Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Sean Gaffney

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, Vol. 2

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By Sunsunsun and Momoco. Released in Japan as “Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Matthew Rutsohn.

When this was licensed, I jokingly called it “The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Russian”, and my review of the first volume talks about this being in that “syrupy sweet romance” genre, but this second volume seems to have shed a lot of that, and it feels much more like a standard romcom now, complete with other potential romantic interests and a better look at Masachika’s backstory that shows it was not, in fact, as normal and mundane as I thought it was. Basically, the first volume was a bigger success than the author expected, o now we have to go back and make things a bit harder for our couple. Admittedly, given Alya’s deep embarrassment at, well, anything, that’s not too hard. The goal for the series seems to have changed as well, going from “get this tsundere girl to admit she likes the guy” to “get the guy to take up what he had abandoned and also kick his family in the teeth”. Which, yes, may include his sister, who’s happy to play the villain.

The last book ended with Masachika deciding to help Alya become student council president, and most of this book is about the fallout from that decision, as a lot of people have feelings about it. There’s Yuki, who is conflicted, but mostly seems to be happy that Alya has finally gotten Masachika to care about something again, even if it isn’t Yuki. There’s Ayano, who is Yuki’s maid (and used to be Masachika’s), and who is mostly comedy relief but also feels a bit betrayed by Masachika abandoning Yuki. And there’s Sayaka, the girl that Yuki and Masachika beat our for the student council in middle school, who is furious with Alya for using her looks and feminine wiles to steal Masachika away from the OTP. (Said OTP being his blood-related sister, I remind you, which is why he finds this so baffling.) Clearly there’s only one thing left to do. Debate.

This is decent. There’s one line from Ayano that I could very much have done without (I mentioned it on Twitter), but for the most part she’s an amusing “ninja maid” addition to the cast, and I hope she gains actual depth. As for Masachika, it’s now clear that his issues are not just “my parents split up”, but that he was the scion, and deliberately abandoned that role, pushing it onto his sister and adapting a “whatever” personality that everyone around him hates. Alya has been the only one who can really get him to break out of that, and he’s also proving to be the best thing for Alya in return, giving her confidence and the drive to succeed in her goals. (She too has a sister sacrificing things for her – the series is not ashamed to have its thematic parallels hit you in the face.)

So they’re a good couple… except they’re not a couple yet, and this series being the kind it is, I expect that won’t change soon. But will we have the student council election next time? If you like romcoms, this is solid.

Pick of the Week: Long Awaited Volumes

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KATE: Holy smokes–a new volume of Versailles of the Dead?! In 2023?! I reviewed the first volume in 2018. File this under Better Late Than Never, I guess. It’s not the best zombie manga I ever read, but it definitely earns style points for its outrageous plotting and gorgeous costumes; the undead never looked better!

SEAN: One of the “this will never get a full release in English” titles now finally has a full release in English, and it’s an excellent one as well. The final volume of Urusei Yatsura is my pick.

MICHELLE: It’s The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife for me. They had me at “detective agency.”

ASH: I certainly interested in The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, but I’ll be joining Kate this week in picking Versailles of the Dead. It’s an odd zombie manga, but it’s a stylish one.

ANNA: I’m going for The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, as it sounds most intriguing.

The Disowned Queen’s Consulting Detective Agency

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By Sasara Nagase and Hatipisuwan. Released in Japan as “Kandō Sareta no de Tantei-ya Hajimemasu! Jitsu wa Bōkoku no Joōda Nante Naisho Desu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.

Sarasa Nagase is having a pretty good year. I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss is ongoing both here and in Japan, and had a mildly successful anime. The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor is also ongoing in Japan, and will be coming out here from Cross Infinite World in a month or so. And then there’s this one-shot, which might become a series, about a young woman whose life starts off in a very familiar (for readers) way but then very quickly goes off the rails. In fact, the best part of this book may be the way that it slowly squeezes out backstory bit by bit. Now, you might say “Sean, the very beginning of the book has her conversing with her talking magical hat”, and you’d be right, but even so, I was expecting a bit more standard villainess stuff than this ended up being. I suppose villainess is like isekai now – you use it to get readers.

The book opens with Octavia, the young heir to the earldom, being kicked out of her family home for being illegitimate – or so it’s claimed. Octavia herself is pretty blase about the whole thing, mostly as she knows that her destiny lies elsewhere. She was raised by her late grandmother, who has just died (which prompts the disowning) but when she lived was a famous detective. Now Octavia is off to the big city to go live in her grandmother’s house filled with mysterious items… that is if she’s not ambushed on the way there. Fortunately, she runs into a charming and suspicious young man, Raven. Unfortunately, she also meets a charming and suspicious Phantom Thief, Crow. These two are absolutely not the same person, and you’d be a fool to think so. Plus there’s no evidence. In any case, together, they fight crime!

Actually, they don’t fight crime. Octavia is a magical detective, and her main job is to find Imperial Heirlooms and register them with her magic hat before they become Demonic Heirlooms, which can wreak havoc. And honestly, there’s only one actual case, which involves a little girl and her supposedly cursed doll. The first third of the book is about Octavia escaping her family and setting up shop, and the last third is about the family trying to destroy her (and failing, because this is not a downer sort of book). It’s decent – Raven/Crow is not really the sort of shoujo boyfriend that I enjoy, but I can tolerate him. Octavia is balanced between “serious minded” and “a bit flakey”, perhaps a bit more towards the serious, but she’s entertaining. There is also a police inspector, who has the only accent in the entire book, and it’s very distracting. He doesn’t go so far as to say “Crikey, guv’ner”, but it’s close.

There might be more in the series – the webnovel finished, but this only came out last year, so who knows? As a one-shot, though, it’s a good one for those who like ladies doing cool things, though villainess fans might not find enough here to satisfy them.

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle, Vol. 3

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By Hiromu and raemz. Released in Japan as “Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Evie Lund.

One problem I have with reading light novels that are “high school romcoms”, is that I tend to regard them as taking place in “generic Tokyo suburb”. That’s actually rarely the case. There are a few exceptions – My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected will not shut up about Chiba long enough for me to put it anywhere else – but most of them fall into “generic place”. So I was a bit surprised with the subplot here, which is that our hero and heroine-of-the-book head off from their “big city”, Fukui, which has about 275,000 people, to Tokyo, which is 14 million people. I was even more surprised with the message that the story was giving us, which is that the big city can be awesome, despite its huge number of people and occasional creep. If your dream requires you to be in the biggest city in Japan, go there. Because chasing dreams is important. Even if it means giving up on a potential series-killing romance.

Our cast of second years are getting guidance from their seniors as to what to expect in regards to future plans, and one of those seniors is Chitose’s friend/crush Asuka. She has a dream of being an editor at a Japanese publishing house, but there’s just no way that you can do something like that in someplace like Fukui. Her parents are also dead set against it, and want her to become a librarian or civil servant. Chitose is determined to help her, even though he knows that her heading to Tokyo likely means that any relationship they might have would be dead in the water. So he comes up with an idea: visit Tokyo, and see what it’s really like, to find out if it’s overwhelming to her. Of course, to do that, he’s going to have to essentially kidnap her.

The back half of this book finally gives us the full backstory, with one exception, of Chitose, and we also see why much of it was elided – it was being saved for the book focusing on Asuka. I can certainly see why the author is writing Asuka out of the series (though she doesn’t quite leave for Tokyo yet, as it’s still months before graduation), as in a series that prides itself on Chitose balancing his “harem” of four girls fairly equally, Asuka is simply too powerful. That said, there are a few flaws here, The book is much longer than it needed to be, for one. And Asuka gaining all of her strength and coolness that we’ve seen in the series to date by essentially imitating the boy she liked may not sit well with some viewers, though Chitose is quick to point out that that sort of imitation is what everyone does, and eventually it becomes second nature.

In any case, Asuka may not be in Tokyo yet, but she and Chitose have “broken up”, which leaves him free to solve someone else’s problems in the next book. And that also seems to answer my question from last time about the plot of this series: Chitose solves problems, at great expense (his own).

Outbreak Company: Gaiden

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By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha Light Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

This book feels like an apology, frankly. I was very grumpy with the final volume of the series, and judging by some of the reviews I saw on Amazon Japan, fans of the series there were also unhappy. So now we get the “Gaiden”, or “Side Story”, volume of the series, the actual final volume, and it feels like it’s giving fans what they wanted all along. Well, at least the first half is. The second half of the series is there to highlight Minori, who has always been the least developed character in the series (insert joke about her breast size here), but this final chapter allows us to see a BIT more into her inner psyche and how she really feels about things. Unfortunately, it’s still Outbreak Company, and she’s still Minori, so in the end the plot cannot quiet thread the serious needle and goes back to its running gag. But it tried. The first half of the book does a better job, and uses “fantasy world” as a way to resolve the love interests.

After the events of the final volume (minus the epilogue, which is thankfully ignored), Shinichi returns to the castle… to find Petralka announcing that she’s marrying him, and the wedding will be as soon as possible. Given that he struggled to make a choice and chose Myusel, he’s a little pole-axed by this. The nobility doesn’t like it either… and might also be the reason Petralka is pushing things. After this, we see the secondary pairing, as Hikaru very publicly confesses to Elvia… who still loves Shinichi, and is not really sure how romance works to begin with. A lot of awkwardness follows. Finally, a suitor arrives to marry Garius whether he likes it or not, despite his sexual preferences. Can he find a replacement? And what are BL lover Minori’s thoughts on all this?

Gonna be honest, even though I felt the book was trying to “fix” the last book, it only partly succeeds. The first chapter works best, being Shinichi focused, and with a good intrigue sideplot. I don’t mind the polycule resolution, and obviously the three of them don’t mind it either, though that’s more because we’ve seen it a LOT more in recent light novels. The Hikaru and Elvia story is hampered (as is the Minori story) by multiple narrators, and it’s not always clear who’s meant to be our POV until several paragraphs in. It also feels a bit too quickly resolved. As for the Minori story, as with a number of stories focusing on her in this series, it looks like it’s going to finally be serious and sober, and then heads down into BL alley again. Which is fine, it’s her gag. It just felt a bit too jokey for me. And the treatment of trans and gay issues is… attempted, I will grant you.

So a side story that’s highly variable, which I’m OK with because it’s a side story. A must read for Petralka fans, but for the rest of us it’s another reminder that this series was excellent and annoying in just about equal measure.

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 8

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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.

I think the author knows why we’re here by now. The reader is here to see if Maple will do something crazy (yes), if she’ll get new abilities that are bizarre and yet very adaptable (yes), and if she’ll finally make out with Sally (no, though the two do go on a date where they ride a horse together). But we do have a lot of other members of Maple Tree, and at times the guild does sort of feel like “Maple, Sally, and the rest”. This book, more than any other before it, looks to fix that. Some get more attention than others (sorry, Chrome, there’s really not much we can do with your type), but for the most part everyone gets a spotlight that helps to show off one thing: they deserve to be in Maple Tree because they, too, are an eccentric powerhouse. The guild has a reputation for weirdos, and it is 100% leaning into that.

There’s a new floor, and a new goal: everyone’s getting their own companion monster. This means that Maple and Sally are sitting this one out for the most part, as they got theirs way back at the start of the series – in fact, the mods likely put this in the game to fix that. So everyone goes off to quests. Mai and Yui go hunting bears, which is difficult giving they’re living in a glass house… erm, cannon. (Sorry, Radiohead got into my head there for some reason.) Kanade finds an NPC he’s never seen before, which leads him to battle a slime with unique abilities. Kasumi takes on a night unkillable snake. Chrome goes on a long game of “this hint leads to this next hint” etc till he battles undead pirate ghosts. And Iz gets Maple and Mii to help her gather enough materials to make something to get the favor of crafting spirits. The reward for all of this is an event where they can kill monsters and/or players to advance, and Maple Tree are absolutely terrifying.

So yes, the anime has passed the books again, so in case you wondered: this is the one with the tentacles. That said, I think it’s Maple’s toxic monster swamp, as well as her hilarious actions near the end of the book, that are the highlight, and I hope we see it animated well when the series returns from COVID hiatus. Elsewhere, I enjoyed seeing Iz showing off that she’s not just support gal by effectively napalming an entire forest. Kanade… look, I know Anime News Network made this joke already, but there’s no getting around it: Kanade now has his own clone to bang. The smug smirks they each have at the end of the scene only adds to that impression. And I also liked seeing how the pets worked with the Twins, who are both Maple-ettes only with offense – a mild buff becomes a huge, huge advantage. They can now splatter most anything.

So yeah, another fun volume. If you’re wondering if the anime cut a lot from here, well, a fair amount. Anime-onlies who think the series is rushing should definitely read the books. The rest of us will enjoy Maple’s quest for octopus.

Manga the Week of 3/1/23

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SEAN: Technically March, but it’s still February for most of our list.

Yen On’s sole release next week is Tezcatlipoca, a crime novel featuring a Mexican drug lord and his Japanese boy protege getting involved in organ donation. It is award-winning, and also not for the squeamish.

ASH: I am very curious about this one (but probably not in the mood to read it right this moment).

SEAN: And from Yen Press we see The Beginning After the End 2, Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin 5, and The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious 5.

Viz Media has a 2nd Demon Slayer light novel, One-Winged Butterfly. There’s also JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 5–Golden Wind 7, the 17th and final omnibus of Urusei Yatsura, and WITCH WATCH 5 digitally. Thank you, Viz, for finally releasing all of UY for its fans.

ASH: It really is great to see these longer classic series being released.

SEAN: Square Enix has By the Grace of the Gods 7 and The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses 2.

Seven Seas had been quiet the last couple of weeks. That ends now. There’s so much. That said, there’s only one debut, The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife (Toumei Otoko to Ningen Onna: Sonouchi Fuufu ni Naru Futari), a Futabasha series about an invisible man and a blind woman who find love while running a detective agency. Gotta say, this sounds fantastic. The author also wrote The Country Without Humans.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to this very much!

ANNA: OK, this sounds cool.

ASH: It does seem worth a look!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: A Chinese Fantasy: Law of the Fox (the 2nd in this series), The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace 4, Karate Survivor in Another World 4, Magic Artisan Dahlia Wilts No More 4, Monster Guild: The Dark Lord’s (No-Good) Comeback! 4, My Deer Friend Nokotan 3, My Wife Has No Emotion 4, Otaku Elf 5, Pompo: The Cinéphile 3, Ramen Wolf and Curry Tiger 2, ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword! 3, The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent 7, SPRIGGAN: Deluxe Edition 3, This Is Screwed Up, but I Was Reincarnated as a GIRL in Another World! 5, and Versailles of the Dead 3.

ASH: You weren’t kidding! That is quite a bit. It’s been literal years since the last volume of Versailles of the Dead was released, but I do vaguely recollect getting a kick out of it.

SEAN: KUMA debuts A Home Far Away (Haruka Tooki Ie), a one-shot from Canna about a directionless young man looking for a purpose, and his encounter with a young cook.

MICHELLE: Judging purely by the cover, this looks good!

ANNA: Sounds interesting.

SEAN: Kodansha Books has another digital release of an old Vertical crime drama from the 00s, this one Kenzo Kitakata’s Winter Sleep.

ASH: Another one I haven’t managed to read yet, but am glad is being made more broadly available.

SEAN: In print, Kodansha Manga gives us BAKEMONOGATARI 17, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro Manga Box Set 1 (the first six volumes), EDENS ZERO 21, Hitorijime My Hero 13, Peach Boy Riverside 10, Rent-A-Girlfriend 17, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 7, Shonen Note: Boy Soprano 2, Something’s Wrong with Us 13, and The Witch and the Beast 10.

MICHELLE: I need to get started on Shonen Note.

ASH: As do I, I’ll have to admit.

SEAN: The digital debut is My Home Hero, a drama about a salaryman who finds himself embroiled in crime syndicates and murder. It runs in Young Magazine.

Also digital: Am I Actually the Strongest? 7, Boss Bride Days 2, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life 25, The Food Diary of Miss Maid 4, Gamaran: Shura 5, Heaven’s Design Team 8, Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 12, My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over! 6, The Prince’s Romance Gambit 12 (the final volume), The Slime Diaries: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 6, We’re New at This 12, and With You and the Rain 4.

Kaiten Books has a print volume of My Dad’s the Queen of All VTubers?! 3.

J-Novel Club have some digital debuts. Enough with This Slow Life! I Was Reincarnated as a High Elf and Now I’m Bored (Tensei Shite High Elf ni Narimashitaga, Slow Life wa 120-nen de Akimashita) is one of those reincarnation books. Sadly, the life of an elf involves staying put and being a vegetarian… and also living for a thousand years! After a century of this, our hero decides to go on a journey.

Grand Sumo Villainess (Ouzumou Reijou ~Seijo ni Hirateuchi wo Kuratta Shunkan Sumō Budatta Zense wo Omoidashita Akuyaku Reijō no Watashi wa sute Neko Ōji ni Chanko wo Furumaitai Haadosukoidosukoi~) is a “reincarnated as a villainess in an otome game” book, and our heroine is already at her doom. Fortunately, she knows sumo!

ASH: That’s a new twist to the genre I wasn’t expecting!

SEAN: I Parry Everything: What Do You Mean I’m the Strongest? I’m Not Even an Adventurer Yet! (Ore wa Subete o “Parry” Suru: Gyaku Kanchigai no Sekai Saikyou wa Boukensha ni Naritai) is one of those books about an OP hero who doesn’t realize he’s OP, in the style of Last Dungeon Kid.

And one manga digital debut, I’m Capped at Level 1?! Thus Begins My Journey to Become the World’s Strongest Badass! (Genkai Level 1 kara no Nariagari: Saijaku Level no Ore ga Isekai Saikyou ni Naru made) is a Comic Walker title. It begins with our hero being summoned, given powers, condemned for having weak powers, and sentenced to death. So, one of those series.

Also from J-Novel Club: The Apothecary Diaries 7, An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride 15, Cooking with Wild Game 20, Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools 6, Doll-Kara 4, John Sinclair: Demon Hunter 9, Maddrax 5, Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole 2, the 4th manga volume of Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It!, and Rebuild World 2 Part 1.

Ghost Ship gives us The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You 5 and Manga Diary of a Male Porn Star 3.

Cross Infinite World debuts The Inconvenient Life of an Arousing Priestess (Kon’yaku Hakida, Hatsujou Seijou). A hardworking young woman is engaged to a prince and working as a priestess! Unfortunately, her powers have a bad side effect. As a result, you guessed it, broken engagement, ruined reputation, shunned, etc. Fortunately, the next country over needs her powers!

They also have Onmyoji and Tengu Eyes: Hide and Seek in the Wintry Mountains 2 and the 5th and final volume of Reincarnated as the Last of my Kind.

Airship has the print debut of I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner, the spinoff series giving us Claire’s POV.

Also in print: The Case Files of Jeweler Richard 3, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 13, and Survival in Another World with My Mistress! 4.

And in early digital we see Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 7.

What interests you? What arouses you? What appalls you?

Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Vol. 2

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By Kazuki Amamiya and Gin. Released in Japan as “Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Esther Sun.

After the first volume of this series was more Com than Rom, this second volume flips it. Natsuki is a guy who is in love with another girl and trying, with stuttering, shaky steps, to get to the point he can do something about it. But he’s got another girl who’s confessed to him and is coming on strong, a third girl who I suspect is waiting for a future volume to get her spotlight, and his childhood friend, who is definitely Love Interest #4, even if neither of them are ready to admit it yet. It’s been a while since we’ve had a book series that’s solely about “which girl will he pick?”. The genre these days has shifted to “sweet adorable romance between a couple who get together right away”. Unfortunately for Natsuki, that’s not the genre he’s in, and this series is unlikely to have polyamory be the answer, so he’s going to have to break someone’s heart. And he’s not ready to do that.

Natsuki is still attempting to get together with the girl he likes, Hikari. And his childhood friend Miori is still trying to get together with his hot friend Reita. the solution is obvious – a double date, with careful subterfuge to make it look like they’re just all going to the movies as a group. It actually doesn’t go that badly, though progress stalls when Miori runs into her upperclassmen from the basketball team, and it becomes apparent that they are Not Getting Along ™. That said, Natsuki’s bigger problem is Sakura, who still has a massive crush on him, and is very cute and likeable in her own right. He’d probably be quite happy if he just decided to date her. But he can’t make that decision… though he CAN agree to accept her invitation to go to a festival together. Boy, this book really consists entirely of Not Dates.

The author talks in the afterword about how, despite all the drama surrounding the book, everything is pretty easily fixed, and I quite liked that as well. This is a series about typical teens with typical problems, and it doesn’t need a dramatic climax, it just needs to have people talk about what’s really bothering them. This is difficult with Miori, who likes to present a front of “I’m fine and don’t need any help”, and because Natsuki has known her a long time, he just accepts that – it takes Sakura asking him to help the team to galvanize him. (By the way, what the hell was the coach doing in all of this? Worst coach ever.) As for Natsuki’s love problems, well, that’s not a function of him going back in time, and he knows it. He’s wrestling with things a lot of kids do at that age. Miori suggests just giving up and dating Sakura, but this IS where the book functions as a light novel – our hero will not give up on his first love so easily. And this leads to sadness, but so far it’s an ambiguous sadness.

The next volume in this series came out only three months ago in Japan, so we may have to wait for more. Till then, if you’re nostalgic for romcoms where you’re not sure who Winning Girl is going to be, this is a good choice.

I Shall Survive Using Potions!, Vol. 8

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By FUNA and Sukima. Released in Japan as “Potion-danomi de Ikinobimasu!” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hiroya Watanabe.

Been a while, hasn’t it? There was about an 18-month gap between books 7 and 8 in Japan, and that’s about what we got here as well. The reason for that, of course, is that the author does about eight different things at once. There are still new volumes of Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average coming out every 3-4 months, and Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement has also reached its 8th book. Plus there’s been the saving 80K Gold anime, which is currently running and seems to have offended fans of the books far less than the MMAA anime did. In fact, the one thing that we haven’t seen yet is a big crossover between the three series. We are, sadly, unlikely to see it either, as Mile and friends are Square Enix people, while Mitsuha and Kaoru are Kodansha. Still, there’s a way around this. If you can’t have the three series cross over directly, just have the Potion cast cosplay as the other two series!

Now that all three of the KKR team are reincarnated and together again, it’s time to advance Kaoru’s very vague plan, which mostly involves expanding her business while also having the three of them makes names for themselves (in disguise). Reiko will go to an adventurer’s guild and show off her amazing coin cutting skills (or at least cheat her way through), which may sound very similar to Mavis in Make My Abilities Average!. Kyoko will go to a nearby city and start her own business, selling useful items and having everyone think she’s a noble’s daughter in a way that is clearly nothing like the protagonist of Saving 80K Gold at all. As for Kaoru, she’s trying to get her alter ego to be thought of as a saint, which mostly involves going around healing people and being very humble about it. That said, she’s trying to do a better job about this than she did the first time around.

This book can get very meta – Kaoru explicitly calls the first six volumes (before she was “killed”) Season One here, though I’d argue that Potion Girl 7-8 are more a soft reboot than anything else. The joke throughout the book is that each of the three girls sees themselves as the sensible one trying to hold back the impetuous madness of the others, but they’re all exactly the same deep down. This shows itself best with Kaoru, who, after setting Kyoko up with a nice quiet business and telling her NOT to go on a rampage, goes on her own rampage when she discovers that one business she was working with is using a family power struggle to replace everyone and take over Kaoru’s business. Naturally, this calls for revenge. But not the sort of revenge that the other girls would do. Different, more genteel revenge. (That said, having seen Kaoru go off in previous books, this is very mild by her standards.)

The ninth volume is due out in Japan this month, so we should not have as long a wait till the next book. Till then, enjoy the most hardcore FUNA series, where anything can happen.

Pick of the Week: Mermaid Josei

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SEAN: Josei? From a magazine we almost never see anything licensed from? Complete in one volume? Sold! Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand also looks quite pretty, and is definitely my pick this week.

KATE: My thoughts exactly, Sean–done-in-one josei? With gorgeous, stylish art? And a plucky heroine? Sold! (Literally… I pre-ordered this one.)

MICHELLE: What else is there to say besides, “I concur”!

ANNA: Me too!

ASH: Ditto! (I really have been looking forward to this one and already have my pre-order in.)

MJ: Not to be predictable, but I’m going to go along with everyone else here! I’m so ready for this!

Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade, Vol. 3

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By Maito Ayamine and Cierra. Released in Japan as “Shinigami ni Sodaterareta Shoujo wa Shikkoku no Tsurugi wo Mune ni Idaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sylvia Gallagher.

I have to feel bad for the normal soldiers in this book, whose job it appears to be to get massacred, either by the antagonists or by Olivia, who is technically the protagonist but whose body count is mind-numbing. We see an entire fortress of Crimson Knights slaughtered, not as part of a military ex4ercize or in a political maneuver, but merely to show off how dangerous and powerful the new group of bad guys are. Hell, we even get a “you have a wife and twin daughters, and another on the way” comment to the guy in charge, though honestly by the time he was brutally murdered I’d forgotten about his family, who we’re never going to meet. Only the strong survive in this series, and the definition of strong gets higher all the time. The possible exception to this is Ashton, but it’s his strategy that’s monstrous in this case, so he’s entitled to have the other monsters guard him.

Olivia, Ashton and Claudia have finally gotten permission to research the name Olivia took on as her own, and why its origins and downfall are essentially missing. Sadly, they don’t have much time to do this before they’re ordered to go help the 2nd Legion, who are in a desperate battle where even having a crafty and clever commander is not helping them. Fortunately, Ashton has a plan. Also fortunately, after the war gets worse and worse, the 1st Legion finally gets the OK to leave guarding the king and go into battle – and, for once, they actually show off why they’re the first legion, as their commander is the bigger fish in the “there’s always a bigger fish” anecdote. Now that the day has been saved once again, there’s only one question remaining: how big a cake can the royal palace make for Olivia?

First of all, I would like to beg the author: please have just one “male commander and female adjutant” pairing where she’s not obviously in love with him, I beg you. Though obviously this does not apply to the rather unbalanced triangle between Olivia, Claudia and Ashton, that’s still hilarious. Secondly, most of this book is meant to show us that there’s a third side to this war, they’re the equivalent of “the Church”, and they tend towards the evil, as most Church groups do in fantasy books like this one. I was pleased to see that the Church’s resident lothario makes absolutely no headway with either of our female leads – Claudia because she can see through his bullshit, and Olivia because normal human behavior is not a thing she does. That said, the bigger danger shows up at the end of the book, and I suspect it may be that which Olivia deals with in the next volume.

Aside from the three leads, this is not a series where I recommend getting too attached to anyone in the cast. But if you don’t mind some darkness, this is a fun ride with a very odd heroine.

The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles, Vol. 2

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By Tatematsuri and Ruria Miyuki. Released in Japan as “Shinwa Densetsu no Eiyū Isekai Tan” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by James Whittaker.

This book takes its isekai and fantasy world tropes seriously. That is its best feature, but also one of its major flaws. It’s refreshing to read a straightforward military fantasy book – as I’ve noted, there’s a lot of Altina the Sword Princess in this, but it feels even more serious than that series did – and Hiro, now with his memories returned, makes a clever and overpowered protagonist who nevertheless does not need to worry about MP expense as he plans his next moves. The flaw is that this also does not really take into account the subversions that we English-speaking readers would really prefer that it did. There are slaves in this book, who are abused, conscripted, and massacred, and they are there to be mooks and nothing more. Only one of them has a name, and she turns out to be the daughter of a village chief. As for discussion of whether slavery is bad, it’s left to a “demon” character to free her. Not happy with that.

After the events of the previous book, Regis… erm, sorry, Hiro… is called to the capital, there to prove the rumors about his lineage and to get a reward. Of course, what this means in reality is that he’s now embroiled in royal politics, and all the nobles are looking at him as if he has a “50% off” sign around his neck. Fortunately, Hiro proves to be very good at judging people’s true intentions… though that doesn’t mean that he still can’t be dragged along as part of someone else’s plan, especially when they’re related to a certain red-haired princess. After this, there’s still a battle to be fought and won, and Hiro gets to prove that he’s just as able as a military tactician as he is at political maneuvering. All that said, the addition of a zlosta warrior to the enemy ranks will prove more difficult.

The cover art of the first three books very much shows this is going to be a “new girl every volume” sort of series, and indeed Liz sits out most of the first half of this book. Instead we get Hiro bonding with Aura, which I honestly preferred, mostly as they vibe with each other straight away – he even alludes to his actual identity in such a way that she can’t help but understand. We also get Rosa introduced to us, who I hope is there to show that, after the events of Book One, this will not have Hiro’s Sexual Adventures as part of the plotline – I was relieved that he rejected her incredibly forward advances. (Going to a noble party dressed in the gown we see Rosa wearing in the color pages raised both my eyebrows.) As for the rest of the book, it’s military strategy, so as usual, I have little to say.

This remains a very readable book, which is probably its best feature. If you enjoy military fantasy and royal succession drama, and don’t mind a new girl in every port, this is a series to enjoy.

Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court, Vol. 3

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By Satsuki Nakamura and Kana Yuki. Released in Japan as “Futsutsuka na Akujo dewa Gozaimasu ga: Suuguu Chouso Torikae Den” by Ichijinsha Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Tara Quinn.

In my review of the first volume, I simply didn’t like her, so didn’t talk much about Keigetsu. In the second review I liked her far more, but Reirin basically bulldozed my talking about anything else. But now it’s finally time for me to talk about Keigetsu, now that she’s finally getting a separate plotline of her own. To be fair, the book holds the reader’s hand near the end in case they missed it, pointing out that for all that Keigetsu spends her time whining, complaining, and fretting, she doesn’t run away from anything for more than a few minutes. More importantly for her future in the Court, though, Reirin notices that the amount of magical talent she has to not only bodyswap them without any complications, but do also potentially bodyswap, say, just a hand or an eye, means she has probably more power than anyone else around. She’ll need it, because there’s a new villainess in town, and I don’t mean Reirin.

Reirin and Keigetsu have bodyswapped a few minor times since the end of the second book, and nothing seems to have come of it. But things are a bit too dangerous now for any swapping to take place: the Harvest Festival will be held in the Shu lands, with Keigetsu in charge of hospitality ad also a performance to the Gods. Which is a problem being that everyone in the Shu palace is quitting. Things get worse when you go to the Shu lands themselves – a group of villagers are being riled up to kidnap and torture Keigetsu, in hopes that, because rumor has it her terribleness is the reason for recent bad weather, her murder will mean everything will improve again. All this stress, unfortunately, combined with a double dose of bullying, means Reirin and Keigetsu do bodyswap at the worst possible time. Now Reirin has to fight for her life.

This third book may also run on “who’s in what body?”, but everything has changed now that folks are aware of the possibility – in fact, it leads to many of the funniest moments in the book, as Reirin thinks that her impersonation of Keigetsu is perfect, when in fact it’s utter garbage. She also has stronger allies this time, as one of her brothers comes along for the kidnapping ride, and the Captain of the Eagle Eyes also shows up relatively quickly. Unfortunately, this is not just a matter of Reirin winning over her enemies by “doing it with a bang” – someone really wants the Shu destroyed, and they’re using people who are using other people who are using other people to do it. The cliffhanger is a double one, but for once the threat of half the cast dying of the plague is not as chilling as realizing who the new bad girl in town is.

The author again apologizes for this needing to run to two books to complete the arc. Honestly, I’m glad – this book is already very long, any longer and we’d be getting into Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere territory. Till then, please enjoy Reirin learning what it feels like to live, and Keigetsu learning what one must do to survive. Or vice versa.

Manga the Week of 2/22/23

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SEAN: February. I can’t believe I’m still in February.

ASH: It really seems like it should be over by now, doesn’t it?

SEAN: Airship starts us off. We see print volumes of Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 6 and Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 18.

And for early digital there is Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 8 (the final volume) and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 21.

Dark Horse Comics has Psycho Pass: Inspector Shinya Kogami 6 (the final volume).

ASH: I really ought to get around to giving this series a try at some point.

SEAN: DMP has the 8th Vampire Hunter D manga (it got bumped).

ASH: That doesn’t seem to be unusual for DMP these days…

SEAN: Drawn and Quarterly has a new reprint of the Kitaro anthology. This was fantastic, a wonderful representation of the series, and if you didn’t get it then, get it now. It doesn’t duplicate much content, if any, from the more recent collections.

ASH: I am so glad to see this one staying in print! I loved the first edition and am looking forward to reading the new essay included in this one.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has a giant pile. The debut is The Disowned Queen’s Consulting Detective Agency (Kandō Sareta no de Tantei-ya Hajimemasu! Jitsu wa Bōkoku no Joōda Nante Naisho Desu), from the creator of I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss. Octavia is found to be illegitimate, and swiftly disowned. Unfortunately, she has a bunch of heirlooms her old family really want. But she doesn’t care: she’s going to become a detective!

MICHELLE: I’m always tempted by anything that might have a mystery element.

ASH: They can be fun!

SEAN: Also out next week: Gushing over Magical Girls 5, Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ 2, I Shall Survive Using Potions! 8, Infinite Dendrogram 19, the third Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World light novel, the third Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World manga, My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer 7, My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! 13, the 7th manga volume of My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! —AΩ—, Outbreak Company Gaiden (the final volume), Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back to My World Whenever I Want! 2, Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I’m Gonna Tell Her How I Feel! 9, and The World’s Least Interesting Master Swordsman 9.

ASH: That is quite the pile!

SEAN: Kodansha debuts, in print, The Great Cleric, a series it had been releasing digital-only. It’s Reincarnated In Another World As a Cleric, and is on the more serious end of the isekai spectrum.

Also debuting is the one-shot Sweet Poolside, another Shuzo Oshimi title that ran in Young Magazine back in 2004. Two swimmers have similar but opposite problems. A boy is ashamed he has no body hair. A girl is ashamed she has too much. She then asks him to shave her. This is apparently less dark than other Oshimi titles.

ASH: It certainly still sounds a lot like an Oshimi title, though!

SEAN: Also in print: Blue Lock 5, Fire Force 31, Flying Witch 11, Go! Go! Loser Ranger! 3, Grand Blue Dreaming 18 (it got bumped), Last Gender 2, Miss Miyazen Would Love to Get Closer to You 3, Run Away With Me, Girl 2, and Shangri-La Frontier 4.

ANNA: My kids are Blue Lock fans, so I’ve pre-ordered this!

ASH: That’s a solid recommendation, then!

SEAN: Digitally we see Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You 5, Beast #6 3 (the final volume), The Café Terrace and its Goddesses 5, Changes of Heart 9 (the final volume), The Full-Time Wife Escapist 11 (also a final volume, unless they license the guidebook, which I doubt), Gamaran 6, Golden Gold 9, HIRAETH -The End of the Journey- 3 (also a final volume), Medalist 6, This Vampire Won’t Give Up! 4, Ya Boy Kongming! 10, and You’re My Cutie 5.

MICHELLE: I’ll definitely be reading The Full-Time Wife Escapist and am working on catching up with Medalist, too.

ANNA: I need to read both!

SEAN: One Peace Books has the 2nd manga volume of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic.

From Seven Seas, we get CALL TO ADVENTURE! Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board 5, Classroom of the Elite 5, Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk 3, Futari Escape 2, I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl 2, Kemono Jihen 4, Reincarnated as a Sword: Another Wish 3, and Time Stop Hero 6.

Titan Books has a 3rd volume of ATOM: The Beginning.

New titles from Tokyopop. The Flower That Seems to Truly Dance (Makotoshiyaka ni Mau Hana wa) is a BL title from Canna, about a young man trying to find someone at the outbreak of World War II. It’s a one-shot.

MICHELLE: Gotta say, that setting really does appeal to me.

ANNA: I remain steadfast in my resolve to not read things from this publisher.

SEAN: SCRAMBLUES (Bokura no Scramblues) is a BL title from Canna, about the relationship between a popular musician and a graphics designer. It’s a one-shot.

The Snake Who Loved a Sparrow (Suzu Hebi Kyuuairon) is a BL title from Canna, and it’s, well, about the love between a snake and a sparrow. It’s also explicit. And a one-shot.

There is also a 6th volume of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, which is from Comic Corona, not Canna, and is also not BL, per the author, though I’d argue it’s for BL fans.

Viz has a big debut with Choujin X, the new title from the creator of Tokyo Ghoul. A young man, trying to fight against injustice, injects himself with a drug that turns him into a powerful creature. Can he keep this a secret?

Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand (Aoi Uroko to Suna no Machi) is a josei title from You, about a girl and her father moving to a rural town to start over, a town which reminds her of her childhood… when she was saved by a merman? This is complete in one omnibus.

ANNA: I was getting worried that there might not be much for me this week, but I’m intrigued by this.

SEAN: I have heard that Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand is REALLY good. Also, how often do we get anything from You? Maybe if this sells we can get Gokusen.

ASH: I am likewise intrigued and have heard good things!

SEAN: Also from Viz: Golden Kamuy 28, Hayate the Combat Butler 41, Mission: Yozakura Family 3, Rooster Fighter 3, Twin Star Exorcists 27, The Way of the Househusband 9, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead 9.

ASH: I need to get caught up with Househusband; I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far immensely.

Yen On debuts Hirano and Kagiura, a light novel side story to Sasaki and Miyano. By the way, if you read the Hirano and Kagiura manga, this is a separate story taking place six months before that.

It also has Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian 2, The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten 5, Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World 2, Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense 8, The Bride of Demise 3 (the final volume), Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle 3, Date a Live 8, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 18, Magical Girl Raising Project 15, A Sister’s All You Need 14 (the final volume), and You Call That Service? 7 (the final volume).

Yen Press debuts Assorted Entanglements (Fusoroi no Renri), a yuri series from Comic Newtype. It’s an anthology! Sometimes. It’s a series of interconnected stories! Sometimes.

ASH: Hmmm.

SEAN: The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices (Watashi wa Gotsugou Shugi na Kaiketsu Tantou no Oujo de aru) is a manga adaptation from Flos Comic of the light novel Yen also releases. It’s a good reincarnated villainess story, if only as, while our heroine tries to change her fate, she may accidentally be making things worse.

ASH: I haven’t read the original light novel, but I still like that title.

And they have, in digital-only form, Rose Guns Days Sorrowful Cross Knife (Rose Guns Days – Aishuu no Cross Knife), a side story to the main Rose Guns Days series focusing on Wayne.

There is also SOTUS. From Kadokawa’s Ciel and based on a Thai webnovel. Have you ever wanted to have ritualized hazing and bullying be super sexy? This book’s for you.

MICHELLE: …

ANNA: No thank you!

SEAN: And Yen Press also has Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple 2, Chained Soldier 3, Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie 3, Daughter of the Emperor 3, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 13, The Detective Is Already Dead 4, Final Fantasy Lost Stranger 8, Hinowa Ga CRUSH! 7, The Holy Grail of Eris 3, Mint Chocolate 7, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Chapter 4: The Sanctuary and the Witch of Greed 5, Reign of the Seven Spellblades 5, Sasaki and Miyano 7, School-Live! Letters (a one-shot sequel to the original manga), Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 17, Uncle from Another World 6, Unnamed Memory 2, The Wolf Never Sleeps 3, The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat 4, and The World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker 5.

ASH: That’s quite the pile, too!

SEAN: I miss when Yen delayed everything so they had ten titles per week rather than 40 in the same week. What are you getting?

The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, Vol. 6

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By Bisu and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo wa Kyou mo Hata o Tatakioru” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Esther Sun.

As I got near the end of this volume, with the appearance of one of the characters I least expected to see, I began to realize that everything about this series makes complete sense if you just remember one fact: everyone in the book hates themselves. Now, sometimes this is obvious. Rosemary has humility as deep as the oceans, as high as the sky, to the point where it’s her biggest flaw. But everyone else, when you dig down into their psyche, also seems to suffer from crippling self-loathing and self-doubt. Even Kanon, the otome game heroine who finally gets summoned in this volume, arrives with a heaping helping of “why me?” that does not go away, though events help to reinforce her worries. Hell, even the CAT probably hates himself. The only, bright, sunny confident person in this volume dies only a little ways into it. That said… this is not a giant depressing. bleak read. Though it’s a downer to an extent.

We pick up right where we left off last time, and unfortunately events do not play out with a last-minute reprieve or God being kind. Now back home again, Rosemary has to deal with trying to live up to her father’s theoretical expectations (which are very different in her head from his ACTUAL expectations), the puzzling fact that everyone seems to lose their composure when she’s around them (especially the men), and of course the small problem of the game’s story starting up early, which means that they’re using ancient untested magic to summon a girl from Japan, who can hopefully be the one to contain the demon lord. All this plus mooning over Sir Leonhart. That said, things actually end up going pretty well… until an assassination attempt manages to screw everything up.

First off, I seem to have lost track of how much time all of this is taking, and somewhere along these six books Rosemary has aged 5 years. Since she’s now 15, and will be “an adult” in this book’s world in 6 months, I will try to complain a bit less about every single man in the cast except her father being in love with her. I do think that it’s laid on a bit thick, frankly, but that is kind of the genre of these sorts of romance books, and so I mostly have to sigh and let the flowery prose wash over me. The most interesting part of the book was near the end, where Rosemary’s near-death experience manages to get her mother, who has spent the entire series avoiding her, to her side. Fans of Endo and Kobayashi Live! might find some similarities here, as it turns out that her mother is merely very awkward and bad at love and emotions – a habit she shares with her husband, who admittedly is nicer to his daughter in this book than in the previous five books combined.

There’s two more volumes in this series to go, so I suspect next time we’ll get the darkness before the dawn. Till then, I am enjoying this book about all these sad little royals who have absolutely no idea how to un-sad themselves.