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Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Vol. 1

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

I think, like most people, I have no desire to go back in time and try to do things differently. Not because I’m reasonably content with all my life choices, but simply because I know that if I ever did I would be resolutely terrible at it, and probably locked away within the first week. I suppose with Haibara it helps that he’s not all that far removed from his past, but still: there’s too many ways for everything to go wrong. As indeed we find in this book, where we discover that the only thing worse than screwing up, is NOT screwing up. Fortunately, it turns out that Haibara’s old past was mostly self-inflicted, and that he’s hanging out with a nice gang of popular kids. Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle might argue this is a bit unrealistic, but it’s not meant to be. Everyone knows what they’re getting with this teenage fantasy. And to its credit, it’s written pretty well.

Natsuki Haibara is a college student who regrets his past. He tried to reinvent himself in high school, and it was such a failure that it cost him any friends he once had. He spent the rest of his time in a self-described grey existence. And so he makes a wish to God to get a do-over… and wakes up back in his parents’ home, 7 years earlier. He’s just graduated middle school, meaning he’s still overweight, wearing glasses, and fashion ignorant. He can’t do much about the last, but he can fix the first two, and goes on a month-long binge to get himself to the point where he can have a rainbow-colored high school debut… this time with the experience of knowing exactly where he went wrong. But that experience can cut both ways, and it turns out that just because you’ve gained 7 years worth of talents it does not make you less oblivious about other people’s feelings.

I appreciated that the main conflict in this first volume is not directly about Haibara and a series of girls who kind of like him (though that is of course here as well, as that’s the genre we’re in), but about trying to reconnect with one of the few friends in high school who supported him until he finally screwed up too much, Tatsuya. Initially Haibara is really wary of Tatsuya, and it shows, but he asks his friend Reita (who is the standard “cool hot boy” in these stories) to let him work it out himself. Then, he can’t take his own advice as he’s unable to realize that, thanks to years of extra experience, he’s now TOO perfect, to the point where he makes others jealous of him. And now he doesn’t realize that the answer is mostly “let Tatsuya work it out himself”. Luckily, everything turns out OK.

This can be hard to read at times, especially if you have no desire to relive the horrors of high school interrelations, but it’s solid and avoids most of the pitfalls I was hoping it would avoid. It’s decent romcom, with a minimum of rom at the moment, though I expect that to change.

The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices, Vol. 1

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By Mamecyoro and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Gotsugou Shugi na Kaiketsu Tantou no Oujo de aru” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Henshaw.

When you’re talking about a genre, it’s never quite just the same thing. No, not even isekai series starring Potato-kun protagonists. There’s mix and match, there’s variations, there’s ways to make this different enough that we don’t get sued. And some genres cross over with others. For example, one genre I quite like is “everyone thinks that the protagonist is being ridiculously clever and crafty, when they’re really just improvising and winging it”. Tearmoon Empire is probably the best current example, but we’ve seen a few others. And, of course, there are BL fantasy novels, where true love is found even if you have to rewrite reality so that the kingdom is predominately gay. And, of course, there are villainess books, where our heroine ends up being accused of things she either never did, or only did in the source material. Put them all together and you’ve got this series, which asks: how would a kingdom run on BL really work out?

Maki was a girl who loved BL novels, particularly a series called The Noble King. It features a kingdom where the king is married to another man, and his son the prince is also in love with a man. In the novels, the prince’s younger sister, Octavia, was a big supporter of theirs, a perfect side character for a BL series. But now Mari has died and is reincarnated *as* Octavia, and has to deal with how the writer manages to have a working dynasty with all the nobility being gay: she will be married off (possibly to a not-gay man, possibly as a beard), produce a child, and then give him to her older brother and have him raise the child as his own. Needless to say, this does not delight Octavia AT ALL. She’s going to find a man of her own! There’s just one slight problem… everyone else thinks she has designs to take over the throne. And is possibly evil.

Octavia, in this first volume, is not an airhead like Katarina Claes. She sees her problem and takes actions to solve it. But she’s also not a clever genius like a lot of other Villainess heroines. Most of her action taking is spur of the moment and improvised, and sometimes quickly regretted. She is, in other words, a normal person reacting the way a normal person would to being in a novel that she’s very familiar with… to a point. (She died after Book 5, so has missed some later stuff.) Unfortunately, to a noble family who are used to everyone acting like they were born into nobility and set in very defined roles… she’s incredibly hard to read, and her actions frequently make no sense. Such as hiring as her new bodyguard a man who is likely an assassin. Or being ambivalent about her older brother’s relationship. Or… in political terms, she’s a bomb that hasn’t gone off yet. This provides terrific tension, which is offset by her narrative voice, which is very “chatty teen girl”.

Basically, this is excellent. It also moves a lot slower than I expected, as we only cover about three days in this first book. We don’t even get a ball where Octavia can be publicly shamed! Possibly next time?

Qualia the Purple

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By Hisamitsu Ueo and Shirou Tsunashima. Released in Japan as “Murasakiiro no Qualia” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Daniel Komen. Adapted by Carly Smith.

I actually had to double check the dates after finishing this volume, to see which came first: Qualia the Purple or Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The answer is Qualia came first, by about two years. Still, folks who are familiar with the main plot of PMMM are going to find certain similarities to the main plot of Qualia, even if the two are handled quite differently. Qualia the Purple doesn’t involve Magical Girls, but it is a hard SF series about trying to save someone over and over again and being unable to fix things no matter how many tries are made, as well as the dangers of grief and obsession. The first third is a short story that won an award, the last two thirds are the expansion for the light novel. The last two thirds are the reason to read the book, but I would not blame readers who stop after Page 30 or so. The start of this book is deadly boring, and while the plot twist explains why, it’s still boring.

The girl on the cover, and the center of the book, is Yukari, a young “genius” middle school girl who sees everything as robots. When she’s looking at someone else, she sees them as a robot. This has led to difficulties. The narrator, and the actual protagonist of the series, is Manabu, aka “Gaku-chan”, an athletic girl in Yukari’s class who is her best friend and is, at least initially, the “normal” girl in the story. That begins to change when Yukari is drawn into the search for a serial killer. It changes even more when there’s a new transfer student in the second chunk of the book, Alice, who is determined to befriend Yukari and have her join an organization for geniuses. And everything completely falls apart when Yukari is killed, and the REAL plot kicks in.

Intellectually, I think this book is excellent… once you get past Manabu explaining Yukari to the reader in cute ways over the dire first 30 pages. The climax to the “short story” part of the book was well handled and surprising, and the hard SF gobbledygook that infests the second part (and there is an awful lot of that, be aware) is at least vaguely understandable. Manabu’s growing desperation and the lengths she will go to in order to try to save Yukari are jaw-dropping, and I can appreciate the writing quality and the thought that went into the plot itself. Emotionally, I sort of hated this. Mostly as I really, really started to hate Manabu. She does not skimp on telling us the things she does and the people she manipulates in order to do what she is doing, and some of it (particularly Alice’s subplot) are frankly loathsome. It’s on purpose, of course, but that doesn’t mean I want to read it. There’s also the problem, which Yukari herself brings up, that everything is being done for her sake but she’s not allowed to make the choice herself. Yukari ends up being a goal rather than a character in the last half of the book.

Of course, I’m supposed to feel all this. That’s the point. I do recommend this book, which is like a puzzle in many ways, and the way that Manabu’s narration changes as she does, sometimes from line to line, is amazing. Just… it’s not a feel good book.

The Manga Review: Year-End Spectacular

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As 2022 draws to a close, there’s still time to support your favorite manga charity with a book or cash donation. Two organizations I highly recommend are Reader to Reader, which is based in Amherst, MA, and the Carolina Manga Library, which is based in Fayetteville, NC. Reader to Reader has dedicated itself to providing books “free of charge, to under-resourced school libraries and public libraries across the United States,” while the Carolina Manga Library brings its collection directly to readers: “The Library travels to conventions, book festivals, schools, and other libraries to set up free reading rooms of graphic novels” with the goal of “using graphic novels, comics, and Japanese manga as genuine tools for improving literacy.” Another way to make a difference in a young person’s life is Donors Choose, a site that enables public school teachers to crowd-source funding for supplies, books, and projects. Right now, over 150 educators around the country need your help purchasing manga for their students. No donation is too small; even a few dollars can make a difference!

One programming note: The Manga Review will be on hiatus until Friday, January 6th. If you have a best-of-2022 post that you’d like included in the January 6th column, leave a comment below or DM me on Twitter (@manga_critic). Wishing everyone a safe and happy new year!

NEWS AND VIEWS

Don’t forget to take the 2022 Yuri Fandom Survey; Erica Friedman is keenly interested in hearing about your experiences with yuri. Why now? Friedman explains: “Over the years there has been a lot of research into Boys Love and BL fandom and it seemed time to set up something to get a feel for what Yuri fandom is like in the 2020s, now that it has an established presence in most Japanese pop-culture media.” [Okazu]

Good news from Japan: Akira Toriyama’s criminally under-appreciated SAND LAND is getting the big-screen treatment. No word yet on when the film will be released, but there’s already a teaser trailer. [Otaku USA]

Also coming to the silver screen is an adaptation of Shinichi Ishikzuka’s Blue Giant, which will arrive in theaters on February 17, 2023. [Otaku USA]

Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg dedicate a recent episode of Cartoonist Kayfabe to one of my all-time favorite manga: Jiro Taniguchi’s Hotel Harbour View, a collection of intertwined stories that owe a big debt to Dashiell Hammett. [Cartoonist Kayfabe]

Also worth a listen is Katie Skelly, Sally Madden and Bhanu Pratap’s in-depth conversation about Seiichi Hayashi’s Red-Colored Elegy. [Thick Lines]

The newest issue of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies is now available online, with articles about Grave of the Fireflies, Sailor Moon, Stop!! Hibari-Kun!, and Mobile Suit Gundam, as well as essays about the impact of COVID-19 on anime conventions. [JAMS]

Jocelyne Allen is cautiously optimistic about Natsume Ono’s newest series Bokura ga Koi o Shina no wa. “This is the story I have wanted to read from Ono for so long,” Allen notes. “Her thoughtful style with an eye for capturing little moments works so well on this kind of leisurely character study. She knows just what to put on the page to evoke a certain mood or give us a little insight into a particular character’s thinking, often letting her images speak entirely for themselves. So I will dare to pick up volume three and hope that Ono keeps going in this very welcome direction.” [Brain vs. Book]

THE BEST AND WORST OF 2022

Whether you’ve been a long-time listener or just discovered the Mangasplaining podcast, you’ll want to check out their year-in-review episode for some great recommendations. [Mangasplaining]

Kory, Helen, and Apryll name their favorite–and least favorite–manga of 2022. [Taiiku Podcast]

Krystallina posts a two-part round-up of 2022’s biggest anime and manga news stories, from the Seven Seas unionization effort to the debut of Square Enix’s MangaUP! platform. [The OASG]

The Multiversity Comics crew name Shuna’s Journey the best manga of 2022. [Multiversity Comics]

The New York Public Library offers a list of the year’s best new manga for adults, from Talk to My Back to Rooster Hunter. [NYPL]

Kotaku’s Best Manga of 2022 list is a nice mixture of crowd-pleasers and serious titles. [Kotaku]

Also offering a list of this year’s best manga and manhwa is Barnes & Noble. [B&N]

REVIEWS

This week’s must-read review is Masha Zhdanova’s thoughtful reflection on Good-Bye, Eri. She starts with a deceptively simple question–“Why is Goodbye, Eri a comic?”–then proceeds to do a rigorous analysis of the panel structure and narrative flow. “Fixed grids allow the cartoonist to control the pacing of the narrative in a different way than more experimental layout choices can, by repeating images and intercutting sequences together, much like a movie,” she observes. “In a movie, this sequence would require a linear juxtaposition, probably with a soundtrack behind it. In a comic, all of the individual moments of this wordless sequence can be viewed by the reader simultaneously, and the reader can choose whether to perceive them all at once or down each page, right to left.”

Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower, Vol. 8

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By Miri Mikawa and Kasumi Nagi. Released in Japan as “Ikka Kōkyū Ryōrichō” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hunter Prigg.

I hope people don’t read all my reviews of this series in order, because I inevitably end up repeating the same thing over and over again: this is a series about food. It’s there in the title, where it says these are Rimi’s CULINARY chronicles, not her rise to power or her romantic adventures. Likewise, you know that eventually in these books there’s going to be a big crisis, and it’s going to be resolved by a meal. OK, in this particular volume it’s not actually resolved, but it’s at least defused, which is good enough. Rimi spends a majority of this book in hiding, which means that she can’t say her name, and her identity is constantly called into question, given that she’s very bad at hiding it. Who is she? The future empress? The court flower? A poison that will destroy the entire country? None of those, really. She’s a cook. Food – and not just any food, but the RIGHT food – is how she interacts with others.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Rimi kidnapped by the Chancellor, who locks her in an old building on a far away estate, where he will quietly kill her once he makes arrangements. Fortunately, before he can do that, she’s rescued by a passing hottie (which feels ludicrously unrealistic even by the standards of this series, but hey). What’s more, the hottie is the very same person who’s being recommended to be the new Minister of Works. Now we have The Emperor desperately trying to find Rimi, Shusei desperately trying to find Rimi, the Chancellor, once he discovers she’s gone, desperately trying to find Rimi, and her mysterious benefactor being understandably unwilling to let her go because Rimi refuses to say who she is. In other words, situation normal for the Court Flower books.

Much as I would like it to be kicked slightly to the side, there’s only one OTP in this series, and it’s Rimi and Shusei. They reunite here, and Rimi opens up and admits that she’s still in love with him, but it’s hard to get past sheer male stubbornness, especially when said male thinks that he’s really being political. Frustration levels are high. On the bright side, the new character, Ryo Renka, is wonderful, an excellent addition to the cast who I hope we see more of. Ryo is also deeply tied into the past of the previous generation, which also includes Shusei’s father and the Chancellor, and it’s that past that provides the clue to help Rimi escape her deadly fate. I enjoyed the fact that this tim around the food has to be made in a rush and sloppily – because that’s how it was made originally by the amateurs who cooked it. It’s all about the vibe.

This has three volumes to go, and I expect civil war before the end. But it will be civil war with cooking, no doubt. Still greatly enjoying this, one of the strongest volumes in the series.

Manga the Week of 12/28/22

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SEAN: It’s the last Manga the Week of for 2022. Let’s make it a good one.

ASH: Yes, let’s!

SEAN: Airship has a bunch of print titles. We see Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 7, Reincarnated as a Sword 11, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 5, and A Tale of the Secret Saint 4.

While we get early digital for Classroom of the Elite: Year 2 4 and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 8.

Bookwalker has She’s Adopted a High School Boy! 13 (the final volume – if you’re wondering about the previous 12 volumes, this seems to have been exclusive to Bookwalker, so I kept missing it).

ASH: I don’t know that anyone can keep up with all of the digital manga that are legitimately available these days!

SEAN: Cross Infinite World has a 2nd volume of The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess!.

Ghost Ship has Survival in Another World with My Mistress! 3 and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 22.

The debut from J-Novel Club is a manga this time around. Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster (Albert-ke no Reijou wa Botsuraku wo Goshomou desu) is a reincarnated villainess story based on a light novel that isn’t licensed. This one flips the script a bit – on hearing that she’s the villainess in an otome game, Mary Albert goes ALL IN in trying to be as evil as can be! Why… why doesn’t the heroine think she’s evil? It runs in B’s-LOG COMIC.

ASH: That could be a fun variation.

SEAN: We also see Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 19, Lazy Dungeon Master 17, My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World 5, and the 3rd Tearmoon Empire manga volume.

Kodansha’s print titles: Blood on the Tracks 12, EDENS ZERO 20, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 3, Shangri-La Frontier 3, and What Did You Eat Yesterday? 19.

MICHELLE: I need to get caught up on What Did You Eat Yesterday?!

ASH: Still so very happy we’re getting this series.

SEAN: Digitally we see Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost 5 (the final volume), Burn the House Down 7, Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 6, The Food Diary of Miss Maid 2, The Full-Time Wife Escapist 10 (!!!), A Galaxy Next Door 4, Gamaran: Shura 3, and The Rokudo Rounds 4.

MICHELLE: !!!! This is twice in recent memory when a series that had been advertised as over—and yes, I checked the “final volume” blurbs for both Fruits Basket Another and Full-Time Wife Escapist—has returned from the dead.

ASH: Oh, ho!

SEAN: Two debuts for Seven Seas. Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Party Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to an Infinite Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out For Revenge (Shinjiteita Nakama-tachi ni Dungeon Okuchi de Korosarekaketa ga Gift “Mugen Gacha” de Level 9999 no Nakama-tachi wo Te ni Irete Moto Party Member to Sekai ni Fukushuu & “Zamaa!” Shimasu!) is an adaptation of the light novel J-Novel Club is putting out, and the manga runs in Magazine Pocket. That’s all I have to say about it. Moving on.

ASH: The title already says most of it.

SEAN: Entangled with You: The Garden of 100 Grasses (Hyakusou no Uraniwa) is a one-shot BL title from Printemps Shuppan that’s a fantasy about a boy who makes a promise with a horned man to save his sister. Will that promise lead to death… or friendship?

MICHELLE: I like the fairy tale look and feel of this cover!

ASH: Same! I’m curious about this one, for sure.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Berserk of Gluttony 7, The Country Without Humans 3, Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order 7, GIGANT 10 (the final volume), Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess 4, Reborn as a Barrier Master 3, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man 7, Sorry For My Familiar 10, Toradora! 10, and The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This 2. By the way, the first manga volume of Toradora! came out in North America OVER 10 YEARS AGO. This is a slow-moving series in Japan.

Square Enix has a 3rd volume of the Otherside Picnic manga.

From Viz Media we get Fist of the North Star 7, Jujutsu Kaisen: Summer of Ashes, Autumn of Dust (a light novel), Maison Ikkoku Collector’s Edition 10 (the final volume), and Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe 2.

ASH: It’s a good Viz week for me, at least!

SEAN: And that’s it! Should auld manga be forgot and never brought to mind?

MICHELLE: My auld manga gathers dust.

BLADE & BASTARD: Warm ash, Dusky dungeon, Vol. 1

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By Kumo Kagyu and so-bin. Released in Japan as “Blade & Bastard: Hai wa Atatakaku, Meikyū wa Honogurai” by Dre Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

One of the highlights of J-Novel Club’s appearance at Anime NYC this year was the announcement of a partnership with Drecom, a video game company that has recently been expanding into other media markets. There are several novels they could have chosen to start off this new partnership, and I for one was hoping for “I’m a Pharmacist Witch and a Part-Time Divorce Attorney”, but I can see why they chose to go with BLADE & BASTARD. First of all, it hadn’t come out in Japan yet – this book got a release in North America on the same date it came out in Japan. Secondly, it has a strong pedigree: the author is better known for Goblin Slayer, and the artist for Overlord. And the novels themselves take place in the world of Wizardry, the popular RPG series. With all that said, how does it hold up as a light novel if you don’t game and don’t really care for Goblin Slayer *or* Overlord? You’ve come to the right person to ask.

A town named Scale has a massive and dangerous dungeon. It’s filled with monsters and treasure, both of which also bring easy death. Our supposed protagonist is Iarumas, a highly competent but loathed man who wanders the dungeons collecting corpses, taking their stuff, and bringing them back to be revived by temple nun Aine. He has no memory of his past, and tries to go deeper and deeper in order to reconnect to it. Over the course of the book, he’s joined by Garbage, a feral girl who speaks only in barks and woofs but is excellent with a sword, and Raraja, a young put-upon thief who is probably the ACTUAL protagonist here. They explore the dungeon, trying to gain experience and also see what’s actually going on with Garbage, who – like Iarumas – has an obscure but important past.

If you’re looking for dark fantasy, this is a solid choice, as you’d expect from this author. The first volume also has 100% less sexual assault and fanservice than Goblin Slayer, which I count as another big plus. Iarumas is a bit too much of a brooding cipher for me to really latch on to, but Raraja’s journey from starving and easily tricked young boy to a solid adventurer in his own right is one of the two highlights of the book. The other highlight is Aine, a nun who uses religion to justify a mercenary streak and really, really loves swords and killing things with swords. (The narrative chooses to tell us – over and over again, it’s weird – that elves like Aine have normal human lifespans in this world.) The problematic part of the book is Garbage, who acts throughout like a dog – her only dialogue is barking, whining, and howling. The bit of backstory we get of her helps explain this a bit, but it’s near the end of the book, and you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s there for a bizarre kind of reader fetish before this. Perhaps future books will help her grow more human.

So yes, despite the constant death, this is less grim than I’d expected, and has a lively cast. A must-read for fans of the author, and not bad for fans of dark game tie-in fantasy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pick of the Week: Last Picks Before Xmas

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

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

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

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