Title: In Another World with My Smartphone Vol. 12
Author: Patora Fuyuhara (Story), Soto (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy
Publication Date: July 30, 2024
The Story
The twelfth volume of In Another World with My Smartphone begins with the discovery of another piece of Babylon! Touya goes to investigate it and it turns out to be the Hanger with all of the Frame Gear! There’s only one issue… after 5,000 years, the fuel became useless and the only way to empower it is to make new fuel from Ether Ore… an ore that has become super rare and nearly priceless in the present! Luckily, Touya has God Mode enabled and uses Search with his smartphone to find the locations of all of the large chunks of Ether Ore in the area!
While the robotic members of his harem get to work on making fuel and servicing the frame gear, an international issue pops up when Leim appears with Sue. A northern island nation by the name of Linhea has decided to have their first prince, Zabune, marry Sue; however, it is known that Zabune is evil and corrupt and they do not wish this to happen. So, they come to Brunhild to ask Touya to become engaged to Sue instead. While they are deciding the best path forward, a messenger from Linhea, the second prince Cloud, comes to get their response.
Through him, they learn about even more atrocities being committed by the Prime Minister. Rather than just have Sue become engaged to Touya, they plan to overthrow the current regime and install Cloud as the new King. Meanwhile, the Frame Gear and fuel have been prepared and just in time, too, because reports of Phrase appearing have begun!
Characters
Most of the volume was focused on the second prince of Linhea, Cloud. He is a bit meek and timid and, therefore, is an easy target for his brother Zabune to pick on. He has been oppressed by his family and made into an errand boy. Despite his timidness, he does have a spine and is fully prepared to overthrow his family and rule the country with benevolence. He seeks Touya and the leaders of the Western Alliance for help in carrying out a two-stage plan. Overthrowing power is only one stage… rescuing his mother would be the second.
Through this campaign we learn of Zabune and how he treats women as slaves despite slavery being outlawed in Linhea. He is also known to rape women, abuse merchants, steal and extort money, and only cares about becoming King and holding power. He’s about as corrupt as a politician can be. Prime Minister Wardack and his wife, Queen Dacia are no better. Together, the three of them are conspiring to convince the King to install Zabune as the new King and then dispose of him. Basically, it’s just your typical evil power move. Wonderful people, am I right?
On a quick note… poor Touya. Apparently, he found out that Dr. Babylon predicted that he would end up with nine children in the future… one from each of his wives… but he’s only engaged to five girls. Nothing like saying “Sit tight, the harem is still growing!”
Final Word
The main story progressed but paused for a bit. Servicing the frame gear and creating new fuel was the perfect excuse to expand the world and get involved in more political affairs. The Linhea story wasn’t bad but it was a bit on the generic side. If you’ve seen one story about corrupt leaders, suppressing the rightful heirs, and getting served justice in the end, then you’ve seen them all… although, I did enjoy Cloud as a character. He was pretty endearing and you did feel sympathy for him which was the goal from the beginning. Needless to say, it worked.
With the way the arc wrapped up, we haven’t seen the last of Cloud which means that’s another name to add to the spreadsheet to help keep track of this ever-expanding cast of characters. The final chapter picks the main storyline back up although it is progressing a little more slowly. There still needs to be people who can pilot the frame gears so it looks as if we are going to start off the next volume with a bit of a training arc. We’ll see how that goes.
Overall, this was an enjoyable volume! It’s pretty clear to see that these little political side missions are building up to the Western Alliance joining the war once all of the Phrase return and those Frame Gears are going to be shared by every country in the alliance. At least, that’s how it looks on paper. We’ll see!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
