Yearly Archives: 2018

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1

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By Koyoharu Gotouge. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

It has to be said that the title of this series is not its strong point – you get the sense that they kept the Japanese title as a subtitle in order to make it searchable on Amazon, separated from the countless other demon slayers. The premise, too, seems to be fairly traditional and straight down the middle. A young man living with his family out in the boonies (it’s later shown this is the Taisho era – around the 1910s or so) returns home one day to find his family slaughtered and his sister a demon. A demon hunter also shows up to take care of the sister, but her brother defends her, and proceeds to try to a) learn how to get stronger so he can protect his sister, and b) try to find out how to stop her wanting to eat humans. The latter is easily done as she simply comas her way out of the story after a bit, so the former takes precedence. This means the series lives and dies on its action sequences.

The good news is that the action sequences are good. There’s lots of horrific images, and this is not a manga to read if you don’t want to see limbs flying off and people you love lying in a pool of their own blood. Tanjiro is a very earnest young lad in everything he does, and he takes on his training in that mode as well – he is here to SAVE HIS SISTER and kill demons, and he’s all out of sister. He’s a nice kid at heart, which proves to be a bit of a stumbling block for everyone teaching him about demon slaying, as they think he’s not suited for it. He proves to be far more effective than they’d expected, though. His training is not the most original in the world (I have to split that giant boulder in only one blow?), but I was never bored, and the demon we meet in the cliffhanger is pretty damn awful. You want Tanjiro to succeed and be able to save his sister.

The sister, unfortunately, is the weak link here, as once she’s a demon she doesn’t really get to speak. There was a brief moment when I thought she might actually be the comic relief – the bit where we see her bottom half sticking out of the far-too-small basket Tanjiro brought to carry her made me laugh out loud. Sadly, it’s about the only comedic bit in this otherwise very serious series, and once he actually starts his training she rather conveniently slips into a coma so that she’s not off trying to eat people while he gets stronger. I am hopeful that she will wake up, and slightly less hopeful that she might gain some character depth as well. The series is 11+ volumes in Japan, so clearly we have a ways to go. But this is a good start, if a bit straight-laced and serious minded. I’d read it if you enjoy horror/action in an about equal ratio.

In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 9

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

I’ve frequently described In Another World with My Smartphone as being “entertaining but not good”, and that applies just as much to this volume as it does to the others before it. There’s no real plot beyond “watch what Touya does next”, the characterization can vary depending on what needs to happen, and the author’s tendency (and he’s hardly alone in this regard) in writing all his human villains as ugly, whining petty and completely 100% evil is wearing a bit thin. On the other hand, there was some brief attempt at backstory and depth for the Phrase, of all things, which made me very interested in what was going to happen next with them. (not much, at least not in this book.) And honestly, seeing Elze gleefully punching things with her giant robot would put a smile on anyone’s face. Smartphone is dumb fun. Emphasis on the dumb, yes, but also emphasizing the fun.

We start off with another Phrase invasion, which gives us an opportunity to talk some more with Ende, who is clearly connected with them in some way (as we see in the backstory I mentioned above), but who otherwise continues to be Kaworu-lite. There’s another kingdom with a waffling, non-assertive leader, whose scientific advisor (the eeeeeeeevil villain of the book I mentioned above, though he’s also super pathetic) shows off his wood glems as being just as good if not better than Touya’s powered suits. Spoiler: they aren’t. We also go back to Eashen, which is dealing with more internecine wars, and would probably be far more entertaining if I was up on the actual history. And we also meet the leader of a magic-heavy kingdom… who’s actually far more like the other kings we’ve met, as it was his now dead brother who had all the magic powers. He’s just a big powerful guy. He’s also in love with Lu’s sister, which gives Touya another boisterous in-law, to his chagrin.

If it sounds like nothing happens in this book, you’re not wrong. There are lots of events, and several things occur which look like setup for a larger plot down the road. In addition to the Phrase stuff, there’s also Sakura, who still has amnesia and still isn’t a wife (damn you, anime spoilers). She finds a dark elf with a tragic past… which we don’t find out about, but she gets to join the Royal bodyguards anyway. And Touya keeps meaning to tell the other girls that he’s from another world, but still hasn’t gotten around to doing so, despite hints from his “sisters” (who also grace the cover, along with Sakura) that he needs to do thins sooner rather than later. Taken individually, these scenes are mildly irritating at worst and a lot of fun at best. But they’re the opposite of someone like Ryohgo Narita in Durarara!!, who sets up dozens of plot guns over a few books, then fires them all off. This is the adventures of Touya wandering around and seeing what happens next, and occasionally using his godlike powers.

I mean, I’m still reading it. It’s still entertaining. But it’s also still not very good.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 1

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By Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court, based on the story by Kohei Horikoshi. Released in Japan as “Vigilante: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump +. Released in North America by Viz.

My Hero Academia, the main series, is very explicitly based on the American concept of superheroes. And, despite the occasional foray into “yes, heroes really do die” and an examination of loss, for the most part it remains a very idealistic series that wears its heart on its sleeve. Therefore, there was absolutely room for a “grim and gritty” take on the Academia universe, though it won’t be featuring any of the main students. If Horikoshi read a lot of Superman, then (as he explicitly states in the author’s notes) Furuhashi is modeling this spinoff after Batman. And, given the design of the “let’s punch everything” vigilante Knuckleduster, it’s pretty clear we’re talking the Frank Miller Batman. That said, this is still My Hero Academia, so I don’t expect things to get completely hopeless. Mostly as, if the “mentor” figure is Batman, the “hero” is… well, Deku. Something the authors also explicitly admit.

Our hero is Koichi, who is in college and trying to hold down a part-time job. Unlike Izuku at the start of MHA, he DOES have a quirk – he can glide along the ground. Slowly. Most people think he resembles a cockroach. He spends his off time doing nice things like picking up litter, to the point where the neighborhood gives him the hero name “Nice Guy”. He also has run ins with a group of bullies… wait, he’s out of high school, so they get to be thugs – as well as a self-styled wannabe pop idol. And, thanks to a variety of circumstances, he also ends up trying to stop an underground drug trade, which makes people’s powers go out of control, turning them into villains, also also seems, very disturbingly, to be controlled by bees. But it’s OK. He can glide. The wannabe idol can jump really high, and then there’s Knuckleduster, who has no quirk, but is GOOD AT PUNCHING.

As I said, we’re dealing here with mostly original characters. Eraser Head shows up at one point to help compare and contrast the difference between licensed heroes and vigilantes, but the core of the series is our three “illegal” heroes. Of the three, Pop Step is the most problematic. My Hero Academia has been criticized a bit for having the female characters get less focus than the guys, and their costumes overly sexualizing them, and that’s not wrong. But over the course of the first volume, Pop Step is captured multiple times, threatened with rape, and the sadly very popular “covered from head to toe in gloop which probably reminds the reader of something”. Knuckle Duster fares better – he’s in the Frank Miller style, but it’s taking the good bits of Miller and leaving out all the claptrap. As for Koichi, he’s a nice kid, but so far is defined personality-wise as “Deku, only less shiny because this is a “grim and gritty” spinoff. He needs more oomph.

On the good side, the action sequences are very well handled here, and there are some nice creepy horror images with the bees. Vigilantes is a decent enough start for a MHA spinoff, and I hope it gives better development to its leads in future volumes. And stops having Pop Step get captured all the time.