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Prince Freya, Vol 1

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Prince Freya, Volume 1 by Keiko Ishihara

I really liked Ishihara’s other series The Heiress and the Chauffeur, which was only two volumes but left me wishing I could read a longer series by the author. I’m always up for shoujo fantasy, and “girl who must disguise herself as a boy” is one of my favorite plot elements so I have been eagerly waiting to read Prince Freya.

prince freya

Freya lives in the quasi-medieval setting that is very familiar to fantasy fans. She likes to casually jump off cliffs and is a well-beloved figure in her village, as she heads to town to fetch items for her ailing mother. Her adopted older brothers Aaron and Aleksi return home for a visit. Aaron is the famous Black Knight who guards the Prince and Aleksi seems mostly content to remain in his older brother’s shadow. There’s a bit of a budding romance between Aaron and Freya, but Freya quickly gets caught up in court intrigue though. Due to her habit of hanging out in high trees she overhears a plot to attack Aaron and the palace. She sneaks in and discovers that the prince ailing, and Freya is his exact duplicate. Far too quickly, she assumes his identity and manages to pull off a stupendous impersonation as the prince. This comes out of nowhere, I would have appreciated a brief 2 page prince training montage to at least address how on earth this happens. Freya’s Prince Edvard is both arrogant and charming, which contrasts with her more naturally retiring personality, putting aside the cliff-jumping and tree climbing.

There’s a terrible tragedy, but Freya is drawn even more into her deception after the prince dies and she has to make sense of what the small circle of courtiers around her is telling her to do as she continues to play along with hiding the prince’s death so the enemies of her country don’t catch on. The art is clear and expressive, and Freya and her quasi-adopted siblings are sympathetic characters. I’m hoping that the second volume has some time to slow down a little bit and let the story unfold a little more gradually. I’m very much looking forward to the second volume.

Pick of the Week: Possibly Our Idol?

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MICHELLE: There is a lot of terrific stuff coming out this week. Shortcake Cake, Snow White with the Red Hair, and Haikyu!! continue to be among my favorite series. But this week I’ll award my pick to the debut of Not Your Idol, as the prospect of some psychological drama appeals to me.

SEAN: I admit Not Your Idol looks great, but it also seems a bit too dark for my taste. Therefore I will go to the opposite pole and make my pick Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear. Because frankly, it looks fun and also ridiculous.

ANNA: I agree that Not Your Idol looks great, but I’m also just not in the mood for anything too dark and twisty. So right now I’m much more in the mood for some Shortcake Cake but it is always hard for me to pick when there are a bunch of Shojo Beat titles coming out.

ASH: Debut-wise, Not Your Idol is where it’s at for me. But I’d also like to take this opportunity to give Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san one last shout-out, too!

MJ: I’m going to go with Not Your Idol. I’m increasingly shifty about cross-dressing as a plot device, but I like the cover, and apparently that’s enough for me in these strange times.

Infinite Dendrogram: The Glory Selecter

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By Sakon Kaidou and Taiki. Released in Japan by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

Since my last review, the Dendro anime has come and gone… and probably best not to speak of it again. Hopefully it’s not a franchise killer like Index III. The novels are still ongoing, though, and this one is a prequel taking place before Ray enters the game. The mysterious admins behind the game are all based around Alice in Wonderland names, and the one called Jabberwock wants to create stronger players with the Superior designation. As such, he unleashes a nightmarish nearly impossible to kill dragon with multiple heads and sets it on poor Altar (this is another volume that shows us why the Kingdom was on its last legs when Ray arrived). Some incredibly powerful and cool folks go up against it… and fail horribly. So it’s up to Figaro (who wants revenge for his friend), Tsukuyo (who just wants to have fun) and Shu (who is a little more pissed off than we normally see him, and takes off the animal suits for the big battle) to save the day. The result is a good book… if you like battles.

We do meet another strong and briefly interesting character at the start of the book. Foltesla, the King of Swords and leader of a powerful battle group, is a player who is very invested in the game, loves to duel with Figaro (who also gets some backstory here, explaining why he’s always a solo player), and has a lovely NPC wife. Every single thing about him screams tragedy, and sure enough, that’s what happens, to the point where honestly it almost swamped the rest of the book for me. I don’t doubt he’ll eventually come back… there’s too much time devoted to him not to… but it does remind me once more that there are a luge number of books that involve “the NPCs are more real than we’d thought”. Sword Art Online Progressive has it as almost its entire plot, and Dendrogram also hammers on it. Figuring out what’s different about this game is part of the fun of reading it.

The battles are usually also part of the fun, and there are some good moments here, particularly involving the “King of Crime”,but it has to be said that there’s a lot of “hope you love gaming stats” talk here. Dendro is better than some at blending this with the actual prose, but when so much of the book is devoted to one battle against one giant monster, it can be a bit boring for those who aren’t stat heads. It doesn’t help that the outcome of the battle is not really in doubt… we know given that there are three lines of defense (Figaro, Tsukuyo and Shu) that all three will eventually have to fight, and we know that anyone else who tries to fight is going to end up vaporized. Also, the book really wants the dragon to talk, but it can’t, so the author tries to give the dragon dialogue it would have said if it did talk, and… it’s as awkward as it sounds.

So it’s a middling book in the series, one that unfortunately made me remember the tragedy rather than the triumph. Can we get back to the main plot next time?

Buck Naked in Another World, Vol. 1

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By Madoka Kotani and Mochiusa. Released in Japan as “Shinyaku Isekai ni Tensei Shitara Zenra ni Sareta” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Garrison Denim. Adapted by Matthew Grune.

When Seven Seas first tweeted about this license, I may have made a comment or two about it. Something about the title, the concept, and the cover art just set me off. It looked to be the culmination of every single bad light novel trend out there. Unfortunately, people responded to my blithe snarky comments with “ha ha, can’t wait to read your review!”. I realized only too late that this meant I actually had to review the thing. Oh well. How bad could it be? Things weren’t helped by the fact that, when it arrived on my phone, I found it was far longer than a book called “Buck Naked in Another World” had any right to be. This is a chunky volume. But, I finished it. And here I am, reviewing it. And I will tell you right up front: do not read this bad book. Tempting as it is to end the review there, let’s move on to a summary of the plot.

…no, wait, first I want to talk about that cover. I have to hand it to the artist: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a light novel hero I want to punch in the face on sight more than this guy. Look at that smug cocky grin. And we have the adoring mild-mannered girl on his left, and a big-breasted, eyepatch-wearing warrior on his right. More to the point, as you can tell, he’s not QUITE naked. Shuta (who everyone calls Shooter in this world) is a 30-something guy who floats from menial job to menial job, till one day he winds up in another world, naked. He’s at first arrested and put to even more menial jobs… naked except for a small loincloth, which you see on the cover. Gradually he wins over the population of the village he ended up in, gaining a wife and defeating monstrous wyverns. Then he goes to the big city, where due to his lack of identification he ends up tricked into slavery, and slaves are… you guessed it… naked.

Before I get into the naked thing, let’s talk about everything else wrong with this book. It almost reads like a checklist of things I dislike in light novels. It’s clearly based on a webnovel, and thus very long and not at all edited down. (In fact, judging by the ‘Shinyaku’ in the title, this isn’t even the first attempt at publishing it!) Slavery is here, because it’s a fantasy light novel, and it’s still irritating. There’s a scene where a woman pees herself in fear and Shooter will not shut up about it, something that remains very popular in these sorts of light novels as well for reasons I’d rather not think about. Shooter gains the affection of at least 6 different women over the course of the story, one of whom he marries, and does not do much except kill monsters and be nice to them to earn this affection. Moreover… OK, let’s get to the naked bit.

First of all, it is not clear until a side story at the very end why no one just gives this guy a pair of goddamn pants. I had gone into the book assuming it was some curse or such, but no. The village thinks that because he arrived naked, and does not immediately shriek for clothes, that this is just his thing. His wife (clearly embarrassed by his nudity, something Shooter interprets as fear) makes him g-string underwear, but says pants are above her station. When he’s enslaved, slaves are said to be naked, but again, he’s really the only slave we meet for more than two lines of text, so it’s still just him. Look, I get that you need to make your book stand out among all the other fantasy isekais. But… OK, let’s take Reborn As a Vending Machine. Ridiculous isekai premise, right? Harem of girls, right? Overpowered guy, right? However, if you took out ‘he’s a vending machine’, nothing in the story would work. But if you gave this guy clothes… nothing in this story would change at all, except we’d be spared a few wiener jokes from the narrator. There’s no goddamn reason for him to be naked except for clicks on your webnovel. At least rise above that low bar!

The translator and adapter do their best here… for good and ill, Shooter’s narration sounds like the sort of guy you’d imagine from the cover. In other words, you want to strangle him. Sadly, his smugness doesn’t help the mind-numbing worldbuilding that we get sprinkled throughout this, which is the main reason this is so long but is not worth it. And oh yes, for those who are buying the book featuring that a book with a title and girls like this has to have sex? Nope. Not at all. This book if irritating, dull, occasionally offensive, and far too long. Do not read it.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai

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By Hajime Kamoshida and Keji Mizoguchi. Released in Japan as “Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

(This review is based on a review copy provided by the publisher.)

A lot of times these days, licensed light novels tend to fall into two different categories: “we’re licensing this because the Japanese publisher knows there’s an anime in the works”, and “the anime has come and gone but this did not immediately vanish into obscurity the moment the anime ended so let’s take a flyer on it”. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai seems to be the latter – it started Japanese publication in 2014, which makes it quite old by licensing standards. I haven’t seen the anime (yes, try to contain your surprise) but I’d certainly heard of it, with it seeming to occupy that odd position of both “high school romcom” and “vaguely supernatural things happen” that we see in Haruhi Suzumiya and others. That said, I did notice (and tweeted about) a major different I spotted: unlike all those novels with snarky first-person narrators whose inner thoughts we are buried in, Aobuta (its Japanese nickname) is third person. It makes a difference, believe it or not.

Our hero apparently already had a boatload’s worth of light novel events happen to him before the series began: Sakuta has a past, which has left him with huge gashes across his chest, a little sister who’s a shut-in, and a reputation at school that means he has precisely two friends. One day at the library he is startled to find Mai, an upperclassman of his and a famous actress… well, actress on hiatus… dressed as a bunny girl and walking around. No one pays any notice to her – but Sakuta can see her, much to her shock and dismay. As they gradually get closer he discovers that more and more people simply don’t notice that Mai exists, and it’s becoming something of a problem. Since he has experience of this thanks to his sister’s history of being bullied (which also involved mysterious supernatural consequences), he chooses to help her out. It helps that she’s really hot. It doesn’t help that he will say absolutely anything that comes out of his brain with no filter.

As I said, this is in third person, so while we can hear about Sakuta’s thoughts and decisions, we don’t get his specific thought process. This means that things that others, such as Kyon or Hachiman, might think to themselves for the benefit of the reader but not bother to say aloud he says aloud. This might actually make him more attractive to Mai, who is used to people not knowing how to talk to her and thus not talking to her at all. The relationship between the two is the best part of the book. I also like how he expects her, when they first meet, to behave like Senjogahara – the book is aware of its influences. Mai is a bit less sharp than that, but still falls into that basic type. In the second half of the book, as things turn more serious and Mai’s “no one can see me” condition turns potentially fatal, the two have a warmly growing bond that I want to see more of.

The book is part of a series, which not only makes for an annoying cliffhanger (expect a Groundhog Day loop next time) but also sometimes means things clearly meant for future novels are introduced here, no matter how awkwardly they may fit in. If Tomoe is the subject of the next book (as the title suggests), she’s going to have to be more interesting than she was here to win me over. (That said, she clearly wins out over the girlfriend of our hero’s best friend, who seems to be designed to be a Hate Sink so that the fandom can go after her and leave the rest of the cast alone.) In the end, I found Rascal Does Not Dream 1 (the titles will be changing with each book) to be an excellent stand-alone romance that seems to be a harem-ey ongoing series. As such, we’ll see what happens in the second book.

Manga the Week of 5/6/20

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SEAN: So, it’s May, and we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Let’s break down what that means, by publisher.

Viz/SuBLime and J-Novel Club have both indicated that their May print books are on schedule. Yen Press has moved a number of books to later months, and has a smaller May schedule that’s all in the last week of the month (the books on the list below are technically April holdovers). Tokyopop and Udon have both indicated that, despite Amazon listings, their May books are ‘TBA’ – I’m going to guess One Peace will fall in here as well, though I can’t confirm that. Dark Horse doesn’t have any May manga titles, and Denpa seems to have moved everything to June as well, though their lack of a release calendar on their site doesn’t help. Vertical moved all its May books to later in the year. Kodansha and Seven Seas have delayed their print releases to TBA (Ghost Ship is an exception), but are still releasing the books digitally on time.

Having done all that, let’s start with a publisher who’s none of the above. Fantagraphics has a box set of both volumes of Dementia 21 out next week. Definitely worth a look if you like creepy stuff.

ASH: True, that! I already have the individual volumes myself, but this is a great set for those who don’t.

MJ: I might consider this.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has Vol. 9 of Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs.

J-Novel Club has three print releases for us. An Archdemon’s Dilemma 5, Infinite Dendrogram 6, and JK Haru Is a Sex Worker in Another World: Summer.

On the digital end, we have the 3rd Faraway Paladin manga, The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 5, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 14++ (why is it avoiding 15?), Lazy Dungeon Master 10, the 3rd Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar manga, and the 2nd Sweet Reincarnation manga.

ASH: Why is it avoiding 15??

SEAN: Kodansha is all digital, but let’s begin with what WOULD have been print, as we have L♥DK 15 and To Your Eternity 12.

ASH: To Your Eternity is such a good series.

SEAN: On the digital digital end, there’s no debut (the ‘debut a new title every week’ thing seems to be over), but we get All-Rounder Meguru 14, A Condition Called Love 3, Orient 2, Smile Down the Runway 9, and To Be Next to You 5.

MICHELLE: There may not be a weekly debut, but they really are getting out their newish shoujo titles super quickly!

SEAN: Seven Seas has a digital-first debut light novel, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear. The Japanese meaning in the multiple kumas is apparently a tortured pun, but oh well. Kuma is a young VRMMO prodigy who is otherwise a shut-in, and (stop me if you’ve heard this one) is sucked into the game for real! Even worse, her equipment – while powerful – is cutesy bear pajamas. Can she survive in the game with her dignity intact? This seems funny, and at least Kuma seems unlikely to amass a large harem.

Seven Seas also has two “no print yet, but here’s the digital on time” releases: How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? 3, and Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho 10, and an “early digital light novel” release of Restaurant to Another World 4.

ASH: It definitely has a stong fanservice element, but I’ve largely liked what I’ve read of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? so far.

SEAN: And so we move to Viz, which has everything you’d want in a first week of May. The debut is Not Your Idol (Sayonara Miniskirt), and thank God for title changes. It’s a shoujo manga from Ribon, though it also appears on Shonen Jump +, their digital platform. This is about a former idol who was attacked and decided to live as a boy afterwards. Now someone recognizes them. It feels like the sort of manga I tend to call a “potboiler”. We’ll see.

MICHELLE: I will definitely give it a shot!

ANNA: I’m curious about this one.

ASH: Same.

MJ: Cautiously interested.

SEAN: Also coming out from Shojo Beat: Daytime Shooting Star 6, Love Me Love Me Not 2, Shortcake Cake 8, and Snow White with the Red Hair 7.

MICHELLE: I’m reading all of these, though I look forward most to catching up on Shortcake Cake and Snow White with the Red Hair, as I’m a couple volumes behind now.

ANNA: I’m reading all of these too!

MJ: I’m so far behind on everything!

SEAN: On the Shonen Jump side, the debut is One Piece: Ace’s Story, the first in a series of light novels focusing on Luffy’s older brother.

There’s also Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 12, Dr. STONE 11, Haikyu!! 38, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War 14, My Hero Academia SMASH! 4, Samurai 8 2, and Twin Star Exorcists 18.

MICHELLE: Volleyboys!

ANNA: My kids are big Haikyu!! fans. One day I need to get caught up but we have every single volume.

ASH: I’m a bit behind, too, but Haikyu!! is a series I really enjoy.

MJ: Half my Twitter feed is obsessed with Haikyu!! but I must really be getting old, because my first reaction is, “Ack, so many volumes.”

SEAN: Lastly, Yen Press had a few April titles that got bumped a week but aren’t affected by the pandemic. We get the 2nd manga volume of The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life, Aoharu x Machinegun 17, Éclair Blanche (the 2nd Girls’ Love anthology in that series), Murcielago 14, the 2nd Our Last Crusade manga, and Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san 4, which is its final volume.

ASH: Skull-Faced Bookseller Honda-san, it is so good to see you one last time!

MJ: I still need to give Skull-Faced a chance.

SEAN: See? Even in a pandemic, there’s still plenty of stuff. What are you reading from home?

Silver Spoon, Vol. 14

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By Hiromu Arakawa. Released in Japan as “Gin no Saji” by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

This isn’t the last volume of Silver Spoon – that’s the next one, and I’ll get into why that’s controversial when I review it – but let’s be honest, for most readers of this series who were not in it for just the extensive farming talk, this volume is the payoff. This is not to say there isn’t still extensive farming talk – in fact, there’s more of it than ever. Arakawa is determined to drill into readers’ heads what making a living as a farmer in 21st century Japan is like, and by now the readers are close to understanding it, though probably not enough to actually start a farm. As our heroes get closer to graduation, we see expanding businesses, more pizza sales (though they don’t break even – always talk to Tamako first), and how to see your career prospects threatened by an extremely sketchy company looking for indentured servants in all but name. That said, the big plot here is Mikage and her exams.

The cover might seem ominous, with Hachiken and Mikage once again separated from actual romantic contact. And the exams are not easy – indeed, Mikage’s exam partner, Aikawa, ends up not passing – with Mikage getting a particularly vicious interviewer who suggests that her love of animals is because she hates dealing with people. Of course, as we’ve seen in the past, he’s not far off, but the days of deflecting and stepford smiles are over for Mikage, who gives a nice, heartfelt answer that amounts to both “I fell in love with this guy” and also “I was inspired to better myself because of everything he did”. As for Hachiken, frankly, he’s so worried he ends up in bed with gastritis. However, not to spoil too much, but things work out. In both ways – the 121st chapter is, as I said above, the payoff, and after a LOT of events conspiring against them (even equestrian helmets!), Hachiken and Mikage are a couple.

Now, Silver Spoon was never just about whether these two would get together, so there’s more to come here. For one, the other students find out – which naturally leads to the two of them being separated for all romantic holidays from now until graduation, because the boys are lovable assholes. There’s even another couple getting together – to contrast with Hachiken and Mikage’s tortured courtship, Sakae and Maruyama’s pairing is as blase as they come, and the two of them still think like farmers, as they have to discuss how the family businesses would merge in the event of their getting married. (Sakae also has some great lines as the biggest Mikage/Hachiken shipper in the cast.) Mikage’s parents also find out, which goes exactly the way you would expect. Basically, as with previous volumes of this series, every super heartwarming moment is undercut by extreme silliness.

So we head towards graduation, and seeing what everyone does next. Will there be enough pages to fully flesh everything out? Aheh. We’ll talk about that next time. Till then, enjoy what everyone was waiting for.

The Extraordinary, the Ordinary, and SOAP!, Vol. 1

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By Nao Wakasa and ICA. Released in Japan as “Hibon, Heibon, Shabon!” by ArianRose. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by C. Steussy.

I have talked before, and no doubt will again, about the fact that one of my favorite types of light novel is the kind that has, as its plot and character archetypes, not one original bone in its body, yet somehow still manages to win you over with the sheer power of good writing. I enjoy it so much because a) let’s face it, the old and familiar is like that hoodie that you always wear around the house – it’s your comfort food, but b) it shows the author has the skill to make you want to read more. This especially applies to the latest in a long line of shoujo light novels from J-Novel Club’s Heart imprint. I love that we’re finally getting so many light novels for women rather than men, but let’s face it, introducing a dozen or so of them in the space of about five months has been a bit wearing. So we start with a story about a common girl with a dull magic power who can SAVE THE WORLD!

The title in Japanese – Hibon, Heibon, Shabon! – is snappy and rhymes and is, unfortunately, nearly impossible to translate so that it does the same thing in English. Shabon is soap, and that’s what our heroine Lucia can do – her powers make soap bubbles that can clean even the most stubborn stains. After the death of her mother leaves her with a pile of debt, she moves to the king’s castle to find work as a laundrywomen and enjoys a fun, ordinary life – including having lunches with Sir Celes, a cute and handsome knight. Sadly, he’s away when the castle is attacked by horrible monsters one day, but Lucia, desperate and terrified, casts her soap magic on one… to find it suddenly calm and placid. Turns out her magic is a lot more than removing stains from clothing, it can also apparently remove the horrible mental and emotional stains from people. So she’s sent off to join the Sacred Maiden, who has been transported from another world to… wait, what?

Yes, the best part of the series, easily, is that this is in fact an isekai, but the girl who is transported from Japan is only a supporting character. Maria is supposedly the deus ex machina that will save them all, but things aren’t going very well. And actually, I tell a lie, because the best part of the series is the subtlety in its writing. As an example, Maria is shown to be selfish and horrible whenever we hear about her, but after Lucia a) hits her with Soap a few times to clean her clothes, and b) talks to her like a normal person rather than a savior of the world, Maria gets better. (Somewhat.) Is it Lucia’s magic or is it Lucia’s talking her down? It’s left open. The scene at the castle when the monsters are attacking is also expertly handled – there’s a real sense of terror from both Lucia and the residents of the castle, and it adds to the sense of depth in the books. As for the relationship between Lucia and Sir Celes, it’s cutely handled so far, and I liked that we added a bunch of other hot young/middle aged guys to the cast and Lucia is interested in precisely none of them – in fact, she thinks “is this what it’s like to have a dad?” with one big bruiser.

Good writing, a clever take on isekai, only a little fanservice (Lucia is somewhat busty, which is mentioned once or twice), and a winning heroine. Best of all, it’s only three volumes long, so there’s not a huge investment. And you’ll absolutely have to get the next book, as this one ends on a nasty cliffhanger. Very pleased with this series.

Pick of the Week: BL Unanimity

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SEAN: Another week, another pick that’s blindingly obvious. I admit I am interested in Yen On’s new title, but clearly the choice is BL Metamorphosis, which seems to have both a great premise and wonderfully soft and nostalgic art.

KATE: What Sean said: BL Metamorphosis is my pick of the week, too!

ANNA: BL Metamorphosis sounds amazing. Looking forward to reading it.

MICHELLE: BL Metamorphosis all the way!

ASH: It really can be nothing else – I’ve been wanting to read BL Metamorphosis even before it was licensed; I’m so glad the series is being translated.

MJ: Normally, I’d never pass up a chance to hype Silver Spoon, but the temptation to make this a unanimous pick is just too strong. BL Metamorphosis it is!

My Next Life As a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 5

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By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Marco Godano.

It’s been a while since we last saw the light novel version of this series. Since last July, the anime has started to air and seems to be quite popular despite the fact that casuals will now ask novel fans why they spell Katarina with a K; the manga has started its second story arc, adapting the third novel; and a second manga has started with a spinoff idea of “what if Katarina fell and hit her head… when she was already bullying Maria at the Academy?”. Looking at my last review, I had wondered if the series would finally allow everyone to graduate next time. Well, the answer is no; this is a short story collection, taking place all over the Bakarina timeline, and therefore we don’t see her entering the Ministry of Magic or anything here. Instead we get a wide variety of tales, some good, some dull, and a few manga interspersed (the artist of the light novel illustrations is also the artist for the main manga series).

To start with the duller stories, Keith is a nice guy but tends to lead to tedious story beats, and that holds true here. Alan is slightly more interesting but “have a picnic and climb a tree” is still very slight. Raphael’s story seems to be there to remind us that that section of the cast exists, and the manga sections are fun but also very slight. The end of the book has a lot of tiny little stories from various minor members of the cast, showing how Katarina has impacted their lives. That said, there are also some very strong stories here. Katarina runs into a self-proclaimed rival who reminds me a bit of Nanami from the Utena series, and fares about as well; Nicol starts an arranged marriage process because he feels it’s his duty, only to run into a bunch of women who strangely don’t find “I’m doing this because I have to” enticing; Katarina and her girl friends/girlfriends all talk about romance; and Katarina’s snake making may upset her fiancee, but is a potential moneymaker.

The series is still ongoing in Japan, and I imagine is continuing its balancing act with Katarina being too dense to realize that everyone in her orbit is in love with her. That said, I do wonder if it’s showing signs that it might actually resolve with her making a choice, mostly as there are minor signs of “pairing the spares”, so to speak. Nicol’s final fiancee interviewee actually seems to go together very well with him, despite neither one wanting to get married to each other. Mary, usually one of the most hardcore Katarina fanatics, shows a brief moment of doubt after Alan rescues her from a creeper. That sort of thing. That said, that balances with the other thing this book hammers home, which is that Katarina is the best at it, but is certainly not alone in misreading the obvious intentions of everyone else. Even her own mother gets into the act, seeing only the annoying perpetual 8-year-old part of Katarina and missing the fact that she’s managed to become the most influential person in the entire kingdom.

So worth picking up, but lacks some of the impact of the other volumes. It’s also quite short. Will the next book finally have Katarina in the working world? And will she ever show any romantic feelings towards anyone at all? I look forward to finding out. Till then, there’s still the anime to watch.