Category Archives: reviews

Re: ZERO ~Starting Life in Another World~, Vol. 24

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By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan as “Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

I had assumed, since the end of the last volume was one of those “I have been a dumbass for a while but now I have turned the corner and am fighting back” endings, that there might be a bit less Return by Death in this book. Hardly. All that means is that the deaths are not “Subaru dies by being an idiot” but are instead “Subaru dies as he tries to figure out how to escape a damn near impossible situation”. Which means going through everything bit by bit and breaking it down into manageable chunks. but it does mean that this book is pretty exhausting, and features a lot of the cast getting their asses handed to them, as well as a lot of supposed allies turning out to be secret antagonists – though honestly, the latter should not be too surprising to a reader who is paying attention. This book is all the detective work, and the payoff will presumably be next time.

Subaru, now determined to fight back, goes back to square one and confesses to all that he’s lost his memories. He’s already worked out how he died the first time, by being pushed off the staircase, and solves that fairly quickly. The next step is to try to find Reid Astrea’s book in the Library, so that they can read his memories in hopes of finding a weakness – what killed him, for a start. Unfortunately, that ends up going badly, as when Subaru goes into Reid’s book he instead finds… another Gluttony. This one is named Louis (pronounced the French way), and she almost manages to break Subaru entirely before he’s saved by the least likely savior out there… and also the most likely, let’s face it. Unfortunately, they now have multiple Gluttonies running around, Reid running amuck, and that pesky killer scorpion. What’s up with that, anyway?

There are many amazing fight scenes in this, which the author has started to specialize in. This arc in particular continues to be a gift for Emilia fans, and that’s despite the fact that she (in one loop) gets her identity eaten by Gluttony. A fight that ends with her sneaking up behind Lye (Gluttony #2) and hitting him with a giant ice hammer while yelling “Sneak Up And WHAM” is possibly in my top five moments in the entire series. There’s also Subaru doing what he does best, which is rallying the troops and getting them to do what they do best… though sometimes even that isn’t enough. It all comes to a head in the final scene of the book, when he confronts Shaula and gets her to admit what she’s been hiding and why. It’s a very sympathetic reason – tearjerking, even – but honestly, I suspect that she’s absolutely correct and knows it. And that’s why she’s breaking down.

The next book is the final book in this arc, and I suspect it will need to be a much longer volume in order to fix everything up. Till then, this was a solid volume, and had a minimal amount of Subaru being a dumbass, which is always my measuring stick for how enjoyable it is.

Sasaki and Peeps: An Unidentified Flying Object from Outer Space Arrives and Earth Is Under Attack! ~The Extraterrestrial Lifeform That Came to Announce Mankind’s End Appears to Be Dangerously Sensitive~

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By Buncololi and Kantoku. Released in Japan as “Sasaki to Pi-chan” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse.

One of the tropes of this series, which is not exactly welcome but I’ve been able to deal with it, is that Sasaki is a main character, in his late 20s/early 30s, who accumulates either underage girls or girls who look like underage girls, some of whom are either in love or dangerously obsessed with him. This is brought home once more in this volume, when he shows up at Hoshizaki’s apartment and her younger sister notes that he now has ANOTHER underage girl with him, and, very sensibly, feels she cannot trust him around her sister. As such, I appreciate Sasaki’s narration spelling out that, even if he’s not explicitly asexual, that he is at least totally uninterested in sex with anyone right now. This is not going to reassure the younger sister, nor is it stopping Elsa from being engaged to him (which happens here), but it at least assures the READER. The author is here to jam pack this story with as many genres as possible, but harem is not near the top.

Picking up where the last book left off, there’s a UFO that the entire world are dealing with, and Sasaki, Hoshizaki and Futarishizuka are assigned to do something about it. As it turns out, a lot of groups have made their way to the alien, and are being quizzed – and then rejected. Unfortunately, thanks to Hoshizaki trying to define the word “lonely”, the alien realizes that she’s suddenly overcome with that feeling, and decides to try to destroy the Earth because she can’t handle it. Fortunately, this does not happen, mostly as the alien (who is basically “robot girl” for the sake of the tropes, and is called Type Twelve) gloms on to both Hoshizaki and Kurosu, the neighbor girl, who are trying to help her make friends and find happiness when she has no concept of such things. Boy, sure hope one of them doesn’t get kidnapped by bad guys, that would ruin everything…

Since my last review, we’ve had the anime of Sasaki and Peeps, and it was… OK, I guess. It’s getting a second series, though that’s mostly out of necessity given the nature of the plot. One complaint I saw was that the neighbor girl was pointless, and, well, yeah, none of her stuff becomes relevant till Book 3, so of course she is. Because Sasaki and Peeps is a genre mashup, in general the more genres it mashes the better. And this volume has almost everything, with the fantasy isekai aspect being the only one getting short shrift here. Alien robot girl searching for emotions and super powerful is not the most original of ideas, but originality is the opposite of what this series needs. Everyone gets to do cool things. Futarishizuka gets to be an adorable asshole. Hoshizaki is tsundere. Neighbor Girl (look, he doesn’t call her Kurosu so why should I?) is still terrible at social interaction. Sasaki is a bit of a narrative blank (Futarishizuka calls him “flaccid”, which, ouch), but I can deal with it. We want to see what crazy thing will happen next. That’s that point of the series.

Next time we might see the “island cut off from communication” trope, which should be fun. Till then, enjoy all the cute girls and be reassured Sasaki has no interest in any of them.

A Misanthrope Teaches a Class for Demi-Humans, Vol. 2

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By Kurusu Natsume and Sai Izumi. Released in Japan as “Jingai Kyōshitsu no Ningen-girai Kyōshi: Hitoma-sensei, Watashi-tachi no Kibo o Mitsukete Kuremasu ka……?” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Linda Liu.

This is the sort of series where you can call the second volume “more of the same” and have it be a good thing. We’re here for very specific things. We want to see new students trying their best to become human, and we also want to see Hitoma, despite everything, be a really great teacher who is slowly regaining his faith in humanity. We’ve still got the three students from before, and now we add three, which gives us a lovely opportunity to dig into why these girls want to become human. Sometimes it’s pretty easy, like Minazuki and her desire to be a dancer (she’s still graduated, by the way, and doesn’t show up in this second book). Sometimes it’s harder, like Usami, whose goals have gotten so large that they’re almost impossible to achieve. And sometimes they’re… well, done to please someone else. And that forms the crux of the most interesting part of this book.

As noted, there are three new students in the classroom this year. Karin Ryuzaki is a dragon girl who has fallen in love with her teacher at first sight, and is determined to confess – despite the obvious issues with a student teacher romance. Machi Nezu is a mouse girl with an obsession with food and also an obsession with her little sister, who is in the lower grade of the school. And Neneko Kurosawa is a cat girl who seems to sleep most of the time and be relatively uninterested in class when she’s forced awake. When asked why she wants to be human, she replies at first that it’s a secret, then later that it’s someone else’s desire. But Neneko has a bigger secret, one that will severely impact her time at this school: she doesn’t actually want to become human at all.

The other girls do also get attention paid to them. We now know Haneda’s secret, of course, so she has a larger role than usual. Usami is trying harder than ever, but at least is allowed a bit of closure from her previous life. And Ohgami is… well, I hesitate to say that she’s the weak link. Her story is touching and feels earned. But I get the sense she graduated mostly as the author had run out of things to do with her. We don’t even see the “split” that is supposed to allow both aspects of her to pursue separate human lives, it’s all implied. Bit of a bummer. By contrast, Neneko’s story is the most interesting, being a companion of a witch who is at risk of becoming a yokai rather than a human. But she’d rather deal with that than deal with being separated from the one she cares for, and I like that she’s able to get that across and that they’re searching for a solution.

The book ends with a cliffhanger that makes me wonder if it will end in the next volume, as it certainly promises to wrap up Hitoma’s past trauma. But the 3rd book in the series only came out a few days ago in Japan, so it will be a while. Till then, this is good fun and heartwarming.