How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Short Story Chronicles

Leave a reply

By Dojyomaru and Fuyuyuki. Released in Japan as “Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

Siiiiiiiigh. No, that’s not a sigh over the content of the book, it was quite good, and I enjoyed it very much. That was a sigh over the fact that it is, like a lot of this type of book, unreviewable. It’s a short story volume that serves as the final volume of a long-running series, so I’m not going to be selling it to anyone but folks who have read the other 20 books, who will buy it regardless of what I say. It’s micro-stories, so I can’t even do a nice summary of them that uses up 1/3 of my word count. But come on, they’re fine. They mostly seem to cover what happened just before or just after some of the more notable scenes in the series, and a few of them try to cover characters or relationships that weren’t delved into much before. Mostly, though, it’s one last round-up of the folks who you enjoyed reading about for nearly a decade. Machiavelli, thankfully, is absent.

The cover shows Souma with his eight wives, including the surprise final wife Juno. The wraparound story takes place about two decades or so after the final book, with Juno’s son and Aisha’s daughter going up north to go adventuring, which sadly gets immediately aborted when they run into jerks who insult their moms, meaning that beatdowns are coming… for the jerks. Luka is, much like Souma, a bit potato-ey, but like all his moms, he can kick eight kinds of ass… in fact, literally like his moms, that’s his power. Misha is an eight-year-old dark elf, meaning she’s old enough to see the world, despite the worries of her mom. And we also meet Shanti, adopted daughter of Mugal and Fumi (no, I don’t remember them either), who wants to battle now and is very pissed off Luka won’t do so. (She hasn’t gotten permission from her dad yet.) Oh yes, and Musashibo is there, and everyone knows who he is.

That takes up about 30 pages. The other 376 (!!) are the micro-stories. I have no idea if these are “bookstore exclusives” or what have you. I liked seeing more of Serina, who’s perfect for this sort of book: funny and didn’t really get a lot of screen time explaining why she fell so hard for Pancho. Likewise, there’s a series of stories showing Maria going round to visit the wives, not really getting their permission but more showing that she’s one of them now. Everyone likes each other in this. That may be its big weakness, of course. Since it covers nineteen books where we know what’s happened already, these stories are generally a bit boring. That said, who wants angst and drama at a time like this? This is heartwarming out the wazoo, the main women (it’s mostly driven by the women) are great, and it ends as it began, with Souma and Liscia riding a horse through town, only now he can ride, and she’s in front of him.

So yes, this is the final end, full stop, I’m sure there won’t be any more. Maybe. Bye, Realist Hero. You were far better than anything Eliezer Yudkowsky has come up with.

The Twelve Kingdoms, Book Five: A Thousand Miles of Wind, the Sky at Dawn, Part 1

Leave a reply

By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Kaze no Banri, Reimei no Sora” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

If you recall, when I reviewed the first volume of this series, I pointed out that it being divided in two meant that the first half was mostly unrelentingly miserable, with good things only starting to happen in the second book. You can assume the same thing for this one, and if you want to leave this arc with your spirits high, you may want to wait for September for the other half. That said, fear not, this is still brilliantly written and compelling. And yay, Youko is back! Admittedly she’s not all that happy, but she’s in this one! As are two other main characters, also young women. This book is about growing up and learning about the world around you, and how closing yourself off to the world around you can lead to you being immature and disliked. Youko has learned this lesson, at least partly. The other two, not so much.

There are three interlocking plot threads, which I will streamline for ease of reviewing. 1) Youko is now Queen, but that has not magically solved everything. The people have had too many bad queens lately, and worry she’s just another one. They want a king. Also, her underlings are all conspiring against each other and taking advantage of her ignorance about this world. And Keiki, frankly, is being no help. She goes on a journey in disguise to learn about this world. 2) A hundred years ago, a girl in Japan sold as a slave falls off a cliff during a storm and ends up in the Twelve Kingdoms. After suffering at first, she becomes a servant to ex-king’s mistress Riyou… and suffers for much longer, mostly so she can speak the language. Now, though, she’s thrown out, and told she needs to learn to be less whiny and passive. 3) The king of Hou and his Queen are executed in a coup, and their daughter, Shoukei, is disguised and thrown into a shabby village in lieu of execution. She hates it, and hates being poor, but stays selfish through most of the book, till she meets a familiar face… to the reader, that is.

Not gonna lie, but Youko is easily the best thing in this, mostly as we only get a tiny bit of character development from Suzu and Shoukei, who will get most of theirs in the next book. (As a reminder for anime watchers, the high school kid who came with Youko in the anime doesn’t exist here.) She’s doing her best, but has never really been a politician, and people are running rings around her. Meanwhile, Keiki just sighs at her. I don’t blame her for running off. I did like Shoukei’s journey as well, though she’s easily the hardest to take for a good 4/5 of this volume. Meeting Rakushun is the best thing that happened to her, and she’s learning about life for non-princesses. As for Suzu, she’s very whiny and hard to like, and unfortunately her character development is also in the last fifth of the book. I’m sure she gets better.

The book ends with all three of these women converging in the same place, and I suspect the next one will have them meet up. I hope they get along. I suggest Youko not mention who she really is. In any case, essential as always.

Welcome to Olivia’s Magic Jewelers, Vol. 3

Leave a reply

By Rinrin Yuki and Suzaku. Released in Japan as “Olivia Maseki Houshokuten e Youkoso: Ka to Mise wo Oida Sareta no de, Outou ni Mise wo Kamaetara, Naze ka Moto Konyakusha to Gimai no Kekkonshiki ni Dero to Iwaremashita” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Jordan Taylor.

It’s always hard, when you’re dealing with light novel series that have been adapted from webnovels, to tell whether a series is finished, on hiatus due to the author’s life getting in the way, dropped as the author started to write something else and got bored, or cancelled by the publisher. This seems to be mostly the third version: the author is certainly writing plenty of other series, while the webnovel of this series ends with the events of the second book (though confusingly the webnovel is split into three books) and various short stories. I wasn’t able to find the contents of this volume at the Narou site. And the author definitely says the series is finished in the afterword. As for why I’m filled with doubt? It resolves nothing. Not even an engagement or wedding. Just “meh”.

We open with a relatively content Olivia dividing hwer time between her successful jewelry shop in the capital and her family home and business a ways in the country. However, Olivia’s Magic Jewelers relies on Olivia’s anxiety as a plot mover, so we can’t have that. As a result, she’s asked to become a temporary researcher for the Magic Institute, which had been researching how to fly airships but recently had a Hindenburg-esque disaster, albeit with no loss of life, so they’re searching for an alternative. As Olivia has been in a creative rut recently owing to her desperate attempts to be as good as her genius father, she agrees, and finds herself paired off with easygoing Daisy and anxious but nice guy Robin. Despite the odd sneering from the obligatory noble girl, she’s doing well, and her magic powers seem to be fantastic – though not at her father’s level. So… what’s the catch?

I’m grumpy because this book doesn’t resolve anything, but I’m also grumpy as it makes use of one of my least favorite romantic plotlines, the “who are you going to believe, your loving boyfriend or the guy you work with who’s telling you your loving boyfriend is an elitist jerk?”. Now, this does make some sense in context – class remains built into this series, which is probably why Olivia and Elliot are still just going out here, and her “daughter of a baron, i.e. basically a commoner” status makes her susceptible to this sort of thing. And she’s always been a sad sack because of her abusive upbringing after her father died. Still: EURGH. The other issue is that the series seems to be shifting away from its premise, trying to turn Olivia into a genius scientist/inventor sort, and while there’s part of that in the previous two books, I miss the jewelry shop. I’m glad she said no. I did, however, really like Daisy, her co-worker and friend in the Institute, who is exactly the sort of girl to leap out of a plane to test if the magic “don’t crash” things work.

If you’ve read the first two books and want to know what happens, you can read this. But it’s not essential, and lacks the feel of a final volume. Alas.