Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter, Vol. 3

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By Reia and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Koushaku Reijou no Tashinami” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Andria Cheng.

You can try to take the otome game aspect of your book out of the book, but it still might be coming back regardless. As I said back with the first volume, this feels very much like a book that wanted to just be political intrigue, but Villainess stories were blowing up, so this is an easy way to tie it into that fad. But the author has done a good job of tying it in regardless. Iris may have escaped the fate she had in the game, and also escaped being excommunicated in the last volume, but that doesn’t mean that danger is over – not only is the Queen still trying to get rid of her, but even the tiniest issues in her governership turn out to snowball into near-disasters. What’s more, it’s not just her dukedom – we’re getting closer and closer to a throne war, and one that might actually spill out into a real war. Iris is going to have to finally let go of her peaceful Japanese past memories and admit she might have to send people to die for her.

Iris is still in the capital dealing with the fallout from her failed excommunication, which in some ways is good – it allows her to meet Dean’s sister, who is gorgeous and very similar to Iris and totally not the princess in disguise, nope – but in other ways is not so good, as her mood has been dropping the longer they’re there. Back in her own home she feels better, but having been away for so long the work has gotten appallingly backed up. Fortunately, Dean just happens to be free for a bit, so is able to help her with it. Then there’s the problem of Yuri’s castoffs – now that she’s engaged to Edward, the others who were hovering around her are needing to find something else to do with their lives. It’s not going well. Indeed, Yuri may not in fact be the cute young otome game heroine she appears to me…

There is, of course, quite a bit of romance going on here. It is a romance series. Of course, we’re not ready to do anything with it just yet. It is also interesting to contrast Albert’s motivations for doing what he does with Yuri’s. Both are very driven people trying to get past the death of their mother, but one is trying to save the kingdom and the other to destroy it. Yeah, sorry, it’s not that much of a spoiler – Yuri is indeed our real villainess. That said, we start to get at least some movement towards her not being a cartoon. I also really liked the story with Iris’ aides as well – Tanya and Dida may not be a couple just yet, but you get the feeling it’s gonna happen right after Iris and Dean happens. I don’t blame them for ignoring love right now, though – there’s simply no time to relax and de-stress here.

The volumes have been getting better as they go along, which is definitely a good thing. Read it for the politics, but don’t give up on the Villainess plot too much – there’s still a bit of work to do there as well.

The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious, Vol. 7

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By Light Tuchihi and Saori Toyota. Released in Japan as “Kono Yuusha Ga Ore TUEEE Kuse Ni Shinchou Sugiru” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Matt Rutsohn.

And so, after a series that should have ended with the second volume keeps going, and manages to do a three-book arc that mostly justified its continuation, we get the conclusion of this two-book arc where it all falls apart. I’m not sure if I blame the author as much as the publisher. You may have an anime coming out, and a cameo in Isekai Quartet, but that doesn’t mean that a series should continue when it’s run out of things to do with the premise. When that sort of thing happens, you only have two choices: 1) completely break the premise and create a new one with our character, which this series absolutely doesn’t do, or b) snap everything back to the way it was and throw out all your character development. Cautious Hero doesn’t do this either, but it feels like it does. The author tried to write an arc where Seiya is even more verbally and emotionally abusive towards Ristarte, and justifies it towards the end. The trouble is, she’s too well written now for it to be funny anymore.

We pick up right where we left off last time. Seiya takes a somewhat broken Rosalie with him and heads back to the Underworld to train, train, train. He takes her as he thinks she’ll be a good distraction ad meat shield. Naturally, Rista is appalled, and she and Seiya spend most of the book disagreeing about the way he’s going about things. There are “amusing” training motifs. The beings Seiya learns skills with want to see Rista humiliated so they can indulge their fetishes, and as a result she is both molested and also given a tasty potato… that causes her to belch and fart uncontrollably. Ha. More seriously, Rista has noticed that Mash is seemingly possessed by Elulu’s dead spirit, which is telling him to destroy everything… which contrasts with the dead spirit of Elulu *Rista* is seeing, which is begging her to stop Seiya carrying out his plan. Will anyone bother to believe Rista?

There’s one big problem with this comedy right now – and no, it’s not that it’s no longer funny, though that *is* a problem. It’s that the jokes depended on Ristarte being as one-dimensional and annoying as Seiya is. Over the course of the last few books, we’ve seen her discover who her past self was, rekindle a romance that is then immediately lost, rediscover her child and have to watch as they die again, and learn to trust Seiya and not react like a cliched tsukkomi character whenever he does literally anything. She’s a real person now. Seiya isn’t, at least not 90% of the time. And that means when the books are humiliating Rista, it’s not funny, it’s just abusive. The ending shows us Seiya, briefly, expressing remorse at what he did and apologizing to Rista – but it’s a sign of where the two of them are that THIS is what gets the most over the top reaction face of the book from her.

It’s pretty clear that the author did not go further with Seiya here as they plan to do more with it in the next arc. Two problems with that. First, I’m about ready to drop the books here, they’re no longer fun. Second… there are no new volumes. The author started writing the Full Dive series (which also has a recent anime) and has not come back to this one in the last two year. So yeah. If you’ve read the previous six, you may as well read this. But boy, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

She’s the Cutest… But We’re Just Friends!, Vol. 2

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By Akamitsu Awamura and mmu. Released in Japan as “Ore no Onna Tomodachi ga Saikou ni Kawaii” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by airco.

There’s a narrowing of focus in this second volume. In the first book, we got to see a whole lot of Kai and Jun’s peers, classmates, and rivals and see how their “relationship” impacted all of them. For the most part, there’s very little of that in the second volume. Indeed, Reina, my favorite character from the last book, has a much smaller role here, though she certainly makes use of it, seeing what the rest of the cast don’t. But for the most part this volume deals only with three characters: Kai, Jun, and Kotobuki, the girl who confessed to him in the cliffhanger of the last book. I was honestly worried about the addition of Kotobuki after that last book, fearing this would become a “one girl per book” sort of harem series. Fortunately, my worries were unfounded – I’d argue this book is better than the last one, getting into the nitty gritty of friends vs. girlfriends and coming out on the friends side.

Kotobuki has indeed confessed to Kai, and suggests dating in order to get to know each other, an idea that floors him because he’s read too much manga and believes you only date AFTER falling in love The date actually goes pretty well, and they’re a cute couple. Then they coincidentally run into Jun on their date… and she can’t get over how CUTE Kotobuki is! No jealousy on her end at all. The trouble is the other end… Kotobuki had heard that Kai had a friend who came over to play games, but assumed it was, well, a female otaku stereotype. Not a stacked blonde goddess. Feeling a bit desperate and threatened, she decides to up her seduction game… which proves to be EXACTLY the wrong move. Can she and Kai recover from the backlash? And can you have a girlfriend and also have a close female friend who’s even more tactile than your girlfriend?

The most interesting thing about this book is that the drama is almost entirely one-sided. Jun is simply not remotely getting jealous, loves Kotobuki to death, and her reaction to Kai accidentally walking in on her topless is nonexistent. If the series is eventually going to get Kai and Jun together, it’s got a long way to go on Jun’s side. That said, she fills an important role here, as she allows Kai and Kotobuki to recover from their dating mishap and find steadier ground. Kai, like Jun, does not feel mature enough to be in a relationship, something that Kotobuki also realizes about herself during the course of the book. Indeed, the book may be an ad for “just friends”, as the best scenes in it are the ones with no tension or romantic angst, just the three of them hanging out and having fun. (It’s also a giant ad for anime and manga properties, and not just GA Bunko series. The lack of censorship is jaw-dropping.)

Unfortunately, after two quick volumes in February and June of 2020, there has been no more of this series in Japan. I hope we eventually get some closure. In the meantime, this is a good one if you like romcoms with a bit less drama than usual.