YEN PRESS
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
MANGAKA: Ryosuke Asakura
TRANSLATION: Ko Ransom
LETTERS: Rochelle Gancio
ISBN: 978-1-9753-0900-8; paperback (April 2020); Rated “M” for “Mature”
194pp, B&W, $13.00 U.S., $17.00 CAN
Val × Love is a Japanese manga series by Ryosuke Asakura. It has been serialized in Square Enix's shonen manga magazine, Monthly Shonen Gangan, since December 2015. Yen Press is publishing an English-language edition of the manga in North American as a graphic novel series.
Val × Love focuses on Takuma Akutsu, who has had a scary face every since he was a child. Terrified of human contact, Takuma just wants to live a quite life. However, Takuma receives a revelation from Odin, the lord of Asgard, that the world will end soon and that it is on Takuma's shoulders to save the world. Odin sends his nine daughters, the nine Valkyries, also known as the “Satome Sisters,” down to Earth. Now, Takuma must raise their fighting level and practice “Val Love.”
As Val × Love, Vol. 8 (Chapters 41 to 45) opens, little Kururi-chan's all grown up. After she put on a magic helmet, Kururi grew from an adorable kid sister to a rebellious teenager. Now, it will take all Takuma's wiles to help Kururi gain experience points and level up. This is especially true when a monster invades the city, and Kururi's weapon, “Rossweisse” the cannon, is much needed.
One high school student and nine Valkyries can make a household budget tight, so when the girls take on a part time job, Takuma tags along. They'll need his protection because their part time jobs involve them being shrine maidens! Plus, Shino wants to clean her master's “sword,” and Mutsumi is recruited to be one-half of an idol duo.
[This volume includes bonus manga.]
The Val × Love manga is a surprisingly risque comic fantasy. I am having a hard time imagining these buxom and/or curvy girls as Valkyries.
Val × Love Graphic Novel Volume 8 is an entertaining read. I did not have too hard a time figuring out the series – thanks to Google and Wikipedia. Although there is some internal mythology dealt with in Vol. 8, especially at the end, most of this volume is a collection of comic situations built around Takuma and the sisters working together.
Ko Ransom offers a frothy English-language translation, but readers might not pay too much attention to only reading. I don't think that I have ever read a manga that featured so many cartoon depictions of female breasts in a variety of sizes and shapes as Vol. 8 does. This volume is T&A, with a heavy emphasis on the T – titties galore, indeed. But creator Ryosuke Asakura has fashioned an endearing comedy that might grow on me and you, dear readers, the more we read it.
7 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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