The Spring 2024 Light Novel Guide
Management of a Novice Alchemist
What's It About?
Management of a Novice Alchemist has a story by Mizuho Itsuki and art by fuumi. English translation by Sean McCann. Published by J-Novel Club; PublishDrive edition (March 11, 2024).
Is It Worth Reading?
Rebecca Silverman
Rating:
Some stories are better experienced on the page than on the screen. Naturally, opinions will vary, but I'm in the camp that Management of a Novice Alchemist works much better as a light novel than an anime. That largely comes down to its genre: slice-of-life is designed to be taken at your own pace, and that's a lot easier when you have complete control of your progress through the story. Sarasa's journey from a recently graduated alchemist to the only alchemist in a rural town felt plodding onscreen. Here in its original form, it's easy to see why someone wanted to adapt it in the first place.
The story's pacing could best be described as “gentle.” While we get a lot of worldbuilding detail, it's handled chiefly as it comes up in Sarasa's daily life rather than just thrown at us when the author needs more words. Thus, we learn about the books Sarasa needs to continue progressing in her profession in bits and pieces as she figures out the best way to buy them, and various herbs and potions come up when she's actively picking or using them. There is a certain amount of info dumping when she's explaining things to her new friend (or more than a friend) Lorea, but that's saved from tediousness because we know that Sarasa is proud of her knowledge and likes having an excuse to show it off – and to impress Lorea. This stylistic choice keeps the book from dragging, and even though only one major plot point involves action, the volume moves at a steady pace.
That said, I don't love one of the translation choices here, and that's the decision to leave in Japanese honorifics in a story not set in any version of Japan. I would imagine that the thought process was that it would be difficult to fully give the various levels of politeness by using English-language equivalents, and there is something to be said about that. But the honorifics feel so out of place in the otherwise very regionally nonspecific translation that it becomes jarring; reading “Shopkeeper-dono” absolutely threw me out of the story – it felt more like reading a fan translation than a professional one. And surely “Madam Shopkeeper” would have conveyed the respectful, old-fashioned tone well enough without sacrificing readability, much like very little would have been lost substituting “Miss Sarasa” for “Sarasa-san.” The other issue is the blatant sexualization of thirteen-year-oldLorea, which gets pretty off-putting at times – it's almost impressive how much the author enjoys discussing her breasts.
That quibble aside, this is a perfectly nice book. It's low-stakes, mildly yuri, and generally comfortable. It will still be dull for readers who want more plot in their stories, but this is an easy recommendation if you enjoyed the anime or just like a low-key read.
Lauren Orsini
Rating:
Management of a Novice Alchemist follows the same structure of a “tend and befriend” game like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley. Our protagonist is Sarasa, a 15-year-old graduate of the prestigious Alchemy Academy who has left the capital city to stake out on her own in the boonies. She arrives at the rundown alchemy shop she purchased sight unseen, rolls up her sleeves, and vows to get it shipshape through hard work and determination!
It's here that the cracks in the narrative start to show. I would have been perfectly content if Alchemist had stuck with this fix-it-up story. It would have reminded me of the recent bestseller in the “cozy fantasy” genre, Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, in which an enterprising orc fixes up a rundown coffee shop for adventurers. But at this point in the story, something about the author becomes very clear: he or she is attracted to 13-year-old girls and is not afraid to remind the reader of this fact. We are told that at 15, Sarasa is a full-fledged adult woman—a worldbuilding fact that I didn't consider nefarious at first. She soon befriends a village girl named Lorea, aged 13. We are told very little about Lorea's personality but very much about her breasts. Illustrations of Sarasa and Lorea are peppered throughout the book, with several featuring them as nude in the bath. As for the art style, it's featureless and interchangeable.
When she isn't ogling Lorea, Sarasa's “li'l ol' me” attitude, combined with the repeated reminders that she is an elite alchemist, started to get on my nerves. Sarasa's first-person narrative makes it clear that only the most hardworking, talented, and determined people can become alchemists—a job class that unbelievably combines offensive magic user, healer, craftsperson, and combat warrior. Sarasa reminds us often that she has a higher-than-normal capacity for magical energy, especially for her petite stature. However, she constantly insists to others that her skills are below average. Her soft-spoken attitude also manifests in frequently ending her sentences with a grating “You know?” Though Sarasa is humble, other characters react with shock to her abilities and praise her. There are multiple times when she has to wipe down or dress up a nude female character, but it's OK because she's a girl, too. (During each of these moments, I can only see her as a Mary Sue avatar for the author!) Weirdly, the author's note mentions that this volume removed some “gender-related things” from the web novel. That's probably for the best.
Your enjoyment of this book will depend on how much this focus on the body parts of young girls (including a bonus story at the end called “Lorea's Medical Examination” that has nothing to do with doctors) squicks you out or not. When it focuses on Sarasa's mission to fix up her house and garden and open up her shop, including all the economics of which wares to offer and what to finish up first, this book scratches the same itch as a tend-and-befriend video game. But since Animal Crossing doesn't involve leering at Tom Nook, I'd say AC is the better choice.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. Yen Press, BookWalker Global, and J-Novel Club are subsidiaries of KWE.
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