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No Game No Life, Vol. 10

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Komen.

This volume begins with our heroes, [ ], having abdicated the throne (the country is now ruled by the business class, with Steph reduced to talking to potted plants – and Plum, who is about as helpful as one) and living life as sellers of medicine. In particular, their breast enhancer, although temporary, is quite popular. It also attracts the attention of the Dwarves, one of the few races we haven’t really dealt with yet, and they summon Sora and Shiro to their underground city to throw down. Fortunately, our heroes have a new dwarf ally, Tilvilg. Unfortunately, she lacks the natural genius ability that all dwarves have, and is somewhat beaten down that their answer to that seems to be “well, just keep trying anyway while we pity and belittle you”. Can Sora and Shiro show that her desire to see the sky is not merely a baseless fantasy? And, more importantly for the author, can they do it while throwing in so many references to boobs that the reader might throw up?

I will admit, when it comes to having your cake and eating it too, no one does it quite as well as Yuu Kamiya. This entire volume seems to be boob-obsessed, with both Chlammy (she and Fi are genuine allies in this book for once) and the dwarven leader Veig being particularly bad. And yet at the same time it goes out of its way to mock and belittle anyone who might have similar thoughts – Veig in particular dreams of the sort of pneumatic fantasy girl that only exists inside the head of virgins, something viciously pointed out by Sora. What’s more, his perverse behavior towards Tilvilg, which he brushes off as “I was drunk, it was a joke”, is noted to be “the top two excuses of male scum”. Kamiya fills his books with ludicrous and somewhat sickening fanservice… but also knows that’s all it is, and does not mistake it for anything else.

Steph does not have a large role in this book, but she is there, and her parts (as always) interested me the most. Once again, when asked to be a political thinker, she’s head and shoulders above the rest of the cast, and her confrontation with Emir-Einz, where she blackmails her into taking her to Sora and Shiro by threatening to disrupt the book’s fragile status quo, is brilliant. (It also shows that Steph is not as oblivious to her own feelings as it appears.) And, getting back to the book’s obsession with boobs once more, there’s a nice scene where Steph gets upset at the fact that Sora groped her when they first met, only for Jibril and Emir-Einz to call that “humblebragging”, pointing out to Steph that so far, of all the women in the entire series, Sora has only groped one by his own choice – her. The jealousy is searing.

In the end, of course, no one should be reading No Game No Life who is not already able to deal with its proclivities, and I’m not trying to say that they’re lessening – in fact, there was even more in this book. But the author is better at showing us the man behind the curtain, as we see that none of it really makes much of a difference in the end. This volume is about accepting your weaknesses, accepting that everyone is different, and going beyond the impossible. It’s also (not counting the unlicensed “Practical War Game” spinoff) the last book in the series to date, so we may have a while till we see Book 11.

Silver Spoon, Vol. 13

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By Hiromu Arakawa. Released in Japan as “Gin no Saji” by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

There’s always a careful balancing act that an author has to keep up when writing a character whose failures are hilarious. On the one hand, you can’t overegg the pudding – you need to contrast this hilarity with moments where they actually succeed. If done right, this can be extremely heartwarming. The first half of the manga deals with the equestrian competition, with Hachiken actually competing this time, and his “slow, steady and have fun” approach actually does pretty well, especially as it allows Mikage to dazzle. And of course the beauty of it is that it sets things up for the much larger stage where Hachiken again competes… and fails so badly that it turns into 20 pages of “lol”. You feel bad for him, but thinking as an author, the reason for this is obvious: Hachiken when he’s suffering is very, very funny. What’s more, there’s been less and less of that as he’s matured, so it’s nice to see he can still be a national laughingstock when appropriate.

Speaking of which, Hachiken, in his despair after doing so badly, wonders if Mikage won’t love him as he’s bad at horse racing. This is a callback to earlier in the book, when Mikage smiles as she recalls him saying he’ll ask her out after she passes her exams… then realizes that might mean if she fails, he won’t ask her out! Does he hate “stupid” girls? Now that the two of them have made it clear how they feel about each other, all that’s left is to actually get together. But it’s not as simple as that – they have goals to achieve first, Mikage’s father is watching Hachiken like a hawk, and his own father just seems to get in the way of any romantic resolution. What’s more, as the above jokes indicate, the two of them are still too insecure for a strong romantic relationship to happen. Mikage doesn’t need to pass her exams to date Hachiken – but it certainly would help her see herself as a success.

Elsewhere in the book, it’s pigs and pizza once again. I like the idea that the head of the school is willing to go the extra mile for these kids provided they can actually justify it as learning things and being educational. As a result – more pizza ovens! Which leads to a good competition where they try out various kinds of three-cheese pizza to see which one proves the most popular. Likewise, even in the midst of despair at his equestrian performance, he’s still able to do some pig research while in a different area of Japan (sadly, he finds that the pigs raised there would not do well in the northern climes of his school.) And, for once, there’s not even any long series of chapters devoted to butchering and slaughtering animals, so even the squeamish can enjoy this one.

We’re nearing the finish line for Silver Spoon, and I expect the next volume to mostly be about Mikage passing (or not) her exams. Will that also lead to romance? God, I hope so. I feel like Sakae – Just do it already!

An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, Vol. 9

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By Fuminori Teshima and COMTA. Released in Japan as “Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

As this series has gone on and become a reasonable success, the author has sensibly decided to widen its brief. As such, the “will they actually do anything?” parts get smaller and less relevant as time goes on. This is not to say that they’re absent, however, and we do get possibly the funniest moment in this volume when Zagan thinks that he and Nephy are literally cursed to never get closer to each other rather than, as everyone else around them can see, just being two socially awkward dorks in love. Still, at least the two of them share a honeymoon suite. That’s progress? And they sleep in each other’s arms, and call each other (as they are under cover) as “honey” and “dear”. But yeah, that’s all you’re going to get. Honestly, even Chastille and Barbatos make more progress in this book than Zagan and Nephy, who are adorable but really should grow up the teensiest bit. That said, they’re ahead of Shax, Mr. “I had your underwear in my pocket for a reason”.

The main thrust of the plot sees everyone converging on the Holy City for various reasons. That’s where Azazel’s Staff is, which is highly important to every single faction in the series. So we get the Angelic Knights, who don’t know much about it but know it should not fall into the wrong hands; Bifrons and Shere Khan, who have sent two minions to destroy the holy treasure room to get it; and Zagan and Nephy, who are actually there to try to find Orias, who might be able to help her cure Kuroka’s blindness, but end up looking for the staff as well. As you might imagine, there’s a lot of fighting towards the end of the book, mostly involving everyone attacking Zagan and his mopping the floor with them. That said, in the final battle against one of the stronger Angelic Knights, he has to use martial arts, rather than sorcery, to win. He regards this as a loss. Everyone else thinks he’s simply ridiculously overpowered.

It is amusing to see how many of the characters are leading double lives. There’s a traitor among the Angelic Knights, and you might briefly be worried for Chastille, but everyone agrees her alliance with Zagan is far too open and honest; she’s not tricky enough to be the real traitor. Then there’s Michael, who is secretly an Archdemon, but is also not the actual traitor. We also continue to get more insight on Alshiera, who continues to stay true to the course of “blond underage vampire mistress” in modern Japanese works, i.e. she’s pretending to be an irredeemable bad guy but really fits the caring mentor role better. And props to Foll, who is growing powerful enough to take on Bifrons and deal him actual damage. Our little dragon girl is growing up.

We’ve now caught up with Japan, as the 10th volume came out there two weeks ago, so it might be a bit till we get it here. Till then, though, this is a good, solid entry in the series, provided you don’t care that Zagan and Nephy are the most awkward couple ever – still.