D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared, Vol. 3

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By KONO Tsuranori and ttl. Released in Japan as “D Genesis: Dungeon ga Dekite 3-nen” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by JCT.

I mentioned before how this story is written by and for nerds, but really, I don’t think I emphasized it enough. Miyoshi is obviously a massive math nerd, and while Keigo tries to present himself as “the everyman”, every time he makes a reference to books that the author has to add a footnote for, his true self shines through. Moreover, the actual author is the same, getting distracted by explaining things like how curry restaurants work or taking a detour to Comiket. This book, the third in the series, seems to be the last of the “setup” volumes, as Book Four promises they’ll finally step into the spotlight. Yet the part of the book that has everyone the most excited is when D-Powers discovers not only that telepathy exists, but is something that ANYONE with a dungeon card can do. The ramifications of this have zero to do with how it will work in the dungeons – instead, it’s National Exams that are the concern. Cheaters!

Kei and Miyoshi continue to experiment in the dungeons, along with occasionally defeating god-tier enemies with Kei’s tricked-out stats. Meanwhile, the government wants a stat-measuring device, which would be able to quantify the strength of explorers and thus prevent accidental deaths in the dungeon… but further divides the haves and have-nots, making D-Powers worry about a class war. There’s the telepathy, which I mentioned above, and which manages to panic almost everyone. There’s the fact that they’ve released the translation of the dungeon inscriptions for free online, which has America and Russia a bit grumpy. Heck, even Keigo training his actress/model pair is causing them to attract the wrong kind of attention. If they were trying to deliberately cause as much chaos as they could, they still might not have done as well as this.

This can occasionally get a bit dark, but it’s always in a vaguely amusing way. Miyoshi’s treatment of the entertainment guy sent to spy on Saito verges on cruel… OK, no, it *is* cruel, as she tries to deliberately drive him a bit mad in order to scare him off of trying to go near them again. And there’s Asha, who returns to Japan to hang out with her crush and his partner, and ends up getting addicted to BL and asking her baffled father what “topping all the bottoms in an all-out attack” means. Actually, I said BL there, but there’s even a discussion of the sort of doujinshi she’s buying – it’s made clear it’s porn, “yaoi”, rather than the milder BL that is seen in bookstores. As I said, nerds. I will admit there is slightly less food and drink in this volume, but that’s only a matter of degree. But by the end of it we get a minor cliffhanger that seems to imply that D-Powers are going to have to be slightly less anonymous to survive. The government is putting pressure on again.

If you saw “dungeon title” and backed away slowly, rest assured that this series does still have OP fights and a harem that the male lead is oblivious to. It justifies its stats, though. Recommended for the converted.

The Tiny Witch from the Deep Woods, Vol. 2

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By Yanagi and Yoh Hihara. Released in Japan as “Mori no Hashikko no Chibi Majo-san” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Nathan Macklem.

Last time I was wondering if this would turn out to be a disgraced noble book in disguise, or a slow life book, or a mystery, and it leaned more on the mystery at the end. This second volume is, till the nasty cliffhanger, a far more relaxed affair. Misha has moved to another kingdom, and for the most part, gets treated like a savior. She responds to this well, by… well, if there is a problem with this kingdom, she is going to solve it, as she takes on princesses with poor health, herb gardens with weak effects, and secret royalty who are kind of tsundere. (She may have more difficulty in the third book – see aforementioned nasty cliffhanger.) But after the trauma of the first book, and while she’s still dealing with her mother’s death, with affects her throughout, this book is all about making Misha happy and content. Everyone loves her.

Misha and her entourage finally arrive at the Kingdom of Redford’s palace, where she greets its king, who was not expected to be king but became one after a combination of a plague – which no one ever really figured out – and various countries trying to take advantage of all the death. He’s a young man who affects a sunny, pleasant personality but is not above using people for his own ends – though he knows before he even meets her that Misha needs to be handled with kid gloves. She makes a great first impression, as it turns out that medicine in this kingdom is not all that great – the idea of a stethoscope astonishes them. That said, can she win over tougher customers, like the King’s sister, who has been ill for most of her life – wait, is she still ill? Are we sure she’s not just spoiled?

I will note that folks who are somewhat tired of the sunshine girl arriving in a new community and magically healing everyone through a combination of niceness and gumption may find this book hard going, as it leans into that cliche pretty hard. Misha does arrive with her elf – sorry, person of the forest – mentor, but she quickly goes away to do other stuff, mostly leaving Misha on her own. The kingdom does its level best to make her happy – sure, you can stay in the gardener’s shed out back instead of our lovely palace, just try not to pay attention to how expensive your “simple” furniture is. I also enjoyed the scenes with Caro, who is suffering from a classic case of child with too many expectations, and finds Misha treating him like the kid he is – complete with the standard “let’s play around with the poor commoner children” scene – a breath of fresh air.

So the first book was somewhat fraught and tragic, and this book was mostly relaxing and happy. There is that cliffhanger, though, and I’m pretty sure the third volume will swing things the other way. For fans of cute girls doing cute medical things.

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: The Celestial Spear, Successor to the Star

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

Aside from the incredibly complicated plot, and the “who will Allen end up with” parts, for the most part this series’ most interesting subplot has been “when will everyone finally succeed at making Allen into a noble?”. Admittedly, one of the biggest obstacles to pulling this off has been Allen himself, whose genuine low self-esteem is matched only by his crafty ability to try to escape getting credit for things. Because he has experienced what people think of the beast tribe, and also what people think of him personally. Man, a lot of people just hate Allen on site, don’t they? Allen tends to be famous for a few things: 1) being the one who made Lydia who she is today (and is now doing the same with Tina); 2) Allen solving every single major incident of the last year or so; and 3) Allen having a very small amount of mana. That last one, possibly even more than his bloodline or lack thereof, is what leads folks to be absolutely furious at him. And in this book, that proves fatal.

Despite the aftermath of the previous volume, the aforementioned fatalities, and a really big fight near the end, for the most part this is the relaxing volume I had hoped for. The entire cast ,minus Ellie (who gets a scene showing how far she’s come but you still sense the author doesn’t know what to do with her) and Cheryl (back being a princess) are headed to the Yustinian capital, there to meet an Alice who is increasingly getting unable to perform her hero-ly duties (and trying to hide it) and her brother Igna, who has a bad case of jealousy and envy, and it’s all pointed at Allen. Also coming along is Lily, and we get a lovely flashback showing how they first met, and giving a little more insight into Lily’s desire to be a maid (which, I remind you, in this world is basically “assassin/spy/soldier who serves tea”). Oh yes, and the Emperor wants to see Allen and Caren, commoners or no. That might be hard.

I was actually faked out by one scene in here showing Lydia, Stella and Alice all agreeing to something after looking through ancient laws no one uses anymore. A lot of folks have been divided into camps in terms of “which girl will win”, and we know which camp I’m in. I had assumed this was some sort of polygamy thing, and was surprised Lydia went along. But in fact it’s nothing of the sort. If Allen can’t get a title or a noble house in his own country, well, let’s give him one from a different country. He really can’t weasel out of this, though he tries. It’s not helped that his sister is over the moon about it (and we’re also reminded how much she’s done to save the world – really everyone in Allen’s generation is a superhero. Caren knows that an Allen with a title is an Allen who will get the recognition he deserves. Though she may be less wild about Allen needing to get married, which I think may also be an issue.

And bad news to fans of the books: if you’ve seen the anime running this summer, you now have to preface recommending them with “It’s better than that, I promise”. Still, readers of Book 16 will definitely enjoy Book 17.