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Paying to Win in a VRMMO, Vol. 3

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By Blitz Kiva and Kuwashima Rein. Released in Japan as “VRMMO wo Kane no Chikara de Musou suru” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

The afterword mentions that this volume’s story was not part of the original webnovel, but was especially written for the books in order to try to flesh out Sakurako/Kirschwasser’s character, as she doesn’t get much to do in the main series. She gets a lot more to do here, and I like her determination and devotion to the game, but I wish that we’d gotten a little bit more of the mysterious backstory she has – it’s hinted she’s “had a rough life”, but that doesn’t really go anywhere, and we don’t have any flashbacks to how she met Ichiro. The author, in the afterword, notes that Sakurako’s age was a factor – not with him, but with the editors, who apparently think that being a Christmas Cake makes you unable to be a heroine. Bleah. That said, her scenes were good, even if the novel, understandably, feels like it’s just marking time.

The fight between Nem and Iris occupies most of this volume, and you feel frustration with both of them, though obviously far more with Nem. I kept feeling a sort of tension regarding their real-life identities – given Megumi’s irrational jealousy of Iris, finding out her real-life identity would be catastrophic, as she can and would destroy Iris’ life. Fortunately, this is likely not that serious a series, and instead the whole confrontation seems to be more of an object lesson than anything else. As for Iris, when she’s putting herself down adn indecisive she shows off her actual age – ironically, it’s only when tearing Ichiro apart verbally that she really comes alive, and I’m pleased that any romance, if there is any, is far away – I much prefer Iris wondering why on earth everybody else falls for him.

Ichiro himself spends most of this volume in the real world, meeting with the creator of Narrow Fantasy Online and also talking about his worldview with an AI that is one of the game’s sysadmins. This section serves more as setup for future volumes than anything else, but it does feature Ichiro being far less irritating than he was in the first two books. That said, his lack of presence in the game until the very end means that there’s not as much ‘parody’ in this story that’s meant to parody a certain type of genre, even if you add in obvious fanservice like the return of the Kirihitters. The main thing I enjoyed about this volume are the small details that come up throughout the book- I won’t go into specifics, but a description here, a character reveal there. It’s the sort of volume where the little things distract you more than the main plot and thrust of the book itself, which – as I said above – feels like it’s treading water. Which it is, that’s what it was designed to do.

So this is still a solid, but not great series. I hope the next volume features more of Ichiro being ludicrous and Iris screaming at him, which let’s face it is why I read this by now.

Bookshelf Briefs 6/19/17

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Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 4 | By Yuji Terajima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – This volume might’ve set a record for “number of times Michelle got verklempt due to sports manga.” Eijun’s skills continue to improve, but moreso his character does, as he realizes that taciturn catcher Chris has really been looking out for his best interests all along. Eijun becomes determined to pay him back by showing him some improvement before he graduates, practically forgetting that two junior varsity players have the opportunity to move up in his desire to express his gratitude to his teammate. Sniff! And then Chris, who has missed a year of play due to injury, gets the chance to show how terrific he’s been all this time. Meanwhile, his former varsity teammates are all pulling for him to rejoin them for their final summer season. Did I mention sniff? Great stuff! – Michelle Smith

Black Clover, Vol. 7 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – This is another of those transition volumes we see so often in Shonen Jump, wrapping up the last plot, taking out a supposed traitor (who merely seems to have been corrupt), and going to the beach to show off some fanservice. We also get a few new characters, the best of whom is Kahono, who may be too good to be true somewhere down the line, but for now seems to be just what Noelle needs to finally get past the baggage of her past. The rest of the team gets to fight a bevy of enemies, either winning easily or losing just as easily. This is a team of fighters, but so far Asta and Noelle are the only important ones. Still quite readable, though, and I look forward to seeing how the fights end next time around. – Sean Gaffney

Chihayafuru, Vol. 3 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – I love Chihayafuru so much that each time a volume ends I feel legitimately bereft. In this volume, Chihaya and Taichi manage to recruit a couple of new members to their karuta club, giving them a sufficient number to receive official club status. Taichi is really the star of this volume, helping to bring on one of the new players, as well as moderating Chihaya when, in her earnest desire to help everyone become strong, she nearly works them past the point of exhaustion. And then it’s time for the Tokyo qualifiers for the high school karuta championship, and he once again proves to be the pillar of the team. I think Chihaya’s begun to see him in a new light, too. Anyway, all of the tournament stuff is fascinating and it ends on a most excruciating cliffhanger. Worse, there’s no release date for volume four yet! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 12 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Most of this volume is dedicated to a battle against a team with a very, very tall guy, which has its obvious advantages in volleyball that get put to good use here to try to crush our heroes, particularly Hinata. Of course, we’ve spent a couple of volumes now seeing Karasuno improving itself more and more, and so it should come as no surprise to find David taking down Goliath by the end of this match. The team is beginning to feel in sync, Kageyama is feeling (gasp!) happy and confident again, and even Tsukishima continues to try to improve himself and put said improvement in practice. As with most sports manga, you enjoy seeing the obvious growth and development laid out in excruciating detail. We get that here. – Sean Gaffney

The High School Life of a Fudanshi, Vol. 1 | By Atami Michinoku | Seven Seas – I was already a bit wary of this series, not being familiar with the anime and wondering how many of the jokes would be variations on “no homo.” (Not as many as I thought, but still too many.) But making the series a 4-koma is absolutely the wrong decision for what it wants to be, as the gags just aren’t funny enough in that format and the characters need more development. I liked the relationship between Sakaguchi and his fellow BL enthusiast Nishihara, as their fandom talk reminded me of fandom talk I have seen. But it wasn’t really enough of a draw to keep turning the pages. The author has mostly done Gintama BL smut before this, and this seems to be a dip in the waters of non-smut. 65%, Must Try Harder. – Sean Gaffney

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 24 | By Julietta Suzuki | Viz Media – The underworld arc ends here, and it’s as epic and exciting as you’d expect. The real teary drama is in the second half of the book, though, as Nanami realizes she can’t keep being Shrine God if she’s going to be with a human Tomoe. So she runs herself ragged trying to prepare for a future she hadn’t given much thought to so as not to turn out the way her father did. Mizuki, meanwhile, is simply unable to accept that Nanami is going to get old, die, and leave him behind, and has a truly in-character hissy fit that ends up not taking as long as I thought it would. Possibly as the next volume is the last one. I’ve really loved this series as it’s gained depth, and will be incredibly sad to see it end. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 11-12 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | VIZ Media – Seirin has reached the final four of the Tokyo Winter Cup qualifiers, from which two teams will emerge to represent Tokyo at the Winter Cup. Kuroko debuts his nifty new “vanishing drive” move, which helps his team overcome a deficit and tie up the game with Shutoku. Next, they face Kirisaki Daiichi, a team that employs dirty tricks to win. It was in a game against them that Kiyoshi suffered his injury, and once the first years are informed of this, they’re fired up for payback. Kiyoshi really is front and center (no pun intended) this volume, as we learn about the formation of the basketball club the year before and his past with Hyuga, though I confess I most loved seeing Kuroko get to be not just mad but kind of a badass. Even better, we don’t end on a cliffhanger for once! – Michelle Smith

Red Riding Hood and the Big Sad Wolf, Vol. 1 | By Hachoujou Arata | Seven Seas – Like the Fudanshi release I discussed earlier, this has a lot of 4-komas in it, though it intersperses it with longer stories. It’s another one of those anthropomorphic personification titles, as we meet a Red Riding Hood who loves to burn things down and the straight-man wolf whom she sets her sights on. As the title goes on, we see a bunch of new characters, all various varieties of crazy. If you enjoy sadistic grins and seeing a cute guy cry, this may be the series for you. I would not recommend it, though, for the simple reasons that I didn’t like anyone in it. Usually I say with first volumes to wait on that one clearly unlikeable character. But when they’re all like that… I’m not going to wait. – Sean Gaffney

Species Domain, Vol. 2 | By Shunsuke Noro | Seven Seas – This was still very enjoyable—there are some characters I disliked in it, but they were clearly signposted as being deliberately awful, and felt bad later. Moreover, we’re finding that it’s not only Kazamori who is having confidence issues about her lack of obvious supernatural traits—Hanei is an angel who can’t fly, which causes her a more subdued amount of stress. The main focus of the book continues to be humor, and while not as funny as the first book I find it very good. More importantly, as we get to know the cast better they’re bonding as friends, which is the most important thing in titles like this. Species Domain won’t knock any socks off, but it’s a solid and fun title. Good art, too. – Sean Gaffney

My Week in Manga: June 12-June 18, 2017

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My News and Reviews

It’s been couple of months since there’s been an in-depth review here at Experiments in Manga (I mostly blame TCAF 2017), but last week I was very pleased to write about Yeon-sik Hong’s award-winning manhwa Uncomfortably Happily which was just released by Drawn & Quarterly this past Tuesday. It’s an engrossing and relatable memoir about the time Hong and his wife moved from the city of Seoul to the countryside of Pocheon. Normally I would have posted May’s Bookshelf Overload last week, but because I wanted to feature Uncomfortably Happily close to its release date, I’ll be posting it later this week instead.

As for other interesting things to read online, The OASG interviewed a few cosplayers about their opinions on Yui Sakuma’s Complex Age, a manga in which cosplaying takes a very important role. (I’ve fallen a little behind in reading the series, but the first volume in particular left a huge impression on me.) Matt Thorn’s blog, which had been dormant for so long, has a couple of new posts now, too: Before the Forty-Niners takes a look at the early history of shoujo manga while Who’s to Judge Tezuka’s Rivals? delves into even more shoujo manga history by looking at some of Osamu Tezuka’s contemporaries.

Quick Takes

Blossom BoysBlossom Boys by Tanaw. I don’t exactly remember how I came across Blossom Boys, but it may have been thanks to one of Tanaw’s Yuri!!! on Ice fanworks. Tanaw is an illustrator and comics creator based in the Philippines. Blossom Boys had its start as part of a webcomics class that Tanaw decided to take and was finished a year later. It’s a charming boys’ love story that is earnest, adorable, sweet, and even a little surprising. Reese is a university student who wants nothing more than to be loved. He’s desperate for someone to ask him out–it doesn’t really matter who they are or what their gender is–and so he is ecstatic when he unexpectedly receives a bouquet of flowers in the middle his math class. Thus begins Reese’s endearingly awkward relationship with Prince, a florist whose peculiarly stern demeanor is the complete opposite of Reese’s bubbly personality. Although Blossom Boys does have an overarching story, many of the individual chapters can be fairly episodic. Tanaw also experiments with different illustration styles, palettes, and techniques over the course of the comic. What holds Blossom Boys together instead is its delightful characters and sense of humor. I enjoyed the comic a great deal and I’m glad to have found it; I would definitely be interested in reading more of Tanaw’s work.

My Lesbian Experience with LonelinessMy Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata. Before it was picked up by a manga publisher, Nagata released the majority of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness on Pixiv. The manga is an autobiographical and very personal account of Nagata’s struggles with her mental wellness and sexuality. My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is a powerful work which has been met with well-deserved acclaim. Nagata is forthright, frankly portraying her experiences in a way that is both accessible and disarming. Even though the subject matter is quite serious (self-harm, eating disorders, anxiety, and debilitating depression are all discussed), the pink-hued artwork in the manga is actually rather cute. My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness outlines a turning point in Nagata’s life. On the verge of giving up on life, feeling so incredibly isolated and alone, Nagata makes the impulisve decision to hire a lesbian escort. Ultimately the whole affair doesn’t really solve any of Nagata’s problems and even amplifies some of those that already existed, but it does encourage her to look critically at who she is and the source of her suffering. That’s the story that Nagata captures in My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and the story with which so many readers have found they could identify. Admittedly and understandably, it’s not always an easy read, but it is a very good one.

Short Program, Volume 1Short Program, Volumes 1-2 by Mitsuru Adachi. My introduction to Adachi’s work was through the baseball manga series Cross Game and its anime adaptation. I only recently discovered that Adachi’s first manga to be translated into English was actually Short Program. The series is a collection of short manga taken from a variety of magazines from all of the major demographics (shounen, shoujo, seinen, and josei) spanning from the late 1970s to the early 2000s. Viz Media only ever published the first two volumes of Short Program; it would have been nice to have seen the rest of the series released as well, but since the stories are largely unrelated to one another, at least it’s not like readers will be left with a cliffhanger or otherwise unresolved narrative. For the most part, the short manga of the first two volumes of Short Program are quirky romances, often with twist endings that add a little surprise to what would otherwise be fairly straightforward and even mundane stories. Adachi successfully works within a number of different genres in Short Program–some of the stories are comedies while others are thrillers, some are unabashedly romantic while others are intentionally disconcerting. Overall, Short Program is a solidly engaging and consistently entertaining series.

The LeaversThe Leavers by Lisa Ko. Although Ko has written numerous short stories and essays, The Leavers is her debut work as a novelist and the winner of the 2017 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. It’s a particularly timely novel, too, examining the impact of illegal immigration on the families both directly and tangentially involved. The Leavers follows two entwined lives, alternating perspectives between them. First there is Deming, a young man who has yet to find his place in the world. After his undocumented mother Polly suddenly disappears when he is eleven, Deming is fostered and adopted by a white couple who rename him Daniel, never knowing what happened to her. The second is narrative is that of Polly herself, telling the story of her background, how she came to the United States from China, and eventually what really happened to her before and after she was gone from her son’s life. The Leavers is in turns compelling and tedious, engaging and exasperating. The issues explored are important ones, but the telling of the character’s stories, especially Deming’s, can sometimes be frustratingly unfocused. Granted, this may also be a deliberate reflection of Deming’s own obscured state of mind.

After Hours, Vol. 1

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By Yuhta Nishio. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hibana. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Abby Lehrke.

There is something of a history in yuri manga of the protagonists realizing their feelings for each other while still in school. Sometimes it’s just them, sometimes we get another couple, and sometimes everyone in the school seems to be gay, but the theme is “students”. After Hours, therefore, with its relationship between a shy 24-year-old college graduate and the 30-year-old DJ she meets at a club, is a breath of fresh air for no reason other than the fact that it’s about two adults. Fortunately, there’s a lot more to it than just that, and in fact the ‘yuri’ part of the volume is touched on a lot less than it is in those school stories. These two meet, hook up that evening, and any angst or worry they have has nothing to do with the fact that they’re both girls. It’s great to see.

Emi is the blonde on the cover, and she and her friend are going out clubbing, something Emi is not really wild about. She’s even less wild when her friend hooks up immediately and leaves her to fend for herself. Luckily she’s saved by Kei, who works at said club. The first chapter may have been a one-shot that got turned into a series, as it’s really simple: they get on, Kei invites her to come over and look at her etchings… erm, collection of old records, and things end up progressing from there. Even the morning after, aside from a brief “OMG what did I just do!” look from Emi, is really sweet. Most of the rest of the first volume stays at that simmer, though it’s apparent that when Vol. 2 comes out there may be a bit more angst and drama. Emi is unemployed at the start, and dialogue hints that she’s living in an apartment with a guy… who she’s in the process of breaking up with. Much of this happens on the edges of the story, as Emi is understandably reluctant to bring this up with Kei, though she tries once or twice.

The other reason to read this manga is the excellent look it gives into Japanese club culture. Kei is a DJ, and shows Emi how to be a VJ and provide images for her songs about halfway through the book. It shows the fun and rush of doing these things, while a flashback of Kei’s shows how difficult it can be as well, particularly when you’re just starting out. (Kei is very laid-back and knowing for most of the present day stuff, and it’s nice to see that she used to be a ball of pent-up frustration and anger.) There’s a large group of clubbers here, almost all men, but they seem nice (accidental Jagermeister shots aside), and also seem to understand that Emi and Kei are in a relationship without it ever being brought up. After Hours is a yuri title, but the yuri in the first volume seeks, for once, to make things LESS awkward – Emi and Kei bond very fast, much faster than I think they would have if Kei had been a man. I really enjoyed the first volume, and hope Vol. 2 comes out soon (it’s not out in Japan yet, I believe.)

In Another World With My Smartphone, Vol. 3

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

The author and reader are clearly settling in for the long haul here in this third volume of Smartphone. ON the author’s end, he’s become aware that he wants to tell a long, convoluted (if ridiculous) story, so is starting to add more key backstory and introduce characters who may not obviously influence the plot right away. Indeed, he goes a bit too far in the other direction – the new possible villain or possible ally, Kaworu… um, sorry, Ende… is casually introduced, implied to be important to both the past and present of this world, and then just goes away for the rest of the book. I’m all for foreshadowing, but again, Smartphone guy is keeping it real and making it as thuddingly obvious as possible. Fortunately, the rest of Smartphone is also the same as always, which means totally ridiculous and compulsively readable.

On the cover, as you can see, we have Sakura from Sakura Taisen… erm, Yae, whose country we visit at the start of the book. This allows Touya to singlehandedly put down a war with nothing but a few swipes from his phone – even finding out some of his foes are undead and can’t be killed by his normal go-to means is only a prelude to him trying something even more ludicrous and over the top, which works a charm, of course. He also manages to take out another “Monarch”, this one being a twofer combo of Gamera and a giant snake. Naturally, they soon become adorable plushie versions of themselves, as Touya owns them so hard the entire harem thinks he’s being too cruel. He gains access to a floating Garden of Babylon, complete with a gynoid servant who is easily the nest addition in the book. Touya’s main harem are all just as pure as he is, so a deadpan robot girl who constantly makes sexual innuendo and comes on to him was desperately needed. Unlike the stupid extra story from the last book, I don’t mind Cesca at all because both her dialogue and Touya’s reactions to same are entirely in character.

Speaking of the harem, I admit to being rather surprised at how fast things are advancing on that front. Clearly the author has realized that a) there’s no point in dragging out the ‘will they confess?’ any longer given that they’re all too pure to go any further than kissing anyway, and b) given this is a world where it’s OK to take up to 20 wives provided you can in fact be rich enough to support 20 wives, ‘who is best girl?’ is mostly irrelevant anyway. I was impressed with Linze for taking the advantage on the kissing front, showing off that she may be shy most of the time but is secretly the bolder of the twins. I was a bit less thrilled with Yumina basically already admitting that Sue, her little girl cousin, will also be part of the harem once she grows up, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was also amused that he asked advice from God (remember this all started with God?) on how to deal with this, and gets a pep talk not only from the main God but also the God of Love, who judging by the illustration and behavior, is Marielle from Log Horizon.

One of the themes of this book is that Touya completely does not realize how ridiculously OP and amazing he is, because he tends to think of it as “I did very little to achieve this, therefore it wasn’t all that great”. Combine that with him not realizing why the girls all like him, and he’s very much harem protagonist material. That said, it’s the rare harem novel that actually takes the hero aside and literally has two gods telling him he’s being foolish and to try being a bit more selfish once in a while. That brings me to my last shuddering realization about this series: I can’t in good conscience call it bad anymore. Yes, it is terminally ridiculous (the scene where our hero builds an entire hot spring for the hotel he used to stay in in approximately five minutes may set a new record for laughable), and the lead is such a ridiculously overpowered twink that anyone who takes isekai seriously will be grinding their teeth, but by god, it’s fun.

Manga the Week of 6/21/17

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SEAN: It’s that time again. Time for this list of titles to take forever, time for your wallet to scream in pain, time for Anna to wonder why Yen doesn’t license more shoujo. Yes, it’s that week of the month.

Dark Horse has another Hatsune Miku manga, this one called Acute.

Drawn and Quarterly gives us another Kitaro volume, The Great Tanuki War. I’ve reviewed it here.

ASH: I’m always ready for more Kitaro!

SEAN: Haikasoru has the 4th Legend of the Galactic Heroes novel, which seems more timely than ever these days.

ASH: That it does.

MICHELLE: Someday, I really will read these.

ANNA: I just got the first one!

SEAN: J-Novel Club has the 4th Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash out digitally.

Their debut this week is If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat A Demon Lord, which is a very light novel title if nothing else. J-Novel’s founder described it as being “like Bunny Drop”, then had to hurriedly walk that back after fans recoiled in horror. The good parts of Bunny Drop, apparently.

Kodansha continues to rush Nodame Cantabile to its finish digitally, here’s Vol. 23.

MICHELLE: Woot!

SEAN: Kodansha in print has a 7th volume of Inuyashiki, which recently ended in Japan.

And an 11th volume of Kiss Him, Not Me!, which despite its cover is unlikely to end with anyone married.

There is also a 7th Real Account.

Seven Seas gives us a 3rd volume of “would you read this in public?” series Holy Corpse Rising. (Answer: no.)

The new title is Otome Mania!, a reverse harem series that runs in Sylph, and whose author has done a lot of Shonen Jump BL doujinshi. So, pretty much the opposite market to Holy Corpse Riding.

Viz gives us the 21st volume of Dorohedoro, which crawls closer to its conclusion, but I don’t mind it taking so long.

ASH: I continue to adore Dorohedoro. It will be sad when it ends, but it has been an astonishing ride so far.

SEAN: Viz’s big debut is Golden Kamuy, a Young Jump title which sounds absolutely amazing, and co-stars an Ainu woman? Sign me up.

ASH: I’m really looking forward to this series!

ANNA: This looks cool.

SEAN: The 6th Goodnight Punpun omnibus is also out next week.

ASH: We’re drawing near the end of this depressing yet compelling work.

SEAN: And an 11th Master Keaton.

Lastly (from Viz, don’t get excited), there’s a lucky 13th volume of Tokyo Ghoul.

That leaves Yen, but we’re not even halfway through the list. A huge number of light novels next week, starting with the 10th Accel World, which I hope is more lighthearted after the last few books.

Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon’s side story, Sword Oratoria, is not making viewers of the anime adaptation happy, but will they enjoy this 3rd light novel more?

The first of two debuts this month, Magical Girl Raising Project is one of THOSE series, featuring a lot of cute and determined magical girls who will be brutally slaughtered.

The 4th volume of Psycome goes off campus, as our heroes deal with Eri’s family and past.

Re: Zero’s 4th volume starts a new arc which no doubt means more deaths and save points for our hero.

The most exciting debut of the week for me is Sound Euphonium, a book about a high school band that was adapted into a beloved anime series. I believe this is the only volume licensed, though a sequel is out in Japan. Buy it, I hear it’s great.

MICHELLE: I don’t often go in for light novels, but for this I think I’ll make an exception.

ASH: I’ll absolutely be reading this. Band was the highlight of my high school years.

SEAN: Spice & Wolf turns out to be not quite over, as we get this 18th volume of the series.

And the first two Sword Art Online: Progressive novels are out digitally next week.

On to Yen’s manga. There’s a 5th Aoharu x Machinegun.

The Asterisk War has a 4th volume of its manga adaptation.

And Bungo Stray Dogs gets a 3rd volume.

The Devil Is A Part-Timer’s 9th manga volume is out as well.

And a 7th Dragons Rioting. Sorry, no witty remarks, no snark, just a long list of things I don’t read.

I do read Erased, though, and look forward to the 2nd omnibus.

ASH: It should be good! The first omnibus was a little slow for me at first, but by the end I was hooked.

SEAN: If you want to read Grimgar but hate books, here is the first volume of the Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash manga.

And there’s a 6th volume of Handa-kun.

The Honor Student at Magic High School is once again behind the light novels, to my relief. Here’s the 7th manga volume.

How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend has reached Vol. 6.

Kiniro Mosaic has a 3rd volume of basically not a lot happening to cute, yuri-ish girls.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Long As I Expected still has a long title, even 5 volumes in. (A reminder this sis the manga adaptation, though Amazon has gotten better at differentiating the two now.)

A spin-off of No Game No Life (whose own manga adaptation seems to be on hiatus in Japan), No Game No Life, Please! focuses on Izuna, as the title’s verbal tic likely gave away.

Of the Red, the Light and the Ayakashi may not make much sense to me, even after 7 volumes, but it’s got style.

MICHELLE: I’m enjoying it!

ASH: I’ve been enjoying it, myself.

SEAN: And we have a 7th Prison School omnibus.

ASH: I’m still reading this series, too. It’s definitely not for everyone, though.

School-Live! still has not run out of zombies, as we have Vol. 7 here.

And a 7th Strike the Blood manga will not surprise, but may satisfy anyway.

Today’s Cerberus gives us a 4th print volume of the already out on digital series.

Lastly, the your name novel gets a manga adaptation, and this is Vol. 1.

Phew. What’s for you next week? Or does the list just make you dizzy?

Uncomfortably Happily

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Uncomfortably HappilyCreator: Yeon-sik Hong
Translator: Hellen Jo
U.S. publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
ISBN: 9781770462601
Released: June 2017
Original release: 2012
Awards: Manhwa Today Award

Lately it seems as though there has been something of a renaissance or Korean literature in English translation. Korean comics haven’t yet experienced quite the same kind of resurgence, but they do continue to be licensed and translated. One of the most recent and notable manhwa releases in English is Yeon-sik Hong’s aptly named Uncomfortably Happily. Previously published in France in 2013 under the title Historie d’un Couple (History of a Couple), Uncomfortably Happily was originally released in Korea in two volumes in 2012 where it won the Manhwa Today Award. Drawn and Quarterly’s English-language edition of the work collects the entirety of Uncomfortably Happily in a single volume and features a translation by Hellen Jo, an accomplished comics creator and illustrator in her own right. The volume also includes a personal essay by Jo. Uncomfortably Happily is Hong’s first major personal work, a memoir of the short time he and his wife lived in the Korean countryside. Prior to its release, Hong was predominantly involved in commercial creative projects.

Yeon-sik Hong and Sohmi Lee are recently married and looking for a new home; their current apartment is on loan to Yeon-sik from one of his previous publishers and it’s past time that they move on. Since they’ll need to leave anyway, the couple decides to take the opportunity to find a place that’s more suited to their needs. Somewhere quiet and less complicated, congested, and expensive than city life in Seoul; somewhere they can both focus on their creative work. Eventually the two become enamored with a house and a bit of land for rent on the top of a mountain in rural Pocheon. With the clean air, beautiful countryside, and calm environment it seems like the perfect place for them–at least at first. Yeon-sik, Sohmi, and their three cats make the move only to discover that living in the country brings along with it its own sorts of challenges. But despite the isolation, inadequate public transportation, confrontations with hostile hikers, inclement weather, and encroaching development, they slowly build a home for themselves. It can be difficult at times, though, and some things never really change–financial hardship, personal anxieties, and looming deadlines don’t simply disappear and it’s just as easy to find distractions in the countryside as it is in the city.

Uncomfortably Happily, page 131Though I currently live in a more urban environment, I grew up and have spent most of my life in a very rural area. In Uncomfortably Happily, Hong captures beautifully what it is like to live in the country, both the good and the bad, the satisfaction and the stress. The volume’s chapters are divided by season, the narrative perfectly conveying the rhythms of the natural world and the lifestyle that is so closely dependent upon those rhythms, including the winters that seem to last forever with no relief in sight. Hong’s style of illustration is relatively simple but the attention given to the detail of the land- and cityscapes establish a real sense of place. In addition to the external world, the visuals in Uncomfortably Happily also reveal Hong’s internal mindscapes and imaginative fantasies. Though the subject matter can often be quite serious, Hong takes a charming and lighthearted approach. The small family (animals included) frequently break into musical numbers and Hong’s psyche manifests on the page in both amusing and affecting ways. But while humor is generally present in Uncomfortably Happily, the manhwa is also a sincere and honest work.

Uncomfortably Happily is a straightforward yet layered story of the day-to-day life of a newlywed couple going through a major transition in their life. There is the move to the countryside itself and all that entails, but Uncomfortably Happily is also the story about Hong’s emotional and mental turmoil as he struggles with professional and personal insecurities. At the beginning of Uncomfortably Happily Hong is already approaching burnout and the potential for a breakdown doesn’t seem to be very far behind; meanwhile Lee is making tremendous progress in her career as a picture book illustrator. It was bound to happen eventually regardless of location, but Hong having to confront and come to terms with his own abilities and limitations, wants and needs while living on a secluded mountaintop has a certain poetic appropriateness to it. While Hong’s particular situation and psychological journey are certainly unique, the themes explored in the manhwa are universal; Uncomfortably Happily is an engrossing and immensely relatable work.

Thank you to Drawn & Quarterly for providing a copy of Uncomfortably Happily for review.

Golden Kamuy, Vol. 1

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If you have a strong constitution and a healthy appetite for adventure, you’ll cotton to Golden Kamuy, a solid, if sometimes workmanlike, manga that reads like a mash-up of The Revenant and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Set on the Hokkaido frontier in 1905, Golden Kamuy tells the story of Saichi “Immortal” Sugimoto, a battle-scarred veteran of the Russo-Japanese War who’s desperately trying to raise money for a fallen comrade’s widow. After a chance encounter with a chatty ex-con, Sugimoto learns about a hidden treasure worth millions. Sugimoto then sets off to find the gold — no mean feat, as the map pinpointing its location has been tattooed onto the backs of a dozen prisoners, each with his own design on the loot.

Sugimoto faces another major obstacle to success: the harsh Hokkaido winter. A second fortuitous meeting — this time with an Ainu teenager — furnishes Sugimoto with a expert guide to wilderness survival. Like Sugimoto, Asirpa is searching for the treasure, albeit for a different reason: the men in her village died to prevent it from falling into Japanese hands. Though Asirpa slots into the common and often stereotyped role of “native sidekick,” she’s not just a repository of useful skills and earthy wisdom; she’s an individual with the courage to challenge Sugimoto when his determination shades into ruthlessness, and the tenacity to fight her way out of difficult situations by improvising traps, creating smokescreens, and throwing punches. Oh, and she brings down a hungry bear with a single well-placed arrow. She’s a baller, and one of the best reasons to read Golden Kamuy.

As skillful as Noda may be in establishing his setting and characters, the script suffers from frequent — if brief — patches of clumsy dialogue and narration. One of the most egregious examples occurs in chapter four, when Sugimoto goes mano-a-mano with another soldier. The artwork makes it plain that Sugimoto’s opponent gets the best of him by grabbing and disabling his rifle, but Noda interrupts the scene to inform us, “The moment they moved away from each other, the man depressed the bolt stop and pulled out the bolt, rendering Sugimoto’s rifle useless.” Such intrusions are all the more puzzling because Noda’s draftsmanship is crisp, stylish, and easy to parse; even when Noda indulges in an extreme close-up or odd camera angle, we’re never in doubt about what’s happening.

Speaking of Noda’s artwork, he draws guts, wounds, and scars with a surgeon’s precision, offering a nightmarish vision of bodies torn apart by bullets — and bears. Though a few sequences skirt the line between dramatic necessity and cinematic flourish, these horrific images play an essential role in conveying the brutality of frontier experience and the horrors of trench warfare. Anything tamer would rob the story of its urgency, and reduce Sugimoto to a simple opportunist, rather than a fierce survivor who’s cheated death dozens of times.

So if you can soldier past the tin-eared dialogue and frequent arterial spray, you’ll be rewarded with a briskly paced thriller that transports you to another time and place, capturing the Hokkaido wilderness in all its squalor, beauty, and promise. Recommended.

A copy of volume one was provided by the publisher. Golden Kamuy will be available on June 20, 2017.

GOLDEN KAMUY, VOL. 1 • ART AND STORY BY SATORU NODA • TRANSLATION BY EIJI YASUDA • VIZ MEDIA • RATING: M FOR MATURE (FOR READERS 18+) • 192 pp.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 6

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

One of the hallmarks of many a shoujo series is the idea of the man falling for a woman, among other reasons, because of her sheer stubbornness – the idea being that he no longer sees her as merely a weak girl who can’t do anything because of the fire in her eyes. And given that Jaeha is proving to be a tough nut to crack, it makes sense that we’d get one of these scenes with him and Yona as well. Of course, Yona of the Dawn is not your standard high school romance, and therefore the stubborn streak that Yona has involves truly death-defying walks along a sheer cliff face to acquire a much-needed herb. Jaeha can see how terrified Yona is of the whole thing, but also sees her reasoning behind why she still does it (mostly as she narrates it aloud to him, admittedly). It’s the best scene of the book.

The rest of the book is pretty nifty as well. We meet the pirate crew that Jaeha is working with, and they’re the ‘good’ kind of pirates, of course, led by a badass old woman who I hope we see more of but I suspect will be gone after this arc. The pirates are here to stop the evil slave traders kidnapping young girls, which makes Yona an obvious choice to be bait. (The other choice, equally obvious if you know this series, is Yun, who fills the tsundere role admirably and looks fantastic in women’s clothing (as he says himself). This does lead us to one of the series’ running themes, which is that it’s very difficult to conduct a secret mission to save the kingdom if you have fiery red hair that everyone knows is like the Princess. Yona’s solution here is very clever, and another sign of how she’s growing by leaps and bounds.

As for the romance side of the manga, well, Jaeha is falling for Yona, though he’s not quite ready to admit it. The second best scene in the book is when he talks to Hak and tries to get the measure of what the relationship between him and Yona is. Hak is very tightly wound, with most of his affection for Yona coming out as teasing and the occasional serious “dedication to duty” conversation, but it becomes clearer the longer he watches her that there is an intense pent-up desire there. This is normally the sort of thing that can’t stay pent up forever, but given this is a Hana to Yume romance, I expect it will likely stay pent up for quite some time. Still, it’s beautifully conveyed.

Ending with a truly loopy alternate universe omake (I love the idea of Yona as a ditz with a flower growing out of her head), this is another strong volume in an already strong series. Still one of the best Shojo Beat titles being released right now. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World: The Melancholy of the High School Girl Light Novel Author?!

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By Tsuyoshi Fujitaka and An2A. Released in Japan as “Neechan wa Chuunibyou” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

I will save my objections for later in the review, so let me start by saying that a lot of this book is fun as usual. The author is getting more blatant in his Haruhi rip-offs, from the title of this volume to the fact that the villain is disappointed at Yuichi’s proactive personality and says she wants someone who says “yare yare” all the time, and it’s still funny. Mutsuko gets a lot less to do here than she normally does, but is still amusing in a “if I start to take her seriously she will be a Cthulian horror’ sort of way. Aiko and Yoriko make a good double act, and I’m amused at people saying Aiko’s not as much of a threat in the ‘love interest’ category as she’s too passive. And the overarching plot, which looks like it will be the core of the rest of the series, is not all that bad, taking the metatextual Haruhi stuff and trying to spin it in a dramatic way.

But enough of that, let’s move on to Kanako, who gets the spotlight here at last. I admit I had been misreading her in the first couple volumes as something of an airhead type, but now it becomes apparent that it’s more ‘withdrawn from reality’. And more to the point, Kanako has suicidal thoughts, and the book begins with her attempting to kill herself (it’s when she first meets Mutsuko and Yuichi). I will be fair, this scene works quite well. Mutsuko’s flip “that’s boring!” grates, but her solution, although ludicrous, teaches an important lesson, one that I think Kanako grasps. No, the trouble I have with Kanako’s subplot comes later in the book. Her relationship with her mother is written in a completely serious, realistic way, with no parodic elements at all, and the scene where she sees her, happy with her new family, is devastating. Having the villain take credit for her entire past, including her mother wanting a son so much that it poisoned her entire relationship with her child, is frankly awful and makes light of Kanako’s pain.

As for the climax of the book, Yuichi pays some lip service to the fact that you can’t just magically fix a suicidal person’s thoughts with a few well-intentioned words, but then he goes ahead and does it anyway. And Kanako is now added to the love interest pile, and I have a sneaking suspicion that we aren’t really going to touch on her problems again. It’s maddening in many ways, and one reason I find it hard to fully embrace this series – if it’s going to be a parody of Haruhi and similar series, it shouldn’t be using darker subplots like this one and the kidnapped girls one from Book 3, and if it does use the serious plots it should commit to them seriously and not handwave it away with the power of Yuichi’s GAR. And so I’m left with feelings of ambivalence. I do hope the next book uses Mutsuko more, as I find the series at its most intriguing when it’s examining her incredibly broken mindset.

Bookshelf Briefs 6/12/17

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Anne Happy, Vol. 5 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – There’s a new character introduced in this volume who I thought at first was going to be an antagonist but it turns out is merely another one of our broken, unlucky heroes. That said, “terminally shy” is not really unlucky so much as a basic personality flaw. As for the class, we’re looking beyond graduation, and while I will marvel if some of these ditzes manage to survive in the adult world, it’s a good thinking exercise to get them to ponder dreams they’d like to achieve—Botan as a school nurse is amusing and obvious, Hibari’s “botanical research technician” a bit less so. As for the culture festival, they’re doing a play, probably to continue trying to force them to interact with others till they can do it more naturally. Mildly recommended. – Sean Gaffney

Captive Hearts of Oz, Vol. 2 | By Ryo Maruya and Mamenosuke Fujimaru | Seven Seas – As I noted in my review of the first volume, folks did not particularly read Alice in the Country of Hearts for the reverse harem—or if they did, the worst volumes of it were only concerned with that. No, they read it for the dark subtext, and I am pleased that Captive Hearts of Oz is well aware of that and turns the dark subtext into text. There are some sweet, heartwarming moments, don’t get me wrong, such as Leon finding his courage and Nick’s daring rescue of Hayward. But there’s also chilling stuff here, as one of the crows we met earlier is vanished into black mist, and after seemingly being killed in the rapids, Nick just… comes back wrong. I am fully down with this series now. – Sean Gaffney

Fairy Tail: Rhodonite | By Kyouta Shibano | Kodansha Comics – This says volume two on it, but it’s actually a single volume spinoff—volume one was Twin Dragons of Sabertooth. This second volume deals with Gajeel and his past, and as such has a lot of cool fights, disturbing revelations and shonen stubbornness. But of course I didn’t get it for that reason. I got it because Gajeel x Levy 5-evah. And I am pleased to note that fans of this pairing will have a lot to work with, from Levy’s realization that she’s never really asked much about Gajeel’s past, to Juvia’s straight-up shipping of the two of them (who can blame her), to Gajeel’s pure and honest respect for Levy. They’ve come a long way from his beating her to unconsciousness and crucifying her. Recommended for Gajevy fans. – Sean Gaffney

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 18 | Story by Yuto Tsukuda, Art by Shun Saeki | VIZ Media – I was hesitant going into this volume since the beginning of the “Erina’s horrible dad takes over” arc was rather distressing. It isn’t over yet, and several research societies get squashed in the shokugeki they requested to challenge the order to disband. Still, Yukihira does prevail in his rigged showdown with the fate of Polaris dormitory on the line, so there’s some hope. Too, we learn that Azami at one point idolized Yukihira’s dad and is now doing all of this because the “rotten and corrupt” culinary world “dared to ruin” him. Oh, and Erina now knows that the person she looks up to more than anyone is Yukihira’s dad, causing her to reflect on all the times she’s treated him shabbily. Probably my favorite part of this volume is seeing her among the Polaris gang; I hope she loosens up a bit more under their influence. – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 12 | By Haruchi Furudate | VIZ Media – Ah, what a tremendously satisfying volume! With little preamble, the first game of the Spring Tournament preliminaries begins. Everyone is much more confident now after spending so much time practicing against strong Tokyo teams, and Karasuno makes it through its two exciting games, earning a spot in the qualifier round. Essentially, this volume offers both in-game awesomeness as well as training montages, as the two months between tournaments pass quickly, with various guys making improvements, Hinata and Kageyama’s new quick set upping its success rate, and even Tsukishima asking for tips on how to effectively block a superior player. It’s also great to see Hinata getting respect on a wider stage. Sounds like volume twelve will be a great one, too! – Michelle Smith

Murcielago, Vol. 2 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – Hinako is on the cover of this volume, and she does get a chapter of focus to herself, which mostly serves to make us wonder if she’s meant to be sixteen years old or six. It’s also unclear exactly what her relationship with Kuroko is beyond ‘buddy with car.’ Kuroko certainly seems like she can handle things herself, finishing up the murder mansion subplot with a few more corpses and a lot more gore—though less than I expected, as the murderous maid loses a few limbs but not her life—something it’s hinted she may regret. We also begin a new arc, trying to rescue a girl from her father, who may be a serial killer. If you like lots of over the top violence and lesbian sex, Murcielago STILL may not be for you—it’s pretty twisted. – Sean Gaffney

Please Tell Me! Galko-chan, Vol. 3 | By Kenya Suzuki| Seven Seas – As with the second volume, this one ramps back on the sex talk, though there is still some as we discuss pubic hair and the benefits and drawbacks to large breasts. Mostly what we get is more character-based gags, as Galko and company go video shopping, visit an art museum, and have a school festival, which brings about the majority of the drama in the latter half of the volume—Galko is excellent at reading aloud, so is drafted as narrator of the school play. But this means she can’t do the festival with Otako and Ojou! Fortunately, she has a childhood friend who, while he’s attracted to her, also understands her needs, and the problem is solved to a degree. A lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Rose Guns Days Season Two, Vol. 3 | By Ryukishi07 and Nana Natsunishi | Yen Press – This ended up being a lot more idealistic than I was expecting, even if there was a bit of manufactured drama when Zel’s real identity is revealed. The chase is on to try to rescue her father and also help Rose not surrender to the Chinese—something Lee is happy to help with provided he can consolidate his power base. Also, turns out a few of the cast from Season One are not quite as killed off as they appeared. The whole season is set up like a heist film, and a heist is what you get in the end. If there’s a problem, it’s that it all goes far TOO smoothly—you get the sense that even more was cut from the visual novel to squeeze this one. On to season three, which is in 1949. – Sean Gaffney

My Week in Manga: June 5-June 11, 2017

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My News and Reviews

Last week at Experiments in Manga, I announced the winner of the Anonymous Noise give away. The post also includes a list of manga which have characters who have notable singing voices. I got a particularly kick out of the fact that not all of the manga were necessarily music manga. Also, a bit of a heads up: I’m switching around my usual posting schedule. Normally the second week of the month would be devoted to the Bookshelf Overload feature, but I’ll be posting an in-depth review this week instead–Yeon-Sik Hong’s award winning manhwa Uncomfortably Happily is being released in English by Drawn & Quarterly on Tuesday and I’m working on putting the finishing touches on my write-up. Spoilers: I enjoyed the work immensely.

As for interesting reading elsewhere online: Hitomi Yoshio, a professor and translator, wrote a little about teaching Japanese Literature in Translation. And speaking of Japanese literature in translation, it looks like the second volume of Yu Godai’s Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner will finally be released sometime later this summer. (I enjoyed the first volume a great deal when it was published three years ago and sincerely hope that the wait between future volumes is much shorter.) I’ve known about the upcoming translation of Kazuki Sakuraba’s A Small Charred Face for a while, but now it’s official–Haikasoru will be releasing the novel in the fall. Sakuraba may best be known as the creator of Gosick, but my introduction to author’s work was through Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas, which I loved. Finally, I’d like to draw attention a series of fascinating Golden Kamuy Cultural Notes & Video References put together by @zeppelichi on Twitter.

Quick Takes

Blinded by the IceBlinded by the Ice by Saicoink (An Nguyen). In general, I don’t buy very many fan works or doujinshi, generally preferring to support artists’ original comics over their explorations of other people’s creations. However, I do occasionally make exceptions and I was very excited for Saicoink’s Yuri!!! on Ice fan book Blinded by the Ice. In addition to some bonus comics, illustrations, and research notes, the volume focuses on two main stories. The first and longest, Don’t Leave Me This Way, was probably my favorite comic of the two. I enjoyed Makes Me Think of You as well–it’s a charming and sweet holiday story which takes place after most of the events of the original anime series–but Don’t Leave Me This Way is the one that really impressed me. The comic is set in the late seventies and early eighties, featuring an alternative universe in which Victor and Yuri’s relationship must develop over both time and distance due to the fact that Victor is a high-profile athlete for the USSR. The only time the two of them can really meet in person is during competitions and even then it is very challenging and difficult. Blinded by the Ice is fantastic; I love the humor and insight that Saicoink brings to the stories and the time and effort Saicoink put into research really pays off, too.

Delicious in the Dungeon, Volume 1Delicious in Dungeon, Volume 1 by Ryoko Kui. I enjoy tabletop role-playing games (or at least enjoy being present while other people are playing them) and I love food manga, so Delicious in Dungeon was a series that immediately caught my attention. The groups that I’ve played pen and paper RPGs with actually tended to devote a fair amount of attention to the food within the games. Our adventures never quite turned out how it does for Laois and his dungeoning companions, though. When, partially due to hunger, his party is nearly wiped out by a dragon, Laois and the other survivors find themselves facing the prospect of having to launch a rescue mission to save one of their own. There’s just one problem: their supplies are limited and they don’t have any food. And so Laois proposes that they simply find what they need to eat and sustain themselves inside the dungeon itself, something that he’s apparently been wanting to try for a very long time. The others, on the other hand, are much more skeptical. Conveniently, they are all fortunate enough to meet a dwarf who is much more skilled and experienced than Laois when it comes to making monsters palatable. The conceit of Delicious in Dungeon is frankly brilliant. Unsurprisingly, I loved the first volume of the series and definitely plan on reading more.

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Volume 1Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Volume 1 by Haruko Kumota. Although I haven’t actually had the opportunity to watch it yet, Kumota’s manga series Descending Stories was first brought to my attention due to its recent anime adaptation. The excitement surrounding the anime and the licensing of the original manga made Descending Stories one of the debuts I was most looking forward to in 2017; I was not disappointed. Rakugo is a traditional Japanese performance art which isn’t as popular as it once was but still has a devoted following. Familiarity with rakugo isn’t at all necessary to enjoy Descending Stories, but readers who have at least some basic understanding of it will likely get even more out of the series. But while rakugo is an important and interesting part of Descending Stories, it’s the relationships and drama between the characters that really make the manga so engrossing and compelling. Kyoji is an outgoing young man who has recently been released from prison. Curiously, the first thing he does with his freedom is to seek out Yakumo, a famous rakugo artist, and demand to become his apprentice. Up until this point Yakumo has always rejected those who want to study under him, but to everyone’s surprise on a whim takes Kyoji into his household.

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 1

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By Ryoko Kui. Released in Japan as “Dungeon Meshi” by Enterbrain, serialization ongoing in the magazine Harta. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Taylor Engel.

This is, when you come right down to it, a straight up mix of two popular genres right now. Dungeon Crawling is popular in both isekai works and others that just like the genre of the fantasy RPG. And cooking manga has always been popular in Japan for years, with people spending pages upon pages telling readers how delicious they can make something in great detail. Combining the two is a clever idea, and on the face of it the main reason to read this book, but I’m going to be honest, I found the actual RPG and food sections rather boring. No, the real reason to read this book are the main characters, who, while not the most original bunch, do give a off a certain weird charm – emphasis on the weird. They’re individually eccentric, but even more eccentric when put together.

Our party seems very standard by RPG terms: among others, they have a front-line warrior, an elf mage, and a small, grumpy trap expert. At the beginning of the title, they have even more people, but they miscalculate what supplies and food they need to successfully fight off a monster, and as a result are exhausted and starved. So they lose and have to run away – and worse, our hero’s sister in literally eaten by one of the monsters. When most of the rest of their team quits, they’re left in dire straits – the sister can be rescued, but only if they return immediately. Thus a truly foolish, desperate idea – save on supplies by eating the monsters they capture. With the help of a dwarf who had a lot of cooking knowledge and very little common sense, they set out to slowly return to where they left off and maybe try to rescue the sister, though honestly they’re taking so long I’m not expecting much.

As I said above, the main reason to read this is the off-kilter sense of humor it has. Laios, our hero, is a monster freak with a lot of idealism and book knowledge, but it’s also made him a bit of a ditz. Marcille, the elf mage, is a walking font of common sense for the most part, forever forced to be the tsukkomi and be shocked to find the technically gross things she’s eating are actually really tasty when cooked properly. The other one with some common sense is Chilchuck, the trap expert, and he contrasts well with the dwarf, Senshi, who is a bit of a pop-eyed lunatic when he’s not talking about food. Fortunately, Chilchuck is easily flattered. Together, the four of them get into vaguely death-defying situations as they attempt to save Laios’ sister, whose fate seems to be a bit of a running gag, but I suspect will pop up later on if only as the alternative is a bit too dark.

I’m not exactly sure if this is a series I’d want to keep reading on a regular basis, but the first volume was amusing enough, and is definitely worth it if you enjoy dungeon crawls. As for the foodie crowd… possibly less so.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 6

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Yona of the Dawn Volume 6 by Mizuho Kusanagi

I’m always happy when a new volume of Yona of the Dawn comes out. The cover of this volume, featuring Yona and Sinha sheltering from the rain under a giant leaf, is particularly adorable. Yona is tested in many ways as she learns more about the Green Dragon and his pirate companions.

Although Yona doesn’t have any superpowers, the force of her forthright personality proves to be an incredible advantage for her. When the Green Dragon Jaeha announces that he won’t join up with her, she reacts calmly, saying that she’ll ask him to join her but would never order or try to compel him to change his mind. Yona is tested even further when Jaeha takes her to meet the pirate queen, Captain Gi-Gan. She tests the companions and refuses to accept Yona, since Yona doesn’t have any special or useful abilities. Gi-Gan tells Yona to gather a rare medicinal herb, which requires some treacherous hiking at the edge of a cliff. Yona is determined to prove herself worthy of taking part in the upcoming battle, and she heads off to face her test, accompanied by Jaeha. Jaeha’s Green Dragon protective instincts kick in even as he tries to fight the bond he has with Yona.

There were a bunch of very cute Yona and Hak moments in this volume. Hak points out that her attitude towards the Green Dragon’s recruitment is totally at odds to her ordering him to accompany her on her journey and she gets incredibly flusters and tells him to shut up because “You’re different.” Hak secretly finds this adorable. Hak’s jealousy kicks into high gear when Jaeha talks about how unique and cute Yona is. His emotions are tested even more when Yona decides to go undercover to subvert the local warlord’s terrible plans for human trafficking with the village girls. Sometimes I’m not a fan of such slowly developing romances, but while Hak has clearly acknowledged his feelings internally, it still seems like Yona hasn’t examined her feelings for him quite as closely. Hopefully there will be more developments here in the next volume or so!

As I was reading this volume of Yona of the Dawn, I realized that it reminded me quite a bit of Basara. There’s the superficial similarity of awesome pirate queen characters popping up in both manga, but the slower pace of the storytelling allowing the author to introduce an expansive cast with plenty of character development along the way is the main reason why I like both series.

Girls’ Last Tour, Vol. 1

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Was Tsukumizu an architect in a previous life? That question lingered with me as I read volume one of Girls’ Last Tour, a sci-fi manga that unfolds in a not-too-distant future filled with crumbling infrastructure and empty cities. Tsukumizu details the physical environment with precision, from sagging girders and abandoned cranes to pockmarked skyscrapers, broken trestles, and rusting water tanks. The sense of loss is palpable on every page, whether the principal characters are surveying an airplane “graveyard” filled with rusting turboprops, or searching for safe passage through a partially flooded city. Though we don’t learn what caused the devastation, Tsukumizu’s vivid illustrations suggest that the world we’re seeing was torn apart by violence.

If only the characters were rendered with such specificity! Yuuri and Chito — the “girls” of the title — are opposites: Yuuri is the brawn, Chito the brain. Both are so focused on their own survival that we have little sense of who they were before the apocalypse, or what brought them together. That in itself isn’t a fatal flaw; Robert Redford’s character in All Is Lost, for example, had no obvious backstory to explain why he was sailing by himself, or who might miss him if he drowned at sea. Yet the movie was compelling, as Redford’s character was painfully aware of his own vulnerability, and the unlikeliness of being rescued. In Girls’ Last Tour, by contrast, the dramatic stakes are low; many chapters revolve around simple activities — jerry building a hot tub, finding a place to sleep — that don’t reveal much about either girl’s personality, or the dangers they face.

The one exception is a story arc spanning chapters six, seven, and eight, in which Yuuri and Chito meet a cartographer who’s been diligently mapping an unnamed city. When an accident scatters Kanazawa’s maps to the wind, his anguish at their loss generates a visceral jolt of emotion. “I may as well fall with them,” he declares, a statement that Chito and Yuuri forcefully reject before dragging Kanazawa to safety atop a tower. As they peer out over the city, their bodies dwarfed by sky and buildings, the darkness gives way to a brilliant patchwork of lights that illuminate their faces and the rooftops around them — a potent reminder that the city once teemed with life.

Tsukumizu frustrates the reader’s efforts to make sense of the characters, however, by drawing Chito and Yuuri as a pair of affectless automatons. Yuuri’s comments about the lights indicate that she’s genuinely moved, but her face and her body don’t register any emotion; she might as well be discussing what she had for dinner, or whether railroad ties make good firewood. Perhaps the flatness of her delivery is meant to convey just how weary she is, or how pragmatic she must be to survive, but the banality of her conversations with Chito suggest that Tsukumizu had some difficulty creating characters as sharp and memorable as the world they inhabit.

The bottom line: Your mileage will vary: some people may appreciate the series’ absence of dramatic conflict, while others may find it a little too measured to be engrossing. I’m on the fence about this one; on the strength of the final story arc, however, I’ll be picking up volume two.

GIRLS’ LAST TOUR, VOL. 1 • STORY AND ART BY TSUKUMIZU • TRANSLATION BY AMANDA HALEY • YEN PRESS • RATED T, FOR TEEN (13+) • 162 pp.