Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 9

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

I think I have come to the conclusion that Reki Kawahara, much like Ryohgo Narita, has too many balls in the air. The last time a Progressive volume came out here was in 2022. It is now 2026. That is bad, mostly as I can remember literally nothing about the last book other than “Kirito is a vampire now”. And I have bad news for you, 10 isn’t out in Japan, as he’s also writing the main series and Accel World, as well as supervising all those Alternative spinoffs, only some of which have been licensed over here. As such, it sure would be a shame if this volume got off to a slow start and really dragged through the first half, as I’m already a bit grumpy that it’s been so long and I have to try to tell dark elves alike that I haven’t seen in a while. Heck, even the plot regresses back to the fourth floor. That said, as with many books, the second half really picks up, and has some surprises.

Kirito and Asuna, having met up with Kizmel again, are trying to get back the keys stolen by the fallen elves. This ends up, as I noted, taking them back to the fourth floor, where they have a happy reunion with their boat, as well as with the dark elf they broke out of prison with. He wants to have a chat with the leader of the Dark Elves, and asks the three of them to get him out of the castle so they can talk. This requires Kirito using his new vampire powers (which, by the way, means this entire volume happens at night) to tame a Kelpie so they can ride it without the castle guards realizing their viscount has flown the coop. When they finally engineer the meeting, it ends up leading to a duel, but more importantly, backstory that’s actually interesting.

Not gonna lie, I worried I would have nothing to talk about when I reviewed this through the first hundred pages or so. Then Yofilis reveals his tragic backstory and my jaw dropped. Not just because it once again shows off how well coded these “AI” NPCs are (and I mean, almost everything Kawahara has ever written has involved AI becoming human in some way), or even how Kirito and Asuna picking the dark elf rather than the forest elf may have messed up the plot to the point where the frontliners are all in danger of being killed, but mostly because said tragic backstory revolves around Yofilis being gay, and how that messes with the way this game treats elves and aging. Essentially Elves age as they gain roles, such as “parent, grandparent, knight captain”, though obviously I’m simplifying. And the fallen elves specifically aren’t aging after “falling”. So we get an odd dovetailing of how a gay character might be coded in a fantasy like this one, as well as the fallout of same, which involves a literal metaphor for sinning and falling from grace. It’s… interesting.

And Kirito and Asuna are adorable and everyone except them agrees they’re a couple and should just kiss already. Rest assured, it still has that. Next time we resolve another cliffhanger, though a more happy one this time. Will it be another four years? Maybe.

The Alchemist’s Fluffy Island Getaway, Vol. 1

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By Kisetsu Morita and Matsuuni. Released in Japan as “Renkinjutsushi no Yurufuwa Ritou Kaitakuki” by GA Novel. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Tristan Hill.

Sometimes I pick a book to read based on vibe, and only afterwards do I realize the actual creative team behind it. This is definitely one of those books. I got it as I like the mini-genre of “alchemist in a remote land a la the Atelier series”, and it felt cute. And then I finished it, and it turns out it’s freaking Morita AGAIN, with I believe his fourth LN series licensed over here, not counting spinoffs. And then I realized how an awful lot of this felt familiar if you’ve read Killing Slimes for 300 Years, especially the main character picking up two fighting monster girls who bond with her. That said, Killing Slimes for 300 Years is a very static series, with little to no growth or change. This one seems to know it can’t be that. Because when we meet Freya, well, she’s kind of horrible, and getting exiled to the middle of nowhere to learn to be a better person is what she richly needs.

Freya Corvidge is an orphan girl who ends up at a premier academy for alchemists, and ends up with the highest grades of her year. We don’t see any of that. We start with her graduation speech, where she talks about finding a cushy job where she can be lazy. And when other graduates accidentally summon a massive wolf monster, she steals supplies without asking to paralyze it and make it invisible so it’s not killed. All this means that, far from a cushy job in the capital, she’s being treated like the bottom of the class, and sent to a remote island where she should reflect on her actions. When she gets there, while the locals are very friendly, her alchemist shop is so overgrown it will take her weeks to uncover it. Then she meets the island’s god… who seems very familiar.

Freya is a hoot, frankly. Her obnoxious tendencies are to a certain degree a front for the fact that she’s a nerd who had no friends and was bullied a bit at school. Unlike Killing Slimes, her character journey over the course of the book, where she grows to like island life and discovers the joy (and embarrassment) of doing good things that others praise her for, is the point, and it’s handled well. I also liked Lilil, the wolf god who ends up becoming her apprentice and tsukkomi, there to bring Freya back to reality when need be. Given the author, it’s not surprising that there’s a bit of yuri in this title, though thankfully it’s not punctuated with reassurances that everyone is straight like their other series. There’s also a lot of “this is how we do alchemy” stuff, which is the norm in these sorts of titles, and unlike, say, Management of a Novice Alchemist, Freya is talented but also inexperienced and is not going to be OP right off the bat.

So yeah, this is a lot of fun, and I will cut the author a bit of slack and cheerfully read the second in the series, which will no doubt add another cute girl somewhere.

The Isle of Paramounts: Reborn into a Slow Life Among the Strongest in the World, Vol. 3

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By Heiseiowari and Noy. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Saikyou Shu-tachi ga Sumau Shima deshita. Kono Shima de Slow Life wo Tanoshimimasu” by SQEX Novel. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alex Castor.

This is a slow-life series that has things happening, but it can be a bit difficult to review as, due to its nature, deep character development is just not on the table. The closest Arata gets to it are his struggles to fight back against everyone judging him by his god-like powers and insisting he’s human, and even he is half-hearted about it. There is a more interesting plot happening… away from the island, where the hero’s team are still being hunted by the Church as heretics. This means that they’re being hunted by two Celestial Archmages, who are ludicrously powerful… till they do another summoning, and pull not Arata this time, but Reina and Zelos, who are suddenly in front of their former allies. The interesting bit is they’ve lived with Arata and the other OP folks on the island so long that they’ve also gotten much stronger than anyone else, to the point where they can easily fight off colleagues who used to beat the stuffing out of them before. It pays to be around Arata!

Arata and Reina are headed to the Alfin village where Katima lives, there to meet up with her Village Elder and mostly have fun at Katima’s expense. While there it is revealed that the Great Spirits that normally watch over the village have been absent for a while, so Arata and Katima go searching for them.. and find that the Great Spirits are, unsurprisingly, a lot like humans, which is to say that two of them are having a “man’s battle” while the third has locked them in a sphere to shut them up. It turns out they’re fighting over who gets to raise the new Great Spirit who’s just been born… but when Arata, with all his power, interrupts, the Great Spirit ends up choosing him as her new “Daddy”. Now he’s raising Snow, the Great Spirit, along with her “mommy” Reina. The trouble is, Snow is having a bit of trouble controlling her ice powers…

The main reason to read this series remains the still adorable, still virginal romance between Arata and Reina. Indeed, it’s astonishing to everyone except Arata and Reina that they’re not already lovers. Every time they talk to each other the folks around them complain about the flirting. It also goes without saying that when they’ve got to take care of Snow, who calls them Mommy and Daddy for good reason, they become the perfect parents. There’s even the obligatory “we’re finally giving in to our feelings and leaning in for a kiss when we’re interrupted because this book has seven volumes to go till the wedding” scene. That said, I’m pretty sure we’re getting him more than one wife in this series. It’s hinted heavily that polyamory is OK, and Tailtiu has made it very clear she’s not going to be an unlucky anything. But the thrust of the goopy romance is still these two.

Island stuff is all well and good, but I do hope we dovetail back with the main world again soon, as that adds a bit of spice to this otherwise very relaxing series.