By Ameko Kaeruda and U35. Released in Japan as “Shinsoku no Dungeon Seeker ~Speed Kyokufuri Haishinsha wa Subete o Buchinuku~” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Faye Duxovni.
(Spoilers within for the back half of this book.)
I did wonder, you know. Despite the fact that this is written by Ameko Kaeruda, the author of Sexiled. And illustrated by U35, the artist for Buying a Classmate Once a Week and that Voice Actor Radio series. I wondered if this would just be slice-of-life. Or worse, if it might have a male lead. It wasn’t tagged by the publisher, either. Fear not, this is yuri. Of *course* it’s yuri. That said, as with other Kaeruda series, the yuri is the spice, but the point of the book is something else. We meet a teenage girl who is trying to escape an oppressive family, and her discovery of another girl who’s the survivor of a terrible tragedy. Except, as we discover, Nodoka is far more than just the survival of a terrible tragedy. It ends up being the question of the book. What *is* Nodoka? We just don’t know.
One day, a meteor hits the Earth and everyone dies… but the planet Earth (and everyone on it) is immediately reincarnated! And you know what that means! It now has dungeons! And sometimes the dungeons go haywire and escape into the real world, killing whole towns. A survivor of one of those disasters, Nodoka, is trying to make a living delving into dungeons. And she wants to stream it! Unfortunately, technology seems to hate her… her stream always crashes. Then she meets another dungeon streamer, Subaru. Subaru is an up-and-coming streamer who likes to take on dangerous challenges (don’t worry, if you’re IN the dungeon, you don’t die, just respawn). She’s in danger from a monster, but Nodoka saves her… thanks to SUPER speed. Speed so fast the cameras can’t pick it up. Subaru has an idea. Why not team up?
The yuri, as I said, is just a spice. The main reason to read this, as with all of Kaeruda’s works, is the worldbuilding. It’s pretty nifty. We learn about Nodoka’s past bit by bit, as well as the young woman she’s trying desperately to catch up to. But we also learn about what a world with dungeons all over can be like… and how the dregs of humanity can abuse this. Respawn abuse, in particular, is both terrifying and plot relevant. The “reincarnation” thing ends up being far more out there than I was expected in terms of just who is reincarnated. There’s also a Mexican-Japanese family who are all adorable and fantastic, and while they’re mostly there to be rescued and give the book tension, I appreciated them anyway. And again, I like how the author allows the characters to casually admit they are in love and ready to date without a single “B-B-But we’re both GIRLS!” at all. It’s also simply fun to read. The time flies by.
This is numbered Vol. 1, but there’s no sign of 2 yet, and it’s self-contained and could end here. With DRE Novels, you never really know. I’d love to read a second, though.