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Reviews

Anonymous Noise, Vol 6

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Anonymous Noise, Volume 6 by Ryoko Fukuyama

Anonymous Noise, sometimes I find this series a little infuriating because I’m not fond of the dynamics in the Nino-Yuzu-Momo love triangle, where Nino as muse gets bounced back and forth between two songwriters while everyone keeps hiding their feelings for various reasons. On the other hand this series does bring a regular dose of rock band drama, which I do appreciate. I found this volume more entertaining, probably because there was a bit more focus on the supporting cast. This volume starts out with the aftermath of the In No Hurry vs Silent Black Kitty battle of the bands, where Nino runs after Momo, gets rejected, Yuzu shows up to pick up the pieces, and then decides to lie about his feelings again.

Momo vanishes and Nino’s psychosomatic reaction is to have difficulty singing again, but she does hang out Miou a little bit, which I am taking as an indication that my dream ending for the series, where Momo and Miou forswear all men to launch an all girl band is totally going to happen. One thing that I was quite thrilled with is that Miou finally decides to take a chance on Haruyoshi, who has been pursuing her forever. Nino is determined to get back her voice, and Yuzu and Momo are dealing with their obsessions in their own way, as Yuzu buries himself in songwriting, and Momo attempts to get Yuzu to slip one of his songs to Nino. The circular nature of the love triangle leads back to Nino yet again having to choose between the two songwriters.

I don’t know, as I put down this volume I found myself much more invested in the Miou/Haruyoshi romance, because it at least seems to be progressing somewhere! I still read this for the reliable angst and rock band poses, but I would really really like to see a little more progression for the main characters. Also, I miss cranky Nino, and hope she will manifest the snarkiness she exhibited during her band’s radio interview. Will that happen in volume 7????


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Beasts of Abigaile, Vols. 1-2

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By Spica Aoki | Published by Seven Seas

After having been bullied in school back home in Japan, Tsukishiro Nina comes to live with her uncle in the tiny principality of Ruberia, famous for its roses. Outwardly, it’s an affluent place, but Nina soon learns—after being bitten by a luga and taking on some of their characteristics—that wolf-like people known as luga serve as slave labor for the humans in Ruberia, and that young luga are all rounded up and sent to an island prison/school called Abigaile, where they learn how to serve humans. Nina is sent there after her transformation and must try to blend in, because if the other luga find out she’s human, they’ll turn on her.

I wasn’t sure I would like this at first because Nina’s character blurb contains the phrase “sometimes lets her emotions drive her to dangerous behavior,” which is definitely not my favorite personality type. And, it’s true, she does require a bit of rescuing due to her impulsive actions, usually by handsome luga named Gilles (who’s on the student council and seemingly devoted to its mysterious president) and Dario (the effeminate alpha who dreams of becoming a fashion designer). However, I like that, because she comes from a place where teenagers are able to pursue their aspirations, she becomes determined that the luga should have the same right, and thus wants to unite them and get them out of there.

That said, Nina is actually the least interesting character to me. I probably shouldn’t like Roy, the luga who bit her and who is the alpha of the most dangerous “home” (basically a pack) in Abigaile. He enjoys tormenting Nina but he’s definitely the most fascinating character so far, especially when we learn at the end of volume two that he himself had hoped to unite the luga but couldn’t. Nina and Roy actually remind me of Clarke and Bellamy in The 100—two teens who emerged as leaders from among a disenfranchised group of youth who disagree with each other’s methods, but if they could trust each other and become a team, then they might really have a chance. (Granted, I haven’t seen more than a handful of episodes at this point.) I like that dynamic between them and look forward to Roy eventually coming to trust Nina.

Meanwhile, Roy’s “beta,” Eva, is possessive of him in the extreme and jealous of Nina, so contrives to attack and/or expose her at every turn. She’s a great antagonist because her motives are so strong, and by the end of volume two she’s convinced Poe, a lowly “omega” whom Nina has been trying hard to protect, to turn on Nina and deliver unto her the rose perfume that disguises Nina’s human scent. Dun dun dun!

In addition to hoping Roy and Nina team up and successfully escape Abigaile, there are some other plot points I hope get fleshed out. What’s the deal with the student council president? Why is the chief instructor such a bishounen? Surely the mangaka wouldn’t waste such a character design on someone who wasn’t going to be significant down the road. And, perhaps most importantly, why did being bit by Roy cause Nina to take on luga characteristics, when that never happened to any of the other humans he’s bitten?

I’m glad I took a chance on this one.

Beasts of Abigaile is ongoing in Japan, where three volumes have been released so far. The third comes out in English on Tuesday.

Review copy for volume one provided by the publisher.

Yona of the Dawn Vol. 10

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Yona of the Dawn Volume 10 by Mizuho Kusanagi

It is a sign of a good long-running fantasy series, when at 10 volumes in I feel like the story is barely getting started and I just want it to go on forever! Part of the reason why I’m finding this manga so compelling to read is the inherent niceness of the characters. It might be cheesy, but this manga helps me maintain some hope for humanity. Yona’s ability to spread compassion throughout her immediate surroundings by demonstrating her own compassion gets featured often in Yona of the Dawn, but each time it is with a special twist that has me immediately captivated.

In this case, the target of Yona’s transformation through compassion is Kang Tae-Jun, second son of the fire chief and all around unpleasant person, as shown in his actions in earlier volumes when he thought he killed Yona by throwing her off a cliff. His obsession has continued, and he’s consumed with guilt when he realizes that Yona might be in the company of the fearsome bandits that are occupying a village. Tae-Jun’s trauma is played for laughs at first, as he lingers in bed and plots to return to Katan village where he thought he heard Yona’s voice. He declares that he finally has a reason for living and his men are bewildered, but supportive. Tae-Jun’s undercover attempts involve an inept disguise as a commoner. When he encounters members of Yona’s band, he assumes that they are evil, but they scoop him up and take him for medical treatment.

Tae-Jun learns that conditions in the town for the citizens are terrible, and the things he’s been told about the lands of the Fire Tribe were lies. Tae-Jun’s encounter with an enigmatic Hak is hilarious, as Hak maintains an enigmatic expression while Tae-Jun is inwardly dying as he realizes that he’s sharing a fire with the dreaded “Thunder Beast”. Kusanagi could teach a master class in drawing overwrought facial expressions as Tae-Jun goes through such an extreme of emotions in this volume. When Tae-Jun finally encounters Yona, she forgives him, and he then decides on a covert campaign to improve the lives of the Katan villagers, while leveraging the resources of the military under his command. Tae Jun keeps helping more and more, until he’s been transformed in his outlook and abilities by the end of the volume. This was a satisfying, more self-contained volume of Yona of the Dawn, but it seems clear that another adventure is about to begin. I’m excited to see what happens next for Yona and her band of mystical warriors.

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: Venice

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Venice — one of the last projects Jiro Taniguchi completed before his death in 2017 — is perhaps the most beautiful work he produced, a paean not only to the great Italian city, but to his own superb command of light, color, and line. Rendered in watercolor and ink, Venice‘s subtle palette and expansive treatment of the page are reminiscent of Taniguchi’s Guardians of the Louvre, while its premise recalls The Walking Man, Furari, and The Solitary Gourmet, three manga in which an unnamed male character strolls through the thoroughfares and byways of a major city, stopping to admire a blossoming tree or duck into an unassuming noodle shop.

Taniguchi makes an agreeable guide to Venice, frequently pausing to luxuriate in the very places that a visitor would find most charming: an outdoor marketplace filled with fruit and vegetable vendors, a moonlit promenade dotted with strolling couples, a faded but elegant hotel. Though Taniguchi renders these locations with the utmost precision, his most striking images are of canals and harbors. He captures the play of light on water with the same authority as a great maritime painter like Homer Winslow, using a watercolor palette of greens, blues, grays, blacks, and pinks to pinpoint the time of day and weather, as well as the tide — a small but potent reminder of Venice’s precarious relationship with the sea.

Though framed as a travelogue, Venice also explores similar thematic terrain as Taniguchi’s A Distant Neighborhood. Like the protagonist of Neighborhood, the Venetian wanderer is a middle-aged man making sense of his family’s past, a quest triggered by the discovery of a small lacquer box among his late mother’s possessions. A single image — a photo of a dapper Japanese couple feeding pigeons at the San Marco Piazza — leads him to Venice, where he retraces the couple’s steps. Taniguchi handles the mystery in an elegant fashion, eschewing pointed dialogue or voice-overs in favor of evocative imagery: a sepia-toned portrait of a family, a hand-drawn postcard of the Grand Canal. By focusing on these artifacts, Taniguchi provides just enough information for the reader to figure out who this young couple was without baldly explaining what drove them apart; only a brief inscription on the back of a postcard suggests the length and anguish of the couple’s separation.

These temporal shifts in the narrative are echoed in the way Taniguchi draws Venice itself. On several pages, for example, Taniguchi shows us familiar Venetian streetscapes as they looked in the 1930s, when the mystery couple lived there. On other pages, Taniguchi achieves a similar effect through the juxtaposition of the traditional with the modern: kayakers bob alongside gondoliers, floating past Renaissance merchants’ grand homes, while the mouth of the Canal de la Galeazze frames the arrival of a giant cruise ship. (In a nice touch, Taniguchi tracks the ocean liner’s stately progress over several panels, allowing us to appreciate its enormous size and sleek lines.) Even the most prosaic scenes emphasize the degree to which Venetians’ daily routines are shaped by its lengthy history; we see young children in baseball jackets sipping water from a fountain built in the 17th century and dog walkers chatting in the shadow of Venice’s great Campanille, unawed or unaware of these landmarks’ significance.

And while such sensuous images are fundamental to Venice‘s appeal, Taniguchi does more than recreate Venice’s great architecture; he conveys the rhythms and emotions of a journey, the experience of savoring new places while realizing in the moment that the place where you stand will be different the next time you visit. He evokes the curious sensation of déjà vu you experience in an unfamiliar city, as you see small elements of your own life reflected in the way that strangers live theirs. And he conveys the profound sense of discovery that comes from visiting a place that holds significance for a parent, lover, or friend, as you see the landscape through their eyes for the first time. That Taniguchi evokes these emotions primarily through the artful use of color and detail, rather than character development or dialogue, is testament to the depth of his artistry. Highly recommended.

For more insight into Venice, I encourage you to watch this brief video in which Taniguchi discusses the genesis of the story, and how he created some of the book’s most arresting images:

VENICE • BY JIRO TANIGUCHI • FANFARE/PONENT MON • NO RATING • 128 pp. 

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 14

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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

It’s hard, as this series goes on, not to feel that we are headed towards a certain point of no return. Indeed, Touma’s job in this book is to try to stop the world from descending into total war, and he only just manages to keep it in check. Both sides, magic and science, are clearly cruising for a bruising, so to speak, and I’m pretty sure that eventually there’s going to be no way to stop everything blowing up. This time around the French city of Avignon is completely destroyed, and though there are attempts to try to say “oh, they’re only knocking people unconscious”, there’s clearly significant innocent casualties. This is not helped by the Roman Cathol… Orthodox Church’s mid control weapon, or the fact that Touma and Accelerator are both used here as the equivalent of nuclear weapons dropped on the enemy. Despite Touma’s best efforts, things are getting worse, not better.

Introduced in this volume: Suama Oyafune, Monaka Oyafume. Terra of the Left also makes his first proper appearance here, though of course it’s also his last. We’re into October now, 3 months after the start of the Index series. Since the last book the Railgun cast has been busy, as most of the Dream Ranker arc has happened, and Saten and Frenda have continued to bond and become good friends. This assumes that you ignore the actual text of Index 14, in which Mikoto sees Uiharu and thinks “oh, that friend of Kuroko’s I don’t know”. On the bright side, in real life, the Index and Railgun mangas have both started, meaning hopefully that continuity will start to match up with them. And don’t worry, Uiharu, I bet you get a big scene soon! We’ve also seen the first Index short story collection come out. These sadly are not licensed by Yen, which is a shame, as sometimes they tie into the plot of the main storyline more than most short story collections. More on that next time. And, most significantly, this is the first volume that has not been made into an anime.

As for this book, Index is completely absent, and it’s Itsuwa who plays the heroine, as you might have guessed from the cover. Aside from the hand towel joke, which has already gotten old (as with almost all jokes the author attempts), I quite like Itsuwa. She’s capable, cute, and clearly meant to contrast with all the girls Touma knows who get angry and hit him at the drop of a hat. When he points out her top has become see-through due to rescuing him from a river, she just blushes and rushes off to change. No surprise that she rapidly became a fan favorite, and we’ll see her back soon. Tsuchimikado is also around in this book, mostly serving as Touma’s backup and deliverer of exposition, although we’ve reached the point in the series where Touma can figure most things out on his own. The plot is, to be honest, slight. Touma is sent to stop a magical maguffin that is causing Roman Orthodox believers to riot and want to destroy Academy City. He does, eventually. The end.

That said, there are important things going on here, not least of which is realizing that Touma’s last name, Kamijou, may be a lot more significant than we had previously expected. Touma’s right hand power, Imagine Breaker, is clearly a giant mystery still, and he hasn’t harnessed most of its power. Terra fo the Left implies that he knew more about it before the memory loss, but I’m not really sure that’s the case. More importantly, thanks to accidentally leaving his cell phone on during a battle, Mikoto also now knows about his memory loss – but not WHEN it happened. Given that she’s been worried lately that he’s been ignoring her, I suspect she thinks he may have forgotten the Sisters arc.

In any case, it looks as if Acqua of the Back, who has proven to be the most reasonable of the antagonists du jour, is up next. Before that, however, we’ll flip back to the Science side, which is having its own chaotic power struggles. Index fans will enjoy this one, although I suspect most of them are looking towards the next volume…

Again!!, Vol. 1

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By Mitsurou Kubo. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Rose Padgett.

Yuri!! on Ice was a bit of a phenomenon, not just here but worldwide. But yes, also here, which is why we’re seeing two series that are by the writer of the famous ice skating anime. Again!! is the less surprising of the two licenses, though its subject matter means that it was fairly easily passed over back in the 2011-12 days when it was coming out weekly. (The other series, Moteki, is an even more unlikely license, but we’ll get to that when it comes out.) Again!! actually has a premise that seemingly would be quite popular over here: a young man with a scary face who has gone through high school with minimal interaction with people is graduating, having accomplished very few happy high school memories. He recalls the club that he was asked to join (but never did) when he started school, and goes to look at its now deserted clubroom, as the club died that year. While there, he accidentally terrifies a young girl who’s there to see her boyfriend, and she falls down a stairwell and cracks her head open. He then slips on a graduation bouquet and joins her.

The End! OK, not the end. He wakes up and suddenly begins to realize he’s back three years in the past, and is starting his school life all over again. Thinking this is a dream of some sort, he runs across the girl who invited him to join her club back then, and this time tries to give a different answer. And here we come to the elephant in the room: the club is an ouendan club. This is likely why the series was not licensed until YOI took off, as even fans of Elite Beat Agents may not have heard of ouendan. Kodansha’s notes list it as being sort of like a pep squad, and that’s not a bad analogy. Its members are usually male, but Usami, the lone remaining member, is a young girl. Now, if you’re thinking that this is going to be a sweet, heartwarming manga about a boy who rapidly discovers a love for ouendan and life that he never thought he had… well, it still could be, I suppose. But this first volume is here to tell you things will not be that simple. Usami is a hot mess with a difficult past, and it’s easy to see from ten seconds in her presence why the club died. Also, time travel is not as easy as it sounds, as both Imamura (our hero) and Fujieda (the girl who also fell down the stairs and went back in time, who is a walking disaster and the funniest part of the manga) discover. Oh yes, and the cheerleading squad leader is determined the end the ouendan.

This may not end up being my sort of manga – it relies somewhat on “watch people do embarrassing things” scenes that always make me cringe – but it’s absolutely compelling, and the lead manages to hold my interest despite being another in a long line of “guys with scary faces who aren’t really that scary”. I also do wonder how the time travel part is going to work out – is it just a one-way road? And can anyone convince Usami to turn the intenseness down to about an 8? There’s a lot developing here, but the series ran for twelve volumes in Japan, which seems to me just about the right length for a series like this. If you liked Yuri!! on Ice, you’ll obviously want to check this out, but it also appeals to readers with a taste for the quirky.

[New Life+] Young Again in Another World, Vol. 1

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

This was the first of two new licenses from J-Novel Club where my reaction was somewhat… muted, shall we say? The description of New Life Plus (Which is how I’ll be abbreviating it) did not really make it stand out among the Smartphones of this world. And as I began to read it, I started to tick off the usual isekai boxes. Here’s God, yup. Somewhat eccentric – in this case, God’s given herself the body and personality of a hyperactive young girl. Lead who has been chosen to go to another world for vague reasons. He ends up stupidly overpowered because God doesn’t really pay attention well, so that’s in order. He rescues two girls from attempted assault by the male companions they were traveling with, and then helps to stave off a goblin raid (goblins, check). Finally, after arriving at the adventurer’s guild (check) and getting ID cards (check), he is convinced to join the two girls on their adventures, against his better judgment. Check. Sigh.

I will break this down into bad and good again, though in this case it’s more bad and “has potential”. A lot – in fact, the majority – of J-Novel Club’s series are light novels that were originally on the internet as self-published web novels, but I don’t think I’ve seen a single series where it’s more obvious than this one. The writing quality is highly variable, to the point where I was actually wishing it was worse in places just so that it would be more consistent. Our hero is the ‘grim, realistic” sort as opposed to the “kind, helpful” and “perverted but doesn’t do anything” sorts, which sadly means I started to compare him to the hero of Death March. It’s never a good sign when you’re trying to clear Death March’s low bar. The author also has a running gag where he (the lead character, but also the author) gets lost in describing the immense breasts of one of the characters – in fact, at one point he seems to get so lost that he starts mixing up the names. The book also does that webnovel thing where it enjoys making fun of isekai tropes, but never quite does it enough to make it a deliberate satire – it’s having its cake and eating it too.

Am I dropping the series? No, at least not yet. Why? Well, there were one or two moments where I genuinely laughed out loud, I will admit. These usually involved the eccentric God or the “so naive it’s bordering on hilarious” adventurer Shion Femme-Fatale, whose name alone made me slap my head. The gimmick – our hero was a former Chinese Mafia assassin and wartime hero who killed 5000 men with his sword, founded schools of fighting, and died peacefully at 94, THEN was reincarnated in another world – is a clever one, though I’d be more impressed if God hadn’t wiped his memories of his life on Earth. But yeah, mostly I’m reading this because of that one character type I really like. Rona Chevalier (take a wild guess what her secret is) is the owner of the large breasts I mentioned before, but I was far more interested in her as a scheming, intelligent woman whose “I’m not angry” face is absolutely terrifying. She is able to convince our hero that keeping Shion’s naivete from killing her is more than a one-person job. Basically, the two women in the cast are far more interesting than the male lead. Not uncommon in isekai, but I liked Rona enough that I will try the second volume.

This is now up to 17+ volumes in Japan, and I am hoping that as the writer gains more experience – or perhaps better editors – it settles down a bit and reads less like “I am typing words and then immediately posting them, done”. If you enjoy isekai, give it a shot. The cast oddly made me think of Library Wars – If you wanted to see Iku and Shibasaki fighting fantasy adventures with a super-powered Doujima at their side, this is definitely the book for you.

Also, illustrator, if the author describes the hero’s face as perfectly average, try not to make it so that you look at the cover and want to punch him.

One Piece, Vol. 85

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

It goes without saying that the revelation about Charlotte Pudding in this volume does not come as a complete surprise. It will also not come as a surprise to me if she reverts later on, as Oda’s general treatment of women has gotten a lot more sexist and predictable over the years. The best thing about said revelation is Sanji’s reaction from outside the building, which is a simple grim silence. Oda’s panels can verge on chaos much of the time, and certainly do here, from Luffy trying to rip his hands off in order to escape to Chopper and Carrot’s pell-mell running through the mirrors, everything is traveling at 100MPH. So when Oda pauses to let a scene breathe, it has that much more impact. Charlotte’s ability is also a clever use of Devil Fruit to make what amounts to “memory erasure” look cool and also creepy at the same time. I tend to read One Piece slowly because little details always matter in it.

Reading One Piece slowly also helps you to notice the repeated themes Oda uses in his work, though to be fair this theme could be noticed from quite a ways away. Like Nami in the Arlong Park arc, and like Robin in the Enies Lobby arc, Sanji is desperate to get everyone to abandon him and save themselves. And of course when Luffy confronts him about it, his response is the same as the others: yes, I want to go with you. Please save me. I’m not entirely certain how many of the Vinsmokes are actually going to survive this arc, particularly after learning what Big Mom’s real wedding plans are. As I’ve said before, Reiju has “tragic sacrifice” written all over here. Still, I’m confident Sanji will survive, as he is a crew member. Speaking of which, will we get a new crew member at the end of this arc (which is still going in Japan)? Will it be Carrot? Or Jimbei, who rescues Luffy and Nami and joins the fun here.

Other things I noticed: I am vastly impressed with Brook for how he hid the poneglyph copies. That was clever thinking, and also clever on the part of Oda, who had to figure out where to hide a mass of paper on someone like Brook. Nami’s top takes some fire damage as part of her being rescued, and there’s some brief “will we see a breast? No.” fanservice, but I was amused she simply tied it back immediately – I wonder if she chooses her outfits so they can easily be fixed in case of ludicrous fighting? The alliance with Capone and Caesar Clown (who we simply can’t seem to get away from – Oda must love him as comedy relief) seems like it will be a disaster, but it does give us the opportunity to see Luffy in a nice mob suit. And why does Oda’s version of American football have the women wearing hot pants… wait, I know the answer to that one.

One Piece is not what it once was, but it’s still compelling, and should remain on your reading list for the foreseeable future.

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