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Reviews

Sasaki and Peeps: While I Was Dominating Modern Psychic Battles with Spells from Another World, a Magical Girl Picked a Fight with Me: ~You Mean I Have to Participate in a Death Game, Too?~

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By Buncololi and Kantoku. Released in Japan as “Sasaki to Pi-chan” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse.

Content warning before we start: near the end of this volume there is an attempted rape scene of a middle schooler, and it is 100% played completely seriously. It helps to show off the strengths and weaknesses of this series in general. The author clearly wants to take several distinct genres and slam them all against each other. We’ve got isekai fantasy, esper battles, magical girls (and, because it’s the 2020s, they’re dark killer magical girls), and now we’re adding a battle between angels and demons using humans as proxy. This works pretty well when things are ridiculous, with our stoic salaryman Sasaki, his relatively stoic bird, and the amusing Futarishizuka. But it’s also trying to tell the story of an abused, suicidal middle school girl who is also deeply twisted, and it’s telling it with all the gravity it requires. Which… y’know, better than the alternative, but it GRATES against everything else.

As with the first volume of this series, things are slightly more interesting on the Japan side of the equation. This is not to say that the fantasy world doesn’t have a lot of danger, but it’s fantasy isekai danger, which means you have a lot of domineering nobles and sneering merchants. All Sasaki is trying to do is sell off all the modern things he’s bringing from Japan, but now he’s involved in a proxy war between two counts, two princes, and two companies. That said… he’s an experienced Japanese salaryman. This is what he’s GOOD at. He fares far less well when being tasked with his high school girl co-worker to try to recruit a new psychic who has fire powers. This goes disastrously wrong in ways I 100% was not expecting. That said, the most interesting part of the book was when the little princess from the fantasy world stows away when Sasaki returns to Japan… not the last time these two worlds intersect, I hope.

As for “the neighbor”, whose name, we find, is Kurosu, we get a little peek into her horrible, horrible daily life. She has to steal food from school to not starve to death, and it’s middle school, so she also has to avoid the class hottie helping her lest she be in trouble with the other girls. Her mother is sleeping with a guy who tries to rape her. Oh yes, and then there’s the corpse that drops in front of her as she’s walking home. Kurosu’s story has still not really intersected with the main one yet, but I expect that to change in the next book – the “death game” mentioned in the ludicrous subtitle of the volume is hers, not Sasaki’s. We also get a bit more about the magical girl… and it’s not really great news. She’s already killer her comedy animal mascot, she alleges that Sasaki’s employers killed her entire family and friends, and she now doesn’t know whether to trust him or not. So, y’know, just another day at the office.

If you enjoy A Certain Magical Index you might get a big kick out of this, because the chaos is the point. That said, unlike Index, there’s sometimes a realistic and very dark undertone to this series. I’ll read more, but YMMV.

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 6

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By Natsu Hyuuga and Touko Shino. Released in Japan as “Kusuriya no Hitorigoto” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

It’s time for another volume of everyone’s favorite mystery series, Murder, She Grumped. We pick up where we left off, with Maomao and Jinshi at the Western Capital (and with Maomao decidedly avoiding an extremely horny Jinshi, who is so horny he’s willing to try it on with his bodyguard), but we soon get a suicide that is not what it seems. After this they finally go home (separately, Jinshi still has to wrap up investigations) and Maomao is tricked/lured by Lahan into dealing with “family business”, something that makes her very unhappy, even as we learn about how glorious potatoes can be. That said, I think the main draw of this book is not going to be Maomao but Lishu, a girl who is trapped in a series whose base qualities are set up to destroy her, and when she gets tangled up in the ongoing plot, she is very nearly destroyed. For once, I found the non-Maomao segments in the book very interesting indeed.

A chunk of this book revolves around the cultural disconnect between East and West, as one of the plot points is that the “love letter” that Lishu had been writing, which gets her in big trouble, is actually her transcribing a translated version of Romeo and Juliet, which has taken the rear palace by storm. The funniest part of the book may be when both Maomao and Jinshi find the plot of the play incredibly annoying, pointing out how miscommunication is not tragic, just frustrating, and all the sobbing young women who say they just don’t get it. Maomao is her usual excellent self here, pretending to have an uncaring, logical mind while constantly helping everyone around her. She’s still not back at the palace yet… but honestly, Jinshi visits her constantly, so that’s fine.

And poor Lishu. The concept of the “weak” Consort being bullied by everyone around her, including her own servants, is not unique to this series, but that doesn’t mean that the emotional impact is lessened. Lishu goes through a lot in this book and the previous one, from almost getting killed by a lion, to being accused of infidelity to the Emperor and locked in a tower, to (perhaps worst of all, and the lead-up even gets an illustration) having Maomao need to “verify” for the official record that she’s still a virgin. She’s not a candidate for the Emperor’s bed, and honestly, I don’t think she’s the sort to eventually win over those around her by being sweet and kind… she’s simply too ineffectual even to achieve that. Her ending here is probably the best one we can possibly expect, and I hope that she has a far better life going forward than she’s had to date.

That said, we do now have a vacant Consort position. While I briefly considered the idea of it going to Maomao, and howled with laughter (till I realized she would probably castrate me if she heard me), I suspect it will be part of the plot of future books. The part that is not about Maomao investigating crimes like the most sullen Angela Lansbury ever.

The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, Vol. 5

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By Bisu and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo wa Kyou mo Hata o Tatakioru” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Tom Harris.

Again, how much you like this series is going to very much depend on how much you can tolerate most of the cast being in love with a girl who is not yet “of age”. It’s been around since the start, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Leaving aside her main love interest Leonhart, who at least has the decency not to moon over her in an obvious way (i.e. the way that she’s mooning over him). there’s her brother, her two adopted mages, her bodyguard… the list goes on and on. Even when she goes to an outpost that consists of nothing but soldiers, the fact that she’s able to cook makes them all get starry-eyed. At its best it’s kind of exhausting, at its worst it’s pretty creepy. Fortunately, her father does not fall under this list, and he sets Rosemary out on a new quest directly related to the otome game she’s in: find the stone that seals the demon king. Alas, easier said than done…

Of course, first we have to wrap up the previous plotline. Rosemary has succeeded in stopping (well, at least for now) the plague that’s hit their neighboring country. After returning home and meeting all of her bright young boys (who all get scenes showing how over the moon they are by merely being near her), she is assigned, as I said above, to investigate temples where the stone from her “dreams” may be. The trouble is, those “dreams” are her memories of the otome game… and she’s already thrown it off the rails! Can she really rely on what she remembers? And does it really matter as long as she gets to spend some time with her beloved Leonhart?

Again, this is a “savior” sort of book, and if you are the sort who likes your fiction a bit more gritty and realistic it must be like drinking poison. Not only is Rosemary awesome (though, of course, when we’re in her head all she can do is think of the ways that she’s screwed up), but she also inspires everyone around her to be the best people they can be. Even the “grumpy prince” is forced to admit that he really does want to rule after all (which is good, as I’m pretty sure his people would not have anyone else). Of course, not EVERYONE immediately falls in love with our princess. Some people are married. Some people are assassins. And some people are restauranteurs… OR ARE THEY? That said, a good deal of this book is “Rosemary investigates and things happen around her”. Unfortunately, the ending of this volume reads very much like “the book is going to press, just finish the last page you’re on and we’ll call it the final chapter.” An epilogue would be nice.

I enjoy this series. I like Rosemary, and want to see her succeed. I frankly am 100% not invested in who she ends up with, mostly as she’s still in her early teens. If you can get past the fact that the book is very invested in that, it’s a good read.

I’d Rather Have a Cat Than a Harem! Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game as a Cat Loving Villainess, Vol. 2

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By Kosuzu Kobato and Hinano Chano. Released in Japan as “Sonna Koto yori, Neko ga Kaitai ~ Otome Game no Sekai ni Tensei Shimashita ~” on the Shousetsuka ni Narou website. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jenny Murphy.

This second and final volume in the series is mostly sweet, romantic, and nice to read, but it has a slight problem. There’s almost no conflict at all. Indeed, the main conflict is similar to the early volumes of Bibliophile Princess, in that we have to convince our heroine that she really is famous and awesome, whereas she sees herself as sort of a random schlub. But yeah, no one is kidnapped or threatened with exile. In fact, the fact that this is NOT going to run along otome game rails is part of the plot, as Amy has to accept that, in fact, bad stuff ISN’T going to happen and she can actually settle down and be happy. Well, once she gets past the fighting tournament, where her wannabe fiancee is fighting. Oh yes, and finally meeting the heroine. Who’s Maria Campbell, so much so that they had to think of a reason to change her name.

After a brief diversion where we set up Couple #3 in this series which, despite Amy’s misgivings, has virtually no “harem” aspects to it, we get to the main plot of the series, which is… erm… well, following Amy around. She manages to help with a sick foal, she helps at the fighting tournament when people are injured, and she occasionally deals with a few of the remaining nobles who believe that they can sneer at her. (This goes very badly for them later on.) She also hears from her brother, who is finally heading home from his fighting monsters job, and is bringing a new friend!… and a new reincarnation, as Yasmine (real name: Maria… no, really) turns out to have also come from Japan. In fact… Yasmine is the heroine of Amy’s otome game! Does this mean she’s on the route to doom?

As indicated above, no. The heroine is sweet as pie, in denial about her feelings for Amy’s brother, and also gives out an interesting tidbit – to her, this world is based on an RPG game she and Amy’s brother played back in Japan. She’s never even heard of Amy’s otome game. This is what allows Amy to finally settle down and admit that she’s not going to end up in a Villainess book. As for her relationship with Edward, most of the conflict there is to get Amy, a girl who has never been in love either here OR in Japan, to understand what these feelings are. Once she does, things move pretty fast, even though her father has to at least pretend to be a difficult dad. (It’s been a lifelong dream of his, you see.) Tsundere girl gets far less to do here, but ends up with her foreign prince. Amy’s best friend ends up marrying Edward’s best friend, once he is able to get through to her. Everything’s fine.

This is a good book, and I’m glad I read the series, but “turns out I was fine” is the summary. If you enjoy actual conflict, you may want to look elsewhere.

My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, Vol. 8

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By mikawaghost and tomari. Released in Japan as “Tomodachi no Imouto ga Ore ni dake Uzai” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

This is not a bad volume in the series by any means, and I had fun reading it. But. There’s a definite sense of the volume treading water a bit, and it becomes apparent fairly early on that this is going to be a multi-volume arc, which means that the hints of bad things going down are all deferred to the next book. What we’re left with is mostly an examination of the character of Midori. We’ve seen her as a supporting character before, and she’s tied to the plot in several ways: she’s Sumire’s sister, she’s head of the drama club, and, most importantly for this volume, she’s developed a massive crush on Akiteru. Which is driving her nuts, because she’s a stickler for rules, and one of the biggest rules is “don’t fall in love with a guy when he’s dating another girl.” And Akiteru and Mashiro are totally dating. Right?

As with Strike the Blood, this is a series that has only one character on the cover art, and it’s always been Iroha. So it is here as well, but as you’d expect, she gets left behind early on as the rest of Akiteru’s class goes on their school trip. (If you thought “she’ll show up later anyway, well, you know how to write cliched romcoms, congrats.) As for the trip itself, Akiteru is in a group with Ozuma and Mashiro, but also three others that he knows less well; the hyperactive Takamiya, the shy Maihama, and the muscle guy Suzuki. They’ll visit temples, they’ll have baths at the hotel, they’ll do party games, and they’ll try in vain to help Maihama with her love life. All the while, though, Midori is having a massive crisis.

The plot with Midori is actually handled quite well, with only a minimum amount of standard romcom shenanigans. She’s a nice girl, and it takes most of the book for her to realize her feelings and act on them. Akiteru is also nice, but also a dense light novel protagonist, so he’s still working out what love is, but Midori gives him a major hint that might help things along. (If you’re wondering which girl will actually win, I advise you to look at the cover art of the 8 books you have.) That said, this ends up being an important book for Mashiro as well. She’s grown more quietly confident, and while she still hates social situations, she can actually handle them without help now. As such, she decides to level the whole playing field by asking her father to let her break up her “fake” relationship with Akiteru so she can pursue him for real. That said, she does this without clearing it with Akiteru first, so… as I said, there are still SOME shenanigans in a series like this.

We leave off with a set of double cliffhangers, all of which promise more high-stakes drama in the next book. Which leaves this book feeling rather uneventful and flat, even though it isn’t really.

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash, Vol. 1

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By Honobonoru500 and Nama. Released in Japan as “Saijaku Tamer wa Gomihiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita” by TO Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Benjamin Daughety. Adapted by M.B. Hare.

I appreciate that Slow Life books are slow starters and you have to give them room to breathe before they get going. I appreciate that “seems weak but is actually strong” is a well-worn genre, and that if you’re going to play in it you need to follow the rules for that genre. But wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book get the first half as wrong as this series does. Starting on page one with a situation that is so comically evil I wondered briefly if this was a parody, we follow our heroine as she survives on her own, eating what she can and having only herself and her pet “weak” slime for company. After all, she’s a no-star tamer, and the slime was near death. How interesting can she be? The answer, at least till about 2/3 of the way into the book, is “not very interesting at all”. It’s cripplingly dull.

Our heroine is introduced to us when she gets her magic rating at the age of five, as all people do in her village. It’s… a no-star, the weakest amount. And tamer, the weakest class. Her family immediately despise her, and she is forced to go live in the woods, with only a kindly fortune teller helping her to stay alive. Then she hears the village chief plotting to have her murdered, and flees. She ends up walking from RPG-named village to RPG-named village, looking through trash heaps for useful items. The only thing she can tame is a weak slime on the verge of death. That said… once the slime starts eating used potions, it quickly turns out to be a rapidly growing slime indeed. As for Ivy (as our heroine names herself), she also seems to have hidden skills… which might stem from memories of a past life.

So much is shoehorned in here. I called the towns RPG-named, and they seem to be about as shallow as a generic RPG town as well. The fact that most of the people are surviving on field mice, rabbit, and pigeon meat tells you how far out in the boonies she is. I kept forgetting about the isekai part until it was brought up again, because it’s just there to explain why Ivy can use herbs, or make tea. Things do get a bit better once she starts interacting with actual people, but again, this takes until halfway through a pretty long book. Oh yes, and there’s slavery in this book as well, and the subplot near the end involves Ivy trying to protect herself from being kidnapped and sold as a slave. Unfortunately, this is not resolved in Volume One, so… guess I’ll never know.

TO Books has done well here with Ascendance of a Bookworm and Tearmoon Empire, but man, this was an absolute zero of a first volume. I have no doubt Ivy’s life will continue to get better as she finds more allies and gradually learns how strong she no doubt is. As for me, byeeeee.

Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 4: Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee, Vol. 9

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By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

And so another arc in the Bookworm series comes to an end, this one the longest arc yet, at nine volumes. The arcs tend to end with big dramatic world shifts, and this one is no different, as Ferdinand finally departs for Ahrensbach to start his new role as victim… erm, husband to the delightful Detlinde. That said, Ehrenfest is managing to stay busy. The entire volume has the air of waiting for an axe to fall, which does make it a wee bit frustrating that it doesn’t quite fall yet. It can make for uncomfortable reading. We are basically watching our heroes getting ready to carry out a series of politically-motivated murders, and only Rosemyne is bothering to question it. And even then, she’s just saying “are you really going to kill the 5-year-olds as well?”. The other uncomfortable part is the relationship between Ferdinand and Rosemyne. It’s still very mentorish, but is rapidly becoming The Elephant In The Room.

The author makes a joke about how Eckhart and Justus are also on the cover, but they’re hidden by the title box, but that does sort of fit the “main” segment of the book very well, as Ferdinand and Rozemyne prepare to be separated from each other, and we watch each of them try to outdo each other in “being strong” and also “giving amazing going away presents”. Unfortunately, his departure happens a lot faster than they would like, owing to the ill health of the Ahrensbach Aub. As such, there’s only time for one more big deadly adventure, as Rozemyne arrives back at the temple after Ferdinand’s heartwarming and hilarious Italian dinner, only to find that something seems off. Her intuition helps her avoid death, but there’s still a sense that Georgine has won the day somehow, and that means that Ehrenfest is also going to have to get rid of the former Veronica faction once and for all…

So yeah, let’s talk about Ferdinand and Rozemyne. The relationship between the two of them has become, for many people, the main reason to read the book. Certainly it’s more interesting than the relationship between Rozemyne and Wilfried, which seems utterly doomed, mostly as the two of them really are not interested in each other at all – even political marriages need SOME sort of connection. Ferdinand has been a teacher to Rozemyne, as well as a mentor, and it’s to the writer’s credit that he’s never felt like a father. Rozemyne has a number of dads, but Ferdinand is not one of them. And then there’s the protective hairpiece he gives her on his departure – something that everyone around notes is the equivalent of a marriage proposal, even if Rozemyne totally does not take it that way. I think the book is edging in that direction. The main problem with it is that Rozemyne, even if the book says she’s been growing “slightly”, STILL looks eight years old. Nothing should happen unless that changes. To sum up, your discomfort level may vary.

The next arc is called ‘Avatar of the Goddess’, which makes me worry that Hartmut’s gospel of Rozemyne is spreading much too far. We shall see. Till then, this was a good Bookworm, but also has all the stuff in it that makes you say “It’s great, BUT…” when you recommend it.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 10

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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.

If this series were not as successful as it has been, I could easily see this being the final volume. It has a final volume sort of feel to it – no, it doesn’t wrap up anything romance wise, but if you think this series is going to end with him picking one of the girls I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. It does, however, wrap up almost all the plots that we’ve had bubbling under the last few books when the series hasn’t been trying to be wacky comedy (which is to say, rarely). Lloyd’s dark older brother figure Shouma finally is forced to realize that he’s projecting onto Lloyd heavily, and that sometimes people can in fact be nice. We get the backstory of Sou, which ties into the backstory we’ve seen before, with Alka and company in the past. And we get Lloyd being the equivalent of a high school student, unable to fill out that career survey.

The career survey is actually hitting cadets a little earlier than usual. mostly because the King is trying to figure out a way to get Lloyd and his daughter together – which might work better if Lloyd ever actually figured out that Marie is the princess. He does not. He’s also very unhappy with the survey, though, mostly as he’s not sure what he wants to do with his life. Cue a series of internships, each of which are basically an excuse for shenanigans from the entire cast. Unfortunately, while this is going on, Sou has bribed/blackmailed a noble into helping with what appears to be a curse on the military city, causing people to lose control of their emotions and lash out in a rage. Can our heroes figure out what’s behind this and stop it? And what job is Lloyd best suited for anyway?

I’m always a fan of times in broad comedies where the characters show a glimpse of self-awareness. This is hard to come by in this series, especially with everyone’s favorite yandere Selen. So it pleased me greatly when she got my favorite moment in the book, where she explains to Shouma (whose mental breakdown has been nudged along by Sou into “kill his friends before they betray him”) that the fact that she’s completely obsessed with Lloyd has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he was strong enough to undo the belt curse, or even that he saved her at all, but that he treated her like a normal person. Again, Lloyd is nice to a fault, and not in a standard light novel potato sort of way, but genuinely altruistic. Even Riho, who confesses she *was* planning to fleece Lloyd, admits that went out the window the more time she spent with him. He’s just a good kid.

So we’ve dealt with almost everything… maybe. We still have the queen who likes to dress in a rabbit costume, and I think she’s the next major arc. Till then, this book is always funny (particularly the narrative voice), but also has some slight narrative heft this time around.

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, Vol. 8.5

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By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

I was wondering if any of these short stories would show the lead up to the cliffhanger from Book 8, but it’s the opposite. Most of these stem from the end of Book 7, and the two weeks or so where Tomozaki and Kikuchi are in love-love couple mode before he decides to forget that he has a girlfriend. That said, the real value of this book is the insight into the characters of Hinami and Rena. They’re similar in a couple of ways, with one basing her life around “goals” and the other around “guys”. More to the point, you could argue that both are vying to be the antagonist of this series. It’s become clear since the start of the series that Hinami’s advice to Tomozaki should be taken with a massive grain of salt, and that reaches its apex in Book 8. As for Rena, we get her tragic backstory, which also seems to be similar to Hinami’s in a way, in that both are characters whose minds do not work the way that we’re used to with light novel teenagers.

The stories here are: 1) a party to celebrate the success of the play, on Christmas Eve, complete with snow; 2) Some more insight into Hinami’s character, including additional allusions to her tragic past that are not third-hand like the previous book; 3) Mimimi coming to terms with the fact that Tomozaki has chosen Kikuchi over her, and talking with Kikuchi about this; 4) Rena’s past and some scenes leading up to her scenes from the 8th volume; 5) everyone gathers together to sing karaoke, and Tomozaki has the assignment to sing a song with everyone else there; 6) Kikuchi’s post-Christmas pre-New Year’s romantic glow, which also includes a conversation she had with Hinami at the Christmas party; and 7) an adaptation of a Bonus CD audio track, featuring the cast trying a virtual reality game.

Some of these stories are more important than others, frankly. The Hinami one was fantastic, and makes it even more clear (as does her conversation with Kikuchi) that she is going to be having a complete breakdown at some point before the end of this series. We’re still not sure what happened with her family, but certainly there were three siblings and now there are two. Her story, and Kikuchi’s, really hammer home how she has turned her life and her sense of self into a joyless empty shell, and I think she knows this deep down and that’s why she was briefly angry at Kikuchi for essentially figuring it out immediately. I also really enjoyed Mimimi’s story, though it once again reminds me she’s coming in third in a two-person race. As for Rena’s, it was certainly insightful, but also difficult to read. I don’t like her much.

So this was pretty much about what you want in a group of short stories, and the end audio CD story has a very satisfying beatdown that I’m sure isn’t a metaphor for anything. Good stuff. Now, let’s have Tomozaki fix his punctured romance ASAP, please.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life: The Promised Land

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By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

There is a famous quote (actually he said it a number of times) by Anton Chekhov about dramatic principles. One of the quotes says “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.”. This is a perfectly fine dramatic tenet to use, and I have no real issues with it. That said… you still need to write something OTHER than the pistol hanging on the wall. You can’t just have 90 minutes of ‘pistol on the wall, la de da’ and expect the audience to stay invested. In case you’re wondering where I’m going with this, the 5th volume of The Executioner and Her Way of Life does have some guns go off near the end of the book. But the first half of this volume may be one of the most boring I’ve seen in Japanese light novels, as everyone walks around aimlessly, reiterates what we already know, and waits for Menou to have some revelations about herself.

Everyone’s arrived at the Holy Land. Flare has taken Akari, put her in an ivory tower, and given her an existential crisis to keep her busy for most of the book. Momo and Ashuna arrive there, and have some warmed-over banter before Ashuna promptly exits the plot after seeing a future plotline. Momo is, to her surprise, taken in by the Archbishop and put to work with Hooseyard, who is a summary of all the “naive but nerdy” glasses girls in anime. Manon, Pandaemonium, and Sahara have arrived to wreak havoc. And Menou has arrived to fight Flare and lose, because she knows that’s going to happen. The problem is that she’s right for the wrong reasons. Something she figures out when they fight and it becomes clear that Menou has surpassed her master… in all ways but one.

The book turns around, as I said above, once Menou has a horrific realization: she’s only killed strangers she barely knew, and when she tries to kill someone close to her, like, say, Flare… she can’t do it. In other words, despite forcing herself into the role of a “villain”, she has empathy. Surprise! That said, it is pretty dramatically satisfying, and I enjoyed her burst of hysterical laughter. Akari has the misfortune of spending most of the book in a state of shock after realizing that if Menou dies, and she has to rewind time again,. she’s probably going to start losing her memories of her time with Menou, which nearly destroys her. Of course, there’s an obvious answer to this for both of them, one that Flare (who seems to be trying to commit suicide by cop throughout this book – Menou is the cop) is trying to hammer home. By the end of this book, we’ve finally moved past “I’m going to kill Akari/Only Menou can kill me”, and it will be interesting to see where things go next, especially after seeing the last few pages, which confirm something hinted since the start of the series.

I’ll keep going with this, because I want to see what happens to the characters. But “writing style” is not a reason anyone should read this series, and it makes the front half of this volume sheer murder.

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, Vol. 14

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By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

It’s been a while since we last had the adventures of Mile and company in front of us. Most of the reason for this is that the series got a new publisher in Japan, Square Enix, which necessitated renegotiating the license for the series, which takes time. But now, a mere 16 months after the last book, we have a new volume of the series. Perhaps sensing that this was a chance to show off why the series was picked up by a larger publisher, the author has decided to get slightly more serious than usual this time around. Oh, not to worry, there’s still plenty of “Mile does OP stuff” and fourth wall breaking, it’s just that the volume as a whole seems to want to go back to the main plot of the series, the one it usually ignores for books on end. It’s going to get harder to ignore from now on, though, as there are portals opening from another world.

That said, we have another plot to get through first. The Crimson Vow are hired as escorts/bodyguards… supposedly… to take Clairia and her fellow elves back to their village. The reason turns out to be trickier than that, as they wanted the Vow to distract from what turns out to be a “get married already” meeting set up by the village. This involves a lot of inbred misogyny, and the Vow quickly take matters into their own hands. The Guild then hires them to investigate a nearby kingdom, where things are just going… slightly worse than usual. For no stated reason. Mile is the perfect person to figure out what’s really going on… robots are making portals to their world from another world and sending in stronger, smarter monsters to take out the adventurers!

The elf stuff was not as good as the rest of the book, mostly depending on “ha ha, it’s funny because elf men are lolicons” and a heaping helping of “women should stay in the village and breed more elves”. The latter, to be fair, the narrative rips apart with its bare hands, and indeed one of the main themes of the entire series has been “you don’t have to get married immediately”. The second part is more setup for the next few books, made more amusing by Mile literally sacrificing some of her nanos to a portal to another world just to get information, and their irritated response. We also see that the Crimson Vow are a mature, powerful, respected team… but only in their own lands, and when they go elsewhere, or when their intelligence is disseminated by the Crown, it still has an air of “these are stupid kids, why should we care?” to it. Mike needs to become more famous, and not just as an author.

This is a good, not great book, with the series’ usual flaws. But it also has the series’ usual strengths as well, and fans should be pleased.

Emma Dreams of Stars: Inside the Gourmet Guide

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Before Yelp! and Open Table made it easy to find a good restaurant, you had two options: consult your local newspaper’s Arts & Leisure section, or buy a guidebook that ranked and sorted joints by price, cuisine, decor, and service. Zagat’s, for example, offered pithy, sometimes withering, assessments of restaurants that were capped by a starred rating, while The Fearless Critic used a ten-point scale that resembled the scoring system for a gymnastics meet. The most trusted—in the US, at least—was the Forbes Travel Guide, which employed an army of undercover critics to evaluate hotels and restaurants, and rank them on a scale from “average” to “one of the best in the country”. Though different in tone and format, all three owed a debt to a much older publication: The Michelin Guide, which was introduced in 1900.

The Guide was the brainchild of Édouard and André Michelin, founders of the Michelin Tire Company. At the time their booklet debuted, France was just beginning to embrace the automobile; the brothers hoped that distributing free copies might encourage people to buy their first car, as the Guide contained a wealth of information for the would-be motorist, including maps, auto repair tips, and lists of hotels, garages, restaurants, and attractions. In the 1920s, the Guide introduced its first rating system, eventually settling on a scale of one to three stars. The Guide also began hiring anonymous male inspectors to visit restaurants and hotels around Europe, reasoning that the nature of the job—travelling solo for weeks at a time—made it impossible for a woman to perform.

Enter Emmanuelle Masionneuve, who joined the Guide almost 100 years after Michelin introduced its star system. Masionneuve had an unusual path to becoming an inspector, training first as a lawyer and journalist before pivoting into the culinary industry. After working for three France’s most esteemed chefs—Michael Bras, Alain Ducasse, Alain Passard—she decided to put her food expertise to the ultimate test by auditioning for the Michelin Guide. Emma Dreams of Stars: Inside the Gourmet Guide, co-written with Julia Pavlowitch and illustrated by Kan Takahama, tells Masionneuve’s story.

In the early chapters, Emma functions both as a character and a reader surrogate. We follow Emma through every stage of her training, from her initial interview to her first solo trip, along the way gleaning interesting tidbits about how inspectors maintain their anonymity, interact with chefs and hoteliers, and avoid heartburn. (Eating rich meals all day isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.) Emma Dreams of Stars also explores Maisonneuve’s efforts to navigate the stuffy male culture of the Michelin Guide, where she’s reminded on a daily basis that she’s the only woman inspector. Though most of her male peers are collegial, she feels the weight of being a trailblazer, worrying that even the smallest mistake will jeopardize her future with the Guide.

Of course, Emma Dreams of Stars is also a story about French cuisine, and that front, the authors deliver exceptionally well. Throughout the book, there are lengthy discussions about the merits of various cheeses and wines, as well as numerous soliloquies extolling the virtue of simply prepared dishes, locally sourced ingredients, and regional specialties. Artist Kan Takahama does an expert job of rendering the food, using a soft palette that captures the texture and presentation of each meal in life-like detail. The same is true of her backgrounds; every setting demonstrates similar attention to light, pattern, and color, making it easy for the reader to feel the atmosphere of every restaurant and hotel that Emma visits, from a chic Parisian cafe to a dim but cozy rural pub.

Whenever the shop talk threatens to stop the story in its tracks, Takahama breaks up the stream of chatter by breaking the flow of her tight, orderly grids. Characters burst out of the frame, allowing us to more fully appreciate their enthusiasm and resolve. As these panels demonstrate, Takahama has a great talent for faces, working in a naturalistic style that’s reminiscent of Naoki Urasawa; Takahama imbues each one of her characters with an individuality that speaks volumes about their age and experiences, as well their taste in food and wine.

Though Takahama’s artwork is stellar throughout the book, there are a few passages where the authors didn’t fully trust the images to tell Emma’s story, most notably when depicting her strained relationship with Thomas, her long-term boyfriend. The two never meet in person, but exchange increasingly tense voice mails and text messages that reveal just how much Thomas resents Emma’s growing independence. Takahama’s artwork does a great job of showing us how conflicted Emma feels, but the authors saddle these moments with heavy-handed voice overs that spell out what the reader can readily grasp from Emma’s facial expressions and body language: she’s determined to have a meaningful career on her own terms, even if that means leaving Thomas behind.

If these moments feel a little forced, Emma’s interactions with other female foodies do not. In one particularly delightful chapter, for example, the Guide dispatches Emma to the Côte Vermeille, where a chance encounter with Natalie, a local vinegar maker, leads Emma to a lively farm-to-table bistro on the outskirts of town. As Natalie and Emma chat about the terroir–the secret ingredient in Natalie’s concoctions–we can see how their expertise and enthusiasm helps them form an immediate bond; by the time they arrive at the restaurant, they’re chatting like old friends.

The same spirit of mutual respect animates Emma’s interactions with another culinary expert: Kanami, a travel guide who leads Emma through a whirlwind tour of Tokyo. Kanami explains the origins of particular dishes, challenges the Michelin rating for a famous restaurant, and takes Emma to the Tsukiji Market to see how local fishmongers transform enormous tuna into delicate morsels. Emma is humbled by the depth and breadth of Kanami’s knowledge, and vows to return to Japan so that she can “keep learning and growing.” By the time I finished Emma Dreams of Stars, that’s how I felt, too. I was reminded of how little most of us know about the food we eat, and pledged to develop a deeper, more thoughtful relationship with the meals I prepare, and the dishes I enjoy. Recommended.

EMMA DREAMS OF STARS: INSIDE THE GOURMET GUIDE • BY EMMANUELLE MAISONNEUVE AND JULIA PAVLOWITCH • ART BY KAN TAKAHAMA • TRANSLATED BY EAMON FOGARTY • KODANSHA COMICS • NO RATING • 192 pp. 

 

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale: The Silver Sugar Master and the Obsidian Fairy

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By Miri Mikawa and Aki. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Beans Bunko Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

Frequently in romance novels, in both English and Japanese, I find myself waiting for the bomb to go off. It’s always really easy to spot the bomb. It’s the guy who we first meet. He’s not on the cover art. He’s usually a Swell Guy ™. He loves the heroine. He says so. A lot. Ignoring whatever she might have to say about it. Sometimes everyone else around her also assumes that they’re fated to be together. And, credit to our Sugar Apple heroine, she is deeply aware of this and runs away at the earliest opportunity. Alas, the bomb follows her. That’s when I started to get annoyed. I was on edge, waiting for the Asshole Bomb to go off, and when it finally did, I breathed a sigh of relief. Now, it does mean the identity of the villain in this first book is immediately obvious from about page 3, but that’s fine. This first book is not about Asshole Dude, it’s about a teenager who just lost her mother weeks before trying to cope with overwhelming grief.

Our story takes place in the Kingdom of Highland, where they have candy crafters, the highest ranked of which are Silver Sugar Masters, whose candy is basically endorsed by the Crown. Our heroine, Anne, has bee traveling the country with her mother Emma, learning at her elbow and growing up. Then Emma gets sick and dies. Anne resolves to travel to the main city of the Kingdom so that she can pass the test to become a Silver Sugar Master. She needs to do this by the next holy day, so that her mother’s spirit can rest in peace. Of course, she can’t make it in time till she takes a nasty and brutal shortcut… for which she will need a bodyguard. Fortunately, this Kingdom also has fairies! To be their slaves.

So yeah, I liked this book, but it has a very high bar to clear. There’s slavery here, and our heroine immediately buys a slave, because she needs a bodyguard to get there in time and does not have the ability to stick to her principles. She talks about slavery being wrong, and frees him at the end of this book, but… yeah. Fairies are still slaves, that’s not going away. As for the rest of the book, the romance was OK, but I think my favorite part was exploring Anne’s attempts to be plucky and have gumption in the wake of her mother’s death, which the book needs to remind us a few times was only about three weeks before the start. She’s an excellent candy crafter, but she’s not making her OWN candies, she’s making the candies her mother made. She needs to accept her grief, then she can flower as a true artist. That’s the good part of the book.

I also enjoy Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower, by the same author. This series came out before that one, and is 17 volumes, so we have a ways to go. If you like romantic fantasies, and can get past “slaves are bad, but here I am buying a slave”, this is a solid start.

When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, Vol. 4

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By Kota Nozomi and 029. Released in Japan as “Inou Battle wa Nichijoukei no Nakade” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tristan K. Hill.

As always, this series tends to run on character-based comedy that is 50% decent, 30% good with a side of heartwarming, and 20% godawful. Usually the godawful part involves Andou doing something mind-numbingly stupid, but aside from one poorly-delivered euphemism that causes dangerous searches on the internet, he’s mostly fine now. It’s Sagami that gets the bulk of being awful. That said, it’s good in this case, because it’s showing off that he really IS the villain of this piece. For the most part the overarching plot of this series has been very hit and miss, and we haven’t seen that gang that attacked Hatoko since her book. But Sagami’s preening, salacious inability to see anything except as a fictional construct does make him a good antagonist. And of course this IS a fictional construct that is also a romantic harem comedy, so he gets the added aggravation of being correct. I think most readers were thinking the same thing Sagami was: in a harem of four girls, Sayumi is a distant fourth place.

Each volume has focused on one of the girls in the Literary Club, and as the cover suggests, this is Sayumi’s book. The actual present-day dilemma is fairly easy to resolve, but it also ties back to the past, so we see flashbacks, from Sayumi’s POV, of how she first met Andou and immediately did not get on with him. Unsurprising, this is Andou. In the present, the girls all present Andou with a game that they’ve been coding and ask him to play test it, which gives us a string of great humiliating gags as well as a wonderful sweet heartwarming bit at the end. As for the conflict, Andou discovers that Sayumi was going to run for Student Council President in high school, but never did… and he thinks that he’s the reason for this.

Sayumi is the most mature of the cast, meaning that thankfully we get less of the antics that we got last volume (though they’re still there, sadly, but at least Andou is NOT involved in the stupidity this time). It makes sense that her arc is resolved by simply telling Andou he’s gotten things wrong and that she doesn’t regret what happened. Of course, that’s not really what this book is doing. This is the fourth volume, so we’ve run out of heroines. It’s setting up the next arc, and doing so pretty well. All four girls are explicitly in love with Andou by the end of the book. Chifuyu doesn’t really know what it means, Hatoko knows what it means and who the “best girl” is and is ready to go to war, and Sayumi is getting advice from the devil himself. That just leaves Tomoyo, and if Sagami was here he’d no doubt say that she’s “best girl” at this point, or at least the most likely winner, if she can stop tsunning it up.

As always, I don’t recommend this book to anyone but those who are buried so far into otaku culture that they don’t really notice the bad things. If you’re that sort of person, this is a solid volume.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “First Kiss Manifesto”

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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.

Last time I mentioned that the anime was just starting, and I wondered how it would be handled. Well, now we know, and we also know that apparently the anime producers like Akatsuki as much as I do. Almost the entire third volume was jettisoned from the anime, which decided it really did not need multiple episodes focusing on the world’s most toxic ex-couple. More to the point, they knew something had to go if they wanted to adapt this volume, which turns out to have the perfect “open ending” for an anime that might eventually get a second season. It focuses squarely on our main couple… well, OK, no it doesn’t. It focuses squarely on Yume. The back and forth narrative voices are skewed very much towards the feminine thins time around, because Yume wears her heart on her sleeve and is really easy to figure out, but Mizuto bottles everything up and is not. It takes a family reunion to finally crack the “my stupid ex” facade.

Mizuto and Yume have now gotten comfortable with each other, and with arguing. Perhaps a bit too comfortable, as their parents note they act like a couple that’s fallen out of the “honeymoon” phase. Because Yume is Yume, she looks up online how to deal with this, which apparently involves going with Mizuto to try on swimsuits. The reason for the swimsuit is that they’re making the annual trek into the rural hinterlands of Japan to see Mizuto’s extended family, and this is the first year Yume and her mother will be making the trip. Meeting the in-laws goes well enough, but unfortunately they also come with a hot older cousin, who Yume seems to be convinced was Mizuto’s first love. And in fact Mizuto has been acting even more remote and uncaring than usual lately. Is there something going on?

I don’t want to spoil one of the major emotional parts of the book, which involves Mizuto’s great-grandfather, but suffice it to say it’s really well handled and offers some insight into Mizuto himself. But what this book is really about is Yume coming to terms with the fact that she’s in love with Mizuto. I enjoy the way that it’s framed, as it’s not a case of “oh, I’ve been in love with him all this time”, but rather that the Yume here and now loves him, and her biggest rival turns out not to be Higashira (who is busy trying to write AO3 fanfics of herself and Mizuto, and failing) but her younger self, the one who first captured Mizuto’s heart. The reason that most of the narrative is from her perspective is because we need Mizuto to be mysterious and remote here. I do wonder what his reaction will be in the next book.

I may need to wonder longer, of course, given that the cover art and back cover copy of Volume 5 imply it’s a 100% Higashira focused book. In the meantime, this was an excellent romantic comedy volume… unless you’re Akatsuki and Kawanami, I guess. Sorry, guys, cute pool antics aside, you’re just not important enough.