Wataru!!! The Hot-Blooded Teen and His Epic Adventures in a Fantasy World After Stopping a Truck with His Bare Hands!, Vol. 1

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By Simotti and RELUCY. Released in Japan as “Truck Uketome Isekai Tensei! Nekketsu Butouha Koukousei Wataru!!!” by Overlap. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Adam Seacord.

There are times when you want a light novel that delves into the depths of the psychological consequences of being sent to another world, or what it means to have modern-day culture impinge itself on a medieval fantasy world. Perhaps you want to delve deep into what the power structures of a demon lord’s minions would really be like, and immerse yourself in gripping fights where you’re not even sure the hero will win. If this is what you crave… there are other light novels elsewhere, I’m sure. If, on the other hand, you love exclamation marks, shouting, and most everyone being as stupid as they can possibly be, including the author, then Wataru!!! is right up your street. This series is here to be dumb and loud and have a ton of fun, and nothing else. It can be a bit exhausting… indeed, I worry that future volumes may wear out the welcome… but it succeeds in what it wants to do. Which is mock isekais with everything it has.

The book begins with the subtitle, as our hero is suddenly accosted by a truck, and does indeed stop it, but then realizes that this would kill the driver, so lets himself be hit, and ends up… in another world! There he meets Aria, a standard heroine with a nagging tendency to get bloody head injuries (but don’t worry, she knows healing magic). She tells him that her parents have been kidnapped by the Demon Lord, who’s super strong. One of these facts seems to matter more to Wataru than the others, and so he sets off to defeat the demon lord to prove who’s stronger. In the interim, he gains another companion in enemy-turned-neutral friend Résistance, has a rap battle, has a battle of the bands, has a literary critique contest, and yes, also has quite a few fistfights. Throughout, though, he stays as hot-blooded as possible.

Gonna be honest, I enjoyed this book but I suspect its core audience is going to be small. Everything is shouting. An audiobook would be amazing but also the worst thing ever. Wataru is more nuanced than you’d think, being kind at heart, and also not the rock-headed muscle guy that you’d normally expect. (My favorite part of the book is the fact that he speaks his own sound effects, which are abbreviations of what he’s doing. He stops the truck while shouting “TRK!!!!!”.) Aria is a rather flakey heroine by design, and when she’s not getting devastating head injuries or cheering Wataru on, she also shows off her passion for Beyblade… erm, sorry, Payblade toys. (The book doesn’t have WcDonald’s, but we do get Tot Hopic, which also made me laugh.) Résistance is the closest to a normal character in the book, but even she has a soft spot for really tacky jewelry, which Wataru convinces her is not a character flaw.

So yes, there is more here than just shouting and silliness… but not much. I’m not sure it can carry a series. But for a single novel, it’s recommended. Read with earplugs.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Petite Devil Kohai

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By Hajime Kamoshida and Keji Mizoguchi. Released in Japan as “Seishun Buta Yarou wa Chibi Devil Kohai no Yume wo Minai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

This book had several hills to climb in order to win me over, to be honest. I enjoyed the romance in the first volume, and was not fond of it being torpedoed right off the bat in the cliffhanger. The heroine of this book, Tomoe, did not make all that good an impression on me in the first one. Time loop stories make me vaguely uncomfortable, hitting a certain level of “I get embarrassed reading this” in me. And fake dating stories also rub me the wrong way in actual books, though oddly I’m fine with it in fanfiction, mostly as it almost always leads to real dating. That said, it’s a testament to the writing skill of the author that I was able to enjoy the book regardless, and most of my objections stated above were put to rest fairly easily. (The one heroine per book thing is something I fear I will have to get used to.)

The time loop is helped by it only being relevant at the start and end of the book. Sakuta is caught in a loop of the same day… for three days, and then, when it breaks, he’s basically in the worst possible situation. This is due to the heroine of this book, Tomoe, who is not a literal devil but is a stand in for “Laplace’s Demon”. We saw her in book one kicking Sakuta’s butt (and getting kicked in the butt in return, something that Sakuta, being who he is, brings up over and over again in this book), and now she has a problem, one that she tried to get Sakuta to help with once the time loop breaks. In order to fend off the attention of another guy, they have to pretend to date for the rest of the semester. Of course, Sakuta is in love with Mai, which makes things just a bit difficult. And that’s not even getting into Tomoe hitting the “fanfiction” part of the trope and wanting to turn her fake dating real.

As with the first book, the main reason to read the series is Sakuta, who is both a very nice , upstanding guy and a completely terrible lech who just has no filter at all. This book provides a different heroine to react to this, and while Mai was basically doing her best Senjogahara impersonation, Tomoe is the sort of blush, stomp her feet and say “Geez!” at his antics. Tomoe is far more likeable in this book when she gets the entire novel to sell herself, and I really enjoyed her backstory, which also tied into the reason why Sakuta, who is still trying to tell Mai he loves her, agrees to do this at all. There are hints of future plot developments – the third book seems to feature Rio, and there’s some setup for that here, namely her not-so-hidden crush on her friend Yuuma, and there’s another shocking cliffhanger ending that will no doubt play out in future books somehow. And there’s a lot of fun humor, mostly because Sakuta exists.

To sum up, I was wary of this book, but it ended up being a lot of fun. I am definitely getting the next in the series.

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, Vol. 4

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By Yuki Yaku and Fly. Released in Japan as “Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

We have reached the point in this series where Tomozaki is starting to get good at playing Hinami’s “game” of life, and for the most part he sails through her directives in this book. In fact, the first two thirds of this book are a great deal of relaxing fun, especially after the confrontation between our two leads in the last volume. Most of this chunk of the book revolves around the sports festival, where the boys and girls in the class will be competing. The role of girls’ captain is somewhat thankless, and is at first foisted off on one of the quiet wallflowers in the class, then by Izumi. The true stumbling block, though, is Erika Konno, the Queen Bee of the class, who does not want to try hard or care unless she has to. So Tomozaki’s task is to get Konno interested in the sports festival. And now that he’s become something of a social animal, he can even ask others for help as well.

Izumi gets a lot to do in this book, as she’s involved in every single plot and subplot. She and Nakamura make their relationship clearer, and they’re now going out. She’s also the one who’s most invested in another issue – due to Nakamura and his mother fighting, he’s not coming to school, and it’s taking a worryingly long time for them to make up. This was probably the funniest part of the book, as Hinami is very reluctant to get involved in this – until Atafami is brought up as the reason for the fight, when she suddenly changes her tune. As with previous books, Hinami is at her best as a character when we see her mask cracking, which it does several times here. The sports festival also goes well, and provides Tomozaki a chance to bond with the other boys in the class AND have a laughable anti-sports manga moment. Everything’s great, and the game is fun. What could go wrong?

…well, life is not a game you can stop playing when it ceases to be fun is the lesson we learn in the last third of the book, when Erika Konno moves from apathetic Queen Bee to nasty bully, picking on the shy girl in the class because, well, for the same reason that bullies always pick on the quiet kid. The book then gets really good again (the author is excellent at making the last fifth of so of each book really sing) when Tama-chan gets involved. She hasn’t been a big part of the series so far, and most of what we know about her is that she’s very serious and straightforward. That ends up being both a strength and a weakness when she confronts Konno, and we get an excellent look at how this sort of bullying can affect the mood of a classroom, and why the sympathy of a group is rarely with the bullied. We also see the previous crack in Hinami’s armor get larger – just as she was willing to get involved when Atafami was being dissed, here she’s ready to go to bat for her friend. That said, Tomozaki is not the only one growing and learning in this series.

The book ends with the problem unresolved, and given Tama-chan is on the next cover, I expect we’ll get a lot more of it. It’s a good way to end a great book in the series, one willing to deal with problems both small and large, and with an excellent view of classroom dynamics and mood. Forget “read this if you find Oregairu too depressing”, just read this, period.