Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll Do Anything to Become a Librarian!, Part 4: Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee, Vol. 5

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By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

I feel this volume is almost deceptively relaxing. On the one hand, everything goes pretty well. Rozemyne does not make social faux-pas that can’t be glossed over somehow. There is an ambush to try to kill her… but she’s nowhere near it and it’s thwarted immediately. There’s a wedding to a woman from an enemy duchy… but she turns out to be a big sweetie pie who just has a case of resting “I look just like my ancestor who nearly destroyed you all” face. That last one, though, hints at the undercurrents we see in this book that I suspect are going to pay off in big explosions down the line. We’ve talked before about how the class system in this series is not going away anytime soon, but that also means that the nobility are going to be what nobility tend to do, which is find ways to quietly murder each other. Time to pick a side. Meanwhile, Rozemyne wants fish.

The author admits in the afterword that this cover (and indeed most of the covers in the series) is theme related rather than specifying actual events. In this case it’s the dyeing competition that Rozemyne is holding in order to introduce the new techniques (and bring back the old, forgotten techniques), and it turns out that Myne’s mother Effa is one of the contestants. Elsewhere, they’re setting up the printing business in the Groschel area, but the way that the nobility treats the commoners who live there turns out to not only be arrogant but also have legitimate negative effects on the printing. And then there’s the aforementioned marriage, as Lamprecht is marrying a woman from the far, far higher in status Ahrensbach district. It’s a political move, yes, but fortunately there seems to be actual love there as well. Finally, Rozemyne heads back to school to start Year 2 at the Academy, where she will face even more problems… not least of which is that the young prince of the realm has confused her for her younger sister.

As I noted above, Rozemyne is getting better at this. She still screws up enough to make Ferdinand (who is in this book far less than usual) smack his forehead, but that’s mostly just when she’s fantasizing about her ideal library, which would require more magic than there is in the world. She can do the meet and greets and keep up with the nobility, and has learned to translate when they’re being condescending, rude or threatening. The best example of this is her discussion with Aurelia, the bride I mentioned before. She screws up in that she’s not supposed to speak directly to the bride in her position… but she doesn’t bat an eyelid as she immediately says she was just talking to herself out loud, and she AND Aurelia then proceed to have an entire conversation like that. (I hope we see more of Aurelia, she seems sweet.)

So yes, an excellent Bookworm volume, and almost calm and peaceful. Ominous. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. Also, when Rozemyne finally does grow up (signs point to Book 28), she will be absolutely terrifying.

There’s No Way a Side Character Like Me Could Be Popular, Right?, Vol. 3

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By Sekaiichi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Yujinchara no Ore ga Motemakuru Wakenaidaro?” by Overlap. Released in North America by Tentai Books. Translated by Alejandro de Vicente Suárez.

When the first novel in this series first got translated into English, the romcom was still very much a rarity in the market. When the second one was published, the genre was starting to be licensed here, if not yet seen. But it’s been a good 15 months since the 2nd volume came out over here, and since then we’ve had absolutely PILES of cute high school romantic comedies. Indeed, My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In For Me! manages to hit a lot of the exact same plot points as There’s No Way a Side Character Like Me Could Be Popular, Right?, down to the character types. Unfortunately, that also means that I’m a lot less forgiving of said types when they hit on things I don’t like. And this one absolutely does that, as it adds a third romantic love interest to our “side character”, his teacher Makiri-sensei. Should be fine, should be fine, we know how well teacher-student romances go over here. Buckle up, folks.

After the events of the second book, Yuuji now has a fake girlfriend, Touka (who is genuinely in love with him but he doesn’t get it) and a rejected childhood friend Kana (whose love he DOES get, but he rejects her because of what’s going on with Touka). The two of them unfortunately spend the majority of the book sniping at each other in a classic romantic comedy “jealous girls fighting over their boy” way that irritates Yuuji’s friends almost as much as it does the reader. While this is going on, though, he makes a discovery about his teacher, Makiri-sensei. We already know that she’s much kinder than her seeming cold exterior – now we find that she’s an awful drunk, thjat’s she’s very upset about still being a virgin, and that her father is setting her up for an arranged marriage. It feels like a pulled a slot machine and got three lemons. But I really don’t want to make this lemonade.

The book does have some interesting moments, usually when it tries to push against its romcom cliches. Yuuji’s got the face of a thug, but also has had violent incidents in his past, and in this book we get to see his relationship with his father, which is… really, really uncomfortable and also far more interesting than anything else with his teacher. He and his dad are alike in far more ways than either of them are willing to admit, and seeing Yuuji snap and finally air his grievances – so to speak – in that flashback was chilling. It’s then followed up wtih his father also being a secret manga otaku who reads We Never Learn adn is therefore OK with his son banging his teacher, and I’m ready to hit my head against the table again.

I like the dynamic between the two leads in this series. Touka is fine here, and I can feel her frustration. But it was going to take a miracle to get me to like this plot, and the book didn’t even turn water into Sprite, much less wine. Skip this and see if the fourth book gets back to entertaining romcom stuff.

A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 2

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By Yuu Tanaka and Nardack. Released in Japan as “Deokure Tamer no Sono Higurashi” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Yuko C. Shimomoto.

It can often be very tempting to say “please see previous review” rather than trying to find 500+ new words about a series. Oh, there’s nothing particularly bad about this second volume. It continues to manage to make me want to keep reading it despite the fact that it is really just a gaming log of this guy building up his stats and choosing his bonuses. For 350 pages. The fact that I enjoy it is a big point in the author’s favor. And yet… there’s not really a lot to delve into here. Yuto is never really going to have major character development, as this is not that sort of book. He’s in an actual game, rather than trapped in a game or in a fantasy world that looks like a game, so there’s never any worry of bad things happening to him. Heck, it’s a G-rated game, so his two tamed monsters have a child by their magic intermingling, rather than for any more sordid reason. It’s not boring per se, but boring surrounds it like a cloud.

Yuto continues to chug along. He’s now hatched his monster egg, which produces a bear. No, not a normal, realistic bear – a teddy bear. Who Yuto promptly names Bear Bear, because that’s the kind of guy he is. He also meets a few other people, mostly young women (aside from his friendship with elf boy Sawyer, who is attractive and thus forces us to trot out the loathed “I’m straight, though” rejoinder) who assist him in running his farm, not dying from fighting ghosts, or just building him woodworking projects because his tamed animals are so KYUTE! Admittedly, he does still have a bit of negative attention. Not as bad as the first book – permabanning can send a message – but they’re not happy he always seems to be getting cool new things and has some hot babes hanging out with him. That said, he’s more concerned with tea and cookies.

It really does feel as you read this volume that the author is someone who wants to play a very specific kind of game, the one we are seeing in this book, but can’t quite find the one that has all the bells and whistles they want so has decided to just write it as a light novel. It is an ode to the sort of player who actually tries to do the useless quests everyone else avoids, or experiments with combining two completely disparate things into a recipe because why not? It also shows how rewarding this kind of thinking is – though only if you’re original about it, as people who are trying to do the exact same things that Yuto did are finding the game does not crank out the same cool rewards. I will admit I do also like the fact that Yuto is the opposite of a fighter. He’s saved by badass women from certain death twice in this book, and the book ends with a special event literally being created for him because he’s clearly not interested in the martial arts tournament. The devs have their eye on him. (Possibly in a disturbing way.)

Again, if you like Bofuri, you should give this a try. It really does make ‘a +3 boost to strength for 30 minutes’ come alive. (OK, no, it does not do that. But it tries.)