By Asagi and Shino. Released in Japan as “Zenryaku, Yama Kurashi wo Hajimemashita” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by N. Marquetti.
The author reminds us once again in the afterword that this is not a romance nor is it going to turn into one. And no, the chickens are not going to become cute girls either. I get it, as I imagine that the audience for this series is looking at the cute girl in the cast, joined in this volume by her younger, also cute sister, and shipping is just happening naturally. That said, if the author really didn’t want any romance I think they could shut things down a bit more. Sure, here Sano states outright that he’s not interested in Rie (good, as she’s underage), but much of the relationship between him and the Katsuragis consists of him basically being a perfect catch except for his horrible depression and self-loathing, and the two of them noticing it. And that’s not even considering the ho yay he’s ignoring between him and Aizawa. Or hell, the fact that he has a chicken wife and a jealous chicken mistress. Romance kind of worms its way in anyway.
As noted above, we get another cast member in this volume. Katsuragi’s younger sister Rie is dealing with a stalker who went from “let’s date” to “what are you doing right now?” to “I need to know where you are 24-7 or I will kill us both” very quickly, so her parents agreed that having her stay with her sister is for the best. Rie is a gyaru in Sano’s eyes, but I think “normal 17-year-old who possibly bleaches her hair a little” is more accurate. Elsewhere in the book, there’s a lot of killing of boars; Sano goes to the very top of his mountain and finds a dilapidated shrine, which he tries to fix up a bit; he learns how to get lotus roots straight from the source, though he doesn’t enjoy it; and he begins to prepare for the winter, which given his remote mountain will mean going to ground, possibly for a month or two.
There’s a very interesting bit about 2/3 of the way through the book where Sano realizes that he hasn’t really prepared for winter fast enough or done enough, and thinks ruefully that he’s always slow to pick up on things like this and maybe that’s why his old fiancee left him. About five pages later, he’s hearing how Rie is finding Katsuragi’s place too cold and worries over it, workshopping solutions and eventually coming over and helping the two of them to insulate it. Sano’s depression is all internal – he still hates it when people tell him not to pay them back – and anytime he has to deal with something that affects only himself (see: his chapped hands), he puts it off or ignores it, but when it’s about anyone else, he basically becomes the perfect boyfriend. Something Katsuragi is deliberately ignoring, and which Rie does not ignore but she’s still 17, so…
The book implies that Sano is going to be alone for several months – given this cast is doing its level best to make sure this fragile guy is part of a community, I highly doubt that. Next time: more now, more chickens, and probably less not-romance.
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