Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End ~Prelude~, Vol. 2

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By Mei Hachimoku and Tsukasa Abe, based on the manga by Kanehito Yamada. Released in Japan as “Sousou no Frieren: Zensou” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

I wasn’t expecting a second volume of these short stories, and it’s interesting to see what we get. Frieren is the obvious one who gets a story devoted to her in both books – it’s her series, after all – but Fern and Stark only appear briefly at the end of that story, and are not otherwise in this book. And while I’d love to get more of Methode, she too only has a small supporting role here. Still, there are a few things the author can do. The stories involving Ubel and Serie are clearly heavy hitters, ones that will automatically get in readers who just like them – especially Ubel. But the other thing the author can do is pick out a very minor character and flesh them out as they know the manga creators won’t be doing that. We get that here as well, and the results are heartwarming and horrific, respectively. Horrific in the horror way, not in the bad way. Frieren still has demons.

As with the first volume, we get five stories. 1) The receptionist for the Magic Exams, whose name apparently is Uhu, is asked to deliver something to Serie, and along the way asks everyone else connected with the exams why the world needs strong mages, and what that even means; 2) Ubel, after killing her exam proctor, leaves the city for a bit until they cool off, and comes across a kidnapped young boy who wants to be a mage; 3) That really upbeat demon girl we saw in the Divine Revolte arc doesn’t get a name, but they get a backstory, and this is it. It involves impersonating humans and killing humans; 4) We see Frieren, before she left her village, bored and at a loss for what to do with her life. She gets advice from other elves around her, who all have hyperfixations of some kind; 5) Serie trains a young Flamme, but the two of them, get in a fight over who should be learning magic.

There aren’t really any bad stories in this book, though the demon girl one was so grim I didn’t really enjoy it. The first one plays with Uhu’s role as “faceless minor character”, with the running gag that almost no one can remember her name – except, notably, Serie. Ubel’s story was fun, and reminds us that while she’s amoral and quick to kill, she’s not evil or psychopathic – and she also knows mages need to be able to kill in this world. Frieren’s story is sweet and touching until it gets tragic and we are reminded why Frieren bothered to start traveling in the first place… till it rolls around to heartwarming again at the end. The best story is the final one, as Serie gradually realizes she’s become a mom, and is not really sure how to deal with it. Flamme breaking off with her is handled well, and leads to my favorite bit of the book. “Attacking me out of nowhere, eh? How barbaric. Don’t you even know how to have a conversation?” “I’m afraid you only taught me how to use magic.”

As with the first book, don’t read this if you’re not caught up on the manga. But if you are, this is well worth the buy.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades, Vol. 15

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By Bokuto Uno and Miyuki Ruria. Released in Japan as “Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades is one of those rare light novel series that has, if not a huge fan wiki, at least a relatively up to date wiki, which is very useful when you have dramatic tragic deaths and you cannot actually remember who these people are. At one point I paused, looked up a name, went “ah, right, from Book 8!”, and moved on. That said, this is the final volume of the big Kimberly invasion arc, and we’re fifteen books is, so the author is finally killing off, permanently, actual people who have been around a long while and who we care about. I’ll get into the details of that a bit below, so spoiler warning. But I also need to emphasize that, even though this is a book filled with war, death and grieving, it never quite hits despair, and the overall theme is triumph, even if it’s at a painful cost. This book is optimistic. Well, as optimistic that a book about a boy killing off all the faculty can be.

Summarizing this is hard, as it’s mostly 250 pages of fight goes one way, then the other way. Bad guys die tragically. A few good guys die tragically. A lot of people we’ve never heard of die tragically. We also do find out why the bad guys are doing this, or at least why they’re saying they are. And we get some flashbacks that remind me that, much as I’m enjoying our main cast working their way through magic college, all their parents did the same thing a generation before, and they were all equally eccentric/bonkers. (The book is mostly serious, but the funniest bit has the students asking Katie if she’s all right and then having to clarify they mean “not possessed or consumed, we know you’re completely bananas”). In the end, the school is saved… just barely.

So, first of all, none of the six main characters die. (I have to be careful not to say “main six” because I know one day I’ll mistype it and this will become My Little Pony.) Katie, aside from the comedy bit I mention above, is entirely absent. Chela is mostly there to be support, the author clearly didn’t have anything for her to do. Nanao too is mostly absent aside from the very end. But if you like Oliver, Pete, and Guy you’re gonna be happy. Certainly happier than they are. Rita Appleton has been around since the 4th book and her crush on Guy has been around almost as long, and she gets to do what a lot of teenage girls with a crush would fantasize about, die to save her beloved. Richard Andrews has been around since the very start, the definition of the “arrogant rival guy turned reluctant ally turned reliable ally”, and it’s that reliability, as well as compassion, that leads to him saving Oliver, Nanao and Chela. Now a few characters I was sure would die somehow did not (there is more than one teacher given a backstory that is literally “I want to die”, and yet…), but this victory came at a cost. Still, it was damn cool as a fictional story.

Next time I assume we will be back to Oliver’s vengeance… whenever next time is. The 15th book came out in Japan over a year ago, and the series is now caught up. We wait for the author, and remember the fallen.

Agents of the Four Seasons, Vol. 7

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By Kana Akatsuki and Suoh. Released in Japan as “Shunka Shūtō Daikōsha” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sergio Avila.

My friend Erica Friedman has talked before about an annoying characteristic of many light novels, manga and anime, which is the “emotional torment of children for plot purposes”. It’s relatively easy to win over the reader by doing this, and lets the main characters being abused be sympathetic – you really want them to have a nice blanket and a hot cup of cocoa. But as the author said in the afterword to Book 6, that is just not happening in Agents of the Four Seasons. These kids (and we’re introduced to more kids in this new book, all of whom are in some way, shape, or form broken by the adults they trust and by their peers) are broken down, beaten, and occasionally killed and resurrected – and this includes their guardians, who are either also children or in their late teens at most. The narrative says that while sometimes the abusers will be brought to justice, there will always be new ones ready to manipulate you, and the only thing you can do is get mentally stronger to withstand it all and grasp what happiness you can. Kinda depressing.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Jude seemingly betraying his agent and forcing Nadeshiko to make an impossible decision on who gets to live and who gets to die. The way Nadeshiko handles this will surprise no one, but it does lead to her and Liam ending up kidnapped – this makes how many times Nadeshiko has been kidnapped? – and everyone else having to try to track them down. After she wakes up, Jude explains what’s going on – turns out that not-America is using the Agents as a cash cow in order to line the pockets of the rich and powerful, which is technically a spoiler but is so thuddingly obvious that I am happy just mentioning it here. Jude wants to expose the man in charge of it all, and this kidnapping attempt was the best way to do it. Unfortunately for Jude, he doesn’t bother to explain this to Liam.

On the bright side, this is very well written. The thriller and action aspects are impeccably done, and you want to keep turning the pages as fast as you can. Nadeshiko’s powers, when they are inevitably explained as being different from what everyone thought, make a lot of the book lighter than expected… but look, that’s only a matter of degree. It is astonishing how literally EVERYONE in this series hates themselves with a passion. Even the arrogant, obnoxious Agent of Winter that not-America has proves to be an insecure child who is deeply upset that her mentor turns out to be a bad guy, and whose attempts at “making friends” with their agent of Spring have traumatized the other girl. Rindo and Nadeshiko are the highlight of this, and past, present and future collide to let us see a confession that we don’t really want but is inevitable anyway. I’ve joked before about how this book is Codependency: The Light Novel, but it’s no joke here – everyone knows the relationships between Agents and their Guards are totally fucked up, and yet they can’t do anything about it except say “that’s the way it is, I guess”.

The next book in the series is not scheduled in North America yet, and that’s probably for the best, because I’m exhausted. If you love the emotional torment of children for plot purposes, this will be like catnip for you. For everyone else, just endure, like the cast has to.