Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Vol. 6

April 29, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Kazuki Amamiya and Gin. Released in Japan as “Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Esther Sun.

There’s always been an element of drama to this series, which has sort of waffled between teen romcom and teen angst at times. But this volume pretty much jettisons the humor entirely, and any romance we get is of the tortured variety. This is also to be expected. Natsuki may have 7 extra years on the rest of the cast, but that does not make him any less of a dumbass when trying to see feelings that are so close to his nose that they’re invisible to him. We also not only get a nice round of high school bullying here, but also how how it ties in to elementary school bullying from the past, and that “conformity”, needless to say, is rewarded, while being an outcast gets you… well, even more outcasted. And then of course there is Miori, who has apparently decided that everything is her fault, that she’s the worst person alive, and that the only solution left to her is to fix the “alive” part. Fortunately, this isn’t quite THAT dark a high school romantic drama.

Nasty rumors are spreading throughout the school, helped along by a girl who really hates Miori (because of her relationship with Reita, of course), and Miori has actually been home from school for a week. Though honestly that’s more due to the fallout from realizing just how much she loves Natsuki and despairing about how it’s far too late to do anything about it. Natsuki, of course, is also not being helped here, given that he’s accused of cheating on his girlfriend with another girl. As for Hikari, everyone’s worried about how she takes this, but honestly we may need to be more worried about what she feels after she hears the actual truth. Unfortunately, Miori eventually snaps and decides to run away… and Natsuki worries she may take things even further.

So yes, word of warning, there is a suicide attempt in this book. That said, it’s resolved fairly quickly, and there are not many “real world” aftereffects, mostly as only Miori and Natsuki know what she was about to do. That said, honestly, the best scene in the book comes right before he rescues her, when he confronts Reita, who is determined to rescue her first and win over Natsuki. Natsuki, naturally, is livid, pointing out that Reita is only thinking of himself and not Miori at all. Accurate, and this leads to the cliffhanger of the book, where Reita apparently decides to solve his problems by becoming a delinquent and getting suspended. I think these teens need better coping mechanisms, honestly. I’m sure Reita will be the subject of the next book, though how his relationship with Miori will fall out (or fall apart) remains to be seen.

The next book is gonna be a bit, though – this volume only came out in December. So feel relief that Natsuki was able to defuse things, and hope that Hikari can get over her hangups about cooking. And Miori, please feel better soon.

Filed Under: haibara's teenage new game+, reviews

A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires, Vol. 1

April 28, 2024 by 1 Comment

By Hagure Metabo and masami. Released in Japan as “Buchigire Reijō wa Hōfuku wo Chikaimashita. Madōsho no Chikara de Sokoku wo Tataki Tsubushimasu” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Rymane Tsouria.

I’ve read quite a few bad books in my day. Some are so boring or annoying I don’t even finish them, hence they don’t get reviewed. Some are so hilariously bad I can do a “funny” review of how bad the book is. But it’s rare that I’ve come across a book so bad it makes me angry. In fact, ironically, it makes me livid, which is something that we almost never see from Ellie, the antagonist of this book. She spends almost the entire book in a sort of stoic indifference, and we’re meant to know that she’s furious because she says so. I like to think she sounds like Marvin the Martian when she talks about how angry she is. That in itself is not enough to make me angry about this book. Hell, not even the “oh, bandits aren’t human, so it’s fine to murder them” or “let’s go buy a slave!” are quite enough. No, it’s the ending.

You can probably guess how this book opens. Yup. Elizabeth Leiston, the fiance to the crown prince of Haldoria, is accused in public of being mean to the prince’s true love, the daughter of a baron. She’s arrested by the prince’s knight Robert and taken to prison. She knows that the prince is only doing this because the king and the prime minister – her father – are away. However, when the two hear about this, they assume the hypercompetent Elizabeth will escape in no time, bop the crown prince on the nose like he’s a puppy who pooped on the rug, and go back to secretly running the kingdom on her own. Instead, she spends a month in prison, reading and getting more annoyed. When her maid (also hypercompetent – no one grows or learns in this book) confirms that the king and her father just laid back and assumed she’d fix things, she decides to escape, flee the country, and get her revenge. Little did I know her revenge would not be typical “villainess novel” revenge, or even Greek Tragedy revenge, but “15 year old fanfic writer who’s just discovered the “gore” tag on AO3″ revenge.

Again, the first three-quarters of this book are bad, but in a “normal” way. Elizabeth, now calling herself Ellie, has magic grimoires that essentially make her omnipotent. She hires a 10-year-old – for once, not an orphan – to work for her. She also buys a slave, but it’s OK, because this slave comes from the “good” slave dealer who treats his slaves well. Note this slave is not paid except for “some pocket money”. She runs a cosmetics business (again, like so many other villainess books) until her old kingdom, who have decided that the crown prince’s reputation is more important than hers so have labeled her a monster, decides to stage an invasion. This is just garden variety bad. It started to get worse when we ran across the village of amateur solders who decided to rape a few women. And then we get to the actual start of the revenge, which will no doubt take several volumes, possibly one for each person she’s wronged.

As I noted above, Robert is the crown prince’s guard knight. He also fell in love with the Maria Campbell of this book, who sadly does not have one ounce of Maria’s heroine charm. That said, when the crown prince decides to incite a war using another country as proxy, he begins to realize that this isn’t actually what a good ruler does. So when Ellie shows up with an army led of the Empire’s top adventurers, Robert basically switches sides and gives Ellie the information she needs to resolve the conflict (though the proxy kingdom, of course, is dissolved). He then goes back home with his platoon, and Ellie goes with him… and then she slaughters the platoon and does *something* to Robert. He is found, badly wounded, and returned home to his adorable sister, loving mother, and furious father who is nevertheless happy to see his son alive. And then he slaughters his mother and sister. And then goes outside and starts slaughtering everyone in the shopping district. Yes, we do indeed see adorable children getting cut in two. After all this happens, despite insisting that he wasn’t in charge of his own actions, he is, of course, executed. The revenge is LUDICROUSLY beyond all possible need. Especially given that, frankly, Ellie is not a likable person.

Oh yes, one more thing: why the hell is this a Heart title? There’s no romance in it at all. Is it just because it’s a villainess book? Look, let me break this down. If you want a woman who has given everything for her country betrayed and finding new life with a business in another country, go read A Young Lady Finds Her True Calling Living with the Enemy. If you want to read a badass woman accused of horrible crimes fighting back and salvaging her reputation, go read I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss. If you want to read this book only with actual humor, go read Prison Life Is Easy for a Villainess. But for Christ’s sake, don’t read this series, which should be buried at a crossroads with a stake in its heart. Fuck it.

Filed Under: a livid lady's guide to getting even, reviews

Tearmoon Empire, Vol. 12

April 27, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

The cliffhanger ending to the last volume already told us that Bel had returned “from the dead”, so it’s not a surprise to see her on the cover, though it is a bit of a surprise to see her looking older. Mia is also stated to have grown, and for once the narrator, usually snarky, has to assure us that it’s height this time rather than the usual fat jokes. We are told that Mia is now sixteen, which is nice to hear, but also ominous, as it was when Mia turned eighteen that she was captured by the revolution in her first timeline. And it’s probably because we’ve come so far, and are theoretically closer to the end of this series, that Mia is allowing one big secret to come out. Not her own, of course – heaven forbid – although we see some signs in the future that Ludwig may figure it out. But with so many people having seen Bel shot in the neck with an arrow and killed, there’s no other way to explain her return than time travel.

Of course, Mia has bigger problems than just Bel’s resurrection and presence back in the past. Another young girl showed up behind Bel… and Bel has no idea who she is. So presumably not from the “good future”. What’s more, the girl’s name is Patricia… the same as Mia’s grandmother… and she claims to be from a family that Mia can’t quite remember but isn’t around anymore. (It’s hinted she’s suppressing the memory as what happened to the family terrified her.) Mia, who is more on the ball in this book than any other book, is 90% sure that this is her grandmother, somehow sent into the future, the opposite of Bel, but that’s even more terrifying, as it becomes clear that Patricia has been indoctrinated by the Chaos Serpents!

I think the most interesting part of this book is that we see Mia eating a giant pile of sweets throughout, but the narrator rarely chimes in to mention her weight. This is because the sweets help Mia to think and not get distracted, and Mia needs to do a giant pile of thinking in this book. Mia is sixteen, as mentioned earlier, and while still tending towards doing the right thing for the wrong reason, she has learned to not only trust her instincts but anticipate them. She knows she cannot just ignore the Patricia problem and hope it will go away, as (let’s be honest) she did with Bel. And there’s plenty of what we read Tearmoon for, as Mia accidentally comes up with kingdom-altering ideas that will reverberate for decades to come… only it’s getting less accidental. Mia still frames it as being selfish, but she’s not only getting the best results here, she’s getting it because of her words and actions. Her final speech is a fantastic example. It was a terrific lesson. I really love her.

That said, whoops, another nasty cliffhanger. Luckily, Book 13 should be out in late August. Can Mia rescue her own past as well as her own future? And can we still quietly ignore some of the May-December romances in this series? (Looking at you, Citrina.)

Filed Under: reviews, tearmoon empire
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