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Reviews

Captain Harlock, Space Pirate: Dimensional Voyage, Vol. 1

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By Leiji Matsumoto and Kouiti Shimaboshi. Released in Japan as “Captain Harlock – Jigen Koukai” by Akita Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Champion Red. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Zack Davisson.

When I’d heard that Seven Seas had licensed this 21st century Harlock reboot, I said that if they really wanted to impress folks they would go get the original manga from the 70s – which they proceeded to do, and that should be out in 2018 or so. That said, that doesn’t make this any less interesting. I’m not sure how much input Matsumoto actually had on the finished project, but it certainly feels just like it should. It’s a retelling of the original series, featuring Harlock’s fight to protect what he values most, as well as picking up a new crewmember whose father was killed. We see an Earth that has fallen, if not into ruin, then at least into disrepair, as the only people who gave a damn have long since left for space, leaving behind the corrupt and uncaring, mostly. And, of course, we have the florid dialogue, which may be the chief highlight.

I haven’t yet read the original, so I’m not sure how much of this is just a straight up remake of the original and how much is updated content. I did like the beginning of the story, which seems to be framed by a sympathetic reporter as she interviews people about what they think of Harlock. This not only shows off the varied and different opinions that they have, and introduces a large majority of the cast, but it also lulls us into thinking that she may be the viewpoint character – nope, it’s a fakeout. But quite well done, and reminds us that the enemies we’re facing here are the Mazon, a race of female humanoids who seek to destroy Harlock. They’re not getting very far in that regard. After this we meet the actual viewpoint character, Tadashi Daiba, who may look familiar to anyone who’s seen a Matsumoto manga – diverse character types is not his specialty, thought Tadashi does at least manage to be taller than some of the others we’ve seen.

I’d previously reviewed the two volumes of Queen Emeraldas, and noted that it felt like reading a manga adaptation of a Wagner opera. There’s some similarity here, but it also definitely has the feeling of a 21st century work, rather than something from two generations ago. I’d say this is more of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, with big gestures and dramatic confrontations galore. Every like is declaimed rather than spoken, as if each of the characters knows that they are part of an ongoing lyrical poem that will only end in destruction. This is not to say that this is 100% depressing – Harlock’s crew are a bunch of goofballs, with the exception of the stoic second mate, and Harlock explains to Tadashi why they’re goofballs much of the time in a very good scene.

The art looks fine – I imagine Matsumoto tests out potential artists to see how well they draw his “ugly” characters, though the odd bone structure of some of Harlock’s crew gave me pause. If you’re a Matsumoto fan, this should make you pretty happy. And if you want to find out what the fuss is about Harlock, this is a good start.

The Asterisk War: Quest for Days Lost

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

Another volume of Asterisk War brings along with it more of the same, and honestly these books are so short I frequently wish that Yen had decided to omnibus them, especially since the plot to this volume is essentially “more tournament arc”. Nothing particularly surprising happens – even the cliffhanger ending is signposted from the moment we meet the sweet innocent girl who’s the victim of it. There is cool fighting by tactics. There is cool fighting by unlocking the next level of abilities. There are also Saya and Kirin, whose fights we don’t see until the final chapter. I have a sneaking suspicion how that will turn out, but it’s also part of the cliffhanger ending. So yes, nothing whatsoever new here, but as always the prose is readable, it’s not too offensive (though there are a few stereotypes), and fans of this sort of thing will eat it up like candy and then move on.

One thing I did like is Julis (who is reminding me more of Rin Tohsaka every volume) managing to get Ayato to have a reason to fight and win that isn’t just “well, I guess I’ll help her achieve her goal”. The drive to succeed, to surpass, to go beyond your limits requires something to strive for in these sorts of stories, and given that Ayato is, if I’m being nice, sot of bland it’s especially important for him to have this. He’s on a quest to find his sister, but there’s always been an undercurrent of “she must have had a good reason” that’s stopped him from really investigating. If the tournament ends next volume (which it looks like ti’s shaping up to do), I expect we’ll get more answers, though whether we get his sister is another matter.

Both major battles in this book are against students from Chinese Stereotype Academy, aka Jie Long Seventh Institute. We get both a noble fighting pair who are simply very good at what they do, and a team of twins who are very good at what they do but are also jerks. They don’t cheat per se, but they hammer on weaknesses and love to break their opponent. Dishonorable is a good word for them. Needless to say, Ayato and Julis fight against them near the end of the book, and the fight is probably the best part of the novel, even if, once again, the lack of surprising things happening is clear. If I were to tell you that the twins have a reaction that’s basically “This… this CANNOT BEEEEEE!” towards the end of the fight, I’m sure you would just sigh and nod.

Kirin and Saya are here as well, and Saya gets a flashback that shows off her childhood with Ayato, but honestly it’s harder to develop these two as their personalities are naturally passive – likely that’s why we didn’t see their fights till the very end. In any case, this volume of Asterisk War may not convince uncertain readers to keep going, but it also won’t make them decide to drop it once and for all. It’s still the equivalent of having a Peppermint Patty for dinner. Tasty, but you really want a lot more.

My Love Story!!, Vol. 13

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By Kazune Kawahara and Aruko. Released in Japan as “Ore Monogatari!!” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Bessatsu Margaret (Betsuma). Released in North America by Viz. Translated by JN Productions. Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

Like a lot of ongoing Viz titles, I haven’t actually reviewed this series in full since the first volume came out, saving my thoughts for a Bookshelf Brief. This is not to say I have not been loving the series, it’s one of my favorite recent shoujo titles. But it’s not something I really try to analyze deeply or get into the nitty-gritty of, more a manga that I can relax in after a long, hard day. It’s soothing. Even its dramatic tension was soothing. Critics have said that it’s a bit too sweet and sappy, and they are 100% correct. If you tend to gag on too much sugar, we may have lost you around the 10th time Takeo swooned and thought “I love her!” to himself. But now Yamato’s about to go to Spain. What will the long distance relationship become?

Obviously, this is a romance manga, and the thrust of the story is about Takeo and Yamato. It can get a bit ridiculous at times (I screwed up our relationship. I must FLY TO SPAIN to fix it!), but even that is so over the top and glorious that by the end you find yourself grinning like a loon. To no one’s surprise, Yamato’s running away from home did not pan out, so she does end up going to Spain for her senior year. The ‘relationship’ part of this separation goes quite well, but Takeo has a best friend to remind him to study so he can get into college, while Yamato lacks such a friend. And so she starts to fall behind, which leads to a series of brutal misunderstandings. And by brutal I mean “everyone immediately realizes what went wrong and yells at him to fix it”. It’s the final volume, we don’t need extended drama, we just need a montage of every supporting player since the start. And a punch. The punch was really good.

Speaking of the puncher, for all that it’s a romance manga, Sunakawa has been just as much of a major character as Takeo and Yamato. He gets a lot to do here, and I wonder if the authors were aware of all the theorizing about his sexuality that went on, as there’s something for everyone here. He and Takeo go on a vegetable-picking vacation with tons of BL subtext, and the final pages are basically Takeo hoping that Suna finds his own awesome girlfriend someday. As for me, I tended to see Sunakawa as asexual, and the manga does not disabuse me of that notion either – he cares deeply for Takeo, but simply lives at something of a distance from the other hormone-addled teens at his school. He was a terrific friend to the end, and the reason this manga works so well is the strength of his character in among the two lovesick doofuses.

And so we end with college, and with our couple together and (presumably) marrying soon. It’s a good ending to this sweet series, where the reader usually found themselves thinking “oh, that’s adorable!” at least four times a volume. Highly recommended to heart-on-your-sleeve shoujo romantics.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Vols. 1-2

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Can someone who’s never played a Legend of Zelda video game still enjoy the manga adaptations? That’s the question I set out to answer by reading the first two volumes of the Twilight Princess saga.

The short answer to the question is a qualified yes — if by “enjoy” you mean, “get a handle on what’s happening.” Akira Himekawa, a pseudonym for the two-woman team of A. Honda and S. Nagano, pack a considerable amount of exposition into the first two chapters, making it easy for the uninitiated to grasp the premise. Honda and Nagano also use these introductory pages to introduce us to the residents of Ordon Village — the hero’s home — treating us to idyllic scenes of farmers tending their crops, shepherds minding their flocks, and barefoot children cavorting. Though these tableaux are as cornpone as anything John Ford ever committed to screen, they’re rendered in a crisp, readable style that helps the reader understand what’s at stake if Link fails in his quest to restore the balance between light and darkness.

But if you equate “enjoyment” with “feeling a spark of pleasure or surprise while reading,” then the answer to my initial question is a resounding no. There’s a labored quality to the storytelling that prevents Twilight Princess from coming alive on the page; Honda and Nagano try too hard to nail down every narrative detail, producing a story that often reads more like an overly scripted PowerPoint presentation on Twilight Princess than an organic work of fiction. In the first volume, for example, we’re introduced to the obviously pregnant wife of an important supporting character. Just a few pages later, however, another villager helpfully mentions that Uli’s wife is… pregnant. A similar round of no-shit statements accompany Link’s volume two transformation into a wolf, a development that prompts Link — and other characters — to repeatedly observe that he’s no longer human; you could play a decent drinking game by taking a swig of whiskey whenever someone registered surprise at Link’s lupine form. At least he looks cool.

The plot developments are equally obvious. As soon as Honda and Nagano introduced a tremulous teenage girl and her snot-faced little brother, for example, I knew it was only a matter of 30-40 pages before they’d be snatched, giving Link a compelling reason to enter the Twilight Realm. This predictable turn of events wouldn’t be frustrating if we cared about Ilia and Colin’s fate, but they’re such generic characters that they never transcend their function as plot devices. Even the combat feels more like a sprinkling of “adult spice” than a real attempt to tell a darker or more complex story; Twilight Princess is so devoid of ambiguity or suspense that even the most intense, violent sequences seem largely inconsequential.

The blandness of the manga’s execution prompts me to ask a second question: who is Twilight Princess for? Book sales indicate that there’s a large audience of Zelda fanatics who are enjoying this series, so my guess is that the manga appeals to players’ nostalgia for the original games. For the rest of us, however, Twilight Princess is neither interesting nor imaginative enough to compete with One Piece, Naruto, Fairy Tail, or Fullmetal Alchemist on its own terms, nor does it offer any clues why the Zelda games have been a global, thirty-year phenomenon that’s captivated two generations of gamers.

VIZ provided a review copy of volume two.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS, VOLS. 1-2 • BY AKIRA HIMEKAWA • TRANSLATED BY JOHN WERRY • RATED T, FOR TEEN

Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!: You’re Being Summoned, Darkness

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

Another day, another KonoSuba novel, and another manga series being parodied in the subtitle. This time it’s You’re Being Summoned, Azazel-san, a long-running seinen comedy manga with two anime series. Last time I said that we might get a bit more plot, and that’s certainly true, though thankfully that does not mean that things get any more serious. Sure, Kazuma is being put to death for crimes against the state, but honestly, he could have gotten out of that about eight different ways simply by not being Kazuma. And as you may have guessed by the cover, Darkness features heavily in this book. We get a lot more detail on her background, and find that her strong sense of self can even duel with a lesser demon. This, again, does not make her any less ridiculous. Summing up KonoSuba remains one of the easiest things in the worst: selfish protagonists do stupid things, and the reader laughs.

I’m actually very impressed that Kazuma falls into this category as well. It would be all too easy to turn him into a Kyon type, merely reacting against the antics of everyone else. But no, he manages to make some head-scratchingly selfish and foolish decisions throughout, especially near the start, simply by running his mouth off. Of course, he does also save the day at the end – sort of, in reality Kazuma mostly saves the day by directing others to do so – but one wonders how far he’d go if he simply reined in his put-upon ego. Megumin has a reunion with a classmate of hers, and Yunyun seems to be more powerful but in reality may be even more pathetic than Megumin, which takes some doing. The name really doesn’t help, and I was highly amused that Kazuma and I had the same reaction to it.

As indicated above, Darkness gets the most to do here. The revelation of her family background is not all that surprising, really, and I was relieved that she doesn’t really switch personalities too much when she’s back in her home. As for the marriage meeting, it’s the highlight of the book, with Kazuma’s scheming and Darkness’ sabotage attempts combining in the best way, culminating in a duel which seems to end in a wet T-shirt contest. I’d mentioned before how shipping was minimal in the series, but it’s picking up – Darkness’ angry description of her ideal man does sound an awful lot like Kazuma, and the bath scene he has with Megumin gets a lot more awkward when he realized that she’ll grow out of being ‘underage’ pretty soon. As for Aqua, her part in all this is to be ridiculous, and she succeeds at this admirably. She and Kazuma make a great baka duo.

This volume takes us halfway through Season 2, meaning we only have one more till we catch up with the anime. Of course, the series is so popular there may be a third anime before December. In any case, fans of KonoSuba will enjoy this a great deal, as it’s still one of the funniest light novels being released.

If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord, Vol. 2

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By CHIROLU and Truffle. Released in Japan as “Uchi no Musume no Tame Naraba, Ore Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoserukamo Shirenai” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Matthew Warner.

Like a lot of second volumes, this one seems to have a bit of an “wait, I have to write more? Well, OK…” feel to it. For the most part it’s the continuing adventures of Adventurer Dale (whose last name, we find out, literally MEANS adventurer, as it’s more of a title), and his adorable adopted Devil daughter Latina (who has aged a couple more years since the first book). Since Latina is now the main reason for Dale’s existence (jokes about him being a pushover for his girl continue to be the main running gag of the series), he’s decided to take her home to meet his family. And so most of the book is a leisurely trip across the continent, as Latina experiences different cultures, tries new foods (and gets better and better as a cook), and we learn a tiny bit more about her past. That said, this book also lacks the dark yet extremely compelling climax the first book had.

Instead we get a mellower climax that introduces us to Dale’s family proper, a village of powerful folks connected to the Earth, led by his matriarch grandmother. Dale was, in fact, supposed to be the future head of the clan, but he had the calling to be an Adventurer and protect the world, so he does that calling, and his younger brother gets the clanship – and the girl, as he’s getting married while they’re there. We get a bit more of Dale’s past, mostly with occasional thoughts from other people’s POV on how he used to be, but I really wish woe could get an extended flashback or something. It’s all very well and good to say Latina changed him for the better so much, but honestly we’re only familiar with Goofy Dad Dale, so it’s got less impact. As for Latina, she still unintentionally wraps everyone around her little finger by virtue of being really good and smart and pretty and diligent and earnest and pure.

Latina also gets some rather nasty nightmares when she wakes up and Dale’s not around, brought about by too much family all at once and hearing talk about getting married and moving on. And this is an issue, as Latina is VERY attached to Dale, and she to him. For the most part, this is dealt with in the standard way you’d expect in a Japanese light novel – his family make the occasional lolicon joke, Dale says “OMG I’m her father!” a lot, and Latina misses all this subtext. But honestly, I think in the next book she’s a couple years older, and there’s a few books still to go, and I am throwing out there that this is a really enjoyable series, but I would not be surprised at all if it ended with Dale and Latina in a romantic relationship, which is obviously far more acceptable in a Japanese work. I don’t actually know any spoilers, and if I’m totally wrong I apologize, but I’ve been burned a bit too often by this sort of thing. Latina is not the perpetual 5-year-old Yotsuba.

That said, nothing has really happened yet, and what you’re left with is a heartwarming and sweet story of a father and his adopted daughter, going on mild yet entertaining adventures. If the series keeps giving us that, I’m perfectly fine with it.

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 6

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Everyone’s Getting Married, Volume 6 by Izumi Miyazono

I read each volume of this series with an increasing sense of tension, because as the romance between successful businesswoman and wanna be homemaker Asuka and famed broadcaster Ryu continues to develop, I grow more and more worried that this josei romance series isn’t going to have a happy ending. Even when seeing the couple continue to evolve and grow within their seemingly incompatible relationship, I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Both characters have such well-reasoned and firmed opinions towards marriage, and I don’t want to see either of them change without a ton of narrative justification. It’s tricky to pull off this undercurrent of tension in a romance manga, but Miyazono does this so well.

There were many entertaining and sometimes infuriating moments in this volume of Everyone’s Getting Married. On the infuriating side, Kamiya continues his pursuit of Asuka in a fashion that is somewhat stalker-like, when he shows up as she is visiting her parents. It turns out that Kamiya is an acquaintance of Asuka’s father, so while him showing up isn’t as creepy as it could be, it is still plenty uncomfortable. One quick scene I enjoyed shows how much Asuka has idealized her image of family life, but when she talks with her mother about her own choices her mother reveals that she was initially planning on working after marriage but then changed her mind after having children. She comments “Every new person who came into my life took precedence, and my original plan kept getting pushed back.” The contrast between Asuka’s single-minded mission to become a homemaker and her mother’s reflection about pushing aside her desires but still wanting to do the best for her family was interesting, and I’m hoping that Asuka will ponder this more in later volumes.

Asuka and Ryu are closer than ever at the end of the volume, but with his job making it impossible for him to date someone in public and Kamiya’s habit of showing up wherever the couple goes, I sense a confrontation happening in the future. I’m hoping for a happy ending, but I’m genuinely not sure how it is going to happen, which makes this one of the more compelling romance manga that I’ve read recently.

Blood Lad, Vol. 9

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By Yuuki Kodama. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Melissa Tanaka.

As you might have guessed by the fact that this volume is half the length of the previous ones, this is the final volume of Blood Lad. The word ‘Final’ on the cover might also clue you in. Fortunately, the main villain of the last several books is polished off fairly early on. I say fortunately because, as if the author had been listening to the whining in my reviews all along, the majority of this book is devoted to Fuyumi and the relationship she has with the others, and particularly with Staz. It doesn’t necessarily redeem her entirely as a character, but it fits very well thematically, and allows for an ending that is both bittersweet and sentimental.

We left off with Staz commandeering Fuyumi’s body in order to take out Grimm, adding more and more of the secondary characters as he went along, to the point where he visualized them as being on the main bridge of a battleship. I’d said last time that I was annoyed that while he was using Fuyumi’s body, Staz was still in charge and doing everything. It turns out that this is actually a fatal flaw, and starts to lead to his defeat. He can’t actually do all this himself, no matter how much he wants to protect everyone, or take on everyone’s troubles, or feel responsible. He is just one (very overpowered) vampire. Fortunately, she gets through to him and they defeat Grimm with the power of a massive FRIENDSHIP BEEEEEEAM! Unfortunately, the combination of this and the loss of a sense of self that it brings on forces everyone that was in the Fuyumi fusion to fall into a coma. Gradually most come out of it, but Fuyumi is the real issue, because her tendency to go with the flow has led to a lack of sense of self.

But Staz, frustrating as he can be, figures things out in time, and we get what seems to be a sweet, happy ending… except, of course, Fuyumi is still a ghost. Now, they can fix that… but it will in fact lead to the separation of teh happy couple. I will try not to spoil too much of what follows (I know, I know, what review blog are you reading?), but it manages to combine the sense of loss that comes of letting someone go in order for them to have a better life (or in this case, an actual life), and then turning it on its head and gaining the possibility of happiness in the future. It’s a bit of an ass pull, but I’m all for these when they lead to sweet things like this.

I wasn’t all too impressed with the premise of this series, when I first saw the solicit, and therefore I’m really pleased that it turned out to be so good. I had issues with it, but it was in turns amusing, thrilling, heartwarming, and a barrel of fun. It’s a good series to do a big reread on now that it’s finished. Go seek it out.

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 12

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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.

I’m afraid that I just have to say it at this point: Kamachi is simply not very good at writing comedy. Deliberate comedy, like the events of the first 3/4 or so of this book, seems like it should be something of a success for him, but he gets tripped up by his own overly wordy prose, and also the tendency to rely on familiar cliches and character types – “tee hee, she’s embarrassed to admit her feelings” pretty much defines Mikoto, but it’s not funny per se. The anime actually improved much of this by cutting it down and removing the musty prose, and it’s one of the few times I recommend watching the anime as it handles the material better than the source. Unfortunately, as most of this book is a “cooldown” book, we’re left with another even-number volume curse. It certainly picks up speed by the cliffhanger ending, though.

Introduced in this volume: Amata Kihara. For the most part, this is catching up with old characters and seeing how they’re doing. Kihara is a nasty piece of work, and keep an eye out for his last name in future volumes, as he’s party of a family of nasty pieces of work. We’ve also seen another Kihara, Gensei, as one of the main villains in a Railgun arc. Speaking of Railgun, take those timelines and crumple them in a ball, as we see Mikoto run into Uiharu here, and she barely knows who she is beyond “Kuroko’s friend”. The anime corrected this, of course, since it already took place after Railgun’s first season. This is the trouble with sprawling continuities with multiple spinoffs – you’re going to get contradictions like this. (Uiharu is also OOC here, still being in the “I aspire to be a pure young maiden” stage.) Obviously, this also takes place immediately after Vol. 11 of Index, as Vento of the Front has arrived in Academy City and is here to kick ass and chew bubblegum.

The main conceit of this book, however, is to reintegrate Accelerator into the main events of Academy City. After his seeming heel-face turn in Vol. 5 (though he’d be the first to deny that was what it was), he’s been getting healed in a hospital, and he and Last Order are finally able to move out. Not that they’re going far, as they’re moving in with Yomikawa and Yoshikawa, who continue to have vaguely yuri subtext if you bother to hunt closely for it. Accelerator is quite grumpy about the fact that he can’t use his power for more than 15 minutes anymore, and can’t use it at all – even to keep himself coherent – without the help of the remaining Misaka clones he hadn’t killed off. His understandable self-hatred is a running theme, as he doesn’t really believe he can ever be redeemed (many fans would agree). As for Last Order, she’s still pretty much a brat here, stealing Misaka 10032’s goggles and taking off.

The highlight of the book, deliberately, is the crossing of heroines. Touma is out on a “date” with Mikoto as his punishment game for losing at the Athletic Festival, and Accelerator is out and about trying to find where Last Order has run off. As a result, they each run into the other’s main girl – Last Order has a chat with Touma, and Accelerator comes across a very hungry Index, who he proceeds to feed hamburgers, which may be a mistake. This is not really the highlight per se, of course – as I indicated earlier, the comedy is not as good as it could be, and the anime did it better. What makes it a highlight is the end of the book, where things turn serious – Kihara is here to take back Last Order, and nullifies Accelerator’s powers. Meanwhile, Vento of the Front has invaded and is taking out all of the security forces with apparent magical powers. As a result, at the end of the book the heroines have shifted once more – Index is here to rescue Accelerator (somehow), and Last Order is tearfully asking Touma for help.

It’s a nifty cliffhanger, and should be resolved next time. We also may get even more old faces, as Aleister talks about using Hyouka Kazakiri (remember her?) to help wipe out the Roman Orthodox Church invasion. Somehow – how he plans to use a meek, busty, somewhat nonexistent girl is something that will have to wait for another time. In the end, this isn’t the best volume of Index, but I suspect it needs to be judged when read with Vol. 13, due out in November.

Otherworld Barbara, Vol. 2

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By Moto Hagio. Released in Japan as “Barbara Ikai” by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine flowers. Released in North America by Fantagraphics. Translated by Matt Thorn.

The second and final volume of Otherworld Barbara has a lot less actual Barbara in it, but that doesn’t make it any less strange. We don’t see as much of the city in Aoba and Dr. Watarai’s dreams because their own current reality is far too busy. We get a lot more revelations regarding Johannes, the guru who turns out to be responsible for a great deal of the plot. We find that Akemi, Dr. Watarai’s ex-wife, is more than simply “slightly hysterical” as I said in my last review, but borders on genuinely disturbed. And various events that seemed to be happening on Barbara, or on Mars, overlap with other events happening on Earth, so that by the end we have an emotionally rewarding but logically befuddling series of reunions. But it’s fine, because the emotional payoff is what you want here.

Despite all of the immortality research, past lives discussion, and reincarnation theories that pop up in this book, at heart it remains about Dr. Watarai’s awkward yet heartfelt efforts to bond with his son Kariya. He’s not very good at it, and Kariya is also not very good at accepting his father, and the tension between them feels very real. Kariya has several forces pulling at him here, none more so than the dream spectre of Aoba, who urges cannibalism without really going into detail about why it’s such a good idea. And then there’s the question of whether Dr. Watarai is Kariya’s real father – Akemi said he was, but she’s backtracking now, and saying “I did DNA tests that I totally didn’t fake honest” is not really the best reassurance. As it turns out, there really *is* something to the whole “eating hearts” thing, though fortunately we don’t have to go quite that far.

So much of Otherworld Barbara relies on being pulled along by the mangaka without asking too many questions, and it’s actually rather exhilarating. I’m sure that if I sat down and reread the entire series in one gulp most of it would make sense, but I am not actually sure I want to do that. There’s a certain joy involved in being just as confused as everyone else as to what’s actually going on, why Johannes is a young handsome middle-aged man but also an old guy who never leaves his room; why Kariya and Taka seem to swap bodies and lives, and what happened to Laika’s parents, which I admit caused me to say “Oh, come ON”, so that may have been one too many trips to the well. The art also serves the title well, being sensible and direct when it needs to be but gorgeous and evocative when hitting high emotional moments. The faces in particular stay with you, particularly Akemi’s 57 varieties of anger and rage.

Mostly, though, Otherworld Barbara makes me long for more works by Moto Hagio. I want to be pulled along by her as she lays out another story again. This, Heart of Thomas and A Drunken Dream just aren’t enough. What about a They Were Eleven rescue? Or A Cruel God Reigns? I bet Fantagraphics could pull off Marginal, it’s short and offbeat enough for them. Basically what I’m saying is, I think I’m addicted to this author. You should be too.

Sword Art Online, Vol. 11: Alicization Turning

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book that more perfectly summarizes the best and the worst of Sword Art Online in one handy gulp. The high points of this book are excellent, and the low points are incredibly frustrating. Put together, though, we have a series that continues to intrigue even as the main cast that isn’t Kirito continues to be entirely absent – Asuna gets a few pages in the middle, but for the most part we are entirely in Kirito’s fantasy world here. Fortunately, the first half of the book or so gives another break from Kirito’s first person, as we get a long stretch narrated by Eugeo, who is nice and earnest and a good contrast to Kirito. I was expecting that we would see more training at the knight academy, probably ending up in the giant fighting tournament that had been lampshaded earlier. But then things went entirely off the rails.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first. We have yet ANOTHER instance where female characters are captured and threatened with rape, so that we may see how irredeemably evil the villains are (Kawahara’s villains remain his giant weak point – he can’t write nuance) and also justify Kirito’s violence towards them. This is even more annoying because we’d barely gotten to know Tiese and Ronie, so the threat doesn’t have as much of a reader impact as it did with Asuna and Shino, assuming the reader impact cannot just be narrowed down to “rolls eyes, sighs”. And then due to the plot moving on, we don’t see the girls after this, which just makes it more blatant it was done for pure “damsels in distress” reasons. I understand in the original webnovel this was taken from, the girls actually were raped – thank heavens for small favors that this was changed. SO BORED WITH RAPE THREATS, KAWAHARA.

Of course, disposing of the two villains does mean that the plot makes a right turn, as now Kirito and Eugeo are captured by the Synthesis Knights and brought to the Central Cathedral… which was their goal, to be fair, but probably not as prisoners to be judged. Things pick up a great deal here, as we find that Alice (remember Alice?) is one of the knights, but doesn’t seem to remember Eugeo at all. Kirito takes up the narration again here, and it works out well, showing off his smarts in knowing when to push hard on “this is a game world with game rules” – breaking the chains was particularly good. What’s more, after a long and highly interesting fight scene that shows us the knights may in fact be brainwashed, we are given a long, long infodump by a new character that actually feels realistic and welcome, telling us a lot more about the Underworld, how it got its start, and the evil woman now at the head of it all.

In the end, this is book 3 of a 10-book arc, so there’s a limit to how far it can take things. But once you get past Kawahara deciding that nothing adds to drama quite like rape threats, it’s enjoyable and fun, with excellent fight scenes. Just… get a new gimmick. I beg you.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 4

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By Hirohiko Araki. Released in Japan as “Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Evan Galloway, original translation and adaptation by Alexis Kirsch and Mayumi Kobayashi.

For all of the cool fight scenes and new arrogant villains, there is a certain sameness to Stardust Crusaders that I just can’t seem to escape from. It doesn’t help that this arc of JoJo’s is essentially a road movie/extended chase scene, and so we don’t really get much plot beyond “who will turn up in which Middle Eastern town to attack our heroes?”. To be fair, some of those villains are interesting, and there’s a lot of “the villain thinks they will be saved by the main villain, but no, they are just another pawn” here, but I’ll tell you; reading Jotaro’s story is a lot like traveling across the Midwest and staying at the same Holiday Inn with the same wallpaper every single night. Fortunately, there is the art if nothing else; JoJo’s always LOOKS really cool.

As I’ve observed before, there is a huge love of Western music that we’ve seen throughout the series, particularly in the naming of its various characters (mostly villains, but let’s not forget R.E.O. Speedwagon too). It reminds me of a previous old-school manga Viz used to release back in the day, Bastard!!. And just like that series, some of the names have to be changed to avoid litigation. Here we have Enyaba on the cover, who is Enya with a -ba added to her name to let us know she’s a wizened granny. There is also Dan of Steel, who is named after Steely Dan, of course, and like the item the band named themselves after, he proves to be a giant dick. An enterprising young fan could probably give us a nice JoJo’s soundtrack filled with songs from the bands and artists mentioned here. It also helps to emphasize the ‘road’ feel of this storyline.

The fights are the same, filled with action and horror, also continuing the body possession from last time. Fortunately, there is also a helping of humor, some of it gross (Polnareff and his tendency to need to use the bathroom – which rebounds nastily on him here) and some of it amusing if a bit sad (Joseph was always street smart rather than intelligent, but a lot of times here he becomes stupid for the sake of the gag). The humor is needed to offset the grisliness of the battles here, with many of the villains being taken out in highly grotesque ways. For all that Dio is meant to be the main villain of this arc, and I’ve no doubt he will be appearing in the final volumes, so much of this is like a video game where you have to battle endless mid-boss after mid-boss. The journey here in JoJo’s is definitely more important than the destination, and therefore this volume gets the same opinion as the others: I liked it, but like the first two arcs better.

Otherworld Barbara, Vols. 1-2

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By Moto Hagio | Published by Fantagraphics

otherworldIt’s 2052 and Tokio Watarai, a dream pilot, is coming home to Japan for the first time in three years. Although his ex-wife and son are in Japan, he’s actually returning for a job involving a girl who’s been sleeping for seven years since being found with her parents’ hearts in her stomach. Her name is Aoba, and when Tokio enters her dream it’s all about an island called Barbara in which kids can fly and cannibalism factors in to funeral rites. Soon, he learns that his son, Kiriya, actually invented Barbara. So how is Aoba able to dream about it?

That introductory paragraph actually simplifies the story greatly. There’s also Tokio’s horrid ex-wife Akemi and the creepy priest Johannes whom she loves and who could possibly be Aoba’s grandfather but also head of an American orphanage in which cloned children were created, including one called Paris who comes to Japan and believes Kiriya might be a boy he knew called Taka. There’s Kiriya’s massive angst, his dreams of Mars, his dream conversations with Aoba, the girl Laika who fancies him, a psychiatrist who treated Aoba who is killed by a tornado she created, his identity-swapping and cross-dressing fraternal twin children, anti-aging research (potentially conducted upon the residents of Barbara) including a suit that turns Aoba’s grandma into a young woman who calls herself Marienbad and has a fling with Tokio, Daikoku’s ominous hinting that Kiriya will kill Tokio someday, parental regrets, etc.

By the end of the first volume, so very many plot threads are in the air that I was not at all sure that Hagio-sensei would be able to make everything make sense in the end. To use just one example: If Barbara is just a dream—and, indeed, no such island actually exists—then how is it possible that the blood of its residents is used for anti-aging medicine? And yet we see evidence that such advances are already in the works. And because of all this plot stuff, there’s not a lot of time for building solid relationships. There is angst aplenty, especially courtesy of Kiriya, but the whole Marienbad/Tokio hookup, for example, is just extremely random. The strongest bond, though, is definitely the love Tokio feels for his son and his regret over having been a crappy father.

Happily, the second volume does make with the answers, starting almost immediately. Not everything is answered with absolute certainty—one particular narrative thread takes a completely unexpected and surprisingly poignant turn. Even 90% of the way through, I would’ve said there was no way Otherworld Barbara would be able to make me cry, and yet it did. I won’t reveal how, but I loved the devastating consequences of a desperate act on Tokio’s part, and how it led him to have faith that Aoba’s dream of Barbara really could be shaping a vision of the future. That ending makes everything else worthwhile. Too, I enjoyed the contrast between Hagio’s uncomplicated, light-filled artwork and the dark and weird story she told.

Ultimately, Otherworld Barbara is definitely worth reading. Thank you, Fantagraphics, for releasing it!

Otherworld Barbara is complete in two 2-in-1 editions.

Review copies provided by the publisher

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 8

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By Satoshi Wagahara and 029. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Well, I’d talked about how much I love the daily life scenes in this series, and that’s still true. The author even throws in a classic one right at the beginning just to soften us up. But yeah, those days are, if not gone for good, at least gone for now. Because one of Maou’s larger flaws is tending to act impulsively and worry about consequences after the fact, and so the events of the 6th book are coming back at him with a vengeance. I won’t say that he ends the book completely defeated, but what with most of the cast being captured or incapacitated in some way, things aren’t looking good. I also said in the review of Vol. 6 that I suspected we’d be headed back to Enta Isla, and while we aren’t there yet, it’s very clear that we’re setting up a book or two over there next time. Fortunately, despite all these events, the writing remains first rate.

Yes, that’s a new girl on the cover, and if you think she looks like Alas Ramus, you’re on the right track. Her personality seems to be ‘hyperactive child’, despite appearing to be about 13 or so, and Maou has a lot more trouble dealing with her, which doesn’t bode well for his fatherhood skills when Alas Ramus grows up. (Can Alas Ramus grow up?) Of course, Maou is a little bit stressed out, mostly as Emi and Alas Ramus returned to Enta Isla for a visit and have not come back, despite it being well past the time she said she would. Leaving aside the wisdom of Emi returning to Enta Isla after the events of the previous books (Emi is fairly straightforward, so I can see her doing this), the absence makes Maou realize just how much Emi is a part of his life now. Of course, he doesn’t realize this right away, but takes most of the book, and a few talking tos by Chiho and Suzuno, in order to grasp it. Oh yes, and the worst part – he’s trying to get a motor scooter license (for the job, of course), and was so stressed he failed the exam! Which means more expenses.

Emi’s absence is not just noted by the fantasy characters, of course. First of all, if this takes much longer she’s going to need to look for a new job, as she’s currently AWOL at the call center. Secondly, Rika is very upset about the whole thing, and she runs to Ashiya is case he knows anything and ends up caught up in the attack on Japan that the forces of evil have launched to destroy Maou’s “demon generals”. The book balances on an edge as to whether Ashiya is going to tell her all about them or not, but of course he’s spared the choice by the bad guys showing up. The last half of the book has a lot of cool fight scenes, which if they ever do Season 2 of this series will look quite good animated, and Chiho gets to act cool. Still, there’s no getting around that Maou is in trouble, Emi is in trouble, Ashiya is in trouble, and those who can help are either too human or too injured. Excellent stuff, but now we have to wait to see what happens next.

My Brother’s Husband, Omnibus 1

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My Brother's Husband, Omnibus 1Creator: Gengoroh Tagame
Translator: Anne Ishii
U.S. publisher: Pantheon Books
ISBN: 9781101871515
Released: May 2017
Original release: 2015-2016
Awards: Japan Media Arts Award

Gengoroh Tagame is an extremely influential manga creator known worldwide for his work in sadomasochistic, homoerotic fantasies. More recently, however, he has garnered a significant amount of attention for his series My Brother’s Husband, a four-volume manga aimed at general audience which directly addresses homophobia and other forms of discrimination in Japanese culture–one of the first works of its kind created for a prominent, mainstream magazine. My Brother’s Husband began serialization in Monthly Action in 2014 and would go on to win a Japan Media Arts Excellence Award in 2015. The series is one of the very few manga which I have made the point of collecting in the original Japanese, but I was absolutely thrilled when it was licensed for an English-language release. Translated by Anne Ishii, who has been instrumental in bringing Tagame’s work as a whole to English-reading audiences, the first omnibus in Pantheon Books’ hardcover edition of My Brother’s Husband was published in 2017 and is equivalent to the first two Japanese volumes released in 2015 and 2016.

Yaichi is a single father in Japan raising his young daughter Kana. Following the unexpected death of his estranged twin brother Ryoji, his brother’s Canadian husband Mike Flanagan arrives to meet the family and pay his respects. Yaichi’s life is suddenly upended–out of touch with Ryoji for years, he had never entirely come to terms with the fact that his younger brother was gay, but with Mike around it becomes something impossible for him to ignore. As for Kana, she is absolutely delighted to discover an uncle who she never knew existed and manages to convince her father to allow Mike to stay in their home while he’s in the area. As the days pass, the three of them become closer despite the occasional awkward clash of cultures; Mike’s kindhearted, gentle nature combined with Kana’s infectious exuberance and curiosity force Yaichi to reflect on his own learned attitudes and preconceived notions regarding homosexuality as well as confront the gulf that formed between him and Ryoji because of them. Through Mike, Yaichi is finally able reconnect with and learn more about his brother and who he was.

My Brother's Husband, Omnibus 1, page 110Tagame’s message of kindness, love, and acceptance in My Brother’s Husband is not at all subtle. At times it may come across as obvious or even like preaching to the choir for some readers, but the manga is really intended more for those who, like Yaichi, have casually conformed with and promulgated a culture of discrimination and misinformed stereotypes within society without putting much thought into it than it is for those who have personally experienced the negative effects of that discrimination. Even so, My Brother’s Husband still has plenty to offer that will appeal to a wide audience. The series is in turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, an honest and earnest exploration of family and the complex and often complicated relationships that exist between people. It’s a beautiful and moving story supported by strong, expressive artwork. Unsurprisingly, considering his artistic background, Tagame particularly excels in the realistic portrayal of adult masculine forms, but Kana’s cute character design can be quite effective as well. The backgrounds in the manga are fairly simple, the focus of Tageme’s illustrations is definitely on the characters, their facial expressions and body language adeptly conveying their thoughts and feelings, helping to establish the emotional core of the manga.

I unequivocally love the three lead characters and the development of their relationships in My Brother’s Husband. One of ways this is frequently accomplished in the manga which I particularly appreciate is through the sharing of meals and food, a natural and important way that people form connections in real life which serves to further cement those that exist in My Brother’s Husband. In addition to providing the series’ primary point of perspective, Yaichi is also probably the most well-rounded character. He has his flaws, but he is also a devoted and caring father who is willing to challenge his own internalized prejudices, initially for the sake of his daughter but ultimately for himself and the others, like Mike, he has come to care about as well. Seeing Yaichi slowly grow as a person and become more accepting over the course of the first omnibus of My Brother’s Husband has been wonderful. Mike, while overall coming across as a less nuanced character, is still a very positive and sympathetic portrayal of a gay man, his incredible patience and understanding adding to what makes him so immensely endearing. And of course there’s Kana, too, who can so easily love others despite their differences, her youth and innocence allowing her an amount of freedom and flexibility that’s not as easily accessible to adults who have already become set in their ways. I am very much looking forward to the continuation and conclusion of the story of these three in the second omnibus of My Brother’s Husband.