I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 12

Leave a reply

By Kisetsu Morita and Benio. Released in Japan as “Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt.

There has been some discussion over the last few years about “yuri tease” or “yuribait” series, i.e. series which promise yuri content but fail to deliver. (This is entirely separate from LGBT content, by the way.) Frankly, any series that was popular with yuri fans in 2004-2005 would likely be piled on by modern fans for this very reason. Gains in media have made people spoiled, especially when you hear things like “it’s a yuribait series because men exist in it” (heard that one recently about Birdie Wing). But sometimes I do have to admit that I feel like I’m being led on. I’m not even sure I *want* Killing Slimes to be yuri. I think it works much better as found family. But if I could pay the author to drop Azusa reminding us that she’s straight every single volume, I would. Especially when the side story is MariMite with dragons. In any case, this volume is pretty much the same as the previous ones.

(Cover art, you are REALLY not helping the author’s case.)

In this volume: Azusa finally decides to get some rice and make some Japanese dishes, but reckons without Laika and Flatorte’s appetites; a Tiger Festival in a nearby down proves to be an excuse for baseball jokes; the treasure dredged from the lake a book or two ago is appraised by “experts”; Azusa and the ghost characters investigate a haunted hotel; Kuku and Pondeli have invented the compact disc, but that also comes with the marketing for same; Falfa and Shalsha see what might (or might not) be a UFO and have a debate about it; and finally, Azusa, Beelzebub and a few others try to help the smart slime, one of the great sages of the world, meet up with another sage who lives on an inaccessible island. In the Laika side stories, Laika continues to mature and become a better fighter almost despite herself.

Again, there’s almost no depth to any of this. The closest we come is when Azusa, on board a ship with only Smarsly for company, actually tells them that she’s a reincarnation from Japan, and opens up about her regrets. Unfortunately, we only get her summarizing this, and it’s mostly done to make Azusa realize that she’s come to terms with and is happy with her new life, but it’s better than nothing. We’re introduced to a bunch of sages from an isolated island, who turn out to be dryads… who talk like Valley Girls. Fortunately, as we discover towards the end of the main story, they really are brilliant, and are happily discussing philosophy with Smarsly, so that’s good. It honestly astonishes me that these books tend to run 250-300 pages, as they feel light as air. Still, at the same time, aside from the walking back on the yuri tease, there’s nothing really wrong with them.

Another popcorn book down. It should please fans, provided they don’t ship Azusa with anyone.

Spy Classroom: To Forget Is Annette

Leave a reply

By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Thrasher.

Given that the last book focused on four of our spies, this one is here to focus on the others. Mostly it’s about Thea, who is the designated leader this time around, and the most normal of the group… for good and ill. Her “power” also ties in with her personality, and makes it so that she has the moral dilemma in the book. Monika continues to be the “I don’t work well with others” one, but here we see that she too is not as stoic and uncaring as she appears, and she also gets to do the most badass stuff. Erna… well, look, Erna is probably the weak link of the book, but we got a large chunk of her deal in Book 1, so that’s to be expected. And then there is Annette. The cliche of “lovable but airheaded gadgeteer genius” is not new to Spy Classroom – leaving aside Mei from My Hero Academia, it’s been around for years. I’m not sure they had quite the same impact as Annette, who feels empty to Thea.

As was revealed in the last book, Lily’s quartet is actually a decoy mission – our heroines introduced above will be helping Klaus take out the assassin. We don’t actually see too much of that, and only in flashback. Instead, we get the aftermath, where the girls are relaxing after the mission at a luxury hotel. They then run into a woman who says she’s Annette’s mother… and certainly there’s a resemblance. It’s a bit difficult to ask Annette, as she has amnesia of the time before she became a spy. But Thea, who is perhaps projecting just a little after seeing that Annette’s heart’s desire was “I want to get taller”, wants the two of them to reunite. Which may be harder than it seems, as it becomes apparent that Annette’s mother is an enemy spy.

I feel less guilty giving things away than I did the previous two volumes, probably as there’s no big “a ha!” moment where the narrative is totally flipped like their was in the first two books. The story of Matilda and Annette is not that hard to at least figure out, and I’d argue the real mystery was trying to see when it would be revealed and how. It’s very good for Thea and Monika, who are at odds over what to do here. Both are soft in different ways, and I have a feeling that may come back to bite them in later books, but here it doesn’t, mostly as Annette is anything but soft. Its worth remembering that the other cliche about Japanese gadgeteer geniuses is that they have a tendency to forget about ethics and morals unless it’s brought up to them. Annette fits this to a T… and that’s probably very good given she’s a spy.

But just because the mystery is not as mysterious does not mean this isn’t excellent. Spy Classroom runs on its characters, and this book’s heart is not the titular Annette (who is on the cover – again) but Thea, and I’m interested to see what she does next.

Altina the Sword Princess, Vol. 14

Leave a reply

By Yukiya Murasaki and himesuz. Released in Japan as “Haken no Kouki Altina” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

Nothing annoys English-speaking fans quite so much as a series they’re enjoying being unfinished in Japan, and their usual logic is to blame the publisher for not being told that it wasn’t going to continue. This is, of course, nonsense. In regards to this particular series, it was very popular in Japan, its 14th volume had come out only 10 months earlier, and the author was also riding another hit with the How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord series. It looked like a great license, and it is. I’ve enjoyed this series a great deal. It’s fun, has great military strategy and battle scenes, likeable leads with a tinge of romance to them (but not too much), and each volume is pretty short, which, trust me, is a plus for me these days. Unfortunately, Both the American and Japanese publishers are still at the mercy of one thing: the author actually writing more of the book. And it’s been almost four years since the last volume. Hope it doesn’t have a nasty cliffhanger… oops.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Altina and Regis going to war against Spain (or rather Hispania). For the most part, things have been going fairly well, even though both Regis and Altina have had to deal with the fact that they can’t do battles with no fatalities anymore. Indeed, they even have the spare time to debate the nature of Altina’s pacifism, and how, while Regis supports her ideals, he realizes that they are, in fact, idealistic, and no not take into account human nature. That said, he has a bigger problem, as it turns out Hispania has its own eccentric strategist, and she’s just as good if not better than Regis – and seems to lack his moral scruples. With our heroes on the verge of victory, will the price they pay be the life of their chief strategist?

The mental battle between Regis and Mariam, Hispania’s secret strategist, is the best reason to read this book. It’s not the first time we’ve seen Regis pressured and doubting himself, but it has more impact now that he and Altina have come so far. He almost calls off his plan, except that his soldiers have already enacted it – and, fortunately for him, it works really well. Unfortunately, as I said, Mariam is every bit his equal. And I mean that in both strategy and being a weirdo. Not her muteness, of course, though I admire her writing speed. No, I mean that she doesn’t really care if her nightgown is riding up, or whether people think of her as a noble lady, or even whether she commits treason on paper. She’s the distaff Regis in every way except for the final few pages, where she does something that Regis wouldn’t have. I’d say it played on the religious fervor of the Hispanians… but that didn’t really seem to be a factor for the strategists.

And yeah, that’s a nasty cliffhanger, as this book came out in September 2018, and there haven’t been any more since. You could blame the even more popular How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord… but that last had a volume a year ago. When you read a writer’s story, you have to depend on the writer to write it. Let’s hope he gets back to it soon.