Category Archives: reviews

Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness, Vol. 4

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By Ameko Kaeruda and Sencha. Released in Japan as “Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu ” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Nathan Macklem.

This is the final volume of the series, and it has the strengths and weaknesses of previous volumes. The Elder Dragon is immensely powerful and also a pretty good guy, so any character development and angst comes from outside of that. Olivia is the same, only she doesn’t even get the character development. They’re meant to be “aw, look at the cute daddy and daughter” with an OP twist, and that works well, but they’re nothing more than that. They work best contrasting with whatever fractured familial unit we see in this particular volume, and we get that here as well. This is the final volume of the series, and it does have an ending of sorts, but the ending is very much “more of the same only Olivia is older now”. She’s rescuing other kids like her, who had bad home lives. Which is great, but the solution seems to be “:leave them all with daddy, it worked for me”.

Having obtained five of the seven Supreme Hallows, they’ve decided that that’s enough to do the ritual that will drain the built-up magic within the hallows. Unfortunately, the ritual is invaded by Vandilsen, a seemingly immortal wizard who proceeds to steal the five Hallows with the help of what he carries, the 6th. Fortunately, as it turns out, the Elder Dragon has had the 7th all this time without realizing it, and that can help them locate the other six. And so it’s time for Dragon and Daughter to go on a camping holiday, clearly… mostly as it turns out that Vandilsen is quite a long ways away, across the sea and in a foreign country that is now lifeless and arid due to having all the magic sucked out of it. Why does Vandilsen want the Hallows? And who’s the young boy they find on the beach unconscious?

A great number of the plots to Dragon Daddy Diaries have been about how to find the right level of protectiveness when being a parent. Don’t smother, don’t be too hands-off. Here we also get the added lesson of “listen to what they’re actually telling you, not what you want to hear”, as Vandilsen is literally killing himself in order to save the life of his adopted son, even if that’s not remotely what the son wants. This does, admittedly, help the Elder Dragon to have a brief crisis of conscience, as he becomes more aware of the fact that Olivia is going to get older and die while he remains the same. That said, Olivia is having none of this “let’s stay immortal forever” business, even though she’s spent her entire life in a family consisting of people over a thousand years old. She’s got a good head on her shoulders, even if that’s dramatically lacking.

This was a cute series and an easy read. That said, I’m almost positive it would never have been licensed if it had not been for the huge buzz around Sexiled, the author’s other work. Family-oriented fluff.

A Tale of the Secret Saint, Vol. 4

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka. Adapted by Matthew Birkenhauer.

I’ve talked before about how this series frequently can’t decide if it’s just pure comedy or if it has true tragedy embedded within it, but in one way it definitely fills the comedy mode, and that’s because the reader is left wondering, after four volumes, how long Fia can possibly be able to keep her reincarnation a secret given how absolutely lousy she is at hiding anything about it? The difficulty is that this is half of the humor (the other half just being Fia in general, unrelated to her past). So I suspect the answer is “it will get revealed right before the series comes to an end”, and it’s still ongoing as both a webnovel and a light novel. So this means I will have to put up with the fact that it is increasingly unbelievable that no one else picks up on this except the OTHER guy who has reincarnated memories. I mean, that’s the gag. It’s just a really belabored gag.

We pick up right where we left off 2/3 of the way through Book 3 (which is to say the end of the main plot), with Fia having to deal with the fact that her former bodyguard from her previous life, Canopus, has regained his memories and is now Captain Kurtis of the Thirteenth knights. Fortunately, he seems willing to go along with whatever she says. UN-fortunately, that’s because he’s just as obsessed with her sainthood as the rest of the Sutherland people, if not more. Things are not helped by the fact of Fia constantly accidentally doing Saint things while completely failing to realize they’re abnormal. The third volume was about the drama that surrounded Cyril and his homeland, but this volume is surrounded by an utter LACK of drama. With Fia around, everything’s fine.

Despite my grousing in the first paragraph, this is still an enjoyable volume, mostly because Fia is so fun and likeable. We’ve seen flashbacks that show that this is not just a function of her past memories interfering with her present ones – she was always like this. So we get things like her trying to explain to the local healer how to make the cure for their deadly disease by essentially saying “here are the ingredients, the actual amounts used are up to you” and having everyone stare at her in a sort of daze. I am slightly less enamored of the additions to her reverse harem, especially as we now have TWO who are a bit too obsessive for my liking, but honestly, Fia’s obliviousness is also something that will probably last until the final volume (and Cyril, let’s face it, has a very big lead on the others). Fortunately, this also ends this arc, so we’ll start a new one in the next volume, possibly involving those color-themed royals from previous books.

This is never going to be in any best of the year lists, but if you like Katarina Claes-types who are also far, far too powerful for their own good, this is definitely one to keep up with.

The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles, Vol. 1

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By Tatematsuri and Ruria Miyuki. Released in Japan as “Shinwa Densetsu no Eiyū Isekai Tan” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by James Whittaker.

Sometimes you just want to get serious. Isekai titles have been around for a while now, and we’re used to seeing pastiches, parodies, and satires of the genre. Plus, of course, they’re often written like RPG games, so the writer does not have to worry about pesky things like plot or setting. But suppose you *are* a writer who likes those things? Suppose worldbuilding is your jam? And suppose that you really do take the isekai premise seriously? Well, you’d probably end up with something close to this book. The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles is not entirely humorless (sadly, the humor is entirely the “grrr, I am jealous of our princess having no boundaries around you” sort of humor), but for the most part it’s hear to earnestly tell a story of what happens when a hero has to return to the land that he saved a thousand years later to save it again.

Three years ago, a young man named Hiro was found in his bed injured, covered in dirt, and with his hair grown long overnight. Doctors were baffled… as was Hiro, who could not remember anything. He has recently been having dreams, though, dreams where he’s a powerful swordsman in another world. No prizes for guessing that’s what happened three years ago. But then it happens again, and he ends up back in that world, now one thousand years in the future. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any memories of his previous time there, nor does he seem to have any special powers. Fortunately, he does run across a young princess, 6th in line for the throne, who is on her way to political exile and who seems to take an instant liking to him. Is this really the same world that Hiro saved before? And can he regain his memories in time to do it again?

If you enjoyed Altina the Sword Princess but wished that Regis was an incredibly OP warrior who saved the day through battle instead of strategy, you’d have something of an idea of how this book runs. It’s a very testosterone-driven book, and it did not escape my notice that while there are two powerful young women in the book, both of them need saving by the hero. I’m hoping that’s not a habit. (There’s also an implied sex scene, but you can easily ignore that.) Liz, the princess, has absolutely no boundaries around Hiro at all, to a baffling degree – I get that she takes a shine to him immediately, but it verges on the ridiculous. And her rivals, the other princes in the throne war, seem to all come from the Sword Art Online school of “all villains must be as evil as possible, no grey areas whatsoever”, so we get them literally laying on a pile of captured nude women. As I said, testosterone driven book.

Despite this, the prose is well written, the battles are exciting, and the story makes sense. If you’re looking for a power fantasy and you’re a teenage boy, this is perfect for you. I may read another volume.