Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Sean Gaffney

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Vol. 6

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By MOJIKAKIYA and toi8. Released in Japan as “Boukensha ni Naritai to Miyako ni Deteitta Musume ga S-Rank ni Natteta” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

At the start of this book Belgrieve is preparing to go and search for his old comrades, and by the end of the book he has only JUST set off to do so. That’s not to say that nothing happens in this volume, there’s actually quite a big threat. But this series is content to take its time with its ongoing plots, and the author freely admits we’re only about halfway done. What this means is that the first half is very slow life and leisurely, as our extended family are back in the country and farming and fishing… along with teaching the town how to fight, and sparring with the occasional adventurer who came along because, well, they’re all legends. If you’re wondering what stops them from going on their trip right away, well, the trees are on the march, and they’re not nice trees. They’re after Mit, and will do anything to get him, even if it means destroying the town.

Mit is theoretically an interesting character, and I hope gets a bit more to do after “growing up” a bit post-crisis at the end of this book, but unfortunately the lack of interiority and the suddenness of this growing up means he still falls far more on the “plot device” end of the spectrum, especially when compared to someone like Charlotte. It’s mentioned a couple times how he and Ange look like siblings, which of course is meant to remind the reader of Ange’s demon heritage, but I wish the growth in Mit had been handled better. On the bright side, we do get a new character in this volume, and she’s a tsundere! That said, she’s also a sword. Graham’s sword ends up with Bell by the end of this book, and can also speak to Ange and Graham (though not Bell), and I find her amusing.

Where the book is strongest is in the horror aspect this time around, as the moving trees are scary, and while we don’t see it actively take any lives in the present, we see the spirits of those they have killed in the past, and they’re also pretty scary, as the “please avenge us!” spirit can rapidly become “…by dying!” if you aren’t quick enough. The party all gets a lot of cool fighting to do, but (of course) the big final kill is saved for Belgrieve, who even has to temporarily give up his pegleg in order to get the job done. Frankly, by the end of the fight you’ll be inclined to agree with Ange about the coolness of her father. There’s also an excellent short story calling back to the first book, where Mit and Charlotte, both still scared of the woods after the events in the main volume, are taken by Ange to see the spirit fire. It shows how much father has taught daughter, and I really enjoyed it.

This is a solid series, and continues to have no romance at all, it’s a pure family story. Recommended for that alone.

Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back Whenever I Want!, Vol. 1

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By Hiiro Shimotsuki and Takashi Iwasaki. Released in Japan as “Itsudemo Jitaku ni Kaereru Ore wa, Isekai de Gyōshōnin o Hajimemashita” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Berenice Vourdon.

You frequently hear grumbling from light novel fans – the hardcore ones, of course, not the filthy casuals – about why so many isekai titles are licensed every single year over here, much in the same way that I imagine ten years ago everyone went “oh man, another Alice in the Country of _________” manga?”. But the answer is pretty basic: people buy them and people read them, and then they want more. If you go to AO3, you’ll tend to find that the most popular fanfics in the big genres are not doing something wildly innovative and different, they’re doing something that’s exactly the same as all the other popular fanfics, only with variations. It’s true comfort reading. You don’t have to worry as you read them. Peddler from Another World may be so unoriginal I wondered if an AI had written it, but it was well-written enough to have me finish it, grudgingly declare it decent, and want to read another. That’s all you can ask.

There are two types of male isekai protagonists, and Shiro Amata is the second one; not a high school kid, but a salaryman who just quit his job working for a “black company”. He’s now staying at his late grandmother’s place, after she disappeared seven years earlier and was declared dead. There, among her things, he finds a letter explaining what really happened – she’s from a fantasy world, something she hid from her family. Now Shiro too can journey to that fantasy world, and come back to Japan whenever he likes. Armed with two killer abilities – the usual infinite storage, plus the ability to convert fantasy money into Japanese yen and vice versa – he ends up in a town out in the boonies, and becomes a merchant, selling things that fantasy worlds need but don’t have – like matches.

First, I want to mention that I suspect the illustrator drew all the color pages in this volume before reading the book, as neither the cover nor the interior color illustrations match up with ANY of the scenes within. Secondly, it can be hilarious how derivative this series is. The matches merely got a shrug from me, and the “evil guy who is evil because villains in isekais are always 100% evil” made me sigh, but when we got to the cause of a woman’s deadly wasting disease, I groaned, because it’s the same disease it always is in these books. That said, the book is very readable. Shiro is a “nice guy”, but has a bit of a dark side to him, as we find out towards the end of the book. He also has at least three possible love interests at the end of the first book, as well as a girl who may as well be an adopted daughter. (The only reason I know this wasn’t written by an AI is that if it was, the little girl would be the one with the cat ears.) There are a few “oh anime no” tropes, such as the mayor’s large breasts, which get referred to quite a bit, but, I mean, you’re reading a light novel.

If you like reading slow life isekai, and want more of the same, this is a good choice. There is little to no sexual assault or slavery, and the little girl really is very cute. Just don’t expect surprises.

Pick of the Week: Last Picks Before Xmas

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SEAN: There are two wolves fighting inside me. One wants to appreciate tougher, more realistic manga and is interested in the debut of Run Away with Me, Girl, which has been politely described as “heavy”. The other wolf is going “the first new Railgun manga in 18 months? Score!”.

KATE: I’ve recently been re-watching Seinfeld, and saw the episode where George can’t stop singing “Master of the house, doling out the charm/Ready with a handshake and an open palm.” Therefore, my pick of the week *has* to be Les Misérables. Sorry, I don’t make the rules…

MICHELLE: Heavy or not, Run Away with Me, Girl really does have the majority of my attention this week, so I’ll go with that this time.

ASH: I’ll admit, Run Away with Me, Girl is definitely the debut that has caught my eye this week, too. But, I also want to give Sweat and Soap a shout out—I was late to reading the series myself, but it really is a great one.

The Tatami Galaxy

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By Tomihiko Morimi and Yusuke Nakamura. Released in Japan as “Yojōhan Shinwa Taikei” by Ohta Shuppan. Released in North America by HarperVia. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

I was not having a good weekend when I read this book, and was perhaps a bit grumpy going in. Morimi has always been very hit-and-miss for me, and the sliding scale has depended on how much of his books are narrated by a pretentious but also pathetic college student, so I was not expecting much. The book gradually won me over, though, because it’s also filled with the things I do like about Morimi, especially his tendency to make places into characters. As with many of his other books, there are many refer4ences to (I assume) real-life streets and neighborhoods that the characters walk up and down, but it also extends to the four-and-a-half Tatami room that the main character lives in. The first 2/3 of this book could read like a normal novel with an odd time travel bent to it, but the fourth chapter goes all in on being uncanny, and explores the dangers of staying too far inside your own head. In addition, all the characters except the lead are great.

The book is narrated by an unnamed college student, who looks exactly like all college students do in books like this. He’s in his third year of college and drifting, with his only “friend” being Ozu, who feels more like a partner in crime than anything else, and is described by the narrator as looking like an oni. (The anime, which I haven’t seen, apparently takes this and runs with it.) He used to be in a film club, but got thrown out for basically being too much of a dick. There’s also a girl, Akashi, who he met at a bookstore and who seems to get along with him. Despite this, he has no girlfriend and his life is going nowhere. Then he meets a self-proclaimed God and a fortune-telling old woman, who between the two of them seem to send him on a series of what-ifs that show that choices may not matter as much as we think.

This got a VERY popular and influential anime, which I haven’t seen, so I definitely wanted to give it a shot. I ended up liking it more than not liking it. The protagonist is irritating, but of course that’s by design, and we’re not meant to like him that much at first. Ozu is the sort of wonderful character that you never, ever want to meet in real life, and Akashi, frankly, has the patience of a saint. The book has four chapters, each of which start with him deciding to join a different “club” in school, and those changes are reflected in what happens, though he seems to end up at the same resolution no matter what. After the final chapter, which is also probably the best chapter, I am hoping that he has managed to find some perspective, though Akashi can probably help him out. I also hope Ozu knows that he is being sent on a trip with a bunch of identical-to-the-serial-number 1000-yen bills.

If you’re a fan of the author, this is of course a must read. If you aren’t, try to power through it anyway, as it works best when you let the prose and locale wash over you. Also, is the dental hygienist in this the same one as in Penguin Highway?

Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I’m Gonna Tell Her How I Feel!, Vol. 8

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By Rhythm Aida and nauribon. Released in Japan as “Buta Koushaku ni Tensei shita kara, Kondo wa Kimi ni Suki to Iitai” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Zihan Gao.

I’m starting to give up on Charlotte doing anything, and I think the author is as well. Her function here is to a) have a comedy side plot where she tries to fatten Slowe up again because she’s worried other girls will thrown themselves at him now, and b) be a mirror to the new girl who’s on the cover, who actually is important. And then there’s the cliffhanger, which implies that Book 9 is going to be all about Slowe and Alicia rather than Slowe and Charlotte. It is annoying because, after 7 books of waiting to see these two idiots finally confess to each other, it feels like Charlotte no longer has a function in the story. They’re still keeping her status secret, and the main “plot” of the anime has wrapped itself up, so… guess she’s just there. Instead, we get a one-shot plot that feels like a placeholder.

The first half of the book, frankly, drags. The main plot is that Prince Neon is at the school in order to, supposedly, make friends – something so obviously false that it makes everyone uncomfortable, especially as the Prince is trying to act all buddy-buddy and getting too handsy with other girls. He also has a retainer, of course, named Suz, who is stoic but also seems to be incredibly obsessed with her charge. She’s also ridiculously strong, to the point that Slowe is beginning to wonder if something is up. Something *is* up, of course, but we’ll have to wait till after the world’s most annoying dungeon crawl to find out why, as for some reason the one person Prince Neon is really interested in is Shuya, who he seems to be trying to drive insane… or trying to stop it, we can’t be sure.

Fortunately, the second half of this volume is much better than the first once we actually start getting answers. Prince Neon is meant to be a very close analogue to Slowe himself, which of course makes Suz Charlotte, as she is also a retainer in love with her master and possessed of a secret no one must know. This is handled quite well, and I also liked the final fight, which sees Slowe kick ass, but not in a way that makes him seem OP. He still contrasts very well with Shuya, who is the protagonist of the anime and cannot stop acting like an anime protagonist, even as everyone around him says he’s too soft. Shuya actually gets a leg up on Slowe here, who is so busy trying to avoid whatever is going on with Prince Neon that he misses a lot of the danger signs. And while I want to leave the villains of the piece a spoiler, they’re very good “you know they’re not a recurring thing” villains.

So a middling volume of Piggy Duke this time… which I think I’ve said a few too many times before. We’ll see if focusing on Alicia rather than Charlotte helps things any next time.

Bookshelf Briefs 12/16/22

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Blue Box, Vol. 1 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media – Sports manga always sell well in Japan, and high school romantic comedies are also popular. So why not combine the two in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump? The sports series can’t ALL be driven by BL fandom, after all. Blue Box stars Chinatsu, a high school first year who’s the star of the basketball team, and Taiki, a junior high third year who has a massive crush on her… and is also on the badminton team. The romcom part starts when, due to circumstances, Chinatsu moves in with Taiki’s family. That said, the sports is not a supporting part of the series, and Taiki’s badminton games take up just as much time. I’d like to see more of Chinatsu, but it is only the first volume. A promising start. – Sean Gaffney

Blue Box, Vol. 1 | By Kouji Miura | VIZ Media – Taiki Inomata and Chinatsu Kano attend a school with a powerhouse sports program. Taiki, who is on the badminton team, has feelings for Chinatsu, a talented basketball star who is good enough to have been featured in magazines. When plot contrivances force Chinatsu to move in with Taiki’s family for the duration of high school, I inwardly groaned but should’ve had more faith. Instead of ecchi shenanigans, we get scenes where they talk about their goals and share support for each other’s dreams. I really like that Taiki is such an honorable dude. He works hard, he embraces challenges, and he communicates clearly to resolve misunderstandings. Even when he frets that Chinatsu may be especially close to his main rival on the badminton team, he never wants to use her as an excuse for when he loses. These are good kids and I look forward to the next volume! – Michelle Smith

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 4 | By Nene Yukimori | Viz Media – One thing that separates a title like this from its teasing relatives such as Takagi-san is that Kubo actually seems to be the more immature one. Yes, she’s trying to coax him out of his shell, and her teasing works wonders, but you can tell that it takes a lot out of her and she’s profoundly embarrassed by her own feelings most of the time. Shiraishi not only drinks coffee (in the funniest chapter in the book), but his muted responses sometimes hide that he’s more with it when it comes to this sort of thing. Of course, he has other issues that hold him back as well. The two of them make a good couple not just because they’re cute together, but because they bring out each other’s best side. – Sean Gaffney

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 27 | By Yuki Midorikawa | Viz Media – When it comes to long-running semi-plotless anthology series like Natsume’s Book of Friends, characterization is mostly static. You aren’t going to see Natsume suddenly get a girlfriend (or boyfriend), and the series will no doubt end, whenever it does, with his finishing the one thing that drives the plot—giving everyone’s name back. So it was a surprise to see Chobi, who has been around since the start of things, have a second, unseen side to him that we’re only uncovering now. This is especially interesting given his yokai background, but it fits in well with Natsume’s Book of Friends, where the yokai aren’t really connected with famous stories, but actual characters. Always good. – Sean Gaffney

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You, Vol. 4 | By Rikito Nakamura and Yukiko Nozawa | Ghost Ship The new volume does not quite have the audience-alienating partner the previous one did. We get a girl who is constantly hungry, and also constantly angry, which is relatively normal. We also get Hahari’s maid, who never opens her eyes, because those types of characters never open their eyes. We also see some truly heartwarming moments, usually involving Rentarou and the girls, but also things like Nano admitting how much she cares for the other girls as friends. That said, this is still a Ghost Ship series, not for nudity so much as the constant horniness, with the ending gag implying both mother and daughter getting a bit TOO excited. Not with each other, thankfully. – Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 47 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – It’s rare that we see crossovers between shoujo titles over here in English, and when we do we run the danger that the other series is unlicensed in North America. This volume, though, not only has a character who is dressed like Sinha from Yona of the Dawn (complete with squirrel) as part of an event when every chapter of Hana to Yume that issue had the squirrel somewhere in there, but also features an insanely hot piece of art at the end with Moko dressed up as Jaeha, something which made me fan my face a bit. It’s clear that Nakamura is a big fan of Yona—well, the two series are pretty much the face of the magazine now (please forget about Yami no Matsuei). As for the plot of this book… I’m sure Michelle will tell you about it. – Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 47 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media – Happy to oblige! This volume is not exactly filler, as it does get the ball rolling on a new project Ren might be part of, but it’s certainly a step back from the romantic intensity of recent volumes as Kyoko and Moko go to an amusement park and “quite by chance” end up accompanying an American lady who is, of course, more than she seems. Meanwhile, Ren and his pretend lover agree to continue their charade for the press in order to protect the ones they really care about. Thankfully, I like the story and characters enough to find even exposition entertaining, though I must agree with Sean that the absolute highlight is the ridiculously hawt illustration of Moko dressed as Jaeha. – Michelle Smith

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, Vol. 19 | By Kagiji Kumanomata | Viz Media After answering “how old is Princess Syali?” last volume, there’s an arc here that tries to emphasize that, when the princess, mistaking a demon for her father, suddenly goes into hyper work mode, complete with business suit and half-glasses. This suggests disturbing things about her relationship with her father, but fortunately the result seems to be more “she feels guilty lazing around while seeing him working” than any actual abuse. As for the rest, the series loves its metatext, the best of which this time is the Princess Syalis body pillow. Which, fortunately, is not nude on the back, because while Syalis may be an adult, she’s still drawn in chibi mode most of the time. – Sean Gaffney

An Introvert’s Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me!, Vol. 1

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By Yuishi and Kagachisaku. Released in Japan as “Inkya no Boku ni Batsu Game de Kokuhaku Shitekita Hazu no Gal ga, Dō Mitemo Boku ni Beta Bore Des” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Satoko Kakihara.

I suspect most readers of this site are familiar with the concept of a visual novel, and the ones that feature romance or sexual content tend to get called “eroge”. The usual premise is that you play a faceless high school… erm, college, sorry, of course everyone’s over 18… boy who, depending on the choices he makes, can score with one of 5-6 different women… or get a “bad end” when you screw up and get none of them. A lot of fans like to wait until there’s a walkthrough. They’re not here for the gaming part of it. They’re here to read the story and see our hero get it on. I don’t need the bad choices, I only need the one correct choice each scene to advance the story. If you took that concept and made it a light novel, it would be this one. We are here to see sweet romcom, and no mistakes will be made.

Yoshin is, as the title might suggest, a quiet introvert, not an otaku type but one who naturally lurks in the back of class and goes home on his own. One day he returns to the classroom after school to get something he forgot and overhears the class’s three “gyaru” girls playing a game… with a penalty dare. The loser, Nanami, has to ask Yoshin on a date, and date him for a month. They don’t spot Yoshin, who quickly goes home and does what any other red blooded high school introvert would do: he hops on the internet and asks his gaming buddies, who consist of 1) confident adult guy with good advice (that he says he just looked up on Google) and 2) teenage girl who clearly has a crush on him telling him to reject her at once. He does not, though, and he and Nanami start to date. And, by an amazing series of coincidences, they fall for each other almost instantly! Is this some sort of manga or something?

As I hinted above, the flaw in this series is that everything goes ridiculously well for Yoshin. Despite being an introvert, having a poor self-image, and only having black clothes, he’s kind, listens to others, and can be incredibly confident when he wants to. As for Nanami, she’s a shy big-breasted gyaru with no experience dating men and she has a secret side that wears glasses and looks more frumpy. In other words, she’s practically a walking fetish. But she’s nice, and sweet, and overenthusiastic, and possibly a bit naive. The series manages to work on pure charm, and also because it embraces the ridiculousness of its premise. (Nanami has two friends. One is dating her stepbrother, the other is dating a guy 12 years older than her. They both sound like they need spinoffs.) Even meeting her parents goes well, mostly as these two are never going to have sex even if they are already practically proposing marriage.

If you want realism, look elsewhere. If you want a sweet romcom where everyone acts like they stepped off the screen of Kimi Ga Nozumo Eien, this will do fine. And it’s only four volumes, which seems just about right.

Manga the Week of 12/21/22

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SEAN: We’re in the last few days before Christmas, who’s coming down the chimney?

Yen On has an 11th volume of The Saga of Tanya the Evil.

I missed two Viz titles last week because they insist on alphabetizing ‘The’. So we got the print debut of The Hunters Guild: Red Hood, a Shonen Jump title about werewolf hunters, as well as Yakuza Lover 7.

ASH: Those leading articles will get ya every time.

For titles actually coming out next week, we get Alice in Borderland 4, Jujutsu Kaisen 18, Mission: Yozakura Family 2, No Guns Life 13 (the final volume), One Piece Color Walk Compendium: New World to Wano (the latest artbook), and Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 2.

Udon Entertainment has Devil May Cry 5: Official Artworks. Which is a $55 hardcover. I suppose it would be cheaper if you were guaranteed the devil crying.

ASH: Udon does tend to have pretty good production values, fortunately.

SEAN: Tokyopop gives us Futaribeya: A Room for Two 9 and On or Off 2.

From Square Enix we see the debut of The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses (Suki na Ko ga Megane wo Wasureta), another in the hot new genre of “adorably sweet school romance” that runs in Gangan Joker.

They also have The Apothecary Diaries 7 and My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World! 4.

ASH: I really need to get caught up on The Apothecary Diaries.

SEAN: Seven Seas does not know the meaning of the words “Christmas break”. They have the debut of LES MISÉRABLES in an omnibus edition (the first two volumes), which ran in Shogakukan’s Gessan. It is, as you can imagine, an adaptation of the Hugo novel. The artist is better known here for the Cirque du Freak manga.

The other debut is My Cute Little Kitten, the latest yuri title from the creator of Girl Friends, Morinaga Milk. Two roommates have to deal with budding feelings, obliviousness, and a cute kitten.

ASH: Oh! That should be an enjoyable combination!

MJ: Agreed!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Bite Maker: The King’s Omega 6, A Certain Scientific Railgun 17, COLORLESS 3, The Duke of Death and His Maid 4, Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 5, The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún – [dear.] Side Stories (the 12th and final volume), Hello, Melancholic! 3 (the final volume) (it got bumped), The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 7, Kageki Shojo!! 7, The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today 5, Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious 8, Plus-Sized Elf 8 (the final volume), School Zone Girls 4, Slow Life In Another World (I Wish!) 4, and Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan 7.

MICHELLE: I never actually finished The Girl from the Other Side. Seems like now’s the time!

ASH: I’ve started recollecting the series in the lovely hardcover edition, but I will probably go ahead and pick this volume up, too.

ANNA: I so need to get caught up too. Also need to get caught up on Kageki Shojo!!.

SEAN: And on the Danmei end we see Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu 5.

One Peace has I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School 6.

Kodansha Comics debuts Run Away With Me, Girl (Kakeochi Girl), a josei yuri series from Hatsu Kiss. Two girls date in high school but one breaks up with the other at graduation. Now, 10 years later, she’s engaged to be married… but everything about her relationship looks bad. Can her old lover do anything to help?

MICHELLE: This sounds promising!

ASH: I agree!

ANNA: I’m curious!

MJ: So here for this.

SEAN: They also have a box set of the first 6 volumes of Sweat and Soap. If you haven’t read this yet, I urge you to give it a try, it’s wonderful.

ASH: It really, really is.

SEAN: Also in print, we get Blue Lock 4, Die Wergelder 3, Fire Force 30, Rent-a-Girlfriend 16, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie 11, Something’s Wrong with Us 12, and Toppu GP 10.

ASH: It seem like it’s been a long time since the last volume of Die Wergelder came out… goodness, it’s been almost four years!

SEAN: Digitally, we see the debut of Beast #6, a Weekly Shonen Magazine series about an agent who’s assigned to a backwater town. How can she destroy supernatural monsters here? Good news, it’s not only a hotbed of activity, but has a Boy With A Secret (TM)…

We also get The Café Terrace and its Goddesses 3, Gamaran 4, Golden Gold 7, GTO Paradise Lost 19, Nina the Starry Bride 8, Piano Duo for the Left Hand 6, Sakura’s Dedication 3, and She, Her Camera, and Her Seasons 5 (the final volume).

MICHELLE: Dang, over already.

ANNA: I’m really enjoying Nina the Starry Bride.

SEAN: Two digital light novel debuts for J-Novel Club. Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ (Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game) is a high school romcom about a college senior, regretting all his choices, suddenly finding himself traveling back to the start of high school. Can he really get a do-over?

The other debut is The Invincible Little Lady (Dōyara Watashi no Karada wa Kanzen Muteki no Yō Desu ne), which seems to be the inverse of Make My Abilities Average… a sickly young girl, on her deathbed, wishes to be strong in her next life… and ends up getting something FAR beyond what she meant!

Also from J-Novel Club: Black Summoner 11, I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! 5, My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex 5, Redefining the META at VRMMO Academy 6 (the final volume), The Saga of Lioncourt 3, Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 21, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Wayward Journey 20 (the final volume), and When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace 5.

Ghost Ship has 2.5 Dimensional Seduction 4 and World’s End Harem 13, which begins the After World arc.

Cross Infinite World has The Drab Princess, the Black Cat, and the Satisfying Break-up 2.

ASH: How satisfying is it?

MJ: I guess it’s satisfying times 2.

SEAN: Airship, in print, has How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 15.

And there are early digital volumes. Adachi and Shimamura 10, Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut 3, and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 20.

Happy Holidays from Manga the Week of!

The Ideal Sponger Life, Vol. 9

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By Tsunehiko Watanabe and Jyuu Ayakura. Released in Japan as “Risou no Himo Seikatsu” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by MPT.

For the most part, one of the big reasons that Zenjirou has been so successful in the political nightmare that is his new world is that he doesn’t have the ingrained reactions that anyone brought up there would. He tends to react like a Japanese person from Earth would. (I’d say “normal”, but honestly, Zenjirou’s not all that normal even to begin with.) This serves him well for a lot of this book, as attempting to negotiate with him is like hitting a brick wall much of the time because his body language and verbal questioning are so far off the range from everyone else. Unfortunately this can also be a negative, as Aura quickly points out at the end of the book,. Threatening Zenjirou’s son, even mildly as a political feint, earns his enmity, and a canny person will realize that this is a very valuable button to press. Fortunately, there’s more good than bad here, as Zenjirou accidentally on purpose gets involved in a throne war in the Twin Kingdoms.

Zenjirou is in the Twin Kingdoms to try to negotiate for a healer to be present during the birth of his second child. Unfortunately for him, while greeting him, King Bruno drops the bomb that he’s planning to abdicate in favor of his successor. The obvious choice is the eldest son, who is 49 years old but has basically trained for this. The dark horse is his youngest son, who is in his thirties and seems to be very upset about the abdication. But is that really what’s going on? And how on Earth does this tie in with Prince Francesco, who just wants to sit around and dabble in magic tools his entire life but who ends up being seen as the second coming by some groups? And, perhaps most important of all, how can Zenjirou get the latest in his succession of love interests off the cover art?

As always, the title and premise are a lie. There’s no harem seeking, and certainly no sponging here. Indeed, Lucretia strikes out with Zenjirou over and over until the middle of the book, when it becomes clear he’s not looking for a lover but a political helpmate – something that, frankly, she’s much better at doing. As for the Twin Kingdoms themselves, the plotline we get here is well thought out and handled, although I thought that Zenjirou hearing about a certain monster and immediately making a logical leap to a breathtaking new magical tool was perhaps one OP move too many, in a series when all the OP moves are intellect-based rather than fighting-based. Oh well, I should probably consider myself lucky he doesn’t sample any of the young hot single women who all essentially proposition him in this book, though they all have their own agendas.

So yes, no sex in this book, but as noted before, in this book the politics IS sex. And we still haven’t left the twin kingdoms, as there’s the other half to negotiate with. We’ll see that next time.

Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness, Vol. 4

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By Ameko Kaeruda and Sencha. Released in Japan as “Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu ” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Nathan Macklem.

This is the final volume of the series, and it has the strengths and weaknesses of previous volumes. The Elder Dragon is immensely powerful and also a pretty good guy, so any character development and angst comes from outside of that. Olivia is the same, only she doesn’t even get the character development. They’re meant to be “aw, look at the cute daddy and daughter” with an OP twist, and that works well, but they’re nothing more than that. They work best contrasting with whatever fractured familial unit we see in this particular volume, and we get that here as well. This is the final volume of the series, and it does have an ending of sorts, but the ending is very much “more of the same only Olivia is older now”. She’s rescuing other kids like her, who had bad home lives. Which is great, but the solution seems to be “:leave them all with daddy, it worked for me”.

Having obtained five of the seven Supreme Hallows, they’ve decided that that’s enough to do the ritual that will drain the built-up magic within the hallows. Unfortunately, the ritual is invaded by Vandilsen, a seemingly immortal wizard who proceeds to steal the five Hallows with the help of what he carries, the 6th. Fortunately, as it turns out, the Elder Dragon has had the 7th all this time without realizing it, and that can help them locate the other six. And so it’s time for Dragon and Daughter to go on a camping holiday, clearly… mostly as it turns out that Vandilsen is quite a long ways away, across the sea and in a foreign country that is now lifeless and arid due to having all the magic sucked out of it. Why does Vandilsen want the Hallows? And who’s the young boy they find on the beach unconscious?

A great number of the plots to Dragon Daddy Diaries have been about how to find the right level of protectiveness when being a parent. Don’t smother, don’t be too hands-off. Here we also get the added lesson of “listen to what they’re actually telling you, not what you want to hear”, as Vandilsen is literally killing himself in order to save the life of his adopted son, even if that’s not remotely what the son wants. This does, admittedly, help the Elder Dragon to have a brief crisis of conscience, as he becomes more aware of the fact that Olivia is going to get older and die while he remains the same. That said, Olivia is having none of this “let’s stay immortal forever” business, even though she’s spent her entire life in a family consisting of people over a thousand years old. She’s got a good head on her shoulders, even if that’s dramatically lacking.

This was a cute series and an easy read. That said, I’m almost positive it would never have been licensed if it had not been for the huge buzz around Sexiled, the author’s other work. Family-oriented fluff.

A Tale of the Secret Saint, Vol. 4

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka. Adapted by Matthew Birkenhauer.

I’ve talked before about how this series frequently can’t decide if it’s just pure comedy or if it has true tragedy embedded within it, but in one way it definitely fills the comedy mode, and that’s because the reader is left wondering, after four volumes, how long Fia can possibly be able to keep her reincarnation a secret given how absolutely lousy she is at hiding anything about it? The difficulty is that this is half of the humor (the other half just being Fia in general, unrelated to her past). So I suspect the answer is “it will get revealed right before the series comes to an end”, and it’s still ongoing as both a webnovel and a light novel. So this means I will have to put up with the fact that it is increasingly unbelievable that no one else picks up on this except the OTHER guy who has reincarnated memories. I mean, that’s the gag. It’s just a really belabored gag.

We pick up right where we left off 2/3 of the way through Book 3 (which is to say the end of the main plot), with Fia having to deal with the fact that her former bodyguard from her previous life, Canopus, has regained his memories and is now Captain Kurtis of the Thirteenth knights. Fortunately, he seems willing to go along with whatever she says. UN-fortunately, that’s because he’s just as obsessed with her sainthood as the rest of the Sutherland people, if not more. Things are not helped by the fact of Fia constantly accidentally doing Saint things while completely failing to realize they’re abnormal. The third volume was about the drama that surrounded Cyril and his homeland, but this volume is surrounded by an utter LACK of drama. With Fia around, everything’s fine.

Despite my grousing in the first paragraph, this is still an enjoyable volume, mostly because Fia is so fun and likeable. We’ve seen flashbacks that show that this is not just a function of her past memories interfering with her present ones – she was always like this. So we get things like her trying to explain to the local healer how to make the cure for their deadly disease by essentially saying “here are the ingredients, the actual amounts used are up to you” and having everyone stare at her in a sort of daze. I am slightly less enamored of the additions to her reverse harem, especially as we now have TWO who are a bit too obsessive for my liking, but honestly, Fia’s obliviousness is also something that will probably last until the final volume (and Cyril, let’s face it, has a very big lead on the others). Fortunately, this also ends this arc, so we’ll start a new one in the next volume, possibly involving those color-themed royals from previous books.

This is never going to be in any best of the year lists, but if you like Katarina Claes-types who are also far, far too powerful for their own good, this is definitely one to keep up with.

Pick of the Week: Kowloon Generic Picks

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ASH: There certainly are a fair number of releases this week! Debut-wise, I find that overall the novels have caught my attention the most, with Sword of the Demon Hunter being of particular interest. That being said, I’m likely to actually have time to read some of the new manga, first…

SEAN: I’m actually going to pick Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! Memorial Fan Book. We get so few of these guidebooks translated over here, so I want to support it.

MICHELLE: I can’t possibly resist BL described as ” Two men struggling with life find each other.” Midnight Rain for me this week!

KATE: I can’t say enough good things about Kowloon Generic Romance: the Mangasplainers compared it with Wong Kar-Wai’s films, and I think that’s an apt comparison. If I’m making it sound like a Very Serious Manga™, though, rest assured it isn’t; Kowloon Generic Romance is moody and romantic, but it’s also raunchy, funny, and frank with a boisterous cast of characters. This is hands down one of my favorite books of the year!

MJ: Okay, at first I was sure I was going to side with Michelle, but then Kate’s description of Kowloon Generic Romance hooked me completely. I think that’s going to have to be my pick this week, no matter what else is on the table!

MICHELLE: Okay, I have just realized this takes place within Kowloon Walled City so I am definitely going to read this, previous pick notwithstanding!

The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles, Vol. 1

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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.

Sometimes you just want to get serious. Isekai titles have been around for a while now, and we’re used to seeing pastiches, parodies, and satires of the genre. Plus, of course, they’re often written like RPG games, so the writer does not have to worry about pesky things like plot or setting. But suppose you *are* a writer who likes those things? Suppose worldbuilding is your jam? And suppose that you really do take the isekai premise seriously? Well, you’d probably end up with something close to this book. The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles is not entirely humorless (sadly, the humor is entirely the “grrr, I am jealous of our princess having no boundaries around you” sort of humor), but for the most part it’s hear to earnestly tell a story of what happens when a hero has to return to the land that he saved a thousand years later to save it again.

Three years ago, a young man named Hiro was found in his bed injured, covered in dirt, and with his hair grown long overnight. Doctors were baffled… as was Hiro, who could not remember anything. He has recently been having dreams, though, dreams where he’s a powerful swordsman in another world. No prizes for guessing that’s what happened three years ago. But then it happens again, and he ends up back in that world, now one thousand years in the future. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any memories of his previous time there, nor does he seem to have any special powers. Fortunately, he does run across a young princess, 6th in line for the throne, who is on her way to political exile and who seems to take an instant liking to him. Is this really the same world that Hiro saved before? And can he regain his memories in time to do it again?

If you enjoyed Altina the Sword Princess but wished that Regis was an incredibly OP warrior who saved the day through battle instead of strategy, you’d have something of an idea of how this book runs. It’s a very testosterone-driven book, and it did not escape my notice that while there are two powerful young women in the book, both of them need saving by the hero. I’m hoping that’s not a habit. (There’s also an implied sex scene, but you can easily ignore that.) Liz, the princess, has absolutely no boundaries around Hiro at all, to a baffling degree – I get that she takes a shine to him immediately, but it verges on the ridiculous. And her rivals, the other princes in the throne war, seem to all come from the Sword Art Online school of “all villains must be as evil as possible, no grey areas whatsoever”, so we get them literally laying on a pile of captured nude women. As I said, testosterone driven book.

Despite this, the prose is well written, the battles are exciting, and the story makes sense. If you’re looking for a power fantasy and you’re a teenage boy, this is perfect for you. I may read another volume.

Hell Mode ~ The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing, Vol. 1

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By Hamuo and Mo. Released in Japan as “Hell Mode – Yarikomi Suki no Gamer wa Hai Settei no Isekai de Musō Suru” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Taishi.

So, contrary to what everyone thinks, I don’t read everything. There are many light novels I have dropped, and even more I never started. Including this one, which came out over a year ago. The title made me suspect that it was one of those books filled with stats and OP kids who only think in terms of leveling. (Which, to be fair, it absolutely is.) So I gave it a pass. Then I was at Anime NYC recently and the folks at J-Novel Club asked if I could possibly give this one another try. It’s gotten popular enough that they’re releasing a print version of it. That said, its volumes are chunky, tending to run 350-400 pages, and frankly my backlog is already pretty huge. So I decided to read about 15 pages of it per day in among my other reads. So, having finished the first book, how is it? It’s… OK. Decent.

The ‘hardcore gamer’ of the title has gotten tired of games getting easier and easier with tons of free toys to play with to keep folks from bailing. He misses the days when it took almost a year just to gain one level on your game. Then one day he downloads a game that offers easy mode, normal mode, extra mode… and Hell Mode. Naturally, he chooses the last one, and decides to be a summoner. The next thing he knows he’s being born in another world as Allen, a young child of a serf. We don’t even know how he died in Japan, and it’s not important. What *is* important is that he quickly realizes that he’s in the world of the game he chose… and he’s really made it ridiculously hard for him to do anything. And… honestly, he’s pretty OK with this. Actually, he takes everything really well.

So, first of all, if anyone notes the cute girl on the cover with Allen and expects this to be a two-person sort of book, it’s not. Krena is strong, and has mad sword skills, but the mere fact that she and Allen are so young means they can’t hang out together all the time, and she’s mostly a minor supporting character. Honestly, this book is almost just Allen by himself, though his father and Krena’s father also play a large role. Once you get past the endless stat chatter, level chatter, and the many attempts to figure out how the game actually works (he’s living it, so doesn’t have the manual, though his grimoire sometimes helps), this is not that bad. Allen is very likeable, and his goal, raising the status of his family so they’re no longer serfs, is a good one. That said, there’s another major problem with this book, which is that it seems to be a prologue: Allen is essentially moved to a new location at the end of this, and the second book promises to be very different (and also has a different girl on the cover).

So while this was not entirely my genre, I can see why it would have fans. I will try a second volume to see if it gets better… but I’m still only gonna read it 15 pages at a time.

The Magician Who Rose from Failure: Tales of War and Magic, Vol. 5

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By Hitsuji Gamei and Fushimi Saika. Released in Japan as “Shikkaku Kara Hajimeru Nariagari Madō Shidō! ~ Jumon Kaihatsu Tokidoki Senki ~” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

After a fourth volume that abandoned nearly the entire main cast in order to tell the “war” part of the subtitle, this new volume of The Magician Who Rose from Failure feels like an apology to the reader of sorts. It’s a chance to relax and take stock of where the various nations are after the giant battle that ended the previous volume, see how far Arcus’ father can continue to have his head up his own ass, and give a bit of attention to his main love interests, who were absent from the previous book. (Lecia, though she appears, gets very little attention, but I’m hoping a future volume will take care of that, as there’s certainly some family drama bubbling up.) Arcus is being forced to come to terms with the fact that he is now a Very Important Person, which means he can’t simply live his life holed up in a lab inventing fluorescent lights and pudding.

There are, as you might imagine, various problems that stem from Arcus’ antics in the last book. As least three other nations have now taken an interest in him, and want him either dead or on their side. His left arm was injured badly, and healing magic is not good enough to fix it right away – it takes most of the book for it to get mostly better. And, of course, he saved the life of the Prince, which is a very good thing but also politically difficult, so a story will have to be cooked up. That said, he does meet the king, who (of course) takes an interest in him. After this, he gets a new house, and throws a housewarming party, which ends up mostly being an excuse for his two love interests to fight over him. That said, Charlotte wins here, getting most of the back of the book to herself, as she crosses swords with Arcus.

The book has used its isekai sparingly, for the most part, with Arcus thinking of his Japanese memories as a separate person from himself. This volume shows off more of why he’s able to keep up with the sword genius Charlotte, though… as well as why she’s still ahead of him in the end. After all, if you can have a kid who has memories o a past life in another world, there’s no reason not to have characters have other inexplicable abilities. I admit, though, I do prefer Sue, who has admitted she’s the daughter of a duke, but that doesn’t quite seem right either. (She’s almost called “princess” here.) She also contrasts with Charlotte in that, due to their status and how they first met, he treats Sue like… well, like an annoying brat, whereas with Charlotte he has to force himself to not be excessively formal with her. Again, this would be a great romantic triangle if we hadn’t already heard this world has polyamory, so it doesn’t have as much impact.

This isn’t as strong a volume as the others, mostly as it’s a “breather” book with minimal major plot developments. But it was also nice to see the character interaction, and fans of the series should be perfectly happy. Unfortunately, we’re caught up with Japan, so it will be a while before the next one.