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Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower, Vol. 1

By Miri Mikawa and Kasumi Nagi. Released in Japan as “Ikka Kōkyū Ryōrichō” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by afm. It is somewhat hard not to start reading this and not think of The Apothecary Diaries, which also features a young woman arriving at the Emperor’s palace and featuring a number of young women who are there to be his courtesans, as well as a eunuch who is rumored not to be. Oh yes, and clearly based on Chinese rather than Japanese tropes. That said, the two series end up going in a slightly different direction, as Maomao’s one smart cookie who’s there to be a Jessica Fletcher sort. Meanwhile, all poor Rimi wants is somewhere to prepare delicious food and a…

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Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke, Vol. 5

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof. Word of warning: this review is filled with spoilers. If you do not want to be spoiled, you should only read everything above the cover image. The final volume of this particular arc sees Rozemyne finally managing to achieve everything she needs in order to fix her mana and her body. Given that we’d previously seen the expedition to get the ruelle ingredient, and saw it fail, it should not be surprising that we see it succeed here. The main new plot point is the introduction of the Archduke’s daughter Charlotte, who adores Rozemyne…

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My Alcoholic Escape from Reality

By Nagata Kabi. Released in Japan as “Genjitsu Touhi Shitetara Boroboro ni Natta Hanashi ” by East Press, serialized in Matogrosso. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jocelyne Allen. Adapted by Lianne Sentar. If you have read the previous volumes of Nagata Kabi’s biographical examination of her past struggles, seeing the title and the cover art for this new book probably makes you think “Oh no.” But yes, once again life is not as simple as it seems, and recovery can be a path you walk on that might just lead you to a different wrong path. After dealing with mental and emotional struggles in My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and My Solo Exchange Diary, and resolving to stop writing memoir-style manga (as she worries it makes…

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Manga the Week of 5/12/21

SEAN: Happy Mother’s Day! Let’s look for some manga that you can safely show to Mom. Airship has two early digital releases, Adachi & Shimamura 5 and Failure Frame 2. Debuting in print is Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist. And we get the 2nd Muscles Are Better Than Magic as well. ASH: I didn’t pick it up digitally, but am still vaguely intrigued by Drugstore in Another World. MELINDA: I’m intrigued by the title alone. SEAN: Dark Horse has a 6th omnibus volume for Gantz. J-Novel Club has a few digital manga titles that I missed last time that are out this week. Apologies to An Archdemon’s Dilemma 5, Bibliophile Princess 2, and Record of Wortenia War 2. This is the danger of not…

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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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