A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 5

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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.

After four novels that were basically one plotline, this fifth book gathers up three interlocking stories, one a novella and two short stories, all taking place on the last day before the school semester begins. Indeed, it’s a bit startling as you get into Index to see how fast everything is moving. The 4th book, and the Angel Fall arc, took place only a few days before this. These stories also share a certain theme, which I suspect was sort of shoehorned into the non-Accelerator ones to make it work better as a book, or people choosing to do the right thing rather than let someone else do it. It’s what makes a ‘superhero’, and given that Index is in many ways about a city filled with superheroes, it rings thematically true, though in some places more than others.

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Introduced in this volume: Last Order, Kikyou Yoshikawa, Eztali (as Mitsuki Unabara). There’s no real equivalent to this in the Railgun timeline, mostly as Misaka features in two of these stories. It’s still right after the final battle in the SS anime.

There’s no getting around the fact that one of these stories is much, much better than the other two, so let’s deal with the other two perfunctorily here. The scenes with Mikoto, Touma and the fake Mitsuki look to have been editorially mandated owing to a certain Railgun’s overwhelming popularity, and if you like Mikoto being the tsunnest dere in the city, there’s plenty for you to like here. But it’s very slight, and fake Mitsuki (we don’t actually learn his real name here) seems to fall for Mikoto for no real reason other than to allow the story to vaguely tie into the novels’ theme. As for the final story with Touma, Index, and Ouma, it’s even slighter (the villain is even Touma with one letter removed, though I suspect the Japanese name is suitably different). It does allow Index fans (are there Index fans?) to brag that that she’s actually a smart cookie when not whining at Touma about food or his harem hero tendencies.

But the main reason to read this, as you might guess from the cover, is the beginning of Accelerator’s journey from a mass-murdering villain to a broken anti-hero. He does a lot of soul searching here, and doesn’t like what he sees, but he can’t really see any way to redeem himself for what he’s done, and has no real reason to do so. Enter Last Order, who despite fandom’s best efforts (and the artist’s, let’s be frank) to sexualize her is pretty much written here as a “little sister” figure for Accelerator. She’s tied heavily into the Sisters project, and is able to offer him as much forgiveness as she can given the circumstances, and show off that he was not being as sociopathic as he thought. In the end, he does manage to save the girl and save the day, though it gets him shot in the head for his troubles, thus solving the other problem with Accelerator, which is that he was simply far too powerful for this series. We haven’t seen the last of him, though.

The translation continues to have the usual strengths and weaknesses, but I really have to highlight two issues. First off, Last Order’s speech quirks are very hard to translate into English at all. I don’t mind the ‘like’ inserted into her words, as it’s a casualness the other Misakas (and Mikoto herself) don’t have that works well with Last Order. But the doubling of the ‘says Misaka’ makes it look more like someone accidentally screwed up the find-and-replace rather than a genuine adaptation choice. Secondly, did Touma really say the word ‘Japanimation’? In 2015?

The three stories in this novel are of variable quality, but the Accelerator one is excellent, and it’s also the longest, so it’s definitely worth reading the book for.

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, Vol. 1

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By Izumi Tsubaki. Released in Japan as “Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun” by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the online magazine Gangan Online. Released in North America by Yen Press.

As my regular readers are aware, I’ve been excited for this title for a long time. I’ve been a fan of Tsubaki ever since The Magic Touch (in fact, I am the only fan of The Magic Touch), and I’ve also loved her other ongoing series right now, Oresama Teacher. Those, however, are normal shoujo series, albeit with a lot of humor in them. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is a 4-koma gag series. As such, we do not need to worry quite as much about depth of characterization, advancing the plot, and romantic resolution. We just have to worry about 1) Build to a gag, and 2) Have a character react to the gag. This series succeeds admirably at both, but especially the second.

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The setup is fairly simple, and ripe for amusing situations. Sakura has fallen for the tall, handsome, stoic Nozaki, and confesses to him in a roundabout way, trying not to use the words “I love you”. Unfortunately, Nozaki is as dense as lead when it comes to matters of the heart, so interprets this as a desire to work with him on the shoujo manga he draws for a monthly magazine under a pseudonym. Luckily for him, Sakura is quite good at art. And Sakura is okay with this if it means she can spend more time with him. Over the course of this volume, though, the cast broadens to include a wide variety of eccentrics, and we also discover that Nozaki’s manga, while popular still has its problems. As such, many of the final panels are Sakura giving a comeback to the ridiculous situation, in typical Japanese tsukkomi style.

Not that Sakura is always the straight man. As with Tsubaki’s other current series, the characters have the ability to alternate between boke and tsukkomi as the situation requires, and so if Sakura is off in Nozaki-kun fantasy land, it will be Mikoshiba or Seo who will boggle at her antics. And Nozaki-kun may be stoic, but this doesn’t mean he’s without emotions, as we see whenever he’s reminded of his prior editor. The 4-koma format serves this series perfectly, as the gags all land dependably right where they should, and have just the right amount of impact. There are no drawn out scenes where half the 4-komas are setup to a final gag – there is humor every 3rd and 4th panel throughout.

Indeed, there’s even humor on the front and back covers, and in extra stories at the back, which might be why the translation notes are awkwardly placed midway through. For those worried, by the way, the presence of the -kun in the title should tell you that this translation is allowed to be a bit more Japanese than other comparable series, and thus “in my heart I call him Mikorin” is present and correct. There are a few adaptations of super obscure things, like the concept of ‘KY’, but honestly, ‘oblivious’ is a pretty accurate translation of that. Fans of the Nozaki-kun anime will definitely enjoy reading the series in its original form, and if you simply like to laugh, this is a great series for it.

Also, there are tanukis.

Durarara!!, Vol. 2

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By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On.

It can sometimes be difficult to review a light novel that is part of a long-running franchise whose fans have already seen variations on it – anime, manga, etc. In Japan, of course, the light novel came first, and thus the manga and anime give artistic attention to plot twists and character beats that the audience knows about through the book. In North America, it’s usually the opposite – we get the anime first, then an associated manga (though that’s switching around lately), and finally if it’s popular we see the light novels it was based on. And honestly, while I’m sure there will be some casual readers of DRRR!!, the primary audience for this 2nd book are people who already knows what’s happened in it. It’s thus more than a little amusing that the primary twist in this book is Anri’s identity, and the book goes to great lengths to keep it a secret from the reader for as long as possible.

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Just as Mikado and Izaya shared the ‘main character’ stage with Celty in the first novel, so Anri and Shizuo do with her here in the 2nd. The two are not dissimilar, though you wouldn’t guess that at first. Due to past parental abuse and then emotional trauma of their death (oh, and being possessed by a katana with a mind of its own), Anri is naturally repressed emotionally, and usually has no idea whether she should be happy, sad, or angry in any given situation. This is why she became best friends with Mika, and later on with Mikado and Masaomi – she sort of leeches onto their emotions and thus feels a semblance of normality. As for Shizuo, he simply has no limited, and has to repress his own naturally strong rage through sheer force of will – something he’s very bad at. The final fight he gets into is very cathartic, as he goes all out in his violent fury but doesn’t kill anyone, as he delightfully crows at the end. Shizuo is probably the most popular character in the series – Izaya is his equal, but has just as many people who hate him. You see why here.

It’s actually almost one year after the events of the first book, which comes as a bit of a surprise. There won’t be as much of a wait between the second and third, though – if the first book teased hints of future plots to come, the second is blatant about it, leading up to a cliffhanger where we finally see what the amassing Yellow Scarves are trying to do, and who they’re trying to pull in to lead them once again. It’s not all that much of a surprise – given that Mikado turned out to be the creator of the Dollars, and Anri (or at least Saika) being responsible for all the slashings, the identity of the leader of the third major force in this triangle is obvious in a literary way. It’s a nice way to bring in new readers to a third book, though, and as for those who’ve already seen the anime, hey, don’t hate on Saki too much, OK?

A good solid book for DRRR!! fans, who will enjoy the extra depth the narrative gives to the characters, particularly Celty, Shizuo, and Anri. And also for anime fans, Erika loves Shizaya, but it makes everyone around her, including Celty, want to throw up when they hear about it. Hee.