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Pick of the Week: Who’s a Pretty Boy, Then?

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SEAN: There are a few other titles I’m interested in this week, including the new one by the Barakamon author, but there’s no doubt about it: Pretty Boy Detective Club is absolutely the one I want to read most.

MICHELLE: I really must agree. There are definitely other things I am happy about too, but this is really the standout. I’ve never read anything by NISIOISIN before, but cannot resist pretty boy detectives!

MJ: There’s not a lot that interests me this week, but the one thing that does catch my eye puts me on the same wavelength with my colleagues so far. It’s Pretty Boy Detective Club for me!

ANNA: Who would I be to stop this wave of enthusiasm for Pretty Boy Detective Club? I’ll just go with the flow this week.

ASH: As curious as I am about Pretty Boy Detective Club, I think I may actually be even more curious about Yoshi no Zuikara: The Frog in the Well Does Not Know the Ocean. I enjoyed Barakamon a great deal, but somehow missed that another manga by the creator was going to be released in English!

So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 9

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

This is definitely a book that has most of its important content at the back, saving its biggest scene for the final chapter and epilogue. That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of other things going on here. White is learning good ways to regain more of her powers (get drunk); our ogre/oni is finally taken down and made somewhat sane again, and decides to just GO by Wrath now; our vampire has decided that she’s tired of being weaker than the rest of the group and decides to essentially bathe herself in evil to catch up, which works quite well – at least for this book; and probably most importantly, the demon lord arrives back in her domain and orders the war to recommence, despite the fact that the demons simply don’t have the manpower to win. She is not winning friends, though her extreme power means she’s certainly influencing people. Oh yes, and White goes to Japan. Of all the series to have a ‘return to Japan’ arc, this was not one I was expecting.

The entire series has sort of hammered this home, but this volume in particular wants you to realize how horrible most of the demon lord’s group is at communicating. Ariel is best of the lot, mostly as she has the Chatty Cathy part of Kumoko’s brain. The dissonance between White’s narrative voice and her actual outward expressions is well known to us, but here we see how it’s really causing problems, mostly as Sophia thinks that White is a lot more pissed off and angry than she actually is. Not that Sophia is any better, given her default mode seems to be ‘tantrum’. Really, this motley crew would get along with the cast of Overlord; they’re all basically broken evil people, and adding Wrath to the mix is unlikely to change any of that.

But yeah, the big part of the book is when White, who has realized how easy it is for her to teleport now, ends up going back to Japan. Fortunately, she arrives at the school in the middle of the night, and going home quickly finds D, who explains herself to White, who had figured out a lot of this already. I’m not sure the reader had; some of this was foreshadowed, but a lot of it was deliberately hidden from us, possibly to make the reveal that much bigger. The interesting thing here is White’s reaction to the fact that D not only manipulated her entire life, but did it for such a petty, vapid reason. White is justifiably furious… but also reacts the way a child would to their parent, feeling intense love just for the fact that D throws her a bone and says White can have “freedom”. It feels a lot like an abusive relationship, and I don’t think we’re supposed to love it, and it’s not helped by White’s hyperactive narration.

So I don’t know if this is a game changer (I doubt White will be acting any differently), but it’s certainly a startling revelation. In the meantime, we edge closer to war, meet some characters who I seem to recall getting killed off earlier in the series/later in the timeline, and are reminded once more that Potimas is the absolute worst. I’m still enjoying this, despite everyone being pretty terrible.

Adachi and Shimamura, Vol. 3

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By Hitoma Iruma and Non. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Molly Lee.

There was a wondrous moment about two-thirds of the way through this book which really made me sit up and take notice. No, Adachi did not actually work up the nerve to confess – heck, even Valentine’s chocolate proves to be almost too much for her to handle. No, Yashiro did not wave goodbye and go back to her own planet, though the author remains very good about keeping it up in the air as to whether she’s an alien of a chuuni. But for one, brief, shining moment, Shimamura was interesting. She met up with a friend from her old school, who seemed to want very much to rekindle their friendship, and Shimamura being who she is, “sure, OK, I guess” was the response. We see the two of them travel on the train together, go to the mall together… and it is the most painful, awkward thing you will ever see. It’s unclear what Shimamura actually gets from this consciously, but unconsciously I think the answer is clear: Adachi is not like other friends.

As noted above, we are right around Valentine’s Day. Adachi wants to exchange chocolates, which she communicates to Shimamura in the most awkward panicky way possible. Shimamura, who has come to the conclusion that Adachi is simply desperate for basic human contact due to her family situation, agrees with this. The two then have what amounts to normal pre-Valentine’s adventures, mostly separate, though they do meet up for video games at Hino’s place. Adachi thinks far too much about astrology, tries to make homemade chocolate and then backs off completely, and is essentially a complete mess. Shimamura runs into not one but TWO old friends from school, and realizes that she barely even remembers anything they did anymore. That said, she also gets the bulk of dealing with Yashiro. When the 14th finally comes, we get a clear winner, and it’s Shimamura.

It was suggested to me on Twitter that Shimamura might be suffering from depression. Certainly I’d argue she’s suffering from malaise, which influences most of her actions and makes her the passive narrator that drives me crazy. It’s a funny running gag that Adachi imagines Shimamura’s response to doing anything and it’s always the equivalent of “meh”. This pays off here in two ways. First, the scenes with Tarumi help to show off that Shimamura struggles as much as Adachi with basic human responses, in particular the idea of “what friendship is”. Tarumi wants to rekindle their relationship (and, the reader suspects, perhaps wants a bit more than that), but Shimamura just is not able to respond to that at all, and finds the whole thing uncomfortable. This is contrasted with the final scene, where Adachi coincidentally retraces the same route Shimamura took with her old friend… only now with Adachi, and she’s laughing and having a ball. She GETS the difference. It pays off with the message Shimamura paid for, which is, for her, a grand gesture. And Adachi… well, she gets a hug? Which she will remember for a long time to come.

This series, if I’m being honest, still tries my patience most of the time. But there were moments in this book when I could actually feel Shimamura attempting to make an effort, and that almost made it worth it. I suspect we won’t get Vol. 4 till the anime finishes, so enjoy this now, right before it starts.

I’m in Love with the Villainess, Vol. 1

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By Inori and Hanagata. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou” by GL Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Sas. Translated by Jenn Yamazaki. Adapted by Nibedita Sen.

I will admit, I knew very little about this series and was not really expecting much. It’s publisher, GL Bunko, seems to specialize in yuri light novels. This was a webnovel first, like so many others before it, and is another take on the popular “trapped in an otome game” genre, only this time instead of being cast as the villainess our protagonist gets to be the heroine. It does not really seem to concerned at first with setting up how she ends up in this world – she simply finds herself there in class, in front of her favorite character. It does not really bode well. And yet, she’s a very likeable character who’s fun to read. Then, as you go on, you realize that there really is a lot of thought being put into this, that a lot of the subtle (and not so subtle) hints pay off down the line, and by the last quarter of the book it’s become absolutely terrific.

Our heroine is Rae, who is the Maria Campbell of this series, a commoner who attends a school that, until recently, was reserved exclusively for nobles. However, now that magic has been discovered, commoners with abilities are being admitted. Rae is ALSO a former OL from Japan, overworked and unhappy, whose sole joy was playing the otome game Revolution… and analyzing it… and writing fanfiction about it. Particularly about the “villainess”, Claire. So when she finds herself now in the game’s world, as Rae, with the ability to interact with Claire every day… well, she could not be happier. She proceeds to insert herself into Claire’s life, first at school and then, as if that weren’t enough, as one of her maids. That said, the book is not simply happy go lucky shenanigans… remember the name of the otome game.

As I said, this book starts off pretty “same old, same old” to soften you up, though Rae’s general joie de vivre makes the narration run at a higher level. Claire is seemingly the standard “cartoon bully” you see in games like these, but we get to know more about her and see her more nuanced sides and grow to like her just as much (unlike Katarina Claes, Claire also has some depth in the game as well, it seems). There is also an honest discussion of sexuality, which uses the word lesbian, and also talks about the things that people tend to believe about them, which you almost never see in books like these. And then there’s the last quarter, where Rae declares that she’s not a political person and that her sole goal is to be with Claire, but politics is not something she can escape, and she does not hesitate to abuse her knowledge of the game to help save the girl she loves.

That love is still one-sided, at least by the end of this book, though Claire’s “I hate you” statements are getting weaker and weaker. More to the point, the book makes me absolutely ravenous to read the next two, despite the fact that the covers for the Japanese books are HUGE spoilers. I absolutely recommend it, even to those sick of otome game villainess stories.

Manga the Week of 9/30/20

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SEAN: Try to remember the kind of September when manga was slow and discussion was mellow. Ready? Then follow.

MJ: (Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow…)

SEAN: Going by their website, Denpa Books finally has the 2nd omnibus of Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji.

ASH: Happy to see this series get back on track!

SEAN: Seven Seas’ ero label Ghost Ship has FOUR titles out, including a debut. Welcome to Succubus High! (Succubus Gakuen No Inu!!) is a Takeshobo title from Web Comic Gamma Plus. An average boy is transferred to an all-girls school full of succubuses to teach them about men. Naturally, he does NOT want to have sex with any of them, because this is a Ghost Ship title and not a Fakku title. The line may be far away, but it’s there.

Other Ghost Ship titles out are Creature Girls 4, Yokai Girls 11, and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 10.

J-Novel Club has a trio of titles. The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress 8, Cooking with Wild Game 9, and A Wild Last Boss Appeared! 2.

Kodansha, again, has no print titles. Digitally, we have a debut: My Best (♀) Butler (Ore no Shitsuji (♀) ga Iketeiru), a Dessert title that I could describe the plot of but instead I’ll just note it’s another “poor girl is toyed with by rich boys” series and go with that.

MICHELLE: Pretty much.

MJ: Ugh.

SEAN: I’ve made a decision to stop reporting Kodansha’s “early digital” series as they simply change the date at the very last minute too often. So, in digital-only land, we have Heaven’s Design Team 5, Lovesick Ellie 11, the 16th and final volume of My Boy in Blue, Princess Resurrection Nightmare 6, and Seven Shakespeares 13. As you can see, this week is devoted to “new volumes of titles we’ve caught up to Japan on”.

MICHELLE: I’m glad for more Lovesick Ellie!

SEAN: One Peace Books has The Reprise of the Spear Hero 2.

Seven Seas has three debuts. The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue (Mahou Tsukai no Yome Shihen.108 – Majutsushi no Ao) is another spinoff of the popular fantasy manga, it runs in Mag Garden’s Manga Door, and has been described as a genderswapped version of the parent series.

We Swore to Meet in the Next Life and That’s When Things Got Weird! (Raise o Chikatte Tensei Shitara Taihen na Koto ni natta) is from ichijinsha’s Zero-Sum Online. Two lovers vow to meet again in their next life. They do! Except she’s a 39-year-old OL, and he’s still in high school! This sounds… uncomfortable but cute if you ignore the premise.

MICHELLE: I will probably check out both of these, albeit with a certain degree of trepidation.

MJ: I. Hm.

ASH: Things did indeed get weird there.

SEAN: The digital-first light novel is Muscles Are Better Than Magic! (Mahou? Sonna Koto yori Kinniku da!), a fantasy comedy about a guy who’s trained forever and the elf girl who needs his help.

Also out next week: Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average?! 10 (print), How to Build a Dungeon 6, The Invincible Shovel 2 (print), Mushoku Tensei light novel 8 (digital first), and Servamp 14.

Vertical has two titles. On the manga end, we get the 2nd Blood on the Tracks.

Pretty Boy Detective Club (Bishounen Tanteidan) is a novel written by NISIOISIN, but it’s a far cry from the Monogatari or Zaregoto series – it’s a reverse harem! A young woman trying to find a star that appears only once every ten years ends up being helped by, well, the title club.

MICHELLE: I cannot resist this.

MJ: Okay, maybe need this.

SEAN: Yen also has some runoff from last week. Yen On gives us a 4th Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World.

Yen Press debuts Yoshi no Zuikara: The Frog in the Well Does Not Know the Ocean, a Gangan title from the creator of Barakamon, about a fantasy manga artist trying desperately to draw realistic manga.

MICHELLE: Huh. The Yoshino series was not on my radar.

ASH: Oooh, I am intrigued!

SEAN: Lastly, we get Éclair Rouge, the latest in this yuri anthology series.

More to discuss than I thought. Fantastick. What are you getting?

Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol. 1

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By Zappon and Yasumo. Released in Japan as “Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasaretanode, Henkyou de Slow Life Surukoto ni Shimashita” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

I probably should not have read this only a few weeks after Roll Over and Die, as the first thought that came to mind is that when the woman is leaving the party she’s branded, sold into slavery, and left for dead, but when it’s the guy he just moves to the country, opens a shop, and gets a girlfriend almost instantaneously. That said, the whole “you are a disgrace to the party, go!” plot is apparently also a big thing in Japanese webnovels now, though so far it’s been less “the party” and more “that one asshole guy in the party”. In any case, our hero starting up his apothecary and hooking up with his former ally is only part of the story here, as we also flash back to the party in action, get a few glimpses of life as the hero, and, perhaps most importantly, talk endlessly about the magical systems in place in this world.

This is not a “game world” per se, but the plot hinges on a common game element: Gideon, the banished guy, was born at Level 30, and is the very definition of “the strong guy who joins your party early in the game to help you level up”. Unfortunately, when the party grows strong enough, this type of character usually leaves, and Gideon doesn’t do that – mostly as the Hero is his little sister. So when one of the party with a hate on for Gideon and a crush on the hero tells him he’s useless now, Gideon quietly accepts it, leaves the party, changes his name to Red, moves to a backwater sleepy town, and opens an apothecary. Luckily he’s helped in this by Rit, an adventurer and princess whose kingdom the hero’s party saved earlier. Rit has had a not-so-secret crush on Red since that time, and essentially invites herself into his shop, his home, and his bedroom. Together the two grow closer and have a nice quiet life. But what of the hero?

I’ll start off with the negatives: Red/Gideon is not the most magnetic hero. He fits the stock “boring adventurer guy” a little too well, and it feels ridiculous that he’s just quietly listen and leave the party without, y’know, asking anyone else in the party about it. There’s also a heaping helping of explanations about “blessings”, which are essentially the powers that people have, as well as the weak points that come with them. (Gideon, for example, cannot go past the Level 30 he was born with.) It’s interesting in regards to the ongoing story, but also tends to go on a bit too much. On the bright side, Rit is genuinely likeable. We get a large number of flashbacks showing her being a giant tsundere towards Gideon and everyone else, but now that she’s grown up and accepted her feelings, she’s quite fun and cheerful, and their romance is very sweet. Most importantly, though, are the last few pages. We learned very little about the little sister hero throughout the book except that she had something of a brother complex and was relatively emotionless. Towards the end we see the emotionlessness is a result of the many, many blessings she has, and that it has not been good for her mental health. I am definitely hoping to see more of her later on.

Overall, this does a good job trying to balance the “slow life” that its audience likely bought it for with actually having a plot and future character development. I do hope it has Red become a little less of the stock light novel hero in future books, though. But I’ll be reading more.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 25

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By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

Yona of the Dawn fits into a lot of genres. First, obviously, there’s shoujo manga, and the tropes of a young woman surrounded by good-looking men. There’s trying to save the kingdom fantasy stuff, with a bit of revenge fantasy mixed in, although as we see in this volume, revenge doesn’t really play into it as much as disappointment. Lately we’ve had military fantasy, with the entire plot of the last few books being “can we stop the inevitable war?”. But the last couple of chapters of this volume also bring home another genre that this series falls under: Yona is walking around with a bunch of superheroes, each of whom are using their powers to protect her and help other people. They don’t wear capes, but it otherwise checks out, and really gets hammered home in the last few pages of this book, where Yona’s “can’t we talk this out” plea is met by a bunch of arrows… that fail to hit her. Which, good, because Yona of the Dead is not a genre I want to see.

Yona’s talk with Su-won goes about how you’d expect, though I was very pleased to see Riri step in to defend her and remind everyone around them what Yona has been doing the last few years. (I admit I’ve lost track of the timeline, how long as Yona been on the run now?) The main problem here are the religious fanatics, who, as with almost all religious fanatics in manga/anime, turn out to be power-hungry villains. Killing off Kouren’s allies one by one, their goal is war by any means necessary. Fortunately, though they’re still grievously injured, the dragon warriors are able to step in and help to drive them back, even at the cost of their remaining stamina. And, as always with this series, we see whether idealism like Yona’s or Tao’s – even Tao finds herself wavering after seeing what the priests have been doing – can hold up under pressure.

There are some wonderful scenes interspersed throughout this volume, but my favorite may be Kouren pointing out, as I did, that Yona is running around with a bunch of superheroes at her command – why isn’t she simply taking out Su-Won by brute strength? Yona responds that “they aren’t tools to satisfy my personal grudges”, which is a great moment (though it also amuses me, as I’m pretty sure by now all of them would be very happy to help Yona do exactly that). As for the encounter with Su-Won, once again it’s not quite as earth-shattering as their past would expect, but she does learn that his pragmatism and her idealism are still at loggerheads, and that reconciliation is not happening anytime soon. As I said earlier, Yona could easily slide into revenge fantasy, but Yona doesn’t hate Su-Won enough for that to work.

As for the next volume, well, Yona isn’t full of arrows, so that’s good. We’ll see if she can stop the war, though. In the meantime, this is a shoujo manga, but it’s also so many other things.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 12

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By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

Sadly, my begging to the author did not help, as Machiavelli is cited again in this volume. It was originally written in the webnovel version interspersed with Vol. 11, but they decided to split it up for book publication. Which is fine, but it does mean this book is very short. And what’s worse, it still needs side stories to make up the length… and has to start Book 13, to the point where the chapter numbering actually resets. Basically, in terms of bang for your buck, this is pretty slight. Fortunately, it does a little better when it comes to actual plot, introducing us at last to the Zem mercenaries and finding that they are not QUITE as villainous as the book has painted them to date. More importantly, though, we meet the late Duke Carmine’s daughter Mio, who is determined to get to the bottom of why her father did what he did. Souma had been planning to try to clear Georg’s name anyway, so this works out, but there are some other things to consider.

War is tough, after all, and though Georg did his best to try to keep casualties to a minimum, there are still soldiers who were killed in a battle that turns out to have been part of a massive con game, and their families won’t be happy with that. More importantly, of course, is the presence of Kagetora, the tiger-masked bodyguard who is absolutely not secretly Georg Carmine, no way, uh uh. Mio’s seriousness and general anger is something that Souma tries to curtail by the shortest route, and he does so by having Kagetora and Mio face each other in battle, something that manages to clue her in – and only her – as to what’s going on. (Less successful is Mio after this cathartic moment, when she becomes more comedic and starts throwing herself at Finance Minister Colbert… the author really does want to pair up absolutely EVERYONE, huh?)

The other big event in this book, aside from the cliffhanger that leads into Book 13 (which I’ll just discuss when that comes out) is the first in-person meeting of King Souma and Empress Maria. He needs the Empire’s help with their upcoming war, and knows that such a conversation can’t happen over video conference call. I liked that this showed off Maria being exceedingly clever, seeing what Souma is actually planning immediately, and also showcasing Jeanne’s frustration at being unable to catch up to her genius sister. That said, Maria’s (unheard by the reader) request of Souma is worrying, as it certainly sounds along the lines of “when I die, do this”. And here I was thinking they were going to work out a way to add her to Souma’s wives… oh yes, and the mad scientist group discusses the need to add drills to everything, which I still maintain is just a big Maria-sama Ga Miteru joke.

So, despite its slightness, this book succeeds at what it wants to do, although (like many, many light novel authors) the attempts at humor are not all that funny here. In any case, next time we get mermaids and dragons, and see another clever plan of Souma’s upended by a heroine inserting herself into the narrative.

Pick of the Week: Farmers, Brides and Villainesses

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MJ: In a stunning turn of events, I’ll begin this week’s column. I have only one cry to let out into the world, and that would be… “SILVER SPOOOOOOOOOOOON.” What I’m saying is that my pick is Silver Spoon.

SEAN: Technically I know I should be picking the final Silver Spoon, or the new A Bride’s Story, or a new Baccano!, or any other number of Yen Press stuff. But after seeing Erica’s review of the first volume of I’m in Love with the Villainess!, that’s gone to the top of my “books I want to know more about”. Despite 2020 being the year of villainess stories, this is still apparently a cut above.

MICHELLE: For the longest time, I wasn’t especially tempted by light novels, but lately there have been a few to catch my eye. And after reading Erica’s review, I immediately went to Amazon and pre-ordered the digital edition of I’m in Love with the Villainess!. The prospect of genuine character growth and development within a fantasy isekai (plus yuri!) is really calling to me.

KATE: Oof–this is a lot to take in! I’m going to join MJin reminding everyone to buy the final volume of Silver Spoon, which has been a consistently great series from beginning to end, with vivid characters, real-life drama, and just enough poop jokes to prevent the whole thing from being too heavy, but I’m also going to shamelessly plug the newest installment of A Bride’s Story. Kaoru Mori costume drama = win.

ASH: As I anticipate being able to declare A Bride’s Story my pick in the future, and to grant that honor to I’m in Love with the Villainess! when it’s released in print (yes, I have it preordered), and that this is the last time I’ll be able to choose Silver Spoon, that’s the series I will go with this week! It’s such a great manga for all the reasons Kate has already described, plus it makes me oddly nostalgic for the area of the United States I grew up in. If you haven’t given Silver Spoon a try yet, this is the time.

Monster Tamer, Vol. 1

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By Minto Higure and Napo. Released in Japan as “Monster no Goshujinsama” by Monster Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

I will admit that the sole reason I gave this series a try was the Japanese light novel label it came from. A series from Monster Bunko! Titled Monster Tamer! Would there be… monsters? Rest assured, this book from the monster publisher with monster in the title has monsters in it. You may have guessed from the cover… possibly. Turns out the cute girl in the uniform is actually a monster as well. That said, what this genre really ends up being is the grim and gritty “abandoned by my classmates, I must soldier on, brooding and filled with hate, and monsters are the only ones that understand me” genre. Arifureta fans will find this very familiar. That said, Arifureta also has a heaping helping of humor that this book lacks. It wants to be taken seriously. Which is fine, but I must admit that emo teen’s emo narration made me rub my forehead a bit. There’s only so many times you can talk about how much you hate humanity, y’know?

Our hero (not on the cover as he’s a standard dull light novel protagonist guy) and his entire school are transported to another world one day. Some have cool, strong powers… and some do not. Very soon everyone starts to try to kill each other. Majima is essentially run over by a stampede of fleeing classmates and left for dead. He crawls to a cave and starts to get eaten by a slime… but then discovers he DOES have a power, as the slime is now his servant. His “monster party” ends up being the slime (who eats the corpse of fellow student Miho, which is why she looks like that on the cover), a ‘puppet’ monster that basically looks like a ball-jointed doll (helpfully, she makes armor with ‘breasts’ so we know she’s also female), and a non-monster, Mana, Miho’s underclassman and friend who they rescued from sexual assault by other classmates. Together they try to leave this forest and find other, non-murdering classmates… and avoid monsters that Majima can’t control.

As you can see, this book is the very definition of a high school kid wearing black so that he can be “edgy”. Majima does not let a chapter go by without telling us either a) he’s lost faith in humanity and hates them now, or b) how he has thrown aside his morals and become a terrible person. Certainly he does kill a few people, but as you’d expect with a Japanese light novel by now, they’re all rapists and bastards. Somewhat to my relief, the relationship between him and his monster servants is framed as more familial than romantic, at least on his end. The third monster we meet comes near the end of the book, and is… well, exactly what you’d expect given her monster type, but I assume we’ll develop her more in the 2nd book. I also appreciated that our hero’s power does not in fact mean he can fight at ALL – all the fights are his monster girls fighting to protect him.

That last bit might turn off other edgy teens who subscribe to the “I want my hero to win all the battles and bed all the women” school of thought. And honestly, given this is 16+ volumes and counting in Japan, I feel no need to read more. For those who enjoy this sort of “revenge/found family” story with a dark-ish tinge, this book will serve those needs quite nicely.