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Middle-Aged Businessman, Arise in Another World!, Vol. 1

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By Sai Sumimori and Ichijirushi. Released in Japan as “Around 40 Eigyou-man, Isekai ni Tatsu!” by Kodansha. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Taishi.

To a large degree these new isekai titles that we’re seeing are playing to a crowd who knows what it wants. There is, at least here in North America, a relatively loud contingent who are sick of isekai and moan and groan when they see more of it, but the fact is isekai sells a ton, and there are readers who want more and more of it. The same goes for so-called overpowered characters. Hate on Kirito if you must (and he’s not even a good example of the type), but folks love to read about newly isekai’d folks who suddenly find they can do anything. I have excellent news for those of you who like said characters: in this book, we get an entire family of them. That said, I also have good news for those who dislike these types of characters: for the most part, we stick with the father, and he rarely busts out his god powers, preferring instead to trust in what he’s really good at: sales and marketing.

We first meet our hero, Shousou, as a sad-sack 28-year-old salaryman who’s not very good at much of anything. In the pouring rain one evening, he runs into a beautiful goddess who’s experiencing life on Earth. Faster than you can say “Oh My Goddess”, the two go back to his place and fall into bed. Thirteen years later, they’re married with a family, and he’s now a huge success thanks to brimming with confidence after… well, boning a goddess. And he’ll need that confidence, as one day he and his entire family are transported, house and all, to another world. There, another goddess (who is far less impressive than his wife, a running gag) informs them that it was an accident but it will be at least a year till they can be returned. Shouzou has to provide for his family, but adventurer is a job that would keep him away from the home for weeks on end. So he joins a down-on-its-luck guild as their sales manager, promising to make them the top guild in the city within a year.

Lest you think that Shouzou’s sales pitch is his only power, rest assured he has power out the wazoo thanks to his goddess wife (who helpfully explains that sex with a goddess every day will do that to a mortal). But it’s mostly for emergencies like when he has to slap a dragon to get it to go away and such. For the most part, this really is Shouzou dealing with a fantasy world guild the way a marketer would, and using clever ideas to move forward. It’s actually the main reason to read the book, and a lot of fun. I do wish we’d seen more of the family – having been the catalyst of all this, his wife is content to sit back and be sweet for the most part, though the three daughters do get tiny subplots showing off how a combination of their heritage and being in a fantasy world means they’re all superhuman as well.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Shouzou is dynamic and fun, the guild employees are nice, and even the stereotypes, such as the ojousama teenager with princess curls and the arrogant third son who lashes out when he can’t get his way are relatively harmless compared to other examples of those types. The second volume is the final one, though as with a lot of light novels I do wonder if it has an actual ending or just stops. I will definitely want to find out, though.

Pick of the Week: Princesses, Classmates and Magi

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KATE: There’s a surprising amount of good stuff in this week’s new manga haul! I’m intrigued by Star Blazers 2199 and The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, but I’m also excited to see Yen Press licensing more queer-friendly manga; Yuri Life looks like a winner. If I had to recommend just one title, though, my choice would be Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, a gag manga that finds a surprising number of ways to make chronic insomnia look funny.

SEAN: Given it’s the last time I can pick it, I feel obliged to make my pick of the week Magi. Shonen Sunday series always have a much harder time here in North America, so I’m pleased that this long-runner seemed to do well and wasn’t consigned to 2-volumes-per-year hell. I’ll miss it.

MICHELLE: I’m intrigued by Star Blazers 2199 and am grateful to have more Ace of the Diamond and Classmates, but I must join Sean in one final pick for Magi. This story has come a long way and become more complicated than I ever would’ve guessed from that first volume and I look forward to seeing how it all ties up in the end.

ASH: I am very much intrigued by The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, but my pick this week goes to the second volume of Classmates. I really loved the first volume and am always happy for the chance to read more of Asumiko Nakamura’s work in English.

ANNA: I enjoyed the first volume of Komi Can’t Communicate, and I always like to read two volumes of a series before deciding to be in for the duration or not. I’m looking forward to the second volume of this shonen comedy.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 19

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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.

After last volume’s tragic Zeno backstory, I was ready for a change of pace, and I ended up getting two. Bad things happen when Sinha is possessed by a former Bluer Dragon seemingly out for revenge, and our heroes end up in a cave filled with the spirits of the unquiet dead, which are drawn in a very creepy way. It could almost be horror… were it not for the fact that these are some of the funniest chapters of Yona to date. Every third page seems to have a new and better gag. Sinha’s possession is taking as him entering a “rebellious phase”, Yun’s Team Mom personality is constantly called into the light and dragged around for all to see (rice balls!), Hak, who has the dead pressing against him so hard he’s feeling weak, assumes that waking up in Yona’s embrace means he’s having one of THOSE dreams; and of course we get “hold on to me” as an excuse for a giant group hug. It’s wonderful.

It’s also only half the book, though the other half is a bit more serious (save for the discussion of why Su-Won hasn’t gotten married yet, which is a strange combination of hilarious and incredibly awkward). Yona and friends meet up with Riri and her bodyguards, who are still trying to protect the Water tribe by ferrreting out the source of the drugs still filtering into the cities. Well, Riri is, the other two are just following her and trying to ensure she doesn’t get kidnapped or killed or anything. This is actually a much bigger job than they’d like, especially as Ayura is still injured, so the bodyguards hire Yona and company to help protect her and also find out what’s going on. Of course, Yona being the type of series it is, this leads to a cliffhanger where she and Riri are captured by the bad guys, but if there’s one thing Yona has taught us to date it’s that this is not a series where the heroine stays put and waits to be rescued.

Another fantastic scene involves Yona and Riri discussing Su-Won, what he’s doing for the countries, and what Yona’s actual goal is. She’s seen what her father’s rule was like, and what Su-Won is doing, and has come to an understanding about it, though that doesn’t necessarily mean accepting it. But she still thinks that Hak will never forgive Su-Won, and I suspect she’s right there. There’s also a bit of romance, as Yona and Riri spend the night in bed together./. wait, wrong romance. Yona gives Hak a charm, and is clearly in love with him but unaware of her feelings. Hak, on the other hand, is very much aware of his feelings, but is not going to be doing anything about them anytime soon and is content to simply be by Yona’s side. I can’t wait till this eventually boils over.

So another stellar volume of Yona of the Dawn. You know the drill. Buy it.

Toradora!, Vol. 6

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By Yuyuko Takemiya and Yasu. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Will Holcomb.

Sadly, I’ve caught up with when I started to review the manga version of this series, hence the annoying 2 at the end of the URL. In the meantime, we were always going to get a book devoted to Kitamura at some point, and this is the book. Like Minori, he’s a seemingly goofy and eccentric friend, though his iss more genuine and less of a mask than Minori’s. The start of the book sees him devastated by a (hidden to the reader) declaration from Sumire, the current Student Council President. Unfortunately, after he snaps out of it he seemingly goes off the deep end, dying his hair blond and stating he’s not running for student council. thus shocking the entire school. Ryuuji and Taiga may be the only ones who can help him, but what is that help going to entail, and will it mean that the new student council president actually has to be Taiga?

That’s Sumire on the cover, and I suspect that fan opinion of her may be divided. She’s shown to be a flawed character whose reasons for doing what she did are in character but also immature. Unfortunately, we’re not shown that till the very end of the book, in a fantastic and brutal fight with Taiga (which ends with Taiga suspended for two weeks); till then, we’re told over and over again how perfect she is, and when she’s not absent from the book she’s making the situation worse. I liked her arc, but many might think “too little too late”, especially as she’s seemingly also written out here. Speaking of divided opinion, Kitamura gets this book for character development, but just like Sumire that involves being an immature child for most of the volume, doing things like “becoming a delinquent” as a cry for attention from someone who won’t give it to him. You sort of which Taiga would have beaten him up as well, though that’s not going to happen.

Much better handled are the rest of the main cast. Minori is still clearly recovering from the events of the last book, and still trying to find her feet around Ryuuji. I have suspicions about that, but will save it till it’s more obvious. Ami is simply fantastic, being at her bitchy arrogant best while also showing that she too is changing, though she’s not very happy about it at all. (Minori and Ami is a fan ship, and there’s a nice, if short, scene here for that ship). And then there’s our main couple, Taiga and Ryuuji, who have not yet realized that they love each other but both have independently realized that they can’t imagine living without each other. The series is now in its second half, so we need to start heading towards endgame. Taiga too has matured… though perhaps not enough to avoid getting suspended for beating the shit out of a fellow student.

So an excellent volume of Toradora… except that the two characters at the center of it are being very difficult and stubborn. Still worth reading.

One Piece, Vol. 91

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By Eiichiro Oda. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Oda is very fond of writing chaotic scenes, and the last few arcs have all consisted of “start slow, then work to lots of chaos’. But the period of slow starts is decreasing, and we’re barely halfway into this volume before Luffy, reuniting with Zoro, is doing things at his own pace and upturning everything, mostly as we’re present in another country where evil bad guys are lording it over everyone while the poor and downtrodden starve. And, let’s face it, beating up those evil bad guys doesn’t really get old. It is worth noting, though, that Luffy has matured a great deal since the start of the series, and particularly in the last few arcs. Sure, he still doesn’t listen to anyone and does his own thing, and He’s still happy-go-lucky, but his reaction to Otama’s condition and the state of the country itself show a maturity that I really like seeing in him. You’re starting to see him turn into someone who CAN be the Pirate King.

This is the first time in ages that we’ve had the entire Straw Hat crew assembled, but aside from Zoro, the rest of the “missing” crew from the last few books remain missing here. But that doesn’t mean we’re not making new friends and introducing old ones. Otama is the cute and spunky little girl who made a promise with Ace years ago and now finds that Ace isn’t able to fulfill it. But that’s why Luffy is here. There’s also Okiku (get used to the O- prefix), a samurai who is gorgeous and also really tall, but does not let that get in the way of excellent sword skills and wanting to protect people. Trafalgar Law is around, still trying to achieve things quietly and sanely and still running into Luffy making that impossible. And we also have Basil Hawkins,k the fortune-telling pirate who seems to be working for the bad guys here, and who briefly gives Luffy and Zoro a run for their money till the cards say they get away.

And there are also some classic Oda scenes here. For everyone who thinks that the man is losing his touch, I urge you to take a peek at Holdem, a member of the Animal Kingdom Pirates who has a living Lion Head on his stomach, and the fact that the lion head proceeds to, when annoyed, punch Holdem in the nuts… forgetting that they are also the lion’s own nuts. That sort of goofy, juvenile gag requires a fantastic imagination. And it’s not just used for gags. The revelation towards the end of the volume as to the fate of Kin’emon and his compatriots, and where they really come from, is the sort of thing that you might protest breaks the story a bit if it weren’t handled with the deftest touch. And yes, there’s also Kaido, who really deserves that cliffhanger with an amazing two-page spread appearance showing off “I am the villain” vibes.

91 volumes in, One Piece has started a new arc that has me riveted already. I wonder how many volumes it will be? (Answer: many, many volumes.)

86 –Eighty-Six–, Vol. 2: Run Through the Battlefront [Start]

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By Asato Asato and Shirabii. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert.

Fans of Lena, the star of Vol. 1 of this series, may be disappointed, as this is not a sequel to the previous book but an interquel – it explains what happened to the rest of the squad between when she last saw them and the epilogue, and thus Lena only appears at the start and end in a “she’s still in the Republic” sort of way. That said, this is still a very good volume of Eighty-Six, combining the mechs and battle scenes with more look at warfare, what makes us fight, and how even well-meaning people can try to impose their own wishes on others. It’s not as unrelentingly bleak as the first book, but it’s not a laugh riot, either – Eighty-Six will always be about as serious as its male lead, Shin, who may be with a different army but still has some of the same problems. And then there’s the Legion, the enemy soldiers whose attack near the end of the book feels like they’re trying to cause our heroes to simply give up in despair. There’s a lot of them. (Well, they are Legion, after all.)

The girl on the front is Frederica, who is a “mascot” for Shin’s unit, the Federation Army’s way of getting troops to bond with each other by giving them an adorable kid to look after. It’s not clear if this is actually true or not – Frederica’s the only one we see, and her situation is certainly one where a great cover story would be needed – but in any case, she fulfills some of the role Lena did in Vol. 1, attempting to get the other Eighty-Six to think about something besides fighting until they inevitably die. At least she’s just trying to get them to consider it, though – their main benefactor, Ernst, after rescuing them from certain death, is ready to have them retire and become good little civilian boys and girls, and is appalled when they all, to a man, decide to re-enlist. The trouble is that not only have this group been soldiers so long that anything else seems deeply off, but they know the Legion better than anyone else, and won’t allow others to take up that fight.

The Federation is better than the Republic in many ways, so there’s less explicit racism here towards the Eighty-Six, but that does tend to mean that it’s implicit. The soldiers are unnerved at both the Eighty-Six’s combat prowess (particularly Shin) and their stoic demeanor, and use the word “Eighty-Six as a slur several times throughout the book. “Monster” also comes up, and it’s clearly a point of tension that the Eighty-Six could have chosen to retire and never fight again. That they’d fought enough. But is it enough? The Legion are attacking in greater and greater waves. Where do you draw a line that says “that’s fine, you can leave it to everyone else now”? Especially if you’re Shin, with his seemingly psychic connection to the Legion.

This series continues to be what it was in the first book – unrelentingly grim but not despairing, and making me want to read more even if it is depressing much of the time. As you can tell by the subtitle, this is the first of a two-parter, and I suspect by the end of Book 3 we’ll be back to where we were with Lena reuniting with everyone.

Ryuko, Vol. 1

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If you’ve been jonesing for a stylish thriller that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Eldo Yoshimizu’s Ryuko might just fit the bill: it has the pulpy soul of a Kazuo Koike manga and the brash attitude of a James Bond flick. And while Ryuko never quite achieves the simmering intensity or cohesion of Lady Snowblood and Crying Freeman, it does hold its own against Koike’s best work thanks to its audacious action sequences and cool-as-ice heroine who’ll stop at nothing to avenge her mother’s kidnapping.

Running in tandem with the kidnapping storyline are four —maybe five — other subplots, all connected to the Soviet-Afghanistan war. There’s gun-running and opium harvesting, Soviet malfeasance and CIA chicanery, and some other elements that, frankly, don’t make a lot of sense, though they provide sufficient justification for the imaginatively staged combat. Anyone hoping for a few helpful lines of expository dialogue will be frustrated, as the characters are so laconic they seldom utter more than a few words before throwing a punch or brandishing a gun.

The real star of Ryuko is Eldo Yoshimizu’s artwork, which deftly synthesizes Japanese and European influences without slavishly copying them. His female characters, in particular, have the undulating hips, flowing locks, and determined scowls of Leiji Matsumoto’s most lethal heroines, while the male characters’ appearances owe a debt to the rugged manly-men that stalked the pages of Hugo Pratt, Takao Sato, and Goseki Kojima’s adventure stories. Not surprisingly, Yoshimizu lavishes his greatest attention on Ryuko, swathing her in barely-there dresses and leopard-print catsuits–an artistic decision that makes her look cool, but seems impractical for dodging bullets and karate-chopping enemies.

But oh, Ryuko’s fight scenes! They’re worth the price of admission, as they showcase the full range of Yoshimizu’s talents as a draftsman, veering sharply between naturalism, suggestion, and pure abstraction. In this sequence, for example, we see the young Ryuko ambushing a group of Soviet soldiers:

In the first panel, the tank is drawn with utmost specificity, allowing us to appreciate its sheer mass and its weaponry. The subsequent panels, however, are more gestural than the first, as we glimpse Ryuko silhouetted against the explosion, her age and gender completely obscured by the brilliant flash of light behind her. In the final panel of the sequence, Yoshimizu uses two horses to frame the action, rendering them as bold patches of black, with just a suggestion of a nostril and an eye, their demonic appearance echoing Ryuko’s own fierce resolve. Other sequences, such as this one, are even more abstract, dispensing with a grid in favor of fluid, overlapping images; in a particularly effective gambit, Ryuko’s arm forms a kind of panel boundary between the first stage of the attack — a knee to the stomach — and the second, in which she flips and pins her opponent:

Even Ryuko’s hair plays an important role in helping us understand what’s happening in this confrontation. In the first sequence, her hair swings around her face and shoulders in a naturalistic fashion, but in the final panel, her hair looks like a furious nest of snakes, each poised to strike her victim. That shift is subtle but important, a nifty metaphor for just how quick and lethal Ryuko can be.

For all the verve with which these scenes are drawn, Ryuko‘s characters never quite register as flesh-and-blood people. Yoshimizu has provided them with backstories, but the characters’ behavior is so steeped in action-movie cliche that their motivations for shooting and punching are almost immaterial. The story’s breakneck pacing doesn’t allow anyone much time for introspection, either; the few flashbacks to Ryuko’s childhood separation from her mother are the only genuinely emotional moments in the story. Still, no one reads trashy thrillers for a deep exploration of the human psyche; they’re looking for an over-the-top story that serves up generous helpings of car chases, gun battles, and fist-fights, the more outlandish, the better. On that front, Ryuko performs admirably, infusing a shopworn revenge plot with the sensual swagger of old-school classics like Lady Snowblood and Lupin III. Recommended.

RYUKO, VOL. 1 • ART AND STORY BY ELDO YOSHIMIZU • TRANSLATION BY MOTOKO TAMAMURO AND JONATHAN CLEMENTS • TITAN COMICS • NO RATING (PARTIAL NUDITY, VIOLENCE) • 256 pp.

Manga the Week of 8/14/19

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SEAN: It’s the last few weeks before school starts! Take a manga vacation with these titles.

ASH: Wooooo!

SEAN: Dark Horse debuts the modern retelling of Space Battleship Yamato, or Star Blazers as it was known in the states. We keep that title here with Star Blazers 2199, and this book is an omnibus of the first two Japanese volumes. It’s a Kadokawa title, from Newtype Ace.

ANNA: I have a lot of Star Blazers nostalgia.

ASH: It’s been really interesting to see how many original series and their modern reimaginings have been released of late.

SEAN: Denpa has the 5th volume of Inside Mari.

ASH: Shuzo Oshimi’s work is pretty tremendous, too.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has one debut and one spinoff debuting next week. The new title is Middle-Aged Businessman, Arise in Another World!. It is what it sounds like, but the interesting thing here is that a) he stays middle-aged, and b) he’s already married a goddess and had kids BEFORE he’s sent to another world. It’s also only two volumes long.

The spinoff is JK Haru Is a Sex Worker in Another World: Summer, a set of short stories that are, I believe, licensed directly from the author. JK Haru was very open-ended, so this should be very interesting – and hopefully a bit less bleak.

J-Novel Club also gives us The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 2, In Another World with My Smartphone 16, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 6.

Kodansha, on the print side, has the 28th volume of Attack on Titan.

ASH: It feels like it’s been a while!

SEAN: Digitally there’s a lot more. The debut is The Knight Cartoonist and Her Orc Editor (Orc Henshuusha to Onna Kishi Mangaka-san), a Shonen Magazine Edge title whose title is its plot. It’s 3 volumes long.

There’s also Ace of the Diamond 23, All-Rounder Meguru 11, the 11th and final volume of Black Panther and Sweet 16, the 2nd My Pink Is Overflowing, Peach Girl NEXT 5, The Prince’s Romance Gambit 5, Pumpkin Scissors 22, and a 10th Tokyo Revengers.

MICHELLE: I had been awaiting more Ace of the Diamond!

SEAN: One Peace has a 4th Hinamatsuri.

ASH: Still a ridiculous in a good way series.

SEAN: Seven Seas has no debuts, but we do get Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter 4, Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage 9, Classmates 2: Sotso Gyo Sei, the 2nd Classroom of the Elite novel (in print), MachiMaho 3, and Ultra Kaiju Humanization Project 3.

ASH: The first volume of Classmates was lovely, so I’m really looking forward to the second (and third).

SEAN: Fourth Generation Head: Tatsuyuki Oyamato is the new debut from SuBLime. It’s done in one, and is about a yakuza discovering new parts of his sexuality. (Yakuzuke?)

Vertical has a 3rd volume of the Kino’s Journey manga.

Magi comes to an end with its 37th and final volume. I will miss it. Viz also has the 6th Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition, Komi Can’t Communicate 2, Record of Grancest War 4, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 8.

MICHELLE: I have a small stockpile of Magi volumes so I can have one last binge.

ANNA: I have a giant stockpile of Magi and look forward to reading it eventually…

SEAN: Lastly, Yen Press has the last of its delayed from June/July titles. Yen On has The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, a stand-alone novel that was made into an animated film, a genre Yen has specialized in lately. I’ve heard very good things about it.

ASH: As have I! I’m looking forward to giving it a read.

SEAN: And Yuri Life is another of Yen’s new forays into niche genres, this being another short story anthology by various artists about adult women in relationships. Which, trust me, still hasn’t gotten old. More of this.

ASH: I likewise approve.

SEAN: Which of these would be best read while lying on a beach?

Cocoon Entwined, Vol. 1

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By Yuriko Hara. Released in Japan as “Mayu, Matou” by Enterbrain, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Beam. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Amanda Haley.

Hair.

I suppose I should go into a LITTLE more detail, but honestly, after reading the first volume of this new series, “hair” is going to be what everyone takes away from it. It is hair-drenched and hair-permeated, a story about a private Japanese Girls’ Academy whose very uniforms are created using the hair of their seniors, but even there you get the sense that the story is somewhat irrelevant, an excuse to simply draw hair in every possible way. Even the cover art gets into it – the front cover may look relatively sedate, but turn the book over and you can see the hair of the two leads tangling into each other, trying to be the best metaphor that hair can be. Which is good, as hair gets to be a metaphor for a lot here. In addition to hair, the story focuses on three students at the school, two of whom are what you’d expect, and one of whom seems to have wandered in from some other manga.

Saeki is the girl who crosses over into both storylines, the “prince” of the school because the school needs one, rather than due to any desire of her own, though she plays the part even as it exhausts her. She gets closer to Yokozawa, who is our “normal girl” viewpoint character, though Yokozawa’s tongue is a lot more acid than this sort of character usually is. They like each other. The third cast member is Hoshimiya, the granddaughter of the headmistress, who spends her days locked in her room and seems to have a far more casual attitude towards hair than the rest of the school (seriously, you can be expelled for your hair being too short). Hoshimiya seems to be ethereal to the point of ridiculousness, and even when she and Saeki escape the school and go all the way to the local docks, there’s no real escape.

This is, of course, meant to be a yuri manga. Yokozawa clearly likes Saeki, and the book ends with a kiss, albeit the usual “they’re sleeping but I can’t resist” sort. Saeki and Hoshimiya also clearly have doomed chemistry in that Sei-and-Shiori sort of way. That said, you could also argue that the story is horror. Aside from a few exceptions like Saeki, most of the cast is the traditional long black haired heroine, which fits the private school setting but is also a trope in Japanese horror stories. The gimmick of the student’s shorn hair being used to make the uniforms of the incoming students is milked for all its worth, with the uniforms seeming alive and described as breathing, and it is meant to be dream-like and erotic but also a bit creepy. Hoshimiya herself also makes me think of horror, and it’s worth noting that we never clearly see her face. Don’t be surprised if she ends up being a ghost or a Zashiki-warashi of some sort.

This was a riveting if somewhat baffling read. I’m definitely getting the second volume, but I’m not sure if we’ll stick with this cast or see it expand to other couples. That said, you don’t read this for the couples, you read this for the hair. Hair will definitely star in the second book.

The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’s Heroes: Damn You, Heroes! Why Won’t You Die?

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By Sakuma Sasaki and Asagi Tosaka. Released in Japan by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

I didn’t have high hopes for this title going in. Despite assurances from the publisher that it wasn’t THAT kind of dirty, the title still didn’t inspire confidence. It was also the most traditional “isekai” of this month’s debuts. But as frequently happens with things I read, as I got further into the book I found myself warming up to it. This is mostly thanks to the main hero, Arian, who is bright and shiny and yet also lonely and needs a friend. Had the book gone with the original set of heroes we meet, who are rather quickly dispatched, it might have been unbearable, just watching a Japanese guy with nothing to stop him become a sadist because it’s fun. (Indeed, we’re seen other light novels like this, though mercifully few have been licensed.) But Arian’s inner goodness causes Shinichi, the protagonist, to reach down and find his inner ethical sense, and so the last third of the book is actually pretty good, despite the appearance of yet another lecherous and corrupt bishop from a questionable religion.

Our hero is Shinichi, a standard young Japanese protagonist whose backstory is merely hinted at, but who seems to relish the opportunity to let loose in the situation he’s now in. He’s been summoned by the demon king to a) eliminate the heroes who keep attacking, and b) find delicious food for his cute daughter, as all the demon world food tastes awful. With the help of a sharp-tongued maid who rains abuse on him at every opportunity, he’s soon able to dispatch the first group of heroes through his prior knowledge of old-school RPGs and also by being a complete and utter bastard. However, the remaining hero that’s left to attack is not only far more talented than the previous heroes, but she’s also cute and a kind, good-hearted person! Can he find it in himself to trick her and save the demons?

There are, of course, still a few big flaws in the book. Despite a last-minute attempt to give him some inner monologue, the bad guy of this volume is (apologies for spoiling, but it’s obvious the moment he appears on the page) your standard corrupt and evil priest, in this case a bishop. Celes, the dark elf maid who accompanies Shinichi on his tasks, is so much like Ram from Re: Zero that I was almost calling the hero Barusu. Possibly as, while he shows signs of depth that may be explored in future books, Shinichi really doesn’t do much to stand out until, as I said, the last third or so of the book, where he uses his sadistic cleverness for good rather than evil. Well, OK, for the good of the demons, but they’re more interested in better food than attacking humans. On the bright side, I liked the relationship between Arian and Shinichi, though I’m sure it will be walked back a bit in the next book. Her immediate infatuation feels in character.

This isn’t the greatest light novel out there, but it gets better as it goes along, and there’s hints of some depth down the road. Recommended for isekai fans.