Category Archives: reviews

Defeating the Demon Lord’s a Cinch (If You’ve Got a Ringer), Vol. 1

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By Tsukikage and bob. Released in Japan as “Darenidemo Dekiru Kage kara Tasukeru Maou Toubatsu” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alex Kerwin.

I write a column for Manga Bookshelf called Manga the Week of, where I point out the manga and light novels coming out next week, and briefly try to hype the debuts. Sometimes, though, this can lead to me being embarrassingly wrong about a title, because the cover art and blurb were vague, or even actively misleading. It’s especially true when there really isn’t much known about the new series. So, let me say up front: I was expecting Demon Lord Ringer (as I will call it for brevity’s sake) To be far more comedic in tone, something like Konosuba only with more of a straight man as the lead. Now, to be fair, Ares is definitely a straight man. But the book is not going for funny, instead being a crash course in how much we can take of its intensely serious, brimming with suppressed rage narrator until we beg for the demon lord to win after all. Make no mistake about it: the Ringer is a bit of a jerk.

As you can see by the cover image, as well as the blurb, this is not merely a case of me being too thick (which has also happened before): the premise is actively trying to mislead you. It is accurate, as far as it goes. A hero has been summoned to defeat the demon lord, but the hero’s level is far too low, and as for companions, we have a third princess as a mage who can only use fire magic (the entire book takes place in a forest, so she can’t do anything), a swordswoman who has recently changed her sword style away from her family specialty (so is learning a whole different skill set on the fly), and Ares, who is a priest who clearly is far more powerful than the Level 3 he suggests he is. (Yes, the usual fantasy RPG tropes apply here, as the characters discuss buffs and leveling as if they are real life fantasy terms.) The hero’s party, however, wants to get rid of Ares. And you can’t blame then, really.

There’s a reveal at the end of the book I was very impressed by, one that makes the entire party’s behavior around Ares make a lot more sense. It’s such a good reveal I won’t get into it. It actually made me want to read the second book, which I was on the edge about, to be honest. The book’s prose is good, and Ares is certainly a memorable character. But god, you want to throttle him. He’s given an assistant, Amelia, who seems to have some lingering affection for him (he doesn’t recall their ever meeting in person, which irritates her), and she keeps desperately trying to get him to slow down and not do absolutely everything on his own. And she fails. I was honestly wondering if the big reveal was going to be that he’s the villain after all, but it would seem that’s not the case. But so far, my interest in what happens next has won out over “my god, do I really need to listen to this guy’s simmering fury for another three+ volumes?”.

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 16

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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

Given the events of the last volume, and the fact that the cover art looks for all the world like a fun romantic comedy, I imagine the average reader went into this book thinking it would be a nice, relaxing volume. And it is… for about the first quarter of the book. Then Acqua of the Back arrives, and everything pretty much goes to hell. But hey, at least this book has Touma and Index in it, right? Well, not so much. Index is once again relegated to comic relief (she even lampshades how useful she WOULD have been after everything has already happened), and Touma is removed from most of the fighting by, yet again, half-fatal injuries. No, this book is about the Amakusa Church, their guilt-driven Saint Kaori Kanzaki, and their #1 Touma fan Itsuwa, who can cook, clean, is pretty with a nice chest, wields a spear magnificently, and loves Touma. In fact, in a series filled with heroines with major faults, her main fault may be not having one.

Introduced in this book: Fiamma of the Right, the “Knight Leader”, and the Third English Princess, whose name I will hold off on till I see how Yen romanizes it. This takes place about three days after Touma and Index get back from France. Touma is starting to worry about his attendance credits, and well he should – he’s barely been in class this semester. We have basically passed all the Index spinoff titles in terms of chronology. There are, of course, several ongoing plot threads from previous books. Itsuwa is dispatched to be Touma’s bodyguard after the events of tBook 14 (and so that the Amakusa Church can try to get them together as a couple, something doomed to failure). Acqua’s threat to Touma a couple books ago is carried out here, and he very nearly succeeds. And Mikoto has found out about Touma’s amnesia, and it’s bothering her, mostly as she’s not sure when it happened.

This book, as with a lot of shonen titles, is about seeing people who are so much better, faster, and stronger than you, and then getting up and fighting anyway because it’s right. Acqua doesn’t care what Touma’s motivations or desires are – his hand is a weapon, and therefore he treats Touma the same way. (Honestly, given the last two members of God’s Right Seat, he’s the least villainous, but that’s only by degree.) Itsuwa and the rest of the Amakusa fight because they know Touma is a good person, right hand or no. And Kaori leaps in to fight because Acqua is about to kill the rest of the Amakusa, and she may be keeping her distance from them but she still wants to protect them. In fact, arguably it’s Kaori who learns the biggest lesson here – no, not Tsuchimikado’s stupid ero maid thing, which made my teeth grind. But you can’t protect the ones you love from the shadows and by pushing them away. It only hurts them more. Seeing Kaori and the Amakusa team up was absolutely the highlight of this book, and I like that for once Touma did not get in the final blow (or even break any illusions), though he certainly made it possible.

It appears we’re going to be focusing on England next time (and watch out for Fiamma describing how to bring the island nation down to its knees in a way that sounds suspiciously similar to a no-deal Brexit). Also, I worry my discussion of the lack of a role for Index and her desire to help more may change for the worse soon – it sounds like Fiamma’s big plan is basically to capture her. In any case, though Kamachi remains as bad as ever at wacky harem antics, this is still an excellent volume of Index.

That Blue Sky Feeling, Vol. 1

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By Okura and Coma Hashii. Released in Japan as “Sorairo Flutter” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Jocelyne Allen.

When I first saw the cover for this manga on preordering it, my thought was “Boy, that guy sure is excited”. And that’s a pretty good description of the first volume. Noshiro, the guy punching the air on the cover, is just a big bundle of energetic, outgoing “HI THERE”, and you can’t help but be carried along in his wake. Even when he’s being introspective, angry, or doubting himself, it’s filled with big, energetic emotions and movements. This is, of course, to contrast him with the series’ other lead, Sanada, who is introverted, quiet, doesn’t smile much – at least at first – and is the very definition of standoffish. Most of the book is devoted to Noshiro’s arrival in Sanada’s life, and his reaction and actions on hearing the rumor going around the school, which is that Sanada is actually gay. A rumor that Sanada later confirms to Noshiro.

Most of the rest of the volume focuses on Noshiro’s developing reaction to this news, although honestly the book is as much about Sanada as an introvert as it is about Sanada as a young gay man. Sanada’s childhood friend Yamamoto has always come to eat with him (and might have a crush on him), but seems delighted that he’s finally making another friend, and tries to support Noshiro’s attempts to batter his way into Sanada’s life. But Sanada’s introversion and his sexuality aren’t easily separated either, and even being introverted isn’t always black and white. We see Sanada meet some old friends from junior high, and he’s smiling and laughing with them in a way he doesn’t seem to with Noshiro. This leads both Noshiro and Yamamoto to wonder if Sanada is “faking it” in front of them – something which Sanada rebuts, saying that both aspects of him are “real”.

We also meet Hidemitsu in this story, an older man who Sanada describes as “sort of an ex-boyfriend”. The fact that Sanada is still a high school boy is briefly brought up and then shunted aside, but I will hold off on objections till I see how close they actually were. For the moment Hidemitsu functions as an advisor and mentor to both Sanada and Noshiro, having a mature wisdom that both of them lack at this point. It also is fairly obvious that Hidemitsu and Noshiro look a whole lot alike, and that a lot of Sanada’s standoffishness may simply be attraction. Noshiro’s sexuality hasn’t come up much – he finds it difficult to name a specific girl he’s attracted to in a “guy conversation”, and has no romantic experience – but I suspect we may delve further into that in future volumes.

Honestly, the best thing about this ongoing coming-of-age story is simply how well-written it is. The characters are likeable, they have good depth, and you care about them. It feels very real. I absolutely recommend it.