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.

It’s been over two years since the “finale” of Arifureta came out in English, and since them we’ve had even more wannabe Hajimes, looking cool while amassing a large collection of girls who fall for them immediately for the traditional light novel reason. That said, this book does not have to worry about that. We’ve done all that, the final battle has been won, and we can leave future battles to Kouki, who no doubt has lots of making up for being awful to do, but given he’s not a cute girl, I doubt Overlap will publish whatever it is. What Overlap will publish is volumes like this, an After Story that is absolute catnip for fans of this series, showing Hajime with each of his fiancees as they integrate themselves on Earth and deal with coming out to the families as a harem. (Normally I’d say polycule, but come on. It’s Arifureta. This thing is a harem, and they all say so in the book itself.)

We pick up two months after everyone came to Earth, with the occasional flashback showing how they had to deal with their year-long disappearance. Some folks have had it good (Yue, Shea, Tio, Remia, and Myu, who are all ensconced at Hajime’s home with his otaku parents who adore him). Some folks have it less good (Kaori, dealing with an “anime dad” being mad about some cheater taking his daughter, and Shizuku, somewhat horrified to discover she really *is* from a family of ninjas). Some are doing very badly (Aiko, who not only gets the bulk of the blame for everything that happened, but is also a teacher dating a student). Some people are still stuck back in Isekai world (Liliana, as pathetic as ever but Hajime is treating her better now that they’re a couple). And some girls are wondering if there’s room for one more (wannabe chef and former bodyguard Yuka, who, since Hajime and the girls don’t immediately shut her down, likely has a good shot).

This does not pretend to be anything but fluffy, for the most part. Hajime and Yue deal with most of the serious issues on Earth by mass mind control, and he has far more difficulty dealing with the fact that he has eight fiancees than anything else. Most of the girls get a nice spotlight, either with or without Hajime. Yue gets the most, Shea the second most, which you’d expect. Myu gets a lot of attention, and she is cute as a button, has learned to shoot multiple deadly weapons, and swears she gonna grow up to marry her daddy. A typical anime child, in other words. All of this reads like typical anime, in fact. The only times it threatens to get melancholy are, as I said, when dealing with Aiko’s larger issues, or when Hajime has to tell the families of the four dead students why they didn’t come back… and that they were also sort of evil. The book even ends with a big family photograph. After so many volumes where I could describe it as “over 200 pages of just fights”, we now get 280 pages of just fluff.

It’s unclear if there will be more of these – there’s tons of webnovel material, but it likely amounts to what Overlap thinks will sell. Still, fans of Arifureta who read it for the girls and the d’awwwww will be happy.

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.

The last third of this very long final volume of Arifureta is a giant victory lap. We get lots of cleanup after, the apocalypse, lots of comedic stuff involving the Haulia, some vaguely amusing jokes, and Hajime finally gets around to having sex with most of the rest of the harem (offscreen, sorry to all those wanting your “snu-snu”). It probably goes on far too long, frankly. But I was so happy to be reading it, because it meant that I was not reading fight scenes. After last volume being 175 pages of fights, this volume is 220 pages of fights, and frankly I would rather chew my own arm off than read more of the battle first going one way, then the other, and the occasional nameless person that we don’t know actually dying. The only named people we know who die are the evil God, and Eri, who was killed off last book. We know how this final battle will turn out, this is not Arifureta Zero.

Even the fights in the book are divided neatly in half. The first third of the book shows us Ehit’s apostles versus the rest of the cast that weren’t fighting in Book 12, including Kaori, who frankly gets the MVP for that battle easily. That said, it shows off everyone’s cool moves, shows everyone almost winning and them almost losing, etc. It’s very much a final battle. Then we cut to Ehit vs. Hajime for the second half, and the same thing happens, only every time it appears that Hajime is almost losing, he pulls some new “I was only fooling” bullshit out of his ass, because, frankly, this is Arifureta, and if you didn’t think this was coming you’re reading the wrong series.

So yeah, the first two thirds of the book is basically fight now grr. the only emotional moment is the one pre-designed to be a tear-jerker, which is where Miledi shows up to save the day and also die, because now that Ehit is finally defeated there’s no reason why she cannot finally pass on and rejoin all her friends and her true love. (There’s an additional short story that adds a nice even happier ending to that, if you like). The last third is a bit more varied, as we see Kouki trying to deal with apologizing to literally everyone he’s ever known, Kousuke unlocking his inner chuuni and ending up with a rabbit girlfriend, and Liliana pouting because she’s still too young to get the sex that the rest of the girls all get. And there’s a nice little epilogue where Hajime finally returns home to his family, which is heartwarming.

The webnovel this was based on has an After Story that would probably run about 13 more volumes, but Overlap has shown no sign they plan to release any of it, so this might be it for Arifureta. Which is fine, frankly. It ties up well, and I don’t need the wacky adventures of Yue in Japanese high school. To the end, Arifureta was the “I’ve got the lamest power and everyone hates me, but it’s secretly THE COOLEST” that every other similar series tried to be, and none of them really could ever touch it. I won’t MISS it per se, but I’m glad I read it. Mostly.

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

My biggest fear with this 422-page final volume was that it would be one long fight scene, and thankfully that is not the case, though the first third of the book is one long fight scene. My second fear was that it would be unrelentingly grim, and while it is grim, with lots and lots of deaths of people we care about, it’s not unrelenting, and there are moments of silliness and humor in the middle of the book. Heck, even some of the main characters survive, because I’d forgotten the main series talks about their descendants. But for the most part this book is “Miledi tries her hardest but fails”, as we knew it would be – it’s a prequel, after all. It also helps to set up the final volume of the main series, coming soon I hope, which will likely feature her showing up to save the day. At least I hope she does, because the day is certainly not saved here.

The first chunk of the book, as I said, is one big fight, and goes fairly well for our heroes right up until the very end, when they’re forced to retreat. They then take the time to try and gather a few more allies – the dragons are now ready to help them, and even the vampires are willing to pitch in… that is, after we discover their long-lost royal daughter (who is closer than you’d think) and resolve the issue of the missing heir to the throne. We also discover that you can access the most powerful magic ever if you get really, really drunk. Unfortunately, Ehit has finally had enough, and decides to force the hand of Miledi by brainwashing everyone who is not a Liberator to kill all their allies. This takes up most of the rest of the book.

As always with Arifureta, this book had a lot of things I enjoyed and some things I could really do without. The main issue with the last third of the book is that this cast is simply too damn large, especially with the books coming out every year or so, and it’s hard to get sad when a character who you can’t really remember well dies. I needed a guide at the start. Also, Naiz marrying one of his emotional support 8-year-olds once she came of age is not something I wanted at all. On the bright side, Miledi and Oscar are handled perfectly, and her execution and subsequent golemification are also done well. There’s even some good horror here, as one of the few bad guys who’s likeable has her soul destroyed so that the big bad can take over her body.

So yeah, not everyone dies, but the majority of the cast die, and Ehit still rules. It’s gonna be up to Hajime and company to fix things. In the meantime, this was a fun yet annoying prequel, just like its heroine.