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 is a long series already – this is the 16th volume – and we’ve just covered everything that’s happened since Allen got baited to flunk out of the academy. I’ve talked before about how I wish we could have seen Allen and Lydia’s years at the academy, and we have finally gotten a few decent flashbacks showing that, though we’re still missing most of the actual important scenes. But it can be easy to forget that this is not a world that has been at peace for years and it’s only with this generation that the world is going to hell. This is a world in a constant state of hell. There’s a reason all of the parents and grandparents of our heroines have fancy titles and superpowers of their own, and that’s because they’re needed all the time in order to make sure that things don’t just explode. Unfortunately, we’re near one of those explosion points again, and even as Allen gets some exposition explaining what happened long ago in the last, the enemy is a step ahead of him.

Battles, battles, everywhere! There are so many battles, in fact, that you’d think we wouldn’t have time for the usual harem banter, but rest assured we do, as even in the most dire of circumstances the girls cannot help but try to get Allen to praise them and say how lucky he is to have them. More lucky than usual this time around, as it turns out he needs almost the full group of potential love interests (sorry, Ellie, you’re still being sidelined) because the bad guys are also bringing their full force of bad guy-ness to bear. There’s corrupted former princesses, ghosts of long dead founders, and of course that pesky wyrm, which doesn’t stay frozen for long, and has to be put down again. To do so, they’ll need to have yet another spell gain sentience and turns into a cute girl… because let’s face it, that’s also the sort of series this is.

There’s a cliffhanger which suggests that one of the good guys is about to be killed off, but I’m not too worried – I think if the author had meant to kill them they’d have done that as the cliffhanger. Plus he has a fiancee. It does make me wonder how the author is going to try to keep the stakes higher and higher while also making sure that no cute girls who are in love with their man suffer too much. Most of them, that man is Allen, and unfortunately for him, the main villain seems to be obsessed with him… and also all her plans revolve around him winning at the last moment. Which he’s been doing. So arguably he’s playing right into her hands. On the bright side, Lydia gets to do an absolutely killer move that makes him blush heavily, and he also calls her his partner again, so she’s still in the lead, for those who are only here for that.

This is another solid volume in the series, though I would not say no to a breather that has less fighting next time.

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.

After spending a long time promising us that Tina would be playing a larger role in the narrative any day now, we finally get a book (well, arc, as I think she’ll be heavily featured in the next volume as well) where Tina plays a major role and gets to do things and be cool. And it sadly underlines the biggest fault of this series, which is that the title and premise promise that the series is about Tina, the Duke’s Daughter, but she’s the least interesting one in the cast. Now, this is not exactly a cast filled with depth – it’s a very McDonald’s sort of series that runs on harems and shonen battles. Despite that, the author continues to struggle to give Tina things to do beyond be jealous and childish and whip out her super ice powers. Heck, she can’t even have a “turn evil” arc, as both Lydia AND Stella have already covered that. (Still, better than Ellie, who was supposed to feature till Stella booted her out of the arc.) Weak heroine energy.

After the events of the last two books, you’d think that our heroes could catch a break. But the villains have been doing the “losing the battle but winning the war” thing for a number of volumes now, and it’s all coming to a head in the next country over, Lallanoy. This is where Felecia’s father was taken, and it’s where the villainous beastmen went, and basically it’s become the go-to place for anyone evil. And now Gondor is calling for aid, and Allen gets to go over there (because of course he’s the key to everything going on everywhere right now), along with Lily (as the diplomat), Tina and Stella (as the magical muscle), and… a random girl they met on the train, who seems to be young but is clearly hundreds of years old. Well, I guess we hadn’t broken out THAT cliche yet.

That summary covers only the first third of the book or so, but… look, much as I enjoy reading this series, and I do, I can usually sum it up by saying “a lot of fights happen, and things look bad for our heroes” as well as “all the girls fight over Allen while he ignores them”. Fans of The Apothecary Diaries anime adaptation who are frustrated at Maomao’s seeming obtuseness will find that she, like Allen, knows but chooses not to. That’s the trouble with being both the chosen one and someone that half the leaders of the country despise (the other half, of course, adore him) – he really can’t afford to notice any of this. That said, he’s in a bit of a pickle this time, though not a bad enough one that his living alarm clocks sets off in front of Girl #1. Yet. We see him having to use Tina as a living battery, and it still drains the hell out of him. Who can possibly come to the rescue?

The cover of the next book might hint. In the meantime, sorry, Tina. Your fights were pretty cool. Your heart is in the right place. But you’re still too damn young and childish to make me prefer you over the older girls.

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.

I’ve talked before about how this series really loves being a harem title, but it’s not just that the harem writing is done very well (though it is). It’s that the harem antics actually manage to take over every OTHER aspect of the series. The battle scenes are crisp and action-filled, and also filled with banter as the heroines literally encourage each other by saying that they’re going to be the one who marries Allen, forcing the other person to fight EVEN HARDER so that they can deny that possibility. We get the tragic backstory that has led to much of this series, and it turns out it’s because the heroine was unable to save her version of Allen and went mad with the revelation. Nobles are furious with Allen simply because of the sheer number of young superpowerful girls he has at his disposal. Hell, even the resurrected corpse of his dead best friend is cheering him on and urging him to keep saving the girl no matter what. It’s kind of hilarious.

Allen and Stella remains trapped deep underground, with Stella’s body having been taken over by a dangerous-looking angel. Ellie has escaped to tell everyone what’s going on, but the Sealed Archive is not letting anyone come in the way that they originally did. And of course there are those who simply want to leave Allen there, though one of the more annoying antagonistic nobles grudgingly admits Allen is what is needed here. But eventually we get a squad to go into the catacombs under the city and go *up* to rescue Allen, led by Lydia, Caren, Tina and Ellie. Unfortunately, the religious folks are behind all this, and have sent more than one apostles to stop everyone, including a very familiar face to Allen, Lydia, and Cheryl.

I’ve been whining for a long time that I wish the series would do a massive flashback to show Allen and Lydia’s school days, and this is the first volume where we get a flashback that lasts longer than a couple of pages. It shows that, unsurprisingly, school life mostly consisted of Lydia and Cheryl fighting each other every day to see who gets the right to say they’re Allen’s Number One Girl. Allen, naturally, does not get a say in the matter. (I did briefly wonder what would happen if anyone asked him his opinion on being in love with any of the girls, but his self-deprecation is too high for that to work.) But there’s also Allen’s best male friend Zelbert, who seems to be the classic snarky glasses-wearing best friend of the hero type, but who we already know died before the main story began, and here we see why that happened, as well as Zelbert’s own tragic past. If you’re going to fire off the flashback guns, this is an excellent way to do it.

Unfortunately, it turns out our heroes did not win as much as they may have thought, though at least Stella is not evil. The next volume promises – again – more Tina and less Lydia. We’ll see.