reborn to master the blade

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.

Reborn to Master the Blade is not, I think, a series that’s really trying to do much beyond having fun and writing a lot of Inglis fighting. The author admits in the afterword that they really don’t have much of an idea of where to go next, so there’s not really an end goal in mind. Sometimes this is a good thing. We’re here to see Inglis fight things, and the back half of this book is all that, showing us Inglis coming as close as she’s ever come to actually getting killed, and actually (gasp!) needing the help of other people once or twice in order to fend off the biggest Prismer yet. On the down side, Inglis does not show up until 100 pages into this book, and as I said last time, without Inglis this book is just spinning its wheels. I’m sorry, supporting cast, you are not quite interesting enough on your own.

The front half of the book features Lahti facing off against his brother, Windsel, with the winner likely becoming the next King. Windsel has several demands, which seem at least vaguely acceptable, but the last one, “let us execute Pullum”, is a no go, so they’ve got to do battle. This allows everyone to whip out their new special moves, which range from unsurprising (Leone, Liselotte) to very surprising (Lahti). After this, we cut back to the Prismer, and though Rafael, Rafinha and Yua try their best, it’s going to come down to Inglis in the end, when she eventually gets there, which is (of course) right when all hope is lost. That said, can she really have enough power to stop it? And, more importantly, can everyone stop her trying to heal it up so that she can fight it even more equally?

This is essentially a series written for guys, but it features a whole lot of kickass women with either swords, magic, or both. As a result, it tries hard to attempt to push back on “why are women fighting, they are too fragile, the man should be protecting them” and actually embracing that, mostly because “a guy has to protect his younger sister” is a stronger cliche than “women can fight as well as men” in the author’s mind. It’s a bit disappointed, but hey, at least Leon and Leone have worked things out. I was also rather surprised, contrary to what I’d guessed in the last review, that the “turned into a magicite beast” process does NOT appear to be reversible. That said, Yua was at least polite enough to rescue the only one we’d actually seen named, and hopefully they can at least do SOMETHING for him.

After a half-volume of fighting, the epilogue features a whole lot of eating. This is definitely an “end of arc” book, and the next one promises to be far more light-hearted. That said, it also promises fewer fights. I hope I’m wrong there.

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.

This is getting an anime starting in a few days, and it will be interested to see what sort of tone it takes. I suspect it will be more towards the light-hearted end, because there’s just no other way to see Inglis and Rafinha otherwise, but there is a lot of darkness and tragedy in this series as well… which is frequently glossed over, let’s be honest. In any case, the anime will likely adapt at least three books and possibly four, because these books are short and read very fast. They are not interested in stopping to think about what happens to the people left behind, or to the buildings destroyed in Inglis’ fights, they are moving on to the next fight. That may change in Book 8, though, as the cliffhanger to this book is a nasty one, and is bringing the “let’s kill generic monsters” part of these volumes a lot closer to home.

Believe it or not, things happen away from Inglis as well, and the first third or so of this book shows us Rafael, Eris and Ripple trying to combine fighting a war with fighting monsters and getting very frustrated that they’re the only side that wants to call off the first part because of the danger of the second part. The enemy commander is very determined to destroy Karelia, and he has a somewhat naive but deeply besotted hieral menace to help him. Fortunately, when all seems lost, along comes Inglis to save the day… mostly because saving the day, for once, involves fighting a really strong opponent and going all out. Yes, for once, everyone’s interests align with hers, and only Rafinha seems to care that this is merely Inglis doing what she would have done anyway.

The front of the book is interesting as it reminds us that there are normal people in this world doing things sensibly. Rafael, Rafinha’s brother, is an upright, honest young man, who spends much of this book infuriated that people are not fighting honestly or sensibly. Eris and Ripple are both there to essentially hold him back from the last ditch move that he has against horrible threats, which does resolve the threat but also kills him. They’re all good people, and I’d say that they deserve a book of their own, but it would probably be very dull, because we’re reading this for our meathead heroine and her total lack of common sense. Heck, even her bad habits save the day here – not only her fighting, but also the fact that she and Rafinha brought along a huge chunk of ancient dragon meat, which turns out to have healing properties. Yes, Inglis has now combined her fighting and eating to have infinite fighting without having to worry about killing her opponent. Tremble in fear.

And then there’s that nasty cliffhanger… theoretically. This series is on the lighter end of the spectrum, despite all the bad things happening, so I suspect the answer to “is this reversible” will be “yes”, but you never know. Till then, enjoy the fighting.

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.

Several characters over the course of this series have noted an odd disconnect between Inglis and, well, everything she says or does. We, the reader, know the reason for this, i.e. she’s a reincarnation of an ancient King. Of course, that’s not entirely the explanation, because the previous King was honestly nothing like Inglis – this seems to be that King unfiltered, with “fight fight fight eat eat eat” as their main theme song. Sometimes, though, this disconnect ends up happening to the reader as well, because some of the events in this volume feel like straight up horror, or tragedy, but they’re not written that way at all. They’re written the Inglis way. Which is to say “Aw, shame that happened, anyway, next battle plz”. And the effect can be jarring. I already have tremendous trouble with remembering anyone in this series who is not Inglis or Rafinha, I need my books to be uncomplicated. And what happens here… is, but that’s the problem.

To sum up this entire volume: “what if Smaug was a woobie?”. Inglis and the others have found an ancient sleeping dragon, but it’s hard to wake him up, so they decide instead to cut off his tail and use it to feel the starving people of that area (well, and feed Inglis and Rafinha, who gets first shot). The tail grows back, so no issues there. Finally the dragon does wake up, and he’s really, really pissed off at Inglis. Sadly for him, Inglis not only really wants a good fight, but is good enough to back up her talk. What follows is almost bullying, and it’s only resolved when the dragon finally decides “why am I bothering?” and stops rising to her taunts. That said, Inglis may have a bigger problem… the folks in the town they’re staying in want to execute Pullum for her brother’s crimes.

As I said, I liked the dragon. He was clearly being led by the nose by Inglis, and his solution to the problem was funny. Even the cast thinks that her plan was “become friends with the dragon”. That’s why the sudden ending of that plotline left such a bad taste in my mouth. It feels like it should be terrifying, sad and awful, but this author cannot really seem to do convey that mood, so it comes out, as most things in this series do, as “OK, so that happened”. Similarly, Ian’s story, which is similar to what happens to the dragon’s, comes to a sudden fatal end here, but there’s no real time for any emotions or grieving because we’ve already moved on to the next crisis. I get that they’re at war, but it’s not letting the reader connect with any of this either, and the result is that we don’t care.

This is still a good book if you like meathead girls who love to fight. But it’s very, very shallow.

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.

I am deliberately not reading prior reviews of this (which I normally do), because I know I will be typing the exact same goddamn thing again. There’s just no avoiding it. So here we go: This series only has one joke. It’s STILL a good joke. That said, the dichotomy between Reborn to Master the Blade as amusing reading about a meathead and her slightly less meathead sister and Reborn to Master the Blade as a dark fantasy with a lot of casual death is widening, and it does not always mesh together well. There’s a moment in this book where an entire city rises into the air, and Inglis notes that this is likely due to a LOT of people being executed to harvest their energy. And, as it turns out later, she is correct. However, we barely notice this as we’re listening to Inglis trying to figure out how to clone herself to solve her fighting problems.

Inglis and company are traveling in secret to Alcard, in order to try to do something about the impending war. Unfortunately, Alcard has changed a LOT since the last time Lahti, Pullum and Ian were there. The people are starving to death, their food having been taken at the behest of their heiral menace, Tiffanyer, who has the power to make anyone sing “I Think We’re Alone Now”… erm, well, I’m not sure if her power is literal brainwashing or merely incredible charisma, but she’s won over a lot of the knights of Alcard, including Lahti’s older brother. She’s also hella strong, meaning Inglish is having trouble focusing on the mission and not focusing on getting a really good fight with Tiffanyer. That said, the thing that shows up at the very end of the book makes even our favorite meathead step back and pause to reflect.

Again, the one joke is a REALLY GOOD JOKE. The running idea of Inglis thinking about cloning herself, and being told the many ways this is a bad idea, then trying to fix it by tripling herself… it’s hilarious. It will never happen, and THANK GOD, but it’s hilarious anyway. I also loved the desperate stupidity of the world’s two hungriest girls trying to get by on eating snow with sugar and salt sprinkled on top of it. Beyond that, however, things are pretty dark. There’s one point where they literally find a church full of dead children who starved to death due to the machinations of Tiffanyer. What’s more, she’s not merely evil for evil’s sake – she’s grabbing what she can because she knows the penalty for failure. It’s increasingly likely that peace is not something that’s coming anytime soon. And given what shows up at the end of the book, apocalypse is looking a bit more likely.

If you can tolerate the book turning from “this is a horrible tragedy with the corpses of children” to “dur hur Inglis love fighting!” this is still a fun series. Plus the books read fast.

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.

I have stated before that the main reason I enjoy this series is that it has only one joke: Inglis is a meathead who only cares about fighting, food, and Rafinha, in that order. The trouble is that the author wants to hammer home to the reader that this is not entirely amusing and something to appreciate for the lulz. I say trouble because we’re introduced halfway through to a girl who lost her entire family when her village was destroyed and therefore has… sigh… been sold and is working “in servitude”. Rafinha is appalled that this is happening, while Inglis points out the political realities of trying to shut it down everywhere. The trouble is that Inglis does not care about any of this. She’ll support Rafinha if she wants to fight against slavery, but that’s because she’ll follow her anywhere, not because of any actual moral center. Inglis’ moral center is: I want a good fight. And she will cheat and manipulate to get it.

While working to help rebuild the school (and, more importantly, the school cafeteria), Inglis is called to the throne to be offered a position as Captain of the Royal Guard. A huge honor, but far too much work and would mean she would not get to do whatever the hell she wants, so she talks her way out of that one. More importantly, the acting troupe Inglis has met before are back in town, and they want her to play one of the roles and put on a spectacular fight scene. Inglis realizes that if she cons Yua into taking the other role, then she can get to fight the half-assed but equally strong women in a real (theatrical) battle. That said, there is a problem… the winner has to kiss the male lead, and the mere idea of this causes Inglis to flip out. That said, there may be even bigger problems… like an assassination attempt. Or an invasion.

I’m glad that Yua has essentially become Inglis Mark 2, because she’s just hilarious all the time, whereas Inglis occasionally has to play the straight man. Yua’s complete apathy to nearly anything extends even to her own self, as we discover that she may have a lingering side-effect from her death battle in the previous volume, to which her response is essentially “ah”. This is why it’s even funnier seeing her thirst for the girly-faced Ian, to the point where she spends most of the epilogue of the book carrying him around under her arm like a sack of potatoes. As for Inglis, she gets to have some really good fights here, so she must be happy. We also get to see the mothers of Inglis and Rafinha pay a visit, and it turns out that huge appetites definitely run on the mothers’ side, as between the four of them they terrify everyone with the amount of food consumed.

This series is never really going to get into Big Questions and Ethical Dilemmas, and even if it does it probably is not going to be Inglis having the dilemma. She gets why things are wrong. She gets they can be hard to fix. She doesn’t care. Fight now plz.

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.

It can be very difficult sometimes when you are writing a series which has exactly one joke. It gets harder the longer the series gets because, well, it’s just the one joke. But, believe it or not, sometimes that is enough, and you’re able to keep going because yes, it’s a good joke. The joke for Reborn to Master the Blade is that Inglis is a meathead who only thinks of fighting strong opponents. And throughout this book, that’s what we get, over and over. Either she’s fighting them or, more often, she’s trying to fight them and failing because of things like politics or the other party refusing or having to save lives and the like. And we also see other characters knowing this and essentially smacking their foreheads. It’s one joke. But we’re early in the series, and the joke is still funny. And also Inglis as an overpowered meathead is pretty cool. As with previous books, the fights are a highlight.

Our main cast are still trying to deal with Ripple, who is still sucking in mana and letting out monsters (and does not even have a pebble to toss or wind to blow). Unfortunately, the response of the kingdom to this seems to be “send Ripple back home and get a new heiral menace”. Which, it is implied but never outright stated, would mean Ripple’s death. What’s more, it becomes pretty clear that the reason all this is happening in the first place is that Ripple is being “punished” by one of the Highland factions in order to… well, in order to be sneeringly evil, because this is not the most subtle book in the world. Inglis and company try to work out a plan, part of which involves her and Rafinha going undercover as maids to a ceremony held by the King for a Highland ambassador. Sadly, he too is mostly cartoonishly evil. Fortunately, Inglis is there and can hit things very hard.

The other great part of this book, besides Inglis wanting to fight fight fight, is the introduction of her antimatter universe counterpart, Yua. Yua is astonishingly strong, just like Inglis, and you’d think that she’d finally found the perfect opponent. There’s just one problem: Yua doesn’t care about fighting. She’d rather take the path with the least effort where she can be lazy, and even has to be talked into fighting a bunch of potentially lethal monsters. She’s also got that ‘stoic’ Rei Ayanami-ish personality, which also balances next to Inglis’. Oh yes, and she gives everyone nicknames. Inglis is “Big Boobs”, because this is a Japanese light novel. Basically, she’s a hoot, and I am glad she was not killed off towards the end of the book, which looked like it might actually happen for a while. There’s also lots of terrorism and political maneuvering and people losing arms and then getting them sewn back on with magic, but… let’s face it, it’s not Inglis fighting.

So yes, if you like dumb meatheads who only think of one thing, this is still that thing. I do think this will work better in Vol. 3 than in Vol. 17, though…

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.

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.

You have to find something to latch on to, when you’re reading all these light novels. So many reincarnations, and overpowered swords being wielded, and magic determining your lot in life, etc… all of which this book has in abundance. If your goal in reading a new light novel series is to find something different from what’s come before, keep walking along and try to find something else. But as I said, you look for the little things. Things like our hero, now reincarnated as a rather voluptuous teenage heroine, feeling extremely uncomfortable at walking into a room and getting leered at, something that rarely comes up in these kind of books. (To be fair, there are normal “let me massage your boobs” bath scenes as well, so it could just be a coincidence.) More importantly, though, is that our heroine, Inglis, is… well, a bit of a battle thirsty meathead. No interest in power or money or romance… she wants a good fight. Meathead heroines might keep me reading.

Our hero is a king who united the land and won the day, and is now dying late in his years. A goddess comes to grant him a wish, and he asks to be reborn as simply someone who doesn’t have to worry about ruling or politicking, but can just FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. He gets his wish… but is rather surprised that he’s reborn as a girl. Inglis rapidly grows up to find that things are not really the way they were back in her previous life… indeed, her own kingdom is now forgotten in the mists of time. On the bright side, this means that she can call upon aether and mana that others don’t have a clue about. On the downside, she has a magical blessing of zero, so cannot become a knight. That’s fine, though, She sets out to become a squire to her cousin Rafinha, who can become a knight. After all, Inglis is here for only one thing: honing her blade.

The book has a lot of the sort of things you’ve seen in these sorts of books before. There’s a group of arrogant nobles that abuse the common folks and keep slaves, and the one example of them who’s not that sort is promptly sabotaged. We’ve got to go off to knight training school, which I’ve no doubt will keep the second volume very familiar as well. But I dunno, it was pretty good. Inglis is a nice mixture of an old male king and a young teenage girl, and I was amused that she has a hobby of admiring herself in the mirror – it’s nice to see a hero with actual vanity. Her cousin Rafinha, unlike other books of this sort, is also quite powerful, and together the two of them take out monster and bad guys with ease. If you think that’s boring… well, so does Inglis, and that’s why she’s searching for fights.

So it’s not essential, but it’s good enough. I’ll pick up the next volume.