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Reviews

Maiden of the Needle, Vol. 1

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By Zeroki and Miho Takeoka. Released in Japan as “Hariko no Otome” by Kadokawa Shoten. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kiki Piatkowska.

This book’s plot and characters have a familiar feel, to the point where the biggest surprise I had in the first volume is that the male love interest has a goatee. So permit me to talk about one of my pet problems with light novels in general, which is that the writers don’t feel content to have antagonists be bad people, they’ve got to be THE WORST PEOPLE EVER. Sure, you could have a simple parent who favors one daughter over the other and just, y’know, frowns when she walks by, but why do that when they can starve her to death, lock her in a room, not teach her anything (which is an issue given the heroine is inevitably a reincarnation from Japan), etc? Oh yes, and let’s make them incompetent as well. And secretly housing possible terror weapons? Hell, even the heroine’s Japanese family was awful. Of course, this means you don’t have to worry when they’re all inevitably executed. Serves them right! Easy peasy.

In Japan, Tsumugi was dealing with an abusive father, a cowed mother, and her joy was hanging out with friends. Then she dies (I assume from the traditional traffic accident) and she is reincarnated as Yui. In this world, which is the traditional sort of fantasy kingdom, her family is supposed to have a special power to weave protective magic. Unfortunately, they’ve fallen on hard times, possibly as they’re all evil (see above), and the first fifteen years of her life are a living hell. Then she’s sold to another merchant for a large sum and, once given adequate food, water, and actual explanations about how things work, turns out to not only be a prodigy but close to a goddess, with her powers being able to heal fairies (the main source of magic here) and also cure fashion faux pas. But will she survive long enough to be acknowledged?

Yui is probably the reason I enjoyed this more than it possibly deserved. She’s a character that has to walk a fine line. She is definitely still suffering the effects of her abuse – even after proper food and water, she still looks thin and years younger than she is, and she has trouble speaking through the entire book, with extended conversations leading to coughing fits simply due to her never speaking before this. But she’s relatively matter of fact about things, not being too excited or too depressed. The book does not have much time to devote to her suffering in any case, as this is 100% the story of Yui being amazing and everyone praising her for being amazing. It’s fairly charming, and never annoyed me the way I’d expect, but this is a book you should only read if you love Cinderella stories, and it definitely has a lot of light novel cliches. In addition to the abusive family, we also get the shy but large-breasted knight, and the maid who loves cute things (including our heroine).

This could easily have ended in one book, but there is apparently a second, as Yui needs to power up so that, when she cuts off ties with her family, she isn’t cursed. I’ll probably pick it up.

How to Win Her Heart on the Nth Try

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By Ichine Kamijo and Yu Shiroya. Released in Japan as “n-kaime no Koi no Musubikata” by Kadokawa Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Judy Jordan.

Years ago, in the pre-light novel days, it always seemed that manga brought over to English speakers was written purely for teenagers in middle school and high school, and the romances all revolved around school clubs and walking home after practice. I would wish that for once, just for once, we could get a romance about grownups, in real jobs, and dealing with grownup concerns. So! I have good news and bad news. The good news is that this is definitely a book for and about grownups, with grownup concerns, and they have white-collar office jobs. The bad news: if you, the reader, work in a white-collar office job, be aware that this book will hammer on your anxieties and fears for 250 pages until you want to shriek. Every “you or your subordinate screwed up, please come to the manager’s office at once” nightmare is seen here, right down to having your laptop stolen. Fortunately, this book is written for exhausted workaholic women, and so there’s a guy who can come to the rescue.

Nagi is a systems engineer with a tragic past, working at a smallish company owned by her uncle. She has two juniors, and her entire life seems to run on stress and last-minute deadlines. There’s certainly no time for romance. That said, she also has Keigo, a childhood friend who works in the same company. He’s a great guy. And a good friend. On Keigo’s end, he’s been trying for the last fifteen years to subtly convey to the oblivious Nagi that he loves her, and none of it has stuck. And in a high stress office like theirs, the question is not “when will these two finally realize that they’re a couple?”, but “can they get together as a couple before they either die of overwork or end up having to take the fall for some disaster that seems to constantly be happening?”.

I can definitely see this book’s appeal to women, with the core not being “I just need a man who can understand me” but “I just need a man who can finish all my work for me”. Both hero and heroine are flawed people with very real hangups that prevent this from easily resolving, and even after getting together we see things aren’t smooth sailing. The most interesting part of the book was probably Nagi’s junior Saotome, who is small and cute, which gets her a lot of attention. This is unwanted attention, because she’s in love with Nagi. She and Keigo don’t get on, of course, but eventually manage to work things out. Other than that, I will again note that this book can make for uncomfortable romance reading. You keep waiting for Nagi to be fired for some reason or another, or have bad things happen to her. It’s definitely showing me I could never make it in Japanese office culture.

So if you want a workplace romance, and don’t mind that the male lead tends to swoop in to save the day a lot, this is pretty good.

A Pale Moon Reverie, Vol. 1

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By Kuji Furumiya and Teruko Arai. Released in Japan as “Tsuki no Shirosa o Shirite Madoromu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jason Li.

This is definitely one of those series where you can sell it to others by simply saying who wrote it. For the right reader, “from the same author as Unnamed Memory” is quite the draw, and this series has a lot of the same strengths that made Unnamed Memory such a compelling work. Most notably that it feels like a “normal” fantasy work, rather than one filtered through Japanese light novels and webnovels. It’s refreshing these days to read books without stats, adventurer’s guilds, and the rest. This series is creating its own world, thank you very much, and the world is quite compelling. The two leads will also seem very familiar to those who’ve read Unnamed Memory, though they both lack the experience and maturity of Oscar and Tinasha. And, of course, there’s also the prose, which is excellent (and well translated). This is a book to curl up in a chair and take your time reading (and you’ll have to, it’s a long one).

Xixu is a shadeslayer, trained to seek out shades (basically evil ghosts) and destroy them. He’s very good at his job, but is overly serious and dour. He’s sent by the king (at the behest of the king’s seer) to Irede, a legendary city devoted to wine, women and song… literally. While there, he’s introduced to Sarida, the proprietress of the Pale Moon, a courtesan house with very strict rules – the courtesans pick their customers, not the other way around. Sari is only sixteen, and (as it turns out) has not yet chosen any customers, but she has other things that concern her, mainly that she has supernatural powers that can aide shadeslayers in binding the shades to make them easier to get rid of. As the book goes on, Xixu and Sari find themselves growing far closer to each other than they’d expected.

As with Unnamed Memory, this is basically an omnibus of two volumes that could have easily sold as normal 200-page books, but the author seems to like doorstoppers. Xixu is a good male lead, being dedicated and humorless but also caring and perceptive. Sari is more complicated, partly due to reasons I won’t spoil, but she’s also the one who tends to get in trouble a lot – she’s not quite a damsel in distress, don’t get me wrong, but when the climax of the book is about to happen you will find her at the center being restrained by the bad guys. As for the rest of the cast, I was a bit disappointed that the traitor in the first book was the obvious choice, though at least there was some attempt to throw us off the trail for a bit. I also very much like the idea of a courtesan house where the first rule is consent. But mostly I loved the worldbuilding and the writing. It’s the reason to read this.

This came from a webnovel, which is finished online, but we all know that doesn’t necessarily mean anything to publishers. Still, I hope it does well for Drecom, as I love this author and want to read more of this odd but endearing couple.

Accidentally in Love: The Witch, the Knight, and the Love Potion Slipup, Vol. 1

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By Harunadon and Eda. Released in Japan as “Koisuru Majo wa Elite Kishi ni Horegusuri o Nomasete Shimaimashita: Itsuwari kara Hajimaru Watashi no Dekiai Seikatsu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Arthur Miura.

I don’t expect every book I read to be good, and I know that a lot of them can pretty much be summed up as “this is an adequate representation of its genre”, but I usually like something that I can grab on to, if only for the reviews. Something that’s a bit odd, or weird, or different. No, I’m not going to talk about THAT word yet, more on that later. Instead I will note that this rather normal, generic romance novel has an odd quirky humor at times that sort of leaps out and grabs you. It’s as if the author is coloring in the lines in a book, but can’t resist all of a sudden just drawing halfway across the next page. And the scene in this book, about halfway through, when Cecily gets eaten by a wyvern, was exactly that. I laughed till I cried. The only drawback is it wasn’t illustrated.

Cecily, who grew up loving fairy tales about princess tricked by evil witches, is horrified when she comes of age to discover that she is, in fact, one of those witches. Now she has to live on her own for two years, as is tradition, and peddle her craft. The trouble is that Cecily is horribly introverted, so for the most part lives in a little house in the big woods. One day, her potion that changes her eye color wears off right as she’s wrongfully accused of theft, and a nasty incident is about to happen. Fortunately, she’s saved by a handsome knight. Unfortunately, she misunderstands something when overhearing him later and gets mad, deciding that (just as her mother did to her father), she’s going to brew a love potion and have the knight drink it! Surely nothing can go wrong.

So, let’s talk about the Princess. To be fair to the translator, I’m fairly certain there was no good way to translate this and not have it have the exact impact it has, that vague frisson of “a 14-year-old princess should not be using that word”. That said love potions aside, this is a sweet and fluffy romance novel for the most part, so when you recommend it you’re really going to have to say “also her best friend the princess says “loins” constantly”. Or else you’ll get glared at. The loins also fall into that quirky humor I mentioned above. I’m glad it’s there, as the two leads are not anything to write home about. I admit Cecily’s type, the nervous, self-hating introvert, is never my favorite protagonist to read, so that doesn’t really help. That said, I did enjoy the quirks, and, as you might have guessed, no one really does anything against their will here.

Feels complete to me, but a second book is on the way. If you enjoy collecting J-Novel Heart titles or just want to see a young woman get swallowed by a lizard, this is a good book to check out.

Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade, Vol. 4

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By Maito Ayamine and Cierra. Released in Japan as “Shinigami ni Sodaterareta Shoujo wa Shikkoku no Tsurugi wo Mune ni Idaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sylvia Gallagher.

Getting back to a niggle I had last time, I will grant the fourth volume of the series this: the adjutant in the battle here does not appear to be in love with her commanding officer. That said, we do get a lot of similar beats, where the younger adjutant is told to retreat so that the older commander can die protecting the retreat. I admit that I am very fond of just how many women are in this book, and of course it stars Olivia, who is a monster in human form. All the same, I’m seeing similar things happening over and over in this series, and would not mind a female adjutant who stays behind and dies so that her commander can get away. You know, as a change of pace. I’m also not all that happy with the running gag of the women in love with the oblivious men, even as I will reluctantly admit that’s truth in literature.

Olivia’s success is having repercussions. First with her and her close companions – she’s made a major general, and given an army of her own to command, with Claudia and Ashton by her side. She gets to attend royal balls, where she interacts with the King, and also meets emissaries of foreign nations, like the Not At All Suspicious (TM) Sofitia. But in addition, her mere existence has caused the Empire to try to find other ways to win, such as proxy wars that they force an allied nation to take up for them (it goes badly). And Fernest is also having to deal with invasions of its own, though it’s helped there by the commander and the ruler in charge of the invading state both being very, very stupid. Don’t poke at Olivia to see what she does, you won’t like it.

There’s a lot of plot stuff going on here, to be honest, but Olivia’s actions seem to flow around it. Apart from trying to find out where Z has gone off to, she really has zero interest in all of the political machinations happening around her. She’s aware it exists, and does tell her aides that she is aware that Sofitia is probably inviting her to Mekia for nefarious reasons. But she’s never, ever had any fight cause her trouble since she last saw Z, and that doesn’t change here. Her reputation is starting to be less “oh no, that’s not possibly true” to “OH MY GOD IT’S HER”, and she’s definitely going to be facing stronger opponents, but I’ve yet to see anyone who can really take her on. Which might be for the best. No one is reading this book to see Olivia struggle and have self-doubts. She can delegate that to Claudia, probably.

This is a good “military strategy” series, provided you aren’t turned off by Olivia’s glorious OPness throughout. Frankly, that’s why I read it.

Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Vol. 3

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

There *is* a serious element to this series, and it’s 100% down to “every girl is falling in love with Haibara, and he has to make some of them sad”. He’s not at a point where he can do that yet. That will likely lead to bad things down the road. Still, that’s the only REALLY serious part of the series. It’s not the sort of book that, having given Haibara a chance to redo his crappy high school and college years, is going to turn into a “no, you screwed up again, try a third time” sort of series. That said, I must admit that I was sort of on tenterhooks midway through the book. These are still high school kids, and when there’s a very strict controlling parent and a runaway kid who stays over at the house of a boy she’s clearly falling in love with, well, things could have gone very bad. As in “I will notify your parents and the school” bad. But this is not that sort of series.

It’s summer, and everyone has passed their exams, albeit by the skin of their teeth for some. This means it’s time for a summer activity. Let’s hit the beach! Everyone agrees, and they rent a nice cabin with rooms for everyone. The only issue is Hoshimiya. We’ve heard before how strict her family is, and trying to get around it by pretending there aren’t any guys going on the trip is the sort of lie that’s easily discovered. So she’s not going. Fortunately, she and Haibara manage to bond anyway, as he runs into her at a cafe, where he discovers her big, big secret – she’s a novelist! He agreed to pre-read her book, whose main characters seem somewhat familiar. Unfortunately, daddy dearest discovers this, and announces that a) she can’t be an author, and b) she has to distance herself from her friends. This goes badly.

Hoshimiya is still very much “in the lead” in this harem series, and this book gives us a much needed focus on her and her family, and shows that she and Haibara are a lot more alike than he may have realized. In fact, my favorite part may have been when she admitted that she didn’t really like him much at first because of all the fronts he was putting up. That said, of course, by the end of this book she’s totally smitten, and although you would think this would be good news for Haibara – she’s the one he likes, after all – he still can’t quite reject Uta yet. And that’s not even getting into his childhood friend, who he’s 100% oblivious to. She, at least, seems to have made her own decision, even if it hurts her, and I hope things go better for her with someone else, though I doubt it will.

All this plus a new girl, who comes on like a relatively blasé storm, and who will no doubt feature heavily in the next book. If you like good old-fashioned “who will win” romcoms, this is for you, though be prepared for your favorite to lose. That always happens in old-fashioned romcoms.

Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer!: The Invincible Saint and the Quest for Fluff, Vol. 3

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By Inumajin and Falmaro. Released in Japan as “Seijo-sama? Iie, Toorisugari no Mamono Tsukai desu! – Zettai Muteki no Seijo wa Mofumofu to Tabi wo suru” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Meteora.

It’s been about a year since the last volume of this series, but the core of it remains mostly the same. Kanata runs all over creation, finds all-powerful villainous creatures, and somehow manages to turn them into adorable puffballs, which they grudgingly submit to. It’s not a series to read for the character development, really, as there isn’t any: Kanata is not the sort of person who grows and learns, she’s just immediately OP and will never stop being goofy and slightly sketchy about snuggling her big fluffy beats. The comedy, thankfully, is also still good, with lots of great gags here, some of which don’t even involve Kanata burying her face in fur. And, as with previous books, there’s a somewhat terrifying plot and backstory in the background, if you care to look at it. Which Kanata does not. She is not here for past lives or gods eating souls. Are souls fluffy? NO!

Kanata’s general likeability and hideous strength means that people at least are not hearing the words “beast tamer” and trying to abuse her, at least. Arriving at a village, she hears a legend about an old mysterious monster who lives in an abandoned castle. She decides to go check it out… and finds the church’s knights attacking a gorgeous (but heavily wounded) vampire. This vampire is not really the evil sort, so tries to get Kanata away from her own struggles, but Kanata ignores that, and instead heals the vampire… who, of course, instantly becomes a pink ball of fluff. The vampire has fallen in love with Kanata, so happily comes along with her and her fellow beasts, though she’s rather grumpy about needing to stay fluffy. As for the goddess who has been trying to destroy Kanata, well…

The main story is only 2/3 of this book, with the last third being a side story that is mostly “let’s watch Melissa be incredibly strong but also mentally suffer”. The author indicates that health problems were why this book was so late, but I do think the presence of such a big story at the end of the book undercuts the terrifying cliffhanger ending. The goddess is basically “what if Aqua was evil”, but this does not make her fellow gods any better, and her fate ends up reminding me a bit of the ending of The Lottery. There’s also the description of the first saint’s travails (which involve the vampire we met earlier), and how the saint’s plan to return to this world basically involved reincarnating in different worlds for a thousand years, each life being terrible. It gives a certain heft to Kanata that she is not otherwise going to possess, and I wonder if the first saint part of her will ever come to the fore. Mmmmmm, probably not.

So yeah, enjoy the fluff, though some of it has a bitter aftertaste. Still fun.

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Vol. 8

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

Given that we’re near the end of the series, it’s no surprise that we’re actually picking up a number of plot threads that have been lurking around since the start of the book, and some of those plot points are quite a bit darker than we’re used to. As an excuse for not meeting up with Bel and company for the last 20 years, “I was running around the country trying to rescue women from being used in forced breeding experiments with demons” is a good one. If I’m being honest, it’s what isn’t here that’s more of a surprise: Ange spends most of this volume brooding and in a blue funk, and I wondered the entire time whether it was going to tie in to her secret demon heritage and all that. But no, it’s just typical daddy issues, because that’s what this series runs on, really. And as Ange grows up, those issues get less fun for her.

After locating Percival, our intrepid group has only one to go before they can get the band back together. That said, all they can find of Satie are rumors… until they arrive at a city which is apparently trying to kill an elf woman. This is not good news for Marguerite and Maureen, who have to remind folks that elves are, in fact, unique persons. Fortunately, Ange has friends in high places, so things settle down. Even more fortunately, the elf being hunted is, of course, Satie, who has been doing the things I alluded to in the last paragraph. Unfortunately, the “prince” has nearly caught up with her and is really trying hard to kill her, probably because she knows that he’s not the real prince. Can Belgrieve, Percival and Kasim manage to rescue Satie, or is that going to fall to Ange?

So yeah, Ange is starting to regret her own actions a bit, mostly the fact that she was going around to every woman she knew and asking if they wanted to marry her dad. Now they’re about to reunite with Satie, who the others admit had a thing for Belgrieve, and he probably did for her, and she starts to realize that she might not be the closest person in his life anymore. Ange is old enough and mature enough to know that this is unfair to Belgrieve and that it’s just envy, but that does not make the feelings go away, and her wrestling with them is probably the best part of the book. The other good part of the book is a nice bit of light horror, as there is a spell that can be used to disguise a person as another person so well that the other person does not even know they’re a disguise, and this is used to chilling effect here.

Good stuff, and a rare cliffhanger for this series, so we’ll have to wait till the 9th volume to see if we can save the day. (I suspect the day will be saved, this is not that kind of series.)

Lovely Muco!, Vol. 1

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For thirteen years, I lived with Grendel, a smart, stubborn Australian shepherd who treated me and my husband like a pair of unruly sheep. She woke us up at 5:45 am every day, herded us to the park, and marched us around until we were exhausted. She nipped our ankles when we left for work—we weren’t supposed to leave the farm, I guess—and had strong preferences about everything, from which routes we walked to which brand of kibble we bought. When she wasn’t trying to bend us to her will, she applied her formidable intelligence to foraging snacks; she had a black bear’s talent for opening containers of peanut butter, Tums—you name it. I loved her dearly, but I admit that there were times when I fantasized about living with a dog who wasn’t so determined to run our house.

With my current commute, I can’t own the happy-go-lucky dog of my dreams, but I can do the next best thing: read about one. That’s where Lovely Muco! comes in. It’s a gag manga inspired by the real-life relationship between Komatsu, a professional glass blower, and Muco, his exuberant Shiba Inu. In every chapter, Muco makes a discovery—that her nose is shiny, or that Komatsu isn’t a dog—and becomes so consumed with excitement that she ends up in trouble. Muco’s reactions to everyday situations bring out her inner Gracie Allen; she’s less dim than dizzy, viewing the world with the peculiar logic of a canine enthusiast. A trip to the vet, for example, leads her to wax rhapsodic about the cone of shame, which she views as a stylish accessory, rather than an encumbrance. Even when her injury starts to itch, Muco remains convinced that she looks cool, going so far as to imagine how Komatsu would look with his own cone.

As much as I love Muco’s antics, my favorite storyline focuses on Komatsu, who hires his pal Ushiko to design him a website. Ushiko uses the tools that you’d expect—a digital camera, a laptop—but Komatsu’s reactions to these technologies seem more appropriate for someone who’d just spent the last 20 years living off the grid than someone making a living in modern-day Japan. His child-like wonder mirrors the way Muco approaches just about everything in her life, from tennis balls to car rides—a neat inversion of their usual roles.

Takayuki Mizushina’s artwork plays a big role in making their owner-dog dynamic funny. Mizushina’s approach is more gestural than literal, distilling each character, human or animal, to a set of bold lines and basic shapes. Muco, for example, bears only a passing resemblance to a Shiba Inu, as Mizushina  draws her head like a stop sign with triangular ears. That hexagonal shape, however, provides Mizushina an ideal frame for Muco’s facial expressions:

And while plenty of other manga artists use this same device to express extreme emotion, Mizushina really captures the essence of how an excited dog reacts to new things in its environment; you can almost hear Muco barking whenever she has an epiphany.

What I like best about Lovely Muco, though, is that Muco’s thought process isn’t like Grommit or Snoopy’s. She’s not building wild contraptions or fantasizing about being a World War I flying ace; she’s just trying to make sense of the people and things around her. Her fascination with ordinary objects is a nice reminder that part of living with a dog—or any sentient creature—is recognizing how strange and interesting our world must seem to them, and taking pleasure in their curiosity and enthusiasm. Recommended.

PS: If you just can’t get enough shiba inu hijinks, you can follow the real-life Muco’s exploits on Twitter. (Hat tip to @debaoki for the link.)

LOVELY MUCO! THE HAPPY DAILY LIFE OF MUCO AND MR. KOMATSU, VOL. 1 • ART AND STORY BY TAKAYUKI MIZUSHINA • TRANSLATED BY CASEY LEE •  KODANSHA COMICS  220 pp. • RATED 10+ (SUITABLE FOR READERS OF ALL AGES)

Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back To My World Whenever I Want!, Vol. 3

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By Hiiro Shimotsuki and Takashi Iwasaki. Released in Japan as “Itsudemo Jitaku ni Kaereru Ore wa, Isekai de Gyōshōnin o Hajimemashita” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Berenice Vourdon.

If you’re looking at the archived reviews of this series, you may note that I did not review the second volume. This is because it left so little of an impression on me that I had absolutely nothing to say. It wasn’t bad. I clearly was interested enough to read the third book. But there was nothing to hang my hat on, nothing where I thought “here is something I can talk about for 500 words”. Honestly, I should be having this problem more often than I am, and I’m not sure if that says something good or bad about me. But this third volume has a couple of good things and a couple of bad things that I wanted to discuss, so let’s pick up where we left off, with this very relaxed, slow-life “Kosaku Shima isekai”. Though unlike the Kosaku Shima series, Shiro will not be having lots of great sex anytime soon. It’s a light novel for teens, not seinen manga.

Things to know from Book 2: Shiro has a fairy companion now, and his grandmother has come back, looking about 20 years old. That’s it. The third book starts with her returning with Shiro to Japan, giving a bit of backstory, and preparing to continue to hide from most of her family the fact that she’s not dead and from another world. As for that other world, Shiro is invited by the mayor, Karen, to go with her to the big city, where she has to drop off the town’s taxes and go to a ball, where she is traditionally mocked for being a hick. As for Shiro, he tries to join a merchant’s guild in the big city, but is mocked and belittled. Can he manage to solve both his problems and Karen’s at the same time?

Everyone loves watching an arrogant noble get what’s coming to him, and though the noble is a merchant here, we get that, in a major scene showing Shiro at his most ruthless. That said, the best scenes in the book were near the end, as Aina, who came with Shiro to the big city, returns with a present for her mother, one that triggers the grief for her missing presumed dead husband she had been burying, and now she and her daughter are crying and thinking they’re terrible. The way Shiro handles THIS, rather than fending off nobility with awesome shampoo, is what makes him attractive as a protagonist. On the down side, I really dislike Shiro’s grandmother here. I’d be OK with her deciding to let the rest of the family believe she had died if she was going to stay in the fantasy world, but having her hang out with Shiro in Japan and pretend to be his childhood friend in front of his younger sisters is creepy and also a level of lying too much for me.

That said, the cliffhanger ending may need to let the cat out of the bag anyway. Till then, good job, Peddler in Another World, you rose above being faceless to only somewhat faceless.

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 5

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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 Veles Svitlychny and Lorin Christie.

I’ve talked before about how I enjoy the Loner Life light novels a bit more than the manga because the manga makes things lighter and fluffier, but trust me, I 100% get why nearly everyone says “skip the books, read the manga” when it comes to this series. Leaving aside the writing style, which is still so rambling and broken that at times I wasn’t sure if I had spotted an editorial mistake on Airship’s part of just Haruka repeating himself for no real effect, there’s the fact that the plot meanders and wanders all over the place. At the start of the book we learn that war has been declared on Omui, and it’s not until 350 pages later (these books are loooooong) that we finally start the process of taking care of that war. What replaces it? Mostly Haruka making bras. Lots and lots of bras. Because this series is also still deeply, deeply horny, another aspect mostly lost in the manga adaptation.

Class Rep is back on the cover art again, which means Haruka is on the “alternate cover”, just like the first volume. He’s crying and hiding his face, though, which reminds you that there’s a core of real pain and anguish behind all this nonsense. Most of the book involves the girls all trying to get past Level 100, and also defeat a dungeon boss all by themselves with no help from Haruka, Angelica, or Slimey. They succeed in the former, but not quite in the latter, partly as they’re too wedded to the “fantasy” aspect of this world to realize, as Haruka does, that he can use normal science-based solutions. Elsewhere, an assassin, who turns out to be the Princess’ maid and childhood friend, comes to kill Haruka, which goes about as well as you’d expect. And then there’s that pesky war…

Everyone is familiar with the meme “I know writers who use subtext, and they’re all cowards!”. If you take that and add “no” before the word subtext, you’ve got Loner Life, a series which requires you to read between the lines to have any hope of enjoying it. So much of this series is a meditation on grief and mourning, about trying to improve daily lives so that people don’t have to live in fear and can think of the future. Haruka remembers everyone he couldn’t save, and all those deaths haunt him almost to breaking point. Class Rep talks about the girls going nuts over food and clothing mostly so that they don’t end up crying in despair over never being able to see home again. The owners of the inn where they’ve been staying just cry silently as they watch Haruka rebuild it into an eight-story inn/bunker that will be a safe haven for innocents during the upcoming war. As for the bra scenes… yeah, OK, sometimes it’s not subtext but text. The bra scenes are there to titillate. Still, it’s nice that the girls all have well-made underwear now.

The volume has no real ending, and you get the sense we got to page 420 and the editors said “just stop here and we’ll begin Book 6 where you left off”, which is the danger of webnovels. If you enjoy overanalysis and ridiculousness, Loner Life continues to provide. But prepare for incoherence as well.

Earl and Fairy: The Elegance of a Villain

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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.

This may come as something of a shock to all of you, but I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to light novels. As such, you’ll need to simply smile and nod when I tell you that my reaction to hearing about the license of Earl and Fairy was not “oh my god it’s a 20-year -old series” or even “oh my god it’s 33 volumes long”. but rather “oh my god it’s a Cobalt Bunko title”. Back in the day, the main reason I became interested in light novels at all was due to an anime – based on a light novel – called Maria-sama Ga Miteru. That was ALSO published by Cobalt Bunko, Shueisha’s novel line for young women. For years, Shueisha light novels were in the “nope” category of license requests, and even after it opened up a bit Cobalt was still “nope”. This is a big deal, folks, and hopefully opens doors. The good news is that the book itself is a classic shoujo potboiler.

Lydia is a bit of an eccentric young woman. Leaving aside her red hair and green eyes (which in England in the time period this is set in means she’s a target of abuse), but she’s also a self-proclaimed “fairy doctor”, trying to follow her late mother. For the most part, no one believes anything she says. Then, when journeying to see her father in the city, she’s kidnapped – and then kidnapped again by a different kidnapper rescuing her from the first kidnapper. Her rescuer is Edgar, a handsome if somewhat jerkass man who not only is the chief suspect in a string of horrible murders but is also possibly the heir to an earldom that has connections to fairies. Only Lydia can help with her fairy knowledge… which Edgar doesn’t really believe in either.

The ‘category’ on my page says this is ‘earl and THE fairy’ because I reviewed the Viz Media manga of this series a long, long, time ago, and they translated it with the extra the. The whole series is old-school shoujo fantasy, and it’s all the more enjoyable for it. Lydia is quick-thinking and intelligent, doesn’t trust Edgar but feels drawn to him anyway, and thankfully is not a constant ball of aggrieved rage, which, frankly, Edgar sometimes deserves. He treats Lydia horribly, but we’re meant to listen more to his two servants, who note how nice and charming he’s being to her rather than resorting to his usual behavior (i.e. threatening to kill). He’s just as drawn in as she is. Also, this is definitely a fantasy, because spoilers, fairies really do exist. The mythology is actually very well done, and there’s nothing here that would scream “this is Japanese” at all. Which may be a good selling point in this era of “long title that is also the plot” books.

I urge people to pick this book up. It’s a good story, buying it means we’ll get more of it, and buying it even more means we might get more Cobalt titles in the future. Less Isekai’d dudes with swords more of this.

A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 6

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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 Yuko C. Shimomoto.

This is, for the most part, another solid volume in the series, with one exception that I’ll get to later. For all that I’ve been talking about Yuto accidentally becoming overpowered and a celebrity, that’s mostly just due to his personality and the way that he reacts to things vs. how everyone else in the game reacts. Looked at objectively, he’s rather clever, tends to choose the right option, and his constant experimentation usually pays off, even if it can lead to disasters at the start. Heck, even those disasters can be monetized -I loved the idea of selling his experiments with carbonated beverages as a “mystery box” where you could get delicious or awful. I also enjoy his interactions with Alyssa, whose freakouts every time Yuto casually mentions something he’s done are always funny. As always, there’s limited to no plot or character development, though that may change in the next book in the series, which implies he’ll buy a house. But that’s next book.

Most of this volume consists of Yuto and his companions going through various dungeons, each one hidden in a different cardinal direction. Given that a lot of this involves battling rather than taming or crafting, it’s not a surprise that it takes him a while to plow through them, and both he and his tames monsters suffer a bit. (The image of Sakura constantly being set on fire is, thankfully, not illustrated.) The reward for each dungeon turns out to be a broken child’s toy, and the implication is that this will pay off once you get them all – which turns out to be true. More importantly, though, Amelia invites Yuto to a tea party that’s going to be livestreamed, and leads to hilarious consequences as, once again, Yuto fails to realize how iconic he’s become.

Right, let’s get around to the thing I didn’t like. There is some good in it – the book introduces a necromancer who is a boy dressed in feminine clothing, and Yuto and various people say, a few times, that there’s nothing wrong with that. And, when the same character is bullied and shamed by another player, a few people come to his defense, including, eventually, Yuto. It’s more realistic than I’d expect, with a lot of folks sitting there doing nothing till they realize the tide has turned and it’s safe to speak up. The problem is that the author can’t resist the old anime trope of having everyone, including Yuto, think of said feminine boy in a romantic light and then quickly doing a “no homo!” bit to show off that it’s OK, still safe to read this, any men who might enjoy this series. And unfortunately, the latter eventually outweighs the former. It’s aggravating.

Other than that, though, this is a perfectly good volume in this very mellow series. I think we’re in a “time to renegotiate the contracts” lull right now, so it may be a longer wait till Book 7, but I’m happy to read more.

Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home!, Vol. 5

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By You Fuguruma and Nama. Released in Japan as “Kasei Madoushi no Isekai Seikatsu: Boukenchuu no Kasei Fugyou Uketamawarimasu!” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

Welcome to Housekeeping Mage from Another World, the Zeno’s Arrow of light novel titles. Every volume we get closer and closer to Alec and Shiori sitting down and talking about their respective pasts, and every volume it continues to not happen. We’re closer than ever here. Shiori has pretty much figured out by researching who Alec really is. Alec has pretty much figured out where Shiori comes from, mainly due to her slipping up on occasion. Indeed, one of the big subplots of this book involves her doing something really impossible for this world. They’re kissing, and petting, and at the end of the book have moved in together. But trauma still holds them back. Shiori is hung up on a) Alec’s status vs. her own, and b) the scars on her limbs from her earlier experiences. Each volume she heals a little more, and we keep hoping to get that final step. Alas, still not quite there.

The bulk of this volume is taken up with a mystery story, though the author makes it a bit easy for us by signposting the guilty party immediately. The whodunnit is not the point. It’s the Nativity Festival, and a singer from another city is coming to give a performance. Unfortunately, someone is apparently trying to sabotage her. Half her orchestra has come down with what appears to be food poisoning, and without a full orchestral sound the performance will not be nearly as impressive. Shiori is asked if she could provide the illusion magic with stories that she’s done at the orphanage to help pep things up. Alec, meanwhile, is asked to help them try to find the saboteur. Is it the singer’s friend, the #2 singer in the city, who might be jealous? Mmmmm… probably not, as when we meet this other singer she’s about as conniving as a ball of yarn.

If I had a nickel for every time Housekeeping Mage from Another World had a major plotline end up being heterosexual when everything before that pointed to it being gay, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. This one is not quite as obvious as the one from the last book, but I was very much wondering if this would be a love triangle with the two singers as a couple, but no, this series is far too heteronormative for that to happen. We’re even given a flashforward to assure readers that everyone is properly married in the future. I will also admit that at times the writer gets a bit too syrupy for my tastes… usually when trying to pour on the heteronormativity, in fact. Other than that, this is a very solid volume of the series, with some fun “mystery” and excellent Alec and Shiori interaction, despite their still not quite opening up fully.

Will things finally come to a head next book? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s definitely worth a read.

The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles, Vol. 3

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By Tatematsuri and Ruria Miyuki. Released in Japan as “Shinwa Densetsu no Eiyū Isekai Tan” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by James Whittaker.

This is likely my final review of this series, but I want to assure everyone that it’s not for the usual reasons of “oh hey, this just became intolerably bad”. It’s more that this has simply not become a story I personally wish to read. I can see why others would want to read it, though. It’s very teenage boy. There’s a kickass guy with an eyepatch, taking out swathes of enemies by himself, with multiple girls as love interests, a couple of whom actively try to seduce him whenever they get the chance. It is, in other words, a light novel. The one drawback, and the reason I’m moving on, is that it’s so goddamn serious 90% of the time, I had picked this up as it had a lot of similarities to Altina the Sword Princess, which is on indefinite hiatus forever, but even Altina, which had some dark moments, was fairly lighthearted. This is just too straightforward. There’s no subversion, no meta, no in jokes. It’s a cool guy being cool.

After the events of the last book, Hiro and Liz are asked to come back to the palace to get even more accolades. For Liz this means command of an army, which goes out to quell someone or other. For Hiro is means a new job… a somewhat suspicious job. He’s asked to head north to Lebering, the kingdom to the north of the Empire. Hiro almost immediately finds himself caught up in a throne war while there, and needs to try to escape, save the crown princess who appears to be the one member of the royal family who is not dead or bloodthirsty, and try to quell a rebellion WITHOUT asking for help from the Empire – who would likely simply annex the kingdom and make it part of its own. Can Hiro pull all this off and still find time to pose dramatically?

There’s not a total lack of humor. Liz is by her very nature a fun character, even if she’s written as a bit too naive, and Rosa toes the line of being “the annoying sexy one” without ever actually going over it. The battle scenes are well-written, even if sometimes they go a bit too far into “we’ll write a lot of rape scenes offscreen to show that these are the EVIL soldiers”. The main issue is Hiro, who remains steadfastly uncompelling, despite being isekai’d from Japan *and* the old warrior Mars now come back to life. There are hints that he might get more interesting in future books, but the hints are that he might go down a darker, more amoral path, which are not hints I like. Even the big reveal at the end, which should have been more surprising, suffered because it was filtered through Hiro’s “of course, I knew all along” boringness.

If you’re the sort of person who enjoys those fanfics that rewrite Naruto or My Hero Academia with the hero being “darker and more badass”, this is a great book for you. But I just want something a bit *less* straightforward these days.