The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time Chapter 47 Discussion

I've come to read this due to manga adaptation (which is pretty short, I read something like 17 chapters which correspond to like 13 chapters of the novel). I was disappointed a lot, but decided to go on due to reviews here, but as I continued, I realized the reviews here are biased as hell. I don't know if you five-star people have never read a decent novel or what...

I know I only read 47 chapters (I will return to edit if I manage to read on and change my mind), but I really forced myself to read most of the chapters I did (that is starting since chapter 25-30, somewhere around there, and those chapters are long for a webnovel). Since everyone already listed a bunch of pros of the novel (be they correct or not), I will focus on cons instead. This will be a rant, but I think I'll make you see that it isn't such a great novel as others claim.

The revenge-driven aspect of the protagonist is bullshit. When he has an opportunity to take revenge on the village, it's very half-assed, and like someone mentioned in his/her review, doesn't really hurt the true culprits, and instead harms the innocents more. It's like the author wanted MC to change from vengeful to good, and instead of using a lengthy process where, say, it takes a lot of pleasant interactions and persuasion with side characters and MC mellows down, he just goes and does it. Remember Arifureta? Well, yeah, this feels similar, but way faster.

Also, the protagonist is shallow as hell. Don't get me wrong, the backstory more than excuses it, but it doesn't mean it's interesting to read in the long term, and he doesn't seem to grow at all (unless we're speaking about growing more apathetic). And there are worse aspects of it.

One of those is harem. I won't describe how 1D all of those female characters are, but something else. MC lands in a village of so-called ghouls (just treat them as some sort of long-lived beastmen or hobgoblins, and there'll be little difference) that have no concept of marriage, so they sleep around randomly and see nothing wrong with it. Now, it's perfectly normal if some love interests aren't virg*ns, especially if they are old. However, the author goes way too far:Spoiler

one of the female ghouls says she wants MC to imp**gnate her, but instead of waiting for MC to grow up (he's a 3 year old, but over 20 mentally since he's reincarnated), she goes and gets done by another guy (who doesn't even appear in the story).

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The best part is: Spoiler

MC is like, sure, I'm cool with it. I don't feel anything for you, but I'm cool with making children with you when I grow up too. Then, he even goes and helps her treat her infertility and become pregnant by this other guy. He's like one of those guys in cuckold p*rn where another guy f*cks his wife in front of him as he reads a newspaper calmly. My God.

Sure, it is okay for her not to wait for him, but why is he so apathetic about it? Why does he agree with her self-centered plans? If I were him, I definitely wouldn't want her with this sort of attitude. Sure, ghouls have the culture of open relationships only, but the protagonist is from modern Japan, so he doesn't. Unless he's from those p*rn movies I mentioned. Damn, like, really?

Some people will come up and act like ret*rds, saying that ghouls' appearance will age until their first pregnancy, so she did it to stop aging. Sure, that's right. However, the protagonist literally has an ability that let's him reverse aging. He can simply rejuvenate her by those 10-15 years she'd have to wait for him to grow up, and voila. The author is a dumbass, and his setting is imperfect, while those readers who happily accept it, no offense, but you may want to train your critical thinking a bit.

... Apparently, the Japanese readers must have told the dumbf*ck author off too because I read in spoilers (was it another review here?) that those ghouls are later being taught about marriage and stuff, so the author must've realized how ret*rded it is (or was under enough pressure from the readers to change it, but the boat has sailed, and this random waifu that wanted mc's children gave birth to a child by that random who didn't even appear).

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Also, the author has some fetish for trauma. The protagonist is one thing, but like at least half of female characters in the novel are those who Spoiler

are r*ped by either goblins or orcs or something. Then they're rescued and they're completely alright soon after, the author only bothered mentioning some mental scars for several chapters, and then the said traumas silently vanish from the story, and those characters are normal afterwards as if they'd never suffered. Moreover, they were also added into the harem, apparently, though spoilers I read on the internet indicate that true harem later consists of three monster girls, and I really can't stress the word monster enough (insect girl, spider girl, and I think tentacle girl).

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I swear, there's some heavy netorare fetish on the author's side, and he should treat it at this point. I mean, one of the love interests is even a Spoiler

lvl100 prostitute lmao

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Side characters and the protagonist are shallow in general, and so are their motivations. There was some sense of crisis at first, but then the rest goes smoothly despite the author putting up appearances. Spoiler

The vampires that came after chapter 40 were randomly defeated by protagonist (with small assistance) despite being introduced as if they were really something, for example.

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The side characters' motivations are shallow like I said, and so are the reasons they revolve around the protagonist. If those reasons are even hinted at or stated at all (some seem borderline believable, like how MC is liked by the undead, but the extent to which MC is liked goes way beyond logic). Spoiler

A good example is one of those vampires I mentioned above, she was the strongest among the group, and should be a challenge for MC, but she just got scared when MC got angry, and he randomly let her off, and she randomly joined his happy little group.

[collapse] I literally stared at the text I was reading with disbelief, wondering wtf is going on in the author's head.

Something else I appreciated at first but started to despise later on was the way the author likes to explain parts of the setting (eg. the various species and so on) at the bottom after each (?) chapter. It was a bit refreshing and nice that he put in quite a bit of effort, but then I realized it'd have been much better if he explained those things through action/dialogue in the novel...

Anyway, reading this is boring; it just doesn't feel interesting (you know what I'm talking about: the feeling where you just can't stop, and have to read on to see what happens next; this novel doesn't have it at all). It pretty much copies the common favorite concept of Japanese authors: interesting premise with boring execution that just keeps droning on and on after perhaps an interesting start. I wanted to read more because I don't have the custom of writing reviews early, but I was just so infuriated I couldn't hold back. Phew, good rant, I vented well.

By the way, the translator is doing a good job (at least in early chapters). The quality is decent, and he (she?) goes out of his way to explain various stuff to the readers. Good job, translator.