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Reviews

Earl and Fairy: The Secret Behind Your Tears

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By Mizue Tani and Asako Takaboshi. Released in Japan as “Hakushaku to Yōsei” by Shueisha Cobalt Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

I don’t want these reviews to get too similar, so let me start off with something that isn’t the tortured romance between Edgar and Lydia for a change. Perhaps the plot itself. This book really hammers home that we’re seeing a re-enactment of Shakespeare’s Richard II in Japanese light novel form here. Edgar wants to be the Blue Knight Earl. He acts like a proper English noble, which includes caring about those whose lives he governs. He’s a good person who’s trying to do what the Blue Knight Earl is supposed to do. And he gets the reward in the end. Unfortunately, Ulysses has the bloodline in his (borrowed) soul, and so all the magical guff actually works for him, whereas Edgar is left with a reward that he cannot actually see or access. The good guys do sort of win here, but it’s a bittersweet victory, comes with a death, and its only real success was getting Edgar to finally realize that “it’s OK if I die” is not a good way to live.

We open with Lydia back in Scotland, determined to separate herself from Edgar, but missing him nevertheless… and despite the multiple letters a week he writes her. However, circumstances end up reuniting them on the island where this all began, where they are dealing with a banshee who is related to the Blue Knight Earl of a hundred years ago… and has amnesia. Unfortunately, Edgar is feeling rather depressed and morose about his inability to get his feelings across to Lydia, so goes to his club, gets drunk (and, it’s implied, also smokes some questionable drugs), then goes home, and when Lydia tries to talk to him, it goes badly. (No, not like that… though he’s initially afraid it was like that.) Unfortunately, as all this is going on, Ulysses is ma,king everything worse, as usual.

Ermine continues to be interesting, though I’m not sure how long she can keep up being a double (triple?) agent without wearying the audience. The author is being pretty good about keeping us on our toes as well, but I can’t help but notice that most of the recent cliffhangers are all “Ermine does something that looks evil”. That said, after her resurrection, I don’t think the author is getting rid of her anytime soon. If only as she’s still able to completely torpedo any efforts at Lydia and Edgar to get over their hangups and talk to each other about their doubts and fears. Edgar makes his biggest declaration of lover ever this book, but it’s a drunken murmuring of Ermine’s name that Lydia takes to be his “true” feelings, partly as I think she’s scared of her own feelings for him. Certainly she’s ready to walk into a massive deathtrap for him, as well as save his life when even he doesn’t want that. But… yeah. Still not quite a couple yet.

If you love exquisitly frustrated romance and supernatural action thrillers, this remains a must read.

I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s So Cheeky for a Commoner, Vol. 3

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By Inori and Hanagata. Released in Japan as “Heimin no Kuse ni Namaikina!” by GL Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka.

(This does spoil the spinoff’s one big reveal, but not till after the picture.)

And so the I’m in Love with the Villainess story comes to an end once more – this time, apparently, for good, as the author says there are no plans to do a Claire POV for Book 3-5 of the original series. Which makes sense, because while there’s a lot of great stuff happening in those books, Claire’s character arc is the focus of this spinoff, and it comes to its head here. We see Clire’s determination in ferreting out the corrupt nobles, her horror at discovering her father is seemingly behind them all, and her stubborn nobility coming to the fore when she decides the best thing to do is to die for the sake of her country. Fortunately, things play out like the original series, so she’s free to marry Rae and have incredibly embarrassing naked apron incidents near the end of the book. And of course we have the side characters. Loretta and Pepi get resolved as well, of course. And then there’s… um… what was her name again?

I’m not going to summarize the main events of the novel, as we’ve read them before, from Rae’s perspective, in the original series. Interspersed with this we get POV scenes from others. I’ll discuss Catherine’s in a bit. Dole gets a brief scene where we learn about where his dedication to wiping out corrupt nobility came from, as well as his belief that he’s already going to hell for what he’s done. Pepi gets to defend the academy from the revolution, as well as try to figure out how to protect Loretta and not see her die. We see Manaria’s POV of what happened when she returned home, as well as what made her come back at just the right time. Lene and Misha also get scenes showing what they did during the revolution, and their own complicated thoughts on it. Loretta gets to deal with life post-nobility and the chance of a new love. And we get a flashback to Melia’s last moments, where she may not return to Claire’s birthday party but she manages to save… well, let’s talk.

There are two big things about Catherine’s plotline, and I’m going to talk about both of them, so apologies to those who haven’t read the book yet. The first, and most “normal”, is that she, as a child assassin trained by her awful father, was the one who killed Claire’s mother, something which has haunted her and crushed her with guilt ever since, especially because Melia ends up saving her life. Needless to say, Claire is a bit poleaxed when she discovers this. My favorite part of the book, though, was the revelation that Catherine can erase memories, and does so in order to protect Claire and escape from the academy. I love this because I’ve spent this entire series wondering how it is that we see Catherine with Claire so often and she never appeared in the main series at all. I was chalking it up, of course, to “because this hadn’t been written yet, duh”, but there’s a better reason now. Catherine literally wrote herself out of the narrative! It’s only after the main story has resolved that Manaria can deus ex machina things to try to once again meet her, and even then we still don’t see it. Catherine exists at the edge of the novels, a ghost in the pages who then walks off the back cover… along with her maid, because try as she might, there are SOME things that you simply can’t wipe away in a light novel series, and “saving a girl from certain death and making them into a devoted maid” is one of them.

If you’ve read the original books, this is a terrific addition. If you haven’t read the original books… well, go read them first.

Goodbye, Overtime! This Reincarnated Villainess Is Living for Her New Big Brother, Vol. 2

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By Chidori Hama and Wan Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō, Brocon ni Job Change Shimasu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Rymane Tsouria.

This book really depends on the reader getting Ekaterina, and if there’s anyone still reading it after Book One who doesn’t get her, they likely stopped before the end of this book. Ekaterina… or rather, Rina from Japan… is a fangirl. She is the sort to see the character she really likes and actually *say* “SQUEEEEE!”. She will happily monologue in her head about possible BL ships, and she goes over the moon whenever her beloved brother deigns to kiss her forehead. The author asks “are these two siblings really OK?”, and the answer is yes, because the best thing about this otherwise pretty typical series is how the author knows exactly how much “comedy incest” to tease without making it creepy. This isn’t incest, really. It’s brocon/siscon stuff, which is functionally different. Just as dads in light novels who say “I’ll never let you marry my daughter!” aren’t really lusting after her themselves, so these two are determined to head off anyone who dares get between their very G-rated relationship.

This volume doesn’t take place at the academy quite as much, though we do get the villainess standard “oh no, I accidentally was too smart and ended up having the best grades in the class” scene. Instead we see Ekaterina trying to learn how to run her family’s estate, so that her brother can concentrate on everything that should be on his plate. A lot of this involves continuing to purge the elements of the family that her grandmother controlled, but there’s also meeting the royal family (who absolutely love her, and are somewhat bummed that she doesn’t really care for their son. She also introducing new fashion trends, and coming up with ideas for a birthday present for her beloved brother. Which, because everything gets out of hand around her, means accidentally inventing the fountain pen.

Like most series in this genre, the basic idea is that Ekaterina is making everyone’s lives better, partly by design and partly by accident. There are, of course, a few people who are too far gone to help, such as her grandmother’s old attendant, who is just as arrogant and prejudiced as grandma was, and is quietly sacked. But even there Ekaterina reasons to the reader that she was the ninth child of her house, likely this was the best job she could ever have gotten, and her grandmother was very good at indoctrinating people. We actually hear that in this she takes after her grandfather, and I like the idea that it’s not JUST “I’m from Japan” that makes all the difference. The first book made a big deal about their personalities fusing, and while it implies that Rina basically “won”, I like the idea that we’re seeing what an Ekaterina without toxic influences might have developed.

We’ve got a ways to go, and there’s still no sign of any successful romance, mostly due to the denseness of the lead. (And, unlike Bakarina, it’s not obvious who will win.) Still, if you can get past the premise, there’s much to like here.

Tearmoon Empire, Vol. 13

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By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

I really enjoy the fact that, even though there are many characters who are introduced into this series to be goofy and comedic, no one is allowed to stay only goofy and comedic. Mia is obviously the biggest example, but we’ve seen a few others pop up. Here we notice that Bel has not only returned from the future slightly older, but she’s also slightly wiser, and while her grades may still struggle, she knows the value of studying and can start to think cleverly on her own. It’s fantastic to see, because “Bel is dumb” was getting as old as “Mia is getting fat”, another punchline we don’t see here. Even the narrative is getting in on being clever. I love the discussion of how Bel’s time-travel (and Mia’s) not only is affecting the present/causing alternate futures, but it’s also reverberating into the PAST, changing the past before it can become that present. Which might make fixing the Patricia problem easier… but also possibly harder, if Mia keeps accidentally acting like a comedy villainess.

The book starts off with the end of the last arc. Julius has been revealed as the villain, and it also turns out he’s Barbara’s son. This comes as a big surprise to Barbara, thanks to the efforts of the Chaos serpents. Still, everything ends up sort of okay, and while some people are punished, and even imprisoned, no one has to be executed. After this it’s summer break, and Mia returns to Tearmoon, with a rather large entourage – not only is Abel coming along, but so are Yanna and Kiryl, the orphans who would rather not go back to their orphanage, and also Aima, who is happy to be checking out the horses of other countries. Unfortunately, new problems abound. Ruby comes to Mia sobbing as she’s being engaged to a noble… and in a world where no one really objects to political marriages, that’s hard to fix. Worse, the Chaos Serpents are still around and still trying to kill Mia.

Just because we’re getting rid of some running gags doesn’t mean they’re all gone. Near the start of the book we get another hilarious sequence where everyone decides to make sandwiches and Keithwood tries desperately to stop them accidentally poisoning everyone (though he also finds a potential future partner, because Tearmoon Empire enjoys pairing off everyone almost as much as How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom does). I also really enjoyed this book leaning into how horse riding has now become equal to dancing in being something Mia is really good at. When she took that huge jump I cheered along with everyone else. If there’s one down side to this series, it’s that the author and publisher can’t figure out a way to have each arc end at the end of a book. This is another book that’s one third the climax of the last arc, and 2/3 the start of the next one, and since the climax is mostly explanations, it means we don’t get much oomph here. Oomph will have to wait for Book 14.

Which isn’t scheduled here yet, but I assume it will be along before too long. I really appreciate how this series has matured along with its heroine.

The Blessing of Liefe: Leave This Magical Letdown Alone!, Vol. 1

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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.

This one took me by surprise a bit. The opening suggests it’s going to be a much darker book, with a girl who has “useless magic” getting physically and emotionally abused by her terrible father. But after her mother divorces said father and returns to her life as a commoner, everything starts to get much better, for the most part. Oh, sure, people still bully her, and she’s forced to endure verbal abuse from various folks. But there are a ludicrous amount of people in her corner, and as it turns out (please tell me you’re not surprised) her magic that’s useless unless you spend years studying it really hard turns out to be fantastic when you actually do this. In the end, she wins battle tournaments, scores high in exams (by accident), and even helps to heal, both with magic and the heart, the second prince, her childhood friend and a man who is deeply in love with her. Something she, of course, does not get at all.

Yui O’Brian (later Yui Curtis) is born with non-elemental magic, in a world where the ‘fire/water/wind/earth” dichotomy is everything, and her magic is seen as support, and something not to be bothered with. As such, not only does her father despise her, but kids make fun of her, and once she’s in school, arrogant nobles look down on her. Fortunately, it turns out that Yui has had, for some time now, a ludicrous number of allies. Her twin older brothers adore her. The second prince sneaks out of the castle and meets up with her, and since she’s the only one who can touch him and his over the top magic and not be injured or killed, the former king is absolutely fine with this. Her mother remarries another noble who turns out not only to be devoted to his wife and daughter (to an annoying degree – see below), but is also the prime minister to the current king. And her friends in the “losers” class at school all seem to be far too powerful for that class. What’s going on here?

At one point, Yui is called to the castle after a magical accident traumatizes the second prince, and as she goes off to his room I was expecting her to pose dramatically and say “It’s OK. I’m a light novel protagonist.” There is… frankly, a distinct LACK of drama and trauma after about page 10 or so, and while I think the story works better for it, folks looking for actual struggle may be a bit annoyed here. Speaking of annoying, while I don’t think that the stepdad is incestuous like some other folks discussing the book, he is a ludicrous example of the “overaffectionate/overprotective dad” trope we see a lot of in Japanese anime and manga. Usually they end up being the comedic butt of jokes, but alas, Layce has too much power for anyone to push back against him (except Yui). I did also enjoy seeing a “noble marrying a commoner” love story go the way it likely really would in a non-light novel: Yui’s father wanted to marry Yui’s mother, a commoner, harassed and bullied her till she gave in, and then hated her once something did not go his way. Even in a series like this where Yui has allies everywhere, nobles are mostly scum.

We get a confession at the end of this book, but Yui is not emotionally prepared to respond, and there are some other subplots that haven’t finished yet. I’ll definitely be reading more, but this feels like a series where someone has entered cheat codes for the heroine’s life.

Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters!, Vol. 6

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By KAYA and Naru. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shōjo wa Mazu Ippo kara Hajimetai: Mamono ga Iru toka Kiitenai!” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Amy Osteraas.

First of all, let’s get the most important thing out of the way: this volume features the triumphant return of “I’m good on wolves”, the running gag that made the first volume such a delight for me. It’s very welcome, and yes, the fact that it’s back means that Sara ends up going ALL the way back to Rosa this volume, courtesy of the plot. Also returning is the author continuing to not confirm but nevertheless convince me that Sara is a monster attractor, and that anywhere she goes will see an increase in their population, ranging from hellhounds and wyverns to the surprise guest monster we’ll be talking about in a bit. Oh yes, and we also get more attempted marriages, with Sara turning all of them down. She’s still not thinking of Allen as anything more than her bestie and family, but we may finally be starting to crack that a bit. His almost dying in this book helps, no doubt.

Sara has returned to Hydrangea, where she is living the happy apothecary life, despite acquiring another suitor – Liam’s younger brother Noel (I see what you did there), who fortunately is a lot nicer than his sibling. Unfortunately, suddenly a lot of dangerous monsters appear in the dungeon where they shouldn’t be, including crossing supposed no-monster zones. After finding mysterious invisible portals in the dungeon, Sara and company come across something much bigger and more dangerous – a continental turtle, which has decided to get up and start to walk. It’s the size of a three-story building, and the last time it did this it caused untold destruction. Now everyone’s got to get together to try to nudge its path slightly so that it does not run through any major cities. What? Kill it? Don’t be silly, it’s invincible. Who would be stupid enough to try that?

So this book is filled with a lot of people learning their life lessons at last. Ted has been exposed to life outside the noble city he grew up coddled by, and gets as close as he ever will to thanking Sara. Liam may be coming up with dumb plans, but he at least is self-aware enough to know that “find a scapegoat and throw them in jail” is not the answer when said plans don’t work, and he DOES apologize. As for Sara and Allen, it’s amusing that they both accuse each other of going with the flow and avoiding confrontation too much. We’re more used to seeing it in Allen, as Sara is the POV character, but he’s right – for all her snarking and complaining, she’s only now getting around to actually refusoing to do things. They’re not together by the end of the book, but they’ve basically admitted that they’ll never be apart from each other.

That said, the cover of the 7uth volume suggests another slow-burn romance may get resolved first, and we might see that next time. Till then, enjoy your fill of wolves, turtles, and teenagers who try to do far too much, and mostly succeed.

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 19

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Lorin Christie.

Sigh. So not only does this volume retread a lot of ground I talked about last time when I was reviewing Kuma Bear (Yuna is a big softie but hates when people call attention to it), it’s also a huge battle volume, which means that 2/3 of it is made up of fights that I also can’t really review very well. It is nice to see Yuna having to think about various ways to try to defeat the fire orochi head, whose strengths actually block Yuna to a degree, and seeing her try some stuff that, back in Vol. 2 or so, was an immediate win move end up doing nothing whatsoever. She’s having to think on her feet and be clever, even though a lot of this is just “I can do things everyone else can’t because of the bear costume”. And we get a flashback showing how the orochi was first sealed, which is interesting if you’re invested in the fox spirit. Which… I wasn’t really. So yeah, still struggling.

Sorry, cover art fans, but Yuna spends barely any time in the white side of the suit this book – this is powerful, punching things Yuna through and through. Everyone realizes that the orochi’s seals are breaking, especially now that Mumulute shows up and it starts to really try to break its binding. The answer is to just fight and actually defeat it this time, but the orochi has four heads and its huge body, and even Yuna can’t duplicate herself. So Shinobu and Kagari also get involved, and unfortunately Shinobu is injured and has to be sent to the penalty box (the penalty box being Yuna’s home, where Fina is called over to nursemaid her). As for Sakura and Luimin, two of the latest girls to revolve around Yuna’s “10-year-old girls seem to dog me” orbit, well, they can at least try to stop it waking up for as long as possible. Still, in the end, it takes a bear. A bear who really, really does not want a reward.

So, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Yuna hates being praised and deflects attempts to credit her for anything, saying she just wants to live a life where she’s not viewed as the hero. That’s getting increasingly difficult, and it doesn’t help that Kagari (who, by the end of this book, is also in the body of a little girl – The Author’s Barely Disguised Fetish is always the weakest part of this series) is doing the same thing. On the bright side, I did enjoy seeing Luimin and Sakura bond immediately, to the point where they vow to travel the world together once they grow up, and it might even eventually be yuri if I thought the author was ever going to do anything of the sort, which I don’t. And we got to see Fina pouting and hitting Yuna with her fists like an anime cliche. That was cute.

We’re only a little behind Japan now, which has Vols. 20 and 20.5 out. Next time should see the start of a new arc, and no doubt new things for me to complain about. But I’ll read it. Yuna is as Yuna does.

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: The Great-Tree Warden’s Testament

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

I am prepared to eat a bit of crow here. Last time I mentioned how all the characters were getting something to do and character development except maybe Ellie. Well, character development is still thin on the ground (she’s meant to be the pure, naive one, and I think at times the author overdoes it) but certainly in terms of plot function and battle readiness she’s advanced by leaps and bounds. Her magic is strong enough to be able to take on giant monsters to protect Allen and Stella, and we also find out that she’s a Great-Tree Warden, something that was thought to have died out. Oh, and she gets to link mana with Allen. So yes, this is absolutely the book for Ell.ie fans. That said, this harem is large, and you know that no one can stay in the spotlight for too long, so by the end of the book she makes way for Book 14, which promises to be all Stella. Who, um, may be evil now.

We’re now back from the City of Water, after leaving everything to Niche Nitti (which, for some reason, makes Felecia intensely jealous), our cast return home so they can set up for the next part of the plot. Some of that is put off till future books – the Church is still lurking in the background, and every single bad guy who hasn’t died seems to have converged on the same country that’s right next to our heroes. But some of it needs to be dealt with now. There’s an oracular prophecy that may help to fix Stella’s magic issues, but it requires Allen, Stella and Ellie to go visit an underground archive that happens to be controlled by the very people who despise Allen. Now, this would not be an issue if Allen had a title – but he keeps rejecting, deflecting, and avoiding them. So we just have to make it so he can’t refuse…

Allen’s position makes a lot more sense after this book – there are some people who are doing their damndest to try to not only make sure he’s a failure but also, if the ending is accurate, .literally kill him. It’s all related to the Beastmen, because surprise, there’s prejudice. As for the harem, for once we actually get a long look at the Princess, Cheryl Wainwright. The author apologizes for his being unable to shoehorn her into past volumes, but it makes sense – she’s in line for the throne, and unlike Lydia can’t run away at the spur of the moment just cause. She was fun, and at times seems to possess the common sense the rest of Allen’s harem lacked. But I’m sorry, even with that title, she’s lagging behind the rest of the harem.

I’m not sure when we’ll get the next volume – it’s unscheduled in English at the moment – but it’s likely to finally resolve Stella’s issues. Whether she actually does turn villainous is up in the air… well, not really. This isn’t that kind of series. But she may turn for a while. Till then: good job, Ellie. Sorry I doubted you. Headpat from Allen!

The Crown of Rutile Quartz, Vol. 2

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y Surume Enoki and ttl. Released in Japan as “Rutile Quartz no Taikan: Ō no Tanjō” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alice Camp.

Siiiiiiigh. Great, another attempt to review a book which is “okay, I guess”. Again, it would be so easy to paste the review of the first volume here. It’s a decent read, it held my attention, the battles are well-done, and I like Slaine as a character. But it’s again using a fantasy world as an excuse to get people to read a generic military history book, and Monica, Slaine’s lover and later in this book wife, is painfully undercharacterized. The book is happy to have her there to cheer Slaine up and pat his head, as well as glare at anyone who does anything vaguely insulting to him. And that’s really about it. She reads like a prize, which, honestly, I thought authors knew better than that now. On the bright side, the court mage is shown to have another woman as her partner, and even if gay marriage isn’t legal in their country, they call each other wife and wife. Maybe Slaine should do something about that in between fighting to save the kingdom.

Slaine and Monica are now lovers, which you’d think would be an issue given her low noble status, but as it turns out the kingdom’s nobles are balanced so precariously following Slaine taking the throne that everyone’s actually okay with Monica being the Queen provided her family doesn’t get extra perks – well, at least publicly acknowledged extra perks. Meanwhile, Slaine’s reign is still regarded as “laughable” by far too many people, and so he suffers an assassination attempt, then an invasion by a noble who regards him as beneath contempt because he was a commoner… and finally by the Third Prince of the Empire, Florenz, who was behind the noble’s attack in the first place and who seems to think that invading will be easy from their impregnable fortress. Can Slaine perhaps make that fortress less impregnable?

The men in this book fare a bit better than the women, though honestly only three characters really stand out, and one of them is Slaine himself. We get two varieties of “evil ruler” here. Julius is the sort who’s actually good to his men, and goes out to fight with them, etc. The ‘noble bigot’ sort. The bigot coming because he is deeply,. deeply classist to the point where he’ll gladly go to war over it. This goes badly, mostly as Slaine has very well trained troops who know how to perform obvious sucker moves without making them LOOK like obvious sucker moves. Then we get the third prince of the Empire, who is the ‘entitled dickhead’ sort of villain, who assumes that anything he does can be taken care of after the fact provided he wins… and then when he loses literally goes mad. I did like Slaine’s idea for how to take the impregnable fortress, which felt very much like him, as opposed to “tactics that we’re supposed to handwave the enemy couldn’t think of”. More cleverness, less pushing soldiers around on a map, please.

This comes out slowly, so I’m not sure when the next volume will be. And it’s a DRECOM title, so who knows if the third is the last. The webnovel suggests 7 books in total. I’ll read the next one, though. Even though I’ll go “that was all right, I guess” at the end.

High School DxD: Mages of Career Counseling

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By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

I’ve said before that this is a series where you come for the boobs and stay for the worldbuilding, but if I’m being honest this is a series where you come for the boobs, stay for the boobs, and there is also worldbuilding. This series is never going to shy away from what its readership wants. Sona Sitri plays a major role in this volume, and you’d expect a color page showing her, say, directing the combat against the mages as she does towards the end. Instead, we see a shot of her cooking in an apron and panties, whipping up cake batter in a way that leaves her covered in white goo. Needless to say, this scene does not exist anywhere in the book. I think the artist thought that this book had too much actual fighting and a lot less service, which is… wrong given that we see seven naked or near naked girls in Issei’s bed during this, but also correct. This is a more serious volume.

Issei is back from the dead, though most of the girls around him are still traumatized by his death, to the point where EVERYONE is sleeping in his bed at night. Meaning he has to sleep in a chair. Yeah, sorry, still no sex here. In the mean time, stuff continues to happen even though Issei is recovering and Draig is still inactive. He has to train to get better, as to the rest of Rias’ peerage. They’re all being buried in offers to work with mages, and they have to filter down to the actual good offers, which includes a former enemy, Le Fey Pendragon. And there’s a war between vampire clans, and one of them shows up and tries to bully and blackmail Gaspar into joining them or else his childhood friend will fall into darkness. Needless to say, that really does not go over well, and Rias and Kiba head off to negotiate with the vampire clans in Europe. Which means they’re not there when rogue mages kidnap Ravel, Koneko and Gaspar…

Generally speaking fantasy light novels tend to start off with mages in Book 1, then work their way through vampires, and finally end up with angels, demons, and wars in heaven. High School DxD is not afraid to do things ass-backward, of course. Nor is it afraid of asses, though Issei prefers boobs. Seriously, though, this is a clear transitional volume, setting up the table for the plot that will likely carry through the rest of the series (which ends at Book 25, though yes, there’s a “sequel” that just continues it). We get to see some characters show off their talents. sometimes comedically (poor Asia, though at least Issei promises to be with her forever), and sometimes seriously (Ravel, who makes it as clear to Issei that she is in love with him without saying the words, and he reacts… like Issei would, of course. “Please be my manager forever” will have to do for now). And there’s a really cool final battle, and some cool new bad guys, who are very bad, and also related to the cast – literally in one case.

So yeah, we’re back and ready to go!… what? More short stories next time? Oh, *half* a short story volume. I have no idea what that means. Anyway, next time I hear Irina gets something to do. Looking forward to that.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus

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By Hajime Kamoshida and Keji Mizoguchi. Released in Japan as “Seishun Buta Yarou wa Santa Claus no Yume wo Minai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

You know, Rascal Does Not Dream turned into a horror series so gradually, I didn’t even notice. Oh sure, each volume has had its share of horror and suspense – far more than you’d normally expect from a high school romcom. Starting with Mai potentially disappearing and Sakuta’s horrible scars, each volume has sometimes looked deep into the abyss. But I don’t think we’ve had a volume lean quite so hard into actual horror than this one. Even Vol. 6 and 7 was meant to be a tragedy, not horror. Here we get the ongoing Touko plot blending into loss of identity, and over the course of the book we realize that it’s not just Nene who’s dealing with the loss of identity, but A LOT of other people. And now they’re all invisible Santas. And they’re trying to kill Mai. As I said. Creepy as hell. Sakuta manages to resolve the immediate issue this time around, but only by getting physically injured to protect his love. Also, the ending is not reassuring.

Sakuta has a Christmas dream that Mai is singing at a concert, then announced publicly that she is Touko Kirishima. What’s worse, a whole lot of other people had similar dreams. Other, more disturbing dreams are also happening. Kaede dreamed she had reverted to her alternate self again. Futaba dreamed that she and Kunumi were on a happy date together, which is ominous given that he’s still together with Kamisato. And Mai… didn’t have a dream at all. It all has to relate to the Santa-wearing Touko, and Sakuta spends most of the book looking into Touko, as well as the girl he thinks she is, Nene. The answer to how to solve her problem is a lot closer to Sakuta than he thinks, but… is that really the actual problem? Is he just treating a symptom? And what’s with the dream of Mai getting injured and falling into a coma?

As I said, there’s a lot of scary stuff here. Particularly the ending, showing Mai surrounded by about 100 Santa-clad Toukos that no one else seems to be able to see. I did enjoy the wrapup on Nene’s plot specifically, but it also made me wonder how she and all the other Toukos are meant to reintegrate into society after having “vanished” for about 10 months. The book, unsurprisingly, decides to elide over that. I also enjoyed seeing the friendship/codependent helper relationship that he and Ikumi have, is only because it’s just nice to see him have someone reliable to talk to who can help deal with everything even when no one else can. And, honestly, that may end up tying into the next book. Because anyone who thinks the next book is not going to start with Mai saying that she’s Touko is fooling themselves. The whole volume is a setup for that.

There are two books to go, and they come out only two months apart (the final one is in October in Japan), so Yen may wait and try to release them the same way here. The identity of the antagonist is not hard to guess (hint: what major girl hasn’t got a cover yet?) but I have no idea how it’s going to resolve. In the meantime, there is fun banter here, I promise, but it’s getting thin on the ground.

Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 8

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By Shinji Cobkubo and K Akagishi. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

OK, this is starting to irritate me. This is not the first time we’ve had a volume of Bisco that felt like the final volume except that there are clearly more coming, but it’s the first time I felt angry about it, because this really was a fantastic ending. It wrapped up most of the plots we’d had so far, it featured an epilogue that screamed “this is it, I have finished the series”, and it’s also one of the best books in the series. Sadly, after that ending you get the usual “movie trailer” preview that says Book 9 will be BISCOOOO… IN… SPAAAACCCEEE!. Now, this could be quite good, and I’ll definitely be reading it. But I’m getting kinda tired of this author wrapping everything up and then just continuing to roll along. Sometimes series can just END, y’know. In any case, back to Book 8 itself. If you’ve been annoyed by the heterosexuality in this book, particularly Bisco and Pawoo having a kid, boy do I have good news for you. It’s mpreg time, baby!

A mysterious ark, led by someone who looks and acts suspiciously like a United States President (not a specific one, honest, just… in general) is sucking up valuable specimens around the world, which ends up including most of our cast. Meanwhile, Milo has been trying to hide from Bisco that he’s been having mysterious morning sickness. That’s right, when they merged their powers earlier, it led to a magical daughter with Milo as the “mother” and Bisco as the “father”, who they name Sugar. Sugar rapidly grows to be a child from hell, especially when Milo and Bisco are taken in by the ark and made into specimens. Fortunately, she has a cat guardian to help… except she’s not really listening to them. More fortunately, Maria, Bisco’s mother, has shown up to help out… wait, WHAT?!? Wasn’t she dead? And is she really helping?

Maria is easily the best addition to this book, and she’s exactly what you’d imagine Bisco’s mother to be like. Her reasons for faking her death are… well, understandable is the wrong word, but they make sense for the character. I also really enjoyed her scenes with Pawoo, who still doesn’t get a lot to do here, but gets a lot more to do than she has in the last few Bisco books. This includes giving birth, which surprised me. The cover art made me think we’d get a time skip, but no, Sugar just grows up almost immediately. Then I thought we’d get one near the end, as Pawoo was only a couple months pregnant…but we live in magical mushroom country, and we’re also here to fight God, so babies need to be born when it suits them. I also really enjoyed the epilogue, which I don’t want to spoil too much, but I feel may have drawn from the author’s own experience… and also reminds us that, no matter how big a fantasy this is every time, it’s still Japan, not an isekai.

So yeah. Space Bisco. FINE, I guess. In the meantime, this was fantastic, and a great ending to the series.

My First Love’s Kiss, Vol. 1

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By Hitoma Iruma and Fly. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Hatsukoi Aite ga Kiss Shiteta” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Kiki Piatkowska.

Tempted as I am to just write “Christ on a cracker” and let that be my review, I suppose I should get into the nuts and bolts of this thing. First of all, I feel retroactively annoyed with Adachi and Shimamura 11. I’ve mentioned many times before how this author has a cast of characters that are all part of the same “world”, and they flit in and out of each other’s series. That was the case with Adachi and Shimamura 11’s review as well. Little did I realize just how MUCH those characters took up all of Book 11, to the point where it now reads as nothing more than an ad for the author’s darker yuri series. (A&S 11 came out the same day as the final volume of this one.) The author also states in the afterword that this is a “romantic comedy”, then admits readers will get annoyed at them for saying it. Which is very true. This is a trawl through the sewers of love, and it will make you feel dirty.

Takasora is very, very surprised when her mother one day brings home someone she knew when she was in school, along with the woman’s teenage daughter, and announces that they’re now living there. The other teen, Umi, is very pretty (a fact Takasora will mention over and over again throughout this book), but also doesn’t seem all there, and there’s clearly something going on behind the scenes that Takasora… really doesn’t want to get involved with. Unfortunately for her, not only does she slowly begin to get obsessed with Umi as the days go by, but she also notices Umi going out late at night and frequently staying out all night. And there are rumors that she’s doing compensated dating. Are the rumors correct? The other half of the book is Umi’s story, which tells us that a) yes, they are correct, and b) it’s far more desperately awful than we’d like.

So, first of all, the opening of this novel features physical abuse of one of the heroines. FYI. Secondly, the rest of the book features emotional manipulation of the same heroine. Takasora is the easier part of this book. She’s immediately very attracted to Umi, can’t really work out why, and spends the book realizing that she’;s in love. Umi has spent most of her life bouncing from house to house with her mother. The better households ignore her, the worse ones abuse her. Then six months ago, she meets a gorgeous older woman who wants to pay her lots of money to have sex with her. And Umi falls for this lady HARD. It’s the first caring and affection she’s ever really received, and even though she knows the woman is a creepy pervert, and that this is illegal, and that love is not involved, she still confesses and begs her to NOT pay her anymore and just date her normally. (Something which the other woman notably does NOT do.)

A brief extra note to talk about the connections to Adachi and Shimamura, for fans of that series who I know are curious. The first half of A&S 11 can pretty easily be understood after reading this volume. The “kimono lady” 15-year-old Shimamura meets, who acts creepy but states straight up that Shimamura is one year too young for her, is the lady who is involved with 17-year-old Umi in this series. The last half of the book might be more confusing, as I’m pretty sure the senpai that Shimamura meets on her vacation with Adachi in Takasora from this book, only their personality is literally NOTHING like this Takasora, so I may be wrong. Most ominously, Chiki (the kimono lady) at one point apologizes to Umi for being a) late and b) in an out-of-place yukata, as she was “visiting Hino”. Hino as in Hino and Nagafuji Hino?!?! It’s even implies she stays at their estate. Given everything about Chiki makes me recoil in horror, I kind of hate this.

I will probably read the other two books in this series, as I want to see what happens and how it ties in to a yuri series I do enjoy. But man, I cannot recommend this at all unless you revel in the most toxic yuri and do not mind feeling like your skin is crawling while reading most of this.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, Vol. 5

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By Sunsunsun and Momoco. Released in Japan as “Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Matthew Rutsohn.

It’s been about ten months since the last non-short story volume of Alya, and since then we’ve started the anime, which is doing a pretty good job, even if it’s also reminding us how hard it can be to watch Alya herself at times. It’s also facing stiff competition from Too Many Losing Heroines!, another anime that is very interested in light novel cliches. But while Makeine uses the tropes straight on occasion but for the most part wants to call attention to them and deconstruct them, Roshidere positively revels in the tropes. It will give you the fake incest, the boob measurements, the “I saw the girls I like changing” gags, walking in on a girl naked out of the shower is literally engineered here. Now, it’s not the point of the series. The point of the series is seeing Masachika and Alya both struggle to have any self-worth at all despite both being ludicrous geniuses. But it *is* why people obsess with this series.

We start by “resolving” the cliffhanger from the fourth volume. It’s not actually resolved at all, really – even if Masha isn’t already aware she’s the forgotten childhood friend, anyone in a light novel who confesses and then says you don’t have to give me an answer right away is already digging a massive hole it will be impossible to climb out of. In the meantime, it’s culture festival time, and the student council are stepping in where needed. In fact, they’re stepping even above and beyond – Hikaru’s band collapsed due to romantic drama, and they need three new band members… which might be a good opportunity to Alya to sing and show leadership skills. More importantly, there’s a quiz game where Yuki and Alya will be competing against each other. Supposedly a fun contest, you know it’s actually a proxy war in the election.

Alya is doubting herself. She wants to be able to stand on her own, to not have to depend upon Masachika as much as she has in previous books. (She also wants Masachika to ask her out on dates, but let’s leave that aside for the moment.) She does a great job in this book! Possibly too great a job. Masachika’s ridiculously huge self-hatred has driven everything he’s done in this series since the start, and we wallow in that in this book, whether it drives his cowardice in not actually asking Alya for that date, to his jealousy over seeing her get along with his other male friends, to his despair at realizing that she is growing and becoming able to stand on her feet… without him. His final words to her at the end of this volume imply that once she’s won, he’s going to quietly bury himself so that she can move forward without him holding her back. I do hope that before he finishes his self-loathing Samson act he at least crushes the asshole piano prodigy who’s trying to destroy Alya first, however.

If you enjoy seeing insecure and pessimistic kids avoid being in love with each other and lots of girls in underwear or even naked, this series is written just for you.

My Happy Marriage, Vol. 7

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By Akumi Agitogi and Tsukiho Tsukioka. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon” by Fujimi L Bunko. Released in North America Yen On. Translated by David Musto.

Every so often, I hot a point in a book where a plot point bounces off me so hard that I just go “NOPE” and throw the book away. Usually it’s pretty easy, as it’s in the first or second volume in a series and I can easily just drop it and never look back. It’s much harder when it’s in a series I really like. I don’t WANT to drop this series. And yeah, the second half of the book is basically everything we wanted to have happen. But man alive. I absolutely did not need the main plotline of this volume, whose entire purpose (and it’s clearly, deliberately on purpose) is to fill this volume with drama even though all the roadblolcks and evil villains have been taken care of. It is there to pile on the pain and suffering once more, and I’m not sure it makes the resolution sweeter for that fact. Basically, there is a scene (it has the words “I hate you” in it) that made me want to jump into the sea. Anyway. Moving on.

It’s finally time. We’re at the wedding, Miyo looks gorgeous, the guests are here, everything is prepared… and the groom is absent. Clearly it’s time for a flashback to show how we got to this point. Miyo is doing her best to get ready for being an actual wife, including facing up to the fact that she will need to be intimate with her husband (when she can’t even say the word “darling” without falling over with a red face) and also trying to brush up on her cooking skills, which are already miles better than her sister-in-law but could use some work. While at a cooking demonstration, she runs into an old classmate from elementary school, who was the other “quiet, shy girl nobody liked” in class, and Miyo gets told a rather depressing story about a sacrificial marriage. She then goes home… and has the scene I mentioned at the start.

The good and bad thing about this series is that it is filled with the supernatural, and there are tons of things that have something evil, monstrous, or twisted as their cause. This is bad because it means that we get everything that happens in this book, which involves curses, evil from the previous generation seemingly trying to rise up and make Kiyoka late for his wedding, and in the end, straight-up murder attempts. The good thing is that it means that we don’t have to have all those horrible romance cliches of “I misheard you and we must now not talk to each other for the next five volumes” miscommunication. It turns out to really be a curse. We also get to see discount bargain-basement Kiyoka and Miyo, who are there as an object lesson in how sometimes you can try to escape a terrible life by entering into an arranged marriage with a stoic, cold man and it goes really badly. I don’t think there’s supposed to be a moral here, like “they should have tried harder”, I think it’s just meant to be “there but for the grace of God go I”.

The good bits of this book were very good. The wedding was fantastic, the ceremony afterwords was heartwarming, the wedding night was moved offscreen but we assume it happened without a lot of blushing and awkwardness, and after that there’s only one minor knife to the heart to deal with and we can get our happily ever after. Except we get an 8th volume soon, so now we get My Happy Married Life. I’ll be reading more. Just… perhaps fewer road cones for the sake of being road cones?