This, I hope, is the first post where I cover the final volume of a light novel series. The reason why I’m unsure is because BookWalker doesn’t list Last Round Arthurs as “Completed” on its page. This might be a Yen Press thing, since it doesn’t say Silver Spoon is completed either. But based on what happens here, the afterword literally saying “the series has come to an end”, and it literally saying “FINAL” on the cover, the fifth volume is the finale of Last Round Arthurs, so let’s review this thing already!
When we last left off our intrepid heroes, Luna’s team just found the Holy Grail, while leaving Rintaro to fight his dad. When they get back, however, things aren’t too pretty. It’s more-or-less the end of the world, actually. There’s only one thing to do: whoop butt!
As the finale, there really isn’t much to the plot at all. Basically, we establish King Arthur himself as the real villain (as if that’s never happened in edgy retellings of his legend), and he’s just nonchalantly going to destroy the world. We get the full backstory for everything, including Morgan’s motive. This takes just about thirty to forty-ish percent of the volume.
And the rest is pure action! Without wasting any time, we just go, go, go straight towards the final battle. As always, Last Round Arthurs excels in its combat, and this series of fights is no slouch. You can expect the detailed descriptions that somehow don’t nerf the pacing, as well as the hype battle shounen moments.
Unfortunately—this sounds cliché—but the finale is a bit rushed. I initially thought that the series was axed, given its relative unpopularity. But nope; the afterword says that this was meant to be a five-volume series. Everything resolves without plothotles, but the whole establishment of the climax is VERY sudden, and King Arthur being a baddie comes way out of left field.
Verdict: 8.5/10
Final Thoughts
Last Round Arthurs is one of the most underrated light novel series, but it still has some of flaws. It felt like Rintaro had a whole “face his inner demons” scene about eighty times over the course of the story, and it got quite repetitive. Also, despite how awesome Luna is, she ended up being his damsel in distress numerous times. Furthermore, I concede that Luna and Rintaro are the only really good characters in the whole series.
Fortunately, I enjoyed it immensely due to its sheer entertainment value. The action was always over-the-top and fast-paced. I could picture what was going on, and it looked phenomenal because of how well-written it was. An anime adaptation would probably not be capable of doing this series justice, but at the very least, it would only need one season to be a complete adaptation. I’d recommend Last Round Arthurs to battle shounen fans who don’t mind protagonists with a massive ego.
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