The Reincarnated Prince and the Haloed Sage

Leave a reply

By Nobiru Kusunoki and Arico. Released in Japan as “Herscherik” by M Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Adam Seacord.

This does not fall into the “Villainess Otome” genre of books – for one thing, Prince Herscherik is absolutely not a villain. Nor is it a game at all, but a real, very messy world that he lives in. But there are certainly otome game elements in the books, and it really has to be said that Herscherik, although male in this universe, is building up quite the reverse harem for himself. In the first book it was the dark assassin, in the second it was the fallen knight. And here, as the title might suggest, it’s the broken mage, a young man who is so beautiful that he’s always mistaken for a woman, and who is inextricably bound to the Church. Now, there is also another tortured soul to be saved in this book. Alas, she’s an assassin when we already have one of those, AND she’s a woman in what is becoming, as I said, a reverse harem. Since she’s not the Haloed Sage, it is not hard to see where her arc is going.

It’s been a few months after the last book, and Herscherik is going to be turning seven soon. Clearly it’s time to marry him off. Or so thinks the evil Grand Vizier… erm, Marquis, who has decided to try to beat that pesky youngest prince by having Hersch marry his daughter Violetta. He also has an older daughter, Jeanne, who basically acts as Violetta’s bodyguard and minder, but she has… a different job she’s doing for him. Surprisingly, the engagement goes fairly well – Hersch is simply incapable of being mean to people who don’t deserve it, and Violetta falls for him hard. He also has to deal with the aforementioned beautiful mage, who he names Shiro (to with with Kuro), who is rather startled that Hersch is not terrified by his magic. (Hersch, who can’t do magic, just thinks he’s cool.) And oh yes, there are still assassination attempts. Will Hersch be able to avoid tragedy? Well, yes but also no.

In this book we finally meet the rest of Hersch’s immediate siblings, and I love the fact that they are all basically on the same page as he is, even though they’re trying to protect him just as he’s trying to protect them. It leads to a lack of communication between the sides, but also shows off that while the royals are dealing with a weak king who is being tortured by his evil Marquis, they’re overall good people who are trying to fix this. The triplets were particularly fun, though I’m not sure having one of the brothers being a tsundere sort really works out. I also loved the part that shows us Ryoko’s life if she had not been run over by a car, which shows off a) how she tended to be overly self-effacing and modest even back in Japan, and also b) she’s very clever at spotting traps.

The book in general is excellent, with occasional suggestions of future events a la Legend of Galactic Heroes. For the moment, however, things are not looking good for Herscerik and his family, and I suspect the fourth book will rapidly reach a crisis point. Till then, absolutely recommended for J-Novel Heart or reincarnation isekai fans.

Outbreak Company, Vol. 16

Leave a reply

By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha Light Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

I accidentally typed “Outbreak Company, Vol. 167” while putting in the title of the review, and while that’s a typo, it also feels too real. The series is not really doing anything wrong at this point – indeed, I am grateful that Shinichi talks about boobs less in this book than in any of the previous ones – but it still feels like something that has gone on for far too long. I suspect the author knows that as well – he says he’s going to try to end the series with the 17th volume, though we already know he had to make it 18. He’s also doing his best to wrap up as much as he can – the war between Eldant and Bahairam, the rapidly melting down nuclear reactor form the last volume, and of course the question of who Shinichi will end up with – if he can end up with ANYONE, given this is his own far future. But most importantly for the future of the series, Japan is pulling out of Eldant once and for all, and probably taking everyone with them.

Petralka’s on the cover, but don’t expect much from her – much as she would like to go help with the meltdown, she’s the ruler and can’t leave. As for said meltdown, it’s complicated by several things. Bahairam is sending in troops to kill everyone, even though their own forces don’t seem to be particularly united. Only a human has the access to shut down the reactor, and it needs to be a human who’s been in the powered suit we’ve seen for the last few volumes, which leaves out Minori. Oh yes, and Myusel is not only taken hostage by the bag guys, but after escaping that falls into the Earth’s crust. She’s reaching Doctor Who companion levels. Fortunately, Shinichi and Minori are given a secret weapon to resolve most of this: the power to live out their wildest otaku fantasies.

I won’t spoil what they actually do, as it’s probably the comedy highlight of the book. I will note that Shinichi is not having the best of days. Leaving aside the whole ‘nuclear reactor melting down’ thing, and the fact that he is once again the only person with no powers in the middle of a war zone, there’s the fact that I think he’s subconsciously made up his mind about who the girl he loves is. I’m not sure if the book will end with them together – certainly there’s a couple of things that happen here that suggest it would be difficult – but yeah, it’s not going to be anyone other than Myusel at this point. (Speaking of which, the discussion Shinichi has with her about death flags may be the other comedy highlight.) Things are temporarily resolved here, but I suspect things may get very sticky – and political – in the next book.

With only two volumes to go after this, you may as well keep reading. It’s actually a decent volume in the series. But I’m more weary than anything else.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 3

Leave a reply

By Riku Misora and Sacraneco. Released in Japan as “Choujin Koukousei-tachi wa Isekai demo Yoyuu de Ikinuku you desu!” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

I’m not even sure where to begin. It’s sad that this is a book where our heroes literally fire a nuclear weapon that destroys a stronghold, and yet that isn’t even close to the most appalling thing that happens in it. I am familiar with the light novel cliche where, in order to show that your morally vague heroes are on the side of goodness and niceness, you need to show that the bad guys are evil, raping the virgins and biting the heads off kittens sort of guys so that the audience says “they had it coming” to any punishment they may get. I had thought dropping In Another World with My Smartphone would mean I might see the end of that. And yet here we are. For now, I will merely content myself with saying lobotomies are bad, were historically mostly done on women, and please do not use them as what amounts to a comedy punchline – even if I grant you the author does not want us to find it funny.

Keine’s on the cover, and also gets the biggest fanservice in the book. The plot of this volume mostly involves gearing up for the next steps – trying to get a republic started. Tsukasa does not want him and his geniuses to stay here forever, of course, and knows that a democracy band-aid is not going to cut it. And “the nobles rule, we just serve” is pretty ingrained into the people. More troubling is that they’re running out of penicillin (which Keine and Lyrule take care of, inventing sulfa drugs) and the other nations are starting to want to stop this before it goes too far. And let’s not even get into the fact that the supposed saviors the Blue Brigade are actually mostly bad guys. It’s getting so that he can’t even go out on a note date with the girl who’s crushing on him!

So yes, I could have done without the entire Keine chapter, which seems to simply show off that she’s a sociopath. And, as I noted, we get not one but TWO sets of villains who talk about raping young women. The best chapter in the book, hands down, was Ringo’s date with Tsukasa, and its general tone of “you are already losing to the girl who got the cover of Volume 1, do something or you will not be able to catch up”. The date went well considering Ringo’s extreme introversion (we also learn about her past, which is sort of what I expected) and Tsukasa’s deliberate obliviousness. She also gets the emotional climax, where it’s her turn to remind Tsukasa that he is in fact a real human being who is allowed to feel things, and this time it’s Lyrule who’s on the outside looking in.

That said, in a series about establishing a new political landscape and finding ways to defeat bad guys who seem to be unkillable, the fact that I’m focusing on the love triangle is not a good sign. The High School Prodigies may be having it easy, but they’re giving me trouble.