Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 6

Leave a reply

By Keishi Ayasato and Saki Ukai. Released in Japan as “Isekai Goumon Hime” by MF Bunko J. Released in North America Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

(This is one of those “I spoil the ending” reviews.)

Let’s face it, the biggest flaw in this book comes after the afterword, where gives us a preview of the next volume, which introduces new antagonists to take the place of our protagonists. The flaw here is that this book was pretty much a picture perfect finale in every way, and the author admits that straight up. They say that the story of Elisabeth is not over, and that they still have more stories to tell, which is all fine and dandy, but it’s gonna be very hard to top Book6 next time, so it had better be good. As for this volume itself, well, it’s a War Against Heaven and Hell, with everyone (mostly) joining forces, and Kaito serving as a one-man army of his own. The question is whether they can pull off what needs to be done – killing Jeanne and Elisabeth. Izabella has already said straight up she won’t be able to kill Jeanne. Will Kaito be able to make the ultimate sacrifice?

No, of course not. Anyone who’s ready even fifty pages of this series knows the answer to that one. Indeed, the least surprising thing in the book (although Jeanne and Elisabeth both manage to be surprised, with Jeanne pulling off the best use of ‘motherfucker’ in a light novel ever) is Kaito’s plan. The bulk of the book is the lead up to that, where he first manages to convince the humans, demi-humans and beastmen to team up by either terrifying them or proving strong enough to equal them in combat (thankfully the first princess does not have a Red Sonja clause in her character), and then spends the bulk of the book walking around the various battle zones, watching the saints and soldiers fighting against horrific monstrosities from beyond our ken, and occasionally destroying them all with a ‘la’ when he feels he has to. Oh yes, and have one last picnic date with Hina, which honestly I think the readers care about more than the war itself.

Hina remains that very rare example of a yandere whose feelings are returned, and she’s finally risen above “she’s Rem from Re: Zero” status, though it is ironic that they both end their roles in the series in eternal sleeps. I was also surprised to see the relationship between Jeanne and Izabella be as romantic as it ended up being, despite Jeanne spending 90% of the book trapped in God’s Iron Maiden and Izabella walking around in a body that’s 3/4 artificial. There’s lots of cool fighting here, and a nice final confrontation between Kaito and Elisabeth, but the best moments from the book are the smaller ones – I loved Kaito and Izabella discussing the frailty of human beliefs, and how it drives them to commit atrocities against anyone who can fit the definition of “expendable”. And yes, in the end Kaito and Hina remove themselves from the series, leaving Elisabeth to live on, alone. Well, except for a lot of the cast, also alive. She doesn’t count them.

Still, we get the arrival of a new sneering smug villain at the end, as well as a girl who seems to be based off of Alice Carroll/Alice in Wonderland, something that I don’t think we’ve ever seen in a single piece of Japanese media. After a satisfying climax to this book, I admit reluctance to see it continue, but I’ll read the next one to see if the author can pull it off.

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, Vol. 11

Leave a reply

By Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki. Released in Japan as “Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen

It’s been over a year since I reviewed the 10th volume of Arifureta. In between that time we’ve had two volumes of Arifureta Zero, as well as a volume of short stories, and we also had the anime come to an end and remind us that some stories really work best when you can’t SEE all the fanservice. That said, all good things must come to an end, and while this is not the final volume of the series, it certainly feels like Vol. 12 is going to be. We get all the setup for the final battle here. Yes, that does mean a “darkest before the dawn” start to the book, and Yue fans will likely not be happy that she ends up possessed by the evil God and therefore not in most of the book, but after that it’s basically a curtain call for anyone who’s ever been relevant in this series and also several people who haven’t – like most of the rest of the students.

So yes, Hajime and company are told by the bad guys to come meet the evil God and his evil assistant, and they’ve taken the students hostage (which doesn’t work) as well as Remia and Myu (which does). After a brief “it’s OK, I’m really a good guy” shtick that fools almost no one, we get reminded why Ehit is so powerful, and they basically mops the floor with everyone, including Hajime, and takes Yue’s body for their own. They also say that in three days, they’ll destroy the world and then move on to destroy Earth. Fortunately, that means they have three days, so the rest of the book consists of preparing to fight back, heartwarming scenes with Hajime and his loved ones (Kaori and Tio get “I love you” scenes, and Aiko and Liliana are clearly upgraded to “will be added to the group in the near future”), and wacky fanservice and comedy, because likely there won’t be much time for that in the final book.

Despite bringing back almost everyone from previous books, the writing glides right through it, assuming (correctly) we won’t remember three-quarters of everyone here. There are also some students, who haven’t gotten anything to do in nearly six books, who get to briefly shine in the spotlight, which is nice to see. Certainly nicer than seeing Kouki – again – side with the villains. Now, much of this is Eri mind-controlling him, but I’m sorry, I just cannot work up any sympathy for him by now. I can’t see him dying, particularly given there’s three different people still trying to snap him out of it, but wow, I absolutely do not care if they succeed or not. And Tio gets another good character building book, with a side story of her own, and it shows off the super-powerful lonely princess equally with the anal pleasure-obsessed pervert.

The novels are still quite popular, and I suspect once the main series is finished the “After Story”, which is still being written to this day on the web, will be put out officially in Japan. That said, for the moment, this is the big lead up to the finale next book, and contains most of the good things about the series, as well as a few of the bad. Fans should enjoy it.

Baccano!: 1710 Crack Flag

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.

Yeah, I avoided this one for a while I will admit. I don’t like tragedies, even when I know they’re coming. What’s more, this book was famous among Baccano! fandom as the pinnacle of the series, and therefore had a lot to live up to. Does it do that? pretty much, yeah. Balancing out the mystery of exactly what’s going on, the achingly sweet and awkward romance between Huey and Monica, and the creeping feeling of impending doom that powers the 2nd half, Crack Flag is a huge winner. And that’s not even mentioning our villain. Pardon the language, but “Fuck Fermet” has been a refrain among the fandom for years, and while we’ve seen why in other books, no more is it driven home than here. Fermet wants nothing more than to bring despair to people, and with Huey and Monica we get the ultimate example of that in action. Izaya only wishes he were this evil. (I may have said that line before.)

The book says 1710, but it actually begins in 1707, two years after the events of The Ironic Light Orchestra. The poet and playwright Jean-Pierre Accardo is at a party for nobility, feeling very out of place, until he runs into Lebreau Fermet Viralesque and his 6-year-old charge Czeslaw Meyer. Through a relaxed, easy conversation, the two form a bond. At the same time, Huey and Monica’s bond is deepening as well, even if he’s still reluctant to admit it. Unfortunately, the arrival of a huge galleon from the Dormentiare family drives Monica to despair… though, as with most tragedies, we quickly learn that if the parties involved had actually spoken to each other, there’d be little she had to worry about. Will Huey be able to break through her walls? Can Huey break through his own walls? And, whatever you do, don’t go to the theatre tonight…

This is a brutal book (the author says in the afterword he won’t be getting quite this dark again, which, OK, 1711 would like to have a word with you), so let’s concentrate on things that are happier – Huey and Monica. It’s so WEIRD seeing Huey like this given, well, 1711 to the present, and it drives home how much she and Elmer mean to him. And yes, I don’t want to leave Elmer out – he does his best here, and while his own thoughts are still rather terrifying, he’s a terrific character. We also see here how Maiza went from “this alchemy stuff is all bullshit” to suddenly becoming ALL ALCHEMY ALL THE TIME, and I am rather amused that all it took was just a throat-slitting (and recovery). And Carla is fantastic, taking no shit from any men around her and doing her best to figure out what’s going on in Lotto Valentino. We’ll be seeing more of almost all of them in future books, thank goodness.

So yes, this book hurt to read, but it was also one of the best in the series. Narita says 1711 is next, and I guess in terms of stuff he had to write from scratch he’s correct. But first we’re getting another bonus volume. Just as Another Junk Railroad was an expanded version of the freebie that came with the audio drama, the next book is an expansion of the 5-part novel that came with the Anime DVD releases. It answers that hideously terrifying question: “what if Elmer and Graham met?”.