Monthly Archives: January 2019

Strike the Blood, Vol. 11

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By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Bourque.

To its credit, this volume of Strike the Blood is not the same as many of its predecessors. School plays a minimal role, and wacky “hur hur, Kojou is a teenage boy and everyone gets mad about it” humor is there, but takes a back seat to more serious stuff. The volume begins with Kujou’s sister being kidnapped and his father being fairly easily taken out, and you expect that he and Yukina will be headed to the mainland to save the day. Which… may be true in Vol. 12, but instead this volume shows us that all the various factions around Kojou are perfectly happy with him destroying city blocks and causing massive panic and serious disruption of everything… as long as he does it within the island itself. Leaving the island, though, is no longer an option. And if that means that his mentor Natsuki has to become the book’s big bad, well then that’s what’s going to have to happen.

Natsuki at times has reminded me a lot of Evangeline McDowell from the Negima series. She looks like a little girl but is really of age, she is happy to abuse the hero while also imparting important lessons, etc. Turns out that “she’s also a powerhouse who can kick his ass eight ways from Sunday” also applies. I am going to assume that something in the next volume is going to allow Koujo to forgive her for this, because otherwise this is causing a pretty irreparable rift in their relationship. Honestly, it’s not really clear why the Lion King Society and Natsuki both decide the answer is “lock Kojou in prison and don’t explain anything”, but it’s easily the weakest part of the book – I know the author likes fights, but this seems willfully stubborn purely for the sake of putting the plot off to another volume. (On the bright side, I did like seeing Asagi acknowledge that she tends not to get majorly involved in these sorts of things, and taking steps to change that.)

Speaking of relationships that may be irreparably damaged, Yukina is beginning to realize just how little the Lion King Agency cares about her – and despite some lip service from a few characters that tries to put their actions in a better light, the cliffhanger seems to reinforce that. It’s been pretty clear for a while now that there are other LKA agents surrounding Kojou, and after this volume I’m beginning to wonder why they want Yukina there at all, besides being a feint to draw attention elsewhere. Maybe they’re trying to have Kojou fall for her? That’s a pretty long row to hoe given that, despite stirrings of libido, he continues to have no idea Yukina loves him – or Asagi for that matter, despite her father literally saying “please marry my daughter so that I can gain political power”. As with Kojou and Natsuki, I do wonder if Yukina is going to be able to recover any working relationship with the Agency after this.

Of course, I am assuming they somehow escape the island in the next volume, because everyone is STILL THERE. This volume of Strike the Blood is a nice change of pace, and well written as always. But man, it drags things out so long that you feel as frustrated as the heroes by the end of the book.

Yuri Is My Job!, Vol. 1

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By miman. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Yuri Hime. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Diana Taylor.

Fandom has had years of trying to get vaguely yuri things into anime and manga, from the days of Battle Athletes and (apropos for this review) Maria-sama Ga Miteru to more modern times. And this title really gives me the feeling that they’ve won, as we’re now seeing the concept of Yuri not as a genre but as an industry. If you’re good at doting on a “younger sister”, and can Gokigenyou with the best of them, for God’s sake, why not monetize it? That’s the premise we see here, as Hime, a high school girl who keeps up a “perfect princess” facade at school, accidentally runs into a young woman at the train station. One feigned broken wrist later and Hime finds herself having to work at a cafe to make up for causing it… a cafe based around the idea of “pure young maidens” taking orders and flirting with each other. The clientele seems to be mostly male, which doesn’t surprise me. Fortunately, the cafe is not as interesting as Hime and her “oneesama”, who get off to a rough start working together.

I thought Hime’s character was very well handled. She’s putting on the “little miss princess” act supposedly so she can marry rich, but this is played for laughs, and you never get the sense that she’s being mean about it. Plus the act slips constantly, especially when she’s out of school and in a situation she’s not used to – like, say, working at a cafe. Her co-worker Mitsuki plays the “Sachiko” to Hime’s “Yumi” at the cafe, but seems to have it in for Hime, particularly her attempts to act cute – or, one argues, not be herself. It feels like a bit more than simply a bad first impressions, and the cliffhanger ending to the first volume confirms that there’s actually more going on in their pasts than Hime may realize – it’s the sort of ending that makes you want to go back and reread things.

The rest of the book is all right, though I will admit that it reads a bit like a slow starter at first – not uncommon with stories from this magazine. I am somewhat wary of Hime’s classmate Kanoko, a shy bespectacled girl who clearly has a massive crush on Hime and I suspect is really not going to be happy with the direction this series is clearly going. Honestly, Kanako’s character feels too serious for this light-hearted story. The other characters – manipulative manager Mai and her “Gal” assistant – work better, getting Hime to do whatever they want but not actually being too unlikable because of it. The second volume will presumably involve Hime and Mitsuki resolving their differences, and honestly I would not be surprised if the series was only two volumes long, but apparently it’s still ongoing in Japan, so we shall see how long it can drag out the yuri cafe premise. Still, a pretty good start.

Infinite Dendrogram: The Hope They Left Behind

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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.

Way back in the first volume, when I had no idea what sort of series this was going to be, Ray was introduced to Liliana, a Royal Guard member, and I assumed that she would be the first in a long line of girls in Ray’s orbit who would fall for him. Since then, while there HAVE been a bunch of girls in Ray’s orbit, with the exception of Nemesis they have shown very little interest in him romantically. This just isn’t a harem series. That said, here Ray meets the first princess… or rather her “secret” alter ego, Azurite, a disguise that fools absolutely no one except Ray. She’s far more of a love interest, despite their confrontation when they first meet, which has her going off on Ray due to his “villain” outfit (complete with a new set of armor to make him look even more villainous, the best running gag in this series.) But is Ray interested?

“Not really” seems to be the answer to that. As I said above, this isn’t a harem series, or even a romance, and Nemesis’ occasional feelings of jealousy is as close as we ever get. There’s even a “walk in on the girls naked in the bath” scene here, which the author says has apparently been in the plans since the beginning of the series, but Ray, while acknowledging that Nemesis and Azurite are beautiful, does not seem particularly sexually aroused at all. The series has different things on its mind. Things like building up the world of Dendrogram itself, and its past history, which, as Ray observes, is so blisteringly realistic that it doesn’t feel like “backstory” added by game developers, but something that really happened. This is not a “trapped in a game” series, and players can and do log out (B3 is not around in this book as she has to do a tea ceremony in real life, a detail I liked), but clearly there’s more to this game than just realistic writing and NPCs.

The premise of this book involves the kingdom of Alter discovering a new ruin at the edge of their territory, which could mean fantastic new technology to help them… or could also mean horrible monsters and weapons waiting to kill them. In fact it’s both, and Ray and Azurite, who meet by chance on the way there, have to team up and try to do something about it. We see a few master developed, such as Tom, who wears a cat on their head all the time (the picture here was great), and the guy with the evil traveling band who fought Marie a while back, who still has the band but is not on the clock so is less evil. Always trust a guy who has to blow off a dungeon crawl to play music for an adorable bedridden orphan. The “villain” of this arc, if he can be called that, is a man named “Dr. Mario”, who speaks in a fake Italian accent to match his name but clearly has hidden depths, and his identity rapidly becomes obvious to the reader (but not Ray, whose denseness is pointed out multiple times, usually by the princess in disguise he doesn’t recognize).

The volume ends with a cliffhanger, and we’re caught up with Japan. That said, I think the next book comes out there in February, so it shouldn’t be too long a wait. Till then, let’s prepare for the battle and wonder what piece of horribly villainous clothing Ray will get as a reward next time.