Well after reading through the whole series so far, I came back to find that there were a few people that had really disliked the series, and like the fanboy I am I decided to silence and harshly rebuke those few people who dared not to like what I like.
Well jokes aside I do wish to give my own take on the series and address some of the criticisms directed at this series, which while by no means is perfect, seems to get some people that really hate it for very small things. Anyways before I start I have to offer a few caveats, firstly I haven't read many light novels, so I can't exactly judge it according to it's peers, instead I will just give my own impression of it. Secondly I both have a soft spot for fantasy, and I am the exact type of person this series would aim for in terms of wish fulfillment (wasted parts of my life, deeply regret it, love the idea of a second chance in a world based on swords and magic, etc) so I will probably be biased to some degree, though I will attempt to be fair. Anyways I'll just get started.
Firstly I will look at the basis of the entire thing, the writing, or rather because I can't read the original language it was published in, the translation.The translation of this is relatively smooth (well I assume at least), though in parts it gets very rough around the edges, and there were chapters that were annoying difficult to comprehend, though that is rare. The writing style of the series is a very conversational chunks of thought format, mostly from the point of view of the main character, though interspersed throughout are more details from a sort of third person perspective. This style doesn't really lend itself to any flowery writing, or much else really. Though it's very good for quickly giving the reader an understanding of the situation and character who's view point we are looking through. It is a very quick to read style of writing, and suits the "light novel" status of the series. I can't really complain about it as it works well for what it is.
Secondly let's take a vague spoiler free look at the characters. While I wouldn't say that most of the characters are amazingly unique and lovingly crafted, or even not archetypal or stereotypical to some degree, the author till manages to make things interesting. The characters in the series are rarely static, most of the time they do experience some growth. The characters interactions too are interesting enough to keep reading, because they do change, so too do the interactions which I believe is a major draw for the series. The author also has a really great way of illustrating some of the characters by switching to another POV, and allowing us to see inner thoughts of characters that we have only seen the actions of. Personally these parts were one of my favorites, unfortunately the author doesn't actually switch POVs that often. The main character while annoying in some ways due to his character flaws (the main one of these is that he's a pervert) is fairly consistent, and not totally unlikable so long as you can get past the perversion more than occasionally spoiling the mood.
Next I suppose would be the world building, it's so so. It's there, and there's a map and a geography for the world, even a history (though we only know a bit mostly through one or two stories the MC heard as a kid, or through some brief glints of insight through characters that have lived for a long time). I get the feeling the author is going to delve deeper into this stuff at a later date, but for now it is workable.
Finally (assuming I haven't forgotten anything important to add into this review at a later date) would be the plot. The plot for most part is divided into arcs, each one having a general logical progression. Though in a few cases something unexpected does happen to move the plot along swiftly. One of the complaints I heard in one of the reviews, was that the author didn't seem to know what they were doing and were just throwing things out there, but I really don't think this is the case. I have always had the impression that throughout the series the author has had some sort of overarching idea in mind. There are cases of clear foreshadowing of major points, and of lesser points and characters there are clearly threads left for the author to pull on at a later date. Perhaps it isn't fully fleshed out exactly what he is going to do for the minor details of the story, I still wouldn't say that the author doesn't have any idea what to do next.
Anyways all in all, I would say that the series is admittedly leaning on the side of almost generic, however the character interactions are entertaining enough in my view to make it worth it.
Anyways with the basics out of the way I will address one of the few complaints that seems to have caused the most hatred in these reviews, that the MC is somehow a pedo. Firstly I would like to say, that I don't actually think it matters if he was or not, because all that matters is how something like that is used to tell a story. This is fiction after all. Anyways though I said it wouldn't matter if he was one, I have to say it's hardly written like that at all. Yes there are sorts of jokes here and there about breasts and sex appeal and stuff like that, but it's never written in a way that's realistic or seeming like it's meant to be in any way close to the real world, or even fantasies of that sort of thing. I honestly don't see what the problem is when the entire thing really has almost no effect on the story or actions of the guy in any way, I think you could even adjust the ages of everyone to be ten years older and the basis of the interactions would be the same, it's really not written in any appreciable way to actually effect stuff. I know moral outrage isn't something that you can control, but it is really irksome to see ratings of 1 on a decent series with very little justification besides a perceived character tendency.
Anyways moving on from that pointless rant that has been said before, I will address some of my own concerns with the series.
Firstly the harem, I can't say I'm a fan of harems to begin with, maybe I'm just a sucker for Victorian ideals, but I always prefer more dedicated relationships, or at least complex ones. The problem with this work ending up as a full harem work is more than my own feelings however. The problem is that by marrying the main character, the three wives become essentially tied down. For various reasons (mostly pregnancy and children) those other characters that had interesting development until that point suddenly become fixed, they are no longer actors moving about of their own accord but either always accompanying the main character. Before they ended up like that, they did admittedly revolve around the main character, but they also had some sense of agency, one of them traveled the world, one of them trained and met interesting characters, one of them formed deep relationships with some of the important players in the world. But now they are tied down to the house. I can understand why that would be, but it feels annoying. It feels like the entire scope of what we can see, and who will interact with the world has narrowed considerably. While before it wasn't exactly common to see the outside world with their eyes in a POV switch, it did happen and was enjoyable. This I personally find to be one of the most annoying developments in the series. I really hope that the author will break them out and at least let them make some moves in the future.
Another complaint I had, that tallrice right under me reminded me of, was the way that the series sort of took a mishmash of ideas from other places and tried to make them it's own. Sometimes though it failed to be a good thing however. For instance, as tall rice said the video game references. Now personally I never really was a JRPG man myself, and I do understand that it is deeply embedded in the culture of a certain age group in japan, but I really felt that some of the borrowed ideas cheapened the experience. For instance the ranking in the adventurer guild, it really felt far too generic, and like the author put it in without even attempting to make it his own thing. Though in other cases I do think the author at least attempted to make them his own, and that's why something that feels ripped directly from a game feels so jarring.
Well anyways I think that's it. Though I know the series isn't for everyone, and does have many flaws, I really hope people won't get turned away by superficial complaints, I hope others will at least try it out and see for themselves.
(-109)
(+31)
