Pop Team Epic

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By Bkub Okawa. Released in Japan by Takeshobo, serialized in the magazine Manga Life Win. Released in North America by Vertical Comics. Translated by Yota Okutani.

Many who read my reviews are familiar with me saying “This was made into a popular anime, which I haven’t actually seen.” That’s not the case here, as I am very, very familiar with the Pop Team Epic anime. In fact, this manga may be operating at a slight disadvantage in that I think almost every single person who buys it will be someone who has seen the anime that came out at the start of 2018. So, the question here is not so much “is this book funny?” (it is, in a PTE sort of way) or “is this book worth my money?” (yes it is, if only for the cover not having mosaics like the CR anime OP did) but more “what does this book have that the anime didn’t?”. There are several comics that weren’t adapted into anime gags, of course, and I will admit that for the most part you can easily see why they chose what they did. But the gags are still fun and worth reading, and it’s interesting to see hwow one gets translated into the other.

In case you are that rare person who bought this sight unseen (and given that cover, I can imagine it), Pop Team Epic is a 4-koma gag strip about two girls, Popuko (the short one) and Pipimi (the tall one). They’re dressed in school uniforms, but we never see them attending any classes. Instead, the strip is an excuse for various pop culture gags, fourth wall breaking exercises, and whatever random humor Bkub thinks of to throw at us. A good comparison might be Nichijou or CITY, though I worry comparing Pop Team Epic to anything just invites criticism. For anyone who’s seen the anime, all the most famous gags are present and correct: “Are you upset?”, “Beef or Chicken”, “Doesn’t get it at all”, etc. In fact, some of the gags look odd for an anime watcher, as Bob Epic Team used them for their own distorted art, and seeing things like the scorpion or zoo scenes as normal quick gag strips is actually a bit unnerving.

For those who had been wondering about how they would translate possibly the most memed of the PTE memes, “You Are Mother Fucker?” is left as is, which might be seen as cheating but is probably the safest option. The translation is, appropriately for a series like this, a bit of a mish-mash. Translation notes are minimal, with the occasional explanation of things like the Slit-Mouthed Woman. For the most part the pop culture gags are left alone, relying on the reader being as big a nerd as the author. There is the occasional adaptation that I noticed – in particular, I’m pretty sure the M*A*S*H reference wasn’t in the original comic – but for the most part the translation is fairly straightforward. Popuko swears quite a bit, though again, not as much as I think the “fan” reading the manga would like.

If you enjoyed the Pop Team Epic anime and want to read how it began, this is an excellent manga to buy. If you didn’t watch the PTE anime and are just curious, I’d make sure you like gag comics with a liberal definition of what “humor” is first. And if you’re a yuri fan, yes, “I wuv you lots” is in here, though don’t expect any hegemony.

The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 6

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By Gamei Hitsuji and himesuz. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

Last time I said that it wasn’t all that surprising that another hero came from Japan, and now after this volume we find that there’s actually a close connection between this fantasy world and Suimei’s own. Given the sheer amount of backstory we’ve gotten on Suimei and his own magic studies, this isn’t too surprising. It’s not good news for anyone who isn’t as powerful as Suimei, though, and there’s some genuine concern at the end of the volume over his splitting with Hatsumi and heading off to once again research a way to return to his own world. Fortunately, through the magic power of trauma, Hatsumi has finally regained her old memories, and so now she recalls enough awesome sword experience… to know that she can run away if need be. Not win. These new enemies are tough. The old enemies are pretty tough too, actually, and the book itself is essentially devoted to three huge fights and an epilogue.

The most interesting of the three fights, though not necessarily the most enjoyable, is the one on Reiji’s side. Reiji is a fairly dull hero, but he’s also pretty pure and noble and cliched as a hero as well. This is why the bad guys seem to think that he, rather than Hatsumi, is going to be the one they make their “main hero” to save the world – he’ll inspire the little people more. Of course, that assumes he’s actually doing heroic things, rather than yelling at Mizuki. Mizuki has been a flat character for a while now, and I wanted her to develop and be able to do more. But not like this. Weaponizing her chuuni tendencies makes her just as annoying as it sounds, and I fear we may have to deal with this version of her for some time. (Combining this with Lefille becoming a little girl again, it’s like the author was asking what things I dislike the most in Too Far Behind and then leaving heavily on them.)

Suimei does get a bit more complicated in this volume, not always for the better. Seeing him terrified of fighting the dragonewt because of past trauma involving his father was interesting, but in the end it didn’t really seem to hamper his battle abilities. More interesting was the discussion at the end with whatever entity is possessing Mizuki and making her fantasies reality. We get a glimpse of a Suimei who did something very nasty, and I’m fairly certain that it’s going to come out in the next book or two and have horrible consequences. Mostly, through this book, Suimei has been a pretty nice guy despite pretending that he isn’t. But he’s not perfect, and he’s a teenager. That said, it’s sort of hard to square this backstory with him and Mizuki and the “dur hur, I don’t know why all these girls are mad at me” harem idiot except “convenience of the plot”.

Overall, this is a good volume of Too Far Behind! if you like fights, and there’s some good plot-related stuff as well. It just had a couple of issues that kept niggling at me through the book. It also had no interstitial illustrations, the second volume to be missing them. Someone should have a chat with the illustrator.

Cutie Honey: The Classic Collection

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By Go Nagai. Released in Japan by Akita Shoten, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Champion. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Zack Davisson.

This one-volume omnibus of the original Cutie Honey came out here in North America after the sequel volume, Cutie Honey a Go Go!, and unlike the other recent classic property where the sequel came first (Harlock), I think it’s for the best. A Go Go had most of what made the original so attractive, but packaged it in a modern way, complete with Natsuko as an adult police officer. Here we get unfiltered Nagai, and… it can be a lot to take. The constant nudity, the lesbian tease used solely for male titillation, the cartoon violence and horror, the fourth wall breaking. This is almost a college course in what classic manga of the 70s was like, and reminds me why it didn’t get brought over for so long. Still, at its heart this is worth reading, if only to see why Cutie Honey also ended up inspiring female readers. Honey fights evil and wins WITHOUT the help of a guy. In fact, the guys are useless.

The premise, in case anyone was unaware: a scientists builds an android named Honey, who doesn’t even know she’s an android at first, and stashes her at a girl’s private school, where she befriends the young, cheerful, and prone to getting captured Natsuko. But the evil organization Panther Claw want the secrets that Honey has within her body… and kill her father to get at them. Together with a reporter who happened to be interviewing her father when Panther Claw attacked, his family, and Natsuko, Honey fights back against the all-female villain team of Panther Claw. Heads will roll. Indeed, they frequently do. Is there anything that can stop this senseless battle? Possibly one of the villains being attracted to Honey, but alas, the series is cancelled before that goes anywhere.

Yeah, that’s right, this is done in one because it got dropped pretty fast (though it wasn’t axed as fast as Cutie Honey a Go Go0. Honestly, in many ways it’s for the better. Cutie Honey is a Warner Brothers Cartoon in most ways. The characters are two-dimensional and stereotypical, the humor is broad and sometimes verges on gross, it can be fairly sexist despite its empowering premise, and it’s super violent, with most of the cast ending up dead. That said, the sheer verve and imagination of Go Nagai kept me turning pages, and I was never bored. The wisecracks may be vaudeville-style, but they’re frequently hilarious anyway. And the fights are really nice to see, with Honey pretty much going all out on her own – the reporter is far more useless here than he is in A Go Go – and showing off her assets. So to speak.

By the end of the book you can see that Nagai has sort of ground to a halt – the series should have ended after the school is destroyed and Natsuko dies, but the manga was tying in to the anime that was running at the same time, and so it staggers on a bit, complete with annoying cameos from one of Nagai’s other gag manga. It ends like a 5-car pile up, with a naked Honey singing her anime theme song while blushing and asking readers not to look. But they do. While certainly a product of its time, I can appreciate the zest that Cutie Honey brought to shonen manga, as well as a lighter side to Go Nagai’s works.