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Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools, Vol. 7

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By Hisaya Amagishi and Kei. Released in Japan as “Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Osman Wong.

One thing I haven’t really talked about with Dahlia in Bloom is a fact that it shares with a lot of more male-oriented isekai/reincarnation titles, which is polygamy. It’s made clear here that a lot of nobles have multiple wives (it does not go the other way round, btw), and that commoners can also do this, but most don’t. And this is important because Dahlia and Volf are still denying that they have anything but friendship between each other, which makes Dahlia very vulnerable, not only to single men, but to married men who see her as a hot commodity and can afford a second wife. The trouble is that Dahlia is a one-man woman, and she wants her partner to be a one-woman man. Plus, y’know, Dahlia’s usual self-deprecation. Things are going to have to come to a head soon, because as this volume shows, Dahlia’s inventions are revolutionizing everything, be it military-grade weaponry or a kotatsu.

There are basically two subplots in this book. The first involves Dahlia and Volf’s quest for the perfect magic sword, which in this case ends up being two swords connected by a wire. When showing them off to his fellow knights, Volf doesn’t want to make Dahlia more popular than she is, so says it came from a weapons company started by his brother. Sadly, the weapon proves SO popular that everyone then goes to his brother to talk about it. The other subplot is Dahlia making a kotatsu, which immediately becomes the biggest thing since sliced bread. Everyone wants one, they’re (relatively) easy to make, and the lead to “degeneracy” as no one wants to come out from under them after they first try it. Even the royal family are buying it. Which, again, reminds you that Dahlia has come up with at least 7-8 history-changing inventions during this series, and is still single. Please be careful, Dahlia.

This volume has a much larger role for Dahlia’s friend Lucia, probably because Lucia’s spinoff series, Lucia and the Loom (also licensed by J-Novel Club recently) debuted between books 6 and 7. Lucia is basically what Dahlia would be if she had confidence, and she’s a lot of fun. She too is single, and she too is vulnerable to getting marriage proposals, this time from Forto, whose wife shows up asking if Lucia will become Forto’s second wife. The first wife is basically pure nobility, which does not help, but also, like Dahlia, Lucia wants to marry for love, to one man, who will also only have one partner. That last one is the definite sticking point in this series, as there’s a lot of guys who are “not exclusive”. Dahlia’s solution is obvious – just hit her and Volf in the head over and over till they get it – but I’m not sure what will be happening with Lucia down the road, especially if her star is hitched to Dahlia’s.

There’s only one more volume to go till we’re caught up with Japan, so folks waiting for the payoff may have to wait even longer. Till then, this is fine.

Pick of the Week: Burning Bright

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KATE: I was going to be a party-pooper and opt out of this week’s column, but then I read the blurb for Tiger, Tiger and I was sold. High seas adventure? Swashbuckling pirates? Smart, resourceful heroines? Yes, please!

SEAN: My pick is the 3rd in a series I’ve really come to love, The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This. One of the better “normal adults” yuri manga out there.

MICHELLE: I’m still so asquee about Don’t Call It Mystery that I’m tempted to pick that again, but I’ll go with volume ten of Lovesick Ellie. This is as far as I got when reading the first time, and checking out Love, That’s An Understatement recently reminded me how much I enjoy Fujimomo’s work. Looking forward to seeing how Lovesick Ellie wraps up.

ASH: Those all sound like great choices, but I’m with Kate this week—Tiger, Tiger is the release that has my attention. Hiveworks comics often match my taste, but this one looks to be particularly excellent. I’m glad to see Hiveworks teaming up with Seven Seas to bring this webcomic to even wider distribution in print.

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 8

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By Natsu Hyuuga and Touko Shino. Released in Japan as “Kusuriya no Hitorigoto” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

For most of the volume this almost seems like a short story book, with Maomao running around dealing with various things one by one. It’s only when we get near the end that we realize that all the stories we’d seen earlier are all tying together, and all of them are there to show off Maomao and how good she is at what she does, whether that be medicine, or crime-solving, or even just being blunt as hell. She may be annoyed about all of this, but she still does it, mostly for the promise of good food, good medicine, or the chance to avoid people that she’d rather never deal with again, i,e, Lakan, who is slightly less annoying than he normally is in these books, but that’s only because he’s performing the equivalent of a wake. And this all culminates in a final scene that I really don’t want to spoil, which is basically “who gets Maomao?”, and the consequences are larger than you think.

Maomao spends a lot of the book with Yao and En’en by her side, wondering offhandedly if this might be that thing humans call… friendship? She’s just gotten a pile of Go books written by Lakan, presumably as a present, and she’s desperate to sell them, especially when she hears how much people might actually be willing to pay for a book written by a legendary player. But first she has to solve the question of why the consistency of the makeup at a store has changed, the question of which of three identical triplets raped an underage girl, and the question of who stole – or sabotaged – the Empress’ hair stick, perhaps as a threat. All of this culminates in a massive Go tournament, with the rumor being that if anyone can defeat Lakan, he will grant them one wish. The rumor is fake, but that doesn’t stop someone from wondering if this is a way to solve his problems…

After featuring heavily in the first few books, we haven’t seen much of Gyokuyou recently, and this book tries to make up for it. She’s not having a great time right now. Her servants keep leaving (as tends to happen, they mostly leave to get married), and new ones are not coming her way because of her manipulative brother. Fortunately, she has a set of identical triplets (no relation, though they also are caught up in one of the crimes Maomao has to solve) to help her, but her oldest attendant is now over 30 and still not married, which is worrying. She *really* misses Maomao, who is a masterclass at cutting to the heart of everything. Unfortunately, she’s reckoned without the fact that Jinshi is ALSO really missing Maomao, and he’s far more obsessed with her than Gyokuyou is. I will not spoil the final scene, but it’s dynamite, with Maomao for once not being able to do anything as the three most powerful people in the country fight over her.

It does leave the question of where we go from here. The blurb for the 9th novel is suitably vague, so we shall see. Till then, please enjoy another book of this very prickly young woman who absolutely everyone adores.

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord, Vol. 1

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By Satori Tanabata and Tea. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō Level 99: Watashi wa Ura Boss Desu ga Maō dewa Arimasen” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by sachi salehi.

One of the frequent complaints about fantasy light novels that I’ve seen is that everything tends to be dependent on stats and levels, even when the novel in question is not depicting a world based on a game or people trapped inside a game. Because of Japanese RPGs being the default fantasy for everyone rather than, say, Lord of the Rings or Narnia, everything is about level grinding and raising your stats to the point where you can do things. It’s fine if you’re the reincarnated from Japan person – like our heroine in this book. But to the rest of the cast, this is just their world, and it just… has levels, for some reason that no one quite knows. Even the king thinks it’s baffling. Unfortunately, that’s also the plot of this series, as our heroine is all powerful and ALSO has the stereotypical hair color that makes her clearly EVIL. Fortunately, she’s not evil. Well, mostly. She wavers a bit.

Yumiella Dolkness remembers fairly quickly her past life from Japan (which we get no details about except that she was killed by a car) and knows she’s in a game she played – as the villainess, who also turns out, once you’ve beaten the game, to be a hidden super-strong final boss. Yumiella wants nothing to do with this, at first… but then realizes that if she wants to actually survive, she’d better be strong enough to stand up to the heroine and her love interests. Plus, she loves grinding levels. And, helpfully, her parents have essentially abandoned her in the countryside with only a servant or two, so it’s easy to go out and find monsters and dungeons. Now she’s arrived at the Academy, ordered to do so by her parents (who she’s still never met), and just wants to quietly get through school… despite being 99 times more powerful than most of the student body.

The strength of this book is Yumiella, though she’s also one of the weaknesses, as her personality can vary highly depending on what the writer wants to do. At the start, she’s relatively stoic and blase about everything. As the book goes on, though, she starts to get a lot more “eccentric” in a Katarina Claes sort of way, especially when she ends up raising a dragon as her pet, not understanding why anyone wouldn’t think it was anything but adorable. Then at the end, when things have to turn serious, she’s mostly back to the first, with an added helping of “why aren’t you trying to destroy the country?” from the demon lord. He has a point, given how the very shallowly written heroine treats her. The answer might be Patrick, Yumiella’s love interest, and the only one who really treats her as a person – though he has to work at it. Frankly, given when we meet Yumiella she really DOES think about blowing up the school once or twice, it’s not hard to see where the “hidden boss” thing came from.

Still, overall this was more good than bad, and everything wrapped up nicely in one book. Except, of course, there’s five books and counting, plus an anime on the way. Guess we’ll see you back here in a couple months.

Spy Classroom: Fool Erna Once

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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.

It should go without saying, but the series Spy Classroom involves spies. And spies can sometimes be not nice people. Downright unpleasant, in fact. We’ve seen that in previous books, with villains working for other countries ranging from weak to comically evil. But for the most part, we know our girls. Those wacky, lovable scamps who are all dropouts but come together in the end with the power of friendship. Surely they’re all different! Well, OK, not Annette. We already know fro previous books that Annette is one of the only girls in Lamplight who can, when push comes to shove, do something cruel. But she may not be alone, as we learn in this book that focuses, for once, on the character the anime tried desperately to adapt and failed miserably. The character that even the publisher tried to avoid drawing for the longest time. A girl plagued by misfortune. Which even extends to this review, because sorry, Erna, Sara is my favorite character in this book.

After the triumph of the fourth book, and becoming an official team, things are not going very well for Lamplight. They’ve been screwing up mission after mission, and believe it or not, it’s not JUST Lily. Things take a turn for the worse, though, when they meet two members of another spy organization working for their country, Avian. If Lamplight is composed of dropouts and washouts, Avian is composed of only the top graduates of spy schools. And recently, their handler was killed, meaning they don’t have a leader. After discerning that Lamplight are pathetic and awful, Avian decide that Klaus should be their leader instead, and Lamplight can all go back to spy school where they truly belong. Of course, the girls are not going to take this lying down, and it ends up becoming a competition to see who the best spy team really is!

If you thought that my description of Lamplight in the last paragraph was a bit mean, you ain’t heard nothing yet. Avian may be just as eccentric as Lamplight, but they’re far, far more skilled, and they have a heaping helping of arrogance to go with it. They’ve also had actual completion of spy school, which means they have an extra technique the Lamplight girls do not, and much of this book amounts to our heroines “trying to reach their second form”. Sara comes close, and actually manages to kick ass and take names (yes, Sara, the animal girl), but of course Erna is the star of the book, for spoilery reasons, and it’s her own development that provides the big climax. It also allows Klaus to have a paternal talk with her, which I appreciate, as Klaus as a hottie everyone wants to bone is not my favorite thing. (That also comes up here, alas.)

All this plus one of THOSE epilogues, the ones that really like to kick you in the teeth and then make you wait for months or so for the next book. This book, though, was good, and arrives just in time for the second half of the anime, which… has nowhere to go but up.

The Manga Review: Scrolling Down the River

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Kicking off this week’s news round-up is Shueisha’s announcement that it will launch its own manga app in 2024. The twist? Jump Toon will publish stories in a vertical scrolling format… will Netflix’s upcoming One Piece adaptation satisfy fans or alienate them?… Golden Kamuy creator Satoru Noda will be launching a new series this summer in the pages of Weekly Young Jump… Yen Press just unveiled six new licensing acquisitions… and Shueisha has teamed up with Marvel on a new manga: Spider-Man: Octopus Girl, in which Doc Oc finds himself trapped inside the body of a Japanese schoolgirl.

AROUND THE WEB

The Manga Machinations gang dig into the VIZ Signature archives to review three titles: Orochi, House of Five Leaves, and Saturn Apartments, all of which are now available on the VIZ Manga app. [Manga Machinations]

Robert Adams has the scoop on Yumi Tamura’s much-anticipated series Don’t Call It a Mystery. [Dad Needs to Talk]

Andy and Elliot dedicate the latest installment of Screentone Club to March Comes in Like a Lion and Crescent Moon Marching. [Screentone Club]

The hosts of Manga Kaiwa gush over the first new chapters of Berserk to be published since Kentaro Miura’s untimely death in 2021. [Manga Kaiwa]

Bill Curtis compiles a list of June’s new manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

If you’ve been curious about Dandadan, let Muraktama Rodrigues persuade you to give this exuberant supernatural comedy a try. “The creature designs are amazing,” he notes, “borrowing from different mythologies, urban legends, and even western horror comics, once again favoring the weird, ridiculous, and funny rather than the horrifying and disgusting.” [How to Love Comics]

REVIEWS

Palomo Lin-Linares pronounces The Strange Tale of Panorama Island “quite tame compared to other Suehiro Maruo works”… Kristin gives high marks to the 35th anniversary edition of AKIRA…. Megan D. revisits Shirahime-Syo, “a beautiful little oddity from CLAMP”… That Manga Hunter reviews the full run of Love and Lies… and my Manga Bookshelf colleague Sean Gaffney offers brief reviews of Blue Box, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, and The Yakuza’s Bias.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

March Comes in Like a Lion, Vol 1

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March Comes in Like a Lion Volume 1 by Chica Umino

March Comes in Like a Lion was one of the releases I was most anticipating this year, and it was so worth the wait. The opening panels show Rei Kiriyama waking up, getting ready, going to a shogi hall, playing a game against a man he knows. Throughout this introduction Rei says nothing, and the panels of the shogi game are intercut with scenes from Rei’s childhood. When Rei wins the game and his opponent gets up and mentions that he and his family members are worried for him, Rei waits until he’s alone to say “Liar.” Rei then heads home, just as isolated, but he’s interrupted by a flurry of texts and goes over to the Kawamoto sisters’ house, where he’s immediately enveloped in a warm family gathering.

March Comes in like a Lion

Umino balances portraying isolation, trauma, and depression with great skillfulness and moments of humor. She packs in so many slice of life character development vignettes into just a few panels. I appreciated the shonen battle stylings of Nikaido, who proclaims himself Rei’s rival and soon-to-become best friend. Rei goes to the hostess bar where Akari Kawamoto works with some other shogi players, and she cheerfully manipulates his companions into promising to look after Rei. Rei’s background is shown through a series of non-linear flashbacks, and while by the end of the first volume the reader has a sense of what has caused Rei to be so isolated, it is certain that there will be plenty more revelations ahead. One thing I really enjoyed is that the relationship between Rei and the Kawamoto sisters isn’t one sided – Rei also supports the sisters in his own quiet way.

Denpa’s production quality is excellent, with extras like french flaps and a color fold-out poster included at the start of the volume, which makes the manga feel like a bit more of a special collector’s edition. I also appreciated the essays about shogi that accompanied the story. I’m all in for this manga and seeing how Rei’s journey unfolds.

The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent, Vol. 8

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By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

This may sound like a comparison only I would make (because it is), but a lot of Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent is starting to feel like Der Werwolf to me. Specifically, our saint tends to regard herself as just an ordinary researcher who can use ingredients really well, whereas in reality everyone else in the world knows that she’s a… well, a SAINT. Literally, as we see here, as a gift that she gives to a colleague ends up healing permanent burn scars that another woman had on her face. It’s as biblical as they come, frankly, lacking only Sei literally laying hands on her. That said… no one actually mentions this happened to Sei, because I think they realize quickly that telling her “you did a miracle that saved by friend, I would die for you” would just make Sei feel uncomfortable. And she’s got enough trouble as it is, because a simple visit to the opera might torpedo her first love!

Sei has wrapped up all the monster hunting in Albert’s hometown, and is free to do things like sampling the local dried sausages and giving recommendations on how to turn a hot spring into a hot spring village. After that, she’s back home, trying to figure out how to get more land for her herbs and plants when everyone else in the research department also wants land. Thankfully, the King comes to the rescue by giving her and Johan an estate just outside the city which can house, essentially, top secret stuff – including most of what Sei deals with. And then there’s that trip to the opera I mentioned before. She goes with Yuri, and everything seems fine, but all of a sudden the rumor goes around that she and Yuri are getting engaged! Has Albert heard this rumor?

I really do love that this series is basically bereft of children (especially now that the prince has been exiled) and everyone has normal, sensible reactions. Albert hears the rumor, and his reaction is not “wow, it must be true, time to panic”, but to immediately understand what happened. Indeed, Sei may be the most immature one here, and the reason Albert has been courting her at a snail’s pace is for that very reason – he can tell she’s not ready for love yet. But she’s more ready than he might think, and what’s more, events have made it so that he HAS to take action. What follows is what I usually describe as “the payoff”, and it’s absolutely sweet and heartwarming. I could do without that ominous cliffhanger, though…

I would have liked to have seen more of Aria aside from the stories at the end (which are, like Bofuri, store exclusives from past volumes), but since she has her own spinoff I suppose it makes sense not to involve her. Fans of Sei and Albert will eat this up, though.

Manga the Week of 6/7/23

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SEAN: Oh dear, June is busting out all over. Better call a plumber.

Yen On has two debuts – sort of. They have a deal with J-Novel Club to do print releases of some of their more popular series. As such, debuting in print are Hell Mode: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing and My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!. Both popular enough to get print, and both very much in a genre that people are vocally divided about these days.

ASH: I’m not particularly interested in these specific titles myself, but I do like to see these sorts of publisher collaborations.

SEAN: And Yen Press gives us The Case Study of Vanitas 9.

No debuts or final volumes for Viz, but a bunch of books. We see Ayashimon 2, Dragon Ball Super 18, Ima Koi: Now I’m in Love 6, Mashle: Magic and Muscles 12, Rainbow Days 4, Sakamoto Days 8, and Snow White with the Red Hair 25.

Udon Entertainment have Persona 5: Comic À La Carte, an anthology of manga and short stories based in the Persona 5 world, by various artists.

Square Enix has a 2nd volume of My Clueless First Friend.

I normally don’t mention OEL in this list, but Seven Seas is debuting Tiger, Tiger, an Eisner-nominated webcomic, so I will note it’s out next week. Looks good!

ASH: Oh! Speaking of collaborations between publishers, this one should be great!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers 6, Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 4, Futari Escape 3, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Comic) 2, I’m Kinda Chubby and I’m Your Hero 2 (the final volume), The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This 3, Yakuza Reincarnation 6, Yokai Cats 4, and You Like Me, Not My Daughter?! 3.

MICHELLE: I didn’t realize I’m Kinda Chubby and I’m Your Hero was so short! Better get on it.

SEAN: No debuts for Kodansha either, but we see Grand Blue Dreaming 19, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk 4, Lovesick Ellie 10, Orient 15, and Quality Assurance in Another World 2 in print.

MICHELLE: I got up to volume nine in my previous gush-filled read of Lovesick Ellie, so this one will actually be new to me! Very excite.

ANNA: I need to get caught up!

ASH: Likewise!

SEAN: Debuting digitally is Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Aqua, a sequel to the original Pichi Pichi Pitch that Del Rey put out years ago here. It runs in Nakayoshi, and stars the daughter of the original heroine.

Also digital: Chihayafuru 38, The God-Tier Guardian and the Love of Six Princesses 8, How to Grill Our Love 2, Life 4, MF Ghost 14, My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 10, and Quality Assurance in Another World 8.

MICHELLE: Obligatory Chihayafuru squee!

ANNA: One day I will read it!!!

SEAN: Kaiten Books has a 7th manga volume of Loner Life in Another World.

One debut from J-Novel Club: Magic Stone Gourmet: Eating Magical Power Made Me The Strongest (Maseki Gourmet: Mamono no Chikara wo Tabeta Ore wa Saikyō!), which has reincarnated into a fantasy world, hero’s family hates him (except his mom here), useless powers that turn out to be awesome, all the bells and whistles you’re used to.

ASH: I continue to be surprised; I was not expecting a pica-based fantasy.

SEAN: We also see the 15th Ascendance of a Bookworm manga volume, which starts the 3rd arc, BLADE & BASTARD 2, Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower 10, Full Metal Panic! Short Stories 6, The Ideal Sponger Life 12, In Another World With My Smartphone 27, Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World 4, Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World 6, and Record of Wortenia War 19.

ASH: Bookworm!

SEAN: From Ghost Ship we get Do You Like Big Girls? 7 and the 24th and final volume of Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs.

Airship has a debut… or two debuts, depending how you look at it. To Every You I’ve Loved Before (Boku ga Aishita Subete no Kimi e) and To Me, The One Who Loved You (Kimi o Aishita Hitori no Boku e) are a paired duo of books that were recently made into a paired duo of movies, and feature a teenage couple dealing with parallel worlds. They can be read in any order.

ASH: I am intrigued.

SEAN: Also in print we see Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 22 and Raven of the Inner Palace 2.

ASH: I really need to get around to reading Raven of the Inner Palace.

SEAN: And there’s an early digital release of 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! 4.

Did we finish cleaning June up? Or is there more June still to come?

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 9

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By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Bad news, folks: I think Bofuri may be starting to bore me. This is a combination of several factors, really. The anime decided to speedrun its second season, and as such this volume consists of stuff that I already watched for the first time in a few volumes. This volume is also almost entirely a “kill monsters” book, which means there’s very little for me to talk about and glom on to, and of course no character development. Hell, the nature of this book makes some characters worse – Mii appears throughout, but she’s always surrounded by people from other guilds, so she’s always in super serious mode. But super serious is not why I want to read Mii. Add all this up and we’re left with a volume that I found majorly underwhelming, not helped by a pile of pointless short stories from various retail giveaways added at the end. Honestly, the most interesting character now might be Iz, who’s become the star of Kaboom!.

The second part of this event has started, and Maple Tree rapidly set up a base (complete with ludicrous deathtraps) and go to find some monsters and dungeons to clear out. As the event goes on, though, they get split up, and each seems to hook up with members of the other two guilds we know, Mi’s group and Payne’s group. This leads to some different dynamics as the groups are forced to work together, though honestly, everyone in the groups is nice, so it’s not that much of a struggle. Eventually they decide to just do this level as a massive 16-person superunit, and, as the mods note, that’s terrible news – for the monsters. Still, the difficulty level gets higher and higher as the event goes on, with even Maple starting to have trouble killing these guys off. can Maple Tree all survive to the end and get their medals?

I mean, yes. This is not a “struggling underdog” sort of series, this is Maple. The most interesting part of her journey here might be the signal everyone sets up in case they’re separated, which turns out to be Maple literally blowing herself up over and over to create the equivalent of a flare. As I said before, Iz has become more and more relaxed and willing to “go crazy” with each book, and here we see her basically applying “when all you have is a hammer” only with bombs. Which work nicely. She also helps the twins essentially play lethal croquet, which was also amusing. If I recall, fans of the books complained the anime changed a part of this book which separated the twins briefly. Which might have been true, except neither twin did anything while separated. I think the author thinks of them as one character, too.

So the event is over, and we presumably start a new arc next time. I’m hoping that it will grab my attention more. Perhaps Maple and Sally on a date… erm, exploring together?