Monthly Archives: November 2019

The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious, Vol. 2

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By Light Tuchihi and Saori Toyota. Released in Japan as “Kono Yuusha Ga Ore TUEEE Kuse Ni Shinchou Sugiru” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Matt Rutsohn.

This is very much a book of two halves. The first half is very much like the first book. They’re still trying to fight demon generals, Seiya is still rude and appalling, Rista is still screaming at him (and also lusting at him), etc. It’s funny, though not as funny as the first book, and I am reminded why I thought it would be hard to sustain over a long series. Then halfway through Rista realizes, as they head towards a major battle, that Seiya did NOT say “I’m perfectly prepared”, and everything turns very dark very fast. Normally that would be a disaster in a series like this, which is supposedly a lighthearted comedy. But in this case it’s so well-handled and emotionally draining that I have to applaud. We also get Seiya’s backstory, which I had suspected earlier, and it makes sense. And we also get Rista’s backstory, which was far more of a surprise. You will forgive the lack of humor.

This is not to say that the front half of the book is not funny. It might actually be better animated – the anime is airing as I write this, and there’s something about Seiya throwing Rista around like a rag doll that cries out to be seen and not read. We meet Rosalie, and if I said “daughter of the emperor and swordswoman” you can probably guess her entire personality from there. She and Seiya clash immediately, and he’s far more obnoxious towards her than even those who know Seiya are expecting (the reason for that comes later). Seiya needs to learn some more new tricks, and so gets bow and arrow training from a very thirsty goddess (making Rista jealous) and additional training from the goddess of Destruction, which involves being naked in bed together (and leaves Rista infuriated).

But then comes the second half, and I will try not to spoil everything but do have to talk about some things. You know that things are taking a turn for the dark when you see an old man cheerfully holding his wife and child’s severed heads in a bag, and it has to be said that Seiya is undone more by humans turning bad than demons. He then tricks Rista and the others into staying behind while he fights the Demon Lord by himself – because (as I’d guessed), this is not his first isekai, and in a previous world he was far more typically charge ahead and get things done so as to save the most people. The horrifying result of this means that he tells his future summoned self (who does not have memories of this) to be super, super cautious about everything. Fortunately, Rista finds out about this, and the ending, while relatively tragic, is also inspirational – the “I’m perfectly prepared” line will leave a lump in your throat this time.

This book feels like it could have ended here very nicely. The world is saved, but Seiya is “dead” and Rista needs to be punished for using her goddess powers on full blast to help him, a forbidden act. They are thus sent back to Seiya’s first world, now a hellish nightmare run by the Demon Lord. The series does go on, of course, though I’m now less concerned with whether the author can keep up the madcap humor as to what happens when he returns to it. Still, props to this excellent second book, which is not nearly as funny but very emotionally satisfying.

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, Vol. 10

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By Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen

In general, if you’re going to have an unbalanced book, it’s best to have the strongest material be towards the end than towards the beginning. This is a problem for Arifureta Book 10, which has as its first third or so some of the best scenes in the entire series, then tries its hardest to keep it up. Unfortunately, keeping it up would require the reader to feel a lot more sympathy – or a lot less – towards Kouki than they do. This means that we spend a good deal of the last half of the book waiting for Kouki to finish typing his Reddit post on how girls he deserves won’t sleep with him. To be fair, the book very clearly takes a negative stand on this sort of behavior, and I appreciate that. I’d appreciate it more if this wasn’t also a male power fantasy where a bullied loner literally gets revenge on his high school class and also has sex with all the hottest babes. Which it still is.

Before that, though, there is the battle with Yue and Shea. I haven’t talked about Yue much in these reviews, mostly as there hasn’t been that much TO talk about. Here, though, she gets some backstory showing off who she used to be and the family that she loved – including a set of double reversal betrayals, which left her so devastated that she’s tried hard not to think about her past at all, including why she was sealed rather than just killed off. After meeting up with Shea (who sails through her own test), A pensive Yue makes the mistake of saying that if anything happens to her, she wants Shea to take care of Hajime. Actually, the bigger mistake may be that she doesn’t get why that’s upsetting to Shea. What follows is one of the best fights in the series, as Shea and Yue go toe to toe with each other as Shea tries to beat the resignation out of Yue. The funniest part is that it takes in Kaori’s fight as well – normally the idea of Kaori as the “Steph” of this series annoys me, but it’s handled SO well here I can’t be churlish.

Elsewhere, Tio also sails through her test, showing off that she’d be a fantastic character if she weren’t such a depraved masochist. Suzu is forced to admit that she lives her life by deflecting, and Ryutarou that he really would rather not be a sidekick character (even though he totally is). And then there’s Kouki, who is forced to admit that he’s jealous of Hajime and not as good as he thinks he is… and fails miserably. At this point I’m fairly sure Kouki is not going to be killed off, as if he was this would be the perfect place to do it. Instead we simply see him fail – again. He comes to his senses later to a degree, but there’s still seething resentment underneath everything he does. It’s well-written, but also means that I have to read far more about him than I really want to. Also, I suspect he’ll be useless in the upcoming battle that the cliffhanger suggests.

There’s only a couple more books left in the “main” storyline judging by when the webnovel is, so the cliffhanger ending may be moving us to the climax. Everyone (bar Kouki) has evolved and powered up. They know they can now get home. All that’s left is beating the bad guys. I expect the next book will have a lot of that. Till then, at least we can enjoy Shea beating the snot out of Yue and Kouki railing against the friendzone.

No Game No Life, Vol. 9

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By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Daniel Komen.

This is, despite a few minor issues I had, a strong return to form for No Game No Life, which remembers what its main goal is besides being perverse, writing awkward prose, and occasional outbursts of plot: making the reader laugh. This is a funny volume, particularly if you enjoy seeing Sora suffer. While we do see [ ] in action towards the end, for the most part this is the Ex Machina, another of the Sixteen races and the ones who supposedly killed a God, trying to seduce Sora and get him to make babies with them. As you can see, this ridiculous premise hits on a lot of things that you know will be funny even without reading it: the war between Sora’s desire for sex, his fear of it, and his gamer brain trying to work out the actual plot behind it; the others’ over the top reactions to this, and the Ex Machina’s ludicrous attempts at seducing Sora, which run the gamut from offensive (the class of elementary schoolgirls) to actually well thought-out. Does Sora lose his virginity? Take a guess.

There is also the subplot which becomes far more important as the book progresses, which is Sora and Shiro closing the castle and devoting all their attention to becoming idol producers, with Holou as the idol in question. She’s still searching for answers, which means she compares nicely to Ex Machina, who are doing the same via this scheme. They declare that Sora is their “Spieler”, which is to say Riku from Book 6. But we already know that Sora isn’t, and deep down Ex Machina know that as well. Therefore what we end up with is “we want a purpose in life”, as well as how someone defines who they are. As robots, Ex Machina are not particularly unemotional, despite speaking in a very robot sort of way. Only two of them have actual roles, but they make them count.

Einzig is the “comedy gay” option among the otherwise female robots, and I like to imagine him looking like Koizumi from Haruhi, as he’s trying to do the same thing. Normally I might carp at this portrayal, but Sora’s “noooooooooooo!!!” is clearly meant to be mocked mercilessly rather than sympathized with. And then there’s Emir-Einz, named by Sora in a casual “your name’s too long to say” way that actually proves to be one of the more pivotal sentences in the book (also, props to him for remembering her full name anyway later). As with Einzig, she becomes a “type” – the obsessed stalker girl – but again, this is worth it because it’s funny seeing Sora in a state of constant panic. And Jibril, for that matter, who does not have her best book trying to help Sora escape these Droopy Dog robots. Steph is also mocked and embarrassed, but that’s par for the course, and she had a high point last volume anyway.

Assuming you enjoy the series, and can put up with what is still not the best translation in the world, this is a very good volume to pick up. The things I could object to are not things anyone reading this series to begin with would care about. Feel free to have fun with it.