Category Archives: reviews

Making Jam in the Woods: My Relaxing Life Starts in Another World, Vol. 1

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By Kosuzu Kobato and Yuichi Murakami. Released in Japan as “Mori no Hotori de Jam wo Niru: Isekai de Hajimeru Slow Life” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jade Willis.

If this author sounds familiar, there’s a good reason. We’ve already seen The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent, as well as I’d Rather Have a Cat Than a Harem, and True Love Fades Away When the Contract Ends will be out next year. So it makes sense to circle round and pick up one of the author’s earlier works. This one is definitely on the “slow life” end of the scale, as the author freely admits in the afterword. Not a heck of a lot happens here. Hell, we don’t even get to see all that much jam making. But this book basically fulfills everything you want from a a slow life title: pleasant, likeable protagonist, friends around her who help and care for her, and the daily reward of basic tasks. Our heroine is living in the woods, and her host prefers to live fairly low-tech, so it’s all just very… relaxing. That’s the vibe here. Dull? A bit. But not much.

Our heroine (who doesn’t even get a Japanese name) works at a department store, and has come in on one of her few days off, despite exhaustion from overwork, to help out in an emergency… which makes it unfortunately when a runaway truck in a parking garage kills her. Yes, that’s right, we get both “death by working too hard” *and* “truck sends me to another world”. She’s found on the side of a riverbank by a dog, but sadly being sent to another world did not heal any of her injuries. Fortunately, there’s a doctor nearby, and this world has healing magic. As she recovers at the home of the dog’s owner, a former Countess, she’s informed that she’s a Spirit Caller, meaning she can interact with fairies. Unfortunately, this also means she can’t do any magic. And also, for some mysterious reason, she can’t speak. Still, she makes do.

Our heroine being mute is an interesting idea, though I honestly feel that the conversation flows a little too well despite this, even before she gets her magical writing pad. But essentially, this falls into the standard isekai plot for women readers. For male readers, it’s all about accumulating cool powers and multiple wives, while for women it tends more towards “now I can finally relax and not be working myself to death”. Like Sei from The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent, Margaret is said to look a lot younger after she’s recovered, and the running gag in the book is everyone giving her headpats, as she thinks they’re treating her like a child. As for her love interest, well, he’s a sullen young man with a tough upbringing who has become stoic and taciturn, but warms up to Margaret and falls in love with her pretty quickly. These are still romances.

This is apparently three volumes total, and I imagine the next one will have her actually visit the royal capital and finding out more about what Spirit Calling entails. Till then, let’s watch her make jam and get headpatted.

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 16

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by Lorin Christie.

Every few volumes, the series needs to have Yuna go somewhere she’s never been before, partly because otherwise the series would get even more boring than it already tends to be (sorry, Yuna, I really don’t care about you making omelettes from giant eggs), but also so that the audience can remember that a girl walking around in a bear onesie is not normal and does, in fact, make people think Yuna is either a child or deeply weird. They’re not wrong on the second part, but the bear suit is, of course, absolutely essential for Yuna – and she can’t actually explain why. Some folks have seen obliquely that when Yuna is not in the suit (such as the beach scenes two books ago) she’s super weak, but I don’t think they’ve connected it to “the bear stuff gives her all her power”. Honestly, if this series ever ends, that may be the final boss. Someone who steals her bear suit/gear and forces her to rely on others.

After a few introductory chapters like “let’s make pressed flowers” or “let’s make ice cream”, Yuna decides to do something she’d been meaning to do for a while: go visit the dwarves’ village. She takes Fina, because shed get lonely otherwise, and ends up picking up Luimin from the elves’ village as well. (Elves and dwarves get along fine here, confusing Yuna, who is used to fantasy cliches.) While there, they also meet Jade’s party, who are there because Toya is finally going to get his mithril sword… or at least, he would be if the blacksmith didn’t reject him for not being good enough. As for Yuna, she’s busy buying pots and pans for everyone she knows, as well as talking with the mentor of the dwarf blacksmiths she knows, who is currently refusing to make swords.

It is interesting sometimes to imagine the audience for this series. It’s filled with cute girls, so you’d think that “guys who like to see cute girls” would be the #1. That said, the book really does like to hammer home how useless the guys in it are. Yuna sometimes forgets that Fina also has a stepdad in addition to her mom. Toya is basically a punching bag for everyone else in the cast until right at the end of the volume, and his story is still going to have to wait for the next book to get resolved. Is the book for yuri fans? The author is definitely writing in more yuri tease, with both Shia and Fina indicating they’d be very happy being Yuna’s bride. Unfortunately, like a lot of yuri tease series, Yuna is always there to say things like “but I don’t like girls that way” or “that’s not happening”. Is the book fans fans of grumpy 15-year-old girls in a bear suit who constantly worry about her flat chest? That seems most likely.

This book ends in the middle of the dwarf plot, so I’d expect the next book to resolve it. Till then, this sure was a volume of Kuma Bear.

Third Loop: The Nameless Princess and the Cruel Emperor, Vol. 1

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By Iota AIUE and Misa Sazanami. Released in Japan as “Nanashi no Ōjo to Reikoku Kōtei: Shītagerareta Yōjo, Konse de wa Ryū to Mofumofu ni Dekiai Sarete Imasu” by M Novels f. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by JCT.

So there is a trend in fiction in general… honestly it’s always been a trend… to mine the tragic backstory of the protagonist for emotional trauma in the reader. We are shown how utterly, utterly TERRIBLE their life has been to date. Usually this ends up becoming “but then this happened and suddenly all my karma reversed at once”, be it meeting the prince of your dreams or just buying a Super Cub. Third Loop, of course, is one of those books. Honestly, the reason I was so looking forward to it was the sheer over the top ludicrousness of the backstory in question. Our heroine does not have a name. She’s just called “That”. That said, this particular book, while it does not minimize all of the abuse she’s gotten, is more of a Cinderella story than anything else, and most of the abuse stems from a very real place: grief.

Not only is Princess That despised by her father (who says if he ever sees her he will have her executed) and servants (her head maid is trying actively to destroy her life), but this isn’t even her first life: this is now the fourth time she’s been through this. In previous lives she’d never really experienced enough love from anyone to realize the extent of her abuse, but now, having lived in one life long enough to escape the royal estate and be taken in by a commoner family, she knows what actual love is. As such, she now decides to fight back, be it using her past memories to appear to be a genius or “messenger of heaven” or just looking really sad and crying in front of sympathetic maids and knights. And, as it turns out, she’s really quite powerful, and in this fourth life, things finally start to go her way.

For the most part I really enjoyed this. The Emperor, Feilong, was deeply in love with his wife, to the point where it actively caused political issues. (Honestly, the backstory of the previous generation sounds more interesting than the main one being told here.) Unfortunately, she died giving birth to her daughter, and in his crushing despair, he decided that his daughter killed her. That said… it does not really take much to change his mind. Honestly, everyone in this book, with the exception of the head of the inner palace, Mion (who is aiming to be the Emperor’s new wife), is relatively easily won over by the princess, because it turns out that she is not, in fact, a monster but is plucky, smart and cute. The one drawback in the book is that once her father and brother are won over, they start to have “jealous of other men who are close to her” rage, which is used comedically but made me sigh, especially since in this life, the princess is three years old for the majority of the book.

This is another one of those books that feels complete in one volume, but there’s apparently at least two more. Fortunately, the nameless princess gets a name before the end of this book. I bet they don’t change the title, though. A rewarding read if you can get past the traumatic backstory of everyone.