By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

So let’s get the bad news out of the way, and it’s not really a spoiler. This volume came out in Japan on the same day as the 11th and final volume did, and they are clearly meant to be read as a pair – the author even says so in the afterword, which at least Yen translates properly. Unfortunately, that’s not Yen’s policy. On the bright side, the 11th and final volume *is* on the schedule, so we know vaguely when it will be coming out – six months from now. So you are reading half a book, and the ending is very abrupt. On the bright side, we’re pretty much in the home stretch, and as such the author does not have to faff around and delay things until the second half of the book as they normally do. This is a very solid volume, possibly the best to date, and folks who do choose to read it now and then wait will be quite satisfied. Lots of folks are cool, even the ones who don’t think they will be.

After the events of the last book, Menou is back to normal, Akari is back to normal, and Momo is cranky. Which is to say, she’s as normal as ever. Heck, even Ashuna, after making me worry for the cliffhanger of the last book, is pretty much back to normal. Which is good, as they’ll need everyone at their best to try to deal with both Hakua and Pandæmonium. It’s time to plan. Unfortunately, after the events of the last few books, Akari is no longer in control of time, but she can do a few things. Momo, of course, can kick ass. Sahara… exists. And then there’s Maya, who has the perfect plan – sacrifice herself to get rid of Pandæmonium. It *is* a sensible plan if you support the needs of the many philosophy, but after watching Menou do the same thing recently, I don’t think it’s where we want to go. They do have a complicated plan, which will send Pandæmonium back to Japan… leaving them to fight Hakua. Who decides to show Akari her tragic backstory.

I’ve made no secret of my favorite character in this series, and I was absolutely over the moon with how she was handled here. Sahara is grumpy and dour and wants to run away, and that doesn’t change. She also hates herself, as she’s made explicitly clear in this volume. But there is one thing that has changed, and that’s what makes her – finally – take a stand and fight. As for Menou and Akari, they’re both clearly still in love, much to Momo’s displeasure, but Hakua has just as much a right to Akari, seeing as they knew each other in Japan. Hakua’s backstory has a lot of stuff we suspected or could guess – and there’s some really disturbing stuff that does right back to the gimmick this series became known for – but it also shows how these powers everyone has are too easily corruptible. Gotta do something about that.

But we gotta wait, even if in Japan could could just reach for the next book. So goes life. This is a top-notch entry in the series, though.

By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

Well, back to reality. After a volume where I actually managed to enjoy it from beginning to end, we’re back to business as usual for The Executioner and Her Way of Life. The first 40% or so of this book is absolutely dire, and I was once again wondering why I had not dropped the series. The difficulty is that most of the people who remain in the cast are profoundly unlikable and selfish, and it’s not fun to read about them. This is also a book whose plot synopsis can best be summed up as “everyone is ignoring everyone else’s feelings and desires for the sake of their own”. Now, frequently this is understandable. The color soldiers are looking for a new homeland, and worry that this will cause the humans to try to eradicate them. (Correctly.) And Menou’s grand plan for saving Akari amounts to “kill myself”, so it’s not surprising that Momo is not down with that. Everyone is, frankly, at the end of their tether, and it shows.

Menou, Maya, and Sahara have fled to the Mechanical Society with Abbie’s help, but Michele, Momo and Hooseyard are hot on their trail, and trying to work out a way to break in there. Menou’s goal is the Starseed, but things prove more complicated than expected when they discover that another one of the Four Evils, Gadou, is still alive. After dealing with the fact that Gadou has literal split personalities, Menou puts her plan into action, despite the fact that her memory has gotten so bad that she’s forgotten Flare, Momo, and everything else about her past. Momo, meanwhile, has an Akari-in-a-Box, and a plan to get Menou and Akari both back with their memories attached, but this plan sort of relies on killing Menou first. Just for a bit. A little killing.

This book really does get good in the second half, as everyone starts to fight for their lives and their goals, and realize that there’s no way that everyone can end this alive. Indeed, Menou’s self-hatred and death wish is about all that’s fueling her now, and it helps the reader to sympathize with Momo a great deal, even when she tries to solve a problem by taking Akari from her luggage and hurling her at Menou’s head. Momo and Akari still hate each other, for obvious reasons. That said, Momo’s plan wouldn’t have worked without Akari, so they can at least be grateful for that. By the end of this book, most of the cast are almost back to normal and we’re at the end of the arc. If only Ashuna were back in the series I’d be perfectly happy. (Monkey’s Paw twitches) Oh no…

So yeah, Ashuna is the cliffhanger, and I am no longer happy. I suspect in this world that runs on war, death, and genocide, a lot of other people aren’t going to be happy either. Still, at least with Menou and Akari back to normal, there’s potential for more yuri in Book 10. Recommended, but be prepared for the traditional slow start. Also, warning, this book contains Hooseyard, and she’s still really annoying.

By Mato Sato and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

First of all, big props to the author for actually keeping my attention through the first half of this volume. I’ve talked before about how the first half of these recent books have all been dire, so this is a definite step up. More seriously, I also noticed while reading this volume how compact the cast list is. This is basically a variation of shonen battle manga, in a sci-fi sort of vein, and each volume needs to escalate the danger because our heroes need a bigger threat. But the threats we’re seeing have been around since the start, they’re just coming back because everyone in this series is damn near impossible to permanently kill. Hell, even one of the cast from a thousand years ago is a supporting character in this book due to (handwaves) reasons. The “new” antagonist who threatens our heroines with bigger and bigger guns turns out to have been accidentally stifled by Sahara four books ago, and she doesn’t even remember it. So sad.

Menou, Abbie, Sahara and Maya have arrives in the wilds of the north, where they come across the stunning city of ruins, which is not only still intact after so long but is also technically TWO cities… there’s a second one upside down above the first. Unfortunately, they can’t simply sit around and watch terrible movies about sharks in space – not only is one of the biggest mobster bad guys around trying to kill the woman who killed off Flare, for tragic backstory reasons, but also Pandaemonium is here somewhere as well, and Maya, for obvious reasons, wants to try to stop her. Fortunately, the four of them have some help in the form of an ally thought long dead. UN-fortunately, Momo is there as well, and she’s got her own agenda, one that Menou really isn’t going to like.

As usual, I loved Sahara here, who continues to be forced to care and be heroic against her will. The final scene where she takes out one of the big bads because, among many other reasons, she never got breakfast OR lunch today is hilarious but also dead on. Sometimes you’ve got to let compassion fall by the wayside because you’re too cranky. More impressively, I really enjoyed reading Menou in this book. I’ve made no secret about the fact that Menou is my least favorite of the many “good guys” in this series, but here she’s given subtext that makes you pay attention to her – she’s losing more and more of her self. She’s already forgotten everything about Momo, which does not bode well for when the two inevitably meet up again, but seeing her casually take a scripture because she can’t remember why she wouldn’t be using one is chilling because she REMINDS us why earlier in the book. She’s falling to bits. Still not optimistic this will end with any of the main cast alive.

The yuri may be thin on the ground these days, but it IS driving most of the character motivation deep down, so that’s fine. This was good. I look forward to the 9th book. Which only came out in Japan 6 months ago, so we may have to wait more.