Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 5: Avatar of a Goddess, Vol. 12

September 15, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

And so, with the exception of more short story volumes and the Hannelore-driven sequel, we come to the end of Ascendance of a Bookworm, a long but mostly very satisfying series. This volume is a victory lap, with the actual danger to our heroine dealt with in the first 50 pages or so, leaving the rest of the book to have engagements, elevations to Aub, saying goodbye to everyone and moving into the new digs. And Rozemyne is now going to get married to Ferdinand, which both of them are very comfortable with keeping as a familiar rather than romantic marriage, even if literally everyone else in the book, as well as the author, disagrees with them. I mean, I’d love for my asexual Rozemyne headcanon to be confirmed, but the implication at the end of this book seems to be “once she grows up, she’ll change her mind”, which eh. She’s theoretically mentally 40, something the author I thing tends to forget at times. Anyway.

We pick up where we left off, with Rozemyne desperately draining all her god mana and trying not to die. After this, Ferdinand takes her on a tour of her memories, via the events he was present for, which succeeds in restoring them. Including the fear of feystones, but we can’t have everything, and she’s getting better. Now it’s time to find those in Ahrensbach who weren’t on Detlinde’s side and tell them who their new Aub is, punish those who WERE on Detlinde’s side, prepare for Alexandria to be Rozemyne’s new library city, move in there along with… well, some of her retinue (poor Judithe, though I don’t blame her father), and say goodbye to everyone else in Ehrenfest. And then, in a lovely epilogue, she gets to once again meet up with her original family as Myne, because now that she’s Aub of a new city any previously made contracts can suck it. (Even the narrative voice calls her Myne again, which I liked.)

There were a ton of little scenes that I really liked, which is typical with “victory lap” ending novels. Rozemyne’s heart to heart with Elvira, as well as explaining to Aurelia that no, she will not have to be executed just for being related to the other terrorists. (We see Aurelia’s face!) She has a nice conversation with Florencia, who I honestly wished had more to do throughout, and a great scene with her siblings, showing Wilfried once again being annoying but also getting right to the heart of the matter. Even Delia gets a sendoff, as Rozemyne basically says no, you won’t see Dirk again ever, so be Big Sister to the other orphans going forward. This is not a “forgive and forget” world, as much as Rozemyne does her best. Sometimes the dumb things you do when you’re 12 years old define your entire life. Oh, and Eckhart and Angelica have the most boring “let’s get engaged again” ever. Totally in character, it was great.

Oh yes, “I *am* the precedent!” goes in everyone’s top 5 Bookworm lines.

I will deeply miss Rozemyne, Ferdinand, and company. I was also sad that Hannelore did not appear in this at all, but she does have the spinoff, where I’m sure she’ll be happy and have everything go her way. Right?

Filed Under: ascendance of a bookworm, reviews

Dagashi-ya Yahagi: Setting Up a Sweets Shop in Another World, Vol. 1

September 14, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Bunzaburou Nagano and Neruzo Nemaki. Released in Japan as “Dagashiya Yahagi: Isekai ni Shutten Shimasu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mizuki Sakamoto.

Every time I come across a “slow life” light novel series that actually *is* slow life, I get thrown off, and I have to recalibrate the way I’m reading it. I spent most of the first half of this book thinking “wow, this is moving at a crawl, and nothing’s really happening”, and that’s the POINT. There have been so many “trying to be slow life” novels published over here that they’ve almost taken over the genre. You know, where the hero decides that he’s just going to set up a shop, or run a farm, but then suddenly halfway through the book he’s got to defeat the demon lord, that sort of thing. This is not that kind of book. Yahagi is here to sell penny candy, and he’s going to sell it. Oh, he does gain new cool powers. His candy stock gets expanded, and he really takes off when he can sell cheap Gundam models that can move via mana. But, the climax of the plot? Is mostly handled by other people.

We’re barely told how Yahagi dies (truck, of course) at age 25. He ends up in essentially a “next life” waiting room, where he’s told that he’s not going to be the hero, or even a basic-ass mage, but he’s going to a fantasy world where he will be a dagashi-ya. Which means he sells cheap candy for ten yen, etc. He’s then dumped there as is, and finds he can create a store out of nowhere, but by store I mean “stand”. And he has no money. And nowhere to live. Fortunately, it turns out that his cheap candies actually give stat boosts, so he attracts the attention of a couple of cute young adventurers. And as he sells more stuff, his stand gets bigger and he gets more products. This also gains the interest of a “shinigami”, who is wearing a mask and cloak but seems to like the chocolate, and also seems to be very attached to Yahagi. Especially after he looks at a wanted poster of the Great Witch Michelle, and states she looks beautiful and is his type. Who could this mystery shinigami be?

This is a decent read, though anyone expecting originality or depth is reading the wrong series. And honestly I’m not sure I’d want those things in a series like this. The book namechecks Do You Love Your Mom?, KonoSuba and Danmachi in the first two pages, so it’s clearly geared towards otaku. The witch/love interest, Michelle, is what is usually less than politely termed a yandere, though it’s a mild version that mostly involves vague threats, with actual curses reserved for people who are genuinely terrible rather than just “making eyes at my man”. The romance in the book is sweet, though given Michelle spends most of the volume disguised as a man, there’s a lot of “OMG are they gay?” from Meryl and Mira, the other two main cast members. And, as I said, the main plot of this book, while it does involve Michelle and Yahagi, is not really resolved by either of them. Though there’s a sequel hook, of course.

So yeah, this is exactly what it says on the tin. Slow life. Lots of otaku references. A few boobs references. The implication there might be sex but there ends up being no sex. Fans of this sort of thing will enjoy it.

Filed Under: dagashi-ya yahagi, reviews

Too Strong to Belong! Banished to Another World

September 13, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Kazuki Karasawa and Akane Rica. Released in Japan as “Saikyou Joshi, Isekai e Iku!” by the author on the Shosetsuka ni Naro website. Released in North America digitally by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Marissa Skeels.

How much you enjoy this one-shot may depend on how in tune with the standard comedy tropes of anime and manga you as a reader are. It stars a young woman who is not only oblivious as to her own ridiculous strength, but also oblivious to the fact that she has multiple suitors. Part of that obliviousness may be that she tends to imagine her romantic rivals are in love with each other (she’s a classic “I see everyone I know as a BL pairing” type) but most of it is that she’s so dedicated to the idea of being a “dainty young maiden” (which is to say a gender stereotype-conforming girl) that the idea that people might be in awe of her strength… or worse, afraid of it… makes her skin crawl. But it’s OK! She has a childhood friend. Who is clearly in love with her, which he has tried to communicate by hanging out with her all the time and hoping that she’ll realize his feelings by osmosis. It’s this kind of humor.

Sakurako has been having a rough year. After the death of her parents, she’s trying hard to run the family dojo with the help of her childhood friend (who also lost HIS parents in the same accident). Unfortunately, she keeps getting attacked by savage dogs. And wolves. And telephone poles falling on her. And trucks trying to crash into her. Weird. Good thing she’s ludicrously strong, so she escapes all these accidents. After she finally is killed off, the god who’s been doing it reveals that she was also supposed to die in the same accident as her parents, so they’ve been trying to correct fate. Now she’s dead… but so is Kazuya, her childhood friend, who wasn’t supposed to die. The god decides to solve this by tossing them in a world of magic and monsters. Now Sakurako can remake her life as a dainty young maiden!… who can atomize B-rank monsters with just one punch.

In the afterword, the author says this was written before their other CIW series, The Weakest Manga Villainess Wants Her Freedom!, and for the most part it shows. This is a weaker work, mostly as Sakurako is far too aggravating to have as a long-term protagonist. Likewise, once you realize that Kazuya could solve all his problems by actually confessing rather than expecting her to get it like every other dumb teen out there, you lose a lot of sympathy for him. That said, the fact that this is complete in one volume definitely helps, as it means that they both have to catch a clue about this before the book ends. I was also amused at some of the humor, such as the demon lord briefly assuming that all of humanity is just like Sakurako and turning into a whiny baby, and the effects of Sakurako’s magic food forcing the stoic of their party to start espousing its virtues at the top of his lungs. There’s fun to be had here.

That said, if you want to try out this author’s work, I’d definitely start with The Weakest Manga Villainess Wants Her Freedom! first.

Filed Under: reviews, too strong to belong
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