Silver Spoon, Vol. 7

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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.

The middle of this volume has some cute, funny, and heartwarming moments, and thank God. I’m not sure how intentional it was, but if you enjoy having misery as the bread for your sandwich, then Silver Spoon 7 is absolutely for you. Now, to be fair, we knew the start was going to happen. Hachiken’s in the hospital, so of course his parents come to see him. Everything we’ve seen about his dad says this is not going to go well, and it doesn’t. Even the bacon, the one thing that Hachiken thought he’d made inroads on, was just his mother trying to be considerate of his feelings. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know what his dad means. He feels that Hachiken is wasting his intellect here, and is especially frustrated given the nature of his other son. But man, he’s such a bitter pill to swallow that I can’t feel any sympathy for him at all. And, unfortunately, the visit causes Hachiken to have a brief hissy fit at his mom as well.

This is important because, probably because he’s still upset about that, he donates his change to charity when he buys new glasses, and as a result has to walk back to the school… meaning he misses everything. Fortunately, he is blessed with classmates who a) really care about him, and b) will not take his shit, because he was all set to be a miserable “I don’t deserve to have any fun” type. Luckily, Mikage is there to remind him that the festival was a huge success because of his planning. And they wrote a book of memories he can read and then sob over. It’s really sweet. As for his date with Mikage… well, they try to have it. But it’s more going to a shrine. And of course it ends up being most everyone else as well. You can tell the cast is rooting for these two dorks (every other woman in Mikage’s class shows up to ensure she doesn’t get blocked at the last minute), but they’re still nowhere near a confession. That said, at least he can make fun of her accent, which he does. Repeatedly.

And then there are the baseball games. To an extent, this was also foreshadowed as well. We’ve seen that Mikage is a LOT more invested in Komaba’s team winning and going to the Nationals than the rest of the school, and Hachiken’s attempts to find out about it have gone badly for him. We’re still not quite sure why, but we can hazard a guess, because after they lose in the finals, he never returns to school. I have a sneaking suspicion this will be another lesson in how farming is hard and not everyone can succeed, but it’s a blow as Komaba, despite being so stoic, has been one of the more prominent characters to date, and you feel horrible for him. I suspect most of the next book will go into the aftermath and explain why he left school.

You probably don’t need me to tell you how good this series is by now, but I will anyway. Really good. I want more immediately.

Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!, Vol. 1

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By Makishima Suzuki and Yappen. Released in Japan as “Nihon e Youkoso Elf-san” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hiroya Watanabe.

When you have so many isekais coming out in Japan all the time, it’s inevitable that someone’s going to want to try the reverse. Take a stock fantasy character and have them experience the wonders of Japan. We’ve seen this in manga a few times, mostly for comedy (Plus-Sized Elf comes to mind), but, though there are funny moments, this new series doesn’t really have comedy in mind. Arguably you could say it’s romance – the two leads are clearly sweet on each other, but she’s too shy and he’s too dense, as always. I don’t expect a relationship upgrade anytime soon. No, the Japanese parts of this book seem to have two goals in mind: first, to show off the cuteness of its female lead and show her having adorable slice-of-life situations. And second, so show off how wonderful Japan is and how swell the people in it are. Honestly, at times when I was reading this I wondered if it was a government mandated product (J-Novel’s licensing hint didn’t help).

That said, there was far less Japan in this first volume than I expected. Our hero is Kazuhiro (“Kazuhito” in the fantasy world), a 25-year-old salaryman who’s always had the ability to travel to a fantasy world in his dreams. He’s been doing this for some time, and is now a Level 72 adventurer. He’s also good friends with Mariabelle (Marie), an elf mage who has assisted him in the past. One day they’re investigating a ruined city and accidentally get killed by a dragon that happens to live there. As always when he’s killed, Kazuhiro wakes up in his bed in Japan. But this time he was holding onto Marie when he died… and now she’s in Japan with him! Now she, like he, can go back and forth between both worlds when they sleep. What’s more, she gets to experience the food, clothing, books, and so much more that Japan has to offer.

So yes, the elf is in Japan, but there’s also a good half of the book that’s in the fantasy world, with all the usual accoutrements. There’s trying to defeat the dragon, dealing with evil bandits, etc. This just wasn’t as exciting, to be honest – it wasn’t bad, but it’s not really why I wanted to read the book. The Japan segments were much better, summed up, as I noted before, by the word “cute”. The author is good at showing the friendly, unconscious flirting between the two leads, and it’s fun without getting too frustrating – you are content to let them awkwardly fumble it out. The cast so far is small, with the only other possibly relevant members being the dragon who killed them (who turns out to be nicer than you’d expect) and a local librarian who knows Kazuhiro (and who is married, the book clearly states – there’s no love rivalries here yet).

This won’t win awards for depth, but it put a smile on my face. It’s nice to see a lead guy who works as a regular Japanese corporate officer worker, though his “fantasy” appearance is still middle school (as is his narrative obsession with breasts). It’s a relatively new series in Japan, so Vol. 2 may be a bit, but I’m looking forward to it.

A Certain Scientific Railgun: Astral Buddy, Vol. 1

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By Kazuma Kamachi and Yasuhito Nogi. Released in Japan as “Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Astral Buddy” by ASCII Media Works, serialization ongoing in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Nan Rymer. Adapted by Maggie Danger.

Let’s face it, spinoffs from A Certain Magical Index are obvious. Leaving aside the fact that both Mikoto and Accelerator, owners of the two other manga spinoffs, are far more popular than either Touma OR Index, the series is simply littered with people you want to have their own series. Even if you put that aside and regard this as purely in the “Railgunverse”, which it is, there’s still an awful lot that you could focus on besides the adventures of the main four girls in the cast. The most obvious, of course, being Misaki, but she’s already gotten a sizeable role in the Railgun franchise already. So who do you turn to? Who’s the next breakout star? If you answered “that princess curl girl with no name that Misaki mentally abuses”, then you’ve cheated and read ahead. Let’s face it, no one expected this girl to lead a series.

See, even the cover artist agrees with me. Front and center are Kuroko and Misaki, posing as if they know why readers are REALLY buying this book. Way in the background is princess curl girl, who finally gets a name, Junko, and the “astral buddy” (awful pun there, btw) who is haunting/stalking her and drives the main plot. Someone is theoretically assaulting people around Misaki… only it turns out they’re assaulting people around Junko, who is a bright and shiny pile of naivete (as we’ve seen in the main Railgun series when she’s made brief appearances). Once that plot point is resolved, and Junko is assured that girls can in fact like other girls (a constant thread in this volume, no surprise given Kuroko’s all over it), we move on to Junko’s new ghost friend, who may or may not be a ghost. And Misaki’s still around, of course, but for once she’s the damsel in distress.

This takes place right around the Indian Poker arc in Railgun, for timeline fanatics. Mikoto is not in it, probably as she’d match up too well with Junko – Junko is bright and shiny where Mikoto runs on frustration and grumpiness, but they’re essentially very similar people. The rest of the Railgun core all have significant appearances, though. As for Junko herself, the narrative is a bit kinder to her now that she’s the focus of a series. We see she’s a Level 4, and her powers do indeed look pretty damn handy – it’s almost like a “quirk” from My Hero Academia. (Arguably, all of Academy City is.) Even the annoying mind control gag from Railgun, where Junko is always dieting but Misaki, when annoyed, makes her overeat to offset it, gets an “amusing” spin – Junko is gaining weight, but it’s all in her chest. The actual plotline has barely started, but that’s certainly an impressive cliffhanger.

So in the end, I was prepared for this to be the most cynical franchise cash-in yet, given it’s a spinoff starring “who?”, but it proved surprisingly entertaining, and I have new respect for Junko, who’s a bit of an airhead but sweet. Aside from the usual “Kuroko is a predatory lesbian” warnings, this should be an excellent pickup for Railgun fans.