By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

If you have been following A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even: The Anime, and felt that she was perhaps going a bit TOO far and getting a bit TOO evil, may I recommend the latest volume of Nia Liston? In which Nia gets very angry, and gets her revenge. But it’s the sort of revenge that may actually make everything better, and, while she confesses this is a surprise to her, no bad guys actually die who are not giant insects. Ah yes, that reminds me: if you like to see tiny ojou-samas fighting ants with the power of fists and kicks, also good news! Nia is here to kick ass and kick more ass, and she’s not remotely out of asses to kick. She does have a soft spot for her cute l’il orphans, of course, as well as the Fourth Princess, who she, um, literally buys. OK, that’s a bit too much like Livid Lady. But it’s OK, it’s not as a slave, it’s as her next disciple.

Having had her mansion destroyed by Mech Knights, Nia returns there to find that officials are busy erasing the evidence that there was any wrongdoing done there, and shortly thereafter they send Nia a bill for all the repairs. To the neighborhood. This is, by the way, while Shylrane has been desperately trying to get Nia on their good side, as she needs her to defeat the insects that are barely being held back by the country, which turns out to be on the verge of doom much more than folks know. Needless to say, Nia is unhappy with the bill. She decides to work off her stress by beating up the head of the mafia underworld, taking the contents of his safe, and then going on a bug-hunting party, where she wipes out the first level of the bugs – the only level, so far, the nation had been able to fight. This, of course, means the more dangerous bugs are no longer held back. And then she’s arrested and thrown in prison. Really, we’re very lucky this ISN’T Livid Lady…

I’ve always found the “Nia beats people up” part of this series to be the least interesting, and I always like it when the author throws in curveballs. Of which the biggest has to be Akashi’s obsession with inventing the car. This may seem baffling, given this is a book filled with sky islands, pirate airships, and flying cars, but the idea of cars on the ground – and, in particular, the prototypes crashing into walls – is not only hilarious and fun, but a terrific Magivision idea. Which, in case you forgot, is why Nia is here at all. I am also very amused with the Lynokis subplot. I’ve never had time for her stupid lolicon persona, which is present and incorrect here as always. But now Nia not only has a royal princess who’s studious and respectful towards Nia’s teachings, but also a young prodigy orphan girl who’s blazing through leaning about chi in record time. Seeing Nia get tired of her maid/bodyguard who doesn’t really want to get stronger is magical. As in it’s basically “let’s torture her”.

We’re still in the middle of this arc, but I am hoping that the next book has a bit less people being awful and a bit more filming reality TV. Oh yes, the anime is out soon!

By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

I have to give the author credit. When I began this new volume, which starts after the epic tournament arc, I wondered if we really were going back to Nia films herself racing dogs again. I felt the story was somewhat played out, frankly. And much to my surprise, the main character agrees with me. The best scene in the book may be right at the start of the book, where Nia blithely asks Lynokis “what am I even doing with my life?”, and realizes that being the strongest means throwing away everyone near and dear to you… and she’s already done that in her previous life, and while she still can’t remember much it made her feel empty. She needs something new. Fortunately, the author agrees with us, as we ditch 9/10ths of the cast and go back to just Nia and Lynokis creating chaos wherever they go. So much chaos, in fact, that Nia forgets that’s not actually her goal.

The tournament was a resounding success. For Nia, for the winners (at least after they wriggle out of being a wanted criminal). and for the kingdom. Unfortunately, having not seen anyone in the tournament who could come close to beating her, Nia is a bit depressed. Moreover, when you have a huge event that gets everyone to buy Magivision, you need to follow up with more brilliant ideas or it will stagnate. And so the King orders the kids to come up with a brilliant idea… and reminds them that they’re kids, so as long as it’s not literally illegal, they can get away with just about anything. Nia is here to test that “just about”, and she finds that there are indeed limits. As while they do get a huge event that drives sales even higher, um, she’s now been thrown out of the country.

I will admit, this may be the single funniest book in the series. The entirely of the chapter “The King Falls Into a Pit Trap” had me giggling, and I appreciated that it started with the aftermath – the author wanted to create an absence of tension so we weren’t distracted from the hilarity of the king falling into a pit trap. Even the queen agrees. As for Nia’s exile, sure, I may miss the rest of the cast a bit, but not much, and my main disappointment is that Lynokis is still around, so we still have lolicon jokes. That said, I regret I must give a content warning that countless other light novels have: if you dislike starving orphans being snapped up by the heroine and given food and housing in exchange for working, well, here it is again. The orphans are pretty cute, though.

All this plus a new royal to torture. Nia is here to kick ass and spread the word of magivision, and she tends to forget about the latter, so kicking ass is what you get.

By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.

I do appreciate Nia Liston really committing to its best running gag, which is that every time Nia watches a fight and is vaguely impressed by its fighters, she has to come in with a variation on the old phrase “I could beat them with one hand tied behind my back”. She’s simply so far over everyone else in this series that even now, as she watches people battle to see who is the strongest among 10,000 different fighters, she’s still not able to find anyone who could truly present a challenge to her. And indeed we see she’s not merely full of it, as at the end of this volume we see her facing off against two “heroes” whose job it is to be the best, and she has to hold back in case she breaks their legendary weapons. She is, frankly, terrifying. Which is why she spends most of this volume doing color commentary for the actual fighters.

The preliminaries are done, and so it’s time for the tournament itself. Well, after the “loser’s round”, which sees those who were knocked out get another chance to win their way back into the fight. Nia and her friends spend the time covering the fight itself, and she also gets to see her brother Neal start his own Junior Wingroad team as an added attraction. That said, most of what we get here are some really good fights… as well as some instant wins, because there’s a new clause: no one is allowed to be magically healed if they win, only bandages. This results in a lot of folks being too injured to go on. And of course some of our main characters are in the underworld, and are suddenly finding themselves on live TV. Some respond by making a deal to cut and run, and others respond by getting TOO famous to quietly murder.

The drawback to this volume is that there’s no suspense whatsoever. I kept wondering if one of Nia’s students would get a surprise loss, but no, she’s simply trained them so well that it doesn’t happen. The toughest fight is between Lynokis, in her Leeno disguise, and Gandolph, and they’re basically exactly who we expected to see there. (Well done to Gandolph for not dying, though he needed Nia’s help to avoid that.) Likewise in the weaponed fights category, it was pretty much going to have to be Anzel, both because the mob was betting on him and made it clear he had to win, and also because if he wants to avoid getting immediately arrested or killed, winning a tournament and making himself famous is a good solution. And a good time was had by all, the tournament is a success. Back to everyday life.

Or not, as we get a surprise cliffhanger ending as Nia is in a pinch! My guess is this is just “I want a change of setting for the new arc”, but I do wonder if any of the other regular cast will appear. In any case, girl punch good.