Synopsis

During Kazuhiro and Marie’s travels between Japan and the dream world, the mansion they’ve been living in on the other side has become fully operational. Both have also gone out to dinner with the Ichijos more often. Everything has been smooth sailing on all fronts—or so they thought, until Toru gets drunk and accidentally falls asleep next to Kazuhiro. More fun and delicious food await! (Source: J-Novel Club)

Kazuhiro Welcomes New Friends to Another World!

Having finished building their base on the labyrinth’s second floor, the latest instalment in the sleepy office worker and mystical elf’s tale finds the two of them welcoming some unexpected guests to the dream world. 

Starting off strong, the story goes back to its roots, delivering plenty of laughs with a well-thought-out misadventure plot. It features the Ichijos, Kazuhiro’s neighbours, as they are accidentally sent to the dream world alongside him and Marie. Chaos inevitably ensues, but after several explanations and more than a few misunderstandings, the two readily accept the reality of a dream world and are quickly welcomed into the fold.

Setting itself apart from other similar plot lines throughout the volumes, the Ichijos’s journey to the dream world manages to recapture an aspect of the series that has been strikingly absent as of late. Akin to Marie’s first view of Japan and Kazuhiro’s early explorations, this plot line effortlessly showcases the sense of wonder and anticipation of adventure that made the early volumes so immensely readable.

As an aside, this storyline also features an interesting side plot. Told from the perspective of Wridra’s familiar, it ends up revealing that there’s more to the creature than meets the eye.

With the Ichijos’s storyline wrapped up, the volume’s second half once again relies on the old faithful—the war between Arilai and Gedovar. Having been a story mainstay since the fourth volume, the same old build-up has started to wear thin. Progress has been slow on this arc, and with only light skirmishes to show for itself, it’s as if the series has lost sight of its end goal.

This is only exacerbated by Wridra’s husband joining the fray. Working with the enemy nation, his introduction does him little favour. Cartoonishly evil, his mannerisms and actions towards Wridra bring back unfortunate memories of Zarish. Here’s to hoping he plays only a small role in the series’ future.

On completing the ninth volume of Welcome to Japan, I’ve mixed feelings about the future direction of the series. The start of this volume showed flickers of why I fell in love with the story in the first place. The inclusion of the Ichijos into the main cast brought with it the strong slice-of-life storytelling and the sense of wonder this series is known for. Unfortunately, this is offset as the latter half of the novel returns to the upcoming war between Arilai and Gedovar, which, at five volumes of build-up, has far outstayed its welcome and isn’t helped by the new inclusion of the father of Widra’s children.

Overall, after nine volumes, I’m in a strange place with the series. I still love it; I hope, going forward, the series re-focusses on the misadventures and sense of wonder that drew me to the series in the first place.

I Give Welcome to Japan Volume 9: 6/10