I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! Chapter v5 Discussion

Misunderstanding novels. To be honest, comedies have always been my favorite, and my favorite sub-genre in anime, novels, and manga has always been misunderstanding novels.

That being said, not all misunderstanding novels are well made or funny, for that matter. This series, despite being a misunderstanding novel, is quite terrible. I mean, first of all, the beginning is extremely cliche'd, and it really didn't give me the vibes of it being a sort of "poking fun" premise of all the other isekai novels. It's just plain bad. The beginning is quite rushed, and plot just keeps on happening at an extremely fast pace. He goes from extremely weak to OP within tens of chapters. I honestly don't really care that comedy novels like these have an extremely OP MC. However, execution DOES matter a lot. His isekai chapter is as bad as it gets, and the way he powers up is extremely mundane. Well, whatever. Does it actually get any better after that, though? No, not really.

This novel has a terrible beginning because it's rushed, poorly executed, and no characters are developed. And that trend stays for the rest of the novel. You get introduced to the minimal amount of characters, and all of their personalities are extremely one dimensional. Not a single one of them get any actual character development, even the main character. They're very convenient for the MC personnel wise, so that his development of territory is perfect. Antagonists are conveniently just "evil" people with little to no remorse that the MC can kill. This greatly impedes the necessary tools to success as a comedy. If all characters are boring, how would I ever find them funny? Comic relief characters are blatantly made clear that their only role is to provide cheap laughs by executing the same comedy routines every time they get some time in the novel. Characters that might seem to be important to the novel get pushed aside for new, cheaper characters so that the author doesn't have to think about characterization. God knows what would happen if he created a character with any depth.

Despite the novel being a comedy, it focuses a lot on plot. That'd be at least kind of acceptable if the plot was good, but of course it isn't. If characters aren't well made, how could the plot be any better? It's just random people that get in the way of the MC with plot armor. It ends up with the MC winning, and the setting changing slightly with different, but extremely similar antagonists. Rinse and repeat, and we're already at the 5th volume.

However, there are two things that just make the novel terrible. The MC, and the world building. The universe is set at a aristocratic one with extreme scientific expansion. Galaxies are being conquered with advanced technology and warships. Seems pretty interesting, but the setting never gets expanded upon. You basically only know the country the MC is in, and the only nobles that are mentioned are ones that are on the MC's side, or his enemies. The only advanced technology is "learning capsules" (lazy plot device) and warships for battle. It'd be nice if there was more politics or at least some showcase of the technology there. How is it implemented in everyday use? How far has research progressed? Of course, none of that actually gets mentioned. The MC is terrible as a character because he's inconsistent. My biggest problem with him as a character is his relationship with Amagi. He gets really close with her, yet neglects her, and even picks up random women on the side. For a person who despises people like his ex-wife, he sure as hell doesn't care nearly that much about Amagi as he did before.

Anyways, I won't go any further in my criticisms of this novel, because that would be endless. However, I will just say this: the novel fails as a comedy because the misunderstandings are poorly set up with one dimensional characters. Take Overlord, one of the most popular JP misunderstanding novels, and my personal favorite novel. It's funny because the Kugane Muruyama takes the time and actually invests time into each character in the novel. Dialogue is plenty, and you actually get to know all the personalities of the main and side characters in each arc. This makes it so that when the actual interactions between the MC and other characters, the dialogue is great. Plus, when the MC in Overlord takes over a land, it's a lot more than just "I am OP so I take you over or you die, " like what Liam would do in this novel. There's actually a lot of exposition, and even a lot of time in the shoes of people who are getting taken over. All of these are great set ups for misunderstandings with the likable Suzuki Satoru. Overlord sets great foundations for the comedy, while this novel just throws it at you.

Alright. Despite all my complaints and my inability to point out anything actually good about the novel, I still basically caught up to translation in a mere two days. I can't help but pin this on my personal enjoyment and that I was pretty bored at the time. You truly have to shut your brain off before reading the novel, and it's not even funny. I didn't really laugh. At the same time though, I did finish it. Perhaps it has the least amount of merit as a novel you read as a "buffer" as I did. I just finished reading a good novel, so reading a s*upid "turn your brain off" novel like this might be fine before starting on something that's actually good. It truly was mildly interesting. But if we're being honest here, it's still not worth reading by any means.