A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Vol. 1

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By Kazuma Kamachi and Arata Yamaji. Released in Japan as “Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator” by ASCII Media Works, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

The danger of spinoffs, as always, is that those unfamiliar with the series may be spoiled for later events when they read it. On the other hand, what reader is going to be picking this up having no idea what’s happened in Index already? That said, be aware that this manga series takes place sometime after the fifth novel, due out next month from Yen On, and that if you don’t know who Last Order is yet it may be wise to wait till you read that before digging in. On the other hand, if you are a fan of the index series but wish it had more action scenes, things blowing up, and girls being brutally murdered, this is an excellent series to get involved with.

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For the more experienced Index fan, this manga is interesting primarily for Accelerator’s introduction to the Magical World, though he has no idea that’s what it is. Estelle Rosenthal is, as with everyone in Index who isn’t Touma, involved in some way with a shadowy organization, but for once she’s trying to bring it down. She also appears to be a necromancer, something which baffles Accelerator, who’s never heard of that sort of scientific ability. Given events of later Index books, it’s possible that the whole series may finish without him being any wiser as to her being a magician, but it makes for a good dynamic, particularly as she’s not the stuttering introvert I was expecting Accelerator to be paired up with. Indeed, her casual stripping in front of both him and Last Order shows she doesn’t seem to have too many social cues at all – and she has to be lectured about this by Last Order, who is hardly one to talk.

For those wondering, Last Order’s speech quirk is doubled, thus she sounds like the clones except she says “Misaka Misaka “. This is awkward, but honestly there’s no good way to convey the cutesy way she talks in English, so I’ll roll with it. Last Order herself is captured well here, as we get her hyperactivity and jealousy present and correct. As for Accelerator himself, he gets his defining moment right off the bat, as Estelle battles a mook right in front of his nose, and he never stops reading his book, having directed sound to not hit his ears. this is post-Vol. 5 Accelerator, meaning he’s still standoffish and basically a jerk, but is making the transition from villain to antihero, and nothing pisses him off more than people thinking that he’s been “brought down to Earth’ now, which is what leads to the best fight scenes in the volume.

Throw in a truly terrifying murder scene halfway through (it’s OK, she’s going to get her corpse reanimated so it’s all good), and you have a series that should appeal nicely to Index and Railgun fans, even though Touma and Misaka aren’t in it. Though the preview for Vol. 2 did note that one of the clones will have a big part in Vol. 2, which amused me. It’s spinoff fodder for sales, but done quite well. I look forward to more.

No Game No Life, Vol. 3

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On.

The usual caveats apply: there’s lots of skeevy art of underage girls, Sora spends much time discussing how to secretly film naked girls, and the not-quite-incest plot I was desperately hoping would be avoided from now on gets another peek. That said, I imagine anyone for whom those are a deal breaker would not be reading Vol. 3, so let’s move on to discussing Sora and Shiro, our heroes. It was refreshing seeing the start of this book from Shiro’s perspective, particularly as once Sora returned it went back to being mostly him, as he’s the one that talks. Sora and Shiro not only love each other like family (or more in Shiro’s case), but also idolize each other, and they each get narratives at some point bemoaning that they aren’t good at what the other excels in. Sora at one point mocks those who think this series is about the two growing stronger and maturing, as he points out they’re both already perfect.

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The amusing thing about this, of course, is that it’s almost immediately undercut by Sora’s own actions, something Jibril cheerfully points out. Like it or not, this world is going to make the two of them change. That said, Sora also has a point – in terms of actual gaming ability, and the narrative need for victory, [ ] are already at the pinnacle. We don’t read this series to see how these two learn how to be better players – if anything, Stephanie fulfills that role in a way, though she’s still used almost entirely as comic relief instead. No, our heroes are already the best, and there is simply no doubt they will win – the question is how. Reading the long action sequence in the middle of the book, where they compete in a virtual shooting game against the Werebeasts, it really is astounding how much of the surprise twists were long thought out in advance by Sora beforehand. The same applies to the Othello game at the start.

Speaking of the Werebeasts, Izuna is the one who gets the most development in this book. Before the game starts Sora asks her whether she’s ever had fun playing a game. Of course the answer is no – with the fate of her entire nation always on her shoulders, this is a heavy burden. Plus she always wins, so it’s a boring heavy burden. But after her loss, she quickly realizes how exciting it is to be able to play someone who can kick her ass, giving her something to strive for. As for the fate of her people, what was somewhat clear in the first two books is made more explicit – the main plot seems to be Sora and Shiro uniting all of the 16 species into one nation, and the main difficulty is convincing everyone that they aren’t actually evil.

I’ve mentioned the books main flaws above, but as I hinted before, I really wish the author would do more with Stephanie – we’ve seen flashes of how smart she can actually be when she’s not dealing with Sora and Shiro or being humiliated, and I long to see more. Sadly, the fourth novel looks like a fluffy beach story, so I suspect I won’t get it. Other than that, the humor I liked in the first two books is still there, with lots of popular gaming references. There’s also some vivid horror as well with Sora’s fate towards the start of the book, and later Chlammy’s as well. There’s a fascinating series here beneath all the ecchi posturing and naked fanservice.

Akuma no Riddle, Vol. 1

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By Yun Kouga and Sunao Minakata. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Newtype. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

I admit I wasn’t paying too much attention to this when it was licensed. I hadn’t seen the anime, and “yuri in a girls’ private school’ has come to mostly mean cutesy fluff or cutesy angst. There’s certainly some angst in Akuma no Riddle, but it avoids the cutesy entirely, as the cover might suggest. Instead what we have here is a sort of survival game manga, but where almost all the stars are capable of taking care of themselves. And at the center is Azuma, a young girl who is not as cool and stoic as everyone thinks she is, and seems to be missing something essential – perhaps a killer instinct.

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This is another case where the cover design was changed at the last minute – the cover you’ll get has different typeface than the one above. In any event, Azuma is a star student at an academy devoted to assassination. She is being sent by her eccentric and somewhat nasty school administrator to another private academy, where she’s to join a class that technically doesn’t exist. Her goal is to assassinate a certain girl. Of course, neither she or we are told who the girl is, but it becomes pretty obvious right off the bat. As the volume goes on, we meet the rest of the cast, all varieties of young, female, and no doubt tragically broken girls who are there to kill said one person. And Azuma, who has her own past to deal with which makes her, as the manga puts it, an assassination virgin, has to decide which side she’s going to be on.

There is a strong sense of plot and character here, which is surprising given the entire volume is basically given over to just introducing about half the cast. Azuma is likeable in her awkward aloofness, and you can see her struggling to understand emotions that come easily to everyone else. Haru is adorable, outgoing, a fluffy bunny sort of person, and has an amazingly tragic past, and I’m not suite sure if the series if going to make her a shining beacon of hope of shatter her like a glass egg. Of the other girls we get a sense of, there’s an “arrogant bully” type, who ends up being our first attempted killer. There’s a girl with what appears to be multiple personalities. And there’s Nio, the only attendee of the class who originated with the school itself, and who is easily the most irritating character in the series to date – deliberately so.

Of course, looking at the credits I shouldn’t be remotely surprised that I enjoyed this so much – the story is by Yun Kouga, author of Earthian, Loveless, etc. She’s not doing the art this time around, but the artist gets her basic aesthetic, so that’s OK. I’m not quite sure where the series is going to go after the end of this volume – I suspect we will be getting an “And Then There Were None” type culling of the herd, so to speak – but ideally I’d like for Haru’s idealism to at least stick around a little longer, if only to avoid the series ending with a giant pile of corpses. Oh, and the yuri in this so far is mostly nonexistent. Doesn’t matter, recommended anyway.