Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21
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Spoilers for the entire Volume 21, obviously.
In the spirit of the last post, I'd love to hear the forum's thoughts on this latest volume. It's been about a week since it was released, so hopefully you've all had enough time to finish.
Just to prime the pump a bit... I had a lot of fun with this volume. I have yet to reread it but it was the most fun I've had on a first read-through since the Labyrinth City arc. It was fun watching the group meet with the holy woman, and then integrate into the training village. I liked that Satou was able to uncover the dark-conspiracy in a way that felt timely but not forced - that's a hard trick to pull off given Satou's super-OP abilities. It was just enough to give a sense of danger (particularly given Satou's trusting nature), but not requiring Satou to be a completely oblivious idiot and risk his children unnecessarily.
I also liked the way that the antagonist is using the world's game-like mechanics against Satou. In some sense, Satou is too OP to be vulnerable to any head-on threat. But attacking him in a way that threatens his status (e.g. by lowering his level, or by taking away or duplicating his abilities), leaves him reasonably vulnerable without ruining the fun of an OP protagonist. In all, it feels like a natural evolution given the nature of the world.
Also, a slightly unrelated topic....
In anticipation of this volume's release I re-read the entire series. And my overall opinion of the previous ~5 volumes has improved. The entire royal capital arc has a lot of fun scenes that I enjoyed re-reading (I particularly like the Tama & Pochi pre-schooler hiking trip, for example). And I didn't find that volumes 19 or 20 seemed as rushed as I remembered. When I'm approaching the end of a beloved series, the %-counter in my e-reader becomes an active source of anxiety as it ticks towards 100%. I don't know why, but this ruins my ability to just experience the story in the moment. By contrast, when I'm binging a series and I still have several volumes remaining, this anxiety goes away and I am able to assess the story more objectively. In that light, I felt that the previous few volumes held up much better than I remembered.
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I enjoyed this one too. Satou has said since the beginning that he's terrible at solving mysteries and the author has handled that consistently and well. Detective work and rhythm are his fatal flaws, also explaining why he still hasn't managed to chant spells.
This and the earlier Geist trouble showed ways his OPness can be countered at least for a little while, especially when he's trying not to kill anyone or show that OPness. But as he's said to the kids now that they're level 50+ he's much less concerned about hiding his strength. That was handled nicely in the previous volume in the final battle with the demon lord.
I'm going to miss this series when it's gone, but didn't the author say something in the afterword to the effect that the web novel being complete didn't mean the novels had to end?
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@HarmlessDave in the first place the LNs are already way more revised than the WNs at this point, and having read ahead (don't worry, not spoiling), I can definitely say we still have so much more to see. Its a nice long series and the journey so far has been worth it. Waiting for next Vol for EN and JP~
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I skimmed like I've never skimmed before.
It's hard to grasp just how trusting Satou is of persons in positions of authority given how many times such have turned out to be involved with nastiness.
Too few mentions of 'Mr. Meat.'
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@HarmlessDave said in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21:
Satou has said since the beginning that he's terrible at solving mysteries
This may be the characteristic of Satou's that I find most relatable. "What was that noise downstairs? Ehh, I'm sure something down there that isn't an ax-murderer makes that noise."
I guess it's a convenient way for the author to allow a nefarious plot to unfold before Satou cues in to it and shuts it down. But that doesn't bother me too much.
But as he's said to the kids now that they're level 50+ he's much less concerned about hiding his strength. That was handled nicely in the previous volume in the final battle with the demon lord.
Yeah, though he's still hiding the fact that he's a hero. I feel like something important about the series will be lost if Satou ever publicly takes on the mantle of "hero". The story just won't work as well if he enters each scene with the clout of a king.
I'm going to miss this series when it's gone, but didn't the author say something in the afterword to the effect that the web novel being complete didn't mean the novels had to end?
I think there's still a long way to go until the series is finished. Looks like Yen Press has reverted to two volumes per year again (grr). Given the glacial pace of translation, I'm much more worried about the series reaching its conclusion at all than I am about it ending at the series finale.
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@Geezer-Weasalopes said in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21:
I skimmed like I've never skimmed before... Too few mentions of 'Mr. Meat.'
It's hard to tell if you're being sarcastic. Why would you skim it, are you not enjoying the new volumes very much?
I am, unironically and unapologetically, a big fan of the characters of Tama and Pochi. FWIW, there were plenty of food scenes in the book, although I didn't tally the phrase "mr meat".
It's hard to grasp just how trusting Satou is of persons in positions of authority given how many times such have turned out to be involved with nastiness.
This I completely agree with. I think a lot of people don't realize how conservative most Japanese LN protagonists are (in the sense of status quo preserving). And Satou is definitely included in this this. Part of this means that - extreme circumstances notwithstanding - he tends to automatically and naturally takes the side of the existing power structure. Part of this, is a natural tendency to trust those in positions of authority. He certainly lacks the noble cautiousness that you see in a series like Bookworm, for example.
In some fairness to him, he did fight alongside the Sage in the previous volume. To the extent that the Sage seemed to oppose the demon lord, Satou had a decent inkling that he was one of the "good guys". I think that Satou also relies too heavily on his heads-up search ability. There were several times that it got fooled and each time caused him some major problems.
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@unknownmat there's also the fact that he really is a reluctant hero though not in an angsty sense. He'll help people and save the day, but he'd be happier to spend the time playing with the kids, cooking, crafting, flirting with his elf sweetie.
Unless there's a crisis he'll sometimes wait to see if someone else will step up and fix things before getting involved.
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@unknownmat said in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21:
I skimmed like I've never skimmed before... Too few mentions of 'Mr. Meat.'
It's hard to tell if you're being sarcastic. Why would you skim it, are you not enjoying the new volumes very much?
I am, unironically and unapologetically, a big fan of the characters of Tama and Pochi. FWIW, there were plenty of food scenes in the book, although I didn't tally the phrase "mr meat".Removing my intervening comment, which you then replied to separately, completely changes the appearance of what I said; please don't do that, it twists my words.
I did skim far more than usual.
The 'high class foodism' left me cold.
The inability to see that anything was wrong at the village...a mention of a mild poison in the food with no follow up?! Many other clear signs things weren't as they should be.
So I skipped forward until it got less painful.
"Mr. Meat" is their signature phrase, there is no greater food than that, and it hardy showed up at all; who are these two and what have they done with Tama and Pochi?
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@Geezer-Weasalopes said in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21:
a mention of a mild poison in the food with no follow up?!
Maybe it was iocaine powder. Gaining poison resistance through exposure to low doses has been a staple of western and light novels since forever, and Satou would know that.
I do understand being frustrated with how slow Satou is to pick up on mysteries and danger. He also keeps ignoring the kids' ability to sense who is really the Big Bad.
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@Geezer-Weasalopes said in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21:
Removing my intervening comment, which you then replied to separately, completely changes the appearance of what I said; please don't do that, it twists my words.
What? I have no idea what you mean. I responded to two different comments and didn't even apply any edits, which is rare for me. How did I twist your words?
EDIT: Oh, I see now. I reordered your statements when I quoted you. As a point of clarity, I think it is considerate to group similar thoughts together. I strongly dislike the "stream of consciousness" style of forum replies that just reply line-by-line. It tends to miss the forest for the trees. I've honestly been doing this for my entire career, and you are the first person who has ever complained about it. As a matter of courtesy, I will try to avoid doing this when interacting with you. But there's a very low probability that I will remember beyond a week or two.
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@HarmlessDave said in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21:
...he really is a reluctant hero...
Yes. At the most fundamental level, I think this is why Death March stands above so many other similar isekai. I find Satou's attitude both believable and relatable for an adult thrust into an absurd fantasy world. Saving the day and not taking shit from anyone is the kind of behavior that appeals to middle school boys. Adults realize that every action - no matter how virtuous or well-intentioned - has repercussions, and thus act judiciously. And being sneered at by an arrogant noble is hardly the end of the world - smiling and moving-on is a far better approach than putting them in their place.
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@Geezer-Weasalopes said in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21:
The 'high class foodism' left me cold.
Hmm. Are you're referring to the increasing sophistication of the dishes they eat (c.f. plain Wyvern meat), perhaps?
The inability to see that anything was wrong at the village...a mention of a mild poison in the food with no follow up?! Many other clear signs things weren't as they should be.
I think Satou saw something was up - there was definite foreshadowing there - but that he didn't have any reason to believe it was necessarily nefarious. Something like mildly poisoning food for the sake of developing poison-resistance is fairly logical and reasonable in a world like Death March with a level system. It's even fairly benign compared the Satou's party's own level-up regimen. The fact that the participants willingly and even enthusiastically went along with it didn't give Satou any room to intervene.
By way of analogy, if you visit someone's house and they discipline their kids in a way that you find distasteful, you might lose respect for them. But unless they are doing something illegal or dangerous, you would rarely take any action.
"Mr. Meat" is their signature phrase, there is no greater food than that, and it hardy showed up at all; who are these two and what have they done with Tama and Pochi?
Even Tama and Pochi have to grow up at some point. I was just thinking the other day that they are 11 or 12 years old now. Old enough to be a bit more discerning and aware of their surroundings. As cute as I find their behavior, it's definitely pushing the bounds of age appropriateness.
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@unknownmat I’m getting a little long in the tooth now and I’m more worried that I reach my conclusion before the series does.
It’s I think the last long running series I’m waiting on now strike the blood and so what I’m a spider have concluded, well Asterisk Wars has I think a volume left but I feel confident I can outlast that.
Then there’s infinite stratos which I’m pretty sure I won’t see the end of that one way or the other.
There’s a load of fanslation stuff on hiatus that I would kill to get more of but ehh that’s life and I’m way to old to learn Japanese at this point.
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@Seandrake said in Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Vol 21:
I’m getting a little long in the tooth now and I’m more worried that I reach my conclusion before the series does.
It’s I think the last long running series I’m waiting on now strike the blood and so what I’m a spider have concluded, well Asterisk Wars has I think a volume left but I feel confident I can outlast that.Well, here's hoping that you're around to see the end of this series. I'm honestly not sure how many volumes the series is likely to cover by the time it is finished.
I'm a bit frustrated by the pace of the translation. The author has been regularly releasing three volumes a year, yet Yen Press seems to struggle to do just two. It took them 6 months to release Volume 21 and 22 isn't scheduled until October!
