Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: The False God That Deceived the World

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By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

This is a long series already – this is the 16th volume – and we’ve just covered everything that’s happened since Allen got baited to flunk out of the academy. I’ve talked before about how I wish we could have seen Allen and Lydia’s years at the academy, and we have finally gotten a few decent flashbacks showing that, though we’re still missing most of the actual important scenes. But it can be easy to forget that this is not a world that has been at peace for years and it’s only with this generation that the world is going to hell. This is a world in a constant state of hell. There’s a reason all of the parents and grandparents of our heroines have fancy titles and superpowers of their own, and that’s because they’re needed all the time in order to make sure that things don’t just explode. Unfortunately, we’re near one of those explosion points again, and even as Allen gets some exposition explaining what happened long ago in the last, the enemy is a step ahead of him.

Battles, battles, everywhere! There are so many battles, in fact, that you’d think we wouldn’t have time for the usual harem banter, but rest assured we do, as even in the most dire of circumstances the girls cannot help but try to get Allen to praise them and say how lucky he is to have them. More lucky than usual this time around, as it turns out he needs almost the full group of potential love interests (sorry, Ellie, you’re still being sidelined) because the bad guys are also bringing their full force of bad guy-ness to bear. There’s corrupted former princesses, ghosts of long dead founders, and of course that pesky wyrm, which doesn’t stay frozen for long, and has to be put down again. To do so, they’ll need to have yet another spell gain sentience and turns into a cute girl… because let’s face it, that’s also the sort of series this is.

There’s a cliffhanger which suggests that one of the good guys is about to be killed off, but I’m not too worried – I think if the author had meant to kill them they’d have done that as the cliffhanger. Plus he has a fiancee. It does make me wonder how the author is going to try to keep the stakes higher and higher while also making sure that no cute girls who are in love with their man suffer too much. Most of them, that man is Allen, and unfortunately for him, the main villain seems to be obsessed with him… and also all her plans revolve around him winning at the last moment. Which he’s been doing. So arguably he’s playing right into her hands. On the bright side, Lydia gets to do an absolutely killer move that makes him blush heavily, and he also calls her his partner again, so she’s still in the lead, for those who are only here for that.

This is another solid volume in the series, though I would not say no to a breather that has less fighting next time.

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, Vol. 14

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By Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

It’s been over two years since the “finale” of Arifureta came out in English, and since them we’ve had even more wannabe Hajimes, looking cool while amassing a large collection of girls who fall for them immediately for the traditional light novel reason. That said, this book does not have to worry about that. We’ve done all that, the final battle has been won, and we can leave future battles to Kouki, who no doubt has lots of making up for being awful to do, but given he’s not a cute girl, I doubt Overlap will publish whatever it is. What Overlap will publish is volumes like this, an After Story that is absolute catnip for fans of this series, showing Hajime with each of his fiancees as they integrate themselves on Earth and deal with coming out to the families as a harem. (Normally I’d say polycule, but come on. It’s Arifureta. This thing is a harem, and they all say so in the book itself.)

We pick up two months after everyone came to Earth, with the occasional flashback showing how they had to deal with their year-long disappearance. Some folks have had it good (Yue, Shea, Tio, Remia, and Myu, who are all ensconced at Hajime’s home with his otaku parents who adore him). Some folks have it less good (Kaori, dealing with an “anime dad” being mad about some cheater taking his daughter, and Shizuku, somewhat horrified to discover she really *is* from a family of ninjas). Some are doing very badly (Aiko, who not only gets the bulk of the blame for everything that happened, but is also a teacher dating a student). Some people are still stuck back in Isekai world (Liliana, as pathetic as ever but Hajime is treating her better now that they’re a couple). And some girls are wondering if there’s room for one more (wannabe chef and former bodyguard Yuka, who, since Hajime and the girls don’t immediately shut her down, likely has a good shot).

This does not pretend to be anything but fluffy, for the most part. Hajime and Yue deal with most of the serious issues on Earth by mass mind control, and he has far more difficulty dealing with the fact that he has eight fiancees than anything else. Most of the girls get a nice spotlight, either with or without Hajime. Yue gets the most, Shea the second most, which you’d expect. Myu gets a lot of attention, and she is cute as a button, has learned to shoot multiple deadly weapons, and swears she gonna grow up to marry her daddy. A typical anime child, in other words. All of this reads like typical anime, in fact. The only times it threatens to get melancholy are, as I said, when dealing with Aiko’s larger issues, or when Hajime has to tell the families of the four dead students why they didn’t come back… and that they were also sort of evil. The book even ends with a big family photograph. After so many volumes where I could describe it as “over 200 pages of just fights”, we now get 280 pages of just fluff.

It’s unclear if there will be more of these – there’s tons of webnovel material, but it likely amounts to what Overlap thinks will sell. Still, fans of Arifureta who read it for the girls and the d’awwwww will be happy.

Rascal Does Not Dream of His Girlfriend

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

If you remember my reviews of titles like Babel and Unnamed Memory, you may recall that I yelled at the author and the publisher (Dengeki Bunko) for taking what could easily be two books, divided in half neatly, and making them one huge 400-page monster. This book has the exact opposite problem. The digital version is a mere 139 pages long, and that’s counting the table of contents and the (one) color illustration. I wondered if it was a case where the final volume was too long to combine them, but no, the final volume seems to be the same size as this one. This should have been one book, but it is two, with this the first half. I get the sense, judging by the very minimal illustrations, that there were production issues, but it’s still a mostly frustrating volume where Sakuta has his latest crisis happen, wanders around talking for a while, and then has the series’ Deus Ex Machina help him figure out the issue… but not solve it. Yet.

We start this book with Sakuta having done everything possible to ensure that the dream everyone had of Mai announcing that she’s Touko will not come true. Guess what happens. What’s worse, this new reality sees EVERYONE’S dreams come true. Rio is dating Yuuma, Kaede is somehow now two people, both of whom are living a happy fulfilled life, Tomoe is now going to his college next term, etc. And none of them know reality is different, and none of them want to help him fix it. Fortunately, there is one other person who is unaffected by the Touko dream virus, and it’s very thematically appropriate. They manage to take a Sakuta who is at the end of his rope (in a mild-mannered way) and lead him to the main issue, as well as help him see who’s really behind everything we’ve seen in the last five books.

Despite my carping above, this is not a bad volume, just a mostly frustrating one. The revelations, as well as the one who is giving them, are thematically appropriate, and it’s nice to see Sakuta try his usual “walk around and mope at people until he figures things out” and have it not work at all. Turns out when people have their dream come true, they actually are happy and satisfied with it. Hell, some of the dreams might be the readers’ as well. I cannot think that Saki has any fans who are desperately unhappy that she’s broken up with Yuuma, and even Sakuta admits he’s happier with that outcome as well. (We do briefly see Saki, who is NOT happy with that outcome.) Even Kaede, who would be the one most torn by her incompatible dreams, literally becomes two people to fix everything. Mai is still in love with Sakuta and his girlfriend, she’s just also Touko. Everyone is happy and content. Except Sakuta. And the other two people I deliberately waffled around in the second paragraph.

So the next volume is the last, though there’s already an After Story volume out as well, apparently. I assume, this having mostly been all setup, it will be all payoff. This was good. Should have been combined with the next book.