From Two-Bit Baddie to Total Heartthrob: This Villainess Will Cross-Dress to Impress!, Vol. 3

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By Masamune Okazaki and Hayase Jyun. Released in Japan as “Mob Dōzen no Akuyaku Reijō wa Dansō Shite Kōryaku Taishō no Za wo Nerau” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Caroline W.

I’ve said before that the least interesting part of these villainess books tends to be “who will she end up with in the end?”. Either it’s obvious from the start, such as in Villainess Level 99; it’s obvious but the creator knows it won’t be popular so is delaying it as long as possible, such as My Next Life As a Villainess; or it’s not obvious but it doesn’t really matter as who she marries is mostly irrelevant, such as this series. Honestly, at the end of this third volume, the love interest with the biggest lead is still Lilia. The webnovel version of this series does list “GL subtext” as a warning, so they know what they’re doing, but I’m not convinced that’s an endgame – Lilia here suggests seducing Elizabeth’s older brother so that she can “be in the family” and get to be around her all the time. The good news is the worldbuilding is still pretty interesting.

There’s a new transfer student in school, and he surprises everyone by declaring he’s in love with Elizabeth and asking her to marry him. Constantly. At every possible moment. This is especially surprising to Elizabeth and Lilia, as they recognize him. Prince Yoh Won Lei is from the Eastern lands, and while he is meant to be a spy, he’s not supposed to be like this. For one thing, shouldn’t he be going after the saint? Unfortunately, as the book goes on, absolutely nothing seems to put the man off, and the other random girls in the class all seem to ship it – to the point where they set up a play of Snow White with Elizabeth – in a dress – as Snow White, and Yoh as the Prince. He’s gonna go for a kiss – everyone knows this. More importantly… what’s he really after?

This book has three real highlights. The first is the play – after so many “Sorta Cinderella” bad high school plays in manga, it’s nice to see “Sorta Snow White”, and Lilia as the fourth-wall breaking narrator is a delight. The second is early on when the four male love interests corner Lilia in the student council room and try to get her to back off Elizabeth, as she was rejected. Lilia points out, correctly, that she was rejected as she actually confessed, something none of them have done. Then there’s the climax, which not only has Elizabeth coming to a dramatic (if mostly offscreen) rescue, but also has Lilia confessing that she’s figured out what’s wrong with this world – the gods, or whoever, are trying to keep the game script accurate, but she is now too powerful for it, so can alter the script. She’s not the only one – I think Elizabeth has that power as well, she just doesn’t know it. They may both need reality-breaking powers, though, as more and more people seem to have identified Elizabeth as the reason their evil plans are not working.

The author makes sympathy whining about this possibly being the final volume, but there’s at least two more in Japan. I’ll read more, though honestly, Elizabeth’s baffled density about why all these guys seem to want to hang around her may be the book’s big flaw.

The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori, Vol. 2

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By Kaeru Ryouseirui and Natsuki Amashiro. Released in Japan as “Umidori Tougetsu no “Detarame” na Jijou” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Generally speaking, my reviews these days tend to follow the pattern of “first paragraph discussing book, cover image, second paragraph summarizing plot, third paragraph giving good/bad/etc, epilogue”. And that’s what this will be too. That said, after reading this book I feel I have to put up a warning: I Swear I Am Not Making This Up. Because frankly, after reading the summary of this volume, I think one or two people might suspect I hated the book so much I just started making up absolute nonsense. Which isn’t true, I quite liked this book. But wow, the plot is indeed absolute nonsense… and yet, in the context of this world, it makes perfect sense. It’s true to the characters. It’s especially true to Umidori, and I have to admit, when she got that phone call asking her to guess who this was? I guessed it fairly quickly. Because this is a series that glories in being utterly unhinged. (And gay.)

Tougetsu Umidori is relatively happy, two weeks after the first book. She’s coming home from her job, telling Bullshit-chan she’ll be home soon, when she gets a mysterious call from someone who says they know her very well. Intimately, in fact. Despite the fact that they’ve never been to school or hung out together. As it turns out, we know the caller very well too. Because in the prologue for this book, we saw Umidori digging a grave in the back of her apartment complex and burying someone… and now they’re crying out to her, demanding that she dig them up. Unfortunately, at the same time, a mysterious cooking accident knocks Bullshit-chan unconscious, so she’s unable to help with the fact that the pencils that Umidori deep-fried and ate have gained sentience and can communicate with her. And love her. In fact, the love is pretty much mutual.

As I said, not making this up, and it’s not even the weirdest thing in the book. Honestly, the character of the pencils, who ends up taking the name Togari Tsukishigaoka, may be the best part of the book, wanting to help Umidori but also knowing what that help will cost her. The nature of the lies and what they can do to people’s psyches is explored further, and there is perhaps a worrying amount of co-dependency going on here, but in a series that has a girl in a love triangle with her best friend and a bunch of sentient pencils given human form, that’s probably the least of my problems. If there’s a weak part of this book it’s probably the villains, who simply are not as good as Hurt (who’s also back in this book, taking on the role of the tsukkomi/sidekick when needed). They mostly exist because we need a villain to drive the plot.

This is apparently halfway through the series, though the third volume doesn’t have a date here yet. If you’re looking for weird ass stuff with not-quite-monsters, this is right up your alley.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “There’s Only One Guy For Me”

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By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

This is a really short book, even for a series that does not generally have long volumes to begin with. It’s 142 pages. I actually found myself wondering if it was supposed to have the Isana plotline going on throughout, but the main plot got away from the author, so they simply cut it out. But then, it does make sense that you’d want to keep the focus entirely on Akatsuki and Kawanami. Their backstory was always a very spiky and uncomfortable one in an otherwise mostly mild romcom series, and a lot of the books have been trying to bring them both to a point where they can finally take a step towards each other again and have it be believable. The way that it does that is by looking even further at the issues that Kawanami has with women, and how they are, in a very real sense, PTSD. As such, it makes sense that this volume feels like the series finale of M*A*S*H at times, as his own memories may not be reliable.

Kawanami wakes up one morning in his bed, dressed only in boxers. He sees a girl leaving his room in a hurry. He also has no memory of the previous evening. At the same time, Akatsuki also wakes up in her bed, in bra and panties, and does not remember what happened the previous night. A horrible thought crosses their minds: did they, y’know, DO IT? Unfortunately for the both of them, Mizuto and Yume are out of town, off on the annual family reunion that we’ve seen in a previous book. What’s worse, Kawanami goes out for karaoke and bowling with his friends, and it becomes very clear that something happened with his good friend Makoto, who is being referred to very carefully so as not to spoil the reader. As things come to a head and he has a complete breakdown, Akatsuki grabs him and the two run away to Osaka… and a love hotel.

This series has always been very horny, and the author jokes that they may have taken things a bit too far this time with that love hotel scene. No, they don’t go all the way, but certain things are done, and both of them get a nice view of each other naked. That said, the reason this is a pretty good book is the emotional catharsis that Kawanami gets, as Akatsuki points out that he’s basically cured of his reaction to women, he just doesn’t actually realize it. The bit where Mizuto points out to him the way that he’s misremembering things made it clear that this really is very similar to PTSD, and as such it’s definitely a good thing the two stopped when they did. In any case, they’re now a couple, which means we likely have only one major arc left in this series, the “what will we do after graduation?” bit.

If you enjoy this series, this is a decent read. And short. Also, while I hesitate to mention current memes in a review, it’s really hard not to look at that cover art and not think “let’s take ibuprofen together!”.