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Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 1

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Will Holcomb.

First of all, despite expectations, there really aren’t many bear puns in this book. Even the title, which I thought was one, is “くま　クマ　熊　ベアー” which is simply ‘kuma’ in hiragana, katakana, kanji, and ‘bear’ in katakana. It’s ‘Bear Bear Bear Bear’. The author, Kumanano, translates to “I’m a bear”. and the heroine, Yuna, appears on the cover wearing a bear onesie with bear gloves and bear slippers. I’m telling you this up front because if you’re already annoyed, best not to read this. It is absolutely saturated with bear. Despite what I had thought, Yuna CAN remove the bear suit if need be… but she’s as powerful as a 15-year-old human girl when she does. WITH the bear suit, provided to her by the God who runs this world, she’s ludicrously overpowered. Which tells you at heart this is sort of for fans of Make My Abilities Average and its ilk. Do you like teenage girls beating up jerks and monsters? You’ll like this.

Yuna is a young girl who likes to game, sleep, eat,and not much else. She hasn’t gone to school ever since she found she can get rich working the stock market. Her parents briefly protested… so she paid them enough money to leave her forever. And they left! (I mention this because it jars very much with the overall tone of most of the book, and I am wondering if it will ever come up again.) Then one day, Yuna gets an upgrade to the game she’s playing, along with special equipment… the set of bear items. Then, she’s asked if she enjoys real life (no), if she has people who’ll miss her (no), and anything really important to her in reality (money). After this… again, try to contain your shock… she finds herself transported to a fantasy world that’s very much like the game she had been playing. In a bear onesie.

I spent a whole paragraph talking about the first 5 pages or so because the rest of the book is exactly what you’d expect. There’s stats (though not as many as Yuna would like, and all bear related), there’s guilds, there’s killing wolves and orcs, there’s mana gems, there’s jerk guys who look down on Yuna just because she’s a cute young girl in bear pajamas… this lasts until she beats him so much he needs medical attention. There’s also a cute girl risking her life for her family who Yuna essentially adopts as a little sister. Originality is absent here. That said, it reads quite well, and I was never bored, despite the same old things happening. The weakness may be Yuna, who tends to react with little emotion to much of anything, and thus can come off as a bit mean (shades of Potion Girl) or callous. That said, this book also lacks a lot of the bad habits of light novels, possibly as it has a female lead and is written for a female audience. There’s no descriptions of breasts, Yuna shows no signs of getting a romantic harem, and there’s no slavery. I appreciate that.

This is run-of-the-mill OP isekai, but unlike some others I’ve reviewed recently, its gimmick (bear) is handled very well, being funny and never really irritating. If you like bears, or just like young women walking around and being cool, this might be a good light read. Oh yes, and the illustrator also does The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, so if you like their work, also check it out.

Bookshelf Briefs 5/7/20

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The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 12 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – As much as I continue to love this series overall, this particular volume had some highs and lows for me. When Chise’s new classmates are in a scene with her, I find them interesting (particularly her prickly roommate, Lucy) and enjoy seeing Chise successfully interact with peers when just a couple of volumes ago she had doubts about her ability to do so. That said, the conversations these characters have amongst themselves about their pureblood alchemical family drama are unimaginably boring. At the same time, there’s an important conversation between the leads in which Elias tries to clarify what he meant by “bride” and an eventful camping trip to Scotland at the end of the volume that sees Lucy in peril, both of which I greatly enjoyed. In the end, I’m as eager for the next installment as ever. – Michelle Smith

As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Vol. 9 | By Matoba | Yen Press – It would appear that the manga author is well aware that Eurydice is not the most popular character in this book, as the first part of it deals with her getting amnesia and forgetting she’s a shotacon… and having people reluctant to cure her. Big same. Elsewhere, it’s all about the three “main” couples in the series, none of whom are official but all of whom are teased to death. Astaroth and Sacchan are stuck on a seemingly deserted island, and both are feeling very awkward around each other. Beelzebub and Mullin are a couple but don’t actually seem to realize it, much to the frustration of others. Most importantly, Azazel and Belphegor hold a real conversation! It’s good setup for the final volume next time. Fluffy fun. – Sean Gaffney

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!, Vol. 1 | By Yuu Toyota | Square Enix – The title of this one gave me the impression that it was going to be smutty, but the reality is anything but (at least so far). Kiyoshi Adachi is a gloomy, average, thirty-year-old virgin who has just discovered he can read the minds of the people he touches. When Adachi decides to see whether his seemingly perfect coworker, Kurosawa, has a secret nasty personality, he instead discovers that Kurosawa is romantically interested in him. As Adachi accesses more of Kurosawa’s thoughts throughout the volume, he realizes that he’s a genuinely good person and wants to get to know him better, but his lack of romantic experience means he gets overwhelmed easily. I think these guys make a cute couple and look forward to continuing the series. I also really enjoyed the bonus stories, especially the one about Adachi’s equally virginal friend and a delivery guy who bond over a kitty. – Michelle Smith

Gabriel Dropout, Vol. 8 | By Ukami |Yen Press – The main thrust of this volume is the arrival of Gabriel’s big sister Zeruel, who (as Gabriel knows) will flip her shit when she sees her behaving like a sloppy otaku, and (as Gabriel doesn’t know) has a massive sister complex about her. This amusingly leads to Gabriel acting like a perfect little angel and creeping everyone out. Fortunately, in a “who knows Gabriel best” trivia competition, Vignette’s knowledge of present Gabriel trumps Zaruel’s past knowledge. Speaking of Vignette, her demonic tendencies take another beating when another demon in the group refuses to see her as anything but an angel because she can’t be mean. Basically, be they angel or demon, everyone in this cast is a flake, so it’s all good. – Sean Gaffney

Kakushigoto: My Dad’s Secret Ambition, Vol. 2 | By Kouji Kumeta | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – This series continues to be the sweeter, more optimistic version of Zetsubou-sensei, and I’m OK with that. This is not to say that the author does not get a bit bitter about things that are in his wheelhouse, such as constant editor turnover (his current editor, who is a bit of a loser, is there because no one else will have Kakushi) and having to judge new entries in a manga competition (Kakushi judges fine, but is undercut by the stupid editor adding (lol) after every entry). Biting the hand that feeds him has always been Kouji Kumeta’s top skill. That said, it almost seems tempered by age and maturity here, particularly in the scenes with the father and daughter simply being a good family. Ominous future, though… – Sean Gaffney

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, Vol. 11 | By Izumi Tsubaki | Yen Press – Sometimes it happens that I just don’t have much to say about a volume of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. I like it best when some modicum of progress is made in one of the core relationships in the series, and for the most part (and despite the claim on the back cover that Wakamatsu finally learns Lorelai’s true identity) we don’t get that this time. Mostly it’s gags about otome games and hypnosis and what if Nozaki did a book signing. That said, there is a very nice tidbit at the end where Hori sincerely tells Kashima that he likes everything about her, and I hope that isn’t forgotten though I realize it’s extremely likely that nothing will come of it. In summation, I think I’m kind of reading this wrong, but ultimately I still enjoy it. – Michelle Smith

Prince Freya, Vol. 1 | By Keiko Ishihara | Viz Media – While several of Ishihara’s manga have now been released in English, Prince Freya is the first I’ve read. But I’m always happy to see more shoujo fantasy released, so I was looking forward to giving the series a try. The premise of the manga is pretty solid if not particularly innovative—Freya is a young woman who, due to unusual and deadly circumstances, is required to pose as Prince Edvard, the leader of her country. Ishihara has also laid the groundwork for some excellent court politics and intrigue. The pacing, however, especially in the introductory chapter, is extraordinarily fast. In addition, time and distance seem to have frustratingly little meaning in the series. And unless there’s some sort of spirit possession going on (which admittedly would be an interesting twist), Freya’s “becoming” Edvard in the first volume strains belief. But even considering its flaws, Prince Freya continues to intrigue me. – Ash Brown

Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro Side Story: Nostalgic Travelogue | By Satoko Kiyuduki | Yen Press – This is nothing more than a series of short stories set during and after the main series, but if it allows us to spend more time with Kuro and friends, I’m 100% down with it. There’s moments of bittersweet tragedy in a story of a princess who sacrifices her life for the sake of her country. There’s amusing moments, such as Kuro and Sen having to play chess to escape a king’s wrath… a very strange game of chess. And there’s heartwarming, such as a young boy who grows older as he hears the stories of the travelers (including Kuro) who pass through his inn, eventually finding himself involved with some of the people he heard about. I love this series; it’s gorgeous and poignant. – Sean Gaffney

Sweat and Soap, Vol. 2 | By Kintetsu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – Now that our main couple has gotten together, it’s time to bring in some things to cause potential drama. The cute underling at work that’s in Kotaro’s department (and clearly has a crush on him) tries to uncover if he and Asako are dating… but fails. Also, he sees her like a little sister. Asako tells her mother she’s dating a guy… and she’s thrilled. The biggest issue in this volume may be Asako’s little brother Keita, who had to defend her from bullies as a kid and thus doesn’t trust anyone who might date his big sister. That said, a nice dinner at Keita’s restaurant (he’s a budding chef) does the trick, with Kotaro winning him over by simply being sincere. Both the sweat and the sex have lessened in this book, leaving pure sweetness. – Sean Gaffney

A Witch’s Printing Office, Vol. 2 | By Mochinchi and Yasuhiro Miyama | Yen Press – This started badly, with an entirely gratuitous boob shot distracting me from what turned out to be a pretty good plotline of a cooped-up rich kid wanting to get out into the world and read more… even if it turns out she might be reading her mom’s doujinshi. The basic premise of this series is that anyone and everyone can be happy buying and reading doujinshi, even if it’s monster guides or magic spellbooks. Yes, even the demon lord, who turns out to be quite nice. In fact, the real danger in this book is a natural one, as there’s a huge typhoon that threatens to take out the island that not-Comiket is held on. And there’s even a cliffhanger… is there another Japanese person trapped here? Aside from one bad bit of fanservice, still very good. – Sean Gaffney

Manga the Week of 5/13/20

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SEAN: Mid-May (Mother’s Day) and we’re feeling the loss of many books, though there’s still enough coming out that people should be kept busy.

ASH: Indeed! It certainly feels odd not going to TCAF this year, but I’ve still found plenty to read.

SEAN: We start with J-Novel Club, which has the 4th Ascendance of a Bookworm manga, Cooking with Wild Game 7, and Outer Ragna 2.

ASH: I’ve heard so many good things about Ascendance of a Bookworm; I really need to move it closer to the top of my to-be-read pile.

Newbie publisher Kaiten Books has its second release, which is Shed that Skin, Ryugasaki-san! (Mukasete! Ryugasaki-san), which is NOT based on a light novel but is in Overlap’s Comic Gardo anyway. It’s the sweet story of a lizard-like girl and a boy who really loves lizards. Can they find love?

Catching up on things I missed: Kodansha now has the rights to Loveless, presumably through their partnership with Ichijinsha, and has released all 13 volumes digitally as of last week.

Also out already from Kodansha via their partnership with Comixology is Drops of God Vols. 12-22.

In the “would have been print but isn’t yet” Kodansha titles, we find Beyond the Clouds 2 and Knight of the Ice 2.

MICHELLE: Knight of the Ice is so much fun.

ASH: I really liked the first volume!

ANNA: Me too, I’m looking forward to collecting this in print.

SEAN: On the actual digital front, we have Ace of the Diamond 26, The Dorm of Love and Secrets 4 (a final volume), Giant Killing 20, The Hero Life of a (Self-Proclaimed) “Mediocre” Demon! 2, and Tokyo Revengers 15.

MICHELLE: I’ll be reading 60% of these!

SEAN: Seven Seas has two debuts (digital, of course). The first is the Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear manga, based on the light novel we talked about a week ago. It runs in Shufu to Seikatsusha’s Comic Pash!, which is not a magazine I get to mention here very often.

More relevant to the Manga Bookshelf crowd is Sarazanmai: Reo and Mabu, a single volume BL manga from Gentosha’s RUTILE. From what I can tell, this is the prequel to the Sarazanmai anime/light novel series, which is from the pen of Kunihiko Ikuhara and whose light novel version Seven Seas is releasing later this year. Um, they’re cops, they’re lovers, they adopt a kid, there’s weird supernatural shit? Sounds like Ikuhara, all right.

MICHELLE: Hmm.

ASH: I’ll be reading this at some point.

MJ: Count me in on this.

SEAN: Also out next week: Classroom of the Elite 5 has a early digital release. There’s also Dungeon Builder: Demon King’s Labyrinth Is a Modern City 2, Magical Girl Site 12, and the 11th and final volume of Masamune-kun’s Revenge.

Square Enix has one digital release: The manga version of Wandering Witch, whose light novel is coming out from Yen On. This manga version is from Gangan Online. For fans of Kino’s Journey.

ASH: I do like Kino’s Journey…

MJ: Ohhhhh, I also love Kino. Hm.

SEAN: SuBLime has a 2nd volume of Given and the 3rd Yarichin Bitch Club.

MICHELLE: Yay, Given!

ASH: Yes! Looking forward to reading more.

ANNA: Looking forward to more Given!

MJ: Oh, no! I’mm behind!

SEAN: Finally, we have Viz. No debuts, but we get A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow 3, Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition 9, Radiant 11, RIN-NE 33, Splatoon 9, Transformers: the Manga 2, and Yo-Kai Watch 14. (Yes, I know. I always forget Yo-Kai Watch exists.)

ASH: I’ve been enjoying A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow quite a bit so far.

SEAN: Some interesting things. Are you buying any manga for your mom?

BL Metamorphosis, Vol. 1

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By Kaori Tsurutani. Released in Japan as “Metamorphose no Engawa” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Newtype. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jocelyne Allen. Adapted by Ysabet MacFarlane.

In troubled times, sometimes you just want to read something that puts a smile on your face and a song in your heart. Slice-of-life series can be all kinds of things, and this story of an old woman bonding with a teenager over BL manga fits perfectly. Ichinoi teaches calligraphy classes at her home, and is alone now that her husband has passed away. One day, the cafe she goes to closes down so she’s forced to go further into town, where she goes into a bookstore to cool off. Startled by how much of the store is now devoted to manga, she’s taken by a book with gorgeous artwork. She buys it, startling the bookstore clerk, Urara, because the book is BL – something Ichinoi is unaware of till she reads it later at home. That said, the love story within intrigues her, and she goes back to the bookstore for more – sparking a friendship with Urara.

The balance between the new friendship slice-of-life and the BL manga that connects the two is perfectly done. Ichinoi does not have a life that is wanting by any means, but she’s feeling lonely, and enjoys talking about the books with Urara. Urara is the sort of teen I’d describe as ‘naturally sullen”, and has trouble connecting with kids her own age, all of whom seem more together than she is. Discussing the books that Ichinoi is buying helps to break the ice, and Ichinoi is also a natural-born friend-maker, which Urara is very much not. By the end, they’re even going to a writer signing event, though the size of the event proves to be a surprise. It’s a very natural, well-paced budding friendship between two women with 50 years between them.

There is also discussion of the BL manga itself. Ichinoi last read manga back in the Aim for the Ace! days (1970s), so was unprepared for the BL relationship in the book she bought, but she immediately gets into the series. We see occasional pages from the series, showing a not-quite couple, both of whom seem to be bad at communicating their true feelings – one bright and outgoing, one inward and moody. The series is only three volumes long, and it only comes out every 18 months, so for Ichinoi there’s a very real worry she won’t live to see the end of it. The manga ties in with the protagonists’ lives so that it seems natural, and doesn’t overwhelm the day-to-day stuff (such as Urara’s crush on her childhood friend, which isn’t going anywhere as he’s dating someone else.

In the end, this is simply a terrific story, and I really want to see these two hang out and talk about BL manga or anything else they choose to. I’d also like to see more of their pasts – we see Urara had another childhood friend who’s no longer in her orbit, and the final chapter shows Ichinoi approaching a building (for the author signing) her husband wanted to take her to the top of but they never did. Absolutely recommended, whether you like BL or not.

Otherside Picnic, Vol. 3

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By Iori Miyazawa and shirakaba. Released in Japan as “Urasekai Picnic” by Hayakawa Bunko JA. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

I’ve talked before about how this book is well served by the fact that Sorawo is our narrative voice. This means, of course, that we see what she thinks of Toriko’s words and actions, but don’t get Toriko’s own POV in reverse. The fun part lies when the reader is able to infer what Sorawo isn’t. Certainly Sorawo is correct that Toriko is obsessed with finding Satsuki, but she seems to equate that with a romantic longing, and on our end we’re not so sure. More to the point, Sorawo can be very savvy in some ways and not in others – there’s a scene where Toriko mentions the fact that she was brought up by two mothers, and it’s very clear she’s dropped this information on Sorawo to see how she’s going to react… because of course Toriko is in love with Sorawo, something that has been clear for some time but is increasingly textual as the book goes on. It’s good characterization, and the narrative POV helps sell it.

There’s three main stories in this volume. In the first, Toriko and Sorawo go back to the other world and try going in a different direction, but their rooftop picnic (love the idea of an actual picnic in this book) is interrupted by some time-stretching shenanigans and the ominous presence of Satsuki, who is invisible to Toriko but very visible – and terrifying – to Sorawo. The second story sees the return of Sorawo’s kohai Akari, who Sorawo continues to be wary and uncomfortable with, and Akari’s childhood friend Natsumi, who has unfortunately not done as the creepy urban legend told her to, and is suffering as a result. Finally, Sorawo and Kozakura are kidnapped by a cult, whose leader has a voice much like Toriko’s hand and Sorawo’s eye, and said leader really, really wants to meet Satsuki. Unfortunately for all concerned, she does.

I will admit, the actual urban legends/ghost stories presented here did not ring a bell for me, nor are they really supposed to for Japanese readers, I think, despite all the documentation of 20-year-old 2chan threads in the book’s appendix. Indeed, Sorawo makes an important distinction here, as she hates “I know a guy who this happened to” stories, which are far more likely to be made up, and looks for real “this happened to me personally” legends. As with the second volume, the scarier stuff is at the back half here, though those with teeth phobias may wince at the second story. This includes Sorawo herself, who upon being kidnapped and locked up brings to the fore another part of herself only concerned with survival (though honestly, there’s not much difference between this and her normal self, IMO – I think a lot of it may simply be her psyching herself up.) The climax of the book leaves one dead, one maimed, and one big Satsuki problem that still isn’t going away, but at least our heroines are OK.

This is getting an anime soon, apparently, and it will be interesting to see how they convey some of the concepts here – a lot of the horror themes work best on the page. As for this volume, it’s another strong one in the series, and I look forward to the fourth one, if only to see how – or if – Sorawo responds to Toriko’s words at the end.

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

by

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.