Agents of the Four Seasons, Vol. 2

March 26, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Kana Akatsuki and Suoh. Released in Japan as “Shunka Shūtō Daikōsha” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sergio Avila.

This is very much the sort of series where I needed a “She does not get eaten by the sharks at this time” moment. In the book The Princess Bride (which is why it’s sharks, shut up movie fans), The father says this so as to make William Goldman less anxious about exactly how deadly this book is going to get. It’s OK, this says. This may be deadly, but it’s not THAT deadly. I needed a moment like that in this book. I did not get it. This is a book where I spent nearly the entire length of the book wondering if it was going to kill off some of the cast. Now, to be fair, I already said that the point of this arc is that the agents, who have been used and abused for their entire lives, are taking back control and saving things their way. It would undercut it quite a bit if they fail. But they don’t ALL have to succeed. Hence the worry.

The agent of Autumn has been kidnapped, and Hinagiku knows who’s done it. It’s the same organization that captured and tortured her, the terrorist group New Year, which theoretically wants the Agents to be more proactive and save the world a bit more with their cool new powers, but in reality it’s a far more personal sort of reason. Hinagiku knows exactly what the head of New Year is like, and really wants to stop Nadeshiko from sharing the same fate that the old Hinagiku did (I am trying to respect Hinagiku’s belief that the old Hinagiku died during captivity, since it’s still a big part of who she is right now). Towards that end, she rallies the forces to the headquarters of the Four Seasons. Unfortunately, there are traitors everywhere. New Year turns out to have infiltrated a lot more than everyone thought, and they have one goal: get Hinagiku back, and kill everyone else.

This is a long book, and has a lot going on. I’m actually going to skip talking about Summer’s agent here, as the next book looks like it’s going to focus on that, and I don’t want to spoil too much of what happens here. We do hear what happened to Hinagiku in the time she was in captivity, and it’s both sordidly bland (she was forced to make pot with her powers to help the terrorist organization make money) and also part of a cycle of abuse (the head of New Year had several traumatic experiences as a child and also lost her baby, so is determined to get a “replacement” daughter). The triumphant part of the book is seeing how she, Sakura, Rosei, and Itecho are all; still dealing with trauma but manage to gut past it and score a triumphant victory. The book honestly reads like one of those action movies that’s almost all climax. And that’s fine.

It’s not perfect – I was annoyed at the identity of some of the traitors, as I liked them (that’s the point, Sean), but it’s still hugely enjoyable, and I look forward to the next book, which apparently moves away from Hinagiku and Sakura for a bit. It’s fine. Let them rest.

Filed Under: agents of the four seasons, reviews

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Vol. 6

March 24, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Piero Karasu and Yuri Kisaragi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

(So yeah, spoilers for this volume right up top, warning in advance.)

I’m always a big sucker for the “what if everything in your life was perfect?” story. One of my favorite Urusei Yatsura episodes showed Lum going through alternate universes trying to find the correct one, and discovering a universe where everything is the same only Ataru loves her unconditionally. And she has to give it up, because that’s not the right one. That’s not the Ataru SHE loves. And here we see Anis being offered everything she’s always wanted. She still has her lover and her friends. She’s still making cool magical inventions. But she’s beloved by everyone, and she can use magic. And everyone – EVERYONE – knows she was reincarnated from Japan. It’s presented as the best thing ever. Look, you don’t need to struggle anymore. You don’t have to fight anymore. Here is everything you always wanted. And to the reader, and Anis, it’s horrible, as it eliminates everything she fought FOR.

Lainie has a favor to ask. She wants to find out more about her mother. So she, Anis, and Tilty (???) along with the usual male guards go off to an orphanage and an adventurer’s guild to try to track down the history of Tiris, who was also an adventurer but also, unbeknownst to most everyone, a vampire. While doing this they find that the nearby forest is cleaned out of monsters and normal animals both, and the reason is that there’s an even more powerful presence there, and they’re experimenting with horrible things. Meanwhile, back with Allie and Acryl, they too are having a similar encounter, and it becomes clear what it is: vampires. They’re here, they’re getting revenge on the country, and they… seem to be of one mind.

As I said last time, the series is trying to figure out what to do next, and in order to to that, Anis has to get over all of her hangups and take control of her future. She’s been worried about Euphie’s lifespan being so much longer than her own, and, not to spoil even more, but that mostly gets solved here. Anis may dislike a world in which no one suffers and therefore no one has to strive for anything, but that does not mean that she doesn’t want to live as long as possible while still doing that. Ilia is having similar worries, but hers are not resolved here, and will likely be a bubbling subplot. It’s hard when your core group is genius battle princess, genius royal mage, prodigy vampire, and… maid. Unfortunately, the story still struggles for focus at times, especially at the start. Tilty comes along with the group, I think, mostly as the author wanted us to remember she exists. And, given this is a very Anis-heavy book, Euphie does not get quite as many “let’s be really powerful and cool” moments.

And so now Anis is determined to transform the world, and has the extra power to do it. Where are we heading next? Hopefully the series now has a firm plan for the future.

Filed Under: magical revolution of reincarnated princess and genius young lady, reviews

Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 5: Avatar of a Goddess, Vol. 9

March 23, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

Thankfully, after the start of this volume, things are allowed to calm down a bit, as we have the aftermath of what’s benn happening for the last two book. Unfortunately, that means that the start of this volume absolutely does not calm down at all. I hate that it happens to her, but one of the best plotlines I’ve seen so far in this series is Rozemyne being in the thick of the battlefield, and what it does to her psyche afterward. PTSD does not really seem to be a thing here, and indeed we are on Rozemyne’s side. Why the hell is everyone so used to war and slaughter? People turning into feystones when they die has been around for some time, but it’s still “this is a fantasy world with magic, not real”. It’s not till Sylvester does the equivalent of pulling Georgine’s corpse out of his robes and slamming it on the table in front of her that she really snaps.

As I noted above, the start of this book is the fight against Grausam, who actually turns out to be in several places at once… which leads to the conclusion that Georgine is as well. Moreover, the battle ends up having to involve ONLY Rozemyne and Matthias for plot reasons, and she not only sees many soldiers have limbs cut off, get poisoned and turn into multiple feystones hitting against her pandabus, but she has to turn the pandabus into a kaiju in order to finally take (the real) Grausam down. At the same time, they are told that Sylvester has managed to defend the foundation and kill Georgine, and they can all return to Ehrenfest (after paying off Dunkenfelger with some booze). Unfortunately, thanks to the battle, Rozemyne can’t even look at a feystone. What’s worse, she has to figure out what to do now – and how Ferdinand is going to be involved in whatever she does.

If there is a lighter side to this rather heavy book, it’s seeing Rozemyne continue to explain how what she feels for Ferdinand is not, in fact, love. Again, this is Rozemyne and her life in Japan, where she’d never had a boyfriend or lover, trying to apply romance-novel rules to love. Love is desire, love is sex, etc. She doesn’t have those feelings for Ferdinand. But every OTHER part of love is literally exactly what she describes her ideal life with Ferdinand to be, and it’s no wonder that Hannelore and the others stare at her as if she’s out of her mind. To their society, where almost everyone marries for political reasons and having a marriage based on love and sex is seen as really weird (see: Sylvester and Florencia), what this is is just Rozemyne saying “Sure, I love him, but it’s not love because I say so.” It’s amusing, but in a sort of dark way.

As with the previous book, the last quarter of it is devoted to filling in the war from the POV of people who are not Rozemyne. We see Charlotte’s attempts to administrate everything, and are reminded that, with Rozemyne leaving and Wilfried… being Wilfried, she’s the next Aub, at least for now. Judithe has to deal with the fact that she’s defending the temple, and not in a more important role. (Judithe is also the utter innocent of the book, assuming everyone is going out to look at flowers and not, y’know, “pick” them.) Gunther gets to PUNCH THE EVIL AWAY thanks to the power of the love his family has for him and his shonen dad power. Florencia gets to have a nice chat with Veronica and finally move on and forget about her. And Sylvester gets to narrowly escape being poisoned to death but, to the very end, still not understand the boiling rage and hatred that is making Georgine do this. It’s very well done.

So much going on here that I haven’t even touched on. I’m sure the 10th book in this arc will be fine and filled with tea and snacks.

Filed Under: ascendance of a bookworm, reviews
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