Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire, Vol. 11

July 12, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Hayaken and Nagu. Released in Japan as “Eiyu-oh, Bu wo Kiwameru tame Tensei su. Soshite, Sekai Saikyou no Minarai Kisi ♀” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mike Langwiser.

The author of this book, in the afterword, talks about being happy with this book to clarify plot points and tie a lot of things together, something they don’t really like to do, as leaving things vague allows them to change their mind later. As such, I wish that I was more excited by some of the “revelations” that we get here. More than anything, they remind me of shonen manga revelations, which makes sense because, light novel or no, this series is at heart a shonen battle manga. And indeed, half the volume is a fight followed more another fight. So it’s not a big surprise that most of the revelations are of the “Luke, I am your father” type, with surprise relatives and surprise heiral menaces… well, OK, not so much a surprise, we’ve known something was up with Yua almost since we met her. That said, if all you can recall from this is Inglis punching things, you’ll be fine.

First of all, congrats to those who were sick of Inglis looking like a child, she’s back to being 16 years old again. Well, in body, at least. At the end of the last book we got the start of a bad-guy-on-good-guy pileup, and we get the continuation of that here, which culminates in Inglis accidentally hurling herself into the sarcophagus where Eris ended up… which then sinks to the bottom of the sea. Fortunately, time moves much slower in the sarcophagus. Unfortunately, the bad guys are definitely winning with Inglis gone, and are determined to find out how much more mana they can grind up if they use Highlanders rather than regular people. They really need Inglis to come back and rescue them. And she will come… ten years later. Well, OK, ten years later for her. It’s about an hour later for the rest of the cast.

OK, word of warning: This volume ends its main story about page 130, and there’s the an extended story that talks about Eris’ past before she became a hieral menace. First of all, this story has sexual assault. Secondly, this story is SO dark that I basically started reading as fast as possible to get through it. This is even worse than the “oh my god, it’s made of people!” from the previous book, and essentially serves as an object lesson for Inglis about how she’s had it really nice since she was reincarnated, what with the loving family, most of whom are alive, and the monstrous superpowers. I kind of hated that whole story, and the one big revelation in it will I’m sure come up again in the main story, so feel free to skip it entirely. Other than that, this is the same old same old, though I think readers will be happy it ends up back at the academy, with this arc now over.

So yeah, because that story finished up the book, I ended up more annoyed than happy. Inglis continuing to be an overprotective dad type to Rafinha doesn’t help. Still, it’s got some really nice fights.

Filed Under: reborn to master the blade, reviews

Too Many Losing Heroines!, Vol. 1

July 11, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Takibi Amamori and Imigimuru. Released in Japan as “Make Heroine ga Ōsugiru!” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Matthew Jackson.

Hoo boy. This is one of those books where I have to issue a warning to the newbie reader who knows nothing about it: keep at it, plow through the first half. I get it. The second half has a good payoff. But oh, that first half. When I started to read it, I felt like I was reading an author who had gotten really mad about Nisekoi and The Quintessential Quintuplets and decided to write the romcom equivalent of “guy gets revenge on his high school bullies”. But no, with only one exception, the actual “winning” couples barely get any focus in this series. It’s all about the girls who, while seemingly popular and/or cute, end up on the wrong end of a love triangle. Fortunately, they all have our protagonist, a friendless guy who likes to read bad light novels and snark at his little sister. Surely he can be there to heal their wounded hearts. … Or not, because this whole book is here to get really mad at him too.

Nukumizu is the aforementioned protagonist. One day, while at a family restaurant, he overhears two classmates. The cute, popular girl Anna is telling her friend Sousuke to go chase after the new transfer student, Karen, who he has feelings for. Except, of course, Anna clearly also likes him. And once he takes off, she goes into an anger (and junk food) filled binge… then sees that Nukumizu overheard everything. About a week later, another of his classmates, the dumb-but-athletic and popular Lemon, confesses to the smart, studious guy she likes… but he just got together with his cram school partner. Then Nukumizu is reminded that he needs to actually attend the literature club that he joined… and finds a love triangle there as well, with the small, squirrel-like Chika clearly crushing on the club president, who also clearly is… in love with someone else. Why is he surrounded by losers?

Sometimes I go looking at the novel-updates site to see what comments are on a new license, and I saw a lot of “beta male” chatter from the usual sort who use that term like they would a comma. They’re full of it, of course, but it really is remarkable how much our hero kneecaps himself in this book. He’s terrible, being filled with snark and a grotesque determination to not get involved, despite clearly being the shoulder to cry on that some of these girls need. The “surprise” in the book is that, so far, it’s not actually a romcom – none of the so-called losing heroines have gotten over their first love, and they’re not looking for a rebound but just simple empathy. This comes out much better in the second half, in which the literature club goes on a field trip that turns into another romantic mess, and Nukumizu can’t even realize when someone is asking for a sympathetic hug.

The payoff comes in the last fifth of the book, when everyone makes their own decisions about what is best for the others, and Nukumizu snaps and actually has empathy for another person. Even if it’s accidental. But yeah, this is a guy with an idea of himself that’s so set in stone he has to be told that he’s already friends with someone. Who thinks in light novel cliches, but, unlike, say, Hachiman (and boy, I bet the author loved that series too), does not throw himself at problems like a bomb to sort them out, but actively runs away from them. As for the three “losing heroines”, the book makes it very clear why they got rejected. Each one has a bundle of eccentricities and neuroses, which would make for a terrible girlfriend but which make for good comedy. The main reason you can get through the first half of the book is that they’re goofy and silly, and yet still MUCH better at life than the “losing hero”.

This is currently 6 volumes and counting, so probably will eventually get some rom in its com. For the moment, though, the girls need to have time to recover from their heartbreak, and the guy needs to understand how to interact with others without it being a trope. I was going to recommend this reluctantly, but by the end it had won me over. Provided we keep up the character development. Also, totally abstaining from the “Makeine vs. Roshidere” social media wars, thanks.

Filed Under: reviews, too many losing heroines!

The Inconvenient Life of an Arousing Priestess, Vol. 2

July 9, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Makino Maebaru and Hachi Uehara. Released in Japan as “Konyaku Hakida, Hatsujō Seijo” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

I’ve said this before about books based on webnovels, but it applies especially to this volume: this book is simply too long. The digital edition is 338 pages, which is about 130 too many. Especially as a lot of this is merely going over the same ground. Monica blesses things and does spells, and they arouse her, though as the book goes on it’s becoming apparent that this is starting to only happen around Richard. She continues to assume Richard has no romantic or sexual interest in her, despite his saying “I adore you” to her face (admittedly, he is wearing a magical chastity belt for most of this volume, so it’s not entirely her being dense… just mostly). And since this volume takes place in Monica’s old country, there is a whole lot of slut shaming, evil princes, evil clergy, and the usual light novel cliches. That said, this is perfectly readable, and Monica and Richard are good characters. It’s just long.

Monica and Richard are back in Kophe. for Monica it’s a chance to help her old nation, under horrific monster attacks, and hopefully try to change their minds about the way they use priestesses. for Richard it’s mostly about crushing all those who dared to attempt to crush Monica, and he has absolutely zero desire to help anyone in the country at all… except Monica wants him to, so FINE. Unfortunately, various things get in the way. As noted, the Church want to destroy and murder Monica, and they also want to replace the King, who is not doing what they want, with the more malleable prince. The prince is still furious with Monica. And there’s a merchant, seen in the first volume but an actual character here, whose job is to make Monica doubt her relationship with Richard and remind her that he’s a prince and she’s a commoner. Can they work things out? And can Monica save the world without… well, embarrassing arousal?

My favorite part of the book may have been one of the minor villains, the unfortunately named Keunt (I wonder if the ‘e’ was added by editorial fiat), who is an aide to the evil prince and has a habit of composing the biography that will inevitably be written about him in his head. This is wonderful, especially because he is pathetic in the extreme, and any biography he gets is going to be written in crayon on a placemat. The other interesting thing in this book is Richard, who turns out to be a bit more sociopathic than some readers may be comfortable with. It’s clear that if it weren’t for his love of the pure and virtuous Monica, this book would be awash in blood. He’s also wearing, as I noted, a magical chastity belt because he wants Monica to see him as a friend rather than someone who lusts after her like all the others. This despite the fact that he really, really does lust after her. (Do they have their first time at the end of the boo? It’s ambiguous.)

I had thought this was the final volume, but the author implies there’s a third, and certainly they’re not married yet. For fans of the author.

Filed Under: inconvenient life of an arousing priestess, reviews
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