i want to be a saint but i can only use attack magic

By Fuyu Aoki and Bodax. Released in Japan as “Seijo-sama ni Naritai no ni Kougeki Mahou shika Tsukaenain desu kedo!?” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

The first volume was also very funny, but this one really, really leans into broad as hell comedy, to the point where I felt it was overdoing it a bit. That’s for a very good reason, though, as frankly this world is very dark, and if it weren’t for Yuffie doing her Bocchi impersonation we’d genuinely worry for her. The school is being attacked by demons who think nothing of killing everyone in order to find Yuffie. Her burdock root buddy Catherine finds out her secret and is honestly terrified for a bit, as she points out that it’s scary seeing Yuffie casually breaking the laws of magic physics. And when the powers that be discuss what to do about her, their first thought is to expel her and basically put her under their control. Thankfully they choose not to do this, but there are very good reasons for Yuffie to continue to hide her powers beyond “because it’s funnier that way”.

After the events of the last book, Yuffie is trying to double down on learning how to improve her healing magic, though it’s slow going. Very slow going. She ends up getting some good pointers, though, when she meets up with Jack, who after the events of the last book wants her to train him in how she uses attack magic. Unfortunately her advice amounts to “use your magic till you run out of mana, over and over again, for nine years”. This actually does end up helping him, as he realizes that his determination was as nothing compared to HERS. And she’s going to need it, as they’re going to do a demonstration of healing magic, and have paired the best student (Erina) with the worst (Yuffie). Is she going to be able to be a saint when it takes her an hour to heal a small cut?

As with the first book, I could do without the “ha ha, it’s funny because she’s a predatory lesbian!” jokes. Other than that, though, this is a solid book, once again giving Yuffie a bit of character development. We meet both her parents, which helps to explain some of her apology tactics if not her introversion, and I get the feeling her mom being a former student council member will come up in a future book. And much as I spent most of the book annoyed at Erina, she does give us the book’s most heartwarming moment, when she says that Yuffie’s pathetic healing attempt did help prevent a man dying till Erina could get there and actually heal him. This book is still dark, though. Yuffie kills demons, and is not feeling upset about it at all. These seems to be Frieren-type demons, no sympathy here.

So this is a lot of fun, and I’m not too worried about Bocchi the Mage, but she has a long way to go before she’s accepted by anyone other than her own generation.

By Fuyu Aoki and Bodax. Released in Japan as “Seijo-sama ni Naritai no ni Kougeki Mahou shika Tsukaenain desu kedo!?” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

As I was about three minutes into the book, I joked that it should be called “Bocchi the Mage!”. Little did I know. There is a scene, with art to match, where Yuffie, the heroine of this novel, wears a party outfit to what turns out to be a standard noble’s ballroom party. It consists of big sunglasses, one a heart and one a star, and a T-Shirt saying Let’s Party. When you combine this with her hideous social anxiety and desire to abase herself, it’s really hard NOT to think of Bocchi. Or Monica, because she also gets invited to the student council, which feels very much like the one from Silent Witch. Unlike Monica, she’s only here to go to school and make a friend or two, if that’s possible for someone like her. Unfortunately for her, she lives in a world where magic is gender-binaried… and she’s just broken that binary.

Yuffie is a girl who lives in the middle of nowhere with her family, who aren’t abusive per se, but seem to be of the “why can’t you be like the normal children?” sort. She’s got crippling social anxiety, and her attempts to make friends have been laughably bad. When they team up for school activities, she’s always with the teacher. But she has a secret. When she was seven, she saw a saint using magic, and realized that’s what she wanted to be when she grew up. So she practiced magic. Every day. For seven years. By teaching herself. She manages to learn some healing magic… slow healing magic, but it’s there… and shows her parents, who say she should go to the magic academy! She’s delighted. Or horrified. One of those. See, she has a secret. She has immensely powerful attack spells like fireballs and lightning blasts. But… only men can use that sort of magic. It’s in their religion. Not good.

If seeing girls having a panic attack and debasing themselves constantly is not your thing… well, don’t skip the book, but you’ll need patience. Yuffie does get better by the end of the book, but it’s a long, painful road. She accidentally makes friends with most of the current student council. She’s trying to hide her attack magic, so the rest of the students and her teachers hate her. Oh yes, and it turns out that the demons are trying to attack humanity, starting with this school, and the only thing powerful enough to wipe them out is Yuffie. She self-taught herself magic so well she’s the most powerful attack magician in the country, and that means that it’s not – for once – just her paranoid fantasies,. she really COULD be imprisoned and experimented on. Fortunately, this school seems to mostly have good, if eccentric nobles. One seems to be a predatory lesbian, but it’s more of an “I’m taking her home with me!” cute fetish than anything sordid. Heck, even the bullying ojou-sama is almost immediately tamed by Yuffie’s apologies and delicious burdock roots.

This is not a must-read, but if you can get past Yuffie’s complete mess of a self-image, it’s a decent power fantasy, though it’s not so much a trans allegory as just another “what if I were OP as hell?” fantasy.