Outbreak Company, Vol. 13

Leave a reply

By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha Light Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Harem comedies can be immensely frustrating for the reader, especially if they’ve picked the girl they like and would like the author to end the series with their choice please, OK, thanks. But harem comedies are also popular because everyone reads it to see who will be picked, and so that is drawn out forever. You think you’ve reached an end point… and then it backs away again. There are very good reasons for this – much to the frustration of North American companies, harem comedies that have a resolution in Japan see sales in the West drop off precipitously once they know who wins (not their girl). Or it has “no ending”, leaving everyone angry. But again – fans love these sorts of books and read them in great numbers AT FIRST. So they keep happening. And that’s how we get to Outbreak Company, which last time had Shinichi finally realize that Myusel and Petralka are both in love with him. How does he handle it? Unfortunately, like a harem protagonist.

There is a plot here, which is so ridiculous I hesitate to type it up. The kingdom is going through its armory, which includes various mind-controlling weapons and such, and find five boxes of armor with lettering on them that seems to be Japanese. While having our heroes examine it, through various wacky accidents, Myusel, Petralka and Elvia all end up inside one of the artifacts, which are essentially powered suits (powered by fanservice, if the pictures are any indication). The armor removes some inhibitions (meaning they can all yell at each other about how Shinichi likes the other two more than them) and also was military in use, meaning it allows them to attack each other – potentially fatal news for Myusel and Elvia if they hurt Petralka. How do they get out of the armor? Well, the objective has to be fulfilled. Sadly, the objective is “have Shinichi choose a girl”.

I’ve gradually come to realize that I’ve been giving a bit more depth to Shinichi than the author has really intended. I’ve said before how Shinichi’s own self-hatred would make it hard for him to genuinely love anyone, and there’s a bit of that here, notably in the harrowing opening nightmare that he has. But for the most part Shinichi acts like any shonen harem lead would… he whines, he wusses, he says he likes all of them equally, he says he doesn’t want to hurt any of them. That last is perhaps the real reason – he got rejected when he confessed back on Earth, and doesn’t want the others to suffer like he did. And so, inevitably, he arrives at a solution that is very harem manga-like – he gets the girls to resolve their fight by beating him up instead. By the end of the book the feelings are still out in the open, but we seem to be back to “status quo”.

There’s some foreshadowing towards the end, notably in terms of where the armor came from in the first place. But for the most part this is the most harem-like of the books to date, and therefore suffers most of the weaknesses of that genre. The next volume is short stories, so we likely won’t see any forward movement there either. Which suits the author fine.

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, Vol. 9

Leave a reply

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I first noticed this with Invaders of the Rokujouma?!, but it can also be applied to many other long-running light novel series: the girl who is on the cover of the book is not necessarily the girl with the most to do within the book. Obviously, Mile always has the most to do, it’s her series, but I can’t help but not that poor Reina and Pauline get far less of the plot here. Indeed, even Mile towards the end fades into the background, as this is very much a book about Mavis and about her strengths and weaknesses, weaknesses that she is starting to have a complex about. Before that, we wrap up the dwarves/orc plot with a tense and pitched battle; Mile and company help out some elf researchers (no, different ones) and once again teach guys not to take advantage of them; and Mile returns to the kingdom that was siccing monsters on others and reminds them not to do it… by dressing in another silly costume.

As I said last time, the Crimson Vow are getting pretty famous, as are their abilities. In particular Mile’s ridiculous storage magic. As such, when they agree to work with another party to guard the elven researchers, the other team assumes Mile will be carrying everything, because she can. This is a bad assumption, especially as the researchers paying them DON’T know about Mile’s abilities (at first). That said, it does show off one of the better aspects of this series – it very much loves putting arrogant men in their place and humiliating them for daring to underestimate or be sexist asses around our heroines. However, if, like several other male teams we’ve seen so far, they learn their lesson and proceed to be good and helpful teammates, then the Crimson Vow lets up and stops the abuse – particularly after the team saves Mavis from certain death.

The back half of the book deals with Mavis’ feelings of inadequacy compared to the rest of the Crimson Vow. Mile is Mile, of course. Reina and Pauline have both gotten brilliant at magic. But there’s only so far you can go with a sword without the dreaded “years of experience” that Mavis doesn’t have. We’ve seen her in the past abusing Mile’s stimulants to give her extra power, and she does so again here, much to Mile’s fury. She also, as the cliffhanger shows us, has a little bit of the chuuni in her, despite being 18 years old – she wants to save the girl and protect her against impossible odds not because it’s the right thing to do, or because she thinks she can win, but because it’s really cool. As intended, I feel sympathy for Mavis while also laughing at her, and I hope she learns a bit of a lesson in the next book. (Also, stop taking magical steroids!)

A few minor hiccups here and there (there was a pedophilia joke about an orphanage that was simply bad, there’s a “despite being strongly attracted to another woman I’m not gay!” bit, and the section with Mile terrifying the bad kingdom was pretty weak) does not stop this from being another solid entry in this series. go get it.

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 22

Leave a reply

By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

If this is to be the final novel of Index released in North America (something still up in the air at the moment), it’s a good way to go out, despite the fact that it also ends up killing off its main character. Still, I suspect precisely no fans believed he was dead at the time, and they certainly don’t now that we’ve had New Testament 1-23 and are starting a 3rd light novel sequence. As with the previous two books, this is a big ol’ action sequence, complete with a battle on a slowly crumbling cathedral made up of cathedrals. This time around, though, we do get more of the themes Kamachi wants in the main story, as Touma points out that writing the world off as being too evil and reformatting it is a foolishly naive thing to do, Hamazura discovers that – surprise! – Academy City’s ‘ranking’ system is fixed, and Accelerator sings out loud and sings out strong. There’s even time for some “new” characters.

Appearing on the cover are Accelerator and Misaka Worst, who ironically get the least to do in this book. New characters: Klans Tzarskij, the Russian Patriarch. “New” characters: Silvia and Ollerus, who show up at the end, both of whom the Japanese readers met in the unlicensed 2nd Short Story volume. In terms of Timeline, we end on Halloween night, which means that it’s been a little over four months since Index and Touma first met. Busy months, to be sure. There’s actually something of an attempt to show off everyone trying to save the world: Agnes’ nuns are around, Kaori swings her sword, etc. That said, in terms of action this is still very much a three-person book, with an assist from Mikoto, who gets to stop a nuke going off but for the most part is reduced to trying to save Touma and having him abandon her because he still has more saving to do.

Hamazura’s battle against Mugino ends a lot cleaner than I’d expected, mainly as Mugino is already sort of half-broken and exhausted. He appeals to the good old days when they were ITEM, and asks to reform the team (minus Frenda, who is dead, but at least he mentions apologizing at her grave for killing her). Also, it turns out his girlfriend may be the most important person in all of Academy City, as she has the potential power to move quirks… erm, sorry, skills… from one person to another. I admit I am not overly fond of Hamazura torturing (offscreen) an Academy City soldier for blackmail info he needs, but then I hate “torture works!” scenes. Accelerator manages to combine magic and science and save Last Order, though he almost breaks himself doing it, and he once again reaffirms the idea of family that’s hovered around him.

As for Touma, well, he’s there to yell at the bad guy and punch the bad guy, and he does both of those – even when the bad guy is an angel. It looks like he got through to Fiamma, though we’ll need to see more books to figure out if it stuck. Did he die? Well, no, look at the covers for New Testament 1-23. Is he dead for now? Yes. It makes for a slightly bittersweet ending to the whole arc, which otherwise is relatively happy. I’m going to assume that the first volume of New Testament will be another “Touma-light” volume, which is much easier now that there’s two other main heroes – or antiheroes. As for whether we’ll see it, that’s up to Yen Press and Dengeki Bunko. I hope we do someday.