The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, Vol. 1

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By Saekisan and Hanekoto. Released in Japan as “Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsu no Ma ni ka Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

It couldn’t last forever, even though it seemed like it would. After a few years of the trend being “light novels will only get licensed if they have some sort of fantasy or gaming element”, we are finally starting to see a few series being licensed that are old school high school romances. Credit to this no doubt can be given to the one-two punch of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected (which has had three seasons of anime) and Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (whose anime is forthcoming), which has helped to open the door to other series whose premise is not “I ended up in another world with superpowers and a bunch of girls who fall in love with me because I am nice to them.” Well, OK, this is MOSTLY not that. The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten may not be an isekai, and our protagonist doesn’t have a sword, but it’s still a classic male fantasy.

Amane is a well-off kid living on his own in a big apartment, but he’s got classic teenage boy problems. His skin is pallid from not eating healthy, he’s a complete slob, and he’s somewhat unsociable, at least compared to his friend Itsuki. Then one day he comes across the class “angel” sitting in a park in the rain. She’s gorgeous, smart, athletic, etc. He’s not sure why she’s sitting getting soaked and looking depressed, but he gives her his umbrella. And then he promptly gets a terrible cold. Fortunately for him, not only does Mahiru live right next door to him, but she wants to thank him for the umbrella, so she makes him some nice porridge. And forces him to clean his apartment. And begins to cook for him every day. They’re not a couple, but… isn’t she just spoiling him?

This is a well-written book, and the characters are likeable. If there’s one big negative it’s the actual premise – it is right upfront about “seeming loser guy gets waited on by his amazingly beautiful high school classmate and neighbor” being the plot going forward, and it can be a bit much. This being a standard Japanese romcom, Amane doesn’t take advantage of this, and in fact is perfectly happy to tell himself he’s not falling in love with her, even though we can see that isn’t true. Likewise, Mahiru slowly warms up to him, showing off her natural personality rather than the “good girl” she perfects at school. It’s implied her relationship with her parents is poor, but he doesn’t pry. Actually, I take that back, this isn’t a romcom. While there are funny moments, for the most part it’s a plain serious romance, with two awkward introverts slowly realizing that they’re basically living like a married couple half the time.

By the end of the first volume they’re still just good friends, but that’s to be expected. It’s also very much a ‘small world’ here – the only characters in the book are the two leads, Amane’s overbearing mother, Amane’s friend Itsuki, and Itsuki’s girlfriend Chitose, who is outgoing, loud and bubbly and therefore quite jarring compared to our Angel. If you can get over its premise, this is a quiet, easy read.

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement, Vol. 2

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By FUNA and Touzai. Released in Japan by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by Sol Press. Translated by Lukas Ruplys.

When I reviewed the first volume of this light novel… 19 months ago… I remarked that it was relatively mild in terms of the eccentricities of its author, FUNA, and their other works, I Shall Survive Using Potions! and Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average!. I regret that now. This, the second novel in the 80,000 Gold books, is absolutely bananas. Mile and Kaoru wish they were this overpowered. Our heroine stops a war using modern artillery, gains a domain of her own to rule, and sets about ruling it, all the while flitting back and forth between this fantasy world and modern-day Japan. Can she keep it a secret? LOL. Not at all, and by the end of the book dragons are now “real” and Mitsuha is telling readers about the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. The good news is that the book remains a lot of fun provided you don’t believe in gritty realism, and Mitsuha has toned down her fourth-wall breaking tendencies… somewhat… so is a far more tolerable narrator.

When we last saw Mitsuha she was running her little shop that sells shampoo and other luxury items. But that’s more a job for the heroine of her other book; Mitsuha has bigger things to do, even if she really doesn’t want to. She befriends the princess, who is a cutie and also loves to escape her guards, and from there the king. This means that she’s also called in when the country goes to war, and after an assassination attempt wounds her and mortally wounds Alexis, Mitsuha decides to stop holding back and calls out her friendly mercenary friends to destroy the enemy army (with has orcs, ogres, and teenage dragons) with modern-day tanks and rocket launchers. Her reward for all this is becoming a viscountess and gaining her own territory, which she spends most of the rest of the book sprucing up. And if that means bringing in experts from Japan to help her with the harder stuff… and indeed just selling the rights to the world in auction… well, that’s how Mitsuha rolls.

In the first book there was a great scene where Mitsuha, talking with her “newly adopted” family, suddenly remembers her dead parents and starts to cry without realizing it. There’s a similar scene here, after Mitsuha is shot with a crossbow and Alexis ends up taking several other crossbow bolts to defend her, where she just has a complete freakout. The author is good at this sort of scene (Potions has also used them), and it helps to un-smug Mitsuha, which is occasionally needed because most of the time she is pretty smug. I was rather startled at how fast her “I can travel to a fantasy world and back” thing became public, though at least she’s managed to hide that it’s “Mitsuha Yamano” who is doing thing. (This also leads to the funniest joke in the book, where the merc squad nicknames her Nanoha, because there’s no kill like overkill.) In between these parts there’s a lot of ‘building my little fiefdom’ sections, which are not as exciting but are fun for those who like Realist Hero and its ilk.

The other good news is between the first volume and this one, Sol Press learned to format digital books properly. As a result, there are no issues with the interstitial art and everything looks fine. As for the book itself, again, if overpowered – LUDICROUSLY overpowered – heroines annoy you, stay well away. But I found it relaxing, goofy fun, despite the very high body count. Mitsuha may be nicknamed Nanoha, but she’s not “befriending” her enemies.

Slayers: The Ghosts of Sairaag

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By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

Like virtually every English-speaking fan, I was exposed to Slayers via the anime long before Tokyopop put out the novels way back when, and also long long before J-Novel Club rescued them. This means that more than anything else, I am surprised at how short and plot-heavy these books are, having absolutely no time for anything that would count as a breather. The author’s afterword in this book talks about the fact that he frequently sketches out hints of backstory that he then never gets into, because doing so would “make the world smaller”. Which is a very fantasy author way of thinking, I suppose, but it also means that character development and depth take a backseat. No one suffers more from that here than Sylphiel, the newly introduced priestess, who gets to be nice, have a seeming crush on Gourry, and that’s about it. Now, to be fair, that’s all she was in the anime too, but at least it took 8-9 episodes to show us that.

The book starts badly, in misogynist fantasy “of Gor” territory, with Lina and Gourry captured by some goons who decide to rape her, and Gourry convincing them not to by implying Lina has syphilis. It’s meant to be funny, but isn’t. It turns out that EVERYONE is after them lately, as there’s a wanted poster with their faces, as well as Zelgadis, on it… and the bounty for their capture is being paid by Rezo the Red Priest. Which is a surprise to Lina, who killed him in the first book. Getting of the bottom of things takes them to the woods outside Sairaag, a city that was destroyed in the legendary past but has now recovered and is a bustling metropolis. They meet up with Lantz (remember Lantz? From Book 2?) and a bounty hunter named Eris, as well as Sylphiel, who Gourry had met previously in an adventure that is frustratingly never explained to us. Can they escape the Red Priest again? And is this really him?

There are some strengths here. Sometimes the humor does work – there’s a wonderful part where Lina and Gourry fend off a fishman by simply changing their clothes, as Lina says they can’t tell humans apart… then she fails to recognize Lantz because he now has a beard. Rezo – if that is who this really is – makes a suitably creepy villain, especially at the end, and the artwork showing him off is horrifying. And the reveal of another villain is pretty well handled and surprising. Unfortunately, the book’s shortness as well as its deliberate avoidance of depth means that other things meant to be tragic and horrifying just aren’t. Our heroes never enter Sairaag or see anyone in it, so its destruction – again – lacks any impact, especially as Sylphiel recovers pretty fast from the loss of everything she’s ever known. It desperately needs fleshing out, something that anime actually did… well, not much, but at least they actually go to the city!

Basically, more modern fantasies have spoiled me for character depth, and Slayers can sometimes seem lacking as a result. This is the danger of iconic series who have been imitated a bit too much. In the meantime, for those anime viewers wondering where Amelia was during all this, well, the anime swapped book 4 and 3. Which means next time we get to see both Amelia AND Phil, something that makes me happy no matter how short and outline-ish the book ends up being.