Frau Faust, Vol. 1

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By Kore Yamazaki. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Itan. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Stephen Paul.

There is a scene towards the start of this manga where the title character is quizzing her protege about the history of their land that he had read. He parrots what he learned perfectly, but she quickly corrects his facts, saying that the actual reality wasn’t what was in the history books. This is something every kid growing up is going to come across sooner or later – certainly my generation learned a very whitewashed history in elementary school – and is always well worth pointing out. Don’t always take facts that you’re given at face value. The manga itself is another example, as it takes place seemingly in a world where the classic story of Faust is well known. But into this story comes our heroine, Johanna Faust, who most certainly is not the antihero we expected. And as we get further into the story, we find that a lot of other Faustian bargains may also be more than they seem.

The narrative of this story is not unfamiliar to manga readers, or indeed any reader of classic stories. Frau Faust comes to a small town on a mission, and happens to run into a boy, Marion, who’s being chased for stealing a book. After helping him escape, he explains that it was in fact his family’s book – their stuff was sold off, and he was trying to get it back. Needing a pasty – sorry, partner in order to achieve what she wants, she decides to become his tutor for a few days, and quickly blows his mind with both what she can teach and the way that she teaches it. Of course, she does have an ulterior motive in mind – she needs a pure-hearted boy like him to invite her into the local church, there to meet the demon Mephistopheles. Or at least a part of him. And their relationship seems to be somewhat more complicated than you’d expect.

As mentioned on the front cover, this is by the author of The Ancient Magus’ Bride, another series I greatly enjoy. This is a bit less introspective, but just as concerned with the nitty gritty of magic and the supernatural. And as you would expect with this author, the artwork is evocative and attractive, giving Faust and her co-stars excellent expressions. As for Faust herself, I was sort of expecting her to be a sly woman who turned out to be a big softie at heart, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen quite so fast, and the second and third chapters had moments of real sweetness in them. Be warned, like a lot of first volumes of shoujo and josei series (this is the latter – Itan is a supernatural/fantasy-oriented josei magazine), there is an unrelated short story at the end. But it’s good, dealing with a young girl whose family has divorced, whose mother drinks a lot, and who isn’t quite as mature as she wants to be, and her encounter with a museum of oddities. The mood fits well with the rest of Frau Faust.

I’ve been looking forward to this series since the moment I heard it was licensed, and it did not disappoint. Definitely any fans of fantasy should pick it up, but even if that’s not your thing give it a try. This makes you want to read the next volume right away.

The Irregular at Magic High School: Summer Vacation Arc +1

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By Tsutomu Sato and Kana Ishida. Released in Japan as “Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei” by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Prowse.

Yes, just like Maou-sama and DanMachi in April, it’s now Mahouka’s time to have a short story collection. As such, the stories in this volume are highly variable. That said, there are two that manage to be relevant to the ongoing story, so I’ll deal with them separately. As for the rest, we get a story with the grumpy guy who hates Tatsuya, Morisaki, who rescues a young woman from being abducted and then has to be her bodyguard; Eimi, who we met in the Competition stories, having a nasty amusement park encounter with thugs trying to steal her family spells; Ichijou and Kichijouji trying to recover after their loss last time, and making annoying lolicon jokes simply as Ichijou’s younger sister likes George; and a jaw-droppingly syrupy date between Tatsuya and Miyuki that seems to do nothing but take the incestuous subtext this series is filled with and rub it in your face. These stories are all readable but not great.

The first story in the collection, which is a beach episode, also starts off pretty fanservicey and pointless, and seems to be about Honoka trying to attract Tatsuya’s attention by almost drowning herself, which backfires in a typical anime “you saw my swimsuit fall off” way. The surprise, and actual plot relevance, comes towards the end. First of all, Shizuku, who’s mostly been in Miyuki’s corner, decides to ask Miyuki the rude question: does she like her brother in a romantic way? The answer is not really satisfying to me, but very much in character for Miyuki, so that’s acceptable. Better is Honoka actually working up her courage and confessing, and Tatsuya’s honest answer: he’s incapable of emotions like that. Of course, this is not stopping her from carrying on liking him till she finds someone better, as Tatsuya says he’d feel the same way about anyone else. I honestly wasn’t expecting one of the main pairings of this series to be shot down this fast, and it’s somewhat refreshing.

The longest story here is the last one, which deals with the fact that Mayumi is retiring, and would like to pass on the Student Council President position to someone she trusts. Hattori is the first that comes to mind, but he doesn’t want to do it. This leaves Azusa, but she’s simply too terrified to do it, having always been the meek one in the group. This is eventually resolved by one of the most blatant yet hilarious scenes in the book, which I will try not to spoil. More importantly, the successor is also carrying on Mayumi’s will by seeking to eliminate the prejudice against Course 2 students by allowing them to hold Student Council Positions. It’s a good reminder of the prejudice that still exists in many ways, which we haven’t really focused on since the first book. It also shows us that Miyuki’s immaturity is still hanging around, and that she can be TERRIFYING when lashing out – there’s a reason she wasn’t chosen to succeed as President. Yet.

The Irregular at Magic High School has likely locked in its audience already. If you enjoy the series, you’re going to pick up and enjoy this. If you’re one of those who despise Tatsuya, this is not going to change your mind (I didn’t even get into the politics occasionally on display here). Recommended to the former group – this isn’t an easy series to hate read, so the latter should move on.

Nisemonogatari: Fake Tale, Vol. 2

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By NISIOISIN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by James Balzer.

Despite being almost as long as the first in this series, Karen Bee, the second Nisemonogatari book, Tsukihi Phoenix, only got adapted into four episodes for the anime. As you can imagine, therefore, there’s a lot of content that got omitted or severely cut in order to fit it into the timeframe, particularly in the first half of the volume. As such, anime fans will find much to enjoy here. In particular, I think they’ll be amused at Araragi’s description of Senjogahara post-Karen Bee, who he describes as no longer caustic and sharp-tongued at all but now sweet and devoted, and how all of her formerly cruel and spiteful actions (which, let’s face it, the reader is aware were broken attempts at flirting) are replaced with normal girlfriend responses. Anime fans may be wondering what the heck happened, since the next time we meet Senjogahara in the series she’s still much the same.

In fact, Nisioisin seems a bit conflicted about the series getting turned into an anime – there’s a sense he tries to take things too far here in order to avoid having the anime continue, though obviously that didn’t work. Nisemonogatari has a reputation for being the sleaziest of the series, though, and it’s not inaccurate. Most of that reputation comes from this volume, which features the now infamous “toothbrush scene”, where Araragi and his sister Karen have a bet that he can’t brush her teeth for five minutes without her crying out. It’s obviously meant to suggest sex, and in particular incest, which earlier in the book Araragi had been mocking himself. Several times in the book he says that he feels no sexual desire towards his sisters before doing something sexual to them (he later steals Tsukihi’s first kiss, which horrifies her). Araragi is becoming a somewhat unreliable narrator, to be honest, though we won’t really see how much till later books in the series with other character’s narration.

This volume features his “younger younger sister” Tsukihi, who so far has been defined mostly by her temper and her mood swings, which we certainly get plenty of here. It’s also a good introduction to her personality in another sense – Araragi notes that Karen is the one with the actual sense of justice, while Tsukihi “just likes to run wild”, and it’s true – she tends to go along with what others do rather than making her own firm choices. The reader may wonder how much this ties in with the main plot, which suggests that – surprise, surprise – Tsuhiki is not who she seems. In the end, though, this book is about family in the good ways as well, which means that it’s not just about suggestive incest but also about loving your family even if they’re not what you thought they were – and Araragi, as a human who still retains vampiric powers, should know about that. Here he goes up against Kagenui, a “specialist” like Meme Oshino who specializes in eradication, and Yotsugi, a deadpan reanimated corpse who is her assistant. We’ll see a lot more of Yotsugi, not so much of Kagenui.

Speaking of Yotsugi, we can briefly talk translation. The issues are much the same as Karen Bee – dagnabbit mad is still there, and it’s still really annoying, but it didn’t appear as much as I feared. Tsuhiki also sounds like Yosemite Sam when she catches Araragi and Karen brushing teeth, but that’s more clearly deliberate comedy, and the anime watcher likely heard the heavy ‘fake accent’ she was using then, so it makes more sense. As for Kagenui, she too uses a fake, overdone accent, but it’s subtler, and the translator seems to go with “old-time Northern England”. It doesn’t jar much at all, and reminds me how much anime subtitles tend to gloss over accents. Speaking of which, Shinobu still sounds old-timey, as she always does, whether she’s Kiss-Shot or no.

Overall, I was quite pleased with this volume, a few issues aside. It also does sort of feel like he was trying to wrap up the series once more, but he failed again, and now tells us he has two more stories after this to write, about Hanekawa and Hachikuji. In fact, the Hanekawa story grew so large it got split into its own two-part book. Stay tuned for Nekomonogatari Black in November, when we FINALLY see what happened Golden Week.