Category Archives: reviews

If the RPG World Had Social Media…

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By Yusuke Nitta. LOL, and Yukinatsu Amekaze. Released in Japan as “Moshi Role Playing Game no Sekai ni SNS ga Attara” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Luke Hutton.

I imagine many of you had the same reaction I did when Yen Press first announced this license. “Oh Jesus Christ, really?!?!” And yeah, I have to admit, this title had a lot of things stacked against it from the start. Aside from the premise, the format itself demands the “text bubble” style social media commenting throughout, with little icons to show who’s speaking, meaning that this light novel reads as a particularly wordy manga much of the time. The author is also not afraid to use every cliche at their disposal in the course of telling this story, mining standard RPG plots as well as anime and manga tropes galore. But somehow, along the way, this actually became quite a fun story, helped along by a hero and demon lord who are both very similar to each other: they have trouble communicating in anything but texts. A bad story would mock this mercilessly, but this one accepts it as a simple communication disorder.

Our “hero” has a few issues. He’s a shut-in, and as I noted above, can’t really communicate except via texting. Even to his mom. He’s also super, super weak, and can’t seem to get any stronger even when he does put in effort. Possibly because he lives in Beginnerland, where the king’s castle is called LMOA Castle. Unfortunately, the Demon Lord has kidnapped the princess! He has to rescue her!… if he could leave the castle without immediately getting killed. And if the princess weren’t far more interested in seducing the demon lord than being rescued. Fortunately, the Demon Lord is an understanding sort, and sends her minions to help him slowly (very slowly) make his way to her land to save the princess. This is all made much easier because everyone can text each other… including the Hero and the Demon Lord, who are rapidly falling in love.

As I said, there’s a lot of silly cliches here. The four Demon Generals are a catgirl, Darkness from KonoSuba (OK, a vampire masochist, but come on, it’s Darkness with the serial number removed), a tsundere fallen angel, and a strong and straightforward oni. Towards the end of the book, we also revive the Six Great Sages, who are famous in legend for fighting the demons but actually all turns out to be terrible, terrible people. The book knows its RPGs. That said, it treats everyone with respect. The Demon Lord is a shy but incredibly sweet young girl, who even trained for 8 years to lower her power level to the point where she did not kill everyone by just walking near them. Her Demon Lord Generals are all firmly in her corner. As for the hero, underneath that ‘wuss’ starter background is a young man who is willing to work hard if he has a clear goal in mind, and who can also see the goodness in the Demon Lord.

Some listings say this is a Volume 1, but I’m pretty sure the novel series ends here, even if it leaves most of its “plot” in the air. The Hero and Demon Lord don’t even meet in person. The Hero is still cursed, etc. That said, the actual plot of the book is “found families are awesome” and “texting is a valid way of communication, don’t make fun of it”, so we don’t really need to see everything after this play out. This isn’t a must-read, but it is a book that makes the best use of its gimmick premise and treats everyone with care. I enjoyed it.

The Sidekick Never Gets the Girl, Let Alone the Protag’s Sister!, Vol. 2

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By Toshizo and U35. Released in Japan as “Shinyuu Mob no Ore ni Shujinkou no Imouto ga Horeru Wake ga Nai” by PASH! Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tristan K. Hill.

This book continues to be very good at not really doing what I would like it to do. I had expected, after the climax of the first book, that we’d be seeing a lot of fallout, or at least evidence that memory-erasing magic does not really work all that well in modern-day Japan. But no, we don’t even SEE the little sister again till the second half of the book, and while her fate is a big part of the plot, it’s somewhat secondary to the romcom antics. This is especially annoying as we get an excellent start to the book where we see, in the fantasy world Kou was sent to, exactly how he managed to get traumatized and have complete disaster befall him. It’s a bit rushed, but heartbreaking. Unfortunately, the author likes using it as flavor text for their real ambition: a standard high school harem comedy. And I have bad news for them, other authors are better at that.

After using magic that really should not be used in this world to wipe Hikari’s memories of him, Kou ends up sick as a dog, and also flashing back to the girl he fell in love with in the fantasy world, Rei… as well as her brutal murder, complete with dying in his arms. That said, he really can’t reflect too hard on that when both Kiryu AND Renge show up to care for him. This is especially bad in Renge’s case, as she’s a terrible cook! Oh no! This amazingly cliched scene is broken up by, of all things, the naked sexual assault guy from the start of Book 1, who shows up (clothed) and smashes a durian all over Kou and Kou’s room, I know, stay with me. After a chase, which ends up roping in Kazuki, his athletic kohai, he finds that this world and the fantasy world are more connected than he thought. But there’s no time to dwell on THAT – finals are coming up! Study group!

As you can see, the book is trying to hit every single groan-worthy high school romantic comedy cliche there is. They don’t do a bad job of having the characters go through the motions, but they don’t add anything interesting to the genre either. Kazuki has a mom. She’s hot, and teasing. Kou is bad at studying and on the verge of failure. Et cetera. I wouldn’t be complaining nearly as much if it weren’t taking away from the actual interesting parts of the book. Kou’s avoidance tactics and trauma are fascinating! The way that the weird pervert from the start of Book 1 ties into the fantasy world is something I really want to hear about… till it is thrown away because they can’t discuss it in front of “civilians”. It *is* made clear that Hikari is (no big spoiler here, it’s obvious) the reincarnation of his fantasy love… but then the book ends. Sigh.

I’m sure you’re reading this and wondering why I’m so annoyed, rather than just mildly disappointed. m Well, it’s mostly because the novel series ends here. The webnovel apparently went to a decent conclusion, but PASH! Books has shown no signs of publishing any more in print form, which probably means Japanese readers were as frustrated as I was. There’s an interesting story here that’s struggling to get past the author shoehorning in their favorite scenes from 2006 comedy anime. But… grr.

Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness, Vol. 1

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By Ameko Kaeruda and Sencha. Released in Japan as “Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu ” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino.

While reading this book, I was asked about it on Twitter, and I made the observation that it was like reading a parfait. Having now finished the book, I stand by this 100%. Everything about this is adorable and sweet, and you get the added bonus of a good example of how found families can end up being much better for someone than a birth family that resents and disparages them is. All that said, please be aware, this book is not here to be serious or to raise questions that require deep analysis. It cares not about power levels – all four leads are ludicrously more powerful than anyone else in the book. There is a bit of worldbuilding, but it’s about as important as any other ingredient you’d have in a parfait. This book is here for a dragon dad, usually in the form of a hot guy, and his adorable daughter, who he dotes on.

Our narrator is an elder dragon who has spent the last few hundred years high up a mountain. One day, a four-year-old girl shows up, calling him “Daddy”. He tries to dissuade her, but after discovering what her birth father is like, he makes the decision to raise her as a doting parent. He makes her delicious milk soup. He moves them to a large castle, perfect for a growing girl… though the Demon Lord and her partner who already live there might think differently. And he teaches her how to read, and the Demon Lord teaches her magic. By the time she’s old enough to go to school, she’s possibly the most powerful human being alive. But, I mean, that’s fine, really? As long as she can make friends, and hang out with her dragon daddy and her two lesbian aunts.

It’s a sign of Bunny Drop’s fandom presence that I feel the need to say this once more: this is not going there. Even if the daddy weren’t really a huge dragon, this is by the author of Sexiled, and we can be pretty sure that they’re not going to have this end with the girl marrying her dad. Speaking of Sexiled, in the afterword the author admits they wrote this to have fun with tropes: adorable girl who dotes on her dad, hunky dad who’s really a powerful dragon… and the Demon Lord and her partner, who (because this is entirely narrated from the POV of the dragon, who doesn’t get relationships) are clearly a couple but never explicitly called such. The Demon Lord is amusing in her own right, essentially being a shut-in with a tendency to talk big but fold like a card table, having to be bailed out by her knight/partner. The four of them end up being a wonderful and amusing family unit.

By the end of this first book Olivia (the daughter, sorry, names are hard) has already pretty much blown school out of the water… though she and her father elect to have her stay in her proper grade anyway, so she can better make friends. I expect even more ridiculous and sweet things will happen in the next book. If you love the author, or love found family, or just love sugary books, this is a winner.