- #1
I have a love-and-hate relationship with this novel. In general, it's quite good. However, it's also become quite tiring.The setting is very mundane: fantasy-world-on-steroids academy. It's also a yandere harem, which isn't exactly new, either. The plot isn't intricate, but it's fast-paced and packed with action, so that makes up for it. We also get some twists (mostly hinted at so far thanks to foreshadows sprinkled here and there), so there's some potential for it to be much more than the usual tropes.The characters aren't particularly deep, but they're good enough, especially given the fast pace of the novel. The MC is fine, neither great or bad, but we have some major foreshadowing that what he's showing normally isn't quite his true self (and I don't mean when he's acting), and quite interestingly, we got those hints through other characters, and not MC's first-person (unreliable) narration.I don't really like the female cast. Or should I say I don't like the way they develop. They are getting twisted by what makes them villains (I won't spoil), so it's not exactly their fault, but it still puts me off. What annoys me is that all characters are like that, so there's little uniqueness or individuality in that regard.Well, it's peak entertainment when MC is handling the love interests. However, it just gets tiring in the long run. This novel is a constant series of "sh*t just hit the fat" that never ends - as soon as one problem is solved, and that at the cost of MC taking inhuman efforts to do this (the author very successfully made it a constant struggle for MC, and it doesn't feel contrived, so kudos for that), the next sh*t hits the fan.And this is a problem in itself. It's just tiring. Honestly, the author should also include some "rest stops" for the readers who binge the novel, i.e. Some parts where the pace calms down and the MC (and therefore the reader) gets to rest from the constant crises, and speaking of it, there's great potential with one of the female characters for him to be an oasis of respite for him and his support (through which she could stand out from the rest of the love interests), but so far it hasn't happened, and that female character kind of faded out of the story (not that she's vanished completely, as I'm sure the author will let her stage a comeback soon, but it's been a bit longish), so I'm not sure what the author's come up with.Anyway, the constant struggle fest that the MC is in is so tiring I'm not reading it anymore. Will come back to it some time.Oh, kudos to the translator. He's sprinkling memes left and right, making the story even more fun to read.
