By Punichan and Canarinu. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō wa Camping Car de Tabi ni Deru: Aibyō to Mankitsu Suru Self Kokugai Tsuihō ” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by sachi salehi.
Villainess books (and this still is a villainess book, despite increasingly looking just like a standard isekai) all tend to have the same basic setting. They’re supposedly based on “noble court” kingdoms, all of which are best described as “vaguely Europe in the vaguely end of the 19th century, only with magic”. The problem with this, and a lot of isekais that take place in RPG land, is that it’s not Japan. Now, you *could* theoretically solve that problem by writing a villainess or isekai story that takes place in 19th century Japan, but no. We’d much rather simply have another, very familiar country, just offscreen, to the east, and over the ocean, that’s got rice and miso and so many other magical things. I just finished seeing Kuma Bear doing this, and S-Ranked Daughter also discussed it. And now here we are,. Mizarie and Raoul have come to not-quite-Japan. And it’s AWESOME.
Now that she’s found out about a country which has rice, Mizarie really wants to go there. But it’s not easy, and requires her and Raoul – who has now paid off his debt but, to the relief of both of them, wants to keep traveling with her – to traverse the desert, end up at the ocean, and then somehow cross through the Scylla and Charybdis. Fortunately, this is a world with magic, so a dangerous path opens every month – dangerous, that is, unless you have an RV. Now in the land of Mizuho, they arrive at a small town and meet the village chief’s daughter and a soba seller who is clearly in love with her. But they don’t have time to wait for the plot twist to kick in, there’s slow life to be had in the capital! Mizarie can buy SO MUCH Japanese food, get a kimono, and stay in a hot springs inn with her… um… bestie?
I admit I was wondering if this one would be purely slice-of-life this time around. Mizarie finally confesses her past to Raoul (her past from this world, that is – we’re not opening up about reincarnation just yet), but for the most part the Kingdom of Richard are not allowed to be dicks and remain firmly offscreen. But fear not, there is definitely a plot twist, because we can’t have a Camper Van Villainess story without the Camper Van being the real hero. As such, we get a good old fashioned virgin sacrifice to the gods, which feels VERY out of place in amongst all the “hey, hey, isn’t Japan awesome?!” that is the rest of the book. (Honestly, that part is a bit wearying.) But it allows Mizarie to race her RV like never before, do Evil Knievel jumps, and ram a massive snake to death. After that, meeting Raoul’s folks seems easy… well, provided you’re not two shy dorks in denial.
Best of all, it appears Camper Van Villainess escapes the “end in three volumes” curse most DRE titles have! Or at least they’re not married yet. I look forward to more wacky van adventures.
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