By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.
As we are nearing the end of the series, it’s nice to see that it has actual character development for multiple people and is not just “they got stronger, so that is their character development”. We see that Kiba is still filled with righteous fury over his past. We see that Asia still struggles with self-confidence issues, even though she’s now the president of the Occult Research Club. And then there’s the cover girl for this volume, Xenovia. When she arrived, she was the sort to just go all Leeroy Jenkins on whatever problems she had. But over the course of the last several books, we’ve seen her try to grow from that and apply actual strategy, sometimes even using different weapons or trying other ways to attack. So one of the best jokes in the entire book comes near the end, when she’s told “no, that’s not what the real Xenovia is. You need to not think more. You just charging ahead is MORE effective because it is you.” And it’s true. Xenovia is all vibe.
As Xenovia prepares for student council elections, where she’s running against Sona’s hand-picked candidate, the cast is met with a new crisis. After the events of the last book, a considerable portion of folks on the side of the angels – literally – are very unhappy with the whole “make peace with demons” thing, and believe the only good demon is dead. Which, to be fair, these are mostly the ones who had demons kill everyone they loved. They’re also led by three cardinals – a really strong one, a really strategic one, and a mascot kid. OK, he’s also really powerful, but that’s not a role he serves here. They’ve decided to attack DxD, who are basically a symbol of everyone they hate. As such, try to contain your shock, the back half of this book is one big fight.
One thing I really liked about this book, one of the better ones in the series, is that the fight is very performative. It’s a fight that has to happen to teach a lesson, rather than one that has to end with one side dead or near dead. (We get that in the cliffhanger, to be fair.) And the cardinals not only accept Irina, Xenovia and Asia working for the other side, but they’re still happy to see them. Kiba finding out he’s not the sole survivor of sword experimentation, and Asia getting all her fan mail delivered to her at long last, these are really heartwarming scenes, and they were great to see. As for Xenovia, as the author notes, she’s in “Cool” mode here rather than “Cute”. Her speech to the school, where she had something well-prepared but kinda dull and decided to ditch that and wing it, is also very her. And an “I love this school” student council election speech is, of course, very shonen, just like this series.
Unfortunately, Ravel is now dead. Right? I’m sure that must be what happened. Also, the afterword says the next book will be a new spinoff devoted to short stories, but I don’t know if Yen Press will agree. We shall see. In the meantime you do you, Xenovia.
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