By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I had not realized that it had been over a year since the last volume of Rokujouma. The author apparently had heart issues that left them in the hospital for a while. As such, it’s something of a relief to hear that the series is coming to a close soon – thought I’ll take “soon” with a grain of salt, given I originally thought this was gonna end at Volume 29. This is also the 50th book in the series, counting the two .5 volumes, and I was wondering if we’d get an old-fashioned short story volume of fluff to celebrate. But no, we’re in the middle of the big final arc, and there’s no time for delays. As such, the bulk of this book is something that can be fun to read about but is very difficult to review: it’s strategizing and fighting, as our heroes try to rescue Kenji and Nalfa from the clutches of the Gray Knight. That said, if I’m being honest, having Kenji around may be just what the Gray Knight needs right now.

Kenji has figured out who the Gray Knight is, and is trying to see what makes him tick… as well as get a little more freedom so that he can check on Nalfa, who spends most of this volume asleep or depressed. Also depressed is Koutarou, who is dwelling a lot more than he should. Fortunately, although a lot of contingency plans failed, and some people even died, Clan’s last contingency plan worked, and they can mount a rescue mission much quicker than the enemy might expect. They end up on a planet that seems ready for battle, with drones galore, automatic defenses, and reinforcements coming – for the Gray Knight. So things are not looking great. Fortunately, Koutarou not only has a harem, but it’s a Battle Harem, so he and the girls are all in sync with each other and ready to kick ass and rescue their friends!… maybe.

While it’s always nice to see the girls again, and I enjoyed seeing Sanae, Shizuka and Theia kicking ass, and Maki and Nana being really clever, the most interesting parts of the book revolved around the hostages. Kenji knows that the Gray Knight is really Koutarou from an alternate world, but is trying to figure out how he ended up the way that he did. We’re reminded that Koutarou has the power of eight dead girlfriends at his beck and call, with only Sanae (yeah, remember alt-Sanae? It seems so long ago) missing, and we have assumed, to be honest, that the major point of divergence was that something went wrong and he lost nearly everyone. But that’s not the case, as we find out here. This is a Koutarou that grew up without KENJI. A Koutarou that never ended up trusting anyone because he never had that first crack that made him begin to open up. That’s really fascinating. And it helps me accept the fact that in the end we read 160 pages of fighting back only to achieve very little. They’re still hostages, and will be as long as Kenji gets to play therapist.

There won’t be nearly as long a wait for the next book, though that will catch us up with Japan again. Stay healthy, author!

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I’ve talked before – in fact, I think it was the last review – about how this series started as a romantic comedy and then became a battle manga, but really, this is shonen in every possibly way. Its entire reason for being is “whatever teenage boys want”, be that a series where about a dozen different women all fall for the hero, or a space battle with lots of pew-pew light shows. Here we also see that it’s a baseball series much of the time, as Koutarou and Kenji end up experimenting with psychic powers and pitching. And it’s also a giant robot show, as the new, extra special Blue Knight craft is a literal transforming giant robot, mostly as everyone thinks it’s really cool. About the only thing this doesn’t have that a teenage boy would want is fanservice – frankly, this remains one of the most G-rated series ever. As for the volume itself? It’s one of those “win the battle, lose the war” type books.

After a brief downtime in which, as noted, Koutarou experiments with super-powered baseball, and Nalfa tries to work up the courage to nudge her way into this polycule, everyone heads over to the debut of the brand new battleship, which is absolutely huge, has all the new bells and whistles, and inspires a spirited conversation about what the difference is between the bridge and the sub-bridge. Immediately after its inauguration, though, there’s an emergency, and they have to go off to rescue an embattled outpost. Unfortunately, this all turns out to be a plot devised by the Grey Knight. In fact, it’s three different plots devised by the Grey Knight, and while two of them fail, the most important one does not. Now Koutarou is going to have to go to war with… well, let’s face it, the reader has known who the Grey Knight really is for a while now.

After several books where she was barely present, I am delighted to announce the return of the “Yurika Watch”, where I gush about my favorite character some more. I had to laugh that we got the “he he, Yurika is goofy comedy relief” scene over with within half a page, but it’s a good thing we did, as she really has to pull out all the stops this time around. Of note, every time she’s serious and planning ahead, the others look concerned (with the exception of Nana). Yurika being an airhead is their bellwether of “all is well”, so seeing her this competent and skilled makes them a bit sad. Not me, though, praise her more. The others all do well, of course, and everyone gets to show off their fighting skills. Unfortunately, their desire to get the non-combatants out of the action comes back to bite them in the ass. On the bright side, it might allow Nalfa to find a way into that polycule a bit faster once this is over.

I hate to say this, kids – we’re caught up with Japan. Fortunately, this was a very good volume to go out on. The next book is the 50th, counting the two .5 volumes, so I expect they want to do something special.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

This series has a lot of influences, of course, but I have to wonder if one of them might have been Mahou Sensei Negima. A series that famously started when Ken Akamatsu wanted to write a shonen battle manga but his publisher told him to do another fanservicey harem comedy, he ended up tricking them by starting off as a harem and then gradually over the course of the series moving it to a battle manga anyway. Takehaya may also be thinking along those lines, though I don’t know if they’re getting any pressure from Hobby Japan. This is a series that started off as a mishmash of genres, but above all it was a comedy harem series, and most of its action revolves around a bunch of girls trying to win over a clueless guy. Now, 48 volumes later, the girls are all banding together to potentially sacrifice their own life just to make sure that he doesn’t have to have a mental breakdown by fighting in a long, drawn-out war. It’s just a BIT different.

Maxfern has come up with a clever plan. (Well, not really, Maxfern has behaved like a cartoon villain, but there is, at least, a plan.) Everyone knows that the brains behind the giant polycule that is the Blue Knight’s allies are Kiriha, Clan and Ruth. As a result, killing them off would not only devastate him but also get rid of all of their schemers and planners at once! It just so happens that they’re all flying to a conference by themselves, so it’s the perfect opportunity! The Grey Knight seems a bit more doubtful, but he hasn’t done anything lately! Strike while the iron is hot! It’s just, um, they are going up against three women known for being clever. it’s just POSSIBLE that they’re the ones walking into a trap.

Sorry for spoiling the early reveal, but I don’t count it as a spoiler if you can figure it out immediately: Kiriha, Clan and Ruth planned this, without telling Koutarou, in order to try to scope out Maxfern’s position and hopefully shorten the time needed to wage war. There is a brief moment when they’re in actual danger, but for the most part we’re not too worried. I suspect far more dangerous things will happen in the next book, which promises to be more Grey Knight-focused. Oh yes, and technically Koutarou proposes. Well, not really. He’s manipulated into saying he wants to spend the rest of his life with the girls. But they take it as a big victory. So there’s still a BIT of romcom to this. But for the most part this is another relatively serious volume, as it has been ever since Maxfern’s takeover. I think the humor is being saved for the short story books.

Surprisingly, we get a third book in a row with actual plot next time. Perhaps the author is trying to wrap things up with vol. 50? Till then, if you haven’t read any of this series to date, Vol. 46 is definitely not the one to start with.