Riku miserable), Chiaki claims that he and Ten are actually dating, hoping that this pretend relationship will convince Rei that Riku is already suffering enough. Then, the kid will back off and maybe Riku and Ten can make it work.

Still with me? I grant that all these boys have feelings for Ten incredibly quickly—well, only Riku has officially admitted that he likes her, but I imagine it’s only a matter of time before Chiaki and Rei are forced to examine their real motivations—but at least she’s not an annoying protagonist. What’s really neat, though, is that we actually see inside the boys’ heads! This is exceedingly rare in shoujo manga, so a little bit of narration from a potential love interest goes a long way. I’m sure that it’ll be Chiaki in the end, but Riku is so thoroughly charming that I really want it to be him.

MJ: Okay, so from your summary, I admit that, like you, I’m currently a fan of Riku. I always like the boy who isn’t going to end up with the girl. It’s a lifelong curse. Mostly, though, I’m thinking that this sounds so gloriously shoujo, I must read it right away. I mean, seriously. A boardinghouse. I’m so here for this.

Is there other stuff going on besides the romantic drama? Like, at school?

MICHELLE: Not even a little. Ten’s mother only puts in a brief appearance to consent to the arrangement (though it’s at least suggested that her parents did go have a look around the place and all before she moved in) and school pretty much only exists as a backdrop for Chiaki and Riku to both attempt to walk Ten home so that she doesn’t get menaced by Rei. On the one hand, the protagonist having a well-rounded life is nice, but on the other hand, maybe it means we’ll be spared some of the by now too-familiar shoujo story beats like sports and cultural festivals.

MJ: Fair enough. Sounds like a fun read, in any case. I’ll definitely be digging into these volumes myself.

MICHELLE: I look forward to hearing what you think!

So, to conclude our VIZtacular trio, our mutual read this week was the first two volumes of Ao Haru Ride by Io Sakisaka, who also brought us Strobe Edge. Would you like to do the summation honors?

MJ: Sure! Here we go.

Futaba Yoshioka was a shy junior high school student with no interest in boys, except for Kou Tanaka, whose quiet sweetness mirrored her own. She thought something might happen between them, but when she turned up to meet Kou for a summer festival at his invitation, he never showed, and then his family moved away. Now, she’s in her first year of high school, and when she discovers that Kou is at the same school, she imagines them starting over. But the truth is, they are both so changed, they might as well be different people. He’s become a prickly underachiever to cope with his broken family life, and she’s become a tomboy to stay on the good side of her catty group of friends.

Then everything goes wrong, and Futaba finds herself friendless and isolated in a new class. But when she makes the rash decision to volunteer as class representative, she begins to find new friendships among a collection of loners, one of whom is Kou.

MICHELLE: Nicely done! This series ran in Bessatsu Margaret so, of course, I like it. There are a number of things about the initial setup that are pretty neat. For one, the action doesn’t start on the first day of Futaba’s first year but rather in the last semester, meaning she’s been at the same school with Kou for a very long time without noticing him. He’s in the honors class, which convenes on a different floor, but has definitely noticed her. Secondly, instead of the heroine starting friendless and gradually acquiring them (like Kimi ni Todoke or Waiting for Spring, to name but two recent examples), she starts with some friends. They’re just not really friends because she’s been duping them about who she really is. It’s true that both of those girls are not very nice, but I also appreciated that the dissolution of their friendship was not accompanied by mean-girl antics. Futaba just has to start over, and we’re shown glimpses of two other isolated girls who seem destined to become her true friends.

MJ: I’m struck by the differences between this and my first read here. This series, too, starts off with a lot of narration, but it’s utilized so effectively in Ao Haru Ride. Because Futaba is so shy, most of her thoughts are kept to herself, especially in the beginning, but instead of delivering an exposition dump, this narration is guiding us through Futaba’s realization about her crush on Kou and her interactions with other kids at school. We’re experiencing her thoughts and feelings much the way we would if she were the POV character of a YA novel, but only exactly as much as we need to. We’re shown what’s happened and told how she feels about it. This isn’t something that’s unique about the series at all—it’s exactly what we want to see in shoujo manga, and when it’s done well, it’s kind of invisible. But after reading Kakuriyo, I’m struck by how skillfully Sakisaka utilizes Futaba’s inner monologue.

MICHELLE: And some of the things she thinks are so poignant, too. She spends much of these volumes looking for signs of the old Kou and there’s one moment when she’s looking at him and thinks, “The nape of his neck is familiar but he sounds like a stranger. It makes me feel like crying.” Physically, someone she used to know and love is standing in front of her, but the connection they had has been cut off. I have been there and I thought Sakisaka captured that kind of feeling very well.

And then Kou rightly tells her, “You’re acting like you want to move forward, but you’re holding on to the past,” which I liked, as well. Eventually she decides that only his words are harsh, but that his heart is kind. I was glad she came to that realization in the second volume, because I didn’t want to keep rehashing the contrast to his past self and also, it’ll be nice to see Kou grow, as well.

MJ: Things do seem to happen in this series exactly when we most need them to. Just when I was becoming impossibly frustrated about Futaba’s attachment to the friend group that forced her to hide her true self, she broke free of them. And as you say, just as I was done with her mooning over the boy Kou used to be, she finally let that go as well. The pacing in these volumes is somehow exactly right.

Just as I was typing this up, I saw Shōjo Beat mention on Twitter that the third volume will be out next month, and I felt a surge of glee, so Sakisaka is definitely doing something right.

A bit of an odd confession: I admit that I’ve come to a place as a reader where I’m a bit bored by stories that lack queer characters, so from the beginning I found myself personally casting Kou as trans to help me get into it a little better. Queer readers, If you haven’t tried this with Ao Haru Ride, I wholeheartedly recommend it!

MICHELLE: That’s interesting, especially when he comes back with a whole new name and she keeps using the one he doesn’t identify with anymore!

I had a surge of glee when I was researching Sakisaka and read a little about her current series. Now I really want that one to be licensed here, too!

MJ: Yeah, I really didn’t expect that, but it did capture something poignant and relatable there.

I’d very much like to see more of Sakisaka’s work make its way here, so I guess we’ll cross our fingers!

To celebrate the return of Off the Shelf, MJ’s running a Shortcake Cake giveaway on Twitter! Follow the link to enter!

Accel World: Snow White’s Slumber

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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.

I was a little grumpy with the last volume of Accel World. After feeling that the Armor of Catastrophe arc went on far too long (a fact the author also agreed with me on), seeing it return as a Mark II made me slap my hand to my forehead. Fortunately, we were near the end of this arc when it appeared, and so it’s taken care of in one volume, though not without considerable sacrifice. More importantly, there’s a lot of really interesting discussion about the nature of Accel World in general, as well as its forbears. Striving for a meaning and purpose in life is something we see a lot of in the real world, but in the Accel World, the meaning and purpose of life may actually be a tangible thing, given that it was created. What’s more, the nature of Metatron reminds me very much of the nature of Kizmel in Sword Art Online; a sense of “these supposed NPCs have gone way beyond what everyone thought they would do’.

A lot of this volume, given that Haruyuki is separated from Kuroyukihime, focuses on the relationship between him and Metatron, who would likely have risen up fairly high on the list of ‘harem candidates’ were it not for the events later in the book, and even so the epilogue shows there may be hope. I admit I could have done without the “I speak like a tsundere princess” thing, but I really did like the discussion they had, which also shows how clever Haruyuki is, piecing together stuff that’s been bubbling around inside his head for the last 15 volumes or so. She also gives him the strength to finish off the bad guys before they get even more powerful, and (hopefully) get ris of the ISS kits making everyone lose it in the real world as well, though that last part remains to be seen. Everyone else got a lot of good stuff to do as well, and there was some nice development of Nico, who gets her armor back… mostly. There’s even a heartwarming festival to end things!

Except that what most everyone will be talking about is the arrival of White Cosmos, the White King who we’d never seen before, the power behind the Accelerated Research Society, and Kuroyukihime’s real-life sister. Given this is a Kawahara villain, it’s no real surprise that her goal appears to be to drive everyone in the game to total despair. Subtlety is not why you read this author. I suspect that she’s mostly going to be used to drive character development for Kuroyukihime, who wisely (and with Haruyuki’s help) chooses not to fight her just now. And of course to contrast the ‘girl shrouded in black who’s really kind vs. girl who looks white and kind but is secretly manipulative and awful’. Again, subtlety is not on display here. But it makes for a nice, dramatic scene, and would look pretty cool animated.

Given that we’ve wrapped up a long arc here, I would not be surprised if the next volume is lighter in tone. In the meantime, fans of the series shold enjoy this new volume, especially the talk between Haruyuki and Metatron.

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 1

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One occupational hazard of reviewing manga is the powerful sense of déjà vu that a middle-of-the-road series can induce. I experienced just such a flash while reading Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, a pleasant, decently executed shojo series that hit so many familiar beats I was tempted to pull out a bingo card and tick off the stock characters and situations as I plowed through volume one.

As in other supernatural romances — think InuYasha and The Water Dragon’s Bride — the plot is set in motion by the heroine’s abduction to the kakuriyo, or spirit realm. There, Aoi learns that her late grandfather was capable of traveling between the kakuriyo and utsushiyo (human world), a skill that gramps exploited to run up a tab at a supernatural B&B. Gramps pledged Aoi as collateral, promising her hand in marriage to Odanna, the inn’s proprietor. Odanna is — wait for it — a handsome jerk with an attitude so condescending that Aoi can barely stand to be in the same room with him. He’s also an ogre. (A real ogre, not a metaphorical one.)

Indignant at the prospect of marrying a monster, Aoi instead vows to settle her grandfather’s accounts by working at the inn, a vow made more complicated by the other demons’ refusal to hire human staff for even the most menial tasks. The creators have used Aoi’s predicament as an opportunity to graft elements of a cooking manga onto the main plot by furnishing Aoi with culinary skills so impressive that even denizens of the kakuriyo are wowed by her omelet rice and chicken stew. The inclusion of these scenes feels perfunctory, however, as they add little to our understanding of who Aoi is; if anything, these interludes serve mostly to foreshadow the inevitable moment in volume two or five when Aoi finally persuades the inn’s chef to update his menu with Japanese comfort food.

The real pleasure in reading Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits is the parade of ayakashi (spirits). The supporting cast seem to have stepped out of a Hyakki Yagyō scroll: there are kappas and tengus and oni, no-faced women and nine-tailed foxes, all drawn in a style that explicitly references the work of Utagawa Yoshiiku and Kawanabe Kyosai. When interacting with Aoi, these spirits morph into preternaturally elegant humans swathed in Edo-era couture. It’s an effective gambit, allowing illustrator Waco Ioka to emphasize her strengths — fabrics, textures, masks — while offering a plausible explanation for the demons’ uncanny appearance. (Looking through one of gramps’ photo albums, Aoi notes that the ayakashi‘s “faces look fake, like they’re pasted on.”)

Yet for all the joys of seeing the Night Parade of 100 Demons come to life in such a stylish fashion, I was so aware of the plot mechanics that I could never fully embrace Kakuriyo as a story. Someone less steeped in the conventions and cliches of shojo manga, however, might well find Kakuriyo a charming introduction to one of the medium’s most ubiquitous and appealing genres: the supernatural romance.

The verdict: Librarians working with middle school readers might find Kakuriyo a good addition to their graphic novel collection, as it’s largely free of provocative content (e.g. strong language, sexuality) but will feel more “adult” to readers in grades 6-8 than other T-rated romances.

A review copy was supplied by VIZ Media.

KAKURIYO: BED & BREAKFAST FOR SPIRITS, VOL. 1 • ART BY WACO IOKA, ORIGINAL STORY BY MIDORI YUMA, CHARACTER DESIGN BY LARUHA • TRANSLATED BY TOMO KIMURA • RATED T, FOR TEENS (FANTASY VIOLENCE) • 196 pp.

After the Rain, Vol. 2

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By Jun Mayuzuki. Released in Japan as “Koi wa Ameagari no You ni” in two separate volumes by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Big Comic Spirits. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Jocelyne Allen.

As you might imagine given the title of the series is After the Rain, it rains an awful lot in this manga. This not only creates an appropriate atmosphere, but allows both of its protagonists to come down with bad colds. This causes both Akira and Kondo to lose control of their emotions a bit, allowing suppressed feelings to boil over – nothing going beyond hugging, mind you. No one is quite ready for this relationship to advance that far yet. (Well, Akira may want it to – her fantasies when she’s in bed with a cold verge close to a masturbatory scene.) Plus both Akira and Kondo have things in their life they need to work out first. Akira is still trying to untie herself from her previous track team life, despite her friend Haruka insisting they can still be friends. And Kondo has a hidden side – he writes. But doesn’t want anyone to find out about it.

It’s no coincidence that both of these plotlines resemble each other – our leads are very much alike despite the age difference. Akira is determined to move on from her injury, but feels like the only way she can do that is by completely cutting out that part of her life. This naturally upsets Haruka, who is reduced to tears hearing Akira essentially deny everything they had. As for Kondo, seeing Akira recommend a book by his college friend Chihiro brings up old memories, and causes him to reunite with said friend and discuss their old literature club, which also apparently had his ex-wife in it. The reunion allows him to give advice to Akira on her fight, which is, essentially, “even if you do never speak again, this will not change the precious moments you once had with each other”. Which is good, if non-confrontational, advice – I’m sort of rooting for Haruka here.

We also meet Akira’s father in this volume (complete with a great “stop telling people I’m dead!” joke), which is good, because it shows us that her dad really isn’t much like Kondo at all. (So he’s not a replacement father figure, which I was fearing.) She’s also a lot more outgoing with her dad, sort of like the flashbacks of her and Haruka that we see before the accident. Like most high school kids, she’s ready to grow up and be taken seriously as an adult, and is frustrated by people who still want to treat her as a kid – not realizing that the reason they’re doing it so much is they know they don’t have much time left to pamper her. She’s almost an adult, but you want to stop time just so that you can still have her need you in the same way. It amounted to my favorite chapter in the book.

This story continues to be a sweet, slow burn, and my misgivings about the May-December romance have faded a bit. More to the point, I just like the writing of the characters. Even if the romance doesn’t happen, I want to see what happens next in their life anyway.

Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon, Vol. 3

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By Hirukuma and Ituwa Kato. Released in Japan as “Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umare Kawatta Ore wa Meikyuu wo Samayou” by Kadokawa Shoten. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

This third volume of Reborn as a Vending Machine tries to expand the world that we’re in and give our hero a bit more insight into goals for the future. As we’ve seen, a lot of his “what should I do next” thoughts involve collecting points to level up, get new products, etc. Here, after a very amusing eating contest, Shui from the mercenary group wins the right to have Boxxo for the entire day, and takes him to the first floor of the dungeon, home to (try to contain your surprise) a group of poor yet plucky orphan children. The dungeon, it turns out, needs to have someone reach a certain level in order to get to the second floor. So for the unwanted kids, or whose whose parents have died, they have this. It reminds Boxxo to, if you’ll pardon me, think outside the box and realize this is a real life world he’s now in, not just a game RPG.

There’s also his relationship with Lammis, which continues to be chaste (he’s a vending machine) but still have that “I am a harem manga protagonist” feel to it. Lammis is clearly deeply in love with Boxxo, and as such will try to overcome her limits in order to stay by his side (she’s terrified of the supernatural, and the last half of the book involves nothing but that) and also gets easily embarrassed around him (she tries to hide her heavy period, which doesn’t work but does allow Boxxo to show off that he can also dispense sanitary pads). As for Boxxo, his emotions are still a bit flat, but it’s pretty clear he likes Lammis quite a bit. I’m not entirely sure where the series’ endgame is here, but am content with it simply being cute and chaste – it really does get pretty adorable.

Less adorable is the climax to the third book, where our heroes defeat a skeleton lord and then discover the demon behind the skeleton lord, who is vastly more powerful. For a moment I wondered if the book was actually going to kill off a few regulars – the villain actually stops Hulemy and Shui’s hearts, and you briefly think the book might be going in a dark direction. But no, it’s just an excuse for Boxxo to recall that AED stations can also be part of a vending machine, and that he can use that to save their lives. Also, he has telekinesis now, though we don’t get too much of a sense of how he’ll use that. Honestly, you don’t want this series getting too dark – it’s about a guy reincarnated as a vending machine – so I’m fine with his breaking out vaguely deus ex vending machina powers so that everyone is fine again.

While the series has a number of volumes after this in its webnovel version, Kadokawa hasn’t published a new volume in about two years, so this may be all the vending machine we see. (The author has been writing KonoSuba side story volumes, which may explain it.) Which is a shame, as despite its truly ridiculous premise I found myself drawn into each book, trying to see what would be happening next. I’ll miss you, Boxxo.

Bookshelf Briefs 1/7/19

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Bad Friends | By Ancco | Drawn & Quarterly – Only a few Korean comics have so far been released in translation by Drawn & Quarterly, the most recent being Ancco’s internationally award-winning Bad Friends. The work is a devastatingly powerful one, hard-hitting and at times difficult to read due to its emotional heaviness and unflinching portrayal of physical abuse. Bad Friends is told from the perspective of Pearl, a young cartoonist reflecting back upon the good and the bad of her middle school and high school years. At the forefront of her mind is her incredibly important and formative relationship with Jeong-ae, a close friend she hasn’t seen or been in contact with for over a decade. As teenagers, they were both delinquents, finding their own ways to survive in a harsh, cruel, and ugly world; as adults, their lives have taken drastically different paths. Bad Friends isn’t necessarily an easy or comforting read, but it is exceptionally well done. – Ash Brown

Blue Exorcist, Vol. 21 | By Kazue Kato | Viz Media – “Son of Satan” has always been part of the core of Blue Exorcist, and though Rin is the one who this is talking about, Yukio is apparently not free from Satan. At all. In fact, Satan is apparently talking to people from his eye. So, since his allies aren’t helping him or telling him the truth (well, they’re trying to help him), clearly it’s time to… join the bad guys? Renzo, a natural-born traitor, can help with that. Meanwhile, Mephisto’s getting shot in the head, which doesn’t stop him, but does mean he has to remove the barrier keeping the gate of Gehenna shut. As for Rin, he’s exposed to the full brunt of his power, and it’s almost too much for him, despite Shiemi helping by conjuring up an entire forest. Basically? There’s a LOT here. – Sean Gaffney

A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Vol. 8 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Arata Yamaji| Seven Seas – The shoe is on the other foot, and now a girl is telling Accelerator that he should stay away from HER because she doesn’t want him to get involved with her. Naturally, having this flipped around is irritating to Accelerator. Things aren’t helped by his brain starting to bleed because he’s overworked himself, leading to some of the creepiest POV art I’ve seen in a long time. Also, this new arc promises to feature a lot more of Last Order, who has mostly been a mascot for the series so far. But she’s bonding with Matsuri, who is a classic “I am pretending to be arrogant” princess type, and also runs into an overly affectionate young woman who says she’s a chef but may be a villain. For Index fans. – Sean Gaffney

The Demon Prince of Momochi House, Vol. 13 | By Aya Shouoto | VIZ Media – Unsurprisingly, the cliffhanger of Himari being shot by Kasha at the end of volume twelve does not stick. It turns out that he used some kind of ayakashi weapon that expels her soul from her body, allowing him to take over and cast her spirit out of Momochi House. She makes her way back just in time to see him kidnap Aoi. I must say that for a volume where a lot happens, none of it actually lands with any sort of dramatic impact. It’s diverting, I guess, but it’s just not meaningful. (Or memorable, apparently, since there was a character in this volume whom I’d completely forgotten.) However, the next volume does seem to promise the backstory between Aoi and Kasha and I guess I’m at least marginally interested in that. I’ll keep reading for now. – Michelle Smith

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 7 | By Satoru Noda | Viz Media – There’s some amazing horse racing in the first half of this book, which shows off the difference in how the races were run, and also allows Shiraishi to humiliate himself once more. But it’s somewhat overbalanced by the second half, which features our heroes trying to take down not one, not two, but three killer bears, all around the estates of an American Southern Gentlemen. We get the usual reasons we read Golden Kamuy—horrific violence that is also somehow amusing, disgusting-yet-useful discussions of rectal plugs, and two yakuza who are also flamboyantly gay in a stereotypical but nevertheless interesting way. Golden Kamuy is many things, including violent and sometimes gross, but it is never dull. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 30 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – It’s day two of the spring tournament and Karasuno is up against Inarizaki. The player who gets the spotlight this time is Tanaka, who hasn’t played great so far, and we get the backstory of his first year on the team. I really appreciated this look into the mindset of a mentally tough player who admits he’s not the best at anything, but refuses to give up. “I got totally down on myself for whole seconds!” he confesses later. Of course, he gets his moment of vindication and Karasuno wins set one. Next, we check in on Nekoma and delve into Kenma’s backstory. While I’d ordinarily be kind of annoyed at a shift away from our leads at a pivotal moment, this is a really affecting exploration of the disaffected-seeming setter who will give his all for his friends. I might’ve sniffled a time or two. – Michelle Smith

Hungry for You: Endo Yasuko Stalks the Night, Vol. 2 | By Flowerchild | Seven Seas – While this is another in what seems like a lot of manga series lately that read like they were cancelled rather than naturally ended, this second volume is pretty satisfying. We get some backstory for Yasuko, as well as a mastermind who turns out to be a lot closer than folks were expecting. That said, I found the ending most interesting, as I was very much expecting that Shizue was going to join Yasuko in her undead life, and that just doesn’t happen; Yasuko says she wants to be there with Shizue, but admits she’s going to get married, have children, and die eventually. It’s a more melancholy ending than I thought, but it fits this series, which is still cute and sweet. – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 6 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – The anime is starting possibly as you read this, and I hope it’s a good adaptation, especially for the faces. The faces in this series are absolutely amazing, and this volume is here to provide a bevy of brilliant ones, mostly from Kaguya. She’s learning, but it’s a long and difficult process, and Miyuki is, frankly, much better at flirting when he’s unaware he is, as the rooftop Princess Kaguya story entails. That said, the student council has moved on now… or have they? Will our heroes come together for a new student council? Or will the girl who we see on the last page and is clearly meant to be a new character throw a spanner in the works. Don’t know, but this hilarious series makes me want to read more. – Sean Gaffney

One-Punch Man, Vol. 15 | By ONE and Yusuke Murata | VIZ Media – The martial arts tournament is finally over! Unfortunately, Saitama is bummed because he didn’t meet anyone who could challenge him. He felt nothing, learned nothing, and gained nothing. While he’s lamenting having gotten too strong, he even ends up defeating the hero hunter with one kick without even realizing it. I don’t know where ONE is headed with Saitama’s massive ennui, but the rest of the plotline features the Monster Association demanding that the Hero Association send its strongest fighters to rescue the kid (son of an important donor) that they’ve taken hostage. I keep waiting for Saitama to finally achieve recognition, and I don’t know whether to hope this’ll be his chance or to feel like I ought to know better than to expect that from this series. Still a lot of fun! – Michelle Smith

I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse, Vol. 11

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By Namekojirushi and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Ore ga Heroine o Tasukesugite Sekai ga Little Mokushiroku!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mana Z.

By the end of this volume, we have five left to go before the series ends. It’s started to make me wonder what the endgame is actually going to be. Oh, I’m still convinced it will end with him not choosing anyone. But it has to be said, if he is going to choose one of the girls, it has to be someone the reader has a strong attachment to as well. And, well, First Girl Wins is not just a trope for nothing. Satsuki has an advantage that the other girls do not. She’s a childhood friend, she has magical wikipedia powers and is therefore involved in Rekka’s life rather than being kept in the dark. And she gets a big focus in this volume as well, as she and Rekka are accidentally sent to a deserted island for a while, where they can wax nostalgic, almost get eaten by a leopard, and come close (but not close enough) to a confession.

Satsuki is not on the cover, of course. The interesting thing, though, is that both girls on the cover, while heroines that Rekka “solves”, are not romantic heroines that we can see. Yulia is a nun who, like many Japanese nuns in fiction, is also an exorcist and a bit of a fanatic. Given she’s ended up in Rekka’s hometown, which is teeming with otherworldly inhabitants, particularly the vampire Rosalind, you can see why Yulia is flipping out a bit. In fact, dialing back her fanaticism is the point – she’s mistaking the Church’s vendetta for her own, and Rekka has an actual Angel to tell her “no, God says the Church is wrong”. (A very common thing in light novels lately.) As for Poppy the fairy, “staying hidden” and avoiding a group of kids trying to capture her is the sole goal she has. Compared to prior volumes, the stakes are very low key here.

Back to Satsuki, a surprise in this volume was that we not only see her parents, but get art showing what they look like. (In fact, the author wondered if there were enough interesting scenes for the artist, which may be why we see her parents as well as the kids harassing the fairy.) The other plot-heavy part of the book involves L, who has been abandoned by her villain friends and is on her own in the past, and essentially homeless till she gets picked up and adopted, for the moment, by Satsuki’s family. She’s still trying to kill Rekka technically, but it is interesting that whereas R is going for “hammer Rekka with as many heroines as possible to create a crisis point”, L is more “I am in one heroine’s corner”. And that heroine is Satsuki.

Will she win? Likely we won’t know till Book 16. Will R ever be seen? And of course the one question that absolutely has to wait for the last book: will Rekka get a clue that everyone is in love with him and do something about it other than change the subject? We do apparently get a girl in a top hat, though, so that’s nice. If you’ve been reading this, keep reading it. It’s fun froth.

Silver Spoon, Vol. 6

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By Hiromu Arakawa. Released in Japan as “Gin no Saji” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

It’s going to be very hard to discuss this volume without talking about the final chapter that overshadows the rest of it, but I will do my best to save that for later. In the meantime, there is still festival prep, and horse races! The racing is a highlight of the book, mostly as, despite getting distracted by family, studies, and Mikage, Hachiken is finally learning how to ride. This is despite the fact that he almost falls off Chestnut 3/4 of the way through, creating a dramatic moment when everyone panics he’s going to fall and get trampled. But he survives, and ends up in fourth place! Which is interesting, because it’s really good for a newbie, but it still irritates him. He wants more. He’s getting competitive spirit. This is especially good news given that he’s fallen for Mikage, who gets third in her own race and actually agrees to go on a date with him during the festival (though she may not have realized that’s what it was).

It would be remiss of me not to mention Ayame, who is introduced in this volume and is FABULOUS, in all senses of the word. Trying her hardest to have wandered in from a Rose of Versailles manga, and consumed with an intense rivalry with Mikage (who merely sees her as a good childhood friend), Ayame is pure hilarity the moment she steps onto the page. She’s basically the “ohohohohohoho” laugh given human form. She rides slowly and perfectly through her race, not understanding or even really caring that she’d doing it wrong. And when Hachiken manages to get fourth in a race (and thus finish ahead of her), Ayame admits that she’s rivals with him as well. For all that I praise Silver Spoon for its depiction of agriculture and compelling characters, there’s also no doubt that Arakawa can make things incredibly funny.

…and then Hachiken collapses and is taken to hospital, right before the festival begins. Frankly, the astute reader should have guessed this was going to happen. He hasn’t been brought up on a farm, and he got goaded into taking charge of eighty different things. He was ridiculously exhausted, and now he’s paying. That doesn’t make this any less depressing, though. His look as he wakes up in the hospital is almost heartbreaking. And that cliffhanger, showing the arrival of his dad, promises that the next volume is not going to be starting with laughs either. Still, I like that we are shown the start of the festival anyway – the manga is not just Hachiken, and I’ll lay you even money that his incredibly detailed and easy to understand festival plan is going to be noticed by someone at some point (there’s even a shot of the notebook sitting there like Chekhov’s gun.)

So the festival looks to be a success, but will Hachiken get to see any of it? And will his dad demand he pull out of the school? Can his dad, in fact, find it in him to not be a complete dick this time? I cannot wait to find out, because Silver Spoon is still amazingly addicting.

Manga the Week of 1/9/19

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SEAN: It’s a quiet week unless you like Kodansha’s digital-only titles. What’s out next week?

J-Novel Club gives us a 5th volume of The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar.

Kodansha, print-wise, has a 15th Attack on Titan: Before the Fall. This is one long prequel.

ASH: The manga adaptation adds more to the story than is found in the original light novel. Actually for the better, I think.

Digitally, there’s quite a bit. Kasane finishes up with Vol. 14, and Fuuka comes to an end with the 20th volume. There’s also Alicia’s Diet Quest 2, Boarding School Juliet 7, Kamikamikaeshi 7, Lovesick Ellie 7, Starving Anonymous… 6, and Tokyo Alice 7. Boo, Starving Anonymous, you need to get with the 7s program!

MICHELLE: I’ll at least be reading Lovesick Ellie! I need to check out Tokyo Alice one of these days, too.

ANNA: I have come to peace with the fact that there are many series that I will never be familiar with, and this list represents many digital manga I am not reading.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Dragon Quest Monsters +, a sequel to the old Gameboy video game. It ran in Shonen Gangan back in 2000, so is something of a surprise license.

ANNA: Sounds fairly obscure!

SEAN: We also see Captain Harlock Dimensional Voyage 7, Himouto Umaru-chan 4, and the 6th and final Spirit Circle.

ASH: I’ve fallen behind with Dimensional Voyage but have recently caught up with Spirit Circle. I eagerly look forward to the next (although sadly last) volume. The series has been excellent.

SuBLime has an 11th volume of The World’s Greatest First Love.

And Viz gives us Case Closed 69, Hayate the Combat Butler 33, and Radiant 3. Always happy to see Hayate getting volumes published and not kicked to the curb like a dog.

ANNA: My kids like Radiant!

SEAN: And that’s it. See anything interesting there?

MJ: No, but maybe one of you will persuade me.

The Asterisk War: Idol Showdown

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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.

I must admit, of all the minor characters introduced in the last book when Ayato toured the festivals, I was not expecting the comic relief idol band to be the most important. Yet here we are, with said band trying to shame Ayato for being a clueless harem protagonist, getting into fights with other, more delinquent contestants, discovering secret underground battle rings, and taking on our heroes in the final part of the book. Actually, possibly the most interesting part of their story is the fact that their weapon is so powerful, even divided into five bits, that it literally makes them more eccentric and difficult. They have weaponized being cloud cuckoolanders! They also put up a damn good fight, forcing Claudia to use a lot more of her precognitive powers than I think she wanted, which will no doubt come to haunt her in the end. That said, this is really Saya’s book. So I will save her for later.

But first, let’s stay with Claudia, who stuns everyone by announcing her goal in front of the press. This certainly unnerves many people in power, especially her mother, who it turns out if in charge of most everything. As you can imagine, Claudia and her mother do not get along, and yet their confrontation is a highlight of the book. It also seems to tie into what Sylvie is searching for – as does the aforementioned underground battle ring, which is shut down for now but I’ll bet you even money will be started up again in a few books so that Ayato and Julis can fight forbidden illegal battles. Much of the rest of the book is the start of this tournament, with various groups fighting and showing off their dangerous points. This includes Claudia’s team as well, usually with her as the ‘team captain’, though that changes for the final match of the book.

Which brings us to Saya, who gets a lot of focus here. She’s both the childhood friend love interest and the ‘stoic’ one, so brings a lot of popular cards to the table. Her stoicness masks a lot of emotion, though, both in her desire to be able to bring everything she can to the battles with her weapons (which works out wonderfully in the last battle with her homing bazooka thing), and in her desire to be closer to Ayato. She spends a lot of the middle of the book convincing the idol group girls that Ayato is not, in fact, a playboy (well, not deliberately) and explaining all the times he’s been there for her. Which seems to lead her to the big cliffhanger, where she confesses to him. Now, I have a feeling that Saya is aware of the cliches of harem novels like this, and knows that by both being a childhood friend *and* confessing first, she’s out of luck. Still, it’s super impressive, and I hope that Ayato is able to give her a response that’s not just hemming and hawing.

Asterisk War is still very light and fluffy, but this was a particularly strong volume of the series. If you only watched the anime to make fun of it, you might be surprised by this book.

Kimagure Orange Road, Vol. 1

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By Izumi Matsumoto. Released in Japan in three separate volumes by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Digital Manga Publishing. Translated by Steven LeCroy.

It’s been an awfully long journey from “the anime is a big hit, the manga is sure to be licensed” to “why didn’t Viz license this back in the day?” to “yay, DMP is Kickstartering the entire series!” to “will this be released before DMP dies?”. But here we are at last, and all six omnibuses of the legendary Kimagure Orange Road are now in my hot little hands. They look nice – good paper stock, solid covers. You can tell the KS money went into printing them. The question is who the audience is. Chances are that anyone who ponied up the considerable cash to get six print omnibuses of the entire series is already going to be a KOR fan. You aren’t getting casual readers. If a casual reader did get the series (there are PDF copies of the omnibuses on sale at emanga), they might be startled by how ordinary it all seems. But that’s typical with manga that sets the trend and then is quickly surpassed by those who come after it.

For those unfamiliar (and given that the heyday of North American fandom was around twenty-five years ago, I think that’s most of you), the premise of Kimagure Orange Road has a family moving to a new neighborhood. The father is fairly normal. But his children, Kyosuke, Manami, and Kurumi… are psychics! Just like their late mother. (Yes, sorry, Hard-KOR fans, esper is not used here.) They move a lot because the kids, being young and impetuous, abuse their powers and are caught. Kyosuke is really trying to not do that and fit in at his new school. Then he sees two girls smoking behind the school… cool, aloof Madoka and outgoing, impetuous Hikaru. He’s met Madoka before, running up a stairway with either 99 or 100 steps, depending on who you agree with. But she seems totally different now, and doesn’t want to give him the time of day! Kyosuke promptly falls for her… and Hikaru falls for him. But what of Madoka, this whimsical girl?

“Kimagure” can be translated as “whimsical”, and it certainly applies to Madoka, who runs hot or cold depending on the situation. She clearly likes Kyosuke immediately but she also sees Hikaru likes him too, and that he’s not doing a good job of telling Hikaru he’s not interested. Plus he tends to be a jerk some of the time, saying things like “if you smoke, you won’t have healthy babies”. (Note the two reactions: Madoka blushes at the thought of doing things that make you have babies, Hikaru gets mad and says “I’ll show you! Imma have ALL the babies!”) The series plays out like a classic shonen romantic comedy – in fact, it is *the* classic shonen romantic comedy. That said, it’s also steeped in what was big in 80s manga, as Kyosuke does use his powers quite a bit – if you’re wondering what specific powers, well, it tends to vary depending on the need of the plot, but includes teleportation, telekenesis and mind reading. You can see why their dad is worried about his kids.

I mentioned that North America had a big KOR fandom back in the day, but that’s not quite true. The fandom was for Madoka. The rest of the anime and cast was secondary. Most modern manga tries to keep the love triangle at least a little balanced, but Matsumoto is not really interested in that. We *know* Kyosuke and Madoka are the couple, the question is how long it will take. The answer is there’s five more of these 600-page omnibuses to go. As for Hikaru, fans these days are more sympathetic to her than they were back in the 1990s, where she was the very first “bashed” anime character – even before Akane in Ranma 1/2! Given that, in the manga at least (the anime is another story) she is unaware of Kyosuke and Madoka’s feelings for each other, her forwardness is a lot more understandable. Still, looking back on the series now, I must admit: things would be solved a lot faster if Kyosuke mustered a backbone.

If you want to see shonen romance as your parents read it, you really can’t get a more perfect choice than KOR, which is pure 1980s Japan, even down to the discos – and the amusement park called Cougar Town. Recommended.

Beasts of Abigaile Vol. 4

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Beasts of Abigaile Volume 4 by Spica Aoki

I hadn’t realized that Beasts of Abigaile was only 4 volumes long, and I’m guessing that the mangaka wasn’t planning on the series wrapping up so quickly either, based on the sheer amount of backstory and exposition crammed into one volume. Still, the story does end on a satisfying note, although I would have been fine to see the series get stretched out to 5 or 6 volumes in order to be able to spend more time with the supporting cast.

Nina’s been captured and her secret of being a human at the werewolf academy on the island of Abigaile is threatened with exposure! She encounters a chained-up Giles, who fills in some of the details about the manipulation of Angelica the student body president who is nursing a special hatred for Nina. Nina is determined to be a force for good at the academy after hearing more about how its potential has been subverted by the school administrators. Roy is on his way to rescue Nina when she flies in with a high kick and they take off and hide in rose bushes to escape. One of the things that I like about this series is that for all of Roy’s alpha male blustering, Nina often manages to rescue herself through sheer determination.

On the way to the resolution of the series, the reader learns about Nina’s secret past, Roy and Giles’ secret past, and Nina comes to realize exactly what her own feelings are. There are some spectacular revelations and many panels of people staring intensely through jail bars. While this volume suffered a bit from too much story being crammed into a few short chapters, overall Beasts of Abigaile was a fun to read breezy paranormal shoujo series that I enjoyed. I hope it did well enough for Seven Seas that they continue to publish the occasional shoujo manga, as I like to see shoujo coming here from a variety of Japanese publishers.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 12

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By Satoshi Wagahara and 029. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

This is a stronger volume of Devil Is a Part-Timer! than the previous one, probably because the previous one got all the exposition out of its system in one gulp. Actually, the theme of this new volume could be avoiding exposition, as both Emilia and Maou do their absolute best to not talk to Laila and avoiding knowing why it is they’re the only ones who can save the world this time. In practice, this means this is a “downtime’ volume, though there is an exciting battle in a subway tunnel in the middle of the book. For the most part, though, Emi is still shattered by the last book, to the point where she runs away to a minor character’s home for college advice. Maou is just trying to get the new delivery program at MgRonald’s in gear. And Chiho should be pleased that Emi and Maou are finally acting closer, but this is offset by her realizing that she’s in a shonen love triangle where she’s the sweet girl who doesn’t get the guy but finds new confidence so that’s OK. Which does not sit well with her.

That’s Laila on the cover, but I get the feeling it’s meant to be what Emi and Maou think she’s doing in this book, rather than her real personality. Laila is genuinely trying to save the world, but seems to be making a lot of incorrect assumptions as well, not least of which is “this is for a good cause so my daughter who I have been manipulating her entire life and the boy I helped before he was a demon king will totally be into it”. But sometimes world-saving is goddamn exhausting, and after getting kidnapped/rescued and learning some nasty truths about heaven and Enta Isla, neither Emi or Maou really wants to deal with it right now. Probably the best scene in the book (and the author knows it, as the other characters praise him for it as well) is Maou talking about assuming that the strongest person will always be there to protect and save. If you have something made of steel, does that mean it’s OK to beat the crap out of it?

There’s also the romantic dynamics here. This series has been pretty good at keeping the romance there but on a low boil. Chiho has confessed to Maou (though he’s pretty much ignored that) and everyone can see how she feels. Suzuno is starting to realize that she may have feelings for Maou, though is very reluctant to admit it. And Emi, while not quite admitting that she’s in love with Maou yet, is willing to admit that she sometimes wants to be protected, and is OK if the person doing it is him. She even hugs him! (He does not hug her back. Maou still seems to be baffled by the concept of loving and being attracted to someone.) Unfortunately, both this and the main plot collide at the end, as due to a deal made between Maou and Laila, Emi is now refusing to leave his side, much to everyone’s horror.

That said, she can’t keep running from her problems forever. I suspect the next volume will have more details on how we’re going to save the world next. But for now, enjoy Maou reminding folks that heroes and villains need downtime too.

The Quintessential Quintuplets, Vol. 1

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By Negi Haruba. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Steven LeCroy.

Deserved or not, it has to be said that sometimes Kodansha in Japan has a certain reputation for making series that are very similar to series published by other publishers. The most obvious example is Fairy Tail, which is “Kodansha’s One Piece”, but there are a few others. So when Shueisha started releasing a series in Weekly Shonen Jump about a poor high school student who is blackmailed into tutoring a bunch of eccentric, mistrusting but gorgeous young women (We Never Learn), I raised an eyebrow when I saw that Shonen Magazine, precisely six months later, has debuted this title, in which a poor high school student who is blackmailed into tutoring a bunch of eccentric, mistrusting but gorgeous young women. (It’s also not hard to think of Araragi from the Monogatari series when looking at Futaro, and I think the author was on the short list of manga artists considered for that adaptation.) That said, unoriginal does not equal bad, and I found the first volume of this series enjoyable enough, though these girls are VERY mistrusting.

Futaro is our hero, a somewhat misanthropic young man who gets excellent grades but has a “loner” personality. His family is in debt, which may explain why he’s so gloomy, though his bubbly younger sister seems fine with it. He’s told that he can get his family out of debt by tutoring some girls, all of whom with grade issues, from his school. Imagine his surprise when he finds that one of them is the new transfer student he met the previous day. In fact, all these girls seem familiar… that’s right, they’re quintuplets, all in the same school, having left their previous school for low grades. And they are all pretty low. How he has to figure out a way to teach them so they retain it, while also dealing with the fact that they’re either unmotivated, airheaded, stubborn, or just plain malicious. Is there any way he can do this?

Well, we know the answer to that one right away – the manga debuts with a flashforward to the wedding of Futaro and…. one of the quintuplets. They look very alike, and sometimes try to “switch” to another sibling to fool Futaro, so there’s no guarantee that it’s Itsuki he’s marrying simply because she’s the first one that he meets. (That said, this is a shonen romantic comedy, where “first girl wins” holds quite a lot of weight.) Actually, the bulk of the character development in this first book goes to Miku, the middle sister, who’s the “quiet one” of the siblings and also has an obsession with the Warring States period. This allows Futaro to figure out a way to tutor her, and they bond a bit. Others may prove harder. Futaro getting literally drugged into unconsciousness by Nino, the angriest of the five sisters, was going a bit too far for me.

If you like reading shonen romantic comedies and arguing about who is “best girl”, well, we have five siblings who look a lot alike but have differing personalities, so you should have a lot of fun here. That said, this seems like the sort of series that gets better in future volumes. This was an okay start, but only okay. It has several more volumes out digitally, though, and is getting an anime soon.