I Hate You More Than Anyone! Volume 8

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By Banri Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Sekai De Ichiban Daikirai!” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by CMX.

We’re up to Eight Hate, and the revelations are coming thick and fast. Saki has come over to Maki’s place to essentially be smug at him and make threats. We hear about “Azumi”, who seems to be a girl in Maki’s past with much tragedy behind her. Maki is certain that Saki is going to do the same thing to Kazuha that he did to Azumi, so – oh, shades of Sailor Moon here – he breaks up with Kazuha for her own good, to protect her. Luckily, EVERYONE realizes how stupid this is, and it barely lasts a chapter.

This leads into the majority of the volume, which is a flashback into Maki’s past when he was in middle school. Every major series by Banri Hidaka has an extended flashback sequence, and this is no exception (we’ll see one in V.B. Rose 8 as well). The flashback is told partially by Honjo and partially by Maki, giving us multiple points of view, and introduces us to Azumi, the spunky yet fragile young woman that Maki was crushing on.

Big points to Kazuha, who grows up a LOT over the course of this volume. Yes, she spends a while crying and feeling unworthy (Honjo says, in one of the better moments, that this is the second time he’s told her to have more faith in herself), but she quickly snaps out of this and goes to confront Saki. Saki, meanwhile, is a truly efficient jerkass villain character. Once he realizes that Kazuha knows he’s the bad guy, he drops all pretense and starts being nasty to her. This leads to the best moment of the volume, which I won’t spoil, but which had me punching the air.

Kazuha continues to be mature by immediately going to Maki’s apartment (he’s hiding from the world) and confronting him. This is quite sweet, and leads to Maki telling her the rest of what happened, which will bleed into Volume 9, as we’re left with an ominous flashback. (I again note how Hidaka-san tends to undercut herself a lot. Much of the flashback is narrated in an ominous tone of doom, heavily implying Azumi is dead. Except we know, almost immediately, that she isn’t as Honjo tells us this. It removes some of the drama, but then again I don’t think I want dead girls in my fluffy shoujo.)

The majority of this volume is far more serious than the previous ones, though we still get some great humor. I was very fond of a subtle gag when Honjo is telling Kazuha and Chizuru about his discussion with Maki, and jokes about Azumi being dead. It’s a dark joke, and Kazuha, on hearing it, whacks her brother’s chest in an offhand “Osaka humor” way. Tiny little things that I love in this series. And she mocks the cartoon violence from previous volumes by having Maki be ready for it – Kazuha actually seems to CHOP OFF HIS HEAD, only to realize he’s replaced himself with a shop dummy Maki.

And, due to this volume being almost all Maki’s past, there’s very little Senko. However, we do get one fantastic Senko/Honjo bit where she goes to him to say that she’ll volunteer to be his cut model for the upcoming fashion show. Honjo’s reaction to this is so stunning that the rest of the customers in the salon break the fourth wall to boggle at it. “What was that smile on the last page? He’s never smiled like that before!” Of course, he’s quickly back to teasing her again, and it’s notable that she completely misses the smile. Their relationship has a couple volumes to go to resolve.

A good volume, with many things we’ve been waiting for since Volume 1 finally resolved. The next one will wrap up the flashback, and will catch me up on the series, as it only came out in North America 2 weeks ago.

One Piece Volume 40

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By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s hard to review volumes like this. The plot is essentially ‘Luffy & co. go from one point to another’, but it’s done with lots of cool fights, wacky schtick, and surprises. This is Oda, after all. He does in 11 chapters what would take Tite Kubo 11 years.

Therefore, I will simply note random thoughts as I read it:

—I really have to wonder if the whole ‘power level’ joke was Oda’s riffing on Dragon Ball Z. Yes, I know that ‘It’s OVER 9000!!!’ is a North American meme, but I’m sure it’s been heard in Japan by now.
—Baskerville is one of Oda’s best truly silly characters – he’s never afraid to include villains who are there simply for laughs.
—Regarding the sea train flying over the gate, my thought was: for all his stoicness, Zoro is easily just as insane as Luffy is.
—Ooooh. Poor Pirate A, he never gets any love. Or is it B?
—Nice cameo by Usopp, when Sniper King’s mask gets knocked off.
—As helpfully notes by an Exposition-class marine, Nami has leveled up, and is now a powerful fighter. She really should not be surprised by her thunderbolts taking out the good guys too – that’s what weather does, after all.
—Love the exchange between Paulie and Zoro. “Tell them… they’re fired.” Just beautiful.
—In case you didn’t hate Spandam quite enough yet, he’s now belting Robin across the jaw, and kicking her while she’s down repeatedly. Oh, and twisting the “agreement” he had with Robin so that he can kill the Straw Hats. Robin was really being incredibly naive here, thinking that they’d keep their word, but then, that does help to establish that she’s not perfect.
—We also see not only that CP9 have little to no regard for Spandam, but also that Lucci is very much a mad dog. His face when stating they want “BLOOD.” is chilling.
—Great exchange between Blueno and Luffy. “How long do you plan to keep fighting?” “Until I die.”
—And poor Sniper King, getting left behind. Nami notes that he’s not Luffy, which is true enough. But Zoro notes he’s gotten that far and hasn’t died, which is significant.
—And Sniper King (who takes off his mask here, so OK, Usopp) gets a fantastic moment when he manages to turn the giants to their side. Featuring a callback to events that happened a good 27 volumes ago, and it’s highly important that of all the Straw Hats, only Usopp, with his ability to spin a tale and love of warrior giants, could pull this off. It’s not just about hitting hard. More on that in Volume 43.
—Nice little breakdown of the Devil Fruit powers, for once given in the story rather than in Oda’s Question Corner comments. Kaku and Kalifa’s faces as they chow down indicate it’s not exactly a pleasant experience.
—When Sanji isn’t trying to be impressive in front of a woman, he’s really fantastic.
—And Luffy levels up as well, finally showing us Gear Two, which apparently involves pumping blood through his muscles. He’s also managed to learn one of CP9’s 6 superhuman techniques just by watching it a bit. Exit Blueno.

And so, by the end of the volume, Luffy at least has almost caught up to Robin and Franky. What will happen next? (Note if Viz hadn’t sped up One Piece releases, I would have been reading this volume in 2014. I really appreciate them taking the risk of mediocre sales and putting this out.)

Hayate the Combat Butler Volume 14

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By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume of Hayate was delayed almost a month for me, not being part of Diamond’s March releases as it should have. Still, it turned out to be worth the wait, introducing another minor character with a giant plot point in her hand, and of course giving us more meta comedy and romance fail.

The first arc here is Sakuya’s birthday party, and Nagi manages to overcome her groggy exhaustion to show up. This being Sakuya, she’s aiming for comedy, something Wataru utterly fails to provide, as he manages to humiliate himself in front of his beloved Isumi. Still, at least he gets another beta-harem girl later in the volume!

(For those unaware, beta-harems are those manga/anime where there is a second, lesser male lead in the harem show who gets some of the cast-offs who don’t fall for the hero. Kotaro in Negima is an excellent example. Wataru fills that void here, although notably the harems do seem to have some crossover potential.)

Meanwhile, Hinagiku finally gets Ayumu to a quiet place where she can confess her guilt-ridden love for Hayate. There’s some lovely Hina-torture here due to the nature of the quiet place, providing some hysterical laughs. Still, her confession is done seriously, as is Ayumu’s response. Of all the potential harem girls in Hayate, Ayumu is not only the first to have confessed, but clearly the most mature. (She notes how childish Hina is being several times.) I’d say she was a lock to win if she weren’t a classic “Unlucky childhood friend”, and if this weren’t a manga that loves to play with cliches. But it is. Poor Hamster.

The other noticeable plot point in Sakuya’s birthday party is when she and Hayate are out on her patio, with Sakuya teasing Hayate about all the girls who flock to him. She lightly accuses him of being a player, but Hayate shuts up, and we once again see a flashback to a princess-curled little girl, who screams at Hayate that she’s had enough of him. Even Sakuya notices his brooding. She also notes how she wants to have a ‘big brother’ figure (Gilbert apparently is too stupid to count), and nominates Hayate for that, thus removing herself from the harem wars. Sakuya has been one of the more observant and mature characters, despite her Osaka comedy styles, so this isn’t too much of a surprise. And we once again see how Nagi’s mom’s dead has affected her, with her terror of everyone eventually leaving her.

The second half of the manga deals with a school hike, up a very mildly sloped mountain with no dangers whatsoever. However, with half the cast being weak and feeble girls even by shonen standards, no mountain is too mild. And with Hayate being part of the trip, no mountain is safe, as a huge bear gets loose and starts to attack our heroes. Highlights here include Katsura-sensei’s seating chart, which manages to parody both Negima and 20th Century Boys to hilarious effect, and Nagi’s imagining of anthropomorphic Mt. Takao apologizing to her for being such a hard climb.

We only get one new character introduced here, and she doesn’t seem like she’ll play a big part, but appearances are deceiving. Her name is Aika Kasumi, and from what we see in this volume, she seems to be the ‘secretly evil’ yamato nadesico sort, being very polite and mild-mannered while writing things down in her book of other folk’s weaknesses. She also has a pendant, similar to the evil luck-sucking pendant that Nagi’s grandfather gave Hayate. She notes that it also appears to be giving her bad luck, but says that in the end it’s something that money just can’t buy. More foreshadowing!

This was a good solid volume of Hayate, setting up a few future plot points while remaining true to its wacky 4th-wall breaking ways. It rewards re-reads, and also manages to be a harem comedy where a) the girls aren’t sex maniacs, and b) the lead isn’t a complete loser (althougb he thinks he is). I really enjoy it.