Hachinan tte, Sore wa Nai Deshou! (LN) Chapter v202 Discussion

I have some real mixed feelings about this novel.

I really like the European ambience with sword and magic, however the author immediately stretches my suspension of disbelief to a near breaking point by also shoehorning the Japanese writing system (Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, and Romaji) into the story just to allow the protagonist to read immediately in this new world. Couldn't a unique, or at least European, writing system have been learned through the memory of the boy he woke up in?

The author's writing style is special, since they seem to be allergic to dialogue. Quite often you get a character who enters the scene and starts talking just to immediately fade into ellipsis like: "Hello, I must report... ", just to be followed by the narrator explaining what was reported. Why not have the character actually speak?

After reading dozens of novels with "romance" and "harem" with the protagonist just sleeping around with no consequences, or manga with multiple love interests but only one being chosen in the end, I like that this protagonist is actually building a family with multiple wives (half of them seem to be forced on him by circumstances though) and that there are pregnancies.

However considering the genres of this novel are Ecchi, Harem, Mature, Romance, and Seinen (and the "First-time Interc**rse" tag), I was really expecting romantic development, intimacy like hugging, kissing, and tasteful mention of bedroom activities. But I don't remember any of this happening, the "romance" is limited to the rare shopping/eating date. This has been a disappointment.

The protagonist is extremely passive, except about increasing his mana pool and trying to reinvent Japanese food in this new world. He's just reacting to side characters and enemies, being swept away by everyone else scheming and having win-win conclusions dropped in his lap. An example of his passiveness:

Spoiler

In Volume 13 our protagonist is a landed Earl. A talented veteran magician adventurer shows up, pressuring her former student, now our protagonist's newest wife, about revealing the secret of how her magic capacity has increased (the protagonists secret). She starts emitting her magic in the family's courtyard, freezing plants, furniture, and a retainer/friend in place with four pregnant wives nearby. It gets to the point where the protagonists unofficial mistress, who just awakened magic within the last week, feels the need to provoke the adventurer into a duel to distract her from continuing to press for the secret, while the protagonist just stands there and watches the show.

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In my opinion the fighting scenes are written clumsily. There is also no sense of progression in the protagonists power, it's just mentioned that his mana pool keeps increasing and that he's training his precision and control, and then all of a sudden he has a new spell to use but it was never mention when or where he learned it.

There are times during a war when the author wants to write about tactics and it just seems like he forgot how powerful the protagonist is.

Spoiler

Earlier in the story the protagonist was able to use a stun spell (which was supposedly more difficult and inefficient than just killing) to neutralize 70% of 10, 000 soldiers, but later on (with a larger mana pool) he along with his wives and 1500 elite soldiers are besieged by 10, 000 soldiers for ~2 weeks, and are about to run out of food before being saved by another force performing a pincer attack.

He alone should have just been able to sneak out at night and use one big spell to wipe out the entire enemy force.

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Something else requiring suspension of disbelief is... Spoiler

... the author introducing a small independent country that's very much like old Japan in this European setting. They supposedly have the most advanced magic technology on the continent, peerless warriors wielding a magic katana, and Japanese food that everyone agrees is delicious, because everyone on Earth also loves miso, soy sauce, and rice... right? RIGHT?

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Some story arcs just drag on and are hard to get through, the civil war/rebellion arc especially.

I realize that I have many complaints about the story, but I do enjoy it enough to continue reading it. I want to see what happens to the existing characters, I look forward to how new characters are introduced, and I want to see how the children are handled by the author.

I guess the tl;dr is that I love most of the setting and the potential I see in it, but the execution is flawed.

Edit:

I'm not really a fan of the most recent volumes I've read (Volume 13 to 19 so far), it seems like there are less long and consequential story lines and more food and side stories. I guess it's being handled this way while...

Spoiler

... the protagonist's children are still babies and need constant care by their mothers.

Vol. 12 felt like a mostly coherent story line that was important

Vol. 13 half introducing a new character, half side stories

Vol. 14 mostly side stories while deepening relationship with students

Vol. 15 mostly side stories

Vol. 16 entirely Doushi (Klimt Armstrong) retelling of his youth

Vol. 17 first half seems important to the main story, the second half is food related side stories

Vol. 18 more than half of the chapters are side stories, one is a character's backstory, one introduces the next arc

Vol. 19 I had high hopes for this arc, but this volume is more food/fishing/hunting stories and low tension developments

Vol. 20 Aaand the first 2 chapters are harvesting potatoes, fishing, making curry, and hatching an egg.......

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