novel translation complete!!!

[Nonsuch Ned]

The weird thing about Kiriko's dad is that he and Miki's dad/creator are obviously a mishmash of the two.
Ken Raraiba Steinbeck
Hiroshi Manada

Ken Sanada
Hiroshi Rara

In their back story (#12, chp 6... if my notes are right), Ken Raraiba is the "champion of justice" and Hiroshi Manada is the morally off-center one. So that's the only problem with the theory. I still believe he's probably the leader of the "Maiden Knights"- but he wasn't a "bad guy"- he successfully wooed Tsukiko after all.

I assume that their astrals were particularly messed up when Kazuki wished the two dimensions to merge- because he merged what he knew of those guys from what he knew of them in two worlds. Everyone else he combined were, to him, represented by a version of a person he knew from only one world, but Ken and Hiroshi were people he knew in both worlds who were different types of people in each.

[Eff Efferson]

kajishima would absolutely do a "her father was mysteriously killed by something only zinv or soemthing like it could pull off .... jk hes alive and the bad guy piloting himc and shes going to now beat the snot out of him in a fit of rage for not being there for her and then tsukiko is going to join in as he pleads for his life" plotline.

[Nonsuch Ned]

Steinbeck wouldn't be the pilot- just the "brains." I bet they've kept the feature of Himc/Himiko from Dual that says its always piloted by a woman... even in its lobotomized state.

Also, come to think of it... Neither Hiroshi Rara was really "bad" Earth 1 was a conceited glory hound. Earth 2 genuinely wanted to rule the wrld to unite it and tried his hardest to avid hurting people... but his wife was a different story.... So does Steinbeck have a second evil wife?

I think I just realized something else. I think the pilot was introduced too. In Kajishima's typical no-context, no-names, fashion.
I bet the pilot is the hooded woman watching the Mecha tokusatsu series in the "seedy" bar/theater.

[Metazoxan]

Thank you to all that made an effort to complete this.

Heard about the novels a few years ago but was a bit turned off from reading them given they were only a bit over half done (I think the latest translation was 11 at the time).

Maybe someday we'll actually get volume 18. But at least 17 finishes it's current arc right? That's good enough as a stopping point I guess.

[Nonsuch Ned]

Unfortunately, 17 isn't close to an arc closure. Seina has only finished the preliminary steps of his "magic" training. We have no real idea who is behind the shadow group commanding the Renza pirates/ anti-government movement. Seina isn't close to reuniting with his harem and about a half dozen important figures have been teased without giving their names.