By Mizue Tani and Asako Takaboshi. Released in Japan as “Hakushaku to Yōsei” by Shueisha Cobalt Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

I always tend to have the same pattern when I read a new volume of Earl and Fairy. I start off a bit reluctant, remembering the slow pacing and the fact that Lydia always seems perpetually angry and Edgar has a tendency to always make things worse. I think to myself, “if it weren’t for the fact that I’m the only reader, I would drop this”. Then as the book goes along, it gets more exciting and the thriller aspects take over, and I am reminded once again why I do keep going and why I like it so much: the romance is meh, but the supernatural thriller is great. This book actually manages to improve on the romance a bit as well, as Lydia has admitted her feelings for Edgar, and he is deliberately trying not to mack on other women. Unfortunately, as we will see, both of those things combine to once again make everything terrible for our still not married couple.

Lydia is trying to figure out what to get Edgar as an engagement present, given that he can buy anything he wants. After shopping with Lotta (been a while since we’ve seen her), she goes home and is accosted by a young Scottish man who insists that they need to get married to save the clan. Turns out the short story regarding Lydia’s mom, from the previous volume, is more relevant than expected: the village she left is suffering, and they all think marrying Lydia will solve the problem. Unfortunately, there’s also someone else who wants to marry Lydia – no, not Edgar, although yes, him too. A trow kidnaps her, Lotta, Raven, Nico, and the Scottish guy and says that Lydia will, in fact, be marrying him. Meanwhile, Edgar is still dealing with having the Prince’s memories, and the fact that every problem lately has one obvious solution: access the Prince’s memories and turn more evil.

So I got my wish of Lydia and Edgar growing and changing, but I did not get my wish that this means the entire book won’t be about romantic conflict. Lydia still has huge piles of self-loathing, and while she trusts Edgar now she worries about the depth of his love – especially when, for the plot reasons above, she has to disguise herself as another woman and have Edgar intuitively realize it’s her. Unfortunately for her, reality is not quite as kind, and Edgar, for once trying to be a good fiancee, just finds her suspicious. Much as it makes me uncomfortable, I can’t deny its effectiveness. There’s even a dollop of humor in these otherwise mostly serious books, as Raven learns what it means to forgive someone, and applies it in very funny ways. Oh Raven, one day you will be a real live boy.

All this plus an Ermine cameo! This series is down to twice a year, so I expect we’ll get Book 14 in the spring. But I still really do love it.

By Mizue Tani and Asako Takaboshi. Released in Japan as “Hakushaku to Yōsei” by Shueisha Cobalt Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

Well, I was suckered in once again. I was all set to talk about the fact that Earl and Fairy is a product of 90s shoujo, and that like a lot of 90s shoujo (and indeed a lot of manga and comics in general), it had a habit of snapping back to the default whenever anything important happened. I was ready to rage against no one seeming to have learned their lesson and everyone forgetting what happened the previous book. But no, it’s another stealth short story collection. Which means I can’t be really annoyed at Lydia and Edgar for behaving like they used to eight or nine books ago. There’s just one issue with this: I am annoyed anyway. Given that getting these two to meet in the middle and come to an understanding has been like pulling teeth, I feel no need to go back to the days where Lydia was stubborn and quick to believe the worst, and Edgar helped her along very well in that regard. On the bright side, the last story is terrific.

There are three short stories here, two of which were written for magazines and feature Edgar and Lydia towards the start of the series. In the first, a “stork fairy” arrives posing as a baby, and a delighted Edgar takes this opportunity to play as if he and Lydia are already parents… while Lydia tries to hook him up with his own maid, despite the fact that she sort of hates that idea. In the second, a nightingale (fairy version, not bird version) tries to get Lydia to fall in love, because otherwise she will perish, but runs up against the problem of, well, Lydia in general. The final story is new to this volume, and takes place after Book 11. A newly engaged Edgar and Lydia are having dinner with her father, Frederick, and he takes the opportunity to reminisce (to himself, Lydia has no idea) how he met her mother.

I have mentioned this before, but will bring it up again: The author is much better at writing action, suspense and supernatural intrigue than they are writing romance. The first story really rubbed me the wrong way, mostly as I had forgotten this is what most 90s shoujo was actually like. The 2nd was a bit better, and we did get to see Raven in drag, which was a lot more fun for us than it was for Raven. But no, the main reason this was a decent book is the back half, with the story of Frederick and Aurora. They meet cute, and you do get the sense that she falls for him almost immediately, but as the story goes on you see that’s not quite true. It also has some unnerving and scary bits. This is an insular community, and her father is unpleasant. What’s worse, her “second fiance” is abusive, and it’s hinted that if she doesn’t get away with Frederick getting abused will be her lot in life. It’s well known to the village that she’s a changeling, and not everyone seems at peace with that – though more people are than Aurora expects, leading to the sweetest part of the book.

I assume next time we’ll get a full volume. I also assume some fairy-related or Edgar’s past-related thing will get in the way of our heroes getting married, because that’s how this sort of series rolls. Less of past “always angry, always caddish” Lydia and Edgar, please.

By Mizue Tani and Asako Takaboshi. Released in Japan as “Hakushaku to Yōsei” by Shueisha Cobalt Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

Generally speaking, I try not to frame a character’s decision in a novel by “well, it’s just terrible writing”. For one thing, it’s lazy reviewing to do that. There are all sorts of reasons why a young woman who was not only raised as a commoner and is now engaged to an Earl but was raised as a commoner with a connection to fairies and thus grew up with basically no friends or peers, would, when sent off to a supposed friend’s household to learn about etiquette, then told she’s the new maid, given a room in an attic, and relentlessly bullied and physically abused, would not say “hey, I wonder if something is wrong here?”. But Lydia thinking “oh hey, this must just be some sort of nobility training I haven’t figured out yet, so I will endure it and not say anything” is, without a doubt, the stupidest she has ever been. The book gets much better in the back half. But I almost dropped this because of that plot point.

After the events of the last arc, Lydia and Edgar are finally engaged. She’s doing her best to try to trust that he loves her and not assume that he is romancing every woman in London. Unfortunately Lucinda, a young noble girl arrives at Edgar’s place and talks about how they’re engaged, mentioning a series of secret letters. She’s honestly so deluded hat even Lydia doesn’t really buy this, but Lydia is also dealing with a serious case of “I am but a lowly plain commoner”, so it really doesn’t help her mood. Edgar, meanwhile, is trying his best not to hit on any woman that looks his way. But it’s hard! It’s less hard with Lucinda, who is, not to put too fine a point on it, a brat. He also worries that Lydia accepted his proposal without any romantic feelings for him at all. This is a much more likely worry.

As with most Earl and Fairy books, things improve greatly once we’re dealing with fairies and not Lydia and Edgar acting exactly like the circa-2007 shoujo romantic leads they are. There are some nice reveals, and we can see why a series of annoying coincidences led to Lydia getting into the awful position she spends most of the book. It is somewhat darkly humorous that she’s at possibly her lowest ebb in the series, collapsing from starvation and fatigue, not from a fairy plot or from Edgar’s enemies, but from noble servants just being terrible people. When Lydia gets out of her head, she proves to be not only a capable Fairy Doctor, but also quite adept at actually handling noble society. The problem is that we spend a large bulk of the book in her head, as does she’ Sometimes reading self-loathing can be grueling. It is here.

I double checked to see when the inevitable shoujo “we’re in wedding outfits!” cover art is, and it’s Book 18, so I worry that each book before them will introduce a new girl to make everyone in the cast slightly unhappy. Recommended for those who loved Black Bird and Hot Gimmick when they came out from Viz.