Many readers might recognize Natsu Hyuuga due to her widely acclaimed The Apothecary Diaries series, but in Japan, Hyuuga is known for a variety of other works as well. Today, I’d like to discuss The Failure at God School, a manga she crafted alongside mangaka Modomu Akagawara, which has been introduced to Western audiences by Yen Press. The question is, does it leave a lasting impression? Let’s delve into it!

The narrative unfolds in a version of modern-day Japan that’s quite similar to ours, with one key difference: certain humans possess supernatural abilities. Individuals with these abilities are referred to as Himikos, and those who attend a specialized school and earn a license are granted the prestigious title of “God”.

Yet, our main character Nagi lacks any supernatural abilities, and the shrine she has inherited from her family desperately requires a god to restore it to its former state of splendor. Nagi’s older brother, Takeru, does have powers, but he is a recluse who has no plans of attending school or taking the national exam needed to become certified.

Things change drastically for Nagi when she gets involved in a missing person case. A child from the neighbourhood has gone missing and while taking a shortcut on the way to school, Nagi happens to find him in the depths of the nearby forest. But there’s something strange about the atmosphere and Nagi soon realises that the child might not just have gotten lost and instead is being held captive by a Himiko. While desperately trying to get him out of the forest, Nagi seems to awaken to some kind of power but she passes out before fully understanding what’s happened.

In the end, both of them safely escape the forest and Nagi awakens in her bed at home. She’s excitedly informed by Takeru that, due to the incident, she’s been invited to attend Kannagara Academy where they train Himiko for the national exam. The only problem is, that Nagi still has no idea what her power is nor how to use it!

Just like Apothecary Diaries, there is a lot of depth to the setting and worldbuilding of The Failure at God School. Unfortunately, that tends to get in the way in this first volume, rather than being a benefit. Once Nagi arrives at Kannagara Academy, we’re introduced to a multitude of new characters but since there are so many, we don’t get to spend a lot of time learning who they are and why they might matter to the story. This isn’t helped by Nagi going through a whirlwind of classes, all of which she’s failing due to her inability to figure out what her powers are (something none of the teachers can seemingly help with either).

And then we have Tsukuyomi, a man who’s earned the title of god and who Nagi keeps running into. He is clearly important to the story, having earned a place on the front cover (perhaps his role will be similar to Jinshi in Apothecary), but again we only see glimpses of him here and there, so it’s hard to grow attached. In the end, it means it’s up to Nagi to draw in the reader and hold their attention.

To Nagi’s credit, she is the redeeming quality that kept me reading, despite how chaotic some of the chapters were. Much like Maomao in Hyuuga’s other series, Nagi is thrust into a situation she’d never expected to be in and has to grapple with that. But she puts her best foot forward and proves a confident heroine. Her powers seem to give her the ability to effectively nullify the abilities of others, or at least stop them from affecting her. Because Takeru’s ability means he can send telepathic messages (as well as move small objects), he taught Nagi from a young age that if he’s bothering her, she should just imagine pulling out a plug and that will stop his power from working. There’s certainly more to Takeru than first appears, but again there just isn’t time to establish more in this volume.

Many of these problems I would normally attribute to the manga being based on a light novel and indeed, one does exist. But from reading the afterword, it seems the manga was planned first and given the first volume of the light novel was released several months after the manga began serialisation, I’d believe that. I suppose, depending on how the script was being handled, that could still be the source of the problems. Whatever the case, it does feel like this will be a story better experienced when you have a few volumes to read as opposed to just this one.

Of course, being a manga, it’s not just novelist Natsu Hyuuga at the helm. This is a collaborative effort with mangaka Modomu Akagawara (whom some may recognise from My Brother’s Friend), whose art is clean and quite detailed. There’s plenty of variation in the character designs too, which is important, given the amount of them we meet at the school. Certain pages can feel a little overwhelmed by text compared to the art (again a by-product of being based around a light novel I guess), but that’s not a consistent issue. I’m hoping with a lot of the set-up now done, there will be less exposition to get bogged down with.

As mentioned earlier, The Failure at God School Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press. This release has been translated by Yumi Tanaka with lettering by Madeleine Jose and it reads well on the whole. There are a lot of in-depth translation notes at the end, which are well worth a read too.

The series is ongoing in Japan with nine volumes currently available, as well as four light novel volumes (also ongoing). Here in English, Yen Press has Volume 2 scheduled for a release in August, but nothing penned in beyond that yet. Given how much of this there is out there, I’m surprised by the slower schedule but hopefully, it won’t be too long before there are signs of more. The light novel version meanwhile is currently unlicensed in English, but I’m hoping we’ll get further that down the road as well.

Overall, The Failure at God School is off to an interesting start but is bogged down by its intricate world-building. As a first instalment, this can be overwhelming at times, but Nagi is a likeable lead and if nothing else, it left me intrigued to read more in the future. I’m just hoping it’s a little bit less chaotic going forward.

Our review copy was provided by Yen Press.