Monthly Archives: January 2019

Amagi Brilliant Park, Vol. 3

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By Shouji Gatou and Yuka Nakajima. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

Half of this was fantastic, the other half I hated. Welcome to another review of Amagi Brilliant Park, a series I’m still very ambiguous about. The third book in the series is made of of short stories, two short and two long. The short stories were all right. The first one was based around the gag that if we ever saw the fairy mascots as humans, they’d all be sexy bishonen, which did not, for once, wear out its welcome so was quite funny. The other short story has Seiya, curious about the magical world, trying to go to it with Moffle. He doesn’t make it (train issues), but does learn more about Moffle’s past and bonds with him a bit. It’s also the only part of the book where you don’t want to punch him in the face. Let’s face it, Seiya is a protagonist who’s very hard to like, and the two “large” stories in this book show us why; he’s an arrogant jerk who barely cares how others think of him.

Let’s start with the story I disliked, because I will admit part of it is me. Stories where there’s bodyswapping and a character has to pretend to be another make me feel deeply uncomfortable, and that’s the entire premise. Seiya has too many absences at school because he’s working on the park, but the park can’t afford for him to actually go to school regularly. Fortunately (?), the fairy team has a solution of what is essentially a lifelike Seiya costume that they can wear. Over the course of four days, Isuzu and the three main mascots go to school pretending to be Seiya, and get involved in a tortured plot involving love letter shenanigans. A lot of it was very predictable, and I sadly did not find it as funny as the author did. Still, as I said, if you DO like bodyswap-like comedy, you should have no issue with it. (It also has Seiya at his absolute worst, especially near the resolution.)

That said, the first story in the book is probably my favorite of the entire series to date. It takes place from the POV of Shiina, one of the three new part-time hires we briefly saw in the last book. She’s introverted, bad at being social, flubs her words when she speaks, and really only comes alive when she sings karaoke to herself in the evenings. Naturally, she’s put with Moffle for her part-time job, which has her dreaming of quitting after about half an hour. But it’s actually great, as while Moffle is a drill sergeant of a teacher he’s not unkind, and Shiina gradually acclimates to life at the park – and in school, as she realizes (well, OK, has to be told) that she’s no longer as shy and wallflowerish there, which stuns everyone. What’s more, the three mascots find her at the karaoke booth and learn her terrible secret: she’s a brilliant singer. But can she get over her introversion (still an issue despite everything) to save the Park? This was terrific. Shiin’a POV is great, there’s minimal Seiya, and the character growth all around made me smile.

That said, I wish it had been later in the book. As it is, the book feels very top-heavy. Still, it’s enough to keep me wanting to read more, if only to see if Seiya ever learns humility. (Joking about his being a tsundere is not quite enough, no.)

Nyankees, Vol. 1

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By Atsushi Okada. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Caleb Cook.

I was pretty excited when I heard about this license, despite never having heard of the title. I mean, stray cats depicted as delinquents in the classic “Japanese high school gang members” sort of way. It sounded hilarious and cute. Sadly, while it is cute when the cats are shown as cats, and there is an occasional joke that lands, this turns out to be a title that takes itself all too seriously. I get the sense that this is someone who wants to write delinquents rather than cats, and is therefore using the gimmick to tell the story he wants to tell. We haven’t had all that many successful delinquent manga in North America (have there been any?), so it’s also relying on a lot of tropes that are likely far more nostalgic and familiar to the Japanese reader. The premise is great, though, and the creator at least brings some nifty cat art to the title. It may get better as it goes along, but not a strong start.

The cat/hoodlum on the cover is Ryuusei, who is new to this neighborhood and cares not for all of your so-called “rules”. He’s here searching for the one-armed man… erm, sorry, for the calico tom with a scar on his eye that apparently has a past history with Ryuusei. In his new neighborhood, he looks like a pushover at first, not impressing the one female cat in the cast, Mii, and getting the crap kicked out of him by the other cats/gang members. But it turns out he was just starving, and once he gets food in him he actually kicks a lot of ass, including the gang leader, Taiga. In fact, he kicks so much ass that Taiga immediately wants to give up the leadership position to him. But it’s complicated. Ryuusei has his own thing that he’s doing, rival gangs are there to step in at any sign of weakness, and worst of all, Mii’s been kidnapped!

One thing I liked is the research that apparently went into the various kinds of cats the characters are. Our lead is a male dark tabby, pretty damn common, but the calico tom he’s looking for is quite rare, something mentioned by the others. The ‘stray cat = delinquent’ theme is sometimes amusing, as when we see the human-drawn Ryuusei get stuck in a box too small for his frame – though frankly the gag goes on far too long. And I hope you like cat puns, because they’re in here as well. Honestly, I don’t think they translate well, though at least Yen realized it had to keep the ‘nyan’ in ‘Nyankees’ to have it make sense. But honestly… at the end of the day, this is for delinquent manga fans, such as Worst. There’s the tough, rakish lead, the tomboy girl who slowly finds herself drawn to him, lots of fights, lots of guys acting tough. But they’re cats. Sometimes a girl chases after them, and they all scatter. I’m hoping the 2nd volume makes this either a bit less serious or a bit more cat-oriented.

Kokoro Connect: Kako Random

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By Sadanatsu Anda and Shiromizakana. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Molly Lee.

Kako Random stands for Random Past, and sure enough that’s what we get here – though not from Heartseed for once. A 2nd Heartseed has shown up, possessing Taaichi’s classmate, and later his sister, to explain what’s going on… well, sort of. They pretty much only explain that if Taichi says anything, it will get much, much worse. Then, at club, we find the members suddenly getting younger, at random, for a five hour period. It’s everyone except Taichi, and can be varying ages – including babies. Needless to say, this is far more inconvenient than the first two, and our heroes end up holing up in an abandoned building for several days to avoid families. Unfortunately, the regression also brings with it memories when the person returns, some of which are not always so welcome, especially when Aoki reveals that Yui, the girl he’s professed his love to multiple times, is very similar to a girl he used to date a couple of years ago. Is she just a replacement? And has he really moved on?

Aoki and Yui get some needed depth here, as we knew that if they were ever going to be a real couple sher was going to have to either acknowledge or reject his overtures. The series has been very good at showing Aoki as being not overly creepy about his love, and he has some serious reflection after the regressions start to happen and he’s reminded more and more of Nishino, the girl he once liked. As for Yui, the fact that Aoki might actually NOT be in love with her after all annoys her far more than she’d like to admit. This despite the fact that she’s also dealing with her fear of men coming to the fore again because of the unwanted memories… as well as memories of her martial arts, which are helped along by an old rival that shows up and is pissed off. These two were my favorite part of the book.

Taichi continues to be irritating, as you’d expect – his character development is something that’s going to be happening over the course of the series, so here he mostly hems and haws and worries about telling everyone the bad news. (Honestly, I think it’s a good thing he shut up – as does Inaba, once she realizes what’s going to happen.) The narrative oddly switches to Iori for its climax, as one of her old stepfathers has returned and is being abusive and awful. After reaffirming the power of friendship, and confronting her mother, who turns out to be very much like Iori, the resolution is almost comically easy – though I will admit fairly satisfying. As for Inaba, since she got development last time, here she mostly gets to show off how she’s opened up to everyone since the first book.

This remains an excellent light novel series, especially for those tired of isekais. Also, kudos to Molly Lee’s translation, which is consistently excellent.