Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Vol. 9

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By Kumanano and 029. Released in Japan by PASH! Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda. Adapted by M.B. Hare.

Well, I did wonder in my last review if Yuna could solve problems by hitting things again soon. More to the point, we’re back at the dark end of this series again. Japanese media in general does not shy away from putting dark things into a show that’s ostensibly for children, as anyone who’s seen the end of the first season of Sailor Moon can tell you. That said, Kuma Bear is clearly written more for light novel adults than it is for kids the same age as the girls in it. As such, it can be very surprising to see things like “please come with me to investigate my master’s torture and murder chamber”. I mean, Non Non Boyori rarely deals with the death of everyone’s entire family, nor does K-On! have a string of child kidnappings. But something about “isekai”, putting something in a fantasy world that is not “modern”, makes the authors want to show us just how dark things can get. We’ve seen it here before. It’s still dissonant.

We wrap up the plot from the previous volume here. The party went well, so our evil noble’s evil grandson decides to solve the problem by having Misa kidnapped, and the kidnapper also punches Fina and Noa in the face while he’s at it. To be fair, evil kid’s dad is also kidnapping children of merchants as blackmail. That said, we really haven’t seen Yuna as mad as she is at the start of this book. She’s so furious that the entire city is terrified of her and her two bears tearing through going after the nobles, and its only Ellelaura that manages to stop her enough that she does not commit murder… something that Yuna, as per usual, only really recognizes and dwells on after the fact. The noble house here is pretty much what Yuna feared after playing so many cliches games and reading all these light novels like … well, like this one. The side stories are 100% serious, dealing with a maid who was blackmailed into working for the noble and her current mental state, which is not great.

After this, we have scenes of Yuna finally getting her ingredients from Wa and making mochi. Because of course we do, it wouldn’t be Kuma Bear without switching from serious to happy on a dime. We get warnings about the dangers of eating too much sugar, and we get piles and piles of stuffed bears given out. (Yuna seems to finally have come to terms with the bear onesie and her bear lifestyle in general.) The second half of the book has the guildmaster’s little sister Luimin come to get them because there’s a crisis at the elf village… a crisis which will presumably wait for Book 10, as the rest of this book is the journey there, which involves a group of adventurers and merchants who appear to be crooked, as well as Yuna showing off that crossing a raging river at high tide is nothing to a girl and her bears.

If you enjoyed the light novels, this will please you just fine. If you enjoyed the anime… be aware they cut the darker bits. And if the mood swings bother you… please just bear with it.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected, Vol. 13

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By Wataru Watari and Ponkan 8. Released in Japan as “Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatte Iru” by Gagaga Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jennifer Ward.

As I mentioned last time, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected is not a love story between the dour cynic Hachiman and the bubbly optimist Yui. You know it. I know it. Heck, even Yui knows it. But the series ends with the 14th book rather than the 13th, so this volume is devoted to giving our third protagonist as much screen time as it can get away with given that Hachiman is still its first person narrator. She’s on the cover, and she’s also helping Hachiman with his plan, which can basically be summed up as “do dumb Hachiman stuff in order to draw all the consequences to him”, only by now everyone’s savvy enough not to fall for it – not to mention it’s pretty half-assed to begin with. She and Hachiman make a very good team. Unfortunately, everything he does in this book is for Yukino’s sake. There’s a technical cliffhanger here, but no one in their right mind would believe it. Poor Yui.

Yui suffers mostly from being a bright-eyed optimist in a world of bitter cynics. This includes Haruno, who can’t even drink herself into oblivion; Hayama, who likens himself to a scratching post and has a streak of self-hatred a mile wide; Shizuka, who’s being transferred to a different school (as frequently happens in Japan) and desperately wants to see her manipulations actually pay off and not be destroyed; and even Iroha, our little agent of chaos, who spends much of this book boggling at Hachiman still trying to throw himself against the wall that is Yukino over and over again. He can’t help her with prom, mostly because of that bullshit co-dependence thing Haruno spewed out (Yui needing this explained to her was a highlight). What he can do is serve as a distraction, and honestly, that’s what most of this book is; it’s tap dancing in front of us trying to wait till the resolution in the 14th volume.

While I’m still irritated with Haruno, I will grant that her muttered aside in front of Hachiman did save the day, as he quickly realized what was going on with Yukino’s mother… well, quickly realized it after she tore apart his plan like tissue paper. The running gag in this book is that Hachiman’s plan is rather half-assed and pathetic, and no one seems to think it’s good enough – not even the business minded president of their neighboring high school, who is as annoying as ever but has also earned the punishment of having a crush on Orimoto, which I would not wish on anyone. As for Yukino, well, mostly absent, except for a few very important scenes. Words still need to be said. They aren’t. They’re implied – we have BUCKETS of implication in this book. But “a man’s pride” is not good enough.

All this and we still have enough time for the best written sibling relationship in light novels. This is a strong volume in the series, despite the fact that it feels like delaying tactics. Can’t get away with that next time.

A Tale of the Secret Saint, Vol. 2

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By Touya and chibi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Sita Daiseijyo ha, Seijyo Dearuko Towohitakakusu” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka. Adapted by Matthew Birkenhauer.

At least I can respect its consistency, as the 2nd volume of Secret Saint has exactly the same flaws as the first volume did. It can be a lot of silly fun, especially when Fia is forced to be the straight ma in the group despite the fact that she is an airhead 100% of the time. This even holds true, mostly, for the fighting scenes when our heroes are battling the most deadly monsters they’ve ever seen before and Fia reacts the same way you would if you spotted a blue tit in your bird book. On the other hand, it does mean that when we get to the more serious stuff involving the pasts of both Fia and Zavilia, it feels out of place. It’s written well, don’t get me wrong, but out of place. Also not helping things is that this book is technically only 130 pages – the other 80 or so are side stories, interludes and bonus stories, meaning we don’t get much of the main plot.

After the events of the first book, it’s clear that Quentin, at least, has figured out who Fia’s tamed familiar really is. Unfortunately, that makes him into goofy airhead #2, as when he’s talking about powerful monsters he gets obsessive and over the top. The knights are going to set out on a mission to try to drive out the black dragon that is presumed to be in the forest and send it back to its lair, thus solving the “why are so many monsters hovering around here lately?” problem. There are two issues with this plan: 1) the reason the powerful monsters are coming around is they’re drawn to Fia; and b) the powerful black dragon is in fact the familiar that she’s putting bows on to make it look cuter. Still, I’m sure nothing will go wrong, even if it means forcing all the soldiers to deny everything they just saw.

While they feel awkwardly out of place, I will admit that the more serious parts of the story are also the most memorable. Zavilia’s past is the Ugly Duckling gone horribly wrong, and its moral is basically “people are assholes even if they’re dragons”. Far more impactful is Zackary, the most sensible of the captains, trying to get Fia to confess who she really is. She almost does, and feels like she can trust him, but when she starts to do so she has a complete panic attack. This is quite well handled, and Zackary does a good job of helping her recover and backing off, but it’s clear that the trauma of her past life is not remotely something she has gotten over, and therefore allies are going to need to either rely on good faith or assume that the world has turned weird.

I’d argue that if you’re looking for fun overpowered dimwitted swordswomen, Reborn to Master the Blade is probably a better choice. This is still pretty good, thogh, I do hope volume 3 gives us a bit less “let’s pad out the book with other people’s POV”.