The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 9

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By Gamei Hitsuji and Yuunagi. Released in Japan by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

This was, for the most part (I’ll get to the one really annoying bit at the end) a solid volume that gave fans what they wanted: Suimei back on Earth and reconnecting with everyone, and the three main heroines marveling at life in a science-based world and eating lots of delicious sweets. I will admit that those who like the battle scenes in Too Far Behind might find it wanting – the only battle here is about 3/4 of the way through, and it’s a one-way curbstomping. But honestly this is meant to be a pure fanservicey break before we go back to confront the Big Bad, and as such it functions fine. It also introduces us to a new heroine, though it doesn’t appear as if she’s going to be a love interest. Hydemary, Suimei’s disciple, is the girl on the cover art (with the series’ third artist, by the way, which may be why it was so late in coming), and she’s both more and less complex than I was expecting.

I mentioned three main heroines – Hatsumi does return with the rest of them, but spends the entire book essentially recuperating with her family, so is not participating. Her family being a set of terrifying swordsmen who work with Suimei’s family, the whole “we went to a parallel world” explanation is accepted very rapidly. (Reiji and Mizuki stayed behind, and we briefly hear about Suimei mind controlling their parents and the school to smooth things over, which ergh.) As for the other three, Liliana gets her cursed eye fixed at last, though given that it’s fixed by a mad scientist otaku it apparently got a few bells and whistles added to it. Also, she’s still wearing the eyepatch, because of course she is. Lefille learns that the best thing for her swordplay right now is to take a break and not obsess over winning, two very good pieces of advice. And Felmenia basically gets to immerse herself in books and sweets, but that’s good enough for her.

The main plotline involves Suimei, after telling the Magician’s Society sending Suimei (after he briefly explains where he was – they don’t really care) to stop a group who are trying to revive a God somewhere in Germany. Suimei keeps putting this off, much to the irritation of Hydemary, who has had to deal with a) him being gone for 6 months or so, b) him returning with a bunch of other girls; and c) her own self-worth issues, as she’s a homunculus, and thus while she has all the knowledge of the world her experience is minimal. Honestly, I was expecting this to be bigger than it was – I expected her to turn evil for a bit, whereas a pep talk was all it took to cheer her up. It helps that she’s about seven years old in actual years, and thus not a romantic partner – at least not that we can tell. Suimei treats her like a wayward but loved child.

The book ends with a side story showing how Suimei and Hydemary first meet, which was fine except when it turns out her creator was once pals with Hitler before he went bad. Keerist. The whole “Hitler was under the control of other magical forces” plot is very hard to do without being offensive, and it’s impossible when it’s done as a brief dash of backstory before it’s dropped. I really didn’t need to know Hyudemary’s creator was an ex-Nazi. That aside, though, we nearly wrap up the Earth arc and are set to return to Felmenia and company’s home – this time with Hydemary, as well as someone else who is evil and appears to be hitching a ride. When will we see it? Will it have a 4th artist? Who knows? But this was a pretty good entry in the series.

Kakushigoto: My Dad’s Secret Ambition, Vol. 1

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By Kouji Kumeta. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Monthly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America digitally by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Kouji Kumeta, back in the olden days when he was romanized as Koji Kumeta, wrote a series called Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei that was dear to my heart. Featuring a despairing teacher, his eccentric class of students, and overanalysis of Japanese trends and cliches, it ran for 30 volumes and features a very surreal, quite disturbing ending. Sadly, it sold less and less well over here in North America, and petered out with the fourteenth volume. But now, moving from Weekly to Monthly Shonen Magazine, we have a new series from Kumeta, starring a father who desperately wants to hide his profession from his elementary school-aged daughter… because he draws ecchi manga. Indeed, his most popular series, Testicoooool, probably gives you an idea why he does not want his daughter to know this. That said… despite the more realistic premise, this series is for fans of what Kumeta does best: overanalyse things to death, make obscure references, and draw striking poses of most of the characters. The art continues to be fantastic.

There is, to be fair, more of an attempt to hold to the plot and characterization of the title than there ever was with Zetsubou-sensei, which was an excuse for anything to happen. Most of the chapters are about two things: Kakushi’s attempts to hide his manga profession from his daughter and actually drawing the manga with his assistants, and Hime’s school life with her teacher and the cast of Zetsubou… OK, yeah, there’s no getting around that. Hime’s classmates are very obviously elementary school versions of the girls from Zetsubou-sensei. I spotted Chiri, Akira, Nami, Kafuka, Manami, Maria, Matoi… they all have slightly different names, of course, but even then, “Riko Kitsuchi” is clearly “Chiri Kitsu” swapped around. He’s having fun. That said, apart from Riko being a bit overbearing, they don’t ACT like their counterparts. It’s pure fanservice.

Hime’s mother is not in the picture, and Kakushi is shown to be a single parent. This allows him to occasionally be a “harem protagonist”, though like most of those he’s clueless about it. Hime’s teacher clearly has a crush on him, one chapter has him accidentally winning over several single women in the area, and a high school girl trying to be an idol, who finds that Kakushi actually listens to her rambling, might be a stalker in the making. That said, Kakushi only has eyes for his little girl, who he is deeply overprotective of. Many of the chapters show him trying to watch over her and make sure she isn’t bullied by the other kids (which is not going to happen, mostly as Hime is a sweetie pie). As for whether she will find out… well, the manga begins with her, as a high school girl, having the secret deliberately revealed to her, and the end of this volume implies that’s because Kakushi has died. (I’d say that ending is too dark for a comedy manga, but then remember how Zetsubou ended, so maybe…)

It’s the in between that counts, though, and this series ended up running for twelve volumes. I’ll be reading more, though I admit I read it for the creator, not the characters or plot.

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest Short Stories

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By Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Shouhenshuu” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen

This was not the Short Story collection I expected, to be honest, at least not till the final third of the book. What it is is a rounding up of most of the very short stories that the author wrote for giveaways, store-exclusives, etc. A lot of series have these, few bring it out as a real volume. (J-Novel Club has quite a few of them as Premium Extras for subscribers, and indeed I think a lot of these originally appeared as exclusive extras in earlier books.) The book breaks down in four sections: the first are short-short stories taking place within the timeline of approximately Books 1-5 of the main series; the second is an alternate universe where the characters are at a “magical academy” type school; the third has three short takeoffs on popular fairy tales; and the fourth is the short story written exclusively for this book, which has the main cast (along with Myu and Remia) ending up in the crossover event we all wanted to see.

The cover features Hajime, reminding us why he’s rarely on the cover as he looks far more chuuni than grimdark; and Myu, whose character trait in this volume is to show off how she’s taking after her “daddy” despite only having been around him a short time. As for the content… I’m gonna be honest, while these were cute, about 2/3 of the book does not lend itself to a review. There’s lots of harem fights, there’s characters being dorks, there’s indiscriminate destruction of anyone who would dare go after Myu, etc. The Academy/Fairy Tale chapters are even less important, so I’ll skip them entirely. I did enjoy the chapters showing Hajime’s parents, first in a flashback showing off their otaku occupations (honestly, they remind me far too much of the parents from Outbreak Company) and then showing how upset they are at their son’s disappearance.

The main reason to get this is the last story, which has the cast, taking a final voyage with Myu (and Remia) before leaving her behind, and ending up spirited to a cursed city by a phantom whale that seems to only communicate with Myu. Unfortunately, the monsters here are too powerful for this group to handle. Yes, even Hajime. Fortunately, this whale can also reach back… in TIME! Yes, you guessed it, the cast of Arifureta meets the cast of Arifureta Zero, with Miledi being somewhat baffled as to why everyone hates her, Meiru becoming a total siscon about little Myu, etc. Eventually they do team up to take down the Big Bads, and we see Miledi and Yue comparing themselves to each other, as do Oscar and Hajime. Sadly, due to plot contrivance, they don’t remember the meeting afterwards, but hey. (This story also serves to show that Remia’s “ara ara” personality is for show, as if we hadn’t guessed, and also that she may be falling for Hajime for real.)

So in the end, this is pretty light and fluffy, and not an essential purchase. But it’s reasonably fun, and the last quarter was quite entertaining. Arifureta fans should like it.