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The Ideal Sponger Life, Vol. 13

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By Tsunehiko Watanabe and Jyuu Ayakura. Released in Japan as “Risou no Himo Seikatsu” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by MPT.

As I’ve mentioned before, this series was originally a webnovel, which ended around the events of the 4th book. Then it became a light novel series, Freya was added to the mix starting with Book 5, and has, frankly, become the main female lead. Sorry, Aura, you just aren’t in this series enough to count anymore. Even in this book, her role consists mostly of either finding out about stuff and telling other people about stuff. Now, to be fair, in this volume Freya does not exactly perform great feats, though you could argue that convincing her family to let her marry Zenjirou counts as one. She is part of the best moments of the book, though, as she has to confess to everyone how this marriage came about – which is this society of fantasy feudalism, is the equivalent of walking up to a married man and saying “I’m down, wanna bang?”. The reactions of everyone else to this news is hilarious, and worth the price of the book alone.

Freya and Zenjirou finally arrive in Uppasala, and get ready to inform the royal family of their betrothal. This goes about as well as you’d expect. That said, Zenjirou revealing that he has the power to teleport shuts up a number of people, and leads to a deal: if Zenjirou can take the traditional coming of age rite that everyone does and succeed, he will earn the right to ask for Freya’s hand. Since Zenjirou is, to put it mildly, not a physical powerhouse, everyone finds this hilarious. They find it a lot less so after they realize exactly how he’s going to win – even if it does end up taking a lot of physical labor as well. As for the other members of the family, the first prince is sent to Capua, there to meet with Aura – but, more importantly, to have a test of strength with Pujol. As for the second Prince, Yngvi, he’s basically Freya, only a guy. No, really, they’re twins.

There’s a lot of good humor in this book. Zenjirou’s plan to survive getting to the hunting site for the coming of age rite is hilarious and also something we should have seen coming. Eric’s reaction to Aura describing Freya arriving in Capua is also highly amusing, as is Pujol’s reaction on seeing the sword that was given to Aura as a gift by Uppasala. There are a few plot points that could carry over to the next volume, such as the fact that Margarette the maid seems to have secret parentage, and the ongoing war between the deeply religious church knights and the less religious rest of the continent. So far the holy wars seem very one sided against the holy, to be frank. And yes, Zenjirou and Freya are now married, and he goes off to spend the wedding night with her – which we do not see. We don’t even get a kiss. They snuggle a bit. These books are now the opposite of horny.

That said, we come to the end of this arc. And good news for Aura fans, the next cover has her on it… and also Freya, because hey, she’s the lead character now. Should start a new arc, though, which is fantastic news provided the series hasn’t ground to a halt in Japan or anything…

I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness: I’ll Spoil Her with Delicacies and Style to Make Her the Happiest Woman in the World!, Vol. 1

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By Fukada Sametarou and Sakura Miwabe. Released in Japan as “Konyaku Haki Sareta Reijō o Hirotta Ore ga, Ikenai Koto o Oshiekomu -Oishi Mono o Tabesasete Oshare o Sasete, Sekai Ichi Shiawase na Shōjo ni Produce!-” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Yui Kajita.

How much you enjoy this volume will likely depend entirely on how much you can tolerate the series’ one joke. This is a comedic romance, despite a dark premise, which has a basic shtick, and it’s that the characters describe things as “naughty” when they’re not actually talking about sex. Allen keeps telling Charlotte that he’s going to force her into experiencing all sorts of naughty delights… but it’s things like eating a cake for dinner, or going to a hot springs, or sleeping in. “I’m Spoiling the Disgraced Noble Lady” would be a much snappier title, but it would probably get fewer clicks. That said, if you can get past the overdone joke, this is a rather sweet book about a misanthrope with a kind heart who takes in a typical villainess heroine and turns her life around – for the better.

Allen is a sorcerer who lives in a remote mansion because dealing with people is a hassle. His sole contact with the outside world are daily visits by the mailwoman and occasional visits from his sister. Then one day he finds a young woman collapsed right by his doorstep – and several guards who tell Allen she’s a wanted woman and they’re to bring her back dead or alive. Allen doesn’t trust them, and with good reason – after getting rid of them and taking the woman inside, he discovers she is Lady Charlotte Evans, the fiancee of a nearby nation’s price. Supposedly a wicked woman who is accused of countless crimes, she is actually an abused child who has been treated like a servant for years and is now being treated as a scapegoat. There’s only one thing for Allen to do now – show her what the good things in life really are!

The main plot is fluffy because the backstory is so horrid. Charlotte’s life, especially after her mother died, has been an absolute misery, and she has trouble standing up for herself or even having actual wants and desires. You could argue that she is not ready for a romance with the awkward yet very powerful Allen, and you’d be right, but this is a romance series, so you’re going to have to lump it. And they are very cute together, especially in the back half once both start to realize that they’re developing feelings. This is especially baffling for Allen, who’s not nicknamed “demon overlord” because of his kind smiles, and who is having trouble separating family, friend and lover in his head. If you’ve read An Archdemon’s Dilemma, this is a very similar vibe, and will likely appeal to the same people who read that.

All this plus a petting zoo filled with monsters. Despite its cruel backstory, at heart this is a fluffy romantic comedy. Just get ready for its one joke. It’s a naughty joke.

Manga the Week of 8/23/23

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SEAN: August is a very long month.

ASH: That way even more releases can be fit in.

SEAN: We start with Airship’s print releases: Loner Life in Another World 6 and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 4.

And for early digital they have Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 24.

Fantagraphics has Okinawa, a title that explores the history of the island and its military occupation. It’s likely to be fairly grim, but absolutely worth your time. It’s also about 550 pages, so good value for money.

ASH: I’ve been waiting for this release a very long time.

SEAN: From Ghost Ship we see 2.5 Dimensional Seduction 7 and Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World 8.

Two digital debuts for J-Novel Club. The Greatest Magician’s Ultimate Quest: I Woke from a 300 Year Slumber to a World of Disappointment (Majutsu no Hate o Motomeru Dai Majutsushi: Madō o Kiwameta Ore ga Sanhyakunengo no Gijutsu Kakushin o Kitai Shite Tensei Shitara, Kanashiku Naruhodo Taika Shiteita……) is another wordy title. If you read Reborn to Master the Blade but wished it was grimdark and focused on a guy, this may be for you.

I’m Not the Hero! (Shujinkou ja Nai!) is another isekai, and is for people who read Banished from the Hero’s Party and thought “could I get that but with less sickening romance?”.

Also available next week: the 3rd Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte manga, Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ 4, I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! 6, Magic Stone Gourmet: Eating Magical Power Made Me The Strongest 2, Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole 4, the 2nd Now I’m a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon manga, and Otherside Picnic 8. That last one excites me more than all the others put together.

ASH: I’m behind in reading it, but likewise!

SEAN: From Kodansha Manga. If you love Wotakoi and want more of it, good news! There’s an artbook! Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku Official Art Works is 120 pages of lovely art from this office otaku romcom.

ASH: Oh, nice!

SEAN: Also out in print: BAKEMONOGATARI 19, Blood on the Tracks 14, the 2nd Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro Manga Box Set, which has Vol. 7-12, Land of the Lustrous 12, Parasyte Full Color Collection 3, Rent-A-Girlfriend 20, and Something’s Wrong With Us 16.

ASH: Land of the Lustrous is always visually striking; it feels like it’s been a while since the previous volume was released.

SEAN: Digitally we see Boss Bride Days 8, Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 8, Gamaran: Shura 11, Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 15, Koigakubo-kun Stole My First Time 5, and My Home Hero 7.

One Peace Books has The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic 3.

Seven Seas’ danmei arm has Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu 2.

And for Seven Seas proper we see Classroom of the Elite 7, Dance in the Vampire Bund: Age of Scarlet Order 9, The Ideal Sponger Life 14, Magic Artisan Dahlia Wilts No More 5, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! 8, My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren’t Wicked 2, and Sorry For My Familiar 11 (the final volume).

Square Enix Manga has Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! 8, Otherside Picnic 6 (a double Otherside Picnic week!), and Ragna Crimson 10.

MICHELLE: Yay Cherry Magic!.

SEAN: Viz debuts Cat-Eyed Boy: The Perfect Edition, a bells-and-whistles re-release of the horror title that originally came out in English in 2008.

ASH: Glad to see this manga coming back into print.

SEAN: And there’s also The Art of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Anime, because too much Demon Slayer is never enough.

And we also have JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 5–Golden Wind 9.

ASH: I’ve managed to fall behind reading JoJo, but I’m still collecting it.

SEAN: Hooray, we’re done!… oh, wait Yen. We’re barely halfway.

ASH: This is why August must be so long.

SEAN: Yen On debuts Kunon the Sorcerer Can See (Majutsushi Kunon wa Miete Iru), the story of a blind magic-user who wants to use magic to create eyes for himself.

The other debut is Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004 (Yuusha-kei ni Shosu – Choubatsu Yuusha 9004-tai Keimu Kiroku). The worst criminals become soldiers battling the demon army, forever getting killed and revived. Can our protagonist change that? The cover artist has been taking lessons from Accel World.

Also from Yen On: Accel World 26 (see?), Bride of the Barrier Master 2, Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie 5, The Detective Is Already Dead 6, Hollow Regalia 2, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too 3, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady 5, The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices 3, Sasaki and Miyano: Second-Years 2, Spice & Wolf 24, Spy Classroom 6, Sword Art Online 27, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime 16.

Manga debuts from Yen Press. After We Gazed at the Starry Sky (Hoshizora wo Mitsumeta Sono Ato de) is a BL title from Comic Fleur. The story of a famous photographer and his biggest fan, who meets him by chance at an event, is apparently very sweet, and also has one protagonist who uses a wheelchair, so FYI for those who watch for this.

MICHELLE: Oh this sounds potentially lovely!

ASH: It does!

ANNA: I’m interested.

SEAN: I Don’t Know Which Is Love (Dore ga Koi Ka ga Wakaranai) is a comedic yuri title from Comic Cune. Mei, rejected by the girl she loves in high school, is determined to get a girlfriend in college. Good news: she does! Bad news: there may be too many suitors, in fact…

ASH: Comedic yuri can sometimes be fun.

SEAN: I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Spin-off: The Red Dragon Academy for Girls (Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita – Spin-off: Red Dragon Jogakuin) is the manga adaptation of the stories that run in the back of the most recent Killing Slimes light novels, showing Laika’s school years before she meets Azusa. It runs in Manga Up!.

Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom is a webtoon based on a Korean villainess book. Our heroine dies and is reincarnated as the Evil Queen. Will she be able to dote on her adorable daughter, despite everyone thinking she’s evil (because she was until her memories came back)?

ASH: That title has to be a pun, right?

SEAN: Touge Oni: Primal Gods in Ancient Times comes from Enterbrain’s Harta, and fans of manga know this is a good thing. An orphan destined to be sacrificed meets a monk, and her fate is changed.

ASH: Count me curious, for sure!

SEAN: Also from Yen: A Business Proposal 2, A Certain Magical Index 27, The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy 3, Durarara!! RE;DOLLARS Arc 8, Honey Lemon Soda 3, I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet 7, In the Land of Leadale 4, Interspecies Reviewers 8, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria 20, Let This Grieving Soul Retire 6, The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious 6, MonsTABOO 4 (the final volume), [Oshi No Ko] 3, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie -Rebellion-: The Complete Omnibus Edition, Reign of the Seven Spellblades 6, The Saga of Tanya the Evil 20, Slasher Maidens 8, Solo Leveling 7, Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included 3, Sunbeams in the Sky 2, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet 4, Villains Are Destined to Die 4, What This World Is Made Of 2, Yokohama Station SF 2, and Yowamushi Pedal 23.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Tsubaki-chou and Yowamushi Pedal!

ANNA: Me too!

SEAN: Yup, that was a lot. What are you picking up?

Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home!, Vol. 6

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By You Fuguruma and Nama. Released in Japan as “Kasei Madoushi no Isekai Seikatsu: Boukenchuu no Kasei Fugyou Uketamawarimasu!” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

I’ve talked before about how we’ve been edging closer and closer to Alec and Shiori confessing each other’s tragic backstory, and while we’re not QUITE there yet in this volume, we get the next best thing, which is an extended flashback showing us what happened with Alec, his brother, and his first love. Unsurprisingly, it turns out to involve emotionally immature people making poor decisions, and feels almost nostalgic. It also helps the reader to understand how much more balanced and mature Alec and Shiori’s relationship it – indeed, while it dances around being explicit, the two of them bathe together, and it’s implied some other activities happen. If you define lovers as “stick it in”, they’re not there yet, but they are in every way that actually counts. And they’re also there to help each other with mental trauma, which is good, as this is a very bad book for Alec on that account – and that’s not counting the flashback.

Alec and Shiori have moved in together, and experimented with the “There Is Only One Bath” AO3 tag, but there’s an issue. The hand cream that Shiori uses to make her scarred hands less stiff needs mandrakes, and Nils is out of them. So a group of adventurers goes to a cave to find some mandrakes, avoid their horrible shrieks, and also deal with – I swear I’m not making this up – Brain Suckers, monsters that apparently look like aliens form Mars to Shiori, but who also cause traumatic hallucinations if they touch you. Alec gets touched. After this, Alex makes a decision to finally set up a meeting with his brother (and former lover if she’ll come) so they can bury their past together. That said, he and Shiori have something big to deal with before that can happen: a ridiculously long extra story at the back.

I appreciated the flashback, as it showed us how much Alex suffered, and what’s led him to tend towards “everything is my fault” in his post-royal life (to be honest, a trait he shares with Shiori). I also liked that Rebecca was not some stock villainess but a teenager who sees a chance to get everything she wants and forgets all about what that would mean other than “be with the man I love”. I appreciated that her punishment was, in many ways, the best thing that ever happened to her. As for the side story at the end, it reminds you that ghosts, wraiths and phantoms are very real things in this world, and need to be dealt with – but it also reminds you that nothing in this world is quite as scary as the average Japanese ghost story, and Shiori’s imaginative yokai is pants-wettingly terrifying.

I’m pretty sure the next volume is, if not the final book in the series, at least the payoff, with Shiori finally admitting she’s from Japan and Alec finally admitting he’s a runaway prince. This remains a nice romantic fantasy.

Hell Mode ~ The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing, Vol. 3

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By Hamuo and Mo. Released in Japan as “Hell Mode – Yarikomi Suki no Gamer wa Hai Settei no Isekai de Musō Suru” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Taishi.

This book is a very different beast from the first two, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. it’s good in that we get a lot less of Allen, on his own, spending pages and pages experimenting with different combinations of summons while fighting off monsters, which was in my opinion the weakest part of the books to date. He’s gotten so strong that the narrative can either quickly elide his tests, or else it shows him just instinctively knowing what to do. On the down side, this volume is a combination of two of the isekai fan’s least favorite genres: dungeon crawl AND magical academy. On the up side, this means the rest of the cast, especially Krena, has more to do. On the down side, Allen really is the standard OP protagonist now, so scary he can take out the most powerful hero in the land and terrify royalty. Basically, yeah, this is a light novel, all right.

Allen and Cecil are now ready to head off to the Magic School that they need to attend before being sent off to fight in the war against the Demon Lord. Joining them are Krena and Dogura, newly arrived from Allen’s hometown. On arrival, after yet another “your stats are all E, you fail, get out!” fakeout, which is a bit tedious by now, they settle in and buy a 20-room mansion that’s close to their real goal: dungeons. School itself is an afterthought here, what they want is to go through each dungeon, level up, gain skills, and get stronger and stronger. By the end of the book the cast, Allen and Krena especially, are so powerful that only the best in the world can really take them on. Which is good, because, having terrified the aforementioned royalty, they’re being sent off in Book 4 to the front lines.

It’s rather astounding (and honestly welcome) how this series does not care about romance at ALL. You could argue the kids are 12/13 years old, but that hasn’t stopped other books in this genre. Krena and Cecil meet up, and just become friends and allies, no issues. Later in the book they add an elf who I thought might have a crush on Allen, but no, she’s just worshiping him as the one chosen by the prophecy. Romcom is just not what this author is here for. Gamer nerdery *is* what they’re here for, and I assure you that despite what I said above, there’s lots of “let’s look at everyone’s stats here” for those who adore it. The party expands rapidly here from “Allen and a token girl” in the first two books to “Allen and his party of the most powerful students in the country”, including an elf princess, the son of the antagonist of the second volume, and a dwarf girl who gets nothing to do, but we’re explicitly told that she will eventually. And Allen, who COULD do all this by himself, but thankfully does not.

So yes, better than the first two books, and recommended for those who enjoy all the things that the louder light novel fans say they don’t enjoy. Next time: Allen Goes To War.

Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin, Vol. 2

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By Kennoji and KWKM. Released in Japan as “Hazure Skill “Kage ga Usui” o Motsu Guild Shokuin ga, Jitsuha Densetsu no Ansatsusha” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash.

Oh my God this book is garbage. This is not necessarily me saying the book is bad, though I would not recommend it to anyone except the most ridiculous fan of OP bullshit. But it’s like criticizing a sex comedy for having sexual humor in it. Garbage is what the writer is aiming for. In fact, I’m a bit more impressed with this writer than I was when I read the first in this series a year and a half ago. He also writes The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend, which is a dead-on high school romcom sort of book. I haven’t read Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, but I assume that it’s a fantastic example of a slow life series. And then we have this, which is a fantastic example of “what if the lead was always cool and awesome and all the girls wanted him and the men envy him?”.

The book mostly is a series of “ZOMG Roland is awesum!!1!”, with two larger stories that help to show that in greater detail. The first has the king asking Roland to accompany the Princess (who was party of the demon lord hunting party, and is madly in love with Roland but is one of the few women he hasn’t slept with) to a neighboring kingdom for a marriage interview, which goes about as expected till the prince of that kingdom tries to mind control his way to a marriage deal. In the other larger story, we meet one of Rila’s old demonic allies, Dey, a vampire. She seems nice-ish, and Rila vouches for her, but at the same time adventurers have been disappearing. Is Dey responsible? Or is it that smug-looking noble with a torture basement using (again!) mind control?

I emphasize once more – this book is garbage. I laughed a lot while reading it, but trust me, I was always laughing at it. Roland solves the mind control problem in the first and second instances by simply dispelling it, which works almost instantly but is amazingly anticlimactic. The prince’s aide just seems to sleep with Roland for no real reason other than the book needed another sex scene here. (I say sex scene, but it’s not – this book is full of sex that is elided but not shown, so it’s not even good for horny masturbation material.) We also get (surprise, surprise) slaves! Roland frees them by killing the man who broke their spirits, but the slaves (all hot young women of various races) decide they’re going to stick around and try to get into Roland’s pants. This series really just BOGGLES THE MIND. Oh yes, and he resolves the vampire plot by discovering that the noble with a torture basement is torturing people in the basement, so he decides to torture the noble to show him what’s what.

Roland’s deadpan, somewhat baffled “what is normal” attitude is part of his charm, the other part being he treats women as actual people despite his tendency to fuck everything that moves. The book ends with the guild getting blown up, meaning the next volume will be going to a different kingdom. Bet I know what’s going to happen, though.

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Vol. 9

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By MOJIKAKIYA and toi8. Released in Japan as “Boukensha ni Naritai to Miyako ni Deteitta Musume ga S-Rank ni Natteta” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

For a while I thought that this was going to wrap up all the plots, and that the 10th volume would just be an epilogue/victory lap. Alas, one of the villains got away, so we’re going to have a final confrontation back in Belgrieve’s village. Which makes sense, as that will allow us to bring in the rest of the cast who have been absent for this arc. This arc definitely wraps up here, though, solving most of the problems by hard work and sword/magical battles. We get to see Ange using the smarts she was taught by her father, and we also get to see her and her father fighting back to back, something that fills both of them with glee even though it’s a life-or-death situation. That sort of sums up the book, really – even though there’s a lot of gore and death, you end up feeling good. Everyone’s back together.

When we left off, everyone was headed to where Ange and company is, there to try to rescue Satie. This involves splitting up, of course. Touya and Maureen handle their own subplot, taking on Hector and revealing the true reason behind Touya’s revenge. More importantly, Ange is captured by the fake Prince, getting thrown in a time space prison where escaping her cell is quite easy but escaping the prison itself proves much harder. As for Satie… well, she’s captured, because this is the sort of book where the message is “you can’t do it alone, rely on others to help you”, so her philosophy of “I have to do this all on my own” is not going to work. Will Bell be able to save Satie? And is Satie finally the woman that Ange has been looking for… someone to be Belgrieve’s wife?

There is a plot twist near the end that is so stunningly schmaltzey that I would be annoyed if it weren’t so sweet. It also helps tie in to Ange’s own birth – we’ve known for a while that she’s part demon, but it’s never really been clear just how that is going to tie into the overall story. The earlier books implied that it would slowly turn her evil, but honestly, apart from being a bit jealous of her dad’s easy way of making friends with everyone, Ange simply is not going to go that route. As for Belgrieve and Satie, their plot resolution is “blink and you’ll miss it”, but that fits the two of them. These are two people who have wanted to reunite and admit repressed feelings for years, so while it’s frustrating that we don’t get a more explicit confession, hey, at least they’re definitely married now.

That said, we have one final book to go. This one will be coming out after the anime starts, so it will be interesting to see what people who are new to the series think of it all. Honestly, I suspect we’ll be back to where we were at the start of this series: reassuring fans that this one ISN’T going to turn into incest.

The Manga Review: I Had a VIZion of Love

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The July sales numbers are in, and VIZ rules the roost once again, occupying sixteen of the top twenty slots on the Circana Bookscan Top Manga Graphic Novel List. While the list is mainly comprised of long-standing favorites–Jujitsu Kaisen, Spy X Family, One Piece–there are new entries, including Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Goodbye, Eri and Yana Taboso’s Disney Twisted-Wonderland. Manga sales on the whole, however, have been down this year, a point acknowledged by VIZ’s Kevin Hamric in a recent interview with ICv2. “The entire book industry in the US is down 3.2 percent right now,” he noted. Manga, in particular, “is down 23 percent. That’s BookScan numbers; that’s right for what they track.” Nonetheless, he remained optimistic: “If things continue like this,” Hamric explained, “it’ll still end up being the third‑best year on record.”

In other news, Cat + Gamer and Shuna’s Journey are among the titles vying for this year’s Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category… Azuki has teamed up with One Peace Books to release 23 series online… The Promised Neverland may be over, but it’s still selling briskly, with more than 40 million volumes in circulation… Otaku USA has a preview of Ryo Sumiyoshi’s Centaurs… Japanese fans reacted more positively to Netflix’s One Piece trailer than their American counterparts…and speaking of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda reportedly insisted that Netflix showrunners not alter any of the principal cast’s backstories. One Piece begins streaming on August 31st.

REVIEWS

The folks at Otaku USA have been busy: Kara Dennison explains what makes Shojo Null so compelling, while her colleague Danica Davidson reviews Offshore Lightning, Horror at Doll’s Village, and Villainess Level 99. Elsewhere on the web, Grant Jones gives Wolverine: SNIKT! a C+… Renee Scott “can’t recommend Akane-banashi enough” to readers of all ages… and That Manga Hunter offers an in-depth review of Prince Freya.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade, Vol. 5

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By Maito Ayamine and Cierra. Released in Japan as “Shinigami ni Sodaterareta Shoujo wa Shikkoku no Tsurugi wo Mune ni Idaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sylvia Gallagher.

This series does have, amidst its themes of “war is hell” and the like, a love triangle at its core. This is part of the series’ annoying sub-theme of “all the aides are in love with their commanders” that I dislike, but I’ll ignore that for the moment. Claudia is easiest to understand, she’s a classic tsundere who’s in love with Ashton but refuses to admit it to herself or others. Ashton is in love with Olivia, though it’s not clear if it’s romantic or just a shining ideal, but he is otherwise a classic romcom harem lead, with a few “could these women actually like me?… naaaah” monologues under his belt. And then there’s Olivia, who loves Ashton and Claudia, but I suspect the author is not intending us to be thinking “yay, polyamory”, but rather that we’re supposed to think that Olivia is not quite human and doesn’t understand romantic or sexual attraction. It’s a bit of a mess.

The start of the book features Olivia and company headed to the Holy Land of Mekia, there to meet up with its leader, who has taken a shine to Olivia. They try to lure her to their side with promises of using their resources to find out where Z is, which makes Claudia curse, as this had never even occurred to her to try to offer Olivia, and Fermest can’t do it very well as they’re at war. Still, an incident involving Ashton’s near-death… again… convinces Olivia that she’s not going to change sides for now. In the meantime, the empire continues to have a very bad time, which is what happens when your grand vizier… pardon me, chancellor… is evil and your empire is secretly run by a death god. When the Kingdom comes calling, with Olivia at its vanguard, who will rise up to meet her? And will it be enough?

We get a nice little flashback in this book to Olivia’s parents (though she was originally called Caroline) and are reminded that her mother is of Deep Folk descent, which is leading to a lot of subplots converging. Still, she may have human/deep folk as birth parents but her upbringing is all Z, and that’s what really makes her as inhuman as she seems at times in the series. She has no real fear of monsters that would kill anybody else, and when asked where she grew up, points to the middle of a forest that has a reputation so bad that anyone who tries to investigate it finds their investigators dead. That said… Olivia is also gradually getting more humanity in her, and that’s entirely due to Ashton and Claudia, who are definitely a calming, soothing influence on her, even if they can’t actually stop her from doing what she wants. This series is not going to end with polyamory, but if it *did*, it would be great.

It might also end with most of the cast dead, admittedly. After all, war is hell.

Manga the Week of 8/16/23

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SEAN: Are these dog days? I think they’re dog days.

ASH: Seems like!

SEAN: Viz debuts Heart Gear, a new Signature title that runs in Shonen Jump +. Girl and robot try to survive in a future dystopia, but are beset by evil robot.

ASH: Signature, dystopia, and robots? Sounds like something I would read.

ANNA: I’m curious!

SEAN: Also from Viz: Children of the Whales 22, Choujin X 3, Jujutsu Kaisen 20, Love’s in Sight! 3, Mission: Yozakura Family 6, Rooster Fighter 4, The Way of the Househusband 10, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead 11.

ASH: I really need to catch up with The Way of the Househusband.

SEAN: Debuting from Tokyopop is Dead Company. Do you ever wish we brought back those manga where teenagers killed each other while wearing creepy rabbit masks? Good news! This ran in Comic Boost, which may be why it’s Tokyopop and not Yen Press.

MICHELLE: Snerk.

SEAN: Also from Tokyopop: I Was Reincarnated as the Villainess in an Otome Game but the Boys Love Me Anyway! 4, If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die 2, and Ogi’s Summer Break 2.

Square Enix debuts Mr. Villain’s Day Off (Kyuujitsu no Warumono-san), a Gangan Pixiv series. A supervillain turns out to be a totally different person on his day off, going to the zoo or eating ice cream.

Also from Square Enix: The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses 5 and The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated 6.

No debuts from Seven Seas, but there are new volumes. CANDY AND CIGARETTES 5, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord 16, I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! 4, Marmalade Boy: Collector’s Edition 3, and My Wife Has No Emotion 5.

One Peace Books debut Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I’m Not the Demon Lord (Akuyaku Reijou Level 99: Watashi wa UraBoss desu ga Maou de wa arimasen), based on the light novel J-Novel Club is releasing already. It runs in B’s Log Comic.

Kodansha Books has a new deluxe Maiden’s Bookshelf release, this time of the classic The Girl Who Became a Fish.

ASH: That one’s for me! I’ve really been liking this series.

SEAN: In print, Kodansha Manga has Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 2, Orient 16, The Seven Deadly Sins Omnibus 11, The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 9, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 3, and The Yakuza’s Bias 2.

MICHELLE: Yay, Iruma. And the first volume of The Yakuza’s Bias was pretty fun.

ANNA: I meant to read The Yakuza’s Bias, maybe I will wait for Michelle’s assessment of Volume 2.

SEAN: The digital debut is Issak, written by the creator of Yugo the Negotiator and running in Afternoon. Take a Japanese man, give him a gun, and throw him into the Thirty Years War.

Also digital: The Café Terrace and its Goddesses 9, Gamaran 12, I Guess I Became the Mother of the Great Demon King’s 10 Children in Another World 8, Messiah -CODE EDGE- 3, Nina the Starry Bride 10, and Teppu 2.

ANNA: I was thinking that there wouldn’t be much for me to pick from this week until I saw that Nina the Starry Bride was coming out. Yay!!!!!

SEAN: The digital debut from J-Novel Club is another wordy one: I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness: I’ll Spoil Her with Delicacies and Style to Make Her the Happiest Woman in the World! (Konyaku Haki Sareta Reijō o Hirotta Ore ga, Ikenai Koto o Oshiekomu -Oishi Mono o Tabesasete Oshare o Sasete, Sekai Ichi Shiawase na Shōjo ni Produce!-). This has an anime coming out this fall. Despite the “naughtiness” in the title, it’s rather tame – the “I” in the title merely wishes to feed her delicious food.

ASH: So many words, but yay food?

SEAN: They also have DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level 4, the 10th manga volume of The Faraway Paladin, Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home! 6, The Ideal Sponger Life 13, Make It Stop! I’m Not Strong… It’s Just My Sword! 2, and Safe & Sound in the Arms of an Elite Knight 2.

Ghost Ship has PULSE 4 (mature yuri, so I’ll put it here) and Sundome!! Milky Way 7.

Denpa says that Vampeerz 3 should be out around this time, and lacking any other evidence I’ll slot it here.

And Airship, in print, has I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! 5 and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 23.

And in early digital titles we have Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 15 and Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentōshō 3.

No dogs, but no cats, either. What are you reading?

Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back To My World Whenever I Want!, Vol. 4

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By Hiiro Shimotsuki and Takashi Iwasaki. Released in Japan as “Itsudemo Jitaku ni Kaereru Ore wa, Isekai de Gyōshōnin o Hajimemashita” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Berenice Vourdon.

It’s pretty astonishing how much authors think they can get away with provided their hero is mild-mannered and polite. Shiro already has the ability to go back and forth between his world and Japan – something most isekai’d folks don’t get. He gets magical translation, teleport abilities (sort of), and currency conversion. He doesn’t need to learn how to make mayonnaise because he can just go buy it at the local Inageya. He has, hovering around him at various points: his grandmother, who looks like a young girl; his twin high school age sisters who alternate between being mean to him and sucking up to him; a young girl who worships him and her hot widowed mom; a powerful fairy who’s tsundere for him; the mayor of the town; and (in this book) we add a dragon. He has to have little to no personality for this to work. If he had any notable character traits at all we’d despise him.

We pick up right where we left off last time. Shiro’s twin sisters Shiori and Saori have found the door to the other world, and there’s no way they aren’t going through it. To his surprise, instead of leading to his shop it drops them in the middle of the forest where he started way back when. While there, he finds a huge egg, which the twins insist he carry with him. Eventually, all is explained and the twins decide to start their OWN store dedicated to clothing and makeup, the egg finally hatches… and inside is not the minor monster they expected, but a dragon. A very powerful dragon. Who quickly morphs into a young girl and imprints on Shiro heavily. Now they have to figure out what to do with her… especially because demons are also apparently looking for the egg, and would likely destroy the entire town to get at it.

As with previous books, this is not great. Elianna the rabbit girl continues to be the most annoying character ever, and not in a fun way as the author is clearly intending. The twins are also annoying but that works better because it’s in the typical bratty sibling way. As for the plot itself, despite the threat of imminent death and the supposed murder of 3/4 of the cast, everyone is fine. This remains a slow life book at heart, so it’s no surprise that this manages to be one of the murderous demons who knows that murdering humans is not the right thing to do now. Not to mention that she has a very good reason to want the egg… and the whole thing ends up being undercut massively, because the whole reason for this plot turns out to be something she could just have bought at Shiro’s store. The sad trombone noise is almost audible.

All this plus we finally get “I am your slave” in this isekai. Shiro’s not going to be down with the whole slave thing, but I doubt he’ll really protest too much, because mild-mannered and all. If you like beautiful twins, cute dragon children, and hot demons… there are still probably better books with them in it.

My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, Vol. 10

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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.

This is a flashback volume, as Akiteru explains to an increasingly despairing Mashiro exactly how he first met Iroha and started the game company. As such, as you can imagine, Mashiro barely appears in it, though she does get many of the funniest moments. Just as the “main” series ends each chapter with a conversation between Akiteru and Ozuma, this one ends them with a conversation between Akiteru and Mashiro… as Mashiro stares in disbelief at the fact that the boy she loves was starring in a wacky harem comedy long before she ever came back into his life. I’ve talked before about how the series seems to abuse her for the laughs, especially since she’s clearly not the winning girl, but there’s no denying it’s funny. Also funny are Akiteru’s deadpan reactions to all of this. Past or present, Akiteru is hopelessly, incurably earnest – and as the cliffhanger ending shows us, that may end up being his downfall in the long run.

As you might be able to tell by that cover, Iroha was not always the teasing girl in love with her sempai that she is today. Akiteru has become friends with Ozuma, which means he naturally meets his little sister as well. The siblings… don’t NOT get along, but definitely seem off – they barely interact with each other. Unfortunately, Akiteru also finds out that Iroha might be interested in joining a gang, and, because that’s the sort of person he is, resolves to try to stop this so she can stay on the straight and narrow. Things immediately go wrong when he runs into the gang’s leader… Otoi, who obviously has a deeper meaning to what she’s doing but finding out what that is will require more investigation… as well as pretending to be Otoi’s boyfriend.

The big surprise here might be that we meet a brand new supporting character, she plays a major role, and then we basically never see her again, as she does not appear in the main series. Asagi is a girl with major musical talent but comes from a very poor family, and being in Otoi’s “gang” allows her to be loaned an expensive guitar with which she can ply her trade on the streets busking. Her personality seems very familiar… deliberately, as it turns out, and she makes a nice contrast with Iroha, who is (rightly) very mistrustful of this friend of her brother’s who seems to be stalking her and far too invested in her life. That said, you can also clearly see why she falls for him – his earnestness is attractive as well as creepy, and also he’s basically found a way to make her dream come true (with the help of Otoi, who fills the deus ex machina role in this book handily). Iroha has genuine talent, and I think even her mother has to admit it.

The question is, will her mother destroy Akiteru’s dreams in order to advance her daughter’s? Stay tuned, because we’re caught up with Japan, and there’s no new volume there just yet.

Honey Lemon Soda, Vol 2

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Honey Lemon Soda Volume 2 by Mayu Murata

Shy girl in love with popular boy is a fairly common subgenre of shoujo manga, but with the second volume, I do think that Honey Lemon Soda is pulling it off better than most manga. Uka is still adjusting to her new school, and fighting through her instinctual reactions to situations and other kids that she developed when she was horribly bullied during middle school. Fortunately in her new environment she keeps being pleasantly surprised by her classmates, who are generally very kind. When she shows up in full hiking gear to a trip that everyone else knew was a low key walk in the woods, her classmates are perplexed, but not cruel. Kai, the object of her affections, finds her gaffe sort of adorable because Uka is showing up for events with everything she’s got.

Honey Lemon Soda 2

Uka ends up being a defacto leader of the group when they accidentally go off trail, and her giant hiking backpack has enough snacks to take care of everyone. She slowly starts trusting her classmates more, but she also starts getting a sense of Kai’s popularity. Murata’s art continues to be stylish and a little quirky. I especially liked the way she portrayed Uka and Kai’s smiles and attitudes towards each other as documented in other students’ photos of the hiking trip, it gave a little preview to how their relationship might eventually develop.

Raven of the Inner Palace, Vol. 3

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By Kouko Shirakawa and Ayuko. Released in Japan as “Kōkyū no Karasu” by Shueisha Orange Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Amelia Mason.

This volume delves deeper into why everyone insists that the Raven Consort always be alone. Throughout the book we see Jusetsu just generally being nice to people and helping them with their personal trauma. She’s a good egg. And she’s also gaining another bodyguard here, even though he may be a spy (or a double agent… it’s that kind of book). She might even get in more ladies-in-waiting, though I think Jiujiu might have something to say about that. She’s growing closer to the emperor, though I don’t think she really realizes what those feelings are yet. (It doesn’t help that she has to have jealousy explained to her, and doesn’t get it.) That said, the end of the book is worrying. Having good friends is fine, especially as the emperor is going to work on saving Jusetsu. But the way some people are reacting to her actions is beginning to look a bit like worship. And, as we see in this book, new gods are not always a good thing.

As with the previous books in this series, there are four chapters, each of which has a self-contained “mystery” but each also adds to the larger narrative. A lady-in-waiting is being haunted by a ghost, but the ghost is just standing there and not doing anything. An ancient ghost wanders the inner palace lamenting… but if the ghost is so ancient, why has it only started appearing this last week? A scholar new to the palace has a ghostly arm pulling on his sleeve, trying to stop him from… something. And, as is traditional with this series, the book ends with one of the consorts near death, this time because of a cursed item that was actually meant to kill Jusetsu. Throughout all this, Jusetsu takes care of the problem while struggling to come to terms with her need for people around her.

The best part of the book is its emphasis on the fact that people have more than one side to them, and that just because you had a bad time because of something that someone else did does not mean they meant you to have a bad time. The lady-in-waiting;s ghost was upset with her for fleeing while they were left to die… but they also told her to flee out of love. This also allows Jusetsu to come to terms with her mother’s own sacrificial actions, which were meant to save her even as they also made her suffer. As for the horror part of the book, there’s less of it this time around. It was a bit eerie how one of the supporting characters was revealed to not really exist and just smiled and said “Yup, bye”. And the resolution of the third chapter was basically “well, now I know why I have a ghost, but I can’t stop what I’m here for, so welp”, which is realistic but unsatisfying.

The book overall remains an excellent read for fans of “emperor’s palace” books and dark mysteries.

The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist, Vol. 1

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By Ito Iino and Kinokohime. Released in Japan as “Haraiya Reijō Nicola no Komarigoto” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.

I am always going to be on board with grumpy young women who are on the verge of going “tch” all the time but end up helping everyone around them anyway. It’s a type I really love, and it meant that I really loves the protagonist all through this book. It helps that she’s surrounded by other stock types. There’s the childhood friend who is so handsome that all the girls fall madly in love with him, who unfortunately only has eyes for Nicola. (She’s asked him not to go near her when anyone can see him, and to his credit he gets why and agrees.) There’s also the prince who’s seemingly casual but in reality quite a hard worker, and who loves the fact that Nicola literally gets a royal decree that she can be rude to him if she wants. In fact, I had such fun with the characters that the actual plot twist took me entirely by surprise, even though it shouldn’t have.

Nicola is, yes, reincarnated from Japan. In her previous life she could see spirits, and was taken in by a mentor to become a top-class exorcist… at least until she was sacrificed by some unknown assailant. Now she’s Nicola von Weber, a low-level noble who’s just starting at the academy. Already there, two years ahead of her, is Sieghart, who she met when they were both kids and who has attached himself to her like a lamprey. Sieghart, you see, is SO pretty that spirits haunt him constantly – and Nicola still has the exorcist powers that she had back in Japan, so she can help to, if not get rid of them, at least minimize them. Unfortunately, it turns out he’s not the only one beset by spirits, and now she has to deal with Prince Alois and his grumpy bodyguard Ernst.

First of all, a minor grump. I realize that authors and artists can’t always communicate well, but if your text constantly has Nicola be the usual “woe is me, I am so flat-chested and envy the large breasts of others”, perhaps convey that better in the art. Other than that, I love Nicola, a young woman who clearly *is* in love with the gorgeous Sieghart, but refuses to admit it to herself due to their status difference and her own stubborn embarrassment. She starts off basically thinking of herself as the only sane person surrounded by unthinking men, but as the book continues it becomes apparent that she’s the one who’s in the most danger of haring into danger at the slightest provocation. Sieghart is also well-handled, being a standard shoujo pretty boy but showing a lot more intelligence than most in that genre, as well as actual trauma from his constantly being haunted that affects a lot of the things he does.

This felt like it was written as a one-shot and then the editor demanded the ending be rewritten to allow for a continuation. Disappointing for romance fans, but I do admit I want to read more of this.