By Mochimaru Sakaki and riritto. Released in Japan as “Sekai Saikyou no Majo, Hajimemashita: Watashi dake “Kouryaku Site” wo Mireru Sekai de Jiyuu ni Ikimasu” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Phil Charbonneau.

This series is definitely written to be incredibly silly first and think about everything else second. That said, it is at least thinking about other things. This volume makes it very clear what it would be like to be in a game world – not one with a linear through plot, like most isekais that have game elements are based around, but something where there’s a weekly “event”, which is a valuable opportunity for amateur players to earn skills killing monsters, or there’s a way to get “familiars” that involves a random gacha pull. Only it turns out that the town that the weekly event happens in is tormented by the fact that it happens over and over and there’s nothing they can do to stop it. And duplicate gacha pulls, mostly annoying for a player, can lead to existential crises. Fortunately, this is also a “no thoughts, head empty” sort of series.

Lorna is still heading to the capital, barring a few shortcuts, such as through the evil swamp to the evil church staffed by the evil minions, who are no match for her niceness and mayonnaise. She ends up at the shore, but unfortunately the ferry to the capital is a little booked, because tomorrow is … WEDNESDAY. Every Wednesday the monsters attack and destroy the town, and then they do it again the next week. Sure, sometimes strong adventurers can stop it… but it always comes back, so they get discouraged. Luckily, Lorna has her wiki page and her cheat guides. She then ends up looking for a “cute familiar” sort and accidentally summoning the Water Dragon Princess… and then the same Princess again, as she got a duplicate pull. Now there are two identical princesses… who she’s accidentally kidnapped? Uh oh…

I was worried this would get old fast, and it does still worry me a bit. So far, though, the humor is mostly dead on and very funny. (I could do without the lesbian guild leader into cute little girls, but I think I may have to sigh and just give up on telling Japan not to do that stereotype.) Lorna’s horror at finding that looking up guides in front of others may lead to unskippable ads of incest pornography games is hysterical, though. And there is a BIT of non-silly near the end, as the villain of this book (who is taken down ludicrously easily due to Lorna’s cheats) turns out to have been a bitter thousand-year-old sacrifice, and there’s a message from the man she loved apologizing for it. Again, one game’s mid-tier boss is a fantasy world’s tragic victim, and while this series is never going to lean too hard on the tragedy, it’s nice to know it’s there, if only so Lorna can make things better. Also, it turns out the Princess’ father is fine with twins, so that works out as well.

If you can’t stand the broadest of comedy, stay away. If you love the broadest of comedy, though, dig right in.

By Mochimaru Sakaki and riritto. Released in Japan as “Sekai Saikyou no Majo, Hajimemashita: Watashi dake “Kouryaku Site” wo Mireru Sekai de Jiyuu ni Ikimasu” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Phil Charbonneau.

This was one I took a flyer on because it sounded very silly. It’s always dangerous when you try to read a comedy, or a book that’s trying to be “zany”. You need to commit to the bit. But you also have to be careful not to drive off your readership without something too out there. This comes close, and I admit may not be for everyone, but I was quite pleased with how it turned out, because it is absolutely ludicrous. It takes its basic idea and does all the dumb things you’d want a book like this to do. Unlike Bofuri (and more on this later, but I guarantee Bofuri will be what you think of once you start this), the main character is part of this world. Also unlike Bofuri, there is no one with common sense to tell her when she’s being too ridiculous, just NPCs who are absolutely agog.

Lorna Hermit used to be Lorna Guugelheit, and spent most of her childhood ensconced in her family’s mansion and totally ignorant of anything they did. But then she manifests the skill that all these “sort of based on a game” worlds have people do, and it turns out to be SSS-Ranked. Her family is horrified! Skills go from A to G! To have her skill be SSS, it must be ludicrously bad if it’s that late in the alphabet! Needless to say, she is thrown out of the family and dumped in the incredibly dangerous forest at the edge of her domain. Then she actually figures out what her skill does… she can access the wiki page for her world, which turns out to be a game! Not that she knows this, all she knows is that the “gods” are giving her helpful hints on where the monsters and valuable herbs are. Unfortunately, she immediately gets the endgame “most powerful weapon” – by wiki searching – and so is just a LITTLE bit overpowered…

Lorna will remind you of Maple quite a bit, to be honest, but by the end of the volume I was struck by the fact that this is a secret villainess story. Noble girl thrown out of her family, who all turn out to be not-so-secretly evil. She goes to the nearby town to make a life for herself and dazzles everyone around her. But if I’m being honest, this series is really for those who like Kuma Bear and Make My Abilities Average but wishes there were fewer 8-year-olds and more magic battles. Lorna is a classic airhead, so keeps using the smallest spell she can think of, even when with her MP the smallest spell can still take out top-tier bosses. Antagonists see how thick her mana is and drop to their knees in terror. Best of all is the internet skill itself. Lorna deals with popup malware, cryptocurrency, and comment trolls telling her to take off her panties. She thinks it’s the gods speaking to her. By the end of the volume, even the elves believe commenters are using slang of the gods, and adopt it themselves. This book is ridiculous.

So, not for everyone, but I had a ball. I will definitely check out a second book, though this risks getting old fast. Also, terrific pun that I missed until the very end of the book.