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Reviews

Miss Savage Fang: The Strongest Mercenary in History Is Reincarnated As an Unstoppable Noblewoman, Vol. 1

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By Kakkaku Akashi and Kayahara. Released in Japan as “Savage Fang Ojō-sama: Shijō Saikyō no Yōhei wa Shijō Saikyō no Bōgyaku Reijō to natte Futatabime no Sekai o Musō Suru” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

This is, for the most part, a good entry in the “reincarnated as a villainess” genre, with two big exceptions: a plotting decision at the start, and a characterization decision at the end. Other than that, it’s got a non-Japanese reincarnation, which is always nice, and a narrator who is a hell of a lot of fun. (Yen seems to have quietly dropped the “don’t let the books say fuck” guideline in the last year or two, and it’s allowed the books to sound more true to life much of the time.) I will note, though, that it’s a book that really assumes you want to see violence. The heroine used to be a mercenary who literally beat his enemies to death, and now that she’s the daughter of a duke she’s still capable of doing this, though at least holds back a bit. Mostly as she knows murder is a bad rep for a duke’s daughter to have.

The nation of Eltania is on the verge of collapse, thanks to its selfish and evil queen Mylene. We follow a group of mercenaries, led by a magicless but powerful man named Envil. Eventually Mylene is captured and is about to be executed when a foreign power shows up, using Eltania’s collapse as an excuse to invade. Envil ends up getting himself killed during this… and wakes up ten years in the past. But not in the orphanage that he first grew up in. No, he’s now in the body of Lady Mylene, already a holy terror and not yet engaged to the Prince. Now it’s up to Mylene to try to change the future as much as she can… while still, of course, making sure that she’s able to beat the crap out of absolutely anyone whenever she feels like it.

To start with a complaint, this book takes forever to get to the reincarnation. Most villainess books these days steamroll through the backstory as fast as possible to get to what readers like, which is why this one leisurely showing us that Envil is powerful and that Eltania is corrupt feels like a slog. After that things pick up, though. Mylene retains her foul mouth from her previous incarnation, at least when she’s not around other nobility, and it’s amusing to hear. She kicks eight kinds of ass. There’s a suggestion that Mylene (who has the “powers of a god”, supposedly) is fated to be greedy, and we see her, even in this new timeline, fall prey to it a bit. Best of all, though, is the scorching relationship between Mylene and Colette, the princess of the Empire that invaded Eltania in the prior timeline. I absolutely loved these two fighting and also looking like they were arguing about who gets to top. So, as you can imagine, the ending of this first volume, which has Colette essentially change to the same personality as the masochistic, worshipful prince who adores Mylene, left a sour taste in my mouth. Let two dominant women try to one-up each other, dammit.

Despite these issues, and a lot of violence/gore, this is still a good series debut. I’ll pick up the next one. Oh yes, warning, they do go to a noble academy. Did you forget what genre you were reading?

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Astrea Record, Vol. 1

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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.

Before we begin, congratulations to Jake Humphrey, who joins the ranks of the translators on the world’s most cursed light novel series. I think this may actually push the total into double digits, if we count all the various spinoffs. I’m sure everything will be fine. Probably.

In retrospect, there were many things that were a mistake about this book. First, there’s the fact that it came out a mere six weeks after the 18th volume of the main series, which had already totally exhausted me. I understand that the three volumes of Astrea Record were released monthly in Japan, and I am so glad that’s not happening here. Secondly, I need to beg publishers: please stop forcing authors to write novels based on your spinoff game. First we got KonoSuba, and now Omori is being forced to toil away at this trilogy, which is probably why 19 in the main series isn’t scheduled here yet. But third, I knew going in that this series was going to be depressing. It stars everyone in Lyu’s old Familia, which means by definition everyone is going to end up dead in it except the goddess herself and Lyu. However, good news! This book is not a longer version of the canonical deaths we know about from the main series. That is the end of the good news.

This book takes place seven years before Bell Cranel arrives in a peaceful (ish) Orario. It’s far from peaceful here. The Evils are making everyone’s lives a living hell, and it’s all the various Families can do to keep the peace. This is, of course, in addition to going down and dungeon clearing, which the guild is also making them do. Fourteen-year-old Lyu, a rookie with Astrea Familia, is overly serious and quick to anger, but seems to be fitting in pretty well… that is, until a mysterious guy shows up and starts to ask her questions like “what is justice, really?”. Which, given Lyu is an emo teen, works like a charm in terms of throwing her off her game. That said, this book is not about Lyu. It’s about the series of bloody terrorist attacks that completely destroys the fragile city populace, and all of the adventurers trying to stop literally everyone from dying.

The goal of this book is to show off how much better things are in Bell’s time, and it achieves that admirable. It’s some of the most depressing prose I’ve read in a while. Lyu has a friend, the younger sister of Shakti, who is a bubbling beacon of hope and happiness, and all I could think was “wow, you are going to get horribly murdered”. And, yup, that’s what happens. The back half of this book is an absolute orgy of slaughter. Hell, Ottar – Ottar! – is nearly killed and beaten bloody, because we have two mysterious new bad guys in town, from the now defunct Zeus and Hera Familia. The warrior is the one who takes down Ottar, and he’s a sword guy. The mage takes out both Gareth and Riveria, and she has the mysterious name “Silent Witch”. (She’s not Monica Everett, sorry, crossover fans.) They’re both doing this for mysterious reasons that I think I can guess, but I’ll leave that for next time. At least they seem to be the only two doing this for reasons that aren’t “we love killing people”.

There’s two more books of this, yikes. I will try to read the second one, but if it’s just more “let’s kill anyone likable” for 250 more pages, I may bail. For hardcore Danmachi fans only.

BLADE & BASTARD: Return of the Hrathnir

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By Kumo Kagyu and so-bin. Released in Japan as “Blade & Bastard” by Dre Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

One of the frustrating things about this series is that it is obviously written for middle-aged men who grew up in the 1980s playing Wizardry and want to see the author mess around in that world. At the same time, it has the sort of set pieces that can only really be deeply enjoyed by fourteen year olds who love edgy torture scenes and constant rape threats by bad guys who are eeeeeeevil, just super, duper, ooper evil. You can tell because of the rape threats. No one is actually raped here, though it’s implied in the backstory of one character, but certainly this is a series that wants you to know that it’s not afraid to shock and offend you. Unfortunately, I wrote things like this when I was in my early twenties, so all it does is make me cringe and want to desperately be reading anything else. The core of Blade & Bastard is still interesting, it’s just the execution I don’t like.

The book starts off with a real tragedy: Garbage breaks her beloved huge-ass broadsword. She goes off to get a replacement, but none of them appeal to her, and she’s left with a “Cuisinart”, a blade that is certainly good but far too light for her, and it also spins around. (The joke is somewhat obvious.) As for Raraja, he’s watching everyone else take on the dungeon every day and still trying to find a purpose beyond “locate the girl I used to adventure with whose corpse is presumably somewhere in the dungeon”. How fortunate for him that he’s met by his old bully, Goerz, who says he has that EXACT info, and will give it to Raraja if he just does one little job in the dungeon for him. Raraja knows it’s probably a trap, but goes along with it anyway, because information and a death trap is better than no information. Sadly, he’s underestimated how evil Goerz really is.

So yeah, this is a harem series. New book, new girl, and yes, it’s the girl who Raraja has been searching for who turns out to not be dead but merely wishes she was. Orlaya has some special abilities, and thus has been used by everyone around her to the point where she’s grown extremely bitter, cynical and disillusioned, and thus 100% rejects any help Raraja might be offering. Last time I said that every girl in this series was the author’s barely disguised fetish, and that applies here, as Orlaya is missing an eye, gets stuck inside a meat machine that basically spews out monsters with her as the center, and generally defines the word “woobie”. Oh yes, and as if this weren’t cliched enough, after being saved by Raraja (duh), she walks up to the huge stacked Berkanan and says “I won’t lose!”, as if Blade & Bastard suddenly became Love Hina.

So yeah, I was mostly unhappy. That said, there are good bits here. Most of Garbage’s plotline, including a few more tasty backstory bits, is excellent. Aine gets to be a cool sword-swinging nun, even if she also gets a pile of rape threats and also loses both hands. And Iarumas almost has an emotion. Still, this book’s main audience is for those who think there’s no such thing as too much black paint.

I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness: I’ll Spoil Her with Delicacies and Style to Make Her the Happiest Woman in the World!, Vol. 3

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By Fukada Sametarou and Sakura Miwabe. Released in Japan as “Konyaku Haki Sareta Reijō o Hirotta Ore ga, Ikenai Koto o Oshiekomu -Oishi Mono o Tabesasete Oshare o Sasete, Sekai Ichi Shiawase na Shōjo ni Produce!-” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Yui Kajita.

Oh dear. I’d say “and it was going so well, too”, but to be honest I had a few issues with the first two volumes of this series as well. This third one, though, feels like an episode of that game show where you send contestants into a supermarket and they have to stuff as many groceries into a cart as they can in 60 seconds. Theoretically the final volume in the series (more on that later), this volume seemingly had one plot left to deal with: Charlotte’s family and her past as an abused child. Admittedly this is a tricky plot to write when you’re doing a sweet romcom that uses the word “naughty” as its main gag, but clearly that was going to be the thrust of it. We do get that, but it’s lost in an avalanche of “everything but the kitchen sink”.

Now that Allen and Charlotte have confessed to each other, they can only get closer. Unfortunately, Charlotte casually mentions that tomorrow is her birthday… a fact that literally everyone in the cast except for Allen seems to have known, and they’re all lining up to deliver the absolute best presents, while Allen flails and is pathetic. Finally settling on “a kiss once everyone is asleep”, he then runs into another problem: Charlotte’s body holds two souls, the second one being the former Saint of her country Lydilia, who has occasionally been taking charge of Charlotte’s body (that’s how she escaped so easily), but now wants Allen to kill her as she is tired of life. (Kill her soul, I hasten to add – Charlotte would be fine.) That’s still not good enough for Allen, and now he has to find naughty things to please a completely different noble lady.

I cannot begin to describe how the first third of this annoyed me. Suddenly this non-isekai series is filled with reincarnations from Japan, who are busy creating ramen cafes. Our mail carrier catgirl turns out to have been searching for her missing twin sister… who she finds within 2 pages of her explaining this. The “perfect birthday present” section is excruciating, with Allen suddenly becoming ten times more pathetic than he’s ever been. Lydilia’s plot works best, especially when the narrative turns serious, but it also feels like it was shoehorned in so that the same “sharing souls” concept could be used to explain part of the overcomplicated solution to Charlotte’s past abuse. Lastly, the final scene with Allen and Charlotte meeting as children actively made me snarl at the book in its obviousness.

Still, at least with this last volume, we’ve… End of Part One, you say? More books coming? Sigh. If you really enjoyed this, you might try more, but this third volume just annoyed me.

The Oblivious Saint Can’t Contain Her Power: Forget My Sister! Turns Out I Was the Real Saint All Along!, Vol. 1

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By Almond and Yoshiro Ambe. Released in Japan as “Mujikaku Seijo wa Kyō mo Muishiki ni Chikara o Tare Nagasu: Imadai no Seijo wa Anede wa Naku, Imōto no Watashi Datta Mitai Desu” by Earth Star Luna. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Dawson Chen.

Sometimes a title can work against you. When I first saw this title, which (as with so many other light novel titles out these days) describes the plot, I focused on the words “oblivious” as a personality trait of the heroine, and was expecting something along the lines of Bakarina or Villainess Level 99. This is, however, definitely not that kind of book. It’s not on the level of I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again! (the gold standard of dark villainess tragedies), but this is definitely one of the more serious “disgraced noble” books, and the main obstacle through much of it is the heroine’s own self-loathing due to years and years of abuse and neglect. It ends up being… good. It’s very readable. It does, however, have quite a few problems, one of which is also directly linked to its title: this book gives away almost everything it’s going to do long before it does it.

Carolina Sanchez has had a rough life. Her mother died shortly after she was born, and her older sister has never forgiven her for this. Carolina has “good, but not great” grades, and no magic, whereas her older sister is the Saint, one with great magic potential who can heal people. Her father is remote. And now their kingdom has gotten into trouble with the far more powerful Empire, so they need to marry someone off to make amends. Marry someone off to the second prince, who ha a reputation of being a bloodthirsty psychopath. And we’re not going to marry off the very important Saint, are we? Enter Carolina, who is railroaded into this. Fortunately, this ends up being fantastic for her… well, mostly. There are multiple attempts on her life. But I mean, compared to where she started the book, it’s fantastic. It is, however, very bad for her older sister, who finds she is far, far less powerful now that her “magicless” sister is far away.

Carolina is a nice person who is dealing with having to have self-worth for the first time in her life, and I like her as a heroine. Certainly the supposedly bloodthirsty prince (who turns out to be a sweetie) falls in love with her almost instantly. That said… this book telegraphs its punches something awful. At the end of the first volume, none of the characters have figured out that the Oblivious Saint Can’t Contain Her Power, only the readers and the writer know. Which is honestly frustrating, not cool. I kept yelling “test her for magic again! Come on!” Instead we get hints, which… we know. Why are you hinting about something you literally told us in the title? (And yes, the Japanese says the same thing.) We also get told about the power struggle going on between the two princes, which is mainly because the prince who should rule is magically sick and will be dying soon. UNLESS… there’s an oblivious saint around! This is also not resolved or hinted at, but is obvious.

I enjoyed reading the characters, though again even the backstory for her guard was predictable. Recommended for those who don’t mind reading something where you know everything that happens before it does.

Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden, Vol. 1

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By Umikaze Minamino and Kochimo. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

I appreciate a book that can subvert expectations right off the bat. The cover of this book features the titular heroine sitting on a throne, with blood spilled at her feet. The subtitle is “The Merciless Maiden”. The narrative explicitly says she’ll grow up to be absolutely terrifying. And the start of the book shows us her origin: in order to save his own skin, a disreputable mage, hired to save the life of a sickly young noble girl (who has, in fact, already died), transplants the soul of a fierce warrior who lives only for battle and desires a glorious death. Throughout the start of this book you get Nia Liston casually mentioning how strong she really is. But we very, very rarely see this. This book is, until near the end, the definition of a slow burn. Instead, what we get are Nia Liston’s adventures in livestreaming. And honestly, if it were “Nia Liston: The Impassive Presenter of a TV Show”, I might not have picked it up.

After being reincarnated into Nia’s 5-year-old body, the nameless warrior (who cannot remember much of anything about their past life aside from battle lust) has to spend much of her time making it so that the body does not immediately die. Fortunately, there’s chi and cultivation and all that stuff that I am thankful we don’t go into too much detail about, and eventually Nia gets healthy again, to the delight of her parents and older brother. She then proceeds to try to learn about the world she’s living in, as subtly as possible (i.e., not very) asking her maid about who the Liston family are and what they control. The answer, for the most part, is “magivision”, which is, of course, magic television. In order to show off their daughter’s miraculous recovery, they decide to have her host a show of her own. But… will she ever get to be merciless?

Yes, it does eventually happen, though I was going to wonder if it would be subverted. Nia goes on so much at the start about how much damage she could do to people with just her pinky finger that I thought the gag would be that she was a mere 5-year-old girl in reality. But no, when she spots her co-star (she ends up acting in a teleplay near the end) being accosted by thugs, we see her gleefully getting in a bit of the old ultraviolence. Nia is not training to do anything but make her body healthier – the martial arts skills are all innate, advanced, and extremely powerful. So, of course, the main reason to get this is to see other people’s reactions to a 5-year-old girl beating up over a hundred mafia goons, which range from terrified (the goons) to intrigued (the co-star, who asks “can I watch?”), to over the moon (her maid, a former adventurer, who basically says “PLEASE TRAIN ME”).

The next volume has Nia head off to boarding school, and I assume will focus more on the fighting than the livestreaming, though I could be wrong. In any case, if you want to know how to do slow burn plotting properly, this is a good example.

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 8

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By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Eric Margolis. Adapted by Lorin Christie.

It feels odd to call a book that is 100 pages longer than the previous books a breather volume but that’s exactly what this is. After all of the plot going on in the last three volumes, Loner Life is returning to its roots, which means get ready for a whole lot of dungeon crawling. As always, you not only need to translate this book to English (and the translation is fine, I hasten to add – a) even Japanese fans say this is incoherent, and b) Haruka is meant to sound like this), but you also need to translate subtext into text. As such, the fact that we’ve moved from “let’s clear out all the 50-floor dungeons” and have now become “hey, all these dungeons are now about 90 floors” is a cause for great concern, and even small, supposedly random things like “Haruka is asked to make sanitary pads for the girls” delves into a critique on isekai stories in general as well as a dark examination of why Angelica and Nefertiri are only concubines. There is meat on these bones, under all that narrative bullshit.

The cover has Vice Rep B, but she’s no more prominent here than any of the other classmates not named Class Rep; the artist clearly gave her a cover shot to show off her assets, so to speak. After the civil war of the last two books, everyone is back in Omui, and there’s now a passel of orphan children with them. Most of the spare time is spent dungeon crawling, partly to get spellstones so they can afford any of the many things Haruka is making, but also partly to see what the dungeons are like after they’ve already been cleared once before. The answer is that the monsters are not QUITE as strong, but they’re still very strong, and more worryingly, the dungeons are deeper now. Haruka implies that any dungeon with 100 floors is a Very Bad Thing. Meanwhile, the rest of the class is getting stronger and stronger… but they still can’t hold a candle to Haruka, Angelica, Nefertiri or even the Slime Emperor. How can they possibly protect him?

There’s another reason Haruka’s doing all this dungeon exploration: he’s reached the limit of where he can go with just skills. Even though it’s very, very hard for him to accomplish, he’s going to have to start getting stronger and leveling up. Which means having to fight using actual COMMON SENSE, rather than fighting the chaotic Haruka way. It’s actually a bit heartwarming seeing him sparring with Angelica normally – though it leads the girls to assume, now that they can understand his moves, that they can defeat him. Hardly. Speaking of the girls, I’d mentioned the sanitary pads before (and Haruka observing that all the isekai books out there never bother to go into this sort of thing in their pre-industrial fantasy worlds), but it also brings up a melancholy subplot: Angelica and Nefertiri may look human and gorgeous now, and they’re both starting to communicate a lot better, but they’re still, at the end of the day, monsters. They don’t have periods, and they can’t get pregnant. This means that they want the girls to be Haruka’s wives while they remain his concubines… because the girls CAN get pregnant.

A somewhat sexist POV to have, but then this is a book that now uses sex like a comma (how in God’s name are the PG-rated manga and forthcoming anime going to handle this?). It remains not for everyone, but I still find nuggets of gold here. And I apologize for not mentioning the water park. Or the summer festival. Next time it looks like we start a new arc, as a (maybe?) good religious faction shows up near the end. Just… not 528 pages next time? Please?

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 17

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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.

We all have things we’d like to read in our favorite series. Usually they’re things that aren’t going to happen until near the end, such as a romantic couple getting together. It could also be the climax of a series of subplots that is building far too slowly and meticulously. And I have these desires about Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, only I suspect that I’m never going to get what I want. I want to meet Yuna’s parents. I want to flash back to her life in Japan before this one. I know that her parents are going to be absolutely the worst – they are, after all, the ones who, after Yuna offered them a ton of money to get out of her life, took the money and got out of her life. But they’ve still clearly affected Yuna deeply, and I think a lot of her current attitude towards almost everyone in Crimonia and other areas is due to this. It can’t all be “LOL, she’s a NEET”, after all. Parental neglect is important too.

Still in the dwarf village, Yuna decides to go watch the trials and (naturally) ends up taking the trial herself, as she accidentally arrived about 8-9 hours too early. Unfortunately for the dwarves, the trials basically are designed to match the level of the person taking them, which means Yuna’s is insanely difficult – and also mentally wearing, as she’s forced into combat situations that are poor matches for her, then forced to face herself (see the cover art), and finally forced to rescue Fina from a deathtrap, something which causes her to flip out a bit. After doing this and getting the pots and pans she came there for, she returns to Crimonia – with Lilyka, who’s basically being told to stop being tsundere and go get her man, something she finds easier said than done. The rest of the book is basically “Yuna does cute things”, at least till the end, when she’s on the floating island and sees a remote ship. Are we finally getting to fantasy Japan?

As always, the most interesting scenes in the book are the ones where Yuna is thrown off her game. Facing a version of herself is less interesting, though I was amused at her realization that it’s annoying to fight someone who does this. More interesting was the last battle. I suspected that it wasn’t the real Fina (somethng which is later confirmed), but Yuna doesn’t know that, and seeing her caught in the old “water slowly filling a tank” trap causes her to completely panic – which is, of course, the point of the trials, which remind the person taking them that remaining cool in battle is what you need to do, even if your loved ones are in danger. Yuna here basically admits she sees Fina as her younger sister, which is fine by me, as Fina’s still ten. I do wish Yuna would stop insisting she’s not gay every volume, but that’s a separate issue, and it’s not unique to this author.

If you enjoy picking through “cute bears doing overpowered things” series to find the nugget or two of depth, this sure is that.

RVing My Way into Exile with My Beloved Cat: This Villainess Is Trippin’, Vol. 1

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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.

Sometimes you can tell that a story is not written by a first-time writer. One of the best ways is when a story has a totally ridiculous premise (such as this one), but knows that it cannot merely coast on just that premise for the entire book. There’s some good thought given to the world building. There’s ‘level ups’, but they’re minimal, and mostly just serve to show us where things are in the vehicle. There’s bad people, but they’re just selfish idiots, not puppy-kickers. Sure enough, this author has a few (unlicensed) series under their belt, and seems to specialize in Villainess titles. That said, the villainess part is not really the reason to read this – our heroine’s exile happens in record time. No, this is for fans of Slow Life books, because our heroine loves outdoor camping, and now that she is freed from this awful otome game, she is going to CAMP SO HARD.

Mizarie Kraphtia, who has the best Obvious Villainess name since Yumiella Dolkness, is publicly shamed and has her engagement broken by her fiance the Prince within the first two paragraphs. This comes as a complete relief to her – her entire life she’s been abused for having a “dark” magic element and black hair, and even getting her family to feed her has been tough. She avoided the heroine of the game she was isekai’d into, but ended up getting railroaded into the plot regardless. So now that she has the opportunity to flee, she does so, using the secret skill she’s been hiding from everyone since she first discovered it. She summons… a camper van, which allows her to drive the hell out of the country and away from the startled Prince (who was already preparing to reduce her exile to “do all my work for me”) and finally live a real life. It’s time to start fires, cook chicken, and discover new kingdoms that won’t abuse her.

This book revels in its genre, but also revels in pointing out the flaws inherent in it. Mizarie is hated and abused for her dark magic and hair… but is still engaged to the Prince, for some reason. But as I said, the book drives away from its villainess origins at 200 MPH, preferring to dig into the nitty gritty of what it would be like to explore a fantasy world with what amounts to an all-terrain vehicle that’s also a camper van. (The title says “RV” in English and “Camping Car” in Japanese, but I call the series “Camper Van Villainess” in honor of the classic alternative band Camper Van Beethoven, author of Take the Skinheads Bowling and other light classics.) Eventually we do get to more traditional isekai tropes, like the guy left for dead by his selfish party, the adventurer’s guild handing out F-ranked missions, and a monster that prove almost too much for our heroine… at least until she uses the camper van to hit it off a cliff.

This isn’t deep, nor should it be. It’s fun, and relaxing, and its heroine is also fun and relaxing. The second volume is due out in Japan this month, so I hope we’ll see it before too long.

The Exiled Noble Rises as the Holy King: Befriending Fluffy Beasts and a Holy Maiden with My Ultimate Cheat Skill!, Vol. 1

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By Yu Okano and TAPIOCA. Released in Japan as “Tsuihō Kizoku wa Saikyō Skill “Seiō” de Henkyō kara Nariagaru: Haikyōsha ni Nintei Sareta Ore da kedo Cheat Skill de Mofumofu mo Seijo mo Nakama ni Shichaimashita” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alex Honton.

Every once in a while I dip my toe back into the giant pool that is “light novels that don’t really sound interesting to me”, just in case I end up passing on a real winner. Sometimes I find myself completely, 100% wrong and it’s garbage. But far more often, it’s just frustrating, as the writer clearly has some ideas that might be good, or at least lead to interesting character development, but either they or the editor and publisher can never let go of “this has to be the same as every other title just like it”. I simply do not get why all these fantasy books star the same guy. He looks the same, he acts the same, he’s a “nice guy”, etc. It’s not like there aren’t great examples of light novels that succeed with far more interesting protagonists. Look at Kazuma. Or Subaru. You don’t need to have everyone be Player One.

The very first words of the book are our main character’s name, Noah Oliphage. The next words are him being exiled, just as the title says. Sounds pretty villainess-ey, yes. Noah has been found to have the Root Skill “Holy King”, and the Church – and the supposed actual Holy King – are frowning heavily on this. Noah, not wanting the church to wipe out his family, accepts exile with only a minor fuss… but ends up in the middle of the Purgatory Forest, filled with dangerous monsters. Fortunately, Noah… does NOT have awesome sword skills or powerful magic. Not good. He can form contracts with those who want his protection and who he wants to protect, though, and does so, first with a small kitten monster (that it is hinted will grow tiger sized), and then a small group of kobolds. Unfortunately, the Church wants to make sure Noah is dead, so send their biggest zealot to find and kill him.

Again, every good idea here is undercut by the need to make this book like so many other books of its kind. I was intrigued by the idea of someone getting a skill that’s basically “Jesus” but the start of the book drowns us, as usual, in stats, stats, stats. Japanese RPGs have so much to answer for. Noah is about as interesting as a sheet of white paper – actually, grey paper. The most interesting character is Aht, the aforementioned zealot. There’s a fantastic scene where we see everything about her previous few years be overwritten just by SEEING Noah and knowing he really is the messiah – it’s actually understated too, which I appreciated – but an interesting discussion about how mind-controlled she is by Noah’s contract (and, for that matter, how mind controlled she was by the Church before this) gets quietly brushed aside by her with a “I promise you it’s OK”, and she leaves at the end of the book – I suspect Book 2 will feature a different woman in the lead, this feels like that kind of series.

I may look at the 2nd volume, to see if it does anything with the concepts it’s got at the back of everything. But man, this is frontloaded with “potato-kun” fantasy stuff. He may not be isekai’d, but he might as well be. Recommended if you enjoy religious conversion or cute dogs and cats fighting monsters.

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 12

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

I get the sense that this was the first book written not only after the 2nd series of the anime had aired, but after the author had noticed fan opinion of that series. There’s a combination of things that worked really well in that season combined with an effort to move the plot along to its inevitable conclusion even more than it was in the previous volume. That said, that inevitable conclusion is becoming more and more a single route. My hope was that we might, at least, get an open ending with no romantic resolution, but the plot twists introduced here, while not technically resolving anything, very much say that Katarina is going to end this series married to Jeord and we are all going to have to lump it. Even Sophia and Maria get very little to do, though at least Mary gets an opening scene where she can pretend she and Katarina had a kid. That said, have faith, yuri fans, there is one bone thrown to you here.

The focus of this volume is on Frey Randall, Katarina’s underclassman and currently on the Student Council at the academy. The fact that none of the princes have married is starting to be a THING, and Frey’s father, Marquis “I am 100% evil” Randall, is starting to throw rumors around that Prince Jeord has abandoned Katarina (the weak link of the fiancees) and is going to marry Frey. This is, of course bullshit, and Frey would surely say so, except she was called back home and has not appeared since, clearly held hostage. Katarina immediately… does NOT spring into action, instead realizing that rushing off to save Frey would be counterproductive without help. So instead she gathers all her powerful allies, with the exception of Jeord (who can’t make a move because politics) and, most importantly, Larna, who, of course, has a secret of her own.

If your favorite episode of the 2nd season of Bakarina was Episode 8, this book is like catnip. Starting off with a chapter devoted to showing off what Frey used to be like before she came to school and how she changed thanks to Katarina, it also references the talk she had with Nicol (which he owes her a great debt for), and also shows that she and Ginger are, shall we say, VERY close – like Katarina and Maria, they’re planning to work at the ministry together, and unlike Katarina, they don’t have men in their life. The author almost confirms the yuri in the afterword. The other big success in this book is Katarina herself, who, after a chapter that tries to get all the “I am unobservant” out of the way at once, shows she can, in fact, be VERY observant when it matters. She’s maturing, if not in terms of romance, then in terms of life skills, and her harem are all more surprised than they really should be.

The author does sometimes still tend to slide into “comfort zones” a bit too much to make this a lights out volume (it ends with the standard “Jeord tries to get a moment alone with his fiancee but everyone else interrupts), but after two years I was very glad to see our baka back in action and really achieving things. Hopefully it won’t be another two years before 13…

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 43

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

(This talks about the book’s surprise ending, but after the picture.)

If you’re still following a series 45 novels in (counting the two .5 volumes, as always), you’d better have some pretty damn good reasons. Especially given that they’re light novels, which, even with a smaller page count than a lot of other series, simply are not going to be read as fast as a manga would be. And there’s lots of places this story could have ended already. Where the anime did. Right before the arrival of Clan. The 29th volume, which even had a “final volume” style cover. But it’s still ongoing, and I still really enjoy every volume of it, because the writer does things I enjoy well. There’s a ton of likeable, distinct characters, who I mostly don’t have to look at a wiki to remember who they are. (Sorry, Darkness Rainbow, I still only know half of you by name.) There’s some good romance. There’s fantastic action sequences, which take up the 2nd half of this volume. And, yes, still the occasional shocking twist.

We pick up right where we left off. Ralgwin is being held prisoner in a hospital while he heals up from his near-fatal injuries. Fasta is still determined to rescue him, and while everyone sympathizes with her, they actually have to try to stop her doing that. More worryingly, Grevanas and the Gray Knight also are thinking of rescuing him – Grevanas so he can use Ralgwin’s body to resurrect Maxfern, and the Gray Knight for his usual “I’m not evil Koutarou from an alternate universe, I promise” reasons. Every single ally is gathered to help move Ralgwin to a more secure prison to await trials. Heck, even Fasta has brought along allies to help her, allies we really had not expected. Our heroes are stronger now, they can surely take on anything that the bad guys can dish out. Right?

Here’s where those spoilers are. I don’t think the Rokujouma?! series has ever ended an arc quite as viciously as this. This is a full on “the bad guys win” ending, I was surprised, as while I saw that Ralgwin had been captured by the enemy, I was expecting it to swing into another search and rescue arc. But honestly, we had a huge battle in this book, and following it up with one in the next book might risk repeating. (The author has straight up said to expect a short story volume next time, so that will be fun.) But we’ve spent so many volumes humanizing our villains. Hell, we were rooting hard for Fasta to succeed. We brought back Elexis and Maya after like 15 volumes for a surprise visit, and they’re more likeable as well. The villains have their own sensible motivations, and they can also fall in love. So to see the cartoon villain get his wish and parade around a resurrected Maxfern (who is a bit less of a cartoon villain, but only just) really, really feels like the book is punching you in the face.

Even the “Corona Convention” is downbeat this time around. An excellent volume of the series, but it hurts.

Making Jam in the Woods: My Relaxing Life Starts in Another World, Vol. 2

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By Kosuzu Kobato and Yuichi Murakami. Released in Japan as “Mori no Hotori de Jam wo Niru: Isekai de Hajimeru Slow Life” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jade Willis.

(Slight spoilers for the last part of this book are in the third paragraph, FYI.)

I have some good news for those who were concerned about the content of the first volume: there is a lot more actual making of jam in this book. Mostly that’s because everyone in the local town has embraced Margaret as one of the best things that’s ever happened to them, so she keeps getting presents of fruit that will go bad unless she does something about it. Or when she’s picking berries with Rachel, who of course comes back to visit as soon as humanly possible, and said berries also have to be eaten fairly quickly. The lack of really long-term fridges and freezers in this world means you can’t dilly dally about these things. That said, for those who require a bit more plot than just cooking and preserving, there’s some of that as well, including some sweet romance and a very surprising revelation about Margaret’s being called to this world.

Margaret is still living with Adelaide, making delicious food, helping out in town with the kids, and trying to heal up from her injuries… though her leg unfortunately seems to have plateaued. There are important new discoveries, though: when she bonks heads with a small toddler, the toddler can hear her thoughts! It turns out that she can also do this with others, though with adults it has to be people she’s very close to. Meanwhile, she’s still not really well enough to go to the Royal Capital and visit the Spirit, but Walter is being called to the Spirit instead, and while there he ends up learning something that will possibly stun Margaret and her friends. Oh yes, and, most importantly, Mark basically proposes to Margaret… though there’s a bit of “huh, I was unaware this custom of receiving an expensive hairpins from the man I want to spend my life with is a thing” to it.

So yes, the big news here is that Margaret’s calling was premature and also not intended, which is one big reason why her leg isn’t going to heal and she’s still mute. I’ve seen the “we didn’t mean to isekai you to our world” plotline before, but it’s honestly usually pretty malevolent, involving “so therefore we will either try to kill you or toss you out with nothing but your clothing”, so seeing something like this where everyone is desperately worried about Margaret is nice. Fortunately for all involved, Margaret is a big sweetie, and is even more grateful she’s hear at all and living with such wonderful people. She’s making jam, she has a fiancee (possibly… she really isn’t quite comfortable with saying that out loud just yet), and she’s even writing children’s books based on old fairy tales from back in her previous life. The fact that she’s not the Chosen One is honestly a relief.

I think the next volume may be the last one, but am not sure. In any case, this remains a very fun, if not terribly action-packed, slow life romance series.

The Abandoned Heiress Gets Rich with Alchemy and Scores an Enemy General!, Vol. 2

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By Miyako Tsukahara and Satsuki Sheena. Released in Japan as “Suterare Reijō wa Renkinjutsu-shi ni Narimashita. Kaseida Okane de moto Tekikoku no Shō o Kōnyū Shimasu” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by piyo.

It feels a bit odd to be saying that the theme of this second volume is the “well, that escalated quickly” meme. After all, the first volume was not exactly a Slow Life sort of book, featuring dead parents, demonic possession, forced slavery, etc. And yet this second volume definitely feels like it’s upping the ante, as we get all those things again, with an added dose of “creepy eugenics experiments on flora and fauna”, and the inevitable “wanted for a crime against the state and hunted down like a dog”. Fortunately, it’s a different state – though I get the sense that this will be happening to Chloe and Julius with every country they go to. Fortunately, now that they’re admitting their feelings for each other, the relationship between the two has become a highlight, and Chloe’s annoying habit of praising herself has become both a beloved running gag and a necessary evil. It’s how she copes.

After a few brief scenes at Chloe’s shop, which include making an artificial hand for the very apologetic King Cyril, Chloe and Julius are off to the Kingdom of Rasheed. There they not only might be able to find a dragon to mate with Julius’ beloved Helios, but they also may have a Seal Master who can do something about Julius’ slave marker. Unfortunately, there are a few signs that this is not going to go as smoothly as possible. Eliza, one of the antagonists of the first book, has escaped from prison and fled the country, and it doesn’t take a crystal ball for the reader to guess where she’ll be. More to the point, Rasheed has its own little “a demon has possessed someone and is working to cause chaos and destruction” issue, only this time with the full support of the royal family… well, part of the royal family. What’s more, the angels and demons have a far closer tie to Chloe than expected.

Chloe is a lot easier to take in this book than the first one, and her “beautiful young maiden” mantra is used even more than before. You could argue that she could also say that she’s a complete angel, but after the events of this book, that might hit a bit too close to home. I enjoy that Chloe and Julius have a nice, realistic falling in love relationship, which lacks the sudden realization of other stories in the genre but simply develops naturally and calmly, as Chloe realizes and accepts her feelings. There’s also a few hints dropped here about Julius’ own past, and I get the sense that may be the next arc. That is, once we finish off this arc. The book ends mid-battle with a big cliffhanger,

I enjoyed this a great deal. It’s got some nice romance bits, a plucky young heroine who does badass things and can hold her own with the hero, and some good action and drama. I wonder when Book 3 will hit…

Looks Are All You Need: Tatsuki’s Breakbeats

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By Ghost Mikawa and necomi. Released in Japan as “Kao Sae Yokereba Ii Kyōshitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Evie Lund.

One thing that I’m really enjoying about this series is how it’s not really any of the two types of books we see these days. Generally speaking the largest category of light novel can be categorized as “fantasy” in some way or another, be it isekai, reincarnation, military books with magic, etc. There’s some sort of supernatural thing or power involved. The other genre is “romance” in some way, shape or form, with the romance of the lead character being one of the main plots. But Looks Are All You Need isn’t either of those. Shiika’s talents are partly due (we’re told) to her synesthesia, but that is a genuine condition, not a made up cool power. Same with Erio and her huge range. Here we meet dance prodigy Tatsuki, and we learn that it’s really just hard work and a desire to change something that drive her. It may be told in an overdramatic, shonen-esque manner, but the most unrealistic part of the series is probably Gakuto’s ability to beat people up. As for the romance, there may be a few crushes here and there, but it’s not remotely the focus of the book. Fame is the focus of the book.

We’re up to the next major goal for our brother-sister team and their friends. It’s time for the final exam, which is done in groups with the points being allotted as the group sees fit. The music department has to post a video of a performance. Easy enough. But it has to combine music AND DANCE, and Shiika’s got the stamina and athletic ability of a sloth. That’s a big problem. Fortunately, one of the hottest first-years in the dance department, Tatsuki, is delighted to help them out – provided she gets a song from one of the group’s fantastic composers in return. There are just a couple of issues. First of all, is a really good song and dance going to be enough? And secondly, Tatsuki has her own issues, which are causing her to put up a facade when she really should be speaking out…

The core of the second book, and of Tatsuki’s issues, is hip-hop culture in Japan. Hip-hop as a genre tends to get defined as just “what rap was in the 70s and 80s” by some folks, but there’s a lot more to it than that, including dancing, beatboxing, graffiti, etc. It’s also, as the book notes, a scene that is not what it used to be. At its core, though, this explores a fairly familiar story from earnest school books like this – how to stop a friend from going to the bad side and becoming a delinquent. Which is hard when everyone has spent your whole life thinking YOU’RE the delinquent. I also really enjoy Gakuto, who is somewhat self-aware that he’s in a light novel but he doesn’t let it drive what he does. I love his stunned shock at the reminder that – gasp! – if you want to be successful you have to actually network and make good contacts. The solution to the fashion problem was also very clever, and reminds us that competitions in real life are about winning by working around the rules but not breaking them.

This remains really enjoyable to me, though to be fair I come from a drama background. Unfortunately, it’s a brand new series, and I think we’re caught up to Japan. Time to wait.