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Reviews

Giant Spider & Me, Vol. 1

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Giant Spider & Me is a gentle fantasy that’s tinged with whimsy and rue. The story focuses on Nagi, a perky tween who lives by herself in a well-appointed cottage, awaiting the return of her father from a mysterious trip. In his absence, she’s proved remarkably self-sufficient, growing and foraging for her own food and preparing delicious meals for herself. Our first hint that something is amiss occurs early in chapter one, when she stumbles across a mastiff-sized spider in the woods. Their initial encounter doesn’t go well — Nagi is understandably terrified — but her apprehension soon gives way to a unique interspecies friendship when she discovers Asa (her name for the spider) shares her passion for pumpkin dumplings and leisurely picnics.

What inoculates Giant Spider & Me from a terminal case of the cutes is the specificity of Kikori Morino’s vision. On a superficial level, Giant Spider & Me is a culinary manga that walks the reader through the process of making turnip soup and miso ratatouille while conveying the joy of sharing food with others. (And yes, recipes appear at the end of each chapter.) On a deeper level, however, Giant Spider & Me is a thoughtful reflection on what it means to share your home with an intelligent creature, recognizing the pleasures of such an arrangement while acknowledging the communication gap between species. Asa proves a lively and willful guest in Nagi’s house, scaling walls and punching a hole in the roof in its quest for greater freedom — a detail that frustrated cat owners will appreciate.

The other secret to Morino’s success is her artwork, which strikes an elegant balance between clarity and detail. She never explains what caused the apocalypse of the title, but hints at its devastation with small but important clues: a partially submerged city, a vigilante in a gas mask and military-issue poncho. Morino applies that same mixture of restraint and exactitude to her character designs; Asa is both menacing and cute, an eight-eyed, eight-legged creature whose terrible mandibles are balanced by a feather-soft abdomen and a puppy-like demeanor. By emphasizing Asa’s duality as pet and monster, Morino helps us see Asa as Nagi does while also helping us understand why other survivors take a dimmer view of Asa. Something tells me I might need a tissue or two before the series finishes its run. Recommended.

Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale, Vol. 1
Story & Art by Kikori Morino
Translation by Adrienne Beck; Adaptation by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane
Seven Seas, 180 pp.
Rating: Teen

Log Horizon: Homesteading the Noosphere

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By Mamare Touno and Kazuhiro Hara. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

At last, after four volumes that focused separately on various groups and their growth and development, everyone is back together and ready to deal with fresh new problems. Which is good, as there are quite a few fresh new problems. Westlande is about to go to war with Eastal, and the adventurers are caught up in the middle of things. They have to defend the young crown prince, Raynesia’s little brother, from assassination attacks. They’re being attackied by killer moths that put people into a deep sleep. Shiroe is feeling that he’s inadequate for the job (well, OK, that’s more a leitmotif for the entire series, as Akatsuki and Minori both point out). And, perhaps worst of all, due to various screwups in real life, will there ever be a Log Horizon Book 11? Yes, as it turns out, but we were wondering for a while there.

Shiroe’s inadequacies are part of a larger theme in this book of growing up and becoming an adult, and what that means to various people. For Serara, much as I might not like it, that means getting stronger so that Nyanta might notice her in a romantic way. (To Nyanta’s credit, his interest is still zero.) For Minori, it’s realizing that her feelings for Shiroe AREN’T romantic, and that they’re more a function of who she is and how she handles situations. For Isaac, it’s simply living from day to day, not really thinking deeply about things, and watching all the idiots around him. And then there’s Shiroe. He has to deal with Roe2’s letter, which goes into much greater detail about what sort of world they’re trapped in, and that it’s not just a weird “we’re caught in the actual game” thing. He has to think about how to get back home, and whether some people WANT to get back home. Nazuna describes him at one point as a “wimp”, and that’s true, but when he calms down and stops his self-loathing barrage, he can also be brilliant.

Towards the end of the book they find a sort of radio transmitter, which makes contact with Kanami and company, who are still making their way slowly to Japan, and who seem to have a surprise new member in their party. As I noted in the last book, it’s hard to focus on Kanami as a character as she’s designed to be “perfect”. As such, she instinctually comes up with the idea that Shiroe and the rest couldn’t – instead of thinking about how to get back home, think about how to connect the two worlds, so they can come and go as they please. For Kanami, this is simply because she wants to show her three-year-old daughter back on Earth the wonders of this land. For Shiroe and company, it’s a revelation – they can try to have their cake and eat it too.

There’s lots of other things that Log Horizon fans will enjoy in this book – the fights, as usual, are well-written but rely a bit too much on gaming terminology for me to really get deeply into them. At least I get some more Naotsugu/Marielle ship tease, which is nice. There are also a few appendices showing amusing and informative background on several things (Log Horizon is one of the few print-only series left from Yen On – it’s print-only in Japan too – and the appendices would certainly be a pain to convert.) As I indicated above, for various reasons (search Anime News Network for the author’s name if you’re curious), there was a huge gap between Book 10 and 11, which likely means we won’t see 11 for a while. But it’s coming out in Japan soon, and will answer a question many have been wondering: what’s Krusty been up to?

Oh, My Sweet Alien!

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By Kouji Miyata. Released in Japan as “Yome ga Kore na Monde” by Enterbrain, serialized in the magazine Harta. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

This sort of premise will be very familiar to anyone who reads books or watches television, aliens aside. The story of a normal man who ends up marrying a wife who has a supernatural secret – or even is just of an amusing foreign nationality – has been around forever, and Oh, My Sweet Alien! is simply adapting that premise to suit its own needs. That’s not to say that this manga is dull – predictable, yes, but I was entertained throughout, mostly as the author manages to find a nice balance between the wife being a “funny foreigner” type and the wife being a genuinely weird, unnerving alien. It never gets too horrific – this is a sweet comedy, after all – but we do see the collection of human skins she has to wear to pass herself off in this world, and at home she’s not above using her tentacles as easily as she does her hands – in fact, more easily. As the story progresses and they have a child, the complications remain the same – predictable, but fun.

As we find out in a flashback, Nobuo, our young man, was abducted by aliens to be fitted with an implant, seemingly as some sort of rite of passage for a young alien girl (who is referred to as “the wife” throughout, I believe). Somewhat delirious from the abduction, and touched by the fact that she doesn’t want to give him the implant, he proposes to her, and they move in together. The rest of the book could be described as “wackiness ensues”, really. We get alien in-laws, Nobue’s grumpy mother, and two more aliens (from Venus, no less) hell bent on breaking up the couple by seduction. All of these could easily be rewritten from “alien” to “foreigner”, as I said, but seeing how :”alien” plays out is what makes this fun. I was a little frustrated at times (Madoka, the female alien homewrecker, can be quite annoying before she’s gradually toned down a bit), and the gratuitous nudity feels a bit out of place (without it, honestly, you could lower the age rating a bit), but the sweet moments are really sweet, and the humor can sometimes be fantastic – I loved the “I will reveal my secret” gag of the final chapter, for example.

Sadly, this is all we’re going to get of this title – the author died of a brain hemorrhage three years ago. It’s a shame, because of the many varieties of western publishers’ “Monster Girl” series that have been flooding the market faster than you can say Alice in the Country of Hearts, this was on the cute, fun side, and it’s nice to see one that stars a happily married couple who love each other despite all of the obvious differences. It’s not for everyone (I will mention the nudity again, there really is quite a bit of it), but fans of the genre should definitely give this a try.

Silver Spoon, Vol. 1

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

It’s honestly hard not to get a bit choked up reading this first volume of Silver Spoon, one of the manga licensing holy grails of the last few years. Cries of “it’s a new series by the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist! What’s stopping them?” were met with the response of “It’s a FARMING manga”. But here we are, and finally, seven years after its debut, we have Silver Spoon, a farming manga, in our hot little hands. In fact, I was rather surprised to see that “from the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist” is nowhere on the covers. It’s possible, of course, that they did not want to give mistaken impressions – fans of the fantasy action movie that FMA was much of the time would likely be taken aback a bit by this slice-of-agricultural life series. But in the end I think that’s fine, as Silver Spoon stands out on its own without any help. It’s a truly refreshing series.

Our hero is Yuugo Hachiken, who has arrived at an agricultural high school up in Hokkaido, the only student in the school who doesn’t come from some kind of farming background or family. We don’t learn his circumstances right away, except to see that he doesn’t seem to have a purpose in life. The other students definitely all are goal oriented – they have to be, given the nature of the industry they’re all in. Hachiken is an excellent student, but he’s also far too serious and tends to suffer from “if I don’t get straight A’s and the 1st place in class I am a failure” syndrome. Here, though, he’s thrown head first into farming life, with the help of the cute girl who “rescues” him after he chases a runaway animal on his first day and gets lost, Aki Mikage. He’s immediately smitten, but romance is on the back burner here. The main thrust of the series is seeing Hachiken learn about animals, farms, and the cycle of life, and trying to come to terms with it.

Arakawa grew up on a farm, and it shows. The attention to detail here is fantastic, and even though there’s a lot of exposition you never feel bored. Hachiken too is a well thought out protagonist. He’s uptight, and seemingly the sort of person you’d expect to break after a few days of the grueling work the kids have to put in at the school, but while he whines a lot, he never thinks of giving up. (And the one time he tries to slack off he’s quickly put in his place.) Moreover he’s quite happy to tutor the other kids in things like math and the like, and already seems to be showing signs of “trying to do it all”. The rest of the cast is also introduced well – Mikage is sweet and upbeat, the baseball-playing Komaba is stoic and serious, etc. Fans of Fullmetal Alchemist may find the gym teacher a bit familiar as well. And the animals are fun as well, particularly the horses – though there are hints there may be piglet drama coming up soon.

After waiting so long for this series, I am so happy to report that it doesn’t disappoint. It’s a relaxing, easy read, and you’ll also learn a lot about animal care. I urge everyone to go and buy this, as I desperately want it to succeed. Highly recommended.

How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, Vol. 2

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By Yukiya Murasaki and Takahiro Tsurusaki. Released in Japan as “Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo Dorei Majutsu” by Kodansha. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Garrison Denim.

The second volume of this series picks up right where the first one left off, both in terms of the plot and in terms of my feelings about it. It’s rare to see a series that has so many of the things that I dislike in it be something I still want to read, but there you have it. I want to find out what happens next to Diablo, Shera and Rem. I find the pacing and narration easy to read. The book is occasionally funny, and the battles are well done. On the minus side, we double down on “this is why slavery is OK here”, complete with explanation of how it would work if good, nice people were in charge of slaves. We get another in a long line of villains who are meant to be as evil as possible, though for a change this one is not written by Reki Kawahara. He still works in rape threats AND incestual feelings, though. That said, honestly, for fans of this sort of book? This volume delivers the goods.

Shera got the cover of the first book, so Rem features here, even though the plot revolves around Shera. Her brother is trying to force her to return to the Elven Kingdom and become a broodmare (with him, which makes the whole thing even ickier), first trying threats, then using a mind control that is so painfully obvious that the only person it would ever work on is an insecure Japanese hikkikomori with no social skills who is pretending to be an over the top demon lord. Lucky for him! (In all seriousness, Diablo’s “mask” slips quite often in the dialogue, and he frequently sounds less like a demon lord and more like a typical tsukkomi-style protagonist. No one really remarks upon, this, so I’m not sure if it’s just sloppy writing or a deliberate attempt to show his “Diablo” is not as perfect as he’d like – certainly by the end of the book Rem seems to be seeing through him.) Naturally, Diablo, once he snaps out of it, goes to Shera’s rescue, but then he has to take on the very powerful Governor of the city they’re staying in.

I continue to like the relationship between Rem and Shera, who bounce well off each other, and are rapidly becoming close friends, much as Rem may not want to admit it. And while the fanservice is not my cup of tea (particularly the final “gag” involving the grasswalker adventurer who gets Diablo drunk and lives to regret it), it’s exactly the sort of thing that readers of this series would like to see. We’re also introduced to a Holy Knight named Alicia, who’s fairly straightforward and dull, and thus the epilogue pleased me as I’d been expecting something else to be going on with her right from the start. I suspect that the next volume will get back into the whole demon lord revival thing that had been a part of the first book. In the meantime, this is only for readers of harem isekai, I want to emphasize again. But I will be sticking around despite all the book’s faults, which is a positive thing.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 10

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By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

Character development is something that you want to see in a good story. It’s something we’ve seen throughout Yona of the Dawn. For all that people were chanting “badass sword princess!” when the series was originally licensed, it’s taken a while for Yona to get from her sheltered princess to that point, and she still has a long way to go. And that means that character development happens even with the villains, provided they aren’t meant to be the standard “I am so evil I have to die” sorts. That’s why this volume is devoted almost entirely to Tae-Jun, the arrogant Fire Prince who has been dealing (badly) with thinking that he killed Yona back at the beginning of the series. He’s always been played for comic relief, and there’s certainly still some of that here – his puppyish devotion to Yona makes us uncomfortable but also makes us laugh. But there’s a larger story to be found here, which is the suffering that the kingdom has been going through.

Yona has slowly been realizing what she wants to do for this kingdom, but it’s not something that she’s really able to fully achieve as a bandit. Tae-Jun could really make more of a difference, though it’s worth noting that even he has to disguise it as “searching for the bandits and making the towns better as a result”. The peasant towns we’ve seen the last few volumes are really struggling, as every able young man is now gone to the army, leaving almost no one left to keep everyone eating and surviving. There’s a heartwarming moment with an old woman who bitches and moans about how bad Tae-Jun is at backrubs and everything else he tries to do, but Yona notes that it’s mostly just bluster. But later on, we hear that the old woman has died. This isn’t a magical cure, where Yona or Tae-Jun start to do the right thing and everyone magically gets better. People still die. People still suffer.

Tae-Jun’s soldiers are also seen throughout, and don’t have quite as much of a leap, as they go from “we are devoted to our lord even if he’s like this” to “we are devoted to our lord and oh look, he’s doing things now”. That said, they seem perfectly content to help the villagers as part of finding the bandits, once they get over their initial “if we come near them, we will get sick and die” phase. (Which, truth in manga, does actually turn out to be somewhat true – one of the soldiers seems to pick up a bad case of “con crud” fairly quickly.) As for Yona and the others, they realize that they need things that aren’t in the Fire lands, so are off to find them, and presumably to start a new arc. In the meantime, everyone who’s been reading Yona of the Dawn will enjoy this, and appreciate a more nuanced look at a former goofy villain.

Takane & Hana, Vol. 1

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The opening pages of Takane & Hana offer a uniquely Japanese twist on the meet cute: the couple in question are set up by a marriage broker who thinks she’s introducing a twenty-three year old beauty to a twenty-six-year-old bachelor. The bride-to-be, however, is a sixteen-year-old high school student who’s posing as her older sister — don’t ask — while the potential groom is an impossibly handsome jerk who’s angry that his family is pressuring him to settle down. Guess what happens next? If you said, “Opposites attract!”, you wouldn’t be wrong, though the course of true love hits a few potholes along the way.

I’m of two minds about Takane & Hana. My fifteen-year-old self adores Hana for being so smart and sassy, the kind of girl who says devastatingly true things and still manages to stay in other people’s good graces. My forty-five-year-old self, however, feels uncomfortable with the ten-year age gap between its lead characters. While Yuki Shiwasu cheerfully acknowledges the troubling power dynamic between Takane and Hana, she wants to eat her cake and have it, too: Hana’s incisive comments are supposed to level the playing field with the older, more experienced Takane, making it OK for the two to flirt, date, and kiss. At the end of the day, however, the economic and educational gulf between Hana and Takane still seems vast, making Takane seem like a predatory creep for preferring the company of a mature sixteen-year-old over a woman his age.

I know, I know: I’m humorless. A killjoy. A big ol’ capital-F feminist. But in a moment when we’re having serious conversations about power and consent, I’m having difficulty getting caught up in Takane and Hana’s romantic shenanigans, however much Hana sounds like a teenaged Rosalind Russell, or how wonderfully elastic Takane and Hana’s faces may be. Takane & Hana is unquestionably someone’s guilty pleasure — just not mine.

Takane & Hana, Vol. 1
Story and Art by Yuki Shiwasu
Adaptation by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane
VIZ Media, 200 pp.
Rated T, for Teens

Clockwork Planet, Vol. 3

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By Yuu Kamiya, Tsubaki Himana, and Sino. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by fofi.

Last time I said that reader sympathy was largely shifting away from Naoto and towards Marie. I’ll go further this time: Marie is why I’m reading this series. There’s actually some decent not-Naoto characterization in this volume, as RyuZU begins to actually appreciate who Marie is and AnchoR is able to realize that she is not merely there to be a giant Mass Weapon of Destruction (though she possibly wishes she learned that lesson a bit earlier). But it’s Marie who the reader follows throughout the book, as she’s now become the star far more than Naoto has. This despite the fact that, like Naoto, she too is shown to be something more than human – after she angrily rants about his amazing hearing one too many times, Naoto comes right back and mentions how Marie’s eyesight is just as ridiculous, and allows her to perform equally impossible tasks. They may not be a romantic pairing (though AnchoR calling them her parents is not helping), but together they are a force of nature.

The basic plot of this series has been the same over the three books, as this book picks up shortly after the end of the second one. Things are looking very bad for our terrorist heroes, who are up against a very crafty enemy, who knows both when to show off its amazing power and when to step back and simply watch the government fall apart. The scenes with the cabinet were viciously satirical, and you get the feeling that the authors are no great fans of politics in general. Meanwhile, RyuZU is out of commission, Halter and Vermouth are down to brains and heads, (and not necessarily both), and Marie is constantly feeling as if the end has finally arrived. Naoto gets frustrated with this, mostly as he’s no0t that type of personality (which is why his characterization suffers – where can he go from here?), but I feel for Marie, as this is indeed a horrible situation it’s impossible to get out of. Luckily, with her, Naoto and his “wife and daughter”, they can achieve the impossible with a bit of effort.

The afterword suggested that this volume was mostly Kamiya’s work, and I’m not surprised, as there are elements of the book that are rather sleazy, particularly everything involving Vermouth, who is absolutely horrible and yet absolutely hilarious. This volume is also considerably longer than the others, and is one of the longer light novels on my phone – when it hits print, I’ll estimate it may be around 300 pages. There’s a lot going on here. That said, almost all the plot threads get wrapped up nearly – in fact, a bit too nearly. If I didn’t know there was a 4th volume of the series I’d swear that this was the final one, and I wonder if their editor made it end like this just in case they were late with the manuscript one too many times. In the meantime, I understand the anime was not well loved, but fans might want to give the novels a try, as they’ve gotten very good indeed.

Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale, Vol. 1

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By Kikori Morino. Released in Japan as “Owari Nochi, Asanagi Kurashi” by Mag Garden, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Alterna pixiv. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Adrienne Beck. Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

I suppose I should not have been surprised. We’ve seen BL titles that are really cooking manga. We’ve seen Shonen Jump cooking manga, both with monsters and without. We’ve seen dungeon crawl cooking manga where you eat the monsters, and fantasy manga where you’re eating dragons. Heck, even the monstrous Fate/Stay Night franchise, which has always had a heavy element of cooking involved in it, has given in and offered us pure slice of life foodie manga. And now we see Giant Spider & Me, which is a post-apocalyptic story of life after the Earth seems to have suffered a great disaster that left the cities flooded. Except it’s really a slice-of-life heartwarming story about a girl and a giant spider bonding and learning more about each other. Except, well, it’s really about the food. Update your recipe cards, because you’ll be adding new entries after reading this.

Our heroine is Nagi, a young girl who lives alone in a cabin in the woods, about a medium-sized walk away from a grand view of the flooded remains of a large city. Theoretically she lives with her dad; in actuality, he’s been out exploring for a long time and has not come back, so she’s living by herself, foraging, and making do. (There are mentions of other villages, and a stranger shows up in the last chapter, so there are still people around.) One day she runs into a large spider, which as you can see by the cover is VERY large – about the size of her dining room table. I appreciated the fact that she was actually terrified for a while – in titles like this, usually the protagonist is a girl who has no sense of danger or fear, and I liked that Nagi is aware that yes, this is a GIANT SPIDER. That said, it rapidly becomes clear that said spider (quickly named Asa) acts more like a puppy looking for a new home, and after Nagi takes pity and invites it back to her place, the bonding begins.

The cooking and slice-of-life war for supremacy throughout this first volume, until perhaps the cliffhanger at the very end, which seems designed to be a cliffhanger more than anything else. Nagi is sweet and elf-sufficient, and a good cook. Asa, as I said earlier, acts like a rambunctious puppy at times, knocking things over and such. That said, they’re also able to protect Nagi from more dangerous and less adorable predators, so it’s not entirely a master/pet relationship – it’s meant to be a budding friendship. There are also hints that we might eventually hear what happened in this world, and expand the cast a bit. That said, this isn’t the sort of series you want getting too complicated. It’s a story of a girl, a spider, and delicious food. Not much else is needed.

Takane & Hana, Vol 1

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Takane & Hana Volume 1 by Yuki Shiwasu

This month has been crazy busy for me, so I haven’t had as much time to read manga as I would like. But there’s nothing like the first volume of a new shoujo series to break me out of a reading slump! Originally I was a tiny bit skeptical about the couple featured in this manga, because it features a high school girl and a businessman. But if Dengeki Daisy can easily convince me that the best companion for a young orphan is an older emotionally damaged janitor/hacker, Takane & Hana can certainly do the same for its unconventional couple.

As I started reading the first few pages of this manga, I was impressed at how many awesome facial expressions and comedic situations Shiwasu was able to pack into the first few pages. Hana is being dragged to a marriage meeting with the heir of a business empire because the chairman happened to catch a glimpse of her older sister while he was visiting her father’s struggling subsidiary company. Hana and her dad look incredibly stressed, and they have an amusing exchange where she wonders “What’s the plan for if he falls in love with me?” and he reassures her, “You don’t really have the looks to make that happen.”

Takane Saibara shows up and turns out to be incredibly good-looking, but not so wonderful with social skills, commenting that he doesn’t like all the makeup Hana is wearing to disguise her age. She jumps up, throws her wig in his face, and stalks off yelling that she isn’t interested in him. Takane ends up deciding to spend more time with Hana, showing up at her house with an oversized bouquet of roses and pointing at her while declaring “I’ve taken an interest in you!” Takane attempts to sweep Hana off her feet by bullying her into wearing a designer dress and taking her out to an expensive restaurant, expecting her to be impressed by his display of wealth. There’s a great one-panel sequence where Hana calmly tears Takane to shreds by psychoanalyzing him, saying that he isn’t charming enough to attract anyone but gold-diggers who dump him quickly, but he doesn’t want to face reality so he just goes around saying that he hates women all the time. Takane actually manages to apologize to Hana for his remarks, but it seems like it is the first time he’s actually said “I’m sorry.” to a girl.

The dynamic between Takane and Hana is what I absolutely loved, as he’s emotionally stunted, and she’s incredibly insightful and self-assured. He doesn’t pursue anything physical with Hana, seeming content to show up with ever more elaborate bouquets and gifts, while she manages to get him to agree to a date where he cosplays as a commoner. Their odd encounters actually force them to get to know each other as people, and Hana finds herself unexpectedly jealous when she contemplates the idea of Takane dating another woman. The first volume of Takane & Hana packed in a surprising amount of emotional development and funny moments in just a few chapters. It might not be as overly sweet and over the top as My Love Story!!, but if you’re looking for a funny new shoujo series to add to your manga collection, Takane & Hana definitely delivers.

Baccano!, Vol. 1

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There are two things you need to know before you read this review. First, I’m a ride-or-die Godfather II fan, the kind of person who’s obsessively watched Robert DeNiro’s performance as the young Don Corleone more times than I can count. Second, I am not a Light Novel Person, despite my repeated efforts to embrace the format.

I disclose this information because Baccano! is a manga adaptation of a light novel series set in Prohibition-era New York, where rival families — one from Sicily, one from Naples — run guns, booze, and card games. That meant there was a 50% chance I’d love this series, since the premise screams “Manga Godfather!”, and a 50% chance I’d hate Baccano!, since the manga was conceived as a tie-in product for the novels’ hardcore fans. What I didn’t expect, however, was just how inept the adaptation would be; I assumed that my objections would be to content or characterization, not a sloppy, hole-filled (holy?) narrative. Shinta Fujimoto’s storytelling, however, is serviceable at best and amateurish at worst, cramming too many events and characters into volume one. The result is a jumbled mess of introductions, reunions, and exposition masquerading as conversation; I spent as much time backtracking two or three pages as I did moving forward, relying on the Wikipedia to demystify poorly explained plot twists, not the least of which is that some characters are immortal. 

Superficially, the artwork seems more polished than the narrative, but a close examination reveals just how perfunctory Fujimoto and Katsumi Enami’s character designs really are. The Martillos and Gandors are so blandly drawn that nothing about them reveals about the characters’ ethnicity, social standing, or profession, let alone the time period in which the story unfolds. The same is true for the physical environment. A few establishing shots depict fire escapes and brick buildings, but Fujimoto seldom provides much in the way of period detail, nor does he convey just how densely settled Little Italy was in the 1920s.

His lazy world-building is most evident in chapters two and three, when Firo Prochainezo, a foot soldier in the Martillo Camorra, tracks an assassin through the tumult of the San Gennaro Festival in much the same fashion as Don Corleone pursues Don Fanucci in The Godfather II. In Coppola’s hands, these scenes are bursting with the activity of brass bands and puppeteers re-enacting San Gennaro’s martyrdom, a vibrant pageant of Sicilian Catholic tradition. In Fujimoto’s version, however, the festival looks about as exciting as a high school pep band rehearsal, with a few token shots of musicians and festival goers. Worse still, Fujimoto has difficulty making these scenes an organic part of the story, inserting them into a potentially suspenseful cat-and-mouse game that unfolds in the alleyways of … well, it’s supposed to be Little Italy, but honestly, it looks as much like Sesame Street as any real city.

About the best I can say for Baccano! is that it clocks in at a mere 160 pages; anything longer would seem as eternal as the characters themselves. I know I’m not the intended audience for this manga, but the series’ die-hard fans — those who read the novels and watched the anime — surely deserve a more artful tie-in than this disastro totale.

BACCANO!, VOL. 1 • ORIGINAL STORY BY RYOHGO NARITA, ART BY SHINTA FUJIMOTO, CHARACTER DESIGN BY KATSUMI ENAMI • TRANSLATION BY TAYLOR ENGEL • YEN PRESS • 160 pp. • RATED T, FOR TEEN (LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE)

The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress, Vol. 2

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By SOW and Zaza. Released in Japan by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by Bookwalker. Translated by David Musto.

It took me a while to get into this volume of the series, but once the main plot got into gear it practically flew along. I felt uncomfortably like Sophia while reading this. She’s the soldier and childhood friend of Lud’s who wants him to return to the military rather than trying to atone for his crimes by baking bread in some town in the middle of nowhere. Lud, over the course of the book, realizes that’s not why he’s doing this, and that being a baker and seeing people happy *is* what he wants going forward. That said, I have to admit that the book really comes alive once the terrorists arrive and things turn a bit Die Hard. Lud may be a baker, but he is also an excellent soldier. That said, I was also pleased that a large amount of the saving the day fell to both Sophia and Sven, who have no need for Lud to come and rescue them.

The book starts off at the bakery but doesn’t stay there long, as fantasy not-Germany is trying to win over its conquered people and therefore is having a party on the not-Hindenburg, and they want Lud’s bread to be part of that. Of course, there are a few small problems. 1) Lud will have to give an interview, and his smile still terrifies people. Luckily, Sven takes over with help from some hair dye and glasses. 2) His former commanding officer/childhood friend is there as well, and she wants him to join the military again so he can be with her… um, I mean do what’s he was meant to do. 3) This is all a publicity stunt, so once Lud actually boards the airship he finds himself cruelly mocked and belittled. And of course 4) Terrorists have boarded the ship and are going to crash it into a major city, killing thousands. Add in Milly, the angry girl from the first book who now has a massive crush on Lud, and has stowed away, and you have a lot going on.

There is, of course, a bit of a harem here, but given Lud’s personality, nothing is really going to come of it. That said, I wonder how much of Lud’s obliviousness is genuine – there’s a clear moment here where he reveals he knows exactly who Sven really is, to her surprise, but it’s just as quickly forgotten. I suspect he’s trying to keep things as they are, which is always a dangerous thing to do in Japanese series – “I wish things could stay like this forever” is a classic death flag. The series also has some very interesting worldbuilding in regards to the supposed “peace” after the war, and how fragile that really is, especially if some of the soldiers who know nothing else are trying to stir up war again. I could have done without the dickhead terrorist stripping and threatening Sophia with rape, the go-to standard for “I want readers to see my villain is eeeeeeevil”, but at least she kneed him across the room and stepped on his goolies, rather than get rescued by Lud. Sophia can take care of herself.

I still wish I could change the font in Bookwalker’s app to a different one, but the translation seems much improved in Book 2. It also comes with a very short story about the world of the series. If you’re looking for a light novel that’s not quite the same as the “standard”, but still has enough tropes to be comfortable, this is an excellent series to read.

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 2

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By Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu. Released in Japan as “Yakusoku no Neverland” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Satsuki Yamashita.

(As with Vol. 1, and likely going forward, these reviews spoil the volume in question. Because that’s exactly what reviews are for.)

After all the revelations of the last volume, I had expected this one to slow down, and it does a bit, but that does not mean there are not still jaw-dropping moments within. One of the strengths of this series is its ability to pull the rug out from under the reader and make them want to reread everything that’s gone before with the new information in mind. There’s also a wonderful depth of character, something which you do normally see in Jump series, but rarely this early on. A lot of this book comes from Norman’s POV, and shows off how clever he really is, a balance between the cool and logical Ray and the impulsive, naive Emma. In fact, Emma’s naivete is explicitly called out as her weakness. So it’s also wonderful to see that she hasn’t just been saying the most idealistic option without trying to think of ways to make it happen, including the best tag game ever.

Planning a mass breakout of thirty-five or so kids, most of whom are somewhere between four and six years old, is a tough job. Ray is right – it would be so much easier for only a few kids to escape. But Emma is even more right – they can’t escape and leave other innocent kids behind to get killed or eaten or whatever it is that the things outside are doing to them. The tag game is Emma’s way of toughening the kids physically and also forcing them to think on their feet and trust their impulses (which is Emma’s greatest strength). Of course, the game of tag does not only help develop the kids physically, but shows off more of Krone as a character, after she decides to join in in order to prove to herself that she’s the one who has the upper hand. Krone can be terrifying, but I found her a bit less discomfiting than last time, mostly as she’s gained added depth – her war with Mother to see who’s in charge going forward is chilling, as is her scene with Gilda.

And then there’s Ray, who pretty much steals the volume by design. I had expected the “who’s the traitor?” question to be spun out over a few more chapters, but if the reader thinks about it, the traitor has to be someone the reader is already very familiar with, which narrows the list of suspects exponentially. As for Ray himself, I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s going to be headed for a fall in a volume or two – being a double agent is just as difficult as it sounds, and something else is going to go wrong – possibly right away, if that cliffhanger involving the impulsive Don is anything to go by. I also loved the scene with Emma interrogating him – like Norman and Ray, the reader assumes her to be the “Luffy” of the group, an optimistic bright shining light who’s nevertheless a bit simple. But she’s as smart as they are, and her deduction of how he figured out the tracking devices is topped only by her chilling response.

I haven’t even gone into the artwork, which is wonderful, be it the detailed, almost Escher-esque backgrounds or the gloriously silly expressions on Emma’s face. For those who worried that The Promised Neverland couldn’t surpass its first volume, the second book should show you that it’s still a cut above. Highly recommended.

Val x Love, Vol. 1

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By Ryosuke Asakura. Released in Japan as “Ikusa x Koi” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in their magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Ko Ransom.

In a way, I almost wish this had been worse. If it was completely bottom-feeling fanservice and nothing else, I could have smiled, nodded, said “Yeah, thought so”, and moved on. But there is the occasional flash, throughout this first volume, that it is going to gain greater depth and try to do something with the psychologies of its main characters, who have a lot of messed up things going on with them. You’d see it poking its head out… and then we’d paper over it with a monster fight which out of necessity seems to involve making out, or feeling up, or some other variety of fanservice that is literally dictated by whatever robotic-voiced rule machine seems to be in charge of the girls. It ends up feeling like you merely have to make the right level ups and the problems will be magically solved. And all the level ups involve stronger levels of “getting closer”. In other words, it’s not all that far from a mediocre ero game.

Our hero is Takuma, a young high schooler with a scary face. Nothing we haven’t seen before in Toradora!, or Haganai, or even Bleach. Except Val x Love takes it up to eleven, giving Takuma immense shark teeth and a huge body, making everyone absolutely terrified whenever he does something. Even worse, he’s somewhat socially inept – all he wants to do is study, so that he can make his dead mother proud. Unfortunately, he freezes up during tests so actually has horrible grades. The guy’s a wreck. And, not helping things, he is now living with eight other women (the ninth is absenting herself as she thinks he’s a loser), all of whom are valkyries sent by Odin to help save the world from demonic invasion. As I indicated abovel, they level up by completing various types of “love” tasks with Takuma – ‘so shopping while holding hands’, ‘be flirty’, and of course ‘feel bare breast for thirty seconds’. When this is achieved, they gain power and can take out the monsters.

There’s a lot that’s still unexplained about the sisters and their background, and most of them are barely sketched in here – I assume future volumes will take care of that. Natsuki is the lead heroine and obvious love interest, who’s a tsundere but competent, sort of in the Rin Tohsaka mode. The otehr featured girl is Itsuyo, who’s a bit more complex – her past as a cowardly girl and a lot of issues with her father have led her to have an outward “teasing oneesama” personality, but when it comes time to put up or shut up she’s freezing up just as badly as Takuma does. I was hoping this would lead to a nice sweet scene where they walk about their similarities and resolve to help each other become more confident. Instead, it leads to a kiss on the cheek and a quick monster elimination.

If you’re a young teen who wants monster fighting, cute girls, and the occasional bare breast (the series is rated M, likely more for that than any violent monster attacks), you’ll likely enjoy this. But it proved immensely frustrating for me in not going down more interesting roads. And given that the preview for the next volume featured the “oh no, I seem to have whipped cream all over my face and breasts” trope which is #1 on my Anti-Hit Parade, I think I will leave Val x Love for other valiant lovers to read.

Baccano!, Vol. 1

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By Ryohgo Narita, Shinta Fujimoto and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialized in their magazine Young Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Taylor Engel.

For the most part, when you are reading the first volume in a series, you do not need to worry too much about spoilers. I can see a casual reader picking this up and thinking “Oh, this is an adaptation of the first light novel, I can read this instead.” And they’re… sort of correct – the 2nd and third volumes of this series will in fact be a pretty straightforward adaptation of the first light novel. However, this first volume serves as a prequel to the series, taking place 3 years prior. And it spoils the absolute heck out of some things. I’d recommend reading the first four books and watching the anime, really. If you’re already familiar with the series, though, this first book is a treat, especially for Firo fans, showing us a younger Firo more desperate to prove himself as his own man, but beset by his baby face and the fact that circumstances mean he has to try a bit harder. Luckily, he has his family. Well, families.

The main reason I gave that spoiler warning oin the first paragraph is because the manga also features Claire, showing off his acrobatics and his solipsism, at a point before he’s left Firo and the Gandors to set off on his own. Given that a large part of the second book revolves around who Claire Stanfield is, this will give it away. As for Firo, he’s perfectly characterized here. We see that he’s exceedingly observant and clever, but also easy to anger and filled with a desire to take care of everything by himself – which makes things far more dangerous for him here, in that he isn’t an immortal. The first chapter is entirely about this (and shows off Maiza’s dangerous side – folks who think of him as just an “accountant” may wind up dead), the rest of the book has anotehr plot about a seemingly immortal priest who’s going around killing people.

Narita excels at writing unpleasant people doing bad things and making you like them, and that’s the case here, as despite being mafia (or camorra, yes) gangsters, beating people up, killing them, and torturing them, you’re left with the feeling that the 1930s were a rollicking good time. There are other shoutouts as to events in the series proper – the villain behind the villain turns out to be very unsurprising provided you’ve read the first book, and there’s a substantially large role for Keith Gandor, possibly more substantial than he’s ever gotten in the actual novels. By the end of the book you’re ready for the adaptation proper, which begins in Vol. 2 but really begins with Isaac and Miria making their grand entrance at the end. There’s even a cameo by Carol at the end, for anime watchers.

If you’re new to the series and want to check out Baccano!, I do recommend this order: anime, then light novels, then this manga adaptation. If you’re a long time fan, though, this is a must buy.