Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Blog

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Vol. 10

by

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 by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

As I write this, we’re a little under halfway through the anime version of this series, which is quite enjoyable provided you don’t mid that it has the animation budget of one peanut. It’s clearly an advertisement for the books, which just wrapped up in Japan. Unfortunately, despite my saying in my review of 9 that 10 is the last, it turns out that I am wrong, and there’s another book on the way. That said, this definitely has the feeling of an epilogue, and I think that’s fine. Yes, one of the bad guys got away, but honestly I’m OK with ignoring him for now and concentrating entirely on everyone going back to Bel’s hometown and settling into in their new huge mansion to match all the daughters that Bel has accumulated throughout this series. And, of course, his new wife. As for Ange, well, she’s had a lot of dad lately, and believe it or not does love being an adventurer more, so she’s headed back to Orphen, with one extra team member.

We’re back in Turnera! There are lots of kids to play around with and train to hunt and fish. There’s Belgrieve and Satie, who are now married but honestly seem far too comfortable and passionless for others in their group, so a secret second wedding is decided on so we get a real love confession. And then there’s Mit. His mana is still an issue, and the best way to deal with it is to build a dungeon that uses the excess mana to spawn fiends that can then be killed by adventurers. Of course, the question is where to put a freshly built dungeon? Should it be Orphen, which has the guild and is used to this sort of thing? Or Bordeaux, which has been growing rapidly but could use a dungeon to become a city unto its own. Or… should it be Turnera? Can we really turn Bel’s sleepy village into a dungeon tourism industry?

There were some moments in this I really liked. I appreciated that it took Helvetica’s crush on Belgrieve seriously, and also that it was not something that she could just give up on when seeing Bel and Satie being all mild and sedate at each other. (Satie spends a lot of this book acting like a standard housewife, but given the last twenty years of her life before this, I’d say she’s due.) They needed to overtly love each other to make it easier for her to back off. I also liked Angelica telling Maria about her own demonic heritage. She’s not only come to terms with it, but is OK with being used as a guinea pig if it will mean helping to solve the problem. Though Maria doesn’t really believe her. There’s also a great short story at the end showing us how Angeline, Anessa and Miriam first teamed up, and how incredibly awkwardly things started off. It was sweet.

This series runs on good vibes, and if we get more of those in the finale, I’m find with it.

Sasaki and Peeps: Betrayals, Conspiracies, and Coups d’État! The Gripping Conclusion to the Otherworld Succession Battle ~Meanwhile, You Asked for It! It’s Time for a Slice-of-Life Episode in Modern Japan, but We Appear to Be on Hard Mode~

by

By Buncololi and Kantoku. Released in Japan as “Sasaki to Pi-chan” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse.

The joy of this series is the genre mashup, of course, but that can also make it very hard to take at times. When the author does a genre, they go all in. This means the fantasy world is filled with throne wars, elves, dragons, and last minute plot twists. The “psychic” part of the story involves people using powers to control others and create chaos all around them. It also veers into a sentai show here, and it’s very deliberate. The Neighbor Girl’s supernatural part is very much standard “death game”, even though she and her demonic partner don’t get to wipe out anyone this book. But Neighbor Girl (who we get a last name for at last – Kurosu) also brings another sub-genre to the plate, which is hideous abuse. That’s the “slice of life” in this volume’s subtitle, and it absolutely goes off the rails when she, Sasaki and Futarishizuka attend the wake from hell. This is getting an anime soon, and I imagine making this all cohere seamlessly will be a nightmare.

Sasaki has a lot on his plate. He’s attending the aforementioned wake, where we learn that apparently Neighbor Girl’s family has money, but also that literally everyone in the family despises her; he’s dealing with the aftermath of the sea monster from the last book, as he and Hoshizaki are almost lured to America with the promise of a ton of money, stopped only by their complete lack of English skills. An unknown enemy decided to mind control people into causing a riot near Hoshizaki’s apartment, presumably to do to it what they did with Sasaki’s old place; and there is, of course, the fantasy world, where it appears that the first prince has betrayed the nation and is collaborating with the enemy. Can he even find time to settle down and get some actual sleep? He can in the fantasy world, but certainly not in Japan.

I tend to go on about Neighbor Girl too much in these reviews, and her story vanishes after the first third of the book, so I will just note that that slap made me scream out loud, and also that she is a ticking time bomb that Sasaki is ignoring but Futarishizuka certainly isn’t. We do get to learn a lot more about Hoshizaki in this book, though I suspect she would not be happy with that fact. Unsurprisingly, at school she seems to have no friends and looks the stereotypical bookish nerd – her overly made up face on the job is the attempt to look “grown up”. Her younger sister straight up thinks her part-time job is sex work, and Sasaki has to reassure her while also giving nothing away about what the job actually is. She’s also clearly got a crush on Sasaki, but is sadly running a very distant third, behind Futarishizuka (easily the front runner) and Neighbor Girl.

This is a good book, and has an excellent plot twist near the end I did not expect. It’s also a book that rewards close character analysis, which I like. If you can put up with the occasional lolicon joke, it’s a definite winner. And it appears next book we’re adding aliens.

Manga the Week of 11/8/23

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: November is here, and all the manga that comes with it. This and December are always the big ones.

We start with Viz Media, who don’t have any debuts. But they do have Black Clover 33, Blue Box 7, The Elusive Samurai 9, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible 10, Like a Butterfly 3, My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions 4, My Special One 4, One Piece 104, and Queen’s Quality 18.

ASH: I had somehow forgotten that One Piece had broken triple digits.

SEAN: Steamship debuts Revenge: Mrs. Wrong (Revenge – Kaedama Kon), which ran in Cheese!. A woman sends her sister out to substitute for her on dates when she can’t be bothered, but that’s going to change soon when the sister decides to get some of her own back.

Seven Seas has two debuts. Black Night Parade (Black Night Parade) is from the creator of Saint Young Men and Arakawa Under the Bridge. A man is kidnapped by a Santa who is in charge of all the naughty children, and now the man must work at his workshop. This runs in Ultra Jump.

ASH: Oh! I had missed that we were getting another Hikaru Nakamura manga! It sounds suitably ridiculous.

SEAN: My Pancreas Broke, But My Life Got Better (Suizou ga Kowaretara, Sukoshi Ikiyasuku Narimashita) is the latest autobiographical title from Nagata Kabi, detailing her attempts to give up alcohol entirely during COVID lockdown.

ASH: Heavy for sure, but likely worth checking out.

SEAN: Seven Seas is also releasing My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness: Special Edition, a deluxe hardcover with new cover art and a bonus chapter.

ASH: Wow!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Classroom of the Elite 8, Let’s Buy the Land and Cultivate It in a Different World 5, Made in Abyss Official Anthology 5, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Fafnir the Recluse 3, My Girlfriend’s Child 3, No Longer Allowed In Another World 4, This Is Screwed Up, but I Was Reincarnated as a GIRL in Another World! 9, and Who Made Me a Princess 3.

One Peace Books has the 3rd manga volume of The Death Mage.

Kodansha has been listening to my whining a bit, and has fixed their calendar to be more obvious about print/digital releases. The print debut is Virgin Love (Shojo Koi. – Shojo no Shouko-san), a josei series about a 26-year-old virgin woman who moves into an experimental “singles” house to try to do something about that. This runs in the nearly unknown magazine Ar.

ANNA: Alright for josei!

ASH: Yes, indeed!

SEAN: Also in print: Am I Actually the Strongest? 5, The Darwin Incident 2, EDENS ZERO 25, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 16, L♥DK 23-24 (it got bumped), Lovely Muco! 3, The Moon on a Rainy Night 2, Noragami Omnibus 8, Peach Boy Riverside 13, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 10, Shangri-La Frontier 8, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 4.

MICHELLE: I’m already so far behind on Iruma-kun!

SEAN: Digitally the debut is He’s Expecting (Hiyama Kentarou no Ninshin), a josei series from Be Love imagining a future where men can also give birth. Needless to say, the prejudices and stereotypes have not magically vanished.

ANNA: Even more josei!

ASH: Nice.

SEAN: Also digital: Blue Lock 22, Hitorijime My Hero 14, How to Grill Our Love 5, Life 9, Matcha Made in Heaven 7, My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 11, My Wife is a Little Intimidating 5, Piano Duo for the Left Hand 8, and Undead Girl Murder Farce 4.

Sorry, Kaiten Books, missed you last week: they have a digital release of The Bottom-Tier Baron’s Accidental Rise to the Top 3.

J-Novel Club has one digital debut, from the Heart imprint: Marriage, Divorce, and Beyond: The White Mage and Black Knight’s Romance Reignited (Saishō Hosa to Kurokishi no Keiyaku Kekkon to Rikon to Sonogo: Henkyō no Chi de Futari wa Fūfu o Yarinaosu). The Black Knight is the heroine, who has to get married to pass on her awesome Black Knight powers. There is a perfect match for her… but she does NOT want to marry a noble!

And we also see Back to the Battlefield: The Veteran Heroes Return to the Fray! 2, Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Trusted Companions Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to the Gift of an Unlimited Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out For Revenge on My Former Party Members and the World 5, the 4th manga volume of Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts With a Village, The Greatest Magician’s Ultimate Quest: I Woke from a 300 Year Slumber to a World of Disappointment 2, Karate Master Isekai 3, Magic Stone Gourmet: Eating Magical Power Made Me The Strongest 3, The Misfit of Demon King Academy 5, Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back to My World Whenever I Want! 5, and A Royal Rebound: Forget My Ex-Fiancé, I’m Being Pampered by the Prince! 3 (the final volume).

ASH: Titles have so many words these days, it’s actually hard to tell how long that list actually is (or isn’t).

SEAN: Ghost Ship has an 8th volume of 2.5 Dimensional Seduction.

Dark Horse is bringing back a classic manga: Hellsing! This is a new edition with a different translation and a new design, but still 1-volume paperbacks.

ASH: Interesting.

SEAN: Airship has some print for you. Loner Life in Another World 7 and Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! 7.

And in early digital we get Disciple of the Lich: Or How I Was Cursed by the Gods and Dropped Into the Abyss! 6 and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 5.

Is that enough? There’s more coming soon.

Days with My Stepsister, Vol. 1

by

By Ghost Mikawa and Hiten. Released in Japan as “Gimai Seikatsu” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Eriko Sugita.

I’ve read two previous light novel series written by Ghost Mikawa, and I’ve enjoyed both of them. The author sort of has a type for his main character. Someone who’s a bit overly intellectual, very logical, tries to understand things and put them in boxes. The fun of My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In For Me is seeing this character try to deal with a love triangle that cannot simply be resolved by a game of addition and subtraction. With Looks Are All You Need, it was seeing the main character and his sister immersed in a ‘academy for the performing arts’ environment, and how to navigate an industry that requires emotional heft. This new series also has a very logical, matter of fact protagonist who tends to consult self-help books to understand people, and he now has to deal with his new stepsister, who is – seemingly – exactly the same. This shows a bit of promise, especially as we see the two are not as matter of fact as all that. Sadly, it’s not done well.

Yuuta lives alone with his father, as his parents got divorced after his mother was having an affair. He is thus rather startled that his father has decided to get married again. Even more surprising, he’ll be getting a stepsister in the deal, who judging by the photo the mom sent is a cute little kid. Of course, when they actually meet we find that the stepsister is in fact his age, and simply hates having her photo taken – that’s the one photo the mom had. Saki, though, turns out to want from this new relationship exactly what Yuuta wants – nothing. No requirements, no expectations. There will be no “big brother” names here. And honestly, this works out fine at first. But as the awkward, introverted Yuuta learns more about his new stepsibling, he ends up trying to help her anyway.

The big issue with this book is that the two leads tend to talk to each other like they’re reading out of an encyclopedia. There’s a scene where he walks by her room and sees her underwear drying (it’s raining that day), and gets embarrassed. The way the two resolve this feels like they’re not looking at each other, but reading out of a textbook. It’s meant to show us that both of them have been deeply wounded by the breakup of their parent’s first marriages, and how they have difficulty trusting others or getting close to people. In reality, it just makes me grind my teeth. Yuuta’s co-worker at the bookstore he part-times at, a college woman, is sadly exactly the same, so that doesn’t help. I was so happy when a happy, genki girl from their school came over to play video games with them, as it was a relief to hear someone with real human emotions out of control.

Still a fan of this author’s other series, but I have no desire to continue this one. Consider this review the essay I’m handing in to the author as to why I’m terminating our reading agreement for the foreseeable future, in a way that benefits both parties.

Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, Vol. 7

by

By Natsume Akimoto and Kakao Lanthanum. Released in Japan as “Sentouin, Hakenshimasu!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Noboru Akimoto.

It’s been over two years since the last volume of this series came out in English, but honestly this one doesn’t take too long to get back into the swing of things. There’s rarely a lot you have to remember with Combatants Will Be Dispatched! except for the one maxim “everyone is horrible”. If you remember that, you’re good. So we have Six saying that he needs to sexually harass a woman just in case doesn’t know what sexual harassment is when bad men do it, Alice and Six gleefully sending their “colleagues” all around the world and not bothering to bring them back, and a new nation where a new princess competes to see if she can have as black a heart as Tillis seems to. Oh yes, and as the cover might tell you, we also have Belial, one of Six’s three bosses, whose idea of how to solve a problem is “punch it”, but whose backstory comes as a big surprise to both Alice and the reader.

After the events of the last book, Six and company are enjoying a bit of downtime while they work on building their new city. This downtime is occasionally interrupted by Little Bashin, who is a native tribe girl who can’t speak the language… supposedly (we may have another chuuni here) and a large dragon which is too much for everyone to handle, except maybe Belial, who is asked to to come over to help out Six. She then proceeds to make her way across all the nations, cowing them into submission with sheer firepower and blackmail, and unites most everyone under the Kisaragi banner. Which… makes you wonder about the competency of Six and Alice. Was brute force the answer all along? That said, they have one problem that can’t quite be solved by punching it: Tiger Man has kidnapped a nation’s princess. Who is a little girl. And it’s Tiger Man. Uh oh.

So yes, the usual word of warning for this series, pedophilia is used as a joke for “hilarious” laughs, though the little princess is not in any danger herself and in fact asked to be kidnapped. That said, everyone being a terrible person is the vibe here, and if you enjoy that there’s a lot to like. Six is a terrible person, but he’s smarter than Kazuma, and Alice is smarter than both of them. The Belial focus is appreciated, as is her backstory, where it reveals she was a yamato nadesico sort who Lilith’s enhancements “accidentally” brainwashed/mindwiped, though it’s fairly clear by the end of the book that she remembers who she was but is not particularly inclined to return to that. The main question is what happens now, as Belial has pretty much finished 95% of their “to do” list.

Expect another long wait before we find out, as the eighth book is not out in Japan yet. If you like KonoSuba but wish everyone was scuzzier, this is still your go-to series.

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke, Vol. 4

by

By Ichibu Saki, Nemusuke, and Ushio Shirotori. Released in Japan as “Moto, Ochikobore Koushaku Reijou desu” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Andrew Schubauer.

Last time I said that this series remained OK, and that I hoped the fourth book was the final one. And it certainly FEELS like a final book. All the plotlines are wrapped up. The bad guys are taken care of. Our heroine is ready to marry her love once they are of age. And yet in the afterword we’re told that the author hopes to write more adventures of Claire and Vik after the wedding. So, I will admit, I do appreciate the fact that a romance book does not have to end with a marriage or end just because the characters may have aged past the series’ market. That said, I admit my reaction to seeing this news was “oh hell no”. There’s nothing hideously wrong with this book aside from an odd disconnect I’ll get to. But there are too many fallen duke’s daughters out there for me to care about this one, who is pleasant but oh so dull.

Things are going well for Claire, aside from a few hiccups. Charlotte is still missing after the events of the last book, and seems to have completely vanished from the entire country. Moreover, the magical tornado that forced her to time loop is still on its way, and she wants to make sure her magic is strong enough that she won’t exhaust it and trigger the same thing happening. She’s even, with Vik’s help, able to get her old dream job back of being Isabella’s governess. Unfortunately, she gets an invitation from Prince Gilbert, who is prince of a neighboring country, to come visit. Just her. Not her fiance. Suspicious. She goes, with Lui at her side as her bodyguard/attendant, and finds that Prince Gilbert is nothing whatsoever like what everyone thought of him. She also finds something even more annoying – Charlotte.

Getting the really obvious spoiler out of the way (I feel no shame, the author doesn’t try to hide it), Gilbert ALSO is a Japanese isekai. He’s not a gamer, but his sister was, and drilled into him her favorite route. Unfortunately, her favorite route is Claire’s. Even more unfortunately, all the other routes seem to lead to everyone in his kingdom being killed. This actually DID catch my interest, and could have led to some interesting things going on. Unfortunately, Chaire’s somewhat… unique relationship with the source (her memories of Japan are muddled and mostly come in dreams) and her desire to not tell her dear friends they’re fictional mean that resolving this by just saying “stop treating me like an NPC” isn’t happening. Meaning we get a lot of tedious “comedy” as Gilbert tries to woo Claire by hitting game flags only to fail over and over.

I did like the epilogue showing us Charlotte’s final fate. Assuming it is her final fate. Certainly, I’m perfectly happy leaving the Formerly Fallen Daughter here, even if there are later adventures.

Pick of the Week: Cats, Thats, and Witch Hats

by , , and Leave a Comment

MICHELLE: 1000% My Cat Is Such a Weirdo. I mean, how could I not?

SEAN: Still can’t resist a heroine called Princess That, so I’m going with Third Loop: The Nameless Princess and the Cruel Emperor for my pick.

ANNA: My pick is Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen it sounds so amazingly random.

ASH: I’m with Anna this week! As soon as I was reminded that Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen existed, I made sure that I had a pre-order in place.

Bookshelf Briefs 10/30/23

by Leave a Comment

A Bride’s Story, Vol. 14 | By Kaoru Mori | Yen Press – Actual main couple at last! And Karluk is thirteen, so is presumably getting closer to being able to consummate his marriage, though I fear for now cuddling naked against the cold is the best the two can do. The highlight of this book is trying to unite the village tribes and nomad tribes so they can both fight the Russians, which will (of course) involve marriages. But to get those, we need a giant, near deadly horse race in order to make sure that the men are good enough for their brides. The brides themselves come in three varieties: proud and stoic, divorced and scarred, and “bundle of fun,” but all three seem quite happy with their husbands… one of whom is Amir’s brother. Probably another year till volume fifteen, and I hope the series does not end with everyone being killed. – Sean Gaffney

It Takes Two Tomorrow, Too, Vol. 1 | By Suzuyuki | One Peace Books – Yuya and Rio move in together after dating for a little over a year, It Takes Two Tomorrow, Too beginning soon after this significant evolution in their relationship. As one might expect, it takes a bit of time to get used to sharing a home with someone else. There are certainly misunderstandings and makeups, but instead of presenting opportunities for melodrama, Suzuyuki portrays their lives in realistic, natural ways. Rio and Yuya are a wonderful couple, the care and consideration they show for each other is heartwarming and refreshing. The supporting cast is likewise endearing, whether it be their coworkers, friends, or family. It Takes Two Tomorrow, Too is a genuinely sweet and funny series, never becoming overly saccharine or relying on meanness as a source of humor. It’s the sort of series that soothes the soul and sometimes that’s just what one needs; I look forward to reading more. – Ash Brown

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 9 | By Nene Yukimori | Viz Media – I enjoy the Kubo manga, but it is not exactly the most original title in the world, nor is it trying to be. It’s in the “teasing the boy she likes” genre, but it’s also a fairly standard school not-yet-romance. As such we get a lot of beats that seem familiar, like going out for her birthday/agonizing over a gift, or the summer festival and getting separated right before the fireworks. The good thing about this title is it can tie things into Shiraishi’s past, as getting lost for him was super traumatic as no one ever sees him. The moment in this volume, then, when Kubo does find him after all, is so triumphant you can almost hear the swelling music behind the panel. These are cute kids, I hope they confess soon. – Sean Gaffney

Medalist, Vol. 8 | By Tsurumaikada | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – There are other skaters in this volume aside from Inori and Hikaru, and they get some very good artwork showing off their stellar skating. So it feels bad to talk about how Hikaru completely blew all of them away with her routine, reminding everyone that she is the only rival worth paying attention to, and getting a score so high no one could possibly beat it. Inori had originally been sent off and told not to watch the other routines, as she was looking anxious. But she came back to see Hikaru’s skating as it means that much to her, and it did not depress her or make her feel like it was an insurmountable performance. It fired her up. The book ends with Inori about to go out on the ice, and I cannot wait to see it. – Sean Gaffney

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, Vol. 14 | By Sorata Akiduki | Yen Press – I did ask in my last review of Nozaki-kun… from August 2022… (this series being caught up with Japan hurts my soul) for a couple to hook up, and I… almost get my wish? One person communicates his feelings, and the other party actually understands them. Now, a) it’s not clear if this will lead to anything just yet, and b) given it’s Ryousuke and Miyako, I worry that this will end in tanukis somehow. But it’s a start! And honestly, Hori and Kashima are getting there as well, as we are slowly trying to get the both of them to think… which is tough. Especially Hori, as he’s not a traditional baka like Kashima can be. As for Chiyo… she’s terrifying. Her love is pure, but it’s pure like a stalker’s love kind of pure. Hilarious as always. – Sean Gaffney

The Moon on a Rainy Night, Vol. 1 | By Kuzushiro | Kodansha Manga – There have been quite a few stellar manga series—A Sign of Affection, A Silent Voice—featuring characters who are deaf. This is along those lines, but Kanon is not deaf, just hard-of-hearing. This gives her a very different vibe from the other heroines that we’ve seen with hearing issues, and in a way makes her harder to approach—she has not bothered to learn sign language, for instance. That said, this is also a yuri manga, so we’re also going to meet the bright, somewhat pushy girl who worms her way into her heart via the power of Kanon’s mother’s brutal piano lessons. We even get the standard older girl “first yuri crush” who announces that she’s getting married to a guy. The combination of these elements is well handled, and I want to read more. – Sean Gaffney

Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court, Vol. 5

by

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 the last volume we saw that discovering the wonders of living inside a healthy and hale body broke down Reirin’s emotional reserve, to the point that when she was confronted with a horrible tragedy she broke down in tears. In this volume we see that the experience of having a friend who doesn’t spoil her and treat her like she’s made of fragile glass has broken her reserves even more without her knowing it. Unfortunately, this friend is also the sort of person to have every single emotion, no matter what it is, come out as “anger”. And this is very unfortunate, because for once in her life, Reirin is completely unable to cope. As for said friend, Keigetsu, well, she’s throwing wild tantrums and raving that she’ll never, ever apologize, but that’s far less surprising. Unfortunately, the timing on this is really awful, as the maidens are having a competition for the Top Spot, and the knives are coming out.

Three months have passed since the events of the last book, and it’s now time for Rite of Reverence, where the five maidens all compete to see who can show the most devotion to the Emperor. This is a hotly contested battle, with the respective house fortunes rising and falling depending on the placement of said maidens. As such, Keigetsu is even more stressed out than usual. And she’s not the only one, as we get a good look at the other three maidens in the series. Seika is trying to do this in an honorable way, but is cowed by her consort’s power and threats. Houshun is discovering that her cutely incompetent act is starting to show its cracks, and her own consort can see them. And Kasui is on a detective mission, desperately trying to find out what happened years ago that led to the death of her sister and the mere mention of her name being forbidden in the inner court. As for Reirin? She’s fiiiiiiiiine.

This is an amazing book in an amazing series, frankly, and I am desperate to read the next one because, of course, it ends on a cliffhanger. Reirin and Keigetsu get into a huge fight, and you can absolutely sympathize with both of them. After four books of finding Keigetsu’s tantrums cute and funny, Reirin is finally hurt by them, and finds her powers of observation and judgment severely curtailed. Of course, that may also be the fact that she’s getting progressively more ill after getting her foot burned in a murder attempt and diving into an icy lake to try to save Keigetsu’s poetry. I think everyone else in the cast was too stunned at seeing the supposedly deathly ill Reirin doing these things to bother to be angry at her. Keigetsu, though, expresses all her emotions through rage. Including worry, and concern, and guilt. Not great. Especially when Reirin genuinely screws up in a conversation with Kasui and ends up beaten up and dying at the bottom of a well.

That said, the cliffhanger is not “will Reirin be found before she dies?”, because the author is aware we know she will. Also, this is a book where the main premise is bodyswapping. So the cliffhanger is, instead, how are we going to stop Reirin’s Roaring Rampage of Revenge this time? Everyone, I beg you, read this.

The Holy Grail of Eris, Vol. 4

by

By Kujira Tokiwa and Yu-nagi. Released in Japan as “Eris no Seihai” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

A few days ago I reviewed the 4th volume of The Sorcerer’s Receptionist, a series that ended naturally at three volumes and got a fourth anyway, and lamented the fact that sometimes authors and publishers just can’t let something end naturally. That said… there are exceptions. Because here I am reading The Holy Grail of Eris, a series that ended naturally at three volumes and got a fourth anyway, and am absolutely delighted that I got to spend more time seeing these characters get into wacky hijinks again. I guess it simply comes down to the main character. TSR has a tsundere who is constantly in denial, and the fourth book, despite a love epiphany, doubles down on that. Connie, by contrast, is very confident in the love she and Randolph have for each other, and instead struggles with the fact that he’s married to his job rather than her, even when they go on vacation. That said, Connie can’t seem to go on vacation without thrilling adventure following behind her, so she’s not one to talk.

The Kingdom of Adelbide is asked to check in on Ulysses, the young Faris royal with a tendency towards being in peril. He also wants to see his “dear friend” Lucia, who he bonded with in the last book when they were in mortal peril together. So a contingent, including Connie, Randolph, and Scarlett, is sent to the island of El Sol – and Connie has another errand from Adolphus – take Scarlett’s mother’s ashes back to where she grew up. Of course, once they get there chaos begins to unfold. The local noble, Antonio, dislikes Connie on sight; Connie ends up getting dragged into a series of petty lawsuits that need an arbiter who can insult everyone till they surrender (fortunately, she can get possessed and let Scarlett do it for her), and most importantly, the terrorists form the first three books are still around, and they’re after a shipment of fireworks that were being sent for the Summer Carnival festival. Is Connie going to have any time at all for a vacation with her fiance?

Well, no, of course not. That’s not why we read Holy Grail of Eris. We read it for the intrigue, and for the thrills, and for the still hilarious otome game biographies that come after every chapter. Connie may still need Scarlett to possess her when a debate is needed, but she’s perfectly fine on her own when it comes to things like high-speed boat chases… well, it’s a rowboat, so medium-speed boat chases. There’s also a sense that she’s going to end up being one of the many Women In Power in this series, whether she likes it or not, and I honestly think that it will be good for her. Meanwhile Antonio is feeling like a third wheel in the relationship between Lucia and Ulysses (who gets kidnapped, again, but has gotten much better at handling it) and, well, he is, but it’s a toy ship, so we don’t need to worry about breaking anyone’s heart till they get older.

This genuinely seems like the end of the series, a bonus book for fans who wanted more. It was a delight.