Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Familia Chronicle: Episode Freya

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By Fujino Omori and NIRITSU. Released in Japan as “Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka?: Familia Chronicle: Episode Freya” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Dale DeLucia.

For the most part, along the course of the main DanMachi series, the Freya family has tended to function as Not-Quite-Villains. Particularly Freya, who has her sights set on Bell and making him hers. They’re not out and out evil… trust me, we know who the evil Familias are in this series. Indeed, we get another one in this spinoff. But they’re meant to be aloof and unlikable, the ones at the top looking down on everyone else, and the ones who fight each other constantly just for their goddess’s favor. As such, Episode Freya, which has her leave Orario and go out into the desert looking for her “Odr”, which seems to be used in the same way that we might use “soulmate”, only the implication is that this would not be an equal relationship. While out there, she finds a slave who’s really a royal, and gets inveigled in a massive war. Which, if nothing else, keeps her from being bored.

As promised, we see a better side of Freya here. She’s not exactly a nice person… indeed, the author takes pains to show that she really is exactly who you think she is. But it becomes very apparent in this book why she commands the strongest fighters in Orario, and it’s not that she’s “charmed” them with her goddess powers at all. Indeed, we see her essentially seducing the young prince, Ali (who is really a princess pretending to be a man, because male succession only, etc.) over the course of the book, and at the end Ali is genuinely torn about whether to stay and rule her country or just head off with Freya. Freya, though, makes that decision – Ali was attractive to her precisely because of the liminal space of “I am trying to gain back my kingdom and my people” – an Ali who followed Freya would not be attractive to her. (She does get a night in bed with the goddess, though – though it’s all offscreen, this book has far more sex than the other books.)

The book starts off light – Freya freeing over a hundred slaves because their despair makes the town less sparking is very her, and the scenes with her being the boke to Ali’s tsukkomi were hilarious. Sadly, there’s also a lot of tragedy here as well – the body count is high, both good guys and bad, and the carnage of war is very much on display. There are also two other stories in the book – the first one gives us glimpses of Ottar’s past, and how he got to be the Level 7 powerhouse he is, as well as showing us Mia and Ahnya from the pub back when they were in the Freya familia. There’s also short backstories for the rest of the family, but the biggest one may be the last… and I suspect it spoils Vol. 15, which is out next month in English but came out first in Japan. Let’s just say the fans’ first theories may have been right after all.

Very well done, and you have a much better sense of who Freya is now, though I expect when we’re back in the main series she’ll go back to being an antagonist of sorts. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another two and a half years for the next Episode.

The Wedding of Marielle Clarac

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By Haruka Momo and Maro. Released in Japan as “Marielle Clarac no Kekkon” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Philip Reuben.

Those who have been waiting patiently will be happy to hear that we do get the wedding of Marielle and Simeon in this book. That said, if you’re expecting a book filled with wedding prep and relaxation, think again – even with Marielle trying her best not to get involved in any incidents, she still gets abducted two days before her wedding. Which should not be a surprise – readers of this series are here for the detective thriller part of it just as much as the romantic back and forth, and so not only want Marielle in a wedding dress saying “I do”, but also Marielle escaping her captors in a boat and headed down a very fast river with no real strength to row her way out of it. That said, worry not, romance fans, as there are some delightful moments of that here as well, as the Duke who has been a thorn in their side for some time decides to make a last-minute effort to break them up… mostly as he’s bored.

With two days to go until the wedding, all Marielle and Simeon have to do is pick up the wedding rings, their “wedding eyeglasses”, and enjoy a nice afternoon at the fantasy equivalent of the local Marks and Spencer. Unfortunately various things happen, and for once they’re not really Marielle’s fault. She’s mistaken for someone else and her handbag is stolen, then she ends up involved in a jeweler’s efforts to try to stop the theft of a super-expensive ring… that is being made for the Duke. Then she’s kidnapped. In the second half of the book, after both the expensive ring AND her wedding rings are lost in the river, she and Simeon are forced to play a game as captives of the Duke and his wife… and if they lose, they have to call the wedding off. Even if, by then, the wedding is less than 18 hours away.

I admit it, I was rather surprised, when the wedding rings ended up in the drink halfway through the book, that we did not get them back by some weird coincidence at the end. That said, it does lead to a very sweet and very in character replacement. Marielle and Simeon are in fine form here, with her being the usual mix of level-headed straightforwardness and fangirlish squeeing and Simeon being… well, look, there’s a spoiler I won’t reveal here, but let’s just say it’s the highlight of the entire book and also leaves Simeon feeling as if he’s shamed himself forever. You will laugh a lot. There are also some old favorites who show up here… I’d say it’s a spoiler as well, but come on, of course Lutin is going to try to get in the way of everything again. We even get a nice epilogue from his po9int of view, showing a bit of the genuine feelings he has for Marielle… and how he has no plans of giving up just because they’re married.

Theoretically they should finally be able to consummate their marriage now (and Marielle, though naive, certainly seems eager to do so), but I’ve a suspicion that they may have to wait a bit. Till then, please enjoy another in a series of amusing romantic thrillers starring a young woman who claims to be plain and unassuming but is anything but.

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 4

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By Kei Sazane and Ao Nekonabe. Released in Japan as “Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jan Cash.

I’ve come to realize that Our Last Crusade falls into the same bucket that I put Strike the Blood and the complete works of Ichiro Sakaki, which is to say a series that does not stand out as all that good but succeeds by dint of being smoothly written and not really doing much that’s bad. It feels written in hopes of an anime, which is good news given that there’s one airing as I type this. Sadly, I was not able to get very far into it, mostly as I can tolerate characters like Mismis when they are words on a page, but find it almost impossible when they are tripping and falling onto their boobs in glorious color. This particular book picks up right where the last one left off, but manages to avoid sending our heroes into deathtrap number four and sends them on a vacation instead. Of course, where Iska goes, Alice is soon to follow… though not alone this time.

As hinted by the last cliffhanger, this volume features Sisbell, the youngest of the three sisters who are vying for the throne. Due to the nature of her powers, and the general scumminess of humanity, she has come to distrust everyone around her, especially her two sisters, Elletear and Alice. the only one she feels she can trust is the man who rescued her from the Empire one year previously – Iska. As for Iska and company, they’re sent on a forced vacation after the higher-ups realized how ,long they’d been in enforced combat. Which is very good news for them, as this gives them time to figure out what to do about Mismis’s Astral Crest. The group, after a long shopping scene that reminds me why this series tends to grate on me, heads to an independent desert nation that consists mostly of resort hotels. Sisbell is also there, and propositions Iska: will he join her? Unfortunately, the villain of the second book – and his mask – have also shown up.

Given the entire series deliberately runs on coincidences constantly bringing Iska and Alice together, I am not all that annoyed at events conspiring at the last moment to save Mismis form execution, and anyone and everyone showing up at the same desert city. And I was glad that we briefly got to see Mismis do a thing, even if it was unconsciously and we’re not really sure what she did. Sisbell is sympathetic, and I expect to see more of her as the books go on, though I’m almost positive she will serve as hostage fodder in some way. The ending fight with what amounts to a giant robot with lasers is a lot of fun and will likely look cool if the anime gets to this book. As for the romance between Iska and Alice, they’re separated most of the book again, so it’s mostly just constantly thinking about each other.

The cliffhanger, which is again excellent, implies that events are going to be headed towards the Alice side of the two nations for a while. Till then, enjoy a book that can best be described as “serviceable”, but at least also lacks the bad habits of many other light novels. It’s okay.