Kokoro Connect: Nise Random

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By Sadanatsu Anda and Shiromizakana. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Molly Lee.

This volume had its work cut out for it, at least in regards to me. The title translated as “Random Fakes”, and it’s not spoiling anything to let you know that we get a pile of “Heartseed’s magic lets me impersonate another person so that I can quietly destroy their lives”. This plotline makes me very uncomfortable, always has, and so I was cringing through a large part of the first third of this book. Fortunately, the author knows that our heroes have been down this road before, and we eventually end up going in a completely different direction. What the book really is is an extended character study of the new first-years, going into their personality quirks (and flaws) in a much deeper and more traumatic way than the short story volume ever could. The book trusts that you will go along with the author’s good judgment and understand that these are good kids at heart. Unfortunately, with Chihiro, I worry the reader may give up and just quietly hate him.

We pick up after the start of the plot has happened offstage. Chihiro’s narration reveals that he has been approached by Heartseed (who, let’s remember, the main cast has NOT QUITE told the newbies about yet) and offers his usual “I will give you a power, entertain me” bargain. The power is the impersonation tactic I mentioned above. Unfortunately, Chihiro is still dealing with being cynical, arrogant, and bitter, so he resolves to screw up the Club as much as possible. Fortunately, there are a few plot twists that get in the way. The first is that the club (minus Taichi, who admits he was being stupid) have been down this road too many times to not realize something’s going on with Heartseed. Secondly, when it comes right down to it Chihiro is a lonely kid who breaks pretty easily, and when he realizes that things are going bad and they’ll catch him, he tries more drastic tactics. Which have more drastic effects.

Chihiro is not the only main character in this book, of course, as we also get Enjouji’s POV for several scenes. She’s a more tolerable type, being the “why would anyone be interested in me when I am so normal and ordinary” girl. This is why she admires Taichi so much, besides his voice, as he has that ability to unite everyone around him. (This comes as a surprise to Taichi, who is still going through a bit of an identity crisis, and this book REALLY doesn’t help.) I liked the constant ship tease between her and Chihiro, even though it may not go anywhere – we’ve all seen the two friends who everyone just assumes are a couple even though they really aren’t. As for flaws in the book, well, Chihiro pretending to be Taichi and getting Inaba to strip was a bit beyond the beyond, and I kind of feel she didn’t get mad enough at him afterwards. (You could argue he wasn’t punished enough for his actions, but a) everyone agrees Heartseed is really to blame, and b) he already hates himself so much punishment would feel odd.) Honestly, lovesick Inaba really doesn’t work for me at all. I like her with Taichi, but not like this.

So despite its premise, this ended up being an excellent volume in the series. It’s definitely worth picking up, especially if you liked the anime.

Mythical Beast Investigator, Vol. 1

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By Keishi Ayasato and Koichiro Hoshino. Released in Japan as “Genjuu Chousain” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Famitsu Comic Clear. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Angela Liu. Adapted by Ysa McFarlane.

As if the shot of the adorable young woman sitting politely in the forest with her red-eyed demon flayer behind her weren’t reason enough to believe this might be a wee bit darker than expected, it’s also written by the person who wrote Torture Princess. Then again, that may actually be par for the course in this genre. We’ve seen an extensive amount of “cute young thing is introduced to (or is already part of) supernatural world manga series, and almost all of them tick the ‘darker than they seem’ box. The Ancient Magus’ Bride, The Girl from the Other Side, etc. The world is filled with wonders, but the world can also easily kill you – or worse. Fortunately for THIS world, we have Ferry, the titular investigator, who is traveling the countryside looking for villages that are having issues with monsters and fixing them, along with her bodyguard Roxy Music… erm, sorry, Kushuna, who seems to be a monstrous rabbit demon.

Ferry, of course, will tell you she’s not an Official, just a Member of the investigative team. That said, she certainly has the knowledge and will to do a good job. The first part of the story concerns a wyvern that is rampaging in a village, which is unusual for this sort. Ferry quickly finds that the wyvern had a “ribbon maiden” by its side, and that she was very quickly sold out to bandits by the “save our own hides” villagers. As such, well, the wyvern is upset. Fortunately, Ferry also has Kushuna, who is theoretically more cynical and hard-boiled than she is, and tells the wyvern to essentially stop throwing a temper tantrum and go and rescue his girl. This actually turns out to be a running theme of the manga, as we run into some other villages that instinctively fear and despise monsters and beasts, only to find either a) they’re not as bad as feared, or b) they were never dangerous to begin with.

This does change with the final story, which also serves to give us a cliffhanger. Here we have an actual beast that is killing young children, and the father of one of these children bent on revenge. One of the really nice things about this series is showing off how Ferry thinks about her job and how to do it, and that it’s not merely “stop the problem”. In this case, that’s part of it, but she also needs to help the father work through his grief and do so in a way that is not “after I kill this monster, I will die”. Kushuna is there to do Ferry’s dirty work, but the good thing about Ferry is that she is well aware that the dirty work exists – he’s not protecting an innocent or anything. Ferry just happens to be very, very good at her job. Or at least, I am assuming so, unless she gets eaten by the water horse, which is the cliffhanger.

If you enjoy these sort of pastoral fantasy monster sort of tales that Seven Seas has created a niche market for, this is another good entry. I’ll be getting the next volume.

An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, Vol. 6

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By Fuminori Teshima and COMTA. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

Come on, you weren’t really expecting a normal volume where Zagan and Nephy go on a cute little date, right? Especially after seeing that cover. No, here we get the inverse of two volumes ago. Foll wants to grow up faster (so that she can be more powerful and protect Zagan), so Gremory suggests using a spell much like the one she uses to swap ages. The trouble is, as Foll’s a dragon and thus magic resistant, Zagan has to help by pouring mana into it. This causes… bad things to happen. Now Foll’s a busty 18-year-old, Zagan’s a little kid, and Nephy is pissed… when she’s not snuggling her now adorable l’il fiance. Fortunately, unlike when this happened to Nephy, Zagan is still of sound mind and with the proper memories. Unfortunately, no one knows how to fix this. Maybe the inter-species conference under the sea will be able to help? And does this mean they really have to rely on airheaded Selphy?

There’s a lot of good stuff in here about having more than one side to a person. It’s not clear if the spell/curse on Foll and Zagan actually affects them mentally, but certainly Zagan is a lot more petulant in this body, possibly because everyone is trying to snuggle him as he’s such a cute kid. The lesson learned here, though, is that just because he can do everything himself doesn’t mean he should – and that his loved ones want to stand on equal footing with him, not stand behind him while he protects them. This applies to Foll, who pretty much knew that there are no quick and easy ways to grow up but gets the valuable lesson drilled into her anyway, as well as to Nephy, who is still attempting to figure out her place in this world when it’s not just her and Zagan. Amusing as it was to see her calm fury several times during the book, the most significant scene may have been her reuniting with Nephteros and figuring out how they’re going to speak to each other going forward.

It’s possible that I’m making this book seem more serious than it is. My mistake – it may be the funniest book in the series. With Zagan as a kid, he has to get a new outfit, and you know what that means – it’s dress-up doll time with Manuela. Zagan’s horrified reaction when he realizes that Manuela and Gremory have met and are friends already is hysterical… actually, as usual, any scene with Manuela is great, leaving aside her sexual harassment. Also, those scenes with angry Nephy really are great, as she has the standard “smiling calmly while the top half of her face is shadowed’ ojou-sama style anger. It fits her well. I also really liked Selphy here, who is normally very much the ditz, but also shows signs of understanding the other cast members and getting them to open up.

Slave chokers and molesting sales clerks aside, this remains an excellent and fun light novel read. And it’s not an isekai, for those that try to keep track of such things.