Monthly Archives: April 2018

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Flight

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By Yoshiki Tanaka. Released in Japan as “Ginga Eiyū Densetsu” by Tokuma Shoten. Released in North America by Haikasoru. Translated by Tyran Grillo.

So the war’s over and the Empire won… now what? We knew that things weren’t going to begin to slowly wrap up given we still had five more books to go, and so, unsurprisingly, we see that maintaining the peace and holding on to what you have is not as easy as it seems. Reinhard is dealing with assassination attempts, the fact that not all of his underlings are capable and brilliant, and everyone and their brother telling him “you’re the Emperor, now get married and have an heir”. As for Yang, he is now married, but heirs may have to wait, as his very existence seems to annoy people on both sides, none of whom think he simply is retiring peacefully. Which… well, they’re right, he isn’t, but things really don’t go the way he hoped. As for Julian, he makes it to Earth, and finds it ruled by a petty tyrant held up by a group of misguided religious zealots. Insert wry political commentary here.

Reinhard doesn’t get as much focus here as previous books, despite the assassination attempt. Honestly, that attempt, done by Hildegarde’s cousin, seems more narratively designed to separate the two of them for a bit more, as everyone and their brother is telling Reinhard to find a wife and Hilda is the really obvious option. It is sort of amusing seeing him justify not only letting Hilda and her father not be killed/exiled for unthinkingly leading him to the assassin, but even keeping their positions – though the whole scenario does throw into sharp relief how little Reinhard seems to have actually grown up, and how important (still) Siegfried is to him. He’s really good at war, and really good when he has a rival like Yang. When he lacks both, what’s going to happen?

Not that Yang has been removed from the picture just yet. There are some amusing scenes of his attempt at domestic bliss, though given they mostly revolve around “Frederica only knows how to make sandwiches” it’s probably for the best that he’s quickly arrested. There’s a rumor going around that he’s starting a rebellion, everyone thinks that Yang wants to start a rebellion, therefore Yang must be starting a rebellion, even though it’s not quite true. (Yang DOES want to do something, but not for a few years – a plan that gets blown to hell by the events of this book.) Reinhard and Yang always make good contrasts, and here it’s seen by how much Yang is trying to avoid being the face of the opposition. He’s a charismatic leader that could easily be another Reinhard if he wanted, he and everyone else knows it, and he hates the idea.

The romance is not just Yang and Frederica, by the way. Leaving aside everyone telling Reinhard to get married, it looks like Julian has been introduced (somewhat clumsily, I will admit) to his future love interest, who I’d call a tsundere if this weren’t written in 1985. And von Reuentahl seem sto be sleeping with the girl who’s trying to kill him. That’ll go well. You get the sense that the author is trying to move pieces for the final arc, and sometimes they move smoothly and sometimes they hit you in the face. Still, Legend of the Galactic Heroes fans won’t want to miss this. Given this was a mostly politics book, I expect a lot more space battles next time.

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, Vol. 1

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By Fujita. Released in Japan in two separate volumes as “Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii” by Ichijinsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Pool. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Jessica Sheaves.

In general, when we see romances in anime and manga that also involve “otaku”, they tend to revolve around an otaku and a seemingly “normal” person who fall for each other. Kiss Him, Not Me! is a good example. We’ve also seen the occasional otaku couple, but they’ve been fairly minor characters in a story which focuses on someone else. With Wotakoi we’re finally zeroing in on romance and otaku in equal doses, and all four characters are deeply into it. Indeed, the fact that it is equal doses is the big selling point. Wotakoi is very good at balancing out its (admittedly slow-moving) romance between the leads and also the everyday otaku banter that they go through, and it makes it feel all the more realistic, because I know couples like this, who will suddenly sing a theme tune when they’re even vaguely reminded of it. Despite the otaku veneer, Wotakoi feels genuine.

Hirotaka is the guy on the cover, he likes playing games. Narumi is the girl, she’s more of a fujoshi and also makes her own doujinshi. They’re childhood friends who meet again when she starts at a new company, Over the course of the book, the two slowly enter into a… wait, no. Over the course of the very short first chapter, the two enter into a relationship founded on “hey, we might as well date”. I really liked this, because it felt very real to me, even as it’s lampshading her “mercenary” otaku mindset. And they really *do* make a great couple, as is clear immediately to everyone else except perhaps Narumi. Hirotaka does have genuine love for her, and is content to wait while she figures everything out (though he’s also not very good at emotional bonding). They also have two coworkers who are also dating and also happen to be otaku, though Taro is the most “normal” of the bunch. He and Hanako are very different from the two leads, and I loved them to bits.

In fact, that may be one of this double-volume omnibus’ flaws – the beta couple interest me more than the lead. This is, admittedly, not uncommon in romance series, particularly one where the main girl is cute and slightly oblivious like Narumi is. Taro and Hanako have that sort of “we fight all the time but love each other deep down” relationship that only seems to work well in fiction but I love it anyway. They’re also hot, leaving our main leads to fulfill the “cute” function. And of course everyone is an adult, and actually feels like one, even Narumi. We’re seeing more and more manga get out of the high school and into the workplace, but the chwracter design still seems to be stuck back in the teens for the most part. I liked seeing people who look their age.

Wotakoi’s coming out in omnibuses, and Japan is only up to Vol. 5, so we’re going to catch up pretty quick. But I definitely recommend Wotakoi both to otaku who want to see a realistic depiction of how they work in life as opposed to the “creepy otaku” stereotypes, and also to romance fans who like comedy and don’t mind characters talking about their favorite games all the time.

Also, Taro and Hanako in evening wear. YUM. I can see why they used those shots in the anime OP.

Outbreak Company, Vol. 3

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By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Japanese anime and manga cater to their audience, and knows what the audience wants. And since Japan lives sports, that means a lot of sports manga. Over here in North America, we’re finally at the point where sports manga is also very popular, but for years it was the opposite, and titles like Whistle! or Prince of Tennis were the odd ones out. It didn’t have a built-in audience. And that’s the issue that Shinichi is dealing with in this volume, as the elves and dwarves in his class are unable to relate to the various types of sports manga that are being offered, because… there really aren’t any sports in their world. So there’s only one thing for it: it’s time to introduce the Eldant Empire to the glories of soccer. Of course, best-laid plans and all that… if you guessed that this would end with a giant melee battle, you’d be right.

Since we’re presented with that cover at this point, let’s get what I didn’t like about this volume out of the way here. I am not all that fond of when Outbreak Company tries to be a typical harem comedy romance, which means that the whole plotline of Elvia being in heat didn’t do much for me, nor was I bowled over by Petralka sitting on Shinichi’s lap and his reminding us constantly how much like a little girl she looks (and frequently acts). Myusel is a notable exception to this , and the interaction he has with her has a greater depth of feeling than any of the others – I’m not sure if romance will ever be resolved in this title, but I know who Best Girl is in my opinion.

That said, the rest of the book is far stronger. The plotline of the second book is mostly dropped, as the Japanese government deals with yet another prime minister and so has dialed things back. The introduction of soccer, and the inherent disasters that become revealed o0nce you realize that most of the players involved can do magic and there are no explicit rules saying you can’t use it, is fast-paced, funny, and entertaining. The best part of the book, though, was the development of Brooke as a character, giving us a tragic backstory, but also greater insight into how the Lizardmen think and react to things. Outbreak Company’s goal is to show that prejudice against other races is bacd, and in this volume we see that even the seemingly cold and impenetrable Lizardmen can turn out to have similarities to humans deep down. It was really well handled.

I’m not really sure if there is a grand final plan for this series beyond “introduce otaku things and watch the fun stuff that happens”, “continue to show that equality is a good thing”, and the occasional “oh no I’m getting aroused by these gorgeous girls but don’t realize they may actually like me” moment. But I’m content to find out, and regard Outbreak Company as a nice solid series in J-Novel Club’s lineup.