Category Archives: reviews

The Asterisk War: The Triumphal Homecoming Battle

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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.

New semester, new characters, new translator, it’s all new on the Asterisk War front. That said, I would not call this the start of a new arc, really. This book seems to be entirely concerned with putting pieces in place to set up the next few books. Sometimes this works well – the villain of the book is suitably arrogant and snotty, and you will enjoy his defeat – and sometimes it feels like it’s been shoehorned in – Orphelia essentially drops in to reveal who she is and her connection to Julis before going away for the rest of the book. Everyone’s schemes seem to have one think in common, though, which is to stop Claudia winning the next section of the tournament. This is because of her wish, which we are told several times we’re going to hear but never do. And certainly our main five characters would make quite a team if they can all work together, so the bad guys have good reason to worry.

We’ve moved a few months along after the battle of the last three books, and I am very happy o see we won’t have to deal with wacky classroom comedy like a lot of other magical school series. Instead Julis invites everyone to her home country, which is the ever popular “tiny country somewhere in Central Europe” that fantasy authors seem to love, so that she can visit the orphanage she saved by winning the tournament and also catch up with her brother the King. Of course, Julis lacks self-awareness (something she shares with Ayato at times), so is not sure why there’s suddenly a giant parade in her honor, or a party set up to show her off. She’s insanely popular now. Also, the country and various organizations seem to be shipping her with Ayato, which should go well as the author is as well, despite all the fanservicey harem illustrations. Unfortunately, there’s also a group out to kill her, and they’ve sent an assassin who can create magical beasts. Oh yes, and Julis’ old childhood friend shows up. Sadly, she’s evil now.

As I’ve said before (possibly in every single review), no one reads Asterisk War for the plot twists. Everything develops the war you think it is going to develop. But the book also exhibits a basic level of competence that makes me quite happy to keep reading it, and the girls are all harem ‘types’ without quite being boring cliches. I am looking forward to the main cast teaming up with Claudia, if only as I find Claudia’s powers and backstory the most interesting of them. Everyone gets something cool to do in the final battle, and there’s some decent discussion of politics. And oh yes, after Ayato asid his wish was for his sister to be found last time… his sister is found. Sadly, that doesn’t really do him much good, abut at least he knows her circumstances now.

This takes us to the end of the Asterisk War anime adaptation, so new volumes should be new content. I am aware that the anime was unpopular, but I’ve never had an issue with the books. Perhaps it reads better in prose. (More likely it’s because I’ve never read Chivalry of a Failed Knight.) I’d still recommend Asterisk War to anyone who likes magical fighting school series, it is a nice light snack of a novel.

Hungry for You: Endo Yasuko Stalks the Night, Vol. 1

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By Flowerchild. Released in Japan by Shonen Gahosha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Comic. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Christine Dashiell. Adapted by Casey Lucas.

Mever let it be said that the author isn’t putting all her cards on the table here. The cover, which features our titular heroine carrying a blood bag stand, boxes of tomatoes, drinking tomato juice, with with garlic streaming behind her… yeah, this is a vampire manga. And a very silly vampire manga – indeed, the selling point is the humor, rather than the vampirism, though there is the occasional semi-serious element. Mostly what we see here is Endo Yasuko (the vampire) becoming friends with (somewhat by force) Mikaoka Shizue, her self-proclaimed emergency rations. (Given this is a Shonen Gahosha title, I have to wonder if the Excel Saga allusion is deliberate or not.) There has been a string of murders of young women at their school… but is Yasuko really responsible? And perhaps most importantly: is this series actually yuri, or just suggestive and fanservicey?

There’s actually more going on here than I expected with a premise like “comedic vampire girl’. It’s not as slice-of-life as you’d think. As the book goes on, Shizue tries to subtly figure out what really happened with the murders of the three girls, and also see how Yasuko actually deals with her victims. She herself is a victim (mostly willingly) a few times, but it’s clear Yasuko is holding herself back. There’s also a few new characters introduced to help expand things – the overly bitter student who has an ax to grind uses her daddy’s money to hire a vampire hunter from Texas of all places. Vampire hunter is also a teen girl, and in perhaps the most surprising move of the volume starts off as being completely unable to speak Japanese but by the end of the book is almost fluent in it – she is a funny foreigner, but it’s less because of her mangled Japanese and more because of her growing obsession with manzai humor.

This series runs in Young Comic, which is not QUITE as salacious and sex-filled as its sister magazine Young King but comes close. As such, I was rather surprised that there wasn’t more fanservice – this is definitely a Seven Seas title, rather than their Ghost Ship line. There’s the occasional emphasis on Yasuko’s large breasts, and Yasuko and Shizue share a bedroom but nothing really happens. Honestly, this is really somewhat pure. It becomes fairly clear by the end of the book that Yasuko likely ISN’T responsible for the murder of the three girls, though it’s not made clear who is, and Yasuko is going to have a lot of trouble proving her innocence, especially since the police are now sniffing around. There’s also Itami Mitsuri, who seems to be a typical Gal but one or two scenes suggest she may also have supernatural origins. That said, right now she seems to be harassing the heroine more through social media than anything else.

This is a cute, funny title, though I’m not sure where it’s going to be going. If you like vampires and are looking for a less serious take on the genre, you may want to give it a try.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 10

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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.

It’s never a good sign when you can start to see the author and editor’s plotting and scheming as you’re reading a book. I’m not sure which took priority here – if the author decided that he’d had enough of the Enta Isla plot and wanted to end it fast with this volume, or if an editor convinced him to do the same – but there’s no doubt about it, this volume is rushed as hell. That’s not to say there aren’t good scenes or ongoing deep characterization – Emi remains a highlight, and Maou’s use of pizza delivery scooters as a weapon may be one of the funniest bits in the series. But when you take what should have been one of the more dramatic scenes of the book and turn it into a one-page summary by the involved parties after the fact, it’s hard not to be disappointed. Someone at some point said “This isn’t working, let’s solve it quickly and get back to McRonald’s where this series belongs”.

We pick up right from where we left off last time. Emi and Ashiya are being forced to fight to the death thanks to Olba’s scheming, and Suzuno and Maou are trying to stop it. Unfortunately, Maou is still without his demonic powers, so he gets left behind to babysit Alciel. The keyword here is ‘breakneck’, as events happen very fast, allowing Maou to get to where he’s needed and solve what’s happened to him. We get a lot of discussion about what the Yesod fragments really are, and it turns out that they are not really a binary ‘good/evil’ at all – no surprise there, as part of the main plot of this series is that the humans, demons and angels are all basically very similar rather than higher or lower beings. The whole shebang is resolved by a) Maou beating everyone up once he’s back to full power, and b) a deus ex machina that’s a bit ridiculous, so I won’t spoil it here. And Crestia Bell’s righteous religious fury is always fun to see.

Again, the best part of this book was Emi, even though she ends the book at her lowest ebb. She’s reunited with her father, but after being away from work for over a month she’s pretty much fired, and thus unlikely to keep her swank apartment. Rika’s suggestion of working at McRonald’s and moving to Maou’s apartment complex may sound like the author talking instead of her, but it honestly comes as a relief. Now that Emi is no longer trying to kill Maou whenever she sees him, and in fact realizing (slowly) she has feelings for him, it makes far more sense for her to be involved in the action more. So as a setup for future books, I’m very pleased. Unfortunately, as a wrapup to this arc in particular, this book is really not that great a success. I still love the series, but I’m happy to see it moving back to Japan – as is everyone involved, I suspect.