Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Harem, Romance, Comedy, Isekai

(This review will contain spoilers for previous volumes and the most current volume of the series)

Arihito and Friends Face Their Toughest Challenge Yet as They Move to District Five!

Arihito and his friend’s accomplishments have caught the attention of the Guild Saviours earning them an invite to help stop a stampede in District Five. However, things won’t go so easy for them now that their under the shadow of the Shining Simian Lord!

We pick up the labyrinthian adventure series almost exactly where volume 5 left off, as the group of friendly seekers follow the trail of Shirone after she led them into a devious trap. I can really appreciate when a series wants to hit the ground running and get straight into the action and volume 6 sure does start at a break neck pace. Almost right out of the gate we’re treated to the gang going head to head with another named monster inside the Plateau of Primary Colours known as the Winged Mirage Morpho. Unlike previous named monsters our titular seekers have fought, this happens to be an especially difficult variant, a hollow star. Moreover, this type of creature is particularly dangerous given its unique ability to mess with specific seekers karma. Using neutral butterfly monsters, the creature uses a skill known as Guilt Trip to trick seekers into attacking something seemingly without malice towards them. This monster has already used this to capture Shirone and during their fight, it uses these abilities on both Arihito and Ellie. Whilst this is a good method to use in order to reveal their insecurities in a natural way, I wish this could have been done with some of the other characters given that both Arihito and Ellie’s trauma has been so well documented throughout the series already.

Speaking of Eliie, she is the main focal point of the volume, in fact it feels as though these past couple of volumes have a particular focus upon her making this a very Ellie heavy arc. The prologue gives some much needed insight into Ellie’s family structure and the change that came over her big brother, acting extremely cold and remorseless throughout his scenes, only looking to achieve his goals even at the expense of other’s lives. This volume also has quite the heavy focus on Ellie’s changing emotional state given the fact that after killing the named monster they’re given an opportunity to travel to District Five and help out. At several points throughout the volume, Ellie is shown to be visually anxious and nervous at the prospect of find out the fate of her friend and the possibility of getting her new friends in danger. Whilst initially alleviating the issue, her trauma still plays a major role within the volume. During their mission to help the Guild Saviours with a stampede on the fifth district, Ellie shows some particularly reckless behaviour in trying to cut down The Calamity. These reckless choices lead to several members of the party being in some major danger, even if no major harm was done in the end. Something key that I think is missing from this emotional arc is a deeper look at how her emotions are affecting others especially her current best friend Suzuna. She’s been with Ellie since she came back down to District Eight and it would have been nice to gather some perspective on her emotional state as well.

The climax of the volume sees Ellie recklessly runs off into the five star labyrinth to face off against the Simian Lord without the possibility of her friends getting hurt. This plan is genuinely stupid and feels more like a regression on her character given just how much character development she’s given in this area. In the end, Ellie is rescued by her friends from the grasp of the Simian Lord and we’re treated to some crucial information as to how it runs its operation e.g., Remy has been kept alive as a battle pawn for the Simian to use, it creates its slaves through some type of crest magic, something we find out as it uses the ability on Theresia. The volume ends on a cliffhanger with the seekers vowing to return to stop the Simian Lord in its tracks.

After reading the volume there is one pretty major problem with it, it feels as though the author has stitched what should have been the end of the previous volume and want should have been the start of the next volume together creating both an epilogue and prologue in the same volume. It certainly feels as though this volume is just meant as a way to hype up what will likely end up being a volume 7 totally focused on a battle with the Simian Lord. Unfortunately, this does mean that volume 6 lacks in a way of proper development falling back on information we already know.

Volume 6 of Strongest Rearguard is a fast-paced and action heavy volume, that whilst still a fun journey, just fails in the execution of making it feel like story progression rather than a hype up for the seemingly epic fight promised in the next volume. Hopefully, volume 7 will finally see an end to the Simian Lord troubles and focus on carrying up the tower towards solving Theresia’s issues.