Outbreak Company, Vol. 7

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By Ichiro Sakaki and Yuugen. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

For the most part, I tend to wait at least a day before writing a review of something. Reflection can be a good thing, and so sometimes my opinions on Twitter – which are as I read – don’t match up with what’s here. And, let’s face it, this volume had an uphill battle to win my affection in the first place. I enjoy Outbreak Company a great deal, but not for the fanservice. Thus when you have a volume that, in one way or another, doubles down on such things, you’re going to be losing me. That said, it is not without interest. If you can ignore the fact that the entire first story seems to revolve around Minori’s tits, it’s actually a lot of fun, and there is some actual suspense in there briefly – that turns out to be undercut. It’s Outbreak Company’s excuse to do a beach episode with swimsuits, something it admits within the text, and as such is fine. The other two stories were a bit more problematic with me.

The second story should have easily been my favorite, as it’s an emotional character-driven piece. It’s also from the POV of Myusel, which makes for a great change. We’ve known since the first book that she’s half-elf, but the subject of her parents has never come up. Now, all of a sudden, due to changes in the family, her mother has arrived (she’s the elf) and wants Myusel to leave the mansion and come live with her. Myusel, we know, really does not want to do this at all, but runs up against everyone seemingly thinking it’s a done deal and accepting that it has to happen. And if Minori and Shinichi are already arranging for her replacement, how can she say no? I was struck by how obtuse everyone was being in this part. Frankly, as a reader, Myusel’s depression could not be more obvious if she’d tried, and the fact that the characters all assume she’s fine with it really bothered me. Do they really know her all that well? This was well-written but the characterization just felt… off.

The third story was apparently written with the help of one of the author’s female assistants, who is a fujoshi. He clearly said to her “I want a story where Minori is going through BL withdrawal, make it as exaggerated as possible.” And boy howdy, that’s what happened. Again, the issue I have is with the characterization. I’m fine with Minori being like this. Though the constant chants of “homo, homo” are perhaps a bit… insensitive, shall we say, they certainly fit with a certain type of fujoshi. I was more annoyed with this essentially turning into a fujoshi zombie movie, with Minori infecting everyone else in the story (even Myusel, though she holds out at first, for reasons that everyone but Shinichi understand) so that the entire cast are suddenly mindless BL maniacs. Yes, that’s the exaggeration, but it didn’t sit well with me. That said, if you enjoy over the top comedy, this may be your favorite segment. It’s certainly that. And OK, the “Vitamin BL” gag was very funny.

This was certainly a volume of short stories. There were some interesting parts, but I am hoping that next time around we get back to the main plot.

In Another World with My Smartphone, Vol. 12

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By Patora Fuyuhara and Eiji Usatsuka. Released in Japan as “Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

It’s actually been a while since I’ve had a volume of Smartphone that didn’t irritate me in some way. Touya does not take the time to wipe out and entire country full of evil cliches here, which helps a lot. Instead, we get what are essentially a bunch of short stories, as always – Smartphone has an ongoing plot, but it sort of judders along, and gets abandoned whenever the author feels like it. Here Touya investigates the hidden island discussed in prior volumes and makes contact with them; deals with a return of the creepy soul eating monster, which he now knows is being controlled by the rogue God (the one bit of ongoing plot here); travels to another dimension to help a group of phantom thieves; and tries to resolve a political romance. In between there’s time for a forest that’s being taken over by bad guys (and fanservice), and a puppet show. A very leisurely Smartphone, in other words.

The art is… mostly good, except for that cover, which has creeped me out ever since I first saw it in the original Japanese. Yae and Leen’s expressions are just deeply wrong. In any case, the fiancee horde actually gets a fair bit to do here, with each of Touya’s missions except the third one involving him traveling with one or more of the girls. The third, the one in the alternate world, honestly reads sort of like a backdoor pilot for a different series, and given most of the thieves are cute young girls, it’s likely for the best that the fiancees didn’t come along. They’re still not married, having a couple years of waiting to go, though after a fertility device works as planned (Sue’s getting a little sibling), Touya does take the time to ponder having children with his wives, and the wisdom of perhaps staggering them out a bit so he doesn’t have 8 kids at once. And, let’s face it, Linze’s puppet making ability, and the show that follows, runs on pure adorable. I won’t even complain about the forest of monsters that involves licking the heroine’s butts, though I will roll my eyes a bit.

As for Touya, the author has found a nice balance between him doing ludicrous things and his getting called out on doing ludicrous things. Given Touya’s lack of emotional range (he’s the sort to say “that makes me mad” in the same vaguely cheery voice he uses for everything), everyone around him has to pick up the slack a bit. This is shown off best in the final story, where he is forced by circumstances to fight a 10-year-old girl who is very strong in both fighting and magic and has grown rather proud and arrogant as a result. He’s asked to teach her humility… and he does, literally saying “it’s time to dunk on a 10-year-old”. Leaving aside how weary I am of terrified girls wetting themselves in Japanese series, the fight is hilarious, as is the reaction of everyone else, which is basically “I know we told you do to this, but eeeeeehhhh.” Poor Touya, once again history’s greatest monster.

If you’ve been avoiding Smartphone because it’s been leaning a bit too hard on the genocide sort of thing recently, this is an excellent volume ot pick up. It’s relaxed, fun, and features Touya being ludicrous.

Apparently It’s My Fault That My Husband Has the Head of a Beast, Vol. 2

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By Eri Shiduki and Kasumi Nagi. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Evelyn.

The second volume of this romance sees our heroine and her beast-headed husband traveling to a seaside religious community, hoping to find a way to cure both her condition and his. Unfortunately, there seems to be something very wrong in the Holy Land. There’s maids and princesses trying to take Rosemarie down, and she herself is seemingly possessed to leave the room late at night to try to return to the gods. That said, Rosemarie is made of sterner stuff in this book compared to the last one. Can she overcome mind control with the sheer power of being kind to people? Can she manage to tear herself away from her beloved bucket? And can she actually manage to have a direct conversation with Claudio where they both admit that they’re in love with each other? All the ingredients are here for a classic romantic potboiler. We may even discover what happened to her and Claudio as children!

The mystery is not really a good reason to read this (for a moment I thought we were going to meet a non-evil clergyman, but he was an undercover sorcerer, so…), but the romance holds up well, provided you’re OK with these two socially awkward kids doubting themselves and saying absolutely the wrong thing all the time. The reader will no doubt be sympathizing more with Heidi, Rosemarie’s maid who is somewhat desperate for her lady to realize that she is loved. That said, we do make some definite strides here. Rosemarie realizes that she’s actually jealous when Claudio is dealing with other women who have their eye on him, and that fixing his mana issue and leaving to go back home would devastate her. As for Claudio, he can still be a jerk when he’s trying to be kind (which leads to the funniest part of the novel, as his sorcerer friend literally kicks him in the ass for screwing up a romantic moment), but he too finds it in himself, albeit accidentally, to admit that he loves her.

The biggest problem with this book occurs at the end, when you finish it and realize that a lot of things are still up in the air. Rosemarie and Claudio’s problems have still not been solved, and they’ve still not consummated their marriage. They have admitted they love each other to their faces, but I was hoping for a bit more. Sadly, the second volume appears to be the final one, so this is all the closure that we’re going to get. I want to see more of these characters. I want Alto and Heidi to hook up (there’s zero evidence for this, but I want it to happen anyway). And there was almost no gardening! Am I going to be forced to turn to Bakarina for all my gardening heroine needs? Oh well. Despite a “you’re cancelled” feeling, only for light novels rather than manga, this has bee a fun and romantic little series. I recommend it for those tired of isekai.