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Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer!: The Invincible Saint and the Quest for Fluff, Vol. 3

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By Inumajin and Falmaro. Released in Japan as “Seijo-sama? Iie, Toorisugari no Mamono Tsukai desu! – Zettai Muteki no Seijo wa Mofumofu to Tabi wo suru” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Meteora.

It’s been about a year since the last volume of this series, but the core of it remains mostly the same. Kanata runs all over creation, finds all-powerful villainous creatures, and somehow manages to turn them into adorable puffballs, which they grudgingly submit to. It’s not a series to read for the character development, really, as there isn’t any: Kanata is not the sort of person who grows and learns, she’s just immediately OP and will never stop being goofy and slightly sketchy about snuggling her big fluffy beats. The comedy, thankfully, is also still good, with lots of great gags here, some of which don’t even involve Kanata burying her face in fur. And, as with previous books, there’s a somewhat terrifying plot and backstory in the background, if you care to look at it. Which Kanata does not. She is not here for past lives or gods eating souls. Are souls fluffy? NO!

Kanata’s general likeability and hideous strength means that people at least are not hearing the words “beast tamer” and trying to abuse her, at least. Arriving at a village, she hears a legend about an old mysterious monster who lives in an abandoned castle. She decides to go check it out… and finds the church’s knights attacking a gorgeous (but heavily wounded) vampire. This vampire is not really the evil sort, so tries to get Kanata away from her own struggles, but Kanata ignores that, and instead heals the vampire… who, of course, instantly becomes a pink ball of fluff. The vampire has fallen in love with Kanata, so happily comes along with her and her fellow beasts, though she’s rather grumpy about needing to stay fluffy. As for the goddess who has been trying to destroy Kanata, well…

The main story is only 2/3 of this book, with the last third being a side story that is mostly “let’s watch Melissa be incredibly strong but also mentally suffer”. The author indicates that health problems were why this book was so late, but I do think the presence of such a big story at the end of the book undercuts the terrifying cliffhanger ending. The goddess is basically “what if Aqua was evil”, but this does not make her fellow gods any better, and her fate ends up reminding me a bit of the ending of The Lottery. There’s also the description of the first saint’s travails (which involve the vampire we met earlier), and how the saint’s plan to return to this world basically involved reincarnating in different worlds for a thousand years, each life being terrible. It gives a certain heft to Kanata that she is not otherwise going to possess, and I wonder if the first saint part of her will ever come to the fore. Mmmmmm, probably not.

So yeah, enjoy the fluff, though some of it has a bitter aftertaste. Still fun.

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Vol. 8

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By MOJIKAKIYA and toi8. Released in Japan as “Boukensha ni Naritai to Miyako ni Deteitta Musume ga S-Rank ni Natteta” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

Given that we’re near the end of the series, it’s no surprise that we’re actually picking up a number of plot threads that have been lurking around since the start of the book, and some of those plot points are quite a bit darker than we’re used to. As an excuse for not meeting up with Bel and company for the last 20 years, “I was running around the country trying to rescue women from being used in forced breeding experiments with demons” is a good one. If I’m being honest, it’s what isn’t here that’s more of a surprise: Ange spends most of this volume brooding and in a blue funk, and I wondered the entire time whether it was going to tie in to her secret demon heritage and all that. But no, it’s just typical daddy issues, because that’s what this series runs on, really. And as Ange grows up, those issues get less fun for her.

After locating Percival, our intrepid group has only one to go before they can get the band back together. That said, all they can find of Satie are rumors… until they arrive at a city which is apparently trying to kill an elf woman. This is not good news for Marguerite and Maureen, who have to remind folks that elves are, in fact, unique persons. Fortunately, Ange has friends in high places, so things settle down. Even more fortunately, the elf being hunted is, of course, Satie, who has been doing the things I alluded to in the last paragraph. Unfortunately, the “prince” has nearly caught up with her and is really trying hard to kill her, probably because she knows that he’s not the real prince. Can Belgrieve, Percival and Kasim manage to rescue Satie, or is that going to fall to Ange?

So yeah, Ange is starting to regret her own actions a bit, mostly the fact that she was going around to every woman she knew and asking if they wanted to marry her dad. Now they’re about to reunite with Satie, who the others admit had a thing for Belgrieve, and he probably did for her, and she starts to realize that she might not be the closest person in his life anymore. Ange is old enough and mature enough to know that this is unfair to Belgrieve and that it’s just envy, but that does not make the feelings go away, and her wrestling with them is probably the best part of the book. The other good part of the book is a nice bit of light horror, as there is a spell that can be used to disguise a person as another person so well that the other person does not even know they’re a disguise, and this is used to chilling effect here.

Good stuff, and a rare cliffhanger for this series, so we’ll have to wait till the 9th volume to see if we can save the day. (I suspect the day will be saved, this is not that kind of series.)

Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back To My World Whenever I Want!, Vol. 3

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By Hiiro Shimotsuki and Takashi Iwasaki. Released in Japan as “Itsudemo Jitaku ni Kaereru Ore wa, Isekai de Gyōshōnin o Hajimemashita” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Berenice Vourdon.

If you’re looking at the archived reviews of this series, you may note that I did not review the second volume. This is because it left so little of an impression on me that I had absolutely nothing to say. It wasn’t bad. I clearly was interested enough to read the third book. But there was nothing to hang my hat on, nothing where I thought “here is something I can talk about for 500 words”. Honestly, I should be having this problem more often than I am, and I’m not sure if that says something good or bad about me. But this third volume has a couple of good things and a couple of bad things that I wanted to discuss, so let’s pick up where we left off, with this very relaxed, slow-life “Kosaku Shima isekai”. Though unlike the Kosaku Shima series, Shiro will not be having lots of great sex anytime soon. It’s a light novel for teens, not seinen manga.

Things to know from Book 2: Shiro has a fairy companion now, and his grandmother has come back, looking about 20 years old. That’s it. The third book starts with her returning with Shiro to Japan, giving a bit of backstory, and preparing to continue to hide from most of her family the fact that she’s not dead and from another world. As for that other world, Shiro is invited by the mayor, Karen, to go with her to the big city, where she has to drop off the town’s taxes and go to a ball, where she is traditionally mocked for being a hick. As for Shiro, he tries to join a merchant’s guild in the big city, but is mocked and belittled. Can he manage to solve both his problems and Karen’s at the same time?

Everyone loves watching an arrogant noble get what’s coming to him, and though the noble is a merchant here, we get that, in a major scene showing Shiro at his most ruthless. That said, the best scenes in the book were near the end, as Aina, who came with Shiro to the big city, returns with a present for her mother, one that triggers the grief for her missing presumed dead husband she had been burying, and now she and her daughter are crying and thinking they’re terrible. The way Shiro handles THIS, rather than fending off nobility with awesome shampoo, is what makes him attractive as a protagonist. On the down side, I really dislike Shiro’s grandmother here. I’d be OK with her deciding to let the rest of the family believe she had died if she was going to stay in the fantasy world, but having her hang out with Shiro in Japan and pretend to be his childhood friend in front of his younger sisters is creepy and also a level of lying too much for me.

That said, the cliffhanger ending may need to let the cat out of the bag anyway. Till then, good job, Peddler in Another World, you rose above being faceless to only somewhat faceless.