I fall into that demographic, and I found it highly entertaining. This book wasn't always "happy and funny", but I could tell it was using its tragic moments for not only shock value, but as almost a parody of those tropes to begin with. Gory, outrageous, humorous, and sometimes, adorable. Honestly, this entire series is representative of Binghe himself, since his personality change from revenge seeking stallion to yandere, but cute and lovable male lead is basically what this series is about.

Expedition Cooking with the Enoch Royal Knights Volume 7 by Mashimesa Emoto, Illustrations by Tera Akai. Translated by Emma Schumacker, Published by Cross Infinite World.

In the world of light novels, it's not often that a series ends on it's own terms, with a concrete ending. In that way, this series managed to do something great, while not overly changing its focus. Despite being a slice-of-life fantasy series with no big overarching story-lines, it managed to end with a great finale that resolves most of the character stories and leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

There's also the question of the shitty ex-fiance that showed up at the end of the last book. I definitely still don't like him, but the story at least tied up that loose end. We find out why Lance initially cut off the engagement with Mell, as well as why the Fore Elves have the tradition of arranged marriages in the first place. 

Luckily, (and more importantly), we see Mell introduce Zara to her parents.As you can probably guess from the cover of this volume, Zara and Mell end up getting married. And in true Expedition Cooking fashion, they do it on their own terms. 

This was a cozy series that took the premise of food and family seriously. I even teared up towards the end, where Mell expressed her love for the people around her with one big feast. The 2nd Expedition Unit is a true family, and I'll be sad to see these characters go. 

I hope Mashimesa Emoto-sensei's other works end up getting licensed too. I'd be particularly interested in Hokuou Kizoku to Moukinzuma no Yukiguni Karigurashi for which I've already read the manga, and Taiga no Mori no Karigurashi. Both of these also have themes of food/family, and I'd be highly interested in reading them. 

Unfortunately, I have a lot to yap about before I get into my thoughts about this book, as usual. It's pretty much impossible to come at this with no biases whatsoever because I've already seen the anime, read a previous fan translation, and generally have positive feelings towards the series due to it's beautiful artwork, enough to have collected the artbooks by Akihiro Yamada-sensei. 

So it's pretty much impossible for me to give any fresh impressions on a book like this. If you're interested in this series, I highly recommend watching the anime first before reading the books. It's not absolutely necessary, but I think the slow burn of the plot is better able to be tolerated in anime form, which has other charms such as the music and voice acting. 

The book itself cuts to the chase fairly quickly. Youko, a goody-two-shoes doormat of a high-school girl, gets isekai'd (no trucks this time, this is the 1990s) by Keiki, a mysterious man with blonde hair, who proclaims himself a servant of Youko. He uses summoned beasts (which are often more like chimeras that can talk) to whisk Youko away to another world. However, they get separated in the process, and Youko is left to fend for herself, with only a magical sword and a creepy body-controlling demon that gives her martial abilities. 

Due to the age of this series and the author's pedigree, nothing about this series follows the regular tropes of isekai light novels as we know them today. Rather than a power fantasy, Youko is left practically helpless, lost in a new world. She spends the entirety of the first book fighting physical and mental anguish. Rather than wanting to help her, most people are trying to hunt her down for her perceived sins. 

It makes for a compelling first book, but it's also only half of the story. I dislike when English Publishers do this, splitting up volumes of a story that is meant to be read together. Japanese publishers will often release multiple volumes either on the same release day, or barely a month apart, like the original publication of Shadow of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea.

So this book ends with no clear "ending". Anybody who is used to light novels that were polished from webnovels will be familiar with this, but just a word of warning. Since I read this fairly late (I was in no hurry since I've already read it before), the 2nd part of Shadow of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea is out tomorrow. Anybody reading this should buy both volumes before starting this series!

It's hard for me to recommend this series based purely on the merits of the first book, but in some ways, it represents a unique time period and a unique author in the light novel space. Twelve Kingdoms is a prestige work with an award-winning author, and the character writing in the first book clearly shows it. Youko is in no way prepared for the harsh world that she's been thrust into, and her insecurities continue to plague her. However, in this volume, she slowly starts to fight her way through her struggles, and establish herself as the main character.

This is not an author who is pressed to get to the "good stuff" right away. She has a world to build, and a story to tell, and it's worth putting in the effort to consume. 

Extra Thoughts

I wanted to save the discussion of the translation for after the main impressions, since it's a bit tangential to the point. Tokyopop initially licensed the series for the U.S., and produced the most hamfisted localization you can imagine, courtesy of the early 2000s "jelly donuts" style. Generally, nobody likes this translation due to a myriad of weird choices. 

I think the Seven Seas translation by Kim Morrissy did a great job; it was snappy and to the point, and kept my attention while reading. While I can read some Japanese, I'm not fluent enough to judge how accurate or inaccurate this translation is. 

However, I do want to let readers know that there is an alternative to the current official version. In the years where Tokyopop went defunct, and nobody had the license or intent to republish the series, Eugene Woodbury took on the massive project of re-translating The Twelve Kingdoms and did a fantastic job at it. He finished translating up to the most recent book (Hills of Silver Ruins as of now), but he unfortunately passed away recently in January 2025. He never got to see the re-release of The Twelve Kingdoms, but I earnestly believe that his hard work is what led this series to get licensed again. 

Woodbury's translation contains notes and reference material about the particular historical and cultural aspects that Ono included in her work. I'm not sure how much of this is something that the average Japanese reader is supposed to be aware of, but I found it really helpful, and edifying. I don't want his hard work to disappear, he literally kept this fandom alive! But I also don't want his work to be a replacement for supporting Fuyumi Ono through official means. 

Please, if you're interested in reading this series, support the official release by Seven Seas (even by checking it out from the library!). Once you've read that, do consider checking out the Woodbury version for some interesting additional context and alternate interpretations of the source. 

This series was recommended to me when I asked for recs after finishing the Lord of Mysteries donghua, by my friend/mutual Geraineon, who also runs the Chinese Novels Dreamwidth community. I'm a lurker there, but my friend kindly gave me quite a few series to check out (which will probably end up on this blog if I'm being honest). 

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (SVSSS) was the first one that I was intrigued by, simply because the premise seems more light-hearted (which I needed after Lord of Mysteries). I've seen some fan content for this series, but due to the fact that I didn't really understand who the characters were, I don't think I'm really spoiled on plot from that perspective. My general impression was that this was quite the popular series, given that MXTX has three series on the NY Bestseller List. 

Right from the beginning, this is a series laden with in-jokes and self-deprecating humor when it comes to webnovels as a medium. The tropes it's referencing are well established. Even though I'm new to the xianxia genre, there were enough footnotes and context to get the gist of the jokes. It helps that I'm already well versed in light novel and fanfic communities, so I had equivalent tropes to compare to. 

Shen Yuan is an avid reader of the Proud Immortal Demon Way webnovel, except that he's quite the toxic fan. As soon as he finishes reading the series, he curses the author and series for it's ending, and ends up kicking the bucket because of it. Did he literally have an aneurysm from his hatred of the series? We don't really get specifics on that front, but it sets the tone for how ridiculous this main character is. 

Shen Yuan becomes Shen Qingqiu, the loser villain at the beginning of the series. The whole plot is about him desperately trying to ingratiate himself to Luo Binghe (the main protagonist) so he doesn't get horrifically killed for his misdeeds. He spends the entire time trying to go along with the "System", which is basically telling him to fix the novel himself, at "gunpoint" lol. 

This must be a trope in webnovels, since "reincarnating into a book as a villain" has been done in several series that I've read, most notably Lout of Count's Family (which is Korean), and even Despicable Duke Settles His Affairs (a BL light novel). 

This book was so funny, there were several scenes that had me laughing (and even giggling) at how unobservant Shen Yuan is. He does everything he can to look good in front of Luo Binghe, and then doesn't understand why Binghe naturally comes to have a crush on him. It's heartwarming and sweet, and it's painful to read when you realize that Shen Qingqiu has to betray Binghe at a critical juncture because it's a canon event. 

Shen Qingqiu also seems to not understand that he might have feelings for Luo Binghe as well. He harps on about how the ladies in Binghe's harem are abject beauties, but you can tell that he admires Binghe's looks the most, that he's going to grow up to be handsome for sure. He even talks about how much he didn't even like the fanservice in the original Proud Immortal Demon Way, and cared much more about the monster fights. Seems like the poor dude hasn't realized that he isn't straight yet haha. 

I had an excellent time reading this (you can read my liveblog of the series here). I'll also update my liveblog when I read future volumes, since I'm already grasping for the next one (eagerly waiting for my library hold to come up!). It feels weird to say that I'm glad this is a short series, at only 4 volumes. It's fully complete, which means I will be bingeing it!

The Apothecary Diaries Volume 15 by Natsu Hyuuga, Illustrations by Touko Shino. Translated by Kevin Steinbach. Published by J-Novel Club.