Category Archives: reviews

Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 1

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By Gwon Gyeoeul and JINSA. Released in Japan by D&C Media. Released in North America by Ize Press. Translated by Tapas Entertainmnt Inc.

I have not really dipped my toe too much into the Korean end of the villainess market. I generally have an allergy to vertically scrolling titles that I blame on being old, and aside from taking a look at Beware the Villainess, which runs on the deep rage of the heroine, I had not been taking in the manwha/webtoon end of the genre. But I saw that this also had a novel coming out, and I like text, so I decided to give it a try. It’s decent enough, though it definitely lives and dies on how much you like the heroine, who can be a lot, especially in this first book. I was actually reminded a bit of I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!, as abuse in a past life leads to the actions the heroine takes in this life. In the case of Villains Are Destined to Die, though, the past abuse was in Korea, and this new “villainess” runs far more on bitter cynicism than anything else.

The premise will be familiar to many: Our unnamed heroine stumbles across a mobile game called Daughter of the Duke’s Super Love Project, and gets obsessed with it, particularly the Hard Mode, where you play as the adopted daughter who is the villainess in the Normal Mode of the game. In fact, she tries to hard to beat the ending she apparently dies, and finds herself in the body of Penelope Eckhart. Her family now hate her, the servants despise and abuse her, and if she doesn’t do anything she’s going to be tortured and executed within a year. Fortunately, she has her knowledge of the game – though she never got close to winning hard mode – so this shouldn’t be too difficult… except that she’s only given three option dialogue trees, and they’re all terrible options.

Fortunately, and this happens almost immediately so it’s not much of a spoiler, she gains the ability to turn off the “you have three bad options” screen fairly quickly. She does still see affection meters, though, which are all so abysmal you wonder what Penelope was like before our heroine”s reincarnated self took over. We gradually find out, and it turns out that the heroine and Penelope have a lot in common in terms of how they grew up – which makes things more interesting, as the influence of her past abuse makes this new Penelope far too distrusting and bitter, and a few times she shoots herself in the foot in her efforts to save herself. She also has the same issue a lot of these reincarnated villainesses have, which is she sees this world as a game, and doesn’t see the others as people. She’s got a tough road ahead of her, even if she is softening a bit by the end of this book.

I didn’t even mention the men in the series – angry brother 1, angry brother 2, yandere crown prince, mysterious sorcerer, and grateful slave. That said, I also didn’t mention the game’s heroine, who has not even shown up yet by the end of this volume. Villainess fans who want something a bit more bitter may find this to their liking.

Witches Can’t Be Collared, Vol. 1

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By Yuri Yumemi and Wata. Released in Japan as “Majo ni Kubiwa wa Tsukerarenai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

One thing that I tend to do on social media is that every month, I post a screencap of an Excel Spreadsheet showing my light novel preorders. This is meant as an amusing gag to show off that I frankly read far too many Japanese light novels, and I should be reading fewer of them. That said, sometimes it gets noticed by translators who happen to see their book isn’t there, and they say “hey, why aren’t you getting this new series?” Inevitably, my answer is something along the lines of “it’s not really my genre”. This happened a while back with Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table, and while I had to admit that the first volume was very well done, I didn’t really read more of it because I’m not a fan of death game books. This new series is a police procedural, and after reading it I admit that the reasons that I was told to read it are valid. It’s quite fun in a lot of spots. Nevertheless.

Rogue Macabesta is a detective in a world that is basically “My Hero Academia but with magic instead of quirks”, which means it’s his job to hunt down villains who use magic for crime. He’s finally done enough, and been noticed enough, that he’s about to be promoted to a desk job. Honestly, he trips all sorts of flags about retiring, so it should not be a surprise that his boss has a new mission for him. There’s a serial killer no one can catch, who is aging and de-aging people to death, and she wants him to catch the culprit. Using the witches of the 6th District, who are all hundreds of years old and have slaughtered thousands. They’re all sociopaths, though this being a light novel that mostly means they’re sociopaths in amusing eccentric ways. Can he and Miseria, who can control people like puppets, get along enough to find the killer?

The witches are a lot of fun, especially Miseria, who I would hate to have to deal with in real life, but as a character she’s great. being an obnoxious tease and also knowing exactly what buttons to push to irritate Rogue. That said, all the other witches note that compared to their previous detectives they’ve worked with (who are all dead), she’s really taken a liking to him. Catherine, the other major witch we meet this time around, is essentially the chronic pathetic wet girl that you see in series like these – think Yunyun – but that changes fast. I wasn’t too surprised by the change, but it was handled well. So what’s wrong with the series? Nothing, except it is indeed a police procedural, meaning most of it is finding bodies, searching for clues, interrogating folks, and finding more bodies. Also, the author straight up says this is The Silence of the Lambs but with magic rather than cannibalism, which, again, not a selling point for me.

If you do enjoy this genre, and don’t mind some snarky amoral girls taking over the pages, this is absolutely right up your alley.

The World’s Strongest Witch: I’m Starting My Free Life in a World Where Only I Can See the Online Strategy Guide, Vol. 1

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By Mochimaru Sakaki and riritto. Released in Japan as “Sekai Saikyou no Majo, Hajimemashita: Watashi dake “Kouryaku Site” wo Mireru Sekai de Jiyuu ni Ikimasu” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Phil Charbonneau.

This was one I took a flyer on because it sounded very silly. It’s always dangerous when you try to read a comedy, or a book that’s trying to be “zany”. You need to commit to the bit. But you also have to be careful not to drive off your readership without something too out there. This comes close, and I admit may not be for everyone, but I was quite pleased with how it turned out, because it is absolutely ludicrous. It takes its basic idea and does all the dumb things you’d want a book like this to do. Unlike Bofuri (and more on this later, but I guarantee Bofuri will be what you think of once you start this), the main character is part of this world. Also unlike Bofuri, there is no one with common sense to tell her when she’s being too ridiculous, just NPCs who are absolutely agog.

Lorna Hermit used to be Lorna Guugelheit, and spent most of her childhood ensconced in her family’s mansion and totally ignorant of anything they did. But then she manifests the skill that all these “sort of based on a game” worlds have people do, and it turns out to be SSS-Ranked. Her family is horrified! Skills go from A to G! To have her skill be SSS, it must be ludicrously bad if it’s that late in the alphabet! Needless to say, she is thrown out of the family and dumped in the incredibly dangerous forest at the edge of her domain. Then she actually figures out what her skill does… she can access the wiki page for her world, which turns out to be a game! Not that she knows this, all she knows is that the “gods” are giving her helpful hints on where the monsters and valuable herbs are. Unfortunately, she immediately gets the endgame “most powerful weapon” – by wiki searching – and so is just a LITTLE bit overpowered…

Lorna will remind you of Maple quite a bit, to be honest, but by the end of the volume I was struck by the fact that this is a secret villainess story. Noble girl thrown out of her family, who all turn out to be not-so-secretly evil. She goes to the nearby town to make a life for herself and dazzles everyone around her. But if I’m being honest, this series is really for those who like Kuma Bear and Make My Abilities Average but wishes there were fewer 8-year-olds and more magic battles. Lorna is a classic airhead, so keeps using the smallest spell she can think of, even when with her MP the smallest spell can still take out top-tier bosses. Antagonists see how thick her mana is and drop to their knees in terror. Best of all is the internet skill itself. Lorna deals with popup malware, cryptocurrency, and comment trolls telling her to take off her panties. She thinks it’s the gods speaking to her. By the end of the volume, even the elves believe commenters are using slang of the gods, and adopt it themselves. This book is ridiculous.

So, not for everyone, but I had a ball. I will definitely check out a second book, though this risks getting old fast. Also, terrific pun that I missed until the very end of the book.