We left our intrepid adventurers at the doors to the ominously named City of Ruins after a Volume 7 that began new interior journeys for our new principals. How does Volume 8 hold up?

The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Vol. 8: Fall Down is a pretty good story!

When I say “pretty good,” I am of course speaking the relative scale of this series. It is not Gideon the Ninth, but after 7 novels where the beginnings are slow and plodding, the climaxes are – in many cases – predictable and sometimes anti-climactic, and the descriptions focused on elements better left imagined, this book was a good read.

The volume starts in the middle of an action scene, and continues more or less full-throttle through a final action scene that was actually quite good. As these scenes unfold, we also learn that the playing field in the background is shifting quite a bit, which set up a Volume 9 that I sincerely hope will be the climax this series needs.

In the meantime, having shelved one of the two main characters, this volume actually shows us a Menou who acts as though she is the protagonist of an epic story. As she learns pieces of her worlds’ lore, she now understands who and what she is. It necessitates hard choices, but those too, have made her grow as an individual. Speaking of growing as individuals, the former nun Sahara gets more than a moment to shine here. Having decided to serve the left pinky finger of Pandemonium, Maya, Sahara is developing a conscience. It annoys the shit out of her, but she too, is becoming a hero. In turn that has given Maya a whole new outlook and this Human Error is reclaiming her humanity.

Even the illustrations remembered to illustrate the characters as they are described in the scene. nilitsu’s art is getting better, although not up to showing Menou as the kind of “stunningly gorgeous” she keeps being described as. I went on  short rant on Bluesky about that. I recommend not hiring moe artists to illustrate your characters, when the description reads “drop-dead gorgeous.” It really kicks me out of a story.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Menou is still not stunning and her shorts are the wrong color in every illustration, which is very confusing to me – why? Why not give her black shorts as described?
Story – 8, seriously
Characters – Gawd, I think they might even be a 9
Service – Action and less guro than usual which I consider a service!
Yuri – Even less, as Akari fades from the story, for now.

Overall – 8

I hate to be that guy, but honestly, this series gets good at Volume 8. If you can learn from context and exposition, I suggest you simply skip the first six of these, read Volume 7 and then jump into Volume 8, for a pretty good action novel. Thanks very much to Yen Press for the review copy!

So, you’re a Princess with memories of another world where “magic” tools existed, an obsessive interest in research on magic that is opposed by a lot of the nobles and the academia of your country and you’re always getting in trouble for pursuing that research, and your brother does something so gob-smackingly stupid that the country will have to turn to you for leadership, only you fall in love with your brother’s ex-fiancee and she with you and in the course of remaking the monarchy, you become a dragon and she becomes an immortal spirit. And the two of you do remake the monarchy with her as Queen and you as her consort, and save the country, reconcile with the nobility and academics and your brother and gather around you a team that includes a vampire, and humans from all the classes….

…where do you go from here?

This is the question that is front and center of The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Volume 7.

In most fairy tales, “happily-ever-after” marks the end of the story. So what if the princess (and prince and country) suffered trauma and loss to get to the wedding? So what if the prince had been a frog or the princess a swan, they get on with their lives. I’ve long looked for stories that stop and take a sober look at the after happily-ever-after. I love epilogues for that reason and sequels that take place 10 years later.  So what did the Heroes of the Revolution do when they got home? They could hardly pretend to be ordinary people anymore.

Piero Karasu has, to my immense joy, actually taken up the mantle of what happens next and presents a grander tale than I could have imagined. As ruling Queen, Euphylia has a vision…for Anisphia…to make their country a center of magicology research. But the capital is simply not the appropriate place to create this. So she conceives of a plan so grand it will require a new city, with Anisphia as it’s architect.

Anis, having embraced her inhumanity, now has to dig deep back into it to learn how to lead the people she has gathered around her.

Sure this series has its fill of dragons and vampires and werewolves, of magic swords and flying cars, but it is centered around the idea of answering the question, “what if someone wanted all those magic things to matter?” And when those someones are two women who are deeply in love, who have sacrificed their human lives to make their country a better place, they do matter.

Don’t think for one second that this is a profound book, though. This volume is full of small, human conversations, about dreams and hopes and fears, about a shared vision for a better future and the understandably selfish desire Anis and Euphie have to just stay together and ignore the world.  It’s not brilliantly written, but the love Anis and Euphie have for one another is explicitly stated – I believe this may be the first time they say they love each other openly – and their vision for their country is, well, vast. There’ll be plenty of room for them to grow into it and more stories to tell.

Ratings:

Art – I just cannot with this art. It needs to be epic and they look 6.
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – Rather less than any previous volume
Yuri – 10

Overall – 8

Do I want to read a series about two magical women building a city of magical research? Hell yes, I do.

In Volume 6 of Mato Sato’s isekai fantasy light novel series, the promised battle occurs and it ends and there are no apparent consequences at all. Which was only a little surprising, given this series penchant for adding new plot devices, world-building elements and characters freely as a form of adornment, rather than support.

It was, therefore very surprising to begin The Executioner And Her Way Of Life, Volume 7: Lost to learn that in the last 6 months story-wise, a great deal has happened. Instead of showing us, the author decides to tell us, leaving us not so much reading a novel as reading the very comprehensive guide to a novel. Every character is a paragraph of description, followed by their abilities and eventually, some small nugget of their history that might be relevant to the scene, to be added to as the next scene happens, and the next as if we are having this book told to us by a DM rather than a novelist.

I ain’t mad though, because given how many new characters are added and how much has occurred since the last novel, actually having to read the multitudes of scenes would get in the way of the few interesting things that actually happen in this book.

Sahara has not been a particularly fascinating character…until this novel. She’s clearly meant as mediocre foil to Menou’s status in the story. When we catch up with her here, this failed priestess with a magical prosthetic arm is wallowing in her mediocrity, and ennui. As the story develops, she finds that she has little choice but to grow and become a better person – and it annoys the daylights out of her.

What makes this evolution especially noteworthy is that the person she is protecting is someone we (I, definitely) had kept forgetting to care about.

In a series with a lot of throwaway characters, Maya, the little finger of a Human Error, was particularly forgettable, except as a reminder that this writer really likes to torture young girls – something I am not okay being reminded of. Maya’s redemption arc is extraordinary. That it pulls Sahara, and in some ways even Menou herself, along with it, is even more notable.

What worked best in this volume here was the almost complete removal of characters we have focused on in previous volumes. Menou herself is a side character in this novel, but what she chooses to do hints that 1) maybe the author finally has a plan and 2) she might be developing a personality. Both are welcome additions to this narrative.  We find ourselves with something that looks like in the future it might become a resolution, after we fight the next big bad on the way to the biggest baddest. With accompanying grossnesses for grotesquery’s sake. Thankfully, Mato Sato is about as interested in writing the grotesque as I am in reading it, so those scenes tend to be in that guidebook format, rather than lingering.

You may be asking why I continue to read this series. Trust me, I have asked myself that, as well, but, in this series – which is literally a tale of many ways in which humans lose their humanity – the addition of simple kindnesses and connection between people was something that genuinely made this volume worth reading.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Irrelevant as usual. One cannot keep telling us these characters are gorgeous then give us this art.
Story – Begins at 5, but ends at a strong 7
Characters – 8
Service – Light guro
Yuri – Less than usual, and somehow more poignant as a result of it all being so offscreen.

Overall – 7.5

It comes down to the fact that I quite like the construction of the magic and the world-building and kind of want to see where it leads?  I mean, will Menou (or /the person she was originally/) ever reunite with Akari? I dunno. I don’t even know if Mato Sato knows. But I guess we’ll have to find out one day, right? ^_^

The problem with writing alternate history is that you have to figure out where things go, as china has discovered in Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki series.

To understand this volume, it helps that you know of the Namamugi Incident, in which a British citizen refused to move off the road when the Satsuma daimyo’s party passed by and was beheaded for his failure to follow the law. Great Britain demanded monetary compensation, apologies and the deaths of the daimyo’s retainers or they would attack. The British Fleet bombed Kagoshima, but, as the New York Times reported at the time, lost the battle. Kagoshima was gravely injured, but the British fleet was pushed back. Both the captain and commander of the flagship the HMS Euralys were killed, probably in a gun accident. It’s also good to understand the Japanese political landscape of the Bakumatsu period (with which I am only just becoming familiar, due to this series and Oni to Yoake Yuzikiyo (鬼と夜明け 夕月夜) manga.

And, lastly, you might want to learn about the Boshin War in which the British allied themselves with their former enemy of Satsuma (because, let’s face it, a destabilized government is good for colonial powers.)

Okay, now that you know about all of this, you’ll understand that, in Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 4 ( くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月), Yokohama is facing bombardment from that same fleet, and the same Admiral Kuper who flattened Kagoshima, is demanding Yokohama conform to his control. If you know anything about Japan, you’ll understand that in 1863, Kagoshima is to Yokohama as Miami is to New York City. That is to say, a place where people live and trade happens, but it’s not the same scale at all.

You probably expected me to follow up all of this with “now, forget all that” but, no, all of this is actually relevant to this final volume.

The deadline the British set to be paid compensation for the loathsome Richardson of the Namamugi Incident is approaching. Yokohama, in this story is responsible, not Satsuma. The Bakufu cannot raise the money, so Vlad offers to guarantee the loan. Only, the British have pressured all the banks in Japan to freeze her funds, so she hurries off to Shanghai, telling Satusuki to protect Scarlet, Admiral Kuper’s daughter. Presciently, as the ninja from the last volume Kaoru, Koharu, and their leader Takagi attack the now-fortified Kuper compound, with the intention of kidnapping Scarlet. Satsuki defeats them, but Admiral Kuper is not pleased. He is forced to ask Satsuki what she would like as a thank you and she asks only that the British do not start a war. Meanwhile, the British Parliament is debating that same war.

In Shanghai, Vlad drives up the price of coal and food for the British, and drives down the worth of the pound sterling, then returns to Yokohama where they now have the money to pay the British. Satsuki is given a position of honor at the front of the caravan for thw payment….but they know they will be attacked and so they are. In the ensuing battl,e Takagi and his counterpart Masumitsu fight Satsuki, and we learn that they are from Satsuma! Oh no! Satsuki wins the battle, but the war is still pending because….

…back in Yokohama, Admiral Kuper was convinced to stand down, but then the Shogun canceled the compensation payment and the British consulate gets word (from a slavering Prime Minister Gladstone) to get ready to bombard Yokohama. The Americans, French and Russians have already said they will join in if Britain starts a war.

Admiral Kuper’s daughter Scarlet climbs the main mast of the flagship and threatens to shoot herself if the fleet does not stand down. The Admiral tries to argue that it’s his duty, but she rounds on him about it’s pathetic that Britain picks on weaker countries and calls itself “strong.”

In the meantime, the British forces at Yodobashi bridge see the samurai protecting the compensation money being attacked – they defy orders to shoot, instead running to help Satsuki and the rest.

The money is paid and the war is averted. Satsuki is offered a position in Edo, which she turns down, preferring to stay in Yokohama. Clare is sacked from the English Embassy for passing information to Satsuki, but is given an official recommendation to Vlad from the Ambassador. Scarlet decides to study business and become Vlad’s protege. Satsuki will be able to be with Clare, Scarlet gets to be with Vlad and Vlad gets the kiss she made Satsuki promise to give her.

And in the end, as peace returns to Yokohama, everyone lives, presumably, happily ever after. Even the ninjas.

Some months later, in London, Prime Minister  Palmerstone and former  PM Russell are talking about Queen Victoria’s words, “Vlad is in Japan, leave it alone.” Palmerstone asks Russell to find out who the hell this ‘Vlad” is.

The End.

Ratings:

Art – Always never what I want illustrated. ^_^;
Story – I learned a lot, honestly.
Characters – There were a lot and many of them are terrible people in real life, but noble somehow here
Service – One kiss and not even the right couple
Yuri – 0 and 10. Clare and Satsuki are an item, but they have like 3 scenes together

Overall – 7 Very slow in places to tell the history, but I made it through the series!

In the author’s notes, we get some of the background for the fictionalized version of the real people of this story, and the admission that the author 1) likes vampire Yuri, 2) wanted to write Yuri about the Kunoichi Bettegumi and 3) did a lot of reading on Wikipedia to write this series, as I did reading this series. ^_^

This series ended up being one of those “absolutely historically accurate, except the bits that aren’t”kind of stories. After all this, my only complaint is that I wish this book spent a little more time on Vlad and Clare and Satsuki than Takagi and his ninjas. But I have to say that I learned a lot about the Bakamatsu period this year from reading manga and LNs so, that’s a net win. ^_^