My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 15

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By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.

While it’s still a disappointment to the Western fandom who still wishes it were a lot more gay, there’s no doubt that recent volumes of Bakarina have been much better than the doldrums of the single digits where the author was asked to write more but didn’t really have much of a plan. This now reads like it’s traveling to a destination, at least in terms of the dark magic plotline and the state of the country. In terms of the romance, things are still pretty much at 1) Jeord, 2) Maria, 3) everyone else. This volume has a new character (though don’t get attached to them), lots of backstory going back hundreds of years, a final battle that comes close to taking out our heroine and villainess, and a bountiful amount of produce. All this plus Mary at her absolute cattiest, and Jeord at *his* absolute cattiest. These are getting to be a lot of fun again.

After a brief “let’s have all the original love interests together in one scene” bit where they harvest the sweet potatoes from Katarina’s garden, she’s off to the ministry, trying to stop Raphael from overworking himself to death… which he has to do as Larna has been busy at the palace lately. Katarina knows that’s because she’s really Susannah, but the other’s don’t. Things really get going, though, when Katarina’s body is possessed by a dark spirit… one who’s been asleep for five hundred years! Katarina knows this plot, it’s part of the 2nd game that she’s watched in dreams… only there it happened to Maria. As it turns out this spirit, Lucie, is closely tied to a tragedy from long ago… the details of which may be very important to stop it reoccurring. Especially as those folks from 500 years ago seem awfully familiar.

Lest folks misunderstand, there’s no indication that Katarina and Maria are somehow going to go back in time or anything. But several people mentioned here, particularly Susannah’s magic tutor and Lucie’s master, are described in such a way that makes me suspect they’ve been reincarnated from Japan and are, like Katarina, a wee bit eccentric. It’s even more obvious with Jean, who has her own Maria Campbell as her best friend… or rather Maria’s ancestor. I liked how this tied into a folklore tale from her own family, rather than (as I suspected would happen) reading it in the white magic book she’s been translating. As for Lucie, she’s sweet and cute and what happened to her was very tragic… and what happens to her here is slightly less tragic, but also bittersweet. I’m not exactly sure what we’re doing with all this backstory, though it may also tie into a generation before, when the throne war wiped out so many people. Unfortunately, a cliffhanger implies the wrong sort of people might also be better informed.

If you’re reading Bakarina for the plot or characters, this is really solid. And she’s still not interested in romance at all, so status quo there.

Fired? But I Maintain All the Software!, Vol. 1

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By Yuki Kashirome and icchi. Released in Japan as “E, Shanai System Subete One Operation Shite Iru Watashi o Kaiko desu ka?” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Minna Lin.

Content warning: This review will be discussing a book that deals with multiple companies that use AI, and it discusses AI throughout the book, usually in a positive way (though it does emphasize AI without humans making decisions is a disaster). Reader discretion is advised.

It’s always an event when a book gets licensed in a genre that no one really dabbles in much. We’ve seen a lot of bad companies, overworked office staff, and overtime from hell in light novels, but usually that’s as a setup to killing them off and setting them up in another world. This book is not going to do that, as it is very much interested in this world. It’s essentially a story of how you should not stay tied to a job that is destroying you, that effective communication can still be learned even years after school. and that you need to be careful about getting rid of the weirdo in the company because usually the weirdos are in companies for a very good reason.

Ai Sato (punny first name very much intended) gets to say the title as the first line of the novel. A new executive has taken over her company, goes to see the revolutionary new system that they’re famous for, and discovers that the woman who runs it is dressed in a sexy succubus bikini. With horns. She’s drowning her sorrows in an izakaya with melon soda (none of the main characters drink) when she’s spotted by her childhood friend Ken Suzuki, who’s running a startup programming school and thinks she’d be perfect for it. As it turns out, both of them have major flaws in their respective business personalities that are complemented by the other, and with two other employees they’re ready to take the world by storm. Unfortunately her old company is falling apart at the seams, and the CEO has decided it’s all her fault and he wants revenge.

This series, frankly, drips with idealism over realism, and if that bothers you it will probably taste like acid. That said, I did mostly enjoy it. It’s odd seeing a manic pixie dream girl sort from the narrative perspective of the dream girl herself, though the book is pretty good about showing us her flaws and that, under all the tech genius and overly peppy gung-ho attitude is a socially awkward young woman who is nearing 30 but is very much a child at heart. There’s suggestion of a romance between her and the childhood friend, but I get the feeling that’s all it’s ever going to be – this isn’t a romcom, it’s a workplace handbook. (Also, one of their “students” is a young woman who blatantly has a crush on Ai, and is not ashamed to show it.) I did also enjoy seeing the long, lingering interludes showing the CEO of Ai’s old company slide from “I’m here to streamline things and there is a girl in a succubus bikini in my office” to “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” evil cackling over the course of the book.

If you’re a corporate drone, or an engineer, this is probably right up your alley. If not, I don’t think Ai actually does enough cosplay throughout to justify it. Also, naming the leads Ai Sato and Ken Suzuki is like naming your leads John Smith and Jane Jones.

Return of the Corpse King: Reining in My Cringe Secret Society, Vol. 1

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By Sty and Tsumeki. Released in Japan as “Shiou no Kikan: Moto Yuusha no Ore, Jibun ga Soshikishita Chuuni Himitsukessha wo Tomeru Tame ni Futatabi Isekai ni Shoukansareteshimau” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

Occasionally there are series where I’ll buy it for one reason, usually because it’s advertised as something that intrigues me, only to end up enjoying the book for a completely different reason. This was one of those. The book seems to have been pitched (and judging by that cover, it was pitched in Japan that way as well) as being very much “for fans of The Eminence in Shadow”. There’s a guy prone to making over the top statements, there’s a society of evil made up of extremely loyal servants (though not all of them are women in this one), and there’s lots of fun comedy. But there’s another book that exists behind this book, the prequel that the author thankfully never wrote. And that book certainly is not a comedy. And it drives everything that happens in this book, and makes it a lot more interesting.

Back in middle school, an entire class full of students was summoned to another world by God to defeat the Demon King, each of them gaining special cool powers. At the end of this battle, the demon king is dead, but so are all the classmates, except one, whose special power gains strength whenever an ally dies. He’s returned to Japan, a month after he left, and after police questioning and hospitalization, he’s left to pick up his shattered life. Three years later he’s about to graduate high school when suddenly he’s summoned again. It turns out the “secret society of evil” he created while he was there, made up of various eccentrics, is causing havoc in his absence, and he has to return to clean it up. Two problems. One, he hates remembering his chuuni phase and wants nothing to do with all this edgelord stuff. Two, it’s almost 200 years later!

As noted, while there is humor in this it’s not the reason to read it. It’s mostly “ha ha, it’s funny as he’s horrified by his middle school dramatics being written in stone”. But there are several better reasons. First of all, Shio has suffered genuine trauma from his isekai stunt, and has lingering PTSD. He also feels guilt because, albeit unintentionally, he abandoned his secret society allies for two hundred years… and now it turns out someone is committing genuinely evil acts in its name, as opposed to merely using it to look cool which actually doing good. Most of all, thanks to his actions at the start of the book, ANOTHER class of students has been isekai’d to this world… to stop him. And they may not survive either.

So yeah, the dark, tragic edges in this series interested me a lot more than the funny parts. It was good, I’ll read another.