By Tsuyoshi Fujitaka and Yuunagi. Released in Japan as “Bikyaku Mimic, Harumi-san: Tensei Monster Isekai Nariagari Densetsu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Chen.

Sometimes a new series just doesn’t work out, OK? Leaving aside the actual content of this book, which I will get to eventually, I was informed as I began to read it that it was canceled after only one volume in Japan. Light Novel fans tend to dislike this, but after reading These Legs Don’t Lie Volume 1, I have to think, is another volume really needed? There were not really any horrible cliffhangers, there was no plot we really wanted to see resolved, the characters are not, on the whole, compelling. As a one-shot this was OK – a bit annoying at the start, very weird as it trundles along, but OK. That said, there’s no way that I would have been able to read, say, Vol. 8 of this series. I also recall the other series I read by this author, My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World, and how that declined as it went along too. So yeah, one volume then cancelled? Fine by me.

Our heroine is Harumi, who is a newly-born mimic (I had to look it up, as a non-gamer – think The Luggage from Discworld) being stuck at the top of a dungeon to be killed by adventurer newbies. She doesn’t want this to happen, and manages to forcibly grow legs to run away. Which does not work, but she attracts the attention of a thief with a fetish, who gives her magical high heels. As she discovers, this is a ludicrously powerful items that lets her make her opponents explode after she kicks them. She then goes on a reign of terror through the dungeon, kicking and exploding people, till the “event” has ended. Having grown far too powerful for this dungeon, she is then sent off to the place where the strongest monsters gather… if she can get there. It’s a long walk, and other folks are out for revenge against her.

Harumi is, frankly, a sociopath, who thinks very little of blowing up anyone and everyone. The way she comes across new attacks is somewhat similar to Maple, as is her somewhat ditzy narrative voice, but I’d say White from So I’m a Spider, So What? is a more apt comparison. The setting for this world is very bizarre, with humans and monsters essentially using each other to make money, and the dungeon being a kind of theme park – which means that Harumi massacring nearly everyone is a major bug in the program. Also, despite the cover art, she can’t grow an entire body by the end of this book. She can get legs/hips, legs and arms, or topless upper half, but not all three. This means there are scenes where she is running through the countryside, a treasure chest on legs, with a random urchin that she saved from bandits riding on top of her. Honestly, I wonder if the entire series was written for that image alone.

So yeah, as it turned out, after the first volume of this, My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered really started to take off, to the point where it’s getting an anime, and so the publisher probably said “why keep up with this title which is likely unbroadcastable due to the constant exploding people?” One is enough.