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Rakuin no Monshou is a twelve volume light novel series that's complete in Japan, but only has two volumes currently translated into English via fantranslations at baka-tsuki. it's not a well known or popular series, so the translations are going slowly, but hopefully the translators will be able to stick it out. (Or some studio or another will decide that a relatively obscure light novel series needs to join the legions of light novels that are getting adapted into anime in recent years, and more people will be interested in helping.)
The countries of Mephius and Garbera have been at war for over a decade, and the royal families have decided to put an end to it by marrying the youngest princess of Garbera, Vileena, to the crown prince of Mephius, Gil. Prince Gil has a reputation as a drunkard, coward and bully who dabbles in illegal substances (also a rapist, though not part of his reputation) but Vileena is determined to use the union to Garbera's best advantage.
Gil, however, dies shortly before Vileena is due to arrive in Mephius, and is secretly replaced by a lookalike, Orba. Orba's village was destroyed early in the war, and he hates both kingdoms. He began raising a small army of young rebels in his teens, but was soon caught and arrested. Because of his strong resemblance to Prince Gil, a sorcerer named Fedom arranged for Orba's life to be spared and put him in an enchanted magic mask that couldn't be removed (and secretly altered his appearance to increase the resemblance to Gil) and had Orba sold as a gladiator. After Gil dies, Fedom covers it up (not even the royal family knows) and fetches Orba from the coliseum, telling him that it's only a temporary assignment. At one point, Fedom implies that Orba isn't the only lookalike, just the most successful one, though I have no idea if that will eventually be followed up on.
Orba arranges to have several gladiators he considers friends assigned to "Gil's" personal guard, one of whom serves as Orba's own bodydouble, sometimes as "Gil" in armor while Orba, as himself, works as one of Gil's guards, and sometimes as "Orba" when Orba-as-Gil has to shows his face in public, as opposed to taking advantage of Gil's reputation as a lazy bum to hide out because Orba actually knows nothing whatsoever about politics or the court or being a prince. (You can guess which version of Orba Vileena prefers and thinks is nice and heroic and is developing a crush on, and which she regards as an irresponsible bum who occasionally shows a glimmer of promise. If you can't, you don't know your tropes very well.)
A large chunk of the first volume is taken up by Orba's angsty backstory, before returning to the "present" with a plot by Garbera rebels to interfere with the royal engagement. The second volume focuses more on Orba and Vileena trying to figure out the Mephius court, while there's ALSO another conspiracy planning to use the coliseum games for rebellion and assassination. Both books have very good characterization and buildup, followed by a too-tidy conclusion that keeps them from having the "oomph" they could, but not not to the point that they detracted from my overall enjoyment.
The society is medieval-lite, but with airships (Vileena is a pilot, and female pilots are fairly common is Garbera, but almost unheard of in Mephius, which is much largely than Garbera, but also less advanced), guns, and a gladiator system pretty closely mirrored after ancient Rome's. The concept is that the world started as a human colony who lost all the advanced technology that came with them from Earth, and never managed to recreate it.
Like most of the light novels I've read, the target audience appears to be teenaged boys. Unlike most of the light novels I've read that are aimed for teenaged boys, the fanservice and infantilization of the female characters are practically non-existent. The focus in the books is primarily adventure and politics, with a side of slow moving romance. (Which hopefully won't go very far before Vileena finds out that her fiance and crush are the same person, and not the actual prince at all.)
I'm not 100% sure I should recommend everyone go and read it simply because I have no idea how long it'll take for more volumes to get translated, but I really enjoyed these two volumes.
The countries of Mephius and Garbera have been at war for over a decade, and the royal families have decided to put an end to it by marrying the youngest princess of Garbera, Vileena, to the crown prince of Mephius, Gil. Prince Gil has a reputation as a drunkard, coward and bully who dabbles in illegal substances (also a rapist, though not part of his reputation) but Vileena is determined to use the union to Garbera's best advantage.
Gil, however, dies shortly before Vileena is due to arrive in Mephius, and is secretly replaced by a lookalike, Orba. Orba's village was destroyed early in the war, and he hates both kingdoms. He began raising a small army of young rebels in his teens, but was soon caught and arrested. Because of his strong resemblance to Prince Gil, a sorcerer named Fedom arranged for Orba's life to be spared and put him in an enchanted magic mask that couldn't be removed (and secretly altered his appearance to increase the resemblance to Gil) and had Orba sold as a gladiator. After Gil dies, Fedom covers it up (not even the royal family knows) and fetches Orba from the coliseum, telling him that it's only a temporary assignment. At one point, Fedom implies that Orba isn't the only lookalike, just the most successful one, though I have no idea if that will eventually be followed up on.
Orba arranges to have several gladiators he considers friends assigned to "Gil's" personal guard, one of whom serves as Orba's own bodydouble, sometimes as "Gil" in armor while Orba, as himself, works as one of Gil's guards, and sometimes as "Orba" when Orba-as-Gil has to shows his face in public, as opposed to taking advantage of Gil's reputation as a lazy bum to hide out because Orba actually knows nothing whatsoever about politics or the court or being a prince. (You can guess which version of Orba Vileena prefers and thinks is nice and heroic and is developing a crush on, and which she regards as an irresponsible bum who occasionally shows a glimmer of promise. If you can't, you don't know your tropes very well.)
A large chunk of the first volume is taken up by Orba's angsty backstory, before returning to the "present" with a plot by Garbera rebels to interfere with the royal engagement. The second volume focuses more on Orba and Vileena trying to figure out the Mephius court, while there's ALSO another conspiracy planning to use the coliseum games for rebellion and assassination. Both books have very good characterization and buildup, followed by a too-tidy conclusion that keeps them from having the "oomph" they could, but not not to the point that they detracted from my overall enjoyment.
The society is medieval-lite, but with airships (Vileena is a pilot, and female pilots are fairly common is Garbera, but almost unheard of in Mephius, which is much largely than Garbera, but also less advanced), guns, and a gladiator system pretty closely mirrored after ancient Rome's. The concept is that the world started as a human colony who lost all the advanced technology that came with them from Earth, and never managed to recreate it.
Like most of the light novels I've read, the target audience appears to be teenaged boys. Unlike most of the light novels I've read that are aimed for teenaged boys, the fanservice and infantilization of the female characters are practically non-existent. The focus in the books is primarily adventure and politics, with a side of slow moving romance. (Which hopefully won't go very far before Vileena finds out that her fiance and crush are the same person, and not the actual prince at all.)
I'm not 100% sure I should recommend everyone go and read it simply because I have no idea how long it'll take for more volumes to get translated, but I really enjoyed these two volumes.