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Mermaid Boys, Vol. 1

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By Yomi Sarachi. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Aria. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Christine Dashiell.

I admit that it’s been years since I last read Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, and I don’t think I ever did get around to seeing the Disney version beyond clips of “Under the Sea”. But that’s OK, because the new shoujo title Mermaid Boys owes a lot more to standard shoujo manga than it does to the classic fairy tail. The initial plot beats are sort of there, but gender reversed. Boy mermaid meets girl, falls for her, goes to the upper world to be with her. But honestly, if he’d been a sudden transfer student who met the girl when she was on vacation and then ended up at her school, much of the story would be the same. But that’s OK, the story is still a lot of fun. What the book really ends up being about is preconceptions of love, learning not to put your crush on a pedestal, and (of course) growing up.

Naru is the hunky mermaid on the cover. He’s actually a Mermaid PRINCE, and has a bevy of gorgeous young suitors to choose from. He’s not interested in them, however; he’s obsessed with the human world, and has various trinkets of human life that he’s scavenged and whose purpose he’s gotten completely wrong. Then one day he sees a cute young schoolgirl on the surface, and rescues her when she almost drowns. Determined to be with her, and despite his mother locking him up for interacting with the humans (his aunt apparently died this way), he makes a deal to be able to go to the surface as a human in exchange for “his beauty”. It’s a pretty good exchange, as it seems to mostly involve him getting his hair cut so he looks “cute” rather than “hot”. Unfortunately for him, if he goes back in the water he’ll transform back. Also unfortunately, the sweet young girl he fell in love with turns out to think he’s a pervert (mostly as he has no clue how humanity works), and he now has to deal with who she really is, a young woman dealing with the death of her father and the financial instability of their family inn.

Naru’s over the top reactions are the best reason to read this so far. He’s so overexcited about humanity, but at the same time he’s unprepared for things like personal space, thinking about others, and wearing pants. You can tell that his journey is going to be leading him to mature. He’s getting there slowly, and would have looked pretty cool defending Nami from a bunch of jerks who are bitching about her inn if he weren’t standing there bottomless. Nami too is interesting, as her father’s death (he died in the water) has led her to have a fear of swimming, which she used to love. This, of course, allows her to contrast well with our hero, a literal mermaid. (I wonder if her dad’s death has something to do with Naru’s aunt’s death?) And of course there’s the obligatory rival, as well as the semi-villain, a sneering young man who finds out Naru’s secret and forces him to be a lackey.

This isn’t lights out shoujo, but it’s a very good start, and there’s a lot to develop for future volumes. I’m not sure how long it will run (Aria Magazine just folded), but the start of Mermaid Boys is certainly worth your time.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 11

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

Sanae has always had the most difficulty as part of the Koutarou harem. First of all, as the author notes, it’s been about 10 books since she last got any real plot focus. More importantly, she’s a ghost, which is a heck of a larger bar to clear than “alien”, “magical girl”, or “underground dweller”. And so a plot like this one, in which we find that Sanae is both dead and not dead, a ghost and not a ghost, was somewhat inevitable. Its resolution is handled pretty well. It’s not surprising in the least (Rokujouma is frequently anti-surprising, but that’s because it’s trying for Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, which of necessity involves the comfortable and familiar plot twist), but it fits well with what has gone before, only uses Deus ex Machine once or twice, and ties in neatly to the previous book right at the end. Also wow, Sanae’s rich.

Sanae’s plot is not the highlight of this book, though, which excels at the girls analyzing Koutarou and why he keeps a wall up in front of most everyone he knows. This comes up because Yurika is an exception, and they reason out what’s so different about her compared to the others. The difference is, of course, Koutarou thinks of her as a “normal girl” – indeed, that may be a big reason he’s in denial about the magical girl thing – and thus their life together is unlikely to change. The others, though, he’s put in a “eventually they will leave me so I’d better not get too close” bucket, which as Kiriha says may be related to his mother’s death as a child. It feels a bit awkward to have all this character analysis dumped onto the page like this, but it does make for fascinating reading, especially when we see him treating the now-alive Sanae (who has temporarily lost her memories) as a past chapter of his life.

The book is not without its issues. Much as I’m fond of talking about how much the characters have grown since the start of the series, I don’t want the author to talk about it in the actual text – it feels a bit too much like patting oneself on the back. Likewise, The Sanae plot steams over any subplots that might have been happening, including Harumi, who gets a scene at the start implying that something is going to happen when they do club recruiting but then vanishes from the rest of the book. And, in terms of problems actually lampshaded by the character in question, why is Shizuka such a part of the harem group now? I like Shizuka, don’t get me wrong, but she doesn’t seem to be in love with Koutarou (Yurika hasn’t admitted this either, but at least she’s in denial about it). I get the feeling the narrative is edging towards that, but until it gets there, Shizuka feels a bit like an optional extra. So does Harumi, come to that.

In any case, this is another solid volume of the series, which I still enjoy a great deal. Next time looks to be heavy on the magical girl side, so let’s look forward to that.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vols. 1-8

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By Kore Yamazaki | Published by Seven Seas

I’d heard good things about The Ancient Magus’ Bride from my Manga Bookshelf compatriots, but I had also heard about a sad fate befalling some cats, so I steered clear. After reading and really enjoying Kore Yamazaki’s Frau Faust, however, I decided to give AMB a try. I’m glad I did, because it turns out the cat stuff wasn’t a deal breaker (it all happened long ago and present-day kitties emerge unscathed) and the series is excellent.

In the opening chapter, fifteen-year-old Japanese teenager Chise Hatori is on sale at a British auction house. She is apparently “the most wondrous tool an alchemist can hope for—a sleigh beggy,” though she knows not what a sleigh beggy is. She only knows that she’s been attracting weird creatures all her life, that her father left with her younger brother, that her mother committed suicide, that her other relatives wouldn’t take her, and that she just wants a place to call home. She doesn’t care whether she lives or dies, but thought that if she could be useful to someone, that would be okay.

She’s purchased by a mage named Elias Ainsworth, who takes her as his apprentice. Elias is not entirely human and not entirely fae, either. Most of the time he assumes the form of a tall human with a head somewhat like a cow’s skull, but his real form is something far stranger. Despite his scary looks, he’s kind to Chise, insisting that she be neither passive nor servile, and she’s soon comfortable in his home in the countryside west of London. Eventually, he tells her that because of her ability to absorb and generate mass quantities of magic, her lifespan is destined to be brief. Part of the reason he bought her was to try to help overcome this while also learning more about humans. And to be his bride, of course.

Here’s a particularly revealing passage from volume two:

”I bought you because you met my requirements. With nothing of your own, you’d have little reason to leave me. I gave you food and shelter, and said things I expected you wished to hear. I thought that raising you myself might enable me to better understand your kind. I’d planned to tell you these things after I was confident you’d never leave.”

For Chise, someone not wanting her to leave is a novel experience, so she stays. Most of the time, anything romantic happening between them is downplayed. Instead, they take on a variety of tasks like investigating the black dog haunting a churchyard (who ultimately becomes Chise’s very, very lovable familiar), or helping a muse-like fae communicate with the man she’s loved for decades, or helping a girl find the brother her parents have inexplicably forgotten. Meanwhile, Chise learns more about magic (and how it differs from alchemy) and becomes passionate about helping others, often to her detriment. While she’s become more attached to the idea of living, she’s also reckless, culminating in an incident at the end of volume seven where, in an attempt to calm a rampaging dragon, she ends up absorbing so much of its magic that she curses herself. A despairing and desperate Elias attempts something awful to cure her, driving her away in the process (and potentially into an alliance with evil alchemist Josef, though I fail to see how Chise could rationalize doing such a thing).

What I’m getting at here is that this is a series rich in story. The plot is interesting, but the real story is Chise and Elias, what they mean to each other and how they might be incompatible despite all that binds them together. Besides the fact that her life was already going to be brief, now Chise has this dragon’s curse to contend with, and it’s really not looking good for her. Sometimes, too, Chise gets warned about Elias’ interest in her, like when his master Lindel says, “It looks as if he’s trying to tame you… and you are allowing him to do it. But you mustn’t.” Even if she were to return to him after what he did, would that be the healthy choice? I’m not sure this is going to have a happy ending, but it’s certain to have a fascinating one. I can’t wait for volume nine!

The Ancient Magus’ Bride is ongoing in Japan, where the ninth volume has just been released. It’ll come out in English in September.

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 3

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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 previous volumes, and likely going forward, these reviews spoil the volume in question. Because that’s exactly what reviews are for.)

I keep waiting for the moment that The Promised Neverland slows down to catch its breath a bit, but it’s become clear by the end of this third volume that that’s never going to happen. Our heroes plot, scheme, learn who to trust and who to betray, get trusted and betrayed, and by the end of the book everything is in ruins. It can honestly be a bit exhausting, and it’s definitely terrifying – there’s some real chilling horror reading this series – but it’s also completely exhilarating, and I want to see these kids succeed. Somehow. Even if what they escape to may end up being even worse. That said, I may not get my wish for a bit, as by the end of this book their plan is up in smoke, Mom knows all, Emma’s got a broken leg, and Norman’s getting shipped out to be delicious. There’s a lot going on.

Despite the presence of most of the orphans on the cover, this is very much a cast of five vs. the world, as Don and Gilda, after a tense discovery and angry confrontation, join forces with our heroes. I enjoyed all of the back and forth with Norman and Ray try to outdo Vizzini in figuring out what Mom and Sister Krone are actually up to, and how they can escape. I also like how they ultimate fail (at least so far) – a lot of clever kids think they’re being super secretive and canny when it turns out Mom has known what they’re thinking all along, and that’s what we get here, and it doesn’t take away from their extreme cleverness. I loved them looking at the books, where they understand some but not all of the code, and Emma’s intuition knowing they’re important but now quite why they’re important.

And then there’s the fall of Sister Krone, as well as her backstory. Despite Norman wondering how much of what she revealed to them was true and how much was false, I’m inclined to believe most of her backstory, especially as we get more flashbacks to it in her final moments. Despite functioning very effectively as a pure force of terror a lot of the time, particularly at the start of this volume, by the end of it all you feel is sad, as well as realizing what horrible monsters we have on “the outside”. Her revelation on how “moms” get chosen is also rather interesting, and makes me wonder if someone from Field House (not Emma, I suspect, but maybe Gilda) was being groomed for a position. That said, Sister Krone was correct – she could try to be scarier and more cunning than Isabella, but in the end there’s only one mom here.

So what’s next? Is this the sort of series that’s prepared to kill off its main cast? What about the rest of the orphans that Emma wants to save? And what *is* going on outside? This is a scary, scary volume, but I desperately want to read more. Highly recommended.

Re: ZERO -Starting Life in Another World – Ex, Vol. 2

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By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

In Japan, these two volumes came out slightly later than they did here – the first one came out after Book 6, and this second one after Book 7. It didn’t really matter with Crusch’s book, but I get the sense with this second volume that we’re missing the impetus as to why we’re suddenly getting a side story devoted to Wilhelm when he hasn’t really had a large role in these books to date. Of course, as fans will know, the cover of the next volume of Re: Zero out in North America prominently features Wilhelm. In any case, despite feeling as if I came in after the start of the movie, this was a very good volume of Re: Zero’s spinoff, showing us a moody young man who tries to shut himself off from everyone except his sword, and his meeting a lovely and teasing young woman in a construction site with a flower garden. It also manages to have another excellent message that we’ve seen before: war is an awful thing.

The start of the book doesn’t even has Wilhelm as the viewpoint character, though that changes about one-third of the way in. Grimm is his fellow soldier and a far more “normal” person, which is to say he has his doubts, wants to avoid combat and run away when things are bad, etc. Wilhelm seemingly finds him detestable, but the fact that he’s also the only person to repress those feelings and fight valiantly anyway says a lot in his favor. As Wilhelm gradually (very gradually) begins to open up to the reader and to others, Grimm is no longer needed, though I was annoyed that the narrative went so far as to remove his voice from it literally. We also meet what… I guess is meant to be Roswaal’s mother or grandmother? It’s not very clear, and the fact that they talk and act exactly the same makes me wary and suspicious. (If you know, don’t tell me in comments, I’m happy to be unspoiled.) And we also get a whole lot of dead soldiers, both humans and demi-humans, to show that, again, war is an awful thing.

There’s also Theresia, who for most of the book seems to be just an ordinary young girl who likes to hang out in the middle of deserted vacant lots in the poor sectio0n of town for fun, but who turns out to have a much bigger secret. A surprise to you all, I’m sure. Honestly, I wish I could have had more of her – this is a very male-oriented narrative, given that it’s mostly from Wilhelm’s POV, and both he and Carol, Theresia’s friend and retainer, think the same thing: she is made for peace and fluffy things, not as a maiden of war. Which is all very well and good, and I understand that in an anti-war book you want to have that sort of opinion, but a longer section from Theresia’s POV might have helped me not see it as “pretty girls shouldn’t fight!”, which is what it comes off as.

Fortunately, their story is not over yet. This comes as a surprise to me, as after the first Ex volume I came in assuming we’d see another awesome character getting killed off for tragic backstory. But no, the book ends on a triumphant note. And there’s a 3rd volume coming out soon in Japan that looks like it will continue the story. So this is definitely recommended, though readers may want to wait till after Vol. 7 is out before they give it a try.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 11

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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.

This volume of Yona of the Dawn is a return to the beginning in many ways. It opens with an extended flashback showing the trio of Yona, Hak and Su-Won as children, sneaking out against orders to see what the town looks like, which ends up turning into a disaster after Yona is kidnapped almost immediately. It’s a terrific sequence, showing off the strong friendship that the three had, as well as showing that Hak and Su-Won each are jealous of the qualities they see in each other. And of course it’s tragic because of what came later, something that is still affecting both Yona and Hak deeply, as we see later on. He has nightmares about Yona, both in regards to Su-Won’s betrayal and also her becoming a warrior rather than a princess. And Yona is feeling the same thing, only she knows what side she’s going to choose going forward.

Yona and company are moving north, arriving in a village that is much the same as the fire tribe one they left, but is much better off due to developments in their grain. This excites Yun so much that he’s willing to do a festival dance in order to get more information about it – or at least have Yona do it, as Yun can’t dance at all. Hak notes that Yona has danced in the past, but it’s been rather awkward and amusing more than anything else. That changes here when Yona uses the dance to show what she’s become and where she’s headed, in a performance that makes everyone’s jaw drop, including Hak’s. For shippers, there’s a giant pile of Hak being in love with Yona here, but he’s fighting back against too many things, including Yona being mostly oblivious, for it to go anywhere. But man, the burning unsaid passion in this book is amazing.

Rest assured the book is also filled with humor – one two-page section had me laughing out loud just from the use of ‘pondering’ and ‘lounge’ as comedic weapons. A lot of this comes from Jaeha, who has become my favorite non-Yona character (those who recall my I Hate You More Than Anyone reviews may guess why – he’s basically Honjo as a superhero. He also knows that Hak/Yona is the endgame, which grates on him a bit – but not enough to stop him giving Hak some good, if needling, advice. That said, I don’t think anything more is going to be happening anytime soon. I do wonder if we’ll be seeing another female cast member soon – this volume has them go to a village with a lot of young women who remind us that Yona is walking around with a bunch of hunky guys, and some female friendships would, I think, do her good and make her a bit less serious.

To sum up, this remains one of the best Shojo Beat titles being released by now, and an essential purchase. Buy it, you’ll love it.

Kenka Bancho Otome: Love’s Battle Royale, Vol. 1

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For a manga based on a dating game, Kenka Bancho Otome is far better than it ought to be. It’s a fast-paced, loose-limbed story that’s both cheerfully stupid and mildly subversive, buoyed by its deliciously queer premise: a girl goes undercover in an all-boys’ high school where her androgynous beauty and lethal karate chops inflame her classmates’ hearts.

The plot is set in motion by an accidental encounter between Hinako Nakayama, an orphan, and her long-lost twin Hikaru, whom she rescues from the path of an oncoming car. In the aftermath of the accident, Hikaru cajoles his sister into impersonating him for a day, lending her his school uniform and dropping her at the campus gates. Hinako soon realizes the folly of her brother’s request, however; Shishiku Academy is more like Rock ’n’ Roll High School than prep school, as its entire curriculum—if one could call it that—centers on fighting. Making matters worse is that everyone wants to fight Hinako because they believe she’s the heir apparent to the Onigumo crime family. She isn’t, of course, but Hikaru is, a detail he conveniently omitted when roping her into his charade. 

If you’ve read more than one shojo comedy, you know what happens next: Hinako befriends and beguiles the best-looking delinquents at the school, from Totomaru, an earnest cutie who’s prone to nosebleeds and blushing, to Kira, a tousle-haired bishonen with a sensitive side. Author Chie Shimada has the good graces to keep the hot guys and fist-fights coming — the better to distract from the thinness of the plot —and the imagination to add small but delightful quirks to her main characters’ personalities. Her best running gag is Hikaru, who seems more at home impersonating his sister than inhabiting his own skin; though his temper suggests he’d be a ruthless crime boss, his obvious joy in looking pretty and flirting with Miraku, Shinsiku Academy’s resident idol, add a fresh dimension to the identity-swapping formula. 

As you might expect, the artwork is more serviceable than memorable. Shimada proves capable of drawing a variety of familiar bishonen types — lanky guys with ponytails, serious guys with glasses — though the pro forma nature of the character designs occasionally makes it difficult to parse the fight scenes. (All those artfully coiffed young men have the same lanky, spike-haired silhouette.) Then, too, there are riotously busy pages where Shimada’s screentone is so thick and smudgy it’s almost palpable; the phrase “applied with a trowel” comes to mind.

Still, the Shishiku gang’s bonhomie is hard to resist, carrying the reader past the story’s creakier moments. So, too, is Hinako’s sincerity; her journey towards self-actualization is both touching and amusing, as she discovers that she might, in fact, be a more natural bancho than her twin. That she wins her fellow delinquents’ admiration with a mean right hook and a roundhouse kick is less important than the fact they appreciate her for her pluck, kindness, and thirst for justice — a nuance that elevates Kenka Bancho Otome from otome rehash to actual story. Recommended.

KENKA BANCHO OTOME: LOVE’S BATTLE ROYALE, VOL. 1 • STORY AND ART BY CHIE SHIMADA • ORIGINAL CONCEPT BY SPIKE CHUNSOFT • VIZ MEDIA • 194 pp. • RATED T, FOR TEENS (13+)

Again!!, Vol. 1

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By Mitsurou Kubo | Published by Kodansha Comics

Having greatly enjoyed Yuri!!! on Ice, written by Mitsurou Kubo, I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of some of Kubo’s manga in English. (In addition to Again!! from Kodansha, Vertical Comics has just published the first omnibus of Moteki, which I shall be reviewing within the next week or so.) Happily, Again!! did not disappoint.

This shounen series begins on March 14, 2014, when long-haired, scary-looking outcast Kinichiro Imamura is about to graduate from high school. He’s friendless, and despite going to a good school, he has no college or employment plans. The graduation ceremony reminds him of his entrance ceremony three years ago, during which the lone remaining member of the ouendan club (a girl, at that) tried to recruit new members. This spurs him to go check out the now-deserted ouendan club room and, when chasing after a female classmate who gets the wrong idea, he ends up falling down the stairs and three years into the past.

Now it’s April 6, 2011 and Kinichiro has a chance to do it all over again. Will he manage to navigate school this time without scaring people? He decides to actually talk to the ouendan girl this time, and learns her name is Yoshiki Usami. In a neat twist, the girl he was chasing also fell down the stairs and ends up back in the past with him. Her name is Akira Fujieda, and while Kinichiro begins to make small improvements on his high school experience—dispelling notions that he’s in a gang or that his blond hair signifies anything other than a hair stylist’s whim—Akira’s knowledge of the future alienates her classmates and would’ve-been future boyfriend.

Mostly, though, the focus is on the ouendan club and Kinichiro’s attempts to help Usami out. She’s stubborn, however, and resists efforts to draw male membership by featuring her image on recruitment posters. This makes more sense later on, when it’s revealed that she originally got a lot of media attention that led to fallout within the group—stoked by an online smear campaign—leading everyone but her to quit. Complicating matters is the captain of the cheerleading club, Tamaki Abe, who is resentful of having to cooperate with the ouendan, and determined to sabotage them. Happily, the girl she picks to seduce Kinichiro has scruples (and Kinichiro is also not an idiot), so this first volume ends with our heroes savvy to her scheme.

Again!! is a lot of fun. If you’re looking for time travel with a reasonable scientific explanation, then you should probably look elsewhere, but if you just accept the premise and go with it, then it’s kind of like a sports manga and a coming-of-age story rolled into one. I do worry what’s going to happen after Kinichiro reaches his graduation year again. Will these changes stick, and will he be able to go forward in life with more ambition and fewer regrets? I’m confident, though, that these questions will be answered eventually.

Again!! is complete in twelve volumes. The second volume is due out in English next week.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 2

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

This series continues, very deliberately, to be a book of two halves, albeit unequal halves. The main thrust of the story remains our spider heroine slowly ascending the dungeon and defeating stronger and stronger monsters while keeping up an inner monologue that sounds like she’s high on a dozen pixie stix all the time. The other half of the story is interspersed in between this, and deals with Shun and the rest of the reincarnated students having a far more normal isekai life… well, normal compared to the spider. The difficulty is that forward plot progression is entirely confined to the latter – a couple of the students have clearly gone a bit mad from the new world, Shun finds being a hero actually involves killing things, there’s a giant demon invasion happening as we speak, and oh yes, the demons are seemingly led by another reincarnated classmate. I want to know more about this. I have to be content with Spider Levels Up And Reads Her Stats.

Spider’s progress is the biggest strength of the book. She is hilarious, and it gets even better when she’s able to subdivide her brains so they can think about different things, and they start arguing with each other. She’s arrogant as heck except when she’s being attacked by killer monsters, and there’s an ongoing disturbing thread about her not realizing that she’s lost any moral or ethical sense – every time she reads about her taboo increasing and wonders why that is, you sort of smack your head. At the same time, spider’s progress is the book’s biggest weakness as well. There is endless discussion of her stats and skills, complete with charts (which are what pile up the page count), and she has to overanalyze all of them. Sometimes this is amusing, but a lot of times it can get very tedious, even with her excitable inner voice.

As for Shun and company, as I said, they’re pursuing a much more common isekai narrative. We’re introduced to Hugo, another classmate who seems to have gone completely insane and power mad, as well as Yuri, who has accepted God as her savior in a very over the top way. (Given that God in this work appears to not only exist but be the sysadmin, not too mad an idea, but she’s a pure “religious zealot” type, so will no doubt be an antagonist.) The most interesting thing going on here is Katia, who was a boy in Japan but was reincarnated as a woman here, and seems to be the ONLY one who’s not the same sex. She becomes very accepting of this, and is also clearly starting to have feelings for Shun, which everyone notices except her. It’s not, perhaps, as amusing as the author wants it to be, but it’s definitely interesting, and handled pretty well.

The book ends with a nasty cliffhanger for those on the surface, even as our spider heroine just keeps rolling along. I’m enjoying these books, but I really hope that the two plots converge soon, as I’m drawning in stats a bit too much.

Cutie Honey a Go Go!

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By Shimpei Itoh, Go Nagai and Hideaki Anno. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Tokusatsu A. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Zack Davisson, Adrienne Beck and Wesley Bridges.

Another day, another reimagining of a classic property that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. Indeed, I enjoyed it a lot more than the Japanese audience apparently did, as not only was this cancelled after ten chapters, but the second volume was never published until this omnibus edition. The afterword is filled with the author’s apologies, but I’m not sure they’re merited, because I thought this was a pretty terrific adaptation. The cynic in me wonders if the series didn’t take off because it’s not filled with high school girls – Natsuko, aka the reason everyone should read this, is an adult police detective in this version, and I can’t help but think that this was Cutie Honey’s StrikerS. But I’m not going to complain too much, as what we do have is silly, over the top fun with lots of fighting, a lot of over the top bloodshed, and some yuri subtext. Everything you’d want from Cutie Honey, in other words.

As noted, Natsuko is a police detective with a penchant for being “a cop on the edge” – she exists in a constant haze of cigarettes and violence, beating the crap out of anyone who pisses her off, which is everyone. She’s having a particular bad day due to Panther Claw, an evil organization which has started destroying the city and its inhabitants due to the city not answering its demands – which no one actually seemed to receive. Fortunately, there is one woman here to save the day and defeat the bad guys (OK, bad girls – Panther Claw is an all-female monster team). Honey Kisaragi is an android built by her “father”, Dr. Kisaragi. She’s a combination of sentai warrior, magical girl and cute young airhead. Unfortunately, her father doesn’t last long in this series, and it’s noted that Panther Claw keeps coming after her. There’s only one thing left to do – go undercover at a Catholic Girls’ school.

If this sounds a bit ridiculous, it’s because it is -despite all the bloodshed, the ‘a Go Go” version of Cutie Honey is very much in the lighthearted vein. It was produced in tandem with the anime “Re: Cutie Honey”, which explains why Anno is listed as one of the creators. Natsuko’s angry reactions have those classic “all teeth” faces you see in a lot of Rumiko Takahashi works. That may be why the manga didn’t do as well – the ending, where the author was clearly told “you’re cancelled, wrap it up”, is noticeably darker than the rest of the series, with people getting their heads cut off and put on display or simply sliced completely in half. The main cast survives to fight another day, though, and readers might want to look towards the anime for a less ambiguous ending. There are other things going on here (a “reporter” who’s meant to be charming and irritating but is mostly the latter), but honestly the best reason to read this is Natsuko vs. everything around her.

The Young Master’s Revenge, Vol. 1

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The Young Master’s Revenge, Vol. 1 by Meca Tanaka

Meca Tanaka’s manga is so charming! I thought that the first page of The Young Master’s Revenge was one of the most captivating first pages of manga that I’ve read recently. All in black, the thought “It is time for me to start my revenge” hovers while a boy accompanied by a lovely shoujo floral background illustration is leaving an airport with a bright smile and an adorable dog in a carrier. The contrast between the dark thoughts and the stereotypical innocent hero illustration immediately drew my attention.

The vengeful hero is Leo, a boy returning to Japan to attend high school after his father’s fashion company has become incredibly successful. Before he left Japan, he used to be friends with an heiress to a department store named Tenma. She was a tomboy who loved chasing animals, accidentally getting Leo into a situation where he was bitten on the butt by turtles, which has caused him years of psychological trauma. Leo has nursed his hatred for 10 years, turning himself into the perfect specimen of a high school boy just so he can make Tenman fall in love with him and then dump her. Unfortunately he finds out that things have changed in Japan and his path to revenge is not so smooth. Tenma’s family has fallen on hard times, and when he meets her again, she picks up her friendship with him exactly where they left off, but without any romantic notions at all.

Tanaka’s illustrations easily switch between capably showing the subtle emotions in the growing friendship between Tenma and Leo to straight out caricature. Tanaka’s characters have the most adorable surprised facial expressions. Leo grows more distressed as he realizes that other boys are aware of Tenma too, and potential rivals for her affection are introduced in such over the top ways, it is fun to see Tanaka poking fun at some typical shoujo conventions. Leo’s reasons for revenge are ridiculous, but this manga isn’t mean spirited at all. I preferred the revenge story in this manga as opposed to Komomo Confiserie which has an extremely similar plot because The Young Master’s Revenge never seems to cross the line into meanness at all. For me this manga fills that slot on my reading list for simple, cute, and adorable manga that has been left a little vacant by series like My Love Story!! and Honey So Sweet that have recently finished.

The Irregular at Magic High School: Yokohama Disturbance Arc, Part 2

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

Last time I mentioned I did not want any more romantic comedy hijinks, and it’s safe to say I got my wish, though that does not necessarily translate into a better book. The focus of this book is the Thesis Competition and the terrorist attack that disrupts it, and I think the entire problem with the book can be summed up by the fact that the competition never finishes after the attack and we never find out who won. It’s irrelevant. That actually pops up pretty frequently in this book, as we see moments that seem like they’re going to lead somewhere or develop a character… except they don’t. They’re there to “look cool” and that’s about it. (Honoka gets hit particularly hard with this.) The exception to this, as always, is Tatsuya. Miyuki seems to long for people to treat her and her brother as normal people rather than superhuman monsters, but it’s getting a tad difficult as the books move on.

As noted above, we start with the Thesis Competition, with our heroes going second to last. Their presentation is awesome, and yet here comes Third High and Cardinal George. But before he can start… explosions, invaders, rampaging monster trucks crashing through the walls. (This may – may – get wrapped up in a book or two with an offhand mention, but I will assume that First High wins. Did Third High even get to present again? “Yeah, look… um, can you just mail it in? We promise we’ll give it equal attention, but everyone’s kind of moved on.”) The rest of the book is taken up with repelling the attack, and, to its credit, it’s only about half “Tatsuya solves everything by dint of superpowerful magic awesomeness.” The rest of it is the rest of the cast contributing in their own little way, from actively killing terrorists with giant swords to using the power of Daddy’s Little Girl to summon helicopters to rescue civilians.

And yes, I said killing. There is a whole lot of bloodshed in this book, as the terrorists (whose identity I will try to keep a secret, in case someone anyone hasn’t guessed) amount to a bunch of cannon fodder. The cast take to it based on their personalities and strengths – Erika and Leo are basically fine with it, some of the others less so. Fortunately, absolutely none of our heroes are hurt all that badly – two of them get mortally wounded, but fortunately Tatsuya pulls out an “I can reverse this” magic that puts them back together again. I tend not to gripe about super overpowered heroes as much as the average light novel fan – I mean, if you’re reading this genre you have to basically accept it – but I admit to rolling my eyes a bit at this. Miyuki helpfully tells us how much pain it causes him, which is all very well and good, but it might have been nice to see that from his point of view, rather than just assume “stoic endurance”.

As the book ends with Tatsuya literally being the trigger of a nuclear magic explosion, one wonders where we’re going to go from here. Not back to the thesis competition, as Book 8 is apparently a prequel taking place three years earlier. In any case, while it is filled with cool battle scenes and the like, I didn’t enjoy this volume quite as much as the previous ones. It’s OK for the other characters to treat Tatsuya like some inhuman God, but don’t let the author do it as well.

CITY, Vol. 1

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By Keiichi Arawi. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Morning. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

It’s always interesting when an established author ends their popular title and moves to a new company to start something new. In the case of Keiichi Arawi, creator of Nichijou, he’s moved to Weekly Morning for this new series, which has a significantly older readership than Young Ace, his former home. That said, I don’t think Nichijou fans need to worry too much about things getting overly serious or normal. CITY contains most of what readers love about Arawi – bizarre situations, a cast filled with overreacting idiots, and the occasional page that reminds you that the author may be at his best when designing backgrounds. And if you already miss Yukko and Mio from his previous series, rest assured, Midori and Ayumu will have you scratching you head and saying “they seem strangely familiar”. Basically, everything you liked before is here again, except perhaps for Mai. (I miss Mai.)

As the title suggests, this is a story of various characters living in the midst of a reasonable-sized city. And I say ‘characters’ rather than people because it’s obvious from the first that funny gags are what’s on the menu. Midori is sort of a main character, the way Yukko was sort of the main character of Nichijou, but as the book goes on it shows itself as more of an ensemble piece. Which is for the best, most likely, as Midori can be difficult to take in large doses. She’s lazy, conniving, and hyperactive, and also has a streak of bad luck, all things that make her very funny, but we haven’t really had any of the heartwarming moments in Nichijou that made us open up to the cast. Probably as this first book is establishing said cast and locale, rather than expanding on them.

There are others in the cast. I mentioned Midiori’s best friend Ayumu, who is meant to be the “normal” one by contrast, but seems to have a few silly interests. There’s a family restaurant, which Midori starts to work at in an effort to pay her rent, staffed by a boy who relies a bit too much on horoscopes. There’s an over-earnest police officer who tries to do the right thing but frequently ends up way over his head. There’s a young woman whose name isn’t given but who is basically Nano from Nichijou without a screw in her back, and she’s sweet and ditzy and obsessed with point cards. There’s even a manga artist and editor, though given the manga artist’s series gets cancelled in this first volume and they replace him with someone far more famous, I’m not sure how long that will last.

CITY likely needs a few more volumes to play out before I know whether I’ll enjoy it as much as I did Nichijou. But the basic elements are all still there, and I still found myself smiling as I read it. Arawin fans will definitely want to check this out, as will fans of “quirky” manga.

CITY, Vol. 1

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CITY, Keiichi Arawi’s latest series, charts the misadventures of Midori, a feckless undergrad who’s behind on the rent, in debt to her roommate, and surrounded by “not-quite-ordinary people.” In a last-ditch effort to stay in her apartment, she hatches several get-rich schemes — betting on horses, entering a photography contest — all of which backfire in spectacular fashion. That premise sounded ripe with comic potential, so I decided to pick up a copy of volume one.

I’ll be honest: I had a hard time reviewing CITY, a manga that seems to be tickling everyone else’s funny bone but mine. Though I could appreciate the skill and imagination behind Keiichi Arawi’s work, I found CITY too frantic to be amusing, thought-provoking, or interesting. My frustration boiled down to two basic observations about Arawi’s methods — first, his unwavering belief that repeating gags is a surefire strategy for laughs, and second, his unwavering belief that certain types of jokes subvert convention when, in fact, they’re just as cliche as the conventions they’re spoofing. Nowhere are those two tendencies more pronounced than in his depiction of Midori’s landlady, a feisty old broad who goes to violent lengths to collect the rent. A karate-chopping grandma sounds hilarious in the abstract, but you’ve seen this gag done better elsewhere, most spectacularly in Kung Fu Hustle, where the regal and ridiculous Yuen Qi steals the show from under Stephen Chow’s nose  — something that can’t be said of Midori’s landlady, whose shouting and punching barely distinguishes her from her equally batshit neighbors.

It’s only in the quieter interludes, when the focus shifts from Midori to her neighbors that Arawi’s flair for the absurd manifests itself. In “Officer,” for example, a neighborhood patrolman finds himself under citizen’s arrest for a theft he was asked to investigate. The officer’s placid expression and deadpan delivery contrast sharply with the physical and emotional indignities of his job, his beatific expression unbroken by the ordeal of being hog-tied by an overzealous mob. Another modestly amusing interlude — “Wako Izumi” — focuses on a control freak who’s distraught by the loss of a restaurant point card. Like the officer, Wako proves an unreliable narrator, her impulsive, weird behavior contradicting the Sgt. Friday-esque tone of her internal monologue. These moments of surrealism aren’t funny, exactly, but they at least feel original, something that can’t be said of the tired slapstick jokes and strenuously unpleasant main characters.

Verdict: Your mileage will vary. See my colleague Sean Gaffney’s review for a different perspective on CITY.

CITY, Vol. 1
Art & Story by Keiichi Arawa
Translated by Jenny McKeon
Vertical, Inc., 166 pp.
No rating

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Plus Ultra

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

So in the afterword to the second volume of Tanya the Evil, the author talks about how much his editors and readers want to see more of the guys in the cast rather than Tanya herself, and how he is adamant about keeping Tanya front and center. And I get that, he’s correct as far as it goes. But I also understand the feelings of the others, because too much Tanya, particularly when we’re smiling and nodding along with her point of view, is not only overpowering but actively harmful to a degree. The Saga of Tanya the Evil works best when it shows us the disconnect between what Tanya is thinking and what the rest of the cast thinks she is thinking, and there are several very amusing moments here where we see that. But it’s not nearly as many as the first book, and pure, unfiltered Tanya, which we get here for long stretches at a time, risks the reader coming over to her point of view. Which is not, I suspect, what the author is going for.

The title is, as are all the titles in this series, Latin, and means “further beyond”. It’s also the national motto of Spain, one of the few countries in Europe that doesn’t have an equivalent here. The “plot” of the second volume reads almost like a book of short stories, and those who expect to see more of Tanya vs. Being X beyond her constant grousing are going to be disappointed. Instead, Tanya and her unit perform like the A-Team, dropping into war zones and magically coming out successful even when they’re unaware of it. We hit the Tanya equivalents of Romania, Norway, and France here, and also take a little bit of time to perform a few wartime atrocities. There are occasional flashforwards to reporters discussing these events as history, and it’s made pretty clear that history is not going to be happy with Tanya’s actions. It’s also made pretty clear the Empire is not going to be on the winning side when the war eventually ends. Now that we’re getting England… sorry, The Commonwealth into it, who knows where the books will take us next?

But again, as I said, there’s a whole lot of Tanya point of view in this book’s 7,963 pages. (That’s a slight exaggeration, but is is punishingly long. Readers may feel better knowing that, although all Tanya volumes are long, none in the future are QUITE as long as this one.) There are a few exceptions – we’re introduced to a new recruit whose job is to boggle in horror at war and Tanya (possibly not in that order), and we also meet a man who looks like he’s being set up as a major antagonist, Anson Sue (whose daughter, god help us, is named Mary Sue)… except he’s promptly killed off without Tanya even knowing who he is, so the whole thing ends up being anticlimactic. We occasionally see some of the Empire higher-ups, or a brief POV of the other side. Even Visha gets very little to do in this book besides be Tanya’s adjutant. The readers want more of the other characters because it provides some balance and different coloring. All Tanya is like eating potatoes every day.

I’m still not ready to drop this series, which is odd given “this is too dark” is the main reason I tend to drop light novels these days. I think Tanya’s odd historical and military tone works in its favor – the book may be filled with ludicrous amounts of discussion of ammo, shells, and the rules of war, but its dry tone sets it at a remove from the actions it describes. And I can’t deny that I find Tanya fascinating, and I’m still not sure how much the author wants us to like her. If you enjoyed the anime (which I admittedly haven’t seen), I can only imagine this is a must buy, as there’s lots of stuff that must have been cut to ribbons in adaptation. As for me, I will read on, but I can’t deny that at the end of the day one word comes to mind reading The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Exhausting.