The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious manga review (ending spoilers included)

Japanese authors may not have invented the isekai “going to another world” genre, but they sure come up with the most interesting spins. The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (Kono Yusha ga Ore Tueee Kuseni Shincho Sugiru) by Light Tuchihi takes the usual trope of a summoned hero saving the world, then cranks it up to eleven by giving him a hilariously pragmatic and cautious personality. It’s extremely refreshing, at least at the start. It’s also short and complete at six volumes, so even though the final twists were garbage (more on that later), it’s still worth a read for what came before.

Summary: Can a neurotically overprepared hero and an underachieving goddess save a parallel world together?! When the inexperienced goddess Ristarte is tasked with the daunting mission of saving the S-ranked world Gaeabrande, she thinks that summoning Seiya Ryuuguuin, a Japanese teenager who has utterly broken stats as a Hero, will finally turn her luck around. Seiya’s abilities (and good looks) are all she has ever dreamed of, but she soon wishes she had read the fine print about his “overly cautious” personality… (Yen Press)

It’s a fine comedy series – not ROFL hilarious but very amusing as we follow Seiya’s efforts to always be perfectly prepared in any scenario. I read the first three volumes, took a long break and read the final three, so I don’t remember every single antic, but there were things like buying tons of potions, suspecting every single person of being an enemy, insisting on being healed for the tiniest scratch, and escaping from battle to train more if he felt he couldn’t win.

Page from the manga The Hero is Overly Cautious
999,999,997… 999,999,998… 999,999,999…

His antics are set off against the naive, noisy and largely useless goddess Ristarte (Rista for short) who exists mainly for fanservice, to be the butt-monkey of jokes (think Aqua from Konosuba), and to play the straight man to Seiya’s deadpan but crazy antics. Since she gets the most screentime, and it can be argued that she’s the actual main character, whether you enjoy The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious or not will depend largely on how much you can stomach Rista. Personally I found her a wee bit irritating, but the series didn’t last long enough for her to truly grate on me.

There are some other characters here and there as well, but most of them, especially the enemies, are fully forgettable. The vaunted Demon Lord only gets a few pages in the end, actually.

As the series goes on, it turns out that Seiya is right to be cautious, as the enemy is just that wily and dangerous (corrupting his allies, destroying the weapon and armor he needs, etc.). It’s a refreshing difference from those isekai series where the hero is just overpowered and there’s nothing the enemies can do. If Seiya is overpowered and overly cautious, so are they. It’s a constant game of oneupmanship, and it is interesting to see Seiya being proved right time and time again.

Unfortunately the series begins to fall apart towards the end in two ways. Firstly, the initial “normal” fanservice begins to slip into vulgar, softcore hentai of the kind I can’t even screenshot here. The scenes with Valkyria and Mitis in particular were completely gratuitious and added nothing to the series.

Secondly, and more importantly, the author tried to give a logical explanation for Seiya’s overly cautious traits. Major spoiler: he had actually been summoned before in the past but failed to save the world. At the time he was the usually genki hero who relied solely on his talent and the power of friendship. As a result of his lack of preparation, his whole party was wiped out and he died. When he was summoned again, his memories were gone, but vestiges of the traumatic experience had manifested in the form of his “Overly Cautious” trait.

To be honest, I really didn’t need a logical explation of his personality. It’s a comedy series, and I was okay with him just being that way naturally. And I liked Seiya being “a hero with actual common sense for once” instead of “a hero with common sense only because of trauma.” But if an explanation had to be given, then it’s as good a one as any, so I took that in stride.

What I had an issue with was Ristarte’s backstory. Turns out she was Seiya’s companion and lover in the past world. EWWWW. As the volumes wore on, she had engaged in increasingly explicit and inappropriate fantasies about Seiya while he treated her as a portable healing herb. Then suddenly the series claims, “Oh, they cared about each other all along because of the past”? Yeah no, I wouldn’t buy that for a dollar.

You sign up for a comedy isekai and then the author decides to change the genre tags to “romance, reincarnation, tragedy” at the last minute. It’s their right to do so, but I don’t have to like it. If the The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious hadn’t ended shortly afterwards (was it cancelled? It was popular enough to get an anime) I would have dropped it. But since it’s only 6 volumes/36 chapters, it makes a good short read and ends before it would have gotten really bad, so I finished it, and I recommend it with some caveats. Give it a try if you get the chance.

I Will Divorce my Tyrant husband (Korean manhwa) – Spoiler: no she won’t

This is a universal spoiler for Chinese/Korean romance series. The longer the heroine spends proclaiming that she’s going to divorce or break up with her horrible boyfriend/fiance/husband, the more inevitable it is that they will end up together in the end. And if the declaration is in the title, then they’re bound to live together happily ever after (see also: Divorce Me, Husband).

That being the case, the point of reading such series is not to find out “what” happens, but rather “why” and “how.” Why a divorce? Is the husband really so irredeemable or is it a misunderstanding? How will they overcome their differences and get back together? Those are the thoughts I had when I started reading “I Will Divorce My Tyrant Husband.

Summary: I possessed the Empress in the romance novel. Isn’t that supposed to be good? But the problem is that this Empress is always pushed around by the deceitful Empress, beaten up by the Emperor, and she eventually died from an illness. However, unlike the original Empress, I cannot die in vain. I have to become a villain in order to divorce the tyrant husband.

Heroine Robelia is a woman from Korea who possessed an ill-fated Empress in a novel. However her husband (Alexsandro) is trash who has a favored concubine and treats the empress like dirt until she finally dies. In a twist, the concubine, Aisha, is also from Korea. Typical white lotus who cries at everything and tries to act innocent while causing trouble. She is so ineffectual and dumb at it that it’s pitiful to watch, though. You can’t really get mad at her like you could at Trashta in Remarried Empress, for example.

If you believe that, I have a bridge in Antarctica to sell you

Anyway, Robelia asks Alexsandro for a divorce, but he refuses and promises to give her anything she wants except a divorce. That doesn’t mean he’s sorry for neglecting and ignoring her or that he will necessarily treat her better going forward, though. He says so himself: he’s not sorry. Maybe one day he will be, but maybe not. And if she insists, he’ll apologize, but he won’t mean it. Again, he says it himself. He’s scum.

The rest of the series is consumed by Robelia trying to do mean and rebellious things to force Alexsandro to divorce her, while dodging the cutely pathetic schemes of Aisha and resisting Alexsandro’s attempts to get into her bed. Yes, he’s only interested in keeping her around, sleeping with her and having her manage the palace for him. Love…? He doesn’t love anyone except himself.

That makes it all the more painful when Robelia starts blushing and goes all heart-a-flutter whenever he kisses her hand or makes a suggestive comment. Girl, hold firm! He’s garbage! When garbage touches your hand, you don’t blush, you sanitize it! But no, it’s so obvious how this thing is going to go. Especially since Robelia is such a soft touch that she hasn’t done anything really bad to deserve a divorce. So basically she’s going to remain in this polygamous thing until Aisha messes up enough to be disposed of. Disgusting.

On the plus side, the character art in I Will Divorce my Tyrant Husband is gorgeous. I especially like Aisha’s flamboyant red hair and frequent outfit changes. This is how an empress should dress, not boring and dowdy like in 9/10 of other romance series. Everyone looks good, even– no, especially the scumbag jerk Alexsandro. And he knows it too, which is why every other shot of him features the biggest s**t-eating grin ever. So, so gross.

Alexandro the male lead from "I Wil Divorce My Tyrant Husband" Korean series
“I think I’m cute, I know I’m sexy”

TL;DR: I Will Divorce my Tyrant Husband is worth reading for the eye candy, and I quite like Robelia. But the male lead is just too filthy and hateful, so I’m not going to waste my mental powers on this series any more. (Psst: according to a spoiler I read, she does leave him briefly, but comes back right away because “he’s sad.”) Blergghh, yeah, I’m out.

Update on Divorce Me, Husband after a year (spoilers up to chapter 59)

I told you guys to remind me to check back in six weeks, but before I knew it a whole year had gone by. I recently started catching up on Divorce Me, Husband, or rather the much-better officially translated version, “Let’s Get a Divorce, Husband.” I like the fan title better, but everything else is superior in the official version.

So, how did things fare for Claude and Aila (Ayla in the fan translation)? Well, in terms of plot, the series is still rather mediocre and slow-moving even after 59 chapters. On the romance side, things are slightly better. First, and most importantly, Aila has decided to stay with Claude and to actively use her knowledge from the book to change his fate. Whoopee!

Secondly, Aila has realized that she is in love with Claude. I don’t know why, he’s only been very sweet and kind and protective and generous and respectful and caring, nothing more, right? But she doesn’t know if Claude loves her back. And actually, I don’t remember if he has said he does? He considers her precious, he wants to keep her by his side and protect her and all that, but does he actually love her or does he only fear losing her? And what was the real relationship between past Aila and past Claude?

Apart from the romance, there is some other stuff going on, quite slowly but still progressing. We have met the big bad of the series: surely the Emperor is going to be the one. Or possibly someone possessing or controlling him We’ve met Aila’s deadbeat father. We’ve discovered that the original hero, the second prince, is most likely just putting on an act and isn’t as lazy, rude and incompetent as he pretends to be. There are undercurrents in the royal family that require him to act out to survive.

Most importantly, Aila has become the owner of a sacred relic that insists it’s her duty to “restore order to the world.” She also met the “god” of their world, Lahas, who brought her to that world. In many isekai/transmigrated series, the heroine never finds out how she ended up in that world, so at least there’s a bit of closure on that score.

The story is that bad people are summoning demons into the world and creating rifts, so it’s Aila’s job to do something about it with the relic bracelet and its divine power. Simple enough in theory, though it’s not very convincing because Aila’s life has been so plush and shiny so far. Her life is pretty closeted, so she never goes around town or anywhere near the hoi polloi. It may very well be that the world at large is in turmoil and the people are suffering, but you wouldn’t know it so look at the glitzy lifestyles of the nobles. The biggest threat is directly from the Emperor himself, who doesn’t take kindly to people who will not follow his orders.

But anyway, stopping the bad guys is somehow linked to saving Claude’s life… and living happily ever after with him? Where did original Aila go? What happens once fake Aila/Baek Hayul completes her job? Why her? Lahas conveniently runs out of power before he can explain the most important bits, so we’ll just have to keep reading, haha.

That said, this is a pretty optimistic and positive kind of series, so it will all work out in the end. The only question is how? And when? Will I have to wait another year for closure? Hope not, but a year comes faster than you think, so I’ll just keep reading.

Before I end this update though, let me say one thing I absolutely LOVE about Let’s Get a Divorce Husband: Aila actually tells Claude whenever she notices or encounters anything shady. Not always immediately, but before very long she tells him what’s going on, they discuss it in a mature and reasoned way and come up with a plan together. None of this “Must be just my imagination” or “I don’t want to worry him” or “I can handle it by myself” nonsense that leads to so much unnecessary drama in romance series. Claude is also pretty open with her whenever she asks about things. That alone makes this series a breath of fresh air and makes me want to keep reading it.

Well, that was your yearly update on Let’s Get a Divorce, Husband. See you all in 2023, God willing!

Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe? (Korean romance webtoon I want to like but don’t)

Ever read a series that you know is good, objectively speaking, but for various minor reasons you don’t like it as much as others do? That’s Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe for me. On the face of it, the heroine Dylan is funny and likeable, the nominal male lead Cedric is… not completely terrible, but still detestable. Yeah okay, only three sentences in and I’m beginning to realize why I don’t like the series. But first the usual summary:

Summary:

Our heroine Dylan finds herself reincarnated as the villainess in a novel she read before. The twist this time is that her little sister is doomed to be cannon fodder who dies in childbirth after marrying the male lead Cedric. In her determination to keep her sister and Cedric apart, Dylan somehow ends up marrying him herself… Hilarity may or may not ensue depending on your sense of humor.

Whether you like Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe will all depend on what you find funny. If you like seeing the female lead subtly and snidely mocked and disrespected a lot of the time, this is the series for you. Personally it made me angry and uncomfortable much of the time. The problem is that Dylan doesn’t want her sister to marry Cedric, but she doesn’t want to marry him either. He only wants to marry her because of some family promise to her grandfather.

So the first 20 or so chapters are all about the creepy old Grandpa manipulating and emotionally blackmailing first Cedric then Dylan into marriage. All because the creepy Grandpa wanted to marry Dylan’s Grandma but was rebuffed. Forced marriage by proxy, so creepy.

But Cedric isn’t any better. Screw what Dylan or any woman wants, as long as Grandpa is happy, right? On the face of it, he treats Dylan with a certain amount of respect, but in actual fact he’s always gently sneering at her, teasing her, mocking her simple rustic ways. Almost every chapter has him laughing or smiling at her, quite apart from all the sarcastic comments he directs her way because he thinks she’s too simple to get it.

He doesn’t even hide it.

And it’s not just him. A large amount of “humor” and “heart-warming-ness” in this series comes from looking down on Dylan. Other summaries make it sound like everyone in the Duchy comes to love Dylan, but honestly it’s more of the love one has for a clumsy, loveable Labrador puppy than for a human being one respects. Even her nominally supportive mother-in-law is on her side mostly because of her simplicity and naivete.

In a recent chapter, Cedric’s cousin Cecilia made the express trip to Dylan’s house just to mock and be rude to her, knowing she could get into it. The past ten chapters or more (34-44 as of writing) are all devoted to helping Dylan shape up a bit so she isn’t utterly disgraced when she goes to a banquet which is more or less being organized with the specific purpose of embarrassing her. The poor girl can’t catch a break.

The one saving grace was supposed to be the cheerful, indomitable nature of Dylan herself. Unfortunately, as the chapters progress, she is becoming more and more neurotic and anxious about measuring up and pleasing those around her. You’d think if Cedric really cared about her and her standing in society, he would have waited for her to get the necessary training before marrying her and bringing her into his house. But of course he doesn’t really care about her, or about anything except himself and pleasing his Grandpa, so why am I surprised?

She is pretty cute, NGL

So after all I’ve written, the reader will naturally ask, “Why are you still reading, then?” Good question. The short answer is that I’m not reading it regularly. Every once in a while it pops up in front of me, I read it, then I remember why I don’t like it. Hope springs eternal that the series might improve. Most likely though, it will “improve” by making Dylan a perfect lady who somehow inexplicably falls in love with the sneering Cedric and he with her, and I honestly don’t want to see that. So… yeah.

I don’t hate Is it a Fortune or Is it a Woe, and I like Dylan and feel sorry for her but… I’ll probably drop this one and catch it again when it’s finally all over. There are better male leads and less pitiful heroines out there.

Divorce me, Husband – Mediocre so far (Korean romance webtoon)

Divorce me, Husband is one of those series that are worth reading if you can binge them, but once you get caught up, there’s no point continuing. Actually I rather like romance series with arranged marriages where they later fall in love, like in The Evil Lady will Change that I reviewed last time. But plenty of other fans like the trope as well, which is why there are dozens of series with the same premise. Divorce Me, Husband is on the mediocre side both in terms of story and in terms of art, so it’s not something I’m going to stick with now I’ve caught up (chapter 20 as of writing).

Summary

She possessed the body of a supporting character who was swept away by her husband’s treason and was killed.

I’m trying to divorce my husband, Claude, to survive, but this guy won’t let me go. In the original novel, it was said that he was clearly a man with no interest in his wife, so why is he refusing the divorce?

Even if you give me the most expensive diamond in the Empire, I refuse to live in such a marriage. Because I want to live!

So please, please… divorce me, husband!

The heroine Ayla has good reason to divorce “her” husband after transmigrating into the world of a novel where she gets killed because of a husband who doesn’t love her.

The series has got all the usual cliches, like dumb servants who actually mistreat a duchess because her husband ignores her, petty nobles who actually talk down to a duchess in public for the same reason, the usual tea party full of snark, scheming royals and of course, the grand daddy of all cliches: “I’M MAKING ALL THESE CHANGES TO THE STORY, BUT WHY ISN’T EVERYTHING THE SAME AS THE BOOK?

To Ayla’s credit, she realizes very quickly that some of the things she read in the novel are different from what she’s encountering. The original female lead is petty and jealous, the original male lead is a lazy, crazy and rude and her husband is actually a sweet and affectionate gentleman who was only avoiding her because he mistakenly (?) thought she was scared of him.

Claude is one of the brightest spots of “Divorce Me, Husband” because he is so open about his feelings for Ayla and his desire to be closer to her. The majority of these romance series have a male lead who is either super dense about his own feelings or super tsundere so he’ll never say his feelings out loud.

Claude on the other hand comes clean not just once but repeatedly and makes a sincere but cute and clumsy effort to win her heart by doing things she likes. He’s even man enough to apologize when he oversteps his boundaries by interfering in her social relationships. Honestly, he’s a complete sweetheart, so if you’ve had enough of neglectful male leads in Korean series or the abusive/rapey CEOs and princes in Chinese series, he’s a breath of fresh air. If I continue reading this, it will be largely for him.

BUT! There’s a problem with his relationship with Ayla. The problem is the original Ayla. If new Ayla hadn’t transmigrated and asked for a divorce, Claude would have ignored the original forever until dragging her to a messy end.

That’s one thing I really don’t like about transmigrated arranged marriage series. The implication is always that the bullied or ignored person deserved it somehow, and if only she would change herself, everyone would also change and start treating her better. Sure it’s not good to be entirely passive in life, but sometimes people treat you badly because they’re bad people, not because you deserved it by being quiet or scared. And sometimes it’s not possible to safely stand up for yourself, especially when those in authority are turning a blind eye to the bullying or even engaging in it themselves.

So yeah, poor original Ayla. Hope she found happiness somewhere else and not with a husband who completely ignores her for a year because of some pre-wedding jitters. Then says “I like this version of you better” when an imposter steals your body, so sad.

But the series doesn’t dwell on the unfortunate implications of this trope for long, so neither shall we. The long and short of it is that Divorce Me, Husband has a cliched story and a dense female lead who is resisting the advances of our sweetheart Claude because she remains convinced he is a traitor even though she has plenty of evidence that things in the novel are not what they seem. So whether you enjoy it or not depends on your tolerance for stubborn leads balanced with your love for puppy dog love interests.

For my part, I was going to firmly drop it, but the latest chapter (20) ended with Claude in a pinch, so I have to read at least one more just to make sure my boy is okay. Plus, even better, Ayla is finally using her knowledge from the novel to change Claude’s fate, though she hasn’t admitted it to herself yet.

I think the next five chapters will be the key to whether this series is worth continuing or not. Since the raws seem to be caught up with now, I’ll have to check back in about 6 weeks, but the next developments will be important. If Ayla successfully shakes off that pesky “It’s just a novel” mindset and commits herself to staying with Claude and saving his life, all well and good. Otherwise Divorce Me, Husband will just be another mediocre entry in the rapidly saturating field of Korean webtoons. Remind me in 6 weeks to check back again and see.