Sword Art Online, Vol. 6: Phantom Bullet

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press.

In general, I am not a fan of the theory that the writer does not control their characters and that they do things that are unexpected. Yes, the plot and characters can go in a different direction than the writer intended, but it’s still the writer who thinks of that new direction. And thus I tend to be more forgiving of characters than I am of writers. This is especially useful when reading something like Sword Art Online, where we see Kirito still managing the get the cover focus, saving the day, and helping to stop yet another rape threat of yet another heroine in peril. This wasn’t fun in Fairy Dance and it’s not fun here, though Sinon does at least manage to fight back more than the typical heroine in this position, particularly impressive given this is the one friend she’s made in the past five years, and he’s deliberately triggered her PTSD.

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Having gotten that out of the way, I still greatly enjoyed this volume, the longest in the main series to date. I don’t game, but the descriptions of Gun Gale Online were smooth enough that I didn’t really need to know much more than what was explained to me. More importantly, Sinon is a really strong character, even with the sexual assault threats. Her PTSD is triggered mid-game, which understandably causes a minor freakout, but after a talk with Kirito she manages to work past it and realize that her attempts to become strong have been headed in the wrong direction, and that growing and learning requires remembering tragedies in the past and moving beyond them. This applies as much to Kirito – it wouldn’t be an SAO novel without Kirito getting contrasted with his not-quite-love interest – who is reminded of his execution of the Laughing Coffin members, something he too had tried to bury rather than move past.

As you’d expect, Asuna and the rest do not have much to do in this book beyond staying behind and providing support – Asuna’s support literally saving the day when her holding Kirito’s hand reminds him of the other gun he has (the one that’s not a lightsaber). She deals with the government official far better than Kirito does, finding out what’s going on and immediately figuring out what she can and can’t do to help. What she and Lisbeth can do is provide Sinon with some closure, in a final scene that a bit deus ex machina but I’ll forgive it because it was touching. I also like the way that they’re keeping Yui involved in the plots, both as a sort of AI for hire and as Kirito and Asuna’s daughter – they can’t let her push herself.

There’s a lot of macho posturing in this book, make no mistake, both by the characters and by the author. He states he had to rewrite it from the ground up, as opposed to his other books which were light retouches of his original web novel. But I suspect those still reading are aware of the author’s flaws and managing to enjoy the series nevertheless. As a reward, they’ll get a 7th volume in April that focuses on Asuna as the heroine, with Kirito in a support role. Can’t wait.

Sunshine Sketch, Vol. 8

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By Ume Aoki. Released in Japan as “Hidamari Sketch” by Houbunsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat. Released in North America by Yen Press.

It becomes clear a little ways into this eighth volume of Sunshine Sketch that we really aren’t going to be able to drag out Sae and Hiro’s graduation any longer than half the volume, and therefore the series is not going to be wrapping up after all, but continue with Yuno and Miyako as third-years. As it turns out this is fine. We get a new first-year who is sufficiently different from the rest of the cast to add some fresh new gags to this somewhat mild gag comedy, and we also get to see Yuno deal with being a sempai at her height, and Miyako being forced to think about her future beyond what’s for lunch that day. Before we get that, though, we *do* have half a volume of Sae and Hiro graduation comics.

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I’ve said before that Sunshine Sketch is not really a title you read if you enjoy surprises in your plotting and characterization. It’s a ‘comfort’ manga, where you want to see people react as they always have. So we see one last round of Sae stressing out, and Hiro worrying about her weight, and of course the inevitable suggestions of yuri without any actual yuri. Yuno and Miyako describe their apartment hunting as sounding like they’re planning a wedding, and indeed they’re sharing an apartment for college that’s close to both their respective schools. Oh yes, and Sae continues to panic about Hiro having a life revolving outside of her, which is somewhat immature but cute. She even returns at the end of the book just to fret about that, showing that the couple won’t be permanently disappearing.

As for the new character, Matsuri is upbeat and outgoing, similar to Miyako but without the inherent strangeness, although she does seem to think that the art department is a lot less normal than she anticipated. (Perhaps she’s been reading a lot of art school 4-komas, I hear they’re all the rage.) Like Nori and Nazuna, she’s eased in gradually, and the departure of Sae and Hiro also allows for more of Nori and Nazuna as they have to pick up the slack, showing off Nazuna’s somewhat airheaded ‘normal’ side and Nori occasionally breaking out of her ‘straight man’ tendencies. They still don’t feel quite as strong as Yuno and Miyako, but they’ve had less time.

I really liked the subplot with Miyako bringing up a relevant point for those who’ve followed her story from the start – she’s always incredibly poor, how is she going to be able to afford to go to college? Luckily her parents and brother seem to have anticipated this, and though they say she may need a scholarship (given she’s a natural genius, I can’t imagine this will be hard to get), it shouldn’t be too hard to imagine her and Yuno also moving into an apartment to go to art college once the series comes to a close. However, that day is not today. Today, we welcome a new character, some old gags given fresh paint, say goodbye to some friends, and await the next volume, which hopefully will not take another two years to come out.

Kizumonogatari: Wound Tale

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By NISIOISIN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical.

I have somewhat optimistically tagged this as ‘Monogatari Series’, but at the moment this is the only volume licensed, with potential other titles depending on how this one sells. It’s also not the first book in the series in Japanese publishing order – it’s actually third, after the 2-part Bakemonogatari books. That said, the author and agent both recommended that North America release this book first, as it’s the first in the series chronologically, introducing us to our hero, Koyomi, his vampire ‘master’ Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, his practical yet somewhat strange classmate Tsubasa, and the standard unreliable mentor figure Oshino. Also, it has vampires. Come on, vampires sell, and this series needs readers who haven’t seen or heard about the anime in order to do well.

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Though I am spoiled a little bit, I freely admit I am one of those readers – this is my introduction to Monogatari proper, as I never got around to watching the anime. This despite it being by Nisioisin, an author I’m very fond of. I read the two Zaregoto books released years ago by Del Rey, which feature a narrator who is far more opaque than Koyomi ever gets to be. And I have spoken before about my obsession with unlicensed Shonen Jump manga Medaka Box, featuring a cast of superpowered yet broken teenagers and their quest to find empathy. Monogatari is more like the latter than the former, as Koyomi has a certain obsession with describing his sexual impulses that reminds you that he’s a standard high school teenager. That is the most otaku-ish element of the book, actually – Koyomi is a bit of a perv, and his narration tells you this up front with a long, detailed panty shot description that, ironically, kickstarts the entire plot.

Once things actually settle down and we get to the vampire battles, the prose kicks up, though there’s always a large amount of the quirks that have made Nisio famous – long scenes of people philosophizing about the nature of humanity, fourth-wall breaking discussion of how this will never become an anime with all this violence (for the longest time, it wasn’t – the book is only getting adapted starting next year), and the occasional tortured wordplay – Nisio loves his puns and odd jokes based around kanji readings, and you can tell, even translated, that they’re all here. Actually, the translation by Vertical is excellent – I can tell there are substitutions at times, but they’re well done, and you get the sense of what the character is trying to say or point out.

As I said before, there are several fight scenes here, and they’re exciting while they last, but have a tendency to be over very soon or get undercut, as usually the exciting fight is not the point of the scene. The main reason to read the book, though, is Koyomi’s interaction with the two lead women – Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade (and if you think that make is bizarre, you don’t know Nisio), a vampire in all senses of the word, but one who has lived a little too long and finds what may be a soulmate in Koyomi, and Tsubasa Hanekawa, a ‘prim and proper class president type’ who nevertheless has a disturbing compulsion to interact with and help Koyomi, to the point of not only being willing to sacrifice her own life for him, but also let him grope her sizeable chest in order to fire him up. (To be fair, she finds the second one far more difficult to actually go through with, and he backs off at the last minute.) You want to know more about the both of them, as they both seem to have horrible things as yet unstated driving their actions.

As for Koyomi, aside from his occasional perverse narration, he seems to be a fairly standard, somewhat emo teen, going on about not wanting to make friends or get close to anyone, then throwing that all away. By the end of the book he’s not quite a vampire, but I suspect that his inability to not meddle will be what drives any future books. In any case, Kizumonogatari is excellent, and if you like stories with vampires, stories with lots of clever dialogue, or even stories with extended monologues on the nature of panties, it will serve you nicely. Let’s hope we can see more of the series someday.