Not Your Idol, Vol. 1

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By Aoi Makino. Released in Japan as “Sayonara Miniskirt” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ribon. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Tetsuichiro Miyaki. Adapted by Nancy Thistlethwaite.

This is one of Viz Media’s strongest debuts in some time, and it’s taken me a while to find a way to put down some words and review it. There’s a number of reasons for that. It’s a strong debut but it’s not a fun book – this book wants to deliberately make you uncomfortable and challenge traditional views on things. It looks at idol culture and the obsessiveness of their fans, about reaching out to accept help and how that can be both a good thing and also a bad thing; about fighting back against the everyday sexism in the lives of women and why some choose not to. There’s a lot going on here, including some things that (possibly) spoil the entire book that I am going to do my best to dance around. In the end, though, this is a book that grabs you by the collar and rips your face towards the pages. I’m not sure I enjoyed it, but I really liked it.

Nina Kamiyama is a brooding, quiet high school student who dresses in the male uniform, and is immediately contrasted with the rest of her classmates discussing things like how good their legs look in skirts. We also meet Hikaru, a young man in the judo club who seems to be the only guy in their class who’s not turned off by Nina. Things come to a head when the teacher announces that someone is assaulting girls around their school area, so everyone should go home in groups. Of course, Nina is a loner, and also does not want to show any weakness, so she goes home by herself, despite clearly dealing with some past trauma. She is then confronted by Hikaru, who knows her secret: she’s Karen Amamiya, former member of a top idol group who retired after being knifed by a stalker at an event. He admits that his younger sister was sexually assaulted by a teacher, and that she became a fan of Karen’s idol group because they said it was “OK to be a girl”. Slowly Nina and Hikaru grow closer… but is that what’s really going on?

I don’t usually post pictures of panels in my reviews, which is a shame, as there’s lots of terrific ones here. Nina leaping on a desk to grab some jerk’s school tie, saying “girls don’t dress to please guys like you”. Nina and Hikaru helping a shy classmate when she’s groped by a stalker on a train. The entire last few pages of this volume. It’s not shying away from problematic behavior, from both boys and girls, and contrasts Nina heavily with the cute, bubbly Miku, who is everything stereotypically feminine. Nina is also in touch with her former idol group, and we learn how they’re struggling to keep popularity now that Karen has retired… and we also hear from her friend Sara that Karen was too good at suppressing her emotions and being “inhuman”. All this culminates in the climax to the book, which again I won’t spoil, but shows us everything we’ve learned about a character to date and makes us question it.

After finishing the book, I was on the fence about whether I really wanted to read more. I’ve since come around. I want to find out what happens next. I hope you do as well.

Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Arch-Wizard’s Little Sister

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By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

I recently reviewed the third volume of Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, by the same author, and noted the difference between that series and KonoSuba is that KonoSuba has heart. Which is true, as the latter half of this book shows. But to get there we have to get through the first half of this book. And it’s a good reminder that, while the cast of KonoSuba are nice and sweet compared to the sociopaths of Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, they are still quite horrible people overall. No one exemplifies this more than Kazuma, who after the last volume is spending his days lazing around the castle being waited on by servants and corrupting the princess (no, not like that, fortunately – she’s just talking casually now). After finally being thrown out, he then has to get back into his own mansion, as he’s been locked out by a thoroughly pissed-off Aqua. It’s only when Megumin’s sister Komekko shows up that the cast remember that they’re badass and also not terrible.

In a nod to the overall plot, Komekko is brought to Axel because Megumin’s village is under attack by the Demon Lord’s forces, which has led to their home being destroyed. so “those two girls” (in a nod to the trope, Megumin can’t remember their names, and to be honest neither can I) drop Komekko off to be looked after by Megumin while the Crimson Magic Clan strikes back and also cleans up. Komekko’s quite happy with this, as everyone and their brother is feeding her. She’s also happy because Megumin has been writing her letters about how AWESOME she and everyone else in Axel is, and she wants to find out about this first-hand. Given that, for once, Kazuma and company are reasonably well-liked by the town, the other adventurers are willing to go along with Megumin’s exaggerated letters. In fact, the guild decides to take advantage of this. A lot.

Everyone here gets their moments to shine and also their moments to be humiliated, in the best KonoSuba way. The exception is Komekko, who plays everyone like a fiddle and will likely be far more powerful than Megumin when she grows up. Darkness comes off worst, as she’s still hamstrung by having to be the sensible one, with her perverse moments kept to a minimum. As for Megumin, much to the surprise of Kazuma (and the reader), she is not going to let him forget her confession from the end of the 9th book – she repeats it, and then says she’d like to be “more than friends but less than lovers”. It’s a great scene, and Kazuma responds to it (for him) relatively seriously. Of course, it’s then undercut immediately, because no one does that better than KonoSuba – Komekko heard this confession and tells everybody, leading to a hilarious final scene.

As this point Kazuma/Megumin seems to be set in stone… though the cliffhanger may bring fresh chaos. Darkness has a kid? Is she a child from the future? (Probably not). In any case, this was an enjoyable book, once I got past the obligatory “sixty or so pages of Kazuma being a scumbag” parts.

By the Grace of the Gods, Vol. 2

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By Roy and Ririnra. Released in Japan as “Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mana Z.

It’s probably not a coincidence that while the genre of ‘Slow Life’ novels is very popular in Japan, we haven’t really seen that many straight examples of it here in the West. There have been a few that come close, but they tend to have a lot of things happening, or else they’re standard isekai only lackadaisical. By the Grace of the Gods really comes closest to the pure type (Ryoma does do some adventuring and goblin slaying, so it’s not 100% “no I will not be a isekai protagonist I am going to farm!” like the best of them), as Ryoma, over the course of the book, realizes that rather than hanging out with the rich family who “rescued” him and getting closer to their daughter who clearly has a crush on him, and rather than going on guild quests and monster hunting, he’s going o be… opening a laundry. Of course, given his slimes, this is not as big a jump as you might expect. The result is that the book is… pretty good but dull.

We don’t get the laundry till the end of the book, so for the most part this book involves Ryoma finding odd things to do with his ever increasing pile of slimes. He’s learning new magic, so that he can store them better and also teleport. He’s clearing abandoned mines of minor monster hordes, along with the occasional worse than expected monster horde. And he is getting involved in fights between a bunch of bully adventurers and the kids they’re taking advantage of… which not only leads Ryoma to kick their ass and make sure they’re punished, but also makes him realize that this sort of thing is exactly NOT what he wants to do. And that he’s not happy with this side of himself. So a laundry, given how hard it is to get monster guts off of clothing in this world, sounds fantastic.

This last part is the most interesting part of the book. Ryoma gets really pissed off when he sees the bullying adventurers, enough that it gets a color page. Given Ryoma’s default mood has been ‘stoic’, this merely involves escalating to ‘glower’, but it’s a start. That said, I really liked his attempts at self-analysis after the event – they make sense to him, but also feel a bit wrong to the reader and to everyone else around him. He decides to be “more independent” by breaking off with the duke’s family, convinced that being with them would “spoil” him. Honestly, I agree more with everyone that he tells this to: I think he needs more exposure to others, not less. He’s easily pegged as someone who will never ask for help. Even the Gods, when he prays to them and goes for a visit (remember the title), inform him that he’s not just a 40-old guy in an 11-year-old body – his emotional state is matching up with his age in THIS world. It’s a great conceit that’s the best part of the book.

That said, the REST of the book is a lot of monster hunts, slimes, and everyone praising Ryoma for being awesome… in other words, standard light novel. That said, I’m very interested to see where this goes nest.