Youjo Senki - Vol. 17 Ch. 48 - Open Sesame IV

[everpink]

this has a major plothole though....it was stated that only the empire (not-germany) and Allied States (not-US) used female soldiers so how did Erya (Vishas Spy friend) manage to spy on the republic......... there might be a chance that Erya is a double agent probably from the Allied States (not-US) and if i recall Erya wasnt in the WN

 

[Deathhappens]

So wait, the Empire really does have an Intelligence department? Man, what a shocker (lol).

EDIT: Because there seems to be some confusion on the subject, the girl here is Visha's friend who was stated to work in Intelligence in previous chapters. Looks like she did more than just push pencils and gossip with Visha, then.

 

[Blazer168]

@Deathhappens illusions spells, I thought she was a guy until she removed her hat

 

[Brigitte]

Man those Albion guys could not catch a single break all the way up to the end. I was almost rooting for them seeing as how every plan they'd made up to this point had been foiled lol.

 

[Shyning]

@everpink as mentioned by @Blazer168 this was most likely an illusion spell, she appears as a man all long until she doesn't care anymore and dispel it (everyone's dead around her).
She is most likely using the Type 97 as well, considering she could use it undetected. Let's consider that illusion spell may very well have an extremely low mana signature compared to the battle magic used on the fields.

 

[Morihere]

@redpandamaniacal omg the spokesperson part I didn't even notice. You're right.
@Myllari123 yes that's one of the fresh batch of graduates alongside 2nd lieutenant grantz from officer's school. She has been shown in a few chapters already. I actually love her and glad she had screentime here she's so cute like a big version of tanya with that ponytail of hers. Oh how I wish she would join Vishna and Tanya in their escapades.

Also, I'm surprised a lot of people didn't notice that the story gave hints that Erya was possibly a spy from what Tanya and Vishna said that she has very sharp ears and could very well be a spy because of that. I didn't expect her to show up THERE though. I thought she was somewhere else. Also, I know that I shouldn"t be in the comments for this but it makes the story really hard to read anymore because people keep saying the Empire lost over and over again. I really hope that it's just "lost" meaning the empire manage to exhaust their current and future enemies' supplies thus achieving national defense, as they originally planned and brought them to negotitations. The empire issued a "surrender" and the world has the right to make history. Also note that there was a chapter where 2 reporters/analysts were discussing and one asked "Why are you searching for the truth? To make it seem like the Empire LOST?" Or somewhere along those lines. (UGH, I really hate this but it's you guys fault anyway since some morons didn't indicate a spoiler tag during some chapters. I want your favorite mangas to have a gruesome plot twist in the end that drives you to insanity just to show how much of a jerk are you.)

 

[Trosfy]

@Noggin How you came to that kind of conclusion is beyond me, but I'd advise you to once again reread all the mentions of the '11th Goddess' so far. That existence should only be a mystery to other people in the world of this series, not to us, as it is obvious who or what it is referring to. Just use common sense, logic, and facts, and you'll see how much you've blatantly ignored to jump to such a conclusion.

It's quite ridiculous how just a single appearance of some side character could shake the views of others, even though it doesn't make any sense at all in reality of that world. It's likely you don't even remember any document or record about the 11th Goddess, as any one of them can so easily debunk your speculation.

 

[Noggin]

@Trosfy 😂 your argument method: "You are wrong, you are stupid." -points at 48 chapters- "Go prove yourself wrong."

The amount of unreliable narrators in Youjo Senki generally makes any assumptions we make moot.

Erya's appearance here helps explain how, even in the post war reports Tanya's true identity is hidden.

 

[Noggin]

The implications of the Andrew reports make it that anyone non Empire who sees Tanya and identifies her as the Devil of the Rhine needs to die or that person becomes a plothole. 😂 With Erya, now we can generally assume she is cleaning up after Tanya's carnage. Or if the information does make it back, Erya is intercepting them or spreading misinformation to counter it.

Spoiler

In the movie, Mary Sue surviving is one such plothole, but the Andrew reports are not part of the Youjo Senki Cinematic Universe iirc.

 

[N0Mi0]

Holy shit, this was a delicious surprise. It was so well placed, that it just felt natural, like another piece of a puzzle being suddenly found. Even though this is manga-"original" (now I really want to know whether Carlo Zen is mentioned as the author as in "original creator" or whether he prepares the (manu)scripts; @Miralisque, do you know, per chance?), it doesn't feel out of place at all. In other words, it covers something that LN didn't cover, so basically it really is additional information.
At this point I think we can say that the LN is a strategical view on the story, and manga is the tactical view.
I have never seen such a complementing manga adaptation, I mean it. It is rare.

Now, as others mentioned, this woman (I can't really call such a person a girl now) is a friend of Visha back from the academy, I think? Now that I think about it, it really was somewhat heavily implied that she wasn't just a nobody, and I remember wondering if she was assigned to Intelligence service when she answered about her assignment vaguely to Visha (I think she said something about either artillery or rear position). I actually have trouble remembering her from the LN, which probably means that she wasn't covered in it much (if was at all).
In any case, at least for me, her being a spy wasn't a complete surprise, it actually felt "right."

Also, I want to note, people talk about her being a spy, but there should be a large note, that it really is implausible that she is not the Empire's spy. Covering up for this would be really tricky, considering the already established facts about her.

But the way, iirc, in the novel, much to the intelligence officer's dismay, after the attack he discovered that the recording was incomplete, broken, or something like this. I also don't think he died.

And I'm a little bit sad that we weren't shown this as it was in the LN: from the horrified Vianto's point of view.
-----
Now, I think this is the only comical moment that the manga presents weaker than the novel. You see, the whole part about Tanya being aware of other countries' (Albion, in particular) spies and such, was actually shown quite a lot in the novel, us having whole little chapters about different agents being utterly shocked and horrified, since Tanya knowing about all those things implied that their whole system is dysfunctional, and that they all completely misjudged the Empire's intelligence forces. Little did they know, that in reality the Empire's intelligence was even worse than they anticipated. It all goes on and on through the eyes of different agents, especially the Albion's Intelligence Chief back in Londinium having the nightmare of his life not understanding just how was it all possible.

These were the most hilarious parts of the series, at least as far as I read. At one point they even were scared about doing any more investigations considering they had no clue as to how much the Empire knows.
-----
Man, I really appreciate that this manga shows a little bit more of the wing soldiers. First Ponytail, now this curly-haired big guy (apparently 05? So he's the fifth in command/power/e.g.?)

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@Dyoneva

this also explains a whole lot about the irregularities and the errors in the news/data in the chapters from the future

I can't really agree here, there being a spy in enemy HQ is nothing unusual, and so far we were only shown that this agent is competent in her job. Attributing to her the achievement of classifying and outright destroying most of information about "Eleventh Goddess" is simply favoritism. As far as we know at the moment, she's a field agent, actually.

@beepboop1

I'm still hoping it's all a prelude to adult Tanya arc and WW2.

What "WW2" exactly are you talking about? %smug_anime_face.jpg%
First of all, we know from future chapters that there was no WWII, there was only one Great War, which ended up with the Empire loosing (though we don't know the peace conditions).

Secondly, the basic conditions for WWII are not met in this world. The Empire is a Großdeutschland (basically Germany + Austria), something which never happened IRL (aside from occupations) for various reasons. It is of imperative importance, since Austria, in contrast to Germany, was a somewhat multinational state. So, the whole idea of racial superiority would have a weak standing in the Empire. Heck, a lot of characters in the series have non-german names. Which means no NSDAP ruling, at least.

@Richman

I read the Otto Carius manga the other week, so, are the animal forms of the countries people of this manga a reference to that one?

Having two works sharing one theme doesn't mean that they are connected, you know.

You should look up some general animal caricatures and propaganda of 20th century, French being portrayed as pigs, Soviets as rats/foxes, and Brits as lions is much older than all of us.
And considering the paramountcy of Military-Industrial Complex in the Empire, it is only fitting that they are portrayed as wolfs.

@Ravezta

this is why a prefer the manga version. the anime adapt things at speed of light while the LN spend too much time with tanya's complain monologue and real history lesson which may or may not be right

simply because it's too much. i do enjoy the trivia but it is still a fictional novel, not a history book itself

>complaining that what is basically a thought work upon early 20th century military with the addition of specific offensive magic is wordy and too detailed.

Um, OK.

@redpandamaniacal

She seems to be in chapter 41 page 36 as one of the news reporters as well.

I am fairly sure it looks like another person for me.

Apparently Erya is known as a spy to UK intelligence as of chapter 29 page 78.

Oh, good catch, thanks.

@Rugid

LN writing is very poor really

Yeah, that's why it has such a cult following among all kinds of military nerds and 20th century history enthusiasts, especially in Japan. Because it's poorly written. Well, sorry it's not some shitty edgy isekai, oh wait, it is a satire about isekai.
Calling one of the most complicatedly and wittingly written LNs out there "poorly written," some people are just so... Well, I guess if we to compare it with something like Caesar's Commentaries it would look poorly written. Jeez.

@everpink

this has a major plothole though....it was stated that only the empire (not-germany) and Allied States (not-US) used female soldiers [...]

What. It was never stated as such. It was merely stated that the US and Empire don't care about gender for mage positions, and that the Empire additionally doesn't care much about not being of age. She easily could've been portrayed as some military office worker, which would actually explain her being in the enemy HQ. You're confusing the objection to women being in fighting forces with women being in the military on the whole.

@Trosfy

[...]It's quite ridiculous how just a single appearance of some side character could shake the views of others[...]

This.

 

[beepboop1]

@N0Mi0 Yeah I'm quite familiar with how WW2 started. If anything I know more about WW2 than modern stuff or any of my countries history... which isn't saying much I'll admit.

From my memory the future wasn't that far into the future so a ww2 could happen, for some other reasons. But highly unlikely. Honestly it's just kinda sad seeing Germany being the one who is attacked by everyone and blamed for everything. While the blaming isn't exactly incorrect knowing history of the great wars at least in that case people didn't just outright invade them first. Then kept dogpiling. Not really a complaint just sad to see but the world is not fair.

I'd just really love to see Tanya have some success and recognition instead of basically deleted.

 

[everpink]

@N0Mi0
no its heavily stated in both the LN and the manga that only the Empire and the Union of states were the only military that employed female soldiers heck the not-britain(forgot the name) even mentioned that it they needed to change their point of view when it came to spycraft as the empire employed female mage spies and that they too might someday employ female operatives

 

[Rugid]

@N0Mi0

Yeah, that's why it has such a cult following among all kinds of military nerds and 20th century history enthusiasts, especially in Japan. Because it's poorly written.

This has nothing to do with how good or bad author can write. Like, at all.

 

[MadXBite]

The comments are really advance here.

 

[redpandamaniacal]

Wait, rereading this, something came to mind. I wonder if the detection spell that they picked up was actually from Erya in order to lead them to the secret room. A bit earlier in the chapter, the UK guy does say not to use magic, and even if it's stealthy, there doesn't seem to be a reason for them to use a detection spell while holed up unless it has something to do with recording their mana signatures perhaps. That said, she must've been aware of the room, considering she heads there after all the fighting is done to deal with the one survivor.

 

[Glomoro]

@redpandamaniacal They did mention how they probably wouldn't have even noticed someone casting it if not for their overpowered computation cores. It could be that the guys hiding down there felt like they could cast the detection without being detected themselves, and under normal circumstances that probably would have been true. As for how the spy girl found her way down there, it's just as likely she only entered after the Major and all of them took off leaving a noisy mess in their wake. They had to get going, but her job would entail at least checking for anything of use that was left.

 

[redpandamaniacal]

@Glomoro

Yeah, I'm definitely not certain exactly what was going on, but I just realized that I was less certain about my initial belief that it'd been one of the people in the bunker that had used the detection spell. Like you said though, that still does seem to be very likely what happened.

 

[Trosfy]

@Noggin I won't debate over something that is obvious to most of us, but I just hope that you're not so ignorant as to believe that a single agent would be able to intercept all the information on Tanya or spread false information about her. That agent was only shown because she has connection with Visha (this is how things happen in fictional works, so that it has bigger impact on the readers/viewers), and it certainly doesn't mean she is the only one working behind the scenes (so it's impossible for her to be 'the one you claimed her to be'). Besides, your next comment clearly implies, without you realizing that you're debunking your own speculation, that it's the Major who is being referred to with those 11 X's (and the agent you're talking about only served the purpose of hiding the Major's identity by tampering with the information on her).

Well, thank you for proving me right I guess.

 

[SotiCoto]

Well... that was foreshadowed pretty hard.

 

[Alex-dono-sama]

I knew erya was a spy but is she a spy for the empire? i would assume yes because she killed the united kingdom spy and the empire is the world's enemy but she could be a spy for something like the U.S.