By Kumo Kagyu and so-bin. Released in Japan as “Blade & Bastard” by Dre Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

I’ve talked before about how a reader should not be angry that their genre book is in a genre. For example, being annoyed that an isekai has people transported to another world seems a bit petty. And I do occasionally have to remind myself of this rule. Blade & Bastard is a series where there’s a lot of mysteries going on behind the scenes that I would like to find out about, and we even get a glimpse of some of them at the start of this book, making me quite happy. But then I am reminded: this is a book whose sole purpose is to advertise the game Wizardry, and it’s never really going to get out of that wheelhouse. As a result, after about 1/3 of a book where we tease stuff we’ve wondered about for a while, it’s back to the dungeons, back to fighting demons and zombies, and of course back to folks dying horribly and needing to be resurrected. Well, hopefully resurrected. There’s a cliffhanger, and some of those folks are still dead.

All the adventurers have been called together, as the Crown Prince is coming, and they all have to at least bow a bit. All except Iarumas’ group, of course – they’re off in the dungeon, and don’t show up. Festin, said crown prince, is somewhat grumpy about this, as he really wanted to see Garbage – and is very ticked off when Garbage finally does show up, and is not very happy either. We also hear a bit about the tragic backstory that every woman in the royal family has – one princess had a demon attack the palace while she was there, one Queen reigned during a hideous calamity, and one queen had her sister turn to evil. And then there’s Garbage, who… well, we keep hinting about what’s going on with Garbage, but that’s all we’re gonna get, still. Because unfortunately, somebody kidnaps the prince and all his maids, and kills all his guards (and also turns them to stone, so I think they’re dead dead). And takes them… to the dungeon, of course.

There’s a large number of folks in this book who have red hair and compelling eyes, the same as the royal family. Not only Prince Festin (who I have used male pronouns for as the book does, but I won’t be surprised if that changes) and Garbage, but also Flack, the monster who is the main antagonist of this book. When they say the royal family is cursed, they’re not kidding. That said, there is some nice character development in amongst all the grim dungeon horror. Aine fails to stop the abduction/murders, and feels very depressed about it (going to, in one of the most surreal moments in the whole series, a fantasy baseball game to clear her head) and Iarumas has to cheer her up. (They still have romantic subtext that likely won’t go anywhere, but it’s very present here.) As for Iarumas, he helps everyone else get character development by dying horribly, meaning the rest of the group has to not only bring his corpse back to be resurrected, but they also want to defeat whoever killed him. They’re getting strong. Even if they all deny it.

If you like dungeon crawl fights featuring every stereotype in the book, this remains a fast, compelling read. We’re caught up again, though, so have patience.

By Kumo Kagyu and so-bin. Released in Japan as “Blade & Bastard” by Dre Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

This was better than the last volume, possibly as it’s a short story collection disguised as a novel. The stories are vaguely interconnected, except for the first one, and are all related to the aftermath of the third book. Iarumas is in deep thought, so is not going into the dungeons, leading the rest of the cast to try to go in without him. They’re helped by some eccentric new cast members, of course, who may or may not stick around. (I’m sure the twins will, not so sure about the chuuni.) And of course, in case you’d forgotten, Aine is not doing anything at all in this book, as she lost both her arms in the last volume. That said, this turns out to be what Iarumas is in deep thought about, so hopefully we can do something about it. Mostly, though, this is a book that allows Orlaya to step up and show that she’s likely to be the second protagonist going forward.

As I said, this starts off looking like a short story collection, as we get a flashback showing how the All-Stars got together and what Sezmar was like when he first got to the city. After that, we follow Schumacher with a party of his own, including twins who “came back wrong” after resurrection and a ninja thief who seems to be really into her role but rapidly finds the dungeon is not a place where she can pretend to be Megumin. We then get a short comedic chapter from the POV of Garbage’s new sword, which is the funniest chapter in the book. Then Iarumas goes hunting in the dungeon for something, but doesn’t quite find it. The last two chapters are interconnected, as the main team, minus Iarumas and Aine but plus the twins (now slightly less wrong) and the ninja go hunting and find a pool with a rubber duck… which may be exactly what Iarumas wants.

As always, the new characters are a) interesting, and b) the author’s barely disguised fetish. In this case it is twins, Rahm-and-Sahm, who are now half and half each other thanks to a botched resurrection. They’re weird and stoic. Then, later in the book, they get a lot more vibrant… and a lot more annoying, having apparently come to terms with basically being each other and deciding they’re OK with it. The other new character is Shadowwind, who as I said sounded like a Crimson Demon when she first arrived, but the dangers of the dungeon shut her up fairly quickly, and by the end of the book she’s gored in the throat (which she survives) and blown up by an exploding trap (which she does not). She’ll be resurrected, but I’m not sure we’ll see her again. She’s just not as… interesting as twins who are each wearing the other half of their twin. And again, by “interesting” I mean “the author’s basely disguised fetish”.

The regulars do all get a lot to do, and Orlaya in particular shows off her skills as more than just “another love interest for Raraja”, so rest assured. And yeah, sorry to spoil, but Aine gets her arms back. I could see the author trying to decide between “battle-crazed nun with a sword” and “amputee nun” for hours before making the decision, and fortunately they made the right one. Next time, royal intrigue? More of Princess Garbage? We shall see.

By Kumo Kagyu and so-bin. Released in Japan as “Blade & Bastard” by Dre Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sean McCann.

One of the frustrating things about this series is that it is obviously written for middle-aged men who grew up in the 1980s playing Wizardry and want to see the author mess around in that world. At the same time, it has the sort of set pieces that can only really be deeply enjoyed by fourteen year olds who love edgy torture scenes and constant rape threats by bad guys who are eeeeeeevil, just super, duper, ooper evil. You can tell because of the rape threats. No one is actually raped here, though it’s implied in the backstory of one character, but certainly this is a series that wants you to know that it’s not afraid to shock and offend you. Unfortunately, I wrote things like this when I was in my early twenties, so all it does is make me cringe and want to desperately be reading anything else. The core of Blade & Bastard is still interesting, it’s just the execution I don’t like.

The book starts off with a real tragedy: Garbage breaks her beloved huge-ass broadsword. She goes off to get a replacement, but none of them appeal to her, and she’s left with a “Cuisinart”, a blade that is certainly good but far too light for her, and it also spins around. (The joke is somewhat obvious.) As for Raraja, he’s watching everyone else take on the dungeon every day and still trying to find a purpose beyond “locate the girl I used to adventure with whose corpse is presumably somewhere in the dungeon”. How fortunate for him that he’s met by his old bully, Goerz, who says he has that EXACT info, and will give it to Raraja if he just does one little job in the dungeon for him. Raraja knows it’s probably a trap, but goes along with it anyway, because information and a death trap is better than no information. Sadly, he’s underestimated how evil Goerz really is.

So yeah, this is a harem series. New book, new girl, and yes, it’s the girl who Raraja has been searching for who turns out to not be dead but merely wishes she was. Orlaya has some special abilities, and thus has been used by everyone around her to the point where she’s grown extremely bitter, cynical and disillusioned, and thus 100% rejects any help Raraja might be offering. Last time I said that every girl in this series was the author’s barely disguised fetish, and that applies here, as Orlaya is missing an eye, gets stuck inside a meat machine that basically spews out monsters with her as the center, and generally defines the word “woobie”. Oh yes, and as if this weren’t cliched enough, after being saved by Raraja (duh), she walks up to the huge stacked Berkanan and says “I won’t lose!”, as if Blade & Bastard suddenly became Love Hina.

So yeah, I was mostly unhappy. That said, there are good bits here. Most of Garbage’s plotline, including a few more tasty backstory bits, is excellent. Aine gets to be a cool sword-swinging nun, even if she also gets a pile of rape threats and also loses both hands. And Iarumas almost has an emotion. Still, this book’s main audience is for those who think there’s no such thing as too much black paint.