Review: I WANT TO BE A RECEPTIONIST IN THIS MAGICAL WORLD

I cannot be the first person to observe the vast difference in ambition when it comes to light novel adaptations targeted at men versus those targeted at women.  The men become (or aim to become) rulers and adventurers.  Even those who want an easy life become farmers and shop owners.  Meanwhile, their feminine counterparts only seem to aspire to be potion-makers, healers or this.

I WANT TO BE A RECEPTIONIST IN THIS MAGICAL WORLD (Maho Sekai no Uketsukejo ni Naratai Desu), based on the original light novels by MAKO and character designs by Maro, with art by Yone.  First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

Ever since she was a little girl, Nunnally wanted to be a receptionist at Harre, the adventuring guild of her world.  Only the most capable, elegant, and talented young ladies are hired, so that means young Nunnally must go to the best magic academy in the land to qualify.  Unfortunately she's a commoner in a class of nothing but stuck-up noble children, including a particularly snotty boy named Alweiss.  She's going to have to work hard to rise above them, find and refine her own magical talent, and show the world just how capable she can be.

STORY:

My first response to a title like I Want To Be a Receptionist In This Magical World is a sarcastic "aim high, sister!"  I don't want to denigrate the very notion of being a receptionist, speaking as someone who's worked as one more than once in my life.  I just find it very hard to believe anyone would aspire to such a role.  I can understand why a child like Nunnally would be dazzled by a fancy uniform and classy manner.  It's not that far off from the impulse that drives little kids to want to become vets because they like animals or to become a firefighter because fire trucks are bright and loud and fascinating.  It's the fact that Nunnally sticks with that into her teens that I find harder to believe.  

It's almost as hard to believe as the qualifications necessary for such a low-ranking role.  To demand the highest ranking students from the highest ranking magical schools for what is basically a glorified customer service role is like demanding a Master's degree for an ordinary office manager job.  That's not even getting into the unspoken gender bias, because I sure as hell don't see any dudes doing this job.  It's almost like they are unthinkingly replicating the shitty gender politics of office workers in Japan!

Of course, these complaints ultimately amount to very little because that's not what this story is actually about.  No, mostly it's just the same old boring wannabe Harry Potter magic school bullshit you've seen in a million other light novels.  That means Nunnally is an underdog surrounded by snobby nobles with only a couple of roommates to serve as friends and secondary shipping fodder.  That snotty rival boy of course turns out to be her snotty love interest, as their boring bickering is meant to be a substitute for actual flirting or sexual tension.  In true light novel protagonist fashion, Nunnally turns out to possess a rare form of ice magic, which has the added side effect of giving her bright blue hair and eyes (not that you can really tell outside of the front cover).  Unless you are absolutely brand new to this sort of manga, you will have absolutely seen these sorts of characters, these sorts of relationships, and this sort of plot before.  Hell, you can probably recite it in your sleep.  It seems that Nunnally's lack of ambition is exceeded only by that of the author, who has absolutely no ambition or originality to speak of.

ART:

There's not a great deal of difference stylistically between the art for the light novels (which have been licensed here under the the title "The Sorcerer's Receptionist") and this manga adaptation.  At most, the manga artwork has been somewhat simplified.  It's not unpleasant to look at but it's not particularly distinct either.  That same level of run-of-the-mill competence can be found in every nook and corner of the visual production.  At worst the pages are a little cluttered, but otherwise it's no different from any other workmanlike light novel adaptation you can find at the bookstores.

RATING:

The concept behind the title is bad, but the real issue with I Want To Be a Receptionist In This Magical World is that it's stultifying dull and derivative.  It can't even commit to that premise, as flawed as it is, because even that was too original for the original author.  You've seen countless other iterations of this story and you'd do better to read literally any of them.

This manga is published by Yen Press.  This series is ongoing in Japan with 7 volumes available.  6 volumes have been released and are currently in print.

Holiday Review #24: WHOEVER STEALS THIS BOOK

 I was struggling to figure out what to put in this spot so close to the end of our review marathon, but then I stumbled upon this curious little story that's all about the power of books.  What could be more perfect for this site?

WHOEVER STEALS THIS BOOK (Kono Hon o Nusumu-mono wa), based on the light novels by Nowaki Fukamidori with art by Kakeru Sora.  First published in 2021 and first published in North America in 2024.

PLOT:

Mifuyu lives in a town that lives for books.  Her ancestors were avid collectors who created their own private library, one that has been locked away from the public for generations after a number of them were stolen.  She's come to hate her family's legacy almost as much as she hates how much the town around revolves around books.  Things only get worse when her dad ends up in the hospital, forcing her to enter her family's library to keep an eye on its keeper, her reclusive aunt Hirune.  During her visit, Mifuyu finds a strange talisman and an even stranger white-haired girl name Mashiro.  The talisman turns out to be a curse, one that forces Mifuyu and Mashiro to enter the stories of the missing books to recover them.

Holiday Review #16: FRIDAY AT THE ATELIER

Seinen magazines seems to be the place to go these days if you want quirky romance manga starring adults, much like this one.

FRIDAYS AT THE ATELIER (Kinyoubi wa Atelier de), by Sakura Hamada.  First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2024.

PLOT:

Emiko is so exhausted with her life that she's considering suicide, but then she comes across a man who has tripped in the street, spilling a bag of fish.  The man is Shunsui, an artist, and he believes Emiko to be the perfect model for his work.  That's how she finds herself at his studio, nude and covered in fish.  It's an odd arrangement to be sure, but Emiko usually gets a free meal of freshly cooked fish out of it so that's something.  The longer this goes on, the more Emiko wonders if Shunsui wants more from here than mere modeling...and if she does as well.

Holiday Review #13: A SINNER OF THE DEEP SEA

If I had a nickel for every mermaid manga I read this year, I would have two nickels.  That isn't a lot but it's more that I would have expected for a concept this niche.

A SINNER OF THE DEEP SEA (Abyss Azure no Zaizin), by Akihito Tomi.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2024.

PLOT:

Deep in the ocean, there is an entire society of mermaids living their lives.  That includes Jo, a rebellious young mermaid who is happy to tag along with her best friend Ryuu, a popular dancer.  One day it is revealed that Ryuu committed the worst crime possible in their world: she revealed their existence to a human.  Worse still, she's fallen in love with them and is willing to go on a heartsick hunger strike to prove it! Jo is determined to save her friend at any cost, even if means swallowing her pride and risking her own freedom to confront this man herself.

Holiday Review #10: I WANT A GAL GAMER TO PRAISE ME

 The success of My Dress-Up Darling has led to a wave of shonen romances where a flirty gyaru gal with a otaku-friendly interest gets together with an ordinary teen boy all while missing what made that series so good and appealing in the first place.

I WANT A GAL GAMER TO PRAISE ME (Gyaru Gamer ni Homeraretai), by Geshumaro.  First published in 2022 and first published in North America in 2024.

PLOT:

Raito Sasaki wants to be better at battle royale games, so he figures he could hire a top-ranked player to be his coach.  He never expected that coach to be a perky gal with a rockin' bod.  Rion's advice is good and her perspective is always positive, but how can Raito focus when a hot girl is in his room pressing herself close to him at every turn?

Holiday Review #6: THE GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASN'T A GUY AT ALL

 With all the yuri manga we're getting these days, it's hard for any title to make much of an impression.  That's why I was surprised by all the hype around this particular one, the sort I haven't seen since the days of Girl Friends.

Naturally I had to check it out.

THE GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASN'T A GUY AT ALL (Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta), by Sumiko Arai.  First published in 2023 and first published in North America in 2024.

PLOT:

Aya is a trendy, popular girl with a secret love of 90s American rock bands.  One of the few places where she can indulge in this interest is a local CD shop.  It helps that there's a mysterious but totally cool dude working there, who shares her interest.  She would never guess that the cool dude with the face mask, dark clothes, and hoodie is in fact Mitsuki, the quiet girl who sits next to her at school.  She just wants to get through school unnoticed, and she's afraid that Aya will be let down if she learns the truth.  Things might have continued like this forever if not for a curious classmate, a class committee assignment, and a concert.

Review: LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA

 OK, I need to cover a witch manga that's as traditional as you can get with witches.  Broomsticks, pointed hats, magic, the whole nine yards!  And one that's actually good!

Thankfully, Studio Trigger provided us with something that fits the bill perfectly

LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA (Ritoru Witchi Akademia), based on the original series by Studio Trigger and Yoh Yoshinari, with art by Keisuke Sato.  First published in 2016 and first published in North America in 2018.

PLOT:

Ever since she was a little girl, Atsuko "Akko" Kagari admired the witch Shiny Chariot and yearned to be a witch just like her.  She even went so far as to apply to the same school Shiny Chariot attended: Luna Nova Academy.  The problem is that every other girl there is a witch born and raised, while Akko struggles with the basics and knows nothing of the witching world.  Nonetheless, she manages to make some friends while having some wild adventures of her own.

Review: HIGH SCHOOL DXD

There was a time when you couldn't swing a stick without hitting a manga adaptation of a light novel series where some horny doofus and his harem of marketable waifus go to Magic School and have fanservice-laden adventures.

This is...certainly one example of those.

HIGH SCHOOL DXD (Haisukuru Di Di), based on the light novels by Ichiei Ishibumi and character designs by Zero Miyama with art by Hiroji Mishima.  First published in 2011 and first published in North America in 2014.

PLOT:

Issei was your typical horny high school student, hoping to score some girls and touch some boobs instead of hanging out with his even hornier, stupider friends.  It figures that the first girl to give him the time of day turned out to be a fallen angel who killed him.  Now he's been resurrected as a demon, the latest minion of the bombshell popular girl/demon queen Rias.  Issei is now a soldier in a never-ending war between demons and angels, but he's got a secret weapon up his sleeve.

Review: YOWAMUSHI PEDAL

It's once again time for the Summer Olympics, so in turn I'm going to be looking at some sports manga (and in particular those featuring sports you're likely to see at the Olympics), and that includes bike racing.

YOWAMUSHI PEDAL (Yowamushi Pedaru), by Wataru Watanabe.  First published in 2008 and first published in North America in 2015.

PLOT:

Sakamichi Onoda is an otaku who loves nothing more than his regular trips to Akibahara.  It doesn't matter that he lives in the hilly countryside nearly 50km away from the heart of Tokyo - he's happy to bike his way there and back if it lets him save that much more money for another vending machine toy.  Eventually Sakamichi's endurance is noticed by a couple of classmates who are part of the school's biking team.  They eventually convince Sakamichi to give them a chance, but the transition from casual trips to Tokyo on an everyday bike to serious races on sporting models is a rough, even perilous one.

Review: THE MAID I HIRED RECENTLY IS MYSTERIOUS

That's not to say that modern maid manga can't be horny either.  They just tend to be a little less obvious about it.

THE MAID I HIRED RECENTLY IS MYSTERIOUS (Saikin Yatotta Maid ga Ayashii), by Wakame Konbu.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2021.

PLOT:

Somewhere in the countryside, a young man lives alone in a large house with a beautiful new maid.  He can't quite pin down why he finds her so fascinating.  Is it her excellent cooking? Her ability to guess his every need?  Her somewhat revealing uniform? Her exotic purple eyes? 

There's only one sensible explanation: she can't be human.  She must be some sort of demon or something!  That's why he can't stop thinking about her everyday!  It can't possibly be that he's attracted to her!  Clearly, the best response is to confront her with this truth, along with overly honest confessions of how much he thinks of her and how he wants her to stay with him forever.  That'll show her!

Holiday Review #16: THE SHIUNJI FAMILY CHILDREN

As if that last review wasn't enough to make you question if The Straights Are Alright, here comes Rent-A-Girlfriend creator Reiji Miyajima to dredge up something else that should have stayed in the 2010s. 

THE SHIUNJI FAMILY CHILDREN (Shiunji-ke no Kodomo-tachi), by Reiji Miyajima with art support by Reiji Yukino.  First published in 2022 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

The Shiunjis are a fabulously wealthy family blessed with seven children.  Their eldest, Arata, doesn't feel particularly blessed, though.  He's constantly bullied by his sisters (and younger brother) over his inability to get a girlfriend, and he fears that he's just fated to never get a girlfriend.  Then their father drops a bombshell: all of them are adopted.  This revelation leaves Arata and all of his sisters reconsidering their relationships to one another, as one by one they start to fall for him.

STORY:

I knew I was in trouble when I saw this very pretentious statement above the back cover blurb:

The love between brother and sister.

The love between man and woman.

That which is most forbidden is most unyielding.

 That alone told me what The Shiunji Family Children had to offer.  It wasn't just going to be another imouto ecchi series in the vein of Oreimo or I Don't Like You At All Big Brother, it's going to be pretentious about it.  

You can tell that Miyajima thinks he's being so clever by actively having the character call out how much the Shiunji sisters and Arata's situation are like something out of a harem sex comedy, only to go ahead and do the harem sex comedy stuff anyway.  This is a trick people have been trying to pull off since Haruhi Suzumiya tried to do with moe, and it never works.  There's also a weirdly retro quality to the harem set-up here, one that evokes the heyday of Love Hina.  Sure, the details are different, but you still have a nebbishy loser living with a bunch of anime girl stereotypes who one by one throw themselves at him for no reason beyond proximity and misplaced affection.  Apparently over a decade and a half of being raised as siblings is something you can turn off like a switch the moment you learn you're not related to a boy!

Even by the low standards of harem manga, these characters are incredibly basic.  When Arata isn't panicking over the concept of merely talking to his crush (or his sisters hitting on him), he's grousing about everyone thinks having all these hot sisters is so awesome but it's not.  He tries to put up a noble if feeble defense against their intentions, reiterating his obligations as their big brother, but this is little more than a fig leaf on his (and the reader's behalf).  In true harem fashion, this is merely the basic act of kindness that serves to only further fan the flames of their love in his sisters' hearts.  

Meanwhile, said sisters have personalities you can sum up with Smurf-level nicknames: Flirty Sis, Bitchy Sis, Sporty Sis, Brainy Sis, and Shy Sis.  Yes, there's technically a younger brother as well, but he's both a biological twin with the resident tsundere and already has a girlfriend at the start of the series so he is neither competition nor a romantic option.  Like a lot of hacks, Miyajima makes up for their lack of personality by having random strangers declare just how beautiful and awesome they are on the regular, and it only gets more insincere the more he does it.  In fairness, if he weren't a hack, he'd probably come up with an original premise (or put his current one out of its stagnant misery) instead of recycling an old formula and adding an expired dash of incest for flavor.

ART:

First of all, I have to note that curious "art support" credit.  I've never seen anything like it.  Clearly Miyajima contributed as an artist, since the character designs and focus on fashion are clearly in his style.  Yet this Reiji Yukino must have contributed enough creatively to be considered more than just a mere assistant, enough that Miyajima couldn't take full credit for it.

Regardless of how much either one of them is responsible for the art, it's clearly a step down from the spirited, stylish charm of Rent-A-Girlfriend.  That was one of the few things I liked about that series, but that inspiration has clearly long been spent.  The character designs here are more basic and derivative, although at points you can see Miyajima's eye for fashion come through.  While most harem protagonists are merely average-looking, Arata is downright ugly with his permanent bedhead, beady eyes, and tendency to scowl and pout.  It's hard to imagine any girl looking at that face and falling in love, much less sisters who have had to look at it daily for years.

There's not even much verve to the fanservice moments, which are normally the biggest showcase in a harem manga.  It's as if the artists themselves just wanted to get them over and done with, so there's not much effort to play up any of the tawdry elements.  They definitely don't play up the glamour of the family's lifestyle, as most of this book is set inside rather blase rooms and the outdoor backgrounds are clearly hastily filtered photo references.  It's just a very half-assed looking manga from an artist (maybe two) who can clearly do better.

RATING:

The Shiunji Family Children is a manga that feels like an obligation on the part of its creators.  There's no creative spark here, just two of the worst trends in manga from the last 20 years smashed together in the most half-assed manner possible.  It's clearly banking on Miyajima's name and its sis-con premise to bring in readers, but hopefully most will be wise enough (or burnt out enough from Rent-a-Girlfriend) to stay away.

This manga is published by Yen Press.  This series is ongoing in Japan with 2 volumes available.  1 volume has been released and is currently in print.

Only 9 days remain in our Holiday Review Giveaway!  Leave a comment here or on our BlueSky about your favorite manga of 2023 to potentially win a $25 Bookshop.org gift certificate!  Contest ends on midnight Christmas Day

Holiday Review #14: MAIDEN OF THE NEEDLE

There's all sort of female-led fantasy stories to choose from these days, isekai or otherwise.  Sadly they can't all be good, though. 

MAIDEN OF THE NEEDLE (Hariko no Otome), based on the light novels by Zeroki and character designs by Miho Takeoka, with art by Yuni Yukimura.  First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

For as long as she could remember, Yui could always see fairies.  She used her innate sewing skills to mend their appearance, but that wasn't enough to impress her wicked, imperious family.  When she showed no talent for their particular brand of magical weaving, they locked her away, worked and beat her like a slave, and kept her at the edge of starvation.  It was only after she was sold to the handsome nobleman Rodin that her true talents could shine.  Not only can she see fairies, but she can use their magic to seal powerful magic into her sewing.  That will come in handy as her skills attract the attention of both the abdicated king as well as her former birth family.

Holiday Review #11: REBORN AS A VENDING MACHINE, I NOW WANDER THE DUNGEON

As the isekai fantasy genre goes on, it gets harder to come up with truly original ideas.  To do so, creators have to get increasingly weird and specific with what their protagonist gets reincarnated as, and this is a prime example.

REBORN AS A VENDING MACHINE, I NOW WANDER THE DUNGEON (Jidohanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyu o Samayo), based on the light novels by Hirukuma and character designs by Hagure Yuuki, with art by Kunieda.  First published in 2021 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

Once he was just another salaryman, albeit one with an obsession fascination with vending machines.  Then one day he is crushed by one, and when he awakens he discovers that he has become a vending machine.  He is found by Lammis, a good-natured and super-strong country girl who takes him back to her village.  It's there that his life as an adventurer begins, when he and Lammis are tasked with aiding with a hunt for ferocious frog-men.

Holiday Review #6: I DON'T KNOW WHICH IS LOVE

 OK, that's enough heavy stuff.  We need to move on to something lighter, something more frivolous, and something much, much gayer.

I DON'T KNOW WHICH IS LOVE (Dore ga Koi ka ga Wakaranai), by Tamamushi Oku.  First published in 2021 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

Mai spent her high school years pining for her best friend, only to get shut down on graduation day.  She's not going to make the same mistake again in college.  This time, she's absolutely going to get herself a girlfriend!  Her first day on campus is beyond successful, as she runs into five hot women who are all interested in Mai.  With such a selection before her and no experience with dating to draw from, how is Mai ever going to be able to choose?

Review: THE ELDER SISTER-LIKE ONE

 This year I'm going to do something a little different for this month.  After all, this month is the beginning of the holiday season, which means a lot of people will be visiting their families (be they biological, adoptive, or found).  Family is the theme of this month, albeit with a twist: every title reviewed this month features a family role in the title, regardless of the actual subject matter.  That's certainly evident with our first title, which somehow is and isn't all that familial.

THE ELDER SISTER-LIKE ONE (Ane Naru Mono), by Iida Pochi.  First published in 2016 and first published in North America in 2018.

PLOT:

Yuu has spent the last decade or so getting shuffled from one relative to another.  His parents' untimely death has left him distant and depressed, and most of his guardians don't want to deal with it.  His loneliness only gets worse when his latest guardian goes to the hospital.  That's when he discovers that said guardian has been summoning demons in his spare time, and Yuu unwittingly summons Chiyo.  She offers him anything he wants, and he asks for her to live with him everyday like a big sister.

Now the two spend their days in (mostly) quiet comfort, as Chiyo learns about the human world and Yuu tries to deal with his 'sister's' demonic charms.

STORY:

"What if Oh My Goddess, but Belldandy was horny and oblivious to the human world?"  That's probably the quickest way to sum up The Elder Sister-Like One.  It's trying to be horny and heart-warming at the same time, and while I'm not entirely convinced it works I have to give at least some credit for being sincere about it.

Pochi tries to mine some depth out of Yuu with a lot of inner monologue, but it's not quite enough to overcome the fact that he's kind of a nondescript sadsack.  He's not unpleasant or annoying, but there's not much too him beyond his sadness.  I also strongly suspect that Pochi borrowed his backstory and ability to see yokai from Chise in The Ancient Magus's Bride.  Chiyo does make a charming counterpart to the gloomy Yuu.  Her genuine enthusiasm about the human world is endearing, and this lack of knowledge helps to even out the power dynamic between her and Yuu.  At the very least, it helps her avoid the magical mommy-girlfriend pitfall that Belldandy and all her imitators tended to fall into.  

That being said, she's not above the requisite fanservice moments (at least once per chapter) and somehow the emotional sincerity of their relationship makes these moments more awkward than usual.  Pochi makes so much of a big deal about the non-horny emotional fulfillment that Yuu and Chiyo get out of their arrangement that it makes Chiyo's horny moments feel kind of fake, like she's purposefully putting on a show for the reader.  Meanwhile, it only makes Yuu's stereotypically nervous, stuttering discomfort all the more uncomfortable.  These moments feel like they're getting in the way of what would otherwise be a gentle (if unconventional) tale of two lonely souls connecting with one another.

ART:

Iida Pochi made her name in ero-manga; apparently this particular series was born from one of her originial doujin.  That's certainly evident in the way she draws Chiyo's demonic form, although there is a sense of restraint here.  Chiyo's certainly drawn for sex appeal in both forms, but her proportions are fairly realistic and she doesn't go overboard with the squishiness or floppiness of her boobs.  The same goes for the aforementioned fanservice moments, although there's a bathing-themed one that pushes the edge pretty damn hard.

Beyond that, though, she really nails that sort of sleepy, cozy, Japanese countryside aesthetic that iyashikei stories like this love to trade on.  You've got a lot of the usual trappings: a quiet, traditional-styled home, dirt roads, farm fields, with nary a soul to be seen outside of Yuu's initial trip to the hospital.  She puts some care into the backgrounds, and because of that you can really feel the sort of hazy, late-summer vibes this series exudes.

RATING:

I don't know if the concept of a horny iyashikei is something that entirely works for me, but The Elder Sister-Like One certainly tries its best to make it happen.  At the very least, it's a more worthy outlet for Iida Pochi's skill as an artist than the likes of Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

This series is published by Yen Press.  This series is ongoing in Japan with six volumes available.  All six have been released and are currently in print.

Review: BLOOD LAD

It's not just BL that can get spooky - shonen manga can too.

BLOOD LAD (Burrado Raddo), by Yuuki Kodama.  First published in 2009 and first published in North America in 2012.

PLOT:

Staz the vampire has a reputation for being one of the toughest bosses in the demon world.  You'd never guess he was something of a nerd, obsessed with all the tech, video games, anime, and manga of the human world.  He's thrilled when a human girl accidentally wanders into his realm...until she accidentally dies.  The two are now on a quest to regain the girl's humanity, one where they will have to fight their way through both the human and demon world.

Review: THE VAMPIRE AND HIS PLEASANT COMPANIONS

The spooky season is upon us again, and The Manga Test Drive is not immune to its charms!  We'll be looking at all sorts of supernatural manga, starting with a vampire manga that is most assuredly not like other vampire manga.

THE VAMPIRE AND HIS PLEASANT COMPANIONS (Kyuuketsuki to Yokai and na Nakama-tachi), based on an original story by Narise Konohara with art by Marimo Ragawa.  First published in 2016 and first published in North America in 2021.

PLOT:

For Albert, becoming a vampire has been nothing but a struggle.  He has little to no understanding of his powers and barely gets by as homeless drifter feeding of the scraps of the local slaughterhouse.  Then he accidentally gets flash-frozen in his bat form and shipped to Japan.  Now he's more adrift than ever, and the only way for him to stay out of jail is to convince a police detective and his embalmer friend Akira that he is in fact a real vampire. 

STORY:

If you're tired of the same old vampire melodrama, then The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions might just be what you're looking for.  Instead of the usual Byronic tragedy or romance, this story is basically a comedy of errors that in part seems to be made to punch holes in the glamourous, Gothic image of your typical fictional vampire.

By just about every metric, Albert is a failure of a vampire.  He was accidentally turned by a stranger, so he received little to no guidance and his transformation was incomplete.  He lives off of blood, but cannot grow fangs.  He can turn into a bat, but it's an involuntary process that happens every night.  Instead of swaning about in the night in fabulous clothes and living off of hereditary wealth, he's basically a blood-sucking hobo in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska.  

Things don't get any less comical when he ends up in Japan.  Albert has no identification, no clothes, and can neither speak nor understand Japanese.  Most of the second half is him explaining himself and his situation to Akira and Detective Nukariya, who are understandably skeptical about the whole thing.  Admittedly it makes for a story that's not very action-packed and whose humor never really rises beyond a sensible, genre-aware chuckle, but it does show that Konohara and Ragawa gave some thought to the premise and were ready to counter equally skeptical readers.  It should also be noted that while Albert is frequently the butt of the joke here, the tone never crosses into outright cruelty.

Considering the background of the creators involved, you would expect this to be a BL manga.  If that is the direction it's heading, then it's certainly taking its sweet time getting there.  There's definitely some tsundere-esque tension between Akira and Albert, but it's largely stymied by Albert's language deficit.  The most action Albert gets is when Akira pokes and prods at him as a bat.  I don't have a problem with that because the comedy and the character writing is strong, which will make the inevitable romance all the more satisfying.

ART:

Ragawa's art is skillful and attractive.  The men are handsome and well-proportioned, and she even takes care to draw Albert's bat form with a shocking degree of accuracy (even if she simplifies his face for the sake of comedy).  The backgrounds and paneling fit with the story's mundane tone, although she makes good use of the manga equivalent of jump cuts and the occasional silly face to punctuate the sillier moments.  

PRESENTATION:

Included is a short story from Konohara detailing a pre-vampirism Albert's encounter with Akira during a trip to California.  It's a fine, decently written bit of fluff that adds a little more to the reader's understanding of Albert as a person, but not of any great consequence.

RATING:

The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions is a pleasant and ever-so-slightly spooky comedy that survives on the strength of its characters and its awareness of its own genre conventions.  Those seeking a vampire manga that isn't drowning in romance or woe will find much to enjoy here.

This series is published by Yen Press.  This series is currently on hiatus in Japan with 4 volumes available.  All 4 have been published and are currently in print.

Review: THE HONOR STUDENT AT MAGIC HIGH SCHOOL

 Sadly, there's plenty of unworth franchises that get spinoffs too, including the most stubborn of the old-school 'magic school harem light novel' franchises.

THE HONOR STUDENT AT MAGIC HIGH SCHOOL (Mahouka Koko no Yutosei), by Yu Mori, based on the light novel series by Tsutomu Sato and character designs by Kana Ishida.  First published in 2012 and first published in North America in 2015.

PLOT:

Miyuki Shiba wanted to just spend the day with her beloved brother Tatsuya.  Everything was going swimmingly until a terrorist came along to threaten them, but then Tatsuya used his incredible magic power to save her and everyone at the mall!  Now she can spend her days hanging out with the other student council kids being admired (all while keeping an eye on her brother and the numerous girls around him).

STORY:

Who out there was asking "you know what The Irregular at Magic High School needs?  A story about Miyuki!  Y'know, the protagonist's practically-perfect-in-every-way adoptive sister whose existence is defined almost entirely by how badly she wants to bang her older brother!"  The original series is indulgent enough, but this is somehow even worse and even more boring in comparison.

It certainly makes no pretense at anything other than indulgence right from the first page. It begins with Miyuki and Tatsuya going on a date in everything but name.  She's all blushy-crushy and constantly reminds herself (and the audience) that she can't let on how much she wants her brother.  Meanwhile, Tatsuya acts like a sentient 2x4 who only springs to life to explain in boring, granular detail how the magic system of this world works on the fancy barrette he buys her.  All the while, the crowds around them coo over Miyuki's beauty, glare in envy at Tatsuya, and basically treat them both like divine beings who have deigned to grace this sinful world with their glorious presence.  There are hentai manga that are less masturbatory than these first 25 pages and it absolutely sets the tone for what is to come.

It all leads up to an action set-piece with an anonymous fire-wielding nutjob that mostly exists for the same reason everything in this franchise exists: to reaffirm just how awesome these two are at everything, particularly magic.  There's little sense that either of them are in peril or even particularly struggling with any aspect of this battle, rendering the whole sequence dramatically inert.  From there it shifts to the titular Magic High School, but the worship doesn't stop from there.  The girls around Miyuki can't stop marveling at her beauty and perfection, while Miyuki can't stop thinking about her brother and harassing anyone who gets between him and her (be they school bullies or her brother's growing harem of classmates).  The dialogue remains much the same, alternating between blandly conversational and glacially stiff anytime someone needs to explain some plot or something about this world's boring, overly technical magic system.

I don't understand why this spinoff exists.  Sure, The Irregular at Magic High School was (inexplicably) popular in Japan, but telling Miyuki's side of the story doesn't add anything you couldn't get from the original.  At least her brother has some social stigmas to work around in his version of the story.  Meanwhile, Miyuki is rich, popular, pretty, magically gifted, and the golden child of her family.  She has no problems other than her incurable thirst for her brother and clearly the writer sees no problem with that and that leaves this version with no drama to explore.

ART:

I've had my suspicions in the past that the mangaka working on these light novel-to-manga adaptations are largely amateurs, but this is one of the few times I can confirm that thanks to the mangaka's own notes at the end.  They do a perfectly adequate job translating Ishida's character designs to manga form, mostly because those designs were pretty blase to begin with and Mori never forces them to emote beyond vague smiles and yelling.  

Really, most of the issues I have with the visuals here stem from the source illustrations, be it the completely bland settings or the odd school uniforms.  Sure, they're more conservatively designed than most anime high school uniforms, but the boys have these weirdly long, stiff jackets while the girls have odd, diaphanous trains attached to their bolero jacket tops.  There is one person who approves of how Mori handles this manga, and that's the original writer Tsutomu Sato.  I don't know how much I want to rely on his opinion, though, considering his first comment is about how cute the girls are and their "sexy body lines."

RATING:

The Honor Student at Magic High School is not only as tedious and self-indulgent as its parent series but thoroughly pointless to boot.  I can't imagine anyone who wasn't a fan of the original getting anything out of this other than tedium and a serious case of incest-related heebie-jeebies.

This series is published by Yen Press.  This series is complete in Japan with 11 volumes available.  All 11 volumes have been released and are currently in print.

Review: THE MELANCHOLY OF SUZUMIYA HARUHI-CHAN

 With yet another summer blockbuster season underway that's stuffed to the gills with sequels, it's high time this blog does the same by looking at some of the many manga sequels, prequels, and spinoffs out there.  The most common spinoff manga idea is 'gag manga,' but unfortunately that doesn't mean that the gags will be any good.

THE MELANCHOLY OF SUZUMIYA HARUHI-CHAN (Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuutsu), based on the light novel series by Nagaru Tanigawa and character designs by Noizi Ito, with story and art by Puyo.  First published in 2008 and first published in North America in 2010.

PLOT:

This is the story of all the wacky goings-on before, during, and after the events of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.  That includes how far Yuki's fondness for dating games goes, Haruhi's weird ideas about holidays, Mikuru's endless gullibility, and the tiny copy of Ryuoko that's forced to live in Yuki's apartment.

Merry Month of Shojo Manga Review #14: GOLDEN JAPANESQUE: A SPLENDID YOKOHAMA ROMANCE

 And now here's a modern manga with an old-fashioned setting.

GOLDEN JAPANESQUE: A SPLENDID YOKOHAMA ROMANCE (Kin'iro Japanesque: Yokohama Kako tan), by Kaho Miyasaka.  First published in 2018 and first published in North America in 2021.

PLOT:

All Maria wanted to do was to go unnoticed.  She was tired of being a burden to her mother, tired of the mockery and shame that others heap upon her, tired of not even being able to read kanji.  She never expected to catch the eye of the young master Rintarou.  She certainly didn't expect him to discover the golden hair and big blue eyes she's desperately been trying to hide from the world.  The two find themselves unwittingly drawn to one another, even as the society of Meiji-era Tokyo strives to keep them apart.