By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Bofuri is, in the end, a series about what goes on inside a VRMMO, and most readers are here to follow the fun antics of Maple and Sally. Now, there are real players involved here, Kaede and Risa, and we have seen them on occasion. But we rarely have a chance to be in their heads for more than a couple of pages before we’re back in the gaming world seeing Maple eat a giant lump of poison. The series began with a brief mention that Risa had tried to get Kaede into some other games, but nothing clicked till New World Online. This volume, however, very definitely says the end is near. And as a result, we’re getting a little (very little) background into Kaede and Risa. Which is good! But given it’s the real world, we may actually get some real-life drama in Bofuri, the anti-consequences series. As frankly, Risa is starting to get very desperate about gaming with Kaede as much as possible before it’s too late.

Last time I said there would be an after-event recap of some sort, but nope. We’re straight into more gaming, as everyone goes around clearing dungeons, battling new monsters, and preparing for the 10th stratum. When that’s finally revealed, it’s shown to be the previous nine floors all in one – each section is one of the prior floors. The goal here is to Kill The Demon Lord, so Maple and Sally and the rest of Maple Tree start investigating to figure out how to do that. And they want to do it fast, as Maple and Sally have made things clear at last: they’re going to be third-year high school students soon, which means the days of gaming for hours a day are gone forever. It’s time to start getting serious about college.

It’s been clear from a while ago, and is made more explicit here, that Sally wants to fight Maple in a PvP battle, but holds off as she knows Maple doesn’t enjoy those. Maple is aware of this, though, and as their deadline draws near she’s starting to dwell on it more. She has no trouble fighting (and destroying) Frederica, mind you, but Sally is different. Back in the real world, not only is Risa anxious about those halcyon days with Kaede ending forever, but there’s also implications about Kaede’s past. We’d guessed that they’d been friends since they were kids, which is mentioned here without any detail. But now we hear how much Maple has changed since starting New World Online, and that she had never been so excited or enjoyed herself so much before. I want to know more about this! What was pre-Bofuri Kaede like? Was she bullied? Was she introverted? What’s going on here? And is there anything besides her latent crush and possibly different colleges that is the reason Risa is so desperate to enjoy this time with Kaede while she can?

There’s so much story I want to know about, and we get more of it here than most other volumes. But there’s still very little of it. Trust me, if you want to see Maple create poison copies of herself that explode, you’re also in the right place. Next time, probably more grinding and investigation.

By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Generally speaking, when a series has a volume that consists of nothing but battle scenes, I tend to groan and whine a lot. Battle scenes are hard to review beyond “yup, they sure did hit each other hard”. Strangely, though, I don’t really mind the ones that happen in Bofuri. Part of it is Bofuri’s a game, as opposed to endless “fantasy world that just happens to have game stats”, so I really don’t need to be concerned when a character I like dies. But the other reason is that I trust this author’s style. It’s fast-paced – the action really does not stop for a minute in this volume. And it’s short, so that I don’t need to worry about this taking 600 pages like some OTHER action driven series. Congratulations, Maple, you’re better than Bell at this. As for who the winner is… well, the event does end, but any aftermath will need to wait for Book 16.

This is the climax of the event, and there’s a lot going on. Maple shows off some death from above with mysterious acid rain. The group try out various strategies, but given the enemy has the Best Snipers Ever, as well as Naruto and Hinata… pardon me, Velvet and Hinata, Maple is in danger from this. So the best thing to do is to literally shove her in a box till she’s needed. The twins are separated, but each of them manages a suicide attack that devastates the enemy forces. Marx gets to briefly be cool before dying. Kasumi gets to briefly be cool before dying. Kanade gets to briefly be cool before dying. OK, maybe I was right to worry about writing this review.

And then there’s Maple and Sally. As I write this, the webnovel version of Bofuri came to a close two days ago, and the light novel will wrap up with the 20th volume next month. We’re a ways away from that ending, but I think I can be fairly confident how it’s going to wrap up. Maple and Sally have been the focus of the series fro0m the start, and as the books go on that’s become even more apparent – this is not a series that is just “what crazy shit will Maple come up with next?” This book is all about showing us just how utterly, utterly broken Sally is, how she’s just as terrifying as Maple if not more so, and that it’s even more impressive because while Maple’s play style mostly runs on her instincts, Sally’s is calculated to the last microsecond, allowing her to do the impossible while fooling people into thinking she can go BEYOND the impossible. Also, she is 100% gay for Maple.

The next volume should give an after-event recap of this arc, but more importantly, I think it will begin the climax that will take up the last quarter of the series. Can Maple and Sally get to the 10th Strata without finally being killed off? And can they continue to make everyone stare at them with their jaw dropped?

By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know when I say that this series entirely revolves around its star. Maple is why people read this series, and for the most part Maple is omnipresent throughout this series. Even the PVP events have been heavily Maple-centric, and several books have mostly just featured her and Sally taking over the narrative for 2/3 of the pages. So it was something of a surprise to see that this is easily the most balanced book in the entire series when it comes to the increasingly huge cast. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Maple is here throughout, and gets several things to do that cause people’s jaws to drop. But she’s hanging out with a bunch of other people who also have ridiculous moves, and not just the folks from Maple Tree. This is a book that spotlights its cast so much that even Frederica, who has made her entire name in this series by being second-best to Sally and whining, gets to be cool and powerful.

We’ve started the new PvP event. On one side: Maple Tree and the Order of the Holy Sword, plus a lot of other guilds who, honestly, are there to be cannon fodder. On the opposite side, we have Flame Empire, Rapid Fire, and Thunder Storm. Oddly, Maple is the one on the fire side, with all the monsters, while fire expert Mii is on the human side. What follows is a series of battles, usually featuring our main cast taking care of business pretty easily, followed by a back half of a big battle royale, where our main cast have a much harder time, and the correct answer may be “when is the correct time to run away without getting killed?”. And worst of all, this is a two-parter, so we don’t even get the closure of knowing who won in this book.

So yes, there’s less Maple in this book, but that’s not to say she doesn’t get her usual moments. For those who want “cool Maple”, the shot of her, with both white angel wins and black demon wings, wearing her halo and standing on a ledge looking like the wrath of God, is a treat. For those who love funny Maple, combining the Sheep Mode with Mai and Yui to give hapless players a rapid transit system is well worth the money. Speaking of Mai and Yui, it’s become pretty clear that after Maple and Sally, they’re the most dangerous ones in the party, and they too get “oh my GOD!” moments here that are both awesome and yet still kind of funny. (Every Mai and Yui joke is a variation on “when all you have is a hammer”.) This is a 100% game book, with not a Kaede or Risa to be found anywhere, and it moves at a fast pace. Even Pain manages to be interesting!… OK, that’s a lie. The author isn’t *that* good.

So yes, very Maple, much fight. Bring on the conclusion.