By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

As we are nearing the end of the series, it’s nice to see that it has actual character development for multiple people and is not just “they got stronger, so that is their character development”. We see that Kiba is still filled with righteous fury over his past. We see that Asia still struggles with self-confidence issues, even though she’s now the president of the Occult Research Club. And then there’s the cover girl for this volume, Xenovia. When she arrived, she was the sort to just go all Leeroy Jenkins on whatever problems she had. But over the course of the last several books, we’ve seen her try to grow from that and apply actual strategy, sometimes even using different weapons or trying other ways to attack. So one of the best jokes in the entire book comes near the end, when she’s told “no, that’s not what the real Xenovia is. You need to not think more. You just charging ahead is MORE effective because it is you.” And it’s true. Xenovia is all vibe.

As Xenovia prepares for student council elections, where she’s running against Sona’s hand-picked candidate, the cast is met with a new crisis. After the events of the last book, a considerable portion of folks on the side of the angels – literally – are very unhappy with the whole “make peace with demons” thing, and believe the only good demon is dead. Which, to be fair, these are mostly the ones who had demons kill everyone they loved. They’re also led by three cardinals – a really strong one, a really strategic one, and a mascot kid. OK, he’s also really powerful, but that’s not a role he serves here. They’ve decided to attack DxD, who are basically a symbol of everyone they hate. As such, try to contain your shock, the back half of this book is one big fight.

One thing I really liked about this book, one of the better ones in the series, is that the fight is very performative. It’s a fight that has to happen to teach a lesson, rather than one that has to end with one side dead or near dead. (We get that in the cliffhanger, to be fair.) And the cardinals not only accept Irina, Xenovia and Asia working for the other side, but they’re still happy to see them. Kiba finding out he’s not the sole survivor of sword experimentation, and Asia getting all her fan mail delivered to her at long last, these are really heartwarming scenes, and they were great to see. As for Xenovia, as the author notes, she’s in “Cool” mode here rather than “Cute”. Her speech to the school, where she had something well-prepared but kinda dull and decided to ditch that and wing it, is also very her. And an “I love this school” student council election speech is, of course, very shonen, just like this series.

Unfortunately, Ravel is now dead. Right? I’m sure that must be what happened. Also, the afterword says the next book will be a new spinoff devoted to short stories, but I don’t know if Yen Press will agree. We shall see. In the meantime you do you, Xenovia.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Yes, that’s right, we finally get a volume dedicated to Irina… well, a bit. She’s still not really getting as much screen time as the main cast, but at least there are events here that rely on her being who she is, which is a step up from “random girl says dialogue X”, her role in the last eight or nine books. Irina is very fortunate in that this is a harem series that we already know is going to end with multiple wives, and therefore she should be fine. Because really, she is the definition of the Unlucky Childhood Friend from these romcoms, the sort who shows up again and the hero doesn’t even remember much about them. Or mistakes them for a boy. Fortunately, Issei’s memory is getting better, and the two of them have possibly the second sweetest relationship in this entire series. (Asia still exists.) Unfortunately, since he’s a demon adn she’s an angel, sex is out of the question, right? Well, surely there are ways around that…

So here it is, Merry Christmas, everybody’s having fun. And looking to the future, of course, because it’s only just begun. Issei and company are getting ready to celebrate the holiday by giving out presents to folks in the town, which has started to get a bit hammered by constant demon vs. demon battles. Helping out in this will be Irina’s father, who is a higher-up in the Church and is very much in favor of Issei x Irina – to the point that he and heaven have developed a separate dimension just for her and Issei to safely get it on. Unfortunately, sex will have to wait, not just because this is the sort of series that only relies on edging the reader, but also because someone is going around killing Church personnel, and it turns out to be connected to a cover-up in the past. One that might impact Issei and Rias in the future.

I’d mentioned in the last couple of reviews that Issei was getting a bit less perverse, and clearly the author noticed this as well, because it’s lampshaded here, with people wondering why he wasn’t busting out the humiliating sexist moves on his female opponents. But it’s because Issei, like the rest of the cast, is getting better at fighting, and can usually skate by with just punching things really hard like a normal shonen battle manga. As for Irina, she’s here to be the shiny innocent one – indeed, that’s ALSO lampshaded, as Michael says the reason that he picked her to head up his angel task force is she’s so kind and pure and etc. And dull, frankly, but they can’t ALL be like Akeno. As for the plot, well, erm, bad guys doing very well, actually. In terms of the fights the good guys win because they coordinate, but in terms of results achieved, not great.

We’re heading closer to the end of the series (I’ll believe Yen has the spinoffs and sequels planned when I see it). Asia’s the new club president. And so now it’s time for Xenovia to see if she can also become president… student council president. That is if the world doesn’t end first. We’ll find out!

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

This is a shonen series, as I’ve said many times before, and one of the ways that it is most like a shonen series is that the cast is simply too damn large. And no, I don’t just mean trying to remember that minor villain from 7 books ago who pops up again, I mean that I actually had to use the wiki to remind myself about Rossweisse, who’s been around since Book 4 or 5 but who doesn’t stick in my head quite as much as everyone else in Issei’s orbit. This is definitely a series where you think “Thank God there’s a wiki page”. That said, I’m not all that sure that failing to remember exactly who someone is matters all that much at this stage. There are the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys want to do good things and protect people. the bad guys want to do bad things and kill people. Hell, the entire motive rant of the main antagonist here is “I want demons to be seen as bad guys”. Very shonen indeed.

As Issei and the women in his orbit enjoy a nice bath together, Rossweisse comes to them to ask for a favor: she needs Issei to pretend to be her boyfriend. She’s getting a lot more family pressure, especially from her grandmother, to get married and have children, and this will help to delay that a bit (and, of course, she’s got the hots for Issei as well). It becomes more relevant when the main cast all visit Sona’s new school, one that teaches all demons rather than just the rich or powerful ones. This is a controversial school right from the get-go, as you’d expect. Unfortunately, in addition to people disliking the concept of the school, there’s something else going on: mages are being kidnapped, and they’ve all got one thing in common: they’ve researched the Number of the Beast. As has Rossweisse.

This volume is relatively light on erotic aspects, at least from Issei himself. Asia’s dragon going full Gordon Ramsay on everyone showing the best way to cook and eat Asia’s panties was probably enough, frankly. Plus this book is very much about the fighting. Issei is still too intuitive and relying on “punch everything hard”, but he’s gotten better, and we see his analysis of things has grown leaps and bounds since the first few books. He also gets to work together with some former enemies, including Sairaorg, who is frankly Buff Issei, and also likes to punch things. As for Rossweisse, she’s realized she loves being a teacher, which is good, and I hope that we’ll see more of her with the main harem girls so that I don’t have to look her up again. That said, she struggles to stand out among the heroines even in her own focus book, so that’s not all too surprising.

Apparently next volume will see the demise of my running gag, as it apparently *is* an Irina focused book, where everyone goes to Heaven. Till then, boy, this has a lot of characters and fighting.