Infinite Dendrogram: Those Who Bind the Possibilities

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By Sakon Kaidou and Taiki. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

I’ll pick up with a point I made in the last review: there was honestly no reason that the author couldn’t have simply kept this with the fourth book and released it as one big tome. It took me a while to get back into where the action was, as if you were watching the climax of a movie and stopped with 15 minutes to go so you could go on a two-week vacation. That said, given that we’ve not only got the climax of the previous book, but also an extended epilogue and a side story or two, this is a light, easy read. In fact, the side stories may be the best part of the book. Because this is a series where the world not only is a game, but also one where people are not trapped in said game, we’re actually allowed to deal with real life issues like making sure you do all your pre-college prep. And having the hero and villain pass each other like ships in the night.

We also get more of the Starling brothers and their eccentric awesomeness, though it appears it’s more “the Starling family”, as we hear about an older sister who’s more insane than either brother. (It would be nice to meet her, but I expect she’s just the sort of character to be talked about but never show up.) Shu proves to be, as the reader likely guessed all along, a phenomenal powerhouse who uses his incredibly unbalanced build and real-life martial arts skills to completely decimate Franklin’s army of monsters, all while making the bear minimum number of puns. And then there is Ray, who still sees himself as the typical, normal male protagonist even as he gets himself some evil blood-red armor and also loses an arm, replacing it with a hook. Nemesis was introduced into the book as his lovestruck familiar, but lately she seems to exist to occasionally sigh and mutter to herself about Ray’s tastes.

As for Franklin and Hugo, I was fairly surprised by their relationship, though again, I do think it would have had more impact if the book hadn’t been divided into two parts. Franklin’s “character” is a classic sneering, arrogant villain, the sort who thinks they’re being stoic but really they’re just being awful. I’m not entirely sure if the obsession with Ray Starling will extend into the real world – they’re oblivious to each other at the moment, but I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. I was slightly saddened to see that Marie’s character, while still remaining relatively badass, has acquired a bit of a comic relief quality, mostly in everyone knowing her real identity despite everything. I also enjoyed the two adult Superiors going out for a drink with a third one who, it’s implied, has just turned ten. Again, this is the nature of online gaming.

This book ends the first “arc” of the series, and we’re also almost caught up with Japan, though I think we’ll have one more volume to go before we have to wait. I expect the next arc will deal with what Franklin implied in this one, which is that of course Dendrogram is not “just” a game, there’s clearly something else to it. Till then, enjoy working your way through this book, though you might want to re-read the previous one first.

Sorry for My Familiar, Vol. 1

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By Tekka Yaguraba. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine good! Afternoon. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Andrew Cunningham. Adapted by Betsy Aoki

I’ve mentioned a few times before that ongoing manga series in Japan tend to be written with multiple plots and endings in mind, depending on how popular the series ends up being. The classic example is the failed Shonen Jump series that ends in about two volumes with “and the adventure continues”. And sometimes you see shoujo classics that begin as what seems like a series of one-shots before they pick up an ongoing plot – because that’s what they were. In my opinion, it’s easier to do the cut short version. In fact, editors are experts at it. I imagine it must be a bit more difficult when you have a cute idea that seems to be something that could go nine, ten chapters and then you realize that it’s got enough readers that you need to do more. Sorry for My Familiar feels like the latter. As a cute, one-shot, it’d be fantastic. As an ongoing series? Ummm…

The plot is pretty simple, and drive by comedy. Patty is a very nice little Devil girl who happens to be burdened with the classic deadbeat dad – in fact, as the book goes on you begin to wonder if the dad was written by Rumiko Takahashi. She’s in a demon world where most of her fellows have some sort of magical animal familiar. She’s not strong enough to get those. Instead, she has Norman, who is a human, a demon researcher, and completely and utterly WEIRD. Norman is the reason to read the series – Patty is nice and all, but is mostly used as the straight man and occasional tsukkomi. (In fact, Patty’s niceness may come down to her background – she has no idea what kind of devil she is, and Norman spends some embarrassing moments wondering if she’s actually a cow.) The series involves the two of them trying to find her father and getting into scrapes, usually because Norman is endlessly curious and kind of rude.

The start of the volume is the best, as you will find that Norman is just so appalling most of the time in his dedicated research above nearly anything else that you can’t help but be dragged along, much as Patty is. His research does come in handy in getting out of several scrapes, but honestly I think a large part of it may also be his inhuman endurance – not implying he’s secretly a demon or anything, if anything I suspect his ability to overcome any hardship is meant to be an extension of his “anything for research” side. The main trouble is that Norman is not only somewhat exhausting to Patty, but to the reader as well – about two-thirds of the way through the book I was ready for it to be over. This is not uncommon in many comedy manga, admittedly, and it’s why it’s so hard to do properly.

The series seems to be three volumes and counting in Japan, and I was definitely amused enough to get a second volume – it’s fun. But if you end up falling behind, a word of advice: don’t binge read this. Little sips.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 10

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

As the author says in the afterword, technically this could have been Volume 9.5. That said, I am happy that it kept itself in the main series, as for the most part it had a larger scope than the chapters with Koutarou and Clan back in ancient history did. This particular volume shows that, even as Koutarou adn the reader thinks that his troubles began when all the girls tried to move into his apartment on the same day, they actually have a bond that extends back a lot longer. We already know about Koutarou’s relationship with Theia and Ruth’s planet, and of course Harumi seemingly being the reincarnation of Alaia. Now we see how he was Kiriha’s knight in shining armor all along, and he also had a major role to play in the past of both Yurika and Sanae, though neither of them technically show up here. It all ties together, and not in a teeth-grinding way either.

Adult Kiriha is on the cover, but child Kii-chan is who we get for 4/5 of the book, having run away from home due to latent grief over the death of her mother. She runs into Koutarou and Clan, who are time-traveling back but have to recalibrate. Naturally, Koutarou doesn’t recognize her till halfway through the book… and even then he promptly forgets about it because of an even bigger revelation – the day they’ve arrived is the day his own mother was killed in a car accident. Now he has to choose between saving his mother or protecting the future he’s fought for with everyone. There are, of course, a few problems. Kii-chan is a target for assassination. The assassin is actually a dark magical girl. Which means that Nana, Yurika’s predecessor and mentor, is also trying to stop her… as in a young woman who is an archer, desperately trying to save her daughter, whose spiritual energy is being bled out to power EVIL RITUALS. There’s a lot going on.

I’ll be honest, I was expecting the “save mom or save the timeline” decision to be less of an issue than it ended up being, but I probably shouldn’t have been. Each of the characters has shown themselves to be deeply lonely in a way they can only fix by being around each other, and therefore it should be no surprise that Koutarou’s first reaction is “forget about the timeline, I have to do this”. You can likely guess what the outcome is, but on the bright side, we get another cool battle that shows off Koutarou’s ridiculous endurance even as it shows us that he’s getting less pwoerful the longer he’s away from the others. Probably the best scene in the book is the final one, back in the present, as Kiriha has realized who her “oniichan” really is and is, unsurprisingly, ecstatic. The author really excels at drawing deeply emotional, sappy scenes without making the reader roll their eyes or feel uncomfortable.

Shizuka may have gotten the last cover, but she wasn’t in this one (though her ridiculous strength was mentioned). It seems unlikely she’ll be in the next one either, as we get another cliffhanger that tells us that next time around is Sanae-focused. If you’ve been reading Rokujouma from J-Novel Club, and you enjoy supporting the author by actually buying it (please support the author!), you’ll definitely enjoy this new volume.