Category Archives: reviews

Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension: The Alluring Cave Baths

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By Nagaharu Hibihana and Masakage Hagiya. Released in Japan as “Isekai Konyoku Monogatari” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sophie Guo.

I had to go back and reread my reviews of this series when the new volume came out, just to remind myself what had been happening. It’s been two years since the last book, mostly as the publisher caught up with the author’s webnovel, so had to wait for him to write more. I always recall that I enjoyed this nice, relaxing series, so I was surprised when I reread the reviews and found myself pointing out so many faults. But yeah, after reading Book 6, the faults are still there. The pacing of this series is so slow as to be soporific, there’s descriptions of breasts galore, everyone is so nice that they lack real character, etc. Despite all that, and the fact that I’ve forgotten who 3/4 of the cast are (the character page at the start only shows 6 out of about 24,975 named characters in this book) I still enjoy this nice, relaxing series. It’s easy to pick on, but hard to really hate. It also makes you want to have a good soak.

Touya and his party have arrived at the country of Ares, which is entirely in underground caves, trying to find somewhere they can safely put the cyclops people that are now displaced. After getting a blessing from the Goddess of Earth’s temple, Touya now has blessings from 6 goddesses, and his bath power means the area has now become a full-fledged hot springs inn, with multiple baths and three floors. Unfortunately, while touring the country, Touya accidentally awakens the Demon Lord, the very thing he was called to this world to prevent! Fortunately, as previous books have shown, the past was significantly rewritten by the winners, and additionally the Demon Lord is not really interested in destruction so much as bonding with his granddaughter. Unfortunately, other parties may have a different opinion.

As I said, it’s been two years since I read book 5 in the series/ In earlier reviews, I complained that Touya, in addition to his bath powers, also learned various magic and things, and complained he would be too powerful. Honestly, compared to other light novel protagonists these days, that fear is someone quaint. Tou8ya is not a fighter, he’s a facilitator, something made explicit when there’s a fighting tournament midway through the book, and not only does Touya not participate, he doesn’t even attend. He has more important things to do. Like trying to help Rakti regain her followers, wwhich may also mean telling everyone about the original Goddess of Chaos, the true creator of this world. And explaining to the royal family that, in fact, their history is biased and also their prophecy was misconstrued by everyone. That will probably go less well, and indeed leads into the cliffhanger for Book 7.

When that book arrives is beyond me – the author still hasn’t finished it online, so expect another break. Till then, if you enjoyed a nice, relaxed, possibly too relaxed isekai harem series where there’s little to no conflict between the heroines (because they’re all boring… sorry, that was mean), you should find this a nice little read.

Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Vol. 1

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By Riku Misora and On. Released in Japan as “Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Sol Press. Translated by Benjamin Daughety.

I have to admit, halfway through the first volume of this series I was ready to trash it to hell and back. It reveled in its cliches, at times even lampshading them so that they could get even worse (I’m thinking of the “yes, we’re blood related, but I still want to do my brother” plotline here in particular). And yes, I will admit it, as someone who has read Asterisk War first, a lot of this felt like something done better somewhere else. (For the curious, Asterisk War predates this series by 10 months.) But then things started to improve, not to the point where I ended up loving it, but enough so that I was able to get to the end and thing “Huh. That got better.” In fact, it almost reads like they fired the original writer halfway through and replaced them. So while it’s not my bag, I will admit that after a shaky start this is a decent light novel for those who enjoy magic academies, harems, and red-headed tsundere princesses – though the tsun vanishes fast here.

Ikki Kurogane is one of THOSE protagonists. You know, he’s strong, brilliant with a sword, his mind is sharp and analytical, he’s handsome (in fact, his face is boyishly cute), and he’s a relatively nice, if reserved, young man. But he has no magic. As such, he’s been abused by his family most of his life, is “Rank F” at the magical academy he attends, a rank which they literally admit later in the book is there just to have students that can be abused, a la Assassination Classroom, and due to his family leaning on the faculty he failed and is a first year student for the second time. But there’s a new school director who will allow him to actually fight and defend himself, and also a new student, Stella Vermillion, who is his polar opposite in most ways – a beloved foreign princess with Rank A fire powers and, ça va sans dire, large breasts. That said, they do share the trait of working hard – in fact, Stella despises people who call her “talented” as if she hadn’t trained for years to get to this point. Now that they’re roommates, can they avoid falling in love? And can Ikki win a fight at last?

I’ve already mentioned most of the things I didn’t like about the first half, but mostly it just felt like it was actively courting the typical LN fan without really trying. Things pick up with the arrival of Alice, who is the roommate of Ikki’s sister. (I’ll just skip his sister if you don’t mind.) Alice is a woman who was assigned male at birth, and this fact naturally freaks Ikki out a bit, as he’s a light novel protagonist, and therefore there’s a bit of “but I’m not gay!” here. But he rapidly adjusts, as does the audience, and the novel uses Alice’s preferred pronouns throughout. I was impressed. It helps that Alice is a “voice of reason” character among eccentrics. The final battle was also good, delving into Ikki’s repressed emotions and showing that, now that he’s allowed to fight, he has to open up or he’ll be crushed. Fortunately, he has Stella. The relationship arguably starts a bit fast, but honestly given most light novel hero and heroines that’s actually refreshing.

Gonna be honest, I read too many LNs these days, so the improvement is not enough to get me to continue this series. But it certainly seems like fans of the franchise should definitely enjoy it, and the presentation is fine. Tempting as it is to end this by saying “for fans of Asterisk War”, I know that would be mean. :) For fans of brooding boys and fiery girls.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 26

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

It’s the end of the Forthothe arc, and so most of it ends up being a big battle. Some villains are attacked and kidnapped, as are some of the heroes. And behind it all remains Vandarion, still the weak part of the book. Screaming mad villains just aren’t my thing, and after his main henchman is killed off, he loses whatever sanity he has and just screams threats for 75 pages. He’s helped by a hellmouth of some sort, which means he has the power to keep attacking the Blue Knight even after his mecha-dragon is destroyed, and indeed even after his own body is vaporized. It’s meant to be a terrifying show of willpower, but I have to say I wanted the cast to just kill him off already. Especially as the clever parts of the plan (kidnap Green, then use her to kidnap the royals) was quite good and well handled. Heck, even the henchman’s death was handled pretty well. I get the sense that Takehaya was trying to pad out the battle.

As for what finally kills off the villain, naturally it’s the power of Koutarou and all of his girls. The power of the bond they have between each other is strong, and can repair his giant killer swords to be even more giant and killer. That said, it’s the middle of a space battle, so we unfortunately do not have time to get deeper into Koutarou’s psyche – his mental scars still seem to be in place. It’s only the fact that they might die doing this that prompts the girls to say that while they know that he loves them as family, they want him to love them as women. His reply is said under high emotion, and is not really dwelt on. The series is ongoing after this, so I’m sure we will get back to it. Koutarou needs to be taught to be romantic – and yes, sexual. But not here.

Elsewhere, Elexis and Maya also join in the final battle, helping Koutarou at the cost of their ship and (seemingly) their lives – they’re last seen drifting off into space and can’t be found at the end of the book. That said, I will be VERY surprised if we never see them again. (They also profess their love for each other, though like Koutarou it’s under duress and not particularly sensual – this is a very pure harem series.) Darkness Rainbow’s homeworld makes an agreement with Forthothe, which means that the dark magical girls have achieved what they need to do. All that’s left is to go home and explain why they were gone for two months to their school – I have a sneaking suspicion this will go well for everyone but Yurika. That said, next volume is short stories, which honestly is welcome after an arc this long. It was very good, but I’m happy to see the end of it.