Having set up a tale of ritual scapegoating and relationships with a genius loci from the ancient past that bleeds into the present, Monster-Colored Island, Volume 2, turn up the volume on the thin, wavering line between then and now.

Kon and Furuka, both strangers to the people on the island, take refuge in each other, while the island beckons them deeper into it’s secrets. They enter a cave that should not be entered, and find a fantastically large pile of shells. They fall even deeper into the cave, trying to avoid who or whatever is watching them. But more mysteries are occurring. 

A new player enters the game and there’s no way to know if she will uncover things that need to be uncovered, or end up being hidden away herself.

This manga is very much a tone pone. Moody, creepy, slightly overblown with analogies to puberty and self-awareness, but mostly just creepy. I feel like both art and story are trying to do too much as once and are suffering ever so slightly.  Having read it twice now, I’m still not sure what I think of it. I guess I’m just going to keep reading, and see. ^_^

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story  – 7
Characters – 7 
Service – There is, yes
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

Volume 2 is out now from Yen Press!

If you are a regular reader of Okazu, you are probably aware that one of my greatest pleasures in manga is reading stories about the worst people. I love lesbian assassins and psychotic queers, woman who have just fucking had it, and women who cause trouble. I especially love the tradition of girl gangs, delinquents and girls who rule the school. 

It is very apparent to me that Fujichika feels exactly the same way. In The Delinquent and the Transfer Student, Volume 1 we are indulged in our love of this stereotype, with a broad stroke of attraction between our protagonists.

Riri is a recent transfer student into this school and, from the moment she met Atsuko, a girl with a reputation as the fiercest fighter among all the school, Riri is captivated. She loves listening to Atsuko, in her gruff gang patois, saying the most ridiculously cute and fluffy words.

As Riri and Atsuko come in to contact with one another in class, and handling school activities, they start to find that their feelings for one another are maybe more than just friendship. They both realize that they really, really, want to hang out with the other…a lot. All the time. Maybe, forever?

This is an impossibly cute book. Not only are Riri and Atsuko fun, the students around them seem pretty normal…except when Atsuko’s second takes exception to Riri taking up so much of her time. But even she has to admit that Atsuko gets to make her own decisions. 

You don’t need to be steep in girl gang lore to follow this book, but if you are…it won’t hurt. There are a few jokes that land better if you get the reference. 

Because I do love the world of  1980s Japanese girl gangs and delinquents, I was always going to like this series. ^_^ I had read some of the chapters when it came out in Japanese, but forgot to keep up, so I am very thankful to Seven Seas for picking it up in English. As I said of this manga in my ANN review for the Summer manga guide, my only criticicsm is that they didn’t bother trying to approximate the gang patois. It is a reasonable choice to avoid that, but it is kind of the key point in Atsuko saying words like “giggle” and “tiny” in that rough way. Even with that, this is a very enjoyable, shockingly wholesome, series.  

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – Delinquents are service for me, YMMV
Yuri – 3, with plenty of room to grow

Overall – 8

Thanks to Seven Seas for proving the reviewer copy to ANN. 

Delinquents and Yuri are a perfect match. ^_^

In Volume 1 and Volume 2, we met former Office Lady Natori Midori, a woman whose genuine desire to be useful lead her to be fired by her employer. Reborn into the world of a otome game, Natori – called Natalie by the characters – find herself working as the familiar and assistant to the villainess, Lapis.

Natalie is in a bind. She likes the game protagonist, Diana, and wants to protect her from having to kill Lapis. She really likes Lapis, more than just wanting to save her. But the more she tries to protect them from their fates in the game, the more the game world pushes them all to the same end.

What’s a reincarnate to do? In The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess, Volume 3, she gives up pretending. Having met the Prince’s confidant, Rubeus, who seems to be manipulating them all for his own (and, unwittingly, the Prince’s) sake, Natalie only sees one way to stop the worst possible things from occurring. She tells Lapis the truth. Then she tells Diana what she can. By trusting in people by whom she wishes to be trusted, Natalie believes she can protect everyone. She and Lapis share another confidence as well. They now know they their feelings are more than just assistant/employer, but there is much more to be said about that.

Rubeus is sending the country down a path towards commoner uprising and noble rebellion. will Natalie be able to stop it? Lapis and hopefully, Diana, are on her side. The relationship between these two is strained as well, so where all of this is headed, we can’t be sure. The story is actually getting a little fraught, but I’m hoping this game gets a well-deserved happily ever after.

Nekotarou’s art is great. While the magic is fairly standard, it’s fun to see Diana use people’s own spells against them.
And in the bonus story, one of Natori’s former coworkers learns that Natori was a decent person and she was the jerk all along. I wonder if that is going to play into the story at all.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – We’re up to intimate embraces
Yuri – 4…we’re getting there!

Overall – 8