Jinsei Zenbu Kakete mo, Gin no Majyo ni Kachitai (人生全部賭けても、銀の魔女に勝ちたい) by Fukami Koucha, illustrated by Nekotarou was…pretty good, actually. ^_^

I’m not sure what actually drew me to this the first time I saw it, the cover art is nice, but not dynamic. The description was interesting by not compelling. But, as a winner of a Yuri novel contest, I wanted to give it a try. And over all, I think it was pretty good. 

Frandre Rainforest is a Count’s daughter, who is hyper aware of both her magical abilities and her position in life. Illegitimate daughter that she is, her father only values her for that magical ability. She trains endlessly to hone it. So when she is enrolled into a magical competition, her world comes crumbling down when she loses to another girl her age who wields three elements and builds from them a dragon. Fran is devastated and livid. Her affinity with fire cannot stand the insult. She marches up to the girl Cruel Hyedeline and is appalled when the girl reaches out and hugs her. Even more insulted, Fran challenges Cruel to a duel 5 years from now when they both enter the Kingdom’s Academy of Magic.

5 years pass. Fran has trained mercilessly. With one maid, Kei, her only confidant, and no friends, Fran enters the Academy ready to take on Cruel, only to find her opponent only at the beginner level, barely able to wave a magic wand. Fran is enraged and set out to find out what could possibly have happened. What she learns is unexpected and will change both Fran and Cruel forever. 

There are a lot of decent elements to this book, so let’s get the slightly weak pieces out of the way.

The naming is weaksauce. Fran’s name makes more sense as Flandre, but Flan as a nickname irked me, so I’m going with Fran. I’d bet a box of desserts that it’d be Flan in any translation and I already hate that. ^_^ Cruel is an ironic name I guess, because it makes no sense for her. Totally should have been the other way around, because Cruel is a pudding of a girl. ^_^

The Yuri. The story is, as I said, pretty good. The relationship/rivalry between Fran and Cruel works on it’s own.It didn’t need help. But there are two elements of fanservice in the story and neither of them make the story better. Fran’s relationship with Kei is problematic and the other thing which is an important feature of the story and could have been handles so much better, instead of the skeazy way it was. 

My last complaint is a compliment – I wish there was more to this book. Both Fran and Cruel’s families sound like assholes and I would have liked to see them take them down. And, while the book ended in a perfectly fine place, I would have also loves to see them at the school handling the aftermath of the book, beyond the bit we see.  Even in such a short time, we get a clear idea of the history of the country and (pertinent to my wanting to know more) a specific piece of that history which was tantalizing in context. I’d like to know more about that, as well.

The magic as climax was very good. You’ll have to trust me that it was worth it – and it nailed the landing. But how Fran and Cruel actually figure themselves out was just a teeny bit better. The emotional depth of this little volume was solid, well-conceived ( and very welcome, as I spent the rest of this week reading 23 volumes of an emotional wasteland of a manga for ANN ^_^;)

The art is by Nekotarou (creator of The Fed-Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess) and was, therefore *good*! Actually illustrating some of what is happening, as well as the characters. Really look at that cover – that exceptionally good. Those ornate uniforms with correct capes…what a pleasure!

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – Realistically only about a 4, but in context, that was too much, it was just not needed
Yuri –  7

Overall – 8

Overall, this was a solid little Yuri VN,  I’ll recommend it to J-Novel Club, and hopefully they’ll get it for us. ^_^