The Twelve Kingdoms, Book Four: Sea God in the East, Vast Sea in the West

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By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Juni Kokuki: Higashi no Wadatsumi, Nishi no Sōkai” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

Everyone loves a good scoundrel who’s secretly smart and caring. They’re a very popular fictional trope. The scoundrel – almost always male, as in this book, though I have seen excellent scoundrel heroines as well – is the sort that always looks like they’re a good for nothing. They drink a lot, they don’t dress or stand properly, they’re always hanging out in the bad parts of town rather than, y’know, ruling the country. It’s always fun to read about how everyone gradually realizes that it was all part of a clever plan, and that in reality everything they’ve been doing had a very good reason. Note that I said it was fun to READ about. As it turns out, when the previous king was renowned for being awful, your kingdom is on the verge of collapsing, and you’re only just starting to recover. having a king who never goes to meetings and is hanging out in brothels can, in fact, be bad.

We’ve met the king of En and his kirin before, helping Youko establish herself and her own kingdom, and later on Taiki needing to choose a new ruler, but it’s clear in those that he’s well-established. Here we go back a bit and see what things were like when he was just getting started. The previous king was a tyrant who nearly destroyed the kingdom, and the land was arid and inhospitable. Twenty years later, the land is starting to recover and the domains that make up the kingdom are beginning to find their feet. But it’s a struggle, and things are not helped by the new king, Shouryuu, who seems to want to fire his most loyal subjects and replace them with people who dislike him. The king, as I noted above, avoids meetings and likes to hang out in brothels. As such, it’s not a surprise when the chancellor of the most prosperous domain decides to have the king step down and let him take over.

As always with this book, the writing is stellar and I barely know where to begin. Shouryuu *is* thinking about the kingdom, and wants to try to get by with the least amount of lives lost. Particularly as his kirin is so sensitive to blood and death. That said, it is interesting that this book pushes back against the idea of kings ruling in the way they do, especially given that this is a world with real gods who have kings chosen by what amounts to people with magical ruler sense. In a normal fantasy universe, there might be a much better argument against Shouryuu’s rule, but here the world is literally set up to show he’s the one they need – which turns out to be true, the guy starting the rebellion is a complete loser who you get to hate. Imagine Tenya from My Hero Academia, only evil. I will also warn you that there *is* bloodshed here, and it’s not the bad guys who die. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned the kid who talks to youma, who turns out to be a far more interesting villain than the other guy, and I hope we see him again.

I hope I don’t need to tell people how good this is and that you should be reading it. Next time, it’s the first of a two-parter where we finally catch up with Youko and see how smoothly things have gone for her. (My guess: not very.)

If the Heroine Wants My Fiancé, I’ll Marry a Yandere Villain Instead!, Vol. 2

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By Kobako Takara and Jun Natsuba. Released in Japan as “Heroine ni Konyakusha wo Torareru Mitai node, Akuyaki Reisoku (Yandere Character) wo Neraimasu” by B’s-Log Bunko. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Emma Schumacker.

One of the problems that a lot of fiction has, be it in English or Japanese, is the trouble with sequels. In North America it feels like you can’t sell a fantasy series these days without it being a trilogy of some sort. Japanese books are frequently contest winners, which means they’re self-contained in one volume, but if they do well then more volumes are always around the corner. And sometimes a series just doesn’t need to be ongoing. This is the trouble I’m running into with the second volume of Yandere Villain. It felt very self-contained when I finished the first book, even though we hadn’t hit a wedding. And now we have a second book, which introduces the inevitable plot complications, and it feels very half-baked. I feel as if the author didn’t really have a plan, so decided to write what they like instead. Which is good news if you like fluff and bratty teens.

Having gotten engaged and solved their immediate issues, Cynthia and Siraiya are ready for a nice, relaxing vacation at her family’s hot springs hotel. All to themselves, where Cynthia dreams of growing closer as a couple… though she’ll find over the course of this book that, due to no sex ed at all, Siraiya is not remotely ready for anything physical. Unfortunately for both of them, the crown prince shows up at the hotel as well… and he’s got cat ears and a tail. This turns out to be due to a book he opened, but Cynthia knows it’s really the subject of a special event in the game world. Unfortunately, this isn’t a game world, and there’s an actual power struggle between Adelberd and his younger brother. Cat ears and a tail are probably not going to win points. Can Cynthia find a way to break the curse? And wait, now the second prince is here as well!

I will admit, the author has a way of writing a bratty teen who’s forced into power struggles he doesn’t want and wants to be more mature than he really is. Rutherford feels very true to life. He also ground on my every nerve, especially when he developed his puppy love crush on Cynthia. We also finally get to meet Adelberd’s fiancée Estellise, and they too have a “oh no, but if we hold hands that would be far too much!” issue. Clearly the otome game they’re from is very G-rated. On the bright side, I did like the resolution of the plot, which allowed Cynthia to save the day in a completely ridiculous way. And the fact that the Japanese word ‘yandere’, unknown here, has been taken by everyone but Cynthia to have a completely positive and not creepy at all meaning is an amusing running gag.

There’s two more volumes apparently, but I think I’m stopping here. The final volume has a wedding cover, so I assume things go well. Which is… not what actual yandere fans want, I think? But oh well.

Goodbye, Horrible Fiancé, Hello, Fun Magic School Life!, Vol. 1

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By Mashimesa Emoto and Nitou Akane. Released in Japan as “Konyakusha wo Sutetara, Tanoshii Mahou Gakkou no Seikatsu ga Matteimashita” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by piyo.

Now that we have a glut in the market when it comes to broken engagement light novels, it can be hard to really sell one to readers as a reviewer. I enjoyed this book, it has a likeable lead, some fun scenes, good support. It does not really, however, have that one thing that makes it stand out of the pack from other books with this exact premise. There’s no quirk, no eccentricity that made the publisher go “wow!”. The publisher put this out as the author has a proven track record (Expedition Cooking with the Enoch Knights, also released by CIW) and this was a title the author really wanted to see published (they bluntly state this in the afterword). So you don’t have to buy it. But again, if you do buy it, it’s a lot of fun… once you get past the first twenty pages or so. Because trust me, the horrible fiancé thing is not a lie.

Misha von Ritual is a viscount’s daughter in a snowy minor territory in the North. She’s engaged and ready to do her all for the territory. Then her fiancé shows up and says that he’s gotten her cousin pregnant. And is marrying her. But he still wants Misha as his second wife. To keep earning money for the child her cousin is now carrying. Who will take over the territory. Oh, and he says he has no plans to sleep with her. Needless to say, she punches the shit out of him, and after consulting with her parents, the errant fiancé and his pregnant girl are hurled out of the kingdom. The parents, who were very lax about this, offer Misha anything she wants, and she asks if she can go to the magic school in the center of the country. It will be hard to get in, but if she does she’ll be happy. Because she has (gasp!) past life memories from Japan, and remembers a certain series of novels about a magic school…

It’s never explicitly stated, so I’m gonna assume she means Diane Duane’s books rather than that other author. One thing I did like is that the application process has multiple tests, takes an entire year, and it’s very easy to fail. In fact, Misha would not have gotten in (her uncle dropped out, an automatic black mark for full scholarships like she needs) if she hadn’t impressed a teacher with her herb talents and ability to essentially work for her tuition. I also appreciated the character of Alice. I will always love a girl who appears at first to be a haughty, arrogant girl but who it turns out is just really awkward and has resting bitch face. As for her obvious love interest, I worried as he seemed to be a teacher, but the end of the book shows that isn’t the case, so I will allow them to be cute together. Also, she has a slime familiar. Everything’s better with slimes. (Don’t worry, he’s a super powerful slime spirit, and can basically do anything required of him.)

There’s at least one more volume of this, and I’ll read it. If you like magic academies and heroines who are quietly awesome without the narrative beating us over the head with it, this is a winner.