One of these days we’ll have a nice relaxing book where Carmine is given a respite from constant chaos and attempts to take over the Empire, but that day is not today, and honestly probably we’ll never get that. That said, at least Carmine is finally starting to ditch the need to pretend to be a dumb puppet emperor… mostly. He’d like to do this, and he gets to demonstrate that he does know magic after all in a truly ludicrous sequence where he drops a magic nuke, but for the most part the conceit can still be useful. Especially when, following up on the cliffhanger from the last book, the old leader of the Imperium, the religious republic next door that is the Empire’s biggest threat, shows up seeking asylum. Along with his loser son and a terrified aide. So Carmine once again has to pretend to be kinda dumb while he figures out what to do, because every answer seems to be “but that will lead to war”.

Carmine is so caught off guard by the news of the asylum seekers that he has to fake a contagious illness for a few days to gain time to think and gather information. Then he heads back to the capital, meets the Imperium guys, and big surprise, they’re terrible. The former leader is the decadent Roman emperor sort, and his son is scheming and wants power, but doesn’t really have any smarts to back it up. They also clearly have spies in their entourage. In the meantime, of course, the Empire is still fighting a war on several fronts, so Carmine also has to head over to another front line to see how things are going… where, unfortunately, he arrives far too quickly thanks to Count Ethiac, who essentially drugs her horse to ride at top speed for hours to get there as fast as she can. Oops.

The author seems to be swapping out eccentric but unhinged women every book. At the end of this one Count Ethiac is dumped, mostly due to making everything more difficult. In her place we get Illumino, who is the granddaughter of the Gotiroir, who are the “Mongolian horde” equivalent in this series. She’s very strong and very good at being a bodyguard, but cares nothing about anyone around her, so is a terrible commander. She’s also interested in Carmine, and wants to marry him, mostly because he’s the only guy who’s NOT interested in her. Carmine has now found a third weirdo he doesn’t want, which is a shame, as I think Rosaria is dropping hints she would like a couple more wives, if only to build a power base. I apologize for only talking about the mostly non-existent harem in this series, but the alternative is discussing military maneuvers, and no.

Another cliffhanger, as someone is trying to assassinate Carmine! He’s framed as an old enemy we should remember, but this cast is so huge I don’t. I’m sure it’s dramatic. Will he live? Oh, probably. Decent read.

Assuming that the average reader of this series gets past the title, which is a bit more ludicrous than usual, they’re going to run up against the lead. And assuming that they get past the lead’s tendency to talk about himself like he’s still a chuuni (which is half of the point of this series), we get to the other point of this series, which likely resonates with a lot of people. The idea that hard work will be rewarded is a good, idealistic one that unfortunately is not always true in the real world. As such, a lot of fiction, particularly shonen fiction, revolves around the fact that you can do absolutely anything provided that you do it often enough. Do you suck at something? Do it ten million times, and you will get better! (True.) And then all the good things in life will be yours (not necessarily true except in series like these).

Our nameless main character rescues a kid from the inevitable truck, dies, and ends up in front of a bored and amused Athena, the goddess currently in charge of reincarnating people. He grew up in Japan thinking he would be IMPORTANT, and idolizing shonen main characters. So she offers to put him in the world of Chronicle of the Round Table Heroes, a visual novel, as the Hero Fey. He immediately accepts! Unfortunately, she’s amusing herself. Not only is Fey the guy who bullies random people and gets the shit beaten out of him in the game itself (the real hero is named Tru), but the VN is also pretty damn dark, with most of the cast meeting Bad Ends. But that matters little to our guy. What is perhaps more concerning is that the game limits how much he’s able to change – the original Fey was an asshole, after all. So he has to train as hard as he can and join the Holy Knights… while still being kind of a jerk.

Clearly I finished this, so there were things I liked. It’s quite readable, as I’ve come to expect from TO Books, who usually do a good job selling their product. I really liked the main “heroine”, named Arthur (the names sometimes skew Arthurian due to the game’s title), who is incredibly beautiful and talented but has the social skills of a brick. Since Fey, as he is still very much “sullen asshole who simply trains constantly”, also has the social skills of a brick, they get on quite well. Other than that… while I did like the teacher’s backstory, and I appreciated that she was allowed to avoid her cruel and horrible fate (and I hope one days she avenges her family), describing her as the “busty loli” type and having her fall massively in love with Fey by the end made me sigh. Ah well, so goes life. the actual lead, Tru, also fades into the background as the series goes on. I’d have liked it more if he ended up an antagonist, but the author seems content to have him just be wary of Fey but still basically a hero. Which is nice, but duller.

So this wasn’t great, but wasn’t terrible. I might read another. Recommended for fans of the genre.

Ah, we’ve hit that difficult third album, I see. It was inevitable, given that the first two volumes of this series basically ended up being “this is better than I thought”, that I’d run into one that was on a level of exactly what I thought. In practice, this means that while this volume is for the most part enjoyable, it has a subplot that actively grates on me and which I found interminable. What’s worse, I worry it will crop up again – this seems the sort of author who would try to think of other ways to use that subplot in the future for “comedy” reasons. Sigh. Other than that, this basically wraps up the two-volume arc from last time, shows Reid simultaneously behaving like a prodigy and also having the emotional capacity of the child he is, and also giving us a cute dwarf girl to go with its cute elf girl. Though the dwarf is an adult.

After last time, Reid has impressed the dark elf king and helped to take down an evil noble, but he also showed off a bit TOO much, so his dad forbids him from going into town. This is a problem, as he has to find the herb that’s used in the medicine needed to cure his mother, one that’s supposed to be in the neighboring evil forest (yes, it’s called the Evil Forest, really). That said, his fiancee is not prohibited from visiting the town. So clearly Reid has to dress up as a maid in order to get around this. Hijinks, as you might guess, ensue. They come across a skilled dwarf brother-and-sister blacksmith shop, though they’re currently being threatened by a different evil noble. They also come across a guy who does know of the herb in question under a different name. But he’s ALSO being threatened by that evil noble. man, how many evil nobles does this series have?

So yes, everything about Reid dressed as a maid, and (inevitably) Prince Rhesis falling for “her” made me wince like I was hearing nails on a blackboard. Every single “gag” paid off like a pie to the face, and that’s not a good thing. I have no doubt we’ll see Reid in disguise as a maid again, even if I don’t want it. Other than that, this was pretty good. Reid gains a new butler/intelligence officer, who has a better gag in that he’s one of those “I don’t know how to smile properly as I am stoic as hell” types. That’s fun. This also, oddly, causes the dwarf girl to fall for him – since I’m not getting the hot gay bodyguard romance I want (due to them tragically not being gay), I guess this one is OK. I was also amused to see that Reid’s father is essentially a pushover when it comes to his family, and I have no doubt that, if this series ever lets anyone age, Farah will be able to manipulate Reid the same way.

That said, future volumes imply that this is not going to be a “two years passed” kind of series, but more “Volume 12, 5 days after Vol. 4”. I’ll keep up, but less wacky crossdressing hilarity, please.

We’ve started to see metatextual isekai with folks hit by Truck-kun who are delighted to be in another world, ready to eat up all those great tropes, get a harem of cute babes, and have a +1 sword new life. (Indeed, I have one in my queue for two days from now.) So it should not particularly be a surprise that we’re getting the shoujo equivalent, which is to say girls who are absolutely delighted to find that they’ve reincarnated and they’re now a villainess. For once it’s not due to love of the genre when they were Japanese – this particular girl is reincarnated from THIS world, she just remembers her past life. But it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that “villainess” has once again been twisted a bit to mean “incredibly cool and powerful girl who just ojou-sama laughs a lot”. There will be no evil here. Which is good, as this world is already filled with evil.

We open with Mitia Lumiol… no, she’s not having her engagement broken. Instead, it’s the usual “your magic isn’t what I wanted, so I hate you” from her father. We then get her telling us about her reincarnated memories, her love of romances with villainesses, and how getting exiled from home to a dying part of the country is perfect as this means she can put her master plan into effect. Her master plan… to be AWESOME! Coming with her are her maid, Ciel, who went from “wow, she’s suddenly become a different person” to “she is my literal daughter that I gave birth to only not literally” in a couple short years, and her butler, Vincent, who is actually a spy but who thinks that Mitia is secretly a genius, and decides to ally with her because of her goal. Which is to be AWESOME! … by healing the sick, repairing the land, lowering taxes, and essentially being a good person, unlike most other nobles in this book.

As you may have gathered, how much you enjoy this depends how much you are prepared to buy into the silliness of its lead. It’s basically a cross between Observation Records of My Fiancee (Mitia and Bertia are very, very similar) and The Eminence in Shadow (Mitia’s followers all adore her, and things she makes up later turn out to be 100% true). Her lowly Household Magic turns out to only be lowly if you don’t have all the mana she does, as she can essentially cast it on top of itself till it can do almost anything. She’s also very GOOD at being an evil villainess, which is to say that she’s not a ditz – she can use blackmail and cleverness with the best of them. It’s just that, despite her past memories, she acts like a six-year-old trying to be nineteen. Which is to say, she’s absolutely cute as hell. This is why she gets Ciel and Vincent, who by the end of the book basically admit they’re her new parents (there’s no romance between them yet, or indeed between anyone, but it is a Heart title). And her former village thugs turned crack secret agents. And the prince in disguise, who she… loathes, as she doesn’t see through the disguise at all.

So yeah, enjoyed that. Very silly. And there’s a second volume! Hooray! Surely that will be the start of a long run… what’s that ominous train in the distance?

ASH: For real.

SEAN: Yen On moved about half its books to this week, including the debuts. Ayakashi à la Mode is a one-shot fantasy novel. A girl abandoned at a shrine is raised by the spirits that dwell around it, most of whom are quite nice. Sadly, this girl also needs to learn not all spirits are nice.

ASH: This absolutely sounds like something I would read.

SEAN: Scarlet is the latest book by Mamoru Hosoda, who wrote Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, etc. A princess trying to revenge her father fails, and ends up in the world of the dead. Can she get her revenge anyway?

ASH: I have enjoyed Hosoda’s previous works and I do appreciate a good revenge story.

SEAN: Why Run? My Summoned Beast Is Cute! (Naze Nigerundai? Boku no Shoukanjuu wa Kawaii yo) asks “what if the cute summoned familiar was actually a terrifying tentancled monstrosity? No one gets our hero’s aesthetic at all.

ASH: Awwwww.

SEAN: Also out in light novels: The Holy Grail of Eris 5 (the first volume since 2023, as the series switched publishers in Japan), I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too 8, Secrets of the Silent Witch 8, Sentenced to Be a Hero 6, and Your Forma 7.

And now we get Yen Press and its 38 volumes of manga. Starting with How to Handle My Sassy Big Sis (Namaiki na Gyaru Ane wo Wakaraseru Hanashi), a seinen series from Tonari no Young Jump. A guy has an older stepsister who constantly disparages him. Then he’s told she may be the sort who’s secretly a tsundere, so he tries to actively cause that.

It’s Strictly Business (Eigyou desu kara) is a BL manga by the author of Cheeky Brat, Spring Storm & Monster, and Stray Cat & Wolf. No het romance this time, though! This runs in Hana to Yume’s BL spinoff Trifle. A guy tries to pick up the girls at his college, but fails miserably. Maybe if he contrasts himself with his cool clubmate? Or will that lead to something COMPLETELY different?

ASH: It just might!

SEAN: JUDGE Ultimate Verdict Edition is an omnibus of the previously released manga. Death game, creepy stuff, etc.

Let’s Go Nirvana! (Joubutsusasete yo!) stars a young yakuza trying to make a name for himself… till killers murder everyone in the family but him and the boss’ daughter! Now he has to hide by posing as a Buddhist monk! This runs in Kurage Bunch.

ANNA: OK, I find this premise amusing.

ASH: Right?! I am absolutely here for this.

SEAN: Mage of Leda (Leda no Majutsushi) is a fantasy manga from Aokishi. A pathetic orphan teen has had a terrible life. He knows the “I’ll teach you magic!” offer is shady. He takes it anyway.

ASH: Sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do.

SEAN: Pardon the Intrusion, I’m Home! (Tadaima, Ojamasaremasu!) is a shoujo manga from Koisuru Soiree. A young woman who tries to escape her OL life by otaku pursuits finds… her tiny apartment has been expanded, and now has two roommates! We have hot guy (kind ver.) and hot guy (annoying ver.) What’s a girl to do?

MICHELLE: Fall for the annoying one, I predict.

ANNA: I would like parts of my house to be magically expanded but do not need any more roommates.

ASH: Oooooooh.

SEAN: Servant Beasts is a Harta manga, meaning it’s sui generis. A beast man is bought by a witch who uses him like a servant, but his innate niceness gradually wears him down.

Spy Classroom 4th Period: Bonfire (Spy Kyoushitsu 4-bu: Kagaribi) starts adapting the next arc in the series. It runs in Comic Alive+.

Three Days of Happiness: The Complete Omnibus (Jumyou wo Kaitotte Moratta. Ichinen ni Tsuki, Ichimanen de) collects all three volumes of the manga adapting the novel also released by Yen. It ran in Media Works Bunko. A young man sells thirty years of his life for a happy present day.

ASH: There is a sad logic to that.

SEAN: Thus Spoke the Rabbit (Usagi wa Kaku Katariki) is a fantasy manga from Comic Fuz. Man-eating rabbits have ravaged a city. Only a wolf girl and a bunny girl can save them now.

What Six Survivors Told… (Ikinokotta 6-nin ni Yoru to) is a horror manga from Harta. During a zombie crisis, six people hide in a mall.

MICHELLE: Intriguing.

SEAN: Also from Yen Press: The Adventure of Black Cat Nyango 2 (the final volume), Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring 5, Assorted Entanglements 10 (the final volume), Blade & Bastard 5, Daughter of the Emperor 14 (the final volume), Dead Mount Death Play Side Story: Phantom Solitaire’s Art of Disguising Oneself as a Supernatural Being 3, The Eminence in Shadow 15, The Failure at God School 4, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman 6, The Holy Grail of Eris 12, Land 3, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story 8, Merit and the Egyptian God 2 (the final volume), Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury—Vanadis Heart 2, Murciélago 27, My Lover Is Just Too Innocent to Handle 2, My Super-Cute Black Mage! 2, Overlord: The Undead King Oh! 14, A Pen, Handcuffs, and a Common-Law Marriage 2, Scenes from Awajima 3, Sentenced to Be a Hero 2, Shino & Ren 2, The Terrifying Students at Ghoul School! 2, Unnamed Memory 8, Victoria of Many Faces 4, Void: No. Nine 2, and Yowamushi Pedal 29.

MICHELLE: I need to read Scenes from Awajima.

ASH: I’ve picked up my copies! (But haven’t actually read them yet…)

SEAN: Meanwhile, in non-Yen manga, There’s Viz, and the Black Torch Complete Box Set, collecting all five volumes.

And Pokémon: Sun & Moon Complete Manga Box Set, which has 12 volumes.

And in non-box sets, we get Dorohedoro Illustrations: Mud and Sludge, a 350-page hardcover guide to Dorohedoro.

ASH: I never expected this to be licensed here and so went out of my way to track down a copy of the Japanese edition when it was first released. Really good stuff.

And we also see JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 7–Steel Ball Run 9 and Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show 6 (the final volume).

Retailers say Udon Entertainment has Hidetaka Tenjin’s Artistry of Gundam, an artbook. They said this in April too.

ASH: Hmmm.

Tokyopop debuts Aoharu Once More, a BL title that’s from from Red (still the most annoyingly titled magazine ever). Two boys almost get together in high school, but don’t. Now they’re adults, can they finally fix things?

They also have Apprentice Nail Artist in a Foreign Land 2, Beneath the Falling Camellia Blooms 2, and My Contract With the Apothecary Monster 3.

Square Enix debuts Boyish Girlfriend (Boyish Kanojo ga Kawaisugiru). A guy is surprised to find his tomboyish, male clothes wearing girlfriend in cat ears and a maid outfit for the school festival. Now he’s hooked on her looking girly. This runs on the Manga Up! app.

ASH: I’m cautiously curious.

SEAN: Seven Seas has some danmei. Joyful Reunion 5 and Silent Reading: Mo Du 4.

They also have a non-Airship novel, Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea 2.

Give Me a Hug, Mr. Frog! (Hug Shite! Kaeru-san) is a one-shot BL manga from Kurofune Pixiv. A student council president falls for the mystery boy in the frog mascot costume at a local cafe.

ASH: No judgement here.

SEAN: The Misdeeds of an Extremely Arrogant Villain Aristocrat (Kiwamete Gouman Taru Akuyaku Kizoku no Shogyou) runs in Kadocomi, and adapts the light novel also released by Seven Seas.

Uesugi-kun Wants to Quit Being a Girl (Uesugi-kun wa Onnanoko wo Yametai) is a shoujo manga from Ciao Plus. A short, cute boy finds girls don’t even see him as a male. He prays at a shrine… and wakes up transformed INTO a girl! This could go one of two ways, I’m hoping for the good way.

ANNA: I mean, it is good to be cautious.

ASH: Agreed on all points.

SEAN: Yuri Yuri Panic: A Case of Extreme Cuteness Has Occurred! (Yuri Yuri Panic: Toutosugiru Jian ga Hasseishiteimasu!) is a yuri manga from Monthly Web Action. An introverted, plain Jane girl suddenly finds the most popular girl in school… wants to marry her!

ASH: Oh, my!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: DEAR. DOOR 4, The Delinquent and the Transfer Student 2, Kageki Shojo!! 16, Magical Buffs: The Support Caster is Stronger Than He Realized! 7, Roses and Champagne 4, and What It Means to Be You 5.

One Peace Books has Teppeki Honeymoon 3, which they advertise, in the blurb, “Readers can enjoy a character-driven romance featuring exciting action, clean language, and content that remains free of sexual material, nudity, and fan service.” Which makes me wonder who is now paying for One Peace Books to stay alive, and if they’re Evangelicals or something. O_o

MICHELLE: Wow.

ANNA: Yikes. I dunno, anytime I see “clean” in the marketing I am dubious.

ASH: Huh.

SEAN: Kodansha Manga’s print debut is another spinoff. Cells at Work! Cat (Hataraku Saibou Neko) seems to be half “blood cells inside a cat” and half the owners of the cat. It ran in Shonen Sirius.

ASH: I was not expecting Cells at Work to cross with a cat manga, but I am also not complaining.

SEAN: Also in print: Blue Lock 34, Cells at Work! Lady 5 (the final volume), Gachiakuta 12, Mushishi Collector’s Edition 3, and What If I Said, “I Love You”? 2.

ASH: I’m still ecstatic that Mushishi is back in print.

SEAN: And guess what got bumped? Witch Hat Atelier: Grimoire Edition 2 should be next week, maybe?

ANNA: I just got the first one a few days ago (not sure what the delay was) and it is gorgeous.

ASH: It really is!

SEAN: For digital we get A Couple of Cuckoos 30, Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 23, and Yamaguchi-kun Isn’t So Bad 13.

J-Novel Club has some print titles. We see The Misfit of Demon King Academy 8, Safe & Sound in the Arms of an Elite Knight 2 (manga version), and The Water Magician Arc 1 2.

The debut is a manga, seemingly a one-shot, but there’s definitely a sequel. Reset is a J-Novel Knight title, ergo BL, and ran in Chara. Two basketball players get into a relationship, but the codependency may be ruining everything.

ASH: Codependency does have that tendency.

Other manga out next week: Fluffy-Eared Realm Restoration: Taking It Slow with My Cool Big Brother 2 (the final volume), Imperial Reincarnation: I Came, I Saw, I Survived 5, and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer 13.

Digital light novels from JNC include By the Grace of the Gods 18, Cooking with Wild Game 35, EXP Is Golden 5, Finding My Way to (You) in This MMO World 2, From Two-Bit Baddie to Total Heartthrob: This Villainess Will Cross-Dress to Impress! 6, From Villainess to Healer 7, The Poison King: Now that I’ve Gained Ultimate Power, the Bewitching Beauties in My Harem Can’t Get Enough of Me 8, and The Tiny Witch from the Deep Woods 5.

Hanashi Media also has a light novel: I’m Just a Villager, So What? 5.

Airship has one print light novel, Chronicles of an Aristocrat Reborn in Another World 3.

And for digital they have I Got Married to the Girl I Hate Most in Class 4 and Survival in Another World with My Mistress! 10.

Assuming you kept reading after the Yen Press stuff, what are you buying?

Boy, do I have mixed feelings about this one. I’ve read this author before – among their titles over here are The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend and Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin – and can’t help but notice that I eventually dropped both of those other series. The author enjoys dabbling in various genres, and it shows. I’d also argue the blurb is slightly false advertising – after spending the bulk of the first half focusing on Emilia, as promised, she promptly vanishes, as this book is not interested in her story. it’s all about the former assassin turned priest, his grim job now continuing in secret, and the crappy, crappy world he lives in. Things may be peaceful, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of terrible people around.

The world used to be at war, and needed people like Zach, a skilled assassin and master of disguise. Now that the world is, theoretically, at peace, Zach decides to retire and lead a humble life as a priest in an orphanage – helped out by his former contact Rebecca, who disguises herself as a nun to help him because she has a not-so-secret crush on him. For the next few years, things seem to go well, and one of his graduated orphans is even now a knight captain in the nearby city. Unfortunately, there’s still lazy, creepy nobles, there’s still arrogant bandits, and there’s still child slavers. Clearly it’s time for a former assassin to put on a fresh new disguise and go out to take care of business so his cute l’il orphans can grow up in peace. He may even have to stop a coup.

So, despite the cover that seems to suggest a slow-life, relaxed sort of book, content warning: this book has a child being raped until she is killed. We don’t see it, but we graphically hear it. It was a repugnant scene, and honestly it wasn’t needed to show off the bad guys were really bad. We also see more child slaves in other sections, mostly there to be rescued by Zach. And there’s also Emilia, a 19-year-old knight captain who doesn’t seem to understand why it’s a bad idea to have all the knights room in the same barracks together regardless of gender. Zach is, honestly, a bit overprotective about this. The book emphasizes the sexism in its universe while also being sexist itself, and that doesn’t sit very well. On the bright side, the prose is pretty zippy, and some of the interactions between clueless Zach and the various women who like him but he doesn’t see it are cute in a light novel way. But honestly, I wish this didn’t have the fluff. It’s meant to be grim, and reminds me a bit of titles like Secret Saint and Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, which also had rape in their early volumes before gradually scrubbing it out.

So yeah, I continue to have issues with this author. But if you liked their other titles, and don’t mind the questionable content, it’s certainly readable.

I’ve mentioned before that a lot of light novels these days feel like eating stew. The author puts together various ingredients they have around the house, cooks it all up, and if you’re lucky it ends up being far tastier than you were expecting. Unfortunately, sometimes you aren’t so lucky. Sometimes you get what Japan calls “dark nabe”, where people throw deliberately bad ingredients in and the person eating it just ends up unhappy. This should have been a delicious stew. It’s a comedy – in fact, it verges on parody. It’s got a really strong girl who’s also kinda dumb. I normally eat these sort of titles up. Unfortunately, the book cannot quite get past… well, OK, there’s many things wrong with this book, but the biggest is that its heroine, Satie, is thoroughly unlikable. She’s not an airheaded ditz meathead who’s fun to read about, she’s just annoying.

Please count the cliched light novel tropes with me. Our heroine, Saki, is an overworked office lady (1) whose parents abandoned her (2) and who is far too small for her age (3). One day, she saves what she thinks is a cat from being run over by a car, only to die herself (4). She then meets a goddess (5), who explains that what she actually rescued was a plastic bag (6 – OK, so that’s only KonoSuba, but still). She’s offered reincarnation in Japan, or reincarnation in a world filled with fantasy tropes (7). Normally, for once, they don’t give out free stat buffs, but her death was so hilarious – erm, touching – that Hades offers her one cheat skill (8). She decides, having never had a boyfriend due to her small stature, to ask for a smoking hot body. But she words it ambiguously (9), and she ends up smaller than ever – in fact, she’s a perpetual seven-year-old (10) – but her strength is such that she can take down entire armies! (11).

Satie is a pain. Her buffed stats don’t kick in till she takes out a monster, so she doesn’t even realize what’s happened till she’s 13 years old and she kills a slime (12… OK, I’ll stop) that’s terrorizing a cute little puppy that turns out to be Cerberus, a hellhound. Instead, she’s spent most of her time sulking in her room. Her sister loves her, but also sort of regards her as useless, and her parents have given up on her. This is most as she’s given up on herself – she admits she’s not smart and hates to study, so this is not a “sure, my sibling got all the looks and talent but there’s still something I can do” sort of series. Once she gets her powers, she does do things like take on giant monsters, save her sister from a creep trying to use her as a hostage, and prevent a war between two kingdoms by taking one over in half a day. The whole thing is meant to be funny, but it barely raises a chuckle, mostly as Satie is just a whiny girl who doesn’t understand how life works. To be fair, she does manage to avoid breaking up the love between the prince and his childhood friend. Eventually.

This is a Drecom title, and so no doubt there will be one or two more, but they’re not out yet, and I feel comfortable abandoning Satie here. For folks who enjoyed I Shall Survive Using Potions! but figured a 12-year-old body was way too old.

KATE: I’m with Sean: Agatha Christie FTW!

ANNA: Agatha Christie does sound delightful, but I also feel compelled to shout out the rerelease of Wandering Son!

ASH: Wandering Son was (is?) such an important series to me personally. Even if we don’t see the rest of it translated, I am so glad to see the manga available in print again. It’s definitely my pick this week.

We’re definitely heading into the endgame with this book, though there will be three more after it (the series ended in Japan with book 6, and we’ve been getting it since book 2 in halves). The subtitle is absolutely not wrong, and for once the forced cliffhanger halfway through the book is a terrific cliffhanger – no “the book just kind of stops” here. That said, yikes, that escalated quickly, even for That Escalated Quickly: The Series. The entire volume is Karen trying to get word to Reinald to accelerate his plans, which may be a bit tricky given he was sent away to solve an insoluble problem. And there’s also the issue that, well, Reinald is kind of the bad guy here, and Karen spends a lot of the book firmly declaring she knows this but she is on his side anyway. We are choosing blood and conquest, and our heroine, despite her misgivings about gunpowder now being a thing here, is making it happen more than anyone else.

Karen prepares for Six to transport her to the city of Estaverde, where Reinald is doing delicate negotiations to try to get the city to be part of the Empire again – though so far they won’t even talk to him. Unfortunately, Six’s teleportation sends Karen on top of an assassin trying to kill Kiem, the leader of the city in question, and despite technically saving his life she’s thrown into prison. Quickly released thanks to Reinald, she delivers her message: the Emperor and Wilhelmina are teaming up to get rid of him. This forces Reinald to advance his plans, helped out a bit by the fact that Kiem has something he wants and Reinald can help him get it, and also by Karen, whose hair, in this country, makes her a sort of lucky cat statue. Then Karen goes back home and everything gets worse and worse.

The first two-thirds or so of this book is a lot of fun. We once again see, despite Karen thinking he has no feelings for her at all, and Reinald’s insistence that he’s not taking a wife, that they’re perfect for each other, and that Karen understands Reinald better than anyone except his closest aides, and while I think he still struggles to get Karen’s mindset, he’s now accepted it. We also get a really cool swordfight, showing that Reinald loves to fight dirty, not a great look for a supposed royal. That said, I was unsurprised that the moment Lubeck popped up in the narrative again things got worse, though Karen proves herself a very capable agent provocateur. Still, even she was unprepared for what she finds when she gets to The Box to destroy it. Gotta admit, they picked a really, really clever way to protect the box, despite it also being an atrocity in every possible way.

Excitement! Adventure! Really wild things! Horrors that make you ill and probably prevent this getting an anime! All this can be yours in another exciting Trials and Tribulations, a series whose title still does not lie.

The Credits Roll into the Sea, Vol. 1 | By John Tarachine | Dark Horse Comics If there’s anything better that watching a great movie with the one you love, it’s making a movie. Unfortunately for our protagonist, her husband has passed away. Since she’s a senior, starting a new career seems like a pipe dream. And yet, after she goes to the movies for the first time in ages, she meets a young man who likes the way she looks at movies. He’s in a film school, trying to create his own vision despite pushback from others. So she decides, after checking out the school, to join it herself. This has some terrific artwork, and strikes just the right tone of nostalgia and forward thinking, with the focus entirely on the crafting of film rather than any romantic endeavors. It was nominated for an American Manga Award, and you can see why. – Sean Gaffney

The Death Defying Princess Creates a Yuri Harem to Survive, Vol. 1 | By Aoi Akashiro, Moromi Kouji, Shinya Murata, and Nobuhiko Yanai | Seven Seas – We’ve seen “I keep reliving my own death” titles before, most famously with Tearmoon Empire, but I don’t think we’ve met a heroine quite as gleefully terrible as Marie here, who keeps getting guillotined. At first we think it’s because she’s, well, the arrogant, letting-poor-people-starve sort. Which she is. But even after fixing that a bit she still dies… and it turns out to be due to her long-suffering aide. So she seduces the aide… then she has to seduce two loyal (?) maids… and then instead of the guillotine, she’s beheaded by her supposed best friend. All of this is done for the sake of comedy, and you will never laugh so hard at a head flying off. Not to mention the revelation that being a lesbian is a talent. – Sean Gaffney

The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Seen, Vol. 2 | By mmk | Viz Media – Now that our lead couple are good friends and have acknowledged that they’re into each other, all that’s left is to dial the sexual tension up to 500, which is what this volume does. This takes place almost entirely at the school, and indeed the school festival, where thanks to an unfortunate live mic, not only does the entire school now know about the two of them, but Ikezawa gets in… well, frankly, he could have been suspended, so I guess he lucked out with being the only guy in charge of all the cleanup. As for Eguchi, she may in fact be falling harder than he is, and her expressions near the end of this are amazing. In any case, this is horny and heartwarming. – Sean Gaffney

Ruridragon, Vol. 3 | By Masaoki Shindo | Viz Media – I somehow forgot to get this volume when it came out. It was worth the wait. I love how Ruri’s dragonness is not only intrinsic to her high school life, but her high school life is intrinsic to her being a dragon. She’s essentially going through puberty nightmares all at once (this volume it’s barfing up venom, which fortunately is not toxic to others), but she’s also able to use her massive powers to save the day by literally altering the weather. Keeping everything low-key is what makes this charming, though it’s also a big issue for Ruri—her not really caring about others is still a big problem, though she’s gotten a lot better since the start. Book four soon. – Sean Gaffney

Skip and Loafer, Vol. 12 | By Misaki Takamatsu | Seven Seas – For those who wished that this series had more of Shima, great news, as this book manages to feature him heavily. He’s playing Frankenstein’s monster in the school play, and naturally is riveting. What’s more, both his parents show up, and we start to see the first steps being taken—by his mother, as they had to be—for reconciliation. (We also see flashbacks showing why they had such a break in the first place.) As for Mizuki, this volume is mostly to show off how together she is compared to the start of the manga—when her sister gets lost, Mizuki is able to find where she is immediately by just a few half-hearted “I’m standing near this” hints. All this plus Yuzuki as a ghost in the obligatory haunted house. I adore this series. – Sean Gaffney

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 27 | By Sorata Akiduki | Viz Media – Last time I whined that it had been a year between volumes, and I had forgotten everything. How will I handle this two-year gap? Pretty much as I always do, as this is one of the easiest manga to read I’ve come across in a while. Shirayuki is asked to become herbalist to a household where the local lord is thought to be “impossible.” We get some of that here, he tries to get rid of Zen, with some success, and Obi, with far less success. As for Shirayuki, it looks like she has a complicated logic puzzle-style thing to solve, and we don’t get to see how she does so here. But this is still delightful to see, and I can read about these characters doing not a lot for as long as the author needs. – Sean Gaffney