The first book or first anything should hook you and pull you into wanting more but this one has no such thing thanks to its dialogue, story and character personalities, of which non of these are very thought out or utilized correctly and personally I dont think it should have ever been a comedy fantasy story combination with the subject that the creator used since it starts with a serious depression and suiside tone which is a dark topic to be making a manga about in the first place which is not the main problem in the very least its actually how lightly the creator
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thought of the topic since the story has no meaning not even a deeper one imbedded into it they just take cheap jokes and laughs about the entire thing which ruins the seriousness of the topic at hand if they wanted to use this topic and make it they way they did they should have instead not have it be so dark and serious rather make it so the character cant die no matter what he does in a funny way making it in a more light hearted tone with no hard mentions of suicide and depression but alas the creator took that path which makes it wishy-washy between light hearted and serious especially in the art style that was used since at the start of the first book its drawn heavy like its supposed to be a serious manga but a couple panels are drawn light which makes it seem more comedy style and this overall does not set or determine a proper tone on a serious topic but to make it worse at the end of book one the character who is supposed to be depressed and suicidal is practically smiling like they have had a change of heart and seen hope but its been a matter of hours not even a full day in the book and such matters in real life cannot be cured in that time, its a serious topic distored by a creator who thinks its funny and uses it satiricaly when its nothing of the sort which makes this a badly written manga by a creator who only writes comedys and chose a really bad subject to write this one with.
So I am midway through writing my own light novel and I found this book randomly while in a store reading the synopsis in my sleepy out-of-it state, I thought it looked good knowing I love fantasy I decided to purchase the book and take it home with me, while on the train ride back I read the book and thought it was bad but this morning I decided to reread it just to make sure and I think it's even worse now I've explained the biggest problem above but now I want to explain some more with spoilers so you can check for yourself if you read it.
SPOILERS ahead from this point read it yourself then come back and disagree with me if you can! (Only Volume one applies to this Review Though I might read volume two out of spite)
Like I said before the book starts off with a serious tone and subject but I should explain why since the main character and his lover attempting a double suicide right from the get-go which like I've said is a serious tone and subject and you can see that just from those couple pages this is your first look at the tone of the book, then not more than 5 pages later the book uses a 4th wall break and makes a joke about the famous "Isekai truck" or as some people call it "Truck-Kun" to make a cheap satirical joke which then sets another tone for the book making it start to be wishy-washy in its use of the two tones the creator should have picked one of these and stuck with it removing either the comedy or the suicide and depression picking one of the two tones. (Personally, I think it should have been a serious Dark fantasy with occasional darker jokes)
The character Annette who is the guide of heros at one of the four chapels around the world has a few serious flaws which make the story and character progression extreamly bad, she starts off like shes been stuck in a dead end job for years not acomplishing much or enjoying her life which is understandable and the way she interects with sensei is just what you would expect of someone just doing there job with only minor frustraction and panic when sensei does the oppisite and does not listen to her which then changes to worry when she thinks he was summoned by accident and not on purpose and realising he is different to everyone else that has been summoned before so when he finally comes back into the chapel I can understand why she would be happy but here lies the first major problem the book describes itself as a 'Bleak Isekai Comedy' and yet Annette is acting like she is suddenly in love which breakes her character progression since such a thing like this although it can happen and there is such a thing as "love at first sight" this was not at first sight and was a forced descision by the creator of the book who is using 'Cute Girls' to create what one would consider the possible start of a herem which is an overused and boring cliche by bad writers it has only ever been used well a couple of times, Annette should have slowly stated to love Sensei not when the book portrays it to be the start and even Tama realises shes in love with sensei and reinforces my point.
The second problem with Annette's character and progression is that although she had a reason to follow Sensei out of concern and interest she did not have one to be dragging Sensei around in a coffin rather she should have or even Tama should have forced Sensei to walk on his own and forget the coffin not proceed to drag him around in it for the entire book everywhere they went.
Speaking of the coffin it just randomly appears after a panel with a crashed cart and yet there is no extra page showing them notice the coffin nor is there one removing the body that should be inside said coffin since it has flowers arranged inside of it if it was being transported for use then it would not have flowers since they would be added just before the body but alas the bigger problem is the whole coffin thing makes no sense due to the tone of the book being wishy-washy it would make sense in a real comedy because it would be funny and you could overlook any problem with it thanks to the humour and light-heartedness.
Lets talk about Tama which is not even her name since shes not allowed to say her name thanks to the writer but thats fine for a comedy and so is the way that Tama is intoduced yet is this even a comedy like I've said before the tone matters but anyway, Tama is found via a cliche and I suppose the creator is trying to make it funny with the whole Ecchi tentecle thing but again it adds another tone to the book which is what led me to belive Annette was about to be the start of a heram becaue it adds that Ecchi tone into it trying to make it even more light hearted and not serious dispite the constant serious topic and protrail of it, Tama's character progression if you can even call it that starts off with her asking for help from sensei and being refused aleading to her almost dying which should make her at the very least a little angry yet she acts like sensei planned it all and is happy with a cool, calm and collected attitude, this leads her to then for some reason invite sensei to her house which by the way is an extremly long way away and is never explain at least not in book one why she is so far away from home not even someone asking and her saying she does not wish to talk about it, however she should not have had any reason to ask sensei to come in the first place though when she trys to comfort sensei about Sacchan thats 100% alright any normal person would.
Tama's progression after that is not much better shes is almost like a lost cat following them for no reason (Yes I see the Pun) other than because she invited them to her house, its almost like her entire character and point in the book should not exist in fact the entire book should not exsist at this point I feel like it has been written on a basic idea without much thought and Tama's only redeeming quality or action was that she tried to fight the minotaur/demon thing in the castle and through I guess teamwork knocked it into the lake (Is it even dead?) and to be honest Tama is the most serious character in the entire book she actually has a kind of personality and I'm using the word personality loosely here all I mean is that she has a serious demeanour to her most of the time.
Halfway through chapter two Annette casually mentions 'We should stop by the castle and great the king' which for a comedy would be fine with no explanation since making spontaneous random things happen can be the best part of comedy but I'm going to keep saying its wrong since the tone is wrong all over the place but it gets worse the king who should know everything about his kingdom has no idea who Annette is nor what she does not even that heroes get summoned he acts like they are just normal travellers and such people would have no reason to come before a king without an explanation or invite but he then goes ahead and asks them to decide his daughters future
I understand the princess not wanting to marry either of the two people her father is forcing her to pick between and rather perhaps marry someone she actually has some interest in I've seen such stories in so many other works before but the way it is done in this book is atrocious thanks to the creator making fun of suicide a very serious topic but I should explain, So the princess is trying to decide what she wants to after talking to sensei now normally and what I though would happen is she would proclaim her love for sensei and attempt to elope (I may have underestimated the book) but instead I was suprised to see that she says 'I will join this traveler in double suicide' which with her bright and smiling attitude is making light of the subject but it gets worse becasue not even 10 pages later she suddenly decided she wants to live like she never wanted to die in the first place making fun and mocking the subject and people who really deal with this kind of thing the creator of the book has zero Tact and honesly half of chapter two and the entirety of chapter three should not exsist.
Sensei's personality is what should bring you to keep reading and enjoy this book at least thats what the crator intended since its different and not generic but I think the creator has seen to many generic works and not diviated enough from them rather like I've said before writing about something he doesnt know about or at least doesnt know how to write properly becasue its written like Sensei is depressed and suicidel yet there is nothing to reinforce either of those feelings its all Forced Narrative the character expresses and feels non of it reguardless of the way the dialogue is written there is nothing in the book that should make sensei depressed or suicidal theres nothing like I said reinforcing or even hinting at any of it baring two pages near the end of the book about how he wanted to stab someone but neither of the two feelings Depreesssion and suicide are not expressed or reinforced here yet again its wishy-washy between the two tones making fun of people who actually go threw these two feelings.
Like I've said before sensei should be forced to do things he does not want to do by the characters around him like in his old life as an author who would have to put up with deadlines, long days and more always being forced to do things he didn't want to do reinforcing that depression and suicide feeling he should have but neither of that is there since each page is changed from seriousness to lighthearted.
Sensei is also supposed to be an Author but its never used at least not in book one however it is mentioned a total of two times the first being right at the start of the book and the second midway through chapter one yet you would think it would be mentioned more often or at least used for something I personally expected it to show up in the Skills list that is shown twice in the first book but both times it says 'NONE'
Near the start of chapter 4 Annette threw the creator of the book finally explains about hero summoning beyond the whole Truck part explaining that they are summoned to four chapels before training and fighting the dark lord, Annette expresses concern about sensei and says its not his objective to fight such a being and all this would be fine but then the creator has to go ahead and be contrived a few pages later and force the characters to meet who they think is the dark lord this way of writing is lazy it has no personality or feeling its stifled, suffocating and without expression
The book tells you one page before when a new chapter is starting and then tells you again on the next page which is weird and should not be there since it removes any and all mystery to any cliffhanger or surprise since most new chapters start at the beginning of a new subject or perspective and thats not even mentioning that chapter 5 has no place existing it should just be a continuation of chapter 4 since it's so short and you already knew what was about to happen anyway but there was still the pre chapter 5 mention removing the surprise the book also removes surprise and again Forces the narrative by telling you Charecters levels, place names and enemy names rather than letting you learn that information removing the mystery and intrigue from the book.
I'd just like to also mention that I feel a couple of pages are missing from the book since there are points where I feel it either jumps ahead or requires more detail and explanation like the part with the coffin that I explain earlier this again is kind of lazy your not writing a slice of life here where you can just jump around a city 20 times in the space of a couple of pages (I know I exaggerated a little)
After consuming so much fantasy material in my life and attempting to write my own I can see the problems with other works more clearly and this one differently needed a lot more work yet it has continued to be made with even a translation to English (which is why I am here now) and an upcoming anime but I don't see how it made it this far it's baffling to me but everyone does have their opinion and I have mine though Objectively this manga is missing a lot of stuff and doing other things poorly solely based on writing and depiction not opinion though there is that too.
Apr 29, 2023
Isekai Shikkaku
(Manga)
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The first book or first anything should hook you and pull you into wanting more but this one has no such thing thanks to its dialogue, story and character personalities, of which non of these are very thought out or utilized correctly and personally I dont think it should have ever been a comedy fantasy story combination with the subject that the creator used since it starts with a serious depression and suiside tone which is a dark topic to be making a manga about in the first place which is not the main problem in the very least its actually how lightly the creator
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