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The Ideal Sponger Life, Vol. 3

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By Tsunehiko Watanabe and Jyuu Ayakura. Released in Japan as “Risou no Himo Seikatsu” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by MPT.

Ideal Sponger Life continues to do what it does best: spend most of its time making that title a lie. Indeed, Zenjirou straight up admits it here. While he wanted to have a lazy, indolent life to recover from his Japanese work burnout, after a few months the mental turmoil is fixed and… he wants to do things! Fortunately, there are things to do. He can install air conditioners, he can help to better the water wheel, and he can continue to fend off attempts to try to bride, seduce, or flat out trick him into bad ideas. That said, one thing he can’t do is talk to his son – the way languages and magic intertwine in this world, we want to make sure the baby grows up knowing the native tongue, not a mishmash of that and Japanese. This is, believe it or not, more interesting than it sounds. (It would have to be.) And for those of you who are still bored, I have good news: RAPTOR ATTACKS.

As you can see, much like Strike the Blood, the cover art is here to remind you who the heroine is and to ensure there are no other contenders. That said, for once the concubine thing is not a focus, as they have bigger things to worry about. They’re not getting salt from their major supplier, and a battalion is sent to figure out why. They quickly find it’s raptors. A ridiculous amount, with apparently a larger, more intelligent leader at the helm. Meanwhile, Aura is getting back into the swing of things after her pregnancy, seeing about getting her blacksmiths to make glass, her engineers to build the aforementioned water wheels, and lots of political dealings, including deciding who should lead the battalion to investigate the missing salt. And then there’s the neighboring country’s royal family coming to visit… something that is almost unheard of.

The royal family (however remote their succession is) will have to wait till next time, but that still gives us a lot to do. Aura’s chief general is still really hungry for power, and therefore the excuse of fighting off a bunch of raptors is welcome (though THAT may also have to wait till next time… this is not a book to read if you love action sequences, brief raptor attacks aside). No, it’s just deal making and world building, as far as the eye can see. Even those who were reading for the horny parts will be disappointed (again): Aura has given birth and recovered, but Zenjirou didn’t bring condoms with him from Japan, and she doesn’t want to get pregnant immediately after her first, so lovemaking is off the menu for now. Oh yes, and as with the previous book, there is an extended epilogue featuring Zenjirou’s wacky maid trio, and unfortunately, as with previous volumes, the author thinks it’s a lot funner than it really is.

So sponging is off the menu, but we do have lots of other things going on, and the next book should introduce some new supporting cast. In the meantime, this is a good read if you enjoy titles like Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter or other series that promise you a gimmick and then give you sensible good writing instead.

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, Vol. 13

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By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Diana Taylor. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

At last, after missing each other for a few volumes, the Wonder Trio and the Crimson Vow finally meet each other in the latter half of this volume, which leads to the fated battle of who gets to have Mile as their bestie. The outcome of this is very much up in the air… theoretically. In-universe, certainly. In the meta sense, the outcome is very much set in stone, as we’ve been traveling with the Crimson Vow for 12 books now, and the Wonder Trio are merely beloved supporting characters and backstory for our heroine. But it’s a good thing, really, as it reminds us of the Crimson Vow’s biggest flaw, which is that the other three have gotten so used to having Mile around that they’ve forgotten to think about basic things… like food or shelter. Reina gets this, being more used to the hunter life than the others, but when it comes to the fated battle… well, it appears to be a bit one-sided.

But wait, we also have the first half of the book. There are a few cute short stories, but mostly it has three main plotlines: the resolution of the battle with the Elder Dragons that formed last volume’s cliffhanger (turns out that controlling the nanos that control reality is super useful, who knew?); Kelvin, the guy who challenged Adele at school and got creamed growing up and leading a huge battle force (that would have lost without Mile, but hey, baby steps); and the Crimson Vow coming upon a small village, whereupon they save a young girl from being kidnapped by bandits. Said girl reminds Mile a lot of her little sister from her previous life… and it doesn’t help that she had an older sister in this world who died EXACTLY the way Misato did. I was actually waiting for this to go somewhere, but it really does seem to have been a coincidence… but it allows Mile to gush a lot, and the rest of the group to beat the crap out of bandits, their favorite thing.

The battle honestly feels like a bit of an apology to the wonder Trio. I’ve always felt it sort of baffling that the first volume in this series gave Adele a supporting cast of friends… and then dumped them and had Mile gain a NEW supporting cast of friends. As such, here we see that the trio are more intelligent and adept at magic, to the point where Mile is teaching them things that she would never teach the other members of the Crimson Vow. She also, like the Little Sister from earlier in the book, assigns some nanos to watch over them… not realizing that these nanos love to do anything in order to break their cycle of boredom. Combine that with the Wonder Trio figuring out uses for Mile’s storage magic that even she hasn’t dreamed of, and they start to look truly terrifying. That said, sorry to spoil but Mile remains with the Crimson Vow.

Aside from the usual flat/large breast remarks, there wasn’t even a lot of annoying fanservice in this book. The best part was the back half, but it was solid overall, and fans should be very pleased.

Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts with a Village, Vol. 4

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By Mizuumi Amakawa and Mai Okuma. Released in Japan as “Fushi no Kami: Henkyou kara Hajimeru Bunmei Saiseiki” by Overlap. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Maurice Alesch.

Last time I asked for Ash to have a few failures under his belt, and we do get a bit of that here, showing that he can’t do ANYTHING he puts his mind to. Food preservation is still a big problem, and the wonders of canned food will have to wait for more advanced techniques. There’s more good news: by now, everyone has gotten so used to Ash being the greatest thing since sliced bread that they’ve started to stop talking about it, which means less page count devoted to everyone praising him to the skies. That said, there’s a larger failure towards the back half of the book, as he chooses to try to save a village on its last legs, mostly due to sentimentality, and finds that while rebuilding civilization may start with a village, the village is not necessarily of one mind, and that humans tend to be lazy, cowardly and devious creatures. Fortunately, the next generation shows more promise.

On the cover are Renge, the maid who took a significant role in Book 3, and gets a much larger one here, and Suiren, her friend from a neighboring village. They had a falling out a couple years ago about the fate of Suiren’s village – the poor harvests have hit it particularly badly, but they’re too stubborn to give up or move. Now it’s a couple of years later, and things are even worse. Still, Renge is diligent, steadfast, and kindhearted, and wants to help them even though she’s been rebuffed. And Suiren is feeling regretful, and also the pangs of starvation, so is willing to accept the help. Everything is in place for Ash to test his new fertilizer experiments, and things seem to go swimmingly – until Suiren’s father, the actual village chief (who had been “ill” before) reappears to screw everything up.

For the most part, Ash is in “bad cop” mode throughout a lot of this book, and it’s not hard to see why. While he is resolved to help Suiren’s village because of Renge’s pleas, the village has not done a great job of even the minimal farming requirements. Even after he teaches them the right methods, some are better at them than others – and the ones who do poorly get less food. And when they’re proud of themselves for achieving results using the fertilizer… he points out everything they did wrong. It’s a brutal teaching method, and one that Maika and the others who’ve been around him just shrug off. Some, like Suiren, grow to be better, stronger people under these circumstances… and some, like her father, end up arrested and having their village taken away. Lesson learned: do what Ash says. Of course, this lesson does not apply to Ash himself, who tells the soldiers not to go to far trying to take down some treant monsters and then promptly goes too far. He is “do as I say, not as I do” in triplicate.

We’ve caught up with Japan, as the 5th volume of the book is not due out there till the end of July. So we leave Ash and Maika for a time. (He’s still not recognizing anyone is in love with him, and we can definitely add Renge to that list – though fortunately NOT Suiren.) Till then, let’s enjoy the fact that by now everyone has grown so used to Ash’s maniacal ideas that they take them in stride. Mostly.