So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 12

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By Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu. Released in Japan as “Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

With this volume we have almost, but not quite, caught up with Shun’s “present” that we left off in the 6th volume. This book is the huge human/demon war that led to Shun becoming the Hero, with huge casualties on both sides. The book is essentially a war diary from various points of view, showing off the various battles going on around the world. We see the demons use revenge monkeys to completely destroy one fort; another demon army wiped out by Ronandt’s long-range magic; the cute childhood friend couple from Japan being a cute childhood friend adventurer couple here; Sophia saying “well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions”; Wrath basically winning easily; and the big final battle with Julius versus several demons, including Bloe and Agner, and White trying to cut the thread (so to speak) by bringing in a Queen Taratect to ruin everything. Which it does, but not quite in the way that she’d planned…

I talked about this last time as well, but I think the author has been trying their best to make sure that the reader cares about the human side and the demon side equally, and from what I’ve seen, that’s just not happening. In fact, honestly, the readers don’t want to see the demon side EITHER. The readers want spider. Lots of spider. Sorry to say, White is still a minor character in this book. She gets cute little sidebars explaining each battlefield in her usual hyperactive way, and we see her interactions with the demon lord, Bloe, and Sophia and the 10th unit. None of them really see White as we know her, though I think the demon lord is starting to figure it out. She’s also getting far more talkative and better at actually explaining her actions. Basically, White is maturing. This will be handy when they inevitably run into the giant pile of reincarnations we left off with ages ago, but can be frustrating right now.

The battles are well handled. As you might guess, this is mostly tragedy… with one exception. The story of Sophia’s adventures at school, complete with her version of the handsome jerk and the class president, are absolutely hilarious, especially given they all end up in the same military unit anyway. I hope we see more of them being absolute bitches at each other. And as I hinted above, everything about Kunihiko and Asaka’s relationship is adorable and heartwarming, and I don’t THINK they’re dead yet… (crosses fingers). But there’s lots of depressing stuff we knew was coming here, as all but one of the hero party gets wiped out, and it also takes out several major parts of the demon party as well. What’s more the demon lord and White didn’t even achieve their main objective – the one-kill anything sword is still around, and can now be used by the new hero against the demon lord. Annoying, that.

This is an excellent book, but the overall impression I get at the end is “can we PLEASE get back to the main storyline we started in Volume 1?”. Recommended for those who like war memoirs and cute lovesick girls getting crushed to death by giant spiders.

Last Round Arthurs, Vol. 5: Once King & Future King

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By Taro Hitsuji and Kiyotaka Haimura. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jan Cash.

Yeah, that really did not stick the landing, did it? After a series that mixed up wacky romcom “shout at the appalling girl being appalling” stuff with Shonen Jump battles, the series goes all in on the latter here at the end. Which is fine – given the glimpse of Kay and Emma *still* in fetishwear in the epilogue, I’m quite happy to have a final volume of serious fighting. The trouble is that the fighting is not all that great, and the beats are very, very predictable. I’ve compared it to Jump before, but here it sort of reads like one of those Jump series that gets cancelled 2-3 volumes in and told to wrap things up here. We meet the final boss, who is exactly who you’d expect, and our heroes are almost defeated, as you’d expect, except Luna simply! will! not! give! up!, as you’d expect. What about Rintarou, you ask? Well, he’s trapped in another dimension. Will he make it back just in the nick of time? Take a guess.

We pick up where the last book left off, as our merry crew (minus Rintarou) have gotten back from their Holy Grail Quest to find that New Avalon has been overrun by monsters, and that evacuation of the island is being cut off by magic. Someone wants a massacre here. (Casualties are implied, but we never see or hear about dead bodies, so…) There’s also a massive dark evil castle in the center of the city now. Making their way there, our heroes split up to take on the bad guys: the original King Arthur, who has been corrupted into evil, his two companions, and Morgan Le Fay, who we find in this book would like the entire world to end so that she can be reunited with a nebbish ordinary knight she fell in love with back in the day. Luna may declare herself to be the next King Arthur, but can she go up against the original without Rintarou’s help?

Well, no, because the entire point of the series is that you get a partner for your quest and rely on them. Plus, again, Jump-esque series. When Rintarou showed up to save Luna in the nick of time, all I could think was that she’s going to hit him and tell him “You’re late!”, and sure enough, that’s exactly what happens. There’s a lot of discussion of what makes a king here, especially when Luna gets all the other candidates to basically give up and join her as subordinates. Luna says that being a king is about determination and never giving up, which certainly defines her, though give the fights in this book I sometimes get the sense she’s a Tex Avery dog slamming against a door over and over till it opens. Rintarou basically had his character development finish last time, so he essentially is absent for most of this book until he comes to save the day.

And so we end with Luna in charge, a new Round Table, and a world that is now aware of magic and monsters, which means that we’re seeing more of them across the globe. You get the sense that Luna’s going to turn the new Round Table into a modern-day Avengers. Fortunately, the series ends here, so I don’t have to worry about it. There wasn’t anything really bad with Last Round Arthurs, unless you dislike obnoxious women, but it never really rose above “yeah, it went there” in terms of narrative thrust.

Tearmoon Empire, Vol. 5

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By Nozomu Mochitsuki and Gilse. Released in Japan as “Tearmoon Teikoku Monogatari” by TO Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by David Teng.

The structure of this book is slightly off, as the author admits that the story got away from them and the island arc that should have concluded the 2nd “arc” of this story ended up being the first third of this 5th book as well. Still, it works out, as we get to see Mia turn a corner and fend off another of her fates written in a long history book… or at least it was long. Yes, sometimes when you’re trying to stop the bad guys who can mess with the fates, you end up finding that your fate can sometimes get even worse. Now Mia’s not being executed at the guillotine or cut down in her adult years for not being Empress, the history books say she’ll be killed in a few scant months. Can she avoid this fate while continuing to work hard to save her kingdom from famine, win over more allies by being kind and charming, and also eat delicious sweets? The answer should be obvious.

The one thing I took away from this book is that I think Mia handles plots against her, or large conspiracies, much better than sudden random events conspiring against her. When she has to deal with a cave-in, a seemingly deadly fish attacking her, or even just horses sneezing in her face, she seems to always end up on the wrong foot. But the larger, more epic scenarios are where she shines – and yes, by now even the narrator is having trouble saying EVERYTHING she does is due to her selfishness and need to eat sweets, although god knows they try to say so anyway. In her confrontation with Esmeralda, where she sees the traitorous past of their nation as found in a secret underground ruin, stares destiny right in the face, and says “to hell with that”, she really is learning to be a good person – and yes, it’s framed as her having to “deceive” Esmeralda by saying they’re best friends, but I don’t doubt it’s actually going to come to pass. Mia is no longer as passive or luck-driven as she was in past books.

The 2nd half of the book, back at school, is even better. Finding from Bel’s now-changed history book how she’s going to die, she takes steps to avoid it, the first of which is getting even better at riding horses. The way she does this is actually quite clever. You see, she gets up early, practices really hard, learns to read the movements of the horse, and treats them well, even going so far as to help save the life of the pregnant horse that she had been eyeing up as a replacement mount (as opposed to the horse that keeps sneezing on her). See? I told you it was clever. Mia is doing things correctly and doing them well. This culminates in the highlight of the book, where she races Ruby, the daughter of the House of Redmoon, in a Belmont Stakes with one of her retainers at stake. The race is fantastic, with Mia being both very much in character (she’s screaming and whining the entire time) but also incredibly awesome. And we also see her changing history once more, as one reason she was executed her first go-round is that she pissed off Ruby so much she persuaded her father not to support them with military might… something that ended up being fatal to them both. This time around, everyone wins, and Mia’s solution to what to do about Ruby is brilliant. I don’t even care if she wasn’t thinking long-term here. It’s still brilliant.

There are, of course, a few plotholes with the new arc, but they’re acceptable. Miabel did not vanish when Mia’s fate changed, despite the fact that she did not live long enough to have kids, much less grandkids. Even the author acknowledges this is a handwave, but it’s fine, as we also get sweet scenes of Miabel managing to stay her innocent, sweet self even in a bad future where she has to be hidden from the world. That said, Mia is still the star, not her granddaughter, and Mia is the reason that these books keep getting better. I can’t wait for the next one, and I would say that this is essential light novel reading.