The Bladesmith’s Enchanted Weapons, Vol. 6

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By Kazuma Ogiwara and CARIMARICA. Released in Japan as “Isekai Toushou no Maken Seisaku Gurashi” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ryan Burris.

I mentioned online that this is one of the most testosterone-laden series I’ve ever read, and that remains true in this book. A lot of everything driving the plot here can be summed up as “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”. Lutz and Claudia are still very in love and very sexually active, and Claudia, while she is also brilliant and gets other things to do, remains very defined by her voluptuous body. We get more katanas given out here, and one of the men who receives them is basically “MANLY: THE KNIGHT”. Unfortunately, another man who received a katana is driven by an all-consuming guilt, and it’s that that drives the second half of the book, where we gets more battles, some nasty horror, and another thing that has to be taken care of or it could mean the end of the kingdom. And yes, Lutz has to be involved in all this, much to Claudia’s chagrin. Because, well, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

Gerhard has a new assignment for Lutz and his “disciples” – forge thirty katanas for the King to give out. Now, Lutz only has to do three of them, but the three have to be able to have a four-jewel enchantment, which is very difficult. Lutz finds that he is at the point where unless he interviews the recipients in advance, he simply CAN”T make the katanas work. So he goes to the capital and meets the three recipients – one is normal and a minor character, one is GAR as I mentioned above, and one is tortured and emo as I also mentioned above. Lutz is particularly worried about the last captain, who asks for a katana that can be taken up by the person who kills him. Lutz sensibly instead gives him a katana to protect against ambushes. Unfortunately, the plot will not be denied…

While I will admit the series is full of manly men being manly, I will praise it for not neglecting the women. The third princess shows up again, and while she acts childish and spoiled in front of Claudia (because she can), everyone else is worried that she now has what amounts to a private army loyal only to her, which could potentially attempt a coup. We also meet Leonard’s sister Karen (Leonard is the guilt-ridden knight), who is very sensible and wants nothing more than to be rid of all the trappings of the kingdom that led to everything her brother has gone through, but who is also in a testosterone-laden book, so when she gets mad at Leonard’s knight for whining too much she reaches out and squeezes his balls while saying he’s a loser. I like her.

Unfortunately for everyone reading this, it’s a two-parter, so we’ll have to wait to see what happens. Fortunately, 7 is out in January. Recommended for all, even those not fond of manly men. It’s a really compelling series.

I Was Reborn as a Refugee Girl, So I’m Working Toward Citizenship from Scratch, Vol. 1

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By Torisuke and nyanya. Released in Japan as “Tensei Nanmin Shoujo wa Shiminken o 0 kara Mezashite Hatarakimasu!” by TO Books Novel. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Bianca Darcy.

It’s always amusing when you spend most of a book thinking that the plot and characters are going in a direction you very much did not expect, only to get to the author’s afterword and have them lay out exactly why this is the case. When I was reading this book, I could not help but think that it was a lot… fluffier than I was expecting from the premise. The main character spent most of the book worried about how she’ll be treated, but she ended up almost entirely fine. Then I read the afterword, and it turns out the webnovel version of this was much darker, with people treating her like crap, mugging her, etc. And the author took one look at that and thought “isn’t this a bit mean?”. And so we end up with what we have here, which is very much a slow life book about an earnest 11-year-old being hardworking and everyone around her – with one exception – looking at her and thinking “how cute!”.

Lil wakes up one day with memories of her old life in Japan, where she was a boring office worker. Now she’s an 11-year-old refugee girl living outside the city with abusive parents. Previously apathetic to it all, her new memories show her that there’s a much better life than this, and she sets out to try to better herself, first by fetching water from the river, killing rats that eat the stored food, fishing… then finally she’s allowed to go into town and join an adventurer’s guild! She’s just an F-rank, so goes on quests like “collect garbage” and “clean the guild rooms” while also learning how to read and write, because it turns out the only thing in this world that is not a stock light novel cliche is that the language isn’t Japanese. Her goal is to leave the city and become an adventurer!… but let’s start with “baker’s helper”.

So yeah, this is so optimistic and shiny it’s almost too bright to look at. Lil’s parents are scum, and it’s implied they’ll eventually be expelled from the refugee camp, but as she works her little butt off to help the others, everyone’s heart grows three sizes and they accept that the daughter is different. In the town, she’s constantly assuming she’ll be subject to prejudice and abuse, and that just… doesn’t happen, mostly as she uses polite language and is a really hard worker. The memories of her past life mostly come into play to let her do math fast, putting her a cut above other girls her age and allowing her to end up at a job where she has to calculate change. It’s just very, very NICE. I enjoyed that. It’s also a bit dull, frankly. I do hope the entire series isn’t this nice.

Will she leave the town and go dungeon crawling? Will she learn the magic that she’s said to have? Will she be cute and industrious? One of those things is guaranteed.

The Devil Princess, Vol. 5

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By Harunohi Biyori and Geso Umiu. Released in Japan as “Akuma Koujo” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Julie Goniwich. Adapted by Emlyn Dornemann.

I had some worries when I began this 5th book that it would be difficult. After all, we’ve basically abandoned the world of the first four books to go back to Japan (albeit a Japan with a lot more magical-powered shamen and spiritualists than I suspect are really around). And this does start a bit slowly as we get used to the new background. That said, not THAT much has changed. Yulucia may be Yuzu now, but she’s a spoiled rich kid here just like she was back home, she’s beloved by all despite being pretty creepy just like she was back home, and the entire climax of the book is her snapping and just going full horror movie, just as in previous volumes. Rest assured, this is still the Devil Princess you know. We even get her servants popping in and being hilarious and disturbing again. Honestly, “hilarious and disturbing” is a good summary of the series as a whole.

This series began with a young teenager with health problems dying and being reincarnated as a demon, then being reborn as Yulucia, the Devil Princess we all know and love. Now, after the events of the 4th book, she’s back in Japan, and back to her old life – a decade before she died. She’s still sickly, but for some reason that only the readers really know, has become terrifyingly beautiful for a little girl. There’s also other oddities. People keep trying to kidnap her, and it’s not *just* because she’s from a rich family (though some of it is that). People keep going crazy around her and trying to murder her. And for some reason when she comes across obviously bad people, with hearts as black as coal, she cannot help but think how incredibly TASTY they look.

As with previous books, Yuzu manages to be thoroughly evil without actually doing many bad things… except to those who deserve it. The climax, not to spoil too much, is basically a yakuza massacre, and there are several pieces of excellent art in this showing her as basically Your Worst Nightmare(tm). But she also makes friends with other children, loves her family, and helps her best friend and potential marriage partner lose weight so he becomes a bit more bishonen. It’s just that because the narrative is presented through her “I don’t really care that much” narration, it can be hard to pick up on. There’s also plenty of humor here – special points to the otome game heroine who shows up a decade early as well, tries to warp the narrative, and immediately gets arrested for her troubles. I wonder if we’ll see her again.

This “arc” finishes in Book 6, so don’t go thinking that we’re back for good. The author says all our questions will be answered, but I don’t have too many. As long as I can see a little girl gleefully murdering bad guys and eating their souls like jelly donuts, I am content.