der werwolf

By Hyougetsu and Nari Teshima. Released in Japan by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

This is a perfectly decent volume of Der Werwolf. There’s lots of politicking, and there’s a big fight against a danger to every country towards the end of it. Fans should be pleased. That said, when the author stated in the afterword that the 16th volume would be the final one, it was hard not to think “Thank God”. It’s gotten harder these days to end popular series, and Der Werwolf is a classic example. I enjoy the next generation, but it really isn’t doing much beyond the same things that the previous one did. Indeed, Friede gets less page time here than in the two prior books, and Veight once again takes center state. This is partly because Friede doesn’t travel to a new foreign country, but the foreign country comes to Friede. But it’s also because Friede is her dad, only with “bright-eyed young woman” added to it. Even other characters note that they’re the same. When you’re just writing the same things over and over again (much like this review), it’s probably time to call it quits.

Meraldia is visited by the crown prince of Kuwol, Shumar, who gets off to a very bad start with Friede due to cultural differences, but seems a pretty nice guy at heart. He’s unlikely to be added to Friede’s group of friends anytime soon, though. Veight, meanwhile, is starting to think of the future, specifically what will happen to the world after he and those of his generation pass on, so he’s trying to explain the differences between Monarchy and a Parliamentary Democracy to that next generation, with limited success. Unfortunately, disaster soon arrives in the form of a massive dragon, apparently powered by mana, which is slowly making its way out of the woods and towards the other countries. Parker is send to investigate… and is incinerated into bone dust. Can anything defeat it?

‘Dragon’ isn’t one of the fantasy creatures we’ve seen in Der Werwolf. The reason for that is that we already have reptilian humanoids, and they pretty much fit in that little block next to the werewolves and vampires. This, though, is not so much a dragon as a kaiju – instead of fire, it fires off laser beams from its mouth, which reminds me of several Gamera films. Given that it absorbs mana, most of the traditional ways this series fights things don’t work at all. One interesting thing that comes up is that the dragon needs to be stopped before it evolves into a Hero. We haven’t really dealt with Heroes since the very beginning of this series, and it’s worth remembering that, to Veight and the others, a Hero is the worst thing that could happen to the world. Fortunately, Veight is able to use the power of diplomacy plus the power of being a one-man fighting machine to help take the dragon down, helped in the end by his daughter.

I’m not sure what the final volume will give us – retirement? I highly doubt it ends years in the future with Veight’s death. Mostly as it’s hard to imagine him ever dying. But Vol. 16 is not out in Japan yet, so we’ll have to wait to find out.

By Hyougetsu and Nari Teshima. Released in Japan by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

A new publisher for Der Werwolf made fans of the series briefly panic, as we’ve seen manga titles cancelled in the past when they jumped from one publisher to another. Fortunately, after a brief delay, the series is back with its 14th volume. Nothing has really changed now that it’s with Square Enix – cast is the same, artist is the same, it has the same “the entire book is one long chapter” style to it. And it still stars Veight’s daughter, although (as the author admits in the afterword) the balance between her own adventures and that of her dad is struggling a bit. This is The Annals of Veight, not The Annals of Friede, and I think a lot of fans would rather we stuck with the vice-commander. That said, they may be disappointed – there’s some setup here for Airia retiring, which means she and Veight might do more traveling and leave governing in the hands of the future generation. As for Friede herself, well, she’s a lot like her dad, and that includes getting young women to fall in love with her.

After tearing up Rolmund in the last book, this time Friede and company are invited to Wa, partly as a goodwill visit but mostly so the leaders there can see what sort of person she is. Veight is fine with this, ready to give her more slack to do what she wants, and she heads out with her best friends/harem. While there she’s given a minder, Iori, a serious-minded teenage girl who at first regards Friede as soft and riding on her dad’s reputation, a first impression that changes very, very rapidly after seeing her fight and seeing her steamroll any possible obstacles with her cheerful, straightforward attitude. Heck, she even charms the local cat people Grimalkin so much that they reveal to her a secret dance that might reveals a hidden treasure…

I mentioned on Twitter that I was not expecting this book to be yuri, and I suppose it’s not TECHNICALLY yuri, but it is true that Iori falls for Friede so hard and fast that it might as well be, and most of the latter half of the book is made up of what should absolutely be scenes of flirting romance. She’s an orphan girl who has struggled to prove herself, and (like half the cast in this series, including its two leads) tends to put herself down constantly. That said, I think she’ll be a fun addition to the series, because she definitely invites herself to go back with Friede and the others at the end of the book. I also loved her and Friede discussing Veight’s habit of downplaying all his own achievements, which I’ve mocked him for since the series began – “I’m just a simple vice-commander”, etc. It’s called “toxic humility” here, and I could not agree more. That said, I doubt it will go away anytime soon.

I agree with the author, I’m not sure where the series goes from here, but be it Veight or Friede’s book, I’m looking forward to finding out.

By Hyougetsu and Nari Teshima. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

We continue the trend of the series gradually shifting from Veight’s adventures to Friede’s, though as long as the subtitle of the series remains the same I would not worry too much about losing everyone’s favorite vice-commander. (the best joke in this volume, by the way, is how everyone now wants to be a vice-commander because that’s what Veight was and they associate it with being all-powerful.) The narration here is closer to a balance between Friede and Veight, as is the action, though it’s weighted more towards Friede in the front. She’s something of a breath of fresh air in that, while she is undeniably strong and clever, she’s also a kid and thus cannot simply brute force her way through everything the way that Veight does. Indeed, late in the book Veight gets yelled at for solving a problem by blowing it up, even though, to be fair, that was likely the only way the problem could be solved. Friede is not super OP, so we are more interested in how she fixes things.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Friede, Shirin and Yuhette being sent to Rolmund as part of an ambassadorial visit, with the hopes that if it goes well it could lead to actual negotiations by adults in the future. What follows is essentially a continuation of the Rolmund arc from previous books, as it turns out that, unlike Meraldia, things are still very much in flux there politically. Eleora mostly has everything handled, but insurrections keep happening, and she cannot be everywhere. This is problematic when her niece, the heir (you know she’s not gonna get married, she’s one of the women who lost to Airia in the Veight sweepstakes) ends up kidnapped by one of the rival factions. Who’s going to be the one to find her? Will it be those whose job it is to do it? Or will it be our little girl protagonist? Take a guess.

I was amused at the niece/heir, Micha, who at first appears to be one of THOSE rich kids (you even see her pointing, always a sign in Japanese media that someone is rude) but quickly bonds with Friede, to the point where by the time the visit ends they’re best friends. Admittedly Friede also saves her life, which does help cement close friendships, or so I hear. As for Veight, he gets to do more on the back end of the book. Facing off against a sandworm is a scene for those who prefer the old, Veight is badass sort of story, but for me the highlight was the politics, including Veight opening up to his daughter about being a reincarnation. I too would miss easy to access potato chips if I were a werewolf in a fantasy kingdom. Not to mention paper curr3ency, which rears its ugly head as this book ends and will likely come up in Book 14.

Which we may or may not see soon. Square Enix has purchased the rights to Der Werwolf in Japan, so Vol. 14 and forward need to have J-Novel Club negotiate with a new publisher. Till then, fans of the series can enjoy this book which continues to very, very slowly pass the baton to its new heroine.

By Hyougetsu and Nari Teshima. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

It is a question often asked by authors, and even more often by publishers: when it the right time to end a series? It can depend very much on what kind of series it is, but for a series like Der Werwolf, the last volume certainly felt like an ending. Veight and Airia were together, she’d had their child, and he was busily uniting the entire kingdom and bringing a new era of peace to all. Medetashi, medetashi. Except frequently if you try to keep doing stories after “and everyone lived happily ever after”, it tends towards “until they died and here’s how”. Fortunately, Der Werwolf may be moving on to the Next generation, but it’s not quite ready to give up on Veight, or more accurately to give up on Veight being a living legend whose only fault is his absolutely crippling humility. Something that, fortunately, does not seem to have transferred over to his daughter, though she certainly seems to have inherited his ability to find trouble.

The book takes place, with many timeskips, around the first ten years of the life of Friede, Veight and Airia’s daughter. That said, most of it is still the usual setup for this series: Veight’s POV, and then an alternate POV from another character that expounds on Veight’s greatness. (I will assume that if this sort of thing bothers you,. you dropped the series ages ago.) Veight is filled with parental love and also Japanese ideas on how to raise children, which differ a bit from “give them to childcare people and see them once a year” that this world’s nobles tend to do. Friede is also not your typical child – while she can’t transform into a werewolf, she has all of Veight’s other abilities, enough mana to level a warship, and by the end of the book is learning swordfighting, martial arts, and diplomacy. Which may be needed, as she’s packed off to the Rolmund Empire at the end of the book, as Eleora wants to meet her.

Again, the biggest flaw in this book is is irrelevance: it’s After Stories, so if you wanted to drop the series neatly, doing so just before this book starts is a perfectly good response. That said, it doesn’t really do anything wrong, and gives us more of Veight being Alexander the Great as a wolf, only with more sense. He’s still resolving disputes, still occasionally being forced to fight 20-against-1 battles, and still insisting that he’s just a humble vice-commander. In addition, as much as Veight is hoping to usher in a time of peace, there are always going to be bad guys – someone in this book is kidnapping girls from other kingdoms and has them all holed up in a house in Meraldia… which Freide promptly finds in about two seconds, which bodes well for her. She’s a fun kid, who was raised thinking her dad was a normal goofy dad, and only now finding out that everyone reveres him. Which means she’s now in the “dad is so cool!” phase of her life.

So yes, if you really do like Der Werwolf, this is a fun read, and has a nice side story about Woroy trying to start his own city and realizing that the best way to do it is by inventing rollerball. Certainly the series was popular enough to be grabbed by a larger publisher… but we don’t have to worry about that till after Vol. 13.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

The last couple of books have been trying to explain why Veight is as successful and beloved as he is, and that it’s not simply “he is an incredibly strong and powerful werewolf”. As Veight notes in this volume, he could immediately solve the problem in the kingdom of Kuwol if he simply killed Zagar. He’d be justified in doing so. Zagar killed the king and framed Veight for it. But doing that would plunge the country into chaos, which is absolutely not what Veight wants. Zagar is certainly strong, and can kill anyone who is suddenly no longer useful to him. But all he wants is combat, which means he’ll never be satisfied. Veight, on the other hand, has spent the last ten books making the kingdom safe for both humans and other races, and all he wants to do is settle down with his wife and child. He investigates thoroughly. He takes the opinions of commoners into advisement, but also thinks of the nobles and their pride. He’s just really good at this.

No, don’t worry, that’s not Veight’s unborn child on the cover, but the late king’s, who it turned out had a favorite consort. This volume picks up where the last left off, as Veight tries to figure out how best to unite the nobles, stop Zagar, and not have everything explore into war. He’s helped by the return of Parker, who may have gone missing but was never really in danger, and who is perhaps at his least silly in this book. With the help of a mountain tribe and a cleverly placed fake… as well as, admittedly, the power of modern laser guns… Veight is able to win the day. This allows him to hurry home, as he’s gotten an unfortunate prophecy about Airia, who it turns out needs to have a cesarean section (completely unknown in this world) or else the touch of death may strike her and their child. Can Veight and company save the day? And will the prophecy come true anyway?

This is not the final book in the series – J-Novel Club has licensed at least through Vol. 13, and the rights to the novels were just sold to Square Enix, who will be releasing more. But it’s the end of the “main story”, and the author says that the rest of the books are essentially going to be side stories. (They’re even changing the illustrator to reflect the books “lighter feel” starting next time.) Certainly this seems like the “end of one age, stat of a new one” sort of book, especially with the last few pages of the main story showing off Veight and Airia’s child as well as the return (sort of) of a very old friend. This is why Veight is not Zagar. Zagar cannot be satisfied unless he’s fighting an enemy. Veight, though, once he’s managed to protect what he wants to, and helped others to thrive as a nation… he’s ready to relax and be a husband and father. In fact, he looks forward to it. Well, and a simple vice-commander, of course. He’ll always be that.

I have perhaps enjoyed this series a bit more than it really deserves (it might be the medium – J-NC has licensed the manga and I find it near unreadable), but I do think it rewards readers who like this kind of thing. I look forward to a more relaxed tale going forward.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

Now that Veight has pretty much succeeded in uniting the continent, and Airia is settling in as the new Demon Lord (and also getting pregnant, which answers that whole ‘can werewolves and humans mate?’ question from the last book), the book have been branching out into other unrelated countries, showing how they really need Veight to come in and shake things up. His trip to Wa was fairly straightforward and normal, despite the past life shenanigans, but this time things are a lot more difficult, and Veight is going to be forced to take action despite wanting nothing more than to stay by Airia’s side. Oh yes, and teach young students how to be a good leader. In fact, this book may be outdoing Realist Hero on the subject of running a country, and it also does not need to venerate Machiavelli, which is always a plus. Most of all, though, we get a really nasty and horrible villain here, something we haven’t seen in these books for a while.

Kuwol, a southern kingdom with lots of sea transport, is getting close to a civil war between two varieties of nobility and a rather shallow and brainless king. Veight is trying his best to stay out of it, knowing that they don’t have the ships to send a huge army and also don’t want to get involved in foreign affairs, but as things go further south, and Parker goes missing, he is forced to act. What he finds is that one of the groups of nobles has hired mercenaries to supplement their forces, led by Zagar, who is a thoroughly reprehensible man who nevertheless commands intense loyalty from those at his command. Veight doesn’t trust him, but is not particularly a violent man, so is content to wait and watch and try to make things better for the civilians caught in the war. Unfortunately, this proves unwise as Zagar has grander plans than a simple civil war.

The main plot is pretty much what you’d expect, and the author says in the afterword he wanted to show Veight’s hands-off approach being the wrong choice. That said, there are lots of little details in this book I liked. Seeing Veight’s young students trying to come up with forward thinking ideas. Airia’s absolutely awful morning sickness, and Veight feeling somewhat helpless to do anything for her. There’s a moment near the end when Zagar offers Veight three of the former lord’s mistresses for pleasure, and Veight, naturally, is uninterested in anything but Airia. However, Zagar is determined to second the women to Veight’s company (are they spies?) and so asks if they can be secretaries, and they promptly show off a savviness that I quite liked. That said, the brutality of the final scenes is start, and we’re left with a cliffhanger that makes us wonder how Veight is going to handle things without the whole nation falling apart.

The next book is supposed to be the last book in the “main series”, though I know there’s at least one after it. I suppose peace and prosperity are harder to write about, which is probably why Veight is traveling to a civil war. In the meantime, Der Werwolf remains very underrated, and has a minimum of Veight being super modest this time around.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

While we’ve had a lot of fun watching Veight do a lot of really cool things while claiming to be just a humble vice-commander (and we get that here as well, to the point where he uses it as a tag line, Bruce Willis style), there has been a certain “harem manga” element to the title since it began. There were already a couple of his werewolf subordinates in love with him, we know that Eleora also fell for him, etc. That said, there’s really been no doubt since the series began that if Veight was going to finally clue in to romance, it would be Airia that is the choice. The main problem is that, due to her job and Veight having to save the nation so much, she’s gotten very little to do in the books. As a result, this book not only had to sell the romance finally starting but also remove the power imbalance between the two. In succeeds quite well, provided you don’t mind ridiculously overpowered hero and heroines. Which, hi, light novels?

As you can see by the cover, the book is not exactly concealing what it’s about this time. One of the fleeing senators from the north hid in a mine and then died with a hideously powerful magical artifact in his hands. Now Veight and the Southern Continent have to deal with a massive attack of undead skeletons. Unfortunately, the artifact is sentient, looking for its next occupant, and decides that Airia fits the bill. Can Veight figure out that she’s no longer who she seems to be in time to stop its plan? Does he actually want to stop the artifact’s plan? And will all of this finally manage to get it through his thick skull that he loves Airia and she loves him? (The last, trust me, will be the most difficult. Everyone breathes a huge sign of relief when Veight finally confesses.)

As you can guess from my synopsis, the romance here is not really a big surprise to anyone. There’s a ‘mindscape’ scene, a mutual confession, and a wedding. (We don’t see the wedding night – this series is as pure as its leads – but there is discussion on whether a werewolf can get a human pregnant.) The bigger surprise is the way that the artifact’s plot to bring a hero into this world forcibly is taken care of. Veight’s solution makes sense, but is also something only he could come up with. (Veight’s past does come up here, and he actually admits to Airia he’s a reincarnation from another world, but we still know next to nothing about it – by design, the author admits). It also allows Airia to take a much stronger role in the series… though I admit I’m doubtful that actually happens. I suspect we’ll still mostly be seeing Veight traveling.

So overall an excellent volume, with lots of awesome, lots of heartwarming, and a bit of fanservice (Airia’s large breasts feature heavily in much of the art). Fans who enjoy this series should find much to love. Now, the question is where it goes from here.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

It has to be said, even though the whole premise of this series is that Veight is a highly successful werewolf precisely because he has his memories from his old Japanese life, there are many times I tend to forget this is a reincarnation isekai. Aside from his occasional longing for soy sauce and the like, Veight’s old life has come up surprisingly little, and even his advanced use of tactics could be put down to “he’s just smarter, OK?”. But with this book, we finally can’t get away from it, as the premise is that Veight and company go to the fantasy equivalent of Japan and find that the reason it’s that way is that it has been visited by Japanese people for centuries who change the world, and Veight is the latest of these. That said, Veight is not about to abandon the country he’s grown to call home, or Airia, who is growing increasingly more obvious in her attempts to hand Veight a clue. This doesn’t mean, however, that he can’t enjoy himself.

The woman on the cover is Fumino, who is an ambassador-cum-spy sent to Ryunheit from the Kingdom of Wa. Just the name makes Veight suspicious, and while at first I thought she was going to actually make an attempt to challenge Veight on his own level, sadly, he’s soon basically guessing everything she does. That said, Ryunheit needs to arrange more treaties anyway, so he and a few others head for Wa to negotiate – including Mao, who used to be from there but was falsely accused of smuggling and fled. As it turns out, the Kingdom of Wa is just as suspicious of Veight as he is of them, and he is finally forced to admit to someone, if not his allies, that he is in fact one of the “Divine”, which is to say those who come over from Japan. That said, Veight was also BORN here – the other Divine were more traditionally isekai’d. So Veight has to stop the artifact that’s been screwing that up, and while he’s there, also help take out a drug ring. Just another day in the life of a humble vice-commander.

I will admit, after the epic saga of the last three books or so, there are times when this seems to meander a bit. The best scenes are, oddly, when we get little hints of Veight’s past in Japan – I’m not sure if he’s meant to be a yakuza or just an unfortunate salaryman, but when the minor villain starts screaming that “I’m different from you failures” and “You all exist to serve me”, something in Veight naps, and I really, really want to see more. I don’t get it – but this is a nice taste. It’s also nice to see Airia actually back and doing things – even Veight admits he’s too much of a pushover to be good at negotiation, so she arrives to actually get down to brass tacks. The end of the book is literally her and Gomoviroa talking in Veight’s presence about how dense he is. The balance between Veight the superpowered commander and tactician and Veight the “there’s no way a girl would like me” has been fun, but is getting old.

Fortunately, the cover of Vol. 9 implies that may change soon. In the meantime, this is a bit of a letdown after the “Werewolf in Russia” arc, but only a bit. Fans of Veight will still be happy.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

For the most part, Der Werwolf has been one of those reincarnation isekai series that tends to ignore the reincarnation most of the time. Veight’s old life in Japan is still mostly a blank to us, and aside from bringing in a few modern ideas to medieval fantasy land, it hasn’t really impacted this story either. That may be changing soon, however, as the cliffhanger at the end of this book seems to show us another Japanese reincarnation, someone who’s looking for Veight specifically. Before that, though, Veight has to finally wrap up this long story arc, helping Eleora to ascend to the throne, fighting off even more plots to try to usurp it from various lords and family members, march through sewers and jump out of windows like a boss, deal with a rival group of werewolves and also a few vampires, and, most importantly, get back home in time like he promised before Airia kicks his ass. He accomplishes… most of these things.

After a number of books that have slowly been killing off the royal family one by one, the theme of this book is trying to solve problems with the least amount of bloodshed. Veight is called “soft” a few times for this, and it’s not inaccurate, but it’s also very politically savvy. The book starts with Ashley on the throne, but he’s a bad emperor for these warlike times. There’s a lord who is clearly plotting… something, and the great joke about him is that every single thing he says is so suspicious that it’s impossible to know how many plans he’s got in his pocket. (Answer: a lot of plans.) There’s also the eldest princess, Dillier, who has grown tired of waiting for a perfect political marriage to be arranged for her and has allied herself with Lord Shallier, thus making one of the most awkward pairing names in some time. (ShallDill?) She’s not evil so much as fed up, so is a lot less difficult to stop.

This book is rather light on its usual tropes. Veight only mentions being a humble vie-commander once or twice, and may even be getting used to people thinking well of him. It helps that he runs into a bishop who is essentially his religious equivalent. Speaking of religion, these books have not been kind to the devout, and that doesn’t really change here, even though the church are not the bad guys this time around. Editing scripture to guide people into doing what you want is a total villain move, but here it’s being used for good. the book is light on Veight being oblivious to everyone being in love with him, too. Eleora clearly is but duty comes before love, so she lets him go. Airia clearly is and I suspect is wondering if she can ask for a kiss or something given Veight promised he’d do a favor for her (as punishment for being late in returning).

And there’s also the shrine maiden we meet in the cliffhanger. Is she going to fall for Veight’s charms? And we we finally get more details about why Japanese folks keep popping up in this world? Not sure, but Der Werwolf remains very well-written and confident. It’s one of the best under-the-radar J-Novel Club series.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

A lot of these light novels were originally based on webnovels where readers no doubt left comments on what made them happy and what made them unhappy. This may be why each succeeding volume of Der Werwolf has managed to top itself when it comes to Veight’s superhuman powers of humility, with a number of “I’m just a lowly vice commander” lines or their equivalents here, even while he strategizes, leads armies into battle, decides the course of a throne war, and manages to get the best military leader of the Empire settled in Veight’s own land. It beggars belief a bit, and the rest of the cast are finding it less and less tolerable. Veight’s past has almost never been focused on, but what little he’s mentioned implies he was a standard Japanese NEET who was crushed by women and expectations and therefore has a horrible opinion of himself. If anyone’s going to be able to force him to admit his own accomplishments, it’s going to have to be someone who can take that into account. Sadly, the only other person who knew is now dead.

After the political maneuvering of the last volume, this volume is mostly wars and battles, as Ivan kicks off the throne war in earnest by killing his own father. He’s got the most military-minded of his brothers on his side, and also has more troops. Prince Ashley is technically in charge, but has the weaker hand. Veight, though, can see that his own lands would benefit more from negotiating with Ashley than with Ivan, and thus has Eleora to throw her troops behind Ashley. Most of the book consists of, as you’d expect in a climate like this one, waiting and preparing for battle, rather than battle itself. Veight can also help things out by secretly transforming and leading his werewolf corps, who take out a few bigwigs. That said, in the end it’s Eleora and Ashley who end up on top… though the body count is lower than I expected. There’s also lots of the usual banter you’d expect from Der Werwolf.

I was pleased to see Airia managing to make a short appearance in the book despite mostly communicating with Veight through letters. This leads to the other big thing that has only gotten bigger since the series began, which is Veight’s denseness when it comes to other women liking him. Again, this is meant to be a reflection of his sad former Japanese life, but frankly I think much of it comes from the fact that the series is not yet ready for him to be having love affairs – something he himself says here. That said, saying that he was Airia’s fiancee comes back to bite him, as he has to deny it in front of her, and then can’t figure out why she’s so angry. I still say she’s the obvious leader in the campaign for Veight’s heart, but he doesn’t do himself any favors by shooting himself in the foot like this.

The next volume looks to wrap things up up North and have Veight return to his own people. In the meantime, this is a solid volume of Der Werwolf, which gives readers more of what they want.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

Honestly, I’m starting to feel that the author is spoiling me at this point. Der Werwolf 5 has Veight and Eleora going to Rolmund, which is essentially not-Russia, pretending that she defeated Meraldia in order to suss out the political situation back in her country. And thus we get an entire book filled with political machinations, double-dealing, duels, and Veight telling everyone he’s just a humble vice-commander. It’s excellent, and reminds you how good this author can be at making just two people sitting in a room discussing economics interesting. Which is a good thing, as we’re not done with this arc yet, nor does it sound like we will be next time. Rolmund still runs on a lords and serfs-style of rule, and their agricultural yield has not been all that great lately. And, honestly, no one was really expecting Eleora to win. (Which she didn’t, but let’s not split hairs.) As a result, things are… complicated. At least till Veight gets through with them.

Given that Veight is in diplomacy mode here, there’s not quite as much derring-do, especially as he and his fellow werewolves have to keep their true nature hidden during the visit. (I don’t expect THAT to last either.) He does get a duel against Count Von Evilcount, who he wipes the floor with despite the count having the sword equivalent of an Agonizer. Actually, he ends up fighting LOTS of duels, though only a few are people legitimately trying to cause him harm, and it gets to the point where by the end of the book he’s telling old war stories (edited for state secrets) to the easily impressionable son of one of the crown princes. Actually, he’s feeling out all the royals, be it eating not-so-poisonous berries from a private garden, having blunt discussions with the most ambitious of the group, and realizing that at the rate it’s going, Rolmund is going to be dealing with mass starvation and death in a generation or two.

There is a running gag here (among the many running gags in Der Werwolf) about Eleora being very repressed and precise, and everyone except Veight noting how much she’s relaxed and mellowed out since the invasion of Meraldia. She does not, thankfully, seem to be joining the group of women in love with Veight – honestly, this is still a harem with one big front-runner, and things will likely not be helped by Veight, to provide a cover story, says that Airia is his fiancee. Pretty sure that will get back to her, and also pretty sure that she won’t mind one bit, provided he doesn’t try to walk it back. But with Eleora we don’t get that dynamic, we just see that Veight has the ability to change those who come into contact with him, as we see when she manages to overcome her trust issues and reunite (sort of) with her uncle.

We’re just at the start of this arc, and I’m pretty sure things are going to go pear-shaped next time. Till then, enjoy the light novel equivalent of a John le Carré book.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

One of the things that Veight has been lacking as we travel through these books is a strong enemy on the opposite side. The Hero was sort of a generic type, brought to life to have a climax to the book. The Senate are, as we see in this book, pathetic and ineffectual, trapped in political backstabbing and vituperation. Most of the ‘antagonists’ Veight goes up against in battle are either cannon fodder or won over to his side fairly quickly. He needs someone to fight against who’s actually good at what they do. Not TOO good, of course – the basic premise of the book still has Veight being super awesome while insisting he’s just a mild-mannered vice commander. But enough to force him to actually think out a couple of different plans – especially necessary given that his subordinates are trying harder and harder to make sure that he does not try to do everything himself. (They almost succeed. Almost.)

Conveniently, we’re starting to learn about countries and territories outside of “the northern parts of the country” and “the southern parts of the country”. There’s apparently nations past the demon forest, and on the other side of the dry desert. And there’s also a nation over the mountains up north, a nation who we see in this book really wants to get a fingerhold into Meraldia. To that end, they’ve joined forces with a few of the north’s cities who don’t like the Senate too much, and also sent over Eleora, their sixth princess, who is Veight’s distaff counterpart. She’s crafty, good at military matters, and also has a crack brigade of mages who reminded me quite a bit of Tanya the Evil much of the time. (She even has her own Visha, this one named Natalia.) Her nation, Rolmund, has succession issues, and this is very much a succeed or die sort of mission. Too bad there’s Veight.

There’s a lot of fun here. Every time Veight denies that he’s really strong or impulsive is wonderful, if only as it’s getting harder to believe he’s not doing it on purpose. Speaking of which, the funniest parts of the book involve coming up with a series of plays that will serve as propaganda. In reality, they’re basically bodice rippers, with each play involving a handsome actor playing Veight winning handily and causing his actress of the moment (playing Airia, Melaine, Firnir, etc.) to swoon and coo. Veight is rather embarrassed by all this, though the others (who no doubt hope Veight will catch a clue sometimes) have no issues. The final play we see involves Eleora and her own attack on Meraldia. I’m not sure whether she’ll join the list of women in love with Veight yet (honestly, I suspect it will be Airia if anyone), but the afterword definitely says the next book will involve Rolmund, so I’m sure we’ll see more of her.

I sometimes feel like I’m overpraising things, but I really can’t get enough of this series. Each volume is fun, easy to read, not too short or too long, has good characters and great humor, and makes Veight overpowered and harem lead-ey without him feeling like a stock light novel guy. Really, start reading these books.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

The author described this as being a “slow” volume, which is a bit of a stretch given that one third of the way in our heroes are fighting a kraken. The plot of this book is essentially “Veight goes around to the rest of the Southern Territories and convinces them to join forces”. One area has the aforementioned kraken that needs to be taken out. Another, a town made of labyrinths designed to trap enemies, is already being targeted by the villainous Senate, and Veight and company have to convince people that a) they’re not responsible for the assassination of the ruler, and b) stop all the assassins who are. Fortunately he has help from a number of old friends as well as a new character, Parker, who is… well, he’s Brook from One Piece. Though he can at least disguise himself as “not a skeleton”. The puns, unfortunately, are still there. That said, does Veight even need help?

Veight continues to be the best reason to read these books. We’re used to harem protagonists that are clueless about the girls who like them, but Der Werwolf has little to no romance as of yet, so with Veight it’s more “he is unaware of his nature”. It’s not clear if he’s doing this deliberately to avoid the issue or not, but Veight’s tendency to pick the most dangerous solution has been noticed by most of his subordinates, and they aren’t very happy. It’s especially funny when he chastises others for the exact same thing, and is somewhat amazed when called out on it. To be fair, Veight probably COULD take out everything that goes against him by himself. We see more of his ludicrous “I can use magic and am also a werwolf” combos here, and they’re enough to get an enemy army to run away in fear.

The rest of the characters are not as good as Veight, sadly. I’d mentioned Parker was Brook from One Piece, and am wondering if “undead skeleton + puns” is a thing in Japan. There’s also a viceroy who decides, to make himself stand out, to act flamboyantly gay, and all the little stereotypical tick boxes are checked there, but fortunately he only shows up near the end. And we also get a glimpse of the Senate, which seems evenly divided between “evil” and “stupid AND evil”. Probably the best new character was Shatina, the daughter of the murdered viceroy, who starts off as a terrified teenager but, by the end of the book, has to be talked down from turning her city into a tool to get monstrous revenge on all those who have wronged her. The author would seem to agree, as the short story after the main book has her and Firnir, the centaur girl, bonding as they explore the underground labyrinth below Shatina’s own labyrinth of a city.

Der Werwolf’s most impressive feature continues to be its readability – you never get bogged down in prose the way you do in so many other light novels. I look forward to seeing more of Veight being ridiculously overpowered and totally unaware of it.

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

I’m always pleased when a second book in the series proves to be even better than the first, and that’s definitely the case with Der Werwolf. I enjoyed the first book quite a bit, but the second volume steps up its game, showing off Veight’s political and diplomatic skills in the first half, then pulling the rug out from under the reader with a plot twist I wasn’t expecting for a few more books yet. Perhaps best of all, there’s virtually none of the typical isekai cliches in this book – probably as the “I’m from Japan” part is still mostly irrelevant. There’s no gamer terminology, dungeon levels, and the romance is kept very much on the back burner – i.e. there isn’t any yet, though there’s clearly a few women who like Veight. Instead, we are simply reading a fantasy book. It reminds me a lot of The Faraway Paladin, and fans of one should enjoy the other.

At the start of this book, Veight is interested in expanding his allies on the Southern half of the continent, so reaches out to a pseudo-Arabian city along the coast. As with the first book, we occasionally get the viewpoints of other characters (though I wish they were marked off in the text a bit better – it can be tough to tell when we’ve left Veight’s viewpoint and when we return), and that helps here to show off the rock and the hard place that the other city is caught between, and also how Veight thinking that he’s being calm and reasonable is seen by other people as Veight being threatening and terrifying. In fact, there’s a running gag here, even more than the first book, of Veight saying he’s “just a vice-commander” and denying that he’s anything special, despite constant evidence to the contrary. It would be annoying if he were doing it deliberately, but he means it, so it’s just funny.

The second part of the book is much darker. We’d been introduced to the concept of a Hero arriving and challenging the Demon Lord at the start, but this proved to be a false lead (though it did get us another cute girl character, the stressed-out mage who can do illusion magic). Then a real hero does show up, and things go badly very quickly. It’s great to see how the concept of a hero here, in a book essentially narrated by “bad guys”, is that of a fiercely destructive force that none can stand against except the Demon Lord himself. Even more intriguing, there’s clear backstory between the hero and the Demon Lord, apparently involving a woman… but we never really get to find out what it is, except it’s made the hero hell bent on revenge. Actually, I’ll be honest here, I was expecting things to get even MORE dark, but thankfully things got a little better at the end, and Veight gets to go on being the most humble yet awesome vice-commander ever.

This is a pretty long-running series in Japan, so we have a ways to go. This pleases me, as reading these volumes is a treat. I highly recommend Der Werwolf to anyone who enjoys good light novel fantasy without the “light novel” cliches.