The Side Character Who Thought He Was the Protagonist Mistook the Real Hero for a Side Character and Accidentally Won Everything, Vol. 1

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By Yuyushita Sasuga and Tamago no Kimi. Released in Japan as “Jibun no Koto o Shujinkou da to Shinjite Yamanai Fumidai ga, Shujinkou o Fumidai da to Kanchigai Shite, Yuushou Shite Shimau Ohanashi desu” by TO Books. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Harris Hayes.

Assuming that the average reader of this series gets past the title, which is a bit more ludicrous than usual, they’re going to run up against the lead. And assuming that they get past the lead’s tendency to talk about himself like he’s still a chuuni (which is half of the point of this series), we get to the other point of this series, which likely resonates with a lot of people. The idea that hard work will be rewarded is a good, idealistic one that unfortunately is not always true in the real world. As such, a lot of fiction, particularly shonen fiction, revolves around the fact that you can do absolutely anything provided that you do it often enough. Do you suck at something? Do it ten million times, and you will get better! (True.) And then all the good things in life will be yours (not necessarily true except in series like these).

Our nameless main character rescues a kid from the inevitable truck, dies, and ends up in front of a bored and amused Athena, the goddess currently in charge of reincarnating people. He grew up in Japan thinking he would be IMPORTANT, and idolizing shonen main characters. So she offers to put him in the world of Chronicle of the Round Table Heroes, a visual novel, as the Hero Fey. He immediately accepts! Unfortunately, she’s amusing herself. Not only is Fey the guy who bullies random people and gets the shit beaten out of him in the game itself (the real hero is named Tru), but the VN is also pretty damn dark, with most of the cast meeting Bad Ends. But that matters little to our guy. What is perhaps more concerning is that the game limits how much he’s able to change – the original Fey was an asshole, after all. So he has to train as hard as he can and join the Holy Knights… while still being kind of a jerk.

Clearly I finished this, so there were things I liked. It’s quite readable, as I’ve come to expect from TO Books, who usually do a good job selling their product. I really liked the main “heroine”, named Arthur (the names sometimes skew Arthurian due to the game’s title), who is incredibly beautiful and talented but has the social skills of a brick. Since Fey, as he is still very much “sullen asshole who simply trains constantly”, also has the social skills of a brick, they get on quite well. Other than that… while I did like the teacher’s backstory, and I appreciated that she was allowed to avoid her cruel and horrible fate (and I hope one days she avenges her family), describing her as the “busty loli” type and having her fall massively in love with Fey by the end made me sigh. Ah well, so goes life. the actual lead, Tru, also fades into the background as the series goes on. I’d have liked it more if he ended up an antagonist, but the author seems content to have him just be wary of Fey but still basically a hero. Which is nice, but duller.

So this wasn’t great, but wasn’t terrible. I might read another. Recommended for fans of the genre.

The Petty Villain Plays by the Rules: Rewriting This Otome Game with Honest Work!, Vol. 3

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By MIZUNA and Ruki. Released in Japan as “Yarikonda Otome Game no Akuyaku desu ga, Danzai wa Iya nano de Mattou ni Ikimasu” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by sachi salehi.

Ah, we’ve hit that difficult third album, I see. It was inevitable, given that the first two volumes of this series basically ended up being “this is better than I thought”, that I’d run into one that was on a level of exactly what I thought. In practice, this means that while this volume is for the most part enjoyable, it has a subplot that actively grates on me and which I found interminable. What’s worse, I worry it will crop up again – this seems the sort of author who would try to think of other ways to use that subplot in the future for “comedy” reasons. Sigh. Other than that, this basically wraps up the two-volume arc from last time, shows Reid simultaneously behaving like a prodigy and also having the emotional capacity of the child he is, and also giving us a cute dwarf girl to go with its cute elf girl. Though the dwarf is an adult.

After last time, Reid has impressed the dark elf king and helped to take down an evil noble, but he also showed off a bit TOO much, so his dad forbids him from going into town. This is a problem, as he has to find the herb that’s used in the medicine needed to cure his mother, one that’s supposed to be in the neighboring evil forest (yes, it’s called the Evil Forest, really). That said, his fiancee is not prohibited from visiting the town. So clearly Reid has to dress up as a maid in order to get around this. Hijinks, as you might guess, ensue. They come across a skilled dwarf brother-and-sister blacksmith shop, though they’re currently being threatened by a different evil noble. They also come across a guy who does know of the herb in question under a different name. But he’s ALSO being threatened by that evil noble. man, how many evil nobles does this series have?

So yes, everything about Reid dressed as a maid, and (inevitably) Prince Rhesis falling for “her” made me wince like I was hearing nails on a blackboard. Every single “gag” paid off like a pie to the face, and that’s not a good thing. I have no doubt we’ll see Reid in disguise as a maid again, even if I don’t want it. Other than that, this was pretty good. Reid gains a new butler/intelligence officer, who has a better gag in that he’s one of those “I don’t know how to smile properly as I am stoic as hell” types. That’s fun. This also, oddly, causes the dwarf girl to fall for him – since I’m not getting the hot gay bodyguard romance I want (due to them tragically not being gay), I guess this one is OK. I was also amused to see that Reid’s father is essentially a pushover when it comes to his family, and I have no doubt that, if this series ever lets anyone age, Farah will be able to manipulate Reid the same way.

That said, future volumes imply that this is not going to be a “two years passed” kind of series, but more “Volume 12, 5 days after Vol. 4”. I’ll keep up, but less wacky crossdressing hilarity, please.

I’ll Become an Elegant Villainess! Time to Enjoy My Second Life to the Fullest, Vol. 1

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By Shisui Hazuki and kururi. Released in Japan as “Karei naru Akujo ni Naritai wa! ~Aisare Tensei Shoujo wa, Tanoshii Nidome no Jinsei o Okurimasu~” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Olivia Plowman.

We’ve started to see metatextual isekai with folks hit by Truck-kun who are delighted to be in another world, ready to eat up all those great tropes, get a harem of cute babes, and have a +1 sword new life. (Indeed, I have one in my queue for two days from now.) So it should not particularly be a surprise that we’re getting the shoujo equivalent, which is to say girls who are absolutely delighted to find that they’ve reincarnated and they’re now a villainess. For once it’s not due to love of the genre when they were Japanese – this particular girl is reincarnated from THIS world, she just remembers her past life. But it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that “villainess” has once again been twisted a bit to mean “incredibly cool and powerful girl who just ojou-sama laughs a lot”. There will be no evil here. Which is good, as this world is already filled with evil.

We open with Mitia Lumiol… no, she’s not having her engagement broken. Instead, it’s the usual “your magic isn’t what I wanted, so I hate you” from her father. We then get her telling us about her reincarnated memories, her love of romances with villainesses, and how getting exiled from home to a dying part of the country is perfect as this means she can put her master plan into effect. Her master plan… to be AWESOME! Coming with her are her maid, Ciel, who went from “wow, she’s suddenly become a different person” to “she is my literal daughter that I gave birth to only not literally” in a couple short years, and her butler, Vincent, who is actually a spy but who thinks that Mitia is secretly a genius, and decides to ally with her because of her goal. Which is to be AWESOME! … by healing the sick, repairing the land, lowering taxes, and essentially being a good person, unlike most other nobles in this book.

As you may have gathered, how much you enjoy this depends how much you are prepared to buy into the silliness of its lead. It’s basically a cross between Observation Records of My Fiancee (Mitia and Bertia are very, very similar) and The Eminence in Shadow (Mitia’s followers all adore her, and things she makes up later turn out to be 100% true). Her lowly Household Magic turns out to only be lowly if you don’t have all the mana she does, as she can essentially cast it on top of itself till it can do almost anything. She’s also very GOOD at being an evil villainess, which is to say that she’s not a ditz – she can use blackmail and cleverness with the best of them. It’s just that, despite her past memories, she acts like a six-year-old trying to be nineteen. Which is to say, she’s absolutely cute as hell. This is why she gets Ciel and Vincent, who by the end of the book basically admit they’re her new parents (there’s no romance between them yet, or indeed between anyone, but it is a Heart title). And her former village thugs turned crack secret agents. And the prince in disguise, who she… loathes, as she doesn’t see through the disguise at all.

So yeah, enjoyed that. Very silly. And there’s a second volume! Hooray! Surely that will be the start of a long run… what’s that ominous train in the distance?