Category Archives: reviews

Goodbye Otherworld, See You Tomorrow: The Traveled Path and the Box of Hope

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By Kazamidori and Nimoshi. Released in Japan as “Sayonara Isekai, Mata Kite Ashita” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by MPT.

There’s a wonderful moment in this book where someone points out to Keisuke one of the big reasons that he’s constantly identified as someone from another world, and it’s because he actually has optimism and positivity despite the fact that the world has ended. It’s an important thing to have, especially going forward as there are fewer and fewer people. Fortunately, that’s not quite true, as Keisuke coming into her life has made Nito a massive ball of sunshine and cuteness, to the point where it’s practically weaponized to use against the rest of the cast in this book. That said, the book is not all good times and fluffiness. As you read you will feel a war going on between positivity and hope on the one hand, and melancholy and regrets on the other. One side does win, but it’s a struggle, and while we don’t have suicide attempts like the first book, this book has some people who have mostly given up on life.

While the previous book had Keisuke and Nito traveling around to various places and interacting with the folks they find there, this book mostly centers around one area. Arriving at a village temple, they stay there for a few days with the old woman who cleans it when she’s not busy running her shoe workshop. Also there is Charolles, a young woman who is searching for the ending of an incomplete book that she once read. A little ways away, in a more built-up area, is a theater containing Paula, a wannabe dancer, and Jill, a very shy singer, as well as Monty, a guinea pig the size of a man who smokes a pipe. Naturally, over the course of this book, Keisuke and Nito find that all these characters have pasts with each other in some way, and are also consumed by fears. There’s only one way to solve this: have a festival!

There is some terrific trans representation here, with the reunion of Paula and Fago hitting the reader hard. I also enjoyed seeing the terminally introverted Jill force herself to interact with the others and even sing in public in order to help Paula. That said, my favorite character here was Charolles, who gets the most screen time and also most of the art within the book. (I was vaguely annoyed we did not get art of Paula and Jill.) Charolles’ journey is very similar to Nito’s, but she’s older and more cynical, and she’s the one who I was most worried about finding dissolved in a pile of crystals by the end of the book. Fortunately that does not happen, but she also very pointed does not join Keisuke and Nito on their travels (possibly sensing their relationship is a lot more romantic than either wants to say.) I hope things work out for her.

This volume has an open ending, but there’s no more volumes out in Japan, so if it does continue it will be a while. Still, I definitely recommend it. Great characters, great moody writing, and emotional.

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: Creating a New Legend with the Unbeatable Lady of the Sword

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

This book does not particularly advance much of the plot we saw in the first volume, and in fact reads a bit like “oh crap now it’s a series what do I do”, but I don’t think I care because this was so much fun to read. Apologies to the titular duke’s daughter, Tina, but Lydia is a delightful ball of tsundere cliches. We only saw a bit of her in the first book, but here she’s in full flower, bullying Allen, attacking him, defending him, beating nobles to death for him, and generally doing everything except saying “I-it’s not like I did it for you or anything!”. Wait, no, she does that too. Tina and Ellie, joined by Lydia’s little sister Lynne, are clearly infatuated with Allen, but they’re starting from so far back in the race that it’s kind of sad. And yes, I realize that a series like this is setting itself up to have Tina as the winning girl, but I’m not sure, at this point, how that is going to happen.

Allen is faced with a bit of a dilemma this volume. Lydia is having her ceremony to welcome her as a royal sorcerer at the same time that Tina and Ellie are having THEIR opening ceremony at the academy. There’s really no good way out of that (get used to me saying that about Allen and his romantic dilemmas), but he chooses the academy. There we meet his younger sister Caren, who only has a bit of a brother complex, and Tina’s older sister Stella, who has spent years proving her family wrong and making a name for herself at school only to have Tina waltz in and be better at everything. I expect her to snap and turn evil in Book 3 or 4. Unfortunately for Allen, without him at Lydia’s side, her investiture has gone to hell in a handbasket. the second prince, who is the reason why Allen is not also a royal sorcerer, has returned to claim what he feels is his, and… yikes.

Lydia may spend most of this book rather angry, as fits her character type, but it’s not without cause. The second prince is a cartoon villain, the sort of arrogant snot that has a face made for punching. Indeed, one of the climactic battles has as its main difficulty NOT killing him, as a living prince who can answer for starting it all in the first place is vastly preferable to a dead prince who will just lead to exile form the kingdom. But Lydia also has more important things to worry about. Allen seems far too close to Tina, as well as her sister, and let’s not leave out dark horse Ellie, who gets more head rubs than anyone else. Hell, even Lydia’s MOTHER is hitting on him constantly. Fortunately, Allen may still have the sexuality of a bowl of cold oatmeal, but even he knows that Lydia is in love with him. He’s just ignoring that.

Allen’s headspace may make this book too annoying for harem fans (who will also dislike Lydia’s cliched tsundere ways), but I find it equally hilarious. And we even get the standard head maid/assassin/spy” type here. Despite the presence of multiple 13-year-olds hitting on our hero, this series is simply hella fun.

Reflection of Another World, Vol. 1

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By Haruko Kurimoto and Vinegar. Released in Japan as “Yugami no Kuni Monogatari” as a webnovel. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Amber Tamosaitis.

When it comes to light novels, especially ones that have ‘another world” in the title, there is usually a certain blueprint that gets followed, and this goes for those written for a men’s marketplace as well as a women’s marketplace. But isekai has been around long before its rise to popularity in the 2010s. Most older fans who disparage the cliches and characters of modern isekai are quick to say “El Hazard and Rayearth don’t count!”. And then there’s Fushigi Yuugi, which I suspect more than a few people are going to think of then they read Reflection of Another World. The main character and the basic plot beats are not the same as that iconic series, but it has a sort of Fushigi Yuugi-ish veneer that permeates it. It helps the book to feel more like a shoujo manga being novelized than an isekai book. Which is good… and also bad, as it features the best and worst of the genre.

Our heroine is Yura, an introverted girl who is best friends with Tomoko, a lively and outgoing girl who’s also smart and good at sports. The other girls can’t really bully her – but they can bully Yura, who’s quiet and never speaks up for herself. One day, while she’s visiting after school at an antique store owned by one of Tomoko’s relatives, she sees a huge and mysterious mirror with writing on the sides. After a bit more suffering through the Japanese school system, including the classic “get blamed for stealing by your bullies who are the actual perpetrators”, when even Tomoko is upset that she always folds like a card table at any sign of conflict, she runs off to the shop and looks closer at the mirror… and gets pulled through it! Now in another world, she must deal with accidental marriage, everyone calling her the most beautiful thing ever, and a handsome man who is called ugly and kicked and abused. What is going on here?

I’ll be honest, a lot of this book was a struggle to get through. Yura, unfortunately, does not get called to another world for any reason we can see, so she rarely gets explanations when she does things wrong or doesn’t understand what’s going on. Also, the King seems to be a jerk, and most of the rest of the cast who are not Yura or her assumed love interest Sei are also not very likeable. The good news is that Yura, while not always likeable herself, is a very compelling character, and the writing does an excellent job of taking us into the head of an introvert who is forced every day to confront things that she really does not want to. Becoming everyone’s center of attention is her worst nightmare, and it felt very realistic that it took till near the end of the book – and, more importantly, for the danger to be to someone else rather than herself – for her to actually take a stand.

There’s a lot unanswered at the end of this book, so we’ll see what happens next. If Tomoko somehow joins Yura in Book 2, I will raise another Fushigi Yuugi eyebrow. Till then, recommended not for isekai fans, but for shoujo fans.