Monthly Archives: November 2019

Full Metal Panic!: Ending Day by Day, Part 1

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By Shouji Gatou and Shikidouji. Released in Japan by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

Welp, it’s another of those “I tried to make it fit into one book but it got away from me so have a two-parter” books, meaning this volume is VERY short by modern light novel standards. That’s not to say that there is not a lot going on in it, however. The title implies the end of the status quo, and that’s not a lie. After a first half that’s mostly action sequence, Sousuke is told that he’s being pulled off of Kaname bodyguard duty and sent back to finally figure out how to bond with the Arbalest that he’s been not-so-secretly grumbling about. This upsets Sousuke, who takes it out on Tessa, who in turn takes out her own spurned love on him. And in the meantime poor Kaname is left baffled and afraid. But really, this is Sousuke’s book, as he’s forced to confront a question that he’d never really thought of before now: what does he want to do with his life? As a child soldier who can die anytime, this never came up. It does now.

Sousuke and Kaname spend almost the entire book apart, but it’s telling that two of the best scenes involve the two of them. The first is hilarious, as Kaname, back at school, is on the phone with Sousuke trying to see how he’s doing, and Sousuke (in an overloaded car running from the Sicilian mob, which I suspect is a Lupin III homage) is answering as best he can whi8le avoiding explosions. The second is sweeter, where, after a disastrous attempt at getting a haircut at a salon goes south, Kaname offers to cut Sousuke’s hair. This shows off how much he trusts her now, and is really sweet, but also leads to darker things. Kaname has two bodyguards, one “hidden”, and the other bodyguard, in Sousuke’s opinion, has been incompetent. “Wraith”, the hidden bodyguard, also seems to hold Sousuke in contempt. In fact, Sousuke is rather untrusting of most of Mithril at the moment.

Which may not be a bad idea, as the reader (and Tessa) go from last volume’s “there was a mole or two in our ranks” to “are half our ranks and our entire intelligence system filled with enemies”? It’s well handled, as the decision to recall Sousuke is both a good one (he really does need to bond with his AI, it’s become a real problem) and also highly suspicious. (Honestly, I’m amazed Kaname wasn’t kidnapped IMMEDIATELY after this happens, but they seem to be ramping up her own paranoia as well.) It also leads to the final “best scene in the book”, the frustrating screaming match between Sousuke and Tessa that reminds you that no matter how brilliant these kids are they probably should not be in major paramilitary anti-terrorist organizations. It doesn’t help that Sousuke is still clueless about Tessa’s feelings.

So everything is set up to blue up in the next book, which should have more action adventure and lots more angst. Is Sousuke’s new commander *another* enemy agent? Is Kaname’s hidden bodyguard an enemy agent? Is the nice general Tessa used to work for an enemy agent? It’s hard to tell who the good guys are anymore. Well, Kaname’s good. We have that.

Toradora!, Vol. 7

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By Yuyuko Takemiya and Yasu. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Will Holcomb.

Despite the fact that it’s a Christmas volume, and it does feature the two leads realizing (if only to themselves) that they are in love, this is one of the more emotional, gut-wrenching volumes in a series that usually wears its heart on its sleeve to begin with. The premise involves the class (with Taiga now back after her two-week suspension) coming up with a Christmas party idea, helped along by Kitamura, who is newly popular after his very public confession and rejection. Sadly, Minorin is in a massive funk, refuses to talk to Ryuuji, and also says she won’t be at the party. Taiga decides that this is absolutely the time when she will finally get the two of them together, and pulls out all the stops to do so… only realizing after a visit from “Santa” that this isn’t what she wants at all. Meanwhile, Ami is merely sad that she arrived in the second book, too late to do anything about our tortured couple.

The astute reader knows why Minorin is in a funk, of course, as she too sees what Taiga and Ryuuji do not. Ami is merely somewhat melancholic about coming in second, though, Minorin is devastated – the narrative not helping things by having her errant foul ball destroy the class’s Christmas tree in a metaphor from hell. The final cliffhanger scene of the book is well-written but terrible – Minorin’s choice, and callback to the fourth book, is absolutely wrong and will be very bad for her. Speaking of Ami, she tries a bit here – her “you’re like her father” metaphor would work very well if Taiga and Ryuuji were not the endgame, but it obviously is so it’s wrong. I admit that I do find the leads’ codependency a bit worrying, but it’s obvious to literally everyone by now that they can’t live without each other.

Then there’s Taiga’s “good girl” act this book, as well as her discussion of Santa Claus. No question, the middle part of the book, with Taiga and Ryuuji at the post office, is one of the two highlights of the whole thing, showing off how far the palmtop tiger has come from just being a ball of rage and the loneliness – and desire to erase other’s loneliness. It allows Ryuuji to realize just how much his life revolves around her now. The other highlight is, of course, Ryuuji’s desperate run back to the apartment to be Taiga’s Santa – something she knows immediately, of course, but buys into anyway. It’s unbelievably sweet and lovely, and makes her emotional devastation after he leaves to go find Minorin even harsher. (I wonder why he was hospitalized afterwards and she wasn’t, given she ran into the cold in bare feet? Possibly he spent the entire night just staring into the air and losing core temperature.)

So yes, we are reaching peak realization. Sadly, everything is terrible as a result. We’ve got three more books till the end, so I know we can’t fix everything in Book 8, but can we at least fix something? This was a fantastic book, and hurts so good.

Infinite Dendrogram: After the Storm, and Before the Storm

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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.

We’re taking a bit of a break from the main plot here, as we get what Dendrogram had not yet had to date: a short story collection. It’s bookended by various aftermath stories involving Ray and the past couple of books. Ray starts college properly and deals with the hurricane that is Tsukuyo, and also cleans up after the crisis in Quartierlatin. Both of these things involve B3, though the latter is somewhat more amusing as it reinforces the cluelessness of Ray as a harem lead. It’s not entirely amusing, though, as we’re reminded of another reason that Azurite hates Masters, and it goes all the way back to the first couple of books. There’s also some suggestion of future plot points, as a technical master – who we’ve met before, in a different context – finds something that might actually help the beleaguered kingdom out for once. But for the most part this book is about the short stories, which, as you might imagine, vary in quality. That said, there are no real duds in here.

The first story gives us a description of what life is like in one of the other countries, this one essentially based on Edo Japan, meaning there is no peace, just all fighting and alliances shifting all the time. A group of rather sad villains try to take advantage of this, and are humiliated. This bookends nicely with the final story of the book, in which we see more about life in the gaol, featuring Gerbera, who we’d met before but is busy sitting around the coffeeshop within it and being bitter. This is a fun story, partly as the King of Crime is basically another of those really calm, placid guys who is secretly unkillable and also because Gerbera’s POV is fun, especially her broken sense of her own power. Less successful were stories about Logan, the villain from the last two books, which is actually successful in a plot way but I also sort of hate “villain recruits villains” stories, and a Valentine’s Day story that is about a very very spurned woman beating up people in love, and is funny if you like that sort of character.

The best story in the book is also the longest, as usually seems to be the case with short story volumes. It’s mostly from the POV of Hugo, who is looking for new experiences and so heads off to a desert casino sort of country currently run by the not-Chinese not-mafia. Now that we know the actual identities of Hugo and Franklin, we can really get into Hugo’s head a lot more (it also means we get more of Cyco, who is awesome). The new character we meet here is AR-I-CA, who is so over the top that for a moment I thought the revelation would be that she’s Ray and Shu’s oft-mentioned but never seen older sister, That doesn’t seem to be the case, but she’s certainly a lot of fun – and also actively bisexual, something you don’t normally see in a light novel, or at least not this blatantly. This story also has hits of future plot, but it’s also a hell of a lot of fun.

It will be even longer till we get back to the main action, apparently, as the 11th volume will be a prequel taking place before Ray joined. Still, this should tide over Dendrogram fans nicely as they wait for the upcoming anime.