By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Andrew Schubauer.

First off, we have a change of creative team in the copyright. To Eric Margolis: thank you for your service, please have a rest now. To Lorin Christie: I see you got a promotion, please continue to help us enjoy this as editor. To Andrew Schubauer: Welcome to our new Meat Shield Translator!

I’ve mentioned before that this series does have a real meaning and moral behind “let’s watch Haruka bang his gorgeous monster concubines”. This volume in particular hits it hard at the end of the volume. If you are in power, if you enjoy the largesse of the people, then you have a responsibility to care for those people and make sure they are happy and content. If you do not do this, if you ignore the people saying it’s too hard to help them, or if you actively say that suffering is a good thing, then you are scum and deserve everything you get. When everyone arrives at the Beast Kingdom, the reader is briefly puzzled why Haruka and the girls are so utterly furious, but then it becomes clear – to get there, they had to pass through the devastated beast villages filled with dead people that the rulers didn’t bother to save. As for the Church? Well, using religion to genuinely make everyone’s lives better is still approved of. But the bulk of the Church isn’t doing that. And as for God, no one is impressed.

The last book implied this one would have the visit to the Beast Kingdom and then the attack on the Pope, but you know Loner Life is never going to do things quickly. No, this one is 463 pages, and you feel every one of those pages as Haruka decides to try to level up (remember, something damn near impossible for him to do) by sneaking into dungeons, fighting dungeon bosses, and getting killed/revived over and over till he’s a bloody mess. Needless to say, he does not win any friends by doing this. In his spare time, he rescues some adventurers who had heard about how awesome life was on the frontier, came to test their skills, and then discovered why the frontier is still terrifying. Finally, Haruka ends up setting off for the Beast Kingdom/Battle against the Church, and yes, everyone does come with him – much as he wants to protect them, he can’t put the girls off this time.

One thing that happens at the start of the book is that the Jocks (or Meatheads, as even Class Rep is calling them now) reveal that they’ve gotten engaged to five of the First Division’s warrior women, and, while pretending to be embarrassed, seem pretty happy about it. What’s more, we hear again that the Nerds have gotten into relationships with four of the Beast Girls in their kingdom. Despite all this, Haruka is still talking about searching the Theocracy to try to find something that can get everyone home. Class Rep is already aware that he means “everyone but him”, and that’s just not acceptable. It’s become pretty clear that, much as they miss Japan, the cast have decided that this is their home which they love. The reason Haruka has not cottoned on to this, of course, is because he is determined to distance himself from everyone he cares about and therefore he cannot understand why anyone would want to be around him unless he’s literally enslaved them. And even then, with the Mean Girls, he still doesn’t get it. Class Rep ALMOST confesses to him at the end of this book, but not quite, and it looks like he barely notices.

As I write this, the anime based on the manga is airing, but it really does seem like a completely different series. There’s still a lot to love about this series once you get past everything to hate about this series.

By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Eric Margolis. Adapted by Lorin Christie.

Good news, we’re back to a normal page count for Loner Life. Which is still over 400 pages, but at least it doesn’t break the 500-page barrier like last time. As for the content, honestly, a lot of this is set up for a battle we haven’t gotten to yet. It’s clear that we will eventually be fighting the Evil Church, and the way that Haruka is stressing about it, in his own bananas way, suggests that he’s sure they have a secret weapon similar to Nefertiri. As such, everyone in the cast takes turns attempting to go and fight the battle, while keeping the others safe. Haruka wants to go alone. The girls all want to go. Angelica and Nefertiri want to protect Haruka. It’s a vicious circle of self-loathing and love. I appreciated Merielle lecturing Haruka towards the end of this book, telling him that women are stronger than he thinks, and eventually they are going to have to (as Marielle has) kill people. Stubborn Haruka still wants to avoid this.

On the cover is Arianna, the cleric who arrived at the end of the last book. She’s from an offshoot of the Church that isn’t evil, and has come to the group to ask for help. If you look at the “inner cover” all these volumes have, you’ll see her looking crazed and holding a sword, but I think that’s a deliberate deception – she’s not secretly a bad guy, she’s just being put through Haruka’s Training from Hell (the funniest part of the book, as he grabs her and the other folks in her party and literally swings them like swords (they are also holding swords) until they level up enough). And then the Church holds the royal family hostage, so something has to be done. And that something is… MORE leveling up, as Haruka is still trying to learn how to fight normally, and the girls are all still one step behind when it comes to being strong enough to go fight a major enemy on their own.

As with previous volumes in this series, it requires the reader to have a lot of recall about all the books books and who all the characters are, even when you haven’t seen them in a while. I appreciated the plot twist with the merchants (and it helps to set up future arcs), but I could have used a quick reminder about where we were with the elves, as I forgot they came back with Haruka and everyone else. I did really enjoy one moment near the end as Haruka struggles because his body is moving faster than his brain, where he appreciates how, unlike himself (who has to level up the weird way) or the nerds (who are gamers and think like gamers) and meatheads (who are strong enough to simply punch things till they win), the girls are having to deal every day with leveling up and their body being slightly different, having to learn how to move slightly differently, not being able to trust footwork… he really does see how they’re struggling and improving vastly. Even if he won’t say it to their face.

I left out all the sex stuff, but be assured it’s still there, and this book drips with horniness. As always, though, the interest lies in the other stuff. Next time, the church battle? Nope, judging by the cover, Beastmen are next.

By Shoji Goji and Saku Enomaru. Released in Japan as “Hitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Eric Margolis. Adapted by Lorin Christie.

It feels odd to call a book that is 100 pages longer than the previous books a breather volume but that’s exactly what this is. After all of the plot going on in the last three volumes, Loner Life is returning to its roots, which means get ready for a whole lot of dungeon crawling. As always, you not only need to translate this book to English (and the translation is fine, I hasten to add – a) even Japanese fans say this is incoherent, and b) Haruka is meant to sound like this), but you also need to translate subtext into text. As such, the fact that we’ve moved from “let’s clear out all the 50-floor dungeons” and have now become “hey, all these dungeons are now about 90 floors” is a cause for great concern, and even small, supposedly random things like “Haruka is asked to make sanitary pads for the girls” delves into a critique on isekai stories in general as well as a dark examination of why Angelica and Nefertiri are only concubines. There is meat on these bones, under all that narrative bullshit.

The cover has Vice Rep B, but she’s no more prominent here than any of the other classmates not named Class Rep; the artist clearly gave her a cover shot to show off her assets, so to speak. After the civil war of the last two books, everyone is back in Omui, and there’s now a passel of orphan children with them. Most of the spare time is spent dungeon crawling, partly to get spellstones so they can afford any of the many things Haruka is making, but also partly to see what the dungeons are like after they’ve already been cleared once before. The answer is that the monsters are not QUITE as strong, but they’re still very strong, and more worryingly, the dungeons are deeper now. Haruka implies that any dungeon with 100 floors is a Very Bad Thing. Meanwhile, the rest of the class is getting stronger and stronger… but they still can’t hold a candle to Haruka, Angelica, Nefertiri or even the Slime Emperor. How can they possibly protect him?

There’s another reason Haruka’s doing all this dungeon exploration: he’s reached the limit of where he can go with just skills. Even though it’s very, very hard for him to accomplish, he’s going to have to start getting stronger and leveling up. Which means having to fight using actual COMMON SENSE, rather than fighting the chaotic Haruka way. It’s actually a bit heartwarming seeing him sparring with Angelica normally – though it leads the girls to assume, now that they can understand his moves, that they can defeat him. Hardly. Speaking of the girls, I’d mentioned the sanitary pads before (and Haruka observing that all the isekai books out there never bother to go into this sort of thing in their pre-industrial fantasy worlds), but it also brings up a melancholy subplot: Angelica and Nefertiri may look human and gorgeous now, and they’re both starting to communicate a lot better, but they’re still, at the end of the day, monsters. They don’t have periods, and they can’t get pregnant. This means that they want the girls to be Haruka’s wives while they remain his concubines… because the girls CAN get pregnant.

A somewhat sexist POV to have, but then this is a book that now uses sex like a comma (how in God’s name are the PG-rated manga and forthcoming anime going to handle this?). It remains not for everyone, but I still find nuggets of gold here. And I apologize for not mentioning the water park. Or the summer festival. Next time it looks like we start a new arc, as a (maybe?) good religious faction shows up near the end. Just… not 528 pages next time? Please?