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Reviews

The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter, Vol. 2

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By Meguru Seto and Takehana Note. Released in Japan by Kodansha Lanove Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by T. Emerson. Adapted by Cae Hawksmoor.

This continues to be the most McDonald’s of light novels. It’s bad for you, and if you dig into it it’s filled with yucky stuff, but it fills you up fast and tastes yummy, so you don’t care. There is literally nothing in this entire book that will even make you raise an eyebrow in surprise. Our hero’s harem does not expand, but the others all basically do everything but stick their tongue down his throat and he blinks at them in confusion. (Honestly, the best bond he has in this book is with the lion monster he takes in as a pet. And even that has a brief ‘hah, the tulip on his head makes him gay!’ joke that made me grind my teeth.) The little sister is getting to be more like incestuous little sisters in other books. And I suspect the author has a fetish for getting stepped on that is basically showing up as is in this book. And yet… it still reads smooth as silk. Sigh.

A brief summary of things that happen to Noir in this book. He gets a huge pile of money from the noble girl he saved at the end of the last book. As mentioned above, he befriends the dungeon monster (also from the last book) and it essentially becomes his talking dog/mount. He rescues an elf zombie. He gets a midterm exam, which consists of easy, hard, and impossible tasks (pick one. He picks impossible). His guild receptionist faces off against another guild receptionist who uses sex to lure adventurers to her. He rescues a sentient tree from a passel of monsters (said tree takes the form of a little girl, so cue those sorts of jokes). And in the largest story in the book, he helps a village win against a group of thieves that has stolen their women. Oh yes, and then he and the others do the impossible task.

As the previous two paragraph might tell you, this book is still trash. It doesn’t even really get to the level of McDonald’s – it’s more of a Jack-in-the-Box. Noir is the blandest of heroes, who is always ready to help anyone but cannot understand why all these girls get angry at each other around him. This includes a chapter where he’s sick and three of them essentially fasten themselves around his body. Everyone is in love with him: the childhood friend, the elf girl, the receptionist, the little sister, the mentor stuck in the dungeon, his teacher, AND the noble princess. He gains powers by hugging, kissing and other fetishes, but of course will never go farther. And his powers are as OP as anything, but he constantly insists that he’s just lucky. I have expected him to call himself a humble vice-commander.

But it’s easy to read, the girls do actually achieve things that don’t revolve around Noir (sometimes), and its fanservice has drawn its wobbly line in the sand. If you like OP harem series and aren’t picky about anything else? This is right up your street. (It’s trash, though.)

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 7

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By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Marco Godano.

It may be a bit late, to be honest – the reader’s patience after Vol. 2 has been sorely tested – but we finally have a volume of Bakarina that I would call excellent. The characterization works with the plot, there is actual forward motion in regards to Fortune Lover 2, and perhaps most importantly (and I know this may change), there is a love interest who does not fall for Katarina. This is important for keeping the series going, as if you are a black hole vortex of ‘everybody loves me’, eventually disbelief gets stretched a bit thin – as we’ve seen in Books 3 and 4 of this series. But yes, now people can like Katarina and not fall for her, which is a relief. Unfortunately for fans of the main cast aside from our heroine, only Maria and Jeord fans will really be happy – as I expected when I reviewed Vol. 6, Keith, Mary, Alan, Sophia and Nicol are reduced to small roles, if not cameos.

Katarina and Sora start their working days at the Magical Ministry, and she is absolutely DELIGHTED to find that it’s mostly running errands and lifting boxes – she was afraid that it would involve paperwork. Given Rafael’s current position, I don’t blame her. When not working, she’s trying to figure out who planted the note about Fortune Lover 2 on her, which leads to her meeting Jeord’s relatives and the reader learning about the recent past of the Sorcier kingdom, which is a lot bloodier and filled with concubines than I would have expected. She is also trying to sort out New Love Interest #3, Cyrus, which (try to contain your surprise) turns out to be a lot easier than she expected, because she is who she is. All of these plots converge when she and Maria come across a magic stone that offers Maria increased power in her light magic… and, Katarina is stunned to discover later on, more power for her dark magic – whether she wants it or not.

There is the usual “Katarina narrative voice, than another character goes over the same events” literary device we’ve seen throughout the series, but it’s not entirely “let me tell you how awesome she is” this time, which is a bit of a relief. Indeed, the book loves its running gag of how bad Katarina is at intellectual pursuits. She can’t read ancient script, which was taught to them in school, meaning when everyone else is deep in research she’s off to the side feeling useless. She does pull off classic Katarina empathy with Cyrus, as they bond over a surprising shared hobby, but Cyrus ends up with a crush on Maria – just like the game, in fact. This may be the ongoing worry – Katarina is sensing evil presences following her around, and her learning stronger dark magic against her will has her fearing that she really is headed towards the FL2 bad end – where OG Katarina returns with same.

Fortunately, she has the main cast to remind her that she is not, in fact, a bad person. That said, it’s a sad ending for Katarina, who is forced to do actual homework to satisfy Lady Larna’s curiosity. As for my own curiosity, I wasn’t wild about “Fortune Lover II” being the next plot point, but it’s going surprisingly well, and has enough of my preferred ship (Maria) to make me eager to read the next one. (Yes, I know it’s gonna be Jeord, shush.)

Holmes of Kyoto, Vol. 1

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By Mai Mochizuki and Shizu Yamauchi. Released in Japan by Futabasha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Minna Lin.

Sometimes you read a light novel because you want adventure, action, and isekai teens slowly amassing a harem. But there are times (most times, I will admit) when that is not what you want. Sometimes you want a book that is the equivalent of curling up in an overstuffed armchair on a sunny winter afternoon, tea and biscuits at your side (British variety or Southern variety, your choice). This new series is absolutely that kind of book. The author admits in the afterword that she wanted to write a series of “light mystery” stories with no murders, and that’s what we get here, with some perplexing (and not so perplexing) challenges for our leads. More that that, though, this book is a love letter to Kyoto, taking the time to walk us around its most famous spots. It was written 6 months after the author moved there so as to keep that “newcomer” feel, and it succeeds admirably, as its lead, Aoi, is also a newcomer to the area.

Aoi has been in Kyoto for about six months, enough so that she’s not entirely new, but not enough that she isn’t dazzled by the sights. She’s dealing with heartbreak, as her boyfriend broke up with her remotely and is now seeing her best friend. She wants to earn train money to go back where she used to live to confront them, so tries to sell some of her family antiques. At the shop, though, she meets Holmes, aka Kiyotaka, the son of the owner and possessed with an amazing talent for observation… as well as an ability to tell real antiques from fakes. Aoi, as it turns out, has similar unpolished talent, and so, after talking her out of her train ride, she ends up working at the shop. Together they solve antique-related mysteries and grow closer – she’s clearly falling for him. But what about her past relationships – and his own?

I was reminded, oddly enough, of In/Spectre while reading this, which has a similar feel of “we solve mysteries while also having a romance that’s mostly one-sided” to it. There’s no supernatural content here, though, and Holmes of Kyoto is far more relaxed about it. As for the romance, given that Aoi is still in high school, I’m content with it being on the back burner – indeed, the series is 15+ volumes in Japan, so I think the mystery is definitely the more important part. That said, Aoi and Holmes bond as good friends almost immediately, even as she blushes and notes his handsomeness to us. The mysteries themselves are not all that hard to solve – I guessed one solution almost immediately – but they’re entertaining to read and the characters are fun. And there is a lot of discussion of both antiques and Kyoto – at times this feels more like a travelogue than a mystery series, and you know what? I’m fine with that as well.

Basically, if I had one word to sum up this series it would be nice. It’s a comforting read, worth saving for when you’re feeling down.

Kokoro Connect: Asu Random, Part 2

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By Sadanatsu Anda and Shiromizakana. Released in Japan by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Molly Lee.

This is, as the author notes, the longest book in the series. It’s not as long as some other light novels in my collection, but in terms of Kokoro Connect it’s pretty chunky. And it does what we’ve always known the series does well and want it to continue doing: traumatize our protagonists as much as possible. They’ve gotten their wish to be put in the place where the other students are trapped, but I’m not sure they were prepared for everyone to think of them as the villains who won’t tell the truth about why they’re really trying to do this. (Because if they tell the truth, they lose.) Even worse, the student council seems to be their adversaries, friends they’ve known their whole high school life are breaking apart, relationships are fracturing, and, yes, people are STILL losing their memories. Kokoro Connect is VERY good at making everything seem completely hopeless about the halfway point of each book, and that’s what we get here. That said, the real hopelessness comes with the special bonus round.

Given the series is essentially a metaphor for teenage hormones and growing up, it’s less of a surprise than expected that the conflict in the first three-quarters of this book is “should we punch each other till we forget everything and disappear?”. Needless to say, the CRC are not in favor of punching. Unfortunately, it turns out “guys, we just have to stand together and unite!” doesn’t actually achieve concrete things, while the punching, while no one knows if the things it causes are good or bad, is at least something to do. What’s more, of course, the CRC are being painted as the suspicious, untrustworthy kids, which, well, is not 100% wrong? Through no fault of their own, they can’t open up about this. That said, the solution they do come up with (start small with their closest friends, then work outward) ends up being fine. Well, almost fine.

Whoops! The last quarter of the book is the seeming worst case scenario – Heartseed does a takeback and everyone really does lose their memories. This is not as emotionally volatile as the first section of the book, but hurts more, because seeing the club interacting with each other like they’re casual acquaintances is just too depressing. Fortunately, all the things they did in Book 9, while mostly erased by Heartseed and company, do manage to clue them in that something is wrong (kudos to the first years) and they end up retracing the steps of the moments in the series where they became the closest of friends… and, for two couples, where they confessed. Kokoro Connect always reads like a roller coaster where it’s just one big down and one big up, and this is the same. It’s a feel good ending.

That said, there is one more book of short stories still to go. But man, this was one of the most emotionally draining light novels I’ve read, managing a lot of supernatural content while ALSO being a slice-of-life high school romance series. Highly recommended, especially to anime fans who want to see what happens next.

Past Life Countess, Present Life Otome Game NPC?!

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By Sorahoshi and Yuki Kinami. Released in Japan as “Moto Hakushaku Reijou wa Otome Game ni Sansen Shimashita” on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Amber Tamosaitis.

First off, this book comes out of the gate with a killer premise. We’ve talked before about the idea of a “reverse isekai”, where a fantasy denizen dies and is reincarnated in modern Japan, but this is, I believe, the first time we’ve seen it in English. And Urara (formerly Annerosa Ortegamo) is not just in modern-day Japan… she’s in a Japan based on an otome game! She only hears about this when she meets Shizuku, a girl who, as it turns out, is the ‘poor girl reincarnated as the heroine of the otome game she loves’ that we HAVE seen before. Only Urara ends up charming the pants off of everyone, while Shizuku ends up being subjected to horrible comedy violence much of the time. What I just described is about the first fifteen pages of a 320-page book. The good thing about this book is it takes a multi-layered ‘reincarnation’ premise and makes us enjoy slowly meandering towards the ending.

The book is based straight off of a webnovel, rather than a webnovel that’s been picked up and edited by a publisher. This is the modus operandi for Cross Infinite World, and it tends to lead to books that are pleasantly long and stuffed with content, including things that would probably get cut down for length elsewhere. The benefit of this is that the character development feels less rushed and more natural, particularly with Shizuku, who starts the book as unlikeaqble as she possibly can be and slowly, over the course of the next two hundred or so pages, becomes Urara’s best friend. She doesn’t particularly change per se, but we get to know her past and her (somewhat warped) reasoning, and more to the point, she likes Urara, once she’s determined that Urara does not, in fact, have her eyes on one of the many male targets in this “otome game”, but is instead falling for… a woman?

Well, OK, no. The book gets this out of the way a fifth of the way through it, which probably was a wise move, as leaving the revelation that Chouko is a guy who dresses as a girl for family reasons for the ending would likely have angered yuri romance fans. Because wow, this reads like a yuri romance otherwise. The school they attend feels very Maria-sama Ga Miteru, though it’s co-ed, and if you can imagine a romance between Sachiko and Shimako you come closest to seeing how Chouko and Urara interact. The guys, unfortunately, do not come across as well, and I do admit that throughout most of the book I kept having to remind myself who was who, though eventually you learn to separate out Shinmyou (the jerk) and Shimozuru (the one who falls for Shizuku). There is also an epilogue set in Urara’s past life that left a very bad taste in my mouth, and I did not really like the implication at all. It added murder and mental torment to what was otherwise a nice, sweet romance novel.

But you can just stop before reading that. Most of this is the equivalent of a long, leisurely boat ride down the river that takes up the entire afternoon. It’s not all that concerned with anything but its heroine and her “perfect princess” manners causing everyone to turn her way. It’s a good read.

So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 9

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

This is definitely a book that has most of its important content at the back, saving its biggest scene for the final chapter and epilogue. That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of other things going on here. White is learning good ways to regain more of her powers (get drunk); our ogre/oni is finally taken down and made somewhat sane again, and decides to just GO by Wrath now; our vampire has decided that she’s tired of being weaker than the rest of the group and decides to essentially bathe herself in evil to catch up, which works quite well – at least for this book; and probably most importantly, the demon lord arrives back in her domain and orders the war to recommence, despite the fact that the demons simply don’t have the manpower to win. She is not winning friends, though her extreme power means she’s certainly influencing people. Oh yes, and White goes to Japan. Of all the series to have a ‘return to Japan’ arc, this was not one I was expecting.

The entire series has sort of hammered this home, but this volume in particular wants you to realize how horrible most of the demon lord’s group is at communicating. Ariel is best of the lot, mostly as she has the Chatty Cathy part of Kumoko’s brain. The dissonance between White’s narrative voice and her actual outward expressions is well known to us, but here we see how it’s really causing problems, mostly as Sophia thinks that White is a lot more pissed off and angry than she actually is. Not that Sophia is any better, given her default mode seems to be ‘tantrum’. Really, this motley crew would get along with the cast of Overlord; they’re all basically broken evil people, and adding Wrath to the mix is unlikely to change any of that.

But yeah, the big part of the book is when White, who has realized how easy it is for her to teleport now, ends up going back to Japan. Fortunately, she arrives at the school in the middle of the night, and going home quickly finds D, who explains herself to White, who had figured out a lot of this already. I’m not sure the reader had; some of this was foreshadowed, but a lot of it was deliberately hidden from us, possibly to make the reveal that much bigger. The interesting thing here is White’s reaction to the fact that D not only manipulated her entire life, but did it for such a petty, vapid reason. White is justifiably furious… but also reacts the way a child would to their parent, feeling intense love just for the fact that D throws her a bone and says White can have “freedom”. It feels a lot like an abusive relationship, and I don’t think we’re supposed to love it, and it’s not helped by White’s hyperactive narration.

So I don’t know if this is a game changer (I doubt White will be acting any differently), but it’s certainly a startling revelation. In the meantime, we edge closer to war, meet some characters who I seem to recall getting killed off earlier in the series/later in the timeline, and are reminded once more that Potimas is the absolute worst. I’m still enjoying this, despite everyone being pretty terrible.

Adachi and Shimamura, Vol. 3

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By Hitoma Iruma and Non. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Molly Lee.

There was a wondrous moment about two-thirds of the way through this book which really made me sit up and take notice. No, Adachi did not actually work up the nerve to confess – heck, even Valentine’s chocolate proves to be almost too much for her to handle. No, Yashiro did not wave goodbye and go back to her own planet, though the author remains very good about keeping it up in the air as to whether she’s an alien of a chuuni. But for one, brief, shining moment, Shimamura was interesting. She met up with a friend from her old school, who seemed to want very much to rekindle their friendship, and Shimamura being who she is, “sure, OK, I guess” was the response. We see the two of them travel on the train together, go to the mall together… and it is the most painful, awkward thing you will ever see. It’s unclear what Shimamura actually gets from this consciously, but unconsciously I think the answer is clear: Adachi is not like other friends.

As noted above, we are right around Valentine’s Day. Adachi wants to exchange chocolates, which she communicates to Shimamura in the most awkward panicky way possible. Shimamura, who has come to the conclusion that Adachi is simply desperate for basic human contact due to her family situation, agrees with this. The two then have what amounts to normal pre-Valentine’s adventures, mostly separate, though they do meet up for video games at Hino’s place. Adachi thinks far too much about astrology, tries to make homemade chocolate and then backs off completely, and is essentially a complete mess. Shimamura runs into not one but TWO old friends from school, and realizes that she barely even remembers anything they did anymore. That said, she also gets the bulk of dealing with Yashiro. When the 14th finally comes, we get a clear winner, and it’s Shimamura.

It was suggested to me on Twitter that Shimamura might be suffering from depression. Certainly I’d argue she’s suffering from malaise, which influences most of her actions and makes her the passive narrator that drives me crazy. It’s a funny running gag that Adachi imagines Shimamura’s response to doing anything and it’s always the equivalent of “meh”. This pays off here in two ways. First, the scenes with Tarumi help to show off that Shimamura struggles as much as Adachi with basic human responses, in particular the idea of “what friendship is”. Tarumi wants to rekindle their relationship (and, the reader suspects, perhaps wants a bit more than that), but Shimamura just is not able to respond to that at all, and finds the whole thing uncomfortable. This is contrasted with the final scene, where Adachi coincidentally retraces the same route Shimamura took with her old friend… only now with Adachi, and she’s laughing and having a ball. She GETS the difference. It pays off with the message Shimamura paid for, which is, for her, a grand gesture. And Adachi… well, she gets a hug? Which she will remember for a long time to come.

This series, if I’m being honest, still tries my patience most of the time. But there were moments in this book when I could actually feel Shimamura attempting to make an effort, and that almost made it worth it. I suspect we won’t get Vol. 4 till the anime finishes, so enjoy this now, right before it starts.

I’m in Love with the Villainess, Vol. 1

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By Inori and Hanagata. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou” by GL Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Sas. Translated by Jenn Yamazaki. Adapted by Nibedita Sen.

I will admit, I knew very little about this series and was not really expecting much. It’s publisher, GL Bunko, seems to specialize in yuri light novels. This was a webnovel first, like so many others before it, and is another take on the popular “trapped in an otome game” genre, only this time instead of being cast as the villainess our protagonist gets to be the heroine. It does not really seem to concerned at first with setting up how she ends up in this world – she simply finds herself there in class, in front of her favorite character. It does not really bode well. And yet, she’s a very likeable character who’s fun to read. Then, as you go on, you realize that there really is a lot of thought being put into this, that a lot of the subtle (and not so subtle) hints pay off down the line, and by the last quarter of the book it’s become absolutely terrific.

Our heroine is Rae, who is the Maria Campbell of this series, a commoner who attends a school that, until recently, was reserved exclusively for nobles. However, now that magic has been discovered, commoners with abilities are being admitted. Rae is ALSO a former OL from Japan, overworked and unhappy, whose sole joy was playing the otome game Revolution… and analyzing it… and writing fanfiction about it. Particularly about the “villainess”, Claire. So when she finds herself now in the game’s world, as Rae, with the ability to interact with Claire every day… well, she could not be happier. She proceeds to insert herself into Claire’s life, first at school and then, as if that weren’t enough, as one of her maids. That said, the book is not simply happy go lucky shenanigans… remember the name of the otome game.

As I said, this book starts off pretty “same old, same old” to soften you up, though Rae’s general joie de vivre makes the narration run at a higher level. Claire is seemingly the standard “cartoon bully” you see in games like these, but we get to know more about her and see her more nuanced sides and grow to like her just as much (unlike Katarina Claes, Claire also has some depth in the game as well, it seems). There is also an honest discussion of sexuality, which uses the word lesbian, and also talks about the things that people tend to believe about them, which you almost never see in books like these. And then there’s the last quarter, where Rae declares that she’s not a political person and that her sole goal is to be with Claire, but politics is not something she can escape, and she does not hesitate to abuse her knowledge of the game to help save the girl she loves.

That love is still one-sided, at least by the end of this book, though Claire’s “I hate you” statements are getting weaker and weaker. More to the point, the book makes me absolutely ravenous to read the next two, despite the fact that the covers for the Japanese books are HUGE spoilers. I absolutely recommend it, even to those sick of otome game villainess stories.

Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol. 1

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By Zappon and Yasumo. Released in Japan as “Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasaretanode, Henkyou de Slow Life Surukoto ni Shimashita” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

I probably should not have read this only a few weeks after Roll Over and Die, as the first thought that came to mind is that when the woman is leaving the party she’s branded, sold into slavery, and left for dead, but when it’s the guy he just moves to the country, opens a shop, and gets a girlfriend almost instantaneously. That said, the whole “you are a disgrace to the party, go!” plot is apparently also a big thing in Japanese webnovels now, though so far it’s been less “the party” and more “that one asshole guy in the party”. In any case, our hero starting up his apothecary and hooking up with his former ally is only part of the story here, as we also flash back to the party in action, get a few glimpses of life as the hero, and, perhaps most importantly, talk endlessly about the magical systems in place in this world.

This is not a “game world” per se, but the plot hinges on a common game element: Gideon, the banished guy, was born at Level 30, and is the very definition of “the strong guy who joins your party early in the game to help you level up”. Unfortunately, when the party grows strong enough, this type of character usually leaves, and Gideon doesn’t do that – mostly as the Hero is his little sister. So when one of the party with a hate on for Gideon and a crush on the hero tells him he’s useless now, Gideon quietly accepts it, leaves the party, changes his name to Red, moves to a backwater sleepy town, and opens an apothecary. Luckily he’s helped in this by Rit, an adventurer and princess whose kingdom the hero’s party saved earlier. Rit has had a not-so-secret crush on Red since that time, and essentially invites herself into his shop, his home, and his bedroom. Together the two grow closer and have a nice quiet life. But what of the hero?

I’ll start off with the negatives: Red/Gideon is not the most magnetic hero. He fits the stock “boring adventurer guy” a little too well, and it feels ridiculous that he’s just quietly listen and leave the party without, y’know, asking anyone else in the party about it. There’s also a heaping helping of explanations about “blessings”, which are essentially the powers that people have, as well as the weak points that come with them. (Gideon, for example, cannot go past the Level 30 he was born with.) It’s interesting in regards to the ongoing story, but also tends to go on a bit too much. On the bright side, Rit is genuinely likeable. We get a large number of flashbacks showing her being a giant tsundere towards Gideon and everyone else, but now that she’s grown up and accepted her feelings, she’s quite fun and cheerful, and their romance is very sweet. Most importantly, though, are the last few pages. We learned very little about the little sister hero throughout the book except that she had something of a brother complex and was relatively emotionless. Towards the end we see the emotionlessness is a result of the many, many blessings she has, and that it has not been good for her mental health. I am definitely hoping to see more of her later on.

Overall, this does a good job trying to balance the “slow life” that its audience likely bought it for with actually having a plot and future character development. I do hope it has Red become a little less of the stock light novel hero in future books, though. But I’ll be reading more.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 25

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By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

Yona of the Dawn fits into a lot of genres. First, obviously, there’s shoujo manga, and the tropes of a young woman surrounded by good-looking men. There’s trying to save the kingdom fantasy stuff, with a bit of revenge fantasy mixed in, although as we see in this volume, revenge doesn’t really play into it as much as disappointment. Lately we’ve had military fantasy, with the entire plot of the last few books being “can we stop the inevitable war?”. But the last couple of chapters of this volume also bring home another genre that this series falls under: Yona is walking around with a bunch of superheroes, each of whom are using their powers to protect her and help other people. They don’t wear capes, but it otherwise checks out, and really gets hammered home in the last few pages of this book, where Yona’s “can’t we talk this out” plea is met by a bunch of arrows… that fail to hit her. Which, good, because Yona of the Dead is not a genre I want to see.

Yona’s talk with Su-won goes about how you’d expect, though I was very pleased to see Riri step in to defend her and remind everyone around them what Yona has been doing the last few years. (I admit I’ve lost track of the timeline, how long as Yona been on the run now?) The main problem here are the religious fanatics, who, as with almost all religious fanatics in manga/anime, turn out to be power-hungry villains. Killing off Kouren’s allies one by one, their goal is war by any means necessary. Fortunately, though they’re still grievously injured, the dragon warriors are able to step in and help to drive them back, even at the cost of their remaining stamina. And, as always with this series, we see whether idealism like Yona’s or Tao’s – even Tao finds herself wavering after seeing what the priests have been doing – can hold up under pressure.

There are some wonderful scenes interspersed throughout this volume, but my favorite may be Kouren pointing out, as I did, that Yona is running around with a bunch of superheroes at her command – why isn’t she simply taking out Su-Won by brute strength? Yona responds that “they aren’t tools to satisfy my personal grudges”, which is a great moment (though it also amuses me, as I’m pretty sure by now all of them would be very happy to help Yona do exactly that). As for the encounter with Su-Won, once again it’s not quite as earth-shattering as their past would expect, but she does learn that his pragmatism and her idealism are still at loggerheads, and that reconciliation is not happening anytime soon. As I said earlier, Yona could easily slide into revenge fantasy, but Yona doesn’t hate Su-Won enough for that to work.

As for the next volume, well, Yona isn’t full of arrows, so that’s good. We’ll see if she can stop the war, though. In the meantime, this is a shoujo manga, but it’s also so many other things.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 12

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By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

Sadly, my begging to the author did not help, as Machiavelli is cited again in this volume. It was originally written in the webnovel version interspersed with Vol. 11, but they decided to split it up for book publication. Which is fine, but it does mean this book is very short. And what’s worse, it still needs side stories to make up the length… and has to start Book 13, to the point where the chapter numbering actually resets. Basically, in terms of bang for your buck, this is pretty slight. Fortunately, it does a little better when it comes to actual plot, introducing us at last to the Zem mercenaries and finding that they are not QUITE as villainous as the book has painted them to date. More importantly, though, we meet the late Duke Carmine’s daughter Mio, who is determined to get to the bottom of why her father did what he did. Souma had been planning to try to clear Georg’s name anyway, so this works out, but there are some other things to consider.

War is tough, after all, and though Georg did his best to try to keep casualties to a minimum, there are still soldiers who were killed in a battle that turns out to have been part of a massive con game, and their families won’t be happy with that. More importantly, of course, is the presence of Kagetora, the tiger-masked bodyguard who is absolutely not secretly Georg Carmine, no way, uh uh. Mio’s seriousness and general anger is something that Souma tries to curtail by the shortest route, and he does so by having Kagetora and Mio face each other in battle, something that manages to clue her in – and only her – as to what’s going on. (Less successful is Mio after this cathartic moment, when she becomes more comedic and starts throwing herself at Finance Minister Colbert… the author really does want to pair up absolutely EVERYONE, huh?)

The other big event in this book, aside from the cliffhanger that leads into Book 13 (which I’ll just discuss when that comes out) is the first in-person meeting of King Souma and Empress Maria. He needs the Empire’s help with their upcoming war, and knows that such a conversation can’t happen over video conference call. I liked that this showed off Maria being exceedingly clever, seeing what Souma is actually planning immediately, and also showcasing Jeanne’s frustration at being unable to catch up to her genius sister. That said, Maria’s (unheard by the reader) request of Souma is worrying, as it certainly sounds along the lines of “when I die, do this”. And here I was thinking they were going to work out a way to add her to Souma’s wives… oh yes, and the mad scientist group discusses the need to add drills to everything, which I still maintain is just a big Maria-sama Ga Miteru joke.

So, despite its slightness, this book succeeds at what it wants to do, although (like many, many light novel authors) the attempts at humor are not all that funny here. In any case, next time we get mermaids and dragons, and see another clever plan of Souma’s upended by a heroine inserting herself into the narrative.

Monster Tamer, Vol. 1

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By Minto Higure and Napo. Released in Japan as “Monster no Goshujinsama” by Monster Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

I will admit that the sole reason I gave this series a try was the Japanese light novel label it came from. A series from Monster Bunko! Titled Monster Tamer! Would there be… monsters? Rest assured, this book from the monster publisher with monster in the title has monsters in it. You may have guessed from the cover… possibly. Turns out the cute girl in the uniform is actually a monster as well. That said, what this genre really ends up being is the grim and gritty “abandoned by my classmates, I must soldier on, brooding and filled with hate, and monsters are the only ones that understand me” genre. Arifureta fans will find this very familiar. That said, Arifureta also has a heaping helping of humor that this book lacks. It wants to be taken seriously. Which is fine, but I must admit that emo teen’s emo narration made me rub my forehead a bit. There’s only so many times you can talk about how much you hate humanity, y’know?

Our hero (not on the cover as he’s a standard dull light novel protagonist guy) and his entire school are transported to another world one day. Some have cool, strong powers… and some do not. Very soon everyone starts to try to kill each other. Majima is essentially run over by a stampede of fleeing classmates and left for dead. He crawls to a cave and starts to get eaten by a slime… but then discovers he DOES have a power, as the slime is now his servant. His “monster party” ends up being the slime (who eats the corpse of fellow student Miho, which is why she looks like that on the cover), a ‘puppet’ monster that basically looks like a ball-jointed doll (helpfully, she makes armor with ‘breasts’ so we know she’s also female), and a non-monster, Mana, Miho’s underclassman and friend who they rescued from sexual assault by other classmates. Together they try to leave this forest and find other, non-murdering classmates… and avoid monsters that Majima can’t control.

As you can see, this book is the very definition of a high school kid wearing black so that he can be “edgy”. Majima does not let a chapter go by without telling us either a) he’s lost faith in humanity and hates them now, or b) how he has thrown aside his morals and become a terrible person. Certainly he does kill a few people, but as you’d expect with a Japanese light novel by now, they’re all rapists and bastards. Somewhat to my relief, the relationship between him and his monster servants is framed as more familial than romantic, at least on his end. The third monster we meet comes near the end of the book, and is… well, exactly what you’d expect given her monster type, but I assume we’ll develop her more in the 2nd book. I also appreciated that our hero’s power does not in fact mean he can fight at ALL – all the fights are his monster girls fighting to protect him.

That last bit might turn off other edgy teens who subscribe to the “I want my hero to win all the battles and bed all the women” school of thought. And honestly, given this is 16+ volumes and counting in Japan, I feel no need to read more. For those who enjoy this sort of “revenge/found family” story with a dark-ish tinge, this book will serve those needs quite nicely.

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, Vol. 10

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By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

I sort of shot myself in the foot in my last review by talking about how the author has been making Mavis more and more the co-star of these books along with Mile, and that’s a shame because it’s even more true in this book. I was expecting that she’d feature in the start, given the last book ended with a cliffhanger featuring her, but she also has a big role in the middle of the book. More to the point, while the author does say that Reina and Pauline’s magic is better than most, and we see that to a degree, Mavis is the one heading deep into Mile-only territory here. Sometimes this isn’t a good thing – we’ve given up on chiding her for her abuse of magical steroids – but sometimes it can also combine moments of tragic horror with utter silliness, such as when Mavis has her left arm completely destroyed by an elder dragon… and becomes, as Mile pastiches, the Six Million Dollar Woman.

We pick up where we left off, with Mavis making a Last Stand against the evil nobles trying to kill the princess… erm, the noble lady who is not a princess at all, ha ha ha. Naturally, despite Mavis thinking she did this on her own, the rest of the Crimson Vow are not far behind, and things are quickly settled, though not before a few more “a girl is crushing on me and this makes me uncomfortable” jokes. After that, as noted, they get challenged by three elder dragons, because their new leader is a young punk who wants to make a name for themselves. Naturally, the three dragons are taken out by the Crimson Vow, though not before Mavis loses her left arm defending Pauline, something that briefly causes Pauline to be devastated before it’s revealed Mile is a walking plot device. Finally, they meet up with the team that fought them for their academy exams, and for once get along with everyone, which is good as they have to face ANOTHER dragon.

Make no mistake about it, FUNA knows what we are here for, and it’s not drama or character development – possibly why Mavis’ addition to magical steroids is dropped here. The high point of this book, sorry to spoil, is everything about Mavis’ new bionic arm, which Mile whips up in an emergency so that she can continue to fight, and then leaves on because Mavis thinks that it’s cooler than regrowing her old, ordinary arm (which Mile can do as well). Again, this beggars belief were it not for the previous nine volumes of this series, and reminds you that there are other isekai OP protagonists, there is a big gap, and then there is Mile. That said, even Mile is not perfect, and I liked the end story showing that her “sure, let’s let the kids from the village trail along quietly” attitude can be deadly. Fortunately, well, Mavis has a bionic arm now.

As I said, this has, to an extent, come at the expense of Reina and Pauline, and I do hear that Vol. 11 focuses on the latter more. That said, this time around please enjoy the fact that, when they’re on the same wavelength, Mavis and Mile can be utterly bonkers and also complete powerhouses.

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 3

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Will Holcomb.

Last time I noted that Yuna didn’t really seem to have a purpose after coming to this world beyond wandering around. She seems to find one in this book, but it’s not what you’d think: her purpose is to make sure that people DON’T start talking about how strong and awesome and wonderful she is. Yuna values her anonymity, bear suit aside, and wants to have a “slow life” that becoming a famous adventurer would absolutely not give her. The trouble is that she also can’t seem to stop getting into trouble and/or having to save people, and she really is a nightmarish OP powerhouse. We gradually, by the end of the book, see her gravitating towards the traditional slow life job – she’s going to open a store – and yet there’s no doubt that the store is not going to be what we, the reader, will be seeing as the books go on. We will be seeing Yuna continue to acquire a fanclub of little girls. No, a literal fanclub.

The majority of this book takes place in the capital, which Yuna and Fina do indeed head towards as promised. On the way she captures a gang of bandits (who have been kidnapping and raping women, thus keeping to this series’ “one tonally awful event per book” quota), she meets Noa’s older sister, an academy student who is far stronger than most of her classmates, and thus Yuna is used to take her down a peg or two; manages to convince everyone that potatoes are not poisonous when prepared properly, and the same goes for cheese; draws an adorable picture book for the princess which is basically a childish retelling of her meeting Fina; and, oh yes, defeats ten THOUSAND goblins, orcs, wolves, wyverns, and one giant wyrm. By herself. On the bright side, this does actually get her to drain her magic a bit, though it’s still not enough to actually injure or trouble her.

This probably reads like a short story book, and to an extent that’s what the books are; Yuna does adventures, about 3/4 of which are warm fuzzy things, and 1/4 of which is fantasy game violence. Yuna remains rather emotionless at the best of times, but her heart is still in the right place, as the reason she kills all those monsters is that Noa was worried about her dad getting killed by them. By the end of the book, she’s returning to Crimonia, but I get the sense that the book will take us wherever Yuna can meet more guys who judge her by her appearance and thus have to be beat up, and young girls who are in awe of her. Noa has fan club cards made at the end of this book, as I noted, and I suspect numbers will go up fast. Which is probably a good thing; Yuna functions best when around others, and by herself can get somewhat callous and mean.

If you want a nice combination of slow life, ludicrously overpowered hero, cute girls beating up sexist jerks, and bears, this is your ideal series. If those things aren’t for you, your mileage may vary.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, Vol. 6

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By Dachima Inaka and Iida Pochi. Released in Japan as “Tsujo Kogeki ga Zentai Kogeki de Ni-kai Kogeki no Okasan wa Suki desu ka?” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Just as the grandfather in The Princess Bride has to reassure us that “she does not get eaten by the sharks at this time” (or eels, I was always more a book person), I feel a need to reassure those people seeing the cover and emitting screeches of rage and horror that “he does not marry his mother at this time”. This is not to say there isn’t teasing to that effect – remember what series you’re reading. But it always walks up to the line but never crosses it, and that’s the case here as well. What this volume is is a short story collection, with several stories written for Dragon Magazine as well as a larger story written for this book. As with most short story volumes where this is the case, the original content is much better than the magazine imports. That said, the short story nature of the book does also add a new interesting wrinkle: Mamako really doesn’t do much in this book.

The first story takes place prior to Medhi joining the group (with a “let’s have a flashback” section so awkward I winced) and is mostly about goblins, which leads to an amusing pun that is also very Japanese. The second story is the worst, taking us back to the classroom full of NPCs, this time with Mamako as the teacher. This is a story for you if you love fanservice and Masato at his most immature. The main story is a two-parter, the first of which involves our party helping a mother whose daughter is a little TOO spoiled… and it turns out that’s the only thing stopping her from destroying the world. After that we meet the character designer for the game, along with her mother (of course), who has entered the game as she’s in love with the Prince that she created and wants to marry him. This is treated more seriously than I expected.

As always, the book rises and falls depending on how tolerable Masato is. When he’s showing he’s learned from his prior experiences and is actually being a normal teenage boy, the book is quite entertaining. When he’s doing nothing but whining and moaning, I once again ask myself why the hell I am reading this. Fortunately, most of the bad stuff is front loaded. Mone, the girl who needs to be spoiled, is a type that we didn’t quite have in the series yet – a love interest for Masato who actually admits she likes him. This does not sit well with our two reluctant mages. The most interesting part was at the end (it’s also the most amusing part – I won’t spoil why, but it involves Medhi and embarrassment, and it’s possibly the funniest the book has ever been) when Rika, the character designer, has to defend falling in love with a character in a game. There’s discussion of the fact that, since games are THIS interactive now, it’s not the same as, say, marrying a body pillow, as well as discussion of when to let your child go (something Mamako struggles with, obviously).

There’s also a bit more plot tease – by now it’s very obvious Porta’s mother is being held back till near the end of the series (assuming this ever ends) and we once again see a fantastic opportunity for Mamako to mention her husband… which she does not do at ALL. This is not Do You Love Your Dad?, and – more to the point – Mamako is the heroine, and the author knows Japanese readers won’t want to see her obviously paired up with anyone. (She’s both virgin AND mother!) In any case, after a rough start, this was a decent book, provided of course that you’ve gotten over the basic premise.