A formula seems to be settling in for this series. Masato, Wise, Medhi, and Porta hear about a place where maybe they can gain some skills. They go there and fail…and Mamako wins everything. Perhaps this is the rut this series will fall into.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dachima Inaka
Art: Iida Pochi
Translation: Andrew Cunningham
What They Say:
Volume 3:
Masato hears rumors of a newly built dungeon, and anyone who manages to make it through will be granted any one wish. He and his party try to recruit more people to join their guild and help them on this quest…but all they manage to find are other moms!! To make things worse, Mamako is still dominating all the action, and this time in a maid costume!
Volume 4:
Next stop on the party’s journey is a casino town! Lured by the potential big winnings, Wise, Medhi, and Porta try their luck at a few games only to sustain devastating financial losses. Now up to their ears in debt, the three girls are stuck working long hours at the casino until Masato can somehow bail them out…and what better trump card is there than his own mother, Mamako?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There were signs of this already in the previous volume, but now a clear pattern is emerging. Though there is one minor variation, it is clear that each volume of this series follows a fairly standard setup: Masato and the other children, desperate to have some fun and an adventure, learn of a place where they can level up their skills and hopefully be able to be more useful in battle, instead of [strike]Mary Sue[strike] Mamako always just taking out her two swords and blasting every enemy to bits. It is foreordained, of course, that the children shall fail, for that is the entire premise of this series: it’s Mamako’s MMO world. The rest of us are just spectators.
In volume 3, the usual source of information…Shirase…tells the group about a mysterious tower, which if you conquer all 100 floors, will grant you a wish. And as usual, Shirase has directed Mamako’s group to this place because something has gone wrong. In this case, all of the children of the town where the tower is have disappeared into the tower. Shirase is hoping that Mamako’s group can figure out what is happening there. In the first two volumes, we had been getting some hints that there are those working against the developers of the game and the administrators. Now, we meet someone who is adamantly opposed to the entire basis of the game, a child who wants nothing to do with mothers: Amante, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Libere Rebellion. Amante herself is largely a joke character, as she cannot help but constantly blab about her plans to do in Mamako and remove mothers from her life.
While Amante’s personality is a joke, her abilities and skills are not. Needless to say, eventually Mamako and Masato manage to solve the mystery of the missing kids, conquer the tower, and gain the wish. And, also completely unnecessary to say, Masato, who was able to make the wish, does not actually get anything he wanted. For about the third time in a row (as in previous volumes, Masato was thwarted from gaining anything useful from previous promises of improved skills or items). This is very, very, very old comedy. Charles Schultz was doing this with Lucy and a football before the author of this novel series was probably even born. It’s not getting any funnier with age.
The fourth volume sees the children get a hold of a mysterious flyer, calling upon Masato’s group by name to visit the casino in the town of Yomamaburg, where they are being offered a large cash reward for defeating Amante. Thinking it’s another ploy by Shirase, the children convince Mamako to go to Yomamaburg, but without mentioning the casino part. Once there, the children hatch a clever scheme to divert Mamako and allow them to go to the casino unchaperoned. Sadly for Masato, Wise, Medhi, and Porta decide to use him as a sacrifice, sending Masato on a “date” with his mother. Of course, the girls’ plan to get the reward money and then play the casino in hopes of doubling or more their great fortune turn out to be a disaster instead, as the casino management accuse them of cheating and force a ridiculous debt upon them, leaving it up to Masato and Mamako to rescue the girls.
If it wasn’t obvious already, this entire “event” was actually a trap set by Sorella, another of the Four Heavenly Kings. And if it wasn’t obvious already, Mamako eventually foils it with yet more [strike]cheat codes[strike] suddenly developed skills.
At least these two volumes have begun the process of fleshing out the “enemy” against which Masato…ahem…Mamako will have to battle in order to “clear” the game. It’s not exactly the obstacle that the game’s designers had in mind (they pretty obviously want the kids to come out of this game brainwashed into being perfect little Stepford Children, eagerly hanging on their mothers’ every word…what a nightmarish thought).
On to the next location where again, Masato and friends will be overshadowed by Mamako.
In Summary:
First, Masato and his party are sent to conquer a mysterious tower which will grant a wish if all 100 floors are beaten. While there, they learn of the Libere Rebellion, a group that wants to “liberate” the world from mothers. Then in the fourth volume of the series, Mamako and her group (to state things more realistically—it’s Mamako’s world) go to the town of Yomamaburg, where a casino beckons with the promise of easy cash. Things are not what they seem once they get there. In the end, of course, you know who will solve every problem and win every battle.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: A
Package Rating: A-
Text/Translation: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: July 23rd, 2019; November 26th, 2019
MSRP: $14.00
