Sword Art Online, Vol. 19: Moon Cradle

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Well, having wrapped up the 10-volume Alicization arc, here we are back in the Underworld anyway. This book takes place in the subjective 200 years of time that Kirito and Asuna spent there before returning to the real world – in fact, it takes place in the first few months of those 200 years. There’s still a lot to be sorted out, mostly as the darklanders live in a barren wasteland (because it’s meant to be a game and they were meant to be evil) and the humans live in nice plentiful farmlands. Worse still, there’s a murder, something thought to be impossible. It quickly becomes clear that the murderer is trying to set things up so that there will be another war between the two groups. Can Kirito and Ronie find out who is behind all this? And can Ronie actually manage to confess to Kirito, something that seems to elude all the other heroines not named Asuna. Fortunately, she has a big advantage here: she’s the 3rd-person narrator, and the book is better for it.

Those who don’t like Kirito… well, first of all, why are you reading Vol. 19 of this series? But secondly, you won’t like this one, as he’s overpowered and also cheeky most of the time. It’s easy to see why Ronie loves him, and also easy to see why she feels inferior compared to Asuna, who is very much in the wise all-knowing mode here. She and Tiese have the same problem, but framed differently: Tiese is still in love with Eugeo, but he’s dead, and she can’t move on. Meanwhile, Ronie is in love with Kirito, who is in her face every day, but is also taken. In other words, Ronie falls into the same category as every other SAO heroine who isn’t Asuna (or, arguably, Alice). Ronie also has some doubts about her ability as a Knight, though those start to be resolved by the end of the book when she’s able to channel her inner Kirito and do seemingly impossible stunts.

We get not one but two babies in this book – Fanatio’s child at the start, who gets to be thrown hundreds of feet into the air and then caught, every baby’s dream, as well as the child of Iskahn and Sheyta, who shown off the two sides coming together and also sadly proves to be our baby in distress towards the end, though I suppose I should count myself lucky that there are no rape threats in this book. Indeed, with the lack of that and also the lack of a super evil sneering villain, this book shows off a maturity that the SAO series has lacked at times. This was, I believe, the last of the webnovel material to be adapted for light novels – which is important, because it means we’re moving past the sometimes amateurish writing from 15 years ago. And, as I said before, the book also reads better when not in first-person perspective. I wish he did that more often.

This is the first of a two-parter, and the next volume promises a bit more Asuna. Still likely filtered through Ronie, through, which is fine. I like her. SAO fans should find a lot to enjoy here, and SAO haters should find a lot of ammo.

Baccano!: 2002 [Side B]: Blood Sabbath

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By Ryohgo Narita and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

I’ve talked before about the Japanese tendency to write the blackest of black villains, so evil and horrible that it ends up being absolutely fine when our heroes kill them off in morally questionable ways. In general, I’m not a fan of these, and tend to prefer more nuanced or morally grey types. That said, I have to admit, Narita writes these sorts of people better than most light novel authors. We get two classic examples here, but one’s a spoiler, so I’ll talk about the other. Bride is the leader of SAMPLE, a thoroughly disturbing religious cult descended from the same cult that tortured Elmer when he was a kid. Bride is abusing children, mentally breaking and drugging a woman (investigating them undercover) into submission, killing large numbers of people, and being gleeful about it the entire time. But he’s sort of horrifyingly fun. Possibly as the book avoids the rape threats so many other authors would throw in (Bride makes a comedic play at his drugged wife, but this seems staged.) He also contrasts with the other villain of the book, who is… less fun.

The first half of this book takes place on Exit, the ship going from Japan to New York, and the sister ship to the one Firo and company are on. Elmer, Sylvie, Nile and Denkurou (who gets his first significant role here, though to be honest he doesn’t do much except moon over Sylvie) are invited, supposedly by Huey, to the ship, and they all go because if they don’t, Huey would arrange it so they do anyway. There they don’t find Huey, but they do find the Mask Makers, who are also on the other ship, who have a plan to get revenge for a killing that happened 300 years earlier by capturing Elmer. And the passengers also include SAMPLE, Bride’s religious cult, who are there for Sylvie. As for Isaac and Miria… well, they still aren’t here, they’re back in New York. Which is probably why everything starts to go wrong for everyone on both ships. Even Firo, who tries to look cool in front of his family, does not really succeed.

Speaking of spoilers, there is a question about how much constitutes one. This series, after all, is mostly read by fans who have already spoiled themselves on this book and future ones. And indeed we get a big spoiler for (one assumes) future books given to us as part of the plot early on here: the Mask makers are supposedly getting revenge on Huey for killing Monica 300 years prior, which might come as a surprise to those who read the 1705 book. That said, it’s possible that the reader will be more distracted by the end of the book, which reveals who the real Big Bad of the entire Baccano! series is… and it’s someone that we thought had already been dealt with. Interlocking and interconnecting plots and characters are how Narita writes, but this particular book works very well at making you want to go back and read some passages in older books while also making you anxious for the next ones.

So a much better book than the first part, as is typical with Narita two-parters. Bobby is still annoying, though. So, next do we go back to 1710 to see the tragic fates revealed in this book? Or do we continue in the 21st century to see how Czes and his family deal with this new and horrifying threat? Of course not, that would be too easy. No, next time it’s 1931, as we go back to the Flying Pussyfoot and the immediate aftermath, in a plot that might seem very familiar to those who saw Baccano’s 3 OAV episodes…

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.