Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, Vol. 11

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By Dachima Inaka and Iida Pochi. Released in Japan as “Tsujo Kogeki ga Zentai Kogeki de Ni-kai Kogeki no Okasan wa Suki desu ka?” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Sometimes you need to be careful not to read too much into “this character is overpowered an perfect”, even in a light novel. We’ve spent ten volumes so far watching Mamako and Masato, and honestly it has felt like most of the growth has been on his end. He’s a teenager, after all. That said, the game that we’ve been watching has not been entirely for children to mature and learn to get along better with their mothers, it’s also been showing us some pretty awful mothers. From Wise’s selfish mom to Mehdi’s education mom to Porta’s workaholic mom, each of these mothers has shown us that equal work needs to be done on both ends to repair the relationship. As such, it should not be too much of a surprise that we get to the final volume, which is supposedly about Masato facing off against his father the Demon Lord, only to realize that Mamako has been the real final boss all along.

The reason for the appearance of Masato’s dad (who works for the government) is that the beta is over, and it’s time to stop playing the game and go back to the real world. But first, there are a few hurdles to be overcome. The game ‘resets’ itself somewhat, first by having to get everyone to re-register their roles (fortunately for Masato, no one else really wants to be the Hero); then by erasing the memories of most of the supporting cast, in order to make Masato’s task harder. But he’s matured, something he shows off quite well in the first half of this book. A little too well – not only are Wise and Mehdi disturbed that a Masato who’s not pathetic might actually be… attractive to them, but Mamako is realizing that she’ll soon be unable to be a mom for him 24-7… and she hates that, however much she might pretend otherwise.

So yes, Mamako *is* one of the mom stereotypes we mentioned before. She’s the smothering mom. We’ve seen this throughout the series – the gag is that the game revolves around her and that he’s unable to do anything himself. But slowly, as the books have gone on, he’s managed to take more of a role in deciding what to do and how to solve things. He’s growing up. High school and college are around the corner. And then he’ll move out, marry Wise/Mehdi/whoever (Porta, thankfully, is left in the little sister role), and Mamako won’t have her baby boy around. The finale makes sense in a conceptual way – given the entire game has revolved around Mamako to date, she ends up literally becoming the game writ large… very large. But finally they are able to get through to her, and we end up with an epilogue that has everyone in reality dealing with the Mom game going into wide release.

Ignoring the joke ending that is basically “and the adventure continues…”, this was far more solid than it had any right to be. The series should have ended several volumes ago, but at least it mostly stuck the landing.

In the Land of Leadale, Vol. 4

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By Ceez and Tenmaso. Released in Japan as “Leadale no Daichi nite” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jessica Lange.

Last time I called In the Land of Leadale “a slow life series with a potentially dark, chewy center”, and that definitely applies to this book, though keep in mind the darkness at the center may in fact keep you up at night. For the most part this continues to advance the series’ vague plotline. Cayna is getting better at social interaction (having a child to care for helps), and while she still does ludicrous things, they’ve become more of a spice than the entire book itself. There’s also lots of cuteness and slow life stuff. Unfortunately, there’s also a group of goons who are hired to kidnap the children Cayna is caring for, and they fill the “evil light novel guy” gamut from cheerful sociopath to literal pedophile. Seeing them get their asses handed to them by our favorite catgirl maid is a big highlight of the book. We then get to see their actual fate, which, not gonna lie, was straight up terrifying. I was not expecting pure horror in this series.

Cayna, settling in in the village with her adopted daughter and her butler/maid familiars, realizes that she has not interacted with Mai-Mai as much as her other two children, and also wants to introduce Luca to her. So it’s back to Felskeilo we go, with not only Luca and Roxine but also Lytt, just to make sure Luca has an appropriate companion. Once there, it’s time for the annual festival!… which may not happen, as there’s a mysterious unidentified swimming object in the massive river that goes through the city. Those familiar with previous volumes of Leadale will not be too surprised at what it actually is, but that does not make dealing with it any easier. Add to this that Cayna’s… unusual horseless carriage has drawn the wrong kind of attention, and it’s a wonder that Cayna has any time left over to be ludicrously powerful! But that’s OK. She makes time.

So yeah, I will not get too much into the fate of the horrible mooks, as I’d like to leave it for the reader. It’s scary, though, even if they deserve it. The most interesting part of the book might come near the end, where Cayna starts theorizing about why all of a sudden they’re seeing the reactivation of so many quests. It’s actually quite a clever idea, and manages to hit on another of the things I like about this book – we’re not sure if this is a “trapped in a game” world or not, and the narrative itself is deliberately obfuscating things. The other fun thing about this book is its sweet moments. Cayna’s casual overpoweredness can also lead to relaxed, fun situations, such as the giant fishing party at the end, and the bond she’s developed with not only Luca but also Roxine is great. (Also loved Roxine’s dere moments in this.)

This is the last volume to come out before the anime, and given the state of recent LN adaptations, that’s cause for worry. Still, if you still enjoy slow life OP women and don’t mind a literal demon coming along and turning evil men into things, this is a great series to read.

Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness, Vol. 2

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By Ameko Kaeruda and Sencha. Released in Japan as “Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu ” by GC Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Giuseppe di Martino.

If the first volume of Dragon Daddy Diaries primarily revolved around the castle that is our heroes’ home base, then this volume is definitely set in the school. Indeed, we have to figure out excuses to get the rest of the cast to the school, and so our dragon daddy ends up being a security officer for the grounds, while Maredia and Clowria… well, sort of mooch around, but I suppose we can call them security as well. Basically what all this means is that the plot beats this volume all come from the school, and we don’t want to divide up the cast. It’s because we have a new main cast member, and she’s a welcome addition, even if she does, as Maredia notes, share a few character points with the Dark Queen herself. Luca is a new first year student, and she has a complicated backstory, a chip on her shoulder, and a desperate need for validation.

As for Olivia, she has managed to become a second year student, despite a huge amount of property damage to the school caused by her trying to learn beginner level spell and firing off advanced-level bursts. This means she’s now a sempai, and she tries to befriend her new roommate Luca, something that does not go very well for most of the book. Luca was supposed to be the King’s Student, a spot that Olivia has now taken, and thus Luca spends most of her school days challenging Olivia to various duels… and losing, because Olivia has been trained by a dragon and it shows. (That also comes out in this book, by the way, so everyone at last knows that he’s a dragon.) The other plotline going on is that they are searching for the Seven Supreme Hallows, powerful magical artifacts lost in the mists of time. In order to find them… a beach episode may be necessary.

As with the first volume, this series runs on tropes and sugar, and if you don’t like too much of either of them you may want to give this a miss. What character development there is comes mostly from Luca, though it is worth seeing Maredia manage to slowly emerge from her shut-in persona and begin to once again embrace her chuuni persona. Luca’s growth mostly stems from… parental neglect is the wrong term, but it’s a good lesson in why being too strict can sometimes have negative effects. When you’re never praised no matter how well you do, that bar can seem farther and father away. That said, I was a bit disappointed that the dragon having a chat with Luca’s mother was a speech done offscreen. Possibly as it would have interfered with the syrupy sweet mood. Even when battling an undersea turtle monster, the series doesn’t go much further than “he has a thorn in his paw”. Or in this case an ancient relic in his forehead.

This won’t make you count the days until the next volume comes out, but it’s a great read for a sunny day at the beach.