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Reviews

By the Grace of the Gods, Vol. 1

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By Roy and Ririnra. Released in Japan as “Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mana Z.

We’re starting to get the second generation of isekai writers here, those who did not start their webnovel after watching El Hazard and playing a lot of RPG games, but rather those who started their webnovel after reading a giant pile of isekai webnovels. By the Grace of the Gods and its author, Roy is definitely a book written by an isekai reader, and the lead character is also a fan of the novels, so dying and meeting gods does not surprise him. In fact, little surprises him. He is reincarnated in another world, a fantasy world, as a young eight-year-old boy. Of course, he also brings along a large amount of magic power. And a large number of ridiculous skills. And this is in addition to his old life in Japan, where, despite being a salaryman, he was a martial arts expert who worked out daily and also has swordsmanship drilled into him by his father. If anything in those last few sentences irritates you, I advise you to stay away. If, on the other hand, it’s fine, you should enjoy this book, as Ryoma ends up in his fantasy world and immediately… hides away from civilization for three years.

Ryoma is the anti-Tanya. The gods love him… in fact, he has blessings from FOUR gods, and makes sure to pray to them. His three years spent living in a cave away from people have allowed him to research slimes, which takes up most of his time, though he still finds time to kill bandits and learn more powerful magic. Fortunately, there’s a timeskip towards the start of the book, and an eleven-year-old Ryoma meets a duke and his party who are in need of some medical aid, which Ryoma is able to provide (he can make medicine too). The duke is nice, and has a family who are also nice, including a girl Ryoma’s own age who is bright and shiny and innocent and the opposite of the soft-spoken, stoic Ryoma. Invited to leave his cave and go with them, Ryoma finally interacts with a fantasy city… which is good, as his trained slimes are desperately needed to stave off an epidemic.

As you may have gathered, this book is ridiculous, but one thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that it is also a “slow life” book. Things happen at a leisurely pace, there are no action sequences, and there’s no romance as Ryoma and Eliaria are eleven years old (despite Ryoma’s old memories). It just wants to hang around Ryoma and watch him be cool, but he’s cool in a very nerdy scientist sort of way. He has his specialized slimes, and they get to show their stuff. They can clean the hardest grime. They can kill off bandits when ingested. And, in the thrilling climax to the book, they can eat sewage from a filthy cesspit… which also shows there is a potential deadly bacteria there as well. The best part of the book is the relationship Ryoma develops with his found family, who treat him like an orphan with a tragic backstory and love him to death.

Again, this is second generation isekai. It assumes that you’re okay with OP heroes, and that excitement and adventure are about 4th on your list after friendly chats about slimes (which are the first three slots). For those readers, this is a solid choice. I enjoyed it.

Sublime Quick Takes: Liquor and Cigarettes and Fourth Generation Head: Tatsuyuki Oyamato

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I’ve decided in the interest of clearing away some of my to-read manga stacks, I’m going to dedicate the month of February to BL and yaoi manga and do at least one extra post of mini reviews a week. I’m going to do a big giveaway at the end of the month with a selection of what I’ve read (however many manga I can fit into a flat rate priority box). So let’s take a look at some manga from SubLime.

Liquor and Cigarettes by Ranmaru Zariya

Camilo and Theo are childhood best friends who run family businesses across the street from each other in a quasi European setting. Theo sells liquor and Camilo sells cigarettes. Theo’s deep dark secret is that he’s secretly a lightweight who can’t tolerate alcohol. Camillo’s favorite hobby is propping his head in his hands and staring soulfully at Theo. When Camilo asks his lifelong friend to consider dating him, Theo isn’t sure, but he decides to throw himself into a quasi trial relationship while at the same time building up his alcohol tolerance so he can take part in a town wine festival. What follows is a series of booze and angst-filled nights as Theo struggles with his sexuality and Camilo attempts to win him over. The art is well-done and fluid, with distinct character designs. Liquor and Cigarettes is complete in one volume, and would be a good choice for yaoi fans who are wanting something short but explicit to read that also features a decent amount of character development, as both Theo and Camilo puzzle out how to take their relationship forward without the booze.

liquor and cigarettes

Fourth Generation Head: Tatsuyuki Oyamato By Scarlet Beriko

The cover for Fourth Generation Head: Tatsuyuki Oyamato shows a shocking lack of concern for basic gun safety. I can say that the cover certainly signals the content of the manga. Tatsuyuki Oyamato is an heir to a powerful yakuza family. He’s not that invested in his duties in organized crime, as he’s struggling to get over being dumped by a masseur. He ends up wandering around a city half-drunk and gets picked up by Koga Nozomi, a kindergarten teacher who recognizes Tatsuyuki from an incident in their past that Tatsuyuki has no memory of. A local mafia boss named Rogi is determined to make both Tasuyuki and Nozomi miserable, and his daughter attends the kindergarten where Nozomi works. One of the reasons why I tend to be only an occasional yaoi reader is that I don’t care for reading much about non-consensual sex. Rogi decides to hatch an elaborate blackmail scheme that involves sexual torture, and that wasn’t appealing to me as a reader. Trauma in general gets a pass in this manga, and Nozomi’s semi obsessive tendencies towards Tatsuyuki get mention and then glossed over. Beriko’s art is great, and Nozomi is appropriately adorable, but in the end, this was not a manga that inspired enthusiasm for me as a reader. While there is a happy ending of sorts, I do hope that the yakuza have a good mental health provider.

Fourth Generation Head

Otherside Picnic, Vol. 2

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By Iori Miyazawa and shirakaba. Released in Japan as “Urasekai Picnic” by Hayakawa Bunko JA. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

The second volume starts up with a dangling plot form the first volume, as Sorawo and Toriko go back into the other world to rescue to US Marines who remained trapped there. It makes for a tense chapter, as moving an entire company (which has been growing smaller the longer they stayed there, admittedly) is not that easy in a space like that, especially when they come across the Japanese Urban Legend Monster of the week. After this they end up in Okinawa, and decide to stay and hit the beach… but instead end up back at the other world, beach version, which features more disturbing things and the appearance of the woman who is Toriko’s obsession and is rapidly turning into Sorawo’s nemesis, Satsuki. Both of these chapters are well told, and the characters are fun to read, but I felt they weren’t quite as terrifying as the first book could be.

The third story delves more into the characters, as we meet another student at Sorawo’s university, who has heard rumors that she can help with supernatural issues and is being stalked by ninja cats. Yes, ninja cats, and a good deal of the chapter is spent trying to deal with the seeming silliness of the proposition. The ninja cats do end up posing quite a threat, and there’s another tense sequence, but mostly what this third wheel does is show off how tight-knit Sorawo and Toriko have become, as well as the difference between them – Sorawo is distancing herself from everyone but Toriko – at least in her head – while Toriko sees it as Sorawo having opened up to other a lot more – so much that she doesn’t need Toriko anymore. This miscommunication leads to the fourth and best chapter, where the horror pops back into the pages like it was waiting for you to relax.

The final chapter shows us who Kozakura is getting the money from to pay for Toriko and Sorawo’s other world finds, and also shows us that the other world is a big business… and one that is breaking many other people. From the moment we enter the seemingly empty building that serves as the “lab” where Satsuki worked, everything becomes terrifying, with some of the most evocative descriptions of body horror I’ve read in some time. It’s clear that Toriko’s hand and Sorawo’s eye are relatively minor compared to the issues of other researchers. This reach a fever pitch when Sorawo triggers what might be a trap set by Satsuki… a literal puzzle box that starts to kill the other of them in a nasty and lingering way. Can Sorawo work together with Toriko to stop it? And stop Toriko sounding as if she’s about to run away forever and/or kill herself?

My first review mentioned this was the first license from Hayakawa’s “yuri line” that was multiple volumes, adn I’m even more relieved that there’s at least two more after this, as I’m becoming very invested in the story. The yuri, while still not explicit, is much stronger here, and the horror is a slow burn till the end when it hits a fever pitch. Recommended for fans of both genres.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 31

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

And so I finally finish my Rokujouma catchup. This is also where the upcoming print boxset that was Kickstartered will end, as it had to cut off somewhere, and this is as good a place as any given the series is still coming out in Japan. It’s another one of those “three short stories from the online site and one half-book original” novels, only in this case the half-book overwhelms the short stories even more than usual. The short stories aren’t bad – first there’s a Triathlon our heroes are competing in, and we focus on Clan, who is out of shape, and Yurika, who is in shape but has little motivation. It’s cute, even though they’re also both very pathetic. We then get Harumi and Maki playing board games, which if nothing else shows off how desperately these two nice introverts need someone else to bounce off of. And Shizuka and Ruth have another sentai battle, bringing back Ruth’s beetle phobia, which, let’s face it, no one wanted to bring back.

The half-novel is the first of the “what ifs” the author said he was doing, but it’s framed as also being canon – in the brief interval between when Koutarou and company bring Nalfa back to Room 106 and when she wipes everyone’s memories, the idea of alternate universes comes up. Koutarou was relieved to hear that there are universes where his mother is alive, and Nalfa offers to show him one of those in a dream. (Pointedly, we don’t see that world, possibly as I suspect it would be rather sweet but dull.) The girls all then realize they can look at a world where they won and Koutarou is their boyfriend, and after a jan-ken-pon competition, Harumi is the first to see what that life would be like. She ends up sort of providing color commentary on the dream world, which works because it’s her but I was relieved when the afterword said it would not continue after this.

The “Harumi wins” world is very similar to this one, oddly – it takes place over about the first 8-9 books, and the rest of the cast still arrive and are trying to get control of Room 106. They’re barely in the story, though, as here Koutarou is all about Harumi. Amusingly, it’s because their initial meeting went worse than in canon – when trying to pull away from the dude harassing her, she sprains her wrist and Koutarou has to give first aid. This allows two very hands-off people to touch earlier than usual, and everything springboards from there – Koutarou opens up to her faster, she realizes she’s in love faster, and they confess rapidly. That said, which that world’s Koutarou and Harumi are blissfully happy, OUR Harumi is dissatisfied. A life without the rest of the cast just isn’t the same, even if their real-life romance isn’t resolved. Another reminder that found family story beats sappy romance story.

In Vol. 33 we’ll apparently get Clan’s “what if” story next, but before that it’s back to the ongoing plot. Till then, enjoy this what if that also reminds you that the main plot is best.

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, Vol. 1

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By Jougi Shiraishi and Azure. Released in Japan as “Majo no Tabitabi” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

I suspected going in, judging by the blurb, that this would be less a light novel and more of a short story collection, and I was mostly correct. Elaina is our protagonist, and we do learn bits and pieces about her as the book goes on, but it’s clear the main thrust of the series is “Elaina goes to [X], events happen, Elaina leaves [X]. Which is fine, as some of the stories are quite good. The publisher did a good job not just giving in and calling it “Elaina’s Journey”, because yes, this does remind the reader of a certain motorcycle-riding protagonist we all know. Elaina’s short stories are less concerned with a moral than Kino’s, though – in fact, some of the weaker stories in this book come from when it does seem to try to awkwardly hammer home a “deep down we’re all the same” sort of lesson to be learned. Fortunately, Elaina is not really the sort to take in valuable lessons. She just wants to walk around.

As the title implies, Elaina is a young witch who is wandering around her world, which is one where witches are known and tolerated in most countries, visiting cities, towns and villages to take in what they’re like. As she does this, some of the places she goes are very entertaining and funny; some are rather creepy and horrific; and some are designed to tell us more about Elaina herself – in both flashbacks and the present day – to show us how she got to be a witch and why she’s so dedicated to wandering around and not staying longer than three days (again, does this sound familiar, Kino fans?). The supporting cast is pretty much zero; there is a recurring gag about a muscle-headed brother searching for his sister that pops up a few times, but that’s less for the character development and more for the gag.

Elaina herself is somewhat dry and frosty; at times the book can feel like a tsukkomi wandering the world of bokes. She used to be worse – one of the better stories involves us meeting her teacher when Elaina was an apprentice, and having the arrogance stripped out of her. Now she’s helpful… sometimes despite herself… but still seems removed from events, never getting too emotionally involved. Several stories here do not have happy endings, or end on a sad or scary note; we see Elaina leaving the country on her broom and never looking back. In the final story of the book, where the present-day Elaina meets her old teacher, there are hints that there’s more to Elaina than meets the eye (I’m curious about her mom as well), and I suspect we may find out she’s more important than she makes herself out to be.

As you’d expect given the format, the book is quite variable; some stories hit hard, some miss entirely. And, as I’ve hinted in the review, you do get the sense that the publisher would have been better off just license rescuing Kino’s Journey instead. But Wandering Witch is certainly an interesting journey in the end, and I enjoy Elaina’s matter-of-fact, slightly smug narrative voice. I’ll be looking for more of this.

Shortcake Cake, Vol 7

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Shortcake Cake Volume 7 by suu Morishita

As I was picking up this volume of Shortcake Cake, I started thinking about how genuinely fond of many of the current Shojo Beat titles. It is quite an accomplishment to develop a line of manga that inspires the feeling that you are seeing a friend again when you get a new volume of a series in your hands, but so many of the current Shojo Beat lineup invoke that feeling for me. Shortcake Cake continues to explore the classic romantic tradition of a love triangle (or possibly quadrangle) as Ten now realizes that she has feelings for Riku after she originally rejected him. In a great scene that takes full advantage of the iconic setting of stairs leading up to a shrine, Riku asks Ten if she likes him, and after a few beats of silence and slightly shifting facial expressions, Ten breaks the tension by balling up her fists and punching herself on either side of her face. Riku grabs her wrists to ask what she’s doing, and she blurts out “I like you.” Morishita’s cinematic approach to paneling switches from character to character, incorporating silent reaction shots coupled with blushes and awkward glances that makes this love confession iconic.

shortcake cake 7

One of the things I like about this series is the way it switches easily between emotional scenes and more comedic aspects of teenage life. Ten continues her confession by saying that she hopes she can make Riku like her back, and asks him to give her some time to win his affection. He says he’ll wait, and Ten thinks that she needs to make up for how she made Riku feel in the past. Ten decides that she’s going to actually attempt to be feminine, and what follows is a crash course in skin care and makeup application from Ageha. Ten also attempts to mirror Riku’s body language to deepen their connection in a hilarious scene. While Ten flits around trying out random advice from friends, Riku seems fairly patient and low key, except when he has to deal with an attempt to clear the air from Chiaki. In settings that recall the places where they’ve spoken in the past, Ten and Riku are open with their feelings and embark on an actual relationship.

With the way this series is developing, I’m not expecting the love confessions in this volume to be the last ones, which is a good thing because Morishita executes them so well. It is pretty adorable seeing Ten and Riku together and on the same page, but I’m very curious to see what happens when Rei figures out what is going on. Rei is largely absent from this volume, except for a single vignette after the main story, so I’m expecting him to show up soon. Shortcake Cake presents teen romance with a depth and emotional resonance that sets it apart from many other series. I’m still unsure who Ten is going to end up with, and that continues to keep me intrigued as a reader.

The Rose of Versailles, Vol. 1

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By Riyoko Ikeda. Released in Japan as “Versailles no Bara” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Udon Entertainment. Translated by Mari Morimoto.

At last, one of the most iconic manga ever has reached the shores of North America. It’s been a long wait since the license was first announced, and I’m sure there are some asking whether it was worth it. I am here to tell you that yes, it was. The volume of Rose of Versailles I am holding in my hands (both hands, it’s quite heavy) is gorgeous, a hardcover with high-quality paper, the first of five omnibus volumes (the “Complete Edition” from Japan). The art is breathtaking – I normally read manga fairly quickly, but it took me days to get through this book, as I kept stopping every panel to look at some fresh new detail. The characters are all compelling and drive the story well, although I admit that I like some of them more than others. The dialogue is also fantastic and will make you go back and reread when you aren’t going back to reread because of the art. It’s just… really amazing, folks.

The story frames itself as being about three people born the same year: Hans Axel von Fersen, a Swedish prince; Oscar Francois de Jarjayes, a noblewoman raised as a man; and Marie Antoinette Josephe Jeanne de Lorraine D’Autriche, better known as just Marie Antoinette, future Queen of France. The first half of the volume is very much about Marie Antoinette in its entirety; Oscar is there, but as a mere supporting player, popping up to snark at the other nobles and then getting back to her job with the Royal Guards. We see Marie as a well-meaning but naive and gullible teenager, thrust into the spotlight far too soon, and later in the book this gets even worse when Louis XV dies and she becomes Queen. Oscar is there at timees to try to guide her towards being more mature, but is not very successful at it, mostly as there are any number of hangers-on who are trying to manipulate a lonely and innocent Queen. And then there’s Fersen, who arrives at court and falls deeply in love with Marie Antoinette.

This is soap opera, of course, but of the best kind – if you’re going to go big and overdramatic, the court of Louis XV and XVI is the place to do it. Marie Antoinette is both sympathetic and frustrating, and you can see how difficult it can be to do the right thing when you have so many people who are standing besides you “giving helpful advice”. There’s also a subplot involving a pair of poor sisters, Jeanne and Rosalie; one manipulates men to move up into nobility, the other ends up attached to Oscar after her mother is killed by a mysterious noblewoman. I was, I admit, less enamored of these two; Rosalie, in particular, can grate. And then there’s the art. Rose of Versailles is most familiar for its iconic shoujo poses, and those do look beautiful and dramatic, but there’s also lots of silliness as well, and much of the humor in the volume comes from over the top comedy reactions to everyone’s antics. (Oscar, in particular, gets some magnificent funny faces.)

I hope I don’t need to tell everyone that this is worth reading immediately. If you were beginning to despair worrying it would never come out, fear not; it’s here, and it’s magnificent. Immerse yourself in it.

Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 1

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Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 1 by Gege Akutami

Fending off supernatural threats is a shonen staple, so how does Jujutsu Kaisen stack up? It very much felt like an early effort from a mangaka, which it is, but the first volume has a few flashes of humor and a central premise that is both disgusting and entertaining.

jujutsu kaisen volume 1

Yuji Itadori is a teenager who enjoys hanging out with the occult club despite his superhuman strength and speed. He’s being targeted for his athletic abilities by the track coach, but manages to maintain his new supernatural hobby by winning a bet about his shot put abilities. Megumi Fushiguro, a student from another school with actual occult abilities, is investigating the presence of a cursed object when he encounters Yuji and his new friends. It turns out that the occult club has gotten their hands on an artifact that is actually quite cursed, and Yuji and Megumi have to team up to save his friends from demonic destruction. Along the way, Yuji casually eats a demonic finger in order to get cursed energy to fend off the evil spirits. This ends up giving Yuji a semi-manageable case of spirit possession, but also makes him useful to demon hunters because he’s basically a walking container for cursed objects, as long as he eats them. There’s a particular demon who is the source of the cursed digits, and Yuji is going to join a team hunting down the relics of the evil Sakuna.

The art throughout this volume is serviceable but a bit rough, there’s little mobility in the characters’ facial expressions and while the action scenes are easy to follow they’d be a lot more entertaining with some shifts in perspective or more dynamic paneling. I’m curious to see if the art improves more as the series continues to develop. The demons do look appropriately freaky and scary.

Yuji’s motivations for fighting demons are introduced with a lack of subtly. Then again, I guess one does not expect delicately and subtle plot points from a Shonen Jump manga. There were a few moments that I thought were hilarious enough to be engaging. When Yuji is figuring out how many digits he is going to have to consume, the total number is high due to a surprising reason which is tossed off in casual conversation. I also enjoyed Yuji’s low-key approach to performing dramatic physical feats. The end of the volume sets up the new occult fighting team and their sparsely populated high school that has a curriculum dedicated to fighting evil, and it’ll be interesting to see how that develops. Ultimately this first volume reminded me that sometimes one has to give a manga two volumes before deciding to follow a series or not, and that is what I’ll be doing with Jujutsu Kaisen.

The Asterisk War: Resurgence of Savagery

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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.

Sometimes I jinx myself. Last time I was happily going on about how Asterisk War may have been cliched but hit all the right notes and was really fun to read. So it’s no surprise that here I am, reading the 12th volume, and finding things that I’m dissatisfied with. This is the last ‘setup’ volume before the next battle, the Lindvolus, and so the author is dragging the characters to where they need to be. For Ayato, who isn’t taking part in the battle (after all, it’s Julis who needs to win it), this will involve getting threatened and blackmailed. For the rest of the cast, it will involve learning about the new Big Bad and what he’s trying to do… well, actually, no one is quite sure what he is trying to do. For Orphelia, it’s starting to look like all she’ll be getting is a merciful death. And for Julis, who likely will have to administer that death, this volume is basically terrible, and it’s no surprise that she ends it distancing herself from her friends.

Firstly, Haruka is awake, and actually fulfilling a plot function, which is nice. Less nice is that the plot function she is filling is damsel in distress, though she has more agency than most of those. She’s up and telling people about the bad guy (her real father), and the scenes where she trains Ayato to realize why he’s still coming up short in controlling his powers are quite good. But the blackmail scene, where Ayato is threatened by revealing that Haruka essentially has a bomb next to her heart that will go off if Ayato doesn’t obey orders, feels like a cliche in the bad way, which Asterisk War doesn’t normally do. In addition, while I enjoyed the flashbacks to bad guy’s school years and him meeting a mysterious student with great powers (who seems very familiar), we only get one chapter of it, and it felt a bit out of place towards the start of the book.

There’s no additional confessions in the Ayatobowl sweepstakes, though his sister is happy he has so many girls after him. Instead, everyone is training for the Lindvolus, which promises to be at least the next three books, so we’d better get ready. We get a look at some of the other participants, some of whom we’ve seen before, and some of whom are new characters. Which is good, because this is a series with a tiny cast that absolutely needed more new characters. Yes, I’m joking. Actually, a lot of these little scenes were quite good, and were probably the parts of the book I enjoyed the most. But in the end the main thing this book was after was the break Julis, and also to drive her away from her friends, and it succeeded admirably. Which is fine, but a little depressing. I like Julis.

Next volume opens the tournament, so expect our heroes to be beating on a lot of supposedly strong folks who will nevertheless be sacrificed to the plot. Asterisk War continues to be a light breezy read that loves its cliches. For good and ill.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 30

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I’ve been trying to catch up with Rokujouma, which threw me off my schedule by coming out in packs of 3 for a while. This is the first of the “post-finale” volumes, except of course it isn’t post-finale at all, there’s still stuff to be done. Forthorthe has “come out” to Earth, and now all sort of treaty negotiations have to take place, which will involve not screwing things up on either end. Third parties are trying to “fix” things on either side, they still can’t quite admit the presence of the magical world and the underground dwellers as well just yet, and even the yakuza is getting involved, thanks to finding a well-meaning chump – you can probably guess who that chump is. It’s also the start of a new school year. Mackenzie’s sister is now a first year, and is horrified to find her brother dates around. And we also meet a new transfer student from Forthorthe, seemingly the sister of a reporter who’s there as part of an initial exchange program, but boy, she sure seems familiar…

This book was not quite as solid as the last few have been – three’s a sense of “your series is too popular to end, please write more” to a degree. The bad guy is nephew of the bad guy from Forthorthe, and is there to be a bad guy and not much more – likewise the big battle near the end, while it is nice to see all the girls joining together to fight, felt like nothing we hadn’t seen before. And much as I love Yurika no matter what, I’m not as much a fan of her when she’s in Big Stupid mode, so seeing her happily running drugs and weapons for the yakuza, having not bothered to ask what’s in the suspicious boxes, made me feel a bit annoyed. That said, I did really like the bit where it’s pointed out to a despairing Yurika that Koutarou is being mean to her, meaning he’s not actually worried she’s in real trouble with the law here.

More interesting are the two new students. Nalfa Laren is, of course, the goddess whose plot we resolved in 29. She erased everyone’s memories, including her own (with an escape hatch for Kiriha in case of an emergency) and is living the life of a happy-go-lucky student – perhaps a bit TOO happy-go-lucky, given her clumsy tendencies which even make Yurika worry. We also get to meet McKinley, who idolized her brother till she found out he dares to date multiple women and is now furious with him. Alas, her adoration of Koutarou is fully justified, because Koutarou really IS that awesome – after all, he may have 9 (10?) women in love with him, but that doesn’t mean he’s dating any of them. Yet. She is basically a little sister character who is overly romantic, and that’s fine.

The next volume is another “half short-stories, half book” one, only in this case the half-book is the promised alternate universe, this first one being “Koutarou chooses to date Harumi”. We’ll see how that goes. Till then, enjoy Rokujouma 30, which is dancing a bit too fast to justify the ongoing plot, but is still decent.

Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 2: Apprentice Shrine Maiden, Vol. 2

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By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

We’ve sort of gotten to have a light and dark side to these new Bookworm volumes. The light is the travails of Myne the merchant and orphanage director, as she finally succeeds in making a book for her as yet unborn little sister, and in passing also invents the exacto knife, the roller brush, and the like. This part is a fun little slice-of-life series, and everyone in it is nice. Benno may be grumpy, but he’s nice at heart, the attendants are (eventually) nice, the plucky young orphans are nice… it’s relaxing to read. And then there’s the dark side of the book that gets into the life of the noble class and magic, where we realize that Myne having absurd amounts of mana is going to shake this world to its foundations, that there is a definite class war going on beyond just the High Bishop, and that Myne is being desperately coached by the High Priest so that she doesn’t grow up to be imprisoned and forcibly bred. It’s a big “YIKES” all around.

Also meriting “Yikes” is the ending to the novel, where the High Priest decides to find out once and for all what’s up with Myne. The way he does it will be familiar to anime watchers, as he gives her a magic potion that allows him to look through her memories. He does this without her consent – the potion is meant for criminals – and the fact that he feels bad about it and she later consents after the fact does not ameliorate this. It does, however, allow her to ‘refresh’ her memories of her past self, and say goodbye, at least in her own mind, to her mother, so some good does come of it. It also shows the High Priest why Myne is the way she is, and I hope will lead to him being a stronger ally in the future, though honestly, he is already doing a pretty good job given she’s now dealing with assassination attempts.

The cover, as ever, is sort of an abstract image showing bits of the plot. We see scattered books, which are from when an arrogant noble (who we will no doubt see again) decides to break up Myne’s book room for the lulz. The background features a runaway trombe, which is a lot more terrifying when it’s a blood-eating plant creatures that is slowly killing Myne, who is for once straight-up terrified (though we now learn she can psychically communicate with Lutz when under great stress, which doesn’t help much here but might down the road). The lion is there to show us that magic is a much bigger deal on the ‘noble’ side of the walls. And the staff is because she’s there to bless the land, which, as noted, is not helped by the Knight who, primed by the High Bishop, decides to try to kill her off. I can’t see things going well for him.

This is another very long book, but the last half flew by. We also get two short stories going into the heads of one of Myne’s new attendants, who learns Myne is not like other blue shrine maidens, and one of Myne’s chefs, who rightly sees this as a means to a better career that doesn’t involve being a waitress/sex worker. The worldbuilding in this book likes to remind you that career options for non-rich women in this world are not optimal and a lot of the service ones involve sex work in some way or another. On the bright side, the battle sequence towards the end of this volume is going to look amazing when animated this spring. In any case, this is an essential light novel read.

Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight, Vol. 6

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

A lot of these light novels were originally based on webnovels where readers no doubt left comments on what made them happy and what made them unhappy. This may be why each succeeding volume of Der Werwolf has managed to top itself when it comes to Veight’s superhuman powers of humility, with a number of “I’m just a lowly vice commander” lines or their equivalents here, even while he strategizes, leads armies into battle, decides the course of a throne war, and manages to get the best military leader of the Empire settled in Veight’s own land. It beggars belief a bit, and the rest of the cast are finding it less and less tolerable. Veight’s past has almost never been focused on, but what little he’s mentioned implies he was a standard Japanese NEET who was crushed by women and expectations and therefore has a horrible opinion of himself. If anyone’s going to be able to force him to admit his own accomplishments, it’s going to have to be someone who can take that into account. Sadly, the only other person who knew is now dead.

After the political maneuvering of the last volume, this volume is mostly wars and battles, as Ivan kicks off the throne war in earnest by killing his own father. He’s got the most military-minded of his brothers on his side, and also has more troops. Prince Ashley is technically in charge, but has the weaker hand. Veight, though, can see that his own lands would benefit more from negotiating with Ashley than with Ivan, and thus has Eleora to throw her troops behind Ashley. Most of the book consists of, as you’d expect in a climate like this one, waiting and preparing for battle, rather than battle itself. Veight can also help things out by secretly transforming and leading his werewolf corps, who take out a few bigwigs. That said, in the end it’s Eleora and Ashley who end up on top… though the body count is lower than I expected. There’s also lots of the usual banter you’d expect from Der Werwolf.

I was pleased to see Airia managing to make a short appearance in the book despite mostly communicating with Veight through letters. This leads to the other big thing that has only gotten bigger since the series began, which is Veight’s denseness when it comes to other women liking him. Again, this is meant to be a reflection of his sad former Japanese life, but frankly I think much of it comes from the fact that the series is not yet ready for him to be having love affairs – something he himself says here. That said, saying that he was Airia’s fiancee comes back to bite him, as he has to deny it in front of her, and then can’t figure out why she’s so angry. I still say she’s the obvious leader in the campaign for Veight’s heart, but he doesn’t do himself any favors by shooting himself in the foot like this.

The next volume looks to wrap things up up North and have Veight return to his own people. In the meantime, this is a solid volume of Der Werwolf, which gives readers more of what they want.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 29

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I’ve been saying for a while now that the “harem total” in this series is not going to get larger or smaller, and in this volume I am proved wrong. That said, if you’re going to add someone to a pile of girls who are as much a found family as romantic rivals, go big or go home. God joins the party here, in the presence of the being who greeted Koutarou in Volume 1. For a while it was thought to be Harumi/Alaia in some way, but now we know that that wasn’t thinking quite grandiose enough. Before we get to that point, though, we continue the theme of the previous books, as one by one the cast vanish from Koutarou’s life, essentially his worst fear, and he has to deal with it. He doesn’t deal with it very well. Fortunately, the dwindling group of women in his life are able to figure out what is going on long enough for him to go back to the place it all began… and also set up some intriguing alternate universes.

The cover art… and the plot… and every single thing about the book, really… might make you assume this is the last book in the series. It’s certainly the final part of the “main” plot that the author originally came up with – this is where he envisioned it ending, no matter how many books it turned out to be. But the cast are becoming third-years (except for the graduated Harumi), and we’re going to be seeing what happens next starting with Vol. 30. As for this book, there’s not much to it aside from emotional beats. They’re very good emotional beats, don’t get me wrong, but I do wish Koutarou had sort of figured out that when he is standing next to a girl and reminiscing about all the good times they’ve had since book 1, she’s going to be the next to go. There is a bit of a “memory reset” at the end, but it’s entirely voluntary, and you understand why they did it.

The interesting thing, to me, was the concept of the alternate universes brought up by Nalfalaren. The one we’ve been reading is the only one in like 5 billion or so where Koutarou revives her with all nine girls who are “part of her” at his side. In other words, this is the only harem end universe. We see one of the alternate universes towards the end of this book, as Koutarou has to deal with a world where none of the cast ever showed up in Room 106 and he ended up dating Shiori Kashiwagi, who readers may recall as having a crush on him a few books back, and is entirely a normal girl. It’s good to know someone is there to help Koutarou get over the tragedies in his life regardless, but it’s still nice to see the ending I think readers wanted, which is ambiguous but also feels right.

Next time we’re getting a continuation, but we’re also going to start to see some of those “alternate universes” where Koutarou was able to settle on one of the girls. Either way, you don’t have to worry about the cast vanishing from your lives anytime soon.

Kitaro: The Trial of Kitaro

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By Shigeru Mizuki. Released in Japan as “Gegege no Kitaro” by Kodansha and Shogakukan, serialized in various magazines. Released in North America by Drawn & Quarterly. Translated by Zack Davisson.

This is the final volume of D&Q’s Kitaro collections, and, while Kitaro has never really been serialized in a plot or characterization way, it picks an apt final story to end on. The largest story in the book is the titular Trial, where Kitaro is brought up against the Yokai Supreme Court and charged with helping humans at the cost of yokai. Which, admittedly, there’s a grain of truth to. A number of Kitaro’s adventures have featured him helping hapless humans who are being used and/or outright tortured by yokai – indeed, we’ll see some later in this collection. That said, no surprises for guessing who’s really gotten Kitaro into this mess. After much foofaraw, the trial ends with Kitaro agreeing that he will not only help innocent humans beset by yokai, but also the reverse – such as not helping the shady TV producers who are manipulated by Nezumi Otoko into the documentary stat starts this all off.

As this is the final Kitaro review I’m writing up (presumably), I’d like to expound once again on Nezumi Otoko, the Donald Duck to Kitaro’s Mickey Mouse. The trial story features perhaps Nezumi Otoko at his most iconic – setting up the entire situation in the first place for cash, teaming up with an even worse yokai, framing Kitaro and testifying against him, and then quickly rolling over when things turn against him. Of all the many and varied yokai we’ve seen over the course of the series, Nezumi Otoko’s actions are perhaps the most jaw-dropping – even the evil yokai are more consistent in what they do day to day. But of course Kitaro gives the reason why Nezumi Otoko is who he is – he’s half human, and it’s the humanity in him that makes him crafty and a bit of a complete snake. That said, for Kitaro to continually hang out with him after everything shows he has the patience of a saint… or that Nezumi Otoko has the love of the author.

The rest of the stories in the volume are more typical, featuring the classic Kitaro way of doing things… get devoured and killed by the enemy, then come back and do something about it. The most interesting story other than the trial episode has to deal with a cursed toilet in the middle of the woods (yes, really) and Kitaro also losing all his hair… which, as is pointed out by Nezumi Otoko, is one of the sources of his strength. Honestly, without it he’s almost unrecognizable. I also liked the story of the merman who blackmails/tortures Kitaro into getting him fish, and actually ends up living in a mansion as a human. This leads to the dark punchline where Kitaro agrees to turn him INTO a human, and then the merman finding out that life as a human is not all that greater after all. Also, watch out for the cute maid working in the merman’s mansion who walks off with Kitaro in the end – Mizuki rarely drew cute girls in this series.

The seven volumes of Kitaro released over here, as well as the compilation that came first, do so much to show off the strengths of Shigeru Mizumi as an artist and storyteller. They’re a must for any library. Ge! Ge! Ge-ge-ge-no-geeeeee…

In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 18

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

Any Smartphone book that manages to put Touya in actual danger is automatically more interesting than most. This one actually does it twice. Not that anything actually happens to him… remember what you’re reading. But the Mutant Phrase descend with an anti-God weapon that is so poisonous that it takes Touya out for three days, and later on an inadvisable attempt at waking an ancient weapon results in time literally being rewritten to make sure it didn’t happen… something Touya is aware of but no one else is. Unfortunately, neither of these crises serve to move Touya beyond his typical bland facade… generally the only thing that can do that these days is mentioning love, as per most awkward overpowered male leads in isekai. Sadly, the weddings are still a fair ways away, but at least we’re seeing a number of other plots starting to come together. Could the end be in sight? (Probably not.)

At the start of the book, the regular Touya world and the Reverse World finally merge together, and much of the rest of the volume is spent dealing with the political fallout from that. It does not help that the bad guys choose this moment to launch their ‘anti-Touya’ poison attack, which destroys one of the kingdoms we’d seen previously. (Not Touya’s own hand this time, so that’s good.) We actually get a few Phrase battles this time around, including Ende getting his revenge against the evil twins who mopped the floor with him last time. And we finally get an idea of what happened back in ancient times when the Phrase first invaded, and hopefully a way to avoid it happening again. In between there’s the usual wacky slice-of-life stuff… a young idiot prince comes by to show how strong he is and gets his ass kicked; Hilde’s sister fights a dragon; Sakura sings Freddie Mercury songs. The usual.

I admit, much as I grouse about the series when it’s doing things wrong like having Touya be history’s greatest monster, when it doesn’t happen there’s very little TO talk about in a review of Smartphone. Touya is bland. His fiancees, though they have more emotional range, are equally bland. There’s the royalty of the neighboring kingdoms… they’re pretty bland as well. This is sort of like a “slow life” series without the slow life part. The author says that we’re going to be fighting the Evil God next time, which is good, because when there are fights at least something is happening on the page. The wedding might also help, but that’s still a few books away. That leaves us with Touya wandering around doing Touya things, which is… boring. Dull. Nearly getting killed was the best thing to happen to him all book.

The series is still worth reading for the tiny little things that make it bearable – Sue’s Hammer Throw was great – but I suspect most readers, like me, are waiting for Touya to get married and simply paddling along ill that happens. 2 out of 5 Smartphones this time around.