Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Reviews

RVing My Way into Exile with My Beloved Cat: This Villainess Is Trippin’, Vol. 3

by

By Punichan and Canarinu. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō wa Camping Car de Tabi ni Deru: Aibyō to Mankitsu Suru Self Kokugai Tsuihō ” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by sachi salehi.

Villainess books (and this still is a villainess book, despite increasingly looking just like a standard isekai) all tend to have the same basic setting. They’re supposedly based on “noble court” kingdoms, all of which are best described as “vaguely Europe in the vaguely end of the 19th century, only with magic”. The problem with this, and a lot of isekais that take place in RPG land, is that it’s not Japan. Now, you *could* theoretically solve that problem by writing a villainess or isekai story that takes place in 19th century Japan, but no. We’d much rather simply have another, very familiar country, just offscreen, to the east, and over the ocean, that’s got rice and miso and so many other magical things. I just finished seeing Kuma Bear doing this, and S-Ranked Daughter also discussed it. And now here we are,. Mizarie and Raoul have come to not-quite-Japan. And it’s AWESOME.

Now that she’s found out about a country which has rice, Mizarie really wants to go there. But it’s not easy, and requires her and Raoul – who has now paid off his debt but, to the relief of both of them, wants to keep traveling with her – to traverse the desert, end up at the ocean, and then somehow cross through the Scylla and Charybdis. Fortunately, this is a world with magic, so a dangerous path opens every month – dangerous, that is, unless you have an RV. Now in the land of Mizuho, they arrive at a small town and meet the village chief’s daughter and a soba seller who is clearly in love with her. But they don’t have time to wait for the plot twist to kick in, there’s slow life to be had in the capital! Mizarie can buy SO MUCH Japanese food, get a kimono, and stay in a hot springs inn with her… um… bestie?

I admit I was wondering if this one would be purely slice-of-life this time around. Mizarie finally confesses her past to Raoul (her past from this world, that is – we’re not opening up about reincarnation just yet), but for the most part the Kingdom of Richard are not allowed to be dicks and remain firmly offscreen. But fear not, there is definitely a plot twist, because we can’t have a Camper Van Villainess story without the Camper Van being the real hero. As such, we get a good old fashioned virgin sacrifice to the gods, which feels VERY out of place in amongst all the “hey, hey, isn’t Japan awesome?!” that is the rest of the book. (Honestly, that part is a bit wearying.) But it allows Mizarie to race her RV like never before, do Evil Knievel jumps, and ram a massive snake to death. After that, meeting Raoul’s folks seems easy… well, provided you’re not two shy dorks in denial.

Best of all, it appears Camper Van Villainess escapes the “end in three volumes” curse most DRE titles have! Or at least they’re not married yet. I look forward to more wacky van adventures.

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer: Short Story Collection

by

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

I admit that I got really happy when I saw the 30-page section at the end of this book. No, not the color art gallery, though that was fine if you like that sort of thing. But the definition of a short story collection like this, one that is almost entirely made up of stories that were “bookstore exclusives” from various stores, is that they do not give anything for a reviewer to grab hold of. They can’t affect the main plot, they can’t really change anyone, they’re only there to be spice. The short stories in this book take place over the entire timeline, though Bel as a youth gets the least time, as those flashbacks were in the main story. Lots of Ange as a kid. Some good ones of Ange as a newbie adventurer, which I enjoyed. A lot of “boy, found family sure is great” stuff. Fortunately, there’s also the author discussing the creation of the work.

OK, there is a little more to talk about with the short stories. I did enjoy the one or two we got for Charlotte, who started off as an antagonist but very quickly stepped into the big sister for Bel’s new child role. Here we see that she’s constantly thinking of what she did and the people whose deaths she’s responsible for, and asks herself if she deserves to be happy. In addition to Ange’s early adventuring, I also enjoyed seeing the early life of Anessa and Miriam a bit more, and Miriam’s story where we see how her apprenticeship started with Maria is great. Maria is the sort who can’t show affection normally, so would only open up to someone not willing to put up with all her bullshit anymore. I also liked seeing a lonely and sullen Marguerite, who misses everyone and is depressed in Orphen but can’t stop telling herself “this is fine:.

But the final textual part of the book is a long section where the author talks about the creation of the work and what went into it, and I wish more authors did this sort of thing (or at least had it translated over here). Unsurprisingly, this was meant to be a one-volume series, and Angeline’s backstory was not meant to be anything other than “child found in the woods”, but when you’re trying to expand a plot you need to think of things to expand. I also really appreciated that the author’s first and most important rule was “no incest”, especially after seeing so many “dad raises an adopted daughter” series fail to clear that low bar. The author also discusses having to write things in later books to help explain the plot holes from previous books readers on the webnovel site pointed out – the obvious one being the state of the guilds, and how to fix it.

So obviously, for fans only, but fans should enjoy it. Just be ready for a lot of stories that are “Bel and young Ange fish” or “Bel gets a cold” and other store exclusive type things.

The Blessing of Liefe: Leave This Magical Letdown Alone!, Vol. 2

by

By Kureha and Yoko Matsurika. Released in Japan as “Liefe no Shukufuku: Muzokusei Mahō Shika Tsukaenai Ochikobore toshite Hottoite Kudasai” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alex Castor.

In my review of the first volume I marveled at the fact that our heroine had, helping her out and in her corner, about 90% of the important and powerful people in the kingdom, which sort of made this story about an abused child even more Cinderella than those stories usually are. This volume tries to show us that there’s a reason that she needs all that support and protection. The volume begins with a flashback to the tournament she did in middle school, where we hear she simply never bothered to show up for the semifinals. Now here we see why – she’s been threatened, and it does not take a genius to figure out who has enough emotional hold over her to get her to change the entire way she’s been living to date. As such, the resolution of the confession she got in the first book is obvious. It’s hard to agree to a romantic love with the prince when you have PTSD.

So yes, as I hinted above, Yui ends up rejecting Prince Filiel’s proposal. Everyone then heads off to the training camp for strong fighters, which also has Yui and her passel of first-year prodigies along for the ride, much to the disgust of some of the other students. This disgust is not helped by Yui’s attitude throughout the entire training camp. She skips out on all the training, doesn’t care about anything but sweets, and when forced to fight, puts up a defensive wall and starts to read a book. About sweets. She’s always been fairly blase and nonchalant about things, but it’s getting a bit ridiculous. Maybe Filiel’s proposal had a lot more impact than he thought. Can everyone figure out how to get Yui to come out of her shell and try to be the prodigy she is? And can they do this with anything other than snack bribes?

We know Yui’s backstory with her father, so can sympathize with her. Well, *I* can sympathize with her. I have a feeling a lot of readers are going to bounce off Yui hard, and I get it. What’s more, to those who DON’T know Yui’s abusive backstory, she comes across as an arrogant, uncaring, overprivileged creep, due to, well, everyone being in her corner. The middle of the book, where Yui is forced to fight battles, is a tale of two halves. In the first half, you grind your teeth at how stubborn and irritating Yui is being. Then, in the back half, we see her going up against one of the strongest men in the kingdom, and she shows off WHY she’s hiding everything and trying to avoid showing her true magic at all. Yui knows very well what her father wants. He wants to use her, marry her off, and otherwise treat her like a thing. And it terrifies her, because her father is a noble, and as we’ve seen in this series, nobles kinda suck.

Fortunately, by the end of the book, she does accept Filiel’s feelings, so in future books we can… what’s that? No volumes in two years>? Webnovel also looks abandoned? Well then. In any case, I enjoyed this.

The Former Assassin Who Got Reincarnated As a Noble Girl, Vol. 2

by

By Satsuki Otonashi and MiRea. Released in Japan as “Moto Ansatsusha, Tenseishite Kizoku no Reijou ni Narimashita” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

I admit I was surprised and a little put off by the cover of this volume, which, like the cover of the first, is salacious and mostly exists to draw in the hapless reader by promising sex that isn’t actually there. That said, the cover is actually quite clever, as your eyes may be drawn to her chest but we are also meant to notice her gun, and the huge and deadly hairpin she also has. Selena talks about “honey traps” in this series, and the volume in fact opens with the rather hapless and tragic crown princess being driven half mad and out of the palace by her asshole husband bringing home a “honey trap” lover and their two children and saying “this is who will be next in line now”. Thus, Selena on the cover of this volume is meant to draw in a reader hoping for a bit of sex. There’s none of that here. But there sure is lots of death and violence. This series is dark as pitch.

We open with, as I noted above, the tragic downfall of Shahrnaz, a noble girl who marries the crown prince, has a child, and thinks that things are fine. They’re not. Many years later, Selena is told that their school is getting three exchange students: Shaghad, the son of the prince and Shahrnaz, and Ismail and Aisha, the two children of the prince and his lover, a viscount’s daughter. They’re behaving like arrogant fools, but they also have a mission: Aisha is here to seduce Prince Evan, and Ismael is here to get rid of Shaghad, who is first in the actual succession. It doesn’t help that Shaghad, who has a big helping of “my mother abandoned me and I feel depressed”, is letting them do whatever they want. Clearly another noble is not what’s needed here. This needs an assassin’s touch.

For the most part, this book has a plotline that is pretty obvious… at least until the end, which has a terrific twist that I won’t spoil. Selena spends much of the volume rather annoyed that she has to be dealing with this at all, though once she manages to get Shaghad to actually take steps to stand up for himself, and also trains him to fend off assassins, she feels better. The ongoing questions seems to be not “who will she choose, royalty or her devoted bodyguard?”, as honestly I don’t trust her not to kill both of them if she feels a need to. The writer says that they gave Selena a “dumb” friend, partly so she actually had a friend who wasn’t a love interest, but also to point out that Selena can be as grimdark as she likes, and kill as many assassins as she wants, but in the end she does care about people, and there’s no getting around that. The assassin is also a noble girl, and that’s not something Selene can accept right now.

This second volume was not part of the webnovel but requested by the publisher, and there’s no third book out in Japan, so this may end up being it. It’s an odd duck, this, and I’m not sure it could have reasonably given us a happy ending, but I liked it.

Soup Forest: The Story of the Woman Who Speaks with Animals and the Former Mercenary, Vol. 2

by

By Syuu and Muni. Released in Japan as “Soup no Mori: Doubutsu to Kaiwa Suru Olivia to Moto Youhei Arthur no Monogatari” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

It’s always annoying when I read an afterword and the author essentially says everything I’m going to say. So yes, the first book in this series was about taking a broken young woman and helping her to open up to one man, leading to their marriage. This second book has as its goal getting her to interact with a much larger world, and also realizing that, while her powers may make some people scared and/or dismissive or her, this isn’t always the case, and that her powers can do good things. To be honest, she ends up saving a lot of lives here. Clearly she probably SHOULD be a royal apothecary, as she has the skills, and also can talk to the animals like Doctor Doolittle. There is just one slight problem – Olivia doesn’t want to do this. She wants to live in the forest with her husband, sister (more on that later) and many, many animals and hand out soup. Sorry, kid, you’re a light novel protagonist.

This book alternates between slice-of-life stories of Olivia puttering around her restaurant with Arthur, doing things like making health potions or healing a wounded rabbit, and the larger overall plot of Olivia’s world becoming much larger. This is mostly due to the arrival of Lara, a runaway teenager who was the daughter of a noble father and his maid, and now that the father and her mother have died the stepmother has made her life miserable. She ends up becoming the younger sister that Olivia never had, and is basically part of the story to add sometime bright and upbeat to a series that is still mostly about two sweet yet default morose individuals. She’s also studying to be an apothecary, something that Olivia is already qualified for… and she even gets a letter saying she is the equivalent of a royal apothecary. Which is good, as this is a dangerous world.

As I said above, if Book 1 is “Olivia gradually learns to care about things other than the animal world”, this one definitely shows the interactions between the animal world and the human world, and Olivia and her powers are a huge part of that. Olivia ends up getting more than one “What’s that, girl? Timmy? Trapped? Down in Dead Rock Canyon?” moment here, though the animals can literally speak to her, so it just makes things easier. Which is good, as this book is filled with deadly plagues, near-fatal road accidents, and driven insane with grief drunkards, and Olivia comes to the rescue each time. The last one is particularly hilarious, as we meet a steward who clearly despises Olivia, and think to ourselves, “Oh man, I hope he’s secretly evil”. And good news! This was the one plot that didn’t quite work for me, as it felt the most manufactured and had the most bullshit use of Olivia’s powers. But I’m not really going to criticize such a relaxed series like this for going too OP.

The webnovel of this series indicates there’s a third book, but it’s not out from the publisher yet. I wonder if it will continue trying to drag Olivia into larger and larger political spheres and away from her insular life. I can see an argument either way.

Third Loop: The Nameless Princess and the Cruel Emperor, Vol. 3

by

By Iota AIUE and Misa Sazanami. Released in Japan as “Nanashi no Ōjo to Reikoku Kōtei: Shītagerareta Yōjo, Konse de wa Ryū to Mofumofu ni Dekiai Sarete Imasu” by M Novels f. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by JCT.

In the first book, we dealt with a girl who is so mistreated that she’s not even given a name. In the second book, Angelina has a name, but everyone still only regards her in terms of her position and power, rather than as a person. That continues in this third book, but it’s OK, because we have someone who’s been with her almost from the start who sees her as a person. The title is now truly incorrect. That goes both ways as well, as the plot complications mean that the emperor is forced to confront his past and accept that he really did earn his “cruel” title, while also admitting that he doesn’t really want to sacrifice it all because he was a bit of a dick, but rather wants to live with his family and do better. Both Angelina, though her loops, and Feilong, through what happens in this book, become better people. Well, Angelina doesn’t have far to go.

Angelina is riding a high. Everyone adores her, she has her best bud Ryuho, and also joining them at the academy is other best bud Hisame. Then a traveling player band of refugees from the destroyed country Yule (home of Angelina’s late mother) arrive, and they show off their shadow puppetry. Unfortunately, when their leader has Angelina try out the magical barrel organ they use to control the puppetry, it activates a horrible magic… which the Emperor blocks and takes himself. This causes the emperor to become a small child… in both mind and body! Worse still, the leader of the troupe was the only one who really had bad intentions, and he turned out to be a fake. Now the three youngsters have to try to find a way to restore Angelina’s father…which involves searching for a legendary beast who will only speak to the pure of heart. Good thing they have our main cast, who are so pure they squeak.

Angelina always works best when she’s in deadly peril. The start of the book reads a bit smug, as everyone loves her, she loves everyone, and things are all sunshine and roses. Thank goodness that doesn’t last. There’s the trauma of her past lives still weight in on her unconsciously, as she knows she still hasn’t actually said “I love you” to her father yet. There’s her father’s own actions, as she argues with an all-powerful spirit about how sometimes purging an evil family by killing them may not actually be worse than BEING an evil family. My favorite part is where it turns out that the one who’s been controlling everything in this book turns out to be a bit of a scapegoat himself, and when given the choice between “let your father die” and “let me die”, Angelina naturally chooses neither one of those. Which, well, leads to more folks being utterly devoted to her. By the end of the book she’s Queen of her mother’s now restored country, and has Ryuho proposing to her. But the most important part may be that she finally gets to go back to the pub she spend her past life in and eat its really great food once more.

This was, provided you can get over the aggressive, weaponized adorableness of its heroine, a decent, solid series. I’m glad Angelina has a name, a tiger boy fiancee, and most of all, no more timeloops. 3 more and she’d hit her 7th time loop, and that’s been done.

The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya

by

By Nagaru Tanigawa and Noizi Ito. Released in Japan as “Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekijo” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I suspect how much you enjoy the latest book in this series depends on what you enjoy most about it. If you’re the sort who likes the sci-fi trappings and everyone trying to figure out what’s going on, you’ll be in clover, as that’s basically what this book is about, especially the back half, which features far more discussion of quantum mechanics than any light novel really needs. If you enjoy Haruhi doing funny things, Mikuru being adorably clumsy yet cute, and Nagato saving the day, this is also a strong book. Kyon’s narration is not quite as caustic as it’s been in the past, but I’ll forgive it. Unfortunately, if you read this series for character development, this is not the book for you. It’s an extension of two short stories that ran in The Sneaker 20 years ago, and seems to take place before the 4th book/movie, meaning most of the softening of Haruhi’s character is absent. It’s a fun book, but it’s not necessary as the next in the series.

We open with what looks like the most 2024 thing ever, even though it was written in 2004 – Haruhi and company get isekai’d to another world to save the kingdom from the demon lord. Haruhi being Haruhi, she proceeds to do whatever she wants, and only saves the world because Mikuru blows up the demon lord’s castle with magic. Suddenly they’re now in an outer space setting, and have to rescue two nobles from space pirates… something that’s also screwed up due to Haruhi’s gung-ho approach. Then all of a sudden they’re in a Western setting, with a shootout, and Kyon, Koizumi and Nagato are starting to realize something is wrong. Unfortunately, they can’t trust their memories, and as they go through more and more pulp fiction scenarios, the question becomes whether they can stop it at all… or even who they really are.

The idea that the cast are trapped in a bunch of tropey fictional settings is a good one. As you’d expect, the weakest part of it is the start, with the two stories written so long ago. They’re pure comedy, not really doing anything with the characters. Once Kyon and Koizumi start discussing what’s really going on, things pick up a lot more… or at least they do if you can put up with Koizumi’s philosophizing. There may be more of that in this book than any other in the series, so reader beware if you’re not in the mood for it. The one scrap of characterization we got was near the end, when Koizumi suggests that they’re likely just virtual reality mindselves, and that escaping the game might mean death. Nagato explicitly says that she wants to return to the real world, to be in the club with everyone. It’s pretty nice.

If you wanted another volume in the series, this sure is one. Still no actual continuation, but I’m not really expecting that anymore. For fans.

A Tale of the Secret Saint ZERO, Vol. 1

by

By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu ZERO” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Faye Cozy and Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Melanie Kardas.

If you have a prequel series, it helps to have two really important things: a reason for the author to write it, and a reason for the reader to read it. The author explains in the afterword the reason that we’re getting this prequel: it’s a story they wanted to tell as flashbacks in the main series, but it rapidly got far too huge, so it was decided to make it a series of its own. As for the reader, I will admit I was a bit worried. The general premise of the main series is that, whether it be in the present as Fia or in the past as Serafina, our heroine is an extremely lovable goober who everyone adores. Technically that’s true here, but there’s a very important difference, which is that this is the story of Serafina at six, not sixteen (we get those flashbacks in the main series). As a result, she’s an ADORABLE lovable goober.

Sirius, the most powerful man in the kingdom of Nav, is sent out by the King to go gget the second princess, Serafina. Six years ago she was born blind, which is still frowned on when you’re royalty, and so she was sent to a detached house in the forest to stay so that she did not get bullied at the royal court. But circumstances have changed, and now she’s needed back at the palace. So Sirius and his beleaguered colleagues (who can’t keep up with him) head into the forest to find an extremely adorable six-year-old redhead. She can’t open her eyes, but she can apparently see spirits. When monsters attack, and prove too strong for most of the knights, a panicked Serafina calls on her Saint powers, regains her sight, and proves to be the Most Powerful Saint in the World.

This book has an agenda, and that agenda is CUTE. Sure, Serafina can still be a colossal airhead some of the time, but for the most part that’s explainable as her being a six-year-old who lived in a jungle all her life, rather than as her having none of the common sense of everyone she grew up around like the main series. Everyone who meets Serafina seems to adore her immediately, except (briefly) her brothers, who give in after Sirius trains them to death. We also meet Canopus here, and get a sense of the prejudice that he and his people go through… which ends up being steamrolled through the power of Serafina’s really liking him. And what do you know, he does indeed turn out to be really strong. She even manages to tame a griffon and a fenrir, which sort of serves as a replacement for the dragon she has in the main series. Basically, she’s a bundle of cute, and also packing ludicrous power, which Sirius is not yet ready to show off just yet. He’s too enraptured by her to do so.

The recent light novel rankings came out in Japan, and the main series placed a LOT higher than I had thought. Which explains the prequel. Fans of Fia will love seeing cute l’il Serafina wrap everyone around her finger.

Management of a Novice Alchemist, Vol. 3

by

By Mizuho Itsuki and fuumi. Released in Japan as “Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

As I noted earlier, I watched the anime of this series before I read the novels, and I’m rather surprised at how a) the anime did a whole lot of adding/cutting and pasting in a different place, and b) how it usually worked pretty well. The anime is paced like an anime, and gives viewers a reason to be really sympathetic to Sarasa from the get go. The light novel doesn’t bother with either of those, and Sarasa can be quite a morally ambiguous character. Here, we see her having to struggle with the fact that she has friends she cares about and wants to help, even if it might lose her money. There’s never any doubt she’s going to, but just seeing her inner monologue is revealing. She cannot stop thinking of how much everything in her life costs, and how much ingredients cost, etc. It’s not quite presented as a savant thing, but she certainly would do much better with more sensible people around her. Good news there!

After the events of the last book, and a comedic interlude with raw honey and horrible diarrhea, our intrepid gatherers, along with Sarasa, go on a mission to find out why the Hellflame Grizzly stampede happened. This takes them to an inactive volcano which has fire lizards, which they can harvest, with some difficulty, for materials, but also a far more dangerous salamander further up the mountain, which isn’t being hostile so Sarasa ignores it. But when Iris’ father, a noble in charge of two villages, arrives to tell her that in order to solve their own hideous debt (separate from Iris and Kate’s debt to Sarasa), he has to marry her off, Sarasa recognizes the husband Iris is getting paired with as being related to the corrupt merchants she took out last book, and, eventually, makes a decision to help with the debt by going after that salamander after all.

When the anime aired, I heard some talk that the books were yuri, but when I investigated, the answer seems to be “eeeeeh, kinda?”. Having read this volume, I get that. On the one hand, in this world, men can marry men, and women can marry women, There are even (very expensive!) potions to allow you to change sex temporarily for the purpose of siring an heir if you are an LGBT couple. And, to solve their issues, Iris is clearly VERY happy to marry Sarasa, offers Kate as Wife #2 (which Kate seems OK with), and says “your preference might change, who knows?” On the other hand, Sarasa says she’s not interested in women multiple times, and also says she’s too young to get married. I suspect what we’re going to get by the end of this series is Sarasa married to her three wives (no way Lorea’s not getting in on this) in a familial marriage with no sexual aspect to it. I have no idea if that’s yuri or not. But it’s fine, I’m much happier with these four as a family.

Sarasa was a little less terrifying this volume, and we’re starting to see that being in the village is very good for her. Unfortunately, she seems to have pissed off the local lord, which I have a feeling will be the plot of Book 4. This is the last one that had the anime mine it for materials, and it was pretty good.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Astrea Record, Vol. 3

by

By Fujino Omori and Kakage. Released in Japan as “Astrea Record Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

There are some pretty nifty scenes in this final book, but in the end, I think I will best remember this series for what it was: an adaptation of a video game spinoff. It suffers a lot from being a prequel, meaning that when we see folks we remember from the main series or Sword Oratoria, we know that they’re going to survive, whereas when we meet new people, we know they have a low chance of it. This volume introduces three older, veteran adventurers from Loki Familia, the ones who were training Finn and company when they were just starting out. They have names, but I could not help but imagine them saying things like “this is my last job, after this I’m retiring and buying a boat”. As for Lyu and her familia, well, we get to see them make a decision that will end up being Very Bad, but for the most part they get to be cool, as they fight to determine what justice is.

The book is basically a 270-page fight, which we are very used to with this author. Everyone is getting their secret weapons ready, including Lyu’s new sword, which is made from the gift of her late friend Ardee… erm, Adi (don’t you hate it when the Japanese publisher tells you the name has a different romanji AFTER you start the series?). First things go very well for our heroes, and very bad for the Evils… then everything swings the other way and all hope is lost… then the cavalry arrives, etc. You know the drill. What we most focus on are Zald and Alfia, who explain why they’re doing all this: failing to defeat the black dragon and having their familias destroyed broke them, and they think the current generation of adventurers suck, so they want to go back to a Golden Age where there were real heroes. Yes, that’s right, it’s the DanMachi version of Invasion of the Dinosaurs from Jon Pertwee’s final series.

I was once again irritated that we were getting a teenage version of moral dilemmas, so was amused when the “main villain” pointed out that this is exactly what it was, and the way to defeat the trolley problem is to come up with ways to defy it and work around it. As for the whole “we want to return to a golden age” thing, it’s also mostly bullshit – as I expected, but which isn’t confirmed until an epilogue, it’s more of a “we are testing you to make sure you are ready to face the strong enemies that are to come, and we must do this by being evil ourselves”. Which, again, is very “for 15-year-olds” logic, like the rest of this spinoff. There are a lot of really cool scenes and character pieces in here, and I liked hearing about Bell’s mother, but in the end this wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped, and was too depressing most of the time.

We’re not done with Lyu yet. The next spinoff will bring us the story that was cut from Book 18 because it was already 600 pages long – Lyu’s journey to see Astrea. I don’t think that comes from a video game plot, so I’m looking forward to it a bit more. Though… hasn’t Lyu become the main heroine in terms of appearances by now?

Re: ZERO ~Starting Life in Another World~, Vol. 26

by

By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan as “Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

We were spoiled by the first books in Arc 5 and Arc 6. Each of those books was filled with the main cast we know and love, featured Subaru being smart and making good decisions (even when he is getting killed), and generally were a lot of fun and led us into the horror and return by death gradually. This is the first book in Arc 7, and it is absolutely not that at all. We’re in a completely different country, most of the cast are new, and of those who aren’t new, one has no memories of her past, one seems to be mentally a baby, and one… is meant to be a mysterious swordsman named Abel, but anyone who’s read the Ex 4 and 5 novels know who he really is. And then there’s Subaru, who is… shall we say, making poor decisions again. Once again his stubbornness leads him to do things that just a moment of rational thought would show are going to get him in trouble. Whee.

Subaru, along with Rem and Louis, has been somehow transported far away from Emilia and company, who know he’s not dead and what direction he’s in but that’s about it. He wakes up in a jungle. Rem is awake, but has no memories, and of course Subaru has been returning by death a lot lately, so he smells horribly of miasma. What’s more, Louis has come along with them, and he suggests abandoning her… except she looks like a small child and acts like an innocent baby. So, naturally, Rem chokes him unconscious and flees. Congratulations, Subaru/Rem fans, you got your touching reunion? In any case, Subaru also manages to be shot by a hunter and killed, and then when he catches up with Rem he’s captured by an army on the march. And who’s that mysterious masked guy in the woods?

As I said above, reading the Ex spinoffs will help a tiny bit here, but for the most part this is pure unfiltered Subaru with new people – including Rem, who is basically in “angry and distrusting” mode most of the book, though she’s already worried and concerned about him by the end of it. So I’m sure the love will return. As for Louis, I understand why Subaru hates and is willing to abandon her. But his constant disdain and scorn of Louis in front of Rem is easily the dumbest he’s been since the 3rd arc. He doesn’t explain, he doesn’t take Louis at face value, he just… makes himself look like an asshole. Speaking of assholes, we meet a lovely smiling villain named Todd Fang, who I suspect we’re going to get a lot more of in future books. Don’t like him. And he’s not even the abusive one of the pair of soldiers. I do like the Amazon tribe that Subaru and Vincent run into, though – they’re all cool and badass, and I hope they don’t get killed off.

I’m sure as I get used to the arc, things will pick up. But this arc is *eight* books long, and I miss the core cast already. Good writing, interesting stuff, but a Subaru that I didn’t want to see again.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Vol. 8

by

By Piero Karasu and Yuri Kisaragi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Technically this book is the second half of an arc that began with the last one. That said, what this book really does is take everything that we’ve learned in the last seven books and boil it down into an examination of how monarchies really function, especially ones where the nobles don’t necessarily do what the ruler says. And that’s not even the case either, because of course this is a magical kingdom, and being a magical ruler is not remotely the same as being, say, Henry VIII. The magical revolution is still ongoing, and there are people who are very unhappy… not with the revolution itself (i.e. Anis’ magical tools) but simply with the loss of power that this entails. And the fact that it’s come from the non-magical Anis. What does all this mean? It means that both Anis and Euphie spend more time being utterly furious than in any other book we’ve read to date, and both consider simply executing everyone to solve the problem. (Spoiler: they don’t do that.)

Anis is busy working on the construction of her new magical city when she gets an urgent message from Lainie to return to the royal palace, and when she does she finds that Euphie is in her room on forcible rest. What’s worse, she hasn’t been able to sleep for days, and when she tries to eat food it’s tasteless and she can barely choke it down. Euphie is losing touch with her humanity and moving towards being a spirit contractor. And the reason for this? Well, they were meeting with the Western Nobles, who have always been difficult. But when one noble, Count Leghorn (I did try doing the Foghorn Leghorn voice, but it doesn’t match the character) venerates Euphie in a religious fervor, and suggests that all of Anis’ accomplishments have been falsified, Euphie almost loses control of herself in rage. So now she’s on forced leave… and tells all this to Anis, who is now ALSO losing control of herself in rage.

I haven’t really talked much about Lainie lately, who gets the bulk of the narrative here that’s not Anis or Euphie. (Most of the POV in this book is Euphie, and it’s really good.) This series began by combining an isekai with a villainess story, and Lainie was the “heroine” in that scenario. Now a loyal maid, she’s just as livid with what the Western nobles are doing but is not quite as close to it as Anis and Euphie are, so instead calls in the cavalry to come up with a solution. It’s pretty terrific. I also liked her discussion with Lumi, who points out that neither Anis nor Euphie are truly human anymore, and isn’t that a bit disturbing? Lainie believes in them, but then Lainie is a vampire, so she’s dealing with the same problems. The Western nobles have a much higher bar to clear… and they don’t clear it. There are no mass executions, but trust me, an epic smackdown happens.

This book shows that “happily ever after” is hard to achieve and requires constant effort, and even that may not be good enough. Fortunately, it ends rather triumphantly. We get a short story collection before Book 9… but both only came out a couple months ago in Japan, so it may be a bit. Highly recommended.

Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain, Vol. 1

by

By Ageha Sakura and Kurodeko. Released in Japan as “Imokusa Reijou desu ga Akuyaku Reisoku wo Tasuketara Kiniiraremashita” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Vasileios Mousikidis.

I’ve never been very good with photoshop or meme creation, and I generally only embed cover images to these reviews in any case. But I will admit, about 20 pages into Lady Bumpkin, all I could think of was that Shrek meme and seeing him saying “She doesn’t even have a loyal maid!”. Now, I am aware that the loyal maid comes later, yes, but I’ve gotten so used to seeing these abused daughters who are simply surviving from day to day in their House O’ Evil Nobles have at least the one loyal maid to be the ally in their corner keeping them from completely losing it. Agnes has had to deal with this solely on her own, where even the help doesn’t help. Fortunately, she’s in luck, in that she’s in a villainess book. No, she’s not the villainess. The villainess is in fact a villain. And he’s just as innocent as most of the villainesses are in this genre, because oh dear, the princess is terrible.

Agnes Evantail is the eldest daughter of an old-school noble house. And I mean really old school. Her parents have furniture that’s outdated, clothing that’s outdated (including codpieces, Christ), and makeup that’s outdated, and they force Agnes into all of those (except the codpiece) before sending her out into a noble world that now regards those things as comical in order to find herself a man. Oh, and when she fails her father hits her. At one of these humiliation events, the princess and her fiance happen to be at the same party… and Agnes watches with horror as the princess denounces her fiancee, Nazelbert Florescruz, as a horrible person who has bullied her new boyfriend, a baron’s son – who has also gotten her pregnant. She insists he be exiled to the frontier… and since Agnes was the only one to help him up after he was knocked over, and she’s a national laughingstock, she’s told to become his wife.

Regarding that cover, I have to assume it’s metaphorical and that Agnes is holding her younger self, as they haven’t even gone beyond kissing on the cheek by the end of this volume. Most of this volume trundles along exactly as you might guess, with the occasional exception when we see Agnes getting the shit beaten out of her, as these sorts of books usually stick to emotional abuse. Once she’s disowned and heads to the frontier with her new disgraced husband, things definitely improve… though not right away, as they’re going to a territory where the previous noble in charge was an abusive rapist louse, so no one trusts them. Fortunately, and feel free to roll your eyes a bit, Agnes’ “useless” magic turns out to secretly be awesome, making this the distaff version of all those “weakest is really strongest” books. Minus the harem.

That said, as you’d expect, once the two of them are away from everyone else, we get a lot of sweetness and cuteness, along with Agnes turning out to be beautiful once you get the heavy makeup and heavy dresses off her. There’s little new here, but the writing style is breezy and fun, and I really liked Agnes. I’ll read more.

Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Vol. 7

by

By Kazuki Amamiya and Gin. Released in Japan as “Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Esther Sun.

One of the things that folks tend to forget about teenage years as they grow older is how wonderful, how absolutely cathartic it can be to see your friends, your pals, those you are closest to and hang out with all the time, be complete and utter dipshits and make the worst choices imaginable. Not in a dangerous and life-threatening way – I don’t mean “I’m gonna take heroin” or that jazz. No, I mean things like “hey, I bet I can eat all these hot pockets in one go” or “I wonder how far I can go if I went down this steep slope on a garbage can lid?”. Dumb teen stuff. So when the cast here try to work out how to get Reita to listen to them and not throw away his entire life, Natsuki is the one who understands: we need to do the dumbest thing. Only that can save us. And it does, of course, because they’re teens, and also because this is a romcom.

Reita’s been suspended for a week for getting into a fight outside school. What’s more, there’s a video uploaded to social media of the fight, which is clearly staged BY Reita to destroy his own reputation. Everyone tries to get him to open up, and they all fail – he is really, really determined to throw himself under the bus. A visit to his home gives Natsuki some answers, but not many – home life not the best. But there has to be something there that’s more than just “I wasn’t thinking about Miori, I am a terrible person”. This also isn’t helping Miori much either – her reputation is not in the dirt anymore, but that’s because Reita is trying to say he forced her to do everything. Can Natsuki come up with a plan to solve everything in one go? See above re: dumb things.

Obviously Reita is the bulk of the book, but there is also the traditional romcom that is the reason you’re reading this. I appreciate that Natsuki and Hikari are dating and yet there’s still an acknowledgement that Natsuki also has feelings for Uta and Miori – in fact, as Hikari points out, right now his feelings for Miori are probably greater. But all of that is irrelevant – it has to be. Yes, he can’t let go of those feelings so easily. But he can reject the others girls and dedicate himself to dating Hikari, which he has done. The last part of the book is a classic Christmas Eve date, and it ends with a big ol’ confession and kiss. I will admit that sometimes this series is a bit too fastball-down-the-middle – Natsuki’s rainbow colored life feels a little too easy – but then again, he already suffered in his first life. And he did get the crap beaten out of him in this book. It evens out.

We’re caught up with Japan again – Book 8 is out early next year – so how things go from here is unknown. I can’t see this series going on too much longer, though. But it’s good overdramatic stuff.

You Are My Regret, Vol. 3

by

By Shimesaba and Ui Shigure. Released in Japan as “Kimi wa Boku no Regret” by Dash X Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andria McKnight.

Generally speaking I don’t really pay much attention to the color pages of a book when I’m writing my review, as they rarely affect it one way or another. I glanced back at the color pages for this third volume of You Are My Regret, though, and I almost laughed out loud – definitely the only time I did that while reading this overwrought, dramatic book. The cover is absolutely an advertisement for the content within, showing Risa, with her box cutter, in front of a garage door covered in graffiti. Then you get to the color inserts… And they’re Ai and Kaoru in “cute romcom girls” poses, all three pictures, with none of the other characters, as if this is a standard “who will he choose” series. And, I mean, I *guess* that’s what it is in a shallow way, but really, this is a “he fixes them” series. The romance is secondary and irrelevant. Why we’re here is to see Yuzuru try to communicate with people until they give in.

It’s summer vacation, and everyone’s going to the beach, giving us the opportunity to get in at least a little bit of the love triangle in this book. But Sousuke, who’s in love with Ai but has already accepted that she’s over the moon for Yuzuru, has a bigger issue. Risa, who we met in the second volume, used to play the bass, and she was fantastic, until one day she quit and refused to ever play music again… and this is also when she started to cut herself. The culture festival is coming up after summer break, and Sousuke wants to have everyone form a band and get Risa to play with them… but she rejects him, and the rejections get harsher as the book goes on. Can Yuzuru figure out what’s really going on here and manage to heal Risa’s traumatized heart?

First of all, much to my relief, Risa does not fall in love with Yuzuru as well in this book, so the love triangle remains a love triangle. Secondly, there is a rather annoying mystery. The premise of the mystery relies on everyone BUT Yuzuru, who it’s repeatedly says doesn’t watch TV or pay any attention to things besides books, to know Risa’s tragic backstory… and NOT tell him, because the point of the book is that it’s a mystery for he and the reader to work out. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for at least Kaoru or Misuzu (a mutual friend of Sousuke and Risa) to explain what actually happened. I suppose the incident is so horrific that they’re remaining quiet so as not to shame her, but come on, this girl is cutting herself to escape her own pain. Tell Yuzuru, who’s good at getting to the heart of the matter, why that is.

This book ends with a nasty cliffhanger that promises the next book will remain a drama-filled potboiler… except the last book was out in Japan in May 2022. So, well, that’s it, maybe? Read it if you love TEEN ANGST to the nth degree.