Saihate no Paladin
The Faraway Paladin

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Saihate no Paladin is among the better isekai novels, and lot of it is thanks to how it build its protagonist.

As many LNs of similar genres this one too has absurdly overpowered protagonist. The important distinction here however is that William, the protagonist of Faraway Paladin, isn’t meant to be self-insert. How does the novel achieve this? Firstly, the power isn’t just given out for free. Unlike the usual case where the explanation of overpowerdness of the protagonist is given just few sentences or at best paragraphs, here we get a whole volume about how the power came to be. And none of it is ... by chance (beyond of course even being isekai’d in the first place), it’s all hard work of the main lead. This even ties in with how the protagonist’s character is developed further, as there’s certainly a difference in how one would use powers gotten as freebie and those earned by years of dedication.

Second reason is that the protagonist isn’t just a regular “gotta help everyone” goody-two-shoes or a regular nihilistic edgelord. No, while William’s goal is to fight against injustice, it’s with somehow zealotic attitude that is not one to be easily self-inserted into but one that is still interesting to read about. On topic of Will’s character, usually it’s left unexplained why the MC seemingly cuts of his ties to previous world and does not even attempt to find a way back. Here, it’s reasoned that the protagonist considers his previous life a complete failure and plans to give his all to the new life, which is a nice way to remove this question from the readers mind. It’s also nice how he’s confronted with how his huge power might inconvenience those around him, putting in some psychological baggage to contrast the easily won fights, although I wish the story explored this element more.

Side characters aren’t half-bad either and are given actual personalities beyond being just background to the OP lead. Not just personalities, but sometimes even development arcs. Also, the character of bishop is one of my favourite side characters in a while in regards to his philosophy and how his character plays around with what would audience expect based on tropes, though to explain further would be a spoiler.

While the world is mostly the usual fantasy setting, it does have more specific magic system to it that makes it stand out a tiny bit more, and also the presence of more worldly deities. It’s a nice change to see members of pantheon interacting with the characters in different than just holier-than-thou kind, especially the gods that are not on the side of good. On accord on worldbuilding, I also like that there’s a bit of lampshading thrown here and there about how William shouldn’t expect common sense from his previous world to apply in occasions such as customs or even laws of nature.

The weakness of Saihate no Paladin is that it’s first two volumes were great, but the series is continually losing its steam. It’s still enjoyable so far, but the strongest points are undoubtedly more towards the beginnings. The problem is that as the protagonist is fighting strong foes almost from the start (which admittedly is a spectacle to enjoy), one-upping the previous encounter gets harder to write unless the series wants to go the way of Dragon Ball and start pulling absurdly strong villains out of nowhere. The story could use more opponents that oppose Will in more crafty ways that don’t depend on powerlevel alone to keep it more entertaining. Thanksfully even now the story is not all about fighting as Will has to solve logistics problems too, so at least there’s that. Still, this combined with the fact that one important storyline element set in the first volume that has a deadline until which the MC has to do something was never mentioned again and that another hint of what could be following story arc was only mentioned once after its introduction makes it seem that the author is a bit lost regarding where to move the story next. This could be a possible explanation as to why is the novel currently on a hiatus.

While the opening was a clear 10/10 when compared to most isekai, the later development in my eyes took a huge dump on the foundation laid out in the first arc.

I read up to mid-way trough the second volume and I might pick it up again in the future to see if it somehow raises back up from it's ashes.


Spoilers:
The first arc, that is the childhood arc has a wonderful and emotional buildup that also clearly sets the main character on his path. It has great character development, making the unavoidable sacrifices all the more sad. Besides that, I also liked how it tackled the ... question of "immortality vs experiencing life", ending with MCs conclusion that stagnation (immortality) will remove the feelings people come to enjoy troughout their life spans - to put it shortly.

After the character sets out on his journey however, I felt that the story took a turn for much worse. From great and in-depth character developments when the cast was limited, it changed into a story of a much more mainstream OP MC that everyone praises, and just him shining his light of awesomeness was enough to make him do cool sh*t. He basically starts getting rid of all the problems with his already earned powers and doesn't get much development in that regard. There are some attempts at character building, but they end up feeling worthless (the "I can do everything alone!" "No u can't" "Oh okay" part). William's first contact with another person ends up being his longest, as the half-elf he meets becomes pretty much his closest companion. Besides that, on the same day he arrives in the city and after hearing a story of his guardian's past deeds (namely killing a Wyvern as an adventuring trio), he just straight up kills a wyvern himself. Soon after he's given a title of Paladin because of how awesome he is in pretty much anything anyone can be when it comes to fighting and is granted a territory. Which btw, at least in my understanding, is almost neighboring the area he grew up at, so he basically didn't journey far. The rest of what I read can be summed up with pretty much "he kills stuff, people say he's cool, dwarves think he's especially cool, there's some quickly inserted companion powerup, and some tease for when he would get a sh*t load of money just because he'd say "Augustus" to some half-elf old lady".

Once again, awesome opening, terrible later execution. Sorry if it came out a bit ranty, but I just remembered all this when I was removing it from my long not visited favorites lol.
This review might change after I read further into the series, but honestly the first 1.5volumes already turned me off, and I'm not the kind of person to go with "after 2 shit seasons it's pretty good, so give it a try".

Honestly, out of all of the mangas, manhuas, webtoons, and light novels I've read, as well as all of the animes I've watched, this is the first and debatably only one that has ever pushed me to write a review about it. For almost every situation or emotional scenario depicted in Saihate, I've had to sit and digest it in my head because of how eloquently it is written. It almost takes away from the experience (all jokes) because of how it accidentally becomes a debate of morals and ethics in my head. This well written, emotionally impacting, and intriguing story ... that has very satisfying conclusions to most large conflicts that ensue in the novel has pushed me to leave such high marks on this masterpiece. Unlike other novels that may leave every single conflict unresolved, or purposefully show the 'bad guy' escaping to 'maybe sorta kinda' bring back in the future as a 'witty' followup is probably one of the easiest ways for a writer to make me hate them. I have big hopes for Saihate, as I still have a ways to go while reading, however if this quality truly does persist for the series than it might be the best read I've ever had.