Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 23

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

As we are at a particularly dramatic point in the main storyline, clearly it is time for another short story collection that takes place before everyone went off into space. These stories all seem to take place at some vague point between Vols. 14-20, and once again three of them were serialized online and one is original for this book. You can probably guess that the best of the four is the exclusive one, and you’d be correct, but they’re all pretty decent, showing off these characters we’ve come to enjoy. The first story continues a theme of Harumi being rather annoyed at Koutarou treating her like the sweet, fragile girl, so she asks Kiriha for advice on how to be a “bad girl”. This goes about as well as you’d expect, as Harumi is as sweet as pie. Likewise, Clan is noted for her awkward tsundere attitude around Koutarou, and that’s not going to change either, even if she does start working out with him and Shizuka.

Elfaria gets the cover art for once, as well as the third story, where she explains why she looks so young (genetics, she’s an alien) and allows Yurika, Maki and Sanae to give her a makeover to make her look even younger, at least for a time. This also allows Koutarou to see Elfaria as she was when he first met her, which throws him for a loop – no doubt her intention. This all leads to the final story, where the class goes on a trip to… well, the text if careful not to say where they go, except they have to fly, but it’s not Kyoto. A rather lonely Harumi and Clan end up tagging along, but the big plot point of this story is another girl in the class, Shiori, who has known Koutarou since he was little, has made up her mind to confess to him. (His basic standoffishness is why she put it off for so long.) Suddenly the girls are all worried – sure, they’re all close to Koutarou, but will this girl pass them all?

The answer isn’t surprising (no), but the key point comes when Kiriha realizes what’s been bugging her about this whole situation: the girls are feeling jealous of Shiori, but not of each other. No one in the group resents anyone else for being in love with Koutarou. It’s important setup given that this ISN’T one of those fantasy isekai worlds where polygamy is legal to solve everything. Kenji also helps underline this point by telling Koutarou he has to buckle down and pick one of the girls to date formally, and Koutarou absolutely cannot so it as he can’t imagine living without any of them. The feeling of family has to come first – they all love each other, but “romantic love” is still down the road. The story also helps to remind everyone how much the girls – and Koutarou – have grown sine the start of the series.

So overall a good short-story collection. That said, I’ll be glad to be back in the main action with Vol. 24. Good thing it’s already out.

Accel World: Pull of the Dark Nebula

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By Reki Kawahara and Hima. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jocelyne Allen.

It goes without saying that Sword Art Online is just SLIGHTLY more popular than Accel World, by a factor of about 100. This despite the fact that I think that in general Accel World is the better written title, mostly as Kawahara learned form the mistakes he made in SAO. It serves him well in this 19th volume, which is, once again, almost entirely setup for the next big series of battles. The subtitle sounds ominous, but is actually suggestive of the larger plot: Kuroyukihime’s group is going to storm the White Legion territory, but there just aren’t that many of them. What’s more, Kuroyukihime herself needs to stay behind. What’s the answer? More allies. We already have the new snack-based trio that joined last time. And we have Niko and Pard. Perhaps Ash Roller. But is that enough? Can we get some former enemies on our side? What’s more, perhaps we can even… merge two legions? The author makes this sound pretty dramatic and exciting, which is good, because more than any other AW book to date, this is all conversations.

The former enemy is Magenta Scissor, which is not too much of a surprise. The surprise is who comes to fight/debate her into switching sides. It’s not Haruyuki, and I like that the cast has grown large enough that we can have scenes like this not need to feature him. Instead it’s Chocolat Puppeter, who engages in a water-based battle with her partner Avoacdo Avoider before getting to the core of Magenta’s cynical philosophy, much of which stems from her real life watching Avocado (who, it is hinted, has a learning disability in real life) get bullied by the other kids in the hospital they were both in. She also has a condition I’d never heard of, but (like everyone in Accel World) helps to explain her avatar in general. Again, a reminder that a good core of Brain Burst is based on childhood traumas.

The start of the book finishes up the conversation in the Castle, with Graphite Edge (who is feeling less like a Kirito gag and more like a takeoff on the typical blockhead shonen hero, though he’s smarter than that) divvying out information as slowly and obliquely as he can, but we do get an awful lot of plot and background details here that feel important. Accel World is, as far as I know, not ending anytime soon, but the pieces of what needs to be done before the ending are still in place. And, much like its parent series, we are also dealing with “NPC” characters who nevertheless pass every test of sentience out there. I’m not sure if Metatron’s fate will mirror Alice’s, but it’s plain to see what sort of things Kawahara was interested in and researching as he wrote this.

So this is a solid volume in the series. The 20th book sounds like it will begin the next “books of mostly fighting” arc, but I’ve been fooled by that before. Till hen, enjoy this book of mostly talking.

Dorohedoro, Vol. 23

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By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazines Ikki, Hibana, and Monthly Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by AltJapan Co., Ltd. (Hiroko Yoda + Matt Alt).

I knew it had been a while since the last volume of Dorohedoro, but I did not realize that it had been a year and a half. It’s been a long journey – the manga started here in 2010, so almost ten years ago. And in Japan it’s been since 2002. This volume is packed – it’s 350 pages long, so essentially a double volume – trying to get everything resolved before the end of the series. As a climax, I think it’s very fitting. It is not without some last minute deaths (the Cross-Eyes, who have been the designated butt monkeys of this series, continue to fare badly) and is filled with lots of blood, gore and zombies, as you’d expect from Dorohedoro. But for the most part, this is as close to “and they all lived happy ever after” as you’re going to get from this story, and I was quite pleased. (It also stayed firmly on the side of “this is not about romance” – the three “couples” are together, but there’s nothing suggesting they aren’t just friends.)

I really can’t discuss this volume without discussing its major brilliant move. Caiman, for the most part, has been defined by his search for who is the head in his mouth – we now know – but also by his love of gyoza. This love has been far more than just a light coedy personality thing for some time now, but it’s in the final volume where it reaches its zenith. To stop the sorcerer-destroying monster, Caiman is made into a sorcerer, which gives him a magic rod that he can use how he sees fit. This ends up essentially turning him into Magical Gyoza Caiman, complete with a magical familiar gyoza, which we have, of course seen before. Together Caiman essentially functions in this final volume like Sailor Moon, going up against tthe big bad and the big bad’s final monster, and trying to rescue his friend, who has died. It’s Episodes 44-45. Except that Caiman actually survives.

Once this is taken care of and Nikaido is resurrected (she does not get much to do here, but her arc resolved before Caiman’s), it’s time for the epilogue. Well, actually, we do see Shin and Caiman join forces to defeat the monster right at the end, despite still having an understandable antipathy between each other. The epilogue shows Shin and Noi are still partners, Fujita is the only one who seems to think of honoring the dead, and that more than being a devil or being a sorcerer, Nikaido wants to run the Hungry Bug. Oh yes, and there’s Turkey, who offhandedly remarks that they apparently transitioned to a female for the past few years – something that En’s family notably doesn’t care about in the least, instead being more surprised that Turkey’s mask IS a turkey you can eat. I thought this was a terrific offhand character moment that fit right in.

And so we end Dorohedoro. Easily the most popular of the series that Viz debuted under the SigIkki imprint, I believe that its end means the end of that imprint as well, though I could be wrong. It was worth it. This was a badass, dark but hilarious journey from a woman manga creator filled with violence, nudity, friendships, tragedy, magic, and gyoza. I loved it.