Fleet-Footed Dungeon Delver: Tune in for Magical Girls and Motion Blur!, Vol. 1

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By Ameko Kaeruda and U35. Released in Japan as “Shinsoku no Dungeon Seeker ~Speed Kyokufuri Haishinsha wa Subete o Buchinuku~” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Faye Duxovni.

(Spoilers within for the back half of this book.)

I did wonder, you know. Despite the fact that this is written by Ameko Kaeruda, the author of Sexiled. And illustrated by U35, the artist for Buying a Classmate Once a Week and that Voice Actor Radio series. I wondered if this would just be slice-of-life. Or worse, if it might have a male lead. It wasn’t tagged by the publisher, either. Fear not, this is yuri. Of *course* it’s yuri. That said, as with other Kaeruda series, the yuri is the spice, but the point of the book is something else. We meet a teenage girl who is trying to escape an oppressive family, and her discovery of another girl who’s the survivor of a terrible tragedy. Except, as we discover, Nodoka is far more than just the survival of a terrible tragedy. It ends up being the question of the book. What *is* Nodoka? We just don’t know.

One day, a meteor hits the Earth and everyone dies… but the planet Earth (and everyone on it) is immediately reincarnated! And you know what that means! It now has dungeons! And sometimes the dungeons go haywire and escape into the real world, killing whole towns. A survivor of one of those disasters, Nodoka, is trying to make a living delving into dungeons. And she wants to stream it! Unfortunately, technology seems to hate her… her stream always crashes. Then she meets another dungeon streamer, Subaru. Subaru is an up-and-coming streamer who likes to take on dangerous challenges (don’t worry, if you’re IN the dungeon, you don’t die, just respawn). She’s in danger from a monster, but Nodoka saves her… thanks to SUPER speed. Speed so fast the cameras can’t pick it up. Subaru has an idea. Why not team up?

The yuri, as I said, is just a spice. The main reason to read this, as with all of Kaeruda’s works, is the worldbuilding. It’s pretty nifty. We learn about Nodoka’s past bit by bit, as well as the young woman she’s trying desperately to catch up to. But we also learn about what a world with dungeons all over can be like… and how the dregs of humanity can abuse this. Respawn abuse, in particular, is both terrifying and plot relevant. The “reincarnation” thing ends up being far more out there than I was expected in terms of just who is reincarnated. There’s also a Mexican-Japanese family who are all adorable and fantastic, and while they’re mostly there to be rescued and give the book tension, I appreciated them anyway. And again, I like how the author allows the characters to casually admit they are in love and ready to date without a single “B-B-But we’re both GIRLS!” at all. It’s also simply fun to read. The time flies by.

This is numbered Vol. 1, but there’s no sign of 2 yet, and it’s self-contained and could end here. With DRE Novels, you never really know. I’d love to read a second, though.

Fired? But I Maintain All the Software!, Vol. 3

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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.

This is still good, but we are starting to reach the point where I tell the author “you know this is not a sustainable idea for a long-run series, right?”. This book introduces a new person who feels their dream can never be achieved, and then marvels at Ai making it happen using both her computational prowess and her sunny, cock-eyed-optimist personality. A personality that she can only use on others and not herself, as Ai continues to struggle with self-confidence issues. We see her kicking herself that she doesn’t have a dream like everyone else, and she still doesn’t really feel like an adult. This is despite Tsubasa proposing to her (one of the most casual proposals ever), Megumi calling her a God, and Kenta, having returned from his sabbatical, seemingly reinventing his entire ethos because of her. Actually, that may be Ai’s biggest problem, and I suspect if this book does come to a close, Ai vs. Ken may be the final battle. Because she’s not happy with what he is now.

Now that they have Ai’s Smart Glasses and Megumi’s Megumi Arm, our small little startup needs to take the next step, and that’s virtual idols, which are a big thing. Ai and Megumi vow to find a fantastic virtual idol to be their collaborator, and they do find them, and eventually, after much angsting and worrying, recruit them. Unfortunately, Kenta’s become all about the profit now, and his idea involves teaming up with the company behind the biggest virtual idol group in the country. Which means that Ai’s friend won’t get their big debut after all. He’s become a big meanie, that Ken! But, he’s also correct in terms of what it takes to make it in today’s world. Can Ai find a solution, possibly involving an even bigger collab? And will the technology hold up?

We get a lot of that other company in this book, headed by their own version of Kenta, Kawabe. He and Kenta are after the same thing, but Kawabe also wants to be best and crush any potential competition, and is also a bit of a brat, so you know he’s going to fail. I did like that, when we meet the rest of Kawabe’s team, they all sound like eccentric personalities in and of themselves. We don’t spend any real time with them, but they feel like they have lives outside the meeting they had with Ai and company. I was also amused at Matsuri Komari and Megumi swapping tragic backstories, because everyone in Ai’s orbit has a tragic backstory. But again, the main feeling I got from this volume, even as the end of it was pretty triumphant, was “this ends soon, right?”.

There’s a fourth volume out, so it doesn’t end yet. And that volume has Kenta on the cover, not Ai. We’ll see what happens.

I’m Running for Crown Princess, but All I Want is a Steady Paycheck!, Vol. 1

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By Yuuri Seo and Okaya. Released in Japan as “Taikouhi Kouho dakedo, Kenjitsu ni Ikou to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America digitally by Airship. Translated by Natasha Fujii. Adapted by Vida Cruz-Borja.

Seven Seas has started to do these digital-only light novels, ones that presumably are good enough to be licensed but not good enough to justify a print release. (And by “good enough” I mean potentially making money, not quality of the prose.) Most of them tend to cater towards the guy side of the line, but this one is a shoujo light novel. Possibly it doesn’t get a print release as it’s not an isekai, and magic and monster hunting barely feature in it. Possibly also because it’s a 7-year-old series and only has two volumes. (I do wonder about that second volume, more on that later.) That said, I find it very enjoyable. The lead is practical but also a bit flakey, there’s a girl with princess curls who’s more than she seems (I always love that), and the plot twist actually caught me completely flat-footed. It’s definitely worth a read, even with a few faults.

Decades ago, the Litharth family sacrificed its wealth to save their lands from a famine. They’re still nobility, but have to scrounge and save. So when a message comes that the Crown Prince is looking for a wife… and will pay a pile of money to the candidates even if they don’t win… Therese is delighted. She has no desire to be a princess, but she does want cash for her family and her subjects… and if she manages to get a job as a lady in waiting, that would be amazing! She heads off with her elderly maid, and is helped by a handsome knight and also an intelligent attendant who seems to have a bad case of backstory disease. But there’s lots of catty noble girls, seemingly the minions of the arrogant Claris. And there’s the fact that Therese isn’t quite sure what to do anyway – there’s not a series of competitions. Clearly there’s only one thing to do: create a lot of paper origami boxes and scrubbing brushes.

Therese is a lot of fun, though one of the flaws of the book is that sometimes the author needs to hit her with the airhead mallet to get the book to get the way they want. I like her better when she’s being practical and down to earth. I also liked her friend and attendant Leina, who also helps with the main issue of the book, which is that Therese is clearly the best candidate, being sensible, not full of herself, etc. And yet, also clearly any romance that’s happening here is between Therese and her guard knight, who get a lot more scenes together. Thus we need to give SOMEONE to the crown prince, and fortunately there’s someone with backstory disease. I will also admit, while I was taken flat footed by the antagonist reveal, it did lean a bit too much into “well, time to set the switch on my back to evil”. Most of all, this is, even more than others I read recently, absolutely done with the first volume. And yet…

There is apparently a second. Not sure when we’ll get that. In any case, this was fluffy fun.