I Was Reincarnated as a Nameless Combatant in a Japanese-style Fantasy Depressive Erotic Game, but the Women Around Me Are All Dangerous, and I Have a Bad Feeling about It Chapter 62 part2 Discussion

9/10 for NU standards, which due to how unfairly others have graded this, I brought up to 10/10. What is the mark of a good story? Well, obviously, it's complicated. Victory? A character who rises above the challenges of life? An upwards growth, where the protagonist's quality of life increases, where we can genuinely say that the situation has improved for the world, or for him at least? None of that is remotely necessary, or even to be encouraged, given the deluge of works where characters have everything handed over to them, where growth is not only rapid, but even more inexcusably, constant. Life doesn't work like that, and fiction needn't always change that. Where's the appreciation for just a good piece of fiction, with complex and interesting characters, a balanced and self-consistent work with a well planned out setting and plot? Why must every protagonist be doomed to rise above it all, like some messiah figure who, becoming the center of the world, incinerates every lesson that could have been taught, shielding us forever from the darker, more interesting pieces of the setting's mythos? Loss is important. Loss is interesting. Loss is much less explored. Here, in the world of "Firefly of the dark night, " our protagonist by the name of Tomobe, struggles to survive. Life is hard, cruel and short for all, its vicissitudes and trials constant and unrelenting; the scars of suffering, struggle and cruelty are visible on each and every character, both the protagonist, and all the many supporting characters. SettingSpoiler

Humans and yokai (name for traditional Japanese demons/monsters). Yokai-killing humans and human-eating monsters. Imagine a world where a war between the two races has endured for thousands of years, laid waste to entire civilizations, each side having gone through immense sacrifice and pain just to survive, with no ceasefire or victor in sight. Imagine a setting where gods torment and massacre humans, and humans stole and plundered the gods' powers, where no matter how strong you are, the unpredictable nature of your enemy means you are never safe. Where the life of a single top-class exorcist matters more in war than those of hundreds or even thousands of regular peasants or servants. Where sacrificing your allies and subordinates to guarantee victory for your kind is not only seen as necessary but a matter of course, and has resulted in an extremely stratified society where even looking up at your betters can mean death - sometimes even more random than that. Where training can only help so much, and power is instead determined by your bloodline at birth, and the clan to which you belong. Then add in factionalism, human greed and our innate gift for cruelty and abusing those we deem as less important than ourselves.

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That is the kind of world we are talking about, and boy is it a crapsack one. Our protagonist is a weak servant, with very little spiritual power, and no real way to improve his station. His masters see him as utterly disposable, yet bind him to their service in almost every way imaginable, leaving him no visible window for freedom. His every acquaintance, both past, present and future, with their minds scarred by a life with constant social stratification, where they are constantly at risk of dying, where survival means taking from those lesser than you and putting your life on the line to fight man-eating demons. Where defeat can mean a gruesome and long death, or worse, endless torture, monsterization, turning your very body into a human b**by trap, being eaten slowly, piece by piece, as your friends and family around you are butchered and possibly r*ped by hordes of monsters. Where the monsters themselves are killed whenever they are seen, both children and mature, with no concept of childhood, love or mercy. Where the few demons who have helped have in turn been betrayed and tormented by the leaders of the human faction, and those few who have survived now trying desperately to destroy humanity in revenge. Where disobedience, weakness, unpreparedness, lack of information, the improper specialization, mean death. That's what he goes through, and yet, despite it all, he is kind. Tomobe, our main character, endures torture and indignity and avoidable suffering to save those he is close with, and even those with whom he is not. He saves many girls, who in turn grow to see him as more important than their very own lives, yet can do little to help him, themselves being prisoners of their own station and struggles, who despite being far stronger than he is struggle all the same. He struggles so hard, is ab*sed by his superiors, is tormented by youkai far stronger than he is that he can rarely hope to defeat yet must vanquish, survives mostly through sheer luck, and cannot ever seem to see any possibility for real improvement to his situation. Why does he fight? Why hasn't he offed himself already, in this place where life is crueler than death? Because he doesn't want others to suffer, doesn't want to abandon those he could help in the future. It's a beautiful world, with an intricate setting and clearly planned out power system, with no cheats, where everyone plays and suffers by the same rules. People should write this kind of stuff more often. It does appear mtl'd, or at least translated by someone with a shaky grasp of English, but the writing and story come through easily enough it, and I am content with it.

Edit: I'll be tr*shing on some reviews here and the typical isekai novels below.

Spoiler

Reading some of the other reviews, a common complaint is that he resembles the goody two shoes of JP novels. I find this laughable, primarily because those protagonists are not goody two shoes. They're not sadists of course, but they have little concern for anyone but themselves and their harem. They'll save lives for sure, but god forbid anyone they meet be anything but one of two shades diametrically opposed: one, commonly lassies, innocent and good of heart, and two, evil selfish and lying scum. What's more, it just so happens that all the ones who treat the protagonist well are on the side of good, and that whomever this Japanese stand-in for all the self-righteous little shits of the world finds themselves antagonizing is usually a piece of scum that not only they can exterminate, but can do so with just cause and for the benefit of the world. Add in cheats that make them completely invulnerable to the consequences of their idiocy, "friends (i.e. Girls who often fall in love with the MC due to oh how righteous he is) " that are always on the side of good, a world completely centered on the protagonist, and what you get are not "goody two shoes" but immature children-like adults who will only help those they like with no thought for the consequences of their actions (they don't even matter when you have cheats), who never have to go through sacrifice and pain for others, and who, despite helping others, still seem to only care about themselves and their immediate entourage. You would have to stretch this very far to compare it to an actually good person. (And him engaging in s*avery is laughable. If someone buys s*aves, especially if they all happen to be good-looking ones who inevitably fall in love with the master, that should clue you into the fact that the buyer is not in fact a good person).

Oh and by the way, Tomobe here does realize how some lives are more valuable than others, and will prioritize saving some over others, though he is still almost pure good. He realizes how it will harm him to do certain things and still does them, but a large part of why he saves some people that ab*se him is because without them as potential future allies of hm the protagonist of the game (it's a transmigration novel into an RPG game world) the human world can end.

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