The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 3

By Gamei Hitsuji and himesuz. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

I didn’t mention it in my review of the previous volume, but a large chunk of that book was taken up with the journey of the actual hero, Reiji, and his adventures trying to destroy the demons. Given that the basic premise of this book is that we leave the hero by the wayside and follow his secretly more powerful best friend, it’s impressive that the author it not only coming back to the hero occasionally but also treating him seriously. Reiji wants to help this world, despite the fact that he’s not from it and that everyone not in his party seems to be a cynical bastard of some sort. Admittedly, the more I see of Mizuki, his wannabe girlfriend and the third member of the “from another world” party, the more I think that she’s going to be turned to evil pretty easily, but hey. That said, the bulk of this book still follows Suimei as he arrives at a new city, buys a house, and meets yet another young girl.

If you look at the girl on the cover, you might be thinking that the author is starting to come up with heroines by ticking a fetish box. And, based on the afterword, you might not be too wrong. Liliana is a young girl with many dark secrets who works for the city’s military police and is a bit shunned by the general populace, who are terrified of a) her magic and b) her general demeanor. Neither of those bother Suimei, and he also sees her playing with cute kittens, so he knows she’s good at heart. But it may take more than one book to help her, as the city has more problems than just a goth-loli with a bad rep. Nobles around the city are being attacked and falling into a coma – though oddly, all the nobles attacked seem to be stereotypical “evil noble” types. And worse, there’s a different summoned hero in this town, and the oracle has told Lefille to join him… and he also wants to add Felmenia, the heroine from the first book who has caught up with Suimei. Is he a hero? Or just amassing a harem?

There are a few more things in this volume that I wasn’t too fond of compared to previous ones. As I noted, Felmenia has caught up, which means we have three heroines in one book. That means the standard jealousy ensues, though it’s low-key for now. The reason it’s low-key is that Lefille is still in her little girl body, which is mostly mined for comedy, but even the author admits readers are asking for him to fix her soon. And sadly the author’s worldbuilding discussions of magic tend to come out at the worst possible times – in this particular case at the climax of the book, which leaves a reader wanting to skip to the point where they can read something other than magic history. That said, we’re only halfway through what I expect is a two-book arc, so things may turn around. Too Far Behind! is adding a few more generic harem fantasy tropes, but is still good enough that you should enjoy it.

The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 2

By Gamei Hitsuji and himesuz. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

For all that the first volume of this did a very good job introducing its cast and showing off the basics of the world, it did not really dwell much on the demon invasion beyond it being the reason why the hero was summoned, and why he’s training. The second volume, though, takes that ball and absolutely runs with it. The demons are coming, they’re hard to defeat, and they’re nasty pieces of work, both in terms of powers and personality. I gotta admit, you really want the demon general to get his by the end of this. What’s more, their leader is not only good at murdering people but also at emotional manipulation and torture. Which is fine for Suimei, who at least has a veneer of “I am cool-headed” (which isn’t actually true, but hey). But it’s definitely bad news for the new heroine of this book, Lefille, who is a red-haired noble swordswoman who wears her heart on her sleeve.

This is very much a book that puts all its fantastic stuff on the back end. The start is all right, with Sui9mei trying to join the Adventurer’s Guild and maintain a low profile, something he screws up pretty much immediately. He and Lefille bond right away, but it’s as a good friendship, and there’s not really much romance involved here yet. But things really pick up with the actual invasion, and particularly when Lefille breaks away from Suimei to try to save the party that essentially told her to get lost earlier. This is a significantly darker book than the first volume was, and there’s a lot of brutal deaths here. What’s more, there’s a lot of misblaming going on, to the point where I wondered if it was part of a ploy by the demon general to break Lefille. But no, it’s just people getting the wrong idea and spewing dying vitriol.

I admit, I was worried that this book was not going to stick the landing. It spends a LOT of time setting up the demon general as Lefille’s enemy that she absolutely has to defeat, then breaks her utterly. This is very well done, and emotionally gripping. But when Suimei showed up and started going to town, I thought “uh-oh”. You can’t set up this sort of thing and then have the solution be “I can overcome it thanks to the powers of my cool protagonist friend”. And yes, Suimei *does* get the final shot in. But we see Lefille watching Suimei’s battle and realize what she needs to do, and find her heroic second wind, driving the demon back to the point where he has to retreat. This was very important, and makes her a better heroine than the first one. (That said, this seems like a “new heroine every book” series, so I wonder if she’ll stay on.)

The book does have flaws – Suimei’s “let me read magic wikipedia at you” narration can be tedious, Lefille has a demon curse that seems to be nothing but an excuse to have her masturbate naked on a rock for the benefit of the illustrator/readers, and the ending, where she reverts to being a little girl due to lack of spirit energy, had me going “WTF?” as much as it did our heroes. Oh yes, and please try not to have your hero brainwashing people for fun and profit. But overall, I found the suspense and character depth of this second volume to be excellent, and I’m far more on board with this series now.

The Magic in This Other World Is Too Far Behind!, Vol. 1

By Gamei Hitsuji and himesuz. Released in Japan by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

If you’re going to lure people in to reading another isekai these days, you need a compelling concept. Not necessarily a strong concept – vending machines and hot moms will also do – but a concept where a potential reader will think “that actually sounds like it might be interesting enough to wade through more interminable “you have been summoned here to defeat the demon lord” claptrap. Too Far Behind! (as I will call it going forward) isn’t lights out, but it’s a pretty decent idea. Our hero, his not-quite-girlfriend, and their cynical best friend are teleported to another world, and told to fight the bad guys. The concept is that we follow the best friend, who is not given tremendous superpowers by the journey, but does already have some secrets up his sleeve. As a result, we have the inverse of the usual isekai themes – the protagonist comes into the story already having cool powers, and finds the world he’s now in is completely inadequate.

Suimei is our protagonist, brought to another world with his friends Reiji and Mizuki. Reiji is the actual hero, imbued with tremendous strength that will help him to defeat the demon lord. Mizuki and Suimei were caught up in the summoning as well, but have no new powers. Mizuki will help Reiji anyway, as she has a crush on him. Suimei, however, heard the story of millions of demon lord foot soldiers hankering to hunt some humans and puts his foot down – there’s no way he’s getting involved in something this dangerous. And so, while the hero and his not-girlfriend (and the princess, who has already fallen for the hero almost immediately) train so that he can save the world, Suimei holes up in the castle and seemingly sulks. Of course, Suimei has a secret that he’s never told his friends, and that no one except the court mage has discovered – he’s actually a magician!

I’m going to say this right off the bat: this story introduces us to Felmenia, talks about how strong and powerful she’s gotten with her magic, and then proceeds to write her as a ditzy dojikko deep down. When Suimei reveals his true self, she’s so impressed by how big and powerful his magic is that she can’t help but fall in love with him – at least after a battle where he proceeds to humiliate her (which, I will grant you, even he admits was petty of him). Basically, it’s that kind of plotline for Felmenia, and I couldn’t help but sigh and sort of rub my temples. Once I got past that, though, I was surprised how enjoyable the rest of the book was. Suimei is a cool protagonist without being emotionless, and we occasionally see him make mistakes and let his emotions get the better of him. Reiji is not belittled by being the hero, and we appreciate his motivations and more straight-ahead “shonen hero” thinking. As does Suimei, who’s just concerned Reiji is going to die. Even the King is one of the nicest kings I’ve ever met in an isekai. And Felmenia is fine, once I got past what type she was going to be. She’s cute and very earnest.

The book ends with Suimei setting off to another kingdom to research how to get back home, and I suspect Book two will introduce a new heroine. This isn’t breaking any isekai rules, it’s just looking at them from a different perspective. Fans of the genre should be relatively happy with it.