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Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness, Vol. 2

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By Ameko Kaeruda and Sencha. Released in Japan as “Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu ” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino.

If the first volume of Dragon Daddy Diaries primarily revolved around the castle that is our heroes’ home base, then this volume is definitely set in the school. Indeed, we have to figure out excuses to get the rest of the cast to the school, and so our dragon daddy ends up being a security officer for the grounds, while Maredia and Clowria… well, sort of mooch around, but I suppose we can call them security as well. Basically what all this means is that the plot beats this volume all come from the school, and we don’t want to divide up the cast. It’s because we have a new main cast member, and she’s a welcome addition, even if she does, as Maredia notes, share a few character points with the Dark Queen herself. Luca is a new first year student, and she has a complicated backstory, a chip on her shoulder, and a desperate need for validation.

As for Olivia, she has managed to become a second year student, despite a huge amount of property damage to the school caused by her trying to learn beginner level spell and firing off advanced-level bursts. This means she’s now a sempai, and she tries to befriend her new roommate Luca, something that does not go very well for most of the book. Luca was supposed to be the King’s Student, a spot that Olivia has now taken, and thus Luca spends most of her school days challenging Olivia to various duels… and losing, because Olivia has been trained by a dragon and it shows. (That also comes out in this book, by the way, so everyone at last knows that he’s a dragon.) The other plotline going on is that they are searching for the Seven Supreme Hallows, powerful magical artifacts lost in the mists of time. In order to find them… a beach episode may be necessary.

As with the first volume, this series runs on tropes and sugar, and if you don’t like too much of either of them you may want to give this a miss. What character development there is comes mostly from Luca, though it is worth seeing Maredia manage to slowly emerge from her shut-in persona and begin to once again embrace her chuuni persona. Luca’s growth mostly stems from… parental neglect is the wrong term, but it’s a good lesson in why being too strict can sometimes have negative effects. When you’re never praised no matter how well you do, that bar can seem farther and father away. That said, I was a bit disappointed that the dragon having a chat with Luca’s mother was a speech done offscreen. Possibly as it would have interfered with the syrupy sweet mood. Even when battling an undersea turtle monster, the series doesn’t go much further than “he has a thorn in his paw”. Or in this case an ancient relic in his forehead.

This won’t make you count the days until the next volume comes out, but it’s a great read for a sunny day at the beach.

Pick of the Week: I Can’t Believe It’s Real

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ANNA: I’m usually not incredibly surprised by the manga coming out week after week, but I’m delighted that we’re getting a new volume of Takehiko Inoue’s Real after a gap between print volumes, it is certainly something worth celebrating as Pick of the Week.

SEAN: Let’s be real, Real is what absolutely should be Pick of the Week. But since I’m a good 10 or so volumes behind on it, I will instead pick the new collection of Monkey Punch’s Lupin III manga. Manga Lupin is… an acquired taste, but this is where it all began, and I look forward to reading it and watching him be clever and also lecherous.

MICHELLE: I’m actually current on Real, but since volume fourteen came out in 2016, that doesn’t exactly count for much. I’m very happy to see a new volume, and definitely picking it this week, but I would be happier still if I had any confidence that it won’t be another five years of waiting for the next one.

KATE: Since everyone else has been keepin’ it Real, my pick is Lupin III: Greatest Heists, a collection of twelve stories drawn from various stages in the manga’s history. Tokyopop tried to make Lupin III happen back in 2002, but it didn’t click with American audiences. Here’s hoping fresh translations and a new publisher–Seven Seas, in this case–inspire more readers to give this famous, influential series a try.

ASH: Though I’m certainly interested in Lupin III, my pick has to be Real. I like Takehiko Inoue’s manga in general, but Real is my personal favorite. (Which actually surprises me a little bit.) While the series as a whole is terrific, the characterization in particular is phenomenal.

MJ: I’m also interested in Lupin III, which I adored when we got a taste of it back in the day, but we’ve been waiting for the next Real for SO long, I can’t choose anything else. Like many, I’d given up on it. So glad to be proven wrong.

Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts with a Village, Vol. 5

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By Mizuumi Amakawa and Mai Okuma. Released in Japan as “Fushi no Kami: Henkyou kara Hajimeru Bunmei Saiseiki” by Overlap. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Maurice Alesch.

By and large fushi no Kami has been a worldbuilding novel. We’re here to see Ash and company drag the kingdom into the modern era, and we do get a bit of that here, particularly with the development of anesthetic. That said, there has also been an undercurrent of romance to the whole series. Ash has several girls in love with him, and up until this point has pretty much deliberately ignored it. Good news for fans who were hoping for resolution of this plotline, we definitely get it here, as Maika, with the help of almost everyone else in the cast, makes her move. Of course, Ash is unlikely to simply say “sure”, so stronger measures might be needed. And what of Arthur, who is the romantic runner-up in this scenario? Well, she remains a romantic runner-up, I’m afraid. Fushi no Kami does not seem all that interested in polyamory. Fortunately, Maika is awesome enough for five wives.

There is a certain amount of predictability in this volume, to be fair. Once we learn the story of how Maika’s parents got married, the rest of the book writes itself. That said, there is one big surprise, which is Ash casually admitting his feelings for Maika. Ash is a great protagonist, but he also has a tendency to default to ‘blank slate’, both when he talks to others and in his own narrative voice. As such, hearing him casually state that he loves Maika out loud is startling. That said, if you look at most of his actions in the past it makes sense, and his biggest reason to avoid it (they were both kids) is no longer an issue, as both are of marrying age in this fantasy world. That said, his response of “but I’ll never get married because I’d always put my dream over any spouse” is also very Ash. He wants his beloved to be happy.

As for Maika, we know enough about her to know she is not going to mope around after Ash rejects her. Especially not when she learns how her parents got married, and figures she can simply repeat history. Especially if it involves being a cool sword fighter! We’ve seen Maika’s training in the blade throughout the series, and no one has ever really been able to even come close to defeating her. Unfortunately, that applies here as well – despite a couple of attempts to insert drama into the story, with one opponent stating that he’ll be using lethal blows – there is a general lack of tension in her fights the entire way through. That said, it leads up to the best part of the book, where, after Ash says he can’t marry her because his dreams come first, she explains she’ll simply insert herself in between them, as long as it takes. Plus it’s not as if his dreams aren’t hers as well, she just doesn’t have the pat life to draw upon.

There is a decided lack of romantic fallout with Arthur, though that could simply be because she and Maika are best friends. Or it could carry over into Book 6. Which is not out in Japan, so for now we are left with a very nice love confession.

Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools, Vol. 2

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

Last time I said readers should not be surprised if this romance series turned into romance in the next book. It turns out that it may take a bit longer than that. Both of our protagonists are suffering from the death of a beloved parent who was their whole world. Moreover, due to different circumstances, both of them are avoiding love at the moment. As a result, while to the eyes of the reader it might look like they’re basically dating at this point, it really is merely a series of dinners, with the occasional experimental magical sword crafting as a side dish. That said, by the end of the book I think Volf is starting to realize how he actually feels about this captivating young woman/drinking partner. As for Dahlia… well, it’s going to be a bit. Heck, we can’t even credit her break up as being responsible for her avoiding love, as it’s made clear in a side story here that Tobias was also not even on her radar. She’s just dense to love. As are they all.

Fortunately for the reader, Tobias and his new bride are entirely absent from this book, which instead focuses on one major flaw that Dahlia has: she does not realize that her new inventions are stunningly revolutionary, rather than just off-the-cuff things that she can casually give out over drinks and dinner. This includes toe socks and insoles, something she suggests when hearing about Volf and his fellow knights having to battle in a swamp and constantly having issues with wet boots. As it turns out, Athlete’s Foot is a huge problem among the men in this world, and Dahlia’s creation – as well as advice she gives them based on experience from her past life – it enough to set up meetings with royalty. And let’s not even get into the magic bracelet she gives Volf that essentially allows him to leap tall buildings in a single bound. She really does not know her own strength as a craftswoman. Fortunately, everyone else does.

I joked on Twitter that the series was called “Dahliacoholic”, and it’s certainly true that pages and pages of this already very long book are devoted to her and Volf sitting around and having dinner and drinks and more drinks. Fortunately, she pretty much only does this around Volf, and he’s as bad as she is but also a gentleman. He also has a woman who he has an agreement with that they pretend to be lovers – for Volf it’s because he wants to avoid the adulation he tends to get walking around town, and for Altea because she appears to have been interested in his mother more than any man in her life. They both make good cover for each other. Which is good, as otherwise rumors about Volf and Dahlia would be rampant. She doesn’t quite have the social standing to be involved with a noble at the moment… but that may change if she keeps inventing at this speed.

I do think these books could stand to be shorter – like their main couple, they enjoy lingering over dinner and drinks and are in no rush to go home. That said, the mood of this book is excellent, and it manages to be a “slow life” that is actually slow, unlike a lot of those sorts of books.

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, Vol. 1

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By Mo Xiang Tong Xiu and Xiao Tong Kong (Velinxi). Released in China as “Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong” on the JJWXC website. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Faelicy & Lily.

It’s rare I read a book that features so many genres that I normally don’t really deal with. I haven’t really read any Chinese “light novels” before. I don’t really do BL all that much. And I am almost totally unfamiliar with Xianxia, the supernatural fantasy “cultivation” genre that this novel is both part of and also parodying. But there were three very famous books coming out from this author that were getting MASSIVE buzz, and I wanted to read at least one of them. I picked this one partly as it was the shortest volume, and partly as it seems to be the least popular of the three (I like my problem children), but mostly because it’s also squarely in a genre I do read obsessively: Reincarnated Villainess. Or, in this case, villain. Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe may not quite match up exactly with Katarina and Maria, but at times it feels like it’s not for want of trying. As for the book itself? I’m glad I read it.

Shen Yuan has been reading a Chinese webnovel obsessively, despite raging in the comments about how the author is a hack. When the book ends, he gets so upset he actually dies… and finds himself in the body of Shen Qingqiu. No, not the hero. The hero’s evil master, who mercilessly abused and bullied the actual hero of the novel to the point where his eventual brutal torture and murder is one of the most disturbing in the book. Needless to say, this does not fill Shen Qingqiu with joy at ALL. Nor does the fact that there’s an omniscient System Voice telling him what he can and cannot do… which means he can’t simply change his evil ways right away. Can he manage to somehow avoid his bloody fate? Can he actually get Luo Binghe to look at him in a better light?… and wait, does he really want him to look at him in THAT kind of light?

Knowing nothing of the books and their genre, I was expecting this to be more serious than it was. It’s a hoot a lot of the time, particularly our hero’s screaming at the incredibly bad plot devices and scenarios that he is now forced to live through. That said, he gets wrapped up in both the people of this world and his charge, Luo Binghe, very quickly. The ‘danmei’ in this first book is pretty light, mostly consisting of Luo Binghe falling for his master in a very obvious way and Shenj Qingqiu boggling about the fact that he’s suddenly become the heroine rather than any of the hundreds of women that Luo Binghe was supposed to be bedding in the original (we even get the equivalent of “that’s the line she says to the guy in the game!” from Bakarina). There are also a few genuinely great plot twists along the way, and the characters are obvious cliches (that’s the point) while remaining fun to read.

So yes, I’m definitely happy I picked this up, and will definitely be reading the second book in the series. I’m not sure whether I’ll venture into the other two series, though – how funny are they?

If I Stay, Books 1-2 by Gayle Forman

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If I Stay
Mia has a perfect family (hip parents, adorable younger brother) and a perfect boyfriend (Adam, a sensitive punk rocker) and is a perfect cellist (surpasses multiple teachers!) whose perfect audition landed her a spot at Juilliard after graduation. Her perfect life (well, okay, there’s a modicum of tension with Adam about her moving away to New York in the fall) is destroyed when a car accident on a snowy day claims the lives of her parents and brother and leaves Mia in a state of astral projection, able to see what’s happening to her body while she struggles to decide whether to stay and live out her life after such a devastating loss or die and potentially join her family.

I’m not sure what I expected from If I Stay, exactly. Perhaps something spookier? Instead, it mostly alternates between Mia reflecting on memories with various loved ones and observing the goings-on at the hospital, including an episode in which Adam, instead of simply asking Mia’s grandparents to help him get in to see her, stages an elaborate distraction involving a rock star singing in the corridor outside the ICU. It’s as cringey as it sounds. I also wasn’t fond of the suggestion that it’s inherently virtuous to like classical music.

Despite my complaints, though, I didn’t hate it. Mia’s “this can’t be real” terror is conveyed well and I did get unexpectedly verklempt a couple of times. The book also gets much better once Mia’s best friend, Kim, is introduced. It’s through stories about Kim that we finally start to see Mia as someone less than perfect, which is decidedly welcome. I do find, though, that I wish the whole book had been about Kim in the first place! I find her much more interesting than Mia.

In any case, I did like this enough to check out the sequel.

Where She Went
Where She Went is quite a lot better than its predecessor. Told from Adam’s perspective, it’s set three years in the future as he—now a world-famous, Grammy-winning rock star and yet totally miserable—runs into Mia in New York City. It turns out Mia dumped Adam only a few weeks after she went off to Juilliard and never told him why, which completely destroyed him for a while until he channeled his pain into a batch of songs that would catapult Shooting Star’s major-label debut into multi-platinum status. They each have one night before they’re due to head out on tour and Mia suggests they spend it checking out some of her favorite spots around the city.

I thought Adam’s mental state was conveyed well. He’s hurt, he’s angry, he’s closed off, he’s sick of being tabloid fodder, and he no longer feels any love for music. Although he once vowed to let Mia go if she would just stay, it’s clear that he hasn’t been able to do that. Throughout the course of their conversation, however, he’s finally able to see that the person who’s really been harming him all this time is him, not Mia. The payoff here felt well-earned. Also, Mia does not come off as perfect here as she did in the first installment, which I appreciated.

In a series with some supernatural touches around the edges, it’s notable that the thing that really stretched my credulity is that everyone is so ridiculously successful at such a young age. Adam is a huge celebrity. Mia was extra special even at Juilliard and their meeting occurred at a concert she was giving at Carnegie Hall. Not only that, she’s somehow famous enough that a journalist from the rock scene knows about her and wants the scoop on her and Adam’s relationship. Even Kim has become a war photographer who sells her photos to The New York Times.

Still, this was quite good and made me a bit sniffly, which I perversely enjoy.

Bookshelf Briefs 12/16/21

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In which Sean valiantly goes it alone yet again.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 1 | By Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe | Viz Media – This is award-winning, which piqued my interest, and also a rare Shonen Sunday license, which did as well. Turns out the hype is justified. This is a beautiful and poignant story about the elf of a hero’s party who, after they slay the demon lord and break up to go their separate ways, discovers that she has no idea how people who are not her think, be they human, dwarf, or what. She realizes this too late to talk with the hero, and almost too late to talk to the party’s priest, but eventually decides that she needs to experience more in life, and learn how people who don’t have thousand-year lifespans live. The first volume spans about 6-7 years, so our own sense of time may be skewed. It has humor and heart. – Sean Gaffney

My Lovey-Dovey Wife Is a Stone Cold Killer, Vol. 1 | By Donten Kosaka | Seven Seas – This manga is here for one reason and one reason alone, and that’s the lovey-dovey part of the title. It absolutely does not want the reader to think too hard about her other job beyond as a means for comedy. Certainly the husband doesn’t—as the title begins, he already knows his wife kills people for a living, and is absolutely fine with it. The book itself is filled with romcom staples—though it’s worth noting that, as with apparently quite a few Japanese couples—these two have been married for months and their sex life is still 100% absent. But that’s OK, we still have disapproving sister-in-laws, going out to shop, and trying to understand your partner’s needs even when they’re a husband, not a target. For fans of We’re New at This. – Sean Gaffney

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 6 | By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka | Seven Seas – This is pretty much the same as what I said about the series last time: if you’ve read the novels and seen the anime, it’s almost unnecessary. The ‘almost’ part is because Nami Hidaka (who also illustrates the light novels) is clearly having fun doing a full manga version, and the expressions that she gives everyone can be highly entertaining. This especially goes for Susanna/Lana/Larna, who manages to make “I am first in line to be the Queen” easily the least interesting of the jobs she’s currently doing. This wraps up the third novel, and I assume volumes seven and eight will take on the fourth, which is… well, not a popular book, shall we say. But hey, it’s Bakarina. You know you have to take the bad with the good. – Sean Gaffney

Skip & Loafer, Vol. 2 | By Misaki Takamatsu | Seven Seas – Still enjoying the general mood of this title more than anything else. Mitsumi is the sort of character who would simply be an airheaded flake in lesser series, but here she’s not only quite smart and studious, but also good at figuring out ways that she may have accidentally screwed up socially and trying to fix them. This is good, as her not-yet love interest Shima is a very tough nut to crack—a childhood acting career has left him adrift, and he seems to be perfectly happy to stay that way. An upcoming volleyball game is also handled well—Mitsumi is bad at sports, and has to be trained by Egashira, who is still angry at Mitsumi for bad reasons, but does it anyway. The result… is that Mitsumi noticeably improves, but isn’t great. Best realism in Manic Pixie Dream Girl manga. – Sean Gaffney

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 16 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – This arc with Shirayuki being away is, frankly, taking forever, so it’s no real surprise that it shifts its focus for most of it to Mitsuhide and Kiki. They’re a popular fan pairing, they get ship tease here and there, but… honestly, it does not seem as if the author is all that into them. Things are not helped by her primary husband candidate seeming to clean up his act and pursue her hand with greater effort. That said, the largest problem might be that her other candidates for marriage keep getting attacked. There are a few candidates, but the cliffhanger tells us that the prime suspect is … well, just who we don’t want it to be. If Shirayuki and Zen’s romance is obvious and forthright, Mitsuhide and Kiki’s is deceptive and fluid. Great stuff, though. – Sean Gaffney

Species Domain, Vol. 11 | By Shunsuke Noro | Seven Seas – Having crushed Kazanori’s spirit, and suggested that Ohki might in fact be asexual, we now need to remember how this manga initially started and work on getting the two of them together. It’s going to be tough, but Ohki starts to get a clue here and there as the manga goes on, which is more than he’s done the previous ten, so that’s good. In fact, all the pairings look close to becoming official by the end of the book, which is likely why a cliffhanger is thrown in with Jin and Hanei being in danger from an unknown assailant. This book should have ended a while back—its humor is not quite as sharp anymore, and some of these romances have dragged—but I still enjoy it as a unique sort of title that manages to go several places without actually offending. – Sean Gaffney

Sweat and Soap, Vol. 10 | By Kintetsu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – The start of the book is entirely dedicated to defusing the situation we had in the last volume, and it’s handled, as the rest of the series has done, with love, communication, and reaching across to help each other. With a good dose of loving sex at the end as a reward, of course. Now that Asako’s issues with her body odor have mostly been taken care of, it’s wedding time. The actual marriage is a quick license ceremony, with the wedding itself being done months later. That said, they chose a date which leaves them very little time in which to plan, and I suspect the final volume (the next) may feature some crises. Still, at least we get Asako in not one but THREE wedding dresses—all of which are wrong for her, alas. Still fantastic. – Sean Gaffney

Takane & Hana, Vol. 18 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – As with the last volume, this final volume of Takane & Hana is here to remind you that all the drama and conflict have been dealt with beforehand, and we can just enjoy the two leads playfully at each other’s throats. My favorite part may be during the wedding reception, when guests wonder if Hana really thinks she deserves to be Takane’s wife, and she responds point blank “I absolutely do.” Hana’s self-confidence and ability to tear Takane a new one when he needs it have been the main reason to read this. There’s also a limited-edition volume with a different cover and a 30-page booklet with a “7 years later,” showing Hana had triplets (!!!) and that everyone else is doing fine. This was one of the funniest shoujo manga I’ve read in years. I’ll miss it. – Sean Gaffney

Manga the Week of 12/22/21

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SEAN: If you buy these books they probably WON’T get there by Christmas. Santa is sad.

Yen On has one title: Kingdom Hearts: The Complete Novel Collector’s Edition. This box set collects 12 novels, along with a box, prints, and a keychain. It’s a must for Kingdom Hearts fans! (I am guessing, not being a Kingdom Hearts fan.)

ASH: I haven’t read the series myself, but that does look like a pretty sweet set.

SEAN: Three debuts for Yen Press. The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time (Nidome no Yuusha wa Fukushuu no Michi wo Warai Ayumu) is a Comic Walker adaptation of the light novel due out from Yen On, erm, next week. If you love everything I hate about light novels, this is absolutely the title for you. It almost drips with ichor.

I’ve Become an Omega Today (Kyou Kara Omega ni Narimashita) is a BL title from Media Factory’s Comic Fleur, and is complete in one volume. Our hero’s in love with his best friend… but his best friend is an Alpha, and he’s a Beta!… OR IS HE?

ASH: Duhn, duhn, duhn!

Let This Grieving Soul Retire!: Woe Is the Weakling Who Leads the Strongest Party (Nageki no Bourei wa Intai Shitai – Saijaku Hunter ni Yoru Saikyou Party Ikuseijutsu) is a manga based on a light novel licensed by the late unlamented Sol Press. Our protagonist has vowed to become a hero along with his friends!… but they’re talented, he is not. What can he do? Well, he can beg and plead!

Also out next week: I’m the Catlord’s Manservant 2, Murcielago 17, and So I’m a Spider, So What? 10.

Get your children the Christmas Gift all families enjoy: Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection. Out from Viz, it has 100% more melting faces than Santa normally provides.

ASH: Happy! I’m still here for it.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Fist of the North Star 3, Golden Kamuy 24, Levius/est 9, Maison Ikkoku Collector’s Edition 6, and Real 15… wait, what? Real? As in the wheelchair basketball manga? As in Vol. 14 of Real came out in 2016? That Real? Holy guacamole!

MICHELLE: !!!! I had given up hope on seeing more Real!

ANNA: I think I only have the first five volumes, but I’ll order this on principle!

ASH: I’m excited for quite a few of these, but Real is one of my top series ever, so I’m absolutely thrilled to see a new volume being released.

SEAN: Udon Entertainment gives us Persona 5: Mementos Mission, which I think is also a Comic Walker title. As for the premise, well, it’s a Persona manga.

Square Enix Manga has Beauty and the Feast 2.

ASH: I didn’t enjoy the first volume as much as I expected I would, but I’m always glad for food-oriented manga.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a pile of debuts. Cat Massage Therapy (Neko no Massageya-san) is a josei manga from Comic Qurie. If you liked cat as a barista, you’ll love cat as a massage therapist!

MICHELLE: Oh, jeez. “As the professional “meowsseur” digs soft toe beans into Nekoyama’s aching muscles, his heart warms and his worries melt away.” I think this is too much even for me, lover of both cats and josei manga.

ANNA: LOL

SEAN: The Country Without Humans (Ningen no inai Kuni) runs in Futabasha’s Manga Action. The last human in the world tries to survive and make friends. This has ‘hauntingly beautiful tragedy’ written all over it.

ASH: That’s a subgenre I generally appreciate.

SEAN: Lupin III: Greatest Heists – The Classic Manga Collection is a curated collection of the best of Monkey Punch’s manga that inspired the incredibly popular franchise. It was specially [published in Japan after his death. Now we have it.

ASH: I somehow completely forgot about this license!

SEAN: The Savior’s Book Café Story in Another World (Isekai ni Kyuuseishu to shite Yobaremashita ga, Around 30 ni wa Muri na no de, hissori Book Café Hajimemashita) is a shoujo title from Ura Sunday Jyoshibu. A woman is summoned to another world to save it!… but hell, she’s over 30 and tired, so no thanks. Instead she’ll start a book cafe. No, the novel it’s based on isn’t licensed.

ANNA: This sounds amusing.

ASH: If I’m going to read isekai, a book-themed series is probably where I’ll turn. (Also, “over 30 and tired” hits home for me…)

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest ZERO 5, Berserk of Gluttony 4, Dragon Goes House Hunting 7, and The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent 4.

And they also have an early digital version of I’m in Love with the Villainess 2 (manga).

One Peace has The Riding of the Shield Hero 22.

No print debuts for Kodansha, but we see Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost 3, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 9, Fire Force 25, Hitorijime My Hero 11, and In/Spectre 14.

Digitally the debut is My Darling, the Company President (Darling wa Shachou-kun). This josei title from Ane Friend is about a “plain” office lady who finds the new company president is the boy she used to tutor! I hear this one is spicy.

Also digital: Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You 2, Blue Lock 10, Boss Wife 3, Doing His Best to Confess 2, GTO Paradise Lost 16, Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 5, I Want To Hold Aono-kun So Badly I Could Die 8, and Our Bodies, Entwining, Entwined 2.

MICHELLE: I need to get on the Blue Lock train before it completely passes me by. Doing His Best to Confess also looks cute.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has Ascendance of a Bookworm 16, Der Werwolf 13, Holmes of Kyoto 7, Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party 8, Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire ♀ 3, Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 17, and Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! 7. Rozemyne for Christmas!

ASH: Speaking of book-themed isekai, hooray for Bookworm!

SEAN: Lastly, Airship has, in print, Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells 3. And in early digital form we get Disciple of the Lich: Or How I Was Cursed by the Gods and Dropped Into the Abyss! 2.

What’s in your stocking?

Magical Explorer: Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim, Vol. 1

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By Iris and Noboru Kannatuki. Released in Japan as “Magical Explorer – Eroge no Yuujin Kyara ni Tensei Shita Kedo, Game Chishiki Tsukatte Jiyuu ni Ikiru” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by David Musto.

I will admit that I am not nearly as familiar with the ‘eroge’ genre as our protagonist is in this book. Certainly I’d thought that they all tended to be the same as most visual novels: you pick a route, you make choices, you get a girl, coitus ensues. Magical Explorer tells me that this genre is far broader than I expected. The game that our protagonist suddenly finds himself in (it’s never explained how, and he seems to have no desire to return to Japan) is a fantasy dungeon crawling game, with party balancing, learning new spells and skills, and the like. AND a lot of hot girls that the hero gets it on with. Honestly, given that at one point we’re told that in order to get all the route extras you have to buy five copies of the same game from different stores, I feel happy to be ignorant. That said, what about this book in particular?

Our nameless protagonist suddenly finds himself in the body of Kousuke Takioto, who is… NOT the hero of the dating sim world he finds himself in. He’s the “best friend” side character who is loud, flashy and crass to contrast with the hero’s dull, “insert reader here” qualities. As the hero amasses more and more girls, most players don’t bother to keep Kousuke in their party – why would they? This is an eroge! So he’s in the body of someone doomed to be left behind and ignored? Or… more importantly… he’s in a world where he can use magic powers! Yes, friends, let’s not pretend guys are only interested in sex. Cool powers are also high on the list. After moving in with the headmaster of his new school due to a tragic backstory (which he was entirely unaware of, being it never came up in the game), he decides to get his magic more powerful, explore dungeons, and leave the game plot behind. But will it leave him behind?

Given that our hero’s first thought on being in a porn game is “I wonder how I can level up my magic”, I assume he must have seen the School Days anime and knows the dangers of trying the more obvious “I will bed all the girls” choice. And there is a certain amount of cool magical and fighting content here… that I suspect no one is really reading the book for. No, they’re reading the book for scenes that you’d normally get special CG art for, and we get quite a few of those. Our hero accidentally falls and grabs tits and asses. He walks in on girls getting out of the shower. He manages to level up his magic to the point where he can see through steam and blindfolds to ogle women. And the final scene in the book runs on porn logic, and so is so stupid I hesitate to even bring it up. It’s all here.

This wasn’t bad, per se. It’s very good at giving its readers exactly what they want. If you decided to buy this, you’ll likely enjoy it. If you thought “ew, no”, you’re probably not even reading this review anyway. I think I’m done here, though.

Goodbye Otherworld, See You Tomorrow: The Traveling Paintbrush and the Hefty Backpack

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By Kazamidori and Nimoshi. Released in Japan as “Sayonara Isekai, Mata Kite Ashita” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by MPT.

We tend to see, with isekai novels, a hero summoned to a world that’s in peril, usually by the royal family. Sometimes the summons goes wrong, or they summon some other person they didn’t want. We’ve even seen a few where the hero was summoned AFTER the big bad has been defeated, leaving them with nothing to do. We’ve seen heroes fail, and usually they go back in time to try to get it right this time or they’re reincarnated long into the future. But this one in particular is a bit much – by the time our hero, who is living in the woods after running away from his family, stumbles across another world, the world has lost almost everyone in it, turned to crystals by a sudden explosion of mana. All our hero can do, really, is drive around, try to get supplies and possibly find the dark man who gave him advice when he first arrived, and find a reason to go on. The last proves the hardest.

Keisuke does not have much, just his watch and phone (which don’t get more reception from Japan here) and a big truck that he doesn’t really know how to drive that well. Then the truck breaks down when he gets to an abandoned train station. Fortunately, he runs into a half-elf named Nito, who is a painter by trade and reluctantly starts to open up to him seeing as her means of transport is also busted. Together they get their respective vehicles repaired thanks to the last mechanic in the world who responds to distress flares, and set out on a journey – him to find the dark man I mentioned earlier, and her to see if her mother was telling her the truth when she talked about the Golden Sea in a book of paintings that are Nito’s most treasured possession.

So, spoiling something important right here and now: no one commits suicide in this book. This is important to note because we have no less than four different suicidal people at some point i this book, either genuinely trying and failing to take their life or having given up all hope on living. The fact that they do live, and that the See You Tomorrow in the title is meant to be uplifting and affirming, is probably the best thing about the book. The other big plus is the evocative prose – there’s a sense of Kino’s Journey to this series, but it doesn’t have an anti-war agenda like that does, and the disaster that wiped out nearly everyone remains a mystery by the end of the book. Instead we get a series of scenes where we see people who want to end their life finding reason to go on by communicating with others. I love that. It’s a series of passing meetings, but each one has impact.

I’d heard this was the most anticipated of the four J-Novel Club licenses that came out at the same time, and I can see why. It’s just a treat to read, though again I warn there are suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in this. If you want a different sort of isekai, this is the one for you.