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My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, Vol. 11

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By mikawaghost and tomari. Released in Japan as “Tomodachi no Imouto ga Ore ni dake Uzai” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

It’s been well over two years since the last volume of this series, and that volume was a massive flashback, so it’s actually been almost three years since we were last dealing with Akiteru’s confrontation with Iroha’s mother. Since then an anime has been announced and is currently airing (I’m not watching it, but I don’t think it’s setting the world on fire). Also since then we’ve had just this book. The author apologizes for it taking so long (it was two and a half years between 10 and 11 in Japan). Fortunately, it’s a very solid volume, which mostly goes how I thought it would, but also contains a few surprises. The surprises are not related to Iroha, who honestly takes this a lot better than I’d expected. No, it’s something unrelated to the game or to Iroha’s voice acting, it’s Mashiro’s writing. In which we learn what happens when producers decide to adapt something into an anime without actually enjoying the work itself.

The confrontation between Iroha’s mother and Iroha’s crush ends pretty much as you’d expect. Amachi agrees to let Iroha continue to do her acting work… but she’ll be the one managing her career. He has to stay out of it. Possibly realizing that this is never going to work as long as he’s literally next door, Akiteru thus decides to vanish from everyone’s life… though in reality he asks for a temporary job at Canary’s book publisher, where he gains valuable experience at how deal making works in the land of adults. Unfortunately, only Canary knows he’s there, so the rest of the cast are feeling rather bereft. Iroha at least has a new job she’s doing providing multiple voices for a VTuber project… but when Mashiro is told that the anime team wants to change her anti-bullying revenge fantasy so there’s no revenge and the bullies don’t get harmed, she goes completely to pieces.

As I said, the most startling scene in this whole book for me was the fact that Mashiro showed up for the meeting with the anime team with a gun in her pocket. Yes, it was a model gun that doesn’t shoot, but still. Her yakuza fantasy may have helped her get through the meeting without breaking down, but it did not stop her breaking down after. Actually, “after” may be the biggest flaw with this volume – it feels like it was being written to a page count. There are several plot points (Mashiro, Akiteru’s schooling) where I wish we’d gotten a bit more closure than we did. We did get some great background on Canary, though, which reminds us that sometimes when you work in an industry where you promote others, and you screw up, you can destroy lives that are not yours. I also enjoyed Akiteru being reminded “your uncle is famous, so throw his name around a bit”. Sometimes being an adult means not being straight and narrow all the time.

This author loves to start new series, and start new series that get anime adaptations, so it may be a while before we get the 12th book. That said, with the new events here, I don’t think it’s wrapping up soon anymore.

In Another World with Household Spells, Vol. 3

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By Rika and HIROKAZU. Released in Japan as “Isekai ni Kita kedo, Seikatsu Mahou shika Tsukaemasen” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by sachi salehi.

There is a Looney Tunes cartoon called The Big Snooze, and at one point Elmer Fudd is running through a hollow log and Bugs Bunny positions it so he runs out of it off a cliff into midair. Elmer realizes what has happened, stares at the viewer, and turns into a lollipop with a hunter’s cap, with the word ‘SUCKER’ written on the lollipop. He then quickly scrambles from midair back to the log to run through it. Bugs merely flips the log 180 degrees so that this happens again. Elmer then turns into a ‘SUCKER’ again, and runs back to try a third time. This time he tests it first, discovers there’s ground, and runs back to get a head start… at which point Bugs flips the log again. The reason I mention all this is that Patience Granger is the Elmer Fudd of this scenario. She spends the entire book not wanting to do things and then ending up doing them anyway just because everyone’s just too assertive for her.

Patience is very, very busy this school year. She’s already doing a double track with home ec and civil service, but there’s also a lot of magic/alchemy related stuff she wants to do, as her goal is to make money so that her family can stop being so poor and she can provide for her adorable brothers. (Yes, the shotacon thing has not gone away, I’m ignoring it.) Unfortunately, Princess Margaret’s girl posse all hate her, Prince Keith can’t say anything to her without sticking his foot in his mouth, the alchemy club is trying really really hard to get her to join, the music club is asking her to write an opera, and the entire curriculum has changed to become far more practical, much to the horror of noble ladies who find they will have to sew their own ballgowns. And then there’s the Knight Club, whose new president is taking this a bit too far, and this may lead to the end of the club…

Much to my relief, despite hints in the 2nd book, no one is going dungeon crawling just yet. Indeed, this is a very school-oriented book, though I suspect the author has a bit of a grudge against mandatory education, as Patience (who has her past memories and also OP magic that everyone underestimates) ends up essentially passing most of her classes for the year in the first week. This allows her to meet the alchemists, who are generally regarded as weird creeps, and not without reason, but they also help her to create lamps with dimmer switches, and possibly even washing machines in the future. That said, when Margaret and Keith say Patience is painfully naive, they’re not wrong. She’s blind to Keith’s crush on her, as well as several other characters who are ready to propose. (Also, Patience, who is supposed to be far shorter than her peers, is 149 cm, which is… average for an 11-year-old girl?) Basically, Patience might want to take a bit less herbology and magic circles and a bit more “how noble society functions”.

This was VERY nerd-heavy and education-heavy, but assuming you don’t mind either, it’s a good read. Also, author, just because you have Patience realize she’s being a sucker doesn’t make it less true.

The Twelve Kingdoms, Book Three: Sea of Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth

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By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Juni Kokuki: Kaze no Umi, Meikyū no Kishi” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

So I’m sure that after the events of the first two books, everyone is ready to dig in and find out how Youko settles in to her new ruling status. Well, hate to break it to you, but not only is Youko not in this book at all, but the entire volume takes place prior to the first two, and deals with a completely different kingdom. As I noted in the last review, the books are not called Twelve Kingdoms for nothing. That said, despite the fact that we get a new protagonist, a lot of this may feel very familiar. We see someone who grew up in Japan suddenly yanked to this world, where they’re forced to try to figure things out that everyone else assumes are either common sense or just come naturally. Youko dealt with this mostly through fury and increased paranoia. Taiki deals with it through depression and increased anxiety.

Up on Mount Hou, everyone is awaiting the birth of the new kirin, who will be the one to choose the next ruler of the country of Tai. Unfortunately, a storm blows the fruit containing the unborn Taiki off to god knows where. Ten years later, Kaname is an unhappy boy who lives with his family but can’t seem to please them, especially his strict grandmother. Then one day while standing outside in the snow as punishment, he sees a pair of arms reaching out from nowhere, and when he goes to investigate he finds himself on Hou Mountain. He *is* the missing kirin, and Tai needs a leader post haste, so he’s got to become a full-fledged kirin and choose the new leader. Unfortunately, kirin is a very instinctual position learned from birth, and since Taiki lived in Japan for ten years, he has none of that instinct. Good thing there aren’t also crushing expectations! Oh, wait, there are.

Despite the previous paragraph, this is a book with a great deal of heart. Taiki gets a lifelong familiar, Sanshi who sort of acts as a combination pet/mother/bodyguard. The sages of Mount Hou are all very nice to him… possibly they spoil him, but let’s face it, after passive abuse for ten years, Taiki needs a bit of spoiling. I really liked Youka, who we first meet ten years prior as a neophyte who still can’t find her way around the labyrinthian mountain, but who is also the best older sister for Taiki once he arrives. Taiki definitely feels like a ten-year-old with crippling anxiety throughout the book, so it’s good to see when he finally gets what a kirin needs to do, or when he’s actually enjoying and smiling over something. And for those who are sad about the fact that the first two books are in the future, Keiki is a supporting character here – indeed, he and Taiki bonding, and Keiki thus becoming less stoic and nicer, might be what leads to the troubles from the first two books.

So do we get a whole new cast next time? Not quite. The King of En has been supporting in both the first arc and the second, and the next book will look at his relationship with his own kirin. Till then, this is a wonderful fantasy series, highly recommended to everyone.