My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “Why Can’t We Move On?”

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By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

This may come as a shocking surprise to regular readers of this blog, but I am no longer a teenager. This can sometimes be difficult when you are reviewing books whose primary audience is either teens or those who were just teens a year or two ago. Things that make total sense to you when you are the same age as the main character tend to make you scratch your head or yell at the main character later in life. Fortunately, I think this series is designed so that even those the same age as the characters will be yelling at them. Two awkward teens who break up due to poor communication skills are forced to realize that they’re perfect for each other, but are too stubborn to admit it. What that means in practice is that, under a veneer of caustic sniping and bitter inner monologues, this is one of those “cute kids flirt” romance titles.

Mizuto, a bookish young man, and Yume, a nerdy and shy girl, become a couple and start to date in middle school. Sadly, due to the aforementioned lack of good communication, they also break up about a year later. They managed to keep the relationship a secret from their parents… which might be a bad thing, as now his dad has married her mom, and they’re family! For the sake of the parents (who are barely in this book, to be honest), the two try to put on a public face of getting along, but when alone they’re sarcastic, bitter and constantly sniping at each other. He has a tendency to default to “jerk”. She’s a bit of a mess. Despite this, both of them still do have the characteristics that made them attractive to each other. He’s really caring and kind of hot when he bothers to try. She’s grown up to be gorgeous and is making a big effort to be more outgoing. Dammit… this is terrible!

I will note that I was super relieved when I saw the POV switch to Yume after the first chapter, because this is the sort of story that absolutely would not work if it was told from only one side. The chapters alternate between Mizuto’s grumpy loner guy and Yume’s freaking out internally girl, and it helps to make it more understandable why things went south, and also how easy it would be to fix if they weren’t both really stubborn. Which they are, this is like seven volumes in Japan and has just had an anime announced, so resolution is not forthcoming. There was a rather annoying plot point about 3/4 of the way into the book, where Yume’s new friend in high school is implied to be a dangerous stalker sort, and wants to marry Mizuto so she can be around Yume. I was fine with the plot when reading it as I assumed this was total bullshit that said friend cooked up as a plan to get our leads closer together… then it turned out to be true. Bleah.

That said, overall this was pretty cute. If you like cute teenage romance with a side order of bitching at each other, this is probably one you should pick up.

High School DxD: Holy Behind the Gymnasium

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By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

I think the author just enjoys suckering people in. For most of the sixth volume of High School DxD, the series is at its default level of horny, which is to say: high, but not beyond all human reason. Sure, there are cosplay battles to see who can turn Issei on the most. Sure, there’s the endless amounts of breast comparison shopping he seems to do as easily as breathing. And yes, I probably should have guessed what was going to happen when we got to the television interview and it didn’t show Issei at all. Still, no amount of preparation could have prepared me for: the theme song. As with the previous volume’s “I can talk to enemy breasts and get them to divulge secrets”, it goes above and beyond in making you wonder what the hell the author is thinking. I have to assume that the author thinks that all this is necessary as otherwise it’s a generic shonen battle manga. Which is a shame as the battles are absolutely fine.

The start of this novel is sparked by two things: Irina returns and transfers into the school, now a full-blown angel but seemingly exactly the same as she’s always been. The other is the upcoming sports festival, where Issei and Asia have to run the three-legged race together. This is difficult, as they’re overly conscious of each other’s bodies, and also because the demon who Asia healed at the start of the series is back, and he wants Asia for himself. The answer is a Rating Game, which is a bit of a surprise so soon after the last one. Unfortunately, that’s far from the only surprise, and our heroes end up fighting against a horde of demon mooks in order to save Asia from a hideous fate at the hands of a demon who turns out to be even worse than we thought – and we already hated him.

I will admit, much as this is Asia’s book, she is mostly a straight up damsel in distress here, though I did like her slapping Diodora for insulting Issei. Unfortunately, she’s still in ‘meek healer’ mode, so her role in this book is to get kidnapped and threatened with rape. This made me grumpy. Other than that, it’s a perfectly good book in regards to the standards of High School DxD, which bear no resemblance to other light novel standards. Issei gets to be cool a few times, and has started to think on his feet much better. The solution for getting Akeno to one-shot kill all the bad guys was hilarious. The theme song, jaw-dropping though it was, was also pretty funny, I will grant you. I have to hand it to High School DxD, it does not do anything in half measures. It is here to talk about tits and it will talk about them until it is blue in the face.

This is apparently the end of the second “arc” of the series, and does include several tantalizing setups for later events. Overall, it was decent. For a value of decent that is a High School DxD book.

The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?), Vol. 8

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By Toru Taba and Falmaro. Released in Japan as “Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu ~Sou da, Baikoku Shiyou~” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jessica Lange.

You get the sense that towards the end of this series, whenever it does end (the 11th volume is out in Japan), it’s going to involve a Big East vs. West battle, with Natra in the middle of it. In a way, that’s what we’ve been getting for a while in a political way – both the Empire (and particularly Lowellmina) and the West’s religious Alliance (with Caldmellia trying to use Wein for her own amusement and to make him suffer). And, fair to Caldmellia, we almost get that here as well. We get Wein accused of murder – again – and needing to clear his name, we get one of the West’s nations invading the merchant city on the border, which comes as quite a surprise to its own leader; and we get introduced to the Holy King Silverio, who at first looks to just be a propr being held up so that the real villain can work behind the scenes, but in reality is… well, terrifying. Can Wein think his way out of this?

We also, though it’s more of a teaser for later books, get a better look at the Flahm. They’ve always been an odd combination of albinos, black slaves and Japanese burakumin, but here we see that they’re not a united front, as several in their faction feel they need as many positions of power as they can get to prevent the tide turning against them again. The other viewpoint, which includes Ninym, is that they should fill positions with their best people more than just warm bodies, and in any case she has no interest in regaining their old kingdom but wants to do what’s best for Natra. There’s also a really sweet moment when, after seeing wein asleep in their carriage on the way to the conference, she kneels down and snuggles up against him. This is also pretty bittersweet as well – Ninym does not feel she can ever explicitly show her love as it can’t ever happen. I hope we can find a way to fix that.

We also get to have my other favorite character, Falanya, come along to the conference this time around, mostly to continue to make valuable connections. I suspect the biggest will be her meeting Felite – it does get a color page, after all – but it’s also interesting to see the back and forth between her and her adviser, the “formerly evil” Sirgis. He’s being genuinely helpful and showing her how to be more politically savvy (yes, memorizing all those faces and names really is important), but he also wants revenge on Wein, and a throne war is the way that he’s going to try to get it. Falanya says that if he tries to turn her against her brother she’ll cut him loose, but I have a suspicion she’s going to find that a lot harder to do than she thinks. We’ve been setting up brother vs. sister since Book 4, and I can’t wait.

So another solid book in the series, which currently has an anime racing through its first books at a very rapid pace. It won’t get to this one this season, but perhaps if it gets another…