By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi 0” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

I had tied myself in a bit of a knot trying to figure out what the header for this review should be. See, this is Volume 0, a common conceit for Japanese manga and light novels that want to do a prequel but sound cool. But it’s also getting a 2nd volume, out in Japan later this week, so it will be Volume 0-2? In any case, then I remembered that I used the subtitles for my reviews anyway so it didn’t matter. In Japan this came out the same day as the 20th volume of the main series, but you know that’s not how we roll here. But we do finally, at last, have the first meeting between Allen and Lydia. Sort of. Amusingly, the VERY first meeting between them is skipped, in order to give the book a more exciting opening scene grab showing the two of them teaming up for the first time. It doesn’t matter, we know why we’re here. For the harem. Which, yes, includes Zel.

The cover features a young Lydia, making a face that we don’t really see at all in this book. The wraparound has Stella, Tina, Ellie, etc. asking Lynne about the time Allen and Lydia were at the academy. From there we cut to the entrance exam, where Allen and Lydia are forced to fight against the headmaster in order to get in. This is fine, though. Lydia can’t use magic, but she has her swordplay, which ends up basically hitting away all magic. Allen, of course, is Allen. Both of them do very well… in fact, they do better than Princess Cheryl, which is controversial, albeit not to Cheryl or her father. Once in the academy, Allen has to deal with the usual prejudice and bullying, as does Lydia to a smaller degree. They also meet Zelbert, who is mysterious and yet somewhat pathetic right from the get go, and honestly comes across as just another character who immediately falls for Allen, just like Lydia and Cheryl. The four of them then get to take on a diabolical dragon conspiracy…

It can be easy to forget that both Allen *and* Lydia are dealing with vicious bullying most of their lives, and with Lydia there’s also emotional abuse from her extended (though not immediate) family. Lydia’s tsundere nature is here in full effect, but the arrogant confidence that she has through most of the main series is completely absent, and without Allen (who she falls for literally immediately), she simply falls apart. We joke about Allen’s dry, deflecting reaction to everyone and everything, but his narration also masks the fact that Lisa and the maids are incredibly, pathetically grateful to him for helping their shut-in daughter to achieve great things. As for Cheryl, she certainly gets more to do here than the main series, and she’s also the secondary narrator when Allen’s not around, but she mostly fulfills the function of “the normal one”, so lacks as much of an impact.

Honestly, reading this book makes me feel like a Leinster maid – not that I’m suddenly a combat expert, but that I want to take the Allen and Lydia stuff, record it, and rewatch it endlessly. Fans of the series should eat this up.

By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

Last volume I started with the plot synopsis to avoid instant spoilers, but there’s no need for that here. The last volume featured several big surprises, not least of which was Lydia taking a curse meant for Allen and almost dying, a state that she pretty much stays in this entire book, so Lydia lovers may be a bit sad. (Good news about the next in the series, fear not.) But again, I think we were all expecting that. We were also expecting Allen’s reaction, and the theme of this book is that everyone knows what he’s going to do, they just have to figure out when he’ll do it and bring enough firepower to stop him. Allen’s never met a problem he won’t solve on his own by trying to sacrifice his own life, after all. They can read him like a book, despite his best poker face. Also, as it turns out he’s just like Lydia, really. When faced with her possible death, he also goes bonkers. Just… politely.

The author says the cover is a contrast to Tina on the cover of the first book, and certainly the climax of the story shows how far she’s come, both in terms of overall magic power and in terms of strategic thinking. (Admittedly, I think much of the strategy was Stella.) She is technically the second protagonist, so her doing cool things is welcome. No worries for Tina haters, though, she gets the first half of the book, where she’s so naive that she gets called a sucker by a great elemental. I also joked online about this biggest shock of the book being Ellie doing something, but she also gets more than once chance to be awesome. I really appreciated Allen trying to distract Ellie by mentioning her mother is actually alive, and her response being “fantastic but I’m going to stop you anyway”. And the other main heroines (bar Lydia, obviously) all get nice bits to do and show up near the end (bar Stella, Lily, and Cheryl, who are on “don’t let Lydia die” watch.)

The series remains a breezy, fun read, but its flaws are still its flaws. This series has a monstrous, gigantic cast, and you’re supposed to remember everyone. And just in case you don’t, the characters make sure to use everyone’s full name, nickname and job title whenever they meet them, just so that you can update your boards with little pins in them. The characters spend any time that they’re not having wacky romantic hijinks praising each other to the skies, to the point where it starts to get annoying. I love Ellie, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t need the entire cast to tell me how awesome she is. As for what they say about Allen, I can think of an appropriate metaphor, but I’ll keep this clean. It’s why this series will always be fun but not great.

Still, good news, Lydia fans! No, not her eventual return in Book 21, though I’m pretty sure that happens too. But we’re getting a Volume 0, taking place during Allen and Lydia’s time at the academy. Will we finally see the backstory that’s been hinted for so long? (This came out in Japan at the same time as Book 20, but you know North American publishing doesn’t work that way.)

By Riku Nanano and cura. Released in Japan as “Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by William Varteresian.

This review will contain a lot of spoilers, so let’s start with the synopsis. The book is pretty much balanced between checking in on the bad guys, who are bemoaning the fact that our heroes are so good at what they do but still also clearly taking the lead in the “who wins” race. As for Allen and company, they’re in the home stretch, but still need to get lots of vital bits of information, such as more details of what happened generations ago and who was involved, and – most importantly – who Allen really is. Was he really found by his adopted parents the way they say? As for the current generation, well, they’re all concerned with the most important thing: getting Allen that last name, that title, and that nobility so that they can finally write off “but he’s a commoner!” on the reasons no one will accept every single powerful woman in the kingdom being in love with him. Of course, this assumes that the ceremony actually happens…

This series has been hammering home for over ten volumes the fact that Allen’s achievements in this current time are comparable to Allen the Shooting Star, the legendary man from the past whose name he shares. It hasn’t remotely been subtle. As a result, the fact that “Allen’s backstory is more than it seems” is not exactly a spoiler. What’s more, given that we’ve seen any number of formerly good people turned to the forces of evil in this series, including Allen’s best friend, it’s also not that much of a surprise who Allen faces off with near the end of this volume, even if they seen to be an amalgamation with a traitorous noble. Allen the Shooting Star was always destined to meet his Successor, Allen the Head Patter. Unfortunately, the meeting is not really all that much, mostly as it’s a fight because we’re at the point in the book where extended backstory is cut short, but also because another blast from the past shows up.

Leaving aside surprise evil dead sisters, the big surprise here is that Lydia takes a near-fatal wound, and appears to be at death’s door as the volume ends. I’ve always been fairly cynical about this author, so I don’t think there’s any question that Lydia is not going to die from this, but if she did, well, it’s pretty much exactly the way that everyone in the cast worried that she – or any of the other girls in love with Allen – would go, sacrificing herself to save his life. I expect she’ll be sitting the next book or two out, and while I’d love to see Allen go completely feral like she did when she thought he was dead, we know that’s not happening. The author likes to keep the harem balanced, but Tina throws the scales off too much, so sometimes she’s just written out for a bit. With that, let’s see, who’s on the cover of Book 20…

Yeah, there we go. Tina is, alas, still acting pretty immaturely, which may be one reason why she’s not only not #1 in the rankings (Lydia), but not even #2 (Stella). Now she has a book to do something about that. Let’s see what happens. Or maybe… maybe Lydia really IS dead!

(Nah.)