Yearly Archives: 2018

So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 2

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

This series continues, very deliberately, to be a book of two halves, albeit unequal halves. The main thrust of the story remains our spider heroine slowly ascending the dungeon and defeating stronger and stronger monsters while keeping up an inner monologue that sounds like she’s high on a dozen pixie stix all the time. The other half of the story is interspersed in between this, and deals with Shun and the rest of the reincarnated students having a far more normal isekai life… well, normal compared to the spider. The difficulty is that forward plot progression is entirely confined to the latter – a couple of the students have clearly gone a bit mad from the new world, Shun finds being a hero actually involves killing things, there’s a giant demon invasion happening as we speak, and oh yes, the demons are seemingly led by another reincarnated classmate. I want to know more about this. I have to be content with Spider Levels Up And Reads Her Stats.

Spider’s progress is the biggest strength of the book. She is hilarious, and it gets even better when she’s able to subdivide her brains so they can think about different things, and they start arguing with each other. She’s arrogant as heck except when she’s being attacked by killer monsters, and there’s an ongoing disturbing thread about her not realizing that she’s lost any moral or ethical sense – every time she reads about her taboo increasing and wonders why that is, you sort of smack your head. At the same time, spider’s progress is the book’s biggest weakness as well. There is endless discussion of her stats and skills, complete with charts (which are what pile up the page count), and she has to overanalyze all of them. Sometimes this is amusing, but a lot of times it can get very tedious, even with her excitable inner voice.

As for Shun and company, as I said, they’re pursuing a much more common isekai narrative. We’re introduced to Hugo, another classmate who seems to have gone completely insane and power mad, as well as Yuri, who has accepted God as her savior in a very over the top way. (Given that God in this work appears to not only exist but be the sysadmin, not too mad an idea, but she’s a pure “religious zealot” type, so will no doubt be an antagonist.) The most interesting thing going on here is Katia, who was a boy in Japan but was reincarnated as a woman here, and seems to be the ONLY one who’s not the same sex. She becomes very accepting of this, and is also clearly starting to have feelings for Shun, which everyone notices except her. It’s not, perhaps, as amusing as the author wants it to be, but it’s definitely interesting, and handled pretty well.

The book ends with a nasty cliffhanger for those on the surface, even as our spider heroine just keeps rolling along. I’m enjoying these books, but I really hope that the two plots converge soon, as I’m drawning in stats a bit too much.

Cutie Honey a Go Go!

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By Shimpei Itoh, Go Nagai and Hideaki Anno. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Tokusatsu A. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Zack Davisson, Adrienne Beck and Wesley Bridges.

Another day, another reimagining of a classic property that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. Indeed, I enjoyed it a lot more than the Japanese audience apparently did, as not only was this cancelled after ten chapters, but the second volume was never published until this omnibus edition. The afterword is filled with the author’s apologies, but I’m not sure they’re merited, because I thought this was a pretty terrific adaptation. The cynic in me wonders if the series didn’t take off because it’s not filled with high school girls – Natsuko, aka the reason everyone should read this, is an adult police detective in this version, and I can’t help but think that this was Cutie Honey’s StrikerS. But I’m not going to complain too much, as what we do have is silly, over the top fun with lots of fighting, a lot of over the top bloodshed, and some yuri subtext. Everything you’d want from Cutie Honey, in other words.

As noted, Natsuko is a police detective with a penchant for being “a cop on the edge” – she exists in a constant haze of cigarettes and violence, beating the crap out of anyone who pisses her off, which is everyone. She’s having a particular bad day due to Panther Claw, an evil organization which has started destroying the city and its inhabitants due to the city not answering its demands – which no one actually seemed to receive. Fortunately, there is one woman here to save the day and defeat the bad guys (OK, bad girls – Panther Claw is an all-female monster team). Honey Kisaragi is an android built by her “father”, Dr. Kisaragi. She’s a combination of sentai warrior, magical girl and cute young airhead. Unfortunately, her father doesn’t last long in this series, and it’s noted that Panther Claw keeps coming after her. There’s only one thing left to do – go undercover at a Catholic Girls’ school.

If this sounds a bit ridiculous, it’s because it is -despite all the bloodshed, the ‘a Go Go” version of Cutie Honey is very much in the lighthearted vein. It was produced in tandem with the anime “Re: Cutie Honey”, which explains why Anno is listed as one of the creators. Natsuko’s angry reactions have those classic “all teeth” faces you see in a lot of Rumiko Takahashi works. That may be why the manga didn’t do as well – the ending, where the author was clearly told “you’re cancelled, wrap it up”, is noticeably darker than the rest of the series, with people getting their heads cut off and put on display or simply sliced completely in half. The main cast survives to fight another day, though, and readers might want to look towards the anime for a less ambiguous ending. There are other things going on here (a “reporter” who’s meant to be charming and irritating but is mostly the latter), but honestly the best reason to read this is Natsuko vs. everything around her.

The Irregular at Magic High School: Yokohama Disturbance Arc, Part 2

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By Tsutomu Sato and Kana Ishida. Released in Japan as “Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

Last time I mentioned I did not want any more romantic comedy hijinks, and it’s safe to say I got my wish, though that does not necessarily translate into a better book. The focus of this book is the Thesis Competition and the terrorist attack that disrupts it, and I think the entire problem with the book can be summed up by the fact that the competition never finishes after the attack and we never find out who won. It’s irrelevant. That actually pops up pretty frequently in this book, as we see moments that seem like they’re going to lead somewhere or develop a character… except they don’t. They’re there to “look cool” and that’s about it. (Honoka gets hit particularly hard with this.) The exception to this, as always, is Tatsuya. Miyuki seems to long for people to treat her and her brother as normal people rather than superhuman monsters, but it’s getting a tad difficult as the books move on.

As noted above, we start with the Thesis Competition, with our heroes going second to last. Their presentation is awesome, and yet here comes Third High and Cardinal George. But before he can start… explosions, invaders, rampaging monster trucks crashing through the walls. (This may – may – get wrapped up in a book or two with an offhand mention, but I will assume that First High wins. Did Third High even get to present again? “Yeah, look… um, can you just mail it in? We promise we’ll give it equal attention, but everyone’s kind of moved on.”) The rest of the book is taken up with repelling the attack, and, to its credit, it’s only about half “Tatsuya solves everything by dint of superpowerful magic awesomeness.” The rest of it is the rest of the cast contributing in their own little way, from actively killing terrorists with giant swords to using the power of Daddy’s Little Girl to summon helicopters to rescue civilians.

And yes, I said killing. There is a whole lot of bloodshed in this book, as the terrorists (whose identity I will try to keep a secret, in case someone anyone hasn’t guessed) amount to a bunch of cannon fodder. The cast take to it based on their personalities and strengths – Erika and Leo are basically fine with it, some of the others less so. Fortunately, absolutely none of our heroes are hurt all that badly – two of them get mortally wounded, but fortunately Tatsuya pulls out an “I can reverse this” magic that puts them back together again. I tend not to gripe about super overpowered heroes as much as the average light novel fan – I mean, if you’re reading this genre you have to basically accept it – but I admit to rolling my eyes a bit at this. Miyuki helpfully tells us how much pain it causes him, which is all very well and good, but it might have been nice to see that from his point of view, rather than just assume “stoic endurance”.

As the book ends with Tatsuya literally being the trigger of a nuclear magic explosion, one wonders where we’re going to go from here. Not back to the thesis competition, as Book 8 is apparently a prequel taking place three years earlier. In any case, while it is filled with cool battle scenes and the like, I didn’t enjoy this volume quite as much as the previous ones. It’s OK for the other characters to treat Tatsuya like some inhuman God, but don’t let the author do it as well.