By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

First of all, big props to the author for actually keeping my attention through the first half of this volume. I’ve talked before about how the first half of these recent books have all been dire, so this is a definite step up. More seriously, I also noticed while reading this volume how compact the cast list is. This is basically a variation of shonen battle manga, in a sci-fi sort of vein, and each volume needs to escalate the danger because our heroes need a bigger threat. But the threats we’re seeing have been around since the start, they’re just coming back because everyone in this series is damn near impossible to permanently kill. Hell, even one of the cast from a thousand years ago is a supporting character in this book due to (handwaves) reasons. The “new” antagonist who threatens our heroines with bigger and bigger guns turns out to have been accidentally stifled by Sahara four books ago, and she doesn’t even remember it. So sad.

Menou, Abbie, Sahara and Maya have arrives in the wilds of the north, where they come across the stunning city of ruins, which is not only still intact after so long but is also technically TWO cities… there’s a second one upside down above the first. Unfortunately, they can’t simply sit around and watch terrible movies about sharks in space – not only is one of the biggest mobster bad guys around trying to kill the woman who killed off Flare, for tragic backstory reasons, but also Pandaemonium is here somewhere as well, and Maya, for obvious reasons, wants to try to stop her. Fortunately, the four of them have some help in the form of an ally thought long dead. UN-fortunately, Momo is there as well, and she’s got her own agenda, one that Menou really isn’t going to like.

As usual, I loved Sahara here, who continues to be forced to care and be heroic against her will. The final scene where she takes out one of the big bads because, among many other reasons, she never got breakfast OR lunch today is hilarious but also dead on. Sometimes you’ve got to let compassion fall by the wayside because you’re too cranky. More impressively, I really enjoyed reading Menou in this book. I’ve made no secret about the fact that Menou is my least favorite of the many “good guys” in this series, but here she’s given subtext that makes you pay attention to her – she’s losing more and more of her self. She’s already forgotten everything about Momo, which does not bode well for when the two inevitably meet up again, but seeing her casually take a scripture because she can’t remember why she wouldn’t be using one is chilling because she REMINDS us why earlier in the book. She’s falling to bits. Still not optimistic this will end with any of the main cast alive.

The yuri may be thin on the ground these days, but it IS driving most of the character motivation deep down, so that’s fine. This was good. I look forward to the 9th book. Which only came out in Japan 6 months ago, so we may have to wait more.

By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

I urge the author to do something for the next book. After writing the novel, throw the first half of it out, and replace it with a summary. Then publish the second half. This way we get all the good bits, and we avoid the crushing first half that this series always has, because the prose works best when it’s in fast action sequences and compelling character dramas, and not “moving people from place to place”. It doesn’t help that my three favorite characters in the series are Akari, Momo and Ashuna, and Akari is AWOL for plot reasons, Ashuna simply never appears, and Momo shows up on the final page. This leaves us with Menou, who I like well enough but who is essentially “the serious one”. And we also get someone who is so obviously a replacement for Akari that the text has to call it out. Fortunately, the book also has Sahara. I love Sahara. Even more so here, as she has character development, 100% against her will.

We pick up six months after the end of Book 6. Ashuna has gone back home to essentially announce that the ryals are joining the revolutionaries. Momo is in charge of watching over Akari’s body. And Menou is busy being the world’s most wanted terrorist. She’s assisted by Abbie, a conjured soldier who regards Menou (and most everyone else) as her “little sister”, and also Maya, once Pandaemonium, who has her memories of a thousand years ago back but that’s led to all sorts of issues. Chasing them is the Church, led by her old instructor priestess (unclear if Teach is her name or her job, but she’s only called that), and Michele, the new Priestess in Charge, who works for, and honestly worships a bit, Hakua. Things start to go south when Maya gets separated from Menou and Abbie. But it’s OK! Sahara will help her!… maybe?

I grumped a lot on Twitter about this, so I will admit: I really enjoyed the second half. Specifically, I enjoyed everything involving Maya and Sahara. Maya’s subplot, as she tries to reconcile her Pandaemonium memories (she’s still very bitter about Manon’s death, even though, as Sahara points out, Manon was actively seeking her own death) with her memories as a Japanese girl who was being tortured over and over for her Concept. No wonder she tries to reach out to Hakua even though she knows it’s a trap. But Sahara, oh my God. She has all the best lines in the book, and as you’d expect is lazy, jaded, and quick to avoid work and shift responsibility onto others… until she isn’t. It’s a surprise to Maya, but it’s an even bigger surprise to Sahara, who is startled to find herself trying hard to protect Maya even at the cost of her own life. It made me smile.

That said, events towards the end promises the fun times are still not happening. Menou has lost a very important connection… and that connection seems to know it. Expect fireworks next time. Probably in the 2nd half of the book.

By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

You will pardon me if I am just a bit exhausted after reading this volume of the series. It consists entirely of payoff, which makes the plot more interesting, but also means that we don’t really get to relax and take in anything. And, frankly, we’re still inhibited by the actual writing. The anime was quite successful when it was released, and I think it showed off that the ideas and concepts in this series work best when they’re taken away from the author’s control. This book is a slog, no mistaking it, and while I realize some of that is simply because the events in it are unrelentingly grim that’s not the only reason. It doesn’t help that I get the feeling this series was supposed to end with this book (and Flare’s plan), but the upcoming anime had the publisher tell the author “we need to extend the series, can you make everything worse instead?”.

This book is about the battle between Menou/Akari and Flare, and it does not need supporting characters getting in the way, so Ashuna quickly departs (after confirming what we all knew already, that it’s Momo she’s really into). As for Momo herself, she falls for a fairly obvious trap and spends most of the book in a literal cage. This is not to say that Menou and Akari are getting all the cool and awesome things to do, though Menou does pretty well. Unfortunately, the new character from last volume has shown up, and she is absolutely the new antagonist and wants to let you know it by removing Akari from the board. The one thing that Menou has been trying to avoid this entire time has now happened, and what’s worse, she’s not a wanted traitor. Can she possibly find a way to set things right?

It’s hard to talk about this book without spoiling everything (as you can see by that awkward paragraph above), but I do want to say that a lot of the ideas and themes here are really good. We finally get revelations about Menou’s past, as well as Akari’s past, and they fit thematically. Everything about the Pandaemonium subplot was fantastic, and almost made me have an emotion. That’s probably the part of the series I look forward to seeing most in the next book. There’s generational stuff here, as we see the relationship back in the day between Flare and one of her isekai’d victims was similar to Menou and Akari’s. An anime of this would probably kill. It’s just… it all feels so flat on the page. I kept checking to see how long it had to go. The author’s writing has no style, no pep, no verve.

There’s enough here for me to grudgingly continue, if only to see if Ashuna can actually do something next time. But for the average reader wanting to see what comes next, I recommend waiting for a Season 2 of the anime.