Warning: If you haven’t read “Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon, Volume 9” by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda, don’t read this book review unless you don’t mind spoilers!
I’m back with another book review, and this time it’s “Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon, Volume 9” by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda! I’ve read the first eight books before, and I’m enjoying this series a lot so far so I figured I should continue reading this series. Here’s a summary for this volume so we know what it’s about:
“In the new dungeon, The Great Forest Labyrinth, a dragon girl named Wiene has appeared and Bell meets her! Seeing that she is neither human nor monster but something entirely different, Bell promises to protect her but…
A band of violently immoral hunters slowly worm their evil influence into the Dungeon and begin to wreck havoc, irreversibly causing strife between people and monsters. Amidst all this, the Guild begins to move and the true master appears. All these events revolve around the vivre girl Wiene and cause waves in the city above as well!
The irregulars will shake humans, monsters, and even the gods to their core. The young hero walks his path and the goddess records it–the Familia Myth!”
Plot Development: 4 out of 5 stars
This book had a more darker tone compared to early books in the series, but I think this one was handled a bit better overall compared to the book back where Haruhine was first introduced. It does feel a bit incomplete, though I read the Author’s note at the back and found out that this is actually Part 1 of the entire arc, with Volume 10 acting as a Part 2, so we’ll see how the plot goes from there.
Character Development: 4 out of 5 stars
Worldbuilding Development: 5 out of 5 stars
Despite the slow plot overall, however, I do think it allowed for some interesting character interactions between all the female characters that are allied with Bell, including some lampshading overall how most if not all of them are conveniently attractive in one scene, but overall I love the dynamics that they have between them! Sure, most if not all of them have some liking towards Bell in some way, but they also are developing friendships between each other and I find that really nice to read as well.
Speaking of female characters, a minus in this book is that I’m surprised I haven’t seen much of Aiz lately, especially given how instrumental she was in fueling Bell’s motivation towards his growth early on in the series. I’m hoping she gets some spotlight next volume, because I would like to see how she reacts to the whole corrupted-adventurers-selling-monsters scenario and hopefully, maybe, work with Bell and the others to stop this nefarious plan. I can only cross my fingers and hope it happens, because I really hope it happens. It could go really well.
The addition of Wiene in this story was very much welcome, and offered a gateway to expanding the worldbuilding of the Dungeon, particularly the monsters. We’re introduced to the Xenos, who are basically monsters but are also capable of thinking much like our adventurers outside the Dungeon, which makes it very interesting when you add the corrupt adventurers into the mix that are basically trying to sell monsters for profit. It makes you wonder which is more of a monster; the monsters? Or the adventurers?
Going back to Wiene, I love her interactions with Bell and all the other characters. Despite her being a monster (later revealed as a being called a Xeno), all of them treated her like one of their own by a day or two after meeting her, which was really sweet. Let’s keep in mind here that Wiene is basically a tiny child on the inside in a way, given that she was literally just born in the Dungeon and then ended up running into Bell and the others. In a way, she’s become the entire main group’s kid, which gives some adorable family-like dynamics overall. It was heartbreaking to see her ending up having to join the Xenos in order for her to be truly safe (and even then, one has to wonder if they’ll actually be safe, given that there are those monster-selling adventurers out there as well as normal adventuerers out to kill monsters in general, as well as actual other monsters trying to kill them), and I hope it’s not the last we see of Wiene.