By Heiseiowari and Noy. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Saikyou Shu-tachi ga Sumau Shima deshita. Kono Shima de Slow Life wo Tanoshimimasu” by SQEX Novel. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alex Castor.

There have been a lot of amnesia plots over the years, and one of the more popular has always been “what if a bad person gets amnesia and ends up being really good?”. Now, the person affected here is not exactly a villain per se, but the previous few books have certainly featured her as a sort of mentor from hell, and all the magical folks seem to have a twitchy reaction when her name is brought up. As such, the most interesting part of this book is not the reaction of everyone else to the amnesia, but the reaction of the amnesiac to everyone else. Because it also hits on another popular plot line for amnesia stories, which is the person not really wanting to get their memories back. For the moment, they have their wish, but I’m not sure that will fly in the long run. Especially when Mina tells us who they actually are.

After the events of the last book, it’s not much of a surprise when Arata goes down to the shore and finds a woman there on the beach. Unfortunately, she’s forgotten who she was, and takes on the name Nanashi briefly. But that’s OK,everyone ELSE knows who she is – Edinburgh Emil Edelheid, the most powerful magician in the world. The trouble is that while Reina and the others have many stories of what she was like as a teacher – terrifying – all Arata can see is this nice woman who enjoys playing with his daughter. After a while they gather the other Celestial Mages and the Hero’s Party, and everyone arrives at Arata and Reina’s place – leading her to realize that they need more houses. Meanwhile, remember the gorgeous ogre girl from the last book? Well, her brother now knows who she’s in love with, and he’s reacting like the way a teenage overprotective brother would. Is a big fight really the best way to resolve all this?

I mean, given this cast, yes, it pretty much is, but it also requires Sakuya to confess, which she does almost by accident. I do actually wonder if we’re ever going to leave the Isle again – the cast members that we were flashing over to the mainland to see are now all basically here. Sakuya’s won the heart of her man. Arata and Reina are still not having sex, but everyone treats them as if they are. Tailtiu has made it very clear Arata is not going to have only one wife. And the hero’s party are a polycule, they just don’t know it yet. They even buy a house – well, build a house. There are still a few things left to resolve on the island, notably the High Elves, who show Arata a horrible island-killing problem and then tell him “we’re dealing with it, go away”, but for the most part… why not just get married and live happily ever after?

Because there are five more books to go, that’s why. Still, this remains a solid “OP guy constantly insists he’s normal” series.

By Heiseiowari and Noy. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Saikyou Shu-tachi ga Sumau Shima deshita. Kono Shima de Slow Life wo Tanoshimimasu” by SQEX Novel. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alex Castor.

I was talking online about how comfy and relaxing I found this series, and someone pointed out some quotes I made while reading the first book that talked about how tired and cliched it was. And of course both things are correct. There’s nothing here that’s going to make you say “wow, that’s something I’ve never seen before” or “didn’t expect them to react like that!”. But it’s like a nice meat and potato stew in the middle of winter. There’s meat. There’s potatoes. There’s carrots. And that’s about it. You don’t really want much else. We’ve got lots of Arata and Reina being married in all but name but still too shy to do anything about it. They’re raising their adopted daughter, adopted niece, and girl who’s still a bit too loli to get into the harem sweepstakes but she’s working on it. And, of course, we have today’s cover star, the blonde vampire who is hundreds of years old. She’s exactly what you think as well. Thank goodness.

It is pointed out to Arata that while he visited the dragonfolk village, he hasn’t yet visited the ogrefolk village, so he and the rest of his family decide to do just that. There they find that it’s essentially a Japanese hot springs town, and the ogre vibe is so “Japan” that Arata is somewhat overwhelmed by the whole thing. He meets Sakuya, the sister of the ogre he met in previous books, and thankfully she’s not falling for him – though she does help accidentally facilitate the big fanservice scene of the book. A problem comes up, though, when Luna, who is hitting puberty but still can’t remember her ancestor (the trigger for it in this series), winds up possessed, then dying, then back to normal but occasionally possessed again. And then there’s Mina, who’s spent three volumes tormenting our main couple but it’s been hiding her true desires – and Arata wants to give them to her.

There’s some nice backstory for Mina here, which doesn’t tell us anything we hadn’t guessed but does help to set up the big problem. Arata’s wish is to have everyone on the island gather together in peace for a big banquet. Mina is a vampire who wants a really, really really good fight, so that she can finally die. These two are fundamentally incompatible, but this is basically a shonen series, so the outcome of their fight should not surprise you. Honestly, as blonde vampires go, Mina is on the nicer side all round, though Arata and Reina may disagree after she tries to seduce Arata in Reina’s body… and we’re told that she does the same for Reina in Arata’s body. I like to think of that as Mina being a stand in for the reader, who wants to knock their heads together and say “You two need to fuck”. As for the rest of the book, it’s cute. It’s relaxing. It’s uneventful, mostly.

That said, a large number of additional cast may hit in the next volume. We’ll see if that stirs the pot any. Till then, I’ve come to like this quite a bit.

By Heiseiowari and Noy. Released in Japan as “Tenseishitara Saikyou Shu-tachi ga Sumau Shima deshita. Kono Shima de Slow Life wo Tanoshimimasu” by SQEX Novel. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alex Castor.

This is a slow-life series that has things happening, but it can be a bit difficult to review as, due to its nature, deep character development is just not on the table. The closest Arata gets to it are his struggles to fight back against everyone judging him by his god-like powers and insisting he’s human, and even he is half-hearted about it. There is a more interesting plot happening… away from the island, where the hero’s team are still being hunted by the Church as heretics. This means that they’re being hunted by two Celestial Archmages, who are ludicrously powerful… till they do another summoning, and pull not Arata this time, but Reina and Zelos, who are suddenly in front of their former allies. The interesting bit is they’ve lived with Arata and the other OP folks on the island so long that they’ve also gotten much stronger than anyone else, to the point where they can easily fight off colleagues who used to beat the stuffing out of them before. It pays to be around Arata!

Arata and Reina are headed to the Alfin village where Katima lives, there to meet up with her Village Elder and mostly have fun at Katima’s expense. While there it is revealed that the Great Spirits that normally watch over the village have been absent for a while, so Arata and Katima go searching for them.. and find that the Great Spirits are, unsurprisingly, a lot like humans, which is to say that two of them are having a “man’s battle” while the third has locked them in a sphere to shut them up. It turns out they’re fighting over who gets to raise the new Great Spirit who’s just been born… but when Arata, with all his power, interrupts, the Great Spirit ends up choosing him as her new “Daddy”. Now he’s raising Snow, the Great Spirit, along with her “mommy” Reina. The trouble is, Snow is having a bit of trouble controlling her ice powers…

The main reason to read this series remains the still adorable, still virginal romance between Arata and Reina. Indeed, it’s astonishing to everyone except Arata and Reina that they’re not already lovers. Every time they talk to each other the folks around them complain about the flirting. It also goes without saying that when they’ve got to take care of Snow, who calls them Mommy and Daddy for good reason, they become the perfect parents. There’s even the obligatory “we’re finally giving in to our feelings and leaning in for a kiss when we’re interrupted because this book has seven volumes to go till the wedding” scene. That said, I’m pretty sure we’re getting him more than one wife in this series. It’s hinted heavily that polyamory is OK, and Tailtiu has made it very clear she’s not going to be an unlucky anything. But the thrust of the goopy romance is still these two.

Island stuff is all well and good, but I do hope we dovetail back with the main world again soon, as that adds a bit of spice to this otherwise very relaxing series.