By Yu Shimizu and Asagi Tosaka. Released in Japan as “Seiken Gakuin no Maken Tsukai” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lampert.

It’s always the same, isn’t it? You get a thousand-year-old powerful being with a desire to take over the world resurrected, and all of a sudden the bus arrives with ten more. Still, it keeps you busy. this series continues to feel like someone wrote a Shonen Jump manga and, instead of getting it published in Jump, decided to novelize it. Well, OK, this would fit Shonen Magazine better than Jump, especially given the large number of kickass women who like to take baths with our hero. (It’s OK, he’s 10! Right? It is somewhat odd to see the “she looks 8 years old but she’s really 600” cliche used to justify underage fanservice seen in the opposite direction… again, also to help with fanservice.) Fortunately, aside from said bath scenes, this third volume is much like the first two. It will never be anyone’s favorite, but I’m probably going to be reading the next book in the series. And it is starting to show off its plot, though that relies on Leonis being dim.

We’re briefly back in actual classes at the start of the book, as Riselia and Leonis are doing team battles against a top-standing rival. This mostly serves to show the school that Riselia is not “that girl with no holy Sword” anymore, and she can kick ass and take names. She’s also a vampire queen, but that’s still pretty much a secret. The main plot, however, starts when the Third Assault Garden, Riselia’s birthplace and last seen being totally destroyed by monsters, has now floated back into vision… and there’s a distress signal. As such, our team is sent out to see what’s happened. Will Riselia be OK with digging up her past? Who’s behind the distress signal? Can we really work an elf AND an evil priest into the same book and not smack our foreheads? And gosh, who is Roselia reincarnated as, anyway? It’s a mystery…

Again, this is a good book. The girls are likeable and also take on a majority of the combat. The combat scenes are well done, and the villains are also good at being villains. There are some things I was annoyed by. After a second book where a confrontation I was waiting for didn’t happen, the same thing happens here, as Riselia is definitely set up to have a big showdown… that does not actually occur. Instead, she grabs an ancient book. Secondly, it’s gone from amusing to vexing to really really annoying that Leonis is unable to understand, as everyone else who sees her manages to do, including anyone who might see their two names side by side, that Riselia is Roselia’s reincarnation. One of the villains literally dies of happiness on seeing this, but Leonis remains clinically thick about it. As a running gag, it drives me nuts, especially as I expect it’s only going to be drawn out more. (It has been pointed out to be the two don’t look alike, and OK, I can kind of accept that.)

Still, as with previous volumes, this was good enough to warrant my reading more. If you want a great light novel, look elsewhere. If you want a book for an afternoon’s read on the beach, this would be fine.

By Yu Shimizu and Asagi Tosaka. Released in Japan as “Seiken Gakuin no Maken Tsukai” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lampert.

I am, as readers of this site well know, easy to please. This can sometimes be a bit frustrating when I have series that don’t do anything particularly wrong, but are also not particularly stellar. The Demon King Master of Excalibur Academy falls under that. I will admit that I find the fact that the Demon King is in a 10-year-old body irritating, but it is mostly avoiding fanservice and groping, so that’s not a big enough reason to move on. The books are short, the prose is readable, the girls get things to do, and the battles are pretty cool, so boxes checked off there. That said, this really isn’t going to be making anyone’s top 10 light novels list anytime soon. There was an argument recently about whether using the word ‘generic’ is pejorative, and yes, it probably is, but there’s no word that better fits the series than this. It’s like eating a slice of bread. No butter, no jam. Just the bread.

The Academy is put on the back burner for this volume, with the biggest class-related event happening being that Leonis skips class. There’s a good reason for this, though – a huge ship is arriving carrying the Fourth Princess, who is paying a visit. Unfortunately, a horde of void creatures break out as she arrives, causing those who have gathered to see her to have to be evacuated onto the ship. Also unfortunately, this turns out to be a plot by terrorists, who are there to kidnap the princess and gain more equality for beastmen. Also also unfortunately, the terrorists have a mole in their ranks who has her own agenda, which is “kill everyone by having the ship slam into a reef, so that she can get her hands on a bunch of demon swords. Fortunately, Leonis and the girls from the first volume are there to stop them.

One of the interesting things in the series is the fact that it’s post-apocalyptic, and not very far away from it either. This allows Leonis to be thoroughly confused at how much has changed since he was alive, and also allows the book to constantly be interrupted by monster attacks, which are well-written but also mean that there’s not much actually happening here, even with the short page count. We do get a few revelations about Regina, Reselia’s maid, comrade in arms, and Girl With A Secret (TM). The secret is not hard to guess, and I will admit that I was frustrated that a meeting we were building up to did not happen, but that’s the trouble with long-running series like these. (Also, sadly, the princess was very underwritten, and I wish we’d seen more of her.)

That’s one interesting thing about these books – they read like they’re cancellation proof. The author has been told “your name is big enough, so we’ll guarantee that you won’t be cut after two novels”, and it shows, as there’s a lot of long-term things going on here. Unfortunately, that means we don’t really get satisfying answers in THIS book. It’s a series that is “good enough for now” to a T.

By Yu Shimizu and Asagi Tosaka. Released in Japan as “Seiken Gakuin no Maken Tsukai” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lampert.

Sometimes trends can be exhausting. Just try asking a hardcore light novel fan what they think of isekais sometimes and you’ll see what I mean. This is especially true when a trend happens so fast that you get five or six books in a row right at once. Magical academies – particularly ones that also teach swordsmanship and other “knight” classes – have been around for some time, as those of you who have mocked Asterisk War are well aware. And lately the trend has been to populate these schools with a demon lord who is reincarnated in these modern times. Not only is The Demon Sword Master at Excalibur Academy not the first of these, it’s not even the first one licensed by Yen On. Heck, it doesn’t even have a hot anime attached to it like The Misfit of Demon King Academy. What it does have is a very readable text that is written by a light novel veteran, one that doesn’t excite much but doesn’t put many feet wrong either. Read this, it’s competent.

As with most novels of this type, our hero is the one in the background there, behind the cute girl. Leonis Death Magnus is an undead king whose lands are finally being taken down by the heroes. (He’s a former hero himself, so knows how tough they can be.) The Goddess of Rebellion, the one he was doing this all for, is gone. And so he seals his soul and waits for time to pass. Which it does. A thousand years later, he’s freed by two students investigating a ruin. There are a few problems, though. First of all, he’s got the body of a 10-year-old. Secondly, the girl who is trying to protect him, Riselia, is one of the few students at this academy who hasn’t woken to her abilities yet, and ends up getting killed as a result. So Leonis is forced to resurrect her as a vampire queen. Now he’s trying to figure out how much this world has changed, try to start a new life at this magical academy floating on the water, and help Riselia deal with her newfound state.

If you’re like me, nothing in that paragraph made you hyped up to read this. But it’s really not bad. The cast isn’t that large yet, and this book focuses squarely on its hero and heroine. The fight scenes are exciting and not confusing. There is some humor that is actually amusing, not always guaranteed in light novels. Of course, it’s not perfect. The hero really wants to tell us that the girls he meets have large breasts, so he does over and over. Riselia’s “it’s OK, he’s just a kid!” naivete beggars belief, though to be fair that’s the opinion of everyone else as well. The fact that Leonis is trying to figure out who the reincarnation of his lost love Roselia is when there’s a girl named Riselia who is his new minion makes him seem a lot more dumb than I think he’s meant to be. And I could do without the guy and his harem of mind controlled sword girls, even though he’s only there to get humiliated.

But yeah, this is another example of a book that exudes competence, which helps make up for deficiencies in originality and character. You will be mildly entertained when reading it. Which these days is more than we can ask for.