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Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? On The Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 14

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By Fujino Omori and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Gaiden – Sword Oratoria” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

So, this wasn’t bad. It didn’t do anything wrong, and the climax moves up to “pretty good”. That said, it’s been a while since I last read a volume of Danmachi and my main reaction was “eh”. I think I can put some of this down to the basic premise, and how little it deviates from the expected. If I was to tell you that the plot of this book is “we find out how Finn, Riveria and Gareth ended up joining Loki Familia”, and asked what you thought would happen in the book, I bet you’d come up with something pretty similar to this. It hits the beats it needs to hit. Finn is clever and smug, Riveria is powerful but haughty, Gareth is strong but stubborn. And Loki is, well, Loki. This gives folks the backstories they wanted, but it has exactly zero surprises, unless you count Eine’s mom (who, as Loki tells us a few times, has got it going on).

Loki Familia is having a big celebration – though admittedly one close to home, as they’re short on cash to go to a bar right now – to celebrate the big news. Finn, Riveria and Gareth have all hit Level 7, and they did it at the same time, too. After a raucous feast with the whole family, the three of them and Loki have a quieter drink afterwards, and get to reminiscing. We see a Loki who’s just come down to the human world and has zero followers. She meets Finn, who has a tragic backstory but is also determined to show the world not to look down on prums, even if he has to give up his first love to do so. Riveria is shown as a princess who’s trapped in the forest with the high elves, and her escaping with her attendant and best friend Aine, despite her father and the other elves pursuing her. And we see Gareth in a small, poor mining town, doing his best to make sure everyone can live even though he’d really rather be out adventuring.

As always with this author, the fights get better as they go along, which means Gareth’s story is probably the one that hit best for me. I could have done without Loki’s sexual harassment, but honestly I’ve seen worse from her, and I know by now it’s meant to be her THING. I did mention Aine, and she does not do much, and clearly is not suited to be part of Loki Familia. Unfortunately, we don’t see how she married a human here – maybe there’s a side story or game that talks about it. The bulk of the book is “elves and dwarves hate each other”, with a side order of “hobbits are weak” – sorry, prums – and about the three of them learning to get along and discovering how strong they are as a fighting team. And Loki does manage to be clever once or twice in amongst being a horny brat.

So yeah, this is exactly what it says it is, no more, no less. The next book promises to tie back in with the main series, and also have more of Ais.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Dum Spiro, Spero, Part 2

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan as “Youjo Senki” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by James Balzer.

It’s been quite a while since the last volume of these in English, even though in Japan, the two volumes came out only one month apart. That said, this is also the final volume of the series to date, as we have not yet seen the 15th volume in Japan as of this date. I don’t really blame the author, as it can be rather tricky to get the right tone for this series. It’s an anti-war but pro-military series, and it has to show us that war is hell while also managing to convey that reading about a good firefight is a hell of a lot of fun. It also can’t really kill off too many named characters – for all that we hear about people dying in this book (including, possibly, the greatest comedy character in the series, who returns in this book), the core of Tanya’s unit are still around. Even if they’re tired. So very, very tired.

The bulk of the start of the book is the aftermath of Tanya’s faked retreat orders, and how everyone seems to be disbelieving – not surprising, given everything we hear about the Empire. Fortunately, after Grantz flies all the way back to the capital and tries to avoid various court-martials and treason accusations as he barrels along, Zettour gets the message and is able to confirm – carry out those orders. Of course, that’s easier said than done, and Tanya and her group don’t even have that luxury – while the army retreats, they’re tasked with flying into the Federation attack, stopping supply trains, hitting disguised air bases, and trying not to die. And then after THAT, they get to take almost every mage in the entire not-German army on a suicide mission to take out various Federation strongholds. And then the worst possible thing happens – the enemy blows up their kitchen. (No really, think about it, surviving while exhausted on dry rations is TERRIBLE.)

I’m mentioning the exhaustion a lot because it really comes across here. By the end of the book Tanya’s comrades are dead on their feet, and even she sometimes gets to the point where fatigue is making her a little loopier than she normally is. They’re doing things that shame soldiers, as while they’re advancing on the enemy, they have to leave their own fellow soldiers to die – they cannot save them and attack at the same time. it’s frustrating, unless you’re Tanya, who coolly explains why it has to happen. The only one who seems firmly in her camp all the time is Visha, who is more worried about Grantz, who’s gotten more to do lately, replacing her as adjutant. Tanya reassures her. Weiss, meanwhile, thinks they’ve both “turned rotten”, and he’s not wrong. By the end of the book, they’re being sent off to fight again… but not in the East! Tanya may finally get an opportunity to defect.

Assuming we get the next book, of course. For now, the Empire still hangs on. We’ll be waiting to see if it makes it through Book 15. For fans of… well, the light novels, really. Fans of the anime should probably try the manga first. And fans of Isekai Quartet may just hate this.

The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori, Vol. 3

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By Kaeru Ryouseirui and Natsuki Amashiro. Released in Japan as “Umidori Tougetsu no “Detarame” na Jijou” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I like to theorize about what happens behind the scenes of an author, editor, and publisher, even though I am usually right about 1% of the time, if that. And when I got to the end of this third volume, I did wonder if the author was quietly told before it was written to plan for this to end with the fourth book (which it seems to have done, though I know better than to declare things definitively over now). The first two volumes of this book were very much concerned with the lies and the people behind them, and I was expecting this one to be as well. And to be fair, there is a situation with a lie and a person behind it. But the lie is incredibly pathetic, and it’s resolved in a way that’s deliberately comical. Because this is about Tougetsu Umidori, of course – and her story and its lack of lies are the whole point of the series, and not as easily solved.

Tougetsu has a problem. After avoiding it for nearly a year, her grandmother demands that she come home to visit or else she’ll be forced to move back home permanently. This upsets her, but she’s going to have to suck it up and do it – but it’s OK, Nara will come with her, as they’re friends, and Nara is tremendously curious about her family. That said, once they arrive, Nara finds that her grandmother is pretty nice and kind of normal… except around Tougetsu, where she turns into this stern scary woman. What’s more, she was really looking forward to meeting Tougetsu’s mother… who has fled the house. As it turns out, Nara ends up deeply regretting coming at all. Meanwhile, famous Kobe dishes are now thought to be famous Kakogawa dishes. Someone is altering reality so that Kakogawa gets all the cool Kobe dishes! It can only be a lie! Fortunately, Bullshit-chan has a solution – Youtubing.

There’s a lot of setup for the next volume involving the bad guys, as well as the true nature of Bullshit-chan, but let’s face it, the real meat of the book, and the best part, is the budding relationship between Tougetsu and Nara, and its near-fracturing here because of the way Tougetsu sees herself. Tougetsu’s inability to lie has led to her friendships being sundered, but she also has a lot of family trauma as well (which, be warned, involves an attempted suicide). What this means is that she seemingly feels no deep connections – if Nara broke things off and said she didn’t want to be friends anymore, Tougetsu would just accept it and distance herself. Which, of course, infuriates Nara. This is not a yuri series per se, but the only important male character in it is the villain, so it might as well be. Tougetsu and Nara make up at the end, and seem to come to a compromise, but I suspect it will take working out Bullshit-chan to work out Tougetsu.

Will this end in happiness or in tears? “Yes”, I suspect is that answer to that. Till then, please enjoy Bullshit-chan streaming cooking shows to save Kobe cuisine. And two kinda-gay teens trying to work things out despite one (one?) being really fucked up.

Sasaki and Peeps: A View-Count War Breaks Out on Social Media! ~My Neighbor’s Explosive VTuber Debut~

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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.

The danger of a series like this, which tries to change genres with every new volume, is that eventually you’re going to hit up against one that you’re not really all that interested in. When I saw that this volume was going to be about VTubers, I sort of groaned. It’s not my thing, and I don’t do the virtual idol thing either. So when Type Twelve decided to make this her new thing, I was prepared for this to be a slog. Fortunately, I was saved by the fact that the author knew which character to give the spotlight to this time around. Kurosu has gotten short shrift for a good deal of the series (when the anime came out, most wondered why she was even there at all), but her deadpan horrible personality meshes really well with trying to be a hot VTuber success, especially since we also still have her desperate 13-year-old horny urges to bang Sasaki (which is never going to happen, and I think she knows it deep down).

As noted above, Type Twelve is done with school because of … well, see Book 8. Instead, she’s decided to try uploading videos to Youtube (yes, they use the actual word). This becomes a competition, with everyone in the “family” (thus not including Elsa and Peeps, who already have a Youtube channel) competing to see who can get the most page views… and the winner has to order the loser to obey any command. Naturally, this gets Neighbor Girl tremendously excited, as even she knows that middle-management dude Sasaki is not going to be able to compete with four cute young-looking girls. She decides to (with Type Twelve’s tech help) become a cute, happy VTuber… which is a disaster. However, the backlash actually forces her to use it to her advantage, and she comes back admitting the happy girl was a fake and she’s a depressed introvert. This goes MUCH better… to the point where she’s scouted!

I’ve talked before about how the neighbor girl is so screwed up and horrifying that it almost comes around to being funny, but that’s not really sustainable if you’re going to have the series develop characterization (which is debatable – honestly, I think this author is far happier having its characters be cutely meta than learning anything about themselves). Over the course of the last few books she’s been forced to endure a lot and also interact with others far more than she ever did before. As a result, while her quiet cynical sarcasm is present and correct, as is her twisted sex with Sasaki fantasy, she no longer looks as if she’s actively trying to kill herself. Actually, she may have found a career path – her quick deductions at the scene of a crime, while getting in the way of the plot, show off a detective skill that’s actually kind of scary. Is she healing? A bit?

The others, rest assured, get stuff to do, and Hoshizaki gets the funniest part of the book. But yeah, this continues to interest me, even when it’s playing around in sandboxes I don’t care about.

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle, Vol. 7

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By Hiromu and raemz. Released in Japan as “Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Evie Lund.

Throwing up the spoiler warning here: I discuss the big revelations in this book, but not till the third paragraph.

I was expecting something else, to be honest. After the trauma of the last few books, the sturm und drang and Yua playing Baker Street over a sobbing Chitose, that we would sort of go back to everyone smiling, going back to their normal high school lives, and have a nice, relaxing 7th book. And, to be fair, so was the author. There is an extra-long afterword describing their thought process while writing this book, and you can see how the first, oh, third of the book is written by a very different person from the one who wrote the last two-thirds. Because the author is correct, that is what the characters want. It’s what the readers want. We do not want more angst. We want to relax. Unfortunately, for the sake of the story, the author cannot give that to us. And so… see the girl on the cover>? She’s a first-year. She’s spunky, cute, and loves the whole cast. And she’s also a bomb.

After the events over the summer, Chitose is hoping that everything will go back to normal. And, aside from Yuuko having the traditional “moving on” haircut, they do. Which means it’s time to plan for the culture festival, which is two months away and seems to involve both a sports day AND a culture day. Naturally, Chitose and company are very involved, especially since, in his first year, he was not in the right headspace to handle a festival. Now he and the rest of the group want to be on the cheer squad. They’re joined by Asuka, who is happy to do something with them before she has to graduate. They are also joined by Kureha, a first-year who has heard all the stories about the very famous Chitose and his very famous friends, and is star-struck. She rapidly becomes part of their group. A bit too rapidly. The reader gradually feels that things are about to go very, very wrong.

As our little bomb sent everyone into a coma over the course of the last third of the book, I noticed that Yuuko was pretty much absent. She’s not like all the others, after all. She actually confessed and was rejected. So Kureha can’t really do much about her. It’s worth noting that Kureha is being written as a horrible villain after the reveal, and the reader sees her as one long before that, but to all the other girls, she’s not. Particularly Yuzuki, who is on the cover of the next two books in this series, and I strongly suspect is going to step past Yuuko to steal the main girl spotlight. But the way that Kureha demolishes Haru, Asuka and Yua with “innocent” ease shows off that much as we’d like all the girls to be equal in their chances to win Chitose, that’s not how love works. You have to commit. You have to be ready to hurt others to get what you want. Yuuko understood that, and the hurt was devastating to her. Kureha is able to hurt far more easily, but so far only Yuzuki, who has always been the most aloof of the group, is ready to take things to the next level.

As the anime seems to be polarizing people, the novels are hitting another high point. Just… be ready for things to not be safe and fun.

The Wicked Princess and Her Twelve Eyes: The Legendary Villainess and Her Elite Assassins

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By Daken and saino. Released in Japan as “Aku no Reijou to Juuni no Hitomi: Saikyou Juusha-tachi to Densetsu no Akujo, Jinsei Nidome no Kareinaru Musouroku” by Overlap Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by piyo (Irene Nakano). Adapted by Rei Geronimo.

I was going to buy this anyway simply as I like the genre, but then I saw it was by the author of Who Killed the Hero?. And then, for some reason, as I was reading it, I totally forgot that. I’m not sure why. But the first, oh, two-thirds of this book is content to just be a hoot. You’ve got the usual villainess who goes back in time and does things over again. There’s a large helping of humor, both because she’s an absolute sadist but also from the author themselves (one of the color pages tells us what each of her squires excels in, and one girl is simply “energetic!” in a “no thoughts, head empty” sort of way). That said, don’t worry, this *is* by the author of Who Killed the Hero?, and the last 50 pages or so made me sit up, and then made my jaw drop as I recalled all the things I hadn’t bothered to pay attention to.

Serena Rosenberg starts this book, as all good villainesses do, by getting her engagement broken in front of a large crowd of nobles. Unlike most villainesses, she really is guilty of a lot of attempted murder against the heroine. Even though none of her attempts succeeded, she’s sentenced to death. As she’s forced to drink poison, she realizes that her biggest fault was that she did not have competent minions. Then she wakes up as a baby again, but with memories of her past life. Unfortunately, she’s still pretty much a terrible person, but she definitely wants to avoid her previous fate. Therefore, she actually studies magic and the sword, getting good at everything. She also goes to an orphanage, grabs the six “problem children” from it, and puts them through training. Ridiculously hard training.

The bulk of this book goes sort of how you’d expect, being one of those “Serena does something with evil intentions, but everyone else sees it as good” sort of books. Her hellish training really is needed to snap this orphans out of their mindsets, and makes them better people. She gets them dogs, who become good pets and like family to them. She does this for absolutely WRETCHED reasons, but because she’s being so good, those reasons have to be abandoned. And as the book goes on, we see her realizing that she doesn’t really want to get revenge, and doesn’t care if the heroine marries the prince after all. It’s headed for a “doing good thing feels good” sort of ending… and then we’re reminded about things we took for granted because this genre has lots of mediocre things that make the brain assume. Like why does her mother avoid her? Like why did she go back in time in the first place? The last chunk of this book is here to answer the questions, and the answer is pretty terrific. And yes, author, I appreciated the added ending.

If you like this author, cool plot twists, or books where the protagonist is terrible but in a fun way, this is a must-read. Also, I teared up a bit when I realized what the title meant.

The Twelve Kingdoms, Book Two: Shadow of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea, Part 2

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By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

Last time I assumed that things would get better for Youko over the course of this second book, and to be fair they do SORT OF, but it does not remove the trauma of what has happened to her, especially once she discovers that this journey, much as she would like it to be otherwise, is pretty one-sided. By the end of the first book she was betrayed twice over, and is mentally and physically on her last legs, and so at the start of this book she regards any act of kindness at all as an attempt to soften her up before they betray her again. It doesn’t help that she’s still getting attacked by youma, which she’s getting quite good at killing – her sword skills are improving by leaps and bounds! – but it does also mean that she’s starting to regard herself as a bad person… and perhaps not even a person at all. Which, um, turns out to be correct. Except for the bad part.

After the events of the last volume, Youko is in bad shape, and unable to trust anyone. She ends up, fortunately, getting picked up by the best possible rat that she can. And no, I don’t mean a rat as in a terrible person, I mean an actual walking, talking rat. Rakushun is a Hanjyuu, a half-beast, who is smart and kind but unfortunately in the wrong kingdom to be able to get ahead. He spends a large portion of the start of the book trying to convince Youko that he’s not going to sic the guards on her the first chance he can get. He also gives her a lot more information about this world, which will come in handy when they are inevitably separated on their journey and she has to go on alone. Eventually she ends up in the kingdom of En, which is a LOT better than where she was. Unfortunately, the youma keep attacking her no matter where she is.

I was prepared for this to feel a lot different from the anime, as Sugimoto doesn’t exist in the novels beyond the very start. But wow, this book is concerned with Youko and her situation, and everything else about it is secondary. Not to spoil too much, but there’s a huge battle between an army of soldiers trying to protect a false queen and Youko and a number of crack troops, and it starts on page 209 and is done by page 210. The false queen herself takes up half of the cover art. We never meet her. This book is laser-focused on Youko and her thought process, and it’s absolutely riveting. We see her start at the lowest possible ebb, and as she gradually learns to trust again and gains more and more information, she realizes how intertwined she is with this world and how it’s practically impossible for her to run away without causing a catastrophe. The climax of the book is not the battle – it can’t be. It’s Youko’s choice. The rest is just an afterthought.

Now, the next book does not in fact focus on Youko, but moves to a different kingdom, as if to remind us that the title of the book is indeed The Twelve Kingdoms. I still can’t wait to read it.

The Adorable Dungeon Master, Vol. 1

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By Hunger and Llo. Released in North America by J-Novel Club.

This is the 2nd of the J-Novel Club original light novel contest winners I’ve taken a look at, this one with illustrations by the artist who does Reincarnated as a Sword. Unlike An Unruly Summon, I don’t think the author has a large number of similar-looking webnovel series lying around the internet, so this is definitely the first I’ve seen of them. This won the Bookwalker Prize, which was as far as I can tell the one the Bookwalker Judge wanted to single out, and the judge commented on how cute it was. And they’re not wrong. Though you may not guess it after reading the prologue, this book is called The Adorable Dungeon Master and that’s exactly what you will get. Lilac’s inner narration can be a hoot, as she alternates between being a sensible gamer bringing modern-day knowledge to a “based on a game medieval fantasy” world and a chatterbox young women with no off switch. She loves cute things, and there’s a lot of them as well. That said, be warned: this is about as deep as a puddle, and the one or two times I thought it might get deeper, it ran away from it.

Luicia Morales has big plans. Sure, she was a bit of a nerd in high school, mostly interested in linguistics, and with an overprotective family making sure no guys came anywhere near her. But now her family is getting ready to move out of the dangerous neighborhood they live in, and she’s going to study to be an interpreter! Unfortunately… no, not Truck-kun… as she’s about to get in the moving van, a nearby turf war means she’s shot and killed as a passerby. She wakes up as (try to contain your surprise) the character in the old game she loved! She’s a Sprigian (fairy), she’s about half to a third of the size of a human, cute as hell, and she’s stacked and has a big ass, which I merely mention here because she mentions it an awful lot. She’s also very OP, and as it turns out she’s the Heir of Balance, which means she’s Very Important. Which is good, as she’s in the nightmarish forest of monsters.

This is, as I said, a lot lighter in tone than the grim beginning might suggest. Lucia/Lilac has one brief moment where she grieves about her death and thinks of her family, but her grief causes bad weather in the fairy castle she’s in (it’s controlled by her emotions), so she basically moves on to make things nicer. There are actual bad guys in this new world, but they’re all of the “cartoonishly evil noble” sort, and the biggest surprise in the book is that the fate of one of them isn’t just “killed off in the worst possible way”. The best parts of the book are when Lilac is either making new minions and interacting with them (I particularly liked the bear who turns out to be a bear mascot who is cripplingly shy), or when she’s actually thinking about the linguistics that she wanted to be her specialty back in Japan… wait, no, this is an OLN, back in America, I assume. She bonds with an ancient human scholar in the new world, and their relationship was pretty cute, and possibly the healthiest she has given that her default way of looking at those she’s created as minions tends to be “oh no he’s hot”.

There is an exciting battle against a giant frog/crocodile lake monster near the end, but for the most part this book is for people who don’t want to see its lead break a sweat, but they do want to see her snuggle cute giant wolf puppies and make teddy bears for young princesses.

Long Story Short, I’m Living in the Mountains, Vol. 3

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By Asagi and Shino. Released in Japan as “Zenryaku, Yama Kurashi wo Hajimemashita” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by N. Marquetti.

I’ve talked a lot about this series as a slow life series, and about the romance or lack thereof, and even a bit about how it’s sort of a bizarre fantasy only not quite. But this volume really hammers home the title of the book, which is that Sano and his fellow emotionally damaged neighbors have bought a mountain and are living on it now. And sometimes this can be difficult. Mountains require a lot of maintenance, you need to keep an eye out for dangerous animals and insects, and there’s always the danger of a typhoon coming through or a harsh winter. And sometimes having a mountain with animals on it can be useful, especially when you’re feeling smothered and still trying to avoid your core issues, so your visit to your parents can take place in less than an hour before you beg off and flee once again to the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Life goes on for Sano, though he finds he needs to be more careful and perhaps also get more exercise at several points during this book. While cutting grass he gets a very bad cut, and has to get some help from others to get it stitched up. He visits his parents, as I said before, and then comes right back the same day. He makes sure that the murder hornets on Katsuragi’s mountains are taken care of, mostly thanks to his chickens wanting to eat them. He deals with chestnuts, and excess crayfish. A typhoon is coming, and he has to manage preparations, calm his animals, and then deal with the aftermath, which can sometimes involve huge trees on your mountain path. And, as the book ends, he prepares for his first real winter on the mountain (he arrived near the end of the last one).

Aside from “owning a mountain is hard”, we also see Sano’s desperate desire to be left alone and not owe anyone anything, which does not come up explicitly in his dialogue but is implicit with everyone else. He seems baffled by the fact that people keep offering him dinner, or stuff to take back home, or that they’ll help him free of charge. He needs there to be a transaction of some sort, and that just isn’t going to happen on this mountainside. There’s also the bizarre harem he’s acquiring – not in a romantic way, mind you, but both Katsuragi and Aikawa are angling to become a person who is close to him, someone he can open up to. So far Aikawa is winning, but that’s mostly due to underlying sexism on Sano’s part. That said, it’s also due to hsi chickens. One of whom is essentially acting like his wife. Add this to the lamia who is acting as Aikawa’s girlfriend, and you can see that the fantasy animals in this series are sort of psychological trauma write large… or the solution to said trauma.

Next time we apparently introduce a new regular, which might shake things up a bit. Till then, this is slow life for slow life fans, with no pesky danger or plot twists getting in the way.

BLADE & BASTARD: Drag Him High

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

I’ve talked before about how a reader should not be angry that their genre book is in a genre. For example, being annoyed that an isekai has people transported to another world seems a bit petty. And I do occasionally have to remind myself of this rule. Blade & Bastard is a series where there’s a lot of mysteries going on behind the scenes that I would like to find out about, and we even get a glimpse of some of them at the start of this book, making me quite happy. But then I am reminded: this is a book whose sole purpose is to advertise the game Wizardry, and it’s never really going to get out of that wheelhouse. As a result, after about 1/3 of a book where we tease stuff we’ve wondered about for a while, it’s back to the dungeons, back to fighting demons and zombies, and of course back to folks dying horribly and needing to be resurrected. Well, hopefully resurrected. There’s a cliffhanger, and some of those folks are still dead.

All the adventurers have been called together, as the Crown Prince is coming, and they all have to at least bow a bit. All except Iarumas’ group, of course – they’re off in the dungeon, and don’t show up. Festin, said crown prince, is somewhat grumpy about this, as he really wanted to see Garbage – and is very ticked off when Garbage finally does show up, and is not very happy either. We also hear a bit about the tragic backstory that every woman in the royal family has – one princess had a demon attack the palace while she was there, one Queen reigned during a hideous calamity, and one queen had her sister turn to evil. And then there’s Garbage, who… well, we keep hinting about what’s going on with Garbage, but that’s all we’re gonna get, still. Because unfortunately, somebody kidnaps the prince and all his maids, and kills all his guards (and also turns them to stone, so I think they’re dead dead). And takes them… to the dungeon, of course.

There’s a large number of folks in this book who have red hair and compelling eyes, the same as the royal family. Not only Prince Festin (who I have used male pronouns for as the book does, but I won’t be surprised if that changes) and Garbage, but also Flack, the monster who is the main antagonist of this book. When they say the royal family is cursed, they’re not kidding. That said, there is some nice character development in amongst all the grim dungeon horror. Aine fails to stop the abduction/murders, and feels very depressed about it (going to, in one of the most surreal moments in the whole series, a fantasy baseball game to clear her head) and Iarumas has to cheer her up. (They still have romantic subtext that likely won’t go anywhere, but it’s very present here.) As for Iarumas, he helps everyone else get character development by dying horribly, meaning the rest of the group has to not only bring his corpse back to be resurrected, but they also want to defeat whoever killed him. They’re getting strong. Even if they all deny it.

If you like dungeon crawl fights featuring every stereotype in the book, this remains a fast, compelling read. We’re caught up again, though, so have patience.

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone, Vol. 8

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

The author, in the afterword to this volume, discusses the anime, and says that they asked for the long subtitle to be removed to make it easier to take. Which I agree worked very well for the anime, which was more concerned with Beryl’s sword feats than about which girl will win. The novels, though, are definitely concerned with which girl will win, so the subtitle seems appropriate. Previously, Beryl had stated that he could never take a wife that was one of his former students, but also, when offered what amounts to a perfect marriage to a woman who really likes him, he backs off like she’s on fire. Beryl simply cannot accept that people find him attractive and a good partner. He knows Allucia is in love with him, but his immediate thought is “she can do better”. Something’s got to give here, and since Beryl isn’t doing it, stronger measures are needed.

This volume is essentially three short stories. In the first part, Beryl and Allucia try to find her the perfect sword, and Beryl is dissatisfied till he remembers he still has that monster core from four books ago. He then goes off with Mewi to have dinner at a nice seafood restaurant, courtesy Surena, who promised him she’d find a place for him. In the second part, he watches the new hopefuls try out for the knights, including the twins we saw when he returned home to his dojo, who seem to have lots of flaws (particularly the hotheaded Adel), but are also still good enough to make the cut in the end. (This is not a spoiler, come on, everyone he teaches turns to gold.) Lastly, he and the new recruits head north to a town by the mountains, where he meets a friend he hadn’t seen since they were kids, who now heads the knight order there.

Kennith is the old childhood friend, and he’s also on the cover art. He’s the one who can try to kick Beryl’s ass about picking a wife. Mostly as it is blindingly obvious to everyone on the planet that Allucia is in love with him, but is basically quietly waiting. Beryl’s “but they’re my students” protest gets a reminder that a) he’s not the one pursuing them as a teacher, and b) they’re all in their twenties by now, and no longer his students – there’s not the power imbalance that comes with such a relationship normally (indeed, Allucia is in a higher position than Beryl), and relationships between mid-forties guys and early twenties girls in a fantasy setting might raise an eyebrow, but that’s about it. Most importantly, though, a trip to a hot spring prods Allucia to take the initiative and force Beryl to confront her feelings and the fact that he thinks she’s gorgeous. His response is “give me time” – no surprise there – but she’s content, especially as it seems that her only rival right now is Shueste.

That may change with Book 9, which seems to star Surena, and I do wonder if we’ll get another go round of “different girl in love with him each book” before he makes a decision. Till then, this remains solid and unassuming, much like its lead.

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 21

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by RFD.

This is a long-running series – 21 volumes plus a .5 or two – and it’s been interesting watching the series evolve. While its tendency to have a cast of adorable kids doing adorable things has remained constant throughout, as has Yuna being hideously overpowered but also seeming to hate herself more than a bit, there are several things that we used to see that we don’t see quite as much anymore, notably that this series can be very dark. There has been murder, sexual assault, abuse of countless women and children, etc. in the early books. Once the books started getting really popular, that seemed to be dialed back a bit, with less of “let’s go rescue the people locked in the basement” and more “let’s watch Yuna build a bear bakery”. This volume, though, gets back to the OG a little bit, as we meet a noble girl who has quite a tragic backstory, and unfortunately the tragedy is still impacting her present. Fortunately for her, Yuna is still hideously overpowered… wait, is she?

Noa is headed to the town of Yufaria, there to see her sister Shia compete at a matchup between the Crimonian school and the Yufarian. Yuna is going there as bodyguard, but has been asked to tone it down – no bear suit – and has acquiesced, though she still wears her bear paws and shoes. Unfortunately, a noble girl, Seleiyu, spots them and is horrified at Noa walking around without protection. Yuna, with her pitifully puny body and weak, flabby arms, could not possibly be able to protect this important girl. (Yuna’s reaction to this, which is more “sigh…” than anything else, is appreciated.) After Yuna proves that even without a bear suit she can still take out teenage girls, no matter how talented they are, they proceed to cheer Shia on in the competition. Unfortunately, Seleiyu seems to have a secret weighing her down… and does not think she has much longer to live.

So yes, the tragedy is back for this book, and I appreciated that the book stays true to its roots, as the bad guy is not only incredibly evil but also truly petty and deluded. We’re not getting any shades of grey in THIS series. We also definitely have another applicant for the role of Yuna’s wife, though there’s a pretty high wall of “I don’t really know what romance is” to climb. The author seemed at first to be ambivalent to the yuri they almost accidentally created, but especially after the anime has leaned into it more (see the previous SS volume for Yuna’s opinion on her own anime). Seleiyu over the course of the book goes from “who does this girl think she is trying to protect Lady Noir?” to “If you were a boy I think I could fall in love… actually, even if you are a girl…”. Yuna, needless to say, ignores this – hell, just accepting that someone thinks she’s pretty in a dress is a huge hurdle.

We’re caught up with Japan – no Vol. 22 on the horizon – so it may be a while before we see Yuna. For now, enjoy our new cast member with a one-sided crush – and she’s Yuna’s own age this time!

An Introvert’s Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me!, Vol. 11

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By Yuishi and Kagachisaku. Released in Japan as “Inkya no Boku ni Batsu Game de Kokuhaku Shitekita Hazu no Gal ga, Dō Mitemo Boku ni Beta Bore Des” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Satoko Kakihara.

Welcome back to everyone’s favorite romcom with one running gag. It’s still great. They’re both still really sweet. But the entire series has one joke, used throughout, which makes it hard to review. The joke is the fact that everyone in the world thinks these two have gone further than they have. This is not helped by Yoshin and Nanami themselves, who feed each other oranges in the cafeteria with no care (well, Yoshin cares, but he simply ignores the rest of the school because he’s in love with his girl). But the class can’t get over the fact that the two cannot stop flirting with each other, little girls on the street are ready to see them becoming parents soon, and their own parents are torn between wanting them to get sexually active (as it’s what they did in high school) and wanting to prevent it at any cost (because once they get a first taste, these two will never be able to stop screwing until Nanami is pregnant).

The class is back from Hawaii, and it becomes very clear that Japan is in a different season. December is around the corner, and Yoshin gets a cold, and has to have a strangely enthusiastic Nanami take care of him. Next is Yoshin’s birthday, which he has to admit he’s never really cared about much before. But now he has friends, a girlfriend, and something besides video games, so it’s time for birthday-related events, Nanami-style. And of course there’s Christmas, which is a couple’s holiday in Japan. Sure, they’re going to do a class party, with Secret Santa and prizes. But the main reason to get excited is sexy Santa outfits. Well, that and the fact that their parents are letting her stay the night at his place… alone. Will this be the volume that they finally sleep together?

I mean, technically yes, in this volume they both mutually agree to sleep next to each other. But no overt touching, because, as I said above, once they pop they can’t stop. But yeah, come on, you know there’s no sex, and that’s the only real plot – will they sex? No. Instead, let’s talk about the title, as I saw someone recently say that the title is telling a lie as Nanami is not remotely a gyaru in the way that most otaku see them. I’d have to agree that in terms of her general attitude she’s more of a yamato nadeshiko with a teasing side. and a touch of the dojikko as well. The gyaru part mostly comes from her fashion sense, and her careful cultivation of outfits, both for herself and for her boyfriend, throughout the series. “This male fantasy is head over heels for me” does not sell nearly as many books, though.

We’re caught up with Japan, as the 12th book just came out last month. It promises a hot springs trip for two! Will it be 200 pages of porn? (I’d settle for half a page of porn.) Recommended for those who love cinnamon rolls who are too good for this world, too pure.

The Tanaka Family Reincarnates, Vol. 4

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By Choko and kaworu. Released in Japan as “Tanaka-ke, Tensei Suru” by Dragon Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sasha Schiller.

This series makes no bones about the fact that it is a comedy. So much of this volume is utterly ridiculous, and it’s not just the Tanaka family being giant overpowered weirdos. They’ve also influenced everyone around them to be better, and the knock-on effects of that are not only heartwarming but also funny. (I enjoyed the running gag of “the wait for grandchildren was extended”.) Other folks in this series are also loopy eccentrics, mostly as they love Emma and would do anything for her. And the entire back half of this volume is the folks in not-Japan trying to get the Tanaka family to leave them to die and return to safety, followed by 10 pages or so of them screaming “what the hell is wrong with you?”. There is a hint that the 5th book in the series may have a darker, more serious plotline… but we know it won’t. Emma will just be shiny and the problem will solve itself.

Having heard about the disaster currently destroying the Eastern Empire, and now that it’s summer break, they’re off to solve the problem and get themselves some Japanese food!… and also save everyone. Right, that comes first. Maybe. This leaves most of the rest of the supporting cast behind in the kingdom to have their own adventures, such as learning about the horrible slum life of the orphans (Edward), turning heads at a ball (Emma’s friends), suffering from the lack of their goddess (everyone back at the their domain, which they won’t be going back to this summer), and getting dumped in a poor village with bad food and worse shelter in order to learn how the non-noble folks live (Robert). Meanwhile, the Tanaka Family, Joshua (who is coordinating shipping and fanboying over Emma), a spare orphan who seems to be there to learn how to be a ninja, and the 4 Empire ninja/cooks, who Emma has renamed as Hispanic cooks for some reason, are going to the Eastern Empire to see what can be done.

I could not get over how much I enjoyed seeing every single Tanaka go full ham once they reached the Empire. This is foreshadowed a bit by Emma’s pilfered bugs growing to massive size by accident, and Emma convincing her furious mother that they will just be able to cut through those horrible monsters with GUTS! Much to the surprise of the bugs, who seem to doubt this. But sure enough, on arrival, and after boot camp with the monster cats, Emma’s bugs are indeed able to do everything that she says they can. All of this is done with maximum LOL factor, as Emma is far more concerned about getting monster parts and tasty monster food to worry about, y’know, everyone giving up and accepting death. Hell, by the end of the volume they “accidentally” build a hot springs inn, complete with multiple rooms, made from the corpses of the monsters that were supposedly unkillable. Silly monster, you cannot defeat the narrative.

So, now that they’re heading back home, will Emma be forced to move to another country and be the cruel plaything of religious zealots? Hardly. Bet she’ll do something completely bonkers, though. This is amazingly silly, but if you accept that it’s great fun.

The Misdeeds of an Extremely Arrogant Villain Aristocrat, Vol. 1

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By Yukiha Kuroyuki and Uodenim. Released in Japan as “Kiwamete Gouman Taru Akuyaku Kizoku no Shogyou” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Ben Trethewey. Adapted by Kylee Yasin.

I haven’t really dipped my toe into the smaller pool of “villain” books, which is to say the genre and basic plot beats are the same, but it’s someone being reincarnated as a terrible man rather than a terrible woman. This also is one of a small number of books where the reincarnated person and the “bad” person they’ve replaced/overwritten actually struggle to see who’s really in charge. Luke was supposed to be another stereotype of these fantasy books – the snobby, coasts by on his family name, rude to absolutely everyone sort. But our new reincarnated guy knows that that is, as Katarina Claes would put it, a path to doom! So he tries to change. Can he be nice?… no. Can he reach out to others to ask for help?… provided he frames it as an arrogant command. This will be tough. Fortunately, he can actually put in the work and study. Also fortunately, the series he’s in is a comedy.

Luke Witharia Gilbert has just remembered that he’s actually a character in a light novel. What’s worse, he doesn’t really remember all that much about the light novel except the basics. He knows that he’s a talented but lazy arrogant ass who is doomed to be killed by the “you can do anything with enough willpower!” hero in a few years. While the real Luke inside his head won’t let him stop being an asshole to almost everyone he meets, he can at least do something about the lazy. So he demands his butler (an ex-soldier) teach him the sword… and he’s brilliant at it. Then he demands a wandering magic lecturer teach him magic… and he has rare and powerful dark magic. He’s told by his father to find himself a girl to get engaged to… and ends up with a talented bombshell who is cold and sneering to everyone… till she meets Luke, and discovers what she really wants in life. Frankly, maybe it’s the hero who should worry.

The author in the afterword straight up admits that it’s tough to take a book in this genre and set it apart from the others. Their solution was to make everyone a “pervert”, though how you define that depends how you feel about such things. Certain Alfred, the butler, is not a pervert in any sense but his desire to see Luke grow to be the strongest in the world. Alice *is* a masochist, as she discovers once Luke effortlessly defeats her in a duel, but her desire to be worthy of staying at his side makes her also a genius who tries. Mia, a young girl who has talent but also a case of the self-doubts gets crushed when she duels… and turns to Luke to make her better. Basically, he’s warping the entire narrative around himself. The hero, Abel, is a nice guy who reads like a Jump hero, but he has no chance in a series like this. I also worry about his obvious love interest Lily. I can see this series going the NTR route as part of its comedy. Luke is just that good. (I was amused that the one time he actually “lost” is when Alice basically stripped naked and started to kiss him. Some things you can’t sneer your way out of.)

If OP characters bother you, steer clear. But I honestly found this a hoot. I look forward to seeing Luke be mean to others and force them to be the best that they can be in the future.