The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 13

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By Satoshi Wagahara and 029. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

I’ve said for a while now that this series does a good job of having romantic interests in it but sort of keeping it on the back burner rather than being a full-blown romantic comedy. Well, that changes with this volume, which devotes a large chunk to our heroines and how they feel – in this case, Chiho, who has now confessed to Maou TWICE but still hasn’t gotten much of anything from him, and Rika, who is in love with Ashiya and decides to do something about it when he invites her out for dinner and cellphone buying. Things arguably don’t go well for either of them, but in Chiho’s case there’s a larger issue, which is that she worries that soon she’s going to have to do other human stuff – study for exams, go to college, etc. – and will not see her supernatural friends anymore. Especially given Laila is still trying to get them on board with her big project, which could take a month to complete… or a hundred years.

There are a lot of confrontations in this book, and it’s interesting that some of them we only hear about secondhand. We see a teary Chiho run into Suzuno, but their conversation is heard second-hand later on, and Maou being “punished” for upsetting Chiho is also off screen (well, the setup, anyway). I’m not sure if this is just because the author is trying to keep the books to a certain length, but it is somewhat odd. We do get a great conversation between Chiho and Rika, two characters who are both best friends with Emilia but rarely interact. I worried that Rika and Ashiya’s date would also be off screen, but we do see that, and also Ashiya rejecting her… in fact, he tries to do the “I am too scary, please never see me again” thing, but Rika’s too smart to fall for that, though he is pretty damn scary. I did enjoy seeing Rika tell Chiho that she could possibly be the exception to the “demons don’t have human lovers” thing.

As for the main plot, Laila provides most of the humor in this volume in her desperate attempts to explain why she needs Maou and Emilia’s help. We first hear about the issues via a term paper (no, really, that’s how it reads), and it helps us to understand why everyone is so wary of her – she’s been living on Earth, but is she just an angel in disguise, or is she actively trying to fit in and be human like the others? We eventually find out it’s the latter, and why she’s been so wary of taking anyone to her apartment, in a joke that you can see a mile away but is no less satisfying. It does, however, lead to the big reveal, which is that what Laila is asking will take forever, and some of the people involved are normal humans who will grow old and die. But Maou isn’t… and neither, it turns out, is Emilia, whose half-Angel background means she could live a lot longer than anticipated.

In the end, Maou tries to be nicer about it, but still hasn’t responded to Chiho’s resolve. He can’t keep avoiding it forever, and it’s not as if the answer is “I like Emilia instead”, as he doesnt. If anything, he’s in love with his work. Which is appropriate for this series. What happens next? Can’t wait to find out. Sure hope the next volume isn’t a collection of short stories or something.

Penguin Highway

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By Tomihiko Morimi. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

For once, the book came first here. Yen has started a side business of publishing novelizations based on famous anime movies, but Penguin Highway was a novel turned into a movie. The prose is one of the best reasons to pick it up, as its narrator may be ten years old but he thinks that he’s a precise, logical scientist, and the book has fun with him sounding like this most of the time but sometimes letting the child come through. To Aoyama’s credit, he is pretty damn smart, though his two friends are no slouches either. I don’t remember doing quite as much scientific experimentation when I was their age, but then I was always more arts than sciences. The book helpfully is both, as the basic premise involves things such as eddies in the space-time continuum, but also has the sheer beauty, which must have looked great animated, of a can of Coke transforming into a penguin bit by bit.

As noted, Aoyama is smart and knows it, and tries not to get too egotistical but frequently fails, especially in his narrative headspace. He spends the days hanging out with best friend Uchida and fellow intellectual Hamamoto, avoiding the bullying of Suzuki and his two minions (why is it always one bully and two minions?), and getting his teeth cleaned as much as possible because he has a massive crush on the dental assistant, who is never named but is called “The Lady” throughout. Things are normal till one day, a bunch of penguins suddenly appear in a vacant lot. They don’t seem too bothered by being in Japan rather than Antarctica. Even more disturbing, a clearing in a local forest has The Sea, a giant sphere of water that seems to be influencing local topography. More things to analyze and write down, but also dangerous. And there are blue whales? And creatures that The Lady/Aoyama are calling Jabberwocks. Why is all this happening/ And how does it tie in with The Lady?

The plot is good, but Aoyama’s narrative is the best reason to read it. I started off the book laughing at him, as he sounded very much like a snooty fourth-grader, but as the book went on I really started to be drawn into his world. He is very smart about logical and scientific things, though when it comes to matters of the heart he’s lagging way behind, as even his best friend Uchida is able to see why Hamamoto is mad at him. For much of the book The Lady remains something of an enigma to us, and there are a few red herrings thrown around that are brushed off when the truth comes out (The Lady’s memories of her past, in particular). Also, loved Aoyama and Hamamoto’s dads, who both do their best to fully support their children so long as they don’t run into danger (which they do here, repeatedly).

The story ends on a somewhat bittersweet note, as with the best Japanese novels. It also has an afterword by famous manga author Moto Hagio discussing Aoyama and his tendency to be too clever by half. In the end, I don’t really have much to say about Penguin Highway except it was a really good book, and I’m glad I read it.

Silver Spoon, Vol. 8

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By Hiromu Arakawa. Released in Japan as “Gin no Saji” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

For years before this series got licensed, my joke was always “why is this popular work by the author of hit series Fullmetal Alchemist not licensed?” “IT’S A FARMING MANGA!”. And now that Silver Spoon *is* licensed and doing well (hopefully doing well – you are all buying it, right?), the joke is over but the point remains. Silver Spoon is indeed a coming of age story, and a sweet romance, but it is also, at heart, a farming manga. Arakawa is here to tell everyone exactly what it means to be a farmer in Japan. Sometimes that means taking pages and pages to learn how to make a certain kind of cheese. And sometimes it means taking a long, cold look at how difficult it can be to keep a farm going in modern Japan, as we find out what we suspected all along about Komaba – getting i9nto the Nationals was his last ditch shot, and now he has to drop out as his family’s farm is going bankrupt.

This affects Mikage as well. We’ve seen that she and Komaba have been commiserating about this (and politely telling Hachiken to butt out), and we find out why, as her family are guarantors for the Komaba debt, so this puts them in danger. Hachiken is once again told to butt out… but he refuses to, in one of the best scenes in the book. He can’t given anyone a solution, though he tries hard to find one, going over all the ideas that most of the adults have already thought of and discarded. (Crab!) But he can be moral support, and help Mikage, who is trying to keep up her fake cheer and failing. He can also be there for Komaba, watching as all their beloved cows get taken away to be sold. It’s a depressing scene, and is meant to be. This is something that happens sometimes when people try to keep a farm up0, and it’s never good.

That said, Hachiken’s moral supprt is far more useful in regards to Mikage, who is ready at this point to give up on her own dream just as Komaba has to give up on his. She doesn’t want to run a farm. She wants to work with horses. And, with Hachiken there as moral support, she tells her parents this. This is the other fantastic scene in the book, as it gives us everything we want from these characters. Hachiken’s impetuousness and resolve, Mikage finding it in her to stop repressing her own feelings, her family’s discussion of the big problems with this (her grades, mostly)… and of course there’s room for some humor as well, as the whole thing feels like they’re about to announce they’re engaged, which causes her father to flip out.

The volume ends with Hachiken starting to tutor Mikage, which once again shows off how good he is at teaching/studying, as he realizes that she’s hopeless about memorization unless it involves horses, so frames every Japanese history question in terms of cavalry and the like. It’s both funny AND brilliant, and I hope it pays off. In the meantime, I’d say this is the best volume of Silver Spoon yet, but that does a disservice to the great volumes before this. The whole series is fantastic.