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The Asterisk War: Idol Showdown

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

I must admit, of all the minor characters introduced in the last book when Ayato toured the festivals, I was not expecting the comic relief idol band to be the most important. Yet here we are, with said band trying to shame Ayato for being a clueless harem protagonist, getting into fights with other, more delinquent contestants, discovering secret underground battle rings, and taking on our heroes in the final part of the book. Actually, possibly the most interesting part of their story is the fact that their weapon is so powerful, even divided into five bits, that it literally makes them more eccentric and difficult. They have weaponized being cloud cuckoolanders! They also put up a damn good fight, forcing Claudia to use a lot more of her precognitive powers than I think she wanted, which will no doubt come to haunt her in the end. That said, this is really Saya’s book. So I will save her for later.

But first, let’s stay with Claudia, who stuns everyone by announcing her goal in front of the press. This certainly unnerves many people in power, especially her mother, who it turns out if in charge of most everything. As you can imagine, Claudia and her mother do not get along, and yet their confrontation is a highlight of the book. It also seems to tie into what Sylvie is searching for – as does the aforementioned underground battle ring, which is shut down for now but I’ll bet you even money will be started up again in a few books so that Ayato and Julis can fight forbidden illegal battles. Much of the rest of the book is the start of this tournament, with various groups fighting and showing off their dangerous points. This includes Claudia’s team as well, usually with her as the ‘team captain’, though that changes for the final match of the book.

Which brings us to Saya, who gets a lot of focus here. She’s both the childhood friend love interest and the ‘stoic’ one, so brings a lot of popular cards to the table. Her stoicness masks a lot of emotion, though, both in her desire to be able to bring everything she can to the battles with her weapons (which works out wonderfully in the last battle with her homing bazooka thing), and in her desire to be closer to Ayato. She spends a lot of the middle of the book convincing the idol group girls that Ayato is not, in fact, a playboy (well, not deliberately) and explaining all the times he’s been there for her. Which seems to lead her to the big cliffhanger, where she confesses to him. Now, I have a feeling that Saya is aware of the cliches of harem novels like this, and knows that by both being a childhood friend *and* confessing first, she’s out of luck. Still, it’s super impressive, and I hope that Ayato is able to give her a response that’s not just hemming and hawing.

Asterisk War is still very light and fluffy, but this was a particularly strong volume of the series. If you only watched the anime to make fun of it, you might be surprised by this book.

Kimagure Orange Road, Vol. 1

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By Izumi Matsumoto. Released in Japan in three separate volumes by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Digital Manga Publishing. Translated by Steven LeCroy.

It’s been an awfully long journey from “the anime is a big hit, the manga is sure to be licensed” to “why didn’t Viz license this back in the day?” to “yay, DMP is Kickstartering the entire series!” to “will this be released before DMP dies?”. But here we are at last, and all six omnibuses of the legendary Kimagure Orange Road are now in my hot little hands. They look nice – good paper stock, solid covers. You can tell the KS money went into printing them. The question is who the audience is. Chances are that anyone who ponied up the considerable cash to get six print omnibuses of the entire series is already going to be a KOR fan. You aren’t getting casual readers. If a casual reader did get the series (there are PDF copies of the omnibuses on sale at emanga), they might be startled by how ordinary it all seems. But that’s typical with manga that sets the trend and then is quickly surpassed by those who come after it.

For those unfamiliar (and given that the heyday of North American fandom was around twenty-five years ago, I think that’s most of you), the premise of Kimagure Orange Road has a family moving to a new neighborhood. The father is fairly normal. But his children, Kyosuke, Manami, and Kurumi… are psychics! Just like their late mother. (Yes, sorry, Hard-KOR fans, esper is not used here.) They move a lot because the kids, being young and impetuous, abuse their powers and are caught. Kyosuke is really trying to not do that and fit in at his new school. Then he sees two girls smoking behind the school… cool, aloof Madoka and outgoing, impetuous Hikaru. He’s met Madoka before, running up a stairway with either 99 or 100 steps, depending on who you agree with. But she seems totally different now, and doesn’t want to give him the time of day! Kyosuke promptly falls for her… and Hikaru falls for him. But what of Madoka, this whimsical girl?

“Kimagure” can be translated as “whimsical”, and it certainly applies to Madoka, who runs hot or cold depending on the situation. She clearly likes Kyosuke immediately but she also sees Hikaru likes him too, and that he’s not doing a good job of telling Hikaru he’s not interested. Plus he tends to be a jerk some of the time, saying things like “if you smoke, you won’t have healthy babies”. (Note the two reactions: Madoka blushes at the thought of doing things that make you have babies, Hikaru gets mad and says “I’ll show you! Imma have ALL the babies!”) The series plays out like a classic shonen romantic comedy – in fact, it is *the* classic shonen romantic comedy. That said, it’s also steeped in what was big in 80s manga, as Kyosuke does use his powers quite a bit – if you’re wondering what specific powers, well, it tends to vary depending on the need of the plot, but includes teleportation, telekenesis and mind reading. You can see why their dad is worried about his kids.

I mentioned that North America had a big KOR fandom back in the day, but that’s not quite true. The fandom was for Madoka. The rest of the anime and cast was secondary. Most modern manga tries to keep the love triangle at least a little balanced, but Matsumoto is not really interested in that. We *know* Kyosuke and Madoka are the couple, the question is how long it will take. The answer is there’s five more of these 600-page omnibuses to go. As for Hikaru, fans these days are more sympathetic to her than they were back in the 1990s, where she was the very first “bashed” anime character – even before Akane in Ranma 1/2! Given that, in the manga at least (the anime is another story) she is unaware of Kyosuke and Madoka’s feelings for each other, her forwardness is a lot more understandable. Still, looking back on the series now, I must admit: things would be solved a lot faster if Kyosuke mustered a backbone.

If you want to see shonen romance as your parents read it, you really can’t get a more perfect choice than KOR, which is pure 1980s Japan, even down to the discos – and the amusement park called Cougar Town. Recommended.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 12

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By Satoshi Wagahara and 029. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

This is a stronger volume of Devil Is a Part-Timer! than the previous one, probably because the previous one got all the exposition out of its system in one gulp. Actually, the theme of this new volume could be avoiding exposition, as both Emilia and Maou do their absolute best to not talk to Laila and avoiding knowing why it is they’re the only ones who can save the world this time. In practice, this means this is a “downtime’ volume, though there is an exciting battle in a subway tunnel in the middle of the book. For the most part, though, Emi is still shattered by the last book, to the point where she runs away to a minor character’s home for college advice. Maou is just trying to get the new delivery program at MgRonald’s in gear. And Chiho should be pleased that Emi and Maou are finally acting closer, but this is offset by her realizing that she’s in a shonen love triangle where she’s the sweet girl who doesn’t get the guy but finds new confidence so that’s OK. Which does not sit well with her.

That’s Laila on the cover, but I get the feeling it’s meant to be what Emi and Maou think she’s doing in this book, rather than her real personality. Laila is genuinely trying to save the world, but seems to be making a lot of incorrect assumptions as well, not least of which is “this is for a good cause so my daughter who I have been manipulating her entire life and the boy I helped before he was a demon king will totally be into it”. But sometimes world-saving is goddamn exhausting, and after getting kidnapped/rescued and learning some nasty truths about heaven and Enta Isla, neither Emi or Maou really wants to deal with it right now. Probably the best scene in the book (and the author knows it, as the other characters praise him for it as well) is Maou talking about assuming that the strongest person will always be there to protect and save. If you have something made of steel, does that mean it’s OK to beat the crap out of it?

There’s also the romantic dynamics here. This series has been pretty good at keeping the romance there but on a low boil. Chiho has confessed to Maou (though he’s pretty much ignored that) and everyone can see how she feels. Suzuno is starting to realize that she may have feelings for Maou, though is very reluctant to admit it. And Emi, while not quite admitting that she’s in love with Maou yet, is willing to admit that she sometimes wants to be protected, and is OK if the person doing it is him. She even hugs him! (He does not hug her back. Maou still seems to be baffled by the concept of loving and being attracted to someone.) Unfortunately, both this and the main plot collide at the end, as due to a deal made between Maou and Laila, Emi is now refusing to leave his side, much to everyone’s horror.

That said, she can’t keep running from her problems forever. I suspect the next volume will have more details on how we’re going to save the world next. But for now, enjoy Maou reminding folks that heroes and villains need downtime too.