Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Blog

The Wicked Princess and Her Twelve Eyes: The Legendary Villainess and Her Elite Assassins

by

By Daken and saino. Released in Japan as “Aku no Reijou to Juuni no Hitomi: Saikyou Juusha-tachi to Densetsu no Akujo, Jinsei Nidome no Kareinaru Musouroku” by Overlap Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by piyo (Irene Nakano). Adapted by Rei Geronimo.

I was going to buy this anyway simply as I like the genre, but then I saw it was by the author of Who Killed the Hero?. And then, for some reason, as I was reading it, I totally forgot that. I’m not sure why. But the first, oh, two-thirds of this book is content to just be a hoot. You’ve got the usual villainess who goes back in time and does things over again. There’s a large helping of humor, both because she’s an absolute sadist but also from the author themselves (one of the color pages tells us what each of her squires excels in, and one girl is simply “energetic!” in a “no thoughts, head empty” sort of way). That said, don’t worry, this *is* by the author of Who Killed the Hero?, and the last 50 pages or so made me sit up, and then made my jaw drop as I recalled all the things I hadn’t bothered to pay attention to.

Serena Rosenberg starts this book, as all good villainesses do, by getting her engagement broken in front of a large crowd of nobles. Unlike most villainesses, she really is guilty of a lot of attempted murder against the heroine. Even though none of her attempts succeeded, she’s sentenced to death. As she’s forced to drink poison, she realizes that her biggest fault was that she did not have competent minions. Then she wakes up as a baby again, but with memories of her past life. Unfortunately, she’s still pretty much a terrible person, but she definitely wants to avoid her previous fate. Therefore, she actually studies magic and the sword, getting good at everything. She also goes to an orphanage, grabs the six “problem children” from it, and puts them through training. Ridiculously hard training.

The bulk of this book goes sort of how you’d expect, being one of those “Serena does something with evil intentions, but everyone else sees it as good” sort of books. Her hellish training really is needed to snap this orphans out of their mindsets, and makes them better people. She gets them dogs, who become good pets and like family to them. She does this for absolutely WRETCHED reasons, but because she’s being so good, those reasons have to be abandoned. And as the book goes on, we see her realizing that she doesn’t really want to get revenge, and doesn’t care if the heroine marries the prince after all. It’s headed for a “doing good thing feels good” sort of ending… and then we’re reminded about things we took for granted because this genre has lots of mediocre things that make the brain assume. Like why does her mother avoid her? Like why did she go back in time in the first place? The last chunk of this book is here to answer the questions, and the answer is pretty terrific. And yes, author, I appreciated the added ending.

If you like this author, cool plot twists, or books where the protagonist is terrible but in a fun way, this is a must-read. Also, I teared up a bit when I realized what the title meant.

The Twelve Kingdoms, Book Two: Shadow of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea, Part 2

by

By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

Last time I assumed that things would get better for Youko over the course of this second book, and to be fair they do SORT OF, but it does not remove the trauma of what has happened to her, especially once she discovers that this journey, much as she would like it to be otherwise, is pretty one-sided. By the end of the first book she was betrayed twice over, and is mentally and physically on her last legs, and so at the start of this book she regards any act of kindness at all as an attempt to soften her up before they betray her again. It doesn’t help that she’s still getting attacked by youma, which she’s getting quite good at killing – her sword skills are improving by leaps and bounds! – but it does also mean that she’s starting to regard herself as a bad person… and perhaps not even a person at all. Which, um, turns out to be correct. Except for the bad part.

After the events of the last volume, Youko is in bad shape, and unable to trust anyone. She ends up, fortunately, getting picked up by the best possible rat that she can. And no, I don’t mean a rat as in a terrible person, I mean an actual walking, talking rat. Rakushun is a Hanjyuu, a half-beast, who is smart and kind but unfortunately in the wrong kingdom to be able to get ahead. He spends a large portion of the start of the book trying to convince Youko that he’s not going to sic the guards on her the first chance he can get. He also gives her a lot more information about this world, which will come in handy when they are inevitably separated on their journey and she has to go on alone. Eventually she ends up in the kingdom of En, which is a LOT better than where she was. Unfortunately, the youma keep attacking her no matter where she is.

I was prepared for this to feel a lot different from the anime, as Sugimoto doesn’t exist in the novels beyond the very start. But wow, this book is concerned with Youko and her situation, and everything else about it is secondary. Not to spoil too much, but there’s a huge battle between an army of soldiers trying to protect a false queen and Youko and a number of crack troops, and it starts on page 209 and is done by page 210. The false queen herself takes up half of the cover art. We never meet her. This book is laser-focused on Youko and her thought process, and it’s absolutely riveting. We see her start at the lowest possible ebb, and as she gradually learns to trust again and gains more and more information, she realizes how intertwined she is with this world and how it’s practically impossible for her to run away without causing a catastrophe. The climax of the book is not the battle – it can’t be. It’s Youko’s choice. The rest is just an afterthought.

Now, the next book does not in fact focus on Youko, but moves to a different kingdom, as if to remind us that the title of the book is indeed The Twelve Kingdoms. I still can’t wait to read it.

The Adorable Dungeon Master, Vol. 1

by

By Hunger and Llo. Released in North America by J-Novel Club.

This is the 2nd of the J-Novel Club original light novel contest winners I’ve taken a look at, this one with illustrations by the artist who does Reincarnated as a Sword. Unlike An Unruly Summon, I don’t think the author has a large number of similar-looking webnovel series lying around the internet, so this is definitely the first I’ve seen of them. This won the Bookwalker Prize, which was as far as I can tell the one the Bookwalker Judge wanted to single out, and the judge commented on how cute it was. And they’re not wrong. Though you may not guess it after reading the prologue, this book is called The Adorable Dungeon Master and that’s exactly what you will get. Lilac’s inner narration can be a hoot, as she alternates between being a sensible gamer bringing modern-day knowledge to a “based on a game medieval fantasy” world and a chatterbox young women with no off switch. She loves cute things, and there’s a lot of them as well. That said, be warned: this is about as deep as a puddle, and the one or two times I thought it might get deeper, it ran away from it.

Luicia Morales has big plans. Sure, she was a bit of a nerd in high school, mostly interested in linguistics, and with an overprotective family making sure no guys came anywhere near her. But now her family is getting ready to move out of the dangerous neighborhood they live in, and she’s going to study to be an interpreter! Unfortunately… no, not Truck-kun… as she’s about to get in the moving van, a nearby turf war means she’s shot and killed as a passerby. She wakes up as (try to contain your surprise) the character in the old game she loved! She’s a Sprigian (fairy), she’s about half to a third of the size of a human, cute as hell, and she’s stacked and has a big ass, which I merely mention here because she mentions it an awful lot. She’s also very OP, and as it turns out she’s the Heir of Balance, which means she’s Very Important. Which is good, as she’s in the nightmarish forest of monsters.

This is, as I said, a lot lighter in tone than the grim beginning might suggest. Lucia/Lilac has one brief moment where she grieves about her death and thinks of her family, but her grief causes bad weather in the fairy castle she’s in (it’s controlled by her emotions), so she basically moves on to make things nicer. There are actual bad guys in this new world, but they’re all of the “cartoonishly evil noble” sort, and the biggest surprise in the book is that the fate of one of them isn’t just “killed off in the worst possible way”. The best parts of the book are when Lilac is either making new minions and interacting with them (I particularly liked the bear who turns out to be a bear mascot who is cripplingly shy), or when she’s actually thinking about the linguistics that she wanted to be her specialty back in Japan… wait, no, this is an OLN, back in America, I assume. She bonds with an ancient human scholar in the new world, and their relationship was pretty cute, and possibly the healthiest she has given that her default way of looking at those she’s created as minions tends to be “oh no he’s hot”.

There is an exciting battle against a giant frog/crocodile lake monster near the end, but for the most part this book is for people who don’t want to see its lead break a sweat, but they do want to see her snuggle cute giant wolf puppies and make teddy bears for young princesses.

Manga the Week of 10/22/25

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: Boo! No, wait, still not yet. Stand down.

ASH: That scared me.

SEAN: No print for Airship next week, but they do have early digital for The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain 6 and Loner Life in Another World 13.

Dark Horse debuts Innocent Rouge, the sequel to Innocent, which was gorgeous but dark. This promises to be more gorgeous and even darker. It ran in Grand Jump.

ASH: Gorgeous and dark is an incredibly apt description.

SEAN: Ize Press have a big hardcover. 7FATES: CHAKHO imagines the K-Pop band BTS in a fantasy, and this book apparently comes with photos of the band.

ASH: Well, that’s fun!

SEAN: Also from Ize Press: Lady Devil 3, Lover Boy 3, and The World After the Fall 11.

It’s a tiny week for J-Novel Club. No debuts. For light novels, we see The Bladesmith’s Enchanted Weapons 2 and Knight’s & Magic 8. And for manga, they have The Engagement of Marielle Clarac 9.

One debut for Kodansha Manga: You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister (Seijo ni Uso wa Tsuujinai) is based on an as-yet-unlicensed light novel, and runs in Monthly Shonen Magazine. An intelligent but greedy nun is asked to pretend to be a candidate for sainthood to solve a mystery.

ASH: I am intrigued.

MICHELLE: Yeah, from the title I was thinking it was a romcom or something. Mystery-solving intelligent nuns is a more intriguing concept!

ANNA: Ok, this does sound fun.

SEAN: Also in print: Ajin: Demi-Human Complete 5, The Blue Wolves of Mibu 7, Gachiakuta 8, The Moon on a Rainy Night 7, nichijou 12, Rent-A-Girlfriend 33, Shangri-La Frontier 19, and To Your Eternity 23.

ASH: I really need to catch up with To Your Eternity; what I’ve read so far has been great.

SEAN: One Peace Books debuts My New Devil Wife (Negai o Kanaete Moraou to Akuma o Shoukan Shita Kedo, Kawaikatta node Kekkon Shimashita – Akuma no Niidzuma), based on an as-yet-unlicensed light novel. It runs in Comic Earth Star. A struggling adventurer tries to make a deal with the devil. But the devil is so gorgeous that he proposes!

ASH: Whoops!

ANNA: These things happen.

SEAN: Three debuts for Seven Seas, though we’ve seen one before. Monster Musume: Deluxe Edition is a hardcover omnibus of the popular fantasy series, apparently with new extras, so you’ll have to buy it again.

Ripples in the River (Kawa ni Sazanami) is a BL series that runs in Hug Pixiv. Two young men have been together for a decade now, but still are head over heels for each other! From the creator of 5 Seconds Before a Witch Falls in Love.

ASH: Awww, this sounds really sweet.

MICHELLE: It does.

SEAN: SMELL is the latest BL title from Nagabe. If you liked Beastars but wished it was sweeter and gayer, this is for you. It ran in Ciel.

ASH: The range of Nagabe’s work is really interesting.

MICHELLE: Oooh.

ANNA: Interesting.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Blood Night Market 3 (the final volume), Fairy Cat 2, The Feisty Omega and His Twin Mates 2, Glasses with a Chance of Delinquent 4, IDOL x IDOL STORY! 3, I’m in Love with the Villainess 9, Kemono Jihen 18, Machimaho: I Messed Up and Made the Wrong Person Into a Magical Girl! 13, My New Life as a Cat 11, and Now That We Draw 3.

And for danmei we have the 5th and final volume of Peerless.

Square Enix Manga has My Dress-Up Darling 14 and The Otaku Love Connection 3.

From Steamship we see Shindou-kun’s Tight Squeeze 2 and The Villainess and the Demon Knight 4 (the light novel).

Tokyopop has four debuts. Boyfriend, Sometimes Girlfriend (Kareshi Tokidoki Kanojo) ran in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, and is from the creator of Love & Lies. A guy is so happy, he’s dating his dream girl, and she likes him too! But she has a secret…

ASH: Cautiously curious.

SEAN: My Fluffy Moody Crush (Hoeru Inu to Kubittake) is a from RED BL title. A half human half vampire tries to resist the delicious blood of his childhood friend.

The Love We Share (Ai wa Futari no Ai da kara) also ran in from RED. After a tragedy, a young man is raising his daughter on his own. But then a childhood friend shows up! This is also BL, as the magazine likely told you.

ASH: Bonus dad!

SEAN: Star and Hedgehog (Hoshi to Harinezumi)is so BL and also from RED. It’s an extrovert/introvert romance title. It’s also from the author of My Fluffy Moody Crush, see above.

MICHELLE: BL with characters that can be described as “a prickly hedgehog” is always my kind of BL.

SEAN: Tokyopop also has Confessions of a Shy Baker 5 (the final volume) and The Margrave’s Daughter & the Enemy Prince 5.

Viz Media has Nana 25th Anniversary Edition, which is exactly what it sounds like. 2-volume omnibuses. If you haven’t read Nana, go read Nana in all its problematic glory.

ASH: I am so happy for this re-release. Nana is such a great series.

SEAN: Also from Viz: The Climber 3, Girl Crush 3, Insomniacs After School 11, Mission: Yozakura Family 19, My Hero Academia 42 (the final volume), Record of Ragnarok 16, Red River 3-in-1 5, Tokyo Fears Rhapsody 2, Twin Star Exorcists 35 (the final volume), and Vagabond Definitive Edition 4.

ASH: A good week for Viz!

MICHELLE: Welp. I guess it’s time for a My Hero Academia marathon!

ANNA: Still happy about Red River reprints.

SEAN: No debuts for Yen On, but they have some long-awaited titles for folks instead. We see Before the Tutorial Starts 3 (last April 2025), The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori 3 (April 2025), Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle 7 (September 2024), Demon Lord 2099 4 (October 2024), Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria 14 (December 2024), The Kept Man of the Princess Knight 5 (April 2025), The Saga of Tanya the Evil 14 (December 2024), and Sasaki and Peeps 9 (January 2025).

As for Yen Press, they bounced everything a week, so all we get is The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor 6.

Have you bought candy to give out yet? What manga are you getting to not give out?

Long Story Short, I’m Living in the Mountains, Vol. 3

by

By Asagi and Shino. Released in Japan as “Zenryaku, Yama Kurashi wo Hajimemashita” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by N. Marquetti.

I’ve talked a lot about this series as a slow life series, and about the romance or lack thereof, and even a bit about how it’s sort of a bizarre fantasy only not quite. But this volume really hammers home the title of the book, which is that Sano and his fellow emotionally damaged neighbors have bought a mountain and are living on it now. And sometimes this can be difficult. Mountains require a lot of maintenance, you need to keep an eye out for dangerous animals and insects, and there’s always the danger of a typhoon coming through or a harsh winter. And sometimes having a mountain with animals on it can be useful, especially when you’re feeling smothered and still trying to avoid your core issues, so your visit to your parents can take place in less than an hour before you beg off and flee once again to the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Life goes on for Sano, though he finds he needs to be more careful and perhaps also get more exercise at several points during this book. While cutting grass he gets a very bad cut, and has to get some help from others to get it stitched up. He visits his parents, as I said before, and then comes right back the same day. He makes sure that the murder hornets on Katsuragi’s mountains are taken care of, mostly thanks to his chickens wanting to eat them. He deals with chestnuts, and excess crayfish. A typhoon is coming, and he has to manage preparations, calm his animals, and then deal with the aftermath, which can sometimes involve huge trees on your mountain path. And, as the book ends, he prepares for his first real winter on the mountain (he arrived near the end of the last one).

Aside from “owning a mountain is hard”, we also see Sano’s desperate desire to be left alone and not owe anyone anything, which does not come up explicitly in his dialogue but is implicit with everyone else. He seems baffled by the fact that people keep offering him dinner, or stuff to take back home, or that they’ll help him free of charge. He needs there to be a transaction of some sort, and that just isn’t going to happen on this mountainside. There’s also the bizarre harem he’s acquiring – not in a romantic way, mind you, but both Katsuragi and Aikawa are angling to become a person who is close to him, someone he can open up to. So far Aikawa is winning, but that’s mostly due to underlying sexism on Sano’s part. That said, it’s also due to hsi chickens. One of whom is essentially acting like his wife. Add this to the lamia who is acting as Aikawa’s girlfriend, and you can see that the fantasy animals in this series are sort of psychological trauma write large… or the solution to said trauma.

Next time we apparently introduce a new regular, which might shake things up a bit. Till then, this is slow life for slow life fans, with no pesky danger or plot twists getting in the way.

Bookshelf Briefs 10/14/25

by , and Leave a Comment

The B-Rank Adventurer with a Scary Face Becomes a Father for the Hero and His Friends, Vol. 1 | By Cogeme and Enji – Is the trope of being transported into a video game world critical to The B-Rank Adventurer with a Scary Face Becomes a Father for the Hero and His Friends? Arguably, no. However, the flashes of his former life do explain why Gray has chosen to lead his current one as he has. Family is obviously important to him. It’s not clear at this point what exactly happened to his previous family, other than something tragic. But whatever that tragedy was, it has encouraged him to now live in such a way that he doesn’t regret what he has or, perhaps more importantly, hasn’t done. And so when he sees the opportunity to help a group of orphaned kids, he does. It’s an act later to be revealed as only the latest in a string of admirable exploits. This first volume is a lot of fun, balancing domestic bliss, humor, and adventuring. – Ash Brown

Colette Decides to Die, Vol. 4 | By Alto Yukimura| Viz Media – This series continues to do a careful balancing act between the romance between Colette and Hades, the supernatural pantheon stuff going on, and Colette’s apothecary duties and how they impact others. Here she visits her old stomping grounds, and while she finds you can go home again, that does not mean that things are going to be just as remembered. New assistants may struggle and carry bitterness in their hearts, and even your coworkers may forget to tell you they’re getting married. In the second part of the omnibus, we meet a small otter who was once Poseidon’s assistant, but being small, clumsy and meek meant he got fired. Getting him trained and up to speed proves difficult—he really *is* small and clumsy. Meanwhile, Hades is cool and sexy, and Colette is cute and spunky. This is perfect shoujo. – Sean Gaffney

Even If There’s No Rainbow Tomorrow | By Noriko Kihara | KUMA – Chitose and Shinogu meet at random on a talk app that pairs you with a stranger. Shinogu listens patiently when Chitose complains about work, and after they get a little closer, suddenly turns up at Chitose’s workplace, at which point he discovers Chitose is both gay and a drag queen. This first impression doesn’t go well, but when faced with returning to his “boring and joyless” life, Shinogu returns to apologize. Most of the volume goes like this, really. Shinogu is nominally straight, so wary Chitose has convinced himself nothing is going to happen, but each time Shinogu upsets Chitose, he is desperate to apologize, and at some point realizes he wants more. Does he have a realization about his sexuality? Nope. But this is still one of those stories where you can clearly see why the guys are good for each other, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. – Michelle Smith

My Dress-Up Darling, Vol. 14 | By Shinichi Fukuda| Square Enix Manga – It has been forever since I checked into this series, but I knew fifteen was the last one, and the second anime season was fantastic. The third will be the last, be it a TV series or movie. I hear from fans this was torture to read weekly, with the poor communication between Marin and Gojo just absolutely crippling everything going on in the series. But that makes the big climax, when Gojo confesses to her, all the sweeter, and leads to a series of heartwarming and also hilarious chapters, as Marin’s now absolutely overflowing with love (as you’d expect from this series, it’s a very horny love that still does not really go above PG-13 rated). Now that she knows what he’s thinking, she never wants to be apart from him—ever. Can’t wait for the finale. – Sean Gaffney

Rainbows After Storms, Vol. 5 | By Luka Kobachi | Viz Media – Good news, we have finally moved beyond the “we’re both dating but we’re keeping it a secret” tagline that began every chapter. That said, we also introduce the dreaded rival, and this one is a kohai rather than a sempai. Nanoha seems to be somewhat oblivious to her feelings, but given that Chidori can and will angst and overthink things at the drop of a hat, that may not be a good thing. They’re both also dealing with that kiss, which has left them feeling awkward around each other—the main reason to read this book is the war between “I want to keep this a secret as I worry about the reaction” and “I want this to be in the open because otherwise I will never feel confident I am yours.” All this plus Chidori in a sexy “ghost nurse” costume. What more could one want in a yuri manga? – Sean Gaffney

Rock Is a Lady’s Modesty, Vol. 1 | By Hiroshi Fukuda | Yen Press – I suspect the bulk of the readers for this volume will have seen the anime first. This first volume gets through the first three episodes, and while there’s no major differences, it’s a different experience in black-and-white art than it is animated. The anime already overemphasized the fact that Lilisa and Otoha sweat a lot when they play, but the manga makes it clear that this was, if anything, toned down—the sweating in this manga is clearly the author’s fetish (along with the yuri BDSM subtext), and you will need to be prepared for everyone absolutely dripping with sweat after a song. This first volume is mostly concerned with Lilisa and her quest to be a good rich girl warring with the rawk! that is in her soul. Otoha’s backstory is left a mystery—and it will be for a while. Great fun. – Sean Gaffney

Ruridragon, Vol. 2 | By Masaoki Shindo | Viz Media – The core of this volume is that Ruri’s biggest problem may not be her dragon powers (she works hard over the course of the book to get her lightning under control), but her introverted nature, which makes her not want to seek out others or interact with them unless she has to. This puts her up against the blunt and aggressive Maeda… who is somewhat annoyed that Ruri seems completely unable to pick up any social cues unless they are literally laid out in front of her. (Yes, I know there’s a word for this, but unless there’s a diagnosis in-manga, I feel uncomfortable using it.) Fortunately, after getting it laid out in front of her, Ruri proves to be surprisingly adept at things like organizing a sports festival. Grades, though, may be a far bigger issue. This is wonderful. – Sean Gaffney

Spy x Family, Vol. 14 | By Tatsuya Endo | Viz Media – Another volume that seems to be overbalanced towards the back half, though I do appreciate the look at Anya’s ability to excel when she puts her mind to it in something she’s interested in (or perhaps comes from her mysterious past). The dance in the middle of the book, though, shows us more about the fact that not only did Henry and Martha know each other, they have a past together. This leads us to another prolonged flashback, and you know what happens in those prolonged flashbacks—war is hell. There’s also an extra dose of tragic love that cannot be, as the war and the pair’s crossed wires mean that Henry ends up marrying someone else. Spy x Family is known for its comedy and action, and with good reason, but when it decides to get sad and serious it’s just as fantastic. A strong volume that doesn’t hold back. – Sean Gaffney

A review copy for My Dress-Up Darling was provided by the publisher.

BLADE & BASTARD: Drag Him High

by

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

I’ve talked before about how a reader should not be angry that their genre book is in a genre. For example, being annoyed that an isekai has people transported to another world seems a bit petty. And I do occasionally have to remind myself of this rule. Blade & Bastard is a series where there’s a lot of mysteries going on behind the scenes that I would like to find out about, and we even get a glimpse of some of them at the start of this book, making me quite happy. But then I am reminded: this is a book whose sole purpose is to advertise the game Wizardry, and it’s never really going to get out of that wheelhouse. As a result, after about 1/3 of a book where we tease stuff we’ve wondered about for a while, it’s back to the dungeons, back to fighting demons and zombies, and of course back to folks dying horribly and needing to be resurrected. Well, hopefully resurrected. There’s a cliffhanger, and some of those folks are still dead.

All the adventurers have been called together, as the Crown Prince is coming, and they all have to at least bow a bit. All except Iarumas’ group, of course – they’re off in the dungeon, and don’t show up. Festin, said crown prince, is somewhat grumpy about this, as he really wanted to see Garbage – and is very ticked off when Garbage finally does show up, and is not very happy either. We also hear a bit about the tragic backstory that every woman in the royal family has – one princess had a demon attack the palace while she was there, one Queen reigned during a hideous calamity, and one queen had her sister turn to evil. And then there’s Garbage, who… well, we keep hinting about what’s going on with Garbage, but that’s all we’re gonna get, still. Because unfortunately, somebody kidnaps the prince and all his maids, and kills all his guards (and also turns them to stone, so I think they’re dead dead). And takes them… to the dungeon, of course.

There’s a large number of folks in this book who have red hair and compelling eyes, the same as the royal family. Not only Prince Festin (who I have used male pronouns for as the book does, but I won’t be surprised if that changes) and Garbage, but also Flack, the monster who is the main antagonist of this book. When they say the royal family is cursed, they’re not kidding. That said, there is some nice character development in amongst all the grim dungeon horror. Aine fails to stop the abduction/murders, and feels very depressed about it (going to, in one of the most surreal moments in the whole series, a fantasy baseball game to clear her head) and Iarumas has to cheer her up. (They still have romantic subtext that likely won’t go anywhere, but it’s very present here.) As for Iarumas, he helps everyone else get character development by dying horribly, meaning the rest of the group has to not only bring his corpse back to be resurrected, but they also want to defeat whoever killed him. They’re getting strong. Even if they all deny it.

If you like dungeon crawl fights featuring every stereotype in the book, this remains a fast, compelling read. We’re caught up again, though, so have patience.

Pick of the Week: Metal and Food

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: It’s always hard to get anything new out of the isekai premise, so I will give Isekai Metaller a lot of credit and make it my pick this week. (Also, Judas Priest > Iron Maiden.)

MICHELLE: I’m not super excited by anything, really, but Sensei’s Mail-Order Food looks potentially cute, so I will go with that, this week.

ASH: I’m vaguely curious about Isekai Metaller, but I’m actually really looking forward to reading Sensei’s Mail-Order Food. I simply can’t pass up the combination of Asumiko Nakamura, BL, and food manga!

KATE: The end times must be coming because Sean and I are once again choosing the same title. Heavy metal isekai for me, please!

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone, Vol. 8

by

By Shigeru Sagazaki and Tetsuhiro Nabeshima. Released in Japan as “Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru: Tada no Inaka no Kenjutsu Shihan Datta noni, Taisei Shita Deshitachi ga Ore o Hōttekurenai Ken” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

The author, in the afterword to this volume, discusses the anime, and says that they asked for the long subtitle to be removed to make it easier to take. Which I agree worked very well for the anime, which was more concerned with Beryl’s sword feats than about which girl will win. The novels, though, are definitely concerned with which girl will win, so the subtitle seems appropriate. Previously, Beryl had stated that he could never take a wife that was one of his former students, but also, when offered what amounts to a perfect marriage to a woman who really likes him, he backs off like she’s on fire. Beryl simply cannot accept that people find him attractive and a good partner. He knows Allucia is in love with him, but his immediate thought is “she can do better”. Something’s got to give here, and since Beryl isn’t doing it, stronger measures are needed.

This volume is essentially three short stories. In the first part, Beryl and Allucia try to find her the perfect sword, and Beryl is dissatisfied till he remembers he still has that monster core from four books ago. He then goes off with Mewi to have dinner at a nice seafood restaurant, courtesy Surena, who promised him she’d find a place for him. In the second part, he watches the new hopefuls try out for the knights, including the twins we saw when he returned home to his dojo, who seem to have lots of flaws (particularly the hotheaded Adel), but are also still good enough to make the cut in the end. (This is not a spoiler, come on, everyone he teaches turns to gold.) Lastly, he and the new recruits head north to a town by the mountains, where he meets a friend he hadn’t seen since they were kids, who now heads the knight order there.

Kennith is the old childhood friend, and he’s also on the cover art. He’s the one who can try to kick Beryl’s ass about picking a wife. Mostly as it is blindingly obvious to everyone on the planet that Allucia is in love with him, but is basically quietly waiting. Beryl’s “but they’re my students” protest gets a reminder that a) he’s not the one pursuing them as a teacher, and b) they’re all in their twenties by now, and no longer his students – there’s not the power imbalance that comes with such a relationship normally (indeed, Allucia is in a higher position than Beryl), and relationships between mid-forties guys and early twenties girls in a fantasy setting might raise an eyebrow, but that’s about it. Most importantly, though, a trip to a hot spring prods Allucia to take the initiative and force Beryl to confront her feelings and the fact that he thinks she’s gorgeous. His response is “give me time” – no surprise there – but she’s content, especially as it seems that her only rival right now is Shueste.

That may change with Book 9, which seems to star Surena, and I do wonder if we’ll get another go round of “different girl in love with him each book” before he makes a decision. Till then, this remains solid and unassuming, much like its lead.

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 21

by

By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by RFD.

This is a long-running series – 21 volumes plus a .5 or two – and it’s been interesting watching the series evolve. While its tendency to have a cast of adorable kids doing adorable things has remained constant throughout, as has Yuna being hideously overpowered but also seeming to hate herself more than a bit, there are several things that we used to see that we don’t see quite as much anymore, notably that this series can be very dark. There has been murder, sexual assault, abuse of countless women and children, etc. in the early books. Once the books started getting really popular, that seemed to be dialed back a bit, with less of “let’s go rescue the people locked in the basement” and more “let’s watch Yuna build a bear bakery”. This volume, though, gets back to the OG a little bit, as we meet a noble girl who has quite a tragic backstory, and unfortunately the tragedy is still impacting her present. Fortunately for her, Yuna is still hideously overpowered… wait, is she?

Noa is headed to the town of Yufaria, there to see her sister Shia compete at a matchup between the Crimonian school and the Yufarian. Yuna is going there as bodyguard, but has been asked to tone it down – no bear suit – and has acquiesced, though she still wears her bear paws and shoes. Unfortunately, a noble girl, Seleiyu, spots them and is horrified at Noa walking around without protection. Yuna, with her pitifully puny body and weak, flabby arms, could not possibly be able to protect this important girl. (Yuna’s reaction to this, which is more “sigh…” than anything else, is appreciated.) After Yuna proves that even without a bear suit she can still take out teenage girls, no matter how talented they are, they proceed to cheer Shia on in the competition. Unfortunately, Seleiyu seems to have a secret weighing her down… and does not think she has much longer to live.

So yes, the tragedy is back for this book, and I appreciated that the book stays true to its roots, as the bad guy is not only incredibly evil but also truly petty and deluded. We’re not getting any shades of grey in THIS series. We also definitely have another applicant for the role of Yuna’s wife, though there’s a pretty high wall of “I don’t really know what romance is” to climb. The author seemed at first to be ambivalent to the yuri they almost accidentally created, but especially after the anime has leaned into it more (see the previous SS volume for Yuna’s opinion on her own anime). Seleiyu over the course of the book goes from “who does this girl think she is trying to protect Lady Noir?” to “If you were a boy I think I could fall in love… actually, even if you are a girl…”. Yuna, needless to say, ignores this – hell, just accepting that someone thinks she’s pretty in a dress is a huge hurdle.

We’re caught up with Japan – no Vol. 22 on the horizon – so it may be a while before we see Yuna. For now, enjoy our new cast member with a one-sided crush – and she’s Yuna’s own age this time!