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Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol. 13

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

There’s a very startling beginning to this book, which is the very, very perfunctory final battle against the forces of the demon lord. Now, yes, I am aware that there’s actually a plot involving Ruti and her blessing that will be going into Vol. 14, which involves the demon lord, but in terms of the plot of this particular book, it’s all about the end of the war and what comes after. This means that our main cast in Zoltan are ready to settle in and find something they’re going to do for the rest of their lives, but it also means that those who have spent years on the front lines – those who are still alive – are coming home, and many of them are dealing with PTSD at the very least. That’s right, this is the Banished from the Hero’s Party version of The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ruti, for one, is not really sure how to cope with it.

It’s fall festival time in Zoltan! Rit suggests trying to push some of their medications by putting them in nice-looking wooden canisters, so she and Red have their booth all set. Ruti admits that her farm of medicinal herbs is going into the red, so she, Tisse, and Mister Crawly Wawly are going to have a food booth to show everyone how they can be used without needing the Cooking Skill. And Habotan, who is still doing her level best to be a ninja fangirl, is going to sell shuriken and other ninja tools that look really cool. The festival runs into the aforementioned end of the war, though. One man comes back to tell his aunt that her son will not be coming home to her. A young woman was given the fantasy equivalent of morphine on the front, and has developed an addiction. And, of yes, there are still demon lord plans. Which I’m sure won’t impact Red and Rit’s wedding at ALL.

This is very much a book of two halves. Though we hear about the end of the war at the start, the first half is concerned with the series’ usual slow, relaxed pace. Mister Crawly Wawly now has a suit of armor he can control so he can be an adventurer (He has a card with a name. The name is AAAA.), and he and Red investigate forest fires with a mysterious cause. Ruti and Red then go to investigate a very loud mad scientist whose entire plot feels that it was written to pad out an already short book. The latter parts of the book, though, are much better, showing us soldiers that are still dealing with flashbacks, or drug addition, or depression that ends up leading to sexual assault. And while Red has some good answers, Ruti finds she doesn’t feel confident in hers. After all, she left the battlefield… something that comes out at the end of this book as well.

The next book will have the wedding (Yen says it’s the finale – is 15 an “after story” that’s not part of the main license?), so we’re almost done. Still, this book did a mostly good job of emphasizing the “war is hell” part of the series as well as the “relaxed happy life” part.

Bookshelf Briefs 4/14/25

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Blue Box, Vol. 14 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media – At last, this sports manga has returned to being a sports manga. Not that romance is not still part of this, but the bulk of the book is devoted to either new first-years in the clubs or the sports festival. The new first-years include a younger brother who deliberately went to a different school to get out from his brother’s shadow, and a young girl who is clumsy but earnest, and who seems to really like Taiki a lot right away. Or, well, so it appears. And let’s not even get into Ayame dealing with the horrors of having to actually pursue a guy she likes rather than be pursued. As for the sports, Taiki gives off the appearance of a newbie, and there are jokes about people mistaking him for a first year, but when it comes to badminton skills he wipes the floor with the new kids. Good stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Bocchi the Rock!, Vol. 6 | By Aki Hamazi | Yen Press – As with the previous volume, this is also a manga of two halves, though thankfully both halves are on the funny side. In the first half, Nijika decides to have a party/concert for her sister’s birthday, but struggles to come up with enough bands to fill out the bill. In the second half, Kita has “run away from home,” as her mother is objecting to her listing musician as a career, for sensible reasons, and also feels that this Gotou boy is a very bad influence on her daughter, which is wrong but also hilarious, especially when Bocchi actually shows up, and proceeds to be… herself. The other big thing in this book is we see Hiroi sober for the first time, and, well, she’s Bocchi. She’s Bocchi, and has found that alcohol is the cure for that. Sure feels like a lead-up to a spinoff. Good fun. – Sean Gaffney

I’m Here, Beside You, Vol. 1 | By TEA natsuno | Yen Press – Ibuki Doi learns that Mikami Baba, the boy he was in love with in high school and whom he had assumed was straight, is marrying a man. This news spurs him to get massively drunk, after which he wakes up in the past with a chance to do things over again. I normally like these kinds of stories, so I’m Here, Beside You was an instant purchase for me. Unfortunately, it was merely okay. One factor is that Ibuki quickly becomes frustrating as a protagonist, but the bigger issue is that halfway through there is an out-of-nowhere revelation that Mikami’s sister is going to be murdered soon. Given the utter lack of foreshadowing, it feels like an editorial course correction. Does the story get more interesting after this? Admittedly, yes. Enough so that I will read the second and concluding volume, at least, but I remain disappointed. – Michelle Smith

Rainbows After Storms, Vol. 2 | By Luka Kobachi | Viz Media – I’m not sure how long the “we need to reintroduce the series for new readers every chapter” thing is going to go on, but I hope it’s not for the entire series, because trust me, I know that the two of them are dating but they’re keeping it a secret from everyone else, and I also know that if you cut out the panels telling us that, this volume would be much shorter. It’s good otherwise, though, with Chidori being the one worried about their relationship this time around, as she fears that Nanoha had a past male crush, and is too afraid of what the answer is to ask about it. That doesn’t really get resolved, but we do have a lot of cute G-rated yuri situations, and I’d happily recommend it to those who like their wlw romance on the mild side. – Sean Gaffney

You Talk Too Much, So Just Shut It Already!, Vol. 1 | By Shunpei Morita and Aldehyde | One Peace Books – Tsukino Hiiragi has just transferred to a new middle school, which would be challenging enough, but she’s also deaf. Resigned to being lonely, she’s taken by surprise when her classmate Taiyo Enomoto instantly befriends her. While Tsukino can read lips, she communicates through writing and sign language. Taiyo communicates by constantly talking. Misunderstandings abound, in part because Taiyo believes language barriers can be overcome by sheer willpower and enthusiasm. This… is definitely not the case. But thanks to Tsukino’s charming nature and Taiyo’s incredible kindheartedness, things do generally work out in the end, even if both of them are completely confused. Some of the scenarios that play out in the series are rather silly—the creators don’t hesitate to favor comedy over realism—but the characters are earnest and the heart of the story is authentic. The first volume is funny and endearing; I look forward to reading more. -Ash Brown

Pick of the Week: Climbing and Clouds

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MICHELLE: I am looking forward to both Riverbay Road Men’s Dormitory and The Little Bird Sleeps by the Sea. Presumably, the latter will be much more wholesome, however, so I will pick that one for brain-balm purposes.

SEAN: Gonna have to give it to the manga with the most striking cover this week, because The Climber makes me want to see what his deal is.

KATE: That sound you hear right now? That’s me screaming with excitement over a new installment of Go With the Clouds, North by Northwest, one of the weirdest and most consistently satisfying series I’m reading right now. I’m also going to hop on The Climber bandwagon, as it looks great, if potentially vertigo-inducing. This is definitely a head-to-the-comic-shop week for me!

ASH: While I am intrigued by several of the novel offerings this week, it’s The Climber for me, too!

ANNA: I’m with Kate this week, I’ve ordered both Go With the Clouds, North by Northwest and The Climber. What an exciting week!

The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life As a Noblewoman: Ruination and Resolve, Part 1

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By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

This review has massive spoilers, and I’m pretty sure that each review I do of this series will have to have the same thing.

When I first heard that J-Novel Club would be splitting the books in half starting from this volume, I admit I was a bit disappointed, the same way that a kid might pout when being told he can’t go on the 20-mile hike. I was looking forward to another 500+-page monster! Having finished this Part 1 volume, I admit that I’m actually grateful to them, as frankly, I’m exhausted. And so is Karen, to be fair. This series can best be described as “Everything happens at once”, and that applies even more so to this volume. The first book at least had occasional parts where a relaxed and happy Karen toured the grounds, or learned about the political landscape with her elderly husband. This volume has no time for that. It needs to run flat out to get to the cliffhanger at the end of the book. Which means resolving the cliffhanger at the end of the LAST book. Which involves… well, read on.

We open with Karen watching in horror as Sven, Nico and Doctor Emma are brutally murdered outside the mansion. Yeah, sorry, it’s that kind of book. As the rest of the cast desperately try to get to safety, it’s become clear that “bandits” are attacking and massacring everyone, and that one of the people they’ve been told to kill is Karen herself. At the end of a very long massacre, the only survivors who are able to stagger to the capital are Karen, younger son Wendell, steward Whateley… and a few townsfolk who managed to avoid being mass murdered. Karen now has to deal with trying to explain to the King how this domain got completely destroyed, try to set things up so that Wendell can inherit as her late husband wanted, and also try to secure her own future, which means NOT going back to her family. Unfortunately, it rapidly becomes clear that even staying in this country is going to be extremely unsafe…

There are some lovely pieces of prose in this series. I don’t normally read things this dark, but the writing pulls me in, which is a plus. My favorite part was probably Karen and Whateley being very angry at the Margrave for not coming back as a ghost and haunting them, so they could feel his presence still. I also like Karen trying to figure out what’s going on (which she MOSTLY does, though not in time to do much but damage control) and also figure out how to talk about what she suspects without getting straight up murdered. It helps that she and Reinald continue to be, frankly, perfect for each other. I’m half convinced that the main reason he does not have someone like her quickly taken care of is that he absolutely cannot get a bead on how she thinks – and he’s not alone. Then again, no one can get a bead on how Reinald thinks either, especially after the climax of this book.

By the “end” of this book, the nation has fallen and Reinald is greeting the invader… his younger sister. And may I remind you this was only HALFWAY through the original book. Riveting and compelling, but I believe tomorrow I will take a “no light novels today” break to rest.

The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom, Vol. 2

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By Fuyutsuki Koki and Masami. Released in Japan as “Kanpeki Sugite Kawaige ga Nai to Konyaku Haki Sareta Seijo wa Ringoku ni Urareru” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Tiffany Lim. Adapted by Shaenon K. Garrity.

Oh dear, and it was going so well. Too-Perfect Saint hits that difficult second album, and it’s the worst possible timing for English-speaking readers, as the anime has just begun, so we’re seeing the first book come to life while we read this second volume. The things I really liked about the first book were a) the fact that Philia really struggled with expressing herself and feeling emotions like “happiness” and “hope” after an entire lifetime of abuse, and b) the fact that we had a “my parents hated me but praised my younger sister instead” novel where the younger sister was NOT evil, but was in fact the second protagonist. Now we get Book 2, and Mia gets a much smaller role where she gets nothing to do. As for Philia, she’s dealing with the romantic subplot that I predicted would happen last time. Sure hope another cartoon villain doesn’t show up – oh dear.

Philia is preparing for a giant conference of saints from various countries, which can now happen given she’s purified the world with her giant barrier. Unfortunately, saints have been disappearing one by one, and in fact Philia and Osvalt, who are out on a not-date, almost see one happen in front of their eyes. Worse still, her ex-fiance Julius has vanished from his prison cell. Fortunately, she has some new allies coming to protect her in the form of exorcist Erza and her demon familiar Mammon, who feel like they’re crossing over from a different book (they are, but that one does not appear to have been published) Unfortunately, as the convention gets underway, it’s invaded by Asmodeus, an ancient demon who has possessed Julius. He’s here to resurrect his former love… who happens to have been reincarnated as Philia.

If that last sentence made you roll your eyes a bit, well, congratulations, you had the same reaction I did. Almost every beat of this book, unlike the first which had a few clever swerves, is straight on the beat and not a surprise at all. It’s not entirely without merit. I did like Asmodeus using Philia’s parents as “hostages”, knowing she’s spent her entire life being abused by them, and her reaction – I don’t care about them at all but I am a decent human being so I will not murder them to satisfy you – is quite good. But for the most part all the emotional bits in this book are hamstrung by Philia’s calmness, which feels less like a deliberate choice and more like flat writing in this book. Her conversation with her equally reticent real mother is a low point, and her romantic confession ends up eliciting a mild smile.

This has a third volume, where apparently villains try to make Philia into the Pope. But unfortunately, this probably should have stayed a one-shot.

Manga the Week of 4/16/25

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SEAN: Yen’s April has already started to slip into May, but fear not, there’s plenty here for your Easter week.

Yen On has three debuts. Bye Bye Earth is an old light novel series from 2000. A young woman is very powerful and has a huge sword. Unfortunately, she’s the only human in a world of anthropomorphic animals. So she sets out on a journey to find people like her.

maboroshi is a light novel based on a movie that came out two years ago, but it’s also by Mari Okada, so I may actually read this one. An explosion traps a town in what seems to be a groundhog Day loop, but the day can apparently be saved by Japanese high school students, as always. Despite my sarcasm, this is apparently excellent.

ASH: I mean, it is Mari Okada; I may have to read it, too.

ANNA: Oh yeah, Okada is always worth a look.

SEAN: The Summer Hikaru Died (Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu) is a light novel adaptation of the manga series, which is a nice reversal from the usual.

ASH: Oh, how interesting! I might need to check this one out, too.

SEAN: Also from Yen On: Banished from the Hero’s Party 13, The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori 2, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 11, The Detective Is Already Dead 10, I’m the Strongest in This Zombie World 2, and Sword Art Online Alternative Clover’s Regret 3 (the final volume). (Two of these got bumped.)

Most of Yen Press’s pile got delayed to next week, but there are a few books, including one debut. The Boy Who Ruled the Monsters: Before I Knew It, the Ultimate Specialized Support Skill Led to the World’s Ultimate Party! (Kaibutsu-tachi o Suberu Mono – Saikyou no Shien Tokka Nouryoku de, Kizukeba Sekai Saikyou Party ni!) is a “banished from the party” story, though at least this time two of the party join him. This is because (try to contain your shock) his ability is great after all! Now he’s going to make his own party of monsters. (Taking a wild guess that the monsters look like hot girls.) J-Novel Club has the novels, this is the manga adaptation, which runs in Isekai Comic.

And we also see April Showers Bring May Flowers 2, Rejected by the Hero’s Party, a Princess Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside 2, and A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School! 16. (ALL of these got bumped.)

Viz Media debuts The Climber (Kokou no Hito), which has art by the creator of #drcl Midnight Children and Innocent. A young man is dared to climb to the top of the school building, and, after not falling, discovers a new passion. That’s right, this is technically a sports manga. It runs in Weekly Young Jump.

MICHELLE: Hm.

ASH: I am very interested in this one.

ANNA: A genre we haven’t seen before? I’m always interested in sports manga.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. 7, Mission: Yozakura Family 16, Rainbows After Storms 3, Record of Ragnarok 14, Red River 3-in-1 3, Snowball Earth 5, Steel of the Celestial Shadows 6, Tokyo Alien Bros. 2, Undead Unluck 19, and Vagabond Definitive Edition 2.

ASH: For those who haven’t seen it yet, the deluxe edition of Vagabond looks really great.

ANNA: I really don’t need to buy it again, but I sort of want to? But maybe not in this economy!

SEAN: So last week I screwed up and put the Tokyopop titles that should have been on this list. Last week we actually had The Inconvenient Life of an Arousing Priestess 2 and Boys Gilding the Lily Shall Die!? 4.

And *this* is the week with The Little Bird Sleeps by the Sea (Hinadori wa Shiokaze ni Madoromu), a BL one-shot from Chara. A young man whose family have all recently died adopts his niece and moves to a seaside town, where he meets another young man who also has a tragic past. This is from the creator of Love Nest, Sayonara Game, etc.

MICHELLE: Still intrigued!

SEAN: And there’s a 2nd volume of The Margrave’s Daughter & the Enemy Prince.

Steamship gives us a 2nd volume of The Yakuza and His Omega: Raw Desire. (Note it’s from Steamship, BL fans. This is a rare M/F A/B/O.)

ASH: I’ll admit, I didn’t realize that those even existed.

SEAN: From Square Enix Manga we get Tokyo Aliens 8 and My Dress-Up Darling 13.

Seven Seas starts with the ominous title Gene Bride, a josei manga from Feel Young. A woman dealing with the horrible misogyny of her workplace is startled when a man shows up and declares that they were genetically matched as a perfect couple in middle school. The fact that this is in Feel Young means I won’t ignore it on sight, but that premise makes me go eeeeergh. (checks) Oh, it’s also from the creator of My Boy, no wonder I feel uncomfortable.

MICHELLE: Hm, again.

ASH: I could see this being very disconcerting but potentially intriguing.

ANNA: Yeah, I don’t know about this one.

SEAN: Mii-chan Wants to Be Kept (Mi-chan wa Kawaretai) is a seinen title from Ultra Jump. A stressed-out young man has recently lost his beloved pet cat, so is even more stressed. Then a hot girl shows up in his bed… and she seems a lot like his pet cat.

MICHELLE: Barf.

ASH: Huh.

ANNA: I’m not sure how much more uninterested in this I could possibly be.

SEAN: PUNKS TRIANGLE is a one-shot BL manga (though there’s a sequel) from the magazine Bloom. A fashion designer is town between a hot, sexy model and a dorky but adorable classmate.

And there’s a new danmei series from the creator of Legend of Exorcism and Dinghai Fusheng Records called Riverbay Road Men’s Dormitory. A movie director struggles to write believable characters, so rents out his house to a bunch of gay men to see if he can learn from their love lives.

MICHELLE: I’ve been looking forward to this one.

ANNA: Interesting research methods!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: 365 Days to the Wedding 7, Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon 8, Cat Companions Maruru and Hachi 3, Does it Count if You Lose Your Virginity to an Android? 5, Glasses with a Chance of Delinquent 2, I Get the Feeling That Nobukuni-san Likes Me 6, Kase-san and Yamada 4, Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari 10, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Elma’s Office Lady Diary 9, My Cat is Such a Weirdo 6, and Mysterious Disappearances 5.

One Peace Books has I Was Sold Dirt Cheap, but My Power Level Is off the Charts 3.

No debuts for Kodansha, but in print they have Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest 7, I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day 2, Kusunoki’s Flunking Her High School Glow-Up 4, and Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 9.

ASH: I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve seen a new volume of Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest.

ANNA: Oh, I need to read this series in the first place and also pick this up for one of my kids who is collecting it.

And for digital we get Koigakubo-kun Stole My First Time 8 and Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 16.

J-Novel Club has some print titles: An Archdemon’s Dilemma 17, By the Grace of the Gods 14, The Misfit of Demon King Academy 5, Tearmoon Empire 12, and the 11th manga volume of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer.

And no debuts for J-Novel Club this week, but we see, in light novels, The 100th Time’s the Charm: She Was Executed 99 Times, So How Did She Unlock “Super Love” Mode?! 3, From Two-Bit Baddie to Total Heartthrob 3, Isekai Walking 2, My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex 12, and The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World 4.

While for manga we get Ascendance of a Bookworm 4-2, Hell Mode 6, Isekai Tensei 10, Mercedes and the Waning Moon 2, and A Pale Moon Reverie 2.

Ghost Ship has Ero Ninja Scrolls 8.

Dark Horse has a 2nd omnibus of Drifters, with Vol. 4-6.

ASH: That seems fast for Dark Horse!

SEAN: And Airship gives us a print version for The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain 4.

And digital for Reincarnated As a Sword 16 and Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho 9.

What Easter manga are you getting?

ANNA: I see that Veil has been pushed back to June, so not that!

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 16

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By Kisetsu Morita and Benio. Released in Japan as “Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Tristan Hill.

I was sort of dreading this volume, to be honest. This series never has anything happen to it other than adding new cast, and at the moment the 28th volume is coming out in Japan, meaning we get further and further behind every time we see it. I’m sure Yen Press is trying to renegotiate its light novel contracts to say “surely we can cancel SOME titles, right?”. But if ever there was time for a really good volume, this is the time, as the second season of the anime debuted last week, and is promising more of the same, only in animated form. Great news, though, this is actually quite a strong volume, when compared to other volumes in this series. It’s strong because a) it’s run out of CD dramas to add, so has to include another “Laika’s Schooldays” short, which are excellent. Second, there are fewer, longer short stories within, and that means they have room to breathe for once.

The stories: 1) Pecora is holding a comedy competition, and non-demons are also invited to join. Laika and Flatorte, Flafa and Shalsha, and Rosalie all compete from Azusa’s team, and her daughters ask her to write them a script, because she’s the best at comedy (note this is Japanese comedy, meaning they’re all boke/tsukkomi routines); 2) While visiting a museum, Azusa touches an artifact that turns her into an old lady for a week, and while dealing with this, she’s asked to go to a witch convention; 3) Halkara suggests taking their pet mimic for a walk; 4) Goodly Godly Goddess has written an RPG, and the *entire* cast of the series is brought in to populate it; and in Laika’s side story series, her third year begins with dealing with some delinquents who are doing the dragon equivalent of joyriding.

There’s only one weak story here, with the mimic. The old lady one is also not great, but I was highly amused with its idea of a witch convention being much like a real work convention, with cute games and prizes for the winners. The comedy one I was expecting to be bad, but it really worked well – the routine Azusa wrote and Flafa and Shalsha refined was not only surreal and creepy but also funny, though I agree with the judges that Laika and Flatorte deserved to win, as they’re both naturals. Best of all is the final main story, a giant parody of RPGs like Dragon Quest III. This is the second time that Azusa has essentially tested a game for god (something she points out), but this one is more involved and involves everyone pointing out all the cliches and poor writing that go into these RPGs where you frequently have to smile, nod, and go get the fruit so that the boy will give you a clue. I also had fun trying to figure out who would be cast as what (as does Azusa).

This is not a good book as a book, mind you. It’s a good volume of Killing Slimes for 300 Years. There’s a difference. But if you like the series, this is solid.

Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home!, Vol. 9

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By You Fuguruma and Nama. Released in Japan as “Kasei Madoushi no Isekai Seikatsu: Boukenchuu no Kasei Fugyou Uketamawarimasu!” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

It’s always interesting seeing how light novels based around a typical “fantasy RPG’ setting handle monsters. Some of them tend to go in the direction of “monsters are people too”, particularly when it comes to demon lords, to the point the recent manga Frieren was written in part to push back against that. A lot more of them tend to see monsters as simply things that our heroes hit with their weapons for drop loot. Housekeeping Mage tries to sit somewhere in the middle. We already know about the slime familiars, and we get another familiar added to the extended family here as well. But we also get a dragon that is the subject of cruel experiments, and while they can sympathize with its plight and give it the best death possible, they still have to kill it, because the alternative is the loss of human settlements. On the bright side, that does lead to some really cool fight sequences.

Alec and Shiori are called back to Brovito, home of the foot baths, in order to investigate a rumor that there’s a fenrir in the woods. What they do find turns out to be not QUITE a fenrir, but certainly an intelligent wolf variant, one who immediately bonds with Alec as a soulmate, and is made into a familiar so rapidly it’s almost comical. The bulk of the book, though, it taken up with a crisis: an ice dragon, buried in a frozen lake for two hundred years, has woken up, and the knights are unable to handle it, so have called in the adventurers. This will take everyone’s skills, and there’s a big chance there will be some deaths. And to make things worse, this is the fault of the Empire, whose dying embers are still glowing, and who even know have grudges to settle.

The series has gradually been getting more optimistic and less bleak with each book, so I was not too surprised that after the great battle, the casualty count was low. Honestly, it’s more interested in romance, now that Alec and Shiori are lovers and ready to get married as soon as he can sort out his family issues. (His brother always seems to be on the verge of visiting but never quite makes it by the end of each book.) We also get another inevitable proposal here, as Clemens and Nadia finally make things official after he takes an arrow for Alec and almost dies. Speaking of which, the reason he doesn’t die, doctor Ellen says, is because she’s been studying harder and learning more thanks to Shiori’s example. For all that Japan loves to write about folks dying from heart attacks from working too hard, most of these books agree that if it’s a job they love which is rewarding, they want to work ALL the overtime and do ALL the things.

We’ve caught up with Japan, so I’m not sure when we’ll get the next book, but the author says it should wrap up in 2-3 more arcs. I’m still enjoying it.

Pick of the Week: Cats and Monsters

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SEAN: I guess I’ll go for more bad things happening to reincarnated nobles with the 2nd part (1st half) of The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life As a Noblewoman.

MICHELLE: With the state of everything being as it is, the solace offered by A Man and His Cat seems like just the thing.

ANNA: This week, I’m picking my hope for Veil to be released next week. I’m guessing next week I will pick the actual manga Veil instead of my hope for it.

ASH: Well, I received notification that Veil has been delayed. I thought that was the one title this week I was really interested in, but then I remembered that Bubbles Zine is publishing Maruo Suehiro’s Beautiful Monster. A master of ero-guro, expect the volume to be exquisitely illustrated but definitely not for everyone.

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 20.5

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by RFD.

I have frequently whined about having to review a lot of these .5 short story collections, mostly as they tend to feature things like bookstore exclusives that out of necessity cannot have any effect on the plot. But in something like Kuma Bear, a series that is so dependent on Yuna’s POV that any scrap we get from other characters is most welcome. If there’s one thing that we’ve learned about Yuna throughout this series, it’s that she – still! – hates herself. Every time she talks about her physical appearance it’s to talk about how short, flat, and plain she is, and every time she does anything for others she plays it off as being self-serving or nothing special. But when you see Yuna in the eyes of other characters, she’s described as “slim, pretty and feminine”, and everyone and their brother talks about how kind and nice she is. Honestly, this world warps to that kindness – which is why the darkness of the past is – mostly – not seen anymore.

I say mostly because this volume, for the first two-third or so, adapts the bookstore-exclusive stories from Vol. 10-16, which means it has the beach trip to Mileela, including in the party the women from Mileela who were abducted by bandits. Neaf in particular was raped and had her family murdered, and they HAVE to discuss it here, but it’s elided to “something terrible happened”, as they’re always talking about it to kids. After these stories we get five more written just for the volume, which honestly have the same feel as the stories we’d just read. The last quarter of the book is the most unique, as it has Yuna, Fina and Noa watching the first season of the Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear anime.

Believe it or not, the last section is by far the most interesting and rewarding. If you’ve ever been to the Archive Of Our Own fanfiction site, you may be familiar with a genre called “Reaction Fic” or “Characters Watch the Show”, and this is essentially an official version of that. That said, the best of those fanfics analyze the source and are able to give new fresh takes, and that’s what we see here. I’m sure it’s not canon, but here we see Yuna’s past in Japan and her isekai’d status revealed to Fina and Noa, and Yuna narrating that she regards having to learn to cook and clean for herself because her parents were never around as “cherished memories”, as they let her live on her own here. That’s horrible! She also sees Noa’s optimism and positiveness about herself and thinks that she should learn from Noa as she’s so negative. I agree so much. Lastly, they also watch the anime original parts, including the final episode, which Yuna herself describes as “like a yuri anime”. They’re not beating the allegations.

So this was more rewarding than I expected, and at 400 pages or so it’s good bang for your buck. It’s not all moe cuteness. Just… mostly.