Romance - Fantastic Fictions

Rosario+Vampre: Season II, Vol. 14

June 7, 2023September 30, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 14 by Akihisa Ikeda
Series Name: Rosario+Vampire: Season II
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Monsters, Romance, Vampires, Witches
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Jump Advanced
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7967-2
Rating: 4/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble RightStuf ThriftBooks

Description from the Book

Average human teenage boy Tsukune accidentally enrolls at a boarding school for monsters – no, not jocks and popular kids, but bona fide werewolves, witches, and unnameables out of his wildest nightmares! And now he’s a sophomore!

On the plus side, all the girls have a monster crush on him. On the negative side, all the boys are so jealous they want to kill him! And so do the girls he spurns because he only has eyes for one of them – the far-from-average vampire Moka.

On the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. On the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood…

Personal & Info

As with many previous volumes, is book advertises a free mini-poster inside. It’s one of the two sided types that does not fold out. One side is a cute group image of most of the important characters. The back side is the same picture of Moka as the back cover of the volume. Not as single “mini-poster” in the entire series is perforated, so I have no idea why they are even advertised as posters. None of them are worth tearing out if you don’t want to damage the book. I can’t imagine any of them would come out with a clean tear.

Characters

Tsukune Aono is the only human at a school for monsters. Due to various events in season one, he wears a chain lock on his wrist, similar to Moka’s rosario.

Moka Akashiya is the beautiful vampire love interest. She is considered the most beautiful girl in school, and the series likes to play up that fact.

Kurumu Kurono is the second beautiful love interest. She is the character with the largest breasts in the group, and the whole school also fawns over her, but not nearly as much as Moka.

Yukari Sendo is a twelve year old genius, and a witch.

Mizore Shirayuki is love interest number three. She is a yuki-onna, but the translation constantly calls her a snow fairy. She’s also the most considerate of Tsukune’s happiness.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Ruby Tojo is a witch who works for the school.

San is a siren graduate from Yokai Academy who’s been living in the human world ever since she left school.

Tohofuhai is one of the Three Dark Lords. He looks like an old man most of the time, and his specialties are seals and magic.

Tenmei Mikogami is one of the Three Dark Lords. I had to laugh at the translation choice for his title. Instead of referring to him as a strategist or some other word you would expect, they chose, “maneuverer.”

Story & Thoughts

This is the final volume for the series, and it wastes no time getting started. Fairy Tale headquarters crashes into the town. Obviously the gang survives the crash, because they’re the main characters. Alucard is awake and it’s time to take him down for good. No idea why they thought human weaponry would be a good idea. Monsters generally defy logic, so that tactic seems like a waste of lives.

Despite the length, there are only two chapters in this book. The first one, containing the final battle takes up most of it. It’s an epic showdown, and everyone gets to participate. We even get to see some characters from the school and people met earlier in the series, like San.

There are some pretty awesome tropes, like two old guys getting epic for a final showdown. Tsukune and Moka get featured, too, this time with a new look for the final battle.

The second chapter is the epilogue. The gang goes back to school, and it’s ten months after the events of the battle. The silliness returns in this chapter as everyone is transitioning back to normal life. Tsukune and Moka are experiencing some changes, and everyone is fighting over Tsukune again. Life is good, but doom lurks in the future.

It’s a satisfying end, but I’d definitely like to see how the relationships play out. Does Tsukune keep his harem and have babies with everybody (because it’s pretty clear most, if not all of them want kids), or does he make Moka his one and only? They’re too young to make a final decision, but a couple possible solutions are mentioned.

I’ve come around on liking Aqua after seeing how much she genuinely cares for Moka. She’s a little psycho, but she’s not all bad. Her backstory is unfortunate, though.

The bonus comics are an extension of the epilogue, and tell what happens with some of the characters.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 13

May 31, 2023September 30, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 13 by Akihisa Ikeda
Series Name: Rosario+Vampire: Season II
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Monsters, Romance, Vampires, Witches
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Jump Advanced
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-6949-9
Rating: 4/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble RightStuf ThriftBooks

Description from the Book

On the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. On the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood…

Personal & Info

This volume advertises a free mini-poster. As with volume twelve, and several others, this one is a fold out. It features a colored sketch style picture of Inner Moka and Aqua.

Characters

Tsukune Aono is the only human at a school for monsters. Due to various events in season one, he wears a chain lock on his wrist, similar to Moka’s rosario.

Moka Akashiya is the beautiful vampire love interest. She is considered the most beautiful girl in school, and the series likes to play up that fact.

Kurumu Kurono is the second beautiful love interest. She is the character with the largest breasts in the group, and the whole school also fawns over her, but not nearly as much as Moka.

Yukari Sendo is a twelve year old genius, and a witch.

Mizore Shirayuki is love interest number three. She is a yuki-onna, but the translation constantly calls her a snow fairy. She’s also the most considerate of Tsukune’s happiness.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Ruby Tojo is a witch who works for the school.

Kahlua is Moka’s older sister, and Gyokuro’s eldest daughter.

Gyokuro is the leader of Fairy Tale.

Koko is Moka’s youngest sister, and Gyokuro’s youngest daughter.

Aqua is Moka’s eldest sister. She has an obsession with Moka.

Story & Thoughts

This book picks up where twelve leaves off. Tsukune personally challenges Gyokuro in hopes of beating her before he completely becomes a ghoul. Between Tsukune and Moka fighting her, this battle takes the majority of the volume. However, before it’s entirely over, we learn a little more about the rosario and what Gyokuro’s studies reveal as its true intention.

Koko’s battle with Kahlua also wraps up in this volume. I would have liked to see her do the entire battle by herself, but unfortunately she needs assistance. It makes sense, though, because a huge aspect of the story is constantly team work. I just think Koko deserves a massive self-earned win.

Vampires have strange abilities in this series. Koko and Moka don’t seem to have any odd abilities, but that might just be because they haven’t grown into them yet. Their family members, however, have freakish abilities that I don’t think fits into any vampire lore.

I love that Kurumu and Mizore are team fighters. They’ve had a long journey through the series to become good friends. But, I don’t think their big attack for this volume makes any sense. How do they get holy water, and why does it need to be holy water? I think it was pretty clear regular water would be enough for their needs. Season one made that very clear.

The ending of this volume hits hard. It’s a blatant, “to be continued,” in the middle of trauma, tears, screaming, and impending disaster. You might want to make sure you already have the fourteenth volume at the time you read this.

The bonus comics at the end mostly focus on a few Fairy Tale members with some question and answer silliness.

Absolute Boyfriend, Vol. 1

May 24, 2023January 25, 2024 fantasticfictionsblog

Absolute Boyfriend, Vol. 1 by Yuu Watase
Series Name: Absolute Boyfriend
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sci-fi
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shojo Beat
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-0016-4
Rating: 5/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble Crunchyroll ThriftBooks

Description from the Book

Rejected way too many times by good-looking (and unattainable) guys, shy Riiko Izawa goes online and signs up for a free trial of a mysterious Nightly Lover “figure.” The very next day, a cute naked guy is delivered to her door, and he wants to be her boyfriend!

Has Riiko died and gone to heaven? The cute guy turns out to be sweet, smart, a great cook, and lots more. And he looks like a million bucks, which is what he’s going to cost Riiko if she doesn’t return him in time…

Personal & Info

I don’t remember which grade I was in at the time, but this is a manga I read in school with friends. I think it was early high school. One of my friends found this series and shared it with our group. We all loved it, and some of us bought copies for our own collections. I haven’t read it since then, so this is a reread after many years.

There’s something people should know about this particular mangaka, though. I’ve read a few different series by Yuu Watase, so I feel like I should warn people. She likes to punch you in the heart with her stories.

As an older manga, this series has author notes in the margins. I feel like I never see those in modern manga anymore. It’s nostalgic, and I miss getting more insight into the creation and story of the series.

Characters

Riiko Izawa is the main character. She is a bit of a slob, and considered flat chested. Her parents are working abroad, so she currently lives alone.

Soshi Asamoto is Riiko’s next door neighbor and childhood friend. They have known each other since they were little kids.

Masaki seems to be Soshi’s brother, but they don’t outright specify.

Ishizeki is a boy from school Riiko has a crush on during the beginning of the story. He appears throughout the volume.

Mika is Riiko’s friend from school.

Gaku Namikiri is an eccentric business salesman who seems to neglect sharing the most important information until after it’s too late.

Night Tenjo is an artificially intelligent prototype boyfriend “figure.” He is supposed to be the perfect boyfriend in every way, based on the features the customer chooses. His height and weight are on the back cover of the book.

Story & Thoughts

Initially when I read this the first time, I gave it five stars. At that time, I was around target age group for the series. It made me laugh constantly, and I absolutely loved it.

Now, several years later, rereading it again for the first time since then, I still like it a lot. It doesn’t make me laugh as much as the first time because I have a good memory, so it’s not like the humor is hitting for the first time. The laughs may not be as obviously out loud, but the story still makes me smile, and that’s pretty great. Based on that, I think it holds up well.

There’s a love triangle, as there usually is in almost any series popular in the 2000s. Night is the obvious love interest. The other is Soshi. He obviously likes Riiko, and his brother seems to know he does. Riiko is oblivious to his feelings so far, but she notices some unexpected reactions to being around him that hint she likes him, too.

I think Night is exactly what Riiko needs at this point in her life. Not the stress of the price tag, but the support he gives. She could probably get the same from Soshi, but based on their current relationship, they would have to progress a lot to get comfortable enough. Night doesn’t have an awkward crush phase to get passed. He is already 100% devoted to Riiko, even if she is unsure about him herself.

I love the art. Yuu Watase draws in an easily identifiable style that is cute and pleasant to look at. The chibi and exaggerated reaction images all look great, too.

This is a romantic comedy I highly recommend to anyone interested in the genre.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 12

May 24, 2023September 30, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 12 by Akihisa Ikeda
Series Name: Rosario+Vampire: Season II
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Monsters, Romance, Vampires, Witches
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Jump Advanced
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-5702-1
Rating: 4/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble RightStuf ThriftBooks

Description from the Book

On the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. On the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood…

Personal & Info

This volume has a mini-poster inside, like volumes elven, eight, seven, and five, it’s a fold out. The poster features Kahlua and Koko sweeping up leaves.

I didn’t recognize Kuhlua on the cover right away. She looks obviously tan in the panels of the manga, and she even looks tan on the color fold out mini-poster. I’m not sure why she looks so pale on the cover. It makes her look like a completely different person.

Characters

Tsukune Aono is the only human at a school for monsters. Due to various events in season one, he wears a chain lock on his wrist, similar to Moka’s rosario.

Moka Akashiya is the beautiful vampire love interest. She is considered the most beautiful girl in school, and the series likes to play up that fact.

Aqua is Moka’s oldest sister. She is has an obsession with Moka.

Kahlua is one of Moka’s many sisters. She participates in the family profession of assassination.

Koko is Moka’s youngest sister, and Gyokuro’s youngest daughter.

Gin and Haiji tend to be tag team fighters. We finally find out what monster Haiji is.

Gyokuro is Kahlua and Koko’s mother, and the leading member of Fairy Tale.

Story & Thoughts

Things get intense in this volume as everything that can go wrong does. Everybody is fighting somebody. It’s so close to the end of the series now, that everything is combat. Unfortunately, Mizore and Kurumu are benched for the volume. We see them unconscious toward the beginning from the events of volume eleven, but that’s about it. Yukari and Fangfang aren’t in this one much either. They appear for maybe a page and that’s it.

The first fight that takes up a large chunk of the book is the confrontation with Aqua. Tsukune finally gets his chance to use his training against her dimension sword. Moka and Tsukune fight together for this battle. It’s nice to see him be a relatively competent fighter compared to how he originally started off in the series as a whole. He’s had a tremendous amount of growth in such a short time.

Koko, whom we haven’t seen much of in a while, finally gets a chance to shine. She gets to show her improvement in skill and confidence with a battle of her own. I get that she’s been spending a lot of time training and everything, but I think it would have been nice to have her in the story more with the main group. She’s one of my favorite characters.

The bonus comics feature Kahlua. She is given a mission by her mother that requires seduction, which apparently is one of the few skills she did not learn in her assassin training.

I think there was a typo on one page when Gyokuro says, “the tide of battle is already turning against us.” I’m pretty sure she means, “against you,” because the following panels show supporting evidence of the typo.

What I Love About You, Vol. 1

May 17, 2023September 30, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

What I Love About You, Vol. 1 by Rurihara Zurachi
Series Name: What I Love About You
Genres: Comedy, Romance
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: Kodansha
Edition: ebook
ISBN: 9781646598717
Rating: 4/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble BookWalker

Description

Tatsu Yunoki has a hair fetish. One day, when he wakes up with Kotoka Hatsushima in his bed, his life is turned upside down. Kotoka claims destiny has thrown them together due to their mutual fetishistic interest in each other and the ability to tolerate the other’s interests. Can they make a relationship work?

Personal & Info

I got this ebook for free from a BookWalker sale. It seems most of the books I got this way are available as digital only.

I have no idea why the author name on the cover is spelled different than the name for the listings.

Characters

Tatsu Yunoki is the leading man, and he has a hair fetish.

Kotoka Hatsushima is the leading lady. She is twenty three, and works as a copywriter for a publishing house. Supposedly, she fell in love with Yunoki’s back at first sight.

Eno Yunoki is Tatsu’s younger sister. She has a leg fetish, and does not seem to care if they belong to a man or a woman.

Story & Thoughts

I find myself pleasantly surprised after going into this without so much as reading the description. The first few pages were enough to hook me. The premise itself is amusing. Two people with different fetishes are attracted to each other, and decide to try to make a relationship work. But these aren’t the obvious fetishes you would expect.

Tatsu likes hair, long, pretty, silky hair, which Kotoka just happens to have. Kotoka likes backs, and apparently she can determine personality characteristics just by looking at someone’s back. She likes the characteristics she sees in Tatsu’s back, and that’s what leads to everything.

The story focuses on the two of them navigating their unique relationship. They start off relying heavily on their fetishes to bond, and quickly move in together. Their relationship is surprisingly wholesome. Although, it seems like Kotoka would like to be loved for more than just her hair. She constantly tries to get Tatsu to look at parts of her other than her hair.

The most wholesome part is that they are both learning to love someone for more than just their fetish. Both of them are used to being attracted to people purely because they fit their fetish, but the longer they are together, the more they start to like each other for other reasons. One of the most blatant indicators as an example is when Kotoko hugs Tatsu from the front instead of the behind. She ALWAYS hugs him from behind. Watching them grow closer is so heartwarming.

It’s fast paced and silly. The story is continuous, but some segments are only a page long before it jumps to a different day. There are captions at the top of almost every page identifying the subject of what goes on in those panels. I don’t think they’re necessary, and I almost forgot to read them a few times.

I don’t think I would buy this series for my shelf, but I definitely wouldn’t mind reading more of it. If you want a funny, romantic, light hearted read, give it a try.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 11

May 17, 2023September 30, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 11 by Akihisa Ikeda
Series Name: Rosario+Vampire: Season II
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Monsters, Romance, Vampires, Witches
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Jump Advanced
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-5240-8
Rating: 5/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble RightStuf ThriftBooks

Description from the Book

On the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. On the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood…

Personal & Info

This volume advertises a free mini-poster inside. Like volumes eight, seven and five, it’s a fold out. This one features Mizore and Kurumu in a sort of spy pose theme. They are wearing nice clothes and posing with guns.

Characters

Tsukune Aono is the only human at a school for monsters. Due to various events in season one, he wears a chain lock on his wrist, similar to Moka’s rosario.

Moka Akashiya is the beautiful vampire love interest. She is considered the most beautiful girl in school, and the series likes to play up that fact.

Kurumu Kurono is the second beautiful love interest. She is the character with the largest breasts in the group, and the whole school also fawns over her, but not nearly as much as Moka.

Yukari Sendo is a twelve year old genius, and a witch.

Mizore Shirayuki is love interest number three. She is a yuki-onna, but the translation constantly calls her a snow fairy. She’s also the most considerate of Tsukune’s happiness.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Ruby Tojo is a witch who works for the school.

Story & Thoughts

This volume picks up with Fangfang’s fight scene. The first two chapters finish that off. All in all, it’s not a long battle compared to others. I’m glad Fangfang gets to shine at least a little bit. It seems like his main problem in life is he doesn’t know what he is good at. However, it must be devastating to find out Yukari can essentially master anything he can’t do within the timespan of only a month. Geniuses can really make a person feel inferior without intending to.

We see a few returning villainous faces from season one. Some we already know about, and some are a surprise. This leads to Tsukune getting a fight scene that spans about three chapters, with many cut-aways to keep up with what others are doing. There’s some recap here as well in case the reader doesn’t remember who he is fighting and what their previous interaction was.

Kurumu and Mizore get to fight, too. I think it’s cool and interesting that Mizore and Kurumu have become a team duo for combat. That has been slowly building up over time, because they seem to train specifically with each other quite a lot.

Basically, this is another high combat content volume. We’re at the tail end of the series, so it’s not that surprising. I’m fully expecting even more combat encounters in the three volumes after this. We are far away from the light hearted romantic comedy the series started out as, but the characters are showing their depth and skills, proving how hard they have trained, and how strong their friendships have become.

The bonus comics are a little random. They feature Ludie of all people, and her crush on Xilong.

Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! Vol. 1

May 10, 2023October 1, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! Vol. 1 by Aki Iwai
Series Name: Abe-kun’s Got Me Now!
Genres: Romance
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: Kodansha
Edition: ebook
ISBN: 9781646595594
Rating: 2/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble BookWalker

Description

Akari thinks her school karate team is just a bunch of macho gorillas. When her best friend Takuto decides he wants to join the karate club, and the school’s karate champion Abe confesses to her, Akari finds herself spending more time around the team. Will her opinion of the so called gorillas change?

Personal & Info

I got this for free from a massive BookWalker sale. I don’t normally list them in my links, but because that’s where I got this ebook, I will be including them in the listing. They had a sale not that long ago where you could get a ton of volume ones for free, so I have a huge list of them I can read when I need to post something and haven’t finished whichever novel I’m reading.

I have nothing against BookWalker. It’s just that my personal preference tends to be print books, so I usually only list links where people can find print editions. BookWalker is purely ebooks from what I can tell. If you like your manga and light novels digital, maybe check them out sometime.

Characters

Akari Yae is the main character. She refers to the karate team as gorillas and prefers guys who are more like her sweet and charming childhood friend Takuto.

Takuto is Akari’s childhood friend. He is kind and sweet, and he wants to be stronger and more athletic like Abe.

Kazune Abe is the star karate athlete at school. He likes Akari, and goes out of his way to express it and try to win her love.

Story & Thoughts

The story primarily focuses on Abe pursuing Akari as a love interest. However, Akari insistently and consistently states she is has no interest in him. This leads the plot to have quite a few red flags in the relationship department.

Abe is forceful in many ways. He often doesn’t let Akari leave when she wants to, and there are multiple times where he just picks her up and walks off with her to go somewhere. He’s also rude in ways that cut her down. He calls her stupid and an idiot on multiple occasions. Abe is so possessive he won’t even let her manage the karate team for more than a weekend. He referred to her as a thing that he owns, and would not let her make her own decision.

If you like the whole possessive, dominant, old fashioned guy, who doesn’t respect a no trope, you’ll probably like this just fine. But for me, I just see red flags all over the place. It’s also super weird that Akari’s best friend Takuto supports the whole thing. Abe is practically a god in his eyes.

Despite all the red flags and denials, it does seem like Akari likes Abe. It’s hard to tell if it’s just physical or not, because she is definitely attracted to his muscles. She doesn’t get a chance to figure out her own feelings because Abe just won’t leave her alone.

I’m not interested in reading more of this series, so this is probably the only volume of it I’ll be reviewing. This particular style of romance doesn’t interest me. I don’t like the whole guy chases girl until she eventually caves in style of story.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 10

May 10, 2023September 30, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 10 by Akihisa Ikeda
Series Name: Rosario+Vampire: Season II
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Monsters, Romance, Vampires, Witches
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Jump Advanced
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-4879-1
Rating: 3.5/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble RightStuf ThriftBooks

Description from the Book

On the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. On the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood…

Personal & Info

This volume advertises two free mini-posters. These ones are no different than standard color images at the beginning of any manga. Like volumes nine and six, the posters are front and back, so you can only actually display one of them if you choose to tear them out and hang them anywhere. The first one is Tsukune with some kind of circuit board pattern on his arm, and the second one is a pretty picture of Ruby with a magic circle on her abdomen.

Characters

Tsukune Aono is the only human at a school for monsters. Due to various events in season one, he wears a chain lock on his wrist, similar to Moka’s rosario.

Moka Akashiya is the beautiful vampire love interest. She is considered the most beautiful girl in school, and the series likes to play up that fact.

Kurumu Kurono is the second beautiful love interest. She is the character with the largest breasts in the group, and the whole school also fawns over her, but not nearly as much as Moka.

Yukari Sendo is a twelve year old genius, and a witch.

Mizore Shirayuki is love interest number three. She is a yuki-onna, but the translation constantly calls her a snow fairy. She’s also the most considerate of Tsukune’s happiness.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Ruby Tojo is a witch who works for the school.

Many members of Moka’s family make appearances.

Story & Thoughts

This volume is combat heavy, so don’t expect a lot of humor and fan service. Most of the book is a single fight scene, and the start of another. The good thing about this, though, is we get to see Ruby shine. She doesn’t usually get to do much, but she’s the star of the volume. I find it surprising she’s not the one on the cover.

The gang has spent a whole month training, and it’s finally time to go save Moka. We don’t get to see what everyone has learned, but we do get to see some of Tsukune’s new abilities, and a substantial amount of Ruby’s. I don’t think I ever thought about what kind of spell caster Ruby is before. Apparently she’s a conjurer, and that’s pretty cool.

I do think this volume is a bit stereotypical. It follows the final dungeon trope of everyone taking turns fighting the strongest foes while crunched for time. I like the trope because it gives the characters a chance to show off their skills, but at the same time, it’s a cliché.

There are only three bonus comics at the end of the book, because there weren’t enough pages. They are mostly about Moka’s time in captivity.

Can You Just Die, My Darling? Vol. 1

May 3, 2023September 30, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

Can You Just Die, My Darling? Vol. 1 by Majuro Kaname, Sousou Sakakibara
Series Name: Can You Just Die, My Darling?
Genres: Horror, Mystery, Romance, Suspense, Thriller
Intended Age Group: Mature
Publisher: Kodansha
Edition: ebook
ISBN: 9781642122725
Rating: 4/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble BookWalker

Description

Neat freak Taku Kamishiro has a crush on his childhood friend, Mika Hanazono. Unfortunately for him, so does everyone else in town. After an incident outside his home, Kamishiro finds his romantic feelings have become murderous. Kamishiro fights to control his new urges in this morbid and gory romance.

Personal & Info

This book has four stars as the rating because I docked one for the gore and general content I don’t usually enjoy. I thought everything else in the story was well done and amazing.

Characters

Taku Kamishiro is the main character. He likes cleaning for no reason, and has a sister who seems to wear her shirt backwards frequently. People call him captain clean, because he is always cleaning.

Mika Hanazono is Kamishiro’s childhood friend and crush. She seems mean and abusive hitting and kicking him all the time. It seems like she was mean to him when they were kids too.

Koji Shinomiya is captain of the soccer team. He is considered handsome and smart, and he wears a unique earring. Like everyone else, he has a crush on Hanazono.

Ms. Tanaka is Kamishiro’s neighbor.

Koki Atsumi is Hanazono’s homeroom teacher. He is popular with the students because he is kind and earnest.

Yamada is the ace pitcher of the baseball team. I don’t think we get his first name.

Story & Thoughts

Okay, so this book is…something else. I’m typing this shortly after finishing, and my nerves are just…definitely rattled. The thriller part of the story is definitely done well. The finale of the volume put me on the edge of my seat.

I didn’t know what to expect going into it, but it certainly was not what I got. There are numerous gory scenes. I don’t normally read or watch things with substantial amounts of gore. Despite the unsettling content, the story is actually more engaging than one would expect. I don’t plan on reading more of the series, but if I came across more volumes for free, I would probably read them. That’s saying a lot for something outside of my usual genre preference.

This book gives me similar vibes to zombie fiction, but it’s a little different. Basically, there is some kind of contagion that causes people to have murderous impulses. They seem to be directed at those they care about most, but not exclusively. The side effects also include super human strength, among other things. I get the feeling it’s more like an increase on all of the body’s base abilities, like making a murderous super soldier.

I cheated a little since I don’t plan on getting any more volumes. The ending of this one was a huge punch in the gut and I needed some answers, so I looked for an answer to one specific question just to quell my curiosity. If I end up reading more later, knowing this answer is not going to spoil the story for me. I just really wanted to know this one thing. If you have read this volume, you probably know what I looked up.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 9

May 3, 2023September 30, 2023 fantasticfictionsblog

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 9 by Akihisa Ikeda
Series Name: Rosario+Vampire: Season II
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Monsters, Romance, Vampires, Witches
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Jump Advanced
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-4209-6
Rating: 5/5
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Description from the Book

On the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. On the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood…

Personal & Info

This volume advertises two free mini-posters. These ones are no different than standard color images at the beginning of any manga. As with volume six, the posters are front and back, so you can only actually display one of them if you choose to tear them out and hang them anywhere. One is Mizore and Kurumu is their swimsuits, and the other is Moka and Tsukune standing back to back.

Characters

Tsukune Aono is the only human at a school for monsters. Due to various events in season one, he wears a chain lock on his wrist, similar to Moka’s rosario.

Moka Akashiya is the beautiful vampire love interest. She is considered the most beautiful girl in school, and the series likes to play up that fact.

Kurumu Kurono is the second beautiful love interest. She is the character with the largest breasts in the group, and the whole school also fawns over her, but not nearly as much as Moka.

Yukari Sendo is a twelve year old genius, and a witch.

Mizore Shirayuki is love interest number three. She is a yuki-onna, but the translation constantly calls her a snow fairy. She’s also the most considerate of Tsukune’s happiness.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Lingling Huang is Fangfang’s big sister.

Tohofuhai is one of the Three Dark Lords. He looks like an old man most of the time, and his specialties are seals and magic.

Aqua is Moka’s eldest sister. She works for a branch of Fairy Tale and absolutely adores Moka.

Ginei Morioka, also known as Gin, is the Newspaper Club’s president. Normally we hardly ever see him.

Story & Thoughts

This volume has more chapters than usual. There are six. The first third finishes the events of combat with Aqua. There are some epic and dramatic moments there.

I think the most important section is the last half of the book. It focuses heavily on Kurumu. She shines here, but at the same time it’s so emotionally tragic it almost made me cry. Kurumu does not give herself enough credit. She doesn’t get many chances to shine, so I love that for her in this one, even if it’s in an unpleasant situation.

Gin arrives at some point with Ruby and a few others when the story switches focus to training. I don’t usually pay attention to how people talk, but Gin’s speech drove me up the wall in this book. I had to read it without the…What would it be? An accent, maybe? Gin speaks in an annoying way in this volume, and I just can’t help wondering if I just didn’t notice before, or if it was a new translation choice. He says things like, “yer” instead of your and, “purty,” instead of pretty. It makes him sound really annoying, and I hate it. I swear he did not speak like that before.

Overall, this volume is another serious one. There is very little comedy, if any, but it covers a significant amount of content. As a whole, I think it might be one of the best volumes, but that’s just my personal opinion. Everything in it is important.