The saviors book cafe in another world novel

Series like this one that simply didn’t need to continue can sometimes have a hard time justifying their continued existence. The day was won, true love did its thing, what else is there to say? Turns out, more than a little.

The story takes a two-pronged approach to this. First, it uses the reappearance of God, who is incredibly not-quite-omnipotent in this series, to widen the story’s horizons. Seriously, theology espoused in this series is a lot more fallible than you’d want from anything with the powers this one has.

We quickly learn about life beyond the borders of Othel, including one particularly sketchy location (and one thing I don’t love is the broad Arab stereotyping for that place) that is specifically being denied all-powerful beings from bargain basement God.

It makes sense, ties in with Tsukina’s own work, and doesn’t feel like it’s being pulled out of nowhere. So that’s step one, but step two is this new saviour. While it might be a bit much to be inflicted with yet another useless blob of a human being, Youta at least seems genuinely helpful and trying hard.

Too bad he’s a nice guy. And that makes him interesting, and dangerous, as this guy means well. He means really well. And he’s being very helpful to Tsukina. A lot. And it’s one thing to introduce a rival to a story, yawn, but another to introduce a guy who’s reading way too much into a little kindness.

This is a particular type of assumption and rebuke that many guys have had to deal with and some of them don’t do it entirely well. Now give that over to somebody who can blow a hole in a wall and you’ve got something to work with. Tsukina is being nice, period, and Youta’s interpreting that a whole other way and we clearly see he’s not the type to take rejection well this volume.

Of course, we might not go that way, but it sure seems like we’re heading down that route. It’s got a bit more of a frisson of danger than the usual rival nonsense so it makes a much bigger impact.

The rest is mostly Tsukina and Il being cute together and remarking on how the book cafe basically seems to exist for just the two of them, which isn’t exactly inaccurate, although they do get a very foreshadowing-heavy visitor at one point this time out.

This story is still working for me. Tsukina is a great character - quiet and content, but doing the real saviour work under everyone’s noses just out of the goodness of her heart. Il’s Il, but they’re definitely a cute pairing and that’s enough.

Minus a little unfortunate stereotype usage and a chunk given up to a short story I couldn’t care less about (I never read these, but if you like these prose additions, you’re in luck!), it’s as strong as it ever was. Did it need to exist? No. Does it betray what came before? Also no. Does it add something interesting? Yes, and that’s a pleasant surprise, if I do say so.

4 stars - this isn’t a top-tier series that I reach for the second a new volume arrives, but it is a consistently strong example of how to make a good isekai story and do something interesting with it, rather than the same old same.

As I stated in volume 2's review, I love the whole premise of this manga - a middle-aged woman ends up in a fantasy world, creates a book cafe, and falls in love with a soldier. It's different than many of the manga I read, and the artwork is really beautiful.

I don't know how to deal with the lack of things going on in the book. Yes, it's the whole point, the main character wanted to go to this world and do all the background work and let others get credit, yet I just want to see some type of action. Also, still don't know how to deal with the "romance" I mean, it's cute, and I love how protective Il is of Tsukina. Just give me more cuteness!!!! I get they are older, but that doesn't mean romance should be dead. Also, do they have any other mutual interests outside of books? Where is the romance development?

Also, don't get me started on the obvious flirting of a certain someone!

And finally...did we just get a little bit of non-binary action in here? I am all for it. Give me more.

I enjoyed the reappearance of the God who sent Tsukina to Othel; he's charming and interesting and I wonder what he really thinks of Tsukina running an empty bookshop cafe instead of actively being a Savior.

He tells her that she's doing her part, which is something Il insists as well, and it's kind of true...she did protect Othel with that barrier, which allowed them to refuse imbalanced negotiations with neighboring kingdoms, and she regularly creates discounted and very powerful defense/protection charms for the military. And she's looking into how to create medicine to help the civilians and the hospital, which is all good stuff. But since God sent another Savior, does that mean she's not really fulfilling her duties? A country would only need two Saviors if one of them isn't doing their part, right?

I guess I'm not entirely sold on Tsukina continuing to hide her status. It's the core of the story: that someone who didn't particularly want to be a Savior was made one, and decided to do things in her own way and just carve out a peaceful existence. But isn't it...selfish? I don't know. I'm not convinced Il, with all his responsibilities and loyalty to his soldiers and his kingdom, would be 100% satisfied with his fiancee sitting on all those powers.

Then again, she did use them when absolutely necessary, and the new Savior is bright and eager and wants to be a superhero, so...worth seeing out the rest pans out, I suppose.

The book jacket tries really hard to get you to suspect that the new Savior, Youta, is secretly evil, and I honestly hope he's not? He's so cheerful and nice and seems genuinely excited about helping others. He fights monsters, yeah, but he also carries heavy things for old ladies, and seems to treat them with the same weight, like simple courtesy is as important as big heroics. He's just a generally nice guy who hopefully doesn't get some dumb dark arc. But I guess it'd be too easy if Tsukina got to hand over all her Savior responsibilities to this guy...

We'll see what happens with the bordering kingdom, which probably sent a spy or something to sniff out Tsukina's powers. And the previews of the next volume seem to indicate that we're going with love triangle territory with Youta instead, which is silly and probably won't last long. Hopefully it'll increase the romance between Tsukina and Il; they're basically an old married couple in this one, without a whole lot of sparks. Just comfort and closeness, which works, too, but it seems a bit early in their relationship for them to settle into that.

I do like this series, though. There's not a whole lot to it, but there's definitely a strong appeal in having a lead character I identify with. In her 30s...more interested in books than anything else...an ideal date/boyfriend being someone she can quietly sit on a couch and read books with...

I also related to this sentence, in the bonus chapter at the end (since this manga is adapted from a light novel):

In my younger days, going out without my friends was unthinkable, but after I learned how to enjoy my own company, I greatly preferred going solo.

Definitely written by an independent woman in her 30s! I appreciate it.

I wonder if I'd like the books, too? Or if they'd be too slow-paced and meandering.

This book was good though the summary on the back through me off, it mentions we'll be introduced to a new Savior and sets up that he might be a friend or foe...but I didn't get any foe-like vibes while reading.

We do get introduced to another new character as well who has Tsukina unsure of what gender they are but I appreciate that she never directly asks the customer and then when she refers to the customer to Il she just uses "they" since she's unsure of what labels they use. It did have me feeling like the author is a millennial or older though because the character refers to the new customer, in her own mind, and to Il, as androgynous...which feels like a very older millennial term where most people just say non-binary now.

Overall I'm interested to see what these new character introductions will do to the overall story, I'm guessing we'll get shenanigans or misunderstandings in the next volume. 🤔

But also the gentle and clever way the next big plot has been introduced is refreshing, its just tittering on the outside of the 'slice of life' vibe with enough force that you pick up the hints but that it doesn't overwhelm.

A joy to read with beautiful art as always! But now I have to wait for more volumes to be out!

I think it's just the cozy fantasy lover in me, but I wish there wasn't a love triangle introduced...feels unnecessary. leave off the guy drama and just let tsukina enjoy her book cafe life with il!!

Looks like the new savior is not an asshole. I hope that this new arc injects new life into the story. It hinted of a conflict with another warmongering country.

Still don't care for the art.

I'm really enjoying this series. Our MC is super sweet, and her chemistry with the love interest is great.

The introduction of the new savior is super interesting and I love the variation