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.

I’ve talked before – in fact, I think it was the last review – about how this series started as a romantic comedy and then became a battle manga, but really, this is shonen in every possibly way. Its entire reason for being is “whatever teenage boys want”, be that a series where about a dozen different women all fall for the hero, or a space battle with lots of pew-pew light shows. Here we also see that it’s a baseball series much of the time, as Koutarou and Kenji end up experimenting with psychic powers and pitching. And it’s also a giant robot show, as the new, extra special Blue Knight craft is a literal transforming giant robot, mostly as everyone thinks it’s really cool. About the only thing this doesn’t have that a teenage boy would want is fanservice – frankly, this remains one of the most G-rated series ever. As for the volume itself? It’s one of those “win the battle, lose the war” type books.

After a brief downtime in which, as noted, Koutarou experiments with super-powered baseball, and Nalfa tries to work up the courage to nudge her way into this polycule, everyone heads over to the debut of the brand new battleship, which is absolutely huge, has all the new bells and whistles, and inspires a spirited conversation about what the difference is between the bridge and the sub-bridge. Immediately after its inauguration, though, there’s an emergency, and they have to go off to rescue an embattled outpost. Unfortunately, this all turns out to be a plot devised by the Grey Knight. In fact, it’s three different plots devised by the Grey Knight, and while two of them fail, the most important one does not. Now Koutarou is going to have to go to war with… well, let’s face it, the reader has known who the Grey Knight really is for a while now.

After several books where she was barely present, I am delighted to announce the return of the “Yurika Watch”, where I gush about my favorite character some more. I had to laugh that we got the “he he, Yurika is goofy comedy relief” scene over with within half a page, but it’s a good thing we did, as she really has to pull out all the stops this time around. Of note, every time she’s serious and planning ahead, the others look concerned (with the exception of Nana). Yurika being an airhead is their bellwether of “all is well”, so seeing her this competent and skilled makes them a bit sad. Not me, though, praise her more. The others all do well, of course, and everyone gets to show off their fighting skills. Unfortunately, their desire to get the non-combatants out of the action comes back to bite them in the ass. On the bright side, it might allow Nalfa to find a way into that polycule a bit faster once this is over.

I hate to say this, kids – we’re caught up with Japan. Fortunately, this was a very good volume to go out on. The next book is the 50th, counting the two .5 volumes, so I expect they want to do something special.

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.

This series has a lot of influences, of course, but I have to wonder if one of them might have been Mahou Sensei Negima. A series that famously started when Ken Akamatsu wanted to write a shonen battle manga but his publisher told him to do another fanservicey harem comedy, he ended up tricking them by starting off as a harem and then gradually over the course of the series moving it to a battle manga anyway. Takehaya may also be thinking along those lines, though I don’t know if they’re getting any pressure from Hobby Japan. This is a series that started off as a mishmash of genres, but above all it was a comedy harem series, and most of its action revolves around a bunch of girls trying to win over a clueless guy. Now, 48 volumes later, the girls are all banding together to potentially sacrifice their own life just to make sure that he doesn’t have to have a mental breakdown by fighting in a long, drawn-out war. It’s just a BIT different.

Maxfern has come up with a clever plan. (Well, not really, Maxfern has behaved like a cartoon villain, but there is, at least, a plan.) Everyone knows that the brains behind the giant polycule that is the Blue Knight’s allies are Kiriha, Clan and Ruth. As a result, killing them off would not only devastate him but also get rid of all of their schemers and planners at once! It just so happens that they’re all flying to a conference by themselves, so it’s the perfect opportunity! The Grey Knight seems a bit more doubtful, but he hasn’t done anything lately! Strike while the iron is hot! It’s just, um, they are going up against three women known for being clever. it’s just POSSIBLE that they’re the ones walking into a trap.

Sorry for spoiling the early reveal, but I don’t count it as a spoiler if you can figure it out immediately: Kiriha, Clan and Ruth planned this, without telling Koutarou, in order to try to scope out Maxfern’s position and hopefully shorten the time needed to wage war. There is a brief moment when they’re in actual danger, but for the most part we’re not too worried. I suspect far more dangerous things will happen in the next book, which promises to be more Grey Knight-focused. Oh yes, and technically Koutarou proposes. Well, not really. He’s manipulated into saying he wants to spend the rest of his life with the girls. But they take it as a big victory. So there’s still a BIT of romcom to this. But for the most part this is another relatively serious volume, as it has been ever since Maxfern’s takeover. I think the humor is being saved for the short story books.

Surprisingly, we get a third book in a row with actual plot next time. Perhaps the author is trying to wrap things up with vol. 50? Till then, if you haven’t read any of this series to date, Vol. 46 is definitely not the one to start with.

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.

After the events of Vol. 43 (44 being a SS volume), you will not be surprised to hear that this is a very serious affair. There’s almost no humor to be found, and even the romance, with the exception of Elfaria (who joins everyone else in the cast in trying to make it clear, but not TOO clear, that he’s the only one for her) is absent. The reason for this is that after the events of the last book, Koutarou is depressed and uncertain how to go forward. It’s a good reminder how little time this series has taken place in – we’re only about two years later here, and much as the girls are all cognizant of their own feelings and able to support each other, when it comes to the man they love they don’t have the fortitude to kick him in the ass, and have to leave it to Kenji, who of course can baseball it out of him. No one is quite mature enough to confidently be in a polycule revolving around one man just yet. Least of all the man.

We pick up just before the cliffhanger of the last book, as we see Ralgwin’s final moments before his soul is overwritten by Maxfern’s. He seems rather calm and accepting of this, and is apparently assuming that Koutarou will somehow save the day. Unfortunately, that point is not this volume. Koutarou, as I said before, starts off in a big funk, especially once Maxfern goes on live TV to declare war on the royal family and ask allies to join him. Now they need to avoid another war, and in order to do this have to infiltrate the enemy… which is a lot easier given that they’re bringing in a lot of new troops and staff. Unfortunately, they all fail to realize that Maxfern is, unlike every other villain we’ve seen in this book, someone who does not care about ANYONE. And that troops don’t necessarily have to be alive.

So yeah, I hate to break it to you, but once you take zombies out of the box, you really can’t put them back. That said, this is part of a new theme with this book. All our previous villains, be they Ralgwin, or Elexis, or even Darkness Rainbow, have all had someone that they care about and want to protect, in some way, shape or form. Their goals are not 100% genocidal. Maxfern is different. He died swearing vengeance, and he will get vengeance, no matter who dies or is left unhappy. The second half of the book sees our heroes infiltrate the e3nemy for clues, and they barely escape with their lives, because the villain doesn’t care about just throwing death at a problem until it goes away. It’s genuinely scary.

We get a cliffhanger suggesting Maxfern is going to attack the “smart girls” in the group – Clan, Kiriha, and Ruth – next time. Till then, this is still good, but it’s a bit less “fun”, per se.

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.

It has to be said, Rokujouma!? is a very methodical series. We’ve gotten so used to seeing series derived from webnovels where the author is clearly making up each chapter… and sometimes each page… as they go along. So it’s refreshing seeing a series that really feels plotted down to its bones. I suspect the author has outlines and spreadsheets up the wazoo to keep track of all this. A “Pantser” they are not. And sometimes this can be a drawback. There are a few conversations in this short story volume between the heroines where you sort of want one of them to snap and turn evil just for the variety – everyone is polite, pragmatic, and thinks things through – even Theia, who gives the appearance of being impulsive. On the other hand, given what happened in Volume 43, I’m honestly OK with everyone being pleasant and casually discussing their polycule. It’s a lot less sad and downbeat than what I expect the start of the 45th volume will be like.

As with previous short story volumes, this consists of three short stories from HJ Bunko’s online website and a longer story at the end. In the first story, Elfaria, Theia, Ruth, and Ceileshu are ordered to take a day off after the civil war (and despite Ceileshu’s guilt about her part in said civil war), and play various board games from Japan (the Game of Life, etc.). In the second story, with Maki unavailable, Harumi and Shizuka are chosen to try to teach our resident Power Ranger knockoffs how to fight against someone who has magic. In the third story Kotori and Kiriha meet with the student council to discuss how the alien transfer students are fitting in, and then discuss Koutarou’s childhood. In the story written for the book, we see Koutarou going out on dates with all nine of his current polycule… and it becomes clear that it’s going to be expanding to more than nine.

It’s been about fifteen books since the first supposed “ending” of this series, which pretty much cemented that the nine main heroines were all quite friendly with each other and would be happy to share Koutarou in a polyamorous relationship whenever he got over his hangups. He’s mostly done that now, at least in terms of no longer thinking “if I admit I love someone they will die”, but he still feels that choosing just one girl will destroy everything. And, well, he’s not wrong. The second half of this book goes into great detail about how his marriage is now a political decision, and there is no way that he will be allowed to NOT marry someone from Forthorthe. Which… could be Theia. Or Clan. But it could also be Elfaria, who is single, the Empress, still young (for an alien race), and in love with Koutarou, something she is reluctant to admit in front of her daughter. The one thing that none of the heroines are allowed to do in Rokujouma!? is bury their feelings of love. And that’s true if you’re the Empress, or if you’re a god in disguise, or even if you’re the little sister of his best friend, who is starting to realize that maybe he isn’t just a “big brother”.

Of course, that assumes they all survive the next book. The author promises it’s back to the main plot next time. Till then, enjoy a staid and somewhat boring but also warm and comforting light novel volume.

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.

(This talks about the book’s surprise ending, but after the picture.)

If you’re still following a series 45 novels in (counting the two .5 volumes, as always), you’d better have some pretty damn good reasons. Especially given that they’re light novels, which, even with a smaller page count than a lot of other series, simply are not going to be read as fast as a manga would be. And there’s lots of places this story could have ended already. Where the anime did. Right before the arrival of Clan. The 29th volume, which even had a “final volume” style cover. But it’s still ongoing, and I still really enjoy every volume of it, because the writer does things I enjoy well. There’s a ton of likeable, distinct characters, who I mostly don’t have to look at a wiki to remember who they are. (Sorry, Darkness Rainbow, I still only know half of you by name.) There’s some good romance. There’s fantastic action sequences, which take up the 2nd half of this volume. And, yes, still the occasional shocking twist.

We pick up right where we left off. Ralgwin is being held prisoner in a hospital while he heals up from his near-fatal injuries. Fasta is still determined to rescue him, and while everyone sympathizes with her, they actually have to try to stop her doing that. More worryingly, Grevanas and the Gray Knight also are thinking of rescuing him – Grevanas so he can use Ralgwin’s body to resurrect Maxfern, and the Gray Knight for his usual “I’m not evil Koutarou from an alternate universe, I promise” reasons. Every single ally is gathered to help move Ralgwin to a more secure prison to await trials. Heck, even Fasta has brought along allies to help her, allies we really had not expected. Our heroes are stronger now, they can surely take on anything that the bad guys can dish out. Right?

Here’s where those spoilers are. I don’t think the Rokujouma?! series has ever ended an arc quite as viciously as this. This is a full on “the bad guys win” ending, I was surprised, as while I saw that Ralgwin had been captured by the enemy, I was expecting it to swing into another search and rescue arc. But honestly, we had a huge battle in this book, and following it up with one in the next book might risk repeating. (The author has straight up said to expect a short story volume next time, so that will be fun.) But we’ve spent so many volumes humanizing our villains. Hell, we were rooting hard for Fasta to succeed. We brought back Elexis and Maya after like 15 volumes for a surprise visit, and they’re more likeable as well. The villains have their own sensible motivations, and they can also fall in love. So to see the cartoon villain get his wish and parade around a resurrected Maxfern (who is a bit less of a cartoon villain, but only just) really, really feels like the book is punching you in the face.

Even the “Corona Convention” is downbeat this time around. An excellent volume of the series, but it hurts.

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.

One of the strengths of the Rokujouma series has been the attention paid to its major antagonists. Even from the start, the villains got opportunities to show us their point of view, be sympathetic in some way, shape or form, or at least show why people trust them despite their being Obviously Evil. That stays true to the present books, as Ralgwin, despite being one of the main bad guys, is a Good Boss, cares about his underlings, and even fires one of his strongest supporters just so that she’ll be away from the bad stuff when it happens. Unfortunately, the bad stuff is absolutely going to happen, mostly as evil scientist (boo) has refined his living corpse makers so that he can resurrect the dead better (and thus use Ralgwin as a spare body for his ancestor), and the Grey Knight, who is “Koutarou but evil”, is still trying to kill Sanae, and presumably will get his inevitable redemption saved for near the end of the series. Assuming this series ever ends.

The format is the same as the last book: half a book of cute stories and buildup, and half a book of battles and payoff. Kenji ad Koutarou brought baseball equipment along, and now Koutarou and Shizuka can flirt… erm, I mean, practice to see if they can use the equipment with their powers. Koutarou then tries to figure out how to spend the giant pile of money he has without being too influential towards one side or another. Everyone then goes to inspect the new Blue Knight ship, which of course looks exactly like a giant robot, complete with detachable parts, because this series is still very teenage boy even as its readers age into their 40s. And then Ralgwin makes one last, desperate attempt to kill Koutarou once and for all, but has reckoned without a defector in his ranks.

The Yurika watch will be brief this review, as she’s barely in the book, except for one scene where she starts to think out loud that Koutarou looks like an Emperor/King until a terrifying glare from Elfaria shuts her up. Clearly Elfaria’s agenda involves much greater things for Koutarou than just “go back to Earth and live in my 6-tatami room”. The big deal here, though, is Fasta’s defection. The sniper has been a major thorn in our heroes’ side for a while now, but after being sent away by Ralgwin so that she’s not quietly killed while trying to save him, she decides to up her game by betraying him in order to save him later, after he’s arrested and imprisoned. It’s a bold move, and I was surprised that it actually worked, but I guess Ralgwin also saw the writing on the wall, putting everything into one last ‘kill Koutarou” attempt – which fails. I also liked that the girls were content to let her escape and try to rescue Ralgwin after his capture – everything they’ve done since about Book 9 or so has basically been “all for love”, so they can understand the feeling.

Good fights, amusing jokes, some incremental plot development. Everything you’d want in a Rokujouma book.

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.