By Fuyu Aoki and Minori Aritani. Released in Japan as “Doinaka no Hakugai Reijо̄ wa О̄to Elite Kishi ni Dekiai Sareru” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Dawson Chen. Yes, as you can see from the cover art showing a wedding, this is the final volume in the series. (The imprint has yet to let a light novel series go beyond Book 3, so that’s also not a surprise.) Actually, lack of surprise is a feature of this entire book. Every single plot point in this book can be seen coming from at least ten pages away. That said, this is perfectly fine. You really don’t want big surprises from this series. You want adorable romantic moments between two very pure people, getting past…
LATEST FEATURES, ESSAYS, COLUMNS, ROUNDTABLES, & REVIEWS
By Sean Gaffney
Safe & Sound in the Arms of an Elite Knight, Vol. 3
By Sean Gaffney
I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss, Vol. 8
By Sarasa Nagase and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijo Nanode Rasubosu o Katte Mimashita” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel. Despite the fact that there are still three volumes to go after this, according to the author, this is the end of the main series. And it’s a real corker of an ending, giving us one last crisis for the road, where Aileen is not under threat of execution (it’s hard to do that now that she’s the Empress), but the world is still in danger, and more importantly, her family is in danger. This is when Aileen “rampages”, as Claude puts it, and she certainly does so here, kicking people in the face, doing all sorts of…
By Sean Gaffney
High School DxD: Issei SOS
By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell. Humor is always subjective, and what is funny to one person won’t be funny to someone else. So, as you can imagine, this review is even more my personal opinion than most of them are. This isn’t helped by this volume being the second short story volume, meaning that it almost by necessity consists of funny stories, as any drama needs to be saved for the main series. I I will note that my enjoyment of these stories was in inverse to how much Issue was screaming like a tsukkomi in them. Issei can be a great character in the shonen hero mode, and he can also…
By Sean Gaffney
Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 7
By Shinji Cobkubo and K Akagishi. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey. I had wondered in previous reviews why Sabikui Bisco wasn’t simply in Shonen Jump, given its sensibilities, its dialogue, and its homoeroticism, but I think after this volume I’ve figured it out. Jump is a title where, if the author said “hey, I’ve decided that for the next 26 weeks I want this series to be a samurai drama starring a bunch of cats”, editorial would say, “No, you will not be doing that”. But this isn’t a Jump manga, it’s a light novel series, and the sky’s the limit. So we not only get a samurai drama starring cats, but it is as ridiculously overblown as…
By Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N
Manga the Week of 4/24/24
SEAN: April is lurching towards its conclusion. What can we find? ASH: Hopefully my mind; try as I might, it’s convinced that March comes next. SEAN: There’s a lot of print Airship titles, as we see Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 6, The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 6, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 10, and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 6. In early digital we see The Mimosa Confessions (Mimosa no Kokuhaku), an LGBT novel from the creator of The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes. A young man gradually drifts away from his more popular guy friend. In high school, he meets a cute girl, and falls for her. However, when he walks home…
By Sean Gaffney
Bookshelf Briefs 4/18/24
Blue Box, Vol. 9 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media – This is still a sports-lite volume of the series, which is good news for the reader but very bad news for Hina, who desperately insists she does not need an answer to her confession but she’s gonna get one anyway. Blue Box is, at nine volumes, assured of being a Jump success story, so you’d expect the author to start extending plotlines. As such, I really appreciate it’s not done here. Taiki knows that he’s starting to see Hina as a girl rather than a friend, and her confession is just making him stress. So he has to be fair to Chinatsu and reject her, because Chinatsu is the girl that he loves. Which we also see here,…
By Sean Gaffney
Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 12
By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham. I’ve said before that I think the Bofuri series works best when it’s just Maple and Sally taking on a fresh new challenge, and the author agrees. Actually, the author may be starting to agree a bit TOO much. This is the 3rd book in a row that’s been about 75% Maple and Sally, 25% rest of the cast. I joked on social media that the extended scene with Kanade was inserted at the request of the editor, as the author had forgotten who Kanade was. (Actually, Kanade gets more to do here than he has…
By Sean Gaffney
Secrets of the Silent Witch, Vol. 4 ~after~
By Matsuri Isora and Nanna Fujimi. Released in Japan as “Silent Witch” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse. I had been referring to this as Silent Witch 4.5, which some retailers are using, likely to better differentiate it from the 4th volume. But the author states in the afterword that they did not want to have it be a .5, and I get that. Generally speaking it’s hard enough when you realize that the next volume is going to be a short story volume, and when the volume number ends in .5 it can be even more highly variable. You never know if you’re getting stuff that was too goofy or too pornographic for the main series, or if you’re getting a…
By Sean Gaffney
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 18
By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Lorin Christie. Well, I got my wish. Sort of. Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, like My Next Life As a Villainess, has a problem. It has cultivated a large yuri audience it absolutely does not want, but it cannot afford to piss that audience off too much as they’re one of the big reasons that it’s a success. It doesn’t help that Yuna has accumulated a “harem” of underage girls, which yes is the main draw of the series (the moe aesthetic, I mean), but also makes the yuri a bit creepy. Still, here at least we do have Yuna straight up saying that she isn’t…