- #1
This may not be the best ever WN I've ever read, but it's the one that's caught my heart the best, and for one simple reason:The protagonist, the adorable catgirl Fran.That's right, I consider Fran the actual protagonist of the story because she definitely is: everything that propels the plot forward is in accordance to her motivations and wishes, and she's the one who undergoes the actual heroes journey. The supposed main character i.e. Master may be who the story is titled after and may be our viewpoint character, but he pretty much just fills the role of the supportive guardian who's responsible for Fran's powerups, and of course his goal is pretty much to support Fran's goal. Both Fran and Master may have their own goals, but Fran's is definitely the more compelling one, and the majority of the adventures in the story occur due to her decisions. It even holds true this far into the story, because even when Fran accomplishes her initial goal, her motives extend far beyond herself and that goal, thus she doesn't lack in direction and motivation to push the plot forward. And Fran as a character is extremely likable: she's the right mix of someone who's taciturn and seemingly blase in her expression without being a stiff cold-hearted robot, and when her emotions flare up we definitely know it. Also, she's not a wishy-washy character who wavers in her convictions at the slightest thing, she's incredibly resolute and once she sets her sights on something nothing will stand in her way. This extends to stuff like life or death, where she's quite merciless to those who deserve it and will think of nothing of enacting torture and mu*der on her enemies, and yet she never becomes one of those dark and edgy antiheroes for whom the ends justifies the means because in the end she's just pragmatic. She also wholeheartedly displays her childish side (like in her foodie side and her absolute boredom at things that don't involve battle and food) because despite everything she is still a child, and that childishness combined with her aforementioned taciturn ruthlessness makes for a very appealing and adorable character.I also like that despite Master's cheat abilities and her own genius, Fran still is far from being the most powerful character in the setting, with one of the LN's overarching lessons being that there's always someone or something more powerful. She's definitely OP, but the story does give opportunities to show her struggling or even losing against more powerful enemies without resorting to downplaying her abilities.I do like how many reasonable characters there are in this story. Sure you have the standard contingent of characters too s*upid to live, but there's also a lot more characters here that definitely have a good head on their shoulders despite their quirks, and they play off well with Fran.I'm glad I found the manga first before reading the WN, as the manga definitely knows that Fran is the best way to start of the story, and it condenses the first dozen WN chapters with just Master into a single chapter. Thus, I came in knowing that Fran is the best part of this story and worth sticking around for, and it was definitely a mistake on the WN's part to focus so much on the sword at the beginning.
