By Fuyutsuki Koki and Masami. Released in Japan as “Kanpeki Sugite Kawaige ga Nai to Konyaku Haki Sareta Seijo wa Ringoku ni Urareru” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Tiffany Lim and Amelia Mason. Adapted by Shaenon K. Garrity.

I must admit, I used to get upset when I saw this sort of thing in Japanese light novels, but now I just laugh. is there some meme picture that is the opposite of the guy sweating over which button to push? Because I think if you presented two buttons to a light novel author, one of which said ‘tragic and nuanced villain who the audience empathizes but does not sympathize with’, and the other of which said ‘villain who will happily destroy the world for petty spite and also drinks puppies’, the average light novel author would not think twice before slamming Button #2. And needless to say Fuyutsuki Koki is exactly the same. Heck, we’re introduced to the villain and given a legitimate sympathetic reason for their villainy, but then it turns out to not be enough, they have to go full ham. Fortunately, the heroine of this series also goes full ham, albeit stoically.

All is well. The evil from Book Two has been defeated, Philia and Osvalt are engaged and planning their wedding, and the anime managed to fix a lot of the problems the second book had with pacing. Surely nothing could go wrong now… oh, what’s this missive from the Church? It turns out that the Pope is dead, and Philia has supposedly been chosen as the new Pope in his will, surprising everyone, not least of all Philia herself, as a Saint has never been made Pope before. But everyone agrees that she has to obey the declaration that she is Pope or risk being excommunicated and starting a Holy War in Parnacorta. It’s fine! She can even still marry Osvalt! But she has to live in Dalbert now, this world’s Vatican City. Philia, though, starts to smell a rat, especially when she hears about Archbishop Henry, who everyone THOUGHT would be the next Pope…

As with so many light novels, this is not a series to read if you like subtlety. Leaving aside the villain, who has an epic revenge that involves destroying Philia’s happiness and ruining the country of Parnacorta, and has plans to resurrect the dead and also command an ancient God to do his bidding, there’s also Philia herself, who hears about a divine spell that can let someone talk to the dead, hears that no one has ever done it as divine spells are lethal if done slightly wrong, and just does it anyway, in an Ace-Attorney style finale that has her calling the dead back to testify TWICE. The good news is that Mia, who was mostly sidelined in book 2, gets things to do here, and she also gets to show off that she is not only as OP as her sister, but can also get a prince to propose to her. If there’s a flaw in this book, it’s that no one ever really feels in danger when these sisters are around.

You’d think this was the last in the series, but no, we’ve got a long way to go. Next volume is the wedding picture cover art one, though. Fans of the anime can happily start here.

By Fuyutsuki Koki and Masami. Released in Japan as “Kanpeki Sugite Kawaige ga Nai to Konyaku Haki Sareta Seijo wa Ringoku ni Urareru” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Tiffany Lim. Adapted by Shaenon K. Garrity.

Oh dear, and it was going so well. Too-Perfect Saint hits that difficult second album, and it’s the worst possible timing for English-speaking readers, as the anime has just begun, so we’re seeing the first book come to life while we read this second volume. The things I really liked about the first book were a) the fact that Philia really struggled with expressing herself and feeling emotions like “happiness” and “hope” after an entire lifetime of abuse, and b) the fact that we had a “my parents hated me but praised my younger sister instead” novel where the younger sister was NOT evil, but was in fact the second protagonist. Now we get Book 2, and Mia gets a much smaller role where she gets nothing to do. As for Philia, she’s dealing with the romantic subplot that I predicted would happen last time. Sure hope another cartoon villain doesn’t show up – oh dear.

Philia is preparing for a giant conference of saints from various countries, which can now happen given she’s purified the world with her giant barrier. Unfortunately, saints have been disappearing one by one, and in fact Philia and Osvalt, who are out on a not-date, almost see one happen in front of their eyes. Worse still, her ex-fiance Julius has vanished from his prison cell. Fortunately, she has some new allies coming to protect her in the form of exorcist Erza and her demon familiar Mammon, who feel like they’re crossing over from a different book (they are, but that one does not appear to have been published) Unfortunately, as the convention gets underway, it’s invaded by Asmodeus, an ancient demon who has possessed Julius. He’s here to resurrect his former love… who happens to have been reincarnated as Philia.

If that last sentence made you roll your eyes a bit, well, congratulations, you had the same reaction I did. Almost every beat of this book, unlike the first which had a few clever swerves, is straight on the beat and not a surprise at all. It’s not entirely without merit. I did like Asmodeus using Philia’s parents as “hostages”, knowing she’s spent her entire life being abused by them, and her reaction – I don’t care about them at all but I am a decent human being so I will not murder them to satisfy you – is quite good. But for the most part all the emotional bits in this book are hamstrung by Philia’s calmness, which feels less like a deliberate choice and more like flat writing in this book. Her conversation with her equally reticent real mother is a low point, and her romantic confession ends up eliciting a mild smile.

This has a third volume, where apparently villains try to make Philia into the Pope. But unfortunately, this probably should have stayed a one-shot.

By Fuyutsuki Koki and Masami. Released in Japan as “Kanpeki Sugite Kawaige ga Nai to Konyaku Haki Sareta Seijo wa Ringoku ni Urareru” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Tiffany Lim. Adapted by Shaenon K. Garrity.

This one really took me by surprise. The first, oh, forty pages or so read like Saint by Numbers, frankly. We’ve read this story before. Our heroine, who is fantastic at magic and smart and pretty but perhaps overly serious, is shunned by her fiance the prince, and exiled from the kingdom – in this case, literally sold to another kingdom for cash. When she arrives at her new homeland, she’s rather stunned to find that everyone there is treating her nicely, happy to see her, and urging her to take breaks and enjoy herself. Something that, well, she’s not particularly good at, as she grew up as the abused eldest daughter you almost always see in these sorts of books. We also hear about the youngest daughter, also a Saint, who supposedly loves her sister, but is now going to end up with the prince instead. Uh uh, I thought. Cue evil sister. Oh, how delightfully wrong I was.

For the summary of the start of the book, see above. Philia is somewhat horrified by this, but having been raised since birth to have almost no sense of self-worth, she quietly goes along with it. That said, Philia is only one of the two protagonists in this book. Back in her old country, Mia, the younger sister, is equally horrified to hear that (according to everyone else, that is) Philia chose to run off to another country, leaving Mia as the sole Saint. What’s more, after a brief period of being devastated by his fiancee leaving him that lasts about three days, the prince is now proposing to Mia instead. She suspects something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and decides to play detective to figure out what’s really going on. (Hint: treason.)

So yes, the big reveal is that Mia is not only the co-protagonist but just as likeable as her sister. Mia was raised in a family of love, separated from her older sister (we find out why later), and is relatively well-adjusted, so is definitely the one to be trying to investigate the potential multiple assassinations happening around her. Philia, meanwhile, is “dull, unfriendly, and far too serious”, according to the prince, and he’s not really far off. She was raised in a household without love, her education ranged from strict to ludicrous, and basic human decency baffles her, to the point where she’s poleaxed when people tell her not to immediately go out and save the country but take a day to rest. And honestly, for the best she didn’t, as it turns out Philia is better suited to save the entire WORLD.

This isn’t perfect – as always with this genre, the evil nobles are cartoonishly evil, and Philia’s two potential romantic interests seem to be there only because this genre always has two princes both in love with the Saint. But its main conceit is terrific (it’s getting an anime in April), and even though it seemingly wrapped everything up in the first book, I’ll read Book 2, which doubtless will focus more on those romantic loose ends.