The Eminence in Shadow, Vol. 2

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By Daisuke Aizawa and Touzai. Released in Japan as “Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

I may have to eat my words again. Last time I said this is the sort of story that could only work as a comedy. But in this second volume, I’m finding that I’m more interested in the actual conspiracies and backstory than I am in Cid being goofy chuuni guy. I will admit this book is not as funny as the first one, though it has its moments that made me laugh out loud. But when it’s focusing on other characters, particularly Rose, the princess who gets put through the wringer in this book, it actually makes me wish that it could work as a real book. The key there, however, would be that it would have to have a cast that did not include Cid or his minions, and that’s not going to happen. And, to be fair, it would deprive us of that most shonen of cliches, the tournament arc, which Cid tries to game for his own amusement and mostly succeeds.

The book is essentially divided in half. The first part has Cid, invited by Alpha, headed to see an event where fighters try to call up ancient heroes and do battle with them. Most fail. That is, most fail to even call up ANY spirits. Naturally, Cid/Shadow ends up calling up one of the most deadly. There’s also a hidden conspiracy involving the Church, which frankly should not surprise anyone reading this book. After this he decides to enter the local tournament battle, which his sister is also competing in, as well as Princess Iris. Unfortunately, while this is happening Rose, another princess, is set to be married off to a man who is so evil that he’s named “Perv Asshat”. She tries to kill him, then flees, but we know that’s not going to work out. She’s going to have to sacrifice something…

The funny parts of the book usually involve Cid when he’s trying to be edgy, or when he’s reacting in surprise to something that he set up and forgot about. (There’s a running gag of him thinking he’s finally met another isekai’d person, only to find out it’s one of his minions just publishing stories he told from our world, or music he played. It’s a much funnier running gag than Cid always crassly saying he has to “hit the can” before vanishing to be Shadow.) I was also amused at the hate/hate relationship between Alexia, Cid’s tsundere from school, and “Natsume”, aka Beta, one of Cid’s minions. They really can’t stand each other, and it can be funny. That said, Rose’s plot is not played for laughs at all (OK, the tuna wrapper was funny), and while Perv Asshat may have a very stupid name, he’s clearly got the villain thing down pat, and unfortunately survives to fight in another book.

So it’s not quite as silly a comedy as the first book, but I find its skeleton more compelling than I did in the first. Fans should still enjoy it either way.

I Reincarnated As Evil Alice, So the Only Thing I’m Courting Is Death!

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By Chii Kurusu and Minato Yaguchi. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Alice ni Tensei Shita node, Koi mo Shigoto mo Houki Shimasu!” on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Emma Schumacker.

As with a lot of recent isekai titles, I’m starting to wonder if the “reincarnated in an otome game” authors are using that device as a way to get people to read their work. The reincarnation part of the book involves our heroine getting run over while rescuing a kitten, and she ends up in her favorite otome game. The trouble is, she’s in the expansion pack version – which she never played as it was only announced the day she was killed. So while she has all the common “romance” routes from the original game memorized, they aren’t working this time around. What’s more, the otome game she played was notorious for putting in more and more bad ends as you got closer to each romance. It comes up throughout the book, don’t get me wrong. But honestly? This is a perfectly good, fun supernatural romance series. It didn’t need to otome game itself up.

Our heroine is Alice Liddell, a name that may seem familiar. This one, though, is party of a Victorian SWAT team that fights enemies on behalf of the Queen. She’s smart (especially once the rather awkward “huge fan of otome games” prologue finishes) and does not take crap from anyone, and for good reason – her entire family was massacred three years earlier, and she’s trying to carry out their legacy. Her current case involves young women falling asleep and not waking up, and the prime suspect appears to be the very eccentric – and handsome – Dark Knightley. Together with her team of Jack (butler to her family and the other survivor of the massacre), Leeds (androgynous and the first person that Alice saved) and the Tweedle brothers, Dum and Dee (strong fighters but also adorable little boys), she’s determined to get to the bottom of this. Mostly as she has a bet with Dark as to who will solve it first!

As you can see, the book is not very subtle. There’s a lot going on here – I didn’t even mention the contracts with demons or superpowers most of them have – and fortunately most of the “Alice in Wonderland” stuff is kept to Alice’s name, the twins, and the fact that Dark wears a lot of fancy top hats. (An Alice romance where the love interest isn’t the Mad Hatter? Heavens forbid.) The villain is also super, super obvious. But that’s OK,. because the only reason anyone would read a title like this is for the interaction between the two leads, and that’s excellent. Alice makes a very good heroine, kicking ass and carrying a gun but also able to act the part of a Victorian lady, albeit one disliked by the other Victorian ladies. She’s actually reincarnated as the heroine of the otome game, which is probably a good thing given the fate of the “otome game villainess” in this book. As for Dark, he’s eccentric without being annoying, doesn’t have that “I am overly possessive” vibe a lot of romantic heroes tend to get, and has his own tragic backstory to boot. They make a good couple.

If you’re looking for deconstruction of the otome game archetypes, look elsewhere. And I hope you side with the landed gentry over those who buy their titles. But Evil Alice manages to be a breezy romance with mystery and horror overtones, and is perfectly pleasant.

In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 21

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

This is not the final volume of In Another World with My Smartphone – the 22nd volume is out in Japan, and no doubt there are limitless numbers of stories that could be told about Touya and company in the upcoming years. But I had decided a while back that this, the volume where Touya marries his wives and they go on their honeymoon – would be my final volume of the series. I definitely had a lot of fun with the early books, but as the series has gone on I’ve been exposed to a few too many of the author’s awful choices and toxic characterization. Fortunately, this is an excellent volume to end with, featuring a minimum of poor taste (though the girl who gets aroused by good deeds becoming a teacher reminds us it’s still there) and a nice victory lap for Touya and his companions, showing them finally tying the knot, having their first times (except for too-young Sue), and bopping around Earth. Yes, Touya’s honeymoon is back in Japan.

As noted, the first half of the book deals with Touya and company preparing for the wedding. As you can imagine, this features the brief cameos of three-quarters of the regular cast, which has ballooned out so much that I barely remembered which one was which. Most of the wedding day jitters are on Touya’s end – his relationship with his spouses that are of age may go all the way this time around (offscreen), but it’s very on point that even during his actual wedding he kisses each of them on the cheek. This is one shy boy. And I mean that literally for the second half of the book, where God allows Touya and company to go to Japan… but since he’s dead there, he goes in disguise as a five-year-old boy. This, as you might imagine, leads to some wacky hijinx. He also drops in on his parents, who have a newly born daughter, in a dream and reassures them as best he can that he’s happy “in the afterlife”.

His parents take this better than you’d expect, as it turns out God has been sending Touya’s adventures as dreams to his parents and his best friend from school – who is now drawing it as a manga. I’d say this beggars belief, but hey, Smartphone. It was amusing to find out that it was not power that went to Touya’s head – he’s always seemed to be a bit sociopathic, and we see him dealing with delinquents before he was killed in much the same way he dealt with bandits in his new world. But really, most of this book is watching the wives shop. And shop. And shop. Oh, and go to the zoo. They get piles of food, they get accessories, they see zebras and hippos, they even go to a school festival and watch a high school production of Beauty and the Beast. It’s a full, rich two weeks.

And in the end, they go back home and life goes on. In the meantime, if, like me, you have been looking for an excuse to not read Smartphone anymore, this is an excellent one, as it could easily also service as a final volume, and leaves few to no loose ends that might niggle at you. Thanks, Smartphone. You drove me crazy, but you were never boring… OK, that’s not, true, you were boring a lot. But I’ll see you off with a smile.