Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 20

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Kei Natsumi. Released in Japan in three separate volumes as “Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Twilight of the Golden Witch” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Given this came out about three months ago, faithful readers might have wondered what happened, given my When They Cry obsession. Well, frankly, reading about 200 pages or so of Ange revealing her suicidal mental state for all to see is relatively exhausting and hard to get through. It’s well-handled, it’s just really goddamn depressing. A lot of this arc of Umineko, and this volume in particular, is dedicated to hammering into the reader that this isn’t Higurashi and there is absolutely no “everybody lives” ending. The time for guessing the murderer is over, The time for figuring out Beatrice is over. And, just in case readers of the VN were still debating endlessly because Ryukishi07 wanted to not spoon feed people the answers, we now get those same answers spoon-fed. How much you enjoy that may depend on how much you wanted to “solve” the mystery of Umineko, and how much you just want to read a good story.

Once again, I think there was a more appropriate cover they could have chosen, but I’ve given up on that fight. And to be fair, Will and Dlanor do get a wonderful epic teamup here fighting the goats spinning their endless theories. They each balance each other’s weak point. The start of the omnibus intersperses an awful lot of battles into the mix, with logic flying back and forth and everyone screaming at each other. This contrasts with the end of the book, Confession of the Golden Witch. This is possibly the most controversial manga addition – it was not in the original visual novel, and some say that Ryukishi07 added it as he was tired of people saying there was not a “real” answer. There is one. This is it. We see the culprit narrating what led to this point, why they decided to do it, and how they did it, down to the tiniest detail. As a mystery element, it’s terrible. As a character moment for the villain, it’s amazing.

For all that I’ve been going on about an unhappy ending for all, and certainly Ange does seem to leap off a building while Bernkastel describes how ludicrous it would be for convenient netting to break her fall, there is also something suggesting that she and Eva may not have been the only survivors from the island. We get a bit of background for Ikuko, who is far more likeable in the real world than she is as Featherine. She almost runs over a body on the highway one day, and finds they’re not as dead as expected. Sadly, said body seems to have lost his memory, and is facially bandaged… and then hidden from the reader. That said, the secret identity of this person is not all that hard to figure out. What IS hard to figure out is where Ange goes from here. She’s read Eva’s diary, and did not like what it said. So she can’t get her revenge, and also she’s seemingly dead, though a lot of Beatrice’s impassioned speech at the end certainly implies she is not as dead as everyone else in the Golden Land. What can she do, other than scream and pound Beato’s chest?

Well, that’s what the final omnibus will tell us. It’s been delayed till 2020, so we may not find out for a bit. Till then, enjoy a fun but emotionally exhausting book. Unless you were trying to figure out the mystery, in which case you may hate this. The answers are highlighted in yellow.

The Asterisk War: The Way of the Sword

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

There is not usually much continuity between reviews of different series on my site: these are meant to stand alone. That said, as I read The Asterisk War’s 11th volume, a series derided by many as being cookie-cutter and plot-by-numbers, filled with harem heroines getting jealous, cool girls with swords, and a lead who seems to be putting all issues of romance aside till he solves the big problems, it was hard not to compare this with the 13th Strike the Blood, which I’d read right before it. Heck, they even both have the exact same number of fanfics on AO3. Five. I was somewhat grumpy with the StB volume, which I felt fell back into its old patterns (admittedly on purpose). This volume of Asterisk War, which is a “between arcs” volume with no tournaments, should in theory be even more by the numbers – and it is. Despite that, I found myself enjoying it a lot more. I’m not entirely sure why this is, though.

Kirin was on the cover of the 10th volume, so she’s not on this one, which is a shame, as this is absolutely her book through and through. She invites the rest of the group to her family house for the break, but all of them have other plans, which devastates her, as she’s that sort of person. That said, Ayato is quick enough to realize this, and asks if she wouldn’t mind going to HIS house, mostly as he wants to avoid being alone with his father. Kirin learns about Ayato’s family and past, and yearns to help him get closer to his parents. Things are slightly happier at her house, and Ayato naturally comes with her in return, as she has a full family once more – her father is out of prison due to her wish. But will she have to drop out of school to take over the family? And will she manage to confess to Ayato?

Again, every single plot beat you see here can be read a mile away, both on Kirin’s end, and also with Ayato, who also has to deal with the larger plot (his sister being revived, and also his late mother, whose secret identity the reader learns about here). And it probably helps that I haven’t read or seen Chivalry of a Failed Knight, the series everyone negatively compares Asterisk War to, unlike Strike the Blood, where I am familiar with Index. I think the main reason I enjoy this series more is that, despite both having complicated plots, the Asterisk War characters grow and develop emotionally in satisfying ways that have little to nothing to do with the fact that they love Ayato. Yes, Kirin wants to get strong so that she can stand by Ayato’s side, but her arc is also satisfying for her standing up to her family and inspiring Ayato to do the same, even if he can’t quite make up with his stern but awkward father. Julis and Claudia also get mini-arcs in this book that help develop their own plotlines and character, neither of which have anything to do with Ayato.

Asterisk War may be cookie-cutter and written to order, but its characters have a depth I just don’t really see from Kojou and Yukina. If you want to read a predictable light novel series that Western fans tend to dislike, this is definitely the one to pick.

Strike the Blood, Vol. 13

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By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Bourque.

The author mentioned in his afterword that this volume was meant to be something of a return to “traditional” Strike the Blood volumes, and it certainly succeeds at that. We’re back on the island, which is under attack by a terrorist organization that seemingly has all the cards. Half of Kojou’s allies are taken out, and he’s weakened by a Beast that can do something no one else had thought possible. Fortunately, by biting Yukina, as well as another girl, he’s able to save the day. And Yukina gets to say “No, senpai, this is our fight!” It’s all here, all present and correct. Unfortunately, that also includes the less-than-stellar parts of the series – for the first time in a while, I was thinking of this as book-by-numbers. This series has a tendency to feel like it’s a novelization of an anime rather than the other way around, and plot, characterization and action scenes are so smoothly written and precise that they come across as dull some of the time. Nothing is particularly surprising in this book.

The head of the terrorist organization has a past connection with Natsuki, something that cries out for a flashback or more detail but sadly no. He’s also a rather crap terrorist, trying to get Kojou to join him by mentioning that some of the Island’s leaders are evil while also causing events that will kill massive numbers of innocents and yeah, sorry, your #2 love interest also has to die too, but join us anyway. Needless to say, this doesn’t go well, and he ends up being killed off by one of the evil leaders of the island, whose identity is meant to be a shocking surprise but is not. The other members of the terrorist organization are essentially plucky orphans who no one ever loved, and I’d feel sympathy if we got more time with each of them, which we don’t. The other leader is December, who does manage to be interesting, but she’s also a spoiler, so I’ll just end it there.

I was going to complain about Nagisa briefly being in peril for no reason at all (actually, there is a reason, and it’s relatively benign, but we don’t figure it out till the end of the book), but then I realized that this is essentially “Peril: the Series”. Nagisa is obviously #1, but Natsuki also gets to be removed from the field for a while, and the author even jokes about “Asagi having another bad day”. The only ones NOT in peril are Sayaka, Shio and Yuiri, who actually manage to save the day to an extent. Speaking of Yuiri, I’d like to remind the author that he is absolutely shit at writing humor, so stop it. I’d rather read A Certain Magical Index’s humor than yours. That’s how bad the “he sucked my blood/took my virginity” scenes were. Stay in your “action adventure” lane, please.

There were a few elements here I liked, including seeing Astarte do something again for the first time in like ten books. But sadly this attempt to go back to the basics of Strike the Blood reminded me that the series’ basics aren’t all that interesting. Go outside the box again, please!