Light Novels are well known for being light on writing quality but this really takes the cake.

Our protagonist is moody and unselfconscious; he only manages to seem likable by comparison to the setting which never makes even a desultory pass at believability.

It's never explained why anyone would want to summon random strangers to save the world or how this circumstance of cyclical crises was set up in the first place. Just once I'd like to see one of these cookie cutter kingdoms summon an actual modern day, professionally trained mercenary or soldier to save their kingdom. In fact I would settle for a fantasy setting that was something other than "vaguely european".

You can see the psychological deficiencies of the author play out nakedly in the work, our protagonist is an otaku of no particular will, personality or intellect. He never speaks of having friends and he casts off the bonds of family without a backward glance so that he can serve his true role as the reader's wish fulfillment fantasy stand-in. He arrives and immediately the whole world is set against him, which is not coincidentally the feeling that most self-involved immature fools have, its an emotional attitude best suited for a child.

After his "betrayal" an event that the author clearly lacks enough experience of the world to sell to any discerning reader; Our man the shield hero becomes embittered and jaded. Few things are more disgusting than a privileged 21 year old who thinks they've become worldly.

Its almost like the author was trying to be Freudian by making it clear that the only type of woman our protagonist can relate to is one who has literally been turned into an object for sale or purchase. Few guesses as to whether our protagonist has ever has a girlfriend.

More than a few light novels have protagonists who seem to jump into slavery with no sense of moral compunction, I don't know if this is just an attribute of this poorly composed genre of fiction written by and for crappy people or if Japanese culture in general just has weak moral fiber; I dearly hope its the former. Hopefully light novels are as representative of Japanese culture as Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey are of American culture.

I would recommend this book for otaku who don't read books.

Is anyone translating real japanese novels? The kind that amount to more than wish fulfillment for moody teenagers? Where can I find those?

In the beginning the history is quite nice, MC is falsely accused has to overcome a lot of difficulties, recruit some members/slaves travel and develop their level BUT most of skills/shields he acquire are useless since never MC never uses them, so it was a waste of text displaying them all, also the history progression SUCK ! At a certain point I was just speed reading since the chapters were not relevant at all. I recommend reading Mushoku Tensei instead of this one. Just dropped at volume 6.

Had almost an essay written about all the things that enervated me about this novel, ended up loosing it and was too long all the same. To put it shortly, I was disgusted at the main character, a pathetic whiner that's all the time complaining or going on how unfair the world is and on the other hand going as far as After that I read a little more but that was the turning point, I can accept many things of a mc, but that disgusted me profoundly and as @Kuranz says it's hard to sympathize with such an MC. I was also annoyed with the use of cliches that start to abound midway in the story and the harem crap.
It had had it's high and lows till that point, so I was disappointed how the story was turning out, and it became more crap than good, when the manga finishes I might read that but this one is dropped.

... Last updated on September 15th, 2019, 3:40am

When I heard this was about betrayal, I thought it'd be interesting to see how the story develops with a betrayal right at the beginning. But it turned out you can only sympathize with the betrayal if you are suffering from chuunibyou. The guy wants to deliver absolute revenge for some stolen clothes and money and rape accusations that he wasn't exactly punished for....just wtf? It doesn't help that the MC is a whiny, insecure prick the rest of the time.

Read a few chapters. If you don't get interested, just drop it. It doesn't get any better.

... Last updated on January 20th, 2015, 11:53am

I`m going to compare this to LMS is it`s VERY similar
Faults in both novels:
1. Overpowered exploits are handed to him on a silver platter
2. Everything bad that happens to him are so over exaggerated making him look like he`s not the luckiest piece of shit on earth
3. NO character development personality wise. (at least til chapter 122)
4. Everybody except for protagonist and co. are basically retards
5. A lot of inconsistencies (for example: the protagonist is a tank that literally cannot do damage except one of his skills (and its upgrades) can 1 shot bosses)
6. Author's misuse of the class system. (there is no point in introducing your protagonist as a sculptor or tank if they excel others in dps and combat anyways.)

Anyways... as you can probably tell, I dislike this genre of novels. Why read a novel that tells you: the protagonist's damage increased by 5!
skill level increased by 2!
1h sword mastry level is now 127/200!
when you can just play a single player game and turn on cheats. It's litera-... figuratively the same thing.

So, to save the world, you (either its the Gods, or the summoner fault, mostly the author) decide to summon, exclusively 4 Japanese student.

Japanese student...

Even pure Japanese, instead of other cross country candidates, it was already enough to brake the suspension of disbelief, but then, they decided to go for students? Really? Yeah, they do play VR-RPG. But so does Zelda William and Kim Ung-Yong if they live in a parallel world where Virtual Reality actually exist.

So instead of going for someone like them. You know, college educated VR player, with a good track record of not being a jerk, they went for immaturity. That would help win the war.

Come on...

... Last updated on October 28th, 2014, 3:44am

Well, I dropped the novel at 2 chapters, the manga at 7. That should say enough about my impression.

It might not be as cliched if you only look in translated novels, but if you count all the novels on the site, well yea. Summoned! Betrayed! Slaves and harem! Road to the strongest! That alone I can name a dozen. To top it off RPG settings! Argh... The only unique part is that he cannot use weapons. Sticking a peacock feather on a goose? Oh sure, that makes it different. You know how you feel when you start reading those very cliched shoujo mangas? For some reason, they have one single unique part that really has nothing to do with the story.

Then again, this is only impression from someone who obviously hasn't read far. If it gets better, I wouldn't know. The concept itself is not as close to interesting as I would have liked. I kinda just gave up when I saw it was at over 600 chapters... There's no way I'll be patient enough to finish this one.

First of all, that betrayal is by far too exaggerated.

After that I droped that novel.
Its just pissing me of every time the MC does something (anything).

... Last updated on December 14th, 2014, 8:45am

it's Such a Waste I kinda Like
Gaiden Yari no Yuusha no Yarinaoshi
it's funny to see Motoyasu's Perspective in his insanity
I just want to add a hate comment
oh well
dude buy the novel don't read the Web Novel Translation =_=
you keep saying novel yah it's a novel without an editor.
most light novels have an editor you knows to fix the wrong part.
it's a web novel so it's like whatever comes to his mind he puts in it.
the company will take care of the errors or so.
so just buy the light novel. really =_=

anyway this Webnovel is really good though it got boring later for me. it's not the worst but not the best. for me it's only decent around let say 7/10

... Last updated on July 21st, 2015, 5:30am

LOL. That quote from Kurantz's review is so spot on!

As the other reviewers have pointed out, the MC is never wrong and NEVER seriously questions his way of doing things, never seeks to change or improve his huge character flaws. He even revels in it, he celebrates and flaunts his flaws! - 'cos what can anyone do to an OP character whom the whole world depends on? I guess *everyone else* is going to have to just learn to adapt to *him*!

The MC is such an @sshat that the only kind of relationship he can think to build with people is SLAVERY! So long as everyone else is willing to be his magical slave (magic that tortures), then he can 'help' them.

Seriously, how sad and messed up is that? The MC is completely incapable of building healthy relationships, and so rather than change himself so that he can become a decent human being, he prefers a fantasy world where people can be turned into magic slaves and where there is no competition or pressure (because everyone else is so retarded that the MC seems brilliantly functional in comparison).

Particularly disturbing was seeing how the MC treats the child-like demi-humans and monsters. It is truly sick and deeply manipulative. The MC is also a crook who enjoys swindling people. The story tries to portray businessmen defrauding clients as the smartest thing since sliced bread! It's stuff you should be used to, and even, that you should emulate, it seems.

So if you want to fantasize about how you can 'win' at being a totally self-centered douche-bag, then this is the story for you!

... Last updated on February 7th, 2015, 11:43am