By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Otome Game no Hametsu Flag Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei Shite Shimatta…” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.
This is one of the lengthier volumes in the series, as the author notes in their afterword. That said, by the end of it, there’s really only one new piece of information, and I’m not sure where we’re going to go with it. The rest of the book is made up of the usual romantic stasis (Jeord, having once again forced a kiss, ends up getting a fever and taking the rest of the volume off), with one exception that I’ll get to. And there’s also the continuing story of what’s going on with all the black magic and who’s behind it, which we get closer to, but have not quite arrived at an endgame. In other words, this volume is full of sound and fury. That said, Katarina’s clueless narration is always pleasant, and the book is definitely fun to read much of the time. But as always, anyone who came to this from the anime has likely dropped it ages ago.
Katarina and the others attend a palace ball, and given that Maria and her family were recently attacked, this includes extra bodyguarding in Cyrus, who is forced to have to deal with women. Katarina, meanwhile, is delighted to find a kindred spirit, as another woman is also eating far too much food and being chided by her brother for it. This is Haru and her brother Ryo, and as the names might have suggested, they’re from this world’s version of Japan. And, the two plots dovetailing nicely, it turns out that Haru is in love with Cyrus, and has been lurking around palace balls trying to pin him down. This all culminates in a visit to Cyrus’ lands, which are having a disturbingly familiar problem… animals are disappearing from the nearby forest. Is Katarina going to have to fight another dragon?
I try not to be a shipper in these reviews, but sorry, a great deal of this book is devoted to setting up Maria and Cyrus, which is naturally going to make my MariKata heart sad. Katarina, as ever, is very canny about everyone else’s romantic relationships but not her own – she even pegs Haru as the second’ otome game’s version of Mary, and she’s absolutely correct, right down to the rejection that inevitably comes. The key difference between Fortune Lover I and II in Katarina’s universe is that unlike the first book, where almost all the events were killed off by Katarina’s niceness, the second game’s events are actually happening, making it harder for her to avoid her doom. Though she’ll give it a try, as long as she can use her magical staff like a vacuum cleaner (the best part of the book).
The big revelation here is that Sarah, our increasingly distressed villain, is a childhood friend of Raphael’s “alter ego” Sirius. How that plays out will need to wait for the next book. For hardcore fans.
0 Comments