Category Archives: reviews

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 3

Leave a reply

By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan by Overlap, Inc. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

I will give credit to the author, he managed to hold my attention despite the fact that the entire content of this third volume of Realist Hero is setting up the board for future books. This despite the fact that it’s also dealing with the fallout from Book 2, i.e. the war with Amadonia. This world’s equivalent of the United States is dropping by to arbitrate, and by arbitrate I mean tell Souma and company to give Amidonia back to its rulers, even though the arbitration is done with reluctance. Souma has plans, though. He’s starting the equivalent of a Japanese variety show in order to show Amadonia what true freedom is like. He’s discovering Aisha’s previously unknown talent for tsukkomi. He’s dealing with the nobles who didn’t rebel against him but are still being evil, and does it using (sigh) the power of Machiavelli’s The Prince, which I am never going to enjoy. And if all else fails, he still has his Mr. Rogers cardigan to break out.

As you may have gathered, Aisha, Souma’s elf bodyguard, does get a bit more to do in this book, which is good, given that she’s also set to become Souma’s second ‘primary queen’. The difference between royalty and commoners is highlighted in the narrative, but also pretty much accepted as ‘well, that’s the way it is’, which is uncomfortable. Aisha is royalty by dint of being an elf princess. In any case, there’s also Juna, who gets to be the country’s first big idol singer – something which backfires on her when Souma points out he can’t announce he’s marrying her as well or there would be riots. She is first on his bucket list, though, which also has a few likely suspects that get hinted at here. Though not, refreshingly, the younger sister of the Gran Chaos Empire, Jeanne, who gets ship tease with the prime minister instead. It’s nice to see romance in the series that doesn’t involve Souma.

We also get our first slave, since slavery is legal here as well, because fantasy world. This is a way to reconcile the plot with Castor and Carla, who were on the bad side but weren’t “against the king” per se. Castor is basically stripped of everything but allowed to live because of his years of military experience. Carla doesn’t have that, but she’s Liscia’s friend, so she’s made into a maid for the household. I suppose it’s a better way to deal with her in this narrative than killing her off, but again, I wish this series kicked back a bit more against its cliches, particularly when they involve ‘these people are better than those people’. I may get my wish in future books; there’s a suggestion that Souma’s inability to tell “demons” and “monsters” apart, and everyone’s else’s shock at this, may factor in future books.

And so we end with Souma having to come to terms with the fact that he had a dozen people executed for the crime of ‘might plot against me in the future’, and the fact that this is, to a certain degree, monstrous. Fortunately, he gets some healing therapy in the form of two hot fiancees in bathrobes snuggling up against him. (Note: this therapy likely only works in isekai harems.) I have many issues with Realist Hero, and they keep stacking up like cordwood, but I can’t deny its compulsive readability.

Also, Souma and Aisha’s banter during the ‘variety show’ was A+, the book is worth the price just for that one scene.

No Game No Life, Vol. 6

Leave a reply

By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Komen.

The author says in this afterword that this 6th volume was very last minute, as the anime was coming out soon, they needed something quick, adn his editor suggested that he do this flashback explaining the past of Disboard that he had laid out for “some point in the future”. I applaud the editors, because it’s an excellent choice, and ends up giving us what is easily the best volume in the series to date. Told by the God Tet (in disguise) to Izuna (mostly so that she can break in and point out the obvious similarity between the stars in the past and our current stars), we get a “grim and gritty” backstory that actually works for more than just “being dark”, showing us the horror of the war-torn land and why it was worth sacrificing so much in order to ensure it became the game-ruled world it is today.

Of course, we’re not necessarily dealing with an entirely new cast – as Izuna testily points out, Riku and Schwi are clearly analogues for Sora and Shiro, and Couron is Steph’s distant ancestor and the founder of their kingdom. This allows readers to get a good visualization of them, even if the personalities don’t quite intersect – Schwi is pretty dead on for Shiro, but Riku is basically Sora if he’d been broken by reality even more. As for Couron, she’s Steph without the abuse, and therefore perfect. Indeed, a lot of the “ha ha the writer thinks this is funny” fanservice is absent from this book, as the war setting means that it’s hard to trot out the sexual perversions and humiliation of Steph. Yes, Riku is teased about being a lolicon, and there’s a few “dying a virgin” remarks that Sora would be proud of, but that’s about it. This book knows now is not the time.

We also, by the way, see Jibril, and in many ways she’s the villain of the book. We knew that her past life before the Games became the rule was filled with a lust for blood and carnage, and her fight with Schwi here shows off her impatience and tendency towards overreacting, even if it ends up doing her harm in the end. That said, we also see that she’s definitely different from the other Flugel, even if it will take Sora and Shiro to really drag her potential forward. Much of the book is Riku doing what Sora normally does, which is to say plan an elaborate series of moves that end up winning the game for humanity. Tet says Riku and Schwi are stronger than [ ], as their world didn’t have the “game rules”. Sadly, this also means that they’re not granted protagonist immunity, so be prepared for some tragedy as well.

This was an excellent book, and the big downside to it is that it shows off that the author can be really good when he wants to be, but frequently lets it get buried under a need for fanservicey jokes and stupid anime tropes. Book 7 (which is in December, NGNL has settled into twice a year now) returns us to Sora and Shiro, and it will be nice to see them again, but I hope we can keep some of the added depth and gravitas we saw here and not just have a series of jokes about Steph’s tits. If you want to test out the series, though, 6 is the way to start, oddly enough.

Twinkle Stars, Vol. 3

Leave a reply

By Natsuki Takaya. Released in Japan as two separate volumes by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

I laugh heartily at my comment in the last review that Hijiri was absolutely perfect. She’s still my favorite, but this omnibus seemed entirely designed to show off that no, Hijiri is not perfect, that she is arrogant and headstrong and coming from a definite position of privilege, and when combined with the genuine fear she has of seeing her best friend get hurt again, it naturally leads to a bad confrontation. Which does, at least, get us Chihiro’s backstory, and the girl that he was supposedly in love with, Sakura. The love that it was, though, was a deeply unhealthy one, something the reader is well aware of as it plays out. Takaya is always at her best when showing off emotional pain, and we get that in spades here – there’s a suicide attempt, mostly successful, and implications that Chihiro also has suicidal thoughts. Fortunately, Takaya also writes Pollyannas, and that’s exactly what’s needed from Sakuya here.

Back to talking about Hijiri, literally everyone in the book realizes that she is doing the wrong thing and calls her out on it. First Yuuri, then Saki… it’s something that only she can do, being rich enough to basically have Chihiro’s entire past investigated to make sure that he’s not going to be causing Sakuya pain. And then, when she finds out about Sakura, his old love, telling her about it. Then she compounds it by refusing to admit what she did was wrong. It takes everything tat we’ve loved about the character for the last two omnibuses and turns it on its head, showing off the unpleasant and negative sides that her personality can have. We also learn how she first met Sakuya, and how her curiosity about those who felt pain turned to guilt and horror as she realized what that really means. Oh yes, and thankfully the crush on the teacher is not going to happen.

As for Chihiro, he’s more of a Yuki than a Kyo, if you know what I mean. It’s always a challenge to see someone repressing all their past emotional wounds and scars and not have them turn out somewhat flat, and again, Takuya is a master of doing this the right way. His confrontation with Sakuya at the reservoir is the highlight of the book, as we see that his obsession with Sakura (even the names are similar – at least in romanji) to an eerie degree) can turn to hatred as much as it does to love. Sakura is also a lonely child with a tragic past of abuse, like half the cast here, but she’s not written in a sympathetic way. I’ve no doubt she’ll wake up at some point, and I do wonder if she and Sakuya will ever meet.

Twinkle Stars gives fans of this author exactly what they want – deep emotional heartache and catharsis, calling out abuse for what it is, and showing that just because someone has a tragic past does not mean that their current joy and happiness has to be faked. I can’t wait to see where this goes next.