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Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court, Vol. 6

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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.

There’s a lot of terrific humor in this volume, most of it stemming from the series’ premise. I’ve talked about this before, but it’s even more true in this book: both Reirin and Keigetsu are absolutely, 100% terrible at pretending to be each other. For the most part they’ve been helped in the past by a) no one knowing bodyswapping was a thing, and b) no one knowing the two well enough to be able to pick out the obvious poor performance. Now that both of these things are no longer true, the best gags in the book come from Reirin’s misplaced confidence that she’s got Keigetsu down pat, or Keigetsu’s inability to not let her cynical anger seep in through everything she does. That said, it’s a good thing that there’s some humor in this book, as the basic premise of this arc is evil and terrible, and the consequences, for some people, are rather chilling.

We pick up where we left off. Reirin has just been rescued from her attempted murder, and has swapped bodies with Keigetsu in order to repair all the damage she blames herself for and take back everything they’ve lost. In practice, this means finding out why exactly Kasui snapped and tried to kill Reirin, plus what she’s actually desperately looking for. She also needs to try to stop Reiga and Hourin from trying to kill her – or rather, using their maidens to try and kill her – and if the way to solve that problem is by getting the maidens on their side, then it’s something she’s going to have to do, even if it means allying with (ugh) Houshun. And then there’s Anni the shaman, the cause of everything that’s led up to this and possibly the most evil person we’ve seen in the series to date.

I continue to absolutely love Ran Houshun, even though she’s also possibly the most terrifying of the maidens. I’m used to hearing Reirin rattle off “Though I am an inept villainess” when she’s gloating over her supposed attempts at being bad, which usually are nothing of the sort. With Houshun it’s chilling when she utters the same phrase, because she’s about to let her Consort and “mentor” be beaten nearly to death by all of her court ladies. And yet it’s also triumphant, because Hourin is a piece of shit who’s spent years abusing and torturing those same court ladies, and for once vigilante justice feels like (at least narratively) the correct answer. As for the others, Kasui gets the closure that is all she can get, really, and can finally achieve a real bond with her own (non-evil) consort. And as for Seika and Reiga, they also get a good scene, but it pales next to Houshun, who’s simply better at this. You can see why Reirin hates her.

I enjoyed this so much I will forgive the use of a deus ex machina “this gets people so drunk they tell everyone the plot out loud” device, though I do hope this is the last we see of it. The next volume promises to be lighter in time, and (theoretically?) only one volume rather than an arc. Can’t wait.

Manga the Week of 12/27/23

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SEAN: Ready to wrap up 2023? Scared of 2024? Let’s go.

MICHELLE: No and yes, respectively!

ANNA: I’m scared!

ASH: What meaning does time have these days anyway?

SEAN: Airship has new print volumes for Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 25 and The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 5.

And for early digital we get Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 9.

Two volumes from Cross Infinite World. We see the 4th volume of The Drab Princess, the Black Cat, and the Satisfying Break-up, and the 3rd and final volume of Revolutionary Reprise of the Blue Rose Princess.

From Ghost Ship we see Manga Diary of a Male Porn Star 4 and Welcome to Succubus High! 5.

A Christmas Day debut from J-Novel Club. I Could Never Be a Succubus! (Watashi wa Succubus Ja Arimasen) features Liz, a normal, upright, well-behaved noble woman at the academy. But she has a secret, and when the hero arrives at the academy… she asks for his underwear! Can she struggle against her true nature (it’s in the title)?

ASH: Spoilers!

SEAN: Also from J-Novel Club: 8th Loop for the Win! With Seven Lives’ Worth of XP and the Third Princess’s Appraisal Skill, My Behemoth and I Are Unstoppable! 2, Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools 8, the 4th manga volume of Did I Seriously Just Get Reincarnated as My Gag Character?!, Earl and Fairy 4, the 2nd manga volume of Hell Mode, My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! —AΩ— 8, My Magical Career at Court: Living the Dream After My Nightmare Boss Fired Me from the Mages’ Guild! 2, Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon 7, and Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster 4.

ASH: That’s quite a few titles! (I think… or maybe just a few really long titles??

SEAN: The print debut for Kodansha Manga is My Ultramarine Sky (Gunjou no Subete), a BL manga from the creator of My Summer of You that ran in Gateau. It’s complete in one volume. Two boys who sat next to each other for two years in high school now find themselves in different classes.

MICHELLE: The cover, at least, has an appealingly wistful vibe.

ANNA: I sometimes enjoy wistful vibes.

ASH: Same.

SEAN: Also in print: Blue Lock 10, EDENS ZERO 26, Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 4, Nina the Starry Bride 2, Ogami-san Can’t Keep It In 2, Shangri-La Frontier 9, Something’s Wrong With Us 18, Super Morning Star 2, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 5.

ANNA: Gonna pick up Blue Lock for one of my kids, and as always I am delighted that Nina the Starry Bride is getting a print release!

SEAN: Digitally we see Boss Bride Days 12, Drops of God: Mariage 4, Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 9, Gamaran: Shura 15, Issak 5, My Home Hero 11, and Searching for My Perfect Brother 3.

One Peace Books has the 2nd volume of It Takes Two Tomorrow, Too.

ASH: I rather enjoyed the first volume.

SEAN: No debut manga from Seven Seas, but we do see Berserk of Gluttony 9, Chronicles of an Aristocrat Reborn in Another World 8, Correspondence from the End of the Universe 4, Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist 8, Dungeon People 3, Even Though We’re Adults 7, Futari Escape 4 (the final volume), I Got Caught Up In a Hero Summons, but the Other World was at Peace! 7, Reincarnated as a Sword: Another Wish 5, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 10, and Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court 4.

Square Enix Manga has the 9th volume of Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!.

MICHELLE: Gotta catch up on this!

ASH: I’m behind, too, but have been enjoying the series.

SEAN: Steamship releases its first light novel, a one-shot. Loyal Soldier, Lustful Beast (Gunjin wa Ai no Kemono) stars a noblewoman who is in love with her manservant. Then she is called upon to be the King’s Concubine. Surely they’ll have to give up on their love… right?

ASH: Oh! I missed that Steamship was going to release light novels.

Tokyopop debuts Mitsuka. This ran in from RED. A host at a host club is supposed to sweet talk his female clients… but all he can think about is the hot male prostitute who introduced him to gay sex. This is definitely a “dubious consent” title, BTW.

From Viz: If you enjoy Spy x Family but wish it were in prose, why not read Spy x Family: Family Portrait, a short story collection?

They’ve also got Cat-Eyed Boy: The Perfect Edition 2 and Fist of the North Star 11.

ANNA: Cool.

ASH: Most excellent.

SEAN: Remember when the last week of the year had no releases at all? I do, but I’m old. What are you buying?

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “A Proposal Isn’t Enough”

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By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

For a series whose strongest point is not its fanservice, this series sure has a lot of it. That said, at least the fanservice serves a narrative purpose. Even the sex scene in the book – not between our two leads, I hasten to add, but between Aso and Hoshibe – ends up demonstrating, somewhat painfully, that the blush of first love is not always perfect, and that sometimes simple physical difficulties can “ruin” your perfect memories. Meanwhile Yume has been revving the fanservice up, in an effort to get Mizuto to drop his stoic poker face, and ends up going overboard, to the point where he finally snaps and screams at her in desperation. As for Isana… well, yeah, that is fanservice pure and simple, but it also serves to underline for Mizuto that he can’t simply pretend to be a logical robot who makes every decision using bullet points. And that’s important, because there’s a rather annoying thing undercutting this wannabe romantic reuniting… they’re both family now.

It’s Christmas, and Yume has a lot to worry about. She’s set a deadline of the new year to either get Mizuto to rekindle their relationship or just give up, and he’s not cooperating very well, to the point where she’s forced to do things like wave her cleavage at him and hope he reacts. Her birth father wants to meet with her and Mizuto, and given that he’s never particularly cared about Yume before, she’s not quite sure why. And Mizuto has started spending all his time at Isana’s place. The last is for a very good reason – having seen Isana’s art and how good it is, he realizes that she needs a manager in order to achieve anything, as she has no real drive to succeed of her own. So it’s time for Pixiv accounts and Twitter alts, as well as drawing more and more so that she improves. But doesn’t everyone still think they’re dating?

The “is this incest or not?” part of the conversation is not really resolved here, mostly as, well, the premise of the series means that “not” is going to have to be the correct answer. I think the fact that they’ve only been siblings for 9 months takes the curse off it a bit. More difficult is that these two are both big, BIG nerds, and it not only comes out in their school work and reading but also in how they live their lives. Mizuto has never really felt passionate about much till he gets the idea to “manage” Isana’s art, and he proves to be very adept at it. Unfortunately, he’s also listening to Yume’s dad, who is projecting hard onto Mizuto and giving him advice that may not be that helpful. As for Yume, she doesn’t want to cut Mizuto off from Isana, who is her friend as well, but can’t quite work out how close they should be after he and Yume become a couple without resorting to math. Never decide how friendly your lover can be with other women using math.

The author is quick to assure us the series is not ending despite the couple confessing (reconfessing?) at the end, so we’ll see what the fallout is. But this was an in-character, if not entirely satisfying, way for these two to fix things.

Spy Classroom Short Story Collection: The Spy Teacher Who Loved Me

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By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Thrasher.

(As a warning, this book deals with the sexual assault of an underage girl near its end, and this review briefly discusses that.)

Spy Classroom has, as one of its main goals, to strike a careful balance between gripping, and frequently deadly, spy drama and the wackiest and goofiest of comedy. Sometimes it manages to hit this goal a bit better than others. The first story in this book is a good example: it’s almost entirely light-hearted, then gets more serious towards the end, then gets very serious as we’re reminded how screwed up Annette is. By contrast, the Erna story pinballs between very dark themes and “ha ha, Erna suffering emotionally is funny” so fast that I could not keep up, and it jars. That said, on the whole these short stories are stronger than the first collection, both tying into the girls’ backstories (Thea especially) and expanding on some of the books – the 4th short story is blatantly “there wasn’t room for this in the fourth volume”, as the author admits. And, as a Lily fan, I’m pleased with this, though it does not really remove my irritation of how she’s treated in the actual 4th book.

The wraparound story has Thea trying to decipher a note left to her by Hearth, the spy who mentored Klaus and also rescued Thea from kidnappers. Unfortunately, several of Lamplight get a very wrong idea about the note. In between this, we see Annette being the best waitress ever in order to see if a former spy front is now a legitimate restaurant; Sara gets a secret admirer and Thea tries to make sure that she has the best date ever while also making sure the guy is good enough; on the cruise to not-America in preparation for the 4th book, Erna discovers a suicide cult that makes her their leader; and during the events of the 4th book’s climax, we see how Lily managed to escape getting brutally murdered by Purple Ant’s people.

Some of the comedy in this is very amusing – Annette being a fantastic waitress, and everyone’s reaction to this, is probably the highlight. I think I’d have appreciated Erna’s story more if the suicide cult had not been… well, a suicide cult, and its attempts to show off how the war destroys the underbelly of society needed greater depth, I feel. Sara essentially takes over Thea’s story, and we are reminded that she is the one girl in Lamplight that everyone loves unreservedly. Reading Lily’s story I wondered if the author has read the Excel Saga manga, as Lily very much reminds me of Excel at times (what are you, Steel God Jeeg?), and her truly monstrous stamina is terrifying. And then there’s Thea’s backstory, as she confronts repressed memories of being raped by her kidnappers. Fortunately, the author knows this is NOT the time to insert some laughs, and it’s handled fairly well.

So yeah, good stuff. That said, I’d like to read the next few books of the actual series soon. How are things with our FILTHY TRAITOR? :)

A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 8

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By Yuu Tanaka and Nardack. Released in Japan as “Deokure Tamer no Sono Higurashi” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by A.M. Cola.

At one point in this book, the game is doing a huge mock battle with a massive bird enemy, featuring lots of derring-do and feats of strength, and Yuto manages to win the day by a combination of (accidental) self-sacrifice and being very clever, and he and his tamed monsters look very good doing it. At other points in the book, Yuto discovers rice and also gets a penguin as a tamed monster. It’s not a surprise to readers of this book that the latter two events get a far bigger reaction from other players than the first one. This is a series that revels in its little moments, to the point where the epilogue blatantly has the game devs talking about how their new competitor, about to be released, is deliberately designed to be as different from Law of Justice Online as possible. Yes, Yuto is very cool at times, much as he doesn’t think so. But more importantly, he can cook and has cute pets. Priorities.

The book starts with Yuto completing his underwater expedition with the three other girls in his temporary party, and arriving at a swampy paddy… which, much to his delight, contains an ingredient called “Paddy”, which can be used to make rice! Rice has been one of the foodstuffs that no one has been able to come across in the game, so this discovery is huge! It also leads to more of Yuto’s wacky cooking experiments. After this, we get another event, as Yuto and several others are sent to defend a small fortress that is being beset by birds, Hitchcock-style. Yuto spends most of this time finding bird-repelling things and being baffled that everyone is treating him as the leader of the group. He even manages to do some actual fighting, though it does, of course, kill him. And then there’s his new, tamed monster… a penguin!

It has been both amusing and a bit annoying seeing the evolving relationship between Yuto and Alyssa, his main contact with the information group Quick-Eared Cats. At the start of the series, she was mildly shocked at all the stuff that he’s brought to her and claimed was nothing. But by now his very appearance in their home base causes her to get ulcers and have panic attacks. I kind of wish they stayed closer, but I get it. Yuto’s number one character trait is being oblivious to his own greatness, and that means he has no idea that the things he’s bringing to her are worth a fortune – which means they’ll make the money back eventually, but it puts the Cats in an awkward position of being deep in debt right after every visit of his. As for the penguin, it’s basically written in to be a joke about the Tomihiko Morimi book Penguin Highway, but it also looks like it will be one of the stronger characters in future volumes.

Somehow I’m guessing the new game coming out to challenge LJO is going to struggle. Why shoot other players to death when you can watch a beat, a mole, and a penguin frolic around?

Pick of the Week: Breakfast, Crowns, and Insomniacs

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SEAN: As I said in Manga the Week of, I do like a good military fantasy. And with the series I like either about to finish or on hiatus, it’s a good time to grab a new one. The Crown of Rutile Quartz is my pick this week.

MICHELLE: I like food manga and I like cats, so my choice is clear: Breakfast with My Two-Tailed Cat!

ASH: Same! And yokai, too. I somehow hadn’t even heard of Breakfast with My Two-Tailed Cat before Sean mentioned the manga; I immediately placed a pre-order for the first volume.

KATE: A new volume of Insomniacs After School is always cause for celebration!

No Game No Life, Vol. 12

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Richard Tobin.

After a few volumes where I found myself sayhing “I know, I know, it’s skeezy as hell, but you just gotta power through it”, this new volume ends up being one of the strongest in quite some time. Now, this does not mean that it’s not filled with exactly what you’d expect from No Game No Life, after all. There’s tons of Steph being humiliated, especially in the back half, and there’s also two of Sora’s “harem” giving him what amount to naked selfies so he can masturbate. It’s still not something you’d recommend to your grandma. But this volume does a great job showing off the good points of the main characters, particularly Sora and Steph, while also continuing to set up the massive conflict teased in the previous book, and also possibly setting up for a major fracture between [ ] and their strongest ally in the next volume. The whole point of these games has been “no one actually dies” – that’s why they were created. But can someone get around that?

We begin with a massive 7-day celebration of Sora and Shiro’s one-year anniversary in arriving in Disboard, as well as a birthday celebration for both of them. While neither of them are wild about this at the start, it ends up being a fun and touching party… that is interrupted by the arrival of Schira Ha, here as a representative of the Devil, and announcing that their army will finally be destroying the world. Which, um, they’ve tried before, and it hasn’t gone well. Also, the Devil is represented in Disboard by a cute little puffball thing. That said, they do have a massive tower where the goal is to get past all 100 levels, and the reward is the race piece of all the devils. The game itself is a dungeon crawl, which Sora and Shiro should have no issues with, but the game requires hope… and that’s more of an issue.

If you know my reviews of prior books, you know this is where I talk about Steph. She’s terrific at the start of the book, being emotionally sensitive, highly capable, and also knowing Sora and Shiro better than anyone else. Naturally, seeing this, I knew we were in for a giant string of “Steph gets humiliated” later on, and that’s just what happens, as she’s forced into bikini armor… which then gets destroyed, leaving her naked. But I also love the idea that SHE is the powerhouse of their dungeon group, rather than any of the far more powerful others, mostly as, while she’s certainly gotten embarrassed and exasperated and irritated, Steph doesn’t get depressed. Which leads to a heaping pile of hope. That said, the ending of the volume, where Sora has to tell her that this game will be ending with them actually having to kill someone, promises that will change soon.

All this plus their nation is losing people by the day as everyone runs away! It’s a nasty cliffhanger, and we may wait another 18 months to get it resolved, but for fans of this series, this is a must read.

I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss, Vol. 7

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By Sarasa Nagase and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijo Nanode Rasubosu o Katte Mimashita” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

This is a short story volume, but it contains the basic theme for the entire series, which is that when Aileen is doomed, or on the verge of execution, or otherwise has to work really hard to achieve anything, she’s fantastic, amazing, stupendous. When she’s surrounded by her loving husband, loyal allies and BFFs, she has a tendency to… well, there’s no getting around it, she’s a sub. The end of the book discusses Aileen and Claude’s first time, which we briefly heard about at the end of Book 6, and it’s immediately apparent that Aileen is in terrible denial about the fact that, in bed, Claude can not only wrap her around his… not-so-little “finger”, but she also just gives in to him, which embarrasses and humiliates her. And also turns her on, we’re meant to understand. If this is a surprise to you at all, this must be your first volume. That said, there’s more to this volume than that.

The short stories in this book are in chronological order, with the earliest happening after Book 1 and the latest ones taking place at the end of Book 6. Most of them are short, and it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that they were extras with a store exclusive or DVD release. There are bulkier ones, though. One goes into much greater detail about how Walt and Kyle went from the Church’s honed weapons who are there to kill the Demon Lord to his most trusted bodyguards. (If your response is “because the Church is evil, congrats, you read Japanese light novels.) Because this is an otome game world, Valentine’s Day exists, and we get to see the ladies of the book (minus Lilia, who is notably absent from most of this volume) dole out candies and chocolates to all. And, as I mentioned above, Aileen and Claude have had their first time. He’s very, very happy. She’s a wreck.

I mentioned the lack of Lilia. She does show up at the very beginning, in a scene taking place before the start of Book 1. It mostly just shows off her perfect heroine vibes that she’s deliberately cultivating. More interesting is the end, where we see all the main couples do something. Aileen and Claude consummate, Isaac and Rachel decide to elope (their parents are against it) and buy a house. Auguste proposes to Serena, who reacts in exactly the way you’d expect a furious tsundere to react. Roxanne gets reassurance that she’s not just “the top of the harem” but the only wife. And Sahra… um, exists, I guess. They can’t all be gems. But Lilia is determined to avoid her fate. She declares she’s staying “All Ages”, despite being married to Cedric. What’s more, the thing that gets her over the moon more than anything this volume is not Cedric doing anything, but Aileen re-enacting, just for her, one of the villain CGs from the game. Lilia is far more like Maria Campbell than we’d expected, adn Cedric is still coming in second to the villainess in her heart.

So that was not essential, but it was pretty fun! Claude fans will love seeing him 100% in charge here. Presumably back to more “if Aileen doesn’t fix this immediately she’ll be executed” next time.

Manga the Week of 12/20/23

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SEAN: It’s almost Christmas, so get your Noddy Holder screams ready.

No debuts for Viz, but we do see Alice in Borderland 8, Insomniacs After School 4, Love’s in Sight! 5, Mission: Yozakura Family 8, Persona 5 11, and Rooster Fighter 5.

From Square Enix we see Daemons of the Shadow Realm 3, The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! 7, and Otherside Picnic 8.

Two manga debuts from Seven Seas. Breakfast with My Two-Tailed Cat (Nekomata to Asa Gohan) is a slice of life manga from Matogrosso. A man and his wife achieve their dream of retiring to the countryside, but then she dies. To stave off loneliness, he befriends a yokai cat, and the two of them turn this into a foodie manga.

MICHELLE: Huh. Potentially interesting!

ASH: Yokai, cats, and food? I’m in!

SEAN: Obey Me! The Comic is a josei title from MAGKAN. It’s based on an otome game (but is not, for once, in the “reborn in an otome game” genre) and also had an anime. A human is an exchange student at a school for demons! Can they escape?

ASH: Josei, you say?

SEAN: I mean, the audience is adult women, but it’s sort of for BL fans, but not quite BL… honestly trying to assign the big four genres to Mag Garden titles is like trying to catch fog.

ASH: Ha!

ANNA: I enjoy josei, otome games, and weird things from Mag Garden.

SEAN: Seven Seas also gives us Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order 10, Homunculus 5-6, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid 13, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Kanna’s Daily Life 11, Toradora! 11 (only one year after 10! The artist is improving!), and Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! 10.

ASH: I really need to get started on Homunculus.

SEAN: One Peace Books has a 3rd volume of Parallel World Pharmacy.

Kodansha Books has the 4th volume of My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1.

Kodansha Manga debuts She’s My Knight (Ikemen Kanojo to Heroine na Ore!?) in print. The three volumes in this series were previously released digital only. It’s a shoujo title from Palcy that’s basically “what if Kashima and Hori were the stars of Nozaki-kun?”.

ASH: Okay, I’m sold on it based on that description.

SEAN: Also in print: Drifting Dragons 15, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 9, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk 6, Orient 18, Quality Assurance in Another World 5, Rent-A-Girlfriend 22, The Seven Deadly Sins Omnibus 13, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 23.

ASH: I have a small stack of Drifting Dragons ready for me to read; better get to it!

SEAN: The digital debut is Don’t Tempt Me, VP! (Amayakasanaide Fuku Shachou: Danna-sama wa SSR), a josei manga from Ane Friend about an OL, deep in debt thanks to her horrible ex, getting a proposition from her company’s vice-president: marriage. It’s an 18-rated title, FYI.

ANNA: Alright!

SEAN: Also digital: Gamaran 16, Rocopon 2, TenPuru -No One Can Live on Loneliness- 9, and Ya Boy Kongming! 14.

Two debuts from J-Novel Club. The Crown of Rutile Quartz (Rutile Quartz no Taikan: Ō no Tanjō) starts off with a humble commoner finding out he’s really a prince… and that the rest of the royal family is dead. Oh, and they’re at war. This looks like a military fantasy type book, I like those.

ASH: I often do, too, especially when there’s court intrigue to go along with.

SEAN: Finding Avalon: The Quest of a Chaosbringer (Saiaku no Avalon) is a villainess book, only it’s a villain, similar to Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke. Can our hero lose weight and get powerful fast?

Also out from J-Novel Club: Black Summoner 15, the 4th A Cave King’s Road to Paradise: Climbing to the Top with My Almighty Mining Skills! manga volume, The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom 6, Fake Saint of the Year: You Wanted the Perfect Saint? Too Bad! 3, I Only Have Six Months to Live, So I’m Gonna Break the Curse with Light Magic or Die Trying 3, My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World 8, My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex 9, the 6th Rebuild World manga, and the 5th Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster manga.

Ghost Ship has an 8th volume of Sundome!! Milky Way.

Dark Horse has a 2nd volume of the Hellsing re-release.

Airship, in print, gives us I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! 4, Raven of the Inner Palace 4, A Tale of the Secret Saint 5, and Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court 5.

ASH: I’m so far behind on everything, but still interested in reading Raven of the Inner Palace at some point.

SEAN: And in early digital we see Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut 7 (the final volume), Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court 6, and Yes, No, or Maybe? 2.

Are you hanging up your stocking on your wall? It’s the time when every Santa has a ball.

The Magician Who Rose from Failure: Tales of War and Magic, Vol. 6

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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.

So many series these days are some form of “magic academy” that it actually feels like a step backwards for The Magician Who Rose From Failure to go there. I mean, Arcus has invented the magic thermometer! He’s taken part in a major war, and killed bad guys! He’s even survived his uncle’s arduous training! But of course, all of that doesn’t mean much to the population at large. Especially since the royal family wants to keep the invention a secret for now, to make the impact greater later on. And Arcus is, to the population at large, that kid with almost no aether, the disgrace of the family, a worm who does not deserve anything. Certainly his family (minus Licia) still think so. And, well, we’re going to a magic academy. So here we are, back to the beginning in some ways, with everyone bullying and belittling Arcus. Fortunately, he has his sister and his future wives. And, well, we may need to add more wives to that stack.

The first quarter of the book is taken up with a very awkward party, where the royal family greets people while Arcus has a series of encounters ranging from irritating and upsetting (his father) to irritating and discomfiting (the various foreign leaders, many of who Arcus knows, trying to lure him to their country). After this Arcus takes the entrance exam to the magical academy, where he hopes to gain some new knowledge in his quest to learn more about magic. And he does! It’s just that, well, he runs into teachers who try to “publicly execute” him (Arcus’ words) for his low aether, to the granddaughter of the school’s Headmaster, who regards Arcus’ mere presence at the academy a farce, and demands a duel so that, if she wins, he has to leave the school. She’s never lost before.

Let me get my biggest annoyance with the book out of the way first: all of the girls who started this series around the age of 10 years old have hit puberty, many of them with a bang, and it has become apparent the artist really enjoys drawing large breasts in a thoroughly awkward way. Not a fan. Aside from that, and the fact that this is a magical academy story at all, this was a decent volume in the series. Sue didn’t show up till the back third, but when she did she made her appearance count, and I enjoy the fact that she and Charlotte know they’re rivals for Arcus but also don’t hesitate to team up when there’s a threat from someone else. I also really liked the scenes of Lecia and her pet demon, who I suspect is going to make life a lot more difficult in the future, but honestly it’s just good seeing her get something to do at all. And there’s a new girl, Setsura, who seems to be written in as “the annoying one”. And, well, she is.

So on the whole, I’m pleased that we got more of this series, but I wish it was going in a different direction. And got a new artist. Oh well. I still want to read what comes next.