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Spy Classroom: Fool Erna Once

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By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Thrasher.

It should go without saying, but the series Spy Classroom involves spies. And spies can sometimes be not nice people. Downright unpleasant, in fact. We’ve seen that in previous books, with villains working for other countries ranging from weak to comically evil. But for the most part, we know our girls. Those wacky, lovable scamps who are all dropouts but come together in the end with the power of friendship. Surely they’re all different! Well, OK, not Annette. We already know fro previous books that Annette is one of the only girls in Lamplight who can, when push comes to shove, do something cruel. But she may not be alone, as we learn in this book that focuses, for once, on the character the anime tried desperately to adapt and failed miserably. The character that even the publisher tried to avoid drawing for the longest time. A girl plagued by misfortune. Which even extends to this review, because sorry, Erna, Sara is my favorite character in this book.

After the triumph of the fourth book, and becoming an official team, things are not going very well for Lamplight. They’ve been screwing up mission after mission, and believe it or not, it’s not JUST Lily. Things take a turn for the worse, though, when they meet two members of another spy organization working for their country, Avian. If Lamplight is composed of dropouts and washouts, Avian is composed of only the top graduates of spy schools. And recently, their handler was killed, meaning they don’t have a leader. After discerning that Lamplight are pathetic and awful, Avian decide that Klaus should be their leader instead, and Lamplight can all go back to spy school where they truly belong. Of course, the girls are not going to take this lying down, and it ends up becoming a competition to see who the best spy team really is!

If you thought that my description of Lamplight in the last paragraph was a bit mean, you ain’t heard nothing yet. Avian may be just as eccentric as Lamplight, but they’re far, far more skilled, and they have a heaping helping of arrogance to go with it. They’ve also had actual completion of spy school, which means they have an extra technique the Lamplight girls do not, and much of this book amounts to our heroines “trying to reach their second form”. Sara comes close, and actually manages to kick ass and take names (yes, Sara, the animal girl), but of course Erna is the star of the book, for spoilery reasons, and it’s her own development that provides the big climax. It also allows Klaus to have a paternal talk with her, which I appreciate, as Klaus as a hottie everyone wants to bone is not my favorite thing. (That also comes up here, alas.)

All this plus one of THOSE epilogues, the ones that really like to kick you in the teeth and then make you wait for months or so for the next book. This book, though, was good, and arrives just in time for the second half of the anime, which… has nowhere to go but up.

The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent, Vol. 8

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By Yuka Tachibana and Yasuyuki Syuri. Released in Japan as “Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Julie Goniwich.

This may sound like a comparison only I would make (because it is), but a lot of Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent is starting to feel like Der Werwolf to me. Specifically, our saint tends to regard herself as just an ordinary researcher who can use ingredients really well, whereas in reality everyone else in the world knows that she’s a… well, a SAINT. Literally, as we see here, as a gift that she gives to a colleague ends up healing permanent burn scars that another woman had on her face. It’s as biblical as they come, frankly, lacking only Sei literally laying hands on her. That said… no one actually mentions this happened to Sei, because I think they realize quickly that telling her “you did a miracle that saved by friend, I would die for you” would just make Sei feel uncomfortable. And she’s got enough trouble as it is, because a simple visit to the opera might torpedo her first love!

Sei has wrapped up all the monster hunting in Albert’s hometown, and is free to do things like sampling the local dried sausages and giving recommendations on how to turn a hot spring into a hot spring village. After that, she’s back home, trying to figure out how to get more land for her herbs and plants when everyone else in the research department also wants land. Thankfully, the King comes to the rescue by giving her and Johan an estate just outside the city which can house, essentially, top secret stuff – including most of what Sei deals with. And then there’s that trip to the opera I mentioned before. She goes with Yuri, and everything seems fine, but all of a sudden the rumor goes around that she and Yuri are getting engaged! Has Albert heard this rumor?

I really do love that this series is basically bereft of children (especially now that the prince has been exiled) and everyone has normal, sensible reactions. Albert hears the rumor, and his reaction is not “wow, it must be true, time to panic”, but to immediately understand what happened. Indeed, Sei may be the most immature one here, and the reason Albert has been courting her at a snail’s pace is for that very reason – he can tell she’s not ready for love yet. But she’s more ready than he might think, and what’s more, events have made it so that he HAS to take action. What follows is what I usually describe as “the payoff”, and it’s absolutely sweet and heartwarming. I could do without that ominous cliffhanger, though…

I would have liked to have seen more of Aria aside from the stories at the end (which are, like Bofuri, store exclusives from past volumes), but since she has her own spinoff I suppose it makes sense not to involve her. Fans of Sei and Albert will eat this up, though.

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 9

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By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Bad news, folks: I think Bofuri may be starting to bore me. This is a combination of several factors, really. The anime decided to speedrun its second season, and as such this volume consists of stuff that I already watched for the first time in a few volumes. This volume is also almost entirely a “kill monsters” book, which means there’s very little for me to talk about and glom on to, and of course no character development. Hell, the nature of this book makes some characters worse – Mii appears throughout, but she’s always surrounded by people from other guilds, so she’s always in super serious mode. But super serious is not why I want to read Mii. Add all this up and we’re left with a volume that I found majorly underwhelming, not helped by a pile of pointless short stories from various retail giveaways added at the end. Honestly, the most interesting character now might be Iz, who’s become the star of Kaboom!.

The second part of this event has started, and Maple Tree rapidly set up a base (complete with ludicrous deathtraps) and go to find some monsters and dungeons to clear out. As the event goes on, though, they get split up, and each seems to hook up with members of the other two guilds we know, Mi’s group and Payne’s group. This leads to some different dynamics as the groups are forced to work together, though honestly, everyone in the groups is nice, so it’s not that much of a struggle. Eventually they decide to just do this level as a massive 16-person superunit, and, as the mods note, that’s terrible news – for the monsters. Still, the difficulty level gets higher and higher as the event goes on, with even Maple starting to have trouble killing these guys off. can Maple Tree all survive to the end and get their medals?

I mean, yes. This is not a “struggling underdog” sort of series, this is Maple. The most interesting part of her journey here might be the signal everyone sets up in case they’re separated, which turns out to be Maple literally blowing herself up over and over to create the equivalent of a flare. As I said before, Iz has become more and more relaxed and willing to “go crazy” with each book, and here we see her basically applying “when all you have is a hammer” only with bombs. Which work nicely. She also helps the twins essentially play lethal croquet, which was also amusing. If I recall, fans of the books complained the anime changed a part of this book which separated the twins briefly. Which might have been true, except neither twin did anything while separated. I think the author thinks of them as one character, too.

So the event is over, and we presumably start a new arc next time. I’m hoping that it will grab my attention more. Perhaps Maple and Sally on a date… erm, exploring together?