Youhei to Shousetsuka (The Mercenary and the Novelist)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: The Soldier and the Novelist

Japanese: 傭兵と小説家

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 3

Chapters: 19

Status: Finished

Published: Sep 10, 2021 to Jul 12, 2023

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Gangan

Authors: Murayama, Nachiyo (Art), Minami, Asou (Story)

Statistics

Score: N/A¹ (scored by - users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #31474²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #23724

Members: 513

Favorites: 6

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Ranked #31474Popularity #23724Members 513

MangaShounen GanganMurayama, Nachiyo (Art), Minami, Asou (Story)

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Volumes: /3

Chapters: /19

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Synopsis

With the advent of the transcontinental railroad, smoke from steam locomotives veils the cities and mercenaries are a thing of the past. Sword, a mercenary, is down on his luck when he accepts a job from the bestselling lady novelist, Verderon. They set out on a journey to a dangerous, uncharted mountain... Only to be caught up in a conspiracy between church and state?! A tale of iron swords and typewriters!

(Source: Square Enix)

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Background

Youhei to Shousetsuka was published digitally in English as The Mercenary and the Novelist by Square Enix through Manga UP! and through Comikey from December 18, 2023 to April 11, 2024.

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Bauduin, Gordo

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Reviews

Dec 23, 2022

Filthy_Pleb

Recommended

Preliminary (8/19 eps)

Why is none talking about this?

From the first page, this manga's got beautiful art, including detailed backgrounds and mechanical paraphernalia that manages to convey that emerging industrial revolution vibe nicely. It presents charming characters with varied personalities and backgrounds. You can really feel that much attention was given to each of them, and it does bring their interactions to life. And to tie it all together, an intriguing story, served with humor and even some touching moments.

There are some minor negative details, such as garments or choice of words that could be considered anachronistic in the fantasy version of this period of time portrayed ...

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Oct 12, 2023

Mello420

Recommended

Preliminary (11/19 eps)

I randomly came across this manga and was only going to read the 1st chapter and then decide. No way I could stop after the first chapter.

There are no unnecessary fight scenes, but great dialogues, witty humor, and a complicated plot while keeping the current story simple and light. The characters are well-defined and deep. It does have a few cliche manga scenes that put me off in the beginning, but they are not over the top like in those romance mangas.

I read only 11 chapters when writing this review, and even the story is recommended up until now.

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Jun 11, 2024

MorgantheFae

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (21/19 eps)

The Mercenary & The Novelist is a story that tries very hard both to stand out in a crowd and follow the same pattern as the majority. The result was a fairly fun read, though it was a bit more generic than i would have preferred. The world is an interesting mashup of the American West with a medieval European theocracy. I will confess that my interest in the series dropped several notches when i saw it was based on the same “guilds and all-powerful church” theme that appears all too often in anime, manga, and light novels lately. Although that element is hardly original, ... blending the concept into a western was a unique enough take to keep me reading. The papacy provides a good villain, disbanding the mercenary’s guild in the first chapter and censoring the novelist’s works. Just what you’d expect from a theocratic government.

Although MAL lists this manga as “ongoing,” every other site and the manga itself seem certain it ended around twenty chapters. (Due to the way they’ve been posted online, it’s hard to determine an exact number.)

The story itself is pretty good, full of political intrigue over secret experiments meant to cause immortality. Again, the bad guy’s goals were too easily predicted by the novelist. Keeping the question of /why/ the priest wanted this information, why the mercenary guild was forced to disband, and what connection there is to a fallen tyrannical empire up in the air would have held reader interest better. The last-minute reveal that there’s something bigger going on didn’t help, and should have been elaborated on more. The political and science fiction aspects of this series are fantastic. Unfortunately, the characters feel like they were cut from a template and don’t carry the story as far as they should have. The story not going far enough will be a running theme in this review.

The novelist, Verda, started out as a fun charactera fun character. She’s haughty and eager to push people’s buttons, but her enthusiasm for storytelling and insistence on accurate information are strong. Her certainty that Sword should be lusting after her is kind of off-putting, but allos are allos i guess. It makes more sense knowing that she learned how to perceive the world through fiction – that’s always romo-centric. If a male and female character spend any time together, the expectation is that they will fall in love. She did begin to wear on me as the series continued, mainly because of how easily everything goes her way; though she wasn’t prepared to camp out, everything else plays out exactly according to her plan. It would be more interesting if things went wrong. Sword the mercenary is more bland; i can’t help but wish Verda had managed to hire one of his friends from the beginning instead. He could be the protagonist of any guild manga and brings very little to the story. The “twist” regarding his character was disappointingly predictable. His rival mercenary, Gordo, was far more entertaining, and i can’t help but wish the series was focused on him instead.

I also wish they’d gone into more depth of the scifi elements, the immortality experiments and the parallel worlds. The politics are likewise treated as background details, though the theocracy’s control of society, their censorship of Verda’s books, and even the underground LGBT rights movement could have driven the series a lot farther. Even the theocracy as a major player having a negative impact on the country is forgotten about as time goes on. To me, the author neglected the primary aspects of this story to make it unique and interesting.

That about sums up my feelings on The Mercenary And The Novelist. It had a lot of potential, but the author didn’t do nearly enough with it. If you like fantasy guild -type stories, you’ll probably get more out of this than i did.