Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden, Vol. 3

July 24, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

When I have a book where there are things I liked and things I didn’t like, I generally like to start with the bad stuff and work my way up to the good. And there’s definitely stuff I enjoyed here! But we have to address the elephant in the room, and it’s an elephant that every series starring an adorable six-year-old, past memories/abilities or no, seems to have to deal with. The author finds people creeping on Nia hilarious, and assumes the reader does as well. We’ve already had the first two volumes, where her maid is constantly trying to get into her bed. Here we get Reliared’s older sister (yes, another one) wants to paint Nia in the nude (she’s an artist, but it’s also framed deliberately as “this is a skeezy creep”. And the king essentially saying “you will be mine once you’re old enough.” It’s designed for a very specific light novel audience that isn’t me, and I hate it. Anyway, onward.

It’s summer vacation for Nia, but of course that means ENDLESS FILMING FOR MAGIVISION. Once that’s over with, fortunately, she can visit Reliared and her lovely family (and creepy sister), and then head off to the princess’ private royal island… which also has the king, who is also vacationing, and turns out to be not quite as royal as you’d like… or is that just a facade? As for those of you who follow Nia to see her punch things, well, here’s not as much as the previous two books, but she does discover a new dungeon. And what’s more, she assigns her protege (and maid) Lynokis to go out adventuring and hone her new techniques. And earn money. A lot, a WHOLE lot, of money. Which Nia will need in order to realize the next part of her grand plan.

The best part of this book, aside from the ending, showing Reliared for once winning against Nia, if only indirectly, is her discussion with the King. Aside from his creeper tendencies (again, see the rest of the book), he turns out to be one smart cookie. Indeed, he’s much smarter than Nia, who presents an idea of having an annual fighting tournament but can’t think of more than two reasons why it would benefit the kingdom. The king thinks of eight other reasons, tells her how mind-numbingly expensive it would be to do properly, and sets her a goal of two years to raise that ludicrous amount of money. In just two pages he shifts the entire goal of this book from “let’s watch Nia race puppies” to “let’s watch Nia finance a shonen manga”, and I think it’s a good pivot. More of smart king, less of lecherous king.

So yes, a big asterisk next to this title. Assuming you can get past it (and it’s always used for humor, not seriously), this is a good entry in the “overpowered elementary school girls beat up the world” genre.

Filed Under: nia liston, reviews

The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist, Vol. 3

July 23, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Ito Iino and Kinokohime. Released in Japan as “Haraiya Reijō Nicola no Komarigoto” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.

It is somewhat interesting having a locked-room mystery (which this entire third and final volume is) in the universe of Miss Nicola the Exorcist, a universe that has, since the very beginning, dealt with supernatural threats to her love interest. It’s interesting because for once the initial thought CAN in fact be “hey, locked room is not an issue, because this world has demons and ghosts and cursed people”. And then of course it spends most of the book walking that back, because the author really is trying to do a locked-room mystery. That said, this is not exactly Agatha Christie. Once again, the culprit is obvious, though it helps that they are such a non-entity in the plot that we don’t even notice them till it’s time for the investigation. For the most part, the main reason to read this book is to see Sieghart threatened with execution, and to see what that does to Nicola. Oh. THAT’S what love feels like.

It’s time for the student ball, and this one is pretty important. It’s the last ball for third-years Sieghart and Alois, and they’re both planning to announce without actually announcing who they’re in love with by having the first dance with their respective partners. (OK, Emma is disguised as Charlotte, but it’ll work out.) I was expecting some sort of Villainess plotline where Nicola gets accused, but no, the dance goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, Sieghart then goes off to do student council things, and when she next sees him he’s standing next to the dead body of a foreign prince, in a situation where there’s only one possible suspect, and it’s him. Now she’s got to try to prove him innocent despite all the evidence pointing towards his guilt, and also come to term with what will happen if she can’t by that evening – he’ll be a political nightmare, and executed without trial.

As with the second volume, the writer is very good at writing some chilling horror. In this volume, more concerned with the investigation (which is the weak po9int, alas, it’s pretty dull, especially the explanations towards the end), it’s the interstitial parts of the book from the point of view of, it becomes apparent, the culprit. They are a true sociopath, and each brief, page-long except of their thoughts features another murder. There’s a reason why there’s only one actual culprit being looked at – the villain is so evil and coated with bad things that, to everyone but the supernatural-blind Ernst, they are literally a CLOUD OF DARK CURSES. This actually makes it harder to figure things out, as they can’t look for facial tells and the like, as the face is masked. I did like the actual solution, which does rely on the supernatural, and is suitably mean.

And then there’s a quick flash forward to Nicola’s kid. We don’t even get a wedding. Still, this was pretty decent, though I will remind the publisher that not everything has to be a series.

Filed Under: reviews, troubles of miss nicola the exorcist

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “You Wouldn’t Get It”

July 22, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

I spent a lot of this volume wondering how seriously I should take the yuri pandering. There is, and I think this is the 4th or 5th time I’ve said this, a ludicrous amount of boob grabbing in this book, to the point where it’s almost every 4th or 5th page. This is partly a consequence of the plot, which is a class trip, meaning lots of scenes of the girls off by themselves, but still. But we also get a suggestion that a girl confessed to Mizuto because in reality she was in love with Yume (which is… not QUITE true) and a lot of bi panic in this book, which is sometimes played for comedy, but also sometimes meant to be taken seriously. Finally, near the end, we get… well, we get something that I am reluctant to spoil because this volume is a mystery, but it at least suggests that there are SOME actual lesbians in this series. And that Isana is absolutely bi. (We knew that already.)

It’s class trip time, and everyone’s off to Okinawa! Of course, there are a few hiccups. Mizuto and Yume have had their first time, and really want to have more, but “surrounded by our classmates” means that’s not gonna happen. Yume’s attempts to hide who she’s dating are spreading all sorts of rumors, and while she’s able to control and dissuade the guys confessing to her, Mizuto struggles a lot more when he’s confessed to… by Asuhain? On the trip itself, we get a gyaru group who seem to be wrapped up in SOMETHING, but it’s unclear how sinister it actually is. We get snorkeling, we get shopping. We get Yume realizing that Asuhain has been avoiding her ever since the last volume, and she can’t figure out why. And, perhaps worst of all, Isana’s breasts are now public knowledge, and everyone wants to grope them.

So yeah, as you guessed, this is still mostly a series for horny guys. That said, there is serious stuff here beneath all the boob jokes. The author tries to tell a mystery, and while the culprit is not a surprise, it is mildly interesting seeing Mizuto doing his detective work while also being smug about it. The subplot with Asuhain is handled seriously and works really well with her character – she’s always felt like “Yume only one year behind”, and this just reinforces the hell out of that. And then there’s Isana, who I think is finally giving up on the polycule. It’s framed as a joke in the end, in that she tried to see if seeing Yume and Mizuto being romantic and loving would give her heartache but she was too distracted by Yume’s sexiness, but that and the other surprise revelation makes me wonder if the author is, perhaps, going to give us a token nickel by the end of this series.

Probably not. Next volume we’re back with Akatsuki, so it will likely back off from Isana a bit. Still, under all the fanservice there’s still a nice little story. But man, you have to dig past a lot of fanservice.

Filed Under: my stepmom's daughter is my ex, reviews
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