The Villainess’ Journal: Newlywed Life of an Obsessive Researcher, Vol. 1

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By Len Kagizaki and Akira Shigaraki. Released in Japan as “Akujo Nisshi -Otaku na Akujo (?) no Shinkon Seikatsu-” by Maple Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Emma Schumacker.

This review does spoil the biggest reveal in the book, sorry about that.

When I saw this was coming out one month after From Bumbling Prodigy to Villainess debuted, I was somewhat puzzled. Let’s face it, the two have a premise that’s so similar it’s almost eerie. But after reading it, I can see the differences that make this one stand out. For one thing, Bumbling Prodigy has one normal guy trying to deal with his very sheltered, eccentric, somewhat autistic nerd of a wife, with help from snickering servants. Whereas this title has the exact same thing, only the guy is also a nerd. There’s an evil dad. There’s a younger sister who uses the name of her older sister in order to go out and fool around, which gives the older sister the bad reputation. And yeah, that’s exactly the same here, though the reasoning behind it is very different. And both leads are hilarious. But in the end, the difference is that Avril is a savant, while Estelle is a nerd. In a good way.

Estelle Aublanc is sitting in her bedroom researching magic circles – which she’s done for the last ten years or so – when her father shows up and demands that she get made up gaudily and go meet with a prospective fiance. It turns out her sister has dragged her name into the mud, and now a marquess with a reputation for being cold wants to marry her. Estelle does not particularly care about the marriage as long as she can study magic circles. Though her father threatening to burn all her research does galvanize her to try at least a little. Unfortunately, trying to act like a “villainess”, like her fiance has requested, turns out to be difficult as she has no idea what one does. She doesn’t want to wear all that sticky makeup. She doesn’t really have it in her to be mean to servants. And what’s a callboy anyway?

To get the bad out of the way, like many in its genre, this book suffers from a bad case of “the same scene from a different perspective.” Estelle’s narration runs about 30 pages or so, then we get 15 or so from Gerald’s perspective giving us the exact same scenes and dialogue. This was annoying in Bakarina and its imitators, and it’s still annoying here. Other than that, this is a delight. I will try not to spoil but the most interesting part of the book is Estelle’s sister Alette. The fact that Estelle is so happy to meet everyone and everything helps disguise things, as she’s exactly the same when it comes to her sister. Alette’s scheming is rather brilliant, frankly, and I like that we get a younger sister who is neither evil NOR an innocent waif. Actually, while not having any explicit on-screen sex, this book is pretty spicy, especially towards the end.

So yeah, that’s why CIW licensed this one right after Bumbling Prodigy. They’re both winners. I look forward to the second book, though unlike Bumbling Prodigy it’s not being fast-tracked by the company.

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

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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

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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.