Category Archives: reviews

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “Within Arm’s Reach”

Leave a reply

By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

This is the first volume taking place after our main couple have gotten together… again… and as you can imagine, it’s leading up to one big scene. That said, it certainly does meander before it gets there. This series has always played with viewpoint – from the start, the main chapters alternated between Mizuto and Yume, usually with some variation on how they used to be in love but are older and wiser now. As the series went on, we got more and more viewpoints from the POV of other characters, such as the best friends of our lead couple, or the rest of the student council. And honestly, with this volume I think we may have finally gotten an answer to the question “how much is too much”. I think everyone in the entire cast with the exception of Isana gets a look in here, and it makes the book too scattered. It’s only in the final dramatic battle/love scene that it settles down – ironically, when the POV switch is at its worst.

Mizuto and Yume are now a couple once more, but there is a slight problem – they’re still stepsiblings. As a result, they have to hide their relationship from both their parents and from everyone at school. The latter is only slightly successful – Minami and Kawanami figure things out pretty fast – but it does mean that there are a certain amount of repressed feelings that are happening. And, of course, this book also takes place around Valentine’s Day and White Day, with all the plots that you’d expect with that. We get another couple getting together here, despite some truly amazing amounts of self-hatred and loathing to get through in order to accept it – and as for Minami and Kawanami… it may be a bit longer, but they’re making real prgress as well. As for Mizuto and Yume, their parents taking an extended away trip means that they may finally be able to go all the way this time… provided this does not turn into Kaguya-sama: Love Is War again.

I will admit, I was schnookered by the author. The moment the two of them decided that this was going to be some sort of contest to see who admitted to wanting to have sex first, I was fairly certain that they were going to end up just doing nothing till their parents came back. But no, for once the two have semi-matured enough – and are prepared enough to buy nice lingerie and condoms – that they actually do end up getting past the competitiveness and having their first time. The sex, as you can imagine, is elided rather than explicitly described, but the elision is actually very clever, relying on the swapping narrative POV to give us the rhythm of two lovers coming closer and closer to a climax. Also, as with the previous sex scene in this series, the first time is not necessarily “the best sex ever” – it’s typical first sex – but they’re both happy, which is all that matters.

That competitiveness may end up returning after the cliffhanger ending to this book, though thankfully it will be in the classroom rather than the bedroom. I just hope we can get back to primarily being Mizuto and Yume’s narration.

Fake Saint of the Year: You Wanted the Perfect Saint? Too Bad!, Vol. 4

Leave a reply

By kabedondaikou and Yunohito. Released in Japan as “Risō no Seijo? Zannen, Nise Seijo Deshita! Kuso of the Year to Yobareta Akuyaku ni Tensei Shitanda ga” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Rymane Tsouria.

It has gotten to the point where it’s rare that we get a modern light novel that is NOT based on a pre-existing web novel in some way, shape or form. Which makes sense – the light novel is still booming in Japan, and it’s much easier to take an author who’s gotten to the top of the rankings on Narou and edit their work into something for the mainstream than to rely on things like competitions and the like. And there’s nothing wrong with the end of this series. Fake Saint of the Year ends with this volume, and it’s a perfectly decent ending that makes thematic sense, gives a hint of romance for those who want to snatch at it while heavily implying it’s not happening, etc. It ticks the boxes. It’s just… the book ends at page 115, but the Afterword is not until page 278. That’s right. Get ready for Side Story Hell.

After dying at the end of the last volume, Ellize had expected that everyone would move on with their lives and enjoy the happily ever after. There are just two problems with that. First of all, everyone is so utterly devastated by her death that they’re in abject misery, and one or two have tried to kill themselves to “join” her. Meanwhile, guess what’s not quite as dead as expected? Well, all right, Ellize did foresee this, but she also thought that everyone would be able to take care of the remnants of the witch as they’d be on the top of their game. Instead, an entity that feels on negative feelings is facing off against grieving shells of what they used to be. Ellize sees this because, rather than going to the afterlife, she ended up back in the apartment of a dying Fudou Nito, who has to help Ellize come to terms with the fact that this isn’t a game, and that she is, in fact loved.

As said, the end of the book itself is fine. I thought it wrapped everything up nicely, had a couple sacrifices that made sense, and didn’t make Ellize wander too far out of her “I am a piece of shit” characterization beyond real character development. Unfortunately, we then get two lengthy side stories. The first has Ellize, post-ending, traveling to an alternate world… the one of the actual game, the one where Eterna dies. It’s the ending she always wished she could fix, which is why she made all those changes in her own timeline. Now she gets the chance to fix it. It’s like reading someone tagging AO3, only in real life. In the second story, Ellize discovers a rift that leads to modern-day Japan, and does eventually close it as it’s dangerous… but not before she goes back there, eats delicious food, buys modern bread so she can make French Toast back home, and meets up once more with Yamoto Tamaki… while also creating complete chaos, as she’s walking around looking like the most gorgeous woman in the world, and also a very recognizable video game icon. This was even more pointless than the previous story.

So yeah, I get that you can’t just release a book that’s Slayers-length these days, but sometimes side stories aren’t really needed, right? Overall, despite my issues with Ellize’s narrative voice and self-loathing (which ends up saving the day, to be fair), this was an OK villainess series.

A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 9

Leave a reply

By Yuu Tanaka and Nardack. Released in Japan as “Deokure Tamer no Sono Higurashi” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by A.M. Cola.

If you read this series to watch it tick boxes, this is a very good volume. As you can tell from the cover, we get to tick the box ‘beach episode’, as Yuto and his tamed monsters get to dress in swimsuits for the beach (though apparently the non-human ones have to wear one-piece suits, presumably so we don’t have to deal with penguins in bikinis) and also got to have their very own Jurassic Park event on an uncharted desert island (which, of course, he manages to complete by himself purely on instinct and luck, something which absolutely boggles the mods). Admittedly, he doesn’t come out unscathed, as there are two sacrifices for the cause… but this is a fluffy game, so when the tamed monster dies they just literally go back to the ranch. There’s no end goal to this series at all – it ends when Yuto’s two-week vacation finishes and he has to go back to being a salaryman again. The fluff is all there is.

It’s time for the Summer Event, which means Yuto and his crew get to hang out on beaches, go fishing, and try to fill up an encyclopedia of animals and insects. This is right up Yuto’s alley, as he is exactly the sort of nerd that went looking for rhinoceros beetles as a kid, though the rest of the tamed crew are a bit less enthusiastic. He also gets to (after many attempts to get past a strong current blocking the player from advancing) to an island that has prehistoric life, ranging from rare fossils to tyrannosaurus rexes to raptors straight out of that movie that dare not speak its name. (Sadly, it’s not WcRassic Park.) Unfortunately, Yuto is not really powerful enough to take on a t-rex, especially when they also come across a huge brachiosaurus. Nothing left to do but get killed… or is there a way to beat this using smarts? And what effects will accidentally streaming everything have on the event?

It’s getting increasingly hard not to call this series “the male Bofuri”, and if Maple kept to herself and got a few more animal friends, they’d basically be the same. Yuto is not trying to break the game, he just keeps doing it. It’s not just that he happened across the one way to actually win the dinosaur battle without a party wipe, it’s that he accidentally streamed it so that EVERYONE ELSE also knows. He didn’t even have to give the info to the increasingly despairing info brokers this time around (though rest assured, he still has plenty of info, and it’s still breaking their bank to buy it.) But Yuto is not really trying to get involved in major game stories. He’s here to try to catch a coelacanth, or get back to shore before he has to pay extra on his fishing boat. Like Maple, he’s simply a game-breaking force of nature, and if the teaser for the next book proves true (think sunken pirate gold), that won’t change. Looks like the head developer will have to get a divorce.

So yeah, this has no plot, and it’s never going to. It has no romance. Hell, it barely has friendships – Yuto doesn’t really hang out with other players this volume. But it’s fun. I like it.