The White Cat’s Revenge As Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap, Vol. 1

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By Kureha and Yamigo. Released in Japan as “Fukushuu wo Chikatta Shironeko wa Ryuuou no Hiza no Ue de Damin wo Musaboru” by ArianRose. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Evelyn.

I was excited to read this one, but unfortunately I think it ended up a bit of a mess, for several reasons. It certainly improves after the first section, which is good, as I was tempted to drop it ten pages in. Our heroine is Ruri, who is pretty, smart, has a mother who’s a model, etc. The trouble is she has a “best friend” named Asahi, who clings to her like a limpet… and whenever Asahi’s around other people, they start to love Asahi and hate Ruri. As a result, her life has been miserable, with various attempts to get away from Asahi always meeting with failure. This even includes accidentally getting transported to another world. Ruri ends up there, but so do Asahi and four of her classmates… and now the kingdom they’re in is hating on Ruri too. Will being exiled to certain death in the forest actually improve Ruri’s life? And where are the Dragon King and the White Cat in all of this?

I had several issues with this book, but let’s start with the biggest, which is Asahi. She’s meant to be annoying, and I am grateful she only shows up at the start and the finish (I started calling her “C-Ko” after a while.) But her passive powers mean that, as Ruri herself says, she’s ruined Ruri’s life but can’t be actively blamed for it. She has some sort of passive brainwashing power and isn’t aware of it. This is annoying, as she’s not really evil, just aggravating and oblivious. To a reader, that’s worse. Things are not helped by the Kingdom they find themselves in, populated by humans in a world of demi-humans and beastmen. The King and his Head Priest are so cartoonishly evil that Yosemite Sam would be telling the writer to make them more nuanced. Now, it’s possible that Asahi is getting an important character arc ahead, which this sets up for. But somehow I doubt it.

The rest of the book is better, though still variable. The second large chunk, showing Ruri living in the woods with an elder Dragon woman and learning that she’s got piles of mana and is beloved by spirits, is important because it shows us she’s not really cranky all the time except around Asahi… but it also takes a long time. It’s not until over halfway through the book that we get to the Dragon King’s land, and Ruri ends up as a White Cat. Though she can turn back when she wants, so even this was slightly less than I expected. The not-romance between the Dragon King (who’s drawn to her but thinks she’s a cat) and Ruri (who, having heard humans are hated here, is not willing to change back) is sort of sweet but also potentially troubling.

Things are set up for a climax where Ruri’s true form is revealed, she stops the war, and she confronts Asahi and makes her see the truth. Only one of these things happens, and the confrontation is a damp squib. I think I’m so used to light novels that are written as one-shots, which then develop extra books when they get popular, that I was not ready for a book intended to be multi-volume from the start. This means no plots are resolved at the end. There’s potential in the future, which is why I’ll read the next volume, but mostly this book existed to frustrate my expectations.

Also, the revenge is really half-assed. And why is this another isekai with slavery? And… OK, I’ll shut up now.

The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 9

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By Gamei Hitsuji and Yuunagi. Released in Japan by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

This was, for the most part (I’ll get to the one really annoying bit at the end) a solid volume that gave fans what they wanted: Suimei back on Earth and reconnecting with everyone, and the three main heroines marveling at life in a science-based world and eating lots of delicious sweets. I will admit that those who like the battle scenes in Too Far Behind might find it wanting – the only battle here is about 3/4 of the way through, and it’s a one-way curbstomping. But honestly this is meant to be a pure fanservicey break before we go back to confront the Big Bad, and as such it functions fine. It also introduces us to a new heroine, though it doesn’t appear as if she’s going to be a love interest. Hydemary, Suimei’s disciple, is the girl on the cover art (with the series’ third artist, by the way, which may be why it was so late in coming), and she’s both more and less complex than I was expecting.

I mentioned three main heroines – Hatsumi does return with the rest of them, but spends the entire book essentially recuperating with her family, so is not participating. Her family being a set of terrifying swordsmen who work with Suimei’s family, the whole “we went to a parallel world” explanation is accepted very rapidly. (Reiji and Mizuki stayed behind, and we briefly hear about Suimei mind controlling their parents and the school to smooth things over, which ergh.) As for the other three, Liliana gets her cursed eye fixed at last, though given that it’s fixed by a mad scientist otaku it apparently got a few bells and whistles added to it. Also, she’s still wearing the eyepatch, because of course she is. Lefille learns that the best thing for her swordplay right now is to take a break and not obsess over winning, two very good pieces of advice. And Felmenia basically gets to immerse herself in books and sweets, but that’s good enough for her.

The main plotline involves Suimei, after telling the Magician’s Society sending Suimei (after he briefly explains where he was – they don’t really care) to stop a group who are trying to revive a God somewhere in Germany. Suimei keeps putting this off, much to the irritation of Hydemary, who has had to deal with a) him being gone for 6 months or so, b) him returning with a bunch of other girls; and c) her own self-worth issues, as she’s a homunculus, and thus while she has all the knowledge of the world her experience is minimal. Honestly, I was expecting this to be bigger than it was – I expected her to turn evil for a bit, whereas a pep talk was all it took to cheer her up. It helps that she’s about seven years old in actual years, and thus not a romantic partner – at least not that we can tell. Suimei treats her like a wayward but loved child.

The book ends with a side story showing how Suimei and Hydemary first meet, which was fine except when it turns out her creator was once pals with Hitler before he went bad. Keerist. The whole “Hitler was under the control of other magical forces” plot is very hard to do without being offensive, and it’s impossible when it’s done as a brief dash of backstory before it’s dropped. I really didn’t need to know Hyudemary’s creator was an ex-Nazi. That aside, though, we nearly wrap up the Earth arc and are set to return to Felmenia and company’s home – this time with Hydemary, as well as someone else who is evil and appears to be hitching a ride. When will we see it? Will it have a 4th artist? Who knows? But this was a pretty good entry in the series.

Kakushigoto: My Dad’s Secret Ambition, Vol. 1

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By Kouji Kumeta. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Monthly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America digitally by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Kevin Gifford.

Kouji Kumeta, back in the olden days when he was romanized as Koji Kumeta, wrote a series called Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei that was dear to my heart. Featuring a despairing teacher, his eccentric class of students, and overanalysis of Japanese trends and cliches, it ran for 30 volumes and features a very surreal, quite disturbing ending. Sadly, it sold less and less well over here in North America, and petered out with the fourteenth volume. But now, moving from Weekly to Monthly Shonen Magazine, we have a new series from Kumeta, starring a father who desperately wants to hide his profession from his elementary school-aged daughter… because he draws ecchi manga. Indeed, his most popular series, Testicoooool, probably gives you an idea why he does not want his daughter to know this. That said… despite the more realistic premise, this series is for fans of what Kumeta does best: overanalyse things to death, make obscure references, and draw striking poses of most of the characters. The art continues to be fantastic.

There is, to be fair, more of an attempt to hold to the plot and characterization of the title than there ever was with Zetsubou-sensei, which was an excuse for anything to happen. Most of the chapters are about two things: Kakushi’s attempts to hide his manga profession from his daughter and actually drawing the manga with his assistants, and Hime’s school life with her teacher and the cast of Zetsubou… OK, yeah, there’s no getting around that. Hime’s classmates are very obviously elementary school versions of the girls from Zetsubou-sensei. I spotted Chiri, Akira, Nami, Kafuka, Manami, Maria, Matoi… they all have slightly different names, of course, but even then, “Riko Kitsuchi” is clearly “Chiri Kitsu” swapped around. He’s having fun. That said, apart from Riko being a bit overbearing, they don’t ACT like their counterparts. It’s pure fanservice.

Hime’s mother is not in the picture, and Kakushi is shown to be a single parent. This allows him to occasionally be a “harem protagonist”, though like most of those he’s clueless about it. Hime’s teacher clearly has a crush on him, one chapter has him accidentally winning over several single women in the area, and a high school girl trying to be an idol, who finds that Kakushi actually listens to her rambling, might be a stalker in the making. That said, Kakushi only has eyes for his little girl, who he is deeply overprotective of. Many of the chapters show him trying to watch over her and make sure she isn’t bullied by the other kids (which is not going to happen, mostly as Hime is a sweetie pie). As for whether she will find out… well, the manga begins with her, as a high school girl, having the secret deliberately revealed to her, and the end of this volume implies that’s because Kakushi has died. (I’d say that ending is too dark for a comedy manga, but then remember how Zetsubou ended, so maybe…)

It’s the in between that counts, though, and this series ended up running for twelve volumes. I’ll be reading more, though I admit I read it for the creator, not the characters or plot.