Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Reviews

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: The Celestial Spear, Successor to the Star

by

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

Aside from the incredibly complicated plot, and the “who will Allen end up with” parts, for the most part this series’ most interesting subplot has been “when will everyone finally succeed at making Allen into a noble?”. Admittedly, one of the biggest obstacles to pulling this off has been Allen himself, whose genuine low self-esteem is matched only by his crafty ability to try to escape getting credit for things. Because he has experienced what people think of the beast tribe, and also what people think of him personally. Man, a lot of people just hate Allen on site, don’t they? Allen tends to be famous for a few things: 1) being the one who made Lydia who she is today (and is now doing the same with Tina); 2) Allen solving every single major incident of the last year or so; and 3) Allen having a very small amount of mana. That last one, possibly even more than his bloodline or lack thereof, is what leads folks to be absolutely furious at him. And in this book, that proves fatal.

Despite the aftermath of the previous volume, the aforementioned fatalities, and a really big fight near the end, for the most part this is the relaxing volume I had hoped for. The entire cast ,minus Ellie (who gets a scene showing how far she’s come but you still sense the author doesn’t know what to do with her) and Cheryl (back being a princess) are headed to the Yustinian capital, there to meet an Alice who is increasingly getting unable to perform her hero-ly duties (and trying to hide it) and her brother Igna, who has a bad case of jealousy and envy, and it’s all pointed at Allen. Also coming along is Lily, and we get a lovely flashback showing how they first met, and giving a little more insight into Lily’s desire to be a maid (which, I remind you, in this world is basically “assassin/spy/soldier who serves tea”). Oh yes, and the Emperor wants to see Allen and Caren, commoners or no. That might be hard.

I was actually faked out by one scene in here showing Lydia, Stella and Alice all agreeing to something after looking through ancient laws no one uses anymore. A lot of folks have been divided into camps in terms of “which girl will win”, and we know which camp I’m in. I had assumed this was some sort of polygamy thing, and was surprised Lydia went along. But in fact it’s nothing of the sort. If Allen can’t get a title or a noble house in his own country, well, let’s give him one from a different country. He really can’t weasel out of this, though he tries. It’s not helped that his sister is over the moon about it (and we’re also reminded how much she’s done to save the world – really everyone in Allen’s generation is a superhero. Caren knows that an Allen with a title is an Allen who will get the recognition he deserves. Though she may be less wild about Allen needing to get married, which I think may also be an issue.

And bad news to fans of the books: if you’ve seen the anime running this summer, you now have to preface recommending them with “It’s better than that, I promise”. Still, readers of Book 16 will definitely enjoy Book 17.

Imperial Reincarnation: I Came, I Saw, I Survived, Vol. 3

by

By Masekinokatasa and Kaito Shinobu. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Koutei deshita: Umarenagara no Koutei wa Konosaki Ikinokoreru ka?” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jason Li.

I appreciate that even now that we’ve had our coup and Carmine is allowed to not act like an idiot all the time, the best scenes in the book are still either him trying to be very clever and then realizing everyone was already way ahead of him, or him realizing that he’s kind of screwed up but can’t say anything about it. The latter is possibly the most darkly funny moment of the book, when his imprisoned mother pushes her lover out of the tower to his death, and everyone wonders why there were no bars in the window, and Carmine quietly realizes he removed them when it was Vera-Sylvie’s tower and forgot to replace them. OOPS. More awesomely, when Carmine points out (and you can see his logic) that he has to be on the battlefield leading the charge, he immediately gets some extra help he really does not want, because they know what he’s like, and “I might need to sacrifice myself” would be on the table unless they take it off.

The entire volume consists of the aftermath of Carmine taking power and trying to consolidate it, figure out who he can trust and who he has to execute, and preparing for war, as the sons of the folks he just murdered are declaring themselves independent and amassing armies. He can’t even really trust his own allies – his spymaster, at one point, deliberately makes himself less trustworthy to remind Carmine not to trust even those he’s closest to 100%. He’s always going to be the Emperor, which means he’s always going to be at risk of getting killed. His biggest concern besides allies is money and weapons, as well as an army to use those weapons. Money is the biggest worry, which is why he has to try to make a deal with the largest merchant company in the world right now. Fortunately, she, um, comes to him and offers a great deal? Not suspicious at all!

The most interesting part of the book was probably the meeting between Carmine and Hilaire Fechner, the head of the Golden Sheep Trading Company. Her behavior throughout the exchange, and even the interior art, makes you think of her as basically Mikuru from Haruhi, the sort who’s always crying and apologizing – she literally comes in apologizing in such a Japanese style Carmine suspects she too is reincarnated from Japan. Then of course we see her making deals and revealing secrets that essentially end up with everything going the way she wanted. You would expect most authors to at least confirm a little that she’s really crafty and this is an act, or have a side story from her POV later. But no, all we have is Carmine’s realization that she’s putting one over on them – the act doesn’t drop even for the reader, and it could be that she’s really like that. I want to see more of her.

You really, really need to be prepared for the lead character to ramble on about military alliances and trade agreements for 250 pages. If that’s your cup of tea, and you don’t mind that Carmine is still too young to have this series get TOO harem-ey, this could be right up your alley.

Welcome to Olivia’s Magic Jewelers, Vol. 2

by

By Rinrin Yuki and Suzaku. Released in Japan as “Olivia Maseki Houshokuten e Youkoso: Ka to Mise wo Oida Sareta no de, Outou ni Mise wo Kamaetara, Naze ka Moto Konyakusha to Gimai no Kekkonshiki ni Dero to Iwaremashita” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

I enjoyed this a great deal more than I did the first volume, though I do feel a bit guilty about that, as the main reason I enjoyed it was I kept waiting for Olivia to finally break down. We already knew she was an earnest young woman with a low opinion of herself, and we saw, at the start of the first book, her treatment at the hands of her abusive adopted father, cheating fiance, and terrible stepsister. But she ran away to the capital, made a name for herself, has a shop, and also has the most attractive man in the city in love with her, though she has not quite cottoned on to that last one. That means that this book, where she is forced to go home, be a witness at her sister’s wedding to her ex-fiancee, and then discuss her birth father’s old shop with evil adopted father – well, she reaches her snapping point.

Things start off well. Olivia now has her shop, and is satisfying customers once she manages to get out of her own head and stop stressing. She has a capable assistant who tries to make her rest (with limited success). She has her friends who helped her when she first came to the city. And she has Elliot, who sure seems to show up an awful lot around her. When she gets the letter telling her to return home for the wedding, everyone springs into action. She’s given a fashion and makeup upgrade, and Elliot decides to start taking her out to fancy restaurants and the theatre – not for any ulterior motives, of course, just as a pal. He’s also agreed to go with her when she returns home. Because the one thing Olivia and all her friends agree on is that this is a giant trap.

The third quarter of this book is dedicated to getting on Olivia’s last nerve. Her father’s shop sits abandoned and covered in weeds. The one employee who used to work there, but had to retire due to injury, is missing. At the wedding itself, her stepsister proves to be a shrieking harridan, demanding Olivia publicly apologize. The noble who controls the area – her ex-fiance’s father – decides to have Olivia marry him after all. And when she refuses, thanks to the help of Elliot, who the noble is terrified of for some reason, they go with Plan B, which is to knock her out, kidnap her, and say she’ll be imprisoned for life making artifacts. Apologies for all the spoilers, but this is a good way of showing that when we learn Elliot’s true identity (which should not surprise any reader who’s paid attention), she just gives up and goes back home by herself. The definition of the final straw.

Now, of course, they make up, which is the last quarter of the book. And there’s a third book which implies that Olivia’s low nobility status (which means she can’t marry Elliot) may soon be fixed by a secret in her family’s past. But for me, the best part of this book was seeing Olivia suffer. It was very realistic and well handled. Sorry, Olivia.

Welcome to Monstrous Miss Sophie’s Enchanted Salon of Healing, Vol. 2

by

By Sachi Konzome and Harenochihareta. Released in Japan as “Bakemono Jou Sophie no Salon: Gokigenyou. Kawa Ichimai nara Naosemasu wa” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Dawson Chen.

Endings are hard, especially when a book is only two volumes long. Honestly, I think this might have worked better as one big brick, but I can guess why the publisher didn’t want that – these are chunky books as it is. But the main issue is that the first volume was alternating between Sophie and Kurt and their budding love and Sophie essentially having a new customer every chapter with a scar and a story. The second volume also starts out this way, but it almost reads like the author was told to wrap things up, as a little over a third of the way into the book, we end up dealing definitively with Sophie’s skin issues and disfigurement, as well as her self-loathing which is preventing her from accepting Kurt’s love now that he has finally realized what emotions are and that he has them. It’s still a good book, but it feels unbalanced.

The book starts with Sophie still taking care of clients with issues. We meet two kids who claim to be lost princesses but the truth is something far more tragic and well-worn; a clown following in his grandfather’s footsteps who wears his tragedy on his face; a beastman gatekeeper who is struggling to bring up a wayward daughter; and a bartender who is troubled by her past as a pirate. Throughout this we also get Kurt, who is going off to help fight a monstrous dragon, a task so dangerous that he gives Sophie half his dog tags, something you usually only give to your wife or fiancee. She’s very, very worried about him. Then, he returns, with a nasty scar (which she heals of course), and a proposal. She rejects him bitterly due to her condition. Can something be done about that?

The book wears its heart on its sleeve, sometimes a bit too much. Sophie’s cure amounts to finding a doctor who knows what it actually is, and the psychological component of it all, which I was sure might cause her to reject an immediate cure, does not come into play – at least not like that. The little girls’ story is tragic, but also somewhat incomplete – I was expecting the story to circle around to the mother and daughters once more, but it never did. The back half of the book is almost pure fluff – the one cure Sophie administers is to a literal living magical creature that makes people happy. It’s an emotional book, but I wish it had a bit more heft to it. Everything here happens pretty much exactly as you could have guessed. And they all lived happily ever after.

Still, it wasn’t that long, and I enjoyed Sophie essentially collecting tragedies and then upending them. That’s what I’ll remember this series for the most.

Babel: The End of the Journey to Restore Language

by

By Kuji Furumiya and Haruyuki Morisawa. Released in Japan as “Babel III: Torikago Yori Izuru Youki” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Amelia Imogen.

The final volume of this series delves deeply into the question of what drives humanity to succeed. In the past of this world, humanity was pushed to the brink, and feared powerful witches. These days there are no more witches, and things are relatively peaceful. But will humans make the same mistakes they made before, just because they don’t remember what it’s like to life in fear and thus innovate? If you’re nodding along to this, congratulations, you agree with the villain of this book. If you’re staring and wondering what the hell this teenage history logic is, you’re a lot more like Shizuku, who has to try to deal with this while also finding a way to return home and also deal with the fact that – as we’ve occasionally noticed since the very first book when she looked at that forbidden tome – there’s something a bit off with her. Fortunately, she has Erik by her side this time, as opposed to written out by the author.

Shizuku continues to work on her language learning aids, but there’s a new problem. Some of the kids at the castle, after hanging around the older children, regain the innate language abilities. Does this mean the thesis that she and Erik have been so carefully working on is completely wrong? That said, she has other things to worry about. She’s apparently staying up for hours at night reading the blue-covered book she has, though she never remembers doing this. A neighboring country invites her there as they want that book, and are… well, not willing to kill her, but willing to hide her body if she gets killed by something else. Worst of all, a witch has appeared and recreated a very familiar witch’s tower (well, familiar if you read Unnamed Memory), and wants people to challenge it. And she’s also going around slaughtering women and stealing their souls. That’s bad.

I have to admit, I enjoyed this series more for the plot and worldbuilding than the characterization. Shizuku and Erik’s relationship can best be described as “kinda nice”. She and Ortea (and, for that matter, she and Lars) had a much more interesting back and forth. I also note that she only says “I love you” to Ortea in this book. But no, dull love prevails. Ah well. This also sort of gives away that she does not return to Japan, though if any reader is surprised by that they must not read many series like this. The best part of the book is what is actually up with Shizuku, and how they manage to use it to save the day. That said, while I would not call her behavior suicide ideation, we do get a lot of “I must sacrifice myself to save everyone” and she jumps off a very high building – again – with worse consequences this time. You can see why Lars finds her frustrating.

There’s a sequel to Unnamed Memory that is apparently also a sequel to this, but I’ve no idea if it will be licensed given the UM anime was a dud over here. Fans of the author will enjoy this.

Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 1

by

By Gwon Gyeoeul and JINSA. Released in Japan by D&C Media. Released in North America by Ize Press. Translated by Tapas Entertainmnt Inc.

I have not really dipped my toe too much into the Korean end of the villainess market. I generally have an allergy to vertically scrolling titles that I blame on being old, and aside from taking a look at Beware the Villainess, which runs on the deep rage of the heroine, I had not been taking in the manwha/webtoon end of the genre. But I saw that this also had a novel coming out, and I like text, so I decided to give it a try. It’s decent enough, though it definitely lives and dies on how much you like the heroine, who can be a lot, especially in this first book. I was actually reminded a bit of I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!, as abuse in a past life leads to the actions the heroine takes in this life. In the case of Villains Are Destined to Die, though, the past abuse was in Korea, and this new “villainess” runs far more on bitter cynicism than anything else.

The premise will be familiar to many: Our unnamed heroine stumbles across a mobile game called Daughter of the Duke’s Super Love Project, and gets obsessed with it, particularly the Hard Mode, where you play as the adopted daughter who is the villainess in the Normal Mode of the game. In fact, she tries to hard to beat the ending she apparently dies, and finds herself in the body of Penelope Eckhart. Her family now hate her, the servants despise and abuse her, and if she doesn’t do anything she’s going to be tortured and executed within a year. Fortunately, she has her knowledge of the game – though she never got close to winning hard mode – so this shouldn’t be too difficult… except that she’s only given three option dialogue trees, and they’re all terrible options.

Fortunately, and this happens almost immediately so it’s not much of a spoiler, she gains the ability to turn off the “you have three bad options” screen fairly quickly. She does still see affection meters, though, which are all so abysmal you wonder what Penelope was like before our heroine”s reincarnated self took over. We gradually find out, and it turns out that the heroine and Penelope have a lot in common in terms of how they grew up – which makes things more interesting, as the influence of her past abuse makes this new Penelope far too distrusting and bitter, and a few times she shoots herself in the foot in her efforts to save herself. She also has the same issue a lot of these reincarnated villainesses have, which is she sees this world as a game, and doesn’t see the others as people. She’s got a tough road ahead of her, even if she is softening a bit by the end of this book.

I didn’t even mention the men in the series – angry brother 1, angry brother 2, yandere crown prince, mysterious sorcerer, and grateful slave. That said, I also didn’t mention the game’s heroine, who has not even shown up yet by the end of this volume. Villainess fans who want something a bit more bitter may find this to their liking.

Witches Can’t Be Collared, Vol. 1

by

By Yuri Yumemi and Wata. Released in Japan as “Majo ni Kubiwa wa Tsukerarenai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

One thing that I tend to do on social media is that every month, I post a screencap of an Excel Spreadsheet showing my light novel preorders. This is meant as an amusing gag to show off that I frankly read far too many Japanese light novels, and I should be reading fewer of them. That said, sometimes it gets noticed by translators who happen to see their book isn’t there, and they say “hey, why aren’t you getting this new series?” Inevitably, my answer is something along the lines of “it’s not really my genre”. This happened a while back with Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table, and while I had to admit that the first volume was very well done, I didn’t really read more of it because I’m not a fan of death game books. This new series is a police procedural, and after reading it I admit that the reasons that I was told to read it are valid. It’s quite fun in a lot of spots. Nevertheless.

Rogue Macabesta is a detective in a world that is basically “My Hero Academia but with magic instead of quirks”, which means it’s his job to hunt down villains who use magic for crime. He’s finally done enough, and been noticed enough, that he’s about to be promoted to a desk job. Honestly, he trips all sorts of flags about retiring, so it should not be a surprise that his boss has a new mission for him. There’s a serial killer no one can catch, who is aging and de-aging people to death, and she wants him to catch the culprit. Using the witches of the 6th District, who are all hundreds of years old and have slaughtered thousands. They’re all sociopaths, though this being a light novel that mostly means they’re sociopaths in amusing eccentric ways. Can he and Miseria, who can control people like puppets, get along enough to find the killer?

The witches are a lot of fun, especially Miseria, who I would hate to have to deal with in real life, but as a character she’s great. being an obnoxious tease and also knowing exactly what buttons to push to irritate Rogue. That said, all the other witches note that compared to their previous detectives they’ve worked with (who are all dead), she’s really taken a liking to him. Catherine, the other major witch we meet this time around, is essentially the chronic pathetic wet girl that you see in series like these – think Yunyun – but that changes fast. I wasn’t too surprised by the change, but it was handled well. So what’s wrong with the series? Nothing, except it is indeed a police procedural, meaning most of it is finding bodies, searching for clues, interrogating folks, and finding more bodies. Also, the author straight up says this is The Silence of the Lambs but with magic rather than cannibalism, which, again, not a selling point for me.

If you do enjoy this genre, and don’t mind some snarky amoral girls taking over the pages, this is absolutely right up your alley.

The World’s Strongest Witch: I’m Starting My Free Life in a World Where Only I Can See the Online Strategy Guide, Vol. 1

by

By Mochimaru Sakaki and riritto. Released in Japan as “Sekai Saikyou no Majo, Hajimemashita: Watashi dake “Kouryaku Site” wo Mireru Sekai de Jiyuu ni Ikimasu” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Phil Charbonneau.

This was one I took a flyer on because it sounded very silly. It’s always dangerous when you try to read a comedy, or a book that’s trying to be “zany”. You need to commit to the bit. But you also have to be careful not to drive off your readership without something too out there. This comes close, and I admit may not be for everyone, but I was quite pleased with how it turned out, because it is absolutely ludicrous. It takes its basic idea and does all the dumb things you’d want a book like this to do. Unlike Bofuri (and more on this later, but I guarantee Bofuri will be what you think of once you start this), the main character is part of this world. Also unlike Bofuri, there is no one with common sense to tell her when she’s being too ridiculous, just NPCs who are absolutely agog.

Lorna Hermit used to be Lorna Guugelheit, and spent most of her childhood ensconced in her family’s mansion and totally ignorant of anything they did. But then she manifests the skill that all these “sort of based on a game” worlds have people do, and it turns out to be SSS-Ranked. Her family is horrified! Skills go from A to G! To have her skill be SSS, it must be ludicrously bad if it’s that late in the alphabet! Needless to say, she is thrown out of the family and dumped in the incredibly dangerous forest at the edge of her domain. Then she actually figures out what her skill does… she can access the wiki page for her world, which turns out to be a game! Not that she knows this, all she knows is that the “gods” are giving her helpful hints on where the monsters and valuable herbs are. Unfortunately, she immediately gets the endgame “most powerful weapon” – by wiki searching – and so is just a LITTLE bit overpowered…

Lorna will remind you of Maple quite a bit, to be honest, but by the end of the volume I was struck by the fact that this is a secret villainess story. Noble girl thrown out of her family, who all turn out to be not-so-secretly evil. She goes to the nearby town to make a life for herself and dazzles everyone around her. But if I’m being honest, this series is really for those who like Kuma Bear and Make My Abilities Average but wishes there were fewer 8-year-olds and more magic battles. Lorna is a classic airhead, so keeps using the smallest spell she can think of, even when with her MP the smallest spell can still take out top-tier bosses. Antagonists see how thick her mana is and drop to their knees in terror. Best of all is the internet skill itself. Lorna deals with popup malware, cryptocurrency, and comment trolls telling her to take off her panties. She thinks it’s the gods speaking to her. By the end of the volume, even the elves believe commenters are using slang of the gods, and adopt it themselves. This book is ridiculous.

So, not for everyone, but I had a ball. I will definitely check out a second book, though this risks getting old fast. Also, terrific pun that I missed until the very end of the book.

Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol. 14

by

By Zappon and Yasumo. Released in Japan as “Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasaretanode, Henkyou de Slow Life Surukoto ni Shimashita” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

I admit I had sort of hoped that this volume would be entirely devoted to Red and Rit’s wedding, given the cover. And there are a few bits with everyone being really happy for them, getting the wedding dress made, etc. And yes, it does end with the wedding. But sadly this has always been a slow life series where the slow life struggles against the rest of the universe trying to drag everyone back into its troubles, and so the bulk of this book is trying to resolve the demons and God. That said, how it’s resolved ends up being pretty slow life in the end, as it’s just Red using… not his blessing, because that’s the whole point, but winning by being clever and strong. I am hoping, though, that this is the last we see of both sides of the conflict, and that the honeymoon volume (the final one) really is slow life.

A letter arrives from Yarandrala saying that she’s coming back to Zoltan. As such, Red and Rit realize that the time has finally come to set a date for their wedding. They’re try to keep the news quiet… which lasts about three seconds till everyone they know is screaming “they’re finally getting married?!?”. Unfortunately, there’s a nasty cold going around… or is it just a cold? Investigating, Red finds a mysterious plant near where the tomb they raided was. He also finds the demon lord and his aide, who Red and Rit have a long history with. We’re told that they’re trying to be heroes now, and certainly they’re saving villages and giving good advice about the sickness… but can they be trusted? And will Demis simply give up and let Ruti live her own life?

Demis has never been anyone’s favorite, and I think that applies to the readers as well as to the cast of the series. Here they possess a long-forgotten minor villain, Eremite, in order to make their point. Unfortunately for Demis, as with a lot of gods in fantasy series like this, they’ve long since lost the “I must help humanity because it’s the right thing to do” part of their godhood and are left with the “why does everyone not simply do exactly what I want them to?”. It feels thematically appropriate, if a bit pat (the fight goes ludicrously well) that Red is the one to defeat both Demis and Taraxon. On the bright side, this means the wedding happens (relatively) smoothly, without needing to worry about anyone’s blessing suddenly turning them evil. Best of all, Ruti allows Red and Rit to get married with not one single incestuous remark! Let’s hope it’s an excellent sign of maturity. Maybe she won’t even go on the honeymoon with them.

The next volume is the last, and honestly, this series has gone on a bit too long. But not to the point where I’m annoyed reading it. This was good.

Agents of the Four Seasons, Vol. 5

by

By Kana Akatsuki and Suoh. Released in Japan as “Shunka Shūtō Daikōsha” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sergio Avila.

After all the trauma of the first four, I noticed this one was a stand-alone volume, and I hoped that it might be a breather, a chance to relax and perhaps have a more lighthearted plot. And indeed the first half of this book fulfilled my wish. For the most part we have not had to deal with the supernatural person being in love with their minder in this series. Agents tend to love other agents, or other unrelated people. This also applies to the Archer of Twilight. Oh, sure, they are so ridiculously close to their minders that you can see the relationship as homoerotic (see my prior reviews regarding Hinagiku and Sakura), but we haven’t really had a romantic relationship until this book. Kaya is a teenager who is unable to deal with a crush, and her minder, Yuzuru, who clearly loves her deeply but is repressing it. The two of them push against each other, and get grumpy and sad, and it’s adorable. Well, until it isn’t.

Last time we met the Archer of Twilight, Kaguya, whose arrows brought about the night. The Archer of Dawn had a brief, minor appearance, but we get to know her here. After being chosen to be Archer, she was assigned a custodian, but he quickly found that walking up and down a mountain every day for years was too taxing for him. His son, however, Yuzuru, proved only too happy to step in and take care of Kaya. And now she’s in high school. She’s even able to go to an actual school, thanks to concessions from the organization behind all this. She’s a bit worried about Yuzuru, though, who’s so awesome and deserves so much better than staying with her his entire life. Even if she really wants him to, but is too shy to say so. And then there’s a landslide, and everything goes to hell.

While you can rest assured that the bad guys who want to control everyone and everything involved with the seasons and the day/night cycle are still here and still bad, I was rather surprised to find that they weren’t behind the natural disaster that leads off the second half of the book. Sometimes tragic stuff happens and it’s just because of natural causes. That said, the theme of this series is still present and correct. When Kaya makes the decision she does later in the book, she knows that she’s going to be punished for it. Everyone does, in fact, and other people are trying to take the punishment so she doesn’t have to. The best part of the book is when, in the epilogue, Kaya is told her punishment will end soon, she briefly feels it’s not nearly bad enough. Whereupon she’s told “You’re still in high school.” As these books go on, other people are bringing up over and over again what they are doing to children, and pushing back is becoming less a travesty and more a necessity.

We’re back to an arc next time, with more focus on Autumn, who played a major role in this book. Till then, this remains very well-written but also a bit worrying. These poor kids.

An Unruly Summon, Vol. 1

by

By Cathfach and Kurodeko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club.

This was one of the winners of the J-Novel Club original light novel contest, where they had judges (including Carlo Zen, author of The Saga of Tanya the Evil) picking out who created the best work. The winners got a cash prize, publication, and illustrations by a Japanese light novel artist (in this case, the Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain artist). The premise of this story interested me, as it looked like it might be a deconstruction of the standard isekai. Which it is, but not as much as you’d expect. Honestly, this has its roots in those old fanfics where the author wrote the story asking “what if everything were the same except the main character was sensible and asked questions?” Thomas, the main character of this story, is sensible and definitely does ask questions, but that only gets him so far, because this is a world that has been at war for a while, and has summoned heroes before, and they are not happy they have to do it again. So they try to rig the game in their favor. This goes badly for almost everyone.

Thomas Smith is walking drunkenly back to his apartment with his friend Simon when he spots a purple “whirlwind” in front of him. On touching it, he ends up in another world. There, he is told that the world is under threat from demons who are on the verge of destroying humanity, and he has the power to help them fight back. He’s also assigned four pretty women – Stephanie, the King’s daughter; Christine, a knight; Wendy, a mage; and Mary, a slave. As he learns about magic and swordplay, and discovers that, much to his surprise, he really does seem to have heroic abilities, he also starts to connect the dots that they’re lying to him. In fact, the reader knows this from the start. Previous heroic summonings haven’t always gone well (and, in a nice meta joke, tend to be Japanese teenagers), so they gave him a “harem” and are trying to get him to be their good little puppet. The more he learns, however, the more everything completely goes off the rails.

This is a solid book, which wants to play around in the isekai sandbox but also try to examine some of its cliches. Slavery is examined closely here, and it’s horrifying in many ways. About 40% of the way into the book, we get a HOLY CRAP moment, and you wonder if that’s going to help solve the slavery thing, but that ends up not really being the case. Because this is a world where no one really understands how magic works. A lot of it is just “because it’s magic”. And Thomas finds that the success and failure of his spells lean a lot on his feelings towards others – even if they’re unconscious. Which means if he is unconsciously blaming others for their past horrible actions, even if he wants to save him the magic can simply not work. The world is also just starting to show off its complexity – it’s clearly meant to be multiple volumes, though I’m not sure how ongoing series work when it’s a contest winner. Possibly depends on sales.

I will admit, the character I most want to see more of in future books is the one who only appeared on the last page. So I would like to see more of this. For fans of isekai who want dark!gray!independent heroes.

Breathless Time Traveler

by

By Yuyuko Takemiya and Tsubasa Yamaguchi. Released in Japan as “Anata wa Koko de, Iki ga dekiru no?” by Shincho Bunko nex. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

I must admit, in general I tend not too look too closely at Seven Seas’ one-volume light novels that they turn out quite a bit of, mostly as they tend to all look like they’re going to be “bittersweet, possibly tragic love story”. But this one they hooked me in on, because it’s by the author of Toradora!, a series I quite enjoy. Having read it, I found it well-written and compelling, despite the fact that, as I expected, it is exactly the genre that I said above. But that’s not all it is. This falls into the category of one of those books where you’re trying to figure out the plot, and you’re also trying to figure out if the characters are telling us the truth. And oh yes, it’s a time loop story, so we also have to pay attention to which timeline we might be in right now. It’s a bit of a mess. Kind of like our heroine.

We meet our heroine, Rara, dying on the side of the road after a fatal motorcycle accident. She’s able to give us an awful lot of first-person narration, despite an awful lot of grotesque imagery. (Folks bothered by motor vehicle accidents and their aftermath may want to skip this book). Oddly, we also see her sitting at a television, watching as an alien come to Earth announces that the world is going to end soon… and the alien is then killed. The same alien shows up in front of the dying Rara and explains that this world is created by her, and that she is the only one who can save it. She then finds herself back in time, at the point where she meets her lover. The alien is trying to get her to avoid this guy, or break up with him, or otherwise do something different so that she avoids dying in the accident. She, however, keeps doing the exact same thing. After all, she loves him.

So yeah, a little weird. Rara can be a bit dislikable at the start of the book, when she’s a furious teen ranting at (and seeking the approval of) her overly logical and punctilious mother. And as the book went on, I guessed one of the mysteries fairly quickly. But figuring things out is not really the reason to read this. This is a book about the joys of being in love, and that sometimes, when you’re deeply in love, you care about your partner a lot more than yourself. The title comes from Rara’s constant question to Kengo, “can you breathe? Are you breathing?”, which is connected to the fatal accident but also makes a very good metaphor for the stress of everyday life, and how everything can just be far too much. You can’t move forward or accept things. You stop breathing. In the end, Rara is able to get the happy ending she wants, but to do that, she has to accept that this happy ending is not going to involve her. And that’s fine. The one she loves is happy.

This was a bit depressing, out of necessity, but also had some very evocative imagery. I’m glad I read it.

A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 13

by

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

Those readers who dislike the frequently seen characterization of a lead as “seems completely unaware of how good/loved/savvy he really is” will have, I assume, dropped this series after the first volume, since that’s entirely what it runs on. Even those of us who enjoy that sort of thing, though, may find this volume trying. We do get the usual share of Yuto trying various recipes and accidentally inventing something amazing, of course, but the back half of this book is taken up with a genuine raid boss fight, which everyone assumes (except Yuto) that he will take part in, and that everyone assumes (except Yuto) that he and his tamed monsters did the most to help win, and then all the NPCs assume (to Yuto’s shock) that he is their leader and the one who they should give all the cool new quests. He will never stop being astonished by this, and he will never stop immediately forgetting it within five minutes.

The first quarter of the book is mostly Yuto puttering around, figuring out you can get medicinal plants when they’ve been trapped in amber, etc. He then meets up with Akari, one of the front-liners he (and we) have not seen for some time. They’re trying to befriend yokai, which you can’t tame per se but you can summon after befriending them. They also (thanks to Yuto’s really high NPC favorability) find a beastgirl who leads them to a village of beastpeople… and a huge, raid-sized monster, which is blocking the way to the sea village they trade with. Realizing that this is likely the way to open the next level that everyone has been searching for, they quickly gather allies and prepare to fight. Though Yuto also makes sure to do those little wandering things he always does, and as such gets all the good info about defeating it.

There’s minimal Alyssa in this book, but that’s mostly a setup for a gag. When Yuto wants to discuss dyeing and miracle herbs, Alyssa is offline, so he goes to someone else in their group, Maple. (No, not that one.) At first she’s fairly blase about what he’s brought, but when she runs across a major find, she quickly explains that he can only speak to Alyssa about this. Sorry, sacrificial meat shield Quick Cat! Only you can overreact to Yuto’s ridiculousness. I was also amused, though a bit annoyed, at Yuto’s anger at the cute couple that’s making eyes at each other while he and Akari are investigating… especially since he’s walking next to a beautiful girl at the time! Yuto is presumable mid-20s, given he’s an a=office worker, and this series is not doing romance, but his occasional “not gay!” or “damn normies” personality quirks seem out of character compared to the rest of him.

So a fairly decent volume of this series, and it gives people what they want. Unless they want Yuto to gain animal traits, he’s said no to that.

Goodbye, Overtime! This Reincarnated Villainess Is Living for Her New Big Brother, Vol. 5

by

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

There are quite a few villainess books where I would describe the plot as performative, but Goodbye Overtime really leans into that. Ekaterina admits that these are real people that she loves and not just characters in a game, and also admits that she’s likely derailed things so much that the whole “doom” part of the game is not going to happen. But the monster from Book 2 shook her, and she remains panicked that if she takes her eyes away from things for one moment, everything will get back on the rails. I was startled to hear that she even saved one of the minor villainesses from a previous book, getting her a job as a maid (and the villainess is actually doing it well!) because she sees it as an inevitable future for herself. Ekaterina is very bad at seeing herself as others see her, but she’s also bad at confessing why she’s worried. At some point I think she’ll have to admit the reincarnation.

It’s STILL summer vacation, and after all her adventures across the territory last time, Ekaterina is back next to her brother and hosting events at her domain’s castle. The special guest is Mikhail, the Crown Prince, so all the red carpets are being rolled out. Flora is also there, and rumors are flying. Rumors are also flying about Ekaterina herself, and those rumors might be a lot closer to reality than she knows. Let’s face it, Mikhail is in love with her, Flora is in love with her, Vladforen is in love with her… and she’s completely incapable of seeing any of this, something all her love interests already know. She only has eyes for her brother, and he for her. Though thankfully, it’s made a little more clear that this is not romantic or sexual.

In any case, there’s a party, where they reintroduce a traditional dance her grandmother had banned, and a hunting party, where women are allowed to hunt again as her grandmother had banned that. Really, we see more evidence that her grandmother is simply terrible, though we are also rewarded with the idea that her father may have loved her mother more than she thought. We also see her almost enter into a contract with fairies, which underlines what the other nobles are saying – she may be gorgeous, and brilliant, and a pioneer in business, but she is painfully naive, and one of these days someone will get her away from Alexei and bad things are going to happen. (This is the second book in a row where she’s been spirited away from her main, and I suspect Mina is stressing out about this.

If you think this review is short on substance, the book is also pretty light. On the bright side, we’re finally heading back to school next time, and hopefully we can advance the plot. Though, like Bakarina, this is a series that relies very heavily on romance not happening despite everyone mooning over the heroine.

D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared, Vol. 2

by

By KONO Tsuranori and ttl. Released in Japan as “D Genesis: Dungeon ga Dekite 3-nen” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by JCT.

Probably my favorite thing about this series so far is how it’s content to just ignore all the obvious plots that people (and indeed a lot of the cast) expect to happen when there’s a series about dungeon diving and killing lots of monsters. This book does have a lot more dungeon diving than the first book, along with a few moments of peril, but for the most part no one is in danger and no one stresses. There is a lot of political wrangling behind the scenes, which our heroes ignore, with the exception of their liaison with the government, who they basically bring into the team full-time here. There is even a brief action sequence near the end, featuring Keigo literally putting Miyoshi under one arm and leaping out of danger. But that’s irrelevant, as what this book is really about is rambling conversations, nerd analysis, food, and cute puppers. Yes, they’re hellhounds. But they’re cute puppers!

Keigo and Miyoshi need to actually go further into the dungeon than slime level, and that means tricking themselves out with all the bells and whistles. They buy an RV and put metal plating all over it. There are multiple kinds of steel balls for Miyoshi to toss. So they should be pretty safe against most of the harder monsters the dungeon has to offer them. Miyoshi ends up taming found monsters who are basically black death shadows in the form of large dogs the size of her. She adores them. They are also very good at keeping her (and, reluctantly, Keigo) safe from assassins. Because the main reason they’re down there is to get another language comprehension orb, which will upset the balance of power in the world. As a result, almost everyone is watching them like a hawk. Well, Russia is trying to kill them.

Despite trying to avoid the politics, the end of this volume makes it clear that they can’t do that for much longer. Staying quiet and anonymous is very difficult with the information they manage to find out. Not that they won’t stop trying. It turns out the person who’s getting the language orb is a 14-year-old genius girl who will be locked away in the US and made to translate. She’s resigned herself to this, but Keigo emphasizes that she has he power to defy that fate and make her own life. Even though we find out that the dungeon can, if used (and abused) properly, give out infinite gold and infinite food, they are still doing their damndest to make sure no one knows who they are for the most part, and that they can still go to nice places and order really good booze. I hope that keeps up.

As with the first book, the more this fights just going from level to level and killing monsters, the more I enjoy it. For nerds who like to ramble.