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My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, Vol. 1

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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.

I’ve said this before, but sometimes you just want McDonald’s. You know that you could walk two more blocks and go to a nice steakhouse or an expensive Asian restaurant, but you can’t have that every day, and you feel like McNuggets, dammit. Sure, you’re probably going to get some bad along with the good, but you at least know exactly what you’re getting and are not surprised. This applies, believe it or not, to light novels as well. Sometimes I want to be amazed and transported to another world by wings of song, etc. And sometimes I want to read a harem comedy where the hero is as dense as lead and the heroines are all variations on “I hate you because I love you”. Good news! This book is McDonald’s. It won’t blow you away, but it will fill you up, and you know what? It came with a nice Apple Pie as a treat. (Have I finished grinding this metaphor into the dirt? Yes? Let’s get to the plot.)

Akiteru is our main character, and he has a lot on his plate. He’s the head of an amateur game development group, their new release is selling great, and he wants a job with his uncle, who runs a MUCH LARGER game company. The uncle agrees, on one condition: that he pretend to be his cousin’s boyfriend for the next year. She’s transferred schools after being bullied. And then there’s the titular little sister, who has apparently been reading the books of Takagi, Uzaki and Nagatoro and taken them to heart. She flirts aggressively with Akiteru, whose one main fault, as with most LN protagonists, is a complete inability to recognize anything as love. To him, her flirting is just plain mean bullying. And as for his cousin, well, she hates him too. Right?

To get the bad out of the way, there’s a character here who can be summed up as “shotacon”, and it’s as annoying as you’d expect. Also, the “friend” in the title gets very little to do, but I am hoping future books will change that. The reason I am hoping this is because the book’s chief strength is balancing out the love triangle that is forming around Akiteru with the game group he’s created, a tight-knit group of friends. Mashiro, the cousin, is the seeming newcomer to the group (though she has a rather obvious secret), and most of the second half is getting her introduced, loosening her up, and dealing with the bullying she had to content with at her previous school. I enjoyed that. Iroha, the little sister, is terrific, being obnoxious in the fun way rather than the irritating way. As for Akiteru, he’s hard to get a handle on. He does nice things, but his narration is basically “grumpy old cuss”, and he needs a shot in the arm of idealism. He’s not as bad as, say, Hachiman, but it can make him hard to read on occasion.

This just had an anime announced, and it’s not hard to see why – it isn’t due to the quality of the writing, it’s due to the fact that it checks a whole lot of ‘this should be an anime’ boxes. Despite reservations (see above), I think it’s the best of the three GA Bunko romcoms that J-Novel Club recently licensed. Fans of that genre who don’t mind the usual dense hero should get a kick out of this.

Slayers: The Silver Beast

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By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

This book really is starting to feel like the anime series by now, and not just because this is the first book to feature the “main cast” all together. The characterization is getting a bit broader – Gourry is dumber, Amelia is more justice-oriented, etc. I’d say the exception would be Lina, but as we see towards the end of the book, her own narration skews some things to make herself look smarter and savvier than she sometimes is. Zelgadis is back as well, though he’s still sort of the kinder, mellower Zelgadis at this point, at least when a cure for his chimera form is not being discussed. And, of course, as the cover shows, this is the book where we first meet up with a certain mysterious priest – though the volume alternates between “priest” and “monk” – who likes to tell everyone that things are a secret. With Xellos now joining us as well, it feels like the books may be headed for a climax… except they’re still pretty much stand alone.

While beating the crap out of random bandits, Lina, Gourry and Amelia run into a mysterious woman who ends up sealing Lina’s magic, then tells them to follow her to a nearby city, where it turns out there is a satanic cult! OK, it’s the Slayers equivalent of Satan, Shabranigdu, but still. Unfortunately, after another altercation, Amelia is captured and Gourry vanishes, leaving Lina on her own trying to meet back up with them again – and to kill the woman who sealed her magic, as that’s what will break the seal. She gets help on this end from Xellos, who is looking for a rumored copy of the legendary Claire Bible. As is Zelgadis, who’s also wandering around. Everything converges on the cult, who, as it turns out, are resurrecting the legendary Zanaffar, which turns out to be both a monster… and also not.

These books are still very short, so there’s not much room for characterization or plot development. Indeed, one grumble I had is that, after being set up as the Big Bad of the book, the woman who sealed Lina’s magic is killed casually, offscreen, by Xellos and never mentioned again. You get the sense that these books were very much written on the fly, without going back and checking on things. They’re still fun, though, with lots of big battles and dangerous moments for our heroes. Zel/Amelia shippers won’t get much from this book, as they barely interact, though they do seem to get along better than their anime selves. Lina/Gourry shippers don’t get much more, but after getting into an argument (and Lina hitting Gourry with a bedroom slipper she stuck into her backpack just so she could hit Gourry with it) Amelia tells them to stop it with the Couples Therapy. Which is cute.

Oddly, by the end of the book Xellos remains merely “a mysterious priest”, albeit a very powerful and suspicious one. I’m sure that will change. In any case, an9ime fans will be happy to see a lot of what drove slayers Next popping up here, and light novels fans will enjoy a relatively snack-sized action series.

Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On?! ~A Sign-on-the-Line Wedding Story~, Vol. 5

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By Tsuredurebana and Rin Hagiwara. Released in Japan as “Dareka Kono Joukyou wo Setsumei Shite Kudasai! ~Keiyaku Kara Hajimaru Wedding~” by ArianRose. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Emily Hemphill.

For all those whose favorite part of this series is the disconnect between Viola’s opinion of herself and what everyone else thinks of her, I have delightful news: this book is entirely about that. Indeed, at this point I think the most interesting – and impressive – part of the book is how no one is really sitting Viola down and explaining anything to her. They’re content to merely praise her, let it flow in one ear and out the other, and watch as she slowly (very slowly) figures things out. Now, part of this is that the writer doesn’t want her to suddenly wise up, as that means the series would almost be over. But it also shows that it’s Viola who needs to make the change and realize that she really is a gorgeous, trendy person. This also applies to her marriage – Cercis continues to be content – mostly – in waiting patiently for her to recognize his feelings. She’s still not there yet.

The book begins still on their belated honeymoon, and the most important thing that happens is when they tour the Fisalis mines and Viola takes a liking to the sapphires that have been left behind (because the miners are after the rarer rubies). Cersis decides to make these sapphires – which he renames Viola Sapphires – the hot new thing, and to have her show off how gorgeous they are. Of course, this also means she finally has to go out to parties again, so sadly very little puttering around in her maid outfit in this book. That said, as the book goes on, Viola slowly realizes that fashion and tastes have changed since she was last at an event – and everyone is now following HER. Even the blond ojou, who’d dropped her princess curls and upped her tsundere. Viola also now seems to get that Cersis really does love her. As for her own feelings… work in progress.

There’s a lot of good humor in this book. Some of it is overt, such as everything about the sapphires and Viola’s embarrassment, or Viola, after her near kidnapping in the last book, learning self-defense (and finding her maids all have daggers strapped to their thighs, which she calls sexy). Some of it is more subtle, mostly as Viola’s constant self-deprecation has become both amusing and annoying. Again, all Viola sees when she looks at herself is plain, flat-chested, and gawky, but she fails to realize that she’s basically Twiggy, setting the trend that everyone else has started to follow. Her bafflement at seeing all the other young women at the parties wearing simple hairdos and dresses is really funny. That said… I really hope we are reaching the end of Viola’s endearing bafflement soon. There is only so long you can string this out. I realize that we may never see her have a good opinion about her looks, but maybe we could at least get her to fall in love a bit? (I’d wonder if she’s ace, but this is not that kind of series.)

Despite a bit of frustration, this is a strong volume in a series that runs on light froth, and for those who want to see Viola walking arounnd looking stunning, it’s a must read.

Are You Okay With a Slightly Older Girlfriend?, Vol. 1

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By Kota Nozomi and Nanasemeruchi. Released in Japan as “Choppiri Toshiue Demo Kanojo ni Shite Kuremasu ka?” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean Orth.

It has to be said, Japan views May-December romances differently than we do here in the West. You only have to pick up any shoujo magazine to find at least one story where a girl is quietly dating her teacher. In real life, relationships between older men and younger women are still pretty common in Japan – and indeed, we even get one in this book, as the heroine’s friend Yuki is married to a man twelve years older than her. That said, this book is really trying to hit a different level. The author states up front their goal, once commissioned to write a light novel, was to write something starring an older woman, and that GA Bunko rejected this at first. The author has done other successful series with GA Bunko, including When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, and so probably got this after amassing enough brownie points. Now, at last, they can write the story of a 27-year-old OL who ends up dating a 15-year-old high school student… ergh.

One day, Momota rescues a high school girl, Hime, from a molester on a train. She thanks him, and they seem to immediately bond. They exchange numbers. That said, he did notice that if she was wearing that school uniform, it was a bit small for her busty frame. And also that her school is in the opposite direction. What’s more, her gaming talk seems somewhat… old-fashioned? After a cute date, he works up the nerve to confess, which is when she breaks down, rejects him, and tells the truth: she’s a 27-year-old office worker who, due to various drunken circumstances, was wearing her friend’s school uniform that day. He’s somewhat poleaxed, but his feelings are not changing. And, she finally admits, she’s fallen in love with him as well. They both know that this is wrong, and they’d be in huge trouble if it became public, but they decide to date anyway.

It tries, I’ll grand you that. Everyone in the book who is not the two leads tells them not to do this. Unfortunately, they’re all subsequently won over by the couple’s passionate love. The two of them are not very good at dating or romance, particularly Hime, and their failure to properly communicate drives the last half of the book, even lasting into the final section, where they decide to go on a overnight trip/date so no one knows who they are… but he comes in a suit, and she comes in a uniform, and O. Henry plays a sad trombone. But the main issue with the book is that I cannot root for these two to work it out and be a couple. Hime is so immature at times she feels like the teenager, and she is totally not ready to date anyone, much less a high school student. Momota is earnest and nice and also pretty damn boring. There is an excruciating scene where she invites him to spend the night to play games and they both end up thinking that it’s actually for sex. It’s meant to be funny and adorable, and instead I wanted to punch the book. It tries to sell its premise, and fails badly.

This has 6+ volumes in Japan, so clearly I am not its intended audience. If you’re a teenage boy, I think you might like this, though please try not to emulate it in real life. For everyone else, though, you can actually judge this book by its title and cover.

The King’s Beast, Vol 1

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The King’s Beast Volume 1 by Rei Toma

I liked Dawn of the Arcana, but The Water Dragon’s Bride was a big step up for Rei Toma artistically. I was extremely curious to read The King’s Beast, which returns to the world of Dawn of the Arcana but with an interesting twist. I was more intrigued by this series when I realized that instead of the quasi-Medieval European setting of Dawn of the Arcana, The King’s Beast was set in a kingdom that resembled historical China. What both series do have in common is an uneasy societal structure where humans live aside Ajin, humanoids who have beast-like features and occasionally special abilities. Ajin are systematically subjugated and forced to serve humans. The manga opens with Rangetsu, a female Ajin who has disguised herself as a boy in order to become a servant prince Tenyou. Her twin brother Sogetsu died in the prince’s service when they were young and now she’s determined to get her revenge.

One of the strongest aspects of The Water Dragon’s Bride was Toma’s exploration of the darker side of humanity and the hope found despite the darkness. This also seems like a continuing theme in The King’s Beast, as the Ajin face severe discrimination, and Rangetsu’s desperation for revenge shows how much pain she’s faced in her life so far. I always enjoy the way Toma paces out her stories, and once Rangetsu is in place she quickly learns that Tenyou wasn’t responsible for her brother’s death, and actually mourns him. There’s plenty of palace intrigue in store as Rangetsu tries to figure out her place as the prince’s new Ajin servant and Tenyou starts realizing what Rangetsu’s motivations are. Toma illustrates her manga with a clear, delicate style but she also pulls of plenty of dynamic action scenes as Rangetsu’s fighting abilities are challenged. This volume did a great job at setting up the dynamic between the two main characters and the political intrigue to come seems like it will be plenty challenging. There’s also a great bonus story for The Water Dragon’s Bride fans included at the end of the volume.

The Reincarnated Prince and the Haloed Sage

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By Nobiru Kusunoki and Arico. Released in Japan as “Herscherik” by M Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Adam Seacord.

This does not fall into the “Villainess Otome” genre of books – for one thing, Prince Herscherik is absolutely not a villain. Nor is it a game at all, but a real, very messy world that he lives in. But there are certainly otome game elements in the books, and it really has to be said that Herscherik, although male in this universe, is building up quite the reverse harem for himself. In the first book it was the dark assassin, in the second it was the fallen knight. And here, as the title might suggest, it’s the broken mage, a young man who is so beautiful that he’s always mistaken for a woman, and who is inextricably bound to the Church. Now, there is also another tortured soul to be saved in this book. Alas, she’s an assassin when we already have one of those, AND she’s a woman in what is becoming, as I said, a reverse harem. Since she’s not the Haloed Sage, it is not hard to see where her arc is going.

It’s been a few months after the last book, and Herscherik is going to be turning seven soon. Clearly it’s time to marry him off. Or so thinks the evil Grand Vizier… erm, Marquis, who has decided to try to beat that pesky youngest prince by having Hersch marry his daughter Violetta. He also has an older daughter, Jeanne, who basically acts as Violetta’s bodyguard and minder, but she has… a different job she’s doing for him. Surprisingly, the engagement goes fairly well – Hersch is simply incapable of being mean to people who don’t deserve it, and Violetta falls for him hard. He also has to deal with the aforementioned beautiful mage, who he names Shiro (to with with Kuro), who is rather startled that Hersch is not terrified by his magic. (Hersch, who can’t do magic, just thinks he’s cool.) And oh yes, there are still assassination attempts. Will Hersch be able to avoid tragedy? Well, yes but also no.

In this book we finally meet the rest of Hersch’s immediate siblings, and I love the fact that they are all basically on the same page as he is, even though they’re trying to protect him just as he’s trying to protect them. It leads to a lack of communication between the sides, but also shows off that while the royals are dealing with a weak king who is being tortured by his evil Marquis, they’re overall good people who are trying to fix this. The triplets were particularly fun, though I’m not sure having one of the brothers being a tsundere sort really works out. I also loved the part that shows us Ryoko’s life if she had not been run over by a car, which shows off a) how she tended to be overly self-effacing and modest even back in Japan, and also b) she’s very clever at spotting traps.

The book in general is excellent, with occasional suggestions of future events a la Legend of Galactic Heroes. For the moment, however, things are not looking good for Herscerik and his family, and I suspect the fourth book will rapidly reach a crisis point. Till then, absolutely recommended for J-Novel Heart or reincarnation isekai fans.

Outbreak Company, Vol. 16

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By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha Light Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

I accidentally typed “Outbreak Company, Vol. 167” while putting in the title of the review, and while that’s a typo, it also feels too real. The series is not really doing anything wrong at this point – indeed, I am grateful that Shinichi talks about boobs less in this book than in any of the previous ones – but it still feels like something that has gone on for far too long. I suspect the author knows that as well – he says he’s going to try to end the series with the 17th volume, though we already know he had to make it 18. He’s also doing his best to wrap up as much as he can – the war between Eldant and Bahairam, the rapidly melting down nuclear reactor form the last volume, and of course the question of who Shinichi will end up with – if he can end up with ANYONE, given this is his own far future. But most importantly for the future of the series, Japan is pulling out of Eldant once and for all, and probably taking everyone with them.

Petralka’s on the cover, but don’t expect much from her – much as she would like to go help with the meltdown, she’s the ruler and can’t leave. As for said meltdown, it’s complicated by several things. Bahairam is sending in troops to kill everyone, even though their own forces don’t seem to be particularly united. Only a human has the access to shut down the reactor, and it needs to be a human who’s been in the powered suit we’ve seen for the last few volumes, which leaves out Minori. Oh yes, and Myusel is not only taken hostage by the bag guys, but after escaping that falls into the Earth’s crust. She’s reaching Doctor Who companion levels. Fortunately, Shinichi and Minori are given a secret weapon to resolve most of this: the power to live out their wildest otaku fantasies.

I won’t spoil what they actually do, as it’s probably the comedy highlight of the book. I will note that Shinichi is not having the best of days. Leaving aside the whole ‘nuclear reactor melting down’ thing, and the fact that he is once again the only person with no powers in the middle of a war zone, there’s the fact that I think he’s subconsciously made up his mind about who the girl he loves is. I’m not sure if the book will end with them together – certainly there’s a couple of things that happen here that suggest it would be difficult – but yeah, it’s not going to be anyone other than Myusel at this point. (Speaking of which, the discussion Shinichi has with her about death flags may be the other comedy highlight.) Things are temporarily resolved here, but I suspect things may get very sticky – and political – in the next book.

With only two volumes to go after this, you may as well keep reading. It’s actually a decent volume in the series. But I’m more weary than anything else.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 3

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By Riku Misora and Sacraneco. Released in Japan as “Choujin Koukousei-tachi wa Isekai demo Yoyuu de Ikinuku you desu!” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

I’m not even sure where to begin. It’s sad that this is a book where our heroes literally fire a nuclear weapon that destroys a stronghold, and yet that isn’t even close to the most appalling thing that happens in it. I am familiar with the light novel cliche where, in order to show that your morally vague heroes are on the side of goodness and niceness, you need to show that the bad guys are evil, raping the virgins and biting the heads off kittens sort of guys so that the audience says “they had it coming” to any punishment they may get. I had thought dropping In Another World with My Smartphone would mean I might see the end of that. And yet here we are. For now, I will merely content myself with saying lobotomies are bad, were historically mostly done on women, and please do not use them as what amounts to a comedy punchline – even if I grant you the author does not want us to find it funny.

Keine’s on the cover, and also gets the biggest fanservice in the book. The plot of this volume mostly involves gearing up for the next steps – trying to get a republic started. Tsukasa does not want him and his geniuses to stay here forever, of course, and knows that a democracy band-aid is not going to cut it. And “the nobles rule, we just serve” is pretty ingrained into the people. More troubling is that they’re running out of penicillin (which Keine and Lyrule take care of, inventing sulfa drugs) and the other nations are starting to want to stop this before it goes too far. And let’s not even get into the fact that the supposed saviors the Blue Brigade are actually mostly bad guys. It’s getting so that he can’t even go out on a note date with the girl who’s crushing on him!

So yes, I could have done without the entire Keine chapter, which seems to simply show off that she’s a sociopath. And, as I noted, we get not one but TWO sets of villains who talk about raping young women. The best chapter in the book, hands down, was Ringo’s date with Tsukasa, and its general tone of “you are already losing to the girl who got the cover of Volume 1, do something or you will not be able to catch up”. The date went well considering Ringo’s extreme introversion (we also learn about her past, which is sort of what I expected) and Tsukasa’s deliberate obliviousness. She also gets the emotional climax, where it’s her turn to remind Tsukasa that he is in fact a real human being who is allowed to feel things, and this time it’s Lyrule who’s on the outside looking in.

That said, in a series about establishing a new political landscape and finding ways to defeat bad guys who seem to be unkillable, the fact that I’m focusing on the love triangle is not a good sign. The High School Prodigies may be having it easy, but they’re giving me trouble.

Manga the Week of 2/10/21

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SEAN: Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the manga is so delightful.

Airship has an early digital release of Berserk of Gluttony 2 and the print release of Adachi and Shimamura 4.

Cross Infinite World has a one-shot shoujo light novel, As The Villainess, I Reject These Happy-Bad Endings! (Watashi, Tensei Akuyaku Reijōnanode, Meribaendo wa Soshi sa Sete Itadakimasu!). You can probably guess the plot from the title. This also has material in it that was not in the Japanese volume.

J-Novel Club has two digital debuts. Are You Okay With a Slightly Older Girlfriend? (Choppiri Toshiue Demo Kanojo ni Shite Kuremasu ka?) is from GA Bunko, and is about a couple of high school kids who get together… then he finds she’s actually 12 years older than him. This… could be bad, to be honest, but Japan does love those age gap romances.

ASH: That is true; those stories have been around since at least the 11th century.

SEAN: The other debut just had an anime announced. My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me! (Tomodachi no Imouto ga Ore ni dake Uzai) is also GA Bunko, which seems to have given J-Novel Club its non-fantasy romcom titles. A guy is constantly belittled by his friend’s sister. But, when he has to pretend to be the boyfriend of the daughter of his boss, will her real feelings come out? Erm… yeah, I’ll try this too, but these two debuts summarize badly.

Also from J-Novel Club, we get The Bloodline 2, Cooking with Wild Game 11, and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles 13.

Kaiten Books has a new digital manga release, The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting (Kumichou Musume to Sewagakari). This runs in Micro Magazine’s Comic Ride. It seems like one of those “bruiser guy brought to heel by a tiny little girl” sorts of titles. Cute and funny, in other words.

MICHELLE: Hm.

ASH: Oh, I often enjoy that particular sub-genre.

SEAN: No print debuts for Kodansha, but we do get A Couple of Cuckoos 2, Knight of the Ice 5, Something’s Wrong with Us 5, and The Witch and the Beast 4.

MICHELLE: I need to get caught back up on Knight of the Ice!

ANNA: Me too, I really enjoy this series.

ASH: It has been fun, so far!

SEAN: Digitally, the debut is Boss’s Wife (Gokukon ~Chou Dekiai Yakuza to Keiyaku Kekkon!?~), which runs in Ane Friend. A girl with a huge debt runs into a former classmate… who turns out to be a yakuza. He’ll buy her debt if she becomes his bride. Can she be a Yakuza wife? Man, the summaries this week are just brutal.

MICHELLE: I swore I thought this one looked kind of fun, but this summary is making me rethink that assessment.

SEAN: Also digitally: Ashidaka: The Iron Hero 2, the 28th and final volume of Domestic Girlfriend, the 12th and final volume of Kakushigoto: My Dad’s Secret Ambition, Peach Boy Riverside 4, Saint Young Men 9, Tokyo Revengers 19, and We Must Never Fall in Love 6.

One Peace has a 12th volume of Hinamatsuri.

A debut yuri manga from Seven Seas, Even Though We’re Adults (Otona ni Natte mo). From the creator of Aoi Hana and Wandering Son, this josei title runs in Kodansha’s Kiss magazine. A woman meets an old friend, they go out and more… then she finds the friend has a husband. Didn’t this sort of drama stop in high school? This one I’m definitely excited for.

MICHELLE: Me, too!

ANNA: This sounds interesting.

ASH: I’ve really been looking forward to this one.

MJ: I’d read anything from this creator, so count me in!

SEAN: There’s also a 12th Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho.

Square Enix has a 2nd volume of The Apothecary Diaries manga.

ASH: I still need to read the first volume, but i’m fairly confident this is a series I will greatly enjoy.

MJ: I have a soft spot for Square Enix basically always, and I need to get around to this, too.

SEAN: SuBLime has a new title, MADK. It runs in Printemps Shuppan’s BL magazine Canna, and MADK stands for Motsu Akuma to Danshi Koukousei. Seems to be rather bloody and violent, and has demons.

ASH: I am intrigued!

MJ: I like everything in this description, so yes!

SEAN: There’s a 10th volume of Finder’s Deluxe Edition, subtitled Honeymoon, and Given 5 from SuBLime as well.

ASH: I’m a volume or so behind on Given; this would be a good opportunity for me to catch up.

SEAN: Viz has Frozen 2: the Manga, a tie-in I would normally ignore except it’s by Arina Tanemura. Don’t expect an Idol Dreams crossover.

ANNA: I’m normally all about any Arina Tanemura manga but not sure I’m super stoked for a Frozen adaptation.

SEAN: Viz also has Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition 12, Hayate the Combat Butler 37, Komi Can’t Communicate 11, Pokemon Adventures Collector’s Edition 6, and A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow 6.

MJ: Always here for new readers getting into Fullmetal Alchemist (or long-time fans expanding their collections), so I’ll always cheer for that!

SEAN: And Yen has some stragglers from January that got bumped. Including a debut, the manga version of The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat. The LN of this came out at the end of December. The manga runs in Kadokawa’s Young Ace Up.

And finally, after what I swear were 6 or 7 delays, the 4th manga volume of I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level.

Since we’ve no place to go, what manga are you reading?

Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts with a Village, Vol. 2

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By Mizuumi Amakawa and Mai Okuma. Released in Japan as “Fushi no Kami: Henkyou kara Hajimeru Bunmei Saiseiki” by Overlap. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Maurice Alesch.

Not to spoil or anything, but around 4/5 of the way through this second volume, a demon monster shows up. It startled me, as the entire book before this had essentially been ‘let’s learn how to make fertilizer’ and ‘tomatoes are awesome!’. What I said when reviewing the first book goes double for this one: it’s a slow life book where the slow life is running at top speed. Indeed, the inability of anyone to stop Ash and his ideas becomes a running gag. But then ‘rebuilding civilization’ is in the title, and it can’t be denied that Ash’s ideas are very good. So the demon monster, just like the bear from the first book, is there to give Ash a chance to be a more typical hero, one that can fight against huge antagonists rather than simply be an intellectual. It’s a good fight, too. That said, I think I like Ash casually tipping over all preconceptions of what society is like a bit better than stabbing a creature through the eye.

Ash and Maika have arrived at the nearest city to continue their educations. It’s not the grandest city in the world… Ash is unimpressed. But it’s certainly got more books than his village had, and maybe here he can learn to make better fertilizer. His roommate is Arthur, a noble who is actually a girl disguising herself as a boy. Ash, sensing tragic backstory, doesn’t let on he’s guessed this and merely gives Arthur space every morning and evening. They’re theoretically there to learn reading adn writing, but both know how already, so instead Maika works on her martial arts and swordsmanship, and Ash works on overthrowing all common sense. He makes liquid soap… which turns out to be illegal, but eh. Semantics. He grows delicious tomatoes… which everyone thinks are poisonous, and he has to research why. Can he drag this city kicking and screaming into the modern world? And can Maika ever get through to Ash that she’s in love with him?

As with the first volume, the POV here alternates between Ash and various other characters to show both things happening when he’s not around/unconscious, or to show how others react to his eccentricities. Maika is the most interesting of these, as it’s become clear that her love for Ash is burgeoning on obsession, as she talks about making sure she’s worthy to stand at his side. Honestly, there’s a very messianic quality about Ash in general, not helped by the author’s afterwords supposedly being written years later showing us Fushi no Kami as a “history textbook”. The other main character introduced here is Arthur, and I was rather surprised that we only got a few hints of their rather unhappy life to date, and don’t get into the reason for the disguise. Arthur is mostly miserable, meaning their fake smiles piss Maika off, and seeing the three of them bond is the heartwarming part of the book.

Ash may not have magic swords or fireballs, but in his own way he’s just as OP as other isekai heroes. How much you enjoy this book might depend on how much you can tolerate everyone worshiping the ground he walks on. That said, it’s a very readable book, and you never feel bored, even when discussing things like “I need seaweed in order to take the next step in my plan”.

Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight, Vol. 10

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By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

Now that Veight has pretty much succeeded in uniting the continent, and Airia is settling in as the new Demon Lord (and also getting pregnant, which answers that whole ‘can werewolves and humans mate?’ question from the last book), the book have been branching out into other unrelated countries, showing how they really need Veight to come in and shake things up. His trip to Wa was fairly straightforward and normal, despite the past life shenanigans, but this time things are a lot more difficult, and Veight is going to be forced to take action despite wanting nothing more than to stay by Airia’s side. Oh yes, and teach young students how to be a good leader. In fact, this book may be outdoing Realist Hero on the subject of running a country, and it also does not need to venerate Machiavelli, which is always a plus. Most of all, though, we get a really nasty and horrible villain here, something we haven’t seen in these books for a while.

Kuwol, a southern kingdom with lots of sea transport, is getting close to a civil war between two varieties of nobility and a rather shallow and brainless king. Veight is trying his best to stay out of it, knowing that they don’t have the ships to send a huge army and also don’t want to get involved in foreign affairs, but as things go further south, and Parker goes missing, he is forced to act. What he finds is that one of the groups of nobles has hired mercenaries to supplement their forces, led by Zagar, who is a thoroughly reprehensible man who nevertheless commands intense loyalty from those at his command. Veight doesn’t trust him, but is not particularly a violent man, so is content to wait and watch and try to make things better for the civilians caught in the war. Unfortunately, this proves unwise as Zagar has grander plans than a simple civil war.

The main plot is pretty much what you’d expect, and the author says in the afterword he wanted to show Veight’s hands-off approach being the wrong choice. That said, there are lots of little details in this book I liked. Seeing Veight’s young students trying to come up with forward thinking ideas. Airia’s absolutely awful morning sickness, and Veight feeling somewhat helpless to do anything for her. There’s a moment near the end when Zagar offers Veight three of the former lord’s mistresses for pleasure, and Veight, naturally, is uninterested in anything but Airia. However, Zagar is determined to second the women to Veight’s company (are they spies?) and so asks if they can be secretaries, and they promptly show off a savviness that I quite liked. That said, the brutality of the final scenes is start, and we’re left with a cliffhanger that makes us wonder how Veight is going to handle things without the whole nation falling apart.

The next book is supposed to be the last book in the “main series”, though I know there’s at least one after it. I suppose peace and prosperity are harder to write about, which is probably why Veight is traveling to a civil war. In the meantime, Der Werwolf remains very underrated, and has a minimum of Veight being super modest this time around.

Bookshelf Briefs 2/2/21

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All Sean, all the time.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 13 | By Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – The series is still striking a good balance between, on the one hand, the world of magic and the supernatural, which is by its nature secretive, distrusting and filled with nasty murder and betrayals, as we see with Lucy’s backstory. And on the other hand we have Chise, who is not quite on the levels of a Tohru, but still tends to be kind to others and have them want to be kind right back to her. She also has connections the school does not know about, as when Lucy finds out that Chise and her brother Seth are far better connected than she expects. Elias is still there, but the “Bride” part of the story has faded into the background in this arc, and honestly I enjoy it better now. – Sean Gaffney

A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Vol. 11 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Arata Yamaji | Seven Seas – It’s become fairly clear that, while Index is a giant magic vs. fantasy battle novel with harem elements, and Railgun prides itself on its action and strong women, Accelerator’s spinoff is dedicated to the darkness, to try to see how horrifying we can get Academy City. As we see here, and indeed in previous volumes, there seems to be no bottom to the nefarious experiments on Academy students that are performed in the name of Science. And while Accelerator may still be calling himself a villain, he’s also making sure that other “experiments” that are suffering get rescued. Well, hopefully—the arc isn’t over yet, and a happy ending is not guaranteed. – Sean Gaffney

The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess, Vol. 1 | By Toka Akiharu | Yen Press – This falls into the ‘great idea, execution not so much’ bin. The premise is lights out—not only is our heroine the villainess, and doomed to be murdered… but it’s her own junior high story! What’s worse, she was at an age when “dark” was sexy, so the heroine is always threatened with rape, which she has to stop so as not to get killed. Unfortunately, the manga itself falls prey to Hakusensha Syndrome, which is when the art in a book is so busy and the textual asides so thick that it gets very messy. It was sort of nostalgic, as it reminded me of the old CMX/Tokyopop days, but this could have used a bit more room to breathe. – Sean Gaffney

Mama Akuma, Vol. 1 | By Kuzushiro | Yen Press – This was pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be when I first heard about the premise. A demon who takes pride in always filling every request is summoned… by a fourth-grader who wants him to be her mama. This is hard. He takes on the form of her late mother… no, not that. She wants him to fill the role of a mother, mostly as her dad is rarely home and her older brother is, well, a teenager. The reason it’s heartwarming to read is that, by dealing with her, the demon is gradually starting to realize that all the time he fulfilled those wishes of death and destruction, it was NOT what his clients really wanted. Now he can learn about humanity. And also bond with her family. Definitely reading more of this. – Sean Gaffney

Murcielago, Vol. 16 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – Perhaps making up for the last volume, there are TWO scenes of lesbian sex in this volume, though Kuroko is not in either of them. She’s busy wrapping up the circus case, where the perpetrator is not all that much of a surprise, but there’s also a second antagonist who gets a bit more to do, and allows us to very briefly see behind Hinako’s mask… if it is a mask. We also get a funny chapter about chestnuts, which if nothing else tells you what ‘kernel’ in Japanese is a euphemism for. The series is still filled with blood, gore and nastiness, but I feel as it’s gone on Kuroko has become less evil and a lot more goofy. Which honestly I’m pretty OK with. Recommended for those who like violent lesbians. – Sean Gaffney

A Sign of Affection, Vol. 3 | By Suu Morishita | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – There’s a minimum of drama or angst in this series, but I don’t care, because it does sweet and adorable so well. The relationship between Yuki and Itsuomi finally becomes official in this volume… and yes, then he immediately leaves the country for a month or two, because that’s what he does. But she’s content to wait and send him sign language videos, and he is telling her what it’s like in Cambodia and the like. The lettering in this volume is also fantastic, occasionally reversing and getting bigger and smaller to show that Yuki is not quite able to make out with lip reading what others are saying. This is getting print soon, and quite right. It’s become one of my favorite shoujo series. – Sean Gaffney

Whisper Me a Love Song, Vol. 1 | By Eku Takeshima | Kodansha Comics – Well, this was cute as a button. Now that it’s no longer the only sort of yuri there is, I do like to dip into the occasional high school girls romance. Here we have Himari, who is cute, excitable, and prone to misstating things and Yori, whom she meets substituting for a band’s singer, who is seemingly more reserved. Himari immediately confesses to Yori, who is blown away and falls hard for Himari. There’s just one problem… Himari meant she loved Yori’s singing. Now Yori’s determined to make Himari realize Yori likes her romantically, but… that seems a high road to climb. This is pretty adorable, and doesn’t get as annoying as series like this can. Plus I love one of the bandmates, who has sleepy eyes, a weakness of mine. – Sean Gaffney

She’s the Cutest… But We’re Just Friends!, Vol. 1

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By Akamitsu Awamura and mmu. Released in Japan as “Ore no Onna Tomodachi ga Saikou ni Kawaii” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kristine Johnson and airco.

I tend to read a bit more into the plot and characterization of light novels than they sometimes deserve. This is, honestly, a survival technique – I read a lot of light novels, and only a few of them are worthy of really high praise. Most of them are “well, OK, that was decent”. So you try to look for things you enjoy, things you can sink your teeth into. For me, in this book, it was the character of Reina. She’s not the titular just friend, but she is the ‘queen bee’ of the classroom and one of Jun’s best friends. And, despite how much the two of them deny it, everyone thinks that Kai and Jun, our protagonists, are dating. So we’re meant to be happy when Kai chooses to go out with a pack of her friends to karaoke. He doesn’t have a good time, nor does she, but he thinks he did a good job, held his own. Then Reina destroys him the next day. I really liked that. That said, the book is still “decent”.

Kai is our somewhat generic protagonist. He loves manga, light novels, and games, and is known as an otaku, but is not really on the ‘creepy’ end. He goes to this high school as they are very “freedom” oriented, so you can game in school provided it’s not during class. On his first day, he meets the gorgeous Jun and acts like a typical sputtering guy… till he sees she’s whipping out Breath of the Wild. She’s an otaku as well! The two quickly bond, and over the course of the next year they become best friends, with her going over to his house to game multiple times a week. The trouble is… they look like a couple;. They sometimes act like a couple. And not everyone approves of this. Can Kai deal with both Jun’s friends AND the jerk jocks and come out with his friendship intact?

As I said, this has issues. It’s a big ol’ male fantasy, despite the male lead’s desire to stay friends with Jun rather than date her. (Fanservice is actually relatively low, limited to “wow those breasts are big”, though when Jun’s friends interrogate him they’re very coarse.) You had better enjoy high school drama or else you’re going to hate this. There’s a subplot added near the end with a teacher in the school turning out to also be someone else that I felt was perhaps one subplot too many. The ending implies this is going to be one of those “new lead girl every book” series, which subverts the premise. Most importantly, it’s a walking ad for GA Bunko, mentioning so many of their main series by name (no censoring in this book) that I almost felt ill. Don’t be a shill.

That said… I found the leads very likeable and sympathetic. I really liked Kai thinking he was doing great and getting torn apart, reminding us he’s still very much a guy who doesn’t get women. And there’s a secondary friend of Jun’s who is so annoying she actually flips back over towards hilarious. You look for the little things. And that’s enough for me to recommend this to romcom fans. I’ll get Vol. 2, despite the change in lead girls.

The Intrigue of Marielle Clarac

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

At last Marielle and Simeon are married, and can go on a honeymoon. Of course, this being a Marielle Clarac book, the honeymoon does not go very smoothly. Indeed, this may be the quintessential Marielle Clarac books. From the moment that we see pirates boarding the steamer they’re taking on their journey, you know you’re in for a heaping helping of drama and thrills. There’s no sunken pirate gold, but we do get the Flauberts (Marielle is now married, of course, but the series will keep her maiden name for branding reasons) accused of smuggling, a pirate cove, and a speedboat chase without the actual speedboats. In the midst of all this, they are settling into married life – Simeon is noticeably less critical of Marielle in this book, and she… well, no, she’s as fangirlish as ever, particularly when Simeon, for lack of any other weapon at hand, uses a whip on someone trying to abduct her. The world bends itself to play to her fetishes.

After finishing the wedding and finally consummating their relationship (we don’t see it, of course, but Marielle does note that she needs to build up her stamina to keep up with her husband), Marielle and Simeon are traveling to a southern island to meet his grandfather. Unfortunately, they have several problems ensue. There’s a crabby young man on board the ship, a distant relative of Simeon’s who seems t despise him. There’s a girl with him who seems to despise Marielle, though that’s likely just because she’s married to a hot guy. There are pirates and smuggling fiascos, which I mentioned before. And there are threats of spies from a neighboring country that is trying to get its hands on some modern guns from the Flauberts’ home country. Can all these problems be resolved without Marielle getting abducted more than twice? Well, no, probably not.

First of all, and sorry for the spoiler, I was very surprised that Lutin was not appearing as usual. Perhaps he really has moved on. That said, in his place we get a far more evil version of him. As with previous books in this series, the thriller works better than the mystery – the villain was not hard to guess. I also admit, I grow weary of everyone constantly belittling Marielle’s appearance, especially as the artwork does not really bear that out at all. I guess brown hair + glasses = ugly in this world. It doesn’t help that Marielle does the same thing in her own narration. There is also some amusing comedy in this book, mostly revolving around Sasha, a “pirate” who in reality turns out to be a bratty teenage islander, and his blunt interactions with Marielle and Simeon.

Marielle ends up with several ideas for a new book of hers, which makes sense given that she went through a fun, if stereotypical, adventure. Fans of romantic thrillers… especially lengthy ones, this is quite a hefty book compared to other Heart titles… will be quite pleased.

I Refuse to Be Your Enemy!, Vol. 4

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By Kanata Satsuki and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Teki ni Narimasen!” by PASH! Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tara Quinn.

I’ve mentioned before that, aside from the basic “villainess otome game” plot, there’s very little here that could not simply be imported as is to a Western romantic fantasy, albeit one with a very military strategy sort of bent. No one is trying to make miso, and the references to Kiara’s past life in Japan are kept to longing for family and nothing specifically cultural. So, for the most part, I had this down as a book you could happily recommend to casual, non-anime fans… at least until the catgirl Festival showed up. See, one city has a legend of being saved from certain death by a cat goblin, and so every year girls put on kitty ears and wear angel wings. And then go out and look for men they might be attracted to. It’s not particularly handled in a bad way, and it doesn’t detract from the rest of the book. It just made me go “really? cat ears?” when I got to it.

We pick up immediately where we left off, and continue to slowly wage war against the enemy army. Several things happen here that are of note, though. First, after a second encounter with him disguised as a merchant, Kiara finally clues in that the helpful guy giving her advice is actually the opposing king. That said, the king has an “I am not evil” backstory, so I suspect we may be able to work things out. Secondly, Lady Emmeline, who was the savviest of the hostages we met in the last book, becomes a major supporting character, and another person for the perpetually baffled Kiara to turn to when it comes to emotions. She also makes a great general. Lastly, and most importantly, Lord Credias, Ada’s husband and the one who turned Kiara into a spellcaster, is on the battlefield, and his presence makes Kiara unable to use her magic.

I have, of course, left out Ada, who has the most interesting plotline in the volume. We get several short chapters from her point of view, as she struggles with trying to win Reggie over, her intense hatred for Kiara, and the fact that Kiara turns out to be a fairly decent person. I had briefly wondered if they might try to redeem her, especially as the book seemed to be shipping her with Reggie’s guard, Felix. Unfortunately, after the events in this book, I suspect if there is a redemption it’s going to be one ending in death. Ada is, as has been lampshaded, in the same position that Kiara was in in the original game. And, unlike Kiara’s game self, Ada actually has someone to blame for all of this. It is understandable that she does not decide to turn herself in. (There’s also a very interesting side scene from the POV of game Kiara, a few years before the game events, where she attempts to drown herself and is saved by Reggie.)

We’re now 2/3 of the way through this, and an ending is in sight, but until then there’s going to be pitched battles. At least Reggie has tried to make his feelings relatively clear… but Kiara’s romance aversion and low self-esteem are a wall that is still too high to climb. Definitely recommended for J-Novel Heart fans, though. Despite the cat ears.