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.

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.

Even before the author explicitly stated it in the afterword, I was thinking “this has the feel of a season finale”. Which makes sense. It’s the 10th volume, and wraps up a lot of the longest-running plot strands while also introducing some new, worrying ones. That said, the start of it was difficult for me, mostly due to my own personal tastes: I hate amnesia stories. Lydia spends the bulk of this book without any memory of anything beyond Book One, so remembers Edgar only at his most annoying. What’s more, Kelpie, who may be a supernatural water demon but has “unlucky childhood friend” written all over him, is doing his best to make sure that does not change. It can be a bit frustrating and feel like “the author is trying to string out getting them together by adding complications”. Fortunately, it doesn’t last the book. Those who are here for the romance should be quite happy with how this one wraps up.

Lydia may be back in Scotland with amnesia, and the Prince on the verge of gaining a new younger body, but, priorities, before anything else Edgar has to track down Lydia’s father and try to get his permission to marry Lydia. There is one slight problem: no one seems to trust him when he says that Lydia agreed to this. Can’t imagine why. He does manage to get up to Scotland, but Kelpie’s spell is hard to get around, even if Lydia seems to really want to remember and believe him, but can’t think why. She’s also upset when she hears that he’s going back to London to deal with the Prince once and for all, and so she and Nico head there on a fairy path… which leads to her being trapped under London Bridge, and Edgar having to infiltrate a mansion where a mind-swapping ritual is about to happen. Oh yes, and there’s an Ark on the Thames, and it’s going to explode.

This is a very Edgar-heavy book, and we sympathize with him, but it’s also very easy to see why everyone doubts him. The fact that he’s genuinely surprised that Raven didn’t really believe him when he said Lydia accepted his proposal says something about his levels of self-denial. And I am definitely worried about the new plot twist, which I’m sure will lead to more bad things down the line. Still, for now, he and Lydia are finally together and engaged. Indeed, the author seems to be in more of a romance mind that usual. Lotta, Edgar’s old companion, shows up again, and she’s still very much in “I am a boyish pirate captain” mode. Paul, Edgar’s sad-sack artist friend, is also here, and just as much of a chew toy as previous books. When the two of them first meet, you can almost hear the lightbulb go off over the author’s head, and the rest of the book contrives to put them in cute romantic situations. I have no doubt we’ll see more of this.

All this plus Ermine showing up to be vaguely mysterious and duplicitous. This was a very good “season ender”.