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Adachi and Shimamura, Vol. 12

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By Hitoma Iruma and raemz. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Molly Lee.

It should not be a surprise to the reader that, despite saying this is a 12th volume rather than a short story collection or whatever “Volume 99.9” was, this is essentially the same as the previous few books. There has been a running theme of Yashiro trying to unite all Adachis with all Shimamuras to save the universe, and that reaches its culmination here, allowing us to get back to the main story at last. Not that there’s much to the main story, except Shimamura starting to think seriously about what her life will be like going forward, and that it will probably be with Adachi. As for Adachi herself, well, she’s gotten better, but the poster child for “vibrating ball of gay” is still exactly what’s on the tin. If there’s an issue here it’s with the author. As this arc has gone on, we had three volumes of My First Love’s Kiss, in the same universe, come out, and that poisoned me so much against the author that I can’t give them the benefit of the doubt with questionable scenarios anymore.

There are four short stories here, along with two mini-short stories. In the first, Adachi is a school teacher in her early 20s who is teaching 6-year-old Shimamura, who wants them to get married. In the second, Adachi is a best-selling author and Shimamura is the lead actress in the movie adaptation of her book. These are both part of the “Yashiro searches for Shimamuras” plot. In the third story, she rescues Shimamura for almost getting hit by a car, only to realize that by doing so she messed up Shimamura meeting Adachi, and now the world is ending. Only donuts can solve this. In the final story, we’re back to the “main” timeline, and the present day (i.e. high school), as Adachi asks Shimamura on a date to the beach. (The two micro stories are Hino and Nagafuji fluff and Adachi and Shimamura’s mothers fluff.)

As I said, My First Love’s Kiss was a toxic series that featured multiple characters preying on children. As such, the first short story, which is written as if we’re supposed to go “awwww”, gave me the creeps. Adachi tries to think of reasons not to marry a six-year-old, and the only one that she can think of that stops her is she’d be arrested. There’s soulmates and then there’s ick. Fortunately that’s the only ick in the book. The other AU was genuinely cute, mostly as they were both adults. I also like seeing the ongoing repair of Adachi’s relationship with her mother, no matter what timeline. The third story is basically an excuse to write the “canon” Adachi and Shimamura meeting in a different way. The final story really does feel like a continuation of the series, and is filled with adorable yuri moments. It feels very much like the anime.

This was supposed to be the final volume, though the author hasn’t had afterwords lately. But there’s a Short Stories 2 due out in a couple of months, so this cash cow continues onward. If it keeps the author away from creepy shit, I’m OK with more of it.

Earl and Fairy: The Future Bride in a Labyrinth of Roses

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By Mizue Tani and Asako Takaboshi. Released in Japan as “Hakushaku to Yōsei” by Shueisha Cobalt Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

Generally speaking, I try not to frame a character’s decision in a novel by “well, it’s just terrible writing”. For one thing, it’s lazy reviewing to do that. There are all sorts of reasons why a young woman who was not only raised as a commoner and is now engaged to an Earl but was raised as a commoner with a connection to fairies and thus grew up with basically no friends or peers, would, when sent off to a supposed friend’s household to learn about etiquette, then told she’s the new maid, given a room in an attic, and relentlessly bullied and physically abused, would not say “hey, I wonder if something is wrong here?”. But Lydia thinking “oh hey, this must just be some sort of nobility training I haven’t figured out yet, so I will endure it and not say anything” is, without a doubt, the stupidest she has ever been. The book gets much better in the back half. But I almost dropped this because of that plot point.

After the events of the last arc, Lydia and Edgar are finally engaged. She’s doing her best to try to trust that he loves her and not assume that he is romancing every woman in London. Unfortunately Lucinda, a young noble girl arrives at Edgar’s place and talks about how they’re engaged, mentioning a series of secret letters. She’s honestly so deluded hat even Lydia doesn’t really buy this, but Lydia is also dealing with a serious case of “I am but a lowly plain commoner”, so it really doesn’t help her mood. Edgar, meanwhile, is trying his best not to hit on any woman that looks his way. But it’s hard! It’s less hard with Lucinda, who is, not to put too fine a point on it, a brat. He also worries that Lydia accepted his proposal without any romantic feelings for him at all. This is a much more likely worry.

As with most Earl and Fairy books, things improve greatly once we’re dealing with fairies and not Lydia and Edgar acting exactly like the circa-2007 shoujo romantic leads they are. There are some nice reveals, and we can see why a series of annoying coincidences led to Lydia getting into the awful position she spends most of the book. It is somewhat darkly humorous that she’s at possibly her lowest ebb in the series, collapsing from starvation and fatigue, not from a fairy plot or from Edgar’s enemies, but from noble servants just being terrible people. When Lydia gets out of her head, she proves to be not only a capable Fairy Doctor, but also quite adept at actually handling noble society. The problem is that we spend a large bulk of the book in her head, as does she’ Sometimes reading self-loathing can be grueling. It is here.

I double checked to see when the inevitable shoujo “we’re in wedding outfits!” cover art is, and it’s Book 18, so I worry that each book before them will introduce a new girl to make everyone in the cast slightly unhappy. Recommended for those who loved Black Bird and Hot Gimmick when they came out from Viz.

D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared, Vol. 3

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By KONO Tsuranori and ttl. Released in Japan as “D Genesis: Dungeon ga Dekite 3-nen” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by JCT.

I mentioned before how this story is written by and for nerds, but really, I don’t think I emphasized it enough. Miyoshi is obviously a massive math nerd, and while Keigo tries to present himself as “the everyman”, every time he makes a reference to books that the author has to add a footnote for, his true self shines through. Moreover, the actual author is the same, getting distracted by explaining things like how curry restaurants work or taking a detour to Comiket. This book, the third in the series, seems to be the last of the “setup” volumes, as Book Four promises they’ll finally step into the spotlight. Yet the part of the book that has everyone the most excited is when D-Powers discovers not only that telepathy exists, but is something that ANYONE with a dungeon card can do. The ramifications of this have zero to do with how it will work in the dungeons – instead, it’s National Exams that are the concern. Cheaters!

Kei and Miyoshi continue to experiment in the dungeons, along with occasionally defeating god-tier enemies with Kei’s tricked-out stats. Meanwhile, the government wants a stat-measuring device, which would be able to quantify the strength of explorers and thus prevent accidental deaths in the dungeon… but further divides the haves and have-nots, making D-Powers worry about a class war. There’s the telepathy, which I mentioned above, and which manages to panic almost everyone. There’s the fact that they’ve released the translation of the dungeon inscriptions for free online, which has America and Russia a bit grumpy. Heck, even Keigo training his actress/model pair is causing them to attract the wrong kind of attention. If they were trying to deliberately cause as much chaos as they could, they still might not have done as well as this.

This can occasionally get a bit dark, but it’s always in a vaguely amusing way. Miyoshi’s treatment of the entertainment guy sent to spy on Saito verges on cruel… OK, no, it *is* cruel, as she tries to deliberately drive him a bit mad in order to scare him off of trying to go near them again. And there’s Asha, who returns to Japan to hang out with her crush and his partner, and ends up getting addicted to BL and asking her baffled father what “topping all the bottoms in an all-out attack” means. Actually, I said BL there, but there’s even a discussion of the sort of doujinshi she’s buying – it’s made clear it’s porn, “yaoi”, rather than the milder BL that is seen in bookstores. As I said, nerds. I will admit there is slightly less food and drink in this volume, but that’s only a matter of degree. But by the end of it we get a minor cliffhanger that seems to imply that D-Powers are going to have to be slightly less anonymous to survive. The government is putting pressure on again.

If you saw “dungeon title” and backed away slowly, rest assured that this series does still have OP fights and a harem that the male lead is oblivious to. It justifies its stats, though. Recommended for the converted.