Category Archives: reviews

The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend, Vol. 1

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By Kennoji and Fly. Released in Japan as “Chikan Saresou ni Natteiru S-kyuu Bishoujo wo Tasuketara Tonari no Seki no Osananajimi datta” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sergio Avila.

I have not read the two other series that this author has out in English. Hazure Skill and Drugstore in Another World are both in genres that I’m gradually trying to read less of. But ‘syrupy sweet high school romance’ is still a relatively new genre in English-translated light novels. Honestly, the marketplace changes a lot these days, and yesterday’s down and outs are today’s up and comers. Remember 15 years ago when we all said sports manga was impossible to license? Even just five years ago I was saying that you couldn’t get a LN title licensed unless it had some sort of fantasy or supernatural plotline in it. But now here we are. That said, to be honest I picked this up because of the artist. Fly is best known here for Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, and this is in the same basic genre. That said, the two books are doing different things. Tomozaki is a deconstruction. This book is what it deconstructs.

Ryou is a typical light novel romance protagonist: nondescript, doesn’t have many friends, school skipper, thinks of himself in terrible ways. One day on the train he sees a girl being groped by a salaryman, and decides to make a scene and get the guy caught. Later, in school, it turns out that he’s sitting next to said girl in class… and that it’s Hina, his childhood friend. They had been inseparable in grade school, but in middle school she got super gorgeous and popular, and he got more self-conscious and so they drifted apart. But while he may have mostly forgotten about her, she certainly hasn’t forgotten about him. As the book goes on, Ryou starts to notice that Hina is asking to walk home with him, and making him food, and asking him out on dates. Does this mean… she has feelings for him? Nah, let’s not overthink this.

As always with this genre, whether you can tolerate it or not depends how much you like ‘oblivious’ teenage boys. I’d say it was unrealistic except I was also a teenage boy, and no, it really is this bad. That said, at least the series gets a confession out of the way by the end of the first book, even if it leads to “I’m not sure how I feel about you”. Hina is cute, and the reader is meant to understand her frustration with Ryou and sympathize, and it works pretty well. I also loved Ryou’s younger sister Mana, who does not have a shred of the standard “younger sister of the protagonist” character to her and is quite happy wingmanning for her brother, though buying condoms for him turns out to be a mistake. (There’s no sex in this book, sorry to disappoint. Everyone’s very pure.) And the love rival role is handled pretty well, as she’s good at analyzing Ryou and Hina and knows that’s why she doesn’t really have a chance.

There’s nothing outstanding about this book, and it doesn’t have a good gimmick like Tomozaki. But it’s decently written, and there are no terrible people in it yet. If you like the genre of “pretty girl tries to get guy to admit that someone might actually like him and it’s her”, this is a good one to try.

Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons, Vol. 3

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By 616th Special Information Battalion and Wuhuo. Released in Japan as “Doushitemo Hametsushitakunai Akuyaku Reijou ga Gendai Heiki wo Te ni Shita Kekka ga Kore desu” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Shaun Cook.

This is, as of my writing of this review, the latest volume in the series, and it’s been about a year and a half since it came out in Japan. I know that fans here in the English-speaking world tend to dislike those sorts of books, wondering why publishers would license it when it grinds to an unfinished halt. (The answer is almost always “because it was still ongoing when they licensed it”, in case you were wondering.) But yes, nothing is really resolved in this volume either – we’ve gotten up to the point where the “game” part of this would start, where the heroine is about to arrive at Astrid’s school. That said, I’m not exactly crying if this is all we’re going to get. The author loves writing morally bankrupt heroines, and even in a villainess light novel, a genre I’m particularly soft on, I think I’m starting to reach my limit with Astrid’s evil antics.

Astrid is still trying to figure out ways to avoid her fate (but not realizing that everyone loves her – it’s that sort of genre). She’s socking money away in a separate non-family bank account in case she has to go on the run. She’s getting familiars who are far more powerful than mere fairies. She’s conducting experiments on other students to see if they will murder small animals just because she tells them to. There’s a beach episode! You know, the usual stuff. Even as she tries her hardest to learn better magic/get more firepower, the world edges closer to the actual war that will likely trigger these events. And even her grades aren’t assured anymore, as she’s reaching the limits of what her previous life can achieve and realizing that science in another world is hard.

There are some cool set pieces in this. Astrid’s battle with the fenrir is pretty cool, and he seems to be a cool wolf familiar, albeit one that doesn’t really care if she’s got no soul. It is occasionally amusing seeing Iris having to deal with her friend’s crushes, and trying to help them along by drugging the crush to get a result… but not TOO much. Astrid’s mother, again, seems to know exactly what her daughter is doing despite Astrid’s best efforts to conceal it, and I wish we’d see her more than once a book. But yeah, I think I have reached my limit on watching “what if the villainess reincarnated decides to be more villainous” as a plotline. It doesn’t help that there are other areas of the book also starting to annoy me – Iris’ former bullies are now stealing her used underwear, because nothing says teenage lesbian crush like making it creepy.

This author pretty much does this type of character, regardless of the genre, and if you enjoy Her Majesty’s Swarm you’ll probably like this as well. If you like Villainess books, though, feel free to stop, as I’m going to.

The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent, Vol. 5

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By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent may be an atypical light novel in some ways, but it is still an isekai when you get right down to it, and that means that the isekai cliches are still there to be walked into. Our heroine has ended up in the fantasy equivalent of medieval Europe, as is typical for these sorts of books. She really misses the taste of home, with good old fashioned rice and miso, as is also typical. Generally these sorts of books fall into two types: either our isekai’d Japanese person tries to make rice and miso and the like themselves in the kingdom or they hear about a country far across the ocean that just happens to have the exact foods they’ve been looking for (and sometimes samurai, but hopefully the Saint series isn’t going there). We get the latter here, as Sei happens upon a slow boat from China – or its fantasy version – that gives her the meals she’s been craving for so long.

After discovering not only that her cooking can deliver magical power ups to those who consume it, but also that Turkish Coffee is being imported nearby, Sei is on a cooking tip. She also has to do something about her cosmetics company, which has become so popular that the nobles are taking *too* much interest in it. As a result, she has a new umbrella company founded for future Saint developments. Disguising herself as the daughter of said company’s head (which is, in reality, her) she travels with Johan to a nearby port town to track down the rice she’s wanted to find for so long. Getting a hold of this proves to be an adventure in itself, and features Sei almost giving away who she really is multiple times. Then, back at the capital, she has an even more dangerous event lying in wait… her debutante ball.

After waiting nine months between books 3 and 4, the wait between books 4 and 5 hasn’t even been one month. Which means I have a bit less to say than I normally do, as I just talked about all this. I will note that Sei’s aversion to romance is starting to not only get on people’s nerves, but to be a genuine problem. Albert is trying to be aware of her feelings and courting her at the speed of a glacier, but she’s the Saint, and is also very much of marriageable age. She can’t simply stay in the back of the research lab and make potions for the next ten years. She manages to get through the ball designed to introduce her to society, but is terrified of dancing with any men she doesn’t know. Fortunately, the palace agrees with her – they certainly don’t want other nobles getting a chance to woo her. Given the author does not really seem to care much about the romance in this series, I’m not sure where this plot will go, but it’s what is interesting me most at the moment.

All this plus Sei teaches Aira how to make a magical Coleman Stove. Thankfully, Vol. 6 of The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent is not coming out in December. That said, I’m still interested.