I Want to Be a Saint, But I Can Only Use Attack Magic!, Vol. 2

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By Fuyu Aoki and Bodax. Released in Japan as “Seijo-sama ni Naritai no ni Kougeki Mahou shika Tsukaenain desu kedo!?” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

The first volume was also very funny, but this one really, really leans into broad as hell comedy, to the point where I felt it was overdoing it a bit. That’s for a very good reason, though, as frankly this world is very dark, and if it weren’t for Yuffie doing her Bocchi impersonation we’d genuinely worry for her. The school is being attacked by demons who think nothing of killing everyone in order to find Yuffie. Her burdock root buddy Catherine finds out her secret and is honestly terrified for a bit, as she points out that it’s scary seeing Yuffie casually breaking the laws of magic physics. And when the powers that be discuss what to do about her, their first thought is to expel her and basically put her under their control. Thankfully they choose not to do this, but there are very good reasons for Yuffie to continue to hide her powers beyond “because it’s funnier that way”.

After the events of the last book, Yuffie is trying to double down on learning how to improve her healing magic, though it’s slow going. Very slow going. She ends up getting some good pointers, though, when she meets up with Jack, who after the events of the last book wants her to train him in how she uses attack magic. Unfortunately her advice amounts to “use your magic till you run out of mana, over and over again, for nine years”. This actually does end up helping him, as he realizes that his determination was as nothing compared to HERS. And she’s going to need it, as they’re going to do a demonstration of healing magic, and have paired the best student (Erina) with the worst (Yuffie). Is she going to be able to be a saint when it takes her an hour to heal a small cut?

As with the first book, I could do without the “ha ha, it’s funny because she’s a predatory lesbian!” jokes. Other than that, though, this is a solid book, once again giving Yuffie a bit of character development. We meet both her parents, which helps to explain some of her apology tactics if not her introversion, and I get the feeling her mom being a former student council member will come up in a future book. And much as I spent most of the book annoyed at Erina, she does give us the book’s most heartwarming moment, when she says that Yuffie’s pathetic healing attempt did help prevent a man dying till Erina could get there and actually heal him. This book is still dark, though. Yuffie kills demons, and is not feeling upset about it at all. These seems to be Frieren-type demons, no sympathy here.

So this is a lot of fun, and I’m not too worried about Bocchi the Mage, but she has a long way to go before she’s accepted by anyone other than her own generation.

Love & Magic Academy: Who Cares about the Heroine and Villainess? I Want to Be the Strongest in this Otome Game World, Vol. 2

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By Toyozo Okamura and Parum. Released in Japan as “Renai Mahou Gakuin: Heroine mo Akuyaku Reijou mo Kankeinai. Ore wa Otome Game Sekai de Saikyou wo Mezasu” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

This was the second book in a row I read where the narrator is essentially a very powerful, emotionless void who casually breezes through everything. Fortunately, with this book, we do get the occasional hint that the author is going somewhere with this other than “isn’t he really cool?”. Now, a lot of this is the standard romance novel shtick of “the girls all like him but he is too dense to notice it”, though with Arius it’s less dense and more does not even understand the emotion at all. He once realized he liked a girl, discovered she was engaged to someone else, and since then the part of his brain devoted to love was simply turned off. But there’s also a sense that Arius has to remember that just because he can do everything himself so the others don’t have to endanger themselves doesn’t mean that’s always the best choice. That said, he can be dull sometimes.

Eric is still trying to find concrete evidence to prove that Duke Jordan is evil, but hasn’t quite got it yet. To help things along, he’s asked the duke’s hotheaded son to participate in the upcoming fighting tournament – third-years normally don’t – so he can beat him, force him to throw a tantrum, and see if the Duke then tries to kill Eric. This works incredibly well, of course, mostly as Arius is not the only one who is trying to make it through this world while depending on absolutely no one. Arius, of course, wins the tournament itself, and in his spare time also solos extremely hard dungeons and teaches his friends and not-quite-love interests how to fight. Unfortunately for Arius, the legendary battle between the hero and the demon lord is about to start again – and they both want him.

This world appears to attract reincarnations like flies. We’ve already got Arius, whose childhood friend was obsessed with the otome game he finds himself in. Then there’s Milia, who is doing much better now that she’s had it explained to her that she does not have to try to do exactly what the game said. And in this volume we get Alisa, who is the power behind the new hero (an arrogant idiot who wants to rule the world – we know the moment we see him we don’t have to care about him). She reveals to Arius that she’s not only reincarnated, but knows he is as well. I’m not entirely certain if there’s some sort of driving force behind all these isekai’d Japanese folks messing up the plot, but if so it’s working but also it’s not – this volume ends with the new Demon Lord kidnapping Arius and spiriting him away to their territory. Which means, much as I do think the other characters get to have lives of their own and concerns of their own, that the book itself still has to revolve around him. He is the main character.

Despite the narrator being another of those poker face/poker voice sorts, this is an improvement on the first book. If you like otome game narratives and don’t mind that it stars a guy who can do literally everything (except understand that women are attracted to him), it’s a good one.

Re: Monster, Vol. 1

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By Kanekiru Kogitsune and YAMAADA. Released in Japan by Alpha Polis. Released in North America by Hanashi Media. Translated by Harris Hayes.

Another day, another review where I have to start by saying “Yeah, yeah, I know”. A classic example of a Dead Dove: Do Not Eat series, I remember this got a fan translation when it first came out almost fifteen years ago. At the time, light novels from the POV of the monsters were a relatively fresh concept – even Overlord was only a year old. It’s not really the fault of this series that its grim and gritty, mature because it has rape and violence-style novel series feels a bit tired now after so many others that came after it. It *is* the fault of this series that it manages to take such a dark, edgy concept and make it terminally dull, starting with its hero, Gobrou, who is at his most interesting before he’s isekai’d and over the course of time gets more and more dull as he spends this first volume killing, getting skills, killing, getting skills, and having sex with a harem of women. He may be a goblin, but he’s still a faceless isekai guy in the end.

Kanata Tomokui is living in Japan, but not quite our Japan. He has telekinetic powers, and gets powerful when he eats whatever he defeats. Unfortunately, he once saved a teenage girl who became obsessed with him, and when she sees him helping a drunk co-worker home, she gets the wrong idea and stabs him to death. When he comes back to himself, he finds he’s a newborn goblin living in a cave. That said, he’s not just any old weak little goblin. For one thing, he still has his esper powers from his previous life. This means that, as he goes around killing monster rabbits, monster snakes, monster dogs, and monster bears, he gains more and more abilities and grows stronger and stronger, rapidly becoming a hobgoblin and then an ogre, till he’s de facto leader of the entire group. Basically, he’s hot stuff.

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of “problematic content” in this book, but I’m pretty sure most people reading it do not really need to be warned. There’s a couple of goblin women who grow close to him. They capture a party of five human women, and Gobrou stops the other goblins from raping them. Naturally, over the course of the book, they all fall in love with him and sleep with him, and the girl on the cover (who he calls “Redhead Shorty” – what is it with these dark books and ignoring people’s names?). They later capture some elves, and since the elves try to kill them first he’s fine with giving them aphrodisiacs and having the goblins rape them. Basically, he’s exactly the sort of person you’d write about if you were a teenage boy who wants to imagine they have cool powers and a large penis. The fights can sometimes get interesting – Gobrou versus the red bear was the highlight of the book – but for the most part it drowns in his matter-of-fact, “well, I won again” narration.

If you enjoy teenage power fantasies, go search AO3, you’ll likely find better than this.