saint's magic power is omnipotent

By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

This may sound like a comparison only I would make (because it is), but a lot of Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent is starting to feel like Der Werwolf to me. Specifically, our saint tends to regard herself as just an ordinary researcher who can use ingredients really well, whereas in reality everyone else in the world knows that she’s a… well, a SAINT. Literally, as we see here, as a gift that she gives to a colleague ends up healing permanent burn scars that another woman had on her face. It’s as biblical as they come, frankly, lacking only Sei literally laying hands on her. That said… no one actually mentions this happened to Sei, because I think they realize quickly that telling her “you did a miracle that saved by friend, I would die for you” would just make Sei feel uncomfortable. And she’s got enough trouble as it is, because a simple visit to the opera might torpedo her first love!

Sei has wrapped up all the monster hunting in Albert’s hometown, and is free to do things like sampling the local dried sausages and giving recommendations on how to turn a hot spring into a hot spring village. After that, she’s back home, trying to figure out how to get more land for her herbs and plants when everyone else in the research department also wants land. Thankfully, the King comes to the rescue by giving her and Johan an estate just outside the city which can house, essentially, top secret stuff – including most of what Sei deals with. And then there’s that trip to the opera I mentioned before. She goes with Yuri, and everything seems fine, but all of a sudden the rumor goes around that she and Yuri are getting engaged! Has Albert heard this rumor?

I really do love that this series is basically bereft of children (especially now that the prince has been exiled) and everyone has normal, sensible reactions. Albert hears the rumor, and his reaction is not “wow, it must be true, time to panic”, but to immediately understand what happened. Indeed, Sei may be the most immature one here, and the reason Albert has been courting her at a snail’s pace is for that very reason – he can tell she’s not ready for love yet. But she’s more ready than he might think, and what’s more, events have made it so that he HAS to take action. What follows is what I usually describe as “the payoff”, and it’s absolutely sweet and heartwarming. I could do without that ominous cliffhanger, though…

I would have liked to have seen more of Aria aside from the stories at the end (which are, like Bofuri, store exclusives from past volumes), but since she has her own spinoff I suppose it makes sense not to involve her. Fans of Sei and Albert will eat this up, though.

By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

Let’s face it, as much as we love the slow burn romance between Sei and Albert as a fictional couple, in real life things are not that simple. Sei is a hot commodity, and her age does not seem to be holding people back. As such, we are starting to see her have to deal with the world outside of her little research and monster hunting bubble, and make contacts with important families while fending off families who might merely want to use her fame and power to advance their own position. This is a problem with Sei, who has a certain amount of social anxiety, something that we may have forgotten about given how good the kingdom is about keeping her surrounded by people she trusts. That said, if you DO like Sei and Albert, the last quarter of the book has some tasty romance for you. And if you’re reading this book but hate the romance (???), I feel I should inform you that there is a giant zombie dragon.

The ball starts rolling with Liz telling us something that I’ve been expecting to happen since Volume 1: her engagement to Prince Kyle has been called off. Because this was due to his own issues (he’s being exiled to China), she does not suffer the reputation hit that you might expect from a villainess novel, and in fact will soon have suitors beating down her door. And so will Sei, who doesn’t have to get married but does actually have to poke her head out and wave on occasion. She manages to get past the first tea party, with Liz’s mother and other “safe” noble women, and from that comes up with the idea of showing off the regional foods of all the noble territories by having what amounts to a food festival. Which ends up being a much bigger deal than she was expecting…

First of all, in case you are wondering about Ten’yuu from the previous volume, there is an extended interstitial story here giving his backstory and also reassuring us that Sei’s medicine saved the day. The bulk of the book is dedicated to Sei having to try hard to be outgoing and friendly despite the fact that public events exhaust her, and she ends up doing a pretty good job of it. She also goes on an expedition with the First Corps of Royal Knights, the only ones not to go monster hunting with her, though this ends up being an excuse for them to fawn over her. Honestly, the best reward in the book (which hasn’t happened yet) is the discovery that in the domain of Albert’s family, which is Switzerland in all but name, they have… hot springs! Which can even have healing properties, something that startles the family when she mentions this. And, of course, there is Sei and Albert. Who get their cutest moment when Sei pulls a Katarina and falls through the wall of a cave.

This is never going to be exciting and heart-pounding, but it’s always going to be relaxing and nice. I enjoy it.

By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

One of the better things about this new volume of The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent, aside from waiting till near the end of the book to justify that title, is that it’s committed to trying to figure out how the magic in this world works, rather than just seeing it as a stat. Of course, it IS a stat here, and we get lots of talk of HP and MP, But Sei realizes here that potions and medicine are not the same thing, and that in fact the use of potions may mean that diseases and maladies that might otherwise have been researched and analyzed are completely glossed over. That said, medicine takes years of testing and watching for side effects, and may not be all that potent, whereas potions are a magic cure-all that you just need to drink down. I don’t see one supplanting the other, especially given that Sei manages to invent the bestest potion of them all. The secret? Apples.

The bulk of this book concerns itself with the arrival of a visiting dignitary from the nation where Sei got her Asian food last volume, which continues to be very much not-China. One of the many princes in this country, he is here to study herbs and medicine, and despite the best efforts of the kingdom to hide Sei whenever he’s around, it’s pretty inevitable that they eventually run into each other. While she’s able to conceal her identity as the Saint to a certain degree, she can’t help but find a kindred spirit in the Prince, who really seems to know his herbs… and is also searching for a specific kind of cure. Can Sei manage to figure out what it is that the Prince’s mother has wrong with her? And if not, is there a way that she can weaponize her OPness to save the day?

The cover art shows off Prince Ten’yuu as a handsome bespectacled young man, but what I noticed more was the internal illustration, which showed him with the “spiral coke-bottle glasses” common to Chinese stereotypes in Japan (see Ranma 1/2 for the most famous instance). Fortunately the stereotypes seem to end there, with the main plot instead revolving around him as a sort of villain (everyone’s trying to stop him seeing Sei and figuring out who she is) who eventually becomes sympathetic (when we find the reason he’s there in the first place). It also reminds us that keeping Sei under wraps just is not going to fly as a long-term plan for much longer. Marrying her off to keep her in the Kingdom seems like the obvious answer, but again, she’s still in the ‘blushing maiden’ stage, and Albert is not inclined to push the matter. The politics remain boiling quietly in the background.

This is apparently one of the top ten light novel franchises in Japan right now, and I can see why. It’s solid and has likeable characters, and Sei is overpowered without being boring about it. She puts in the work.

By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent may be an atypical light novel in some ways, but it is still an isekai when you get right down to it, and that means that the isekai cliches are still there to be walked into. Our heroine has ended up in the fantasy equivalent of medieval Europe, as is typical for these sorts of books. She really misses the taste of home, with good old fashioned rice and miso, as is also typical. Generally these sorts of books fall into two types: either our isekai’d Japanese person tries to make rice and miso and the like themselves in the kingdom or they hear about a country far across the ocean that just happens to have the exact foods they’ve been looking for (and sometimes samurai, but hopefully the Saint series isn’t going there). We get the latter here, as Sei happens upon a slow boat from China – or its fantasy version – that gives her the meals she’s been craving for so long.

After discovering not only that her cooking can deliver magical power ups to those who consume it, but also that Turkish Coffee is being imported nearby, Sei is on a cooking tip. She also has to do something about her cosmetics company, which has become so popular that the nobles are taking *too* much interest in it. As a result, she has a new umbrella company founded for future Saint developments. Disguising herself as the daughter of said company’s head (which is, in reality, her) she travels with Johan to a nearby port town to track down the rice she’s wanted to find for so long. Getting a hold of this proves to be an adventure in itself, and features Sei almost giving away who she really is multiple times. Then, back at the capital, she has an even more dangerous event lying in wait… her debutante ball.

After waiting nine months between books 3 and 4, the wait between books 4 and 5 hasn’t even been one month. Which means I have a bit less to say than I normally do, as I just talked about all this. I will note that Sei’s aversion to romance is starting to not only get on people’s nerves, but to be a genuine problem. Albert is trying to be aware of her feelings and courting her at the speed of a glacier, but she’s the Saint, and is also very much of marriageable age. She can’t simply stay in the back of the research lab and make potions for the next ten years. She manages to get through the ball designed to introduce her to society, but is terrified of dancing with any men she doesn’t know. Fortunately, the palace agrees with her – they certainly don’t want other nobles getting a chance to woo her. Given the author does not really seem to care much about the romance in this series, I’m not sure where this plot will go, but it’s what is interesting me most at the moment.

All this plus Sei teaches Aira how to make a magical Coleman Stove. Thankfully, Vol. 6 of The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent is not coming out in December. That said, I’m still interested.

By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

It’s been a long time since the 3rd volume, likely due to the ongoing issues with printing books the world has been having. That also means that we’ve seen the anime series come and go since I last reviewed it. the anime got decent reviews, and everyone seemed to find it pleasant. It also adapted through this volume, meaning that I’ve actually seen the anime first in this particular case. I try not to do this too often, and after reading this book I reinforced why: I think that a lot of these scenes work a bit better animated. Sei is, with the exception of her embarrassing love for Albert, a fairly mild, low-key hero, which is good, but it does mean that when it comes to exciting battle scenes they can sometimes seem a bit lacking. I was waiting for the big final battle in this book, and realized as I got past it that I’d missed it in the lack of excitement.

We’re still in Klausner’s Domain, trying to get rid of the monsters that are destroying its valuable plants and herbs. There are fewer monsters at the edges since Sei is around and she’s the Saint, but they do have to deal with a great deal of slimes – not, as she explicitly notes, the cute Level-1 slimes from Japanese RPGs, but a far more dangerous kind of slime. They need more mages and fewer knights. Fortunately, Yuri and Aira show up, happening to be passing through by pure coincidence. (Note: it was not pure coincidence.) And even if they do manage to kill off the monster that’s causing all the blight upon the landf, the land is still dead, right? Sei is going to have to finally stop being the Saint in secret if she wants to solve this mess.

There’s some good stuff here, though I will admit that I find the 2nd Knight brigade more creepy than funny, as does Sei. I get that they’re worshiping her because she literally healed their missing arms and legs, but they come across like idol fans more than anything else. Yuri is slightly better, his shtick basically being research uber alles, but he too can also be a bit offputting, especially when he’s right in Sei’s face trying to see how her magic works. Fortunately, Sei’s relationship with Aira is great, and we see the two of them cooking and chatting together. What’s more, Sei’s way of thinking may be changing the mature of magic in this world – Yuri is now able to make ice cubes after seeing Sei’s power of imagination, and it’s implied other discoveries may also be possible. I wonder if we’ll get a lot more research in he next book. Oh yes, and Sei and Albert are the same as they’ve ever been – this relationship is not upgrading anytime soon.

So a decent volume, but it lacks a bit compared to its animated counterpart. Still worth a read.

By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

One of the things that is difficult to admit for your average everyday light novel reader or reviewer is that we are unlikely to every be the savior of an entire world. The Saint, as seen here, has to deal with a bunch of difficult challenges to try not to advertise too much exactly who she is (especially now that the existence of the Saint, if not her identity, has been confirmed) while also trying to help as many people as possible by making many, many powerful potions, and also find the time to try to figure out how her powers actually work and why they only appear at unusual times. That said, sometimes even an omnipotent saint can end up being very relatable, as when Sei suddenly realizes what it is that triggers her superpowers, and… yup, so embarrassing it’s the power of love. This has been pretty obvious to the reader from Book one, but the author admits that the romance is going to be slow going, so…

The majority of this volume is spent away from Sei’s beloved potion research, but it’s for a good cause: the domain where they get their best ingredients is suffering from an attack of monsters and miasma, and therefore her powers are particularly needed. Upon arrival, after dealing with pomp and ceremony, and the fact that her cooking methods have become widespread… but only if you like meat… Sei gets down to the nitty gritty of her visit: quizzing the old potion expert they have there about ways to make a superior grade potion. As it turns out, they have the long-lost documentation that might be able to help her. That said, in order to succeed she’s going to not only have to come to terms with the fact that Albert is hot and she likes that, but also deal with a new guy interested in her… one who’s a bit more down to earth.

To be fair, I’m not sure that you can call Leo a love interest per se – he’s not interested in Sei as a person but rather in her abilities. He’s probably the funniest part of the book, being a well-meaning but tactless musclehead, apparently included by the author because muscle fetishes are in these days. The most interesting part of the book, though, shows us the diaries and research books of the Great Alchemist, which was thought to have been destroyed and lost forever. To no one’s surprise, she seems to be a lot like Sei, particularly in her attention to detail in regards to research. Given that we now have Sei’s ridiculous magic power combined with actual knowledge, I suspect big things are going to be happening in the next book. That said, I doubt one of those big things will be confessing to Albert.

This is getting an anime soon, so certainly has caught the eye of folks. It’s not the most exciting or original thing in the world, but it makes me smile, and I always enjoy reading it. It’s also a very good recommendation for folks who would normally be turned off light novels due to excess fanservice – only Leo’s muscles qualify here.

By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

A lot of being a fan of Japanese light novels is enjoying reading the exact same thing over and over and over again, and trying to find joy in how the author makes it very slightly different from everything that has come before it. The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent is no different, and so I found myself intrigued by the fact, hammered home several times here, that the “summoners” of the girls from another world really have no clue what it does or what it will do. They’re going by a legend. Other books have kids being trained by others, or at least have their situation explained a bit better, but when Sei asks about how her powers work here, no one knows, and when both Sei and Aira ask if there is any way for them to return to Japan, the answer is no, with a bit of a shrug. This helps explain why so much of what Sei does is just testing her magic and healing powers to see what they do.

In the first book, Sei succeeded in staying on the down low and enjoying her job as a researcher, but such halcyon days must come to an end here. The Grand Mage who summoned her has woken up, and he wants to experiment on her… I mean, get to know her. He is one of those cheerful sadists that we get so much of in shoujo titles, and it’s not a surprise that Sei is very reluctant to reveal to him that her holy magic level is “infinite”. That said, that isn’t her “Saint Power”, and can’t really help her level up her potions. What is her Saint Power? Well, when the army goes out to fight monsters, and brings her along, it becomes apparent to the reader what triggers it. But not to Sei or the others. Yet. It is, needless to say, strong emotions. Meanwhile, Sei also has to deal with the OTHER Saint candidate, who is having a very bad time at the academy.

The afterword says that the author had planned for Aira to be exiled with the prince, in a sort of “villainess” plotline, but decided not to because the readers asked for her to be saved. I’m glad she listened to the advice, as it makes Aira, who is set up to be a spoiled brat, a more interesting character – she isn’t spoiled at all, she is just relying on the only people around her that she can in a strange new world. She’s not the Saint – Sei is – but she clearly does have stronger powers than most everyone else there, and I hope we see her again. I also liked the reveal that Liz, the girl who Sei had been talking to in the library, is the prince’s fiancee – we’d guessed this, but Sei had not. Given Sei spends 90% of the book surrounded by hot guys, strong female friendships are important. The romance is a slow burn – Albert is clearly still in the lead, but it’s content to not worry about that right now.

It’s implied the next book will take place away from the main city, so we may not see as much of the regulars next time. Still, I’m content to walk along with Sei as she tests her theories, makes plants magical, and is generally super nice and lovable.

By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

I’ve always – theoretically – had a soft spot for what Japan refers to as “slow life” light novels. They usually involve someone who has ridiculous powers and could theoretically be saving the world, but for one reason or another decides instead to be a farmer, or a pharmacist, or even a prisoner. There are a slew of these titles in Japan, and they’re starting to come out here as well, but so far I haven’t been as satisfied with what I’ve been getting. By the Grace of the Gods, a classic example of the genre, bored me to tears. It’s hard to hit that sweet spot that shows the protagonists doing what they want at their own pace and also keeping the audience’s interest. Fortunately, we may have a winner here. The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent features a women who, after being summoned, is almost immediately written off by the prince of the land. Fortunately, others can see her worth. Good thing too – she seems to be the savior after all.

Sai is a harried, overworked office worker in her early 30s who is getting by on about four hours sleep a day. This changes when she and another girl are summoned to a fantasy world in order to help cleanse the land of monsters. Sadly, the crown price sees “cute teenage girl” and “30-ish OL with bags under her eyes and glasses” and promptly declares the other girl to be the Saint that will save them, leaving Sei to her own devices. After the rest of the king’s advisors beg Sei not to leave the country in a huff – after all, they haven’t proven she ISN’T the saint yet – she ends up getting a job making healing potions and medicine, something she finds very fulfilling. As she gradually adjusts to normal work hours and sleeping properly, her actual beauty starts to shine through (she even loses the glasses). What’s more, Sei’s medicine seems to be far more powerful than they should be.

I enjoyed this a great deal. Aside from the prince – who notably is talked about not not really seen at all – everyone in it is nice. Sei has a bit of “gosh, they can’t be in love with me” to her, but notably, this is dealt with by the end of the book, so doesn’t seem to be an ongoing plot point. Most of the book’s fun comes from seeing Sei’s medicine heal or cure people to ridiculous levels. It starts off with “gosh these wounds healed fast” and “her potions saved the Knight Commander from death” and only gets more ridiculous from there. (One niggle – Sei’s “stats” can be seen, as in an RPG. The reader constantly sees her magic power as ‘infinite’, but no one else seems to see this, so there’s a lot of people staring at her stats and wondering why she can do this. It’s frustrating.) The “slow life” bits are also fun, with Sei making friends, learning about her new world, and of course falling in love, though there may be more men falling for her in the future.

All this and no fanservice or creepiness. An excellent debut, and I want to read more as soon as possible.