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A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO, Vol. 4

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu ZERO” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Sarah Burch. Adapted by Melanie Kardas.

I sometimes feel that I’m the only one who tries to keep bringing back the dark beginnings to these series that suddenly turn out sweet and fluffy. Kuma Bear is not going to be reminding us of the darker side of its world much anymore. Likewise, A Tale of the Secret Saint is probably going to continue to gloss over the events that occurred after Serafina’s capture and before her murder. But it does sometimes make this prequel, featuring the adorable six-year-old Serafina and the knights and royalty who love her, a bit darker than it necessarily wants to be. A chunk of this book is dedicated to trying to get Serafina to live the life of a normal child… or at least a royal child. But that’s not who she is. She’s the one who will grow up to the the Greatest Saint, and is barreling towards that future full speed. And we, the reader, know where that future ends. (Yes, reincarnation, but let put that aside for now.)

We pick up where we left off, with Serafina’s terrible brothers in danger. As it turns out, this is a plot by the King to try and make them be a bit less lazy and take things more seriously. That said, there are an awful lot of monsters here, and with Serafina watching it all there’s no way she won’t leap in and help. Then it’s time for the other outstanding plot point from last time, the Galle Gold Leaf, which has been impossible to find for the last twenty years, but once Serafina is involved all the issues proceed to fall over like a stack of dominoes, and we even get all the past conflict with the village (and conflict within the knights) resolved. And then we have the third plot point from the last book – Serafina got a key from Oligor to Luntia’s secret room. Which turns out to be astonishing to absolutely everyone, but also promises this series may get darker in the future, tying back into its origins.

The other dissonance in this series is that between Serafina and every other saint. Fia, in the main series, is astonished at how little power the saints have, and that certainly seems to be true, the saints in her past incarnation seem to be more powerful. But even they pale in comparison to a girl who is beloved by the spirits, who is the descendant of spirit lords, and whose power is off the charts when she tries to do anything. In the main series that’s mostly used for comedy, because of course she’s the SECRET Saint, but even here where everyone knows who she is… mostly… it’s ridiculous. And I should also acknowledge the elephant in the room, which is that most of this prequel involves knowing that a grown man and a six-year-old girl are made for each other and destined. It’s not helped here by two other underage girls in the village grabbing one of the knights and saying he’s their chosen one. As always, reading light novels requires tripping over the whole “it’s not sexual it’s just moe” annoyances, and we don’t even get the usual “she’s really 900 years old” excuse here.

That said, this remains a sweet and fun prequel, free of “fanservice”, and does not appear to be in any hurry to get to Serafina’s teenage years, so I think things should remain that way.

The Misdeeds of an Extremely Arrogant Villain Aristocrat, Vol. 2

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By Yukiha Kuroyuki and Uodenim. Released in Japan as “Kiwamete Gouman Taru Akuyaku Kizoku no Shogyou” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Ben Trethewey. Adapted by Kylee Yasin.

I was checking the Sneaker Bunko site to see if this was ongoing (there is as third volume, but it came out a year and a half ago, so those who like to say “axed” will no doubt be happy) and glanced at the machine-translated summary of the third book, which described our extremely arrogant villain aristocrat as “depressed as a worm”. Now, that could be the usual translation bullshit, but it is true that Luke spends a great deal of this book frustrated, angry, or depressed. He’s certainly changed the book’s plot enough that he doesn’t need to worry about it happening, but bits of it that happened to Abel are now happening to him, and the allies that were supposed to flock around Abel are now flocking around him. And he really does not want anything to do with it. He wants to use his OP magic and his OP sword, he does not want all these “friends” and “lovers”. So troublesome.

After the events of the last book, Luke now has a lover, who he is now admitting is his fiancee, at least unconsciously. He also has a pawn, though he wishes he didn’t as he discovers that Mia is very emotionally volatile when it comes to being abandoned. (By the end of the book she too will be his fiancee, and Luke admits he doesn’t oppose it, mostly as he has a vision of her murdering him otherwise.) He also gets a second pawn by annihilating them in battle, and this one is the second prince, who in the book turned out to be a bit of a despot, but here is another loyal minion. Oh yes, and to top it all off assassins come to the campus and try to kidnap him while he sleeps. All of this is incredibly irritating. But worst of all… Abel, the hero, won’t stop saying that they’re friends!

I mentioned online that I called this “top-tier trash”, and I stick by that. It is a grotesque male power fantasy, where our hero and the reader stand-in gets all the women and beds them too, has the coolest magic, and swings the coolest sword. That said, I find it highly readable, as it doesn’t take itself at all seriously. Luke’s aggravation with his perfect life can be hilarious at times. He’s helped out by all the women he meets (except Lily, Abel’s childhood friend, who I fully expect will be the NTR final boss) running into his “fuck you” style of speaking and immediately going weak at the knees. We get his own childhood friend here, who’s aan arrogant noble whose family and his no longer get along. She’s rude to him… then gets in her carriage to drive off and fantasizes about how cool he was being rude right back at her. Hell, even the scary dragon he fights at the end ends up surrendering to him. It’s easy to be a top when your world is full of bottoms.

This will never win awards for plot, and you’d better have a high tolerance for the usual male fantasy bullshit. But it’s still a lot of fun.

Manga the Week of 2/11/26

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SEAN: Manga the Week of appears despite it being too cold to actually type.

There’s a deluge from Yen On, with several titles that were delayed a few weeks. Moscow 2160 is a light novel from the author of Goblin Slayer. Set in a dystopian cyberpunk future Moscow, this stars a mercenary trying to make a good life for his younger siblings.

ASH: A promising premise.

SEAN: New Game Plus After Defeating the Last Boss: All These Beautiful, Problematic Girls in the First Town Have Gotten Really Attached to Me… (Last Boss Toubatsugo ni Hajimeru Nishuume Boukensha Life – Hajimari no Machi de Wakeari Bishoujo-tachi ga Mechakucha Natsuite kimasu) stars a man who gives his life saving the world. Now he’s resurrected, and back at Level 1, though… he’s just as strong as he was when he died. And also, well, women are flocking to him. And possibly something else rhyming with flocking, but I suspect this one won’t quite go that far.

ASH: Ah, got it, problematic.

SEAN: Also from Yen On: The Contract Between a Specter and a Servant 5, The Detective Is Already Dead 11, Even a Replica Can Fall in Love 4, Gods’ Games We Play 6, The Irregular at Magic High School 26, Kunon the Sorcerer Can See 5, Nagisa Natsunagi Still Wants to Be a High School Girl 2, Once Upon a Witch’s Death 2, The Only Thing I’d Do in a No-Boys-Allowed Game World 3, Orc Eroica 6, Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table 5, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Short Story Collection 4, Sabikui Bisco 10 (the final volume), Secrets of the Silent Witch ~another~ 2, That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 22, The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess 10, The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat 8, and This Is the Wizard’s Secret Weapon 2.

ASH: The list just keeps going!

SEAN: Significantly less from Yen Press, but there is some. The debut is Please Look After the Dragon (Dragon Yashinatte Kudasai), a Manga One series about a guy who comes across a dragon who is essentially on a trip to find herself, and asks that he take her in.

ASH: This could be cute.

SEAN: There’s also The Holy Grail of Eris 11, Let This Grieving Soul Retire! 10, Level Up with the Gods 2, The Small-Animallike Lady Is Adored by the Ice Prince 4, and Victoria of Many Faces 3.

ASH: Okay, that is significantly less.

SEAN: Viz Media gives us Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Manga – Book of Octavinelle 2, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 14, Girl Crush 5, Hayate the Combat Butler 47, Mao 23, Not So Shoujo Love Story 3, Pokémon: Scarlet & Violet 4, Rai Rai Rai 3, and Rainbows After Storms 8.

Two Tokyopop debuts. First Love Reunion: A Decade Later, My High School Crush Is Determined to Make Me His! (Tsugi ni Attara Dakutte Kimeteta node. Saikai Shita Hatsukoi no Kare ga Moujuuka Shitara…) is a Love Kiss! more oneshot (yes, that’s the magazine) about a girl who crushed on a guy from afar in high school, but is startled at their reunion when he walks up and kisses her!

Wandervogel is a BL manga from Chara, and stars a vagrant who takes refuge with a novelist during a storm, and then finds the novelist… can read minds?

MICHELLE: Hm…

SEAN: SuBLime has Scattering His Virgin Bloom: Love Frenzy, a sequel to a manga they put out in 2022, an omegaverse title about an omega whose heat comes in his mid-20s.

There’s also a 3rd volume of A Man Who Defies the World of BL.

ASH: I haven’t read the earlier volumes yet, but I am curious about this series.

SEAN: Square Enix Manga debuts Otaku x Gal (Gal ni Yasashii Otaku-kun), whose plot sounds EXACTLY like My Dress-Up Darling but this apparently skews less romancey and more slice of life-y.

They also have Exquisite Blood: The Heretic Onmyoji 3 and My Isekai Life 23.

Seven Seas has some danmei, as we see Silent Reading: Mo Du 2 and Thrice Married to a Salted Fish 2.

Seven Seas manga debuts Aharen-san is Indecipherable (Aharen-san wa Hakarenai), a Shonen Jump + series with a recent anime. It’s coming out in 2-volume omnibuses. Aharen doesn’t get social cues, but that’s fine, as she now has a best friend who can understand her! Maybe?

ASH: Only maybe.

SEAN: The Beast King: Master of Medicines (Juuou to Yakusou) is a Manga One title about a novice adventurer who’s saved when near death by the Beast King. Now he wants her to help him heal other monsters!

ASH: This is definitely something I would read.

SEAN: He Craves to be Teased by His Favorite ASMR Streamer (Minami-kun wa Sono Koe ni Jirasaretai) is a BL manga from Equal. An ASMR artist is asked to do “private sessions” for another guy who can only be turned on by his voice.

Also from Seven Seas: I Can’t Stand Being Your Childhood Friend 2, Monster Musume: I Heart Monster Girls 5, Natsume Wants to Blossom (Vol. 2 in the series), No God in Eden 3, Ripples in the River 2, and Tease Me Harder: A Sweet and Kinky Romance 2.

Kodansha Manga, in print, has Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle 11 (the final volume), Bless 7, Issak Omnibus 5, Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN Deluxe 4, Thunder 3 8, and Wistoria: Wand and Sword 11.

ASH: I really need to read Issak before I get too much further behind.

SEAN: Digitally we have A Condition Called Love 18 (the final volume), Giant Killing 53, and Nina the Starry Bride 17.

MICHELLE: Long ago, I read a bit of A Condition Called Love. I guess now that it’s ending, I should get back to it.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has some print titles. Ascendance of a Bookworm manga Part 4 Vol. 2, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill 7, Gushing over Magical Girls 8, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Omnibus 6, Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World manga 4, The Misfit of Demon King Academy 7, and My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World 3.

ASH: Obligatory “Yay, Bookworm!”.

SEAN: Two JNC digital debuts, both light novels. The Canon Fodder’s Ascension from Pawn to World Unifier (Kamaseinu kara Hajimeru Tenka Touitsu: Jinrui Saikouhou no Last Boss wo Enjite Gensaku Break) is another “villain” novel where a guy wakes up in the body of a loser villain and tries to make him awesome.

It’s Tough Being a Necromancer is a J-Novel Club contest winner, about an apprentice necromancer sent off on an adventure to get experience. He finds it with a bunch of monster girls.

ASH: How tough could it be?

SEAN: Other light novels out next week: Disowned but Not Disheartened! 3, Duchess in the Attic 5, Heir to a Monstermancer 2, The Isle of Paramounts 2, Knight’s & Magic 9, Let This Grieving Soul Retire! 9, Mercedes and the Waning Moon 4, The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World 7, Royal Spirits Are a Royal Pain! 2, and Worthless at Home, Whiz to the World 3.

Other manga out next week: Bibliophile Princess 10, The Crown of Rutile Quartz 2, From Villainess to Healer 5, I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic 6, Peddler in Another World 6, and A Royal Rebound 3.

Ghost Ship debuts Lilia’s Pregnancy Spells the World’s End (Lilia Pregnant The World End), a Web Every Sunday series about the hero who has defeated the demon lord… only now the demon lord’s daughter wants his baby! And will try any seduction to get it.

Airship has the print debut of A Good Day Starts with Cats and Books (Shodana no Hon to Neko Biyori), a short story collection masquerading as a novel, about a bookstore and the many readers who contribute to its shelves.

ASH: The cozy cats and cozy bookstore subgenres have combined forces?!

SEAN: Also in print: Reincarnated Into a Game as the Hero’s Friend 6 and Virgin Knight: I Became the Frontier Lord in a World Ruled by Women 2.

For early digital, we see Reincarnated as a Sword 18, The Too-Perfect Saint 5, and True Love Fades Away When the Contract Ends 3.

What manga are you reading as you shiver in the cold?

MICHELLE: I don’t know, man. There’s less and less that interests me, these days.

Miss Blossom’s Backward Beauty Standards: Give Me the Ugly Crown Prince!, Vol. 2

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By Sankaku Mikaduki and riritto. Released in Japan as “Bishuu Abekobe Isekai de Busaiku Outaishi to Kekkonshitai!” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Olivia Plowman.

Sometimes all it takes is one hook. I was reading the second volume of this series, and it was… good. I wasn’t bored or anything, but I joked online that DRE Novels had told the author “you know how we give everyone three books? You get two.” This is indeed the final volume, as the cover no doubt gives away, but it’s also the second volume of a series that started with nobles as children, so we are obliged to do nobles at the academy. And while it’s using villainess tropes and time loop tropes, the only one with memories from Japan is Cocolette, our heroine. So when Pia Abbott arrived, like Cocolette I was puzzled, then vaguely irritated. What was up with her? WAS she one of those “I’m in an otome game!” sort of girls? And then we got a scene from her POV giving her backstory and motivation and, like Cocolette with her pretty boys, I started to stan. Pia, NOW you have my attention.

As noted above, the main cast are going to school, with all that this entails. Cocolette, though she’s smart enough, is not joining the advanced course with the others, but the Ladies’ Course, so that she can make connections with other nobles and gain education in how to be a queen for when she inevitably marries Raph. Unfortunately, others don’t buy that it’s inevitable. The current queen wants Coco to be a concubine, and for Lunamaria to be Raph’s wife… though she doesn’t seem to actually like Lunamaria at all. Prince Ork is still pining for Coco, so she’s still technically a potential fiancee to both princes. And there’s a foreign prince at the academy, this one with a face like a goblin. Naturally everyone loves his ethereal beauty except Coco. And yes, there’s Pia, who seems to be behaving just like the heroine in an otome game… though it’s not really working, much to her frustration. Can Coco navigate all this and get her happy ending?

As I said, the moment it was revealed that Pia was not an idiotic evil heroine with no sense, but a cynical yandere spy who by 2/3 of the way through the book just wants to get away from everyone at the school, I wanted to stand up and cheer. I love a good bitter bitch, which is exactly what she turns back into after she’s arrested. I also liked how her mysterious charm power really is a mystery, because for once this kingdom mostly is without magic, much to their chagrin. It also made it acceptable that in the end she essentially gets off scot-free, as they need her as a lab rat to study, and Coco knows that her obsessive love means she won’t just run away. The rest of the book is more normal, mostly driven by Cocolette’s desire to be surrounded by bishonen contrasting with everyone thinking she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread for hanging around them all. It’s funny, but not as funny as the author thinks.

Fortunately, they all live happily ever after, except maybe for the goblin prince. Decent enough.

The Blue Sea of Marielle Clarac

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

I’ve been mentoining for a while now that I thought this author was in a bit of a rut. They have a successful series and want to continue it, but they also clearly do not want to go down the baby route at all, they’ve pretty much been doing a series of weddings and engagements with a coating of political intrigue. And that certainly seems to be the case at the start of this one, as we nudge ever closer to (but still have not quite arrived at) the wedding of the Crown Prince. That said, I think the lightbulb has finally gone off, as the coating of political intrigue we’ve had for a while has become the point, and the author flat out says in the afterword that we are headed for War. That would certainly give the cast something to do that doesn’t involve Marielle popping out a kid. Assuming that she’s able to survive till it happens, as I joked that this volume could also be titled The Execution of Marielle Clarac.

As Marielle desperately tries to write before her deadlines pass, she gets a disturbing letter from her husband that says to ignore any rumors she might hear… and this is followed by an invitation from the prince to a royal ball they’re holding that evening for the Crown Princess of Vissel. A wary Marielle shows up, only to find that the princess is throwing herself at Simeon to an almost ridiculous degree. That said… something definitely seems off about it. Marielle’s people-reading skills come in handy, and she soon gets an apology from the princess… who does not actually explain why she’s cuddling up to Simeon, only apologizes for it. (The answer, as it turns out, involves possibly the most misogynistic ass we’ve met in this series to date.) Unfortunately, Marielle soon finds other things to worry about: someone keeps trying to kill her.

Given that the last book had everyone in the cast assume that wherever Marielle goes, trouble follows, I had wondered if a clever villain might try killing her off in order to stop her amateur sleuthing. That’s not what’s happening here, though it might be better for her if it was. As it is, she’s simply someone who is very beloved by most of the important people in her kingdom, and killing her off would be a very easy way to start a nasty war. Which other countries clearly want. There is a bit of hemming and hawing here about the fact that their kingdom has colonies, and that sometimes those colonies rebel and have to be put down. (We have in fact seen this sort of thing before in this series.) Marielle knows it’s bad, as does the prince, but magic wands are in short supply. The climax of this book, meanwhile, is very action packed, and shows Marielle having a crossover with one of Tearmoon Empire’s iconic characters, and not in a good way. Fortunately, she is saved, but it’s probably the closest she’s come to death in this series.

All this and we finally get the resolution of a minor plotline that’s been around since the first book… and one which impacts Marielle’s family in a big way. The next book just came out last month in Japan, though, so get ready for another wait.

Observation Records of My Wife: The Misadventures of a Self-Proclaimed Villainess, Vol. 2

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By Shiki and Wan Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Jishō Akuyaku Reijō na Tsuma no Kansatsu Kiroku” by Regina Books. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Ethan Holms.

Villainess stories generally tend to either be narrated entirely from the perspective of the villainess herself, or they do that thing where we get her POV for a while, then we get the POV of all her love interests going over the same ground from their perspective (see Bakarina as an example). This series, on the other hand, is entirely from the POV of Prince Cecil, which works very well, not only as he’s easily the most interesting character in the series, essentially an evil villain who has never had the “this is when I became a villain” moment, but because he does not have the memories of otome games and shoujo novels and all the other things that Bertia has that makes her act… well, “more” eccentric would be an accurate phrase. But this also means that, because he’s merely dealing with a particularly stupid foreign prince, he doesn’t realize why he’s so stupid till the final scenes of the book.

Cecil and Bertia are still in Seahealby, having spent the last book trying to heal the awkward, poor relationships between the crown prince and his fiancee and the second prince and his fiancee. Unfortunately, that leaves the first prince, and he proves to be a real piece of work. Things are not helped by Bertia, drunk off the sake that she gifted the crown prince and his wife at their wedding, accidentally giving some to a snake spirit who turns out to be the country’s god. Now the god is obsessed with Bertia, and so is the first prince, who seems to assume that Cecil and Bertia are merely tolerating each other, so essentially says to him “let me marry your wife and take her off your hands”. Cecil then destroys the entire country and kills everyone in it… well, no, but he does get very angry indeed.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Cecil is essentially a sociopath with minimal empathy whose sole chain linking him to being a good person is his wife, whom he adores. Every time that he gets angry because something is happening to Bertia, everyone around him recoils in horror, as his face is that of someone about to commit murders. He’s even warned not to go to Bertia right away as he’ll terrify her. That said, their relationship is mutual – thanks to the first prince’s manipulations, Bertia has a meltdown when she believes Cecil might abandon her, and he has to reassure her. There’s also a nifty twist at the end, not just because of why the first prince is the way that he is, but the fact that the shoujo novel Bertia was thinking of happens two years LATER than their current year. Once again, Bertia makes everything better by accident.

The next volume should be out after the anime premieres, and we’ll see if the anime helps or hurts it. I’m enjoying it a great deal, at any rate.

Pick of the Week: Season of the Witch

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MICHELLE: I hadn’t previously known about Ichi the Witch, but I’m very intrigued! That’s my pick for this week.

KATE: This week is light on stuff that piques my interest, but if I had to pick a title—and death was not an option—Ghost & Witch has an interesting premise.

ASH: Who knew witchy season would come so early this year? These are the two series that have won my attention this week, too.

SEAN: Been a while since I’ve seen a Jump series with this much buzz. Ichi the Witch is also my pick.

The Bladesmith’s Enchanted Weapons, Vol. 3

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By Kazuma Ogiwara and CARIMARICA. Released in Japan as “Isekai Toushou no Maken Seisaku Gurashi” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ryan Burris.

We’re very used to seeing light novel titles where “the title is the plot” by now. They’ve become a joke now, usually involving a long title, a colon, and an even longer subtitle. The Bladesmith’s Enchanted Weapons does not have such a long title, but it falls under this category as well, as by now every volume’s plot has been set into motion by Lutz crafting a weapon, Gerhard enchanting it, and chaos accidentally springing from giving it to someone. The Japanese title translates a bit longer, but that also brings up something odd: it distinctly called Lutz an “isekai blacksmith”, but so far there’s nothing whatsoever indicating that’s true. Indeed, the third volume hammers home even more that Lutz’s father lived in this world and died in it. What seems to be the “isekai” part is simply that they’re making katanas, rather than the usual fantasy broadswords. The smithing technique is from another world… and it’s causing just as much of a mess as any potato-kun making mayonnaise does.

Last time I said I hope things would be a little better in the next book for Princess Listill, and I guessed I jinxed myself, as she really doesn’t have a good book. She’s on her way to visit Claudia, who she now regards as a big sister, when she’s kidnapped by bandits, who kill her guard knights and drive off the servants going with her. Given that she wouldn’t have been kidnapped if she weren’t going to visit Shander in the first place, the count sends an elite team to rescue her… and Lutz goes along as well, of course. She is rescued, and even manages to not get raped, because the bandits are ex-soldiers who were treated like murderers after the war ended, and are just trying to air their grievances before the king. Sadly, while their grievances are aired, the rumor mill is what it is, so everyone assumed the worst happened to the Princess, who is now “used goods”. And then things get worse.

In case you were wondering, rest assured Claudia is in this book a lot, and she and Lutz have a very active love life. She’s also good at strategy… though not as good as she thinks she is. I appreciated that the end of this volume showed that while Claudia is very clever, she still lacks experience and can be, as she disparagingly says, only good for her big, stupid butt. (Which is mentioned more than once – this author knows their audience). It’s not only her fault, though – Lutzx has got to start making katanas that turn everyone who gets them a bit crazy, because it’s starting to actually influence the politics of the region. And I didn’t even mention the secondary plot, a horror story where the dungeon in their domain has been seeing a lot of missing adventurers and a lot of mysterious jewels… or things that look like jewels.

This continues to be a series that you mostly read if you like watching guys acting cool. There’s a lot of that here. I quite like it.

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. 3

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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.

She’s not in this volume much, but I will admit I have started to wonder what this series is going to do with Liz. For the most part, these sorts of “the good villainess is balanced by a bad heroine” style books tend to overbalance the heroine into being genuinely evil, or incredibly incompetent, etc. It’s easy to see what’s going to happen to them. Liz is not quite like those in that she’s charming people into loving her, but not deliberately, and it’s basically causing folks to affirm her own misplaced idealism. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the cast really hate her, and I’m fairly sure that exile is probably going to be her best outcome here, and genuinely snapping may still be on the menu. Sometimes you’re just the wrong archetype in a book that’s about someone else. Speaking of what someone else, let’s check in on Alicia.

Alicia wants to investigate Laval, but she can’t simply take a field trip into another country, especially when their own country is chock full of magic users and Laval doesn’t have any of them. So she’s going to have to figure something out. Fortunately for her, Duke suddenly loses all his memories of her, and everyone around says that she’s the one who did it – something which she leans into almost on impulse, because she literally cannot resist trying to be a drama queen. Hey, presto, she’s exiled to Laval so quickly that you’d almost think that it was a deliberately ploy on the part of Duke. She arrives disguising herself as a boy and quickly ends up part of the knights who work for the second prince, who is trying to find an achievement that will let him take the throne. An achievement that may need… magic.

It is sometimes interesting seeing the narrative through the eyes of Alicia, who is living it as if she’s the protagonist of a light novel and to whom dramatic events constantly happen, and the rest of the cast, who are actually part of reality and are forced to deal with the darker bits that Alicia touches upon but rarely stays long. The reunion of the king and his brother is agonizingly awkward, especially when you consider that a lot of the cause of their strife is, well, still around. Alicia may be delighted to be exiled, but for Gill it’s a nightmare, and to make matters worse he’s at Duke’s side through most of the book, so he can’t even pine properly for the girl he loves because the much better love interest is next to him. As for Alicia herself, we’re rapidly finding out that she may want to be a villainess, and has been told to play a villainess, but she has a much more important hidden role. Which, well, Liz is not gonna like.

This isn’t top tier villainess, but it’s solid, and fans of the genre should be quite pleased.

Manga the Week of 2/4/26

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SEAN: Time for the shortest and worst month! What manga do we get to see?

ASH: At least one or two different things.

SEAN: Airship has one print debut. The Tale of a Little Alchemist Blessed by the Spirits (Outo no Hazure no Renkinjutsushi: Hazure Shokugyou datta node, Nonbiri Omise Keieishimasu) stars a woman who was cast out by her family and died alone and unloved. You know why? You got it, bad skill from the gods. Now she’s reincarnated, loved and a viscount’s daughter. And while she still has the same skill, she also has appraisal, and we know how protagonists with appraisal do. She’ll be fine.

ASH: I do have a fondness for alchemists, even if this particular genre isn’t generally my thing.

SEAN: Also in print: Adachi and Shimamura: Short Stories 2 and Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! 5.

For early digital we get The Misdeeds of an Extremely Arrogant Villain Aristocrat 2 and A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO 4.

Two debuts for J-Novel Club. The Petty Villain Plays by the Rules: Rewriting This Otome Game with Honest Work! (Yarikonda Otome Game no Akuyaku desu ga, Danzai wa Iya nano de Mattou ni Ikimasu) is another one of those “male villainess” books. Guy wakes up as the eldest son of a villainous family doomed to ruin. Can he fix things?

ASH: Probably? Or maybe make them worse somehow.

SEAN: The Young Lady Is the Substitute Harvest Goddess is another JNC contest winner. A young gamer is sent to a different world by a goddess, who wants her to take over as harvest goddess. Fortunately, this world runs along the lines of her beloved farming games.

ASH: That’s helpful!

SEAN: Also from JNC: The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects 12, Isekai Walking 5, Miss Blossom’s Backward Beauty Standards 2 (the final volume), and Tearmoon Empire 16.

No debuts for Kodansha Manga, but we see A-DO 9, Blue Period 17, DEAD ROCK 4, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity 11, Tower Dungeon 4, WIND BREAKER 19, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 18 in print. (No digital-only next week.)

Seven Seas debuts The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Collected Fragments (Mahou Tsukai no Yome: Fragment), a manga short story collection revolving around people who are not Chise.

MICHELLE: Potentially interesting!

ASH: I’d read it!

SEAN: Speaking of the author of The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Ghost and Witch is a charming young story about a girl and the thing possessing her going to Ireland for supernatural shenanigans. It runs in Comic Growl.

ASH: I’d read this one, too!

SEAN: And the BL debut is Perfect Addiction, the story of a guy who loves sex but finds the girl he’s after loves another guy. He quickly discovers a) the other guy is gay, and b) has trouble enjoying sex. These two can solve each other’s problems. This runs in Gush.

ASH: They do say opposites attract.

SEAN: For danmei, we get Run Wild: Sa Ye 4 and Three Hundred Years of Longing: Bu Jian Shang Xian San Bai Nian 2.

Also from Seven Seas: The Feisty Omega and His Twin Mates 3, Hate Me, but Let Me Stay 6, I’m the Heroic Knight of an Intergalactic Empire! 2, Kaiju Kamui 2, The Long Summer of August 31 4, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 22, My Deer Friend Nokotan 7, Pet Shop of Horrors: Collector’s Edition 5, and Tokyo Revengers: A Letter from Keisuke Baji 6 (the final volume).

Square Enix Manga has the 6th volume of The Emperor’s Caretaker.

Steamship debuts The Scheming Crown Prince’s Wicked Consort (Akujo (to Gokaisareru Watashi) ga Haraguro Outaishi You no Aisare Kisaki ni Nari sou desu!) runs in Opa x Comi. A young woman is an “ice queen” who has driven off everyone near her, including her ex-fiancé. But she desperately needs an heir for her family. Wait, what’s the Crown Prince doing here?

ASH: Well, then!

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts In So Deep, It’s Love Already (Numa Sugite Mohaya Koi), a shoujo series from Dessert. (K Manga has been releasing it in chapter form.) A fan finds the new transfer student is just her type, but does he have a secret side?

Viz Manga debuts Ichi the Witch. From the author of Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun and the artist behind ACT-AGE, this is the story of a young hunter who learns that, despite being a boy, he can be a witch! This is really good, read it.

MICHELLE: Neat!

ASH: I’ve definitely heard good things.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Astro Royale 4, Blue Box 19, Boruto: Two Blue Vortex 4, The Bugle Call: Song of War 5, Colette Decides to Die 6, Dandadan 17, Kagurabachi 6, Kill Blue 5, The King’s Beast 17, Marriage Toxin 11, and You and I Are Polar Opposites 8 (the final volume).

What a small week? Taking a break? Or getting more?