Monthly Archives: September 2018

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 2

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By Gengoroh Tagame. Released in Japan in two separate volumes by Futabasha, serialized in the magazine Gekkan Action. Released in North America by Pantheon Books. Translated by Anne Ishii.

Last time I wondered if Mike giving advice to a young Japanese teen who was also gay would lead to larger drama, and I’m happy to report that it did not. Not that this final volume is conflict-free, but the conflict is as low-key as the first volume was, In fact, it’s almost lampshaded by the author, as Mike has apparently said that Japan is not as bigoted about homosexuality as the West. But that’s only overtly, and we see some good examples of it being something that people quietly want to go away. This leads to Yaichi having a meeting with Kana’s teacher, who is upset that Kana is mentioning a gay an to her classmates, as the teacher says being gay is “an adult topic” kids shouldn’t discuss. Yaichi’s inner monologue comes to life again, as we saw in the first volume, and once again he represses the emotion, but this time he does not repress the objection, and this leads to a great moment where he defends Kana.

Speaking of Kana, she continues to be a terrific kid, and we see her bond with Mike grow more as the book goes forward. This actually leads to a bit of an emotional climax, as of course Mike can’t stay there forever – he’s going back home, and Kana is trying her best to repress her emotions (as her father does naturally), but isn’t really making it work as well. (Earlier she was given a version of Romeo and Juliet to read by a classmate – it devastated her, and we see her sobbing.) This leads to one of the best scenes in the book, where she asks Mike if he swears he’ll come back to Japan again, and he says he can’t do that, because he swore to Ryoji they’d come to Canada, but then Ryoji died. This leads to him teaching her the English phrase “see you soon”, which immediately lightens the mood and is quite heartwarming. Each moment of emotion or turmoil in the book is quickly followed by release or a gentle scene.

We also see more of Natsuki, Yaichi’s ex-wife. There’s a few more scenes that show they still have feelings for each other, but any reunion on their part is left implied on the final page, because this is not meant to be about Yaichi, but about the relationship between Yaichi and Mike. Yaichi’s growth in a mere three weeks is great to see, as is the final hug between the two men. And I loved the pictures we saw of Ryoji and Mike’s wedding, which looked like an absolute blast, though also led to us hearing that Ryoji blamed himself for the rift between him and his twin. As with the first volume, there isn’t a lot of big emotion here – many pages go by with no dialogue and just facial expressions, and sometimes the facial expressions are ambiguous. But Tagame is such a good artist that you understand what he’s trying to convey despite the ambiguity.

This ran in a mainstream magazine for young men, and thus tries its hardest to be friendly and easy to read. It succeeds brilliantly, and I finished the second volume wanting to immediately go back and read the first. Everyone will want to read the story of Yaichi, Mike, and Kana, and I urge them to add this series to their library as soon as they are able.

Infinite Dendrogram: The Shield of Miracles

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By Sakon Kaidou and Taiki. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

This is another second half of a two-parter where the second half is a bit too short. The author attempts to say something in the afterword about not wanting to do short-story volumes, which is why he puts them after volumes occasionally (as he does here), but it does mean that the climax of this arc feels a bit underwhelming. Ray, Nemesis and B3 finish their investigation of the Master who married and had a child with a tian, but it’s cut short by a monster from the past who has once more risen at this exact time to start killing everyone. (I will give props to the monster, as most of these ‘black shapeless thing that fires beams that kill you’ sorts are mindless, implacable types, but this monster wants to see dying people despair, and has a nice line in maniacal laughing.) Naturally, Ray and Nemesis have to save the day, and they do, pretty simply. This allows us to read a story about Rook as a detective trying to catch a egocentric Master.

One thing that Dendrogram does here is play a bit with the idea of being darker than it is. For the most part, so far this series has been as shiny as Ray, with lots of life-or-death situations but very little real death. Being an actual game rather than a “trapped in a game world” game helps, but the actual plotting lampshades itself at times. We get a master who Ray and B3 realize is, in reality, a terminal patient. It is strongly hinted that the reason he has not come back to the game world is that he is dead. And, I feel it’s OK to spoil this since it’s of no surprise whatsoever, in the end he turns out to have survived the miracle surgery and is merely recovering. This is not a book that is going to make pregnant women and young idealistic kids sad. Likewise Tsukuyo, who we met last time when she was trying to get Ray to join her Society and baiting him with healing his arm, ends up magically healing EVERYONE (including Ray, and Ray’s arm) from the monster attacks, and her reasoning is essentially “I’m such a ditz, tee hee”. She and Ray are eerily similar in mnny ways.

Of course, not everyone is as into Dendrogram as Ray is. B3 treats this game as a game, and the tians as NPCs. She also really likes to roleplay her character, and really really likes to kill other players. Since this is an actual game this time, and the players she kills are actual jerks and losers, your sympathy naturally falls with her. It’s a refreshing contrast from Ray, who is essentially the exact same person in the game as he is outside it. Here B3 actually is her “outside” self most of the time, but when she gets her killing on she puts on her mask and turns into a sneering villain sort. I hope we see more of her. I’m less excited at seeing Gerbera, Rook’s opponent in the short story who does not really come off very well until we get inside her head for the epilogue. I think Rook finds her annoying. I did too.

So not the best volume of Dendrogram, but it didn’t really do anything wrong either. A solid effort.

The Champions of Justice & the Supreme Ruler of Evil

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By Kaede Kikyou and Tobari. Released in Japan as “Seigi no Mikata to Aku no Sōtō” by the author on the Syosetu website. Released in North America digitally by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jekaterina Bält.

As with Obsessions of an Otome Gamer, the other Cross Infinite World title I’ve read, I went into this because the concept intrigued me. Honestly, it sounded like Excel Saga, and I am nothing if not a fan of anything possibly related to Excel Saga. We have a young girl who is trying to take over the world but is a bit of a flake. We have an organization that essentially fills the role of a sentai team trying to stop her. That said, that’s about where the similarities end. Instead of Il Palazzo, Mia has her late father, who drilled into her daily the rules on how to use magic but seems to have forgotten (on purpose, as we later find) to tell her what being “evil” actually means. As for the Champions of Justice, they’re cops, and while they have some flaws, for the most part they are all adults who see this Supreme Ruler of Evil they’ve been assigned to stop for what she is: a lonely young girl living alone with genuine magical powers.

Changing up my usual style, I’ll start with the good and move to the bad. It’s mostly good – I was quite entertained by this, which is a LOT deeper and more dramatic than I’d really been expecting. There’s lots of humor, sure, as Mia has a tendency to act like a stereotypical cackling villain at the drop of a hat. But I loved how her attempts to “do evil” are all rather pathetic, and that at heart she is obviously meant to be catching bad guys instead – there’s a bit of Ran from Super GALS! in her, only Ran’s just in denial, whereas Mia genuinely does not seem to know what good and evil are as concepts. The five officers are divided up fairly easily: the serious one who wants to make sure Mia eats properly, the blase one who has a secret I could have done without (more on that later), the angry guy who’s trying to date someone long-distance; the romantic lead who is constantly sexually harassing Mia as a way to distance himself from the fact that he’s fallen in love at first sight (more on that later as well), and the token woman, who is there essentially to be a big sister sort. Gradually they get Mia to open up and get closer, and honestly I think the book may have been better (if less marketable) if it removed the romance and stuck with “found family”.

There are some things I didn’t like. The book was noted as being somewhat racy, and I wasn’t quite sure why till we got to the chapter dealing with Shou, the cheerful yet sneaky blonde guy. At one point, when fighting with Mia, Mia’s magical attacks tear his jacket, which seems to cause him to go dark, and he takes her back to his apartment… which is set up like a bondage fetish room. With lots of toys, lovingly described in great detail. And a rape threat (which Shou clearly doesn’t mean but I don’t care). Honestly, this entire section could be removed with no damage to the story – sure, Shou would get no development, but Aya didn’t either. As for Ren, the love interest, he’s acknowledged in story as sexually harassing Mia, a high school student who is not yet 18, from day one. It’s done in that “this is a romance title” sort of way so I wasn’t as annoyed with it as I was with Shou, but it’s there. I did like Aya at the end admitting that she let him get away with it as she could see he was working through his issues and if he screws this up now she’ll kick his ass to hell and back.

This is another of those really long books, though at least it is complete in one volume. Overall, I’m glad I read it, as I loved the bonding between this group of rough yet gentle police officers and their wayward charge who is a “Supreme Ruler of Evil” who can’t help but do good to anyone she comes across. If you like shoujo romances, I’d definitely give it a try.