suppose a kid from the last dungeon boonies moved to a starter town

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

There is not a single thing that happens in this book that the reader could not have predicted. If you finished Vol. 14 and someone asked “so how will it end”, you would probably say “well, Eve will try to break everything and go home, Lloyd will stop her by being Lloyd, and we’ll get a flashforward showing that everyone is older but otherwise resolving next to nothing”, you’d be absolutely correct. That said… is that really a bad thing? This is a wacky, goofy comedy with a bit of heart. If you were asked what you WANTED from the ending of this series, unless you’re a rabid shipper (and I assume any of those dropped this a while back), you’d probably say exactly what I just did above. It’s a chaotic action-packed fight against Eva, followed by Lloyd showing off how much he’s grown and also showing off that no one has gotten (or will ever get) in his pants.

Things aren’t looking good. Eve has a new body, and what’s more, she has access to the powers and attacks of ALL the demon lords. Everyone who tries to stop her is either distracted by her releasing a horde of monsters, beaten into a coma, or mind-controlled into obeying her will (yeah, sorry, Anzu, you’re mostly a comedy patsy this volume. It happens in this series). Rinko has an idea that might be able to take her down, but Eve has about 87 clever plans, and she does not seem in danger of running out anytime soon. Worst of all, Eve has a special spray bottle and, when hit with the contents, the residents of Kunlun become weak and unable to fight back. With all these advantages, even Lloyd won’t be able to stop her!…. right? Right?

So yeah, the “action climax” of this book happens a little over halfway through, and even Eve’s fate is not all that surprising given the type of series this is. The last chapter takes place a few years later, and is from the POV of Asako, who finally gets to be an actual character in this series now that she’s no longer being possessed by Eve. Fortunately she’s no longer dying, and she has cool teleportation powers. Unfortunately, she’s in love with Lloyd, which merely adds her to the pile. It turns out that the entire series has been written by her to tell Lloyd’s true story, a conceit I quite like. As for the others, well, they’ve all got jobs now, but everyone is reasonably happy, except for Marie, who is miserable and who no one can stand. I can’t believe Marie became the most annoying character in a series where Selen exists, but there it is.

This was never going to be a top-rated light novel series, but for something trying for the vibe of Urusei Yatsura (complete with one of those “chaos ensues” endings Takahashi loved to do), it was good. It always made me laugh, which is more than I can say for a lot of light novel authors.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I was somewhat surprised when I read the afterword to find that the 15th volume of this series is supposed to be the last. Honestly, this felt like the sort of series that could go forever, even if it did feel like it was wrapping up all the plot points. But here we are, with the penultimate volume, and the focus this time is definitely on our main Big Bad, Eve. She’s always been a fairly dislikable figure, even in the bunny suit, and the prologue we get here hammers home why she’s far more loathsome than anyone else in the cast could ever hope to be. That said, we get the next best thing: to see the narrative treat her almost as badly as the other characters in this series. (I say almost. Marie is still the worst. Sorry, Marie.) Almost every single woman in this cast has humiliated themselves because they’re in love with Lloyd, after all…

A prologue gives us the full story of what we already know: Eve has possessed the body of Vritra’s daughter Asako, who has the same incurable disease Eve has, and has been running amuck in said body since the very start of this. Now she’s blackmailing Vritra to finish her new, adult body… though when it’s finally revealed, everyone notes it’s a bit too bling for anyone to really appreciate. In the meantime, a summit is being held to accuse Eve of her crimes, held in Eve’s own country… except the king and queen are sending Lloyd and Maria as their representatives, knowing that Lloyd is a secret weapon that can defeat almost any evil plan. That said, I don’t think anyone expected this evil plan to go off the rails in QUITE this way…

So yeah, this is one of those books that’s eclipsed by its best scene, which overwhelms the rest. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some funny stuff here, and even a bit of drama, but the interrogation of Eve, and her responses to same, is pitch-perfect. Eve, of course, is baffled that she’s behaving this way, possession or no, but it makes sense: inside her rests a 17-year-old girl whose dream it is to be rescued by a prince on a white horse, and Lloyd ticks every single box imaginable. Of course love was going to come into the equation. And I appreciate that it’s the possession talking, because that’s what makes it funny rather than creepy – Eve herself may be influenced by this, but when push comes to shove, she literally concusses herself to stop it and move on with her evil plan.

So yeah, now Eve has a new superpowerful body, looks like she stepped out of a Donki, and is headed off to take out Alka and her village of oveerpowered superpeople with her anti-superperson serum. I’d be worried, except, well, Lloyd. Also, who (snicker) will Lloyd end up with (guffaw) in the end? (Come on, we know this is not resolving jack.)

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

There have been quite a few antagonists over the course of this series, but, with the exception of a few, they’ve mostly been pathetic mooks whose job it is to get humiliated and destroyed by Lloyd. That said, this is not a series that is really interested in killing off its villains, for the most part, so something had to happen to them. Why not a high-security prison? Because, of course, Last Dungeon Kid also enjoys making fun of various types of cliched plotlines, and “prison break story” is certainly one of them. The only problem there is that imagining Lloyd breaking out of prison is… ridiculously easy. He wouldn’t even break a sweat. Especially if he’s not even aware that it’s a prison at all. Ah well, it’ll lead to some good comedy. Well, right until the end, of course, when Eve makes sure we have a dramatic twist.

Rinko and Alka are trying to research all the evil things Eve has been doing, and have noticed that she seems to be getting a lot of experimental corpses from somewhere. A likely place is Hell’s Lock, the prison for those who commit the worst crimes in the kingdom. Clearly they need to send in someone to investigate, and they do… but somehow, because this is that sort of series, Lloyd ends up taking their place. Unaware he’s investigating, or even in a prison, Lloyd thinks this is essentially a training camp for mental fortitude. The evil warden does not take kindly to his cavalier attitude, and decides to torture and kill him on the sly, because (of course) the warden is the one supplying Eve with bodies. Still, killing Lloyd may prove a challenge…

This took a while to get going, like a lot of books in this series. It tends to run on “farce” principles, and thus is always better when everything is fast and chaotic, rather than providing setup. It didn’t help that I had honestly forgotten a few of the recurring villains, though some of them came back to me more easily than others. (Phyllo’s continued rage at the man who destroyed her family is both in character and very funny. She also gets the best joke of the book.) That said, as I noted last time, there is still a vague serious component to this series that occasionally rears its head. The warden’s sudden realization of who he really is is somewhat chilling, but it’s Eve taking off the bunny suit to reveal her face that’s the payoff. Well, OK, it’s probably the payoff for next book, which I assume will be Selen-based. I also liked Lloyd’s rage and fury, which given his normal attitude was quite refreshing.

All in all, a pretty good volume. More madcap next time, maybe?

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

This is a series that is a broad comedy, and is usually content to be just that. The characters are hilarious but also pretty much unrealistic, and the plot will always take a back seat to a joke. That said, there have been a few moments of drama in the books, usually involving Alka’s generation, and it’s the same here. In particular, it’s Eug. There was one scene in the book that had be basically recoiling and going “Jesus Christ”. Surprisingly, it was not the part where she dropped off weapons so horrifying that her soldiers are all appalled at the very though of using them, or her inevitable downfall after being manipulated by Eve. It’s where she gets so angry at the thought of Lloyd that she accidentally breaks her own fingers from clenching her fist too hard. That’s terrifying, and it gives the scenes afterwards a bit of pathos.

It’s time for military exercises, as everyone is posted to a different department. That said, our boy Lloyd is so over-powerful that he’s posted to handing out food to the soldiers, mostly as that also helps to avoid one department getting an advantage over the other. Unfortunately for the country, Eug’s nation has decided (with a little help from Big Bad Eve), that now is the perfect time to invade for real. They have traitors in Azami’s forces. They have really powerful tac nukes. They have soldiers who have recently been given delicious hot meals… by Lloyd? Wait, what the hell is Lloyd doing aiding and abetting the enemy? Unfortunately, Marie has an even bigger problem: some hussy in a hood is the new military advisor, and she’s taking the queen’s place in her father’s heart!

A series like this advances its plot bit by bit, so it’s no surprise that only three real things of consequence happen here. The first is that Rinko reveals herself to Marie, which is mostly played for comedy, but allows the joke to not get stale. The second is the revelation of what actually happened to all the Earth scientists, which turns out to be totally different from what we thought. And indeed what most of them thought as well, particularly Eug, whose repressed guilt over the population of Earth is what allows her to be so easily manipulated. And the third, of course, is the removal of Eug from the board, though I expect that will be temporary. Eve is now very definitely the main antagonist, and it will be interesting to see how things go. Oh yes, it was also nice to see Lloyd essentially lose here, and even get injured enough he had to be carried off. That’s a rarity in these books about Lloyd being basically invincible.

So yeah, a decent entry in the series, though I admit Marie’s patheticness is starting to wear on me. The author knows she’s #1 in the harem stakes, but is doing too good a job of knocking her back.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

While I would not say that the cast of Last Dungeon Kid are as bad as Seinfeld, a series where the creators had as one of their series rules “no hugging, no learning”, it is certainly true that any time one of the characters almost reaches a point where they will come to their senses and mature as a person, they immediately backslide horribly for comedic effect. Usually that person has been Marie, and it’s Marie here as well. She’s reaping what she’s sown, as Lloyd is now convinced that Marie is the LAST person that could possibly be the kingdom’s princess, mostly thanks to what a giant disaster she is. A sensible person might think that they should shape themselves up so that Lloyd might be able to see them as royalty. Marie, instead, realizes that her being a disaster means Lloyd is too attached to her to fall in love with anybody, so she doubles down on being terrible. It’s… well, they’re comedy types, Harold.

As the country prepares for possible war, our core military cast are going around to various guilds to make sure that they’ll be on the right side when the fighting starts. This includes the adventurer’s guild whose mysterious leader has been absent for years but who returns the moment Lloyd shows up. It also includes the maritime guild, whose head has been fighting with the King for years and years, apparently due to the disappearance of the Queen. The King is trying to move things forward by having a big party where he’ll reveal the return of Princess Maria, and Marie has even agreed to it, in a desperate effort to get Lloyd to believe her. Sadly, when informed that the princess loves Lloyd, he becomes desperate to find the REAL princess… so he can reject her!

I wasn’t kidding when I said that stuff happens immediately after Lloyd gets involved. When he walks in, the plot moves forward. And yes, there is still a plot. Indeed, we get an extended prologue that shows us Alka’s past from before this world’s transformation, and get closer to figuring out who was behind it and what they actually want. We also see the return of the mystery woman who Lloyd met in the “bathroom” he found several books ago. As it happens, she’s deeply tied to both the Kingdom and Alka’s past… but of course she’s also a bit of a disaster, because there really are no 100% serious characters in this book. It reminds me of reading Urusei Yatsura or Ranma 1/2. You keep wanting things to be taken more seriously, for drama, for a bit of romantic resolution. But you can get that in other series that are far less funny than this. This series is here to give us laughs, and though they may be rueful laughs most of the time, they’re still there.

That said, we have to wait another three months while this series’ narrator goes off to do his other job as narrator of Tearmoon Empire. Till then, this is always a fun read, especially if you’ve just read two awful books in a row (like I had).

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

If this series were not as successful as it has been, I could easily see this being the final volume. It has a final volume sort of feel to it – no, it doesn’t wrap up anything romance wise, but if you think this series is going to end with him picking one of the girls I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. It does, however, wrap up almost all the plots that we’ve had bubbling under the last few books when the series hasn’t been trying to be wacky comedy (which is to say, rarely). Lloyd’s dark older brother figure Shouma finally is forced to realize that he’s projecting onto Lloyd heavily, and that sometimes people can in fact be nice. We get the backstory of Sou, which ties into the backstory we’ve seen before, with Alka and company in the past. And we get Lloyd being the equivalent of a high school student, unable to fill out that career survey.

The career survey is actually hitting cadets a little earlier than usual. mostly because the King is trying to figure out a way to get Lloyd and his daughter together – which might work better if Lloyd ever actually figured out that Marie is the princess. He does not. He’s also very unhappy with the survey, though, mostly as he’s not sure what he wants to do with his life. Cue a series of internships, each of which are basically an excuse for shenanigans from the entire cast. Unfortunately, while this is going on, Sou has bribed/blackmailed a noble into helping with what appears to be a curse on the military city, causing people to lose control of their emotions and lash out in a rage. Can our heroes figure out what’s behind this and stop it? And what job is Lloyd best suited for anyway?

I’m always a fan of times in broad comedies where the characters show a glimpse of self-awareness. This is hard to come by in this series, especially with everyone’s favorite yandere Selen. So it pleased me greatly when she got my favorite moment in the book, where she explains to Shouma (whose mental breakdown has been nudged along by Sou into “kill his friends before they betray him”) that the fact that she’s completely obsessed with Lloyd has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he was strong enough to undo the belt curse, or even that he saved her at all, but that he treated her like a normal person. Again, Lloyd is nice to a fault, and not in a standard light novel potato sort of way, but genuinely altruistic. Even Riho, who confesses she *was* planning to fleece Lloyd, admits that went out the window the more time she spent with him. He’s just a good kid.

So we’ve dealt with almost everything… maybe. We still have the queen who likes to dress in a rabbit costume, and I think she’s the next major arc. Till then, this book is always funny (particularly the narrative voice), but also has some slight narrative heft this time around.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Last time I mentioned that the series had an actual plot in among all the comedy, and we still see some of that here as well. But its never going to get in the way of the comedy itself, and honestly is likely never going to be the main part of the book unless the series finally comes to an end. As for the actual plot of this book… why, it’s a school festival with a maid cafe, of course. Honestly, I feel that a lot of these books can be summed up by the author flicking through TV channels, landing on some random anime, going “A ha, that’s it!” and moving back to the computer. The fact that the book even tries to justify it only makes it funnier. Add to this a master thief who has reckoned without our dumbass heroes and a king who can’t convince anyone he’s been kidnapped, and there’s no worries on the laugh front.

So yes, a maid cafe. Well, theoretically a maid/butler cafe, but the butler uniforms are stolen for no real reason other than to stick Lloyd and Allan in maid outfits. The idea is mostly Riho’s, thinking she can get some cash for once (which is true, but don’t expect it to stick). The king, meanwhile, wants to put out a huge statue that supposedly grants good fortune to couples who stand next to it. There’s just one problem: the statue’s creator really really does not want it to be shown off, and will happily steal the whole thing to prevent that happening. Oh yes, and there’s a master thief around, though whether he is connected to the missing statue is neither here nor there. What this all amounts to is a lot of school festival schtick and a lot of Lloyd going on not-dates with his two most aggressive girls.

In the two volumes before this, we saw Lloyd get actual character development that stuck, as he has started to realize, if not that he is stronger than everyone else in the world, art least that he IS strong. What’s more, he’s finally showing off that strength in front of people who are NOT the main cast, which means that credit for saving the day, for once, does not go to Allan. Who, frankly, has enough to deal with, given his wife ends up returning and working for the military. Lloyd, meanwhile, is starting to think about his future, not realizing that everyone else already has it planned out for him: military PR, military intelligence, military security, or hell, just marry into royalty. (Marie’s not in the book much at all, but still tends to be top girl by default whenever she’s around, and at least the King now knows who she’s crushing on.)

This is deeply sill, but in a good way, and I look forward to the plot of the next book, which will no doubt be inspired by a refrigerator magnet the author saw the other day.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Because this series is such a broad comedy, I sometimes forget that it is actually trying to have a plot too. There’s more plot in this book than in any of the previous others, as we get a lot more information… well, OK, a little more information… about the Japanese research group that apparently kickstarted whatever this world is, and where they are now. Unsurprisingly, there’s mostly a bunch of loud awkward guys, even if here they’re powerful demon lords. On a more disturbing note, Alka continues to be the gift that keeps on giving even when we don’t want her to. The revelation of her past with the hero was fine. Even hearing that Lloyd is essentially a replacement for the man she once loved, I mean, at least that explains the obsession. But in a series filled with thirsty women, Alka remains the thirstiest, with a line here that made my jaw drop. It’s not welcome.

Despite the cliffhanger from the last book, this volume has the least amount of Lloyd to date, as until the very end he’s reduced to simply standing around and reacting to others. The volume essentially consists of two things: 1) Allan muddling his way through life despite everyone misunderstanding him, and 2) the actual competition to see which clan gets to be the leader. The first part is amusing inasmuch as Allan is a schlub – if you like schlubs trying to blurt something out but failing, you’ll enjoy it. He does gain a demon lord. And a wife. Meanwhile, the competition is where most of the volume’s broad comedy comes out, as we manage to work in swimsuits, cavalry battles, loincloths and farming. The final battle is Allan vs. Lloyd, which Allan is pretty sure he will not survive, but it’s OK, as it’s interrupted by – I’m not making this up – a GIANT CRAB BATTLE where you must hit its weak point for massive damage.

Most of the forward movement in this book happens away from our main cast, who pretty much all act as you would expect them to. The supporting cast, though, are more interesting. Half of them are still recovering their memories, or simply getting used to being impossibly powerful. Alka and Eug are still on opposite sides, though it’s now being made clear that there’s someone trying to play both sides against each other. And we also meet a new player in the game at the very end, who (as with damn near everyone in the cast) is accidentally awoken by Lloyd, who just wants to use the bathroom. Despite all this, there’s a lot going on but the book feels fairly light. The setup comes out in odd bits and bobs, and the main plot is so “wacky” that a lot of it bounced off me.

Oh well, at least this arc is over, though given Allan is married now I suspect we’ll be seeing the newly introduced cast stick around for the next arc. In the meantime, this works best if you don’t think about it.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

This volume attempts to answer that dangerous question: what happens when the new person’s goal is to break the premise of the series? We met Anzu in the last volume, and here she makes good on her threat to get Lloyd to her kingdom. Unfortunately, well, Lloyd is Lloyd, as the main cast points out. So she decides to train him in such a way that he gains confidence ANYWAY, even though he’s already ludicrously strong. Unfortunately, as Maria breaks the fourth wall to point out, Anzu ends up being yet another comedy character whose goal is to scream loudly whenever Lloyd does something beyond all human ken again. What’s more, he keeps accidentally breaking her country. And even more amusingly, he keeps accidentally breaking the villain’s plans. Over and over again. It’s Lloyd’s gimmick, and thus you can’t really train him out of it. If he realized what he’s really like, the series ends… at least till the last few pages.

We begin with Anzu, in disguise, heading to the Azami Kingdom… and accidentally running into the entire cast and all of their bad character traits, including mistaking Allan for a hero, Merthopan’s dangerously flappy loincloth, Selen and Micone competing to see who can be the creepiest, and Riho trying to disguise her tragic flaw: donuts. Once we actually get the main cast (minus Micona, thank God, and also minus Alka – again, thank God) to the Ascorbic Domain, various plot-related things happen. There are two other factions trying to overthrow Anzu, each of whom is, of course, a different anime cliche; it turns out that this is where Eug is now, and she’s got a new Very Clever Scheme to cause war between all the countries; Lloyd proves impossible to train; and, most importantly, Phyllo is at a loose end after the events of the previous volume, and it’s making her fighting weak.

Aside from the last few pages mentioned above, Phyllo was the best part of this book. She’s depressed and angry with herself through most of the volume, as everyone and their brother is pointing out how she no longer has a purpose and it’s showing in her now very readable moves. The problem is that the events of the last book were good, right? Her mother isn’t dead, her family is whole again… why does this leave a big hole inside her? The resolution of this is very organic and feels very much like Phyllo, who is not really a character given over to long tormented inner monologues. Seeing her snap out of it is great – and, of course, only adds to the love polycule. As for those last few pages, let’s just say that someone actually manages to find the right way to train Lloyd and give him advice that works. It not only makes him even stronger, but he gets told the right way to build confidence. It’s honestly fantastic, I cheered.

That said, do I think it will last? No. No, I do not. But we will get at least one more volume before we have to go back to the default settings. In the meantime, this book is definitely recommended for Phyllo fans, and fans of the other characters should enjoy it as well. Well, unless you’re a Micona fan. In which case, WHY?

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

The previous volume showed us that there really is a long-running plot arc to this book, and gave us hints that it might actually be headed in that direction. The trouble is that even the people who are trying to manipulate the plot the way they want are big goofy flakes. Our two villains are mostly big Lloyd stans, especially in this book, where you get the sense that they came up with the entire plot not to force Lloyd into his hero role but to get Lloyd’s autograph. As for Alka, we do here a BIT more about her past here, but again it takes a back seat to shanigans… as does Alka, who is thankfully absent for most of this book, though I give her credit for showing up at the end and getting the best part of the book to herself. As for the main cast… there’s here to make movies.

Despite the fact that normally technology would not be nearly advanced enough to do this, there is a burgeoning film industry in the next country over. Sending the army to investigate by disguising them as extras and crew, Lloyd is also looking a bit older. After several comments on his cuteness have him depressed about his manly status, Alka gives him a rune that makes him look in his mid-20s… and SMOKING HOT, to the pleasure of everyone in the room. As for the movie itself, the director is the King, who has a few secrets, and the lead actor… has quite a few more. Then there’s the fact that the lead actress seems very familiar to some of the cast, and also the assassin who seems to want to kill Lloyd, though clearly against her will. Can all this converge and make sense?

Well, yes, it can. It makes sense in a wacky comedy plot sense, but it all does come together. The best thing about Last Dungeon Kid is it will not ever back down from being silly. Even titles like Bakarina have the occasional dramatic moment slipped into the book to make the reader tear up, but this book subverts al that with the finest comedy timing. Fortunately, the comedy is pretty good. Alka and Maria are absent most of the book, so there’s less humiliating fanservice this time around, and Selen is honestly behaving herself as much as she ever will. The exception to this is Micona, who I almost wish was still possessed by evil, as her one-note attacks on anyone who gets near Maria are the most tiresome part of the book. I did also enjoy the serious subplot in the book all the way through, including when it had its seriousness yanked out from under it and mocked.

At the start of the book we also met a lot of kings and nation leaders, and next time around we’ll see mo0re of them. For the moment, though, this is quite good comedy, especially if you don’t expect anything more from it, like romantic resolution. That’s not happening.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

This is not the final volume of this series – not even remotely, as Vol. 12 just came out in Japan last month – but you might be forgiven for thinking this after reading the volume itself, which has the feel of an “and the adventure continues” sort of ending. Our heroes go to visit the Last Dungeon Boonies themselves, Lloyd’s hometown, and find it’s just as ridiculous as you’d expect. We not only get the return of the minor villain of the 4th book, still brainwashed, but also the return of the minor villain of the second book, who is recovering nicely from being evil. Our two major villains show up, joined by a third, and we get all their backstories and reasons for what they’re doing. And we get hints of the real background of Alka, and it’s… surprising. There’s also a big ol’ melee battle at the end, with Lloyd arriving in the Nick of Time. But again, not the last volume.

As noted above, the main cast all decide to go back to Kunlun, mostly to do something about fixing Vritra, still in cursed belt form. Of course, some folks may have alternate reasons to go there, be it to get valuable materials and sell them for cash (Riho), meet Lloyd’s family, get their blessing, marry him, have children, and have more children (Selen), or finding new and exciting ways to GET STRONGER! (Phyllo). After making their way there via the magic portal of Alka’s friend Eug, a dwarf who’s been around as long as Alka has. Once there, they find their old military instructor and the minor villain of the FIRST book, who was exiled there as punishment and is now very strong and also very weird. It’s all pretty muuch fun and games, with lots of laughs. Then we get to the second half of the book…

I’ve always been somewhat suspicious of Lloyd’s “at home, I’m the weakest” claim, and despite the townsfolk showing off such things as being shot out of a cannon to go to the nearby mountaintop, I’m even more suspicious after this book. Both the good guys and the bad guys see Lloyd has a destiny, though how they want to shape that destiny is another story. Fortunately, Lloyd is as innocent as a lamb, and thus unlikely to really be seriously manipulated by bad guys. I’m also impressed with Riho, who honestly should get a spinoff series where she’s the detective, and Selen, who shows that when she drops her yandere act she too can be quite clever and courageous. Phyllo doesn’t get quite as much, mostly as she’s the stoic type, but I was amused at her finding out exactly how much she needs to train… and then discovering that the Kunlun folks use that training for morning calisthenics. Oh yes, and Allan gets to be the butt monkey of the series AND also get everyone thinking – again – that he’s the real hero here. Honestly, he sort of is. We can’t all be Lloyd.

This was probably the strongest volume in the series to date, tying together a bunch of storylines and also leaving room for more to be developed. That said, there’s still one main reason to follow this series – everyone is a wacky parody. For those who love laffs, spelled exactly that way.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

Clearly someone has been listening to my review, as after last volume’s weird hotel detour, this one gets back to what I expected the series to be about: Lloyd and company’s time in the academy. Not that we spend much time there, as the town’s cleaned out and empty starter dungeon is suddenly teeming with terrifying dragons and monsters and the like. There’s also the issue of a man wandering around and asking people what he looks like, and then dealing with them if the answer is wrong. And there’s the usual dose of over the top humor and goofy fun from all our regulars. Unfortunately, when you live by the silly cliche you can also die by the silly cliche, so I have to warn in advance that the main antagonist of this volume is an obsessed lesbian who ends up turning evil. Which, I get it, is also a character type to parody. It’s just not one I want to see again.

As noted, the academy has gotten word that their empty dungeon is suddenly dangerous again, and sends Lloyd and company to check on it, figuring he’s ridiculously strong enough, even if he still has crippling self-esteem issues. To no one’s surprise, there does turn out to be a top-tier monster in the dungeon – a giant snake. To everyone’s surprise, Lloyd is not able to defeat it, and gets kicked around a bit. There may be more to this monster than meets the eye. There’s also the man walking around killing people… erm, sorry, testing them and then making them disappear. He turns out to be an old foe of Alka’s, and he and the smiling friend of Lloyd we met in the previous volume are here to be the Big Bads for the series as a whole. And for this volume, it means taking one woman’s obsession with Marie and turning it into a monstrous nightmare.

There are some really good action scenes here. As noted above, Lloyd for once is not One-Punch Man, and seeing him have to actually struggle is excellent, and hopefully will show off some character development. There’s also a lot of hilarity involving the King, who has recovered from being possessed but seems to have turned into a middle manager, and whose “reward catalog” is roundly attacked, and justifiably so given one of the rewards is “marry whoever you want” without giving thought to the other person. As for Micona, she has an irrational hate-on for Lloyd, mostly as he’s living with Marie, and it turns to a massive grudge when she’s merged with a treant by the bad guys. (Who remove her at the end, so I’m sure she’ll be back down the road). And of course, when you have a tree monster who attacks using roots, well, yes, there’s Marie tentacle attacks as well, though not too explicit, thank God.

So something of a mixed bag in the end, but I’m pleased to see the book actually buckling down and getting to its long-term plot. The implication is that the next volume will bring the main cast to Lloyd’s village, which promises to be quite fun in a sadistic sort of way. Much like the rest of the series, really.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

This book continues to get the little things right. The humor is still very solid, and the main reason to read the series. The characterization is not really deep but it is fun, and it was nice to see the one main character I dislike get buried upside down in the dirt by the end of the book. The individual; situations, scenes, etc. are well-handled, and I really like the way that the action scenes are not just “Lloyd does everything” but have the rest of the cast all taking turns to take down the monster. That said, I have concerns about the main plot of the series… does it have one? There are more dark hints of future badness, as we meet another of Lloyd’s hometown friends who seems to be working for a Big Bad, but… look, this is a book where our hero is sent to a hotel in the country to be a bellboy. And it’s only Vol. 3.

An acquaintance of Chrome’s who is an ex-military man who now owns a hotel is desperate for staff, and so Lloyd is loaned out for their holiday season. Naturally, Lloyd is a one-man staff just by himself, instantly doing everything. Also naturally, all the rest of the cast separately make their way there as well. Riho wins at the horse races and treats herself to a luxury hotel; Selen is attending an arranged marriage meeting, much to her irritation; Allan is ALSO attending an arranged marriage meeting, and the dots can be fairly easily connected; and there’s a mysterious being draining the life force of people in the area, so Mena and Phyllo get sent to investigate. As it turns out, lots of people are investigating this. Good thing that Marie arrives to be a master detective. Which she totally is, uh huh. She’s not just here to see Lloyd or anything.

So there is a plot of sorts to this book – investigating who is behind the tree monsters that are draining life forces. Sadly, the culprit is not hard to guess. More importantly, aside from occasional hints that bad things will happen in a later book, I’m not sure where this series is headed. The second book added in a fighting tournament, and the third book took us on the road, so clearly “life at military academy” is not the goal here. Of course, the goal is Lloyd and his unique combination of total overpoweredness and ridiculous self-deprecation. And I do appreciate that the other characters are allowed to do their own thing and are not just a harem (though there’s aspects of that as well). It just sometimes feels like the fastest paced “slow life” series around. I wish it had more at its core than “be silly”.

Which is an odd thing to say about a broad comedy, and it’s possible I’m just being too grumpy. For most people, this is a fun and goofy comedy with lots of cute girls. Oh yes, and Lloyd too. Who, for this volume only, I like to imagine is voiced by Keith Moon.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

The good news is this is still a very fun series with a lot of laughs and big goofy characters doing silly things. The bad news is that it is not a series that lives and dies on its character development, so I can see myself having trouble stretching reviews out to 500+ words as we go along. Lloyd is still stupidly strong and overpowered and completely unaware of it. He gathers yet more women into his orbit in this book, without remaining remotely aware of it, of course. Marie, the other seeming “main” character from the first book, is sidelined so hard and with such humiliation here I was tempted to call her Yunyun. The closest we get to serious characterization is Riho Flavin (yes, that’s still her name, a fact I will never get over), whose past catches up with her and whose days may be numbered. That said, this is a very silly comedy. Don’t expect it to kill off major characters.

The main cast remain the same as last time. Lloyd and Marie I mentioned. Sadly, the village chief comes back as well, and she’s not any less annoying. Selen is a mind-blowing yandere, but unlike most of this type, is actually funny. The plot is that there’s a magic tournament that’s located in their hometown this year. Unfortunately, their hometown is filled with muscles, not magic. No one would even want to participate expect Riho is being blackmailed by her childhood friend-turned-archenemy Rol Calcife, who seems to have become a Bond villain, and a pair of sisters. Mena is the sort of girl you’d expect in any other series to be the reporter girl looking for scoops, and she talks a lot. Her sister Phyllo is stoic and also a martial-arts master, looking for the one enemy she isn’t able to defeat. Guess who she finds that fits that bill? So Riho. Selen and Lloyd end up in the tournament after all.

Everything is secondary to the comedy here. Including Lloyd, who after starring in the first volume plays more of a supporting role here. He’s become the big gun that’s pulled out when an instant win is needed. As for the cast additions, my guess is that Phyllo will be the major one going forward. She’s amusing, as seeing Lloyd take her kicks without even reacting (she did break his ribs, but he doesn’t give that away), she is now almost as much a yandere over him as Selen is, just in a stoic way. It gets to the point that when a serious plot point is introduced at the very end, when we see that Rol may not have been fully in control of her evilness, that it feels out of place. We don’t really want this book to get any darker. We want it to be Big Goofy.

That said, this is still predominately great fun, with an excellent translation to match, which gets the book’s ‘no one is above humiliation’ style dead on. If you’re missing KonoSuba and looking for similar zaniness but wish Subaru and Wiz switched personalities, this is right up your alley.

By Toshio Satou and Nao Watanuki. Released in Japan as “Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shonen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

First things first, this was hilarious. And, unlike some other books I’ve reviweed recently, I mean that in a good way. Last Dungeon Kid is funny in a KonoSuba/Cautious Hero sort of way, with clueless leads, over the top heroines, fourth-wall breaking narration, and “anyone can be the straight man” style humor. Well, anyone except Lloyd, our hero. As the title implies, in the village he grew up in, he’s a weak little kid everyone pities. But the village he grew up in is a legendary village where everything is a next-level monster and the townspeople are all at Level 99. So when he decides to go to the big city, everyone thinks he’s doomed, except the village chief (who has ulterior motives herself). But the city he goes to is not nearly as dangerous or terrifying as his own village… so he’s suddenly stupidly overpowered. If only he realized this.

The humor in this book strikes a nice balance, never settling on being one specific thing, except of course for the premise of “Lloyd thinks he’s a weak wussy kid but is actually stupidly strong”. Six-foot-tall locusts are just ‘pesky bugs’ to him. His strength with a sword annihilates the practice target when he applies to be a soldier. His magic uses ancient runes no one has seen in a thousand years. Major plot points in the book are resolved offscreen by Lloyd simply saying “oh, by the way…” He’s a hoot. He’s also cute, sweet, and can cook and clean just like the perfect wife. Now, this is the first of (so far) eight books, so the reader will have to be aware going into the series that Lloyd is not going to “wise up” anytime soon, as that would defeat the premise. He’s always going to misunderstand. If he keeps up like he does in Book 1, that should be fine.

The rest of the cast are mostly the girls who fall in love with him. I wasn’t impressed with the village chief, but that’s mostly as I don’t like her “type”. We meet a young witch who holes up in a small house in the poor end of town, who turns out to be far more than she seems. She functions as the straight man half the time. The other half is taken up by (I swear I’m not making this up) Riho Flavin, a mercenary who will do anything for money and has a robot arm made of mithril. Yes, despite that description, she’s the normal one of the group, mostly thanks to Selen, a girl who grew up with a cursed leather mask on her face, something almost instantly undone by Lloyd. She proceeds to fall in love with him HARD. I dislike using the term yandere, as it’s frequently applied wrong, but… yeah, that’s what we have here. (Also, the illustrations of her choose to ignore the author’s description so that she can be “really pretty and cute” instead. Shame.)

This book was fun, and looks like the sort of thing that you can easily make a series out of. If you enjoy silly light novels that mock the usual tropes, it’s an absolute winner.