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Bookshelf Briefs 2/19/25

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Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 32 | By Tomohito Oda | Viz Media – This is a “between arcs” volume of Komi, but it does send us into what is clearly the final arc, as Komi now needs to double down to get 100 friends, even if it means going outside her comfort zone and becoming class rep. So she goes to see Ogiya, the one who sucks on a pacifier, and gets his tragic backstory. She almost bullies him into being her friend, in a heartwarming Komi sort of way. Towards the end we also see Emoyama, who caused Tadano and Komi’s accidental first kiss, and is upset with herself, as she loves heartwarming moments and thinks she ruined it. She takes a little more convincing. Komi almost never uses her notebook to speak anymore, though she has to go to that well here once or twice. She’s growing up. – Sean Gaffney

Medalist, Vol. 11 | By Tsurumaikada | Kodansha Comics (digital) – Inori has to face a true horror that she’s never faced before in this volume. She skates FIRST. And while she does very well, and stays at the top for some time, the anxiety of watching everyone coming after her reminds us that our girl may have come a long way but she still tends to be a bundle of neuroses. Also, she sadly came fourth in the end. On the bright side, people are not only recognizing her potential, but that of her coach as well, and both are being headhunted by American coach Riley, a former gold medalist herself and also… erm… a bit eccentric? Possibly laughing mad? It may all be worth it, though, if we can get Inori and Hikaru in each other’s orbit. All this plus the art. MY GOD, THE ART. I urge everyone to read this just for that, but the rest is great too. As is the anime! – Sean Gaffney

Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite, Vol. 2 | By Julietta Suzuki | Viz Media – This is a series that’s building up slowly and adding its characters at a leisurely pace, which is usually a sign that the author has had enough successes to give them a lot of rope. It does mean that I tap my fingers a bit when I hit a supporting player I don’t like, and Viktor, Hina’s new “bodyguard,” is one of them. He’s meant to reflect a certain type, the jealous arrogant wannabe boyfriend, and, well, he does it well. Fortunately, Amantasu manages to power through all his bullshit with the power of being a grumpy cuss. He’s my favorite. Better stuff is the maid cafe, which features Hina helping out, and dazzling everyone at how cute she is. This also introduces even more vampires who are otakus… but according to Hina, the WRONG otakus. For Suzuki fans. – Sean Gaffney

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 5 | By Sakaomi Yuzaki | Yen Press – As with the previous volume, come for the great food and the adorable main couple, stay for all the examination of what life is like for those who are not cishet. Kasuga and Nomoto are looking to move into an apartment together, but it turns out that this is quite difficult when you’re two women in a relationship with each other, and they need to go to a specific realtor that’s amenable to LGBT couples to get anywhere at all. As for Nagumo, it’s great to have an actual diagnosis, and reassuring, but they’re far more concerned with the fact that Kasuga and Nomoto moving out will mean the end of their brief friendship bonding. Sometimes you have to be reminded that friendships can continue even if you move away. Love this. – Sean Gaffney

365 Days to the Wedding, Vol. 6 | By Tamiki Wakaki | Seven Seas Now that our dorky couple have decided they want to be a genuine couple, there’s a lot of catching up to do. They take a look at different kinds of relationships, including ones that may have had tragedy cause them to disintegrate. That said, over the course of the volume, I get the sense that Takuya is a bit closer to being ready for this than Rika is. Takuya has always just come across as a typical shy nerdy guy who doesn’t know how to relationship, whereas Rika seems to be somewhere on the autism spectrum. Seeing her slowly realize that yes, she actually is in love with him and really does want this is heartwarming to see. Which leads to the cliffhanger… will their relationship become physical? This is cute as a button. – Sean Gaffney

When the Villainess Seduces the Main Heroine, Vol. 2 | By Kasai Fujii | Yen Press – The second volume of this is much like the first. It starts off with 2-3 page chapters that are all variations on “these two are seriously horny for each other and having sex all the time,” while occasionally introducing actual plot points. Akuya, as it turns out, went to school with a hot and muscular young knight, who tends to unsuccessfully flirt with her. And there’s also the princess, who was somewhat horrified at Akuya’s actions to get herself dumped, as she had her own clever plans that would have resulted in Akuya becoming hers. Plans that are basically all for nought, because as much of a horny-beyond-belief girl as Sei is, she’s also pure-hearted and loves Akuya with everything she has. Not sure if this will ever get more. Not sure it needs more. – Sean Gaffney

Yokai: The Art of Shigeru Mizuki | By Shigeru Mizuki | Drawn & Quarterly – One of my favorite releases from 2024 was Yokai: The Art of Shigeru Mizuki. The artbook includes a selection of Mizuki’s full-color fine art illustrations (around eighty or so), Mizuki’s accompanying notes, and an essay by Zack Davisson, a folklorist and translator for this volume as well as many of Mizuki’s other works. As is safe to assume from the title, the collection’s theme focuses on yokai. The pieces exhibit a range of styles, from the more cartoonish to the more realistic, though it’s not uncommon for a variety of styles to be utilized in the same illustration. I don’t know that I’ve previously seen much or perhaps any of Mizuki’s color work, but it can be incredibly striking. The physical production values of the volume are likewise spectacular. I can’t wait for the forthcoming companion, Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki’s Paranormal Parade. – Ash Brown

I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History: It Seems Turning into a High-Born Baddie Makes the Prince All the More Lovestruck, Vol. 1

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By Izumi Okido and Jyun Hayase. Released in Japan as “Rekishi ni Nokoru Akujo ni Naru zo: Akuyaku Reijō ni Naru hodo Ōji no Dekiai wa Kasoku suru yō desu!” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

This is the 2nd book that’s been licensed from the imprint B’s-LOG Bunko, the first being The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices, also from Yen On, and with a very similar vibe. Taking a look at the Japanese publisher’s page, the imprint is rife with villainesses, disgraced nobles, and young women striking out on their own by opening shops, etc. For all that we complain about isekai harems and villainess books being the only thing that gets picked up these days, there’s certainly ten times more of it in Japanese. We’ve had so many villainess books, in fact, that here we actually get someone who seems to be basing her idea of the archetype from light novels rather than otome games. A typical “villainess” is a shallow, vain bully who exists to get banished and/or killed, to the joy of the reader, right? Why would anyone want to be that?

A Japanese woman gets hit by a truck, and wakes up as a 7-year-old, Alicia Williams, the villainess of the game … actually, I don’t think the title of the game is mentioned by Alicia. She’s delighted, though. She has always loved villainesses, who need to be strong, powerful and caustic so that she could be a perfect match against the pure young heroine. Alicia therefore does a 180 from the spoiled, selfish girl Alicia was before, and asks for sword lessons. She’s told to do 100 situps and 50 pushups first… and does so. Then she goes and reads 100 books a day in the family library. Oh dear. It’s not clear if this is just due to being reincarnated, but it seems Alicia is a Divergent, someone with super special abilities whose presence can change the world. And so the King decides that she’s going to help the actual heroine, Liz, who is, frankly, a bit too idealistic. Can Alicia do that, even though it might mean being hated? She can’t wait.

The author says they wanted to contrast the idealism of Liz’s heroine with Alicia’s pragmatism, and honestly, has stacked the decks against Liz. To its credit, Liz isn’t an idiot like some other Villainess books, and I suspect she’s not going to turn evil anytime soon. That said, the way everyone is taken with Alicia immediately as a child, then all fall for Liz and start to turn against Alicia later on, shows she’s using some sort of heroine power, though it’s unclear what. The most interesting thing here is that Alicia is five years younger than everyone, including Liz. This allows her to become super special in order to catch up, as she isn’t being told “that’s impossible” by anyone till after she does it. That said, be warned: there’s a lot of people falling in love with Alicia when she’s only 7-13 years old (there’s a 6 year timespan in this book), and the book ends with everyone looking forward to her being 15, which is legal in Villainesslandia. Sigh.

This got an anime, which I haven’t seen but which seems to have been “good except the animation quality”. It made me want to read more, creepy love interest obsession aside. That’s almost a given for shoujo these days. Recommended for genre fans.

Love & Magic Academy: Who Cares about the Heroine and Villainess? I Want to Be the Strongest in this Otome Game World, Vol. 1

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By Toyozo Okamura and Parum. Released in Japan as “Renai Mahou Gakuin: Heroine mo Akuyaku Reijou mo Kankeinai. Ore wa Otome Game Sekai de Saikyou wo Mezasu” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

For obvious reasons, I write these reviews as if people are coming across these reviews individually rather than sequentially. That said, if you are reading these day by day… boy, there’s been a lot of overpowered protagonists, right? I mean, yes, Sean, it’s a light novel, but even more so than usual. Arius in particular, in this book written around 2021-22 or so, feels like a Fanfiction.net story from 2009 or so. You know, the ones that have “Dark/Grey/Independent Harry” in the summary. I will not lie, this book is filled with tedious scenes of Arius marching through dungeons, or criticizing others for marching through dungeons wrong, and generally being the best thing since sliced bread. That said, I did find things here to like. Most of them have to do with the parts of this book that are not a dungeon crawl, as it’s another otome game reincarnation story.

A nameless college researcher dies from overwork and finds himself as a baby – with his full memories from Japan – and realizes he’s in the otome game Love & Magic Academy. His childhood friend was obsessed with it and forced him to play it, so he knows how it’s supposed to go. He also knows that the makers of the game wanted to make an RPG, but it failed, so they laid over the otome game setup but kept the RPG undertones, meaning this world is filled with terrifying monsters (who are polite enough to stay in dungeons). Arius, as he grows up, decides to become a strong adventurer and fight amazing battles. That said, he does also need to do the whole “I am the son of a marquis and have to attend the noble magic academy” thing. But he’s not following the plot.

So I did promise I’d talk about what’s interesting. The interesting thing, for me, was that this is a rare case where no one is particularly trying to stick to the plot. Arius isn’t. The “heroine”, Milia, at first feels she has to, but eventually Arius convinces her that these are not characters but people. And there is not, so far, any “guiding force” that is forcing the events of the game to happen regardless of how everyone acts. It’s honestly refreshing, a huge “free will, boys!” moment that suffuses the book. I also appreciated how, for all his cool “I’m not interested in romance” bullshit, Arius actually does get to be a teenage boy near the end of the book, as he clearly realizes he likes noble “villainess” Sophia, but she’s engaged to the prince, so welp. (It’s also heavily hinted, but never stated, that Milia is the “childhood friend” he had in Japan.) More of Arius being uncool, please.

I’m not sure there’s enough here to make people want to read it unless their ability to tolerate OP bullshit is high (he’s speaking full sentences to his parents at six months old). But if you gotta catch all the otome game books, this won’t make you angry. Decent-ish.

Pick of the Week: Still Interested

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SEAN: As I sit here having lost power yesterday due to an ice storm, I realize I need comfort manga. My pick is the 2nd volume of The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All.

ASH: We haven’t lost our power (yet), but I will keep you company by picking The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All. I’m really looking forward to finally reading the series now that I’ve gotten my hand on the first volume; hopefully this second one won’t prove to be as challenging to acquire!

MICHELLE: No ice storms here, but absolutely The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All for me!

KATE: My pick of the week is Mujina into the Deep. How did a new Inio Asano title fly under my radar?! I guess that’s just a sign that we are living through an era of Peak Manga Abundance.

ANNA: I’m going to pick Honey Lemon Soda as a reminder to myself to get caught up on that series!

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 11

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By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Andrew Schubauer.

This series continues to be a masterclass in doing things that I find questionable and them making them heartwarming anyway. Class Rep talks here about Haruka using “Eye Mastery”, which is basically a brainwashing skill that lets him read someone’s mind and then alter their memories. He uses it here on some nuns that were about to be raped by the Church soldiers, as this world, as we are constantly reminded, is awful. I wasn’t happy with hearing that he’d been using it on the girls for a long time now, keeping them content and selfish, fighting over clothes and equipment and being goofy. He wanted them to be unaffected by this crapsack world. Sadly for him, they’ve all now leveled up enough so that it doesn’t affect them anymore, and thus they go to battle knowing full well what the Church’s soldiers have been doing. And they kill them. A lot of them. This is war, and our heroines are no longer going to be kept out of it. Innocent no more.

Our cast are headed off to the theocracy, there to take on the Church who are responsible for so much of the evil in this world. (We meet the Pope here, and he’s cartoonishly evil.) Sister Girl, who is (natch) a princess, will be leading the charge, backed up by Princess Girl, MeriMeri, the 20 girls of Haruka’s group, and Armored Rep as backup in case anything goes wrong. Meanwhile, Haruka and Dancer Girl are headed off to the capital itself, to deliver letters to various cities letting them know that The revolution is coming, and it’s time to break off and join it. They’re also there to kick ass, murder a metric fuckton of goons and assassins, and along the way, pick up a rabbit girl (on the cover), who is searching for her sister, kidnapped by the Church. Her sister is a wolf girl, by the way. Haruka is over the moon, but also a bit disturbed that these two are such an obvious chuuni stereotype.

I deliberately avoided using any names except for Haruka there, because that’s how he thinks. It’s underlined in this volume, where the girls once again yell at him for not using their names, getting their backgrounds wrong, and forgetting the name of their own school. Haruka’s subtext has rapidly become text. (Class Rep mentions the deaths of Haruka’s parents and sister here, though we get no details.) The running gag in the book is that Rabbit Girl and Wolf Girl, who are desperate to thank him for saving them and want to ask if there’s anything they can do for him (sorry, kids, you’re too young for Haruka to feel comfortable with), always have food stuffed in their mouths by him to shut them up, because the idea of hearing himself praised for doing what is essentially a giant pile of murders bothers him more than he can say. (And, just to bring the book back around to its core again, yes, a lot of the time when he’s shoving food in their mouths it’s meant to be phallic.)

Again, this book is for hardcore fans only, but if you are one, it’s always rewarding. And completely filthy, of course. I assume next volume we’ll get a new Dungeon Emperor, and I’m sure she’ll end up being gorgeous. This series is what it is.

Mercedes and the Waning Moon: The Dungeoneering Feats of a Discarded Vampire Aristocrat, Vol. 1

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By Fire head and KeG. Released in Japan as “Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes: Kyūketsuki no Kizoku ni Tensei Shita kedo Suteraresō nanode Dungeon wo Seiha suru” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Maddy Willette.

Let’s face it. At its heart, this is a story about a girl who starts off ludicrously OP and just gets even more so. She’s of the stoic variety, but otherwise she fits the stereotype perfectly. She defeats monsters who “swear eternal loyalty” to her, though of course the word slave is not used. If you dislike this sort of book, then this is absolutely not a book that is going to change your mind. I kinda liked it, though. It has a gimmick that took me a while to figure out, which I’ll get to below. It has a few people other than our somewhat sociopathic heroine who have actual heart and soul, though honestly this is not a world for nice people to be nice in. And honestly, I just kinda got on with Mercedes. It’s the sort of power fantasy I don’t mind reading.

Our heroine is Mercedes, a young vampire who has (yes, I’m sorry) memories of her past life in Japan. (Yes, she invents chocolate. Sorry.) She’s the daughter of a concubine, and she and her mother live in a run-down decaying mansion, abandoned by her father. So she decides to become an adventurer. She trains hard to make herself strong, though because she never sees anyone other than her mother and maid, she has no idea how strong she is compared to others. And then she heads off to take on a dungeon and do quests. Which… turns out pretty easy, actually. She even tames an ogre and a dangerous wolf to act as her companions. Could she actually be really strong? Nah. But she’ll soon find out, as her older half-brother is holding a party where he plans to beat up the rest of his family to prove he’s best.

At first I wondered if this series was a satire, as Mercedes continually points out the cliches and weird things about her world. It’s medieval in tone, but has some 21st century amenities. It combines a tourist’s idea of Germany with Japanese writing. It is, in fact, exactly like you’d expect an isekai written by a writer who’s just taking a standard RPG setting and doesn’t care much to be. But, as it turns out, there may be more to it than that, as when she conquers the dungeon (which features a slew of cliches, including her confronting her also sociopathic past self) she learns that this world was created in the past, and records of its past then excised. I hope we come back to this. As for the rest of the book, I liked Mercedes’ interaction with Margaret, which is possibly the only point in the book she shows that she’s not simply exactly the same as her father. Just… mostly the same.

That plotline will play out in the second volume, I assume. Provided you don’t mind everything about its genre, this is quite enjoyable.

Trillion Game, Vol. 1

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By all rights, Trillion Game should be a blast. Creators Riichiro Inagaki and Ryoichi Ikegami have more than a dozen hit series to their names—including Eyeshield 21, Dr. Stone, Sanctuary, and Crying Freeman—and a flair for writing shamelessly entertaining stories that burst at the seams with crazed villains, over-the-top plot twists, and jaw-dropping action scenes. Trillion Game, however, is just plain bad, saddled with a premise so dumb I’m almost embarrassed to type it: a young man sets out to be the first Japanese entrepreneur to make a trillion dollars without an actual plan for achieving that goal.

A dumb premise isn’t automatically a deal-killer; executed with panache, a silly idea can still work if the reader feels invested in the main character’s success. Trillion Game, however, has both a dumb premise and an awful lead who is less a person than a teenage male fantasy, a ruthless entrepreneur who weaponizes his charm and good looks to get what he wants. Haru lies, bluffs, and cheats, manifesting new talents—say, bantering in Mandarin or scaling skyscrapers—whenever the plot demands, prompting other characters to gush about his charisma and business acumen. His only redeeming quality is his unwavering loyalty to friend and business partner Gaku, a helmet-haired nerd with computer skills. Even that relationship is fraught, however, as Haru repeatedly puts Gaku into situations that test the limits of his abilities.

The other issue plaguing Trillion Game is its sincerity: we’re supposed to admire Haru’s audacious, go-for-broke style, even when his behavior seems more sociopathic than strategic. No matter what he does, Haru always gets the best of his opponents, especially when they appear to be more logical, experienced, or perceptive than he is. That dynamic is most evident in his interactions with the beautiful, inscrutable Kirika Kokuryū, a.k.a. “Kirihime,” a twenty-six-year-old wunderkind who helps her father run the all-powerful Dragon Bank. Any time she gets the upper hand in her dealings with Haru and Gaku, the authors undercut Kirihime’s authority by dreaming up new ways to humiliate her while suggesting she’s turned on by Haru’s cutthroat tactics.

The only bright spot is Ikegami’s artwork. As he did in series like Samurai Crusader and The Wounded Man, Ikegami populates the story with attractive leads while rendering the supporting players as caricatures, making it easy to keep track of the sprawling cast. The layouts, too, are easy to scan: they’re dynamic and detailed, capturing the density and opulence of Tokyo’s financial district with the same degree of realism as the spartan office that Haru and Gaku rent.

No amount of stylish artwork, though, can disguise the fact that Trillion Game feels like an macho artifact of the 1980s, a Wall Street for the Young Jump reader. I have no doubt that there are folks who will love this series, but I found it impossible to get swept up in Haru’s embrace of greed and deceit, especially when he approvingly cites broligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as an inspiration. Not recommended.

TRILLION GAME, VOL. 1 • STORY BY RIICHIRO INAGAKI • ART BY RYOICHI IKEGAMI • TRANSLATED BY STEPHEN PAUL • TOUCH-UP & LETTERING BY JOANNA ESTEP • VIZ MEDIA • RATED M FOR MATURE (NUDITY, SEXUAL REFERENCES) • 208 pp.

Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days

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By Asaura, imigimuru, and Spider Lily. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kiki Piatkowska.

Lycoris Recoil ended up being the big hit of Fall 2022, and evidence of that hit is starting to trickle over here to manga and light novels. The manga began a few months ago, and a manga anthology was just licensed last week. And we also have this spinoff, a Dengeki Bunko short story collection featuring some of the stories that the creator was not able to fit into the 13-episode anime. It feels like a regular old short story collection. I’ve talked before about how these seem to either be front-loaded (best stories come first) or back-loaded (best stories go last). This one turns out to be middle-loaded – the three stories in the center of the book are pretty damn good, but the first main story is incredibly irritating, and the last story is monumentally bleak and awful. Fortunately, we have the main cast. Well, we have Chisato and Takina. As with the anime, the other three “main” cast are mostly here to be support, though Mika gets some nice scenes. But it’s about our girls.

The wraparound story in this volume is about a reporter who wants to do a feature on the LycoReco cafe. He’s sensibly told “no”, but hangs out at the cafe anyway, as it’s a great place to come up with ideas. The main stories: 1) a recently retired man comes to the cafe but seems depressed, and Takina is showing him a lot of attention. Chisato thinks that this might be… love! 2) Chisato and Takina infiltrate a hideout pushing drugs, featuring a very big foreign man who hates the weak coffee Japan has; 3) Takina’s extreme way of thinking has led to increasingly spartan lunches when it’s her turn to cook, and the cast try to figure out a way to tell her “vary the menu” without upsetting her; 4) Takina wakes up to find that Japan is overrun by zombies, and she and Chisato have to battle their way out of the cafe and find help; and 5) a middle schooler who’s been enjoying the cafe turns out to have a terrible home life, and terrible school life, and has decided to murder everyone who is bullying her. Will she ask for help before it’s too late?

So, I know Japan is different, but I’m pretty sure the North American audience who wanted to read 50 pages of “is Takina in love with a 55-year-old dude?” is precisely zero. It’s meant to be in the genre of “Chisato inspires people”, but did less than nothing for me. As for the last story, after a while I started to skim, because it’s so unrelenting grim that I was not having fun – the reverse, it drags the entire end of the book down. I also note that the author should not have had one bad guy say that he wanted a really good cup of coffee and then not pay it off later with Chisato getting him one, that was a missed moment there. The best story by far is the zombie one, and it’s no surprise that it’s the one that focuses most on the relationship between Chisato and Takina, and where along the yuri spectrum it lies. Takina’s headspace is fascinating.

So a mixed bag, which this was always going to be, but not a total loss. For fans of the anime.

The Manga Review: Baby, It’s Cold Outside

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What earthly power can defeat The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the bookstore? Manga! As Brigid Alverson reports, the January 2025 Circana Bookscan numbers show that readers are still interested in perennial favorites Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family, and Solo Leveling, as well as hardcover editions of older titles like Berserk and Vagabond. Equally significant: all twenty volumes on Circana’s list were published by Dark Horse, VIZ, and Yen Press.

NEWS AND VIEWS

The ALA just released its list of 2024’s Best Graphic Novels for Adults, which includes a good selection of manga. [American Library Association]

Shaenon Garrity and Meg Lemke offer a sneak peek at this year’s new and noteworthy manga, and highlight a few of 2024’s best titles. [Publisher’s Weekly]

Once more, with feeling: Dark Horse will be publishing a new omnibus edition of Gantz G this fall. [ICv2]

Dragon Ball Super fans rejoice: a new one-shot will run in next week’s issue of V-Jump. [Anime News Network]

As part of his ongoing series about the manga industry, Isaiah Colbert interviews Kumar Sivasubramanian about translating Dan Da Dan. [i09]

The Reverse Thieves podcast names Takahashi From the Bike Shop its Manga of the Month. [Reverse Thieves]

Kara Dennison explains why Star of Beethoven “has the earmarks of an interesting story” and “the earmarks of a series likely to be cut down before its time.” [Otaku USA]

REVIEWS

Erica Friedman reviews Hitorimi Desu 60-sai Lesbian Single Seikatsu…  Hagai Palevsky offers an in-depth analysis of Tokyo These Days… Andrew Osbourne takes Tokyo Alien Brothers for a spin… and Beneath the Tangles looks at recent volumes of Centuria, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and Solo Leveling.

The Hero and the Sage, Reincarnated and Engaged, Vol. 3

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By Washiro Fujiki and Heiro. Released in Japan as “Eiyū to Kenja no Tensei Kon: Katsute no Kōtekishu to Konyaku Shite Saikyō Fūfu ni Narimashita” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Joey Antonio.

I regret to tell you that this series has become difficult to write about. Oh, it’s still good. I quite enjoyed this volume, and will read more. It’s sometimes funny, the OP-ness isn’t ludicrous (unless it’s because it’s funny), and the characters are all interesting and not annoying (except that one guy, and he’s now comedy relief). But aside from one plot point, which I’m saving for later in the review so it’s not just 500 words of me whining, there’s nothing here to jabber on about. I suppose I can talk about how this is an overpowered protagonist fantasy that is not meant to really have the reader identify with it. Raid is not just “potato with a +infinity sword”, and Eluria is his co-star rather than just love interest. The climax of the book is not “oh my God, how will our two heroes possibly defeat this thing that is beyond their abilities”, it is “wow, a monster so powerful that they don’t have to be told to hold back and can go all out”.

It’s time to prepare for exams! …well, for everyone except our lead couple, who are going to take the time to investigate the ruins of Raid’s old country. Everyone ends up at the water resort city of Palmare, where Raid and Eluria put their friends, rival, and rival’s maid and butler through some awful torture… pardon me, I meant excellent training. They then meet up with two sorcerers – note the different magic terminology – from the nearby country of Legnare. They are also powerhouses, and consist of Totori (young-looking girl who’s actually over 100, has cat ears) and Savad (her husband, seemingly normal but we’ll find out that’s not true). The four of them, plus Alma (who admits in text she’s a fifth wheel, and she’s right) are off to investigate Raid’s old country… and there they find it’s not as abandoned as previously thought.

The interesting bits in this book (an d again, I enjoyed the book, it’s just the first 2/3 are froth I can’t analyze) are right near the end. Last time I theorized that we might be seeing a child from the future plot going on, and that turns out to… sort of be true, but not remotely in the way I thought it would be. The cliffhanger ending, which I will try not to spoil is also another good example of this series taking a seemingly silly, comedy character (see Millis, for example) and then showing off their depth (as in Millis), or showing off that it’s all a front. As for the love comedy part of the series, aside from the running gag of the flirting, I did like how, at one point where Eluria appears to be having a genuine crisis, Raid steps in immediately and diffuses it in ten seconds. In any other series, these two already having had all their character development before the plot begins might be tedious. Here I think it’s the point.

So: good stuff, cute couple. They like to fight. Their relationship even progresses here. The next book should develop the future/past/present time travel stuff a bit more, but I think it will end up being cute flirting 60% of the time.