Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement, Vol. 6

October 16, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By FUNA and Keisuke Motoe. Released in Japan as “Rōgo ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-Man-Mai no Kinka o Tamemasu” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by Kodansha Books. Translated by Luke Hutton.

(A reminder that the English Vol. 6 is the equivalent of the Japanese Vol. 7.)

I seem to recall that in earlier reviews of this series, I would applaud the very rare effort to give Mitsuha some depth, such as her reaction of grief when discussing her family in the first book, etc. Anyone who has been following later volumes of this series will, I think, agree with me when I say that depth is the last thing I want now. That honestly applies to all three FUNA series, I think. As they’ve gone on and gotten bigger and bigger, it’s clear the author knows exactly what their skill set is, and it’s writing a cartoon. Not a Japanese anime-style cartoon, but like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon with Mitsuha as both Dick Dastardly AND Muttley. Not only do we not take Mitsuha seriously, but none of her allies take her seriously. The only ones who do take her seriously are the ones desperately trying to either curry favor from her or sabotage her. She destroys those people.

The bulk of this book continues to take place in Vanel, as the royal family finds out that Mitsuha holds grudges forever (though the third princess manages to find a way around this, in one of the funniest scenes of the book). She deals with a rival company breaking into their warehouse and stealing their merchandise, and then decides that the best thing to do is to start a society of cute teenage noble girls, get them to bond with each other over a shared goal (get Mitsuha’s makeup, which she starts to introduce here), and make then the biggest force in the country, as they also end up funding a relief column for one of their members whose barony is experiencing a famine. Meanwhile, back in Yamano County, she’s building entire islands just so she can trade as a tax dodge, and once again setting up a young girl to run it so they can get better marriage prospects.

As with all FUNA series, if you scratch at the core of this you find “I want to write about cute 8-13-year-old girls, but not in a sexual way, just in a cute and empowering way”. Potion Girl and MMAA also do this, with the “gimmick” being the lead is always a reincarnate in a permanently 12-year-old body. Mitsuha’s not a reincarnate, and is 18, but her looks are basically the same thing. And the goal of 80K Gold seems to be to get all these little girls running the economy. After 7 volumes they’re all store owners, merchants, etc., finding better ways to transport goods and Mitsuha can barely keep up with them, to the point that she needs to invent a better sugar here so she can make rum to use as a bribe. Honestly, this volume is best when it’s making fun of Mitsuha and itself – her tendency to monologue for pages on end about her grand plans are now shown to be her saying them all out loud without realizing it, which reminds me a lot of Elgala from Excel Saga. And honestly, this series sort of fits in with the vibe of Excel Saga. We’re even siding with a villain. (Mitsuha. Mitsuha is the villain.)

As always, if you don’t read everything by this author, don’t read this. If you do, it’s good.

Filed Under: reviews, saving 80000 gold in another world

Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster, Vol. 8

October 15, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Saki and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Albert-ke no Reijō wa Botsuraku o Goshomō Desu” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Ray Krycki.

Usually when I say that a final volume of a series is doing what I call a “victory lap”, I don’t mean it literally. And yet that’s exactly what happens here, as we join the main cast as they take a tour of every major character we’ve met before, every major place we’ve visited, and have all the possibly comedy antics you could want. Honestly, probably more than you’d want. It’s been so long since the first volume that I’d forgotten how particularly thick-headed Mary can be when she wants to ignore things that troubled her, A lot of the humor near the start of this book is her having to be reminded of all the bad things that happened to her in previous books, and her having completely forgotten everything about them entirely. That said, she and Adi at least have an excuse: Their lovely daughter, who is the spitting image of her mother both in appearance and attitude and is ready to take the world by storm.

This volume takes place six years after the previous one. Roxanne, Mary and Adi’s daughter, has a mission. She’s written invitations for a big party where her mother has an important announcement, and now she plans to deliver them all by hand in person – by herself. Needless to say, this requires strategy, so Mary and Adi seemingly agree while also secretly tailing her. She starts off visiting the royal palace, where we meet Patrick and Alicia’s son Felix, who if nothing else proves that Alicia does actually seem to love Patrick more than Mary – romantically, at least. Felix joins Roxanne in her solo (?) jaunt, and Patrick and Alicia join Mary and Adi in tailing them. We then get to see most of the major characters from previous books, including Parfette and Gainas’ newborn twins (it makes sense they’d take six years to get around to this). But what *is* Mary’s big news at the party?

This is pretty much one of those “everyone is going to be in male/female pairings by the end of it” series, so it’s rather surprising that the most interesting parts for me was when it went outside that bubble. Helene, the single mother from the last book, has moved to Albert Country, and is being courted by BOTH of Mary’s brothers, as well as their attendant. What’s more, it’s made clear from discussions about the brothers that they function as a unit far better than they ever would when competing. It’s no wonder this is the one romance left up in the air – a woman marrying three men would likely be one bridge too far for most readers of this genre. Then there’s Mary and Alicia, who manage to reaffirm their relationship and also admit that they love each other – and that they are NOT the villainess and heroine in an otome game, something Alicia has to sort of pound into Mary’s head. They’re still my favorite part of the series.

The ending twist promises that otome game villainesses may continue into the next generation, but we’re not going to be seeing that. Let’s be content with Mary Albert, drill-less, happily married, with a lovely daughter and another child on the way. She failed spectacularly in trying to engineer her doom. But then, so did Katarina Claes, who I remind everyone debuted only one month before this series in Japan.

Filed Under: reviews, young lady albert is courting disaster!

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 12

October 14, 2024 by Leave a Comment

By Natsu Hyuuga and Touko Shino. Released in Japan as “Kusuriya no Hitorigoto” by Hero Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

It’s very tempting to just type “Holy crap!” and leave the review at that, but I will try to go into more detail. This is the final book in the Western Capital arc (yes, we are back home by the end of the book, woo hoo), and it fires off all the guns it has been saving up since the 9th volume, with the last two-thirds or so being a very tense ride in which (sorry to spoil you a little, but this shouldn’t surprise you too much) Maomao is caught up in events and gets sort of kidnapped. She and Jinshi are apart, again, almost the entire book, but end it closer than ever before, with words not said but actions taken that will make the reader cheer. That said, what made *me* cheer was Chue. I’ve loved her since she was first introduced, even as I realized that she was clearly more than she seemed, and here’s where we find everything out and also worry that the author is going to kill her off. It’s a dangerous book.

At the end of the last book we saw the assassination of Gyoku-ou, and unsurprisingly we now have a succession crisis. The first son wants to give up his rights, the second son is against that, and the third son… is a very strange and deferential young man. Meanwhile, Maomao also meets the little grand-kids of the family: Gyokujun, a spoiled brat who serves as the annoying young boy you love to hate the entire book, and Xiaohong, a far-too-mature for her age girl who Maomao previously helped get over eating her own hair. As Maomao tries to sort out this tangled web of relationships, and also treat the occasional terrible nausea and horrible headaches, the first son is shot with a poison arrow. And the fallout of this puts Maomao far, far from the Western Capitol and in more danger than ever before.

I’ll be honest, I frequently have trouble with series that have huge casts with similar names, most of whom are some relation to each other, so a lot of the time I was trying to act like Maomao and just smile and nod. This isn’t even getting into the political situation, the fact that we’re still trying to save the capital from a famine, and even more bandits who somehow manage to be even worse than the first bandits, and one of the antagonists trying to immolate themselves. But come on, let’s talk about Miss Chue. After Maomao, she’s probably become my second favorite character in the series, even passing Shisui. And here we get her inevitable tragic backstory, and also frankly we almost get her tragic end. Possibly the most heartbreaking moment in the book is when Chue says “do I have no value anymore?” to her mentor (who I’ll leave a surprise). Fortunately, the answer appears to be “yes, you do still”, though Chue is probably going to have to find new ways to pull flags out of her sleeves in the future.

All this and Lahan’s brother too. Poor Lahan’s brother. Sometimes I can still hear his voice. In any case, this series remains amazing.

Filed Under: apothecary diaries, reviews
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