Category Archives: reviews

Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On?! ~A Sign-on-the-Line Wedding Story~, Vol. 4

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By Tsuredurebana and Rin Hagiwara. Released in Japan as “Dareka Kono Joukyou wo Setsumei Shite Kudasai! ~Keiyaku Kara Hajimaru Wedding~” by ArianRose. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mattias Hirsch.

Despite the fact that we’re only at Vol. 4 of 9, it is sometimes difficult to remember how far Cersis has come since the start of the series. Let’s recall the premise: he asks Viola to become his wife on paper so he can continue to fool around with a dancing girl. It’s hardly a surprise that, having fallen in love with Viola instead, she does not really believe he’s all that serious. (Viola’s amazing self-worth issues don’t help, though thankfully there’s far less of that in this particular book.) That said, we’ve slowly seen him grow and change, both as a commander and as a somewhat clueless husband. It should therefore not come as too much of a surprise when, towards the end of this new volume, he admits to his past faults and is resolving to become the best duke he can be, everyone is staring with their jaw dropping. Including Viola. He now has to prove that he means it.

the first half of the book wraps up the war storyline, with our gallant soldiers returning home victorious, and Viola forced to go to the palace to have the King welcome everyone back. (Which he does. At length.) The King gives all the soldiers a two-week vacation, and Cersis decides to use the time to take Viola on a tour of his duchy, starting with the manor that his parents normally stay in when they aren’t doting over Viola. Everyone and their brother are calling this the honeymoon that she and Cersis never actually had, and are expecting them to spend most of it trying to conceive some children. Everyone except Viola, of course, who is far more interested in the town scenery and the local shops. Fortunately, Cersis by now has sort of figured out how much of a job he has ahead of him, and just rolls with it. Unfortunately, the duchy, thanks to the war, is in more dire straits than expected…

I’m going to be honest, I was among the people who were boggling at Cersis’s change of heart at the end of the book. I was expecting that the conflict in the Town that he got into was arranged by him for Viola’s sake… though perhaps not the kidnapping attempt. But credit to him, he is trying hard, taking note of the issues that lead to the unrest, and taking Viola’s suggestions on how to handle things based on what she did in her much poorer Earldom, where they can’t afford a constant fleet of guards to keep the peace. It is also very in character of the series so far that, even after directly confessing his love to her – again – Viola’s response is still “sorry, I’m still just not really that into you”. Romance is a foreign nation to her. That said, this is going to change, and now that Cersis is no longer the bumbling doofus husband (much), I look forward to seeing how he wins her over. I will warn, though, there’s one scene where where Viola narrates a fight between her would-be kidnappers and Cersis, and there is a repeated use of the word “fatso” which, while I’m sure was also bad in the Japanese, might have been replaced with something else.

This is one of those shoujo light novels that feels the most like a Western romance, with a definite lack of magic, past lives, or villainesses. Even Calendula, the dancer and former beau of Cersis who kicked this all off, is a relatively nuanced and sympathetic woman. Definitely checking out more.

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, Vol. 1

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By Saekisan and Hanekoto. Released in Japan as “Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsu no Ma ni ka Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

It couldn’t last forever, even though it seemed like it would. After a few years of the trend being “light novels will only get licensed if they have some sort of fantasy or gaming element”, we are finally starting to see a few series being licensed that are old school high school romances. Credit to this no doubt can be given to the one-two punch of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected (which has had three seasons of anime) and Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (whose anime is forthcoming), which has helped to open the door to other series whose premise is not “I ended up in another world with superpowers and a bunch of girls who fall in love with me because I am nice to them.” Well, OK, this is MOSTLY not that. The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten may not be an isekai, and our protagonist doesn’t have a sword, but it’s still a classic male fantasy.

Amane is a well-off kid living on his own in a big apartment, but he’s got classic teenage boy problems. His skin is pallid from not eating healthy, he’s a complete slob, and he’s somewhat unsociable, at least compared to his friend Itsuki. Then one day he comes across the class “angel” sitting in a park in the rain. She’s gorgeous, smart, athletic, etc. He’s not sure why she’s sitting getting soaked and looking depressed, but he gives her his umbrella. And then he promptly gets a terrible cold. Fortunately for him, not only does Mahiru live right next door to him, but she wants to thank him for the umbrella, so she makes him some nice porridge. And forces him to clean his apartment. And begins to cook for him every day. They’re not a couple, but… isn’t she just spoiling him?

This is a well-written book, and the characters are likeable. If there’s one big negative it’s the actual premise – it is right upfront about “seeming loser guy gets waited on by his amazingly beautiful high school classmate and neighbor” being the plot going forward, and it can be a bit much. This being a standard Japanese romcom, Amane doesn’t take advantage of this, and in fact is perfectly happy to tell himself he’s not falling in love with her, even though we can see that isn’t true. Likewise, Mahiru slowly warms up to him, showing off her natural personality rather than the “good girl” she perfects at school. It’s implied her relationship with her parents is poor, but he doesn’t pry. Actually, I take that back, this isn’t a romcom. While there are funny moments, for the most part it’s a plain serious romance, with two awkward introverts slowly realizing that they’re basically living like a married couple half the time.

By the end of the first volume they’re still just good friends, but that’s to be expected. It’s also very much a ‘small world’ here – the only characters in the book are the two leads, Amane’s overbearing mother, Amane’s friend Itsuki, and Itsuki’s girlfriend Chitose, who is outgoing, loud and bubbly and therefore quite jarring compared to our Angel. If you can get over its premise, this is a quiet, easy read.

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement, Vol. 2

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By FUNA and Touzai. Released in Japan by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by Sol Press. Translated by Lukas Ruplys.

When I reviewed the first volume of this light novel… 19 months ago… I remarked that it was relatively mild in terms of the eccentricities of its author, FUNA, and their other works, I Shall Survive Using Potions! and Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average!. I regret that now. This, the second novel in the 80,000 Gold books, is absolutely bananas. Mile and Kaoru wish they were this overpowered. Our heroine stops a war using modern artillery, gains a domain of her own to rule, and sets about ruling it, all the while flitting back and forth between this fantasy world and modern-day Japan. Can she keep it a secret? LOL. Not at all, and by the end of the book dragons are now “real” and Mitsuha is telling readers about the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. The good news is that the book remains a lot of fun provided you don’t believe in gritty realism, and Mitsuha has toned down her fourth-wall breaking tendencies… somewhat… so is a far more tolerable narrator.

When we last saw Mitsuha she was running her little shop that sells shampoo and other luxury items. But that’s more a job for the heroine of her other book; Mitsuha has bigger things to do, even if she really doesn’t want to. She befriends the princess, who is a cutie and also loves to escape her guards, and from there the king. This means that she’s also called in when the country goes to war, and after an assassination attempt wounds her and mortally wounds Alexis, Mitsuha decides to stop holding back and calls out her friendly mercenary friends to destroy the enemy army (with has orcs, ogres, and teenage dragons) with modern-day tanks and rocket launchers. Her reward for all this is becoming a viscountess and gaining her own territory, which she spends most of the rest of the book sprucing up. And if that means bringing in experts from Japan to help her with the harder stuff… and indeed just selling the rights to the world in auction… well, that’s how Mitsuha rolls.

In the first book there was a great scene where Mitsuha, talking with her “newly adopted” family, suddenly remembers her dead parents and starts to cry without realizing it. There’s a similar scene here, after Mitsuha is shot with a crossbow and Alexis ends up taking several other crossbow bolts to defend her, where she just has a complete freakout. The author is good at this sort of scene (Potions has also used them), and it helps to un-smug Mitsuha, which is occasionally needed because most of the time she is pretty smug. I was rather startled at how fast her “I can travel to a fantasy world and back” thing became public, though at least she’s managed to hide that it’s “Mitsuha Yamano” who is doing thing. (This also leads to the funniest joke in the book, where the merc squad nicknames her Nanoha, because there’s no kill like overkill.) In between these parts there’s a lot of ‘building my little fiefdom’ sections, which are not as exciting but are fun for those who like Realist Hero and its ilk.

The other good news is between the first volume and this one, Sol Press learned to format digital books properly. As a result, there are no issues with the interstitial art and everything looks fine. As for the book itself, again, if overpowered – LUDICROUSLY overpowered – heroines annoy you, stay well away. But I found it relaxing, goofy fun, despite the very high body count. Mitsuha may be nicknamed Nanoha, but she’s not “befriending” her enemies.