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Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden, Vol. 6

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By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

While this series has tried, at times, to be a cute girls doing television things series, or a magical academy-type series, at its heart it’s a battle manga. And for several volumes now, we’ve been building up to the thing that every battle manga has to have: a fighting tournament. Now, to be fair, we don’t get the tournament itself: that looks like it will be the next volume. But we get all the build up to it, as Nia has earned enough money for the King to put everything into position, and she finds that everyone is ready for this – and not just because of the money, either. She created a monster in the powerful adventurer Leeno, and everyone wants to measure themselves against her. Unfortunately for the reader, Leeno has another identity, and that identity is a creepy lolicon. We’ll ignore that for now, though.

So yes, the tournament is gearing up, but Nia has bigger problems. She’s finally starting to realize that the other two channels run by her friends are stomping her own into the ground, and racing dogs is not going to cut it anymore. She needs a new gimmick. She gets some help when Char, one of the school’s video crew we met last time, asks for her help with getting parts so he can repair a broken skiff. When she goes to see what he’s been doing, she not only sees how his drive to repair and ride the skiff will make for a great new TV show, but also that skiff racing may be something that she can put her money and power behind. It turns out that she’s not alone in thinking that, and in fact the ground floor is rapidly filing up – but fortunately, the contacts she’s made in previous books help her out. Now if only there’s not a little… accident.

If you worry that the tournament being next volume means there’s not as much beating people up as usual, fear not. Gandolph beats up a bunch of people, Nia then goes and beats up the SAME bunch of people, and there are also some assassin goons who are less mature than their assassin bosses and get ahead of themselves. There’s also Anzel, who has rapidly become almost the second protagonist of this series. Once again, he gets a subplot in the second half of the book where he has to prevent sabotage and act cool. He also gets beaten up a lot. Hopefully he can recover by the next book, as he, like so many other people, are in the tournament, and they have to win it no matter what. Fortunately for everyone involves, Leeno seems to be the pinnacle, as Nia is not participating. Yet. Can’t wait to see how that changes, cause I can’t imagine her sitting this out.

So, aside from the unfortunate “comedy” of young women leering over literal children, this remains a fun shonen fight series. for fans of such things.

The Manga Review: Sunday Edition

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Last week was relatively slow news-wise, with few big announcements or controversies to report. The biggest headline of the week: Kodansha announced another edition of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte, a series originally published by Tokyopop in the early 2000s, then reissued by Del Rey and Kodansha. So what’s so new about this new edition? Brigid Alverson has the scoop at ICv2.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Lisa De La Cruz contemplates the new puritanical streak in online fandoms. [The Wonder of Anime]

Congratulations to Robert Adams! His podcast Dad Needs to Talk just celebrated its fourth anniversary. [Dad Needs to Talk]

On the latest episode of Screentone Club, Elliott and Andy discuss two popular titles: Honey Lemon Soda and Cat + Gamer. [Screentone Club]

Also worth a listen: Xan tackles Hikaru in the Light!, a coming-of-age drama about an aspiring teen idol. [Spiraken Manga Review]

David and Jordan invite Sex Ed 120% letterer Sara Linsley to chat about the series. [Shonen Flop]

Start here for an engaging two-part conversation about Taiyo Matsumoto’s gorgeous, inscrutable No. 5. [Manga Machinations]

The ace podcasters at Shojo & Tell and Shoujo Sundae team up for an in-depth look at Josee, The Tiger and the Fish. [Shojo & Tell]

Tony Yao explains the cultural significance of green yuri, a color you might also associate with Charlie XCX’s “Brat Summer” of 2024. [Drop-In to Manga]

Are you reading Beat’s Bizarre Adventure? This Wednesday column offers short, smart reviews of new manga. This week’s offerings: Märchen Crown, Pet Shop of Horrors: Collector’s Edition, and Embers. [The Beat]

REVIEWS

When Women Write About Comics announced it was suspending its website, I was dismayed; some of my favorite critics were regular contributors. This week, however, I made the happy discovery that one of those writers—Masha Zhdanova—is now writing for The Beat. Her first assignment: an in-depth analysis of Yoshiharu Tsuge’ Oba Electroplating Factory. Go, read!

New and Noteworthy

Complete and Continuing Series

Earl and Fairy: The Bright Star of London Bridge

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By Mizue Tani and Asako Takaboshi. Released in Japan as “Hakushaku to Yōsei” by Shueisha Cobalt Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

Even before the author explicitly stated it in the afterword, I was thinking “this has the feel of a season finale”. Which makes sense. It’s the 10th volume, and wraps up a lot of the longest-running plot strands while also introducing some new, worrying ones. That said, the start of it was difficult for me, mostly due to my own personal tastes: I hate amnesia stories. Lydia spends the bulk of this book without any memory of anything beyond Book One, so remembers Edgar only at his most annoying. What’s more, Kelpie, who may be a supernatural water demon but has “unlucky childhood friend” written all over him, is doing his best to make sure that does not change. It can be a bit frustrating and feel like “the author is trying to string out getting them together by adding complications”. Fortunately, it doesn’t last the book. Those who are here for the romance should be quite happy with how this one wraps up.

Lydia may be back in Scotland with amnesia, and the Prince on the verge of gaining a new younger body, but, priorities, before anything else Edgar has to track down Lydia’s father and try to get his permission to marry Lydia. There is one slight problem: no one seems to trust him when he says that Lydia agreed to this. Can’t imagine why. He does manage to get up to Scotland, but Kelpie’s spell is hard to get around, even if Lydia seems to really want to remember and believe him, but can’t think why. She’s also upset when she hears that he’s going back to London to deal with the Prince once and for all, and so she and Nico head there on a fairy path… which leads to her being trapped under London Bridge, and Edgar having to infiltrate a mansion where a mind-swapping ritual is about to happen. Oh yes, and there’s an Ark on the Thames, and it’s going to explode.

This is a very Edgar-heavy book, and we sympathize with him, but it’s also very easy to see why everyone doubts him. The fact that he’s genuinely surprised that Raven didn’t really believe him when he said Lydia accepted his proposal says something about his levels of self-denial. And I am definitely worried about the new plot twist, which I’m sure will lead to more bad things down the line. Still, for now, he and Lydia are finally together and engaged. Indeed, the author seems to be in more of a romance mind that usual. Lotta, Edgar’s old companion, shows up again, and she’s still very much in “I am a boyish pirate captain” mode. Paul, Edgar’s sad-sack artist friend, is also here, and just as much of a chew toy as previous books. When the two of them first meet, you can almost hear the lightbulb go off over the author’s head, and the rest of the book contrives to put them in cute romantic situations. I have no doubt we’ll see more of this.

All this plus Ermine showing up to be vaguely mysterious and duplicitous. This was a very good “season ender”.

A Certain Magical Index NT, Vol. 4

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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “Shinyaku To Aru Majutsu no Index” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse.

When I reviewed the third volume of New Testament, I said that it was great, after two false stars, to finally have the Index series we remembered back again. Well, guess what, I’m eating my words once more, as this volume features almost none of the main cast, and even Touma, who is technically here, is defined in this book by his absence. And that’s a very deliberate thing. The book this volume reminds me of the most is Vol. 15 of the first Index series, which was a battle royale featuring actual deaths, including people who we (retroactively, after they were fleshed out later) liked.This volume also features a gimmick of pictures of characters that go dark when they’re “killed”, but over the course of the book the lights go on and off on those characters like a pinball. Who’s alive? Who’s dead? It doesn’t matter, because this Index is getting as close as it’s ever gotten to pure horror.

Welcome to Baggage City, located somewhere in Eastern Europe, which is having a fighting tournament that’s bringing all the desperate people with a cool ability and something to prove. Unfortunately for the competitors and all the spectators, this event is being hijacked. Both by GREMLIN, who have planted a few lovely little sociopaths into the event, but also the Kiharas (you may remember Amata Kihara from Book 12-13, where he was turned into a star in the sky by Accelerator). And, yes, Academy City has sent a bunch of soldiers as well, whose sole purpose appears to be providing the “horror” part of the book as one of GREMLIN enjoys doing things like magically changing a guy’s arms to faucets and turning on the taps so blood pours out. There’s also Maria Kumokawa, who we mostly remember as being the maid friend of Tsuchimikado’s maid sister. And there’s Touma… maybe? Boy, there’s not much Touma.

I used to do a breakdown of who the new characters were, as well as where in the timeline this took place. I’ve dropped that, as a) we’re well past the Railgun stories so the timeline is less important (though notably one of the “protagonists” in this book shows up in Railgun years later as an antagonist), and b) it’s hopeless, there’s just too much. Not only are too many characters introduced here, many of whom die before we even get a chance to see who they are, but we also have to deal with the fact that this series is very popular in Japan and not very popular here, so one of the villains we see towards the end, who is introduced as if we know her, turns out to be from one of the Railgun Short Story books. This is actually a pretty strong book, making the point that the reason for all the horror is that Touma is absent from the scene, and the moment he shows up people stop suffering and start getting saved. But unfortunately when Touma arrives there are too many bad guys doing things all at once, two of whom we meet for the first time at that moment, and one of whom, I know from spoiling myself, is VERY important to the whole series going forward. For now, though? Just another bad guy monologuing.

Fortunately, the next two books (yes, it’s a two-parter) seem to get back to more wacky Index shenanigans, possible with actual Index herself. Though I would not count on it. Till then, enjoy the darkness of a world with minimal Touma.

Bookshelf Briefs 3/27/25

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A Certain Scientific Railgun, Vol. 19 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Motoi Fuyukawa | Seven Seas – The flashback that never ends continues, and it’s still not over, though we are at least at the end of this PART of the flashback, showing all the various factions trying to outdo each other, and learning—big surprise—that some of them are connected to the Dark Side of Academy City, and their goal is to completely destroy the school’s reputation. Fortunately Mikoto is in this volume, though she’s still not as relevant as I’d like. We don’t get Kuroko till the end, for the cliffhanger, which also shows that Mikoto’s roommate and best friend who we have never seen in the present day is—again, big surprise—a traitor. This is Mikoto’s series, so the plot twists tend to be as twisty as a pocky stick, but hey. Time to wait another year. – Sean Gaffney

Choking on Love, Vol. 1 | By Keiko Iwashita| Seven Seas – I’ve been trying to read more good old-fashioned shoujo lately, and this is an excellent example. An art student has been struggling at school because her designs are too staid, mostly as she lacks confidence. Then while working on her laptop at a ramen shop, it gets drinks spilled on it by a hot guy, and she screams at him, only to find that a) he’s also at her school, and b) he’s in a band. After helping her with her project, the two grow closer, and he asks her to design their band’s flyers. The title seems to refer to her own feelings about this guy, as she clearly likes him almost immediately but is very frustrated by that fact, and he too is surprised by how well they get on right off the bat, as he usually tries to ignore women. I’ll definitely read more. – Sean Gaffney

Colette Decides to Die, Vol. 2 | By Alto Yukimura| Viz Media – The bulk of the first volume of this omnibus sees Colette literally going up to heaven, as there are gods there that are asking for her treatment. As it turns out, their issues are more psychological than physical, but that doesn’t matter to her. The second half of the omnibus sees Colette trying something she’s never done before, as she has to assist a midwife with a pregnant woman. This basically involves her and her coworker (both coworkers get slightly more to do this time around) learning that there’s a lot more to being pregnant than just getting bigger till the baby comes out. Interspersed with this are scenes with her and Lord Hades, especially in the first half, where she’s searching heaven for a rare flower and almost gets stranded. This is really good stuff. – Sean Gaffney

Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya: The Complete Manga Collection | By Hiroshi Hiroyama and TYPE-MOON | Seven Seas – Just as Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha was a spinoff of an eroge (no, not Nanoha herself) that turned into a massive magical girl franchise, so the Fate/Stay Night series has this manga, which is an alternate continuity where Rin and her rival Luvia (this is the series where she really makes a real appearance) are magical girls, but when they annoy their magical sticks Illya, a “normal” girl living with her brother Shirou and her maids Sella and Leysritt, and Miyu, a mysterious girl with a dark past living with Luvia, get to be Card Captors, only with the battles being a lot more bloody. This is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a Fate magical girl spinoff, and Fate fans should greatly enjoy it. – Sean Gaffney

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 12 | By Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe | Viz Media – For the most part, we’ve only really experienced Frieren’s journeys with Himmel and company in flashback. But now she’s back in time, and we get zero Fern and Stark and a lot more of her original party. This is good—they’re all great characters, and I like how they all notice, but never actually say out loud, how much she’s changed and emotionally matured over the years. Unfortunately, there are also demons in this time, and Frieren has to be very careful to avoid using magic so powerful that it hasn’t been discovered this far back in time. All this plus a lot of walking around looking for a way to return to the future and coming up empty over and over again. But then, the journey is what’s important. Great stuff. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 40 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – I know Bakugo has his fans—he’s been the #1 in the character polls since the series began—but I know at least a few people who were really annoyed when, as you might expect, he turned out not to be quite dead despite having his heart destroyed a few volumes ago. And to be fair, Horikoshi does give us a way to explain it besides “power of shonen,” even though that’s what it is. I was less fond of the connection between Bakugo and All for One, which even All for One admits is a coincidence but allows the narrative to slide him off the screen so that the final battle can be Deku vs. Shigaraki, as we know it has to be. We’ve only got two volumes to go after this, and it’s probably for the best, as by god this is exhausting. – Sean Gaffney

Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke | By Sugiura Shigeru | New York Review Comics – At this point, only three manga have been published by New York Review Comics, but they have all been remarkable; I’m very curious to see what else may be translated in the future. The most recent volume to have been published, Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke, originally released in 1969, is largely a redrawing of some of Sugiura’s popular work from the 1950s. I don’t think I’ve read or seen anything quite like it before. Nominally, the plot follows the eponymous hero as he travels throughout early Edo-era Japan, recruiting others to the warlord Sanada Yukimura’s cause and wreaking havoc for those who would use ninjutsu for ill. On top of this historical framework is layered a cacophony of impressive visuals, a multitude of anachronisms, and pop culture references originating from both Japan and the West. It’s surreal nonsense, a gag manga that leans heavily into its outrageousness to great and astonishing effect. -Ash Brown

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You, Vol. 13 | By Rikito Nakamura and Yukiko Nozawa | Ghost Ship – After a brief arc about the power of addictive Korean barbecue, we meet the latest girlfriend in this volume, who is a) a teacher, and b) a mess. You could argue Naddy is the same, but Naddy 100% has her life together compared to Momoha, the school’s ethics teacher who spends most of her time when not teaching drinking, gambling, masturbating (no, she tells us herself), and living in a tent on school grounds. The biggest gag is that despite this, when it comes to people OTHER than herself, she’s an excellent ethics teacher… so the polycule may be in danger, what with its 13-year-old cousins and 89-year-old grandmas who look eight. Let’s not even get into the huge arc where everyone pretends to be drunk. For fans, as always. – Sean Gaffney

The Revenge of My Youth: Re Life with an Angelic Girl, Vol. 1 | By Yuzi Keino and Boiru Iseebi | One Peace Books – After working himself to the point of collapse, thirty-year-old Shin’ichiro Niihama, completely dissatisfied with the course his life has taken, somehow wakes up in the past as his high school self. He doesn’t understand what’s going on, but that’s not going to stop him from trying to change things, hoping that life will be different for himself as well as for the young woman who is most important to him. The ways in which basic workplace skills are applied to solve teenage problems in the story is highly entertaining; Shin’ichiro finds not only his school life significantly improved, but his love life, too. (Or, at least what will obviously become his love life, even if he’s being incredibly dense about it.) But one of my favorite things about The Revenge of My Youth is actually the wonderfully wholesome relationship between Shin’ichiro and his younger sister, who is absolutely delightful. -Ash Brown

Manga the Week of 4/2/25

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SEAN: Ah, time to begin April, the best month.

MICHELLE: Indeed.

SEAN: Yen On has some leftover titles from March, as we see I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 16, The Kept Man of the Princess Knight 4, Victoria of Many Faces 2, and Wandering Witch 15.

ASH: I was hoping for an aquarium theme there, but flowers are also acceptable.

SEAN: Yen Press has one debut, The Anemone Feels the Heat (Anemone wa Netsu o Obiru), a yuri title from Manga Time Kirara Forward. A girl headed to her high school exams stops to help a sick girl, and thus fails by being late. Now in a lower-tiered high school, she finds… the very girl she stopped to help. Can she overcome her bitter feelings and get to know her?

Also from Yen Press: Blade & Bastard 2, Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One 12, and Hazure Skill 7.

Viz Media debuts Pink Candy Kiss (Tsumetakute Yawaraka), a josei yuri title from Cocohana. A woman has her boyfriend break up with her because “she never gets jealous”, and she admits that she’s not too broken up by the breakup. Then a former classmate from middle school joins her workplace, but is now a mysterious beauty!

MICHELLE: I’m here for josei yuri!

ASH: Same! Definitely curious about this one.

ANNA: Oh, this sounds good.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Dandadan 12, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu Academy 5, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Shining Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak 3 (the final volume), Marriage Toxin 6, Moriarty the Patriot 19 (the final volume), Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite 3, Rainbow Days 15, and Tamon’s B-Side 7.

MICHELLE: I need to read more Tamon.

ASH: I probably should, too. (Granted, I haven’t actually read any yet…)

SEAN: Steamship debuts The Trapped Former Villainess Wants to Escape from the Sadistic Prince (Tsunderu Moto-Akuyaku Reijo wa Do-S Ouji-sama kara Nigedashitai), a josei title from Comic Boost. An office worker wakes in the body of a former villainess in an otome game… and her husband is not happy that she now has memories of a life in Japan! Can she escape before he attempts to seduce her to regain the villainess’ memories? For dubcon fans.

ASH: Huh.

SEAN: Square Enix Manga has By the Grace of the Gods 12, My Happy Marriage 5, and Otherside Picnic 12.

Seven Seas has two debuts. The Long Summer of August 31 (8-gatsu 31-nichi no Long Summer) is a seinen title from Weekly Morning; KManga had it licensed digitally, and here’s the print version. A high school boy and girl are trapped in a Groundhog Day loop, all because he hasn’t gotten a girlfriend and lost his virginity as he vowed. This is apparently “funny but heartwarming”.

ASH: Time loops are interesting, but I feel like re-reading All You Need Is Kill might be the better option for me this time.

SEAN: vs. LOVE is a BL version of Romeo and Juliet with gangs, and it’s from the creator of Blood Night Market. It ran in Magazine Be x Boy.

MICHELLE: Hm. I like the cover art, at least!

ASH: Shakespeare-inspired delinquent BL? I’m in.

ANNA: It sounds interesting!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: The Great Snake’s Bride 5, How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift? 17, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 11, Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout 6, My Girlfriend’s Child 7, My Kitten is a Picky Eater 3, Perfect Buddy 3, Re:Monster 10, Reborn Rich 3, Sweet Room Escape 2 (the final volume), and Yonoi Tsukihiko’s Happy Hell 2.

ASH: The Great Snake’s Bride is another series I should catch up with; i vaguely recall enjoying the first volume.

SEAN: One Peace Books gives us Kurokiya-san Wants to Lead Him Around by the Nose 4.

Kodansha Manga has a print debut. The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé (Ikeoji Monster to Zettai Reido Danshi) is a BL series from Palcy. Yes, ‘zaddy’ has hit a mainstream manga title. This zaddy has a shameful secret, though. Perhaps… he needs a younger but equally hot colleague?

MICHELLE: I went to read the description of this one and it turns out this “zaddy” is all of 40. *cries in old person*

ASH: Manga years are like dog years, right? There has got to be some sort of time conversion going on.

ANNA: I’m so old.

SEAN: Also in print: The Fable Omnibus 7, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity 6, MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM THE ORIGIN MSD Cucuruz Doan’s Island 4, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 16, WIND BREAKER 10, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 13.

Digitally we see Chihayafuru 49, Matcha Made in Heaven 11, Shangri-La Frontier 20, That Beauty Is a Tramp 5, and Those Snow White Notes 27.

MICHELLE: I was just thinking it’s about time for a new Chihayafuru.

ANNA: I might never catch up on Chihayafuru, but I have faith in my ability to keep up on Matcha Made in Heaven.

SEAN: Just one debut from J-Novel Club, and it’s a manga. Flung into a New World? Time to Lift the 200-Year Curse! (Isekai ni Otosareta… Jouka wa Kihon!) is based on an as-yet unlicensed light novel, and runs in Comic Corona. Normal dude gets truck-kun’d, ends up in a fantasy forest where he befriends vicious wolves and tries to lift a curse of “black mist of evil”.

Light novels out from J-Novel Club next week: Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers 17, Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools 9, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman 6, The Hero-Killing Bride 2, Housekeeping Mage from Another World 9, and When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace 13 (the final volume).

And for manga, they have A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life 5, Only I Know That This World Is a Game 7, The Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival 3, and The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter 5.

Ghost Ship has a 6th and final volume of I’m Not a Succubus!.

Cross Infinite World debuts This Alluring Dark Elf Has the Heart of a Middle-aged Man! (Watashi no Kokoro wa Oji-san de Aru). A (male) office worker wakes in the body of a (female) dark-haired elf in a fantasy world. Unfortunately, this elf is still an introvert who avoids others.

They also have Expedition Cooking with the Enoch Royal Knights 6 and Fluffy Paradise 7.

No print for Airship, but we do see Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 20.5 and A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO 2.

A good start to the month! What are you buying?

The Labyrinth of Marielle Clarac

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By Haruka Momo and Maro. Released in Japan as “Marielle Clarac no Yakusoku” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jasmin Thairintr.

We’re going to Italy! Or at least its fantasy equivalent, as Marielle is finally leaving her home country and traveling to another one. Unfortunately, her fame precedes her, and by now everyone simply assumes that if she breathes out she will stumble upon a fresh new adventure, similar to Jessica Fletcher. This made me worry that Marielle might have to spend the entire book sidelined, forced by those around her to not go gallivanting around stumbling over sinister plots. I mean, she doesn’t even dress up in a disguise this book! Not to worry, though, because I assure you that she will still be accused of murder here, and there’s at least one kidnapping as well. Because where Marielle goes, trouble follows, and I think even Simeon has learned that if he can’t stop that from happening, the least that he can do is to weaponize it.

It’s time for the wedding of Liberto and Henriette, and the wedding party has arrived in the country of Lavia for that purpose. Unfortunately, the prince’s mother has a huge hate on for him marrying anyone from Lagrange, and has decided to emotionally abuse everyone in the party. Even worse, she and a Viscount are assisting the country’s mafia in destabilizing things, which Liberto is trying hard to stop. All this means that Henriette and Marielle have to put up with poor accommodations, grumpy servants, and a mother-in-law who borders on cartoonishly evil. But worst of all, Liberto really doesn’t seem to care enough about what this is doing to his future wife – this is all part of one of his schemes, of course, and he’s got it in the bag, but whether he’ll be able to show the rest of the cast that he’s a normal person is another matter.

This series has always swung between thriller and comedic scenes, and I appreciated that it combined them towards the end, as a tense confrontation with guns where Marielle and the young Prince Luigi are about to be killed has Marielle break the mood in the best Spy Classroom style by asking how long she has to put up with this farce before she’s rescued. The actual intrigue part of the book goes down pretty well, to be honest. More interesting is the character work, as always. Prince Luigi has to deal with a mother who’s always angry and a brother who has no idea how to show affection to anyone, and worst of all, he’s a teenager, so you can imagine how all this is affecting him. I did appreciate that there was no big, dramatic scene where the prince suddenly realizes that he can be outwardly demonstrative towards his wife after all and he starts to be honest with her, because nope, that’s not how people word. Luigi and Henriette are going to have to try hard to turn this guy into a real human being. I hope they manage it.

It appears this series is going to continue as long as there are fresh new mysteries. I’ll keep going. Oh, right, Lutin’s in this as well. Hi, Lutin!

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 19

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By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan as “Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

There are certain long-running light novel series that I review that I consider “grandfathered in”. What that means is I’ve been reading them for years, and I know that they’re not really all that good any more, but I set a lower bar just because… well, I’ve been reading them for years. Now, obviously, sometimes a series doesn’t even clear that low bar, and I drop it some 15-20 volumes in. In Another World with My Smartphone was blessed with an obvious “please stop reading here” volume, whereas The Irregular at Magic High School decided to shove its homophobic right-wing protagonist in my face one too many times. Realist Hero has not hit that low bar. It’s still readable, I feel no desire to stop one volume before the end. That said,. there is a moment here where our heroes are fighting the villain, and get mad at him for still being single and not having married like everyone else in this series, where I wondered if this was written by the ghost of Shinzo Abe.

We left off with Souma having revealed that there’s a whole new world of adventure to be had in the North, thus impacting the morale of all of Fuuga’s troops, as well as Fuuga himself. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough to stop the battle that’s going to be happening today, and now Fuuga knows he has to deal with everything right now or he’ll lose. What follows is a lot of battle, and Fuuga loses. (I don’t regard this as a spoiler because you have read the previous 18 volumes. Did you think Souma would be killed?) Souma manages to swing the battle in such a way that Fuuga is able to retreat with honor (persuaded to do so by, you guessed it, a pregnant wife), but his dreams are dashed. Unfortunately, he is smarter than some of his generals, who have a “war or nothing” mentality. The fragile peace can’t last forever…

This series, for the most part, does not kill people off, something I joked about last time, when it killed off the two oldest men in the cast who had already lived full lives and didn’t have young wives and children. This penultimate volume can’t QUITE do that, but it does manage to avoid killing off any of the named supporting cast on Souma’s side. The same cannot be said of the enemy, and I spent most of the book wondering if the author actually had the moxie to legitimately kill Fuuga off. (The answer is that they leave it vague, but I’m pretty sure the 20th volume will answer “no, he did not”). That said, Yuriga’s family definitely suffers some deaths, as they’re divided between two warring states, and some of them are simply battle hungry. Of all the “it’s better to have a family” hammers that get dropped on our head by the book, the best is Aisha’s fight with Nata, where she declares him boring because his battle style has nothing he cares about behind it but his own bloodlust. She kills him as an afterthought. That was some actual good writing.

Most of this, though, is Realist Hero writing. It’s ending in the next volume, which the author already says will be “epilogues” about all the characters. It’s long overdue, but I’ll read it when we get it. (And hopefully it won’t come back with After stories. Looking at you, Arifureta.)

Pick of the Week: Gods, Ghosts and Teenagers

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SEAN: There are a couple of debuts I’m very interested in. But my pick is the final volume of Teasing Master Takagi-san, a series I’ve loved since it began. I doubt it sells well enough to justify the spinoff starring their child getting licensed, but I can dream…

KATE: A new installment of The Summer Hikaru Dies is reason to rejoice, so I’m making it my pick of the week.

MICHELLE: I’m also intrigued by The Summer Hikaru Died, but my pick goes to GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST!, which looks like a lot of fun.

ANNA: I’m curious about The Failure at God School, as I’m always intrigued by paranormal shoujo series.

ASH: I’ll be joining Anna in picking The Failure at God School as the debut that intrigues me the most this week, though everyone’s picks for ongoing series are all solid choices, too.

Otherside Picnic, Vol. 9

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

It’s been about nineteen months since THAT volume of Otherside Picnic came out over here, and let’s be honest, the wait was excruciating. We all wanted to know what would happen next? What we got, as usual with the series, was three interconnected chapters tat also function as short stories. The “horror” part comes at the start and near the end, and it does a pretty good job, even though I’m never going to be one of those folks reading this series for the horror. The actual plot comes in the second half, where we bring Runa back into the series as more than just a cameo, and reintroduce the eccentric Tsuji, who I am suspecting might be the next major antagonist but I could be wrong. The rest of the volume is very strong. But yeah, I’m going to be talking about the middle chapter, which left me grinning like an idiot and jumping up and down in happiness.

But first, a recap. In the first chapter of this volume, Toriko and Sorawo go to the Otherside (its only appearance in this volume) to check on Todate and Hana, as after Sorawo’s Toriko-infested Otherside experience from the last book she’s worried about them. She’s right to be worried – this is the really scary part of the book, though not without its heartwarming, in a weird way. I the second story, Sorawo and Toriko head over to Kozakura’s mansion to inform her that they’re now a couple, and Sorawo struggles with the fact that everyone wants her relationship to be more romantic than she’s comfortable with. In the final, longest chapter, Migawa asks Sorawo and Toriko to help instruct soldiers from their facility on how to deal with Otherside terror, and they bring along Runa (who they are trying to figure out what to do with) and Tsuji (who is now Runa’s minder). Runa has a knack for interior decorating that is kind of cute, and then less cute.

So, let’s talk about that second story. First of all, everyone who enjoyed watching Sorawo struggle with what her relationship with Toriko is will be happy to note that even after they defined it together, Sorawo still hates talking about it with anyone else, as she always senses them making it more normal and ordinary. This fits in really well with Sorawo’s mindset. (The funniest parts of the book are where folks have to explain to Sorawo when she’s seducing people, and Sorawo’s “wut?” reaction to this.) The best part of the book for me, though, was Kozakura. They arrive at her mansion and find it brightly lit, and this worries them. But what it actually means is that she’s moved on and is now in control of her life again. She’s adopted Kasumi which is why the house is bright), and she’s using her degree to make the Otherside safer to think about and study. I wanted to shout “woo hoo!” when I saw this. I’m so happy for her.

Now, is Runa going to be able to have the same journey? Can Sorawo come to terms with the fact that everyone is going to interpret her relationship with Toriko differently? And can Toriko stop all these thirsty women macking on her nue so that she can get in some quality cuddling time? That will have to wait for Book 10, in all likelihood. I loved this book, though.