From the outside, Japanese subcultures feel like they don’t belong on this Earth. Documentaries about these underground subcultures depict people whose lives can be defined as “drifting” and “antisocial” trying to engage in what looks like to be maddening occult activities.

One such subculture is the so-called underground idol subculture (地下アイドル). Documentaries uploaded to YouTube display amateur or indie idols singing off-tune and dancing to the beat of loud nonsensical music on a poorly-lit wooden stage that might crumble at any minute now. Comments below deride these idols’ singing abilities and choreography; when footage shows them going to Akihabara live houses and their fans are pumping their fists in the air with their light sticks, the commenters type away in disgust at how bizarre, talentless, and tasteless this subculture is.

It is worse than low art. It is grotesque and obscene.

It isn’t hard to see why. Footage of men reaching up to touch under idols’ skirts can put anybody off, and there are scandals everywhere. The various scandals of the popular idol group AKB48 in particular have given idols a bad rap. Even though the underground idol community forswore AKB48 years ago, many people don’t see the difference between them and the group. They all probably have the same problems, so what’s the difference? It is not surprising then that idol subcultures as a whole receive a lot of commentary from outsiders in academia and social media. These people may not see eye to eye on many things, but they do agree on one core issue: idol subcultures are a disease.

But subcultures are far more than the stereotypes people write about all the time. These subcultures are a respite from the nihilism of reality. They are dreams and ideals people can achieve against a hypocritical mainstream culture. People in subcultures embrace their consumerism and fanaticism because they know their passion can shine brighter than what they can ever achieve in their ordinary lives. It is why they live.

Melody Lyrik Idol Magik

Melody Lyrik Idol Magik by Ishikawa Hiroshi is representative of those dreamers and believers committing their lives to a culture not many people approve of. It won’t convince anyone who is prejudiced to subcultures that underground idols can be something more than a craving for sex and glamor, but it can explain why people engage in them in the first place.

It is a desire that pumps the heart up as Nazuma, an average “outsider,” later learns when he finds himself attending a prestigious school for underground idols and fans deep into the subculture. With the help of his old childhood friend-turned-idol expert Kunihiya, he becomes the producer of two aspiring idols: Ako, a girl who talks very little and prefers nodding to communicate and hiding her emotions under her many parkas; and Asha, a mixed race Japanese girl who is way too hyperactive and pushes everyone about.

Their dreams may be romantic, but their journeys remain painful and tiring. These characters don’t always enjoy singing and dancing; in fact, Ishikawa makes sure to seam their pain and anger into the writing.

Nazuma and Ako are narrated in their respective chapters as vulnerable teenagers who are trying to find their place in the subcultures they’re in. For their little happy scenes, Ishikawa likes to write about how the light twinkles through the leaves and the way sakura blossom petals move through Ako’s hair when she is walking to school. Mainstream literary writers, if they read these beautifully crafted sentences, would be envious. But Ishikawa is also able to let his delicate prose give way to cynical writing not found in idol anime like The iDOLM@STER and Love Live; illusions of sound and light in these idol performances come and go as if to attack the narrators for their naivety and idealism.

They are bewildered by what they see and hear. Situations such as fans getting slapped in the face at concerts or idols performing satanic rituals for a member who has left the group are plentiful and comedic to read about. But these instances show there is far more to the subculture than they first thought.

It is understandable to see why the third-person narration shows their hesitation and nervousness throughout the book. They are not sure about what they are doing. Whether it is composing lyrics for a new song or even doing a small live performance, Ishikawa displays an unusually high sensitivity to his characters and the subject matter he is writing about.

He isn’t writing about the imagined stereotypes of idols and their fans after all; he is writing about people who struggle and engage in these subcultures. These idols and fans have faces and there are many kinds of them out there. It doesn’t matter who fits the bill.

Likewise, Ishikawa enjoys writing about minorities and people with disabilities where they belong — on the same level as everyone else. Nobody is discriminated against in Ishikawa’s depiction of the underground idol subculture. Asha’s sister is an autistic girl. She hides behind her mother and is afraid of communicating with others except on paper. Yet, she can’t hide her excitement over idols, just like anybody else in love with idols.

This is what normal fans are like — anyone who dares to go against the mainstream and struggles like everyone else who wants their dreams to come true. Everyone is a nobody and we just like what we like. Nothing more or less to it.

Embracing the superficiality and low yet honorable goals is what subcultures do best. While mainstream society prides itself in going up and up, subcultures remain humble and dig even deeper underground instead. That’s the difference between AKB48 and underground idols: the former sees fame as money while the latter desires fame because they can get recognized for their efforts.

Seeing people drive at their work is why subcultures are exciting to watch. They are “useless” and “weird,” but that’s why they are beautiful. Reading about how the four main characters in Melody Lyrik Idol Magik grow is just as satisfying as watching subcultures grow. They remind us of the reasons why we engage in subcultures and why we should be proud of the effort we put into the work.

Kastel’s Rating: Extremely Recommended

Legend of the Galactic Heroes

For general information on this series: Legend of the Galactic Heroes entry

This review is for the second volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Yoshiki Tanaka. The English edition was released by Viz Media’s Haikasoru imprint in July 2016. At the moment there are five volumes available in English. The series is completed with ten volumes in Japan, released from 1982 to 1987.

Vol 2 – Ambition

My day-to-day schedule lately has made listening to audiobooks a viable option for book-reading, so I decided it was about time I picked up another Audible volume of the space opera cult classic Galactic Heroes. I liked the first volume well enough, though that was largely thanks to just how well the narrator tells the story. The reader is Tim Gerard Reynolds, who has apparently narrated a lot of books.

He voices each of the main characters in a distinct way that fits their personalities perfectly, a point made most apparent by his portrayals of the two contrasting protagonists: Yang Wen-li and Reinhard von Lohengramm. Yang is the poor soul who keeps getting roped into nigh impossible missions, his deprecating dialogue constantly tinged with exasperation at humanity’s eagerness to repeat tragic events in history. Meanwhile whenever Reinhard speaks, you can’t help but feel the need to stand at attention — he knows he’s going to change the face of the entire universe, and you know it too.

The memorable voices extends to many among the story’s extended cast. Reinhard’s advisor Oberstein speaks in a cold and calculating monotone, making him a perfect contrast with Reinhard’s second-in-command and best friend Kircheis, who you could call Reinhard’s moral compass. I also liked the portrayal of Yang’s adopted teenage son Julian, who comes across as both a starry-eyed optimistic youth as well as a reliable support for Yang.

Volume 2 of Galactic Heroes tells two stories, switching back and forth between them from chapter to chapter. Rather than focusing on the eternal conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, our protagonists are instead focused on their respective battles within the civil wars that ensue. Reinhard engages in his long-awaited power struggle with the aristocracy, while Yang must quash a sudden rebellion that has taken over the capital planet. To be honest I tend to not follow everything that is going on when it comes to the space battles themselves, but I do enjoy all the scenes in which the characters are holding conversations with one another.

Overall I liked both of the stories this volume told. They’re not as grand as the struggle portrayed in the first volume, but the overarching plot progresses enough to make the stories feel worthwhile. The coup d’etat on the Free Planets Alliance side is the more plot-driven story, but it has some interesting things to say about the inherent struggles of running a democracy, and the self-destructive pitfalls one can expect in a society fueled by war-time nationalism. Meanwhile on the Galactic Empire side, we get a much more personal story that puts Reinhard to the test, and the events that follow will clearly affect the rest of the series in terms of his character and motivations.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

The Saga of Evil Tanya

For general information on this novel: The Saga of Tanya the Evil entry

This review is for the first volume of The Saga of Tanya the Evil. This series is written by Carlo Zen and features illustrations by Shinobu Shinotsuki. The second volume is set to release March 27, 2018. There are 9 volumes in Japan at the moment.

Volume 1

The first volume of this series is subtitled Deus Io Vult, which is apparently Latin for “God Wills It.” Some cosmic force indeed must have willed me to pick up this book, because in retrospect I’m not sure why I chose to buy and read it. It’s a hefty book, especially for light novels. But more daunting than the page count is just how dense every page is. Tanya the Evil is light on dialogue and action, and heavy on in-depth explanations of everything military… and in-depth explanations of everything tangentially related to everything military.

Tanya the Evil is technically a reincarnation isekai (reborn in a fantasy world), but it holds little to no similarity with the dozens of LN series focused on characters hunting monsters in magical medieval European video game-esque dungeons. The setup for this one is… well, something like this:

A sociopathic atheist Japanese salaryman gets pushed in front of a speeding train by the man he just fired, meets God, and gets reincarnated as an orphan girl who becomes a magic-wielding 9-year-old child soldier in alternate universe WWI Germany.

Now I remember why I picked this book up; the premise sounded absolutely insane. Also, everyone on my Twitter feed was posting crazy Tanya faces back when the anime adaptation aired, and I needed to see if the original story lived up to that promise of wild times.

As it turns out, the madness is contained solely in the premise. In execution, the novel is extraordinarily methodical, its focus almost entirely on military maneuvers from beginning to end (and likely throughout all subsequent volumes). Enemy troops are doing this, the correct response would be for our troops to do that, we should anticipate enemy troops to do another thing, we are training our troops in such and such ways, here are some of the weapons used by these troops, there are some of the tactics employed by those troops, and now for some thoughts on what a general thought about some certain strategy to rely on. Tanya always acts in her own self-interest, and always thinks things through in a remarkably logical manner, even in the middle of battle. (And, to my surprise, never does anything I’d really call evil. At least not in this volume…)

If you have a deep interest in world war era battles, then this is the series for you! The author clearly thought things through with the world-building, and regularly incorporates footnotes that tie things back to our world. In the prologue alone, you can learn about the Chicago school of economics, Rawl’s theory of justice, and An Essay on the Principle of Population. At first I welcomed this level of detail as an interesting change of pace, but over the course of an entire novel… Well, it wore me out.

In contrast with Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which reads like a historian’s theatrical account of a series of universe-changing events driven by larger-than-life leaders — Tanya the Evil is a heavily plot-driven novel that reads a lot like a long series of blog posts written by a military aficionado, but edited into a series of episodes about a zealous child rising up the ranks in an army. It’s not your typical light novel, or even your typical novel in general, so I’d say it’s worth checking out if you’re up for some alternate history military fiction.

Cho’s Rating: Maybe Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Paying to Win in a VRMMO

~A guest review by Frog-kun~

This is a review for the Paying to Win in a VRMMO light novel series, written by Blitz Kiva and illustrated by Kuwashima Rein. The series consists of six volumes, which were first published by Hobby Japan Bunko in 2014. The English edition was first released by J-Novel Club in February 2017, and the series is currently complete in both English and Japanese. The sixth and final volume was released in English in January 2018.

Paying to Win in a VRMMO isn’t what you’d expect to see in a VRMMORPG story, a genre that has become mainly defined by action stories. It’s not even really about its protagonist, a bourgeois businessman who rises to the top of the MMO world through his inflated spending habits. Paying to Win in a VRMMO is mostly about the community of a small VRMMORPG and the sorts of escapades they get up to inside and outside the game world. It’s a slice-of-life comedy, first and foremost.

The charms of Paying to Win in a VRMMO aren’t really evident in the first volume. It’s a slow burn without many satisfying climaxes. The humor is more on the dry side, and besides the protagonist Ichiro, not that many characters stand out in terms of personality. However, they do get fleshed out over the course of six volumes, resulting in some charming group dynamics as the story progresses.

The main reason to read this series is because of Ichiro. He’s rich and arrogant, but not necessarily scheming or malicious, which makes him strangely endearing most of the time. It helps that, despite being overpowered in the game and impossibly talented in real life, most of the other characters are simply exasperated with him rather than slobbering at his feet. Instead of a power fantasy, Ichiro merely comes across as a colorful personality.

My favorite character, however, was Kirihito. You might be able to tell from the name that the character is a reference to the Sword Art Online protagonist, but their role in the story is cleverer than a mere parody. Kirihito represents the kind of character that normally plays the lead role in these types of light novels, but here, they’re a rival and a side character. This portrayal got me to think about how those “solo player” kinds of characters would fit into the larger gaming community when the story is not told from their perspective.

I also liked how Kirihito is androgynous, and how their birth-assigned gender is different depending on whether you read the light novel or web novel version of the story. Either way, their gender isn’t important to the plot, and the character doesn’t profess to see themself as either male or female. This is the kind of character that I could see resonating with non-binary readers, and I appreciated how the English translation retains the gender ambiguity without sounding clunky.

This series arguably peaks in volume 5, which brings even all the minor characters together to play important roles in the plot. Otherwise, this series does seem to struggle to give roles to its characters. There are many scenes where characters appear but don’t end up contributing to the story at all, or struggle to stay relevant after their storyline concludes. The biggest culprit of this is Asuha, who is initially introduced as Ichiro’s second cousin and primary love interest, but fails to do anything of note in the plot or romance department despite featuring in every volume.

Volumes 2-4 are also a problem. These volumes tell a simple story about a girl named Iris who gets into a feud with a fellow fashion designer about designing the best in-game armor. On its own, it’s a pleasant read, but in the overall scope of the series, it’s simply a side story that somehow takes half up the entire series’ length. This entire subplot could have been compressed into one or two volumes without losing anything of note.

Overall, Paying to Win in a VRMMO is a charming series, but not without its inconsistencies. I’ll recommend it to people who are interested in the “community” or “worldbuilding” aspects of VRMMORPGs, although it’s not the strongest series in its subgenre. Even as a parody of certain light novel tropes, you’ll probably get more laughs out of Konosuba or The Devil is a Part-Timer! But if you have the patience for Paying to Win’s mellow storytelling, you may find yourself feeling sad too, when the story reaches its end and the players go their separate ways.

Frog-kun’s Rating: Maybe Recommended

You can purchase the ebook of volume 1 online via sites like Amazon. This is an affiliate link, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Fanart by メシエナンバー

This review is for Yume Nikki: I Am Not in Your Dream, a novel written by Akira and illustrated by Aco Arisaka. It was released in Japanese in August 2013, and is based on an unusual and surreal pixel-based exploration game made by Japanese developer Kikiyama. The Yume Nikki game was created with RPG Maker 2003, and released in June 2004. The game is available in English for free on PC via Steam. The novel I’ll be reviewing is a self-contained volume, and was released in ebook formats by J-Novel Club in January 2018.

Yume Nikki: I Am Not in Your Dream

I first played the Yume Nikki game about… oh, probably 8 or 10 years ago, somewhere around there. What feels like a whole lifetime ago. I’ve never been into games too much, but around that time I took an interest in what I’d call “pixel horror RPGs,” most of which were indie titles from Japan I could download on my laptop for free and play through in five or so hours. I enjoyed titles such as Ib, The Witch’s House, and The Crooked Man because they each told an interesting little horror story in a unique way, and I liked the characters.

Yume Nikki was different from all of these titles, and others of their ilk (Ao Oni, Mad Father, Corpse Party, etc), in that it didn’t really have a story. In Yume Nikki (“Dream Diary”), you play as a girl named Madotsuki. From what I understand, the name isn’t a real one, but mado means window in Japanese (and indeed, there is what appears to be a window to her heart, emblazoned on her sweater). In the game, Madotsuki goes to bed and falls asleep, and pretty much all you do control-wise is have her walk around in bizarre dream worlds. You start by picking one of twelve doors, each of which leads to a unique dreamscape (each of which in turn has doors and hidden passages that lead to even more strange places). Much of the game has you walking through large and discomforting empty spaces, making for a slow and lonely experience that is highly unusual for video games. But there is still much to find and see, in terms of strange creatures and unsettling imagery. There are even a few people you can run into, but they are hard to find — and without any in-game dialogue, there isn’t much that actually happens in the chance you do run into them.

What was it I liked about such an aimless, dull-sounding game? I think it all boils down to the game’s atmosphere, and its abundance of attention-grabbing “moments” that felt well-designed for encouraging the player to attempt some kind of interpretation or analysis. To give one small example that stood out to me, there was a time when I was traveling through a large desert-like region that had odd, thick swirling vines in place of cacti. I stumbled upon an area where the music shifted from its gloomy echoing ambience to a lively, happy party tune. Going a little further, I found a group of three of the tall and lanky bird-faced girls, who were dancing to the music (provided by a boom box) and enjoying a picnic of cake and rice balls. I couldn’t join in the festivities though, because there were vines that blocked the way. The game does not explain the point of any of this being in one of Madotsuki’s dreams, so it is up to you to decide if it means anything or not. It could simply indicate Madotsuki as a social outcast in real life, or it could allude to something more.

I did feel that it had to mean something though, as the whole scene felt far too specific and intentional to just be something random for random’s sake. This is how the whole game operates, and I believe this is why it attained something of a cult status back in the day–and why it still has its fans even now, still sharing theories with each other and debating the meaning of every small detail.

With all this in mind, how in the world would anyone go about writing a light novel for Yume Nikki? It seems like a task that could only be handled by a certain kind of author–one who is fully willing to experiment and push the boundaries of what constitutes a typical story. And Akira seems to be just the right author for such a task, having written a wide assortment of weird and quirky books such as Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, Mushi to Medama, and Biscuit Frankenstein.

The first third of the Yume Nikki novel really caught me by surprise. Akira wrote this part of the story in 2nd-person point of view, meaning the viewpoint character is you. You are the one dreaming and exploring the dream world, just as you would if you were playing the Yume Nikki game. I found this part of the book fascinating, much of it feeling a lot like poetry. The prose itself is very simple, but Akira did an excellent job at translating the surreal atmosphere of the game into a text format. I could recognize everything as Yume Nikki, but it didn’t feel like a bland retread of material I was already familiar with either. I thoroughly enjoyed this section of the book, and can safely say I’ve never had an experience remotely like it in any other novel I’ve read. It really got across the feeling of getting lost in a dream.

Things change for the other two-thirds of the novel though, and my feelings for the rest of the story are mixed. The point of view transitions from 2nd to 1st-person, from you to I, and we follow another character from the Yume Nikki game: a girl with a blonde ponytail (thus dubbed “Poniko” by fans), who in the game lives in a cone-shaped house on an island in a pink sea, but in this novel is trying to follow Madotsuki through all the dream worlds. At first I was disappointed in the shift in viewpoint, but eventually I found it intriguing? It perhaps just took me by surprise–which, I suppose, is fitting for Yume Nikki.

But more significantly, the story also shifted in how it went about the dreaming in general. In the first act, there isn’t an explanation given for any of the things “you” encounter (as Madotsuki is silent). But in the second and third acts, the narrator is very actively trying to make sense of everything. She discusses Jungian dream interpretation at great length with other characters she comes across, which on one hand I found quite interesting, but on the other hand I did not feel it meshed as well as it could have with the story at large. Sometimes it works well enough, but sometimes it drags on a bit too long, and sometimes it doesn’t seem to have much of a point.

That said, I still liked reading the second and third acts of this book, and I did find the ending–the conclusion the narrator reaches for the meaning behind the dreams–to be very interesting (and definitely a unique topic for light novels). It actually made for a rather one-of-a-kind interpretation of Yume Nikki, which I appreciated as someone who has read a lot of theories over the years. In that respect, perhaps making a character other than Madotsuki be the main character for most of the book was the way to go, as it’s not only something the readers wouldn’t expect, but it also allowed the author to delve into aspects of the game from a direction that most players would never have considered.

I will go ahead and recommend this book to anyone looking for something that’s completely 100% different from anything else we have for light novels in English. Yume Nikki does not feature anything resembling adventure, comedy, or romance, and it’s kind of a stretch to call it a mystery, drama, or even horror in any traditional sense. It’s really it’s own thing, and for that I’m really glad J-Novel Club was willing to bring it over for us to read in English.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

(But I do suggest giving the game a spin first if you haven’t yet, to see if you like that.)

You can purchase the ebook online via sites like Amazon. This is an affiliate link, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, as I Expected

For general information on this novel: My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected entry

This review is for the fourth volume of My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected, AKA Oregairu. This series is written by Wataru Watari and features illustrations by Ponkan8. So far there are four volumes available in English, with the next set to release May 2018. There are 12 volumes in Japan at the moment, plus three side story volumes.

Volume 4

This is the first volume of Oregairu to focus pretty much on just one plot, rather than telling two or three unrelated short stories. I remember back when I watched the first season of the anime adaptation years ago, that this particular story arc was my personal favorite of the series, so I was looking forward to seeing how well everything played out in the original source.

Volume 4 has Hachiman and fellow service club members Yukino and Yui roped into helping out at a summer camp trip for sixth-grade elementary school students. Our lead characters are joined by most of the remaining important members of Oregairu‘s ensemble cast, including Totsuka, Komachi, Hayama, and Miura. They all have to work together to cook curry for all the children, and guide them through a “test of courage” haunted trail event. Things don’t go too smoothly (as I Expected), but the central conflict involves a quiet girl named Rumi, who is being ostracized by her classmates. Our high school characters would like to resolve the issue, but they can’t fully agree on what the core problem is, or how to go about solving it–or even if it is something that can be solved.

I feel that this is the volume where both the author Wataru Watari and the protagonist Hachiman hit their stride. The foundation for how Hachiman thinks and operates has been firmly established, so now we can see him put his cynicism to good(?) use in clever and surprisingly meaningful ways. The conversations between him and all the other characters flow more naturally now, and the reader can readily anticipate how Yukino, Yui, and the rest will all react to the ideas and viewpoints they share with each other. In turn, Wataru Watari seems to have improved in regards to the story’s pacing, and knowing when to tell a joke and when to focus on more serious matters. The comedy and the drama are both strengthened in the process.

As with the previous three volumes, the highlight here is the unique prose and Hachiman’s amusing narration, which continues to shift back and forth between pathetic and insightful (or some uncomfortable blend of the two). There is more of a running theme to his musings in this volume though, which is established at the very start with a copy of his middle school book report on Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro. This gave a little more weight to the general message of the story, though I suppose it can be debated if the story has a message so much as an observation on how groups of people tend to operate under certain circumstances.

A fun and “twisted” story! The ending to this one also adds another reveal for the central plot of the series (involving significant events to the major characters’ pasts), which we can only hope will begin to develop a bit more in the next few volumes.

Cho’s Rating: Strongly Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Don’t we all want to play video games, watch films, and read books and still get paid for it?

As we grow older, we find time and money being siphoned away for school and work. We daydream and imagine ourselves blogging or streaming on Twitch and getting revenue that way. Transforming our hobbies into work and being self-sufficient that way would be a nice dream for many of us.

Of course, we tell ourselves it’s unrealistic because we won’t get a lot of money for this. It’s why some of us take jobs to fund our own hobbies. It’s a meaningful sacrifice of time and many people can still live happily that way immersed in their subcultures. So we slap ourselves silly and get back to filing accounting papers.

But a few people can’t. They need to transform their hobbies into work. We often call them by many names — artists, creators, athletes, novelists, painters — but they all share one common trait:

They’re geniuses.

Ryuuou no Oshigoto (translated as The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! in English) follows Kuzuryuu Yaichi, a 16-year-old shougi master, in Osaka. He has a title — the title of Ryuuou or Dragon Lord — but he never feels like he deserves it. Down on his luck and disliked by 2ch, Yaichi wonders if he can continue playing shougi. He sees Sora Ginko, a 13-year-old girl who was under the same tutelage as he was, as a legendary shougi player in the women’s league and wonders if he can be as good as her.

His life takes a turn when Hinatsuru Ai, a 9-year-old elementary school student, appears in his home and asks him to be her mentor. Ai once saw him play an intense shougi match which would later win him the title of Ryuuou. Now, she wants to learn the game from the master himself. She is a genius and Yaichi feels compelled to teach her everything he knows about shougi and the world around him.

And so begins the story of two geniuses on their journey through the shougi leagues.

Shougi is not for everybody, not in the sense that it is easy to pick up and play but as a life to commit to. Yaichi, Ai, and Ginko dedicate their lives to shougi. They don’t have any social life, their thoughts are related to chess pieces moving on the board, and they spend their free time researching their future opponents’ moves. We read about the world of shougi and nothing else. Their biological family has been replaced by the family of shougi masters and students. Shougi is their life and if they blink or look at something else, they may lose their only meaning to life.

Indeed, the series documents that many people who have a chance of becoming a professional shougi player are usually people who have practiced shougi at a very young age (around 5 or 6 years old). They may still go to school, but once they have decided they want to go pro, there’s no turning back. These people do not have any recourse to go back to their former lives. It is a do-or-die situation and many do fail.

It’s why shougi can be portrayed as something painful in the series. People hyperventilate during matches, think about the urge to go to the bathroom, or break down in the middle of the game when they perceive they might lose in the next turn. Everyone loves the game, but their livelihoods are on the line. If they win, they have a better chance at becoming a professional. If not, they may drop out of the league, or worse, realize they have wasted their whole life playing shougi.

That’s where the stakes in Ryuuou no Oshigoto come from: Are you willing to risk your life for an activity deemed by many people as a hobby? Because if you fail, your life amounts to nothing.

That’s how Kiyotaka Keika — the daughter of Yaichi’s mentor — sees it. Every day, she is reminded she isn’t getting any younger and she will soon be too old (26 years old) to join the women’s league as a professional. Keika thus views her birthday not as an event to celebrate but as a deadline for her own life. Even her father seems to question if she could make it.

Meanwhile, her friends are becoming mothers with good-paying jobs while she remains single and still trying to make a living out of shougi. Keika is trying, but she realizes her skills aren’t up to par and she has been going down the drain since.

It goes without saying that the world of shougi is competitive, but Ginko tells her that reality is far worse. There are what she calls “shougi aliens” in the playing field; they are monsters who could pick up the art of shougi in days and make any amount of hard work feel like a genuine waste of time and effort. Yaichi and Ai are two shougi aliens. They may not realize how much they are making Ginko and Keika suffocate, but they can destroy anybody if they work hard on it.

They can make anyone feel worthless and Keika and Ginko feel that the most. They can’t believe Yaichi and Ai are fellow students studying under the same master. They feel threatened and that’s why geniuses are both loved and hated.

No one wants to be anywhere near these monsters because then we all realize we’re just wasting our time and life.

Ryuuou no Oshigoto

That’s how Shiratori Shirou felt when he was writing light novels like Nourin. He never felt he was a good writer, despite all the experience he had accumulated. Other writers, more fortunate than he was, found bigger successes with their lives and he can’t help but be jealous of them.

In various interviews and afterwords, he has said that his grandfather who loved him dearly had abandoned him when he revealed he was going to write light novels for a living. His relatives look down on him and he lives alone with no contact from his family.

Shiratori sacrificed everything and tried to put all of his life into his works. Yet, he never saw an ounce of success.

Until Ryuuou no Oshigoto came along and changed his life.

With permission and help granted from a shougi federation called Saiyuuki, Shiratori is able to write about the world of shougi through the eyes of many people in the book. Ai learns about the hangouts expert shougi players in Osaka go to and the importance of good shougi boards. Ryuuou has won a general shougi literary award and is often praised for the inclusion of women’s shougi league, something that is often considered too minor to be depicted in mainstream shougi literature. The seventh volume has completely dominated the mainstream novels’ rankings for weeks too. Shiratori has now become a celebrity in the shougi world, even appearing in NicoNicoDouga shougi matches as a guest commentator.

But he admits that while his life had changed for the better, he suffered a lot writing the series. He kept asking himself what was the value of hard work. His only living relatives, his grandfather and mother, passed away while he was writing the series. Shiratori began writing the beginning of the fifth volume at his mother’s funeral and deprecated himself over the value of his writing and contribution to the world.

That’s why Ryuuou no Oshigoto feels real to me. It is a work of blood, sweat, and tears by the writer as he tries to find a reason to write. His characters too find reasons to play shougi, even if it means they have to cut corners and ruin their own lives. Once in a while, lolicon humor tries to break up the pace. But we’re right back into the world on the next page and you realize everything about shougi is serious. You feel the tension and stress of the characters as they place their rook on the board and hope they made the right move. You can only gasp for air like the people watching the match. It is pure entertainment written in tears and anger for the public and I can’t help but feel for the characters and the writer of the work. People suffer a lot, but they still want to live and pursue their dreams. That’s not just admirable, but makes them worthy of being called a genius.

Ryuuou no Oshigoto is an earnest search for the meaning of hard work in the face of the monsters around us. Effort does have meaning regardless of how “meaningless” it may end up becoming. We may not see the fruits of hard work and think we have wasted our life pursuing it, but there’s still meaning somewhere.

That is the wisdom of the genius.

Kastel’s Rating: Extremely Recommended

The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! is being released in English by Bookwalker Global. Volume 1 and volume 2 are currently available to purchase and read via the Bookwalker website or mobile app.

Magical Girl Raising Project

For general information on this novel: Magical Girl Raising Project entry

This review is for the third volume of Magical Girl Raising Project. This series is written by Asari Endou and features illustrations by Marui-no. The fourth volume is set to release July 17, 2018. There are 10 volumes in Japan at the moment, plus two side story volumes.

Vol 3 — Restart (Pt 2)

Volume 3 is the second half of the “Restart” storyline begun by volume 2, which ended with a cliffhanger. This volume has the remaining magical girls working their way through some cyber dreamworld video game, hoping to escape by defeating a final boss known simply as the Evil King. Will it really be that simple though? And what does the mastermind behind this fearsome game intend to accomplish in all this?

This is an odd book to review on its own, in that I imagine everyone who picked up volume 2 will definitely want to read volume 3. This is the second half of the story, and things can only get more exciting in the second half of a survival game, right? At any rate, I enjoyed reading through to the conclusion for this violent and tragic story arc.

This book starts out with a bang, but then it’s slow going for a while as teams continue a gradual but steady progression through the game and various characters muse over their situation and investigate one another. It’s good to have some variety in a story’s pacing, but it did take a while for me to get re-invested in the remaining players. This isn’t really a series for character development, as much as it is for plot twists that reveal unexpected aspects to the characters.

Eventually things pick up again by the final act of the book though, as the floodgates are opened regarding who committed the murders of the first volume and what the motivations behind them were. (I am rather pleased to say I made at least a couple correct guesses!) At the same time, things come to a head once the confrontation with the Evil King takes a clever and unexpected turn, and it’s repeatedly up in the air who will survive each violent encounter. The action is handled as well as in previous volumes, and it remains entertaining to see how the characters will use their special abilities in unorthodox ways. I found the character Clantail particularly fun; her ability to transform the lower half of her body into any animal provided plenty of possibilities for the author to work with. Personality-wise, my personal favorite remains Pfle, the ever-unflappable little manipulator.

There are a few plot points in this volume I had mixed feelings on, however. Some plot developments were a stretch, and there was one reveal in particular (more of a non-reveal honestly) that I just felt meh about the whole book. (Said non-reveal was kind of spoiled for me beforehand by the way, which I suppose bummed me out a bit too.) Also, a lot of the plot beats in this were quite similar to a certain sequel for a certain game series I really like–which isn’t a huge deal, but it did affect my reading of this story.

I won’t end on a negative note here though, because overall I did have a good time with this one, and I look forward to seeing where the series will go from here in future volumes. Raising Project is an exciting page-turner well-worth looking into if you’re in the mood for an action-packed story that does its own thing and isn’t afraid to put major characters in legitimately mortal peril.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

First and foremost, this book assumes you are already familiar with the previous seventeen books. Because of this, there will be somewhat major spoilers in this review for the end of Spice and Wolf: Epilogue (vol. 17), so read at your own risk if you haven’t yet finished the previous books.

The main story of Spice and Wolf followed the travels of Lawrence the merchant and Holo the Wisewolf as they ran into various problems and business opportunities on the road to finding Holo’s homeland. Originally published in Japan between 2006 and 2011, Isuna Hasekura has now followed up with several new books written for the series’ 10th anniversary. Both the original series and these new volumes have been licensed in English by Yen Press under their Yen On imprint, with this book (volume 18 overall) having been released in English in June 2017.

Spring Log is the first of  these new books, and was released concurrently in Japan with the spin-off Wolf and Parchment: New Theory Spice and Wolf. Collecting four short stories set ‘a little more than a decade’ after the epilogue (which was also a short story collection), this particular book serves primarily as a bridge from the old to the new.

The Margins of a Journey, the first of the shorts in this book starts with a weak attempt at shock. For what we know of the characters, it’s somewhat obvious that the situation presented is not all it seems—and when it’s revealed to be a ridiculous and poorly rationalized bait-and-switch, it’s hardly a surprise. (Aside from being surprisingly ridiculous.) The biggest strength of this story is, in fact, how Lawrence has changed in the years since volume 17. His interactions with Holo and the townspeople are far more compelling than the impending issue of boosting business during the off-season, and as an audience we’re rewarded with seeing the shift of  his character and personality in the decade we’ve missed.

I must mention in this story (and the other two focused on Lawrence) that I find it somewhat saddening to see his concerns, disapproval and denial over Myuri leaving with Col brushed off for the most part as taking after her parents far too much—especially considering Myuri is described as 12-13 years old, and everyone seems to consider it an elopement. It’s rationalized as being a normal marrying age in-universe, and that Col is a good pious man of religion (so unlikely to do anything untoward to a girl half his age), but it doesn’t remove it from our context as readers or the uncomfortable feeling of ‘justified first love’ regardless of the age difference. Lawrence’s concerns as a parent are totally understandable, and are unfortunately not treated as such.

Golden Memories is a stronger piece, using the guise of a mysterious guest and his standoffishness to emphasize the message of savoring the now, and protecting and cherishing our memories. This story in particular has a nice interaction between Holo and Lawrence that really shows off the warmth and cheekiness of their relationship. It’s a simple but effective plot, and works to transition between the previous story and the next.

Muddy Messenger Wolf and Wolf is the longest, and by far the best, story of this book. Unlike the majority of Spring Log this feels the most like Spice and Wolf, with a larger plot affecting our main characters, interlaced with smaller character interactions. It also addresses the elephant in the room of Lawrence and Holo’s relationship that has been interwoven throughout the entire series—their vastly different lifespans. The original flirted with this idea a lot as the relationship between the merchant and the Wisewolf crossed into a romantic one, eventually forcing Holo to confront her own loneliness and issues with abandonment. This short story brings those same emotions into sharp relief, and it’s obvious that despite the time they’ve spent together, that their time together is finite. It doesn’t weigh down the pacing of the plot with overwrought heaviness, but it does give the appropriate levity to the situation. Its handled well and with empathy within the larger plot, and only helps to highlight their mutual reliance on each other..

I also adored the ingenuity in which the problem was solved at the end, which makes this story the most in-line with previous Spice and Wolf plots. Personally, I think Hasekura’s writing shines the most when the characters are allowed the time for their witty banter and their clever scheming to fully shine, and the 100-odd pages of Muddy Messenger Wolf and Wolf gives him that freedom. I was far more invested and sympathetic with this situation than either of the previous two stories, and on the strength of this story alone I would recommend this book to long-time fans.

The final story Parchment and Graffiti is the shortest, but manages to give us a strong impression of the character relationship and dynamic for Myuri and Col, the new protagonists for Wolf and Parchment: New Theory Spice and Wolf. Col should be a familiar face for fans, and the decade passed has grown him into a quiet hard-worker—split between his dedication to his religious studies, helping at the Spice and Wolf, and being a good older brother to Myuri. In comparison, Myuri is rambunctious, selfish and impulsive, betraying her immaturity and young age. It’s not a great story (especially when Myuri crashes past charming into insufferable), and I can only think that Hasekura has misstepped by making both characters so much like emphasized versions of Lawrence and Holo. It certainly leaves a strong impression as to why and how the Wolf and Parchment plot developed, but I can only hope the character writing for the two improves when given a novel.

All in all, Spice and Wolf: Spring Log is a decent follow-up of short stories that expands the plot and opens the setting to new possibilities. As with all short story collections, some are stronger than others, but they’re all complementary. More so than previous short story collections in this franchise, there are very deliberate links between each part, and the book is very cohesive and easy to read. It’s a worthwhile read for established fans, and addresses some of the more open-ended parts of Lawrence and Holo’s relationship and future.

Gee’s rating: Recommended for fans

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Whether for good or for ill, time flowed as it should.

From my review of Spice and Wolf: Spring Log (vol. 18), my first impressions on the characters and possibilities for this series were not high. In the short story, Myuri was rash and insufferable and Col seemed a (somewhat) unwilling sufferer at her hands. Thankfully, as I had hoped, having a full light novel at his disposal, Hasekura had a lot more freedom to write these characters, and both Col and Myuri reached a lot more character depth. Wolf and Parchment: New Theory Spice and Wolf (vol. 1), the first volume of Spice and Wolf‘s spin-off series, is a familiarly fond experience and I’m surprised in wanting to read more.

This first novel was released concurrently with the 18th volume of the main Spice and Wolf series (which I previously reviewed here) in Japan, although it’s apparent that this novel was written after the stories that are collected in Spring Log—which Hasekura actually notes in his author message at the end of the book. Both Myuri and Col are better written, and their relationship was actually enjoyable to read over the entirety of this story. Col and Myuri have a layer of innocence and naiveté that the world-weary Lawrence and Holo could never have managed, and although I still think the two mirror their predecessors a little too closely, it’s less of a sin than it seems.

Wolf and Parchment starts with Col—now grown up and even more dedicated to his religious studies—leaving Nyohhira. Over a decade since the ending of Spice and Wolf, the Kingdom of Winfiel has been forced to suspend religious activities due to tax disputes.  Hyland, an heir to the throne of Winfiel and fiercely devoted to the Church, asks Col for his assistance after befriending him at the Spice and Wolf. Hoping to fix the corruption within the Church, Hyland  plans to encourage understanding of the faith amongst all classes of people, and Col is happy to help with translating the Holy Book into common language. Much like her mother before her, Myuri joins his travels in secret—partially as a way to experience the world outside of her mountainous hometown, and partially to stay with her sibling-in-all-but-blood. Unsurprisingly, things are never quite as they seem, and the daughter of the Wisewolf and the trusting young scholar have to find a way to fix it all when problems arise.

Personally, I think centering the main plot around translating holy scripture into common language is ingenious, and well-suited to the Spice and Wolf world; pulling together the shift of religious power and its place in society, and being more in tune to these new characters’ motivations. The story compares public perception with personal motivation, and it’s a solid start to this new adventure. It’s a different side to the setting than we’ve seen before, and I look forward to exploring it with Hasekura.

“You’re really only looking at a fourth of the world, Brother.”
“Not even half?”
The world was made up of men and women. It appeared he did not know a thing about women, so that left a half. Even if he woefully accepted this evaluation of himself, where did the second half come from?
Then, Myuri’s expression became troubled yet slightly sad, and she spoke.
“You only ever look at the good parts of people.”

Fundamentally, this first volume is about faith—religious or otherwise. Col was originally introduced as a young wannabe scholar who hoped to use the guise of religion to protect his hometown’s pagan beliefs. Through meeting Holo he came face-to-face with true validation of those beliefs, and over the course of their travels came to understand her not only as the god she symbolizes, but the person she is. Since then, his dedication to God has evolved from that of simple childhood understanding to a greater appreciation for the power belief can give. Religion for Col is not a form of fearful submission under a higher power, it’s the act of spreading reassurance and hope to people, regardless of their circumstance. He’s not so much dedicated to the Church itself, but the act of living with belief. That’s why he’s so personally affronted by the situation presented in this book—to him, the Church has become twisted from the true purpose of its existence, instead motivated by greed. The reality that institutionalized religion has always been a business is secondary; for readers it’s the pure-hearted motivations of Col and Hyland that make their hard work worth supporting.

The second part of this story is that of Myuri, who loves Col with the adoration and devotion of a preteen. There is of course her romantic crush on the young man (which I’ll mention in more detail), but more important to the story is their friendship. Col is the only other person aside from her parents who knows her true nature—wolf ears and tail inherited from the Wisewolf—and that she doesn’t have to hide from. They are siblings in every sense of the word aside from the literal one, and they act it; Myuri is the spoiled little sister who knows exactly how much she can get away with, and Col is the caring but exasperated older brother. Their conversations flow naturally from the shared history they have, and it’s clear in their interactions that the depths of their love for each other is unconditional.

As I mentioned, it’s no secret that Myuri has a crush on Col. As is common for preteens, her perception of the kindness and attention he gives has morphed into the sweet beginnings of first love. Thankfully, it’s very obviously one-sided, and Col not only respectfully turns down her romantic feelings without invalidating them, but reassures her that it won’t change their relationship—he cares for her deeply, just not romantically. Whether this changes in future books is yet to be seen of course, but for this first novel, Hasekura has kept the two in the (much more interesting) sibling dynamic.

As its own work, Wolf and Parchment: New Theory Spice and Wolf does a fairly good job at being self-contained. It’s an interesting spin-off for existing fans, but I also think it is accessible to people not necessarily familiar with the original Spice and Wolf. The relationship between our main characters has redeemed itself after a terrible first impression at the end of Spring Log, and the ending leads into an intriguing promise for more.

Gee’s rating: Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Mikagura School Suite

~A guest review by Wolfstein~

This is a review for Mikagura School Suite volume 1 by Last Note., with illustrations by Akina.

This book is, in one word, goofy. I had watched the first episode of the anime a while back, but I wasn’t too interested in it. However, I picked up this book out of my love for Last Note.’s music as well as the songs by Jin (the author of the Kagerou Daze series). I’m glad I gave the books a shot because this volume was a unique experience. Mikagura has three strong appealing characteristics to me: voice, engaging characters, and a fun concept.

First, I should mention what the story is actually about. Mikagura finds a good balance of having an inter-club battle-royal system without being needlessly violent or gory. Representatives from every club, which students are required to join, fight each other in (non-lethal) competitions in order to earn points that let them buy items and services (i.e. food, shower time, and better dorms) on campus, which they are also usually not allowed to leave. I personally love how the idea was handled creatively, but I was disappointed in how it was delivered. Even though we are introduced to the battles in the first pages, it isn’t until the final (and shortest) chapter that it’s actually shown in any depth beyond surface observations. However, that does make me excited for whenever One Peace decides to get on with the next volume.

Aside from the adorable illustrations, one of the first things I noticed reading in just the first few pages was that the writing style (which I have great respect for the translator in being able to convey) was different from most light novels I’ve read. The best comparison would be with how strongly Hachiman’s voice is in the narration of the Oregairu series. The book drops you into the mind of first-year high schooler Eruna Ichinomiya, the self-proclaimed human version of an easily-excitable dog whose tail has a propensity for knocking off everything that’s on a table. Throughout the book, there are strands of internal dialogue with herself (most of which end up being revealed as external dialogue immediately after) that I almost couldn’t help but read without punctuation. I can’t stress how powerful the voice is here. It truly did feel like reading the unfiltered thoughts of this very strange narrator. However, that wasn’t always a good thing. Even though the voice comes through so strong, or maybe precisely because it does, the plot tends to lag behind all of the internal and external banter–especially in the first few chapters. In the end, it’s probably how much you like Eruna’s personality that will determine if you like the story overall since the voice is so prevalent.

The next part I found most interesting in the story were the characters. Eruna with her excessively energetic attitude was not the only quirky character. Her cousin Shigure was initially kind of creepy. At first, Shigure seemed to be the token “guy who likes his cousin a little (or way) too much” second chair comedic relief. However, as the story progressed, we can see that there’s more mystery and real compassion behind him. All of the rest of the club representatives introduced in this volume were just as interesting to me, though neither I nor the book have enough time to go into depth on them. I will say that they all had me wanting to know more about them–and why they act the way they do–which I consider an important thing for any story to convey. The one exception to these exceptional characters, however, happened to be the one that got the second-most attention behind Eruna: Bimii. Although his feline-bestial nature made me curious about him (and also unable to read his lines in a voice aside from Nyanko-sensei’s from Natsume Yuujin-cho), he seemed to only serve as the necessary straight-man to Eruna’s wily antics. I only found myself wanting to know why there was a flying, talking cat who’s treated like a teacher by all but the main character, but not really being interested in what little personality he did show.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. While it’s not my favorite, it’s certainly memorable. I wouldn’t say it’s for everyone, but I suppose if you’re the kind of person who likes Vocaloid music or energetic protagonists who embody canine eagerness, then you might enjoy it immensely.

Wolfstein’s Rating: Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Mia Baumann has a purpose. She’s dedicated her life to finding the cure for Demon Claw—a crippling autoimmune disease both highly contagious and indiscriminate in its victims—after her mother was forcefully separated from her and placed in a sanatorium quarantine a decade before. Alongside the other major, mysterious disease of her home country, Angel Tears, the two illnesses are the only things afflicting the otherwise peaceful Isea Kingdom’s residents. With only the well-wishes from her deceased mentor and the scant letters previously received from her mother as encouragement, Mia enrolls as a pharmacology student at the prestigious Royal Academy with dreams of developing medicine. When she finds herself ostracized after helping the most popular boy at the Academy (as well as multitudes of her fellow first-years) and her ambitions for finding a cure are crushed in bizarre and insidious ways, she comes to realize her dreams might be much more complicated than she could ever expect.

Mia and the Forbidden Medicine Report is a single-volume shojo light novel of the type that publisher Cross Infinite Worlds specializes in. Like all of this publisher’s books, Mia is a digital-only release. Written by Fumi Yamamoto, translated by Charis Messier and including illustrations by Nikata, the story sticks to many (if not all) of the expected tropes of the genre, but surety in the story, mystery, characters and larger setting allows much to be forgiven. There is possibility and opportunity for a sequel, but this book is self-contained.

Shojo light novels are a rarity in the current pool of titles being licensed and released in English. In a market filled with male power-fantasy isekai, NisiOisiN and not much else, it can sometimes be easy to forget the breadth of titles available in Japan. Although relying on pretty basic shojo tropes, the depth of the world-building that Yamamoto has dedicated to the steampunk-infused magical society means that you barely get bogged by it. Trying to explain anything in this book in simple overview will do it injustice, but I’ll give my best attempt.

First and foremost is the Royal Academy. The standards used for structures and the function of any generic ‘private school’ in fiction is nowadays common, and with the inclusion of a society that has magic the comparisons with Harry Potter seem inevitable. As such, the Royal Academy is broken into four schools:

• Law, the most respected and oldest school. Only the children of the wealthy have a chance to join, and many are expected to become future leaders of the country. Their tie color is purple.
• Magic, established to hone the skills of mages. Closely linked with the royal magical army, their ties are red to match (and hearken to) the red-irised eyes of mages with strong magic.
• Medicine, established in a knee-jerk attempt to understand the terrible diseases throughout the country. This school requires the highest grades and hardest work, but is still regarded as lesser than the previous two schools. Their ties are blue.
• Pharmacology. The least-respected of the four schools, the students study medicine development and uses. They work closely with the Medicine school, and are often regarded as a pair. Their ties are green.

Despite the similarities to a plethora of ‘magic academy’ stories, Mia and the Forbidden Medicine Report personally reminds me much more of Snow White with the Red Hair than Harry Potter, in both the writing and the character interaction. The motivation and single-mindedness of Mia in her goal is unwavering, and it’s wonderful to see a new light novel license lead by a head-strong young woman. Her personal convictions are understandable, even if they sometimes waver into irrationality, and motivate both the reader and her friends into supporting her cause.

The story starts with her enrollment. The ceremony is interrupted by a magic student afflicted with Angel Tears wielding a knife, and in the aftermath she is the only one to respond immediately to aid the injured. Years of working in a medical clinic under her former mentor taught her useful skills, and she sets about helping anyone in need. Amongst those is Felix—a Law student both handsome and smart—unhurt by the knife, but crippled in a major panic attack. Without missing a beat, she helps him re-steady his breathing as he regains himself, and her kindness and patience instantly endears her to him.

His friendship and attention brings along the hatred of the other girls in their year though, and the forced isolation finds her constantly bullied and berated by the entirety of the first years across all four schools. Things come to a head when others learn of her personal goal. When Mia announces her plans on finding a cure for Demon Claw as the topic of her Grand Plan (thesis, basically) for the next several years, she’s only met with disgust and horror from her fellow pharmacology students. Unlike Angel Tears, which has decades of research put behind it and moderate cures, Demon Claw is considered dirty and abhorrent. So contagious it can be spread by touch alone, the stigma is enough for most to recoil from. By admitting her mother’s condition, Mia effectively becomes a leper herself, and without anyone to join her research group, she despairs at the injustice.

The only exceptions to the social discrimination are Henrick, a serious medicine student whom Mia met during registration; Mathias, a hulking mage from the magic school and close friend of Felix; and Felix himself.

From left to right: Mathias, Mia, Henrick and Felix

The four band together for the Grand Plan submission, and from there even more trouble arises—Professor Reuger denying each paper they submit, rising disagreements and jealousy within the group, and a physical attack on Mia from an unknown source are just a few of the troubles the four encounter. With every passing day the realities of researching Demon Claw becomes even more dangerous, but she’s dedicated to following through. Self-reliant to a fault, there are also personal struggles Mia needs to overcome, and it’s only after (properly) accepting the help of the others that the group uncovers a conspiracy far beyond what any of them would have realized on their own.

That barely scratches the surface of everything simmering in this story, but the minutiae of detail that has gone into the book is overwhelming—which is amazing, as nothing ever came across as confusing or convoluted whilst reading it. Early on, there are several exposition passages that slow down the pacing in order to explain the world, the politics, the expectation, but they become non-existent the further along into the book you go. I wouldn’t say the writing was particularly riveting—with several instances of describing characters’ features or outfits in unnaturally fine detail, or obvious twists and character actions being used as if unexpected—but there was never a time I was particularly bored reading it. In fact, the most inconsistent part was the tone of certain mysteries. Felix and Mathias’ identities are a secret to Mia, but not the reader (or, not really), so the level of subterfuge they sometimes emphasized seemed farcical, especially when Henrick would break any doubt pretty immediately afterward. If it was a tactic by Yamamoto to show off Henrick’s intelligence, it backfired—especially with how lackluster both Felix and Mathias seemed about being secretive for most of the book.

In that sense, Mia and the Forbidden Medicine Report seems suited to a younger subset of readers than myself. The story has a moderate level of interesting aspects in regards to the setting, but fans of mystery may find this a little too obvious—this isn’t Christie, after all. Anyone familiar with male characters in shojo will recognize aspects in the three of our male leads, but I did appreciate the additional depth, vulnerability and genuineness that Yamamoto gave Felix to elevate him from just ‘the popular guy’. Neither Mathias or Henrick really had the opportunity to show much range of character, but they performed their roles sufficiently. If we ever see a second book, I’d be interested in knowing more about those two.

Mia and the Forbidden Medicine Report isn’t a must-read, but it does give a welcome break from the usual. Shojo and otome fans, or people looking for a female-led book, will likely enjoy this particular story filled with magic, dedication and intrigue, and the characters are endearingly genuine. Mia is a heroine you can’t help but want to support throughout the events, and the satisfaction of the ending is well-deserved.

Gee’s rating: Worth a look.

You can purchase the ebook online via sites like Amazon. This is an affiliate link, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Much like the previous volume of this series, Spice and Wolf – Spring Log II (volume 19) is a collection of short stories chronicling the lives of our characters far beyond the finale of the epilogue in volume 17. There is once again four stories which follow Lawrence and Holo, as well as their family and friends within the bathhouse.

More so than the previous short story collection, this book opens our main characters towards the future, rather than merely easing the readers into the jump of time the story has gone through. Despite Lawrence and Holo’s journey having come to an end, their story is far from over, and as a reader and fan, it’s exciting to see just how things will play out.

A Petal’s Fragrance and Wolf is the first story, and helps to set the tone of the characters’ moods. Starting with Lawrence’s struggles in finding a handmill within storage, the story thread quickly changes to reminiscence when Holo finds a stray bottle among their other things.

The larger plot of the short is fairly standard for Spice and Wolf, with the traveling pair going to a town on request of one of Lawrence’s many acquaintances. The specifics are almost arbitrary at this point for these types of interludes—go to a town, there’s a problem, fix it with an unexpected solution—but the overall message of “turning lemons into lemonade” is a familiar comfort for fans. The results of their adventure is the small bottle in storage, but its significance (and this story’s point) is about happy memories and cherishing past experiences. Long gone are the days of the traveling merchant and the Wisewolf moving from town to town, problem to problem, but the lasting impact of those travels on others as well as themselves makes the memories of the past even sweeter.

Sweet Fangs and Wolf is next, with Col and Myuri still living at the bathhouse before leaving for their own adventures in Wolf and Parchment. Once again written from Col’s perspective, it’s a simple story of misunderstandings and immaturity, showcasing both characters’ strengths and weaknesses. As I’ve mentioned previously, the dynamic between the two seems to still be evolving with Hasekura’s ideas, but this story was miles above the poor attempt in the previous Spring Log. The interactions between both have become much more focused on the siblings they are, rather than the uncomfortable possibility of romance they could have.

I really appreciate Hasekura taking the time to build these characters into people we should care about; his character writing has always been full of compelling but flawed individuals, and it makes it just that much better to read them. His villains aren’t over-the-top diabolical with no motives, and his heroes have never been the perfect paragons of morality. They’ve all had good and bad, and they’ve all had their own reasons behind their actions.

I bring this up in relation to Sweet Fangs and Wolf because it’s crucially important recognizing that both Myuri and Col make mistakes in this story, and both are held accountable for those mistakes in the loving, but firm way that families do. At twelve years old, Myuri is a mischievous thrill-seeker, and doesn’t really have any perception on how her actions affect others. She drops fish in the baths, lets bears fight at the bathhouse and runs around without a care. From Col’s perspective, her immaturity bubbles over into selfishness and thoughtlessness, that when his hard work is ruined without so much as an apology, he snaps. It’s an important shift from their usual dynamic, and it’s a facet to the character we haven’t seen yet. As I said, both Myuri and Col make mistakes in this story, but they’re justified mistakes and very human. When things get resolved at the end, both characters have grown and matured a little, bringing a much more satisfying conclusion than expected, and leaving us with a hope for even more in the future.

Grooming Sheep and Wolf is a direct follow-up from the story Muddy Messenger Wolf and Wolf in the previous book. On their way home from the festival in that story, the two meet a shepherd in need of help. His sheepdog was injured during their travels, and he leaves the flock to the couple with promise to be back soon after finding help for his dog. Suffering from the strain of chasing and catching sheep in town during the festival, Lawrence can barely move, so Holo takes the initiative to keep the sheep together. It’s through these events that the larger theme—responsibility—takes root.

With the upcoming addition of Selim to the Spice and Wolf means that Holo thinks her life is going to change again. Having a new wolf around means she has to comport herself in a very particular way, or so she believes, and that struggle with feeling useless and wanting to be the leader her Wisewolf status grants her makes her frantic and upset. It’s the first time in over a decade that Holo has been aware of who and what she is, and it’s only with Lawrence’s reassurances that the two work things out.

The relationship between Holo and Lawrence is the reason, as a reader, it has been so compelling to follow along for so long. In many ways they are opposites—complimentary but not identical—and the different perspectives mean the two are highlighted marvelously in this story.

The final story in this book is Memories of Spice and Wolf. Completely written from Holo’s perspective, it’s a rare look into the mind of the Wisewolf, and it’s heartbreakingly earnest.

Though she was happy, she was sad she could not give names to each and every piece of her happiness.

As set by A Petal’s Fragrance and Wolf, this story is about memories. For Holo, who has lived for centuries and will live for centuries more, the quiet peaceful life she has led as a bathhouse master’s wife is a cursed blessing. She’s terrified that the simplicity of the days, repetitive in their events, will muddy together so much that she will have no idea of the time passing—and then all too soon it will be over. With Col and Myuri having left, there’s little to keep her mind occupied, and she sinks into the subdued panic of losing her happiness in her own distraction. She makes a point to emphasize that she enjoys quarreling with her “companion” (which is what she exclusively calls Lawrence) even if just to differentiate the days from each other.

For an inhuman being with a lifetime so out of sync with humanity’s, the time she’s spent with Lawrence is fleeting. Despite her love and devotion to him and their life together, there’s a finality to their relationship—which was also a feature of the previous Spring Log book—that cannot be avoided. Holo wants a sea of memories to swim in, once this part of her life is over, and the boredom of routine scares her that she won’t have enough by the end—too many days merging into one. It’s a bubbling hope for nostalgia of this current time. She once yearned for the snowy hills of Yoitsu, and now she yearns for the quiet love of the bathhouse, even before she’s lost it. It ties well with the other major theme of homesickness that Selim is going through, and finally loops back around to the reminiscent mood established by the first story in the collection. It’s thoughtful and quiet, and illuminating for a character we’ve followed up until now. For this story alone, this book is worth reading for fans.

As the second short story collection in these Spring Log follow-ups, volume 19 is by far the best. We see characters both new and old evolve within this collection, and for people wanting more insight to our favorite Wisewolf this is the best we’ve gotten yet.

Gee’s rating: Highly Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

This first volume has been previously reviewed by Cho.

The Baccano! light novels are likely one of the most triumphant licenses for fans since the wave of interest in the medium began in the West. Originally written by Ryohgo Narita in 2002 for the Dengeki Novel Prize, this first story found enough popularity to spawn it into a now 22+ volume ongoing series, set in continuity with his later works Durarara!!, Etsusa Bridge and Vamp! (The latter two yet unlicensed) à la CLAMP or TYPE-MOON.

Its incredibly popular anime adaptation from 2007 is where I would expect majority of people to have been first introduced to the the crazy world of Prohibition, gangsters and alchemists (myself included), and made Baccano a beloved franchise (and coveted license) years before light novels were an established and viable part of the western otaku market.

This first book, subtitled The Rolling Bootlegs, was released by Yen Press in May 2016 in English, with seven books having been released since. Following a near-overwhelming amount of characters, this book established the multi-POV style Narita is now known for, whilst never becoming complicated or hard to follow.

First, we start at the end. The opening is aptly named Epilogue 1, following a Japanese photographer visiting New York City in 2002. After being saved from a mugging, he meets a man, who tells him an interesting story…

Then we have the prologue. The year is 1711, and a boat full of pilgrims is sailing to find the New World. Banished from their homelands, they are all in search of knowledge far beyond current human understanding. On a dark, stormy night during their trip, they manage to summon a demon with alchemy…

Next is our main story during 1930’s New York. Prohibition has gangs of all sorts fighting and scheming over territory and honor, and we’re thrust into one crazy day where everything changed…

Baccano is a lot to understand at first glance. The word ‘baccano’ in Italian means ‘a noisy racket’, and the series certainly lives up to that. Framing this particular volume with the ‘let me tell you a story’ I think helps ease the reader into everything that is to come, and allows Narita to establish such a dense world without having to hand-hold us throughout. We have the main historical setting of New York, right in the thick of Prohibition—an iconic and exciting setting for any story—infused with the fun ridiculousness of supernatural possibilities, and a crazy cast of characters to go alongside it. It’s ruthless with it’s era-appropriate violence, but the writing never drags into ‘torture porn’ or overwhelming despair. In fact, The Rolling Bootlegs is a light-hearted book even when filled with shoot-ups and knife fights. Narita has a great talent for intuitive and natural comedy—especially with dialogue and narration—and the translation done by Taylor Engel for Yen On has retained it perfectly.

To anyone previously familiar with the series, it’s well known that Baccano (and Durarara) doesn’t truly have ‘main characters’ that we follow exclusively. The point of view shifts throughout chapters with freedom, and instead we follow a group, a community, as this crazy day unfolds. In saying that, the two who drive this book are Firo and Ennis—two sides of this story who slowly spiral together towards the grand finale.

As a young man barely beyond his teens, Firo is joining the Camorra as their newest member. Having grown up on the mean streets of New York alongside mafia and the poor, he’s willing to dedicate his life to the ruthless family he’s found, regardless of the danger. He’s young and passionate, but easy-going and not unnecessarily cruel. His advisor, Maisa, fusses over him and the risk he’s taking by joining the family, but his fighting skills are top notch, and he’s good enough to tussle with the lot of them.

On the opposite side is Ennis. Un-aging and empty, she is a hapless puppet and victim of the only father she has ever known—her life revolving around assisting and protecting his goals without question. She’s an assassin with no ethical or moral objections, because she was created that way, but the quiet whispers in the back of her mind push her to finally think, question things, for herself.

These two run into each other one afternoon; Firo preparing for his acceptance ceremonial test, and Ennis trying to find the man who has stolen a very special liquor. From this point on, their fates and circumstances are changed, all thanks to the crazy people in this crazy town.

Because, as I said, these two are hardly the only characters in this book, and this is not the only plot line(s) we’re following. We also have Isaac and Miria—fan favorites and the most comedic of the lot—two idiot thieves who are now trying to counteract their bad crimes with good ones; Dallas Genoard, a rich-kid thug who causes more trouble than he can handle; the Gandor brothers, a small mafia family with a long friendship with Firo and an understanding with the Camorra; and the mixed group of pilgrims from 1711, who spoke to a devil and unleashed an amazing gift and a terrible curse upon themselves.

Baccano is a very easy read. It engages the audience with the fantastical and exciting story, but also with the wonderful character writing and interactions. For fans of the anime, the events aren’t anything new, but there are still numerous things to enjoy about the novel. This is a series for people tired of current isekai or high school settings within light novels; there’s nothing quite like Narita’s use of switching POVs, and he’s established himself as an author with a very unique and enjoyable voice. The translation on this particular book maintains the easy readability and flow of the novel perfectly, and I commend Yen On for their beautiful hardcover and dust jacket release.

For both new and existing fans, Baccano is a must-read. Come join the ruckus!

Gee’s Rating: Highly Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in hardcover or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Edward and Alphonse Elric are traveling around the country in search of the coveted Philosopher’s Stone. Rumors lead them to Xenotime, a mining town that can no longer mine, and who claim to be working on creating a Stone with the help of two young alchemists–the Elric brothers?!

Faced with a town desperate for their gold mining to return, and impostors already claiming their names in town, it seems like Ed and Al will need to uncover more than just the truth of alchemy’s greatest secret if they want to find the Stone in Fullmetal Alchemist – The Land of Sand.

2005 seems like forever ago. Over ten years have passed since this book was released in English by Viz Media, and it would have been right at the height of fan interest for the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise. Written by Makoto Inoue, the series of books boasts illustrations from the mangaka herself, Hiromu Arakawa, and was so well-received that the story in this book was even adapted and included in the original 2003 anime.

For anyone with even a glancing knowledge of Japanese media, Fullmetal Alchemist should be a familiar name. Since the debut of the manga in 2001, Arakawa’s story has persevered within the collective consciousness of otaku across the globe, and has had not only two anime adaptations, but anime films, several video games, countless references in other media from both inside and outside Japan, and even a Netflix-produced live action film since. It’s a series with a plethora of interesting and complicated characters, and lends itself well to larger world building within all of these non-manga adaptations.

In particular with this book, and as previously mentioned, you don’t need to have read it to know the two stories thanks to the creative team of the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime. The first (and main) story was adapted in episodes 11 and 12 (The Other Brothers Elric: Part 1 and 2), and the more comedic short story in the latter half of episode 37 (The Flame Alchemist, The Bachelor Lieutenant & The Mystery of Warehouse 13).

That doesn’t mean this book isn’t worth reading though–quite the opposite! It’s a testament to Inoue’s understanding of the characters that they behave and speak just as expected, and are able to merge pretty perfectly with the new characters and setting without missing a beat. The main themes of the book embody those of the manga with a surprising accuracy, and it’s very easy to read.

The best part is that Fullmetal Alchemist lends itself to early side stories. There are years of unexplored adventures from when Ed first received his license (age 12) to when the main manga plot starts (age 15), and  The Land of Sand slips seamlessly into this period of time. Amestris is a large country with multitudes of small country towns, and Xenotime is just another.

Previously famous for their mines and the goldware the residents produced, the town is struggling now that it seems that all the gold is gone. The land is arid and sandy thanks to the loss of vegetation from digging out the earth, and residents struggle with both their funds and their health as most wait for the miracle promise of the Philosopher’s Stone. Mugear, a man who made his wealth at the height of the gold rush, is heading the research and experimentation into the Stone. In this process he brought on two promising young alchemists claiming to be the Elric brothers (much to Ed’s chagrin when he gets kicked out of the inn for ‘lying’ about his name).

The imposters, they discover after breaking in, are indeed two brothers–using the Elric name to find funding for their research, and aid the search for their missing father. They have the heavy weight of hope placed on them from the desperate townsfolk and the greedy man who hired them, and it’s obvious the two are slowly crumbling under the expectation and their lies. The Red Water they have been experimenting with is running out, and there’s no way it could help the town in the state it’s in. For Edward and Alphonse it’s another dead end in the search for their bodies, but the small seeds of hope and change in the minds of the town is more important for Xenotime than the stone ever would have been, and they help expose Mugear as the duplicitous and greedy schemer that he is.

The Land of Sand isn’t long or complicated, but it’s a solid story about the dangers of relying on a quick fix or easy solution, rather than putting in hard work to create a better future. The townspeople of Xenotime grew so complacent when times were good and gold was bountiful, that none of them were prepared for the downturn. They ruined things for short-term profits, and are reaping the consequences–something all too reminiscent of real-word issues and events. The new characters in the story, the fake Elrics, are the highlight–playing off of each other and the real Elrics very well. The scenes between both younger brothers in particular were great to read as they commiserated over their worries for their older brothers, and I am personally glad the older anime series gave this mini story its time to shine.

The short single-chapter story at the end is purely comedy, following Colonel Mustang and his team in Eastern Command. Rumors of ghostly cries and a mysterious warehouse 13 are spreading through the lower ranks, and Feury, Havoc, Breda and Falman convince Roy to help them solve the mystery (if only just to stop Feury crying). What unfolds is a hilarious series of misunderstandings the men go through, which culminates with Hawkeye (truly, the only rational one of the group) unknowingly solving everything with the truth. It’s a funny little interlude, and gives a good idea of the dynamic within Mustang’s team.

The Fullmetal Alchemist novels as a whole are fairly easy to recommend for any fan. This book–like the rest–is easy to read and reminiscent of the main story. The book is short, and suitable for younger readers (middle school age) too, which would have been the majority of FMA fans at the time it was published. I think it’s a great intro into light novels as a medium, being easy-to-read and an approachable connection to the popular franchise (without being the source material). The biggest problem is that there’s no ‘new material’ in this book for 2003 anime fans, but I doubt subsequent books will have this problem.

As a part of the larger FMA franchise, The Land of Sand is good for pre-existing and new fans alike. It’s self-contained and can be read without knowledge of the animes or manga, but also gives some depth and world-building for those already familiar.

Gee’s recommendation: Good for fans, or as an introduction to the medium.

Myuri and Col find themselves in the mysterious islands off the coast of Winfiel in a bid to help Hyland with her cause. Looking for supporters for the kingdom if a holy war breaks out, the pair are entangled in a town filled with piracy, heresy, and undivided dedication to an idol called Black-Mother.

Following directly after the previous novel in the series, Wolf and Parchment volume 2 starts with Col finally recovering from exhaustion after three weeks of bed rest; Myuri by his side, nursing him back to health. After the events of volume 1, tensions between the Church and Winfiel are at an all-time high, and Hyland knows there is an ever-increasing possibility that war will bubble up—and without outside support, the Kingdom of Winfiel is powerless against the overwhelming reach of the Church.

I didn’t mention it much during my review of the last volume, but the friendship and dynamic between Col and Hyland is an interesting one. Both being devoutly dedicated to religious belief and wanting to correct the corruption within the Church, means they have a common goal despite their vastly different backgrounds, but Col is always acutely aware of the power structure and balance between them. They are friends and associates, but Col regards himself as a vassal for her use; a pawn helpful for the upcoming trials, and exploited when needed. His dedication to her cause increasingly fueled by his own standards of moral justice. This is the reason why, then, that he has no qualms following her direction. Heedless to his own safety, Col barely hesitates before agreeing to travel into treacherous areas in an attempt to convince pirates of their cause. The only reason for his hesitation—Myuri, of course.

The daughter of the Wisewolf is much the same, and acts as the outside voice to her brother’s sense of duty. She attempts to convince Col that they should leave everything behind, go back to their mountainous town of Nyohhira, and live peacefully. It’s a far cry from the young girl excited for danger and adventure now that she’s seen the consequences, and her quiet plea for the mundane of an untroubled life is still asked, even when she knows it’s futile. Col’s major conflict is for her safety—knowing she won’t return home alone, but also knowing he can’t abandon a cause that he believes is right—finally deciding to bring her along. Myuri is still the (uncomfortably) aggressively forward preteen with her romantic interest, but she’s not insistent on escaping her hometown any more; wanting to return to the protected bubble of the bath house her parents run—and if not that, than to accompany Col to the best of her ability.

Ultimately, they go to appeal to the infamous group of pirates occupying a small and treacherous group of islands nearby. Hiding their reasons under the excuse of wanting to open a monastery, Col and Myuri discover how the town is splintered under the threat of slavery, sickness and lack of income. Dozens before them have come to open monasteries, none were successful. In dour isolation, the heartbreaking breakdown of the town’s spirit can clearly be understood. It becomes very obvious how the current situation arose from desperation—worshiping the Black-Mother, who performs miracles at sea.

Made from solid jet, the islanders keep the carved Madonnas as a blessing for safe sea travel. Under the protection of the Black-Mother, no one drowns—even when swept away in terrible storms. Multiple accounts support the story as more than the fanciful tales of sailors; for the religious-minded young man it’s a question on whether it qualifies as a miracle, or heresy.

The one at the center of the Black-Mother movement is Autumn; a man wholly submerged in his faith that it has corrupted him from accountability. He uses the promise of absolution to justify sins—the promise of necessary evils being forgiven under the eyes of the Black-Mother, as her grace and love is unlimited. Living in almost total destitution and famine in order to live in justice, Autumn embodies the most humble and hardcore sides of faith. For Col, who also uses belief to guide his life, it’s a crazy difference to what he’s encountered before—but not one he can fully deny or reject. There’s a begrudging respect for the man, even when Col disagrees with his choices.

It’s a interesting addition to how things have changed from the original Spice and Wolf—the dichotomy between the Church and paganism has settled into an almost non-issue now that the Church no longer feels threatened, but has now started to see the emergence of several smaller pockets of local tradition and superstition.

The last part of the book not only has scheming and action, but an interesting reflection. There’s melancholy and regret as Col accepts his own end, quickly followed by fervent desperation to save Myuri. The responsibility, the quiet understanding of mortality when faced with it, is done beautifully. It’s an introspective look at how the characters interact and rely on each other, which I have always thought Hasekura excels at. The conclusion works beautifully as a example of hope from deliberate dishonesty; of relying on something, even if it’s not what you expected.

The book has a slow start, but once the plot crescendos it’s impossible to stop. This was a growing book for Col, being exposed to the multitudes of kindnesses, even with unkindness. He’s directly confronted with the power of faith for the desperate, and the power of faith under human control. It’s an interesting book that manages to be surprising even from the first half to the second, and it makes me excited for future Wolf and Parchment novels.

Gee’s rating: Very Good

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Running for her life after the murder of her parents, Princess Lala Lilia finds herself under the protection of the last  surviving member of the royal knights, Gideon Thorn. In their escape from her pursuers they ride deep into the Forbidden Forest, coming face-to-face with a centuries-old crimson dragon–the mortal enemy of knights, and interested in the little princess himself.

Little Princess in Fairy Forest was originally released in Japan in 2017, and is now available in English thanks to Cross Infinite Worlds. Written by Tsubaki Tokino and illustrated by Konno Takahashi, this story is self contained to a single volume.  Cheris Messier is once again the translator, like in the previous Cross Infinite Worlds title I reviewed, and works hard with the changing perspectives throughout the book.

Going in, I didn’t know what to expect from this title–like most titles from this publisher, there seems to be very little information or opinion available outside of the license announcement–but the gorgeous cover grabbed my attention immediately. The synopsis of a young princess having to escape her uncle’s attempts at capturing her for the throne was intriguingly similar to a fairytale, so I eagerly awaited for my own copy to join my Kindle library.

First of all, when they say little princess, they mean little princess. Lala is only six years old during the opening prologue and chapters, and definitely acts her age. As I had hoped, the story truly is a fairytale with dragons, witches and fairy godmothers–but also includes the twisted, terrifying scenarios of the Brothers Grimm. This book was viscerally horrific to read in parts, which was as surprising as it was riveting. It never dips into being too oppressively dour though, as all three of our main characters keep the story’s momentum going.

Initially I was hesitant when the book opened with Lala’s first-person perspective–afraid that the book would be a vehicle for self-insert more than anything else. This was not the case, however. Speaking on the prose itself, there’s a frequency of switching perspectives–sometimes the reader being in the character’s head, and sometime from the perspective of a narrator. It was a little hard to get into at first, but the sudden shifts work well for the story’s structure and gives the plot and characters more depth of motivation than if it had been written in only one way.

Our main characters consist of the Little Princess herself, a headstrong young girl who adapts well to new situations; Gideon, a middle-aged knight, who cares far more about duty and loyalty than his black sheep status would suggest; and Spike Scale, the 200-year-old dragon who loves knowledge, and is overly protective of the people he cares about.

Initially at odds, the two men decide to work together in protecting Lala from her Uncle, and with the help of some fairy godmother magic, the three hide safely in their tree house. Gideon and Spike’s dynamic is very much the ‘odd couple’; as mortal enemies, their impulse is combat, but their shared concern and affection for the princess brings them into a mutual understanding. Personally, these two felt like the main characters of the book–even though the princess’s story has resolved, I wouldn’t mind following the bickering knight and dragon on more adventures.

Like all good fairytales, we need some villains–and boy, do we get some pretty major villains in this book. There is of course, Princess Lala’s uncle Lord Designs (related by marriage) whose drive for power not only caused the death of Lala’s parents, but had him make a deal with the Devil Himself using his only daughter’s soul as collateral. That daughter, Megan, is a soulless being with little attachment to anything in the world, and an icy indifference to morality. With the fickle help of a witch who spins magic like spiderwebs, the castle–and Lala Lilia–is doomed to fall into evil hands.

The deaths–and there are plenty of them in this book–are harrowing to read. The violence is never obscured behind the fancifulness of the setting, and the extreme body horror and moral injustice hearkens to classic fairytales–the cost of what is won is barely comparable to what was lost.

That shouldn’t scare you away from this book, though. I actually really appreciated seeing the consequences of all of our characters’ actions, and how even good things can lead to bad things. This is helped thanks to the ensemble cast, because the composite story is much more fascinating than the singular.

The biggest problem the book had was the emphasis on breasts or sex whenever relevant in Gideon’s point of view. Aside from being wholly unnecessary, it ground the otherwise-wonderful pacing of the book to a halt whenever it happened. I’m no prude, and I don’t mind ‘fanservice-y’ interludes or asides if done well, but it seemed inappropriate with the tone of the rest of the book. It just seemed a shame to rely on boob humor for the character when Tokino already gives us a fun comedic repertoire between Gideon and Spike. It’s a small part of the overall book, but it was noticeable whenever it happened.

Despite not knowing what to expect going in, the book was captivating. Little Princess in Fairy Forest has so much going on, I barely brushed the surface of it. It’s a marvelous little book, and at a single volume it’s not a huge commitment of time or expense. If you enjoy found family, creative re-imaginings or pure fairytale villainy, I can’t encourage you enough to read it.

Gee’s rating: Very Good

You can purchase the ebook online via sites like Amazon. This is an affiliate link, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Railway lines are being blown up thanks to a mysterious group of terrorists rallying against the military. Despite the constant attacks there have been no casualties and seemingly no motivation, leaving Colonel Mustang and the rest of military personnel under the pressure of civilian frustrations. The public dissatisfaction is loud enough to distract from the string of kidnappings happening across the eastern region, with children of wealthy families being taken for ransom and returned safely.

After discovering the situation when coincidentally meeting Mustang and Havoc on their rescheduled train trip, Edward and Alphonse Elric find themselves trying to help discover the truth and reasoning behind everything going on–ending up right in the middle of trouble yet again!

Once again Makoto Inoue returns with a new Fullmetal Alchemist story for fans in the familiar ‘problem of the week’ style that builds the earlier parts of the series (especially the earlier 2003 anime series). Unlike the previous book in this series, none of the content in this novel was adapted or incorporated in the anime adaptations, so this comes as a whole new adventure starring our favorite Brothers Elric, and Col. Mustang.

The story starts off strong, introducing our characters as they wait hopelessly for a train that doesn’t seem like it will arrive. Up until the opening of the book Ed and Al had been on another trip to search for the Philosopher’s Stone, cut off from major communications for several weeks, so the two have no clue to the problems currently plaguing the country. Once the train does arrive–late and packed to bursting with people–it’s quickly obvious as to why the train schedule is so disrupted. An unnamed terrorist group has been blowing up the rails and causing transport problems without any real motivation, according to the Colonel. Central Command has been pushing for results, but the perpetrators have always managed to slip away without witnesses. In addition to that major problem, Mustang believes the recent string of kidnappings is somehow connected, but can’t convince his superiors of the same thing.

The story in this book is fairly simple, with and obvious problem and set up that leads to a satisfying conclusion and at least one action scene in typical shonen fashion. Edward and Alphonse are of course the main characters we follow in this book, but the true focus is Colonel Roy Mustang. This book is the first true introduction we’ve gotten for his character within the light novel series, and Inoue takes the opportunity to show off his strong personality and instincts in the story. He’s dedicated to his position, but not to the disadvantage of common sense or instinct. The relationship he (and his team) has with the Elrics is also front-and-center for the book, highlighting the mix of irritating teasing and genuine care they all share. Arakawa has created all of these characters with plenty of personality and realistic relationships, and Inoue definitely tries to capture that in the writing. I don’t think everything in this book feels true to the characters of the manga (Ed’s early joking of calling Mustang ‘Dad’ felt particularly out of character thanks to his own problems with his father and the lack of any resemblance between them), but I think that owes a lot to character revelations that were revealed after the publishing of this book rather than a flaw in the writing itself. I did appreciate Alphonse’s interactions with the little girl the brothers meet at the inn, but that may be due to my love for the character in general–the youngest Elric seems to have avoided any major personality discrepancies in these books so far, and his sweet, patient temperament is a nice balance with his more-fiery older brother.

The villains of this book are the weakest part, in my opinion. All of these Fullmetal Alchemist books are short, and both this book and the previous have handled some fairly straightforward-but-expansive plot lines. Whilst the reasoning behind what the terrorists want is fairly easy and typical, as an audience we get very little in justification or characterization for the members of the group before the finale looms and the book is done. Understandably, none of the villain characters are ones fans and readers know–completely created for this novel and to serve their function within the story–but it means we have little to invest us into their cause. You don’t need sympathetic villains for a good book, but the stakes never felt particularly high between the two groups.

Functionally these books are definitely on the “light” side of light novels without demanding a huge amount of attention to follow, and this one especially feels like a middling interlude in these characters’ lives–even as we have kidnapping and the threat of train crash. Compared to the previous book I reviewed in this series, the language use and intended audience seems much the same, continuing to be very accessible for new young light novel fans. Fullmetal Alchemist – The Abducted Alchemist is exactly what the title promises, and although it has some fun action pieces, the book is overall skippable for most people. It’s not terrible, but it sticks a little too close to the expected formula to be engaging outside of the larger franchise it’s tied to.

Gee’s recommendation: Satisfactory, but skippable

Baccano! is back, with even more eccentric characters and crazy plotting!! Four groups collide on-board the transcontinental express The Flying Pussyfoot as the train makes its way from Chicago to New York. As tensions and the body count rises, a terrifying monster called the Rail Tracer joins the mix and no one is safe!

This second book was published by Yen On in August of 2016, with Taylor Engel once again translating.

With the second novel in the franchise we are introduced to an almost-entirely new cast from the previous book. Isaac and Miria are the only hold-overs from book one (aside from brief cameos from Firo, Maiza, the Gandors and the rest at the very end), so the energy and character interactions are all new for readers. Alongside everyone’s favorite idiot-thieves we have three other groups: a gang of rogue bootleggers fleeing from backlash in Chicago and hoping to make some money stealing explosives, a terrorist group trying to rescue their leader with a hostage situation, and a psychotic mafia heir branching from the main family to accommodate his excessive violence. Unsurprisingly, despite already having so many individuals introduced in the first book, each and every one of the characters are distinct and interesting. Even though many of these characters are new for us readers (unless you’ve previously watched the anime) they don’t feel secondary or less developed than the protagonists of The Rolling Bootlegs. In fact, I would argue that this book and story arc is far more engaging.

Considering how self-contained and conclusive the first book was, it makes sense for Baccano! to move into new territory and expand its universe. It also has a much more energetic and frenetic point-of-view character switching compared to the previous volume—the quick switches bouncing readers around the train whenever needed. 1931 – The Grand Punk Railroad: Local is the first half of a two-volume arc. As such, the first 50 pages of the book are dedicated to an epilogue and five separate prologues. With so many new characters it’s integral to understanding all the players as the situation spirals out of control.

Amongst all of these new characters, our main focus is definitely Jacuzzi Splot—crybaby leader of a rag-tag gang of bootleggers. His kind heart makes him someone we immediately want to support, and the genuine protectiveness he has for his found-family is terribly endearing and proves his bravery despite his usual reactions. His group is a mix of the poor and undesirable of Prohibition-era America, finding strength in each other. Some of this eclectic gang leans towards racial stereotype, but that’s definitely due to the Western vs Japanese perspective and experience—and is more so used to highlight outcasts coming together in a prejudiced society, than any ill-intention. His main associates that accompany him on the Chicago — New York trip are Nice, his girlfriend and explosives expert; and Donny, a giant Mexican man who acts as the main muscle for the group. (There’s  two other guys too, Nick and Jack, but they’re mostly incidental.) I say that Jacuzzi is the main focus mostly because only his story and perspective is fully concluded in this part of the book. The other two groups, the Black Suits and the White Suits, have plenty to do, but you’ll have to read the next book for proper conclusions to their events.

The Black Suits are terrorists planning a hostage situation. Their leader, Huey Lafayette, is in prison for the indefinite future, and they plan negotiate his freedom in exchange for the lives of the wife and daughter of a senator. Amongst the group is Huey’s daughter, Chané, hopeful in freeing her father. As members scheme and turn against each other, it’s obvious that the group’s motivations are splintering.

In opposition is the White Suits, Ladd Russo (of the Russo Family mafia) and his associates wanting to hijack the entire train for ransom. He’s mercilessly violent and insists on wearing white to “show off the beautiful red of blood”. His fiancée Lua is eerily lifeless and adamant on Ladd ending her life—a consenting agreement that her murder by his hands will be enjoyed and fulfilled—the perfect description of their twisted relationship.

And of course, it would be amiss to not mention Isaac and Miria, who are traveling back to New York after Ennis wrote them a letter about her self-reflection. They had spent the previous months unsuccessfully mining for gold in California, and the two were quick to jump to their friend’s aid. These two function mostly as the objective outsiders to any situations—generally too foolish to understand the truth behind any situation, but almost always witnesses. The duo are the common link between groups of characters, and it’s inevitable that many of these crazy individuals will intersect after this.

There is also Rachel, a fare-dodging journalist who knows the trains well; Chezlaw, a young boy traveling alone who gets swept up in the action thanks to his friendship with the senator’s daughter; and the young conductor, who spreads the legend of the Rail Tracer amongst the train’s occupants before his own untimely death. Not everything is as it seems, however, and things become weirder before they get clearer. This definitely feels like they first half of a two-part story.

The two suited groups inevitably clash as the transcontinental express heads towards New York. This means that the violence is much, much higher than the previous light novel. The twisted personality of Ladd and his men, the unfettered guns of the terrorist group, and the Rail Tracer’s hyper-violent justice means the bloodshed is immense. Isaac and Miria never lose their comedic air even with all this, but the book is less humorous in general.

If you weren’t super impressed with the characters of the first novel, this one might turn you around. There’s a frenetic energy that is heightened in this book compared to the first, and although the full explanation for the events only comes in the next Grand Punk Railroad book, you still get a satisfying conclusion for a very likable character in this one. There’s enough established to keep readers anticipating the next one, keeping us all enamored.

Gee’s recommendation: Great

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in hardcover or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Ikebukuro, Tokyo is abuzz with energy–a town unlike anywhere else where weird and wonderful people gather. Mikado Ryuugamine has moved to the big city for high school thanks to the urging of his best friend, hoping to have a more exciting life. When he glimpses the resident mystery–the Black Rider–he realizes Ikebukuro is even more crazy than he ever imagined!!

Durarara!! is probably Ryohgo Narita’s most well-known work. The series is completed at 13 volumes in Japan, but has inspired several spin-offs, as well as existing within Narita’s larger world (which also includes Baccano!). Yen Press released this first book in English in 2015. Like his other works, it’s hard to pin down a singular protagonist when so many characters and plots intermingle to create the larger story of Durarara!!, and the sheer scope and mystery of the story means your attention is caught early and stays engaged up until the last page.

Being set in modern-day Tokyo, the series feels more grounded than Baccano! even though both have intrinsic supernatural elements in an otherwise real-world setting. There’s an obvious reliance on online presence for all of our characters within the book–the difference between our real life and internet personas is both a relevant and relatable theme, and works well as a narrative device for the book. Private chatrooms are a central meeting place for all of our characters, even if many don’t realize who they’re talking to.

Mikado is a pretty typical teenage boy–bored with his life and hoping for something new and exciting to distract him. Prompted by his best friend Masaomi Kida to move to Ikebukuro from the small country town he’s always lived in, he seizes it as an opportunity for change. He’s mild-mannered and excruciatingly normal–seemingly the complete opposite to his best friend with his dyed hair and myriad of piercings. He fits the bill for a pretty typical light novel protagonist, and this book does mainly focus on his experiences as a fish-out-of-water kid struggling to find his place in a town that never stops.

The true protagonist of the Durarara!!-verse is Celty though–a Dullahan who drives the streets of Tokyo on her trusty steed (motorcycle) as she searches the city for her missing head. Living with underground doctor Shinra who is madly in love with her, she spends most of her days as a transporter hiding in the shadows and cleaning up the streets. Despite being the only fully supernatural character within Durarara, she’s much more normal and relatable than anyone else in the book. She’s a dangerous avenger fighting for justice and herself with shadowy powers, but she’s also a fan of ghost television specials and cheesy game shows. All of this makes her easier to support and sympathetic, even when she slips into her monstrous nature. When rumors start circling about a girl with major neck scars running around the streets with Celty’s face, her search seems to be coming to a close–but nothing is ever that easy.

Alongside this, a growing gang is filling the streets of Ikebukuro–one with invisible, silent members–calling themselves the Dollars. They have no claimed aim, and it’s impossible to recognize them, but their influence continues to grow. Founded in a private chatroom, no one knows the leader or even their other members, but the secrecy and novelty is hard to ignore. It’s a straightforward representation of how we connect online, the safety of anonymity and being part of a silent majority, and it’s interesting seeing the culmination of these themes by the end.

It would be disingenuous to skip over any of the other major and minor characters introduced this book, but like Baccano! (even more so, actually), every character has an important role to play and it would be impossible to cover everything–there are too many points of incidental detail and foreshadowing outside of the main plot of this book. Other characters fans will definitely recognize are the ever-popular Shizuo and Izaya–a irritable superman and his nemesis the scheming information broker. Izaya in particular functions as a catalyst for many of the relationships and actions throughout the book, with definite hints of large plans for the future. We also have Anri Sunohara, Mikado’s buxom wallflower classmate whose best friend has disappeared; Simon, the giant Russian who keeps the peace; the Yagiri siblings, who have an uncomfortably close relationship; and Kadota and his gang of super-otaku. There’s a rich history between all of these characters, and their relationships function in response to this with how they interact. I have to commend Narita in particular for this, as the setting feels lived in and pre-existing thanks to this, rather than revolving and responding directly to the characters.

Which brings up another important point of Narita’s setting writing–where Ikebukuro functions as a character itself. The town feels alive with a constant energy, and after having personally experienced the real Ikebukuro, I feel Durarara!! certainly captures the atmosphere of the people and places. It’s a spot you can believe may be hiding anything–both supernatural and human–and everything is possible.

The first novel in the Durarara!! series is an interesting start to a story that is obviously larger than the 180 pages of this book. It introduces a solid chunk of our main characters and features a plot with enough crazy and creepy to keep almost anyone reading. There are a couple rough patches, but that’s understandable enough for the debut of a new series with so many characters to establish. If you’re looking for crazy fun with a twist of uncomfortable, Durarara!! is one not to miss!

Gee’s rating: Very good

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.