Did You Think My Yuri Was Just for Show?

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By Neru Asakura and Minori Chigusa. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Yuri mo, Eigyou da to Omotta?” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Janny McKeon.

I wasn’t really sure what this was going to be when I first saw it. The author hasn’t had other titles licensed for the West (though they apparently wrote another, “spicier” yuri title previously). It’s also a one-shot. That said, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, although not necessarily for the yuri aspect of it. It’s an excellent look at the voice acting industry and how it can be very boom or bust at any time, told to us through the viewpoint of one of its bigger stars (though she would deny that). It also gets into the terror of idol fandom, both “trying to start a scandal for clicks” fandom and also what you do when you’re confronted with your celebrity crush in real life and you want to keep that sort of thing separate. Mostly, though, I enjoyed this because of its main character, Suzune, who is fantastic.

Suzune is, for once in this sort of series, NOT an up-and-coming wannabe voice actress. Instead, our narrator is well-established in the industry, not a top star but getting several roles a season, with usually one or two major titles. She’s also ‘yuri for real’ (gay and lesbian are not used, as the novel leans very deliberately into the ‘yuri’ label), something she’s hiding from most people except her friend at work who is the same. That said, Suzune hasn’t really experienced actual love per se. Sure, she’s a massive fan of Karin Shotsuki, the former leader of idol group DIAGONAL who mysteriously retired a few months ago. But being an ‘oshi’ for an idol is not the same thing as love, right? Then, of course, she’s introduced to the new kid on the block at the agency the next day… the same Karin.

Suzune is a type I always like, which is modest and realistic, a bit self-deprecating, but not overly so, and VERY good at what she does. Her professionalism throughout (well, mostly, I’ll get to it) was fantastic, and I even appreciated the scenes she had with the evil villain washed-up voice actress, which she was handling well enough but which Karin, out of necessity, had to take over. Speaking of Karin, she’s fine, and I liked her, but a bit less. I do think that Suzune was missing some very obvious signs that Karin was massively in love with her from the start, but given that Suzune was asking what love really is anyway, that can be expected. The one weak part of the book is the final scene, which not only feels very unrealistic (both in terms of what Suzune does, and the lack of consequences), but also feels abrupt as heck, as if the author was told to stop as they had a page limit.

Still, that’s 90% of a really great book. And it’s a one-shot, so you’re not investing much. For fans of voice actors and fans of yuri.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Minor Myths and Legends, Vol. 1

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By Fujino Omori and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Shohenshu” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

Oh goody, another short story collection, the first of two that have been given fancier names to disguise the fact that this is a collection of extra stories mostly written for bookstore exclusives, which means by definition that all of them, with one or two exceptions, not only cannot impact the ongoing narrative but cannot impact any of the character arcs. That said, I am always grateful that we get these anyway, as it’s nice to see the little content that Japanese readers got when they bought the volume at Toranoana, Animate, or Gamers. What’s more, fans of the harem aspect of this series, which usually takes a backseat in the main series to the ongoing “series of fights to the death” plot, will be eating well here. Everyone loves Bell and knows it (except Aiz), and Bell is clueless to everyone’s love but loves Aiz (who is clueless towards him). It’s in the title of the franchise!

Trying to summarize all of these would be impossible – most of them only run two pages or so. They take place over the course of Vol. 1-18 of the main series. Some of the ones that are longer than two pages include Eina and Bell’s first meeting, Hestia trying to be Bell’s supporter in the dungeon, a story taking place right after Bell first starts to become famous and shows off his growth as the smith who made his first knife asks if he can put it in his “hall of fame” section, after Vol. 6, Hestia tries another ball to try to dance with Bell, but it proves very difficult; Fels watches over Hestia Familia during the Xenos arc, and keeps a diary of what they are seeing – which quickly turns into a confessional of a sort, Cassandra makes another effort to get people to believe her right before the disaster that sends Bell and Lyu to the deep levels, Lyu and Bell are forced to drink slimes to survive in the dungeon, and three more that I’ll talk about below.

The three stories that work best here are the ones that actually *are* able to do something with character development. They all take place during the “Freya” arc of the series. Bell is going through enforced date training so he can go out with Syr, and as part of it rescues an Elf in Hermes Familia and tries to be suave as he was taught. It works far, far too well. In the second, we get the POV of Horn during the time when Bell is staying with Freya Familia and she’s manipulating everyone’s memories, which shows both Freya’s guilt and angst over her lot in love as well as her massive tsundere nature over Bell; and in the final, funniest story, Laurier does her own character poll of everyone in Orario, and runs into Horn, who is at loose ends after Freya’s fall. The cat fight they both get into, with Laurier praising Bell so much it makes you sick, and Horn tearing him down as much as possible, is simply fantastic.

That said, overall.. this is a short story collection. For fans only. Join us soon for Vol. 2, which has all the store giveaway stories for Sword Oratoria.

I Shall Survive Using Potions!, Vol. 10

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By FUNA and Sukima. Released in Japan as “Potion-danomi de Ikinobimasu!” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hiroya Watanabe.

Due to a weird scheduling quirk, I think this is the first time that I have read all three of FUNA’s licensed series in the space of two weeks. Seven Seas’ Make My Abilities Average! came out last month, but its digital version was delayed two weeks for unknown reasons. Kodansha’s Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World also came out with a new volume. And now we have I Shall Survive Using Potions!, which may not be the best of the three (I don’t think I can really call one of these series the “best” easily), but it’s certainly the most interesting, mostly as Kaoru is still an atomic bomb of a protagonist (the word “heroine” seems grotesquely wrong), and as these books have shown, the world that she is in, especially after the time skip, is a toxic one filled with greedy nobles, murderous thugs, and temple priests who have no idea why they should not be rude to a 12-year-old. Kaoru is not thinking about wiping out kingdoms for no reason

Kaoru is currently masquerading as the “stray priestess” Edith, but after almost getting herself murdered by bandits, she decides to performatively hire some bodyguards to protect her as well as talk to the local lord to try to find out who may have hired said bandits so she can eradicate them. Fortunately, the dumb evil noble sends a bunch of disguised soldiers, bandits and goons to kidnap and/or kill her, and it’s only due to the presence of… her bodyguards. And half the town. And, um, the local lord and his own soldiers… that this is foiled. Huh. Funny, that. Anyway, she and her two co-conspirators, Reiko and Kyoko, have decided to open a new shop in the capitol. Kaoru, as “Edith”, heads over there… and is immediately almost kidnapped. And then almost kidnapped AGAIN. Fortunately, guardian angels keep showing up in the nick of time. Funny, that.

So yes, the big gag of the back half of this volume is that Kaoru’s masterful powers of trying to fix her own mistakes and remain “an anonymous priestess with a little bit of power” are hopelessly doomed from the start. Partly because she’s so incredibly bad at not being her real, evil… erm, good, sorry… self, but also because in spite of this series timeskipping 70 years into the future, everyone that she adventured with in the past is still alive, because of her ludicrous OP potions. Especially Francette, who is now a living legend, is famous for bitchslapping a goddess till she stopped threatening to destroy the world, and has mobilized all the other Kaoru worshippers of yore to make sure that everything goes PERFECTLY for her. Kaoru must be disappointed, how is she supposed to commit a little genocide or two if everyone’s so NICE to her?

All this plus more of the PTSD-ridden codependent orphans who develop facial tics if they’re not working themselves to death for more than ten seconds. Potion Girl remains AP FUNA, the kind of FUNA you only read if you’re advancing to higher learning. Like learning how to defuse a bomb.