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Reviews

I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss, Vol. 1

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By Sarasa Nagase and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijo Nanode Rasubosu o Katte Mimashita” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

Generally speaking, the best types of isekai stories (and villainess stories) are the ones that actually try to do something with the format beyond “I have memories from Japan”. In particular, villainess stories that examine what exactly it means to be that sort of character I’ve found to be a cut above, and this book definitely falls into that category. For all that we hear about girls constantly playing otome games with villainesses who sneer and plot at the heroine, the game never gets into how they grew up to be that sort of person. Why would it? The villainess is an obstacle to be overcome. But villainess light novels do have that opportunity. What’s more, as with male-driven isekai novels that show the hero amassing a loving harem and having amazing OP powers, the villainess books are also fantasy-driven… but the fantasy tends to be “have men actually respect me” and “start my own successful business”. It knows its core audience.

The start of this book may seem a bit familiar to readers of this genre. Aileen suddenly realizes she has memories of her past life from Japan, where she played an otome game called Regalia of Saints, Demons and Maidens. Unfortunately, this comes back to her while she’s being publicly dumped and shamed by her fiancee. And now she recalls that the next steps are getting disowned and dying in the slums. PASS! Trying to figure out a way out of this mess, and with her sadistic father being of very little help, she decides to confront her fiancee’s older brother, the titular final boss and also the demon lord. It takes a while to win him over, and she often has to rely on pure moxie, but she does it. Unfortunately, bad things keep happening. The business she started has been taken from her. Everyone insists she’s trying to kill Lilia, the heroine. And most annoyingly, her otome game memories are faint, and only come up after the bad end has begun. can she manage to survive?

Aileen definitely falls on the ‘smart and savvy’ end of the villainess scale, though as with ALL entries in this genre she tends to be somewhat oblivious about men falling for her and their being jealous of other men. There’s very little downtime in this book, as she realizes that if she doesn’t fix everything FAST, she’s going to die. I really enjoyed the scenes with her father, which help to explain a lot of her personality. He’s twisted and enjoys seeing her suffer – mostly to see the look on her face. Actually, that’s a running theme in this book – the demon lord also says he wants to see her cry, probably because she’s normally so together and adept at everything. She also has a lot of allies who stick around even after her public shaming… though for once this does NOT include the heroine, who… well, let’s just say she’s no Maria Campbell.

This series is 8 volumes long so far in Japan, which is worrying as this also suffers from another issue common to villainess novels: it feels complete in one book. That said, we do know that most of the events here take place on the first “route” of the game. Will she have to deal with other bad boys? Honestly, she can probably take them. In the meantime, enjoy a strong entry in the Villainess sweepstakes – it’s even getting an anime soon.

No Game No Life: Practical War Game

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Richard Tobin.

It has been a rough couple years for No Game No Life. The author has had health issues, which has led to a long hiatus in Japan (though the 11th volume is due out there next month). As with Re: Zero and Index, Yen licensed this side story volume out of order, so a lot of it is setting up a 10th volume that we read a year and a half ago. And of course the entire series has been banned, in print and digital form, by Amazon… except for this new volume, which they are quite happy to sell because no one can guess how they actually decide anything. That said, it is good to finally see this book which goes back to the events of the 6th volume and shows us things from the POV of Think, the elven legend. Unfortunately, this flashback is only a little more than a third of this book, which is otherwise padded out with short stories that originally came with the DVD releases in Japan. Yep, it’s a short story volume.

Practical War Game itself starts off with Sora and Shiro playing Feel and Chlammy in a game of chess, which Feel is trying to deliberately lose once she hears what the prize is (molesting Chlammy). Jibril then tells the siblings about Feel’s ancestor, and about her acolyte Nina, who takes over after Think supposedly “disappears”. After this, we get a story showing off a desperate Steph, running low on sleep and sanity, challenging the siblings to game after game, even it means more humiliation. Par for the course, in other words. We then get a story about Feel and Chlammy’s past, and how and why they set up what happens at the start of the series. Finally, we get a two-parter focused on Jibril, just why she’s so special, and her determination to do the impossible simply because everyone else says it can’t be done.

As always with this series, I love Steph, even when it’s making her the fanservice queen or having her be the chump for the sake of humor. She almost manages to speak out a win here, and is basically told “try this again when you’ve slept and are calm”. The story with Feel and Chlammy was also fun, showing them as a lot more of a loving couple than the main books do, as well as exactly how they got that way. The bulk of the book are the stories with Think and Jibril, which are flawed but good. I can do without the author’s “is this LGBT representation or shameless trolling fanservice!”, mostly because by now we know it’s both. The sections of Jibril’s story dealing with the dragon are fantastic, but Azril is simply FAR too annoying to make it 100% enjoyable, and the canon explanation as to why really doesn’t work for me.

Still, overall it’s a better volume than some of the recent books have been, and should make fans of the series happy. Oh yes, and there’s a new translator. I think the books read a bit smoother than before, though Kamiya’s writing is always hard to parse.

Strike the Blood, Vol. 19

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By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jeremiah Bourque.

Readers of the Strike the Blood light novels have always had a somewhat annoying problem, which is that we can never quite catch up to what’s been animated. For a while it looked like the novels would pass the anime, but then all these OAVs came out. It’s been especially noticeable with the last two books, both of which are expansions of original OAV storylines that came out years ago. You’d think, now that we’re only four volumes from the end, that we’d bee home free, but no: this volume and the next two came out in animated form last year. And, let’s face it, probably the only person still reading Strike the Blood who has NOT seen the anime is me. Most fans are likely simply reading the books to see what bits were cut out. I’m going to guess that the answer is not much, because as always this reads like a novelization more than a novel, and is almost entirely action.

Returning from the off-island events of the last book, Kojou and company find that the entire island is isolated – and appears to have been tu5rned into a survival game. This is being done by the Order of the End, a mysterious and powerful organization who can nearly murder a shaman princess, kidnap the Witch of the Void, and otherwise be the latest unstoppable opponent for Kojou to stop. They’re also led by The Blood, the very awkwardly named man (who also says his real name is Kenon here, though Kojou still annoyingly calls him The Blood) who is now pretending to be the Fourth Primogenitor. The obvious thing to do is to have Kojou go public, but he’s still trying to cling on to normal life till he can graduate. So he’ll do what he does best: muddle along, fight and find that it doesn’t work, rant and rave a lot, and win anyway. Though not yet, as this is more than one part long.

First of all, props to the author: Having Asagi save Yukina from certain death by turning the ocean into Strawberry Jell-O, then having to flee across it before it snaps back to reality, is one of the best things in the books to date, including her relief at it not being pudding, which would have been lethal. Other than that, there’s not really much to talk about here. It’s clearly only the start of the story (there’s no “this is OUR fight!” to be seen) and, well, it’s a lot of fights. Yume, the succubus from earlier books, is back protecting her school, and does cool things. The First Primogenitor, who we saw in the cliffhanger for the last book, is also around, along with his minion/girlfriend, and he’s fairly begign – so far. And the goofy humor is mostly kept to a minimum here – Kojou panicked when Kanon’s father sees them both in bathrobes in a love hotel; Sayaka getting summarily dumped out of La Folia’s airplane at 10,000 feet. It’s a decent action book.

But there’s no depth to it, which is why I always find these reviews hard. It has its highs and lows, but in the end Strike the Blood will always be what it is on the surface.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, Vol. 12

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By Wataru Watari and Ponkan 8. Released in Japan as “Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatte Iru” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jennifer Ward.

Let’s start with the ending, because we know how these books all go. Things look like they may finally resolve happily, and then you plummet to your death. It is a frequent fact that behind an “icy” romantic lead in a high school light novel is an even worse mother, and that proves to be the case here. We’d known before that Yukino’s mother was the sort to make her daughter feel terrible about everything, and seeing Yukino try to face her down and fail so miserably is painful to read. Then of course we have Haruno, who makes a very good point about the relationship between Hachiman, Yukino and Yui. Unfortunately, it’s not really a point I agree with, but it’s certainly a point. The argument is that the three of them are codependent on each other and therefore what they’re doing is a mistake. Which, y’know, I’ve talked before about the characters making bad decisions, but I think they HAVE to here, or Yukino’s life going forward is doomed.

That said, the first 80% of the book is fine, and can even be called fun and heartwarming. This despite the fact that we get a recap episode in text form from our three leads to start us off. Hachiman is mostly waiting on tenterhooks to find out Komachi’s test results, and this results in cute scenes like hanging around with Saki (also waiting for her brother’s exam results, and still being the worst tsundere in the world) or heartwarming scenes like every scene he has with his sister (this book is hands down one of the best non-creepy portrayal of a close bother-sister relationship, even as it also asks how it feels to be TREATED like a little sister). He and Yukino and Yui are getting along very well too, despite The Elephant In The Room. Then along comes Iroha. What follows is not technically her fault, but…

We’re only a couple of volumes from the end of the series by now, and one thing I’ve noticed is how easy it is for Hachiman to walk up and have conversations with everyone now. Sure, he still has his inner monologue of snark, but it feels disconnected with what he’s actually doing or feeling. If this *is* due to being codependent on Yukino and Yui, I can only call it a good thing. He’s also aware enough of the love triangle he’s in to CALL it that, if only when talking to Haruno, but he still can’t quite admit the real reason he wants to help Yukino with the prom. And then there’s Yui, who is the most aware of how everyone feels (especially when she gets her proof early on in the book), but is also the one who least wants to do anything, possibly as she knows that she has “romantic runner-up’ tattooed on her forehead.

I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better, but it will be interesting to see how Hachiman takes on Yukinoshita’s mother, and for that matter tries to help recover Yukino’s self-worth, which is probably buried somewhere below the floor by now. If you were reading this to see Hachiman push back against the “normies” of the world… well, you’ve likely dropped it by now. For everyone else, still good soao opera.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 7

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

This volume attempts to answer that dangerous question: what happens when the new person’s goal is to break the premise of the series? We met Anzu in the last volume, and here she makes good on her threat to get Lloyd to her kingdom. Unfortunately, well, Lloyd is Lloyd, as the main cast points out. So she decides to train him in such a way that he gains confidence ANYWAY, even though he’s already ludicrously strong. Unfortunately, as Maria breaks the fourth wall to point out, Anzu ends up being yet another comedy character whose goal is to scream loudly whenever Lloyd does something beyond all human ken again. What’s more, he keeps accidentally breaking her country. And even more amusingly, he keeps accidentally breaking the villain’s plans. Over and over again. It’s Lloyd’s gimmick, and thus you can’t really train him out of it. If he realized what he’s really like, the series ends… at least till the last few pages.

We begin with Anzu, in disguise, heading to the Azami Kingdom… and accidentally running into the entire cast and all of their bad character traits, including mistaking Allan for a hero, Merthopan’s dangerously flappy loincloth, Selen and Micone competing to see who can be the creepiest, and Riho trying to disguise her tragic flaw: donuts. Once we actually get the main cast (minus Micona, thank God, and also minus Alka – again, thank God) to the Ascorbic Domain, various plot-related things happen. There are two other factions trying to overthrow Anzu, each of whom is, of course, a different anime cliche; it turns out that this is where Eug is now, and she’s got a new Very Clever Scheme to cause war between all the countries; Lloyd proves impossible to train; and, most importantly, Phyllo is at a loose end after the events of the previous volume, and it’s making her fighting weak.

Aside from the last few pages mentioned above, Phyllo was the best part of this book. She’s depressed and angry with herself through most of the volume, as everyone and their brother is pointing out how she no longer has a purpose and it’s showing in her now very readable moves. The problem is that the events of the last book were good, right? Her mother isn’t dead, her family is whole again… why does this leave a big hole inside her? The resolution of this is very organic and feels very much like Phyllo, who is not really a character given over to long tormented inner monologues. Seeing her snap out of it is great – and, of course, only adds to the love polycule. As for those last few pages, let’s just say that someone actually manages to find the right way to train Lloyd and give him advice that works. It not only makes him even stronger, but he gets told the right way to build confidence. It’s honestly fantastic, I cheered.

That said, do I think it will last? No. No, I do not. But we will get at least one more volume before we have to go back to the default settings. In the meantime, this book is definitely recommended for Phyllo fans, and fans of the other characters should enjoy it as well. Well, unless you’re a Micona fan. In which case, WHY?

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 5

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By Riku Misora and Sacraneco. Released in Japan as “Choujin Koukousei-tachi wa Isekai demo Yoyuu de Ikinuku you desu!” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

Churchill once said “Democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried”. Leaving aside his own legacy for the moment, there was sort of a minor fandom kerfuffle at the idea of the prodigies coming into this world and introducing the people to the wonders of free elections. It felt a bit condescending, to be honest, and the cynicism that some of them seem to wear around them at all times did not help. This volume serves to try to balance that out a bit. Democracy is happening, but what actually comes of it is anyone’s guess. We see the formation of two factions, one isolationist and one interventionist, and they both have good points. Certainly the interventionist one would be better for our heroes of their won. Sadly, they’re already corrupt from within and loaded with people who want perks and bribes… which is, let’s face it, another part of democracy.

There’s actually an extra story taking up most of the first third of the book, where some “bandits” have taken over a stronghold and are wiping out the military trying to stop them, mostly as the military still isn’t used to fighting against modern weapons. Ringo could fix things immediately, but instead Tsukasa leaves it up to a child genius girl, who is very much the classic princess curled OHOHOHOHOHOHO! sort, and also sadly has invented one of history’s most infamous weapons. The book proper is devoted to a plea from one of the Yamato princesses to save her country. Tsukasa is not interested in that, but might be interested in saving her people… if she’s telling the truth. And for once the prodigies are not united – the fellowship is broken as Masato and Tsukasa disagree on their next step, and he heads off to a port as part of his own agenda.

Unlike previous books in the series, this one does not have any glaring horrible bits in it, it’s very readable. Though I wish that all the talk about saving Roo’s dream had been done with Roo in the room… or even in the book, which she isn’t. There’s a sense throughout the book that we’re setting things up for the back half of the series (we’ve halfway done by the end of this book), and indeed the Yamato problem is not remotely resolved by the end of it. Everything else seems to be simmering but not boiling over as well, including Tsukasa’s love triangle, which is a very awkward one indeed giving he’s ignoring both love interests… well, the love part, at least. There is a crisis of conscience from Prince, who feels weak and feeble compared to the others, but I gotta be honest, I find Prince dull so it didn’t really resonate with me. And the illustrations are laden with service, though I was amused at Shinobu literally calling attention to her own shower picture in the novel text.

This feels like the sort of book that will feel better after the next book is out. Till that, I’m giving it a B minus.

My Hero Academia: School Briefs, Vol. 5

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By Kouhei Horikoshi and Anri Yoshi. Released in Japan by Shueisha. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by Caleb Cook.

There is a certain give and take with adaptations like these. The author of these light novels is Anri Yoshi, not Kouhei Horikoshi, and they are allowed to do some things but not others because, well, this is an ongoing manga and there is a limit to what one can do in a side story that won’t break the main story. Thus, in the last volume we saw Shinso look disparagingly at Mineta and wonder why he wasn’t expelled yet, but that’s all he did because the actual answer is Horikoshi has admitted he loves to write Mineta. This volume dances around the many revelations about the Todoroki family we’ve had since the last one, but does not actually allow the family to meet up in full again, because, well, the manga covers those times. That said, there’s still good stuff here. We see Izuku and Bakugo bond as much as they’re ever going to. We see the reader struggling to remember which classmate Shoji is. Oh yes, and we see Monoma straight up almost murder 3/4 of the cast, then try to cover it up.

The book has 5 larger stories interspersed with short vignettes of Jiro, Asui, Uraraka, and Yaoyorozu going home for the holidays. These are mostly short but cute, with some ship tease (and ship sinking) and a brief horror when you realize Momo’s parents are even worse than she is in regards to money sense. In the main stories: a) ida, Kirishima, Shoji and Tokoyami explore an underground dungeon under UA, filled with weird traps; b) The faculty all try to give Eri Christmas presents at the same time without waking her up; c) The Todoroki siblings get together for New Year’s, and Shoto realizes he is a terrible cook; d) Izuku and Bakugou try to mend the relationship between two fighting kids which is a mirror of their own; and e) after the 1-A hot pot party begins (as seen in the manga), 1-B show up and the party becomes a competition, then a yamanabe party… with potentially fatal consequences.

The stories get better as they go along, with the start of the book being the weaker side. The best are the stories with our “main three” heroes, as they dig into the deeper characterization we’ve seen from the manga and examine the tortured relationship Endeavor still has with his family (and the book does not shy away from using the word abuse). Bakugo too is very well used here, still angry at Izuku for anything and everything but realizing that this is mostly on him and trying not to actually make it worse. The most bonkers story is the last one, where Monoma accidentally feeds poison mushrooms to 3/4 of the cast, then the ones not affected have to go out into a blizzard and find the antidote. It’s good development for Kaminari, and has the best joke in the entire book (Shiozaki’s ingredient for the yamanabe), but I felt the author had trouble finding the balance Monoma desperately needs to be fun and not irritating, and the “please cover this up” ending left me slapping my head.

Still, overall I thought this was a decent volume in the series, which can never be as good as its source but is good enough.

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 3

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By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

If the first volume of Bofuri was showing us how a casual gamer can accidentally become one of the biggest monsters in it, and the second volume was dedicated to showing us how hardcore gamers are also capable of the exact same thing, then the third volume shows us that anyone, even you, can get a completely broken character. Of course, it also shows us there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about doing this. Simply trying to do exactly what Maple did isn’t cutting it – the admins have cut off doing that again. What’s more, trying to protect yourself against Maple by acquiring poison immunity assumes that this is all she has in her bag of tricks. Hardly – every 40 pages or so in this book, Maple gets a new, ludicrous ability. But thinking outside the box, as the other folks in Maple’s new guild realize, is the best way to go beyond and become like Maple.

Maple and Sally now decide to form a guild, called Maple Tree. Added to it are Kasumi, Kanade, Chrome and Iz, though they’re still looking for a couple more members to round things out. As the book goes on, each of the members of the guild, influenced by Maple and Sally, decide to go off on their own little side quests to try to get new skills as exciting and overpowered as hers. Meanwhile, this leaves Maple on her own. The third special event is designed to be for everyone BUT high defense sorts, so she’s not having much fun that way. Even recruiting newbie twins to the guild, who have maxed out in strength, doesn’t solve her wanderlust. What does? Well, fighting new battles so that she can become an Angelic Being. Or a Godzilla-like monster. Or even a mecha.

Reading these books is simply relaxing. They take place in an “idealized” game world, so there is no trolling, or sexual harassment. There’s just fun. It’s also been interesting, after having first experienced the anime, to see how it handled adapting this book. Some events are compressed – Kanade, Chrome and Iz’s fights were effectively compressed into a montage. Some stuff is changed – we meet Mai and Yui a bit later in the books than we do in the anime, and when Frederica shows up to fight Sally, there is not a beach party going on. The anime also makes things more… anime-esque, if you will. I would not call the light novel Maple deadpan per se, but she’s definitely a lot more mellow than her animated counterpart. The twins also seem a bit less hero-worshippey of Maple. These are things that don’t work as well in text, but when added to an anime give voice actors and animators a bit more to work with. It makes both enjoyable.

Next time we should get the team battles that formed the climax of the first anime season. Till then, enjoy this volume of Bofuri, which reminds you that you too can be ridiculous if only you try hard enough.

Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire, Vol. 2

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By Hayaken and Nagu. Released in Japan as “Eiyu-oh, Bu wo Kiwameru tame Tensei su. Soshite, Sekai Saikyou no Minarai Kisi ♀” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mike Langwiser.

In general, when you’re reading a series that stars a big dumb person who only likes fighting, you’re not supposed to be on their side. The reader can see that there are advantages to talking things through, or do finding another way, etc. But, of course, there’s fighting anyway, because our hero just leapt in there and starting whaling away. That’s definitely true with Inglis in this second volume. What’s worse, her fights are almost all one-sided beatdowns, as she is ludicrously strong and powerful, even without any runes or talent of that sort. She is every reader’s OP nightmare. And yet… let’s face it, while reading this book, I was agreeing with her. The parts of the book that really came alive and felt like the most fun were those where Inglis had her sword out and was fighting monsters, or bad guys, or bad guys turned into monsters. She’s great fun as a meathead. The rest of the book has trouble keeping up with her.

Now that she and Rafinha are in the Academy, Inglis is ready to start learning. And by learning I mean “learning how to fight stronger and stronger opponents”. She and Rafinha have very few problems, mostly as they’re the cool kids. Leona, on the other hand, their new friend whose brother turned traitor, is having a terrible time, especially when her new roommate (the princess curl type) refuses to live with her. On their first day the three of them happen to come across a sea monster which they prevent from destroying a ship… a ship that turns out to be owned by the Rambach Company, whose heir became a Highlander in the first volume, if you’d forgotten. As a reward, they’re invited to be guards for a very important summit meeting between the company and various factions. Could it be a trap? No worries, I’m r pretty sure Inglis can punch traps away.

As noted, the fun in these books is seeing how ludicrous Inglis is all the time. We get occasional mention of her past as a male king, mostly when she’s trying not to gawk at women in the bath, but for the most part it’s just a flimsy excuse to have Inglis be less “ladylike” than some folks would like. Rafinha is supposedly her voice of reason… but is almost as bad as she is, occasionally trying to stop her but more often joining in. They’re also both desperate for food, another fun running gag, as chunks of this book are written in “Talk-with-your-mouth-full-ese”. There are actual political things going on and genuine danger to the city and country… but Inglis is content to leave that to the royal family and the knights who have to worry about politics. Indeed, her suggestion to allow the woman currently spewing out monsters on occasion to stay at the academy is “cool, monsters to fight without sneaking out!”.

So, basically, if you like smart intelligent girls and politicking, this is not the series for you. If you read it and think “I wish there was even more of Inglis hitting things”, by all means keep reading, I’m sure you will be satisfied.

The Magician Who Rose from Failure: Tales of War and Magic, Vol. 3

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By Hitsuji Gamei and Fushimi Saika. Released in Japan as “Shikkaku Kara Hajimeru Nariagari Madō Shidō! ~ Jumon Kaihatsu Tokidoki Senki ~” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

It’s time to talk about a tragic problem facing many young manga and light novel characters today. They’re young, clever, they want to be helpful. And yet… everyone seems to be suspicious of them. How sad! Is it because they never seem to show you which side they’re really on? Is it because they exude an aura of “I could be incredibly evil, if I wanted, but I choose not to be?” No, we all know the real reason. It’s because they never open their eyes. Studies have shown that nine out of ten characters who smile while constantly having their eyes shut later turn out to be villains in some way, shape or form. (Well, if they’re guys. For women, please see the “ara, ara” subclause.) As such, we identify very much with Arcus in this book as he meets a strange merchant who really wants to establish a connection with him, but cannot really get past looking and feeling incredibly shifty.

Despite the cover promising us delicious pizza, for the most part this book is all about battles and intrigue. After briefly spending a morning flirting with Sue (well, flirting on her end, not his), Arcus runs into a slight problem: he has to get silver to make more of his cool magic thermometer, but someone is buying all the silver in the kingdom. As such, he and his two bodyguards head west to a holding with lots of silver mines. There, they run into a different problem – bandits, who are busily trying to destroy a village, though it looks like their hearts aren’t really in it. Could these two problems be related? And can Arcus manage to figure this all out without a war starting between his country and the Empire? Oh yes, and in the meantime his sister is going on a magical quest and getting possessed by her ancient ancestors.

As with previous volumes, Magician Who Rose from Failure is good enough that you want to read the next book in the series, but not really good enough that you have a lot to talk about with someone else. Arcus remains cool. He gets to use his magic here, and everyone is amazed at how powerful he is. There is a bit more brutal death than the previous books, and Arcus briefly looks queasy about that, but by the end of the book he’s recovered enough to immolate one of the bad guys. We also meet the son of the local Lord, Deet, who has a minder of his own and who looks like the sort of kid who wandered into this series from the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump, He’s fun, and contrasts nicely with the staid and calm Arcus.

As the author indicates in the afterword,the next volume will likely focus more on the ‘war’ part of the book rather than the ‘magic’ part. Till then, this series remains ‘solid’, for good and ill.

Return from Death: I Kicked the Bucket and Now I’m Back at Square One with a Boyfriend Who Doesn’t Remember Me, Vol. 1

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By Eiko Mutsuhana and Hiyori Asahikawa. Released in Japan as “Shi ni Modori no Mahou Gakkou Seikatsu wo, Moto Koibito to Prologue kara (※Tadashi Koukando wa Zero)” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Alyssa Niioka.

I must admit that I was expecting this book to be lighter fare than it turned out to be. And yes, I realize that’s on me, since the book being called “Return from Death” in English and having a variation on “Starting from Zero” in Japanese means that the author is likely very familiar with Re: Zero, but, I mean, look at the cute cover! There’s going to be wacky antics, surely! In fact, the start of the book did indeed promise these, but unfortunately for readers who prefer that sort of thing, they require a heroine who’s a bit less on the ball than Oriana is here. She’s not only gone back in time to try to stop the love of her life from dying mysteriously, but she’s also coming on far too strong, meaning he’s no longer the love of her life. So the solution is to wait, and be patient and a good friend, and deal with everything else.

Vince and Oriana were a lovely couple, and he was so sweet and kind to her. Then, a few days after their senior year ball, she finds him dead, seemingly with no cause… except she quickly succumbs to it as well. When she wakes, she’s back in her seven-year-old body. Fortunately for the narrative, we then immediately time skip six years to her entrance to the Academy where she first meets her true love. Sadly, he does NOT have memories of a previous go-round, and regards her excessive adoration and professions of love as extremely creepy and unwelcome. So, as I said above, the long game. She eventually does make friends with Vincent and Miguel, his bestie. She gets close to her roommate, foreign princess Yana and Yana’s bodyguard Azraq. And, like most teenagers, she proves to be very bad at recognizing when a guy is hiding his feelings out of stubbornness and embarrassment.

I haven’t read the author’s other CIW series, Hello, I Am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion, but judging by this I may have to go check it out. The book is very much a teen melodrama, with hurt feelings at the forefront, and some of the pairings do not work out the way that Oriana (or, for that matter, the audience) would like. There’s a lot to negotiate here. Oriana is a commoner, even if she’s the daughter of a rich merchant, and Vincent is the son of a duke. Yana and Azraq have similar issues, only much much worse. There’s simply dealing with Vincent’s cold, sullen attitude every day, though that does improve as the book goes on. So yeah, the ending is kind of happy, but a bit bittersweet… well, until the cliffhanger. Yes, this is a multipart series, and the ending makes it very clear that saving Vince is not the solution to the original problem.

I tweeted that this book reminded me of all the things I hated about being a teenager, but that’s also good news for those who love that sort of thing. If you like YA novels, romances, or grumpy tsundere male leads, this is right up your alley.

Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools, Vol. 1

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y Hisaya Amagishi and Kei. Released in Japan as “Madougushi Dahliya wa Utsumukanai” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Nikolas Stirling.

Just as there are people who can read an isekai and somehow be surprised that our generic-looking male protagonist ends up with overpowered abilities and women falling all over him, there are presumably people who can be surprised that a romance novel has romance in it. To an extent, I get it. This book is supposedly about a woman, jilted by her fiancee on the day before their wedding, starting anew and devoting herself to her job. You can hear readers all over the world saying “Yeah! Kick ass in your profession, Dahlia! You don’t NEED romance!”. They are bound to be a tad annoyed that the majority of the rest of the book involves her meeting and going on not-dates with a knight whose tragic flaw is that he is simply TOO HANDSOME. That said… come on. This is a romance novel. It even has an extended makeover section where we get to see how gorgeous our mousey heroine really is once she gets the right clothes and makeup. If you accept that, it’s great.

Dahlia is, by the way, a reincarnated Japanese woman who died at work from a heart attack, but her former life only really comes up in her job, as she’s more easily able to visualize magical tools due to her experience with hair dryers and Coleman stoves. She grows up in fantasy world with her dad, who also makes magical tools, and is engaged to his apprentice. Things go great (well, aside from her dad’s death) till the day before the marriage, when her fiance says he’s in love with another woman, so can they not get married? Oh, and he wants to keep the house they bought. She’s stunned, but not as devastated as she expected to be, and she gradually realizes she was never in love with him. She decides to throw all her energy into her business, helped along by most of the rest of the town, who are on her side. Then she meets Volf, the aforementioned knight with golden eyes who can’t walk through the town without starting a fight over him, and who can’t keep friends. Fortunately, both he and Dahlia are on the same wavelength, and both decide to forego romance and stay as drinking buddies. And boy, can they drink. But how long will this last?

Dahlia’s ex, Tobias, is almost cartoonishly awful, not actually evil but such a dimbulb who is lost in the thrall of puppy love that he loses any ability to think – as his older brother hammers into him near the end of the book. Your jaw drops at the callous shit he says to Dahlia, who has also been deliberately making herself dowdy so that other men won’t look at her. Needless to say, he barely recognizes the beautiful redhead she becomes. As for Dahlia herself, she’s great, and her work ethic really is a major part of the book, don’t worry. In fact, it might be a little TOO strong – she tells a story about an accident with black slime where she had to go get healed, and Volf realizes in horror she had melted her hands down to the bone without realizing it. I think we know why she may have overworked herself to death in Japan…

So yes, good book, but don’t be surprised when Dahlia and Volf decide they do love each other after all in the next volume or so. It is still genre fiction.

Slayers: Conspiracy in Solaria

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By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

Another day, another short, mostly action-filled volume of Slayers to try to expand into a review. Lina and Gourry are still searching for a replacement for the Sword of Light, and swords that can cut through ghosts are not really on the same level. Then they hear a rumor (well, beat up a goon to obtain a rumor) that the regent in Solaria is collecting magical swords and other such weapons. Heading there, Lina and Gourry find a city that has lots of armed guards, lots of buildings they can’t enter, and a supposedly friendly regent who… is being guarded by Luke and Mileena, who are also in the city. Needless to say, not everyone is telling the truth, there’s some really creepy demon shit going on behind the scenes, and it’s going to have to come down to a lot of sword fighting and magic battles to get out of this one. Fortunately, this is a volume of Slayers, so we have just the right sort of protagonists to carry this off.

In general, Slayers doesn’t really do flashbacks or prequels – at least not in the main series. There’s a separate novel series that has not been licensed that features Lina and Naga the White Serpent having adventures before she first meets Gourry, and those also got their own anime, but for the most part the two never actually connect to each other. So it’s always interesting to hear Lina talk about these sorts of things. Here one of her minor allies is someone she’s worked with before when a city was about to be destroyed, and she allied herself with several others to stop it. Which admittedly does not sound like Lina, but then this is the novel’s Lina. We also get another mention of her mysterious older sister, and her apparent love-that-borders-on-abuse of her younger sibling. Gourry, sensibly, does not pry further into what is clearly a big trauma for Lina, but we as an audience are very curious.

Speaking of minor allies, we also have Luke and Mileena, which makes me ask… what exactly is their purpose in the story? They’re not really filling the ‘replacements for Zelgadis and Amelia’ role, and for that matter it’s puzzling as to why Zelgadis and Amelia were written out in the first place. You get the sense that the author has something in mind for them, but… given that the first arc took 8 books, and was a fairly loose arc to begin with, I suspect it may be a while. We see more of Luke’s self-declared love for Mileena, and her total disinterest in same. Luke’s sort of a muscle-bound hothead, which contrasts nicely with Gourry’s muscle-bound airhead. This especially comes up when we come across the results of another horrific experiment, one which involves a lot of dead children. It would be interesting to see this developed.

And so, having managed to save the day without destroying the city for once, our heroes are free to wander once more… well, after clearing their names and doing the paperwork. Still good, but this felt like a slighter volume than usual in the Slayers series.

The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, Vol. 1

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

It’s no secret by now that it does not take much to make me add another “otome game villainess” story to my stack of light novels. As with isekai stories, a lot of them tend to hit the exact same story beats. Unlike isekai, though, they usually are at least trying to keep things interesting as much as possible. This story has a fairly standard premise. The title is not great. It’s relatively serious, so you can’t push it for the laughs. But, as with a couple other titles in this genre, it’s worth it for the inner narration of the title character, who has just the right amount of balance in terms of talking about her old life, and who seems to have things well in hand when it comes to avoiding her fate. Honestly, the one issue she might have is that she tends to have a bad case of self-deprecation. That said, like most villainess novels, she has a strong supporting cast to buff her up.

Princess Rosemary does have it slightly easier than other examples in this genre. She is indeed killed in a traffic accident, and ends up reincarnated in an otome game. But she was only a rival in the game, not a villainess. So she doesn’t have to worry about death or exile. That said… the game sucked. It had terrible romantic routes, and the actual nice, interesting characters were all NPCs. She absolutely does not want to deal with any of these guys when they’re grown up and terrible, so decides to fix things now while they’re young and malleable. Especially as one is her younger brother and one is her fiance. You’d think this would be easy, given she’s got a good 10 years before the heroine even shows up. But this princess is emotionally mature enough to realize this ISN’T a game… and these are real people whose fates she’s affecting. Which makes it even worse when two young sorcerers arrive… and she has to try to stop actual deaths.

As noted, Rosemary’s narration is fantastic, and great translation too while I’m at it. This book has the word fuck in it no less than five times, and each one of them is well-deserved and pitch perfect. Rosemary does have a group around her who are amazed at her, but they’re not ALL in love with her, and there is a lot of attention paid to her frustration at being a good 17-18 years younger than the guy she has a crush on. She has very sensible solutions to her problems, and they work… mostly. Some issues, like her personal guard, can’t really be stopped as much as toned down. And then there’s the climax of the book, where she is forced to act maturely even when an attempted murder takes place in front of her and the assaulter lies to her face. She can’t even be there for the climactic battle. She really is a 10-year-old royal princess who is guarded constantly, and that leads her to feel powerless… despite pretty much changing history. And it’s only Book 1.

So yeah, the usual “if you don’t like this sort of book, why are you starting another one?” warnings, but if you do like this sort of book, there’s no reason not to add this to the list. It’s a winner.

Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower, Vol. 3

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By Miri Mikawa and Kasumi Nagi. Released in Japan as “Ikka Kōkyū Ryōrichō” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by afm.

If there’s one thing that’s really going to separate Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower from Apothecary diaries it’s the romance. There *is* romance in Apothecary Diaries, but Maomao’s complete avoidance/disinterest helps to keep it about the 5th or 6th most important thing. That’s not the case here, as a good chunk of this book is taken up with both Rimi and Shusei being in love with each other, but knowing that they can’t actually do anything about it. This is not particularly helped by the fact that the Emperor is also deeply in love with her. Indeed, while I would not quite call Rimi a manic pixie dream girl, her presence and way of thinking seem to have gone a good ways towards making the Emperor mature, as for once we get a “I am going to force myself on you” shoujo romance trope where the guy takes the right message from it. This is one big ol’ love triangle, but one side of it can’t really happen. Or… can it?

Most of this volume is dedicated to trying to negotiate a trade agreement with Saisakoku, a nation further to the West known for its herbs and spices. Unfortunately, Saisakoku does not particularly seem all that interested in negotiating, and the envoy they send doesn’t really care if the emperor is annoyed at this. Fortunately, they also have Rimi, who is interesting enough to attract the attention of the Envoy, who apparently likes to gather strays to his side to serve him (which makes him very similar to many otome game villainesses). Rimi really wants to find out about the Saisakokuan style of cooking, particularly as she alone is now serving the Emperor’s meals – Shusei has been delegated to essentially calm the Emperor down while the delegation is here. Can Rimi do something to break the deadlock?

I’ve talked about the romance, which is important, but that doesn’t mean that this story has forgotten about its roots – or its title. Food is very much a major character, as we continue to see shusei find things that are very good for the Emperor but taste awful, and Rimi continues to try to find ways to make it palatable. The sheer joy she shows over learning new ways of cooking wins over not only the head chef at the palace, but also the Saisakokuan chef who is there to serve the delegate spicy food, as he finds Konkokuan cuisine boring. The solution to this issue turns out to also be the solution to the trade talks, though things are also helped by the Emperor really leveling up and learning when it’s OK to ask for help. I also enjoyed seeing the four consorts now getting along swimmingly, even if I sometimes have trouble telling them apart.

There’s a cliffhanger that promises that the political intrigue that’s also a part of the series is only going to get worse, and I suspect that Rimi and Shusei will have a long and hard road ahead – this is only Book 3 of 11. Still, if you like shoujo romance, food, or happy go lucky heroines, this remains an excellent choice.