Title: The Reprise of the Spear Hero Vol. 2
Author: Aneko Yusagi (Story), Minami Seira (Characters), NEET
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 123
Genre: Fantasy, Isekai, Action
Publication Date: May 19, 2020
The Story
Volume two The Reprise of the Spear Hero continues the journey of Naofumi, Motoyasu, and Éclair to Stiltvelt. Along the way, Motoyasu is having a filolial fit and wants to stop off someplace and purchase some eggs. That’s exactly what they do and he uses his overwhelmingly deep (read: obsessive) knowledge of filolials to net himself a high-quality egg and two cheap eggs. The eggs end up hatching and he leaves Naofumi up to naming them. Their colors are White, Yellow, and Pink so Naofumi names them Yuki, Kou, and Sakura, respectively.
With the filolials hatched, it’s up to training them! Motoyasu power levels them up to level 40 in just two days and brings back carts of armor and other drops from everything that they killed! Of course, training and leveling isn’t everything on the docket as the church seems to be stirring and is sending out people looking for Naofumi. Using the Portal Spear technique, they do escape one situation which begged the question that if Motoyasu could teleport, then why would they be traveling by carriage to Stiltvelt? Well, he can only transport to save points. Fair enough, I suppose but I do have a question about that later!
After teleporting, things are going about as normal. Motoyasu even recounts the other timeline’s Naofumi and how he was a jerk that would shake down anyone if it meant for his own personal gain. That’s when the church catches up with them and it’s time to fight or flee!
The story portion was a bit slower but the volume focused heavily on character development moreso than story and plot advancement but that’s what is to be expected out of a second volume. It followed the formula rather well of establishing the world and the characters in volume one and then fleshing out those characters will inching the plot forward in the second volume. Pretty textbook but it’s textbook for a reason: it works well and it does so in this case!
Characters
First off, we have our three new filolials which were microwaved from eggs to angel form in the span of two chapters. Normally, this would be considered a rush of sorts but since we’ve already established the concept of raising and improving filolials in the parent story, there was no need to hold back here in the spinoff. Since this spinoff does require you to have knowledge of The Rising of the Shield Hero, it makes sense to not really explain much to the reader and just get on with it. Sakura has an attachment to Naofumi much in the same was that Filo did. Kou is kind of a free spirit and Yuki is just… well… there! Still, it’ll be fun watching them in angel form now as they get actual dialogue and personalities!
Motoyasu continues to be a complete and total creep when it comes to filolials. The fact that he made a life-sized Filo doll is just… well… yeah. Still, it’s odd to see him as he is here knowing what he was in the parent story. The more lighthearted Motoyasu is more fun, I say! I’m really starting to enjoy his character more, I say!
Final Thoughts
The side story continues to be fun and the new filolial characters will keep the good teams rolling. Filolials are food vacuums and everyone is learning that the hard way. I also like how they said that restaurant food was worse that Naofumi’s cooking, yet, Naofumi admits to not having much skill in that. Just makes you wonder how bad the chefs are in this world.
The question I had to raise though was something that wasn’t really explained. Motoyasu stated that he could teleport to save points but since his spear travels with him and is the source of his movement through time, wouldn’t that mean his save points would carry over from the other timeline? If so, wasn’t Motoyasu in Stiltvelt at one point? I think he was which means he either didn’t create a save point there or the writers just completely forgot. I wish they had touched upon that just a little more but I do end up thinking of these kinds of things when reading. I often look too deeply into things so I’ll just chalk it up to this being one of those times!
In any event, this continues to be a fun side story and if you’re a fan of The Rising of the Shield Hero, you should pick this up and have a few laughs with it!
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This item was provided for review by One Peace Books
