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The Dragon and the Blade Saint: This Isn’t Where We End, Vol. 1

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By garry and Taiga. Released in North America by J-Novel Club.

This is another of the winners of the Original J-Novel Club light novel contest, getting a runner-up prize. That feels about right, as while I enjoyed this book I felt it wasn’t quite as good as some of the others I’ve read. This is one of those titles where we go back and forth between the two protagonists. Unfortunately, it makes the book awkwardly balanced, as the author does not want to introduce the Blade Saint until nearly halfway through the book. This definitely makes me appreciate the dragon, as she’s a lot of fun, being a fish out of water sort, as well as an arrogant girl who can also back it up when she wants to. I was reasonably sure I knew where her story was going, but it was fun seeing her get there. As for the Blade Saint, most of his half of the book shows us his Tragic Backstory, and you can hear the capital letters as you read. Fortunately, the cause of said tragedy is dealt with here, so I’m hoping future volumes give him something to move forward with. (Like a dragon.)

Some time in the future, a dragon faces off against the human who’s about to kill her, the deadly Blade Saint. However, she uses a magical device to go back in time so that she can destroy him before he gets this powerful. She ends up at the ubiquitous magical academy that so many light novels have, where she’s quickly captured and collared – literally – by short but powerful mage Karen, who, after consulting with the student council president (a vampire who is more than she seems) and the headmaster, helps Mitaelshuroxa (now going by “El”) to attend school, provided that she can defeat enough people in the combat course she wants to join. This includes a beastgirl who’s fighting to give status to her family, an arrogant guy who wants to use SCIENCE!, and of course the Blade Saint, who is a teenager at this point, and who she dearly wants to kill.

El is fun. She’s annoyed that she can’t just fly everywhere, her lunch consists almost entirely of parfaits, and she has the brains and brawn to back up her attitude, though all three of her opponents give her trouble. Karen is also a lot of fun, and I wish that she’d been the other protagonist, to be honest. Ca’al is dealing with a lot. He’s a young man from a noble house on the decline, whose parents, when they aren’t screaming at each other, abuse him horribly. His sole happiness is going out to play with Soreya, a girl who unfortunately I found it hard to really like as I haven’t seen someone this destined to be a tragic backstory since Bridge to Terabithia. She’s fun, spunky, and “deserved” to be the next Blade Saint, but her death allows our hero to, after years of pain and nightmares, avenge her. There wasn’t anything wrong with this sequence, I just found it much less fun than El’s side.

This is a decent book, and I can see why it got a prize. I’d read some of the other contest winners first, though.

The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, Vol. 10

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By Bisu and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo wa Kyou mo Hata o Tatakioru” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Esther Sun.

It’s been so long with everyone in the cast adoring Rosemary that it’s sometimes a surprise to remember that there are those who don’t love Rosemary, and part of this is because she’s been kept in bubble wrap for most of her life. It’s only now that she’s married to Leonhart and has a few world-changing innovations under her belt that she can afford to move on to the really, really impossible tasks of shoujo light novels: the grand ball with catty nobility all present and correct. Fortunately, Rosemary is still so utterly gorgeous that almost everyone who sees her either falls in love or gives up. Oh sure, there’s the King’s annoying cousin, who fragrantly tries to get Leonhart to take his daughter as a mistress in front of Rosemary. But clearly he’s too stupid to love, so there’s no way that he’d actually be part of the main plot, right?

Now that Rosemary has used her protagonist powers to not be evil and executed, and to make sure that her family all love each other (well, mostly, the King and Queen still mostly exist as a political marriage), she has to deal with the fact that that family wants to protect her and see her safe, especially now that she’s pregnant.This means her mother wants to help her choose the proper dress for the ball, while her brothers, who want to help but can’t see her change, are left to fume outside. Even her father, who has lived his entire life under the rule of “it doesn’t matter if I’m an asshole as long as the end result is good” spots her exhaustion at the ball and deliberately screws up her hair to force her to leave early and not get sick. This is not even mentioning her husband, or bodyguard, or any of the 80,000 others. Boy, you’d have to be REALLY DUMB to try to go after her!

The bulk of this book is Rosemary setting up a harvest festival for her nearby village. They used to have a big one, but it gradually petered out, and she wants to peter it up again. This is helped by her actually caring about the wives and grandmothers of the village and wanting to see what their traditional foods and crafts are. Speaking of crafts, we also see her interacting with her autistic jewelry designer Ayame (I usually try not to diagnose fictional characters, but sometimes it’s impossible not to) and Ayame’s childhood friend/minder Hiiragi, who would probably be married to her if she weren’t in love with Rosemary and making delicate jewelry pieces, in that order. Oh yes, and there’s even the son of Duke Evil, who is trying his best to save his family and domain from dear old dad’s plotting, and he ALSO falls in love with Rosemary while also seeing she already has the perfect husband.

With all this going on, it’s no wonder she doesn’t give birth in this. There’s no sign of Book 11 in Japan, either. Oh well, we’ve got enough adoration of Rosemary here for three new books. I do enjoy this, but hope you don’t hate perfect characters.

Betrothed to My Sister’s Ex, Vol. 1

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By Tobirano and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Zutaboro Reijou wa Ane no Moto Konyakusha ni Dekiai Sareru” by M Novels f. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Rymane Tsouria. Adapted by Zubonjin.

Ah, it’s time for another of my favorite genres. No, not Cinderella story, although this is that as well. No, it’s the classic shoujo light novel genre of “I am so horribly abused by my family that my self-worth is garbage and I will spend volumes trying to like myself”. Generally speaking, these books live and die on their heroine. Sometimes they suffer stoically, such as The Too-Perfect Saint (this will not be the last time I mention The Too-Perfect Saint in this review). Sometimes they are such pollyannas that the abuse doesn’t even register as such. And sometimes they just accept that they’re terrible and ugly and awful because that’s what their parents say, and live a life of quiet desperation. That’s where Marie is at the start of this book. Fortunately, we know that things will get much better for her, but the challenge, with someone like Marie, is to make her accept that she deserves to have good things happen to her at all.

The title may throw off the savvy reader, who sees it and expects an evil sister to go along with the evil parents. In fact, Marie’s sister Anastasia is the only good thing in her life, and the two of them get along great (Much like Too-Perfect Saint). Unfortunately, Marie’s parents REALLY despise her. They force her to do all the chores – yes, they have servants, but why use them when you have Marie? – and her 18th birthday party is hijacked and used as an excuse to get a rich husband for her sister. A proposal soon arrives from Kyros, a Count who’s going to be a Duke when he inherits. The parents could not be happier. Anastasia is, frankly, terrified, but she goes to his country… and dies in a carriage accident along the way. Now they have to send Marie, the “horrible” sister. (Again, Too-Perfect Saint, yes.) Marie, who is not only grieving for her sister but being told she’s only useful as a womb and that she should never have been born, meekly goes along. Fortunately, a series of misunderstandings mean that her welcome is much nicer than expected.

An anime of this has aired in the summer (so no spoilers for the second book in the comments, please), and everyone agreed that the absolute best thing about this title was Mio, Kyros’ head maid. They’re absolutely correct, Mio is indeed the best thing. She’s a badass, snarky, caring, and has an appetite for food that boggles the mind. She helps both of her charges, though finds herself exasperated with Kyros, whose screw-up (he met Marie at the party when she was hiding in the garden and fell in love with her, but assumed, as it was a party to engage the other sister, that she was Anastasia) led to all this. I also like what little we see of Anastasia, who loves to sew masculine outfits for women and wishes she were in a different type of shoujo light novel (the “my family goes under and I have to become a merchant” kind). As for Marie, well, her growth is the point, but I will warn folks, her self-hatred oozes from almost every line she has till near the end, and she cannot accept anything good happening to her. This is understandable, but readers might balk.

Not me, though. I want more of this. It’s like catnip.

Manga the Week of 12/17/25

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SEAN: As we get closer to Christmas, publishers try to step up their game. Let’s start with Yen.

ASH: Buckle up!

SEAN: No debuts for Yen On, but we do see Classroom for Heroes 5, Date a Live 15, If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love 4, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- 28, Sentenced to Be a Hero 5, and The Unimplemented Overlords Have Joined the Party! 5.

Yen Press has debuts. Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian: Momoco’s Art Book is an artbook of the popular romcom, and includes an exclusive short story.

Animan (Doubutsu Ningen) is a horror title from Young Animal. A father and daughter come across a group of humanoid animals that like to eat humans. This is a morality play, and is apparently dark as pitch.

ASH: It really looks to be!

SEAN: Demon Lord 2099: The Complete Omnibus (Maou 2099) is a manga adaptation of the light novel already released by Yen. It ran in Shonen Ace Plus.

Even a Replica Can Fall in Love (Replica Datte, Koi wo suru) is a manga adaptation of the light novel already released by Yen. It runs in Dengeki Maoh.

Out of the Cocoon (yes, that’s the Japanese title as well) is half-short story collection, half-sequel to Cocoon Entwined, as the author has a few BL and yuri stories to tell, then gives us a story about the stars of her earlier series. Expect less hair but just as much angst. These ran in Comic Beam.

MICHELLE: Interesting!

ASH: I thought that name looked familiar.

SEAN: Also from Yen Press: The 31st Consort 3, Black Butler 34, The Boy Who Ruled the Monsters 2, A Bride’s Story 15, A Certain Magical Index 31, Chained Soldier 13, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 9, Goblin Slayer: A Day in the Life 3 (the final volume), Guillotine Bride 2 (the final volume), The Heroic Tale of the Villainous Prince 2, I Don’t Know Which Is Love 4, I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time 5, Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler – 19, A Misanthrope Teaches a Class for Demi-Humans 2, Monster Tribe 2, [Oshi No Ko] 12, Overlord: The Undead King Oh! 13, Phantom Invasion 2, A Reincarnated Witch Spells Doom 7, Super String: Marco Polo’s Travel to the Multiverse 2, and Suzuki-kun’s Mindful Life 2.

ASH: That’s quite a list.

SEAN: Viz Media has a debut. If Love Bullet wasn’t the biggest meme of the last year, this may have been. Maid to Skate started as a Twitter comic and gradually became a real manga running in EastPress’s Matogrosso. They’re maids. They’re on skateboards. I don’t think I need to elaborate.

ASH: This sounds absolutely delightful.

ANNA: Amazing.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Dogsred 4, Fool Night 7, Haikyu!! 3-in-1 7, Heart Gear 7 (the final volume), Insomniacs After School 12, Kingdom 2, Mission: Yozakura Family 20, Mujina into the Deep 3, One-Punch Man 32, Show-ha Shoten! 9, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead 18.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Dogsred quite a bit so far.

SEAN: Tokyopop has two titles. I’ll Never Fall In Love With Amano! 2 and The Prince Is in the Villainess’ Way! 5.

Titan Manga gives us Saint Seiya: Dark Wing 2.

Steamship has a 2nd volume of Werewolves Going Crazy Over Me.

Square Enix Books has Final Fantasy XIV: Chronicles of Light, Volume II, a hardcover short story collection.

Square Enix Manga has Wash It All Away 5.

Seven Seas time! Starting with the danmei, there’s a debut. The Wife Comes First: Qi Wei Shang is a timeloop fantasy, as a philandering prince dies, and finds the only one who bothered to be at his side till death was the consort he didn’t care about. Now that he gets a do-over, he’s fixing that. That said, um, political intrigue is hard.

ASH: Under a different imprint that title would have an entirely different plot.

SEAN: There’s also Copper Coins: Tong Qian Kan Shi 2 and Dinghai Fusheng Records 3.

Three other debuts for Seven Seas. Lovers on the Last Train (Saishuu Densha no Koibitotachi) is a BL oneshot from Magazine Be x Boy. A nervous guy who’s over 40 and has never dated tries an app, and gets a guy who seems to be too good to be true.

ASH: Awww, I hope it all works out for them!

SEAN: My Bias is Showing?! is a webtoon manhwa about a high school teacher who is absolutely obsessed with an idol singer. What’s he going to do when the idol singer shows up at his school to film?!?! Also BL, in case it wasn’t clear.

A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof (Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi) is a shonen series from Dengeki Daioh “g”, which also has an anime. It’s “yuri-ish”. A girl trying to escape her ninja clan ends up at the apartment of a girl who’s secretly an assassin. This is a comedy, but expect corpses galore.

ASH: Could be fun!

ANNA: I enjoy assassins and comedy!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Cat Companions Maruru and Hachi 5, The Demon King is Way Too Overprotective! 2, The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom 12, The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess 2, Kemono Jihen 19, Long Period 2 (the final volume), Monster Musume 20, The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan 10, My Cat is Such a Weirdo 8, My Girlfriend is 8 Meters Tall 2, Sacrifice of My Manly Soul 2, and Though I Am an Inept Villainess 8.

Nakama Press have a 5th volume of Infini-T Force.

And Last Gasp have the 2nd volume of Ultra Heaven.

ASH: This was delayed, so I’m glad to see this coming out!

SEAN: Kodansha has Magnolia: Fairy Tail Illustrations in print, apparently the first Fairy Tail artbook out over here.

It’s also got an omnibus edition of classic manga Dragon Head, which they had rescued and put out digitally in 2018. This is a 3-in-1.

ASH: Great to see this back in print!

SEAN: And it has Parasyte Paperback Collection, another edition of the classic horror title.

ASH: This is still one of my favorite series.

SEAN: It even has an actual new manga, as we get Flip Flip Slowly, a BL one-shot from Gateau. A librarian notices a new guy who keeps coming to the library every week. What’s his deal?

MICHELLE: Library romance!

ASH: Whaaaaaaat. I’m here for it!

ANNA: Maybe he just likes books???

SEAN: Also in print: Attack on Titan Coloring Book 2, Blue Lock 25, Fall in Love, You False Angels 4, The Ghost in the Shell: The Human Algorithm 7, How I Met My Soulmate 5, and Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 13.

And for digital, we see My Home Hero 23 and TenPuru -No One Can Live on Loneliness- 13.

J-Novel Club has some print titles. We get Black Summoner 6 (the light novel) Black Summoner 7 (the manga), and Hell Mode 9 (the light novel).

Two debuts for J-Novel Club. Cogs of Time is another of the JNC Original Light Novel Contest winners. A young woman who can move into the very recent past is dealing with an oppressive upbringing, but after witnessing a murder she finds that maybe it’s time to stop trusting dear old dad and start trusting Mr. Cop.

ASH: Hmmm.

Fluffy-Eared Realm Restoration: Taking It Slow with My Cool Big Brother (Tensei Mofumofu Reijou no Mattari Ryouchi Kaikaku-ki: Cool na Ogikei-sama to Amama Slow Life wo Tanoshin de Imasu) is the manga adaptation of the light novel also released by J-Novel Club. It runs in Dre Comics.

Other J-Novel Club light novels: Cooking with Wild Game 31, Imperial Reincarnation 4, Infinite Dendrogram SP 2, Isekai Tensei 12, Nia Liston 8, Peddler in Another World 11, Rebuild World 7, and The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life as a Noblewoman 3-2.

HarperAlley has Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love! 2.

From Ghost Ship we see Into the Deepest, Most Unknowable Dungeon 12 and Tamamori’s Fantasies Never Stop! 3.

Airship has one print light novel, The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 11.

And for early digital we see Mushoku Tensei: Redundant Reincarnation 3 and Reborn as a Space Mercenary 14.

Not as bad as I feared, but we still have one more Manga the Week of before Christmas. What are you buying?

ATLAS: Her, the Combatant, and Him, the Hero, Vol. 1

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By John Rohman and ttl. Released in North America by J-Novel Club.

This is another of the J-Novel Club Original Light Novel contest winners. In fact, this is the Grand Prize Winner. That said, I had put it off, mostly as the description made it seem sort of futuristic sci-fi dystopia, which is generally not my genre. And it certainly is that genre, but there’s more going on here than that. This is a story of two seemingly ordinary people who really aren’t, forced into a role that emphasizes how special they actually are. There’s a lot of prejudice and class struggle in this world (we see that on the “her” side), but even if you are comparatively privileged you can still end up being forced into things by those richer and more powerful than you (the “him” side). Of course, there’s also things familiar to light novel/anime fans here. Super sentai armor, lots of cool shonen battles, and powers that remind me a whole lot of My Hero Academia. That said, the main reason to read the book are her and him. They’re great characters, and even better when they interact with each other.

Calli is a young woman struggling to get a job in his world that is very prejudiced against those with her hair and skin. She’s a Stratan, and got an opportunity to make something of herself, which she is trying to do so she doesn’t have to crawl back home as a failure. Unfortunately, all she can find is temp work, and her co-workers mostly hate her on sight. Then she’s offered a special job. Meanwhile, Genesis is a young man who’s in charge of a loading dock where an explosion occurs. He got everyone out without injury, miraculously. A bit TOO miraculously, though, and the richest man in the city took note of it and wonders if he’s hiding a secret. A secret that might also give him a different job. Can these two people who end up opposing each other find common ground? And can you really meet cute when you’re a cop and a terrorist – sort of?

I won’t lie, this book starts slow as it serves up its worldbuilding, and I found the flashfoward at the start (which we never catch up to) somewhat pointless. But it gets better as it goes along, especially when it gets to the first big action sequence on the train. The best scene, though, is when Calli and Genesis meet cute for the SECOND time, and finally give in and decide to go grab some pizza. What ensues is a fantastic conversation as the two of them try to bitch about their respective new jobs without giving anything away… all while not realizing that they’d been desperately fighting each other earlier that day. Despite essentially being a terrorist for the money, Calli has a good head on her shoulders and cares about people, but she knows that sometimes you have to survive. As for Genesis, he wants to be a real hero, but finds his job doesn’t want that, and also some of the most famous heroes out there are just in it so they can beat the shit out of “bad guys”. Ideals are tough.

This ends the way most contest winners do, I assume, as it has enough of an ending to satisfy while still clearly promising more. I enjoyed her. And him.

My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, Vol. 11

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By mikawaghost and tomari. Released in Japan as “Tomodachi no Imouto ga Ore ni dake Uzai” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

It’s been well over two years since the last volume of this series, and that volume was a massive flashback, so it’s actually been almost three years since we were last dealing with Akiteru’s confrontation with Iroha’s mother. Since then an anime has been announced and is currently airing (I’m not watching it, but I don’t think it’s setting the world on fire). Also since then we’ve had just this book. The author apologizes for it taking so long (it was two and a half years between 10 and 11 in Japan). Fortunately, it’s a very solid volume, which mostly goes how I thought it would, but also contains a few surprises. The surprises are not related to Iroha, who honestly takes this a lot better than I’d expected. No, it’s something unrelated to the game or to Iroha’s voice acting, it’s Mashiro’s writing. In which we learn what happens when producers decide to adapt something into an anime without actually enjoying the work itself.

The confrontation between Iroha’s mother and Iroha’s crush ends pretty much as you’d expect. Amachi agrees to let Iroha continue to do her acting work… but she’ll be the one managing her career. He has to stay out of it. Possibly realizing that this is never going to work as long as he’s literally next door, Akiteru thus decides to vanish from everyone’s life… though in reality he asks for a temporary job at Canary’s book publisher, where he gains valuable experience at how deal making works in the land of adults. Unfortunately, only Canary knows he’s there, so the rest of the cast are feeling rather bereft. Iroha at least has a new job she’s doing providing multiple voices for a VTuber project… but when Mashiro is told that the anime team wants to change her anti-bullying revenge fantasy so there’s no revenge and the bullies don’t get harmed, she goes completely to pieces.

As I said, the most startling scene in this whole book for me was the fact that Mashiro showed up for the meeting with the anime team with a gun in her pocket. Yes, it was a model gun that doesn’t shoot, but still. Her yakuza fantasy may have helped her get through the meeting without breaking down, but it did not stop her breaking down after. Actually, “after” may be the biggest flaw with this volume – it feels like it was being written to a page count. There are several plot points (Mashiro, Akiteru’s schooling) where I wish we’d gotten a bit more closure than we did. We did get some great background on Canary, though, which reminds us that sometimes when you work in an industry where you promote others, and you screw up, you can destroy lives that are not yours. I also enjoyed Akiteru being reminded “your uncle is famous, so throw his name around a bit”. Sometimes being an adult means not being straight and narrow all the time.

This author loves to start new series, and start new series that get anime adaptations, so it may be a while before we get the 12th book. That said, with the new events here, I don’t think it’s wrapping up soon anymore.

Pick of the Week: Bullets, Bastards, and Darkness

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SEAN: This one may be a bit more angsty than I usually like, but I don’t care, I absolutely have to read Love Bullet to see what the buzz is about!

MICHELLE: I find that I’m in the mood for exploring haunted sites, so it’s The Ghostly Darkness of Kanata for me, this week.

ASH: I am definitely interested in both of those series, but I can’t help but add The Magnificent Bastard into the mix, too; I simply can’t miss Tetsuo Hara’s version of Maeda Keiji.

KATE: The Ghostly Darkness of Kanata seems like something I might dig, so that’s my PoTW!

In Another World with Household Spells, Vol. 3

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By Rika and HIROKAZU. Released in Japan as “Isekai ni Kita kedo, Seikatsu Mahou shika Tsukaemasen” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by sachi salehi.

There is a Looney Tunes cartoon called The Big Snooze, and at one point Elmer Fudd is running through a hollow log and Bugs Bunny positions it so he runs out of it off a cliff into midair. Elmer realizes what has happened, stares at the viewer, and turns into a lollipop with a hunter’s cap, with the word ‘SUCKER’ written on the lollipop. He then quickly scrambles from midair back to the log to run through it. Bugs merely flips the log 180 degrees so that this happens again. Elmer then turns into a ‘SUCKER’ again, and runs back to try a third time. This time he tests it first, discovers there’s ground, and runs back to get a head start… at which point Bugs flips the log again. The reason I mention all this is that Patience Granger is the Elmer Fudd of this scenario. She spends the entire book not wanting to do things and then ending up doing them anyway just because everyone’s just too assertive for her.

Patience is very, very busy this school year. She’s already doing a double track with home ec and civil service, but there’s also a lot of magic/alchemy related stuff she wants to do, as her goal is to make money so that her family can stop being so poor and she can provide for her adorable brothers. (Yes, the shotacon thing has not gone away, I’m ignoring it.) Unfortunately, Princess Margaret’s girl posse all hate her, Prince Keith can’t say anything to her without sticking his foot in his mouth, the alchemy club is trying really really hard to get her to join, the music club is asking her to write an opera, and the entire curriculum has changed to become far more practical, much to the horror of noble ladies who find they will have to sew their own ballgowns. And then there’s the Knight Club, whose new president is taking this a bit too far, and this may lead to the end of the club…

Much to my relief, despite hints in the 2nd book, no one is going dungeon crawling just yet. Indeed, this is a very school-oriented book, though I suspect the author has a bit of a grudge against mandatory education, as Patience (who has her past memories and also OP magic that everyone underestimates) ends up essentially passing most of her classes for the year in the first week. This allows her to meet the alchemists, who are generally regarded as weird creeps, and not without reason, but they also help her to create lamps with dimmer switches, and possibly even washing machines in the future. That said, when Margaret and Keith say Patience is painfully naive, they’re not wrong. She’s blind to Keith’s crush on her, as well as several other characters who are ready to propose. (Also, Patience, who is supposed to be far shorter than her peers, is 149 cm, which is… average for an 11-year-old girl?) Basically, Patience might want to take a bit less herbology and magic circles and a bit more “how noble society functions”.

This was VERY nerd-heavy and education-heavy, but assuming you don’t mind either, it’s a good read. Also, author, just because you have Patience realize she’s being a sucker doesn’t make it less true.

The Twelve Kingdoms, Book Three: Sea of Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth

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By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Juni Kokuki: Kaze no Umi, Meikyū no Kishi” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

So I’m sure that after the events of the first two books, everyone is ready to dig in and find out how Youko settles in to her new ruling status. Well, hate to break it to you, but not only is Youko not in this book at all, but the entire volume takes place prior to the first two, and deals with a completely different kingdom. As I noted in the last review, the books are not called Twelve Kingdoms for nothing. That said, despite the fact that we get a new protagonist, a lot of this may feel very familiar. We see someone who grew up in Japan suddenly yanked to this world, where they’re forced to try to figure things out that everyone else assumes are either common sense or just come naturally. Youko dealt with this mostly through fury and increased paranoia. Taiki deals with it through depression and increased anxiety.

Up on Mount Hou, everyone is awaiting the birth of the new kirin, who will be the one to choose the next ruler of the country of Tai. Unfortunately, a storm blows the fruit containing the unborn Taiki off to god knows where. Ten years later, Kaname is an unhappy boy who lives with his family but can’t seem to please them, especially his strict grandmother. Then one day while standing outside in the snow as punishment, he sees a pair of arms reaching out from nowhere, and when he goes to investigate he finds himself on Hou Mountain. He *is* the missing kirin, and Tai needs a leader post haste, so he’s got to become a full-fledged kirin and choose the new leader. Unfortunately, kirin is a very instinctual position learned from birth, and since Taiki lived in Japan for ten years, he has none of that instinct. Good thing there aren’t also crushing expectations! Oh, wait, there are.

Despite the previous paragraph, this is a book with a great deal of heart. Taiki gets a lifelong familiar, Sanshi who sort of acts as a combination pet/mother/bodyguard. The sages of Mount Hou are all very nice to him… possibly they spoil him, but let’s face it, after passive abuse for ten years, Taiki needs a bit of spoiling. I really liked Youka, who we first meet ten years prior as a neophyte who still can’t find her way around the labyrinthian mountain, but who is also the best older sister for Taiki once he arrives. Taiki definitely feels like a ten-year-old with crippling anxiety throughout the book, so it’s good to see when he finally gets what a kirin needs to do, or when he’s actually enjoying and smiling over something. And for those who are sad about the fact that the first two books are in the future, Keiki is a supporting character here – indeed, he and Taiki bonding, and Keiki thus becoming less stoic and nicer, might be what leads to the troubles from the first two books.

So do we get a whole new cast next time? Not quite. The King of En has been supporting in both the first arc and the second, and the next book will look at his relationship with his own kirin. Till then, this is a wonderful fantasy series, highly recommended to everyone.

Secrets of the Silent Witch, Vol. 7

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By Matsuri Isora and Nanna Fujimi. Released in Japan as “Silent Witch” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse.

This book’s pacing reminded me a bit of Tearmoon Empire. The first half is mostly action and big magic, as the Sages face off against one of their own. The second half, though, essentially starts a new arc, as Monica investigates Felix’s past and his upbringing. It should be overbalanced towards the former, which very much has a big action feel to it. But the latter half of the book makes the series feel like it’s actually gearing up towards an ending. Now, technically it isn’t, as the 11th volume is due out in Japan soon. But there are plotlines that you can’t drag on forever, and the biggest of these is who Felix really is, why Duke Clockford feels he can be used as a puppet, and what’s the story behind the execution of Monica’s father. As for romance? That’s thin on the ground here, as Monica spends most of the book annoyed that you cannot simply turn love into a mathematical formula, and if anything Lana is the one she’s closest to right now. (No, not like that.)

When we last left Monica, she, along with the other sages, was in the forest trying to find a way to get to the Gem Sage Emanuel Darwin, whose artifact is sending out clockwork soldiers and also can command spirits – such as Ryn, who is now attacking them. By splitting up and playing to their strengths, they’re able to save Cyril and Glenn, who are currently trapped in the thick of all this, as well as take care of the artifact and send the Gem Mage packing with his tail between his legs. Unfortunately, we also learn that Louis seems to be trusting Monica even less, and worries that she will in fact side with Duke Clockford because of her relationship with Felix. Also unfortunately, once Monica gets home, she finds that once again someone has infiltrated her attic bedroom – and this time it’s Bridget.

Now, readers of this series may be asking themselves, who is Bridget again? Since being introduced in the first book as part of the student council, Bridget has done somewhere between fuck and all, mostly serving as a signpost of “this jealous girl will be activated when a button is pressed, but no one is pressing it”. Fortunately, not only does she finally get things to do, but it turns out that she’s far more interesting than that, and that her backstory ties into Felix’s (which we expected) but is also fairly tragic (which we didn’t), and that she is absolutely not a rival for the affections of Felix now… if that is indeed Felix. More and more it’s looking like at some point around when he was eight years old, the gentle, sickly, cute but pathetic Felix was somehow turned into the handsome, capable, cool with ladies Felix we have now. Bridget may not have found an answer she wanted, but Monica did, and what she does next…

…will presumably come up in Book 8. Which we won’t get till after the next volume of the Louis spinoff. Still, this was a solid Silent Witch, and I am very happy to welcome Bridget to the cast.