幼女戦記 3 [Youjo Senki 3]

幼女戦記 [Youjo Senki] Manga #3

by Carlo Zen, Chika Tojo (Illustrator), カルロ・ゼン

軍大学へ、ようこそ!

ついに念願の平穏な生活が叶う! 軍大学での日々を満喫するターニャ。しかし、ふとしたきっかけで出会ったゼートゥーアとの会話が、まさかこんな因果をもたらすとは……。美味しいパンと清潔な寝床はいつまで持つ?

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, War, Military Fiction, Action, Graphic Novels

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2017

Reviews

[Del · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the little snippets of information on the culture of the military and how the geopolitics are being involved in the story. Although, I really enjoyed how accurately they captured the "rewards" of the military; the more competent and effective you are, the worse the jobs you're assigned to tend to be.

[S.Q. Eries · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Summary

No aerial battles, trench warfare, or divine encounters in this installment. For anyone who’s wanted Tanya to enjoy civilian life, this is about as ordinary as it gets for our reincarnated salaryman. Tojo-sensei uses this relatively quiet volume to zoom out from individual skirmishes and convey the overall situation of the war instead. It’s a lot of geopolitics and strategy, but Tojo-sensei does a wonderful job—even better than the original novel—of presenting this information in a clear and interesting way.

The Review

After the frontline chaos of the first two volumes, Volume 3 delivers relatively tranquil chapters with Tanya attending college in comfort (mostly). Safely away from the raging battlefield, Tanya enjoys clean sheets, hot food, and the luxury of not being shot at. However, because she is attending war college with other officer candidates, the Empire’s two-front war is never far from mind. Thus, the narrative switches from the life-and-death intensity of Tanya’s individual sorties to a broad and almost scholarly view of global events as the top brass ponder their current situation and where it is headed.

But just because Tanya’s not in the trenches doesn’t mean she’s completely carefree. Elite salaryman that she once was, she’s out to seize every opportunity toward a cushy career path in the rear. And so we get tension of a different sort as she tries to impress Brigadier General Von Zettour of the Service Corps and later convinces a rival to drop out of the promotion track at the war college. As usual, her results are mixed, and Tojo-sensei does a fine job inserting comedy into scenes by contrasting Tanya’s intentions with the thoughts of those she’s trying to manipulate.

The final chapter in this volume is a glimpse forty years into the future. Although this arc wasn’t included in the amine, it was part of the original novel, and according to the mangaka interview included in Volume 3, Tojo-sensei was keen on incorporating that content into the manga. The events of Tanya’s world have closely followed the history of our world, and Chapter 9 confirms that the Empire will lose as Germany did. However, that chapter is less about the outcome of the war and more about the mysterious imprint Tanya left on history. As such, the flash forward does serve as an enticement to continue reading.

Extras include a detailed glossary of terms after each chapter and a lengthy interview with mangaka Chika Tojo.

For more manga and book reviews, drop by my blog Keeping It In Canon!

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the letdown that So I'm a Spider, So What turned into, I decided to revisit and press on with an isekai that I actually enjoy. There are no stat boxes in Tanya the Evil, no level-ups, no video game command prompts. It's a series that does still tell you more about the world than it shows sometimes, but the plot at least develops like an actual story. Which means there are some slow bits to it.

Volume 3 mostly follows Tanya as she enlists in the war college, in another bid to get away from the front lines. And while she gains prestige, respect, and knowledge while she's there, she (predictably) doesn't get what she actually wants in the end. Which is fine; seeing Tanya off the battlefield, and how her own ambitions keep working against her is interesting enough. And this volume would've been a star higher if it wasn't for the last chapter.

For some reason, we get a 40-year time skip, where we're following around these reporters who are trying to uncover exactly what was going on in the Empire during the war, and what the true identity of this soldier whose name is all X'd out is. But...we were already seeing for ourselves what was happening in the Empire during the war, and we sure as hell know the "mystery" soldier is Tanya. This entire section is pointless: It gives us no new information; it's not an interesting new persepective; it contributes nothing of worth to the story. And I worry that we're going to be continuing with it into the next volume.

If volume 4 gets back to the actual war, instead of people in the future talking about the war, I think things will be fine. I wouldn't object to a bit more action, or focus on Tanya's existential struggle against Being X & Co. And maybe touching base with Corporal Serebryakov, since the series seemed to be developing her as an important character in the previous volume. Just, anything but nameless reporters in the future, stumbling around and "discovering" things we already know.

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think there's much I can add about this volume that I haven't said in the prior two. This one doesn't have any fighting, though, just set up for when Tanya is assigned a battalion of aerial mages. The interesting parts are still where Tanya and another person talk to each other, and they have COMPLETELY wrong ideas about what the other is saying.

This volume also has some panels where the characters spontaneously have South Park caricatures, which is... strange? I couldn't imagine South Park being popular enough in Japan that the joke would make sense over there. Granted, it's possible that it's an "inside" joke and/or just something that looks funny, so who cares if anyone "gets" it or not.

The last chapter of the volume is a "forty years in the future retrospective" where they examine rumours left behind about "XXXXXXXXXXX" (to us, obviously about Tanya, but to the characters in the chapter, a baffling mystery). It sort of feels like filler, or a backhanded spoiler (that Tanya is instrumental in just about every major battle), and I don't really like it, but I don't... *hate* it? I don't know. Despite my interest in the CONCEPT of the series, it's very hard to like most of the time.

There's also an interview with Chika Tojo at the end, but it's in such tiny print that I'm heavily disinclined to read it (besides that I in general forget what is said in an interview, regardless of subject/interviewee), although since Tojo mentions in it that the series is supposed to be a comedy, guess I'll tag that.

[Joaquin Escudero-Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This manga aligns with the latter third of the light novel and to be honest I enjoyed this itiration of the story over the light novel or audiobook. The visuals are gorgeous and the story is far easier to follow then it was listening to audiobook. I am going to continue to follow the story in the manga version.

[Gayle Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The further adventures of Tanya the Evil. I like how this one gives us glimpses and spoilers into the future. The future historians studying the war and Tanya's (The Devil of the Rhine) role in it adds an interesting depth to the story. Looking forward to volume 4!

[Jonah Phoenix · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like the foreshadowing at the end ruined it for me.

[Raymond Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have finally had enough of this series. The last chapter was clever in that it was journalists trying to piece together events after the war, but I found the similarities to previous wars to be too offensive. If not the fact that characters intentionally starting a war to be offensive by itself. The characters have stopped being funny and are just plain nasty. Plus the joke of two people having two different interpretations of a conversation wore off fast.

I'm giving this one a pass.