Category Archives: reviews

Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin, Vol. 1

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By Kennoji and KWKM. Released in Japan as “Hazure Skill “Kage ga Usui” o Motsu Guild Shokuin ga, Jitsuha Densetsu no Ansatsusha” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash.

This is the fourth of the books that I never read when they initially came out where I had a Twitter poll to see which I should read. It came last. I can see why. That said… all the other books, after finishing them, I was immediately left with a sense of “I don’t want to read any more of this series”. The World of Otome Games Is Tough for Mobs has a protagonist I really hate, Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra is in a genre I try to avoid, and Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World was so boring I didn’t even do a review. This one, though… if I get another gap in my reading schedule, I might try the next one. It’s in the genre of what I call “McDonald’s” books, i.e. big dumb fun. More to the point, it’s filled with fantasy light novel cliches but mostly avoids the bad ones. Note the mostly.

Roland is part of the party that has been sent to defeat the demon lord. His talent, being unobtrusive, was thought to be completely worthless but makes him a fantastic assassin. He ends up defeating the demon lord himself, though he lets the rest of the party take the credit. Now what he really wants is to retire from his assassin work and live a normal life. The trouble is he has absolutely no idea what normal is. AT ALL. He ends up in a town with an adventurer’s guild, and decides to join… as a guild receptionist. Naturally, as the book goes on everyone else in the cast realizes that he’s far more than he seems. Also, isn’t the demon lord supposed to be dead? Who’s that hot girl who’s hanging out at his house?

I was not kidding when I said this was Big Dumb Fun. It reads like one of those fanfics where the author makes the main character able to do literally anything and have any woman he wants. Unlike a lot of light novels, Roland screws his way through a lot of this book, bedding not only the former demon lord but also the head of the guild and even a passing adventurer. Also, despite his “useless skill”, he’s had so much training that he can literally do almost anything. The reason this is not absolutely unreadable is that Roland is, at heart, a nice person… but he does not ACT like one, as a majority of the OP light novel potatoes do. Roland is brusque and rude, and really does have no idea what normal is, but he not only is incredibly powerful, but he’s good at teaching other people how to maximize THEIR useless skills to become more powerful. This was probably my favorite part of the book, where we see him pinpoint exactly how an adventurer can best be utilized.

So yeah, not going to immediately pick up the next book in this series, but if I get another lull in my reading, I might try the second volume. Which I guess makes it the winner of my poll, even though it came in last.

My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, Vol. 6

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By mikawaghost and tomari. Released in Japan as “Tomodachi no Imouto ga Ore ni dake Uzai” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

This honestly may be the best volume in the series to date. We get a plotline that was completely unpredictable and fun, development of the ongoing love triangle, a lot of great humor, seeing Akiteru try to be proactive and sympathetic but missing the point a good 3/4 of the time, and while the book does have a bit of Sumire in it, she’s mostly in school and forced to be in teacher mode, and thus no shotacon jokes for the second book in a row! The series continues to do a very good job of making everyone likeable – even Akiteru, despite being the classic punchable oblivious guy. It helps that he’s so supposedly “logical” and matter of fact, and thus a different type from the usual pleasant potato. The whole thing ends up in a beauty contest, which features gorgeous pictures of Iroha (in a dress) and Mashiro (in a suit). Sadly, I must report that the illustrator and publisher are goddamn cowards.

It’s the culture festival, which means maid cafes, as well as the school beauty contest. Before that, though, there is the problem of Iroha, who is still freaking out over the fact that she can’t be friends with Mashiro AND be trying to win Akiteru’s heart at the same time. Taking Otoi’s advice to try to see things from the perspective of people other than her own, she spends most of the book acting out the “roles” of her friends and classmates, including Mashiro, Sumire, and Midori. Unfortunately, all of this is frustrating Akiteru, who is trying to demonstrate to Iroha that she can simply be herself and does not have to be the perfect honor student OR other people, she can be as annoying as she wants to be. She’s never going to agree to that, because her being annoying is a form of flirting reserved only for him. So there’s only one thing he can do, really: dress up as a woman and enter the beauty pageant to defeat her.

There is a large amount of this book devoted to Akiteru dressing up as a woman, including some good makeup tips, and it is remarked upon how gorgeous he looks as the end product (provided he doesn’t speak, something he manages to pull off. I actually flicked back and forth over the book three times to make sure I was not missing an obvious illustration. But no, this book is written for teenage boys, and they do not want to see boys in dresses. Feh. The highlight of the book, though, is the growing friendship between Iroha and Sasara, as it turns out most of the “rivalry” stuff was simply because Sasara saw that Iroha was wearing a mask and hated it. Getting her to remove it is fantastic, and it’s nice to see that, despite deliberately ignoring romance for the time being, Akiteru’s sense of what Iroha needs is probably accurate.

As is common with this series, we get a vicious cliffhanger at the end, and I suspect the next volume will make Akiteru very uncomfortable. Till then, this is excellent high school romantic comedy.

Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire, Vol. 4

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By Hayaken and Nagu. Released in Japan as “Eiyu-oh, Bu wo Kiwameru tame Tensei su. Soshite, Sekai Saikyou no Minarai Kisi ♀” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mike Langwiser.

I have stated before that the main reason I enjoy this series is that it has only one joke: Inglis is a meathead who only cares about fighting, food, and Rafinha, in that order. The trouble is that the author wants to hammer home to the reader that this is not entirely amusing and something to appreciate for the lulz. I say trouble because we’re introduced halfway through to a girl who lost her entire family when her village was destroyed and therefore has… sigh… been sold and is working “in servitude”. Rafinha is appalled that this is happening, while Inglis points out the political realities of trying to shut it down everywhere. The trouble is that Inglis does not care about any of this. She’ll support Rafinha if she wants to fight against slavery, but that’s because she’ll follow her anywhere, not because of any actual moral center. Inglis’ moral center is: I want a good fight. And she will cheat and manipulate to get it.

While working to help rebuild the school (and, more importantly, the school cafeteria), Inglis is called to the throne to be offered a position as Captain of the Royal Guard. A huge honor, but far too much work and would mean she would not get to do whatever the hell she wants, so she talks her way out of that one. More importantly, the acting troupe Inglis has met before are back in town, and they want her to play one of the roles and put on a spectacular fight scene. Inglis realizes that if she cons Yua into taking the other role, then she can get to fight the half-assed but equally strong women in a real (theatrical) battle. That said, there is a problem… the winner has to kiss the male lead, and the mere idea of this causes Inglis to flip out. That said, there may be even bigger problems… like an assassination attempt. Or an invasion.

I’m glad that Yua has essentially become Inglis Mark 2, because she’s just hilarious all the time, whereas Inglis occasionally has to play the straight man. Yua’s complete apathy to nearly anything extends even to her own self, as we discover that she may have a lingering side-effect from her death battle in the previous volume, to which her response is essentially “ah”. This is why it’s even funnier seeing her thirst for the girly-faced Ian, to the point where she spends most of the epilogue of the book carrying him around under her arm like a sack of potatoes. As for Inglis, she gets to have some really good fights here, so she must be happy. We also get to see the mothers of Inglis and Rafinha pay a visit, and it turns out that huge appetites definitely run on the mothers’ side, as between the four of them they terrify everyone with the amount of food consumed.

This series is never really going to get into Big Questions and Ethical Dilemmas, and even if it does it probably is not going to be Inglis having the dilemma. She gets why things are wrong. She gets they can be hard to fix. She doesn’t care. Fight now plz.