Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Home Alone

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By Hajime Kamoshida and Keji Mizoguchi. Released in Japan as “Seishun Buta Yarou wa Orusuban Imouto no Yume wo Minai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

The first four books of the series had its main character, Sakuta, helping out a different girl each time who had what he termed “Adolescence Syndrome”, where an inner issue they were suffering from showed itself in an exterior way. Mai was turning invisible, Tomoe was time looping, Rio twinned herself, and Nodoka bodyswapped herself with her sister. Through all this, though, we were also learning of Sakuta’s own past – both his encounter with a high school girl named Shouko (who he rediscovers but not in high school) and his sister, whose reaction to bullying, and his frustration and reaction to her own pain, is what jumpstarted all of this. Now, at last, in this 5th book, we finally get to focus on Kaede. She’s more determined than ever to leave the apartment and go to school, to the point where she has a list of tasks in her diary. Together with Sakuta, can she succeed? Well, yes, but that’s not necessarily a wonderful thing for all involved.

Much of this book is about moving forward and trying to take a next step. For Sakuta that means actually applying himself. Mai, despite her celebrity, is going to college, and Sakuta wants to follow her there a year later. For Kaede, this means a whole lot of things. Just going to school is fraught with tensions, given that whenever she sees someone she doesn’t know, especially someone wearing her school uniform, she has a panic attack. She’s also re-exhibiting signs of her adolescence syndrome, which is definitely not a good thing. (Given that when this happened before, the authorities thought her mother abused her, I worried they might zero in on Sakuta, but thankfully this does not go there.) And there’s another, even larger issue: Kaede, as we discover here, has no memories from before two years ago. Given the way amnesia works, there’s a danger that she might lose herself no matter what the outcome.

There is a large chunk of this book that is very heartwarming. Seeing Kaede’s determination is great, trying to take small steps despite her terror. Sakuta strikes exactly the right notes, knowing when to push and when to retreat. The scenes at the zoo were magical, and brought a smile to your face… which of course makes the last fifth of the book all the more tear-jerking. It’s startling to see not just Kaede but also Sakuta re-develop symptoms from adolescence syndrome, and of course it happens when Mai is out of the city and can’t help him. Fortunately, he has Shouko – the older version – to help him once again. That said, she’s not Mai, and I wish that Mai had been there to talk him out of it. Mai remains the best part of this series. In any case, I’m not sure where Sakuta’s family relationship will go from here, but hopefully his romantic relationships will survive the cliffhanger. They probably will, she’s eminently sensible.

I joked on Twitter that the next two books would be light and fluffy – trust me, I saw the movie reviews, and while I don’t know what’s going to happen I know it’s a tear jerker. But so is this, in its own way, as we take a look at what makes up a person’s identity, and how fragile that can really be.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life: Whiteout

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By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

The second volume in this series picks up right where the first one left off, with Menou and Akari arriving in the Port City Libelle. Akari is here to have a vacation, Menou is here to try to kill her, and makes an attempt, but it fails as the others have. More worryingly, the terrorist organization we saw on the train in the first book has also got a hook into this city, and it appears to actually have the approval of the royal family – or at least the royal princess, who seems somewhat… detached from life. Menou’s not getting any help from the Church – they loathe her. The fight-loving princess finally meets her, but, unsurprisingly, just wants to fight. And Momo is doing her best to help, but things might be a little more difficult than any of them had assumed. Why is one of the four Human Errors out of her fog prison? Why does she know Akari? Even more chillingly, why does she know Menou?

So, first of all a warning: while this is not quite as bad as, say, Roll Over and Die 4, it is a very gore-filled and violent book. Pandæmonium is our villain here, and she’s a little girl who can essentially resurrect herself from her own body and blood – meaning that she can be killed endlessly and literally crawl out of her dead body. This is, needless to say, disquieting, both as a concept and as prose. She’s a classic type – the killer little girl – but that does not make her any less difficult to deal with. Akari’s own subplot is also rather chilling, as we get a lot more time in the head of the original Akari, the one who is not an airhead (though both are in love with Menou – indeed, that’s pretty much the one trait they share). The revelation from Book 1 is gone into further, and I wonder if a happy ending is truly possible for her – or if death is the only solution.

Not that the world has really had a solution to the isekai’d heroes before. We don’t get much more backstory, and a lot of it is filtered through Pandæmonium, who sees everything in terms of a movie, but it’s pretty clear there’s more going on here than just “the four human errors turned evil and were all destroyed”. For one thing, the one who put them down has also vanished from history… maybe. We get hints here and there as we go through this book that Menou’s past is tied to the human errors more than she’s aware of. (She’s also mostly figured out what Akari is doing, so it’s not simply making her ignorant on purpose.) As with the first book, everything ties back to her mentor Flare, who she gets her nickname (Flarette) from. Good news! They may reunite soon! That is the end of the good news.

Apologies for being somewhat oblique, but this is the sort of book that runs on mysteries, and I’m not ALWAYS a giant spoiler factory. If you’re reading this for the yuri, you may be disappointed – it’s there but isn’t a focus. If you’re reading this for lots of cool action, dark mysteries, and a bit of existential horror… OK, more than a bit… then this should serve you quite well. If you got off the Roll Over and Die train after Book 4 caught up to Japan, pick this up.

In the Land of Leadale, Vol. 3

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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.

As we get more and more into this series, I am starting to wonder if it may be more connected to Keina’s life than I had thought. I had assumed that the general horribleness of her life before getting trapped in this “game world” was basically for drama purposes, and indeed we get a flashback to the car accident that saw her permanently on life support and killed her parents here, as well as showing why she’s so much more ludicrously ovepowered than everyone else – she literally had nothing else to do but lie in the hospital and game. That said, the narrative also notes that she’d been ill her entire life, and also offhandledly says her family were somehow involved with Leadale’s production. And we also heard form some other players who got trapped in the game that its shutdown was a huge surprise, and no one could work out why. Things that make you go “Hmmm”. That said, most of this book is not concerned with that at all.

That’s not to say that the book is not concerned with the interweaving of “game world” and this world with real, actual people, as it very much is. Cayna starts to find that old “game events” are seeming to reactivate years later… only now killing all the NPCs is far less easy to shrug off. With the help of two other players, she helps to clear out one of them, but the villages that were wiped out remain very much wiped out, and Cayna ends up adopting the one survivor, a little girl. There’s clearly ominous stuff happening. That said, the other half of the book is pretty much just Cayna being Cayna. She’s creating beer and whiskey, she’s battling dark elves with ease, and she’s basically about 200 levels above everyone else. That said, social interaction is still an issue, especially now that she has to be a mom. Keina did not emotionally mature much in hospital… and it shows in Cayna.

Given we’re seeing a few more gamers who have ended up in this world (and woe betide them if they try to explain “well, see, 200 years ago” to the authorities) we get an answer to a question that was bound to crop up eventually: what about players who gamed as the other gender? Turns out the game did not let you do that… but that did not stop one player, who used an illegal mod to play as a woman. Now she’s in the game, and is having troubles. Fortunately, this book is almost entirely service-free, so the troubles are more “I talk like a brash guy in this body”, something Cayna finds amusing. We also get two more servants that Cayna calls upon (and then keeps around, since it’s unclear what happens to them when unsummoned). They’re a cat butler and cat maid, and they both hate each other a whole lot. Comedy ensues. Sometimes it’s even funny. Mostly, though, the laughs come from Cayna and her ludicrous power.

So yes, this remains a slow life series with a potentially dark, chewy center. I’m enjoying it quite a bit.