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I Shall Survive Using Potions!, Vol. 10

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By FUNA and Sukima. Released in Japan as “Potion-danomi de Ikinobimasu!” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hiroya Watanabe.

Due to a weird scheduling quirk, I think this is the first time that I have read all three of FUNA’s licensed series in the space of two weeks. Seven Seas’ Make My Abilities Average! came out last month, but its digital version was delayed two weeks for unknown reasons. Kodansha’s Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World also came out with a new volume. And now we have I Shall Survive Using Potions!, which may not be the best of the three (I don’t think I can really call one of these series the “best” easily), but it’s certainly the most interesting, mostly as Kaoru is still an atomic bomb of a protagonist (the word “heroine” seems grotesquely wrong), and as these books have shown, the world that she is in, especially after the time skip, is a toxic one filled with greedy nobles, murderous thugs, and temple priests who have no idea why they should not be rude to a 12-year-old. Kaoru is not thinking about wiping out kingdoms for no reason

Kaoru is currently masquerading as the “stray priestess” Edith, but after almost getting herself murdered by bandits, she decides to performatively hire some bodyguards to protect her as well as talk to the local lord to try to find out who may have hired said bandits so she can eradicate them. Fortunately, the dumb evil noble sends a bunch of disguised soldiers, bandits and goons to kidnap and/or kill her, and it’s only due to the presence of… her bodyguards. And half the town. And, um, the local lord and his own soldiers… that this is foiled. Huh. Funny, that. Anyway, she and her two co-conspirators, Reiko and Kyoko, have decided to open a new shop in the capitol. Kaoru, as “Edith”, heads over there… and is immediately almost kidnapped. And then almost kidnapped AGAIN. Fortunately, guardian angels keep showing up in the nick of time. Funny, that.

So yes, the big gag of the back half of this volume is that Kaoru’s masterful powers of trying to fix her own mistakes and remain “an anonymous priestess with a little bit of power” are hopelessly doomed from the start. Partly because she’s so incredibly bad at not being her real, evil… erm, good, sorry… self, but also because in spite of this series timeskipping 70 years into the future, everyone that she adventured with in the past is still alive, because of her ludicrous OP potions. Especially Francette, who is now a living legend, is famous for bitchslapping a goddess till she stopped threatening to destroy the world, and has mobilized all the other Kaoru worshippers of yore to make sure that everything goes PERFECTLY for her. Kaoru must be disappointed, how is she supposed to commit a little genocide or two if everyone’s so NICE to her?

All this plus more of the PTSD-ridden codependent orphans who develop facial tics if they’re not working themselves to death for more than ten seconds. Potion Girl remains AP FUNA, the kind of FUNA you only read if you’re advancing to higher learning. Like learning how to defuse a bomb.

I Could Never Be a Succubus!, Vol. 6

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By Nora Kohigashi and Wasabi. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Succubus Ja Arimasen” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

When I finished this volume, I went to the Hero Bunko site to see its status, and discovered that this volume came out in 2023. I worried that it had been. y’know… (whispers) cancelled. Then I discovered that it was just Hero Bunko not bothering to update their site, the 7th volume came out in July of last year. Still, if the author had been told “can you write an ending that might pass if there aren’t any more of these?”, this would be close to what they might have come up with. We get to hear a lot about the war between Heaven and Hell years and years ago, and the hero’s sword (which, in case the last volume didn’t clue you in, is definitely Altina’s rather than Cain’s). We also get an explanation for Liz, and why she’s super powerful and super horny. We don’t get her memories back, but we get a WAY to get them back. This could be an “our fight has only just begun” Jump ending. Luckily, it isn’t.

Cain and Liz show up for a planned trip to the seaside… only to find that the entire rest of the cast bailed on them. On purpose. So they could date. Deciding to have fun anyway, Cain and Liz show off swimsuits, frolic in the surf, and then go back to their hotel… to find their friends got them a hotel room with a hot spring in the room, but only one bed. They’re not subtle. Unfortunately, it turns out that Liz has been having a massive attack of self-loathing that she’s been keeping from everyone, and when Cain tries to press his suit and say that he’s absolutely fine with loving her, she snaps and essentially becomes a weapon of mass destruction, throwing off holy powers and devil powers that no one knew she had before. can they stop her before the power burns her life away?

This was slightly less horny than previous books, but it makes up for the lack of pages with past Liz’s invention, Girl Time (in Darkness) Mk. I. and then, after Cain destroys it, Mk. II. Which is, not to put too fine a point on it, a robot covered in dildos and vibrators that is supposed to show guys how good anal is. I mention this mostly because I worry that my reviews may entice innocents into reading this series, and if they want to, please don’t. Other than that, this was very good, working Altina The Sword Catgirl into the regular cast and showing how good Cain and Liz’s chemistry is while also showing why Liz feels like she’s so weak compared to everyone else. We also get a new character here, who is Liz’s ancient ancestor, and she’s going to be mentoring Liz from now on, because though they know how to recover her memories it’s not going to be easy or fast.

So yes, Volume 7 is out in Japan! But not here yet, it hasn’t even started pre-pub. So we may have a bit of a wait. Fortunately, I’m sure Liz will send the Girl Time (in Darkness) Mk. IV to help everyone endure the wait. For fans of horny romantic comedy

The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain, Vol. 4

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By Bakufu Narayama and Ebisushi. Released in Japan as “Danzaisareta Akuyaku Reijō wa, Gyakkō-shite Kanpekina Akujo o Mezasu” by TO Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Alyssa Niioka.

It’s been a while since the start of this series, and it’s become very hard to remember that Claudia had a life before this one. I mean, we hear about her life as a sex worker on a regular basis in the series, but that’s not what I mean. I mean the “Condemned Villainess” part of the title. And since we haven’t thought about that part as much, it can be hard to remember, not to put to fine a point on it, how gullible and naive Claudia was, and how easily she was led around by the nose. That’s not the Claudia we have here, who is the belle of everyone’s ball, the apple of everyone’s eye, and saving the world one yakuza organization at a time. Unfortunately, there are still shadowy people in the background who very much want things to go badly for the main cast. And as a result, since Claudia can’t be a condemned villainess, someone else is going to have to step to the plate.

We’re dealing with another country next door, and things are pretty bad there. At a masquerade ball, the delegation from Parte, a neighboring country whose citizens seems to hate Harland more and more by the day, have arrived, and they bring with them Niamilia, a noble woman who ends up being suggested as the prince’s fiancee in order to prevent a potential war. But what of Claudia? Well, another of the fiancee candidates, calls her out at the party (can’t have a villainess book without public call out), saying Claudia is an evil woman who uses her mob to traffic in slaves and also murdered a noble the other day. Claudia is, needless to say, above most of these accusations, but given that she IS the secret mob boss of a yakuza organization, she decides to investigate… and finds that someone has been impersonating her.

So yeah, my favorite scene in the book is right at the end – in fact, it’s one of the extra stories added for the book. Throughout the book, we get Wendy, who if she’s been in previous books I’ve never noticed, and she is horrible. She’s easily led, falls for an obvious loser who is luring her into a trap to do his bidding, ignores the advice of the maids who have her best interests at heart, and ends up literally orchestrating murder to prove that Claudia is SECRETLY EVIL. It’s a good look at how conspiracy theories can take hold in someone, and she is teeth-grindingly annoying throughout this book. But at the end, as Claudia leaves the prison where Wendy resides till her exile, she realizes, Oh, that was me. That was literally me in my last life. And thus it affects her more than it otherwise would, and therefore affects us more as well. Claudia gets a time travel get out of jail free card Wendy probably ain’t getting.

All this plus our horrible antagonist from last time, who isn’t in this book in person but who makes his presence felt throughout. These books are difficult but rewarding reads.