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Disclaimer: Before I start with the review, I would like to assure the readers that I am not another reviewer who would judge a story’s worth based on how comfortable I am with its content or voice out hate if such content does not align with my views. Reviews for this story tend to be dichotomous: it either goes along the lines of “MUSHOKU TENSEI IS DISGUSTING AND ANYONE WHO ENJOYS IT IS WORSE THAN SCUM,” or the contrary that goes along the lines of “MUSHOKU TENSEI IS A DEEP AND MEANINGFUL NARRATIVE AND ALL OF YOU HATE IT BECAUSE YA’LL ARE SENSITIVE SNOWFLAKES.” I’d ... like to deviate from that pattern. I have two goals for this review: One, objective analysis and criticism; and two, to address the controversy behind this infamous title. I’d like to be of help to readers and those eyeing to give Mushoku Tensei a try, so please bear with me and read what I have to say.

Mushoku Tensei is derivative. It exhibits themes, formulas, and patterns seen in other successful series. The use of such suggests that the series aims to attract an audience rather than to create a story of good quality–however, Rufujin na Magonote, the author, created a main character with a believable background that aligns with his goals and personality. He creates this world, though derivative and generic, with history and diverse cultures, religions, and politics. The world and characters have a strong foundation, and how they are written allows the story for different possibilities. Mushoku Tensei is arguably the best Isekai to be written. However, looking at the quality of stories of the same genre, being the best isn’t really much of an accomplishment, is it?

Isekai as a genre has established a reputation in the anime and light novel community for being trite and formulaic in nature. The premise was limited to ideas such as the main character being transported or reincarnated in another world to fulfill a particular purpose: slaying the demon lord, trying to go back to their original world, or simply fuck around with the story having no conceivable plot. Mushoku Tensei could have easily fit into these descriptions, but it did something different. It used the idea of reincarnation to create something meaningful: redemption. However, it ultimately fails to do so through reckless writing decisions.

Mushoku Tensei is, first and foremost, a redemption story. It doesn’t try to hide that–It even markets itself as such. The story depicts our main character as this unforgivable bastard in his previous life and shows his regret in life living as a neet. He decided to do one last act of good before Truck-kun claimed his newest victim, and lo and behold, he reincarnated in a new world where he could start anew. Some may argue that it's a fantasy, romance, or comedy-based narrative, and while the descriptions fit, it doesn't outweigh the prominence of the redemption premise Mushoku Tensei portrays–or tries to. This leads us to the controversy this story holds.


Rudeus as a Character: Addressing the Controversy

As mentioned, Mushoku Tensei is a controversial title. First, I would like to discuss the controversy before dealing with the story itself. If you’d like to skip this part, do go ahead to the next section of the review. I believe that the reason behind the title’s backlash is due to two things: the main character being portrayed as a pedophile and the author’s objectifying portrayal of women–more so for children. For avid consumers of Japanese media, these aspects may not mean much, considering how prevalent this trend is in the industry. However, Mushoku Tensei is prominently about redemption, and these writing decisions make the audience question the point of the story.

Pedophilia is evil. I think everyone can agree on that. I won't be deconstructing pedophilia as something to be taken personally nor provide thought-provoking commentaries about its evil. It is a sensitive subject, and whether or not it deserves credence in Mushoku Tensei's narrative is still debated. Yes, discomforting scenes are common in the light novel, but that doesn't decide its overall worth. If uncomfortableness equals a poorly-written story, then literary pieces such as Nabokov's Lolita wouldn't get the praise they deserve. It all depends on how an author handles the characterization and the intent behind that. I will only criticize pedophilia as a plot device and its relevance to the narrative. In Lolita, for example, the author uses pedophilia as a genuine depiction of a pedophile's rotten heart through a satirical narrative. The Monogatari Series mocks common tropes in modern anime through exaggerated depictions. Both of these tales handle pedophilia with satire as it coincides with a deeper topic. In Mushoku Tensei, Rudeus’ damning flaws were intended to be a character foundation to create a redemption story. However, the intent behind that characterization was never addressed. It does not do anything special with its portrayal of pedophilia or general indecency that would justify its use - it merely provides fan service.

Rudeus’ character has a solid foundation. While he excels at magic competency, it isn’t his entire identity. He is still a very much flawed and vulnerable character. He still has room for growth which is integral for redemption. Rudeus' introduction in his previous life heavily emphasized his flaws as a person, socially and especially morally. He's a shut-in, a free-loader, a drop-out - he even refused to attend his parent's funeral so he could beat his meat to child porn. However, the story failed at creating a redemption story the moment he exhibited no guilt and regrets in his previous life after being reincarnated. Many of the mentioned flaws were resolved, but others were prolonged for later use, and another was never addressed at all. Among all his flaws, pedophilia stands out the most, depicted through numerous scenes and monologues. Normally, emphasizing the character's flaw that much means only one thing, right? That it would be the story's primary conflict in which the character would enter a stage of development that would allow him to change, allowing those flaws to stay relevant to the narrative. Wrong. Chekhov's gun remained unused. Rudeus is still the same person who entertains himself with the fantasies of fucking children. It rendered the pedophilic aspect of his character useless. It is nothing more than a portrayal of lechery, ultimately having no relevance to the story. Its redemption story was the primary conflict but already failed to create a deeper narrative the moment he objectified every woman before seeing his new life as a second chance (Feminist literary criticism is real criticism, btw). Like literally every woman is sexualized, not by Rudeus but by the author–except the grannies for some reason, although I'm sure it has nothing to do with the author's preferences for women.

Pedophilia is akin to mental illness, where treatment isn't guaranteed, even with the technology and techniques gained through medical and technological innovation. And even with technology, medication, or psychiatric treatment, it would undermine the concept of redemption if it were to be used in the story since it wouldn't even be an authentic change. That's why I didn't understand the decision to make Rudeus a pedophile in the first place. The story didn’t need that–rather–the story would have thrived in its absence. His terrible qualities as a family member in his previous life would have been the perfect conflict he needed to resolve, but it was overshadowed by the emphasis the author placed on Rudeus’ interest in children. It's a thoughtless decision made by an amateur author who didn't understand the intricacies of what he was writing nor realize how hard it would be to create a string of developments that would allow Rudeus to deviate from the aforementioned problem. Either that or he made that decision to gratify those desperate for fanservice - you choose.

There are many arguments that defend the author’s writing and characterization though, and go as far as to defend Rudeus himself. I’d like to refute some of these common arguments so I could cohesively state my perceptions pertaining to the controversy later on. The first argument states: While Rudeus has immoral preferences for women, the whole point of the light novel is that he would redeem himself in his new life, and that won’t happen overnight. Having read all the volumes and even the redundancy chapters of Mushoku Tensei, not once does he even tries to change or feel regret towards that part of him. While he redeemed other parts of his character, the single most condemning flaw of the character remained unresolved. Second argument: Mushoku Tensei is a piece of fiction, furthermore, it is set in a medieval European setting where the standards of morality are much lower compared to modern society Rudeus previously lived in. My refutation is that the new rules instilled in this new world do not absolve Rudeus of any ethical concerns because he still upholds the knowledge of moral notions in his previous life, therefore, said notions should be the base of his redemption. If the protagonist was originally from this fantasy world, then that would be excusable due to the ethnocentric notions he will pick up growing up in the said world (Although that’s a whole new topic). The final argument states: Rudeus is reborn into a new body, therefore having an underdeveloped brain. This underdeveloped brain is at fault for his interest in children. That would be a good argument if his backstory didn’t mention him beating his meat to fucking child porn (Let’s call it Loli porn to sound tame – the author, probably). In spite of that, the argument that his physiologically underdeveloped brain is at fault for his interest in children is inherently dumb. If his brain really was underdeveloped, then that would negate any sexual desire – why is he horny 24/7 after being birthed? Like damn, after reincarnating, this bitch retained his memories AAANNDD his testosterone level?

Although many of the changes were actually just him acting his physical age, Rudeus did undergo development. He overcame his social trauma the moment he first set foot outside, he found profound purpose in life through his competency in magic and the company of family and friends, and he acknowledged his unacceptable behavior as a family member in his previous life after an important event in the story. However, he never underwent any significant development when it came to his sexual desires. While Rudeus exhibits proper manners, kindness, and sympathy, people need to understand; propriety does not equal a moral person.

You might ask why one single aspect of one character's personality is so important for the story. It's only one thing, so it shouldn't be that important, correct? Unfortunately, that is not the case. Rudeus being a pedophile and making no effort to change defeats the whole purpose of redemption, regardless of his development in other aspects.


Other Characters: Dependency as a Flaw

However, Rudeus isn't the only literarily flawed character in the story. The three heroines are an integral part of the stor - excuse me - of Rudeus' harem. Sylphiette, Roxy, and Eris are the three main candidates to be Rudeus' love interests. However, unlike any other light novel, they're not just there to fit into the "dere" types, and while they can be categorized as such, each of them exhibits depth that gives their character individuality and receives development - at first.

Motive tells a lot about a character in more ways than one, and it's integral in creating a compelling character. It's a step to let a character be their own without being relevant due to codependency. However, the flaw with two-thirds of the mentioned girls is that they exhibited no conceivable motive, and later on, the best conclusion the author could formulate is that these two, Sylphy and Roxy, are motivated by the notion of being by Rudeus' side. Eris, on the other hand, exhibits her own goals. While Rudeus was still in mind when Eris made her decision on whom she wanted to be, it's not solely for Rudeus, but the predominant nature of that decision is that it's her genuine goal. Her resolve was influenced by the people around her and her experiences before the decision. Contrary to the other two heroines who wanted to live for Rudeus, Eris wanted to stand by Rudeus, not as a love interest, but as an equal. However, by the end of the light novel, Sylphy, and Roxy are reduced to damsels in distress in need of protection. Eris proved to be useful on many occasions, but no scene portrayed the development she went through, mentally and as a swordswoman, that would show the fruits of her efforts. Any depth and the potential they exhibited were ultimately ruined, again by reckless writing decisions.

In the later volumes, especially the final battle, these girls along with the other side characters are placed into battle suggesting that they are indeed useful. However, these were after several volumes where said characters were essentially forgotten. How convenient how these characters, after having no appearances for many volumes, suddenly appeared for the climax. The writing felt rushed and forced. The author bit off more than he can chew by having too many characters intended to hold relevance when he can't even create a coherent plot direction.


Worldbuilding: A Strong Foundation

As previously mentioned, Mushoku Tensei follows a formulaic plot and generic structure to create its world. Don't confuse the light novel with the anime in how the world was handled. Studio Bind's prudent planning and research allowed Mushoku Tensei's world to gain more depth with their attention to detail, even creating languages with their own writing. On the other hand, the light novel doesn't show any effort with these aspects of the world, with the exemption of its magic system.

The manhwa community entitles Solo Leveling along the lines of "Not like the other manhwas" or "Not your typical power fantasy." And although I respect their awareness of the prevalent mediocrity in the medium, the aforementioned descriptions are still false. Solo Leveling is your typical power fantasy. And let's be honest, "not like the other manhwa" is not that much of a compliment.

It's mediocre, worse even, to be brutally frank. The narrative is brimming with formulas, has one of the worst character writing I've ever witnessed, and is overall a boring read. The protagonist's tale suffers no risk and receives all the rewards. No suspense ... is there to keep the reader on the edge of their seats or in any way to make it engaging. However, Solo Leveling's popularity proves otherwise, and it's understandable.

The author knows how to attract a specific audience; gamers. The manhwa is the closest thing I've seen to a game developer playing the video game he made, where he knows every exploit there is.

Solo Leveling is a superficial narrative. And that simplicity, that lack of depth to its characters, setting, and premise, helps the story in a way that would easily be understandable and doesn't create any frequent inconsistencies. However, it still has significant flaws erected from the beginning that was never fixed and became prominent over time.

Solo Leveling is very repetitive, and that coincides with its predictability. The beginning does a decent job of depicting the development of Jin-woo's power. His power grew steadily, and there was still tension in his fights due to Jin-woo's struggle. However, after Jin-woo fully comprehends his abilities and exploits the system, every battle he enters is an automatic win. The initial struggle for power made for great pacing; however, anything after the Igris fight was too easy for him. Every battle was always one-sided in favor of Jin-woo. No single match is present where you'd think he would lose. It would be more engaging if there's a difference between how he wins every time using his wit but he uses nothing but pure power. There is no risk and no suspense. The lack of tension and suspense undermines the narrative's engagement, ruining the average reader's experience.

Another flaw that you'll notice the further you read the manhwa is the characters, more specifically, the irrelevance of every character apart from Jin-woo. Not that Jin-woo is a well-written character in the first place. Every supporting character is just there to be in awe of Jin-woo's power, and every villain is there so Jin-woo can flex his power. Spoilers: This is prominent at the final battle, where everyone is useless, and only Jin-woo and his shadows are the only ones with the chance to fight. Everyone else is a liability, and even the most powerful hunter next to Jin-woo becomes a damsel in distress.

Even from an interpersonal relationship basis, none of the characters served a purpose, whether it was codependency or for his character development. Interaction with his family and friends that intended to create suspense never works. The slight tension and suspense it tries to portray is immediately undermined, knowing the plot is always in favor of Jin-woo.

The sad irony of these poor character development attempts only worsened Jin-woo's character. Before re-awakening, Jin-woo exhibited the most depth out of the other story parts. As his power increases, he becomes more blank, often confused with developing apathy - it isn't apathy. Jin-woo loses depth further into the story, making him more of a self-insert character than he already was.

I acknowledge the author's ability to attract the audience more than other trite cash grabs. They promised a power fantasy, and a power fantasy they gave. It doesn't pretend to be anything it is not and continues to satisfy the audience they meant to attract. And the artist's talent strongly contributed to the manhwa's success. Solo Leveling's most vital asset is its art. Each panel's vivid drawings and coloring coincide well with its portrayal of power. Things that don't make sense are present, like many anatomy issues and shadows emitting light, but that's not an issue since, like the story's typical writing, it's only there to look cool. The artist knows how to draw fight scenes and anything in general - making full use of techniques such as perspectives to their maximum effect.

Solo Leveling is just like any other manhwa out there, only that it grew more popular than others due to how it carried its mediocrity. There's nothing special or unique about Solo Leveling, but it knows precisely what it's doing. If you like power fantasy, you'll most likely enjoy this manhwa. If you hate these overused formulas, you'd be wasting your time if you tried to read this.

Welcome to Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School where we take in the most competent among the elite students for the sake of Japan's future. Or at least that was what the story was supposed to do. Instead, we are left with an incoherent group of students who competes for the title of Edge Lord.

Honestly, I enjoyed Classroom of the Elite. This light novel series intrigued me enough to complete two volumes a day. I don't usually find stories set in school enjoyable, but this was indeed a page-turner. But although engaging, is the story in its ... entirety good? My answer would be no. My enjoyment is, after all, subjective, and not everyone would have the same experience. Enjoyment does not equal being objectively good, and it took me a while before I decided to write a review so I could remove any bias I may have. I don't want it to look like I dislike the story (Which I don't), so I'll say this now; this review is mainly criticizing the flaws of Classroom of the Elite. Spoilers are mentioned further in the review.

The story takes place in a school supported by the Japanese government to raise students to lead the country in the imminent future. Basically, a standard school's vision but put to the extreme. They don't accept students with academic superiority alone but students who are also competent in separate fields like judgment, physical ability, and cooperativeness. So everyone has a chance to enter the school. This sets up the first flaw, which is the students present in the institution. It just seems too easy to be accepted. Each year 160 students from Japan can enter the school, meaning that 160 out of millions of students in Japan are selected to enter the country's top school. This part makes me question why students like Ike, Sakura, and many others got accepted in the first place. With the school's standards, I can understand why Sudou got in and why students like Koenji and Horikita are in class D despite their overwhelming competence. But students with straight C's and even B's in all the fields by logic should not have passed the school's standards. Mediocrity being allowed in the country's best school doesn't make sense. It's the same flaw I find with My Hero Academia, with students like Mineta and Hagakure passing UA High school and in the hero course at that. It may look like I'm nitpicking characters, but it's clear that students incompetent in all fields of ability are present in the institution.

After passing the entrance exams and the interview, these said students are assigned to a class decided by their competence. Many institutions use this method in real life, but what makes this interesting is that this is the part of the narrative where the author associated the question involving equality, but inherently, does that even matter? Are the different classes representative of hierarchy? The higher classes as a representation of those with power and the lower ones as powerless? The first scene of the story shows an exchange of words showing a brief social commentary that explains the topic. However, once the story arrives at the school, it doesn't matter anymore or, at least, fails to bring correspondence. It's just a poor attempt to use the flawed school system and characters as an analogy of society.

Yes, the school is indeed flawed. Firstly, how rich is Japan? The school gives free money to the students each month and supplies the items in each store throughout the school, including an entire mall. Not to mention that the school hired all the employees for all the stores, owns crews ship, and gives extra class points and private points given as awards for tests.

The amount of money used for the school brings up another question; is the result worth it? Using this method to create "Elites," I mean. Half of the graduates would probably just work jobs that ordinary graduates could do. With wasting millions of Yen on students' allowance, billions or even trillions on infrastructure, employment, and miscellaneous. Japan is just going to add more to its debt before any of the students here makes a change for the country's economy. A competitive school environment where students are left to their own devices isn't needed to make these elites. If anything else, the white room seems to be a better place to use that money.

Let's see, what else... A student council that has all power over the school, check; rules left with holes to be bent for the sake of the plot, check; that's about it, I suppose. Tell me if there's anything else I've missed.

Now for the characters. Firstly, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji; Arguably the only character worth criticism, but I'll still tackle the general cast later. Ayanokouji is portrayed as this super-genius, well-hung kid, but he chooses to hide his genius to fit in with the rest of the students and have an ordinary student life. In doing so, he purposely scored a half-perfect score in all subjects of the entrance exams and a few others after that. He should have at least tried to have an arbitrary set of scores for each subject so it wouldn't look painfully obvious. In addition, his scores would have been more believable if he hadn't answered the hard questions correctly while he answered wrong to some of the easy questions. In any ordinary school, his performance wouldn't have been that important. However, in his environment where competence is needed and filled, or supposed to be filled, with other geniuses, wouldn't appearing to be competent be a better way to not stand out?

Ayanokouji's initial motive was to live as an ordinary student, but this was interfered with due to being caught up in other people's business. He got the attention of highly acclaimed students and competition, and Chabashira sensei threatened him to compete for class A. Of course, this could have been avoided if he didn't stand out too much due to his test scores and going overboard on special tests like the race with Manabu. That's all my criticism for our protagonist, everything else about his character is very thought out, especially his development in connotation to his past and initial personality, from a very apathetic person to slowly developing feelings for someone and accepting his friends. However, that does render his infamous monologue in volume three irrelevant.

Now for the general cast. We have the perfect stereotypes to create a generic high school classroom. Sudo, A tuff guy who can't control his temper; Hirata, the class' heart rob and representative; Kurizawa; an annoying girl who is in a "relationship" with the said handsome class representative; Suzune Horikita, the class genius; Kushida, our yandere with big fucking tiddies; girls in the "hot girls" clique, a few introverts, and a bunch of morons who have no significant qualities (As I have already mentioned, these idiots shouldn't even be in the school, to begin with). Also, why do some high school students look like divorced fathers in their forties? While generic, that doesn't mean all of the characters are inherently bad. There are a couple of exemptions; Sudou and Kurizawa.

Sudou's character is great to show the audience of the school's standards (If it wasn't for other idiots, at least). The school's description in the light novel places high emphasis on not accepting students who are only intellectually competent. In Sudou's case, it's his athletism that got him admitted. And his development on slowly improving his grades, whether having his motivation (Suzune) or not, makes him an even better character. I only have a couple of minor problems with his character, that would be that he was too dumb initially, and the other being his sudden affection for Suzune Horikita. I wish there could have been a gradual development to his feelings rather than "If Ayanokouji doesn't like her, then I'll like her instead." Kei is also a decent character, but that was only prominent after being Ayanokouji's tool. Loving someone she hated might seem like an overused cliché, but her relationship with Ayanokouji prior to the confession scene makes it work.

Despite my criticism, I would actually like to recommend this to anyone, unless they absolutely hate edgy characters and pseudo-intellectual dialogue. Yes, it's filled with flaws but, the author was able to make it engaging, especially to those fond of power fiction in the shape of an intellectually prominent setting. If you believe I may be wrong with any of these statements or if I left something out, feel free to discuss it with me as my main objective is not to hate on the story but to give voice to the minority.

Upon finishing the series, I found myself disappointed. I've seen enough bad shows, manga, and novels with high commercial success and merit to know that I should never have high expectations regardless of its public rating, so my experience with this novel was genuine - how I feel about this novel is genuine. While reading, there were moments where I was entertained, bored, disappointed, humored, agitated, annoyed - and in the later volumes, it felt I was reading only for the sake of finishing the story. But even with the annoying parts of the story, it sure was a ride. Note that there are spoilers ... further into the review.

The characters are the most flawed part of the story by far.

Our protagonist, Hachiman Hikigaya, is a character that leaned more on the pessimistic side of philosophy. Anyone who hates society or humans, in general, may have no problem saying he is a relatable character. And although a considerable portion of his philosophy brings justifiable points, a large portion of that comes off as pretentious. And when he does bring up good points, so what? It's nothing more than the basic philosophy we learn in high school. I often hear conversations about how Hikigaya is one of the most relatable characters in anime, but that is to their own subjective opinions where even they are fooling themselves. Hikigaya's character is flawed. His opinions contradict each other when given the situation. His whole character is constructed to appear what the author wants him to be when it only comes off as being, for lack of a better word, edgy. He tears down his image in exchange for nothing for the sake of the people he hates when, in reality, no one in their right mind would do that - a pretentious portrayal of self-sacrifice. His whole character is something no one will ever encounter, but you can find some parts of his character that are relatable to many people in our demographic (Weebs). So if you're reading this with your MyAnimeList account, chances are that you're an introverted otaku with no friends, so you'll probably find Hikigaya relatable - minus two hot girls slowly developing feelings for you.

Jokes aside, I think that Hachiman Hikigaya is the main selling point for this light novel and how it achieved its commercial success. His character as a whole is not relatable and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. He is not someone who anyone can relate to, but someone who many people want to relate to, whether they're feeling existential angst or going through their edgy teenager phase.

And speaking of those two beautiful women, I feel like they are the most flawed among all the characters. Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita. First, let's talk about Yui. If I can describe her character with one word, it would be "convenient." She feels more like a tool than an actual character. An instrument to keep Hikigaya's and Yukinoshita's relationship from falling apart. She was there just for the sake of having a love triangle. On the other hand, Yukinoshita plays the role of our main heroine. A character so similar to Hikigaya, yet so different. Like our main character, she has no friends, but this time by choice. She was loved throughout the whole school despite her cold attitude towards everyone. A bleak and flat character. And despite receiving almost all of the character development in the story, her character is still flawed. She and Hikigaya, despite being heavily entitled to their ideals, were easily manipulated by a single word.

There are only three likable characters in my opinion, and one is Totsuka for totally non-gay reasons - I swear I'm straight (But seriously, he is such a lovable character). Next is Hiratsuka sensei who I honestly believe is a great role model. And the last one being Hayama. Now, if you're the majority of people who love Hikigaya's character, you're probably shaking your heads. But Hayama is the best representation in the show not only for a good character of a story but also for a good person in general. He is only disliked because his character is meant to serve as Hikigaya's rival. Possessing ideals and methods opposing the main character's. Wataru Watari placed too much weight between Hayama and Hikigaya's relationship to the point where Hayama is villainized. He cares about his friends so much so that he asked help from someone he hates. He didn't reveal what his plans for the future are so his friends can make their own decisions, and Hikigaya tried to ruin that just because of a request.

That's another thing I find flawed about the story - the service club, with a goal or duty to help students with their needs. The idea, in the beginning, was a breath of fresh air. A slice of life where the main character isn't part of a literature club. It was a great idea at first but it started getting out of hand. It was all just simple requests at first but then they started working with the student council. It was all logistics, logistics, and logistics. I could not have imagined that a span of several pages could be filled with vague logistics alone. It was one of the most annoying parts of the story, where instead of the story progressing, we are presented with several pages of useless information. If you were to read the story, I would suggest skipping over these parts as it holds nothing of importance to the story (Except the volume where their school collaborated with another to hold an event, where the logistics are actually an important part of that section of the story). They were working so much with the student council that the possibility proposed by the previous student council president of all three leaving the service club and moving to the student council was a more preferable turn, as they still have a duty of attending to the student's needs. And then we get requests that were too personal. This was something more convenient than logical in the story. Normal regulations would cause to disregard personal requests like helping with a confession or finding out what choice someone had for their future even though they have explicitly said they don't want to reveal it. Hikigaya was a reasonable person with intellectual competence, so he should be able to know when a request is getting out of hand. He should know that some of these requests were an invasion of privacy and plain out insensitive. Yet he still went with them. What for? To show the struggles of adolescence? To show that humans don't need anyone's validation to make their own decisions? If so, then the message is exaggerated and poorly executed.

The dialogue and situations in the story felt way too convenient. I know I've been using the word "convenient" a lot in this review, but it is one of the flaws in the story. Instead of being believable or natural, many parts of the story felt like it was just conveniently and weakly planned. All the drama in Orgairu was just the source of miscommunication. The author chooses words for the dialogue to conveniently create misunderstandings and conflicts. There were also times when the conflict came out of nowhere, where no reason was given on why there was stress in the situation (e.g. the reactions when Hikigaya faked a confession).

For clarification, I understand that many things within a story have to hold convenience to devise a plot as what makes a good story good is meticulous planning. Many aspects of Oregairu had devices that only hold importance to a specific subject and not the entirety of the story or part of the story's development.

As I've seen from Wataru Watari's work, he is no doubt a great author, but his mistake was putting too much of himself in his work. Getting attached to your story, especially your characters when writing is common, but sometimes, it can be too much. It is okay to put your feelings into the story but it is also important to not put too much of yourself into it as well. Looking forward to reading more of his works.

I still would like to recommend this light novel to people despite the criticism I gave. The majority of people seemed to like it, and I can see why this is a commercially successful story. So if you like your basic harem but with a little bit of edginess, feel free to give Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru a read.