Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!: You’re Being Summoned, Darkness

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By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!: Chūnibyō demo Majo ga Shitai!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Another day, another KonoSuba novel, and another manga series being parodied in the subtitle. This time it’s You’re Being Summoned, Azazel-san, a long-running seinen comedy manga with two anime series. Last time I said that we might get a bit more plot, and that’s certainly true, though thankfully that does not mean that things get any more serious. Sure, Kazuma is being put to death for crimes against the state, but honestly, he could have gotten out of that about eight different ways simply by not being Kazuma. And as you may have guessed by the cover, Darkness features heavily in this book. We get a lot more detail on her background, and find that her strong sense of self can even duel with a lesser demon. This, again, does not make her any less ridiculous. Summing up KonoSuba remains one of the easiest things in the worst: selfish protagonists do stupid things, and the reader laughs.

I’m actually very impressed that Kazuma falls into this category as well. It would be all too easy to turn him into a Kyon type, merely reacting against the antics of everyone else. But no, he manages to make some head-scratchingly selfish and foolish decisions throughout, especially near the start, simply by running his mouth off. Of course, he does also save the day at the end – sort of, in reality Kazuma mostly saves the day by directing others to do so – but one wonders how far he’d go if he simply reined in his put-upon ego. Megumin has a reunion with a classmate of hers, and Yunyun seems to be more powerful but in reality may be even more pathetic than Megumin, which takes some doing. The name really doesn’t help, and I was highly amused that Kazuma and I had the same reaction to it.

As indicated above, Darkness gets the most to do here. The revelation of her family background is not all that surprising, really, and I was relieved that she doesn’t really switch personalities too much when she’s back in her home. As for the marriage meeting, it’s the highlight of the book, with Kazuma’s scheming and Darkness’ sabotage attempts combining in the best way, culminating in a duel which seems to end in a wet T-shirt contest. I’d mentioned before how shipping was minimal in the series, but it’s picking up – Darkness’ angry description of her ideal man does sound an awful lot like Kazuma, and the bath scene he has with Megumin gets a lot more awkward when he realized that she’ll grow out of being ‘underage’ pretty soon. As for Aqua, her part in all this is to be ridiculous, and she succeeds at this admirably. She and Kazuma make a great baka duo.

This volume takes us halfway through Season 2, meaning we only have one more till we catch up with the anime. Of course, the series is so popular there may be a third anime before December. In any case, fans of KonoSuba will enjoy this a great deal, as it’s still one of the funniest light novels being released.

If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord, Vol. 2

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By CHIROLU and Truffle. Released in Japan as “Uchi no Musume no Tame Naraba, Ore Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoserukamo Shirenai” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Matthew Warner.

Like a lot of second volumes, this one seems to have a bit of an “wait, I have to write more? Well, OK…” feel to it. For the most part it’s the continuing adventures of Adventurer Dale (whose last name, we find out, literally MEANS adventurer, as it’s more of a title), and his adorable adopted Devil daughter Latina (who has aged a couple more years since the first book). Since Latina is now the main reason for Dale’s existence (jokes about him being a pushover for his girl continue to be the main running gag of the series), he’s decided to take her home to meet his family. And so most of the book is a leisurely trip across the continent, as Latina experiences different cultures, tries new foods (and gets better and better as a cook), and we learn a tiny bit more about her past. That said, this book also lacks the dark yet extremely compelling climax the first book had.

Instead we get a mellower climax that introduces us to Dale’s family proper, a village of powerful folks connected to the Earth, led by his matriarch grandmother. Dale was, in fact, supposed to be the future head of the clan, but he had the calling to be an Adventurer and protect the world, so he does that calling, and his younger brother gets the clanship – and the girl, as he’s getting married while they’re there. We get a bit more of Dale’s past, mostly with occasional thoughts from other people’s POV on how he used to be, but I really wish woe could get an extended flashback or something. It’s all very well and good to say Latina changed him for the better so much, but honestly we’re only familiar with Goofy Dad Dale, so it’s got less impact. As for Latina, she still unintentionally wraps everyone around her little finger by virtue of being really good and smart and pretty and diligent and earnest and pure.

Latina also gets some rather nasty nightmares when she wakes up and Dale’s not around, brought about by too much family all at once and hearing talk about getting married and moving on. And this is an issue, as Latina is VERY attached to Dale, and she to him. For the most part, this is dealt with in the standard way you’d expect in a Japanese light novel – his family make the occasional lolicon joke, Dale says “OMG I’m her father!” a lot, and Latina misses all this subtext. But honestly, I think in the next book she’s a couple years older, and there’s a few books still to go, and I am throwing out there that this is a really enjoyable series, but I would not be surprised at all if it ended with Dale and Latina in a romantic relationship, which is obviously far more acceptable in a Japanese work. I don’t actually know any spoilers, and if I’m totally wrong I apologize, but I’ve been burned a bit too often by this sort of thing. Latina is not the perpetual 5-year-old Yotsuba.

That said, nothing has really happened yet, and what you’re left with is a heartwarming and sweet story of a father and his adopted daughter, going on mild yet entertaining adventures. If the series keeps giving us that, I’m perfectly fine with it.

Blood Lad, Vol. 9

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By Yuuki Kodama. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press. Translated by Melissa Tanaka.

As you might have guessed by the fact that this volume is half the length of the previous ones, this is the final volume of Blood Lad. The word ‘Final’ on the cover might also clue you in. Fortunately, the main villain of the last several books is polished off fairly early on. I say fortunately because, as if the author had been listening to the whining in my reviews all along, the majority of this book is devoted to Fuyumi and the relationship she has with the others, and particularly with Staz. It doesn’t necessarily redeem her entirely as a character, but it fits very well thematically, and allows for an ending that is both bittersweet and sentimental.

We left off with Staz commandeering Fuyumi’s body in order to take out Grimm, adding more and more of the secondary characters as he went along, to the point where he visualized them as being on the main bridge of a battleship. I’d said last time that I was annoyed that while he was using Fuyumi’s body, Staz was still in charge and doing everything. It turns out that this is actually a fatal flaw, and starts to lead to his defeat. He can’t actually do all this himself, no matter how much he wants to protect everyone, or take on everyone’s troubles, or feel responsible. He is just one (very overpowered) vampire. Fortunately, she gets through to him and they defeat Grimm with the power of a massive FRIENDSHIP BEEEEEEAM! Unfortunately, the combination of this and the loss of a sense of self that it brings on forces everyone that was in the Fuyumi fusion to fall into a coma. Gradually most come out of it, but Fuyumi is the real issue, because her tendency to go with the flow has led to a lack of sense of self.

But Staz, frustrating as he can be, figures things out in time, and we get what seems to be a sweet, happy ending… except, of course, Fuyumi is still a ghost. Now, they can fix that… but it will in fact lead to the separation of teh happy couple. I will try not to spoil too much of what follows (I know, I know, what review blog are you reading?), but it manages to combine the sense of loss that comes of letting someone go in order for them to have a better life (or in this case, an actual life), and then turning it on its head and gaining the possibility of happiness in the future. It’s a bit of an ass pull, but I’m all for these when they lead to sweet things like this.

I wasn’t all too impressed with the premise of this series, when I first saw the solicit, and therefore I’m really pleased that it turned out to be so good. I had issues with it, but it was in turns amusing, thrilling, heartwarming, and a barrel of fun. It’s a good series to do a big reread on now that it’s finished. Go seek it out.