In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 15

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

Readers of Smartphone will be delighted to hear that absolutely fuck all happens in this volume. I say “delighted” because readers of Smartphone have by now realized the inverse quality ratio: the books get worse the more that there is actual plot in them. For an example, I point to the 14th volume, or any of the others where Touya commits genocide and then says “la di da”. (He says that here as well, but it’s for the running gag.) But when Touya spends the whole time wandering around the world seeing what’s going on, helping out a country or two for the heck of it, and continuing to be the blandest light novel protagonist to ever get nine wives to want to marry him… it’s surprisingly decent. I will ignore the Native American stereotypes we get towards the start, mostly as they don’t get nearly as bad as Realist Hero. No, this is just Touya chilling.

I mean, obviously SOME things happen. We continue to see that there are people in this world who do not like Touya or his nation in it. They try to use a magical wood that causes beasts to go insane, but are discovered and stopped almost immediately, because that’s the kind of light novel you are reading. Touya helps another country (with the aforementioned Native American types) from attacks by giant squid, and shows them how delicious squid can be when cooked. There is a second beach party, which reminds the reader how frigging big this cast has gotten. (Honestly, even WITH the cast list at the start, I’m still trying to recall names much of the time.) And the reverse world is still fighting the Phrase… or rather the new Golden Mutant Zombie Phrase, thanks to that annoying God. The actual Phrase are (try to contain your shock) holed up in Touya’s castle eating snacks. That said, Ende wants to get stronger, and so the God of Punching Things, who looks remarkably like Ryu from Street Fighter, something that is lampshaded, is there to help him (and Elze) get stronger.

Again, this book is never going to actually be good, but when it’s not jokingly having Touya be callous as fuck, it can be fun. It’s like walking through your favorite trashy dollar mart. I was amused at how there’s a suggestion that Touya may have been seduced and the fiancees’ reaction is essentially “we know you don’t have the guts”. We keep swapping out fiancees to try to give them equal screen time, which works better when there’s character development, but I’ve given up on that. Everyone is what they are. We also meet the Mikado of Eashen, who turns out to be a gorgeous young woman but thankfully does not appear to end up in Touya’s orbit. Oh, and Yae’s brother gets to prove he is manly enough to have a fiancee.

As I said, there’s nothing that really happens here. It’s a bunch of normal, boring old Smartphone antics. Which makes it one of the safer ones to read. I admit I’d kind of like to see the wedding soon, though, but I suspect I have a few more volumes to go.

A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 19

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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “To Aru Majutsu no Index” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

Just as Index 17 and 18 formed a two-parter, this is essentially the second part of the 15th book, where GROUP battled against ITEM and all the other dark student organizations used by various Academy City folks for Black Ops. They ended up on top, but as you can imagine, that made some people very unhappy. As a result, one of the Board of Directors is trying to deal with them, especially Accelerator. Meanwhile, Accelerator continues to be a really nice guy while insisting he’s a horrible villain. He’s rescuing abused teenage girls, triaging pregnant mothers, and saving little kids. Indeed, the little kid he saves has to literally point out what a hero Accelerator’s being to get the “good guys” to do anything. Are there any good guys in Academy City? Mikoto, maybe, but she’s not in this book at all. Maybe it’s Hamazura, who insists he’s just a thug as much as Accelerator insists he’s a villain. But what Hamazura really is, and this book cements it, is the third male lead in Index.

Introduced in this volume: Stephanie Gorgeouspalace, who bears possibly the silliest name in all of Index. Also, Aiwass, who we’ll definitely be seeing more of. There are a few more of the Aztec teens, as well. Sadly, again, Yen Press has not licensed the Index short story books, which is where we first met Stephanie. Or the Railgun shot story book, which is where we first met Tochtli, though I think she was retroactively written into the Railgun manga as well, like Xochitl was. This takes place at the same time as Books 17 and 18, when Touma is in England dealing with the British Royal Family. It ends with Touma, Accelerator, and Hamazura all separately going to Russia, where we’ll no doubt get the 20th volume. It’s also worth noting that there are only three volumes to go after this one in the main Index series… of course, we also have Index New Testament. Its sequel. Also 22 volumes.

As I said, Hamazura is explicitly called a protagonist by Kamachi in the narrative here, as if it weren’t obvious enough. He also gives the author an opportunity to do a real romance. Touma is, of course, oblivious to his 642 love interests. Accelerator is too self-loathing to even think about a relationship, and Last Order is a daughter to him, not a lover. But Hamazura, despite all the banter and pseudo-flirtation with Kinuhata (who is twelve, making this my least favorite part of the book), is in love with Takitsubo, and she with him. Of the three “threatened” relationships at the end of this book, it’s the romantic one. Accelerator and Last Order are the familial one, and Touma and Index… well, they’re the titular one. It’s also interesting to have it pointed out that, while Touma and Accelerator are part of Aleister’s BIG PLANS, Hamazura is not, and his interference with Mugino (who comes back from the dead to try to kill him some more, and even looks just like the Terminator here) could pose a big problem in the future.

Mostly this book is filled with cool fights, giving Kinuhata more to do (despite my dislike of her underage teasing, she’s developed very well in this book), an analysis of what it means to be a hero, as seen through two guys who don’t think of themselves as one, and setting up the pieces for the last three books, which are a three-parter. It’s a solid entry in the Index series. It also means we are one book away from one of my favorite Index characters being introduced. Is she the best? Well, no, she’s the absolute WORST, actually.

(Final note: I love this cover, one of the best in the entire series. The contrast is fantastic.)

Daytime Shooting Star, Vol. 1

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By Mika Yamamori. Released in Japan as “Hirunaka no Ryuusei” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions.

It has to be said, when it comes to shoujo heroines, I have a type. Strong-willed, seemingly blase about life but capable of flipping out when needed, being as accepting and loving as a bunch of puppies in a park, and usually coming with a seemingly darker but also fantastic best/friend/rival character. This is present in Daytime Shooting Star, a series I was initially wary about (student/teacher romance is hinted at, though it’s uncertain if it will actually go anywhere) but turned out to be far more fun than I expected. It’s got a lot going for it. Country girl in the big city, seemingly stoic but in reality easily shy and embarrassed male lead. The teacher, the other male lead, waffles back and forth between mentor, teasing friend and love interest depending on the scene. And it has a good mix of light and dark moments. If you’re trying to cut back on the ongoing manga you read every two months, this one won’t help you do that at all.

Suzume is our heroine, a country girl who’s lived her whole life in the same remote town with the same friends. She skips class a lot, and has no real desire to do anything but watch the stars and ignore the guy who’s clearly crushing on her. Then her parents are sent to Bangladesh for work, and she can’t come and can’t life by herself. So it’s off to Tokyo to live with her uncle, and as you can imagine she’s somewhat overwhelmed, though not nearly as much as I’ve seen in similar titles. She meets this huge dork who turns out to be her homeroom teacher; the cook guy everyone likes, who’s secretly terrified of girls; and the cute girl who says she wants to be friends and invites her out to go bowling… and if you guessed she’s secretly a bitch in sheep’s clothing, congratulations, you can write shoujo. And if you further guessed that Suzume would win her over with the power of FISTS AND LOVE, you can write even better shoujo.

Suzume is the main reason I really enjoyed this. She’s equal parts naive and blase, and there are a few good scenes that show this off, such as when the girls in gym attempt to bully her only to find that in fact she IS really good at sports. As for the teacher, so far she may find him attractive but he seems mostly to be interested in making sure that she grows as a person… and gets good grades, as it turns out skipping class all the time means she’s abysmal in school. As for Yuyuka, I have another type, and it’s absolutely the “I am a villain so why do you associate with me” person who is gradually revealed to be good at heart. We haven’t seen the good at heart yet, but there were hints we will, and I think these two girls will be good for each other.

I finished this book wanting to read the next one immediately. Which is all you can ask of a debut, really.