Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta, Vol. 1

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By Toshizou and Kuro Shina. Released in Japan as “Yuri no Ma ni Hasamareta Watashi ga, Ikioi de Futamata Shite Shimatta” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Tristan K. Hill.

One of the strong points of Japanese light novels is that most of them are written in first person singular from the point of view of the protagonist. This is especially true of high school romcoms – when reading Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai, it is immediately striking that the narration ISN’T like this. Unfortunately, this can be a double-edged sword. If your protagonist is someone whose thoughts we find ourselves entertained by, or who provides an adept running commentary, it can be quite fun. See Kyon, for example, or Koyomi Araragi. Unfortunately, when your protagonist is annoying, spending time in their head can be unrelentingly exhausting. That’s the main issue we have with Yuri Tama. Yotsuba, the main character, is a pathetic drip who hates herself, something she reminds us about every single page. Which, y’know, whatever. Except that almost every other girl in the series is in love with her. You’ll want to cry out, “WHY?”.

As noted above, our heroine is Yotsuba. The oldest of three daughters, she’s at a very prestigious high school… which she got into entirely by chance, as she used a pencil marked with A, B, C, and D to randomly choose her answers on the entrance exam. Now that she’s a second year, she’s last place in academics, and last place in athletics. However, she does have one thing that makes her stand out. She’s friends with the school’s “Sacrosanct Duo”, Rinka and Yuna. The appearances differ, but you can think “Haruka and Michiru” and you won’t be far off. They’ve also got a fan club!… one that resents Yotsuba for being near them at all. That said, Yotsuba is relatively happy with her friends… till one of them confesses to her. And then she confesses to the other one. And, brilliant girl that she is, her solution is to try to date them both and keep it a secret.

The author previously wrote “The Sidekick Never Gets the Girl, Let Alone the Protag’s Sister!”, another series where I thought it had an interesting premise but the writing choices annoyed me. I can now assume that the author and I just don’t get along. If you’re worried about the “cheating” part of the book, I would not. First of all, I figured out how this was going to resolve about two minutes after Yotsuba hooked up with her friends – it’s really very obvious if you listen to what she’s said about Yuna and Rinka. Secondly, though, this book is broad comedy, with Yotsuba’s comedy reactions to everything being the point. That’s also likely why she is how she is – the fact that everyone loves her (including her two younger sisters, something I should also probably warn readers about) because she’s so pathetic and makes you want to protect her is the comedic gag. For what it’s worth, it does land a few times. I also liked the rare moments when Yotsuba actually was good – the story of how and why she’s friends with the Sacrosanct Duo is the best part of the book.

The yuri in this book is definitely there rather than merely suggested – there’s makeout sessions, and “no, I mean I love you in a romantic way”. And, thankfully, the childhood friends are not interested in each other, so this is more of a triangle relationship rather than an OT3. That said, your enjoyment of it will depend entirely on how much you can tolerate its wet rag of a protagonist and the fact that she reminds you she’s a wet rag constantly.

In the Land of Leadale, Vol. 6

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By Ceez and Tenmaso. Released in Japan as “Leadale no Daichi nite” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jessica Lange.

Last time I wondered whether Opus’ introduction would lead to him explaining the plot a bit more, or just to him being a dick. As it turns out, it’s both. Indeed, the explanations come fast and furious, which is a bit of a surprise. We’ve occasionally thought back to Keina lying in her hospital bed, and how Leadale was created essentially for her. But this volume shows that goes MUCH deeper than we’d expected , and that Cayna is tied to Leadale in a far more significant way than I think she’d really like to be. I don’t want to get too much into spoilers, but suffice to say that Opus’ real-life identity was the least surprising part of it. That said, the real world is not an option for Cayna anymore, so best make the most of it and do what she does best – be a terrifyingly powerful mage who you never, ever want to see get angry. Sadlty, in this volume, Opus is at her side most of the time, so no luck there.

After recovering from her MP-draining rage attack on Opus from the last volume, Opus actually deigns to answers a lot of her questions about the true nature of this world. From there, she goes back to the village she’s now calling home, trailed by Opus and his Maid/Bodyguard/Tsukkomi Siren, who has definite opinions on what servants should be like but also is well aware of how much of an asshole her boss is. She then returns to the capital, where her granddaughter asks her to deal with a loose end… the player/bandit leader she put a punishment collar on several books ago, who has basically learned his lesson. As for Opus, he’s just starting to walk around and get back into the swing of things, but he certainly enjoys putting the fear of God into anyone he interacts with. This won’t change.

There’s a prologue where we see Keina at the hospital, interacting with her family and the programmer who’s there to tell her about Leadale, and it helps to hammer home how mentally exhausted she was in there, and also how truly immature she still is. I’d mentioned the reaction against her violence last time, and I think that’s because we’re told (as everyone else thinks) to see her as a 200-year-old all-powerful grandma rather than a teenage girl who get really, really excited simply by the fact that she can run around. As for her and Opus, leaving aside the various reveals, I am pleased to see that they have exactly zero romantic chemistry together… though admittedly that’s not what the rest of the cast thinks. It’s OK, sometimes you can just have a relationship be two antagonistic friends who have the power to destroy a continent. Cayna yells, Opus smugs, punches ensue, rinse and repeat. It’s fun.

Leadale is not for everyone, and if you didn’t like the anime I don’t think this adds enough value to recommend, but for those already invested, there’s a lot of payoff here you weren’t expecting.

Sasaki and Peeps: While I Was Dominating Modern Psychic Battles with Spells from Another World, a Magical Girl Picked a Fight with Me: ~You Mean I Have to Participate in a Death Game, Too?~

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By Buncololi and Kantoku. Released in Japan as “Sasaki to Pi-chan” by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alice Prowse.

Content warning before we start: near the end of this volume there is an attempted rape scene of a middle schooler, and it is 100% played completely seriously. It helps to show off the strengths and weaknesses of this series in general. The author clearly wants to take several distinct genres and slam them all against each other. We’ve got isekai fantasy, esper battles, magical girls (and, because it’s the 2020s, they’re dark killer magical girls), and now we’re adding a battle between angels and demons using humans as proxy. This works pretty well when things are ridiculous, with our stoic salaryman Sasaki, his relatively stoic bird, and the amusing Futarishizuka. But it’s also trying to tell the story of an abused, suicidal middle school girl who is also deeply twisted, and it’s telling it with all the gravity it requires. Which… y’know, better than the alternative, but it GRATES against everything else.

As with the first volume of this series, things are slightly more interesting on the Japan side of the equation. This is not to say that the fantasy world doesn’t have a lot of danger, but it’s fantasy isekai danger, which means you have a lot of domineering nobles and sneering merchants. All Sasaki is trying to do is sell off all the modern things he’s bringing from Japan, but now he’s involved in a proxy war between two counts, two princes, and two companies. That said… he’s an experienced Japanese salaryman. This is what he’s GOOD at. He fares far less well when being tasked with his high school girl co-worker to try to recruit a new psychic who has fire powers. This goes disastrously wrong in ways I 100% was not expecting. That said, the most interesting part of the book was when the little princess from the fantasy world stows away when Sasaki returns to Japan… not the last time these two worlds intersect, I hope.

As for “the neighbor”, whose name, we find, is Kurosu, we get a little peek into her horrible, horrible daily life. She has to steal food from school to not starve to death, and it’s middle school, so she also has to avoid the class hottie helping her lest she be in trouble with the other girls. Her mother is sleeping with a guy who tries to rape her. Oh yes, and then there’s the corpse that drops in front of her as she’s walking home. Kurosu’s story has still not really intersected with the main one yet, but I expect that to change in the next book – the “death game” mentioned in the ludicrous subtitle of the volume is hers, not Sasaki’s. We also get a bit more about the magical girl… and it’s not really great news. She’s already killer her comedy animal mascot, she alleges that Sasaki’s employers killed her entire family and friends, and she now doesn’t know whether to trust him or not. So, y’know, just another day at the office.

If you enjoy A Certain Magical Index you might get a big kick out of this, because the chaos is the point. That said, unlike Index, there’s sometimes a realistic and very dark undertone to this series. I’ll read more, but YMMV.