Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party, Vol. 1

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By Udon Kamono and Hitomi Shizuki. Released in Japan as “Hazure Skill “Mapping” wo Te ni Shita Shounen wa Saikyou Party to Dungeon ni Idomu” by Overlap. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mana Z.

I admit when this first came out, I was planning on skipping it. While I do read far too many light novels, my days of trying to read all the Vol. 1s are gone forever. And when J-Novel Club posted the first chunk on their site/app, it read like someone who enjoyed Arifureta but wished the lead was a bit whinier. But a couple of folks told me that it actually got pretty interesting, so I ended up checking out the first volume all the way through. And, while I don’t think I’ll be reading any further, I can confirm that it does get interesting, despite its extremely poor start, and ends up being more an examination of how to try to drag your way to improving yourself when you don’t have the resources that everyone else around you has. It also has a final reveal that is quite well handled.

Our protagonist is Note. He and his childhood friend are getting the Skills that, in this world, can make or break your future. She gets three fantastic skills. He gets one Super Rare one that takes all three skill slots… and is famously known for being useless (there are two, much better mapping skills after this one). A year later, he’s been dumped by his childhood friend and is trying to join adventuring parties as baggage handler and getting drunk in bars. Then he’s scouted by a high-grade party who seem to have figured out a use for Mapping… it can handle mapping dungeons, which the other two mapping skills can’t do. Of course, he has Mapping, but he’s also a weak, self-hating guy, so the rest of the book is spent trying to get him in shape, teach him other, more useful talents for their party, and get him to actually stop acting like a wuss.

As I said before, the book starts off terribly, and I was also annoyed that we never got the perspective of the childhood friend that abandoned him, who reads as nothing other than a plot device. Things improve after he’s picked up by the Arrivers, the dungeon-crawling party that recruits him. The idea of taking months to train him up to do dungeon crawls (which are minimal in this first volume) is a good one, and we do see him slowly regain a sense of self-worth and show off quite a bit of cunning and self-awareness. The last quarter of the book has him trying to stop another one of their party, the sword expert, from leaving as he’s fallen in love with a girl. The classic “oh no, he’s fallen for the girl who has eight different men on the side” plot made me roll my eyes at first, but here we actually DO get her perspective later on, and her backstory, and while that doesn’t make her more likeable, it does work very well with the story.

The book has, beyond its stock low self-worth hero, more stock characters – our party leader whose dark past is no doubt waiting to be unearthed; the lecherous sword guy; a cardboard tsundere magic user (that’s her on the cover); and a dwarf girl who is there to fill the “I look (and act) underage but am not” slot. It improved in the second half, and if you like these types of characters, or “weakest becomes strongest” fantasies, this might appeal to you.

The Extraordinary, the Ordinary, and SOAP!, Vol. 3

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By Nao Wakasa and ICA. Released in Japan as “Hibon, Heibon, Shabon!” by ArianRose. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Emily Hemphill.

This is the final volume of this romantic fantasy, and that feels just about right. The wary reader will also note that everything seems to be resolved by about Page 80, and knows that we’re not going to get 130 pages of wedding prep. Indeed, this volume balances out dramatic crisis and romantic fluff almost equally, sliding from one to the other with verve. There is one thing I wasn’t too fond of, but that was driven by the plot, so I can’t complain too much. More importantly, I really loved the way that the friendship between Lucia and Maria was shown – it’s just as important as the romance between Lucia and Celes, and the ongoing development of Maria continues in this book. Indeed, I’d argue Maria is the best part of the series, which pulls off its isekai with a twist fantastically. Well, there are a few annoying romance novel tropes as well, but eh. For the most part, I was quite pleased with this.

We begin in a bad place, as our heroes are separated and locked up in the final kingdom they’d been visiting. This leads to Lucia getting kidnapped and almost killed by some evil nobles – someone seems to have it in for her. After this, it’s almost an anticlimax when the final tree is purified and the monsters are removed from the land… though that includes their baby dragon pet, which makes Maria and Lucia sad. That said, success! The sacred maidens did it! Lucia and Celes are engaged! Lucia no longer has her Soap! powers, but that’s likely because there’s no reason for them anymore. Now they can all go home and… wait, something is tickling the back of my brain. Wasn’t the king evil and wanted the shrine maiden killed off after they completed their duty? And isn’t Lucia without her Soap! powers… just a commoner maid? Is this going to have a tragic ending after all?

So yeah, about halfway through the book everything falls apart and we have to put it back together. That does not take long. I do wish Lucia had a bit more agency in the whole ordeal, but the problem with taking away the awesome magic powers from your heroine after her work is done is that it does tend to leave her powerless. I did love Maria’s solution to finding Lucia, which was very clever and also helped to make Lucia’s adventure well known among the entire kingdom. And yes, after THAT we get the wedding prep and the reunions and everything else, now that the evil king has been removed and Edoardo is in power. (Maria and Edoardo’s romance is not quite as heartwarming – let’s face it, if it weren’t for Celes this would be a yuri title.) And Lucia may not have Soap! anymore, but her debt is paid off, she has a husband and an ever-growing family, which is all she really ever wanted.

This was, overall, quite a nice read, and I liked the gimmick of the heroine being one of the fantasy world residents, with the actual isekai’d from Japan protagonist being a supporting character. Those who enjoy J-Novel Heart titles will want to read this one.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 32

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with our Rokujouma family, and it’s a relief to see that everyone is much the same. It’s actually quite impressive that this series that should have ended with Vol. 29 is taking a relaxing victory lap and also springboarding a whole new plot that will take many books to resolve at the same time. It doesn’t actually feel dissonant – what’s resolved is Koutarou and the other girls, and though he’s still too “teenage” to actually say I Love You out loud or anything, it’s only a matter of time. This is pointed out to him by MacKenzie, after Koutarou worries about Yurika above and beyond the call of duty – he cannot simply choose one girl at this point. Indeed, the author agrees, which is why we’re getting the side stories that imagine life if he DID fall for only one girl. But that’s next time: this volume is back in the present-day, and showing that the aftermath of the war is still coming to Earth… literally.

There are three main plot threads here, all of which tie into each other. First of all, it’s time for the sports festival again, which is very important to the original core cast as it’s the first time they really bonded as a group way back in the single digit volumes. Unfortunately, dreams of winning the big prize may have to be put on hold. The spaceship that blew up at the end of the last volume was deliberately blown up – now its alien tech is scattered all over Japan, and is being picked up by unscrupulous companies to examine. Even worse, they’ve kidnapped an American scientist and are holding his family hostage in order to force him to work on the alien tech. Now our heroes have to rescue the scientist, his wife and daughter, and retrieve or destroy the technology, all while trying not to get in trouble at school. Oh, and Yurika’s working for the bad guys again, though this time it really is an accident.

It needs to be said, there’s a whole lot of sap here, and if you dislike that, you may want to stop reading. That said, this is the 34th book in the series (counting the two .5 volumes), and I suspect new readers are not going to be anywhere near this. Old readers will find plenty to smile about – every girl gets a chance to be sweet with the man they love, except MacKenzie’s little sister, who’s still trying to come to terms with the fact that the brother she idolized is a playboy. This actually gets weaponized towards the end of the book, as part of the plan. The plan itself makes the latter half of the book feel like a heist movie, as we see everything coming together, everyone gets to show off their cool powers, and only a few girls have emotional crises. (Yurika is a given, but Shizuka is really starting to get worried about everyone thinking of her as basically “the big guy”.)

Summing up, this is exactly what Rokujouma fans want in a book. Next time we get another three short stories/alternate universe book, with Clan winning the “what if Koutarou chose only me?” sweepstakes. So expect bickering galore.