Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Reviews

Star Wars: Lost Stars, Vol. 1

by

Remember the good ol’ days when a new Star Wars movie took three years to make, and no one was certain that George Lucas was going to get around to Episodes I, II, and III? I miss those days; new installments felt like a cause for celebration and not a dutiful obligation, and the films were an irresistible mixture of bad acting, thrilling space battles, and earnest conversations about the Force. When I’ve felt a twinge of nostalgia for my childhood Star Wars experience, I’ve found the manga adaptations of the original trilogy much more satisfying than the current batch of Disneyfied films. So I was curious to see what an original Star Wars manga might look like: would it explore new territory, or simply recycle the same plot points, a la The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi?

Turns out that Lost Stars is to Star Wars what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is to Hamlet, a retelling of an iconic story from the perspective of two peripheral characters. Many of the most famous moments from George Lucas’ original trilogy appear in Lost Stars — the capture of Princess Leia, the annihilation of Alderaan, the ice battle on Hoth — though the framing of these events is new, seen through the eyes of two young Imperial pilots: Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree, both of whom enrolled in the Imperial Academy hoping for adventure and a better way of life.

The inclusion of these famous scenes is a double-edged sword; they provide a handy point of reference for the Star Wars greenhorn while simultaneously pandering to the hardcore fan by faithfully recreating iconic images, characters, and dialogue from A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. There’s a dot-the-i quality to them that suggests that Yusaku Komiyuma was more concerned with nailing down the original details than imagining how Thane or Ciena would perceive — or participate — in these events. The other problem with these scenes is that they’re more dramatically interesting than Komiyuma’s brisk but flavorless adaptation of Claudia Gray’s novel. The most thoughtful elements of Gray’s work — particularly the class politics on Thane and Ciena’s home planet Jelucan — are presented in a bald fashion that reads more like CliffNotes than honest-to-goodness fiction, while important scenes of character development are too compressed to give us a sense of who these star-crossed lovers really are. The net result is a comic that successfully bridges the aesthetic worlds of Shonen Jump and Star Wars without achieving its own distinct identity as a manga or a Star Wars story. Your mileage may vary.

Star Wars: Lost Stars, Vol. 1
Original Story by Claudia Gray
Art and Adaptation by Yusaku Komiyuma
Yen Press, 192 pp.
Rated T, for teens

The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 2

by

By Gamei Hitsuji and himesuz. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

For all that the first volume of this did a very good job introducing its cast and showing off the basics of the world, it did not really dwell much on the demon invasion beyond it being the reason why the hero was summoned, and why he’s training. The second volume, though, takes that ball and absolutely runs with it. The demons are coming, they’re hard to defeat, and they’re nasty pieces of work, both in terms of powers and personality. I gotta admit, you really want the demon general to get his by the end of this. What’s more, their leader is not only good at murdering people but also at emotional manipulation and torture. Which is fine for Suimei, who at least has a veneer of “I am cool-headed” (which isn’t actually true, but hey). But it’s definitely bad news for the new heroine of this book, Lefille, who is a red-haired noble swordswoman who wears her heart on her sleeve.

This is very much a book that puts all its fantastic stuff on the back end. The start is all right, with Sui9mei trying to join the Adventurer’s Guild and maintain a low profile, something he screws up pretty much immediately. He and Lefille bond right away, but it’s as a good friendship, and there’s not really much romance involved here yet. But things really pick up with the actual invasion, and particularly when Lefille breaks away from Suimei to try to save the party that essentially told her to get lost earlier. This is a significantly darker book than the first volume was, and there’s a lot of brutal deaths here. What’s more, there’s a lot of misblaming going on, to the point where I wondered if it was part of a ploy by the demon general to break Lefille. But no, it’s just people getting the wrong idea and spewing dying vitriol.

I admit, I was worried that this book was not going to stick the landing. It spends a LOT of time setting up the demon general as Lefille’s enemy that she absolutely has to defeat, then breaks her utterly. This is very well done, and emotionally gripping. But when Suimei showed up and started going to town, I thought “uh-oh”. You can’t set up this sort of thing and then have the solution be “I can overcome it thanks to the powers of my cool protagonist friend”. And yes, Suimei *does* get the final shot in. But we see Lefille watching Suimei’s battle and realize what she needs to do, and find her heroic second wind, driving the demon back to the point where he has to retreat. This was very important, and makes her a better heroine than the first one. (That said, this seems like a “new heroine every book” series, so I wonder if she’ll stay on.)

The book does have flaws – Suimei’s “let me read magic wikipedia at you” narration can be tedious, Lefille has a demon curse that seems to be nothing but an excuse to have her masturbate naked on a rock for the benefit of the illustrator/readers, and the ending, where she reverts to being a little girl due to lack of spirit energy, had me going “WTF?” as much as it did our heroes. Oh yes, and please try not to have your hero brainwashing people for fun and profit. But overall, I found the suspense and character depth of this second volume to be excellent, and I’m far more on board with this series now.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, Vol. 5

by

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

If I said that the pacing of the series had become glacial by the last volume, here it comes to a complete stop, as this is a selection of short stories designed to show off the cast and pad out the time before the new semester begins in Book 6 and the author is forced to actually advance the plot. From what I understand, the majority of this book was jettisoned from the first anime season except for the longest, most plot-relevant story, whi9ch makes sense. These are good character portraits, and show off Hachiman’s cynical yet on point analysis very well, but they aren’t really essential. They’re a meandering tale of a hot summer break. That said, we do finally have Hachiman connect the dots upon seeing the Yukinoshita limousine once more, so now all the participants know about his accident at the start of school. Getting Yukino to open up, though, will likely be another story.

Saika is featured on the cover as if he’s a heroine, which makes sense given that his short story basically involves asking Hachiman on a date. This allows the author do do his usual schtick, though fortunately Hachiman is not quite as bad as usual this time around. We also see Hachiman and his sister agree to babysit Yui’s dog while she’s on vacation, which allows us to see that Hachiman is actually quite a pet person. In fact, a lot of the se stories are good at pointing out that Hachiman has the ability to be kind and considerate, he just constantly undercuts it with everything he says. Indeed, Yui spells his personality right out to us, in another scene that makes the reader realize that she’s totally fallen for him, and is absolutely going to get her heart broken.

The story that did get adapted for the anime involves Yui inviting Hachiman to a fireworks festival (Komachi tricks him into accepting), and the evening that follows, which alternates between cute and awkward as Hachiman is constantly thinking of what normal people would do in a situation like this. I think it’s important to Hachiman that he disconnect himself from others like this – the ongoing use of (LOL) every time he says “normies” reads more like a verbal tic than a conscious choice. That said, the meat of this book is the scene at the fireworks with Yukino’s sister, who is in VIP seats, of course. Her scathing chat with Hachiman and Yui reminds us that Yukino was dragged home at the end of the previous book, and is almost completely absent from this one. The whole novel feels like it’s setting things up for an explosion once school starts.

Which is fine, though if the 6th book turns out to be marking time as well, I may throw my hands in the air. Sometimes you really do need forward development. It doesn’t help that the next book is not out till November, meaning a longer wait to find out if anything blows up. Still, fans of the series will want to get this to see what parts the anime left out, and as always reading Hachiman’s narration is an experience.

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, Vol. 1

by

By Yu Tomofuji. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Paul Starr.

I’ve been reading manga for quite some time now, and it’s long enough that I’m starting to see the new generation that grew up reading the old manga classics that I was reading a good twenty years ago. Japanese manga artists are not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeve, and the readers seem far more forgiving of it than Western readers might (hi, Black Clover), especially if it’s simply influenced by and not straight up copying. I mention this because, while the story and characters are not really the same, there are moments at the start of Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts where I read a scene and thought “yeah, I loved that scene in Fruits Basket as well”. This isn’t a criticism – it felt almost like a musical quotation that the guitar player would insert in the song, something that makes the reader nostalgic (well, as much as a reader wants to be nostalgic for one of the most abusive families in Furuba). Does the rest of the book hold up? For the most part, yes.

As you may have gathered, there’s a lot of Beauty and the Beast involved here as well. Our heroine is Sariphi, a girl of indeterminate age (more on that later) who is the latest human to be selected as a sacrifice to the King of Beasts, who rules over a land that is composed mostly of beastmen and women, with humans in a minority. Unlike most sacrifices, however, Sariphi is not terrified or furious, but rather endlessly curious and rather sweet – again, if you’re thinking of Tohru, you’re not far off. As with many Hakusensha series, the resolution of this dilemma is resolved in one chapter, then, when the series gets picked up, we get more chapters, as Sariphi and “Leanhart”, as she dubs the Beast King, learn more about each other and deal with the troublesome kingdom, which is very much anti-human and would rather Sariphi be sacrificed and the Beast King take a real queen. Oh yes, the Beast King wants to make Sariphi his Queen.

Let’s just say up front that Sariphi looks pretty damn young. That’s not exactly a red card by itself – Japanese manga is filled with heroines who look far younger than their actual age. But I’d like to hear what the actual age is, as this is a sweet romance between an adult Beast man (who changes into a hot bishie human every so often, of course) and our sacrificial protagonist, and a lot of my enjoyment of it will be dependent on her not being as much of a child as she looks. Of course, this is a Hana to Yume title, so any romance we get is not going to go further than the occasional kiss, but you know what I mean. Apart from that, I found this series to be a very good start. I like how most of the kingdom is not immediately won over by the power of Sariphi’s shininess – Anubis, the King’s servant, is looking to shape up to be a difficult antagonist, and I look forward to seeing how he will eventually fall in the face of that bright, innocent smile.

So to sum up: good new shoujo series, sweet girl and gruff but likeable beast man. If you liked Fruits Basket or Kamisama Kiss this might be up your alley.

Happiness, Vols. 4-7

by

 

This review contains a few spoilers for later volumes of Happiness, and discusses one character’s efforts to cope with PTSD after a violent attack. Proceed with caution. 

The first three volumes of Shuzo Oshimi’s Happiness explore familiar terrain, using vampirism as a metaphor for the ravages of puberty, that moment when hormonal urges overwhelm the rational mind and the body morphs into its adult form. And while these early volumes contained some well-rehearsed scenes of bullying and bloodlust, Oshimi’s artwork — at once raw and refined, primitive and expressionist — made these moments feel strange, fresh, and specific to his story. One could feel fourteen-year-old Makoto Okazaki’s palpable anguish over being trapped in a body and a life he could no longer control, and wondered how he might escape his fate.

Volume four was a turning point in the series, culminating in a scene of frenzied violence in which a major character was killed, another forced into hiding, and a third — Gosho — badly wounded. The violence was grotesque in the Romantic sense of the word, a scene so horrific that it filled with reader with a strong sense of revulsion and pity. But a curious thing happened in the next installment: in the aftermath of this bloody cataclysm, Happiness became Gosho’s story. A time jump advanced the plot ten years into the future, showing us Gosho’s efforts to rebuild her life, one temp job at a time.

Though Gosho seems outwardly calm and self-possessed, her carefully constructed facade is shattered in volume six by a sensational newspaper headline: “Vampire Boy: Where Is He Now?” Oshimi captures Gosho’s experience of being triggered in all its nauseous horror; we can see a painful memory well up in Gosho, causing her to double over and fall to her knees as if she were trying to purge her body of all the fear and shame she’d experienced on that fateful night ten years ago. What makes this moment even more powerful is the skill with which Oshimi captures Gosho’s mounting terror through a series of closeups — first her face, then her eye, then the article itself, as her gaze darts across the page, lingering on a striking image or a suggestive snippet of text.

For all the emotional intensity of this moment, however, volume six is largely uneventful, focusing primarily on the tenative relationship between Gosho and Sudo, her co-worker. Much of their courtship unfolds in brief, wordless scenes depicting everyday activities: eating out, walking home from the train station, buying groceries. The normalcy of these vignettes suggests that Gosho has recovered from her anxiety attack — that is, until Gosho glimpses a boy who might be a vampire:

What makes this image so potent is its ambiguity: is it a figment of Gosho’s imagination, a flashback, or an actual vampire? We’re left feeling as unsettled as Gosho, and wonder what this bloody omen might mean.

That brings me to the hardest part of my review.

Despite the consummate skill and sensitivity with which volumes five and six explore Gosho’s psychic wounds, volume seven may be my last, primarily because I’m dismayed by Oshimi’s decision to further brutalize Gosho. In volume five, Gosho nearly died at the hands of a knife-wielding psychopath, an event that left her with an angry scar on her neck. The terror she felt, and the violence of the scene, seemed necessary at that juncture in the story, revealing the extent to which Gosho’s naivete, determination, and caring could be ruthlessly exploited by someone older and more experienced.

In volume seven, however, Gosho is captured by a cult leader who tortures her, mutilating her body and smearing it with her own menstrual blood. The violence in this scene is fundamentally sexual and, frankly, disgusting. One might argue that Oshimi is deliberately provoking the reader, making us complicit in Gosho’s exploitation, but nothing in Oshimi’s other work — Drifting Net Cafe, The Flowers of Evil — suggests that level of critical engagement with tropes. Instead, it feels as if Oshimi is using this violence as a shortcut, a way of revealing the cult leader’s depravity while providing Sudo motivation to seek revenge on behalf of his girlfriend. The scene also undermines Gosho’s agency — she broke into the cult’s compound looking for Okazaki — and dehumanizes her, reducing her womanhood to breasts and blood rather than her courage, intelligence, and determination to save a friend she hasn’t seen in a decade.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of reading and watching scenes like these, whether they serve a legitimate dramatic purpose or not. Oshimi’s undeniable artistry makes quitting Happiness an even more difficult decision for me, as I found his artwork and storytelling in the first six volumes compelling. (Hell, I’m quoted in the promotional literature for Happiness.) I don’t have the stomach for another scene of Gosho’s degradation, however, so I don’t think I’ll be reading volume eight.

HAPPINESS, VOLS. 3-7 • BY SHUZO OSHIMI • KODANSHA COMICS • RATED OT, FOR OLDER TEENS (VIOLENCE, PARTIAL NUDITY, SEXUALITY)

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 12

by

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.

Rokujouma is, of course, a balanced harem sort of series that in all honesty feels like it’s going to end up with some sort of polyamorous resolution. That said, obviously as a reader I have my favorites. After after realizing that the three volumes where she gained character development are my three favorite volumes, it’s time to admit it: Yurika is my jam. (I may have admitted this before, but forgive me for the slight return.) It’s a somewhat unusual choice given that Yurika’s default state is essentially Usagi from Sailor Moon: a whining, clumsy, somewhat bad at life sort of girl. But, like Usagi, when you put her into a situation where she has to protect the world and her friends, she comes through with flying colors. In addition, her scenes with Koutarou in this book really have a nice amount of romantic tension, even if it’s just on her part. And finally, praise the Lord, everyone admits that Yurika is indeed a real Magical Girl. This book is basically everything I want in a character arc.

Being a Yurika book, it’s no surprise that the chief villains here are Darkness Rainbow, though one of the main plot revelations is that they’re getting help from another group of villains. This means that Maki also gets a large amount of character work, following up on her bond with Koutarou in the 8th volume… in fact, the literal bond created between them becomes almost a chain to Maki, who worries that it means that her feelings aren’t her own. And Harumi, who has always somewhat suffered from being the normal girl in the group (Shizuka can beat up monsters with martial arts, so doesn’t count), gets a power up thanks to the narrative explicitly acknowledging her reincarnation of the princess status, even if Harumi doesn’t quite get it herself. Her scenes with Yurika were also fantastic, as Yurika’s guilt in falling for the guy Harumi loves is wiped away by the power of friendship, and the two end up literally merging souls for a bit when things get rough.

The nature of the Rokujouma license means that’s we’re getting these books once a month, and while it can be hard to catch up, not to mention expensive, I also think it’s helped me appreciate the plot and the way the book tie together in a way I wouldn’t if I was reading these three times a year. The last several books have felt like one continuous narrative, even as they change focus and emphasis, and I’ve no doubt that when Vol. 13 focuses on Theia (as the cliffhanger implies), it will also pick up threads from this book and others. Koutarou too is recognizing his faults out loud, and actually doing something about them. Yurika as well, though she needs a lot more help with her more comedic faults. (The funniest joke in the book may have been the final one, where Shizuka points out to Koutarou that not letting Yurika get any sleep at all will not help her study habits.)

Broken record time: Invaders of the Rokujouma!? is the best light novel series you’re not reading. Catch up as soon as possible.

Golosseum, Vol. 1

by

By Yasushi Baba. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nemesis. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

There are two scenes that I think between them perfectly sum up the mood of this manga and the demographic it’s going to appeal to. The first has a cute couple, just married, asking a stranger to take a picture of them outside the church. All three are then shot in the head by passing terrorists. In loving detail. The other is when we see a shirtless Vladimir Putin, whose name has been slightly changed to protect the guilty, drinking tea and laughing as bullets vanish before hitting his incredibly muscular body. Which is also drawn in loving detail. In between this, we get the actual story, which is about alien bracelets that protect and strengthen the wearer – sometimes to ludicrous degrees – and a sad yet incredibly violent woman who can see other people’s past. At heart, though, Golosseum reminds me a bit of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, in that it’s totally ridiculous, and also filled with ridiculous deaths.

There is a certain element of political satire here, though frankly it can get somewhat lost among the muscular posing. In addition to “Vladislav Putinov”, we also see the United States equivalent, “Billary Quintone”, and one of the villains rampaging through America is clearly an ersatz Hulk Hogan. More than a political thriller, though, Golosseum feels like one of those ultraviolent 90s comic books, attracting your attention through fights, murders, more fights and more murders. Sasha, our heroine, doesn’t really seem to want to do this (she’s the one who reminded me a bit of Crying Freeman, though I suspect she won’t be making love to her cute waitress friend anytime soon), but she’s certainly capable of taking on smug Chinese martial artists if need be. As the volumes go on, I’m hoping that her story remains the priority. Also, I could have done without the narrative saying that, despite her age, she has the body of a mature 14-year-old, with accompanying nudity.

That said, glorifying the body is in many ways what this is about. The main villains throughout are people who are wearing the “Peacemaker” bracelets and using them for evil, which mostly involves being really strong. The best reason to read this is to see these guys show off and eventually get what’s coming to them. It’s a glorious spectacle, though not for the faint of heart – being shot in the head like the newlywed couple is at the start is actually one of the milder deaths in the book. As for the politics and backstory, unsurprisingly, the bracelets are being treated as political capital in a quest to have the most world power, so no doubt we will be seeing a lot more of Vladislav and Billary. That said, it’s a bit sad when the most nuanced of your real-life caricatures is Rasputin. Oh, and for those who like Hijikata, we get two desce4ndents here – one male, one female, and one good, one bad.

In the end, I liked reading Golosseum, but more in a “Good Lord” sort of way than actively being interested in the story. It’s complete at six volumes, which should be enough. If you like ridiculous ultraviolence, or just big muscley shirtless guys, come read this immediately.

Toradora!, Vol. 1

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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.