Archive for the inori Category


Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 8 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

August 21st, 2024

A girl with long silver hair stands in the foreground, a girl with collar-length brown hair behind her, both wearing fantasy school uniforms of red jacket and blue skirt with white underskirt, both looking concerned. Behind them a blonde woman in a white shift dances in front of a display of blue flowers, bathed in light from the moon.Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 8 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) is the climax of Yu’s arc and, as a result it is poignant and touching in about 4 different ways.

To begin with, the entirety of Rae’s conversation with Misha is expanded upon with their meeting as children. Misha, ever practical, finally demands to know the truth about Rae, who she insists is nothing like her childhood best friend. When confronted with the truth, we learn two key things – one that Rae was adopted and two, sometimes in this world children just…appear from nowhere. No one knows where the Children of the Forest come from, Misha says and this seemingly random fact will come back several times in this story in surprising ways. 

With Rae’s unbelievable, yet truthful admission, Misha, at last is ready to help the team free Yu. In an epic moment, in front of the eyes of virtually the entire capital, Yu takes her place as the woman she is, throwing her mother’s plan to dominate the throne into complete disarray. It’s a fantastic moment, drawing magnificently. This will not be the only trans narrative in this story, but it and the other are both very good.

Rae is punished of course, for her actions and ends up being removed from the Royal Academy…again, a seemingly small moment that will have massive repercussions later in the story. Which makes me think about the ping=pong nature of so many epic Japanese stories. How many Gundam series, for instance have world governments overthrown and replaced and overthrown again in the course of what has to be a few months at most? And here is Rae, who catapults to the top of the school, is named a Knight, saves everyone from a chimera, now is thrown out, works for the King, thwarts a revolution and will eventually return to the school as an instructor, only to leave almost immediately as an exchange student to Nur, where she foments revolution there. That seems like a perfectly normal couple of years. ^_^;

Anyway…this volume is fantastic and beautiful and you should definitely get it!

Ratings:

Art – Excellent, with one egregious choice that…woof.
Story – Fanastic
Characters – The princes step up like crazy
Service – Everyone deserves to have their needs served, not just the salacious ones.
Yuri – The main relationship is set on the back burner in service to the larger narrative

Overall –  A brilliant volume of manga.

Volume 7 is on the way in English this October from Seven Seas!





I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner, Volume 2

July 8th, 2024

A girl with long blonde hair with a red bow and a girl with medium-length brown hair with a baby water slime on her shoulder walk under a parasol,. Both wear red school uniforms jackets and blue skirts. In Volume 1, we once again find ourselves in Bauer’s Royal Academy, where one Rae Taylor upends the school and eventually the entire country in her pursuit of  Claire François. Only this time, we’re seeing it all from Claire’s perspective. That first volume added a ton of new content to the story including a character that was influential, but never seen in the initial series.

In I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner, Volume 2 of the spin-off light novel series, we once again see things from perspectives other than Rae’s. Claire, Misha’s… even Pepi and Loretta’s,  Claire’s close friends and hench chicks, turn out to have a story all their own. It turns out that their story is – and will continue to be very worth reading. I find I never reviewed it when I read the Japanese edition, d’oh. It was my favorite of the three volumes. How annoying.

I refuse to spoil the why, so you will have to trust me on this. ^_^

In the meantime, this volume does something I find fascinating. By taking two side characters and putting then in the limelight, we’re forced to rethink their motives and actions completely. And this leads to my absolutely favorite scene in the entire series. One I liked so much, I referenced it in my interview with inori-sensei for Yuricon 2023. It is in this novel we truly come to understand Pepi Barlier and her bosom friend, Loretta Kugret. When they follow Claire to Rae and Misha’s hometown of Euclid, their lives change forever. I promise that their story does not just end there, either. Despite the fact that the Revolution arc basically shelves them, here more will happen that will include them…and it will have repercussions.

Once again this book forced me to confront my weakness at stories about the twins, Mei and Aleah. Any time spent with their trauma will always hit me hard. I’ve said that this book is worth reading if you liked the original I’m In Love With The Villainess light novels. I stand by that. It is not mere a “other person’s perspective,” it is a reminder that one person cannot know everything, no matter how much knowledge she has. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 3? 4?
Yuri/LGBTQ+ – We see their relationship from Claire’s side

Overall – 9

 Volume 3, the final volume of the series, (until/unless inori-sensei completes her sequel) will hit our bookshelves in October.

Volume 1 is already available as an audiobook, and Volume 2 is headed our way in that format in August.





I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 5

May 3rd, 2024

Two women, one with long blonde hair, one with medium length dark brown hair, wearing lab coats, hold hands and smile gently into each other's eyes, while sparks of lightening flash behind them.In I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 5, Rae, Claire, the main cast and we, the listeners, learn the “Truth of the World,” and it is not anything we could have expected.

But, first, the combined power of Rae and Claire and their children, Aleah and May, will unlock powerful magic, will complete a coup, and remake the world entirely…. and then they will take on the three Archdemons and finally the powerful Demon Queen herself.

And we will marvel as this fantasy isekai turns into something else, entirely.

And, then, they will all go home to live, one presumes, happily every after.

This final volume of inori’s epic fantasy series pulls in a lot of the random loose ends that had been strewn about the narrative. Why, for instance, does Rae keep running into people with her exact face? Why does magic work the way it does? Why does the Demon Queen want to destroy humanity? All these questions will be answered. If you have not yet read the ending, I expect it will surprise you. It certainly made me rethink everything I knew about this story and the characters.

Once again, the whole has been narrated by Courtney Shaw and she has done a fine job. She committed to the choices made in earlier volumes, so anything that rubbed me the wrong way remained, and, once again, a choice was made for pronunciation that was at odds with my choice, but I’ll get over that. ^_^ I hope inori-sensei was happy with the choices made and that really is all that matters.^_^

Ratings (for the adaptation only):

Overall – 10

If you haven’t been moved to read the books (and I am not the person to insist you do) or you have, and really love them,  I highly recommend listening to the audiobooks for a new way to appreciate them, to engage with the story or just to sit back and hear the characters come to life.

And the story is not quite done with! Next moth will see the debut of I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner Audiobook, Volume 1, the first of three volume telling the story from Claire and others’ points of view. As I said with the LN editions, these contain a lot of original content, so don’t skip them. There is a lot happening from other people’s perspectives. Only the Google Play link is available so far, but I’ll add the rest as they become available.

 





I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 4

March 3rd, 2024

We left Rae and Claire in the Nur empire at the end of Volume 3, and in I’m in Love with the Villainess Audiobook, Volume 4 we get into the weeds of so many plots that I’m still reeling from the tone shifts.

Rae and Claire may be “exchange students” but they have revolution on their minds and spend the beginning of the book thinking how they can train Princess Philene up to be the revolutionary leader they need.

But first, we have a cooking contest! And a formal ball. And a murder mystery, and a mysterious magical item, and a kidnapping. And helping out many different people in their various personal issues.

And, of course, that revolution.

There are so many plates being spun that the foreshadowing is barely noticeable, except when it’s a bat to the back of the head.

This is a story that, despite the light-hearted opening, becomes quite serious by the end. Nonetheless, there are many funny scenes* here, as well as a number of sincere discussions of queer existence. When all of that is set aside, the story digs in and becomes both politically and magically, dark.

Once again, narrator Courtney Shaw does a fantastic job at voices. Pronunciation is still an issue, however. Pronouncing Lene “Lean” is a matter of interpretation. But sakura? How is sakura being pronounced “sa-KOO-ra” in 2024? Please.  Oh well. I blame the director. This kind of thing is easy to check. I had some qualms about accents, but I’ll get over listening to a German cook with a Italian accent and a lisp. It was kind of funny after a while.

This 9 and half hour book is a lot of entertainment for the money and while it sets up the final volume of the series, doesn’t really prepare you for it when it arrives

Once again, I think this audiobook allows for a different appreciation of the story for those of use who have read or watched it, and offers accessibility to folks who use audiobooks as an assistive tool. I’m 100% for that and glad to see more Yuri available in this format with Yen’s The Executioner and Her Way of Life added to the roster this winter.

Ratings (for the adaptation only):

Overall – 10

*I even laughed out loud at a breast size scene, possibly for the first time ever.

Volume 5, the final volume, is available this month from Seven Seas Siren.





Heimin no Kuse ni Namaikina!, Volume 3 (平民のくせに生意気な！)

January 18th, 2024

Two young women in fantasy school uniform, one with medium-length brown hair and one with long blonde curls, and two little girls with blonde hair, in matching pink and blue dresses, look up and reach towards us.It is not often that a book makes me choke up. Heimin no Kuse ni Namaikina!, Volume 3 (平民のくせに生意気な！) made me choke up three times…even though I knew what was coming.  I appear to have a weakness, which I will discuss eventually. ^_^

This is the final volume of the Claire perspective of the events in I’m in Love With The Villainess, with a lot of “intermission”s from the perspectives of other characters. When the first two volumes came out, I noted that there are characters in this story that did not appear in the original… and many of the characters that do, are seen from such a vastly different point of view that what we thought we knew about them turns out to be not entirely true. Or truer than we thought.

This story also goes deeply into the circumstances around the death of Claire’s mother and the secrets being carried by the people around her.

Above all, in this story, we are given Claire’s perspective of her vastly changing life, from a high-ranking noble’s daughter to that of a commoner, with a beloved partner in Rae Taylor and two beautiful adopted daughters. It’s not the family life she expected, but she loves it, all the same.

Generally speaking with Light Novel “other” perspectives, I find them a little dull, but in this case, so much depth is added that it is well worth reading this series. She’s So Cheeky For A Commoner, Volume 1 (which I reviewed last year) is already available in English from Seven Seas and Volume 2 will be out in a few months. If you enjoyed the main series, whether Light Novel, anime or manga, I highly recommend you read this iteration. It’s going to add a lot of new information to what has happened. And may even move you to tears.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 10 Outstanding writing, yet again
Characters – 10 I cannot express to you how *good* the characters are here
Service – 3? 4? A bit, sometimes
Yuri/LGBTQ+ – Why yes, actually.

Overall – 10