Autumn 2023 we watched an anime called The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess. I found it to be tolerable with some fun elements , Guest Reviewer Cryssoberyl found more to like about it than I. Thanks to Yen Press I have the chance to pick up the light novel series upon which the anime is based and I wondered if it was more to my taste than the anime.

To make sure I was well past the end of the anime, I am beginning with The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess, Volume 8 on the assumption that it wouldn’t be that hard to follow any plot in the series. I was both right and wrong in that regard.

The story here begins well past the end of the anime, and at least one more major arc into the series. As a result, there are a number of new characters I had to familiarize myself with. The story is, as I assumed simple, not fully formed and superficially written – it still feels like it’s made for an episodic anime, rather than a novel, per se. Almost none of the characters are given inferiority except Terakomari – and her thoughts are largely centered around being disgusted by her perverted maid and then painfully jealous of her, as one of the new characters presents Komari with a rival.

Dark Cores have been stolen from her world, so Komari and her group are in the Netherworld and very at risk of actually dying, as opposed to the temporary state of non-existence they are used to. They are also being stalked by alternate versions of the military and governments from their world, and yet another nefarious organization, Star something. Please forgive my lapse, like three or four new nefarious organizations are introduced in this one volume, between baths, battles and blood-sucking and a fair amount of screaming, so I forget whether it is the Star somethings or the Moon somethings that we need to be worried about or both, as we head to this world’s version of the Mulnite Empire to meet up with this world’s version of Komari’s mother.

While they travel, and battle and blood suck and bathe, new character Collette freaks out when she meets Villhaze because she had a best friend named Villhaze who disappeared! Our Villhaze can’t possible be that Villhaze, surely, even though she has no memories of her childhood. Yeah, no, she’s the same Villhaze. The louder the protestations became the more obvious it was, until, in a climactic battle, in which it is Komari who becomes practically god-like to defeat the Biwa-playing baddie, all of Villhaze’s memories come rushing back. Nonetheless, she breaks Colette’s heart and declares her intent to stay with her Mistress.

And the “Komari Club” move on towards their destination.

Like the anime, this light novel has some good moments – mostly when the characters stop talking and just do anything. The talking is very expository and often absurd. The constant leitmotif of perversity from Villhaze is exhausting and even more so when Terakomari begins to question her own appeal as Villhaze’s attention turns to Colette, and suddenly we are reminded that there truly are people who think someone creeping can somehow be interpreted as a compliment (usually those people are the creepers). Those people are wrong and this book would have been much better without it. But, this is how we know the series is not written for adult women.

My absolute favorite moment was when the narration became scandalized at Colette putting mayonnaise on her curry in the Curryd empire. The scene includes a line directed at Villhaze which actually made me chuckle, “Do you realize you could start a war by putting sauce on someone’s dish without permission?” I have been that person and have fought that war, so I am with Terakomari on this one. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6  Not terrible
Story  – 5 They camped, ate curry, fought a battle in nearly 200 pages.
Characters  – I would gladly follow Esther and Nelia and dump the rest
Service – 5 It’s like a low drone of omnipresent background radiation
Yuri – 7 Colette after Villhaze who is after Komari.

Overall – 6 Not the worst thing I have ever read or reviewed. ^_^

Many thanks to Yen Press for providing me with a review copy. If this series strikes you as fun and enchanting, this was a very good volume, with Komari really stepping up at the end to be the leader her armies imagine her to be.

Once upon a time Anisphia Palettia, the Crown Princess despite herself, was concerned that she would one day have to give up her studies into the science of magicology and rule the Kingdom. But that was before she rescued Euphilia, fell in love with her and changed the country forever. Now Euphie reigns as Queen, and Anis is free to pursue her dreams. But nothing is ever that simple. Together Euphie and Anis must find a way to stop a rebellion by the Western aristocracy against the Queen and a possible commoner uprising against the corrupt nobility.

I have never, in my entire life enjoyed a book of people talking over the tedious details of diplomacy and politics as much as I have The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Volume 8, written by Piero Karasu, illustrated by Yuri Kisaragi. I’m not kidding, either. This book has stepped well past the after-happily-ever-after, and even past the let’s-build-the-future of previous volumes, and landed kneed deep in “politics is a quagmire of competing agendas.”

Both Euphie and Anis are enraged at the Western nobles – each on the other’s behalf – and together with their privy council, they must find a way to avoid catastrophe, encourage prosperity and harmony and stick it to the most corrupt of the nobles in a way that both punishes them for their transgressions and gives them an opportunity to redeem themselves. And you know, they do find that way. Whether it will work remains to be seen, but as a strategy, it’s excellent. And…that’s most of this book.

If you have never once thought about how complicated it is to rule a country, this volume will absolutely dump the minutiae of every single frickin’ decision and the unintended consequences of every single frickin’ decision into your lap. I continue to be amazed at this series which would have ended with Euphie ascending the throne in most cases, as it just keeps going and adding layer and layers of the kind of responsibilities a Queen and her advisors might have to face. How do we reconcile with the Academy of Magic? How do we envision a new world of magicology even as we develop tools to make people’s lives better now? How do we manage corrupt nobles before their commoners revolt?

There is one other concern for Euphie and Anis and it’s one they are going to have to face sooner rather than later. Neither of them are truly human anymore. They are keenly aware of that and want to provide for a succession before it becomes a matter of crisis for themselves or the country they love. And they want to be able to spend as much time together as they can, to keep themselves as human as possible, as long as possible.

Because this book is mostly talking heads and policy, the final pages provide a fighting tournament in which we get the fighting tournament equivalent of Anis walking away in slow motion from an exploding building. It’s worth every page of policy discussion to get there. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Female characters standing, looking pensive, upset or sad. The art makes me pensive, upset and sad.
Story – 9 Really
Characters – 10
Service – Almost none
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

Let us not forget the entirely eye-opening bitchiness of the former rulers of their kingdom as they cheerfully gossip in the stands of the tournament while Euphie boggles. That was so extremely human.

Volume 9 of  Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei (転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命) is out now in Japanese, Volume 10 is on the way in February. In English, Volumes 1-6  of the manga are out now from Yen Press.

Many thanks to Yen Press for a review copy of this volume.

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.