Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

As many have noticed by now, this author really, really loves playing around in isekai tropes and cliches, and the more cliched the better – in fact, it comes as a surprise in this series when it ISN’T the cliche. When they’re investigating a local noble, you can guarantee that he is going to be a scummy noble who treats those he’s responsible for like crap, because scummy nobles are just what isekais do. (This is not unique to FUNA – Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear has similar ideas, though subverts them more often.) It doesn’t help that isekai’d Mile tends to regard this world as a giant bucket list full of things she wants to do, and most of this volume happens because she’s desperate to find a village of beastmen… mostly so that she can pet the little beastgirls. Let’s face it, FUNA is also not afraid to show that Mile can be creepy a lot of the time.

Mile and company start off by having a meeting with the Elder Dragons, which ends up being short on information but long on nail art. We then get the bulk of the book, as Mile really, really wants to find a beastman village, despite the fact that most beastmen are NOT like Lenny but are actually very wary of humans… and we see why when they get to the village, only to find that some of the village’s children have been kidnapped! Unfortunately, this is not a mission the Crimson Vow an take on officially… fortunately, Mile can get in touch with the Crimson Blood, who coincidentally look, act, and are the same as the Crimson Vow! But they’re not on the clock. Now it’s up to our heroines to investigate the kidnappings, which are genuinely happening, but also where each kidnapped girl ended up, which… does not go quite as expected.

So word of warning here, if you’re the sort who avoids slavery in your isekai books… well, first of all, you must read very few isekai books, but secondly, this book delves deeply into the nitty gritty of slavery in this world. It’s illegal officially, except in the “I am broke and enslave myself to pay off my debts” way, but unofficially it’s definitely around. Two of the three kidnapped girls are indeed either being worked to death for no money or imprisoned and in the process of being sold abroad. Mile and the others have no issues destroying the ones responsible. Sometimes, though, kidnapping can actually be a way out. When you’re a girl in a backwater village expected to marry a guy from the same village, which is a very misogynist one… honestly, getting taken in by the local evil noble ends up sounding like a pretty good deal. Especially if the noble, like Mile, has a taste for the fluff. Make My Abilities Average has always had an undercurrent of “sexism is everywhere, and it’s terrible”, and we even see it in a slavery plotline here.

The book ends with the Crimson Vow off to check the last item on Mile’s list… visiting a demon village. Will this advance the plot? Are we getting towards the end of the series? Who knows? But pretty good stuff.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

It’s been a while since we last had the adventures of Mile and company in front of us. Most of the reason for this is that the series got a new publisher in Japan, Square Enix, which necessitated renegotiating the license for the series, which takes time. But now, a mere 16 months after the last book, we have a new volume of the series. Perhaps sensing that this was a chance to show off why the series was picked up by a larger publisher, the author has decided to get slightly more serious than usual this time around. Oh, not to worry, there’s still plenty of “Mile does OP stuff” and fourth wall breaking, it’s just that the volume as a whole seems to want to go back to the main plot of the series, the one it usually ignores for books on end. It’s going to get harder to ignore from now on, though, as there are portals opening from another world.

That said, we have another plot to get through first. The Crimson Vow are hired as escorts/bodyguards… supposedly… to take Clairia and her fellow elves back to their village. The reason turns out to be trickier than that, as they wanted the Vow to distract from what turns out to be a “get married already” meeting set up by the village. This involves a lot of inbred misogyny, and the Vow quickly take matters into their own hands. The Guild then hires them to investigate a nearby kingdom, where things are just going… slightly worse than usual. For no stated reason. Mile is the perfect person to figure out what’s really going on… robots are making portals to their world from another world and sending in stronger, smarter monsters to take out the adventurers!

The elf stuff was not as good as the rest of the book, mostly depending on “ha ha, it’s funny because elf men are lolicons” and a heaping helping of “women should stay in the village and breed more elves”. The latter, to be fair, the narrative rips apart with its bare hands, and indeed one of the main themes of the entire series has been “you don’t have to get married immediately”. The second part is more setup for the next few books, made more amusing by Mile literally sacrificing some of her nanos to a portal to another world just to get information, and their irritated response. We also see that the Crimson Vow are a mature, powerful, respected team… but only in their own lands, and when they go elsewhere, or when their intelligence is disseminated by the Crown, it still has an air of “these are stupid kids, why should we care?” to it. Mike needs to become more famous, and not just as an author.

This is a good, not great book, with the series’ usual flaws. But it also has the series’ usual strengths as well, and fans should be pleased.

By Kousuke Akai and Itsuki Akata, based on the novels by FUNA. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!: Lily no Kiseki” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

Like a lot of readers who first saw this spinoff announced, I was a bit confused. I thought it would be about one of the many side characters we’ve seen along Mile’s journey, and indeed thought it was about the young princess who needed a balanced diet in order to not die (her name is similar to Lily’s). But no, it’s nothing like that.l Instead we have a (mostly) new cast, in the same world that we know of. The Crimson Vow briefly show up at the start, and Mile jump-starts the plot, but otherwise they are entirely absent. Which is fine, really, as it allows us to truly focus on Lily. As with Mile, she’s a former noble with a lack of common sense due to circumstances. Also as with Mile, she has a truly ludicrous amount of magical power on hand. Unlike the childish Mile, though, Lily is a literal child.

Lily Lockwood is the oldest daughter of the local margrave. Unfortunately, she was born deaf, and so has been hidden by her family and quietly ignored. Then one day bandits arrive and attack the family, who vanish… with the exception of Lily, who is hidden in a cupboard by a kindly (?) maid. After emerging, she’s pretty much starving to death when the Crimson Vow come upon her. The girls give her food and water. Then Mile sneaks back in the night to cure her hearing… by giving her a bunch of nanos. Readers of the previous books likely know where this is gonna go. Now Lily is trying to make her way in the world, find allies and money to put food on the table, and also perhaps find her missing family. And all she has going for her is magic that is so strong it can destroy the local landscape.

This side story is not by FUNA, and it shows. Not that this is a bad thing – it’s quite a strong story, and I very much enjoyed it. But with a few exceptions, stupid comedy is mostly absent from this book, and it takes Lily seriously. I was impressed that Mile’s curing of Lily’s deafness did not magically allow her to suddenly hear and understand conversation properly or speak, though she does eventually get past that. Some of Lily’s feats, such as creating 30 fireballs that are almost the literal sun, show us that this author has been doing their homework in terms of the chaos Mile + nanos can bring. But Lily’s 9-year-old POV makes it both more innocent and also multitudes more terrifying, as she’s never been taught magic so does not know how to use only a tiny bit… or turn it off. There’s also a great supporting character in Lafine, the classic “cynic with a heart of gold” who winds up, as the cover might suggest, getting dragged around by her young charge.

I’m not sure if Lily will get another side story, but we may see her show up in the main series. That would be fun. Till then, this is an action-filled, somewhat emotional entry in the Make My Abilities Average series, with a spunky and likeable heroine.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

At last, after missing each other for a few volumes, the Wonder Trio and the Crimson Vow finally meet each other in the latter half of this volume, which leads to the fated battle of who gets to have Mile as their bestie. The outcome of this is very much up in the air… theoretically. In-universe, certainly. In the meta sense, the outcome is very much set in stone, as we’ve been traveling with the Crimson Vow for 12 books now, and the Wonder Trio are merely beloved supporting characters and backstory for our heroine. But it’s a good thing, really, as it reminds us of the Crimson Vow’s biggest flaw, which is that the other three have gotten so used to having Mile around that they’ve forgotten to think about basic things… like food or shelter. Reina gets this, being more used to the hunter life than the others, but when it comes to the fated battle… well, it appears to be a bit one-sided.

But wait, we also have the first half of the book. There are a few cute short stories, but mostly it has three main plotlines: the resolution of the battle with the Elder Dragons that formed last volume’s cliffhanger (turns out that controlling the nanos that control reality is super useful, who knew?); Kelvin, the guy who challenged Adele at school and got creamed growing up and leading a huge battle force (that would have lost without Mile, but hey, baby steps); and the Crimson Vow coming upon a small village, whereupon they save a young girl from being kidnapped by bandits. Said girl reminds Mile a lot of her little sister from her previous life… and it doesn’t help that she had an older sister in this world who died EXACTLY the way Misato did. I was actually waiting for this to go somewhere, but it really does seem to have been a coincidence… but it allows Mile to gush a lot, and the rest of the group to beat the crap out of bandits, their favorite thing.

The battle honestly feels like a bit of an apology to the wonder Trio. I’ve always felt it sort of baffling that the first volume in this series gave Adele a supporting cast of friends… and then dumped them and had Mile gain a NEW supporting cast of friends. As such, here we see that the trio are more intelligent and adept at magic, to the point where Mile is teaching them things that she would never teach the other members of the Crimson Vow. She also, like the Little Sister from earlier in the book, assigns some nanos to watch over them… not realizing that these nanos love to do anything in order to break their cycle of boredom. Combine that with the Wonder Trio figuring out uses for Mile’s storage magic that even she hasn’t dreamed of, and they start to look truly terrifying. That said, sorry to spoil but Mile remains with the Crimson Vow.

Aside from the usual flat/large breast remarks, there wasn’t even a lot of annoying fanservice in this book. The best part was the back half, but it was solid overall, and fans should be very pleased.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I’ve often felt that my reviews are read by the Japanese authors after I write them, and they subsequently go back in time to before the next volume was out in Japan to deal with what I was talking about. Now, I can’t confirm this is 100% true, but I will admit that after admitting to the author of this series that I had forgotten the ongoing plot and worldbuilding and only read it for the cute overpowered girls doing cute overpowered things part, the author now seems to have buckled down a bit and started to pay more attention to how the antics of Mile and company are affecting not just their own kingdom but also the world as a whole. Now, don’t worry, this is not remotely a serious-minded volume or anything, and Mile is still completely ridiculous in the best FUNA way. But… there’s thoughts going into other countries’ actions here, and also what happens when you bitchslap a dragon.

After a prologue that shows us what life is like in their default inn with Lenny when they aren’t around (spoiler: not great, but at least she’s building up strong muscles), we get the plot that makes up the bulk of this book, as the Crimson Vow are asked to escort four researchers disguised as merchants to Albarn’s Empire, as there are disquieting rumors going around about what they’re up to. Given the Vow were responsible for much of their downfall, they’re not wild about it, but they do go along, also pretending to be merchants and making a mint. After managing to find the one company picnic to end up getting attacked by bandits bent on murder and kidnapping, they manage to find out why Albarn is going to war, and it’s a reason that’s a lot closer to what they’ve been doing lately… those damn ruins. And to solve this… they may need to beat up a lot more dragons.

As always, the best part of these books are the bond between the four girls, who may occasionally get jealous of each other’s powers (Mile) or large bust (Pauline) but for the most part are so close than when asked by Mile, in one of her attempts to amuse herself late at night, what they would take with them to a desert island, the answer ends up being Mile… as she can provide anything else. Reina is a bit despairing of the fact that if they ever do split up,. the others will be totally unable to work as a team, but let’s face it, they’re never going to split up as long as this series is an ongoing concern. As for the Albarn Empire, the discussion of why they always go to war, and what’s driving them to do so again, is pretty well nuanced, with the family that the Crimson Vow protect on the company picnic essentially military suppliers. A lot of the reason things are like this now is related to either Mile or her prior self, Adele. Will she take responsibility? Well, sort of, as we see with the golems. But not a whole lot.

Still the most nuanced of the three FUNA series, but that’s a matter of degree – this is still toxic to anyone who hates OP characters.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

There was a point in the second story here, when they came across a scavenger that is trying to repair the machines keeping the world alive, that I realized that this was actually a plot that we had seen several volumes ago, and was meant to be quite important. MMAA does have an ongoing plot thread, but it can take many volumes to get back to it, as we’ve seen, and then it will happily wander away from it again. The book is here for fun overpowered little girls, and not much else. And you know, that’s fine too, because – sorry, nanomachines – I’m not really that invested in saving this world as a long-term plotline. And neither is Mile, who points out – possibly incorrectly – that she’ll be dead before it happens so doesn’t care. (I get the sense, honestly, that Mile may end up living forever.) I want to read fluff and cute character moments. We get both of those here.

Pauline is on the cover, and is also the focus of the first story, where our heroes meet a mother and daughter who are in trouble with money lenders. I appreciated Pauline’s vigorous defense of them, but of course, this book being the type of series it is, it turns out the money lenders ARE assholes, so she turns on a dime and gleefully destroys them. We then go to a mountain village which has a few golems on the mountain, who are mysteriously… not really doing much. This ties in most with the main plot I mentioned above, and is also an excuse to watch Mile and company accidentally go crazy without realizing it to help a group of orphans who live up there. We then cut back to Adele’s friends from the noble school, who have graduated and set off, at the princess’ request, to find Adele by any means necessary. Naturally, they walk right past each other without knowing it. The best story in the book has the Crimson Vow meeting up again with the Servants of the Goddess, who have managed to temporarily escape Leatoria’s protective father, and the two have a friendly competition.

I really liked this last story a lot. It had some great action scenes, and, given the groups weren’t trying to kill each other, relied a lot more on tactics than the group usually does. This also leads to Reina’s biggest concern with the Vow, which is that they’re not a TEAM – they’re four overpowered girls who basically blast through anything. They’re not coordinating the way most hunter teams do. (There’s also Reina’s crush on the leader of the SotG, but that’s mostly played for laughs – indeed, one senses the author found out about the slight yuri fandom this series has and took offense, as there’s another extra story at the end with Mile wishing she had a boyfriend… but her sights are set way too high.) Honestly, I think Reina’s concern is not really needed – the Crimson Vow may not fight as a tactical team, but they are still the best of friends.

Despite the occasional carp, this was a strong volume in the series, which I think is almost caught up with the Japanese release. We’ll see if the nanomachines get Mile to care a bit more about the world in the next book.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I sort of shot myself in the foot in my last review by talking about how the author has been making Mavis more and more the co-star of these books along with Mile, and that’s a shame because it’s even more true in this book. I was expecting that she’d feature in the start, given the last book ended with a cliffhanger featuring her, but she also has a big role in the middle of the book. More to the point, while the author does say that Reina and Pauline’s magic is better than most, and we see that to a degree, Mavis is the one heading deep into Mile-only territory here. Sometimes this isn’t a good thing – we’ve given up on chiding her for her abuse of magical steroids – but sometimes it can also combine moments of tragic horror with utter silliness, such as when Mavis has her left arm completely destroyed by an elder dragon… and becomes, as Mile pastiches, the Six Million Dollar Woman.

We pick up where we left off, with Mavis making a Last Stand against the evil nobles trying to kill the princess… erm, the noble lady who is not a princess at all, ha ha ha. Naturally, despite Mavis thinking she did this on her own, the rest of the Crimson Vow are not far behind, and things are quickly settled, though not before a few more “a girl is crushing on me and this makes me uncomfortable” jokes. After that, as noted, they get challenged by three elder dragons, because their new leader is a young punk who wants to make a name for themselves. Naturally, the three dragons are taken out by the Crimson Vow, though not before Mavis loses her left arm defending Pauline, something that briefly causes Pauline to be devastated before it’s revealed Mile is a walking plot device. Finally, they meet up with the team that fought them for their academy exams, and for once get along with everyone, which is good as they have to face ANOTHER dragon.

Make no mistake about it, FUNA knows what we are here for, and it’s not drama or character development – possibly why Mavis’ addition to magical steroids is dropped here. The high point of this book, sorry to spoil, is everything about Mavis’ new bionic arm, which Mile whips up in an emergency so that she can continue to fight, and then leaves on because Mavis thinks that it’s cooler than regrowing her old, ordinary arm (which Mile can do as well). Again, this beggars belief were it not for the previous nine volumes of this series, and reminds you that there are other isekai OP protagonists, there is a big gap, and then there is Mile. That said, even Mile is not perfect, and I liked the end story showing that her “sure, let’s let the kids from the village trail along quietly” attitude can be deadly. Fortunately, well, Mavis has a bionic arm now.

As I said, this has, to an extent, come at the expense of Reina and Pauline, and I do hear that Vol. 11 focuses on the latter more. That said, this time around please enjoy the fact that, when they’re on the same wavelength, Mavis and Mile can be utterly bonkers and also complete powerhouses.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I first noticed this with Invaders of the Rokujouma?!, but it can also be applied to many other long-running light novel series: the girl who is on the cover of the book is not necessarily the girl with the most to do within the book. Obviously, Mile always has the most to do, it’s her series, but I can’t help but not that poor Reina and Pauline get far less of the plot here. Indeed, even Mile towards the end fades into the background, as this is very much a book about Mavis and about her strengths and weaknesses, weaknesses that she is starting to have a complex about. Before that, we wrap up the dwarves/orc plot with a tense and pitched battle; Mile and company help out some elf researchers (no, different ones) and once again teach guys not to take advantage of them; and Mile returns to the kingdom that was siccing monsters on others and reminds them not to do it… by dressing in another silly costume.

As I said last time, the Crimson Vow are getting pretty famous, as are their abilities. In particular Mile’s ridiculous storage magic. As such, when they agree to work with another party to guard the elven researchers, the other team assumes Mile will be carrying everything, because she can. This is a bad assumption, especially as the researchers paying them DON’T know about Mile’s abilities (at first). That said, it does show off one of the better aspects of this series – it very much loves putting arrogant men in their place and humiliating them for daring to underestimate or be sexist asses around our heroines. However, if, like several other male teams we’ve seen so far, they learn their lesson and proceed to be good and helpful teammates, then the Crimson Vow lets up and stops the abuse – particularly after the team saves Mavis from certain death.

The back half of the book deals with Mavis’ feelings of inadequacy compared to the rest of the Crimson Vow. Mile is Mile, of course. Reina and Pauline have both gotten brilliant at magic. But there’s only so far you can go with a sword without the dreaded “years of experience” that Mavis doesn’t have. We’ve seen her in the past abusing Mile’s stimulants to give her extra power, and she does so again here, much to Mile’s fury. She also, as the cliffhanger shows us, has a little bit of the chuuni in her, despite being 18 years old – she wants to save the girl and protect her against impossible odds not because it’s the right thing to do, or because she thinks she can win, but because it’s really cool. As intended, I feel sympathy for Mavis while also laughing at her, and I hope she learns a bit of a lesson in the next book. (Also, stop taking magical steroids!)

A few minor hiccups here and there (there was a pedophilia joke about an orphanage that was simply bad, there’s a “despite being strongly attracted to another woman I’m not gay!” bit, and the section with Mile terrifying the bad kingdom was pretty weak) does not stop this from being another solid entry in this series. go get it.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

It has to be said, our four heroines are getting just a wee bit famous, especially when they return to the area near where they went to hunter’s school. Sometimes this is good, as it means that we don’t have to have quite as many reaction shots of everyone boggling at their OP selves. And sometimes this is bad – for them, at least, as the funniest scene in the entire book as them running up against a guild master who saw their final exam battle way back in the early volumes. And bought the figures. With poses that… seemed cool at the time. Though it may not look like it, our heroines are slowly growing up, and part of that process is looking back on the dumb things you did in your youth and cringing. And nothing hammers this home quite like a figure of you in a dorky pose you thought was really cool being venerated by a creepy middle-aged man.

The book is divided into four large sections. The first has Mile and company returning to her homeland to save the kingdom. The interesting thing here is that, because of Adele’s sheltered upbringing both before and after her mother’s death, no one remembers her very well. So when Mile shows up, she’s actually assumed to be her late mother, literally returning from heaven to help them. (The best part of this is finding out that Mabel, Adele’s mother, was basically the spitting image of her daughter, and was also highly eccentric. Even without the reincarnated memories, Mile would still likely have been Mile.) The invasion is handled relatively easily, and starts up a nice running gag of Pauline and company charging everyone for food and drink that they desperately need. The second section has them returning to base… and immediately setting out again, before they can be married off or otherwise ensnared.

The third section has Mile and company, along with two other hunting parties, helping a group of soldiers battling an infestation of monsters that are sent by the neighboring enemy kingdom. This is probably the weakest section, and drives home the point that our heroes needs stronger enemies or they risk being bored… and having the reader be bored as well. The final section leads to a cliffhanger, and has the Crimson Vow go to a village of dwarves, who are unable to craft their materials anymore as the mountainside is infested with orcs and ogres. Abnormally strong orcs and ogres. This works very well as Mile is genuinely startled by this, and actually encourages everyone to fight their hardest. It promises a strong beginning next time. It also shows off something relatively rare: Mile plans ahead for the village by buying a lot of high-quality alcohol to sell to the dwarves, and… then sells it, despite the lampshading about it being the perfect plan. I was waiting for it to go wrong.

The anime adaptation of the series has now begun, and I hear adds a lot more fanservice. This volume does, like the previous ones, talk about everyone’s breasts more than anyone cares, but other than that (and Mile’s ludicrous Goddess costume) is content to let the characters and humor drive the book. A lot of fun.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I have a bit of a shameful confession to make. I don’t really care that much about the plot of Make My Abilities Average. Well, that’s not true. The girls’ ongoing adventures interest me, and I definitely want to read the 8th book to see Mile going home to where Adele came from. But all the stuff with Gods and millennia-old ancestors and the like kind of put me to sleep. It’s nice that the author wants to show there’s a genuine reason behind Mile getting reincarnated this way, but I feel it’s a bit unnecessary. It doesn’t matter what the religious cultists who kidnap Mile’s favorite catgirl are after, what matters is that they do it and Mile now has to stop them. It also doesn’t help that Mile goes to interrogate the cultists – and thus find out bits of the aforementioned plot – while wearing a school swimsuit, something so mind-bogglingly stupid even the rest of the Crimson Vow ignore it out of pity and just go back to bed.

The book is still funny, though most of the humor can be divided into two parts. The first is funny characters and situati0ons, as you want and expect. The second are scenes that all end with someone saying or doing something overpowered and the rest of the cast saying the equivalent of “Nandeyanen?!”. Boke and tsukkomi humor is clearly very important to the author, and it helps that any of the Vow, not just Mile, can be the boke at times. It does feel a little tiring after a while, though. Mile is also filling her observations with otaku humor as always, including references to Thunderbirds and The Rocky Horror Picture Show that I suspect may have been adapted away from some really, really obscure Japanese thing. We’ve also gotten so used to the cast that some of the funniest moments come when they don’t act as you’d expect, such as Reina becoming all soppy.

It’s not hard to see why Reina does this, though. Hot-tempered and stubborn as she is, she’s also the most “normal” of the Crimson Vow, and it’s wonderful seeing her boggle at the teamwork of the Servants of the Goddess, who are also all women and the same rank as the Vow but get through battles using their meager skills and perfect teamwork, as opposed to our four overpowered idiots just smashing through any obstacle. It’s exactly the kind of hunting party Reina dreamed of before she met Mile, and thus it’s no surprise that she starts to see the leader of the other party as a big sister figure (well, no surprise to us, it certainly surprises the rest of the Vow). The Vow also helps to fend off a very dangerous enemy: Mavis’ family, who want to marry her off. This problem is solved through the simple but hilarious plan of talking up Mile, who is even MORE awesome than Mavis and has even MORE of a noble background. Mavis isn’t too happy about that, though…

The humor might not be as top-tier as it once was, but this is still a lot of fun, and I definitely want to see what comes next.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

By the time this volume came out from Earth Star Entertainment, the author already had two other series coming out at the same time via a larger publisher – I Shall Survive Using Potions! and Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement are both Kodansha books. Despite that, this is obviously the “flagship” series. I mention it because in my review of the first Potions book I mentioned that Kaoru was a lot more selfish and morally ambiguous than our sweet, lovable Mile. Which is still… mostly true? I have to say, at times it feels like Mile has sort of lost any of the few restraints that she may have had in the series previously. It’s hard to tell, mostly because Mile had so few restraints, but the chapter with the fairies especially almost features Mile in villain mode. It’s weird. I like Mile sort of sweet and cartoonishly overpowered.

Having featured Adele on the cover of the first book, and Mile on the 4th, we now get Misato on the 6th. She’s the subject of one of the short extras after the main storyline, where we meet her family and learn what she was like before her death that sent her to the world we know. It’s a very interesting chapter, and pretty much distracted me from the rest of the book. Misato’s parents are such old-school otaku that they have a reinforced house to hold the weight of all their manga/VHS tapes/games. And Misato takes after them 100% in terms of her media consumption. That said, Misato is also socially awkward to the nth degree – if it weren’t for her little sister she’d have trouble functioning. The description of her (perfect in school, perfect in athletics, no one wants to get close to her) reminds me a lot of Ran the Peerless Beauty, a shoujo manga I recently reviewed. The text also mentioned Misato has partial face blindness, which I really liked seeing as you rarely see that come up in any fiction. The story shows us that it’s the “Adele” part of Mile that has the extroverted personality, and the “Misato” part is the one with the otaku leanings and the brains.

Speaking of which, one of the stories in this book features a pun so bad that Mile has to lampshade it immediately lest the reader not realize just how bad it is. (You have to know your old robot shows.) The Crimson Vow run rampant through this book, defeating a party of demons, exploring ancient factories, curing a princess of her terminal illness (which turns out to be “she’s a picky eater” and also involves my 2nd favorite moment, when Mile’s overenthusiastic nanomachines invent multivitamins), and running into another all-female hunter team who are rather annoyed that their marriage prospects have suddenly plummeted now that the better-in-every-way Vow have come along. This series is very episodic, so for every clunker of a chapter (one chapter seems to involve Mile being the only one who realizes incest is wrong) there’s another fun one down the road (the other three Vow members trying to live for a few days without Mile, and realizing just how dependent on her they are).

I hear this is getting an anime soon, and you can see why. Each volume reminds you how much fun this is, and also how ridiculously overpowered Mile is. I hope the series survives cranky anime fans yelling about her. It should.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

There is something going on with this series that I absolutely love, that’s gotten stronger with each volume. We see Mile and the rest of the Crimson Vow, who have awesome strength and abilities and are a fantastic party. And throughout the book, we see everyone trying to find ways to use that to further their own agenda. And every time – Every Single Time – they are frustrated and anguished as our heroines shut everyone down and continue doing what they want to do. It’s fantastic, especially since so many of these folks eyeing the Crimson Vow are young guys thinking “ehehehe, cute young girls of marriageable age”. We even get it contrasted with a plotline about an inn being run by three young (very young – more on that later) girls who end up with husbands (mostly). The Crimson Vow, minus Mile, are all able to understand the romantic subtext, but just are not looking for that in their life right now. Mile, meanwhile, is Mile.

The start of the book features a moment we’ve been waiting for, as Mile’s main friends go back to her old kingdom and meet her emergency backup friends, which is to say Marcela and company. The main chapters give a fun and emotional reunion. An extra side story turns everything very ridiculous, as Reina and company have to battle against Marcela and company to see who gets custody of Mile. Once Mile realizes that’s what this is about she gets really angry, but till then it’s really quite funny, showing off the old cast vs. the new cast in very amusing ways. There’s two other big stories that take up the rest of the book. The first has the group hired to try to find spices for a gourmet restaurant, and Mile deciding to simply make her own capsaicin. PURE capsaicin. The other involves two warring inns…. well, one inn in trouble and another that wants to help but can’t because of stubbornness.

It is mentioned several times that the age of “I am an adult” is far younger here, i.e. it’s ten years old. Which makes sense in a fantasy sort of way, but I do mention it as we are seeing a lot of 15-16 year old girls discussing marriage, and some here who are about eight talking about getting engaged. In fact, time does seem to be passing and things actually happening here. In addition to trying to track down those excavating the past (which provides us with the cliffhanger), Mile finds out that her old kingdom has executed or exiled those responsible for her original fate, and they are in fact actually trying to find her… again, so that she can be elevated to a title and married off. Responsibilities for young women are never far away from everyone’s thoughts. But Mile, Reina, Mavis and Pauline want to carve out their own path before settling down, and that path does not involve marrying a lord and stopping. This is a series that moves.

I didn’t mention the humor this time, but there are tons of funny moments, mostly involving Pauline, who gets humiliated a lot but also seems to be a few steps away from becoming a supervillain, so it balances out. Anyone who likes seeing young women kick ass and gales of laughter should be seeking this series out.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Michelle Danner-Groves.

It has to be said, this book is not as funny as the first three books, and by definition is therefore not as strong, since I tend to read this series for the laughs. There’s still lots of amusing situations, Mile being ridiculous, people underestimating the Crimson Vow, etc. But the humor is also turning a little dark as well. We know that our four heroines are an unusual team, and have a certain tendency to be practical to the point of death, but the “let’s break all their legs and then break more legs because we need a complete set” gag verges a bit on sociopathy, which I’m pretty sure is not what the author intended. For the most part, this book is meant to show off how the Crimson Vow have sort of become too overpowered for the area they’re currently in. Fortunately, by the end of the book they’re moving on, touring other countries to see what trouble they can get in.

The main thrust of the plot involves our four girls going on a rescue mission, as several teams have gone to investigate in the woods and not come back. They find the teams captured in an archaeological dig that is being done by beastmen, who end up being mostly mooks for folks as powerful as Mile and company. Especially when Mile ends up coming up with the World’s Worst Stinkbomb, which is probably the funniest part of the book even if it’s also pretty gross. The most interesting part comes when we see who’s actually behind the beastmen digging for relics. It’s refreshing, after 150-odd pages of “this was going to be a dangerous fight–LOL, nope!”, to actually see Mile and company get their asses handed to them. (Honestly, when Mavis ended up overdosing on Mile’s “magical steroids” drug, I was wondering if we’d explore actual consequences, but apparently not.) That said, Mile ends up winning in the end, as she is Mile.

The discovery, once it is revealed, ends up being far more of a shock to Mile than it does the others, and it almost makes her decide she’s going to abandon the others and set out on her own – fortunately, Reina and Mavis are very good at reading Mile like a book. (Poor Pauline, though…) So now we get a world tour with the excuse of Mile trying to figure out what’s really happening with this world, and what it was like in the previous civilization. It’s implied we may run into Adele’s old companions in the next book, though we do get a short story devoted to Marcela, who is likely finding that “what would Adele do” is not alwayhs the best thought to have in any given situation, and is also a quintessential ojou-sama.

So I’m still reading this, but it wasn’t quite as fun as the previous books. I hope things tick upward next time.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I don’t think I’ve read a series that’s as consistently funny as Make My Abilities Average. The author simply knows how to write humor and write it well (she also apparently makes a lot of tortured puns and wordplay jokes, which the translators make a valiant effort at adapting). The book starts off relatively sedately, but the entire battle with the Wyvern in the final third is comedy cold from beginning to end. You would think that “Mile suggests something incredibly off the wall” would get old fast, but she’s simply a walking font of ridiculous, and it helps greatly that she has three types of tsukkomis traveling with her. There is the occasional moment of seriousness, mostly involving the background for Pauline’s family, but for the most part Make My Abilities Average knows what the audience wants: laughs.

Mavis and Pauline share the third cover, which is appropriate as their backstories come back to haunt them at the same time. Pauline’s is more serious, involving the murder of her father and loss of her family business. Mavis’ family is still intact, but she is the only daughter of a Count, and as such they would rather she not be training to be the best knight she can be and get back to being a marriage prospect. And so the Crimson Vow heads off (unofficially this time) to deal with the problems and ensure that they can carry on as before. There’s some lampshading of obvious tropes here, which is where the humor is really mined. Mile shows up as Mavis’ teacher, Evening Gown Mask (yes, really) in order to take on the Count in swordfighting. Her disguise is… an eye mask. That’s it. Despite this, and without the use of magic, Mavis’ entire family fails to recognize that it’s Mile.

Then there’s the Wyvern fight, which ends up being a series of toppers. I had assumed that the high point would be the scene that is illustrated (quite well, I might add), but no, it gets better. And then gets better again. The absolute highlight may be the mastermind explaining his plans to (and for) Mile, which involves plans so deeply silly that Mile is forced to play the tsukkomi herself. I’m trying not to spoil because it was simply that funny to me. This isn’t a perfect book – as with a lot of light novels that need to pad out the word count, one of the short stories falls amazingly short, as we see Adele (yes, it’s a flashback to school #1) going on a date with a classmate, where the humor involves a) said classmate being a “nice guy” with extra quote marks, and b) the class rep being a wacky comedy lesbian. I hate wacky comedy lesbians. On the bright side, this does suggest that the series is determined not to have romance invade its fun. which is fine by me.

Last time I mentioned that the lack of a “main plot” was also a flaw, and you can say the same thing about this book – it still feels more like a short story collection that happens to be sequential. That said, the author seems to realize this, and is implying she will add more plot in the next book. In the meantime, if you want a laugh, or want to see a great all-girl fighting team, I highly recommend this series.

By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

Last time I complimented this series on its use of humor and its focus on a heroine who wanted desperately to be normal but lacked all common sense as to what that meant. It’s not really the sort of premise that can sustain a long series, and so I wasn’t surprised that this second volume, while still amusing, did not reach the laugh heights of the first book. Fortunately, even though it’s settling into more of a typical fantasy light novel, it still has strengths, which it leans on. The main heroines are all heroines, with most male characters being relegated to support. There’s also still no sign of a love interest for anyone, though one or two of the guys put out feelers that are shot down immediately. This is because the narrative treats these young teenage girls as young teenage girls, which is nice to see. And Reina, the girl on the cover, gets some tragic depth.

Mile still gets enough face time to be the heroine, of course, but I liked the balance between her and the rest of the party here. Reina is clearly impatient for their group to get powerful as soon as possible, and keeps insisting that they have to be able to kill people if necessary. I really enjoyed the way that the other three disagree with this but still don’t condemn Reina for it, as everyone has their own circumstances – for Reina it’s the death of both her birth family AND adopted family. It’s treated seriously, but because this is at heart a lighthearted series it’s not dwelt upon, and Reina’s obsession doesn’t drive her to the dark side as a more cynical light novel reader might expect. Likewise, the bandits – as well as “bandits” – that are dealt with here are a true threat that would easily have taken out anyone else… but Mile is Mile, so they’re stomped.

As I said in my review of the first volume, though irritated by overpowered heroes should absolutely look elsewhere. Despite Mile desperately trying to hide her amazing amazingness, everyone and their brother can see she’s on – if you’ll pardon the expression – a completely different level. There is actually an amusing came at the start of the book by the three girls that Mile went to Princess School with before the series rebooted itself, and they figure out exactly what she did by simulating how her mind works – which is to say, what situation uses the least amount of common sense? But as I said, Mile’s ludicrousness is more baked into the plot and characters this time, so it’s not as over the top as it was. She’s still a great heroine, though, and as I said, the bond of her party is a highlight.

The drawback with a series like this is that we’ve not really seen any signs of a plot that goes beyond “watch Mile be amazing”, and it would be nice if a recurring villain or something like that showed up. Still, at the moment I’m perfectly content to watch her be “perfectly normal” in the worst way. The third volume looks like it will focus on Mavis and Pauline judging by the cover, and I’d love to see that too. This is a series that puts a smile on my face.