Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian: Insider Stories

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By Sunsunsun and Momoco. Released in Japan as “Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Matthew Rutsohn.

Oh god, store exclusive stories. Let’s try to break it down here: 1) Alya gets hit on and stalks Masachika; 2) Yuki buys otaku merch and stalks Masachika; 3) Touya and Chisaki are super in love, Part 1; 4) Test of courage; 5) Alya is tricked into wearing a sexy cat costume; 6) Touya and Chisaki are super in love, Part 2; 7) Alya and Masachika go to a fancy dessert place; 8) Yuki briefly feels guilty for manipulating Alya; 9) Alya is tricked into wearing a sexy maid costume; 10) Masachika goes on amusement park rides with Nonoa and deals with her personality; 11) Touya and Chisaki are super in love, Part 3; 12) Watermelon splitting; 13) Alya is tricked into wearing a sexy Chinese dress; 14) Alya and Ayano recover from the spicy food debacle; 15) Touya and Chisaki are super in love, Part 4; 16) Maria eats a lot; 17) Alya, under hypnosis, is tricked into wearing a sexy bunny girl costume; 18) Masachika buys priceless antiques but doesn’t realize it; 19) Yuki and Ayano have a water fight; 20) Touya and Chisaki are super in love, part 5; 21) Alya is tricked into wearing a sexy gothic lolita costume; 22) Alya, Masachika and Yuki get a fortune reading; 23) Touya and Chisaki are super in love, Part 6; 24) Alya is tricked into wearing a sexy Arabian dancer outfit; 25) Ayano discovers josei maid porn; 26) Chisaki destroys everyone in the athletics competition; 27) Maria is tricked into wearing a sexy bunny girl costume; 27) An anime store employee rants at the cast in his thoughts; 28) The cast play a word game; 29) Masachika dreams about Alya in a sexy succubus costume.

As you may have gathered from the brief descriptions of all of those, a large part of this collection is dedicated to getting Alya into sexy outfits; The art inside the book… and outside the book… is almost entirely devoted to each of the sexy outfits I mentioned above. This series knows its audience, and it’s folks who like big-breasted Russian girls. Though, to be fair, their magnificent asses are also mentioned quite a bit. Yes, I know it feels a bit crass to bring it up in a review, but this is a short story collection, so we can’t develop the characters or have much drama at all. What we’re left with is Alya being a bit tsundere, Yuki and Masachika being otaku-brained, and… well, there are the student council president and vice-president. Who are indeed cute and in love, but the bulk of the gimmicks in the stories are “Chisaki is very, very, very strong”.

That said, there are two original short stories for this collection at the end. In the shorter one, Elena, having a breakdown because people want to live their own lives rather than dedicate them to music, demands they all go to a cat cafe. We get to see how the cats treat the bulk of the cast (they all have trouble, especially Chisaki and Maria) and we get to see the cat version of Alya, who promptly gets into a… erm, catfight… with the real Alya. The second story has the cast, trying to prepare for the athletics festival, going to a hotel pool rented out by the rich Sumire, to see if practicing in a pool might be less exhausting. As you might guess, this is an excuse for some of the most blatant fanservice in the book, including Masachika almost drowning because every time he comes up for air he slams his face into Alya’s crotch by accident. It ends with a heartwarming moment, but again, we’re here for the service.

If you enjoy the Alya series, you’ll enjoy this. If you’re trying to save money, though, there’s nothing here that I think will come up again in later books, unlike Vol. 4.5.

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 18

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By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I’ve enjoyed Bofuri over the years, but as I hit the end of this volume, and realized that the next book would be the final one in the main series (yes, of course there are after stories), I could not help but think “thank God”. This is a classic example of a series that just went on far too long. In this penultimate volume, the author is not about to introduce any fun new characters, or give Maple a weird new skill. The series has also shifted away from its “look at what Maple’s doing now” sense of humor, and while I do like seeing Maple using strategy and not just relying on vibes, it also means it’s not really funny any more. As a result, what we’re mostly left with is what this series has been about from the start: reading someone else’s game logs, and watching them fight. Even worse, the fights are all pretty anticlimactic. No one’s really giving Maple trouble any more.

Sally is on the cover, looking like she’s auditioning for Made in Abyss. The book is more about her than Maple, as she tries and fails to work up the nerve to ask Maple to marry her… er, sorry, to ask Maple for a 1-on-1 fight. They’re all going through the 10th floor, which has aspects of the other floors, in order to be able to fight the demon lord. They’re fun dungeon battles with tough bosses, there’s fun dungeon battles with tricky puzzles, there’s teaming up with other groups to help them clear tough areas with the power of Maple and Sally simply being really, really good, and there’s the dreaded 6th floor battles, where Sally must try to overcome her fears. By the end, everyone’s now ready to take on the Demon Lord, with the help of Mii and her friends and Frederica and her friends. The developers are sure the Demon Lord is not something anyone can take out on their first try. I suspect Book 19 will prove them wrong.

In terms of things I can actually review, there are two. The first is the series’ longest running gag that isn’t Maple acquiring new powers, namely Sally’s fear of ghosts. Give the nature of this floor, it was inevitable that they’d need Sally to get past this. She doesn’t, but she’s actually pretty clever in how she manages to battle enemies while at the same time remaining utterly terrified. And then there’s Sally’s request of Maple, which she STILL isn’t able to spit out. Maple clearly knows Sally wants to say something but is never going to push, so it lies there, and you just get more irritated with her. (Maple has the patience of a saint.) Maple, meanwhile, when asked by Sally what she wants to do for some downtime activities, takes Sally to a secret cafe where they have a repeat of the food dates they’ve had in the past. This is never going to be explicitly yuri, but the best part of it has actually become the implicit yuri. It’s why I read the series now.

The demon lord is set up as the focus of the final volume, but come on, we know Sally will eventually ask for that PvP match with Maple, and that’s gonna be the big end. Who will win? Will it have a kiss? (No.) One thing’s for sure, next volume will sound like a game log most of the time.

Your Castle’s Little Helper: Please Feed Me, I’ll Work!, Vol. 1

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By Kazuhito Minagi and PenekoR. Released in Japan as “Anata no Oshiro no Kobito-san ~Gohan Kudasai, Hatarakimasu~” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

I really enjoyed reading this book, but if it has one big flaw it’s that it cannot settle down with one genre. And unlike, say, Sasaki and Peeps, I’m not sure how deliberate it is – it just feels unfocused. Judging by the cover and blurb, I was expecting the story of a plucky and adorable orphan winning the hearts of everyone she encounters. And it definitely is that. But it’s also the story of a reincarnated Japanese woman who wakes up in a middle-ages sort of monarchy and gradually introduces new foods while also winning over the monsters of this world with her powerful magic. And it’s also the story of a child left for dead who has tremendous PTSD about the whole thing and keeps getting triggered over and over again, either accidentally or on purpose. It’s about how sometimes abuse through neglect cannot simply be waved away or fixed. Still, if you can handle the ping-ponging, it’s a compelling read.

A Japanese woman, who passed away due to a car accident, wakes up in a deserted storeroom as a two-year-old dying of starvation and thirst. Not great. She manages to stagger to a kitchen and is found by the cooks, and it turns out that she’s in the royal castle. In fact, it turns out that her connection to royalty is a lot more intricate and filled with secret plans than anyone realizes. For Chihiro, though, all she wants to do is quietly live her life, eat nice food, and maybe try to find sweets, as this world lacks sugar or honey. Well, it has honey, but in the forest, and there are bees. Pshaw! Who’s afraid of some bees? Well, when she manages to get a mysterious stranger to take her to the forest, it turns out you’re afraid of bees if they’re the size of a human and feed on magic. Good thing that, as it turns out, Chihiro has TONS of magic…

Chihiro is absolutely the best reason to read this. A lot of these “I’m two years old but have my adult memories” series feature the main character trying their best to act like a kid and failing. Chihiro doesn’t even try, she’s like one of the kids in Full House. A scene early on just made me throw up my hands and realize the author was writing this on vibe, where she not only figures out how the commoners are getting their sums wrong, but asks the nobles to forgive them as it’s not the expected “we’re corrupt” but just “we suck at math”. There is an occasional hand wave towards people realizing that a girl as young as her cannot POSSIBLY be doing everything she is (she’s doing perfect embroidery, coming up with new recipes, etc. At two years old), but every time that happens the person ends up thinking “well, whatever, she’s so cute I don’t actually care to investigate this”. As for the conspiracy that led to all this happening in the first place, it never really gets resolved beyond “yeah, those evil maids did this and then vanished”.

Basically, this book is a mess. But it’s a fun mess, and I had a great time reading it. I want more.