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We have all read and seen our share of Isekai stories. And despite the consensus that isekai is a genre filled with lazy writing, shallow wish-fulfillment, and unoriginality, there are a lot of excellent and interesting stories to explore the concept.

This is not one of such stories.

With title to put light novels to shame, this story brings nothing new to the table and does everything you really expect from it but then also completely fails to follow it's own supposed plot.

The story follows a young boy, 15 years of age, and dreaming to have a peaceful life as a simple adventure. Except this boy is ... actually the reincarnation of a legendary powerful hero that has slain the demon lord! And that hero was the reincarnation of a legendary sage who knew all magic! Naturally, the kid remembers both his previous lives. Sadly and very wacky, he doesn't seem to grasp the concept of being normal and just casually kills a large dragon and stores it in his magic bag that he made and no one else can make.

In short, the hero is extremely overpowered and the joke is that he just wants a normal life but can't help but casually be the most overpowered being in the universe and fails to realize he is doing so. A plot we have seen plenty of times before and done better in generic isekai stories like Kenja no Mago.

Overall, don't bother with it. You deserve to spend your time on something better.

For everyone and everything there is a first. A first house a first love but also a first manga. For I Wadatsumi was that first manga. And by how somebody got to read an obscure manga like this as his first rather than one of the big Shounen ones is a valid question about me, this review is about the manga.

Wadatsumi is the titular character and is a young boy who lives with a group of older men on an island. The world around them seems to have been flooded leaving only sunken buildings and metal coated fish behind. As they scrape to survive, Wadatsumi ... find a girl washed up on the shore who hands him an octopus like device. Over the course of the series it is shown that multiple people possess devices like these and have supernatural powers from them. Which the Wadasumi also unlocks after it turned him from a young boy into a full grown woman. Something he seems he notices and then just roles with it as he never turns back. The series concludes with all the squid devices destroyed and the world finally having a glimmer of to return to normal.

Story:
Wadatsumi is a mess. It has the format of a long running manga with only 15 chapters to tell it in and it shows. The ending was forcefully rushed to make everything tie up neatly and cuts over so many characters that would have likely gotten entire battle arcs to deal with. But the end is not where the problems start. From the beginning there are many phasing flaws, for shadowing that just doesn't leave you interested, but more wondering what the hell is happening and a lot of things not explained or rushed over for the sake of saving time. The fact Wadatsumi changes into a woman suddenly are never fully explained out of him activating some inner power of the squid devices. This leaves the world sore fully lacking the entire run.

Art:
Oh boy does this manga have some art. Is it good? Noooooo, it is not. Decent at best and offending at its worst. There is often a lot of unclarity and the fight scenes are just a mess of blurs and wipes. The best artistic moments are sadly the fanservice parts which don't contribute ever. Probably the worst offence in the manga is actually Wadatsumi her female design. which seems to lack any and all intestines while sporting a huge bust and ass and a messy hairstyle with giant eyelashes.

Characters:
The characters are for the most part pretty okay. They are clearly set in the standers Shounen tropes of dimwit meat for brains MC, Kind and always grounded lead female the leader of the enemy organisation is the emotion less "I actually want to help the world" type that you can spot a continent away. But even if they add nothing really new to those tropes they don't break them with weird things or fail to even follow them. They just are what they are and are just okay.

Enjoyment:
I am a story guy. I want a good story to really enjoy a manga. But even so I had quite fun reading this. It will never be the most amazing thing ever. But it is a fun route in a generic setting with a few interesting concept, throwing around that just never got to go anywhere. But it was fun. Wadatsumi is just a fun character to see bounce around and fight for 15 chapters and then call it an end.

Final statement:
It's pretty much a mess. And while I personally had my fun with it. It is doubted many others will. As such I can't recommend reading it unless you are sure you want to see how it makes water burn. So better to try something different.

SAI: Taker is a classic tale of missed opportunity. But with Im Dal Young as its writer there is little ells to be expected from it.
It started out very strong with an intrestring world and a very intrestring concept to work around in that world (personally the gender swap was great but that is a personal taste) and does keep that the first few chapter. But the sad thing is that it adds up to nothing.
It's a story that really ends before it gets to start because what is there, feels as the world building set up you do so your characters actions and abilities ... are more explained. And honestly it's sad because if there was done something with this story it could have been great. But it just ends before actually doing ANYTHING.
But lets not gloss over the fact that I had fun reading it, it was fun to the end. But as a wise man once said: "The ending is paramount." And the ending of SAI: Taker sadly ruins it all by ending with just a buildup for nothing real.