Category Archives: reviews

If the Heroine Wants My Fiancé, I’ll Marry a Yandere Villain Instead!, Vol. 2

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By Kobako Takara and Jun Natsuba. Released in Japan as “Heroine ni Konyakusha wo Torareru Mitai node, Akuyaki Reisoku (Yandere Character) wo Neraimasu” by B’s-Log Bunko. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Emma Schumacker.

One of the problems that a lot of fiction has, be it in English or Japanese, is the trouble with sequels. In North America it feels like you can’t sell a fantasy series these days without it being a trilogy of some sort. Japanese books are frequently contest winners, which means they’re self-contained in one volume, but if they do well then more volumes are always around the corner. And sometimes a series just doesn’t need to be ongoing. This is the trouble I’m running into with the second volume of Yandere Villain. It felt very self-contained when I finished the first book, even though we hadn’t hit a wedding. And now we have a second book, which introduces the inevitable plot complications, and it feels very half-baked. I feel as if the author didn’t really have a plan, so decided to write what they like instead. Which is good news if you like fluff and bratty teens.

Having gotten engaged and solved their immediate issues, Cynthia and Siraiya are ready for a nice, relaxing vacation at her family’s hot springs hotel. All to themselves, where Cynthia dreams of growing closer as a couple… though she’ll find over the course of this book that, due to no sex ed at all, Siraiya is not remotely ready for anything physical. Unfortunately for both of them, the crown prince shows up at the hotel as well… and he’s got cat ears and a tail. This turns out to be due to a book he opened, but Cynthia knows it’s really the subject of a special event in the game world. Unfortunately, this isn’t a game world, and there’s an actual power struggle between Adelberd and his younger brother. Cat ears and a tail are probably not going to win points. Can Cynthia find a way to break the curse? And wait, now the second prince is here as well!

I will admit, the author has a way of writing a bratty teen who’s forced into power struggles he doesn’t want and wants to be more mature than he really is. Rutherford feels very true to life. He also ground on my every nerve, especially when he developed his puppy love crush on Cynthia. We also finally get to meet Adelberd’s fiancée Estellise, and they too have a “oh no, but if we hold hands that would be far too much!” issue. Clearly the otome game they’re from is very G-rated. On the bright side, I did like the resolution of the plot, which allowed Cynthia to save the day in a completely ridiculous way. And the fact that the Japanese word ‘yandere’, unknown here, has been taken by everyone but Cynthia to have a completely positive and not creepy at all meaning is an amusing running gag.

There’s two more volumes apparently, but I think I’m stopping here. The final volume has a wedding cover, so I assume things go well. Which is… not what actual yandere fans want, I think? But oh well.

Goodbye, Horrible Fiancé, Hello, Fun Magic School Life!, Vol. 1

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By Mashimesa Emoto and Nitou Akane. Released in Japan as “Konyakusha wo Sutetara, Tanoshii Mahou Gakkou no Seikatsu ga Matteimashita” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by piyo.

Now that we have a glut in the market when it comes to broken engagement light novels, it can be hard to really sell one to readers as a reviewer. I enjoyed this book, it has a likeable lead, some fun scenes, good support. It does not really, however, have that one thing that makes it stand out of the pack from other books with this exact premise. There’s no quirk, no eccentricity that made the publisher go “wow!”. The publisher put this out as the author has a proven track record (Expedition Cooking with the Enoch Knights, also released by CIW) and this was a title the author really wanted to see published (they bluntly state this in the afterword). So you don’t have to buy it. But again, if you do buy it, it’s a lot of fun… once you get past the first twenty pages or so. Because trust me, the horrible fiancé thing is not a lie.

Misha von Ritual is a viscount’s daughter in a snowy minor territory in the North. She’s engaged and ready to do her all for the territory. Then her fiancé shows up and says that he’s gotten her cousin pregnant. And is marrying her. But he still wants Misha as his second wife. To keep earning money for the child her cousin is now carrying. Who will take over the territory. Oh, and he says he has no plans to sleep with her. Needless to say, she punches the shit out of him, and after consulting with her parents, the errant fiancé and his pregnant girl are hurled out of the kingdom. The parents, who were very lax about this, offer Misha anything she wants, and she asks if she can go to the magic school in the center of the country. It will be hard to get in, but if she does she’ll be happy. Because she has (gasp!) past life memories from Japan, and remembers a certain series of novels about a magic school…

It’s never explicitly stated, so I’m gonna assume she means Diane Duane’s books rather than that other author. One thing I did like is that the application process has multiple tests, takes an entire year, and it’s very easy to fail. In fact, Misha would not have gotten in (her uncle dropped out, an automatic black mark for full scholarships like she needs) if she hadn’t impressed a teacher with her herb talents and ability to essentially work for her tuition. I also appreciated the character of Alice. I will always love a girl who appears at first to be a haughty, arrogant girl but who it turns out is just really awkward and has resting bitch face. As for her obvious love interest, I worried as he seemed to be a teacher, but the end of the book shows that isn’t the case, so I will allow them to be cute together. Also, she has a slime familiar. Everything’s better with slimes. (Don’t worry, he’s a super powerful slime spirit, and can basically do anything required of him.)

There’s at least one more volume of this, and I’ll read it. If you like magic academies and heroines who are quietly awesome without the narrative beating us over the head with it, this is a winner.

Strawberry Princess: The Time Loop Defying Villainess

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By Hanami Nishine and Renta. Released in Japan as “Shiitagerareta Maihime wa Seijo no Loop ni Ichigo de Aragau” on the Shousetsuka ni Narou website. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Zihan Gao.

Now that we have so many of them, to the point where protagonists are actually familiar with the genre, I think it’s appropriate to say that some people are getting a little too into the “trapped in an otome game” mindset. Admittedly, in this particular case it appears to be a coping mechanism to try to ignore the main character’s wretched life to date, but still, a lot of things happen here because Amelia, the titular princess, is stuck in “there’s nothing I can do to stop this route from happening, so I’ll try something else”. Now, as it turns out, it is quite difficult to stop the route, but generally speaking, I’d like people to try. That said, I will forgive Amelia for this, as she is also a bit of an airhead, even before she gets her memories from Japan back, and therefore knows what can save her. Strawberries.

When we first see Amelia, she’s being pushed to the ground and having her late mother’s necklace stolen from her by her stepsister. She currently lives in bare poverty in the Fifth’s Consort’s home, which barely gets any food or supplies, forcing her to learn how to farm and climb walls, giving her a tanned look. (The artist presumably saw “silver hair” and proceeded to ignore this entirely.) She has one major thing she can do: she can summon strawberries and strawberry-themed things. (This is not as bizarre as it might sound, given her late mother summoned watermelons.) She’s very familiar with this scene, however, as this is the 5th time it’s happened. Her tormenter is looping routes, trying to complete every target male, and the last one on the list is Amelia’s own fiance. Time to fight back! Wait, no, she has little confidence and hasn’t seen her fiance in four years. Time to sell strawberries!

Amelia is a very familiar type, being naive, a bit daft, and unaware of her own charms, though that last one is explained by the abuse she’s suffered. Her one remaining servant is her butler/father figure, who stays on partly as he had a crush on her mother but mostly as it’s the right thing to do. As for the absent fiance, I liked him a lot as well. Once he figures out what’s actually happening, he’s quick to take steps. He also cries a lot, which is rare even among shoujo romantic male leads, and it’s not made fun of. The solution to all this comes as a slight surprise, but the clues are there if you look for them, so I accepted it. Most of all, this book, despite its dark backstory, has a light, silly core, doing things like tripping up the main villainess by having her slip on strawberry jam, etc. The heroine has a motif, and by god, she’s going to use it.

This is done in one, which makes sense – hard to see this plot getting stretched more. The author also writes The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess!, but that doesn’t have strawberries, so can’t be as good.