Back to FracasoEnCaja1Lt's Profile FracasoEnCaja1Lt's Profile

This story has a lot of potential for great storytelling. Walking is the only way the mc can gain skills, so he travels the world by foot, meeting people, eating new things and the like. Such is the fantasy of many people in real life; Leave their jobs, travel the world, meet people and learn from others.

Personally, such fantasy is not what fills up my thoughts through the day. But this story, albeit for the little time I take to read new chapters, makes me fantasize not about walking the world per se, but to see the wonders nature has and people have made.

To ... pique my interest enough that I would find myself expecting new chapters is an easy feat. I am not, by any means, a picky reader. But to stimulate my imagination enough to blend with my thoughts, ambitions and goals, is another feat few mangas make me feel.

Not that mangas are supposed to make you imagine the world of the story, since they are drawings. But I'm not one to reject a little fantasy in my day.

First off, the title is a bit misleading. It's not a typical slow life that gets stagnant in 15 chapters.

For me, a self proclaimed "Isekai Raccoon", I'm glad to read any kind of work where a real person gets over a fantasy world. As such, even with the first few chapters being nothing out of what you would expect from a light novel adaptation, I was already hooked (not that It's difficult to get me to read an isekai).

But there's a few aspects that convey this isn't the usual slow life op mc wins-every-clash. Aspects that aren't groundbreaking in literature or anything, but are a ... nice little mixture of elements from other type of stories that usually wouldn't be present in this genre that's so fixated on some tropes.

From small coming of age elements and the unusally wide repertoire of expressions the artist flaunts using the femc, to the mc and femc's solid friendship that ties up all those little things together, this story gets more than the slow life isekai treatment from me. That means, I'm defnitely not forgetting this one in a week or two.

Man in his 40s gets a power trip from basically shopping from a catalog in another world. This may be the worst isekai I've read in the recent years, It's beyond bad.

The dude doesn't even accomodate to the new world; Dresses the same way he used to in his original world, has the same shitty electric shaver shave from before, etc. Doesn't even try to learn about the world, most of the panels are filled with 90-60-90 girls that instantly like the loser MC and, worst of all, in a world filled with magic, dragons, grimoires, and the like, he uses the damn Ikea shopping ... catalog.

"Diesel generator summon" has to be the worst speech bubble I've ever read.

"Lvl 9999: Unlimited Gacha" is another fantasy, op mc manga, but hear me out: It comes with a twist. That's right, you heard me. And I know what you are thinking right now: "but dude, all fantasy mangas have a twist now". And here comes the motivation for this review, the sole reason I was motivated to write a review to another run-of-the-mill fantasy manga. The art.

Most fantasy or isekai manga have the same art over and over again. By the same art, I mean the same characters over and over are the sole focus of the panels throughout the chapters, which, with the lack ... of backgrounds and multiple props, at least for me seems a little bit amateurish. Another feature that repeats through a lot of these mangas, that not necessarily is a bad thing per se, is the level of polish unique to digital drawing. I know most, if not 99.9% of manga nowadays is made digitally, but these fantasy mangas I'm talking about feel more like character illustrations in every panel. Like, the connection between panels is often lacking, because characters are so "plastic" that every panel feels like a showcase of the characters, more than a story told by drawings.

That's the part when this manga makes a difference. The art is like multiple sketchs. If you could not tell by now, I love this unrefined-like art. Because 99.9% of the times a manga has this "artstyle", It has a deep range of emotions, faces, poses, close ups, etc. Every panel feels like a rough sketch, but that's because we are accustomed to the digital era where every panel is plastic levels of tones and filters put on. The characters in "Lvl 9999: Unlimited Gacha", as was my prediction in chapter 1, do go through a myriad of emotions in the arcs. Specially in the little group of humans featured shortly after the beginning. Those little dudes feel alive not because of the realism or the polish of the art, but because of the raw emotion that the mangaka managed to portray in their faces. They do feel alive, yes, because of their story, their bonds and their trials and tribulations. But the artsyle really manages to go further beyond, and makes them feel not like heroes, but just as little, brave, kids.

So, as a brief summary, "Lvl 9999: Unlimited Gacha" is a good manga, that is so-so on the story department, but excels in the art department. The story is key to the enjoyment of the manga, I know, and many mangas are succesful only due to their story, I know. But the quality of the character development and storytelling conveyed through the details in the drawings is OUT. OF. THE. PARK. Oomae Takafumi, more than a good cartoonist or artist, is a genius illustrator. I truly hope he gets featured in other, more succesful works.

It's fun, characters are pretty, and the story as a whole is pretty bubbly. This is a really down to earth manga, so don't go expecting a lot from it.

All in all, I really liked it. It's not like I'm waiting every week for the chapter to drop, but It's a nice surprise when I see that a new chapter was released.

Also, the story pace is really "realistic" to say the least. I mean, we, the readers, can predict what's going to happen because we are given the whole story before our eyes, unlike the characters who only see their part. That being said, it's ... nice that the story goes almost as If the mangaka went through this in his life, with realistic developments, on a realistic setting. Heck, maybe a novel format could work better for this kind of story.

7/10. Nice read.