BLADE & BASTARD: Warm ash, Dusky dungeon, Vol. 1

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By Kumo Kagyu and so-bin. Released in Japan as “Blade & Bastard: Hai wa Atatakaku, Meikyū wa Honogurai” by Dre Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

One of the highlights of J-Novel Club’s appearance at Anime NYC this year was the announcement of a partnership with Drecom, a video game company that has recently been expanding into other media markets. There are several novels they could have chosen to start off this new partnership, and I for one was hoping for “I’m a Pharmacist Witch and a Part-Time Divorce Attorney”, but I can see why they chose to go with BLADE & BASTARD. First of all, it hadn’t come out in Japan yet – this book got a release in North America on the same date it came out in Japan. Secondly, it has a strong pedigree: the author is better known for Goblin Slayer, and the artist for Overlord. And the novels themselves take place in the world of Wizardry, the popular RPG series. With all that said, how does it hold up as a light novel if you don’t game and don’t really care for Goblin Slayer *or* Overlord? You’ve come to the right person to ask.

A town named Scale has a massive and dangerous dungeon. It’s filled with monsters and treasure, both of which also bring easy death. Our supposed protagonist is Iarumas, a highly competent but loathed man who wanders the dungeons collecting corpses, taking their stuff, and bringing them back to be revived by temple nun Aine. He has no memory of his past, and tries to go deeper and deeper in order to reconnect to it. Over the course of the book, he’s joined by Garbage, a feral girl who speaks only in barks and woofs but is excellent with a sword, and Raraja, a young put-upon thief who is probably the ACTUAL protagonist here. They explore the dungeon, trying to gain experience and also see what’s actually going on with Garbage, who – like Iarumas – has an obscure but important past.

If you’re looking for dark fantasy, this is a solid choice, as you’d expect from this author. The first volume also has 100% less sexual assault and fanservice than Goblin Slayer, which I count as another big plus. Iarumas is a bit too much of a brooding cipher for me to really latch on to, but Raraja’s journey from starving and easily tricked young boy to a solid adventurer in his own right is one of the two highlights of the book. The other highlight is Aine, a nun who uses religion to justify a mercenary streak and really, really loves swords and killing things with swords. (The narrative chooses to tell us – over and over again, it’s weird – that elves like Aine have normal human lifespans in this world.) The problematic part of the book is Garbage, who acts throughout like a dog – her only dialogue is barking, whining, and howling. The bit of backstory we get of her helps explain this a bit, but it’s near the end of the book, and you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s there for a bizarre kind of reader fetish before this. Perhaps future books will help her grow more human.

So yes, despite the constant death, this is less grim than I’d expected, and has a lively cast. A must-read for fans of the author, and not bad for fans of dark game tie-in fantasy.

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Vol. 6

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By MOJIKAKIYA and toi8. Released in Japan as “Boukensha ni Naritai to Miyako ni Deteitta Musume ga S-Rank ni Natteta” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

At the start of this book Belgrieve is preparing to go and search for his old comrades, and by the end of the book he has only JUST set off to do so. That’s not to say that nothing happens in this volume, there’s actually quite a big threat. But this series is content to take its time with its ongoing plots, and the author freely admits we’re only about halfway done. What this means is that the first half is very slow life and leisurely, as our extended family are back in the country and farming and fishing… along with teaching the town how to fight, and sparring with the occasional adventurer who came along because, well, they’re all legends. If you’re wondering what stops them from going on their trip right away, well, the trees are on the march, and they’re not nice trees. They’re after Mit, and will do anything to get him, even if it means destroying the town.

Mit is theoretically an interesting character, and I hope gets a bit more to do after “growing up” a bit post-crisis at the end of this book, but unfortunately the lack of interiority and the suddenness of this growing up means he still falls far more on the “plot device” end of the spectrum, especially when compared to someone like Charlotte. It’s mentioned a couple times how he and Ange look like siblings, which of course is meant to remind the reader of Ange’s demon heritage, but I wish the growth in Mit had been handled better. On the bright side, we do get a new character in this volume, and she’s a tsundere! That said, she’s also a sword. Graham’s sword ends up with Bell by the end of this book, and can also speak to Ange and Graham (though not Bell), and I find her amusing.

Where the book is strongest is in the horror aspect this time around, as the moving trees are scary, and while we don’t see it actively take any lives in the present, we see the spirits of those they have killed in the past, and they’re also pretty scary, as the “please avenge us!” spirit can rapidly become “…by dying!” if you aren’t quick enough. The party all gets a lot of cool fighting to do, but (of course) the big final kill is saved for Belgrieve, who even has to temporarily give up his pegleg in order to get the job done. Frankly, by the end of the fight you’ll be inclined to agree with Ange about the coolness of her father. There’s also an excellent short story calling back to the first book, where Mit and Charlotte, both still scared of the woods after the events in the main volume, are taken by Ange to see the spirit fire. It shows how much father has taught daughter, and I really enjoyed it.

This is a solid series, and continues to have no romance at all, it’s a pure family story. Recommended for that alone.

Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back Whenever I Want!, Vol. 1

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By Hiiro Shimotsuki and Takashi Iwasaki. Released in Japan as “Itsudemo Jitaku ni Kaereru Ore wa, Isekai de Gyōshōnin o Hajimemashita” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Berenice Vourdon.

You frequently hear grumbling from light novel fans – the hardcore ones, of course, not the filthy casuals – about why so many isekai titles are licensed every single year over here, much in the same way that I imagine ten years ago everyone went “oh man, another Alice in the Country of _________” manga?”. But the answer is pretty basic: people buy them and people read them, and then they want more. If you go to AO3, you’ll tend to find that the most popular fanfics in the big genres are not doing something wildly innovative and different, they’re doing something that’s exactly the same as all the other popular fanfics, only with variations. It’s true comfort reading. You don’t have to worry as you read them. Peddler from Another World may be so unoriginal I wondered if an AI had written it, but it was well-written enough to have me finish it, grudgingly declare it decent, and want to read another. That’s all you can ask.

There are two types of male isekai protagonists, and Shiro Amata is the second one; not a high school kid, but a salaryman who just quit his job working for a “black company”. He’s now staying at his late grandmother’s place, after she disappeared seven years earlier and was declared dead. There, among her things, he finds a letter explaining what really happened – she’s from a fantasy world, something she hid from her family. Now Shiro too can journey to that fantasy world, and come back to Japan whenever he likes. Armed with two killer abilities – the usual infinite storage, plus the ability to convert fantasy money into Japanese yen and vice versa – he ends up in a town out in the boonies, and becomes a merchant, selling things that fantasy worlds need but don’t have – like matches.

First, I want to mention that I suspect the illustrator drew all the color pages in this volume before reading the book, as neither the cover nor the interior color illustrations match up with ANY of the scenes within. Secondly, it can be hilarious how derivative this series is. The matches merely got a shrug from me, and the “evil guy who is evil because villains in isekais are always 100% evil” made me sigh, but when we got to the cause of a woman’s deadly wasting disease, I groaned, because it’s the same disease it always is in these books. That said, the book is very readable. Shiro is a “nice guy”, but has a bit of a dark side to him, as we find out towards the end of the book. He also has at least three possible love interests at the end of the first book, as well as a girl who may as well be an adopted daughter. (The only reason I know this wasn’t written by an AI is that if it was, the little girl would be the one with the cat ears.) There are a few “oh anime no” tropes, such as the mayor’s large breasts, which get referred to quite a bit, but, I mean, you’re reading a light novel.

If you like reading slow life isekai, and want more of the same, this is a good choice. There is little to no sexual assault or slavery, and the little girl really is very cute. Just don’t expect surprises.