By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

It is the nature of a long-running series that it tends to accrue supporting cast members. The longer the series, the more cast members it has to support. Now, KonoSuba has never made it a secret that it is, at heart, a story of four people: Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin and Darkness. Now, this series has a bit of an advantage over many others in that it is popular enough to have scored a slew of spinoff books. We’ve seen one of them, which focuses on Megumin and Yunyun before and during the events of the series. There’s another, unlicensed series (by a different author) that follows KonoSuba through the eyes of Dust and his party (which also has a large helping of Yunyun, who is pathetic enough to get entangled in Dust’s life). But really, though we’ve learned a bit about her past, there has not been a huge focus on adorably pathetic shop owner Wiz. That changes now!… though this does not really mean Wiz will come off looking good.

As with a large number of KonoSuba books, the actual main plot does not really start up till about halfway through the book. There’s also a fake plot – Yunyun has to take the test to be the next chief of the Crimson Magic Clan, and wants Kazuma’s help. Megumin refuses to let this happen, of course, and instead helps Yunyun herself – with offscreen results, but results you can probably guess. There’s a treasure hunt to clean encrusted jewels off a turtle’s shell, and Darkness once again tries to seduce Kazuma, who makes it clear that he’s only willing to go through with it if he’s forced, so he can blame her. (They’re both caught, of course.) That said, the main plot is what folks are here for – a mysterious stalker… erm, stranger arrives and seemingly proposes marriage to Wiz! Or at least that’s what Kazuma and Wiz herself believe. Only Vanir knows the truth, and he finds it absolutely hilarious.

As you might gather, fans of Kazuma being a complete scumbag will be well-served here by his behavior here, though again this is the slightly less appalling version we’ve seen from Vol. 9 and later. I was highly amused where Megumin offers to sneak into his room and he, having just gotten laid via succubus sex workers, indicates he’s not in the mood – the joke being Megumin was unaware men could EVER be not in the mood. The main plot itself is amusing, but if you aren’t a fan of the series kicking Yunyun when she’s down, you may not enjoy it as much, as Wiz is absolutely an airhead here, getting completely into the idea that someone has proposed to her and acting like a lovestruck maiden. Vanir heaps abuse on her, probably because all her love-love feelings are making him cranky. That said, spoilers, but Wiz does not get married. Sorry to ruin that for you hopeful readers.

Speaking of Yunyun, the cliffhanger involves that she will finally drag the main cast back to her chieftain trial, which is at its third (and presumably final) attempt. We’ve got four more books to go after this one, so you can see the series starting to dot its I’s and cross its T’s. This is not really as deep or heartwarming as some prior volumes, but it’s a lot of mean, kick-them-when-they’re-down fun.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Ever since the revelation of her nobility, I’ve talked about how the author of the KonoSuba series has had a little bit of trouble with Darkness. The Lalatina side has come to the fore in recent books, and you see it here as well, as she helps come up with a scheme to force the adventurers to pay their taxes. But it has made her less hilariously appalling, which you could always count on Darkness being in earlier books. That said, KonoSuba has character development, slow though it may be. We’ve seen it with Megumin, and with Kazuma. And now it’s Darkness’s turn, as this book manages to combine her general nobility and need to do good things with her masochistic fantasies and leave her a more well-rounded character. The catalyst of this, as it was with Megumin, is her confession to Kazuma. Unfortunately for Darkness, and as Kazuma explicitly notes, this is not one of those light novels with polygamy.

The book starts where the last one left off, with Darkness begging everyone to not think that she had a love child. It’s her cousin, of course, but fortunately for the narrative, which literally just did “little kid causes chaos in Axel” last time with Komekko, she’s a minor character. Instead the first half of the book, barring the tax collecting subplot, is about Kazuma having to choose between Megumin, who already confessed to him but is not yet ready to go to bed with him, and Darkness, who confesses to him in this book, and certainly tries to go to bed with him, though her actual willingness to do this is in question. Which Kazuma does have a bit of “I have two girls wanting me, I am the man” to his behavior, he actually does think things through sensibly, and decides… he wants to be with Megumin, as “more than friends but less than lovers”. (Her age also seems to still make him uncomfortable, justifiably so.) While there are many funny parts involved, I appreciate the book handled this seriously.

The other half of the book has Darkness’ cousin having a virus that infects the local kids (what is it with 2020 light novels and pandemics?), causing Kazuma and Darkness to have to travel to get a “demon’s fingernail” as an ingredient for the cure. (Vanir, the obvious choice, can’t provide one as he turns to sand if they do it.) This is much more in the ‘goofball Konosuba’ style, especially once they add Chris to their group, who has decided to help them out, a decision she will quickly come to regret. There’s bathroom humor, girls getting stripped humor, tentacle rape humor… it’s not the classiest series in the world, but it never QUITE crosses a line, and for the most part is amusing, though I will admit I preferred the first half of the book.

So yeah, somewhere along the line this parody grew up. Well, except for Aqua. And the author hints that her development will be the climax of the series. Till then, this book is recommended for all KonoSuba fans, though if you ship Kazuma with Darkness, you might end up being a little sad.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen wo!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Of course, this is just the 4th volume of the Megumin spinoff, really. But since it’s now caught up with the main series and is no longer a prequel (or possibly as the original was announced as a trilogy), we get a “Bonus Story” with more Megumin shenanigans. Yunyun is here as well, though the expansion of the cast means that she doesn’t really get a chance to do much other than play the tsukkomi and be pathetic. And, alas, Cecily is back as well, and continues to be the worst nun ever. That said, as the 10th volume of the main series hinted, we get a new addition to the group. Princess Iris is sneaking away from the royal residence every day, and quickly insinuates herself into Megumin’s group as the muscle (she certainly has the sword skills). Add a very reluctant thief, and you have all you could ever want in a KonoSuba spinoff.

The “plot”, such as it is, takes place mostly around Vol. 9 of the main series, though the last quarter or so takes place around the 11th book. Megumin has discovered Chris and Kazuma pulling off one of their Silver Haired Bandit raids, and finds herself fired up about the idea of stealing in order to defeat bad people (and also strangely attracted to the masked assistant). She decides to form her own group, quickly rounding up those I mentioned above… including Chris, who as you can imagine feels very awkward about all of this. After a brief detour where they try to figure out who a blond, handsome adventurer of legend is (it’s pretty obviously Dust, though the legend, as you might guess, is quite wrong in many places), they end up taking on a rival of Darkness’s who has a herd of monsters around her mansion deep in the forest. There has to be a reason, right?

There are a few flaws here. The last chunk of the book is back to Kazuma’s POV, which is fine but is not really what I signed up for with this Megumin-driven spinoff. And, as with the main series hinting about this series before we got it in English, the spinoff series hints about another as yet unlicensed spinoff series, this one starring Dust, that is familiar with Japanese readers. Mostly you get the fact that Yunyun and Dust have had adventures before, and she’s not happy about it. On the other hand, the parts of the book with Megumin thinking about her current state are excellent. She’s newly in love with Kazuma, but isn’t quite sure how that works, or even why she fell for him. She’s also trying to figure out how to be a “leader”, and Kazuma, who is mostly in non-dirtbag mode in this book, gives her some excellent advice. Fans of their pairing will be happy with this book.

There’s one more book in the series, which I’m sure we’ll get relatively soon. Till then, this is a solid KonoSuba spinoff with lots of laughs and some good Megumin character development.