Zero Damage Sword Saint: I Enrolled in a Magic School and Wound Up in a Contract with the Demon Queen, Vol. 2

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By Isle Osaki and kodamazon. Released in Japan as “Kougekiryoku Zero kara Hajimeru Kenseitan: Osananajimi no Oujo ni Suterare Mahou Gakuen ni Nyuugakushitara, Maou to Keiyakusuru Koto ni Natta ” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Stephanie Liu.

I’ve talked before about McDonald’s books, and this series absolutely fits the bill. Some people read to stimulate their brain, to be drawn in by compelling plot and rich characterization. And some people just want to see the bland hero who could almost be themselves if they were in this world defeat every monster, get every girl, and have everyone think “gosh, I made fun of him before, but now he’s so awesome, I feel frustrated and humiliated”. This lacks the latter part, which may be why I’m enjoying it more than a lot of those “revenge on my high school classmates” books. Eugene continues to be the least interesting thing about this, but his supporting cast at least keeps me reading, and I’ll take a flyer on another book. The very definition of “It’s OK, I guess”.

We start with a POV from Sara, the student council president and Eugene’s former partner, showing how difficult it is to be a saint candidate, but more importantly how head over heels she is for Eugene. This helps to explain why all of a sudden she’s decided to accompany Eugene on his dungeon quests… because she’s seen how close he’s getting with Sumire, the isekai’d ifrit girl, and doesn’t want her getting too close. Sumire and Sara both regard each other as gorgeous women who could easily seduce anyone they wanted, but sadly this isn’t that kind of book, so rather than having belligerent sexual tension they just get jealous and “grr” a lot. That said, while both Sumire and Sara are very good at helping to get past monsters, in the end the main reason they’re doing so well is that Eugene can use Eri’s dark mana… and a nasty surprise awaits him at Level 100.

There is a good deal of plot involved here. Now that Eugene is accomplishing things and has dropped the “woe is me” attitude from the first book, we are reminded of his lineage, and also the power of working very hard, attack mana or no, so he is clearly a Man Of Destiny ™. There’s also some amusing angel/demon backstory here, as of course Erinyes is fallen, and she has a cute comedic conversation with the angel responsible for monitoring the dungeon battles. That said, the biggest plot advance was in the romantic potential. Last review I said Sumire better hope there’s polyamory in this world or else she’s doomed. Lo and behold… that said, calling it polyamory feels a bit much, given the poly ships we see here run on the women all hating each other but begrudgingly agreeing to share. “Harem” is more apposite right now. Most importantly, though, Eri can’t leave her prison (with an exception or two covered in the book), so when the book ends with Eugene being called home to visit his family, only the two public girlfriends get to accompany him.

Will we get the full backstory of his ex next time? Probably, and I bet she eventually joins the harem. Which I’m hoping gets closer to a polycule, I’d like some of these girls to actually like each other. For fans of light novels who want light, easy, and with a bit of fanservice.

The Tale of a Little Alchemist Blessed by the Spirits, Vol. 1

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By yocco and Junsui. Released in Japan as “Outo no Hazure no Renkinjutsushi: Hazure Shokugyou datta node, Nonbiri Omise Keieishimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Andria McKnight. Adapted by Lex Reno.

Welcome to Scientific Method, the light novel. Hope you like stats! That said, I did enjoy this book a create deal despite the main character using appraisal over and over again to make sure that her creations are perfect. On the face of it, this is a bog standard “atelier” series, which usually involves a young girl starting up her own shop. Indeed, the Japanese subtitle of the series roughly translates as “I got a bad skill, so I’ll open my own shop”, meaning that we also have the ever-trendy “the gods gave you a job and it’s not popular, so you’re useless now”. This one though succeeds partly due to its main character’s utter charm, but also as it does a few things slightly differently to make it stand out from the rest. Notably, and this may come as a huge surprise, our lead is not an orphan! And trust me, this makes “I desperately want to work a 9-5 job at 8 years old” much more acceptable.

This book starts off sounding like it will be dark. The daughter of a baron gets “Maid” as her chosen God Occupation, and this so horrifies her family that they leave her in a hut to get an illness and die. She’s reborn as Daisy, the daughter of a Viscount, and when her God Occupation is “Alchemist” rather than the expected “Mage”, she panics that the same thing is going to happen. But in this world her family all adore her and are ready to do anything to support her, even if it means building her a laboratory and watching as she quietly invents potions that can regrow limbs, defeat any poison, and force confessions. In fact, she’s the Beloved Child of the Spirit King. Oh, and she has appraisal too. Oh, and she can ALSO use magic. That said… she just wants to run a shop, because in the end this is an Atelier series.

One thing I found very interesting is how quickly the “reborn with my memories of my bad old life intact” is abandoned. The old reincarnation basically sees Daisy’s loving family and happy life and goes “well, nothing for me to do here, bye” and goes off to the afterlife, leaving Daisy only with the worry that she may get a bad God Gatcha Roll. Likewise, as I said earlier, it’s amazing how much more tolerable hardworking children wanting to run a business are when they have their parents and actual adults looking over everything, rather than someone just setting up a restaurant and leaving them to run it in exchange for money (or worse, just food) while they go off to be the protagonist. Not naming any names, though they may rhyme with Nile and Runa. Most importantly, Daisy is cute as a button and sweet as pie, which really helps to take your mind off the act that she is, like so many light novel protagonists, OP as hell.

By the end of the book she’s ready to open her shop, which I imagine will take up the bulk of the next book. This is six volumes in total, which seems about right. I’ll definitely read more.

Reforming an Icy Final Boss: Getting Back at the Self-Proclaimed Villainess with the Power of Friendship, Vol. 1

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By Takamedou and Nemusuke. Released in Japan as “”Jishou Akuyaku Reijou” ni Korosareta Last Boss no Yarinaoshi: Bocchi na Reitetsu Koujo wa, Dai Ni no Jinsei de Riajuu wo Mezashimasu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Sheldon Drzka.

Just as a lot of isekai titles lately throw in so many common tropes and themes that they start to rememble an isekai stew, this new series seems to want to use several of the common shoujo plot devices that are popular right now, including villainesses having to fix their reputation, traveling back in time to an earlier period to do so, and an antagonist who is so otome game-pilled that she literally doesn’t care if she talks about the game to the actual inhabitants of this world. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s bad. Stew can be tasty. And for the most part, I found this a fun and delightful book… with a couple of exceptions, which I’ll get to later. Its stoic heroine tries to let tragedies wash over her, and that fails. So why not try to do something else?

Milly Asteara is having a very bad time, though she’s coping with it mostly by reading in the school’s garden. Her father has just been executed for treason, which of course means no one wants anything to do with her. And now this arrogant count’s daughter, Angelina, walks up and talks about how she’s the “villainess” and that Milly is the “final boss”. Worse still, when Milly barely reacts to any of this Angelina proceeds to murder her with a spell. Then suddenly Milly wakes up three years in the past, right before she’s supposed to go to school. She realizes that she has to fix things so that she’s not killed, and decides the best way to do this, since she was so isolated and had no friends or allies, is to open up and make friends and allies. Unfortunately, she’s the most awkward girl out there, and still pretty stoic, but that won’t stop her.

The author say s in the afterward that they added content for the print version of this webnovel, and I was unsurprised to find they’re the parts I found most jarring. At times in this book Milly decides to act like a “Bakarina-style” protagonist for no reason at all, doing things like squatting down in her house and pretending to be a delinquent. It’s annoying, and doesn’t fit with the rest of the book, when she’s just a socially inept quiet girl who also tends to get fired up when someone mentions something that upsets her. Like her late mother, who she loved. Or, y’know, accusing her of murder. There are also a few good plot twists here. Angelina also going back in time and getting frustrated things are not going the same as before was expected, but I did enjoy that there’s another isekai’d person here, just trying to quietly live a better life than the awful one she had in Japan, but sadly she ran into the wrong girl. Fortunately, in this new timeline Milly is nice. Oh yes, and there’s her dad, who everyone hates and who is a terrible person, but who we rapidly realize is just like his daughter, and also smarter than he lets on. I want to see more of him.

Aside from the author trying to add things that didn’t need to be added to, this was quite good. I’ll read the obligatory 1-2 more volumes before it wraps up, as this is a DRE series.