By Asagi and Shino. Released in Japan as “Zenryaku, Yama Kurashi wo Hajimemashita” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by N. Marquetti.

Yes, it’s time to write the same review for the fifth time. I’ve talked before about slow life books that are not actually slow life at all, but “I want a slow life but I keep having all these girls and wars and battles” books. This is a genine slow life book, with plot twists such as “they go hunting”, “they go hunting again”, and “they eat what they hunted”, where the only surprise is that Sano, a relatively non-athletic sort, doesn’t go with them, so we never see any of the actual hunting. I suppose this fits with previous books, where we’ve heard about the chickens doing amazing things offscreen, but never get to see it. This book is laser focused on Sano, his depression, and his bonds with the folks who live at the foot of his mountain and in the mountains next door. And, of course, his non-romance with any of them. I think by now the author is genuinely trolling the readers about that, though.

Winter is here, and with this book we see the first snow hit Sano’s mountain retreat. His efforts to keep his screen door from freezing over work well, but you get the sense he’s not prepared for a really deep freeze. What’s more, the Katsuragi sisters have gone to town for the winter, so aside from one meal before the snows hit, they mostly communicate by text. Fortunately, he has Aizawa, who stays over at his place for a bit… then he stays over at Aizawa’s for a bit… then the two of them bond at a restaurant over the fact that society expects them to marry. Honestly, a large chunk of this book is BL except for the obvious. That said, not only is Sano still gaga over his chickens, particularly Yuma, the “chicken wife” of the group, but Aizawa still has Rin, his lamia, who is holed up in the house for the winter but you get the sense is definitely what Yuma is to Sano.

If you’ve read the previous reviews of this series, you know what I’m gonna talk about next. Sano is, for the most part, fairly laid back and mellow this book… except for Christmas, where for obvious reasons he slips back into depression. Aizawa too is struggling, as he tried to reconnect with his family recently, only to find that they just wanted to marry him off, so he fled again. Combine this with the Katsuragis fleeing from stalkers and you have a book whose entire premise seems to be “shut up and leave me alone”. That said, it also loves the community living in this area, and shows that they all love Sano as well. You don’t have to conform, you don’t have to get married and have kids and a normal job. You can, in fact, run away and live on a mountain. Provided, of course, you’re getting passive income from the apartment complex you’re renting out. I hope Sano is not a slumlord.

This is 11 volumes and counting, and I’m not exactly sure where it can really go except to explain why the animals on this mountain are bananas. Perhaps next time.

By Asagi and Shino. Released in Japan as “Zenryaku, Yama Kurashi wo Hajimemashita” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by N. Marquetti.

The author reminds us once again in the afterword that this is not a romance nor is it going to turn into one. And no, the chickens are not going to become cute girls either. I get it, as I imagine that the audience for this series is looking at the cute girl in the cast, joined in this volume by her younger, also cute sister, and shipping is just happening naturally. That said, if the author really didn’t want any romance I think they could shut things down a bit more. Sure, here Sano states outright that he’s not interested in Rie (good, as she’s underage), but much of the relationship between him and the Katsuragis consists of him basically being a perfect catch except for his horrible depression and self-loathing, and the two of them noticing it. And that’s not even considering the ho yay he’s ignoring between him and Aizawa. Or hell, the fact that he has a chicken wife and a jealous chicken mistress. Romance kind of worms its way in anyway.

As noted above, we get another cast member in this volume. Katsuragi’s younger sister Rie is dealing with a stalker who went from “let’s date” to “what are you doing right now?” to “I need to know where you are 24-7 or I will kill us both” very quickly, so her parents agreed that having her stay with her sister is for the best. Rie is a gyaru in Sano’s eyes, but I think “normal 17-year-old who possibly bleaches her hair a little” is more accurate. Elsewhere in the book, there’s a lot of killing of boars; Sano goes to the very top of his mountain and finds a dilapidated shrine, which he tries to fix up a bit; he learns how to get lotus roots straight from the source, though he doesn’t enjoy it; and he begins to prepare for the winter, which given his remote mountain will mean going to ground, possibly for a month or two.

There’s a very interesting bit about 2/3 of the way through the book where Sano realizes that he hasn’t really prepared for winter fast enough or done enough, and thinks ruefully that he’s always slow to pick up on things like this and maybe that’s why his old fiancee left him. About five pages later, he’s hearing how Rie is finding Katsuragi’s place too cold and worries over it, workshopping solutions and eventually coming over and helping the two of them to insulate it. Sano’s depression is all internal – he still hates it when people tell him not to pay them back – and anytime he has to deal with something that affects only himself (see: his chapped hands), he puts it off or ignores it, but when it’s about anyone else, he basically becomes the perfect boyfriend. Something Katsuragi is deliberately ignoring, and which Rie does not ignore but she’s still 17, so…

The book implies that Sano is going to be alone for several months – given this cast is doing its level best to make sure this fragile guy is part of a community, I highly doubt that. Next time: more now, more chickens, and probably less not-romance.

By Asagi and Shino. Released in Japan as “Zenryaku, Yama Kurashi wo Hajimemashita” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by N. Marquetti.

I’ve talked a lot about this series as a slow life series, and about the romance or lack thereof, and even a bit about how it’s sort of a bizarre fantasy only not quite. But this volume really hammers home the title of the book, which is that Sano and his fellow emotionally damaged neighbors have bought a mountain and are living on it now. And sometimes this can be difficult. Mountains require a lot of maintenance, you need to keep an eye out for dangerous animals and insects, and there’s always the danger of a typhoon coming through or a harsh winter. And sometimes having a mountain with animals on it can be useful, especially when you’re feeling smothered and still trying to avoid your core issues, so your visit to your parents can take place in less than an hour before you beg off and flee once again to the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Life goes on for Sano, though he finds he needs to be more careful and perhaps also get more exercise at several points during this book. While cutting grass he gets a very bad cut, and has to get some help from others to get it stitched up. He visits his parents, as I said before, and then comes right back the same day. He makes sure that the murder hornets on Katsuragi’s mountains are taken care of, mostly thanks to his chickens wanting to eat them. He deals with chestnuts, and excess crayfish. A typhoon is coming, and he has to manage preparations, calm his animals, and then deal with the aftermath, which can sometimes involve huge trees on your mountain path. And, as the book ends, he prepares for his first real winter on the mountain (he arrived near the end of the last one).

Aside from “owning a mountain is hard”, we also see Sano’s desperate desire to be left alone and not owe anyone anything, which does not come up explicitly in his dialogue but is implicit with everyone else. He seems baffled by the fact that people keep offering him dinner, or stuff to take back home, or that they’ll help him free of charge. He needs there to be a transaction of some sort, and that just isn’t going to happen on this mountainside. There’s also the bizarre harem he’s acquiring – not in a romantic way, mind you, but both Katsuragi and Aikawa are angling to become a person who is close to him, someone he can open up to. So far Aikawa is winning, but that’s mostly due to underlying sexism on Sano’s part. That said, it’s also due to hsi chickens. One of whom is essentially acting like his wife. Add this to the lamia who is acting as Aikawa’s girlfriend, and you can see that the fantasy animals in this series are sort of psychological trauma write large… or the solution to said trauma.

Next time we apparently introduce a new regular, which might shake things up a bit. Till then, this is slow life for slow life fans, with no pesky danger or plot twists getting in the way.