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Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Vol. 2

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

It was always a possibility, of course. We’ve seen that sort of thing in countless other titles. The new character comes along to an already existing group and is able to magically help all of them with their problems. And indeed, we saw Tasuku last time introduced to the drop-in center, and the bulk of this second volume revolves around Misora, the kid from last time who was rude and dismissive of Tasuku, and is on the cusp of puberty and also having gender identity issues. It would make perfect sense to see Tasuku help drag Misora out of their shell and help them come to firm realizations. Indeed, we start to see something like that. But life is just not that simple, and Misora’s issues are deep-rooted and not easily solved. And so we end with more lashing out, and more slurs used to hurt, and more art as metaphor with Tasuku’s world literally collapsing around him.

Both people on the cover are Misora, who dresses as a girl at the drop-in center but would never do anything like that at home. Their relationship with Tasuku is extremely bitter and confrontational, and Misora takes delight at times in not only correcting Tasuku’s misconceptions but also hammering on Tasuku’s wounds. At the same time, of course, Misora is also guardedly opening up to Tasuku and feeling him out, ready to lash out in pain and fury at the slightest sign of pity or confusion. But at least Tasuku has defined himself, even if he can’t admit it to the man he loves. Misora is not sure at all what they are – a boy, a girl, or what have you. And they also know that puberty is soon going to make this much, much harder. Meanwhile, Tasuku’s story is hardly over, as he’s spotted at the drop-in center, and outed to his crush… who may already have an inkling about things anyway.

The plot of this volume is very good, but it’s the journey that’s even better. There are no wasted pages, and the frustration burns off the pages as Misora spews more and more slurs at Tasuku – there’s lots of them in this book, all meant to push Tasuku away and also other him to a degree. There’s also more terrific art – I’d mentioned the collapsing building metaphor earlier that serves as the climax, but there’s also little moments like Tasuku taking a wave that Tsubaki gives to him and consuming it at stars, or Misora shown in the water of a glass that Tasuku drops, about to shatter to the floor. Little moments like these help to move the reader along, and the character moments – which can be agonizing – help to slow things down. (I also want to know more about Tchaikovsky guy, and hope we see him next time.)

If you’d been on the fence about reading this series (and I can’t imagine too many who were), pick it up. It’s a painful journey, but also amazing to read.

Last Round Arthurs, Vol. 1: Scum Arthur & Heretic Merlin

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

Even the author knew what people were going to be thinking. In the afterword, he describes getting the premise from his editor and thinking that it had been done to death. The words “Fate/Stay Night” did not get mentioned explicitly, but the implication was certainly there. Actually, it appears the editor and publisher were really stepping up to the plate for this one. The author is known for Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor, a very popular LN series with a manga out over here. They also brought in Haimura as the illustrator, who’s already busy drawing Index and DanMachi Sword Oratoria. All that and a series about a bunch of King Arthur wannabes fighting each other in a battle to the death to see who can be the Last Round Arthur (see what they did there?). The obvious flaw in this series is that it reeks at times, especially in the first half, of being written to be a franchise rather than a story. Fortunately, it gets better, especially in the last third.

The premise is essentially Mallory’s Arthur legends meets Fate/Stay Night meets Haruhi Suzumiya. Rintarou is a young man who is perfect at everything he’s ever done since he was born, which makes everyone think that he’s a monster – including his parents. He hears about a competition between those with the blood of King Arthur, a battle involving Kings and their “Jacks”, essentially a summoned Servant a la Fate. The winner takes over the world… which isn’t all good, as there’s also a reality incursion they’ll have to deal with. Rintarou wants in on this competition, and finds the weakest candidate – Luna Artur, a seemingly arrogant young woman who’s taken over the local Camelot High School and made it her plaything – and sold her Excalibur for cash. Despite thinking Luna is annoying and possibly bonkers, he becomes her vassal, mostly so that he can stop being bored with life. Of course, things aren’t going to be easy, as Luna’s childhood friend is fighting for the prize as well. And Rintarou also has a secret… which the title of the work may in fact give away.

Luna starts off as a weird mix of Haruhi and Gilgamesh from Fate, and it can make her hard to like until her true self shines through. In reality, she wants to see everyone happy and wants the power to achieve it. This does not mesh very well with Rintarou, who tends to be the pragmatic “let’s sacrifice their lives and sneak up behind the enemy” sort, but they eventually do get along quite well. I was less enamored with Sir Kay, Artur’s beleaguered Jack, but that’s the fault of the author, really – Kay is nice enough, but she’s Mikuru Asahina with a sword, and unfortunately I have no confidence she’ll rise above “comedy relief” in future books. The fights were well described and tense, which is good, as I think they may be the main reason people will read this. There’s also a few surprise revelations that AREN’T in the title, some amusing jokes, and some setup for the future.

When that future is I’m not sure – unlike the other July Yen debuts, Last Round Arthurs doesn’t have another book scheduled yet. It’s not fantastic, but it’s worth a read if you like modernization of Arthurian legend or just want a Fate book with the serial numbers filed off.

Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san, Vol. 1

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By Honda. Released in Japan as “Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san” by Media Factory, serialized in the magazine Gene Pixiv. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

I had (shocking, I know) not actually seen the anime that is based off of this manga and took the internet by storm a while back. As such, I was a bit surprised to find that the skull face is actually irrelevant. No, this is not about a walking skeleton who works in a bookstore. The protagonist is the author, and the skull face is a mask that hides their identity – all the employees of the bookstore have different types of masks, for exactly the same reason. When you’re basing things on a true story, but don’t want to actually upset any of your colleagues, this is a good way to go about it. Moreover, it focuses the reader’s attention on the faces of the customers, which are gloriously well-done and expressive. No, instead of walking skeletons we just have life at a large bookstore in Japan, and insight into what’s going on behind the scenes. That does not mean this title is not fascinating, because it is.

Actually, the large bookstore also surprised me. I’ve seen manga about sleepy bookstores where a customer walks in once in a while, and the huge chain bookstore is usually the villain in those titles, trying to crush the mom and pop store and its individuality. But no, this manga is about a LARGE bookstore and its MANY employees – in fact, just the employees of the manga department of the store. It’s not made clear where it is, but given the large number of Westerners who wander through it, it has to be somewhere in Tokyo. Most of the time we see Honda-san at the front counter, helping customers find the manga they’re looking for, no matter how embarrassing, confusing, or impossible the request is. It doesn’t help that, as I mentioned earlier, many of the customers are foreigners with little concept of Japanese, and Honda-san’s English is also iffy. Still, service is the important thing, and we can’t leave a customer unhappy – though they may change their objective a bit.

Among the ‘types’ noted on the cover of the manga are ‘801 girls’, and a large chunk of the start of the book is devoted to BL manga and those searching for it. Sometimes they’re at sea, such as a dad whose daughter has asked for Gintama BL doujinshi, something Honda-san has to tell him isn’t sold at this bookstore. Sometimes you get a feeling of being “the Ugly American” in a sense, such as Honda-san watching the very loud American BL fans gushing about the types they like in the middle of the store. (That said, there’s no judgment given, and Honda-san seems to admire their forthrightness.) We do also meet several other employees, who tend to run the gamut from busy and harried to harried and busy, but the emphasis here, apart from Honda-san, is on the customers. (One exception is the class Honda-san has to take on customer service, where he meets a gorgeous young woman from another store who has trouble smiling for work – it’s amusing.)

I’ll be honest, this almost reads like a travel documentary about the Book Buyers of Shinjuku or something. It can be a bit exhausting (Honda-san reminds you time and again how painfully busy and overworked they are), but the stories and faces of the people involved are worth it. Even if they come in looking for shoujo manga and end up buying Berserk.

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, Vol. 1

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By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

These days, whenever a light novel is licensed that does not in some way shape or form ground itself in fantasy, I take notice. This is the “isekai boom”, and even the titles released that aren’t isekai seem to involve fantasy worlds, adventuring, and demon lords. We have seen a few normal “romantic comedy” LNs – Toradora!, My Youth Romantic Comedy Etc. – but they’re in a tiny minority, and were licensed well after the anime became popular. So Tomozaki, a high school kids title with no fantasy and no anime (at least not yet) was a surprise. I wondered what attracted Yen to it, especially as the publisher rarely deals with North America on their light novel end. I ended up being very happy with it. The novel starts slow, but as both it and its main character gradually find their feet it gets more and more interesting till a final quarter that was fantastic. This is especially interesting because of the odd little genre the book turns out to be: it’s a self-help guide.

Tomozaki is our title character, a quiet and sullen young man who is fantastic at gaming – particularly ‘Atafami’, the current hot new game – but not so good at everyday social interactions. His narrative voice will remind a few people of Hachiman, though he’s not as clever or misanthropic. (In fact, let’s get that out of the way – this is going to get compared to OreGairu, and some of that is by design. Even the cover art styles look similar. There’s even a reference saying that Saitama (where the books take place) can beat Chiba easily (OreGairu’s territory) that made me think the author is well aware of what he’s doing.) In any case, Tomozaki ends up playing a really good player online, and they arrange to meet up. To his shock – and hers – she’s his classmate Hinami, the cute and popular girl. Meanwhile, she’s incredibly disappointed in him, as she assumed he’d be as cool in real life as he was in the game. When he goes off about how life is much harder than a game, she decides to tutor him in how to life.

The first half of the book, as I said, feels like someone wanted to write a self-help manual for the introverted Japanese high schooler but make it interesting. To my surprise, the gaming talk did not bore me at all – it’s made relevant to the conversations throughout, and even when we’re watching characters play Atafami, it doesn’t drown us in stats unless that’s the point. Hinami explains how to make Tomozaki’s real-life character better, starting with learning to smile, then posture, then a new outfit, etc. And conversation. He has to get better at that as well. As the book goes on, it turns out that he and Hinami have a lot more in common than you’d think, and that she’s not explaining this from a superior position – she continues to do every day just what she’s telling him to do. Constant practice, just like in a game.

The book gets better when we start to see the results of her tutelage. Tomozaki doesn’t get perfect immediately, of course, and he’s still socially awkward much of the time. But once he starts treating these tasks – “have two conversations with a girl in class every day”, etc. – like a game that he needs to beat, he shows that he can be very good about it. He’s also observant and speaks his mind, like most LN narrators. And so he can spot that the over-the-top genki girl is putting on something of an act, or that the overly serious girl never starts conversations herself. Towards the end of the book he starts teaching another girl to play Atafami (so she can impress a guy) and he’s now the one giving the excellent advice – and also applying it to life, telling her that it’s never too late to change your character if you don’t like it. His growth is both astonishing and not surprising at all, given his gaming skills.

The book was clearly written as a stand-alone, but there’s more to come. I want to read it. The cast is all likeable (in fact, it’s a safe bet that Hinami, the female lead, is likely the least popular, as always happens in “harem” stories like this) and Tomozaki is relatable without being overbearing or irritating (well, he’s irritating to start with). It’s been called a “kinder, gentler OreGairu” and that’s simplistic but not a bad starting point. I had a ball reading it.

Magus of the Library, Vol. 1

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By Mitsu Izumi, “based on Kafna of the Wind by Sophie Schwimm”. Released in Japan as “Toshokan no Daimajutsushi” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine good! Afternoon. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Stephen Kohler.

This one surprised me. The premise was promising, but the artist has previously done 7th Garden, which was OK but didn’t wow me. To my surprise, this ended up being one of the most gorgeous manga I’ve read all year – the fact that Kodansha released both this and Witch Hat Atelier within a few months of each other shows we are in a golden age of pretty manga. The characters looks cute, the ‘dream sequences are fun, and best of all, there’s attention paid to the books. Which is good, as this is a manga for book lovers first and foremost. Despite the fact that the first volume serves as a prologue to the series proper (we get a “Several years later” timeskip0 at the end), this is a great introduction to the adventures of Theo, a young boy who loves to read more than anything, and can often be found hiding out in the local library. Which I’m sure a lot of this manga’s readers will find very familiar – certainly I did that as a kid.

Despite what the cover may imply, Theo has not had the best life so far. He’s poor (which means the head librarian doesn’t let him read books there), and his pointed ears mean that he’s bullied by the other kids. His older sister works four jobs to get enough money to send him to school, and he has one friend – ironically, the daughter of the librarian. His one pleasure is sneaking into the library to read books, which cam take him places he’s never even dreamed of. But his life is upended when a group of librarians come to town looking for a book. This being a manga, these are BADASS librarians, and they impress Theo with their love and knowledge of books. Unfortunately, all the books may soon be in danger, as the librarian accidentally lets loose a book with a fire spirit in it. Can the books be saved? Can Theo turn his life around?

As I noted, the librarians in this volume are very cool. There’s their leader Anzu, who is the “outwardly serene and sweet but terrifying when angry’ sort I always love. Blunt Nanako is there to tell the librarians how they’re doing their jobs wrong, and how to properly preserve books. Pipiri is a fairy who also seems to be the ‘cheerleader’ of the group, and also the oldest, though she looks young. And then there is Sedona, who just loves books, and bonds quickly with Theo. Sedona also notices that Theo has a few odd things about him – in addition to the pointed ears (which his sister does not have), he can apparently tame savage wolves. An intriguing young boy.

An intriguing series, too. We see Theo at the end of the volume, now a teenager, leaving his town behind and trying to become a librarian. Like the best series, I want to read what comes next.

Seriously Seeking Sister! Ultimate Vampire Princess Just Wants Little Sister; Plenty of Service Will Be Provided!

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By Hiironoame and Siso. Released in Japan as “Tonikaku Imouto ga Hoshii Saikyou no Kyuuketsuki wa Mujikaku Gohoushichuu” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Evelyn.

I’ve talked before about how publishers can sometimes choose a title for a series that makes me want to run away rather than look forward to it when I reviewed Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, a series that I think has lost a few readers who think it’s just a dumb harem series. (It *is* a harem series, but…) Similarly, when I saw the title of this book, I described it as ‘dire’. I owe it an apology; it has a few issues, but it’s actually pretty fun, and is not what I thought it would be, which was “vampire girl constantly glomps and feels up other girls”. In fact, consent is rather important in the one sorta relationship that exists in this book. (The amount of yuri you perceive in the book may depend on how you feel about “sucking blood = sex” motifs in vampire fiction.) No, what this is is another in the genre of “ludicrously OP girl boggles everyone’s minds”.

Ristia is a young vampire girl who is tired of being treated like a cute little sister by her powerful vampire family. She wants her own little sister to dote over! Sadly, vampires don’t procreate very often, so she decides to seal herself in stasis in a cave and wait for her little sister to wake her up. A millennium passes, and she’s women by Nanami, member of an adventuring party that’s run afoul of a dragon. Ristia can slay the dragon. Ristia can also get rid of morally bankrupt men, pull entire luxury houses out of her Item, Box, and create magical amulets that will literally regrow arms. But, she reassures Nanami, she’s just a normal girl. She ends up working for, and then taking over, an evil orphanage after purging it of its villains, and rebuilds it. To a ludicrous extent. And then starts a maid cafe. She can do anything… so why will no one see her as a little sister?!?!

A word of warning here, one of the girls in this book is a rape survivor, and it’s a function of her character and plotline. It actually felt rather odd to have a character like Maria is a story like this, which otherwise really enjoys leaning on the “silly” side of the fence. It should also be noted that Ristia looks like an older teen girl but that’s as a human; in vampire terms she starts the book pre-pubescent, and it’s her hitting puberty that also triggers part of the plot. My other major issue with the book is that it reads like it needed a better edit. The author comments on how they kept losing story contests for “bad structure”, and it’s still not that great; in particular, it reads like we get a little sister only to abandon her midway for a more interesting one. Don’t replace your cast halfway through a book.

That said, if you don’t mind OP characters, and can tolerate the word “normal girl” repeated so much it will make you sick (Nami from Zetsubou-sensei must be livid), this is a cute and fun read, and yes, has a little bit of fanservice and yuri, though not nearly as much of either as the title implies. So far this is the only volume, but there’s more of the original webnovel. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Ristia.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, Vol. 3

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By Dachima Inaka and Iida Pochi. Released in Japan as “Tsujo Kogeki ga Zentai Kogeki de Ni-kai Kogeki no Okasan wa Suki desu ka?” by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America digitally by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Since the last volume of this series came out in North America, the anime has started, and as such the series is even more well-known than it was before. Unlike some other Summer 2019 debuts I could mention (coughArifuretacough), the anime of Do You Love Your Mom? does not seem to have annoyed anyone who’s not already annoyed with the premise in the first place. I have been seeing a lot more criticism of Masato, though, and this isn’t a surprise. Indeed, it’s called out by the villain in this book. Shouldn’t he be the hero? Shouldn’t he get to do a cool thing once in a while? Shouldn’t Wise and Medhi be falling for him/competing for him? The answer, of course, is no, becausde the whole point of the series is that it isn’t that. This is a series where the mom takes over. That’s the PLOT. Masato’s journey, if anything, is to get on with him mom.

It’s a journey that may take a while – the entire series, in fact. Now, compared to everyone else in the series, Masato and his mother have a warm, loving relationship. But it’s clear that “my mom is embarrassing” is combining with “my mom is stealing my spotlight” to make for a very frustrated young man. In this book, he and his party reach a 100-floor tower with lots of monsters. A standard dungeon crawl. But there’s not much of that. Instead they take over an inn and fix it up, try to stop a bunch of thugs from blowing up the town, and (of course) deal with a whole bunch of NPC moms and their overly mom traits. The author in the afterword has to spell out that while these are stereotypical moms in every way, they’re not meant to be MEAN characterizations. The book is on Team Mom. Which is why the villain, a clumsy and rather airheaded women who wants to abolish all mothers, is as lame as she is. Well, that plus it’s funny.

As for the core cast, they’re much the same. Wise and Medhi sniping at each other can be funny, and I’m somewhat relieved that the sniping is not as one-sided as I feared it would be. As for Porta… yeah, there’s that implication towards the end. Porta being a sleeper agent for the bad guys is pretty much my number one theory right now, and the villain in this book does nothing to dissuade it. After all, we still know absolutely nothing about her own situation (is she even a PC?), and it would not surprise me if she winds up evil. That said, you know Mamako will just hug the evil out of her. Suspense is not the name of the game here, nor is adventuring and fantasy. The name of the game is watching Mom smother her boy with love while being ludicrously over the top – be it in killing monsters or in washing clothes.

I suspect the anime will end with this volume, and it’s a decent ending place given each book is mostly self-contained. Fans of Mamako will enjoy her being more Mamako than ever, and there’s lots of silly fun to be had here.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 9

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By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan by Overlap, Inc. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

While Souma is the focus of these books, he’s not the only ruler in town. We’ve seen some of them taken into his orbit, like Kuu. Some are allied with him but for their own reasons are separate, such as the Empress Maria (who I still say may eventually get into the Souma wife battalion eventually but not just yet). Some, like the Chima leader we meet in this book, are there to make deals using their popular and talented children as bargaining chips and marriage pawns. And then there’s Fuuga Haan, the leader of Malmkhitan, who by his sheer presence, inspirational qualities, and sheer power is the most terrifying of all. He’s compared to Oda Nobunaga and Napoleon in terms of the sort of leader who sets out to conquer. Which is not good news for Souma, who is not that sort of leader at all. Fortunately, Fuuga is on Souma’s side. For now. Fortunately, we also have Ichiha, the youngest child of the Chima ruler, who has a talent that no one recognizes. We know Souma loves those types.

That’s Fuuga Haan on the cover, by the way. No, he’s there in the background, lurking like a Kirito in a Kirito-less book. In the foreground is his little sister Yuriga, who is introduced to us when Tomoe, who has come a long way from her shy little sister days of the early books, goes exploring in the Chima castle. There she runs into Ichiha, who she discovers is not only an excellent artist for his age but is also classifying the monsters into types and seeing what they have in common. Needless to say, Souma LOVES this. No, he’s not taking Ichiha as a spouse, Ichiha being a 10-year-old boy, but he was already going to be sending Tomoe to school, so Ichiha (otherwise useless to the Chima dynasty) gets to come along. But wait, you ask, what does the little sister to Fuuga Haan do? She’s there to be a tsundere. That’s… really it. But she’s also going to the school, and given how obsessed the author is with pairings, I would not be surprised to see her, Ichiha and Tomoe hooking up when they’re of age.

Yuriga is not the only little sister we get in this volume. The main plot of the book takes up about 2/3 of it, the rest being short stories set away from Chima. We get to meet Maria and Jeanne’s younger sister Trill, who should be romanized as Drill, I expect, except it would be one cutesy name too many. Trill is a mad scientist who’s obsessed with inventing new things and blowing holes in the castle by accident, not in that order. Naturally, she too gets packed off to Souma’s kingdom of babysitters, where she can be apprenticed to Genia, their own resident mad scientist, and do mad science together. Which in this case involves building a drill. Which means they need Kuu’s not-quite-girlfriend for the steel. Realist Hero is very good at interconnecting the huge cast it has, which is good as it makes it slightly easier to remember them.

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention: Souma and Liscia’s twins are born, a boy and a girl. Also, motherhood as converted Saber Red into Saber Lily. Now that the mother and children are healthy, there’s nothing stopping the wedding, which I suspect will happen next volume. It should be fun, as this volume was.

Secretly, I’ve Been Suffering About Being Sexless

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By Togame. Released in Japan as “Jitsu wa Watashi Sexless de Nayandemashita” by Media Factory, serialized in the magazine Comic Flapper. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Alexandra McCullough-Garcia.

I will admit, this wasn’t quite what I expected when I heard about the license and saw the title. It is certainly a biographical manga about the author and her struggles, but I was thinking it would be more like My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, a lot more directly at the reader and deeply serious. But of course, this ran in Comic Flapper, not on Pixiv or another online site. As a result, it feels far less autobiographical, and honestly aside from a couple of references to Togame drawing manga within the book, and of course using her own name for the heroine, you’d never really know this was about her. It’s the story of a young newly married couple, and the fact that she wants to do it but he doesn’t. Of course, the common “plotline”, both in Western and Japanese works, is that the opposite is the case. Everyone knows that men are always horny and women get “headaches”. But is that really the case?

As I said earlier, this is a lot more comedic than I was expecting. Togame’s reactions are frequently over the top and overdramatic, and she also tends to fantasize about imaginary situations where either her husband or someone else satisfies her desires. (Indeed, it can be very hard to tell when the reality ends and her fantasy begins, and I felt sometimes that she was finally succeeding only to be shown a panel where she admits it was in her head.) She thinks when desperate about cheating, and goes out to drink with another guy at some point, but in the end does not have an affair and clearly loves her husband. She’s just… really frustrated. Things are not helped by the fact that she’s apparently “tiny and fairy-like”, and that said husband thinks of her more as cute than sexy, though she does have a generous bosom that she tries to break out to entice him as well. What, in the end, is the problem?

To no one’s surprise, it’s poor communication that’s the issue here. Despite her laying out her feelings and what she wants, he’s not really taking her seriously, and it takes her leaving the apartment for a bit to make him realize what’s going on. Similarly, she just assumes his lack of desire is just that, and never tries to ask him why he doesn’t really feel in the mood. Of course, this is merely the case of Togame and her husband. In an epilogue, which I quite liked, we see various other women and their own relationship, and get other types of explanations, such as a woman with “no libido”, or another woman who loved her husband as a person but didn’t find him sexually attractive at all. Communication is not ALWAYS the answer. But, in the main story, it seems to have done the trick, and we end with Togame and her husband now having sex and trying to have a child.

Like Togame herself, I feel this is more “cute” than “sexy” as a manga. But it was a sweet read, and reminds the average reader that the cliche of “the guy wants it, the girl doesn’t” is not always the case.

I Shall Survive Using Potions!, Vol. 3

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By FUNA and Sukima. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hiroya Watanabe.

I’m at a loss for words to an extent. It can’t be that the author read my reviews – they’re in Japan, and this volume was out before the series started here. I double checked, and it didn’t change companies or anything like that. Perhaps someone told the author that an anime might be a possibility? But yes, it’s very clear that between the second and third book – actually, more like “after the timeskip” now that I think about it – the author acceded to the requests to dial Kaoru back a lot. She’s still very snarky, and won’t hesitate to mock and belittle obviously arrogant noble guys, but she’s (mostly) found an emotional center and is actually doing what I thought she would do when the book began – running a small potion store in a large city. I guess the answer to “how to solve a problem like Kaoru” is “keep her away from war”. Not that this has suddenly turned into a Slow Life title or anything. Trouble continues to follow Kaoru around. But she’s now a standard OP FUNA heroine, and not “will she turn evil?”.

As noted, Kaoru and her newly adopted daughter are starting a potion shop. But no overpowered healing potions this time around, just normal minor illness stuff like “soldier’s disease” (athlete’s foot). She makes the potions good enough to be palliative, but not curative forever, so they have to come back to buy new ones. But things aren’t easy. Soldier’s Disease is far more of an issue in this military town than she suspected. She’s being asked to join an association and give up her secrets. There’s a deadly disease killing people in a village a few days away. The “distortion” that the goddess had warned her about actually appears. No one will buy her shampoo/makeup products. No one prefers her “standard” box lunches. And worst of all, she’s still not attracting husband material. Can she put down roots in this town, or is it time to move on?

Now, don’t panic. Kaoru is still easily the meanest of the FUNA heroines. But she’s not getting revenge that may literally get people executed this time around. She’s also doing great things for the military, finding lost treasures for poor nobles, giving money to orphans and street urchins, and of course, preventing the world from being ravaged by disease. She’s become a heroine, rather than an anti-heroine. It’s fun to see, but it does make this a bit less of a must read as there’s no longer any sense that she’s going to completely lose it the way there was during the war last volume. The rest of the running gags are present and correct, including the rest of her group being so devoted to her safety that they all fall over each other to protect her from enemies, and don’t go on dates because that would take away from protecting Kaoru time. And of course there is Kaoru’s lack of self-awareness, as she, like Mile, occasionally talks about being a normal girl, to everyone’s amusement.

In the end, dialing Kaoru back is good for the future of the series. And it’s still a light, breezy read. But I miss my jaw dropping, I will admit.

Koyomimonogatari: Calendar Tale, Part 01

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By NISIOISIN and VOFAN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Daniel Joseph.

This originally came out in Japan as one giant volume, but I totally understand why Vertical has decided to break it in half. The Monogatari books feel long and wordy enough as it is with their 280-300 pages per volume, but this one would be around 500, and that’s just too exhausting. That said, it does present a bit of a dilemma in that I feel the book is meant to be appreciated as a whole. Without spoiling the second volume, there is a very definite cliffhanger to this book, and it puts everything we read before into stark relief. But we don’t have that, so it has to be said: this feels meandering even for a Monogatari volume. Being a short story volume, even less is “happening” per se, so you’re entirely dependent on the conversations. Which is fine, as honestly dialogue is why we’re reading NISIOISIN in the first place. If you like snark, these stories will give it to you in spades. There’s also some nice foreshadowing here, as most of them take place at or near the start of the series.

“Koyomi” is not only Araragi’s first name, but also the word for “calendar”. The conceit of this volume is that we get twelve short stories, one for each month of the year. They start in April, immediately after the events in Kizumonogatari but before Nekomonogatari Black, and move forward in the timeline from there. Each story has Araragi conversing with one of the female leads, in the order he met them (not counting Shinobu/Kissshot). They serve as an examination of each heroine’s story (particularly in Sengoku’s case), but are also about the fact that, despite what you may think, not everything that Araragi happens across happens to be related to the supernatural. There are several puzzling things in this book that turn out to have ordinary, prosaic meanings – as is normally the case. Usually it’s NOT the immortal vampire.

Naturally, each story ends up sounding like its heroine, to a degree. Senjogahara’s is filled with caustic banter between two kids who agreed to date the other day but have no idea how to actually be a couple. Kanbaru’s has another cleanup of her messy room, is filled with innuendo, and has probably the best ending of the book, if only as it sounds perfectly in character. Sengoku’s has an ominous tone to some of it, taking place after her first arc but before her second, and hinting at events to come. The weakest stories in the book are probably the first and the last ones – Hanekawa before all her character development just comes across as Ms. Exposition, and Karen is simply not nearly as interesting as her brother and younger sister. Oh yes, one minor translation quibble – why is everyone cursing in this book? Normally I gloss over that sort of thing, but there sure are a lot of shits and fucks in here. When it’s Araragi it doesn’t jar as much, but Hanekawa saying “bullshit” does jar quite a bit, especially pre-Nekomonogatari Hanekawa.

This is a decent slice of Monogatari life, and will make the reader happy, but honestly if you can I would advise putting it off and reading it with its second part.

Takane & Hana, Vols. 8 and 9

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Takane and Hana, Volumes 8 and 9 by Yuki Shiwasu

At 9 volumes in Takane and Hana continues to have story arcs centered on wacky shenanigans, but since those shenanigans seem to be prodding along the romance between Takane and Hana at a glacial pace, I tend to just sit back and enjoy the story.

Most of this volume is taken up with Hana’s realization that she actually cares for Takane, and stumbling through events like Valentine’s Day and dinner with her family while she’s burdened with newfound awareness of her own feelings. There are still plenty of moments of culture shock as Takane isn’t sure what to do the first time he encounters insufficiently marbled beef. There could only be so long that Takane could survived in forced poverty in the position of a mediocre salaryman, mostly because while he is an emotional idiot, he’s actually exceedingly good at business. His current company ends up creating more of a manager role for him, and he’s clearly moving up.

Takane & Hana 9

Takane’s grandfather is pleased with the success of his machinations to force his grandson to grow through vicariously experiencing poverty, but now he’s worried that there will be no time for Takane’s romance to progress. Since exercising familial authority through housing worked so well the last time, he decides to provide Hana’s family with an elaborate mansion to live in as part of a made-up “testing program.” They all move in, only to find out later that they are also required to live with Takane. Takane and Hana end up setting some rigid boundaries around their new living situation, but they aren’t rigid enough for Okamon. Okamon has been lurking on the margins with his carefully deadpan expression, but he hasn’t weighed in on Takane and Hana’s relationship before. I was delighted that volume 9 finally featured Okamon being more direct and also presented a chapter from his point of view. While Okamon may firmly be fulfilling the role of “second lead guy” so familiar in Korean dramas, and I don’t think that he represents a serious threat to an eventual resolution for Takane and Hana, it was a nice change of pace to get to spend more time with him in this volume. I’m expecting that Takane and Hana cohabiting in a mansion will provide plenty of antics for at least 2 volumes.

The Irregular at Magic High School: Double Seven Arc

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By Tsutomu Sato and Kana Ishida. Released in Japan as “Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

The author states in the afterword that this was written to be serialized in Dengeki Bunko’s magazine, rather than as a stand-alone novel, and apologizes for its sloppiness. It’s certainly sloppy – its saving grace is that for once it wasn’t split into two for length, because as a two-volume set this would have been unbearable. On the downside, this means that this is an incredibly long volume where almost nothing happens. There are rumblings of a plot in the background involving the media attacking magicians, and there is foreshadowing of future events. For the most part, though, this book functions to start second year for Tatsuya and Miyuki, and to introduce the new freshman who will be semi-regulars going forward. Chief among whom are the twins on the cover, Mayumi’s little sisters Kasumi and Izumi. The title of the arc comes from them – “Saegusa” has ‘seven’ in its family name, and they are twins, hence ‘Double Seven’.

The twins are not the only new regulars introduced. We also meet Takuma Shippou, who is essentially Shinji from Fate/Stay Night without a sister to abuse. He’s meant to be unlikeable, and he certainly is – reading scenes with him was like eating glass. It will be interesting to see if he actually matures or if he stays an antagonist – Mahouka tends to fall into “you’re either with Tatsuya or against him” character dynamics, and I suspect any maturity might take a long while. There’s also Minami Sakurai, who has moved into the Shiba home to be Miyuki’s protector. Given that’s basically Tatsuya’s job, there’s more going on here, and I suspect it will play out in future books. Sadly, she’s a nonentity here, though I do give her credit for being against the Tatsuya/Miyuki ship – she’d be very happy if Tatsuya hooked up with Mayumi. (As would Mayumi, come to think of it.) Oh yes, and we also meet Kent Smith… erm, sorry, Kento Sumisu (his mother, Jennifer Smith, is a teacher at the school, so I can only assume he’s romanized this way as Tatsuya hasn’t made the connection), who seems to be Saika Totsuka from Oregairu transported to this universe.

The school has invented a new Magical Engineering course so that Tatsuya doesn’t have to put up with the “first/second” prejudice for another year. (Note that the first and second classes are still around, but sine the new freshman don’t involve Tatsuya, we don’t get to see if any of them are bullied.) It also has a couple of magical duels to attempt to solve arguments – one between Shippou and the twins, the other between Shippou and his upperclassman. This allows the author to do what he loves best, which is lovingly describe the magic system he’s invented in terms that make it sound like cook science instead of cool magic. To be fair, he is pretty good at this, and I imagine this would be a treat animated. Oh yes, and we get the highlight of the book – and possibly the entire series – when Tatsuya dresses as Batman for one of his espionage missions. No, really, there’s a picture.

It feels like I’m reading this series out of habit now. You know things are bad when I get excited at the prospect of a tournament arc, as the next volume seems to be. Till then, enjoy the new cast members being introduced over the course of a lot of pages but not making nearly as much of an impression as our stoic Batman.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Upheaval

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

Yang Wen-Li may be dead but Legend of the Galactic Heroes goes on, even if Yang’s ghostly presence hangs over much of this volume. Julian is trying to do things the way he thinks Yang would have wanted to, even to the point of hearing Yang’s dialogue in his head. He’s still got revenge on his mind, but it has to take a backseat. Much to his frustration, the fight against the Empire also has to take a back seat – he has in mind now trying to get the Empire to become more of a parliamentary democracy, but that’s a long-term plan, and also unlikely to happen with Reinhard in power. So Iserlohn is placed in a bit of stasis this volume, with its most dramatic decision being that of letting the Empire’s fleet pass by unmolested so that it can attack von Reuentahl’s fleet, as the long-foreshadowed rebellion is finally upon us. Oh well, at least it looks like he might be getting a tsundere girlfriend soon.

The “rebellion” is interesting, as it’s a setup, von Reuentahl knows it’s a setup, and yet he goes along with it anyway, partly as he’s fairly sure he wouldn’t be believed if he denied it but partly because, without Yang there to be the noble enemy, there’s nothing really stopping von Reuentahl from attacking the next best military genius – Reinhard. Of course, the joke is on him, as for once Reinhard allows himself to take a back seat and let Mittermeier handle things. They go about as well as you could expect, which is to say very badly for von Reuentahl, who can’t even bleed to death quietly in his office without being presented with his newborn child, the product of yet another love affair. This leads to one of the most bittersweet moments in the series, as a dying von Reuentahl asks the child be raised by childless Mittermeier and his wife. I wish it hadn’t gone this far, but at least there’s some good coming from it. Oh yes, and Trunicht was finally killed. That was great, he deserved it.

The book is not all doom and gloom, though it is mostly serious as always. After being verbally attacked for the massacre that happened about 7 books ago, Reinhard is in a mood and feeling depressed, and asks Hilda to stay the night with him. We don’t see the love scene that follows (though it’s made clear that they’re both dorky ignorant virgins, so it can’t have been that breathtaking), but we do get the aftermath, with Hilda fleeing back home saying “WTF have I done?” and Reinhard immediately showing up to propose. This whole section is actually very funny, and it’s nice to see Reinhard as a lover is about 1/100th as successful as Reinhard the military genius. That said, Hilda is “lucky” enough to get pregnant after this one-night stand, so after taking care of his little rebellion Reinhard proposes again, and this time Hilda accepts. Like most LOGH romances, this has been both obvious and incredibly slow burning, so is very satisfying to finally see.

The main story ends with the 10th and final volume next time. (There are more books with additional stories, but it’s not clear if those will be licensed.) With its huge cast getting smaller and smaller, what fresh new deaths await? Or can we finally achieve peace?

Teasing Master Takagi-san, Vol. 5

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By Soichiro Yamamoto. Released in Japan as “Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Monthly Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Taylor Engel.

After reviewing the first volume of this charming series as a full review, I did Bookshelf Briefs for the 2nd to 4th volumes. I’m still loving it, but there’s usually not a lot to break down over the course of 500-plus words. Takagi teases Nishikata, he tries to overcome it/turn it back on her, he fails, next chapter. It’s a formula, much the same way that My Neighbor Seki follows a similar type of formula. And we do get several chapters here that show off that formula. Nishikata’s desire to beat Takagi in a school run is foiled by his ignorance of the fact that girls have to run shorter distances he’s tricked into helping Takagi pick out a swimsuit (this is a two-parter); and Takagi sees him pretending to be a wizard during a typhoon and mocks him for it, which may be the funniest chapter. But the first and last chapters are why I wanted to give this a review.

I’ll start with the last chapter of the volume, ‘Critical Hit’. This starts off pretty normally, with Nishikata thinking this is his day to finally win against Takagi because his horoscope and blood type fortune were both super lucky. Takagi knows his star sign AND blood type, of course, so shuts this down right away. But he tries anyway, as his horoscope says he’d get a “critical hit” today. So when his friends want him to go buy a game he wants with them, he rejects them and, not wanting to say the real reason, tells Takagi that he wanted to walk home with her. He DID it! He ALMOST won! Technically, he did win… but he’s too embarrassed at the implication, can’t look her in the eye, and backs off. And we see what he didn’t – Takagi is blushing. An important chapter as it shows Takagi is vulnerable and not perfect, and that Nishikata could win if he had more confidence and less second-guessing.

Then there’s the first chapter, Memories, which takes place well over ten years after the main storyline, and shows us Takagi as an adult with her daughter, Chi. The series is about Takagi being someone who likes to tease, but it doesn’t HAVE to be Nishikata. Here, she teases the reader, reminiscing about her middle school yearbook and implying that Nishikata is either a) dead or b) she didn’t end up with him. Any reader who looks at Chi and sees her daddy’s eyes is not going to be fooled, but, like most of Takagi’s “teasing”, this isn’t meant to be hard. She’s just having fun, and sure enough, at the end of the chapter, we see who she’s married to. This chapter is important as it shows us that things are not going to be static forever – sure, the manga may not end with a confession or anything like that, but we see that eventually there is a happy ending. This also helps make the teasing more fun.

Chapters like these are worth ten of Takagi teasing Nishikata about drinking coffee to be more “adult”, and are a big reason I still adore this cute series. Also, it’s now out digitally as well!