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Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 14

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By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I was somewhat surprised when I read the afterword to find that the 15th volume of this series is supposed to be the last. Honestly, this felt like the sort of series that could go forever, even if it did feel like it was wrapping up all the plot points. But here we are, with the penultimate volume, and the focus this time is definitely on our main Big Bad, Eve. She’s always been a fairly dislikable figure, even in the bunny suit, and the prologue we get here hammers home why she’s far more loathsome than anyone else in the cast could ever hope to be. That said, we get the next best thing: to see the narrative treat her almost as badly as the other characters in this series. (I say almost. Marie is still the worst. Sorry, Marie.) Almost every single woman in this cast has humiliated themselves because they’re in love with Lloyd, after all…

A prologue gives us the full story of what we already know: Eve has possessed the body of Vritra’s daughter Asako, who has the same incurable disease Eve has, and has been running amuck in said body since the very start of this. Now she’s blackmailing Vritra to finish her new, adult body… though when it’s finally revealed, everyone notes it’s a bit too bling for anyone to really appreciate. In the meantime, a summit is being held to accuse Eve of her crimes, held in Eve’s own country… except the king and queen are sending Lloyd and Maria as their representatives, knowing that Lloyd is a secret weapon that can defeat almost any evil plan. That said, I don’t think anyone expected this evil plan to go off the rails in QUITE this way…

So yeah, this is one of those books that’s eclipsed by its best scene, which overwhelms the rest. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some funny stuff here, and even a bit of drama, but the interrogation of Eve, and her responses to same, is pitch-perfect. Eve, of course, is baffled that she’s behaving this way, possession or no, but it makes sense: inside her rests a 17-year-old girl whose dream it is to be rescued by a prince on a white horse, and Lloyd ticks every single box imaginable. Of course love was going to come into the equation. And I appreciate that it’s the possession talking, because that’s what makes it funny rather than creepy – Eve herself may be influenced by this, but when push comes to shove, she literally concusses herself to stop it and move on with her evil plan.

So yeah, now Eve has a new superpowerful body, looks like she stepped out of a Donki, and is headed off to take out Alka and her village of oveerpowered superpeople with her anti-superperson serum. I’d be worried, except, well, Lloyd. Also, who (snicker) will Lloyd end up with (guffaw) in the end? (Come on, we know this is not resolving jack.)

Manga the Week of 3/6/24

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SEAN: It’s March, and… LOOK OUT! LION!

We start off with Viz Media, which has no debuts. But we get Black Clover 34, Blade of the Moon Princess 3, Blue Box 9, Ima Koi: Now I’m in Love 9 (the final volume), The King’s Beast 12, Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible 12 (the final volume), Like a Butterfly 5, My Hero Academia 37, and Wolf Girl and Black Prince 6.

MICHELLE: I should probably read those shoujo titles…

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: Udon Entertainment has the 3rd and final omnibus of Robotics;Notes.

Tokyopop debuts Cover My Scars with Your Kiss (Kizuato ni Kuchidzuke), a BL title from LiQuille. This tale combines love, “you look like the guy I’m really in love with”, and dentistry. Which sounds awesome, to be honest. More BL needs to have dentistry.

ASH: I don’t think that’s a combo I’ve seen yet!

Tokyopop also has the 4th volume of Acid Town, and the 5th volume of If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die.

Square Enix Manga has The Apothecary Diaries 11, My Clueless First Friend 5, and Tokyo Aliens 6.

No debuts for Seven Seas, but we see Dungeon Friends Forever 2, The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom 5, Kemono Jihen 10, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 18, Re:Monster 8, This Is Screwed Up, but I Was Reincarnated as a GIRL in Another World! 11, and Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games 6.

One Peace has a 4th volume of the manga version of The Death Mage.

Kodansha gives us some debuts. A-DO is a seinen title from Monthly Young Magazine, and it’s a recent series, but you’d get big 1980s vibes from it, given it deals with human experiments, espers, and vast government conspiracies.

ASH: Ha! It does give off that sort of vibe. Count me as intrigued.

SEAN: Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You (Douse, Koishite Shimaunda) is a print release of the digital title we’ve already seen, and it runs in Nakayoshi. From the author of I Fell in Love After School, this is straight-up reverse harem fun.

ANNA: OK!

SEAN: The other print debut is Medalist, an amazing title I’ve been banging on about since the digital debuted, and an anime is coming. Award-winning title from Afternoon about a girl trying to figure skate all on her own and a man trying to recover from shattered dreams. Are they the best thing for each other? I beg you to read this.

MICHELLE: Ooh!

ANNA: Yay! I picked up this series when it was included in a humble bundle recently and the couple volumes I’ve read so far are delightful.

ASH: I’ve been waiting for this one in print!

SEAN: Also in print: The Darwin Incident 4, Fire Force Omnibus 9, I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness 4, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 17, My Lovesick Life as a ’90s Otaku 2, Nina the Starry Bride 3, and Rent-A-Girlfriend 23.

ANNA: Yay again for print editions of Nina the Starry Bride.

SEAN: Digitally we see Blue Lock 24, How to Grill Our Love 7, Life 13, MF Ghost 18, My Wife is a Little Intimidating 7, Shangri-La Frontier 15, Those Snow White Notes 15, and Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister 12.

MICHELLE: I keep falling further and further behind on Blue Lock.

SEAN: Kaiten Books has a 6th volume of Gacha Girls Corps out digitally.

No debuts for J-Novel Club either, but we do see Cooking with Wild Game 23, Fake Saint of the Year: You Wanted the Perfect Saint? Too Bad! 4 (the final volume), The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects 2, Holmes of Kyoto 17, the 7th Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home! manga volume, My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex 10, The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter 4, and Thompson 3 (the final volume).

Ghost Ship has Might as Well Cheat: I Got Transported to Another World Where I Can Live My Wildest Dreams! 7 and Rise of the Outlaw Tamer and His S-Rank Cat Girl. And in other Mature SS titles, we get the danmei title Remnants of Filth: Yuwu 3 and Succubus and Hitman 6.

Dark Horse Comics has the 4th volume of their reissue of Hellsing, and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! 6.

ASH: I really need to look into Eizouken at some point.

SEAN: And we end with Airship, which has a print debut. The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain (Danzaisareta Akuyaku Reijō wa, Gyakkō-shite Kanpekina Akujo o Mezasu) has our betrayed noble girl sold into a brothel, then, after becoming a fantastic sex worker, she dies. Now she’s back in time, and this time she’s determined to actually be a better person. (Note I edited this description from the early digital one, as I’ve now actually read the book.)

Also in print: The Case Files of Jeweler Richard 7, Loner Life in Another World 8, and Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs 11.

Speaking of that series, debuting in early digital is Trapped in a Dating Sim: Otome Games Are Tough For Us, Too (Ano Otome Game wa Ore-tachi ni Kibishii Sekai Desu), an AU light novel where Leon catches Marie before she seduces anyone… but that leads to many, many other problems.

And there is also the 10th volume of She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man.

Were you eaten by a lion? Or did you just read manga about it?

My Happy Marriage, Vol. 6

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By Akumi Agitogi and Tsukiho Tsukioka. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon” by Fujimi L Bunko. Released in North America Yen On. Translated by David Musto.

Reading this volume of My Happy Marriage felt so different from all the previous volumes, it was absolutely like a breath of fresh air. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the other volumes are also excellent. But there’s always been this sense of suffocation to the events, a feeling that we’re waiting for the other shoe do drop. Frequently it has dropped, so we’re absolutely correct on that stage. Here, though? It’s only at the start, where Miyo is about to ,make a very dumb decision. Once she’s warded off that, though, everything unfolds exactly the way that it should. She seeks out allies, gets them to help her, researches her powers so she can use them better, makes peace with her mother, and heads off to go rescue her man from the hellish prison that he’s incarcerated in. And this works, because the climax is not “will Usui win or will the good guys prevail”, it’s “will Miyo stop hating herself and let love into her heart?” Spoilers: she does.

Miyo starts off this book by thinking the only way to do things is to just walk up to Usui so that she can get Kiyoka somehow. Fortunately, he’s powerful enough, even in prison, while being tortured, and with gift suppression all around, to create a familiar to stop her and tell her that she should actually go and gather allies to do this properly. The familiar also looks like Kiyoka as an 8-year-old boy, which leads to the cute moments of this book, as she finds him adorable, calls him Kiyo, and even lets him sleep in her bed – something I fear she will regret later when she realizes how familiars work. In any case, she goes to visit the Usuba patriarch and gets the complete story about what happened with Usui and her mother, then she goes to Kiyoka’s parents to ask his father to help her gather gift-users, and she gets Kiyoka’s military crew. Then it’s time to go do a prison break.

As I said, if you’re reading this for the thriller aspect, you may be a bit disappointed. Everything goes almost embarrassingly well, due to a combination of Miyo’s dream powers and Kazushi’s ability to hit people very hard. They literally walk into the prison because, due to everything that’s happened in the last couple books, there aren’t enough soldiers Usui trusts to guard it and also beat off the diversion that’s being fought outside. Even the one bit where things look bad happens exactly as expected – if you’re surprised at what Arata did, I’m so sorry, you must not read very many of these series. But the true climax of the book was Usui trying to talk Miyo into joining him in ruling the world, and Miyo snapping and screaming at him. That was wonderful, I will be so happy if it gets animated. Miyo may also have super powers and come from a terrible family life, but she is using her powers to make herself happy, not impose herself on others. Something Usui doesn’t get.

This isn’t the last book, and the author promises the happy marriage is imminent (though the blurb for the next volume suggests a snag). Fans of this series will love this.

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 14

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By Kisetsu Morita and Benio. Released in Japan as “Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt.

I had been wondering what we’d see at the end of this new volume. For most of this series, the main storyline has taken up the first 2/3 of the book or so, and the last 1/3 was taken up by a side story about another character. First it was Beelzebub, and that ended up getting its own genuine spinoff. Then it was Halkara, which did not get a spinoff but at least allowed her to be something other than “the drunk with big boobs”. And then there was Laika, probably the best of the three spinoffs, and that also got a manga adaptation. That said, we are starting to run out of characters that can carry a side series. As such, it’s probably a good idea, given that the CD dramas themselves are long out of print in Japan, to add the original CD drama scripts. The unfortunate problem with this, of course, is that CD dramas, by their nature, cannot affect anything. Unlike the side stories, there’s no character development here.

As always, this is basically a short story volume, as there isn’t an ongoing plot. We start off by Azusa and company heading to an underground city as the demons have discovered that an elder god might be released if a seal comes undone… which of course it promptly does. They then attend a demon-run exhibition about apples, showing off varieties and different scientifically grown apple-related things. They go to a cat cafe run by the ghost city, and a ghost cat ends up possessing Azusa. And then it’s time for them to run their cafe again, but since the word about the cafe has gotten out so much, they worry that it’s gotten completely out of hand and will be too big. Fortunately, the pine spirit is able to step in and help them out, and we then see the cafe (now moved to a different location) doing well with its star waitress (Laika) there. And we then get the two CD drama stories, where Azusa discovers that this world has curry, and Azusa discovers this world has ramen.

There’s not really anything to really dig into here, and I don’t think readers really want there to be. A serious, life-threatening plotline would feel grotesquely out of place at this point in the series. It’s all fluff all the time, and this volume certainly provides it. It does perhaps pretend that there’s a major crisis with the first story, but the elder god turns out to be about as threatening as all the other gods we meet in this series, and by later in the book is wandering around the town like a tourist. As for the CD dramas, it’s nice to see the scripts, but god, they’re slight. There was a bit of yuri tease that the author has been pulling away from ever since they first wrote this and realized a yuri fandom they really did not want had glommed onto it. Other than that? It’s cute, it’s sweet, it’s funny.

The previous volume of this came out in 2022, and it’s been a long time ill we got this one. The next one should be much sooner. If you wanted more of it, this certainly is that.

Bookshelf Briefs 2/28/24

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Blue Box, Vol. 8 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media – After a couple of volumes that have been heavy on the sports, it makes sense that we get one heavy on the romance. Sadly, that also comes with the most dreaded of romcom manga tropes: the “helpful” friend who vows to get the couple together but has the wrong idea who the couple is. This is already leading to a heaping helping of misunderstandings… except those were already off the charts because Taiki was forced to play the Prince during the culture festival, and ended up accidentally kissing Hina because of a stage issue and because of the manga author wanting it. I think we’ve got at least another two-three more volumes now before the actual couple we want to see gets together. And that’s assuming we don’t just get another tournament arc instead. Good stuff, but man. – Sean Gaffney

Gabriel Dropout, Vol. 13 | By Ukami | Yen Press – Oh no, it’s time for a new school year, which means it’s time to change classes. This is devastating news for Vigne, who discovers that she can’t survive thirty seconds without Gab next to her, but it’s not great news for Gabriel either, as Michael has transferred to the school, and is cozying up to Gabriel and saying they’re “more than friends.” Vigne is devastated by this new guy who’s taking her place in Gabriel’s life. Fortunately, we have Raphiel watching this with us, and she not only finds the whole thing hilarious, but decides not to spoil the “guy” thing as that will just make things funnier. Needless to say, everyone’s favorite gay angels and demons do not appear to have to worry about anything just yet. Also, snowball fights and common colds, but c’mon. It’s all about Vigne. – Sean Gaffney

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 11 | By Nene Yukimori | Viz Media – The penultimate volume of this series continues to walk very, very slowly towards its ending, which is clearly going to be happening on the upcoming class trip. I do appreciate all the struggle that Shiraishi has had in the past, so seeing him manage to successfully say “no, I don’t want to spend our free time with our gang of friends, I want to spend it with you specifically” is nice to see. I also liked seeing Saki and Akina discussing Kubo’s tortured romance—she has at last admitted that she does like someone, which… well, they already knew—and Saki’s realization, like so many other younger relatives, that jealousy of Shiraishi actually stems from her fear of Kubo abandoning her. There damn well better be a confession in the end. – Sean Gaffney

Like a Butterfly, Vol. 4 | By suu Morishita | Viz Media – I love this author, but boy, you really have to have a lot of patience if you’re going to enjoy these two introverted goobers try to have a simple conversation. It gets the anguish of teenage romance, where even asking to walk someone home is filled with peril and danger. But this does mean that the asking can take 10-15 pages, as this is not a Hana to Yume title and the panels are beautiful but uncluttered. This is the culture festival volume, and I am a bit disappointed we did not see more of Suiren’s class, whose “bowling” puzzled me till I realized the pins were the size of a person. That must have been a lot of fun. There’s also a haunted house, misunderstandings because of embarrassment, all the usual. For fans of this author. – Sean Gaffney

Marriage Toxin, Vol. 1 | By Joumyaku and Mizuki Yoda | Viz Media – I’m not quite sure what to call this genre, mostly as I don’t want to spoil the twist within it, but let’s go with Romcom. An assassin specializing in poisons, who is great at his job but terrible at social interaction, finds that his sister is being forced to get married and carry on the family’s line… despite being gay and having a girlfriend. Now Gero decides, for the sake of her happiness, to try to get a partner. The trouble is… he really IS very terrible at social interaction. Fortunately, his next job has his target turn out to be an expert matchmaker, one who will absolutely set him up with the perfect partner. This proves to be an adept combination of humor and action, with perhaps the latter better than the former. Worth a look. – Sean Gaffney

The Secret of Friendship | By Kazune Kawahara and Aiji Yamakawa | Seven Seas –I love Kazune Kawahara and Margaret titles, so it was a foregone conclusion that I’d like this very much. Eiko and Moe are best friends. Outwardly, Moe is the cute one, though her personality made it difficult for her to make friends until Eiko came along and appreciated her straightforward nature. Eiko, meanwhile, is kind, sincere, and very insecure. When Moe breaks it off with her latest boyfriend, Tsuchida, his friend Narugami decides that Eiko is to blame and starts to harass her, only to end up falling for her instead. I liked the parallels between Moe and Narugami, two prickly people each trying to protect their friend and each, ultimately, beguiled by Eiko’s radiant inner beauty. The story is perfect as it is, but I can’t help but wish there was more of it. – Michelle Smith

Tales of Wedding Rings, Vol. 13 | By Maybe | Yen Press – I believe this was originally supposed to be the last volume, but apparently it did well enough to warrant a final arc. Having defeated the bad guy, and realizing that politics is going to take up most of his time now, the Ring King and his brides all head on back to Japan for a honeymoon. Part of this involves, amusingly, all of them transferring into his class at school, just in case anyone is reading this title for that sort of genre. But they aren’t. They’re reading this to see him boff his remaining wives, and we’re likely going to go in order of appearance, as Nefritis is getting everything just right for her to have a perfect first time, including a hot springs holiday. Honestly, the epilogue really should just be a lot of “and then they had sex.” Frustrated readers deserve that much. – Sean Gaffney

Tamon’s B-Side, Vol. 2 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – The most interesting part of this may be Utage’s utter devotion to being a FAN and not a girl/stalker/what have you. Sure, she’ll be his housekeeper, give him advice, and try to lift his spirits, but those are all part of the love she has for Tamon as an idol figure that she worships. When it sometimes seems that he might actually be starting to think of her as a real woman, she backs off and shuts him out to an extent. We also meet another member of his idol group, whose personality in this volume at least is “raging asshole.” I’m sure that will change—we already see signs he’s thinking of Utage because she’s rude to him rather than idolizing him—but at the moment I want him to fall off a cliff. The humor is still the main reason to read this—it’s hysterical much of the time. – Sean Gaffney

If the Villainess and Villain Met and Fell in Love ~ She Was All But Disowned for Her Spirit Contract, But She’s Still Competing with Her Rival ~, Vol. 2

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By Harunadon and Yomi Sarachi. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō to Akuyaku Reisoku ga, Deatte Koi ni Ochitanara: Nanashi no Seirei to Keiyaku Shite Oidasareta Reijō wa, Kyō mo Reisoku to Kisoiatte Iru Yō Desu” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Judy Jordan.

Last time, I said I enjoyed this more than I expected because it was a lot darker than I expected. The darkness doesn’t go away in the second book, but there’s a slight problem that makes this volume not quite as enjoyable. The book is also trying to be a sweet romance between Brigitte and Yuri, and it feels a bit jarring when put next to everything else that’s happened in the book. I would normally roll my eyes at Brigitte panicking and running away from Yuri with a red face, because it’s something we see in so many shoujo romances, but here I’m thinking “well, of course, this is all related to her trauma from everything that’s happened to her since she was five”. Which, there’s nothing wrong with that, but the author clearly is NOT expecting the reader to think that. The author is writing “look, isn’t she adorable?”.

Brigitte goes to visit Yuri’s home, where she meets his family (much to his chagrin), and also his other spirit, who gives her a handy tip as to why she can’t communicate or summon her spirit: it’s a fire spirit, and after her father’s actions as a child she’s terrified of fire. She tries to solve this by getting herself used to fire despite her fear, which doesn’t really go all that well, possibly as, when she reflects on everything that has happened since that incident, it’s not fire she’s afraid of: it’s everything. (Pantophobia!) This revelation causes her magic to simply explode into a giant pillar into the sky, seen by the entire kingdom, and when it settles down, she has a spirit! OK, it looks like a tiny yellow chick, and OK, she still can’t really communicate with it. But baby steps.

Not to spoil too much, but this would appear to be the last we see of Prince Joseph in this series, and holy shit I am so glad. If the series balances too far in one direction for cutesy romance scenes with Brigitte’s embarrassment taking center stage, Joseph is the opposite direction, as everything about him is awful and creepy. It’s laid out why pretty well – he grew up not being as good as his brothers, so wanted someone “stupider” around him to feel superior towards, then he had to manipulate Brigitte’s behavior when it turned out she wasn’t what he wanted. Worse, it turns out he really DOESN’T want someone genuinely dim – i.e. Lisa (who earns a few points here by stopping an attempted murder suicide) but merely a doormat. His last scene tosses in rape threats, murder threats, and a whole lot of arson, and he absolutely gets what’s coming to him, but again – this book needs to commit. Either be dark, or be cute, but the dissonance is too strong.

That said, inevitably Joseph is not the Big Bad, the Big Bad is the cause of all this bullshit, and he’s here for the nasty cliffhanger to this volume. I guess that ensures that the dissonance isn’t going away yet. If you can put up with it, this has some strong individual scenes.

Pick of the Week: Historical and Horror

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KATE: This week’s list has several tempting titles! In particular, I’m curious about two debuts: Nude Model and Other Stories and The Blue Wolves of Mibu, both of which look like the kind of grown-up fare I’ve been craving. I’ll also be picking up the fourth volume of Cat + Gamer—cute kitties for the win!—and My Name is Shingo, from the one and only Kazuo Umezz.

MICHELLE: I also think The Blue Wolves of Mibu looks interesting, but this week I am actually all about horror. My Name Is Shingo for me!

ANNA: The Blue Wolves of Mibu for me!

SEAN: I normally would not touch Kazuo Umezz with a ten-foot pole, as it’s the sort of horror that scares me, but I have had many, many people telling me to read this, so My Name Is Shingo is my pick this week.

ASH: It’s My Name Is Shingo for me, too! I will likewise admit to being curious about The Blue Wolves of Mibu and Nude Model and Other Stories, but I simply can’t pass up psychological horror robot manga.

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord, Vol. 4

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By Satori Tanabata and Tea. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō Level 99: Watashi wa Ura Boss Desu ga Maō dewa Arimasen” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by sachi salehi.

The anime is currently airing as I type this up, and it’s quite enjoyable, if very low budget. It’s also doing something very sensible, which a lot of series are doing lately: it’s adapting the manga, not the light novel. This is obvious if you watch any scene with Alicia, who is simply far more sympathetic and nice in the manga than she ever was in the LN. I’m not sure how the manga resolves the Alicia plotline, if it’s even gotten to that point yet, But I remember how the light novel did, with Alicia essentially under house arrest, and still traumatized by the finale of the first book. And, as it turns out, the author was rather jealous of how Alicia was handled in the manga. And so, after taking a couple of books off, Alicia returns for this new book. Unfortunately, this is still the light novel version of Alicia, which means that the reunion is more pathetic than anything else.

After resolving issues with her alternate universe self, there’s not really much standing between Yumiella and Patrick’s wedding… except for Yumiella, who suddenly realizes that a large wedding is exactly the sort of thing she doesn’t want. Given this, she naturally decides to fly to the moon. This doesn’t work out, so instead she plummets into the neighboring country of Lemlaesta… which you may recall is the country that Patrick’s mother despises. There she meets a man named Gilbert, who looks a lot like Patrick. And he has the same name as Patrick’s brother, something which Patrick just told Yumiella before all of this insanity happened. Naturally, she doesn’t recognize him. Incredibly, she also manages to fool (?) him into thinking she’s not Yumiella. Can the two densest people alive possibly manage to stop a war?

How much you enjoy this book may depend on how much you can tolerate Yumiella being even more of an airhead than usual. The anime reminds me just how far off the rails she’s gotten since the first volume, and she now rarely if ever manages to descend to anything resembling reality. There are a few times when I just wanted to throttle her, particularly when she tried to jump to the moon to run away from her problems. On the bright side, sometimes Yumiella being this dense really is very funny, and once you get behind the idea that she and Gilbert don’t know who the other one is, despite the 87 billion clues each one has, you just roll with it and laugh. And yes, Alicia comes back. More interesting than her actions in this book (which are predictable as hell) is the fact that she’s being trained to be a weapon that will be deployed in case the country’s bomb (Yumiella) goes off. I’d feel bad for her if it weren’t for, well… (waves hand at everything Alicia does in this book).

I didn’t even mention Yumiella measuring her new level, which leads to some of the best jokes but also sets up the final confrontation. Oh yes, and Yumiella sprouting wings like an Evangelion shout out. In any case, despite Yumiella starting to get a bit *too* dense, this is still a series I enjoy.

The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain, Vol. 1

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

As I was reading this volume, I thought about the simple fact that there are too many villainess books at the moment. It’s inevitable, of course, just as there are too many isekai books (though that’s slowing down a bit), and that we briefly had too many high school romance books before that bubble quickly burst. And so I start to drill this new series down into subcategories. There’s no Japan or otome games involved, which is nice. Aside from the time travel, there’s no magic here. It’s one of those “person goes back in time” series like Tearmoon Empire, though this series is far more serious than Tearmoon. As expected, “becoming the ultimate villain” mostly involves things like trying to be a good person and avoid making the same mistakes, rather than “getting revenge” or anything. And, unfortunately, its biggest weakness is one that many other villainess books possess: there’s a “heroine” as well, and in order to balance against our clever villainess, the heroine is an amazingly annoying dipshit. Anti-Maria Campbell Syndrome.

Unlike a lot of other villainesses in this genre, Claudia Lindsey really was an annoying, petty villainess who tried to sabotage her half-sister Fermina, and is somewhat poleaxed to find that everyone hates her and she is not only not engaged to the Prince, but she’s being sent to a nunnery. Things do not improve when, on the way to the nunnery, her carriage is beset by bandits and she’s kidnapped and sold into a brothel. She spends the next few years there. maturing and realizing how shallow and selfish she had been. She also becomes a top-notch sex worker. Unfortunately, her one main ally dies from disease, and a couple of years later Claudia also passes away… and wakes up ten years earlier, in her 14-year-old body, on the day of her mother’s funeral. After realizing what’s happened, she takes advantage of “grieving” for her mother to completely redo her personalty, gain actual allies, and avoid the fate which Fermina manipulated her into last time. Because oh yes, Fermina is not a nice person, regardless of the timeline.

The strengths and weaknesses of this book are similar to other “serious” villainess books. The weakness is Fermina, who despises Claudia for having the life she feels she deserves, but without Claudia being shallow and vapid, Fermina can’t achieve anything she did in the past timeline, and is reduced to a one-note character we’re happy to see the back of at the end of the book. The strength is Claudia, who I greatly enjoyed. I liked that she is 10 years older in mind but still has room to mature, and in fact a lot of her actions are driven by her terror of Fermina somehow gaining the upper hand on her again. I also appreciate that this is a heroine who is allowed to have a libido: we don’t see her sex work, but she’s certainly more experienced in flirting than a woman of her age and noble status should be, and her growing horror as she realizes that teenage hormones means that she’s not able to put a lid on things as much as she’d like to is amusing. I also enjoyed her casual bisexuality, as she admits she finds one of the prince’s bridal candidates to be just as enticing as the prince.

The rest of the cast are good but stereotypical: the sadistic prince who loves Claudia because he can’t tell what she’s thinking; the beleaguered aide, the doting older brother, and the ludicrously loyal maid (who is her former mentor at the brothel in her former life, because nobles rescuing women from terrible fates and making them household workers is another villainess cliche). If you’re looking for something new, look elsewhere. If you’re happy with more of the same, this is quite good. It also feels like it ended with this volume, but there’s 4+ more out in Japan, so…

You Are My Regret, Vol. 1

by

By Shimesaba and Ui Shigure. Released in Japan as “Kimi wa Boku no Regret” by Dash X Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andria McKnight.

As with the author’s previous series, I wasn’t going to originally be reading this at all. Mostly that’s because the author’s previous series was Higehiro, and the first volume of that annoyed me in about 8,000 different ways. The other reason is that it has a title and cover art that made me think it was another of Yen’s many “license the novel based on a new animated Japanese movie starring a young teenage couple whose love is perfect and yet also tragic”, and I’ve kind of gone off those. But then I saw it was none of those, that’s it’s a romantic drama which tries to dig into the concept of “free spirits”, being selfish about being selfless, and how middle school students are dumbasses who can’t talk to each other. Honestly, the same holds true in high school, which is why this is a romantic drama and not a comedy. Everyone is in love and it’s killing them inside.

Back in middle school, Yuzuru and Ai dated. She had confessed to him, and he loved being around her. They walked around, did couple-y things, etc. But eventually the pressure of thinking that Ai was the sort who shouldn’t be tied down to anyone and should live her life freely got to be too much for Yuzuru, and he broke up with her while badly communicating this. Shortly afterwards, her family moved away,. and he now contents himself with sitting in the literature club classroom, reading, and being completely oblivious to the feelings of angry tsundere Kaoru. Unfortunately for him, Ai has moved back and is transferring into their school. Even worse, she’s still in love with him. Can they manage to recover their relationship and figure out what went wrong in the first place?

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. That’s actually a plus, because it means that it rises ahead of Higehiro. Unfortunately, it does that by actually taking place in high school and featuring kids the same age, meaning it doesn’t have 90% of what made Higehiro annoying. It does have the remaining 10%, which is Yuzuru, the male love interest. I want to push him into a canal. That said, I get it. He’s a high school kid. He’s also one of those “cool intellectuals” who really isn’t, and fails to understand how women think or even that they do. I really pity poor Kaoru, who not only is clearly in love with this schmuck but also has to take him by the hand and lead him to the actual clue, that clue being that when you break up with someone because you feel dating them is too selfish, you need to ask yourself what it means to be dating, AND talk to the other person. As for Ai, I am honestly not sure it’s healthy for her to BE dating him at this point, but I suppose that’s what fiction is for. She is a ball of energy and angst, and I hope we get more depth about her in the next two books (a 2nd book from her perspective would help, but I’m not expecting that.)

This is a compact three volumes in Japan, so it should resolve things fairly quickly. I wasn’t wild about it, but I’ll try another volume. Just remember that teenagers are idiots.