Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Reviews

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 15

by

By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.

While it’s still a disappointment to the Western fandom who still wishes it were a lot more gay, there’s no doubt that recent volumes of Bakarina have been much better than the doldrums of the single digits where the author was asked to write more but didn’t really have much of a plan. This now reads like it’s traveling to a destination, at least in terms of the dark magic plotline and the state of the country. In terms of the romance, things are still pretty much at 1) Jeord, 2) Maria, 3) everyone else. This volume has a new character (though don’t get attached to them), lots of backstory going back hundreds of years, a final battle that comes close to taking out our heroine and villainess, and a bountiful amount of produce. All this plus Mary at her absolute cattiest, and Jeord at *his* absolute cattiest. These are getting to be a lot of fun again.

After a brief “let’s have all the original love interests together in one scene” bit where they harvest the sweet potatoes from Katarina’s garden, she’s off to the ministry, trying to stop Raphael from overworking himself to death… which he has to do as Larna has been busy at the palace lately. Katarina knows that’s because she’s really Susannah, but the other’s don’t. Things really get going, though, when Katarina’s body is possessed by a dark spirit… one who’s been asleep for five hundred years! Katarina knows this plot, it’s part of the 2nd game that she’s watched in dreams… only there it happened to Maria. As it turns out this spirit, Lucie, is closely tied to a tragedy from long ago… the details of which may be very important to stop it reoccurring. Especially as those folks from 500 years ago seem awfully familiar.

Lest folks misunderstand, there’s no indication that Katarina and Maria are somehow going to go back in time or anything. But several people mentioned here, particularly Susannah’s magic tutor and Lucie’s master, are described in such a way that makes me suspect they’ve been reincarnated from Japan and are, like Katarina, a wee bit eccentric. It’s even more obvious with Jean, who has her own Maria Campbell as her best friend… or rather Maria’s ancestor. I liked how this tied into a folklore tale from her own family, rather than (as I suspected would happen) reading it in the white magic book she’s been translating. As for Lucie, she’s sweet and cute and what happened to her was very tragic… and what happens to her here is slightly less tragic, but also bittersweet. I’m not exactly sure what we’re doing with all this backstory, though it may also tie into a generation before, when the throne war wiped out so many people. Unfortunately, a cliffhanger implies the wrong sort of people might also be better informed.

If you’re reading Bakarina for the plot or characters, this is really solid. And she’s still not interested in romance at all, so status quo there.

Fired? But I Maintain All the Software!, Vol. 1

by

By Yuki Kashirome and icchi. Released in Japan as “E, Shanai System Subete One Operation Shite Iru Watashi o Kaiko desu ka?” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Minna Lin.

Content warning: This review will be discussing a book that deals with multiple companies that use AI, and it discusses AI throughout the book, usually in a positive way (though it does emphasize AI without humans making decisions is a disaster). Reader discretion is advised.

It’s always an event when a book gets licensed in a genre that no one really dabbles in much. We’ve seen a lot of bad companies, overworked office staff, and overtime from hell in light novels, but usually that’s as a setup to killing them off and setting them up in another world. This book is not going to do that, as it is very much interested in this world. It’s essentially a story of how you should not stay tied to a job that is destroying you, that effective communication can still be learned even years after school. and that you need to be careful about getting rid of the weirdo in the company because usually the weirdos are in companies for a very good reason.

Ai Sato (punny first name very much intended) gets to say the title as the first line of the novel. A new executive has taken over her company, goes to see the revolutionary new system that they’re famous for, and discovers that the woman who runs it is dressed in a sexy succubus bikini. With horns. She’s drowning her sorrows in an izakaya with melon soda (none of the main characters drink) when she’s spotted by her childhood friend Ken Suzuki, who’s running a startup programming school and thinks she’d be perfect for it. As it turns out, both of them have major flaws in their respective business personalities that are complemented by the other, and with two other employees they’re ready to take the world by storm. Unfortunately her old company is falling apart at the seams, and the CEO has decided it’s all her fault and he wants revenge.

This series, frankly, drips with idealism over realism, and if that bothers you it will probably taste like acid. That said, I did mostly enjoy it. It’s odd seeing a manic pixie dream girl sort from the narrative perspective of the dream girl herself, though the book is pretty good about showing us her flaws and that, under all the tech genius and overly peppy gung-ho attitude is a socially awkward young woman who is nearing 30 but is very much a child at heart. There’s suggestion of a romance between her and the childhood friend, but I get the feeling that’s all it’s ever going to be – this isn’t a romcom, it’s a workplace handbook. (Also, one of their “students” is a young woman who blatantly has a crush on Ai, and is not ashamed to show it.) I did also enjoy seeing the long, lingering interludes showing the CEO of Ai’s old company slide from “I’m here to streamline things and there is a girl in a succubus bikini in my office” to “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” evil cackling over the course of the book.

If you’re a corporate drone, or an engineer, this is probably right up your alley. If not, I don’t think Ai actually does enough cosplay throughout to justify it. Also, naming the leads Ai Sato and Ken Suzuki is like naming your leads John Smith and Jane Jones.

Return of the Corpse King: Reining in My Cringe Secret Society, Vol. 1

by

By Sty and Tsumeki. Released in Japan as “Shiou no Kikan: Moto Yuusha no Ore, Jibun ga Soshikishita Chuuni Himitsukessha wo Tomeru Tame ni Futatabi Isekai ni Shoukansareteshimau” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

Occasionally there are series where I’ll buy it for one reason, usually because it’s advertised as something that intrigues me, only to end up enjoying the book for a completely different reason. This was one of those. The book seems to have been pitched (and judging by that cover, it was pitched in Japan that way as well) as being very much “for fans of The Eminence in Shadow”. There’s a guy prone to making over the top statements, there’s a society of evil made up of extremely loyal servants (though not all of them are women in this one), and there’s lots of fun comedy. But there’s another book that exists behind this book, the prequel that the author thankfully never wrote. And that book certainly is not a comedy. And it drives everything that happens in this book, and makes it a lot more interesting.

Back in middle school, an entire class full of students was summoned to another world by God to defeat the Demon King, each of them gaining special cool powers. At the end of this battle, the demon king is dead, but so are all the classmates, except one, whose special power gains strength whenever an ally dies. He’s returned to Japan, a month after he left, and after police questioning and hospitalization, he’s left to pick up his shattered life. Three years later he’s about to graduate high school when suddenly he’s summoned again. It turns out the “secret society of evil” he created while he was there, made up of various eccentrics, is causing havoc in his absence, and he has to return to clean it up. Two problems. One, he hates remembering his chuuni phase and wants nothing to do with all this edgelord stuff. Two, it’s almost 200 years later!

As noted, while there is humor in this it’s not the reason to read it. It’s mostly “ha ha, it’s funny as he’s horrified by his middle school dramatics being written in stone”. But there are several better reasons. First of all, Shio has suffered genuine trauma from his isekai stunt, and has lingering PTSD. He also feels guilt because, albeit unintentionally, he abandoned his secret society allies for two hundred years… and now it turns out someone is committing genuinely evil acts in its name, as opposed to merely using it to look cool which actually doing good. Most of all, thanks to his actions at the start of the book, ANOTHER class of students has been isekai’d to this world… to stop him. And they may not survive either.

So yeah, the dark, tragic edges in this series interested me a lot more than the funny parts. It was good, I’ll read another.

The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori, Vol. 4

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 worried this would be something of a disappointment because the author was clearly being told to end it with the fourth book. That turns out to be both true and false. it’s false as I think this contains some of the best writing in the series, with some great comedy that is also kind of horrifying. It also, like a good penultimate volume, starts giving us a lot of answers, particularly in regards to Bullshit-chan and Tougetsu. The problem, of course, is that it’s not a penultimate volume, it’s a final volume. As such, it’s pretty much a failure, as it does not resolve any of its important plots, it just reveals the answer sheet. It’s a good answer sheet! But the ending just made me sigh and go “well, this is what happens sometimes, and I suppose we should be glad the author wasn’t signed to Futabasha.” I do recommend that fans of the series read this last book. But temper your expectations.

After a confrontation that makes Bullshit-chan uncomfortable, she decides to finally come clean to Tougetsu about her past and her powers… or at least she says she is, but mostly she just takes Tougetsu out on a date and dresses her in a cat hoodie… which looks far more like fetish gear on Tougetsu than on Bullshit-chan. Unfortunately, as this is going on, Mud Hat has decided he’s going to have a giant festival with all the faction’s core members letting loose at last… which will probably destroy the city, but can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs! What’s worse, they’ve kidnapped Tougetsu… and then one of the faction kidnaps her again, having found the World’s Most Perfect pre-reader. Can Tougetsu’s harem weaponize itself to do something about this? And will Bullshit-chan admit her past, or will it all just be given as flashbacks to the reader instead?

I’ve talked about the issues with this book, so let me talk about what I really liked. The scene between Nara and Seiryoin in the car, where they talk about their dreams, is possibly my favorite scene in the series, if only as it’s hilarious. That said, if looked at objectively, these dreams are also horrific, which at least Seiryoin can admit. I also do really love that Mud Hat is such an utterly unlikable asshole here that even his collaborator and bodyguard lets Bullshit-chan have one free shot to almost break his jaw, because he’s just that much of a dick. Unfortunately, despite being warned that Tougetsu can amass a yuri harem to change the world, and also giving hints as to how the series would have ended had it gone on, this ends where it began, with Tougetsu and Bullshit-chan back in the apartment, and nothing much changed except the reader now knows their backstories.

So a solid series with a few big flaws, only some of which are due to the publisher. I still quite enjoyed it.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life: Otherworlders Must Die

by

By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

So let’s get the bad news out of the way, and it’s not really a spoiler. This volume came out in Japan on the same day as the 11th and final volume did, and they are clearly meant to be read as a pair – the author even says so in the afterword, which at least Yen translates properly. Unfortunately, that’s not Yen’s policy. On the bright side, the 11th and final volume *is* on the schedule, so we know vaguely when it will be coming out – six months from now. So you are reading half a book, and the ending is very abrupt. On the bright side, we’re pretty much in the home stretch, and as such the author does not have to faff around and delay things until the second half of the book as they normally do. This is a very solid volume, possibly the best to date, and folks who do choose to read it now and then wait will be quite satisfied. Lots of folks are cool, even the ones who don’t think they will be.

After the events of the last book, Menou is back to normal, Akari is back to normal, and Momo is cranky. Which is to say, she’s as normal as ever. Heck, even Ashuna, after making me worry for the cliffhanger of the last book, is pretty much back to normal. Which is good, as they’ll need everyone at their best to try to deal with both Hakua and Pandæmonium. It’s time to plan. Unfortunately, after the events of the last few books, Akari is no longer in control of time, but she can do a few things. Momo, of course, can kick ass. Sahara… exists. And then there’s Maya, who has the perfect plan – sacrifice herself to get rid of Pandæmonium. It *is* a sensible plan if you support the needs of the many philosophy, but after watching Menou do the same thing recently, I don’t think it’s where we want to go. They do have a complicated plan, which will send Pandæmonium back to Japan… leaving them to fight Hakua. Who decides to show Akari her tragic backstory.

I’ve made no secret of my favorite character in this series, and I was absolutely over the moon with how she was handled here. Sahara is grumpy and dour and wants to run away, and that doesn’t change. She also hates herself, as she’s made explicitly clear in this volume. But there is one thing that has changed, and that’s what makes her – finally – take a stand and fight. As for Menou and Akari, they’re both clearly still in love, much to Momo’s displeasure, but Hakua has just as much a right to Akari, seeing as they knew each other in Japan. Hakua’s backstory has a lot of stuff we suspected or could guess – and there’s some really disturbing stuff that does right back to the gimmick this series became known for – but it also shows how these powers everyone has are too easily corruptible. Gotta do something about that.

But we gotta wait, even if in Japan could could just reach for the next book. So goes life. This is a top-notch entry in the series, though.

The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices, Vol. 7

by

By Mamecyoro and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Gotsugou Shugi na Kaiketsu Tantou no Oujo de aru” by B’s-LOG Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

Since it’s been over a year and a half since the last volume of this series, a series where I had a tendency to forget about the plot and characters already. I decided to review my old reviews to see if they jogged any memories. And they did! As with the bulk of this series, the plot involves Octavia stubbornly trying to fix her broken country and also score a man, which she is currently doing by having her bodyguard and obvious future love interest pose as her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, every time she tries to break the story, the story keeps coming back. It turns out that I forgot all about the Tanya the Evil aspect of this series… she’s fighting with a pissed-off God! Who threw her into this world of BL tropes and wanted to watch her suffer. Job well done, God. That said, Octavia’s still got a few more tricks up her sleeve, despite more and more hot men getting mind controlled.

At last, Octavia has an official fake boyfriend. Sure, it’s Klifford, which is not at all what she planned, but it’s working out, and he seems strangely OK with it! Honestly, perhaps a little too OK with it. That said, there are other issues. Prince Yarsh is now in the castle as a royal guest and official suspicious person. Rust Byrne, who Octavia had been desperately avoiding, is not only at the castle but is now her second bodyguard (as Klifford is also her lover, he’s thought to not be objective enough). Alec has been desperately avoiding HER. Derek has also been avoiding her, and doesn’t even seem to like her anymore. And the Council of Feudal Lords is coming up. In the original game there was a drink spiked with aphrodisiac. But Octavia has already dealt with that plot, so surely it won’t happen anyway. Right?

There are quite a few good scenes here, so it’s been worth the wait. As the author notes in an afterword, several parts of the book are from POVs other than Octavia. The biggest being Edgar’s, as we finally get the full missing backstory that explains why he’s married to Enoch but seems to despise him. I like how his rage can’t really go to far as he knows this was his sister’s choice, and also how his revenge is also hampered by sympathy with what’s been going on with the king lately. We get more close examination of how utterly screwed up a world run on BL really is, and how there’s a lot more straight people in it than you’d expect. And we get a few more sexy scenes between Octavia and Klifford. The last of which may be aphrodisiac-induced, but come on, if we have to wait for Octavia to actually get a clue about her own feelings, we’ll be waiting as long as readers are going to be waiting for Book 8.

Which isn’t out in Japan yet, so here we go again. See you in 2028. Good, though, isn’t it?

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle, Vol. 8

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.

I have found that Chiramune is one of those series that glides along for a while till the author has a sudden explosive burst of inspiration where everything gets really good for the rest of that scene, and then it goes back to normal. This can sometimes be frustrating, especially if you’re reading it for the ongoing plot, but it does make those scenes instantly memorable in your head. Which is good given how this does not exactly release every three months or so. Here we get two such scenes, one short and one long. The short is the second conversation between Yuzuki and Kureha, where we start to see exactly why Kureha is doing things in this particular reckless way. The second is the final scene in Saku’s apartment, where Yuzuki drops all pretense of reserve and straight up tries to seduce him into sleeping with her. If you know Saku, you can guess how well this goes. But as a scene, it’s dynamite. The series works best in sprints.

The culture festival is almost upon us. While the core cast work on their cheer routine, Yuzuki also has a heart-to-heart with Kureha, and realizes that she’s going to have to stop trying to be “Yuzuki Nanase” and remove her limiters. This means suddenly she’s blowing away everyone else on the basketball court… including a dispirited Haru. This means that, when the Snow White play they’re putting on turns out to be literally the author writing the love triangle between Saku, Yuuko and Yuzuki into the plot – and having Saku improvise an ending – she wows everyone with her amazing acting skills. And it means that, when she gets the opportunity to cook dinner once more for Saku at his apartment, she puts on her best underwear and pins him to the couch. Unfortunately, talking to Kureha also gave her Kureha’s desperation.

I liked Kureha better here… or at least understand her more. Everyone’s annoyed at her for upsetting the status quo, but to her it feels like she’s started a race where everyone else is on the last lap. When you literally can’t catch up, sterner measures are needed. I also really loved the conversation between Yua and Asuka, where they both reflect on their breakdowns from the last book and both admit it’s their fault rather than Kureha’s. This book has a lot less Saku narration than usual, which makes sense as the series is getting into the second half and needing to resolve things, but also as Saku is discovering that trying to figure out who he loves and trying to figure out what he wants to do in the future involve the same things… and he’s reluctant to do anything – STILL – as he knows how much pain it will cause. Hence the final scene, which manages to be very painful and also pretty erotic.

This is the first of a two-parter, and I’m not sure when Book 9 will drop, but Chiramune fans should be quite pleased, especially if they think Yuzuki is best girl. Though the book is also hinting we should enjoy that while it lasts, like Yuuko.

Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 9

by

By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

I think I have come to the conclusion that Reki Kawahara, much like Ryohgo Narita, has too many balls in the air. The last time a Progressive volume came out here was in 2022. It is now 2026. That is bad, mostly as I can remember literally nothing about the last book other than “Kirito is a vampire now”. And I have bad news for you, 10 isn’t out in Japan, as he’s also writing the main series and Accel World, as well as supervising all those Alternative spinoffs, only some of which have been licensed over here. As such, it sure would be a shame if this volume got off to a slow start and really dragged through the first half, as I’m already a bit grumpy that it’s been so long and I have to try to tell dark elves alike that I haven’t seen in a while. Heck, even the plot regresses back to the fourth floor. That said, as with many books, the second half really picks up, and has some surprises.

Kirito and Asuna, having met up with Kizmel again, are trying to get back the keys stolen by the fallen elves. This ends up, as I noted, taking them back to the fourth floor, where they have a happy reunion with their boat, as well as with the dark elf they broke out of prison with. He wants to have a chat with the leader of the Dark Elves, and asks the three of them to get him out of the castle so they can talk. This requires Kirito using his new vampire powers (which, by the way, means this entire volume happens at night) to tame a Kelpie so they can ride it without the castle guards realizing their viscount has flown the coop. When they finally engineer the meeting, it ends up leading to a duel, but more importantly, backstory that’s actually interesting.

Not gonna lie, I worried I would have nothing to talk about when I reviewed this through the first hundred pages or so. Then Yofilis reveals his tragic backstory and my jaw dropped. Not just because it once again shows off how well coded these “AI” NPCs are (and I mean, almost everything Kawahara has ever written has involved AI becoming human in some way), or even how Kirito and Asuna picking the dark elf rather than the forest elf may have messed up the plot to the point where the frontliners are all in danger of being killed, but mostly because said tragic backstory revolves around Yofilis being gay, and how that messes with the way this game treats elves and aging. Essentially Elves age as they gain roles, such as “parent, grandparent, knight captain”, though obviously I’m simplifying. And the fallen elves specifically aren’t aging after “falling”. So we get an odd dovetailing of how a gay character might be coded in a fantasy like this one, as well as the fallout of same, which involves a literal metaphor for sinning and falling from grace. It’s… interesting.

And Kirito and Asuna are adorable and everyone except them agrees they’re a couple and should just kiss already. Rest assured, it still has that. Next time we resolve another cliffhanger, though a more happy one this time. Will it be another four years? Maybe.

The Alchemist’s Fluffy Island Getaway, Vol. 1

by

By Kisetsu Morita and Matsuuni. Released in Japan as “Renkinjutsushi no Yurufuwa Ritou Kaitakuki” by GA Novel. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Tristan Hill.

Sometimes I pick a book to read based on vibe, and only afterwards do I realize the actual creative team behind it. This is definitely one of those books. I got it as I like the mini-genre of “alchemist in a remote land a la the Atelier series”, and it felt cute. And then I finished it, and it turns out it’s freaking Morita AGAIN, with I believe his fourth LN series licensed over here, not counting spinoffs. And then I realized how an awful lot of this felt familiar if you’ve read Killing Slimes for 300 Years, especially the main character picking up two fighting monster girls who bond with her. That said, Killing Slimes for 300 Years is a very static series, with little to no growth or change. This one seems to know it can’t be that. Because when we meet Freya, well, she’s kind of horrible, and getting exiled to the middle of nowhere to learn to be a better person is what she richly needs.

Freya Corvidge is an orphan girl who ends up at a premier academy for alchemists, and ends up with the highest grades of her year. We don’t see any of that. We start with her graduation speech, where she talks about finding a cushy job where she can be lazy. And when other graduates accidentally summon a massive wolf monster, she steals supplies without asking to paralyze it and make it invisible so it’s not killed. All this means that, far from a cushy job in the capital, she’s being treated like the bottom of the class, and sent to a remote island where she should reflect on her actions. When she gets there, while the locals are very friendly, her alchemist shop is so overgrown it will take her weeks to uncover it. Then she meets the island’s god… who seems very familiar.

Freya is a hoot, frankly. Her obnoxious tendencies are to a certain degree a front for the fact that she’s a nerd who had no friends and was bullied a bit at school. Unlike Killing Slimes, her character journey over the course of the book, where she grows to like island life and discovers the joy (and embarrassment) of doing good things that others praise her for, is the point, and it’s handled well. I also liked Lilil, the wolf god who ends up becoming her apprentice and tsukkomi, there to bring Freya back to reality when need be. Given the author, it’s not surprising that there’s a bit of yuri in this title, though thankfully it’s not punctuated with reassurances that everyone is straight like their other series. There’s also a lot of “this is how we do alchemy” stuff, which is the norm in these sorts of titles, and unlike, say, Management of a Novice Alchemist, Freya is talented but also inexperienced and is not going to be OP right off the bat.

So yeah, this is a lot of fun, and I will cut the author a bit of slack and cheerfully read the second in the series, which will no doubt add another cute girl somewhere.

The Isle of Paramounts: Reborn into a Slow Life Among the Strongest in the World, Vol. 3

by

By Heiseiowari and Noy. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Saikyou Shu-tachi ga Sumau Shima deshita. Kono Shima de Slow Life wo Tanoshimimasu” by SQEX Novel. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alex Castor.

This is a slow-life series that has things happening, but it can be a bit difficult to review as, due to its nature, deep character development is just not on the table. The closest Arata gets to it are his struggles to fight back against everyone judging him by his god-like powers and insisting he’s human, and even he is half-hearted about it. There is a more interesting plot happening… away from the island, where the hero’s team are still being hunted by the Church as heretics. This means that they’re being hunted by two Celestial Archmages, who are ludicrously powerful… till they do another summoning, and pull not Arata this time, but Reina and Zelos, who are suddenly in front of their former allies. The interesting bit is they’ve lived with Arata and the other OP folks on the island so long that they’ve also gotten much stronger than anyone else, to the point where they can easily fight off colleagues who used to beat the stuffing out of them before. It pays to be around Arata!

Arata and Reina are headed to the Alfin village where Katima lives, there to meet up with her Village Elder and mostly have fun at Katima’s expense. While there it is revealed that the Great Spirits that normally watch over the village have been absent for a while, so Arata and Katima go searching for them.. and find that the Great Spirits are, unsurprisingly, a lot like humans, which is to say that two of them are having a “man’s battle” while the third has locked them in a sphere to shut them up. It turns out they’re fighting over who gets to raise the new Great Spirit who’s just been born… but when Arata, with all his power, interrupts, the Great Spirit ends up choosing him as her new “Daddy”. Now he’s raising Snow, the Great Spirit, along with her “mommy” Reina. The trouble is, Snow is having a bit of trouble controlling her ice powers…

The main reason to read this series remains the still adorable, still virginal romance between Arata and Reina. Indeed, it’s astonishing to everyone except Arata and Reina that they’re not already lovers. Every time they talk to each other the folks around them complain about the flirting. It also goes without saying that when they’ve got to take care of Snow, who calls them Mommy and Daddy for good reason, they become the perfect parents. There’s even the obligatory “we’re finally giving in to our feelings and leaning in for a kiss when we’re interrupted because this book has seven volumes to go till the wedding” scene. That said, I’m pretty sure we’re getting him more than one wife in this series. It’s hinted heavily that polyamory is OK, and Tailtiu has made it very clear she’s not going to be an unlucky anything. But the thrust of the goopy romance is still these two.

Island stuff is all well and good, but I do hope we dovetail back with the main world again soon, as that adds a bit of spice to this otherwise very relaxing series.

Starting on Hard Mode: God Levels, Got Problems, Vol. 1

by

By Hanmenkyoushi and ririnra. Released in Japan as “Level Count Stop kara Hajimaru, Kamisama-teki Isekai Life: Saikyou Status ni Tenseishita node Suki ni Ikimasu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jessica Speed.

There are series rich in depth, with multiple layered plots and character development galore, the sort that you read by a roaring fire in your study. And there are books that you read when you’re lying on the beach and want brain candy, something that really does not require you to think. Take a wild guess which one this falls into. There’s a smorgasbord of all the things that you’d expect from a series that looks like this cover and with this title. Overpowered guy, cute girls of elf and beast variety, adventuring parties, lots of monster killing, and even a backdrop of racial discrimination crushing the souls of everyone who isn’t a human. OK, not all of it is brain candy for the beach, but I’m letting people know not to raise their expectations above about knee level. If you manage to keep them there, this isn’t all that bad. It hasn’t really made any of the more egregious errors titles like these do.

It’s possible our nameless Japanese guy was hit by Truck-kun, but as he doesn’t remember anything we won’t find out. God, talking in his head, tells him he’s been reincarnated in another world! And he’s overpowered! In fact, ridiculously overpowered. His stats are about 25 times stronger than the strongest humans. Oh, and his physical appearance looks just like, well, God. Surely this will not lead to misunderstandings! No sooner is he dumped in a forest full of monsters than he saves a desperate elf girl. Unfortunately, no haughty or powerful elves in this world. Here elves are treated like dirt. What’s more, after arriving at the nearby town and going to the obligatory adventurer’s guild, he meets a beastgirl… who is also despised, despite being really strong. Why was he reincarnated into racism world? To make things better, of course.

I do appreciate that Merlin (said nameless hero has a name in fantasy world) has an immediate and visceral reaction to all the prejudice going on around him, and that he takes pains to be extra nice to the elves and beastgirl as a result. (Oh yes, cute elf has a dying sister. It’s OK, Merlin is powerful enough to heal anyone.) The girls are all cute, and due to the genre I can let slide that they are torn between worshiping him and falling in love with him, and sort of decide to do both. There’s also some obligatory fanservice, but Merlin is the “I will blush and turn away they’re like little sisters” sort, so don’t expect any romance anytime soon. For the most part, though, we’re here to watch Merlin be awesome and then try to cover up the fact that he’s being awesome. It’s hard enough getting a slow life in a series like this without being gorgeous, all-powerful, and a budding activist.

This is a DRE series, so should not run too long. Recommended for folks who like what the cover art shows them.

Proud to Be the Villainess: If My Doom Can Be Her Happily Ever After, So Be It!

by

By Mary=Doe and Kuga Huna. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijou no Kyouji” by SQEX Novel. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Bérénice Vourdon.

It’s always interesting seeing a Villainess title on the Club side of J-Novel rather than the Heart side. Usually it means that the romance isn’t the point of the exercise, and that is the case here, though that might surprise you after you see what the plot is, as there is an awful lot of romance in this book. But in the end this isn’t a romance as much as a twisted caper film. Our protagonist has a goal, that will take years and involves lots of moving parts, and eventually everything comes together until she’s able to pull off the goal… or at least, she hopes that’s what happens. Heck, since she’s not reincarnated from Japan, this doesn’t even have to involve a game world at all, and there’s no pesky heroine either. There’s just two sisters, with one of them being noble and abused and the other being arrogant and haughty. All is as it should be… except, as you may have gathered by the title, the other sister is the main character.

We open the way a lot of villainess books open – with the seeming romantic lead cruelly breaking off his engagement to his poor fiancee. However, we see this from the perspective of Iora’s sister Wellmy. While Iora has been abused by her parents, barely fed, forced to live apart from the main house, and essentially tortured, Wellmy has had it good. The best dresses, the finest jewely. She even has fantastic grades… which also happen to have her forcing her sister to write her papers for her and sign Wellmy’s name. She is every inch the terrible stepsister we see in these books, and she even manages to get Iora married off to the horrible Marquis, rumored to hate women. It is therefore no surprise whatsoever that, six months from now, Wellmy arrives at a party only to have Aides, the Marquis in question, reveal all of her horrible deeds in front of everyone. Just as Wellmy planned.

This book does have its flaws. It’s horribly overbalanced towards the front, having its climactic and best scene (the slap) only 1/4 of the way through, with over half the book devoted to looking at the “other side” of what’s been going on. It’s also clearly written as a standalone, and it is hard to see how it has 7+ volumes in Japan now, which it does. That said, I loved this to bits. Not a surprise, everything in it was designed to be catnip to me. It’s not as dark as I expected, frankly – there is a lot of funny business here, especially when Wellmy discovers her inner submissive – but there is a core of despair that falls over the main events. Wellmy’s grand plan means that she’s never considered what to do with her life besides “die”. Iora is forced to watch from afar as her sister deliberately destroys herself. Even their mother, who is written off for most of the book as a scheming woman who loathes her adopted daughter, turns out to have a terrible backstory. There are definitely reasons why Wellmy had to go so far, though in the end she and Iora reap the rewards… even if Wellmy does so reluctantly.

All this plus casual verbal abuse of a crown prince. What’s not to love? For all fans of this genre, and I hope the author can figure out what comes next.

Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)!, Vol. 6

by

By Atekichi and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Heroine? Seijo? Iie, All Works Maid desu (ko)!” by TO Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Matthew Jackson. Adapted by Michelle McGuinness.

A lot of these “we’re in the world of a game” series tend to fall into two categories. Either the game just goes off the rails immediately but the main character doesn’t realize it and is determined to fight against a fate that no longer exists (e.g. Observation Records of My Fiancee), or the game has a malevolent mind of its own and is determined to make sure those pesky villainesses die and heroines save the day. This title is firmly in the second category, and while the bulk of most of the book is fairly light and maid-related, it does not let you forget it. The climax of this book does feature the “heroine”, Melody, but because she’s already derailed this game as far as possible, even she cannot save the day in the end. And it’s not going to be the tsundere duke’s daughter either, who comes a lot closer but falls short. No, in the end it’s past tragedies that will have to win out.

Despite the fact that you’d never imagine it with a culture like the one we have, it’s school festival time, and thanks to the dumbass Prince Christopher suggesting something anonymously assuming no one would go along with it, their class is doing a maid cafe. Since Cecilia is currently convalescing back home, Melody will of course not be participating (yet… the festival will be in the next book, and I have my suspicions), but she can advise folks on what works and doesn’t work when it comes to a practical maid uniform. Celedia would like to be getting closer to the capture targets, but alas all she’s doing is secretarial work related to the festival, and she thrown a hissy fit that goes wrong thanks to the evil lurking inside her. Unfortunately, said hissy fit is stopped by Christopher, and even though he and Anna-Marie have done their best to avoid having the plot impact them, it’s time for him to turn evil.

Christopher and Anna-Marie have been around since the start, usually complaining about the fact that they’re trying to stop the plot of the game but that it’s been stopped before it gets to them, but they’ve been relatively minor characters. Here they get more to do, though I’m sure they wish they didn’t. I feel bad for Christopher, who didn’t do anything wrong, really, but ended up almost destroying the world, because thanks to Celedia’s extra added evil Melody is NOT strong enough to head him like the game says. The final scenes are really dark and horrific, both because Christopher is slowly being mind-controlled and also because we get a flashback showing Maika’s reaction to her brother and his “childhood friend’s” death, and how deeply that affected her. It’s pretty heartbreaking, and Christopher and Anna-Marie are appropriately heartbroken. It also allows the Maika that’s HERE to accidentally save the day, though she’s unaware of it. I really enjoy the way this series interweaves everyone’s past lives into the mix.

As I noted earlier, we get all the buildup to the festival but not the festival itself. And by the time the next book comes out, the anime will have aired. We’ll see how that goes. Sometimes it helps, sometimes you’re Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter. But the books are good.

The Bladesmith’s Enchanted Weapons, Vol. 4

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.

This remains a series written almost entirely for teenage boys, but it’s worth noting that this isn’t just one aspect of things teenage boys like. Obviously there’s the stuff about the swords, because teen boys love swords, and fantasy authors love treating the swords like they’re women, which this book absolutely does. It’s also written for teen boys in terms of the sexuality – Lutz and Claudia remain very sexually active, and a princess of another country’s city/tribe is mostly described by her large breasts. But there’s something else teenage boys like, and that’s grimdark, and this series has that as well. It never quite spills over into actual tragedy, but there’s a lot of bleak, depressing stuff in this series, ranging from the start with Claudia being saved from a fate worse than death (more on that later), to a clan leader who has let the love of a sword turn him evil, to a vengeful knight seeking to atone for past sins by killing his fellow sinners. It’s not fluffy.

This story essentially consists of two parts. In the first, Lutz, Claudia, and Ricardo head to the federation to see what’s going on there after the death of their king. Turns out things aren’t great. They meet up with Gwynn, the guy who asked Lutz to create a katana he could give painless death with, and together they head to a wretchedly poor city where the chief seems to really, really hate them. He has a daughter who’s far more sensible, but he also has a bewitching katana that has killed three of her brothers when they challenged dear old dad. Maybe an unbewitching katana from Lutz can help. When they return home, they find that there’s a masked avenger going around killing the lazy knights, and while Lutz and especially Claudia have no love lost for those guys, Lutz decides to investigate just in case this turns out to be the fault of one of his katanas, like almost everything else in this series.

There is some humor in this, of course. The darkness of the village chief and his bewitching sword is offset by the adorableness of the first love between Gwynn and Melty. There’s another subplot about Ricardo asking for a second katana to be used with Tsubaki as a dual wield, and it’s up to Lutz to show Ricardo that dual wielding is something mostly done by fictional heroes for good reason. But we see slavery here, and a village whose people are starving to death just because its chief wants a second priceless katana to go with his first. There’s also the entire plot with Donaldo, who worships Lutz for all the wrong reasons. Lutz has to secretly meet with Donaldo to resolve this, because much as Claudia likes to pretend that she’s over the terror of what the knights did to her in the first book, she’s really not, and he knows that he needs to handle this away from her. The darkness of this world leaks in whether you want it to or not, and it’s impossible to get rid of.

It will be interesting to see where this series goes next – especially given we’re now seeing Enchanted Weapons by people other than Lutz. I’m still really loving it.

Observation Records of My Wife: The Misadventures of a Self-Proclaimed Villainess, Vol. 3

by

By Shiki and Wan Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Jishō Akuyaku Reijō na Tsuma no Kansatsu Kiroku” by Regina Books. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Ethan Holms.

Since I last reviewed this series, the anime has debuted, and a few things are becoming clear. First of all, like many light novel adaptations, the anime is speed running things a bit, so I suspect we’ll get into the “wife” part of the series before the end of the season. Secondly, I’d forgotten how some of the characters looked at the start of the series compared with now. In the first volume, Zeno was a beleaguered but relatively calm butler who normally served to snark at Cecil when Cecil was being particularly evil. In this sixth book, Zeno is an absolute wreck of a spirit, constantly whining and yelling at everyone around him. Part of this is due to the dreaded “oh, his partner looks really young, ha ha he’s a lolicon” joke we get in light novels, which is never funny and isn’t here either. But partly it’s because family, no matter how much you may try to avoid it, will always be embarrassing.

Cecil and Bertia are home from Seahealby, and everything seems relatively peaceful. So it’s now time for Zeno to go visit the spirit kingdom, so that he can ask permission from Kuro’s parents to marry her. This isn’t required, but he wants to be polite about it. Bertia is going as Kuro is very attached to her. Cecil is going as Bertia is going. And everyone else is suffering, because Cecil was already gone for an extended period and now he’s leaving again. When they arrive, they have to deal with Zeno’s parents, who are merely very embarrassing, and who also set up the plot of the 4th book in this series, when we’ll meet his seemingly overbearing sisters. The main plot, though, has the “ha ha he’s a lolicon” jokes hit at exactly the wrong time, meaning he and Cecil are now locked out of her parent’s castle till he completes some herculean tasks. No worries, Cecil is here to help. Wait, no, here to observe.

I have to admit, the stakes in this one are pretty low, mostly because you know all that has to happen is Kuro putting her foot down and the problem is solved. Also, Bertia is mostly sidelined in this book, as she stays behind while Zeno and Cecil go off to do the plot, staying behind mostly to try to be villainous again, as Kuro’s mother hits a bunch of her “so cool!” buttons and she goes off into la-la land. (I will admit, Bertia trying to have herself get tied up is a very funny bit.) The bulk of the heavy lifting goes to Cecil, though, as is appropriate. here he’s smug, a bit sadistic, and also accidentally helps Zeno save the day. While Cecil is pretty much an expert at anything he’s ever done, he also has a fair bit of “golden boy” luck, which helps him out here. I also appreciated that Kuro’s parents end up being just as socially awkward as she is, and it explains quite a bit.

This series feels like it’s coasting, but I still like the cast, and it’s fun most of the time.