The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Vol. 9

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By Piero Karasu and Yuri Kisaragi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

There was a long gap between Book 8 and Book 8.5 in North America, which allowed the series in Japan to not only get further ahead but even finish – the final volume will be lucky number 13. Fortunately, there’s less of a gap between 8.5 and this book, so we can start to catch up. This is the start of the final arc, according to the author, and as such we’re finally going to be looking outside of Palettia to other countries – in particular the Ailean Empire. Anis and Euphie have spent most of the series dealing with troubles in their own backyard, be it Anis’ magical inventions, the wicked nobles scheming to make her a puppet Queen, Euphie’s own broken engagement, etc. Now that most of that has been resolved, it’s time to look outward… though Anis and Euphie really don’t want to look outward. They’re still laser focused on progress at home. Unfortunately, when you’re making really cool things that can change the world, “sorry, they’re not for sale” isn’t going to cut it.

As Anis tries to deal with all the paperwork that starting a new Magicology City entails, she ends up discovering something terrible – denizens of the Ailean Empire want to assassinate her! See, the Empire had a massive “take over everything” phase a while back, and took over some countries that bordered on Palettia and traditionally hated them – and that tradition hasn’t gone away even though they’re now subjects of the Empire. Fortunately, Anis now knows in advance, and can take precautions. This leads her and Euphie to meet with the emperor, who sounds like a freak, and acts it too a lot of the time, but ends up being one of those “I disguise my intelligence behind an annoying false front” sorts, and he’s here to psychoanalyze Euphie – much to her displeasure. Can all this be resolved by a visit to the Empire?

I really did like the Emperor’s talk with Euphie. He points out, and he’s not wrong, that she has no desires of her own as ruler. She’s only doing it for Anis. In that sense, Anis really is the driving force behind the country at the moment. It’s a good point, and I can see why people would be wary of someone who doesn’t seem to have any wants or needs. There’s also what amounts to a resolution of Tilty’s storyline – I get the sense the bulk of the rest of the series is going to be visiting the Empire, and she’s definitely not coming. Searching or a way to fix her issues has led to a solution that works well for her, but I agree it should stay secret till they sort everything out. I also really liked the way to bring Ilia back into the plot, as she’s done very little lately, short stories aside. She also does nothing in this book, but the future looks better for her and Lainie.

In the end, my favorite scenes in this series remain Anis and Euphie being lovey-dovey even as they discuss assassins, empire building, and a turbulent future. Still great fun to read.

Even Exiled, She’s Still the Beloved Saint! St. Evelyn’s Weird and Wonderful Friends, Vol. 3

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By Harunadon and Kurodeko. Released in Japan as “Tsuihousareta Seijo desu ga, Jitsu wa Kunijuu kara Aisaresugitete Kowain desu kedo!?” by Earth Star Luna. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Camilla L.

And then it all falls apart. The afterword of this series mentions that the author really wanted to do this sort of plot, which made me raise an eyebrow, and that they suspect no other author has taken a swerve like this, which I know isn’t true. They then tell us that the editor has asked that the next cover they want to see Evelyn smile, and encourage us with a “so you’d better buy this enough!” threat. Reader, they did not buy this enough, and this third and final volume came out in 2023, with Evelyn still not quite married. That said, unlike another series I read recently, everything is pretty wrapped up here. In fact, everything was pretty wrapped up in Book 2. The most painful thing about this book is that it’s unnecessary, flabby, and will do something for a laugh and then abandon it when exposition is needed. It’s not good.

Evelyn wakes up in a room with the other eleven supporting characters of this series, where they are told by a mysterious rabbit that they are going to be playing… a DEATH GAME! Evelyn, needless to say, finds this horrifying, especially when she’s told that a lot of people in the kingdom go missing every year, and it’s now assumed they’re killed off in this game. In the first game, they run a relay race against zombies, who bite Alex and Mary, who are theoretically now zombified… though it seems to be taking a long time. In the second death game, they’re divided into two teams of six to play “Wolves and Villagers”. Evelyn’s group is narrated by her, and Kira gets the narration for the other group. This allows everyone to play detective… some badly. But who’s really behind all this?

I appreciate that this series runs on Rule of Silly, but I do expect some consistency. We get an extended gag of Evelyn not getting the Wolves and Villagers rules as she’s too thick, but then near the end she’s able to rattle off all the various deductions she’s made with ease. I am generally not a fan of death games in general, so his was always going to be an uphill battle. But the relay race vs. zombies thing didn’t really make any sense, and only worked as a sort of way to force Mary to apologize to her sister without making it sound out of character. Evelyn is engaged to Theodore, and loves him, but really the only reason she’s not marrying Kira is his age – they have the far stronger bond. And the revelation of the culprit’s motivations just made me sigh, but at least it fit in with everything else in this series.

I don’t expect more of this. It was very silly but fun, then very silly and a lot less fun. Go read the author’s other series, which are far better.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Short Story Chronicles

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By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan as “Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

Siiiiiiiigh. No, that’s not a sigh over the content of the book, it was quite good, and I enjoyed it very much. That was a sigh over the fact that it is, like a lot of this type of book, unreviewable. It’s a short story volume that serves as the final volume of a long-running series, so I’m not going to be selling it to anyone but folks who have read the other 20 books, who will buy it regardless of what I say. It’s micro-stories, so I can’t even do a nice summary of them that uses up 1/3 of my word count. But come on, they’re fine. They mostly seem to cover what happened just before or just after some of the more notable scenes in the series, and a few of them try to cover characters or relationships that weren’t delved into much before. Mostly, though, it’s one last round-up of the folks who you enjoyed reading about for nearly a decade. Machiavelli, thankfully, is absent.

The cover shows Souma with his eight wives, including the surprise final wife Juno. The wraparound story takes place about two decades or so after the final book, with Juno’s son and Aisha’s daughter going up north to go adventuring, which sadly gets immediately aborted when they run into jerks who insult their moms, meaning that beatdowns are coming… for the jerks. Luka is, much like Souma, a bit potato-ey, but like all his moms, he can kick eight kinds of ass… in fact, literally like his moms, that’s his power. Misha is an eight-year-old dark elf, meaning she’s old enough to see the world, despite the worries of her mom. And we also meet Shanti, adopted daughter of Mugal and Fumi (no, I don’t remember them either), who wants to battle now and is very pissed off Luka won’t do so. (She hasn’t gotten permission from her dad yet.) Oh yes, and Musashibo is there, and everyone knows who he is.

That takes up about 30 pages. The other 376 (!!) are the micro-stories. I have no idea if these are “bookstore exclusives” or what have you. I liked seeing more of Serina, who’s perfect for this sort of book: funny and didn’t really get a lot of screen time explaining why she fell so hard for Pancho. Likewise, there’s a series of stories showing Maria going round to visit the wives, not really getting their permission but more showing that she’s one of them now. Everyone likes each other in this. That may be its big weakness, of course. Since it covers nineteen books where we know what’s happened already, these stories are generally a bit boring. That said, who wants angst and drama at a time like this? This is heartwarming out the wazoo, the main women (it’s mostly driven by the women) are great, and it ends as it began, with Souma and Liscia riding a horse through town, only now he can ride, and she’s in front of him.

So yes, this is the final end, full stop, I’m sure there won’t be any more. Maybe. Bye, Realist Hero. You were far better than anything Eliezer Yudkowsky has come up with.