Category Archives: reviews

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, Vol. 1

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By Ren Eguchi and Masa. Released in Japan as “Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi” by Overlap. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Chen.

I’m very fond of what has become known as “slow life” light novels. The basic premise of them is that our hero/heroine ends up in another world and decides not to go adventuring or defeat the demon lord but to live quietly and enjoy themselves day to day. Now, of course, the narrative usually pushes against this, and a lot of slow life books have quite a bit going on. I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and every single book by FUNA are good examples of the type. That said, an author has to be very careful when writing this sort of series, as there’s a difference between ‘relaxing” and “boring”, and the line can get crossed very easily. Killing Slimes’ heroine verges at times on the dull, but for the most part manages to muddle through and keep our interest. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Mukouda, the salaryman who ends up in another world with the skill “Online Supermarket”.

Mukouda is summoned to a fantasy world along with three other heroes. He, however, is not a hero – he’s a victim. He was accidentally summoned, and has a skill that is, well, not very useful, as well as stats that are merely slightly above average. The heroes look down on him, the kingdom looks ready to abandon him, and the entire “save us” business is shady to begin with. So he sets off with a little borrowed money and tries to make his way elsewhere. That said, his “online supermarket” allows him to use ingredients from Japan in his cooking… and for those who’ve read standard fantasy isekai, that’s a big deal. Sure pure salt! Amazingly soft bread! He also attracts the attention of others, including a legendary Fenrir who becomes his familiar in exchange for constantly feeding him, a baby slime whose growth rapidly outstrips Mukouda’s own, and Aqua from KonoSuba… erm, sorry, Ninrir the Wind Goddess, who will grant blessings for sweets, and is absolutely not Aqua from KonoSuba, despite, well, looking and acting exactly like her.

Honestly, if it were not for the hero, this would be more interesting than it is. Fenrir is a lot of fun. The baby slime is really cute, and the goddess is pretty funny. There’s hints of plots that could go somewhere here, and a whole menagerie of fantasy monsters that manage to be both threatening and tasty. I suspect in future books more options are found with the supermarket skill that can lead to cool things. The trouble is, though, that Mukouda isn’t fun. He wants to level up the easy way, and when thrown into situations where he’s force4d to fight for his life is a total coward about it. Which is, well, very realistic, but I’m not hear to read about you or me, I want to read about a light novel protagonist. Mukouda isn’t a ditz, or a snarker, or hot-tempered. He does not murder entire nations because they’ve pissed him off, like other bland protagonists I could mention. He’s just a guy who cooks.

If you enjoy isekai cooking novels, you can give this a try. I think this one volume will be it for me, though.

Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey, Vol. 1

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By Akiko Higashimura. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Cocohana. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jenny McKeon. Adapted by Ysabet MacFarlane.

The works of Akiko Higashimura have gotten incredibly popular in North America over the last few years, and of course in Japan she’s a top josei artist. Everyone knows Princess Jellyfish, and Tokyo Tatareba Girls is at least a cult hit. So it’s great to see a publisher pick up her autobiographical tale of how she became the artist she is today. And, as with many Japanese manga biographies, the story is filtered through telling us what a mess she was in high school, and how attempts to praise everything she did led her to have an inflated sense of herself. No one wants to read the story without struggle, after all. So Akiko has terrible grades, to the point where she can’t even pass the makeup tests. This wouldn’t bother her, because she thinks she can cruise into art school… but then she finds out just how far she has to go.

While other characters drift through here and there, mostly this is a story of three people. Akiko is the hapless art student with an immense ego; Futami is her best friend who, even in high school, has perfected the jaded seen-it-all snarker; and Kenzou-sensei is their art teacher, who teaches out in the middle of nowhere, seems to be constantly shouting and screaming, and hits his students with a kendo sword when they do things wrong – which is all the time. Akiko is absolutely horrified at this, but, after a brief attempt at giving up, keeps returning to the school. And it’s a good thing, too, as college is going to be rough. She doesn’t get a recommendation. She fails the Tokyo school that was her first choice. Is she really going to be able to realize her dream of being a shoujo manga artist?

Three’s a fun feel to this volume, even as you’re watching Akiko careen down her career path, hitting obstacles all along the way. I especially liked when she started to buy the “shady” test guides to help her study, the ones that teach you how to take tests rather than what’s actually on the test… and they helped her immensely, as that’s exactly the sort of learning she needed. As for Kenzou-sensei, he’s handled perfectly, with his seemingly violent nature balanced out by hidden (and not so hidden) acts of compassion. He’s clearly talented, and we see his “draw the same thing over and over and over till you have it memorized” teaching does start to have an effect on Akiko’s work. If there’s one thing that makes me wary, it’s that the narrative is making it thuddingly clear that this manga is going to end with his death; almost every chapter has a wistful, longing ending to it that kept making me think “OK, when’s he gonna die?”. Not at the end of this volume, and it’s five volumes long, so probably not for a while. But there’s an ominous feel to the whole thing.

If you’re interested in this author’s works, or just like seeing people struggling to make it, this is a great book to get. I’m definitely going to be reading more.

Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!: Axis Church vs. Eris Church

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By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

I was expecting more comedy this time around, and I was right. There are lots of very funny moments in this volume, sure to please the fan of KonOSuba. Chris’ secret is now known, but that doesn’t mean that she and Kazuma are not playing Robin Hood on the sly, burgling evil noble estates in order to acquire sentient armor that proves to be far more trouble than it’s worth. Meanwhile, the Eris Festival is upon us, and a jealous Aqua wants to have a festival dedicated to her as well. The result is the subtitle, a parody of Pokemon Red vs. Blue, in which the traditional religious festival gets turned (mostly thanks to Kazuma) into more of a giant blowout, complete with food stalls, beauty contests, and giant killer cicadas. However, just because it’s a full-blown comedy does not mean we can’t have character development.

It feels odd to be talking about character development in a series like KonoSuba, but it’s true. Megumin has come a long way from the start of the series, and despite the occasional explosion has become the most sensible of the group (Kazuma forfeits this title enough that you can’t use it for him anymore). Meanwhile, Darkness, after the events of the last volume, is acting Governor of their town, and is thus drowning in responsibilities (including having to police Kazuma and Aqua). The gag here is that, for a moment, you think the same thing might be happening with Aqua, who spends much of the book actually being sensible and responsible. But of course it can’t last – Megumin and Darkness have room built into their characters for growth, but Aqua’s “useless goddess” properties are much harder to move on from. She’s too funny not to keep it up.

And then there’s the love triangle. It’s clear from this book that both Megumin and Darkness have come to terms with their love for Kazuma and want to take things to the next level. It’s also clear that Kazuma knows this… the question is whether he’s too immature to actually be able to take their feelings seriously, as he brags to Chris about harem ends and the like. Of course, his words are bravado for the most part, and by the end of the book, where the cliffhanger seems to imply Megumin wants to confess properly, he seems almost terrified. I do wonder if a series like KonoSuba can bake an actual relationship into its premise. Can Kazuma answer either Megumin or Darkness properly, or will there be wacky comedy confessions and then back to the status quo? As for “harem” ends, the series thankfully still seems to be avoiding that sort of thing… Chris/Eris’ relationship with Kazuma is not the “bratty siblings” that he and Aqua have, but it doesn’t feel romantic, which is a good thing.

For all the romantic potential, at the end of the day KonoSuba still runs on its comedy, and there’s lots of that here. Fans of the series will get a kick out of this book.