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Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Vol. 1

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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.

I had heard a great deal of buzz about this title when it was licensed and before, but hadn’t really experienced it beyond people on Tumblr posting pictures of some of the stunning artistic concepts that form part of its story. Having now read the first volume, I remain deeply impressed with the art, but also drawn in by the story and characters. Our Dreams at Dusk gives us a look at LGBT people in Japan and their attempts to deal with these feelings that society – and their own family and peers – tell them is shameful. At its heard is a community founded by the very mysterious “Someone-san”, whose name we don’t know but who has brought together people who need to be able to confess their feelings to, well, someone. It can’t keep being bottled up and repressed. As we see in this first volume, some are more successful than others. And just because you “come out” doesn’t mean your problems are over.

Tasuku is our protagonist, who is high school kid who we fist meet when he’s debating whether he should leap to his death from a high wall. Flashbacks show that someone at high school grabbed his phone and found his browser history, and now are asking if he’s into “gay porn”. He denies it, using a slur he detests, but the truth is that he is gay, though he hasn’t – and feels he cannot – tell anyone or his life will be over. Just the thought of having to return to school the next day drives him to the brink. Before he can do anything, though, he sees a person leap out of a window much higher than where he is. Rushing to the building they were in, he doesn’t find the jumper, but his blurting out that “someone fell” leads him to Someone-san and the group there. Over the course of the book, he opens up to some of them, clashes with others, and continues to go to school, where his crush is on the volleyball team.

Of course, the ensemble cast is important as well. We meet an older man who seems to love Tchaikovsky, a tween-ish child who seems to dislike Tasuku on sight, the friendly and hard-working Utsumi, and Haruko and Saki, a lesbian couple who are still having some issues – Haruko has come out to her family and friends, and dealt with the fallout, while Saki still hasn’t said anything to her family. We also see that the group is not a perfect, all-loving conclave – Saki trying to drag Tasuku into her argument with Haruko shatters the mood a bit. And there is, as I noted, the art, which for the most part is elegant and expressive, but every once in a while shows us a two-page spread of artistic abandon trying to show the torment and desires in the main characters’ hearts. It’d be worth reading the series just for that – but we’re fortunate yo have much more to it.

There’s certainly more to this story, which recently ended in Japan at its fourth volume. I suspect the second one will deal with the kid who clearly does not like Tasuku at all. In the meantime, believe the hype – this is definitely worth your time and money.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 13

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By Satoshi Wagahara and 029. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

I’ve said for a while now that this series does a good job of having romantic interests in it but sort of keeping it on the back burner rather than being a full-blown romantic comedy. Well, that changes with this volume, which devotes a large chunk to our heroines and how they feel – in this case, Chiho, who has now confessed to Maou TWICE but still hasn’t gotten much of anything from him, and Rika, who is in love with Ashiya and decides to do something about it when he invites her out for dinner and cellphone buying. Things arguably don’t go well for either of them, but in Chiho’s case there’s a larger issue, which is that she worries that soon she’s going to have to do other human stuff – study for exams, go to college, etc. – and will not see her supernatural friends anymore. Especially given Laila is still trying to get them on board with her big project, which could take a month to complete… or a hundred years.

There are a lot of confrontations in this book, and it’s interesting that some of them we only hear about secondhand. We see a teary Chiho run into Suzuno, but their conversation is heard second-hand later on, and Maou being “punished” for upsetting Chiho is also off screen (well, the setup, anyway). I’m not sure if this is just because the author is trying to keep the books to a certain length, but it is somewhat odd. We do get a great conversation between Chiho and Rika, two characters who are both best friends with Emilia but rarely interact. I worried that Rika and Ashiya’s date would also be off screen, but we do see that, and also Ashiya rejecting her… in fact, he tries to do the “I am too scary, please never see me again” thing, but Rika’s too smart to fall for that, though he is pretty damn scary. I did enjoy seeing Rika tell Chiho that she could possibly be the exception to the “demons don’t have human lovers” thing.

As for the main plot, Laila provides most of the humor in this volume in her desperate attempts to explain why she needs Maou and Emilia’s help. We first hear about the issues via a term paper (no, really, that’s how it reads), and it helps us to understand why everyone is so wary of her – she’s been living on Earth, but is she just an angel in disguise, or is she actively trying to fit in and be human like the others? We eventually find out it’s the latter, and why she’s been so wary of taking anyone to her apartment, in a joke that you can see a mile away but is no less satisfying. It does, however, lead to the big reveal, which is that what Laila is asking will take forever, and some of the people involved are normal humans who will grow old and die. But Maou isn’t… and neither, it turns out, is Emilia, whose half-Angel background means she could live a lot longer than anticipated.

In the end, Maou tries to be nicer about it, but still hasn’t responded to Chiho’s resolve. He can’t keep avoiding it forever, and it’s not as if the answer is “I like Emilia instead”, as he doesnt. If anything, he’s in love with his work. Which is appropriate for this series. What happens next? Can’t wait to find out. Sure hope the next volume isn’t a collection of short stories or something.

Penguin Highway

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By Tomihiko Morimi. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

For once, the book came first here. Yen has started a side business of publishing novelizations based on famous anime movies, but Penguin Highway was a novel turned into a movie. The prose is one of the best reasons to pick it up, as its narrator may be ten years old but he thinks that he’s a precise, logical scientist, and the book has fun with him sounding like this most of the time but sometimes letting the child come through. To Aoyama’s credit, he is pretty damn smart, though his two friends are no slouches either. I don’t remember doing quite as much scientific experimentation when I was their age, but then I was always more arts than sciences. The book helpfully is both, as the basic premise involves things such as eddies in the space-time continuum, but also has the sheer beauty, which must have looked great animated, of a can of Coke transforming into a penguin bit by bit.

As noted, Aoyama is smart and knows it, and tries not to get too egotistical but frequently fails, especially in his narrative headspace. He spends the days hanging out with best friend Uchida and fellow intellectual Hamamoto, avoiding the bullying of Suzuki and his two minions (why is it always one bully and two minions?), and getting his teeth cleaned as much as possible because he has a massive crush on the dental assistant, who is never named but is called “The Lady” throughout. Things are normal till one day, a bunch of penguins suddenly appear in a vacant lot. They don’t seem too bothered by being in Japan rather than Antarctica. Even more disturbing, a clearing in a local forest has The Sea, a giant sphere of water that seems to be influencing local topography. More things to analyze and write down, but also dangerous. And there are blue whales? And creatures that The Lady/Aoyama are calling Jabberwocks. Why is all this happening/ And how does it tie in with The Lady?

The plot is good, but Aoyama’s narrative is the best reason to read it. I started off the book laughing at him, as he sounded very much like a snooty fourth-grader, but as the book went on I really started to be drawn into his world. He is very smart about logical and scientific things, though when it comes to matters of the heart he’s lagging way behind, as even his best friend Uchida is able to see why Hamamoto is mad at him. For much of the book The Lady remains something of an enigma to us, and there are a few red herrings thrown around that are brushed off when the truth comes out (The Lady’s memories of her past, in particular). Also, loved Aoyama and Hamamoto’s dads, who both do their best to fully support their children so long as they don’t run into danger (which they do here, repeatedly).

The story ends on a somewhat bittersweet note, as with the best Japanese novels. It also has an afterword by famous manga author Moto Hagio discussing Aoyama and his tendency to be too clever by half. In the end, I don’t really have much to say about Penguin Highway except it was a really good book, and I’m glad I read it.

Silver Spoon, Vol. 8

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By Hiromu Arakawa. Released in Japan as “Gin no Saji” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

For years before this series got licensed, my joke was always “why is this popular work by the author of hit series Fullmetal Alchemist not licensed?” “IT’S A FARMING MANGA!”. And now that Silver Spoon *is* licensed and doing well (hopefully doing well – you are all buying it, right?), the joke is over but the point remains. Silver Spoon is indeed a coming of age story, and a sweet romance, but it is also, at heart, a farming manga. Arakawa is here to tell everyone exactly what it means to be a farmer in Japan. Sometimes that means taking pages and pages to learn how to make a certain kind of cheese. And sometimes it means taking a long, cold look at how difficult it can be to keep a farm going in modern Japan, as we find out what we suspected all along about Komaba – getting i9nto the Nationals was his last ditch shot, and now he has to drop out as his family’s farm is going bankrupt.

This affects Mikage as well. We’ve seen that she and Komaba have been commiserating about this (and politely telling Hachiken to butt out), and we find out why, as her family are guarantors for the Komaba debt, so this puts them in danger. Hachiken is once again told to butt out… but he refuses to, in one of the best scenes in the book. He can’t given anyone a solution, though he tries hard to find one, going over all the ideas that most of the adults have already thought of and discarded. (Crab!) But he can be moral support, and help Mikage, who is trying to keep up her fake cheer and failing. He can also be there for Komaba, watching as all their beloved cows get taken away to be sold. It’s a depressing scene, and is meant to be. This is something that happens sometimes when people try to keep a farm up0, and it’s never good.

That said, Hachiken’s moral supprt is far more useful in regards to Mikage, who is ready at this point to give up on her own dream just as Komaba has to give up on his. She doesn’t want to run a farm. She wants to work with horses. And, with Hachiken there as moral support, she tells her parents this. This is the other fantastic scene in the book, as it gives us everything we want from these characters. Hachiken’s impetuousness and resolve, Mikage finding it in her to stop repressing her own feelings, her family’s discussion of the big problems with this (her grades, mostly)… and of course there’s room for some humor as well, as the whole thing feels like they’re about to announce they’re engaged, which causes her father to flip out.

The volume ends with Hachiken starting to tutor Mikage, which once again shows off how good he is at teaching/studying, as he realizes that she’s hopeless about memorization unless it involves horses, so frames every Japanese history question in terms of cavalry and the like. It’s both funny AND brilliant, and I hope it pays off. In the meantime, I’d say this is the best volume of Silver Spoon yet, but that does a disservice to the great volumes before this. The whole series is fantastic.

Baccano!: 1934 Peter Pan in Chains: Finale

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By Ryohgo Narita and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

At last we reach the finale of this arc. This being a Narita book, all of the plot bombs that were set up in the prior two volumes go off here, and the result is very satisfying. You get the sense of people growing and changing over the course of the series. Christopher points this out himself, as he notes that after spending time with Ricardo, he doesn’t want to kill people anymore. Meanwhile, Rail, driven to the point of madness and despair, discovers that new families and friends are just as good as the old ones. And Firo once again reveals his dark side to us… but it doesn’t last long. Firo is still Firo, the Peter Pan of the title, and his philosophy allows him to stand up against the murderous Leeza, and also save her. There are a few threats and nasty things going on, but for the most part this is a very feel-good sort of book. You leave it with a smile on your face.

There are a few intertwined plot beats that I really liked. On his train to Chicago, Isaac gets into conversation with Sham, talking philosophy as Sham tries to deal with the face that he’s betraying Huey. Isaac’s “do good things, worry about consequences later” attitude is puzzling to Sham, but not to the reader, who’s seen that over the course of the series. And, as we see, it’s not just Isaac. When Rail tries to end it all by jumping off the top of the Nebula building, Jacuzzi rushes in to stop it even if it means his own life, because that’s just the sort of person he is. And then Nice grabs him, and Miria steps in… hell, even Lua, the most passive character in all of Baccano!, is ready to leap in there to save Rail’s life. It’s a great moment. And, of course, it’s resolved by Isaac, arriving in the nick of time to do what he said he would earlier and joyously reunite with Miria.

It’s not all heartwarming, of course. Ladd’s violence can be terrifying, particularly if you’re Leeza, and it’s nice to see him and Firo in such opposition. The method of Huey escaping Alcatraz is somewhat revolting, and the sort of thing only Huey would even think of doing. And Nice runs into the mob, and her thoughts of how they might deal with her and send her back to Jacuzzi make you shudder. This is a fun world to read about, but a highly dangerous one to live in. That said, in the end this is about not destroying things. Rail doesn’t blow everything up with bombs in the end; Ladd decides to become “a model prisoner” so he can get out of jail sooner and return to Graham and Lua; Christopher and Graham each realize that killing each other is not really what they want. And Renee… well, OK, her ending isn’t so sweet, but there’s no denying she deserved everything she got. Narita loves his smiling amoral villains.

So what happens next? Well, it’s going to take a long time to find out, as we leave the world of the 1930s for a few books. Next time Baccano! goes back to Italy in the early 1700s, as we meet a young Huey Laforet and his burgeoning, if irritating, friendship with a certain Elmer C. Albatross.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season, Vol. 1

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By Mari Okada and Nao Emoto. Released in Japan as “Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Sawa Matsueda Savage.

As the years have gone by, it’s gotten harder and harder to pigeonhole titles into the genre that their magazine is purported to publish. Back in the day there was my “whatever Wings is” joke, but GFantasy, like most Square Enix titles, is for boys in theory only, and Kodansha’s Aria also seemed to slip in and out of genre. And now we have this, which would seem to be a shoujo title judging by the premise and cast, but runs in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, which also hosted the artist’s former work, Forget Me Not (also licensed here by Kodansha). But the writer this time around is Mari Okada, who is famous for her screenplays (notably Anohana) and is now dipping her toe into manga, though I believe this series is also getting an anime later this year. And with all that said, perhaps it was put in Betsushonen because of its subject matter, as despite – or because of – the melodramatic title, this series is about sex entering the lives of its main cast.

The protagonists are the members of the school literature club, who are reading famous and notable books – many of which happen to feature sex scenes, which embarrasses some of them, particularly the prudish and repressed Sonezaki. The star of this first volume, though, is Onodera, a cute girl who happens to suffer from a tragic fate common to many cute girls in high school: her male childhood friend is a hottie. As such, she’s dealing with bullying that is leading her to pull away from him in hopes that it recedes. Things are not helped by the literature club’s steamy titles making her think more and more about her own burgeoning sexuality… and about Izumi’s, as she walks in on him masturbating and, unsurprisingly, can’t stop thinking about it. Is she in love? How does she deal with this? And what about Eseecross, the highly amusing euphemism the club comes up with for sex?

There are a lot of amusing moments in this book, particularly at the start, and mostly driven by the repressed to the point of hysteria Sonezaki. But mostly this runs on melodrama, which Okada is very good at creating, and the runaway emotions of teenagers, which she likewise excels in. Onodera’s dilemma may be something that we’ve read in countless stories before, but you never feel bored with the story, and it’s a compulsive page-turner. There’s also the sense it will be an ensemble piece – another girl, Hongo, is working on being a published author, and another, Sugawara, has been so pretty from a young age that she’s had to deal with creepers since childhood, and has to find ways to get them to back off. And Sonezaki has her own not-so-secret admirer, which leaves her in a complete tizzy.

This isn’t a mature title, but it’s definitely for older teens, with frank discussion of sex and sex euphemisms. That said, the story is very readable, and I definitely recommend it to fans of the authors or just folks who like watching young teens grow up and deal with maturity (and immaturity).

I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse, Vol. 13

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By Namekojirushi and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Ore ga Heroine o Tasukesugite Sekai ga Little Mokushiroku!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mana Z.

We’re starting to run out of series, and so it’s no surprise that we get a school festival here. In fact, it’s two school festivals, as Rekka’s school is combining forces with Hibiki’s school. In fact, this volume really seems to revel in having its cliches and lampshading them too: our heroes get trapped in a game, Rekka has to run around trying to find the key to stopping a bomb from going off; Rekka and Hibiki bump heads and (in the classic tradition) end up inside each other’s bodies, and finally Rekka has to deal with the architect of (almost) all of these, a fortune telling girl who is trying to take Makoto Naegi’s role of Ultimate Lucky Student… though the luck isn’t always welcome. Add to that trying to find room to cram in every single heroine, and you have a book that’s pretty packed despite (as always) a small page count.

Given how huge the cast is already, I am grateful that we once again only have two new heroines. Yorun is a standard RPG girl that the others meet when they’re trapped in a game world, and at first seems to be the same as the other NPCs, but there’s more to it than that, especially since they’re investigating this as a “cursed game” to begin with. The interesting thing about her story is also, to be fair, probably the book’s weak point: it’s not really resolved all that well. Yorun is “rescued” by Rekka, but has already lost damn near everything, and by the end of the novel still has no real clue how to go about getting it back. It feels dissatisfying… but at the same time it’s nice to see that Rekka and his team can’t do EVERYTHING.

The meat of the story lies with the second heroine, Touko, a fortune teller who challenges Rekka to various contests as she’s foreseen that he might actually be able to defeat her – something that no one has ever done as she has reality-warping powers that always make things work for her. The trouble with that is that she feels worse every time she uses them, as she knows that she can’t go nuts – she could literally end hunger, but what would that do to the world? Rekka’s solution to her story is not all that dramatic, but it doesn’t have to be: in the end Touko is sort of the Haruhi Suzumiya of this series, and her “being saved” involves showing her that the world is not, ultimately, as predictable or as small as she thought. It’s a rather sweet, low-key ending to this volume.

We’re three away from the end now, so I suspect that we’re going to get (slightly) more serious going forward. Little Apocalypse will never excite anyone, but it does its premise well, now that it’s mostly abandoned subverting the harem genre.

Outbreak Company, Vol. 8

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By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

After an up-and-down volume of short stories last time, we’re back to one plot for this volume, which I am very grateful for. The premise is that Petralka needs a body double for security reasons, and our heroes get the brilliant idea (it actually is pretty smart, given how magic works here) to construct a puppet Petralka, much like the puppet dragon we saw in previous volumes, and have the puppet stand in for Her Majesty. This will be controlled by Lauron, a young dwarf woman with an immense talent for controlling such things. There are, however, two problems. First, magic has been occasionally vanishing and coming back in the kingdom, and they’re trying to figure out the reason. Secondly, Lauron may be fantastic at manipulating puppets but she has underlying emotional issues that may lead to everything falling apart. Oh yes, and there’s the fact that Shinichi is being accused of “adding to his harem”, which baffles him but merely makes everyone else sigh.

Honestly, for a book with a premise like this, you’d expect more deconstruction of tropes, but frequently the author just decides to write things as they are. As such, Shinichi really is the dense harem protagonist, with not only no idea that a lot of young women have fallen in love with him but no idea that he even has much worth at all. It takes several people to point out that it’s his influence and words that have led so many others in Eldant to grow and change, and even after having it pointed out he still doesn’t quite get it. This does not stop him from figuring out Lauron, an overly serious dwarf who had an incident in her past that led to her being incredibly precise about following rules to the point where breaking ANY rule leads her to become an emotional mess. This is not the subtlest of plots, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and will be interested in seeing how Lauron factors into the cast.

As for the magic part of the plot, it’s almost an Outbreak Company version of Sharknado, as a giant twister is sucking up all the magic in Eldant, and it’s centered on the portal between the fantasy kingdom and Eldant. This leads Shinichi and Minori to briefly realize that fixing this could lead to their being stranded here forever, but fortunately it’s dealt with before that happens, by the fantasy equivalent of hurling a nuclear bomb at it – a bomb that Shinichi and Lauron are able to walk into the castle, gab, and take off, thanks to the crisis and also (it has to be said) really inept security. Shinichi being lectured about not stealing any more nukes amused me, but I was more intrigued by the revelation that some magic has leaked out onto the Japan side of the portal. We haven’t actually been back to Japan proper in the series yet, and I wonder if future books may actually see that happen, if only to stop magical girls from becoming real.

This was a surprisingly strong volume of Outbreak Company, and even had a low quotient of Shinichi leering at boobs. Definitely recommended for fans of the series.

Saint Young Men, Vol. 1

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By Hikaru Nakamura. Released in Japan as “Saint Onii-san” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Morning Two. Released in North America digitally by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Alethea and Athena Nibley.

Over the past few years, there have been fewer and fewer series that you can point to and say “It’s fantastic, but will never be licensed”. The manga market right now is such that risk-taking can be rewarded, and we’ve been very happy to get things like Captain Harlock, Silver Spoon, and (theoretically) Rose of Versailles. That said, Saint Young Men is a special case. Immensely popular both in Japan and here since its debut in 2006, its basic premise made it seemingly radioactive for a long time, and it was assumed that either the author or the publisher had indicated that it was not the right time for it. But times have changed, and even if it’s only digitally for now, we can all now enjoy the adventures of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha living in a small apartment in modern-day Japan and having the time of their afterlives. Having finished the first volume, it’s as fun as advertised.

There’s no real plot to speak of. Each chapter shows us the two leads experiencing something new, be it going to a local pool/sauna, a festival, or (of course) a Buddhist temple. They can both take turns as the boke and tsukkomi, though over the course of the volume Boke Jesus tends to move to the foreground – he’s the more happy go lucky of the two, and doesn’t worry about actual expenses and rent as much as the tighter-wound Buddha. They’re experiencing modern-day Japan, and how they take to it depends very much on what the gag needs to be – sometimes it’s clear they’re fairly new to everything, but then there are the chapters showing us Jesus’ blog, where he reviews all manner of things. Throughout, of course, their character is also informed by their own pasts – we hear about how they both died, and various religious miracles they’ve performed. And the Virgin Mary gets a mention as well. She apparently loves to buy T-shirts.

As you might imagine, there are a lot of obscure references in this volume. The translation is good, but you will find yourself flipping to the endnotes in the back quite a bit. There’s a lot of them – I don’t think I’ve seen so many notes since the days of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei. I do hope that this book does eventually get a print edition, because flipping to the back of the book in a digital version can be a pain – on first read, I just let the references wash over me, and read the notes afterwards. Which is fine when it’s discussing sutras and stigmata, but less so when Jesus starts talking about Leah Dizon. That said, one of the first references, which is that Jesus looks a lot like Johnny Depp, works well in both Japanese and English.

This is probably not a series I’m going to be doing full reviews for every time – it’s a slice-of-life comedy with no plot to speak of. But it’s fun, and funny, and you actually do learn quite a bit about Jesus and Buddha – over half the notes are religion-based. If you’ve been waiting forever to read this officially, now is the time to go get it.

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, Vol. 6

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By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

By the time this volume came out from Earth Star Entertainment, the author already had two other series coming out at the same time via a larger publisher – I Shall Survive Using Potions! and Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement are both Kodansha books. Despite that, this is obviously the “flagship” series. I mention it because in my review of the first Potions book I mentioned that Kaoru was a lot more selfish and morally ambiguous than our sweet, lovable Mile. Which is still… mostly true? I have to say, at times it feels like Mile has sort of lost any of the few restraints that she may have had in the series previously. It’s hard to tell, mostly because Mile had so few restraints, but the chapter with the fairies especially almost features Mile in villain mode. It’s weird. I like Mile sort of sweet and cartoonishly overpowered.

Having featured Adele on the cover of the first book, and Mile on the 4th, we now get Misato on the 6th. She’s the subject of one of the short extras after the main storyline, where we meet her family and learn what she was like before her death that sent her to the world we know. It’s a very interesting chapter, and pretty much distracted me from the rest of the book. Misato’s parents are such old-school otaku that they have a reinforced house to hold the weight of all their manga/VHS tapes/games. And Misato takes after them 100% in terms of her media consumption. That said, Misato is also socially awkward to the nth degree – if it weren’t for her little sister she’d have trouble functioning. The description of her (perfect in school, perfect in athletics, no one wants to get close to her) reminds me a lot of Ran the Peerless Beauty, a shoujo manga I recently reviewed. The text also mentioned Misato has partial face blindness, which I really liked seeing as you rarely see that come up in any fiction. The story shows us that it’s the “Adele” part of Mile that has the extroverted personality, and the “Misato” part is the one with the otaku leanings and the brains.

Speaking of which, one of the stories in this book features a pun so bad that Mile has to lampshade it immediately lest the reader not realize just how bad it is. (You have to know your old robot shows.) The Crimson Vow run rampant through this book, defeating a party of demons, exploring ancient factories, curing a princess of her terminal illness (which turns out to be “she’s a picky eater” and also involves my 2nd favorite moment, when Mile’s overenthusiastic nanomachines invent multivitamins), and running into another all-female hunter team who are rather annoyed that their marriage prospects have suddenly plummeted now that the better-in-every-way Vow have come along. This series is very episodic, so for every clunker of a chapter (one chapter seems to involve Mile being the only one who realizes incest is wrong) there’s another fun one down the road (the other three Vow members trying to live for a few days without Mile, and realizing just how dependent on her they are).

I hear this is getting an anime soon, and you can see why. Each volume reminds you how much fun this is, and also how ridiculously overpowered Mile is. I hope the series survives cranky anime fans yelling about her. It should.

Restaurant to Another World, Vol. 1

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By Junpei Inuzuka and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan as “Isekai Shokudou” by Shufunotomosha. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Elliot Ryouga. Adapted by Nino Cipri.

By now we have had enough of these “foodie” titles out here in the West that it’s not a surprise anymore. Indeed, the light novel was the last one to get a license here, as we’ve already seen Restaurant in Another World’s manga (on the Crunchyroll site) and anime over here. And there are any number of other titles doing very similar things, including Othewrworldly Izakaya Nobu, Cooking with Wild Game, Campfire Cooking in Another World, etc. That said, Restaurant in Another World seems the purest of the titles we’ve seen here. If you’re not fond of descriptions of people eating delicious food, this is absolutely not the book for you, because that’s all it is. Well, OK, that’s not ALL it is. There’s actually a very interesting and varied fantasy world being slowly laid out here. But there’s no plot beyond “fantasy people eat delicious food” until the very, very end.

If you’ve read the manga, or seen the anime, or hell, even looked at the cover art, you may be surprised at who isn’t in this book. Aletta does not show up until the very last chapter, and I believe the other adaptations wrote her into the earlier chapters specially. Instead we get a very simple premise, repeated over and over. Someone comes across a door with a cat picture on it, in the middle of a cave,. or a forest, or a basement, etc, goes through it, and finds themselves in a modern Japanese restaurant that specializes in “Western” cuisine, although how much that specialty is enforced is something of a running gag. There they discover that the food served there is much, MUCH more delicious than the food they get back in their world. The gimmick is that their world is a standard fantasy one, with elves, dwarves, magic users, and adventurers. Once every seven days… they can eat good food.

The chapters are self-contained to a degree. New person, new favorite food, new descriptions of how that food is the absolute best. But they stack on top of each other, so you see the regulars coming back and eating and arguing with each other about food, not necessarily in that order. Another running gag is that they’re known to each other only by their standard meal, so the adventurer girl is “minced meat cutlet”, and the knight is “fried shrimp”, etc. The cast, as I said, run the gamut. There’s dragons who arrive at the very end of the day for beef stew (don’t worry, she can assume human form). There’s vampires in a Romeo and Juliet-style runaway, only they get away with it. There’s Lilliputians who go as an entire village to eat pancakes. And there’s human kids living there too, who get what most human kids in a restaurant want… burgers and fries. And there’s the unnamed chef throughout, smiling and making their food, and occasionally enforcing the peace.

This light novel series is 5+ in Japan, and I’m not sure how long it can sustain its basic premise without adding SOME plot. That may be why Alette was added in the last chapter, so there’s some more regular regulars. But if you enjoyed the manga and anime, or just like food, you should enjoy this. Also, terrific illustrations by Enami, who also illustrates Baccano!.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 20

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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 was possibly easy to predict, after the excitement of the last two books, we’re getting a short story collection here. In fact, the author notes that the plot will basically alternate with these sorts of books from now on, so as not to alienate those who enjoy the lighthearted comedy bits. As such, we get three short stories that were first published online, and one original novella. They all pretty much fulfill the lighthearted part, but as with a lot of Rokujouma, comedy has slowly been replaced by heartwarming as the go-to thing. This is a sweet group of girls, all best friends, all in love with the same guy, and things are great. For a lot of people, this might be annoying, showing off a lack of conflict that helps to drive most series. I find it refreshing. The conflict comes from the enemies in the main plotline. As such, this is basically just pure cuteness.

To no one’s surprise by now, let me focus on my favorite character first. Yurika gets the first story as a focus, and it shows that even though she’s seriously matured and leveled up in the past few books, she is still the same old somewhat whiny, lazy girl who has to be prodded. The difference now is that she CAN be prodded… as well as now Koutarou realizes how he feels about her. The first story deals with the cosplay club hearing (by mistake) that Yurika is going to stop wearing magical girl “costumes”. They know the main reason why girls stop cosplaying – they get a boyfriend. The rest of the story is them hilariously finding they’re right – sort of. To the outside observer, Yurika has become a “reajuu” – she has a great boyfriend, a nice best friend, and a fulfilling life. To the outside observer only, of course. The other two short stories deal with a) Sanae and Ruth peering into Koutarou’s dreams, and realizing he has a ways to go to be healed, and b) Maki and Theia finding that though they may be opposites in many ways, they can still bond as good friends.

The story that takes up the second half of the book is a cooking competition for the school festival, with all the girls competing and Koutarou the judge. This ranges from the obvious (Kiriha and Ruth are great cooks) to the good character building (Yurika is forcibly taught by Shizuka, and her efforts pay off for Koutarou if not anyone else – she didn’t burn or otherwise ruin it) to amusing fun (everything about Clan’s SCIENCE! dish). Moreover, it helps to hammer home one of the main themes of this “harem” series – Koutarou likes them all equally. He gives everyone the same score – even Clan’s “meal” – as to him, they’re all great as the girls all put their heart into them. For a lot of other series, this would make Koutarou into a bland milquetoast protagonist, and to be fair he had elements of this at the start. But he’s developed too, to the point where the reader can smile and nod when this occurs.

So overall a really nice volume, and a good break before we no doubt go off into SPAAAAAAAACE! next time.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol 17.

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Yona of the Dawn Volume 17 by Mizuho Kusanagi

I’m always curious when a new arc of Yona of the Dawn starts, because Kusanagi manages to create situations and plot elements that seem new and fresh in the context of a long-running series. At the same time she continues to explore themes that are present throughout the series with more depth, like Yona grappling with the legacy of her father’s lack of consideration and thought for the people who he used to rule.

Yona and her companions head towards the border of Kai, where they meet a young boy named Kalgan who proposes marriage to Yona after she shoots a bird to provide him with with some money. Kalgan wandered over from the Kai empire and is stranded, so Yona decides to escort him back to his village, a border town that has been fought over between Kai and Kohka for years. Yona’s Dragon Warriors begin to fall ill, and they need to recuperate for a time in the village where most of the residents are deeply suspicious of them. War is drawing near as well, as Su-Won and his army start to attack the Kai empire.

So far, most of the Dragon Warriors have gotten some solid character development and backstory in Yona of the Dawn, but Zeno has largely been an enigma. This volume finally showcases his unique abilities and role as Yona’s protector. For the Hak fans (and who isn’t a Hak fan!?) there are some great scenes of him taking on a wayward army, determined to take out their anger at losing a battle on innocent civilians. As Yona learns more and more about the dark side of human nature, she becomes more resolute about helping people. I’m curious to see how she manages to resolve the current crisis, I’m not sure if even she can pull of pacifying an angry army. This series is consistently rewarding to read, and one of the best fantasy shoujo series that Shojo Beat has published.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, Vol. 1

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By Rifuin Na Magonote and Shirotaka. Released in Japan as “Mushoku Tensei – Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Tranlated by Kevin Frane and Paul Cuneo. Adapted by JY Yang.

As the URL of this review may indicate, I had reviewed the first volume of the Mushoku Tensei manga when it came out back in the day. I wasn’t all that impressed with it. That said, having finished the light novel that the manga is based on, I am changing my tune slightly. This reads much better in prose. In particular, it works its isekai tropes into the plot better than the manga, which tended to gloss over Rudy’s every action being influenced by his previous life. This was one of the first really popular isekai novels, and to a certain degree many other series either rip off or parody what’s going on here, meaning that sometimes you can be reading things and waiting for a punchline that isn’t coming because it’s taking things seriously. On the bright side, that’s rather refreshing, and I also enjoy that the series has time to flesh out the rest of its non-Rudy cast.

The book starts with a portrait of our hero’s previous life, and I would not blame the reader for giving up here, as he’s rather loathsome. Luckily, Truck-kun is there to take care of things, and in no time he finds himself reborn in a different world, with his previous memories intact. He resolves that he’s going to do a better job with his life this time around, and sets about trying to learn magic, learn swordplay, and be a good son. All this before he turns seven years old! Rudy tends to be a bit too perfect, much to the consternation of the family maid, and contrasts with his flaky father. But he’s also allowed to have some standard light novel character flaws, most notably being a perv (which can be unsettling given his age) and also mistaking a young elf girl for a guy just because she has short hair and is wearing pants.

I figure most people reading this are very familiar with reincarnation/isekai titles, and you’re not going to be surprised at what happens within when it comes to the setting. Lots of discussion of magic to a somewhat tedious degree, etc. Rudy’s teacher Roxy is quite interesting, and I was annoyed that she vanished halfway through the book – she deserves a spinoff manga of some sort. Possibly one coming out next week. Most impressive to me was Rudy’s family, and the depth they all had – his father Paul has trouble keeping it in his pants, and this could have led to disaster were it not for peacemaker Rudy. That said, Rudy may grow up to be like dear old Dad. There are a few moments in this book where the author suddenly remembers he has to be perverse, and they stick out oddly (Rudy coming across Roxy masturbating while watching his parents having sex) and sometimes creepily (infant Rudy likes breasts based on his past life, and NO THANK YOU). At least the maid notices that it’s creepy.

I may not see much of Rudy’s family for a bit – in order to make sure that he and his somewhat codependent childhood friend don’t damage each otehr’s growth, his father sends him off to tutor some ways away, and that is presumably where the second book will start off. Moments of awkward sleaziness aside, I was pleasantly surprised with Mushoku Tensei, which takes its reincarnation premise seriously and doesn’t subvert, satirize or parody it.

Kitaro: Kitaro’s Yokai Battles

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By Shigeru Mizuki. Released in Japan as “Gegege no Kitaro” by Kodansha and Shogakukan, serialized in various magazines. Released in North America by Drawn & Quarterly. Translated by Zack Davisson.

This is not the first time that we’ve seen Shigeru Mizuki write himself and his family into a manga. Heck, it’s not even the first time he’s been in Kitaro. But the story “Oboro Guruma”, which is the highlight of this volume, really takes it further and involves Mizuki in the most metatextual way possible. At a coffeeshop he’s going to to avoid work and family (remember, no one puts himself down quite like Mizuki does), he runs afoul of the yakuza, but is saved by… Kitaro and Nezumi Otoko, who are in the same coffeeshop. He brings them home and lets them stay with his family, and they start to bond with the local neighbors. But then the entire town is covered in a strange gas, isolating it from the rest of Japan. The story alternates between what’s actually happening (it’s a yokai – try to contain your shock) and how Mizuki is dealing with it (by being somewhat weak and lazy – again, try to contain your shock).

Every single review of these titles I seem to talk about Nezumi Otoko, so I will confine myself this time to noting that the volume opens with him seeing Kitaro on a horse, hitting him over the head with a club, dope slapping him, and stealing the horse. It’s so beautifully in character I wanted to cry. Instead, though, I will talk about Kitaro, who actually isn’t at his best here. Kitaro tends to be a cypher at the best of times, and while he can sometimes be pretty righteous for the most part he tends to go with the flow in a stoic sort of way. The usual Kitaro way of fighting is to somehow get killed/beaten up, come back in a weird supernatural way, and then find a way to defeat the yokai that did him harm. In this volume, though, he really seems to be put through the wringer, and there’s less of him being clever.

Kitaro as a manga tends to be somewhat silly, particularly in the resolutions, and this one tops itself quite a bit. I was highly amused at Kitaro almost getting killed by having teeth spit at him, and the poop gags that tend to be rife in shonen manga of this period are here as well, as at one point the victims of a yokai are excreted. Topping them all, though, is Kitaro getting the crap kicked out of him, to the point where his head is covered in bumps (cartoon-style)… and then having those bumps launch as missiles to counterattack. It’s so incredibly silly, and yet it also shows off the sheer brilliance of Mizuki’s imagination. He may confine himself to yokai here, but you see why – despite telling essentially the same story over and over (a yokai is doing bad things, Kitaro stops it), the series is never boring.

I believe that the next volume, out early next year, will be the final one in these omnibus collections. They’re all worth picking up. Kitaro is a style of manga that is both very reminiscent of the late 60s manga style and yet also timeless. It’s also very re-readable. Highly recommended.