Spy Classroom Short Story Collection: The Spy Teacher Who Loved Me

December 20, 2023 by Leave a Comment

By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Thrasher.

(As a warning, this book deals with the sexual assault of an underage girl near its end, and this review briefly discusses that.)

Spy Classroom has, as one of its main goals, to strike a careful balance between gripping, and frequently deadly, spy drama and the wackiest and goofiest of comedy. Sometimes it manages to hit this goal a bit better than others. The first story in this book is a good example: it’s almost entirely light-hearted, then gets more serious towards the end, then gets very serious as we’re reminded how screwed up Annette is. By contrast, the Erna story pinballs between very dark themes and “ha ha, Erna suffering emotionally is funny” so fast that I could not keep up, and it jars. That said, on the whole these short stories are stronger than the first collection, both tying into the girls’ backstories (Thea especially) and expanding on some of the books – the 4th short story is blatantly “there wasn’t room for this in the fourth volume”, as the author admits. And, as a Lily fan, I’m pleased with this, though it does not really remove my irritation of how she’s treated in the actual 4th book.

The wraparound story has Thea trying to decipher a note left to her by Hearth, the spy who mentored Klaus and also rescued Thea from kidnappers. Unfortunately, several of Lamplight get a very wrong idea about the note. In between this, we see Annette being the best waitress ever in order to see if a former spy front is now a legitimate restaurant; Sara gets a secret admirer and Thea tries to make sure that she has the best date ever while also making sure the guy is good enough; on the cruise to not-America in preparation for the 4th book, Erna discovers a suicide cult that makes her their leader; and during the events of the 4th book’s climax, we see how Lily managed to escape getting brutally murdered by Purple Ant’s people.

Some of the comedy in this is very amusing – Annette being a fantastic waitress, and everyone’s reaction to this, is probably the highlight. I think I’d have appreciated Erna’s story more if the suicide cult had not been… well, a suicide cult, and its attempts to show off how the war destroys the underbelly of society needed greater depth, I feel. Sara essentially takes over Thea’s story, and we are reminded that she is the one girl in Lamplight that everyone loves unreservedly. Reading Lily’s story I wondered if the author has read the Excel Saga manga, as Lily very much reminds me of Excel at times (what are you, Steel God Jeeg?), and her truly monstrous stamina is terrifying. And then there’s Thea’s backstory, as she confronts repressed memories of being raped by her kidnappers. Fortunately, the author knows this is NOT the time to insert some laughs, and it’s handled fairly well.

So yeah, good stuff. That said, I’d like to read the next few books of the actual series soon. How are things with our FILTHY TRAITOR? :)

Filed Under: reviews, spy classroom

A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 8

December 19, 2023 by Leave a Comment

By Yuu Tanaka and Nardack. Released in Japan as “Deokure Tamer no Sono Higurashi” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by A.M. Cola.

At one point in this book, the game is doing a huge mock battle with a massive bird enemy, featuring lots of derring-do and feats of strength, and Yuto manages to win the day by a combination of (accidental) self-sacrifice and being very clever, and he and his tamed monsters look very good doing it. At other points in the book, Yuto discovers rice and also gets a penguin as a tamed monster. It’s not a surprise to readers of this book that the latter two events get a far bigger reaction from other players than the first one. This is a series that revels in its little moments, to the point where the epilogue blatantly has the game devs talking about how their new competitor, about to be released, is deliberately designed to be as different from Law of Justice Online as possible. Yes, Yuto is very cool at times, much as he doesn’t think so. But more importantly, he can cook and has cute pets. Priorities.

The book starts with Yuto completing his underwater expedition with the three other girls in his temporary party, and arriving at a swampy paddy… which, much to his delight, contains an ingredient called “Paddy”, which can be used to make rice! Rice has been one of the foodstuffs that no one has been able to come across in the game, so this discovery is huge! It also leads to more of Yuto’s wacky cooking experiments. After this, we get another event, as Yuto and several others are sent to defend a small fortress that is being beset by birds, Hitchcock-style. Yuto spends most of this time finding bird-repelling things and being baffled that everyone is treating him as the leader of the group. He even manages to do some actual fighting, though it does, of course, kill him. And then there’s his new, tamed monster… a penguin!

It has been both amusing and a bit annoying seeing the evolving relationship between Yuto and Alyssa, his main contact with the information group Quick-Eared Cats. At the start of the series, she was mildly shocked at all the stuff that he’s brought to her and claimed was nothing. But by now his very appearance in their home base causes her to get ulcers and have panic attacks. I kind of wish they stayed closer, but I get it. Yuto’s number one character trait is being oblivious to his own greatness, and that means he has no idea that the things he’s bringing to her are worth a fortune – which means they’ll make the money back eventually, but it puts the Cats in an awkward position of being deep in debt right after every visit of his. As for the penguin, it’s basically written in to be a joke about the Tomihiko Morimi book Penguin Highway, but it also looks like it will be one of the stronger characters in future volumes.

Somehow I’m guessing the new game coming out to challenge LJO is going to struggle. Why shoot other players to death when you can watch a beat, a mole, and a penguin frolic around?

Filed Under: late start tamer's laid back life, reviews

No Game No Life, Vol. 12

December 18, 2023 by Leave a Comment

By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Richard Tobin.

After a few volumes where I found myself sayhing “I know, I know, it’s skeezy as hell, but you just gotta power through it”, this new volume ends up being one of the strongest in quite some time. Now, this does not mean that it’s not filled with exactly what you’d expect from No Game No Life, after all. There’s tons of Steph being humiliated, especially in the back half, and there’s also two of Sora’s “harem” giving him what amount to naked selfies so he can masturbate. It’s still not something you’d recommend to your grandma. But this volume does a great job showing off the good points of the main characters, particularly Sora and Steph, while also continuing to set up the massive conflict teased in the previous book, and also possibly setting up for a major fracture between [ ] and their strongest ally in the next volume. The whole point of these games has been “no one actually dies” – that’s why they were created. But can someone get around that?

We begin with a massive 7-day celebration of Sora and Shiro’s one-year anniversary in arriving in Disboard, as well as a birthday celebration for both of them. While neither of them are wild about this at the start, it ends up being a fun and touching party… that is interrupted by the arrival of Schira Ha, here as a representative of the Devil, and announcing that their army will finally be destroying the world. Which, um, they’ve tried before, and it hasn’t gone well. Also, the Devil is represented in Disboard by a cute little puffball thing. That said, they do have a massive tower where the goal is to get past all 100 levels, and the reward is the race piece of all the devils. The game itself is a dungeon crawl, which Sora and Shiro should have no issues with, but the game requires hope… and that’s more of an issue.

If you know my reviews of prior books, you know this is where I talk about Steph. She’s terrific at the start of the book, being emotionally sensitive, highly capable, and also knowing Sora and Shiro better than anyone else. Naturally, seeing this, I knew we were in for a giant string of “Steph gets humiliated” later on, and that’s just what happens, as she’s forced into bikini armor… which then gets destroyed, leaving her naked. But I also love the idea that SHE is the powerhouse of their dungeon group, rather than any of the far more powerful others, mostly as, while she’s certainly gotten embarrassed and exasperated and irritated, Steph doesn’t get depressed. Which leads to a heaping pile of hope. That said, the ending of the volume, where Sora has to tell her that this game will be ending with them actually having to kill someone, promises that will change soon.

All this plus their nation is losing people by the day as everyone runs away! It’s a nasty cliffhanger, and we may wait another 18 months to get it resolved, but for fans of this series, this is a must read.

Filed Under: no game no life, reviews
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