The Invincible Shovel, Vol. 3

Leave a reply

By Yasohachi Tsuchise and Hagure Yuuki. Released in Japan as “Scoop Musou: “Scoop Hadouhou!” (｀・ω・´)♂〓〓〓〓★(゜Д゜ ;;) .:∴DOGOoo” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Elliot Ryoga.

Gotta admit, starting to get a bit annoyed with this title at times. Not all the time, mind you. When it’s at its best it’s doing what it’s done the last two volumes: have Alan solve problems immediately by using his shovel in ways that make no sense, have Catria get upset about this, and have Lithisia be silly and also somewhat scary. There is plenty of that in this book. It also uses the word ‘shovel’ 900 times, more than the previous two, and that’s not even counting the fact that the translator gave in and started using ‘scoop’ as well, which is there 120 times. But there is another element of the book, which is the ‘using shovel in a sexual way’ part, and it is, frankly, getting rather irritating, as it’s less subtle and more creepy throughout, especially in any scene involving Lithisia abusing Alice. It’s one of those times when the brain just refuses to make something funny. The phrase “Alice-juices” really does not help.

Our heroes continue to try to track down orbs from the four corners of the world. They rescue the mermaid population from an evil Hydra, go up to the sky world and meet two angels, one of whom briefly joins Catria as the sole voice of reason in the party, and try to stop demons corrupting more angels; they go to the Kingdom of Darkness and help free its people from demonic enslavement (and forced rape, something else I was not happy with), and finally they descend to hell and take on various minions, some familiar to Alice and some familiar to Alan. Throughout this Alan uses shovels to do damn near anything, but more surprisingly, so does Catria, though she’s not quite ready to admit that just yet.

Catria is probably the best part of the book, as it’s actually funny seeing her being the “voice of common sense” while, at the same time, firing off wave motion shovel blasts with her sword, which over the course of the book is slowly starting to turn into a shovel. She’s still the person with the most ethical sense here, though. That said, Lithisia may not be quite as far gone as the previous book… and, if I’m being honest, most of this one… has portrayed her. Seeing the hydra, who essentially turned evil when their love was spurned, makes her worry that if Alan leaves her she’ll to the exact same thing. There’s also the ending, where she gets in over her head when battling a God trying to possess Alice, and is forced to admit that perhaps she is NOT ready to solve every problem with a shovel like Alan can.

Honestly, I don’t see the sexual humor going away anytime soon, but I wish it would stick to ‘misunderstanding uses of the word ‘shovel’ in salacious ways’ rather than ‘Lithisia molests Alice with a shovel repeatedly’. The book is showing signs of depth – about 5% of the book, perhaps – which is enough given it’s meant to be a broad comedy. I will keep reading, though I expect I will remain a bit irritated. (Also, given the use of the shovel is frequently only implied by the text, how on Earth will they ever animate this?)

The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter, Vol. 2

1 Reply

By Meguru Seto and Takehana Note. Released in Japan by Kodansha Lanove Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by T. Emerson. Adapted by Cae Hawksmoor.

This continues to be the most McDonald’s of light novels. It’s bad for you, and if you dig into it it’s filled with yucky stuff, but it fills you up fast and tastes yummy, so you don’t care. There is literally nothing in this entire book that will even make you raise an eyebrow in surprise. Our hero’s harem does not expand, but the others all basically do everything but stick their tongue down his throat and he blinks at them in confusion. (Honestly, the best bond he has in this book is with the lion monster he takes in as a pet. And even that has a brief ‘hah, the tulip on his head makes him gay!’ joke that made me grind my teeth.) The little sister is getting to be more like incestuous little sisters in other books. And I suspect the author has a fetish for getting stepped on that is basically showing up as is in this book. And yet… it still reads smooth as silk. Sigh.

A brief summary of things that happen to Noir in this book. He gets a huge pile of money from the noble girl he saved at the end of the last book. As mentioned above, he befriends the dungeon monster (also from the last book) and it essentially becomes his talking dog/mount. He rescues an elf zombie. He gets a midterm exam, which consists of easy, hard, and impossible tasks (pick one. He picks impossible). His guild receptionist faces off against another guild receptionist who uses sex to lure adventurers to her. He rescues a sentient tree from a passel of monsters (said tree takes the form of a little girl, so cue those sorts of jokes). And in the largest story in the book, he helps a village win against a group of thieves that has stolen their women. Oh yes, and then he and the others do the impossible task.

As the previous two paragraph might tell you, this book is still trash. It doesn’t even really get to the level of McDonald’s – it’s more of a Jack-in-the-Box. Noir is the blandest of heroes, who is always ready to help anyone but cannot understand why all these girls get angry at each other around him. This includes a chapter where he’s sick and three of them essentially fasten themselves around his body. Everyone is in love with him: the childhood friend, the elf girl, the receptionist, the little sister, the mentor stuck in the dungeon, his teacher, AND the noble princess. He gains powers by hugging, kissing and other fetishes, but of course will never go farther. And his powers are as OP as anything, but he constantly insists that he’s just lucky. I have expected him to call himself a humble vice-commander.

But it’s easy to read, the girls do actually achieve things that don’t revolve around Noir (sometimes), and its fanservice has drawn its wobbly line in the sand. If you like OP harem series and aren’t picky about anything else? This is right up your street. (It’s trash, though.)

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 7

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.

It may be a bit late, to be honest – the reader’s patience after Vol. 2 has been sorely tested – but we finally have a volume of Bakarina that I would call excellent. The characterization works with the plot, there is actual forward motion in regards to Fortune Lover 2, and perhaps most importantly (and I know this may change), there is a love interest who does not fall for Katarina. This is important for keeping the series going, as if you are a black hole vortex of ‘everybody loves me’, eventually disbelief gets stretched a bit thin – as we’ve seen in Books 3 and 4 of this series. But yes, now people can like Katarina and not fall for her, which is a relief. Unfortunately for fans of the main cast aside from our heroine, only Maria and Jeord fans will really be happy – as I expected when I reviewed Vol. 6, Keith, Mary, Alan, Sophia and Nicol are reduced to small roles, if not cameos.

Katarina and Sora start their working days at the Magical Ministry, and she is absolutely DELIGHTED to find that it’s mostly running errands and lifting boxes – she was afraid that it would involve paperwork. Given Rafael’s current position, I don’t blame her. When not working, she’s trying to figure out who planted the note about Fortune Lover 2 on her, which leads to her meeting Jeord’s relatives and the reader learning about the recent past of the Sorcier kingdom, which is a lot bloodier and filled with concubines than I would have expected. She is also trying to sort out New Love Interest #3, Cyrus, which (try to contain your surprise) turns out to be a lot easier than she expected, because she is who she is. All of these plots converge when she and Maria come across a magic stone that offers Maria increased power in her light magic… and, Katarina is stunned to discover later on, more power for her dark magic – whether she wants it or not.

There is the usual “Katarina narrative voice, than another character goes over the same events” literary device we’ve seen throughout the series, but it’s not entirely “let me tell you how awesome she is” this time, which is a bit of a relief. Indeed, the book loves its running gag of how bad Katarina is at intellectual pursuits. She can’t read ancient script, which was taught to them in school, meaning when everyone else is deep in research she’s off to the side feeling useless. She does pull off classic Katarina empathy with Cyrus, as they bond over a surprising shared hobby, but Cyrus ends up with a crush on Maria – just like the game, in fact. This may be the ongoing worry – Katarina is sensing evil presences following her around, and her learning stronger dark magic against her will has her fearing that she really is headed towards the FL2 bad end – where OG Katarina returns with same.

Fortunately, she has the main cast to remind her that she is not, in fact, a bad person. That said, it’s a sad ending for Katarina, who is forced to do actual homework to satisfy Lady Larna’s curiosity. As for my own curiosity, I wasn’t wild about “Fortune Lover II” being the next plot point, but it’s going surprisingly well, and has enough of my preferred ship (Maria) to make me eager to read the next one. (Yes, I know it’s gonna be Jeord, shush.)