Monthly Archives: November 2023

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now, and They Won’t Leave Me Alone, Vol. 1

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By Shigeru Sagazaki and Tetsuhiro Nabeshima. Released in Japan as “Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru: Tada no Inaka no Kenjutsu Shihan Datta noni, Taisei Shita Deshitachi ga Ore o Hōttekurenai Ken” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

It can be difficult when writitng a book to keep the reader’s attention. Conversely, one little mistake may make you lose all the goodwill you gained. A little ways into this book, there was a description of a character that was saw jaw-droppingly awkward that it took me right out of the book. The first thing I thought was “oh boy, this book is going to be A CHORE”. Now, I kept going, and honestly, the book turned out far better than I would have expected – the description really was just a one-off, not the sign of worse things to come. But it did mean it took till the final long chapter for me to appreciate that this book wasn’t making the mistakes that a lot of books in this genre make, but was instead basically doing what Der Werwolf does, and making fun of the Japanese habit of humility to ridiculous levels.

Beryl has spent the last twenty-odd years teaching kids in his father’s dojo. He likes to think he’s done a good job, and is quite happy to live his single life out in the boonies. But then he gets a request from one of his old students, Allusia. She’s now the commander of the knights in the royal capital, and she wants Beryl to go there to teach the other knights his swordsmanship. This is fine with Beryl’s dad, who kicks him out of the family home and tells him not to return until he’s married. So Beryl goes to the capital, and keeps running into old students of his, who all happen to be beautiful young women. That said, why are they all so interested in his teaching swordsmanship? He’s just a normal, average, everyday guy. Who can, um, win a battle against the second-in-command of the knights, the top-ranked adventurer in the country, and the top mage in the country. Yeah.

I picked up this series because I wondered if it would be similar to S-Ranked Daughter, and it is and it isn’t. It isn’t because, with no family to deal with here, all the girls he’s taught clearly have massive crushes on him. But it is because, to my surprise, that’s not the point of the book. The romance is actually ignored for the most part, and the focus is instead on Beryl being one of the greatest swordsmen of his generation but being totally unaware of it. This actually extends to every aspect of his life – he does not pick up on any of the signals other women give that they’re into him, and he even talks about his home village being “way out in the boonies, far from the capital” when it’s less than a day’s carriage ride away. How much you enjoy this depends entirely on how much you can tolerate “excessive humbleness” to the point of parody.

But yes, there were no annoying characters, the fights were cool, and I’ll give the next volume a try. Just please never say ‘She looked like a handsome man with breasts” ever again, I beg you.

Sabikui Bisco, Vol. 6

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By Shinji Cobkubo and K Akagishi. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

You know, I appreciate its use as a plot twist or a way to get the characters to do something they would not normally do, but as I was reading this 6th volume of Sabikui Bisco, I began to think that this series goes to the “I am mind controlled” well a few too many times. Half the cast in this book is, at one time or another mind controlled, including Pawoo, who spends nearly the entire volume at the beck and call of the villain. It can be a tad predictable. That said, I can’t really talk about just mind control. Sabikui Bisco is a series that overdoes everything and dares the reader to object. This volume has reality-warping powers pulled out of nowhere, to the point where everyone remarks on this. It brings back every single cast member of the last five books to do a cameo. It has Milo veer so far into the yandere stereotype that I’m comfortable using the term. The book is just A LOT.

Kurokawa, the villain of the first book, is back. She’s in a female body now, she’s a film director, and she’s taken over all of Japan. If you’re thinking that makes no sense, clearly you have not read the other volumes of this series. Bisco and Milo are forced into action by the evil director, who wants to use Bisco’s attempts to stop her as the plot of her latest film. To do this, she has her assistant director/muscle (Pawoo, mind-controlled as I noted before), as well as any number of minions wearing rabbit masks, who she will happily kill if they don’t get her film trivia correct. As the book goes on, and Bisco keeps pulling out ludicrous solutions to Kurokawa’s even more ludicrous problems, I am once again left with the odd dilemma: how do I sum up the plot in this second paragraph if the book doesn’t have one?

This may make it sound like I did not like the book, which is not true. I actually think it’s the best book since the first. The series has always had an element of “action movie” to it, which normally feels like a Shonen Jump series but here is far more like a Western action film, complete with expensive sequences and CGI. The author now trusts the reader to not particularly care that none of this makes a lick of sense, or that Bisco can defeat the bad guy if everyone just claps for Tinkerbell (the second time I have written that this week). And, as with previous volumes, I am highly amused at the contrast between every single woman in the series falling for Bisco, and he and Pawoo still being married, with the fact that he and Milo are clearly destined for each other and the gayest things ever. The whole book is ridiculous.

But that’s why we read this. I don’t need self-examination from Bisco, even when he goes through genuine tragedy. Just keep pulling out more arrows.

The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?), Vol. 11

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By Toru Taba and Falmaro. Released in Japan as “Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu ~Sou da, Baikoku Shiyou~” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jessica Lange.

We’ve always had the backstory of “the college years” simmering through this series, even if we’ve never had an entire book dedicated to it. We get the odd flashback, such as in this volume. First there was Wein and Ninym. Then, gradually, they added Strang, Glen, and Lowellmina. And the five of them pretty much shook the world as a team. Now each of them is deeply caught up in political intrigue as an adult. Wein and Ninym theoretically have it easier. They’re not from the Empire. They don’t have to participate in this throne war the way the other three do. But of course they really do, and in fact Wein and Ninym have been dragged into it since it began. It’s a proxy war. A war to se which of the five is truly the best, the top strategist, leader, and person. Wein is, frankly, looking down from on top of the pile. He’s the protagonist. But this book suggests it may not last forever.

The battle for the Empire has been going on since the start of the series, and it’s finally reaching its climax. Each of the three candidates for Emperor are making their moves. Lowellmina is dealing with assassination attempts, Strang is trying to show Wein that standing back and doing nothing is going to do nothing but drag his own nation into a war, and Glen is just trying to do his best as a soldier while his boss runs amuck with the largest army. There’s Levetia, which is secretly backing one of the princes basically for the lulz. There’s Eastern Levetia, which just want to have a nice word with Prince Wein but get dragged into the conflict anyway. There’s Falanya, who is cognizant that forces are trying to overthrow her brother and put her in power, but is not sure she wants it. And there’s the Flahm, who are desperate for a beacon of hope to guide them, and may end up being the final stake in Wein’s heart before all this is over.

I admit I was faked out a bit by the author. When Strang asks Ninym if she’s ever wanted to go up against Wein, it feels like a big moment, one that will pay off with her willing betrayal. But that reckons without the fact that she and Wein are joined at the hip, as well as in (unspoken) love, and while it is an intriguing idea (we have not gotten nearly enough of Ninym as a strategist on her own in this series, as opposed to Wein’s sounding board), it’s not something she can do of her own volition. That’s why the cliffhanger for the book is so important. This is the sort of thing that could break the two apart permanently, and I don’t think either of them could stand that. This series is too lighthearted to end by killing off its two leads, but, as I’ve said since the start, I would not be surprised if it ends with Wein “winning” by heading off with Ninym to some quiet place where he can not be a ruler.

The 12th book isn’t scheduled yet, so I’m not sure when we’ll see what happens next. At least the giant throne war is over. For now.