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Reviews

Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 2

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By Keishi Ayasato and Saki Ukai. Released in Japan as “Isekai Goumon Hime” by Media Factory. Released in North America Yen Press. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

The first thing that threw me off about this second volume of Torture Princess was seeing the main antagonists get whittled down so fast. We’re given a list of about twelve in the first book, which deals with taking out the most dangerous one (though for Vlad fans, an echo of his soul is left behind to provide considerable plot points in this book). I had assumed that the next few books would have us going through the list one by one. Imagine my surprise a seeing the main antagonist here, the Grand King, using four or five different villains with her mind control, all of whom get dispatched in some way or another by our heroes. Oh, and they also take out another one at the start. Isn’t that going too fast? What will you do if you run out of bad guys? Actually, the cliffhanger ending to this book suggests what might happen. For the moment, however, let’s concern ourselves with the Grand King, a woman who doesn’t like Elisabeth but sure loves torture.

Last time we focused on how weak Kaito was compared to his Torture Princess benefactor and his Ball-Jointed Doll Maid who loves him. He is aware of this, so spends much of this book trying to gain more power of his own that he can use to protect the few things in this new world that don’t disgust him. He’ll need that power, too: the Grand King has sealed off Elisabeth’s powers and she is incapacitated for much of the book, and the Grand King is also leading an army of mind-controlled slaves to go to Elisabeth’s castle and kill everyone. Sure, Hina can take out a lot of them, but there’s only so much she can do on her own. No, Kaito needs more power. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to look far to figure out how to get it, he just has to do what he’s proven to be best at: suffer, get tortured, and bleed. A lot.

Again, the big drawback in this book is also its biggest draw: the torture. It’s cartoonish in nature, particularly when you get the descriptions of innocent humans with innards everywhere and insanely eating their own stomachs, etc. Fortunately, we actually manage to save one or two people here, though I won’t be surprised if in a book or two Kaito finds out the boy and girl he saved turn out to be used in the new leather coat he just bought or something grotesque. The strength of the book likes both in its grand guignol tone and characters. No one is shy and repressed in this book – Kaito comes closest, but after what he does towards the end of the book you end up both impressed and also appalled. His relationship with Hina reminded me of a darker turn on Subaru and Rem: appropriate, as like Rem in the current Re: Zero arc, Hina ends up in a magical plot coma, which is likely for the best, as her and Kaito’s story comes to a very satisfying conclusion here in Book 2 of about 11, so no doubt we need to figure out where we go from here.

Again, this is a book only for those who can tolerate a LOT of graphic violence – it’s the entire plot. For those who can, though, Torture Princess still proves surprisingly resilient. To my continued surprise, I’ll be reading the next one.

An Incurable Case of Love, Vol. 1

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By Maki Enjoji. Released in Japan as “Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo” by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Petit Comic. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions.

Sometimes an author’s style is so prominent that you can guess they are the creator after only a few pages despite knowing nothing else. With Maki Enjoji it takes three pages. The first page of this new josei title has the male lead asking the female lead if there’s “something wrong with your head”, and we then cut to a two-page spread of her gnashing her teeth in anger at him while he smirks for the reader. That really sums up exactly what to expect for this entire series, and I’m not being sarcastic or silly, it’s a fantastic talent. Know your audience. We’re going to get an outwardly mean and belittling guy who turns out to have a softer side that he doesn’t show the heroine. We’re also going to get a heroine who can go toe to toe arguing with him, while still also feeling vulnerable and sympathetic. It’s also seven volumes long, having just ended in Japan, and that seems almost exactly the right pace for a series like this.

Five years ago, Nanase was on the street when an old lady collapsed, and a young doctor happened to come by and help save her. Nanase immediately fell for this “prince”, and decides to dedicate her life to becoming a nurse so she can meet him again. Now, she’s at the same hospital he’s in… but he’s a jerk! Turns out Dr. Tendo has a terrible reputation among the nurses, and he doesn’t even seem to recognize Nanase? What’s a girl to do? Well, fortunately, the answer is “keep doing her job”, as well as push back against him verbally whenever she gets the chance. As the volume goes on she does get the chance to see his softer side, though not necessarily directed towards her, and also learns what it’s like to deal with the minor triumphs and major tragedies that come from being in pulmonology. Can she learn on the job while also dealing with this handsome guy?

This first volume does a petty good job of balancing out Nanase’s priorities. She straight up admits that she became a nurse so that she could meet him again, and was ready for it to be a fairytale romance. This goes a long way towards explaining Dr. Tendo’s horrible attitude, as I imagine he has no time for nurses who are not there to do the job. Fortunately, she is also that, and is not going to quit (as he tells her to, a lot) just because of this disappointment. The initial “screw-ups” are kept to a minimum as well… Nanase is a pretty good nurse for someone just starting off. Sometimes the book gets a bit overdramatic (we get a saving someone from jumping off a building right away), but is also dedicated to improving herself, be that dealing with the fact that patients die, or learning how to cope with sexually harassing patients. Meanwhile, he sees her compassion.

It’s a good setup for exactly what fans of this author want: romance between two people not afraid to speak their mind at each other.

Middle-Aged Businessman, Arise in Another World!, Vol. 2

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By Sai Sumimori and Ichijirushi. Released in Japan as “Around 40 Eigyou-man, Isekai ni Tatsu!” by Kodansha. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Taishi.

The trouble with a series starring an overpowered family is there’s very few ways that it can be taken forward. We already have a guy who’s brilliant at sales and marketing, hella strong, charismatic, etc. His goddess wife is busty, gorgeous, can stop her rambunctious kids with magic spells, and, it is mentioned a few times, loves sex with her husband. Their kids are 1) so smart they’re past university level, and now joining Dad at his job; 2) ridiculously strong and powerful, and 3) good at magic and can talk to magical beasts despite being five. It’s a great family to read about… for about a book. But this is book two, and I think right about the time that Shouzou ran across the ocean to talk to a water dragon without, y’know, falling into the water that the author realized there needed to be a new cast to focus on. As a result, we pull back to examine the local kingdoms, and meet a slothful young prince and a calculating young princess.

Sharlo is shown to be a very familiar type to Japanese readers: thought to be mediocre compared to his genius younger sister, he took things hard, holed up in his room, gained about 120 pounds, and sits there eating potato chips. He is not, needless to say, prince material, but needs to be leveled up due to political dealings. As such, Shouzou has him become an adventurer and start off with the job that absolutely no one wants: sewage cleaning. As a result, we gradually see there’s a decent person under this who acn also be fairly savvy when he wants to be. He was just abandoned by his minders for not being perfect. In another kingdom, Yuliana is 11th in line for the throne, but is good enough for her father, King Evil IV, to arrange a marrage for. The princess, despite her maid’s protests and fat-shaming of the prince she’s supposed to marry, decides to investigate… by disguising herself as her maid’s bodyguard and going to Sharlo’s kingdom. Romantic comedy bits ensue.

The protagonists are nice enough, and I liked their story, but it has to be said it’s not the story I signed up for. Shouzou flits in and out of the book, stopping a bad guy here and there, nudging our couple in the right direction, doing various political dealings, etc., but the book doesn’t know how to make him the main character again, so doesn’t bother. The book also has one of the most hiarious “cut short” endings I’ve ever seen, seemingly setting up events for the next book in the series… then saying “but Shouzou had to leave that for the denizens of this world, as he would be leaving soon. The end!”. It reads like the editor put it in after the book was submitted to show the series was over. I did enjoy the side story, showing Sharlo’s genius sister, who has a bit of a brother complex but not, thankfully, in a “I want to marry my brother” sort of way, trying to find her own fiancee and being gently reminded she’s 8 and should grow up first.

If you enjoyed the first book, definitely read this one. Sharlo and Yuliana are likeable enough, and reminded me a bit of some Realist Hero characters. But the series seems to end here, possibly as if it continued our OP family would go back to Japan and leave it as a normal fantasy book. And who wants that? We isekai or die here.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 20

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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.

In general, Yona of the Dawn is not a series that relies greatly on “our heroine is in peril, she must be rescued”, so it’s almost refreshing when we see a volume that mostly relies on that. Not that Yona is sitting around on her laurels. After she and Riri are brought to a slave labor camp, she quickly guesses that the “alcohol” they’re given in lieu of water is laced with the addictive drug they’ve been trying to shut down for so long. Then she and Riri both escape, and Riri even kills a guard when doing so, showing how far she’s come since her introduction. Unfortunately, it’s hard to escape in this sort of situation, leading to a cliffhanger where Riri tries to sacrifice herself to save Yona, they’re both exhausted and injured, and time is running out. Even if you don’t necessarily see this as a ship, as a friendship it’s top tier.

Meanwhile, Yona and Riri’s capture has been noticed by the rest of the cast. Our heroes go off to rescue them, though that does mean dividing their forces as they could be in one of two separate places. Tetra stays behind due to injury, but unfortunately this means she has to face a one-two punch of a) Riri’s father, and b) Su-0Won, both of whom show up to ask what’s going on. The series has been running for a while on the fact that Su-Won knows what Yona and Hak are doing but is deliberately ignoring it; that fact is tested to its limits in this book. Tetra tries very hard to explain everything that’s happened without mentioning Yona and her crew, even if that makes things sound suspicious. Later, when Su-Won arrives at one of the two slave labor camps, he and Hak communicate with a stone wall between them, agreeing to arrange a signal so that the army will know when to begin. It’s very tense, and you can see Hak’s frustration and anger at having to once again not acknowledge who Su-Won is because there are greater problems to be solved.

For the most part this volume is fairly series. There is one exception, which is amazingly funny, which involves the fact that the Wind Tribe has arrived to assist Su-Won in rescuing Riri. There ends up being a giant melee battle, during which Hak manages to blow up his allies – twice. The art is deliberately structured for maximum comedy value, as we see the exact same sequence of events only with two different people. This is followed by a few pages of Hak being totally befuddled at the fact that the Wind Tribe is here at all. I always enjoy the fact that, while some characters are funnier than others, Yona does not have a designated comedy guy, and everyone can be silly or serious depending on where the story needs them to be.

Another cliffhanger, though. Will Yona and Riri survive? (checks volume count) Oh, probably. But the excitement is in seeing how. And also who Hak will blow up with his comedy bombs next.

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 3

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By Kouhei Horikoshi and Anri Yoshi. Released in Japan by Shueisha. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Caleb Cook.

Another volume of giving the readers what they want, which is more light and fluffy stories that Horikoshi would like to tell but doesn’t have the time for. This time they’re set in and around the move-in to the dorms, and indeed “Dorm Life” is the subtitle. That said, the volume is bookended by non-kids in dorms stories, as we see All Might attempting to bond with his fellow teachers at an izakaya, giving us a chance to see most of the faculty completely drunk off their asses (except All Might, who is a teetotaler and also the world’s most awkward man) and the final story, which is a “what if My Hero Academia were an RPG fantasy?” based on the color pages Horikoshi drew of the kids in that style of costume. This story did remind me how often the novel author refers to Uraraka’s poverty, but is relatively cute and breezy. It’s also nice to know that Midoriya still collects All Might figures even in alternate worlds.

The other stories are, as you guessed, set in and around the 1-A dorm rooms. The weakest story in the book features Iida trying to have a normal day while the rest of the class avoids him and makes stuttering excuses. At the start of things the reader guessed “oh, one of those surprise birthday party stories” and waits to see if anything will be subverted. Nothing is, it is a stupidly predictable tale. The story from the POV of Koda’s rabbit is not quite as predictable, if only due to the fact that it’s from the POV of a rabbit, but doesn’t really add much to the narrative except giving us a chance to see more of Midoriya and Bakugou cleaning the dorms as part of their post-fight punishment. There’s also a “scary stories” chapter that tells us, unsurprisingly, that Tokoyami is the best at being scary. I also liked the anti-Mineta measures the girls have set up for the dorm.

The best stories are earlier in the book. We see Todoroki’s extreme discomfort with the generic Western-style room and how he managed to get the Japanese-style flooring and furniture to renovate his. This also involves him meeting Hatsume, who as always is very over the top and working on inventions that are not quite as perfected as she would like. The best story in the book also indirectly features Hatsume. Monoma shows up at the 1-A dorms, ready to be obnoxious and disdainful. Fortunately Kendo, Tetsutetsu and Tsunotori show up to stop him, and things settle down a bit. Highlights include seeing Tetsutetsu’s room is almost a carbon copy of Kirishima’s (these two really need a “same hat! same hat!” gag) and Todoroki bringing out a Pop-Up-Pirate game that Hatsume had given him when Monoma, as always, suggests a challenge. The game, being made by Hatsume, ends up being more like a “dark nabe” sort of thing, with every participant getting some form of punishment. I also enjoyed seeing Pony’s room as, as you’d guess, filled with anime crap.

These books are designed to not affect canon all that much, though we do see the Big Three in a brief cameo from before they meet 1-A. They’re fluffy and fun, and should be enjoyed by most MHA readers. This volume also had less Mineta, which I appreciated.

An Incurable Case of Love, Vol 1

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An Incurable Case of Love Volume 1 by Maki Enjoji

I’ve been looking forward to this manga! I’m glad that the Shojo Beat imprint’s experiments in what I think of as “stealth josei” are successful enough that we reliably get titles like An Incurable Case of Love released here. Often for romance manga, I am irrationally fond of titles that embrace the ridiculousness of the genre with a touch of irony. After reading the first few pages of this manga, I was confident in Enjoji’s abilities to keep me entertained.

An Incurable Case of Love

The manga opens with a love confession going disastrously wrong, as a doctor with a grim look asks a newly minted nurse if “there is something wrong with your head.” The nurse in question is Nanase, who decided to study medicine after a fateful encounter years ago where she tried to help someone in medical distress on the street, only to attract the attention of the dangerously handsome yet kind Kairi Tendo. Of course after one brief meeting with Tendo, Nanase concludes that he is “THE PRINCE I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!” and builds her entire life and educational plans around the possibility of meeting him again. Nanase soon finds out that while Tendo has an exemplary bedside manner with patents, he’s harsh and exacting with the hospital staff and there are rumors that he’s a womanizer as well. Thoroughly disillusioned, Nanase tries to throw herself into her nursing orientation activities. There have been plenty of ridiculous premises like this to start off many romance manga, but one thing I found especially charming about An Incurable Case of Love is the fact that Nanase’s love confession provokes some supportive instead of malicious teasing from her new co-workers. Her new nickname is “Valiant One” and her co-workers take to calling Tendo “The Dark Lord” after Nanase refers to him with that phrase.

The hospital setting provides a twist on on office romance antics as Nanase attempts to put her schooling into practice. While she isn’t perfect all the time, she’s often effective in emergency situations and Tendo’s mannerisms towards her begin to change. I knew I would like this series after reading the first chapter, but I found the rest of the volume equally entertaining. Recommended if you are in need of a dose of josei romance.

Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress!, Vol. 1

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By Ameko Kaeruda and Kazutomo Miya. Released in Japan as “Onna dakara, to Party wo Tsuihou Sareta no de Densetsu no Majo to Saikyou Tag wo Kumimashita” by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Molly Lee.

There is a variety of stories seen, mostly on television, that are described as “ripped from the headlines”. You take a current real-life story and fictionalize it in order to craft a good drama. you rarely see that extend into the field of fantasy light novels, but in this case the book was definitely inspired by a real life event: the discovery that Tokyo University (and others) were fudging medical exam results to admit fewer women into medical school, ostensibly as they believed they’d just get married and become housewives anyway. This news surprised a lot of people who had not been paying attention to the inherent sexism in women’s everyday lives. And so this author decided to write a version of the story where a harried and underpaid mage, kicked out of her party by her “childhood friend” Ryan for being a woman, ends up getting her revenge. And it is a glorious revenge, make no mistake.

Tanya is furious at the actions of her smug party leader Ryan, and decides to blow off steam by going to a nearby deserted area and throwing off a few Explosion spells. Doing so wakes up a woman called Laplace, a legendary sorceress who had been sealed away for three hundred years until Tanya woke her up. Tanya is actually a fantastic mage, and Laplace can actually “change her class” (via kissing – there is a bit of yuri in this), making her an even more powerful Magi-Knight. Given that Laplace is already super-powerful in her own right, the two form a tag team to take on Ryan and his party in the upcoming tournament. OK, they may be a bit TOO overpowered, so they also take on the guild secretary Nadine, a level 3 healer whose stats help the party to average out… though she has secrets of her own. Will Tanya get her revenge? Or… will she realize that revenge is not really what she’s after?

Hell yes, she gets her revenge. This book is a marvel from start to finish if you are sick of men and their smug sexist attitudes. Tanya may be filled with rage and anger at Ryan and society, but is otherwise a relatively happy and fun person. Laplace is wonderful, combining the “airhead” personality with a bit of the ancient wisdom that she has, and also leads to the best translated gag from the book, where Tanya gives her the nickname “Stone Cold Stunner”, which she loves, and proceeds to use all the time. There is a scene that mirrors the medical school scandal as a young girl Tanya had been tutoring in magic finds that the local Mage school doctors its scores so that there are fewer women – this gets taken care of fast. And then there’s Tanya’s fight with Ryan near the end of the book, which I don’t want to spoil but is simply magnificent.

There’s a second book in the series, and we do see a few plotlines that could be used going forward, mostly involving the royal mage Maxwell, who is as old as Laplace and also the one who sealed her away. I also want to see more of the other characters – I liked Katherine, introduced to us as Ryan’s girlfriend and the replacement for Tanya in the party, she quickly learns what he’s really like and becomes much more sympathetic after being shown some basic kindness by Nadine. More to the point, I loved the writing in this book, filled with great humor, telling observations about the sexism in everyday life, and a wonderful female power fantasy that does not particularly concern itself with being “fair and balanced”. I quoted liberally from it on my Twitter feed, and could easily have done three times as much. This book will put a big grin on your face and make you pump your fist in the air.

Beastars, Vol. 1

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Beastars Volume 1 by Paru Itagaki

I’m always curious to see what Viz will decide to publish in their Viz Signature line, and I wasn’t really aware of Beastars other than just knowing that the initial license announcement was greeted with plenty of enthusiasm. Beastars takes place in an anthropomorphic high school where carnivores and herbivores are thrown together in their classes and clubs, but generally seem to stick to their own kind for dormitory arrangements.

beastars vol 1

It is made very clear in the opening panels that not all is well in this high school as Tem, an alpaca student is hunted down and murdered by a mysterious carnivore in the opening panels. Suspicion lands on the grey wolf Legoshi, who was in drama club with Tem. The herbivores are mostly terrified and the carnivores are resentful at being under suspicion. A lot of the plot of Beastars seems fairly typical for any manga with a high school setting, but the animalistic nature of the students puts a bit of a spin on drama club shenanigans and random meetings across different animal families. Legoshi struggles with his own instincts and seems to be resigned to his status as an outcast. Seeing the twists of the animal nature of the students on fairly typical student roles can be amusing, as the imperious head of the drama club turns out to be the literal king of the forest in the form of Louis, a majestic red deer.

The art for Beastars is really well done, with somber grey tones that give the high school a bit of a dangerous noir vibe. In times of extreme emotion, Itagaki often fills the panel with just a character’s eyes surrounded by a dark background as a way of punctuating the intense instincts that the student body rarely acts on. The story sometimes shifts points of view, and it is interesting to learn more of the backstories of the student body. The idea of a “Beastsar,” an animal who is raised to have dominion over both carnivores and herbivores is raised briefly, and I expect the political jockying to be more intense in future volumes. I’m still a bit mystified as to why the students aren’t caught up more in an actual investigation of Tem’s murder, but I’m hoping this will be explored more in future volumes as well. The first volume of Beastars was very intriguing, and it capably set up Legoshi as a complex protagonist.

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Vol. 3

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By Yuhki Kamatani. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Hibana. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jocelyne Allen. Adapted by Ysabet MacFarlane.

“You have to learn to let it go.” A sentence that has been uttered by a lot of people over the years. Sometimes it’s correct. But sometimes it’s also sending the wrong message, and repressing things is not the answer. The third volume of Our Dreams at Dusk has two parallel narratives, and neither of them involve Misora, who after the events of the last book does not appear at all. Instead, we see Tasuku feeling guilty but also returning to work on the house project with the rest of the Cat Clutter folks. Unfortunately, Tsubaki is there as well, and is giving Tasuku some very mixed signals (which, as becomes clear later on, are mixed in his own mindset as well.) Meanwhile, an old classmate of Utsumi’s shows up and tries to be as well-meaning as possibly, in all the negative senses of the word. It’s upsetting everyone else, so why is Utsumi letting her continue to try to be “helpful”? Can Tasuku move forward after seeing how Utsumi deals with things?

Tasuku’s narrative is fraught with highs and lows. Tsubaki is working with him, and being nice, and seeming close and friendly. But he’s also using some homophobic slurs when describing the group to others. A very telling point comes when he and Tasuku are out at the local dockyards, which Tasuku briefly imagines as a date till Tsubaki invites two girls from the volleyball team to come along as well. As they have a meal, Tsubaki once again uses a slur to describe the group, only to be stopped short, not by Tasuku, but by one of the two girls, whose friend’s older sister is married to a trans man. Once Tsubaki realizes his words upset people he knows, he apologizes. Tsubaki himself is upset at his own feelings about Tasuku, leading to a confrontation at the end where Tasuku wants Tsubaki, the man he likes, not to hurt other people. It’s very powerful.

Then there’s Utsumi, who has been one of the pillars of strength that Tasuku has been leaning on throughout the manga. Reuniting with Shoko, whose attempts to be sympathetic, understanding, and accepting grate on absolutely everyone around her. But Utsumi is dealing with it with a smile and some kind words… till on a bike ride with Tasuku one day the repressed fury all comes out at once. Being consistently misgendered constantly is NOT something to accept with a shrug, and when Utsumi goes to a lunch with the other girls from that class, he finds that he can’t do this anymore. Shoko’s “you aren’t like other homosexuals” again reminds us that it’s much harder for some people to deal with this when it;s someone they know well, rather than the nebulous other. (I also loved that Shoko’s daughter keeps going to see the Cat Clutter people, even after her mother stops.

We have one more volume to go, and I suspect that it’s going to be dealing with Tchaiko’s past and the wedding. I’m going to miss this series with its stunning visuals and excellent LGTBQ cast.

Short Takes: Museum and Phantom Tales of the Night

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I have a confession: I am a complete chicken when it comes to horror movies. I watched Alien through my fingers and made it to the end of Fright Night by staring at the ingredient list on a candy wrapper; even the hot vampires of The Lost Boys weren’t soulful or shirtless enough to fully hold my gaze. But horror manga is another story, as I count Mermaid Saga, Gyo, Tomie, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and PTSD Radio among my favorites series. I can’t explain why horror manga doesn’t affect me the same way that movies do–no soundtrack, perhaps?–but I’m glad that I’ve found the intestinal fortitude to read Junji Ito and Kazuo Umezu’s work. Alas, I had less patience with the two most recent horror series I read: Museum, a digital-only offering from Kodansha, and Phantom Tales of the Night, a cautionary tale about a mysterious innkeeper.

Museum, Vol. 1
Story and Art by Ryosuke Tomoe
Kodansha Comics
Rated M, for Mature (graphic violence)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a mask-wearing vigilante kidnaps and tortures his victims in grotesque fashion–feeding them to dogs, severing their ears, tying them to toilets–then leaves cryptic notes that characterize each act as a “punishment,” daring the authorities to catch him. The mystery of who the vigilante is and what motivates him is the main driving force behind Museum, but you might not want to soldier through the carnage for answers to those questions since Ryosuke Tomoe can’t decide if his vigilante is a hero or a monster. Tomoe depicts the violence with such fetishistic detail that the reader is invited to admire the killer’s technique rather than meditate on the true horror of what the character has done. The ugly, utilitarian artwork and  relentlessly dour tone are the nails in the proverbial coffin, underscoring just how unpleasantly banal Museum really is. Not recommended.

Phantom Tales of the Night, Vol. 1
Story and Art by Matsuri
Yen Press
Rated OT, for Older Teens (violence and sexual themes)

Phantom Tales of the Night is the kind of bad manga that’s difficult to review: it isn’t offensive or ineptly drawn, but it’s a chore to read thanks to its poor plotting, muddled characterizations, and maddeningly opaque dialogue. Ostensibly, the series focuses on the Murakamo Inn, where the demonic host cajoles his guests into revealing their secrets. The rules governing how the Murakamo Inn operates, however, are in a constant state of flux, making it hard to pin down what, exactly, Phantom Tales is about. In some chapters, characters share their secrets with the inn’s owner in exchange for having a wish fulfilled, while in others, characters learn a terrible secret about themselves. The later chapters hint at a potentially longer, more complex arc that will play out over several volumes, but the set-up is so abrupt and confusing that it robs the final pages of their full impact–a pity, since Matsuri has a flair for drawing genuinely creepy monsters. Perhaps the most damning thing about Phantom Tales of the Night is that the characters talk incessantly about “secrets” but lack a basic understanding of what a secret really is or why it holds such power—a key failing in a series that is predicated on the idea that secrets are a kind of supernatural currency. Not recommended.

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 20

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

I talk a lot when reviewing Durarara!! that Narita likes to write books that set up plot guns on the mantelpiece than then books where the guns are all fired. To a certain extent, the next three volumes of Index are Kamachi doing the same thing, as all the back and forth of the last nineteen volumes between the Magic and Science sides has led to World War III, with Russia and Catholic Europe fighting against Academy City and Protestant England. Of course, the war is merely a front for Fiamma of the Right, but you could say that about a lot of real-life wars. This book is also notable for trying to feature the three male protagonists equally, all of them somewhere in Russia: Touma and Lesser are trying to find Sasha Kreutzev before Fiamma does; Hamazura is trying to get someone to help Takitsubo but ends up pinned down by a group of privateers; and Accelerator is trying to save Last Order but is hampered by the worst possible person coming to stop him. Literally.

There are an awful lot of folks introduced in this volume who are only in this arc. The two who seem to warrant mentioning further are Elizalina, a young woman who has an alliance of various states right next to Russia which are totally not the Baltics in the same way that the Roman Orthodox Church is totally not the Roman Catholic Church; and the “Femme Fatale”, who we know very little about from this book, but we’ll be seeing more of later. Ah yes, and Misaka Worst, of whom much more just below. Meanwhile, Lesser is attached to Touma here as the author knows that he works best when bouncing off someone else, and also that her type (the tease) hasn’t really been used around him before. Of course, she reckons without Touma’s complete lack of interest; I don’t think he’s ever really calmed down or had two days to run together since the start of the series to think about which girl who wants to bang, if any. In any case, Touma fails at his main objective, and is also guilt-tripped by Fiamma. Fortunately…

There’s Accelerator’s plot. I have to be honest, the concept of Misaka Worst is excellent. From the meta of describing herself as the “Third Season” of Misaka clones (though given how bad the anime’s Season 3 was handled, that joke gets a bit dark) to the concept of her being the repository of all the negative feelings the other clones have (which is why she gets to be something other than ‘deadpan’) to the scientists of Academy City creating her as the ultimate Accelerator-stopping weapon as they know he’s resolved to never kill another clone, so he has to other kill one and break or let himself be killed. He avoids killing her for the moment, but breaks anyway, in a truly epic primal screamfest of despair and fury. Fortunately, Touma shows up, not only to punch sense into Accelerator by telling him to stop getting hung up on “good and evil”, but also to stop himself from getting caught in in Fiamma’s bullshit and realizing it’s OK to save Index even if it means admitting he lied to her about his memory. Oh yes, and to reset Last Order’s fatal sickness with his right hand, though she’ll get worse again fast.

I didn’t mention Hamazura, but then he didn’t really get to do much except show how the “powerless” guy can also be cool and save the day. (Speaking of which, a mother and her kids are saved by Touma, and then later saved from a different crisis by Hamazura. I was bummed Accelerator didn’t save them as well.) That said, Vol. 21 promises he’ll get more to do; Academy City sent Misaka Worst to stop Accelerator, and now we get Mugino, who unsurprisingly is STILL not dead, being flown to Russia just to destroy Hamazura. Oh yes, and there’s the real Misaka as well, who is frustrated at Touma being in Russia saving the day without her and decides to hijack a plane so she can see what the fuss is about. If nothing else, this means we’ll get a lot more women in the next book… and also possibly a much higher casualty count.

If you’re interested in reading Index 20, the series is likely review-proof for you. But this was a good volume, light on the fanservice (Lessar’s pathetic attempts are pretty much it), heavy on the action, and filled with war being hell. The war continues next time.

Durarara!!, Vol. 13

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By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

And so, in the end, so much of DRRR!! turns out to be about love. First and foremost we have the love of Shinra and Celty, which is twisted (as Shinra cheerfully admits, saying he values his love for Celty over her own happiness) but also romantic, with Celty continuing to be the most tsundere Dullahan ever. She also saves the day about ten times over here, making sure that Mikado doesn’t kill himself, stopping the zombie Saika outbreak for a bit, etc. There’s also the love Anri has for Mikado, which is still in its nascent form but at least she can now admit to herself that love is what it is. Mikado’s feelings are a bit more vague, but he did save her from being stabbed (and was apparently in a coma for a month afterwards!), so that counts for something. There’s Seiji and Mika, who have Celty’s head keeping them together, even if their motives are totally in opposition. And then there’s Haruna and her teacher, who get one of the more horrifying but also satisfying twisted ends. Love is everywhere.

And yes, let’s also talk about Shizuo and Izaya. I think if you told canonical Izaya that he was in love with Shizuo he’d have something nasty to say to you, but it is striking how dedicated he is to proving that Shizuo is a “monster”. Izaya, who loves humanity as an abstract whole but can’t be attached in any way to individuals, pales in comparison to Shizuo, who gets TOO emotional when confr4onted with individuals, and needs to learn restraint, something Vorona helps teach him a bit. (Basically, he needs people to be a good example for.) I would not say Izaya is jealous of this per se, but I think he does not want Shizuo, whose body is almost indestructible and who can throw vending machines with one hand, to be a normal human. Moreover, while Izaya needs to have Shizuo as his nemesis, Hark a Vagrant style, I’m, pretty sure Shizuo would be happy to never see Izaya again. They’re both dark mirrors of each other.

This was one of the few LNs where I’d watched the anime before I read the book, and I was surprised that the epilogue made a few changes. Aoba sitting himself down in front of Anri and Masaomi at the hospital and being smug reads oddly, and you wonder why Masaomi doesn’t slug him. I think the anime wondered this as well, adding in a scene with Akabayashi threatening him to replace it and make it clear that this isn’t Aoba’s win. That said, the epilogue does seem to wrap everything up, at least as far as the current plot points are. The afterword mentions the sequel LN Durarara!! SH, but it’s not clear if that will be licensed here, and Narita’s current erratic writing schedule means it’s somewhat stalled at the moment. Fortunately, DRRR!! works as a contained unit here. Celty comes to terms with herself, Mikado realizes that being a villain is not what he wants to be, and they all live happily ever after. Except Izaya.

Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 34

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By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by John Werry.

The history of Hayate the Combat Butler is an interesting one. Very much a funny gag sort of story for the first 16 or so volumes, it attracted that sort of audience, and the first couple of anime were of that nature as well. Then came the Athena arc, which was really good, and set up a far more serious backstory for the manga, which attracted fans who really wanted to know about that story. And so the last ten to fifteen volumes have made an attempt to still be light-hearted gag comedy while throwing out the occasional plot bone to keep readers here for the plot satisfied. It… hasn’t really worked. This will reach its apex about two volumes from now, in the series’ most infamous chapter, but for the moment readers who want more about castles and coffins will be delighted to find there’s an extended section here where Hayate discovers a hidden room in the boarding house, with something very familiar inside.

It is notable that everyone involved in the discovery of the hidden room is not one of the “normal” cast members, if such a word can be used to describe people like Hinagiku or Nagi. It’s Hayate, Tama the tiger, the ghost priest, Alice, who still doesn’t remember her past but is there because of who she is, and Isumi, who reminds us that this is still a comedy even in the dramatic plot sections by making an absolutely ridiculous entrance through the wall of the building, knowing full well how awesome she will look. Sadly, she looks less awesome when up against the series’ new minor villain, whose name I’m not sure of yet but she does enjoy wearing her Gurren Lagann cosplay shades. This doesn’t answer many questions… well, OK, any questions, except who shade-wearing woman is working for… but it does remind you that this plot exists, and it weighs on Hayate’s mind.

Elsewhere,the boardinghouse continues to fill up, first by adding Ruka, who has “run away from home” because they’re trying to make her stop being a doujinshi artist and stick to pop idoling, as well as Ayumu, who literally has a mom and dad to live with but scrapes up the money to live in the boarding house for a month because she senses how big a threat Ruka is in the Hayate sweepstakes. (This leads to the best gag in the volume, where Hinagiku is stunned to find that she isn’t a threat – after all, if she can’t confess, what good is she?) We also get more of Ruka’s backstory, which matches Hayate and Hinagiku’s on the “bad parents” front (the bad parents are always in silhouette). And Nagi’s manga continues to be the series’ achilles’ heel, as her attempts to get better at it are bad and she still remains pretty annoying.

Still, overall this was a very good volume for the 5-6 people still buying this series, and if anything else we got to see Isumi performing feats even an olympic gymnast might have trouble with.

Suspension: Kubitsuri High School – The Nonsense User’s Disciple

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By NISIOISIN, illustrations by take. Released in Japan as “Kubitsuri Hai Sukūru: Zaregoto Tsukai no Deshi” by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Daniel Joseph.

(This review was based on a copy provided by the publisher.)

It’s been a long time coming, my friends. We got the first two books of Zaregoto back in the Del Rey days, and they did not sell well at all. But Nisio’s reputation grew, and the Monogatari novels did better, and then Zaregoto got an anime, not to mention the constant fan begging on Twitter, and here we are: the third in the Zaregoto series, a mere nine years later. Was it worth the wait? I think so. It’s not as good as the second book, but that’s a very high bar to clear. More to the point, while it’s still invested in lampooning the mystery genre, Nisioisin is not as concerned with the intricacies of the Whodunnit anymore. Which is good, as it’s pretty obvious early on who the killer is. Instead we get what the Zaregoto series does best, which is a book that looks at what it means to be a normal human told through the story of people who aren’t remotely normal.

Ii-chan is abducted… erm, invited by Jun Aikawa to help her with an escape. There’s a certain girls’ academy that has a student that would like to leave it. And so Ii-chan dons a girls’ school uniform and goes to meet this girl, Ichihime Yukariki. Of course, things do not go quite as easy as that, as Ii-chan quickly finds that the school seems to be training up assassins. Needing to get rescued from the rescue by Jun, the three of them try holing up in the office of the Director, only to find that there’s no escaping a pile of corpses that keeps getting larger. In the meantime, Ii-chan continues to entertain the reader by being his usual self, deflecting, prevaricating, omitting, and outright lying most of the time. The question is, how is he going to deal with it when he runs into someone who’s a little bit like him? No, not Zerozaki, someone else.

This is a slim book, the shortest in the series (there was apparently a contest, which Nisio used as an excuse to add an extra book to his contracted amount), and it’s also far more action-filled than the previous two. Which is to be expected given that Jun plays a much larger role here. It’s also got a lot more corpses than the previous two, though to be fair most of those are offscreen. The reason to get the book, though, is the dialogue and conversations between Ii-chan and the cast. He still avoids saying his name, but does give a few hints to one of the students which might help narrow it down for those who might know Japanese and also be good at math. And Ichihime is also a fascinating new addition to the cast. I’m not sure if she’ll show up again, but I suspect that Ii-chan inviting her to live in the apartment complex he currently does is some fairly unsubtle foreshadowing. I also really liked the other two students we met here, but sadly this is the last we’re going to see of them, unless Nisioisin does something weird like write them into a prequel in his Zerozaki side series. Lastly, Jun calls Ii-chan out on being a mystery protagonist – like Jessica Fletcher, wherever he goes, murders follow.

This does not have the psychological fascination of the second book, as I said earlier. It’s a quick hit-and-run. But it’s still a really good read, and I certainly hope that it does well enough that we get the 4th and 5th books (a 2-parter) before 2029.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 23

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

As we are at a particularly dramatic point in the main storyline, clearly it is time for another short story collection that takes place before everyone went off into space. These stories all seem to take place at some vague point between Vols. 14-20, and once again three of them were serialized online and one is original for this book. You can probably guess that the best of the four is the exclusive one, and you’d be correct, but they’re all pretty decent, showing off these characters we’ve come to enjoy. The first story continues a theme of Harumi being rather annoyed at Koutarou treating her like the sweet, fragile girl, so she asks Kiriha for advice on how to be a “bad girl”. This goes about as well as you’d expect, as Harumi is as sweet as pie. Likewise, Clan is noted for her awkward tsundere attitude around Koutarou, and that’s not going to change either, even if she does start working out with him and Shizuka.

Elfaria gets the cover art for once, as well as the third story, where she explains why she looks so young (genetics, she’s an alien) and allows Yurika, Maki and Sanae to give her a makeover to make her look even younger, at least for a time. This also allows Koutarou to see Elfaria as she was when he first met her, which throws him for a loop – no doubt her intention. This all leads to the final story, where the class goes on a trip to… well, the text if careful not to say where they go, except they have to fly, but it’s not Kyoto. A rather lonely Harumi and Clan end up tagging along, but the big plot point of this story is another girl in the class, Shiori, who has known Koutarou since he was little, has made up her mind to confess to him. (His basic standoffishness is why she put it off for so long.) Suddenly the girls are all worried – sure, they’re all close to Koutarou, but will this girl pass them all?

The answer isn’t surprising (no), but the key point comes when Kiriha realizes what’s been bugging her about this whole situation: the girls are feeling jealous of Shiori, but not of each other. No one in the group resents anyone else for being in love with Koutarou. It’s important setup given that this ISN’T one of those fantasy isekai worlds where polygamy is legal to solve everything. Kenji also helps underline this point by telling Koutarou he has to buckle down and pick one of the girls to date formally, and Koutarou absolutely cannot so it as he can’t imagine living without any of them. The feeling of family has to come first – they all love each other, but “romantic love” is still down the road. The story also helps to remind everyone how much the girls – and Koutarou – have grown sine the start of the series.

So overall a good short-story collection. That said, I’ll be glad to be back in the main action with Vol. 24. Good thing it’s already out.