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Silver Spoon, Vol. 2

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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 seems a bit startling for our hero and his classmates to be headed into summer break right at the start of the series, but that’s the Japanese education schedule for you, which begins in April. And summer break at an agricultural school means everyone goes back to their farms… except Hachiken, who has no farm but does have an intense desire not to go back home. So he takes up Mikage’s offer to go to her farm for the holiday. You’d think cute romance would ensue, but that’s pretty much still just in Hachiken’s head right now. Instead we get more examples of Hachiken as a fish out of water, and a lot of discussion of the various aspects of farm life, including butchering deer and watching a cow give birth. But before that, there are more important things to do. Things like pizza. Priorities, please.

One of the many things I love about Silver Spoon is the way that Arakawa portrays Hachiken, the male lead. It would be all too easy to turn him into your standard harem drip, a la Keitaro Urashima. But while Hachiken is inexperienced in the ways of farming life, and still having difficulty with the idea of “animals become food”, he’s smart as a whip and quick to understand things. Moreover, he’s a planner who sees ahead, which will become very important as the series goes on. For now it’s important because it allows him to see everything that needs to be done with the pizza oven, which ends up requiring the help of most of the school in order to repair it and procure ingredients to make the pizza. He’s also getting a little more buff, which is inevitable when you’re doing the daily farm routine he has to do. But most importantly, he feels realistic. He feels like an actual person. This is what Arakawa has always excelled at, and it goes doubly for this series.

I also love the attention to detail we see here. There’s discussion of what kinds of pizza cheese work best in Japan (gouda, not mozzarella), and we see three kinds of farms: Komaba’s small one where even the elementary school twins are pitching in constantly, Mikage’s medium-sized one (which she is expected to take over, something she clearly doesn’t want to do but is unwilling to open up about just yet), and Tamako’s huge industrial farm showing off the finest in modern advancements. When we kept joking that Silver Spoon was a farming manga back in the pre-licensed days, we weren’t kidding. This book is here to tell you what farming is really like, and that it requires a lot of labor, time, money, and care. No matter how big or how small your farm is, things need to be done constantly.

Aside from Mikage’s worries about her future and Hachiken avoiding his parents, there’s not really a lot of forward progress on a “plot” here per se. But the plot is a coming of age story, and in that sense we see Hachiken grow and change a lot in this volume. If you like Arakawa’s books, farms, or just good manga, Silver Spoon is essential.

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, Vol. 4

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The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún was one of 2017’s surprise hits, an emotionally wrenching fantasy manga about a demon who rescues an orphan girl from a plague-ridden world. Nagabe’s art — with its graceful linework and unique character designs — was enough to distinguish Girl from the Other Side from virtually any other series licensed by a major American publisher. But it was the characters and the poignancy of their relationship that truly captivated readers, as the bond between Teacher (the demon) and Shiva (the girl) was tested by Shiva’s ties to the human world, particularly her attachment to the aunt who raised her — and then abandoned her in the woods. Four volumes in, Girl from the Other Side is still casting a powerful spell, even as the story takes another grim turn.

As the volume opens, Teacher, Shiva, and Auntie have formed an uneasy family unit, with Shiva desperate to broker the peace between her adoptive parents. Nagabe does a fine job of dramatizing the conflict between Teacher and Auntie without spoiling the quiet mood of the story, using small gestures to convey how desperately each wants to protect Shiva from the human world. Nagabe also includes a handful of scenes that chart the progress of Auntie’s disease, showing us how quickly the curse erases a victim’s memory and personality — a development that raises the interesting question of who Teacher was before he assumed his demonic form.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of volume four is how much of the characters’ interior lives are revealed through the artwork. In the first chapter, for example, Teacher and Auntie slip into the woods for a nighttime conference about Shiva. Each carries a lantern as they walk and talk — two pinpoints of light against a scrim of trees — their conversation ending when Auntie’s lantern flickers out, leaving her and Teacher side by side in darkness. What makes this sequence so effective is the deliberate placement of the characters on the page and the meticulous attention to lighting; Nagabe has found an elegant — and wordless — way to demonstrate the characters’ shared resolve to protect Shiva, even though they remain suspicious of one another. Such carefully observed moments are a potent reminder that The Girl from the Other Side is an all-too-rare example of a manga whose story engages the heart and mind by suggesting, rather than saying, what the characters are feeling. Recommended.

The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, Vol. 4
Art and Story by Nagabe
Translated by Adrienne Beck
Seven Seas, 180 pp.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Flight

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By Yoshiki Tanaka. Released in Japan as “Ginga Eiyū Densetsu” by Tokuma Shoten. Released in North America by Haikasoru. Translated by Tyran Grillo.

So the war’s over and the Empire won… now what? We knew that things weren’t going to begin to slowly wrap up given we still had five more books to go, and so, unsurprisingly, we see that maintaining the peace and holding on to what you have is not as easy as it seems. Reinhard is dealing with assassination attempts, the fact that not all of his underlings are capable and brilliant, and everyone and their brother telling him “you’re the Emperor, now get married and have an heir”. As for Yang, he is now married, but heirs may have to wait, as his very existence seems to annoy people on both sides, none of whom think he simply is retiring peacefully. Which… well, they’re right, he isn’t, but things really don’t go the way he hoped. As for Julian, he makes it to Earth, and finds it ruled by a petty tyrant held up by a group of misguided religious zealots. Insert wry political commentary here.

Reinhard doesn’t get as much focus here as previous books, despite the assassination attempt. Honestly, that attempt, done by Hildegarde’s cousin, seems more narratively designed to separate the two of them for a bit more, as everyone and their brother is telling Reinhard to find a wife and Hilda is the really obvious option. It is sort of amusing seeing him justify not only letting Hilda and her father not be killed/exiled for unthinkingly leading him to the assassin, but even keeping their positions – though the whole scenario does throw into sharp relief how little Reinhard seems to have actually grown up, and how important (still) Siegfried is to him. He’s really good at war, and really good when he has a rival like Yang. When he lacks both, what’s going to happen?

Not that Yang has been removed from the picture just yet. There are some amusing scenes of his attempt at domestic bliss, though given they mostly revolve around “Frederica only knows how to make sandwiches” it’s probably for the best that he’s quickly arrested. There’s a rumor going around that he’s starting a rebellion, everyone thinks that Yang wants to start a rebellion, therefore Yang must be starting a rebellion, even though it’s not quite true. (Yang DOES want to do something, but not for a few years – a plan that gets blown to hell by the events of this book.) Reinhard and Yang always make good contrasts, and here it’s seen by how much Yang is trying to avoid being the face of the opposition. He’s a charismatic leader that could easily be another Reinhard if he wanted, he and everyone else knows it, and he hates the idea.

The romance is not just Yang and Frederica, by the way. Leaving aside everyone telling Reinhard to get married, it looks like Julian has been introduced (somewhat clumsily, I will admit) to his future love interest, who I’d call a tsundere if this weren’t written in 1985. And von Reuentahl seem sto be sleeping with the girl who’s trying to kill him. That’ll go well. You get the sense that the author is trying to move pieces for the final arc, and sometimes they move smoothly and sometimes they hit you in the face. Still, Legend of the Galactic Heroes fans won’t want to miss this. Given this was a mostly politics book, I expect a lot more space battles next time.

Bookshelf Briefs 4/23/18

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Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 23 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – After teaching Hayama the lesson of this entire series, which is to say ‘have fun cooking and trying new things,’ Soma is able to win. Which is more than can be said for the rest of his merry band, as most of the minor good guys are summarily expelled after being defeated, and promptly leave the series, never to be seen again. Well, OK, maybe not. But we still have a few, and those few are ready to hear the tragic backstory of Soma’s father and Erina’s father, and the pressure that comes from needing to constantly be “the best.” Soma, of course, who has lost to his dad CONSTANTLY, doesn’t feel this pressure, which is why he does so well. An excellent volume. – Sean Gaffney

Gabriel Dropout, Vol. 3 | By Ukami |Yen Press – Gabriel Dropout continues to do what it does best: make the reader laugh. We get a new cast member this time around with Taplis, a young angel who hero-worshiped Gabriel and has come down to Earth to see how she’s doing. Needless to say, it’s not a pretty picture. Her addition just helps to give us more opportunities for fun, though. Actually, Gabriel may be the one cast member seemingly ignored by this volume, as the artist has realized that the other girls are easier to use for gags and also character development. She can’t hold her liquor, though, even when it’s amazake. My favorite continues to be troll Raphael, but all these girls are funny and great to read about. – Sean Gaffney

In/Spectre, Vol. 7 | By Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase | Kodansha Comics – This volume of In/Spectre is more of a short-story volume, adapting two prose stories as well as creating one original story for the manga. The stories themselves are what we’ve become used to—Kotoko listening to the problem and then theorizing us to death. But they’re also decent mysteries, and I don’t mind lots of theorizing if it manages to keep my interest and be visually striking, which the artist is quite good at. Meanwhile, Kotoko may not be getting any (I feel bad for falling for her telling us she wasn’t a virgin in volume one—she was clearly lying), but she remains one of the horniest manga heroines I’ve ever seen, constantly doing anything she can to try and get her boyfriend into bed. Nothing works. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vol. 21-22 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | Viz Media – Throughout this series, we’ve grown so used to Seirin being the underdog that it has to be pointed out to us that they’ve never really played while trying to maintain a lead—something that’s a lot more difficult than it sounds. This is despite the fact that, as everyone watched Kagami, they realize that he has the same magic that was in the Miracle Generation, even if he was never part of it. And it’s going to take that magic to hold on, as they’re up against Kise and his perfect copy, which is able to crush them even with his sitting out a good deal of the game. That said, Kuroko is still the title character, and I’m pretty sure the cliffhanger indicates he’ll solve things. Solid sports shonen. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 29 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – So Harukyu has won, but is this really what he wanted? The girl he likes, Morgiana, has finally realized that she loves Alibaba even though he’s dead. He’s leading his country thanks to Sinbad… but is that really going to last? The next few volumes shoold tell us — oh no, timeskip! Yes, in time honored shonen tradition, we now jump ahead a couple years, the better to deal with Alibaba, not as dead as everyone thinks (in fact, that makes a terrific running gag) and here to step back into everyone’s lives. Sadly for him, everything is seemingly a perfect utopia now, run by Sinbad. Of course, no utopia is perfect, and I suspect Alibaba will soon be leading some sort of resistance. Once he can explain to everyone that he’s not dead. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 12 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – We’re back in class, and it’s time for exams—at least after a very amusing couple of chapters where the students go to mad scientist Mei to get alterations to their hero costumes. But the bulk of this is the provisional license exams, after which they’ll be able to do the hero sorts of things they got in trouble for doing before. That is if they survive the exam, which puts them against other schools in one giant melee battle, and only 200 can pass. This gives nearly everyone a chance to stand out—I particularly liked Midoriya spotting a fake immediately based purely on hero knowledge—and gives the volume tension, as we try to see who’s going to fall and have to be left behind. So glad this is now speeding up. – Sean Gaffney

Takane & Hana, Vol. 2 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – This is not quite as hysterical as the first volume, possibly as it’s clearly now an ongoing series rather than a bunch of one-shots, and thus needs to work harder at plot and character development. I like how the author is not shying away from the age difference between the two of them, and the scandal that it would cause were it to get out. We’re also introduced to an old friend and rival of Takane’s, who I think I would like more if he didn’t keep reminding me of Saki from I Hate You More Than Anyone/VB Rose. In the meantime, rest assured that there is still a lot of great humor here—I was especially amused by Takane referring to Hana’s two friends as “Friends A and B.” I love Hana to Yume comedies. – Sean Gaffney

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, Vol. 1 | By Fujita | Kodansha Comics – I picked up Wotakoi more on a whim than anything else, but the manga quickly became one of my favorite debuts of the year. The series actually had its beginning as a webcomic on Pixiv before being picked up by a print publisher. Even more recently, Wotakoi became the basis of an anime. The attention the manga has received is understandable. The story features quirky but relatable characters, four adult friends and coworkers (two couples) who to different extents can be described as otaku. There isn’t much of a plot, but the humor and story revolve around how being a fan of games, manga, anime, cosplay, etc. impacts relationships, romance, and worklife. In some ways, Wotakoi reminds me a little of a more subdued, grownup version of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, another series that I adore. Unsurprisingly then, I’m greatly looking forward to reading more of the charming, smile-inducing Wotakoi. – Ash Brown

Yowamushi Pedal, Vol. 8 | By Wataru Watanabe | Yen Press – This volume doubles down on Midosouji—he’s all over it, and twice as obnoxious, and I think your enjoyment of the book will depend on how much you can resist wanting to see someone slug him. The majority of this volume, in fact, does not feature our heroes, as they’re still waiting for Onoda to drag Tadokoro back—which he does, and it’s awesome—but instead focuses on the other teams, showing us their own drive to succeed—as well as the questioning of the rest of Midosouji’s teammates, wondering if this is really the right way to win? We’ve still got a long way to go in this race, but even in omnibus format I want to read it faster and faster. Can’t wait for the next volume. – Sean Gaffney

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, Vol. 1

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By Fujita. Released in Japan in two separate volumes as “Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii” by Ichijinsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Pool. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Jessica Sheaves.

In general, when we see romances in anime and manga that also involve “otaku”, they tend to revolve around an otaku and a seemingly “normal” person who fall for each other. Kiss Him, Not Me! is a good example. We’ve also seen the occasional otaku couple, but they’ve been fairly minor characters in a story which focuses on someone else. With Wotakoi we’re finally zeroing in on romance and otaku in equal doses, and all four characters are deeply into it. Indeed, the fact that it is equal doses is the big selling point. Wotakoi is very good at balancing out its (admittedly slow-moving) romance between the leads and also the everyday otaku banter that they go through, and it makes it feel all the more realistic, because I know couples like this, who will suddenly sing a theme tune when they’re even vaguely reminded of it. Despite the otaku veneer, Wotakoi feels genuine.

Hirotaka is the guy on the cover, he likes playing games. Narumi is the girl, she’s more of a fujoshi and also makes her own doujinshi. They’re childhood friends who meet again when she starts at a new company, Over the course of the book, the two slowly enter into a… wait, no. Over the course of the very short first chapter, the two enter into a relationship founded on “hey, we might as well date”. I really liked this, because it felt very real to me, even as it’s lampshading her “mercenary” otaku mindset. And they really *do* make a great couple, as is clear immediately to everyone else except perhaps Narumi. Hirotaka does have genuine love for her, and is content to wait while she figures everything out (though he’s also not very good at emotional bonding). They also have two coworkers who are also dating and also happen to be otaku, though Taro is the most “normal” of the bunch. He and Hanako are very different from the two leads, and I loved them to bits.

In fact, that may be one of this double-volume omnibus’ flaws – the beta couple interest me more than the lead. This is, admittedly, not uncommon in romance series, particularly one where the main girl is cute and slightly oblivious like Narumi is. Taro and Hanako have that sort of “we fight all the time but love each other deep down” relationship that only seems to work well in fiction but I love it anyway. They’re also hot, leaving our main leads to fulfill the “cute” function. And of course everyone is an adult, and actually feels like one, even Narumi. We’re seeing more and more manga get out of the high school and into the workplace, but the chwracter design still seems to be stuck back in the teens for the most part. I liked seeing people who look their age.

Wotakoi’s coming out in omnibuses, and Japan is only up to Vol. 5, so we’re going to catch up pretty quick. But I definitely recommend Wotakoi both to otaku who want to see a realistic depiction of how they work in life as opposed to the “creepy otaku” stereotypes, and also to romance fans who like comedy and don’t mind characters talking about their favorite games all the time.

Also, Taro and Hanako in evening wear. YUM. I can see why they used those shots in the anime OP.

Outbreak Company, Vol. 3

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By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Japanese anime and manga cater to their audience, and knows what the audience wants. And since Japan lives sports, that means a lot of sports manga. Over here in North America, we’re finally at the point where sports manga is also very popular, but for years it was the opposite, and titles like Whistle! or Prince of Tennis were the odd ones out. It didn’t have a built-in audience. And that’s the issue that Shinichi is dealing with in this volume, as the elves and dwarves in his class are unable to relate to the various types of sports manga that are being offered, because… there really aren’t any sports in their world. So there’s only one thing for it: it’s time to introduce the Eldant Empire to the glories of soccer. Of course, best-laid plans and all that… if you guessed that this would end with a giant melee battle, you’d be right.

Since we’re presented with that cover at this point, let’s get what I didn’t like about this volume out of the way here. I am not all that fond of when Outbreak Company tries to be a typical harem comedy romance, which means that the whole plotline of Elvia being in heat didn’t do much for me, nor was I bowled over by Petralka sitting on Shinichi’s lap and his reminding us constantly how much like a little girl she looks (and frequently acts). Myusel is a notable exception to this , and the interaction he has with her has a greater depth of feeling than any of the others – I’m not sure if romance will ever be resolved in this title, but I know who Best Girl is in my opinion.

That said, the rest of the book is far stronger. The plotline of the second book is mostly dropped, as the Japanese government deals with yet another prime minister and so has dialed things back. The introduction of soccer, and the inherent disasters that become revealed o0nce you realize that most of the players involved can do magic and there are no explicit rules saying you can’t use it, is fast-paced, funny, and entertaining. The best part of the book, though, was the development of Brooke as a character, giving us a tragic backstory, but also greater insight into how the Lizardmen think and react to things. Outbreak Company’s goal is to show that prejudice against other races is bacd, and in this volume we see that even the seemingly cold and impenetrable Lizardmen can turn out to have similarities to humans deep down. It was really well handled.

I’m not really sure if there is a grand final plan for this series beyond “introduce otaku things and watch the fun stuff that happens”, “continue to show that equality is a good thing”, and the occasional “oh no I’m getting aroused by these gorgeous girls but don’t realize they may actually like me” moment. But I’m content to find out, and regard Outbreak Company as a nice solid series in J-Novel Club’s lineup.

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 17

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Eita Mizuno. Released in Japan in three separate volumes as “Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Requiem of the Golden Witch” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Stephen Paul.

(If you aren’t spoiled about Umineko by now, best not to read this review.)

It does feel something of a cheat to be introduced to Will and Lion and then have them barely appear for the entirety of this next omnibus. Indeed, the author lampshades it. But it’s also something of a necessity. Battler wasn’t able to solve this. To a large degree, neither was the reader. And thus Will is here to reveal the culprit and have them explain everything. We’re not getting ALL the answers here, and the story plays a bit coy with the culprit by using Clair as the personification of the backstory. But here we learn about Yasu’s life as a servant in the mansion, her interaction with Battler, and what exactly it was that led to everything that happened in 1986. Yes, we finally learn Battler’s sin, and it’s the sort of thing that’s very hard to blame a young boy for but also very easy to.

That said, one of the answers we get spelled out here will, I suspect, frustrate the reader immensely. The Riddle of the Epitaph has always been fairly hard to figure out, but here we find that not only would it be hopeless for Western readers, even more Japanese readers were never going to get anywhere. Not because of the tortuous alternate kanji readings that infest every aspect of it, but simply because the one clue that would have started things off is deliberately hidden from us till this book, which is Kinzo’s “hometown”. Even Yasu, who ends up solving the riddle right at the end of the book, needs Genji to explicitly give the hint of “Taiwan” to start the ball rolling, and it’s *still* frustratingly obtuse. I credit the translator for not simply giving up and throwing his hands in the air.

I was, admittedly, about ready to throw my hands in the air when we got to the final scene, where “Beatrice” dons her regalia and is presented to Kinzo so that he can grovel and apologize to her. What Kinzo has done to Beatrice is so loathsome that even Genji, putting out feelers to see if he can get away with revealing who Beatrice really is, all but asks “Are you just going to rape her again?”. Ryukishi07 means this scene to be somewhat sad and pathetic for Kinzo, but I still can’t get over my intense hatred and loathing for the man who abused his family and made them into what they are in 1986. That said, the rest of this volume is excellent. The scenes of Beatrice and Shannon in the Golden Land are very well-adapted and help explain why Beatrice is so fixated on (and in love with) Battler. The art is also very good, conveying several times the “…wtf?” face that is the only reaction to events here.

We have one more large omnibus to go, and clever readers will be wondering what Bernkastel is up to. But Yasu’s story is not quite finished either, so put up with the backstory a little more. As for those dissatisfied with the riddle’s solution, well, can’t help you there. Umineko fans will find this essential, though.

The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 1

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By Gamei Hitsuji and himesuz. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

If you’re going to lure people in to reading another isekai these days, you need a compelling concept. Not necessarily a strong concept – vending machines and hot moms will also do – but a concept where a potential reader will think “that actually sounds like it might be interesting enough to wade through more interminable “you have been summoned here to defeat the demon lord” claptrap. Too Far Behind! (as I will call it going forward) isn’t lights out, but it’s a pretty decent idea. Our hero, his not-quite-girlfriend, and their cynical best friend are teleported to another world, and told to fight the bad guys. The concept is that we follow the best friend, who is not given tremendous superpowers by the journey, but does already have some secrets up his sleeve. As a result, we have the inverse of the usual isekai themes – the protagonist comes into the story already having cool powers, and finds the world he’s now in is completely inadequate.

Suimei is our protagonist, brought to another world with his friends Reiji and Mizuki. Reiji is the actual hero, imbued with tremendous strength that will help him to defeat the demon lord. Mizuki and Suimei were caught up in the summoning as well, but have no new powers. Mizuki will help Reiji anyway, as she has a crush on him. Suimei, however, heard the story of millions of demon lord foot soldiers hankering to hunt some humans and puts his foot down – there’s no way he’s getting involved in something this dangerous. And so, while the hero and his not-girlfriend (and the princess, who has already fallen for the hero almost immediately) train so that he can save the world, Suimei holes up in the castle and seemingly sulks. Of course, Suimei has a secret that he’s never told his friends, and that no one except the court mage has discovered – he’s actually a magician!

I’m going to say this right off the bat: this story introduces us to Felmenia, talks about how strong and powerful she’s gotten with her magic, and then proceeds to write her as a ditzy dojikko deep down. When Suimei reveals his true self, she’s so impressed by how big and powerful his magic is that she can’t help but fall in love with him – at least after a battle where he proceeds to humiliate her (which, I will grant you, even he admits was petty of him). Basically, it’s that kind of plotline for Felmenia, and I couldn’t help but sigh and sort of rub my temples. Once I got past that, though, I was surprised how enjoyable the rest of the book was. Suimei is a cool protagonist without being emotionless, and we occasionally see him make mistakes and let his emotions get the better of him. Reiji is not belittled by being the hero, and we appreciate his motivations and more straight-ahead “shonen hero” thinking. As does Suimei, who’s just concerned Reiji is going to die. Even the King is one of the nicest kings I’ve ever met in an isekai. And Felmenia is fine, once I got past what type she was going to be. She’s cute and very earnest.

The book ends with Suimei setting off to another kingdom to research how to get back home, and I suspect Book two will introduce a new heroine. This isn’t breaking any isekai rules, it’s just looking at them from a different perspective. Fans of the genre should be relatively happy with it.

Manga the Week of 4/25/18

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SEAN: A lot. A whole lot.

Kodansha has some print manga delights. We get a 6th Aho-Girl, a 2nd Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle, and a 4th To Your Eternity.

ASH: I’ll definitely be picking up To Your Eternity. The series is certainly heartwrenching at time, but it’s very well done.

ANNA: Bought but haven’t read the first volume of this so I am already hopelessly behind.

SEAN: There’s also a box set collecting manga Vols. 1-4 of Attack on Titan, or Season One as they’re calling it.

On the digital front, the debut this week is Defying Kurosaki-kun (Kurosaki-kun no Iinari ni Nante Naranai), a Betsufure shoujo title about (sigh) a plain girl at a high school who ends up in a love triangle between a princely guy and a super sadist type. I may try it, but it sounds not my bag.

MICHELLE: Yeah. Not really into super sadists, personally.

MJ: Ugh. Lots of ugh.

SEAN: There’s also a 5th Beauty Bunny, a 7th Kokkoku: Moment by Moment, a 4th My Brother the Shut-In, a 5th PTSD Radio, and a 6th Until Your Bones Rot.

MICHELLE: I think Beauty Bunny also involves a jerk who called the lead girl ugly before “transforming” her via makeup. No, thanks.

MJ: MORE UGH.

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts the 2nd Perfect Blue novel, Awaken from a Dream.

ASH: I’m glad to see this being released! It’s a collection of stories that take place in the same setting as the original Perfect Blue.

SEAN: They’ve also got a 4th volume of Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, a 3rd Hatsune Miku’s Everyday Vocaloid Paradise, a 2nd Made in Abyss, a 7th Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, and we have somehow reached double digits for Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Dimensional Voyage. I’m looking forward to the release of the original Captain Harlock, too.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 2nd volume in Nisioisin’s Zaregoto novels, Strangulation: Kubishime Romanticist. This was released by Del Rey about 10 years ago, so is nice to have. Will they continue the series? I suspect sales will determine that.

Vertical also has an 11th Witchcraft Works.

Viz gives us a 5th volume (digital only) of élDLIVE, whose formatting always makes me cry.

And Yen. SO MUCH YEN. Let’s start with the ongoing light novels. There’s a 6th Asterisk War, which has finished its (first?) tournament arc. Baccano! has a 7th volume, the 2nd of a two-parter. The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is at Vol. 10, and there’s a 5th KonoSuba. Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers remains one of the few print-only Yen On titles with Vol. 4, Sword Art Online hits lucky 13, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is at Vol. 2.

There are two debuts, and we’ll begin with the less silly one. I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level. Yes, I promise, that is the less silly one. Notable for a female protagonist, but it is an isekai with an overpowered hero(ine). That said, I hear the mood is meant to be “relaxed”.

And we also have the apex of silly light novels coming out, at least until the hot spring one gets licensed. Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon is exactly what it sounds, and I hope it will succeed on pure moxie, because come on. Really? REALLY?

MICHELLE: Hahaha. I would like to see the adventures of a wandering vending machine depicted in manga form.

ASH: Sometimes a premise is just so ridiculous I can’t help but take a look despite genre fatigue.

MJ: I feel like I have to check this out just to witness it for myself.

SEAN: Yen also has a giant pile of manga, which I will divide into three. First, ongoing manga titles not based on light novels. Akame Ga KILL! 14, Aoharu x Machinegun 10, Gabriel Dropout 3, Kiniro Mosaic 6, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun 9, Murcielago 6, Of the Red, the Light and the Ayakashi 10 (this is its final volume), a 4th Sekirei omnibus, the second Silver Spoon (Manga Bookshelf folks breathe a sigh of relief that they at least get something to pick this week), Taboo Tattoo 10, Today’s Cerberus 8, Val x Love 2, and the 8th Yowamushi Pedal omnibus.

MICHELLE: Hooray for Nozaki-kun, Silver Spoon, and Yowamushi Pedal! I’ll also be picking up the final Of the Red… volume, but although I kept up with this series, I never really fell in love with it.

ASH: Ditto what Michelle said! And if I’m honest, I’ll probably be picking up Murcielago, too.

MJ: Silver Spoon! Silver Spoon! Silver Spoon!

SEAN: There are also new manga titles. We have As Miss Beelzebub Likes (Beelzebub-jou no Oki ni Mesu mama), a 4-koma where the demon lord is not quite as expected. It’s a Shonen Gangan title.

We also see the debut of Napping Princess, a manga adaptation (it ran in Newtype) of the novel that’s based on the anime. It’s this year’s The Boy and the Beast, I think? And I would wager is about a princess. Napping may also be involved.

There are also a lot of manga based on light novels. We see A Certain Magical Index 13, The Honor Student at Magic High School 8, Hybrid x Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia 3, Magical Girl Raising Project 2, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected 8, Overlord 6, and the 3rd volume of Re: Zero’s 3rd arc.

Not as much banter this time as there were simply too many titles to discuss. Are you getting any of them?

Moteki: Love Strikes!, Vol. 1

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By Mitsurou Kubo. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Evening. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Ko Ransom.

Several years ago, when I was in New York City on a trip, I used to go to the Japanese bookstore to pick up random manga magazines and see what sort of things they had in them that would never be licensed over here. One of the more interesting ones was Evening, a magazine put out twice a month by Kodansha, meant as a complement to the mainstream Weekly Morning and the otaku-oriented Afternoon. Evening wasn’t as experimental as some magazines, but it tended towards manga for adults, with adult problems and solutions that didn’t necessarily come easily. Moteki is one of those titles, and I had bought it in Japanese back then thinking it would never be put out over here – it wasn’t the sort of thing publishers would look at. But then Yuri on Ice became THE PHENOMENON, and here we are. And I’m pleased, because Moteki is quite a good story, even if it can be extremely uncomfortable at times.

Yukiyo is our hero, though I use the term loosely. He’s almost thirty and seems to be coasting his life away – content to work temp jobs that are easy to get and easy to quit, living in bachelor-land, and having no luck with women, or so he thinks. Then all of a sudden his co-worker seems to be coming on to him; his old classmate is back in his life and going on trips with him; the girl he crushed on is back in his life as well; heck, even the high school delinquent girl is back and screaming at him that he’s a moron. It’s his moteki, which is to say that period in your life where guys suddenly tend to get very popular. There’s just one problem – Yukiyo is a passive wimp who keeps waffling about what kind of signs he’s getting from the women, and thus doesn’t really accomplish much of anything.

There is a certain self-awareness to this manga, both in the comedy extras – the author hooking Yukiyo up right away, and being reminded that this manga is supposed to be read by fellow losers – and in the main text, with everyone happy to point out to Yukiyo just what he is or isn’t doing. I think this is a very good thing, as it saves the manga from being a bit too didactic. Yukiyo can be very hard to take, and thus we appreciate it when the characters say this for us over and over. He does seem to be improving by the end of the volume, but… is he really? The girls also get some focus on their own where we can hear their own frustrations and insecurities – Itsuka is my favorite, and also probably the closest mirror to Yukiyo, but none of them are purely there as props.

Moteki is a relatively short series, and the second omnibus will wrap things up. I’m not sure if it will resolve a romance – this sort of title is the kind that tends to go for “I don’t need to resolve the relationships as long as I show personal growth” – but given how much personal growth is needed, I’m fine with that. If you don’t mind excruciating passive guys getting called out on their shit a lot, Moteki is an excellent examination of adult love lives.

Infinite Stratos, Vol. 1

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By Izuru Yumizuru and CHOCO. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Holm Hinners.

I knew this one was going to be difficult, and kept repeating to myself as I read it, “Remember this came out in 2009, before all those other ones.” But it’s hard. I never saw the Infinite Stratos anime (I know, you’re shocked), which itself is almost five years old at this point. And we’ve had endless works of a similar type or variety since then, intentional or not. Guy arrives at a school, lots of girls, his relative is a higher-up, gotta pilot a giant mech… I should go re-read my review of Hybrid x Heart to see if I’m repeating myself from there. I have no doubt this series was a big influence on them. Which is fine, and I tried, but man, this feels really tired. There are too many tsunderes, the lead’s obliviousness had better be faked or else I’m going to have to rip his arms off, and the occasional interesting plot moment gets derailed at every point for harem antics.

So: in the near future, powered suits have been invented that revolutionize the world. However, only women can pilot them. As a result, men are somewhat second-class citizens now. But guess who is, for some unknown reason, the only man who can pilot an IS? That’s right, our hero Ichika, who is now going to be attending the all-female high school where he can learn how to be a fearsome mech pilot. The mechs, judging by the illustrations, are more Bubblegum Crisis-style suits than Gundams, and the documentation on them is thick and difficult to memorize, particularly if you are a dense male lead. Fortunately, Ichika will have help from his childhood friend Houki (grumpy tsundere), the British Cecilia (haughty tsundere), and his OTHER childhood friend Lingyin, aka “Rin” (standard garden-variety tsundere). Oh, and his older sister, who hits him in the head a lot, but means well. We think.

There are a few things this does well that I can appreciate. Ichika may be the only man in the world that can pilot an IS, but that doesn’t make him immediately the best pilot in the school, though a lot of that is implied to be simple ignorance of how the suits actually work. It is also refreshing, though perhaps unappreciated by me, that the book doubles down on the harem antics so quickly. Most of the stories of this sort that I’ve seen before try to balance out the plot and the harem equally, but IS doesn’t really seem that into its plot, which is a shame as it’s implied that enemies were trying to either kill or kidnap Ichika towards the end – likely related to why he’s the only man who can pilot an IS. And, it has to be said, in 2009 harems and tsunderes were HUGE. Not so much in 2018. I can easily see why this got an anime.

We’ve only had about 12 volumes of this since it began, mostly due to the author’s poor health (which he discusses in the afterword), so it’s not as big as it could be. I will say this: most of the series that have derivative plots that we’ve seen over here before are manga-only, so if you wanted to read actual harem prose, you’ve come to the right place. I’d recommend this book to those who like the anime as well.

Bookshelf Briefs 4/16/18

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Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor, Vol. 2 | By Hitsuji Tarou, Tsunemi Aosa and Kurone Mishima | Seven Seas – Perhaps I was just in a bad mood the first two volumes, but it seems to me that this third volume of Akashic Records is much stronger than the previous ones. It’s essentially a tournament arc, and features a lot of the standard cliches that you would expect. But I’ve gotten used to the proclivities of the characters by now, and the narrative does something very good in regards to Rumia and her hidden past, showing how she clearly wants to make things better but also can’t get over exactly what was done to her. Unfortunately, she’s also accused of treason. Which kinda sucks. This has gotten good enough that I want to read more, which is impressive given its bad start. – Sean Gaffney

Baccano!, Vol. 2 | By Ryohgo Narita, Shinta Fujimoto and Katsumi Enami | Seven Seas – After a first volume that functioned as a prologue to the series, this second book begins the actual adaptation of the first novel, which means we get a whole lot of Isaac and Miria being hilarious. That said, I’d still argue that this series is meant more for the hardcore fan than a newbie wondering what the fuss is all about—several references thoughout the volume only make sense if you know what’s going to be happening down the road. But in the end, as I said when I reviewed the first novel, I think the series at this point is about Ennis, and how she grows beyond what she was created to be. The scenes with Ennis are my favorite in the book, and I can’t wait for the last volume. – Sean Gaffney

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Vol. 3 | By CLAMP | Kodansha Comics – It feels like I spent the entirety of this volume just waiting for something to happen, already. True, Sakura collects a few new cards, but they both appear and are dealt with swiftly. She has a date with Syaoran, but we only see a couple of pages of it. Most of the volume is just mundane school stuff, particularly involving the new transfer student Akiho. For example, Akiho decides to join the choral ensemble and she and Sakura discover they both despise konnyaku. Be still my heart. It does seem like something is probably going on with Akiho—she has a plushie pal that reminds me of Kero-chan—but I guess I would’ve liked just a little more hinting that all is not as inconsequential as it seems. Oh well. I suppose I’ll keep reading for a while longer, at least. – Michelle Smith

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Vol. 3 | By CLAMP | Kodansha Comics – We’ve introduced a new cast member, Akiho, who fits in quite nicely with the rest of the group, i.e. she’s sweet and charming and rather well-off, to the point where she has a butler, though he functions more like a guardian. I’m not sure what the relationship between those two is—you’d think after writing Rika out of the series they’d have clued in to the idea that January/December romance is bad, but I can’t quite trust it. I’m also not sure if she’s going to end up being a villain, though I highly doubt it. Other than that, this is cute and fluffy, and also exactly what the old series used to be—I sometimes wonder if it’s actually the exact same chapters with new dialogue. For hardcore fans only – Sean Gaffney

Dreamin’ Sun, Vol. 6 | By Ichigo Takano | Seven Seas – Zen makes his triumphant return in this volume, as the relationship between Shimana and Fujiwara can’t even last an entire chapter before crashing and burning. It’s not quite a train wreck, but you definitely get the sense the author was barreling towards a six-volume series and then was told to stretch it out a bit. And so there’s tears, and self-hatred, and Zen being honest and helpful and getting emotionally stomped on, which is his role in this series. I’m going to be honest, the main issue I have with this series remains the main pairing, who I still think do each other more harm than good. But in the end, I can only go where the author takes me, and I’m entertained enough to soldier on. – Sean Gaffney

Dreams of the Days | By Kyungha Yi | Netcomics – Having previously read Yi’s earlier and very aptly named series Intense, I was glad to discover that her newest boys’ love manhwa was also recently released in English. Dreams of the Days follows three young men about to graduate from high school who are having recurring dreams. Though they don’t share the intimate details with one another, Howon describes his as horror, Jihyung freely admits his is erotic, while Changwoo says his is a crime mystery. The reality is that all three dreams cause them to reexamine their sexuality. Jihyung’s reaction is the most refreshing (and amusing)–he’s an incredibly straightforward individual with no qualms about liking a guy. On the other hand, Howon struggles to accept that he could be gay largely due to societal pressures. As the most reserved of the three, Changwoo’s character arc is even more bittersweet. – Ash Brown

The Faraway Paladin, Vol. 4 | By Kanata Yanagino | J-Novel Club – As we get more and more light novel series, I am likely going to have to skip full reviews for some of them. Unlike Demon King Daimaou, though, that doesn’t mean I think anything less of Faraway Paladin, which remains one of the purest of the fantasy light novels out there. This one is a collection of three longish short stories, featuring an unlikely but cute marriage (no, it’s not William, who it’s made clear here only has eyes for his Goddess); a trip to a wizard castle to help Bee research a song (I love Bee); and a fight against an old and stubborn giant who really just wants to have friends again. The series is earnest as hell, which is actually its main selling point—if you’re tired of snarky light novel heroes, try this out. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 22 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – The boys from Karasuno are almost entirely absent this volume so that the story can focus on the Tokyo qualifiers, where Nekoma is striving for a spot at the Spring Tournament. They’ve reached the top four and, after being squashed by Fukurodani in straight sets, must compete for the “venue sponsor” slot against Nohebi, a team who uses taunts to goad Nekoma’s hotheads yet acts obsequiously polite to referees in order to earn their favor. It’s all appropriately slimy (“hebi” means snake, after all) and it gets even worse when Nekoma loses their excellent libero to an injury. I did appreciate the brief appearance of some Karasuno characters as Nishinoya explains just how fabulous Nekoma’s libero is, but otherwise, while this was decent enough, it’s just not the same without characters one cares about. – Michelle Smith

Love at Fourteen, Vol. 7 | By Fuka Mizutani | Yen Press – The kids are fifteen rather than fourteen, so it’s time to start thinking about high school, and the fact that you can’t just make a school choice based on what your boyfriend is doing. Or maybe you can, as the moral here actually turns out to be “talk to your partner about future plans and don’t just assume.” There is also a dream Kanata has of being a flight attendant, which is so “WTF?” given her intelligence that Yen had to include a footnote explaining how glamorous Japan finds the position, and how it’s meant to be “jetsetting.” And yes, Nagai and Hinohara and their rather tortured not-quite romance, which alters between heartwarming and disquieting. I enjoy Love at Fourteen even though it makes a lot of choices I wouldn’t. – Sean Gaffney

Waiting for Spring, Vol. 5 | By Anashin | Kodansha Comics – Given that this is a shoujo series that is not making any brave choices, it’s astonishing how much I’m still enjoying it. But, as I’ve said before, sometimes a reader wants “the exact same thing I’ve read before only with different people,” and Waiting for Spring gives us that. The cute but low-confidence female lead, the brooding male lead, the smooth-operator rival, the friends who also subdivide so nicely that I thought I was reading Kiss Him, Not Me for a moment. There’s nothing here that makes you have to read this, but there’s lots of things that make you want to read it—everyone’s likeable, the situations aren’t too forced, and you’re content to see it take its time. What more can one ask? – Sean Gaffney

Short Takes: Delicious in Dungeon and Golden Kamuy

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Today’s reviews come to you courtesy of Patriot’s Day, my second favorite Massachusetts-only holiday. (The first is Evacuation Day, a thinly-disguised attempt to give Boston’s civil servants permission to skip work on St. Paddy’s.) For your consideration are volume four of D&D cooking extravaganza Delicious in Dungeon, and volumes three and four of everyone’s favorite backwoods culinary adventure Golden Kamuy. Looking back on food manga’s early history in the US, who could have predicted that readers would be feasting on such a wide array of titles in 2018, from Sweetness and Lightning and What Did You Eat Yesterday? to Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale, Food Wars!! Shokugeki no Soma, and Toriko. Maybe the North American market is finally ready for an Iron Wok Jan renaissance…

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 4
Story and Art by Ryoko Kui
Translated by Taylor Engel
Yen Press, 192 pp.
Rated T, for Teens (13+)

If the first volume of Delicious in Dungeon was about assembling a posse, and the second and third about turning monsters into meals, then the fourth is about friendship — specifically, the strong emotional bond between Laois, Marcille, and Falin — and revenge, as the gang finally comes face-to-face with the Red Dragon. The showdown takes place inside a walled city whose narrow, maze-like streets give them a strategic advantage over their Godzilla-sized foe. And as exciting as the fight is, the real payoff is what follows, as Laois and Marcille discover that bringing Falin back from the dead isn’t a simple proposition. It’s in these moments that Ryoko Kui proves a more deft storyteller than we initially realized, effortlessly shifting gears from comedy to drama without mawkishness or cheap jokes. Instead, we’re allowed to contemplate the real horror of being eaten alive — as Falin was — and the real possibility of a character dying for good.

If I’ve made volume four sound like a bummer, rest assured it isn’t. Seshi gets his turn in the spotlight with a weaponized assortment of kitchen tools, while the rest of the gang endures its share of fumbles and miscommunications on the way to catching their dragon adversary. Though I suspect the next volume of Delicious in Dungeon will revert to a monster-of-the-week formula, that’s OK; Kui has firmly established her dramatic and culinary bonafides in volume four, leaving the door open for more character development in the future. Recommended.

Golden Kamuy, Vols. 3-4
Story and Art by Satoru Noda
Translated by Eiji Yasuda
VIZ Media
Rated M, for Mature (18+)

Midway through volume four of Golden Kamuy, Asirpa builds a fox trap in the woods. “Do foxes taste good?” Sugimoto inquires. “No, not really,” Asirpa replies. “Tanuki have more fat in them and taste a lot better.” With a twinkle in her eye, she then asks, “But Sugimoto, don’t you want to try eating a fox?” A mildly exasperated Sugimoto replies, “You know, I’m not out here to try all the delicacies in Hokkaido.”

There are two ways to read this exchange: as a tacit admission that the cooking elements of Golden Kamuy sometimes occupy more real estate than the battles, or a tacit admission that the series is more compelling as a study of Ainu culture than a bloody frontier adventure. I vote for the second interpretation, as the series’ frequent detours into the food, medicine, and mythology of the Ainu are fascinating, offering a window into a culture that has been largely hidden from Western view. Golden Kamuy is on weaker footing, however, when focusing on its secondary characters and subplots. None of the other gold-seekers are fleshed out as carefully as Asirpa and Sugimoto, despite Satoru Noda’s efforts to give each villain a unique motivation for wanting the treasure. The newest baddie — Kazuo Hemni — exemplifies this problem to a tee: though he’s been given a particularly grisly backstory to explain his murderous proclivities, he’s such a textbook sociopath that he barely rises above the preternaturally-calm-and-savage type.

The art, too, sometimes has a perfunctory quality; in several scenes, Noda’s use of a Photoshopped background doesn’t mesh well with the hand-drawn elements, resulting in an awkward collage. Noda’s use of perspective can also be a distraction. He has difficulty drawing bodies to scale, especially when he’s depicting Asirpa and her family, some of whom look more like Smurfs than people in their head-to-body ratio.

Still, the camaraderie between Asirpa and Sugimoto, and the well-staged action scenes more than compensate for the occasional roughness of the execution or flatness of the characterizations. Golden Kamuy continues to entertain, horrify, and educate in equal measure — something I can’t say for any other manly-man manga that’s currently being published in English. Recommended.

Arifureta Zero, Vol. 1

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By Ryo Shirakome and Takaya-ki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Rei” by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

If a spinoff of Arifureta was going to be done, the Liberators were the only obvious choice. And, despite the novel starting out trying to make us think that Oscar was going to be the main character (which he is to an extent), this is all Miledi’s plan and all Miledi’s book. As such, enjoyment of this book will depend on how much you enjoyed Miledi in the second novel. She’s deliberately written to be annoying, and even though we get a tragic backstory here to explain why she does that it can still make you want to grit your teeth at times. That said, her drive to try to change the world and go up against the gods is laudatory, and her recruitment of Oscar (and later on Naiz) also allows plenty of scenes of her getting physically and emotionally abused for comedy purposes. (She reminded me of Shea a bit, to be honest, without the trolling that Miledi does all the time.)

(The author wonders if we were surprised at Miledi’s appearance, but honestly, this is pretty much exactly how I imagined her.)

As I said, Oscar is the focus at the start of the book, a synergist (much like our hero in the main series) trying to keep a low profile to avoid the Church. Said low profile falls to bits once Miledi arrives and starts harassing him, but honestly the church is so evil anyway that it was somewhat inevitable that it wouldn’t last. We also get a pile of adorable plucky orphan children, and once Oscar and Mikedi team up to find Naiz we get two more plucky adorable children, all of whom are put in deadly danger by events of the plot. And do you want tragic backstories? You’ll love Miledi’s, whose childhood was pretty crappy and then got much, much worse. There are also several very cool fights, as you’d come to expect from Arifureta, involving clever manipulation of gravity, creating impossibly hard shields via a cool umbrella (apparently a reference to Kingsman, though I kept thinking of Ryouga Hibiki), and teleportation badassery. And, as I said before, Miledi being really, really annoying.

This actually came out a mere 4 months after the Japanese release, so I would not hold your breath for the second volume right away. That said, I can’t imagine fans of Arifureta not enjoying this, even though the regular cast are nowhere to be seen. You get a good sense of the three leads and why they made the dungeons that they did. It also reminded me that Miledi’s spirit is technically still around in the main series, and I wonder if she’ll do anything else. (I also wonder if she and Oscar will ever hook up. Probably not, I suspect.) Basically, this is exactly the sort of thing you’d like a spinoff to be, and I will definitely enjoy more of it whenever it comes out.

Monster Tamer Girls, Vol. 1

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By Mujirushi Shimazaki. Released in Japan as “Kaijuu no Shiiku Iin” by Houbunsha, serialized in the magazine Manga Time Kirara Forward. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amber Tamosaitis.

When I reviewed New Game!, I went into a bit of detail regarding the classic Kirara work, i.e. “a group of girls doing but really just relaxing and chatting a lot”. It’s a shame, because it would help to pad out the word count of this review, as there’s a lot of that happening here as well. To be fair, Monster Tamer Girls does have the girls taming monsters a hell of a lot more than, say, K-On! has the girls playing concerts. This is a world where monsters are still being analyzed to a degree, and as such, even though it’s treated as a typical high school club, the need for girls like Ion and her friends is absolutely needed. Sadly, Ion is rather shy and tends to still be wary of monsters, which is why we also have Sora, who has no talent for taming but is spunky, outgoing, and really loves monsters. Stop me if you’ve heard of this type of twosome before.

As you might guess by the cover, if you were expecting cute Pokemon-style monsters you’re in for a surprise. The main monster we see here is essentially a dinosaur, and even the short cute one that follows after the girls quickly grows to enormous proportions. Joining our two main heroines are Tsukiko, an overly serious monster tamer with horrible naming sense, and Kotomi, a teen genius in the graduate program whose chief job seems to be providing yuri subtext, although honestly there’s plenty of that to go around. And then there’s Kyouko, who is not only a level above every other monster tamer girl (she’s a monster charmer), but is also the girl who saved Ion from a monster when she was just a kid. Sadly, Kyouko is straining her voice from too much abuse (as a former chorus student, I can attest to how easy it is to do that), and also worries that Ion does not have what it takes to do the job.

As a first volume, this did its job very well, and manages to be a “monster” series without the fanservice that usually goes with that sort of thing, possibly as the girls aren’t the monsters in this case. Sadly, it apparently wasn’t interesting enough for Japanese readers, as the second volume will be the last one. I think it will definitely appeal to those who like relaxing, girls-in-school type manga, and I’d argue its main audience may be the yuri fan. There’s no yuri here, but, y’know, girls hug other girls and say they missed them, so it’s not all that hard to connect the dots. This may actually be a good series to wait till summer and get both volumes as a gift for someone else. And since the fanservice is nonexistent and the yuri is all hypothetical, I wouldn’t object to younger readers looking at it either.