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If the Heroine Wants My Fiancé, I’ll Marry a Yandere Villain Instead!, Vol. 2

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By Kobako Takara and Jun Natsuba. Released in Japan as “Heroine ni Konyakusha wo Torareru Mitai node, Akuyaki Reisoku (Yandere Character) wo Neraimasu” by B’s-Log Bunko. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Emma Schumacker.

One of the problems that a lot of fiction has, be it in English or Japanese, is the trouble with sequels. In North America it feels like you can’t sell a fantasy series these days without it being a trilogy of some sort. Japanese books are frequently contest winners, which means they’re self-contained in one volume, but if they do well then more volumes are always around the corner. And sometimes a series just doesn’t need to be ongoing. This is the trouble I’m running into with the second volume of Yandere Villain. It felt very self-contained when I finished the first book, even though we hadn’t hit a wedding. And now we have a second book, which introduces the inevitable plot complications, and it feels very half-baked. I feel as if the author didn’t really have a plan, so decided to write what they like instead. Which is good news if you like fluff and bratty teens.

Having gotten engaged and solved their immediate issues, Cynthia and Siraiya are ready for a nice, relaxing vacation at her family’s hot springs hotel. All to themselves, where Cynthia dreams of growing closer as a couple… though she’ll find over the course of this book that, due to no sex ed at all, Siraiya is not remotely ready for anything physical. Unfortunately for both of them, the crown prince shows up at the hotel as well… and he’s got cat ears and a tail. This turns out to be due to a book he opened, but Cynthia knows it’s really the subject of a special event in the game world. Unfortunately, this isn’t a game world, and there’s an actual power struggle between Adelberd and his younger brother. Cat ears and a tail are probably not going to win points. Can Cynthia find a way to break the curse? And wait, now the second prince is here as well!

I will admit, the author has a way of writing a bratty teen who’s forced into power struggles he doesn’t want and wants to be more mature than he really is. Rutherford feels very true to life. He also ground on my every nerve, especially when he developed his puppy love crush on Cynthia. We also finally get to meet Adelberd’s fiancée Estellise, and they too have a “oh no, but if we hold hands that would be far too much!” issue. Clearly the otome game they’re from is very G-rated. On the bright side, I did like the resolution of the plot, which allowed Cynthia to save the day in a completely ridiculous way. And the fact that the Japanese word ‘yandere’, unknown here, has been taken by everyone but Cynthia to have a completely positive and not creepy at all meaning is an amusing running gag.

There’s two more volumes apparently, but I think I’m stopping here. The final volume has a wedding cover, so I assume things go well. Which is… not what actual yandere fans want, I think? But oh well.

Goodbye, Horrible Fiancé, Hello, Fun Magic School Life!, Vol. 1

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By Mashimesa Emoto and Nitou Akane. Released in Japan as “Konyakusha wo Sutetara, Tanoshii Mahou Gakkou no Seikatsu ga Matteimashita” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by piyo.

Now that we have a glut in the market when it comes to broken engagement light novels, it can be hard to really sell one to readers as a reviewer. I enjoyed this book, it has a likeable lead, some fun scenes, good support. It does not really, however, have that one thing that makes it stand out of the pack from other books with this exact premise. There’s no quirk, no eccentricity that made the publisher go “wow!”. The publisher put this out as the author has a proven track record (Expedition Cooking with the Enoch Knights, also released by CIW) and this was a title the author really wanted to see published (they bluntly state this in the afterword). So you don’t have to buy it. But again, if you do buy it, it’s a lot of fun… once you get past the first twenty pages or so. Because trust me, the horrible fiancé thing is not a lie.

Misha von Ritual is a viscount’s daughter in a snowy minor territory in the North. She’s engaged and ready to do her all for the territory. Then her fiancé shows up and says that he’s gotten her cousin pregnant. And is marrying her. But he still wants Misha as his second wife. To keep earning money for the child her cousin is now carrying. Who will take over the territory. Oh, and he says he has no plans to sleep with her. Needless to say, she punches the shit out of him, and after consulting with her parents, the errant fiancé and his pregnant girl are hurled out of the kingdom. The parents, who were very lax about this, offer Misha anything she wants, and she asks if she can go to the magic school in the center of the country. It will be hard to get in, but if she does she’ll be happy. Because she has (gasp!) past life memories from Japan, and remembers a certain series of novels about a magic school…

It’s never explicitly stated, so I’m gonna assume she means Diane Duane’s books rather than that other author. One thing I did like is that the application process has multiple tests, takes an entire year, and it’s very easy to fail. In fact, Misha would not have gotten in (her uncle dropped out, an automatic black mark for full scholarships like she needs) if she hadn’t impressed a teacher with her herb talents and ability to essentially work for her tuition. I also appreciated the character of Alice. I will always love a girl who appears at first to be a haughty, arrogant girl but who it turns out is just really awkward and has resting bitch face. As for her obvious love interest, I worried as he seemed to be a teacher, but the end of the book shows that isn’t the case, so I will allow them to be cute together. Also, she has a slime familiar. Everything’s better with slimes. (Don’t worry, he’s a super powerful slime spirit, and can basically do anything required of him.)

There’s at least one more volume of this, and I’ll read it. If you like magic academies and heroines who are quietly awesome without the narrative beating us over the head with it, this is a winner.

Manga the Week of 3/11/26

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SEAN: Please help us, manga. You’re our only hope.

ASH: It does seem like that sometimes.

ANNA: Some form of hope is needed!

SEAN: Yen On has another huge clump of books. Casebook of Kurumi Tokisaki, Magic Detective (Majutsu Tantei Tokisaki Kurumi no Jikenbo) is a spinoff of Date a Live, showing one of its most popular characters solving crimes.

Legend of the Far East’s Savior (Kyokutou Kyuuseishu Densetsu) is a sci-fi mecha anime except that it’s actually a light novel. Demons were summoned during World War II, and they now rule the world. A hundred years later, a boy with memories of a different Japan fights back using giant robots.

ASH: Mecha novels can actually be pretty good, in my experience.

ANNA: I’m a little curious!

SEAN: Lycoris Recoil: Recovery Days is another short story collection based on the hit anime.

To the Monster I Love (Bakemono no Kimi ni Tsugu) stars a man who is charged with stopping four supernatural women who are running amuck outside a city that bans anything magical. Betcha they fall for him.

ASH: They just might! (I’ll admit to being a little wary of the premise that the women’s supernatural abilities are gained from unstable emotions, but that could legitimately be interesting if handled well.)

ANNA: I thought he was charged with shopping for supernatural women and I was imagining an entirely different manga.

SEAN: Also out from Yen On: 86–EIGHTY-SIX Alter.2, Bungo Stray Dogs 9, How to Eat Life 2, Liar Liar 7, My Happy Marriage 9, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Ex 6, Spy Classroom 10, Sword of the Stallion 2, and To Sir, Without Love: I’m Divorcing You 2.

Yen Press has just one title. Demi-Human Sharehouse (Ajin Sharehouse) is a horny fantasy series about a shy office worker who wants to be able to make friends, so moves into a boarding house… which turns out to be filled with supernatural women! Will he make friends? Or “make” friends?

ASH: Only one? And I feel like there was at least one other manga about this already?

SEAN: Viz Media debuts Akira Failing in Love (Momose Akira no Hatsukoi Hatanchuu), a Shonen Sunday series about two childhood friends who had crushes on each other, and now that she’s moved back to their country hometown she’s ready to confess! If only they weren’t both in a comedy manga that revolves around misunderstandings. But what are the odds of that?

MICHELLE: Shonen Sunday romance is usually pretty appealing, though!

ASH: As a country kid, I can appreciate the setting.

SEAN: Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Manga – Book of Scarabia is the latest arc in that ongoing series.

It also has the 37th and final volume of Komi Can’t Communicate, which I mention here as they also put out a hardcover self-help book, Komi Can’t Communicate: Making Friends and Not Scaring People. It’s written by a health and human services writer who uses the world of Komi to give advice on dealing with social anxiety.

ASH: The self-help book looks delightful, by the way.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Akane-banashi 15, Fly Me to the Moon 31, Minecraft: The Manga 5, One Piece 111, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 29, and Tsumiki Ogami’s Not-So-Ordinary Life 5.

ASH: I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of Akane-banashi and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle; I should read more.

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts Deep 3, which is in their “Noir Caesar” imprint, an imprint I was unaware of. It’s a Big Comic title about a young basketball player who freezes up when he gets close to the basket. The solution… shoot from far away!

MICHELLE: Welp. I have instantly pre-ordered this.

ASH: Sports manga!

SEAN: On-the-Job Training (Shinonome-kun to wa Dekinai Kankei), a josei title from Comic Qurie. A woman who avoids love after a bad experience is tasked by her company to assist their top salesman after he gets off-his-ass drunk at a party. Then she finds this popular guy may also have love issues…

ASH: Josei manga!

ANNA: Yay!!!!!

SEAN: Tokyopop also has a 2nd volume of We’re Not Cut Out to Be Lovers.

SuBLime has Engage 4 and Trickster’s Tale: Hu Yan Zhuan 2.

Steamship debuts The Tea Ceremony Master’s Rich and Steamy Service: Spoiled by His Skillful Hands (Sadou-ka Danshi no Noukou Ecchi na Otemae: Gokujou na Yubizukai de Dekiaisarechau), a one-shot that ran in Love Parfait. A man saves a woman from some harassment, and they get along well. Very well, they go to a hotel and she has a magical first time. Then she sees him again… and he’s a tea ceremony master? An amazing surprise for people who don’t read titles.

ASH: Completely unexpected.

SEAN: They also have Fire in His Fingertips: A Flirty Fireman Ravishes Me with His Smoldering Gaze 11.

Square Enix manga debuts A Howl of the Heart (Sennenki Sue ni Hoeru Koi), a BL series from Gangan BLiss. (It must be really gay if Gangan can’t even put it in GFantasy.) Two soldiers are also lovers, but one day one of them is killed. The other vows to murder the enemy general responsible… but two years later, finds the enemy general looks like his old lover!

MICHELLE: Is he the Dread Pirate Roberts?

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: And they have The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest 29.

Seven Seas’ danmei is just one title, The Wife Comes First: Qi Wei Shang 2.

All Seven Seas’ debuts are in its other imprints this week. But we see Asumi-chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels! 6, The Big Apple 5, D-Frag! 19, Dungeon Friends Forever 6, I Quit My Apprenticeship as a Royal Court Wizard to Become a Magic Item Craftswoman 5, I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons 4, and I’m in Love with the Villainess 10.

One Peace Books has a 10th volume of My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending.

Kodansha Manga debuts Marrying the Dark Knight (For Her Money) (Gakeppuchi Reijou wa Kurokishi-sama wo Horesasetai!), a Comic Yuri Hime title about a woman whose sister needs medical care, so she agrees to marry the mysterious Dark Knight. Then she finds out why the dark knight is so mysterious. Hint: This is a Yuri Hime title.

ASH: Oh-ho!

ANNA: Things like this happen!

SEAN: Also in print: Initial D Omnibus 9, Kaijin Fugeki: Kindled Spirits 2, The Magnificent Bastard 2, Tank Chair 7, and Welcome to the Ballroom 12 (the first new volume since 2022).

MICHELLE: Oh! That’s the second dance-centric title in as many weeks to have a new volume after a long break!

ASH: Very nice!

SEAN: And digitally we get The Café Terrace and its Goddesses 20, Otherworldly Munchkin: Let’s Speedrun the Dungeon with Only 1 HP! 12 and Yozakura Quartet 34 (the final volume).

One print debut for J-Novel Club. Ascendance of a Bookworm: Hannelore’s Fifth Year at the Royal Academy (Honzuki no Gekokujou: Hannelore no Kizokuin Gonensei) is a continuation of the main series after the final volume, but Rozemyne is now a supporting player and the main character is Hannelore!… oh god, poor Hannelore. She is not ready to be a main character.

ASH: I did not realize there was another series!

SEAN: Also in print: An Archdemon’s Dilemma 19, the 5th light novel volume of The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows, the 3rd manga volume of The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows, the 4th manga volume of Campfire Cooking in Another World With My Absurd Skill, Gushing over Magical Girls 9, Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World Omnibus 4, Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole 4, and My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World 4.

No digital debuts for JNC. On the light novel end, we see The Diary of a Middle-Aged Sage’s Carefree Life in Another World 9, Notorious No More 3, The Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival 6, Pens Down, Swords Up 4, Repeated Vice 2, and The Water Magician Arc 1 6

On the manga end, we get Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 4 6, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill 11, My Tiny Senpai 4, and The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World 8.

Ghost Ship debuts Girls Zombie Party, a Web Comic Gamma Plus title about a zombie apocalypse, except only the boys become zombies! Can the girls find the strength to survive? The fact that this is a Ghost Ship title makes me think I know the answer, but maybe things will go well.

ASH: Hmmm.

SEAN: Also from Ghost Ship: The Elf Sisters Can’t Wait for the Night 4 and Imaizumi Brings All the Gals to His House 5.

Drawn and Quarterly has a 3rd omnibus volume of The Legend of Kamui.

ASH: Yes! I am still so incredibly excited this series is being released.

SEAN: Dark Horse Manga has Blood Blockade Battlefront Omnibus 3.

Airship’s print debut is I Wish I Could Meet You Again on the Hill Where That Flower Blooms (Ano Hana ga Saku Oka de Kimi to Mata Deaetara), a one-shot light novel in the genre of “tragic yet heartwarming book about teenagers and time travel that gets made into a movie”. A genre Airship has so many of.

Also in print: Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess 10, The Misdeeds of an Extremely Arrogant Villain Aristocrat 2, and Reincarnated as a Sword 18.

Airship has a digital-only debut: Reborn as an Assassin’s Apprentice (Assassin no Tamago ni Tensei Shita), which advertises itself as the darkest of fantasies without a shred of morality. For you 13-year-olds who are getting beaten up and hung in the locker every day, then, I guess.

ASH: For every book, its reader.

ANNA: Sometimes I wonder!

SEAN: In early digital, there is The Devil Princess 3 and Survival in Another World with My Mistress! 9.

Any manga in there to make you happier?

Strawberry Princess: The Time Loop Defying Villainess

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By Hanami Nishine and Renta. Released in Japan as “Shiitagerareta Maihime wa Seijo no Loop ni Ichigo de Aragau” on the Shousetsuka ni Narou website. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Zihan Gao.

Now that we have so many of them, to the point where protagonists are actually familiar with the genre, I think it’s appropriate to say that some people are getting a little too into the “trapped in an otome game” mindset. Admittedly, in this particular case it appears to be a coping mechanism to try to ignore the main character’s wretched life to date, but still, a lot of things happen here because Amelia, the titular princess, is stuck in “there’s nothing I can do to stop this route from happening, so I’ll try something else”. Now, as it turns out, it is quite difficult to stop the route, but generally speaking, I’d like people to try. That said, I will forgive Amelia for this, as she is also a bit of an airhead, even before she gets her memories from Japan back, and therefore knows what can save her. Strawberries.

When we first see Amelia, she’s being pushed to the ground and having her late mother’s necklace stolen from her by her stepsister. She currently lives in bare poverty in the Fifth’s Consort’s home, which barely gets any food or supplies, forcing her to learn how to farm and climb walls, giving her a tanned look. (The artist presumably saw “silver hair” and proceeded to ignore this entirely.) She has one major thing she can do: she can summon strawberries and strawberry-themed things. (This is not as bizarre as it might sound, given her late mother summoned watermelons.) She’s very familiar with this scene, however, as this is the 5th time it’s happened. Her tormenter is looping routes, trying to complete every target male, and the last one on the list is Amelia’s own fiance. Time to fight back! Wait, no, she has little confidence and hasn’t seen her fiance in four years. Time to sell strawberries!

Amelia is a very familiar type, being naive, a bit daft, and unaware of her own charms, though that last one is explained by the abuse she’s suffered. Her one remaining servant is her butler/father figure, who stays on partly as he had a crush on her mother but mostly as it’s the right thing to do. As for the absent fiance, I liked him a lot as well. Once he figures out what’s actually happening, he’s quick to take steps. He also cries a lot, which is rare even among shoujo romantic male leads, and it’s not made fun of. The solution to all this comes as a slight surprise, but the clues are there if you look for them, so I accepted it. Most of all, this book, despite its dark backstory, has a light, silly core, doing things like tripping up the main villainess by having her slip on strawberry jam, etc. The heroine has a motif, and by god, she’s going to use it.

This is done in one, which makes sense – hard to see this plot getting stretched more. The author also writes The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess!, but that doesn’t have strawberries, so can’t be as good.

Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Vol. 9

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By Kazuki Amamiya and Gin. Released in Japan as “Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Esther Sun.

Natsuki’s do-over has been going pretty well. He’s got friends, he’s slimmed down and folks think he is handsome, he is able to hold conversations and help others – sometimes to a ridiculous shonen degree – and he has a girlfriend, and their relationship is sugary sweet (what little of it we see in this volume). So it makes sense that it’s time to move on to the next generation of socially inept malcontents, and that means Saya, the first-year who knew him in middle-school and is trying to achieve the same thing he did. Unfortunately, she’s blunt to the point of being mean, and doesn’t care about other people. Or anything other than music, really. And given that she’s in a band with Mei, whose self-confidence is low at the best of times, that’s not great. Is this band that he’s trying to help Serika take to Budokan doomed before it begins? Meanwhile, back in Natsuki’s original timeline, the author takes every reader who was socially inept in high school and murders them.

Let’s leave original Natsuki for later and talk about the main star of this series. He’s more visibly struggling this time around, which I regard as a positive – by now, everyone who is close to him knows that he’s not naturally extroverted and is working hard to change himself. He has been practicing like crazy for the band, but it’s notable that by the end of the book he’s still told he’s not very good – he can’t simply magically gain years of musical experience. It’s also a good thing Hikari is his girlfriend, because he still has a bad case of harem protagonist disease, not really understanding why all those girls want to be in light music till he has it explained for him. As for Saya, she’s also very relatable. One of the hardest things to do as a person is to listen and respond, and that means paying attention to others – knowing their names, hobbies, etc. She’s got to put in the work! At least her love song was so blatant that even Natsuki picked up on it. Oh yes, and Mei’s girlfriend had some of the funnier moments in the book.

So, interspersed with the main chapters we have the original Natsuki Haibara, in the first timeline, trying his best to have a high school debut. It’s genuinely painful to read. Much like Saya throughout this book, he just doesn’t get it, and the person who is trying their best to fit in and be active but cannot understand any social cues is a very hard person to be around when you are neurotypical. Why don’t they just get it? This leads to the epilogue, set in an original timeline where Natsuki did not go back in time to have a do-over. We see a 28-year-old Natsuki, who, without the benefit of time-travel and his past life memories, has had to do what the rest of us eventually did and learn how to be social and function in society by grinding it out day by day. He’s rewarded with a new co-worker… honestly, this final scene felt REALLY fast and tacked on. I understand that the author wanted to throw original Natsuki a bone, and probably does not intent to revisit this timeline. But sheesh, that feels like one of those fake game routes where everything looks fine and happy and then you realize there’s something wrong. It was too pat.

Still, that’s other timeline’s complaint. This timeline is going well, and things look great. Provided there’s not a new volume coming out soon in Japan with an oddly ominous cover, I think Natsuki should be just fine.

My Girlfriend Cheated on Me, and Now My Flirty Underclassman Won’t Leave Me Alone!, Vol. 1

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By Yu Omiya and Ale. Released in Japan as “Kanojo ni Uwakisareteita Ore ga, Koakuma na Kouhai ni Natsukareteimasu” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Benjamin Daughety. Adapted by RFD.

I try not to carp too much about a book that fulfills all its goals and doesn’t really do much wrong, even if I personally was not entertained. I picked this up because it promised to be about college kids rather than the usual “second year of high school” start we tend to get in romcoms. Indeed, everyone in this is in college. There are drinking parties. The main character is not a virgin. (Well, according to him, but given the plot of this book, I’m not sure I trust his word.) The flirty underclassman is very cute. And very flirty. Our hero not only has a flirty underclassman, but also a BFF, who is also hitting on him constantly, not that he is aware of this. And there’s even the ex-girlfriend, who shows up in a couple of scenes. The main character makes questionable decisions, but rises slightly above “everyone falls for him as he treats women normally”. But only very slightly. As for my opinion? Meh.

Yuuta is preparing for his one-year-anniversary with his girlfriend Reina, but when he goes to her home he sees her holding hands with another man. Naturally, he breaks up with her. (I will pause in case you need to see a doctor for being unable to unroll your eyes.) Now, it’s Christmas, and he’s started smoking and is generally miserable, with only his incredibly hot best friend Ayaka to keep him company. Then he accidentally runs into a girl handing out flyers dressed as Santa, and helps pick them up after they fall. She’s Mayu, and she gloms onto Yuuta immediately, going out for a meal with him, then offering to clean his house, and by the end of the volume she’s almost moved in. Meanwhile, Ayaka keeps inviting Yuuta out to mixers and parties, which he reluctantly goes along with because they’re besties. Oh, and Reina? Says she wasn’t cheating on him.

If you thought “is this cheating going to all be one big misunderstanding because our college-aged young man has the emotional maturity of a nine-year-old?”, congratulations, you have read enough books in this genre. The girls in this are mostly fun, and Mayu, albeit a bit invasive, is genuinely likeable. Yuuta is frustrating. He’s mature except when the narrative needs him not to be. He knows how to compliment a woman, he knows when to ask what’s wrong and when to shut up, and he’s “safe” in a way that some other guys in this volume aren’t. But boy, you’d better be ready for “gosh, why are all these women in my life can’t imagine” obliviousness. As for the “she was holding hands with another man so I broke up with her”, we’re never actually shown the break-up or the aftermath, we just hear about it after the fact, so it could have been maturely done… but doesn’t sound like it.

If you like harem romcoms, this isn’t a bad one. I assume if you like harem romcoms, you’re used to the oblivious lead male. I do warn you, if you’re rooting for his best friend or his ex, please remember who’s on the cover of the first volume and in the title. I think I’m good with stopping here, though.

Pick of the Week: Grim and Gritty or Sweet and Fluffy?

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KATE: The cover of Blades and Guardians is indeed giving me Lone Wolf & Cub vibes, so that’s my pick of the week. My gentle nudge of the week is to all the youngsters who haven’t read NANA. To mark the series’ twenty-fifth anniversary, VIZ is in the process of reissuing Ai Yazawa’s soapy classic. Volume three arrives in stores this week.

ASH: I’m not sure how I’m only now finding out about Blades of the Guardians (especially considering the recently released film adaptation with Jet Li), but a martial arts epic with great artwork is absolutely something I will be reading.

SEAN: I’ll go with something on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and make my pick They Are Still Being Shaken This Morning, which I have heard is incredibly sweet and adorable and feels like just what I need.

MICHELLE: I’m always intrigued by mystery manga, so Lonely Deaths Lie Thick as Snow definitely appeals to me. However, I could also use something less grim, so my official pick is the eighth volume of 10 Dance, a series I greatly look forward to getting caught up on.

ANNA: I’m going to pick magical girls this week! With the anniversary release of Shugo Chara! and the release of Magical Girl Dandelion it does seem like magical girls are having a mini moment.

The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain, Vol. 7

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By Bakufu Narayama and Ebisushi. Released in Japan as “Danzaisareta Akuyaku Reijō wa, Gyakkō-shite Kanpekina Akujo o Mezasu” by TO Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Alyssa Niioka. Adapted by Vida Cruz-Borja.

Please note that spoilers are far more unavoidable than usual this volume. If you want to remain unspoiled, please try to read the review after the book. I’ll stick the cover art here to hopefully mask it.

So, let’s talk about the Unreliable Narrator. Starting off by spoiling a 100-year-old book for you, the most famous example is probably Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It upset a lot of people when it came out, and folks who were especially invested in trying to figure out the mystery, rather than reading it as a cracking good yarn, especially felt betrayed. They said it was cheating, not playing fair. The author said that all the clues were there if one kept an open mind. And the narration did actually play fair. There were omissions, and subterfuges in it. But you didn’t see a whole chunk of book being given first-person narration by someone who then turned out to literally be lying solely to the reader. That’s why this volume makes me mad.

The book alternates, at least for the first half. Claudia’s part of the book has her learning that the Church has chosen a new Saint, and that she is one of the two who have been chosen to help the Saint during her canonization, which will involve not touching men, not eating meat, etc. She’s also dealing with a refugee problem, which is tricky because, as both her brother and her maid/best friend point out, she gets too emotionally invented in everything. She also gets very mad at herself for not seeing things that are only obvious in hindsight and not being perfect. Typical Claudia, in other words. The other half of the book follows a sister in a girls-only monastery who gradually opens her heart to the injustice of the world, saves a young boy from being whipped to death, and uses her new Saint position to help war-torn refugees. Then the author says “whoops, I had the switch on her back set to good by accident” and everything turns terrible.

I’m not sure if I was supposed to be fooled by the Sister (nun)/Sister (sibling) thing, but it was made pretty obvious from the start that this was supposed to be Fermina. And I thought I was going to see… well, exactly what I saw, but I thought we’d go about it a different way. The first half has lots of Fermina’s POV, as we see her viewpoint gradually change as she’s exposed to good people and also the injustice of this world. And then she’s picked up by the Church, who we’ve already seen are going to be evil so Claudia can suffer. I was pretty sure we were either going to see sweet lies poured into her head, or literal brainwashing, but that had been signposted, so I was fine with it, and the Claudia stuff was excellent. Then the Saint POV disappears from the narrative for about 100 pages, and I went “uh oh”. Then we get the final Fermina POV chapter, where she reveals that in fact this was all a setup from the start, which she knew, and she’s secretly been as evil as ever. This is not a case of “if you read the unreliable narrator right you can guess it”, this is a case of “LOL, you fell for it!”. SO ANNOYING. Especially as I was OK with Fermina learning a hard lesson and getting better only to fall again, and am very unhappy she’s as one-dimensional as ever.

This has a nasty cliffhanger, which you can likely guess, and I’ll keep reading. But boy, this left a bad taste in my mouth.

An Introvert’s Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me!, Vol. 12

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By Yuishi and Kagachisaku. Released in Japan as “Inkya no Boku ni Batsu Game de Kokuhaku Shitekita Hazu no Gal ga, Dō Mitemo Boku ni Beta Bore Des” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Satoko Kakihara.

Given that the bulk of this series is our two main leads flirting hard with each other, deliberately or no, it makes sense that this is also what’s going on with the author. Oh, sure, the start of the series was different. We had the push and pull of “when will they discover they both know and admit their feelings”. But ever since they got together as a real couple, the books have been the author as Lucy, holding a football, saying, “I bet this is the one where they finally give in” and the reader as Charlie Brown running up to kick it, even as we know intellectually that no sex is going to happen until the final volume of the series, and probably not even then. This doesn’t run on porn, it runs on horniness, and the true tease knows that you need to keep the audience on edge as long as possible to make the release all the sweeter. If it happens at all.

Christmas has passed, which means both Yoshin and Nanami are going off to visit their respective grandparents, and will be apart for about a week. Though come on, this is the modern era, they just video chat every night. We meet Yoshin’s grandparents, who are astonished how much he’s changed, as well as his tall, cute older cousin, who you’d expect would be a subplot involving a jealous Nanami till you remember what series you’re reading. (Nanami does get jealous later, no worries.) After that it’s time for a shrine visit, where they run into Nanami’s two besties and their problematic significant other, as well as the problematic class president. Finally, the two of them convince their parents to let them go on a hot springs date in Hokkaido for two days and one nights – with one condition. You can guess what that condition is.

The reason, of course, that this remains so horny and yet so wholesome is that Nanami is absolutely the one pushing harder to go further, while Yoshin is steeling himself to not even do anything beyond kissing and hugging till they’re married. This gives her all the power, which is why it’s relaxing. We see that at the shrine, as he wishes that the gods help him nail down his libido so he doesn’t do anything he’ll regret, while Nanami’s, I suspect, were probably the opposite. At the hot spring hotel, they get closer than they’ve ever been – thanks partly to an in-room open air hot spring, and in part thanks to some horny college girls hitting on Yoshin without realizing he’s under 18 and also taken. They’ve now seen each other naked – by accident, and the interstitial art has to give Nanami the largest hand towel known to man to make it OK – but that’s as far as it gets. This series knows it’s in it as long as the publisher demands.

Next time, Valentine’s Day! Which will be a bit, as it only came out in Japan a month ago. Till then, enjoy these sweet kids not banging.

One Last Hurrah! The Grayed Heroes Explore a Vivid Future, Vol. 2

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By fukurou and johndee. Released in Japan as “Jiji Baba Yuusha Party Saigo no Tabi: Oita Saikyou wa Iroasenu Mama Mirai e Susumu you desu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Vasileios Mousikidis.

I do enjoy some good foreshadowing. It’s the kind where you know this is going to be important later, and think “ah yes, the author is doing that deliberately”, but also not enough so that’s it’s constantly on your mind. By the time we get to the big reveal in this volume, I remembered the ominous mentor guy, as well as the terrible country that sat out the war because they were simply too terrible, but I was distracted by the main plot of the first half, which is the same as the main plot of the first volume. The hero’s party are all now 90 years old, and no one recognizes them, but at the same time everyone knows what they achieved back then. Or at least what the history books say. The funnier first half of this book shows that history is not always written by those who make it, and distortions can be… horribly embarrassing.

Our group of six, making their way slowly to see Ferd and Elrica’s great-grandchild, have arrived at the large magic academy that is run, in part, by Lara and Sazaki’s son. We also meet their own great-grandson Connie, who looks much like Armin from Attack on Titan, and has fallen in with a group of students who include “the shonen guy who has a creepy intuition that is always 100% accurate” and “the girl being forced to relearn everything she knew as her mentor was a lunatic”. There’s also classes, which the hero’s party sit in on. And Connie has everyone over for a round of tabletop gaming… though they are a bit frustrated by the fact that the game appears to be unwinnable. Everything is light and fluffy, and everyone’s smiling the same as a-a-a-a-a-always…

Trying not to spoil TOO much about the last half of the book, but that does make it difficult to write more, so here we go. I do love a good Lotus-Eater Machine, and that’s what we’re getting here. This allows some things to happen that would otherwise have horrible consequences for all involved (Hagen would likely have to leave school, and Emmeline might honestly have to be executed) but still allow everyone to look cool. As for the party themselves, well, this is possibly the one part of the book I wasn’t fond of. I read this series for the fun of seeing powerful old folks doddering around and being powerful but mostly passive. Here they need to get involved in past battles all over again, only the script is rewritten so it’s not as good. This means a lot of fight fight fight. Not why I’m here.

Still, the day is saved, our heroes are off, and we meet more young kids who may be the next generation of heroes. We’ll find out more… when/if we get a third, and presumably final (check the publisher) volume. Good stuff, clever gimmick, did not need the shonen battle arc.