You Are My Regret, Vol. 2

June 24, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Shimesaba and Ui Shigure. Released in Japan as “Kimi wa Boku no Regret” by Dash X Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andria McKnight.

It’s a good thing these books are relatively short, because wow, I really cannot stay too long in the depths of the teenage drama we get with these books. When the funniest joke in the book involves taking a box cutter away from a girl clearly using it on herself, saying he’s borrowing it and to ask for it later, you know you’re not on the light and fluffy end of the romcom scale. I mean, we all knew that Kaoru was in love with Yuzuru, and that he was unaware of this, but trust me when I say that solving that little problem turns out to be the easy part of this book. Because Kaoru also has her own life to deal with, and it’s one that Yuzuru is unaware of… but that will soon change. I suppose the good thing about being a teenager is you’re allowed to make mistakes while you’re young, but man, I really wanted to punch him about 3/4 through this book.

That cover image sort of sums up the entire book, but let me try my best anyway. Kaoru is coming to club a lot more erratically after the events of the first book, mostly as she sees that Yuzuru and Ai have made up, and clearly they’re a couple again. (That’s not quite true, something that allows the climax of this book to happen.) But Kaoru is also dealing with a lot of home trauma, some of which Yuzuru has heard about before. Her mother has had a string of bad men in the house, and apparently thinks little of having sex with them anywhere and everywhere in the house, which Kaoru has walked in on more than once. Worse, the new guy *seems* like a more respectable dude, but clearly isn’t. The stress of this combined with her first love being shattered leads her to try to push Yuzuru away as hard as possible. Unfortunately for her, he’s figured out how he screwed up with Ai, and is now over-correcting too hard in the other direction.

I am glad that Yuzuru’s mother emphasized how dumb he was when he intervened with Kaoru and her mother, as I dearly wanted to throttle him. I get it, the last time he didn’t talk things through and pulled away, it all went to shit, so there’s no way he’ll do that again. But here, not only does he get into physical danger thanks to a guy who (surprise) does turn out to be a piece of shit, he also manages to be Kaoru’s hero, which means there is absolutely no way she’s not confessing to him now. Fortunately, the girl whose problem will take up the third (and final?) volume does not appear to be in love with Yuzuru. Yet. I also felt that the resolution between Kaoru and her mother happened WAY too fast. I could say the same about Kaoru and Ai, but Ai has been presented to us as “flaky” since the start of the series, so I’ll give it a pass here.

So, if you like the Higehir author, or teen angst, this is still worth your time. Just.

Filed Under: reviews, you are my regret

Babel: A Girl Embarks on a Journey of Words

June 23, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Kuji Furumiya and Haruyuki Morisawa. Released in Japan as “Babel I: Shoujo wa Kotoba no Tabi ni Deru” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Amelia Imogen Mason.

I will admit this review is slightly harder now that the Spring Anime season is al;most over. “From the creator of Unnamed Memory, the hot new anime, a semi-sequel!” would be a much bigger deal if the anime had not been a lifeless mediocre adaptation determined to get through the story as fast as possible. Which is a problem when you have an author that writes books as long as Furumiya does. This one is 460 pages, a good 300 pages longer than the average KonoSuba. It doesn’t lend itself well to a speedrun. So, I will amend: if you enjoyed READING Unnamed Memory, and also enjoyed the author’s series A Pale Moon Reverie, this is more of the same, with good character writing and some exciting action scenes. And yes, it is a sequel, but it takes place 300 years after the first series, and you don’t need to have read it to get a lot out of it.

Shizuku is a young college student dealing with a massive case of middle child syndrome when one day she is confronted with a mysterious hole in space, which transports her to another world. She is lucky to survive landing in the middle of a desert, and ends up in a town that is clearly nothing like the Japan she knows. Fortunately, she comes across a stoic but kind mage, Erik, who promises to help her try to find a way back home, if she will teach him about her mystery books. As, while Shizuku can speak the same language as everyone else in this world, that does not extend to reading or writing, so she just has her college textbooks, which are in Japanese. And English, and German, which she’s also studying. Can she get home without getting involved in plot stuff? And can she learn to read and write from the handsome but remote young man with a mystery past?

Shizuku is easily my favorite part of the book, yet another heroine with massively low self-esteem who doesn’t understand how fantastic she is. Her older sister had extroversion and charm, her younger sister had focus and anger, and Shizuku seems to have seen herself as someone who wasn’t really much of anything, floating through life. That said, she’s able to stand up to a lot of situations in this book that would give most people the screaming heebie jeebies. The isekai part of this book (which was rewritten and expanded from a version that came out in 2016) is new to this author, whose Unnamed Memory was known for avoiding the standard light novel cliche. But it’s handled well here – Shizuku only has her college freshman education, which means that she struggles to explain things she learned through cultural osmosis, and she will not be inventing mayonnaise anytime soon. That said, the fact that she isn’t of this world allows her to save the day at the end of this book, and I expect this to continue.

This has already ended in Japan, and so we know there’s 3 more books, no doubt as big as this one. I’m here for them. I really love this author.

Filed Under: babel, reviews

Miss Savage Fang: The Strongest Mercenary in History Is Reincarnated As an Unstoppable Noblewoman, Vol. 2

June 22, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Kakkaku Akashi and Kayahara. Released in Japan as “Savage Fang Ojō-sama: Shijō Saikyō no Yōhei wa Shijō Saikyō no Bōgyaku Reijō to natte Futatabime no Sekai o Musō Suru” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

First of all, some good news: while she is still fairly worshipful towards Mylene, the character of Colette is allowed to keep a lot of her kickass attitude from the first book. In particular, while I would not call this a yuri book per se, it is very clear that a) Mylene, being a male mercenary reincarnated, is not interested in men, and b) Colette is incredibly thirsty for Mylene and will absolutely try to seduce her whenever she gets a chance, held in check only by Mylene’s grumpy attitude and realization that it would upend a lot of things Mylene does not want upended. Basically, Mylene is looking to get through the next few years without what happened in the previous world happening again. Unfortunately, that religious cult is still around, they do not like Mylene at all now that she’s not their evil queen bitch, and they are ready to assassinate her.

Sure, this may take place in a world with magic, gods, and apocalyptic prophecies, but we are still in a high school of sorts, adn that means that there’s going to be a culture festival. Or the equivalent in this universe, which basically has the students compete to see if they can be good businessmen and women. Mylene realizes that selling upscale goods that nobles can get anywhere is not going to cut it, and suggests what amounts to a maid cafe… and is somewhat horrified to find that this means she will have to wear a maid outfit as well. There’s also a student, Melissa, who is hanging around, glaring at Mylene, and then running away. She’s essentially the “heroine” of this universe, a priestess who led the charge against Mylene in the old world and died a martyr. Here Melissa is more concerned by Mylene’s current personality, which is nothing like her old one.

This had a big “difficult second album” feel to it, as I got the sense that the author had written it as a one-shot and wasn’t sure where to go from here. The fact that we haven’t had a 3rd volume in Japan in the last two years does not really help that feeling. Still, the volume’s not bad. Colette is just plain hilarious, especially when she’s trying to politely say “take me now” and getting into fierce rivalry with Prince Albert. (She also gets the blatant fanservice in the book’s color pages.) The assassin himself is also interesting, mostly as he’s not a devoted cultist like the last bad guy, but a serial killer who just delights in killing off “interesting people” for the sake of the drama. Literally – he was a playwright. The final fight between him and Mylene is excellent, though I was annoyed that Melissa is basically just there to be a plot device. Oh well, I’m sure she’ll integrate better in the next volume.

If there is one. Till then, this is decent enough villainess fare, for those who like one who swears a lot.

Filed Under: miss savage fang, reviews
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