You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister Volume 1 Review

Thanks to the popularity of The Apothecary Diaries, author Natsu Hyuuga is becoming something of a household name. Not only for her Chinese-inspired mystery series, but also for her many other works that are slowly making their way to the West. At the beginning of the year, Yen Press debuted The Failure at God School, and now it’s Kodansha’s turn with the first instalment of You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister.

Our story takes place in the Kingdom of Mythos, a place where those once persecuted as witches once fled to. Although there’s no magic in Mythos, there is something known as Charisms, which are special abilities that some (more often women) are born with here. Once every ten years, two individuals with the most unique Charisms are chosen to represent the nation as Vestal Maidens, but they must first undergo a rigorous selection process.

All of this should be of no concern to our protagonist, Chloe. She spends her days training as a priestess in the remote countryside, but she loves money and often spends her nights playing cards in the local bar. In fact, she’s so good at it that her skills have caught the eye of a renowned paladin known as Erald, who believes she may have a Charism of her own. Chloe quickly proves that she’s simply intelligent and knows her way around a deck of cards but, even without Charism, Erald reckons she’s just the girl he’s been looking for!

Erald wants Chloe to take part in the selection process for the next Vestal Maidens. Two years prior, a candidate was murdered, and the killer was never found. Erald wants to investigate further, but without the help of a new candidate, he has no way of infiltrating the church where it all takes place. Since Chloe doesn’t need to actually be selected as one of the Maidens, her lack of a Charism doesn’t matter to Erald. It’s her high intellect, he thinks will prove to be useful. And in return for her help, Erald promises to pay her with plenty of gold.

As someone who has been reading Natsu Hyuuga’s other series as they come to the English market, this is the one that strikes me as sharing the most similarities with Apothecary. Not just because it’s primarily a mystery story, but also because of the relationship between Chloe and Erald.

The paladin is a noble, while Chloe is a commoner, and she quickly decides the less she knows about him, the better. But after realising Chloe doesn’t have a Charism, Erald has found himself even more interested in her, and that means nothing but trouble. How these two interact is very similar to Maomao and Jinshi in Apothecary (especially with Chloe being won over by money like Maomao and her rare ingredients), not just because of their positions in the world but also due to quirks of their personality. They’re not exactly friends or enemies; they share a common interest, and for now, that’s enough. I look forward to seeing how that develops as time goes on.

The artwork for this series is handled by Yo Asami (Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose – Catastrophe at Sixteen), and they do a great job of bringing the whole thing to life. The characters (originally designed by light novel illustrator Chiho Shinishi) are relatively unique and eye-catching. As you’d expect of a mystery series and one based on a light novel, there’s a lot of dialogue at points, but Asami has done well to balance this with the art, and it doesn’t feel overwhelming. There’s not often a lot in the way of backgrounds, but the cast are so expressive that this usually doesn’t seem noticeable.

In many ways, this one is off to a stronger start for me than The Failure at God School, both for the likability of the cast and the ease with which we’ve been settled into the story. It’s definitely more like Apothecary in that there’s less happening initially, so we’re getting to spend that time getting to know Chloe. And by the end of Volume 1, we’re finally getting into the selection process and kickstarting the investigation.

As mentioned, You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha and has been translated by Kevin Steinbach with lettering by Dietrich Premier. Steinbach works on The Apothecary Diaries light novels as well, which is likely another reason the main duo here feel so familiar. Steinbach has a good sense of how Hyuuga writes and how to express that in English.

This has been released in English in one of Kodansha’s larger formats, which helps the art shine. However, it is quite a slim release, coming in at only 157 pages and has no colour pages nor any extras besides the afterword. With the price of manga having increased so much in the last few years, this does feel expensive (£13.99) for what you’re getting, unfortunately.

The series is complete in Japan with 5 volumes, which seems like a pretty good pace, seeing as there’s only a single light novel (although a sequel was recently announced). Here in English, Kodansha have the second volume scheduled for December.

Overall, You Can’t Bluff the Sharp-Eyed Sister Volume 1 is a release that’s sure to delight fans of Natsu Hyuuga’s work. With a unique enough premise, two familiar yet likeable leads, and the fact that this isn’t destined to run for an incredibly long time, there are plenty of selling points here!

A free preview can be read on the publisher’s website.
Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
©Natsu Hyuuga / Yo Asami / Chiho Shinishi / Kodansha