Finished!

A lot happens in this one, ending with the arrival of the Christmas Tree. Excellent character development for Itokazu-sensei and Antonia, plenty of action (including a sadly-offscreen ass-kicking as Maya takes on Jens and her assistoroids), and a new villain who’s so nasty you want to take Jens into your arms, pat her on the head, and tell her it’ll be okay. Should there be a second season someday, I don’t think they can use the bulk of books five and six, but they’ll need to at least use major elements from them in a recap episode or two, to clear up the continuity a bit and introduce Nirumea.

And now I really have to go back over the previous books to clear up a few sections. After that, I think I need to read his first novel, just to be a bit less in the dark about the rather significant contribution by both Team Ichika and Team Kantoku. Ichika and her gang are definitely the core of the Shureio novel, but they have some sort of shared history with, and feel quite comfortable working alongside, wacky-pervert film-director Kawasaki and his associates.

[Spoilers, ho!]

…and his associates are Dogs. The only names we have for them are Colonel and Captain, and they call Kawasaki Sergeant. In fact, when Kio and Sada-yan show up at Ichika’s place to enlist her aid in rescuing everyone from Nirumea’s plan, they’re confronted by two Dogishuan assistoroids named Kurokichi and Blue, who stand down at Kawasaki’s order when he identifies them as friends.

You may recall that Kawasaki is completely bald and wears rather revealing clothing, showing no sign of animal ears, a tail, wings, or any other non-human characteristics, but not only was he formerly part of a military unit led by Dogs, Kurokichi is his assistoroid, and it’s been working undercover in another body for quite some time. A body that answers to the name of Muttley.

Unfortunately, after bringing all of this stuff to the surface, the book ends with the rescue and the arrival of the Christmas Tree. No follow-up on Ichika, Kawasaki, Jens, Nirumea, Kurokichi/Muttley, or poor little Ryunnu.

Oh, right, I forgot to mention Ryunnu. She’s a brilliant young strategist who works for her good friend Nirumea, and who wishes she’d arrived on Earth a few days sooner, before her big sister Jens was recalled to the homeworld for a new assignment.