The Isolator, Vol. 5

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By Reki Kawahara and Shimeji. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

Last time I said it might be 2020 before we see the next book in this series, and here we are. More amusingly, last time I talked about this series have a better class of villains than SAO or Accel World, and in the afterword here’s Kawahara talking about how he hates it when villains turn good and always has his villains be “extra evil” because of it. Kawahara-san, you are wrong and should feel bad, at least about the second part of that. This particular book is sort of a breather volume in the series, with minimal battles but a whole lot of set up for what’s to come. Liquidizer, who gets the subtitle this time around as well as a second cover picture in a row, isn’t joining the good guys per se. But she wants Trancer back, and for that she’s willing to join forces with Minoru if she must. Meanwhile, Minoru is slowly (though he doesn’t realize this, which is honestly a good thing) letting others into his life.

We get a large chunk of the book that takes place at Minoru’s school, including a handsome guy who is highly interested in Minoru, mostly as he improves vastly on his midterm grades. Of course, the question is was this him being smart or others falling – there’s a rash of illness going around the school, leading the previous top scorers to all be too tired and drawn to do their best. This applies to athletics as well, including Minoru’s not-girlfriend Tomomi, who is feeling more and more as if she doesn’t want to run – to the point where she eventually collapses and goes to hospital. We do eventually figure out who’s behind this, but not till the cliffhanger ending. Still, it’s far more school than we’ve had in the previous book.

The rest of the volume is devoted to Liquidizer and her request for help in recovering Trancer from the hands of the… good guys? Well, that’s a good question. Given this is a book where the author has decided not to make all his villains evil beyond all measure, it makes sense that the people in charge of the good guys likely also have murky motives of their own. Of course, she’s not asking the others to work for free – she’ll give them the location of Oliver’s younger sister Claire, who is revealed to have been captured before Minoru joined them and also had Jet Eye powers. I… kind of wish this had been seeded into earlier books, as it really reads like a far-too-handy reveal here. The few action sequences that we do get are well-handled as always, and show off Minoru’s growing strategic thinking. Oddly, the one think missing here is romance – Yumiko is briefly seen to be annoyed that Minoru has had Suu to his house before, but Liquidizer’s relationship with Minoru rarely goes beyond allies, possibly as she spends a lot of it with a bullet wound.

I enjoyed this book despite it mostly feeling like putting pieces in place for next time. As for when next time is, shall we bet on 2022?

Yuzu the Pet Vet, Vol. 1

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By Mingo Ito. Released in Japan as “Yuzu no Dobutsu Karte” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

The afterword of this manga volume revealed that it was actually a collaborative spinoff of a game (Bow Meow Animal Hospital: Let’s Become a Great Vet) that came out for the 3DS. This surprised me, because as I read it in fact I was feeling a different kin of nostalgia: I was reminded of the older shoujo manga of the 1990s. Shoujo has mostly skewed older as the years have gone by, and these days when you think of it you think of high school girls having to choose between the sullen black-haired guy and the sunny blond-haired guy. (She chooses the former.) But older shoujo actually did feel much of the time like it was writing for a target audience of 10-12 year old girls. Nakayoshi in particular felt that way. And so this retro manga about an 11-year-old girl dealing with her nervousness around animals while working at her uncle’s vet hospital is really wholesome and refreshing.

Yuzu has had a tough life as we begin this volume. Her dad passed away when she was five. Her mother is sick enough that she has to be hospitalized. And so Yuzu goes to stay with her uncle Akihito, who’s a veterinarian. The trouble is twofold: first, she’s scared of animals (and the hospital’s mascot, a chihuahua, doesn’t like her much). Second, he’s putting her to work as his assistant, which… is child labor, but that’s really not what the manga is about, so I’ll ignore it for now. There’s an underlying plot of Yuzu learning to get along better with animals, as well as with her peers, make new friends, and try to stay strong as her mom recovers. That said, the main draw is that each chapter has a dog or cat with a problem, and Yuzu is instrumental in finding the solution, as she’s very empathic.

The manga is not afraid to shy away from topics that are common around vets: the first chapter begins with a dog dying of old age (there’s even an (owner hugs the dying dog as they talk about them going to heaven) shot – this manga is not afraid to slam on the cliches when it wants to pull at the heartstrings). Most of it is telling pet owners to be more observant in how their pets are acting, to pick up on little signs that they may be in distress. This goes both ways – the reason that Yuzu is so quick to solve these “cases” (it reads a bit like a mystery at times) is that she can spot the owner’s emotional deficiencies – the owners also being kids her age. There’s chapters on not overworking your pets, on being able to move on from one pet to another after the first passes away, and (the strongest of the four chapters) on dealing with dogs who have dementia.

There’s not much story here – I expect Yuzu to bond more with the chihuahua, get less nervous overall, and be a ball of sunshine. It’s about the cute animals. Some of them may err on the side of ‘cute’ rather than ‘accurate’ (that Golden Retriever at the end made me laugh at how bad it is), but that’s fine. This feels like a manga for young girls about cute animals and overcoming fears. Recommended for all ages.

The White Cat’s Revenge As Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap, Vol. 1

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By Kureha and Yamigo. Released in Japan as “Fukushuu wo Chikatta Shironeko wa Ryuuou no Hiza no Ue de Damin wo Musaboru” by ArianRose. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Evelyn.

I was excited to read this one, but unfortunately I think it ended up a bit of a mess, for several reasons. It certainly improves after the first section, which is good, as I was tempted to drop it ten pages in. Our heroine is Ruri, who is pretty, smart, has a mother who’s a model, etc. The trouble is she has a “best friend” named Asahi, who clings to her like a limpet… and whenever Asahi’s around other people, they start to love Asahi and hate Ruri. As a result, her life has been miserable, with various attempts to get away from Asahi always meeting with failure. This even includes accidentally getting transported to another world. Ruri ends up there, but so do Asahi and four of her classmates… and now the kingdom they’re in is hating on Ruri too. Will being exiled to certain death in the forest actually improve Ruri’s life? And where are the Dragon King and the White Cat in all of this?

I had several issues with this book, but let’s start with the biggest, which is Asahi. She’s meant to be annoying, and I am grateful she only shows up at the start and the finish (I started calling her “C-Ko” after a while.) But her passive powers mean that, as Ruri herself says, she’s ruined Ruri’s life but can’t be actively blamed for it. She has some sort of passive brainwashing power and isn’t aware of it. This is annoying, as she’s not really evil, just aggravating and oblivious. To a reader, that’s worse. Things are not helped by the Kingdom they find themselves in, populated by humans in a world of demi-humans and beastmen. The King and his Head Priest are so cartoonishly evil that Yosemite Sam would be telling the writer to make them more nuanced. Now, it’s possible that Asahi is getting an important character arc ahead, which this sets up for. But somehow I doubt it.

The rest of the book is better, though still variable. The second large chunk, showing Ruri living in the woods with an elder Dragon woman and learning that she’s got piles of mana and is beloved by spirits, is important because it shows us she’s not really cranky all the time except around Asahi… but it also takes a long time. It’s not until over halfway through the book that we get to the Dragon King’s land, and Ruri ends up as a White Cat. Though she can turn back when she wants, so even this was slightly less than I expected. The not-romance between the Dragon King (who’s drawn to her but thinks she’s a cat) and Ruri (who, having heard humans are hated here, is not willing to change back) is sort of sweet but also potentially troubling.

Things are set up for a climax where Ruri’s true form is revealed, she stops the war, and she confronts Asahi and makes her see the truth. Only one of these things happens, and the confrontation is a damp squib. I think I’m so used to light novels that are written as one-shots, which then develop extra books when they get popular, that I was not ready for a book intended to be multi-volume from the start. This means no plots are resolved at the end. There’s potential in the future, which is why I’ll read the next volume, but mostly this book existed to frustrate my expectations.

Also, the revenge is really half-assed. And why is this another isekai with slavery? And… OK, I’ll shut up now.