The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya - Novel 12

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Set in late November.

So for some reason all 5 members of the SOS Brigade are located in a medieval castles' throne room, with 'Haruhi the Hero' being asked by the king to 'vanquish the demon lord who has kidnapped the prince and princess'.

Is this a stage play, or an isekai? We the readers are not given an answer. However, Asahina is a mage, Kyon is a warrior (complete with armour and longsword), Koizumi a bard and Nagato a thief.

We readers are left to believe that everyone comes from their normal world. "My expertise with a sword was limited to some time with a wooden kendo sword in junior high gym class". So this is an isekai then?

Regardless, after negotiations with the king about a reward, it is decided that the boys and Nagato would carry chests full of gold coins.

They find the nearest pub to which Haruhi promptly orders 5 of everything 'on her', and pays for everyone's meals and drinks, starting a true party with the locals.

Kyon and Koizumi have a discussion in this pub. Neither can remember exactly what they are doing or how it came to be. It's like they are playing a game of some sort, and were simply sucked into it. Asahina suggests they were at an amusement park and went to a place where you pretend to role play. The boys call Yuki over and ask her. They didn't need to ask however, she simply states "simulation" but even she can't pinpoint how. It's like simulated space somehow.

Apparently there are end conditions to restore themselves to the real world, much like a game then; defeat the demon lord.

An old wise man comes into the pub and calls Haruhi the Hero as being a fool. He calls himself the 'Sage of the Forest', and will make sure the party will keep on track to defeat the demon lord, however he is shocked to find them still in town, and not halfway there already. Haruhi gives in, saying something like 'this was bound to happen anyway'.

This 'sage' takes them to their first trial. He leads them to the edge of a forest. They have to follow a footpath to a cave to reach a single treasure chest inside, of which contains a key to the demon lords castle. The sage tries to hold Haruhi back to explain something, but she just barges straight ahead, with the SOS Brigade following. They enter the cave and come across a huge dragon, and are instantly killed by its fire breath.

They then find themselves back with the sage at the edge of the forest, who explains that they have to carefully manoeuvre around the dragon without it noticing. Again, Haruhi doesn't listen and barges in again to everyone's death once more.

5 deaths later and Haruhi finally admits they need a plan.

The sage says he has an orb on his person which can help the dragon not to attack, but in order for him to give it to the brigade members, they first must go to another location to collect a herb to help with his ailing body. Haruhi promptly dismisses this idea and points a sword to his throat. Nagato takes the orb. In fact, the team then proceeds to take more of his possessions to help bypass other fetch quests.

Not too long later they are at the demon lords castle. Without a plan, both Kyon and Koizumi are worried, however Haruhi reveals her secret plan is to help Mikuru tap into her dormant mage powers. Mikuru herself is kinda reluctant, saying she doesn't wield powerful magic, however after some persuasion from Haruhi, she unleashes 2x of the most unbelievable spells ever known.

The Demon lords castle is obliterated. So is everything within a 20 mile radius. Nagato had to send everyone to a hill on the outskirts of the blast, in a fraction of a second.

The game world quickly changes and they all find themselves in space. Their objective to win the previous game is proven "incomplete".

They are on a space ship. A guy appearing at the console looks extremely like the king from the previous game world, and is saying to the brigade that they must 'save the universe and the Prince and Princess from space pirates'.

Haruhi agrees to save them "this time", meaning that was what they were supposed to have achieved last time, and simply forgot.

Kyon is the pilot, Haruhi is the captain (I mean, of course she is lol), Nagato is the navigator, Asahina is supposed to be Comms officer but is currently acting like a waitress, and Koizumi is copilot. They are all in uniform, and the girls are showing a lot of skin.

After following Haruhi's hunch, they travel to a part of space that probably has space pirates. After only an hour, they are caught in a tractor beam. They are surrounded by hundreds of ships.

They are hailed by a man that looks like the forest sage from the previous game. It becomes clear they turned up at the head of a fleet preparing for a sneak attack on another faction.

Haruhi works out that this enemy fleet has most probably kidnapped the royal children. The main ship uses a tractor beam to bring our heroes inside. Nagato hacks their computer to work out that they are indeed on the same ship as the missing royals.

Koizumi suggests Nagato should hack in to make the fleet obvious to other vessels, as they are due for a sneak attack, so by doing nothing other than turning off their jammers, other factions would be aware of the pending assault. He says that 'stealth units that have been revealed tend to be rather flimsy'.

Panic and chaos ensures. The guards that previously guarded their ship at the dock have run off. The SOS brigade go in search of the missing children, blasting their ray guns at any opposition along the way. They find the children and scramble back to the ship. They blast their way out the flagship doors and find a safe place in space to communicate to the emperor. The emperor is glad, but asks them to stay back in hiding whilst they obliterate the opposing side. Nagato reveals they actually rescued decoys; robots, so therefore they lost the game.

The scenery changes to the American Wild West. Haruhi blurts out their new mission; to rescue the rancher’s son and his bride from outlaws. She is facing a quick-draw duel in a rather typical Western fashion. We do a quick time skip to just before this happens where the Sage is now the mayor, talking to our heroes. Kyon and Koizumi are deputies, and the girls are a well known bounty hunter trio called the 'SOS Brigade', a natural fitting name for it for once. lol. The Sage/mayor requests Haruhi go stand in for him in a duel with the local opposition, over land ownership arguments where tempers have risen to the point of gun fights.

The time skip catches up to the present, however Nagato swaps out realistic western buildings for an indoor soundstage, where everything is a prop for a film, and makes the ceiling lights fall down.

From here on out things start being noticeable to be less about video games and more about movies / TV shows. A car smashes its way into the indoor western themed soundstage to kidnap the actors that were the rancher’s son and his bride, and another car comes along just behind (with no driver). They take this cue that they are supposed to give chase, so the mayor takes the wheel and Haruhi sits up front, with the others squished in the back seats.

Everything now plays out like a black and white gangster movie, set in the prohibition times. They have to go to a speakeasy and play poker to gain access to the kidnapped duo. Naturally the gangsters want to cheat, but Nagato changes into her witches costume and uses her wand to swap the cards around. The gangsters call foul play, but then the cops arrive. The SOS Brigade flee from a back exit whilst the gangsters and coppers have a gun fight. They jump in the getaway car and speed off, again with the sage or whatever, doing the driving.

The setting changes again, and now they are in a 17th century English setting, and the car replaced by horse drawn carriage. The girls are all dressed very fine and dainty, and the boys dressed in something you would wear to a wedding. The sage is driving up front.

Turns out they are tasked with preventing the assassination of a young king and queen. They stop the attack but get caught up in the explosion, only to find themselves in Europe during the Second World War. The new task is like Mission Impossible to capture an Enigma machine, so they go from Dover through occupied France, to Berlin. They manage to steal the code machine and sneak onto an American submarine under cover of night in Calais, but a German destroyer sinks it but they get away by rowing in a rubber dinghy with the destroyer up in flames.

They pass out to arrive in a police drama setting, where a serial bomber leaves them with riddles to solve, and they have to disarm ticking bombs. Next is an Heian-era setting with nobles locked in a nasty courtroom power struggle, to which Kyon mentions its worthwhile to see the girls in their twelve-layer kimonos. After this they are vampire hunters, invading a vampire’s lair. Then after this cleaning berserk robots out of a post-apocalyptic ruin, then after this an Arabian Nights setting, stealing a lamp, then an Edo-era zombie story, then another submarine for a "nerve-racking deal involving nuclear missiles", then on a failed mission to turn Jupiter into a sun, then escape from a labyrinthine death game, then time travelling back to fight dinosaurs, and on and on and Ariston.

After another bad ending, they are now the Pirates of the Caribbean, looting ships for treasure with a packed crew of NPCs as well as the SOS Brigade. Eventually on a quiet but sweltering day out in the calm ocean, Kyon, Koizumi and Nagato are trying to work out what on earth is going on with their lives, whilst fishing. Why is it every time they remember they are not of this world, their memories become hazy?

They try and work out if they are the real versions of themselves, or more simply digital copies somehow placed into an ever changing computer programme of some sort. Logic would dictate that the only real people in any of these worlds are the members of the SOS Brigade, whilst everyone else are NPCs.

Maybe their real world bodies are lying in beds, all connecting their brains up to a machine? But why?

Nagato says it's not the Data Overmind doing this, as it doesn't seem likely. Regardless, her link is severed. Kyon notices its the first time in a long time that Nagato uses body language to convey her thoughts and feelings whilst being questioned. Her answer is this: "We are not on a computer server. We are not data in any sort of mechanical memory conduit. We are quantum information in a data space".

Explanation becomes too complex, but essentially they are the real versions of themselves, whilst the real, real world versions of themselves are living their normal lives simultaneously. They are stuck on a different plane of existence, against their will, and are being observed when put under different tasks to achieve. The user only has a short grasp of life on earth, mostly data collected from Movies, TV shows and video games it seems. Nagato is playing along trying to figure out how to escape.

Nagato explains her cognitive functions are being restricted with something occupying her processing powers. Every time she tries to overclock herself to work things out, she breaks down. Kyon prods her further and she says she wore a witches outfit in the prohibition world because she felt they had made a movie in the real world. This causes her to crash like a blue screen of death. Kyon instantly regrets probing her and vows not to do so again.

The Spanish Armada arrives to blow them out the water so they forget about their little chat. Nagato comes back to her senses and they naturally forget everything they just talked about.

After the battle, Kyon notices a piece of paper in his pocket, with Nagato's straight handwriting which reads "Remember me".

Fog covers everything and they find themselves in a new world, one of which based on both Roman and Greek mythology simultaneously.

The 3 girls of the SOS Brigade are now goddesses. The boat has now changed to an ancient trireme which has loads of oars to help steer the ship.

Haruhi is Goddess Hera (wife of Zeus), Asahina is Goddess Aphrodite (goddess of beauty) and Nagato is Goddess Athena (goddess of wisdom).

They land ashore of Troy, and are escorted to an amphitheatre. The three goddesses are escorted to their own seats, with Haruhi's throne being centred and laden in gold and lilies. Kyon and Koizumi are just men so they don't count. But they are seated at a table nearby.

A play goes ahead on stage. “Witnessing a play about the Trojan War in Troy during said war…,” Koizumi murmurs “What a layered construct. Two—no, three layers deep”.

During a moment everyone is eating, Kyon calls Nagato over via hand signal and she comes over to sit with them. They discuss their adventures and how to escape.

The Sage turns up out the blue and joins the boys and Nagato at their table. He is now Zeus in this world.

In turn they discuss their predicament and the Sage explains things from his NPC-main-guy sort of way.

He senses the being that has trapped them there to be not of evil and very protective. He continues to say he has more power in this world purely because he is playing the part of Zeus. He mentions it feels like everyone is in a 'canopy' of some sort.

He requests to be taken to the real world if possible, to join them in their escape. He is curious about a world written with law and order. He gives Nagato the power of Goddess Artemis (daughter of Zeus).

Nagato allows the boys to see Haruhi through the eyes she has, therefore they can see her true radiance.

Kyon goes up to Haruhi. She questions “Done with your nefarious scheming?” lol she knows a lot but we readers only see hints like this from time to time.

Kyon only has one thing to really say to her; "I want to go home".

Haruhi and Asahina join the rest and they all hold hands. Haruhi 'feels like she could do anything', and jokes about if they are calling up a UFO. Nagato harnesses the other two girls goddess powers to her own as well as Zeus's. She turns the sage into an owl, and they all escape the weird quantum plane of existence in a mix of goddess wings and halos.

Things black out and the words "Mission complete" can be heard.

The fall breeze hits Kyon as he is now tied into his real world self. He has a vague feeling of spending a decade in the local amusement park they are walking away from, having come here to celebrate the success of their home movie.

The sage and the two young victims are able to escape into the real world disguised as a balloon which drifts off into the sky, from the hands of Kyons tired sister, now sleeping on her brothers' shoulder from a long day out with his friends. Kyon reaches into his pocket to find a note that simply says "Remember me".

---

7-10. This story marks the official introduction of the antics caused by what would later be known as "The Heavenly Canopy Domain". Spoilers if you are reading this in context with the timeline. Sorry not sorry lol.

This novel, in my opinion, is the long-awaited sliders storyline. It’s not exactly how I imagined it would go, yet it has to be it, right? I imagined the SOS Brigade travelling from universe to universe, trying to return to their original world. Basically, exactly the same premise as the 90s show of the same name. This was a bit different however, yet essentially the same. I guess the author Tanigawa had to think of a way of supressing Haruhi’s memories somewhat so she considers everything happening to be normal.

Talking of which, those new readers following the timeline order will now read Kyon bang on about wanting to see the Sliders show up, and think "Yeah, we already had that Kyon". However, us readers up till this point, in 2025, had been waiting for the sliders storyline what felt like forever.

Nagato wasn’t quite herself in this novel. As she was cut off from the Data Overmind, she started acting a little more human, showing a little bit more emotion and overall being less restrictive in her own demeanour. It was nice to see. I hope to see her a lot more like this if the series progresses past the middle of 2004.

Haruhi’s personality shined through in this one. As always. She didn’t give a fuck and was always up for whatever they faced, loving to dive into whatever was up next. To me, it was obvious she knew what was going on really, but as per usual keeps it to herself.
Throughout the series released so far (as of when I’m writing this), She’s given hints before that she sort of knows more than she lets on. But in this story with EVERYTHING being really obvious, her blind eye to it all comes across as really funny.

Interestingly, we finally learn more about Asahina’s time travel device, the ‘TPDD’. Apparently it is embedded into her DNA, and only surfaces when needed. It may explain the star-shaped mole on her breast, as some sort of visual representation of its installation.

I'm pleased the book itself is canon. Going into it, I assumed it was more like alternative versions of themselves (as sliders), but I had also a vague thought it could be like a silly non-canon story thing made up for fun. I say this as the original release dates for parts 1 and 2 were released in 2004 and 2006 respectively, in The Sneaker. So yeah, the characters go back into their real world selves at the end of the day.

It’s possible the publishers pitched the initial idea to Tanigawa with the suggestion of building upon what was already written, with him only having to write half a books worth of story in order to reap the rewards of a completed novel, and all the crazy money and prestige he would get from that.
He had to have read the first two shorts before starting work on the Wild West story, as his continued writing seems to be on par with the early work, like the way the first two short stories are written is in line with his heyday at the hight of his creative freedom, so he must have re-read them before starting to write. Somehow the buzz of the early day writing style rubbed off on him for the rest of the novel.

Apart from in a few places.

The only issue I have with this book, is that once again, Tanigawa decided to teach us readers a lot of rubbish that is inconsequential to the Haruhi storyline. He REALLY went off on one with his research in order to fill pages, probably to justify the necessary word count. In this novel in particular, it was about quantum mechanics- or something. My god he really waffled on and on about it, pages and pages and pages of it. True filler content, especially in the last third of the book. Just rubbish. I ended up listening to this kindle book via the Alexa app.

It’s taken me a while to get this review out. Half a month in fact! I don’t have the time these days and I was waiting for Yen Press to release a limited-edition paperback version set to the original release cover art style, to satisfy their oldest fans of the novel series. Alas, they didn’t release anything. So I got the cheapest option which is the kindle edition. I guess Yen press did throw a bone to us though, as page 2 or whatever has the artwork on a simple white page in what was designed to be it, had they gone ahead. The art this time being two swords over what looks like a swirling vortex. I do feel extremely miffed about this though.

I wanted to cheat for my synopsis above, by copy and pasting and reworking something found elsewhere on the internet, but there isn’t one.

This is it folks!

The only synopsis for the Theater of Haruhi in English, on the internet, so far at least! So I had to go back and write it properly.

The Kindle version has a way of copy and pasting, so I was able to grab some sentences here and there, and get the pictures. I have included most of these as they are glorious.

The picture of Kyon and Koizumi fishing, looks to be from a rowing boat. However in the story they were fishing directly from the pirate ship. I’m pretty sure. Oh well.

I didn’t understand quite what The Sage wanted at the end. As a last-minute thing he took the kidnappees with him into the real world. And they were transformed into a balloon which flies off into the sky. What happens when the balloon pops? Maybe that’s the point, flying away is a metaphor of the data life forms being set free to exist somehow without any physical body? Oh, here’s a thought!; What if they somehow turn up at a later date when our heroes are all indisposed from an enemy attack, and they can’t get out of the situation they’re in, and just when you think it’s all over, the Sage turns up completely out the blue to save everyone! Well, you’ve heard it here first folks! XD

Oh and to all those fans that claim we ‘already got the ending to the series’, and ‘anything else we get is just filler epilogue stuff’- how completely wrong you are. We have not had the ending! The author has been in a slump. Even said he is getting over his sleep deprecation in the Afterword to this book. The final ending storyline will be something to do with the metal rod found from Tsuruya’s estate, probably.

If this novel was a TV anime, they could make it 26 episodes Very Easily. Like Tsubasa Reservoir Chronical. It would be a very interesting take on a Haruhi TV series too, with 2 or 3 episodes set in each world. Hollywood loves a good multiverse story (for some reason), so why not adapt this then, Japan? Hu? Hu??

The stuff written in the synopsis about the 17th century England, moving forward to WW2 and the submarine, then moving on again etc, all of that was just one or two paragraphs in the actual book. What I wrote could be longer than what was in the book itself!

Asahina fans would be crying after reading this novel, as she was here, present in this book, but hardly talked or mentioned at all. The least focused character in this for sure.

I’m happy the book told us when it was actually set in the timeline- despite only saying it once or twice. It was enough.

The Sage only mentioned the word ‘Canopy’ once. That was enough to let us readers know what the hell is actually going on. Oh, sorry to readers that are reading this in timeline order for the first time, you guys will have to stay as clueless as the characters for a little bit longer.

I would have preferred this novel to be set a lot longer down the timeline, however the author probably felt he had to cram it into the end of November due to what was already said and published from the first two chapters, released way back when. Oh well.

Overall, really happy with this novel. A solid 7-10 from me. I hope he has gotten out of his slump to write more content, and hopefully it will be set after everything written so far, AKA the middle of 2004 onwards, as a proper sequel storyline. Well, see you in the next one, whenever that may be!

Up next: The Day Of Sagittarius.

Click here for easy navigation around my Haruhi articles

Review: Tenchi Muyo OVA 5 episode 3 (episode 27)

After nearly 30 years, this anime series has finally surpassed the number of episodes of an average TV series *slow clap*.
The animation looks sloppy. I know its better than OVA 4 at least, but after rewatching Code Geass this week, which aired in what, 2006?, this series looks marginally worse.
The plot is really unthought of. Its a no brainer to have had an episode show Sasami's transition into Tsunami, but we got none of it.
In fact the whole episode, and series thus far, seems to be an animatic or radio drama with light animation.
This episode didn't tell any storyline that wasn't covered in its 2 minute trailer. The household visit the spaceship island. Oh and Kajishima inserts a bunch of new characters. The end.

REVIEW: Tenchi Muyo Ryo Ohki OVA 5 episode 1 (episode 25)

Episode 1 (episode 25):

This was an okay episode. I get that the most immediate story to tell in this franchise is that of Kenshin and Reia, so they are finally starting to deal with the story of Reia's origins, how she met Kiyone, and what Kiyone did to figure out how to send Reia's son or daughter back to her world (Geminar).

Chibi-Tokimi was in this episode too, which was great. Its nice to have it established that she knows of Geminar, as that dimension is under her jurisdiction. Whats most intriguing though is a new character called Jovia, who is associated with Seinas gang. At some point Seina and his wives were 'playing' an RPG type fantasy game turned real in another dimension, also under Tokimi's jurisdiction. Jovia is from this world, and has actual magic, which somehow is compatible with the laws of physics in the Tenchi dimension, cause she was able to summon a sea dragon.

Tennyo is in this episode too, finally shown with her real hair colour, and not in disguise to look like her mother, as she was portrayed in OVA3. Its about time! Tennyo is in the Tenchi household to sort through her mothers notes on how to deal with sending Kenshin to Geminar. So far its taking her 5 years!

Also another nice touch was that now, officially, Seina's home on earth has been transferred to the Tenchi Household. Probably cause its tucked out the way from view from the rest of the village. Talking of which we get an excellent overview of the Tenchi house and surrounding mountains, and its location away from the village. Nice touch AIC. Much appreciated.

As much as everyone wants to see the original girls banter over Tenchi, we have these plot holes left to fill, and I would rather see them sorted out before moving on.

The Publication Mess of Haruhi Suzumiya: Seven Wonders Overtime

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Seven Wonders Overtime- the second short story of "The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 11)

Set at the end of May.

Kyon and Koizumi are trying their best to play a classical Japanese poetry game in the literary club room, with Asahina trying to help the boys, and Nagato instantly coming up with the answers.

After giving up that game, they just start getting into a new card game, when bam! The club room door is hit hard from the other side. Everyone looks at the door and then a tap tap could be heard from the bottom of it.

Asahina opens the door to be greeted by a blonde girl holding a mountain of books and notes. That explains the door kicking, thinks Kyon. The student asks to be let in. She is apparently helping 'Haru' by delivering these books to the SOS club room. Standing there, she asks Kyon for help with the books, saying his name wrong. She catches him off guard by calling him 'Kyam', saying its hard to pronounce his 'Kyon' nickname (Later on, Koizumi thinks this could pose troublesome if Haruhi finds out that a girl has a new nickname/pet name for Kyon).

Kyon helps the girl, recognising her as a fellow classmate from 2-5. The books are all supernatural based. The girl explains that Haruhi ran into her during lunchtime that day, asking her if she knew anything of the schools '7 wonders'.
The girl explains that she is a member of the Mystery Research Society. She goes on to say that after Haruhi asked the question, she went to the chairman of her society and asked if there was anything regarding a possible 7 wonders that could have been passed down from previous generations of pupils. The answer was no, so the girl reported this back to Haruhi.

Kyon asks the girl how she ended up having to carry such a large amount of books to the SOS club room. She replies that even she doesn't know. He asks her to take them back, but she refuses, implying he is being rude. She then asks him why he doesn't call her by her name, in which he replies that he cant remember everyone's names from the new class after only 2 months of school term. Besides, she is a transfer student for this new school year.

The girl turns her attention to Nagato, requesting politely of her to compile a club journal for the mystery society. She pleads for it to be ready for the cultural festival in the autumn, saying that Nagato is a great writer. Nagato looks up to Kyon, questioningly. The girl takes this as a form of a positive response. She quickly shakes Nagato's hand, then eyes up a book she likes from the bookshelf, almost in disbelief of the fact its a first edition. She again pleads with Nagato to borrow the book, once more asking Kyon to translate Yuki's answer of 'Yes'. The girl once more shakes Nagato's hand excitedly and takes her leave.

Koizumi and Kyon discuss these 7 wonders, hopeful they dont turn into a reality of Suzumiya's making. Koizumi picks out a book left by the girl from the mystery society. He tells two stories in Japanese folklore about instances of demons being recorded, but also explains logically how it was humans who were involved after all.

The group are trying to come up with a plan to dispel any weird consequences of Haruhis current interest. They conclude that whats needed to be done is to create North High’s seven wonders themselves, under a safe environment and not just magically created by Suzumiya. Kyon says it would be a bad idea to plan such a scheme in the club room, in case she bursts in with their notes and plans scattered on the long table, but Koizumi rests assured that his people know where she is, and is keeping him up to date on her location via his phone. They share their thoughts and wonder if Haruhi could jump ship from school wonders into full blown looking for world wonders instead. Kyon says that she would make a great archeologist, but Koizumi retracts that by asking about the repercussions of finding something that could change humanities known past (This reminds me of the metallic object they found on Tsuruyas estate).

One idea they come up with is to change the alloy composition of a possible Ninomiya Kinjirō statue, that could magically reveal itself in the school grounds, so that it could potentially change its look slightly at night, returning to its original composition when the sun rises.

Another idea is to have some sort of music playing in an empty music room, playing it off as being an alarm once Haruhi catches wind of it.

Another idea is to create a mystery around a school passageway mirror, so that in the dead of a night with a first quarter moon, if a person’s whole body is reflected in it, the molecule structures of their body’s amino acids are then reflected. Also, if they execute the second round of radio exercises, their reflection in the mirror will have a slight discrepancy in the stopping action at the final moment. Occasionally, a doppelganger might come out of the mirror, but chance of that happening is very low. It is rumored that even if the doppelganger does show up, it immediately disappears.

Their next idea is a door which seldom opens. They say the mystery could be a toilet cubicle that upon exit, takes you out of the cubicle door next to it. But if this is too boring, it could be a door where a person could be transported to a different world, in which they live in for two months. However, on their return, they find that only one hour has passed in the real world, and they also lose all their memories of the other world. Without ironing out the finer details, they move on to the next mystery.

The next story is one that was actually reported from the mystery society, about a biology dummy that freaks people out by being in different places. But the more they research the incidents, the more they conclude that the mystery society probably fabricated the story just to please Haruhi.

The Seventh Wonder of the Seven Wonders is unknown, and cannot be known. That is the mystery of the Seventh Wonder.

Nagato types the rough notes into a polished copy within seconds, and prints it out. Haruhi then barges into the club room not long after, to announce that they should create some mysterious wonders of school. She says the school hasn't been around for such a long time, so naturally there wouldn't be so many stories, but that shouldn't stop them from creating such strange stories about the school, to pass down to future generations of pupils.

Kyon takes control of the situation and passes the printout to her. Reading it, Haruhi seems dejected at first but claims she is proud of her brigade members. All this time she was forced to play Shogi by the school principle whilst she was questioning him for school wonders (meaning he is on Koizumi's team). She gets upset that she couldn't help them coming up with ideas for the wonders, so she says she will think up an eight wonder.

---

6-10. This wasn't the greatest of continuations that I've ever read, but none the less at least it actually IS a continuation. So far this is the most recent we have seen the story go to, end of May 2004, other than the moment Kyon was taken to the future with an older Haruhi in college. The new girl could be very interesting indeed, but who knows! I look forward to a possible continuation with this nameless character.

You know I cant help but think if they didn't want Haruhi to create any 'seven wonders', they could have simply consulted in Yasumi and ask her not to do so? They should always have asked Yuki of Yasumi's whereabouts and simply requested for Haruhi not to do anything dumb. But I guess we wouldn't get any more stories if this happened? I dunno. This to me is still a major plot hole from here on out.

Up next: Tsuruya's Challenge

Click here for easy navigation around my Haruhi articles

"I'm Back everyone!"

REVIEW: FLCL 3 - 'Alternative'

I'm not exactly happy. Its just a generic 'flat' anime. Nothing seems epic or over produced. Every frame in the original was designed and animated with care and attention. Here, its just flat and boring like a lot of other anime out there. Tis a shame.

In episode 1, Why the pillows featured in mid episode whilst a montage of future episodes happen is beyond me. I just checked and this wasn't included in the Japanese version. Its in the advert break. Why did the American version have this?

Episode 2 is showing itself to be equally as good. Its on par with how good the first series was during its normal scenes. Though to be honest this has more in-tune hi junks than Progressive. It just shows that its creators have genuinely studied the first series for ideas and to retain as much of the original tone as possible.

The rest of the episodes are okay. Still fan fiction but trying too hard to be the same as series 1 but in disguise. Reminds me of how The Force Awakens was too similar to the first Star Wars trilogy. At least this is set in an alternative universe. its no sequel. But its still pointless. 5-10

REVIEW: FLCL 2 - 'Progressive'

This isn't even a shadow of its former self. A shadow is still part of a person. This is more like having someone else's body parts, an arm or a leg, attached to what was already a perfect human being.

For starters, this isn't made from the original creators. At best this is made from fans. No scratch that, FLCL was never popular in Japan. This is made from individuals that may or may not have worked at Gainax during the animator manufacturer years. You know, the more recent years where they churn out animators all the friggin time then bring in fresh blood. Rinse and repeat.

To say the show is now 'flat' compared to the original is an understatement. There are almost NO high-jinks. There is now flat animation scenes with no zanyness pushed to 11.

Whats really terrible is that they missed a trick. During the promotional campaign I would have thought that the character Julia Jinyu was actually Haruko's boss. You know, the one that she was talking too via Naota's cat.

If they wanted to do a sequel right, why not have its climax being Haruko actually finding and capturing Atomsk's power. Maybe she needed Naota after many years of attempting solo, or behind the scenes trying (and failing) with humans, like Amarao was? Why not have it that the kids from the original show are now in those terrible in-between months / years of adjusting from a school/uni life to having real world jobs. That would be cool, right?
Instead we have this amazing opportunity ruined in the ending credits of the first episode, which wraps up Haruko defeating Atomsk who doesn't even look to be captured by Medical Mechanica. Sigh...

The Pillows being back is cool and all, however its off. This is because most of the time in the original, the voice track would be removed. Especially during moments when the characters are talking. Here, the songs are played with the voice track in tact, clashing with what the characters are saying, and for me, ruining the mood.

The kids in this series are lame and uninteresting.

Why were some punks in episode 2 talking Japanese? Did Cartoon Network have no budget for hiring a few voice actors?
WFT so the main characters can fly now? Yuh hu..

In episode 3 Haruko tries to fly but falls. Yuh Hu..

In episode 4, Haurko says she doesn't take orders. Yuh Hu.. series 1 she was getting orders from whoever she was talking to from the cat.

In my opinion they cant fly unless they have their colour powers. If that's what you call it.

Episode 6 was the only genuinely interesting episode, though the animation is sloppy as hell.

REVIEW: Pogo- Ascend

For starters, I try before I buy. I'm no collector, So I dont think Star Charts nor any album before this is worth a purchase (not talking about EP's or singles). I consider Kindred Shadow the first REAL album from Nick. That was flawless. I'm no fan of artists like Pogo/Nick re-using samples in later songs. Its like they arnt happy with the original. There are 3 songs which I deleted off of Weightless because I felt they just didn't belong. These were Trumpular (god- no, not Trump), Hoo ba ba Kanda (its just more annoying Americans), and Dream Reaper (sounded evil- and it uses samples from the previous album). I'm pleased with this new album. In actual fact I think its solid. Its dreamy, the flow of the songs fit nicely, and nothing sounds off, apart from Take Those Pills, which doesn't have a place on the album but feels like the eccentric kid in the middle.

The mess that is Clamp, and why i'm now avoiding them

UPDATE:

I wont delete what I wrote originally. I am still pissed off, but at TsubaHolic rather than CCS. I just WISH the clear card prologue never existed. Its not canon. So let me be clear, The Clear Card anime series is 100% canon. I've watched it in full.




 -------

 OLD:


I got into the anime of Cardcaptor Sakura when it was still known as Cardcaptors. I really loved it. After I learnt of the hack job that dub was, I got into the uncut version, Cardcaptor Sakura, which was absolutely amazing.

After its second movie I craved for more, though the ending was brilliant and didn't need any more.

Then Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE the manga came out. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to read up on events of what happened afterwards for the protagonists of Cardcaptor Sakura. Only, it wasn't them. Oh well, I continued reading in the hopes that the original characters would turn up one day. Sakura did, but only for a short time to hand over her magical staff and say her infamous line in chapter 224.

I also started getting into xxxHolic which tied into Tsubasa. It was a better story, and the likelihood of Clow Reed appearing was high, who was another character from Cardcapor Sakura.

Many years later these two stories have been ended with cliffhangers multiple times now. Meaning they occasionally come back to continue their stories. However I am seriously thinking now that they wont end. Ever.

Many fans may think that Tsubasa is over but the characters never found a place they can call home. That was the point of its story. Likewise in xxxHolic the story stopped dead and isn't going anywhere, even though it keeps repeatably teasing fans about a mysterious egg that could change the fate of things and bring a close to the manga. Well its not. Its just a fucking Pokemon GS Ball: a plot device to attract its audience but doesn't ultimately do anything.

As for the anime version of xxxHolic and Tsubasa? Forget about them. They never even tried to catch up with the true manga storyline.

With the return of Cardcaptor Sakura, the Clear Card arc, I'm now questioning why I ever commited myself to both xxxHolic and Tsubasa in the first place. You see, I've never read the Cardcaptor Sakura manga. Even if the characters turn up in xxxHolic and Tsubasa, they would never be the same true anime characters, they would be the manga characters that I never read.

And there is NO WAY the Cardcaptor Sakura manga could EVER top the anime version. The anime version is in colour, its in moving pictures, it has more stories than its manga, its in more depth, and its characters speak and the music is great. It has soul. Usually there is just NO WAY a manga can outshine its anime adaptation if its done right. If the anime cant keep up to its manga or has a whole bunch of filler episodes, only then do we have a problem. But the Cardcaptor Sakura manga is only something like 12 volumes long. Its too friggin short to outshine its anime.

So now we have a problem. Why did i comit to the very long Tsubasa and xxxHolic mangas?

Bring in the new Cardcaptor Sakura Clear card arc anime. We defiantly have a problem. Its episode 'prologue' adapts the last few chapters of the original manga. Its a different universe from the original anime. The events from the original anime are mostly the same but it diverts at exactly 22:36 seconds into episode 69. After this moment, time passes between the events of the showdown with Eriol. In that time, Shouron gives Sakura the bear, and admits his feelings to Sakura differently some time after that. She makes a bear for him and manages to give it to him just in time before his bus departs for the airport (but there is no sign on his butler on the bus too, strangely). Regardless, this diversion is separate from the original path of the anime and therefore the original anime is safe from being trashed or tarnished. Thank god. This episode is however mostly bland and rigid. the animation is static with not as much love put into it as the original. Also the animators seem to forget that the anime was ending in colder weather early in the year 2000.
Somehow its back to being warmer weather in this episode. Maybe a lot of time has passed since the ending of the Sakura card arc and that's why Shouron's butler has already gone home back to Hong Kong? weird.

Okay. Time to watch episode 1. Reactions below:

Episode one clearly repeated events showing Sakura and Shouron at the airport just before he left for Hong Kong. This means that the episode 'prologue' doesn't happen in the Clear Card arc. HOWEVER, the background during this shot is not exactly the same. The moment is the same yet the airport layout with the air hostess and the guy with the green bag are completely different.

AND THERE WE GO! We have modern TV's and smartphones now! this ISNT set in the early 2000's meaning its NOT the original anime canon.

Okay now I'm pissed off. This episode just said that Sakura stayed up all night to give Shouron a bear before he left. That never happened in the original anime, that was in the 'prologue'. Whats more that happened at a bus stop in the prologue, but this episode earlier referred to the airport scene in the original anime. And there is absolutely no way the prologue happened after the second movie so WTF?

---

No way am I watching this clusterfuck. Seriously, how much effort does it take for writers to understand the previous plot? HELLO! WATCH THE FINAL FEW EPISODES! sloppy. No way am I watching a window into a CCS universe that is somewhere between the original anime and the 'prologue', yet set in modern times.

There are now 3 Cardcaptor Sakura anime universes because of this fucking mess.

---

And that's why I have decided to stop out-rightly being interested in anything Clamp do ever again.

They never officially ended TusbaHoli, and have decided to undo any endings for Cardcapor Sakura too. This is a total clusterfuck. I never read the Cardcapor Sakura manga and therefore don't care for events that happen in that world, INCLUDING this clear card arc sequel. I realise now I'm only interested in watching a direct sequal to the original Cardcapor Sakura anime, leading off from its second movie.

Now that its 100% official that the Clear Card arc anime is NOT a direct sequel to its original anime, I'm past caring. I'm still interested in continuing the TsubaHoli manga though, just because I invested so much time into reading them.

But hell, I'm totally expecting this Clear card arc to never end anyway. Thats just how Clamp works.

GAME REVIEW: Sonic Mania

Most likely you've read a bunch of reviews about this game that say the same thing, so lets cut to the chase:

Its meh.

and whats more, I don't think its the creators fault. Yet again uncle Sonic Team got their way forced it to be boring.

How? Simple, they made sure that 60% of the game would be stuff recycled from other past classic titles.

I don't give a fuck if the second stages of all the classic levels apparently "change it up". Spoiler alert, it doesn't! They just contain gimmicks that have been found in other classic levels, like Oil Ocean act 2 basically being a mash up of Oil Ocean (obviously), Marble Zone from the first game, and Sandopolis Zone from Sonic 3. **YAWN**

What made Sonic 3 the best of the classic games was simply because it was fresh and didn't contain gimmicks from the previous titles.

Now don't get me wrong, I think the team behind the Mania game are the best folks for the job of a classic game sequel. I knew this all along, but Sonic Team are fucking twats and made sure the game would suck. Just look at the new levels for this game, no gimmicks from other games, just 100% fresh. That's Sonic Teams fault. The whole game could have been this fresh. Hell it was suppose to be! It was suppose to be fresh as a daisy with nothing recycled. Pure and simple. Stupid Japanese twats that don't trust western developers enough and have no fucking clue about their own franchise and quite frankly, haven't for a few decades already.

One thing I just cannot stand though was just how frustrating the blue sphere bonus stages are. This IS designed by the western developers and they have forgotten that Sonics a kids game. These levels are literally designed for the older players that have played the blue sphere levels often enough for years. So those new players would never ace them even after a LOT of tries and hair pulling, and whats the reward at the end? Nothing. that's what. A token that does nothing unless you have more. I WENT THROUGH LESS HELL IN SONIC 3 FOR A CHAOS EMERALD you bastards.

So yeah, Sonic Team forced this game to look and feel like a fan game. Frustrating.

ANIME REVIEW: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki OVA 4

As per usual, this series is OTT with too many new characters. Only this time you NEED to have watched GXP and read the GXP novels AND all the other crap like the Seikishi series to understand whats really going on, of which I cannot read it all due to NOT BEING JAPANESE!

Why alienate the viewers like this? Whats the point??!

Episode 1: The music in the background is kept to the background, and sparingly so too unfortunately, as I feel it suits the music style of OVA 1 and 2 more so. The character designs have changed yet again, this time the designs make everyone look fatter and fuller. Yucky.
Ditching an opening credits in favor of storytelling to the tune of a song works better for Tenchi. The show is suffering from lack of screen time as it is, so this is a good thing, however the love for the show is obviously not there at all. The quality of this OVA is worse than a typical television episode of things these days. The story is confusingly set in the past too, which doesn't help matters.

Episode 2: Just what the actual fuck is going on here?! This makes the overall original Tenchi series go down the crapper. Too many new characters, not much plot. Introduction to smartphones in the early 90's when this episode is set was a major head scratcher.

Episode 3: Meh. But it at least got to the end of the bloody pointless retelling of the wedding and focused on Reas background as she is accidentally brought into the universe from the Geminar one, to defeat a rouge sport robot. However thousands of years happen at a quicker rate than in the Tenchi world, and she for some bizarre reason, HAS to bring that world back HER child. Though that wasn't explained very clearly as to why. Still, its better than NO explanation, right?
Though it does state that she is created in a lab so her child would have the genes necessary to defeat the evil robot of that world.
Obviously her son would end up being Kenshin who would start the whole Seikishi spin off series.


Episode 4: Truly god awful. It was set years later (the year 2000 maybe??) and only consisted of plans of what to do with Kenshin, with a bunch of fucking pointless fanservice.

The end.

I'm sorry but I'm now putting this failed Tenchi Ryo-Ohki series under the classification of "dead to me".

What a fucking stupid pointless series. It didn't even make it to 26 episodes! BAH!

There is no hope for the series other than a reboot, and I renounce everything I ever said About Kajishima being the creator of the series. He's just a character artist, nothing more. That's why there are so many damn pointless characters in this fucking mess.

1-10

Once Kajishima is dead of old age, maybe AIC will actually consider a reboot. Tenchi Muyo has some things going for it with the goddesses and Tenchi being some sort of god. But its just not told in any sort of coherent way. I used to love this show. I seriously believe now that the original writers like Hasegawa left because of this stupid Kajishima dude. He is obviously no writer. I'm sorry, there is no way this guy can write, so why is he considered as the head of this franchise? Did he even create Tenchi Muyo in the first place?!? I seriously believe not. There is just no way.

Tenchi Universe is frustrating too because things are wrong with that show but in different ways. But no way is it as bad as the fragmented mess of the original.

My idea would be to have a 26 episode television show that tells a story about a farmboy that was actually god, but he didn't know it until goddesses messed with his life that forced him into a space opera adventure, that saw him finish off as a king of another planet with many different wives, but all the meanwhile he just wants to escape back to his farm boy lifestyle. Give it some zest, some life, some fun! some comedy! Some originality! Less talk, fewer characters, less garbage. Easy going great fun. That's all this series needed to be.

ANIME REVIEW: Cardcaptor Sakura- Clear card arc prologue episode

Weird. Not what I was expecting, and thankfully keeps the original anime and leaves it alone.

This weird episode adapts the last few chapters of the original manga, I think. I never read the manga. Not when the anime was soo damn perfect, so I cant say for sure.

Thankfully I can clearly say without a doubt that its setting up a tangent universe for the Clear Card arc anime series that is coming out next year. a totally different universe from the original anime, one that splits from the Sakura Card arc at exactly 22:36 seconds into episode 69, or rather the moment Sakura defeated Eriol and Keroberos is shocked to see Eriol and co disappear so suddenly. In the original anime, Syaoran admits his love for Sakura straight afterwards. Not long later he flies back for Hong Kong, but not before Sakura turns up at the airport and demands him to give her his bear that was meant for her anyway. In this anime divergent, Syaoran gives Sakura his bear off screen, and hangs around for a few months in Japan before admitting his love to her. Then Sakura makes him a bear and manages to give it to him just before his bus departs for the airport. She also admits her feelings to him during this moment.

Weirdly, there is no sign of Syaorans butler on the bus too, strangely.

Regardless, this diversion is separate from the original path of the anime and therefore the original is safe from being trashed. Thank god.

Unlike the original animation, this episodes animation is bland and static with not as much love put into it as the original. too many panning shots of static characters with only lip flaps moving. One weird animation moment had the teacher walk into the room portraying the children as being only white blobs with faces. WTF?! cheap and unkempt.

I'm just glad this doesn't touch the original anime. That's one of my all time favourite anime series.

MUSIC REVIEW: Mark and Lard Vintage (50 years of Radio 1)

Today I listened to the one hour special of Mark and Lard that was broadcast yesterday on BBC Radio 1 Vintage, a 3 day special online radio station to celebrate Radio 1's 50 year anniversary. Seriously they have all sort of awesome throwback shows. catch them whilst they are still online to listen too!
I personally loved Mark and Lard. I was there listening to them during the breakfast and afternoon slots, but also occasionally there for the evening slots too before all that. They honed their talents though for their afternoon years. Im so please I managed to get hold of this special episode. I was even walking home after work today, listening to it on my phone, exactly like I was during the years of walking home from school, listening to them on the radio on my Walkman. The best bit though was listening to some parts I never managed to record and save for my personal collection of shows. What a nostalgia trip moment that was!!

MUSIC REVIEW: Gorrilaz- Humanz

I've just listened to the new Gorrilaz album on Spotify. My god, its terrible! 0_0 How did Damon decide that this mess was finished?!? 0_o Every song sounds terrible apart from 'We Got The Power'. That song was at least catchy, however it ends abruptly and falls too short. It could have done with having a second part to it, somehow. The rest of the tracks in the album are generic and highly forgettable. A bit like the songs in the first album (excluding the singles, those were good).
Overall, every singer in this new album sounds like they are singing to a melody that just isn't there. Damon's singing parts are equally as bad. He sings exactly the same way in every song, which mirrors his guests in this album, in that he's singing/rapping to a melody that doesn't match the actual music being played. Maybe the singers literally didn't have a melody to sing too when recording their parts??
There are 26 songs to this album, yet it seems like their shortest to date. Maybe this is for the best, as you can then go and listen to some decent, older, Gorrilaz tracks after you're done. This is easily the worst Gorrilaz album, including The Fall which was written during their American Tour 2010, and recorded within a week I believe.

Spice and Wolf- novel 17- Epilogue

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Intermission:
This story is told from Enek the dogs perspective of Norah's adventures again.
Finally its spring/summer in the world of Spice and Wolf!! Also, its 5 years later.
Norah is now a priest of a church in the same small town she found herself in before.
A carriage arrives outside. Norah and Enek collect their things and are greeted by Eve. She is now doing business in a country to the south.
Days pass and they enter the town to pick up Diana, the bird god. More travelling happens. They talk about things. Boring inconsequential ramblings.
Elsa and Fran join the carriage.

Conclusion:
Lawrence, Holo and Col live in Nyohhira in a place still under construction. Col had been doing his own thing for a few years but eventually came to live with them. Holo had forced Col to write the wedding invitations shop opening invitations to the girls of Lawrence's past. Maybe as a joke but either way Lawrence isn't exactly happy they all got invitations.
They traveled for two years and settled here for 3. Also in that time she's never visited Yoitsu. Probably because she wants to remember it for how it was.
Debau and Hilde are back in power. The coin is getting used but hasn't fully reached its peak usage yet.

They also have a house worker named Hanna. She might not be human either.

One day in town Holo surprises Lawrence. He expected her home but she got lonely because no one was in. They wander around Nyohhira. The hot spring of their house/shop was found by her after two days of being in town. It's in a kinda remote area of the town outskirts. The hot spring itself was in a cave.
Back at home they take a hot spring bath together. Holo likes driving the wildlife away even though she still allows them to use the springs. Lawrence has even seen them help the upkeep of the maintenance of the stone.

Lawrence writes letters to all the guys hes come across during his travels with Holo. He thinks Holo wants them for the grand opening of his establishment.

Lawrence, Holo and gang sort out what food they need for the banquet. Lawrence wants his store open in the spring.
They get the preparations done. The fateful day arrives, everyone is arriving. Luward and the mercenaries bring up a metallic sign naming the new establishment as 'Spice and Wolf'.
Holo kisses him as the guests walk towards them.

The end.

What the actual fuck? No wedding? No baby? Nothing of interest in this story at all! Why?! Oooh they kiss. Pffft big deal....

Travelling Merchant and Gray Knight-
This is a sequel. Lawrence takes Holo to a house in the woods. To Lawrence's old home where he was brought up by his father. His Eccentric dad arrives A random old coot arrives after shooting arrows at what he assumed were intruders. Lawrence dad This geezer is an eccentric hermit who lives in the woods. Holo is written out completely from here on out. This incomprehensible lame story instantly got rather boring. This is just some pointless story of a hermit using an abandoned fort. Why? Why did this author make such a pointless story?! LAWRENCE'S DAD! COMON THAT WOULD BE FAR MORE INTERESTING AT THIS POINT IN THE SERIES! Now i'm bored.

They visit his fort, eat dinner and tries on an old suit of armor. Holo is not mentioned once. Written out even though shes there. Rubbish story.

Next story in this mess of a novel-
Average life of Holo and Lawrences days spent in Nyohhira, arguing and getting over their differences, told from the perspective of Col. Boring.

Next story-
Set during Lawrence and Holo traveling years. They visit a village of people that have never left their township.

---

This epilogue is pointless. A huge waste of time and money. It could have been awesome. Could have had a wedding, could have had a baby, could have introduced Lawrence's Dad, could have been a story set far far into the future when Lawrence is an old man whilst Holo is still young with a bunch of teenage half wolf children setting out on their adventures. But nope. We didn't get that. The author ran out of rather obvious ideas. Maybe that's why after all these years he's deciding to write more material, because he either needs in income or has an interesting idea for a possible volume 18. Whatever. See you again, I guess.

I unfortunately rate this novel 3-10.

Spice and Wolf- novel 16- The Coin of the Sun II

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The man Lawrence and Holo are startled by is not Col. However the sack placed upon the table is indeed Cols. The hooded man that dropped the bag quickly draws into the crowd. Lawrence and Holo pay for their drinks and give chase. They end up in a building site of Lesko and spot a white hare sitting upon a well. This hare looks up at them. Speaking with authority, he says that Col is not harmed. He says his name is Hilde Schnau, treasurer of the Debau company. He is currently searching for the forbidden book of destructive mining techniques. His men spotted Holo, Lawrence and the others in Lenos which is why he has sought them out now.

Hilde explains that the Debau company is currently split into two opposing sides. They have made too much profit from the proposition of minting new coins. Because of which, some employees have become greedy and seek even more money. The plan is to make more currency by melting down other territories' coins. After that they hope to pounce when the current mines run dry. Hilde explains that he needs the forbidden book in order to slow them down. Holo can sense the truth from him, so it seems Hilde is just incredibly desperate. Desperate enough to take Cols bag away as a way of gaining Holo and Cols attention. Hilde feels like the northlands need to be protected and his plan is slipping away quickly. That is why he needs to bargain with his colleagues at Debau with the forbidden book.

Hilde may have taken Cols bag, but he seems to be in a huge bind because his actions are good. He tells Lawrence and Holo that he knows they are settling down here in this town. He says it would be in their favour to help him out, financially that is. He is the Debau treasurer after all.

Hilde finishes what he needs to say as men approach. Hilde gathers his clothes up with his tiny paws and hops into a gap in an adjacent building. The men arrive and tell Holo and Lawrence to go be romantic someplace else, preferably at an inn. Lol

They enter a deserted dark alleyway and stop to think. Lawrence asks her if they should just give the book to Hilde. It seems like the only thing they can do at this point. But she cries and thumps his arms and chest in jest. He wonders why she's reacting in such a way. She's sad because the mining techniques could possibly be used to destroy her home in thousands of years to come when he's long dead. Lawrence isn't worried so much because he won't live long enough to see it happen.
Lawrence feels it necessary to say that from here on out, she explicitly protested the idea of getting the book and giving it to Debau. He hugs her tightly and then wipes away her streaming tears.

Next day Lawrence has another talk with Luward and Moizi. He tells them whats going on and advises them to get out of town. They say they will retreat to Yoitsu.

Next Lawrence and Holo talk in their room. They decide to sell the shop despite the downpayment they placed upon it. There is too much risk involved right now.
They share a moment when talking. She mentions something that makes Lawrence appreciate her for being with him. He strokes her head twice and hugs her, resting his chin on her head.

That evening they sell the shop, find Hilde and agree to his terms.
They say that Le Roi will not be interested in the Northlands situation, nor will he be interested in his pleas. So Hilde says that he can pay the man 300 gold Lumione coins which are located at a hidden location someplace in town. Holo gets this money and turns into her true self so as to run south to Kieschen as quickly as she can. This is Le Roi, Elsa and Cols destination to find the forbidden book.

Next day Lawrence finds that the price of silver coin has climbed considerably.

Time passes and Lawrence feels gutted being alone without Holo around. He is awoken by Moizi who claims that things have moved forward for the worse as troops have been called up by Debau.

The Myuri mercenary band flee completely that night, leaving Lawrence alone. Before they left they did ask him to flee with them, however Lawrence feels like he's in the hands of Hilde.

The inn is empty yet Hilde does indeed turn up to speak to Lawrence, still in his hare incarnation. He gives Lawrence two documents and asks him to flee to a town called Svernel located north of Lesko. The first document is a plea for help to stop the radicals. The other is a similar letter but addressed to a lord also from the north. A lord that is against Debau but of whom would be even more against radicals.

Hildes time may be running out. Lawrence refuses the letters and the hare hops away.

A little later Lawrence packs his things in order to head off to join the Myuri mercenaries. Just outside the building he hears drunks. They talk very loudly about finding a hare. They contemplate killing it. Lawrence dashes outside and saves Hilde.

Lawrence takes his belongings, the scrolls and Hilde, and joins the Myuri's.

Somewhere outside the town, everyone talks over a small campfire and Lawrence's wagon. They decide to prepare a meal over the decision to what to do next. Lawrence suggests retreating to Lenos. Hildes wounds have been sown up by someone within the troop and he now rests in a wicker cage.

The hare speaks in a weak voice, slightly surprising Moizi. He whimpers something about having left letters in town. Luward deducts that as the last person to have seen him, Lawrence may know what he's talking about.
Lawrence hands over the letters thinking by this point they would have been useless anyway. However they turn out to be addressed to the Murui troop, which changes everything.
They realise that there is no way they can travel south. Its highly likely the Debau troops will be after them so if they did try to get to Lenos they would be hunted down like wolves. The best bet would be to travel the back roads to Svernel and do the hares bidding after all.

They head up the snowy mountainous northern slopes towards Svernel. They have to take apart their wagon and convert it to a sled, apart from Lawrence's where he leads his horse in front, on foot. Moizi stops to ask Lawrence to give up his wagon. All of Lawrence's belongings are moved to the troop wagons, leaving just his empty wagon behind.

They stay the night in a shack and move on. Hilde wakes up to find that they are deep in the mountains. Word comes that the Hugo Mercenary Company are in pursuit, but they are friends of the Myuri's so they aren't worried. The next day they are attacked by them. As predicted its not too much of a bother, its just arrows being fired at both parties as they slowly advance towards Svernel. A messenger from the Hugo mercenaries goes between each party relaying demands, but the Myuri's refuse to give in.

Because the two mercenaries are friends, they were never going to fight for real. The next day each troop are on opposite ends of a valley. They have covered themselves in pigs blood to appear more wounded, and they have greased their swords rendering them somewhat useless. The overseer of the Debau company on the Hugo side thinks it's going to be a real fight though.

Luward shouts for attack. Just after that Holo reappears. She was delayed in Lesko by a day but has finally made it back. I haven't mentioned this until now but her journey was accompanied by Hildes 'bird friend' who helped her with directions.

Holo takes Laurence away from Luward and the battle. She takes his hand forcefully and leads him off into the snowy evergreen forests and up a steep incline. He is slightly disappointed that she didn't seem to care much about their reunion, and now they are on their way to where she's hidden the forbidden book. She tells him that the bird escort is named Luis. Lawrence answers back to that rather annoyed, and she jokes about his obvious jealousy.
The incline becomes steeper and Lawrence traps his feet in the snow multiple times.
Out of nowhere Holo jumps onto him from above, causing them both to roll down the hill in the snow somewhat. She ends up on top of him hugging him with all her strength. They embrace and stay that way for a while. He wipes away her tears with his finger. Aww.

Holo has stashed the hidden book in a rather sturdy leather sack, along with the 300 gold Lumione coins given to her by Hilde to pay Le Roi had he kicked up a fuss demanding payment.

Holo explains she had trouble leaving Col. Apparently he really wanted to come and help but Elsa held him back.

When Holo asks whats going on regarding the fighting, Lawrence says that apparently The lords of the northlands are to blame for forcing the workers at the Debau company to become rebels.

They decide against running away with the money. The guilt would be too much. Holo talks more about her adventure with Luis the bird. She jokes about falling in love for him, and Lawrence again reacts to jealousy. She wraps her arms around him once more and breaths in deeply to take in his scent. She exhales the words "How much do you think I love you, you fool?". Awww.
She says that Luis has something given from his master, to be delivered directly to Hilde. That master must be mr Debau himself. Lawrence foolishly asks her whether she knows what it is, and she floors him to the ground for asking.

They return to the battle. Despite being a farce, the troops on both sides are genuinely hurt, yet not dead. An avalanche comes thundering down between the trees and onto the battlefield.
Luward shouts for a retreat.

Back at camp over hot food, Luward admits the avalanche was set up by his men. Those left in the snow were the 15 men he had to leave behind during negotiations with the Hugo messenger.

When discussing how to give Hilde his package in private, Moizi comes over to discuss what to do next.

That night the Myuri's officially visit the Hugo mercenaries camping at the bottom of the valley where the battle took place. Negotiations between their leader Rebonato and the Debau overseer called Glem go badly as the Myuri's are betrayed. It was a trap.

Robonato sticks a dagger into Lawrence's left thigh. He then focuses on Luward and breaks his leg and stabs his hand whilst demanding the whereabouts of Hilde. Luward asks why he is being betrayed but the fact remains that the rebels at Debau paid them a hefty sum of money to do so.
Having nearly passing out, Luward calls to Lawrence to call for Holo, which Lawrence does at the top of his voice.

Holo arrives in her Wolf form. She pushes Robonato to the ground and everyone scatters in panic. The horses too flee from Holos presence, apart from Lawrence's that is. Moizi steadies the unconscious Luward onto the horse, as well as Lawrence. They arrive back at the Myuri camp and everyone gets to see Holo the wolf as an ally. We see things from Lawrence's perspective so he doesn't quite know what's going on. However he has been bandaged up and is resting up.

Lawrence wakes up in a bed at Svernel. He remembers reaching the town before dawn. He clambers out of bed to assess his surroundings. He makes it to the hallway and deduces it must be morning still. A young man standing watch notices him and calls into one of the rooms. A second later Holo steps out of said room and waltzes up to Lawrence, mad at him. He asks to be let into the room to talk with the others about the next step of their plan. However she forces him to steady himself against her and the wall. She says that they have lost. It would be better for them to run away just the two of them. He holds onto her shoulders for support and protests, but being the wise wolf she lists everything as a disadvantage. He pleads that it would be mad to leave the Myuri's with them being related to her pack mate. That hurts her, but she holds his hands which are still on her shoulders, looks up at him with tears in her eyes and says that she decided on the name of their shop. He made a promise to her that that was their goal. She says she doesn't want to visit Yoitsu anymore. She knows what is happening to it. She only wants a home. She never wanted to be left in Yoitsu alone. She just wants a place to call 'home'. That is what would make her the happiest of all.

She says these lines "Come, you- do you not yet understand that one must give up certain things? And you have, to gain me. And you will, to gain what comes ahead. You are naive, are you not? Did you mean to carry on our journey forever? You have sympathy. I, too, understand how you cannot have witnessed that and not become so angry you cannot forgive it. But what is that within you that you cannot compromise, I wonder? Is that what you truly must protect? If that is so, why did you take my hand all of those times? You… Am I not your princess? I wish to live a quite life with you…"
Lawrence touches her cheek and she gently closes her eyes. He then pulls her in close with his other arm and embraces her. They then intertwine their hands and at that moment he realises his journey has come to an end. He looses energy and relies on her for support. he realises that this is how he will live his life until the day he dies; with Holos love and support.

Hilde and Millike

Hilde steps out of the room Holo did and sees them. He is now in human form. He pats them both on the shoulders realising they have come to the decision to leave. Next minute a man barges his way up the stairs. He has red hair with sideburns leading into a well trimmed beard. He recognises Holo as being non-human. She slaps him on the cheek rather scared. He is called Jean Millike, the chairman of the Svernel Merchants' Council. As they head into the room for a talk, Holo says to Lawrence that she has noticed Millike as half human.

Hilde, Millike, Holo and Lawrence head into the negotiation room where Hilde realises this man has taken on the name of a deceased merchant. His real name is Klaus von Havlish the Third; the very same lord they were hoping to seek for help. Only this man recognises and lists the flaws of Hilde. Holo says she intends not to help any further.
Millike intends to sell Hilde to the troops arriving in town. However, after Hilde and Millike talk, Millike can also see Hildes side of the story, so he decides to leave him be and just see how his fate turns out naturally.
Millike leaves and forces the troops to back off.

Lawrence rests up the next day. Hilde successfully manages to convince some of the townsfolk about the Debau rebels being in the wrong. He does this from within the inn.

Lawrence sits in a chair, looking out the window to the streets below. Holo approaches and gently calls out to him. She asks him to grab her arm to test his strength. After a successful test, she tells him they will be leaving soon. He says it would be nice if they travelled south again, to new places they have not yet visited. She sticks her hand out for his wallet. He gives it to her officially for the first time. He jokes to say don't spend it all, and she sticks her tongue out at him. They have complete trust.
She leaves via the back door unnoticed and stands at an intersection visible from his window so that he can see her. He says her name to himself with a slight chuckle.

Later, the two of them visit Luward who is still recovering in bed. Moizi and some of the others are out in town stirring up support for closing the town gate before the main force of Debaus troops arrive. If they manage to do that then surly negotiations would be accepted.

Lastly they visit Hilde. Holo finally has the chance to hand his coins back, the forbidden book and the parcel from Luis which turns out to be a coin press for Debaus new currency. It has a symbol of the sun on it.

An envoy arrives and Hilde goes out to meet the Debau employee for talks. The public is also present, ready to strike the recent visitors if things look likely to turn to warfare.

At first it seems like things would work out for Hilde, but the Debau company throws out 8 boxes of silver coins to the crowd to win them over. Lawrence, looking out the window witnessing the madness below, goes frantic and searches through Hildes belongings, including Cols bag, to find something that can help. He finds nothing and breaks down and cries. Holo comforts him as much as she can but he only gets angry. How can money rule the world like this? He scatters the papers about the air in rage and comes across one of Cols fraudulent papers from before they first met him.

Something stirs within Lawrence's mind. He frantically looks at the fraudulent letters and realises he could do something with them. But what? He looks at Holo for answers but she seems dejected. He stands to the window and sees the Debau employee named Yanarkin scattering silver coin around whilst Hilde pleads to the townsfolk.

"Do it then. I shall quite the howling ones." Holo tells him. She stands by his actions and expects him to do what he must. She stands at the open window and howls. Her bone tingling howl stops everyone in their tracks. Everyone's focus is now at the window.
"The Debau Company's impropriety must be redressed!" Lawrence shouts to everyone below. He repeats this twice more. Yanarkin asks him what evidence does he have. This stumps Lawrence but Holo knows what he should do and says quietly to him "Evidence is support for your case, no more". This triggers him to know exactly what to do. He holds up a random page from one of the documents that he is holding. Lawrence declares to everyone that it is a Debau bill of exchange, and that the money they are throwing around belongs to others. Lawrence goes on to make his point about how real world merchants work, and that the Debau rebels behaviour is wrong and unjust. Lawrence loses his strength and his voice. he falls to the floor and backs himself against it. Holo tells hims to use her as a mediator. He whispers the words with the little strength he has left and Holo repeats them to the people below, also in a grandiose manner.

In the end their words pull through. As a dire final strategy of attack, Yanarkin mentions having the church's backing. Only the church are not prevalent in these parts. Lawrence and Holo crush Yanarkin with the war of words and Hilde convinces the townspeople to close the town gate before the Dabau army arrives in full strength.

Lawrence lies on the floor and Holo sits on top of him resting her elbows on his chest and cupping her chin in her hands.
"I keep getting pulled along by no good males" she says.
"But you love me anyway, don't you?" he replies.
"Certainly, that is where the problem lies" she retorts giving him a sideways grin.

Over the next few days, Hilde has private talks with Millike to gain each others trust. They settle matters and agree a partnership where Svernel can mint Debau gold coins. Lesko are currently issuing out more silver coins so having Svernel in partnership truly can unite the northlands. The army from Lesko would arrive at Svernel and find the town gate shut. It would force them to turn back having lost.

Its evening. Luward holds a cain, ordering the rest of the Myuri mercenary band to get hard at work restoring an old warehouse furnace back to working order for the minting of the gold coins.

Hilde asks Lawrence to join Debau. He politely declines. Its a fantastic offer but he and Holo need to find their own life. After a short talk, Lawrence takes his walking cane and heads back to the inn to rest.

He doesn't get very far before Holo finds him. She carries a casket of wine with her. Lawrence asks her where she got it from. Millike is her response (even though she fails to mention him by name).
She went to visit Millikes wife's grave with him. Lawrence is reminded that even when he dies, she will live a huge amount of her time without him. Holo notices thats what he's thinking so she says "I told him… find your next female already, you fool". Lawrence stares at her in shock. She cackles in laughter walking off.

They make their way to their moonlit room. She has a go at him for the danger he put them into, including his actions with their shared speech to the goings on outside the inn. She warns him that he may suffer if he does anything like that ever again. He thinks he has lost her trust, but she still says "You seem the sort who will uphold a contract, if not a promise". She says that at some point Elsa had promised to be witness to their marriage. She asks him "So, how about it?".

Holo has just proposed to Lawrence. Flabbergasted, he just nods.
She slouches down to his face for what should have been their first kiss, however Holo is far too playful for that. She pulls out of his embrace and giggles. She mentions that before all that, he still needs to fulfil his promise of taking her to Yoitsu.
He says "very well" but points to the wine casket and asks "We can at least drink together, can't we?". She places it on the bed and brings a cup out. She warns him not to drink too much, and he remarks "to think the day would come when you would warn me about that". She just gives him a look and says "Fool".
They sit there, happily in love with one another. Outside we hear the cheers of the first tests for the bellows.

---

I think its safe to say Holo has been in a set of relationships before, and will again when Lawrence has passed on. Its not the most romantic of situations but its certainly inevitable, and its not like she is the type to cheat on him. Its just that she lives so long its impossible to truly think she can only have one man in her life.

I'm actually really pleased Col wasn't back after all. After the previous volume I thought he was back, cock blocking the romance yet again. Only this time it was a red herring. It was someone else instead! lol.

The romance has really nailed it. Im really happy we are finally seeing a naturally progressing relationship between the two of them.

The pace of these two books was slow. Really slow. Especially the first half of this volume. I cannot give it a high rating because of this.

One more volume to go. I know its a set of epilogues. I just hope that the story has them reaching both Yoitsu and Nyohhira.

Where are the short stories set which were in volume 13?? I know for sure they take place AFTER this volume at least. Lawrence mentioned in this volume that he wants to take her back to the south, so that is maybe where those stories are set.

I rate this book 6-10. Too long winded and long drawn out. I don't think the author can write strong two parters. This would have worked a lot better as one volume. There isn't anything wrong with the story. Its the way it was put onto paper. Its a hard read.

Knowing he should make full use of his fortune, Lawrence said this: "Welcome back."
Holo's face shot up from his chest.