By Fujino Omori and nilitsu. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Shohenshu” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

Oh goody, another short story collection, the first of two that have been given fancier names to disguise the fact that this is a collection of extra stories mostly written for bookstore exclusives, which means by definition that all of them, with one or two exceptions, not only cannot impact the ongoing narrative but cannot impact any of the character arcs. That said, I am always grateful that we get these anyway, as it’s nice to see the little content that Japanese readers got when they bought the volume at Toranoana, Animate, or Gamers. What’s more, fans of the harem aspect of this series, which usually takes a backseat in the main series to the ongoing “series of fights to the death” plot, will be eating well here. Everyone loves Bell and knows it (except Aiz), and Bell is clueless to everyone’s love but loves Aiz (who is clueless towards him). It’s in the title of the franchise!

Trying to summarize all of these would be impossible – most of them only run two pages or so. They take place over the course of Vol. 1-18 of the main series. Some of the ones that are longer than two pages include Eina and Bell’s first meeting, Hestia trying to be Bell’s supporter in the dungeon, a story taking place right after Bell first starts to become famous and shows off his growth as the smith who made his first knife asks if he can put it in his “hall of fame” section, after Vol. 6, Hestia tries another ball to try to dance with Bell, but it proves very difficult; Fels watches over Hestia Familia during the Xenos arc, and keeps a diary of what they are seeing – which quickly turns into a confessional of a sort, Cassandra makes another effort to get people to believe her right before the disaster that sends Bell and Lyu to the deep levels, Lyu and Bell are forced to drink slimes to survive in the dungeon, and three more that I’ll talk about below.

The three stories that work best here are the ones that actually *are* able to do something with character development. They all take place during the “Freya” arc of the series. Bell is going through enforced date training so he can go out with Syr, and as part of it rescues an Elf in Hermes Familia and tries to be suave as he was taught. It works far, far too well. In the second, we get the POV of Horn during the time when Bell is staying with Freya Familia and she’s manipulating everyone’s memories, which shows both Freya’s guilt and angst over her lot in love as well as her massive tsundere nature over Bell; and in the final, funniest story, Laurier does her own character poll of everyone in Orario, and runs into Horn, who is at loose ends after Freya’s fall. The cat fight they both get into, with Laurier praising Bell so much it makes you sick, and Horn tearing him down as much as possible, is simply fantastic.

That said, overall.. this is a short story collection. For fans only. Join us soon for Vol. 2, which has all the store giveaway stories for Sword Oratoria.

By Fujino Omori and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka? Gaiden – Sword Oratoria” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

It’s been over four years since we last had a volume of Sword Oratoria, though thankfully the next two books in the series are out in Japan, so it shouldn’t be that long all the time. If the first six or so books in the series were an Aiz spinoff, the next six were, on and off, focused on Lefiya. She gets this one as well, serving as an epilogue to her arc, and showing how she’s dealing with Filvis’ death and her part in it. I will admit, I probably did myself a favor reading this book right after a volume of Tanya the Evil. That series, which it can be fascinating, is not one you read for great prose. It’s a military slog. This, on the other hand, absolutely flies by despite being almost 300 pages. Say what you will about Omori, they can write a well-paced volume. What’s more, this takes place at the same time as Vol. 19 in the main series. We’ve finally caught up.

We pick up shortly after the events of the last few books. Lefiya returns to Loki Familia, having cut her long hair short, and now equipping herself with Filvis’ sword. She needs training to get stronger so she can be a magical swordsman, she says, and she chooses to train with Bete, reasoning that he’s the only one who will beat the shit out of her till she gets stronger. Loki, realizing that Lefiya is headed down a dangerous path, instead has her go to the flying School District to scout new students for the Familia. After all, Lefiya came from that school originally. On arrival, interspersed with memories of her time as a student, she learns how to be a teacher, and also continues down her very dangerous path. Fortunately, she’s better at one of these things more than the other.

We do see Bell in this, and yes, Lefiya still hates him. (The Memoria Freese game that’s currently being mined for spinoffs suggests they go back a lot longer than either of them realize.) Lefiya and Bell have been compared and contrasted through the entire Sword Oratoria spinoff, and it’s even more clear here, as Lefiya absolutely throws herself into getting stronger so that she can carry on Filvis’ legacy. The flashbacks suggest that Lefiya lacks a goal, and that adventurers who lack goals end up dead adventurers. She’s honestly pretty terrifying in this, especially in the back half, as we realize that she’s essentially trying to commit suicide by destroying her own identity. Fortunately, the genuine teaching moments she gives to the students in her care (some of whom are older than she is) helps to save her in the end. Lefiya can’t be Filvis no matter how much she loved her (and she says it out loud here). She has to remain Lefiya. Now, at least, she can move forward.

As for the spinoff itself, the next volume moves backwards, and appears to finally show us how Finn, Gareth and Riveria ended up in Loki Familia. Till then, I will finally admit that I’ve stopped disliking Lefiya. She’s gotten good.

By Fujino Omori and Kakage. Released in Japan as “Astrea Record Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jake Humphrey.

There are some pretty nifty scenes in this final book, but in the end, I think I will best remember this series for what it was: an adaptation of a video game spinoff. It suffers a lot from being a prequel, meaning that when we see folks we remember from the main series or Sword Oratoria, we know that they’re going to survive, whereas when we meet new people, we know they have a low chance of it. This volume introduces three older, veteran adventurers from Loki Familia, the ones who were training Finn and company when they were just starting out. They have names, but I could not help but imagine them saying things like “this is my last job, after this I’m retiring and buying a boat”. As for Lyu and her familia, well, we get to see them make a decision that will end up being Very Bad, but for the most part they get to be cool, as they fight to determine what justice is.

The book is basically a 270-page fight, which we are very used to with this author. Everyone is getting their secret weapons ready, including Lyu’s new sword, which is made from the gift of her late friend Ardee… erm, Adi (don’t you hate it when the Japanese publisher tells you the name has a different romanji AFTER you start the series?). First things go very well for our heroes, and very bad for the Evils… then everything swings the other way and all hope is lost… then the cavalry arrives, etc. You know the drill. What we most focus on are Zald and Alfia, who explain why they’re doing all this: failing to defeat the black dragon and having their familias destroyed broke them, and they think the current generation of adventurers suck, so they want to go back to a Golden Age where there were real heroes. Yes, that’s right, it’s the DanMachi version of Invasion of the Dinosaurs from Jon Pertwee’s final series.

I was once again irritated that we were getting a teenage version of moral dilemmas, so was amused when the “main villain” pointed out that this is exactly what it was, and the way to defeat the trolley problem is to come up with ways to defy it and work around it. As for the whole “we want to return to a golden age” thing, it’s also mostly bullshit – as I expected, but which isn’t confirmed until an epilogue, it’s more of a “we are testing you to make sure you are ready to face the strong enemies that are to come, and we must do this by being evil ourselves”. Which, again, is very “for 15-year-olds” logic, like the rest of this spinoff. There are a lot of really cool scenes and character pieces in here, and I liked hearing about Bell’s mother, but in the end this wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped, and was too depressing most of the time.

We’re not done with Lyu yet. The next spinoff will bring us the story that was cut from Book 18 because it was already 600 pages long – Lyu’s journey to see Astrea. I don’t think that comes from a video game plot, so I’m looking forward to it a bit more. Though… hasn’t Lyu become the main heroine in terms of appearances by now?