Kagerou Daze II: A Headphone Actor

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By Jin (Shinzen no Teki-P) and Sidu. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On.

I had talked a bit last time about trying to balance a series based on something else – be it a game, visual novel, or in this case a series of music videos – between fans who already had a grasp of the story and new readers who didn’t really know what was going on. After reading this second volume, I feel it safe to say that the Kagerou Daze series is very much biased in favor of the former. I was confused after the first novel, and so decided to spoil myself a bit on what’s actually going on. (Those who know me will be surprised I waited that long.) It definitely helped, and I was able to make a few connections I might not have, but it’s still a fact that the Kagerou Daze light novels will appeal most to hardcore Kagerou Daze fans.

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Honestly, I think the biggest problem I have with the second book is the story order. After the last volume ends on a vague cliffhanger, we get 120 pages of what appears at first to be a completely different story, involving a grumpy, introverted girl and the guy that she can’t really admit she likes making a homebrew video game for the school festival. It’s only when Kido and Kano show up to play and Kido uses her “out of sight, out of mind” cheat that we realize this is actually taking place a year or two before the first book. This is helped further when we see Shintaro, the supposed hero, show up… and he’s a horrible jerk, even worse than the histrionic but basically harmless shut in we’re used to. We now want to see what led to him shutting himself away.

The most interesting parts of the book are Ayano, Shintaro’s scarf-wearing not-girlfriend who appears to have no self-worth at all, and of course Takane Enomoto, who actually does turn out to have been in the first book after all. This is what I was talking about when I said that it felt like this book came out in the wrong order. I think it would have a much stronger, more devastating ending if the amusement park fluff had come first and then we’d seen Ene’s backstory. After 3/4 of a book where nothing really happens, there’s a series of horrible events starting with Haruka’s collapse that take the reader down a well-earned path of ‘what the hell? No seriously, what the hell???’.

Aside from the devastating bits, there really isn’t much happening here beyond character development, but that is what these novels are for. They’re taking the characters from the music videos and showing us what their hopes, dreams, and motivations are. And, of course, spelling out what’s hard to say in a video. The “Headphone Actor” in the original video was Takane, but in the novel it appears to be Haruka as well, and I have a sneaking suspicion his fate is going to be as dark as hers is. I’m still pretty confused, but I’ll definitely be reading the third volume early next year.

Strike the Blood, Vol. 1

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By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press.

The author of Strike the Blood has been doing this sort of thing for a while. He started off with a series called Asura Cryin’ that spawned two anime series, and another, Dantalion no Shoka, that also was made into an anime. And indeed Strike the Blood has met the same fate. This is not particularly surprising after reading the first novel – it’s a book that seems tailor made to be turned into a manga and anime. The heavy supernatural element, cool hero and heroine with vampiric powers and big honking magic spear respectively, cute younger sisters who are more than they seem, aloof best friends who secretly are in love, and even a genki younger sister with a secret to hide. Everything you read here will make you think of how it will play out on the the screen. Which is a problem in some ways.

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To be fair to the book, it handles everything well, as you’d expect from a seasoned writer with a large number of books under his belt. The hero and heroine are both very likeable, and while they have a few standard anime traits, they’re both subdued enough so that you don’t really get irritated by it. Yukina in particular is intriguing – she seems like your standard tsundere who would get mad at the hero constantly, but this is warring with her aloof, stoic, and overly serious personality, making her far more interesting. She also makes a fairly fast judgement about Kojou, the vampire she’s been sent to watch/deal with, realizing that he’s really not out to rule the world, but just to have a normal high school life. Indeed, Kojou just gaining his immortal vampire powers a few months ago is the backstory here, and I’m sure we’ll hear more about it later on.

This being a light novel, there’s some fanservice, but it’s the kind that actually flows out of the text and the genre (there is a harem element here). I could have done without the standard ‘note what color her panties are’ gag, though, especially as, also typical with recent light novels, our heroine is about 3-4 years younger than she should be. The hero does suffer some physical and psychological abuse from girls thinking he’s a pervert (he’s not), but if this bothers you, remind me why you read Japanese light novels or manga at all?

So in the end I read a solid novel with decent characterization and good action scenes, yet still came away from it feeling unsatisfied. And I think the reason is that it all felt far too calculated. There is not one thing in this first volume that I didn’t guess or suspect would happen, not one honest element of surprise. I’ve been reading a lot of unoriginal light novels lately, but most of those have at least been allowed to have ambition or a purpose to their prose, a sense that the author has something he needs to share with you. With Strike the Blood that purpose seems to be ‘here’s my new series, go buy the manga and anime as well’, and that saddens me. I’m hoping a second volume will prove me wrong.

One-Punch Man, Vols. 1-2

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By ONE and Yusuke Murata. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing online at Tonari no Young Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s always very tricky to do a satire of something in Japanese manga, but I’ll give credit to Shueisha, they’re not afraid to let people try. Gintama’s popularity speaks for itself, and Medaka Box’s deconstruction of nearly everything ran far longer than folks expected. Now we have One-Punch Man, based on ONE’s webcomic of the same name. This time it’s superhero tropes, both Western style and Japanese, that are under the microscope. I am amused that this series, which has been running digitally for Viz for some time, is coming out in print right as My Hero Academia, a straighter take on the same sort of genre, is being released in Weekly Jump itself. ONE is not the greatest artist in the world – though you could argue that’s exactly what makes his webcomic work so well – and so they brought in Eyeshield 21’s Murata to do the art. The result is strong, mostly due to the dissonance between that ultra-serious art and ONE’s bald blob of a hero.

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The cover is a bit of a joke in and of itself, showing our hero in a dramatic pose and looking exactly like the Dragonball-esque hero he’s meant to be making fun of. Luckily, once we start the manga proper, Saitama is rendered mostly as ONE did in the original webcomic, as a simply-drawn man who looks almost like a stick figure compared to those around him. The flashbacks we see of him as a wannabe salaryman with hair just aren’t as effective – he looks far too normal, like one of Eyeshield’s high school football guys. He also has a personality to go with his art style, as his flat, deadpan delivery of many lines stems from training himself to be the overpowered nightmare that he is now, unable to find a decent fight as he beats everyone – you guessed it – in one punch.

Saitama is also rooted heavily in the real world – hence his despair at missing bargain day at the supermarket. The rest of the cast we see are far more traditional, the better to contrast with our hero. Genos, a cyborg with a tragic past, is pure straight man, and the best joke he has involves his long, text-heavy backstory almost crushing Saitama with the sheer weight of boring words we’ll never remember. In the second volume, we see Sonic, a hero who uses speed to overwhelm his opponents, is a pretty bishonen, and has a bloodthirsty desire for a good fight – again, all played out very straight. So of course Saitama wins by accidentally punching him in the balls. We end by seeing that Saitama, who is a superhero for fun, doesn’t even realize that you need to be registered in order for anyone to know who the hell you are.

Without Saitama, this series is another standard superheroes and punching title. *With* Saitama, you get the humor that makes One-Punch Man a cut above. I look forward to seeing the authors ride that dissonance in future volumes.