Features & Reviews

By Shigeru Mizuki. Released in Japan as “Comic Shouwashi” by Kodansha. Released in North America by Drawn & Quarterly.

I was somewhat deceived by the cliffhanger in the last volume, where I felt that I’d gotten to the incident that caused Mizuki to lose his arm. In fact, it’s yet another breathtaking escape from the jaws of death, and the arm is lost much later in the narrative, when he lies delirious from malaria in the camp hospital. It’s fascinating how often he was nearly killed – indeed, it’s especially amazing given how often his squad was sent on suicide marches. He was the only survivor from his original squad, and this is looked upon as extremely shameful by the officers – why didn’t he die nobly? As ever, though, Mizuki seems not to think too hard about all of this, and is mostly concerned with food. At least, the Mizuki we read about here. The author knows very much what he’s saying in this volume, condemning the Japanese higher-ups for needless sacrifice.

The story continues to shift back and forth between Mizuki’s account of his own experiences during and after the war and the historical narrative being presented by Nezumi Otoko (who is briefly joined by two other yokai from the Kitaro series, possibly as Mizuki wanted to distract from some especially dry history). In the earlier volumes, I was more riveted by the history than I was my Mizuki’s biography, but here my interest began to shift, and I found myself wanting to learn more about this man and his determined survival traits, which again are consistently portrayed as being due to happenstance rather than any cunning or intelligence. Mizuki drifts through life during and after the war, and his creation of Kitaro – then known as Graveyard Kitaro – doesn’t even merit a panel, instead being framed as part of the larger narrative of his inability to succeed – Kamishibai, the style he’s trying, is on its way out, and manga is the brand new thing that may actually work out.

This is not to discount the history, of course, which remains excellent. Mizuki is very good at showing multiple sides of each situation, being sure to mention the heroic moments in the Pacific War along with the atrocities, and pointing out how the occupation post-War did help the economy recover (mostly due to the Korean War) while noting how hypocritical and unrelenting MacArthur and the GHQ could be in their promotion of democracy and search for communists. There’s a scene where the students are reading a book talking about the freedoms of Western capitalism which is heavily censored with black magic marker to remove references to Japanese patriotism. It helps to raise a generation of cynics.

As this volume ends, things are looking a little better for both Shigeru Mizuki and the people of Japan. The last volume, due out in the spring, will take us to 1989, the final year of Showa. I look forward to it greatly, but hope it will be a bit less harrowing than this one, which does not flinch in its portrayal of Japanese commanders sending their troops towards “noble deaths”, and one man’s ability to drift through life allowing him to survive that conflict – though not without sacrifice.

By Yusei Matsui. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

A few years back, when Weekly Shonen Jump was just getting started in North America, there was a rumor that one of the series brought over would be the quirky, somewhat popular Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro. Unfortunately, what it ended up being was one of the first examples of those “mid-range” Jump titles that get to 15-25 volumes in Japan but never quite garner enough success to come over here. After a break of a couple of years, however, the author came back with an even larger hit: Assassination Classroom, the story of an alien teacher and the misfit kids who have to kill him to save the Earth. Initially thought unlicensable due to the basic premise, it’s now reached double digit volumes and an anime is on the way, so Viz is releasing it as a Shonen Jump Advanced title.

There’s another good reason why Viz decided to license this title after all: it’s fantastic. Technically the story is about the kids trying to find ways of murdering their teacher – attempts are made every single chapter, after all – but what this *really* is is another in the genre of ‘oddball teacher comes into class full of misfits and shows them they are all better than they think they are’. Think GTO, Gokusen, or Hell Teacher Nube. The background regarding Koro-sensei’s decision to blow up the Earth at the end of the school year unless he is killed is kept deliberately vague, though various hints suggest he may have been human once. It’s more a plot widget to allow for the killings, which range from deadly serious to hilarious.

Technically the other protagonist of this series is Nagisa, a bishonen-looking young man who’s good at research and analysis but apparently bad enough at school to be in class 3-E. So far he’s mostly there to be the narrative voice, but I sense that there’s more coming in the next few volumes. The series clearly has something to say about bullying and the Japanese educational system, even if it’s filtered through a SF-comedy vein. The regulations against 3-E are designed deliberately so that the children are scapegoats for the rest of the school, and that once there it’s very difficult to climb back out. Indeed, the only person on their side seems to be the alien they have to kill.

Matsui got his start as an assistant on Bobobobo-bobobo, and the influence can sometimes be seen in the sheer loopy surrealism of Koro-sensei’s remarks and attitudes. This isn’t a gag manga, though, and the kids have very real problems – a bully hunter who was betrayed by a teacher has lost all faith in the profession; a baseball pitcher who imitates his favorite player finds he can’t move forward; and a girl who’s good at chemistry but poor at speaking finds you can’t simply kill someone by asking them to die nicely. These are good lessons Koro-sensei is teaching, and the kids are beginning to realize what a great teacher he really is. Shame he plans to destroy the Earth.

Speaking of which, not *everything* is left to these kids (who I suspect are meant to be scapegoats to the entire world if their mission fails). A Ministry of Defense employee becomes their gym teacher, and teaches the kids genuine assassination techniques. And there seems to be another assassin being sent to kill Koro-sensei at the cliffhanger to this volume, and she gives quite a first impression. It’s going to be another two months til the next volume, but this is a terrific debut from Jump, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

By Reki Kawahara and Hima. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Much as I’m enjoying Sword Art Online, it was very much complete in one novel, and the subsequent second volume ended up being a series of world-building short stories that filled time while the author regrouped (or so it seemed to me, I know this series began as an online web fiction). Accel World seems to be more planned in advance, and so its second light novel can delve right into fallout from the first: Haruyuki hitting a wall in his gaming and feeling pathetic and useless about it; Takumu and Chiyuri not quite broken up but no longer really together; and Kuroyukihime trying to be a guide and mentor for Haruyuki while attempting to convey that she has feelings for him (she succeeds in only one of these things, of course).

The main thrust of the arc, though, is a new character, Yuniko. She’s only 11, and reminds us how young everyone in this cast is (our hero and heroine are 13 and 14, respectively). That’s by design – the Accelerated technology is designed so that only people below a certain age have the possibility of using it – but you do occasionally wish for some adult supervision in amongst all this gaming, particularly as the effects of the gaming world can seep out psychologically into the real world. The plot involves Yuniko, the “Red King” and a Level 9, teaming up with Kuroyukihime’s team to try to stop an armor that possesses its wearer and drives them insane.

Haruyuki remains the most fascinating character in these books. The bullies have been removed from his school, and he’s dating (well, sort of not really) the school “Princess”, so you’d think he would feel better about himself. But that’s not how minds work, particularly when one was bullied for years as he was. Haruyuki is now desperately afraid of failing Kuroyukihime, and sets up masochistic VR games in order to grow stronger that mostly just serve to beat him up. It’s depressing, and you are relieved that when Kuroyukihime eventually finds out he’s doing this she screams at him. The disconnect between ‘it’s just a game’ and ‘but it’s MORE than a game’ isn’t as obvious here as it is in Sword Art Online, but it’s still a major theme of the books.

The second half of this novel is almost entirely devoted to one big fight, and it’s very well done, filled with action and betrayals and the like. There’s a minor villain, the Yellow King, who’s designed to be hated by the reader, and succeeds very nicely. (He’s reminiscent of the villain from Fairy Dance, only a bit less obvious.) We get a flashback of the scene where Kuroyukihime put in motion the events that led to her being hunted, and it’s both informative and shows us how much succeeding in this game requires strength of will. Which is why, despite all his whining and terror, Haruyuki gets to save the day. (Well, apart from the cliffhanger that suggests he may become possessed and evil in the future…)

For gamers, fans of light novels, and those who like heroes that are a bit out of the ordinary, Accel World is a great read, and a nice contrast with Kawahara’s other series.

By Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and GAINAX. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Viz Media.

(This review contains spoilers.)

A journey that began in Japan back in 1995, and in North America approximately 2004 I think (it’s been so long), has finally come to an end with this final volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s only out digitally for the moment, as the volume was only released last week in Japan. Print volumes should be arriving in February, but I can’t wait that long, so let’s swipe at our tablets and find out what happens. I think we all have the same question: we know the manga is following the same beats as the anime did, but is it also going to end with Shinji strangling Asuka on some godforsaken (literally) beach?

Thankfully, the answer turns out to be no. Now don’t get me wrong – everyone still ends up in orange goo here. Makoto gets to see Misato before he dissolves, and Maya gets Ritsuko. Sadly, Aoba isn’t heavily crushing on anyone special, so he just gets dogpiled by a bunch of Rei clones. We see Gendo finally die, and it’s notable that he does NOT dissolve like everyone else – but wait till later. In the end, all is nothingness, and Rei presents this nothingness to Shinji as what Gendo has been shooting for – and what Shinji has wanted as well. To run away, to give in, to be accepted in the same nothingness as everyone else. No war, no hatred, no love, no peace – it’s all one. (There is a fantastic two-page spread showing Shinji seeing dialogue bubbles of the entirety of human experience – acceptance and rejection all in one.)

Shinji in the manga has gone through a lot of stuff, but in the end he rejects this world – and tells Rei why, in no uncertain terms. Rei describes it as a happy world, but Shinji points out that in a world that is nothing, happiness can’t exist. This too is familiar from the anime, but these scenes in the manga end up being pretty heartwarming. He recalls Yui telling him that he has to protect the happiness of everyone in the world – which means the sadness as well. After essentially saying goodbye to Rei (who I think makes it clear that if he rejects Third Impact she is not going to be around), we get one of the more iconic shots of Evangelion, which is Unit 01 emerging from Lilith’s giant eyeball.

The apocalypse gets to take up a good chunk of space, but when it’s over, and Shinji sees both Yui and Gendo in what looks like the afterlife telling him to stand on his own two feet (dammit, why a happy ending for Gendo? Grump), we see that Rei essentially rebooted the world, as things pick up with an older Shinji about to take a train into Tokyo for high school exams. This is, thank GOD, nothing whatsoever like the wacky romantic comedy universe of Episode 26, or even The Shinji Ikari Raising Project. Yes, he meets Asuka in a cute way, but it’s fairly reserved and there is no falling into anyone’s chest. It’s a new beginning, and is combined with his seeing Kensuke to show that this is what Rei and Shinji wanted. Here he can make new connections and form new bonds. Helpfully, there are also no duels in giant robots (we see the remains of the Evas describes as mysterious remnants), so it’s entirely possible that this will come to pass.

And that’s that. (There is a final chapter, which introduces Mari Illustrious Makinami as a high school classmate of Yui’s with a crush, but it’s pretty slight, and feels like an attempt to shoehorn the very popular Mari into the main manga series.) I’ve always read the manga wanting a somewhat less hopeless take on the human race. And that’s what we get here. It’s not Shinji and Asuka as Adam and Eve, it’s a chance to start anew, given by a girl who learned how to reach out and care for others thanks to Shinji’s empathy. Evangelion is a good story, well told, and I am happy that it ends like this. Well done.

By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve read this one in fan translation. Twice. This was before it was licensed, and there was a very good reason for that: I never, ever thought this would be licensed. The main series is 22 volumes + two short story volumes, and the ‘sequel’ is 11 volumes and counting. And while I knew Yen On was starting, I hadn’t suspected this. But here we are, with certainly one of the most demanded light novel series of all, now out in the West to supplement the already popular Railgun series that spun off from it. What’s it like to read, particularly for a fan who’s already possibly seen the anime it’s based on?

First off, I want to try an amusing experiment, based on the fact that this has one of the casts from Hell.

Introduced in this volume: Touma Kamijou, Index Librorum Prohibitorum, Mikoto Misaka, Stiyl Magnus, Kaori Kanzaki, Komoe Tsukiyomi, “blue-haired guy”, “frog-faced doctor” (the latter two have no official names). For Railgun readers, this takes place during the “Level Upper” arc.

There’s no question that this volume is absolutely tailor-fit to be a franchise. This volume wastes no time in stripping Index naked, there’s a typical “everyman” hero who’s actually super amazing but has fairly low self-worth (though compared to Hiroyuki from Accel World, Touma is an egotist). There’s a grumpy tsundere who shouts at the hero, though due to his nature she doesn’t hit him; instead the job of physical abuse goes to Index. Oh, and there’s a 35-year-old teacher who looks 12, chain smokes, and wears bunny footy pajamas. If you can get past the cliches, what you have here is a novel that examines the different “rules” of magic and science, and what would happen if they crossed paths. If your answer was “lots of cool fights and near-death experiences”, step to the top of the class.

It’s worth noting that when I first read the fan translation, I felt the style was overly complex and verbose, but put it down to translation issues. No, as the Yen Press version makes clear, Kamachi’s style is overly complex and verbose. Certain phrases are bolded, which appears to not signify anyone is shouting, but merely to note that something important has just been said or revealed. There’s also some expletives, which surprised me, but fit the emotions of the speaker. As you’d expect for a first novel, some of the characterization is still forming. Index is quite snarky in her first scene, and doesn’t really become the Index we know till she is healed after her injuries (specifically, as they walk to the baths, she seems to spontaneously become Index in front of our eyes). Even for someone who is “pretending to be a villain for her sake”, Stiyl is over the top in his attempts to kill Touma. And given how insanely popular she became, it’s surprising how little Mikoto appears in this first book, serving merely as a plot device to show off Touma’s abilities.

It’s hard for me to judge how well this would read to a new reader, since I’m so familiar with it. I think the translation reads as smoothly as it can given the author, and that fans of anime will certainly enjoy it. That said, it’s a slow start, despite all the battles, and you really need to be prepared for a lot of talking and explaining – yes, even more than the average. If you’re interested in seeing why the series really took off, I’d wait till the third volume, but this is certainly a solid beginning.

By Suu Minazuki. Released in Japan as “Gou-dere Bishoujo Sora Nagihara” by Hakusensha, serialized in various Young Animal spinoffs. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I tend to try to read a lot of Volume 1s that are released by manga companies, even if the premise makes me sort of rear back a bit. Sometimes I find I’m pleasantly surprised, such as, say, Haganai. Sometimes I can’t quite make it through the volume, as happened with Monster Musume. And then there’s this title, where I made it through the volume out of sheer morbid fascination at how appalling it was going to get, and whether it could keep up its pace of sexual assault jokes with no breathing space. Unfortunately, the answer is “not really”, but it made a valiant effort, at least.

The creator is better known over here for a series called Sora no Otoshimono, and I’ve no doubt fans would rather be seeing that series, but it’s 20 volumes, while this is four. This particular series revolves around a young nebbish man who spends most of his life being sexually attracted to the girls in his bishoujo magazines, particularly the star of Tama x Kiss (a thinly veiled parody of Kimi x Kiss and all those other ecchi visual novels), Sora Nagihara. Then suddenly, for reasons that are still not particularly clear, Sora comes out of the magazine and appears in his lap. Only this is not the cute, shy, soon to die heroine he’s familiar with. She’s a Gou-dere, which I think is a tsundere-esque word that means she’s crude and appalling (with a hidden depressive side, which we see towards the end of this volume). She desires to have her new “master” rule the world by sleeping with every girl around him.

And here’s where the part of this book that’s an over the top parody and satire comes in, as she proceeds to kidnap, strip, and sexually assault young women for her so-called master (who then gets the blame, arrested, and beaten half to death by the police officers in town). The assault *is* the point of the manga – the heroine is constantly carrying around little packages of milk in order to allow her to create “facial’ shots as she finds a new victim. There is a childhood friend of the hero’s, naturally, who is appalled at what’s happening but mostly just yells and screams at the hero to stop Sora. The other girl on the cover is the president of the boxing club, who is assigned to destroy our hero (he has a name, but makes so little an impression I feel reluctant to use it), and who Sora ends up magically giving huge breasts, because of course she does.

As I said, the key here is over the top. This is not particularly meant to be titillating, it’s meant to make your jaw drop. When it’s at its most appalling, I admit I had to admire its sheer effort. Unfortunately, it also tries to have a typical harem plot while also parodying it, and that’s a high wire act it can’t quite achieve. I don’t buy that all these girls are in love with this guy for any reason other than “the plot says so.” There’s also a hint towards the end that even Sora herself may have a more serious storyline in her, and I don’t really want serious stories in this series. It makes the service harder to take.

If you’re a young man, and want to see what a parody of the typical “ecchi Japanese harem” series is like (and most North American examples we’ve seen over here are far less explicit than this), then you may want to pick this up. For people who really like fanservice no matter what, definitely pick this up. For everyone else… I don’t think the parody is good enough to justify buying it.