Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, Vol. 6

December 12, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Sunsunsun and Momoco. Released in Japan as “Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Matthew Rutsohn.

I feel badly for Alya at times. This is, theoretically, her series. She’s the character on the cover art, she’s obviously going to be the winning girl, and she’s cute. But the overall plot of her arc is “I need to open up to others and not just rely on myself, and also I need to admit I’m in love with Masachika.” As arcs go, it’s simple. It’s not something that can carry a series. That’s Masachika and Yuki’s arc. Yuki’s not going to be the winning girl, for obvious reasons, but the screwed-up family she and Masachika are both in is what we’re going to be seeing more and more of. We get a bit of it here, and see that everyone is still carrying Expections, with a capital E, and that failing to meet them is worse than actually murdering someone. This has a lot of fluff in it, but the back half sets up darker things going forward.

The first half of this is pure fluff and fanservice, as we continue to have the school festival arc. We now see Alya dressed up as an elf, which frankly is perfect for her, and the sight blows everyone’s mind. Meanwhile, Masha is running a magician’s bar, and has some brilliant tricks… that she can’t perform in front of her sister because she’s always forced to be the goofy one in her presence. We get Ayano’s incredibly intimidating MAID SKILLS, which threaten to overwhelm Masachika when she maids a bit too hard at him. And, of course, the band get ready to perform. Unfortunately, it turns out that some mysterious person forged invitations to the festival, and there are now various pranksters, thugs, and bad guys there, who have been ordered to destroy it. Can the student council find out who’s responsible and save the day?

It’s really brought home here how this is a school for elites. Yuki, in an amusing takedown of one of the ringleaders, points out that his romantic angst would make a very poor subplot in a villainess book, and that’s kind of what we have here – not the villainess herself (though Yuki’s trying her best), but the “nobles rule the world” worldview. The elite families of many of the students are at the event – including Masachika and Yuki’s family – and they observe the chaos that’s been created with an amused eye, knowing that it will all come down to who controls the narrative and who can win the day. No great prizes for guessing who’s the man behind it all, but I did appreciate the ending, which does not revolve around Alya’s band performance (again, she’s not narratively important), but around Masachika’s, and his tendency once again to a) be miles ahead of everyone around him, and b) hate himself so much I worry he’ll end the series with a suicide attempt. Though I doubt it gets THAT dark.

The next book looks to be the athletics festival, and will no doubt once again be half otaku nerdery and half GRIPPING DRAMA.

Filed Under: alya sometimes hides her feelings in russian, reviews

The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori, Vol. 1

December 11, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Kaeru Ryouseirui and Natsuki Amashiro. Released in Japan as “Umidori Tougetsu no “Detarame” na Jijou” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

This is one of those titles that I ended up taking a flyer on after seeing Twitter comments by Andrew Cunningham (who ended up translating it after it was licensed), and I thought it sounded pleasantly odd. The start of the book certainly makes you think that’s going to be the case. We meet Umidori, the tall, voluptuous but seemingly normal straight man, and her classmate Nara, who has a normal vocal emotional range but whose face shows no expression. This is good, that’s a quirky character for a quirky series. She then starts to talk about how someone is stealing her pencils, showing a somewhat monomaniacal obsession with them, and Umidori seemingly responding with “uh huh” and “is that so” responses. This then leads up to the payoff, when we find out the true culprit behind the theft. Even when we see WHY the pencils are being stolen, I went “OK, wow, that’s very, very weird” but it was still to be expected. Then Bullshit-chan showed up.

So yeah, as you may have figured out, Umidori is not just the straight man of this series. She’s unable to lie, to anyone, and as you can imagine this has left her upsetting everyone around her, to the point where she makes sure never to get too close to anyone – even Nara, who she is seemingly good friends with. Then Bullshit-chan shows up at her apartment, furious, and wielding a knife, and starts to explain the plot, and you realize that this is not a “eccentric high school kids” series but a “supernatural action drama with utterly messed up protagonists” series. This is compounded by Nara showing up, who talks about her own issues (which are somewhat hamstrung by the art for the series – it’s fine, but anytime you have someone who is “the most beautiful person in the world” and you have to draw them, it’s never going to work). And then the ACTUAL bad guys appear.

The main plot for the series in general seems to be to get Umidori to be able to lie, as her truth-telling is presented as a condition or “curse” rather than her own choice. I also get the feeling that it’s going to be getting Umidori friends as well – thanks to a conveniently plotted glass of alcohol, she doesn’t even remember how her words a year ago saved Nara from a fate where she too may have cast off everyone around her. (Umidori of course lives in an apartment by herself, and her parents are divorced). As for Bullshit-chan, she’s an interesting concept, but at the moment that’s all she is – I’m not as invested in her as I am in Umidori and Nara. I did like the villain – no, not the concept, but the human behind it, and her own twisted desires and how they ended up horrifying everyone (which seems to be the theme with those afflicted by the series’ concept.)

If it sounds like I’m trying to write around giving any spoilers, you’re right. This is best experienced cold. It’s good, though. Try it.

Filed Under: bs situation of tougetsu umidori, reviews

Lady Rose Just Wants to Be a Commoner!, Vol. 1

December 10, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Kooriame and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Lady Rose wa Heimin ni Naritai” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Caroline W.

This came out as a manga from JNC well before the light novel was licensed – in fact, the manga’s six volumes all finished before the light novel was licensed. I didn’t read the manga when it came out, but I experienced it, as this was a popular title to see liveblogged on Tumblr. And from what I saw, it appeared to be a pretty broad comedy, mostly dealing with the heroine’s over the top reactions to things and her obsessive love of bread and cute young women, in that order. (The fact that all the love interests are male is neither here nor there – when she hears a rumor she’s in love, she asks which of the two girls she knows it is). I enjoy comedy. But as I read this first book, I realized that there was a lot more to it. There was mystery, as both our heroine and the reader try to figure out the plot. And there’s traumatic backstory. In fact, that’s one of the mysteries.

We open with a very familiar villainess book trope. Felicia Schwarose is condemned in public by her fiance, the Crown Prince, and dumped for a woman of a lower noble rank. This time, though, our reincarnated girl actually IS the heroine – and she has spent her entire life in this otome game world gunning for this bad end. Now she’s disowned by her family, but they give her a small house in the commoner area and some cash. This means she’s finally free of the noble training that she’s hated and can live a happy life working in a bakery – helped along by her past life, where she also did this, and is the only reason that a duke’s daughter can survive without servants. Unfortunately for her, she is the ONLY one who wants this future for herself, and she reckons without the impact she had on the rest of the cast.

I was expecting the standard “hit by a truck” death, and I got it, but it was everything else about her life that startled me. Let’s just say that a lot of what Felicia, aka Fii, has been doing is driven very heavily by her own past trauma from her previous life. Here, she’s very good at arranging things so that all the dominoes can fall in place and she can scamper off to live in her bakery, but reckons without the impact this has on everyone who knows her. Like so many other otome game imports, she sees this world as a game, no matter how much she tries to deny it, and reckons without everyone just really liking her for her actions rather than the plot. By the way, in case I made this seem more serious than it is, there really IS a goofy quality to some of it, particularly the bread jokes, and the contrast between her inner and outer voices.

There’s only three volumes to this, and I think the third one is a side story focusing on the “villainess”, so this should wrap up next time. Which is good, as it ends with an action-packed cliffhanger. I will get tired of this genre one day, but not today. This was a terrific read.

Filed Under: lady rose just wants to be a commoner!, reviews
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