By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

While we’ve had a lot of fun watching Veight do a lot of really cool things while claiming to be just a humble vice-commander (and we get that here as well, to the point where he uses it as a tag line, Bruce Willis style), there has been a certain “harem manga” element to the title since it began. There were already a couple of his werewolf subordinates in love with him, we know that Eleora also fell for him, etc. That said, there’s really been no doubt since the series began that if Veight was going to finally clue in to romance, it would be Airia that is the choice. The main problem is that, due to her job and Veight having to save the nation so much, she’s gotten very little to do in the books. As a result, this book not only had to sell the romance finally starting but also remove the power imbalance between the two. In succeeds quite well, provided you don’t mind ridiculously overpowered hero and heroines. Which, hi, light novels?

As you can see by the cover, the book is not exactly concealing what it’s about this time. One of the fleeing senators from the north hid in a mine and then died with a hideously powerful magical artifact in his hands. Now Veight and the Southern Continent have to deal with a massive attack of undead skeletons. Unfortunately, the artifact is sentient, looking for its next occupant, and decides that Airia fits the bill. Can Veight figure out that she’s no longer who she seems to be in time to stop its plan? Does he actually want to stop the artifact’s plan? And will all of this finally manage to get it through his thick skull that he loves Airia and she loves him? (The last, trust me, will be the most difficult. Everyone breathes a huge sign of relief when Veight finally confesses.)

As you can guess from my synopsis, the romance here is not really a big surprise to anyone. There’s a ‘mindscape’ scene, a mutual confession, and a wedding. (We don’t see the wedding night – this series is as pure as its leads – but there is discussion on whether a werewolf can get a human pregnant.) The bigger surprise is the way that the artifact’s plot to bring a hero into this world forcibly is taken care of. Veight’s solution makes sense, but is also something only he could come up with. (Veight’s past does come up here, and he actually admits to Airia he’s a reincarnation from another world, but we still know next to nothing about it – by design, the author admits). It also allows Airia to take a much stronger role in the series… though I admit I’m doubtful that actually happens. I suspect we’ll still mostly be seeing Veight traveling.

So overall an excellent volume, with lots of awesome, lots of heartwarming, and a bit of fanservice (Airia’s large breasts feature heavily in much of the art). Fans who enjoy this series should find much to love. Now, the question is where it goes from here.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

It has to be said, even though the whole premise of this series is that Veight is a highly successful werewolf precisely because he has his memories from his old Japanese life, there are many times I tend to forget this is a reincarnation isekai. Aside from his occasional longing for soy sauce and the like, Veight’s old life has come up surprisingly little, and even his advanced use of tactics could be put down to “he’s just smarter, OK?”. But with this book, we finally can’t get away from it, as the premise is that Veight and company go to the fantasy equivalent of Japan and find that the reason it’s that way is that it has been visited by Japanese people for centuries who change the world, and Veight is the latest of these. That said, Veight is not about to abandon the country he’s grown to call home, or Airia, who is growing increasingly more obvious in her attempts to hand Veight a clue. This doesn’t mean, however, that he can’t enjoy himself.

The woman on the cover is Fumino, who is an ambassador-cum-spy sent to Ryunheit from the Kingdom of Wa. Just the name makes Veight suspicious, and while at first I thought she was going to actually make an attempt to challenge Veight on his own level, sadly, he’s soon basically guessing everything she does. That said, Ryunheit needs to arrange more treaties anyway, so he and a few others head for Wa to negotiate – including Mao, who used to be from there but was falsely accused of smuggling and fled. As it turns out, the Kingdom of Wa is just as suspicious of Veight as he is of them, and he is finally forced to admit to someone, if not his allies, that he is in fact one of the “Divine”, which is to say those who come over from Japan. That said, Veight was also BORN here – the other Divine were more traditionally isekai’d. So Veight has to stop the artifact that’s been screwing that up, and while he’s there, also help take out a drug ring. Just another day in the life of a humble vice-commander.

I will admit, after the epic saga of the last three books or so, there are times when this seems to meander a bit. The best scenes are, oddly, when we get little hints of Veight’s past in Japan – I’m not sure if he’s meant to be a yakuza or just an unfortunate salaryman, but when the minor villain starts screaming that “I’m different from you failures” and “You all exist to serve me”, something in Veight naps, and I really, really want to see more. I don’t get it – but this is a nice taste. It’s also nice to see Airia actually back and doing things – even Veight admits he’s too much of a pushover to be good at negotiation, so she arrives to actually get down to brass tacks. The end of the book is literally her and Gomoviroa talking in Veight’s presence about how dense he is. The balance between Veight the superpowered commander and tactician and Veight the “there’s no way a girl would like me” has been fun, but is getting old.

Fortunately, the cover of Vol. 9 implies that may change soon. In the meantime, this is a bit of a letdown after the “Werewolf in Russia” arc, but only a bit. Fans of Veight will still be happy.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

For the most part, Der Werwolf has been one of those reincarnation isekai series that tends to ignore the reincarnation most of the time. Veight’s old life in Japan is still mostly a blank to us, and aside from bringing in a few modern ideas to medieval fantasy land, it hasn’t really impacted this story either. That may be changing soon, however, as the cliffhanger at the end of this book seems to show us another Japanese reincarnation, someone who’s looking for Veight specifically. Before that, though, Veight has to finally wrap up this long story arc, helping Eleora to ascend to the throne, fighting off even more plots to try to usurp it from various lords and family members, march through sewers and jump out of windows like a boss, deal with a rival group of werewolves and also a few vampires, and, most importantly, get back home in time like he promised before Airia kicks his ass. He accomplishes… most of these things.

After a number of books that have slowly been killing off the royal family one by one, the theme of this book is trying to solve problems with the least amount of bloodshed. Veight is called “soft” a few times for this, and it’s not inaccurate, but it’s also very politically savvy. The book starts with Ashley on the throne, but he’s a bad emperor for these warlike times. There’s a lord who is clearly plotting… something, and the great joke about him is that every single thing he says is so suspicious that it’s impossible to know how many plans he’s got in his pocket. (Answer: a lot of plans.) There’s also the eldest princess, Dillier, who has grown tired of waiting for a perfect political marriage to be arranged for her and has allied herself with Lord Shallier, thus making one of the most awkward pairing names in some time. (ShallDill?) She’s not evil so much as fed up, so is a lot less difficult to stop.

This book is rather light on its usual tropes. Veight only mentions being a humble vie-commander once or twice, and may even be getting used to people thinking well of him. It helps that he runs into a bishop who is essentially his religious equivalent. Speaking of religion, these books have not been kind to the devout, and that doesn’t really change here, even though the church are not the bad guys this time around. Editing scripture to guide people into doing what you want is a total villain move, but here it’s being used for good. the book is light on Veight being oblivious to everyone being in love with him, too. Eleora clearly is but duty comes before love, so she lets him go. Airia clearly is and I suspect is wondering if she can ask for a kiss or something given Veight promised he’d do a favor for her (as punishment for being late in returning).

And there’s also the shrine maiden we meet in the cliffhanger. Is she going to fall for Veight’s charms? And we we finally get more details about why Japanese folks keep popping up in this world? Not sure, but Der Werwolf remains very well-written and confident. It’s one of the best under-the-radar J-Novel Club series.