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Love Between Fairy & Devil: Cang Lan Jue, Vol. 1

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By Jiu Lu Fei Xiang. Released in China on the JJWXC website. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Yu. Adapted by Ivy Fox.

This one really took me by surprise. Partly as it’s a Chinese fantasy novel that isn’t danmei, a rarity for Seven Seas. But I had sort of expected the genre to be fantasy romance. Which it is, don’t get me wrong. That said, I would call the actual genre of this book “buddy film”. The author is a screenwriter, and it shows, as this really feels like it’s written to be adapted to the screen. (Indeed it was, and I suspect those who watched the Live-Action Drama may be surprised when they start the book.) The titular Fairy and Devil just can’t seem to shake each other throughout this entire volume, are constantly sniping at each other, and gradually develop a bond of trust. The fantasy is also pretty danm cool. As for the romance, well, the premise seems to invite the use of what some term the “manic pixie dream girl”, but I think this girl is a bit too much of a mess. Manic Pixie Nightmare Girl? Honestly, she’s Usagi Tsukino.

After a brief prologue, we open *after* the main plot development has already happened. (The live-action drama, which I watched part of after reading this, gives a lot more background to the main heroine.) Xiao Lanhua is currently sitting in a cell, in the body of the demon king, Dongfang Qingcang. Meanwhile, the demon king is in *her* body, and planning to escape. This, needless to say, upsets her just a bit, to the point where she slaps the demon king with the full force of her currently occupied body… killing her original body. After escape, the two of them are now BOTH in his body, Steve Martin/Lily Tomlin style, and have to each learn to operate one side. Needless to say, this leads to shenanigans which occupy the first half of the book. The plot arrives in the second half.

Not that there’s much of that. The plot appears to be Dongfang Qingcang slowly getting slightly less evil under the influence of Xiao Lanhua, and Xiao Lanhua learning more about how the world world outside of the very sheltered life that she has led. There are cool scenes with lots of fantasy explosions, and Xiao Lanhua does get some “wait, do I care about him or not” romantic tension. But honestly, the best reason to read this is that Xiao Lanhua is hilarious. She’s constantly snarking at Dongfang Qingcang, but she’s pretty pathetic when she tries to do anything without his help. She starts by murdering her own body by accident, then ends up in his own body, then a slowly rotting corpse, and by the time we’re near the climax of the book she’s reduced to an angrily screaming torso. It’s absolutely amazing, I cackled.

I’m not sure how many volumes this will end up – two or three sounds about right – but I’ll definitely read the next one, which I hope, even as things get more serious and we inevitably find out Xiao Lanhua’s secret origin, that we have time for more truly goofy slapstick.

My First Love’s Kiss, Vol. 3

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By Hitoma Iruma and Fly. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Hatsukoi Aite ga Kiss Shiteta” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kiki Piatkowska.

(This discusses the final “twist” in this third and final volume of the series, but not till near the end.)

OK, I’ve calmed down a little bit from a couple hours ago, when I finished this book and was ready to not only tear into it, but also Adachi and Shimamura, and hell, toss Bloom Into You there as well, which the author wrote a spinoff to. But I am now thinking of that meme with the “dead dove do not eat” bag, and I will admit, after my experience with the first volume, and the fact that the second volume managed to somehow up the ante, I really should not have been that surprised at … MOST of what I read here. Most of what I read here is just an author who has decided to write a thought experiment rather than about characters, and also possibly saying “see? I could have turned Adachi and Shimamura into THESE two! Aren’t you glad I didn’t?”. (Oh yes, and there’s another stupid cameo from another of the author’s series I don’t know.) So we’re left with one thing so stupid I’m still angry.

We pick up where we left off, and honestly the rest of the book plays out so predictably – mostly – that I feel reluctant to even sum it up. After hearing that Shiho is her sister, Umi seems to fall EVEN HARDER for her, and decides to move out of the bedroom she shares with Takasora and into an apartment with Shiho. This is, mind you, after Shiho runs off while leaving her bag at Takasora’s house, which requires going to her rich estate to confront her. Takasora tries to stop this happening by grumping about it very hard, but by now Umi is not only aware that Takasora is in love with her but has started to actively reject that. Things are not helped by Umi confessing to Takasora: she plans to kill herself after graduation.

As I said above, I could have guessed most of this by the end of the second book. It is not exactly a surprise that Umi does not really care about any incestuous aspect of her relationship with Shiho. In fact, the fact that Shiho is also a family member – and one who actually explicitly loves her – sends Umi over the moon, really. I’m also not very surprised that the entire Umi suicide plot is left completely up in the air at the end, because, just as Adachi and Shimamura is really Shimamura with a bit of Adachi, these books have been about Takasora, not about Umi, so her own fate is irrelevant once Takasora gives up on her. I can even, very, very grumpily, accept the ending twist where, years later, Takasora has become another Shiho, preying on young students and breaking up their friendships with other girls. It’s thematically gross and terrible, but I can see how the author went “Oh, wow, what a great twist!” while cackling to themselves. No, the absolute DUMBEST thing in this book is Takasora slipping and hitting her head on a rock, and that head injury being signposted as to what made her “turn evil”. There was no need for that! You already signposted your shitty twist! There was no need to make it due to brain damage after talking to Yashiro and wiping out in the river! WHYYYYYYY?

There’s another Adachi and Shimamura due out later this year, and I’m wavering on whether I want to read it, especially since the author wrote the 99.9 volume giving the series a very definitive ending. But whatever it turns out to be, I hope to god they don’t feel a need to shoehorn in anything from this terrible series. There are much better toxic yuri couples out there.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Familia Chronicle: Episode Lyu, Vol. 2

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By Fujino Omori and NIRITSU. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?: Familia Chronicle: Episode Lyu” by Softbank Creative. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

So technically this is the second volume, the first having come out seven years ago. It was the one with Lyu and Syr in the casino, if you forgot. And it’s also the bit that the author cut out of the 18th volume, because that would have made it 700 pages. But in reality, this feels like Astrea Record, Vol. 4. We even get extra scenes with Adi, to remind us that she’s still tragically dead but oh so very, very shiny And of course the rest of the Astra Familia that Lyu was with five years ago? Also still dead. Fortunately, Astrea is not dead, and it turns that she has new Familia in a remote smithing town. And so it’s time for Lyu to run very fast, so that she can break down, get forgiven, level up and get stronger, and then run back to help Bel. Of course, it turns out to not be as simple as that.

Lyu groveling for forgiveness, which comes relatively easily, takes about the first 10 pages of this book. the rest is harder. When Astrea levels her up, she levels to 5, and anyone who read Book 18 of the main series knows that there’s something fishy going on here. Then Lyu tries to train with her new level, and discovers there’s a big difference and she needs to practice. Fortunately, she has three adorable Level 1 juniors to beat up… erm, play tag with, as well as a forest spirit who is really looking for an excuse to go all out… possibly a mistake given this is Lyu. Unfortunately for Lyu, the current captain of Astrea Familia, a Level 2 smith named Cecille, hates her guts. Despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that Astrea has entrusted her with something very important in regards to Lyu.

This is a book about Lyu, so it’s not a surprise that the plot is as straightforward as hell. Lyu is not quite completely healed, and also needs to go from Level 4 to Level 6 in about 5 days, something which no one has EVER done before, so strategy is called for. Fortunately, most of the strategy is “keep hitting things till you get it right”. As for Cecille, she’s not hard to figure out either, mostly as she’s very similar to Lyu, something Lyu knows as she very awkwardly tries to take on a mentor role. It turns out that trying to create the perfect weapon for someone you’ve only heard stories about that drive you crazy with envy can be very hard! It’s only when Lyu opens up and shhares her own tragedy that Cecille manager to find her own inspiration. That said, “straightforward” does not mean bad. This series has never really been known for narrative curveballs anyway.

Good stuff, and if you want to know what happens next, go read 18 again. I think next for us is the Sword Oratoria SS volume.

Manga the Week of 5/14/25

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SEAN: Everything is getting released at once lately, it seems.

ASH: Here we goooooo!

SEAN: We have some Yen On stuff, the only three Yen titles that did not get bumped. Accel World 27, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian 7, and Hell Is Dark with No Flowers 3.

Viz has three debuts, only one of which is a manga proper. Dr. Mashirito’s Ultimate Manga Techniques is one of those “how to be a famous manga artist” books, written by the first editor for Akira Toriyama. It’s apparently excellent.

ASH: Oh, that does sound intriguing!

SEAN: Not-So-Shoujo Love Story is an OEL yuri manga that ran as a webtoon and which Viz has picked up. I don’t normally discuss OEL, but this has a lot of buzz. A girl is ready to confess to the guy she likes, only to be shocked when her rival confesses… to her!

ASH: I do like that twist.

SEAN: Snow Angel (Kono Setsugen de Kimi ga Zutto Waratte Irareru you ni) is a shoujo series from Cheese!. A young girl’s childhood ends when her father dies and she has to care for her grandfather with dementia. She’s stressed, verbally abused by her grandmother, and at the end of her rope. Then her old childhood friend shows up…

MICHELLE: Hm.

ANNA: I’m a maybe on this one. I don’t know if I’m up for heavy themes.

ASH: It does sound like she got a rough start to things.

SEAN: Viz also has Fly Me to the Moon 28, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 13, I Want to End This Love Game 6, Mao 20, Persona 5 13, Sakura, Saku 7, Spider-Man: Octo-Girl 2, and Spy x Family: The Official Anime Guide—Mission Report: 221001-1224 (i.e. the 2nd half of Season 1).

Udon Entertainment has three books coming out next week according to retailers: Atelier Ryza 3: Official Visual Collection, Rival Schools: Official Complete Works, and Street Fighter V: Climax Arts + Alpha to 6. They are all artbooks.

ASH: Udon has previously released some pretty nice artbooks.

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts Merry Witches’ Life, a josei series from Comic PASH!. Three recently widowed women join forces to try to bring back their late partners, by any means necessary. This is apparently a heartwarming slice of life, despite the dark premise.

ANNA: I am intrigued by this.

ASH: Likewise!

SEAN: SuBLime debuts Pink Heart Jam Beat, the sequel to, well, Pink Heart Jam. It runs in mellow kiss. It’s less a sequel and more of a continuation – they’ve moved in together now, here’s more.

SuBLime also has the 2nd and final volume of Palace of the Omega.

Steamship gives us Fire in His Fingertips 8 and A Suitable Fetish 3.

ANNA: I don’t want to know what an unsuitable fetish would be.

SEAN: Square Enix Manga has Dragon and Chameleon 3, Just Like Mona Lisa 5, and The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest 24.

Zero debuts for Seven Seas. But they have Diary of a Female Lead: Shujinkou Nikki 3, Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! 3, I Ship My Rival x Me 3, The Lady Knight and the Beast-Eared Child 3, Magical Buffs: The Support Caster is Stronger Than He Realized! 3, My Girlfriend’s Not Here Today 4, My Lovey-Dovey Wife is a Stone Cold Killer 7, Only I Know the World Is Ending and Getting Killed by Rampaging Beasts Only Makes Me Stronger 2, Though I Am an Inept Villainess 7, and The Too-Perfect Saint 2.

ASH: My brain is having trouble parsing how many titles are actually in that list.

SEAN: There’s also some danmei, as we see Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu 4 (the deluxe hardcover edition) and Remnants of Filth: Yuwu 7 (the final volume, and there’s a special edition variant).

One Peace Books gives us Hero Without a Class 3.

Zero debuts for Kodansha Manga. But they have, in print, Kei X Yaku: Bound By Law 6, Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 11, Ninja Vs. Gokudo 7, The Seven Deadly Sins Manga Box Set 6 (the final box set), Versus 3, and Wandance 12.

MICHELLE: I should get caught up on Wandance.

ANNA: I should start reading it in the first place!

ASH: I probably should, too.

SEAN: And for digital they have Gang King 29, Manchuria Opium Squad 6, and My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1 15.

I forgot about Kana Manga last week (and, well, every other week since I began this list). They have Eden of Witches 3 out this week.

ASH: I finally just picked up the first volume.

SEAN: J-Novel Club have three print titles out next week. We see Ascendance of a Bookworm 30, In Another World With My Smartphone 29, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles Omnibus 12.

Three debuts for J-Novel Club, all light novels. Bullet Hellion: The Gunslinging Demon Prince Crushes Another World with Modern Arms (Juudan Maouko no Isekai Kouryaku: Maougun na no ni Gendai Heiki wo Shoukan Shite Attouteki ni Tata Katte mo Ii desu ka) has our isekai’d hero killed by bullet-kun instead of truck-kun during a paintball war gone wrong. Now he’s a noble, and can summon modern guns!

Long Story Short, I’m Living in the Mountains (Zenryaku, Yama Kurashi wo Hajimemashita) stars a man who is totally burned out, especially after his fiancee left him. So he buys a mountain and retreats from society. Except he’s lonely. Fortunately, he… no, he does not meet goddesses or cute elf girls. He ends up with three giant intelligent chickens. Who I have been assured do not turn into hot women.

ANNA: It is important to double check these things.

ASH: Have I mentioned that I’m planning to move to the mountains and raise chickens after completely burning out? I didn’t realize that was such a universal theme!

SEAN: My Fiancé Cheated, But a New Love Rings! (Konyakusha no Uwaki Genba wo Michatta no de Hajimari no Kane ga Narimashita) had its manga version come out two weeks ago. Fans of this genre will know the basics. Noble girl, doing her best as a future queen, catches the crown prince cheating on her with her younger sister. So she runs away, with the help of a guy who’s always loved her.

Also from J-Novel Club in light novels: Dungeon Dive 10, The Misfit of Demon King Academy 9, VTuber Legend 9, and The Water Magician Arc 1 4.

And for manga: Doll-Kara 10, Fushi no Kami 7, and Now I’m a Demon Lord! 10.

Ghost Ship has a third volume of Monster Marriage Shop.

ASH: At first I read that title as Monster Marriage Slop which would be an entirely different manga.

SEAN: Expanse (another publisher I should remember to look at) has Genshin Impact: Official Art Book 2.

Airship, in print, has Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 10 and Reincarnated as a Sword 16.

And digitally they have I Abandoned My Engagement Because My Sister is a Tragic Heroine, but Somehow I Became Entangled with a Righteous Prince 3 (the final volume).

Reading manga is good for you! Read some today! What are you reading?

ASH: Not as much as I would like!

The Villainess Is Dead! Long Live the Empress! Redoing the Story After a Poisonous End, Vol. 1

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By Iota Aiue and Tsukasa Kuga. Released in Japan as “Shokeisareta Akujo wa, Taikoku de Kouhi no Za wo Tsukamu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Mac B. Gill.

I would not be reviewing 80 billion of these villainess books if I was not a big fan of the genre. As such, I can usually forgive it if it’s a bit on the nose. There are a lot fewer surprises in this first book than is perhaps required, although you might call the end of the book a surprise, as I sense that making this a series rather than a standalone book was a last-minute decision borne out by the rushed non-ending. It does, however, have a terrific romantic couple as our leads. The villainess is honorable, noble, tricky, stubborn, etc. in equal measure. The prince (technically that is a spoiler, but come on, it’s revealed almost immediately and is not a surprise even then) is handsome, self-assured without being smug, and they realistically realize the truth about each other very fast. Also, there’s a handsome woman knight, who is such a great character I will ignore our heroine buying her as a slave (it’s fixed almost immediately).

We open with Westalia, our heroine, being executed after being framed for an attempted murder by her supposed best friend. (I did say this was a typical villainess book.) But it’s OK. She’s taken an antidote, and rises from the dead when her grave is being robbed. Fleeing across borders, she ends up in the Archadies Empire, where the Empress is chosen by a country-wide search. Though, given the literacy rate is pretty low, the finalists do tend to be rich nobles. Westalia came here on purpose. After spending her life trying to learn to be a good queen only to be betrayed, she’ll be damned if she’s going to thrown away trying to help people and do good. So she’s going to become Empress by hook or by crook. Fortunately, the only real competition she has seems very familiar, as if every villainess needs an idiot heroine…

I talked about being a fan of villainess stories, which means I’ve met my share of bratty younger sisters, evil heroines, etc. We get two varieties for the price of one here. Both are presented as “mostly sort of evil”, which is to say they’re evil until the point where the author allows them a bit of depth. Lily has always hated Westalia, and was too busy pretending to be her best friend to realize that her dilemma of being married off to a creepy middle-aged man might have been something solvable with Westalia’s help. (She’s merely disgraced, so we may see her again.) Meanwhile, Elizabeth is using her money and connections to buy the contest, so is very upset when that still isn’t enough. She seems to at least have a bit of self-awareness. She’s definitely coming back, because they rewrote the cliffhanger to assure it.

If you are a villainess fan, this is really good. If you can take or leave it, you probably won’t like it. I’ll definitely read more, though I suspect it might have been better as a one-shot.

Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain, Vol. 3

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By Ageha Sakura and Kurodeko. Released in Japan as “Imokusa Reijou desu ga Akuyaku Reisoku wo Tasuketara Kiniiraremashita” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Vasileios Mousikidis.

In the first volume, we saw how Agnes was physically, mentally and emotionally abused by her family, and it was pretty terrible (the abuse, that is, not the book). In the second volume, we hear how actually a number of young noble ladies have this problem, and many of them are cracking under the strain and falling for handsome guys with vague mind control powers. And now, in the third volume, we’re told that it’s pretty rare to find a teenage noble girl in Desnim who is NOT abused by their family in some way. Heck, even when we get the classic setup in this volume – abused, Cinderella-esque older sister, arrogant and spoiled younger sister – it rapidly becomes clear that the younger sister is not actually LOVED by her family or anything, and that if they lose their scapegoat they’re perfectly happy to offer up scapegoat number two. Oh, yes, and other noble girls are raped by priests until they’re driven mad. Meanwhile, Agnes and her husband flirt shamelessly and plan an official wedding ceremony.

It’s been a year since Agnes arrived in Sutrena, and she’s is happily married to Lord Nazel (who is very happy to perform his husbandly duties all the time now that Agnes is mostly over her shyness). Nazel wants to have the big wedding ceremony they never had when they were married, and cajoles Agnes into it. This will require a priest sent from the capital, who is rather downtrodden and overworked, so quite happy to end up in a domain where people appreciate him. They also need a silver ring from a different domain, and meet the pleasant lord, his wife, and their two children. One of whom looks like she’s about to fall over dead from overwork at any moment, and the other of whom looks like she was born to hold her hand in front of her mouth and Ohohohohohoho. So yeah, family abuse. Sadly, things then get worse. For both daughters.

We’ve seen “good older sister, spoiled brat younger sister” endless times now in light novels, to the point where I was ready to roll my eyes. It’s a credit to the writing, though, that I rapidly realized that Furla was not going to end up with a fate worse than death, nor was she going to be arrested with her parents (whose crime is treating their child like crap, really). No, this is about getting an incredibly selfish young woman who, deep DEEP down, realizes that she’s nothing special to understand that all her safety and security is now gone and that she can’t simply simper at someone and get her own way. Technically things don’t end well for her – she’s another of Agnes’ endless parade of former nobles who are now maids, and the guy she’s fallen for is in love with this series’ equivalent of Superwoman. But frankly, compared with where she could have ended up… Furla does OK. She’s even learning laundry.

I will once again be annoyed at the author for yet another “I don’t swing that way” joke, which is tedious. Other than that, the fact that this series pinballs between dark abusive tragedy happening right off screen and Agnes and Nazel being flirty and happy and adorable is both the series’ greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Also, still don’t know why there’s a chibi-Agnes on each cover.

Fluffy-Eared Realm Restoration: Taking It Slow with My Cool Big Brother, Vol. 1

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By Iota Aiue and Tsukasa Kuga. Released in Japan as “Tensei Mofumofu Reijou no Mattari Ryouchi Kaikakuki: Cool na Onii-sama to Amaama Slow Life wo Tanoshindeimasu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Raenoire.

This is one of those series that I was on the fence about till I saw that I had read the author before. They’ve done a very series over here, mostly for Cross Infinite World, and I’d enjoyed their previous series, Third Loop. Though honestly, I may have enjoyed this new one more if I had not read Third Loop, as it’s clearly trying to hit the same sort of themes and cuteness as that one. The author seems to dabble in popular genres, and clearly this one is dabbling in both the “I go back in time to fix things” stories as well as “fluffy things are wonderful and cute girls are cute” stories, which has gotten popular lately. This book does have a few interesting things that held by attention, but unfortunately it is also very by the book, with almost no actual surprises. It’s a “would you like that fastball right down the plate?” book.

We open with Lune Renard, the crown princess, about to get guillotined by a revolutionary mob, along with her adopted brother and father, who don’t seem to like her any more than the mob. She’s tried to help her family and their holdings, but has only made things worse, and now she’s being executed. She prays to the fox god who supposedly rules this domain… and he answers, sending her back in time to just before she was found in the temple as an orphan by her family. Can she make things right this time, and ensure she is NOT married off to a royal? Sure she can. After all, she now can not only speak to spirits, but she also has adorable fox ears and a tail. She never had the power of cute in her past life!

I did like a couple of things about this book. We’ve sometimes seen prisoners abused by the kingdom in previous books, but we’ve never really gotten a low-security prison for political criminals like we get here, complete with the “funny” eccentric doctor. (YMMV.) And I appreciated that it acknowledged the difference in status and how they’re treated with the commoner “hard labor” criminals. Also, while the crown prince showing up was as bratty and awful as you’d expect, he was actually more layered than I expected. He becomes a different type of awful once he realizes that Lune is valuable and can talk to spirits, but he still sees her as an object rather than a person, and thinks she should be grateful to be his concubine. (They’re both eight, by the way.) That said, when presented with evidence that he cannot really weasel his way out of, he manages to actually not be evil, even if this means, um, throwing allies under the bus. That said, most of this book is Lune being adorable, talking to her snarky god, and fixing things relatively easily as these sorts of books go.

And, as I noted, I’d read this once before, when it was called Third Loop. If you like fluff or defeating roundworm through the power of yoga, this is okay.

Pick of the Week: Art Books, Final Volumes, and They Were 11 – Again

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SEAN: Tempting as it is to pick the MILF manga, I know deep down it will be bad. So I’ll make my pick The Apothecary Diaries art book, which I know will definitely be gorgeous.

MICHELLE: I very much liked suu Morishita’s Shortcake Cake, and it’s a shame I have not managed to read any Like a Butterfly before it finished, but there is a certain appeal in reading the whole thing in one go! So, that’ll be my pick this week.

ANNA: I’m behind in Like a Butterfly, but I very much like what I have read, so I’ll join with Michelle in making it my pick.

ASH: I’m going to join Sean this week in choosing The Apothecary Diaries Art Book. I don’t always have enough time to read everything that I want, but I can usually squeeze in a moment or three into my schedule to look at pretty illustrations.

ANNA: I have a bonus pick. I got a notification that They Were 11! shipped! I’m going rogue and picking that too!

MICHELLE: I got that notification, too!

Bookshelf Briefs 5/4/25

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Assassin & Cinderella, Vol. 1 | By Yuzo Natsuno | Square Enix Manga – I was honestly expecting this to be a lot more smutty than it ended up being, and it may still end up there, but this first volume is actually a bit goofy and quite sweet. That said, the artist is absolutely obsessed with our heroine Neneko’s body, and that may be why I was mistaken—in terms of the reader’s gaze, this is pretty much already porn, there’s just no sex yet. As for the plot, well, Neneko is pretty much being led around by the nose by her supposed target, who she falls for almost instantly—but she’s fine with that, though she does wonder why he seems to know everything about her. As for him, he’s the classic shoujo boyfriend, sweet towards her and a literal killer towards most everyone else. Better than I expected. – Sean Gaffney

Friday at the Atelier, Vol. 3 | By Sakura Hamada | Yen Press – Last time I wondered if we would get a confession in the next book. That didn’t quite happen, but it’s very clear these two need to be a couple, as they make each other better. The best part of the volume has Tamaki writing a food column about the restaurant owned by Ishihara’s friend, and her vivid description of the menu item she had makes it take off—her writing is clearly compelling. We also see her friend Rei finally meet the man that she suspects is taking advantage of Tamaki, only to quickly realize that he’s a sweetheart. That said, he can be a clueless sweetheart, as when he fails to realize why Tamaki is annoyed when he disregards her worries about him. This ends with the next volume, and I hope it ends sweetly and weirdly, like the rest of it. – Sean Gaffney

Kageki Shojo!!, Vol. 13 | By Kumiko Saiki | Seven Seas – I wondered why it felt like I was missing something—I forgot to get the twelfth volume, and did not realize that till AFTER I read this one. Whoops. This one is excellent, as always, the second half a bit more so, as it focuses on Sarasa’s family. Ai realizes that she knows nothing about her parents, having not really thought about it much, and wonders if there’s something serious lying there. Yes and no, as we see the return of Sarasa’s mother, who is what is politely termed a “free spirit,” and Sarasa was raised by her grandparents partly due to this. The mom is a bundle of fun but also full of issues, and if I’m being honest is hard to like at this point. There’s plenty of acting lessons too, where Sarasa is taught to sing like Karen Carpenter. Now to read book twelve. – Sean Gaffney

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 33 | By Tomohito Oda | Viz Media – One of the better things about this title is that it’s not just about Komi learning how to communicate with others better, but also shows that she’s using those skills to pick up on how OTHERS communicate and uses it to make things better. What seems to be a dumb gag near the end with a Japanese girl dressed in full “Egyptian woman” mode who only speaks single Egyptian-related words turns out to almost be a code that only Komi figures out. Elsewhere, the romance between Tadano and Manbagi is finally shot in the head mercifully, as she goes on a date with him, confesses to him, and gets shot down. I admit I’ve always wished that this series could have gone for the poly option, but this was pretty well handled nevertheless. – Sean Gaffney

Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord, Vol. 4 | By Yodokawa | Yen Press – This book focuses on the idol group Miyako left, and how they’re holding up now that the dynamics in the group are slightly changed. Especially as it turns out that their new leader is overextending herself a bit, which makes her manager worry, and also having meals and discussions with Ayako’s angry, stressed editor, which makes her manager worry a bit more. Fortunately, it turns out this is less “everything has changed since Miyako left” and more “Miyako helped disguise that the other girl has always been like this.” In happier news, Miyako meets Ayako’s parents, and they’re supportive, even though they immediately recognize who she really is. This feels like it’s ready to wrap up in the next book, which is good, as next book is the last book. – Sean Gaffney

A Star Brighter Than the Sun, Vol. 1 | By Kazune Kawahara | Viz Media – It’s always a treat to see a new Kawahara title hit these shores, and this one does not disappoint. Our heroine Sae has, or so she thinks, one main feature, which is that she is TALL. She towers over the rest of the girls in her class. She is not, however, taller than Koki, her childhood friend and first crush. She used to be, but puberty hit him hard, he shot above her, and now he’s tall… AND gorgeous. She seems to think she has no chance with him, and tries her best not to think about it, even as one of her new friends decides to make a play for him. Little does she know, but we the reader can tell, he’s already decided who he likes. This has all the things you want to read from this author, and absolutely does not disappoint. – Sean Gaffney

Teasing Master Takagi-san, Vol. 20 | By Soichiro Yamamoto | Yen Press – This is the final volume of the series, and for the first half of the book you’d never know it, as it follows the same pattern as previous books… though Takagi is perhaps getting a bit more overt about her feelings, and Nishikata’s denials are more and more perfunctory. What sets up the finale is him being scouted for the track team, which leads him to realize a) he likes this sort of thing (leading to his adult profession of gym teacher), and b) he misses walking home with Takagi, leading to him finally accepting that he loves her. Which, to my surprise, he confesses in the final chapter, over the festival fireworks. Meaning she gets to pretend she couldn’t hear him and tease him one last time. We’re not getting the adult “side story,” but ah well. I loved this so much. – Sean Gaffney

Adachi and Shimamura, Vol. 99.9

by

By Hitoma Iruma and raemz. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Molly Lee. Adapted by Emlyn Dornemann.

So, the rumor is that the author of this series started panicking and worrying that they would die before it was finished, and so they came up with several volumes that would feel like a final volume. That said, there is not a more final final volume than this one. and yes, I know that we still have Volume 12 and a second Short Story collection to go, but thematically, this ties absolutely everything into a nice neat bow. Unlike the SS volume, which featured 3-4 page microstories as well as one long one, this has 4 longer stories and a wraparound plot which were written for the Blu-Ray release of the anime. Generally speaking, Blu-Ray ‘extras’ tend to be a bit more involved than your typical throwaway bookstore giveaways, and it shows. This not only manages to have a lot of typical Adachi and Shimamura style shenanigans, it gets quite sad and tear-jerking at times. Be prepared to be with Adachi and Shimamura to the very end of their lives.

A brief content warning: this volume contains more Yashiro than any other volume to date, and with good reason. The wraparound story has A young woman in the very far future, on an post-apocalyptic world, being slowly led by Yashiro to her destined soulmate. Along with that, we see 1) Shimamura visiting Hino at her mansion; 2) Adachi inviting Shimamura to a hot spring, supposedly so they can finally have their first time together; 3) A Shimamura in her late eighties, with all of her family, all her friends, and her lover now dead, finding solace in playing an RPG her sister once played with, you guessed it, Yashiro; 4) The resolution of the future world, with Yashiro, her mission now done, heading out to find other Adachis and Shimamuras and reunite them; and 5) Shimamura dying, and going where she knows she needs to go.

As you may have gathered, this volume gets a lot darker than I was really guessing. The far future story is more heartwarming than anything else, and the Hino story was fairly pointless except for us to see her as an adult (sorry Nagafuji fans, she’s not in it). The hot spring story, and this is hardly a spoiler, does not end with sex. But it’s the story of Shimamura in her dotage that hit the hardest. The chapter with her looking back on everyone who left her behind is quite touching, especially as she’s haunted by her lover, who shows up to be a Greek chorus. Then there’s the last chapter, which is both a tearjerker and also a bit eerie, as Yashiro shows up to lead Shimamura to the afterlife… which has her grandparents, and her beloved dog, but that’s not where she needs to be. You know where she needs to be? Remember Adachi’s idea of heaven from the previous SS book? Yup. Shimamura is now in Adachi’s heaven, with no one else but them. Never let it be said this series is not defined by the lovable headcases that are its leads.

Possibly this worked well for me because I am overly sentimental, but I found it one of the best in this series. I’m not sure I want the 12th volume, but we’ll see if it can be more than “slice of life”, which this volume was.