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Back to the Small Fishing Village In 1982 Chinese webnovel review – Great until it wasn’t

When you’re reading your slice of life web novel and having a great time and then suddenly the author takes a really bad decision that pisses you off and you drop it but now you’re sad. If you want to experience that, read Back to the Small Fishing Village In 1982.

Summary: Ye Yaodong is a fisherman who falls into the sea in his 50s and wakes up again in his 20s in his fishing village in China in 1982, just like the title said. Having squandered his life and burned all his bridges last time, he decides to live this life a little more sensibly.

And that’s really it. Ye Yaodong isn’t one of those people who go back in time with a system or superpowers or even esoteric knowledge. His memory isn’t even that good, with only major events like his wife’s miscarriage standing out to him. And as an ordinary villager in rural China, he can’t even read until he takes night classes, though he proves to be quick study.

The only thing special about him is his high degree of luck when it comes to fishing. That, and an ability to shmooze. He also knows enough about future events to recognize a pyramid scheme at a time when few have heard of it, and to know that certain things like oyster pearls will go up tremendously in future. This helps him stay out of trouble by working diligently and avoiding standing out too much, while preparing for a prosperous future by making and saving money when he can.

I read up to chapter 77 from a blog that cleaned up the machine translation, but unfortunately the rewrites stopped just when Yaodong had bought a fishing boat and was preparing to become independent from his family. After that I read the brain-melting but still understandable raw machine translation. If you read it, you can look forward to choice lines like, “What kind of mouse meeting last time, didn’t they just not listen to A Dong? You see, they didn’t believe it and didn’t lose. We are too greedy, and the ghosts are obsessed.” It… kind of makes sense in context, but phew!

Not only did the half-garbled nonsense make me appreciate the first blogger, but it also made me think that edited machine translations (a.k.a. post-edited machine translations) are the wave of the future, at least for web novels. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Thanks to the machine translation, me and my surviving brain cells were able to read up to chapter 466 of Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 before giving up due to a very disgusting action on the part of Ye Yaodong. Before that, there’s a lot that happens, but for the most part this is a slice of life about a fisherman in a fishing village, so he goes fishing, catches fish, comes back and sells it, rinse and repeat. Whole arcs can revolve around catching spawning squid (sustainability? what’s that?) or picking up scallops on the beach after a typhoon. Here are major events I recall:

In his last life, his wife Lin Xiuqing miscarried a daughter, but this time they are able to hide the baby until it is almost due (barring one person who finds out and tries to blackmail them). Lin Xiuqing goes into labor just when inspectors come round to check, but the villagers are able to delay them until the baby is born. The truly horrifying implication is that she would have been forced to abort the almost full-term baby if she hadn’t given birth right then, which is too cruel to think about but was a reality in China’s draconian one-child policy days.
Ye Yaodong quickly upgrades from his small wooden boat to a mid-sized iron boat. He hires his father as his deckhand and sells (IIRC) the wooden boat to his friends. His two brothers take over the dad’s old boat, and everyone is happy.

Ye Yaodong makes a lot of money through different bursts of luck, such as finding pearls in oysters, picking up and selling a beached oarfish, taking rich men fishing, and finding a reef with plenty of abalone for the picking. He buys a diving suit so he can pick up expensive seafood like sea cucumbers from shallow waters, and comes to a profit-sharing agreement with his friends to let them borrow it.
He also has occasional run-ins with unfriendly people at sea, such as a guy who later incites someone to rob him, and a gang of pirates from Luzhou island. So far he has successfully fended them off every time.
There is a long drawn-out and boring sub-arc where his friend Ah Guang tries to woo his sister Ye Huimei and eventually succeeds. Every reader breathes a sigh of relief once they are finally married and out of the picture.
He successfully mends and improves his relationships with all those who knew him as a ne’er-do-well in his previous life, such as his long-suffering wife, his children, and his in-laws.
For example he goes foraging in the mountains and rivers with his in-laws and helps them make a lot of money, he helps his mother get a job as a village cadre, and he builds an extra room in his new house for his doting grandmother – which indirectly saves his life because she’s around to give him advice during a typhoon.
He saves a whale and gets his picture taken with it.
He picks up a box of treasure while diving and hides it in his garden for the future. He also picks up a tripod that he places in the local Mazu temple, then the government comes sniffing around after it. Long story short, he comes up with an idea to rebuild the temple using donations, and he also makes valuable connections in the army and the government.
He finds out that stores are being sold in a new market that he knows will be prosperous in the future, so he borrows money from his friends and buys two stores without consulting his wife. He later persuades his brothers and some acquaintances to do the same.

This is where the trouble came. He bought it without discussing it with his wife, who keeps the money in the house. When he went to get the money from her to repay his friends, she was understandably upset. So… how does Ye Yaodong persuade her? He doesn’t. He rapes her instead. Uh… yeah. When that fails to persuade her, he tries plan B: rape her again. Which works this time. The writer tries to play it off as nothing, but the magic was gone after that.

I kept reading a little longer and other things happened like Ye Yaodong making tons of money through a squid fishing trip, and picking up boxes dropped by smugglers in the process, or ordering an actual fishing ship at the shipyard (his wife doesn’t bother to oppose him any more, I wonder why) which will be ready in two years.

However, once I lost the will to support Ye Yaodong, I didn’t want to slog through the bad machine translation for his sake any more. I give kudos to the author for making a series about fishing in a Chinese village really interesting and compelling even when he’s just picking up fish on the beach, but maybe try not making him a rapist next time, yeah? I’m done here.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Mammoth post about a ton of isekai manga

After watching In Another World with my Smartphone and Knight’s & Magic, I became interested in seeing just how trashy and generic isekai (protagonist thrown into another world) series could get. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been going around the various manga aggregator sites reading what seem to be the most popular ones. Only there are so many isekais and they’re all so similar that I’m having a hard time keeping track of them. This here post is to help me keep everything straight while making some brief comments on each one.

Dungeon Seeker – Main character Junpei is thrown into another world with his crush as well as some bullies. He soon finds himself trapped in a dungeon after being betrayed by the one he trusted most. After somehow avoiding a gory death at the hands of a skeleton, he instead eats the monster and acquires news skills! And so it happens that Junpei goes around defeating and devouring various enemies while living for the day he can get his revenge.

Dungeon Seeker is one of the earliest ones I read and it’s one that I enjoy more than most. The main reason is the lack of a sidekick. In 9 out of 10 isekai series, the hero quickly acquires sidekicks. Usually attractive females, competent but not too good so they don’t outshine him, and of course madly in love with the hero. This series don’t have any of that nonsense so I can focus solely on Junpei’s exploits without an adoring audience standing around explaining every little detail for me.

The drawback of Dungeon Seeker is how hard it tries to be dark and edgy. Someone has been reading too much Berserk. Junpei himself also tries to be cold and hard but is actually pretty weak and easily flustered. It’s a bit annoying sometimes. But each chapter is fast-moving and full of interesting occurrences and cliffhangers, so it’s a good read.

Rising of the Shield Hero – It’s about Iwatani Naofumi, a hero summoned to another world who becomes bitter and angry after being betrayed by someone he trusted. He gets better though, and he has to work with other heroes to defend the world against a series of monster attacks.

The manga art is very good. While Naofumi is strong, he’s far from invincible so this might attract the crowd that likes isekai but doesn’t like overpowered heroes. It also takes a while for other characters to warm up to him, so this isn’t one of those series where everyone worships the hero from day one.

That said, it’s not that interesting a series. Probably the biggest disappointment on the list since I’d heard too much about it. Exhibit A of “the hero gets an adoring harem of competent but not too competent sidekicks,” which is cute the first time you see it but gets old quickly.

Since Naofumi fights solely with a shield, I was expecting him to use it in all kinds of unconventional and inventive ways, but he really doesn’t do much but just kind of stand there. The author too has been reading too much Berserk and now has an evil shield that threatens to take Naofumi over. Yeah yeah, whatevs. Dropped after 30-something chapters because it’s not that interesting, though I did enjoy seeing him get revenge on his betrayers.

Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou – This one is about Hajime Nagumo, who is summoned to another world with his friends but is abandoned and betrayed by one of his companions (we don’t know which one), which leaves him injured and bitter. Eventually he picks up some good skills and an adoring but not-too-competent sidekick and makes his way out of the dungeon. And that’s as far as I read before I dropped it.

I’ve heard good things about the light novel and web novel versions, but the manga is rushed trash. It zooms from one event to another without making any sense and the art is terrible too. The action is so hard to follow that I have no idea how they defeated that dragon – or indeed any other enemy in the series. It’s possible that the upcoming anime will be better, but the manga didn’t compel me to watch it.

Kumo desu ga, nani ka? – I love this one. It’s about a nameless heroine who dies in the real world and gets reincarnated as… a spider?! Yup, a tiny little monster spider in another world. And when you’re a tiny spider, everything’s out to either squish or eat you. How will she ever survive?

The best isekai I’ve read so far, 90% because Kumoko is just sooooo cute! I never thought I’d find a monstrous spider cute, but Japan managed it somehow. The other reason I like it is because of the minimal human interaction present. It’s all monsters all the time, no harem nonsense or political intrigue.

Kumoko gets very strong very quickly, but the enemies are always one step ahead so there’s still plenty of tension. The best part was the fight against the angry monkeys, in which she almost died several times and the enemies just kept upping the ante. That was a good one. The only downside of this manga is… I’ve caught up to the latest chapter, so now I have to wait! Waaaaaahhh…

Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken – A 37-year old man is stabbed to death and reincarnated in another world as a lowly slime. And he may very well have stayed a lowly slime for life if he hadn’t befriended and absorbed the most powerful dragon on the continent. Now renamed Rimuru, he’s a force to contend with as he goes about creating the world he’s always dreamed of.

This would have been really interesting if Rimuru had stayed a slime/monster all the way through. Unfortunately he soon gets a human form and looks and acts like all the other isekai heroes before and after him. Boring. Instead of a single groupie, he has an entire nation full of them, so that’s new I guess. Otherwise there’s nothing interesting about this series.

Rimuru meets someone, adds them to his host of worshippers, meets someone else, adds them too, and on and on. Repetitive and unexciting. I thought at least the fighting would be exciting since he was a slime, but once he gains his human form he mostly fights like a human. Blah. Dropped after 30-something chapters.

Jaryuu Tensei – The main character is run over by a car and dies. Then he’s reincarnated as a powerful dragon. An allegedly evil one, which has adventurers clamoring to defeat him. Still he’s so mighty that he doesn’t need to worry about puny little humans… until he accidentally eats a magical item and gets reduced to a human being himself!

Same mistake as Slime Datta Ken. Jaryuu Tensei was funny and different when it was about an actual dragon, but once he takes on human form he becomes like everybody else. Quickly makes friends, picks up an adoring and powerful – but not too strong – elf slave and goes around righting wrongs and fighting evil. Very forgettable series, and it’s sad because it didn’t have to be that way. Mr. Author, next time you write a series about an evil dragon, please ensure that it is actually about a dragon, kthxbye.

Kenja no Mago – A normal guy from this world is reincarnated as a baby in another world. He grows up as Shin, a magical prodigy and the adopted grandson of the most powerful sage in the whole world. Eventually he goes off to magical high school just in time to foil a plot to destroy the country with a demon. Now it’s up to Shin and his band of high school buddies to save the world from the evil demon wizard Oliver Strom.

The one good thing about this manga is that it is very much not a harem. Shin falls in love with one girl quickly, she loves him back, everyone is fully supportive and they get engaged within a few chapters. Refreshing! Apart from that, Kenja no Mago is just like all the rest. Shin is so clever, and so inventive, and everyone thinks he’s so wonderful, even the king and the royal household and all the enemies. He makes an attempt to train the rest of his team but it’s obvious he’s miles ahead of them. There’s no real story besides defeating Oliver either so, meh.

Isekai Tensei Soudouki – Strictly speaking, this is not isekai. Rather a baby in another world, Balud Cornelius, is possessed by the souls of an ancient Japanese warlord and a perverted high school boy. This makes him a powerful fighter who knows a lot about business and making money. He quickly catches the eye – and ire – of the rich and powerful as he revolutionizes the world with inventions like gold-plating, water pumps and… hair conditioner? The sky’s the limit for this unlikely trio!

As with the other series, Balud quickly gathers a troupe of loving fangirls and fanboys. And as with the other series, the author sends him off to magical high school, which made me groan in despair. Not another one! But before too long he’s sent on a political mission to Not!Spain where the series finally picks up and gets somewhat interesting. At least I want to know how he beats the pirates.

The problem I have with this is that the warlord and high school characters might as well not exist. They hardly ever show up except as Deus Ex Machina, then they’re quickly banished to the void until they’re needed again 3 chapters later. This makes the whole premise pointless.

The author was clearly trying to avoid the generic “reincarnated in another world” trope, but he failed to follow through with the full potential and implications of a split-personality hero. In short, despite his backstory Balud is just like all the other isekai heroes. Isekai Tensei Soudouki is still interesting once it gets the political focus the other series don’t have, but apart from that it’s nothing special.

Mushoku Tensei – A jobless NEET is thrown out by his family and dies a pitiful death. After being reincarnated as a baby named Rudeus, he vows to work harder and treat others better. As he grows up, Rudeus becomes a tutor and picks up some fans, but then the whole country is split by an earth-shattering disaster…

This one was actually surprisingly heavy on the feels. Especially the feeling of anger I get whenever Rudy’s good-for-nothing lout of a father is involved. Apart from that I read it quickly and forgot about it because it’s very slow. It’s good for marathoning, but as a monthly series it lacks the impact to keep me reading. The characters aren’t memorable at all either, since as usual they exist mainly to lick the hero’s boots. I might read the whole thing in one go whenever it’s complete since I like Rudy’s try-hard attitude. Otherwise it’s dropped.

Tensei Shichatta yo. Iya, gomen – A self-loathing high school boy with an unhappy family life is accidentally killed by “god” and reincarnated as Will, a ridiculously cute baby with all of the high schooler’s memories. By a lucky chance, all magic in that world is powered by kanji – and Will knows all of them already. Blessed prodigious magical talent, a supportive family and a loving group of buddies, Will is living the dream. Now if only those pesky assassins would stop attacking…

Not much has happened in the 17 chapters I’ve read. It’s a very feel-good manga with very cute characters and art. Despite his immense powers, Will is actually a very sweet and kind little boy. His small size also keeps him free from any harem shenanigans. I hope they keep him small forever.

Kuro no Souzou Shoukanshi – Tenseisha no Hangyaku – High school boy Tsuguna is accidentally killed by a “god” and reincarnated in another world. On the plus side he can summon otherworldly helpers through a special book. On the minus side, he’s born with black hair and black eyes, a curse and a calamity in that world. After years of ill-treatment, Tsuguna escapes from his family and takes on the challenges of the new world. But of course someone as special as him could never hope for an ordinary life.

I’d even forgotten that I read this one. Of course he’s taken in by sexy elves who are madly in love with him. Of course he quickly finds his not-too-competent but cute sidekick. Of course everyone who is anyone in the world is intrigued by this amazing black-haired boy. And there’s stuff about an evil church full of mysterious bad guys. Unremarkable, unmemorable stuff.

Manuke na FPS Player ga Isekai e Ochita Baai – An online FPS player nicknamed Schwarz Powder falls off the edge of the game-world and lands in another world. He can’t log out or go back, but for some reason he can still make in-game purchases. In-game purchases that include guns and advanced armor in a medieval world. Some guys have all the luck.

I’d heard this was terrible, but it’s not that bad. Certainly not compared some of the other dreck I’ve been trying. The gun thing is different. I don’t know enough about guns to rage over his gun choices like other fans do, which is a plus. And while Schwarz has an least one admirer, she hasn’t joined his harem full-time yet. I prefer solo players for these isekai series. Schwarz’s character design is a bit goofy but I like the world and I like the gun combat. I’ve only read 11 chapters but I like it so far.

Gunota ga Mahou Sekai ni Tensei Shitara – Not even going to bother with a proper description. A gun otaku revives in another world and forms a harem of gun-fighters. Because he was such a good metal-worker in the past that he can even create machine guns in another world. Dumb-looking art and a fanservice-heavy focus. I finished one chapter and that was enough.

Tenseisha wa Cheat o Nozomanai – Protagonist Mira is a normal 6-year old in a fantasy world. Until she hits her head one day and recovers memories from her past life in our world. She doesn’t remember everything, but she does remember enough to know that isekai protagonists always end up in a world of trouble. That’s the last thing Mira wants. “Please let me be normal, please let me be normal,” is her plea. Unfortunately fate has other plans.

Very cute manga, seems like the kind of shoujo that would run in Ribon. Female isekai heroines are rare enough, much less ones as small and cute as Mira. But of course she’s still overpowered with a moderately competent sidekick. When the scanlations left off, Mira was on her way to a magical academy (of course) where she is sure to catch the eyes of the whole world (of course) but she hasn’t gotten there as of chapter 6. When I get the time I’m going to hunt down the raws and find out what happens to cute little Mira… or that’s what I thought I’d do, but it turns out the manga is on hiatus. Noooo!

That’s all the isekai manga I can remember right now. Any future comments on these series will be on an individual basis and most likely not until I’ve completed them. There are a still a few popular series I haven’t tried yet, but I’ll remedy that in a couple of days and maybe do another post on that. I also watched one or two anime series in the past month so I’ll write about those some other time. ではまた。

Finished Gamers! The second half sucked

This is why I try to finish a whole season before commenting. The first half of a show might be promising, but that doesn’t mean the whole thing won’t fall apart once they’ve successfully reeled in the viewers. Gamers! didn’t exactly fall apart, but it lost direction and humor and just meandered around for the last few episodes. The last good episode was episode 8, everything after that was all downhill.

To its credit stuff did happen in Gamers! The main character, despite his wishy-washy initial appearance, is able to convey his feelings to those who matter to him and they’re able to respond the same way. Unlike most “everyday-protagonist with a harem of ladies who like him” shows, concrete progress is made in key relationships and that progress actually sticks and doesn’t revert at the end of the episode/show. It’s very satisfying in that sense.

The problem is, that satisfaction happens about 60% of the way through the show. After that the writers couldn’t figure out how to keep the show entertaining. It’s a show built around wacky misunderstandings but when those misunderstandings are cleared up, what’s a writer to do? Why, make more misunderstandings, no matter how far-fetched or contrived! And when those run out? Do nothing! The last three episodes were particularly meaningless. I am told episode 11 is almost entirely filler, which really shouldn’t happen in a 12-episode show based on a light novel.

Summary of the good points and bad points of Gamers!

Good

The bait-and-switch premise grabs your interest. I thought it would be about a gaming club but…
The first half is quite unpredictable. The development at the end of episode 6 was especially surprising.
The misunderstandings are entertaining at first. Some of the internal monologues and the way characters interpret innocent comments in the craziest of ways are pretty funny.
The many video game references are a cool bonus if you are into video games. But it’s not so video game heavy that non-gamers can’t understand it.

Bad

The characters go up and down in likeability and may annoy you in one episode and delight you the next.
A new character was introduced around episode 8 just keep keep the misunderstandings going. She serves no purpose otherwise and is actively annoying.
Uehara is a jerk.
Chiaki was cuter with the seaweed hair.
Sometimes the characters act hypocritically. E.g. character A hangs out with character B and his girlfriend even though she mistakenly thinks B has the hots for her. Or character B is all buddy-buddy with character C even though he’s planning to ruin her relationship and hook her boyfriend up with character A.
Even though the show is called Gamers! the bulk of the last episode is devoted to having the only non-gamer character (Aguri) bash video games for 20 minutes straight. Why would you go on a Gamers’ Meetup trip if you think they’re such a waste of time? And why would you keep harping on it? We call that trolling in real life, miss. All the goodwill I had built up for her went out the window.
The show avoided fanservice for 11 episodes then let loose in the last episode. What for??? Anyone who came to Gamers! for the fanservice must have left by then.
You can quit after episode 8 and be perfectly fine. In fact you should quit after episode 8.
Some threads are left hanging at the end. Like the implications of Uehara’s “I choose you!” statement. And the lie between Chiaki, Konoha and Amano. I got flack for calling the show an advert for the light novel, but the results speak for themselves.

Do I recommend it?

Eh. Sure. It’s one of the more rewarding romance shows I’ve seen in a while. By which I mean the main romance actually goes somewhere, and quickly too. Those who followed Hayate no Gotoku for years only to get Butler End know my pain. The show peaks too early and loses focus for the last few episodes, but if you watch it in one go instead of weekly you won’t mind too much. It’s worth a watch if you have time to kill and don’t mind high-school romance hijinks and people who just can’t communicate.