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The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya

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By Nagaru Tanigawa and Noizi Ito. Released in Japan as “Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekijo” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I suspect how much you enjoy the latest book in this series depends on what you enjoy most about it. If you’re the sort who likes the sci-fi trappings and everyone trying to figure out what’s going on, you’ll be in clover, as that’s basically what this book is about, especially the back half, which features far more discussion of quantum mechanics than any light novel really needs. If you enjoy Haruhi doing funny things, Mikuru being adorably clumsy yet cute, and Nagato saving the day, this is also a strong book. Kyon’s narration is not quite as caustic as it’s been in the past, but I’ll forgive it. Unfortunately, if you read this series for character development, this is not the book for you. It’s an extension of two short stories that ran in The Sneaker 20 years ago, and seems to take place before the 4th book/movie, meaning most of the softening of Haruhi’s character is absent. It’s a fun book, but it’s not necessary as the next in the series.

We open with what looks like the most 2024 thing ever, even though it was written in 2004 – Haruhi and company get isekai’d to another world to save the kingdom from the demon lord. Haruhi being Haruhi, she proceeds to do whatever she wants, and only saves the world because Mikuru blows up the demon lord’s castle with magic. Suddenly they’re now in an outer space setting, and have to rescue two nobles from space pirates… something that’s also screwed up due to Haruhi’s gung-ho approach. Then all of a sudden they’re in a Western setting, with a shootout, and Kyon, Koizumi and Nagato are starting to realize something is wrong. Unfortunately, they can’t trust their memories, and as they go through more and more pulp fiction scenarios, the question becomes whether they can stop it at all… or even who they really are.

The idea that the cast are trapped in a bunch of tropey fictional settings is a good one. As you’d expect, the weakest part of it is the start, with the two stories written so long ago. They’re pure comedy, not really doing anything with the characters. Once Kyon and Koizumi start discussing what’s really going on, things pick up a lot more… or at least they do if you can put up with Koizumi’s philosophizing. There may be more of that in this book than any other in the series, so reader beware if you’re not in the mood for it. The one scrap of characterization we got was near the end, when Koizumi suggests that they’re likely just virtual reality mindselves, and that escaping the game might mean death. Nagato explicitly says that she wants to return to the real world, to be in the club with everyone. It’s pretty nice.

If you wanted another volume in the series, this sure is one. Still no actual continuation, but I’m not really expecting that anymore. For fans.

A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO, Vol. 1

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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 Faye Cozy and Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Melanie Kardas.

If you have a prequel series, it helps to have two really important things: a reason for the author to write it, and a reason for the reader to read it. The author explains in the afterword the reason that we’re getting this prequel: it’s a story they wanted to tell as flashbacks in the main series, but it rapidly got far too huge, so it was decided to make it a series of its own. As for the reader, I will admit I was a bit worried. The general premise of the main series is that, whether it be in the present as Fia or in the past as Serafina, our heroine is an extremely lovable goober who everyone adores. Technically that’s true here, but there’s a very important difference, which is that this is the story of Serafina at six, not sixteen (we get those flashbacks in the main series). As a result, she’s an ADORABLE lovable goober.

Sirius, the most powerful man in the kingdom of Nav, is sent out by the King to go gget the second princess, Serafina. Six years ago she was born blind, which is still frowned on when you’re royalty, and so she was sent to a detached house in the forest to stay so that she did not get bullied at the royal court. But circumstances have changed, and now she’s needed back at the palace. So Sirius and his beleaguered colleagues (who can’t keep up with him) head into the forest to find an extremely adorable six-year-old redhead. She can’t open her eyes, but she can apparently see spirits. When monsters attack, and prove too strong for most of the knights, a panicked Serafina calls on her Saint powers, regains her sight, and proves to be the Most Powerful Saint in the World.

This book has an agenda, and that agenda is CUTE. Sure, Serafina can still be a colossal airhead some of the time, but for the most part that’s explainable as her being a six-year-old who lived in a jungle all her life, rather than as her having none of the common sense of everyone she grew up around like the main series. Everyone who meets Serafina seems to adore her immediately, except (briefly) her brothers, who give in after Sirius trains them to death. We also meet Canopus here, and get a sense of the prejudice that he and his people go through… which ends up being steamrolled through the power of Serafina’s really liking him. And what do you know, he does indeed turn out to be really strong. She even manages to tame a griffon and a fenrir, which sort of serves as a replacement for the dragon she has in the main series. Basically, she’s a bundle of cute, and also packing ludicrous power, which Sirius is not yet ready to show off just yet. He’s too enraptured by her to do so.

The recent light novel rankings came out in Japan, and the main series placed a LOT higher than I had thought. Which explains the prequel. Fans of Fia will love seeing cute l’il Serafina wrap everyone around her finger.

Management of a Novice Alchemist, Vol. 3

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By Mizuho Itsuki and fuumi. Released in Japan as “Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

As I noted earlier, I watched the anime of this series before I read the novels, and I’m rather surprised at how a) the anime did a whole lot of adding/cutting and pasting in a different place, and b) how it usually worked pretty well. The anime is paced like an anime, and gives viewers a reason to be really sympathetic to Sarasa from the get go. The light novel doesn’t bother with either of those, and Sarasa can be quite a morally ambiguous character. Here, we see her having to struggle with the fact that she has friends she cares about and wants to help, even if it might lose her money. There’s never any doubt she’s going to, but just seeing her inner monologue is revealing. She cannot stop thinking of how much everything in her life costs, and how much ingredients cost, etc. It’s not quite presented as a savant thing, but she certainly would do much better with more sensible people around her. Good news there!

After the events of the last book, and a comedic interlude with raw honey and horrible diarrhea, our intrepid gatherers, along with Sarasa, go on a mission to find out why the Hellflame Grizzly stampede happened. This takes them to an inactive volcano which has fire lizards, which they can harvest, with some difficulty, for materials, but also a far more dangerous salamander further up the mountain, which isn’t being hostile so Sarasa ignores it. But when Iris’ father, a noble in charge of two villages, arrives to tell her that in order to solve their own hideous debt (separate from Iris and Kate’s debt to Sarasa), he has to marry her off, Sarasa recognizes the husband Iris is getting paired with as being related to the corrupt merchants she took out last book, and, eventually, makes a decision to help with the debt by going after that salamander after all.

When the anime aired, I heard some talk that the books were yuri, but when I investigated, the answer seems to be “eeeeeh, kinda?”. Having read this volume, I get that. On the one hand, in this world, men can marry men, and women can marry women, There are even (very expensive!) potions to allow you to change sex temporarily for the purpose of siring an heir if you are an LGBT couple. And, to solve their issues, Iris is clearly VERY happy to marry Sarasa, offers Kate as Wife #2 (which Kate seems OK with), and says “your preference might change, who knows?” On the other hand, Sarasa says she’s not interested in women multiple times, and also says she’s too young to get married. I suspect what we’re going to get by the end of this series is Sarasa married to her three wives (no way Lorea’s not getting in on this) in a familial marriage with no sexual aspect to it. I have no idea if that’s yuri or not. But it’s fine, I’m much happier with these four as a family.

Sarasa was a little less terrifying this volume, and we’re starting to see that being in the village is very good for her. Unfortunately, she seems to have pissed off the local lord, which I have a feeling will be the plot of Book 4. This is the last one that had the anime mine it for materials, and it was pretty good.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Astrea Record, Vol. 3

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By Fujino Omori and Kakage. Released in Japan as “Astrea Record Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

There are some pretty nifty scenes in this final book, but in the end, I think I will best remember this series for what it was: an adaptation of a video game spinoff. It suffers a lot from being a prequel, meaning that when we see folks we remember from the main series or Sword Oratoria, we know that they’re going to survive, whereas when we meet new people, we know they have a low chance of it. This volume introduces three older, veteran adventurers from Loki Familia, the ones who were training Finn and company when they were just starting out. They have names, but I could not help but imagine them saying things like “this is my last job, after this I’m retiring and buying a boat”. As for Lyu and her familia, well, we get to see them make a decision that will end up being Very Bad, but for the most part they get to be cool, as they fight to determine what justice is.

The book is basically a 270-page fight, which we are very used to with this author. Everyone is getting their secret weapons ready, including Lyu’s new sword, which is made from the gift of her late friend Ardee… erm, Adi (don’t you hate it when the Japanese publisher tells you the name has a different romanji AFTER you start the series?). First things go very well for our heroes, and very bad for the Evils… then everything swings the other way and all hope is lost… then the cavalry arrives, etc. You know the drill. What we most focus on are Zald and Alfia, who explain why they’re doing all this: failing to defeat the black dragon and having their familias destroyed broke them, and they think the current generation of adventurers suck, so they want to go back to a Golden Age where there were real heroes. Yes, that’s right, it’s the DanMachi version of Invasion of the Dinosaurs from Jon Pertwee’s final series.

I was once again irritated that we were getting a teenage version of moral dilemmas, so was amused when the “main villain” pointed out that this is exactly what it was, and the way to defeat the trolley problem is to come up with ways to defy it and work around it. As for the whole “we want to return to a golden age” thing, it’s also mostly bullshit – as I expected, but which isn’t confirmed until an epilogue, it’s more of a “we are testing you to make sure you are ready to face the strong enemies that are to come, and we must do this by being evil ourselves”. Which, again, is very “for 15-year-olds” logic, like the rest of this spinoff. There are a lot of really cool scenes and character pieces in here, and I liked hearing about Bell’s mother, but in the end this wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped, and was too depressing most of the time.

We’re not done with Lyu yet. The next spinoff will bring us the story that was cut from Book 18 because it was already 600 pages long – Lyu’s journey to see Astrea. I don’t think that comes from a video game plot, so I’m looking forward to it a bit more. Though… hasn’t Lyu become the main heroine in terms of appearances by now?

Manga the Week of 12/4/24

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SEAN: December is here, and so is Whamageddon. Good luck to all!

ASH: Ha!

SEAN: No print light novels for Airship, but we do see an early digital release for I’m the Heroic Knight of an Intergalactic Empire! 2.

Dark Horse has the 3rd and final omnibus volume of Innocent, containing Vol. 7-9.

ASH: I’ll be picking this one up, eventually.

SEAN: Ghost Ship has the 9th and final volume of Call Girl in Another World.

And Seven Seas has a mature debut, No Spicy Romance Allowed! (Unmei demo Netsuai wa Yurushimasen!). This one shot from LiQuile is an omegaverse book about an alpha fashion model and his omega manager.

Also mature is the 7th volume of The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun.

Three debuts for J-Novel Club, all manga. From Villainess to Healer: I Know the Cheat to Change My Fate (Kaifukushoku no Akuyaku Reijou) is a manga adaptation of a light novel J-Novel Club has licensed but has not released yet, and it runs in Flos Comic. Our protagonist is dumped for having evil dark magic rather than good healing magic, so she goes to another country, changes her class to healer, and vows to forget all about him.

ASH: Wishing her luck on her new endeavors.

SEAN: Jeanette the Genius: Defying My Evil Stepmother by Starting a Business with My Ride-or-Die Fiancé! (Kakure Saijo wa Zenzen Megenai – Gibo to Gimai ni Ie wo Oidasareta no de Konyaku Haki shite Moraou to Omottara, Shinshi Datta Konyakusha ga Hageshiku Dekiai shite kuru you ni narimashita!?) is a manga version of the light novel also licensed by J-Novel Club, and it runs in Drecomics.

A Pale Moon Reverie (Tsuki no Shirosa wo Shirite Madoromu) is also a manga version of the light novel also licensed by J-Novel Club, and it also runs in Drecomics.

ASH: I do appreciate that we often see both the originals and the adaptations licensed these days.

SEAN: J-Novel Club also has The Blessing of Liefe: Leave This Magical Letdown Alone! 2, Cooking with Wild Game 26, DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level 9, The Eternal Fool’s Words of Wisdom: A Pawsitively Fantastic Adventure 3, Magic Stone Gourmet: Eating Magical Power Made Me The Strongest 7, My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer: Short Story Collection, The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles 9, and the 2nd and final volume of The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist manga.

ASH: That’s a decent amount.

SEAN: No debuts for Kodansha. In print they have Fire Force Manga Box Set 2 (Vol. 7-11), The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity 4, Initial D Omnibus 4 (Vol. 7-8), Mobile Suit Gundam Cucuruz Doan’s Island 2, Tsugumi Project 6, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 11.

And digitally we see Chihayafuru 47, Sayabito: Swords of Destiny 5, Shangri-La Frontier 18, and Those Snow White Notes 23.

MICHELLE: Must. Read. Iruma and Chihayafuru.

SEAN: One Peace Books has a 2nd volume of I Was Sold Dirt Cheap, but My Power Level Is off the Charts.

Debuting from Seven Seas is Hoteri Hotette First Kiss, an anthology of shoujo short stories that ran in Dessert from author Coco Uzuki, whose first long-form manga is coming out from Kodansha next year.

MICHELLE: Hm. The cover’s kinda cute.

ASH: I like anthologies!

ANNA: I think we don’t get many shoujo anthologies, I might check this out.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain 3, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi – The Comic 8, Last Game 7, Lout of Count’s Family 2, and My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren’t Wicked 5.

Square Enix has The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl 8.

ASH: I should read more of this series.

ANNA: It is pretty cute, the couple of volumes that I’ve read.

SEAN: Tokyopop is shoving everything for December out next week. Comic Party Wonder Love is a BL comedy manga from Lynx. Two male BL authors are each other’s opposites, but find themselves drawn to each other.

The Person I Loved Asked Me to Die in My Sister’s Stead (Koishita Hito wa, Imouto no Kawari ni Shindekure to Itta. – Imouto to Kekkon shita Kataomoi Aite ga Naze Imasara Watashi no Moto ni? to Omottara @COMIC) is an adaptation of an as-yet unlicensed light novel. A noble lady is asked by her fiance to sacrifice herself and watch over the evil Predawn Realm in place of her little sister. Heartbroken, she does what he asks, and twenty years pass. Now his son arrives in the realm, asking her for the sentient sword she wields. Is she gonna finally snap?

Tokyopop also has Double 5, If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die 10, My Hateful Man 2, SANCTIFY 2, Wails of the Bound: Beta 2, and World’s End Blue Bird 2.

Udon Entertainment has Ottoman: Henshin Hero Husband 2 (the final volume). Boy, that series came and went fast… or Amazon is screwing up small publisher release dates again. One of those is more likely than the other.

ASH: Yeah.

SEAN: Some debuts from Viz. First a spinoff. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Shining Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak (JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Crazy Diamond no Akuryou-teki Shitsuren) is a manga adaptation of the as-yet unlicensed light novel, and it ran in Ultra Jump. Hol Horse searches for a missing parrot, but this is JoJo’s, you know it won’t be as simple as that.

ASH: I’ll admit to being curious!

SEAN: Next, another spinoff. Kaiju No. 8: Exclusive on the Third Division is a light novel detailing, well, the Third Division.

There’s also Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Official Art Book, which is what it says.

ASH: I have a couple of friends I should get this for.

SEAN: And there is Studio Ghibli: Architecture in Animation, an artbook covering the studio.

Also from Viz: Blue Box 13, Blue Exorcist 30, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu Academy 4, Dragon Ball Super 22, The King’s Beast 14, Let’s Do It Already! 3, Mashle: Magic and Muscles 18 (the final volume), Neighborhood Story 4 (the final volume), and Rainbow Days 13.

MICHELLE: Dang, Neighborhood Story reached its end quickly, too! I guess that’s an omnibus release for ya.

ANNA: It did seem to fly by.

SEAN: Lastly, Yen Press has one manga volume, Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside 9.

Gotta be thinking of presents by now, right?

Re: ZERO ~Starting Life in Another World~, Vol. 26

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By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan as “Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

We were spoiled by the first books in Arc 5 and Arc 6. Each of those books was filled with the main cast we know and love, featured Subaru being smart and making good decisions (even when he is getting killed), and generally were a lot of fun and led us into the horror and return by death gradually. This is the first book in Arc 7, and it is absolutely not that at all. We’re in a completely different country, most of the cast are new, and of those who aren’t new, one has no memories of her past, one seems to be mentally a baby, and one… is meant to be a mysterious swordsman named Abel, but anyone who’s read the Ex 4 and 5 novels know who he really is. And then there’s Subaru, who is… shall we say, making poor decisions again. Once again his stubbornness leads him to do things that just a moment of rational thought would show are going to get him in trouble. Whee.

Subaru, along with Rem and Louis, has been somehow transported far away from Emilia and company, who know he’s not dead and what direction he’s in but that’s about it. He wakes up in a jungle. Rem is awake, but has no memories, and of course Subaru has been returning by death a lot lately, so he smells horribly of miasma. What’s more, Louis has come along with them, and he suggests abandoning her… except she looks like a small child and acts like an innocent baby. So, naturally, Rem chokes him unconscious and flees. Congratulations, Subaru/Rem fans, you got your touching reunion? In any case, Subaru also manages to be shot by a hunter and killed, and then when he catches up with Rem he’s captured by an army on the march. And who’s that mysterious masked guy in the woods?

As I said above, reading the Ex spinoffs will help a tiny bit here, but for the most part this is pure unfiltered Subaru with new people – including Rem, who is basically in “angry and distrusting” mode most of the book, though she’s already worried and concerned about him by the end of it. So I’m sure the love will return. As for Louis, I understand why Subaru hates and is willing to abandon her. But his constant disdain and scorn of Louis in front of Rem is easily the dumbest he’s been since the 3rd arc. He doesn’t explain, he doesn’t take Louis at face value, he just… makes himself look like an asshole. Speaking of assholes, we meet a lovely smiling villain named Todd Fang, who I suspect we’re going to get a lot more of in future books. Don’t like him. And he’s not even the abusive one of the pair of soldiers. I do like the Amazon tribe that Subaru and Vincent run into, though – they’re all cool and badass, and I hope they don’t get killed off.

I’m sure as I get used to the arc, things will pick up. But this arc is *eight* books long, and I miss the core cast already. Good writing, interesting stuff, but a Subaru that I didn’t want to see again.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Vol. 8

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By Piero Karasu and Yuri Kisaragi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Technically this book is the second half of an arc that began with the last one. That said, what this book really does is take everything that we’ve learned in the last seven books and boil it down into an examination of how monarchies really function, especially ones where the nobles don’t necessarily do what the ruler says. And that’s not even the case either, because of course this is a magical kingdom, and being a magical ruler is not remotely the same as being, say, Henry VIII. The magical revolution is still ongoing, and there are people who are very unhappy… not with the revolution itself (i.e. Anis’ magical tools) but simply with the loss of power that this entails. And the fact that it’s come from the non-magical Anis. What does all this mean? It means that both Anis and Euphie spend more time being utterly furious than in any other book we’ve read to date, and both consider simply executing everyone to solve the problem. (Spoiler: they don’t do that.)

Anis is busy working on the construction of her new magical city when she gets an urgent message from Lainie to return to the royal palace, and when she does she finds that Euphie is in her room on forcible rest. What’s worse, she hasn’t been able to sleep for days, and when she tries to eat food it’s tasteless and she can barely choke it down. Euphie is losing touch with her humanity and moving towards being a spirit contractor. And the reason for this? Well, they were meeting with the Western Nobles, who have always been difficult. But when one noble, Count Leghorn (I did try doing the Foghorn Leghorn voice, but it doesn’t match the character) venerates Euphie in a religious fervor, and suggests that all of Anis’ accomplishments have been falsified, Euphie almost loses control of herself in rage. So now she’s on forced leave… and tells all this to Anis, who is now ALSO losing control of herself in rage.

I haven’t really talked much about Lainie lately, who gets the bulk of the narrative here that’s not Anis or Euphie. (Most of the POV in this book is Euphie, and it’s really good.) This series began by combining an isekai with a villainess story, and Lainie was the “heroine” in that scenario. Now a loyal maid, she’s just as livid with what the Western nobles are doing but is not quite as close to it as Anis and Euphie are, so instead calls in the cavalry to come up with a solution. It’s pretty terrific. I also liked her discussion with Lumi, who points out that neither Anis nor Euphie are truly human anymore, and isn’t that a bit disturbing? Lainie believes in them, but then Lainie is a vampire, so she’s dealing with the same problems. The Western nobles have a much higher bar to clear… and they don’t clear it. There are no mass executions, but trust me, an epic smackdown happens.

This book shows that “happily ever after” is hard to achieve and requires constant effort, and even that may not be good enough. Fortunately, it ends rather triumphantly. We get a short story collection before Book 9… but both only came out a couple months ago in Japan, so it may be a bit. Highly recommended.

Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain, Vol. 1

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By Ageha Sakura and Kurodeko. Released in Japan as “Imokusa Reijou desu ga Akuyaku Reisoku wo Tasuketara Kiniiraremashita” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Vasileios Mousikidis.

I’ve never been very good with photoshop or meme creation, and I generally only embed cover images to these reviews in any case. But I will admit, about 20 pages into Lady Bumpkin, all I could think of was that Shrek meme and seeing him saying “She doesn’t even have a loyal maid!”. Now, I am aware that the loyal maid comes later, yes, but I’ve gotten so used to seeing these abused daughters who are simply surviving from day to day in their House O’ Evil Nobles have at least the one loyal maid to be the ally in their corner keeping them from completely losing it. Agnes has had to deal with this solely on her own, where even the help doesn’t help. Fortunately, she’s in luck, in that she’s in a villainess book. No, she’s not the villainess. The villainess is in fact a villain. And he’s just as innocent as most of the villainesses are in this genre, because oh dear, the princess is terrible.

Agnes Evantail is the eldest daughter of an old-school noble house. And I mean really old school. Her parents have furniture that’s outdated, clothing that’s outdated (including codpieces, Christ), and makeup that’s outdated, and they force Agnes into all of those (except the codpiece) before sending her out into a noble world that now regards those things as comical in order to find herself a man. Oh, and when she fails her father hits her. At one of these humiliation events, the princess and her fiance happen to be at the same party… and Agnes watches with horror as the princess denounces her fiancee, Nazelbert Florescruz, as a horrible person who has bullied her new boyfriend, a baron’s son – who has also gotten her pregnant. She insists he be exiled to the frontier… and since Agnes was the only one to help him up after he was knocked over, and she’s a national laughingstock, she’s told to become his wife.

Regarding that cover, I have to assume it’s metaphorical and that Agnes is holding her younger self, as they haven’t even gone beyond kissing on the cheek by the end of this volume. Most of this volume trundles along exactly as you might guess, with the occasional exception when we see Agnes getting the shit beaten out of her, as these sorts of books usually stick to emotional abuse. Once she’s disowned and heads to the frontier with her new disgraced husband, things definitely improve… though not right away, as they’re going to a territory where the previous noble in charge was an abusive rapist louse, so no one trusts them. Fortunately, and feel free to roll your eyes a bit, Agnes’ “useless” magic turns out to secretly be awesome, making this the distaff version of all those “weakest is really strongest” books. Minus the harem.

That said, as you’d expect, once the two of them are away from everyone else, we get a lot of sweetness and cuteness, along with Agnes turning out to be beautiful once you get the heavy makeup and heavy dresses off her. There’s little new here, but the writing style is breezy and fun, and I really liked Agnes. I’ll read more.

Pick of the Week: Thanks for Manga

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SEAN: This week makes me look more towards the light novel end. My dual picks (it’s Thanksgiving, I can get greedy) are The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady 8, and Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- 26.

MICHELLE: I’m going with the second volume of Otonari Complex this week!

ASH: Well, I guess it’s the martial maiden’s marital mayhem for me! The cover of Always a Catch!: How I Punched My Way into Marrying a Prince was not at all what I was expecting based on the title.

Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Vol. 7

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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.

One of the things that folks tend to forget about teenage years as they grow older is how wonderful, how absolutely cathartic it can be to see your friends, your pals, those you are closest to and hang out with all the time, be complete and utter dipshits and make the worst choices imaginable. Not in a dangerous and life-threatening way – I don’t mean “I’m gonna take heroin” or that jazz. No, I mean things like “hey, I bet I can eat all these hot pockets in one go” or “I wonder how far I can go if I went down this steep slope on a garbage can lid?”. Dumb teen stuff. So when the cast here try to work out how to get Reita to listen to them and not throw away his entire life, Natsuki is the one who understands: we need to do the dumbest thing. Only that can save us. And it does, of course, because they’re teens, and also because this is a romcom.

Reita’s been suspended for a week for getting into a fight outside school. What’s more, there’s a video uploaded to social media of the fight, which is clearly staged BY Reita to destroy his own reputation. Everyone tries to get him to open up, and they all fail – he is really, really determined to throw himself under the bus. A visit to his home gives Natsuki some answers, but not many – home life not the best. But there has to be something there that’s more than just “I wasn’t thinking about Miori, I am a terrible person”. This also isn’t helping Miori much either – her reputation is not in the dirt anymore, but that’s because Reita is trying to say he forced her to do everything. Can Natsuki come up with a plan to solve everything in one go? See above re: dumb things.

Obviously Reita is the bulk of the book, but there is also the traditional romcom that is the reason you’re reading this. I appreciate that Natsuki and Hikari are dating and yet there’s still an acknowledgement that Natsuki also has feelings for Uta and Miori – in fact, as Hikari points out, right now his feelings for Miori are probably greater. But all of that is irrelevant – it has to be. Yes, he can’t let go of those feelings so easily. But he can reject the others girls and dedicate himself to dating Hikari, which he has done. The last part of the book is a classic Christmas Eve date, and it ends with a big ol’ confession and kiss. I will admit that sometimes this series is a bit too fastball-down-the-middle – Natsuki’s rainbow colored life feels a little too easy – but then again, he already suffered in his first life. And he did get the crap beaten out of him in this book. It evens out.

We’re caught up with Japan again – Book 8 is out early next year – so how things go from here is unknown. I can’t see this series going on too much longer, though. But it’s good overdramatic stuff.