Since I Was Abandoned After Reincarnating, I Will Cook With My Fluffy Friends: The Figurehead Queen Is Strongest At Her Own Pace, Vol. 2

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By Yu Sakurai and Kasumi Nagi. Released in Japan as “Tenseisaki de Suterareta no de, Mofumofu-tachi to Oryouri Shimasu: Okazari Ouhi wa My Pace ni Saikyou desu” by M Novels F. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Emma Schumacker.

Having spent most of the first book giving us the setup for the series in general, I was surprised at how quickly this second volume maneuvers to ‘slow life cooking novel’. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still political intrigue galore, but for the most part Laetitia is not being attacked herself, and she only has to break out her ‘scary smile’ once. She’s happy and content, and that means she has real smiles now. True, she’s still not managed to figure out the true identity of His Majesty, but that’s not really her fault, and all of the lessons that her brothers pounded into her about anything and everything come in very handy. Indeed, the only time she actually gets upset is when she realizes that she’s starting to lose her Japanese memories – she can no longer recall her own name, and various other things are going as well. This is a one-way isekai street.

The book is essentially a) Laetitia makes food, and b) Laetitia makes peace. We se her trying endless strawberry menu items, as well as inventing sandwiches, which she gives out to all the workers helping build a clearing a dog house… erm, griffin house, as well as to King Glenreed, who is finally learning to enjoy the wonders of food, especially once the queen brings the equivalent of a hotplate so the food hasn’t gotten cold by being tested for poisons before he eats it. Elsewhere, she’s helping Natalie, the disgraced queen candidate from the first book, slowly recover her status and learn how not to behave like a robot. She also meets two more candidates – Kate, a fiery catgirl who is every stereotype you could imagine when I say that, and her scheming sister Sienna, as well as I-Liena, who is savvy, smart, knows when to hold em and when to fold em, and is apparently lying about something, though we may need another book to find out what that is.

Laetitia is, for those who try to avoid this sort of thing, a bit too perfect here, if we’re being honest – but frankly, I think that’s what most readers want to read about. She’s kind to Natalie and Kate, she figures out Sienna’s tricks and helps to take her down, and she even exchanged one word with the mysterious 4th Queen candidate, who shows up in this book but does nothing and then disappears. I suspect her of being final boss material. She also gets to go riding on her griffin at one point, and is the very definition of “living the dream”. That said, she still thinks of herself as a figurehead queen, as does the nation, though I suspect very soon folks are going to guess that the King is starting to fall hard for said figurehead… which will lead to a lot of political fallout.

So yes, if you enjoy slow life cooking, this is a good read; if you enjoy women being polite to each other while scheming, this is also a good read, and if you just like seeing a sweet woman be really sweet to everyone around her who love her in turn, then it’s that as well. All the major angsty drama seems put off for future books – this is a comfy blanket sort of volume.

Oh yes, she invents pizza too.

Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I’m Gonna Tell Her How I Feel!, Vol. 2

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By Rhythm Aida and nauribon. Released in Japan as “Buta Koushaku ni Tensei shita kara, Kondo wa Kimi ni Suki to Iitai” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Zihan Gao.

When one is reincarnated as the villain in one’s favorite anime or manga, of course, the natural desire is to change things so that the appalling fate is avoided. This is how most villainess stories go, and it’s how Piggy Duke goes as well. Slowe knows how this ends for him, and he’s determined to try to a) lose a bit more weight, and b) confess to the girl he loves. Neither of those things really happen in this volume, though it is occasionally remarked that he is a bit slimmer. That said, Slowe seems to be just as prone as other light novel protagonists to not realizing that changing a personal timeline might mean that other things get changed as well… which makes the anime that his past self watched pretty useless. In this case, he already knows that one knight will turn traitor down the road… and is thus rather surprised when it comes early.

After the events of the last book, Slowe’s reputation is… well, mostly the same, as no one can quite believe their ears when they hear it and he’s spent a lot more time being appalling then he has being awesome. That said, the headmaster knows what’s really going on, so calls him and Alicia, his former fiancee, to his office. A bandit group that killed one of Alicia’s relatives is still at large, and Alicia, along with two royal knights, are going to try to put them down. Why is Slowe there? Well, he’s been asked to participate in the selection process of becoming a Guardian Knight… despite the fact that his family and the Church don’t get along. Still, politics being politics, Slowe accepts. Now all he has to do is try to stop Alicia taking a dangerous risk while also seemingly acting lazy and uncaring. And then there’s Charlotte…

Honestly, I’m a bit amazed that Slowe and Charlotte have been able to keep her secret for as long as they have, particularly given that she comes close to spilling it to one of the knights in a drunken conversation. (She and Alicia are likely too young to have been drinking themselves into a stupor, but at least the narrative says that.) This also leads to the change in events from the anime… fortunately, Slowe is stupid powerful, so he takes care of things anyway, but I hope he now realizes he can’t coast on what he thinks is going to happen down the road. As for Alicia, her feelings are super obvious to everyone but Slowe, no matter how much she acts like she’s voiced by Rie Kugimiya. It’s clear as day that she was deeply in love with him as a child, and has never gotten over the feelings of disappointment and betrayal she felt. Well, except now that he’s literally saved her life twice, she’s getting over it. That said, she’s now in a pack of 3, along with the girl he supposedly loves and the busty commoner. (I mention busty because the book can’t go two pages without mentioning her chest, so best work it in on my end as well.)

This continues to be the definition of a solid enjoyable light novel that doesn’t wow but, aside from still fat-shaming as a running theme, doesn’t put too many feet wrong. Fans should enjoy it.

Otherside Picnic, Vol. 5

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By Iori Miyazawa and shirakaba. Released in Japan as “Urasekai Picnic” by Hayakawa Bunko JA. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

This may be the least horror-themed volume to date, with the stories in this book, with the exception of the final one, more focused on either a) the relationship between Sorawo and Toriko, or b) the nature of the Otherside as a world in which it is possible to stay, be it animal or person, and manage to avoid too much weird creepiness. The Otherside does not necessarily have to turn anything and everything into an urban legend or creeping horror… it’s just that is what it seems to do when Sorawo is around. A lot of the Otherside that we’ve seen to date seems to be very focused on her in particular, so it’s interesting to see it when it’s either literally reflecting on the relationship between her and Toriko or just showing a happy old woman and her dog staying at a swank Otherside estate. That said, there are still some scary moments in this book, particularly the final story, where, as the subtitle suggests, our heroines run into an old foe.

We get four stories this time around. In the first, Sorawo is desperately trying to recall what happened the night of a love hotel girls’ party that she and Toriko (and Kozakura, Akari and Natsumi, because Sorawo is a big chicken) were at. Was it really just “I got too drunk and did something stupid?” Or did she put the whammy on her friends with her Eye of Power? The second story, and my favorite, has Sorawo hunt down Toriko, who has been avoiding her after the party, at Toriko’s college. She finds her, but shortly afterwards becomes trapped in interstitial space, and gets a good look at how Toriko sees Sorawo. Then it’s back to the Otherside, where they spot the most terrifying Otherside denizen yet… Sorawo’s self-confidence. Oh yes, and a borzoi. Finally, the two are hired by the wife of the first man they met in the Otherside to find him… never mind the fact that he was there to find her, or that they saw him killed. Who’s the child they’re seeing hiding in a pile of garbage? And why is Hasshaku-sama behind this?

Not to spoil too much, but in the fourth volume we finally had Toriko make it as explicit as possible that she loves Sorawo, and in this 5th volume Sorawo is finally able to say it back, after literally seeing herself through Toriko’s eyes, and also realizing that Toriko is actually a normal, fallible human being and not a flawless goddess of beauty. There’s little of Sorawo’s descriptive Toriko prose here, and she seems to be (well, leaving aside the first story) more accepting of their relationship. She still has a tendency to hate herself as much as humanly possible, and I suspect the relationship is not going to get much further unless she can clear that hurdle, but hey, baby steps. We also get a good look at what the Otherside is like when it’s simply… accepted. Not leaving one spot too much, avoiding dangerous areas, etc. Turns out… it’s pretty nice. The third story was my second favorite, and I wonder if we’ll see the woman and her dog again.

That said, my big question, and the book ends with it being very much up in the air, is what’s up with that kid? (For a while I thought she was literally Sorawo as a child in some sort of time breaking shenanigans, but apparently not?) In any case, there hopefully will be less wait for the 6th volume. If the anime didn’t impress you, try the novels, they’re much better.