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Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? On The Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 14

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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.

So, this wasn’t bad. It didn’t do anything wrong, and the climax moves up to “pretty good”. That said, it’s been a while since I last read a volume of Danmachi and my main reaction was “eh”. I think I can put some of this down to the basic premise, and how little it deviates from the expected. If I was to tell you that the plot of this book is “we find out how Finn, Riveria and Gareth ended up joining Loki Familia”, and asked what you thought would happen in the book, I bet you’d come up with something pretty similar to this. It hits the beats it needs to hit. Finn is clever and smug, Riveria is powerful but haughty, Gareth is strong but stubborn. And Loki is, well, Loki. This gives folks the backstories they wanted, but it has exactly zero surprises, unless you count Eine’s mom (who, as Loki tells us a few times, has got it going on).

Loki Familia is having a big celebration – though admittedly one close to home, as they’re short on cash to go to a bar right now – to celebrate the big news. Finn, Riveria and Gareth have all hit Level 7, and they did it at the same time, too. After a raucous feast with the whole family, the three of them and Loki have a quieter drink afterwards, and get to reminiscing. We see a Loki who’s just come down to the human world and has zero followers. She meets Finn, who has a tragic backstory but is also determined to show the world not to look down on prums, even if he has to give up his first love to do so. Riveria is shown as a princess who’s trapped in the forest with the high elves, and her escaping with her attendant and best friend Aine, despite her father and the other elves pursuing her. And we see Gareth in a small, poor mining town, doing his best to make sure everyone can live even though he’d really rather be out adventuring.

As always with this author, the fights get better as they go along, which means Gareth’s story is probably the one that hit best for me. I could have done without Loki’s sexual harassment, but honestly I’ve seen worse from her, and I know by now it’s meant to be her THING. I did mention Aine, and she does not do much, and clearly is not suited to be part of Loki Familia. Unfortunately, we don’t see how she married a human here – maybe there’s a side story or game that talks about it. The bulk of the book is “elves and dwarves hate each other”, with a side order of “hobbits are weak” – sorry, prums – and about the three of them learning to get along and discovering how strong they are as a fighting team. And Loki does manage to be clever once or twice in amongst being a horny brat.

So yeah, this is exactly what it says it is, no more, no less. The next book promises to tie back in with the main series, and also have more of Ais.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Dum Spiro, Spero, Part 2

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan as “Youjo Senki” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by James Balzer.

It’s been quite a while since the last volume of these in English, even though in Japan, the two volumes came out only one month apart. That said, this is also the final volume of the series to date, as we have not yet seen the 15th volume in Japan as of this date. I don’t really blame the author, as it can be rather tricky to get the right tone for this series. It’s an anti-war but pro-military series, and it has to show us that war is hell while also managing to convey that reading about a good firefight is a hell of a lot of fun. It also can’t really kill off too many named characters – for all that we hear about people dying in this book (including, possibly, the greatest comedy character in the series, who returns in this book), the core of Tanya’s unit are still around. Even if they’re tired. So very, very tired.

The bulk of the start of the book is the aftermath of Tanya’s faked retreat orders, and how everyone seems to be disbelieving – not surprising, given everything we hear about the Empire. Fortunately, after Grantz flies all the way back to the capital and tries to avoid various court-martials and treason accusations as he barrels along, Zettour gets the message and is able to confirm – carry out those orders. Of course, that’s easier said than done, and Tanya and her group don’t even have that luxury – while the army retreats, they’re tasked with flying into the Federation attack, stopping supply trains, hitting disguised air bases, and trying not to die. And then after THAT, they get to take almost every mage in the entire not-German army on a suicide mission to take out various Federation strongholds. And then the worst possible thing happens – the enemy blows up their kitchen. (No really, think about it, surviving while exhausted on dry rations is TERRIBLE.)

I’m mentioning the exhaustion a lot because it really comes across here. By the end of the book Tanya’s comrades are dead on their feet, and even she sometimes gets to the point where fatigue is making her a little loopier than she normally is. They’re doing things that shame soldiers, as while they’re advancing on the enemy, they have to leave their own fellow soldiers to die – they cannot save them and attack at the same time. it’s frustrating, unless you’re Tanya, who coolly explains why it has to happen. The only one who seems firmly in her camp all the time is Visha, who is more worried about Grantz, who’s gotten more to do lately, replacing her as adjutant. Tanya reassures her. Weiss, meanwhile, thinks they’ve both “turned rotten”, and he’s not wrong. By the end of the book, they’re being sent off to fight again… but not in the East! Tanya may finally get an opportunity to defect.

Assuming we get the next book, of course. For now, the Empire still hangs on. We’ll be waiting to see if it makes it through Book 15. For fans of… well, the light novels, really. Fans of the anime should probably try the manga first. And fans of Isekai Quartet may just hate this.

The BS Situation of Tougetsu Umidori, Vol. 3

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By Kaeru Ryouseirui and Natsuki Amashiro. Released in Japan as “Umidori Tougetsu no “Detarame” na Jijou” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I like to theorize about what happens behind the scenes of an author, editor, and publisher, even though I am usually right about 1% of the time, if that. And when I got to the end of this third volume, I did wonder if the author was quietly told before it was written to plan for this to end with the fourth book (which it seems to have done, though I know better than to declare things definitively over now). The first two volumes of this book were very much concerned with the lies and the people behind them, and I was expecting this one to be as well. And to be fair, there is a situation with a lie and a person behind it. But the lie is incredibly pathetic, and it’s resolved in a way that’s deliberately comical. Because this is about Tougetsu Umidori, of course – and her story and its lack of lies are the whole point of the series, and not as easily solved.

Tougetsu has a problem. After avoiding it for nearly a year, her grandmother demands that she come home to visit or else she’ll be forced to move back home permanently. This upsets her, but she’s going to have to suck it up and do it – but it’s OK, Nara will come with her, as they’re friends, and Nara is tremendously curious about her family. That said, once they arrive, Nara finds that her grandmother is pretty nice and kind of normal… except around Tougetsu, where she turns into this stern scary woman. What’s more, she was really looking forward to meeting Tougetsu’s mother… who has fled the house. As it turns out, Nara ends up deeply regretting coming at all. Meanwhile, famous Kobe dishes are now thought to be famous Kakogawa dishes. Someone is altering reality so that Kakogawa gets all the cool Kobe dishes! It can only be a lie! Fortunately, Bullshit-chan has a solution – Youtubing.

There’s a lot of setup for the next volume involving the bad guys, as well as the true nature of Bullshit-chan, but let’s face it, the real meat of the book, and the best part, is the budding relationship between Tougetsu and Nara, and its near-fracturing here because of the way Tougetsu sees herself. Tougetsu’s inability to lie has led to her friendships being sundered, but she also has a lot of family trauma as well (which, be warned, involves an attempted suicide). What this means is that she seemingly feels no deep connections – if Nara broke things off and said she didn’t want to be friends anymore, Tougetsu would just accept it and distance herself. Which, of course, infuriates Nara. This is not a yuri series per se, but the only important male character in it is the villain, so it might as well be. Tougetsu and Nara make up at the end, and seem to come to a compromise, but I suspect it will take working out Bullshit-chan to work out Tougetsu.

Will this end in happiness or in tears? “Yes”, I suspect is that answer to that. Till then, please enjoy Bullshit-chan streaming cooking shows to save Kobe cuisine. And two kinda-gay teens trying to work things out despite one (one?) being really fucked up.