By Inori and Aonoshimo. Released simultaneously in Japanese, English, Spanish and German by the author. Translated by Kevin Ishizaka.
(I try not to spoil too much about this book, but I do spoil the final resolution of it. Reader beware.)
This is a spring/summer that will have two works by I’m in Love with the Villainess author Inori coming out. The second, The Girl Who Wants to Be a Hero and the Girl Who Ought to Be a Hero, came out the traditional way in Japan via Dengeki Bunko, and is coming out the traditional way here via Yen Press. But this is a self-published work, releasing digitally on the same day in four languages, and translated by the same translator as ILTV. As such, thoughts like “experiment” and “risk” come to mind. Which may be true, but in the end, I think the most important thing is that it’s a good book with a lot to say about why we exist and what to do when someone feels they no longer want to. It’s also got a good couple at the center of it, who can be boiled down to “the grumpy one and the sunshine one”, but also contain greater depths. Best of all, I love the narrator, whose deal is my favorite part of the book.
In a dystopian world where humans are at war with the demons (and the men appear to have all been killed off – this is a yuri genre, after all), Maha is a grim but excellent soldier, who uses alchemy to wipe out the demons, though the cost of the alchemy she does is that she deliberately destroys past ties to herself, such as her memory of those who died, or of the taste of good food, in order to give equivalent exchange to power her spells. One day, her researcher mother (who has spent most of her life ignoring her daughter) reveals they have created a homunculus, who hopefully will be able to fight against the demons so that humans no longer has to. Maha has many feelings about this, most of them angry, but unfortunately, the homunculus herself, Ruri, is adorable, innocent, and really likes Maha a lot. And Maha’s grumpy, closed-off heart gradually starts to open up again.
There were a couple of minor things that made me a bit annoyed during the book – I’m not fond of the “loli that’s really x00 years old” archetype, and the relationship between Maha and Ruri starts off with “we’re like older and younger sister!”, which I’ll be honest had me saying “oh no, not again” after ILTV. But for the most part, this was a very rewarding read. The narrator is not Maha, as you’d expect, but instead… well, I don’t want to spoil too much, but someone who is both a guide for Maha and also a filthy shipper who really wants Maha to fall in love with another woman. The narrator is also deeply tied to the past of this book, which reminded me a lot of the 5th ILTV book, and I’m wondering if the author first thought of this concept while writing that. I also appreciated the fact that it managed to not only argue for the value of living, but did so without (I’ve got to spoil this) a tragic sacrifice, while I was expecting from about Page 20, and had steeled myself for. Instead everyone goes for a swim. I smiled.
The author says there may be more self-published works in this vein. Honestly, I’d like to see a different story done the same way, as I feel this wraps up very neatly in a volume and doesn’t need a sequel. Fans of the author should enjoy this a great deal.
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