Category Archives: reviews

Tearmoon Empire, Vol. 17

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By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Madeleine Willette.

We’re now seventeen books into this series, short story collections aside, and Mia has gotten very good at actual princess things. Sure, she sometimes faces death from things like assassins (as in this book, where we get to see something rare in fictional works, armor actually doing its job in a realistic way), but for the most part, Mia is no longer in any danger of the world turning against her and getting guillotined. As such, Mia has to face an even more dangerous fate, and one that so far she has been very bad at stopping: people in the future thinking TOO highly of her. Mia wants to be a good Empress and avoid execution, she does not want to be worshiped as a God. And when the suggestion of a giant golden statue of her hits her ears, she naturally tries to do everything possible in this book to transfer praise and worthy deeds to others and avoid doing everything herself. Which… works somewhat, but it’s still a C+ overall.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Princess Orania accused of trying to assassinate her father, and then escaping. Now Mia is trying to do damage control, which involves talking with the King (doesn’t help much), getting an in with the merchants (works much better), and meeting with the nation’s Parliament, where she lays out a way that “stop treating your underclass like crap” can work for them (even better). Unfortunately, this does not stop the rest of the plot, which involves escaping, getting captured, cool sword battles, escaping again, getting captured again, and everything ending at a lighthouse, which Mia desperately wants to avoid as it’s where the future suggests her golden statue is put! Does Mia have enough allies and enough power of speechifying to save the day?

This can be a very idealistic series, but at its core is a very dark and bitter future, and even now that we’ve mostly escaped that future we still see where it came from. The actual conspirator behind everything turns out to be so indoctrinated by the serpents that talking to them isn’t going to work, and in the end, despite our getting the backstory behind Orania’s father, the “does not really care about his daughter” part is mostly present and correct – more to the point, he doesn’t care about anything except his past love. There’s no “I was doing tough love in order to save you”, which I was expecting. I do appreciate that Orania is able to get past this and use it to be stronger. Using Mia as a guide, as Mia again does very well here, narrator and gorging on sweets aside. (There’s some fat-shaming again, I fear I will never be entirely rid of that.) The idealism comes in Mia’s speech, where she rails against the pointlessness of revenge and inspires everyone to work harder for the future of their children. The narrator did not talk about people misinterpreting Mia at all in this volume – they interpret her just fine.

Presumably, then, the next volume will start a new arc. I’m not sure how long this series plans to run, but I’ll always happily read more.

Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Body Swap in the Maiden Court, Vol. 11

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By Satsuki Nakamura and Kana Yuki. Released in Japan as “Futsutsuka na Akujo dewa Gozaimasu ga: Suuguu Chouso Torikae Den” by Ichijinsha Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Tara Quinn.

The author speaks in the afterword about having grand plans for a lot of wacky fun in the second half of this arc, but as they began to actually write the book, it became apparent that wacky fun was going to have to take a backseat. This is a serious book, with lots of threats to our heroines and the city as a whole. Reirin herself is still battling her own chronic illness, and has come to terms with the fact that she’ll be dying very soon – something which absolutely terrifies Keigetsu. And then there’s the brothel they’re infiltrating, which is filled with sex workers who are trying their hardest to be the one who steps on rather than the one who gets stepped on. There’s a chilling drug that not only can give you lifelong addiction, but no one knows how it’s made! And then there’s the guys who they’ve left behind, who are ready to rush the place at the drop of a hat, and have taken their hats off and prepared to drop them just in case.

In order to help Nadir stop the drug trade and find evidence to convict his crooked aide, Reirin and Keigetsu (who remain swapped the entire book) have to infiltrate the brothel that is the most likely source of the drug. Seika is going as well, of course, because she’s come to the horrifying conclusion that her childhood friend may be there. Unfortunately, for Reirin’s plans and perhaps Keigetsu’s self-image, Reirin-in-Keigetsu is not considered pretty enough to be a sex worker, so she’s made a simple laborer while the other two infiltrate above stairs. Still, this lets her easily investigate… but she’s coming up empty. Meanwhile, things go from bad to worse for Keigetsu and Seika – not because they’re being bullied as newbies (they’ve seen far worse in the inner court, and are more appalled at how unsubtle it is), but because Kinyou, Seika’s friend, *is* there, is the one at the very top, and will do anything to throw Seika out of there fast.

For those of you not reading this as a yuri series (there are some, right? The author if no one else…), there’s a lot of good stuff here. We’ve seen subtext between Keigetsu and Reirin’s brother Keishou in previous books, but there’s even more of it here. Likewise, while they start off as enemies, fans of shoujo manga should realize that Seika and Prince Nadir’s back and forth is very familiar, and likely may also turn romantic. That said, the author also cannot stop writing the strongest relationships in this series between the women. Seika and Kinyou have what amounts to a DIY marriage ceremony before Seika departs for the inner court, and there is a lot of anguish and pain between the two of them that does not scream “besties!”. Speaking of anguish and pain, Keigetsu is still reeling from the reveal that Reirin is much closer to dying than anyone thought, and it’s not a surprise that the solution that pops into mind is “why don’t we just stay like this forever so she can have my healthy body?”. Reirin would never allow that of course… so Keigetsu has to start hiding things from her again, which I’m sure will go as well as it always has.

Reirin says she’s going to tell everyone else at court about her condition in the next book, and presumably stand down as a maiden. I’m 100% sure that won’t happen, but I’m unsure where this will go. In any case, this series remains terrific, though as always, if you suffer from chronic illness, it can be very hard to get through.

Repeated Vice: I Refuse to Be Important Enough to Die, Vol. 4

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By Kuroakawa Hitsugi and Kushiro Kuki. Released in Japan as “Repeat Vice: Akuyaku Kizoku wa Shinitakunai node Shitennou ni Naru no wo Yamemashita” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by piyo.

We’ve had a couple of “trapped in the world of a game” series with more than one person aware of it, but those tend to go a different way than this one is. Usually you get the main character figuring things out, trying to change their fate, etc. and we get the other character (often an evil heroine) simply waiting for their life to be the same as the game and getting upset when it is not. That’s not what we get here, as there are two people actively trying to push back against the game’s events… in a previous life, no less, so it’s a mashup of that as well… and occasionally struggling as they see things out of context. Lilka knows that Lofus is already quite different from before, and yet when she hears about him interacting with Fol, she immediately can’t help but thinking of Fol as being the same as the past world. It’s very hard to draw outside the lines of the coloring book in your head.

Lofus continues in this book to do what he does best: make everyone’s lives a much better place while being an absolute dick about it. He is, unfortunately, unable to find an easy fix for Iz’s wasting mana disease, but he does manage to forge new ties with a merchant who really likes Lofus… possibly a bit too much… and get his railroad started with the unwanted but grudgingly necessary help of Raymond, who is still trying to be the one to force Lofus back into the game plot. Meanwhile, Fol is doing her best to map the unmappable, and Lilka is continuing to be a sky pirate. Unfortunately, as love interests go, they both have one primary flaw, which is that they’re not near the hero every day. Yes, that’s right, remember how I was feeling bad for Yusurika, Lofus’ hapless bodyguard who seemed to be unable to stop him waltzing into trouble? Turns out she’s also a love interest, and moves to the front of the line in this book.

I will admit I am not entirely positive about the Yusurika subplot. Not necessarily because of the love interest thing, it’s that kind of book, I know he’ll just continue to stack up women like cordwood. And her tragic past as a cursed dark-haired girl, despite her amazing healing powers, is unoriginal but par for the course. I am merely grumpy about the old chestnut “wait, I met you years ago and became your reason for living but have totally forgotten it because for me it was Tuesday” plot, which even Lofus has to fudge and say “no, of course I remember you”. Speaking of other love interests… not, not Fran the Saint or Maylene the Mage, but Raymond the wannabe Demon Lord, who is our token BL option (sorry, fans of the merchant, but he’s clearly comedy relief). Lofus may try to avoid dealing with him and hate his personality, but there’s no denying that their hate chemistry would spawn a number of AO3 fanfics if this were in Shonen Jump.

There’s a semi-cliffhanger at the end, but I would not worry too much about Lilka. Especially as the 7th book came out in July. For fans of the “villain” genre.