So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 4

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Fujimi Shobo. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

I’m still not quite sure about where out spider girl stands in terms of the current timeline (my current guess is that she’s the “white” girl rather than the demon lord, despite personality differences), but the two timelines are definitely starting to converge a bit. Or at least the spider is out of her dungeon… mostly… and starting to see the world. More to the point, much as I like seeing the spider’s adventures fighting things, I’ve become far more interested in the rest of the reincarnated kids, who are (mostly) all reunited at the Elf Village this volume. It’s a shame that the Demon Lord is about to annihilate all the elves. And also that the kids at the elf village feel rather strongly that they’re being used by their teacher. Which… may be true? Certainly Ms. Oka is not the pillar of goodness and light that, say, the teacher from Arifureta is.

On the spider side of things, she gets to the top of the dungeon, but the battle between both her mother and a higher spider that her mother calls in to help means that most of the time she’s shuffling back and forth between the dungeon and outside, fighting a mostly losing battle against various enemies. With a character as overpowered as our spider girl, there has to be a balance to show that she has it tough as well, and we certainly see it here – she’s decapitated twice, and is constantly at death’s door… and this is AFTER gaining the power of immortality, which she rightly assumes is not quite as great as it sounds. We also see one of her rare overconfident decisions, as she goes to fight the final battle against her mother with just better stats, not realizing that her mother is even craftier at traps.

Still, spider battles are not as interesting to me as the adventures of Shun, Katia and company, still trying to deal with the fact that Hugo has mind controlled the kingdom into making them public enemies. They go to the elf village to regroup, but that requires going through the dungeon to get there, which means running into some of our spider girl’s leftover selves. It’s not really clear how she pulls this off, but given it’s about 18 years later it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s just that powerful. In any case, there’s no battle with the heroes, but her mere presence – and announcement that she’s a reincarnation – is enough to stun everyone. Things don’t get better when Ms. Oka explains the mechanics behind this world and what the elves are doing to ensure that the gods/administrators don’t win. Honestly, their plans just sound mean. You can see why the other kids are sort of angry about being told to farm and never get strong. I don’t blame them.

We end with a bit of a cliffhanger, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t have to worry about remembering most of these kids for much longer. Meanwhile, our spider has finally met another reincarnation… and she’s a vampire! Will the two plots finally converge? Well, now that we’re out of the dungeon, we can hope things move a bit faster. And hey, not NEARLY as many stats in this book! Excellent news!

Ne Ne Ne

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By Shizuku Totono and Daisuke Hagiwara. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Taylor Engel.

The artist here may be familiar – the same one also draws Horimiya. The author is relatively unknown, however, and this did not take off the way Horimiya did – it’s just one volume total. But to be honest, that seems about right. Not that I didn’t enjoy this series, it was very cute and had some great humor. But you get the sense when reading it that future volumes would have been much the same – it’s the sort of series that only resolves when the main couple gets together, and has no plot except “will they finally get together”, so ongoing volumes would have felt a bit like it’s dragging it out. Of course, Ne Ne Ne has a bit of a head start on those other cute romantic comedies, in that our heroine starts the book off married to the hero. Why aren’t they involved physically? Well, it’s an arranged marriage, and she’s a bit too young. He’s also awkward, and inexperienced himself. Basically, they’re both naive blushing cuties.

There’s a supernatural element to the series as well, but it feels very tacked on. I’ve talked before with some isekai series how the “brought to another world” aspect feels halfhearted and tacked on, and to be honest the yokai stuff in Ne Ne Ne feels much the same. It seems to be an excuse to have Shin, the male lead, wear a mask all the time to make him a bit less nebbish. We never really get a good explanation as to why – he says it’s to make him less easy to possess, and you get the sense that if the series had gone on this is the direction the authors may have taken it in. As it is, though, the supernatural is not the reason to read the book. They treat a wounded fairy, he points out dragons flying in the sky that normal people can’t see, etc. The real meat of the story is in the embarrassed romantic flirting.

Shin is told by Koyuki’s overprotective father that he’s not to try anything with his wife till she’s twenty, but we’re never quite sure how much younger than that she is. At least a few years, I’d expect – she seems pretty young, and has a bit of a complex about getting older as quickly as possible. Like many newlyweds in Japanese ‘arranged marriage’ stories, there’s also a frisson of ‘Do you even like me at all?’ to the proceedings, though that’s entirely on the part of the characters – the reader knows immediately that they’re perfect for each other, though I agree with the dad that they should wait for now. There’s humor in seeing the local villagers mistake Koyuki for Shin’s maid (and then, when he corrects them, becoming the big gossip of the day) and Koyuki pouting when Shin says something unthinkingly. But they actually communicate pretty well, and there are no difficult problems to get past.

Ne Ne Ne may be only one volume because of that. This is a story of two people who are married and really like each other. And they all lived happily ever after.

Durarara!!, Vol. 11

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By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

If you enjoy scenes where one character tears down the motivations of another character, you’ll love this volume of DRRR!!, because that’s almost all it is. Yes, by the end of the book the plot guns are finally going off (or in some cases blowing up – nice cameo, Vorona), but most of this book is still buildup and dialogue. Izaya confronts Anri about her own nature, how she “uses” Saika, and her aggressive passiveness (yes, Anri can be very aggressive about not doing anything), to the point where she almost has a nervous breakdown. Izaya also confronts Mikado about what he’s trying to do with the Dollars – turns out Mikado is not ready for life entirely on the dark side either, and in order to maintain the excitement he craves, he needs to remain balanced on the edge between safety and danger. And Masaomi is forced, once again, to confront his past and the past of his gang, which looks to resolve itself in a series of beatings.

The cover implies hot Saika-on-Saika-on-Saika action, and to be fair, that is what we get, though the action is somewhat limited. Having been released from her “guard Celty’s head” duty, Haruna is free to try to find her true love, the creepy high school teacher, and also confront Anri, who dared to be loved and rejected by him. Midway through this battle, Kujiragi shows up, seemingly to try to get Anri to “sell” her Saika to her, but in reality we know why she’s really there – she’s angry they scared off the cats. Kujiragi’s stoic love of cat stuff (and later, as we discover, cosplay) is a charm point, but like so many, many others in Narita’s universes, she’s a villain who knows it and is content to be villainous even as she tries to escape. Anri, to be honest, spends most of this confrontation staring in confusion – she’s already mentally exhausted from Izaya tearing her apart, and how she has Kujiragi saying she’s far too nice to be wielding someone like Saika – which is true, but just taking Saika and leaving Anri normal won’t solve her issues. Anri doesn’t even get to go home and have a nice sleep, as Masaomi’s girlfriend is lying in wait outside her apartment.

Anri is the “main character” of this volume, but there’s other things going on, not least of which is Celty’s head being used to set everything in motion. Izaya is delighted and somewhat appalled by this turn of events. Meanwhile, Shizuo is out of prison, but after seeing Vorona stealing the head, he thinks she’s working for Izaya, and finally seems to be snapping. Unlike the anime, Shizuo and Izaya have rarely personally confronted each other in the novels – they just want to never see each other. I suspect, though, that the climax of these books will finally feature what fans want to see. No, not that. What non-BL fans want to see – Izaya getting the shit beaten out of him. As for Celty, she, like Anri, is having trouble coping with everything around her at the moment, and the cliffhanger ending (there’s about four cliffhangers at the end of the book) shows her about to snap as well. Is everyone going to get angry and snap at the start of the next book? And will Erika get Kujiragi to cosplay for her?

Fans may be familiar with these events from the anime, but I still urge them to get the books as well, as the examination of everyone’s psyches works better in prose format than spoken aloud.