Monthly Archives: February 2020

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 22

Leave a reply

By Mizuho Kusanagi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Yona” by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media. Translated by JN Productions, Adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane.

Last time I asked when Yona was going to finally realize her romantic feelings for Hak, and I guess the answer is “not that long after”, as she admits it to Riri, if not to Hak. The two have a heart to heart, and Riri, of course, wants Yona to immediately confess. Yona, though, is now aware of her feelings but has to contextualize them with the rest of her life with Hak – she can’t simply flip into “oh, I love him” right away. Especially as we’re still not quite sure how she feels about Su-Won. Though Hak seems to think he knows how she feels, and proves it by spending most of a chapter trying to retrieve the hairpin that Su-Won gave Yona. Hak’s self-sacrifice can verge on the ridiculous at times, and it should be clear to the reader that we’re likely a couple of volumes away from a confession. Still, it’s nice to see Yona’s awareness.

While it’s clear to the reader that Yona and Hak are the big romantic pairing in this series, romance is only one facet of this fantasy action series, and the facet begins and ends with those two. This leads to an amazing scene where Su-Won goes to visit a recovering Riri, and sparks absolutely do not fly. In fact, he begs her to treat him normally, as it’s just too uncomfortable having Riri using polite language to him. (Given how often Su-Won goes undercover, this must happen quite a lot.) Others may see her as a potential bride for the King (witness the amazing sword dance that goes on as Riri gets a quick makeup job) but Riri likes Yona… erm, pardon me, older men like Geun-Tae, and Su-Won does not seem to grasp the concept of love and romance, something he freely admits. Which is possibly why he gave Yona that remarkable hairpin before murdering her father.

We finish up one plot and begin another in this book, which means we get nice comedy moments in between arcs, as always (no, Jaeha’s foot does not grow huge like Gija’s hand) before the Happy Hungry Bunch are called to Xing, another kingdom that is about to go to war with Kohka. The kingdom is divided between the two princesses, and Yona and company meet the younger one, Tao, who is trying to save lives by having her country surrender. Needless to say, this makes her a target for those who disagree. Tao looks like a classic “I appear to be an adorable pushover, but am actually very clever” sorts, and I took to her right away – especially when she noticed Yona’s discomfort around the guys due to the sudden incursion of an unusually painful period, and took immediate action. Hopefully she survives the cliffhanger ending, though given she’s with Zeno, who has gotten very good at using his powers now that we know what they are, I think she’ll be OK.

As always, it’s hard to say “this is a must buy and essential shoujo” after every review, but it’s true. An excellent volume.

The World’s Least Interesting Master Swordsman, Vol. 1

Leave a reply

By Rokurou Akashi and Shiso. Released in Japan as “Jimi na Kensei wa Soredemo Saikyou desu” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Noboru Akimoto.

I was very much on the fence about this title when I heard it announced. The idea of a boring but overpowered lead is not new to the world – see One-Punch Man for the most obvious example – but whether the title succeeds or not is very much dependent on the surrounding cast and situations. In this regard Least Interesting Master Swordsman does a fairly good job. The cast is hefty, especially for a first volume, with a kingdom with four noble families, several princesses, several isekai’d heroes, and any number of magic powers and romantic back and forth. Contrasting all of this is our hero, Sansui, who not only has been practicing with his wooden sword for so long that he’s unbeatable but also has been living for so long that he no longer has the desire to eat, drink, or get romantically involved with anyone. All this is fine. The problem is that for the majority of the story, Sansui is also the narrator, and his tone is just as dry and boring as his swordsmanship.

Sansui is, as so many of these stories begin with, a typical Japanese boy accidentally killed by God – his name is sort of the equivalent of Amos for North American countries, and therefore God thought he was old and killed him. As an apology, he’s sent to another world, and offered the choice to get insanely strong, which he happily takes up. Unfortunately, his teacher teaching the sword just has him doing practice swings. And, as he’s immortal, he does them a long time. After five hundred years, he’s got nothing more to learn, and also comes across a baby about to be eaten by wild animals, so heads towards the civilization (with baby). Years later, he and his adorable adopted daughter are living with the House of Sepaeda, with him serving as the bodyguard to its spoiled princess Douve, alongside Blois, her bodyguard and attendant, who has a crush on Sansui. They head off to the Magical Academy, and the plot comes with them…

Sometimes this book feels like I’m reading an isekai from the POV of the villain’s party. Sansui is relatively nice, but he’s so monotone it doesn’t come off well, and he will happily kill people if his mistress asks him to. Douve is pretty awful, seemingly doing anything as long as she’s entertained, but fortunately this makes her fun to read rather than annoying. There’s a 2nd cast that’s meant to read as “the normal isekai party”, with a Japanese guy with superpowers (who loses to Sansui over and over, of course) and his harem of princess, foreign princess, and cursed princess. They contrast nicely with Sansui, and when the narrative voice switches to one of them the book comes alive a bit more, not a good sign. As for Sansui, he doesn’t really get aroused anymore after 500 years, and his reaction to Blois can be summed up as “OK, whatever”, but he at least doesn’t reject her.

Again, there’s a lot to like here – the plot is pretty good, and there are some funny lines throughout. It just feels lugubrious when Sansui is narrating everything as if he’s reading his grocery list, and it took me a while to plow though. I’ll read another, but I hope he gets a bit more interesting.

Isekai Rebuilding Project, Vol. 1

Leave a reply

By Yukika Minamino and Kotokan. Released in Japan as “Isekai Saiken Keikaku” by Legend Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Adam Seacord.

This is a title with a lot of things going for it, starting with one of the best pieces of cover art I’ve seen for some time. The premise is also strong. Our hero Eiji is… a man who is happy with his life. He has a good career, a fiancee he loves, etc. But one day he is… NOT killed by a truck. Instead he ends up transported in front of a “goddess” (though it’s made clear that’s how his brain is formatting this) and told he’s being asked to help save worlds that had heroes sent to them before. Unfortunately, those heroes, in introducing modern concepts to an otherwise pre-industrial world, ended up making things worse. Eiji is being asked to fix this, then he can go back to his cool life. He’s well-versed in light novels and isekai… as is the author, clearly. There’s also a well-handled twist at the end. It’s just that I found the actual plot in the middle… a bit boring?

Speaking of that twist, this paragraph will be spoiler-free. Then I’ll put a break line in the review, and then I will discuss the end of the book. In any case, Eiji arrives and is given a partner, a female dragon (she’s his own height and walks on two legs, though) who he names Tiamat, because of course. The two of them end up at a city where the inhabitants are slowly dying from beriberi, aka B1 deficiency, because the previous isekai’d hero loved his white rice and introduced the area to it, forgetting that brown rice is where the vitamins are. So he and Tiamat, through trial and error (he very deliberately has no powers at all) have to find substitute foods with B1 in them. This is not as interesting as it sounds. There’s also a lot of time spent deconstructing isekais, which is fine, and Eiji has a point, but I don’t think that this series is sufficiently different enough for him to be too smug about it.

Break line summary: the twist means I’ll be reading more, but I’m finding that Legend Novels trying to be for older readers means that sometimes the book is also duller.

OK, let’s talk that twist. It’s handled well enough, making the reader guess something is up as the book goes on, but not quite what. It doesn’t really kick in till they tell you WHO the prior hero was. That said… I found Tiamat’s constant spouting of Japanese trivia and media through the book rather irritating, and the fact that she turned out to be who she is didn’t mean that I went back and said “Aaah, so she’s not annoying!”, it just made me say “ah, that explains it”. While I don’t think that’s what we’re getting in the second book (Eiji herre dying – ironically not on Earth but in the isekai world – and asking to try again) , I’d love to see a book from Tiamat’s perspective, which would also get into how she feels about the previous hero. In addition, the way the world is “saved” feels, not to put too fine a point on it, grim and gritty. It’s why Eiji wants to return – it leaves a bad taste in his mouth. But it does in mine as well.

So good idea, great cover, the execution could use some work. Still worth reading for those who enjoy deconstructions or snarky dragon women.