By Fujino Omori and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Gaiden – Sword Oratoria” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

This is not the final volume of this side series, the author hastens to reassure us in the afterword. There are more stories they want to tell. Which is fine, but it certainly FEELS like the final volume, and there’s no Vol. 13 on the horizon in Japan. It’s the longest volume in the entire series, and manages to once again pull off the specialty of this particular author in that it has a fight take up about 350 pages and still remain interesting. I have some grumps, many of which may be familiar to those who read my previous review – see below – but for the most part this hit the right buttons, has a few fakeouts and a few fake fakeouts, and shows us the good side of some antagonists gods and the bad side of some other gods. And the protagonists, Aiz and Lefiya, both grow stronger emotionally and physically, though Lefiya’s actual recovery may have to wait till future books.

The biggest fakeout impressed but also annoyed me. Last time I talked about media’s habit of the ‘dead lesbian/evil lesbian’ trope, and I wondered if Lefiya might turn a bit dark, but I must admit I was not prepared for Filvis being both the dead AND the evil lesbian. (Yes, yes, they’re not explicitly said to be gay, but come on.) It’s somewhat well prepared, pointing out the many times recently where Lefiya, accompanied by Filvis, has been noticeably in less danger than everyone else. That said, Filvis’ ability, which allows her to essentially clone herself an evil twin, feels a bit too on the nose, the sort of ability that was set up just for the climax of this volume, where Filvis can argue with herself about whether Lefiya has to die or not. Better done was Filvis’ relationship with the main God villain, who is a truly nasty piece of work (I guessed their identity, despite an attempt to distract, but I don’t think the mystery was the point), and the abusive and toxic nature of a “father” figure and his daughter.

The cast of the main series feature more prominently in this one, with Bell getting the big final critical hit in just like he does in the main series (Hestia only has a few scenes, but let’s face it, she’s the Index of DanMachi). As with prior volumes of both series, I remain fascinated by the interplay between Finn and Lilly, who is tacitly forgiven for her deception a while back by being allowed to disguise herself as Finn and take over the logistics of one or two of the battle points. It shows off Lilly’s growth as a tactician, but also really demonstrated Finn’s trust in her – again, if it weren’t for her love for Bell, these two would be an amazing power couple. Most of the rest of the extended cast also gets an attempt to show off, and we get introduced to a few more of Freya’s family, which is good timing as her spinoff is out in a couple of months. And of course there is Aiz, who is able to reconcile her feelings towards monsters, humans, and when it’s right to kill.

This started as an Aiz spinoff but rapidly changed into one about the Loki Family as a whole, and it’s for the better. That said, I don’t mind taking a break here. It’s been a bit exhausting lately, and these volumes got a lot more tragic than the main series. Still, fans of Sword Oratoria should find this a satisfying payoff.

By Fujino Omori and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Gaiden – Sword Oratoria” by Softbank Creative. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

(Note: I spoil the ending for this one, be warned.)

Sigh. I can’t say it wasn’t hinted – it’s been hinted since she first showed up, and there’s a massive deadly flag in this volume where Lefiya and Filvis promise to visit the elven country after they finish this next battle. I almost smacked my forehead. But yeah, there are two characters in this series who are fairly obviously coded as lesbians, and Lefiya has protagonist armor, so the other one had to go. The death is handled well and all – Filvis is not shot by an impossible bullet or anything – but yes, I am grumpy that we get to throw another dead lesbian on the pile of dead lesbians. Lefiya is in a sort of grief coma after this, so I’m not sure whether she’ll turn evil and try to destroy the world. Probably not. And Aiz makes for a poor Buffy in any case. And now I will drop this stretched analogy and look at the rest of the book.

For about three-quarters of this book, it’s actually fairly triumphant. Finn and company are getting ready to defeat the evils once and for all. It’s a plan in two stages, the first of which is to map out as much of Knossos as possible, with help from other families – including the Hermes Family, with Hermes being fairly straightforward for once, and the Dionysus Family, with him basically begging to come along so that he can avenge the deaths of his other family members. Things go well. They have a SUPER POWERFUL healer with them on this one, and therefore cursed weapons don’t work like they should. They manage to defeat the guy who makes the dungeons and his hideous monster form. All is going pretty swimmingly, in fact, till Dionysus sees something off to the side and splits off down a different corridor…

I have to admit that I’m much of the same mind as Loki and Hermes are at the end of this – I suspect Dionysus to be a double agent of sorts. That said, I also do wonder if there might be some self-brainwashing going on, as he really does seem to care about the fate of his family. Which, every single one, is killed off at the end of this book, in one of the biggest massacres we’ve seen in DanMachi to date. And Levis is alive and has escaped again, which is frustrating as the start of this book, which features Aiz making a deal with the devil and being told exactly why she’s having trouble fighting Levis – implied that a great final battle was coming. The reader feels as frustrated as Loki does.

The next volume is huge, and the afterword implies it may wrap up this plotline once and for all. As always, it’s very well told and has some great fights. But yeah, at the end of the day, what a miserable ending to a book.

By Fujino Omori and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Winifred Bird.

This was long. Hideously long. Even by the standards of DanMachi, which has had some very long books, it’s long. It’s longer than Book 8, the previous record holder. It’s longer than almost all the Tanya the Evil books. Arguably, it uses its length wisely, which may come as a surprise given how much of it is just straight up monster fights. But it doesn’t just have fight after fight with no purpose. Each of the fights is meant to develop the character of one of the regulars, mostly Bell and Lyu, who do the heavy lifting in the book, but also Welf, Cassandra, and the rest of the other party who are desperately trying to find them. It earns its length. That said, I do think it could have bee a BIT shorter. I love the way the author writes fights, but by the end of the book I felt like Bell and Lyu do, i.e. mostly dead.

The book is divided into two halves, or rather one third and two thirds. The first third features the rest of the cast down in the dungeon on the 26th floor trying to survive without Bell, and finding strength beyond simply supporting him in his own dream. Welf in particular comes off well here, making an even more magic sword than his others, but Cassandra has perhaps the best emotional arc of the section, even if I’d have liked a bit more payoff where everyone actually admits she was right. Which, yes, goes against her character name. The second part of the book features Bell and Lyu down on the 37th floor, where Bell has to battle Killer Sheep Skeletons, The Juggernaut that he thought they’d killed off earlier back for revenge, a battle arena filled with infinitely spawning monsters, and perhaps most dangerous of all, Lyu’s suicidal tendencies.

Lyu’s backstory is finally given in full here, and it’s pretty much what I expected. It’s broken her to such an extend that, experiencing almost the same events as well as Bell seemingly trying to throw his own life away to save her (which happens… I lost count, but a LOT in this book) is making her want to give up, and the only reason she keeps trying is she wants to save Bell and see him safely off before she allows herself to be destroyed. It’s heartbreaking, and those who wanted Lyu to be a bit more emotional will be happy but also sad. (That said, I could have done without the comedy epilogue with her losing her top… but I guess after the emotional wringer you needed SOME comedy.) As for Bell, he’s had other books that have helped to show off his development more, and this is more Lyu’s. Here he’s just the almost indestructible rabbit that will save everyone in the world. Of course, this also means that Lyu has fallen in love with him. Honestly, given the sheer amount of focus she’s gotten in this series, she may be second only to Aiz in the “what if it’s not Hestia?” love interest sweepstakes.

Thankfully, the next book in the series looks to be much shorter than this, and also less emotionally devastating. Unfortunately, it’s not scheduled yet for North American release, so it may be a bit. Till then, this is one of the best books in the series, assuming you survive the read.