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Last Round Arthurs, Vol. 3: The Snow Maiden & The King Who Killed Arthur

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By Taro Hitsuji and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jan Cash.

I must admit up front: I did not enjoy this book as much as the last two. There’s a big reason for that: Luna, who is probably the best reason to read the book, spends most of it sidelined by the latest villain, and the series is simply far less fun when she’s not around being the Big Dumb Girl With A Good Heart. The other reason is an odd one, as the afterword explicitly lays it out for me: Rintarou changes over the course of the book, becoming far more of a shonen hero-type of character rather than the grumpy cynic he’d been so far. The author says this is a common development in manga and light novels, but I’m not sure it’s as common as he thinks, and I’m not sure it fits the character well. I don’t really want to see Rintarou become Touma. Other than that, though, the book is doing what it does best: lots of Arthurian backstory, lots of big shonen battles, and lots of betrayal.

The titular snow maiden is Nayuki Fuyuse, who readers may have forgotten was introduced in Book 1 as Rintarou’s mysterious classmate. The fact that she’s part of all this is not that much of a surprise. The fact that she’s secretly in love with him is also not that big a surprise. What *is* a surprise is that Rintarou, who is usually fairly clever, does not immediately realize who she is when she says the one thing she can’t do is tell him who she is. All he has to do is think of the person who betray4ed Merlin back in the day and bing! There’s your answer. In any case, she’s more support here. The actual King candidate is a whiny young creep named Hitoshi, his Jack Sir Tristan, and a mysterious young woman named Reika, who seems to be a mass murderer but there’s more to her than we think. And, as always, Elaine is pulling all the strings.

Apologies for spoiling a bit, but to be fair, it is in the book’s subtitle: the best part of this book is the subplot with Mordred. There is rare subtlety in the writing at her portrayal, and I particularly liked her own Jack, Sir Dinadan, casually mentioning that all the King candidates she’s supposedly murdering are not actually dead yet. It also reminds us of the story’s Arthurian background, and the fact that Arthur basically fell from grace, as it were. Unfortunately, there’s one more big minus in this book, and that’s the villain, Hitoshi. If Last Round Arthurs is a Fate ripoff, then here’s Shinji, whining, demanding, and threatening to rape the cast. What is it with light novel writers and their desire to make all the villains super, super, SUPER bad?

This is still a quick, easy read, and I might get the next volume, if only to see if Kay (barely in this book) will do anything at all. But I must admit this volume is no more than a C+.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, Vol. 10

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By Wataru Watari and Ponkan 8. Released in Japan as “Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatte Iru” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jennifer Ward.

This may be a first for this series. For the first time, I got through an entire volume without wanting to throw Hachiman out a window. This isn’t to say that he’s all smiles and warm fuzzies, but his cynical “this is what teenage life is really ,like it’s a jungle out there man” monologues are kept to a minimum and his attempts to solve the problem of the book involve actually talking with people about the problem rather than, say, throwing himself under the bus again. This volume was adapted into the final chunk of Season 2, so also is probably the calm before the storm that will be the final arc of the series. Things are moving pretty slowly – you can tell the author wants to wrap this up before they become third years – but we are starting to think about the future, which in Japan means what “track” will the kids be taking, arts or sciences?

Haruno is on the cover, and actually has a significant presence in the book as the “not quite evil but close” antagonist. The main focus of the book, though, is Hayama, who is the perfect boy that everyone wants to hang out with/date, but he’s refusing to say whether he’s taking the arts or sciences track, which has thrown his group into turmoil. Particularly Miura, who has a crush on him but is also concerned for his well-being – nearly everyone by now can see that Hayama is wearing a mask to hide his real self. She asks our heroes to find out what his choice is, which proves to be a very tough nut to crack, and mostly involves Hachiman doing a lot of detective work. In the interim, though, there is an ominous cloud on the horizon, and we see part of that cloud here, as we meet Yukino and Haruno’s mother, who is exactly what you’d expect she would be like. Oh yes, and there’s a rumor that Hayama and Yukino are going out which has spread like wildfire.

It’s pretty clear that Yukino’s family issues are gonna be the series’ endgame (which is bad news for Yui, and indeed she once again doesn’t have much of a role here – this love triangle is a bit imbalanced). For the moment, though, we’re dealing with Hayama, whose feelings for Hachiman are very conflicted – at one point he holds out hope that Hachiman is concerned about him as a friend, only to realize that it’s for his Service Club after all. It comes to a head in the school’s marathon, where Hayama bluntly talks about how he hates Hachiman, who may be Hayama’s opposite but also has managed to draw people to his actual self, crappy though that self may be. I was also very amused at the discussion of arts vs. sciences, some of which is “what am I best at” but a lot of which is also “how can I improve my social image?”.

So yes, this was a strong volume in the series, and I also really love the brother/sister relationship between Hachiman and Komachi, which is realistic and sweet. I am totally ready for Book 11. Sadly, the author is not, so get ready for 10.5, more short stories, next time.

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 8

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By Kisetsu Morita and Benio. Released in Japan as “Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt.

There are many times during my reading of the Killing Slimes for 300 Years series that I realize that not only are the characters treating this world as an excuse to relax and do inconsequential things, but so is the author. The author has many, many light novel series under their belt, some of them running simultaneously via different publishers, and you get the sense that this series is the one where the author can just kick back and not have to worry too hard about plot or characterization. It’s essentially a short story collection. The biggest thing that happens in this book is that Beelzebub has finally gotten the side stories that appeared in Books 5-7 farmed out to her own official spinoff (which has already been licensed over here for the spring) and so the last sixth of the book or so is devoted to Halkara, who gets a spinoff, seemingly set before the main series, where she… reviews restaurants. Don’t expect this to get spinoff novels anytime soon.

A breakdown of this book: Sandra goes through a Flowers for Algernon-style transformation after some super fertilizer turns her into a teenager with a high IQ (that said, there’s zero angst here); Pondeli invites the cast to the new Demon Arcade that she’s opening, whose games are hit-or-miss; the hippie pine spirit who does weddings finds that the flaky God who brought Azusa over is muscling in on her territory; that same God tries to reason with a fellow, more traditional God in order not to lose followers (and Azusa ends up leveling up EVEN MORE); they return to the ghost nation’s temple and tell ghost stories, most of which have a familiar bent; Azusa gets stranded on a desert island and meets what she thinks is a native tribe; a strange butterfly woman insists of staying with Azusa a week for no reason whatsoever and not because The Crane repays A Debt or anything; and Pecora starts a Youtube stream service from the demon world.

That last one may drive home the point that, aside from having elves, dragons, and slimes, this series is absolutely uninterested in building its own world, but would much rather leech off of Japan’s own past and present. The ghost stories Azusa tries to tell, common ones from Japan, are also very well known here. the cuisine Halkara samples is essentially variations on what you can get in any mid-sized town, complete with a conveyor belt sushi place. It’s… very low bar, to be honest, but it’s also relaxing for the reader, who might get a bit annoyed at streamers being a thing in this land of Gods and demons, but will likely quickly get over it. The stories are all basically about the same – cute – though I might have critiqued the desert island one more had it not ended how it did. (At least the natives did not go “unga bunga bunga’ a la Bugs Bunny.)

It’s cute, it’s fuzzy, and you will forget about it the moment that you finish it. And sorry, yuri fans, Azusa still insists that her house is home to family, and not, and I quote, “a special, gay dimension”.

Banner of the Stars: The Screech of Space-Time

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By Hiroyuki Morioka and Toshihiro Ono. Released in Japan by Hayakawa Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino.

In the Afterword for this book, published in Japan in 2004, the author apologizes for taking so horribly long to write it (the previous book had come out in 2001). Which makes me wonder how the next book, which came out in 2013, is going to top that. It’s also been a while since the last volume came out in English, but that’s OK, because the reader is dropped right back into one of the main features of Banner of the Stars: Epic Space Battles. Sadly, that is a mark against it for me, as I’ll be honest: I find a lot of the space battle writing in this book tedious. It is no doubt more realistic than, say, the ‘let’s fall out of our chairs’ battles in Star Trek, but there is a certain sterility to it all. Actually, this volume has quite a few marks against it. Jin and Lafier end up playing smaller roles, which is a shame as they’re the reason I read the books. More to the point, the Abh are still just not that likeable.

As I said, a lot of this book is space battles, as it reminds us that the Abh are at war with the various human federations that vie against them. But that might change soon – one of the minor players on the other side wants to negotiate a deal that might actually shift the tide and lead to the end of the war. This is good news, despite all the Abh talking about how much they love being in battle. That said, can the deal really be trusted? It helps that the idea for the deal came about watching the way that Jint handled his own planet recently, giving everyone ideas. As for Jint and Lafier, as I said, they don’t get as much time together as before, and what little there is is more down to showing off how Jint is still trying to assimilate and not quite making it. That said, given the cliffhanger the two of them will soon have much bigger things to worry about.

As I said, I like Jint and Lafier, and I like their scenes together here, but there are simply too few of them. We get a long stretch devoted to the current Empress and her discussions with aides on whether to accept the offer they’re being handed. It’s good f you like political realism, but again shows us that the Abh, in general, are simply too blase and matter of fact about everything, and it does not make for the most scintillating writing. It reminds me of bad Star Trek books that tried to write Vulcans but fell too hard on the “logical” side. At least there’s banter, and we’re reminded that the Abh basically run on it, but that’s sometimes not enough, especially when it’s not really clear if we’re meant to see them as the enemy or the protagonists.

Fortunately, we do not have a nine-year wait for the next book to come out. Unfortunately, I get the feeling I’ll be seeing a lot more space battles in it, given the events towards the end of this book. In the meantime, more Jint and Lafier being an obvious couple but never doing anything about it, please.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 15

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By Fujino Omori and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Paul Starr.

This volume is similar to Volume 8, in that it is essentially a short story collection with wraparounds. The stories are all (almost) on a basic premise, which is “let’s lay out the backstories of how everyone arrived in Orario and how their lives have improved 8000% now that they have family and friends”. As such, there is an air of melancholy to this book, as while we do admire how far everyone has come, we’re seeing a depressed Bell, a rejected Hestia, an abused Lilly, a disillusioned Eina, a frustrated and angry Welf, a bitter Lyu, and… well, we’ve mostly gone into Mikoto and Haruhime’s stories already, so theirs is the exception to the rule. And then there’s Aiz, who doesn’t show up till the end, but who provides the perfect capper to the book, even if it leaves you with an ominous feeling. After several volumes in a row that are just dungeon fights, this one also seems happy to give everyone a chance to rest.

Bell and Hestia are on the cover, and they get the first flashbacks, as they (independently) recall how they arrived in the city. Their stories are downbeat, but end on a high note as they meet each other. There’s a later mirror of them with Lyu’s story, which features similar beats – she really needs to join a Familia, but her preconceptions and prickly nature are driving everyone away. Lilly’s story was a high point – showing off how wretched her life has been from the moment of her birth (sorry, Soma, giving Lilly potato puffs once does not make me forgive you) while contrasting it with the glee and happiness she feels as Hestia tells her that she’s gone up to Level 2. That said, when it comes to her past, she’d still prefer to deal with it indirectly rather than confront it head on. Which is her own choice, of course.

Welf’s story is fairly predictable, and Haruhime and Mikoto’s suffers from being the ‘light’ story in the book (though it is nice to see Haruhime slowly try to get herself out of “clumsy foxgirl” status – the maid stuff really doesn’t help). The epilogue, though, is the true best part of the book. It features the one day a year when the city mourns all its fallen, something that has to be explained to Bell (who, we are reminded, has not even been there a year yet). Seeing the funeral elegy being sung by everyone – even those such as Freya – was hauntingtly beautiful. That said, Bell and Aiz are not headed down the same path, and this epilogue serves to underscore that. Aiz is not here to be anyone’s hero. And, while Sword Oratoria readers already have a good inkling of her past secrets, here Bell finally connects the dots, and is stunned.

Unfortunately, the 16th volume only came out in Japan two months ago, so we may have another long wait. And, given the cover to 16 has Syr and Freya on it, Aiz may not even be the focus. Still, for a collection that was written as “take the short stories from the anime releases bonus DVDs and create wraparound material”, this is surprisingly solid.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades, Vol. 1

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By Bokuto Uno and Miyuki Ruria. Released in Japan as “Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alex Keller-Nelson.

This was one of the two “big names” licensed a while back, and it had a huge amount of buzz to live up to. It not only lived up to the hype, it sailed over any other hurdles. This book is good. Really, hard-to-put-down good. This is all the more surprising given that it runs on some very common fantasy novel themes. Our heroes are first-years who are arriving at a prestigious magic school in not-Britain. Most of the characters will be a recognizable type, but this doesn’t make them annoying or boring, rather it makes it easier to identify and sympathize with them. The exceptions are our two lead protagonists, both of whom clearly have a lot more to their backstories than our first meeting would initially suggest. They go to school, learn magic, learn swords (more on that in a bit), and end up in trouble about every 30-40 pages or so. That said… this is surprisingly dark.

Our group of first years are: Oliver, the main protagonist, a serious young man with a talent for intricate spells; Nanao, the other main protagonist, a foreign student who knows nothing in the world except fighting to the death; Katie, the daughter of demi-human rights activists who shares their activism; Guy, a goofy everyman sort; Pete, who comes from a nonmagical family and is here to study and prove himself; and Michela, the noble girl with princess curls who, for once, turns out to be the nicest person in the book. They get into adventures right off the bat when a troll goes berserk at the run-up to the opening ceremony, and can’t seem to stop stuff happening to them after that, from getting trapped in the labyrinthine hallways after school to fighting a duel that goes horribly awry to finding that most of their upperclassmen are completely, 100% bonkers.

As I said, this book is darker than you’d expect. It’s made very clear at the start by the headmaster that a lot of the students die. We also see several fourth and fifth years who are happy to torture, battle, or experiment on anyone that catches their fancy. It’s also a school that combines swordsmanship with magic, after a magical duel in the past ended in death because the mage was no good at up-close fighting. The “spellblades” in the title are legendary blades that are essentially “one hit kill” blades, and there are not many on the world at all. It’s not hard to guess who’s going to be spellblading by the end of this book, but that’s OK. Plus there’s a lovely twist at the end that throws a lot of what we were assuming about one of the characters out the window, and makes me wonder if this cute romance I was hoping for is going to end at all well.

There’s more I could talk about. Nanao is, as I said, trained only for battle, but she’s surprisingly innocent and goofy otherwise. There’s a nasty rival character who appears to be set up to just be a constant antagonist, but then is dealt with and starts becoming a better person. There’s everything about Chela, who may be my favorite character in the book, despite essentially being Rin Tohsaka with Luvia’s hair. (There are a lot of characters who you could say are “essentially __________”, and you will note I have avoided mentioning a certain series that will come to mind.) Most importantly, the book is gripping and makes you want to read fast and immerse yourself in the world, despite being pretty lengthy (it’s over 280 pages). This is absolutely worth the hype.

Love Me, Love Me Not Vols 4 and 5

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Love Me, Love Me Not Volumes 4 and 5 by Io Sakisaka

With the conclusion of Ao Haru Ride, I’m glad that the Shojo Beat imprint has another Sakisaka series running with Love Me, Love Me Not. This series doesn’t quite have the layers of meaning I was finding in Ao Haru Ride, as the love quadrangle in this series lends itself more to more of a chill teen soap opera feeling with plenty of slice-of-life elements that makes this a soothing series to read, even as the protagonists deal with plenty of romantic complications.

In the fourth volume, there’s the fallout of Rio kissing Akari to deal with. While Akari has been dedicated to putting up emotional walls since they became step-siblings, Rio hasn’t been able to detach from his previous feelings so easily. Along the way Akari has to deal with a boy at school who has a crush on her who turns hostile after she turns him down. Inui is around to help her deal with things, but Akari wonders just how much he understands about her situation. Akari gets self-conscious and starts avoiding Yuna, who is dealing with her own feelings for Rio. Really, the tangled relationships ensure that there’s plenty of drama to come. However, one of the reasons why Love Me, Love Me Not remains interesting is that the characters actually talk about what’s bothering them and evolve and change. Yuna calls out Rio for his actions and points out that he’s not being considerate of Akari, and she then messages Akari so they can have a chat as well. Being active in her friendships and talking to the boy that she has a crush on show how much Yuna has evolved from the shy and self-contained girl she was in the first volume of the series. Rio even comments to her that Yuna is “growing into the person you want to be” while he hasn’t progressed much beyond the person he was in junior high.

The fifth volume features that staple of shoujo romance, a festival! Rio is haunted by the fact that he had a dream about Yuna, which makes him finally start to be interested in her romantically. Akari continues to be intrigued by Inui, and she and Yuna engineer a double date to the festival. Out of all the main characters, Inui has been a bit of a cipher, occasionally dropping by to make enigmatically mature pronouncements and then moving on. I was happy that this volume featured a little more of his self-reflective moments, making it clear that he’s only steering clear of Akari because he doesn’t want to hurt Rio. I really like the way some of Sakisaka’s illustrations shifted to reflect the characters’ feelings in this volume. Yuna has a few panels of looking absolutely adorable, because Sakisaka is showing her from Rio’s point of view as he appreciates her more and more. It is particularly fun to see Rio in a somewhat tortured state throughout this volume as he struggles with his new feelings, since he was originally introduced with such a self-assured, flirtatious personality that was all on the surface. While the characters are all suffering through the foibles of teenage romance, there’s no question in my mind that there will eventually be a happy ending, which makes this a great comforting manga to read when I feel the need to de-stress a little bit.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 26

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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 Media. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

It can be hard to find the perfect cliffhanger o end a manga volume. Of course, with most ongoing series there is a cliffhanger of sorts, particularly in action series such as Yona of the Dawn. There are several obvious examples in this volume alone, each of which could probably have served perfectly well as the cliffhanger, particularly the second to last chapter in the volume. But there’s something so deliciously satisfying about this one, the sort of ending that gives the reader what they have wanted all along but not ENOUGH of it. Yona of the Dawn is usually a pitch perfect blend of political intrigue, action adventure, and a dash of romantic tension, and for most of Vol, 26, the focus is definitely on the first two. Even when we get to the romantic tension, it looks like the usual “misunderstandings abound!”. So we are both cheering and also laughing hysterically at how said misunderstandings are cleared up. You DESPERATELY want to read more.

As for the politics, not to spoil too much, but there is one less death than I was expecting when I finished Vol. 25. As it turns out, things can mostly be resolved with negotiation, though it takes a few more sacrifices and also everyone ganging up on the evil priest. This actually leads to the other great moment in the book, one that relies very much on Su-Won and how he is choosing to rule. The priest (whose name I keep forgetting, mostly as I tend to call him Wormtongue in my head) points out that Kouren captured and imprisoned the Legendary Dragon Warriors, to which he gets a “so what?” response. The priest is stunned that he does not want to use their magical cool powers to strengthen his position. (Technically this is what Yona is doing, but she is not doing it in the way the priest wants it to happen. The priest’s stunned face as Su-Won cuts all his arguments off at the knees is hysterical.

Other things to mention: Riri is here and awesome, though not as awesome as her retainers, who manage to gang up on Kouren and make sure she can’t tragically die leaning against a building or some other samurai thing. The other guys spend most of the book unable to move, alas, though they’re on the road to recovery by the end. It also helps sell that this is a problem that CAN be resolved with discussion and negotiation, rather than “I have a guy with a big hand, medusa eyes, a big kick, and Zeno.” Although it led to Yona’s misunderstanding, I really liked Hak’s chatter among his Wind tribe friends – she’s right, he acts like a totally different person around them, and while I don’t think it’s entirely her fault she’s never seen it, it does show off why they’re still not quite ready to get any closer than they are.

OR ARE THEY? Cannot wait till the next volume, which thanks to my backlog is already out. There’s always so much to talk about and love with Yona of the Dawn.

The Asterisk War: Struggle for Supremacy

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Ooof. We are deep into “tournament arc” here, folks, which means that a) the books are really not doing anything aside from showing off some cool fights, which means I have very little to write about, and b) it is fairly easy to guess who is going to be winning each of those fights. Ayato and Julis are not going to be losing at this point in time. Heck, even the “trying to figure out what the bad guys are doing” plot takes a back seat here, though it does lead to one of the funnier not-really-a-gag moments in the book when Orphelia straight up tells the other villains “oh yeah, I told Julis our plan six months ago.” After basically being absent from the last book, Julis gets more to do here, including what ends up being the best fight, but I suspect she is going to continue to be very unhappy for the next few volumes. Fortunately, the book has a secret weapon: Saya, aka Best Girl.

Claudia is on the cover, but barely in the book itself at all. Though she fares better than Kirin, who is totally absent. We get a series of fights, after briefly seeing Julis win her Round Four battle. First we see Ayato take on Rodolfo Zoppo, an arrogant ass who we dearly want to see get the shit beaten out of. Sadly, all of Ayato’s fights in this series have involved him barely winning, and that’s what happens here. Lester fights the Black Knight, and wins, but unfortunately is too injured to continue, so Julis gets a bye in Round 6. Speaking of Julis, as stated, she gets the best fight, taking on Xiaohui, who has returned from his Vision Quest and gotten stronger thanks to an old man on a mountain who doesn’t train him but lets him watch his everyday life. It’s a good reminder that Asterisk War runs on cliches. Saya takes on a girl who’s too amusing to take seriously. We get Robot vs. Robot, and the more evil robot wins. Silvia wins her match, which amounts to song vs. dance. And Orphelia manages to not only take out Hilda, but Hilda may in fact be permanently removed from the stage – her ending is ominous.

Apologies for the spoilers, but again, none of this is a surprise. You knew most of these people were going to win. Aside from Julis, as I noted, Saya gets the best moments, as she has the 2nd best fight, but more importantly is there to deliver a pep talk to Claudia and Rimcy, who are both feeling depressed and useless. Saya points out that she is an Unlucky Childhood Friend who spends every day handing around a hot tsundere princess and a meek sword prodigy, and also has to deal with the world’s top idol singer. They are all probably better fighters than her. They are all more likely to get Ayato’s love than her. But, as Saya wonderfully puts it, “so what?”. She refuses to simply stop trying. It’s not quite the end of the book, but it makes for a great emotional climax.

Unfortunately, it’s not enough to make up for 170 pages or so of fight after fight after fight. And I suspect we’ll get more of the same next time, though the cliffhanger does at least promise some emotional torture of Julis as well. Good times!

Adachi and Shimamura, Vol. 4

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By Hitoma Iruma and Non. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Molly Lee.

Since my last review, the anime has been running, and it’s due to adapt up to this volume if it keeps at the pace it’s been using. The anime has helped me come to terms with Shimamura’s monologues somewhat – it cuts out the boring bits, which is to say 80% of them, and leaves us with what is essentially a teenage girl who is constantly doubting that she is even a functional human being. Given the evidence of this book, she is correct to worry. Not that Adachi is any better, as the start of second year shows, to her horror, that despite the “I want to be BEST friends!” of previous books, just a mere class change can mean Shimamura will be happy to drift away from her without another thought. So Adachi is ready to take the initiative. Confess? A ha ha ha no. But she’s ready to ask if they can eat lunch together, and later even ask if they can have a weekend sleepover. Baby steps, really.

As you can possibly see from the cover art, Shimamura has stopped dyeing her hair and let it settle back into her natural ‘slightly lighter than Adachi’ brown. They’re in second year now, and Hino and Nagafuji are now in another class. (Not to worry, the two get their own little subplot, though I continue to wonder whether the author is also making them a couple or just having them be goofy.) Adachi is still in her class… but is still suffering from Adachiness. As a result, when three other girls ask if Shimamura can join them for lunch, she says sure. What’s more, her old childhood friend, Tarumi, has called up again after their disastrous February date, and really, really wants to try again. They hang out. They get matching bear bookbag charms! And Tarumi, as with Adachi, runs up against the massive wall that is Shimamura’s blithe indifference to almost anything.

I mentioned the subplot with Hino and Nagafuji, and there’s one with Yashiro as well. Indeed, it has been brought to my attention that almost every single character in the book who is not a regular – a fortune teller Adachi meets who gives her courage, another seeming alien girl that Nagafuji meets at Hino’s estate – is from one of Iruma’s other books. Hell, even Yashiro straight up says here she’s not the same Yashiro as the one from Denpa Onna. This is almost entirely lost on English-speaking readers (I had to have it all explained to me), but it does show off how these books are filled with “treats for the fans”, sometimes to the detriment of the actual plot. I also left out the start of the book, which is probably the best part of it, in which we realize that something important happened much earlier than we expected. It is a sign of how much this book is obsessed with the transient nature of teenage relationships that nobody remembers this.

That said, the biggest takeaway for me from this book is: man, everyone is trying their hardest to indirectly shout “I love you!” at Shimamura, but indirectness just is not cutting it. It does make me wonder how much longer, or how many more crossover cameos, this series can do before it begins to wear on the reader. Someone needs to tear down Shimamura’s wall.

Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators

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This anthology of twelve short stories, six by Korean artists and six by French, follows the same basic template as Japan As Viewed by 17 Creators, offering brief, impressionistic scenes of contemporary Korean life. Though 17 Creators is a uniformly excellent work, its companion volume is not; the stories run the gamut from pedestrian to brilliant, with the Korean artists making the strongest contributions.

The unevenness of the collection is attributable, in part, to a home field advantage. Artists such as Choi Kyu-sok and Byun Ki-hyun tackle deeper, more penetrating topics than their French counterparts, exploring homelessness (“The Fake Dove”), sexual discrimination and violence (“The Rabbit”), and the decay of traditional social networks (“The Rain That Goes Away Comes Back”). Though the artists’ ambition sometimes outstrips their allocated space, all three stories boast beautiful, detailed artwork that suggests the rhythm and feeling of modern urban life. The French contributions, by contrast, are travelogues of one sort or another: in “Beondegi,” for example, Mathieu Sapin imagines what it would be like for a French-Korean woman to return to her parents’ home country, while in “Letters From Korea,” Igort offers brief descriptions of places he visited in Seoul. The weakest of the collection is Catel’s “Dul Lucie,” an uneventful travel diary filled with observations about “doll-like” and “sensual” Koreans that — in English, at least — leave a bad aftertaste of exoticism. Though the other French artists are not as patronizing, the stories feel shallow; imagine an essay about New York City written by someone who only visited Times Square, and you have some idea of how superficial these artists’ appreciation of Korea seems to be.

Two stories make this collection a worthwhile investment. The first is “Solgeo’s Tree,” by Lee Doo-hoo, in which a monk paints a mural so life-like that birds attempt to perch in its branches. Told with almost no dialogue, the story relies heavily on Lee’s exquisite pen-and-ink drawings to impart its Buddhist moral. The second is “A Rat in the Country of Yong,” Herve Tanquerelle’s playful, wordless story about a mouse visiting Seoul. The surrealistic imagery — skies full of dragon transports, streets filled with animal-eared people, pools inhabited by monstrous carp — and Chaplin-esque physical comedy evoke the strangeness and excitement of visiting a new city without falling into the trap of essentializing its people. Both comics attest to the vitality and richness of the “as viewed by” concept, and suggest what might have emerged from this sometimes insightful, sometimes banal French-Korean collaboration.

This review was originally published on September 6, 2010.

Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators
Edited by Nicholas Finet
Fanfare/Ponent Mon, 222 pp.
No rating

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online: 4th Squad Jam: Start

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By Keiichi Sigsawa and Kouhaku Kuroboshi, based on the series created by Reki Kawahara. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

This book was always going to have a tough time living up to the previous one, and let’s face it: it does not. It’s a pretty good book, especially in the back half once the game starts, but it does show off the big flaw with this series as opposed to its parent: Sigsawa is not as good at writing Karen, Elza, etc. as he is at writing Llenn and Pitohui. He’s here for the gun battles, and all else is secondary (leaving aside the last book, which feels like an aberration at this point). As a result, when we see something that is a huge threat to Karen in this book, it doesn’t really come off as well, because we’re far more familiar with the fast pink blur whose ideal man is her gun (no, literally, she says that here) than the tall awkward rich girl. Things are not helped either by the presence of one of my least favorite Kawahara traits, now borrowed by this author as well: the smug villain who wants the girl to submit to him.

As noted, Karen is at an event her dad is attending, trying to be a wallflower, when she meets a short, fat man who tries to commiserate with her about height. They converse, he leaves, all is good. Then she gets a marriage proposal, which her dad suggests she accept. While this is going on, there’s a new Squad Jam starting. Four people is a bit small, so this time around Pitohui grabs Clarence and Shirley to fill their ranks – though Shirley wants no part of this, really. There are two big problems with this Squad Jam, at least in this first book. The first is that we have added zombie monsters, who are attracted when one of their number is killed by gunfire. The second is that Karen’s wannabe fiancee has shown up in the game – his avatar is just as wish fulfilling for him as hers is for her – and, using her real name, demands that if he beats her she has to go out with him.

So yeah, another smug guy who wants to control the woman he desires in a Sword Art Online book, yay. He doesn’t show up in the back half, fortunately, so I will put off my grumpiness till later. As I said, the back half of the story is better, and I always enjoy seeing how different the teams in the game are to their real-life personalities – Llenn’s team gets waylaid by literal suicide bombers in the Jam, who pose quite a problem, but seeing what they’re really like made it more amusing than anything else. Our team shows off good teamwork as well – minus Shirley, who cannot let go of her grudge towards Pitohui (who, to be fair, fuels it) and Clarence, who is a big goofball and not much else, frankly. And then there’s Llenn’s constant effort to finally have a showdown with SHINC, which – no surprises – gets derailed by the cliffhanger, showing, I suppose, that money can’t buy happiness, but it comes close.

So it’s a setup book where I’m not that fond of the setup. Still, Sigsawa knows how to write his gun battles. And this one is a 3-book arc, so I’d better settle in.

The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya

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By Nagaru Tanigawa and Noizi Ito. Released in Japan as “Suzumiya Haruhi no Chokkan” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Been a long time, hasn’t it? In fact, this is my first time reviewing one of the novels, despite my Haruhi Suzumiya tag being filled with manga, 4-koma, and alternate universes. Not that this is a novel either. The first book to come out since 2011 is a collection of three short stories; one short, one medium, and one long. In terms of writing style and narrative voice, it’s a welcome return to form. Kyon sounds exactly like he always does, making arcane references to obscure topics in his metaphors while also professing to be the dumb one in the group. That said, I will note that anyone who is reading this wanting to see what happens after the Sasaki books, i.e. actual plot or character development, is going to find this quite lacking. There is a token mention of those books at the end of the final story, but for the most part that is not what Tanigawa is here to do. What is he here to do, you may ask? Tell us about Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr.

The first short, Random Numbers, features the SOS Brigade visiting shrines, and has the only Kyon/Haruhi ship tease in the book. It’s cute. The second short story, Seven Wonders Overtime, is the weakest. The Mystery Club brings news that the school has no “seven mysteries”, aka Toilet Hanako, piano that plays by itself, etc. The Brigade tries to think of interesting but explainable mysteries before Haruhi can create more dangerous ones. The final story is the longest, taking up over 2/3 of the book. Tsuruya’s Challenge is, as I noted before, a love letter to the early 20th century mystery writers who loved to create mysteries that were essentially puzzle boxes, and Koizumi and T (a new character, member of the mystery club and owner of a very short nickname) spend ages extolling their virtues to the point that readers may grow tired. After this, though, they get a number of emails from Tsuruya which tell anecdotes from her trips with her rich father and also have a secret inside them.

The book works best if you’re a fan of Tsuruya, adding a lot of background to her character while also keeping it essentially the same. (No, we don’t learn her first name.) I was also fond of T, who is a great new character, and her calling Kyon “Kyam” makes me smile. Given the nature of the final story involves both the cast and the reader figuring things out, I will not go into too much detail, except to say that there is a LOT of Koizumi and Haruhi theorizes for pages and pages. One of the two afterwords in the book is a tribute to the Kyoto Animation creators for the Haruhi anime who perished in the fire. I suspect that (plus possibly Endless Eight) has led Tanigawa to write a story that would be very, very difficult to film in a way that a) makes things interesting, and b) does not give away its secrets. Kudos to Andrew Cunningham, by the way – this must have been an absolute bear to translate.

This is a hefty Haruhi book (not counting the 10-11 omnibus, only Book 7 is longer), so readers are getting good value for money. Whether they appreciate that value is another matter. As for me, I’m just happy to see the author writing again. The series is left open, so I hope it is not another nine years before the next in the series.

The World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker, Vol. 4

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By Tôwa and Huuka Kazabana. Released in Japan as “Sekai Saikyou no Kouei: Meikyuukoku no Shinjin Tansakusha” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

Once again, I found this volume to be easy, peaceful reading, and once again I am at a loss to explain why as every time I try to describe it it sounds terrible. The same issues that plague previous books crop up here. The first half of the book features nothing happening. The main character has the personality of a herring, and yet has every single character in the series fawning over him. The battles are exciting, provided your idea of exciting is ‘reading other people’s transcripts of MMORPG fights”. Picking the proper stat is serious business. And, of course, everyone is horny on main for our hero but have generally agreed among themselves not to do anything (which is why when the married lady flirts with him they all team up to get upset). But again, there’s also nothing that immediately grates on me, nothing that says “OK, that did it, I now have an excuse to drop this”. It is serviceable wish-fulfillment of the highest order.

Arihito and company are still on the seventh floor, but have been making a bigger and bigger name for themselves. They’re still having trouble as the larger group on the floor, Beyond Liberty, are taking over the main hunting grounds and blocking others from going there. Oh yes, and they have a man whose skill is almost literally “pick up artist” who is a clear traitor. Something has to be done… after opening another cool treasure chest, choosing new skills, upgrading weapons, and getting a snazzy wool suit – and a gun, in case this wasn’t bad enough. They also need Beyond Liberty to go too far, which it does, and introduces yet another named Monster who is incredibly dangerous and who the main forces cannot remotely defeat. It’s up to our heroes, with the special guest Seraphina (again), to get the job done.

I know that we’d seen kids in this world before – indeed, Melissa is explicitly said to be the child of a human and demi-human – but I was still startled to see Daniella, a very pregnant adventurer, fighting on the front lines. Of course, it turns out that Beyond Liberty, like Elitia, has their own reasons for wanting to advance as fast as possible, but it does remind you that adventuring is the big thing here, and you either keep doing it constantly or you stagnate… which much of this floor has already decided to do. Ads for Arihito’s party, while everyone keeps praising him almost to the point of making one ill, the fact that his position is “rearguard” does mean that it’s the women in the party who get to do the really cool things. We are seeing some character development in Suzuna and Misaki, and they are very much becoming a family, albeit one that feels “warm” whenever their patriarch sleeps behind them.

So yeah, still not great. But it delivers what readers probably want, and if it tried to do something new and different it would likely be a disaster. Next time we see then going on a vacation, which means we should see even LESS happening. Fun times.

Shortcake Cake Vols 9 and 10

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Shortcake Cake Volumes 9 and 10 by suu Morishita

There’s around 5 volumes of revelations and drama packed into these two volumes of Shortcake Cake, but one of the advantages of finally finding out the truth about Riku and Rei’s relationship at last is that seeing the backstory and the emotional aftermath as Riku and his friends attempt to deal with their new reality inspires feelings of empathy in the reader. Morishita is adept at portraying a great deal of emotional nuance as the characters in Shortcake Cake start to puzzle out who they are and how their relationships are evolving.

The 9th volume opens with Shiraoka telling Ten and Chiaki the circumstances surrounding Riku’s past. It turns out that Rei’s mom, who was a teacher, adopted Riku after a student of hers left him as a baby in her classroom. Rei was a much-wanted child after a long struggle with infertility. While Rei’s parents tried to raise both boys with equal amounts of affection, Rei grew up attempting to establish his big brother bona fides even though Riku was only one month younger. Rei signed up for extra lessons in an unsuccessful attempt to get approval from his grandfather, who just seems flat-out emotionally abusive because he hates the fact that his daughter even got married in the first place. Rei’s resentment grew and grew, and when his parents died in a tragic car accident, he took the opportunity to kick Riku out. Shiraoka promptly took him in and raised him as an older brother. Aspects of Riku’s personality such as his sometimes ingratiating manner and desire to please but not actually get close to anyone are explained through the events in his past. When Riku’s long-lost older sister shows up at the boarding house he’s confronted with the choice of connecting to his biological family. The core of the story is how Ten and Chiaki are determined to continue to support Riku along with Shiraoka. While Rei has totally been a jerk, it is also clear that he’s lashing out in pain and unable to move on and find any kind of peace within himself.

One of the nice things about this volume is seeing Chiaki’s relentless overtures of friendship towards Riku and how he’s changed after hearing Riku’s story. Chiaki has avoided his overbearing older brother, but after seeing how Riku’s family broke down he’s decided to face his own family again. When Chiaki proclaims about Riku “I love him! He’s my one and only best friend!”, Riku says to himself that Chiaki is an idiot and Shiraoka responds “You’re pretty lucky to have met such a good idiot.” While Riku’s adoptive family might have been torn apart, he’s managing to put a found family together by finally allowing his friends to get to know him, and seeing this evolution take place over 10 volumes of Shortcake Cake is rewarding for the reader. While Riku goes on a visit to Chiaki’s family, Ten attempts to intervene with Rei. As this volume races towards a dramatic confrontation, I’m hoping that both Rei and Riku are able to find some sort of peace. Shortcake Cake‘s stories of found family combined with sibling estrangement make for a gripping story, and it is great to see how the core trio of Ten, Riku, and Chiaki have evolved together through their friendships.