Category Archives: reviews

My Pathetic Vampire Life, Vol. 1

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By Ishikawa Rose. Released in Japan as “You no Ataranai Koide-kun” by Futabasha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Monthly Action. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Amber Tamosaitis. Adapted by Carol Fox.

This is, of course, one of the most inevitable titles ever. Japan loves vampire manga. Japan also loves its laid-back school comedies where nothing happens over the course of several volumes. Why not combine the two? But this particular title I think leans a bit too hard against the latter rather than the former. A complete lack of conflict, despite creating many obvious points where conflict could be achieved, makes this manga seem very underwhelming, as if it’s content to simply ride along on its premise: what if a couple of vampire bros had to live the same year in school, over and over again?

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Koide is the main character here, a vampire who is governmentally mandated to stay in high school, since he’s still 16 years old. It’s just that this is the 150th year in a row he’s been 16. And of course, being a vampire, just being near the sun is enough to make him collapse. Luckily, he has a few things going for him. His friend Miura is three times his age, so you’d think would be suffering even more, but seems to have come to terms with it. (He’s a bishonen, which helps – Koide has more of a “I just got out of bed” look.) This could be Koide’s year, though – his classmates seem less concerned than usual about his being a vampire (put politely – put impolitely, they’re a bunch of clueless idiots), he has a couple of girls who seem to like him (though he’s mostly completely indifferent to them), and his teachers are there to help him out (even if the school nurse is a bit creepy). What’s not to love?

You know a slice-of-life title is having trouble when I keep wishing that it would turn darker and more serious. There’s lots of ways this series could have done that. The mere fact that there’s a government crackdown on vampires is a fascinating backstory that’s mostly just used as an expositional gag for why they can’t turn the nurse (who desperately wants to become a vampire, as he’s part of “the Haruhi generation” and would like more excitement). You’d think a lot of the plot would revolve around keeping their true nature hidden from the class, but no, the entire class knows they’re vampires, and are totally cool with it. Even Miura’s somewhat serious backstory of being beaten by farmers in the middle ages is used for humor value.

There are certainly amusing moments throughout – I like Koike’s accidentally antagonistic relationship with the girl who sits next to him, as keep depressing each other without meaning to. The class rep’s attempts to have the class get to know Koike are both well-meaning and awful in the best way, and the ‘i have never seen a photograph of myself for obvious reasons’ chapter has a terrific punchline. But I cannot help wanting to shake the author and say “you could have done so much more with this!” It’s a perfectly acceptable slice-of-life comedy that is content to coast.

Overlord: The Dark Warrior

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By Kugane Maruyama and so-bin. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

When we left Ainz at the end of the first novel, he was resolving to find out more about his world he’d been transported into, which was sort of kind of like his old game but not quite, and his evil minions had decided that his wishes amounted to total world conquest. Conquest is put on hold for the moment, though, as Ainz takes one of his minions and disguises himself as a common adventurer. “Common” is perhaps the wrong term, though, as Ainz mostly wants to show off how awesome he is so that his adventurer persona can acquire a reputation. Of course, this would be easier if he could read or write the language. And the minion he takes with him has no social skills whatsoever and regards humanity as worms. Oh yes, and there’s also the evil cult trying to turn an entire city into zombies…

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As with the first book, Overlord works best when it’s making fun of either Ainz or the world he’s in. Not only is he from modern Japan as a player, but even as Ainz, he sees the world completely differently from someone who actually lives in it. This comes to a head when he has to battle The Wise King of the Forest. He defeats it easily, and the party he’s with, as well as the residents of the city, are shocked and amazed at his badassery. Which is fine, except the Wise King is a giant hamster. Ainz is forced to ride around the city on to prove that he has “tamed” it. He feels a bit foolish, because from our perspective, it’s totally ridiculous. Likewise, his constant frustration with Narberal, who isn’t even attempting to pretend that Ainz is anything other than her lord and master, is equally hysterical.

Sadly, we’re also seeing a bit of what I worried about while reading the first book. As Momon, his adventurer persona he takes on, Ainz is able to cut an ogre in two with his sword just by strength alone. He hands out amazing unseen-before healing potions whose creation flummoxes even the best humans. He chews his way through endless undead with ease, and takes out the smug villain who desperately needs taking out by simply crushing her to his skeletal chest until she breaks. Ainz is not remotely challenged throughout the book. Even as Momon, when he thinks to himself that he was actually slightly damaged or somesuch, we’re quick to recall this is because he’s not using any of his skills as the Undead King, but attempting not to go outside the skill set of an average human. Basically, Ainz is too powerful, and in a book when the rest of the cast is human, it becomes more apparent.

That said, if you get past it, the book is still well written, with evocative descriptions. I liked the way that it tied into the village from the first book (and hey, the one guy in Momon’s party who survived turns out to be the childhood friend (and presumed future love interest, although for once it’s the girl who’s clueless) of the girl Ainz saved in Book 1, who’s still got her goblins. And when it is mocking Ainz and the D&D world he lives in, it can be very funny. There’s a cliffhanger leading into Book 3, which promises less pretending to be an adventurer. I look forward to it.

Welcome to the Ballroom, Vol. 1

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By Tomo Takeuchi. Released in Japan as “Ballroom e Youkoso” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Monthly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Karen McGillicuddy.

For years, the received wisdom of the internet was that sports manga did not sell well in North America. Like most received wisdom, that wasn’t quite accurate. Price of Tennis, Eyeshield 21, and Whistle! all had fairly lengthy runs here. But recently, it would appear that the received wisdom is actually beginning to genuinely die, as we’re seeing more and more shonen sports-style manga come out and do fairly well for themselves. And it helps to show off one basic factor of the Japanese sports manga, which is that it does not actually matter what the sport is. Take a hero with no purpose in life, show him a competition that is amazing and features people showing off awesome bodies and equally awesome speed lines, and then have him train and train and train until everyone realizes that he’s got amazing potential. In the case of Welcome to the Ballroom, that sport happens to be ballroom dancing competitions, but that does not change its essential sports manga-ness.

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Our hero is Fujita, and he does in fact remind me a lot of Sena from Eyeshield 21, and not just because of the hair. He’s got his teachers upset because he can’t figure out what to do with his life, he gets harassed by the local neighborhood bullies, and his nights at home are just him an his dad (for once, the mom seems to be divorced rather than dead as in most manga). But then he’s basically kidnapped by Sengoku, who is looking for new recruits for his dance studio, which also happens to feature a pretty girl from Fujita’s school who does ballroom dancing. After initially being totally overwhelmed with self-doubt and self-hatred, Fujita watches a DVD of a dancing competition secretly put in his bag, and falls in love with the way they move. He may lack common sense (his first training session literally lasts ALL NIGHT as he forgets what time it is), but he has an innate sense of movement that is struggling to get beyond his beginner’s body.

Moving on to the review proper, this is a very good start. Fujita is a very believable teenage boy, filled with insecurities and jealousies but a good kid at heart. The heroine, Hanaoka, has dreams of her own that she’s worried about, and so far does not seem to be there simply for the hero to fall in love with, although that does happen to a degree. (It helps that, unlike most sports manga, the women are an innate part of the sport.) And his first rival, Kiyoharu, is way beyond both of them in terms of talent, but I suspect that pushing himself too hard has already gotten to him, and it’s what leads to the first cliffhanger. As with most shonen manga, the way you know it’s really good is that you want to read the next volume immediately. That’s how I feel about Welcome to the Ballroom.