If there's any one difference between the original light novels of The case files of Jeweler Richard and its manga and anime adaptations, it's that in the books, Richard is much more human. We certainly saw flashes of that in both adaptation formats, with Takahiro Sakurai's vocal depiction of Richard coming the closest to what the novel brings us, but in Nanako Tsujimura's source text for the story, we find the clearest proof that Richard's preternaturally gorgeous exterior is merely a mask for the very real man underneath. Mostly this is accomplished by the descriptive tags applied to his lines; he says thinks sulkily, he tries to stifle laughter, he grumbles, he sighs heavily. While all of those things can be conveyed in the manga and anime, both can downplay them based on the adaptor's or director's view of the character. In the novel, we're presented with the Richard that Tsujimura intended, and he's someone who gets frustrated with relative ease and who is clearly putting on a bit of a show as the calm, gorgeous man that everyone sees.

While this is interesting simply from the perspective of comparing three different versions of the same story, it's also worth noting because of who most often gets Richard to drop his act: Seigi. He's the university second-year who narrates the story, and it's through his eyes that we see Richard. Seigi is very much blown away by Richard's attractiveness at first, but he's largely able to put that aside as he gets to know the other man, and if he's still very much aware of Richard's beauty, it's not something that he takes into account during their interactions after the first story in the book. In fact, there's an argument to be made that Seigi is taking just as much advantage of Richard at first as Richard is of him when he hires him; Seigi's grandmother's heirloom ring forms the basis of his early interactions with Richard, and while he's certainly not the crook his grandmother was [forced to be], he's definitely got some of her ability to use what he's got to meet his own needs. The way that Seigi deliberately hides the ring's origins when he first presents it to Richard for evaluation lets us know that there's more to him than just what Richard calls “aggressive sincerity,” which to a degree should make us question whether Seigi's really got what my college roommate called “foot-in-mouth disease,” or if he's more aware of what he's saying when he utters things that fluster Richard.

That's one of the more interesting throughlines in this book. Seigi rarely lets us forget that he finds Richard attractive, although he's careful to note that others (mostly women) do as well. He also is quick with the reminders that he's got a raging crush on a girl at school, but his sheer ineptitude at following through with her has to make you wonder if he's not hiding something from himself, let alone the reader. It's also important to note that virtually all of the “cases” he and Richard are involved in via the jewelry shop have to do with love. Seigi's story with his grandmother's ring involves a stolen engagement ring that leads eventually to true love – and it was taken by a woman who had resorted to theft to support her child. The amethyst pendant tale is about a man's troubled love for a hostess and his concerns that they can't be together, and the diamond tie-pin deals with lost love and grief, as well as how we deal with those things. Most tellingly for the potential subplot, the ruby brooch case follows a woman who is desperate to deny her own queerness in favor of living a “normal” – as in “heteronormative” – life to the point where she tries to deny the woman she loves only to have it take a toll on her physical and mental health.

This last story (actually the second chapter in the book) is striking not only because themes of queer love resurface in the diamond chapter, but also because it so frankly handles internalized homophobia and the toll it can take. Seigi is only vaguely aware of LGBTQIA+ issues (he saw a Pride parade once), but his sense of compassion leads him to support Mami, the woman involved, without fully understanding what she's going through. While Richard is perpetually concerned that Seigi's tendency to speak before he thinks things through will do more harm than good, it's this impulsiveness that led him to rescue Richard in the first place, and the same sort of caring nature shines through in Mami's story as well. Seigi isn't judgmental at all, no matter how ill-advised some of his words can sound in the moment, and watching him grow in his understanding of the people who come by Richard's shop is one of the cornerstones of the book. It's most clearly seen in both the ruby and diamond chapters, but it's present throughout and we can slowly see how it works on Richard himself as the book goes on.

There are a few small issues with Seven Seas' release of the book (at least in its initial digital publication), mostly to the tune of not giving us enough visual indication when the scene is making a major shift via an extra space or a central image. There are a couple of small typos as well, primarily capitalization and punctuation, but they're mostly noticeable because there are so few. The chapters do skip around in terms of time covered, with jumps forward that can be a little confusing, but overall this is well-written and translated, with a lot of information given in ways that don't feel like infodumps. If you're torn between manga and novel for the story, I'd definitely go with the novels for the extra dose of humanity Richard gets, but whichever you choose, this is an interesting story.