Category Archives: reviews

The World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker, Vol. 6

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By Tôwa and Huuka Kazabana. Released in Japan as “Sekai Saikyou no Kouei: Meikyuukoku no Shinjin Tansakusha” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Alexandra McCullough-Garcia.

One of the strengths of this mostly ridiculous series is that I get the sense the author does not take it seriously. Now, I’m not saying it’s meant to be a comedy – the battles are clearly meant to be dangerous and deadly action sequences, and this volume in particular ends on a big downer of a cliffhanger. What I mean is that it doesn’t take the tropes seriously. It’s a harem genre with a passel of women all in love with our oblivious hero, but there’s no infighting or even any real anger about it – hell, the closest they get to being upset is when Misaki almost spills the beans on what they have to do every night after Arihito goes to sleep. There’s also the reality-bending power of fiction, where our heroes end up being the ones who always fight the strongest monsters, even when they’re told not to. But even then, after they win, they’re told “sorry, you really are that powerful, please have a special title.” It’s just… funny.

We pick up where we left off last time, with our party in a trap laid for them by Shirone, who unfortunately also appears to be trying to do a “suicide by dungeon”. This trap includes monsters that raise your karma if you attack them, and a named monster (of course) that can not only inflict pain on our heroes but also guilt of their past actions and present fears. And while they do end up escaping this and defeating the monster, it’s clear that Elitia is still feeling the aftereffects of this. Things aren’t really helped when they are asked to go to the 5th Level to help to subjugate a swarm of scorpion monsters… the 5th Level being where they were aiming for to try to rescue Elitia’s friend. The scorpion monsters and their leader prove to be fairly easy to take down. But the Simian Lord whose dungeon holds Rury proves, for once, to be too much for Arihito, and he pays dearly.

Despite that cliffhanger, this is possibly the most Rearguard volume of Rearguard ever. We get our heroes taking on THREE named monsters and defeating two of them, something that is almost becoming old hat. Everyone theoretically gets cool things to do, though I will admit that a lot of it is the narrative spewing game stats at us and then trying to figure out what they actually do in terms of visuals. More to the point, Arihito is the star of this series, and it’s made very clear that the narrative of this world knows it. There are other parties who were jealous of how fast he’s risen… then they see how he deals with The Calamity and they fall over themselves to apologize and grant him an even cooler title. As I’ve said before about this series, if you are a fan of light novels who takes them Very Seriously Indeed this must make your skin catch fire. It does not give two hoots.

That said… erm, hope Theresia is OK? Fortunately, we don’t have a year to wait for the next volume in the series as we did last time. Unfortunately, from what I’ve heard, the arc may go on even longer than that next volume. Still, I’ll be reading and enjoying.

Durarara!!SH, Vol. 3

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By Ryohgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

Ryohgo Narita has always struck me as someone who pays closer attention to his fandom than most other authors. His books all interlink in ways that fans love, of course, but here we delve even more deeply into fandom culture. Sometimes you’re so into something that you lose all reason, and sometimes you hate the idea of something so much that you… well, lose all reason. Not so much two sides of the same coin as opposite edges of the same side. And then there’s our new main cast. Deliberately introducing three new high school students who fit very much into the exact same slots that Mikado, Masaomi and Anri did in the previous books, Narita shows us that Kuon has a long way to go in trying to be the next Izaya, mostly as he doesn’t understand how much of what Izaya did was off the cuff, dangerous, and unplanned. As for Yahiro, after praising him for being a nice guy in the previous book, I may have to walk that back a bit.

Remember the slasher plotline at the start of this series? It’s back, sort of, only with hammers. Someone is going around dressed as a character from popular franchise Owl of the Peeping Dead (not based on any real-life series, the author assures us) and hitting people with hammers. No one’s dying, but they’re getting hospitalized. Several people would like to see this stopped. Erika and Walker, who are offended that someone is destroying the reputation of a beloved series. Shizuo, who doesn’t really care until the attacker hits Tom, and then cares A WHOLE LOT. And Ran Izumii, who also hits guys he hates with a hammer, and is upset that someone is stealing his shtick. Hunting down this attacker… or, as it turns out, attackers… are Celty, as always, Yahiro, who’s nice and strong and also weird as hell, and Horada, who is comic relief.

So if Kuon is not Izaya, is he Masaomi? That fits him a little better, to be honest, especially the desire to have people hit him after they realize how involved he is in everything. Still, if you’re trying to be an expy of another character, perhaps don’t pick the only one of the trio so uninteresting he’s been written out? As for Yahiro, he overlays with Shizuo, of course. Certainly better than he does with Mikado, as Mikado is his polar opposite. That said, the last section of the book made me realize that Yahiro reminds me more than a little of Elmer from Baccano!. That’s that vague sense of ‘what the actual fuck?’ that comes across whenever you have to deal with Yahiro for a lengthy period, though it doesn’t help that Kuon’s actions are so contradictory to begin with. He’s certainly the most interesting of the new characters, especially since Himeka pretty much sits this book out.

Next volume promises the return of at least two of the original trio.. But till then let’s enjoy the chaos, and be relieved that DRRR!! can still inspire laughter and badass fighting.

Altina the Sword Princess, Vol. 13

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By Yukiya Murasaki and himesuz. Released in Japan as “Haken no Kouki Altina” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

A lot of Japanese fantasy novels tend to take place in “Europe with the serial numbers filed off”, and Altina the Sword Princess is no exception. That said, in terms of the haves versus the have-nots, one look at the map provided at the front of the book will show that the country belonging to our heroes is head and shoulders above the others. Sure, the battle against Britannia was rough, and Hispania seems to be doing the same sort of piracy that Spain was said to be doing back in the days when massive Empires controlled Europe. But Belgaria, the equivalent of France, is not really hurting either. Especially with its new King on the throne, who is not a dissolute reprobate. Unfortunately, what the new King is is someone who will only want eternal war. As a result, the new head of the army Altina and her strategist are headed down south to try to stop the equivalent of Italy from taking several highly prized cities.

Several surprises await Regis and Altina in this book. First of all, Britannia has finally decided to overthrow its current Queen after that disaster of a campaign and is looking for the next in line… who happens to be traveling incognito with our heroes. Secondly, the generals that have made up the fighting force in the south so far seem… slightly off. The Sixth Army is to be praised for having few casualties… but that’s mostly as it keeps retreating. The Eighth Army is at least more gung ho… indeed, their own general seems a little TOO gung ho. And what’s more annoying, the land and cities that are being lost are some of the most fruitful areas in Belgaria in terms of vegetables and wheat… meaning princes are going up due to shortages. The piracy is not really helping. Given all this, it’s no wonder that stopping Elenore from hitting on Regis is low on Altina’s priority list.

With every volume in this book the stakes have gotten higher, and I appreciate the book calling this out. First of all, we get real dead soldiers here, as Regis has to force the other armies’ hands with his own strategy, while at the same time fighting the Etrurian Army. He can’t rely on tricks and schemes to win the battle anymore… he has to find a way to get peace. Which means that he and Altina have got to do something about Latrielle, because the moment they achieve results here they’re told to invade Hispania. Latrielle will not be happy unless he’s fighting someone, the antithesis of what Altina wants. Something has to give soon, and it’s likely going to mean civil war. We also get some good discussion here on ways to fail but not get removed from your post… unfortunately, with Regis in charge, that changes swiftly. Both southern Generals are a different variety of infuriating, so this is for the best.

So, will the next volume be in not-Spain? Or will the gears of war start turning inward? If you like military fantasy, this continues to be a must buy.