Restaurant to Another World, Vol. 4

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By Junpei Inuzuka and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan as “Isekai Shokudou” by Shufunotomosha. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Elliot Ryouga. Adapted by Nino Cipri.

This sat in my queue for a while, not because I don’t enjoy it, but because I know reviewing it will always be hard, as it’s 75% loving descriptions of food. We get rice burgers, French onion soup, Oyakodon, Peperoncino and potato chips, and trust me, they’re all described so that you immediately want to make the meal yourself. Sadly, there aren’t recipes included in these books the way you see with a lot of cooking manga (perhaps the manga version will add them?). In terms of the restaurant itself, the biggest development is that Aletta gets a raise, as she’s now been there for one year. That said, there’s a lot of development on the other side of the door in terms of worldbuilding. Indeed, we finally get the origin story for the doors, and it shows a tie between both worlds that is both surprising and obvious at the same time. Turns out it runs in the family.

This isn’t to say that we don’t get glimpses of the future as well. One of the book’;s more annoying but tolerable habits is to show a character won over by something the restaurant is serving and think about how to create it in their world, followed by a caption talking about how in a hundred years’ time, their names would be legendary in terms of achieving the objective. The fantasy world may lack preservatives, but it’s making do, and finding ways to at least come close to things that the restaurant can serve. There’s also more discussion of half-elf prejudice – we’ve seen this discussed before, but here we get it starkly laid out, as by chance one girl in a village born to two half-elfs is a “changeling” – essentially meaning she develops in elf terms. This leads to her being abandoned by the village for being “slow”, when in reality it’s more she’s still a baby. Fortunately, she gets rescued and apprenticed.

The book jumps around more than usual – there’s several chapters with the previous generation at the restaurant, and the prologue and final chapters deal with the generation before that. It turns out that Yomi, one of the saviors of the world from ancient times, was essentially blown up into our dimension, and ended up being found by the current manager’s grandfather. Them marrying is what led to the restaurant and the special relationship it has with her old world. Her husband has passed on, but she’s still around, and shows up at the final chapter to give her grandson the “master key” – in essence, showing she trusts that he can handle everything going forward. It’s not a “I’m about to die” sort of scene, but reads more as a passing of the torch – indeed, she reads like a tough old grandma, and even meets up with one of her old compatriots, now also an old man.

So another solid entry in the series, though as noted you’d better love descriptions of food. Fans should be quite hungry – I mean, happy.

Banner of the Stars: Dinner With Family

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By Hiroyuki Morioka and Toshihiro Ono. Released in Japan by Hayakawa Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino.

This volume takes us right back to the start of the series… and also cuts its ties with it, making it clear that whatever future Jint might have, it’s not going to be on the planet he was born on, or even with the guys he hung out with in college (or its equivalent). Unfortunately, it’s hard to get past the fact that he is taking on the sins of his father in many ways. That and his future lies with Lafier, but everyone and their brother knows that, from his former crew (who he reunites with in this book) to the people who raised him (who at least reconcile with him), the latter going to far as to essentially give Lafier their blessing. As for Lafier herself, even she admits that she’s just hanging around in this book – she’s here because Jint is, but her future absolutely lies in space, and just thinking about how she would want to do things she can’t is making her envious.

The cover art has the two of them looking quite cute, and that fits with the tone of this volume. After the prison drama and watching Jint suffer last time, here there’s a breather, as he has to deal with his world, which is in rebellion once more, and harboring soldiers from the enemy. He’s also trying to accrue some staff so that he can start earning money to pay back the massive debt he’s increasing – Lafier is just fine with him borrowing more and more, but then Lafier seems to be just fine with most everything in this book. This actually becomes a bit of a character point, as when Jint tries to recruit his old friend Durin, who rejects the offer because, frankly, he finds Abh creepy. He’s not wrong, to be honest – we’ve gotten used to the Abh’s tendency to banter in the face of danger in previous books, but to those on the outside, the fact that there’s a total lack of anger or rage can be unsettling.

The other half of the book sees Sobash and the rest of Lafier’s former crew take part in a mock battle which, coincidentally, involves getting to Jint’s home system and having the battle there – its remoteness from everything being a plus. Unfortunately, Martinh decides to fire at one of the ships – which does basically no damage – and the other ship fires back what they assume s also a shot that will cause no damage – it in fact causes a fair bit, though we’re not told how much. The reason we’re not told is that the planet makes it very clear that, in exchange for returning nominally to the Empire, Jint himself has to vow to never even go near the star system again. It’s total rejection, and the fact that it’s coming from the couple who brought him up hurts a bit.

Still, by now Jint, who’s always been a bit weird, is a lot more Abh than he’d perhaps like to think – and his future is definitely in space, with Lafier, though they’re still no closer to being a real couple except that everyone except them knows they are. This also brings this ‘arc’ to an end, though we’re not getting a ‘________ of the Stars’ title change this time. As for when we’ll get the next book here… not sure. I suspect they were licensed in chunks of three, so sales may need to tick up a bit. Till then, this is a good, if low on action, volume.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 24

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By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

It can be very hard to stop something once it’s gotten started, and when that something is “war”, it becomes ten times as hard. At the end of the last volume I thought we’d get a long section of Yona and Su-Won debating the subject, but no, Su-Won knows that now is not the time to have Yona whisper sweet words of peace in his ear. Instead we get some very clever tactical maneuvering on both sides, relying on Hak’s reputation with the Wind tribe, Yona’s ability to make Tae-Jun do anything she says (though at least there is a bit of “it’s not because I like you or anything” to the logic), and Su-Won figuring BOTH of these things out and making his own move to ensure that yes, there is going to be a war with a lot of dead people. Because sometimes that’s how you king, especially given the previous king.

The cliffhanger implies that the next volume may be different, but this volume reminded me how good the author is at maneuvering things so that expected events do not take place, or go in different directions. It’s a good skill to have, especially as the reader does not feel manipulated. Despite negotiating with Ogi, the meeting with Su-Won does not happen, and instead we get retainer Min-Su, who sympathizes heavily with Yona but also serves the King, and explains that this war can only end in a bloody battle. And yet we don’t get that battle here either, though we come close. (We also don’t get much of Kouren, and I hope that there is some focus on her soon.) As ever, Yona is trying to solve things by being an idealist who can back her ideals up, sometimes with violence, but here through negotiating attempts. It’s hard to negotiate when the other side avoids you, though…that said, more and more people are discovering she is alive.

As you would expect, there’s not really a lot of humor in this book, although the reaction to Jaeha’s leg may be the high point there. This also brings me to Mizari, who is probably the most fascinating part of this book. Let’s face it, it’s rare that ‘the guy with the slasher smile who’s clearly not all there’ gets deep character development. He’s fascinated with the dragon warrior captives (this is why we see Jaeha’s leg), and when he sees the soldiers that are going against Su-Won’s forces, he kills one just because he realizes how weak they are. His logic – he would have died immediately on the battlefield anyway – is twisted but also shows that he too is thinking about how this war is going to go for Kouren’s side. Badly. And that’s why he wants the power of the Dragon Warriors, because he wants to protect her. I don’t like Mizari as a person, but as a character he’s fantastic.

The cliffhanger implies we’ll finally be getting the confrontation that we didn’t get this time, but honestly I suspect that despite all of Yona and Hak’s maneuvering that we’re going to end up going to war anyway. In the meantime, please keep reading one of the best shoujo series out there.