Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend

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By Hajime Kamoshida and Keji Mizoguchi. Released in Japan as “Seishun Buta Yarou wa Dear Friend no Yume wo Minai” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

And so the Rascal books come to an end (leaving aside any short story or side story collections) with a volume just as short as the previous one. The main conflict from the last few books gets solved fairly quickly and easily, so much so that we realize that it was a fakeout, and we’re right, as the real conflict is with Sakuta himself. Well, that and maybe the publishers. I’ve talked before about how the series has always felt a little artificially extended after the 9th book, and that Sakuta in college but still dealing with all the Adolescent Syndrome stuff felt tacked on. Turns out Sakuta agrees with me – no, not the Sakuta we’re familiar with, but his alternate-world “perfect” Sakuta, who has come by to let him know that there are many and infinite alternate realities around them, and they all think Sakuta sucks, because he’s managing to break all of them.

When we last saw Sakuta, everything was terrible as Mai announced to the world that she was Touko. Now he has to make things right, which involves getting deep into the heart of Miori’s relationship with Touko and why her repressed feelings are actually making things worse. This is resolved, and thanks to Mai doing a quick “this was all an April Fool” bit, no one believes that she’s Touko anymore (including Mai herself). Unfortunately for Sakuta, all the OTHER reality-altered dreams are still present and correct – there are two Kaedes, Yuuma is dating Rio, etc. As it turns out, Miori is more than just the last in a string of women Sakuta has to help, she’s a dimensional nexus point of sorts. While everyone else has alternate versions of themselves (which we’ve seen with the alt-Sakuta), there is only one Miori. That said, most of this has little to do with Sakuta’s actual problem – how does he fix everything?

Despite the fact that this seems like the 15th book in a row where Sakuta takes a lot of public transportation lovingly described until a solution occurs,. there are things I really enjoyed here. Touko’s final song being a palindrome made it very life affirming, and I wish Miori luck in finding a Touko who isn’t dead. I also liked Sakuta’s discussion with the alt-Kaede, and her own simple solution to his “problem”. His problem is phrased as “grow up”, and the solution is pretty neat, and ties into something we’ve known about Sakuta from the very start – I appreciate how this fixes everything. The biggest issue with the book, and possibly why the last two were so short (well, that and artist illness) is that it’s padded out. Sakuta goes round in circles a lot here, and at one point takes us on a tour of iconic Rascal Does Not Dream locations. Like his alternate self, I wanted Sakuta to get with it and solve everything, not mope around.

The book ends with an epilogue set two years later, with stuff I really liked as well as a few things I’m eeeeh on (why do people love student/teacher relationships? Who are not students?). Sakuta and Mai are still exactly the same as before only with all their issues resolved – sorry, no engagement, marriage, or honeymoon scenes. Basically, everyone has grown up. Rascal went on too long, just like its hero, but I liked it a lot.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Vol. 8.5

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By Piero Karasu and Yuri Kisaragi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Ah, the good old .5 volume. This one even helps us out by telling us where most of the original short stories were seen – they were in Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Magazine, which frequently has short story extras for its popular series. This is good news, as it means they’re all chunky short stories written for an attentive audience, rather than, say, the “these are all 2-3 page stories written for bookstore giveaways” short story volumes. In fact, I’d say this is just as strong as the regular volumes, and some of the stories I’d call essential. They mostly, with the exception of the first, examine life after Euphie takes the throne, and deal with the fallout of what comes from that. As we saw in the last volume, it’s still ongoing and nasty, and is destroying a number of families and lives. That said, we know where our sympathies lie, because the families whose lives are getting destroyed are trying to marry Euphie off to a man and still hate Anis.

The stories: 1) Near the start of their relationship, Anis shows Euphie how she collects spellstones, and they have a nice bath and are attracted to each other; 2) Anis tries to repair her relationship with her mother, which is difficult as they’re both very awkward and blame themselves for everything that happened between them; 3) Ilia’s family has gotten rid of her abusive parents, and are trying to get her to come back to them and marry her cousin, but Lainie isn’t going to let that happen; 4) in an original story for the book, Anis tries to ruffle Euphie’s coolness by being her maid for the day; 5) We get Tilty’s backstory as she tries to avoid reconciling with her father; 6) Halphys is getting married but a surprise succession change may mess things up for her at the last minute; 7) In another original story for the book, Euphie asks Anis if she can sometimes wear nice dresses and actually socialize.

The relationship between Anis and Euphie has always tried to toe the line between “codependent, but in a good way” and “codependent, but in a terrible way”. There’s a scene in Halphys’ story where a noble admits he’s abdicating simply as Euphie terrifies him, and given what happened in Book 8, I absolutely get it. Anis may get upset that Euphie always seems to be the dominant one in their love, but that’s more down to Anis’s embarrassment, whereas with Euphie being overly affectionate is how she holds on to what’s left of her humanity. The best story, I thought, was Tilty’s, where we meet her father and realize that they’re the classic case of two people trying to be considerate of each other who only end up hurting each other instead. It’s a must read if you like her character.

Hopefully we’ll get the 9th book a bit faster than we got this one. Another great volume in a series I really love.

An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, Vol. 20

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By Fuminori Teshima and COMTA. Released in Japan as “Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Hikoki.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a short story volume, but its main plot is definitely a framing device meant to set off each chapter. Mostly what we get here are flashbacks giving us insight into other characters, some of them very important and some of them mostly new to us. The reason for this, of course, is that Zagan is dead, per the cliffhanger of the last volume. Well, OK, probably not, but he does not appear in this volume, and Nephy, who is holding down the fort, only shows up in one scene. Of course this means that the overly sweet romance that was why we all started to read this series is once again in short supply. This is not unique to this author. A lot of light novel and manga authors start off writing something only to find, 20-odd volumes in, that it’s become an epic shonen battle series. Mostly as authors are (mentally) teenage boys.

So yes, Zagan is dead, but nobody really believes he’s DEAD dead. Least of all Nephteros, who has decided to go on a quest to revive Zagan, along with her beloved Richard. Their investigation shows that it’s mostly that Zagan’s soul is lost, and fortunately they have a soul-finder guy, but he’s hard to convince, plus he’s busy, um, imitating the Archangel Michael to such a good degree that the actual article begins to despair. What’s more the core group has already lost Shax, who is forced to ally with the enemy given that Kuroka has been captured. Who is the enemy really? Well, as it turns out, the enemy is a lot of people, and has interacted with our cast a number of times. That said, it may end up being Asmodeus who holds the key to resolving all this.

I jokes online that the big twist at the end of the series was that every single character would turn out to have been secretly Marchiosas, and while it’s not quite as bad as that, he does show up everywhere. The stories we get are a) Bifrons being a generally terrible person, investigating Zagan, and meeting a young girl who… kind of sort of led to Nephteros; Richard’s Sacred Sword, Camael, telling of her past as a seraph and what has led her to try to protect Marchiosas at all costs; Michael/Andrealphus going back to his home only to find his entire life has been usurped by a demon; and Asmodeus/Lily’s backstory, and why she’s so obsessed with getting those soul gems. As with most short story books, even the ones that aren’t quite, the best stories are near the end – Lily is definitely the highlight of the book. That said… I kinda want to get back to awkward handholding.

We’ve been told that next volume will be all battles, so I’m not getting that anytime soon. Enjoy this shonen battle novel that used to be something else.