Monthly Archives: April 2021

Tearmoon Empire, Vol. 4

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By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

We’ve now had three books filled with Princess Mia doing something for either selfish or silly reasons (or, increasingly, because she is a very nice person) that ends up misinterpreted by everyone around her as pure brilliance, and we get plenty of that here as well. But we’re starting to also see the rest of the cast accomplish things away from Mia and have their own subplots. No, alas, I don’t mean Miabel, who’s still pretty much the mascot character of the series, and gets left behind for the second half of the book while the rest of the cast have a cruise. Instead, it’s Ludwig, thinking of some offhand remarks of Mia’s as well as what he thinks she would be doing in his place, that leads him to uncover a web of political intrigue that could end up crippling the Empire if things do end up happening the way that Mia predicts they will. His investigation and detective work is a refreshingly sedate part of this book. That said, rest assured there’s still a lot of Mia vs. reality here to love.

As with a couple of other Tearmoon books, the main plot is divided into two large chunks. The first picks up where the previous book left off: the school Mia had planned to start up is floundering, as ,most of the teachers and the headmaster have left. The answer is sadly obvious: Mia may be a very atypical noble now, but most nobles are far more like what Mia was in her previous “life”, and they are not having which this school where horrible farmers will be taught. To solve this, Ludwig suggests bringing in his former mentor, an eccentric old man whose grumpy tendencies and dislike of most nobles play right into Mia’s hands. After this, she is invited on a sea cruise to a tropical island by fellow noble Esmeralda, who IS like most nobles are – you will expect her maid to stab her in the face before the book finishes. Accompanied by Sion, Abel and Keithwood, all of whom supposedly go to “guard” Mia, they sadly run into a typhoon, leaving them stranded on an island that no longer looks as fun.

To get a big negative out of the way first, there is a subplot here about Mia getting a swimsuit for the cruise and realizing that she has tummy bulge, which unfortunately leads to a bunch of fat jokes, though Mia does end up losing most of the weight before the cruise itself. It’s not welcome. The rest of the book is filled with Tearmoon shenanigans, as most of the cast are content to listen to what she says and then make the most amazingly wrong conclusion imaginable, usually to the benefit of everyone involved. The semi-exception here is Keithwood, who knows Mia can be a flake, and is irritated with her mushroom obsession (especially as most of them are poisonous), but still regards her as a force for good. Which, honestly, she is. The narrative may frame Mia’s actions much of the time as self-interest or cowardice, but more and more we’re seeing Mia just be really nice to everyone – and get irritated when other nobles are not, as her anger towards Esmeralda’s treatment of her servant shows. Mia may be no Great Sage, but if things continue to go like this, she may make a very good leader.

The books are getting quite popular in Japan – the author talks about a stage play being made, and a 2nd one is due out this year – and it’s not hard to see why. Mia is fun, the books are exciting, there’s some good politics, and each book is long enough that you get a lot of bang for your buck. Hopefully fewer fat jokes next time, but otherwise still essential.

Holmes of Kyoto, Vol. 4

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By Mai Mochizuki and Shizu Yamauchi. Released in Japan by Futabasha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Minna Lin.

Rarely have I had to eat my words quite so much as I have in the gap between my review of the third volume and this one, and I urge readers to absolutely not go back and read it. Still, it does mean we have to confront the elephant in the room, though admittedly the book is doing it as well. This series features a man just out of college in love with a girl still in high school, and Japan sure has no issues with this whatsoever given the sheer number of titles out lately featuring age-gap romances, but Western readers tend to dig in their heels a lot more. Now, let’s not kid ourselves, things are not going anywhere anytime soon. Indeed, I will be very surprised if anything happens before Aoi turns 18. Mostly as Aoi continues to delude herself about Holmes’s feelings towards her, which are not only obvious to the reader but are starting to be obvious to everyone else as well. Fortunately by the end of the book, Aoi has at least come to a different realization.

As with other books in this series, we get a short story and three longer ones. The short story is simply Holmes taking Aoi on a date, though she doesn’t actually realize that’s what it is. We then get to meet Holmes’ grandmother, who has a bisque doll that strangely is the distaff counterpart to one they have in the antique shop… and one which might be haunted! After that, despite the author’s assurances in previous afterwords, we get what amounts to a murder mystery, albeit one where the victim survived, and Holmes is forced to deal with a case whose only artwork is the books of an author. Lastly, we meet the owner’s stepson Rikyu, who idolizes Holmes and who clearly is NOT loving Aoi at all. Will she be able to win him over by being a quasi-appraiser at an event thrown by Rikyu’s grandfather to determine who gets his inheritance?

As noted, the second case, while quite well done, feels a bit different to the other “cases” we’ve read, even though we’ve dealt with death and attempted assault in previous books. Possibly for this reason, it also feels a bit overdone, with Holmes’ talents not feeling as natural as they do when he’s looking at antiques. The third story was the best, as Rikyu is a fun addition to the cast, basically being a sullen teen who’s unhappy that his favorite relative is being taken away from him by another woman. I will admit that Aoi’s preternatural progress in learning about artwork and antiques is almost as unrealistic as Holmes turning into Hercule Poirot, but the moment is set up really well and you feel so happy for her I’ll grant it. And we do get an awful lot about Holmes clear feelings for Aoi and mistrust of other men (he’s right, she is awfully naive) as well as Aoi’s tendency towards self-loathing cropping up, thinking that Holmes is “far beyond her”… but at least, right at the end, she can admit to herself she’s fallen in love with him.

So yes, last time I said this wasn’t one for romance fans, and I will have to take that back, but I do think that mystery fans will get more out of this. We’ll see what happens in the next volume, this is a long-running series.

The Reincarnated Prince and the Hero of Light

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By Nobiru Kusunoki and Arico. Released in Japan as “Herscherik” by M Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by afm.

The last two volumes of the Herscherik books have had the subtitle refer to a new vassal that is the focus of that particular book, so you might be coming into this one wondering who the Hero of Light is going to be. But no, Herscherik has a full army of weapons in his cache now, both in terms of the men he has at his side and also his family, who are increasingly rebelling more and more against the chains of Marquis Barbosse. He has tried assassinating the royal family to depress the King into doing his bidding, he has tried introducing lethal drugs into the kingdom, and he has tried using his own daughter in a plot to kill Herscherik, one that ends in her own death instead. And yet here is Herscherik, a literal seven-year-old running rings around him. Of course, the reader knows that’s because he has the mind of a brilliant Japanese middle manager in hi, but no one ELSE knows that. So there’s only one thing left to do: send Herscherik off to die in war.

Yes, in an incredibly convenient coincidence, the country next door has decided to amass a huge invasion force at the border, so the army needs to take their much smaller force and go investigate. Barbosse suggests that Herscherik should go, despite being seven, as … well, he comes up with excuses over and over as to why no one else in the family should go, to the point where by now everyone in the room is aware he’s doing his best Snidely Whiplash imitation. But that’s fine by Hersch, who has also decided to stop pretending to be an innocent seven-year-old and act his age + his reincarnated age. As a result, they head off into an obvious trap and, well, get ambushed. Surprise! That said, Herscherik is a good two or three steps ahead of Barbosse here, and, of course, has Kuro, Orange, and Weiss, who together are the equal of at LEAST one invading army.

The book reads as if the editor said “you know those scenes you always get near the end of a book that make the reader punch the air? Could you fill the book with them?”. Every confrontation is a joy, and while sometimes the plot does verge on the ridiculous (I will give the fall from the cliff a pass because every book needs at least one hand wave) other parts are very well crafted, bringing in events from the first three books and tying them together, and also answering the very obvious question we’ve had for some time: given Barbosse can kill off the royal family with impunity, why hasn’t he done away with the youngest prince? The book is also very good about talking about the difference between doing what’s right for the nation and doing what you personally want to do, and how even Hersch finds that hard to handle at times. And, as I mentioned before, the dramatic confrontations are to die for. (Literally, sometimes.)

The series is not over, and reassuring us that we’re still only in the prologue of the Tales of the Prince (though we do meet the author of the books here, a scrub in the army trying to survive so he can send his pay back to his family), but this book definitely closes the book on the plot that’s run through the previous three. Where does it go from here? We shall see. Till then, enjoy a fantastic light novel series that makes the reincarnation isekai bits work well and also not be overused.