Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden, Vol. 9

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By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

I have to give the author credit. When I began this new volume, which starts after the epic tournament arc, I wondered if we really were going back to Nia films herself racing dogs again. I felt the story was somewhat played out, frankly. And much to my surprise, the main character agrees with me. The best scene in the book may be right at the start of the book, where Nia blithely asks Lynokis “what am I even doing with my life?”, and realizes that being the strongest means throwing away everyone near and dear to you… and she’s already done that in her previous life, and while she still can’t remember much it made her feel empty. She needs something new. Fortunately, the author agrees with us, as we ditch 9/10ths of the cast and go back to just Nia and Lynokis creating chaos wherever they go. So much chaos, in fact, that Nia forgets that’s not actually her goal.

The tournament was a resounding success. For Nia, for the winners (at least after they wriggle out of being a wanted criminal). and for the kingdom. Unfortunately, having not seen anyone in the tournament who could come close to beating her, Nia is a bit depressed. Moreover, when you have a huge event that gets everyone to buy Magivision, you need to follow up with more brilliant ideas or it will stagnate. And so the King orders the kids to come up with a brilliant idea… and reminds them that they’re kids, so as long as it’s not literally illegal, they can get away with just about anything. Nia is here to test that “just about”, and she finds that there are indeed limits. As while they do get a huge event that drives sales even higher, um, she’s now been thrown out of the country.

I will admit, this may be the single funniest book in the series. The entirely of the chapter “The King Falls Into a Pit Trap” had me giggling, and I appreciated that it started with the aftermath – the author wanted to create an absence of tension so we weren’t distracted from the hilarity of the king falling into a pit trap. Even the queen agrees. As for Nia’s exile, sure, I may miss the rest of the cast a bit, but not much, and my main disappointment is that Lynokis is still around, so we still have lolicon jokes. That said, I regret I must give a content warning that countless other light novels have: if you dislike starving orphans being snapped up by the heroine and given food and housing in exchange for working, well, here it is again. The orphans are pretty cute, though.

All this plus a new royal to torture. Nia is here to kick ass and spread the word of magivision, and she tends to forget about the latter, so kicking ass is what you get.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “You, More Than Anyone Else”

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By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

So first of all, I’m going to be blithely ignoring the cliffhanger ending of this one, as well as its “oh no, it ends sadly after all” implications. First of all, no it doesn’t, and secondly, now that this series is down to once a year, we’re not gonna have to worry about it for a long, long time. Instead, let us revel in this book, which gives us a whole heaping helping of Isana. We even get a flashforward about four years, seeing her talking with a junior and seemingly having her life a lot more together than she does now. We also get a new girl added to the mix, who does us the courtesy of falling for Mizuto immediately, and so hard that he actually notices and rejects her. Of course, no fear, that takes the entire volume, because yikes, he’s still Mizuto. When Yume calls him Enemy of All Women she’s not kidding. This guy will be cripplingly nice at you until you have no recourse but to fall over dead.

It’s the Culture Festival, and Mizuto’s class needs to come up with something nifty. an escape room is a good idea… that everyone else is also doing. But hey, maybe if they have art by Isana! Yes, she’s outed at last for being a brilliant artist by hyperactive, scatterbrained Yoshino, and will thus be doing art for the day. She’s already stressed enough, as she has a job offer to do a light novel series, but is afraid of taking that big step. Meanwhile, Yume and her student council election rival are in charge of the entire festival, meaning Yume’s stressing out a bit as well. And then there’s the girl writing the play for her freshman class, who is a great writer who lacks passion, and ends up having Mizuto making some really good but really ill-timed advice. As for Mizuto… well, same ol’ same ol’.

This series has always been really heavy on the fanservice, but I was very impressed with this book, which not only stars Isana in terms of the plot but in terms of the artwork. Isana wears farmer’s overalls that emphasize her chest… and then back in her room, wears them without a bra or shirt. Towards the end of the book, we also see her in her underwear. The big fanservice, of course, cannot actually be drawn, alas, but at least she got her groove back. I also really liked her mother, who is well aware of Mizuto’s “kindness” in helping his friend being incredibly cruel in many ways as well. He deserved to be hit, to be honest. The idea they have for the escape room, with it essentially turning into a multiple endings sort of thing, is quite clever. Best of all is Isana coming to terms with the fact that people like her art, and while it may be embarrassing, it’s her, and she needs to embrace it.

And now we wait, and see if the author actually does pull the trigger on that cliffhanger. Till then, this is saucy romcom fun.

The Petty Villain Plays by the Rules: Rewriting This Otome Game with Honest Work!, Vol. 2

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By MIZUNA and Ruki. Released in Japan as “Yarikonda Otome Game no Akuyaku desu ga, Danzai wa Iya nano de Mattou ni Ikimasu” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by sachi salehi.

This continues to be in my Top 5 “I’m enjoying this far more than I thought I would, and possibly more than I should be” titles. Its biggest flaw is its pace. It’s not slow life – there’s a lot going on here, most of it involving princes and other high nobles – but it is definitely slow writing. This thing is fourteen volumes and counting in Japan, and by the 14th book he still doesn’t really look much older than he is in this book, which is to say six. This despite the fact that he meets his wife in this volume and officially gets engaged. While also, erm, causing a major international incident. Which, to be fair, he was gonna have to do anyway. Kinda hard to solve the other kingdom’s problems without going full ham. especially in this series.

After training in martial arts with his tutor and his father, and in magic with his other tutor (and accidentally revolutionizing all magic… again), Reid and his dad are off to the neighboring kingdom of Lenarute, home of the Dark Elves, where he’ll be meeting his fiancee… who is also six years old. Unfortunately, the Dark Elves are in a massive power struggle between the King and the traditional Evil Noble Who Wants Power And Also Things To Be The Way They Used To Be. Sadly, evil noble has poisoned his fiancee’s brother against Reid, turning him into a proud arrogant brat. So when Reid is forced to have a sword battle with him, he’s asked to humble the prince a bit. Not a problem. Unfortunately, the prince and the Evil Noble decide to make Reid mad by insulting his slowly dying mother. THIS is a problem. For them.

Most of this book runs on a six-year-old accidentally being really smooth, far too smooth than someone his age should be. That’s a pretty good gag, and it helps that we already know his future wife (she was the lost girl in the town in Book 1, hiding her elf ears.) But there are other really good gags, mostly character based. Farah (his fiancee) is adorable, and also shows her positive emotions by wiggling her ears, something she’s very bad at turning off. Her bodyguard, Asuna, is a battle junkie, and oh my God I wish Diana was not already in a relationship with her childhood friend, because Asuna and Diane would make an AMAZING lesbian power couple. There’s also a bittersweet side story from the POV of Reid’s mother, who wants to be an active, teasing mom who loves her kids, but is simply too bedridden, and she hates it. She also gets the funniest gag in the book, at the end of her chapter.

Basically, this is better than I expected – again. Despite it being nearly 400 pages, and the author STILL couldn’t finish the arc. I’ll read another one.