Category Archives: reviews

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: The Ice Wyrm That Slew Champions

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

After spending a long time promising us that Tina would be playing a larger role in the narrative any day now, we finally get a book (well, arc, as I think she’ll be heavily featured in the next volume as well) where Tina plays a major role and gets to do things and be cool. And it sadly underlines the biggest fault of this series, which is that the title and premise promise that the series is about Tina, the Duke’s Daughter, but she’s the least interesting one in the cast. Now, this is not exactly a cast filled with depth – it’s a very McDonald’s sort of series that runs on harems and shonen battles. Despite that, the author continues to struggle to give Tina things to do beyond be jealous and childish and whip out her super ice powers. Heck, she can’t even have a “turn evil” arc, as both Lydia AND Stella have already covered that. (Still, better than Ellie, who was supposed to feature till Stella booted her out of the arc.) Weak heroine energy.

After the events of the last two books, you’d think that our heroes could catch a break. But the villains have been doing the “losing the battle but winning the war” thing for a number of volumes now, and it’s all coming to a head in the next country over, Lallanoy. This is where Felecia’s father was taken, and it’s where the villainous beastmen went, and basically it’s become the go-to place for anyone evil. And now Gondor is calling for aid, and Allen gets to go over there (because of course he’s the key to everything going on everywhere right now), along with Lily (as the diplomat), Tina and Stella (as the magical muscle), and… a random girl they met on the train, who seems to be young but is clearly hundreds of years old. Well, I guess we hadn’t broken out THAT cliche yet.

That summary covers only the first third of the book or so, but… look, much as I enjoy reading this series, and I do, I can usually sum it up by saying “a lot of fights happen, and things look bad for our heroes” as well as “all the girls fight over Allen while he ignores them”. Fans of The Apothecary Diaries anime adaptation who are frustrated at Maomao’s seeming obtuseness will find that she, like Allen, knows but chooses not to. That’s the trouble with being both the chosen one and someone that half the leaders of the country despise (the other half, of course, adore him) – he really can’t afford to notice any of this. That said, he’s in a bit of a pickle this time, though not a bad enough one that his living alarm clocks sets off in front of Girl #1. Yet. We see him having to use Tina as a living battery, and it still drains the hell out of him. Who can possibly come to the rescue?

The cover of the next book might hint. In the meantime, sorry, Tina. Your fights were pretty cool. Your heart is in the right place. But you’re still too damn young and childish to make me prefer you over the older girls.

Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, Vol. 19

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By FUNA and Itsuki Akata. Released in Japan as “Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne!” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Tara Quinn. Adapted by Maggie Cooper.

Let’s address the elephant in the room first: I am reading the digital version of this title, and it has one very large (20+ pages) and one very small section of text that repeats itself verbatim. Fortunately, nothing seems to be missing as far as I can tell, and I assume it will be fixed soon. Leaving that aside, this is another FUNA book, and in particular a volume of Make My abilities Average, which has as its one goal showing a lot of teen and tween girls kicking ass, making their own careers, and deliberately not getting married or even thinking of getting married anytime soon. I’m not sure I can comfortably call it feminist, but at least you don’t have to worry too much about anything too uncomfortable getting in the way of the goofy overpowered antics. Even on another continent, the Crimson Vow and the Wonder Three are going to be ridiculous, and now they’re infecting the royalty.

We pick up right where we left off, in the fishing village, as they try to figure out, now that they have all this rare and expensive fish, how they can preserve it when they don’t have ice magic and they’re miles from anyone. (It involves to a degree, eating and then throwing up, because they’re somewhat devout about not wasting fish.) After departing (and leaving behind the selfish merchant, who ended up being far less important than I expected), they slowly make their way to the capital, where they finally meet up with the Wonder Trio. The two groups, now that they both have Mile to themselves to a degree, agree to team up, after the Wonder Trio manage to game the system and get promoted the same way the Crimson Vow did, and they all move into a big house together. It’s very cozy.

Once a volume, the series tries to remind you that the author does have this ongoing sci-fi plot involved, where we see Mile discussing the fate of the world with various robot dogs, birds, and assorted intelligences. But honestly, this volume seems to half-ass that, and happily gets back to cute girls doing cute things. That even affects the side stories, where we see the two princesses (who also have Mile’s OP cheats) saving their countries from famine/surplus, making a profit doing it, and getting revered as saints. By accident. In the other side story, the baron’s daughter in the Servants of the Goddess – the one who hits things very hard – is inundated with marriage proposals, up to and including the princes of the kingdom, and like every other girl in this series decides the answer is to run away and be a monster hunter. FUNA has a leitmotif, and dammit, we’re going to play it over and over again.

That said, this is fine, aside from the usual “oh no my breasts are small” shtick. As always, for fans of the series only, but they should be happy.

Lady Rose Just Wants to Be a Commoner!, Vol. 2

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By Kooriame and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Lady Rose wa Heimin ni Naritai” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Caroline W.

We have had numerous books where I have observed that the protagonist and/or the antagonist tends to be a bit too quick to see the world they’ve been reincarnated in as the actual otome game they remember, rather than as a world with living, breathing humans with real feelings. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a series lean quite so hard into the concept as Lady Rose, in which Lady Rose has to be handed a lot of the answers to the mystery she’s trying to solve as she is SO ingrained into the mindset that everyone is like the characters she remembers that she not only can’t see the forest for the trees, but can’t even see the tree. And when you add in the fact that, like so many other shoujo light novels, she is utterly unable to see her own value, calling everything she does “acting”, and you end up with a book that is less of a mystery and more of a psychological horror story.

We pick up immediately after the cliffhanger from Book One, as Felicia and Seth confront her adopted younger brother and try to figure out why he’s kidnapped Liliana… though this ends up being more an exercise in making Felicia face reality, something that proves to be… very difficult, frankly. Things are not helped by the fact that Liliana is now actively trying to kill herself, and Felicia has to figure out why that’s happening. And oh yes, Evan was also in on the kidnapping. This means that both Shade and Evan are going to be executed, unless… Rose goes back to the castle, and pleads with the King for clemency. Something which is unlikely to have any impact, unless of course she goes ahead and marries Nika, who she at least finally admits she loves. Will she be forced to give up on everything she’s fought for?

I’m gonna be spoiling a bit of the climax of the book here, but I just have to talk about how delighted I was by the ending, which until the last page I thought was going to be reversed. Hell, so did everyone else in the cast, and they’re very surprised at the final outcome. Because this is not “Lady Rose Learns How Important She Is”, or “Lady Rose Makes Sacrifices But Finds True Love”, it’s “Lady Rose Wants to Be a Commoner”, and it’s absolutely committing to that bit. Now, she and Nika are still being cute and blushy at the end, but notably: she’s a commoner, he’s a prince, and they aren’t married. She not only defies fate but defies the narrative, and I love that. (I also love the fakeout opening of Chapter 6, which gave me a brief heart attack till I laughed).

The series ends here… except it doesn’t, as there is a third and final volume, from the perspective of Liliana, the “saint”. Honestly, any perspective that isn’t Felicia’s will be welcome at this point – she’s too unreliable a narrator. Very much enjoying this.