- #1
By all rights this novel shouldnt work. In fact I found an mtl for this a while back, read 30 chapters and put it down. The reason for this was that I felt there was a lack of stakes, the characters were one dimensional and just me feeling a burnout from reading these korean game/ novel academy isekais. That was untill I saw it was decently popular and gave it another chance... and I was honestly blown away.Everything about this novel just screamed that it shouldnt be as good as it is, that it shouldnt work, that its lacking so much that makes a story great... and yet it just works. Instead of running into roadblocks because of the way the story is told, it keeps going untill you start believing its great... and thats why its great.It makes you believe that its better than it actually is. In that way it reminds me of the villain wants to live. But unlike that one, this novel knows exactly what it is and doesnt oversell itself that its deeper than the ocean and more complicated than a course at a med school. Its depth and stakes feels so fabricated at first, but just enough for you to stick around untill it actually delivers on its promises and keeps going untill it actually becomes great.The author is clearly improving and building upon what he teased hundreads of chapters ago. Like a mystery that been around for the whole novel suddenly becomes a center piece to the whole plot.All of this would honestly be pointless if not for the characters. They are what carries the plot at the start. And by that I mean the protagonist. On the surface he seems like any other protagonidt from one of these types of korean novels, but what makes him special is the way he deals with everything. I dunno if im right in saying this, but the man feels like a sigma male. He just goes in, does what he wants to do. Mans on a grind so that he can save the world, while at the same time is so casual about making a harem. His atitude towards it is like why not. The man isnt even trying, but just accepts it and moves on.There is also rival character in the novel. The man isnt even that important to the plot and seems like complete fodder at first... but then he gets the greatest character development known to man. There was no point to making him one of the best characters in the story since he doesnt do much in the plot, yet whenever he gets screen time its judt honestly amazing. You are actively rooting for him to give it his all even though he doesnt stand a chance against the protagonist. And the best part is that the protagonidt sees his efforts and out of respect will compete with him, but wont give him any sort of comfort or be buddy buddy with him.Also noteworthy is the harem. Some of the girls feels slightly pointless/ fill a niche so small that it could have been just one character (but they are still great). But then there are my favorites. Dorothy and Alice. I wont go in depth on them, but I will say that they are the Rias and Akeno of the series (but less friendly with each other). By that I mean their dynamic is similar.I could go on about a number of things in this novel and spoil things, but im gling to shorten the next point as much as possible.This story to me feels like it does a bunch of things for no reason. It could cut its cast in half and no value would have been lost. Same goes for some events and plot points... yet these same things also just add to the story. The author just loves to be extra with the most random of things.That said its an amazing novel that keeps getting better and better and its hard to put into words why that is. I have just chopped it up to the fact that it works.