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ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, Vol. 3

By kiki and kinta. Released in Japan as “Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omou na to Gachizei ni Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta node, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jason Muell. Adapted by Brock Wassman. If anyone had “zombie apocalypse” on your Roll Over and Die bingo card, well, congratulations. I can’t really be surprised, as not only is this series far more comfortable with being a horror book than a yuri book, but it’s several different types of horror book as well. That said, the undercurrent of the entire series is “we need to fix all this so we can live a peaceful happy life”, and, especially here, we are told that getting a peaceful…

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Bookshelf Briefs 5/4/21

Days on Fes, Vol. 1 | By Kanato Oka | Yen Press A manga about the joys of music festivals is something we’ve seen before, but usually it’s from the perspective of the band playing onstage. This new title is devoted to the happiness found in being a concertgoer at these festivals, told from the perspective of two high school girls—one a festival veteran, the other a newbie—and the veteran’s older brother, who runs a cafe, and his friend/employee, who is… Eeyore, frankly. Aside from the fun festival stuff, including an impromptu fashion show the girls give us, I was left wondering if this is a BL or yuri manga—the two guys, especially, given off a very couple vibe without actually being one. I’ll definitely be reading the next volume….

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Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 36

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis. I’ve mentioned this a few times before, but Rokujouma frequently has to walk a bit of a high wire, especially in the books that take place after the “ending” we saw in Vol. 29. The author still clearly wants to write more and more stories, and does not want to wrap things up quickly. At the same time, one of the joys of this series has been seeing the characters gradually grow and mature, and as such we don’t want to see them all static either. This new volume is particularly good at keeping that balance, especially for our two resident magical girls, Maki and…

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Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 7

By Keishi Ayasato and Saki Ukai. Released in Japan as “Isekai Goumon Hime” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher. Back in my fanfiction days, I used to have an argument with a friend of mine, who wrote some great stories but tended to end them a little too late. I used to call them the “And they all lived happily ever after till they died, and here’s how they died” stories. Now, I’m not sure I expect Torture Princess to go QUITE that far. But at the end of my last review, I mentioned that I was worried that the series would not be able to justify continuing after a very satisfying 6th book, which wrapped up Kaito’s plot beautifully. I’d…

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The Eminence in Shadow, Vol. 3

By Daisuke Aizawa and Touzai. Released in Japan as “Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher. I think I am going to have to accept the fact that this is one of those series where I love everyone except the main character. This is not uncommon in Japanese anime and manga, of course. There are large numbers of people who can’t stand Naruto or Ichigo as characters, but love the series around them. Sword Art Online may be the best example of all. But at least all of those characters are actual heroes. A bit overpowered, a bit narrative-breaking, a bit dense, but heroes. Cid from The Eminence in Shadow is certainly overpowered, narrative-breaking, and dense. Though I…

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Accel World: Sword Sage of the Blue Flower

By Reki Kawahara and Hima. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jocelyne Allen. Accel World in general is a classic example of a series that is a lot of fun provided you don’t think too hard about much of it. This new volume was filled with scenes and moments I felt were pretty cool, but when I tried to tie them into the ongoing plot I went “hey, um, wait…”. That said, it’s not like Sword Art Online doesn’t also have that problem. If SAO is the light novel equivalent of Shonen Jump, then Accel World is its Shonen Magazine equivalent, with nice pizzazz and lots of fanservice. (Probably for the best that Haruyuki is in pig form on the cover…

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High School DxD: Excalibur of the Moonlit Schoolyard

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell. I had resolved, with this third volume of High School DxD, that I was going to stop talking about the constant teenage sex fantasy talk, nudity, and general fanservice and simply focus on plot and character. Theoretically, anyone reading a review of the third volume of this series already enjoys it, and does not need me going on about how it’s all a bit much. Therefore, I would simply glide past the fanservice and discuss other things. It’s very, very hard to do that, though. This is not a book like Accel World, where if you ignore the art and the ages of the characters it’s almost…

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The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?), Vol. 6

By Toru Taba and Falmaro. Released in Japan as “Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu ~Sou da, Baikoku Shiyou~” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jessica Lange. This volumes shares many of the same things that I criticized the last volume for – it’s very rushed, Falanya doesn’t really appear, etc. – but I found it a much better read than Book 5. Possibly that’s because this is the first book to really feature Wein as a side character in his own series. We’ve seen Wein being an “influencer” before, and in fact it’s probably what he excels at more than anything else. But in this book we see Wein caught up in a power struggle that has nothing to do with his…

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Manga the Week of 5/5/21

SEAN: May Comes In Like a Tiger! What manga do we have next week? Airship has an early digital release of Hello World, a one-shot SF novel about a boy whose future self returns to help him save his future girlfriend… or so he says. This sounds like it’s for fans of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and others in that genre. MICHELLE: Sounds interesting! ASH: I’m intrigued! MELINDA: Same here! SEAN: They’ve also got Monster Girl Doctor Zero (a prequel), an early digital volume of Mushoku Tensei 11, and print volumes for The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent 3 and PENGUINDRUM 3 (the final volume). ASH: One of these days I’ll actually read PENGUINDRUM. SEAN: Cross Infinite World has a 2nd volume of Reincarnated As the Last of…

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