I Could Never Be a Succubus!, Vol. 7

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By Nora Kohigashi and Wasabi. Released in Japan as “Watashi wa Succubus Ja Arimasen” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

I feel a bit guilty that I don’t think this series is going far enough anymore? I mean, I was getting mad at it for going too far only a few volumes ago. But man, this seems tame compared to the “Girl Time (in Darkness)” robots from the prior books. And I say this despite the fact that part of the climax (hah) of the book involves everyone in the Hero’s party who does not have memory loss all having far too much sex with each other in order to lower their libidos. There are two “past” chapters here, fewer than ever before, and both are devoted to being law abiding in your fetishes. Lolicon play is fine provided everyone involved is over the age of majority. Exhibitionism is fine only when you can get away with it being an “accident”, such as a public pool. The hero’s party are all law-abiding heroes, it’s just they’re also really into sex thanks to their succubus. Who, alas, is still mostly sans memories.

Liz is being taught how to use her powers by fallen angel Lilith, which mostly involves throwing her into near-fatal situations and having her try to use both her holy and hell powers without going berserk and losing her mind. They’re also still trying to figure out what’s up with Cain’s sword, which researchers have managed to figure out almost nothing about. Cain mostly uses it on instinct. The next step is to take on an ultra-hard SSS dungeon, which is rumored to have a way to get to the demon king (current) if they beat it. Unfortunately, once they reach Level 50, they discover the level is actually… Hell! Even more unfortunately, once they hit level 60, this turns into a completely different sort of parody.

I jokes about the lack of sex jokes compared to prior volumes, but there’s also a distinct lack of Liz in this book, as she gets some stuff to do at the start but for the most part is functioning as a narrator as the most interesting things are happening to Cain. Cain is, for the most part, defined by his general grumpiness and also his lack of curiosity about much of anything besides “fight villains win”, and it comes back to haunt him. The back half of this book is a massive parody of Japanese game shows, something for which Cain is singularly ill-equipped, and I admit it is fun seeing him get more and more angry. It also forces him to actually strategize, and when he does things go much better. More importantly, he has a sword that seems to be the same as the demons are using and a very vague background. He is literally prevented from winning the dungeon because he doesn’t know enough about himself. It’s a good, if somewhat heavy-handed, lead-in to the next book.

…which isn’t out in Japan yet. Time to wait! Let’s hope Liz gets to go a little more wild next time.

My Fiancé Cheated, But a New Love Rings!, Vol. 2

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By Ehito and Koyukomu. Released in Japan as “Konyakusha no Uwaki Genba wo Michatta no de Hajimari no Kane ga Narimashita” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Chris Craigo.

Lately I’ve really been getting blindsided by picking up Volume 2 of a series and discovering that the series actually ends there. It makes sense. Especially in the genre of books we see with J-Novel Heart, long-runners are not the norm. Romance novels don’t really need three-volume tournament arcs to drag things out, and those that do run forever, like Bakarina, tend to be popular for reasons other than who Katarina will end up with. On the down side, this means we are essentially done with Sophie’s old kingdom, and we do not return to see how they manage to fix things now that Sophie has abandoned it. On the bright side, this means we get a lot more of the two eccentric characters we met last time, and find out exactly what their deal is. As you can imagine, things are very fraught and complicated. Fortunately, Sophie is finding that she’s not only a magic powerhouse but also enjoys sociopathy. In small doses.

Yes, that’s right, as the cover shows, Sophie picks up a new animal familiar, and they’re huge. As Sophie, Livio, Vyce and Lunetta make their way out of the town that had the monster attack, they come across an injured monster bear, and Lunetta asks Sophie to heal it to see exactly what her magic potential is. When Sophie manages to do so, it turns out that the injured bear is really an injured god, and it’s now content to get named by Sophie and become her cuddly but powerful bear familiar. Sophie and Livio want to go to the country of not-Japan, off to the East, so that they can eat delicious food. But Vyce wants them to stop by his kingdom first, partly as Sophie is making her first friend with Lunetta, who is making her first friend with Sophie, but also has he wants to recruit them. Unfortunately, we may have to deal with Lunetta’s tragic past first.

This is not quite as good as the first book, mostly as it does not have the sheer lunacy of Sophie’s family and royalty back in her old kingdom. Vyce and Lunetta are very likeable characters, but they’re also very familiar types, so there’s far fewer surprises. Even Lunetta’s tragic past, which turns out to go back many, many generations, is less about how awful it was and more about allowing Lunetta to show real emotions and let off some steam so that she can stop being an emotionless magic nerd drone. The main reason to enjoy this series, like the previous book, is the absolute syrupy sweetness of Sophie and Livio’s love affair, which is just sugary as hell, deliberately so, and also to see Sophie gradually start to accept that she does in fact have positive qualities and is not in fact a terrible person, which, given she’s about three weeks away from a lifetime of abuse, is slow going.

Now, the webnovel is ongoing, so certainly more volumes could be in the cards. But I dunno, this feels like the end of the published version. For fans of really schmoopy couples and bear gods who are not named Shardik.

The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life As a Noblewoman: Ruination and Resolve, Part 2

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By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

This is the second half of what was originally a one-part 500+-page monster, and as such it definitely feels different than the first half. Which makes sense. If you look at the subtitle of this book, the first half was all about the ruination, so it makes sense that the second half would be about the resolve. As such, there’s not QUITE as many tribulations in this book compared to the first two? At least in terms of piles of death and threats of death. That said, Karen certainly does suffer a large number of shocks here. She allies with Reinald, which is the best thing to do to protect Conrad and those she lost, as well as those she still has, but it does make a whole lot of people think of her as… something impolite. What’s more, after the shock of her parentage that started the series, we now get more revelations about it, which may become a bigger problem down the road, as everyone’s packing up and moving.

That’s right, they’re doing new covers for us! It looks pretty great. That said, Reinald’s sister sort of comes and goes like a storm, and is not the actual focus of this book, which remains squarely on Karen. The kingdom itself is done for, and it turns out that this was actually very deliberate on Reinald’s part – he’s the son of the Emperor of Arrendle, who declares that only those who do amazing things can succeed him, and “overthrow a country next door for me” is one of those things. Karen is given some new land to oversee, mostly as the fall of Conrad was engineered very carefully by the Empire and the country on the other side – but things are rough, and Wendel is getting bullied at school. As such, a large chunk of the family makes the decision to move to the Empire.

As ever, Karen is the highlight of the book, and I get the feeling that a lot of people who like her try to compete to see who can make her show an actual emotion – though that may be unreliable narration on her part, as we see at points that her face is showing emotions that she is deliberately trying not to tell the reader about. It was also nice to see Ern again, who apparently went to the Empire and became a mad scientist – not as eccentric as Six, but still plenty eccentric, to be honest. She’s on the cover of Book 3-1, so I’m sure we’ll see more of her. On the other hand, I have to feel bad for Gerda. She loved her sister so much she married a man she didn’t want to to save Karen’s reputation, and now here she is, with a husband she loved dead, and Karen clearly knew it was coming. It’s a quiet note of tragedy in the books, where a lot of times things happen that are sad but no one can quite do anything about. I suspect she and Karen will never meet again.

This ends the second book proper, so you can be assured the main story ends with a very nasty cliffhanger, as Karen is seemingly caught in a magical trap. For those who love seeing bad things happen to good people when it’s well written.