Moon Blossom Asura: The Ruthless Reincarnated Mercenary Forms the Ultimate Army, Vol. 1

September 5, 2023 by Leave a Comment

By Sou Hazuki and Mizutametori. Released in Japan as “Tsuki Hana no Shōjo Asura: Gokuaku Hidō no Yōhei, Tensei Shite Saikyō no Yōheidan o Tsukuru” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Stephanie Liu.

Every once in a while I like to look at a book that otherwise has no appeal to me whatsoever. Sometimes it turns out I’m wrong, and I end up pleasantly surprised. Sometimes the book is so bad that I can’t even bring myself to finish it. And then there are those unfortunate books where I recognize the craft, and know that they will have an audience here, but that audience is not me. As you may have guessed, Moon Blossom Asura falls under the last category. It has fun, enjoyable characters, some good mysterious backstory, some exciting fights, and a determination to show us that war is hell. But the goal of this series seems to be to take idealists and show their faces into the dirt until they learn better, and I like my fiction just a bit shinier than that. It’s a rare series that makes me long for the happy times of The Saga of Tanya the Evil.

Moon Blossom is one of the most infamous mercenary groups in all the world. Currently working for the downtrodden kingdom of Arnia, they consists of our “heroine”, Asura, a reincarnated merc who is trying to recreate her old job in this new world of swords and magic; Lumia, a warrior with a past; Jyrki and Iina, two teen bandits turned into Asura’s soldiers, and Marx, a former soldier who now works on the side of … well, the devil? Asura is bad, but she gets the job done, and given how badly Arnia is losing their current war, that’s a good thing. Still, they may be in trouble with this new request from the young King: assassinate the Hero working for the opposing side. Despite the fact that killing a hero will earn the ire of everyone in the world.

So yes, obviously, reminded a lot of Tanya the Evil with this one. Unlike Tanya’s world-weary cynicism and desperation for the fighting to end, though, Asura LOVES this sort of thing, and the only reason that she hasn’t just decided to become a mass murderer is that she has Lumia around as her conscience. Though that goes both ways, as we find out towards the end of the book. This book contains a lot of the basic isekai tropes, such as magic, heroes, etc., along with our reincarnated protagonist. but its goal seems to be to show everyone that war ids a dirty, awful business and you cannot possibly win it by sticking to your ideals and morals. Iris, a hero that the group meets near the end of the book, wants to save Asura, who she thinks has snapped due to her past tragedies. Which, well, is KIND OF true, but honestly, Asura simply doesn’t want to be saved. Her goal is instead to show Iris how to live on a battlefield – which does not involve being an idealist and trying to save everyone.

This is well-written, and fans of bleak military isekai might like it. I just want to read something with more puppies and rainbows next, please.

Filed Under: moon blossom asura, reviews

Loner Life in Another World, Vol. 7

September 4, 2023 by Leave a Comment

By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Eric Margolis. Adapted by Lorin Christie.

One of the reasons why this is such a difficult series to get anyone into (and trust me, there are so many reasons) is that it is trying to be so many different things. It is a military combat novel in this volume… or at least the start of this volume, as it turns out that Haruka, in fact, manages to take care of everything far more than anyone expected him to. It’s a raunchy sex comedy, with Haruka’s stats leveling him up to Sex God (no, really, it says that in his stats) and featuring a number of explicit sex scenes that nevertheless will likely get overlooked by the Powers That Be merely as they’re narrated by Haruka, which means they’re completely incoherent. That said, there is one thing that this series tends to put first, before anything else, and I 100% approve: the nobility sucks. Class warfare forever. Eat the rich. Because trust me, almost all the nobles we meet here are scum.

Haruka rushes back to the frontier in order to stop the army that’s headed that way, an army backed by the theocracy’s soldiers (who are quite content to let the regular army folks be killed off while they hang back) and the theocracy’s secret weapon, another Dungeon Emperor on the same level as Angelica. Oh, and they’re also unleashing monster rushes from nine dungeons around the kingdom, guaranteed to have the populace horribly murdered, which means none of Haruka’s allies can come to his side because they all have to stop this. Needless to say, Haruka… wins almost embarrassingly easily. And now he has a new Dungeon Emperor on his side, the gorgeous Nerfertiri (any resemblance to an ancient Egyptian queen is purely intentional) as his second “concubine”, and has saved the day. Time for a grand ball!

The lack of suspense in the first third of the volume is almost laughable, at least on Haruka’s end. I worried far more about Stalker Girl and her father, who are trying to defeat a mass rush of monsters despite essentially being a ninja spy force. The second third of this novel is basically comic relief and porn, though again, it’s porn written in the style of Haruka’s narration, so it’s not in the least bit arousing. He’s just banging two girls now rather than one. (Again, it’s hinted he refuses to do anything to the Japanese girls for past trauma reasons.) The last third, though, it easily the best part, as the grand ball turns out to be a trap to ensnare all the other evil nobles, baited by a play that gives all the credit to the war to the Princess and Duke, and none to Haruka – meaning they underestimate him. The girls at first asked why in hell he was making their ballgowns with so many defensive armor traits – it turns out they need every single one of them. It’s glorious.

So this long arc is over, and I assume we start something new next time. Might be a few months till the next book, so go back and try to translate Haruka to English, that’s my advice.

Filed Under: loner life in another world, reviews

I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss, Vol. 6

September 3, 2023 by Leave a Comment

By Sarasa Nagase and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijo Nanode Rasubosu o Katte Mimashita” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

So I have very good news for fans of this series: not once in this volume is Aileen threatened with execution as a result of something happening out of her control. Which makes a nice change from the first five books. Indeed, there’s a very “final volume” to this, despite the fact there are at least five more books coming. All the major subplots are tied up, most of the romantic couples are now together… well, mostly (try harder, Serena), Claude is no longer being forcibly possessed and turned into a dragon, and everyone gets something to do. Indeed, that may be my biggest complaint of the volume: this cast is too big, and I hate having to go back to the cast list at the start of the volume to remember who is who. Oh yes, and perhaps the most important part of all this: Aileen and Claude are finally allowed to consummate their marriage! Offscreen, of course. This isn’t Loner Life in Another World.

We pick up right where we left off, with everything having gone wrong and Amelia having won. That said, Aileen doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit: indeed, to everyone’s shock, she notes that if she can’t rescue Claude she’s going to have to kill him. In order to save the day everyone will have to do their best, despite the fact that one heroine is in a coma, one heroine is being a tsundere, and one heroine is still convinced that this is a game and that she doesn’t have to care about anyone as a person at all – though you get the sense she’s lying through her teeth. As for Aileen and her faction, well, she handles things like she always does, with brute force and blunt objects. Indeed, looking back to the past of Amelia and her sister, we meet Grace Dark, Claude’s mother, who turns out to be a lot like his current wife.

As with the previous few volumes, I’m fascinated with Lilia, possibly the best “heroine” in a villainess book not named Maria Campbell. Out loud, she’s the same as always, talking about backstories and routes opening up (Aileen does this as well, and the two are frankly far more alike than Aileen would like). Deep down, her feelings for Cedric are wavering, not enough that she’ll confess to him or anything (honestly, you get the sense she’d rather be in a bisexual relationship with Aileen and Claude), but because she’s going off to be brutally murdered by Amelia, and knows that saying “I’ll marry you when I return” is the biggest death flag there is. Unfortunately for Lilia, she’s surrounded by much better people than her, who can also work miracles, so rumors of her death become the reality of her wedding. Which, honestly, she’s a bit bitter about.

So, the end! Aileen is married and has now consummated her marriage! What could be next? Oh, short story volume? Right. Short story volume.

Filed Under: i'm the villainess so i'm taming the final boss, reviews
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