Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Features & Reviews

I Want to Be a Saint, But I Can Only Use Attack Magic!, Vol. 2

by

By Fuyu Aoki and Bodax. Released in Japan as “Seijo-sama ni Naritai no ni Kougeki Mahou shika Tsukaenain desu kedo!?” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

The first volume was also very funny, but this one really, really leans into broad as hell comedy, to the point where I felt it was overdoing it a bit. That’s for a very good reason, though, as frankly this world is very dark, and if it weren’t for Yuffie doing her Bocchi impersonation we’d genuinely worry for her. The school is being attacked by demons who think nothing of killing everyone in order to find Yuffie. Her burdock root buddy Catherine finds out her secret and is honestly terrified for a bit, as she points out that it’s scary seeing Yuffie casually breaking the laws of magic physics. And when the powers that be discuss what to do about her, their first thought is to expel her and basically put her under their control. Thankfully they choose not to do this, but there are very good reasons for Yuffie to continue to hide her powers beyond “because it’s funnier that way”.

After the events of the last book, Yuffie is trying to double down on learning how to improve her healing magic, though it’s slow going. Very slow going. She ends up getting some good pointers, though, when she meets up with Jack, who after the events of the last book wants her to train him in how she uses attack magic. Unfortunately her advice amounts to “use your magic till you run out of mana, over and over again, for nine years”. This actually does end up helping him, as he realizes that his determination was as nothing compared to HERS. And she’s going to need it, as they’re going to do a demonstration of healing magic, and have paired the best student (Erina) with the worst (Yuffie). Is she going to be able to be a saint when it takes her an hour to heal a small cut?

As with the first book, I could do without the “ha ha, it’s funny because she’s a predatory lesbian!” jokes. Other than that, though, this is a solid book, once again giving Yuffie a bit of character development. We meet both her parents, which helps to explain some of her apology tactics if not her introversion, and I get the feeling her mom being a former student council member will come up in a future book. And much as I spent most of the book annoyed at Erina, she does give us the book’s most heartwarming moment, when she says that Yuffie’s pathetic healing attempt did help prevent a man dying till Erina could get there and actually heal him. This book is still dark, though. Yuffie kills demons, and is not feeling upset about it at all. These seems to be Frieren-type demons, no sympathy here.

So this is a lot of fun, and I’m not too worried about Bocchi the Mage, but she has a long way to go before she’s accepted by anyone other than her own generation.

Love & Magic Academy: Who Cares about the Heroine and Villainess? I Want to Be the Strongest in this Otome Game World, Vol. 2

by

By Toyozo Okamura and Parum. Released in Japan as “Renai Mahou Gakuin: Heroine mo Akuyaku Reijou mo Kankeinai. Ore wa Otome Game Sekai de Saikyou wo Mezasu” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

This was the second book in a row I read where the narrator is essentially a very powerful, emotionless void who casually breezes through everything. Fortunately, with this book, we do get the occasional hint that the author is going somewhere with this other than “isn’t he really cool?”. Now, a lot of this is the standard romance novel shtick of “the girls all like him but he is too dense to notice it”, though with Arius it’s less dense and more does not even understand the emotion at all. He once realized he liked a girl, discovered she was engaged to someone else, and since then the part of his brain devoted to love was simply turned off. But there’s also a sense that Arius has to remember that just because he can do everything himself so the others don’t have to endanger themselves doesn’t mean that’s always the best choice. That said, he can be dull sometimes.

Eric is still trying to find concrete evidence to prove that Duke Jordan is evil, but hasn’t quite got it yet. To help things along, he’s asked the duke’s hotheaded son to participate in the upcoming fighting tournament – third-years normally don’t – so he can beat him, force him to throw a tantrum, and see if the Duke then tries to kill Eric. This works incredibly well, of course, mostly as Arius is not the only one who is trying to make it through this world while depending on absolutely no one. Arius, of course, wins the tournament itself, and in his spare time also solos extremely hard dungeons and teaches his friends and not-quite-love interests how to fight. Unfortunately for Arius, the legendary battle between the hero and the demon lord is about to start again – and they both want him.

This world appears to attract reincarnations like flies. We’ve already got Arius, whose childhood friend was obsessed with the otome game he finds himself in. Then there’s Milia, who is doing much better now that she’s had it explained to her that she does not have to try to do exactly what the game said. And in this volume we get Alisa, who is the power behind the new hero (an arrogant idiot who wants to rule the world – we know the moment we see him we don’t have to care about him). She reveals to Arius that she’s not only reincarnated, but knows he is as well. I’m not entirely certain if there’s some sort of driving force behind all these isekai’d Japanese folks messing up the plot, but if so it’s working but also it’s not – this volume ends with the new Demon Lord kidnapping Arius and spiriting him away to their territory. Which means, much as I do think the other characters get to have lives of their own and concerns of their own, that the book itself still has to revolve around him. He is the main character.

Despite the narrator being another of those poker face/poker voice sorts, this is an improvement on the first book. If you like otome game narratives and don’t mind that it stars a guy who can do literally everything (except understand that women are attracted to him), it’s a good one.

Re: Monster, Vol. 1

by

By Kanekiru Kogitsune and YAMAADA. Released in Japan by Alpha Polis. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Harris Hayes.

Another day, another review where I have to start by saying “Yeah, yeah, I know”. A classic example of a Dead Dove: Do Not Eat series, I remember this got a fan translation when it first came out almost fifteen years ago. At the time, light novels from the POV of the monsters were a relatively fresh concept – even Overlord was only a year old. It’s not really the fault of this series that its grim and gritty, mature because it has rape and violence-style novel series feels a bit tired now after so many others that came after it. It *is* the fault of this series that it manages to take such a dark, edgy concept and make it terminally dull, starting with its hero, Gobrou, who is at his most interesting before he’s isekai’d and over the course of time gets more and more dull as he spends this first volume killing, getting skills, killing, getting skills, and having sex with a harem of women. He may be a goblin, but he’s still a faceless isekai guy in the end.

Kanata Tomokui is living in Japan, but not quite our Japan. He has telekinetic powers, and gets powerful when he eats whatever he defeats. Unfortunately, he once saved a teenage girl who became obsessed with him, and when she sees him helping a drunk co-worker home, she gets the wrong idea and stabs him to death. When he comes back to himself, he finds he’s a newborn goblin living in a cave. That said, he’s not just any old weak little goblin. For one thing, he still has his esper powers from his previous life. This means that, as he goes around killing monster rabbits, monster snakes, monster dogs, and monster bears, he gains more and more abilities and grows stronger and stronger, rapidly becoming a hobgoblin and then an ogre, till he’s de facto leader of the entire group. Basically, he’s hot stuff.

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of “problematic content” in this book, but I’m pretty sure most people reading it do not really need to be warned. There’s a couple of goblin women who grow close to him. They capture a party of five human women, and Gobrou stops the other goblins from raping them. Naturally, over the course of the book, they all fall in love with him and sleep with him, and the girl on the cover (who he calls “Redhead Shorty” – what is it with these dark books and ignoring people’s names?). They later capture some elves, and since the elves try to kill them first he’s fine with giving them aphrodisiacs and having the goblins rape them. Basically, he’s exactly the sort of person you’d write about if you were a teenage boy who wants to imagine they have cool powers and a large penis. The fights can sometimes get interesting – Gobrou versus the red bear was the highlight of the book – but for the most part it drowns in his matter-of-fact, “well, I won again” narration.

If you enjoy teenage power fantasies, go search AO3, you’ll likely find better than this.

The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain, Vol. 6

by

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

Last time I felt that the series got a bit too dark, and I’m pleased to see that this one is not quite as bad. Despite the fact that this volume contains ghosts, ritual sacrifices, and the like, Claudia’s worries are far more about the fact that she’s getting bullied by all the older women in the kingdom – at the request of the Queen, of course. Let’s face it, if you’re going to be the future Queen, you need to be better than everyone at everything, and that includes how to handle petty bullying. If there’s just one issue with the book, it’s that these two plots don’t intertwine as well as I wanted them to, and it felt at times as if the author had two books that they couldn’t quite make work and so decided to combine them into one. It’s still a very readable series, and I like Claudia, but I am starting to tap my fingers a bit.

Claudia continues to go on her Princess Training World Tour, with several stops organized by Lady Sunset, whose husband is the Queen’s older brother. Lady Sunset is there to ensure that Claudia does not wilt under pressure, or (even worse) snap and get angry under pressure. We see Claudia attend a tea party, an embroidery party, and a ball, all of which feature catty middle-aged nobles whose job it is to belittle Claudia and hit her where it hurts – which usually means talking bad about her stepmother. In addition to all this, she and Helen go off to a monastery for two weeks, to learn asceticism and see how difficult it can be for people who don’t have servants to do everything for them. Unfortunately, the remote castle where the monastery is has a small problem… ghosts.

There are as always some things here I found quite interesting. The embroidery party shows off how each of these catty women trying (at the orders of the Queen) to bully Claudia has territory of their own, and that territory naturally has specialties. Claudia being Claudia, she’s able to tell that the tea “accidentally” spilled on her embroidery is from the spiller’s own land, and praises it. As for the embroidery itself, she praises the wool being used, and wouldn’t you know it, the woman whose territory specializes in wool is struggling to find buyers right now. Claudia doesn’t need to make connections with these women – she’s hella powerful already – but she knows by doing so it makes the country stronger. I also liked the ghost story’s suggestion that a woman in the past may also have been living a second life, and her “precognition” was just her not being quite as good at Claudia at hiding that. Perhaps this world just does time-looped villainesses every so often, as a treat.

This was a decent book, though I felt it didn’t pull together as well as it might have. The bigger issue may be that I’m checking to see when the series is scheduled to end, and the answer is “not for the foreseeable future”. Where’s my wedding cover art?

The Bladesmith’s Enchanted Weapons, Vol. 2

by

By Kazuma Ogiwara and CARIMARICA. Released in Japan as “Isekai Toushou no Maken Seisaku Gurashi” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ryan Burris.

Last time I mentioned that this was a very horny series, and that’s still true, though it is perhaps a BIT less. Fortunately, the sword that tells men to get aroused and kill themselves is limited to the very start of the volume. Lutz and Claudia are still a very loving couple, but for the most part it’s limited to “and then they went and had fun” asides. But that’s fine, because even more than horny this series runs on rule of cool. Every one of the main characters feels like someone who would calmly walk away from a car just before it explodes in a fireball behind them. Which is good, as we get the equivalent of that in this volume. Lutz and Claudia just want to make some cool swords and perhaps a lot of money as well, but after the events of the last volume, I regret to tell Lutz he is now Renowned, and as such cannot avoid getting pulled into kingdom politics,

Maximillion’s katana is very nice, and he’s getting more involved in politics (and attempted assassinations as well). It turns out the kingdom has been at war with their neighbor for years, and peace talks are… complicated. The other country has a fist-sized jewel, one that the kingdom cannot possibly match… unless Lutz can make, and Gerhard can craft, a blade that will be of equal value. This they do, simply as it’s the soul of the bladesmith screaming out to them to build better and better weapons. Unfortunately, the weapon ends up starting a throne war once it heads back to the Federation, as it’s just that compelling. Fortunately, Luz and Claudia have been taken into the city and given a title, so they’re no longer quite as much at risk. Shame that can’t be said for other royalty in the country…

Last time I mentioned the horny and the ridiculous, and there’s also a lot of cool here too. But it can also get quite dark and serious. A 13-year-old princess is about to be married off to the other country even though everyone knows she’d just be an abused wife at best and a hostage at worst. The throne war ends up depressing everyone, and a seemingly useless third son who’s getting executed turns out to have other sides to him that make you wish things might have been different. Most of all, the author ends with a side story asking what would have happened if Lutz hadn’t saved Claudia. The author of Re: Zero does this “IF” side-stories for fans, and they tend to be dark. This one is very dark, even though it turns out to be a story Claudia is telling Lutz – him not saving her leads to the downfall of the entire kingdom. I prefer our current reality.

Princess Listill, alas, probably does not prefer this reality. Let’s hope things get better for her next time. Recommended for MANLY MEN.

Manga the Week of 11/5/25

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: Let’s November it up! US folks, please vote in your local elections.

ASH: I don’t think I’m ready for November.

SEAN: Yen Press has a debut next week. Magical Midlifer (Mahou Chuunen) is a seinen title from Young Animal. When things get too difficult for the average magical girl, only middle-aged middle-managers can save them.

MICHELLE: I am suddenly reminded of the Middle-Aged Man sketch on Saturday Night Live.

ASH: Hahaha!

ANNA: I’m a middle aged middle manager, I never pictured this type of representation.

SEAN: Also from Yen Press: Dead Mount Death Play 14, Isekai Samurai 2, Takahashi from the Bike Shop 3, Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood 4 and Uncle from Another World 12.

ASH: I’ve been meaning to read Takahashi from the Bike Shop. (And also to take my bike into the shop…)

SEAN: Viz Media has no debuts, unless you count the Naruto cookbook. They do have Akane-banashi 14, Blue Box 18, Colette Decides to Die 5, Dark Gathering 16, The Elusive Samurai 17, Jujutsu Kaisen 28, Kagurabachi 5, Naruto Shippuden: The Official Cookbook, Nue’s Exorcist 3, Prince Freya 12, Skip Beat! 51, and You and I Are Polar Opposites 7.

MICHELLE: Life has been lifing so hard for me that I was completely unaware that a new volume of Skip Beat! was upon us!

ASH: A new volume of Skip Beat! always makes for a good week.

ANNA: Yay for more Skip Beat!.

SEAN: Two Tokyopop debuts. My New Wife’s Fake Smile (Totsuidekita Yome ga Aisouwarai bakari Shiteru) is a Twitter manga that made its way to the shonen title Suiyoubi no Sirius. An arranged marriage has the new husband worried that his wife’s smile means she’s unsatisfied with him. In reality, she’s trying to control herself from jumping his bones.

ASH: I wonder how long it takes him to figure that out.

SEAN: Real-Time Fever (Uraaka Danshi wa Real-Time no Netsu o Shiru) is the obligatory BL one-shot that ran in from RED. A shy guy in college broadcasts naughty content online… and then finds that the popular guy at school is his biggest fan.

ASH: Uh-oh!

ANNA: What’s going to happen next?????

SEAN: Steamship has a webtoon debut, Winter Wolf. A woman trying to escape a coup that killed the rest of her family ends up trapped in a mansion that’s getting colder and colder with the guy she hired to save her (but who she can’t stand).

ASH: I’ll admit to being intrigued.

ANNA: This does sound interesting.

SEAN: Square Enix Books has the 7th volume of The Apothecary Diaries light novel.

ASH: I really need to start reading the light novels! I’ve been enjoying the manga and anime.

SEAN: Square Enix Manga, meanwhile, has By the Grace of the Gods 13 and The Emperor’s Caretaker 5.

Lots of Seven Seas debuts, very few of them Japanese. Let’s start with the danmei, as we see a new novel, There’s Something Wrong with the Chief: Du Zhu You Bing. An assassin infiltrates a noble household and finds himself getting closer with his target.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi is getting a deluxe hardcover, and the first is out next week.

ASH: Fancy!

SEAN: Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu has its 7th deluxe hardcover.

Cupid is Struck by Lightning (Cupid ni Rakurai) is a BL title that ran in a magazine called Cab. A popular matchmaker finds himself falling for his gloomy (yet also popular) senpai.

MICHELLE: Gloomy, you say? Sounds potentially fun.

ANNA: I enjoy some gloom.

SEAN: DEAR. DOOR is a webtoon series coming out here in omnibus-sized volumes. A cop trying to get over a tragedy finds himself dealing with the demon king.

MICHELLE: Hm.

SEAN: Demon Under the Waxing Moon (Matsuyoi no Oni) is a BL title from Daria. It’s a one-shot. A young man who can see demons picks up a stray dog one day. Guess what it is. I hear this is spicy, though I assume it’s after the dog becomes a hot guy.

ASH: Most likely.

ANNA: One would hope.

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: At 25:00 in Akasaka 5, The Big Apple 4, The Long Summer of August 31 3, Monster Cats 3, and Punch Drunk Love 4.

One debut from One Peace Books. Tamer: Trash-Tier to Top-Tier (Ore no Zense no Chishiki de Teihenshoku Tamer ga Joukyuushoku ni Natte Shimaisou na Ken) is based on an as-yet unlicensed light novel. A powerful tamer, one of the best professions out there, is killed, and reborn in a world where tamers are regarded as trash. Time for the standard isekai tropes…

Kodansha has one debut and two re-releases. Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir Complete Manga Omnibus is a collection of the three previously-released volumes.

Mushishi Collector’s Edition is a deluxe omnibus version of the beloved, yet strangely poorly-selling fantasy manga that ran in Afternoon about 25 years ago. If you have not read it, do so, it’s brilliant.

MICHELLE: I think I have most, if not all, of the volumes published by Del Rey, but I have never read it.

ASH: Whaaaaaaat?? But you must! Mushishi is one of my absolute favorites. I’m thrilled to see it back in print and in a deluxe edition to boot; I will be double-dipping.

ANNA: I enjoyed the bits of it that I read!

SEAN: Shoot Juliet Down (Juliet wo Ute) is a BL title from Honey Milk. The Number Two host at a popular club asks the Number One for advice on how to get better… but was not expected to get seduced!

ASH: Whoops!

SEAN: Also in print: Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 20 (the final volume), FAIRY TAIL: 100 Years Quest 19, Land of the Lustrous 13 (the final volume), Thunder 3 7, Tune In to the Midnight Heart 4 and WIND BREAKER 16.

ASH: I’m a few volumes behind with Land of the Lustrous, but it’s such an intriguing series.

SEAN: And digitally we see How to Grill Our Love 17.

Kodama has Baki the Grappler 3 and 4.

ASH: That was fast!

ANNA: Woah!

SEAN: Kana has a 5th volume of Eden of Witches.

ASH: Another series I’ve been meaning to try.

SEAN: J-Novel Club has one debut, a manga based on an as-yet unlicensed light novel. Fired? But I Maintain All the Software! (E, Shanai System Subete Wanope shiteiru Watashi wo Kaiko desu ka?) stars a programmer who gets fired for cosplaying in the office. Sure, without her the company is doomed, but hey. Now she’s joining a new startup where she can give advice to other coders.

ASH: Good for her.

ANNA: I hope for the best for this software maintenance queen.

SEAN: For light novels, JNC has Ascendance of a Bookworm Fanbook 7, Duchess in the Attic 4, Goodbye Overtime 6, I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic 7, My Magical Career at Court 6, Sword Saint Adel’s Second Chance 4, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 14.

And for manga they have An Archdemon’s Dilemma 13, Black Summoner 21, Karate Master Isekai 5, Make It Stop! I’m Not Strong… It’s Just My Sword! 2, and Zero Damage Sword Saint 2.

Inklore has a 2nd volume of I Wanna Be Your Girl.

From Ghost Ship, we see Rise of the Outlaw Tamer and His S-Rank Cat Girl 6, She’s the Strongest Bride, But I’m Stronger in Night Battles 4, and Survival in Another World with My Mistress! 8.

Drawn & Quarterly is re-releasing A Drifting Life, in case you did not buy it when it first came out.

ASH: It’s an excellent read; nice to see it back.

SEAN: Dark Horse has a 2nd volume of Cat + Crazy.

No print volumes for Airship, but they have an early digital debut. I Got Married to the Girl I Hate Most in Class (Class no Daikirai na Joshi to Kekkonsuru Koto ni Natta) is a romcom title, as you might have guessed. Two high school rivals are forced to marry due to family politics. Now they have to live together, share meals, and share a bed! But they hate each other! Right?

ASH: Of course!

SEAN: Also in early digital: There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… 7.

Good start to November. What manga are you reading?

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 13

by

By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Andrew Schubauer.

This is, for the most part, a “rest” book after the main plot that we just went through with the Church (which Haruka has re-invented as a sort of healing disco that plays Vocaloid tracks). There’s lots of dungeon crawling, of course, and leveling up our latest Dungeon Emperor. There’s lots of sex that’s written for comedic rather than erotic effect, so the book just about gets away with it. The sex, of course, only involves the three dungeon emperors, much to the frustration of the girls, who are trying to get across their attraction to h8im while also sort of admitting none of them are ready to take the next step yet (certainly not Class Rep, who gets an internal illustration of her rearing back in shock after seeing Haruka has “grown”, so to speak). Basically, this book is about hijinks. Yes, there is a hint of what is to come – there’s apparently a couple more really deep dungeons out there – but right now, let’s just watch Haruka run wild.

This cover is meant to mirror the first one (complete with the alternate cover featuring Haruka, though in this volume he has his back turned to the reader), and I suppose it feels appropriate. We’re back in the frontier, we’re back to dungeon crawling, and we even got back to the forest for a bit, to see Haruka testing his new body movin’ on some goblins. See, Haruka had most of his skills, which he spent months perfecting (a reminder that we’re still only four months since they arrived in this world), because they got folded up into other skill trees that he has most decidedly NOT mastered. As a result, he can barely move without falling all over himself, and has to learn how to walk, run, and fight while controlling his body like a puppet. Which, again, reminds us a lot of the start of the series.

I don’t have to tell you that there’s tons of unreliable narration here, but we’re at least getting to the point where the narrators are allowed to admit they know they’re full of it. The first 50 pages or so of the book are all from Class Rep’s POV, and while she tries to frame things as “oh, that wacky Haruka, how can we control him?”, there’s also moments of sheer fury when she sees the disrespect he’s getting from the locals (disrespect which he himself has engineered) to the point where the other girls have to hold her back. Even the locals are allowed to wade in the waters of overly dramatic obfuscation, as we see the guild master agonize for page after page about having to send poor innocent Haruka and his low levels into the most horrible of dungeons… all while his second-in-command says “yes, yes, we know he’ll just go there anyway, so sign the paper”. This world is terrible (as we see several times here), and Haruka and the girls are dead set on improving it while protecting each other (the girls admit here all their lecturing attacks on him by now are them testing to make sure he’s still unable to lose to them). At the same time, this world is overdramatic and loopy, and adding Haruka and the girls does not change that in the least.

The next book seems to have a festival, judging by the cover. Knowing Haruka, it may be more of a carnival. Recommended to those who know what they’re getting.

Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? On The Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 14

by

By Fujino Omori and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Gaiden – Sword Oratoria” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

So, this wasn’t bad. It didn’t do anything wrong, and the climax moves up to “pretty good”. That said, it’s been a while since I last read a volume of Danmachi and my main reaction was “eh”. I think I can put some of this down to the basic premise, and how little it deviates from the expected. If I was to tell you that the plot of this book is “we find out how Finn, Riveria and Gareth ended up joining Loki Familia”, and asked what you thought would happen in the book, I bet you’d come up with something pretty similar to this. It hits the beats it needs to hit. Finn is clever and smug, Riveria is powerful but haughty, Gareth is strong but stubborn. And Loki is, well, Loki. This gives folks the backstories they wanted, but it has exactly zero surprises, unless you count Eine’s mom (who, as Loki tells us a few times, has got it going on).

Loki Familia is having a big celebration – though admittedly one close to home, as they’re short on cash to go to a bar right now – to celebrate the big news. Finn, Riveria and Gareth have all hit Level 7, and they did it at the same time, too. After a raucous feast with the whole family, the three of them and Loki have a quieter drink afterwards, and get to reminiscing. We see a Loki who’s just come down to the human world and has zero followers. She meets Finn, who has a tragic backstory but is also determined to show the world not to look down on prums, even if he has to give up his first love to do so. Riveria is shown as a princess who’s trapped in the forest with the high elves, and her escaping with her attendant and best friend Aine, despite her father and the other elves pursuing her. And we see Gareth in a small, poor mining town, doing his best to make sure everyone can live even though he’d really rather be out adventuring.

As always with this author, the fights get better as they go along, which means Gareth’s story is probably the one that hit best for me. I could have done without Loki’s sexual harassment, but honestly I’ve seen worse from her, and I know by now it’s meant to be her THING. I did mention Aine, and she does not do much, and clearly is not suited to be part of Loki Familia. Unfortunately, we don’t see how she married a human here – maybe there’s a side story or game that talks about it. The bulk of the book is “elves and dwarves hate each other”, with a side order of “hobbits are weak” – sorry, prums – and about the three of them learning to get along and discovering how strong they are as a fighting team. And Loki does manage to be clever once or twice in amongst being a horny brat.

So yeah, this is exactly what it says it is, no more, no less. The next book promises to tie back in with the main series, and also have more of Ais.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Dum Spiro, Spero, Part 2

by

By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan as “Youjo Senki” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by James Balzer.

It’s been quite a while since the last volume of these in English, even though in Japan, the two volumes came out only one month apart. That said, this is also the final volume of the series to date, as we have not yet seen the 15th volume in Japan as of this date. I don’t really blame the author, as it can be rather tricky to get the right tone for this series. It’s an anti-war but pro-military series, and it has to show us that war is hell while also managing to convey that reading about a good firefight is a hell of a lot of fun. It also can’t really kill off too many named characters – for all that we hear about people dying in this book (including, possibly, the greatest comedy character in the series, who returns in this book), the core of Tanya’s unit are still around. Even if they’re tired. So very, very tired.

The bulk of the start of the book is the aftermath of Tanya’s faked retreat orders, and how everyone seems to be disbelieving – not surprising, given everything we hear about the Empire. Fortunately, after Grantz flies all the way back to the capital and tries to avoid various court-martials and treason accusations as he barrels along, Zettour gets the message and is able to confirm – carry out those orders. Of course, that’s easier said than done, and Tanya and her group don’t even have that luxury – while the army retreats, they’re tasked with flying into the Federation attack, stopping supply trains, hitting disguised air bases, and trying not to die. And then after THAT, they get to take almost every mage in the entire not-German army on a suicide mission to take out various Federation strongholds. And then the worst possible thing happens – the enemy blows up their kitchen. (No really, think about it, surviving while exhausted on dry rations is TERRIBLE.)

I’m mentioning the exhaustion a lot because it really comes across here. By the end of the book Tanya’s comrades are dead on their feet, and even she sometimes gets to the point where fatigue is making her a little loopier than she normally is. They’re doing things that shame soldiers, as while they’re advancing on the enemy, they have to leave their own fellow soldiers to die – they cannot save them and attack at the same time. it’s frustrating, unless you’re Tanya, who coolly explains why it has to happen. The only one who seems firmly in her camp all the time is Visha, who is more worried about Grantz, who’s gotten more to do lately, replacing her as adjutant. Tanya reassures her. Weiss, meanwhile, thinks they’ve both “turned rotten”, and he’s not wrong. By the end of the book, they’re being sent off to fight again… but not in the East! Tanya may finally get an opportunity to defect.

Assuming we get the next book, of course. For now, the Empire still hangs on. We’ll be waiting to see if it makes it through Book 15. For fans of… well, the light novels, really. Fans of the anime should probably try the manga first. And fans of Isekai Quartet may just hate this.

The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori, Vol. 3

by

By Kaeru Ryouseirui and Natsuki Amashiro. Released in Japan as “Umidori Tougetsu no “Detarame” na Jijou” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I like to theorize about what happens behind the scenes of an author, editor, and publisher, even though I am usually right about 1% of the time, if that. And when I got to the end of this third volume, I did wonder if the author was quietly told before it was written to plan for this to end with the fourth book (which it seems to have done, though I know better than to declare things definitively over now). The first two volumes of this book were very much concerned with the lies and the people behind them, and I was expecting this one to be as well. And to be fair, there is a situation with a lie and a person behind it. But the lie is incredibly pathetic, and it’s resolved in a way that’s deliberately comical. Because this is about Tougetsu Umidori, of course – and her story and its lack of lies are the whole point of the series, and not as easily solved.

Tougetsu has a problem. After avoiding it for nearly a year, her grandmother demands that she come home to visit or else she’ll be forced to move back home permanently. This upsets her, but she’s going to have to suck it up and do it – but it’s OK, Nara will come with her, as they’re friends, and Nara is tremendously curious about her family. That said, once they arrive, Nara finds that her grandmother is pretty nice and kind of normal… except around Tougetsu, where she turns into this stern scary woman. What’s more, she was really looking forward to meeting Tougetsu’s mother… who has fled the house. As it turns out, Nara ends up deeply regretting coming at all. Meanwhile, famous Kobe dishes are now thought to be famous Kakogawa dishes. Someone is altering reality so that Kakogawa gets all the cool Kobe dishes! It can only be a lie! Fortunately, Bullshit-chan has a solution – Youtubing.

There’s a lot of setup for the next volume involving the bad guys, as well as the true nature of Bullshit-chan, but let’s face it, the real meat of the book, and the best part, is the budding relationship between Tougetsu and Nara, and its near-fracturing here because of the way Tougetsu sees herself. Tougetsu’s inability to lie has led to her friendships being sundered, but she also has a lot of family trauma as well (which, be warned, involves an attempted suicide). What this means is that she seemingly feels no deep connections – if Nara broke things off and said she didn’t want to be friends anymore, Tougetsu would just accept it and distance herself. Which, of course, infuriates Nara. This is not a yuri series per se, but the only important male character in it is the villain, so it might as well be. Tougetsu and Nara make up at the end, and seem to come to a compromise, but I suspect it will take working out Bullshit-chan to work out Tougetsu.

Will this end in happiness or in tears? “Yes”, I suspect is that answer to that. Till then, please enjoy Bullshit-chan streaming cooking shows to save Kobe cuisine. And two kinda-gay teens trying to work things out despite one (one?) being really fucked up.

Sasaki and Peeps: A View-Count War Breaks Out on Social Media! ~My Neighbor’s Explosive VTuber Debut~

by

By Buncololi and Kantoku. Released in Japan as “Sasaki to Pi-chan” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse.

The danger of a series like this, which tries to change genres with every new volume, is that eventually you’re going to hit up against one that you’re not really all that interested in. When I saw that this volume was going to be about VTubers, I sort of groaned. It’s not my thing, and I don’t do the virtual idol thing either. So when Type Twelve decided to make this her new thing, I was prepared for this to be a slog. Fortunately, I was saved by the fact that the author knew which character to give the spotlight to this time around. Kurosu has gotten short shrift for a good deal of the series (when the anime came out, most wondered why she was even there at all), but her deadpan horrible personality meshes really well with trying to be a hot VTuber success, especially since we also still have her desperate 13-year-old horny urges to bang Sasaki (which is never going to happen, and I think she knows it deep down).

As noted above, Type Twelve is done with school because of … well, see Book 8. Instead, she’s decided to try uploading videos to Youtube (yes, they use the actual word). This becomes a competition, with everyone in the “family” (thus not including Elsa and Peeps, who already have a Youtube channel) competing to see who can get the most page views… and the winner has to order the loser to obey any command. Naturally, this gets Neighbor Girl tremendously excited, as even she knows that middle-management dude Sasaki is not going to be able to compete with four cute young-looking girls. She decides to (with Type Twelve’s tech help) become a cute, happy VTuber… which is a disaster. However, the backlash actually forces her to use it to her advantage, and she comes back admitting the happy girl was a fake and she’s a depressed introvert. This goes MUCH better… to the point where she’s scouted!

I’ve talked before about how the neighbor girl is so screwed up and horrifying that it almost comes around to being funny, but that’s not really sustainable if you’re going to have the series develop characterization (which is debatable – honestly, I think this author is far happier having its characters be cutely meta than learning anything about themselves). Over the course of the last few books she’s been forced to endure a lot and also interact with others far more than she ever did before. As a result, while her quiet cynical sarcasm is present and correct, as is her twisted sex with Sasaki fantasy, she no longer looks as if she’s actively trying to kill herself. Actually, she may have found a career path – her quick deductions at the scene of a crime, while getting in the way of the plot, show off a detective skill that’s actually kind of scary. Is she healing? A bit?

The others, rest assured, get stuff to do, and Hoshizaki gets the funniest part of the book. But yeah, this continues to interest me, even when it’s playing around in sandboxes I don’t care about.

Manga the Week of 10/29/25

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: You may now Halloween the week away however you want, including manga, spooky and otherwise.

ASH: Sounds like a plan!

SEAN: Airship has the print debut of Virgin Knight: I Became the Frontier Lord in a World Ruled by Women (Teisou Gyakuten Sekai no Doutei Henkyou Ryoushu Kishi), which features a world where sexual norms between men and women are reversed, and women are dominant! Into this comes our reincarnated hero, and he’s not standing for that!

ASH: Hmmm. This is something that could be done really well, or really not.

SEAN: Two ongoing print books from Airship. We see Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! 4 and Witch and Mercenary 4.

For early digital we have a BL light novel. Bowing to Love: The Noble and the Gladiator (Ai ni Hizamazuku Toki) stars two men who are torn between duty, pure pleasure, and actual love amidst a vaguely Ancient Roman fantasy world.

ASH: I enjoy a good historical fantasy.

ANNA: Yeah!

SEAN: Also in early digital: The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash 11.

Cross Infinite World has 2nd volumes for I Want to Be a Saint, But I Can Only Use Attack Magic! and Love & Magic Academy.

Ghost Ship has the 15th and final volume of Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time.

Hanashi Media debuts two new light novels, both of which you likely know from the manga that have been coming out here for a while. The New Gate stars Shin, who is essentially Kirito, fighting with others to escape from a VRMMO turned death game. But when he finally succeeds, he passes out… and wakes up 500 years later, in the “real” world of the game.

Re:Monster has our hero killed and reincarnated in another world as a lowly goblin. But he can gain power from eating, and also has his past memories. With these he will rise up to become someone greater.

They also have a 9th volume of Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy.

Inklore has a 5th volume of Father, I Don’t Want This Marriage.

J-Novel Club debuts another contest winner! The Dragon and the Blade Saint: This Isn’t Where We End stars a dragon who is furious that the revered “Blade Saint” killed all her people. She goes back in time to fix things… but now she’s a human?

The other debut is a manga, The Fearsome Witch Teaches in Another World: Ms. Aoi’s Lesson Plans (Isekai Tenishite Kyoushi ni Natta ga, Majo to Osorerareteiru Ken: Aoi-sensei no Gakuen Funtou Nisshi), based on a light novel J-Novel Club will be releasing soon. It runs in Comic Earth Star Online. A woman is reborn in another world with terrible regrets. But now she knows sorcery, and is headed to the magic academy. Can she do things better in this reborn life?

ASH: One would hope!

SEAN: Other light novels out next week from JNC: Isekai Walking 4.

And for manga we see 8th Loop for the Win! 6, The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom 6, and I Only Have Six Months to Live, So I’m Gonna Break the Curse with Light Magic or Die Trying 4.

Kodansha debuts Light of My Life, a BL title from Gateau. Two best friends have grand dreams. Years later, neither of them is where they expected to be. Can they repair their friendship… and perhaps more?

MICHELLE: Well, I’m sucker for bittersweet BL, so count me in!

SEAN: Nezumi’s First Love (Nezumi no Hatsukoi) looks cute and adorable, but be warned it runs in the seinen Young Magazine. A young assassin falls in love for the first time, and now has to figure out how to chase her love and not have her bosses get in the way.

Also in print: AKIRA Hardcover Collection 3, Blue Lock 23, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability 16, Nina the Starry Bride 12, Phantom of the Idol 8, and The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse 19.

ANNA: Shouting out Nina the Starry Bride!

SEAN: In digital they have Am I Actually the Strongest? 15 and Gamaran: Shura 34.

Retailers say that KUMA has a one-shot debut. Director Akasaka’s Princely Training Course (Akasaka Buchou no Prince Boy Ikusei Keikaku) stars a guy with bad luck in love. But then he meets a handsome young man… that he’s supposed to train at his office! And the man is the future company president!

And we also see Happy Crappy Life 4.

ASH: This is a series I should probably catch up on at some point.

SEAN: One Peace Books has the 2nd volume of You Talk Too Much, So Just Shut It Already!.

ASH: I rather enjoyed the first volume.

Ponent Mon has a re-release of The Solitary Gourmet in a nice hardcover.

ASH: Very glad to see this release!

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts Hope You’re Happy, Lemon (Kuso Onna ni Sachiare), a Shonen Jump + series about a guy who broke up with his middle-school girlfriend after she admitted to cheating on him with multiple guys. Now he’s in college, and has a crush on another girl. But then Lemon shows up again… and now he’s bodyswapped into her body?!

MICHELLE: That took an unexpected turn!

ASH: It really did!

ANNA: Whoops!

SEAN: And we have My Twisted Eating Disorder (Meisou Senshi Nagata Kabi: Gourmet de Go!), the latest biographical manga from Nagata Kabi. It ran in Web Action.

ASH: Nagata Kabi’s works are heavy, but well done.

SEAN: Seven Seas also has The Ancient Magus’ Bride 21, The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain 5, Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! 9, Ichi the Killer Omnibus 2, Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary 3, Magika Swordsman and Summoner 19, Mysterious Disappearances 7, Time Stop Hero 13, and Tokyo Revengers: Brilliant Full Color Edition 3-4.

MICHELLE: I really need to catch up on The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

ASH: Saaaaame. It’s a series I really enjoy, too.

Square Enix Books has Soul Eater: Soul Art Encore!, an artbook done after the Perfect Edition finished.

Tokyopop has Assassin’s Creed Dynasty Box Set, with 5 volumes now handy in one box.

They also debut I’ll Never Fall in Love With Amano! (Amano-kun to Koi Nanka Shinai!), a shoujo title from Dessert. Takahide is angry that she always comes second to Amano in academics. But when he mistakenly thinks she has a crush on him, she’s quick to take advantage…

MICHELLE: Why is it always the guy who’s “effortlessly brilliant” and the girl who can never quite manage to measure up?

ANNA: Sigh.

SEAN: Monster and Ghost is a manga that ran on the online Renta service. It’s a BL title about a delinquent everyone sees as a monster and the ghost who knows what he’s really like.

MICHELLE: Ooh.

SEAN: Yotsuya Ghost Knight is a BL one-shot that ran in from RED. An exorcist turns to a porn star for help in… well, read the book.

ASH: Oh, my!

SEAN: And Tokyopop also has I Was Reincarnated as the Heroine on the Verge of a Bad Ending, and I’m Determined to Fall in Love! 6.

Udon Entertainment have Mega Man X DiVE: Official Complete Works, which is what it sounds like.

Viz Media have Castle in the Sky: The Official Cookbook, which is what it sounds like.

They also have Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku Complete Box Set, which is what it sounds like.

One Piece: Law’s Story is a light novel giving us Law’s backstory.

Also from Viz: Boy’s Abyss 11 and Real 16 (the first new volume in four years).

MICHELLE: I legit gasped!

ASH: Real is one of my absolute favorites; incredibly excited for this.

ANNA: Wow!!!!

SEAN: Yen Press has its October titles at last, starting with Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!? (Otaku ni Yasashii Gal wa Inai!?), the story of an otaku who likes shoujo stuff who meets two gals who also do. It runs in Comic Zenon.

ASH: I hope they can get along together.

SEAN: Monster-Colored Island (Kaijuu Iro no Shima) is a yuri series from Young Dragon Age. A longer girl with no friends finds a city girl at the top of a cliff… which they then fall off! After reviving her, the two find that strange things start to happen…

ASH: Gotta be careful around cliffs.

SEAN: Yankee & Carameliser is BL title that ran in B’s-LOVEY recottia. A supposed bad boy posts pictures of great desserts on social media. This is done in one, but has a sequel.

ASH: Delinquent food BL manga? I’m in!

ANNA: That’s a mix of genres I hsve not seen before.

SEAN: Also from Yen Press: Bungo Stray Dogs: Wan! 12, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman 4, Goblin Slayer 16, Handyman Saitou in Another World 8, The Hitman Stans 2, Kaiju Girl Caramelise 8, Liar Liar 3, Lycoris Recoil 4, Mint Chocolate 13, Pink & Habanero 4, Shy 11, Spring Storm and Monster 4, The Summer Hikaru Died 6, Toilet-bound Hanako-kun 23, Übel Blatt Deluxe Edition 4, and Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion 9 (the final volume).

MICHELLE: I should revisit Pink & Habanero and Spring Storm and Monster, at some point.

SEAN: Not as large as I expected! Scary! What appeals to you?

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle, Vol. 7

by

By Hiromu and raemz. Released in Japan as “Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Evie Lund.

Throwing up the spoiler warning here: I discuss the big revelations in this book, but not till the third paragraph.

I was expecting something else, to be honest. After the trauma of the last few books, the sturm und drang and Yua playing Baker Street over a sobbing Chitose, that we would sort of go back to everyone smiling, going back to their normal high school lives, and have a nice, relaxing 7th book. And, to be fair, so was the author. There is an extra-long afterword describing their thought process while writing this book, and you can see how the first, oh, third of the book is written by a very different person from the one who wrote the last two-thirds. Because the author is correct, that is what the characters want. It’s what the readers want. We do not want more angst. We want to relax. Unfortunately, for the sake of the story, the author cannot give that to us. And so… see the girl on the cover>? She’s a first-year. She’s spunky, cute, and loves the whole cast. And she’s also a bomb.

After the events over the summer, Chitose is hoping that everything will go back to normal. And, aside from Yuuko having the traditional “moving on” haircut, they do. Which means it’s time to plan for the culture festival, which is two months away and seems to involve both a sports day AND a culture day. Naturally, Chitose and company are very involved, especially since, in his first year, he was not in the right headspace to handle a festival. Now he and the rest of the group want to be on the cheer squad. They’re joined by Asuka, who is happy to do something with them before she has to graduate. They are also joined by Kureha, a first-year who has heard all the stories about the very famous Chitose and his very famous friends, and is star-struck. She rapidly becomes part of their group. A bit too rapidly. The reader gradually feels that things are about to go very, very wrong.

As our little bomb sent everyone into a coma over the course of the last third of the book, I noticed that Yuuko was pretty much absent. She’s not like all the others, after all. She actually confessed and was rejected. So Kureha can’t really do much about her. It’s worth noting that Kureha is being written as a horrible villain after the reveal, and the reader sees her as one long before that, but to all the other girls, she’s not. Particularly Yuzuki, who is on the cover of the next two books in this series, and I strongly suspect is going to step past Yuuko to steal the main girl spotlight. But the way that Kureha demolishes Haru, Asuka and Yua with “innocent” ease shows off that much as we’d like all the girls to be equal in their chances to win Chitose, that’s not how love works. You have to commit. You have to be ready to hurt others to get what you want. Yuuko understood that, and the hurt was devastating to her. Kureha is able to hurt far more easily, but so far only Yuzuki, who has always been the most aloof of the group, is ready to take things to the next level.

As the anime seems to be polarizing people, the novels are hitting another high point. Just… be ready for things to not be safe and fun.

The Wicked Princess and Her Twelve Eyes: The Legendary Villainess and Her Elite Assassins

by

By Daken and saino. Released in Japan as “Aku no Reijou to Juuni no Hitomi: Saikyou Juusha-tachi to Densetsu no Akujo, Jinsei Nidome no Kareinaru Musouroku” by Overlap Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by piyo (Irene Nakano). Adapted by Rei Geronimo.

I was going to buy this anyway simply as I like the genre, but then I saw it was by the author of Who Killed the Hero?. And then, for some reason, as I was reading it, I totally forgot that. I’m not sure why. But the first, oh, two-thirds of this book is content to just be a hoot. You’ve got the usual villainess who goes back in time and does things over again. There’s a large helping of humor, both because she’s an absolute sadist but also from the author themselves (one of the color pages tells us what each of her squires excels in, and one girl is simply “energetic!” in a “no thoughts, head empty” sort of way). That said, don’t worry, this *is* by the author of Who Killed the Hero?, and the last 50 pages or so made me sit up, and then made my jaw drop as I recalled all the things I hadn’t bothered to pay attention to.

Serena Rosenberg starts this book, as all good villainesses do, by getting her engagement broken in front of a large crowd of nobles. Unlike most villainesses, she really is guilty of a lot of attempted murder against the heroine. Even though none of her attempts succeeded, she’s sentenced to death. As she’s forced to drink poison, she realizes that her biggest fault was that she did not have competent minions. Then she wakes up as a baby again, but with memories of her past life. Unfortunately, she’s still pretty much a terrible person, but she definitely wants to avoid her previous fate. Therefore, she actually studies magic and the sword, getting good at everything. She also goes to an orphanage, grabs the six “problem children” from it, and puts them through training. Ridiculously hard training.

The bulk of this book goes sort of how you’d expect, being one of those “Serena does something with evil intentions, but everyone else sees it as good” sort of books. Her hellish training really is needed to snap this orphans out of their mindsets, and makes them better people. She gets them dogs, who become good pets and like family to them. She does this for absolutely WRETCHED reasons, but because she’s being so good, those reasons have to be abandoned. And as the book goes on, we see her realizing that she doesn’t really want to get revenge, and doesn’t care if the heroine marries the prince after all. It’s headed for a “doing good thing feels good” sort of ending… and then we’re reminded about things we took for granted because this genre has lots of mediocre things that make the brain assume. Like why does her mother avoid her? Like why did she go back in time in the first place? The last chunk of this book is here to answer the questions, and the answer is pretty terrific. And yes, author, I appreciated the added ending.

If you like this author, cool plot twists, or books where the protagonist is terrible but in a fun way, this is a must-read. Also, I teared up a bit when I realized what the title meant.

The Twelve Kingdoms, Book Two: Shadow of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea, Part 2

by

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

Last time I assumed that things would get better for Youko over the course of this second book, and to be fair they do SORT OF, but it does not remove the trauma of what has happened to her, especially once she discovers that this journey, much as she would like it to be otherwise, is pretty one-sided. By the end of the first book she was betrayed twice over, and is mentally and physically on her last legs, and so at the start of this book she regards any act of kindness at all as an attempt to soften her up before they betray her again. It doesn’t help that she’s still getting attacked by youma, which she’s getting quite good at killing – her sword skills are improving by leaps and bounds! – but it does also mean that she’s starting to regard herself as a bad person… and perhaps not even a person at all. Which, um, turns out to be correct. Except for the bad part.

After the events of the last volume, Youko is in bad shape, and unable to trust anyone. She ends up, fortunately, getting picked up by the best possible rat that she can. And no, I don’t mean a rat as in a terrible person, I mean an actual walking, talking rat. Rakushun is a Hanjyuu, a half-beast, who is smart and kind but unfortunately in the wrong kingdom to be able to get ahead. He spends a large portion of the start of the book trying to convince Youko that he’s not going to sic the guards on her the first chance he can get. He also gives her a lot more information about this world, which will come in handy when they are inevitably separated on their journey and she has to go on alone. Eventually she ends up in the kingdom of En, which is a LOT better than where she was. Unfortunately, the youma keep attacking her no matter where she is.

I was prepared for this to feel a lot different from the anime, as Sugimoto doesn’t exist in the novels beyond the very start. But wow, this book is concerned with Youko and her situation, and everything else about it is secondary. Not to spoil too much, but there’s a huge battle between an army of soldiers trying to protect a false queen and Youko and a number of crack troops, and it starts on page 209 and is done by page 210. The false queen herself takes up half of the cover art. We never meet her. This book is laser-focused on Youko and her thought process, and it’s absolutely riveting. We see her start at the lowest possible ebb, and as she gradually learns to trust again and gains more and more information, she realizes how intertwined she is with this world and how it’s practically impossible for her to run away without causing a catastrophe. The climax of the book is not the battle – it can’t be. It’s Youko’s choice. The rest is just an afterthought.

Now, the next book does not in fact focus on Youko, but moves to a different kingdom, as if to remind us that the title of the book is indeed The Twelve Kingdoms. I still can’t wait to read it.