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Reviews

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.

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 3

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

One of the enjoyable things about the Apothecary Diaries is that, while it will always be about the relationship between Maomao and Jinshi to a degree, if you’re completely uninterested in that sort of thing there’s still a whole lot to get out of every volume. There are the mysteries, of course, as everyone and their brother wants Maomao to apply her cunning and figure out Who’s Killin’ Who. There is Maomao herself, who has an idea of what social niceties and graces are and has decided to tell them “no thank you”. And there’s an increasingly fun cast, including the amusingly carefree Xiaolan, who spends most of the novel learning to read – and unlike what most books of this sort would do, she proves to be pretty good at it once given proper education. And then there’s Shisui, who is my new Best Girl, and is basically to bugs what Maomao is to poisons. It’s tough to be so eccentric that Maomao is mistaken for you, but this girl can pull it off.

When Maomao is not busy snarking at Jinshi or “the quack doctor”, she is helping Jinshi to try to educate the people in the rear palace, discovers a cat that is quickly named after her (sort of), deals with a caravan that is selling all the ladies fragrant perfumes… some of which are potentially dangerous; trying to solve a recent disappearance that turns into a not-so-recent murder; figures out how a sheltered young woman snuck past her guards and got pregnant; discovers that the issues surrounding Consort Lihua, which is what started this series off, have not vanished; and ends up going on a hunting trip with a disguised Jinshi, which ends up turning far more dangerous than either of them had anticipated.

As I said last time, the series rewards close reading, and having prior volumes on hand. There are several pregnancies in this book, and several chapters dealing with people who are trying their hardest to make sure that those pregnancies are unsuccessful… or are they? It *could* just all be a coincidence. On the lighter side, for those who ARE reading the book for the relationship between Maomao and Jinshi, the last quarter of the book is pure gold. Something we had long suspected is finally straight up admitted, and you will never be able to see the words “decently sized amphibian” again without laughing. Maomao herself seems more determined than ever to avoid going anywhere near this – she’s very aware of how Jinshi feels, what it would mean for her future, and how she really does NOT want to deal with it. Even if she does go gaga when he gives her the right present.

So yes, this remains essential reading provided you don’t mind that it’s got the Emperor and his many consorts, or that the heroine (not one of the consorts) can kill a man with her sharp tongue at 500 yards.)

Magistellus Bad Trip, Vol. 1

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By Kazuma Kamachi and Mahaya. Released in Japan by DENGEKI no Shin Bungei. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

This is another one of those books that starts off slow and kind of boring and only really pays off in the back half. Honestly, when I started it I kind of felt like Kamachi had gotten bored with writing A Certain Magical Index’s 245th volume and decided to transcribe his Let’s Play video and send it to Dengeki. (Honestly, given how “well” the Index books did here, it’s surprising we got this at all, though it helps that it’s finished at three volumes rather than running to an infinite number.) Taking place in a game world where anything goes as long as you make money, and starring a cool guy and his badass succubus familiar, the book oozes testosterone from every pore, and I was almost ready to give up till the interesting stuff kicked in. Fortunately, the interesting stuff IS interesting, and helps explain a lot of the plot holes that the attentive reader might have raised an eyebrow at. It makes me want to read more of the book, especially given it’s a finished series in Japan.

Kaname Suou is a player in a game called Money (Game) Master, a game with no rules or restrictions except “make money”. He is assisted by Tselika, an NPC assistant character who takes the form of a buxom succubus. When we meet then they’re pulling off a big caper that will get them a huge amount of ‘snow’, this game’s currency, which allows them access to an exclusive group trying to get a hold of a forbidden Legacy weapon, left behind by a former player who was able to make ludicrously powerful weapons. If you’re looking at this description and thinking “there’s going to be double-crossing”, you’re right, but that’s not exactly a spoiler. That said, things get more interesting when we meet Midori, the younger sister of the weapon builder, who is trying to destroy the Legacies. Oh, yes, and it turns out that this game has HUGE consequences for the real world as well – in fact, in most ways that count this game is now the economy of the real world.

So, not wanting to reveal the interesting twists too much, I will merely note that I did find them interesting, even if a few of them were a bit unsurprising. It’s not too hard to guess the identity of certain people if you know how to think like an author. Still, overall it’s a book filled with a great deal of action, which Kamachi is good at, a few stabs at humor, which he’s far less good at but at least they’re better than his attempts in Index, and a lot of thrilling intrigue, as the last part of the book involves a race against time, a big chase, and literally everyone in the world turning against our hero. Kaname is a bit generic, possibly to avoid too many people comparing him to Touma, but also because he’s playing a game character, he isn’t trapped in a game as his real self or anything. Everyone is deliberately making themselves cool and attractive in this.

So yeah, this is not New Testament, but it’s a good action thriller, and it should please fans who don’t mind a lot of cars, guns, things exploding, and questions about the nature of reality.

Bond and Book: The Devotion of “The Surgery Room”

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By Mizuki Nomura and Miho Takeoka. Released in Japan as “Musubu to Hon: “Gekashitsu” no Ichizu” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

It’s good to be reading Mizuki Nomura again. Book Girl came out before the light novel boom, and as such I don’t think it ever got the attention that it deserved. This new series is not quite a sequel, and does not require having read Book Girl to enjoy it, but fans of that series will figure out fairly quickly that it’s set at the same school a generation later, and that some of the main characters are related to some of the people from Book Girl. This should not particularly be a surprise given that the premise is that a teenage boy names Musubu can “hear” the voices of books, which is not very far away from eating books. That said, while this does have serious moments, Bond and Book is a lighter series, an anthology-style tale where we see Musubu interact with someone and learn about their relationship with a book. Because trust me, books are the lovers here.

As we go through Musubu’s everyday school live, he a) tries to unite a battered copy of Pippi Longstocking with its former owner; b) helps a light novel author whose books are, um, not very good find a wider audience; c) tries to figure out which book has possessed an orchestra club member and caused him to lash out at others; d) goes with his friends to a deserted island to mimic the story of Fifteen Boys by Jules Verne (known everywhere outside Japan as Two Years’ Vacation); and e) try to help a college boy confess his love to the older librarian he adores… before she gets married and he regrets it forever. As he does this, we also hear from the books in question, who are very much characters of their own, particularly Musubu’s girlfriend, the petulant, prickly, and jealous Princess Yonoga.

This was a fun read, though I will admit that I liked some stories better than others. The light novel chapter, while an amusing look at the cliches that come from the genre these days, was not all that great; and the twist of the Fifteen Boys chapter also left a bad taste in my mouth, as it revolved around idols being despised and hated whenever they’re no longer ‘pure’. The fact that these are the two funny stories did not escape my notice – I think that Nomura is simply better at writing drama. The Pippi Longstocking chapter was an excellent look at what happens to books when you grow up or your world changes so much you can’t read what you love anymore. The story with “The Surgery Room” short story (by Kyōka Izumi, from 1895) revolves around a relationship that I suspect is not going to work out, but the whole point of the story is about passion winning out over sense, so hey.

So overall I am pretty pleased, and I would definitely recommend this to Book Girl lovers and book lovers.

If the RPG World Had Social Media…

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By Yusuke Nitta. LOL, and Yukinatsu Amekaze. Released in Japan as “Moshi Role Playing Game no Sekai ni SNS ga Attara” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Luke Hutton.

I imagine many of you had the same reaction I did when Yen Press first announced this license. “Oh Jesus Christ, really?!?!” And yeah, I have to admit, this title had a lot of things stacked against it from the start. Aside from the premise, the format itself demands the “text bubble” style social media commenting throughout, with little icons to show who’s speaking, meaning that this light novel reads as a particularly wordy manga much of the time. The author is also not afraid to use every cliche at their disposal in the course of telling this story, mining standard RPG plots as well as anime and manga tropes galore. But somehow, along the way, this actually became quite a fun story, helped along by a hero and demon lord who are both very similar to each other: they have trouble communicating in anything but texts. A bad story would mock this mercilessly, but this one accepts it as a simple communication disorder.

Our “hero” has a few issues. He’s a shut-in, and as I noted above, can’t really communicate except via texting. Even to his mom. He’s also super, super weak, and can’t seem to get any stronger even when he does put in effort. Possibly because he lives in Beginnerland, where the king’s castle is called LMOA Castle. Unfortunately, the Demon Lord has kidnapped the princess! He has to rescue her!… if he could leave the castle without immediately getting killed. And if the princess weren’t far more interested in seducing the demon lord than being rescued. Fortunately, the Demon Lord is an understanding sort, and sends her minions to help him slowly (very slowly) make his way to her land to save the princess. This is all made much easier because everyone can text each other… including the Hero and the Demon Lord, who are rapidly falling in love.

As I said, there’s a lot of silly cliches here. The four Demon Generals are a catgirl, Darkness from KonoSuba (OK, a vampire masochist, but come on, it’s Darkness with the serial number removed), a tsundere fallen angel, and a strong and straightforward oni. Towards the end of the book, we also revive the Six Great Sages, who are famous in legend for fighting the demons but actually all turns out to be terrible, terrible people. The book knows its RPGs. That said, it treats everyone with respect. The Demon Lord is a shy but incredibly sweet young girl, who even trained for 8 years to lower her power level to the point where she did not kill everyone by just walking near them. Her Demon Lord Generals are all firmly in her corner. As for the hero, underneath that ‘wuss’ starter background is a young man who is willing to work hard if he has a clear goal in mind, and who can also see the goodness in the Demon Lord.

Some listings say this is a Volume 1, but I’m pretty sure the novel series ends here, even if it leaves most of its “plot” in the air. The Hero and Demon Lord don’t even meet in person. The Hero is still cursed, etc. That said, the actual plot of the book is “found families are awesome” and “texting is a valid way of communication, don’t make fun of it”, so we don’t really need to see everything after this play out. This isn’t a must-read, but it is a book that makes the best use of its gimmick premise and treats everyone with care. I enjoyed it.

The Sidekick Never Gets the Girl, Let Alone the Protag’s Sister!, Vol. 2

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By Toshizo and U35. Released in Japan as “Shinyuu Mob no Ore ni Shujinkou no Imouto ga Horeru Wake ga Nai” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tristan K. Hill.

This book continues to be very good at not really doing what I would like it to do. I had expected, after the climax of the first book, that we’d be seeing a lot of fallout, or at least evidence that memory-erasing magic does not really work all that well in modern-day Japan. But no, we don’t even SEE the little sister again till the second half of the book, and while her fate is a big part of the plot, it’s somewhat secondary to the romcom antics. This is especially annoying as we get an excellent start to the book where we see, in the fantasy world Kou was sent to, exactly how he managed to get traumatized and have complete disaster befall him. It’s a bit rushed, but heartbreaking. Unfortunately, the author likes using it as flavor text for their real ambition: a standard high school harem comedy. And I have bad news for them, other authors are better at that.

After using magic that really should not be used in this world to wipe Hikari’s memories of him, Kou ends up sick as a dog, and also flashing back to the girl he fell in love with in the fantasy world, Rei… as well as her brutal murder, complete with dying in his arms. That said, he really can’t reflect too hard on that when both Kiryu AND Renge show up to care for him. This is especially bad in Renge’s case, as she’s a terrible cook! Oh no! This amazingly cliched scene is broken up by, of all things, the naked sexual assault guy from the start of Book 1, who shows up (clothed) and smashes a durian all over Kou and Kou’s room, I know, stay with me. After a chase, which ends up roping in Kazuki, his athletic kohai, he finds that this world and the fantasy world are more connected than he thought. But there’s no time to dwell on THAT – finals are coming up! Study group!

As you can see, the book is trying to hit every single groan-worthy high school romantic comedy cliche there is. They don’t do a bad job of having the characters go through the motions, but they don’t add anything interesting to the genre either. Kazuki has a mom. She’s hot, and teasing. Kou is bad at studying and on the verge of failure. Et cetera. I wouldn’t be complaining nearly as much if it weren’t taking away from the actual interesting parts of the book. Kou’s avoidance tactics and trauma are fascinating! The way that the weird pervert from the start of Book 1 ties into the fantasy world is something I really want to hear about… till it is thrown away because they can’t discuss it in front of “civilians”. It *is* made clear that Hikari is (no big spoiler here, it’s obvious) the reincarnation of his fantasy love… but then the book ends. Sigh.

I’m sure you’re reading this and wondering why I’m so annoyed, rather than just mildly disappointed. m Well, it’s mostly because the novel series ends here. The webnovel apparently went to a decent conclusion, but PASH! Books has shown no signs of publishing any more in print form, which probably means Japanese readers were as frustrated as I was. There’s an interesting story here that’s struggling to get past the author shoehorning in their favorite scenes from 2006 comedy anime. But… grr.

Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness, Vol. 1

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By Ameko Kaeruda and Sencha. Released in Japan as “Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu ” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino.

While reading this book, I was asked about it on Twitter, and I made the observation that it was like reading a parfait. Having now finished the book, I stand by this 100%. Everything about this is adorable and sweet, and you get the added bonus of a good example of how found families can end up being much better for someone than a birth family that resents and disparages them is. All that said, please be aware, this book is not here to be serious or to raise questions that require deep analysis. It cares not about power levels – all four leads are ludicrously more powerful than anyone else in the book. There is a bit of worldbuilding, but it’s about as important as any other ingredient you’d have in a parfait. This book is here for a dragon dad, usually in the form of a hot guy, and his adorable daughter, who he dotes on.

Our narrator is an elder dragon who has spent the last few hundred years high up a mountain. One day, a four-year-old girl shows up, calling him “Daddy”. He tries to dissuade her, but after discovering what her birth father is like, he makes the decision to raise her as a doting parent. He makes her delicious milk soup. He moves them to a large castle, perfect for a growing girl… though the Demon Lord and her partner who already live there might think differently. And he teaches her how to read, and the Demon Lord teaches her magic. By the time she’s old enough to go to school, she’s possibly the most powerful human being alive. But, I mean, that’s fine, really? As long as she can make friends, and hang out with her dragon daddy and her two lesbian aunts.

It’s a sign of Bunny Drop’s fandom presence that I feel the need to say this once more: this is not going there. Even if the daddy weren’t really a huge dragon, this is by the author of Sexiled, and we can be pretty sure that they’re not going to have this end with the girl marrying her dad. Speaking of Sexiled, in the afterword the author admits they wrote this to have fun with tropes: adorable girl who dotes on her dad, hunky dad who’s really a powerful dragon… and the Demon Lord and her partner, who (because this is entirely narrated from the POV of the dragon, who doesn’t get relationships) are clearly a couple but never explicitly called such. The Demon Lord is amusing in her own right, essentially being a shut-in with a tendency to talk big but fold like a card table, having to be bailed out by her knight/partner. The four of them end up being a wonderful and amusing family unit.

By the end of this first book Olivia (the daughter, sorry, names are hard) has already pretty much blown school out of the water… though she and her father elect to have her stay in her proper grade anyway, so she can better make friends. I expect even more ridiculous and sweet things will happen in the next book. If you love the author, or love found family, or just love sugary books, this is a winner.

Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight, Vol. 12

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By Hyougetsu and Nari Teshima. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

It is a question often asked by authors, and even more often by publishers: when it the right time to end a series? It can depend very much on what kind of series it is, but for a series like Der Werwolf, the last volume certainly felt like an ending. Veight and Airia were together, she’d had their child, and he was busily uniting the entire kingdom and bringing a new era of peace to all. Medetashi, medetashi. Except frequently if you try to keep doing stories after “and everyone lived happily ever after”, it tends towards “until they died and here’s how”. Fortunately, Der Werwolf may be moving on to the Next generation, but it’s not quite ready to give up on Veight, or more accurately to give up on Veight being a living legend whose only fault is his absolutely crippling humility. Something that, fortunately, does not seem to have transferred over to his daughter, though she certainly seems to have inherited his ability to find trouble.

The book takes place, with many timeskips, around the first ten years of the life of Friede, Veight and Airia’s daughter. That said, most of it is still the usual setup for this series: Veight’s POV, and then an alternate POV from another character that expounds on Veight’s greatness. (I will assume that if this sort of thing bothers you,. you dropped the series ages ago.) Veight is filled with parental love and also Japanese ideas on how to raise children, which differ a bit from “give them to childcare people and see them once a year” that this world’s nobles tend to do. Friede is also not your typical child – while she can’t transform into a werewolf, she has all of Veight’s other abilities, enough mana to level a warship, and by the end of the book is learning swordfighting, martial arts, and diplomacy. Which may be needed, as she’s packed off to the Rolmund Empire at the end of the book, as Eleora wants to meet her.

Again, the biggest flaw in this book is is irrelevance: it’s After Stories, so if you wanted to drop the series neatly, doing so just before this book starts is a perfectly good response. That said, it doesn’t really do anything wrong, and gives us more of Veight being Alexander the Great as a wolf, only with more sense. He’s still resolving disputes, still occasionally being forced to fight 20-against-1 battles, and still insisting that he’s just a humble vice-commander. In addition, as much as Veight is hoping to usher in a time of peace, there are always going to be bad guys – someone in this book is kidnapping girls from other kingdoms and has them all holed up in a house in Meraldia… which Freide promptly finds in about two seconds, which bodes well for her. She’s a fun kid, who was raised thinking her dad was a normal goofy dad, and only now finding out that everyone reveres him. Which means she’s now in the “dad is so cool!” phase of her life.

So yes, if you really do like Der Werwolf, this is a fun read, and has a nice side story about Woroy trying to start his own city and realizing that the best way to do it is by inventing rollerball. Certainly the series was popular enough to be grabbed by a larger publisher… but we don’t have to worry about that till after Vol. 13.

A Tale of the Secret Saint, Vol. 1

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka. Adapted by Matthew Birkenhauer.

It has to be said, I have a type. They don’t necessarily have to be the heroine (though they certainly are here), but if you get a really strong woman, usually holding a sword, who’s also kind and brave and cheerful… and a bit dumb? Let me tell you, that is my meat and potatoes. So as you can imagine, I was delighted to find that Secret saint offered me a full-course mean of ditzy strong girl. Now, this doesn’t mean the book is excellent. Like a lot of light novels of this sort, if you try to examine the actual plot it ends up having a lot of holes to poke through. But if you don’t, you get the story of a young girl who, near death, ends up getting memories of her past life as a powerful Saint, and her attempts to secretly use that power to help herself while also keeping it a secret from everyone else. Except… she’s terrible at this.

Fia, the youngest daughter in a family of knights, has not had a very good life so far. She’s trying to follow in her siblings’ footsteps, but despite training constantly, she’s not a great knight. Her father ignores her, her brothers disparage her. Then when she goes on her coming-of-age ceremony, she ends up accidentally healing a monster… who then tears a big hole in her. She then remembers her past as a Saint… and now knows how far Saints have fallen in the last three hundred years. Fortunately, with the knowledge from her past, she not only passes her ceremony with flying colors, but also ends up as a knight guarding the royal family! With her ability to make extra strength healing potions, keen instinct for both monsters and humans, and complete lack of common sense, can she keep everyone from knowing who she is now?

As noted above, the fun part of the book is Fia’s increasingly hilarious attempt to pretend that everything she’s doing is perfectly normal and not suspicious at all. No one really buys it… but she never QUITE lies, and they aren’t really able to read her enough to get a bead on her. Her personality made me happy. That said… first of all, her backstory, both as Fia and in her past life, seems far too brutal for a light, fluffy story like this one. “I can put up with an abusive knight captain because it’s nowhere near the abuse I got from my brothers” is not a good punchline, and it occasionally jars. There’s also the fact that the narrative is not good at telling us how much of this is Fia herself and how much is Fia’s past memories. The implication is that her observational talents and sudden tactical genius is all because of her past, but you could also argue that it merely unlocked something in her all along. It’s confusing and I wish it was delineated better.

But honestly, if you don’t think too hard about it, this is a winner. Fans of My Next Life As a Villainess who wonder what Katarina in an RPG would be like can read this and see: she’s be much the same.

Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons, Vol. 2

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By 616th Special Information Battalion and Wuhuo. Released in Japan as “Doushitemo Hametsushitakunai Akuyaku Reijou ga Gendai Heiki wo Te ni Shita Kekka ga Kore desu” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Shaun Cook.

Fans of genres that have twenty billion books in said genre tend to fall into two distinct types: those who don’t just want to read the same old plotline and characters, and those who do, because it’s their comfort food. In most ways, Villainess Reloaded falls into Category Two. This is a magical academy series with villainess overtones, and so we get a lot of the usual staples: heroine tries to avoid her fate but doesn’t realize everyone loves her; lots of magic discussion and magic experimentation; a beach episode; and yes, for a brief moment, we meet the game’s heroine, who Astrid proceeds to try to avoid. There’s even a maid who seems cool and frosty but secretly cares about her charge! That said, there is one teeny, weeny problem with this being a comfort novel that’s more of the same: Astrid has no morals or ethics, and is turning more evil by the day as we read about her antics.

The book covers Astrid’s final year in elementary school and first year in middle school. She’s experimenting with new ways to fire guns, including howitzers, but is running into an issue: a lack of electricity won’t let her make the truly big guns. That said, she also has other things to worry about. Her father is against her doing much of anything. She meets Adolf’s younger brother, who immediately becomes infatuated with her. (He’s 6, she’s 10.) The Magic Research Club that already exists on campus is an excuse to hang out and eat cookies. And worst of all, she needs money to fund her magic experiments. This means sneaking out on weekends to become an adventurer, going on dragon-slaying quests, and meeting with a cabal of Witches who are holders of the lost magic… which was lost because it’s pretty much “magic you can use to torture or kill people”. Will Astrid join them?

She absolutely will. This should not surprise me, given that I dropped Her Majesty’s Swarm, by the same author, for having similar issues, but the heroine of this tale is morally bankrupt. That said, I will give it major points for thinking of “what if a villainess tried to avoid her fate by becoming MORE EVIL”, which is certainly *not* more of the same old stuff. Seeing Astrid experimenting with blood magic, first on animals and then on herself, to try to remove her conscience is creepy as hell, and the fact that it’s clearly the author’s intention to creep us out doesn’t really help. We do occasionally see her backing away from the darkness – she thinks about killing someone as part of an experiment but doesn’t because she’s not “quite that heartless”. Oh yes, and there’s also the fact that, like Katarina, she thinks of her fate as something that is inevitable unless she puts up a constant struggle… which also makes her a warmonger in terms of her politics.

I’m not sure I could describe this series as enjoyable. Fascinating, perhaps. I’ll be reading the next volume in the series. That said, if you enjoy villainess books in general, there are others that can scratch your itch far more than Little Miss Sociopath and Her Armory.

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Vol. 1

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

There is a certain disconnect in this novel which threw me off for a time till I realized what it was doing. The daughter leaving the nest happens right at the start of the book, and returning an S-Ranked adventurer right at the end, and so there’s a lot of middle to fill. Some of it can be frustrating at first glance, such as the running gag of Angeline starting off on a vacation to see her dad again at long last only to have it cut short because other issues take priority or because she’s the only really strong adventurer in the area. As it turns out, though, it’s more than a running gag, it’s a part of a greater problem that needs fixing. That said, we do get a reunion at the end, and there’s plenty of what I would call the meat of this book: Angeline praising her father to a ridiculous degree, and Belgrieve proving that it’s not just rose-tinted glasses, he really is that good.

Belgrieve left his village to be a top adventurer… but a bit later lost a leg. While still an E-rank. So he went back to the village, put up with the ridicule, and set out to do whatever else he could. In fact, despite his prosthetic leg, he’s managed to become quite strong simply by constant monster hunting and gathering supplies. Then one day he finds an abandoned child in the forest, and raises her as his own. Twelve years later, inspired by the stories her father told her, Angeline goes out to the big city to become an adventurer herself. She has a lot more success than her father did, and five years later is the top adventurer in the city, and possibly even in the top adventurers in the country. Unfortunately, there’s also a larger amount of fiends lately, meaning she has no time at all to return home and see her dad. What can she do to fix this?

As noted when this title was licensed, this is NOT going to be a Bunny Drop or If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat the Demon Lord series. All 10 volumes of S-Ranked Daughter are out in Japan, and from what I hear the relationship remains a normal dad and daughter relationship. This doesn’t mean that she’s not obsessed with her dad – a lot of the comedy comes from hearing just HOW obsessed with her dad she is. But knowing it won’t go “there” means we’re able to enjoy it as a typical spoiled daughter behavior. Plus, honestly, he deserves most of it. Turns out, prosthetic or no, Belgrieve is able to take on C-class monsters with ease, and makes friends with the local gods to boot. Which might come in handy in future books, as we get hints that someone is trying to raise a lot of demons for some sinister purpose.

The cast is more than the two of them, of course. I particularly like the family of nobles we meet, three daughters who can be summed up as “sensible”, “airhead”, and “named after a font”. Still, it’s dad and daughter you’re hear to read about, and I will be looking forward to Book 2.