Monthly Archives: April 2021

I Refuse to Be Your Enemy!, Vol. 5

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By Kanata Satsuki and Mitsuya Fuji. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Teki ni Narimasen!” by PASH! Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tara Quinn.

It will come as no particular surprise to learn that, in this volume, Kiara is captured by the enemy for a section. That is going to happen with this type of romantic heroine in this type of book. It’s handled pretty well, though there is a sexual assault warning fro the book, as Credias pretty much attempts to molest Kiara the moment she’s in his grasp. We also get not one, not two, but THREE times where I thought “ah, this is it, that character is gonna die” and then turned out to be wrong, which again is mostly related to the fact that Kiara, when it comes right down to it, does not like killing anyone she’s gotten to know – though she’s perfectly OK with killing faceless mooks she doesn’t know, as we see here. That said, more important than all of these things, Kiara finally clues in to her own feelings and realizes that she’s in love with Reggie. It may not shock the reader, but it shocks her.

As noted above, despite the best efforts of Cain and the other soldiers, Kiara is captured by Isaac. And unfortunately that also means Credias, who is perfectly happy to kill everyone in the way of his raping, torturing, and killing Kiara, possibly not in that order. Fortunately, Isaac is wise enough to realize that, in order to get what he needs, he cannot have Kiara be taken by Credias at all. Also fortunately, Reggie and company are coming to the rescue, which is cool and involves several giant mice. After this, there’s still a lot of war to be fought, trust me. The enemy seem to have endless piles of reinforcements, and are very happy to convert anyone who comes near them into a defective spellcaster. Fortunately our side has Kiara, who is strong, Reggie, who is learning how to use magic at last, and the Thorn Princess, who is… ???

I said last time that the series did not really lean too hard on the reincarnated from Japan into an otome game part of this plot, but that starts to change here, in several interesting ways. Some I won’t spoil, but I did find it very telling that Reggie and others worry that Kiara’s utter disregard for her own life and tendency to take daring risks stems from a fact that she thinks this is not a “real” world and that she might just wake up back there after she dies. That proves to… not quite be the case? Indeed, there’s a certain sentence in the book that made me say “Oh my GOD”, as we might actually be smooshing reincarnation isekai and otome game villainesses together with another stock plot. That said, for those who are reading this romance title for the romance, be assured there are love confessions, cute possessiveness, and a heck of a lot of attention paid to Kiara’s legs and feet in this book as well.

The next volume is the last, and the cover art has a wedding dress for Kiara, so no prizes guessing how it ends. Still, there’s a war to end, and one last pesky (or should I say thorny) plotline to wrap up. Another enjoyable volume of this military romance isekai villainess redemption fantasy.

Last Round Arthurs, Vol. 4: The Weakest Knight & The Exceptional One

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By Taro Hitsuji and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jan Cash.

I have to admit a certain sense of relief. I kept telling myself that eventually the novels would HAVE to get to Sir Kay and make them more than a simply butt monkey fanservice generator, but so far the author had not lived up to my expectations. Even the start of this book, which has Sir Kay and Emma dressed up in flashy fetish outfits as part of Luna’s plan to make her potential voters too horny to vote for anyone but her in the student elections, there was a temptation to sigh. But no, Kay actually gets a thing to do here, and it fits in quite well with her character, which, let’s face it, has been “loyal but weak’, as the subtitle says. That said, it’s a good thing Sir Kay was around for this battle, as Luna and Rintarou are faced with one of their biggest challenges… one that comes after one of Rintarou’s greatest losses. Will he be able to keep his head and not get tempted? (Signs point to no.)

As our story opens, as most of these books do, with Luna being doing her best “Haruhi Suzumiya in Book 2” impersonation, Nayuki is still trying to fess up to Rintarou about who she really is – he knows she’s a Dame du Lac, but has not really figured out she’s actually Nimue, or at least not consciously. Unfortunately, Nayuki’s own cowardice plus Luna being obnoxious means that instead of a confession, we get a brutal execution by Vivian, who would appear to be, if not the final boss, at least the second to last one. Despite Rintarou’s Roaring Rampage of Revenge, there’s not really much he can do about that… well, unless he convinces Luna to go completely off the map of the test for the next King Arthur and instead go on a Quest foe the Holy Grail… a test that everyone admits is impossible. Can he, Luna and Kay survive what appears to be a trip to the underworld? Why is Rintarou so manic? And why is Luna so depressed?

Despite the way that I phrased that last sentence, this is not a bodyswap sort of problem, but instead a very good example of Rintarou completely 100% screwing up. For once, you want to strangle HIM instead of Luna, who as always improves throughout the book, especially once she starts dwelling on her not-very-tragic backstory, something she clearly remembers better than the other person in it. As it turns out, capturing the Holy Grail is REALLY HARD to do, and only Galahad had ever successfully done it before, and they immediately took it to Heaven, which is definitely not where this Grail search takes place. Fortunately, even with Rintarou essentially being stupid, Luna has two big weapons at her disposal: a) her ludicrous determination, and b) the only Knight of the Round Table who’s as pure as Galahad was. Sir Kay finally steps up, and it’s very satisfying.

The next volume is the last one, and that seems about right, to be honest. Certainly the cliffhanger does not bode well. But now that Rintarou is back to normal, and with Luna’s bullheaded pure courage and kindness, they should be OK. If you like stories about blonde King Arthurs seeking a Holy Grail, this is at least the third best.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 5

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By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

This is not the final volume of this series – not even remotely, as Vol. 12 just came out in Japan last month – but you might be forgiven for thinking this after reading the volume itself, which has the feel of an “and the adventure continues” sort of ending. Our heroes go to visit the Last Dungeon Boonies themselves, Lloyd’s hometown, and find it’s just as ridiculous as you’d expect. We not only get the return of the minor villain of the 4th book, still brainwashed, but also the return of the minor villain of the second book, who is recovering nicely from being evil. Our two major villains show up, joined by a third, and we get all their backstories and reasons for what they’re doing. And we get hints of the real background of Alka, and it’s… surprising. There’s also a big ol’ melee battle at the end, with Lloyd arriving in the Nick of Time. But again, not the last volume.

As noted above, the main cast all decide to go back to Kunlun, mostly to do something about fixing Vritra, still in cursed belt form. Of course, some folks may have alternate reasons to go there, be it to get valuable materials and sell them for cash (Riho), meet Lloyd’s family, get their blessing, marry him, have children, and have more children (Selen), or finding new and exciting ways to GET STRONGER! (Phyllo). After making their way there via the magic portal of Alka’s friend Eug, a dwarf who’s been around as long as Alka has. Once there, they find their old military instructor and the minor villain of the FIRST book, who was exiled there as punishment and is now very strong and also very weird. It’s all pretty muuch fun and games, with lots of laughs. Then we get to the second half of the book…

I’ve always been somewhat suspicious of Lloyd’s “at home, I’m the weakest” claim, and despite the townsfolk showing off such things as being shot out of a cannon to go to the nearby mountaintop, I’m even more suspicious after this book. Both the good guys and the bad guys see Lloyd has a destiny, though how they want to shape that destiny is another story. Fortunately, Lloyd is as innocent as a lamb, and thus unlikely to really be seriously manipulated by bad guys. I’m also impressed with Riho, who honestly should get a spinoff series where she’s the detective, and Selen, who shows that when she drops her yandere act she too can be quite clever and courageous. Phyllo doesn’t get quite as much, mostly as she’s the stoic type, but I was amused at her finding out exactly how much she needs to train… and then discovering that the Kunlun folks use that training for morning calisthenics. Oh yes, and Allan gets to be the butt monkey of the series AND also get everyone thinking – again – that he’s the real hero here. Honestly, he sort of is. We can’t all be Lloyd.

This was probably the strongest volume in the series to date, tying together a bunch of storylines and also leaving room for more to be developed. That said, there’s still one main reason to follow this series – everyone is a wacky parody. For those who love laffs, spelled exactly that way.