One Piece: Heroines, Vol. 1

Leave a reply

Created by Eiichiro Oda. Written by Jun Esaka. Illustrated by Sayaka Suwa. Released in Japan by Jump Books. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Stephen Paul.

It’s been a while since I’ve dipped my toe into reviewing One Piece, but here they are with a light novel. Like most Jump light novels, the content is light as air, and you can read it in less than an hour. That’s not to say it’s bad, though. The author apparently is an old hand at this, having written a number of Sasuke spinoffs for the Naruto light novel series. The artist seems to be more on the fashion end, but it’s a terrific style – Oda does not do anything besides the cover art, but I didn’t miss him, as these have a style all their own. As for the stories themselves, well, they’re a mixed bag, as you’d expect. Our main two heroines do better, but things lag a bit in the second half. overall, frankly, the book suffers somewhat from what the manga itself does at times – it wants to write cool, strong women, but it also can’t help but objectify them.

In the first story, Nami buys shoes that will supposedly let her run fast in heels, but they’re terrible. When she goes to return them, she finds an arrogant designer and his jaded girlfriend/assistant. Told he’ll give her proper good shoes if she models for him, Nami does so, but also tells the assistant she’s better off without this jerk. Robin’s story takes place while she’s with the revolutionaries, as she tries to help the crew eat some very bitter mushrooms and Koala to decipher a newly discovered lost script. In the third story, a young boy has fallen in love with Vivi and writes a letter to her saying this, but it blows away. Trying to catch it, Koza ends up in trouble when everyone thinks he wrote it. Lastly, Zoro and Perona are living with Mihawk, and have a nice interlude – and a lot of fighting – when three bottles of delicious wine wash up at their castle.

The series is best when it’s living up to its title. Nami and Robin may be praised by the narrative as amazingly beautiful and stunning, but they’re also cool and clever – Nami gets exactly what she wants, gets a bit of revenge that nets her money, and (a distant third) helps a woman realize her life has value without a boyfriend. Robin could do everything in her story herself, but does not, knowing that Koala is undergoing the joy of discovery and working something out for herself. I also loved her washing the dishes. The weak story is the third one. It’s supposed to be about Vivi, but she only shows up for the resolution, and is used 100% as an object of worship. Koza’s relationship with her means that he takes over the narrative – Nami and Robin fortunately lack men in their lives. Perona is shown here midway between her “I am a minor villain” debut and the “I am Zoro’s friend and ally” we see later, and hers is probably the funniest story – yes, it revolves around Zoro and Mihawk too, but she’s the POV, so it works fine. (She’s not praised as the other three are. Shame, she’s cute.)

So overall, two excellent stories, one funny and good story, and Vivi’s story being hijacked. Not a bad batting average. Next time we’ll have Hancock, Tashigi, Reiju and Uta. For One Piece fans.

From Two-Bit Baddie to Total Heartthrob: This Villainess Will Cross-Dress to Impress!, Vol. 3

Leave a reply

By Masamune Okazaki and Hayase Jyun. Released in Japan as “Mob Dōzen no Akuyaku Reijō wa Dansō Shite Kōryaku Taishō no Za wo Nerau” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Caroline W.

I’ve said before that the least interesting part of these villainess books tends to be “who will she end up with in the end?”. Either it’s obvious from the start, such as in Villainess Level 99; it’s obvious but the creator knows it won’t be popular so is delaying it as long as possible, such as My Next Life As a Villainess; or it’s not obvious but it doesn’t really matter as who she marries is mostly irrelevant, such as this series. Honestly, at the end of this third volume, the love interest with the biggest lead is still Lilia. The webnovel version of this series does list “GL subtext” as a warning, so they know what they’re doing, but I’m not convinced that’s an endgame – Lilia here suggests seducing Elizabeth’s older brother so that she can “be in the family” and get to be around her all the time. The good news is the worldbuilding is still pretty interesting.

There’s a new transfer student in school, and he surprises everyone by declaring he’s in love with Elizabeth and asking her to marry him. Constantly. At every possible moment. This is especially surprising to Elizabeth and Lilia, as they recognize him. Prince Yoh Won Lei is from the Eastern lands, and while he is meant to be a spy, he’s not supposed to be like this. For one thing, shouldn’t he be going after the saint? Unfortunately, as the book goes on, absolutely nothing seems to put the man off, and the other random girls in the class all seem to ship it – to the point where they set up a play of Snow White with Elizabeth – in a dress – as Snow White, and Yoh as the Prince. He’s gonna go for a kiss – everyone knows this. More importantly… what’s he really after?

This book has three real highlights. The first is the play – after so many “Sorta Cinderella” bad high school plays in manga, it’s nice to see “Sorta Snow White”, and Lilia as the fourth-wall breaking narrator is a delight. The second is early on when the four male love interests corner Lilia in the student council room and try to get her to back off Elizabeth, as she was rejected. Lilia points out, correctly, that she was rejected as she actually confessed, something none of them have done. Then there’s the climax, which not only has Elizabeth coming to a dramatic (if mostly offscreen) rescue, but also has Lilia confessing that she’s figured out what’s wrong with this world – the gods, or whoever, are trying to keep the game script accurate, but she is now too powerful for it, so can alter the script. She’s not the only one – I think Elizabeth has that power as well, she just doesn’t know it. They may both need reality-breaking powers, though, as more and more people seem to have identified Elizabeth as the reason their evil plans are not working.

The author makes sympathy whining about this possibly being the final volume, but there’s at least two more in Japan. I’ll read more, though honestly, Elizabeth’s baffled density about why all these guys seem to want to hang around her may be the book’s big flaw.

The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori, Vol. 2

Leave a reply

By Kaeru Ryouseirui and Natsuki Amashiro. Released in Japan as “Umidori Tougetsu no “Detarame” na Jijou” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Generally speaking, my reviews these days tend to follow the pattern of “first paragraph discussing book, cover image, second paragraph summarizing plot, third paragraph giving good/bad/etc, epilogue”. And that’s what this will be too. That said, after reading this book I feel I have to put up a warning: I Swear I Am Not Making This Up. Because frankly, after reading the summary of this volume, I think one or two people might suspect I hated the book so much I just started making up absolute nonsense. Which isn’t true, I quite liked this book. But wow, the plot is indeed absolute nonsense… and yet, in the context of this world, it makes perfect sense. It’s true to the characters. It’s especially true to Umidori, and I have to admit, when she got that phone call asking her to guess who this was? I guessed it fairly quickly. Because this is a series that glories in being utterly unhinged. (And gay.)

Tougetsu Umidori is relatively happy, two weeks after the first book. She’s coming home from her job, telling Bullshit-chan she’ll be home soon, when she gets a mysterious call from someone who says they know her very well. Intimately, in fact. Despite the fact that they’ve never been to school or hung out together. As it turns out, we know the caller very well too. Because in the prologue for this book, we saw Umidori digging a grave in the back of her apartment complex and burying someone… and now they’re crying out to her, demanding that she dig them up. Unfortunately, at the same time, a mysterious cooking accident knocks Bullshit-chan unconscious, so she’s unable to help with the fact that the pencils that Umidori deep-fried and ate have gained sentience and can communicate with her. And love her. In fact, the love is pretty much mutual.

As I said, not making this up, and it’s not even the weirdest thing in the book. Honestly, the character of the pencils, who ends up taking the name Togari Tsukishigaoka, may be the best part of the book, wanting to help Umidori but also knowing what that help will cost her. The nature of the lies and what they can do to people’s psyches is explored further, and there is perhaps a worrying amount of co-dependency going on here, but in a series that has a girl in a love triangle with her best friend and a bunch of sentient pencils given human form, that’s probably the least of my problems. If there’s a weak part of this book it’s probably the villains, who simply are not as good as Hurt (who’s also back in this book, taking on the role of the tsukkomi/sidekick when needed). They mostly exist because we need a villain to drive the plot.

This is apparently halfway through the series, though the third volume doesn’t have a date here yet. If you’re looking for weird ass stuff with not-quite-monsters, this is right up your alley.