James Nicoll Reviews

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, Volume One (とつくにの少女, Totsukuni no Shōjo)) is the first tankōbon for Nagabe’s fantasy manga series. Serialized in Mag Garden’s shōnen manga magazine Monthly Comic Garden, Girl ran from September 2015 to March 2021 and has now concluded. Volume One was published in 2016. The English translation dates to 2017.

Shiva lives alone with absent-minded Teacher in the forest. Other humans once lived in the area; now only their empty homes and abandoned belongings remain.

Shiva lives in hope that each new day will be the day when her beloved auntie will come to collect her. Teacher knows that Shiva’s auntie is never coming. Teacher cannot bear to tell Shiva this. Not only would Shiva be disappointed, explaining why her aunt is not coming might involve revealing uncomfortable truths, such as the fact that Shiva’s auntie is the one who abandoned her in the forest.

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2022’s Delicious in Dungeon, Volume 12 is the twelfth tankōbon in Ryoko Kui’s secondary-world comedy fantasy manga series. Originally published as Danjon Meshi, Delicious in Dungeon appears in Enterbrain’s Harta. Volume 12 was translated into English in 2023, by Sarah Neufeld and Taylor Engel.

Laios and his dungeon delving companions (half-elf mage Marcille, halfling security expert Chilchuck, dwarf fighter Senshi, and cat-beastkin ninja Izutsumi) triumphed over the Lunatic Magician. They survived a hostile interaction with the Canaries, elves charged with containing the menage of the dungeon. Mistakes were made and now the world faces a threat far greater than the Lunatic Magician: Marcille.

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2017’s To Your Eternity, Volume 2 is the second tankōbon for Yoshitoki Oima’s fantasy manga. Originally published as Fumetsu no Anata e, the series has run since 2016 in Weekly Shōnen Magazine.

Setting: a fantasy world that looks a bit like Tokugawa Japan (buildings, clothing, food). The geography, however, is not at all Japanese: high cliffs and pinnacles above flatlands. Featured: two cultures: the Yanome, who rule an empire with large cities, and the Ninanna, who live on the edges of empire and are the target of Yanome imperial expansion.

The Ninanna worship a bear god, Oniguma; they practice human sacrifice. In volume one, a young Ninanna girl, Marsh, was to have been the next victim. However, she has been taken under the protection of Fushi, a protean being with an as-yet rudimentary mind, and rescued from death.

A Yanome soldier (Hayase) carries off Marsh, Marsh’s friend Parona, Fushi, and a badly wounded bear said to be Oniguma; she is taking them to Yanome lands as trophies.

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Usotoki Rhetoric Volume 1 is the first tankōbon in Ritsu Miyako’s historical mystery manga series. Usotoki Rhetoric was published in Bessatsu Hana to Yume from June 26, 2012 to March 26, 2018.

By the first year of the Showa era, Urabe Kanoko’s unique ability has secured for her a place in her hometown … as a pariah. Hoping to find a community where she might fit in, Kanako leaves her home for Tsukumoya, a town where nobody knows her, and she might hope to conceal her dreadful secret.

Kanako is a living lie detector. Utter a known-to-be-false statement in her hearing, and she will infallibly know it is a lie.

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Yōko Ogawa’s 2003 The Housekeeper and the Professor: A Novel is a stand-alone mainstream novel about … a housekeeper and a professor. The 2009 translation is by Stephen Snyder.

The housekeeper, a hard-working single mother, is used to Akebono Housekeeping Agency’s frequent reassignments. Her latest client has very particular needs, needs that previous domestic staff struggled to meet. Will the housekeeper be successful where others failed or will she be another anonymous face in a succession of housekeepers?

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2020’s Insomniacs After School, Volume Three is the third tankōbon of Makoto Ojiro’s manga series. Serialized in Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits, Insomniacs After School has been ongoing since May 2019. The English translation of Volume Three is slated to appear sometime in 2023. 

Sleepless students Ganta Nakami and Isaki Magari have protected their access to their school’s observatory by restarting the school astronomy club. The pair has acquired some of the necessary skills. Now they must organize an event.

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Stanisław Lem’s 1986 Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy is a collection of essays, most of which concern science fiction.

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2021’s Delicious in Dungeon, Volume 11 is the eleventh tankōbon in Ryoko Kui’s secondary-world comedy fantasy manga series. Originally published as Danjon Meshi, Delicious in Dungeon appears in Enterbrain’s Harta. Volume 11 was translated into English in 2022.

Laios and his dungeon delving companions (half-elf mage Marcille, halfling security expert Chilchuck, dwarf fighter Senshi, and cat-beastkin ninja Izutsumi) appear to have the edge over the Lunatic Magician. True, the magician is very powerful, but he is one person while the party is many.

If only the Lunatic Magician were not accompanied by an army of ferocious dragons.

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Eniale & Dewiela, Volume 1 is the first volume of three that collect Kamome Shirahama’s modern fantasy manga series. Eniale & Dewiela was serialized in Fellows! from 2012 to 2015. The English translation of volume 1 was published in 2020. Whereas Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier is a drama, Eniale & Dewiela is comedy.

Eniale is a low-ranked angel, forever determined to better the world. Dewiela is an equally low-ranked devil, forever determined to better herself. Playing as they do for opposing teams, their perpetual proximity must logically be due to their never-ending rivalry. Right?

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Nene Yukimori’s Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Volume One (Japanese: 久保さんは僕を許さない, Hepburn: Kubo-san wa Mobu o Yurusanai, Kubo Won’t Give Up the Mob (Is Me)) is the first of twelve volumes collecting Yukimori’s speculative fiction manga series. Prior to collection, it was serialized in Shueisha’s seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from October 2019 to March 2023.

High school student Junta Shiraishi has turned being unremarkable into what would in other contexts be deemed a superpower. He is effectively invisible. Classmates speculate about his whereabouts in Junta’s presence. Even automatic doors have a hard time noticing Junta. Since Junta has no control over his lack of presence, his ability is more of a burden than a power.

Pretty and popular Nagisa Kubo has a curious immunity to Junta’s invisibility. This has consequences.

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