Category Archives: reviews

No Game No Life, Vol. 8

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Komen.

It’s a No Game No Life volume, so you sort of know what you’re going to get by now. A lot of faffing around and being stupid and/or appalling while Steph (and the reader) tries to figure out what Sora and Shiro are thinking. Sora being reprehensibly perverted, and honestly I think him being a cowardly virgin deep down makes it MORE annoying. The fact that this is a writer who writes awkward prose in Japanese being translated awkwardly into English, meaning sometimes you have to go reread the previous paragraph to figure out what was just said. In amongst this, however, there are the usual good things lurking near the bottom, including a good discussion of war games vs. actual war, and the “villain” of the book, whose road towards becoming more emotional in her constant inquisitiveness is a good one in the end. And Steph. Steph is always good, though you have to put up with her being constantly belittled by everyone in the world.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Sora and Shiro (and Steph) being forced to replicate the last War and understand how it was resolved. This is, of course, impossible, mostly as, despite the obvious attempts by the narrator to make us think it in Book 6, Sora and Shiro are not Riku and Schwi, nor can they be. More to the point, as Sora point out, there’s a big difference between a game of war and war in reality: a game ends. When you “win” in war, you have to think about what happens next, unlike your typical game of Axis and Allies. Moreover, while this is going on on Old Deus’ gaming board, the remaining players are all trying to betray each other in the real world, which doesn’t go well. For anyone. And then there’s the matter of the traitor who was mentioned before, which is actually one of the subplots I felt was handled quite well.

In any case, by the end of the book we have what appears to be a new regular, and we also have some old “friends”, Chlammy and Fiel, who are also going to be hanging around now that Sora has, in effect, ruined their lives. Steph helped, and possibly my favorite moment in the book was when she looked away guiltily – but not that guiltily. Steph may dislike Sora’s perversions – I do as well – but she gets how he thinks, and was the first to point out a major aspect of [ ]’s gaming strategy, as well as Tet’s, which is to have fun. A lesson that everyone else in the cast, as well as many “serious” gamers in real life, could use. Of course, now that we’ve resolved this plot another is coming, as we appear to be gearing up for another invasion by …German robots?

As ever, No Game No Life remains intensely frustrating and annoying (everything about the elves in the war game was appalling and awful, and I don’t care that it was deliberately so), and it’s genuinely difficult to read at times. But there are moments when you can see the talent of the author shine though, and they’re excellent. Mildly recommended.

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 1

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By Kamome Shirahama. Released in Japan as “Tongari Boushi no Atelier” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Morning Two. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Stephen Kohler.

With a title like this, it’s tempting to leave the review at (flailing around) PRETTY!, which is certainly true, but there’s more to the title than the art – the story is also quite compelling, and I’m enjoying the characters. That said, boy is it pretty. I suspect most people were drawn to it by the cover, and the inside is even better. This is a world of magic, though at first our heroine doesn’t seem to have any. But there are magic pools and the like. And there are witches, who are both male and female here. Coco desperately wishes she was a witch, but doesn’t seem to have the power, despite having been sold a mysterious magical book at a fair years ago by a mysterious masked stranger, something that is completely not suspicious at all. So you can imagine her delight when a real witch shows up one day, and she gets to observe how magic is made. The delight has consequences, though…

For the most part, this is a title filled with whimsy and wonder, and Coco is a bubbly, happy hero. I say for the most part because the circumstances that lead to her becoming a witch are creepy and scary, and essentially a child’s worst nightmare. Fortunately the witch from the earlier chapter is able to help her, and she gets taken away to magic school to essentially start starring in Harry Potter. She gets a few new friends, and also a roommate who really does not like her, in the best boarding school tradition. Most of this volume hinges on the fact that Coco has absolutely no training in this sort of thing whatsoever, and things that are common knowledge to all witches are new to her. This allows the reader to receive an explanation, of course, but also helps to show off how Coco seems to be a prodigy as well – she soaks up the information quickly, and can extricate herself from life-threatening situations.

The rest of the cast is not as fleshed out as Coco, but it’s a good start. Mostly we focus on Qifrey and Agott. Qifrey seems to be the sort of pleasant mentor who will have a bit of a dark side later on, sort of like Dumbledore (well, hopefully not THAT much like Dumbledore). Agott makes the stronger impression, and it’s not a good one at first, with the line “such a shame about your mother” wriggling with unspoken contempt. Agott and Coco are meant to contrast heavily, and Agott is also clearly meant to be the favored student who gets shown up straight away by the new girl. Will they eventually bond as friends? Not sure, but things aren’t looking good right now, as Agott sends Coco out on a deadly test and does not seem to be punished for it at all.

So, to sum up: magical fantasy, spunky young protagonist, rivals and companions, a mysterious past, and excellent artwork. It’s a terrific start to a series.

Durarara!!, Vol. 12

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By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Around about the time that Shizuo is seen to punch a forklift out of the way, it struck me that he is one of the most beloved characters in DRRR!! solely because it is set in “reality”. Now, it’s an urban fantasy, but you know what I mean. If Shizuo were a NEET who died and was transported into the world of DRRR!!, it would be appalling. He’d be the most overpowered male power fantasy imaginable. Heck, he even got a love triangle (of a sort) devoted to him a few volumes ago. All we lack are monsters… oh wait. This whole volume explores one of the series’ main themes, which is what makes a monster and what makes a human. Celty spends almost the entire book in a state of pure emotional rage, not even remotely resembling a human being. Anri is still (always) thinking that she doesn’t think or feel the way “humans” do. And then there’s Izaya, who finds the idea of Shizuo offensive, but let’s face it, is the most monstrous of them all.

Getting back to Anri, the scenes with her and Saki are some of my favorites in the series, if only as the whole thing is so anticlimactic. Saki arrives trying to gauge if Anri is a threat. Why wouldn’t she? Masaomi talks about her constantly, she’s cute, and is literally defined in the DRRR!! universe by her large breasts. But of course Anri is a sweetie-pie with no self-esteem, and once Saki gets that everything gets more relaxing. Anri also takes a large step forward by being the first of the trio of friends to actually break their “agreement” – she asks Saki to tell her about Masaomi’s past. Given that said agreement has only hurt everyone involved, I have to approve. Of course, Anri is still hiding some things (Saika is not brought up in front of Saki), but it’s still a step forward, and might lead to her making a big emotional leap forward.

Narita confessed in the afterword that this was meant to be the final volume and it got too long, which is not a surprise – there’s no more setup in this book, and though there are strings of long conversations as always, they’re not there to drop hints for the future. Haruna’s teacher is trying his hardest to become the Big Bad of the series, using Saika to possess half of Ikebukuro and create a “zombie attack”, but I suspect his chances of making us respect him are nonexistent. We’re far more interested in the final fight between Izaya and Shizuo, triggered by Izaya’s attempt to kill Shizuo accidentally injuring Vorona. The fact that Izaya is finally going to try to kill Shizuo is mentioned several times in the book by various groups and people, and they all have the same reaction: Izaya is going to commit suicide. Given that the two rarely confront each other in the novels, I expect the fight to be epic.

Oh yes, and Mikado’s got a gun, so things ain’t never gonna be the same. I didn’t talk about Mikado at all this book, but given that I suspect the 13th and final volume will revolve around him, it’s best to save something for later. Till then, enjoy a very good DRRR!!, though I’d sort of like it if Anri’s breasts weren’t a separate character of their own (complete with the usual “lol, molestation is funny!” interior art).