Monthly Archives: October 2018

Last and First Idol

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By Gengen Kusano. Released in Japan by Hayakawa Publishing. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

It needs to be said right up front, this is not remotely a light novel. In fact, it’s not even a novel, but rather, a collection of three large-ish short stories. The first one, which gives the book its title, won the Japanese Seiun Award, their equivalent of the Hugos, and the other two are essentially variations on a theme. This is not to say that they aren’t related to anime and manga – each of the three short stories revolves around a different otaku obsession, and indeed the first story is a repurposed NicoMaki fanfic (as explicitly stated in the afterword). But this is at its core science fiction. Even more importantly it’s of the genre known as hard science fiction. The majority of all three stories is made up of long, detailed, and mostly fascinating discussion of science concepts and themes, sometimes related to our own sciences, and sometimes off on a different tangent (such as the aether in the final story). To enjoy this book, you REALLY need to love science.

It’s not quite accurate to call the three stories in here “variations on a theme”, but they are definitely of a piece. In Last and First Idol, a young girl obsessed with idols finds reality impossible to accept, but her friend is there to ensure that she fulfills her dreams, even after death. In Evolution Girls, a young woman obsessed with Gatcha games is killed and reincarnated in a gatcha-themed world, where she has to fight to survive. And in Dark Seiyuu, we follow a murderous sociopath and her ditzy partner as they kill seiyuu, travel through space, and try to discover the meaning of life. All three stories, to a greater or lesser degree, feature “yuri” sort of relationships, though, appropriately given the inspiration for these stories are shows like Love Live and Madoka Magica, they don’t really progress beyond akogare all that much. All three stories also feature a grotesque amount of violence, laid out in loving and bloody description.

I was impressed with the premise and development of the stories. The characters may not have been all that likeable some of the time, but they were easy to follow as protagonists, and a couple of the stories even had stabs at a happy ending. I was expecting a bit more satire – honestly, despite the concept of things like “immortal idol girls”, “gatcha games that consume your soul”, and “seiyuu piloting spaceships with their evolved uvulas”, there’s not really much commentary on said industries, as the author is more interested in exploring science using the otaku-esque premises as a springboard. The science, it has to be said, can be deadly. I never really did get into hard science fiction as a genre, and my academic career is strictly humanities, so my eyes were glazing over a lot. Also, it has to be said, a great deal of this book involves cute girls killing other cute girls in very detailed ways. There’s a reason I don’t read the Magical Girl Kill ‘Em All books, you know?

So in the end, this is a book that is easy for me to admire and be impressed by, but I can’t really say I enjoyed it. That said, if you are the sort who likes hard SF and Madoka Magica knockoffs, this is absolutely something for you to pick up.

Pop Team Epic

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By Bkub Okawa. Released in Japan by Takeshobo, serialized in the magazine Manga Life Win. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Yota Okutani.

Many who read my reviews are familiar with me saying “This was made into a popular anime, which I haven’t actually seen.” That’s not the case here, as I am very, very familiar with the Pop Team Epic anime. In fact, this manga may be operating at a slight disadvantage in that I think almost every single person who buys it will be someone who has seen the anime that came out at the start of 2018. So, the question here is not so much “is this book funny?” (it is, in a PTE sort of way) or “is this book worth my money?” (yes it is, if only for the cover not having mosaics like the CR anime OP did) but more “what does this book have that the anime didn’t?”. There are several comics that weren’t adapted into anime gags, of course, and I will admit that for the most part you can easily see why they chose what they did. But the gags are still fun and worth reading, and it’s interesting to see hwow one gets translated into the other.

In case you are that rare person who bought this sight unseen (and given that cover, I can imagine it), Pop Team Epic is a 4-koma gag strip about two girls, Popuko (the short one) and Pipimi (the tall one). They’re dressed in school uniforms, but we never see them attending any classes. Instead, the strip is an excuse for various pop culture gags, fourth wall breaking exercises, and whatever random humor Bkub thinks of to throw at us. A good comparison might be Nichijou or CITY, though I worry comparing Pop Team Epic to anything just invites criticism. For anyone who’s seen the anime, all the most famous gags are present and correct: “Are you upset?”, “Beef or Chicken”, “Doesn’t get it at all”, etc. In fact, some of the gags look odd for an anime watcher, as Bob Epic Team used them for their own distorted art, and seeing things like the scorpion or zoo scenes as normal quick gag strips is actually a bit unnerving.

For those who had been wondering about how they would translate possibly the most memed of the PTE memes, “You Are Mother Fucker?” is left as is, which might be seen as cheating but is probably the safest option. The translation is, appropriately for a series like this, a bit of a mish-mash. Translation notes are minimal, with the occasional explanation of things like the Slit-Mouthed Woman. For the most part the pop culture gags are left alone, relying on the reader being as big a nerd as the author. There is the occasional adaptation that I noticed – in particular, I’m pretty sure the M*A*S*H reference wasn’t in the original comic – but for the most part the translation is fairly straightforward. Popuko swears quite a bit, though again, not as much as I think the “fan” reading the manga would like.

If you enjoyed the Pop Team Epic anime and want to read how it began, this is an excellent manga to buy. If you didn’t watch the PTE anime and are just curious, I’d make sure you like gag comics with a liberal definition of what “humor” is first. And if you’re a yuri fan, yes, “I wuv you lots” is in here, though don’t expect any hegemony.

The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 6

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By Gamei Hitsuji and himesuz. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

Last time I said that it wasn’t all that surprising that another hero came from Japan, and now after this volume we find that there’s actually a close connection between this fantasy world and Suimei’s own. Given the sheer amount of backstory we’ve gotten on Suimei and his own magic studies, this isn’t too surprising. It’s not good news for anyone who isn’t as powerful as Suimei, though, and there’s some genuine concern at the end of the volume over his splitting with Hatsumi and heading off to once again research a way to return to his own world. Fortunately, through the magic power of trauma, Hatsumi has finally regained her old memories, and so now she recalls enough awesome sword experience… to know that she can run away if need be. Not win. These new enemies are tough. The old enemies are pretty tough too, actually, and the book itself is essentially devoted to three huge fights and an epilogue.

The most interesting of the three fights, though not necessarily the most enjoyable, is the one on Reiji’s side. Reiji is a fairly dull hero, but he’s also pretty pure and noble and cliched as a hero as well. This is why the bad guys seem to think that he, rather than Hatsumi, is going to be the one they make their “main hero” to save the world – he’ll inspire the little people more. Of course, that assumes he’s actually doing heroic things, rather than yelling at Mizuki. Mizuki has been a flat character for a while now, and I wanted her to develop and be able to do more. But not like this. Weaponizing her chuuni tendencies makes her just as annoying as it sounds, and I fear we may have to deal with this version of her for some time. (Combining this with Lefille becoming a little girl again, it’s like the author was asking what things I dislike the most in Too Far Behind and then leaving heavily on them.)

Suimei does get a bit more complicated in this volume, not always for the better. Seeing him terrified of fighting the dragonewt because of past trauma involving his father was interesting, but in the end it didn’t really seem to hamper his battle abilities. More interesting was the discussion at the end with whatever entity is possessing Mizuki and making her fantasies reality. We get a glimpse of a Suimei who did something very nasty, and I’m fairly certain that it’s going to come out in the next book or two and have horrible consequences. Mostly, through this book, Suimei has been a pretty nice guy despite pretending that he isn’t. But he’s not perfect, and he’s a teenager. That said, it’s sort of hard to square this backstory with him and Mizuki and the “dur hur, I don’t know why all these girls are mad at me” harem idiot except “convenience of the plot”.

Overall, this is a good volume of Too Far Behind! if you like fights, and there’s some good plot-related stuff as well. It just had a couple of issues that kept niggling at me through the book. It also had no interstitial illustrations, the second volume to be missing them. Someone should have a chat with the illustrator.