Hey, the name's Heresy! I was born and raised in a remote farming village, but it's always been my dream to become a summoner. And thanks to the superspecial friend I made when I was little, I get to turn that dream into a reality! Isn't that right, Happy? Ƶ∃ы͊҉Ɠ̞Ưƺ̈́ĦӴܻܽ͢͠ʊ͓̟͈п̀ѭφȡ⊡͓̜̪͈͞ӃƺƯƪʯ̸̭̝¢̡¤̯̮̬ㅒдƇ̨̗́͢͟ͅ∃̙͞Ʒ̯ϢҜӴʁͬ̽թтѳ̧̔͠Ӽ̺͍̲ñ̺̼թ≮Ư̸̡̏̚πʥ͇͈̘͏̲͟Ψį̱͓̂̿͗ʤ×̵ͨ̃̓̆ͥ͢ʁ∀̞͓̞ You took the words right out of my mouth! Because of you, I was deemed worthy to enter the Meilleur Royal Summoning Academy, and I can't wait for my exciting high school life to begin! I bet we'll make tons of new friends and share all sorts of precious moments together. In fact, why don't you come on out and say hello to everyone?

Why Run? My Summoned Beast Is Cute! has a story by Itsuki Yomukae and art by Scottie. English translation is done by Megan Turner. Published by Yen On (September 22, 2026).

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

It's hardly news that light novels can go some very strange places. But how about a story where the protagonist, literally named Heresy, has no idea that he's basically the anti-Christ and has a habit of summoning eldritch horrors as his familiars? What, Neil Gaimon and Terry Pratchett sort of already wrote that one and called it Good Omens? Well, at least Itsuki Yomukae is drawing inspiration from something other than an RPG!

In all honesty, this book owes rather more to Lovecraft than Good Omens, although it really does its level best to be its own thing. Heresy, who opens every single one of his chapters with the same cheery narration about his name and the fact that he's a commoner who managed to get into an elite school for summoners, and as far as he's concerned, that's really the only remarkable thing about him. His remote farming village may be one that's less “no one's ever heard of it” and more “the government doesn't want people to hear of it,” but again, Heresy's completely unaware of that. All he knows is that he summoned Happy when he was little and they've been besties ever since! And she's so cute with all her many eyeballs and screaming embedded heads and multiple arms! And the way she drools blood from all her orifices is the best!

At first, I thought that perhaps Heresy did know that Happy wasn't…normal. I'm still not one hundred percent sure after finishing the book. That, I think, is part of the point here. In what is a triumph of the illustrator understanding the assignment, the way Heresy's eyes aren't shown until the end of the volume does an impressive job of making us question his cheery innocence, and the way that other characters react to him takes on a different meaning the more you learn. Ostensible heroine Leticia's all-out obsession with Heresy after she witnesses Happy's power at first reads as instalove, but the more you learn about how religion works in the story's world, the more it looks more like fanatical religious devotion than actual attraction. Konko, Leticia's kitsune summoned beast, wants to be in good with Heresy because of who he's aligned with. Jade, Leticia's ex-fiancé, is afraid of what Heresy and Happy foretell by their mere presence, not just for himself. It's not a brilliant book by any means, but it is one that a lot of thought clearly went into, even if Yomukae mentions in their afterword that editors made them tone down some of their love of tentacles.

Why Run? My Summoned Beast Is Cute! is existential horror told as a fluffy comedy. It doesn't always work, but it's definitely enough fun to merit picking up.

Lauren Orsini
Rating:

It was immediately clear to me that Why Run? My Summoned Beast Is Cute! is the work of an amateur—and that's a compliment. This magic-school story makes up for its lack of polish with an original concept that I would have thought was too off-putting and bizarre to be commercialized. It's about commoner student Heresy, the villain of any other story but this one, and his summoned beast: the gory demonic abomination Happy, whom Heresy sees in his mind's eye as the cutest waifu of all. It's a satire of the magic school genre with just enough tropes to be recognizable. The divide between the way the main character and others react to Happy makes Heresy a delightfully unreliable narrator, inserting an intriguing mystery into the standard fantasy school format.

Heresy is just glad to be at magic school! Maybe that's why he speaks exclusively in exclamations! As a commoner, he wouldn't usually be enrolled at a magic school for nobles except for the undeniable fact of his talent: he summoned and contracted with a terrifying beast at a young age. Heresy visualizes Happy as a pink-haired girl around his own age, but in reality she is a massive tumor of dismembered body parts, leaving A Trail of Blood wherever she goes. Heresy interprets Happy's insanity-causing runic screeches as tsundere murmurings. What's the truth? When Heresy is narrating, it's all sunshine and exclamation points! When another character is narrating, Heresy is an evil twink in thrall to Happy's madness. The novel leaves reality up to the reader's interpretation. But with Heresy's cute co-ed and her foxy summoned beast both trying to get with him, it's hard to believe there's anything visibly twisted about Heresy so long as he keeps Happy and her infinite limbs out of sight. At the same time, there's mischief afoot at the academy: a religious cult and a centuries-old battle between angels and demons. In this fantasy world where summoners can call over creatures from Heaven or Hell, there's no telling what Heresy and Happy will run into next. But even when the stakes are high, this book places comedy above all other pursuits. Heresy cheerfully plays the straight man to a colorful ensemble cast, all the while exchanging eldritch banter with Happy.

At times I had difficulty following the plot of this book. When one character turned out to be a villain, did I simply miss the foreshadowing? Is Heresy's name just unfortunate, or is he actually some sort of Antichrist? Is Heresy's insistence that Happy is adorable genuine, and if so, is his differing viewpoint enough to carry the entire premise? This book is absurd in a “get a load of this” type of way. It's the story of a boy and his little-sister-like companion, who just so happens to be a Lovecraftian horror. There's certainly nothing else like it.