Tag: cautious

The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious Volume 4 Review

by macksamson, posted in Cautious Hero, Light Novels

Last time on Cautious Hero, Rista and Seiya end up in Ixphoria, the SS Rank world that Seiya failed to save in a previous life. Rista opens a gate to make adjustments, but a werewolf breaks through. Adenela kills it, but it mutters something about having already left its mark. Seiya immediately heads to Ixphoria, saying “Everything’s going to be okay”. When they arrive, it turns out the werewolf’s attack left Seiya with amnesia, and a reckless personality. Rista manages to get him to hold back, then an old guy helps guide them to safety, where they encounter Braht, one of Seiya’s old buddies. After a bit of an argument, Seiya grabs a rusty sword and heads out to fight the boss, Bunogeos. Rista manages to turn the sword into a platinum sword, and Seiya is able to beat some of the enemies by using his high-level spells in ACTUAL combat. But Bunogeos shows up and captures them. Fortunately, Seiya is able to destroy the iron bars by headbutting them, and recovers his memory in the process. The refugees aren’t giving him a warm welcome, so Seiya beats them up (yep, he’s back alright). Unfortunately, he also hates Rista, because it was her fault that he couldn’t be perfectly prepared. He promises to defeat Bunogeos, so he changes his class to Jolly Piper, with Earth Mage as a secondary job. They sneak underground, and Seiya utilizes a makeshift spitball gun to take out the enemies. It’s super effective! They repeat this strat for a while, then seek out Bunogeos. Curiously enough, Seiya starts squealing like a pig while spying on Bunogeos. Unfortunately, they aren’t able to find a weakness before being detected, so they fight him head-on. But of course, Seiya learned the ability to change classes himself, and thus is able to make quick work of him, even when he tries to enter his second phase. When they head back to the spirit world, Seiya masters shape-shifting, turning himself into Bunogeos (the pig squealing was practice for this), and Rista into a fish beastkin. They head to Termine, where they shapeshift and join the beast squadron. Rista is sent to the former queen of Termine, Camilla (her mom), whom she is instructed to torture (she doesn’t though). The day of the ritual comes upon them, and Rista returns to her mom. However, Grandleon is there, holding a doll that Tiana (past Rista) made for her, and that’s what finally breaks her. Rista appraises it, and sees a memory of her past life. The queen is now about to be executed, and she interrupts Seiya’s ritual to get him to save her. And you know what, he decides to fight Grandleon on his own. It’s rough, but Seiya pushes his new Berserk skill to its utmost limits, and manages a narrow victory.

And guess what… there’s more where that came from! In this volume, the Machine Emperor Oxerio sends his machine corp to attack Termine. Seiya gets about as over-the-top as usual with his perfect preparedness, and disregards the public as he fortifies the city. But in addition to Oxerio, he has an evil sorceress named Celemonic to take care of in the latter half of the volume.

In fact, Seiya is more sadistic than ever. He genuinely trolls us- the readers- and shows complete disrespect towards literally everyone. When a disturbing secret regarding the killing machines is revealed, he doesn’t even bat an eye. Seriously, if you didn’t like Seiya before, then you’re only hurting yourself by continuing to put up with him. What do you think about Seiya at this point? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

As far as newcomers are concerned, we get introduced to a rogue killing machine named Kiriko, who has a kindhearted personality. There’s also the introduction of yet another goddess who continues to follow the trend of being an eccentric weirdo. As far as development of existing characters is concerned, everyone is more-or-less the same. You know the saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

I must still praise the author for not making the series so repetitive despite how simple it is. Seiya goes above and beyond, at one point showing us he doesn’t even need to be conscious in order to beat back his enemies. The solutions to problems get more over-the-top and creative than ever! But a seasoned reader like myself should know that this consistent rate in quality is likely too good to be true.

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Verdict: 9/10

Cautious Hero is on fire, as always. Bu according to the afterword, the Ixphoria Arc ends next volume. MyAnimeList still says this series is ongoing, but what could possibly happen after this? Well, I suppose the only solution is to wait and find out! 

Otherside Picnic Volume 3 and Cautious Hero Volume 3 Reviews

by macksamson, posted in Cautious Hero, Light Novels, Otherside Picnic

Last time on Otherside Picnic, Sorawo and Toriko decide to rescue the U.S. soldiers trapped at Kisaragi Station. They lead the entire battalion of men through a forest and fight a giant snake lady, and the men are able to return to base in Okinawa. The girls take the opportunity to chillax at the beach, but end up on a beach in the Otherisde. After barely avoiding an assault from green babies and grey lumpy crabs, they escape by using the Hasshaku-sama hat from the previous volume to form a portal, whereas Sorawo sees the silhouette of Satsuki on the beach just as the portal closes up. Sorawo then encounters a weird girl named Akari Seto, who’s had ninja cats pursuing her. The two of them, and Toriko, end up fighting said ninja cats in the space between our world and the Otherside (similar to when the Time-space Man showed up), and escape when Sorawo uses her power to spot a strange doll inside Akari, which Toriko pulls out of her. After returning to the real world, they ask where she got it from. It turns out that she was another student of Satsuki’s, and this breaks Toriko’s heart. Later on, they get invited to the organization that Kozakura works for, the DS research lab, where Satsuki used to work. When they investigate her old room, Sorawo uses her right eye to decipher the strange glyphs in Satsuki’s journal, which causes Satsuki herself to appear and drop a cursed box on the floor, which erupts into red birds that attack Toriko. Sorawo barely manages to save her, but we still have no idea what the deal is with Satsuki, assuming that we’ve been seeing the real thing. Also, Sorawo not telling Toriko about any of these sightings is sure going to put a dent in their relationship later.

This volume starts with the title drop: an Otherside picnic! In this part, we learn more stuff about the girls than before, such as the fact that Toriko apparently had lesbians for parents. But yeah, this light novel is getting more yuri every volume. I just hope it doesn’t get so wrapped up in yuri stuff that it dangles the whole Satsuki thing like a carrot for a cringe-tastically long time. That would be very sitcom-like.

Fortunately, that has yet to occur. Otherside Picnic still maintains a sense of overall intrigue when it comes to story progression. This volume brings up a mysterious figure named Lunaurumi, who may or may not be Satsuki. But she is one thing, and that’s some Internet troll who’s been spreading the Otherside’s influence to innocent people. 

Unfortunately, I don’t care about Akari any more than I did last time, even with the character development she gets in this volume. We see her relationship with her friend, Natsumi Ichikawa, but it’s kind of just there for the sake of the genre. I might have said this before, but Sorawo and Toriko’s chemistry is the only thing making the yuri aspect of this series anything above baseless girl-on-girl sex.

Based on what I’ve read up to this point, the first halves of each Otherside Picnic volume are very slow and very inconsequential. The first chapter in each book can be pretty boring, and seems to serve no purpose but to reacquaint us with the characters. But  the ball always gets rolling real fast in the second half, and the fact that one chapter takes up the entire latter half of this volume shows that sh** goes DOWN. The climax is a massive turning point that I’m glad happened now instead of later, that’s for sure.

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Verdict: 9.25/10

While I have some concerns, Otherside Picnic is still one of the best isekai- and perhaps one of the best yuri- on the market. I need volume four yesterday, because after what happens here, I honestly have no clue what direction it could go in.

Last time on Cautious Hero… hoo boy! Seiya defeats a big fly-like Demon with the new attacks he learns from the pervy archery goddess, Mitis, and the yandere war goddess, Adenela, and saves Rosalie Roseguard, the whiny and reckless daughter of the emperor. He is then instructed to go to a village to obtain some sacred armor, but that village has been destroyed by another Demon General, who summons an indestructible monster named Death Thanatos to kill Seiya and his friends. They run back to the spirit world and lure it to the goddess of destruction, Valkyrie, who uses an awesome absolute-surefire-kill move called Gate of Valhalla to destroy it, but at the cost of almost all of her HP. Seiya asks her to train him on all of her moves except for that one, but it’s cut short when Rista walks in on them… doing it?! After that… incident… they’re called to the capital city of Orphee, where the last Demon General is attacking. However, the emperor, Wohlks Roseguard, defeats it himself (despite being senile and reverting to the personality of a baby every so often). Double-however, the emperor, who was seduced by the Demon Lord’s words and his own envy of Seiya, tries to kill Seiya using the God Eater Sword, forged with the power of the Demon Lord’s Chain of Destruction that permanently kills a soul with no chance of reincarnation. Seiya barely manages to defeat the guy, so his team rests up for the final battle. Or DO they? Seiya breaks out of character and goes off to fight the Demon Lord himself with the Gate of Valhalla technique (which, incidentally, him and Valkyrie’s doing it was her giving him the ability in the first place). When Rista rushes over to Ishtar to ask what the hell’s wrong with him, she tells her that Seiya was previously summoned to save a different world. Triple-however, he was the exact opposite of cautious, and thus he failed (also, Rista is the reincarnation of his lover during that time. Now Seiya is officially a waifu guy. Great). Rista breaks the rules and teleports straight into the Demon Lord’s castle right in the midst of the final battle and restores Seiya’s life with her divine healing powers to offset the Gate of Valhalla’s punishment. QUADRUPLE-however, the Demon Lord is able to attempt a last-minute screen-nuke, forcing Seiya to summon a second Gate to consume him and the first gate, finishing him off for good. This breaks him (literally) beyond repair, and Rista returns to her world awaiting punishment. Her punishment… is to save the world that Seiya could not save, now an SS-ranked Dark Souls-ian world. And who better to accompany her… than the reincarnated (through some Deus Ex Machina BS) Seiya himself? 

“Well that’s all well and good,” you say. “But this is just an excuse for the author to pad the series out long after it should’ve ended. Things in this arc are going to be EXACTLY the same as the previous one!” I shared your concern. But things change VERY radically right at the start of this volume.

Seiya trains for the new challenge when a werewolf appears and attacks him. It only gets one hit in, but it’s enough to give him amnesia and make him VERY reckless. Doing this effectively turns him into the same Gary Sue protagonist that tends to make isekai absolute cringe, but this version of Seiya is good cringe. By robbing us of what defines him as a character, the story expects you to yearn for him to be cautious again. Conversely, if you hated him up to this point, this version of him will probably irritate you even more.

This also puts the shoe on the other foot. With Seiya making rash moves, Rista now starts acting cautious around him. This causes a new set of reactions between them that wasn’t at all possible in the past, and is by far the best aspect of this new predicament.

Unfortunately, the amnesia ends up being resolved very early and very unceremoniously, which also increases the rift between him and Rista. This makes the whole situation seem like shock value. But there’s a silver lining! In order to face his new enemies, Seiya goes for a class change. This allows him to continue to bamboozle us (and his enemies) with even more utility than before. 

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Verdict: 9.3/10

This new arc shows that the author of Cautious Hero has yet to run out of steam. With Seiya’s ever-expanding arsenal, only the final boss could have a ghost of a chance of stopping him. Oh, and speaking of the final boss, I’m hoping that it ends up being just as cautious as Seiya. A battle between cautious hero and cautious demon would be a perfect way to end this series (or this arc?). But Seiya will have to GET to the final boss in order for us to know for sure.

No Game No Life Volume 9 and Cautious Hero Volume 2 Reviews

by macksamson, posted in Cautious Hero, Light Novels, No Game No Life
Cover of each book

Last time on No Game No Life, Sora and Shiro- through a series of events so complicated that even the author had trouble describing it well- manage to bring their impossible game against Jibril to a draw, and defeat the Old Deus. The Old Deus is christened by Sora as Holou, and she joins his harem. However, the volume ends with some very robot-y dialogue… Hm, I wonder who that could be? *cough* Ex Machina *cough*

This volume starts with Sora struggling to exploi- I mean- turn Holou into a pop idol that’ll make the people love them. Holou’s medieval dialogue combined with her third-person perspective and philosophical-speak make her a fun and adorable new character. She’s no Izuna or Jibril, but I still love her.

However, she doesn’t get the spotlight in this volume. As previously foreshadowed, a surviving unit of Ex Machina show up, and Sora is pushed to his limits as he must defend his most prized possession: HIS VIRGINITY. That’s right. These robots show up to straight up have sex with Sora. He doesn’t want that, so he must fight for his own sexual rights! (Thank goodness he isn’t female, or else this would make a lot of people absolutely LIVID)

This group of Ex Machina is technically one person, but two of the twelve are given individual names: a homosexual butler robot named Einzig, and a cute maid robot named Emir-Eins. Both are hilarious and make this volume just as fun as the previous ones.

But of course, as per usual, the game they play is absurdly convoluted and the multi-layered mind games once again go beyond suspension of disbelief. In Layman’s Terms: The events in this volume’s battle make no sense. While not as grandiose, or as long, as Holou’s fight, it’s still absurd. I love absurd, but the message boards of Dr. Stone and basically any battle shounen series show that absurd is not for everyone.

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Verdict: 9.3/10

This volume is perfectly good, however I am concerned with the future of this series. Wikipedia only lists one volume after this, published last year, while MAL lists the series as still ongoing. I know that series getting delayed isn’t uncommon, but I haven’t really heard any news about NGNL in particular. This is currently my favorite LN series of all time, but if I can’t actually finish it, that title will go to something else. Also, the mean cliffhanger ending of this volume, which seems to explicitly imply an endgame development, might never get resolved. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it!

Last time on Cautious Hero, a goddess named Rista, is tasked with saving the S-Ranked world, Gaeabrande, from a Demon Lord McGee. She summons Seiya Ryuuguuin from the real world. He’s got great stats, but he’s too damn cautious. He immediately causes problems as he uses top-tier attacks on slimes (causing collateral damage in the process), crafting equipment out of Rista’s hair (without her permission), and pouring holy water on everyone (in case they’re undead enemies). And after every accomplishment, he goes back to the gods’ realm to train (and push other gods to the brink of exhaustion). But hey, he’s already defeated TWO of the Final Boss’ direct subordinates. Afterwards, two dragon kids, named Mash and Elulu, join his party. Naturally, they’re useless. But when the dragon people try to sacrifice Elulu to form some Super-Holy-Dragon-Sword, Seiya puts a stop to it, not because he wants Elulu as a waifu, but because he needs her to carry his massive inventory of stuff that he might need. However, doing this supposedly costs him the ability to defeat the Final Boss, but I got a feeling that he’ll get by as is.

This volume introduces a number of new faces, including Rosalie, the daughter of an allegedly-super-powerful warrior who is also the emperor. She is the exact opposite of Seiya, i.e. a dumb, reckless brat. This creates some interesting interactions between her and Seiya.

Speaking of Seiya, he gets even more training in this volume, this time from the archery goddess, Mitis. While that goes in… a direction, Mash and Elulu end up training, and obtain more abilities that might actually allow them to contribute to battle. However, I still find their personalities to be pretty boring. Valkyrie also gets some screentime, and further cements herself as the Best Girl of the series, but alas, her time spent is pretty short despite her presence on the volume’s cover. Cerceus and Adenela, the gods Seiya trained under last time, have changed a LOT in this volume; with the former being reduced to making cakes for a living and the latter becoming a crazy yandere.

But man oh man… that climax. We get to see Seiya’s backstory here, and I honestly feel kind of mixed about it. It makes him very reminiscent of generic isekai protagonists… but like I said in my previous review, Cautious Hero isn’t about subverting isekai tropes, but following them exrtra-stupid-hardcore. Although the volume ends on a good note, establishing the premise of the second arc, this development will greatly affect your outlook on the entire series as a whole.

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Verdict: 9.25/10

Although I didn’t enjoy this volume of Cautious Hero as much as the previous one due to the more serious tone, the series is still proving to be a helluva lot better than most isekai on the market. But seriously, if you didn’t like Seiya in the first volume, then just give up, because he only gets more paranoid from here.