By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan as “Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Ex”by Media Factory. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

I know a lot of this review might sound like I’m complaining about the dead dove I found in the bag labeled Dead Dove: Do Not Eat. But it’s been harder lately to forget just how incredibly, punishingly bleak Re: Zero can get when it’s firing on all cylinders. The middle third of this volume is just getting punched in the face by the author over and over again, and I’ll be honest, I did not enjoy it at all. Part of it is that I don’t really enjoy seeing characters suffer – that was the me of thirty years ago – but I think a lot of it is that this is still a side story that talks a lot about how awesome Theresia is and then proceeds to not really show us any of that. Most of this book Theresia is unable to fight for one reason or another, and even though the author lampshades it a bit it’s still annoying. I hate damseling.

After a few volumes that examine other side characters, we’re back to the backstory of Wilhelm, who is now happily married to Theresia. Unfortunately, there’s a problem, which is that Stride and Eight-Arms Kurgan are still at large, and are not likely to simply go back to the Empire empty-handed. As it turns out, Stride has an absolutely epic plan that revolves around the fact that, despite being a country that the dragon will supposedly protect in times of peril, the dragon never appeared during the ten years of their civil war. Was this because it didn’t involve other countries? Or is the dragon thing a lie? To find out, Stride decides to kidnap, murder, and turn into mind-controlled puppets a good part of the cast, and it’s up to Wilhelm, his best friend Grimm, and Roswaal J. Mathers (note the middle initial) to try to save the day.

I’ve talked before about how the way these come out in Japan and here is screwed up, because Yen started late and can’t release this book with Vol. 39 of the main series, as it did in Japan. So there’s some subtext here that will no doubt make sense when we do get that book in 2029 or so. On the other hand, sometimes it does match up with other volumes accidentally quite well. This book comes out here right after Short Stories 4, a book with a large amount of Carol and Grimm, who are old but still powerful folks in the main series and are young powerful folks in this side story. Carol really goes through the wringer, and I am grateful that the “you were mind controlled but you still killed all those people including my dad” plotline is absolutely ignored. This was bad enough without that. And we also say a fond farewell to the Roswaal Mathers of the past, who if nothing else I liked a lot more than the Roswaal Mathers of the present.

This had good fights, and lots of interesting lore. But, like a few other Re: Zero books I’ve read lately, I can sum it up thusly: A Slog.

By Tappei Nagatsuki and Makoto Fugetsu. Released in Japan as “Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu: Tanpenshuu” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Sarah Moon.

This fourth volume of short stories definitely expands the palette, as Subaru, Emilia and Rem/Ram don’t appear at all. They’re mentioned a few times, but for the most part the purpose of these stories is to flesh out and develop other members of the cast. This is good news, though the fact that Yen Press has been putting out the Short Story volumes well after they came out in Japan means that sometimes the stories don’t quite have the hit the author wanted, I suspect. For one thing, I’m starting to get a bit sick of Priscilla, mostly as we’re in the middle of Arc 7, which features her, we’ve had a few EX volumes with her, and the last short story volumes have had her. The author clearly LOVES writing her and Al, so I don’t expect this to change anytime soon. On the other hand, the first half of the book is very welcome, as Felt is easily the least developed supporting character in Re: Zero to date. No, not like that.

There are four short stories here: 1) Felt has announced herself as a Royal candidate, but is still grumpy about the whole thing, and she’s angry at Reinhard all the time. She is trying to get some allies, however, even if they happen to be the Three Stooges (published before Book 6); 2) Their group heads back to Reinhard’s domain, away from the political turmoil of the royal capital, but have to deal with an abandoned baby (published between Book 12 and 13); 3) Priscilla and Al have to deal with a few nearby villages seemingly being infested by undead, in a story that is literally called Price, Prejudice & Zombies (published with Book 18); 4) Otto is waylaid as he tries to leave a town and forced to mount a rescue mission for a missing girl, but ends up getting captured himself (published with Book 13).

The Felt stories are the highlight of the book. She’s loud, coarse, and angry throughout both of them, but also proves to be a sharp cookie and is surprisingly astute when it comes to Reinhard, who tends to wear his heart on his sleeve a bit too much because he hasn’t experienced the failures of life that Felt has. The whole point of the Royal Selection is that all the candidates could be very good rulers but that the folks in charge would hate them, and you can see that here. The Priscilla story is a sort of horror mystery, and mostly serves to show off a character that it then seemingly kills off, and once again show off the bond between Priscilla and Al. The Otto story is the slightest, but also shows off that he has a good heart, frequently to his detriment.

Next time, we’ll focus on Crusch and Anastasia. That said, I think next up we have a new EX book, which returns to the story of Wilhelm and Theresia. Till then, gosh, Re: Zero continuity is complex, but this was good.

By Tappei Nagatsuki and Shinichirou Otsuka. Released in Japan as “Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

I think I’ve started to figure out why it’s harder to get into this arc compared to previous arcs, and it’s not just that 4/5 of the cast is new or we’ve only seen them in spinoffs. The problem is that Re: Zero’s plot is supposed to be, in part, a throne war. Emilia, Crusch, Priscilla, Anastasia and Felt are all vying to be the new leader. Unfortunately, we’ve now thrown that aside to get ourselves involved in another throne war next door, and… well, OK, maybe it *is* the fact that we don’t really know 4/5 of the cast. Now, some of them are becoming better known to us – I’ve really come to love Medium, and I hope nothing terrible happens to her. But for the most part the plot of this book is to have Priscilla save the day, but the enemy gets away, so they move on to the next location. Subaru describes it like an RPG and he’s not wrong. It’s a tad dull.

As hinted in the cliffhanger of the last book, when all seems lost and Arakiya is about to massacre everyone, Priscilla (and Al) arrive to, if not save the day, at least distract her enough to be subdued. Unfortunately, before she can be interrogated, our least favorite mercenary breaks her out. So they’ve taken the city but are otherwise back at square one. And Priscilla certainly isn’t here to help – anyone who has met her knows that. They need to prove that Abel can actually gain real allies, which means one of the nine demon generals. Unfortunately, one of them is so unreliable no one wants to deal with them, one of them is the enemy they just had escape, and one of them is the one who actually instigated the coup. So they’re going to The Chaotic Demon City to try to talk to one of the others… only they’re not the only ones there.

The good thing about Re: Zero is that while the overall plot may annoy and bore me, individual scenes can still be absolute dynamite. When he’s checking on Rem, and describing what happened to her, she points out, quite sensibly, that he’s taking too much on and that he doesn’t need to be a hero. To Subaru, however, who only moved forward thanks to Rem’s words in the 3rd arc, this is the worst POSSIBLE thing she could have said, and it briefly devastates him. I also enjoyed “Natsumi” being more formal while in the carriage with Al, because frankly the two of them sound too similar – it not only helps the author to differentiate between them, but helps to remind us that a lot of Subaru coping is his taking on a role, be it for himself or others. He keeps justifying being in drag throughout this book, and no one really buys it except him.

The cliffhanger suggests we don’t need to worry about Natsumi for a while now. That said, I warn you – this cliffhanger is one of the most contentious parts of this arc, and it will not go away anytime soon. Five more to go!