Agents of the Four Seasons, Vol. 1

December 4, 2023 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 one took me completely by surprise. For one thing, I’ve never seen Violet Evergarden, the other series this author is noted for, which I know has a large cult fanbase. But even then, the cover art and plot description were sort of obfuscating things. I was expecting a soft little romance, with star-crossed lovers reuniting after ten long years and lots of crying and apologies. Actually, technically, I got all that except for the “soft” part, but that also does not describe the book at all. This is a dark and brutal story about recovering from severe trauma after years of torture, the devastation of those left behind, and living in an active terrorist state where at any moment you might get brutally murdered – or just kidnapped again. Fluffy this ain’t. That said, every page of this does its job to reward the reader, and if you can tolerate a lot of dark depressing angst, it’s one of the best light novels to come out this year.

This takes place in a world where the seasons are controlled by “Agents”, four people chosen to bring about the change to winter, spring, summer and fall. They are humans with powers, and when one dies, another one develops a birthmark which marks them as the next in line. In Yamato (i.e. alternate universe Japan), things have been terrible and rather wintery for the last ten years because of a disaster that took place – during an attempted assassination of the winter agent, the spring agent was kidnapped. She’s been missing all this time, and yet, because a new agent has not appeared, she isn’t dead. The book starts with her return, ready to perform the actions to bring about spring despite PTSD, what appears to be disassociative identity disorder, and a retainer who may be even worse off than she is.

We don’t get explicitly told what happened to Hinagiku when she was kidnapped, except for dialogue-only flashbacks that imply that heavy torture was done to her. But it left its mark, and it’s amazing that she’s here to bring on the spring and try to get things back to the way they were. Meanwhile, her retainer Sakura is still trying to cope with being unable to save her at the time, and being abused by nearly everyone around her in the interim. Rosei, the agent of Winter, has tremendous survivor guilt, given that Hinagiku sacrificed herself so that he could live. And Itecho, his retainer, also blames himself for not being strong enough to go up against dozens of terrorists with guns. There is, thankfully, a BIT of healing in this volume, but when the agent of Autumn is kidnapped in what looks like a repeat of the events of last decade, the Four Seasons decide enough is enough, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

I didn’t even have time to get into the Summer agent/retainer, who have twin issues, or the Autumn retainer, who is the only retainer with no real issues and therefore gets to be the one to suffer. I do know that I really, really, really want to read the next book in this series, and I am thankful that the series seems to do 2-book arcs, so things should reasonably wrap up in it. Highly recommended.

Filed Under: agents of the four seasons, reviews

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord, Vol. 3

December 3, 2023 by 1 Comment

By Satori Tanabata and Tea. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijō Level 99: Watashi wa Ura Boss Desu ga Maō dewa Arimasen” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Satori Tanabata.

I’ve said this before, but I will say it here again: these books are just too long. Normally I don’t carp too much about the length of a book, but it’s relevant in this vase because Villainess Level 99 is a comedy. The bulk of the humor comes from Yumiella being ridiculous, and everyone’s reaction to this. And she’s very funny here, but the trouble is, about 50-60% into the book, you just flag a bit, and want it to be over faster. Luckily, by around 80% or so complete, the actual serious plot kicks in, so it ends strong. But there’s no reason this had to be 300 pages, dangit. Especially since, as the author says in the afterword, this is no longer a villainess series ad there’s no longer a demon lord. Well, mostly. Covers always spoil, and maybe the reason that this book was so long is because the presence of two Yumiellas means that there needs to be twice the pages to contain them.

After the events of the last book, things have settled down mostly, and all Yumiella really has to worry about is Eleanora being around her far more often and a sinking suspicious that she’s dead weight even though she’s running her territory. But then the God of Darkness shows up, and through him Yumiella finally learns the way to get past that Level 99 cap and get even stronger – she has to kill a version of herself from another parallel world. Believe it or not, Yumiella is not as gung-ho about this as you’d expect, especially since there’s only one other Yumiella left – all the other parallel Yumiellas have been killed by virtue of the otome game plot that our Yumiella subverted. Unfortunately, the remaining Yumiella is still alive as she’s destroyed her world… and is heading for our Yumiella next!

The core of this series remains Yumiella’s combination of deadpan humor, oblivious ditziness, and meathead tendencies, and all three of those are in full effect. You’d think that the alt-Yumiella would be quite a different person give that she destroyed the world, but remember even our Yumiella, with her “isekai” personality, had those feelings a few times in Book 1. Honestly, and this is part of the gag, the alternate Yumiella is a heck of a lot more sympathetic than the one we know. Things do turn serious in the end – alt-Yumiella’s trip to this world was not just for evil kicks, and there is a higher power behind all of this. I had sort of guessed how things were going to have to turn out, but the book did enough hoop jumping that I was able to accept a lot of the hand-waving near the end that kept everything from getting too depressing – this IS a comedy, after all. And the epilogue is the best joke in the book. Maybe our Yumiella should be #2 after all.

This volume is well-timed, as the anime starts in January and will likely get through 2-3 books at most. It should be fun to watch. Especially as the episodes won’t all be 75 minutes long. Also, Patrick is just Kyon, right? He’s even doing the Kyon pose! Yare yare.

Filed Under: reviews, villainess level 99

Fake It to Break It! I Faked Amnesia to Break Off My Engagement and Now He’s All Lovey-Dovey?!, Vol. 1

December 2, 2023 by Leave a Comment

By Kotoko and Esora Amaichi. Released in Japan as “Konyaku Haki o Neratte Kioku Sōshitsu no Furi o Shitara, Sokkenai Taidodatta Konyakusha ga “Kioku o Ushinau Mae no Kimi wa, Ore ni Beta Boredatta” to Iu, Tondemonai Uso o Tsuki Hajimeta” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Stephanie Liu.

If I’m being honest, as a romance novel this one felt like a bit of a chore. It’s another in the line of Japanese books that I’d summarize as “communication is important”, as we first meet our main couple when they are having the most awkward lunch ever, not even bothering to look at each other. Then we get, well, the title, and after that there’s a lot of lies piling up, on both her side and his side, and the subsequent “falling in love again” part mostly happens because of said lies. This can be a bit hard to take. On the bright side, I did find myself interested throughout the book, as the reader gets no backstory at all before things start, so we’re as much in the dark as Violet supposedly is – how did things get as bad as this? The book is a mystery.

Violet Westley is currently miserable. She’s been engaged to her fiancee Phillip since birth, owing to a debt owed by one family to the other from over a century ago. Unfortunately, Phillip is quiet, reserved, impassive, and uninterested in conversation, and Violet is also shy and awkward. Then one day she’s in a carriage accident and doesn’t wake up for a week. When she does, she has a “brilliant” idea – she’ll fake amnesia, and use that as an excuse to end the engagement. Unfortunately, Phillip runs over to see her the moment that he’s heard she’s awake, and tells her all about their relationship – they were madly in love with each other and very doting. Violet stares – what the hell is he lying for? Why has he suddenly become vibrant and outgoing? Is this really her fiance?

The best part of the book is gradually tracking down what Violet and Phillip’s past was really like, and how the two of them came to be the way they are at the start. Part of it is the usual romantic misunderstandings (Violet hears a staged conversation meant for someone else), and some of it is just down to Phillip being a giant introverted dork in a genre which needs its romantic leads to not be giant introverted dorks. Once you realize what his real feelings are like, they actually feel a bit heavy – s I said, the romance part of the book is not that great, and he feels a bit too obsessed and overdramatic post-amnesia. As for Violet, she doesn’t really have a strong enough personality beyond “the reader” – she’s the equivalent of those isekai protagonists who are all “generic guy with black hair”. Even her faults – well, aside from the lying – are “cute” faults, like being a terrible cook and a terrible embroiderer.

If this was done in one volume, I’d say it was all right. It has a second coming out, though, and I worry that it will feature more annoying misunderstandings. I may stop with this one.

Filed Under: fake it to break it, reviews
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