By Umikaze Minamino and Katana Canata. Released in Japan as “Kyōran Reijō Nia Liston: Byōjaku Reijō ni Tenseishita Kami-goroshi no Bujin no Kareinaru Musō Roku” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by okaykei.
I do appreciate Nia Liston really committing to its best running gag, which is that every time Nia watches a fight and is vaguely impressed by its fighters, she has to come in with a variation on the old phrase “I could beat them with one hand tied behind my back”. She’s simply so far over everyone else in this series that even now, as she watches people battle to see who is the strongest among 10,000 different fighters, she’s still not able to find anyone who could truly present a challenge to her. And indeed we see she’s not merely full of it, as at the end of this volume we see her facing off against two “heroes” whose job it is to be the best, and she has to hold back in case she breaks their legendary weapons. She is, frankly, terrifying. Which is why she spends most of this volume doing color commentary for the actual fighters.
The preliminaries are done, and so it’s time for the tournament itself. Well, after the “loser’s round”, which sees those who were knocked out get another change to win their way back into the fight. Nia and her friends spend the time covering the fight itself, and she also gets to see her brother Neal start his own Junior Wingroad team as an added attraction. That said, most of what we get here are some really good fights… as well as some instant wins, because there’s a new clause: no one is allowed to be magically healed if they win, only bandages. This results in a lot of folks being too injured to go on. And of course some of our main characters are in the underworld, and are suddenly finding themselves on live TV. Some respond by making a deal to cut and run, and others respond by getting TOO famous to quietly murder.
The drawback to this volume is that there’s no suspense whatsoever. I kept wondering if one of Nia’s students would get a surprise loss, but no, she’s simply trained them so well that it doesn’t happen. The toughest fight is between Lynokis, in her Leeno disguise, and Gandolph, and they’re basically exactly who we expected to see there. (Well done to Gandolph for not dying, though he needed Nia’s help to avoid that.) Likewise in the weaponed fights category, it was pretty much going to have to be Anzel, both because the mob was betting on him and made it clear he had to win, and also because if he wants to avoid getting immediately arrested or killed, winning a tournament and making himself famous is a good solution. And a good time was had by all, the tournament is a success. Back to everyday life.
Or not, as we get a surprise cliffhanger ending as Nia is in a pinch! My guess is this is just “I want a change of setting for the new arc”, but I do wonder if any of the other regular cast will appear. In any case, girl punch good.
0 Comments