By Choko and kaworu. Released in Japan as “Tanaka-ke, Tensei Suru” by Dragon Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sasha Schiller.
I was a bit reminded of the Dirty Pair while reading this, mostly as Emma tends to think that it’s not her fault a lot of the time she gets into these situations. It kind of is, though? When you create misunderstandings by being an airhead, even if they are good misunderstandings, you have to accept the consequences of your ditzy actions. Here we see Emma take control of the low-level villainess trying to ruin her debut and end up befriending her (and not in a Nanoha way either), we see Emma destroy a noble trying to traumatize her through simply seeing the trauma as a sweet treat, accidentally solve a crime by watching a guy paint, and finally, fail to realize that all these fantasy worlds always have a Japan equivalent, and accidentally just start speaking perfect Japanese to the agog crowd. Sorry, Emma, just as with your brothers, who are also doofuses of their own making, it pretty much IS your fault.
The Tanaka family have arrived in the royal capital, though MUCH later than planned, mostly as Emma can’t stop looking for rare bugs. They barely have time to move into their gigantic mansion they all feel uncomfortable in before Emma and her brothers have to attend a royal ball, where… she’ promptly has wine spilled on her by a petty noble girl… who, admittedly, has been ordered to do it by higher-up petty noble girls. Fortunately, Emma salvages the situation and ends up making a friend of her tormentor, as well as twin sisters from a wealthy port city, a handsome girl who likes to wear the boy’s uniforms, and of course the various boys in love with her, which now includes the handsome girl’s brother. Are there any bad nobles in this series? No fear, we’ve got a nasty one.
There continue to be a few things that I’m not fond of. William as an 11-year-old lolicon is less funny than it sounds, and Emma being a 13-year-old who loves older men is not much better. Mostly it just assures us that this series is not going to be about romance, despite all the men in love with Emma, it’s going to be about the Tanakas upending society. Which has already started, but seems to be getting a few pushes in this book. Emma’s complete lack of trauma after her near-death experience is read my all and sundry as repressed trauma, which works out well for her. Finding that red paint/dye sounds like it will lead to more innovations for their business. And I suspect Emma’s “wait, women just stop education after they get married?” question will be relevant later. Nothing, though, will be as relevant as that cliffhanger, because “I know a foreign language” is going to be hard to explain away.
All this and twins who speak the same thing twice, which I found cute rather than annoying. This remains completely loopy fun.
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