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I Don’t Want To Be the Dragon Duke’s Maid! Serving My Ex-Fiancé From My Past Life, Vol. 1

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By Mashimesa Emoto and Masami. Released in Japan as “Ryū Taikō no Senzoku Jijo wa Goenryō Shitai! Tensei Saki no Okyūji Aite wa Zense no Moto Konyakusha Deshita” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Amanogawa Tenri.

I think most readers of Japanese light novels by now are used to the title of the book being a summary. This is why I was quite surprised that we were getting to the halfway point of this new series and I had still not seen our heroine being forced to be the dragon duke’s maid. In this particular case, this is a good thing. This world has a lot of stuff in it that needs to be explained, and we also need to get into the head of our protagonist and get used to how she thinks of herself and how she treats others. Oh yes, and there’s also the “I was killed and reincarnated with my past memories” aspect to the whole thing, which is also influencing her. But, at last, she finally ends up serving the dragon duke… sort of. We never actually see her do maid work. She’s far too busy trying to help save the nation.

The dragon duke who rules the nation of Eclair is making his first appearance for one hundred years, and going to see him is the family of our heroine, Mille-Feuille. Unfortunately, the moment she claps eyes on him she passes out, as the memories of her previous life return. She was Charlotte, a human woman in love with the dragon duke, and she ended up dying, though Mille-Feuille can’t remember anything about it except the dragon duke’s face of fury. That said, she has enough in her life to get on with. In this world, men turn into dragons once a month, and can only be calmed by a female family member giving them mana – which causes great pain and suffering to the women who have to do it, ranging from mild facial blemishes to near-comas. Mille-Feuille, who seems to have more magic talent than most, happens across a way to help women recover their mana more easily after this, and she is now secretly passing out cures. Unfortunately, people are noticing…

The main reason to get this book is the heroine, who is very much of the “I am practical and somewhat snarky and completely willfully ignorant of how absurdly powerful I really am” school of heroines. There is a test that women take to determine how much mana capacity they have, but for one reason or another, Mille-Feuille has managed to skip every one of those measuring ceremonies. As such, she is uniquely suited to handle the dragon transformations of the duke himself, who is super powerful and therefore super hard to control. The romance between the two of them is cute and very romance novel-ish, and that comes complete with the mystery villain who keeps trying to wreck things as well as the younger sister of the duke who is a jealous brat till she grows out of it. But again, the heroine is the best.

This feels finished in one volume, but there’s apparently a second one. It won’t win points for originality, except for the dragon mana transfer, but I quite enjoyed it.

Earl and Fairy: A Cursed Diamond Imbued with Love

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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.

Once again, as I read this series I am reminded just how far shoujo has come in the last twenty years, and how different it is. Everything going on between Edgar and Lydia in this series is intensely familiar to anyone who read the popular titles of the day back then… and yet it already feels like it’s from a hundred years ago, with Lydia’s inability to think anything but the worst of Edgar and his own inability to show Lydia what his love actually means feeling more frustrating than romantic. There’s also the “Lydia is kidnapped every volume, and threatened every volume, or both” problem. There’s consent issues. That said, once more, if you read this as a supernatural thriller and try to ignore the romance, there’s gold to be found here. Every volume brings a new creature that I have to google and find fascinating, and this one is no exception. We’re also getting a lot more contextualization about Edgar’s goals… and what he will and won’t do to get them.

Lydia is, unfortunately, at a society tea party, where she is forced to deal with a lot of hot gossip, most of it about Edgar, who now is rumored to have an entire harem of women. Of course, Lydia almost immediately believes this – if there’s one thing we know about Victorian England, it’s that rumors are true unless proven false. And, of course, Edgar *does* appear to be going to what is very carefully not described in this book as an opium den, but, well, is an opium den. He seems to be visiting a mysterious woman who lurks in a corner of the room… and he’s not the only one, as a marquess is also very interested in the same woman. What does this have to do with a paired diamond, black and white, which is mysteriously connected to Edgar’s family? And will Edgar and Lydia ever truly understand each other?

Edgar’s enemy in this, of course, is “The Prince”, and is trying to prove a closer heritage to being the future King of England than the current residents on the throne. Victoria is never mentioned here, nor is “Bertie”, the Prince of Wales at the time of this series (which seems to be set in a vague “somewhere between 1837-1901” time), but the general attitude of the bad guys is basically that they are, perhaps, not quite as British as one would like in a monarch. Perhaps a bit too Saxon. That said, I doubt we’re really going for any critique of the English monarchy here, but instead the series is using the time period as an obvious place where a large number of people would still believe in the fairies that are Lydia’s bread and butter, and who litter this series,. on both sides. Again, it’s all about the thriller.

The 6th book in the series is not scheduled yet, so there may be a bit of a break next. Perhaps it will allow Lydia to realize that not everything she hears about Edgar is true, and for Edgar to realize that confessing his love doesn’t amount to much if he has no future to offer her.

I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s So Cheeky for a Commoner, Vol. 2

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y 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 is a very good second volume in this spinoff series, which sets out to show us Claire’s changing views in more depth and also flesh out some of the minor characters. It succeeds, but there’s also a feeling here that this is the middle volume of a trilogy. A lot of things we know will pay off in the third book are bubbling under here, but the lack of a real climax to the book does make it a bit unsatisfying. That said, overall I’m quite happy. This book reminds us that the goal for the visual novel Rae finds herself in is revolution, and that it’s still lurking. The anime, by necessity of only getting through Manaria, was barely able to touch on this, and Claire’s ignorance and tsundere stubbornness made it a wee bit unsatisfying. That changes here. Claire is learning how the commoners live, and how the commoners die. And she’s also learning how nobles live and what they do to keep that lifestyle. And she hates it.

Claire is having a bit of trouble warming up to her commoner classmate, who confesses her love but who Claire can’t take seriously. Perhaps things will change with the arrival of Manaria from the Sousse Kingdom, who Claire “greatly admires” and had a massive crush on as a child when she was is despair over the death of her mother and also thought Manaria was a boy. The result of Manaria’s visit will change her relationship with Rae forever. We then see Claire and Rae travel to Rae’s hometown, where Claire eats commoner food, has a pathetic attempt at learning to swim, and fights off undead pirate ghosts. Finally, back at school, they deal with Yu’s real gender, and how the Church is tied up in all of this. Claire’s social consciousness is growing by the day, and she knows that things cannot stay the way they are.

Claire’s POV is still the best reason to get this, but I must admit my favorite part of the book is the development of “Those Two Girls”, aka Loretta and Pepi. Both of them get a tremendous amount of character building in this book. Loretta is being potentially married off to someone involved in human trafficking, and also is forced to deal with the fact that commanding an army in real life, as opposed to supervised by her family, means she is sending some people out there to die. Pepi, meanwhile, also discovers that her family is up to their neck in bad things, and things are too dangerous for her to confide in either Claire or Loretta. It doesn’t help that Pepi has realized that her feelings for Loretta are romantic in nature. The only one who remains in a holding pattern in this volume is Catherine, who continues to stay in her dorm room, doling out advice to Claire and ominously foreshadowing her own fate. Clearly this will pay off in the final book, but it does not here.

It does, however, really make me want to read the final volume in this series. It was 14 months here between Vol. 1 and 2, hopefully it won’t be as long between 2 and 3.

The Evil Queen’s Beautiful Principles, Vol. 1

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By Reia and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Akutoku Joo no Kokoroe” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Gigi Li. Adapted by Abigail Clark.

Even if it didn’t also have the same artist as well, I think that readers of this new series will quickly realize that the author is the same as Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter. In fact, the author straight up admits that the idea for this series came about when she thought “what if Iris’ world had magic?”. The book tries not to go along the same lines, and indeed Luxeria’s story is a lot darker and more tragic than Iris’ (well, at least Iris rewriting her own story). But after the time skip, you gradually see that this is another woman who likes to surround herself with super competent servants and colleagues who she has also, in adventures we hear about but do not see, “recruited” from various circumstances. And there’s also a lot of “how do we create a better, more equal kingdom” worldbuilding here, as everyone knows that things need to change but actually making those changes is difficult and takes a while. That said… yeah, this is darker than Duke’s Daughter.

We open with our protagonist, Luxeria, stabbing her groom with a sword on their wedding day in front of the rest of the wedding party. We then track back a bit to see how we got to that point. Young Luxeria is commanded by her family to go live in a tower by herself. She’s delighted by this, as her overpowered magic allows her to see into people’s hearts (and also mind control them a bit), and she dislikes how it makes others uncomfortable. She’s supplied with a maid, the one girl out there who seems to be immune to Luxeria’s powers, and the two settle in and become good friends. Unfortunately, this kingdom is a monarchy but also has five strong marquess houses that have a lot of power. This means that they make an attempt on her life, put the maid into a coma, and kill her parents, the king and queen. Kinda sucks. Oh yes, and she’s a Japanese reincarnation, because of course she is.

I was expecting this to be a typical villainess book where the evil is just a bunch of misunderstandings, but no, Luxeria is out for revenge on those who killed her family and is determined to exact it. Of course, she does not want to exact her revenge while also destroying the country, which is where all that worldbuilding I mentioned above comes in. Actually, I think a flaw in this volume is that I want things to go a bit more slowly. We meet several of her underlings here, but the story of how she got them to work for her instead of against her (her main spy was trying to kill her, in fact) is not told here, but instead we just get a “ha ha yeah those were the days”. The relationship between her and her tragic groom is… also not handled well, mostly as he’s barely in the book. The relationship between her and her maid Alicia is the best thing about the book, and I hope the trust the two have in each other is not broken in the second half.

This was apparently not as long as Duke’s Daughter, so will wrap up in the next volume. I’d recommend it for fans of the earlier series, or for those who want a complete set of villainess books featuring characters called Alicia, of which there are many.

The Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival, Vol. 1

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By Harunori Biyori and Hitaki Yuu. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyō Survival” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Camilla L.

This is another one where I had a different idea of what it was going to be like before I read it. When I typed up the premise in Manga the Week of, I said it was an Otome Game Reincarnation Meets Survival Game. Which… is not inaccurate per se, but I think fans of both genres are going to find this a little less than what they were hoping for. For otome heroine fans, while there are multiple reincarations and a villainess to go with our heroine, it only becomes relevant at one point in the story. As for the survival game, that comes right at the start and then is mostly setup for future volumes. As for what this actually is, well, it’s an attempt to tell a “dark” otome heroine story, featuring a heroine who learns how to kill in order to survive. That said… it’s a stat head book. If you’re the sort who can’t get enough of people raising their STR stat +1, you’ll be in clover.

Alicia, an orphan who is trying to live like a plucky young girl despite the orphanage being a Pit Of Evil, is accosted one day by a madwoman. She says this is actually an otome game, and Alicia, the heroine, is destined to be the secret daughter of nobility and end up at a school with multiple men vying for her. The other woman tries to use a magic crystal to transplant her soul into Alicia’s… which only partly succeeds, then Alicia, being a desperate 7-year-old, kills her. Now that Alicia has the woman’s knowledge of this world… and, it’s hinted, a healthy dose of nihilism… she returns to the orphanage, where she was about to be sold to some pedophile, kills the old woman running it, and flees. As she walks through the forest and cities of this world, she gradually works out how magic really works in this world, self-trains, gets help from a few allies, and gradually grows incredibly overpowered. Despite this, she never loses her new personality.

As you can likely guess, someone’s been watching a lot of the “dark magical girl” shows and thinking “hey, I can do that”. And, to be fair, they can do it pretty well. The usual complaining about stats aside (and believe me, it’s very annoying), Alicia, later Alia, is an interesting protagonist, whose influx of memories from the woman who attacked her helps to ward off accusations of her being nothing like any other 7-year-old out there. The same applies to Elena, the future Villainess of this world, who is also, separately, trying her best to avoid her fate in the game. Frankly, the meeting between Alicia and Elena is the highlight of the book, and the final scene may not be yuri (they’re both too young, leaving aside their mental age), but it’s fraught with doomed Birdie Wing-style dramatics, as one pledges to do one (and only one) thing to help the other no matter what, and the other promises to kill one (and only one) person for the other no matter what. It was damn cool.

That said… again, hope you like stats. I’m definitely reading the 2nd book, though, which may have a new cast, given our heroine fakes her own death at the end of this one.

Management of a Novice Alchemist, Vol. 1

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

It’s been a while since I’ve come at a light novel series from this direction. Lately, the Japanese companies are getting clever, and getting an English-language company to license a series several seasons before the anime is announced, so that the anime can drive up sales of the book. But when Management of a Novice Alchemist came out in the Fall of 2022, the novel and manga were both absent here, meaning the anime was many people’s first exposure, including mine. Well, “many people” in quotes. This is not exactly Chainsaw Man. There was a small following who enjoyed a mostly laid-back series with the occasional monster battle. And now, a year and a half later, we have the novels, and good news! The same vibe carries through to the books. That said, the anime either added a lot to the start of the series, or else it was brought in from future books. Sarasa’s past is not important here. The shop is all.

Sarasa Feed has just graduated from the Royal Alchemist Academy, and is now able to call herself one of that rare profession. Her master decides to give Sarasa a gift to celebrate her graduation (and also her saving and scrimping to buy the ludicrously expensive 10-volume Alchemy Encyclopedia) and gets her her very own shop at a low low price, where she can start selling potions and remedies. There is one slight snag – the shop is in the middle of a very remote village. And is a bit of a fixer-upper. That said, the core of it is still excellent, and Sarasa is an orphan girl who’s spent her entire life surviving on pluck and guts, so Sarasa settles in, cleans up, orders furniture, and opens shop. Soon she has a shop assistant, a girl two years younger than her 15 (the age of maturity here), and she’s able to find a nearby city where… well, at least one of the shops is not there to rip her off. Most importantly: Sarasa is a totally normal, ordinary garden-variety alchemist. And not an insanely talented terrifying prodigy at all.

Sarasa is pretty much THE main reason to read this. Her matter-of-fact, blase narration sucker punches the reader as well into underestimating her, but we do notice right off the bat that she spent her entire school life studying and making no friends, that her mentor is a Master Alchemist revered the world over, and that she’s not only terrific at alchemy but, when she physically strengthens herself, can easily lift huge logs and take out grizzly bear monsters. She is essentially Twilight Sparkle as a human light novel girl. Two warnings, though, which the anime watchers noticed as well. First, this is another series where the lead cares far more about breast size than I ever will (she’s relatively flat, of course), and it does not go away. More importantly, Sarasa believes everything has a cost, and she will be enforcing that, even if you bring in an adventurer who’s lost an arm and is on the verge of dying. We do not do things out of the goodness of our heart here. Well, mostly. She is a bit of a softy. But the girl still owes Sarasa a huge amount of money for saving her life.

If you liked the anime, you’ll like this. If you never tried it, this is a good one for girls who say they’re typical but are anything but, misers, and a slow life that really isn’t.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “Within Arm’s Reach”

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By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

This is the first volume taking place after our main couple have gotten together… again… and as you can imagine, it’s leading up to one big scene. That said, it certainly does meander before it gets there. This series has always played with viewpoint – from the start, the main chapters alternated between Mizuto and Yume, usually with some variation on how they used to be in love but are older and wiser now. As the series went on, we got more and more viewpoints from the POV of other characters, such as the best friends of our lead couple, or the rest of the student council. And honestly, with this volume I think we may have finally gotten an answer to the question “how much is too much”. I think everyone in the entire cast with the exception of Isana gets a look in here, and it makes the book too scattered. It’s only in the final dramatic battle/love scene that it settles down – ironically, when the POV switch is at its worst.

Mizuto and Yume are now a couple once more, but there is a slight problem – they’re still stepsiblings. As a result, they have to hide their relationship from both their parents and from everyone at school. The latter is only slightly successful – Minami and Kawanami figure things out pretty fast – but it does mean that there are a certain amount of repressed feelings that are happening. And, of course, this book also takes place around Valentine’s Day and White Day, with all the plots that you’d expect with that. We get another couple getting together here, despite some truly amazing amounts of self-hatred and loathing to get through in order to accept it – and as for Minami and Kawanami… it may be a bit longer, but they’re making real prgress as well. As for Mizuto and Yume, their parents taking an extended away trip means that they may finally be able to go all the way this time… provided this does not turn into Kaguya-sama: Love Is War again.

I will admit, I was schnookered by the author. The moment the two of them decided that this was going to be some sort of contest to see who admitted to wanting to have sex first, I was fairly certain that they were going to end up just doing nothing till their parents came back. But no, for once the two have semi-matured enough – and are prepared enough to buy nice lingerie and condoms – that they actually do end up getting past the competitiveness and having their first time. The sex, as you can imagine, is elided rather than explicitly described, but the elision is actually very clever, relying on the swapping narrative POV to give us the rhythm of two lovers coming closer and closer to a climax. Also, as with the previous sex scene in this series, the first time is not necessarily “the best sex ever” – it’s typical first sex – but they’re both happy, which is all that matters.

That competitiveness may end up returning after the cliffhanger ending to this book, though thankfully it will be in the classroom rather than the bedroom. I just hope we can get back to primarily being Mizuto and Yume’s narration.

Fake Saint of the Year: You Wanted the Perfect Saint? Too Bad!, Vol. 4

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By kabedondaikou and Yunohito. Released in Japan as “Risō no Seijo? Zannen, Nise Seijo Deshita! Kuso of the Year to Yobareta Akuyaku ni Tensei Shitanda ga” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Rymane Tsouria.

It has gotten to the point where it’s rare that we get a modern light novel that is NOT based on a pre-existing web novel in some way, shape or form. Which makes sense – the light novel is still booming in Japan, and it’s much easier to take an author who’s gotten to the top of the rankings on Narou and edit their work into something for the mainstream than to rely on things like competitions and the like. And there’s nothing wrong with the end of this series. Fake Saint of the Year ends with this volume, and it’s a perfectly decent ending that makes thematic sense, gives a hint of romance for those who want to snatch at it while heavily implying it’s not happening, etc. It ticks the boxes. It’s just… the book ends at page 115, but the Afterword is not until page 278. That’s right. Get ready for Side Story Hell.

After dying at the end of the last volume, Ellize had expected that everyone would move on with their lives and enjoy the happily ever after. There are just two problems with that. First of all, everyone is so utterly devastated by her death that they’re in abject misery, and one or two have tried to kill themselves to “join” her. Meanwhile, guess what’s not quite as dead as expected? Well, all right, Ellize did foresee this, but she also thought that everyone would be able to take care of the remnants of the witch as they’d be on the top of their game. Instead, an entity that feels on negative feelings is facing off against grieving shells of what they used to be. Ellize sees this because, rather than going to the afterlife, she ended up back in the apartment of a dying Fudou Nito, who has to help Ellize come to terms with the fact that this isn’t a game, and that she is, in fact loved.

As said, the end of the book itself is fine. I thought it wrapped everything up nicely, had a couple sacrifices that made sense, and didn’t make Ellize wander too far out of her “I am a piece of shit” characterization beyond real character development. Unfortunately, we then get two lengthy side stories. The first has Ellize, post-ending, traveling to an alternate world… the one of the actual game, the one where Eterna dies. It’s the ending she always wished she could fix, which is why she made all those changes in her own timeline. Now she gets the chance to fix it. It’s like reading someone tagging AO3, only in real life. In the second story, Ellize discovers a rift that leads to modern-day Japan, and does eventually close it as it’s dangerous… but not before she goes back there, eats delicious food, buys modern bread so she can make French Toast back home, and meets up once more with Yamoto Tamaki… while also creating complete chaos, as she’s walking around looking like the most gorgeous woman in the world, and also a very recognizable video game icon. This was even more pointless than the previous story.

So yeah, I get that you can’t just release a book that’s Slayers-length these days, but sometimes side stories aren’t really needed, right? Overall, despite my issues with Ellize’s narrative voice and self-loathing (which ends up saving the day, to be fair), this was an OK villainess series.

A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 9

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By Yuu Tanaka and Nardack. Released in Japan as “Deokure Tamer no Sono Higurashi” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by A.M. Cola.

If you read this series to watch it tick boxes, this is a very good volume. As you can tell from the cover, we get to tick the box ‘beach episode’, as Yuto and his tamed monsters get to dress in swimsuits for the beach (though apparently the non-human ones have to wear one-piece suits, presumably so we don’t have to deal with penguins in bikinis) and also got to have their very own Jurassic Park event on an uncharted desert island (which, of course, he manages to complete by himself purely on instinct and luck, something which absolutely boggles the mods). Admittedly, he doesn’t come out unscathed, as there are two sacrifices for the cause… but this is a fluffy game, so when the tamed monster dies they just literally go back to the ranch. There’s no end goal to this series at all – it ends when Yuto’s two-week vacation finishes and he has to go back to being a salaryman again. The fluff is all there is.

It’s time for the Summer Event, which means Yuto and his crew get to hang out on beaches, go fishing, and try to fill up an encyclopedia of animals and insects. This is right up Yuto’s alley, as he is exactly the sort of nerd that went looking for rhinoceros beetles as a kid, though the rest of the tamed crew are a bit less enthusiastic. He also gets to (after many attempts to get past a strong current blocking the player from advancing) to an island that has prehistoric life, ranging from rare fossils to tyrannosaurus rexes to raptors straight out of that movie that dare not speak its name. (Sadly, it’s not WcRassic Park.) Unfortunately, Yuto is not really powerful enough to take on a t-rex, especially when they also come across a huge brachiosaurus. Nothing left to do but get killed… or is there a way to beat this using smarts? And what effects will accidentally streaming everything have on the event?

It’s getting increasingly hard not to call this series “the male Bofuri”, and if Maple kept to herself and got a few more animal friends, they’d basically be the same. Yuto is not trying to break the game, he just keeps doing it. It’s not just that he happened across the one way to actually win the dinosaur battle without a party wipe, it’s that he accidentally streamed it so that EVERYONE ELSE also knows. He didn’t even have to give the info to the increasingly despairing info brokers this time around (though rest assured, he still has plenty of info, and it’s still breaking their bank to buy it.) But Yuto is not really trying to get involved in major game stories. He’s here to try to catch a coelacanth, or get back to shore before he has to pay extra on his fishing boat. Like Maple, he’s simply a game-breaking force of nature, and if the teaser for the next book proves true (think sunken pirate gold), that won’t change. Looks like the head developer will have to get a divorce.

So yeah, this has no plot, and it’s never going to. It has no romance. Hell, it barely has friendships – Yuto doesn’t really hang out with other players this volume. But it’s fun. I like it.

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone, Vol. 2

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By Shigeru Sagazaki and Tetsuhiro Nabeshima. Released in Japan as “Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru: Tada no Inaka no Kenjutsu Shihan Datta noni, Taisei Shita Deshitachi ga Ore o Hōttekurenai Ken” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

There’s almost a mini-genre now that can be summed up as “OP protagonist is excessively humble, does not realize their own OPness”. It can’t simply be that they’re constantly belittling themselves and saying anyone can do what they do with a little bit of effort, it’s that when we see them in action we know that this is demonstrably false, that they really are incredibly talented and special. Several times in these books we see Beryl fighting someone or something and thinking “huh, I guess they’re not all that strong, I wonder where the real fighters are” and it turning out that no, those are the real fighters. Heck, for the climax of this new volume the opposing soldiers of the church have to literally dope themselves to even try to be able to defeat him. The hotshot disciples of the title won’t leave him alone because he’s seriously hot stuff.

After the events of the last book, Beryl is in need of a new sword. What’s more, he finds that one of his ex-students, Kewlny, is using swords far too light for her muscular body, and needs to move to a much heavier sword. Fortunately, another one of his ex-students is a master blacksmith, who took a year to learn swordsmanship in order to better his craft. (He’s also not in love with Beryl, which reassures me that the “students” he taught are not all haremettes.) As he waits for his sword to be forged, he runs into a pickpocket who is, surprisingly, able to use magic. Unfortunately, the reason she’s picking pockets turns out to have a tragic origin, and of course Beryl gets involved. Could the reason for all this turn out to be an offshoot of the neighboring country’s religion?

Yeah, evil Church again, though at least we get a good priest to show that the evil church is mostly this one evil guy and his goons. It does, however, help us to codify what magic is in this world and what it can and cannot do. The reason that Mui (the pickpocket) using magic is so surprising is because people who are magic capable pretty much get snapped up and put into the academy, so the fact that she isn’t is surprising. We also hear why the folks who use magic are called Wizards and not Mages, and it makes sense in the context of this world. What’s more, there are things magic can’t do. From the moment “resurrection magic” came up, we knew that things were going to be headed down a dark path. I wasn’t sure if it would mean vampires or zombies, but I knew it would not lead to happy people back from the dead and fine. There *are* series that do that (Delicious in Dungeon comes to mind), but this one runs on stricter rules.

All this plus almost none of the silly romantic antics I was expecting this series to have. A look at the summary of the third book tells me that may change soon, but ah well. This has become a pleasant surprise.

Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters!, Vol. 4

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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.

I am frequently proved wrong when I write reviews of light novels, but it’s rare I’m proven this wrong this fast. Last volume I wondered if we could get a bit more of happy, joyful Sara because I was annoyed with cranky, grouchy Sara. I am prepared to do a complete 180 – after this volume, I think the reason I find Sara most interesting is because she’s always so bitter about everything. First of all, it helps to differentiate her as a character from various other plucky young girls who were reincarnated and now have massive amounts of power in their adorable teenage bodies, and secondly because it’s not really tied into her past life in Japan. We know she spent most of it sick, and that is why she seems to find such joy in seemingly normal things in this world (like the butterflies), but the cranky “why are you telling me what to do/including me in your drama?” is entirely her own self, and it’s just fun.

Sara, Allen, Nelly and Chris are headed towards Nelly’s hometown to get Nelly’s family to become Sara’s guardian, so that she is less likely to be forcibly abducted by the knights. On their way there, they come across a village dealing with an infestatio0n of seven-colored swallowtails, a butterfly monster whose skin can cause paralysis when touched. When they arrive in Hydrangea, Nelly’s hometown, there is some predictable family stuff, and we learn that Nelly is basically exactly what we guessed she was, but their dungeon is also having a swallowtail infestation. In addition, Sara seems to have finally realized that when she’s not being pushed into it by anyone, she really DOES want to be an apothecary, so she starts learning basic things at the guild -her education with Chris having been erratic, to say the least.

One source of Sara’s constant simmering annoyance is the fact that everyone is trying to decide her future for her, be it passively or actively. Chris, of course, wants her to be an apothecary, and that’s one reason she took so long to decide she actually likes doing that. Nelly and Allen want her to be a hunter, since she’s got fantastic power and ability for it, but, as we see in possibly the best scene in the book, she simply doesn’t have the stomach for it – she can’t kill off monsters like it’s a game, she sees them as living creatures who don’t deserve to die. I loved her delight at seeing hellhounds in Hydrangea’s dungeon, essentially putting them on the same level as her wolves from back home. Speaking of home, it’s interesting to hear that the ‘Dark Mountain” is not just a dangerous place, but a real dungeon – dungeons simply work differently in this world. So Sara was essentially reborn at the bottom of a dungeon, like a final boss. How apropos.

The cliffhanger ending of “if we can’t take her by force, we’ll take her by marriage” implies she’s going to have to go to the capital next volume, so I do not expect her snark to recede anytime soon. This remains an enjoyable reincarnation series.

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: Illusions of History

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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.

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter is hardly the first Japanese series to feature what are, for want of a better term, “battle maids”. They’ve been around for as long as there have been anime. Generally speaking the key two aspects of battle maids are that they are ludicrously good at combat, but also incredibly proud of being maids, also to a ludicrous degree. That said, Leinster maids also have one very important aspect to them, one that can even get in the way of maid duties or combat: they like to watch Allen and Lydia be sweet together, and gush over it. In essence, they are us, because that’s exactly what I did in the last book, and in the parts of this book that feature the same thing. Oh, yes, and as if that weren’t enough, some of the maids are also orphans, kids who were discriminated against, or in one case a literal experimental child soldier. None of that matters, though, as long as you can protect Lydia and take video of her being tsundere.

When we left off, Allen and Lydia had just lost to a hideously powerful vampire woman, who fortunately had to leave before she could take care of them once and for all. Now they’re recovering their strength, trying to research vampires, protecting the boy that everyone seems to want to kidnap, and of course Lydia is also putting in the “you’re in love with me, right?” press every second of every day. (Allen’s response is ambiguous, as you can guess, but it’s clear he’s mostly lying to himself.) Unfortunately, the vampire’s reason for leaving them was to help the Church make sure this war absolutely starts, and by the end of the book they’ve pretty much almost succeeded. While back on the Southern Continent, everyone is trying to assault an impregnable castle, and they will need to combine all their “in love with Allen and badass” powers to make it happen.

Tina, once again, gets some stuff to do but is not the focus, though that should change by the next book. The main narrator here, aside from Allen, is Lynne, who has always suffered a bit from being “smaller, more sensible Lydia”, and indeed her big spell is Firebird, only this one is not backed up by an ancient hard to control spell. Lynne, like the rest of the female cast, is mostly defined by “being in love with Allen”, and you get the sense they’re all doing this not so much to save the country as to not disappoint him. Caren also gets a lot to do here, and she and Lynne have a final confrontation against a smug Church kid, and Lynne, Caren and Tina are headed off to the City of Water for the next book. Stella is still suffering from Magical Plot Device Disease, but she’s better at being a general anyway. Only Ellie suffers, as it’s frankly clear that the story has outgrown her since Book One, but the author hasn’t the heart to get rid of her, as she’s simply too nice. (And clumsy, but only around Allen. The girls know how to abuse tropes in universe.)

So yes, after a huge arc, we’re getting another huge arc, as this war (or near war) is not ending anytime soon. If you enjoy watching girls beat the shit out of people and pine for a perfect guy, keep reading, you’ll get more of it.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 14

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

I was somewhat surprised when I read the afterword to find that the 15th volume of this series is supposed to be the last. Honestly, this felt like the sort of series that could go forever, even if it did feel like it was wrapping up all the plot points. But here we are, with the penultimate volume, and the focus this time is definitely on our main Big Bad, Eve. She’s always been a fairly dislikable figure, even in the bunny suit, and the prologue we get here hammers home why she’s far more loathsome than anyone else in the cast could ever hope to be. That said, we get the next best thing: to see the narrative treat her almost as badly as the other characters in this series. (I say almost. Marie is still the worst. Sorry, Marie.) Almost every single woman in this cast has humiliated themselves because they’re in love with Lloyd, after all…

A prologue gives us the full story of what we already know: Eve has possessed the body of Vritra’s daughter Asako, who has the same incurable disease Eve has, and has been running amuck in said body since the very start of this. Now she’s blackmailing Vritra to finish her new, adult body… though when it’s finally revealed, everyone notes it’s a bit too bling for anyone to really appreciate. In the meantime, a summit is being held to accuse Eve of her crimes, held in Eve’s own country… except the king and queen are sending Lloyd and Maria as their representatives, knowing that Lloyd is a secret weapon that can defeat almost any evil plan. That said, I don’t think anyone expected this evil plan to go off the rails in QUITE this way…

So yeah, this is one of those books that’s eclipsed by its best scene, which overwhelms the rest. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some funny stuff here, and even a bit of drama, but the interrogation of Eve, and her responses to same, is pitch-perfect. Eve, of course, is baffled that she’s behaving this way, possession or no, but it makes sense: inside her rests a 17-year-old girl whose dream it is to be rescued by a prince on a white horse, and Lloyd ticks every single box imaginable. Of course love was going to come into the equation. And I appreciate that it’s the possession talking, because that’s what makes it funny rather than creepy – Eve herself may be influenced by this, but when push comes to shove, she literally concusses herself to stop it and move on with her evil plan.

So yeah, now Eve has a new superpowerful body, looks like she stepped out of a Donki, and is headed off to take out Alka and her village of oveerpowered superpeople with her anti-superperson serum. I’d be worried, except, well, Lloyd. Also, who (snicker) will Lloyd end up with (guffaw) in the end? (Come on, we know this is not resolving jack.)

My Happy Marriage, Vol. 6

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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.

Reading this volume of My Happy Marriage felt so different from all the previous volumes, it was absolutely like a breath of fresh air. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the other volumes are also excellent. But there’s always been this sense of suffocation to the events, a feeling that we’re waiting for the other shoe do drop. Frequently it has dropped, so we’re absolutely correct on that stage. Here, though? It’s only at the start, where Miyo is about to ,make a very dumb decision. Once she’s warded off that, though, everything unfolds exactly the way that it should. She seeks out allies, gets them to help her, researches her powers so she can use them better, makes peace with her mother, and heads off to go rescue her man from the hellish prison that he’s incarcerated in. And this works, because the climax is not “will Usui win or will the good guys prevail”, it’s “will Miyo stop hating herself and let love into her heart?” Spoilers: she does.

Miyo starts off this book by thinking the only way to do things is to just walk up to Usui so that she can get Kiyoka somehow. Fortunately, he’s powerful enough, even in prison, while being tortured, and with gift suppression all around, to create a familiar to stop her and tell her that she should actually go and gather allies to do this properly. The familiar also looks like Kiyoka as an 8-year-old boy, which leads to the cute moments of this book, as she finds him adorable, calls him Kiyo, and even lets him sleep in her bed – something I fear she will regret later when she realizes how familiars work. In any case, she goes to visit the Usuba patriarch and gets the complete story about what happened with Usui and her mother, then she goes to Kiyoka’s parents to ask his father to help her gather gift-users, and she gets Kiyoka’s military crew. Then it’s time to go do a prison break.

As I said, if you’re reading this for the thriller aspect, you may be a bit disappointed. Everything goes almost embarrassingly well, due to a combination of Miyo’s dream powers and Kazushi’s ability to hit people very hard. They literally walk into the prison because, due to everything that’s happened in the last couple books, there aren’t enough soldiers Usui trusts to guard it and also beat off the diversion that’s being fought outside. Even the one bit where things look bad happens exactly as expected – if you’re surprised at what Arata did, I’m so sorry, you must not read very many of these series. But the true climax of the book was Usui trying to talk Miyo into joining him in ruling the world, and Miyo snapping and screaming at him. That was wonderful, I will be so happy if it gets animated. Miyo may also have super powers and come from a terrible family life, but she is using her powers to make herself happy, not impose herself on others. Something Usui doesn’t get.

This isn’t the last book, and the author promises the happy marriage is imminent (though the blurb for the next volume suggests a snag). Fans of this series will love this.

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 14

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By Kisetsu Morita and Benio. Released in Japan as “Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt.

I had been wondering what we’d see at the end of this new volume. For most of this series, the main storyline has taken up the first 2/3 of the book or so, and the last 1/3 was taken up by a side story about another character. First it was Beelzebub, and that ended up getting its own genuine spinoff. Then it was Halkara, which did not get a spinoff but at least allowed her to be something other than “the drunk with big boobs”. And then there was Laika, probably the best of the three spinoffs, and that also got a manga adaptation. That said, we are starting to run out of characters that can carry a side series. As such, it’s probably a good idea, given that the CD dramas themselves are long out of print in Japan, to add the original CD drama scripts. The unfortunate problem with this, of course, is that CD dramas, by their nature, cannot affect anything. Unlike the side stories, there’s no character development here.

As always, this is basically a short story volume, as there isn’t an ongoing plot. We start off by Azusa and company heading to an underground city as the demons have discovered that an elder god might be released if a seal comes undone… which of course it promptly does. They then attend a demon-run exhibition about apples, showing off varieties and different scientifically grown apple-related things. They go to a cat cafe run by the ghost city, and a ghost cat ends up possessing Azusa. And then it’s time for them to run their cafe again, but since the word about the cafe has gotten out so much, they worry that it’s gotten completely out of hand and will be too big. Fortunately, the pine spirit is able to step in and help them out, and we then see the cafe (now moved to a different location) doing well with its star waitress (Laika) there. And we then get the two CD drama stories, where Azusa discovers that this world has curry, and Azusa discovers this world has ramen.

There’s not really anything to really dig into here, and I don’t think readers really want there to be. A serious, life-threatening plotline would feel grotesquely out of place at this point in the series. It’s all fluff all the time, and this volume certainly provides it. It does perhaps pretend that there’s a major crisis with the first story, but the elder god turns out to be about as threatening as all the other gods we meet in this series, and by later in the book is wandering around the town like a tourist. As for the CD dramas, it’s nice to see the scripts, but god, they’re slight. There was a bit of yuri tease that the author has been pulling away from ever since they first wrote this and realized a yuri fandom they really did not want had glommed onto it. Other than that? It’s cute, it’s sweet, it’s funny.

The previous volume of this came out in 2022, and it’s been a long time ill we got this one. The next one should be much sooner. If you wanted more of it, this certainly is that.