By Yuri Yumemi and Wata. Released in Japan as “Majo ni Kubiwa wa Tsukerarenai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.
One thing that I tend to do on social media is that every month, I post a screencap of an Excel Spreadsheet showing my light novel preorders. This is meant as an amusing gag to show off that I frankly read far too many Japanese light novels, and I should be reading fewer of them. That said, sometimes it gets noticed by translators who happen to see their book isn’t there, and they say “hey, why aren’t you getting this new series?” Inevitably, my answer is something along the lines of “it’s not really my genre”. This happened a while back with Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table, and while I had to admit that the first volume was very well done, I didn’t really read more of it because I’m not a fan of death game books. This new series is a police procedural, and after reading it I admit that the reasons that I was told to read it are valid. It’s quite fun in a lot of spots. Nevertheless.
Rogue Macabesta is a detective in a world that is basically “My Hero Academia but with magic instead of quirks”, which means it’s his job to hunt down villains who use magic for crime. He’s finally done enough, and been noticed enough, that he’s about to be promoted to a desk job. Honestly, he trips all sorts of flags about retiring, so it should not be a surprise that his boss has a new mission for him. There’s a serial killer no one can catch, who is aging and de-aging people to death, and she wants him to catch the culprit. Using the witches of the 6th District, who are all hundreds of years old and have slaughtered thousands. They’re all sociopaths, though this being a light novel that mostly means they’re sociopaths in amusing eccentric ways. Can he and Miseria, who can control people like puppets, get along enough to find the killer?
The witches are a lot of fun, especially Miseria, who I would hate to have to deal with in real life, but as a character she’s great. being an obnoxious tease and also knowing exactly what buttons to push to irritate Rogue. That said, all the other witches note that compared to their previous detectives they’ve worked with (who are all dead), she’s really taken a liking to him. Catherine, the other major witch we meet this time around, is essentially the chronic pathetic wet girl that you see in series like these – think Yunyun – but that changes fast. I wasn’t too surprised by the change, but it was handled well. So what’s wrong with the series? Nothing, except it is indeed a police procedural, meaning most of it is finding bodies, searching for clues, interrogating folks, and finding more bodies. Also, the author straight up says this is The Silence of the Lambs but with magic rather than cannibalism, which, again, not a selling point for me.
If you do enjoy this genre, and don’t mind some snarky amoral girls taking over the pages, this is absolutely right up your alley.