Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Crimson Magic Trials

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By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Possibly the funniest part of this book is when Kazuma and Megumin end up getting chased in the woods by one of the villains, and while trying not to spoil too much, said villain’s mission is to destroy all “reajuus with harems”. Leaving aside that the publisher/translator is expecting all KonoSuba readers to know what reajuu means, the idea that this describes Kazuma is, at first, hilarious… until you think about it. Isn’t he actually quite content with his life right now? Doesn’t he have a lot of real-life friends, a fulfilling career, and a cute girlfriend? As well as other girls also in love with him? Slowly but surely, Kazuma has become Kirito and no one noticed. That said, technically this is Yunyun’s book… although, because she is Yunyun, most of her plot is spent offscreen and she’s mostly embarrassed. Still, in the end, she achieves her wildest dreams… sort of. Because maybe the real Yunyun wants the friends she meets along the way.

In the last book, also offscreen, Yunyun had Megumin aid her in taking the Crimson Magic Trials to determine the next chief… and both times Megumin blew everything up. It’s not made clear if this was accidental or on purpose, but Yunyun now has only one chance left, so will NOT be taking Megumin this time. Taking first Darkness (disaster, but passed) then Aqua (disaster, but passed), theoretically Kazuma should be helping with the final trial. However, there is a “mad bomber” running around the area who likes to blow up folks that look Japanese, so Megumin – who is absolutely not jealous or making this all up, nosirree – forbids him from doing it. As Yunyun ends up getting “help” from a supporting character we haven’t seen in years (no, not Dust), Kazuma and Megumin try to solve the Mad Bomber problem and also deal with the fact that they’re both very awkward virgins who are not really ready to have sex yet.

This is not the longest story in the world, even for KonoSuba. Indeed, we essentially start the next book in the final chapter, as everyone returns to Axel to find a new priestess, Serena, who claims to be Kazuma’s “fan” and seems to be better than Aqua at, well, everything. It does allow us to have one last fun time with the biggest village full of dramatic dorks ever. Megumin’s mother is all for her daughter getting it on with Kazuma, who has to repeat Megumin’s age a lot (fourteen) to remind himself why he’s not doing this yet. There is a bedroom scene where they get awfully close, as she offers to help “relieve his tension”, but, needless to say, events ensue that prevent this. As for Yunyun, well, she does end up getting her dream come true, but eventually realizes that “Megumin’s greatest rival” is more important to her now than “chief of the clan”. She also gets the second best joke in the book, when an imprisoned and somewhat humiliated Megumin whines at Yunyun, telling her to “go ahead and laugh”, and Yunyun does just that – and points, too.

Given how this book ended, I expect Aqua will be the featured character for the next volume. We’re getting pretty close to the end here. KonoSuba fans should have a lot of fun.

The Detective Is Already Dead, Vol. 1

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By nigozyu and Umibouzu. Released in Japan as “Tantei wa mou, Shindeiru” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

Sometimes I sabotage myself. I hear vague things about a title, like how acclaimed it is or how the premise sounds cool and does not have anyone be transported to another world, and I get inflated expectations. Let’s face it, I thought this title was going to be a lot more serious than it actually is. The color pages started to clue me in, and by the first scene in the book I was snarking as if this was a new volume of In Another World with My Smartphone. Fortunately, around the halfway mark of the book, the author stops pretending to be another author and buckles down to an actual story and it gets better – the back half easily outstrips the front. I’m saying this right away so that folks won’t abandon the book when it has the heroine reach into the hero’s mouth and say things like “I’ll double-kill you” (something which, I counted, she says three times). This is especially jarring as she’s otherwise nothing like H*tagi S*njogahara at all.

Our hero is Kimihiko, who has a knack of getting involved in sticky situations. Four years ago, on a flight, he met Siesta, a detective who asked him to be her assistant. Sadly, Siesta was killed a year ago (it’s not a spoiler, look, it’s in the title), and now he’s trying to live a normal Japanese high school life. This lasts literally half a page, and then he runs up against a) a young woman with a recent heart transplant, who is looking for something but she isn’t sure what; b) a famous idol singer who needs someone to protect a very expensive and valuable sapphire; and c) Siesta’s OTHER former assistant, who gets along with Kimihiko about as well as oil and water, and who is searching for her legacy. And of course, none of these are actually the main plot, which is that Kimihiko and his friends are being hunted by an evil organization… the same one who killed Siesta.

As I said, this starts badly. The nature of Nagisa’s dilemma is easily discovered, and she loses any sharpness she had in her character after this is discovered. (You could argue this is because of the resolution of her internal dilemma, but it’s not presented that way.) Then it gets better. Yui is a deliberate take on the cutesy teen idol, but she’s hiding several secrets. The back half turns into an action movie, and also really draws out the fantastical elements of the book, which I was also not expecting. Throughout this we get flashbacks to Siesta and Kimihiko working together, and see how close their relationship was. (It also gives Siesta a bit of humanity that she’s somewhat lacking through the rest of the book – note the only times we hear about her being silly are offscreen and in third person from Kimihiko.) The book also ends with a nice “this can now become a series” plot extension.

And indeed it has. If you like action series like Strike the Blood, and don’t mind dialogue that sometimes sounds like it was written for the screen rather than to sound natural (also like Strike the Blood, come to think of it), this is a good, solid read. Just try not to think of Bakemonogatari when you first meet Nagisa.

Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire, Vol. 1

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By Hayaken and Nagu. Released in Japan as “Eiyu-oh, Bu wo Kiwameru tame Tensei su. Soshite, Sekai Saikyou no Minarai Kisi ♀” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mike Langwiser.

You have to find something to latch on to, when you’re reading all these light novels. So many reincarnations, and overpowered swords being wielded, and magic determining your lot in life, etc… all of which this book has in abundance. If your goal in reading a new light novel series is to find something different from what’s come before, keep walking along and try to find something else. But as I said, you look for the little things. Things like our hero, now reincarnated as a rather voluptuous teenage heroine, feeling extremely uncomfortable at walking into a room and getting leered at, something that rarely comes up in these kind of books. (To be fair, there are normal “let me massage your boobs” bath scenes as well, so it could just be a coincidence.) More importantly, though, is that our heroine, Inglis, is… well, a bit of a battle thirsty meathead. No interest in power or money or romance… she wants a good fight. Meathead heroines might keep me reading.

Our hero is a king who united the land and won the day, and is now dying late in his years. A goddess comes to grant him a wish, and he asks to be reborn as simply someone who doesn’t have to worry about ruling or politicking, but can just FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. He gets his wish… but is rather surprised that he’s reborn as a girl. Inglis rapidly grows up to find that things are not really the way they were back in her previous life… indeed, her own kingdom is now forgotten in the mists of time. On the bright side, this means that she can call upon aether and mana that others don’t have a clue about. On the downside, she has a magical blessing of zero, so cannot become a knight. That’s fine, though, She sets out to become a squire to her cousin Rafinha, who can become a knight. After all, Inglis is here for only one thing: honing her blade.

The book has a lot of the sort of things you’ve seen in these sorts of books before. There’s a group of arrogant nobles that abuse the common folks and keep slaves, and the one example of them who’s not that sort is promptly sabotaged. We’ve got to go off to knight training school, which I’ve no doubt will keep the second volume very familiar as well. But I dunno, it was pretty good. Inglis is a nice mixture of an old male king and a young teenage girl, and I was amused that she has a hobby of admiring herself in the mirror – it’s nice to see a hero with actual vanity. Her cousin Rafinha, unlike other books of this sort, is also quite powerful, and together the two of them take out monster and bad guys with ease. If you think that’s boring… well, so does Inglis, and that’s why she’s searching for fights.

So it’s not essential, but it’s good enough. I’ll pick up the next volume.