Re:Monster

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A good start that starts to meander and get dragged on by politics. Spoilers below.

Storywise, the MC has the ability to gain abilities of anything he eats, and his rpg world makes the applications of his chimera ant-like powers very interesting. I liked watching him fight weaker monsters, eat them, then use their powers to beat and eat bigger monsters. Along the way he levels up, helps expand his tribe and strengthen his allies, and he develops weapons from monster carcasses like a turtle shell shield as well as gain weapons from other uses. The various job classes and combination abilities he has are pretty ... cool too, and his growth to eventually challenge the legendary heroes/dungeons and become a force to be reckoned with is pretty cool, as well as his later ability to do various summons.

The problems is that after about 125 days or so, he starts focusing on certain missions for the princess and setting up shops in the cities. This is hugely boring and also fairly meainingless, because he has the abilities luck/golden rule/overcharge/etc that allow him to rip off merchants and always win overall at gambling. In addition, his power level means he can challenge numerous dungeons and got a ton of money from his loot. In fact, with his power, hes able to kill the entire city just about if he wanted. So theres little reason to spend so many days talking about the shops and the chump change he gets from it. Its a large detour from the start when he focused on getting abilities and becoming stronger, which was much more interesting. The level up and rank up after 100 levels was interesting too, though I did feel they leveled up really quick compared to the power level of other monsters/humans.

Another issue was the politics involed with the princess and the kingdom. It was handled almost as badly as in Mushiku Tensei. It was largely boring, waiting around day after day when he had a near infinite (several thousand) undead soldiers and golems that he could spawn and yet he wouldnt attack with them. This drawn out battle was extremely boring.

Theres also many days spent just drinking or lounging around his base. While the base is interesting, it started to get dull because he would gloss over the details and focus on the elven wine/other alcohols.

The characters arent all that developed and a bit stereotyped, but it didnt bother me much as Im not a character guy. I still found the MC more likeable than, say, Rudeus.

I still enjoyed reading this for the rpg and battles/abilities/dungeons and other rpg aspects, but I didnt care for a lot of the above. I also found his recruitment and usage of his enslave ability a bit too convenient for some troops, like Avenger. The auto activations of psalms and his storyline didnt make much sense and I thought things were awfully convenient falling into place too. I think Idve preferred if he left his village and traveled the world rather than set up shitty bases in towns that he could easily conquer. Anyway, overall a solid read for the rpg world its in but gets much worse after he starts to venture to the human world and embroiled in unnecessary boring politics. The fire volcano dungeon was semi interesting, but him fighting the dragon solo was a bit much.

Re: Monster is definitely one of the most enjoyable novels I have read in a long time. Firstly I should mention that the writing style is similar to a diary and everything is viewed in first person. Dialogue we see is few and the readers only view characters as the way Rou perceives them (Most of the time)... can also be certain instances where we get POV of others but it is few. With that said besides Rou we don't get much of other characters but I still really like Rou and his power so it is fine for me but if you don't like ... the cold calculating anti-hero type then avoid Re:Monster. Next is the story and in this novel it takes an approach where there isn't one huge goal but more of whatever the MC feels like doing he will do, you might think that gets boring but his antics are one of the best parts (without spoiling much I will just say he is very greedy and always wants to improve his abilities and position in the new world. Examples being going into a fight he only believes he has a 30% chance of victory just because he wants the abilities of the monster or using addictive lotion on nobles so they always have to come back to his massage shop...) There is sex in this story but it isn't descriptive and he also has several wives so warning for the people who don't want that. Art isn't very involved as it is a novel but a manga version of this is out and it is done pretty nicely. I would recommend this to people who are looking for a story about a character who starts at the bottom and travels to the top.

Now for the flaws as I did have a few I want to mention. Firstly is like I said earlier how it is all written like a diary, it is definitely a double edged sword and it makes me feel less connected to other characters. Secondly is the fact that it has great story potential but it isn't used to its fullest and what I mean is how he was reincarnated and his blessing by a greater god. They aren't delved into much even by day 190 (vol 5) so guys who like epic stories definitely will dislike the feeling of such wasted potential. I had a few other issues but none worth mentioning.

Conclusion is that I really enjoy it and will continue reading as long as it keeps going. I also want to mention since bakaupdates (the site most people know of) doesn't update when new chapters are translated and I don't know why. On the wiki you can read all of volumes 1-5 in english that was translated by Pacem community translations. For the hardcore fans of this series who are looking for some like it I would also recommend checking out Royal Road Legend or Japtem as they have hundreds of Fanfics just off this novel, which isn't surprising as the world concept is epic!

Rou's got a magic d*ck which forcefully plunders the hearts of young maidens.

Kichi's got a d*ck that was born for Rou to use.

Mi's got a d*ck and an obsessive love of Rou since day one.

Walline is human yet loves Rou's green magic d*ck.

Jii is old and got cuckold by Rou, yet still adores him.

... Sato is female so is obviously in love with Rou.

Aoi Kirimine was in love with Rou before Rou was Rou.

Emery is female (see above).

Sei: female, Rou, above.

E is ugly, so naturally she gets handed to Kichi.

As the characters evolve the story devolves. From character-piece to power-grind to goblin erotica. And don't get me wrong, I like a bit of goblin erotica as much as the next guy, but Re: Goblino is some pretty bad erotica:

"teh penis in, out, in, out, Rou so big strong s*xy green, goblin god, no human jesus, christ. Done he finish, me finish five million times, since rou so big strong s*xy, green goblin, I finish more than he, because he green big strong s*xy, I super hot but nobody has ever touched, me. Because im so precious and hot and have high standard, but he green strong s*xy so it fine, he is better than me, yet im better than everyone else, Shrek so strong green big"

That's the extent of the erotica. The most offensive bit is the fact that Rou doesn't share his s*x slaves, like, my brother, these are community s*x slaves, why are you f**king them all by yourself?!? Poor man Jii has been pinning for an elven ride for half the novel and little Rou decides to grow three meters, piss around the entrance of the s*x slave dungeon, and expound righteously about how only his penis is fit for the heathen elves. That sh*t ain't fair. And not only does he monopolize the s*x slaves but he also f**ks every other female in the vicinity, be it human, goblin or tree thing it gets d*cked. My gramps Jii is a tragic hero, imagine spending nineteen years of your life creating children only for one of them to grow up and castrate you, damn sad.

I don't know what I was expecting to be honest. 1/10