Ancient Vampire Princess is reborn
To enact the most elaborate PG revenge porn
More super-powered than a god
She forces the plot not to plod
It’s so silly one can’t even scorn

Seriously Seeking Sister! Ultimate Vampire Princess Just Wants Little Sister; Plenty of Service Will Be Provided! by Hiironoame surely must be given some credit for taking it’s overlong title and actually providing useful information with it. I knew going into this novel nothing beyond the fact that I am overtly not the audience for it. And, indeed, I aborted my first attempt at reading it. But a second attempt was more successful once I stopped caring at all. ^_^

Ristia is a cheerfully unreal overpowered scion of a vastly overpowered vampire race, the destruction of which happens offscreen while Ristia is trapped in a crystal for millennia in a fit of pique because her parents would not procreate and give her a younger sister to dote upon. This opening is so overtly ridiculous that you’d do better to skip to roughly midway through the book and start there, after Ristia has been awakened and is overpowering her way through a feudal society unable to cope with her overwhelming magic. Ristia ends up taking over an oprhanage and making improvements that would catapult the orphans several centuries forward in technology. Throughout, of course, Ristia spends the entire book insisting that she’s normal, despite magicking everything around her.

Bad guys are, one and all, horrible vulgar men who rape and pillage, and speak in crudely malformed suggestive lines, a veritable pack of frat boys being appalling to the young women around them, so of course we feel nothing when they are bloodlessly disappeared out of the story. Good guys are thankfully split between men and women, or I’d suspect some kind of agenda.

Because I don’t read too many Light Novels of this kind, I turned to translator David Evelyn and shared that I found it hard to know whether there is humor in the overpowered Ristia or I’m being made fun of. He suggested that the language was typical of isekai novels, but there was a kind of self-awareness that made it funny. Like a joke that is funny only after the characters become aware that they’ve repeated it too many times, as Sean Gaffney noted in his review. After all the carpenters agree to never mention how obviously not normal at all Ristia is, I finally relaxed into the story.

The title is not wrong – there was a great deal of service and very little of it served this fan. There are a number of lingering looks at lingerie and physical descriptions of too-young women, which just flat out bore me. The idea that a line like “With her clothing now reduced to only her matching light bra and panties, Ristia went fishing through the assortment of dresses” is considered “service” by any human on the planet, fills me with exhaustion. Up your game, my fellow humans. The Internet should quench your fetish for matching underwear sets. Go find yourself a catalog. Matching bra and panty sets are the Wal-Mart of fetishes. It’s all so 12-year olds gathered around the NatGeo mags.

Because I had an easier time relating to this novel as a comedy than as an action or drama story, the sort-of emotional relationships Ristia forms in her quest for a little sister, were somewhat less satisfying to me as a relationship than a punchline. And they were the only (inevitably service-y) feature where her nature as a vampire has any relevance…which made it funnier to me.

As Yurimother noted in her review of this novel, the one strong point was the lack of violence against women, beyond implication that it had occurred in the past. But the threat of violence against women and children as a plot driver is still not optimal. Thankfully most of the “good” characters are thoroughly likable, so its gilding the reaction lily to make us worry about the cute dog-eared girl.

My only genuine criticism of this book is that the art does nothing to illustrate anything that is described in the text. Ristia is presented as a young woman with an ever-present allure, (due to her being a vampire, you know) but the character we see is goofy, not alluring. We read that her hair is long, thick and lustrous, and we’re shown her with a bad collar-cut. It feels weirdly dysphoric to have the text and art so at odds with each other.

Ratings:

Story  – 7
Characters – 8
Art – 4 Not bad in and of itself, but wholly unrelated to the text
Service – 5 Blood sucking, dressing/undressing for no reason, underwear (yawn)
Yuri – 5 Same as above, no real emotional connections…wasted opportunities to be a good story there

Overall – 7

As an elaborate form of a comedic revenge narrative, Seriously Seeking Sister is an amuse-bouche of a novel…it won’t satisfy your hunger, but it will pass the time until you find something more filling.

Much obliges to J-Novel Club for the Review copy.

This summer J-Novel club announced a number of Yuri light novels for English-language distribution.

This is the beginning of a really ambitious program, about which I spoke briefly at Otakuthon with founder Sam Pinansky (the same Sam Pinansky who started Anime Sols kickstarters for classic anime series.)

Here is a rundown of the first set of licenses, with a reminder that these are Light Novels, which generally are written to an 8th grade reading level and sensibility. While there are a few LNs that really reach above this, like the Maria-sama ga Miteru series, most are dead set in the written, reading and thinking style of 12 year-old boys. ^_^;

Here’s the full line up of this first batch, with synopses and a little light editorializing:

Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress!

Tanya Artemiciov is a talented Mage-class adventurer who just got kicked out of her party by a sexist scumbag. So what’s a girl to do? Go to the wasteland and blow stuff up of course! One small problem though: she inadvertently frees a mythical Sorceress named Laplace who was sealed away for the past 300 years… Surprise! Turns out this so-called “wicked” Sorceress is actually pretty cool. Laplace wants to start a party of her own, Tanya wants revenge, and the solution is obvious: team up. It’s time to kick ass, kiss girls, and dismantle the patriarchy!

E: I’m mostly looking forward to this, despite having maxed out on isekai/D&D adventures in my teens, and expecting the word “boobalicious” to appear. More than once. ^_^

You know, I’m not looking for high art here, but this had better be fun! Lady, you have a sword and an evil sorceress – there had better be vengeful violence.

Otherside Picnic

Her first encounter with Toriko Nishina was on the Otherside after seeing “that thing” and nearly dying. Ever since that day, exhausted university student Sorawo Kamikoshi’s life changed. In this Otherworld, full of mystery, which exists alongside our own, dangerous beings like the Kunekune and Hasshaku-sama that are spoken of in real ghost stories appear. For research, for profit, and to find an important person, Toriko and Sorawo set foot into the abnormal. A tale of two girls’ bizarre exploration and survival, brought to you by an up-and-coming Sci-fi author!

E: I’m looking forward to reading this one a lot, having read the first volume of the manga. It seems to be a little more imaginative and science fiction than the others. I might save this one for last, just because I expect it to be good.

Miyazawa is not a bad writer, from the stuff I’ve already read, so consider me on board for this.

Side-by-Side Dreamers

Saya Hokage, a high school girl who is unable to sleep due to insomnia, encounters Hitsuji Konparu, a girl who can put anyone to sleep as a “lover” in a dream. When Hitsuji’s senpai – Ran Aizome – sees potential in Saya, she ends up joining them and their group of Sleepwalkers. As it turns out, unbeknownst to the common citizens in their town, a battle has been unfolding between the Suiju – beings that possess people’s spirits in the land of sleep – and the Sleepwalkers, who have the power to move about freely in their dreams. Sleeping together as a team, Saya and her newfound group are doing a good job hunting Suiju. That is, until an unexpected darkness comes along… Will the girls be able defend humanity’s sleep?

E: Another Miyazawa story and an interesting premise. Could be anything from okay to fantastic. I’m betting on at least “good.” ^_^

And you know what I always say about entertainment – all it has to do is be entertaining.

Last and First Idol

“Bye-bye, Earth! My idol activities here were so much fun!” 4th Hayakawa SF Contest Special Prize 48th Seiun Award (Japanese Short Story Division) 27th Dark Seiun Award (Guest Division) 16th Sense of Gender Award (Future Idol Award) Last and First Idol earned the first ever special prize in the Hayakawa SF Contest, and the first debut work to win the Seiun Award in 42 years! This existential widescreen yuri baroque proletariat hard sci-fi idol story has carved out a new legend in science fiction history! Also includes Evolution Girls, in which some gacha-expert friends race to find the truth of the universe, and Dark Seiyuu, a brand-new space opera about voice actors! Gengen Kusano’s astounding debut collection!

E: OMG, “yuri baroque proletariat hard sci-fi idol story”. Who wouldn’t want to read that?! I mean…and all those awards.

I guess this is going to be my first review of the bunch, just for that synopsis. Holy crap that sounds awesome.

Seriously Seeking Sister! Ultimate Vampire Princess Just Wants Little Sister; Plenty of Service Will Be Provided!

Long ago, on the continent of Ephenia, there existed the feared tribe of vampires called “True Bloods,” whose great strength allowed them to reign supreme over all other tribes. However, a millennium has passed, and any trace of them has vanished off the face of the planet. That is, until the youngest and most talented royal daughter of the True Bloods awakens in the modern day. Vampire Princess Ristia has only one wish—a cute little sister! Monstrously strong, skilled in magic, and incredibly beautiful, people regard her as an “angel,” but she assures everyone she’s just a normal girl. Can this “normal girl” be the elder sister she so desires? Follow this (unusual) vampire through a fanservice-filled sibling-searching fantasy adventure.

E: I tried to read this, despite the fact that every single thing about it is lined up against me liking it. ^_^;

As I read it, I had a lot of feelings. I’m currently re-reading Count of Monte Cristo in which Dumas’ grasp of and love of human nature and his humor and delight in life is so clear and wonderful. As I read Seriously Seeking Sister, a part of me wept for the me that read Madelyn Arnold’s Year of Full Moons, or Jane Rule’s Desert Hearts, back when I was young and foolish and would never had read a vampire isekai imouto-fetish story written for an audience who need to be assured that, despite her chronological age of a millennium, the main character is not-yet 18 and be told her matching bra and panty set are blue.  The translation is not adapted, it’s pretty much a literal translation and I have no doubt David Evelyn did a fine job of communicating just how not-all-that-well-written this book is.  That said, if you think a vampire isekai imouto-fetish story is up your alley, here is Yurimother’s review of it! Enjoy both review and book. I will never think less of you for enjoying something I don’t. That’s why it’s good that there is variety in the world. ^_^

J-Novel Club is looking to expand their Yuri offerings and, as I said, is planning an ambitious rollout, so if any of these sound good to you, give them a try! I think there’s a lot to look forward to!