Reviews

Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Soichiro. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Fans of Ryukishi07’s work know that he is very fond of moments of what can best be termed ‘shonen drama’, which features all the characters being as cool as possible. The difficulty is that he’s rarely able to take full advantage of that, as his stories have involved murder mysteries and psychological horror first and foremost, so the cool moments have had to be undercut. Now, with his first series that isn’t a mystery and isn’t part of the When They Cry style, he can allow himself to open the throttle and just do a straight up action adventure which consists, seemingly, of nothing *but* cool people being cool. The result is highly variable, but it certainly has style.

The premise of this book is that, due to a natural disaster during WWII, Japan has been taken over by America and China, with the Japanese still living in cities second-class citizens who mostly join yakuza groups in order to avoid starvation. Our hero, Leo, is a former soldier who’s arrived back in Japan after a long exile. He finds himself saving the madam of a high-class brothel, Primavera, and after a few more adventures she takes him on as a bodyguard. The rest of the book is about Primavera’s attempts to avoid getting taken over by the mob, and various fighting sequences. Oh yes, and like Tezuka’s ‘star system’, Ryukishi is reusing characters again – Meryl will remind many people of Satoko/Lambdadelta, and Stella might be a lot taller and bustier than Rika will ever be, but she makes it clear when she starts rubbing heads and pitying people where her origins really lie.

It’s refreshing reading a Ryukishi07 book where you don’t have to pay close attention to try to figure out little bits of the mystery, a la Umineko. Rose Guns Days is very straightforward, sometimes to a fault. Yen Press decided not to omnibus this series, so we only have the one normal volume to go on, and so we haven’t quite hit the ‘character depth’ point of the series yet. Leo and Rose particularly suffer from this – Leo is cool and smug, and can back up that smugness with his fists, but his tragic past that was hinted at in the visual novel hasn’t shown up here yet. As for Rose, what a girl as innocent as her is doing as the head of a group o prostitutes is baffling, given she’s so shiny and pure it’s possible she can be seen from space. Soichiro’s art also doesn’t help – this time around the character designs for the VN were by the manga artist, rather than Ryukishi07 himself, but that means that the manga itself tends to get stuck in a lot of ‘default sprite expression’ poses.

I suspect this is the sort of series where we won’t really have a feel of how it’s going to go till a few books in. Still, if you like fistfights and cool posing, and enjoy Ryukishi’s writing with the ‘irony’ filter turned off, Rose Guns Days is a lot of fun.

By Jin (Shinzen no Teki-P) and Sidu. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On.

I had talked a bit last time about trying to balance a series based on something else – be it a game, visual novel, or in this case a series of music videos – between fans who already had a grasp of the story and new readers who didn’t really know what was going on. After reading this second volume, I feel it safe to say that the Kagerou Daze series is very much biased in favor of the former. I was confused after the first novel, and so decided to spoil myself a bit on what’s actually going on. (Those who know me will be surprised I waited that long.) It definitely helped, and I was able to make a few connections I might not have, but it’s still a fact that the Kagerou Daze light novels will appeal most to hardcore Kagerou Daze fans.

Honestly, I think the biggest problem I have with the second book is the story order. After the last volume ends on a vague cliffhanger, we get 120 pages of what appears at first to be a completely different story, involving a grumpy, introverted girl and the guy that she can’t really admit she likes making a homebrew video game for the school festival. It’s only when Kido and Kano show up to play and Kido uses her “out of sight, out of mind” cheat that we realize this is actually taking place a year or two before the first book. This is helped further when we see Shintaro, the supposed hero, show up… and he’s a horrible jerk, even worse than the histrionic but basically harmless shut in we’re used to. We now want to see what led to him shutting himself away.

The most interesting parts of the book are Ayano, Shintaro’s scarf-wearing not-girlfriend who appears to have no self-worth at all, and of course Takane Enomoto, who actually does turn out to have been in the first book after all. This is what I was talking about when I said that it felt like this book came out in the wrong order. I think it would have a much stronger, more devastating ending if the amusement park fluff had come first and then we’d seen Ene’s backstory. After 3/4 of a book where nothing really happens, there’s a series of horrible events starting with Haruka’s collapse that take the reader down a well-earned path of ‘what the hell? No seriously, what the hell???’.

Aside from the devastating bits, there really isn’t much happening here beyond character development, but that is what these novels are for. They’re taking the characters from the music videos and showing us what their hopes, dreams, and motivations are. And, of course, spelling out what’s hard to say in a video. The “Headphone Actor” in the original video was Takane, but in the novel it appears to be Haruka as well, and I have a sneaking suspicion his fate is going to be as dark as hers is. I’m still pretty confused, but I’ll definitely be reading the third volume early next year.

By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press.

The author of Strike the Blood has been doing this sort of thing for a while. He started off with a series called Asura Cryin’ that spawned two anime series, and another, Dantalion no Shoka, that also was made into an anime. And indeed Strike the Blood has met the same fate. This is not particularly surprising after reading the first novel – it’s a book that seems tailor made to be turned into a manga and anime. The heavy supernatural element, cool hero and heroine with vampiric powers and big honking magic spear respectively, cute younger sisters who are more than they seem, aloof best friends who secretly are in love, and even a genki younger sister with a secret to hide. Everything you read here will make you think of how it will play out on the the screen. Which is a problem in some ways.

To be fair to the book, it handles everything well, as you’d expect from a seasoned writer with a large number of books under his belt. The hero and heroine are both very likeable, and while they have a few standard anime traits, they’re both subdued enough so that you don’t really get irritated by it. Yukina in particular is intriguing – she seems like your standard tsundere who would get mad at the hero constantly, but this is warring with her aloof, stoic, and overly serious personality, making her far more interesting. She also makes a fairly fast judgement about Kojou, the vampire she’s been sent to watch/deal with, realizing that he’s really not out to rule the world, but just to have a normal high school life. Indeed, Kojou just gaining his immortal vampire powers a few months ago is the backstory here, and I’m sure we’ll hear more about it later on.

This being a light novel, there’s some fanservice, but it’s the kind that actually flows out of the text and the genre (there is a harem element here). I could have done without the standard ‘note what color her panties are’ gag, though, especially as, also typical with recent light novels, our heroine is about 3-4 years younger than she should be. The hero does suffer some physical and psychological abuse from girls thinking he’s a pervert (he’s not), but if this bothers you, remind me why you read Japanese light novels or manga at all?

So in the end I read a solid novel with decent characterization and good action scenes, yet still came away from it feeling unsatisfied. And I think the reason is that it all felt far too calculated. There is not one thing in this first volume that I didn’t guess or suspect would happen, not one honest element of surprise. I’ve been reading a lot of unoriginal light novels lately, but most of those have at least been allowed to have ambition or a purpose to their prose, a sense that the author has something he needs to share with you. With Strike the Blood that purpose seems to be ‘here’s my new series, go buy the manga and anime as well’, and that saddens me. I’m hoping a second volume will prove me wrong.

By ONE and Yusuke Murata. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing online at Tonari no Young Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s always very tricky to do a satire of something in Japanese manga, but I’ll give credit to Shueisha, they’re not afraid to let people try. Gintama’s popularity speaks for itself, and Medaka Box’s deconstruction of nearly everything ran far longer than folks expected. Now we have One-Punch Man, based on ONE’s webcomic of the same name. This time it’s superhero tropes, both Western style and Japanese, that are under the microscope. I am amused that this series, which has been running digitally for Viz for some time, is coming out in print right as My Hero Academia, a straighter take on the same sort of genre, is being released in Weekly Jump itself. ONE is not the greatest artist in the world – though you could argue that’s exactly what makes his webcomic work so well – and so they brought in Eyeshield 21’s Murata to do the art. The result is strong, mostly due to the dissonance between that ultra-serious art and ONE’s bald blob of a hero.

The cover is a bit of a joke in and of itself, showing our hero in a dramatic pose and looking exactly like the Dragonball-esque hero he’s meant to be making fun of. Luckily, once we start the manga proper, Saitama is rendered mostly as ONE did in the original webcomic, as a simply-drawn man who looks almost like a stick figure compared to those around him. The flashbacks we see of him as a wannabe salaryman with hair just aren’t as effective – he looks far too normal, like one of Eyeshield’s high school football guys. He also has a personality to go with his art style, as his flat, deadpan delivery of many lines stems from training himself to be the overpowered nightmare that he is now, unable to find a decent fight as he beats everyone – you guessed it – in one punch.

Saitama is also rooted heavily in the real world – hence his despair at missing bargain day at the supermarket. The rest of the cast we see are far more traditional, the better to contrast with our hero. Genos, a cyborg with a tragic past, is pure straight man, and the best joke he has involves his long, text-heavy backstory almost crushing Saitama with the sheer weight of boring words we’ll never remember. In the second volume, we see Sonic, a hero who uses speed to overwhelm his opponents, is a pretty bishonen, and has a bloodthirsty desire for a good fight – again, all played out very straight. So of course Saitama wins by accidentally punching him in the balls. We end by seeing that Saitama, who is a superhero for fun, doesn’t even realize that you need to be registered in order for anyone to know who the hell you are.

Without Saitama, this series is another standard superheroes and punching title. *With* Saitama, you get the humor that makes One-Punch Man a cut above. I look forward to seeing the authors ride that dissonance in future volumes.

By Rumiko Takahashi. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

I’ve talked before about how frustrating Ranma can be if you take its characters too seriously. It’s an issue that has carried over to many anime fandoms: if you try to empathize with these characters, and make their actions emotionally realistic, you will find yourself thinking they are all selfish, horrible monsters. It’s not just Ranma, either: Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku ran on this as well, and to this day most of the one-shot ghosts in Rin-Ne are deeply unlikable. At the same time, though, you have to empathize with them to some extent, you have to like and root for the characters or else why would you be reading the series at all? Between these two poles is the sweet spot of Ranma 1/2, and we see some of that in these two volumes.

As always with Ranma, the best stories are the longest. The longest story here deals with Ryouga, who has found a way to weaponize his depression and use it against Ranma. He’s actually not aware this is what he’s doing until later in the arc, which is what makes his baffling attacks on Ranma more entertaining. But the most entertaining thing is seeing Ranma, who is getting beaten by this new attack, try to depress himself, which… really does not work at all. I was highly impressed with Ranma here, as he doesn’t need Cologne to explain an alternative to him, or find an alternate scroll with a better move, but comes up with the attack based on his own confidence purely on its own. I love seeing Ranma being a smart cookie, and wish it happened more often.

Ranma being a stubborn sullen teen fans will enjoy the arc where Ukyou, suffering a crisis of conscience after a 10-year okonomiyaki sauce she made turns out terrible (thanks to Ranma as a child, so he’s guilty) ends up staying with the Tendos and attempting to worm her way into Ranma’s life further. I’ve never seen much of the anime, which I understand softens Ukyou to a great degree, but Takahashi never bothers softening anyone in her manga, so here we see Ukyou being just as bad as Ranma (stubborn jerk) and Akane (jealous), trying to scheme her way into being Ranma’s real fiancee. It almost reads like an English farce at times, with all sorts of power balances going back and forth and sudden revelations, and also tries to bind up Ukyou’s self image as a woman and her self-image as a chef, which she finally resolves doesn’t have to be separated.

As for the rest of the volume, there’s the usual one-shot gag chapters. There’s also some Happosai here, but I hate him, so let’s skip those. Nabiki shows up more here, Takahashi having fully gotten a handle on her last time, selling pictures, information or anything really to the highest bidder. We even see Gosunkugi, who has been absent for a long time, and find out that he’s still as pathetic as ever. The cast of Ranma may be hard to empathize with, but they sure are funny, and you get a lot of humor in these volumes.

By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in a Shogakukan magazine to be named later. Released in North America by Viz.

One thing that Dorohedoro is lacking in is traditional romantic love. Very few of the characters do anything in this title because they’re in love with someone else. As a result, you get to think more about their motivations and why they’re going to such lengths, be it Noi’s kohai adoration of Shin, Fujita and Ebisu’s awkward teasing, or everyone’s respect and allegiance to En, even now that he’s dead. And then there’s Nikaido, who certainly seems to be going above and beyond for Caiman, using her “you can only use this a few times” magic in order to go back in time to try to figure out what’s going on with him. Why is Nikaido going to such lengths? As we see here, those lengths may be having side-effects as well – will Nikaido become a full-fledged devil?

This does lead to the funniest part of the book, though, where Nikaido uses her newfound devil powers to become MASTER GYOZA CHEF. Dorohedoro’s sense of humor has always been a bit skewed and violent, but it’s also been based heavily around gyoza, and it’s the same here. Sadly, it doesn’t last long, as Nikaido wakes from her massive food preparation unable to even remember what she was doing. (We also get a lot of fanservice from her this volume, as turning devil means a lot of exposed skin). But again, Nikaido’s motivation for Caiman seems to be based on their true friendship, rather than any romantic feelings.

The same goes for Fujita, who gets the bulk of the drama in the second half of this book. His non-presence has been a joke throughout the series, and now he’s using it in order to find out how to revive En. But he’s also young and impetuous – it’s just he’s been with people like Shin and Noi, so comparatively he’s looked meek. When he discovers the one behind En’s death, he cannot resist trying to get revenge. He’s pretty awesome about it as well, even if it does mean losing an arm and possibly dying – that’s the danger of cliffhangers. You can tell that it’s serious business as we see him without his mask – unlike Shin, Noi or Ebisu, he’s had his mask on almost the entire series. Oddly, he looks a lot like many other male characters. (Drawing different faces is not Hayashida’s strong suit.)

Meanwhile, of course, there’s the main plot, which as always is the most diffuse part of the book. What’s going on with the various factions fighting for power? Will we get to see En resurrected? Will Risu be able to control his desire to kill caiman? Is Caiman even good or evil anymore? I want to find out the answers to these things, but don’t really mind that it’s taking a while. In a series that’s all about the mood, the fact that the plot meanders is by no means an impediment. Dorohedoro remains a fascinating manga.

By Satoshi Mizukami. Released in Japan by Shonen Gahosha, serialized in the magazine Young King Ours. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

Akane is the one Beast Knight we’ve never really focused on, so it makes sense that he gets a lot to do in this new omnibus. As we expected, he’s introverted, sullen, and insular due to a poor home life. As is perhaps less expected, he’s also siding with the enemy, though as the book goes on it becomes clear that this isn’t really due to anything but misplaced anger, and that when genuine heroism and compassion are shown to him, he can’t find it in himself to keep up the facade. Like all the other characters in the series, time is taken to explore him in depth, and it’s worth it. Though we still remain puzzled as to what Animus and Anima are doing – are they enemies, rivals, relatives? Is Animus even trying to win? Is Anima even trying to fight? Or does she just love food?

Despite one of the most obvious couples in the series being torpedoed in the last omnibus by virtue of death, these are still mostly teenagers and young adults, so love still drives a lot of the plot. I’ll leave Yuuhi aside for now, but there’s also Yuki and Subaru, who are the two nicest, most innocent characters in the series, so get the most selfless wishes in exchange for becoming knights. Yes, OK, it’s not going in a romantic direction (Subaru’s crush on Mikazuki is so obvious it can be seen from space), but their friendship is amazing when you’re in a series that’s playing with cynicism like this one does.

That brings me to Yuuji. He’s the main character, and thus gets the bulk of the character progression. We see his desire to grow stronger in order to fight by Samidare’s side. But we also see how he uses that strength to grow emotionally as well. The death of his grandfather, after all that he did in order to prevent it at the start, is a shocker, though honestly its the lizard that shows all the outrage that Yuuhi won’t. Anima, though, allows him to achieve closure, both with his grandfather (who let’s remember abused him horribly as a child, something I think might be a bit glossed over here), and with Hangetsu, whose death Yuuhi also needs to move past.

So now that we’ve seen all this, the question remains: are he and Samidare still going to destroy the world? I think the other knights would have something to say about that, particularly Yayoi. And honestly, Samidare needs a bit more development before I can say whether or not she will. But with the final omnibus coming soon, I don’t think Yuuhi is going to be helping her anymore – though that may come as a surprise to him. We’ll see how it wraps up, but I want to say again how much I’ve enjoyed this poor-selling series, and I wish it did better.