Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 9

Leave a reply

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Last time I mentioned that the series had an actual plot in among all the comedy, and we still see some of that here as well. But its never going to get in the way of the comedy itself, and honestly is likely never going to be the main part of the book unless the series finally comes to an end. As for the actual plot of this book… why, it’s a school festival with a maid cafe, of course. Honestly, I feel that a lot of these books can be summed up by the author flicking through TV channels, landing on some random anime, going “A ha, that’s it!” and moving back to the computer. The fact that the book even tries to justify it only makes it funnier. Add to this a master thief who has reckoned without our dumbass heroes and a king who can’t convince anyone he’s been kidnapped, and there’s no worries on the laugh front.

So yes, a maid cafe. Well, theoretically a maid/butler cafe, but the butler uniforms are stolen for no real reason other than to stick Lloyd and Allan in maid outfits. The idea is mostly Riho’s, thinking she can get some cash for once (which is true, but don’t expect it to stick). The king, meanwhile, wants to put out a huge statue that supposedly grants good fortune to couples who stand next to it. There’s just one problem: the statue’s creator really really does not want it to be shown off, and will happily steal the whole thing to prevent that happening. Oh yes, and there’s a master thief around, though whether he is connected to the missing statue is neither here nor there. What this all amounts to is a lot of school festival schtick and a lot of Lloyd going on not-dates with his two most aggressive girls.

In the two volumes before this, we saw Lloyd get actual character development that stuck, as he has started to realize, if not that he is stronger than everyone else in the world, art least that he IS strong. What’s more, he’s finally showing off that strength in front of people who are NOT the main cast, which means that credit for saving the day, for once, does not go to Allan. Who, frankly, has enough to deal with, given his wife ends up returning and working for the military. Lloyd, meanwhile, is starting to think about his future, not realizing that everyone else already has it planned out for him: military PR, military intelligence, military security, or hell, just marry into royalty. (Marie’s not in the book much at all, but still tends to be top girl by default whenever she’s around, and at least the King now knows who she’s crushing on.)

This is deeply sill, but in a good way, and I look forward to the plot of the next book, which will no doubt be inspired by a refrigerator magnet the author saw the other day.

Baccano!: 1935-B Dr. Feelgreed

Leave a reply

By Ryohgo Narita and Katsumi Enami. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Taylor Engel.

One of the main themes in Baccano!, and indeed in most of Narita’s work, is that everyone is connected to everyone else, and the connections can be closer than we think. The 1935 arc seems to be this writ large, as we get a lot of reunions of various characters and other characters thinking “wait, they know each other?”. Even the new connections are things I would not have expected. Melvi may have hired Claire to be his bodyguard, but it’s clear there’s no love lost between the two. After meeting Chane’s father last volume, Claire ends up meeting her mother in this book, though I’m not sure that meeting will go quite as well, given Renee is broken and also evil. Mostly, though, these two books take one of the most minor villains from the earliest parts of the series, gives him a backstory and real character development, and then pairs him off with the closest the series has to an innocent sweetie pie. The connections are startling, but they work.

If you thought we were going to get a lot of casino shenanigans in this book, I’m sorry to say we’re still in the ‘set up the dominoes’ part. Melvi is making his presence known everywhere, and no one likes him, including the reader. (Then again, Baccano! fans do love the bad guys…) He’s clearly not got the Runorata Family’s agenda in mind so much as his own, and his own agenda definitely involves making Firo miserable. Meanwhile, in the doctor’s clinic (which is staffed by, among others, Fermet, who I would not trust to give me a sugar pill), the other half of the cast gathers together. This includes Nader, who is still trying to deal with being dragged back into chaos; Roy, who has cleaned up after the events of Book 4; and Isaac and Miria, dressed up as doctors and nurses, because they can. Add Ladd and Graham, Victor’s boys, and so many Lamia we can’t even be bothered to name them, and you have the usual ruckus.

I’ve talked about this before, and it’s even more annoying that it’s happening again; Ennis deserves more than to just be a damsel to make Firo do things. She’s not even *in* this book and she gets kidnapped; it’s really irritating given how much ass she’s kicked in the past. Chane wasn’t in this volume either, so there is a bit of a macho streak to it, to be honest. We do get to see Claire be Claire again, after a long break where he’s barely appeared. That said, he works best in small doses. As does Renee, though I fear we may get more of her than I’d like. Just because she has Felix the Cat drawn on her artificial eye does not make her more likeable, especially when she keeps talking about Huey giving her one of their daughters, presumably for science. Oh yes, worst of all, you can’t just tease the Dormentaire ship and not have Lucrezia turn up! That’s just mean!

In any case, I suspect the next 1935 book will have the chaos actually begin. That said… we have one more detour to make, to the last of the “written for the DVD releases” stories expanded into a novel. It dares to ask the question: can we really add even more to that freaking train journey than we already have?

No Game No Life, Vol. 11

Leave a reply

By Yuu Kamiya. Released in Japan by MF Bunko J. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Richard Tobin.

The general rule of thumb when reading a volume of No Game No Life is to ignore anything that is not directly related to the plot or character development. and yes, this means you are ignoring about 85% of each book. This volume in particular is filled with pointless fanservice, cringey cliches, and more situations and art that remind you why this series got Amazon banned (though, again, this new volume is still there). When you get past all that, you’re essentially left with two things. First of all, the fact that [ ] actually lose for the first time in the series… and they’re not too sure how it happened yet. The result, though, is near catastrophic, though I guess it’s very good news if you’re Chlammy. The second thing is that Sora and Shiro, adopted siblings, are forced to confront their feelings for each other for real… and Shiro especially is almost broken by them. This is a rare reminder that she’s still eleven years old. And while there’s a reset at the end, I think both of them have moved forward a bit.

We open with Sora, Shiro, Steph, Jibril and Emir-Eins waking up to find they’re now trapped in a death game, to Sora’s horror. He hates the very idea of death games, and knows that the only reason that he and the others would ever have agreed to it is if [ ] had lost. Their host is Foeniculum a fairy who is streaming all of this on the fairy version of YouTube. The five of them are in a room where there’s an exit door… but only those who say they’re a couple can go through it. Needless to say, everyone is horrified at this… especially as there’s five of them, so someone will lose. Also, four of them are women. You can buy a key to get out… but the price is exorbitant, and depends entirely on getting donations from viewers. As a result… Sora and company need to be interesting enough to make money!

A lot of this, especially in the first half, is pure stupidity, with the usual antics. Sora has low self-esteem, Steph whines, Jibril and Emir-Eins fight, etc. Things change once the fairy viewers force Sora to tell Shiro that he finds her attractive… something Shiro, theoretically, has been waiting eleven books to hear. But theory and practice are two different things, and it turns out Sora seeing her sexually terrifies her… and indeed Sora, after being released from the fairy geas, is appalled he said it as well. The incest subtext has always been uncomfortable in this series, and it’s shoved in our faces here, but the outcome in the end is good; Shiro doesn’t really need Sora as a lover or a boyfriend, she just needs Sora there next to her all the time. As for [ ] losing, we’re still not sure how it happened either, but it’s setting up for a big battle against the elves next time.

I didn’t mention Steph, but her role is the same as always: be degraded and humiliated 95% of the book, then remind the cast she’s the emotional heart of the story, and far more sensible than any of them. NGNL fans will definitely have a ball with this. Hope we don’t wait so long for the 12th book.