Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Sean Gaffney

Fiancée No More: The Forsaken Lady, the Prince, and Their Make-Believe Love, Vol. 3

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By Mari Morikawa and Bodax. Released in Japan as “Konyaku Haki no Sono Saki ni: Suterare Reijō, Ōji-sama ni Dekiai (Engi) Sareru” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Adam.

It had been a while since the last volume of this series, and so I had forgotten about its vibe, which is “serious”. Most of these villainess or villainess-adjacent books tend to have a tongue at least somewhat in cheek, but this one is absolutely here to tell you that Estelle’s life has not been great, her new life is fine but still features miscommunication and anxiety, and, oh yes, someone is still trying to sabotage Arcrayne. Even the honeymoon, which we get at the end of this book, is called off briefly once they arrive due to an errant dragon attack, and the wedding features worries that she won’t be able to fulfill her role in bearing Arcrayne’s child. That said, everything in this series has been pretty straightforward, and so I’m sure the payoff here will… oh look, there are some genuinely surprising twists and turns. The author definitely wrote this with three books in mind.

After the events of the second book, Estelle is rapidly becoming a heroic story, which she’s not wild about, but that’s what happens when you shoot a dragon with your gun that explodes when you shoot a dragon. Fortunately, her engagement ring is remade and everything seems to be hunky dory. (record scratch) So she’s now locked in a tower prison, where accommodations are good but she’s been arrested for supposedly helping her fiance to try to assassinate the king, who is allegedly at death’s door. Needless to say this is a lie concocted by the Queen and her evil father (more on them later). Fortunately, things are not quite as desperate as they seem, but Estelle very much has to go from “I’m about to be executed because I was forcibly engaged to this guy” to “I’m going to be the next queen” pretty darn quick.

The most interesting part of the book is after the failed coup itself, where we get to see the double reverse Uno that was apparently going on while Estelle and Arcrayne were suffering a bit. I will try not to spoil too much, but it turns out that the Queen, who I had really disliked in previous books, has a backstory that… well, let’s just say they make it BETTER by saying “he hit her”. Daddy Dearest was a real piece of work. As a result, we get to hear about how a lot of everything in Arcrayne’s life was faked in order to appease different factions, and that he knew none of this. I like the twists, but I wish we’d gotten the chance to figure them out before they’re dropped on us. OK, while I said that everything was written to be a perfect three volumes, maybe it was a bit rushed. A few more flashbacks might have done wonders.

Still, overall this series wasn’t bad, and is a good one to recommend to those who want a “disgraced noble” sort of book without any deconstruction or parody.

Goodbye, Overtime! This Reincarnated Villainess Is Living for Her New Big Brother, Vol. 3

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By Chidori Hama and Wan Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō, Brocon ni Job Change Shimasu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Rymane Tsouria.

One of the things that you see a lot in villainess books, and especially this one, is having your cake and eating it, too. Our protagonist is a villainess trying to avoid her doom, and turns out to now be smart, sweet, and beloved? That’s all very well and good, but you still need an ACTUAL arrogant girl in the book, preferably with drill curls. The brother and sister are wonderful nobles who are working hard to recover their family’s reputation and work for the sake of their people? Sure, but better show some stupid, evil nobles as well, because stupid, evil nobles are what this genre does. Ekaterina may be changing her fate, but the world itself still inspires bad actors to be around, and it’s implied that the nobles that flitter around the royal family are even worse. Fortunately, neither she not her brother have to worry about that, as they’re far too busy making everyone stare with their G-rated brocon/siscon shenanigans.

School’s out, after final exams show Ekaterina coming in… third! (It’s fine, the prince and the “heroine” are first and second, so this works for her not-so-secret agenda.) Now she and her brother are returning to their ancestral home for the first time in a long time… and for her, the first time since she got her memories from Japan/became a massive Alexei otaku. Back home she finds some servants who don’t like her, but that’s balanced out by the people who have been hired back after the death of her grandmother, who turn out to be fantastic. This will culminate in a ball where Ekaterina will make her debut as the head of house. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of scheming nobles who want to get their hands on Alexei’s power and fortune. Luckily, those scheming nobles are complete idiots.

I know I keep bringing up the incest, but it really is impossible to avoid – it’s the premise. And yet I still applaud the author for somehow managing to make it so these two are disgustingly in love with each other, and also that he is impossibly handsome (something she notices all the time) and that she is voluptuous and beautiful (something every male around her notices all the time), and yet it STILL is as sexless as you could possibly want. These two adore each other yet absolutely are not down to fuck, and that’s terrific. It’s terrific mostly because their shameless pawing and flirting, when contrasted with, say, the drill curled noble throwing a tantrum, is so sickeningly sweet it’s hilarious. They’ve somehow weaponized incest subtext, and are using it to kill off their enemies. Amazing.

I’m not sure where the series is going next, except that, as implied by the ending section, Ekaterina will be getting a horse soon. But as long as it continues to have these two lovey-dovey siblings be not remotely sexual, I’ll stick around for it.

The Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival, Vol. 4

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By Harunori Biyori and Hitaki Yuu. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyō Survival” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Camilla L.

After spending the last four books ignoring the otome game aspect of this world for the most part and being devoted to showing pages of stat upgrades and lots of monster fighting, we will finally be getting around to the actual game in the next volume, with academy hijinks and everything. That said, some aspects of the game still shine through, and one of them is that, though she doesn’t really notice it herself, everyone and their brother is falling head over heels for Alia. Random passersby on the street gawk at her. Royal knights all vow to protect her. Elena thinks they’re soulmates. And Karla… well, we’ll talk about Karla later. Alia’s got that heroine energy for sure. Heck, at the climax of this book she’s forced to get rid of having ash in her hair and let her peach flag fly. The trouble is, Alia does NOT think of herself as the heroine of an otome game, so all of this, with the exception of protecting Elena, is irrelevant to her.

Alis is finally, somewhat reluctantly, joining the Rainbow Blade, mostly as that’s the only way she’ll be able to help Elena, who is going to a very difficult dungeon, along with her brother, her brother’s fiancee candidates, an annoying uncle, and various retainers, in order to gain the fantastic “any wish” reward the dungeon can offer. After officially leveling up, and dodging a murder attempt, Alia and the rest of the adventuring party arrive and head through a secret door that allows you to skip seventy floors of the dungeon – which still leaves us with the most dangerous floors. Can Alia keep Elena and the rest of the royal family safe without getting murdered by dangerous ogres, terrifying minotaurs, and the scariest being of all, Karla?

As with the last book she appeared in, Karla is absolutely one of the best reasons to read this, as she is legitimately mentally disturbed in a way very few anime villains really manage to pull off. “Yandere” is a word I hate because it gets abused, but there’s no denying that Karla’s death wish revolves around her obsession with Alia, and her desire to level up – even if it means murdering piles of people, which she does here – is solely so that she can achieve her wish of fighting Alia in the ruins of the entire kingdom until Alia kills her. It is a grand guignol death wish, and I have no doubt it will be the series finale – hopefully NOT in the ruins of the capital. As for Clara, the other villainess in this story… meh. Even her name is easy to mistype when I mean Karla. I get that she’s sort of trapped, but she needs to get more interesting. (Arguably Elena does as well, but at least she manages to solve the worst of her problems by the end of this book.)

With a big YMMV reminder over the series, which always reminds us how young these girls really are, this remains a strangely compelling narrative. I’m hoping spending time at the academy with petty nobles and classwork might mean a few less stat screens, though.

Duchess in the Attic, Vol. 3

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By Mori and Huyuko Aoi. Released in Japan as “Yane Urabeya no Kōshaku Fujin” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by piyo.

(This review discusses a plot twist near the end of the book, but I will wait till paragraph three to do so.)

This is a very odd series, in that it’s technically meant to be a thriller of sorts, where we see Opal struggle against events that are conspiring against her. But she’s never seriously in danger, and knows it. And we, the reader, are fine with that. We’re not reading this series to see Opal being threatened by goons, we’re reading this to see Opal being smug, and boy howdy do we get that here. We also get another attic, and this time she stays in it for an extended period. I sometimes wonder if the author thinks of Opal in the attic, and then writes a plot to get her into it, rather than the other way around. As for the book itself, well, it’s taking the events of Books 1 and 2 and telling the reader we should have been paying far closer attention to them.

After the events of the last volume, which ended with someone trying to break up Opal and Claude, she heads off to their new lands without him. There she finds an old-fashioned, Satan-hating land maintainer, a butler who screams “I am evil”, and a footman that she immediately dislikes on sight. Fortunately, she does have her loyal maid Nadja. Unfortunately, while on her way to inspect mines, which requires her staying at a ludicrously opulent mansion that looms over a poor neighborhood, she finds herself kidnapped, locked in an attic, and held for ransom, along with Nadja. At least she gets things to read from that footman she dislikes. As for why she’s been kidnapped, well, the anti-royal faction have decided to have their revolution, and she makes a great hostage. Supposedly. If their revolution were going well.

So, one mystery I love is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie. It’s not loved by everyone, however, and gets into “is it OK to withhold vital information when you are a first-person narrator?”. This book does the same thing, with Julian, the footman. I already knew he was going to be more than just one of the three bad guys. For one thing, he’s on the cover, pictured happily next to Claude and Opal. For another, he gets a big interior illustration the moment he first appears. That said, I assumed that he would be, y’know, an old friend of Claude’s who’s being a spy. Which, admittedly, is 100% true. But he’s also someone we’ve been hearing about since the very, very start of the series, always present by his absence, and Opal’s immediate dislike of him should have been a bigger clue. No one fights quite like a brother and sister, after all. This also makes the climax of the book, which should be tense and anxious, hilarious, as the two cannot stop sniping at each other. It’s glorious.

The first book had a definite ending, and then it continued. This third book also has a definite ending, and yet there is more. I’m looking forward to it a great deal, though.

Pick of the Week: Pretty and Haunting Faces

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SEAN: Obviously my pick this week would be Short Game: Mitsuru Adachi’s Baseball Short Story Collection, except we know that Amazon date is wrong. So instead I will pick It Takes More Than a Pretty Face to Fall in Love, because it makes me nostalgic for the days of 20 years ago when Hana to Yume titles fell from the skies like rain.

MICHELLE: I can get behind that! And it does have a little bit of a Lovesick Ellie vibe, which I appreciate.

ASH: I’m going to go a different direction this week and pick Hauntress. There were some things I really loved about the creator’s later series Dragon Head, and some things I really didn’t, so I’m curious to see how a shorter form story fares.

ANNA: I don’t know! I’m going to go for It Takes More Than a Pretty Face to Fall in Love as well, because the pull of Hana to Yume nostalgia is strong.

KATE: I’ll join Ash in picking Hauntress, as I also have vivid memories of reading Minetaro Mochizuki’s Dragon Head back in the day.

Babel: The Bewitching Princess in the Birdcage

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By Kuji Furumiya and Haruyuki Morisawa. Released in Japan as “Babel III: Torikago Yori Izuru Youki” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Amelia Imogen.

So, first of all, I want to note that I *loved* this volume. It’s not only my favorite volume of Babel so far, but it may actually be my favorite book by Furumiya I’ve read so far. That said… boy, this is absolutely exhausting to read. As always with this author, it’s a brick – the digital version comes in at 463 pages – and much of it, especially in the back half, is a series of “is this going to end badly with Shizuku dead?” mini-cliffhangers. More to the point, while the start of the volume does indeed continue the themes of the previous one, showing Shizuku trying to explain how teaching language can be a good way to solve the current crisis – it rapidly derails into Shizuku doing what she does best, which is speaking to those in power and smacking them down. With Lars that mostly just led to a lot of arguments. With Princess Ortea, it leads to revolution.

We pick up from the cliffhanger of the previous book: Shizuku is being kidnapped and brought to another country by the evil mage Niké, with Erik’s life being threatened till she gives in. (As a result, Erik is almost entirely absent from this volume.) When she gets there, she discovers that mages have been conducting cruel experiments on children to solve the language issue, and Shizuku is there to try to solve it with her own solution, education. The one she has to impress is the cruel and capricious Princess Ortea, who has been running much of the nation behind the scenes and has a tendency to have people who displease her executed. As the book goes on, Shizuku becomes Ortea’s aide, and gradually comes to realize that there’s a lot more going on here than an evil princess and her worried brother the King. Is the answer overthrowing the monarchy? Yup.

For the most part, I adored this, though I could do without the curse above Shizuku’s womb that’s even more agonizing because she’s a virgin. The only thing more annoying than having superpowers that only work because someone is a virgin is having suffering that is even worse because someone is a virgin. That said, the best part of the book is talking about how you cannot erase your past actions, even if they’re atrocities (especially if they are), but you can try to atone for them and move forward, especially if you care more about the country than about power. Honestly, I kind of wonder if the final book will end with Lars and Ortea marrying, as while they get on even worse than Lars and Shizuku, I could see it working – they’re very similar. As for the lack of Erik, fear not, we do get a romance of sorts, as evil mage Niké turns out to not be all that evil really, and also gradually falling in love with Shizuku, despite her bad habit of getting kidnapped and shot at and stabbed and having painful womb curses put on her. Shizuku needs a break, let’s be honest. Anyway, needless to say he gets nowhere, but he does get in a kiss before she leaves, which is the one thing in the book that reads like a cliched anime moment.

The next book is the final one in the series. After Book 1, I was fairly sure that she would not be returning to Japan, but now I’m not so sure. Will Shizuku have to give up and settle down here? And can she solve the Babel crisis before she returns? A terrific series.

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 15

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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.

Generally speaking, when a series has a volume that consists of nothing but battle scenes, I tend to groan and whine a lot. Battle scenes are hard to review beyond “yup, they sure did hit each other hard”. Strangely, though, I don’t really mind the ones that happen in Bofuri. Part of it is Bofuri’s a game, as opposed to endless “fantasy world that just happens to have game stats”, so I really don’t need to be concerned when a character I like dies. But the other reason is that I trust this author’s style. It’s fast-paced – the action really does not stop for a minute in this volume. And it’s short, so that I don’t need to worry about this taking 600 pages like some OTHER action driven series. Congratulations, Maple, you’re better than Bell at this. As for who the winner is… well, the event does end, but any aftermath will need to wait for Book 16.

This is the climax of the event, and there’s a lot going on. Maple shows off some death from above with mysterious acid rain. The group try out various strategies, but given the enemy has the Best Snipers Ever, as well as Naruto and Hinata… pardon me, Velvet and Hinata, Maple is in danger from this. So the best thing to do is to literally shove her in a box till she’s needed. The twins are separated, but each of them manages a suicide attack that devastates the enemy forces. Marx gets to briefly be cool before dying. Kasumi gets to briefly be cool before dying. Kanade gets to briefly be cool before dying. OK, maybe I was right to worry about writing this review.

And then there’s Maple and Sally. As I write this, the webnovel version of Bofuri came to a close two days ago, and the light novel will wrap up with the 20th volume next month. We’re a ways away from that ending, but I think I can be fairly confident how it’s going to wrap up. Maple and Sally have been the focus of the series fro0m the start, and as the books go on that’s become even more apparent – this is not a series that is just “what crazy shit will Maple come up with next?” This book is all about showing us just how utterly, utterly broken Sally is, how she’s just as terrifying as Maple if not more so, and that it’s even more impressive because while Maple’s play style mostly runs on her instincts, Sally’s is calculated to the last microsecond, allowing her to do the impossible while fooling people into thinking she can go BEYOND the impossible. Also, she is 100% gay for Maple.

The next volume should give an after-event recap of this arc, but more importantly, I think it will begin the climax that will take up the last quarter of the series. Can Maple and Sally get to the 10th Strata without finally being killed off? And can they continue to make everyone stare at them with their jaw dropped?

The Legendary Witch Is Reborn As an Oppressed Princess, Vol. 3

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By Touko Amekawa and Kuroyuki. Released in Japan as “Shiitagerareta Tsuihou Oujo wa, Tenseishita Densetsu no Majo deshita: Mukae ni Koraretemo Komarumasu. Juuboku to no Ohirune wo Jamashinaide Kudasai” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Jeremy Browning.

I always enjoy mysteries with multiple twists, even if I figure out some of them. This series has been very good about giving us those twists, which is good, as despite the final scene this series is a lot less action packed than the author’s other book, 7th Time Loop. Claudia is ten now, and even more than the other two books she mostly acts like a ten-year-old… well, OK, a 6-year-old. Claudia likes to weaponize being an adorable child, and I think she overdoes it a bit. She’s a magical powerhouse, but that is, again, used mostly subtly till the very end. Mostly, Claudia enjoys being doted upon as a new girl at the academy, does quiet investigations, and tries to get Noah to meet his half-brother, which Noah, frankly, has no desire to do. And honestly, given events in this book, I can’t blame him. Claudia and Noah may be codependent, but they’re also what’s best for each other.

Claudia and Noah have entered an academy for nobles to learn magic, mostly as there’s another curse going on there. Ships have been disappearing, and since this school is under the sea, and exactly where the ships vanish, it’s a good guess that’s where the cause is. As it turns out, this school was created by Adelheid, 500 years ago, to promote equality. Which it, well, isn’t really pulling off. We meet a gorgeous 18-year-old who is the belle of the school, beloved by all. We also meet her 11-year-old sister, whose lack of control over her magic terrified everyone, and who now mostly holes up in her room. They both sing, and the thought is that it’s a song that’s the cause of the missing ships. Also, how does Sieghart, Noah’s brother, figure into this? And are all these curse cases tying together?

It’s hard to talk about the climax of the book without spoiling it, and I already discussed Claudia’s childishness, but it’s interesting to see that she still appears to be pushing Noah to try to understand the greater world around him, presumably so that one day, when she is gone, he can go on to greater things. This is despite the fact that, multiple times a day, he tells her how devoted to her he is and that leaving her side even for a moment makes him upset. The adult Adelheid wants to push Noah away, but the child Claudia, I think, wants him to be there and dote on her – or have her dote on him. It ties in nicely to the story of this volume, which features a curse set off by people desperately reaching out to family because, in the end, they’re not as mature and put together as they might actually pretend. Even the villain of this book is also pretending to be mature and in control but, well, isn’t.

Claudia looks grown up on the cover of the 4th book, but I don’t think we’ll jump that many years. In any case, this remains a fun and intriguing mystery with age-up and age-down shenanigans galore.

Manga the Week of 2/26/25

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SEAN: February’s end, and it brings us (well, me) snow, ice, and manga.

ASH: Take comfort in knowing you are not alone.

SEAN: Airship, in print, has Failure Frame 11.5, The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen 8, and Trapped in a Dating Sim: Otome Games Are Tough For Us, Too! 3.

And in early digital we see Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 10 and Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! 2.

Cross Infinite World has a 5th volume of The Drab Princess, the Black Cat, and the Satisfying Break-up.

Dark Horse Comics has Cat + Gamer 7 and Trigun Maximum Deluxe Edition 4.

Retailers say Denpa Books has Nana & Kaoru 6 and Short Game: Mitsuru Adachi’s Baseball Short Story Collection. The latter is, well, exactly what it says. Can’t wait, but I’m fairly sure this date is wrong.

ASH: Looking forward to Short Game, whenever it’s released (i.e. probably not next week).

MICHELLE: Oh, man. I am so here for Mitsuru Adachi!

ANNA: Me too, whenever it might arrive!

SEAN: Ghost Ship debuts Tamamori’s Fantasies Never Stop! (Tamamori Buchou no Mousou wa Tomaranai), a seinen series from Manga Cross. The perfect beauty of the high school is in the drama club with her male classmate. There’s just one problem… she’s a massive pervert inside her own mind!

Hanashi Media has the 2nd volume of Observation Records of My Fiancée.

J-Novel Club has some digital light novels. We get The Boy Who Ruled the Monsters 2, Fiancée No More 3, Goodbye, Overtime! 3, Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain 2, Lucia and the Loom 3, Management of a Novice Alchemist 4, and The Tanaka Family Reincarnates 2.

For J-Novel digital manga, we get An Archdemon’s (Friend’s) Dilemma 2, Ascendance of a Bookworm Arc 4 part 1, and Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It! 7.

Kodansha Books has Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement 7.

Kodansha Manga debuts Hauntress (Zashiki Onna), a 1993 horror volume from the creator of Dragon Head. It ran in Young Magazine. A man finds a scary woman ringing his neighbor’s doorbell… and now the woman is interested in him!

ASH: Okay, this one I’m interested in based on the impression Dragon Head made on me ages ago. (Which, for those of you who missed it, will be back in print later this year!)

SEAN: Also in print: Bless 4, Blue Lock 17, The Blue Wolves of Mibu 4, I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 3 (the final volume), I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 14, Shangri-La Frontier 15, and Your Lie in April Omnibus 3.

Digitally we get Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You 9, As the Gods Will 4, Fate/Grand Order -Epic of Remnant- Pseudo-Singularity III 5, Fungus and Iron 6, Gamaran: Shura 29, The God-Tier Guardian and the Love of Six Princesses 15, Killing Line 2, and My Home Hero 20.

KUMA is, according to retailers, debuting Yata-Momo. A BL title that ran in Qpa, it’s from the creator of Happy Crappy Life. Two complete messes get closer while still being complete messes is how I’d summarize this. As with Denpa, fairly sure this release date is wrong.

ASH: Probably. But I’m still glad to see Harada manga in English.

MICHELLE: It does look good, though!

ANNA: I’m intrigued by this summary.

SEAN: One Peace Books has the 14th volume of The New Gate.

Seven Seas has some debuts. EAT is a one-shot BL title from the creator of The Girl from the Other Side, so you can assume it’s a horror sort of BL. A professor loves to watch people eat… and realize he may in fact want to be eaten. This ran in Be x Boy Gold.

ASH: Interested in this one, for sure! I find Nagabe’s work really interesting.

MICHELLE: Vore makes a comeback!

SEAN: It Takes More Than a Pretty Face to Fall in Love (Kao Dake ja Suki ni Narimasen) is a shoujo manga from Hana to Yume. A girl has the hots for the hunkiest guy at school… but he’s about to be expelled for never attending class! Can she save him with the power of social media?

ASH: Signs point to maybe?

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: The Dangers in My Heart 10, How Do I Turn My Best Friend Into My Girlfriend? 3, Let’s Buy the Land and Cultivate It in a Different World 7, Love is an Illusion! – The Queen 2, Plus-Sized Elf: Second Helping! 4, Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 7, Servamp 21, and The Valiant Must Fall 4.

Square Enix Manga has The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl 9.

Tokyopop debuts The Inconvenient Life of an Arousing Priestess (Kon’yaku Hakida, Hatsujou Seijou), a shoujo series from Comic Pash! based on the light novel that Cross Infinite World releases over here. A priestess is very good at what she does… unfortunately, her powers make both her and the people she’s using them on horny! Despite the plot, this is less sex-filled than it sounds.

ANNA: I dunno….

SEAN: Also from Tokyopop: This Reincarnated Countess Is Trying to Escape From Her Prince 2 and Sanctify 3 (the final volume).

Debuting from Udon is Ottoman: Henshin Hero Husband, a Weekly Young Jump title. A salaryman is infected by an alien… but that’s OK, as his wife is in danger from the forces of evil! He and the alien will have to join forces to win. This is an omnibus of the first 2 volumes. (This has been bumped a couple of times, so YMMV)

Debuting from Viz is Spirited Away Film Comic: All-in-One Edition, the perfect gift for people who hate watching things and don’t want to buy multiple books, as this is 850 pages long.

ASH: Hahaha.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Kaiju No. 8 12 and My Name Is Shingo: The Perfect Edition 4.

ASH: Need to catch up with My Name Is Shingo sooner rather than later.

SEAN: Yen Press has one debut: Helena and Mr. Big Bad Wolf, a shoujo manga that debuted as a doujinshi. A girl meets her favorite author, and even though he’s cold and quiet… and has a wolf head… they get to know each other better.

Yen Press also has a 2nd volume of Goblin Slayer: A Day in the Life.

Hooray! February’s ending! What are you getting?

Bookshelf Briefs 2/19/25

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Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 32 | By Tomohito Oda | Viz Media – This is a “between arcs” volume of Komi, but it does send us into what is clearly the final arc, as Komi now needs to double down to get 100 friends, even if it means going outside her comfort zone and becoming class rep. So she goes to see Ogiya, the one who sucks on a pacifier, and gets his tragic backstory. She almost bullies him into being her friend, in a heartwarming Komi sort of way. Towards the end we also see Emoyama, who caused Tadano and Komi’s accidental first kiss, and is upset with herself, as she loves heartwarming moments and thinks she ruined it. She takes a little more convincing. Komi almost never uses her notebook to speak anymore, though she has to go to that well here once or twice. She’s growing up. – Sean Gaffney

Medalist, Vol. 11 | By Tsurumaikada | Kodansha Comics (digital) – Inori has to face a true horror that she’s never faced before in this volume. She skates FIRST. And while she does very well, and stays at the top for some time, the anxiety of watching everyone coming after her reminds us that our girl may have come a long way but she still tends to be a bundle of neuroses. Also, she sadly came fourth in the end. On the bright side, people are not only recognizing her potential, but that of her coach as well, and both are being headhunted by American coach Riley, a former gold medalist herself and also… erm… a bit eccentric? Possibly laughing mad? It may all be worth it, though, if we can get Inori and Hikaru in each other’s orbit. All this plus the art. MY GOD, THE ART. I urge everyone to read this just for that, but the rest is great too. As is the anime! – Sean Gaffney

Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite, Vol. 2 | By Julietta Suzuki | Viz Media – This is a series that’s building up slowly and adding its characters at a leisurely pace, which is usually a sign that the author has had enough successes to give them a lot of rope. It does mean that I tap my fingers a bit when I hit a supporting player I don’t like, and Viktor, Hina’s new “bodyguard,” is one of them. He’s meant to reflect a certain type, the jealous arrogant wannabe boyfriend, and, well, he does it well. Fortunately, Amantasu manages to power through all his bullshit with the power of being a grumpy cuss. He’s my favorite. Better stuff is the maid cafe, which features Hina helping out, and dazzling everyone at how cute she is. This also introduces even more vampires who are otakus… but according to Hina, the WRONG otakus. For Suzuki fans. – Sean Gaffney

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 5 | By Sakaomi Yuzaki | Yen Press – As with the previous volume, come for the great food and the adorable main couple, stay for all the examination of what life is like for those who are not cishet. Kasuga and Nomoto are looking to move into an apartment together, but it turns out that this is quite difficult when you’re two women in a relationship with each other, and they need to go to a specific realtor that’s amenable to LGBT couples to get anywhere at all. As for Nagumo, it’s great to have an actual diagnosis, and reassuring, but they’re far more concerned with the fact that Kasuga and Nomoto moving out will mean the end of their brief friendship bonding. Sometimes you have to be reminded that friendships can continue even if you move away. Love this. – Sean Gaffney

365 Days to the Wedding, Vol. 6 | By Tamiki Wakaki | Seven Seas Now that our dorky couple have decided they want to be a genuine couple, there’s a lot of catching up to do. They take a look at different kinds of relationships, including ones that may have had tragedy cause them to disintegrate. That said, over the course of the volume, I get the sense that Takuya is a bit closer to being ready for this than Rika is. Takuya has always just come across as a typical shy nerdy guy who doesn’t know how to relationship, whereas Rika seems to be somewhere on the autism spectrum. Seeing her slowly realize that yes, she actually is in love with him and really does want this is heartwarming to see. Which leads to the cliffhanger… will their relationship become physical? This is cute as a button. – Sean Gaffney

When the Villainess Seduces the Main Heroine, Vol. 2 | By Kasai Fujii | Yen Press – The second volume of this is much like the first. It starts off with 2-3 page chapters that are all variations on “these two are seriously horny for each other and having sex all the time,” while occasionally introducing actual plot points. Akuya, as it turns out, went to school with a hot and muscular young knight, who tends to unsuccessfully flirt with her. And there’s also the princess, who was somewhat horrified at Akuya’s actions to get herself dumped, as she had her own clever plans that would have resulted in Akuya becoming hers. Plans that are basically all for nought, because as much of a horny-beyond-belief girl as Sei is, she’s also pure-hearted and loves Akuya with everything she has. Not sure if this will ever get more. Not sure it needs more. – Sean Gaffney

Yokai: The Art of Shigeru Mizuki | By Shigeru Mizuki | Drawn & Quarterly – One of my favorite releases from 2024 was Yokai: The Art of Shigeru Mizuki. The artbook includes a selection of Mizuki’s full-color fine art illustrations (around eighty or so), Mizuki’s accompanying notes, and an essay by Zack Davisson, a folklorist and translator for this volume as well as many of Mizuki’s other works. As is safe to assume from the title, the collection’s theme focuses on yokai. The pieces exhibit a range of styles, from the more cartoonish to the more realistic, though it’s not uncommon for a variety of styles to be utilized in the same illustration. I don’t know that I’ve previously seen much or perhaps any of Mizuki’s color work, but it can be incredibly striking. The physical production values of the volume are likewise spectacular. I can’t wait for the forthcoming companion, Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki’s Paranormal Parade. – Ash Brown

I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History: It Seems Turning into a High-Born Baddie Makes the Prince All the More Lovestruck, Vol. 1

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By Izumi Okido and Jyun Hayase. Released in Japan as “Rekishi ni Nokoru Akujo ni Naru zo: Akuyaku Reijō ni Naru hodo Ōji no Dekiai wa Kasoku suru yō desu!” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

This is the 2nd book that’s been licensed from the imprint B’s-LOG Bunko, the first being The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices, also from Yen On, and with a very similar vibe. Taking a look at the Japanese publisher’s page, the imprint is rife with villainesses, disgraced nobles, and young women striking out on their own by opening shops, etc. For all that we complain about isekai harems and villainess books being the only thing that gets picked up these days, there’s certainly ten times more of it in Japanese. We’ve had so many villainess books, in fact, that here we actually get someone who seems to be basing her idea of the archetype from light novels rather than otome games. A typical “villainess” is a shallow, vain bully who exists to get banished and/or killed, to the joy of the reader, right? Why would anyone want to be that?

A Japanese woman gets hit by a truck, and wakes up as a 7-year-old, Alicia Williams, the villainess of the game … actually, I don’t think the title of the game is mentioned by Alicia. She’s delighted, though. She has always loved villainesses, who need to be strong, powerful and caustic so that she could be a perfect match against the pure young heroine. Alicia therefore does a 180 from the spoiled, selfish girl Alicia was before, and asks for sword lessons. She’s told to do 100 situps and 50 pushups first… and does so. Then she goes and reads 100 books a day in the family library. Oh dear. It’s not clear if this is just due to being reincarnated, but it seems Alicia is a Divergent, someone with super special abilities whose presence can change the world. And so the King decides that she’s going to help the actual heroine, Liz, who is, frankly, a bit too idealistic. Can Alicia do that, even though it might mean being hated? She can’t wait.

The author says they wanted to contrast the idealism of Liz’s heroine with Alicia’s pragmatism, and honestly, has stacked the decks against Liz. To its credit, Liz isn’t an idiot like some other Villainess books, and I suspect she’s not going to turn evil anytime soon. That said, the way everyone is taken with Alicia immediately as a child, then all fall for Liz and start to turn against Alicia later on, shows she’s using some sort of heroine power, though it’s unclear what. The most interesting thing here is that Alicia is five years younger than everyone, including Liz. This allows her to become super special in order to catch up, as she isn’t being told “that’s impossible” by anyone till after she does it. That said, be warned: there’s a lot of people falling in love with Alicia when she’s only 7-13 years old (there’s a 6 year timespan in this book), and the book ends with everyone looking forward to her being 15, which is legal in Villainesslandia. Sigh.

This got an anime, which I haven’t seen but which seems to have been “good except the animation quality”. It made me want to read more, creepy love interest obsession aside. That’s almost a given for shoujo these days. Recommended for genre fans.

Love & Magic Academy: Who Cares about the Heroine and Villainess? I Want to Be the Strongest in this Otome Game World, Vol. 1

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By Toyozo Okamura and Parum. Released in Japan as “Renai Mahou Gakuin: Heroine mo Akuyaku Reijou mo Kankeinai. Ore wa Otome Game Sekai de Saikyou wo Mezasu” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

For obvious reasons, I write these reviews as if people are coming across these reviews individually rather than sequentially. That said, if you are reading these day by day… boy, there’s been a lot of overpowered protagonists, right? I mean, yes, Sean, it’s a light novel, but even more so than usual. Arius in particular, in this book written around 2021-22 or so, feels like a Fanfiction.net story from 2009 or so. You know, the ones that have “Dark/Grey/Independent Harry” in the summary. I will not lie, this book is filled with tedious scenes of Arius marching through dungeons, or criticizing others for marching through dungeons wrong, and generally being the best thing since sliced bread. That said, I did find things here to like. Most of them have to do with the parts of this book that are not a dungeon crawl, as it’s another otome game reincarnation story.

A nameless college researcher dies from overwork and finds himself as a baby – with his full memories from Japan – and realizes he’s in the otome game Love & Magic Academy. His childhood friend was obsessed with it and forced him to play it, so he knows how it’s supposed to go. He also knows that the makers of the game wanted to make an RPG, but it failed, so they laid over the otome game setup but kept the RPG undertones, meaning this world is filled with terrifying monsters (who are polite enough to stay in dungeons). Arius, as he grows up, decides to become a strong adventurer and fight amazing battles. That said, he does also need to do the whole “I am the son of a marquis and have to attend the noble magic academy” thing. But he’s not following the plot.

So I did promise I’d talk about what’s interesting. The interesting thing, for me, was that this is a rare case where no one is particularly trying to stick to the plot. Arius isn’t. The “heroine”, Milia, at first feels she has to, but eventually Arius convinces her that these are not characters but people. And there is not, so far, any “guiding force” that is forcing the events of the game to happen regardless of how everyone acts. It’s honestly refreshing, a huge “free will, boys!” moment that suffuses the book. I also appreciated how, for all his cool “I’m not interested in romance” bullshit, Arius actually does get to be a teenage boy near the end of the book, as he clearly realizes he likes noble “villainess” Sophia, but she’s engaged to the prince, so welp. (It’s also heavily hinted, but never stated, that Milia is the “childhood friend” he had in Japan.) More of Arius being uncool, please.

I’m not sure there’s enough here to make people want to read it unless their ability to tolerate OP bullshit is high (he’s speaking full sentences to his parents at six months old). But if you gotta catch all the otome game books, this won’t make you angry. Decent-ish.

Pick of the Week: Still Interested

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SEAN: As I sit here having lost power yesterday due to an ice storm, I realize I need comfort manga. My pick is the 2nd volume of The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All.

ASH: We haven’t lost our power (yet), but I will keep you company by picking The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All. I’m really looking forward to finally reading the series now that I’ve gotten my hand on the first volume; hopefully this second one won’t prove to be as challenging to acquire!

MICHELLE: No ice storms here, but absolutely The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All for me!

KATE: My pick of the week is Mujina into the Deep. How did a new Inio Asano title fly under my radar?! I guess that’s just a sign that we are living through an era of Peak Manga Abundance.

ANNA: I’m going to pick Honey Lemon Soda as a reminder to myself to get caught up on that series!

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 11

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By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Andrew Schubauer.

This series continues to be a masterclass in doing things that I find questionable and them making them heartwarming anyway. Class Rep talks here about Haruka using “Eye Mastery”, which is basically a brainwashing skill that lets him read someone’s mind and then alter their memories. He uses it here on some nuns that were about to be raped by the Church soldiers, as this world, as we are constantly reminded, is awful. I wasn’t happy with hearing that he’d been using it on the girls for a long time now, keeping them content and selfish, fighting over clothes and equipment and being goofy. He wanted them to be unaffected by this crapsack world. Sadly for him, they’ve all now leveled up enough so that it doesn’t affect them anymore, and thus they go to battle knowing full well what the Church’s soldiers have been doing. And they kill them. A lot of them. This is war, and our heroines are no longer going to be kept out of it. Innocent no more.

Our cast are headed off to the theocracy, there to take on the Church who are responsible for so much of the evil in this world. (We meet the Pope here, and he’s cartoonishly evil.) Sister Girl, who is (natch) a princess, will be leading the charge, backed up by Princess Girl, MeriMeri, the 20 girls of Haruka’s group, and Armored Rep as backup in case anything goes wrong. Meanwhile, Haruka and Dancer Girl are headed off to the capital itself, to deliver letters to various cities letting them know that The revolution is coming, and it’s time to break off and join it. They’re also there to kick ass, murder a metric fuckton of goons and assassins, and along the way, pick up a rabbit girl (on the cover), who is searching for her sister, kidnapped by the Church. Her sister is a wolf girl, by the way. Haruka is over the moon, but also a bit disturbed that these two are such an obvious chuuni stereotype.

I deliberately avoided using any names except for Haruka there, because that’s how he thinks. It’s underlined in this volume, where the girls once again yell at him for not using their names, getting their backgrounds wrong, and forgetting the name of their own school. Haruka’s subtext has rapidly become text. (Class Rep mentions the deaths of Haruka’s parents and sister here, though we get no details.) The running gag in the book is that Rabbit Girl and Wolf Girl, who are desperate to thank him for saving them and want to ask if there’s anything they can do for him (sorry, kids, you’re too young for Haruka to feel comfortable with), always have food stuffed in their mouths by him to shut them up, because the idea of hearing himself praised for doing what is essentially a giant pile of murders bothers him more than he can say. (And, just to bring the book back around to its core again, yes, a lot of the time when he’s shoving food in their mouths it’s meant to be phallic.)

Again, this book is for hardcore fans only, but if you are one, it’s always rewarding. And completely filthy, of course. I assume next volume we’ll get a new Dungeon Emperor, and I’m sure she’ll end up being gorgeous. This series is what it is.

Mercedes and the Waning Moon: The Dungeoneering Feats of a Discarded Vampire Aristocrat, Vol. 1

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By Fire head and KeG. Released in Japan as “Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes: Kyūketsuki no Kizoku ni Tensei Shita kedo Suteraresō nanode Dungeon wo Seiha suru” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Maddy Willette.

Let’s face it. At its heart, this is a story about a girl who starts off ludicrously OP and just gets even more so. She’s of the stoic variety, but otherwise she fits the stereotype perfectly. She defeats monsters who “swear eternal loyalty” to her, though of course the word slave is not used. If you dislike this sort of book, then this is absolutely not a book that is going to change your mind. I kinda liked it, though. It has a gimmick that took me a while to figure out, which I’ll get to below. It has a few people other than our somewhat sociopathic heroine who have actual heart and soul, though honestly this is not a world for nice people to be nice in. And honestly, I just kinda got on with Mercedes. It’s the sort of power fantasy I don’t mind reading.

Our heroine is Mercedes, a young vampire who has (yes, I’m sorry) memories of her past life in Japan. (Yes, she invents chocolate. Sorry.) She’s the daughter of a concubine, and she and her mother live in a run-down decaying mansion, abandoned by her father. So she decides to become an adventurer. She trains hard to make herself strong, though because she never sees anyone other than her mother and maid, she has no idea how strong she is compared to others. And then she heads off to take on a dungeon and do quests. Which… turns out pretty easy, actually. She even tames an ogre and a dangerous wolf to act as her companions. Could she actually be really strong? Nah. But she’ll soon find out, as her older half-brother is holding a party where he plans to beat up the rest of his family to prove he’s best.

At first I wondered if this series was a satire, as Mercedes continually points out the cliches and weird things about her world. It’s medieval in tone, but has some 21st century amenities. It combines a tourist’s idea of Germany with Japanese writing. It is, in fact, exactly like you’d expect an isekai written by a writer who’s just taking a standard RPG setting and doesn’t care much to be. But, as it turns out, there may be more to it than that, as when she conquers the dungeon (which features a slew of cliches, including her confronting her also sociopathic past self) she learns that this world was created in the past, and records of its past then excised. I hope we come back to this. As for the rest of the book, I liked Mercedes’ interaction with Margaret, which is possibly the only point in the book she shows that she’s not simply exactly the same as her father. Just… mostly the same.

That plotline will play out in the second volume, I assume. Provided you don’t mind everything about its genre, this is quite enjoyable.