Kokoro Connect: Precious Time

Leave a reply

By Sadanatsu Anda and Shiromizakana. Released in Japan by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Molly Lee.

This final volume of Kokoro Connect, as you might guess by the ‘Time’ subtitle, is a short story collection, with one shorter story and three longer ones. It’s a fitting finale for a serious that has really dragged its cast across razor blades at times, and fortunately is not nearly as stressful as previous books in the main series have been. The series has always been, to a degree, about growing up and moving forward, and this final volume really emphasizes that, with each story hammering the point home. The first three don’t have the main cast as the regulars, although they do get narrative voice at times. Fittingly, the final story is in Iori’s narration, the one member of the CRC not paired up (OK, there’s Uwa and Enjouji, but come on, we all agree it’s just a matter of time, right?) and someone who’s still excellent at putting on a mask to disguise her own pain. Fortunately, there are answers for her here.

The first story is the shortest and the slightest, as the CRC are coming over to Taichi’s house one afternoon, and his sister Rina decides she’s going to interrogate… erm, interview them all to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with them. This is, for the most part, amusing, and of course the real issue is that she feels he’s growing up and leaving her behind. The longest story in the book, Fujishima organizes a giant couples-only battle royale event, mostly to give the third years something “unique” to remember the year by. This is the most CRC-focused of the stories, though it includes the entire school cast, and does finally hook Maiko up with a guy (sorry, fans of her glomping Iori). The third story is the weakest, though its themes are good, as we get an introverted first-year determined to “fit in” at high school but unable to expend any effort to do so, finding a home in the CRC, which just did that the previous year with Uwa. Finally, Iori’s future is laid out for her… so why is she so depressed?

There’s no real drama or conflict in this story, which fits given it’s basically a final “present” from the author to the readers. I did like seeing Gossan as an actual slacker teacher (who still gives good advice when he needs to) rather than the usual “I have been possessed by Heartseed” version we’re used to. Heartseed are blissfully absent from the whole book, as is typical with SS books but also as it’s the final one. Our heroes are getting ready to graduate and move on, and hare making decisions about what to do with their lives. For the most part, they’re good ones (and I do wonder how long Inaba and Taichi are going to wait before getting married – the tsun and dere of Inaba’s personality are perfectly blended here, and it’s a definite highlight). Taichi is not leaving his little sister behind, but the cast is leaving us behond, as they go off to do whatever they want to. (Technically there are fanfics, but alas, very, very few.)

Despite the fact that it seems I spent most of these reviews talking about how angsty and depressing everything was, in the end Kokoro Connect, was a wonderfully solid series with a terrific cast. Kudos once more to the translation by Molly Lee, which really gives you the great sense of a bunch of teenagers having terrific conversations. I’ll miss this a lot.

86 –Eighty-Six–, Vol. 6: Darkest Before the Dawn

1 Reply

By Asato Asato and Shirabii. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert.

In my review of the last volume, I mentioned that my favorite scene was the argument between Shin and Lerche about the nature of being a soldier and why someone should fight. It turns out that that scene is the linchpin on which half of this volume turns, as Shin is having a bit of a nervous breakdown trying to reconcile this argument and his own hatred of the world with his deep-seated desire to show Lena the sea, which of course means actually trying NOT TO DIE. It’s easy to see why he’s having trouble, given his entire life to this point, the conditioning he’s been through due to the war itself, the way others treated him in the Federation, and his own teenage emotions, particularly his growing love for Lena and his terror and self-loathing of the same. Not that Lena is handling things much better herself, but at least she’s moving forward. Fortunately for Shin, the second half of the series gets to be an awesome James Bond battle, complete with active volcano. He’s better at those.

Things are still looking bad for our heroes at the start of the book, despite the cheerful-looking cover. The Legion are still very much in the driver’s seat, and the plans that they think up do not go well at all… until Lena comes up with an idea straight out of the A-Team School of Plans, though there’s also a bit of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress thrown in. After this, what remains is a harsh battle with the Eighty-Six, the Sirins, and the UK troops trying to stop the aerial machine cover killing their lands, take out as much of the Legion as they can, including a Shepherd who seems very familiar to Shin, and achieve what their goal was in the 5th book; capture the Merciless Queen. That’s not going to be easy, especially since the Phonix is back, and it really, really wants to kill Shin.

This book has more than one POV scene from the Merciless Queen, and it’s quiet fascinating, and shows off that they are not merely inhuman robots that just keep coming. The last quarter of the book is dedicated to a balls-to-the-wall battle between Shin and the Phonix inside the volcano, and it reminds you how fantastic the author is at writing action scenes – which bodes well for the upcoming anime, I hope. As for Shin, I think he’s finally turned a corner here, which is good, as he really was starting to get on everyone’s nerves – both the readers and the other characters. How this plays out in the future I’m not sure, but it is nice to see him actually make the effort to meet his grandfather at the end of the volume. On the down side, after seeing Kurena and Anju in the skin-tight plugsuits Lena wore last time, I fear this is definitely the work of the author rather than an editor.

The author promises – again – that the next volume will be a breather and more lighthearted, and the cover seems to bear this out. But war is never too far away from the Eighty-Six, and war is the reason this remains an absolutely riveting series – it’s still horrible, there’s still lots of deaths, and we need to do everything we can to work for peace.

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 8

Leave a reply

By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Marco Godano.

As always with Bakarina, it’s one step forward, two steps back. This volume is perfectly enjoyable, and I had a lot of fun reading it. But as for actual forward plot development, it’s pretty much “the pick of the best of some recently repeated Katarina hits again, Vol. II”, as most of the book has Katarina being incredibly kind and empathetic almost on reflex, followed by a different POV showing the affected person realizing how wonderful she is and far behind her they are in comparison. This is particularly true of Maria and Jeord, who get the bulk of the serious things happening to them… or because of them. Not everyone is as well characterized as I’d like (Mary and Sophia in particular suffer here, with Mary literally getting a nosebleed that forces her to be put to bed because she is thinking of Katarina naked), but if your goal is “pleasant silliness”, this will do nicely.

The subject of this volume is an International Assembly, an event that happens every two years, and this year Sorcie is hosting it. It’s a huge gathering of the higher nobles from many countries. Katarina cannot get out of it. What’s more, everyone is panicked that she will embarrass herself and everyone around her. So it’s time for history lessons, dance lessons, etiquette lessons, most of which she knows but it can’t hurt to be sure, right? That said, as readers know well, the issue is rarely Katarina when she has a prearranged agenda, it’s when she wanders off the agenda. That happens here when she’s caught lying on the grass one day by a dark-skinned young man. They bond very quickly, though Katarina has to pretend she’s a servant. Is *he* a servant? What’s more, why are Maria and Sora at the Assembly and what are they investigating?

There are many interesting things happening here beyond the surface of “Katarina charms everyone, they all love her”. She does gain a new love interest here, but he’s not making any moves while she’s engaged to Jeord, and he’s also from another country. He makes a cool new addition. There’s also a darker plot of slavery and kidnappings going on behind the scenes, leading to Maria almost getting assaulted at one point (Katarina climbs a tree – ruining her ballgown – to stop this) and a cliffhanger which implies a lot more action-packed thriller stuff next time. Perhaps most interesting is Jeord, a character who has not had a fun time of it with Western fandom, despite – indeed, because – being the primary love interest. His reaction to seeing Katarina besmirched, and near homicide he commits, horrifies him, and the fact that Katarina is not really all that appalled by it doesn’t really help matters. Please remember that you can burn people, Prince.

So it’s mostly fluff, but lovable fluff, much like our heroine. Next time might be more serious. Till then, hope you like Katarina making everyone’s life better by being an amazingly dense ball of sunshine.