My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 2

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By Kouhei Horikoshi and Anri Yoshi. Released in Japan by Shueisha. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Caleb Cook.

The second of the My Hero Academia light novels is set at the training camp, so around Vol. 8-9 of the main series. It ends right before the villain attack. As such, as you might gather, it’s as light and frothy as its predecessor. The goal here is to tell standard “summer camp” stories that Horikoshi would like to do in the main series but hasn’t got the time for. So we see Momo tutoring the left-behinders of the class at her palatial mansion; the long bus drive to the training camp; Mineta being the worst – again; The girls of 1-A and 1-B (well, half of 1-B) having a combined slumber party; the boys of 1-A and 1-B having an arm wrestling contest/pillow fight; and Iida trying to find his glasses without waking anybody up. There’s no earth-shattering character revelations here, but if you want more of the cast being fun goofballs, you’ve come to the right series. It also reads more like it was written for teens rather than younger kids, which the first volume had an issue with.

Let’s just get this out of the way; Mineta is in this, and has just as large a role as the first book, including the third story being dedicated to his continued efforts to try to peep on the girls. I get that the author wants a comedy pervert in the cast for humor reasons, but you can’t have Aizawa bitching about how half-hearted heroes will be expelled from UA on the spot and keep Mineta around as a serial sexual harasser. The girls beating him up is not really sufficient punishment either, nor is having him groping Tiger, the transgender man from the Wild Wild Pussycats. It’s frustrating because, in the bus trip chapter, we do see that he does have the power to tell a compelling (if perverse) story, and keeps the rest of the class on tenterhooks waiting to see what comes next. There’s more to do with Mineta than this. If he’s only going to be this, get rid of him.

The main reason to pick this volume up, as someone who also dabbles in the fandom of My Hero Academia, is the shipping. There’s nothing “official”, no, except for Uraraka’s crush on Deku, but there’s lots of subtext if you know where to look for it. The first chapter sees Jirou worrying that Momo’s mother disapproves of her, and it reads exactly like meeting the girlfriend’s parents. Likewise, Bakugou tutoring Kirishima will make fans of that ship happy, and I was also pleased to see Bakuygou’s two middle-school bullying friends show up, and observe how much he’s actually mellowed out, despite getting thrown out of TWO studying places. As for the slumber party, Ashido is of course trying to make it all about romance, but unfortunately the girls in UA aren’t really into that right now. Aside from the brief IzuOcha I mentioned, there’s some KamiJirou tease, some Kacchako tease, and, perhaps most oddly, Ashido/Dark Shadow shipping from the rest of the girls, a ship so rare I don’t even think it has a name. This was fun.

These books are meant to be something that are fun to read (Mineta aside) and supplementary to the main storyline. This one does a good job. The next volume seems to be set right after moving into the dorms, so that should be fun.

Side-By-Side Dreamers

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By Iori Miyazawa. Released in Japan by Hayakawa Publishing. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

As with another Hayakawa title released last year, Last and First Idol, I’d say that this book might be more rewarding for those who are looking for a really good science fiction book rather than those who are looking for yuri. It’s there – the two leads gradually realize their love, and there are hints of another couple (that never go past that), but I suspect anyone buying this wanting, say, Madoka Magica or the like are going to be disappointed. That said, I greatly enjoyed it as a science fiction story, and would recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different from the standard light novel. (Being a Hayakawa title, this is a straight novel, with only one illustration of the cast, and no interior pictures.) That said, if you worry about getting too much sleep, or not enough, this book’s themes and imagery are probably not going to quiell any fears – your lack of sleep may secretly be destroying the world. Sweet dreams.

Our main heroine, Saya, has been suffering from abysmal insomnia for the past few months, and it’s destroyed most of her school and social life. One day, while staggering to the nurse’s office to lie down and not sleep, she runs into Hitsuji, another girl in her school who has no trouble sleeping at all – she can drop off anywhere, and in fact the rest of the people around her might sleep too. Saya finds herself lying next to the girl and for once, actually sleeping… which leads to her dreaming of a world where she and Hitsuji are lovers who are fighting creatures called Suiju. As it turns out, Hitsuji and some other girls are Sleepwalkers, who have the power to hunt those creatures in dreams. Which is important, as the creatures seem to be trying to break out into the real world… and if they do that, the real world won’t stay that way. Can Saya, whose insomnia can be weaponized, help? Or will she make things worse? And can she and Hitsuji acknowledge their feelings outside of dreams?

There is some fantastic and imaginative dream imagery in this book, as it shows the way that dreams can drift from one thing to another and often have their own bent sort of logic. It can be hard to even realize that you’re not dreaming – particularly for Saya, who tends to get caught up in her dreams a bit too much. The Suiju at first just seem like standard easy-to-kill monsters, but as the book goes on it becomes clear that they’re pulling the girls into a trap, and the dreams become a lot more like nightmares. The last third of the book or so has the reader (and the characters) trying to figure out whether they’re awake or asleep. I will note, though, that the ending to the book is very abrupt – VERY abrupt. I think it works all right, but it does feel a bit like the author wanted to be a bit arty and mysterious, and this was the best way to do it. Things are resolved? Maybe?

As I said, as a yuri title this is cute but not much else. As a science fiction book, though, it was great fun to read. I hope we can get more Hayakawa titles in the future.

Infinite Dendrogram: Blue Blood Blitz

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By Sakon Kaidou and Taiki. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

First off, it has to be said: that is a deeply ludicrous and yet amazing hat and cloak combo that the Princess is wearing while she’s out secretly saving the world – though it seems the only one who doesn’t figure out who she is is Ray. I’d mentioned in my last review that the Princess is set up as a sort-of-but-not-really love interest for Ray, and that holds true here: Ray continues to be almost asexual, and it’s made clear that his role in Altimia’s story is to get her to trust Masters again so that Altar might actually be able to defend itself in the upcoming war. That said, she and Ray do make a very good combo team, and I’m sure we’ll see more of her eventually. Also amusing in this volume is Ray and Nemesis taking down an extremely cliched villain from the “This-this cannot be!” school of acting, and the revelation about who he is in real life fits 100%.

The girl on the cover is another of Ray’s new weapons/abilities/allies, but in terms of this story she shows up, demonstrates her FIRE PUNCHING, then goes away again. More interesting are the revelations about Tom Cat, the clone-making adventurer that we met in the previous book. His actual identity is more of a surprise than I expected, but works well in the context of the series/world. It’s still unclear how much of Dendrogram is “this is an unusually complex game with a deep deep backstory” and how much is “this is an actual world that we have somehow made into a game”, but the author is enjoying making us try to figure it out. Hopefully next time we will have fewer doomsday weapons. That said, I did very much enjoy the weapon having slept for 2000 years and no longer able to recognize what humanity is till it sees something that is reminiscent of its former time. It was cheesy but very effective.

There’s an anime coming soon, and I really do wonder how a fandom that’s not familiar with him is going to deal with Ray. His chuuni tendencies aside (and we do get some more making fun of his Evil Overlord Outfit), he really is the ridiculously OP hero that most fans of fantasy works profess to hate. He has an easier time than he’s had in the last few books here – he may be pushed to the brink once or twice, but there’s never any real sense he’s in trouble, and it helps that he’s found out that his magical robot horse is also doing cool (if mysterious) stuff to save his life. Without the usual Altar masters around to show that there are people even better than Ray, he gets more of a big fish in a small pond book here. It works well for this book, but I hope next time we see him either in real life or the game getting shown that he has a ways to go.

Dendrogram is always fun to read, and this volume is no different. At times I can’t follow the worldbuilding (a wiki of some sort is likely needed), but it’s still definitely recommended.