The Villain Only Wants To Live a Buddhist Life Chapter 165 Discussion

Temporary score of 3 - 3.5

A promising novel. Many people find it similar to Little Tyrant Doesn't Want to Meet with a Bad End, and they are right in some sense. This novel is similarly slow-paced and careful with detail. Objectively speaking, Little Tyrant Doesn't Want to Meet with a Bad End is better, but I prefer this novel because I don't like the former's protagonist and (probably) main waifu (again, they're not bad, but not in line with my preferences).

So, this novel has quite an interesting setting. On the surface, it's just a copy of Harry Potter + Yugioh + Pokemon + Digimon, but the author was able to make this combination alive. It still doesn't change the fact that it's not original enough, but it's already one big step ahead of other copycat novels.

The main reason why the setting works is that the author made the plot slow-paced and focused on the setting a lot. The protagonist is spending a loooot of time studying and researching, almost completely focused on those things in over 160 chapters I've read so far. In other words, while consisting largely of copied elements, the setting is fleshed out enough to make it good.

Of course, this has a downside. The plot is very slow-paced, and it could use more action in my opinion. Not much more—maybe twice as much, which would still not be that much. The novel is simply a bit boring in the long run, which I both favor and dislike it for (it's a bit boring, but it also makes it hard for it to distract me from proper work). Additionally, I feel like the characters' relationships with the protagonist could develop slightly faster.

Speaking of the protagonist, I generally like him. He has a big handicap (I feel like some reviewer claimed that it stops being relevant very quick because MC dealt with it, but this claim is only half true), and is generally likable. It's just that his character should be fleshed out more (rather than Buddhist life, it's more like a salted fish now). I mean, he should have some more vitality. For example, he likes cats, but if he was crazy about cats and it drove his actions sometimes, it'd make him much more alive as a character. Well, I suppose the slow pace is getting in the way of that too. Also, it doesn't feel like he has any overarching goal besides stabilizing his condition and studying. He doesn't really think about what he will do a year from now on or after graduation. That's another flaw.

The other characters are introduced and fleshed out considerably slowly, but this novel is so far very promising in terms of character depth. We have both obvious and not-so-obvious love interests, and all of them feel like distinct personalities, even though they have yet to gain much depth by 165th chapter. Moreover, we have multiple male side characters whom the author committed just as much time and effort to, which deserves applauding (harem novels generally don't give an F about male characters, coz there's no place for competitors in wish fulfillment; if they're not enemies to slap a face or two, they'd just get in the way). I can think of at least three, four of them who have relatively decent depth (as compared to love interests) at this point with ease.

Overall, this novel is very promising. It's just that it's slow, and the translator is slow AF. I would read the MTL, but I don't dare to attempt it with all the digimon, pokemon, and harry potter universe (magical creatures, ingredients, and spells) names being thrown around. Speaking of it, kudos for the translator for uploading pictures of digimons so that those of us readers who aren't familiar with it (like me) don't have to look them up.