invaders of the rokujouma!?

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

No short stories this time around, we’re heading to Forthorthe and things are about to get serious. The start of this series, forty-odd books ago, was very much a slice-of-life comedy, with the aliens, magical girls, and underground girls essentially acting as wacky neighbors in a high school romcom. Clan’s arrival, and Koutarou’s subsequent trip back in time, started to kick that in the head. And now here we are, with the back half of this volume featuring a thoughtless disaster on the part of the villains turned into an even more nightmarish disaster by the most unhinged villain, and you get things like living corpses (I’d call them zombies, but they run very fast, so that might give you the wrong idea) in the remains of a burning factory being weaponized and turned on a nearby city and you realize that this has actually gotten pretty dark, hasn’t it? Fortunately, the first half, which involves introducing cool new tech to the masses, is more relaxing.

Our heroes are now back in Forthorthe, and the big question on everyone’s mind is: who is the Blue Knight going to marry? Sadly, for reporters, the Blue Knight is still running away from that question, so there’s no real progress there. There is much more success in introducing a personal force field that can, among many other things, act as replacement limbs for disabled people as demonstrated by Nana doing various gymnastic maneuvers with just a force field for support. Koutarou thought that would be it, however, many other companies, including the military, quickly realize the other uses this sort of tech could provide, and now he’s even richer, to his quiet despair. There’s no time to enjoy it, though: they’ve found one of Ralgwin’s bases, and it’s time to play catch that villain!

As hinted in the first paragraph, catch that villain does not go very well. Rokujouma!? has gotten more serious as the books have gone on, even including a war, but I don’t think we’ve really taken as much time to appreciate the loss of lives as we did here. Now, these are all factory workers we’ve never met before, so it’s not like the author is killing one of the main characters, but the fury at how this came to be from our heroes is very well done. Meanwhile, on Yurika Watch, she gets to do cool things, and her running gag of “magical girl uses evil powers” is still funny, but this is Ruth’s book to shine,. as the author admits that if he’s going to have a balanced harem series he has to work hard to maintain that balance, and Ruth, mostly, rarely gets to fight at the front line. That gets fixed here, and shows off her awesome analytical skills (and love for Koutarou) in a fantastic manner.

Sadly, the villains get away, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them. Till then, enjoy a more serious volume than usual.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

If this is your 42nd book of Rokujouma!?, welcome back. As a hardcore fan, you’re well aware of the numbering being off due to the two .5 volumes. If this is your first volume of Rokujouma!?, my god, you’re far too late. We’ve already moved in with this series. We have so many in jokes and memes that you don’t know. You must simply be staring at the chaos from your place by the drinks table in the corner, wondering why you didn’t get Vol. 1, 2, and 3 when they came out (at the same time) in 2017. But fear not, I am here for you. I can sum up the series so you aren’t lost. Nice guy. Alien princess and her aide and her rival. Ghost girl and her real body and her alternate world self. Magical girl and her formerly evil magical girl ally and their mentor. Pellucidar girl. And her things that say “ho!”. Sempai and her soul sister. Landlord and her inner dragon. Annoying best friend. Annoying best friend’s sister. God in disguise. Together… they fight crime! See, that was easy.

OK, clearly not that easy, given the girl on the cover art is “none of the above”. In any event, this is a short story volume but also a prelude to the next arc. The first half is web stories. Koutarou, Clan, the haniwas, and Alunaya all decide to race toy cars. The second story has Maki chatting with Crimson, her former ally-turned-enemy-turned-ally, and has her try to experience things that are not “fighitng is the baddest!”, which mostly fails. Nana goes to visit her old partner Kanae and ends up in a badminton match against Sanae (chan version) and Yurika. Finally, everyone is packing to go to Forthorthe, and we’re even taking Mackenzie and his sister, so that they aren’t quietly killed while everyone is away. Snacks are bought. Underwear is bought. Training scenes occur. And Koutarou remains The Purest Young Lad out there.

Those who have read my Rokujouma!? reviews before know it’s time for the Yurika report, as I gush about my favorite once more. This is a stellar volume for Yurika, possibly as she’s barely around Koutarou at all. In the badminton scene she’s got Nana in the room, so is trying her damndest to show her that she’s a mature and deserving young protege, not even whining when getting a shuttlecock to the face. (That sounds wrong…) We also get a scene showing her training the troops, and seemingly coming to terms with the fact that her “magical girl” magic is unorthodox. Basically, with what appears to be photographic memory and a good eye for improvising on the fly, Yurika is not a magical girl as much as a chemist. And thus is it very important to keep her on the side of good and light. (I hope this is not ominous foreshadowing…)

So as a short story volume goes, this is more important than most. None of the short stories are bad, and the final one is necessary setup for what might (?) be the final (???) arc in the series. And if this IS your first volume in the series… well, you have 41 more to get now.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

The Rokujouma landscape post-Volume 29 has thrown a lot more obstacles in the way of our heroes, but it is not frankly in a huge rush to deal with them. This has become a series that has no real plans to stop, so things will get resolved when they get resolved. This also applies to the romance, where we see that Koutarou is still uncomfortable with the idea that all the other girls have already come to accept, which is to say that he’s going to be in a polycule. Physical affection is also a work in progress, as we see in this volume when he’s forced to share a giant robot cockpit with Kiriha. But at least we’ve resolved all the potential love interests and aren’t adding anyone new, right? …right? Well, OK there’s been an asterisk next to that since Vol. 29, but for the most part we’ve ignored it as Nalfa has barely been in these recent volumes. That changes here, and you get the feeling she will be added to said polycule. If she survives.

After the big battle last volume, most of the enemy have fled, likely to regroup around Forthorthe. But the Grey Knight has hung around, trying to figure out why Koutarou’s magical sword is “incomplete”. In the meantime, it’s the start of a new school semester, and there’s going to be a huge influx of alien students. Nalfa has to give the welcoming speech, and it’s making her a bit panicky. That said, everyone else is on edge, suspecting that the Grey Knight is going to be attacking the ceremony. Fortunately, it goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, the Grey Knight finally clues in and realizes what it is that he is looking for: Nalfa. She’s got some power he needs to draw out. He tries attempting to kill her – this doesn’t work. Then he tries attempting to kill Koutarou – that works. Can our heroes save her with the power of Sanae x 3?

Sanae, Sanae and Sanae fighting against the grey Knight is easily the action highlight of the book, and also gets in a few good one-liners (is it the power of friendship when you’re all the same person?). As for the Grey Knight, well, he may be from a different timeline but he’s still hella powerful and dangerous, and it’s going to take a lot more than Sanaes to get rid of him. As for the romance side of things, if nothing else I think we see here that Nalfa may be the only other addition to the polycule. She’s very blunt about her love for Koutarou, just like the other girls – and not like Kotori, who holds Koutarou on a pedestal compared to her “cheating” brother, but doesn’t see him as a love interest. That said, this is somewhat irrelevant, as any further romantic progress, if it happens at all, will be at the very end of the series.

We’re back to Forthorthe for the foreseeable future in the next book, with a few additions – Kenji, Kotori and Nalfa need to come along so that they’re not used as hostages. (This will kill Kenji’s love life, but he’s comic relief anyway.) Vol. 40 just came out in Japan two days ago, though, so it may be another few months for us.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

It can be hard to thread the needle when you’re writing a story that actually *is* being published in light novel form first, as opposed to the usual these days, where a publisher picks up a series published originally on the web. The author admits that, after getting past the ‘we’ll end this in three books’ and ‘we’ll end this in 7-8 books’ hump and getting to the proper ending with Books 28 & 29… they STILL did not have the room to tell everything they wanted to tell. Which is why, even though it’s a 2-volume arc, those books felt a bit rushed. With this book, and its reveal about who their new Big Bad is, we get to go back and tackle the plot-related bits of the ending that were sacrificed for the greater theme. And we get to do that in a way that Rokujouma has become very accustomed to lately… though massive battles. This time in space, as after dealing with villains with fatal flaws up the wazoo for a while, Koutarou and company finally have to take on smart bad guys.

This book starts off with plot and does not really let go of it – any fluffy moments are now pretty much reserved for the short story volumes. Our three magical girls, out on patrol, come back with a surprise… Sanae! But it’s not Sanae-chan, our lovable ghost, or even Sanae-san, the shy but spiritually powerful human. It’s a Sanae from an alternate world… one where things went very badly. The Grey Knight, their mysterious new enemy, has progressively spirited away or killed off a good deal of the cast, and so they sent Sanae to a different dimension to try to warn our heroes about him (and get help if she can). This leads to the back half of the book, which is a battle between our heroes on one side and Ralgwin, the Grey Knight, and the mage Grevanas, back from the dead and experimenting with modern technology. What is the shocking secret identity of the Grey Knight?

…OK, it’s not that shocking. Given Koutarou has spent 30-odd books gallivanting around as the BLUE Knight, and that we have a Sanae from an alternate universe now, the identity of the Grey Knight is actually pretty easy to guess. I did enjoy seeing alternate Sanae, who is exactly what you’d expect her to be: a mature Sanae who is at peace with the fact that she had to fuse her two “selves” together but is still “Sanae” at heart. There is also some amusing romantic progression… amusing because, as you’d expect, it’s unconscious, with Koutarou saying that he hasn’t married Theia “yet”, a definite step up from the previous “we’re not getting married” denials. The dam is starting to crack.

The book ends by implying we’ll be returning to Forthothe soon, and catching up with our team of former evil magical girls, who now work for the Crown. But yeah, I suspect this alternate universe will play out over the next few volumes, though I’m sure we’ll get short story ones as well. Rokujouma may meander a bit these days, but it’s still worth reading.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

Given the longevity of this series – at 39 volumes (counting the two .5 volumes) it’s probably the biggest light novel series to hit North America in full translation – it’s not particularly a surprise that the more recent volumes are taking the time to look back at the past. This is particularly true of this, a short story volume that follows the usual pattern we’ve seen to date – three web-only short stories and a longer story written specifically for this book. The three web stories all involve looking back at the past in some way, shape or form, and seeing how far people have come. Harumi and Clan, who are in many ways opposites, each envy the other; Theia and Ruth reflect about the fact that they can trust other now and are better people as a result; and Sanae and Shizuka think about life without Koutarou in it and decide “no thank you”, even if at the time they may have felt differently. Fortunately, the final story in the book looks toward the future… and has swimsuits.

In the first story, Clan and Harumi (and Alaia, as Harumi’s later ego) are looking back over events of two thousand years prior, where Clan is forced to admit that Koutarou basically did all the cooking and laundry. The two then use magic and technology to swap bodies, essentially, so Koutarou can roughly rub Harumi’s head and treat Clan with respect and politeness. The second story has Theia and Ruth trying to pick out photos for a news article about the Blue Knight, and thinking about their childhood together and how difficult it was for both of them. The third story sees Shizuka and Sanae spring cleaning all the apartments in the complex, and also stirring up memories – be it Shizuka’s parents before their death or Sanae’s “haunting” of Koutarou before the others arrived. Finally, Koutarou and the girls go on a private beach holiday… but also find time to sneak in some plot-based activities.

Shizuka’s story reminded me that there are other residents of the apartment complex besides her and the 106 herd, and we really haven’t ever ran into any of them, have we? Even if they don’t complain about the noise and/or property damage, you’d think the idea of one man living with so many girls would cause them to at least talk to the manager. Then again, she *does* know martial arts… As usual with these short story volumes, the longest was the best, as we see Nefilforan and her troops wanting to train against Koutarou and the other girls, as they’re all basically powerhouses. This gives us a chance to see just how powerful everyone in the group has become… and yes, for once that includes Yurika, though she thinks sleeping gas is not very cute and magical girl-ey. Unfortunately for the girls, while Koutarou is slowly getting over his past traumas and personality flaws, he’s not really ready to admire the girls’ swimsuits at all or show that he is sexually attracted to them. Perhaps it might take another 39 books.

Of course, this still leaves a cliffhanger from the last book hanging there, and the author promises that we’ll get back to the main plot in Vol. 38, which should focus on Sanae. Till then, this is a good short story volume that is a definite buy for anyone who’s read close to forty other volumes of this series.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I’ve mentioned this a few times before, but Rokujouma frequently has to walk a bit of a high wire, especially in the books that take place after the “ending” we saw in Vol. 29. The author still clearly wants to write more and more stories, and does not want to wrap things up quickly. At the same time, one of the joys of this series has been seeing the characters gradually grow and mature, and as such we don’t want to see them all static either. This new volume is particularly good at keeping that balance, especially for our two resident magical girls, Maki and Yurika. Maki’s past, both as an orphan sold into slavery and as a member of Darkness Rainbow, still tends to guide her actions. Meanwhile, Yurika’s self-pity sometimes verges into self-loathing, so much so that she can’t honestly see how impressed everyone is with her. The best way to resolve both of these things is to head off to Folsaria, Maki’s homeland. And who knows, maybe we can tie into the other ongoing plot while we’re at it.

We pick up where we left off, as Ralgwin has gotten away, though he does not seem to be starting anything major from somewhere else. This allows them to focus on Maki, who has been invited to join Rainbow Heart after recommendations from both Nana and Yurika. Maki certainly has the magic for it… and she’s got the “heart” as well. But can she really become one of the good magical girls after being a literal terrorist just a year or so ago? She gets a provisional task she must complete: investigate the disappearance of several men from a part of the city. This leads her not only to the home where she was born (now a ruined building), but also to a graveyard containing something that’s a lot bigger than just missing people. Can Maki rally together with all of her friends and family and save Folsaria from a hideous disaster?

I was talking about balancing character development with a certain static point, and something in the narrative really showed that off to me: when they arrive at Rainbow Heart headquarters, Yurika is given a letter explaining that all of her debt has finally been paid. Folsaria is a magical land, and Yurika should have been getting a salary, particularly given how much nof a prodigy she was. But apparently she destroyed a factory when her magic went out of control… and it was on her own time, not during work. So her wages were garnished forever to pay for it. Yurika, however, is not delighted by this at all. She fears that if she’s no longer a freeloader Koutarou will abandon her. What surprised me is that there’s no snapback at the end of the book. I was sure Yurika would end up reincurring a large debt. But no. And she’s even able to continue living frugally (so far). It’s really impressive, both for her and the author, not to fall into old habits.

Apologies to Maki, as I spent most of her book talking about Yurika. But Maki is awesome here too, gets to resolve many conflicted feelings, and becomes a real heroine at last, with a paycheck and everything. Unfortunately… the villains kinda win here. We’ll see what happens next, I guess.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

You would think, now that we are at the 37th volume of this series (counting the two .5 books), that we would be finished with introducing new characters to add to an already overloaded cast, and yet. Coming to Earth to help our heroes with their battle against Ralgwin and his troops is another Princess, Nefilforna Canon Forthorthe. Honestly, there are so many people in this cast I’d like to pretend she doesn’t exist, but unfortunately, she’s Canon. (I’m so sorry.) She arrives and promptly proceeds to kick Koutarou’s ass in a mock battle – as he readily agrees, he only won the second time thanks to all the support he gets from everyone. She’s compared to Theia in that, while Theia has a natural talent for combat, Nefi is the sort who got really good at it through hard work and grinding. Good thing, too, as the raid against Ralgwin’s base, especially now that they’re armed with spirit guns, proves to be a giant pain in the neck.

Harumi is on the cover again, and gets a fair bit to do. The most notable thing is that the troops of Forthorthe that are allied with Koutarou’s group ar4e working with her for the first time, and are… a but weirded out that she is essentially Alaia’s reincarnation/soul carrier/whatever. Even Koutarou is not quite sure how Harumi and Alaia’s relationship is, and honestly, I don’t think it’s going to matter much in the long run. They both love Koutarou, and they both kick ass. Everyone here gets some good time in the spotlight, though as always Yurika gets made fun of, this time for being their “chemical warfare expert”, as her image of being Card Captor Sakura gets further and further away. The one who suffers the worst is probably Theia, who I suspect wanted to try her cool powered suit and so rushes ahead – she’s fine, but she put those under her in danger. She’s still too hotheaded.

Unfortunately, the raid is not a complete success. Ralgwin wants to get revenge for his uncle, but also has an actual logical brain, so is a much tougher opponent. And he has the benefit of a new villain rescuing him, whose identity we don’t quite get yet (though I can hazard a guess), but who seems to have teleportation skills of some sort. Honestly, it feels more like the author using magical writing powers to make sure that the book doesn’t end that soon. Fortunately, our gang does not seem too upset about it. Also fortunately, while she certainly admires him, Princess Nefi does not seem to fall in love with Koutarou, which is good. A harem of nine or ten girls is already quite a lot even by light novel standards, and adding more would seem to be overegging the pudding a bit.

Side stories continue to take a break, as the next book continues the main Ralgwin plot. Till then, this is a decent volume in a very long running series.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

This is a plot-heavy volume of Rokujouma!?, so no ‘what if this girl won?’ side stories, and apparently 35 won’t have one either. Instead we are reminded that the series did not end with the 29th volume after all, and that there’s a lot still going on. In particular, this series is very good about avoiding “bwahaha!” cartoon evil villains, and when it does have them it shows them to be easily manipulated by other, better villains. There’s actually a lot of double crossing going on at the moment, both between the Forthorthe villains and the People of the Earth radicals, and between their forces and our heroes, as both end up winning in some ways but losing in others. With Earth still dealing with the revelations of Theia’s planet, and everyone and their brother trying to get their hands on new technology to make them rich and powerful, it’s going to be a while till Koutarou can settle down, though the other girls are certainly taking every chance they can to be around him anyway.

For once the cover doesn’t lie, as Ruth actually does have a significant role in this book. She and Koutarou are waylaid on a shopping trip and she’s almost killed, then the former bad guy of the Radical Faction of the People of the Earth, now captured, reveals that the remains of his faction are allied with Ralgwin, the nephew of Vandarion who plans to keep on carrying out his legacy. They’re also being set up to be patsies for Ralgwin’s faction, which is why Raiga tells our heroes about them. Now it’s time for infiltration something that, for once, is not done by Koutarou but instead Ruth and Harumi, who are led to a suspicious sake brewery that turns out… well, to be a trap, and the real attack is happening elsewhere. Fortunately, the rest of our merry band are there, and each of them gets a chance to show off their stuff as the last quarter of the book descends into a firefight.

Much of this volume is taken up with the fact that Koutarou, while a wonderful man that they all love, cannot protect everyone all the time. He needs to accept this, which is why he backs down after suggesting he go with Ruth and Harumi on their espionage. They’re both powerful enough now that they don’t need him to protect their fragile selves. The same goes for Theia and company in the final battle, where Koutarou gives “fight at your discretion” as the basic order, allowing the others to prioritize what needs doing rather than just following orders. He’s trusting everyone to save themselves, in other words. This definitely works out well for Yurika, who is touched by Koutarou giving her agency, and proceeds to lay waste to a good deal of the enemy forces by a combination of poison gas and turning the area into a murky swamp. (This also leads to the standard making fun of Yurika, as Koutarou calls her a “dirty girl”, much to her displeasure.)

If you’re still reading Rokujouma, you know what to expect, and this won’t disappoint. Still one of the better harem series out there.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

The most annoying thing about this volume, of course, is what ISN’T here. We had been expecting that each girl would get their own “what if?” arc detailing their lives if Koutarou fell for them, with Harumi being the first. Now here we are with the next one, Clan… only we find that Maki already had hers, as an exclusive 75-minute CD bonus track. I gotta hope this is part of the Kickstarter in some way, because if that’s how it’s going down in the future, I suspect half of English-speaking fans are going to be left without satisfaction. Maki’s looks cute, seems to involve rescuing some stray cats (who continue to hang around her), and… well, sorry. As for the book itself, it’s fine. As with previous “short story” volumes, it contains three stories written previously for the “Hercules” website, and Clan’s “what if”, which is empty of surprises but is as sweet and cute as you’d expect. And you learn far more about vacuum tubes than you ever thought you would.

The first short story has Koutarou getting a cold while skiing (blame Yurika, who ends up going down the hill like a cartoon, as a rolling snowball) and getting nursed back to health by Elfaria and Kiriha. They both want to get closer to Koutarou, but are also nice and mature, so they end up having a “gambling match”, loser has to take care of him, and then both trying to throw the match, sort of. It shows off how Elfaria may not be quite as far out of the harem as she thinks, despite not being one of the “core girls”. Next we see just how Yurika got to be a magical girl, and her early days with Nana. If nothing else, this tells us that Yurika was indeed born on Earth and not in Magical Girl World. Other than that it’s slight, emphasizing how she’s still basically Usagi Tsukino in a Yurika skin. The third short has Kiriha and Maki, on separate outings with their friends, meeting at an amusement park and talking. It’s sweet, but again, two of the sensible characters having a conversation makes things a bit dull.

As with Harumi’s “what if”, Clan’s stems from one slight issue going worse than canon; while in the past searching for the Blue Knight, she gets a bad cold, and has to be taken care of by Koutarou. This allows the two of them to be far closer and less guarded than they are in canon, and that extends to when they return to the present day. Clan is not Harumi, so as you’d expect there’s a lot more tsundere action going on in this story, but the beats are the same – Koutarou’s defenses are brought down, he ends up hanging out with Clan more than the others, and they gradually fall in love, though being who they are said love is mostly exchanged via unspoken handholding and hugs. There’s also a nice examinatio9n of Clan’s tendency to think of herself as a “villain”, and the regrets she has from her past. She’s always going to be snarky, but Clan has soft4ened up a lot.

So overall, not an essential volume unless Clan is your best girl, but it’s readable. Next time we should get back to the main storyline… in fact, I think we get two books of main storyline in a row, so no what-ifs for a bit.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with our Rokujouma family, and it’s a relief to see that everyone is much the same. It’s actually quite impressive that this series that should have ended with Vol. 29 is taking a relaxing victory lap and also springboarding a whole new plot that will take many books to resolve at the same time. It doesn’t actually feel dissonant – what’s resolved is Koutarou and the other girls, and though he’s still too “teenage” to actually say I Love You out loud or anything, it’s only a matter of time. This is pointed out to him by MacKenzie, after Koutarou worries about Yurika above and beyond the call of duty – he cannot simply choose one girl at this point. Indeed, the author agrees, which is why we’re getting the side stories that imagine life if he DID fall for only one girl. But that’s next time: this volume is back in the present-day, and showing that the aftermath of the war is still coming to Earth… literally.

There are three main plot threads here, all of which tie into each other. First of all, it’s time for the sports festival again, which is very important to the original core cast as it’s the first time they really bonded as a group way back in the single digit volumes. Unfortunately, dreams of winning the big prize may have to be put on hold. The spaceship that blew up at the end of the last volume was deliberately blown up – now its alien tech is scattered all over Japan, and is being picked up by unscrupulous companies to examine. Even worse, they’ve kidnapped an American scientist and are holding his family hostage in order to force him to work on the alien tech. Now our heroes have to rescue the scientist, his wife and daughter, and retrieve or destroy the technology, all while trying not to get in trouble at school. Oh, and Yurika’s working for the bad guys again, though this time it really is an accident.

It needs to be said, there’s a whole lot of sap here, and if you dislike that, you may want to stop reading. That said, this is the 34th book in the series (counting the two .5 volumes), and I suspect new readers are not going to be anywhere near this. Old readers will find plenty to smile about – every girl gets a chance to be sweet with the man they love, except MacKenzie’s little sister, who’s still trying to come to terms with the fact that the brother she idolized is a playboy. This actually gets weaponized towards the end of the book, as part of the plan. The plan itself makes the latter half of the book feel like a heist movie, as we see everything coming together, everyone gets to show off their cool powers, and only a few girls have emotional crises. (Yurika is a given, but Shizuka is really starting to get worried about everyone thinking of her as basically “the big guy”.)

Summing up, this is exactly what Rokujouma fans want in a book. Next time we get another three short stories/alternate universe book, with Clan winning the “what if Koutarou chose only me?” sweepstakes. So expect bickering galore.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

And so I finally finish my Rokujouma catchup. This is also where the upcoming print boxset that was Kickstartered will end, as it had to cut off somewhere, and this is as good a place as any given the series is still coming out in Japan. It’s another one of those “three short stories from the online site and one half-book original” novels, only in this case the half-book overwhelms the short stories even more than usual. The short stories aren’t bad – first there’s a Triathlon our heroes are competing in, and we focus on Clan, who is out of shape, and Yurika, who is in shape but has little motivation. It’s cute, even though they’re also both very pathetic. We then get Harumi and Maki playing board games, which if nothing else shows off how desperately these two nice introverts need someone else to bounce off of. And Shizuka and Ruth have another sentai battle, bringing back Ruth’s beetle phobia, which, let’s face it, no one wanted to bring back.

The half-novel is the first of the “what ifs” the author said he was doing, but it’s framed as also being canon – in the brief interval between when Koutarou and company bring Nalfa back to Room 106 and when she wipes everyone’s memories, the idea of alternate universes comes up. Koutarou was relieved to hear that there are universes where his mother is alive, and Nalfa offers to show him one of those in a dream. (Pointedly, we don’t see that world, possibly as I suspect it would be rather sweet but dull.) The girls all then realize they can look at a world where they won and Koutarou is their boyfriend, and after a jan-ken-pon competition, Harumi is the first to see what that life would be like. She ends up sort of providing color commentary on the dream world, which works because it’s her but I was relieved when the afterword said it would not continue after this.

The “Harumi wins” world is very similar to this one, oddly – it takes place over about the first 8-9 books, and the rest of the cast still arrive and are trying to get control of Room 106. They’re barely in the story, though, as here Koutarou is all about Harumi. Amusingly, it’s because their initial meeting went worse than in canon – when trying to pull away from the dude harassing her, she sprains her wrist and Koutarou has to give first aid. This allows two very hands-off people to touch earlier than usual, and everything springboards from there – Koutarou opens up to her faster, she realizes she’s in love faster, and they confess rapidly. That said, which that world’s Koutarou and Harumi are blissfully happy, OUR Harumi is dissatisfied. A life without the rest of the cast just isn’t the same, even if their real-life romance isn’t resolved. Another reminder that found family story beats sappy romance story.

In Vol. 33 we’ll apparently get Clan’s “what if” story next, but before that it’s back to the ongoing plot. Till then, enjoy this what if that also reminds you that the main plot is best.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I’ve been trying to catch up with Rokujouma, which threw me off my schedule by coming out in packs of 3 for a while. This is the first of the “post-finale” volumes, except of course it isn’t post-finale at all, there’s still stuff to be done. Forthorthe has “come out” to Earth, and now all sort of treaty negotiations have to take place, which will involve not screwing things up on either end. Third parties are trying to “fix” things on either side, they still can’t quite admit the presence of the magical world and the underground dwellers as well just yet, and even the yakuza is getting involved, thanks to finding a well-meaning chump – you can probably guess who that chump is. It’s also the start of a new school year. Mackenzie’s sister is now a first year, and is horrified to find her brother dates around. And we also meet a new transfer student from Forthorthe, seemingly the sister of a reporter who’s there as part of an initial exchange program, but boy, she sure seems familiar…

This book was not quite as solid as the last few have been – three’s a sense of “your series is too popular to end, please write more” to a degree. The bad guy is nephew of the bad guy from Forthorthe, and is there to be a bad guy and not much more – likewise the big battle near the end, while it is nice to see all the girls joining together to fight, felt like nothing we hadn’t seen before. And much as I love Yurika no matter what, I’m not as much a fan of her when she’s in Big Stupid mode, so seeing her happily running drugs and weapons for the yakuza, having not bothered to ask what’s in the suspicious boxes, made me feel a bit annoyed. That said, I did really like the bit where it’s pointed out to a despairing Yurika that Koutarou is being mean to her, meaning he’s not actually worried she’s in real trouble with the law here.

More interesting are the two new students. Nalfa Laren is, of course, the goddess whose plot we resolved in 29. She erased everyone’s memories, including her own (with an escape hatch for Kiriha in case of an emergency) and is living the life of a happy-go-lucky student – perhaps a bit TOO happy-go-lucky, given her clumsy tendencies which even make Yurika worry. We also get to meet McKinley, who idolized her brother till she found out he dares to date multiple women and is now furious with him. Alas, her adoration of Koutarou is fully justified, because Koutarou really IS that awesome – after all, he may have 9 (10?) women in love with him, but that doesn’t mean he’s dating any of them. Yet. She is basically a little sister character who is overly romantic, and that’s fine.

The next volume is another “half short-stories, half book” one, only in this case the half-book is the promised alternate universe, this first one being “Koutarou chooses to date Harumi”. We’ll see how that goes. Till then, enjoy Rokujouma 30, which is dancing a bit too fast to justify the ongoing plot, but is still decent.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I’ve been saying for a while now that the “harem total” in this series is not going to get larger or smaller, and in this volume I am proved wrong. That said, if you’re going to add someone to a pile of girls who are as much a found family as romantic rivals, go big or go home. God joins the party here, in the presence of the being who greeted Koutarou in Volume 1. For a while it was thought to be Harumi/Alaia in some way, but now we know that that wasn’t thinking quite grandiose enough. Before we get to that point, though, we continue the theme of the previous books, as one by one the cast vanish from Koutarou’s life, essentially his worst fear, and he has to deal with it. He doesn’t deal with it very well. Fortunately, the dwindling group of women in his life are able to figure out what is going on long enough for him to go back to the place it all began… and also set up some intriguing alternate universes.

The cover art… and the plot… and every single thing about the book, really… might make you assume this is the last book in the series. It’s certainly the final part of the “main” plot that the author originally came up with – this is where he envisioned it ending, no matter how many books it turned out to be. But the cast are becoming third-years (except for the graduated Harumi), and we’re going to be seeing what happens next starting with Vol. 30. As for this book, there’s not much to it aside from emotional beats. They’re very good emotional beats, don’t get me wrong, but I do wish Koutarou had sort of figured out that when he is standing next to a girl and reminiscing about all the good times they’ve had since book 1, she’s going to be the next to go. There is a bit of a “memory reset” at the end, but it’s entirely voluntary, and you understand why they did it.

The interesting thing, to me, was the concept of the alternate universes brought up by Nalfalaren. The one we’ve been reading is the only one in like 5 billion or so where Koutarou revives her with all nine girls who are “part of her” at his side. In other words, this is the only harem end universe. We see one of the alternate universes towards the end of this book, as Koutarou has to deal with a world where none of the cast ever showed up in Room 106 and he ended up dating Shiori Kashiwagi, who readers may recall as having a crush on him a few books back, and is entirely a normal girl. It’s good to know someone is there to help Koutarou get over the tragedies in his life regardless, but it’s still nice to see the ending I think readers wanted, which is ambiguous but also feels right.

Next time we’re getting a continuation, but we’re also going to start to see some of those “alternate universes” where Koutarou was able to settle on one of the girls. Either way, you don’t have to worry about the cast vanishing from your lives anytime soon.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

The author admits that this was supposed to be the last book but it got too big, so it’s split into a two-parter with a cliffhanger ending. It also gives some extra attention to Clan and Maki, two of the last to join in the Koutarou sweepstakes, and therefore the ones with the least development with him. That said, Clan going with Koutarou to the past gave her a leg up on the others, and Maki got a book of her own as well. The plot machinations involved mean we get a “greatest hits” compilation with those two, which is sweet and reminds you of why you like them, and also writes them out… at least for now. Because the girls are disappearing, starting with those two, and no doubt that feeds into the final book of the “main” series. Fortunately for the reader, they seem to know what’s going on, even if Koutarou doesn’t. It’s probably connected to the ancient ruins he fell into in the first book.

The main thrust of the book is not the disappearances, though, but Forthothe going public. After spending so much time trying to cover up the existence of alien worlds, and parallel magical worlds, and underground dwellers, they’re all coming out at once, and Earth is trying to deal with the fallout. And I do mean all of Earth – the fact that all this cool stuff is centered on Japan means that other countries are upset, and are not going to simply smile and nod. As a result, we have spies following our heroes around trying to prove their connections to everyone. Mostly this happens because, well, Theia used Forthothe’s own past as part of her drama club show, so it has everything written down. Koutarou, Maki and Clan’s job is to make the spies think the girls – particularly Kiriha and Yurika – are normal. They do a good job.

Though the book has not explicitly made this a “everybody wins” sort of series, that’s clearly the way that it’s heading, and the books have set this up very well, emphasizing the close bond everyone has with each other. That said, I do also appreciate that everyone is not magically OK with everything – when, in the classroom, Koutarou and Maki have a telepathic conversation, we see the other girls jealous of their closeness. One of the running themes of the series is that each of the girls desires what the other one has – Harumi wants to be roughhoused with, Clan wants to be cared for, everyone wants the closeness that Koutarou and Yurika or Theia have… they’re not a hive mind. Or at least not yet… if the disappearances and the “globes” that we see at the very end are anything to go by, Koutarou may have to handle this final crisis by himself.

The 29th volume (31st in the series – remember the .5s!) has the original “main” cast on the cover, as befits an ending volume. Of course, it’s not ending. But this is a good setup for a sort of finale. Fans of the series should enjoy it. Also, it’s quite short.

By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

Another “short-story” volume of Rokujouma, although honestly it’s more three short stories and a half-novel, as the story written especially for the book is a continuation of the previous book and not really skippable. The three short stories are all essentially character pieces. The first focuses on Nana, who has been slowly drawn into the secondary orbit of the main cast, although she’s not in the Koutarou sweepstakes. It involves making changes to her mostly cyborg body to have her look more of her actual age… as well as various other members of the cast envying how Koutarou interacts with each of them. The slightest of the three stories has Shizuka and her “dragon” uncle going to a hot springs. The third involves an eating contest that all the cast enters, but it’s mostly about Sanae and Theia, along with making Yurika the butt monkey again, because, well, we’re back on Earth. All three stories are the same as we’ve seen in previous volumes – nice character pieces, but slight.

The final story is more significant, and starts with an obvious problem: Koutarou being on Forthorthe is ruining the economy, as anywhere he goes is automatically where everyone else wants to go, and everything he buys, everyone else does… meaning all the competitors are being ruined. This is a tad ridiculous, but serves to give him an excuse to quietly go back home with everyone except the main Forthorthe cast. That said, they’ve been away from Earth a LONG time. Various people on the magical girl side have been pretending to be them in class, but that’s not helping their actual studies, so they have to take a test to prove that they’re up to date… and failure means repeating a year. You can imagine who panics most about this, but Sanae and Koutarou are also not great students.

Now, I will partly hand it to Yurika, despite whining and moaning the entire time, she really did seem to earnestly study. That said, I do like how this book shows that all the studying effort in the world can’t help you when you start from so far behind. I also liked how Maki kept Yurika motivated – yes, Koutarou would still let her stay there if she had to repeat a year, but he’s be so disappointed… as you can imagine, the thought horrifies Yurika. The other main plot here involves the cast being followed around by various guys in suits and sunglasses who look straight out of Urusei Yatsura. This was amusing, but feels more like a setup for next book, where I expect Forthorthe is going to have to go public. In fact, the author said there’s a lot of setup for the next book in this story.

So overall not bad, and sets us up nicely for the next two books, which are the final ones in the “main” storyline, though the series continues after that. Rokujouma fans should be happy.