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From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone, Vol. 6

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By Shigeru Sagazaki and Tetsuhiro Nabeshima. Released in Japan as “Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru: Tada no Inaka no Kenjutsu Shihan Datta noni, Taisei Shita Deshitachi ga Ore o Hōttekurenai Ken” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

This is getting an anime pretty soon (in two days, in fact), so it’s interesting to see this volume coming out right before it, as it’s essentially starting a new arc for the series. The last volume brought to a close a lot of Beryl’s issues with his dad, and he’s now come to the conclusion that hey, maybe he *is* pretty strong after all. That said, baby steps. He still struggles with his self-deprecation coming to him automatically through this book. And in regards to his quest for a wife, he’s going to have to get past the “no one could possibly find an old geezer like me attractive” stage to get anywhere. He also straight up says that he’s not going to have any of his former students as bridal candidates, which is essentially EVERYONE to date. So it’s unsurprising that we get a new girl introduced here to offer an alternative.

After dropping by the magical academy to see how the sword magic classes are going, Beryl is called into Allucia’s office. They have to go to the estate of Margrave Flumvelk, who is holding a gathering to celebrate Beryl’s accomplishments to date. Beryl is understandably his usual self about this, but he also knows he can’t refuse a request for a noble, so he, Allucia, and a bunch of knights spend a couple weeks traveling out there. When he arrives, he finds that the margrave is one of his old students, and Allucia’s classmate. He also has a younger sister, Shueste, who he wants to have at Beryl’s side in order to fend off nobility who have designs on Beryl, is gorgeous and clever, and pairs really nicely with Beryl… much to the annoyance of Allucia.

This book is OK, but I have some issues. All the action and drama is backloaded into the last 4th, making it feel like the author had a different ending and was told to change it. We’re introduced to two knights to guard Beryl and Allucia, and one is almost killed, but they both have zero personality between the two of them. They cried out for a side story. More to the point, they do address the elephant in the room here, which is Beryl marrying someone. Warren, the margrave, admits to Allucia that he’d be happy with Beryl marrying his sister… but would also be fine with Beryl marrying Allucia. The key is that Beryl is getting older, and they want someone to carry on the line. I’m not fond of “my awesome sword abilities are genetic” stories, even though, in a world with magic like this, it may be entirely possible. Then again, merely getting Beryl to have sexual desires may be too big a hurdle.

So now we have a whole new subplot with new villains to dig into. The next book promises to finally bring back the adventurer who was one of the harem in Book 1 and then vanished. We’ll see if the anime can bump it up a bit as well.

Victoria of Many Faces, Vol. 2

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By Syuu and Nanna Fujimi. Released in Japan as “Tefuda ga Ōme no Victoria” by MF Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andria McKnight.

The first volume of this series felt very self-contained, but left open the possibility of a sequel hook for the second book. A sequel hook that remains open, because it’s not used here. Instead, this book takes place five years later, with Victoria, Jeffrey and Nonna returning from fantasy China, and is content to do much the same thing the first one did. It divides its time nicely between Victoria having slice-of-live vignettes around the city, reconnecting with the cast of the first book, and raising her daughter to be a wonderful noble girl. This is contrasted with the other half of the book, which is Victoria as spy: she can’t help but decode an ancient book, which reveals the location of a hidden secret, and she’s attacked about five different times in this book, all of the attacks very unsuccessful – she’s not even injured. But the most important part of this book is seeing how Victoria has raised her daughter to be a lovely bundle of terror.

As noted above, Victoria and her family are back in Ashbury, five years after the first book. Nonna is now twelve years old, and has spent the last five years learning Shenese martial arts, which now take up most of her time – when she hears she’s going to be reuniting with Clark, she’s far more interested in showing off her cool kung-fu moves than to talk to a boy who has now grown into a man (with a clear crush on a twelve-year-old – I’ll ignore that for the moment given that in Book 1 he was 12 and she was 6 and it was more cute). She also meets back up with Mr. Bernard, who shows her a rare copy of The Lost Crown a famous adventurer story. This one seems to have some odd typography, and Victoria and Bernard wonder if it’s actually a cipher. This mystery leads to further mysteries which take up the back half of the book.

The best selling point of the book is how matter of fact it is – both Victoria and Nonna are absolutely deadly in a fight, and neither of them are remotely challenged by any of the thugs who attack them in this volume. What’s more, the only real criticism of her daughter following her into a deadly situation and taking out all the thugs with her mother is that she was acting a little too chuuni when she did it. Honestly, the matter of factness even extends to one of the subplots, where the reader (and Nonna to, to be fair) keeps expecting Victoria or her family to win over the heart of the plucky foreign teen they rescued from her country’s outskirts, but we find that in fact the plucky foreign teen is in fact a crook who falls in with a bad crowd and is not in fact redeemed by the power of good thoughts. Sometimes you can’t really do anything about that.

As with the first book, this one ends feeling like it’s the end of the series, but there’s a third in the series out in Japan, so we/’ll see if someone can actually break through the defensive badassery of mother and daughter. This is still a great series.

Confession

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Confession is a tight, twisty thriller that reads like an episode of The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Author Fukumoto Nobuyuki establishes the premise in a few quick strokes: two hikers—one gravely injured—huddle on a mountainside pummeled by a fierce winter storm. As they debate the best course of action, Ishikura—who is bleeding profusely—confesses to murdering a mutual acquaintance, telling Asai, “I killed Sayuri… with my own two hands.” Asai, however, refuses to abandon Ishikura, dragging his wounded friend to the safety of an abandoned cabin. As the two wait for a rescue team to arrive, it finally dawns on Asai that Ishikura might regret what he said.

For a two-hander like this to work, it’s not enough to know what Asai is thinking; we need to feel his growing sense of desperation. Kaiji Kawaguchi’s art is up to the task, creating a spare, claustrophobic environment that’s almost as hostile as the barren slopes that surround the cabin. The cabin itself is rendered in just enough detail for the reader to grasp the layout and size, as well as the lack of good hiding places. Equally important, Kawaguchi’s character designs emphasize the wide social gap between the conventionally handsome Asai and the squat, dour Ishikura, encouraging the reader to question how these two people ever travelled in the same circles.

The artwork is so effective, in fact, that some of Asai’s internal monologue feels superfluous, especially when he states the obvious: “If my suspicions are right, are you and I going to fight to the death?” (Signs point to yes!) Aside from a few clumsy monologues, however, the story never sags under the weight of too much exposition; Nobuyuki carefully doles out information about Asai and Ishikura’s past to reveal how fraught their relationship was before they went climbing, hinting at a long-simmering conflict between them. The final scene is a shocker in the best sense, challenging the reader’s perception of both characters without cheating or taking any narrative shortcuts to get there. Hitchcock, I think, would approve. Recommended.

CONFESSION • STORY BY NOBUYUKI FUKUMOTO • ART BY KAIJI KAWAGUCHI • TRANSLATION BY EMILY BALISTERI • PRODUCTION BY TOMOE TSUTSUMI, PEI ANN YEAP, AND HIROKO MIZUNO • KODANSHA USA • RATED 16+ (VIOLENCE) • 314 pp.

Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools, Vol. 9

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By Hisaya Amagishi and Kei. Released in Japan as “Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by A.M. Cola.

It’s been a while since we saw the last volume of Dahlia, long enough for me to think that Lucia was the real protagonist and Dahlia was a mysterious side character. But there’s a big difference between Lucia and Dahlia. Lucia may be self-effacing, but she recognizes her own talent and can take an actual compliment. Whereas to Dahlia, taking credit for anything is like being asked to walk over hot coals. We’ve joked about the slow burn between Dahlia and Volf, which at this point may be less slow burn and more a fire that has had water poured over it, but frankly, there’s no way it can go anywhere right now. Not because Dahlia is a commoner – that’s taken care of here – but because Dahlia has no sense of her own worth at all. Which may be partly Tobias’ fault, yes, but could also be due to Carlo, as his desire to protect his daughter seems to have left his daughter thinking she’s TOO ordinary.

As I hinted above, Dahlia’s commoner days will soon be over – she’s getting a barony. As is Jonas, who is equally surprised. This means that she’ll also need to make her noble debut, which will mean… shudder… conversing with others. And dancing. She’d much rather work on magical tools, thanks you, or at least spend her evenings eating delicious food and getting drunk with her bestie Volf, who is so gorgeous but doesn’t see her in a romantic light at all. Right. Dahlia’s lack of perception has never been more annoying. She also gets a tour of the magical tool facility, where she would likely be working if she had enough magic… and the residents of said facility quickly realize that ‘a lot of magic’ is not the be-all and end-all of being brilliant. She’s also helping to bring together different guilds to make better products… really, is there anything Dahlia can’t do? Other than understand her own heart?

There is a genre of Japanese novels where an overworked office worker in a horrible environment dies and ends up in a fantasy world, usually while bemoaning the horrible work standards they have to deal with in modern-day Japan. It’s a typical type of escape. This is its counterpart, where you invent a world where everyone wants to work, work, WORK SO HARD. The heads of the company have to tell their employees to work less. There are literal hypnotic machines designed to force people who have been staying up too much to sleep. What’s more, when you see people that are working incorrectly, or being uncaring or callous, there’s an easy solution. Just add Dahlia, who with a few words and frantic hand waving that it wasn’t anything she did really denials, you can move mountains and get the lions to lie down with the lambs. Or the shoemakers to lie down with the magical tool makers. Honestly, dying and reincarnating as a villainess may be a lot more realistic.

That said, as the “extra” story shows this time around, we may have to do more than just get Dahlia to be noble and somehow hook her up with Volf. She’s special, and it’s only a matter of time before her specialness impacts the plot a lot more than it is now. But till then, please have some nice food, some wonderful alcohol, and for dessert, modesty that is so ridiculous it’s become a literal Tragic Flaw.

This Alluring Dark Elf Has the Heart of a Middle-Aged Man!, Vol. 1

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By Yuhi Shimano and NAJI Yanagida. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Kokoro wa Oji-san de Aru” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

It feels like it’s been forever since I last picked up a Volume 1 of something that was just plain “isekai fantasy”. I suppose there was Land Mines, but that was after I got it recommended to me, and I was a couple years later on it. This one, however, came out today. I wasn’t going to look at it at all, but I saw it had won a few awards, including the “best for middle-aged men” category. How apropos. Given I’m in that demographic as well, I figured I would take a flyer on another isekai, despite the fact that it looked worriedly like one of those “I was a schlub in Japan, but now I’m a hot elf babe” books. Which, to be fair, it is, but that’s not what it’s actually about. This is a “can I regain the sense of justice and righteousness that my life in Japan ground out of me?”. The answer to that is, so far, a work in progress.

Haruka, a middle-aged middle manager who used to be a cute kid till he discovered that being the nail that sticks up and is not hammered down is a bad idea, is startled to find himself in the middle of the woods, and also he’s not in the body of a gorgeous young dark elf. She has no idea what happened, if she was transported or died or what, and no goddess gave her instructions. Fortunately, she meets a passing adventurer, who takes her to the standard adventuring city you get in these sorts of books, and discovers how to make a living in a fantasy world that turns out to be, to no one’s surprise except perhaps her own, a lot more dangerous to someone like her than you’d expect. Fortunately, she seems to have skill at magic. A LOT of skill at magic.

This isn’t terrific, but it’s solid. Haruka is an introvert who has also been somewhat crushed by life, and she’s very god at reading emotions of others but very bad at caring about her own self. (Despite Haruka being a man who ends up in a woman’s body, there’s not too much of a trans narrative here, beyond one interlude which ends by telling us we’ll be using she/her from now on.) The author states that they tried to write some bad guys, but kept thinking of all the characters as “cute”, so it didn’t quite work out. That’s for the better – there’s not many paragons here, and we only see true villains near the end. for the most part her world consists of teenage hotheads, lotharios who are trying to explain it’s different this time, creepy lesbian stalkers who have her best interests at heart but also her worst interests, etc. One of the stronger scenes is done from the POV of the teenage hothead, who yells at her and then, when he goes to apologize, suddenly realizes that she’s completely devastated and near tears from “her own failings”. A lot of this book is Haruka putting herself back together.

The second book should see more of that journey. This is a decent isekai, with only light novel cliche I hate (dwelling far too long on someone peeing themselves in fear). I’ll read more.

Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden, Vol. 6

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By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

While this series has tried, at times, to be a cute girls doing television things series, or a magical academy-type series, at its heart it’s a battle manga. And for several volumes now, we’ve been building up to the thing that every battle manga has to have: a fighting tournament. Now, to be fair, we don’t get the tournament itself: that looks like it will be the next volume. But we get all the build up to it, as Nia has earned enough money for the King to put everything into position, and she finds that everyone is ready for this – and not just because of the money, either. She created a monster in the powerful adventurer Leeno, and everyone wants to measure themselves against her. Unfortunately for the reader, Leeno has another identity, and that identity is a creepy lolicon. We’ll ignore that for now, though.

So yes, the tournament is gearing up, but Nia has bigger problems. She’s finally starting to realize that the other two channels run by her friends are stomping her own into the ground, and racing dogs is not going to cut it anymore. She needs a new gimmick. She gets some help when Char, one of the school’s video crew we met last time, asks for her help with getting parts so he can repair a broken skiff. When she goes to see what he’s been doing, she not only sees how his drive to repair and ride the skiff will make for a great new TV show, but also that skiff racing may be something that she can put her money and power behind. It turns out that she’s not alone in thinking that, and in fact the ground floor is rapidly filing up – but fortunately, the contacts she’s made in previous books help her out. Now if only there’s not a little… accident.

If you worry that the tournament being next volume means there’s not as much beating people up as usual, fear not. Gandolph beats up a bunch of people, Nia then goes and beats up the SAME bunch of people, and there are also some assassin goons who are less mature than their assassin bosses and get ahead of themselves. There’s also Anzel, who has rapidly become almost the second protagonist of this series. Once again, he gets a subplot in the second half of the book where he has to prevent sabotage and act cool. He also gets beaten up a lot. Hopefully he can recover by the next book, as he, like so many other people, are in the tournament, and they have to win it no matter what. Fortunately for everyone involves, Leeno seems to be the pinnacle, as Nia is not participating. Yet. Can’t wait to see how that changes, cause I can’t imagine her sitting this out.

So, aside from the unfortunate “comedy” of young women leering over literal children, this remains a fun shonen fight series. for fans of such things.

Earl and Fairy: The Bright Star of London Bridge

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By Mizue Tani and Asako Takaboshi. Released in Japan as “Hakushaku to Yōsei” by Shueisha Cobalt Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

Even before the author explicitly stated it in the afterword, I was thinking “this has the feel of a season finale”. Which makes sense. It’s the 10th volume, and wraps up a lot of the longest-running plot strands while also introducing some new, worrying ones. That said, the start of it was difficult for me, mostly due to my own personal tastes: I hate amnesia stories. Lydia spends the bulk of this book without any memory of anything beyond Book One, so remembers Edgar only at his most annoying. What’s more, Kelpie, who may be a supernatural water demon but has “unlucky childhood friend” written all over him, is doing his best to make sure that does not change. It can be a bit frustrating and feel like “the author is trying to string out getting them together by adding complications”. Fortunately, it doesn’t last the book. Those who are here for the romance should be quite happy with how this one wraps up.

Lydia may be back in Scotland with amnesia, and the Prince on the verge of gaining a new younger body, but, priorities, before anything else Edgar has to track down Lydia’s father and try to get his permission to marry Lydia. There is one slight problem: no one seems to trust him when he says that Lydia agreed to this. Can’t imagine why. He does manage to get up to Scotland, but Kelpie’s spell is hard to get around, even if Lydia seems to really want to remember and believe him, but can’t think why. She’s also upset when she hears that he’s going back to London to deal with the Prince once and for all, and so she and Nico head there on a fairy path… which leads to her being trapped under London Bridge, and Edgar having to infiltrate a mansion where a mind-swapping ritual is about to happen. Oh yes, and there’s an Ark on the Thames, and it’s going to explode.

This is a very Edgar-heavy book, and we sympathize with him, but it’s also very easy to see why everyone doubts him. The fact that he’s genuinely surprised that Raven didn’t really believe him when he said Lydia accepted his proposal says something about his levels of self-denial. And I am definitely worried about the new plot twist, which I’m sure will lead to more bad things down the line. Still, for now, he and Lydia are finally together and engaged. Indeed, the author seems to be in more of a romance mind that usual. Lotta, Edgar’s old companion, shows up again, and she’s still very much in “I am a boyish pirate captain” mode. Paul, Edgar’s sad-sack artist friend, is also here, and just as much of a chew toy as previous books. When the two of them first meet, you can almost hear the lightbulb go off over the author’s head, and the rest of the book contrives to put them in cute romantic situations. I have no doubt we’ll see more of this.

All this plus Ermine showing up to be vaguely mysterious and duplicitous. This was a very good “season ender”.

A Certain Magical Index NT, Vol. 4

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By Kazumi Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “Shinyaku To Aru Majutsu no Index” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse.

When I reviewed the third volume of New Testament, I said that it was great, after two false stars, to finally have the Index series we remembered back again. Well, guess what, I’m eating my words once more, as this volume features almost none of the main cast, and even Touma, who is technically here, is defined in this book by his absence. And that’s a very deliberate thing. The book this volume reminds me of the most is Vol. 15 of the first Index series, which was a battle royale featuring actual deaths, including people who we (retroactively, after they were fleshed out later) liked.This volume also features a gimmick of pictures of characters that go dark when they’re “killed”, but over the course of the book the lights go on and off on those characters like a pinball. Who’s alive? Who’s dead? It doesn’t matter, because this Index is getting as close as it’s ever gotten to pure horror.

Welcome to Baggage City, located somewhere in Eastern Europe, which is having a fighting tournament that’s bringing all the desperate people with a cool ability and something to prove. Unfortunately for the competitors and all the spectators, this event is being hijacked. Both by GREMLIN, who have planted a few lovely little sociopaths into the event, but also the Kiharas (you may remember Amata Kihara from Book 12-13, where he was turned into a star in the sky by Accelerator). And, yes, Academy City has sent a bunch of soldiers as well, whose sole purpose appears to be providing the “horror” part of the book as one of GREMLIN enjoys doing things like magically changing a guy’s arms to faucets and turning on the taps so blood pours out. There’s also Maria Kumokawa, who we mostly remember as being the maid friend of Tsuchimikado’s maid sister. And there’s Touma… maybe? Boy, there’s not much Touma.

I used to do a breakdown of who the new characters were, as well as where in the timeline this took place. I’ve dropped that, as a) we’re well past the Railgun stories so the timeline is less important (though notably one of the “protagonists” in this book shows up in Railgun years later as an antagonist), and b) it’s hopeless, there’s just too much. Not only are too many characters introduced here, many of whom die before we even get a chance to see who they are, but we also have to deal with the fact that this series is very popular in Japan and not very popular here, so one of the villains we see towards the end, who is introduced as if we know her, turns out to be from one of the Railgun Short Story books. This is actually a pretty strong book, making the point that the reason for all the horror is that Touma is absent from the scene, and the moment he shows up people stop suffering and start getting saved. But unfortunately when Touma arrives there are too many bad guys doing things all at once, two of whom we meet for the first time at that moment, and one of whom, I know from spoiling myself, is VERY important to the whole series going forward. For now, though? Just another bad guy monologuing.

Fortunately, the next two books (yes, it’s a two-parter) seem to get back to more wacky Index shenanigans, possible with actual Index herself. Though I would not count on it. Till then, enjoy the darkness of a world with minimal Touma.

The Labyrinth of Marielle Clarac

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By Haruka Momo and Maro. Released in Japan as “Marielle Clarac no Yakusoku” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Jasmin Thairintr.

We’re going to Italy! Or at least its fantasy equivalent, as Marielle is finally leaving her home country and traveling to another one. Unfortunately, her fame precedes her, and by now everyone simply assumes that if she breathes out she will stumble upon a fresh new adventure, similar to Jessica Fletcher. This made me worry that Marielle might have to spend the entire book sidelined, forced by those around her to not go gallivanting around stumbling over sinister plots. I mean, she doesn’t even dress up in a disguise this book! Not to worry, though, because I assure you that she will still be accused of murder here, and there’s at least one kidnapping as well. Because where Marielle goes, trouble follows, and I think even Simeon has learned that if he can’t stop that from happening, the least that he can do is to weaponize it.

It’s time for the wedding of Liberto and Henriette, and the wedding party has arrived in the country of Lavia for that purpose. Unfortunately, the prince’s mother has a huge hate on for him marrying anyone from Lagrange, and has decided to emotionally abuse everyone in the party. Even worse, she and a Viscount are assisting the country’s mafia in destabilizing things, which Liberto is trying hard to stop. All this means that Henriette and Marielle have to put up with poor accommodations, grumpy servants, and a mother-in-law who borders on cartoonishly evil. But worst of all, Liberto really doesn’t seem to care enough about what this is doing to his future wife – this is all part of one of his schemes, of course, and he’s got it in the bag, but whether he’ll be able to show the rest of the cast that he’s a normal person is another matter.

This series has always swung between thriller and comedic scenes, and I appreciated that it combined them towards the end, as a tense confrontation with guns where Marielle and the young Prince Luigi are about to be killed has Marielle break the mood in the best Spy Classroom style by asking how long she has to put up with this farce before she’s rescued. The actual intrigue part of the book goes down pretty well, to be honest. More interesting is the character work, as always. Prince Luigi has to deal with a mother who’s always angry and a brother who has no idea how to show affection to anyone, and worst of all, he’s a teenager, so you can imagine how all this is affecting him. I did appreciate that there was no big, dramatic scene where the prince suddenly realizes that he can be outwardly demonstrative towards his wife after all and he starts to be honest with her, because nope, that’s not how people word. Luigi and Henriette are going to have to try hard to turn this guy into a real human being. I hope they manage it.

It appears this series is going to continue as long as there are fresh new mysteries. I’ll keep going. Oh, right, Lutin’s in this as well. Hi, Lutin!

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 19

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By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan as “Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

There are certain long-running light novel series that I review that I consider “grandfathered in”. What that means is I’ve been reading them for years, and I know that they’re not really all that good any more, but I set a lower bar just because… well, I’ve been reading them for years. Now, obviously, sometimes a series doesn’t even clear that low bar, and I drop it some 15-20 volumes in. In Another World with My Smartphone was blessed with an obvious “please stop reading here” volume, whereas The Irregular at Magic High School decided to shove its homophobic right-wing protagonist in my face one too many times. Realist Hero has not hit that low bar. It’s still readable, I feel no desire to stop one volume before the end. That said,. there is a moment here where our heroes are fighting the villain, and get mad at him for still being single and not having married like everyone else in this series, where I wondered if this was written by the ghost of Shinzo Abe.

We left off with Souma having revealed that there’s a whole new world of adventure to be had in the North, thus impacting the morale of all of Fuuga’s troops, as well as Fuuga himself. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough to stop the battle that’s going to be happening today, and now Fuuga knows he has to deal with everything right now or he’ll lose. What follows is a lot of battle, and Fuuga loses. (I don’t regard this as a spoiler because you have read the previous 18 volumes. Did you think Souma would be killed?) Souma manages to swing the battle in such a way that Fuuga is able to retreat with honor (persuaded to do so by, you guessed it, a pregnant wife), but his dreams are dashed. Unfortunately, he is smarter than some of his generals, who have a “war or nothing” mentality. The fragile peace can’t last forever…

This series, for the most part, does not kill people off, something I joked about last time, when it killed off the two oldest men in the cast who had already lived full lives and didn’t have young wives and children. This penultimate volume can’t QUITE do that, but it does manage to avoid killing off any of the named supporting cast on Souma’s side. The same cannot be said of the enemy, and I spent most of the book wondering if the author actually had the moxie to legitimately kill Fuuga off. (The answer is that they leave it vague, but I’m pretty sure the 20th volume will answer “no, he did not”). That said, Yuriga’s family definitely suffers some deaths, as they’re divided between two warring states, and some of them are simply battle hungry. Of all the “it’s better to have a family” hammers that get dropped on our head by the book, the best is Aisha’s fight with Nata, where she declares him boring because his battle style has nothing he cares about behind it but his own bloodlust. She kills him as an afterthought. That was some actual good writing.

Most of this, though, is Realist Hero writing. It’s ending in the next volume, which the author already says will be “epilogues” about all the characters. It’s long overdue, but I’ll read it when we get it. (And hopefully it won’t come back with After stories. Looking at you, Arifureta.)

Otherside Picnic, Vol. 9

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By Iori Miyazawa and shirakaba. Released in Japan as “Urasekai Picnic” by Hayakawa Bunko JA. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

It’s been about nineteen months since THAT volume of Otherside Picnic came out over here, and let’s be honest, the wait was excruciating. We all wanted to know what would happen next? What we got, as usual with the series, was three interconnected chapters tat also function as short stories. The “horror” part comes at the start and near the end, and it does a pretty good job, even though I’m never going to be one of those folks reading this series for the horror. The actual plot comes in the second half, where we bring Runa back into the series as more than just a cameo, and reintroduce the eccentric Tsuji, who I am suspecting might be the next major antagonist but I could be wrong. The rest of the volume is very strong. But yeah, I’m going to be talking about the middle chapter, which left me grinning like an idiot and jumping up and down in happiness.

But first, a recap. In the first chapter of this volume, Toriko and Sorawo go to the Otherside (its only appearance in this volume) to check on Todate and Hana, as after Sorawo’s Toriko-infested Otherside experience from the last book she’s worried about them. She’s right to be worried – this is the really scary part of the book, though not without its heartwarming, in a weird way. I the second story, Sorawo and Toriko head over to Kozakura’s mansion to inform her that they’re now a couple, and Sorawo struggles with the fact that everyone wants her relationship to be more romantic than she’s comfortable with. In the final, longest chapter, Migawa asks Sorawo and Toriko to help instruct soldiers from their facility on how to deal with Otherside terror, and they bring along Runa (who they are trying to figure out what to do with) and Tsuji (who is now Runa’s minder). Runa has a knack for interior decorating that is kind of cute, and then less cute.

So, let’s talk about that second story. First of all, everyone who enjoyed watching Sorawo struggle with what her relationship with Toriko is will be happy to note that even after they defined it together, Sorawo still hates talking about it with anyone else, as she always senses them making it more normal and ordinary. This fits in really well with Sorawo’s mindset. (The funniest parts of the book are where folks have to explain to Sorawo when she’s seducing people, and Sorawo’s “wut?” reaction to this.) The best part of the book for me, though, was Kozakura. They arrive at her mansion and find it brightly lit, and this worries them. But what it actually means is that she’s moved on and is now in control of her life again. She’s adopted Kasumi which is why the house is bright), and she’s using her degree to make the Otherside safer to think about and study. I wanted to shout “woo hoo!” when I saw this. I’m so happy for her.

Now, is Runa going to be able to have the same journey? Can Sorawo come to terms with the fact that everyone is going to interpret her relationship with Toriko differently? And can Toriko stop all these thirsty women macking on her nue so that she can get in some quality cuddling time? That will have to wait for Book 10, in all likelihood. I loved this book, though.

The Countess Is a Coward No More! This Reincarnated Witch Just Wants a Break, Vol. 2

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By Ageha Sakura and TCB. Released in Japan as “Tensei Saki ga Kiyowa Sugiru Hakushaku Fujin datta” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Bérénice Vourdon.

This is not an isekai title, and it’s not QUITE a reincarnation title, even though it features that, mostly as they’re not reincarnated from Japan. Everyone in this fantasy world seems to have been born in it at some point. But it is one of those titles, like Reborn to Master the Blade or A Tale of the Secret Saint, where our protagonist was an incredibly powerful and influential person in the past, and now that they’ve reincarnated into the future, they find that their past is not so easy to get rid of. This is more literally true for Lam than others in this genre, as not only was she forcibly reincarnated via a spell, but all of her disciples are there as well. And unfortunately, this gets to one of the parts of the title that I wish weren’t the case… all of her disciples are, to one degree or another, yanderes. Fortunately, she has minimal interest in anyone but Char… who gets SLIGHTLY more than minimal.

Things start off fairly normally, as Lam decides she wants to attend a tea party for nobility, which goes about as well as you’d expect, given that she’s still assumed to be an introverted coward by those who haven’t met her new self. After that, though, we get the real plot, as Lam is asked to go to the country of Levres, whose prince wants to meet her. Naturally, Char comes along, and they take Canon as well. It turns out that the prince is the reincarnation of her second disciple, Glacial, who was reincarnated properly with his memories from the start, unlike Lam’s broken reincarnation. Now Prince Fleche, he wants Lam to marry him and live with him forever – much to Char’s displeasure. Unfortunately, the hatred of mages has also followed them to this kingdom, helped along by the Church.

This series has a very big problem for me, which is not a deal breaker so far but the ice is getting thinner. The problem is that while I like the basic situation, I usually want to sympathize with… anyone. Lam is fairly emotionally stunted, quick to deal with “insects” when she’s annoyed, and, while she’s not aromantic per se, she might as well be given her inability to get anyone’s point. The men in her life are all various shades of obsessed with/in love with her, and Char is possibly the only one who actually cares about what SHE thinks about this… and the implication is that if he finds out she was actually Aurora, he won’t care about her own feelings either. The bad guys are also mostly immature brats with far too much power and a tendency to not care about anyone or anything. And given they all have magic, even the people trying to prejudice the world against magic, that’s not a good thing. You want to smack them.

This ends with a cliffhanger, so we’ll see how all these men decide to resolve who gets to marry and have sex with a woman who really doesn’t want to be married to anyone but Char, and who still tends to blush and have a look of horror if sex is mentioned. I’ll keep going, but buyer beware.

Did You Think My Yuri Was Just for Show?

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By Neru Asakura and Minori Chigusa. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Yuri mo, Eigyou da to Omotta?” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Janny McKeon.

I wasn’t really sure what this was going to be when I first saw it. The author hasn’t had other titles licensed for the West (though they apparently wrote another, “spicier” yuri title previously). It’s also a one-shot. That said, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, although not necessarily for the yuri aspect of it. It’s an excellent look at the voice acting industry and how it can be very boom or bust at any time, told to us through the viewpoint of one of its bigger stars (though she would deny that). It also gets into the terror of idol fandom, both “trying to start a scandal for clicks” fandom and also what you do when you’re confronted with your celebrity crush in real life and you want to keep that sort of thing separate. Mostly, though, I enjoyed this because of its main character, Suzune, who is fantastic.

Suzune is, for once in this sort of series, NOT an up-and-coming wannabe voice actress. Instead, our narrator is well-established in the industry, not a top star but getting several roles a season, with usually one or two major titles. She’s also ‘yuri for real’ (gay and lesbian are not used, as the novel leans very deliberately into the ‘yuri’ label), something she’s hiding from most people except her friend at work who is the same. That said, Suzune hasn’t really experienced actual love per se. Sure, she’s a massive fan of Karin Shotsuki, the former leader of idol group DIAGONAL who mysteriously retired a few months ago. But being an ‘oshi’ for an idol is not the same thing as love, right? Then, of course, she’s introduced to the new kid on the block at the agency the next day… the same Karin.

Suzune is a type I always like, which is modest and realistic, a bit self-deprecating, but not overly so, and VERY good at what she does. Her professionalism throughout (well, mostly, I’ll get to it) was fantastic, and I even appreciated the scenes she had with the evil villain washed-up voice actress, which she was handling well enough but which Karin, out of necessity, had to take over. Speaking of Karin, she’s fine, and I liked her, but a bit less. I do think that Suzune was missing some very obvious signs that Karin was massively in love with her from the start, but given that Suzune was asking what love really is anyway, that can be expected. The one weak part of the book is the final scene, which not only feels very unrealistic (both in terms of what Suzune does, and the lack of consequences), but also feels abrupt as heck, as if the author was told to stop as they had a page limit.

Still, that’s 90% of a really great book. And it’s a one-shot, so you’re not investing much. For fans of voice actors and fans of yuri.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Minor Myths and Legends, Vol. 1

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By Fujino Omori and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Shohenshu” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

Oh goody, another short story collection, the first of two that have been given fancier names to disguise the fact that this is a collection of extra stories mostly written for bookstore exclusives, which means by definition that all of them, with one or two exceptions, not only cannot impact the ongoing narrative but cannot impact any of the character arcs. That said, I am always grateful that we get these anyway, as it’s nice to see the little content that Japanese readers got when they bought the volume at Toranoana, Animate, or Gamers. What’s more, fans of the harem aspect of this series, which usually takes a backseat in the main series to the ongoing “series of fights to the death” plot, will be eating well here. Everyone loves Bell and knows it (except Aiz), and Bell is clueless to everyone’s love but loves Aiz (who is clueless towards him). It’s in the title of the franchise!

Trying to summarize all of these would be impossible – most of them only run two pages or so. They take place over the course of Vol. 1-18 of the main series. Some of the ones that are longer than two pages include Eina and Bell’s first meeting, Hestia trying to be Bell’s supporter in the dungeon, a story taking place right after Bell first starts to become famous and shows off his growth as the smith who made his first knife asks if he can put it in his “hall of fame” section, after Vol. 6, Hestia tries another ball to try to dance with Bell, but it proves very difficult; Fels watches over Hestia Familia during the Xenos arc, and keeps a diary of what they are seeing – which quickly turns into a confessional of a sort, Cassandra makes another effort to get people to believe her right before the disaster that sends Bell and Lyu to the deep levels, Lyu and Bell are forced to drink slimes to survive in the dungeon, and three more that I’ll talk about below.

The three stories that work best here are the ones that actually *are* able to do something with character development. They all take place during the “Freya” arc of the series. Bell is going through enforced date training so he can go out with Syr, and as part of it rescues an Elf in Hermes Familia and tries to be suave as he was taught. It works far, far too well. In the second, we get the POV of Horn during the time when Bell is staying with Freya Familia and she’s manipulating everyone’s memories, which shows both Freya’s guilt and angst over her lot in love as well as her massive tsundere nature over Bell; and in the final, funniest story, Laurier does her own character poll of everyone in Orario, and runs into Horn, who is at loose ends after Freya’s fall. The cat fight they both get into, with Laurier praising Bell so much it makes you sick, and Horn tearing him down as much as possible, is simply fantastic.

That said, overall.. this is a short story collection. For fans only. Join us soon for Vol. 2, which has all the store giveaway stories for Sword Oratoria.

I Shall Survive Using Potions!, Vol. 10

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By FUNA and Sukima. Released in Japan as “Potion-danomi de Ikinobimasu!” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hiroya Watanabe.

Due to a weird scheduling quirk, I think this is the first time that I have read all three of FUNA’s licensed series in the space of two weeks. Seven Seas’ Make My Abilities Average! came out last month, but its digital version was delayed two weeks for unknown reasons. Kodansha’s Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World also came out with a new volume. And now we have I Shall Survive Using Potions!, which may not be the best of the three (I don’t think I can really call one of these series the “best” easily), but it’s certainly the most interesting, mostly as Kaoru is still an atomic bomb of a protagonist (the word “heroine” seems grotesquely wrong), and as these books have shown, the world that she is in, especially after the time skip, is a toxic one filled with greedy nobles, murderous thugs, and temple priests who have no idea why they should not be rude to a 12-year-old. Kaoru is not thinking about wiping out kingdoms for no reason

Kaoru is currently masquerading as the “stray priestess” Edith, but after almost getting herself murdered by bandits, she decides to performatively hire some bodyguards to protect her as well as talk to the local lord to try to find out who may have hired said bandits so she can eradicate them. Fortunately, the dumb evil noble sends a bunch of disguised soldiers, bandits and goons to kidnap and/or kill her, and it’s only due to the presence of… her bodyguards. And half the town. And, um, the local lord and his own soldiers… that this is foiled. Huh. Funny, that. Anyway, she and her two co-conspirators, Reiko and Kyoko, have decided to open a new shop in the capitol. Kaoru, as “Edith”, heads over there… and is immediately almost kidnapped. And then almost kidnapped AGAIN. Fortunately, guardian angels keep showing up in the nick of time. Funny, that.

So yes, the big gag of the back half of this volume is that Kaoru’s masterful powers of trying to fix her own mistakes and remain “an anonymous priestess with a little bit of power” are hopelessly doomed from the start. Partly because she’s so incredibly bad at not being her real, evil… erm, good, sorry… self, but also because in spite of this series timeskipping 70 years into the future, everyone that she adventured with in the past is still alive, because of her ludicrous OP potions. Especially Francette, who is now a living legend, is famous for bitchslapping a goddess till she stopped threatening to destroy the world, and has mobilized all the other Kaoru worshippers of yore to make sure that everything goes PERFECTLY for her. Kaoru must be disappointed, how is she supposed to commit a little genocide or two if everyone’s so NICE to her?

All this plus more of the PTSD-ridden codependent orphans who develop facial tics if they’re not working themselves to death for more than ten seconds. Potion Girl remains AP FUNA, the kind of FUNA you only read if you’re advancing to higher learning. Like learning how to defuse a bomb.