The Best Manga and Light Novels of 2024

Which manga and light novels kept you turning pages, chapter after chapter? Anime News Network's critics narrowed down their must-read lists to find the best series, both new and continuing, of the year. If you haven't flipped through these titles yet, better late than never.

MARRIAGETOXIN by Jōmyaku and Mizuki Yoda

MARRIAGETOXIN released its first and second volumes this year, and I need everyone to go read it! As conversations about young people's struggles with dating and human connection become increasingly common in our society, MARRIAGETOXIN's exploration of this subject matter feels more relevant and vital than ever. Oh, and on top of having some pretty good insights into a hot-button social issue, it also manages to be hilarious and has some pretty solid action scenes!

MARRIAGETOXIN focuses on Gero, a neurodivergent-coded assassin whose family forces him to find a wife so he can continue their highly feared and respected clan's bloodline. His first attempt at this leads to him befriending a crossdressing marriage swindler, who promises to help Gero overcome his anxieties and find not only a wife but a partner he loves and with whom he can spend the rest of his life.

In the following chapters, between off-beat gags and fights with other superhuman assassins, Gero goes on a variety of dates with various potential partners, grows as a person from those experiences, and becomes more emotionally fulfilled even if those relationships don't immediately pan out.

MARRIAGETOXIN's attitude towards dating is so healthy, and it was considered a shoo-in for my pick for the best new manga of the year.

MARRIAGETOXIN is available in print from Viz Media and online via the MANGA Plus app.

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All! by Sumiko Arai

Aya is one of the “popular girls.” She's fashionable, kind, and a social butterfly. However, she has a secret: her love for '90s rock music. Afraid of being ostracized for liking something so different from her image, she searches for an outlet—a place where her passions can run free. She finds it in a small, family-owned record shop. There, she meets the store's clerk, a pierced, tattooed, and perpetually masked pretty boy with striking eyes—and falls for him instantly. There's just one problem. The clerk isn't a guy at all. Rather, she's Mitsuki, the quiet, gloomy girl who sits next to Aya in class.

When it comes down to it, this is a story of two girls learning to be confident about who they are—be that in terms of their likes or their sexuality. Much of the story revolves around their shared love of music—how it allows them to express themselves in ways nothing else can. It's also full of romantic moments as the two get to know each other—be that with Mitsuki as the mysterious store clerk or as herself.

The story is told in short snippets—sometimes part of a larger plot and sometimes stand-alone—and is drawn in black and white and light lime green. It's cute, funny, and truly unique. If you're a big fan of yuri stories—especially yuri stories about personal growth and development as well as romance—then this is an easy recommendation.

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All! is available in print from Yen Press.

Last Quarter by Ai Yazawa

I may be fudging this a little – Last Quarter has, technically, been finished since the late 1990s, and as of mid-January, it will be complete in English as well. But that doesn't matter, because this is another chance for me to call attention to what is, in my opinion, Ai Yazawa's best work. Like all good ghost stories, the story is a little bit sad (this was the first manga to make me cry) but ultimately beautiful enough to be worth reading, even if you don't enjoy sad stories. It follows a group of elementary school students who find an abandoned Western-style mansion occupied by a ghost, a teenage girl waiting for “Adam.” She doesn't remember anything else; she just desperately wants to be reunited with him. Hotaru, who first meets the ghost at a mysterious fence without a gate, is trying to cope with the loss of her beloved pet cat, and she's the only one who can see her. The other children are no less invested, and the plot explores grief and longing and how those can make time stand still. Themes that will echo across Yazawa's later series, particularly NANA, find their roots here, and the whole story is simply a masterclass in what shōjo manga can be.

The Last Quarter is available in print from Viz Media.

GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST! by Miyako Hiruzuka

Of the newer titles I read this year, GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST! is the one that left me the most charmed and eager to read more of.

GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST! Is a dark comedy about a woman named Ushiro Akechi, who's in the midst of what can only generously be described as some tough times. She recently got swept up in an office romance with someone above her on the corporate ladder. It's a tale as old as time: he promised Akechi that he was going to divorce his wife, but he didn't, and when the affair got brought to light, it ended with Akechi being punished by way of losing her job. The man, meanwhile, got to stay. In the time since, Akechi's life has been spiraling ever downward, to the extent that it's starting to affect her health. This, in turn, brings on an accidental near-death experience, that puts her face to face with a spirit named Masako, who's taken aback when Akechi tells her that she's not entirely opposed to the idea of dying right then and there (Note: while it's not framed as Akechi being suicidal, some readers might interpret her indifference, and even willingness, toward death as suicidal ideation. If you want to avoid such content, I wouldn't recommend this manga). Masako, however, wants to inspire Akechi to live, so she offers to curse Akechi's enemies—including, but not limited to, her ex. Immediately taking her up on the offer, GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST! follows them as they pursue revenge against Akechi's enemies, both big and small.

You can read my review of the first volume here. This manga's a bit rough around the edges but really enjoyable overall. It's funny and expressive, and it has an excellent duo of deliciously petty protagonists in Akechi and Masako.

GOGOGOGO-GO-GHOST! is available in print from Yen Press.

Last Quarter by Ai Yazawa

This time last year, Neighborhood Story, an older series by Ai Yazawa that was getting an official English release for the first time, was my choice for “Best Manga.” I thought about choosing it again since the spectacular last volume just came out, but I decided not to repeat myself. I decided to choose something new. So this year, I'm picking Last Quarter, an older series by Ai Yazawa that is getting an official English release for the first time!

No, no, I swear it's different! Neighborhood Story is a romantic comedy and coming-of-age story, the prequel to Paradise Kiss, with a structure that English-speaking fans would already be familiar with. Last Quarter is a ghost story about a group of children who stumble on the spirit of a young woman trapped in a derelict mansion, unable to remember anything about her life except that she's looking for Adam. The children decide to figure out this mysterious girl's identity, whom they nickname Eve, and help her find the man she's searching for.

Yazawa is known for her slice-of-life romance, so a ghost story is somewhat out of step for her. Still, it's my pick for best because no matter what the subject matter, Ai Yazawa is simply one of the best to ever do it. Few artists can match her subtlety, whether capturing the individual microexpressions of each character to convey the slightest shift of their emotions or weaving their connections and personalities together into a complex, satisfying narrative. After the heart-rending rides that were Neighborhood Story, Paradise Kiss, and NANA, I trust Yazawa implicitly, and Last Quarter is off to a good start.

And who knows? Maybe Viz will release Tenshi Nanka ja Nai next year, and I'll finally be able to write a recommendation for an older series by Ai Yazawa that was getting an official English release for the first time!

The Last Quarter is available in print from Viz Media.

Hunter × Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi

Hunter × Hunter is the best manga in Shonen Jump, and it's not even close. There are a lot of great series currently running in what is easily the most popular and successful magazine in manga, but any given chapter of Hunter × Hunter blows its contemporaries out of the water every week it has a new chapter release.

Sure, the Black Whale arc is basically a Beautiful Mind board of changing character allegiances and motivations, but Yoshihiro Togashi writes all of his characters so wholly and distinctly that I don't even mind that I can't always keep up with the plot! When I am confident that I understand what's going on, though, the story is so hilarious and intriguing that it makes everything else in Jump look banal by comparison.

For instance, in the last run of chapter releases, I was elated when Hisoka showed up and revealed that his version of being “in disguise” was just walking around out of makeup and in sweats. This was an amazing character detail and spoke to how Hisoka thinks other people perceive him. In this latest run of chapters, it turns out that that wasn't Hisoka! That was a dude with transformation powers pretending to be Hisoka, and we discover that when he runs into another Hisoka who is almost certainly also an imposter.

I burst out laughing when this scene unfolded in a way I don't think any other manga ever made me do. At this point, Hunter X Hunter is functionally just a sandbox that allows Togashi to flex his creativity and storytelling chops, and I can't wait to see what he thinks of next week after week.

Hunter × Hunter is available in print from Viz Media and online via the MANGA Plus and Shonen Jump apps.

Akane-banashi by Yūki Suenaga and Takamasa Moue

Akane-banashi is the story of Akane, a Japanese high schooler nearing graduation. When she was young, her father was an up-and-coming professional “rakugoka,” a traditional Japanese storyteller. However, in a stunning move, he and several others were expelled from their school and forced to quit rakugo altogether. Now, Akane wants revenge for her father's mistreatment by proving to the world—especially the master who expelled him—just how amazing his rakugo was. For years, she has been secretly training under her father's old master and now is ready to step out into the spotlight.

This year in Akane-banashi, we reached the first climax of the story. Akane, a total unknown, entered an amateur competition where the judges included the man who expelled her father, and the grand prize was a one-on-one interview with him. This gave us not only a look at Akane's first prize-winning performance but also the first direct meeting between Akane and the target of her revenge. All this culminates in Akane getting to ask the question that's been burning in her heart for six years: “Why was her father expelled from the Arakawa school?”

It's an amazing climax to the story so far and the setup for everything to come. It doesn't matter if you know nothing about rakugo. The story uses clever visuals to bring the stories to life and teach you everything you need to know. It's a story filled with heart and passion and is easily one of the best manga currently coming out of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Akane-banashi is available in print from Viz Media and online via the MANGA Plus and Shonen Jump apps.

The Remarried Empress by Alphatart and SUMPUL

To say that I've become obsessed with this series may be an understatement. Unabashedly soapy, this K-comic historical fantasy is the story of a woman, Empress Navier, who suddenly realizes that she has put up with way too much in her life and that she no longer has to. Engaged to her husband, Emperor Sovieshu, since childhood, Navier is aghast when he suddenly moves his pregnant mistress Rashta into the palace and proclaims that he wants Navier to take care of her like a younger sister. Since his own parents' infidelities scarred Sovieshu, Navier can't believe he would do this to her, and between that and Rashta's encroaching behaviors, she's rapidly approaching having had enough. But Navier is nothing if not intelligent and diplomatic, so even as she's falling (reluctantly) for the visiting prince of another nation, she's making sure that nothing can get in her way. As her husband grows more and more panicked by his wife acting in ways he never expected, Navier only becomes more queenly and dignified. The story is equal parts frustrating and fulfilling, and I can safely say that I dislike few characters as much as I do Sovieshu, a tarnished example of assumed male privilege who is, I fervently hope, going to get his comeuppance in a future volume. With exquisite art, intense political machinations, and a heroine learning that she deserves to put herself first, this is a series that's hard to put down.

The Remarried Empress is available in print from Ize Press and online via the WEBTOON platform.

How Do We Relationship? by Tamifull

While I've never been super picky about manga selection, I'll admit that I generally haven't done a good job of staying current with stuff outside the Shonen Jump sphere or reading something work-related. Thankfully, the Viz Manga app has been pretty helpful in allowing me to comb through my manga backlog. After hearing some friends and fellow critics sing this manga's praises, I decided to try knocking this series off my backlog list this year. That was simultaneously the best and worst decision I could have made as I managed to catch up within a couple of evenings but at the expense of being left emotionally devastated by the material. The series follows a pair of college girls named Saeko and Miwa who decide to enter into a relationship after they each realize that the other likes women and figure that hooking up is more convenient than trying to find a girlfriend on their own. While things go pretty well for them at first, their relationship starts to get increasingly messy as they realize that they're each at different stages of embracing their own sexuality, and neither truly knows how to connect with the other.

What follows is a whirlwind of sweet romance and brutal heartache, as the series can go from heartwarming to soul-crushing at a moment's notice. It isn't afraid to get shockingly real as the two of them try to navigate through a society where they can't always risk being open about how they feel about each other. The thing that makes this manga shine, though, is Saeko and Miwa themselves, as the series pulls zero punches in depicting all the ways they mature and regress through their various romantic entanglements. We see how their relationships with other characters gradually help them come to terms with their failings. It can be a pretty difficult read at points, and there are plenty of moments where Saeko and Miwa can act pretty self-destructively, but it makes for a highly compelling story that's almost impossible to put down once you start reading it. With the series heading into its conclusion, this is probably the best time to give it a shot, and if you're in the mood for a heart-wrenching romance manga, I don't think you can do much better than this one.

How Do We Relationship? is available in print from Viz Media and online via the Viz Manga app.

DAN DA DAN by Yukinobu Tatsu

The DAN DA DAN anime has received no shortage of accolades this year—and deservedly so! I'm singing its praises alongside the masses. But I'm most grateful to its existence for giving me the push I needed to finally read its origin comic. For a long while, the only new shōnen manga I felt invested in was Chainsaw Man, but now my list has ballooned to two entire series with the addition of DAN DA DAN.

DAN DA DAN is a shaggy dog story of a manga that somehow keeps pulling off a new kind of magic trick with each subsequent arc. It has plates spinning on plates, but I have yet to see them fall. Yukinobu Tatsu's talent is evident to anybody who flips through a few pages. He keeps his action frantic and kinetic, yet somehow always legible. He bounces around styles with ease, designing and drawing creatures that hail from all the dark corners of the world and placing them next to the most lovable pile of goobers. DAN DA DAN's cosmopolitan set of influences helps Tatsu construct his grand tale, but even if you can't identify them all, you feel his passion for them come through.

For me, the magic of DAN DA DAN is that it never takes itself too seriously. In that abstract sense, it's cousins with Chainsaw Man, but Tatsu manages to be both more juvenile and much sweeter than Fujimoto. The relationship between Momo and Okarun is emblematic of this. They're the adorable byproduct of Tatsu training himself on shōjo manga, but he also doesn't let you forget that this is a story about Momo saving Okarun's dick and balls from the clutches of powerful paranormal entities. That's the kind of romance I like to see.

DAN DA DAN is available in print from Viz Media and online via the Shonen Jump and MANGA Plus apps.

#DRCL midnight children by Shin'ichi Sakamoto

I admit that I was unfamiliar with Shin'ichi Sakamoto's work before this year. That all changed when I started to devour his most recent work, the phantasmagorical retelling of Bram Stoker's classic Dracula, which premiered in English at the very tail-end of 2023 and has only been growing in its power to utterly consume all those who gaze upon it ever since. #DRCL, which I lovingly refer to as “Drackel,” is nothing short of revelatory in the way that Sakamoto's utterly sublime art is able to stitch together the already spooky pieces laid out by Stoker and twist them into a gothic nightmare hallucination of itself. Nearly every panel of every page of every volume of #DRCL presents itself like the vision of a beautiful corpse done up in the curliest tresses and finest silks that has only just recently begun to blacken over with rot.

By transferring the characters and the action of the story to a turn-of-the-century boarding school and zeroing in on the psychosexual terrors being experienced by the story's main girls, Lucy and Mina, Sakamoto makes Stoker's original tale into something completely his own, even as the manga continues to mine over a century's worth of mythic imagery and classic tropes for all of their chilling power. It is proof that no story can ever be too old or told too many times, because someone with enough talent and vision can always come along to resurrect its old bones back into something screaming, brilliant, and so terrifyingly alive, as beautiful and dangerous as it was on the day it was first birthed into the world.

#DRCL midnight children is available in print from Viz Media.

Kowloon Generic Romance by Jun Mayuzuki

For me, this category's not even close – Kowloon Generic Romance was the single manga this year where I was most desperate to rip the shrink-wrapped cover off immediately to find out what happens next. It's also one of those few manga I have read and re-read to look for clues as to what's really going on, which isn't a chore because artist Jun Mayuzuki's artwork is gorgeous. She's best known for the excellent anime adaptation of her previous manga, After the Rain, but Kowloon Generic Romance blows it out of the water, not only in terms of aesthetic beauty but in compelling intrigue.

Protagonist Reiko Kujirai is a rare lead for mainstream manga – she's a 32-year-old woman and one of the biggest reasons for Kowloon Generic Romance's success. Kujirai herself is one of the story's central mysteries – because this is very much a mystery story, the romance aspect is important, but secondary. She's a multifaceted character facing a deeply distressing identity crisis – she has not been feeling herself, mainly because she learns she isn't herself. A previous version of her existed, living in her apartment, dating the coworker that current Kujirai has a crush on. Current Kujirai has no clear memory of how or when she came into being and, distressingly, struggles to uncover what happened to her previous version. Is Current Kujirai a clone? It's not that simple, and neither is the Kowloon Walled City in which she lives. After all, wasn't it supposed to have been demolished in 1994?

Kowloon Generic Romance piles mystery upon mystery and takes its sweet time to unveil answers. Despite the perpetual narrative teasing, the stories of Kowloon's eccentric, varied residents, including Kujirai's friends and her potential lover, are addictively compelling. Mayuzuki instills the city with an almost painfully nostalgic sense of place, evoking in the reader a sense of loss for a city they've probably never visited and will never be able to visit.

The volumes released this year have finally started offering concrete answers, as the story seems to be approaching a resolution. Adding evidence to this hypothesis is that both live-action and anime adaptations of the story are confirmed for 2025. I absolutely cannot wait for the story's conclusion because then I can go back and reread the whole thing from the beginning. I almost cannot put into words how much I love this manga.

Kowloon Generic Romance is available in print from Yen Press.

SPY×FAMILY by Tatsuya Endō

SPY×FAMILY is loved for its comedy, humor, and overall charm. Those elements got me into the manga in the first place. It's also why I still keep up with it to this day, but there's something about how the story was handled this past year, in particular, that elevated it compared to other ongoing series. A lot of the goofy charm is still present, but now SPY×FAMILY's narrative has definitely taken a shift, focusing on some of the more subtle aspects of the story that had always been present, but before only loomed in the background.

The war in SPY×FAMILY is analogous to many real-world conflicts, but it always mainly acted as a motivator for why our characters are in their positions. The war is why Twilight is a spy, why Yor is an assassin, and getting close to a politician is why the Forger family was brought together in the first place. This past year, chapters focused exclusively on the damage of this war. The manga introduces characters the war has directly harmed; we see tensions rise and flashbacks of pre-existing characters. So many chapters in this story from this past year could be isolated, tragic one-shots, but they still work in the larger narrative. We see heightened events and darker elements bubbling beneath the surface for some characters in this society, but these flashbacks are important because they show how much they stand to lose if the past repeats itself.

While this means that the Forger family fades into the background occasionally, this narrative choice bravely heightens the overall material beyond what I expected from Tatsuya Endō. I know some of my friends were turned off by the overall direction, wanting the series to remain lighthearted and fun. While I don't think that's a wrong opinion, I'm very happy with the current state of the manga. Not only has this kept the narrative fresh and engaging, but it also helps me appreciate those simpler moments much more.

SPY×FAMILY is available in print from Viz Media and online via the Shonen Jump and MANGA Plus apps.

The God of Nishi-Yuigahama Station by Takeshi Murase

Sometimes, a book haunts you. Takeshi Murase's The God of Nishi-Yuigahama Station is one of them, and it joins a small stack of novels that I didn't precisely enjoy but that I simply cannot forget about. (For reference, The Book Thief is also in that pile.) The deceptively simple story sounds like something out of an urban myth: one spring, a commuter train crashed just past Nishi-Yuigahama Station, killing many of the passengers. Two months later, a rumor began to spread – if you wait at the right time of night, the ghost train will pull in at the station, allowing you to board and speak to the doomed passengers. You may not tell them they're dead, nor attempt to remove them from the train, and if you do not get off at Nishi-Yuigahama, you'll die with them. Each chapter follows a different character as they board the train, some more than once, desperate to speak to their loved ones one last time. It's incredibly sad because you the reader (and the characters) know that there's no real way to snatch them back – everyone on that train is already dead. But there's still hope nonetheless, and the book ultimately acknowledges that while you will always be sad and carry sorrow with you, it's still worth living on. The train is there for closure, and that's not something that everyone gets in real life. At least this novel allows us to dream.

The God of Nishi-Yuigahama Station is available in print from Yen Press (Yen On imprint).

From Desk Job To Death Beam: In Another World With My Almighty Lasers by Nekomata Nuko

Before I introduce this little gem, I'll need you to adjust your definition of “best.” A heartbreaking work of staggering genius, this ain't. A light novel I thought about every day since I read it because it was so bad it was good. That's what this is. From Desk Job To Death Beam: In Another World With My Almighty Lasers is proof that with the right combination of stupid tropes, an isekai light novel is no different from a shitpost.

Your first hint that this isn't a serious work is the author's note, in which Nekomata Nuko admits that their inspiration for the whole story was a Twitter meme image. You've probably seen it before: a standard word search with the notice that the first three words you discover will define your next year. However, in the case of protagonist Kaito Irie, these three words will define his entire second life. Kaito picks “laser beams,” “animal ears,” and “collection,” and you can see where this is going. Suddenly he's an all-powerful master of lasers with one huge weakness: the laser is his penis. Metaphorically. Whenever cute girls with animal ears arouse Kaito, he is overcome by the urge to fire off a laser beam. I'm not making this up or exaggerating in any way. “The urge to fire my beam was fast becoming more of a need than a want,” Kaito narrates. “With those ears next to me, I'd badly need to let loose a laser.” Oh, and what of “collection?” Ignore that. It just means that Kaito likes shopping.

So how does this book make Kaito, a sexual pervert with unfairly powerful lasers, a relatable hero? Easy, by making everyone else even worse. In the fantasy world to which Kaito is reborn, it's legal to murder girls with animal ears. So Kaito, who lusts for them, is a hero. Within the anti-logic of the book, nothing is disturbing about this 29-year-old man inviting two 16-year-old beastkin girls to engage in a romantic relationship with him because, hey, at least he's not going to kill them like anyone else in this world would. It's so reprehensible it's funny. I read this J-Novel Club release with my highlighter at the ready because it was full of outrageous lines I wanted to share. Kaito can't laser this book out of my memory. The next best thing is to encourage as many people as possible to witness this madness.

From Desk Job To Death Beam: In Another World With My Almighty Lasersis available digitally from J-Novel Club.

Even a Replica Can Fall in Love by Harunadon

Sometimes when I'm reviewing books for seasonal manga or light novel guides, I discover wonderful stories I'd never have considered reading otherwise. This is very much the case with Harunadon's Even a Replica Can Fall in Love. It's a book with such a compellingly simple premise, executed practically to perfection.

In any other book, perhaps Sunao Aikawa would be the protagonist, undergoing some kind of existential crisis as she discovers she can, at will, summon or dismiss an identical “doppelganger” of herself. This doppelganger, whom she eventually names “Nao”, has a mind, desires, and feelings of her own, yet Sunao uses her to do things she can't be bothered to do herself – such as attending school. Instead of questioning the vaguely horrifying reality of her ability to control an identical sentient being, Sunao gets so used to having what is essentially a slave, that she becomes overly reliant on Nao.

Nao develops her own relationships at school – including romantic entanglements that Sunao doesn't share, making for some awkward moments. We see the story through Nao's eyes, feel the disappointment and sadness that her lack of agency causes. She must avoid upsetting Sunao, because a single word from her sends her to the void of non-existence, her consciousness returning uninterrupted the second she is summoned back.

It's an emotional, compelling story that gradually explores its premise' logical extremes, along with a few shocking plot twists towards the end. The way that Nao and Sunao's personalities gradually diverge as they develop different interests and friend groups is fascinating. The story feels very complete in its first volume, yet a second volume, with more to follow, is scheduled for release in January of 2025. I'll definitely be picking these up to see what happens next.

Even a Replica Can Fall in Love is available digitally from Yen On.

I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner by Inori

This three-volume spin-off of author Inori's I'm in Love with the Villainess novels is essential reading for anyone (like me) who fell in love with that series' main characters, Rae Taylor and Claire François. A yuri romance set in a magical version of post-renaissance Europe, it proved itself to be far more than just another villainess isekai clone. While last year's wonderfully hilarious TV adaptation covered only the first novel and a section of the second, the later chapters of the five-volume series really go places with the narrative. The series comes to a very satisfying, definitive end, which in a way is good, but what if the reader is desperate to spend more time with their beloved heroines?

That's where spin-off novels She's so Cheeky for a Commoner come in. They're the Midnight Sun to I'm in Love with the Villainess' Twilight Saga, a retelling of the first two volumes' story with the viewpoint character switched from Rae to Claire. Now we see from Claire's perspective how Rae's often bizarre, overbearing behavior both flustered and excited her, and we witness their burgeoning romance from a completely different angle.

While retreading the same material might seem to introduce a risk of redundancy, these volumes mix things up by adding in yet more viewpoint characters. While Claire's story is very much the focus, we get chapters from the perspective of her friends (minions, according to Rae) Pepi and Loretta, who have a cute love story of their own. Claire's previously unmentioned roommate, Catherine, gets a tragic plot line that cleverly addresses its narrative holes unexpectedly. We even gain insight into the thoughts of Claire's father, Dole, her deceased mother, Melia, and even the series' main antagonist, Salas.

Inori somehow manages to mine her already complete-seeming story for extra pathos and heart-warming romance. The spin-off series absolutely does not stand alone, however, and can't function without detailed knowledge of characters and settings from the main novel series. Huge plot developments are skimmed over because it's assumed the reader is already aware of them, and chapters don't necessarily flow into one another, with a far more piecemeal structure. I can't help but wonder how amazing a “complete” version would be, with everything from all eight volumes edited into one.

Every volume is also now available in audiobook version, which I heartily recommend. Narrator Courtney Shaw's renditions of the large cast's voices are spectacularly good, and she differentiates them all extremely well. She's particularly skilled at portraying Claire's unique mix of haughty nobility, romantic confusion, and hidden loving tenderness. She's so Cheeky for a Commoner is one of the best spin-offs I've ever read.

I’m in Love with the Villainess: She’s so Cheeky for a Commoner is available digitally and in print from Seven Seas Entertainment (Airship imprint).

True Love Fades Away When the Contract Ends by Kosuzu Kobato

I promise I'm not naming this series because its author, Kosuzu Kobato, also wrote I'd Rather Have a Cat than a Harem!, my favorite villainess-flavored isekai. (Although that series is also great, you should read it.) Or because she wrote the delightful The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent, or Ayakashi and the Fairy Tales We Tell Ourselves, or even Making Jam in the Woods. The point is she's a good author, and this is only the latest of her series to be released in English, putting her in relatively rarified company.

This book manages to tap into two of my reading habits because it's a light novel that reads very much like a Regency romance novel. Fiona is a young noblewoman who panics when she hears her father making plans to marry her off to her childhood friend and when she meets Giles, the eldest son of a prestigious family who also has no wish to marry. In a plot as old as the romance genre, Fiona and Giles decide to form a contract to fake an engagement, telling everyone that they're in love…at least until the need to marry becomes a little less urgent in their parents' minds. It's a classic setup for a genre love story, and Kobato writes it well, using the tropes of the genre in a light novel setting, which means that this is two kinds of fluffy in one. It's delightful escapism, and I'm very excited to keep indulging in it – and anything else Kobato decides to write.

True Love Fades Away When the Contract Ends is available in print and digitally from Seven Seas Entertainment (Airship imprint)

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