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A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 15

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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.

Last time I said that Index was not in the book at all. Well… she’s not in this book either. More importantly than that, however, is that Touma is entirely absent from this book as well, though one might argue that his presence is felt in terms of the two protagonists who take over for him. In fact, as the series goes on and expands, we’re going to see this more and more. A Certain Magical Index is not just about Touma anymore. And so we have other protagonists that step up. (No, sorry, Mikoto, you aren’t in this one either. But you get the more popular side manga anyway.) The first protagonist should be very familiar to Index readers, as it’s Accelerator, who’s still calling himself a villain and thinking of himself as the worst, despite the fact that he saves more lives in this book than anyone else, and has a guardian and adopted daughter more than willing to lay down their life to stop him going mad and destroying the world. As for the other protagonist, I’m afraid I’m going to have to get EVEN NERDIER than usual.

I’m limiting “Introduced in this volume” only to those who either appear in future books or have an impact on future books. So: Shizuri Mugino, Rikou Takitsubo, Saiai Kinuhata, Frenda (Seivelun), Xochitl, Baba Yoshio, Kakine Teitoku, “Girl in the Dress”, Chimitsu Sunazara, Shiage Hamazura, Hattori Hanzou. The Railgun manga is ongoing, which may explain why Kazari Uiharu gets a bigger role in this book than she ever did before or will again. In terms of timeline, it’s the day after Book 14, so presumably Touma and Index are flying back from France. By the way, I mentioned the Railgun manga. Fans of that series will note that over half the people I just mentioned as debuting in this book had large roles in the ongoing railgun storyline to some degree or another, particularly the members of ITEM. Indeed, Frenda pretty much gets all her development in Railgun, for reasons that will become apparent once you finish Index 15. (She doesn’t even get a last name in this book!) Xochitl too is expanded on quite a bit in that series.

As for the obvious, I told a little white lie in the “this volume” above. Shiage Hamazura and Hattori Hanzou are introduced in the first volume of Index short stories, which came out between Books 13 and 14. Yen Press generally does not license side story volumes, so we’re not seeing this. Fortunately, some of the important stuff is covered in the anime, as it adapted the “Skill Out Uprising” story which introduces Shiage Hamazura and has him confront Touma as a rather two-bit villain. Touma, needless to say, kicks his ass. This happens about 9 days prior to the events in this book, in the long break between Books 13 and 14. At some point after that, Hamazura gets picked up by ITEM and turned into their lackey, which is where we see him in Railgun, and also at the start of this book. (The SS volume also shows us Sasha Kreutsev, who Index readers with long memories will remember had her form used by the villain of the 4th novel.) So while I hate to say “go watch the anime” in my light novel review, go watch the anime.

As for this book, it’s rather hard to review, mostly as I’m coming at it about ten years after it was published, and after the author has spent most of Railgun trying to expand on several of the groups and people introduced here. I have trouble judging if something felt forced or if the reader at the time would shrug and move on. As an example, Mugino going completely berserk and attempting to kill the rest of her team is something that I suspect might have had a reader going “huh, where the heck did that come from?” to someone who is meeting her for the first time here, to the point where Hamazura actually has to spell out her motivations to us in one of his speeches. But fans of Railgun will likely be thinking “I was waiting for her to finally snap, and now it’s happened”.

I’d mentioned Touma was absent here, but he’s very much on the minds of both Accelerator, who puts him on a pedestal that can’t possibly be lived up to, as well as Hamazura, who is inspired by him to actually fight back against a Level 5 for the sake of the girl he loves. (In general Kamachi is not great at writing romance, but I give him props for trying. Hamazura and Takitsubo are pretty cute here, and there are one or two hints dropped before the climax that they like each other.) Most of what occurs here, as with much of Index’s plot lately, is a consequence of the previous volume. In this case, all of Academy City’s heavy hitters being called to Avignon means the villainous groups are running amock. Naturally, our group of villains emerges victorious, meaning it’s the last group standing at the end.

I also want to take the time to praise Uiharu, who only gets about 3 pages to show off her badassery, and gets her shoulder and collarbone dislocated for her troubles, but standing up to the 2nd most powerful person in Academy City, and even sticking her tongue out him? That’s amazing. (I also note that Japan, for some reason, has fanart pairing her and Kakine romantically. To which I have to say: NO.) Also kudos to Yomikawa and Last Order for being able to talk Accelerator down. That said, I suspect that every single person in Academy City knows what his weak point is now, and if I were Last Order I would not feel safe.

There’s little humor in this book, and a lot of action and betrayal. As such, it’s playing on Kamachi’s strengths, and ends up being a quick and exciting read. I would like to check back in on Index next time, though. She is in the title.

Himouto! Umaru-chan, Vol. 1

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By Sankakuhead. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Young Jump. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Amanda Haley. Adapted by Shanti Whitesides.

Over the past year or so we’ve seen a couple of titles from Shueisha’s Young Jump that seem to be hear to remind us that Young Jump is not entirely sex, violence, or manly men being manly. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is a good example of this, and now we also have Himouto! Umaru-chan, a series that ran for twelve volumes, got three different spinoffs, and also an anime. Which is impressive given that it’s basically a plotless gag series. Well, plotless is perhaps mean, there is the one plot. It reminded me of the start of Kare Kano, and the idea of a “perfect” student who is completely different at home is well-mined. Umaru-chan’s success with the reader will, I think, depend on how tolerant they are of spoiled brats when it’s being written for humor purposes. Umaru-chan is funny, but I can see how she might wear on people.

As you can see by the cover, this is not a touching melodrama. “Himouto” is a term referring to a himono, who is a young woman who acts perfect in the outside world but is a lazy slob at home. Add “imouto”, aka little sister, and you have this series. The focus, at least for most of this first volume, is definitely on Umaru-s home life with her older brother, a salaryman who tries to be stern and parental but usually just ends up giving in because Umaru is too annoying, too cute, or both. (Fortunately there’s no suggestion of incestual themes in this at all.) By the end of the volume we are seeing suggestions that we’ll get more of Umaru’s school life – her best friend, a shy, busty girl with a crush on Umaru’s brother, has made several appearances, and we also see the arrogant oujo. The cliffhanger also makes it seem like we’ll get more of the misunderstood sinister stalker as well (the manga does not indicate she’s misunderstood in this first volume, but come on.)

There’s reaolly not much to this, but that’s not a bad thing in a gag comedy – you don’t want to have to think too hard. So Umaru games, and eats, and whines, and her brother suffers mobly. The scenes which I liked best are the ones that show off the contrast between her two roles, usually when she and her brother are both outside the apartment and she has to keep up the facade but is starting to lose it. As for Taihei (the brother), he’s driven much by the needs of the particular gag of the chapter, being strict and angry when required, but mostly just being somewhat wishy-washy about it. Umaru is a handful, and if the two of them have living parents they aren’t mentioned, so it’s up to him to try to help her grow up. It’s not going well.

This was quite enjoyable, but as with a lot of similar gag series, I’m not sure it’s 12-volumes-and-three-spinoffs enjoyable. But we shall see, and I recommend Umaru-chan for those who like seeing annoying little sister types.

Infinite Dendrogram: The Lunar Society

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By Sakon Kaidou and Taiki. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

Despite very much being a book of two halves, this volume has essentially the same theme, one which I suspect will carry over into the next book (yes, it’s another cliffhanger). That theme is how Dendrogram gamers deal with the real world, and balancing the player’s real life with this thing that is more than just another game. We see Reiji starting college and immediately running into people he knows (and would rather forget) from the game. We see him interacting with someone who is exactly the same in the game as in real life, and someone who is seemingly the same, only to turn out to have a hidden side to her. And the second half deals with the fact that players can marry NPCs and father children in this game, though it’s difficult, for reasons which are actually expounded on in detail. We also see a major player log back in after a few weeks offline to find that he’s essentially missed the entire book series to date. There’s a lot going on.

The Lunar Society is, as I indicated above, the subject of the first half of the book, particularly its leader Tsukuyo, played by a real-life college medical student named… Tsukuyo. She’s a cross between Haruhi Suzumiya and Ryouko Mendou, and I suspect some readers may find her irritating. Ray finds her terrifying once he meets her outside the game, and his brother explaining the reason why (which immediately resolves his fear) is one of the funnier parts of the book. As a character, Tsukuyo is not the greatest, being exactly as she seems: a spoiled princess who’s desperate for anything to stave off her boredom and will kidnap people to get what she wants. That said, I like Haruhi and Ryouko, so I found her quite fun. I also liked her butler/assassin, who is exactly what you’d expect a butler/assassin to be like.

Tsukuyo is not the only gamer Reiji meets at his college; he also runs into Kozue, who is far more sensible and reserved – in fact, when we see her character in the game, B3 (or BBB), she seems almost exactly the same as she is in real life, just like Tsukuyo. This *is* a front, though, and leads into an interesting discussion of PKing in Dendrogram. I’ve gotten so used to Sword Art Online being the be-all end-all work on player killing that I’d forgotten that Dendrogram *is* a game, and that the penalty is not actually lethal, just annoying. The PK guild we see here (whose reasons for gathering around their leader I will groan about and try to skip past) has rules about only PKing those who want to duel, essentially – those who want a good fight, with an appropriate “reward” for losing. As for B3, while we don’t get into it due to narrative necessity and Ray’s stunning denseness about women, it’s implied that PKing turns her on. There’s all sorts of gamers.

We’re caught up with Japan now, though I think the next book is out soon if not already. Those who have enjoyed the series will find more to enjoy here, as the books keep examining what it is about this game that’s different and how its reality can suck you in. Plus maybe we’ll see Nemesis evolve past her jealousy? Nah, probably not.