D-Frag! Volume 10
ディーふらぐ!
D-Fragments 10

–> Purchase D-Frag! Volume 10 from Amazon.com

In the insane world we live in today, one needs the wacky fun and comedy that D-Frag! provides. And thankfully, D-Frag! Volume 10 provided the wacky, comedic distraction I needed, even if not as funny as previous installments.

NOTICE!!! In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I am the adapter for the official English translation of the True Tenchi Muyo! novels, which are also published by Seven Seas.

***SPOILERS***

The Story, in Brief

Things get started with a weekday morning at Roka’s house with her little sister and mom. Next, Noe is in a bad mood because Kenji shaved his head. One night, Takao gets Roka to go with her to school to retrieve her phone. Roka starts recounting some of the mysteries of the school, which both seem to experience. They report this to Chitose, who is dismissive, mainly because she’s afraid of ghosts.

Tama shows up, forcing Chitose to do something. She forms an extermination group. However, Chitose ends up panicking and hiding in the Isle robot. She ends up rampaging in the robot until it’s roller wheels get caught on a manga magazine. Kenji shows up, shocking everyone with his regrown hair. He gets recruited to rescue Chitose. After freeing her, she glomps onto him, only returning to herself when his hair stabs her.

After recovering her sanity, a party is thrown in Takao’s Real Game Development Club room.

Weakened Chitose

Until D-Frag! Volume 10, Chitose was a force of nature. She had bested the previous, powerful student council president. And she ruled the school with an iron fist, as much as the teachers allowed her to do so. And she was a ton of fun in the process.

However, with this school mystery arc, Haruno-sensei gives Chitose a major weakness–she’s afraid of ghosts. On one hand, I don’t mind this. It puts a new spin on the character. Plus, everyone has an Achilles’ heel of one kind or other. And, we got to see a cute side of Chitose when she glomped onto Kenji and triggered the other girls interested in him.

On the other hand, weakening Chitose makes her less of a badass character. She can easily be overcome via her fear of ghosts. Indeed, it makes one wonder how she overcame Tama’s reign as student council president. After all, the flashbacks showed Tama using Chitose’s fear of ghosts against her when they were kids. And I think that’s my one problem with this story arc. I like my bottom-kicking, ponytail wearing, student council president.

Comedy Fun

While not as funny as previous volumes, D-Frag! Volume 10 still has some wacky, comedic fun elements. The story with Roka’s family was fun (more on that in a bit). Noe’s irritation with her brother shaving his head was amusing. And the mystery/ghost story was wacky, comedic fun. But there was nothing really funny. However, it was enjoyable just the same.

Of the two omake chapters, Takao-mama is still the best. I can’t help but laugh at how she trolls her two oldest daughters. Clearly, fans of D-Frag! approve of her and thankfully, Haruno-sensei is having fun with these omake chapters.

The second omake chapter was amusing in that Inada gets trapped outside the club room when the party is thrown. She could have come in, but she wanted to observe and rant internally at the things going on. That’s always amusing to me.

Lost in Translation

While I’m thankful that Seven Seas does use Japanese honorifics for D-Frag! Volume 10, including brother/sister ones (including Aniki), they didn’t go for “ojousama” for whatever reason. As such, in the chapter with Roka’s family, things feel a bit awkward to me. That’s because Tsutsuji complaining about addressing her mom as “mother” (as translated) ’caused her issues.

Normally, the mom/dad translated stuff doesn’t bother me. But I believe the issue here is that Tsutsuji addressed her mom as “Okaasama”. So I guess “mother” works, and is better than “mother dearest” that was previously used. But no kid in America would mock a kid by calling them “Lady/Lord” So-in-so. That’s not a thing and for me, it read awkwardly. I wish they had just left 0jousama in the text.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, D-Frag! Volume 10 is a fun volume. It may not be as funny as previous volumes, but it is still as wacky as ever.