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Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade, Vol. 7: Finale

By Maito Ayamine and Cierra. Released in Japan as “Shinigami ni Sodaterareta Shoujo wa Shikkoku no Tsurugi wo Mune ni Idaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sylvia Gallagher. I’ll be discussing the final pages of the book, but only under the picture, so be warned. Before we get around to how this series seems to love to lead me around by the nose, we need to, I suppose, address the fact that this is definitely the second part of Book 7, not a book in itself. I probably should have saved the two books and read them as one. If only as this is 95% fights, and I just don’t have it in me to talk about those. Wow, those undead really are…

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Manga the Week of 9/25/24

SEAN: As September sinks slowly in the west, and our adorable children bring us all the fresh new colds they caught at school, what’s coming out? ASH: Fresh new manga! SEAN: Airship has the print debut of An Autumn in Amber, a Zero-Second Journey (Kohaku no Aki, 0-byō no Tabi), another book by Mei Hachimoku, Seven Seas’ resident “bittersweet sci-fi teen romance” author. Not sure if this is bittersweet, but there’s sci-fi and teens. A boy who hates being touched and a snarky delinquent girl find time has stopped for everyone but them. ASH: I like sci-fi, bittersweet and otherwise. And we also get print for The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 7 and Trapped in a Dating Sim: Otome Games Are Tough For Us, Too!…

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Even a Replica Can Fall in Love, Vol. 1

By Harunadon and raemz. Released in Japan as “Replica Datte, Koi o Suru” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham. I admit that I have gotten rather blase about titles that have won or been nominated for awards in Japan. They seem to have a LOT of awards for manga and light novels, and there are so many titles that carry “award-winning” and “award-nominated” on it that it tends to pass me by. I had not really realized that this was the winner of the most recent Dengeki Grand Prize till I was about to start it. There have been a few Grand Prize winners in the past that I’ve admitted were excellent, such as Kept Man of the Princess Knight and 86….

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I Abandoned My Engagement Because My Sister is a Tragic Heroine, but Somehow I Became Entangled with a Righteous Prince, Vol. 1

By Fuyutsuki Koki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Higeki no Heroine Buru Imōto no Sei de Konyaku Hakishita no Desu ga, Naze ka Seigikan no Tsuyoi Ōtaishi ni Karamareru you ni Narimashita” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Sarah Moon. Adapted by Veles Svitlychny. I spent most of this book feeling that it was schizophrenic. There’s a very serious plotline at the core of this, with the prince doing his best to ferret out corruption despite assassination attempts, our protagonist suffering from an uncaring family, a broken engagement and unverified accusations, and a lot of dead bodies (at one point a puppy is murdered, for those of you who want to add this title to Does the Dog Die?). And yet throughout…

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By a Twist of Fate, I’m Attending the Royal Academy in Disguise, Vol. 2

By Ringo and Tsukasa Satsuki. Released in Japan as “Wake Atte, Hensō Shite Gakuen ni Sennyū Shiteimasu” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Alex Castor. The proliferation of both isekai series (which take place in a sort of vague middle-late European setting) and villainess series (which usually are more “Edwardian England”) means that we have a lot of writers who are fascinated with the concept of nobility and how it works. And trust me, most writers think it works – they are not here to revolutionize the world. Usually there’s a token evil noble, who tends to be either unattractive, stupid, or both, and they are so over the top evil that it makes all the other nobles look better. We get two…

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Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 5: Avatar of a Goddess, Vol. 12

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof. And so, with the exception of more short story volumes and the Hannelore-driven sequel, we come to the end of Ascendance of a Bookworm, a long but mostly very satisfying series. This volume is a victory lap, with the actual danger to our heroine dealt with in the first 50 pages or so, leaving the rest of the book to have engagements, elevations to Aub, saying goodbye to everyone and moving into the new digs. And Rozemyne is now going to get married to Ferdinand, which both of them are very comfortable with keeping as…

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Dagashi-ya Yahagi: Setting Up a Sweets Shop in Another World, Vol. 1

By Bunzaburou Nagano and Neruzo Nemaki. Released in Japan as “Dagashiya Yahagi: Isekai ni Shutten Shimasu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mizuki Sakamoto. Every time I come across a “slow life” light novel series that actually *is* slow life, I get thrown off, and I have to recalibrate the way I’m reading it. I spent most of the first half of this book thinking “wow, this is moving at a crawl, and nothing’s really happening”, and that’s the POINT. There have been so many “trying to be slow life” novels published over here that they’ve almost taken over the genre. You know, where the hero decides that he’s just going to set up a shop, or run a farm, but then suddenly…

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Too Strong to Belong! Banished to Another World

By Kazuki Karasawa and Akane Rica. Released in Japan as “Saikyou Joshi, Isekai e Iku!” by the author on the Shosetsuka ni Naro website. Released in North America digitally by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Marissa Skeels. How much you enjoy this one-shot may depend on how in tune with the standard comedy tropes of anime and manga you as a reader are. It stars a young woman who is not only oblivious as to her own ridiculous strength, but also oblivious to the fact that she has multiple suitors. Part of that obliviousness may be that she tends to imagine her romantic rivals are in love with each other (she’s a classic “I see everyone I know as a BL pairing” type) but most of it is that she’s…

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The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor, Vol. 5

By Sasara Nagase and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Yarinaoshi Reijō wa Ryūtei Heika o Kōryaku-chū” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by piyo. After four volumes of absolute breathtaking drama, where you worry every single page that Jill is going to either die or end up thrust into a war that will cause everyone else to die, it’s a relief to have a volume that is comparatively a relaxing romp. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the main plotline is still “there’s a secret plot to destabilize things so that the Dragon Emperor will be forced to go to war and the timeline can go back to its old, Jill-is-dead self, but that’s the plotline of the series as a whole. Whereas…

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