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The Tale of a Little Alchemist Blessed by the Spirits, Vol. 4

By yocco and Junsui. Released in Japan as “Outo no Hazure no Renkinjutsushi: Hazure Shokugyou datta node, Nonbiri Omise Keieishimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Andria McKnight. Adapted by Lex Reno. It’s genuinely hard to review this series. I’ve said before that I prefer happy endings and don’t need to read books where lots of people die. But, I mean, I do like SOME conflict. This is a fun, enjoyable series, but in terms of things I can grab on to to review, I’d rather be reading a tournament arc. Daisy is here, and she’s making cool things. She’s setting up her Montessori school. She’s spending time with her adorable adopted sister, who is starting to show an interest in blowing things up (for…

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The Isle of Paramounts: Reborn into a Slow Life Among the Strongest in the World, Vol. 5

By Heiseiowari and Noy. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Saikyou Shu-tachi ga Sumau Shima deshita. Kono Shima de Slow Life wo Tanoshimimasu” by SQEX Novel. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alex Castor. There have been a lot of amnesia plots over the years, and one of the more popular has always been “what if a bad person gets amnesia and ends up being really good?”. Now, the person affected here is not exactly a villain per se, but the previous few books have certainly featured her as a sort of mentor from hell, and all the magical folks seem to have a twitchy reaction when her name is brought up. As such, the most interesting part of this book is not the reaction of everyone else…

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Manga the Week of 11/4/26

SEAN: All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey, but it’s not winter yet, it’s just November. ASH: But winter is coming. SEAN: Yen Press has a few titles that got bumped to start us off. Full Metal Panic! Family is a Dragon Age manga that’s a sequel to the classic series (and based on an as-yet-unlicensed light novel), taking place 20 years later and looking at Sousuke and Kaname’s children. ASH: That should make fans of the franchise happy. SEAN: Two A.M. at the Dining Table (Gozen Niji wa Shokutaku de) is a yuri horror manga that ran in Harta. A girl’s mother has just passed away, and she’s having trouble dealing with that. Worse, she’s now being haunted by a strangely attentive ghost? ASH: This absolutely…

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Her Royal Highness Seems to Be Angry, Vol. 4

By Kou Yatsuhashi and Mito Nagashiro. Released in Japan as “Ojou Denka wa Ookari no You desu” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Tokyopop. Translated by Katie Kimura. After three volumes of sort of faffing around, even though we have had several cool sorcery battles, this volume pulls out all the stops. Black clouds, Drossel’s past, the mystery of Alec, Leticiel’s own past.. by the end of this book it’s clear we are setting up for a new stage of the series. A stage that may not involve school anymore, as by the end of this book Leticiel is not really a noble anymore. Still, she has options, which is more than I can say for the rest of her family. There’s also a lot of discussion of…

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Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Vol. 10

By Kazuki Amamiya and Gin. Released in Japan as “Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Esther Sun. First of all, go back and read the last half of my review of Book 9, and then come back here and point and laugh at me. I haven’t been THAT wrong in a while. Secondly, it’s worth noting that while this is a high school romcom taking place in modern-day Japan, it is in many ways a typical “Cheat Skill” book. After all, our hero is looping back in time, just as several other heroes and heroines do. And he has a cheat skill – his memories of the first time he did this, what he did wrong, and the…

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Zero Damage Sword Saint: I Enrolled in a Magic School and Wound Up in a Contract with the Demon Queen, Vol. 5

By Isle Osaki and kodamazon. Released in Japan as “Kougekiryoku Zero kara Hajimeru Kenseitan: Osananajimi no Oujo ni Suterare Mahou Gakuen ni Nyuugakushitara, Maou to Keiyakusuru Koto ni Natta ” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Stephanie Liu. When you are a country that prides itself on being the best of the best, and you see a different country doing something amazing that no one has ever done before, it is only natural that you want to replicate that success. If they can do it, we can do it too! Unfortunately for everyone else in this series, there is only one Eugene, and he’s the main character who drives all the amazing stuff. As such, this book is neatly divided into halves, both of…

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Bookshelf Briefs 10/25/26

The Apothecary Diaries: Xiaolan’s Story, Vol. 1 | By Natsu Hyuuga, Itsuki Nanao, and Touco Shino | Square Enix Manga – A spinoff that focuses on one of the least focused-on characters in the main series, Xiaolan is there to be Maomao’s friend and gossip the plot at her until such time as Maomao has other folks to do that, whereupon she is shuffled off screen. But that hasn’t happened yet here! So we see how Xiaolan ended up at the Inner Palace, and how despite her good cheer things are not always great for her and her fellow laundry girls who are not also apothecaries and detectives. It’s also nice to see a lot of the bonkers things that happen in the main plot from the perspective of those…

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The Bladesmith’s Enchanted Weapons, Vol. 6

By Kazuma Ogiwara and CARIMARICA. Released in Japan as “Isekai Toushou no Maken Seisaku Gurashi” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ryan Burris. I mentioned online that this is one of the most testosterone-laden series I’ve ever read, and that remains true in this book. A lot of everything driving the plot here can be summed up as “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”. Lutz and Claudia are still very in love and very sexually active, and Claudia, while she is also brilliant and gets other things to do, remains very defined by her voluptuous body. We get more katanas given out here, and one of the men who receives them is basically “MANLY: THE KNIGHT”. Unfortunately, another man who received…

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I Was Reborn as a Refugee Girl, So I’m Working Toward Citizenship from Scratch, Vol. 1

By Torisuke and nyanya. Released in Japan as “Tensei Nanmin Shoujo wa Shiminken o 0 kara Mezashite Hatarakimasu!” by TO Books Novel. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Bianca Darcy. It’s always amusing when you spend most of a book thinking that the plot and characters are going in a direction you very much did not expect, only to get to the author’s afterword and have them lay out exactly why this is the case. When I was reading this book, I could not help but think that it was a lot… fluffier than I was expecting from the premise. The main character spent most of the book worried about how she’ll be treated, but she ended up almost entirely fine. Then I read the afterword, and…

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