The Fearsome Witch Teaches in Another World: I’ll Show You That All Races Are Equal

Leave a reply

By Mitsuru Inoue and Suzuno. Released in Japan as “Isekai Teni Shite Kyoushi ni Natta ga, Majo to Osorerarete Iru Ken” by Earth Star Luna. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

It’s always a bit of a bummer when you’re reading a series and the author makes a decision about the book that you don’t like. And it’s even more annoying when it’s the entire plot of the book. This book picks up where the fourth book left off, with Aoi trying to get the guy who bullied Solare so hard he became a shut-in to apologize… only very quickly that becomes secondary to what these books always end up being about, which is how overpowered Aoi is and how her magic is super duper awesome because she knows science. The bullying part gets forgotten about till the very end (where, I will admit, we get a nice scene, and I think that framing it as Glen having to reach out works OK). And worse, we’re introduced to a new regular, and he’s bringing to the table a dish that I do not ever want to see in this series: romance.

Aoi has returned to the Elf Country, taking with her heaadmaster Glen, teachers Elisa and Strath, and student Shenley, in order to once again get Burrest and his family to realize what he did was wrong and apologize for his actions. This goes very badly at first, until everyone shows off their sorcery prowess, and then the elves quickly look on in awe. They end up being invited to the Elven Senate, who are trying to choose a new King from among four candidates… including Aoi’s mentor Owain. That said, the meeting quickly turns into everyone being shown amazing sorcery again. Including the current King, who ends up having a one-to-one battle in the sky, which Aoi wins handily. Aoi, meanwhile, discovers that Elven Sorcery uses spirits, which hers does not, so really wants to figure out what this means.

So yeah, let’s talk about the other thing that annoyed me other than everything boiling down to “Aoi is mighty”. We meet Langus, who at first is as aloof as the other elves, but once he sees Aoi in action, he becomes that worst of cliches, the guy who declares he’s marrying the girl he likes without bothering to listen to her reject him over and over again. He even goes back with her to the academy. And an epilogue suggests that the other nations are going to introduce their own guys who try to mack on Aoi, only for political reasons. I’m sure this will mostly be used for “comedy”, and there’s certainly no possibility at the moment that the series has Aoi fall in love – hell, Aoi having an emotion at all is a stretch. But I hate comedy one-sided obsession, and it’s sticking around, so grr. On the bright side, this book had lots of Shenley, which is always welcome. She’s a good kid.

This series ends with Book 8, so I’ll pick up the next one, but I hope that it has less of the annoying guy (unlikely). I don’t bother to hope it won’t all just be “Aoi is OP”, that’s sort of the point. I just wish the bullying subplot had ended with a bit more than “oh yeah, that.”

Observation Records of My Wife: The Misadventures of a Self-Proclaimed Villainess, Vol. 5

Leave a reply

By Shiki and Wan Hachipisu. Released in Japan as “Jishō Akuyaku Reijō na Tsuma no Kansatsu Kiroku” by Regina Books. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Ethan Holms.

I did enjoy this volume a lot more than the previous one, let’s get that out of the way. With that said… there is a point at the start of this book where Charles tells Cecil that he’s going to have to do something that might look very suspicious to others, and Cecil wonders out loud “shouldn’t you tell your fiancee?” The trouble is that what this involves is a minor bad guy who’s been sleeping around and getting women pregnant, and the men in this series all want to shelter their significant others from the horrors of that. That said, Charles’ response wasn’t quite “no, I have to keep her in the dark, or else this book will be 40 pages long”, but it was close. This plot is designed purely to have the girls get mad at the boys, and even then, it’s mostly an excuse for Bertia to be mad. The trouble is, she’s terrible at being mad, but very good at being trouble.

Charles’ brother, who we’ve heard about since the first book, has been getting worse and worse in his lothario ways. Unfortunately, their father, after a throne-war struggle during his generation, does not want family drama and has already said the eldest is the next head of the family. To fix this, Charles plans to confront and interview his brother’s victims, and also try to protect them. Unfortunately, because this involves sex, cheating, and other distasteful topics, he decides not to tell Anne, and Cecil likewise wants to avoid mentioning it to Bertia as she’d just run and yell at the guy. Unfortunately, what this means is Charles is rumored to be cheating with all these girls. As such Bertia, Anne, and the other women are various kinds of furious. And nothing can be solved until the evidence is gathered, meaning this gets dragged out.

My absolute favorite part of the book was seeing Heronia again. This was hinted at in the last arc, when they found that piece of Pii, but Cecil doesn’t like Heronia, so there was no reason for him to do anything nice for her. But towards the end of this book, Bertia does something that requires another Japanese import to explain, so he’s forced to make a deal. We see that Heronia, post-villainy, is a) not putting up with any of Cecil’s shit (she calls him the “android prince” multiple times), but also b) adapting to life in the convent and helping out the younger children. I love seeing broken villainesses break out of it and do better. I also liked the other antagonist in this book, who seemed to be yet another petty brat, but turned out to have a lot more depth than I expected, and it’s set up that we’ll be seeing her again. As for Charles and Anne… eventually, they work it out. Not everyone can be as shiny as Bertia, though Anne does come close.

This series continues to have legs long beyond what it should have, and I’ll continue to support it.

Repeated Vice: I Refuse to Be Important Enough to Die, Vol. 5

Leave a reply

By Kuroakawa Hitsugi and Kushiro Kuki. Released in Japan as “Repeat Vice: Akuyaku Kizoku wa Shinitakunai node Shitennou ni Naru no wo Yamemashita” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by piyo.

While amusing, it can also be a pain in the ass when I decide what I’m going to base a large chunk of my review on and then have the author, in the afterword, say what I was going to and that they are well aware of it. So yeah, let’s just get this out of the way: for a harem series, Lilka has been getting a lot more attention than the rest of the girls. This is especially true in this book, where Fol and Yusurika are basically absent, and much of the book features Lofus and Lilka arguing like a couple that says they hate each other but will totally be married by the end of the book. That said, the author may not agree with me, and tries to stick a fork in this relationship by having Lofus point out that she’s not his type, and that he finds another kind of woman attractive. Which, fine, but the narrative disagrees. Also, still 13 years old, I believe.

We pick up where we left off, with Lofus, while being very grumpy about it, rushing to the rescue of Lilka and the rest of the sky pirates, who are about to be annihilated. As it turns out, they’re about to be annihilated by a monster that is FAR stronger than it was the first time Lilka went through her life. Fortunately, Lofus brought Raymond along, and so his able to, if not defeat the monster right away, at least slow it down. Unfortunately, he also runs into a guy named Lars, who. like Raymond, wants Lofus to join him, and goes on to explain how Lilka’s assumptions of what needs to happen are bullshit. Unfortunately for Lars, he’s a smug kind of guy, and Lofus naturally hates joining up with anyone anyway, so we get another big battle, this time involving the soul of a long-dead warrior. And after that they have to go rescue Lilka’s pirate ship, which involves meeting yet another heroine.

The thing I liked best here were the various perspective shifts. Lofus has his knowledge of the game, but that’s third-person, so when he’s asked why he specifically joined Raymond’s doomed rebellion he doesn’t really know. Lilka has her own perspective, but also died early in her first life, so doesn’t have access to everything. As for Raymond, when told about Lofus’ “dreams” and what he did in them, he’s just as puzzled as anyone else – if he wants to rule the world, why choose the worst possible way to do it? This, more than the Demon Lord shenanigans, are what makes me want to read more. Well, that and seeing Lofus and Lilka fight. I love 30s screwball comedies, and there’s a lot of that here, with Lilka finally admitting by the end of the book that she really has fallen in love, and while Lofus doesn’t feel the same, he is forced to admit that he actually cares for people quite a lot. Certainly more than his image can bear.

Also, I think we managed to get through a volume without something major ticking me off. This remains an underdog sort of book, the type that is more interesting than it sounds.