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Bookshelf Briefs 8/21/19

Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter, Vol. 4 | By Reai and Suki Umemiya | Seven Seas – Aside from praising Iris’s innovations, this volume focuses more on the political end of things than the commerce end. Iris ends up attending the ball, and it goes better than she expected, mostly as the Queen Dowager is in her corner. In fact, honestly, things may go a little TOO well—the entire ball seems engineered to show off how the guy who dumped and exiled Iris is a hothead idiot, and Yuri seems to be doing an excellent job of manipulating the country into… running itself into the ground. But how invested should Iris be in all this, especially as she has to look out for her own nation, because there’s war on the horizon. Still an excellent political drama. – Sean Gaffney

Behind the Scenes!!, Vol. 7 | By Bisco Hatori | Viz Media – I enjoy Bisco Hatori’s humor, but her plotting is not a thing to behold. That said, as predicted, things resolved with the Ruka plotline, followed by a quick epilogue showing the film Goda made (honestly, the plot of the film sounds like a manga I’d love to see Hatori write), and then another epilogue several years later showing the two pairings (mostly) resolved and the two stars at ease with themselves and successful. There’s fun to be had here, but I can’t deny that I think this started a lot stronger than it ended, and I’m glad it did not end up as long as Ouran. I’d still recommend it to Hatori fans, though. Oh yes, and the amnesia arc proves to be as inconsequential as I suspected it would be. – Sean Gaffney

Cocoon Entwined, Vol. 1 | By Yuriko Hara | Yen Press – Hoshimiya Girls’ Academy has a unique tradition. The students have exceedingly long hair, and as the middle school third-year students are being measured for their high school uniforms, the high school third-years are finally having their hair cut, which will be used to make said uniforms. Cocoon Entwined so far is light on plot, heavy on atmosphere. We meet Yokozawa, a girl who seems to be able to sense breathing and/or heartbeats from the uniforms, and Saeki, the princely girl whom Yokozawa has feelings for. We don’t meet, except in flashback, the elusive Hoshimiya, granddaughter of the headmistress, who has locked herself in her room and for whom Saeki seemingly pines, much to Yokozawa’s dismay. I really liked this volume, even though there’s not a lot happening so far. I look forward to more, whenever it comes. – Michelle Smith

Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, Vol. 6 | By Inio Asano | Viz Media – Thankfully, and despite Kadode assuring her friends that something happened, it’s suggested nothing did, and the teacher is leaving the city due to the ongoing chaos. Honestly, the world may not have all that long to go—even if the aliens don’t bring things to an end, can Japan really hold off America and everyone else? This still has a bit of a post-apocalyptic feel to it. Still, Futaba does end up getting lucky, so to speak, though the implication is that her politics and his desire for a non-serious relationship will make that a very short relationship. The best part of the story was Oran’s surprise birthday party, which was sweet as pie. I hope there’s more sweet moments ahead. – Sean Gaffney

Emanon, Vol. 1: Memories of Emanon | By Shinji Kaijo and Kenji Tsuruta | Dark Horse – I initially picked up Emanon due to Tsuruta’s involvement since I’ve been enjoying Wandering Island; I only later realized that Kaijo is an award-winning author. The Emanon manga is an adaptation of a series of stories written by Kaijo (also illustrated by Tsuruta) featuring a young woman who calls herself Emanon. Kaijo’s somewhat melancholic but engaging narratives lend themselves well to Tsuruta’s atmospheric artwork. There’s very little action in the first volume of the manga. For the most part, Tsuruta is capturing a reminiscence of a conversation between two people, a young man who enjoys speculative fiction and Emanon. She intrigues him, not only because of the air of mystery surrounding her but because she tells him that she holds memories reaching back to the beginning of life on Earth. Memories of Emanon, adapting Kaijo’s original story, is self-contained, but I’m greatly looking forward to the continuation of the series. – Ash Brown

Idol Dreams, Vol. 6 | By Arina Tanemura | VIZ Media – It’s been almost two years since I read a volume of Idol Dreams. I’d stop short of saying it has gotten good in the intervening time—there’s a lot of melodrama here, from the death of Hibiki’s little sister and him carrying on despite his grief (leading to the spectacularly cheesy line, “Sayaka, can you hear Hibiki singing?”) to the plotline revolving around Hanami’s pregnancy and the fact that it isn’t Tokita’s—but it’s certainly somewhat better, and I think that’s because this volume puts much more emphasis on Deguchi as an adult interacting with adults rather than her masquerading as a teen interacting with teens. It was even a little gratifying to see this mousey character haul off and smack Hanami for leaving Tokita at the altar. Do I care enough to keep reading? Maybe, especially if the next volume is the final one. – Michelle Smith

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 37 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | VIZ Media – And so, Magi comes to an end. There were some things I really liked about it, like how Ohtaka-sensei showed how Alibaba’s unfailing determination to fight the spell reminded various brainwashed people of other heroes they had known who had sacrificed everything for goals and countries that would no longer exist if everyone and everything returned to rukh. I liked how Kogyoku was desperately trying to get him to surrender to her before the arrival of the massive army in an attempt to save his life. The rest, though, is not completely clear. I get most of what Sinbad did, but I don’t really get how Aladdin emerged victorious. There was a big flash of light and then… happy epilogue? Which I guess is fine. The happy epilogue was what I really wanted, anyway. Overall, I enjoyed this series and its themes of self-determination. – Michelle Smith

My Hero Academia, Vol. 20 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – This is an excellent volume, but it’s definitely a “wrap up one plot and start another” sort of book. Midoriya stops the “villains” and we see the small series of tragedies behind their backstory. He makes it back for the festival—just—and it’s a blast, with Jiro at her best (the redrawn art helps) and Eri dazzled. Then we see the new hero rankings post-All Might, and Endeavor is finally top of the charts, but being #1 also means that people are after you as well, and there’s a pretty nasty fight towards the end. Will Endeavor win the day? And will Todoroki care? Great volume, but I think it’s all about Jiro and Eri’s big grins in the end. Those are wonderful smiles. – Sean Gaffney

Shortcake Cake, Vol. 5 | By suu Morishita | VIZ Media – Ten has realized she likes Riku after all and returns early after summer vacation because he’s alone in the boardinghouse. Meanwhile, Chiaki is getting bolder about expressing his feelings. The great part is that not only does he get this pertain to Ten—including a smooch at the end and a “What can I do so that you consider me?”—but to Riku, as well. Chiaki’s oddball personality is starting to come through, and the best chapter here is a cute interlude where he lies about the origins of a cup Riku broke so that they can go out shopping for a replacement together. It involves Riku winning an enormous bag of potato chips for Chiaki from a crane game. I’m not super invested in the romance angle of this story, but I do like the main trio of characters! – Michelle Smith

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, Vol. 4 | By Tomo Hirokawa, based on the story by Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – There’s an attempt to ramp up the danger here, given that we’re dealing with the death of NPCs, who technically aren’t real people (though honestly, most of SAO has been built around proving that false lately) and the fact that this time you really can log out and go back to your life. But the threat of the game being hacked, as well as users using drugs to “enhance” their experience, means that this time the Japanese government may finally shut down all these VR games for good—something that Kirito and Asuna in particular are determined to stop. Can they help save Premiere from her fate? And what about Anti-Premiere? – Sean Gaffney

Takane & Hana, Vol. 10 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – As expected, Okamon is shot down (very nicely) by Hana. Of course, Takane misunderstands. Indeed, the entire volume is about misunderstandings and poor communication, which is always a good fallback in romantic comedies like this one. We also get the backstory on how Takane met Nicola, and how, like Hana, he was at first completely annoyed by him till he saw his hidden nice side. There are not quite as many amusing faces as previous volumes (though the omake helps make up a lot of the difference). But in return we do get a bit more on the romance front, as a drunken Takane (they had a birthday party for him) ends up kissing Hana… on the nose. That said, the effect is devastating. Fun times. – Sean Gaffney

Yuri Life | By Kurukuruhime | Yen Press – We’ve seen quite a few yuri anthologies about adults lately and this one is a 4-koma one-shot, with each chapter focusing on a different couple, until we come around to the first one at the end. There are couples I found interesting. (One involves the Grim Reaper waiting for a woman to die, falling in love with her, and then having her romance be what enables the woman to keep living… so they have to part.) I will say they are “mostly” adult romances… one is teacher-student, with the student being sixteen, and it didn’t work for me. Nor did the one about the “yandere.” Still, there were more hits than misses, and if you’re looking for cute, sweet yuri that won’t stick in the head, this is decent enough. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown

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