Trouble on seemingly endless fronts!
Creative Staff
Story: Tappei Nagatsuki
Illustrations: Shinichirou Otsuka
Translation: ZephyrRz
What They Say
Searching for even the slightest clue on how to escape the barrier of Sanctuary, Subaru must rely on Return from Death once more! Beginning the loop again, he must find the courage to face Elza, the terrifying assassin obsessed with gouging out the innards of her targets-and the first person to kill Subaru! The greatest challenge he’ll have to face isn’t knives or swords, but confusion when events play out completely differently from his last life!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After the events of last volume, Subaru once again finds himself having Returned from Death, left with some definite concerns about Frederica. Thanks to that, he moves this loop around to head back to the manor as soon as possible to prevent awful tragedy from occurring, taking Ram along with him. Much to Subaru’s surprise, though, when he gets back he finds that not only is everything fine, but Frederica isn’t hostile in the least. Just when things are looking up, however, they take a turn for the worse, and hard. Elsa interrupts their conversation, having kidnapped Petra, and though the combined forces of Ram and Frederica are able to rescue the young girl, it ends up to all be for naught, as they soon find the manor absolutely flooded with deadly demon beasts. And so, Subaru is forced to watch the world around him once again go to hell as his allies are viciously slaughtered, leaving only him left, battered and beaten as he tries to drag himself to Rem at the end… only to find himself in Beatrice’s room instead. And as he rages against fate, he finds out one last disturbing fact right at the end: of all things, the girl has a Gospel that she apparently has been following all this time.
Sadly for our hero, fate hasn’t stopped kicking him around just yet, however. Not long after awakening in the tomb, he finds himself confronted by Garfiel and Ryuzu. It’s then that he learns the unfortunate fact that Garfiel has been steadily growing more and more suspicious him as the stench of the Witch grew on him with each return, which results in the beast man finally deciding to hold him captive. After the now rather familiar shattering of Subaru’s mind, though, we do get my favorite scene of the book, in which our hero is rescued by Otto and realizes how true of a friend he really has in the young merchant. This in turn gives Subaru a chance to confront Roswaal once again, finally gaining some valuable information… only for him to run afoul of a raging beastly Garfiel who cruelly slaughters our hero’s allies. Once again, though, Subaru manages to somehow slip away from his foe’s grasp, this time with the help of the teleportation from the crystal that was established earlier in the arc. And it’s then that he gets the final kick from fate for the book, as it turns out on top of the mass of problems he’s already facing… Subaru also has to deal with the Great Rabbit of the three great demon beasts invading the Sanctuary.
In his despair after his ensuing Return from Death, though, Subaru is once more invited to the Witches’ Tea Party by Echidna. I do rather like the initial part of this, as in talking more with the witch Subaru realizes that he can finally reveal his power to her thanks to the circumstances, lifting a massive weight off his shoulders. Though the aftermath in which Subaru is introduced to a number of the other witches is a bit weaker, and includes by far the most awkward design in the series thus far (pretty much combining a little girl with hardcore bondage, which is really not a place things should have went).
In Summary
While last time may have set up the initial conflict for the arc, this volume goes ahead and ramps that up. And boy does it ever do that, as it’s easy to say Subaru ends up with his biggest challenge ever laid in front of him this time around. That’s all well and good, though I have to admit it does feel a bit disappointing to see the series going so hard back into mentally breaking our hero after how much of the last arc was devoted specifically to that. Like, it’s not bad, but it feels a bit like retreading old ground. Still, that said there are some great character moments contained within, and I’m definitely left curious as to how things will play out.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: N/A
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: December 3rd, 2019
MSRP: $14.00
