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Reviews

The World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker, Vol. 3

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By Tôwa and Huuka Kazabana. Released in Japan as “Sekai Saikyou no Kouei: Meikyuukoku no Shinjin Tansakusha” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

Tempting as it might be to simply cut and paste my review of the second volume here, I will try to find new words to say about this series. For one thing, I think I’m going to have to come to terms with the fact that I enjoy it quite a bit, and not just because I’m hate-reading it. It’s still not a good series objectively, but subjectively it’s fine. It reminds me quite a bit of In Another World with My Smartphone, but so far has avoided all the traps that that work fell into, such as making its hero something of a relaxed sociopath. Arihito continues to attract women, and continues to be relatively oblivious to their overtures towards him. It’s a relatively huge light novel which takes place over a mere day and a half, and there’s still stats galore, including picking out new bonuses, etc. It should be dull as dirt and mildly offensive. Instead… it’s peaceful.

Arihito’s party (still unnamed, which is brought up but not dealt with here) arrive on Level 7, which has a lot more people on it but also a lot more people who have essentially stopped trying – it’s hard to go from 7 to 6. Well, hard unless you’re our heroes, who over the course of this book defeat two of the three named monsters you need to move up. They soon team up with a four-woman group called the Four Seasons (a name pun) who they saw being harassed/blackmailed by a group that are being set up to be antagonists but in this book are mostly just foreshadowing. The two parties team up and fight off giant moles and insects, then go to the next dungeon level and battle killer sheep. Once again, everyone does amazing things, and once again, everyone feels as if they need to “be the one protecting” everyone else. All this, plus a nice Chinese dinner and a bath/massage.

Reading this series is sort of like reading a game of Jenga, because it would take only one wrong move for the whole thing to come tumbling down. Arihito has to remain self-deprecating and mild-mannered because the alternative is a leering guy banging his (by the end of this book) eleven women who have fallen for him. Likewise, they’re all perfectly content to simply make the occasional overture (that he doesn’t get) and have a few bouts of self-hatred themselves. The battles are very well-written, to the point where I don’t even mind the inserted stats, which says a lot. I will admit that, in a book trying to remain so emotionally placid, sometimes it aims for a tearjerker and doesn’t quite get it – the scene with the demihuman and his late fiancee was not quite as sad as the author meant it to be. But for the most part, there aren’t really any sharp edges in this. It’s an isekai that a salaryman can happily read on the train home.

As noted, this volume does introduce a few plot points that are then left dangling – I expect the next book will take care of that. At least they didn’t move to Level 6 already. Still, this remains a book that’s easy to read.

The Invincible Shovel, Vol. 2

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By Yasohachi Tsuchise and Hagure Yuuki. Released in Japan as “Scoop Musou: “Scoop Hadouhou!” (｀・ω・´)♂〓〓〓〓★(゜Д゜ ;;) .:∴DOGOoo” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Elliot Ryoga.

It should not come as too much of a surprise to find that this second volume is not quite as funny as the first. The Invincible Shovel has a few choice gags that it hammers on with the subtlety of a truck hitting an isekai protagonist, And so the element of surprise is gone here. That said, this ended up being funnier than I expected, particularly as it went along. We meet a couple more heroines who add themselves to the uninterested Alan’s not-quite-harem, including a ditzy sage and a sheltered princess, everyone misunderstands things in a sexual way due to the use of ‘shovel’ to mean absolutely everything, and we get somewhat incrementally closer to finishing the quest, as there’s a mid-range boss to defeat and we get a glimpse of the big bad. And then there’s Lithisia, who definitely levels up in this book… in both good and bad ways. Alan may be the OP hero, but in the end Lithisia is the most terrifying.

I’d mentioned in my review of the first volume that the word ‘shovel’ was used 703 times, and in this second book it’s 880. Note that we don’t really get variations – at one point an illustration shows Lithisia is clearly holding a trowel, but it’s referred to as a shovel, and we don’t see spade or other types either. This is deliberate, both for the comedy – the overuse of the word, especially from Lithisia inventing new words including it, is ridiculous – but it’s also meant to be exhausting, to leave the reader so drowning in shovels that they just learn to let it roll over them. We feel much like Catria, the sole voice of reason in this title, who wants things to make sense but is constantly cursed by Alan using his shovel to make instant tunnels through gigantic mountains, remove a memory block to help someone recall their past, and force the villain to confess his evil deeds by literally digging his own grave.

As for Lithisia, I will admit that I did get very tired of her constant horniness, which ends up carrying over to the other characters. The idea of ‘shovel’ meaning sex… or, frequently in this book, masturbation, as Alan says that they can learn to shovel better by themselves, is the sort of thing that’s mostly interesting to 15-year-old boys. Fortunately, there’s more to her than that… in a somewhat scary way. Lithisia devoting herself to the Way of the Shovel is funny, but Lithisia being able to brainwash others to the same vision is alarming. The shovel is gaining more and more followers, though as a worried Alan notes, they don’t actually have the shovel superpowers that she assumes come with the job. This actually has a serious core at its deluded center: she’s afraid that when the quest is over, Alan will leave her, and so vows to TAKE OVER THE WORLD! to ensure she remains by his side. It’s… sweet? In a way?

As I said earlier, your enjoyment of this title may end up being how tolerant you are of the word ‘shovel’ and the female cast being horny on main most of the time. But it’s still gloriously silly enough that I’ll be shoveling the next book. Um, reading. I meant reading. Shovel.

A Wild Last Boss Appeared!, Vol. 1

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By Firehead and YahaKo. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Chen.

Sometimes you get books where the concept is drab and you’ve seen it before, but the execution is excellent, and sometimes you get novels with a great concept that can’t quite pull it off. This comes closer to the second type, which may surprise readers given that it’s another “Japanese gamer is pulled into his game world” sort of book. But there are intriguing things going on here. It’s sort of reminiscent of Overlord, in that we have a gamer who arrives in his game world as the villain he created, complete with minions (most of whom have to be tracked down, admittedly) and whose self of self is being somewhat overlaid with the character. That said, this book does not seem to be nearly as dark as Overlord gets. It’s just Lufas getting used to being back in the world (which is 200 years later), getting used to being a woman (the gamer who created her was male), and getting used to being far, far more powerful than everyone else. Does it work? Somewhat.

As noted, our hero is a gamer who played a fun MMORPG (she’s the blonde on the cover, not the blue-haired girl), taking on a character who ended up playing the role of the villain. She was taken down by seven heroes in a massive battle (which the gamer was totally in on, this was a controlled event) and killed off. Suddenly the gamer finds himself in what appears to be that world, two hundred years later, summoned as part of a botched spell to summon a hero. Lufus has no interest in dealing with the folks who summoned her (the character is a woman, something that actually has a lot less relevance than you’d expect) and so goes back to her old Dark Tower, which she finds is rather decrepit but still standing. It also has her minion and expodump girl Dina, who Lufas created as an NPC and then forgot about, but who can helpfully explain what’s happened since Lufas’ death. She decides to round up her twelve monster companions, which first involves talking one of them down from his roaring rampage of revenge.

There are interesting things going on here. The gamer’s memories and Lufas’ have sort of melded together, and as the book goes on the relevance of “this is a game I played in Japan” lessens, which is interesting. To my surprise, the book also has virtually no fanservice at all, and in fact Lufas notes that she doesn’t really feel any desires for women anymore – or men, for that matter. This does, admittedly, make you wonder why the gender bender was conceived of to begin with, except that Lufas looks really beautiful. There’s also some foreshadowing that one of the characters is not what they seem, and it’s handled very deftly. I am rather relieved that the book slowly starts to drop the gamer stuff as it goes along, as the gamer sometimes uses vocab and ideas that make me suspect he was one of those basic sexist Japanese guys. More to the point, while I appreciate that it has a long game in mind, the book meanders. It’s not meant to be a slow life title, but sure feels like one at times, especially when Lufas is doing things like making Golem Winnebagos.

So I’d say that the series has not quite gelled yet. That said, it’s interesting enough that I’ll read more, and folks who (have I said this a lot in my reviews lately?) don’t mind overpowered heroes will find something to enjoy here.

Outbreak Company, Vol. 14

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

Short stories here, two starring Shinichi and one Hikaru, of varying quality. The three together do remind you that this series has been sort of coasting ever since the Japan arc. The author says that he plans to end it in three more volumes (it ended up being four), so they at least have an endgame in mind, but there is very much the sense of “killing time” here. That said, at least the stories, for the most part, avoid the worst of Shinichi’s otaku qualities. The first one is a continuation of the prior volume, and offers us our hero hiding in his room to avoid seeing the girls in love with him. The second one involves Brook and Cerise hatching a family, and Shinichi trying to bond with the new lizard baby, who unfortunately sees him as food. And in the final story, another magical maguffin is found that ends up turning Hikaru into a girl for real.

The first story is the weakest. For all that the series has seen Shinichi achieve a lot of things and even save the world once or twice, there has been little to no actual maturity in his character. That’s really been emphasized in the last couple of books, as he’s totally unable to deal with the idea that more than one girl might be in love with him. Seeing him deal with this by hiding in his room and reading manga/playing games is totally in character but also 100% annoying to a reader who sort of wants him to grow up. That said, there was some nice suspense writing here as the team uses an obvious but effective lure to get him out. As for the second story, it shows Shinichi in a slightly better light. He could have simply given up and avoided the new baby, but he’s stubbornly determined to make it like him. This shows off the qualities Myusel and Petralka see in him.

The final story is the most interesting, though it loses a bit when the author admits the editors gave him the idea. It’s actually a sex-change slime, discovered in the caves and turning out to be yet another piece of long-lost technology. It fastens onto Hikaru and essentially leaves his real body there while putting his consciousness in a female body. The rest of the cast have some discussion of how Hikaru identifies – Shinichi discovers that he wears real bras and panties rather than male underwear, and they discuss how much he might identify as a woman. That said, Hikaru’s own POV narration is more matter of fact about it – he thinks of himself as a man, and is attracted to women, but dresses as a girl for reasons of family upbringing. Probably the most interesting part of the story is seeing Elvia forcibly bathe Hikaru, who realizes that getting involved in wacky harem comedy “I saw your boobs!” scenes is easier than it seems.

There weren’t really any big missteps taken here, and it’s certainly pleasant enough. That said, it’s not a good sign when, after each volume finishes, you’re thinking “When will this series come to an end?”.

The Way of the Househusband, Vols. 2-3

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The Way of the Househusband has the rhythms of a good sitcom: it has a simple, well-defined premise, a few lead characters with strong personalities, and an episodic formula that’s flexible enough to create endless opportunities to tell the same joke in new and surprising ways. In the first volume, for example, almost every storyline revolved around Tatsu’s fanatical dedication to his role as stay-at-home spouse, whether he was bargain hunting at the grocery store or racing to the train station with his wife’s lunchbox. The mere sight of him in an apron, track suit, and aviator glasses was a good sight gag made better by Tatsu’s sheer cluelessness; he never seemed to realize that people were staring at him in the checkout line and the butcher’s shop.

Volumes two and three find Tatsu in equally incongruous situations. In chapter 10, for example, he joins the neighborhood housewives’ aerobics class, flashing his terrifying yakuza sneer every time the instructor commands her charges to “smile,” while in chapter 16, Tatsu demonstrates a hidden talent for spiking and setting when he joins the ladies’ volleyball team. The volleyball game is a great variation on the series’ best running joke. Though most civilians find him a terrifying oddity, the neighborhood ladies’ association looks at Tatsu as one of their own; they include him in activities, offer him tips on how to run his household more efficiently, and even help him impress a former boss with an impromptu display of culinary prowess.

Perhaps the most important development in volumes two and three, however, is the introduction of Tatsu’s old enemies, all of whom are genuinely bewildered by his retirement from the knee-capping business. These exchanges thrum with the comic energy of a Damon Runyon story as Tatsu schools his fellow yakuza on stain removal and dessert making. That Tatsu discusses his career change without apology or explanation is a nice touch, as it throws his opponents off their game and reinforces the idea that he likes being a stay-at-home husband.

My only concern about The Way of the Househusband is that Tatsu’s wife is more a collection of moods and preferences than a fully persuasive character. Miku is marked by extremes: she has an intense, child-like obsession with Poli-Cure, an anime whose core fanbase is about ten years old, but is also a fierce workaholic whose resists Tatsu’s efforts to pamper her with scented candles and scalp massages. Though the gags built around her personality usually land, it sometimes feels like they’d be funnier if we understood a little more about how Miku and Tatsu met, or what keeps them together. From time to time, author Kousuke Oono hints the two have more in common than meets the eye–Miku is handy with a knife and a bat, too–but a little more attention to her character would be welcome.

That said, The Way of the Househusband remains consistently funny three volumes into its run, offering a fresh take on that most timeless of sitcom premises: the fish out of water. Recommended.

VIZ Media provided a review copy of volume two.

THE WAY OF THE HOUSEHUSBAND, VOLS. 2-3 • STORY AND ART BY KOUSUKE OONO • TRANSLATION BY SHELDON DRZKA AND AMANDA HALEY, ADAPTATION BY JENNIFER LEBLANC • VIZ MEDIA, LLC • RATED T+, FOR OLDER TEENS (SUGGESTED VIOLENCE, YAKUZA JOKES)

The Beloved of Marielle Clarac

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

I enjoyed the first Marielle Clarac series while noting a couple of flaws, and I’m pleased to say that this second book at least does a good job fixing one of them. (The “BL tease but no more” aspect is, I fear, not going away anytime soon.) But the mystery/thriller aspect of the book works even better than the first, keeping us guessing as to the motivations of the antagonist (who is not really a villain) and switching immediately to the thriller aspect the moment things are revealed. There’s also a good helping of elements of the first book I greatly enjoyed: Marielle and her tendency to see everything in terms of romantic ‘shipping’ tropes, who gets to simultaneously be very clever and good at reading people and also capable of the most shockingly dumb moves when trying to chase after a lead. She’s not quite an amateur detective, but it’s on the verge of that genre. And the relationship between her and her fiancee Simeon is fantastic.

It’s wintertime, so all the garden parties are inside. More importantly, the Crown Prince (Simeon’s best friend) is being forced to step up his attempts to find a bride now that Simeon and Marielle are engaged. Marielle recommends, in possibly the best scene in the book, the girl who had been bullying her in the past, because she’s clearly not concealing any hidden side and would stop doing it if her husband demanded it. The prince, however, falls for Michelle, a shy and withdrawn young woman who would rather be anywhere but at this party but who reluctantly opens up to the prince anyway. The Prince invites Simeon and Marielle to Michelle’s estate to basically be on his side, and they discover that the family seems to treat her with contempt, or at least treats her as a pawn rather than a daughter. What secrets does Michelle hold? And why is Lutin here and pretending (IS he pretending) to be an Earl?

Marielle and Simeon may have admitted their love to each other in the last book, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not still filled with doubts and misgivings. Marielle has a tendency to describe herself as plain and dull so often that it would come across as self-loathing if she weren’t so confident – it’s practicality turned inward and twisted, and I’m glad Simeon tries to get her to see that she can in fact be attractive. Marielle also has a tendency to get herself into trouble, and while I doubt that’s going away she does at least understand how much it’s panicki8ng him when she does this. The last third of the book has a number of excellent chase scenes, and shows that the author is just as good at action as they are at mystery and romance. As for Michelle’s secret, it’s relatively obvious (Marielle guesses it), but also not quite as obvious (Marielle is stunned), and is handled slightly better than I expected.

It’s suggested that the wedding might be in the next book, though given the subtitle for the third volume is The Temptation of Marielle Clarac that may not happen. But I’m definitely going to be reading more in any case. These are a fun addition to the J-Novel Heart line, and will interest any romance readers, even those not interested in Japanese light novels.

Blue Flag Vol. 2

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Blue Flag Volume 2 by KAITO

This second volume continues to be strong entry in slice of life high school stories, as everybody gears up for an unexpected performance at a school sports day. They’re doing all the typical things teenagers do in spring, hanging out, getting gelato, and discussing everyone’s love life. Apparently Masumi is dealing with a string of short-lived boyfriends, which Toma finds quite startling. Toma gets peer-pressured into being cheer team captain in addition to being anchor on the relay team, and he agrees on the condition that Taichi and Futuba be on the cheer team too as vice-captains. Taichi is characteristically reluctant, but agrees to go along with Toma’s plan. Toma’s charm is key in winning his friends over. Taichi and Futuba diligently practice together while Toma is busy.

Taichi finds out from Futuba that Toma isn’t planning on going to college, and he’s startled because when he and Toma were childhood friends, this was the type of thing that they’d talk about. Friendships shift and develop in new ways, even though Taichi still has feelings for Futuba. There’s a general air of wistfulness throughout this volume as Taichi wonders what’s going to happen as his friends transition away from high school. KAITO’s illustrations set Toma apart from everyone around him, and while this emphasis on his hulking size shows how athletic he is, it also serves as a way of visually distancing him from everyone else. Taichi and Masami also get some one-on-one time, where he shows he’s not very capable at picking up what she’s talking about when she asks him what it is like to experience being attracted to the opposite sex. Taichi’s pondering about Toma’s future also cause him to question his own aimless nature.

It is a pleasure to see this new friend group come together in Blue Flag. While there is certainly drama to be had, it is also somewhat uncomplicated so far which makes it a relaxing read. This volume ends on a big cliffhanger though, so I expect much more drama ahead.

Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World, Vol. 1

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By Ryohgo Narita and Tite Kubo. Released in Japan by Shueisha. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Jan Cash.

There have been several Bleach novels released in Japan, but I believe this is the first one to be licensed for the West. Previous books either tended to be novelizations, tie-ins to games, or… well, no, I don’t know why they didn’t pick up We Do (Knot) Always Love You, except shipping reasons. This trilogy, though, is explicitly a direct sequel to the main manga, exploring aftermaths that Kubo couldn’t get to because they cancelled Bleach a bit earlier than expected. Moreover, it’s written by a known name to English-speaking readers: Ryohgo Narita, the creator of Baccano! and Durarara!!. Narita’s series are also known for their huge, hard to wrangle casts and slow-burn plots that end in explosions. Moreover, unlike Kubo, Narita actually knows how to pace. So it makes sense that this is the first novel we see of Bleach over here, and fortunately it’s a good choice, wrapping up several things while introducing a new villain to the piece. And boy howdy, Narita also knows how to write villains. This guy is smug scum who makes you long for Aizen.

Aizen is in this book briefly, and he gets to be smug as well. That said, as the cover might suggest, the star of the book is Hisagi, who is in his capacity as roving reporter for the Soul Society’s newspaper. The newspaper, as you might imagine, was not being published during the last, oh, 30 volumes of Bleach, but it’s starting up again, and he’s trying to interview the participants in the Thousand Year War, figuring that it’s best to get opinions now while it’s fresh than years from now. Unfortunately, a new story inserts its way into the narrative: there’s a new head of one of the Four Great Noble Clans. He’s paying to have the newspaper talk all about him. Oh yes, he’s also a known murderer. Of his wife. Who was Tosen’s best friend. This is not a spoiler, he pretty much admits it. And he has a plan to install a new King in Soul Society. Fortunately, this plan MOSTLY does not involve Ichigo.

The “main” cast of Bleach are pretty much absent from this book, and you get the feeling that will be the case for the other two books as well. Narita seems to have two goals in this book. The first is to wrap up Bleach proper, as we see a lot of the aftermath of Hueco Mundo (including several people I was sure were dead who are, in fact, not dead) and the Sternritter (including several people I was sure were dead who are, in fact, not dead). If you dislike the fact that Jump tends not to kill off characters, this volume may annoy you. The other goal of this book seems to be saying “screw the class system”, and I’m behind that. We’ve seen before that Soul Society has a lot of skeletons in its closet, but here we really get a sense of what it means to be privileged. The villain is absolutely over the top, not in a laughing crazy way but in a smug snake way, and he reminded me not a little bit of another villain Narita has written in his series. I assume he and Hisagi will eventually confront each other.

In the end, I’d say this book succeeds in that it made me interested in Bleach again. I’ll definitely be getting the second in the series. And there’s no romance at all in it, so even shippers can buy it without fear. Maybe Kubo should hire out a writer and just plot his next work. Then again, that did not work very well for Naruto’s creator…

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 2

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Will Holcomb.

There’s a lot less focus on bear in this second volume of Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, mostly because Yuna herself has gotten used to it – at one point she casually names something with a bear motif, showing that unconsciously she’s accepted that’s what she is now. Instead the focus is on Yuna and her general attitude towards everything. Yuna is, in both her own internal narration and dialogue, a grumpy girl with minimal emotional range, and we see lots of that here. That said, the point of the books is to show that Yuna, underneath that, is a caring girl with a heart of gold. Here she helps a nearby orphanage, employs Fina’s mother so that she doesn’t have to return to adventuring, helps save a village from a giant snake, and protects a newbie group of adventurers from a giant wolf. All in a day’s work for our overpowered heroine, who has a few moments here where she has to break a sweat and not simply overpower everything in her path… but only a few.

As with the first book, if the idea of OP heroes irritates you in any way, steer clear. Here not only does Yuna do awesome power moves to defeat strong monsters, including having an army of tiny bears made of fire march down the gullet of an enemy, she’s also learning cure and heal, so that she can be an all-purpose team all on her own, and also save Fina’s mom from her tragic ending. Other than that, though, Yuna doesn’t really have very many motivations in this book. The ending of the book indicates she’s going to the capital city of this world, and that might be a good idea, because she’s a bit unmotivated. We see her looking at several quests and rejecting them all as she doesn’t feel like doing them. It’s hard when you’re stuck in a rut only a few weeks after you arrive in your “trapped in a game world” world.

One interesting thing (in both good and bad ways) that was done here is the local lord of the Town, who Yuna meets in this volume. He’s a nice guy with an adorable daughter, but Yuna, having read far too many light novels in her old life in Japan, immediately thinks he’s going to be cruel and arrogant, with a snide, privileged son. This turns out not to be true… however, the lord *is* negligent, as we see when Yuna discovers kids begging on the street and a run-down orphanage losing its funding. Yuna is understandably furious, even as she fixes the problem all on her own (because of course she does). That said, it turns out the reason for all this is an evil aide and his evil family. The aide is REALLY evil – as in “kidnapping young girls, raping and killing them” evil. It’s tonally awful in a book that is supposed to be “cute girl in bear suit is awesome”, and I didn’t enjoy it, mostly as the lord, who was negligent in not noticing this, is very quickly forgiven. (The first book also had that mindboggling “so I paid my parents off till they abandoned me” moment, and it was just as jarring.)

Putting that aside, though, the book delivers what its readers want, though I wish Yuna’s stoic emotionlessness didn’t sometimes carry over to the actual prose. It will be interesting to see what a larger city does for our favorite bear.

Kokoro Connect: Asu Random, Part 1

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By Sadanatsu Anda and Shiromizakana. Released in Japan by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Molly Lee.

Here we are, folks, the final arc of Kokoro Connect. (There’s another short story book after this, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s more of a victory lap than a plot mover.) This one is big enough to be divided into two books. When you finish it you will see why. Everything that the Club has been doing for the last year and a half – every victory, every heartwarming moment, every time they managed to win out and not completely lose it – has now turned into a liability, as it turns out that they’re simply TOO STRONG for Heartseed. And so there are new dangers on several fronts: other students are now suffering bodyswaps/emotional rages as they once did; people are finding out about the Club’s real activities, particularly their families; and there are now FOUR Heartseeds, some of whom are (supposedly) good guys now, and some of whom are determined to erase everyone’s memory of the last eighteen months. Even if that means destroying lives.

These books have always had a high amount of teen drama, and this one is no exception, though for once our main heroes aren’t actually part of it. By design. (Actually, I was rather surprised that the two main couples didn’t reflect more on the fact that their budding relationships might soon be completely undone, but to be fair they’ve got a LOT going on.) Indeed, all their secrecy is now coming back to haunt them, as it’s fairly easy to see them as the cause of the problem. There’s also a lot of brainwashing in this book, to a disturbing degree. Everyone has heard rumors of the school vanishing, but no one knows where from. The teachers don’t seem to care that everyone’s skipping class… or not there at all. Even Iori’s mother and Taichi’s sister, tho literally go to the school to investigate, end up being influenced. And then there’s Misaki, who serves as the test case for what’s going to happen to everyone – after talking with the Club, she loses her memories, and is mow merely casual acquaintances with her former best friends. It’s scary.

If this sounds a bit over the top and unrealistic, well, the Club points that out as well, as to how big an undertaking it will be to do this and not have the world notice. What’s also interesting is that they have not one, but TWO former enemies seemingly on their side – I say seemingly merely because Heartseed, as always, is deeply untrustworthy, be in the first or the second one. But they admit what I’ve been suspecting for a while – the reason they’re doing this so much is to see the emotions that humans have, and the Club has been influencing them more and more to try to retain their observations and emotions. As I said, the Club is simply too good at being emotional wrecks, in both good and bad ways. Now the entire school is in anotehr dimension, along with most of the first and second years, and it’s up to our heroes to rescue them.

Will they do it? Probably, though if any series was going to play with a tragic ending it would be this one. We’ll see what happens in the 2nd part. In the meantime, get reading for a shipfull of feels. (Speaking of ships, is it me or does polyamory feels REALLY natural with these five?)

Ao Haru Ride, Vol 11

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Ao Haru Ride Volume 11 by Io Sakisaka

Throughout this series, nostalgia and feelings of being haunted by the past have come up in a variety of ways, and this volume shows a bit of movement forward on Kou’s part as he goes to visit various sites from his past. He ditches during a school trip where he used to live and induces Futuba to come along with him “as friends.” She comes along, knowing in the back of her mind that she’s lying to herself.

Together they visit Kou’s old apartment, middle school, and his mother’s grave. Kou seems much more emotionally resilient, coming out of this nostalgic trip with a greater sense of certainty about what he wants to do and who he wants to spend time with (spoiler alert, it is Futuba!). There are also some nice side stories with the larger friend group interspersed as Futuba and Kou wander around with each other. Futuba ends up being stricken with guilt that she was hanging out with Kou without telling Toma what was going on, and ends up going to angsty extremes in dealing with her emotions. Toma’s on the cover of this volume, and he definitely deserves it, as his steadfast approach to romance with a girl who is fairly honest about her wavering feelings makes him a stabilizing presence. While Kou might finally know what he wants, and I’m team Kou all the way, Sakisaka infuses scenes of Futuba and Toma talking to each other with so much joy that I felt myself wavering a bit! There’s always plenty of drama in each volume of Ao Haru Ride, but it never seems to be over-the-top or unearned, because so much of it is drawn from the characters’ internal motivations and the changes to their personalities as they are gradually growing up. This was yet another solid volume in a very good shoujo series.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 2

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

The good news is this is still a very fun series with a lot of laughs and big goofy characters doing silly things. The bad news is that it is not a series that lives and dies on its character development, so I can see myself having trouble stretching reviews out to 500+ words as we go along. Lloyd is still stupidly strong and overpowered and completely unaware of it. He gathers yet more women into his orbit in this book, without remaining remotely aware of it, of course. Marie, the other seeming “main” character from the first book, is sidelined so hard and with such humiliation here I was tempted to call her Yunyun. The closest we get to serious characterization is Riho Flavin (yes, that’s still her name, a fact I will never get over), whose past catches up with her and whose days may be numbered. That said, this is a very silly comedy. Don’t expect it to kill off major characters.

The main cast remain the same as last time. Lloyd and Marie I mentioned. Sadly, the village chief comes back as well, and she’s not any less annoying. Selen is a mind-blowing yandere, but unlike most of this type, is actually funny. The plot is that there’s a magic tournament that’s located in their hometown this year. Unfortunately, their hometown is filled with muscles, not magic. No one would even want to participate expect Riho is being blackmailed by her childhood friend-turned-archenemy Rol Calcife, who seems to have become a Bond villain, and a pair of sisters. Mena is the sort of girl you’d expect in any other series to be the reporter girl looking for scoops, and she talks a lot. Her sister Phyllo is stoic and also a martial-arts master, looking for the one enemy she isn’t able to defeat. Guess who she finds that fits that bill? So Riho. Selen and Lloyd end up in the tournament after all.

Everything is secondary to the comedy here. Including Lloyd, who after starring in the first volume plays more of a supporting role here. He’s become the big gun that’s pulled out when an instant win is needed. As for the cast additions, my guess is that Phyllo will be the major one going forward. She’s amusing, as seeing Lloyd take her kicks without even reacting (she did break his ribs, but he doesn’t give that away), she is now almost as much a yandere over him as Selen is, just in a stoic way. It gets to the point that when a serious plot point is introduced at the very end, when we see that Rol may not have been fully in control of her evilness, that it feels out of place. We don’t really want this book to get any darker. We want it to be Big Goofy.

That said, this is still predominately great fun, with an excellent translation to match, which gets the book’s ‘no one is above humiliation’ style dead on. If you’re missing KonoSuba and looking for similar zaniness but wish Subaru and Wiz switched personalities, this is right up your alley.

The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter, Vol. 1

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By Meguru Seto and Takehana Note. Released in Japan by Kodansha Lanove Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Tiva Haro. Adapted by Cae Hawksmoor.

As I was commenting on Twitter about reading this book, I kept calling it “trash”. And it really is. But wait, it’s not actually bad. In fact, you could do far worse than this kind of trash. But – it’s still trash. The lead is a stock light novel hero, the sort referred to these days as “Potato-kun”. He gathers together a group of young women, all gorgeous, all who are either already in love with him or fall for him almost instantly. His powers essentially rewrite reality to a certain extent, and aren’t powered by MP but rather LP, which means he can do more provided he gorges on delicious food, makes love to beautiful women, etc. It’s not actually an isekai (he’s the son of a baronet, and genuinely from this world), but isekais have happened here before, so there’s soy sauce and miso. I was expecting it to hit the plot/character beats that would cause me to groan and drop it in annoyance. But… it didn’t.

Our hero is Noir, and as I mentioned before he’s the son of a Baronet, which means he’s nobility but the lowest rung, meaning nobles don’t give him the time of day. He has a great ability where a voice in his head tells him the solution for any problem… but it gives him crippling pain to use. And the job he had lined up for adulthood was given to a higher noble’s son. All he has is his adoring busty childhood friend who clearly is in love with him but he hasn’t caught on to this. She discovers that the pain of using the skill is lessened by kissing, and this in turn leads him to a dungeon no one has found, and an adventurer who’s been trapped there for 200 years. From there, he’s ready to become an adventurer, go to Hero Academy, save the lives of cursed young ladies, and… yeah, you get the picture. This is trash.

So why is it good? It knows its boundaries, and knows when to push and when not to. For all that his skill is powered up by sexual acts, hugging, lap pillows, and the like usually suffice – the closest this gets to 18-rated is the instructor who decides to reward him by sitting on him. He gets a skill that is called ‘lucky pervert’, and after falling into his friend’s boobs and seeing an old lady’s panties, he quickly rewrites the skill so that it happens ‘very rarely, and never in a serious situation’. For a generic guy, he’s a bit smarter than most (still dense, of course). In one epilogue, he sees a bunch of kids bullying a boy for “hanging out with a girl”, and very quickly tears apart their logic – aside from mentioning Emma’s chest a lot, there’s little of the stock sexism we see in these books. Heck, there isn’t even any slavery (and it makes me sad that this is so rare I’m happy to note it). Even the little sister in love with him is restrained compared to others.

So basically, if you bought the book because you wanted it to be a nice, friendly OP fantasy with a lot of cute girls in a harem, this is a good book to buy. It hits all those buttons, and isn’t appalling. It’s also getting an anime soon, so you get in on the ground floor. It’s trash. Embrace that.

The Asterisk War: The Steps of Glory

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By Yuu Miyazaki and okiura. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

There’s good news and bad news in this new volume of The Asterisk War. The bad news is that this is the start of the series’ THIRD tournament arc, and with a few exceptions, battle scenes are what we’re going to get. The good news is that this author is quite good at writing battle scenes, particularly with a lot of young men and women kicking ass in various kinds of ways. We do get more at the start of the book showing the growing relationship between our villain, Madiath Mesa, and Ayato’s mother Sakura, whose real name seems to be Akari. It’s no surprise by now that she’s a girl shunned by the rest of her family due to “out of control” powers and forced to essentially live in a shed for most of her childhood, given what we’ve seen of this world to date. We do also get a bit of Kirin investigating, though that’s mostly her almost getting killed. The rest is fighting and foreshadowing of more fighting to come.

Saya is on the cover this time, and does get a bit to do, as she’s in the tournament. I was amused that chaotic, unpredictable fighters are her weakness, which makes perfect sense given her own personality and her love for Ayato. Ayato actually gets the most troublesome fights, not a big surprise given he’s the main character, and learns the hard way that the nature of this tournament (one-on-one, as opposed to pairs or groups) means everyone is far more brutal – several characters are hospitalized and the narrative has to tell us “it’s OK, they’re going to live”. He fights a big guy who has a few surprise Luxes that he can bring out, which shows off that there are various factions trying to influence this tournament as much as possible. He also fights a very nice girl and is very nice back at her, and it’s a good thing their battle is fierce otherwise I suspect the audience watching these fights would have been rather bored.

For those wanting more Julis, sorry to say you will have to wait – she’s barely in this book, and we don’t get to see any of her preliminary bouts. Instead we get a large number of characters, some of whom we’ve seen before and some we haven’t, but I can guarantee you I’ve mostly forgotten who they are. That’s fine, we’re not here for character development, we’re here to read some nice fights. Hilda’s battle was excellent, and I look forward to seeing the Mad Scientist fight, even though the narrator for some reason wants to tell me I won’t be able to get it. I was also amused at the student council presidents of the various schools trying to figure out how to explain the various borderline-illegal things their students have done. Next volume promises us the start of the real Tournament proper – in other words, battles where we may NOT guess the outcome in advance.

This is apparently the final arc in the series, per the author, which doesn’t surprise me given the main cast is about to graduate. I am assuming that many good fights will be had, all the remaining women in love with Ayato will confess to him, and he will end up with Julis, because in the end Asterisk War is well-written cliche but still very, very cliche. Still, I’ll be back next time.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Ut Sementem Feceris, ita Metes

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

This book came out just before the anime began in Japan, and right about the time the manga started. As such, it’s the first one to be possibly influenced by both of those sources. I’ve talked before about how I don’t think Tanya’s pragmatism is usually as evil as the author wants us to believe, but sometimes he digs deep and shows us that there really is a difference in the way she (and her soldiers) think and everyone else. This book has an Ildoan Colonel observe her unit during a Federation attack, and is horrified that the soldiers not only plan to attack a town but also to bomb a church. Tanya’s cheerful explanation of how this is all perfectly fine due to the rules of war (and the fact that the Federation hasn’t signed any agreements) can be chilling as you realize how she’s not thinking of morality in a general sense at all. And then you remember that this is meant to be an anti-war series, and it all makes sense.

Tanya is all smiles on the cover, partly as she’s entertaining the observer and tries to be on her best behavior, but also has there’s a very real chance that we may be achieving peace again. Lergen spends most of the book in Ildoa, negotiating a peace with excellent terms for the Empire. And the generals (and Tanya) make sure that those terms are acceptable by absolutely trouncing the Federation, who have stronger weapons, better shields and well-trained men now but still lack aerial mages, and that’s making all the difference. Unfortunately, peace is not decided by the generals. We get another look at the ruling government of the Empire, and it’s chilling. By the end of this book, you realize that there’s no way the series can possibly end with anything but total, 100% defeat for the Empire. That’s a ways down the road, but… get used to war is what I’m saying.

The last volume was mostly talk and little fight, and this one goes in the other direction, being mostly filled with battle after battle. Our core team stays alive, and wins each battle, but there’s no mistake – things are getting harder. The enemy is starting to prepare for Tanya’s pyrotechnics, and she’s stunned when, for the first time, one of her “blow everything to hell” attacks does not blow everything to hell. Even when they do win due to clever tactics and overwhelming mage superiority, the Federation are able to make their retreat to fight another day. Even worse, they do so in an orderly fashion – discipline is winning. These are not the enemies Tanya wants to fight, as they’ll only lead to bad things for her and her fellow soldiers. That’s why she’s so happy at the end of the volume, not knowing what’s been happening with her government. I expect a big freak out from her at the start of the eighth book.

So a good, strong Tanya volume, better than the last, and reminding you again that when war is being fought, no one wins. The title’s translation, “As you sow, so shall you reap” could not be more appropriate.