Synopsis

Homura wants to light something, anything, on fire—and she finally gets her chance when she’s summoned to another world that’s desperate enough to ask her for help! Along with a group of similarly offbeat high school girls who all have their own powers, Homura sets off to incinerate evildoers and rein in the chaos caused by the Dark Lord’s resurrection. But what happens when these five oddballs get carried away? Will they actually save the world, or will Homura’s flames of justice wind up burning it all down? (Source: Yen Press)

Fire Power: From Spark to Inferno!

Mixing comedy, psychopaths, and isekai, one of Yen Press’s latest light novel titles, The World Bows Down Before My Flames, is a series that showcases that the power of flames can both save and destroy.

Starting with the usual Isekai routine, the series follows five girls who are transferred to another world on a quest to defeat the demon lord (or dark lord, in this case). This is where the usual routine begins and ends, as the candidates chosen for this quest aren’t your average high schoolers. With a pyromaniac and a mad scientist to count as the best among their group, the goddess in charge could only wish for a candidate with a few screws loose. Given free rein over a fantasy world, defeating the dark lord is the least of their worries.

The first volume introduces the series by putting the story straight into the middle of the action, with the Goddess giving the gang of misfits their quest. Often a protracted segment in any isekai novel, this version manages to exceed expectations. Every page during these moments is put to good use, showcasing the main characters, their dynamic with each other, and the potential chaos their psychotic quirks could have on a fantasy world.

From the very start of the showcase, Homura and Psycho’s personalities stand out from the crowd. Homura is the voice of reason within the group, or at least she appears to be, and tries to keep the group’s more insane suggestions to a minimum. Psycho, on the other hand, is all the group’s worst personalities unleashed and quickly appears as the natural leader of the group. Together, however, their interactions are a force to be reckoned with. Their opposite personalities often lead them to be at loggerheads, interactions that add a great deal to the comedic undertones of the series.

These comedic undertones and unique characteristics continue as the volume progresses, letting them loose in the fantasy world. Once again, the series does away with genre conventions as the troublemakers opt to skip out on the tutorial stage in favour of immediate action. These moments often show the author, Hiyoko Sumeragi’s inventive side. The group’s weapons and powers, much like them, are out of the norm, and the author does well to keep pace, introducing items such as Molotov cocktails and the ability to create multi-corpse zombies.

For all its inventiveness and comedic interactions, there is one thing this volume should have focused on more: Homura’s secondary personality. Teased throughout the book, the mystery behind Homura’s strange turns is revealed in the climax. Although well-telegraphed, her chaotic secondary personality could’ve added an extra layer of absurdity to the series.

Overall, The World Bows Down Before My Flames’s first instalment has all the ingredients to create a great series. A detailed focus on the unique characters at the start of the volume helps to engage the reader for a wild ride, as the series quickly does away with the conventions of the Isekai genre in favour of an absurdist comedy with plenty of twists to come in the future.

I Give The World Bows Down Before My Flames Volume 1: 9/10