Adachi and Shimamura, Vol. 13

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By Hitoma Iruma and raemz. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Molly Lee.

Glory be, we finally get a volume that isn’t just short stories, and takes place in the present day! After so many alternate universes, flash forwards to the future, and the terrifying vision of Adachi’s idea of heaven, we are back in a normal yuri romance. OK, yes, no series with Yashiro is normal, but you know what I mean. As always, Shimamura is the narrator. It’s amazing how far she’s come since the start. Adachi, when not dealing with Shimamura, is pretty much as she’s always been, introverted, uncommunicative, and giving off a strong “fuck off” aura. Shimamura, who I described as attempting to learn what human emotion is in prior books, is absolutely filled with them here, and a lot of the book is her suddenly breaking down as she once again deals with her childhood dog maybe dying (again, the dog does not die in this book), or her cutely realizing how much she’s in love with Adachi. A depressed teenager who barely interacted with life is now happy and content. It’s nice to see.

First bit of the book: Shimamura goes to see her grandparents, gets overcome with emotion at seeing that Gon is still tired and listless but not dead, unleashes Yashiro on a new set of folks, meets a “childhood friend” from another Iruma series (more on that later), and comes out to her grandma. The rest of the book: it’s school festival time! Honestly, Shimamura wasn’t aware they had one, and neither was Adachi – they likely skipped before now. But this is a new, dynamic Shimamura who does things, and so she comes over to help with their classes’ candied fruit cafe. And Adachi also comes, because Shimamura asks her, and that’s the only reason. The festival is cute – we see Adachi serving and Shimamura waitressing, they get to tour the sites together on a date, they go see Hino and Nagafuji in a class play that sounds like it was based on another work by the author, and they see a concert that I’m pretty sure is based off ANOTHER work by the author. Then, after the festival is over, Adachi invited Shimamura to her house for their own private festival. (No, not like that.)

I’m sure hardcore fans of Iruma are delighted at seeing all the cameos from their other series pop up in A&S. I did work out the girl making the ceramics is from a collection called End Blue, I think? And yes, the series can be read without knowing who the hell these people are. But man, for people like me, who want to track down references, it’s a pain in the ass, as 90% of Iruma’s work is never coming out here. (And, let’s face it, the crossover with My First Love’s Kiss was deeply unwelcome.) That singer and piano player are no doubt from another series, and I don’t know which one, and that just bugs me. And because Iruma doesn’t own the characters, I won’t even get Sayaka from Bloom Into You showing up. Other than that niggle, this is a strong volume, absolutely drenched in Shimamura’s feelings for Adachi, and I can mostly ignore Adachi’s obsessive “there is only one person in my world” feelings, which Shimamura sees as cute but a bit worrying. The “roleplay us ten years in the future” at the end is really sweet.

So yes, a nice, relaxed volume, with no child predators or possible heat deaths of the universe. Next up, a third short story collection, though that doesn’t count 99.9, or the other numbered volumes that have basically been short story collections in all but name.

Imperial Reincarnation: I Came, I Saw, I Survived, Vol. 7

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By Masekinokatasa and Kaito Shinobu. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Koutei deshita: Umarenagara no Koutei wa Konosaki Ikinokoreru ka?” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gwendolyn Warner.

One of these days we’ll have a nice relaxing book where Carmine is given a respite from constant chaos and attempts to take over the Empire, but that day is not today, and honestly probably we’ll never get that. That said, at least Carmine is finally starting to ditch the need to pretend to be a dumb puppet emperor… mostly. He’d like to do this, and he gets to demonstrate that he does know magic after all in a truly ludicrous sequence where he drops a magic nuke, but for the most part the conceit can still be useful. Especially when, following up on the cliffhanger from the last book, the old leader of the Imperium, the religious republic next door that is the Empire’s biggest threat, shows up seeking asylum. Along with his loser son and a terrified aide. So Carmine once again has to pretend to be kinda dumb while he figures out what to do, because every answer seems to be “but that will lead to war”.

Carmine is so caught off guard by the news of the asylum seekers that he has to fake a contagious illness for a few days to gain time to think and gather information. Then he heads back to the capital, meets the Imperium guys, and big surprise, they’re terrible. The former leader is the decadent Roman emperor sort, and his son is scheming and wants power, but doesn’t really have any smarts to back it up. They also clearly have spies in their entourage. In the meantime, of course, the Empire is still fighting a war on several fronts, so Carmine also has to head over to another front line to see how things are going… where, unfortunately, he arrives far too quickly thanks to Count Ethiac, who essentially drugs her horse to ride at top speed for hours to get there as fast as she can. Oops.

The author seems to be swapping out eccentric but unhinged women every book. At the end of this one Count Ethiac is dumped, mostly due to making everything more difficult. In her place we get Illumino, who is the granddaughter of the Gotiroir, who are the “Mongolian horde” equivalent in this series. She’s very strong and very good at being a bodyguard, but cares nothing about anyone around her, so is a terrible commander. She’s also interested in Carmine, and wants to marry him, mostly because he’s the only guy who’s NOT interested in her. Carmine has now found a third weirdo he doesn’t want, which is a shame, as I think Rosaria is dropping hints she would like a couple more wives, if only to build a power base. I apologize for only talking about the mostly non-existent harem in this series, but the alternative is discussing military maneuvers, and no.

Another cliffhanger, as someone is trying to assassinate Carmine! He’s framed as an old enemy we should remember, but this cast is so huge I don’t. I’m sure it’s dramatic. Will he live? Oh, probably. Decent read.

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.