By Asato Asato and Shirabii. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert.

Yes, the “Dear” in the subtitle is spelled correctly, as the author states in the afterword. As for the book itself: I would like to remind readers, before I continue, that I do think this is an excellent series and I eagerly await reading the next book. That said, reading this was like being punched in the face for 318 pages. Each of the volumes has built on what has gone before, and here it reaches a crescendo, as everything completely falls into chaos, leaving our main cast in a situation exactly where they were at the start of the first book. It’s not quite “everything is for nothing”, but it’s close. The book has never been subtle about choosing kindness over prejudice, but here it reminds everyone that choosing to be kind is hard and requires constant vigilance, whereas being prejudiced is easy, and if a person is under stress or furious, easy is what happens. In among this, we do have time for another part of the secondary romance in the series, but even that is dramatic and bittersweet.

We open the book with a group of young girls preparing to go on a journey. They’re all part of a group, and we find that some of that group aren’t joining them. We then discover that this group are girls who were experimented on by Republic scientists and turned into living human bombs, who will go off at certain times. As this comes to light, along with the fact that it was Republic scientists who were responsible, rumors start flying. The “human bomb” thing is contagious. Everyone from the Republic is a secret enemy. Everyone who is foreign in any way is a secret enemy. And, of course, the Eighty-Six are secret enemies. As this goes on, the military falls apart, as all the soldiers turn on each other. Now Shin and company have to try to at least make sure there’s a base for them to come back to, as well as try to stop the Legion, who are helping all this along. And they have to do it without Lena and Annette, who have been “detained”.

In the middle of this nightmare is the story of Anju and Dustin. Dustin, as it turns out, is the childhood friend of the girl who is the “head” of these human bombs, and was unaware what happened to her until it’s revealed. The obvious narrative choice would be for him to desert, making a dangerous trek over the battlefield and reunite with her right before she does so they can have a tearful reunion. But not only would that go against literally everything that the Eighty-Six series has ever done, it also would not be fair to Anju, who has finally managed to acknowledge moving on from her first love and finding a new one with Dustin, and now there’s all this. I did wonder if Dustin was going to die, and spark the final chaos. It doesn’t work out that way, but an Eighty-Six *does* die, and that leads to the cliffhanger, and to the final arc, where everything has to be fought for all over again right from the beginning.

Yyyyyyyeah. Really well-written. Great philosophical points. Feels very relevant to today’s world. But also: A BUMMER.

By Asato Asato and Shirabii. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert.

On the bright side, this is one of the short story volumes coming out in the same order it came out in Japan – this book was released after the 12th volume. So I don’t have to worry about events in this book spoiling future volumes of the main series that came out here first (Re: Zero, Index,. etc.). On the down side, I doubt I’ll have to worry about that anyway, as I think this is definitely one of the short story books you do NOT have to read in order to appreciate the main series. It’s made up of various stories that were released as bonuses when you purchased books at a specific bookstore, or a DVD/Blu-Ray release, etc. There are one or two stories new to this book, of course, but for the most part the ‘Alter.’ of the title is meant to show that this is a volume where we don’t have to worry about characters dying. That said, we do get a lot of dead characters in it. It’s just they’ve already died.

The book is largely divided into five chunks. The first bit deals with the cast back in the Republic, around the time of the first light novel. The second has events after getting to the Federation, both before and after Lena joins them. The third has a few stories set in the United Kingdom during those volumes, and the fourth has short stories that take place after that arc, basically filling in bits of Books 8-10 or so. The final story is a bonkers fourth-wall breaking paintball battle royale featuring every single character in all the novels, alive or dead, and can best be described as “what if Among Us relied on being able to pick out the right perfume?”

So this is fine, it’s just very hard to review. Leaving aside the final story, which is not meant to be taken remotely seriously and thank God for that, the stories can be divided into 1) Funny slice-of-life; 2) Sweet, heartwarming slice-of-life; 3) The 86 are just like this; and 4) Melancholic dream sequences involving the dead. The last of those probably hit the best for me. I really liked a story showing Shin celebrating a sakura festival by drinking sake, joined by Kaie and all the other comrades who were killed off over the course of the first book. It’s pointed out that if this had really happened while the team were alive, it could have been water, but in Shin’s imagination he can have a full-scale viewing party. And this is followed with a very funny scene where Lena, after drinking some of the sake, shows she’s a very bad and clingy drunk. The weakest part of the book was probably the birthday stories, which felt the most like they were being written to order.

Still, I would not mind a second one of these. Perhaps after the main series itself is over, though. Luckily, we’re back with 13 in a month or two, ominously titled The Deer Hunter. Please, let’s NOT have Lena and Shin playing Russian roulette.

By Asato Asato and Shirabii. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Roman Lempert.

During the course of reading 86, we’ve been following soldiers who are very, very good at their job. Sometimes that job is simply not dying, but that doesn’t matter. They get the job done, they know what to do, they follow orders, but they also think about what’s behind them. They’re good folks. But of course we’re in the middle of total war right now, and the entire Federation cannot be made up entirely of really fantastic elite soldiers. Someone else has to fill out the ranks, to be bodies or ticks on a ledger. Someone who may not have the right schooling or tactical training, but can drive a truck or count supplies. They’re also very frustrated with the war, and increasingly upset with those in charge of it, especially after the hideous events of the last book. All this plus a company made up entirely of a low-level noble and those who follow her unquestioningly, and what do you have? A nightmare is what you have.

The repercussions of last book’s disaster are still being felt throughout the Federation. Everyone is feeling guilty and on edge. Lene is so burned out that she’s sent on enforced leave, and sits this entire book out. But there’s still work to be done. Years ago dams were built to change the course of a massive river, but the war has gone on, the habitats that were in the basin created by the dams are wiped out, and the best way to impede the legion now is to blow up the damn and reverse the effect. That’s what the Strike Package is here to do, and it should be quick and easy, since the Legion don’t know they’re there. Sadly, a rogue regiment called the Hail Mary have decided enough is enough, they’re going to win this war their own way, by stealing some leftover radioactive material left at a nuclear power plant and using it to make a bomb. Um. Yeah.

The books continue to examine prejudice very well, trying to show that it’s not simply a matter of “all the bad guys do it, all the good guys do not”. The Federation is supposedly all about freedom, but freedom also comes with responsibility for having that freedom, and that can be a very hard idea to get across. The people rescued from the Republic have not magically become good and kind after being rescued, and in fact are actively making things worse and using abused children to spy on enemy movements. And the soldiers formerly in the Republic who are now in the Federation army, like Lene, Annette, and others, are faced with resentment and anger, which simmers in the background of this whole book. On the bright side, once the Hail Mary Regiment are brutally dealt with, the actual dam mission goes swimmingly, and they defeat the Legion easily, giving everyone a big mood pickup. Maybe this isn’t a spiraling failure after all.

This series is now basically once a year, so we’ll wait a while for the next book. Till then: war is hell.