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Reviews

Toradora!, Vol. 1

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By Yuyuko Takemiya and Yasu. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by J.P. Sullivan.

This really isn’t a review for the Toradora! newbie. It’s been about 8 years since the manga debuted over here, and I still think the main reason Seven Seas licensed the novels is that they got tired of the slow schedule for the Japanese manga releases. The anime is also ten years old this fall. And, sorry about this, but like A Certain Magical Index, Toradora! is one where I did read the fan translated novels, as I had no confidence it would ever be licensed. I mean, there’s no supernatural content in it! But the novels are finally out in North America, and I am pleased, as I really love the story and characters and want to experience them the way they were originally intended. Which, oddly enough, means reading this book like a stand-alone, as it was clearly written. Despite the author’s afterword saying to look forward to more, the book itself wraps everything up (if slightly ambiguously) in one package.

I’ll do a quick summary, just in case any readers who hadn’t experienced this series finished that last paragraph. Ryuuji is a young man who has “angry eyes” (see also Haganai), and has dealt with people misunderstanding him because of it. But now he’s in high school, and can make a fresh start. That is until he runs into Taiga, a short and angry girl who is a giant cloud of issues all bubbling to the surface. Due to various misunderstandings which make up the bulk of the book, each realizes that they love someone else – Ryuuji loves Taiga’s best friend Minori, and Taiga loves Kitamura, a charming and bespectacled young man in their class. Ryuuji, who is a very nice guy, and not in the modern sense of “nice guy”, tries to help Taiga win her love. This is difficult, because it’s really clear from the start that Ryuuji and Taiga are perfect for each other.

Later in these volumes (the series runs to ten books plus side stories) there is an attempt to try to ‘balance’ the harem a bit, adding another girl and showing more of Minori’s feelings about Ryuuji. But honestly, I hope anyone who doesn’t like Taiga knows enough to stop reading and find another property, because Taiga is absolutely Best Girl here. Taiga is less of a tiger and more of a miniature hurricane, leaving chaos and destruction in her wake. As for Ryuuji, he’s a sweetie pie, something Taiga straight up says near the end of the book. He’s dealing with a lot, and his natural inclination is to try to help this chaotic event that has just strolled into his life. Fortunately, he is the rock that Taiga can cling to.

There’s a few things in this book that make it feel like a first volume – in particular, Minori and Kitamura aren’t given the chance to be as eccentric or deep as they become later on. And Seven Seas’ translation has a few issues – I did notice one point where Ryuuji’s mom, Yasuko, should have been speaking but the paragraph got mangled a bit. Still, any Toradora! fan will want to read this, primarily for the amazing chemistry between its two leads.

Dorohedoro, Vol. 22

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By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hibana. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by AltJapan Co., Ltd. (Hiroko Yoda + Matt Alt).

In general, one does not really read Dorohedoro for the romantic pairings. That isn’t to say there aren’t any in the fandom, or even in the manga itself. Noi pretty clearly has a giant crush on Shin, though it’s uncertain if it will be requited. There’s something going on between Ebisu and Fujita, though given the way the author uses Ebisu as sort of a walking disaster, I’m not certain if that will go anywhere either. And then there’s Caiman and Nikaido, which honestly has gotten the least attention. Yes, Caiman has a lizard head, and they’ve spent a great deal of the story separated from each other for one reason or another, but the writing of the series also seemed to indicate that these two were more “best buds” than anything else. But romantic or no, the two have one of the strongest bonds in the series, and the events of this volume try their damnedest to strengthen it and tear it to bits.

Actually, Nikaido gets more to do here than in any of the volumes since we found out about her backstory. She’s finally fully evolved into a devil, and is ready to take on the massive sorcerer-killing THING that’s walking all around the Hole and its environs ramping up the body count massively. (Yes, despite the fact that I say this literally every review, a word of warning: this volume of Dorohedoro is astonishingly violent and gory.) But even the Store Knife that cuts everything may not get them out of this one. The creature (which Chidaruma, who spends the entire volume essentially being Deadpool, nicknames “Holey”) has a one-track mind, immense powers, and the ability to defend itself to a ridiculous degree, which includes making miniature rainstorms to wipe out a group of sorcerers who took shelter in the hospital. It’s really not a good volume to be a sorcerer, and lots of the future corpses mention that they’re connected to En’s group. That said, the characters we actually know from said group seem to be OK for now.

As for Nikaido, she does an awesome job, but let’s face it, by the end of the volume she’s been killed, used up her time travel abilities, is no longer a devil, and then is killed AGAIN. It’s just not her day. The most interesting part of the volume may be her discussion with Asu and Caiman about the way she views time-travel, which doesn’t quite mesh with most time-travel narratives a reader may have come across before. It’s always nice when Dorohedoro slows down long enough to have these conversations. Of course, the question now is whether they’ll be much of a cast left to deal with things after this. I’m taking a wild guess that Caiman will be able to do something about Nikaido, but that likely doesn’t fix the overall disasters that are befalling this entire world, and En and company aren’t in good shape either. Can Dorohedoro ever get back to some sort of equilibrium by its finale? Dunno, but I’m in this for the long haul.

Cutie Honey A Go-Go

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Cutie Honey a Go Go! is not a conventionally good manga: the plot is riddled with holes, the story lacks a proper conclusion, and the characters are paper-thin. Yet for all its obvious limitations, Cutie Honey a Go Go! is cheeky fun in the manner of an Austin Powers movie; it’s a cartoon of a cartoon, an irreverent send-up of the source material that simultaneously captures the original manga’s naughty tone while updating the plot and characters for contemporary readers.

Cutie Honey a Go Go! borrows liberally from Hideaki Anno’s 2004 film and Go Nagai’s original 1973 manga, mixing elements of both with a few new flourishes. In Cutie Honey a Go Go!, for example, Aki Natsuko is no longer a blushing school girl with a crush on her android sempai, but a hard-charging special agent who faces down danger with the brash confidence of a Harrison Ford character. Aki and Cutie’s arch nemesis Sister Jill has likewise gotten a makeover, from whip-wielding bad girl to wicked android intent on world domination. The signature elements of Nagai’s original story remain intact, however: Cutie Honey is still an impossibly innocent, cheerful android whose clothing dissolves to tatters every time she powers up, and her main opponents are the Panther Claw ladies, a group of monstrous beauties who work for Sister Jill.

Though manga-ka Shimpei Itoh’s action scenes are clumsy, his character designs are a playful nod to the era that begat Cutie Honey, straddling the fence between retro and modern. The Panther Claw gang look like Betty Paige cosplayers, busty gals in barely-there costumes that feature leopard spots and extra arms, while Cutie Honey rocks her signature pixie cut and a backless jumpsuit that David Lee Roth might have worn in 1984. It’s hard to be offended by the T&A, though, since Cutie Honey a Go Go! resembles a 1962 issue of Playboy more than a volume of Air Gear; there’s a pin-up coyness about Itoh’s cheesecake that renders these images benign. It’s also difficult to be offended by a manga that works so hard to entertain the reader with its anything-for-a-laugh jokes, over-the-top battle sequences, and campy dialogue. I found its unironic goofiness charming — costume failures and all — and think you might, too. Recommended.

Cutie Honey a Go Go!
Original Story by Go Nagai; Story & Art by Shimpei Itoh; Planning Cooperation by Hideaki Anno
Translated by Zack Davisson and Adrienne Beck
Seven Seas, 400 pp.
Rated T, for Teen (Nudity and bloodless violence)

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, Vol. 1

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By Yu Okano and Jaian. Released in Japan as “Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha” by Overlap, Inc. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Shirley Yeung.

My readers by now should be well aware that it doesn’t take much for me to be happy with what I’m reading. Usually, particularly in the case of light novels, I either really like a unique take on the standard premise, or I like a book that is the standard premise but with a twist that surprises and pleases me. This new series definitely falls into the latter category. Despite the fact that I can’t really remember a book over here that begins with the hero dying and becoming undead, the execution of most of the book is pretty much what you’d expect. He tries to come to terms with his new unlife, he fights monsters in the dungeon and levels up, he meets the occasional newbie adventurer and helps them, and he tries to see if there is any way that he can somehow evolve enough to regain his humanity. Where I feel the book really succeeds, though, is in showing the reader the disconnect between our hero’s perspective of himself and the rest of the cast.

Our hero is Rentt Faina, who is a bronze-level adventurer hunting monsters in the lesser of the two dungeons his village has. He’s one step above newbie, but still a bronze level adventurer – after ten years of trying. The problem is that he has a little talent in everything but not a lot in anything. What’s more, he accidentally finds an uncharted part fo the dungeon… and immediately runs into a dragon, who essentially kills him. When he wakes up, he’s a skeleton, but still retains his memories – and powers, which is surprising given one of them is basically godly blessings against undead. Everything that Rentt narrates about himself paints him as a useless, somewhat stubborn schmuck who should have realized he’s just not any damn good at adventuring and retired ages ago to find something better to do.

Except we then slowly learn about the village Rentt lives in, its adventurers, guild, and other associated parties. And to them, Rentt is not only one of the most important people in the village but the reason the village is so successful at all. He’s only a bronze level adventurer because he has low abilities, but his KNOWLEDGE is that of a 10-year-old veteran. What’s more, he’s a decent, moral person. The Guild essentially relies on Rentt to train all the newbies so that they learn and grow the proper way. The higher-up adventurers who travel through the larger, more famous dungeon in town all got their start with Rentt. The idea that he hasn’t returned from the dungeon worries and upsets them. I cannot say enough how much I loved this. There’s a scene where Rentt visits the blacksmith and his wife, who knew him before, and tries to pass himself off as this cowled, mysterious OTHER guy who happens to have Rentt’s exact power skill. From Rentt’s POV, he feels bad he can’t say anything but is happy he can at least get a new sword. From the POV of the blacksmith and his wife, it’s “why isn’t he saying anything? Doesn’t he trust us?”.

This is, honestly, one of the two reasons to read the book. The other is Lorraine, one of the three women on the cover (don’t worry, it’s not really a harem), a young mad scientist and Rentt’s best friend. Her mad science is amusing, as is her devotion to the (of course) clueless Rentt, to the point where she’s willing to let him bite and drink her blood in order to save him, and is rather sad when he heals her completely later. I like female mad scientists in general, b ut the other thing about Lorraine is that when she’s giving exposition about the world and its mechanics, it actually sounds interesting. When Rentt is doing it in his monologue – which is sadly a great deal of the book – it reads like, well, the other 85 light novels you’ve recently read where the lead takes one hundred pages to explain the mechanics of dungeon crawls to the reader.

So yeah, there’s a lot of Rentt, and Rentt’s own monologue makes him seem like someone you would not want to read about. However, the alternate story being told around Rentt is fantastic, and I want to see more of it. As such, I’d definitely recommend carrying on with this series.

[New Life+] Young Again in Another World, Vol. 2

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By Mine and Kabocha. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

There were certain things I asked for in my review of the first volume of this series, and to its credit I sort of get some of them. The writing is far more consistent in tone for this second volume, and while there are still “gosh, big breasts!” scenes, they’ve gotten smaller in number. I also think I have more of a handle on why this series in particular may have been licensed – the hero’s pragmatism I think would greatly appeal to the sort of online reader of isekais who hates isekai heroes. Several times in this book Renye does things that are, while not exactly bad, at least on the morally grey end of the spectrum. That said, he also gets to have a nice cool fight at the end, so it’s not all cynical. I would like, however, to see if this series has an overarching plot beyond “I want to buy a house and make better bread”. So far, it doesn’t seem to.

For those of you looking at that cover and thinking “gosh, I hope that’s real yuri and not just godawful pandering”, I’m afraid to say your hopes are in vain. In fact, the big drawback in this second volume is that both Shion and Rona get much less to do this time around. Shion is a big shiny ball of naive gumption, so it doesn’t matter as much in her case. But given that Rona was the main reason that I read this series beyond the first volume, the fact that she spends most of the time being the “long-suffering minder” sort is quite disappointing. Also, while I usually don’t really care as much that the heroes is so overpowered it’s ridiculous, it did bother me in the ending fight here, as it meant that all the other cast had to be beaten so hard that it amounted to a one-on-one battle. Which is a shame, as Renye is, to be honest, not the most charismatic person in the world. I prefer bland and nice to bland and grim.

Other things to mention: Since I brought up Renye’s overpowered skills already, I will note that his magic training did amuse me greatly, and it’s always funny whenever he thinks that he’s really weak or average at something but it turns out to be ludicrously over the top instead. There is also a lot of discussion of the making and preparing of food – I realize that foodie series are the new vampires/ninjas/Alices, but still wasn’t expecting it in a series like this. (Speaking of which, it’s surprising that Cooking with Wild Game hasn’t been licensed by now…) And there’s a side story where Renye briefly turns into a woman, causing Shion and Rona to briefly lose their minds. I’ve come to the conclusion that when I see “side story” at the end of these isekai volumes, it’s almost always going to be annoying fanservice.

As I said at the start, the prose is settling down a bit, and I’m starting to see why this ran for so many volumes in Japan. But I think it needs a better hook than it has, and an actual overarching plot. Till then, I’d only recommend New Life Plus to people who like more cynical heroes, or who like to admire the girls.

In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 8

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

Sometimes I wonder if the author of this series is even aware of the disquieting implications of what he writes. At times it looks like he is. The start of this volume has Touya discovering, at last, the Library of Babylon, with its ridiculous number of ancient scripts. Leen, who is over the moon about this, proposes to Touya on the spot. Touya is rather nonplussed by this, as is the reader, because in the last seven volumes we’ve seen nothing that puts Leen on the same level as the other girls in love with Touya. Indeed, later on the rest of the fiancees confront her and express doubts as well. It’s nice to see the author realized he didn’t really do enough foreshadowing. Sadly, the entire situation is resolved in about three paragraphs, after which she’s given a pass. So maybe the author is not as aware as I’d like.

That said, Leen is now a fiancee, which means she gets the main bonus of Touya turning into a raging villain whenever anyone threatens to rape her, something which happens a lot more in this series than I’d like. Again, because Touya is so bland of a protagonist, the fact that he’s casually cursing evil mooks with curses that are brutally horrific gives the reader a giant sense of disconnect. We also get more examples of his ridiculous power here, though that’s downplayed by the occasional bout of stupidity he has, like “oh, right, I really should give my kingdom laws”, or “maybe I shouldn’t have gone off somewhere with my new fiancee and not told any of the others.” (This also allows Leen to be blushy and embarrassed, which honestly seems grotesquely out of character for her.)

The plot, as with most Smartphone books, is divided into three. First we get the discovery of the library and its bookaholic maintainer, as well as Leen’s proposal. Next, young dragons are attacking cities, and it’s up to Touya and company to teach them a lesson. Finally, there’s a new dungeon that’s been discovered, leading Touya to do some dungeon crawling, something he really hasn’t done in his series, as opposed to most isekai titles like this. This leads to the discovery of a slaver ring, which Touya needs to break up. Oh, and we also have the Storehouse and its dojikko maintainer. Side stories include Leen needing to get permission from the fairies to get married, which mostly involves her upset kohai, as well as Regina Babylon, who does a lot in this series despite being dead, tricking Touya and company into playing an embarrassing real-life board game, which is mostly an excuse for fanservice. It also allows Touya to briefly have a libido, something he only seems to gain in these side stories.

Again, Isekai Smartphone is one of those series you’ll enjoy if you’ve enjoyed previous volumes, and after briefly making me think it would turn it up a notch has settled back down into “not good but entertaining”. Which is fine, I like being entertained, but don’t think I don’t notice the major characterization issues on display here.

The Asterisk War: The Triumphal Homecoming Battle

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

New semester, new characters, new translator, it’s all new on the Asterisk War front. That said, I would not call this the start of a new arc, really. This book seems to be entirely concerned with putting pieces in place to set up the next few books. Sometimes this works well – the villain of the book is suitably arrogant and snotty, and you will enjoy his defeat – and sometimes it feels like it’s been shoehorned in – Orphelia essentially drops in to reveal who she is and her connection to Julis before going away for the rest of the book. Everyone’s schemes seem to have one think in common, though, which is to stop Claudia winning the next section of the tournament. This is because of her wish, which we are told several times we’re going to hear but never do. And certainly our main five characters would make quite a team if they can all work together, so the bad guys have good reason to worry.

We’ve moved a few months along after the battle of the last three books, and I am very happy o see we won’t have to deal with wacky classroom comedy like a lot of other magical school series. Instead Julis invites everyone to her home country, which is the ever popular “tiny country somewhere in Central Europe” that fantasy authors seem to love, so that she can visit the orphanage she saved by winning the tournament and also catch up with her brother the King. Of course, Julis lacks self-awareness (something she shares with Ayato at times), so is not sure why there’s suddenly a giant parade in her honor, or a party set up to show her off. She’s insanely popular now. Also, the country and various organizations seem to be shipping her with Ayato, which should go well as the author is as well, despite all the fanservicey harem illustrations. Unfortunately, there’s also a group out to kill her, and they’ve sent an assassin who can create magical beasts. Oh yes, and Julis’ old childhood friend shows up. Sadly, she’s evil now.

As I’ve said before (possibly in every single review), no one reads Asterisk War for the plot twists. Everything develops the war you think it is going to develop. But the book also exhibits a basic level of competence that makes me quite happy to keep reading it, and the girls are all harem ‘types’ without quite being boring cliches. I am looking forward to the main cast teaming up with Claudia, if only as I find Claudia’s powers and backstory the most interesting of them. Everyone gets something cool to do in the final battle, and there’s some decent discussion of politics. And oh yes, after Ayato asid his wish was for his sister to be found last time… his sister is found. Sadly, that doesn’t really do him much good, abut at least he knows her circumstances now.

This takes us to the end of the Asterisk War anime adaptation, so new volumes should be new content. I am aware that the anime was unpopular, but I’ve never had an issue with the books. Perhaps it reads better in prose. (More likely it’s because I’ve never read Chivalry of a Failed Knight.) I’d still recommend Asterisk War to anyone who likes magical fighting school series, it is a nice light snack of a novel.

Hungry for You: Endo Yasuko Stalks the Night, Vol. 1

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By Flowerchild. Released in Japan by Shonen Gahosha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Comic. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Christine Dashiell. Adapted by Casey Lucas.

Mever let it be said that the author isn’t putting all her cards on the table here. The cover, which features our titular heroine carrying a blood bag stand, boxes of tomatoes, drinking tomato juice, with with garlic streaming behind her… yeah, this is a vampire manga. And a very silly vampire manga – indeed, the selling point is the humor, rather than the vampirism, though there is the occasional semi-serious element. Mostly what we see here is Endo Yasuko (the vampire) becoming friends with (somewhat by force) Mikaoka Shizue, her self-proclaimed emergency rations. (Given this is a Shonen Gahosha title, I have to wonder if the Excel Saga allusion is deliberate or not.) There has been a string of murders of young women at their school… but is Yasuko really responsible? And perhaps most importantly: is this series actually yuri, or just suggestive and fanservicey?

There’s actually more going on here than I expected with a premise like “comedic vampire girl’. It’s not as slice-of-life as you’d think. As the book goes on, Shizue tries to subtly figure out what really happened with the murders of the three girls, and also see how Yasuko actually deals with her victims. She herself is a victim (mostly willingly) a few times, but it’s clear Yasuko is holding herself back. There’s also a few new characters introduced to help expand things – the overly bitter student who has an ax to grind uses her daddy’s money to hire a vampire hunter from Texas of all places. Vampire hunter is also a teen girl, and in perhaps the most surprising move of the volume starts off as being completely unable to speak Japanese but by the end of the book is almost fluent in it – she is a funny foreigner, but it’s less because of her mangled Japanese and more because of her growing obsession with manzai humor.

This series runs in Young Comic, which is not QUITE as salacious and sex-filled as its sister magazine Young King but comes close. As such, I was rather surprised that there wasn’t more fanservice – this is definitely a Seven Seas title, rather than their Ghost Ship line. There’s the occasional emphasis on Yasuko’s large breasts, and Yasuko and Shizue share a bedroom but nothing really happens. Honestly, this is really somewhat pure. It becomes fairly clear by the end of the book that Yasuko likely ISN’T responsible for the murder of the three girls, though it’s not made clear who is, and Yasuko is going to have a lot of trouble proving her innocence, especially since the police are now sniffing around. There’s also Itami Mitsuri, who seems to be a typical Gal but one or two scenes suggest she may also have supernatural origins. That said, right now she seems to be harassing the heroine more through social media than anything else.

This is a cute, funny title, though I’m not sure where it’s going to be going. If you like vampires and are looking for a less serious take on the genre, you may want to give it a try.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 10

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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.

It’s never a good sign when you can start to see the author and editor’s plotting and scheming as you’re reading a book. I’m not sure which took priority here – if the author decided that he’d had enough of the Enta Isla plot and wanted to end it fast with this volume, or if an editor convinced him to do the same – but there’s no doubt about it, this volume is rushed as hell. That’s not to say there aren’t good scenes or ongoing deep characterization – Emi remains a highlight, and Maou’s use of pizza delivery scooters as a weapon may be one of the funniest bits in the series. But when you take what should have been one of the more dramatic scenes of the book and turn it into a one-page summary by the involved parties after the fact, it’s hard not to be disappointed. Someone at some point said “This isn’t working, let’s solve it quickly and get back to McRonald’s where this series belongs”.

We pick up right from where we left off last time. Emi and Ashiya are being forced to fight to the death thanks to Olba’s scheming, and Suzuno and Maou are trying to stop it. Unfortunately, Maou is still without his demonic powers, so he gets left behind to babysit Alciel. The keyword here is ‘breakneck’, as events happen very fast, allowing Maou to get to where he’s needed and solve what’s happened to him. We get a lot of discussion about what the Yesod fragments really are, and it turns out that they are not really a binary ‘good/evil’ at all – no surprise there, as part of the main plot of this series is that the humans, demons and angels are all basically very similar rather than higher or lower beings. The whole shebang is resolved by a) Maou beating everyone up once he’s back to full power, and b) a deus ex machina that’s a bit ridiculous, so I won’t spoil it here. And Crestia Bell’s righteous religious fury is always fun to see.

Again, the best part of this book was Emi, even though she ends the book at her lowest ebb. She’s reunited with her father, but after being away from work for over a month she’s pretty much fired, and thus unlikely to keep her swank apartment. Rika’s suggestion of working at McRonald’s and moving to Maou’s apartment complex may sound like the author talking instead of her, but it honestly comes as a relief. Now that Emi is no longer trying to kill Maou whenever she sees him, and in fact realizing (slowly) she has feelings for him, it makes far more sense for her to be involved in the action more. So as a setup for future books, I’m very pleased. Unfortunately, as a wrapup to this arc in particular, this book is really not that great a success. I still love the series, but I’m happy to see it moving back to Japan – as is everyone involved, I suspect.

Kenka Bancho Otome, Vol 1

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Kenka Bancho Otome by Chie Shimada

Kenka Bancho Otome has many elements that I like present in a single manga. There is a reverse harem scenario in which a girl has to dress as a boy! It is an adaptation of an otome game, and I enjoy the occasional otome game (still playing Ninja Shadow). Also, there is punching and juvenile delinquency involved, and I do greatly appreciate shoujo manga heroines with the ability to perform acts of physical strength.

One thing I found absolutely hilarious was the way the set-up for the whole manga was taken care of in about 5 panels. Hinako, an orphan, is about to start her high school career at an all girls school, when she brushes against a boy who fakes a violent fall. The mysterious boy’s manservant tells her that he has broken his arm, and Hinako is forced to attend his school entrance ceremony in his place. Conveniently, the “injured” boy is Hinako’s doppleganger. She finds herself dressed as a boy, attending an all boys school for juvenile delinquents. Hinako is cosplaying as Hikaru Onigashima, the son of a yakuza boss, whose family obligations require him to become the boss of the school by beating up everyone around him. I sort of wish the rest of the manga took place at such a breakneck speed, but I’m sure that would not be practical to execute.

This being an adaptation of an otome game, handsome boys of different types are introduced in short succession. There’s the mysterious dark-haired uppperclassman with a secret shared past with Hinako, a sporty exuberant boy who blushes all the time, a silent boy with hidden depths, and a flamboyant rock star. I can’t remember their names because the characters are not really all that memorable, but that’s not really the point! Kenka Bancho Otome steps through many standard shoujo plot points with a breezy charm and attractive character designs. It did make me wish that the game was available on android, because I totally would have played it after reading the manga. On that level, I think the manga is a success. It was fun to read, mainly because I’m always up for punching and reverse harem manga. On the other hand, any otome game adaptation isn’t going to have the emotional depth of a manga like Hana Kimi or the hilarity of a series like Oresama Teacher. So Kenka Bancho Otome is nice and diverting, when someone might be in the need of a pleasant distraction, which is a mood I find myself in most of the time.

One Piece, Vol. 86

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By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Food has always played an important role in One Piece, from Luffy’s voracious appetite to Sanji’s chef skills. And in this arc we’ve seen the dangers of food as well in a kingdom where everything is edible. But I don’t think we’ve ever quite gotten as terrifying as Big Mom and her backstory, one of the most truly unnerving and creepy moments in the entire series, especially because it’s implied – we don’t quite see it, as we’re seeing things from Charlotte Linlin’s point of view. Big Mom is certainly the villain of this arc, but I’m not sure we’ve seen a villain quite as psychologically damaged from a very young age as she’s been, and it makes her ravenous appetite far less of a joke than it had previously seemed (and it was always meant to be disturbing). Kudos to Oda for getting really, really dark here.

Elsewhere in the volume, it’s becoming more apparently that Jimbei actually IS going to be a new crewmember, provided he manages to survive the upcoming battle without a tragic sacrifice. This is actually rather interesting, as he’s the first semi-serious crewmember to be added since Nico Robin. Jimbei’s really cool here, standing up to Big Mom and refusing to cower, and I’m actually looking forward to seeing what he brings to the crew. Admittedly, the gender imbalance of the crew is starting to show itself a bit as well. Maybe we can get Vivi back? It’s certainly not going to be Charlotte Pudding, who despite her best efforts to be super evil, and her genuine irritation at Sanji’s goofy pervert persona, is backsliding into being a good person. I’m not sure how happy I’ll be with this, we’ll have to see.

As for Luffy, I have to hand it to him, that was a very clever (and funny) way to crash the wedding, and shows that he’s starting to strategize rather than just burst in fists akimbo – or rather, he still bursts in but works strategy into it. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned (big surprise there), and it looks as if we’re settling in for the long haul, introducing several of the Charlotte family to no doubt battle our heroes one by one and show off their quirks… sorry, Devil Fruit Powers. I have to say I won’t cry if Capone ends up dying (though it’s always hard to have actual named characters die in One Piece), given that his plan to take out Big Mom relied on basic mental cruelty. I was also amused at the Straw Hat Crew (even Nami!) all sleeping like the dead before the big event, because, as Jimbei points out, they’ve been running flat out for days before this.

I suspect the next couple of volumes are going to be pure chaotic fighting, though hopefully it won’t go quite as long as Dressrosa. Still, this was a stronger volume of Once Piece than we’ve seen lately, and I look forward to seeing how that chaos plays out. Definitely recommended for fans.

Also, the Grand Line has a Pleasure District? How adult!

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Vol. 2

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By Fuse and Mitz Vah. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken” by Micromagazine Publishing. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Here I am, back with a book that I found deeply frustrating with occasional bursts of promise in its first volume. I have now read the second volume, and the promise is starting to bear fruit – I was more interested in the worldbuilding this time around when it wasn’t trapped in statland, and the occasional moments in the book that are dramatic action scenes or dialogue are decently well told. The problem is that the deeply frustrating parts of the book are still there and still deeply frustrating – in fact I found them even more frustrating because the rest of the book had improved around them. Our slime hero is still a very boring, matter of fact hero whose chief interesting bit is that he really seems to underestimate how amazingly overpowered he is. And he still goes on about stats. On and on and on. I am not a gamer, and I honestly don’t care if your Flame Throw stat has evolved into Flame Hurl when you level up. Spider So What did this too, but that heroine has personality to carry me through it.

We begin with our slime helping his goblin followers build their village, which has now become about the size of a town. They run into some ogres, who are attacking the goblins on the basis of mistaken identity, something that Rimuru tries to correct but to no avail. Fortunately he’s able to defeat them all fairly handily, to the point where they too want to follow him. After naming them (which knocks him out – you’d think he’d learn) they become Ogre Mages, and are various degrees of fantasy types – the noble leader, the smooth ninja spy guy, the cute princess, and (oddly enough) the sexy secretary, who even gets a business suit but unfortunately may not have the temperament for it. And it’s probably a good thing he gained new allies, as he discovers than an army of 200,000 orcs is coming down and destroying everything in its path. Can Rimuru and his allies, along with some lizardmen and a dryad or two, stop the creation of a new demon lord?

Again, the bits of the book that are not discussing RPG stats are better this time around. Even Rimuru is more interesting, though I wish he had a personality that would evolve beyond “well, huh. That’s a thing.” The ogres are a more interesting secondary cast than the goblins from the first book, particularly Shion (who is a bomb waiting to go off, I suspect) and Soei, the cool ninja. The lizardmen also are complex, and two of the major villains of this arc get to have nuance and be more than just the typical Japanese “Mwah ha ha!” isekai villain. But… I’m sorry, there are large chunks of this book that are boring as hell. It’s a very lengthy book, probably close to 300 pages in print, and if you cut out Rimuru wanking on about his powers and levelups it would be 1/3 of that size and a much, much better book.

Still, it’s improved enough that I will be giving it a third volume, though I will likely skim the stats as I did here. If you like isekais and don’t mind RPG nerdery, Reincarnated as a Slime should appeal to you.

The Bride Was a Boy

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By Chii. Released in Japan as “Hanayome wa Motodanshi” by Asuka Shinsha. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Beni Axia Conrad. Adapted by Shanti Whitesides.

I will admit that when I first saw that this was licensed, my feeling was that it would be something more along the line of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, i.e. very stark and autobiographical. While it is autobiographical, I could not have been more wrong about it otherwise, as this title might best be described as “fluffy”. (The cover was likely a clue I just wasn’t picking up.) The title also makes it sound as if this is meant to be BL, which it isn’t. The emphasis should be on the ‘Was’ in the title, whereas I suspect most readers would see it as “Good Grief, the Bride Was a Boy!”, Kermit-style. But our author, Chii, is a woman who was assigned male at birth, and this manga is her story of exploring that, then transitioning, and finally getting married.

Chii’s art is cute and adorable, as is Chii, and the story flows along fairly well. Each chapter is followed by a brief ‘guide’ regarding transgender touchpoints, such as Gender Identity Disorder, LGBT, gender transition, etc. The story itself starts off with Chii meeting her future husband, though he was more “love at first sight” than she was. The husband is something of an amusing dork, but he’s very understanding, even when she explains to him that she’s a cisgender woman who was born as a man. We then flash back to various points in Chii’s life; growing up and realizing that she didn’t feel the same as the other guys around her; doing research and dating both men and women; and then starting the steps of transitioning and explaining things to her family and friends. The manga then ends with the wedding in question, which goes very well, even if Chii ends up crying when she said she wouldn’t.

If this all sounds somewhat undramatic, I won’t argue with that; it’s hard to take issue at the story since it’s autobiographical, but things honestly went very smoothly for Chii throughout this process, with her immediate family and her boyfriend/husband loving and supporting her no matter what. That said, it is nice to see this sort of story portrayed as happy and sweet, rather than like a YA novel with heavy drama. If you’re a reader who is not up to date on the various aspects of transgernderism, this is also a very good read, getting into greater detail on Sex Reassignment Surgery (which Chii does have, though it’s a tough decision – she ends up flying to Thailand to have it due to the high cost in Japan) and all the legal hoops that have to be jumped through in order to make things official in Japan.

This really ended up being a fun, educational read, and I’m definitely glad I picked it up. Chii’s art style is cute (her husband’s less so – we get a sample), and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to read about a transgender protagonist or even just a “meet cute and get married” story.

Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!: Crimson Magic Clan, Let’s & Go!!

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By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!: Chūnibyō demo Majo ga Shitai!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Another new KonoSuba novel, another obscure yet nerdy subtitle for the volume. This one never even got licensed in North America at all, it’s for the kids’ series Bakusō Kyōdai Let’s & Go!!, which is about mini-car racing. Fortunately, the novel itself has no actual car racing, but it does introduce us to the rest of Megumin’s Crimson Magic Clan, as we head to her hometown after there is news of an attack that will destroy the village. As it turns out, Yunyun and Megumin are the staid, sensible ones in this group, which consists entirely of overdramatic nerds living out their grand magic fantasies – only they actually have magic power to back themselves up. Even Megumin’s parents don’t escape this, though they’re more concerned with her relationship with Kazuma. And, as it turns out, it’s a good thin they came, as there really *is* a demon invasion happening, though at first it seems like the Clan has it under control.

Despite Yunyun being on the cover and jumpstarting the plot, this is not really her book, it’s Megumin’s. And Kazuma’s, of course. I’ve talked before about how his group feels more like a close-knit (if dysfunctional) family than anything else. That’s definitely changing here, as Megumin explicitly says that she’s fallen in love with him, something that Kazuma somehow manages not to quite understand. it’s a bit difficult for Megumin to admit it anyway, mostly as Kazuma is still several shades of terrible at times, though usually every time he tries to do something stupidly selfish it comes back to hit him in the ass. But Kazuma is Kazuma, so you also see exactly why it is that she fell for him anyway. Darkness is likely in the same boat, though this isn’t her book, so we don’t get much of that and instead get more of her being totally useless at anything except defense. As for Aqua, I’m relieved to say that there is no sexual tension there whatsoever. Let’s keep it that way.

This is the first book that hasn’t (yet) been adapted into an anime, but the adaptation, when it comes, should go very smoothly – there’s going to be a lot of fun set pieces here. Leisure Girl was particularly amusing, and the female orcs wanting to ravish Kazuma is a nice reversal of the standard fantasy “orcs want to rape the women all the time” trope. There’s also a few nice fights, particularly the one at the end, even though it consists of the whole Clan essentially dodging the demon lord while Kazuma tries to figure out what can stop them. The best scene, however, is right at the end. I will try not to spoil it, but it involves Megumin recognizing her own shortcomings and trusting Kazuma to help her get past them… and Kazuma realizing that Megumin’s happiness is more important. It’s really sweet.

Next time, to Darkness’ horror, we will be meeting the princess of this land, and I have no doubt fresh new disasters will ensue. Till then, KonoSuba remains a funny, light read, and anyone who likes to see the standard fantasy light novel tweaked on the nose will want to pick it up.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, Vol. 1

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By Tadahiro Miura. Released in Japan as “Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Ghost Ship. Translated by Kayla Albarado. Adapted by David Lumsdon.

When I was first researching this manga, more than one site told me that it was “the spiritual successor to To-Love-Ru”. Which makes sense. Jump usually has one title that is written purely for the sake of teenage hormones, and for years To-Love-Ru was the one. And so, perhaps after briefly checking to make sure none of the cast are based on anyone’s wife, we have Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, an ecchi Jump title which offers pretty much a lot of the same things that To-Love-Ru gave the reader. There’s a guy surrounded by a bunch of hot young girls. There is an awful lot of tripping and falling into boobs. There is a lot of violence towards the lead guy by said girls after that happens. And no doubt most of them will fall for him, though so far we only have the titular ghost. It’s Harem Comedy 101.

Our hero is Kogarashi, who has had a pretty unlucky life – he’s easily possessed by spirits, and it’s made his life very difficult, as well as made him very poor. Fortunately, he’s learned (almost out of necessity) to be an exorcist so that he can deal with these things. He’s also found an inn with attached hot springs where the rent is dirt cheap – because, of course, it’s haunted. He meets the residents, all of whom are gorgeous girls, and also the girl haunting his room, who is a cute fluffy-headed poltergeist with a bad habit of making things float around her when she is flustered, which is most of the time. Yuuna is a cute girl, so Kogarashi can’t exorcise her. Instead he befriends her, which works out even better (and also makes her fall head over heels in love with him). Then we discover the other residents are also… not ghosts, but various types of supernatural entities or those that deal with them. Can he get along with everyone? And what about school?

As you might be able to guess, this is not exactly the most original title in the world. At the same time, it has a job to do and does it well. Everything is in the standard ecchi harem language, but there was no point where I was bored or turned off by any of the various goings-on. Kogarashi is more of the “confident” Jump hero in the Luffy/Soma tradition, which makes a nice change from the meek nerds that usually inhabit such titles (as, for example, To-Love-Ru). Yuuna is as you’d imagine, but I did like the way she was translated/adapted, as she uses a certain amount of “Scooby-Doo” style exclamations at times, which is amusing as she’s a ghost, but also apropos as it shows she’s older than she should be. We’ve barely met the other residents yet (there’s a demon slayer who I still call Motoko as she hasn’t really differentiated herself from the Love Hina character), but I’m sure that will come soon.

So this won’t win any awards, but if you’re here for amusing comedic romance with lots of large breasts, and don’t mind no actual romantic resolution for 25 volumes or so (because did I mention it’s a comedic romance manga?), this could be the title for you.