Unnamed Memory, Vol. 3

Leave a reply

By Kuji Furumiya and chibi. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Tangney.

After a first volume where I had trouble with the characters, and a second volume where I had trouble with the way the story was laid out, here I didn’t have trouble with either, and as a result we get our strongest volume to date, a truly compelling read. Indeed, if it weren’t for the last fifth of the book, you might think that this was also the final volume. It certainly has a wedding on the cover art, but this is a light novel, not a shoujo manga, and I believe we still have three more books to go after this. The question is whether those books will star Oscar and Tinasha, who seems to get a fate that’s going to be hard to overcome at the ending. Before that, though, there’s everything you want in an Unnamed Memory book, and for once that includes requited love and some real sweetness – along with a bunch of sudden death battles, of course. I mean, Oscar and Tinasha can’t escape their own pasts. Or can they?

Tinasha has truly settled into life at the castle now, to the point that she’s truly startled when some little kids try storming her castle (she’s able to dissuade them). That said, villains we’ve seen before and villains who we do not yet know continue to try to make life terrible for her, and after yet another nearly fatal attempt on Oscar’s life, she is willing to give up and admit that OK, she may have feelings for this big lug and sure, they can get married I GUESS. This is actually a bigger deal than you might expect, as spiritual magic works by the age-old rules of “no virginity no strong magic” – fortunately Tinasha is strong enough that she still has strong magic, it’s just not LUDICROUSLY strong anymore. Bad timing on that front, too, as she has to fight another Witch, this one with a grudge.

The back half of the book is taken up to a great extent by one big battle, and it’s very well written, showing off how things go back and forth and also giving us a bit of the backstory of the Witch Who Cannot Be summoned, the one trying to take out Oscar and Tinasha. She’s the classic “I want to manipulate people because I get bored” sort, but her backstory is surprising and also touching. Then there’s that final story, where Oscar picks up an orb that he shouldn’t and is sent back into the past, to Tinasha’s old kingdom, before she becomes a witch. While there’s a bit of the classic time travel dilemma here, and in fact it drives the ending, the main reason this is cute is getting to see Oscar and teenage Tinasha interact, and seeing her falling for him hard despite the fact that this changes history. It’s adorable and bittersweet.

So, not to give away the ending, but now what? The afterward suggests we’ll be looking at some other people in the history of Oscar’s family, but I can’t really believe the author would choose to end things here, so I’m raising an eyebrow at that. That said, no matter what future volumes do, you should read this one.

A Certain Scientific Railgun, Vol. 16

Leave a reply

By Kazuma Kamachi and Motoi Fuyukawa. Released in Japan as “Toaru Kagaku no Railgun” by ASCII Media Works, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Nan Rymer.

The beloved and sadly very out of print Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga had one of its chapters dedicated to the subject of “power creep” in shonen manga, which Railgun definitely falls under, despite its magazine technically falling under the seinen umbrella. (Dengeki Daioh’s readership is basically “otaku, of any genre”.) If you have a bad guy that you defeat, then the next villain has to be slightly more powerful, and so on and so forth till you’re eventually fighting against the biggest threat in the entire universe, and it all gets a bit silly. Railgun has that issue, but not for its villains – instead, it’s the heroines who struggle with it. We’ve already seen Misaka nearly go out of control when they tried to force her to evolve to Level 6. Now here we see Uiharu, who is supposedly a Level 1 “thermos”, force-evolving her hacking powers to literally rewrite reality in order to save the day, which… I suspect we won’t be seeing down the road.

Of course, that is not the only thing that Uiharu does in this volume. This is her arc, after all, and after spending most of the last volume on ice, she’s back in command here, showing us the same strength that allowed her to stare down Kakine and suffer only a broken collarbone. We even see her – gasp! – use her ability, rather than her hacking, in order to escape from her guards, and it’s a very clever usage as well. That said, the bad guys also know what her weak spot is. Railgun’s yuri poster child may be Kuroko, but I suspect the number of fans who think Misaka and Kuroko will end up together is zero. But Uiharu and Saten have just as much if not more subtext, and this volume really hammers it home. Uiharu is so dedicated to Saten that she’ll suffer great pains to get to her. And when told Saten has been fatally poisoned, Uiharu almost turns evil, to the point where she is literally just a cloud of blackness… until Saten, who is dying but not dead, snaps her out of it, saying that’s not the path she should follow. The Fullmetal Alchemist fan in me was recalling a similar scene, let me tell you.

On the down side, it’s not that I dislike any of the young kids who are being forced by Academy City’s evil science department to become supervillains, it’s just… we’ve seen this backstory about eight different times in Railgun alone, and it’s hard not to have the first thing I think be “here we go again”. Honestly, it’s something of a wonder that Mikoto ended up as well-adjusted as she is, and she’s the one with a super fiery temper. The other problem is that the arc doesn’t end in this book – there’s one epilogue chapter to go… which means we’ll have to wait till (presumably) 2022 to see if Saten survived (signs point to yes) and if Uiharu remains the most powerful being in the world (signs point to no). That said, this volume is quite strong and fans of the series should love it.

Adachi and Shimamura, Vol. 6

Leave a reply

By Hitoma Iruma and Non. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Molly Lee.

(I try not to spoil much, but honestly, if you read this you’ll guess what happens in it. Be warned.)

I’ve spent five volumes talking about Shimamura and her tendency to try not to feel too hard about things, which contrasts nicely with Adachi’s feeling very, very hard about everything… well, everything to do with Shimamura, that is. And if there’s any change that’s going to be happening, it’s going to have to be from Shimamura herself. Honestly, Adachi is expending all her energy not simply exploding in a giant cloud of gay. That said, good news: this is a big breakthrough volume for Shimamura, and probably the one that deals with her and her emotional reserve best. I don’t know that it works as well as it should – the author really relies on the reader connecting a lot of dots, and sometimes I don’t think they connect – but by the end of the book Shimamura is far more willing to reach out and deal with everything, including Adachi. Especially Adachi. Shimamura may not have worked out how she feels about Adachi just yet, but she’s definitely stopped ignoring the fact that Adachi is madly in love with her.

Sadly for Adachi, the first half of the book has Shimamura going to her grandparent’s place out in the country, so she’s going to have to suffer for a while on her own. Going back there, a place she’s spent many summers, fills Shimamura with memories, especially since the puppy which she played with when she was a little girl is now old and having trouble moving around like they used to. This causes Shimamura to think hard about her life, in particular the way that she’s chosen to close herself off from caring too much recently. When she returns (the return is the highlight of the book, for reasons I won’t spoil), she’s quick to phone Adachi, and they then agree to go out to another festival (I mean, it’s summer in Japan, there is always a festival somewhere). Oh yes, and before that they bathed together, which was… weird, but also led to Adachi confessing when she overheated. Will Shimamura finally face this fact and give Adachi a response? And will the response be something other than “well, OK, whatever”?

First off, I am spoiling one thing that does NOT happen in the book – the entire front of the book is setting the reader up for the dog to die. Hell, every time Shimamura sees the dog she herself is thinking that it’s going to be dead. But Adachi and Shimamura did not win the Newbery Medal, and therefore the dog does not die. I was relieved. As for Adachi and Shimamura, well, this is a turning point, certainly. I’m not sure it’s necessarily a good move all around – Adachi is worse than ever this volume, and I think if they ever animate it she’s going to have to simply be vibrating in place by the end. Shimamura has made great strides, and I was actually impressed with her through most of the book, but her response to Adachi still is more “sure, we’ll try that” rather than a big emotional investment. Which makes sense – honestly, even getting a small emotional investment is a victory.

So how will things progress from here? Will it be cute and teen romancey, or will it get realistic and have everything fly apart because these two are far too emotionally scattered to really connect right now? Still, Shimamura trying is infinitely better than the Shimamura we’ve had until now, so I’m in favor overall.