By Yuki Kashirome and icchi. Released in Japan as “E, Shanai System Subete One Operation Shite Iru Watashi o Kaiko desu ka?” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Minna Lin.

Content warning: This review will be discussing a book that deals with multiple companies that use AI, and it discusses AI throughout the book, usually in a positive way (though it does emphasize AI without humans making decisions is a disaster). Reader discretion is advised.

This is still good, but we are starting to reach the point where I tell the author “you know this is not a sustainable idea for a long-run series, right?”. This book introduces a new person who feels their dream can never be achieved, and then marvels at Ai making it happen using both her computational prowess and her sunny, cock-eyed-optimist personality. A personality that she can only use on others and not herself, as Ai continues to struggle with self-confidence issues. We see her kicking herself that she doesn’t have a dream like everyone else, and she still doesn’t really feel like an adult. This is despite Tsubasa proposing to her (one of the most casual proposals ever), Megumi calling her a God, and Kenta, having returned from his sabbatical, seemingly reinventing his entire ethos because of her. Actually, that may be Ai’s biggest problem, and I suspect if this book does come to a close, Ai vs. Ken may be the final battle. Because she’s not happy with what he is now.

Now that they have Ai’s Smart Glasses and Megumi’s Megumi Arm, our small little startup needs to take the next step, and that’s virtual idols, which are a big thing. Ai and Megumi vow to find a fantastic virtual idol to be their collaborator, and they do find them, and eventually, after much angsting and worrying, recruit them. Unfortunately, Kenta’s become all about the profit now, and his idea involves teaming up with the company behind the biggest virtual idol group in the country. Which means that Ai’s friend won’t get their big debut after all. He’s become a big meanie, that Ken! But, he’s also correct in terms of what it takes to make it in today’s world. Can Ai find a solution, possibly involving an even bigger collab? And will the technology hold up?

We get a lot of that other company in this book, headed by their own version of Kenta, Kawabe. He and Kenta are after the same thing, but Kawabe also wants to be best and crush any potential competition, and is also a bit of a brat, so you know he’s going to fail. I did like that, when we meet the rest of Kawabe’s team, they all sound like eccentric personalities in and of themselves. We don’t spend any real time with them, but they feel like they have lives outside the meeting they had with Ai and company. I was also amused at Matsuri Komari and Megumi swapping tragic backstories, because everyone in Ai’s orbit has a tragic backstory. But again, the main feeling I got from this volume, even as the end of it was pretty triumphant, was “this ends soon, right?”.

There’s a fourth volume out, so it doesn’t end yet. And that volume has Kenta on the cover, not Ai. We’ll see what happens.