Babel: The Bewitching Princess in the Birdcage

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By Kuji Furumiya and Haruyuki Morisawa. Released in Japan as “Babel III: Torikago Yori Izuru Youki” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Amelia Imogen.

So, first of all, I want to note that I *loved* this volume. It’s not only my favorite volume of Babel so far, but it may actually be my favorite book by Furumiya I’ve read so far. That said… boy, this is absolutely exhausting to read. As always with this author, it’s a brick – the digital version comes in at 463 pages – and much of it, especially in the back half, is a series of “is this going to end badly with Shizuku dead?” mini-cliffhangers. More to the point, while the start of the volume does indeed continue the themes of the previous one, showing Shizuku trying to explain how teaching language can be a good way to solve the current crisis – it rapidly derails into Shizuku doing what she does best, which is speaking to those in power and smacking them down. With Lars that mostly just led to a lot of arguments. With Princess Ortea, it leads to revolution.

We pick up from the cliffhanger of the previous book: Shizuku is being kidnapped and brought to another country by the evil mage Niké, with Erik’s life being threatened till she gives in. (As a result, Erik is almost entirely absent from this volume.) When she gets there, she discovers that mages have been conducting cruel experiments on children to solve the language issue, and Shizuku is there to try to solve it with her own solution, education. The one she has to impress is the cruel and capricious Princess Ortea, who has been running much of the nation behind the scenes and has a tendency to have people who displease her executed. As the book goes on, Shizuku becomes Ortea’s aide, and gradually comes to realize that there’s a lot more going on here than an evil princess and her worried brother the King. Is the answer overthrowing the monarchy? Yup.

For the most part, I adored this, though I could do without the curse above Shizuku’s womb that’s even more agonizing because she’s a virgin. The only thing more annoying than having superpowers that only work because someone is a virgin is having suffering that is even worse because someone is a virgin. That said, the best part of the book is talking about how you cannot erase your past actions, even if they’re atrocities (especially if they are), but you can try to atone for them and move forward, especially if you care more about the country than about power. Honestly, I kind of wonder if the final book will end with Lars and Ortea marrying, as while they get on even worse than Lars and Shizuku, I could see it working – they’re very similar. As for the lack of Erik, fear not, we do get a romance of sorts, as evil mage Niké turns out to not be all that evil really, and also gradually falling in love with Shizuku, despite her bad habit of getting kidnapped and shot at and stabbed and having painful womb curses put on her. Shizuku needs a break, let’s be honest. Anyway, needless to say he gets nowhere, but he does get in a kiss before she leaves, which is the one thing in the book that reads like a cliched anime moment.

The next book is the final one in the series. After Book 1, I was fairly sure that she would not be returning to Japan, but now I’m not so sure. Will Shizuku have to give up and settle down here? And can she solve the Babel crisis before she returns? A terrific series.

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 15

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By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Generally speaking, when a series has a volume that consists of nothing but battle scenes, I tend to groan and whine a lot. Battle scenes are hard to review beyond “yup, they sure did hit each other hard”. Strangely, though, I don’t really mind the ones that happen in Bofuri. Part of it is Bofuri’s a game, as opposed to endless “fantasy world that just happens to have game stats”, so I really don’t need to be concerned when a character I like dies. But the other reason is that I trust this author’s style. It’s fast-paced – the action really does not stop for a minute in this volume. And it’s short, so that I don’t need to worry about this taking 600 pages like some OTHER action driven series. Congratulations, Maple, you’re better than Bell at this. As for who the winner is… well, the event does end, but any aftermath will need to wait for Book 16.

This is the climax of the event, and there’s a lot going on. Maple shows off some death from above with mysterious acid rain. The group try out various strategies, but given the enemy has the Best Snipers Ever, as well as Naruto and Hinata… pardon me, Velvet and Hinata, Maple is in danger from this. So the best thing to do is to literally shove her in a box till she’s needed. The twins are separated, but each of them manages a suicide attack that devastates the enemy forces. Marx gets to briefly be cool before dying. Kasumi gets to briefly be cool before dying. Kanade gets to briefly be cool before dying. OK, maybe I was right to worry about writing this review.

And then there’s Maple and Sally. As I write this, the webnovel version of Bofuri came to a close two days ago, and the light novel will wrap up with the 20th volume next month. We’re a ways away from that ending, but I think I can be fairly confident how it’s going to wrap up. Maple and Sally have been the focus of the series fro0m the start, and as the books go on that’s become even more apparent – this is not a series that is just “what crazy shit will Maple come up with next?” This book is all about showing us just how utterly, utterly broken Sally is, how she’s just as terrifying as Maple if not more so, and that it’s even more impressive because while Maple’s play style mostly runs on her instincts, Sally’s is calculated to the last microsecond, allowing her to do the impossible while fooling people into thinking she can go BEYOND the impossible. Also, she is 100% gay for Maple.

The next volume should give an after-event recap of this arc, but more importantly, I think it will begin the climax that will take up the last quarter of the series. Can Maple and Sally get to the 10th Strata without finally being killed off? And can they continue to make everyone stare at them with their jaw dropped?

The Legendary Witch Is Reborn As an Oppressed Princess, Vol. 3

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By Touko Amekawa and Kuroyuki. Released in Japan as “Shiitagerareta Tsuihou Oujo wa, Tenseishita Densetsu no Majo deshita: Mukae ni Koraretemo Komarumasu. Juuboku to no Ohirune wo Jamashinaide Kudasai” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Jeremy Browning.

I always enjoy mysteries with multiple twists, even if I figure out some of them. This series has been very good about giving us those twists, which is good, as despite the final scene this series is a lot less action packed than the author’s other book, 7th Time Loop. Claudia is ten now, and even more than the other two books she mostly acts like a ten-year-old… well, OK, a 6-year-old. Claudia likes to weaponize being an adorable child, and I think she overdoes it a bit. She’s a magical powerhouse, but that is, again, used mostly subtly till the very end. Mostly, Claudia enjoys being doted upon as a new girl at the academy, does quiet investigations, and tries to get Noah to meet his half-brother, which Noah, frankly, has no desire to do. And honestly, given events in this book, I can’t blame him. Claudia and Noah may be codependent, but they’re also what’s best for each other.

Claudia and Noah have entered an academy for nobles to learn magic, mostly as there’s another curse going on there. Ships have been disappearing, and since this school is under the sea, and exactly where the ships vanish, it’s a good guess that’s where the cause is. As it turns out, this school was created by Adelheid, 500 years ago, to promote equality. Which it, well, isn’t really pulling off. We meet a gorgeous 18-year-old who is the belle of the school, beloved by all. We also meet her 11-year-old sister, whose lack of control over her magic terrified everyone, and who now mostly holes up in her room. They both sing, and the thought is that it’s a song that’s the cause of the missing ships. Also, how does Sieghart, Noah’s brother, figure into this? And are all these curse cases tying together?

It’s hard to talk about the climax of the book without spoiling it, and I already discussed Claudia’s childishness, but it’s interesting to see that she still appears to be pushing Noah to try to understand the greater world around him, presumably so that one day, when she is gone, he can go on to greater things. This is despite the fact that, multiple times a day, he tells her how devoted to her he is and that leaving her side even for a moment makes him upset. The adult Adelheid wants to push Noah away, but the child Claudia, I think, wants him to be there and dote on her – or have her dote on him. It ties in nicely to the story of this volume, which features a curse set off by people desperately reaching out to family because, in the end, they’re not as mature and put together as they might actually pretend. Even the villain of this book is also pretending to be mature and in control but, well, isn’t.

Claudia looks grown up on the cover of the 4th book, but I don’t think we’ll jump that many years. In any case, this remains a fun and intriguing mystery with age-up and age-down shenanigans galore.