No Game No Life, Vol. 7

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Komen.

Until I read the afterword of this volume, I was going to comment a lot on how this volume’s release was delayed, I believe, four times, to the point where I’ve forgotten almost everything that came before it. But the afterword indicates that it was delayed in Japan the exact same number of months, which made me suspicious and wonder if it was delayed here deliberately. Probably not, but given the nature of this series, you can never be too paranoid. Things are not helped on the “remember what happened previously” end by the fact that Volume 6 was a flashback, and also the best volume in the series, which Kamiya sheepishly agrees with – he had writer’s block trying to top it. Sadly, I don’t think he did here, as this 7th volume of NGNL is bout 3/4 irritating and wordy faffing about, and it only really picks up towards the end. That said, if the ending is doing what I think it’s doing, the 8th volume may be much better. It’s out in February. Theoretically.

We start off in media res, which is a difficult thing to pull off for a normal writer, and even more difficult when you’re this writer, who tends to expound about eight times more than is necessary. Sora, Shiro and the rest of the cast have apparently agreed to play a game against an Old Deus, with the shrine Maiden’s life at stake. This surprises them, as they have no memory of having agreed to the game. It’s a dice game with complicated rules, which Sora says is based on a game from Earth but which I was mostly blank on. Much of the volume is spent with our heroes (and Steph, who sadly is reduced to a cliche here) whining and being creepily fetishistic as the dice board is the same size as the world, which is to say it takes days to travel across spaces. And they also gain or lose age depending on the dice they have, meaning a lot of 2-year-old Steph here. And when you arrive at a space, you have to do a task that another player has assigned, which can be very difficult and dangerous.

I’ve talked a bit about the translation before. I don’t think it’s the worst thing ever, like some NGNL fans do, but it’s not doing the prose any favors either. Kamiya, as I said earlier, tends to expound a lot, and Sora and Shiro also speak in a jaded gamer sort of way. Add to that the fact that, unlike a lot of other translations, there’s very little “Sora said” or “Steph replied” added to the text to help the reader, and you get a book that feels like a slog much of the time. Thankfully, this changes towards the end, when we see a) Plum trying to become a full-time villain in the real world, and b) Jibril challenging [ ] to a game where SOMEONE is going to have to die. Actually, the nature of the game she’s challenging them to intrigues me quite a bit, and I’m interested in seeing how it’s handled.

Unfortunately, looking forward to Vol. 8 does not make Vol. 7 better. Kamiya was right in his afterword, this is a step down from the previous book. Still, if you enjoye NGNL, you’ll need to read it anyway.

Mob Psycho 100, Vol. 1

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By ONE. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ura Sunday. Released in North America by Dark Horse Comics. Translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian.

Most folks likely first heard of the manga artist ONE via the series One-Punch Man, which was originally a webcomic (as is Mob Psycho 100) that was picked up by Shueisha. Shueisha, however, realized that it could sell better with an artist with, shall we say, a bit more technique than ONE, and so Yuusuke Murata does the art, though you can see traces of ONE’s style in Saitama and Tatsumaki. Needless to say, One-Punch Man was a success. But there are other series that ONE has written as webcomics, including this one, about a young man who has an average presence but also super psychic powers. This also became big enough in Japan to have an anime, and now we’re getting the manga over here. And in this case, there’s no other artist – ONE’s art is here in all its glory. Sometimes it helps the story/humor immensely, but I will admit at times I felt like I really wanted Murata to be drawing this.

Our hero… arrives on the scene after a bit of a fakeout, as we’re first introduced to Reigen, a supposed spirit medium and exorcist who actually functions more as comedy relief than anything else. This lowly assistant, Shigeo (the ‘Mob’ of the title, referring to his looks being the sort you’d see in a ‘crowd mob’ drawing) is the one with the actual powers. When he’s not helping Reigen with his exorcist work, he’s a “normal” high school student with a crush on a girl (who barely appears) and one of the few people not in a club. This jumpstarts the plot, as the Telepathy Club is desperate for members to avoid getting shut down, and sets their sights on Shigeo. He’s not interested, but ends up dragged in anyway. Even worse, he also ends up being targeted by a group of religious cultists.

For the most part, this is meant to be a funny manga with the plot as an excuse for bizarre reactions and gags, and it succeeds quite well. It definitely picks up in the 2nd half, though, when Shigeo faces the religious cult that forces laughter on people. This leads to the other half of the title, which is the ‘Psycho 100″ part. Shigeo is a very laid-back, mellow sort of guy, but that’s because he’s repressing his emotions. When he hits ‘100%”, he explodes with rage, easily the highlight of the book, and one where the sketchiness of ONE’s art pays off. Unfortunately, sometimes ONE’s art simply looks poor. I realize that’s its charm point, but the flat faces on many of the characters tend to lead me to flat emotions when I think about them, regardless of what they say. I wonder if this is a series that works better in animated form.

Despite those misgivings, this is a very good start to a series, and it’s refreshing to actually have one of the ‘psychic’ manga that used to be omnipresent in Japan but rarely came over here licensed. I look forward to more of Shigeo’s flat, dead face and hope he can keep his rage in check… well, OK, no I don’t. I want more rage.

Re: ZERO ~Starting Life in Another World~, Vol. 8

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By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Borque.

This arc continues to be very long, with most of this volume involved with trying to destroy the Witch Cult of Sloth, which proves, unsurprisingly, to be very difficult. It doesn’t seem that way at first – Petelgeuse is taken out with apparent ease, to the point where Subaru is naturally thinking “when is the other shoe going to drop? – but as we get further into the story and the Witch Cultists get more and more insane/clever/both, we start to have lives being lost. None of the named characters, mind, but it upsets Subaru nevertheless, as he feels that this time the deaths are directly attributable to his asking them to help him. Actually, this is a very good volume for Subaru watchers – even though he’s on an upswing and not doing stupid things too much, he’s still having trouble with Julius (Ferris notes his apology in the last book was half-assed) and with Emilia (who shows up to save the day towards the end here, but there’s no joyous reunion as of yet.

The cover and color illustrations feature Felt and Reinhard, and at first I wondered if my copy of the book was missing a scene, as they’re not actually IN the book – what you see in the color illustration is what you get. Instead we have the vast we had at the end of the last book, trying to destroy the Witch Cultists and doing lots of cool things. This includes Wilhelm, who is awesome but very injured by the end of the book; Ferris, who is desperately trying to save lives, even of the enemy, and having very little luck; and Julius, who proves to be an excellent combatant and can control spirits, which is of great benefit to Subaru when they save his life. Subaru’s plan is pretty good, though it ends up having one major flaw, which is that the Witch Cult is EVERYWHERE, even among people Subaru assumed were allies.

As for Petelgeuse, as I noted, he is seemingly killed off early on, but appearances can be deceiving. Indeed, the very nature of the Archbishop of Sloth proves to be somewhat elusive until the very end of the book, when Subaru realizes what is going on and flees (this is why we get no warm reunion with Emilia). This leads to the climax of the book, which has something I was not expecting. I have to assume that there’s going to be a new “reset point” and that we’re not going to have to do the entire White Whale battle again, but it’s ironic that just as Subaru is learning the fragile nature of life, his overpowered ability to avoid death has to be the solution. That said, I’m fairly certain the next volume is the final one in this book. Will he fix things? Will he reconcile with Emilia? And what of Rem, entirely absent from this book?

This was a solid volume of Re: Zero, with a lot of action, and Subaru still being less annoying than he has been. I’m looking forward to more.