Adachi and Shimamura, Volume 1 is a brilliant example of excellent translation and adaptation. Molly Lee and Nibedita Sen deserve an award for giving the characters of this novel depth and voice. Everyone who worked on this book did a very excellent job.

And there is where my praise for this light novel ends. In 2013, I picked up the first book of this series and reviewed it here on Okazu. In actual fact, I had also gotten myself the second book of the series, which sat here for literal years while I debated reading it. I never did. This was just about the time the series was picking up popularity in Yuri circles in Japan. But, when I finished read it, I summed the whole thing up thusly, “The entire book had the feel of something written about an emotion by someone who was wholly, vastly unfamiliar with it. ”

My opinion of the author’s work did not change very much when I read several other books by them that were neither good nor bad, but just had that same sense of “a thing I read.” Then I encountered Shoujo Mousouchuu, which had some good features. Then came another book that was forgettable. So when Hitoma Iruma was named the writer for the Regarding Saeki Sayaka series, I was not overwhelmed at the choice. Their work, in my opinion, was inconsistent. In the end the Sayaka novels were very good, so I’m glad about that. The author has clearly leveled up significantly in the last decade.

But here we are, back at the beginning with Adachi and Shimamura and I am again puzzled by this novel. The art and words do not match at all. Shimamura, we are told repeatedly, has highlights in her hair which are wholly absent, but are just rendered as light brown hair. By the end of the book I can barely figure out which of the two blob-faced girls is which, since the hair and behaviors do not match. Neither wears the makeup that is mentioned. Both of them have personalities that make them hard to care about, although I imagine a lot of readers skip “care about” and go straight for “identify with.” As for them being “bad girls,” they are about as bad as an afternoon nap. Asamiya Saki or Kuraku Asuka wouldn’t give them the time of day.

And still, the alien, the cheongsam, the bowling all remain unexplained. I have in the past seven years been told that the series gets better as one reads and the alien is from another series, neither of which changes my opinion because that is not how books work. A writer tells a story that a reader reads. If the reader is required to know a thing, the writer must tell them because that is how stories work. I should not need Internet research to understand an entire plot point because she was a relic from some other series. Nor are books like a job, I shouldn’t need seniority to understand what I m reading. If a reader doesn’t find Book 1 entertaining, they are not going to keep reading because the series will eventually “get better.” I do wonder, though, if the story gets better.

This will not stop some of you from being very angry at my review from 7 years ago…or today’s review. Feel free. We don’t have to agree. That said, I stand by my original review. Neither Adachi nor Shimamura are particularly compelling characters by themselves and they clearly both have communication issues. The story, one hopes, will be them getting more comfortable over time with each other, with themselves and, presumably, with the alien. 

What I can be assured of, is that the team at Seven Seas will do an absolutely superlative job of bringing these two characters to life in English.

Ratings:

Story – 4
Characters – 4
Art – 4
Service – 3 More than I felt it needed
Yuri – 5
Adaptation – 10

Overall – 5

My original simile for this story was “Adachi to Shimamura is like a trifle made from chocolate, limes and mayonnaise, with a red bean filling. What might have otherwise been a pleasant, if sugary, Yuri narrative is made unpalatable by combining infinite inconsequentials with utterly meaningless distractions.”

You’re most welcome to disagree. ^_^

Thank you to Seven Seas for the review copy!

While we are all waiting for the Seven Seas release of I Fell In Love With the Villainess, (of which I had read the first few chapters in Japanese before it was licensed and have forgotten to go back and read more…) I wanted to take a moment to review a different GL Bunko series that I – with at least partial sincerity – hope you will be able to read as well, one day. It has not yet been licensed as of yet.

But before I do, I want to take a moment to revisit the first GL Bunko novel I read, back in 2018. GL Bunko had decided to do their own translations and began with GIRLS KINGDOM 1 & 2, the first two novels in a much larger series. Despite some technical and stylistic problems, I found it to be quite enjoyable. In my review I said, “The unpolished translation actually served the comedy aspect of the book well. What might be less beneficial if the book were to have been a drama worked here…presuming that this was meant to be a comedy.”  I mention this because today’s review will, I think, allow me to respond to this with some expertise. ^_^

Earlier this year I took a look at a third GL Bunko series, Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 1  and found it to be highly entertaining; ridiculous in a hundred different ways, but grin-makingly so. So here we are today, at Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 2 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月).

Igarashi Satsuki is a swordswoman who was hired to be the protector of Vlad Dracula, a silver-haired, white-skinned, red-eyed businesswoman from England (by way of Eastern Europe, we are eventually told.) Satsuki’s life as a trained swordswoman has been completely upended by Vlad. Not only is she now living in the wealthy foreign ghetto in Yokohama, because of her girlfriend maid Clare, she is now reasonably fluent in English, as well.

In Volume 2, the cast is joined by Kinu, Satsuki’s family retainer and highly trained njnja (finally, an actual kunoichi!)

Christmas is coming to Yokohama, and Ambassador Neal is planning a big Christmas party for the English community of Yokohama. Only Mishima-san, the head of what we’d consider the police force, is very anti-foreigner and appalled at the idea of a birthday party for a foreign God on his soil. While Satsuki functions as interpreter, Mishima makes it really clear that if…when…something should happen to the English embassy, it’s not on his hands, except of course, it will be at his instigation.

Worse, Satusuki is asked directly by the Yokohama magistrate -an old friend and mentor- to definitely, positively not be at the party or wear foreign clothes. Just in case, you know.

Clare, on the other hand has a real crisis coming up – she’s been promoted! Admiral Cooper’s daughter Scarlet has gotten Clare a position at the Embassy as a parlor maid. She’s been working on her language and etiquette and this is a huge step up for her…but the Embassy will be moving to Edo in the new year and she won’t see Satsuki anymore! She asks Satsuki to make sure she comes to the Christmas Party.

Vlad hires a Japanese painter who studies European art, Kane, to do some portraits. Kane sees Satsuki and Clare interact and explains Yuri to them, only 150 years before it actually exists as a term,. ^_^

The art is not what I’d hope, but then again, neither is the writing. It has that distinctly fanfic-ish tendency of adding /fact I learned today about a thing/ in the text that is both excruciating and charming. My favorite example is the definition/description of a “waistcoat” as a “kind of a vest” both waistcoat and vest in katakana. As an equivalent, I might describe/define a “wakazashi” as a “kind of katana.” ^_^

Anyway, Satsuki is predictably fitted with dress and, ultimately a suit, thank you very much, and yes goes to the party, fights off the surprise attack with Kinu and gets a kiss under the mistletoe from…Vlad.

The end.

Of course it’s not the end. There is a third book (there’s an assassin after Satsuki!) and yes, I am going to read it. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Erm…sort of okay?
Story – 8 Vlad might as well be an albino for all the blood she sucks here
Characters – Kooky, kind of lovable and wholly unrealistic
Yuri – 6 See above
Service – Have you read anything I wrote? Satsuki is fitted for clothes… Yes, service.

Overall – 8

The world’s worst vampire is Vlad
Which is to say that she’s not all that bad
That glass isn’t blood, it’s just wine
Her suit’s mighty fine
She just drives Satsuki a little bit mad

But now, after having read 4 and half GL Bunko books, I can finally address that point, from my first review with yes – I believe the comedy to be wholly intentional. These are goofy books and very fun to read. I hope Villainess is similar.

The cover art is Scarlet and Clare.

Artist Kane on the left.
Satsuki’s not-at-all Christmasy dress in the center.
Vlad on the right.

Satsuki is her suit fighting off the surprise attack by anti-foreigner ronin. She likes the boots and pants…it make it easy to kick.

Kinu with her sulfur smoke bombs on the bottom.

Seven Seas has released Bloom Into You, Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 2 on Kindle this week! Follow young lesbian Saeki Sayaka as she navigates love and jealousy in high school.

Volume 2 covers the events of the Bloom Into You anime from Sayaka’s perspective and, as with Volume 1, we get a great sense of her internal monologue, her motivations and her own perspective of her  strengths and weaknesses. I enjoyed this book immensely when I read the Japanese edition, about which I said, “Once again, I am pleasantly surprised to have fully enjoyed a novel by Iruma Hitoma, in which the tone and feel of the character as we know her is captured well. And I look forward to the sequel as it takes us into new territory.”

Ratings:

Art – 10 Art by the series creator
Story – 8 A stronger sense of Sayaka’s feelings for and about Touko
Character – 10
Service – 1 Not really this time
Yuri – 7 This book is chock-full of Sayaka’s thoughts about being attracted to Touko for all the reasons.

Overall – 9

I was so pleased to see this appear in my Kindle library this week and I am extra excited for you all to read Volume 3 next autumn!