Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition, Vol. 6

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By Natsuki Takaya. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

The end of this omnibus is the halfway point in the Fruits Basket re-release, and you definitely get the sense that we have turned a corner. While I’m not sure that Takaya-san had worked out exactly how long she was going to make the series, I think here is where the ending she wanted firmed up in her mind and she began to take steps towards achieving it. And that means that Tohru, who had been suffering a bit from drifting through life after the death of her mother, acquires a new purpose, and becomes surprisingly driven to achieve it. Or perhaps it’s not so surprising, given that Akito is the one who sets her in motion with a violent rejection of her very self.

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The first half of the book is still set in the summer vacation beachhouse, as Akito works hard to ruin everyone’s vacation. But we find that success is not as easy as it once was. Kazuma explains to Tohru later on that Akito has an effect on the other zodiac, that words that could be brushed off if someone else said them affect them to their very core. But we actually begin to see a bit of that unraveling here. Haru seems to be so worried about Rin that he doesn’t react as much to Akito’s jibes about being stupid. Momiji is willing to defy Akito to avoid getting Tohru hurt. Even Kyo, whose self-loathing reaches another peak here, finds that a rare meeting with Akito doesn’t have the pull that it once did. The curse is explained in mroe detail than it’s ever been here, but we’re starting to see the start of it breaking.

And Tohru wants to be the one to do it. Akito’s little speech, which is long and violent (her cheek is scratched hard enough to draw blood) basically amounts to “Fuck off”, actually does the opposite of what it intends – mostly because it reveals what Kyo’s eventual fate will be. The Furuba fandom had been somewhat equally divided between Tohru/Yuki and Tohru/Kyo, but I think this book is where people began to realize that the triangle was already being broken up. Partly due to Yuki continuing his own separate, non-Sohma subplot (which still hasn’t quite gotten off the ground, though we did meet the always wonderful Kimi, who I will be praising more as the serious goes on, because she’s hilarious), but also due to the fact that it’s clearly Kyo’s fate that makes Tohru want to push to find out about how to break the curse more than anything. Seeds are being sown.

Speaking of seeds, we also meet Rin here for the first time properly, though she’s still something of an enigma, and notably does not receive the same treatment as the other Sohmas to date – meet, reveal their emotional trauma, get bathed in Tohru’s healing waves. Rin is a massive ball of rage, and will not be the sort to simply wilt under Tohru’s good cheer. I suspect a collision in the next book, particularly as Rin has discovered what Tohru is looking for. And some seeds have ended up not flowering after all, as Kagura discovers when she admits to herself that Kyo is never going to accept her affection, and manages to pour her heart out to him in an actual, real date free from her usual over the top violence. Her broken confession that she felt better being around Kyo because of the cat’s scapegoat nature is heartwrenching, but Kyo’s sympathetic, lukewarm response may be even more so.

As always with an omnibus, I feel I’m leaving more out. I never did talk about the mysterious Ren, who is mentioned here and seems to be the one that finally sets Akito off to go attack Tohru. And then there’s the school counseling sessions, when the parents arrive to discuss their children’s futures. Tohru’s grandfather is laid up with a bad back, so Shigure goes in his place, which leads to as much hilarity as you’d expect when he clashes with Mayu. (Also note his fantastic expression when she tells him he’s not even nice to the people he loves.) But overall, an excellent omnibus, possibly the high point of the entire series, and certainly a sign that we are going to start tying up our loose ends soon, even if some of them are going to resist that for a long time to come.

Oh yes, Tohru and Uo’s faces when Hanajima mentions that Kazuma is hot. Those are also a big highlight. See? I can go on and on.

Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 4

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

After a third volume that was good but somewhat insubstantial, the fourth volume of Progressive knocks it out of the park. One big reason why is the viewpoint: we get Asuna’s POV again (3rd person) for the first half of the book, with the 2nd half back to 1st person Kirito. This not only allows us much greater insight into how Asuna thinks, but also helps to show off how the two of them view each other – Asuna in the first half is running scared a lot, partly due to this particular level featuring ghosts, a pet fear of hers, but also in general, as she feels inadequate to the floor, and Kirito is constantly two steps ahead of her. She can’t even bring herself to duel him so she can have practice at it – in a game where something going wrong means death, it weighs too much on her.

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Then we see Kirito, and once again Asuna becomes the somewhat cool, noble tsundere he always puts on a pedestal. He also shows us that some of her assumptions about him are wrong – she admired his cool bluff against two enemy players, but he was actually on the verge of snapping, as seeing a status saying someone isn’t dead and actually not seeing them dead are two very different things. We also see that both he and Asuna are slowly becoming aware of their growing feelings towards each other, but are not really going to do anything about it – in fact, we even see Kirito abuse this fact, as in order to cover up his real intentions he pretends that he hasn’t joined one of the two big guilds as they’d force him to part with her. Of course, what it really is is that he feels she’s a better “leader” than he is, and he doesn’t want to get too close as he regards his role as making her “fly” so she doesn’t need him anymore. Which, of course, Asuna is somewhat aware of, and is the source of much of her own angst.

Argo is here, as you might have guessed from the cover, and she gets quite a lot more to do than usual, from dueling with Asuna to show off that she actually *can* take care of herself thank you very much, to hen showing us that she too can be vulnerable, as the new changes to the 5th floor boss almost end up taking her out. She’s a great character, and I am quite pleased that Kawahara continues to use her even though she doesn’t show up in the original series. Fans continue to debate whether this reboot will eventually reach the same points as canon – i.e., Kirito and Asuna will separate for a long period, and things will proceed as from the original. I think Kawahara realizes he doesn’t have to care about that for the next several books, and that he’s happy to simply rewrite Aincrad with new experience and better characterization than he had years ago. (He’s also written Progressive plot and characters into some of his unofficial doujinshi work – Argo shows up in one story during Kirito and Asuna’s honeymoon, and another story tells of the fate of the Dark Elves (who aren’t in this book, by the way, though I suspect they may be in the next one).)

And then there’s the other big reason this is the best of the Progressive books – a genuine threat from something outside the game itself. The second book showed us Morte, a player who seemed to want to cause chaos. We see him again here, working on more of the same, and also meet his boss. The discussion of why players would want to kill other players is brought up by both Kirito and Asuna, but both of them shy away from the actual reason – it’s a thrill and they can get away with it. The boss’ name isn’t mentioned, but signs are good that it’s PoH, who later heads up the guild Laughing Coffin, which we’ve discussed before. Again, part of the fun of reading Progressive is seeing he seeds being set for later events, and PoH is a creepy psycho. He’s clearly one of the major antagonists of the series. Even now that we’re a few years out of Aincrad, I wonder if he’ll pop up again.

So all this, plus the usual excellent battle scenes, and slightly less fanservice than usual (courtesy Asuna, who demands she and Argo be clothed during their bathtime duel). If you enjoy Sword Art Online even a little bit, you should love this one. Get ready to wait for the 5th volume, though – it’s not even scheduled in Japan yet.

Psycome: Murder Princess and the Summer Death Camp

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By Mizuki Mizushiro and Namanie. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

The second volume of Psycome takes its premise and runs with it, as we see our class of murderers sent on a field trip/survival camp, a trope that I thought was actually more Western than anything else but apparently must pop up in Japan as well. Once at camp, we get the usual combination of cliched romantic comedy antics and attempted killings, even though, of course, murder is absolutely prohibited by the staff. We see such cliches as walking across a rickety rope bridge, class skits around the campfire, late-night ero comedy at the hot springs, and a nature walk to boot. And all this is supervised by a new girl, Shamaya, the Murder Princess of the title. And unlike Kyousuke or Eiri, she is definitely here for genuine murder, as she sees fit to gleefully tell us.

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Just as all the main cast are painful cliches, so is Shamaya – as you can tell from the cover art, she’s the pampered ojou-sama type, and also fills in as head of the Public Morals Committee, dedicated to making sure all the new freshman are following the straight and true path. Of course, after Book One we know that said path is turning teenage killers into professional assassins, so we’re not too impressed. And indeed Shamaya is fairly easily thrown off her game – at first by people merely breaking the rules (such as the three goons whose names I can’t even remember trying to strangle Kyousuke), but later on she meets her match in Maina, the baby-talking clumsy girl who’s in this school for accidental deaths so ludicrous that no one believes they’re accidental. Maina brings out Shamaya’s true psychotic nature, but unfortunately for her there’s already a better psycho in town, Renko.

The book continues to walk a fine line, and doesn’t always succeed – sometimes when it tries too hard to be earnest or serious, I don’t feel as if it’s earned it. Hence I was skeptical of Shamaya’s heel-face turn after Maina’s big speech, and kept waiting for it to be another trick. Some of the comedy also falls flat, such as the epilogue where Shamaya seems to have traded in her murderous impulses for yuri impulses. But this is offset by some genuinely good set pieces, such as Eiri’s apology to Kyousuke for being such a tsundere to him, which *does* seem genuine and earned, or Maina’s aforementioned speech, which is depressing but also uplifting. And some of the comedy managed to surprise me and make me laugh, particularly Renko’s beatboxing rap group, which has to be read to be believed.

So, as with the first volume, we’re left with a promising yet deeply inconsistent book with an intriguing premise. The epilogue promises us a new character in the third volume, which I suspect will ramp up another cliched harem comedy trope accordingly, much as I’d wish it wouldn’t. But that’s what you get when you read a series like this. If they’re going to set a series in a wacky prison school and then throw in every cliche in the book, it would feel wrong not to hit every cliche. I’m not sure I could tolerate a manga or anime of this, but as prose, Psycome is amusing, goofy fun.