Adventures in Light Novels

I talk about light novels. A lot. Unless I mention otherwise, all of the reviews on this blog are spoiler-free.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Tsue to Tsurugi no Wistoria Grimo Acta 2 Tsuchi no Himegimi

Author: Fujino Omori

Illustrator: Yuunagi

Original Creators: Fujino Omori & Toshi Aoi

Label: GA Bunko

Release Date: 13 June 2026

My Score: 4/5 stars

A quick note on the title: the listings for this volume on amazon, etc title it as Tsue to Tsurugi no Wistoria 2 Grimo Acta. However, to me, it makes more sense to have the 2 after "Grimo Acta". This is the 2nd volume of the Grimo Acta spin-off, not of the main Wistoria series. Like for Danmachi Sword Oratoria, the volume number is after "Sword Oratoria" not "Danmachi". I'm just noting it because I try to make this blog as accurate as possible and keep the titles the same as official Japanese sources (though I usually omit subtitles if they're ridiculously long and/or irrelevant), but it just didn't make sense to put the 2 before "Grimo Acta" here.

In the first Grimo Acta volume, I complained that we didn't get more Collette. Her past has been something that the manga has often teased but never properly explored. This volume answered my wishes and delved into Collette's past and her friendships with Will and Rose. Her story may be a bit generic and predictable, but it's well told and I'm glad we finally got it. I'm a bit conflicted on it being told in this format though. It does make this volume far more worth reading for fans of the manga. Will and Elfie's backstories felt like they were explored enough in the manga that the first Grimo Acta volume didn't add enough to make it a must read. Collette's backstory being in this volume makes it much more worth the read, but it also feels like a story that should have been told in the manga, instead of just hinted at. I'm glad we go it at all, but I would've preferred it in the manga.

We'll probably get another volume when the third anime season airs and I was struggling to think of what they could do there before I remembered that Kiki exists and we still don't know how they ended up with Will. Since it feels like the manga is never going to circle back to Rosty, I wouldn't mind finally getting answers about him, but again I'd rather get those answers in the main manga. I'd definitely be down for a Workner and Ed volume during their time as students. I like that idea the most as it's not something that I'm crying out to learn more about but it's also something that I wouldn't mind reading about in novel format. It feels right for a side story light novel volume.

Anyway, this was an entertaining volume overall and I'd definitely recommend it to fans of Wistoria.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

July 2026

(Series: Makeine | Artist: Imigimuru)

New anime season and I'm still not watching that much but I might try to pick up one or two more shows. I just don't want to overload myself and fall behind and there's so much from earlier this year that I want to watch. But for now:

Kaiju Girl Caramelise - I'm enjoying this one a lot. Minami and Kuroe are charming characters and I'm rooting for their romance. It's clear there's a lot of love going into the series and it's given me a few laughs. My one issue is that there have been multiple scenes where Kuroe has decided to just show Minami her "condition" and it's been fake-out due to him not being able to see her or him misunderstanding what's going on. It's annoying because it feels like Minami would readily accept her and I hope they don't drag out the reveal too long, especially as there's been several times where I've been like, 'okay, surely he's figured it out, right? She was the only one in the room when the kaiju appeared,' and then he hasn't. Still an enjoyable romcom with a kaiju twist for the moment though.

The 100 Girlfriends who really, really, really, really, really love you season 3 - Speaking of enjoyable romcoms and I'm honestly not going to be surprised if Rentaro gets a kaiju girlfriend at some point. This show is still a lot of fun, even if it crosses some lines with it's content, the show's too ridiculous for me to care about most of it and there's still so much here that I love. The Naddy-sensei introduction episode was a big highlight of the season so far, and then it was followed by a hilarious riff on the school idol genre, and I'm looking forward to more.

Star Detective Precure - Still the best thing I'm watching and it looks like it'll get even better from here, with the introduction of Cure Eclair at last and it looks like a change of Big Bad for the second half. I don't want to jinx it, but I think this going to be remembered as one of the best Precure series. It's just got such an engrossing plot with a lot of fun twists.

List of Reviews:

Tsui, Koukishin ni Makete Shimatte Akuyaku Reijou wo Mezasu Koto ni Shita mono no

Makeine 8.5

[Reread] [Twitter] Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road 2

Ganbare Noukyou Seijo 1

Mob Shoujo ga Last Boss Majo wo Shiawase ni suru made 1

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Mob Shoujo ga Last Boss Majo wo Shiawase ni suru made 1

Author: Piero Karasu (Author of Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei)

Illustrator: Chocoan

Label: Fantasia Bunko

Release Date: 20 February 2026

My Score: 3/5 stars

Art Notes: I gotta say the art in this volume is disappointing. Not because Chocoan's art is bad (I like it well enough), but because there's just not much of it. There's two colour illustrations. One of these appears to just be from the character design sheet and the other uses the same illustration on the cover, just with the characters separated. This looks like it's the same in volume 2. And there aren't really any insert illustrations. Each chapter page has an illustration but most of them feature an object like a book or some scenery. I think only one of them features a character and it's a very basic illustration. I know some readers don't care about this, but part of the appeal of light novels for me is the art. And if there's practically no art aside from the cover, why am I paying the same price for this as I am for a light novel volume full of art?

Genres: Yuri, Fantasy, Isekai

Premise: Roselika attends a magic academy with her best friend Grace. When they go to a ceremony that reveals the type of magic they have, Roselika remembers her past life as a girl in Japan. She realises that she's been in reincarnated into the world of a game she played and she remembers that Grace is the final boss of that game who is destined to meet a tragic end. Determined to prevent Grace from meeting the same fate of her game counterpart, Roselika makes it her mission to give Grace a happy ending.

My thoughts: This one has a solid premise and I liked the way the isekai aspect was woven into the story. We meet Roselika and Grace before Roselika regains her full memories and she doesn't change that much. I got the sense that Roselika would've taken the same actions regardless of her memories but that her knowledge of the game gave her the sense of urgency and confidence to act to save Grace. The isekai has a purpose in the story beyond making Roselika easy to identify with, as is so often the case. I also liked Roselika and Grace's relationship and I'm rooting for them to get their happy ending. It was easy and quick to read too.

That being said... not a whole lot happens in this volume. It feels like purely set up and the story starts to meander in the back half. I'm mixed on the magic system. Grace has ice magic and Roselika has flower magic and there doesn't seem to be much limitation on what they can do with their magic, though they can exhaust their magical energy if they use too much of it. I prefer a magic system with clearer limitations but I guess it's not a bad thing for the characters to have the ability to use their magic creatively so I may come around to it.

I think this series has potential and I'll probably read more of it, though it's not a priority. I'm curious to see if they'll introduce more characters from the game next volume and if we'll get more details on the story of the game.

Recommended for isekai fans and/or those who want to read a yuri fantasy.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Ganbare Noukyou Seijo 1

Author: Kyouseki Sasaki

Illustrator: Hatori Kyouka

Label: TO Books

Release Date: 20 December 2021

My Score: 3/5 stars

Genres: Fantasy, M/F romance, drama

Premise:

Alicia has been training to become the saintess since she was a little girl. The saintess is considered by many to be purely a figurehead but Alicia takes her duty very seriously, learning about agriculture to help support the land. But that gets taken away from her one day when her father asks her to give up the title to her younger twin sister. The title of the saintess also comes with an engagement to the prince. Alicia is used to her family putting her sister first and this is the straw that breaks the camels back. She leaves her family and gets engaged to Ronan, the nephew of the previous saintess who asks her to use her knowledge of agriculture to help revistalise his land.

My Thoughts:

This was one of those light novels that was just okay. I liked Alicia and enjoyed seeing her gain her confidence back over the course of the volume, especially as she starts in such a depressing state. Her romance with Ronan was cute. I liked that it wasn't an isekai and it was easy to read. It was just pretty boring to me and I don't feel a desire to read more. Parts of the book are from Alicia's sister and the prince's POVs. These parts were sudden with no warning of a POV change until you realise the character is talking about events Alicia wouldn't be present at. I can see these parts may amount to something in later volumes but they didn't have any pay-off here and felt needless.

I'd recommend this to fans of ex-saintess m/f romances and Cinderella-like stories. It wasn't for me, but I can absolutely see it working for genre fans.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Makeine 8.5

Author: Takibi Amamori

Illustrator: Imigimuru

Label: GAGAGA Bunko

Release Date: 26 January 2026

My Score: 3/5 stars

English Release: Seven Seas is releasing this series in English as Too Many Losing Heroines!.

This is a short story volume with 19 (I think) short stories. A lot of them are around 10-20 pages with a couple longer ones within the 50-80 page range. If I had to assign a theme to the collection, I'd say it's "rare character pairings". Most of these stories are not from Nukumizu's POV so we get to see a different side to the characters and see them interact with other characters that we usually wouldn't. I think my favourite story in the volume was about the relationship between Komari and Karen, of all people. I don't think these two have interacted ever before in this series and it was a surprisingly sweet scene. I also liked the story about Komari and Tiara. Again, a rare character pairing that I liked seeing.

As you might guess from a side story volume, there isn't much in the way of plot progression. There's a couple of things like touching on what Nukumizu's and Tiara's relationship looks like after the events of volume 8 and how Lemon needs to knuckle down on studying to keep on participating in club activities. There also seems to be an intent to make Anna feel like more of a viable love interest as she does show some signs here of romantically liking Nukumizu. There's the usual jokes about her eating but it felt a little less prominent here. I still would rather they remain best friends and a different romantic option is explored, like with Tiara or Komari, but at least it feels like an effort is being made to not make a romance feel like it comes out of nowhere if it does.

This volume was enjoyable enough, but most of the stories were forgettable and it's definitely not a must read to follow the main story. Still, it's worth reading if you're a fan of this series and I had a fun enough time reading it.

I also want to mention that there was a campaign for this volume and the Makeine art book on bookwalker when they were released where if you bought the volume you'd be able to vote for your favourite character. If you just bought the volume, your vote counted for 1 point, and if you bought the volume + the artbook, your vote counted for 3 points. But there's a fun twist to the poll: the second place finisher is declared the "true losing heroine" and gets a short story for the release of the next volume. I didn't buy the volume in time to vote but it's a fun idea since it almost makes you not want to vote for your favourite character and I'll be interested to see the results. The next volume comes out this week, I think, so we should know the results soon.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Tsui, Koukishin ni Makete Shimatte Akuyaku Reijou wo Mezasu Koto ni Shita mono no

Author: Tora Kurasaki

Illustrator: Hiyori Asahikawa

Label: HJ Novels

Release Date: 22 November 2019

My Score: 2/5 stars

This is your typical villainess isekai but it has two twists to try to make it stand out. The first is that the protagonist's mum was reincarnated, recognises this as the world of an otome game and her daughter as the villainess, and is raising her daughter with the goal of her being that villainess. The other is that the protagonist is also a reincarnated gamer but didn't play any otome games and was more into action games. I've got to be honest: I think the story would've been more interesting without the second twist. You hear about the first twist and it sounds interesting. It's the story of a mother raising her daughter to become twisted and act as a villainess without any regard for her will. Regardless of whether the mum or the daughter is the POV character, it'd make for an interesting story. And then you hear the second twist, and it makes the story turn back into the usual villainess isekai. Because the main character has an understanding as to what games are and what villainess are and she understands what her mum is trying to do, even if she doesn't have intimate knowledge of the game itself, so it's far less interesting to see her story. This is also one of those ones where the main character is trying to be a villainess but is also too much of an idiot to be effective at it so it ultimately felt very typical and orthodox.

This is far from the worst of the volumes I regret buying from HJ Novels while they were on sale but it's also still not a particularly interesting book. It's got the usual issues I complain about with most isekai where it just doesn't feel like there's a clear goal we're heading towards. It was also very forgettable and I'm struggling to remember many details about it when I just finished it yesterday. But at least the protagonist was likeable enough and it was an easy enough read. There also aren't any sequel volumes, despite the '1' on the cover. The web novel does appear to go on longer and have more of a conclusion so I suspect it was due to sales, though this volume at least ends in an okay enough place to stop. Again, not the worst thing I've read this year but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

June 2026

(Series: Danmachi | Artist: Nilitsu)

It's the end of an anime season and I'm still more in the mood to watch figure skating than anime but I did finish a couple of shows. I ended up putting Agents of the Four Seasons on hold after the most pointless time waster of a backstory episode (8). I remember enjoying the light novel and the show was pretty so I might go back and finish it later but the pacing of the anime was so bad. I gave Marriagetoxin a try, but I found myself getting bored while watching, as much as I love the concept, so I put it on hold after episode 2.

Re:Zero season 4 part 1 - Not my favourite season, even before the Subaru amnesia plot that felt like an unnecessary complication, but still entertaining. They handled said Subaru amnesia better than I feared but it still felt like it could have been cut, though it may end up having a pay off in the next part. Also, I found Shaula really annoying. I usually love Ai Farouz but I found her performance here grating and I had to turn down the volume every time she was on screen. I'm not sure if it was a sound mixing issue or a voice direction issue but she sounded louder than anyone else in the cast.

Ghost Concert: Missing Songs - this ended up being disappointing. A lot of interesting concepts but the show became really messy (and not in a fun way) and somewhat incomprehensible by the end. Characters died and I did not care. Plot happened and I did not understand what was going on sometimes. It also ultimately didn't have a whole lot to say about using AI to create music and the music itself was pretty bland. I could never shake the feeling that it was an advertisement for a bigger project, like a mobage. I understand that Ghost Concert is a multimedia project but as far as I know there's not much of an overarching story and these characters seem separate from the rest of the project. I appreciated having a canonically queer character and some of the fights looked nice, but that's really all I can say positive about it.

Star Detective Precure - Still loving this. The mystery surrounding Cure Eclair is so entertaining. A highlight of my week. I also just can't get over how tightly the show is written. In most magical girl shows the question arises as to why the villains don't just target the girls separately and in some cases there's an episode where they try to do that and it inevitably fails. Here, there's no need to do that because the villains motive is never to attack people, it's to steal things and fighting the precure is a consequence of that, rather than the goal. And also the disguise lip gloss item isn't used a whole lot but there hasn't been a situation where I felt it should've been used and wasn't, unlike in some other magical shows (* cough * Sailor Moon * cough *). And also love Cure Arcana Shadow. Precure often has villains-turned-precure characters but I believe this is the first time we've had a character who's a villain while being a precure. She also doesn't appear to be brainwashed or anything so it's fun to try to figure out why she's become a villain.

List of Reviews:

Danmachi Familia Chronicle Episode: Heith

Silent Witch 2

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Silent Witch 2

Author: Matsuri Isora

Illustrator: Nanna Fujimi

Label: Kadokawa Books

Release date: 8 October 2021

My Score: 4/5

English Release: Yen-Press is currently releasing the series in English.

So I read Silent Witch's first volume when it was initially published. I liked it, but the series is on the pricier side which discouraged me from reading more. By the time this second volume started to be regularly discounted, I'd forgotten most of what went on and didn't feel confident to start volume 2 and also wasn't motivated to reread volume 1. But then the anime came out last year and I loved it and it was the push I needed to start to catch up on the novels. I reread volume 1 a couple of months ago and I've bought volumes 2-4 & the "after" volume and I plan to catch up on the series eventually.

It feels like a lot goes on in this volume but I feel the most important events are the introductions of Glenn, Claudia, and Casey. They're all important additions to Monica's growing social circle and Claudia in particular is such a delightful addition to the cast. I don't have too much to say about the volume itself as I'd already experienced it in anime form but I'm glad I'm getting back to it. I like this series a lot and I'm excited to see where it goes from where the anime left off once I get there.

Adaptation Notes:

This volume is covered in episodes 5 - 9 of the anime.

The changes start from the beginning. In the prologue, we see Monica hesitate to go into town and we get some cute moments with her and Lana which the anime skips. She also meets Glenn there as he helps her find Nero, rather than seeing him in town and properly meeting him for the first time at the academy. The light novel also implies that Glenn is Loius's disciple. The anime doesn't hint to this at all, though you could maybe make a guess from his strong magical power and him being as inept at dancing as Monica that there's something going on with him, presumably because the staff knew they wouldn't likely be adapting volumes where this detail is relevant. The anime switches events around a bit by inserting the tea party plot in between the dance plot. In the light novel, Monica passes the dance retest and celebrates before the tea party plot begins. Not sure why they changed it around. Maybe they had an idea as to when they wanted the episode to end/start and this fit that pacing better. The light novel also includes a brief scene with Monica living with Isabelle after the poisoning incident and reading one of her recommended romance novels. There's a scene in the light novel where Monica returns to the student council after the poisoning incident and Cyril makes her some hot chocolate as a kind gesture. The anime skips both scenes. A good chunk of episode 9 is either anime original or from later volumes of the light novel, like Monica going horseback riding with Felix. The only parts of that episode I could remember being in the LN were the start, with Monica saying farewell to Casey, the end with Cyril, and the post credits scene. I didn't have enough time to carefully comb through the episodes so I may have missed some other changes. It's also possible that some of these scenes were added back in later on, but these are the differences I noticed.

Hard to say whether I prefer the anime or the LN at this point. The things that the anime decided to skip don't make a big difference in the narrative, at least with the material they were adapting, but some of those scenes were awfully cute. I love the casting of Ai Kayano as Claudia in the anime and the cast of the anime is generally really good. I'm still not sure about the decision to use vocal music for some of the scenes where Monica uses magic. It makes the scenes more impactful but she's the silent witch and I feel like using vocal music goes against that idea. I'm curious to see how the anime adapts the next volume.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Danmachi Familia Chronicle Episode: Heith

Author: Fujino Omori

Collaborator: Fumikaru Nishijima

Illustrator: Nilitsu

Label: GA Bunko

Release Date: 15 May 2026

My Score: 4/5 stars

This volume is split into three stories, each providing further characterisation of Heith, our favourite yandere healer.

In the first, Airmid asks Heith to party with her in the dungeon to investigate a case of adventurers reviving as essentially zombies. Heith doesn't want to but changes her mind after a certain grey-haired waitress announces loudly that she'd love to see Dear Saint and Vana Mardoll team up and how cool it would be if Heith accepted. The afterword states that this story takes place half a year before the start of the series. Along with providing us some Airmid/Heith content, it also provides plenty of food for Heith/Horn shippers. I found myself being charmed by both dynamics. There's also some interesting information about Airmid's abilities that has implications for the Freya arc. I don't think Airmid appeared much in that arc (and yeah why would she? I don't think her and Bell have ever directly interacted) but I wonder if we'll get more info about that in the announced Airmid volume.

The second story is backstory time as we learn how Heith joined the Freya Familia and how she became a healer. As you'd expect from the Freya Familia, and Heith in particular, there's some dark stuff in this story including descriptions of child Heith training with the Einherjar and being beat up to make her stronger. It was an interesting story but be warned that it gets heavy.

The third story has the most ridiculous premise but manages to turn it around to expanding more on Heith's character by the end. It takes place after volume 21 and the former women of the Freya Familia trick Bell into going to the former home of the Freya Familia in order to seduce him. The logic is that if they have Bell's child, that's basically Freya's grandchild right and wouldn't Freya just love to have a grandchild. It's an incredibly silly story that's frustrating to read for the first half but it does get better and ends up providing a good conclusion for the volume. Omori mentions in the afterward that the reason to release this volume now instead of the Haruhime volume that they've been promising for a long time was in part because of this story. Part of it was of course that Heith was featured in the most recent anime season and in volume 21 but the other part was because they knew this story had such a silly ecchi premise and was too embarrassed to write it themself so wanted to get Nishijima to do it (which begs the question as to why Omori wrote it this way in the outline but I digress).

Was this volume necessary? No, but it was interesting. Danmachi is one of those series that has such a good cast of characters where any of them could be a protagonist. I don't usually like that descriptor because it begs the question: why are we following the actual series protagonist instead of any of the more interesting characters? Thankfully, I actually like Bell as a protagonist and we get enough spin-offs that allow other characters to be protagonists that it doesn't bother me with Danmachi. And I really am glad that Omori has allowed another writer to help them expand on the world. I've always wanted Danmachi to be one of those series with a lot of different writers contributing to the world, similar to Sword Art Online, and I'm pleased that we seem to be heading in that direction. I really liked this volume overall and it's made me like Heith more so it did it's job.

The release dates for future volumes are up on bookwalker as follows:

Danmachi 22 12/12/26

Sword Oratoria 17 15/1/27

Familia Chronicle Episode: Airmid 12/2/27

I'm a bit surprised SO is still going to continue after volume 16 felt like it concluded it's main threads nicely but I won't complain about more time spent with the Loki Familia. The Airmid volume is probably the one I'm most excited about from these three honestly, but that may be because I have the clearest idea as to what it's going to be. I don't know what direction the main story is going to take next but I'm looking forward to it.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

May 2026

(Series: Shinigami-san, Yasashiku Koroshite Kiss wo Shite | Artist: Tsukugu)

List of Reviews:

Sword Art Online Unital Ring 8

Shinigami-san, Yasashiku Koroshite Kiss wo shite

Asobi no Kankei 3

[Twitter] Doudemo iikara Kaerasete kure 1

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Asobi no Kankei 3

Author: Sekina Aoi

Illustrator: Kurehito Misaki

Label: Fantasia Bunko

Release date: 19 March 2026

My Score: 4/5

Man, this series is so freaking good and unpredictable. I really have no idea the direction the story is going to go in and it's easily one of the most interesting love triangles I've read. These characters have such a tendency to self-sabotage by being messy liars and it's entertaining to witness. That's about all I can say without spoiling this and previous volumes but I kind of want to explain exactly how these characters are messy so I'm going to spoil some of the events of the series so far below. I still recommend going into this series mostly blind but for those who want to know more about it, read on.

Before that, I quickly want to mention that a new PV for the series has been released with VA Reina Ueda as the cover girl Hankui. It's perfect casting. You can watch the PV here. I hope they keep this casting for the inevitable (& probably mediocre) adaptation.

!Spoilers ahead!

So I think I'll just summarise the main characters and what their deals are.

Kotarou "Banjo" Tokiwa:

Works at a board game cafe and is essentially the acting manager of it. He's a board game nerd.

High school drop out. The reason behind him dropping out of school is because he was covering for a teacher who was having an affair with a student. A picture was taken of the back of them coming out of a love hotel and the back of Banjo's head looks similar enough to the teacher that he was able to cover for him. This teacher was something of a mentor figure for Banjo and was in a relationship with Banjo's first love. This woman's family was also taking care of the teacher's sick little sister so Banjo covering for the teacher meant that support wasn't cut off. This resulted in Banjo dropping out of school.

In love with Mifuru but lied and said he was in love with Utakata.

Mifuru Takanashi:

Works at the board game cafe with Banjo but doesn't have much interest in board games.

Has a fake boyfriend Usa-kun. Is actually in love with Banjo but lied and said she had a boyfriend and is now renting one.

Is the teacher's little sister so has known about Banjo from what her brother and his partner have said about him which stoked her interest in him. For memory, I believe she does also know about Banjo covering for her brother. Banjo knows none of this, nor do any of the other major characters.

Utakata Tsukino:

A local famous shogi player.

In love with Banjo and confessed to him at the end of volume 2.

Utamaru:

Utakata's alter ego #1.

Used this as a disguise to start going to the board game cafe without being recognised as someone famous. Fell in love with Banjo while visiting there as she came to share his board game hobby.

And, yep, she was there when Banjo professed his love for the shogi player Utakata Tsukino.

Utamaru reveals herself as Utakata during volume 2 so it's not really a used alter ego anymore. Everyone knows that Utamaru = Utakata.

Usa-kun:

Utakata's alter ego #2. Yes really. She's Mifuru's rental boyfriend.

This started as a way to earn money to feed her addiction to the board game cafe. A relative owns the company she works for.

She becomes fairly good friends with Banjo as Usa-kun and even learns about the circumstances that caused him to drop out of school. She doesn't know about Mifuru's involvement though.

This lie will absolutely blow up in her face at some point and I'm so excited.

So yes, this love triangle seems straightforward at first with Banjo and Mifuru having mutual feelings for each other but then you add in both of them being liars and Utakata being in love with Banjo and being Mifuru's fake boyfriend, and it gets a whole lot more interesting. Volume 2 also introduced Takeshi and Hankui (cover girl) who knew Banjo in high school. I don't want to spoil too much about them but they're great and Hankui is the only one who knows Utakata = Usa-kun and she has a lot of fun with that.

These lies are also why I just can't predict where the series will ultimately go. Yes, Banjo and Mifuru have requited feelings, but neither of them know that, and Mifuru has this big secret that I can't imagine Banjo is going to be happy about once he finds out. But Utakata also has this big secret that's ultimately a betrayal of his trust. I'd argue that Mifuru's secret is bigger than Utakata's but Utakata's has certainly gone on for longer and affects more people. So yeah I just don't know but I'm excited to find out. Maybe he'll go for third option.

This volume deals with the fallout from Utakata's confession as she tries to get Banjo to fall for her and there's still some great swerves the story takes. I can't wait to read volume 4.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Shinigami-san, Yasashiku Koroshite Kiss wo shite

Official English Title: Mr. Death, Kill me Gently and Kiss me

Author: Takeshi Matsuyama (Author of Ame no Hi no Iris and Koori no Kuni no Amaryllis)

Illustrator: Tsukugu

Label: Dengeki Bunko

Release Date: 8 November 2025

My Score: 2/5 stars

Genre: M/F Romance, Fantasy, Drama

Premise: In a world where London has been stuck in an eternal night for over eight years, James is a boy who works as a shinigami, hunting people's lifespans to help keep the world in balance. But due to some trauma, he's unable to follow through and kill people. One night he meets a woman in a nun's outfit who restores the lifespan he's taken. Her name is Mary. She's an immortal who's sick of life and asks James to kill her.

My thoughts:

It's been a while since I've read a Matsuyama book and I've enjoyed some of their previous work so I was excited for this one. Sadly, it really didn't do much for me. It felt like I was reading cliche after cliche without any depth to the tropes or twists to make things feel different. It particularly reminds me of older Key visual novels. Immortal heroine who wants to die? check. Sick younger sister? check. Protagonist who gets called a coward by the heroine for not wanting to kill her? check. A mother figure character who dies before getting the chance for the audience to form an emotional connection with her? check. A random sex scene in the middle? check. A recurring specific food motif (in this case: scottish egg)? check.

I don't hate tearjerker stories, but this was just not written well enough to make me feel anything other than boredom. The characters never develop beyond their tropes and the romance was so rushed. I didn't understand why Mary was interested in James and the sex scene really did feel incredibly sudden. Like, it was clear that it was heading in a romantic direction, but I wasn't expecting that specific development.

The setting is also poorly developed. The whole thing where London has not seen morning for years isn't really relevant to the story until the end and we're not told much about how this affects people's lifestyles. There was a bit where we're told that the popular greeting is "good morning" "no, good evening" but that's really the extent of the world building here. The setting of London also feels irrelevant. Aside from the characters' names and the recurring scottish egg (both of which could easily be changed), this story could really take place anywhere. The setting of London feels like a gimmick as a result.

The one positive thing I'll say about this book is that it was easy to read and I got through it pretty quickly. If you want an easy Japanese book to read and you enjoy tearjerker romances, I'd maybe recommend this. Otherwise, give it a skip.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Sword Art Online Unital Ring 8

Author: Reki Kawahara

Illustrator: abec

Label: Dengeki Bunko

Release Date: 10 April 2026

My Score: 2/5 stars

English Release: Yen-press is currently releasing this series in English.

It has somehow been almost two years since the last volume came out so you'd think this would be a sizeable volume with lots of plot development given how long Kawahara had to work on it but that really isn't the case. In fairness to Kawahara, he has been working on other series as well and I wouldn't be surprised if he's been told to drag this arc out for as long as possible to maximise sales but it leads to yet another disappointing entry in this drawn out arc. So much of this volume is info-dumps and fight scenes. There's a bit of plot development at the start and end but otherwise this felt like such an empty volume. Once again, it's split between the Underworld and Unital Ring, and while we're starting to see them come together, the events set in UR just feel so inconsequential to the rest of the plot at this point. Which is insane, given that the Underworld stuff wasn't in this arc at the start of it. I read the first volume of the manga adaptation recently and man this arc had so much potential in the beginning but it's really suffering from poor pacing. We're 8 volumes into this arc and it doesn't feel like we're nearing the end at all and again I just miss how concise the early arcs were. If the Aincrad arc hadn't told a complete story in the first volume, it wouldn't have had nearly as much punch as it did and wouldn't have been so popular. I keep on hoping that Kawahara will pull off something amazing that will have made this arc worth it but I'm starting to think it won't happen any time soon.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

April 2026

(Series: Lycoris Recoil | Artist: Imigimuru)

I don't have a whole lot to say about the anime I'm watching atm so I think I'll skip it this month. I've been in such a figure skating mood that while I've still been enjoying some anime, I haven't been as absorbed into them. I've picked up Agents of the Four Seasons and Ghost Concert: Missing Songs but I don't really have any opinions on them yet. I am still really enjoying Star Detective Precure though. I'm so happy Cure Arcana Shadow has finally been properly introduced and I'm so excited to see what they do with her (bracing myself for a brainwash reveal though).

List of Reviews:

[Twitter] Danzaisareta Akuyaku Reijou wa, Gyakkoushite Kanpeki na Akujo wo Mezasu 1

Lycoris Recoil Gluttony Days

Makeine 8

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Makeine 8

Author: Takibi Amamori

Illustrator: Imigimuru

Label: GAGAGA Bunko

Release Date: 19 May 2025

My Score: 4/5 stars

English Release: Seven Seas is releasing this series in English as Too Many Losing Heroines!.

As indicated by the cover, this is a Tiara volume, so be prepared for a lot of "don't call me by my first name". Thankfully, I like Tiara and I really liked this volume. In this volume, Tiara is running for student council president and asks for Nukumizu's support for her campaign. She's going up against Sakurai, who's recruited Anna for his campaign.

There's some stuff going on towards the end of the volume that I want to talk about but I don't want to spoil it so I'll refrain from doing so. But Tiara's really great in this volume. I've felt for a while that she may have the most chemistry with Nukumizu and this volume somewhat cements that in my mind. I'd say that the characters with the least amount of chemistry with Nukumizu are Shiratama, who was only introduced a volume ago, and Anna (I've decided to exclude Kaju from this conversation. Sorry any Kaju truthers). It feels like Anna is meant to be the main heroine, but if the series were to end in the next volume with Anna and Nukumizu ending up together, I wouldn't buy it. And I think part of that comes down to her being mostly a comic relief character. Any time Nukumizu thinks about her, he usually mentions what she's eating or her latest diet nonsense. It's hard to see her as a romantic interest when the series doesn't usually treat her as one. I think Tiara, Shikiya, Komari, or Lemon would all be better options here. It could still develop something between Nukumizu and Anna but I find myself hoping the series doesn't force a romantic ending between the two of them.

Anyhow, great volume overall with a lot of good Tiara moments. This is the most recent volume in the main story but a side story volume came out recently and I plan to read it fairly soon.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Lycoris Recoil Gluttony Days

Author: Asaura

Illustrator: Imigimuru

Label: Dengeki Bunko

Release Date: 9 January 2026

My Score: 3/5 stars

This is the third side story volume for Lycoris Recoil, and I was quite amazed to realise that Recovery Days came out two years ago. In the meantime, the short episode series "Friends are Thieves of Time" has come out and was one of the most enjoyable series I watched last year. "I could watch/read these characters do anything and be entertained," I thought after watching it and this volume proved me wrong by having boring scenes of the characters eating. Some of them worked more than others but I found my eyes glazing over most of them. The first chapter was easily the worst of them, but a large part of that is that it was just so long. It was over half the length of the volume and I found myself skim reading most of it. It follows Chisato and Takina on a guarding mission. They eat ramen in an extended scene that didn't work for me. The second and third stories fair much better. The second story focuses on Fuki as she wants to make something (I think it was teppenyaki if I remember correctly) as a thank you to Sakura for her actions during a mission. The third story turns the focus back to Chisato and Takina as they get ready for bed and Takina is determined to not eat before bed. They end up eating pizza and staying up to watch both Gremlins movies. To the volume's credit, this is the only chapter where weight and dieting is mentioned and it's pretty light all things considered. It was still annoying but it's handled better than the majority of series.

Yeah, this volume didn't hit for me the way Lycoris Recoil usually does. I still enjoyed parts of it and I still like the franchise overall but it's decidedly one of the weaker entries in my opinion. It is possible that I just wasn't in the right mood for it though.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

March 2026

(Series: Koishita Hito wa, Imouto no Kawari ni Shindekure to Itta | Artist: Saori Toyota)

I've been watching a lot of figure skating these past couple of months so I haven't been watching as much anime. I ended up putting Champignon Witch on hold after episode 5. Episode 6 had a massive delay on crunchyroll for no apparent reason and I was actually really relieved when I realised that episode 6 wasn't out yet before I realised that it was a crunchyroll issue so I took that as a sign that I needed to stop. Might go back and finish it but it's on hold for now. I would say that Cosmic Princess Kaguya is my favourite anime of the year so far. I watched it back in January and haven't stopped thinking about it since.

Gnosia - I preferred the first half of this to the back half. I had fun with the werewolf games and enjoyed seeing the mysteries come up. But I found the answers to those mysteries to not be as compelling as the mysteries themselves were. I still enjoyed it overall and I still plan to play the game but it ended up being a bit disappointing.

The Invisible Man and his Soon-to-be Wife - This was a cute anime and I enjoyed how much though it gave to it's setting. I must admit it struggled to hold my attention at times but I'd easily recommend it to romance and slice of life fans.

Digimon Beatbreak - I was enjoying this in the beginning but I think it's got a real tonal issue where it keeps on introducing dark elements just for the sake of being dark rather than to actually do anything interesting with them. One episode introduces human trafficking in a way that makes sense for the setting but this has not been mentioned in any episode since. Despite the fact that characters who were complicit in the human trafficking have been redeemed, their involvement is not mentioned making their redemption feel hollow. One of these characters also almost killed a kid in a previous episode and showed no regret for it and the other characters just watched and didn't stop it and again it's just not mentioned. I'm so distracted by these facts that aren't mentioned and I haven't been able to enjoy the recent episodes as a result. I'm thinking about putting the show on hold once the current arc has finished and hoping that by the time I get around to watching the rest of it I will have forgotten about those elements.

Also, and this is less of an issue, I can't figure out why they're being so stingy and not using that vocal track during the fight sequences. There have been multiple fights where using that song would have elevated the scenes and made them more memorable. I get why they might want to save it for the important fights but there have been so many missed opportunities to use it and it feels off that they don't. And it's not like Brave Heart was any weaker of a song because it was used in every episode.

Frieren Season 2 - I don't have much to say about this season. It's a great adaptation of a great manga. I'd hesitate to call it as good as the first season but it's still absolutely worth watching.

Fate/Strange Fake - It's a perfect adaptation of what may be becoming my favourite entry in the Fate franchise (hard to say when Extra CCC exists). I'd hesitate to recommend it yet as it's unfinished but I really enjoyed watching it. While it's not exactly beginner friendly, I don't think it's a bad option to start getting into the franchise with. It throws you into the deep end and doesn't explain all of the concepts but it's not hard to understand what's going on from context clues.

Star Detective Precure - Really enjoying this so far. The mysteries are simple but still complex enough to be interesting. I love the transformation sequence, especially the music. They've also introduced a disguise lip gloss and I hope they continue to use it throughout the season. The disguise pen was absolutely the most underused item in Sailor Moon so I was delighted to see Precure use a similar item.

List of reviews:

[Twitter] [Reread] Silent Witch 1

Koishita Hito wa, Imouto no Kawari ni Shindekure to Itta 1

Howling Blaze 2

Haruka Tooku no Starlight