Yearly Archives: 2018

CITY, Vol. 1

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By Keiichi Arawi. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Morning. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

It’s always interesting when an established author ends their popular title and moves to a new company to start something new. In the case of Keiichi Arawi, creator of Nichijou, he’s moved to Weekly Morning for this new series, which has a significantly older readership than Young Ace, his former home. That said, I don’t think Nichijou fans need to worry too much about things getting overly serious or normal. CITY contains most of what readers love about Arawi – bizarre situations, a cast filled with overreacting idiots, and the occasional page that reminds you that the author may be at his best when designing backgrounds. And if you already miss Yukko and Mio from his previous series, rest assured, Midori and Ayumu will have you scratching you head and saying “they seem strangely familiar”. Basically, everything you liked before is here again, except perhaps for Mai. (I miss Mai.)

As the title suggests, this is a story of various characters living in the midst of a reasonable-sized city. And I say ‘characters’ rather than people because it’s obvious from the first that funny gags are what’s on the menu. Midori is sort of a main character, the way Yukko was sort of the main character of Nichijou, but as the book goes on it shows itself as more of an ensemble piece. Which is for the best, most likely, as Midori can be difficult to take in large doses. She’s lazy, conniving, and hyperactive, and also has a streak of bad luck, all things that make her very funny, but we haven’t really had any of the heartwarming moments in Nichijou that made us open up to the cast. Probably as this first book is establishing said cast and locale, rather than expanding on them.

There are others in the cast. I mentioned Midiori’s best friend Ayumu, who is meant to be the “normal” one by contrast, but seems to have a few silly interests. There’s a family restaurant, which Midori starts to work at in an effort to pay her rent, staffed by a boy who relies a bit too much on horoscopes. There’s an over-earnest police officer who tries to do the right thing but frequently ends up way over his head. There’s a young woman whose name isn’t given but who is basically Nano from Nichijou without a screw in her back, and she’s sweet and ditzy and obsessed with point cards. There’s even a manga artist and editor, though given the manga artist’s series gets cancelled in this first volume and they replace him with someone far more famous, I’m not sure how long that will last.

CITY likely needs a few more volumes to play out before I know whether I’ll enjoy it as much as I did Nichijou. But the basic elements are all still there, and I still found myself smiling as I read it. Arawin fans will definitely want to check this out, as will fans of “quirky” manga.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Plus Ultra

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

So in the afterword to the second volume of Tanya the Evil, the author talks about how much his editors and readers want to see more of the guys in the cast rather than Tanya herself, and how he is adamant about keeping Tanya front and center. And I get that, he’s correct as far as it goes. But I also understand the feelings of the others, because too much Tanya, particularly when we’re smiling and nodding along with her point of view, is not only overpowering but actively harmful to a degree. The Saga of Tanya the Evil works best when it shows us the disconnect between what Tanya is thinking and what the rest of the cast thinks she is thinking, and there are several very amusing moments here where we see that. But it’s not nearly as many as the first book, and pure, unfiltered Tanya, which we get here for long stretches at a time, risks the reader coming over to her point of view. Which is not, I suspect, what the author is going for.

The title is, as are all the titles in this series, Latin, and means “further beyond”. It’s also the national motto of Spain, one of the few countries in Europe that doesn’t have an equivalent here. The “plot” of the second volume reads almost like a book of short stories, and those who expect to see more of Tanya vs. Being X beyond her constant grousing are going to be disappointed. Instead, Tanya and her unit perform like the A-Team, dropping into war zones and magically coming out successful even when they’re unaware of it. We hit the Tanya equivalents of Romania, Norway, and France here, and also take a little bit of time to perform a few wartime atrocities. There are occasional flashforwards to reporters discussing these events as history, and it’s made pretty clear that history is not going to be happy with Tanya’s actions. It’s also made pretty clear the Empire is not going to be on the winning side when the war eventually ends. Now that we’re getting England… sorry, The Commonwealth into it, who knows where the books will take us next?

But again, as I said, there’s a whole lot of Tanya point of view in this book’s 7,963 pages. (That’s a slight exaggeration, but is is punishingly long. Readers may feel better knowing that, although all Tanya volumes are long, none in the future are QUITE as long as this one.) There are a few exceptions – we’re introduced to a new recruit whose job is to boggle in horror at war and Tanya (possibly not in that order), and we also meet a man who looks like he’s being set up as a major antagonist, Anson Sue (whose daughter, god help us, is named Mary Sue)… except he’s promptly killed off without Tanya even knowing who he is, so the whole thing ends up being anticlimactic. We occasionally see some of the Empire higher-ups, or a brief POV of the other side. Even Visha gets very little to do in this book besides be Tanya’s adjutant. The readers want more of the other characters because it provides some balance and different coloring. All Tanya is like eating potatoes every day.

I’m still not ready to drop this series, which is odd given “this is too dark” is the main reason I tend to drop light novels these days. I think Tanya’s odd historical and military tone works in its favor – the book may be filled with ludicrous amounts of discussion of ammo, shells, and the rules of war, but its dry tone sets it at a remove from the actions it describes. And I can’t deny that I find Tanya fascinating, and I’m still not sure how much the author wants us to like her. If you enjoyed the anime (which I admittedly haven’t seen), I can only imagine this is a must buy, as there’s lots of stuff that must have been cut to ribbons in adaptation. As for me, I will read on, but I can’t deny that at the end of the day one word comes to mind reading The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Exhausting.

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 1

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By Afro. Released in Japan as “Yurukyan △” by Houbunsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Manga Time Kirara Forward. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amber Tamosaitis.

Reading this and trying to review it right after New Game! is going to be a challenge. Even though the two series are not all that similar in premise or characterization, they both share that sort of “let’s watch girls do things in a relaxed way” vibe that so many other Kirara titles have. New Game! was about office work and video games, and Laid-Back Camp is about camping. We see a group of four girls with a shared interest, and watch them talk about that interest. The interesting thing is that for most of the cast, talking is what they’re content to do. Another interesting thing is that the cast are for the most part kept separate for most of the book – Rin is a hardcore camper, but camps when and where she does to avoid people. Unfortunately for her, she’s now met Nadeshiko, and so there will be cute interactions in the future. But I was pretty impressed at how long Rin held out.

Give how one of my first exposures to this sort of title was K-On, it’s difficult not to map out Laid-Back Camp’s cast onto the high school band series – only Ritsu is missing here. Rin is one of our heroines, serious about camping and quite good at it. She accidentally runs into Nadeshiko, who is ditzy and flakey but impossible to dislike, and finds that she loves camping as well. Though Rin does not realize it (as Nadeshiko acts years younger than her actual age), they attend the same school, and said school has an Outdoor Exploration Club. With two members. And its room is a supply closet that’s been repurposed. Yes, it’s another club on the verge of failure. Aoi and Chiaki are the members of this club, but to be honest we don’t really get to know them too deeply in this book, which is concerned with Nadeshiko slowly dragging Rin into their inner circle through the power of being a shiny ball of cute.

As you might imagine, the manga is as laid back as its title suggests. There are many shots of the cast (well, mostly Rin) sitting back and looking at lovely scenery. As an advertisement for camping, it’s not bad. There’s also discussion of tents and sleeping bags, and sometimes this feels more like an educational guidebook. I was also very fond of the relationship between Rin and her friend Saitou, which felt very realistic and also very amusing – I loved their text argument. This also allows the series to have a cast member who’s not into camping, which is nice. With all that, the drawback is that the whole volume feels like it’s setting things in place, and two of the four cast members don’t get much to do. This isn’t a series that you’ll be able to tell if it’s a keeper or not with the first volume. That said, I enjoyed myself enough that I’ll pick up Vol. 2. If you want girls relaxing at campsites, Laid-Back Camp lives up to its name.