By Gamei Hitsuji and Yunagi. Released in Japan as “Isekai Mahou wa Okureteru!” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

First of all, let’s get rid of that elephant in the room. The 11th volume is, as of this writing, not out in Japan yet. I really hope there is not a 5-year-gap between books 10 and 11 the way there was between Books 9 and 10, thank you very much, if only as I had to try to remember things I had long since forgotten when I assumed this series had gone the way of, say, Altina the Sword Princess. Secondly, I apologize to this book for having to read it today, when I was, for reasons I won’t get into, a bit distracted. That said, in the end we are here to see Suimei do cool magic things, and we definitely get that here – at least in the second half. The book is basically a ‘darkest before the dawn’ sort of book, and the first half or so focuses on Reiji, who feels his own hero power is Too Far Behind, and is prepared to possibly turn evil in order to solve the issue.

Suimei and his party are still in Japan as this book starts, which is unfortunate, as the demons have chosen this moment to attack… supposedly. It’s a somewhat puzzling, half-assed attack, as if their real goal is something else – much to the frustration of one of the demon generals. Unfortunately, with only one mage, a girl from Japan who’s new to the profession, actually present, the battle is not going well, especially as there are new artificially created demons that are sort of Noumu from My Hero Academia, only more insectoid. Reiji, without Suimei there to back him up/save his ass, is feeling powerless and pathetic, and unfortunately the power within him takes this time to tell him to beg for more power no matter what. The “no matter what” being a corruption that starts to happen almost immediately.

I feel for Reiji, but I will not deny that once Suimei returns to the story I was far more invested in actually reading it. I suspect we’ll be getting an “I know you’re still in there somewhere, fight!” moment for our hero soon. He and Suimei do share one very obvious trait, though, which is their total inability to see exactly how many young women want them. The scene in the baths was easily the most “light novel” in the volume, and honestly after the darkness of the previous 3/4 of the volume it felt like a breath of fresh air despite having an “oh no I fell and now your face is in my boobs” moment. The other highlight is the climax of the book, which helps to show off Suimei’s two superpowers, which are being incredibly overpowered and also being an incredible dick. His taunting of the demon general was hysterical, and, again, helped to take the edge of an “is our protagonist dead for real” scene even though we knew the answer was no.

So yeah, this was good. Was it worth the wait? Nothing is worth that wait. Hopefully the next one comes sooner.