Category Archives: reviews

Koyomimonogatari: Calendar Tale, Part 01

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

This originally came out in Japan as one giant volume, but I totally understand why Vertical has decided to break it in half. The Monogatari books feel long and wordy enough as it is with their 280-300 pages per volume, but this one would be around 500, and that’s just too exhausting. That said, it does present a bit of a dilemma in that I feel the book is meant to be appreciated as a whole. Without spoiling the second volume, there is a very definite cliffhanger to this book, and it puts everything we read before into stark relief. But we don’t have that, so it has to be said: this feels meandering even for a Monogatari volume. Being a short story volume, even less is “happening” per se, so you’re entirely dependent on the conversations. Which is fine, as honestly dialogue is why we’re reading NISIOISIN in the first place. If you like snark, these stories will give it to you in spades. There’s also some nice foreshadowing here, as most of them take place at or near the start of the series.

“Koyomi” is not only Araragi’s first name, but also the word for “calendar”. The conceit of this volume is that we get twelve short stories, one for each month of the year. They start in April, immediately after the events in Kizumonogatari but before Nekomonogatari Black, and move forward in the timeline from there. Each story has Araragi conversing with one of the female leads, in the order he met them (not counting Shinobu/Kissshot). They serve as an examination of each heroine’s story (particularly in Sengoku’s case), but are also about the fact that, despite what you may think, not everything that Araragi happens across happens to be related to the supernatural. There are several puzzling things in this book that turn out to have ordinary, prosaic meanings – as is normally the case. Usually it’s NOT the immortal vampire.

Naturally, each story ends up sounding like its heroine, to a degree. Senjogahara’s is filled with caustic banter between two kids who agreed to date the other day but have no idea how to actually be a couple. Kanbaru’s has another cleanup of her messy room, is filled with innuendo, and has probably the best ending of the book, if only as it sounds perfectly in character. Sengoku’s has an ominous tone to some of it, taking place after her first arc but before her second, and hinting at events to come. The weakest stories in the book are probably the first and the last ones – Hanekawa before all her character development just comes across as Ms. Exposition, and Karen is simply not nearly as interesting as her brother and younger sister. Oh yes, one minor translation quibble – why is everyone cursing in this book? Normally I gloss over that sort of thing, but there sure are a lot of shits and fucks in here. When it’s Araragi it doesn’t jar as much, but Hanekawa saying “bullshit” does jar quite a bit, especially pre-Nekomonogatari Hanekawa.

This is a decent slice of Monogatari life, and will make the reader happy, but honestly if you can I would advise putting it off and reading it with its second part.

The Irregular at Magic High School: Double Seven Arc

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By Tsutomu Sato and Kana Ishida. Released in Japan as “Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

The author states in the afterword that this was written to be serialized in Dengeki Bunko’s magazine, rather than as a stand-alone novel, and apologizes for its sloppiness. It’s certainly sloppy – its saving grace is that for once it wasn’t split into two for length, because as a two-volume set this would have been unbearable. On the downside, this means that this is an incredibly long volume where almost nothing happens. There are rumblings of a plot in the background involving the media attacking magicians, and there is foreshadowing of future events. For the most part, though, this book functions to start second year for Tatsuya and Miyuki, and to introduce the new freshman who will be semi-regulars going forward. Chief among whom are the twins on the cover, Mayumi’s little sisters Kasumi and Izumi. The title of the arc comes from them – “Saegusa” has ‘seven’ in its family name, and they are twins, hence ‘Double Seven’.

The twins are not the only new regulars introduced. We also meet Takuma Shippou, who is essentially Shinji from Fate/Stay Night without a sister to abuse. He’s meant to be unlikeable, and he certainly is – reading scenes with him was like eating glass. It will be interesting to see if he actually matures or if he stays an antagonist – Mahouka tends to fall into “you’re either with Tatsuya or against him” character dynamics, and I suspect any maturity might take a long while. There’s also Minami Sakurai, who has moved into the Shiba home to be Miyuki’s protector. Given that’s basically Tatsuya’s job, there’s more going on here, and I suspect it will play out in future books. Sadly, she’s a nonentity here, though I do give her credit for being against the Tatsuya/Miyuki ship – she’d be very happy if Tatsuya hooked up with Mayumi. (As would Mayumi, come to think of it.) Oh yes, and we also meet Kent Smith… erm, sorry, Kento Sumisu (his mother, Jennifer Smith, is a teacher at the school, so I can only assume he’s romanized this way as Tatsuya hasn’t made the connection), who seems to be Saika Totsuka from Oregairu transported to this universe.

The school has invented a new Magical Engineering course so that Tatsuya doesn’t have to put up with the “first/second” prejudice for another year. (Note that the first and second classes are still around, but sine the new freshman don’t involve Tatsuya, we don’t get to see if any of them are bullied.) It also has a couple of magical duels to attempt to solve arguments – one between Shippou and the twins, the other between Shippou and his upperclassman. This allows the author to do what he loves best, which is lovingly describe the magic system he’s invented in terms that make it sound like cook science instead of cool magic. To be fair, he is pretty good at this, and I imagine this would be a treat animated. Oh yes, and we get the highlight of the book – and possibly the entire series – when Tatsuya dresses as Batman for one of his espionage missions. No, really, there’s a picture.

It feels like I’m reading this series out of habit now. You know things are bad when I get excited at the prospect of a tournament arc, as the next volume seems to be. Till then, enjoy the new cast members being introduced over the course of a lot of pages but not making nearly as much of an impression as our stoic Batman.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Upheaval

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By Yoshiki Tanaka. Released in Japan as “Ginga Eiyū Densetsu” by Tokuma Shoten. Released in North America by Haikasoru. Translated by Matt Treyvaud.

Yang Wen-Li may be dead but Legend of the Galactic Heroes goes on, even if Yang’s ghostly presence hangs over much of this volume. Julian is trying to do things the way he thinks Yang would have wanted to, even to the point of hearing Yang’s dialogue in his head. He’s still got revenge on his mind, but it has to take a backseat. Much to his frustration, the fight against the Empire also has to take a back seat – he has in mind now trying to get the Empire to become more of a parliamentary democracy, but that’s a long-term plan, and also unlikely to happen with Reinhard in power. So Iserlohn is placed in a bit of stasis this volume, with its most dramatic decision being that of letting the Empire’s fleet pass by unmolested so that it can attack von Reuentahl’s fleet, as the long-foreshadowed rebellion is finally upon us. Oh well, at least it looks like he might be getting a tsundere girlfriend soon.

The “rebellion” is interesting, as it’s a setup, von Reuentahl knows it’s a setup, and yet he goes along with it anyway, partly as he’s fairly sure he wouldn’t be believed if he denied it but partly because, without Yang there to be the noble enemy, there’s nothing really stopping von Reuentahl from attacking the next best military genius – Reinhard. Of course, the joke is on him, as for once Reinhard allows himself to take a back seat and let Mittermeier handle things. They go about as well as you could expect, which is to say very badly for von Reuentahl, who can’t even bleed to death quietly in his office without being presented with his newborn child, the product of yet another love affair. This leads to one of the most bittersweet moments in the series, as a dying von Reuentahl asks the child be raised by childless Mittermeier and his wife. I wish it hadn’t gone this far, but at least there’s some good coming from it. Oh yes, and Trunicht was finally killed. That was great, he deserved it.

The book is not all doom and gloom, though it is mostly serious as always. After being verbally attacked for the massacre that happened about 7 books ago, Reinhard is in a mood and feeling depressed, and asks Hilda to stay the night with him. We don’t see the love scene that follows (though it’s made clear that they’re both dorky ignorant virgins, so it can’t have been that breathtaking), but we do get the aftermath, with Hilda fleeing back home saying “WTF have I done?” and Reinhard immediately showing up to propose. This whole section is actually very funny, and it’s nice to see Reinhard as a lover is about 1/100th as successful as Reinhard the military genius. That said, Hilda is “lucky” enough to get pregnant after this one-night stand, so after taking care of his little rebellion Reinhard proposes again, and this time Hilda accepts. Like most LOGH romances, this has been both obvious and incredibly slow burning, so is very satisfying to finally see.

The main story ends with the 10th and final volume next time. (There are more books with additional stories, but it’s not clear if those will be licensed.) With its huge cast getting smaller and smaller, what fresh new deaths await? Or can we finally achieve peace?