Saihate no Paladin
The Faraway Paladin

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I read three chapters of this manga, shut down my computer, and called my Mother
to say hello for the first time in too long. If you're as lucky as me, you'll do
the same.

It is good when a piece of fiction that's rooted in the fictional concept of
rebirth acknowledges the importance of "family" in the development of character.

This is rare in Manga. Oda once said something along the lines of "Good
parents don't let their kids grow up to become pirates" and can you really say
that's inaccurate? I can't.
...
The sense of childlike wonder in the romance of adventure is synonymous with the
concept of premature independence. Link's a child who's probably too young to be
saving Hyrule, and Miyamoto was probably too young to be exploring the
countryside on foot collecting bugs, which inspired The Legend of Zelda in the
first place.

Immaturity and naivete are necessary to healthfully consume young-adult fiction;
at least it is as you begin to grow older.

Consequently, I'm not sure if the growing popularity of Isekai says something
about the maturity of aging fans of Japanese media, or if it says something
about the desires and fantasies that these fans hold dear to themselves.

I expected just another one.
Another light novel adaptation with okay art.
Another protagonist who's tired of it here on this plague infested planet, lucky
enough to escape to a fantasy world with a unique and privileged set of
challenges granted to him by a benevolent, fiction-crafting God.

Then we met William. Saw William. The art is beautiful.

He introduces us to his family. They're the only plot in sight.

"It's hardly a Manga at all" I thought to myself.
"There's no substance except for the Mistborn-esque magical rule explanation."
I'm bored already.

Then there's a simple secret. Everything is simple. It's so juvenile.
Then... a church. Religion? Non-trivial acknowledgement of the ethics underlying
reincarnation?

Chapter 2. This is what I was expecting. I've read four dozen Isekai that start
this way, and I hate them all. I hate the protagonist... Wait, the protagonist
also hates the protagonist.

"Maybe this is another one of my punishments..."

His mother takes him outside, a baby no more than a few weeks old.
The scenery is beautiful and overwhelming.

"After living in such a hopeless vague manner...
I had though that waking up in this world was my punishment for not being filial
and retribution for looking down on life.
However, this is by no means a punishment.
This is forgiveness.
The thing that I had carelessly thrown away was granted back to me by someone."

Here's where you know it's a different kind of Manga.

William is, for lack of a better word, blessed. He's dutifully being raised by
a capable, knowledgeable, and passionate family. They forgive his faults,
nurture his curiosity, and, barring the occasional uncharacteristic hostility,
are kind to him.

There's really, honestly, nothing in the slightest wrong here. There's no plot
and you don't understand why you're okay with that.

You're told by the parents that there's a "lot going on" and you believe them.
You're certain that whatever it is, everything will be okay.

Will is living this Manga with the exact same vision that I have while reading
it. An adult "inhabiting" the life of a younger person and trying to make the
most of it.

To me, as I read through the lovely, comfortable, and masterfully crafted
atmosphere woven for me by the first few chapters, I found it asking me
questions.

I forget these questions.

As we age we attempt to comprehend the emotional states of our parents.
First they protect us, and as we age we come to better understand them.

I don't know how old I was when I first realized "Oh, my parents are mortal and
have flaws and weaknesses just like me" but I think it was however old William
is in Chapter 3.

The plot has been there all along. You still can't put your finger on what the
plot is yet, but you finally realize it's there.

You're not reading this any more to solve a mystery.
You're reading this because, just like Will, you want to understand what Wills
parents are saying, doing, and feeling.

The narrative continues. It focuses on Will. His teachings from his Father and
Mother grow more involved, and the teachings from his uncle grow increasingly
unreasonable and hostile.

You don't know why. It doesn't matter.

I've beaten this bush enough. I recall my question.

... What the hell is wrong with you? Yes, you. How can you consume this genre?

How fucking dare you think that you'd be okay after being forced to leave behind
everyone who's ever loved you?

How fucking dare you so easily accept fiction reliant on your identification
with self loathing, self hating, regressive, and distraction obsessed main
characters?

Saihate no Paladin understands these questions.
They form the cornerstone of the first arc of this Manga.

When you're young, it never once occurs to you that the people who raised you
won't be with you forever.

The time comes when Will is at his weakest. He's old enough to learn what his
family is and what his existence means. His existence is born of a malevolent
scheme that exploits the fundamental goodness of his family, and they may be
killed for having raised him.

The restraint I show by keeping this review free of spoilers is causing me
genuine anguish and suffering.

I found myself incapacitated by a piece of fiction I was reading.

Under the weight of having learned the harm that he did by merely existing, he
utters aloud the words "... It's all my fault."... And the way that his parents
repair his emotional well-being is just... Peerless. Un-Improvable. World-view
altering.

I've frozen at this impasse in the review for four months now.
Eleven thousand words and I can't find a single combination of them that
satisfies me.

Every time Will cries in this Manga, I do too.
This is no mere sympathy, but empathy.
You can't relive life, and you can't truly reread this.

I've tried. It injures me every time I do. Every time I reread this, the feeling
of childlike wonder I felt never returns. The realization Will lacks until
adulthood, that the lives of those he loves are fleeting, haunts me and prevents
me from suspending disbelief. How can I suspend disbelief? This isn't fiction
anymore.

This is a beacon of what fiction is capable of.

Will is tormented by his memory for failing to express his love when he
could. In whatever feeble way this is, I will make that mistake no longer.

Read this in any form you can. I can say the Light Novel is just as astounding
as the Manga, and neither is better than the other. The correct answer is to
read both, and then tell me what you thought of it.

I'm just gonna a write a short review, the start of the manga is really good it has a good atmosphere and characters with good world building and a lot of intrigue but after you get into the manga it just slowly becomes less and less interesting I stopped reading after a certain point but i would recommend reading the beginning latest because it is actually really good but after that it becomes quite boring. I would say the world building and the atmosphere are the best parts of the manga and the family are great characters that you grow to love but as but ... in the later half of the manga it feels like all the intrigue and world building goes away. btw i put a random number of chapters that i read because i cant remember what chapter i ended on.

[Spoiler Warning]

Why. What the hell happened.

Imagine. Please hold on for a second and imagine this...

Our writer was on the path to creating a masterpiece. Literally. This story was up there with the greats in terms of prose, atmosphere, tension mystery, and world-building. Please don't get me wrong, this wasn't perfect in EVERY way. For example, the characters where lacking. I would imagine this is one of the writers weaker points albeit they still weren't bad by any means, and one could be willing to forgive this aspect in light of what he/she had presented us with. More specifically, the Re-incarnation plot device really holds no ... meaning at this point in the story. This plot point is brought up sparsely, with our MC having seemingly no attachments (Of course he was a loser from what we can gather, in his previous life and nobody loved him because PLOT) to his previous self. Its not like he uses his previous life's experiences or knowledge to do anything noteworthy either. Although this is a bit vague, as its mentioned multiple times that he "HAS HIS PAST MEMORIES" but at the same time can't remember them all at once.

Despite that, this story may remind some, of works such as Texhnolyze and more so Haibane Renmei in terms of environment. Having a small cast of characters in a somewhat solemn setting, with an INCREDIBLE amount of symbolism. The manga is overflowing with subltey and nothing is exactly given to the reader.
Full of mystique, what happened to the other humans? Why is out MC here? Why is everything so desolate and empty? Why does magic exist? Are gods ACTUALLY real, after all, magic exists? Who knows. THIS is what we want. Nothing handed to the reader letting us use our imagination to surmise and put ourselves on the edge of our seat waiting for what is coming next.
For example, the way in which gods were depicted was done masterfully and reminded me instantly to that of Haibane Renmei. When you have these beings known as gods, bringing them into your story in any way instantly ruins all tension build up previously and at the same time these beings GODS themselves. After all, they're gods....if you bring them into the story they no longer become gods and become "Muh extremely powerful otherworldly entity". The word "god" have a preconceived notation of "Not existing but existing at the same time". They should have no play directly in the hands of our characters, and the writer seemed to GET this. Seeing these imposing monuments that weathered by the sands of time inside the temple gave a sense of awe, and utilizing shading techniques increased the atmosphere and was incredibly well done. And then..... the writer goes ahead and does it.

Imagine for a second here, a world-class chef making you a steak in the likes that you have never tasted before. You have this steak before you, cooked to perfection. The chef bends down. Your eyes are watering with anticipation. He brandishes his hand above the steak and, with a quick flick of the wrist adds the final saltings to the top. The room goes silent. At that point, he stands behind you and whispers into your ear "Bon appetite motherfucker... I fucked your girlfriend". You can't control it any longer and burst into treats thankful that you were born into this world as a mere mortal.

This is literally the definition of Wills encounter with one of the first mysteries of this story being unravelled. Mary's self-immolation in the temple. [Chapter 3 Pg26-27]- There are no excess characters or cliché HOLY LIGHTS, NOTHING. It is simple, pure subtle perfection in what its trying to depict whilst at the same time not ruining the mystery of the gods or creating tension for the sake of tension. This is WHAT we came here to see.


Further on in the story, the writer does it yet again. With no cliché "VOICE FROM THE HEAVENS" or "GOD HAS DESCENDED TO BESTOW KIRITO WITH THE SPECHIAL SKILL" or "I FELL ASLEEP IN FRONT OF THE GOD STATUE AND HAD A HEAVENLY DREAM IN WHICH I SPOKE TO A GOD BUT CONVENIATELLY FORGOT ABOUT IT WHEN I WOKE UP" etc, and no, I can actually praise the author for not taking part in the last one, which was so incredibly close to happening in [chapter 6 Pg14]- when Will asks to visit the temple before undergoing Gus's teachings. YOU CAN LITERALLY SEE any shitty LN author licking his lips and twirling his moustache saying "HheHehehe its time to crank this story up to 11 GUYS!!!" when Will goes to touch the statue and similarly sits down in front. However, in none of these instances was any conveniently placed character called upon to advance the plot or tell the main character to do anything. And this is what we call GOOD WRITING. All plot advancements are made by our characters and the natural way the world flows.

All events are propelled by the ageing of Will and work towards the inevitable conclusion, this being his coming of age at 15. We see a change in the characters feelings and they realize that Will will no be with them for that much longer, and with Will himself. There is no need to go into this part, as anyone who has read the manga will be aware of how the atmosphere changes in between the characters.

And so we come upon chapter 6. The dual with Brad. Again, the writer knows not to go too overboard and the dual is quick and simple, with Will loss. Which again, is what we expected, but not what we expected. I'm sure some of the newcomer manga readers here expected Wills win, with Will whipping out his newly learned DUAL WIELD technique (Of course, practised in secret) where he splits his spear in two and starts dealing 950000 damage per 1-second COMPLETELY defeating Brad and then just fucks Mary on the spot.

But no Brad is still ahead of Will in terms of fighting capabilities and this is OK. It doesn't matter. This scene is not so much about the dual but about Will graduating and the emotions that come with this.......... or is should have been. Until Mary suddenly starts acting COMPLETELY out of character.

What the FUCK just happened.

Mary. Our girl MARY just literally completely changed character. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Mary was some emotionless machine or anything. [Chapter 3 Pg12]- Depicts this. However, Will comments on this saying "It's rare to see this side of Mary". And its true for all we know. Mary is NEVER shown to be an overly emotional character. But WHAT THIS FUCK IS THIS: [Chapter 6 Pg36]-. Literally, though I was reading a different manga at this point. Why is Mary acting completely out of character? I had to take a break from reading for a few minutes I couldn't believe my eyes. I mean, surely I was just going insane from too much Trash CGCTSOL, that I had started to see characters start acting like complete tropes. But after returning, I was to face the reality that this was no delusion.

le-terally this is how it went:
~~

Finishes chapter 5, our writer heads out to the local isekaiya with his VN novelist nakamas.

Gets absolutely wasted on a few too many beers.

Proceeds to stands up and cry "OMAERA I BET YOU COULDN'T MAKE A LN BETTER THAN THIS".

The room goes queit and then SUDDENLY OUT OF NOWHERE, one of the nakamas present teleports behind our writer, unsheathes dual Kirito fanfic manuscripts whilst whispering in his ear "pssssh... nothin personnel kid.... just watch me"

This is the basic jist of events, after to which he says "FIRST WE GON CHANGE MARY WITH MORE "WITTY ANIME HUMOR" AND GIV OUR MC A SPESHIAL SWORD", and this is literally what happens as Brad then proceeds to whip the fucking sword of Azeroth out of his ass and present it to will out of nowhere. WHERE THE FUCK WAS THIS SWORD THE WHOLE TIME THEY WERE FIGHTING. Again, I will repeat, IT COMES OUT OF NOWHERE. No mention or foreshadowing of this ebin sword beforehand and Brad just casually mentions it's been in the cupboard for a while.

Please tell me why we want this? What happened to Will's spear that he actually ACHIEVED? We as the readers at least had an attachment to this fucking spear as its one of the first things Will manages to procure with his own strength. Making us feel as though we're with him on this journey. But I guess fuck actually working for your shit as this manga had been up until now.

And then chapter 7 rolls around and this manga dies.

.....

...

..

.

Imagine booking a reservation at that world-class restaurant you visited earlier, waiting months to FINALLY get your chance to taste that juicy steak again. You park in the parking lot, only to find for some strange reason that there are no other cars around. With a lingering feeling in the back of your mind, you make your way to the lobby entrance only to find out the lights are all off. At this point, unable to control this ever increasing bad feeling you rush up to the door, swinging it open. Your heart sinks as you look into the once was restaurant only to find an empty building with all fittings and furniture and decor ripped out. You drop to your needs and start sobbing as your realize its over. That once euphoric feeling will never be coming back again.

To make things worse you head to your local cafe the following morning to take your mind of the events of last night, only to find the Chef, that you once looked up to, with his arms around your girlfriend's shoulder. Your girlfriend says "It's over between us.." as they then proceed to turn around, laugh at you as they quickly avert they gaze and hurry out of the cafe.

tl;dr, what I am saying is: The bad was always there. But at least you had an awesome steak. Now you have nothing.

What am I reading? Where was the writer? Probably tied up in the corner of the room, rotting as he has been left for months, whilst our "NEW NEO-EDITOR" takes over the reins. Bent over his computer screen with eyes glazed over with a fierce determination to run this story into the ground.

The first thing our new writer does is have the characters all sit down in a fucking circle singing Kumbaya as they monologue about the entire plot and history of the world.

All that mystery and tension? Gone.

All plot points explained? Yep.

A visual medium literally reduced to nothing, as all we get is exposition all chapter.

We then get a long exposition (Of course every character taking turns to talk BECAUSE GOTTA GIVE ALL CHARACTERS EQUAL SCREEN TIME, in case the readers catch onto the OTP) about how the BIG BAD came up from hell and started everything (ALWAYS THE BIG BADS FAULT).

Who cares? Why is the MC not exploring the world and meeting other characters whilst unravelling this plot point himself? Why do we need all this information NOW? We are even introduced to FUCKING POWER LEVELS. Because WE, the readers were to retarded to know if an enemy is strong or not via visuals. And fuck any subtlety or adhering to the show don't tell mantra (Such as when Brad and Gus react to Will having defeated the Brasukus giving the readers an idea of what he faced).

And if this wasn't enough, WE GOTTA SHOW HOW SMART AND SUPERIOR OUR MC IS, buy having him turn into fucking sherlock holmes and unravel the killer's identity. [Chapter 7 Pg12]- You can see Will enumerating the clues, and to be honest I entirely expected the theme from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors to start playing, whilst the words "SEEK A WAY OUT!" appeared on the next page.

Look, I understand Will is smart. When Gus asks Will why words have powers, Will happily explains the reason in detail, much to Gus's astonishment. This point is brought up multiple times in the manga, but never so obviously in our face like this. The writer is literally screaming at us at this point holding up cue cards that say "LOOK" "LOOK AT HOW INTELLIGENT WILL IS", with about as much subtlety as a brick to this face. Of course, of course.. Mary and Brad also need to comment on this and tell us, (Just in case we didn't get it by now) that will is a genius.

But guys, listen. This wasn't even the worst. It gets better (Worse?) from this point as an even BIGGER BAD descends from Heaven (What? Weren't these beings supposed to come from hell), who which Brad/Mary informs the reader that its a Gods "ECHO" (Vessel or similar). Of course, at least this time it was foreshadowed. Of course, this ruins what a "GOD" is, like mentioned earlier turns them into some sort of powerful diety instead. (The writer also casually mentions before this, that Wills new lightsabre is capable of cutting these ECHO's further running this plot point into the ground). I have no problems with a GOD being involved with Brad/Mary/Gus's transformation into the undead. What I DO have a problem with is how it's presented, with a comically "SUPER WIDE ANIME SMILE WITH LOTS OF TEETH" "LOOK AT HOW EVIL I AM" facial features, again all subtlety is lost and this is just turning into your average Isekai at this point.

And if you thought it couldn't get any worse at this point, the BIGGER BAD (GOD) shows up at the end of the chapter to add in unneeded forced plot tension and an obstacle to overcome.

It goes to shit from here, with contrivances and PLOT. Just may all read the manga to experience it for yourself, and perhaps when you go to write your own Iseakai in the future, you may utilize it as an example of what not to do.

Normally all these attributes are intrinsically common for shounen manga, and not worth the time spent chastising them, however the drop off in quality for this manga was remarkable in comparison to how good the previous chapters were thus the need to bring it up.

Why did the writer decide to fuck his shit up. I will never know.