Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 17

Leave a reply

By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

This volume of Yona of the Dawn doesn’t quite reach the absolute heights of the previous two. Of course, since that downgrades it to merely “excellent”, there’s no need to worry. We start a new arc, as it turns out that one of the latest outbreaks of war is happening right where Yona and her crew are going to next. Imagine that, huh? (Seriously, there’s a wonderful self-aware moment midway through this volume where Yona wonders what her life would have been like if Hak and Su-Won had not been at odds, and she realizes she’d be a sheltered princess in the palace, not caring about the outside. Moreover, there would be no Yona of the Dawn. And so, as a reader, we are delighted that instead Yona is out and about and doing things like “Starving child? Huh. Better shoot down a bird from the sky for him to eat!” without even batting an eye. This is the Yona I want to read about.

The starving kid is what kicks off the story – he’s from a village that is now part of the Kai Empire, but decades ago was part of the Kohka Empire. Shifting borders happen all the time when large nations are at war, and one of the points of this book is that people don’t care enough about the little villages along the border that are forced to deal with all this. For the most part the village has tried to stay out of the way of everyone, but that’s not going to work anymore, as, having suffered a humiliating defeat, decide that rather than let Kohka retake the land they lost, they’re going to burn it to the ground and kill everyone in it. Fortunately, they’ve got the Happy Hungry Bunch in town. Unfortunately, almost the entire group is down with a bad illness.

Hak is not ill, but even he can’t take on a huge group of soldiers all by himself. Yona is fine as well, but Hak knows very well this is not a fight for her no matter how much she’s improved – the numbers are too bad. And then there’s Zeno, the last of the not-ill group, who has been, for the past several volumes, “the goofy one” for the most part, who has to fly into action after all the others (including the sick guys, who try their best but are severely underpowered) are taken down and Yona is surrounded, and… well, immediately gets a sword through the chest. Ow. Fortunately, it turns out that Zeno has a few secrets of his own, though given that it’s part of the cliffhanger, it will be till the next volume before we get to see that. There’s also a short story at the end showing Jaeha’s past with his predecessor, which again reminds us of the difficulties of being a Dragon.

Yona is always exciting and fun (even in the most serious of scenes, there’s usually one or two asides that are hilarious – my favorite this volume being Yun’s “I know I’m a great catch, but I’m a boy.” Rest assured, this volume of Yona will keep you thoroughly entertained.

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 1

1 Reply

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

Shonen Jump series tend to have a lot of light novels based off their parent series, but just because those come out in Japan does not mean they are a success over there. Even Naruto, the juggernaut, had its post-series light novels quietly dropped after only three of the six books were out. But My Hero Academia is the new Juggernaut, the Deku to Naruto’s All Might, and so it seems appropriate that we give it a try with this first in a series of books about the “daily lives” of the cast. No major plot points, just fun. This book seems to take place around the 7th volume of the series, though if you haven’t read the 11th volume you may be spoiled for Bakugo’s mom. As that sentence indicates, the subject of this book is Parent’s Day, where out student heroes have to have the family visit. This being UA, the teachers have a surprise in store for them, however…

As you might guess, with a cast this big, not everyone gets a spotlight – even Bakugo is mostly sidelined. Not everyone is fond of Parent’s Day either, particularly Todoroki, who wants his mother to go but knows that she can’t, and really does NOT want his father to know about it at all. (Which leads to a great punchline at the end, that does not shy away from Endeavor being a horrible dad.) Fortunately, his sister is able to go. Meanwhile, Iida has tickets to an amusement park, and invites the main cast, but none of them can make it. So we end up with the odd foursome of Iida, Tokoyami, Kaminari, and Mineta. Meanwhile, Uraraka is trying to buy supermarket bargains (the book is great at reminding us how poor she is compared to the rest of the cast, particularly Yaoyorozu), but is distracted by an apparent shoplifter. And then there’s Parent’s Day itself, which turns out to be a lot more dramatic than the kids thought.

There’s good and bad in this volume. It’s trying to strike a balance between “engage new readers” and “write for fans of the series”, so there’s a lot of introductory stuff telling us who the cast is and how quirks work, etc. It makes it feel like a book that’s geared towards younger readers… were it not for Mineta, who is in this book quite a bit, and remains the worst thing about the series. Even something that is meant to be heartwarming, such as Tokoyami bonding with a lost little girl who’s scared of birds, gets ruined by Mineta saying that when she grows up, she’ll be a hottie and hitting on the girl’s mom. I hate him. He also drags Kaminari down with him, though that’s true in the manga as well. The book is best when it’s delving into things that Horikoshi has not had the time to really delve into, such as what’s it’s like for a child when their quirk first manifests (it can be terrifying), or enjoying the friendships of a group that is still learning about each other at this stage.

This is a fast read (don’t let the page count fool you, it’s short) and, Mineta aside, a lot of fun. There’s even a few touching scenes, particularly with Todoroki and Tokoyami. Fans of the series should like it quite a bit.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 13

Leave a reply

By Fujino Omori and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?” by Softbank Creative. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

When I had reviewed the Lyu spinoff of this series, I had wondered why we did not get the actual flashback showing how her Familia were all killed, and what set her on her roaring rampage of revenge. As you read this novel, it becomes clear: the author wanted to save it till we got to this point. Picking up right where the last book left off, and not even allowing Bell and company to emerge from the Dungeon (Hestia gets a small cameo to remind us she exists), this volume points and laughs at all the people who thought that we couldn’t possibly get even more over the top. A murder that sees Lyu as the prime suspect drives a bunch of 18th floor mercenaries and adventurers to hunt her down, and Bell’s team tag along because they think something more is going on here. They’re right, but the murder investigation soon becomes secondary to something far more important: trying not to be killed and left in a bloody mess.

As noted by the author in the afterword, we also get a much larger role here for Cassandra, the adventurer who, like her namesake, has prophecies that no one ever believes. She’s aware of this, and so this time decides not to lay it all out for people (it’s hard to interpret anyway, beyond “everyone will die), and instead tries to go along and see what she can do to help stop it from happening. Sometimes this is really great – the extra armor she has Welf make for Bell (which, amusingly, is a scarf, making it look like a present from a girlfriend) is ridiculously strong, and Bell would absolutely be dead by the end of the book without it. Unfortunately, she can’t really stop a landslide once it’s actually started, and once the true monster of the book gets going, she almost completely shuts down in despair and fear.

Speaking of which, this is a very different Lyu to the one we’ve seen before. To no one’s surprise, she’s not the murderer, but that doewsn’t mean that she isn’t rampaging through the dungeons, having spotted someone she thought long dead – because she killed them all. As I noted above, here we get the full story of what happened to her Familia, and why she’s so traumatized by the whole thing – in addition to the juggernaut killing everyone, she actually “sacrificed” some of her family members to escape… or at least that’s what she and the bad guy think, I suspect the actual reality is likely a bit different. Fortunately, she has Bell by her side, who is ridiculously impressive in the fights towards the end of this book, which are mind-bogglingly good. No one writes non-stop action and deep emotions at the same time quite like Omori does. The 5th chapter is worth the price of the book alone.

Sadly, and with the author apologizing to us for doing it again, there’s a cliffhanger here, so we’ll have to wait till the summer to see how Bell and Lyu get out of this. Not to mention Cassandra and the rest of Hestia Familia are still down there. I suspect it’ll all work out, but I dunno, DanMachi can get pretty dark. It’s still in the top tier of light novels right now.