Category Archives: reviews

Redefining the Meta at VRMMO Academy, Vol. 1

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By Hayaken and Hika Akita. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America by Sol Press. Translated by Benjamin Daughety.

I have lost track of the number of times, in writing reviews of light novels, that I have said “I’m not a gamer, but…”. So many LNs these days are built about RPG builds, RPG worlds, RPG fights, and the like. Most of them try to make at least a token effort towards appealing to non-gamer fans. Sometimes, like with stat-heavy series like Reincarnated As a Slime or Spider So What, it’s a very token effort. But we may have run across a series that I think is impossible to read if you aren’t very familiar with gaming. While reading this first volume, pages and pages of text went by with my staring at my phone and blinking. “What the hell?”, I would say, as the heroes would go on about tanks and getting your HP to the right level to trigger some event or attack. Far from the first volume of a light novel, this feels like a group just took their RPG log and put it on the page. And not even the main log. This would be the side log with all the chatter.

Our hero is Ren, who’s just arrived at a virtual high school that is entirely devoted to teaching game-obsessed students through the medium. Ren is already somewhat well-known for picking the lamest, weakest class in any game and finding ways to make it awesome. He’s done that here as well, as he’s a Symbologist, which has awful attack abilities and the support isn’t great either. He’s here because he promised his gaming pal Akira they’d go to high school together. But when they finally arrive, he’s startled to find that Akira, who played as a buff, burly dude, is actually a cute, busty girl! Together with her, the class president-ish Maeda, and extroverted “gal” Yuuna, they are here to level up, take out bosses, and also take classes when they have the time.

The series is… not without its good points. I was pleased to see that after the initial “Eeeeeeeh, Akira’s a girl?” reaction, Ren and Akira settled quickly into their old friendship (though he is not above taking advantage of her assets – he asks her to take the Sword Dancer class, which most girl gamers avoid as the costume is skimpy) and there’s no tension or fighting between them. When the four main characters aren’t gaming, the dialogue can be amusing and fun. Ren likes the female form, but does not openly perv on his companions or fall into them the way a typical shonen protagonist might. But man, 85% of this book is lines like “this class combines offensive and healing magic, but right now she can’t hit multiple enemies, and doesn’t have area-of-effect healing…” and I start to flip pages till I get to something actually happening.

If you’re a gamer who reads LNs, this is right up your alley, and the premise may interest you more than it does me. As for me, I liked the characters, but as long as they’re debuffing their hit points with MP sword equips, I think I’m going to have to pass.

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 19

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Kei Natsumi. Released in Japan in three separate volumes as “Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Twilight of the Golden Witch” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Stephen Paul.

I have made no secret on Twitter and in my previous review that there are aspects of this omnibus (and the original VN) that I dislike intensely. Basically, I’m not sure how much the reader (i.e. you and I, not Ange-as-Reader) is meant to side with Battler here. I get what Battler is trying to do. Ange at the start of this book is desperate to reunite with her family, to be there in 1986 when everything happened. Ange is suicidal. As such, Battler’s game is there for a very specific reason: he wants to show her that she’s been poisoned, to an extent, by what everyone now says about the “real story” in 1986. He wants to show her that the Ushiromiyas were not the most toxic family ever, that there were times they were happy and even (gasp!) got along. Which is fine. Happy Halloween Kinzo, though, really really makes me angry. We’re not Ange. We’re a reader who has just seen it shown that this is a man who abused his children, raped his daughter, and everything else. I don’t want Battler to be saying “no, Ange, he really loved his grandkids and you’re just remembering it wrong”, because that’s gaslighting, as he readily admits later. I hate it.

This is not to say that the omnibus is overall terrible – it’s actually overall very good. I just dislike that choice A LOT. But – Battler is up against Bernkastel, who presents her own game. Her own game is designed to be “what would make Ange suffer as much as possible”, so, leaving aside all the red truths and purple truths (yes, there’s purple now), readers who read Umineko for the character beats are not going to be fooled. Battler, of course, is. Even as a Game Master who knows the truth, he’s shockingly naive when it comes to Bernkastel, and Beatrice should know better as well. Of course, we now have even morre witches being added to the games willy nilly. There’s Erika Furudo, returned from being in Bern’s doghouse to be Ange’s guiding light. And there Eva-Beatrice, who we hadn’t seen in forever, there to protect Ange from those badmouthing her family. Which is what the real Eva did too. She just sort of also abused Ange while doing it.

Other good things. After all of the “yay, we’re all sweet and nice and no one fights ever!” crap, the party is a lot of fun. The visual novel had a quiz game, which could be somewhat tedious, and winning unlocked various scenes. Here we don’t need to unlock things, so it becomes a game of hide and seek. Unlike Kinzo’s frivolity, I felt these were well-handled, particularly Natsuhi’s torment over Beatrice and Beatrice’s acceptance of it, and Rudolf finally – FINALLY – telling Kyrie the truth about Battler’s parentage. The second “party”, which allows for all the fantasy characters to attend, is riotous, and also lets Lion and Will return, having been rescued from certain death by Lambdadelta, who wanted to see the look on Bern’s face when she found out. (Note Lambda is once again happy to hang out with Battler and Beatrice, but also happy to be on Bern’s side during the game. She’ll need to make a real choice sooner or later.)

As a manga, this is very good, making the visual novel more interesting and adding things that weren’t there originally for greater depth (Rosa’s recollection of her own doll being destroyed – though I note even in the happiest, most idealized of worlds Rosa is still hitting her daughter). The issues I have are with Ryukishi07’s choices to present this to Ange as “this is true, you just remembered it wrong”, which leaves a foul taste in the mouth. In any case, next time, can Battler and the rest stop Ange from finding Eva’s diary? Will Ange learn the truth in the game world or from Hachijo? And will Erika ever stop being smug? (OK, we know the answer to that last one.) Tune in next time to see.

Tsukimonogatari: Possession Tale

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By NISIOISIN and VOFAN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Daniel Joseph.

I am occasionally asked by those who have seen the Monogatari Series anime if it is worth getting the novels. SHAFT has done a decent job of adapting the series, and many of its eccentricities are more beloved than the original book (lampshaded here, as Araragi notes that the bathroom in their house is not nearly as grand as the anime made it out to be). In fact, as this was being written, Nisemonogatari had just finished, and Nisioisin’s self-deprecation comes into play here, as there are many “the anime’s over now” comments, and he asks for alarm clocks to wake him with the sounds of Karen and Tsukihi’s voice actors. The anime, of course, was nowhere near over. But back to my original question… You should read the books if you like words. Playing with words, extemporizing endlessly, dancing around what you really want to say, and hitting the fourth wall with a sledgehammer. The Monogatari novels do not let the reader simply coast along and take in the plot. Which is good, as the plot in this particular book is almost absent.

Yotsugi and her master are on the cover of this book, and technically Yotsugi is the “star”. It’s worth noting, though, that the book begins with what might be termed a “sequel” to Nekomonogatari Black, as Araragi and Tsukihi spend about fifty pages trying to verbally one-up each other as they compete to see who takes the bath first, then compromise and bathe together. As I said earlier, Nisemonogatari had just aired its anime, and I imagine the “toothbrush” scene had become the meme that it still is today. So there’s lots of “I don’t love my sister that way, but” stuff here, which would be far more annoying if the two involved weren’t bantering up a storm throughout. The main thrust of the plot, though, comes when Araragi looks in a mirror while bathing and notices… he doesn’t have a reflection. He seeks out advice form Kagenui, who informs him that he’s been abusing his “sorta vampire” powers so much – especially when he let Sengoku kill him over and over again for a month – that he’s almost a full vampire again.

This is not a problem that’s easily resolved, which is good as this is the first book of the “Final Season”, which is meant to wrap up the series as a whole. (It does not remotely do this.) By the end of the book, Araragi is not magically “cured”, and the one thing he can do going forward is simply stop using said powers as a crutch. Naturally, the moment he resolves to do this, his sisters and Kanbaru are kidnapped by a villain with so little presence that he even comments on the fact, saying that he and Araragi have been set up to have a villainous confrontation. Could there be someone pulling the strings? Readers who have been following the last three books have pretty much thought “it’s Ogi, isn’t it?”, and it certainly looks so here too, as she confronts Araragi just before he goes to save the day and talks about her own nature a bit. There’s also a rather dark and startling solution to the problem, meant to drive a wedge between Araragi and Yotsugi.

Even for a series as wordy as Monogatari, this was pretty damn wordy, and you should obviously only read it after the other books. As for what happens next, we’ll have to wait till the fall to find out, as over the summer we have the traditional short story volume – or volumes, as the case may be.