Clephas

This particular series follows a guy who dies after being trampled by an escaped horse as he is revived in another world and told to live freely. He is given two major growth cheats right up front (20 times experience gain, plus 1/20 experience to next level) and becomes immensely powerful in a relatively short time, while gathering a group of friends and lovers around him (he only has two lovers, which is pretty low compared to most isekai protagonists). Throughout most of the story, he picks the jobs he wants to level up at random or based on his needs at the moment, so you can't really say he is an intelligent and far-sighted protagonist. In addition, he is highly reliant on the moral support of Haru and Kyaro (his lovers) to keep himself balanced. The theme of this story is very much a 'normal guy his given immense power but no purpose', and it is only toward the end that things become truly serious and he is forced to stand against fate. Since the protagonist doesn't become morally defunct (something that happens to roughly half of the serious isekai protagonists I've seen so far), chapter for chapter, this isn't a bloody series. Nor is it graphic. The protagonist tends to try to save everyone he can while not endangering those close to him, but he doesn't have a hero complex. It is more a situation where the protagonist has the power to do something about it, so he does. The story itself is fairly solid and internally consistent, even if it appears to go off on tangents regularly (the intermissions with the two idiots and their monster donkey are a perfect example of tangents turning out to be important). However, it is also a long story to read, and it gets off to a relatively slow start until the events that result in him buying Haru. Overall, it is a complete series that never truly loses its shine from beginning to end, so it is worth reading for those who like isekai stories.

It's already translated.

I couldn't get into Heiwa Deshita. The first one I read part of but put aside because it didn't match what I wanted at the time. I'll look at the second one, eventually... I read a couple of Mobsekai-types already, but I'll keep it in mind.

To be honest, Sairin Yuusha is one of the worst WNs I've ever read. I kept reading until it cut off because I thought it would eventually get good, but the protagonist is weak and there is never any real progress with the heroine. The story itself is a revenge story about a hero who is murdered by his own party right before he is about to fight the Demon King. Thirty years later, he is summoned again and starts on a journey of revenge, forming an alliance with a former demon queen and generally wreaking havoc on his enemies in a world that he feels betrayed him. His revenge is pretty graphic - so those who like that kind of thing will probably get off on this - but, to be honest, he is so focused on the revenge part of his journey that he never really grows as a person until right before the author stopped posting it (literally in the last volume). If the writer had included some softer moments to cushion the constant 'push forward and get revenge', I would have liked it more. I also would have liked it if the heroine's personality had fit her role in the story, but unfortunately, she often was the source of me being jerked out of my immersion in the story.

Probably thinking about Der Werewolf. It has a similar theme (reincarnator is a commander in the demon army). It is also completely released in english in both manga and ln form (decent but more mundane than this one).

This particular WN is remarkable for a lot of reasons. The protagonist of this story is reincarnated in another world as the adopted son of a lich general in the service of Dairokuten Maou (lol, if you can guess who else got reincarnated, I'll clap in congrats), and he joins the demonic armies as a commander while hiding the fact that he is human behind a skull mask and lich's robes. The story itself begins after he has already begun to become famous as a conquering commander but before his real talents have been shown to the world. The protagonist really is the most powerful mage in the story, having survived his grandpa's spartan (and inhuman) training methods, but his major talents actually lie in strategy and administration, meaning he is more general and administrator than he is a mage most of the time. There is no actual romance in the main story (despite the fact that about seven women have fallen for him by the end), so those who desire romance in their stories shouldn't go after this one. The closest he comes to a romance is his surprisingly intimate relationship with Sati, his maid who was a slave of the lord of a city he conquered in the prologue. Within the story, Sati is the personification of the 'common humankind', whereas Jiron (the protagonist's aide-de-campe, who is an orc) represents the monster races' common people. The viewpoints these two provide during the story just with their comments and actions help to provide perspective, a technique that is often used by skilled writers. Most of the story goes back and forth between Ike (the protagonist) overcoming incredible odds to push the Demon King's agenda forward and him building up his territory of Ivalice using his knowledge of Earth. I honestly thought a lot that him revealing his true self to Lilith would have made for interesting results, but, unfortunately, to the very end, Ike only reveals himself to a very select group of people who saw through him anyway. This story is complete, thankfully, with a prequel gaiden story and a single after story attached after. If you like strategist/tactician protagonists in fantasy worlds, it is a good choice to read.

The grind obsession is a bit annoying at times. However, it becomes less tedious after he leaves the village.

To be honest, this is probably the best of the last six WNs I've read in the last month. It is also complete. This one is a 'same world, different protagonist' story from the same world as Elf Tensei kara no Cheat Kenkokuki, and the protagonist of that one is the father one of the two heroines. However, even if you haven't read the first story, this one stands on its own quite well. The protagonist, Souji, was a player of a game on Earth that was insanely realistic, with time compression that allowed him to spend 168 years testing everything that world had to offer. The game had several unusual aspects. For one, it was single-player. For another, it had permadeath. One thing all the players noticed was that, no matter how hard they tried, no matter how long they lived, things always ended in tragedy. Souji in particular, lost his beloved Kuna over and over again, and one day when he was about to try to save her again, the end of service for the game was announced. As he was about to despair, he was offered a chance to go to a real world where he would have a chance to save Kuna for real. Naturally, he leaps at this chance and is reborn with all the built-up knowledge of that world's magic and crafting techniques he had put together over the 168 subjective years he spent in the game. The protagonist is definitely a cheat character, but that doesn't mean there aren't struggles. In actuality, while he doesn't struggle with the day to day issues, dealing with the issues important to him is always a struggle, meaning this isn't just an overpowered protagonist dominating the arena (in fact, for most of the story he is merely overpowered for his rank, not overpowered compared to everyone around him). The romantic parts of the story are fairly cute, but the WN in general is pretty no-frills as a whole, with relatively little normal SOL and a ton of action and drama. Overall, it is a good story if you want something that more or less sticks to the plot for the entirety of the story, but it isn't something you'll enjoy if you want to see a lot of side-tracking and swimsuit scenes, lol.

Niito Dakedo Hello Work ni ittara Isekai ni Tsuretakareta This is a WN by Katsura Kasuga. An unemployed NEET named Masaru goes to Hello Work (the official Japanese employment agency) and signs a contract for what he thinks is playing a video game, and instead he gets dropped into a world about to be destroyed (or so he is told) and told to test Itou's (apparently that world's god) new skill system for twenty years (incidentally, the amount of time until the end of the world). If he survives the twenty years, he'll be sent back to Japan with twenty years worth of six-figure pay to arrive at the same time he left in his young body, if he dies he... dies. The draw of this series is, as usual with Isekai these days, harem. The protagonist, Masaru, doesn't have any hesitation about building a harem, and after a bunch of semi-hilarious events early on, he actually manages to form one with four heroines (one cat-girl slave, a priestess, a mage, and a loli judge). The first half of what was written before the author dropped off the face of the earth is mostly SOL with adventurer everyday life. It is the second half where things start to expand into having a real story, where the harem becomes almost incidental to progressing the plot. Perhaps the most frustrating part is that the story cuts off in the middle of the final chapter... Rettougan no Tensei Majutsushi This one follows a similar plot to Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja and Shijou Saikyou Maou. The protagonist was a great sorcerer who defeated the demon lord with his friends, but because of his eyes, he suffered from persecution. As a result, he decided to use magic to reincarnate himself two hundred years later, where he was reborn in a body he designed from the ground up. This story, before it was cut off by the author's likely demise (given the fact that ALL his works stopped being released within a two-week period). Honestly, given how high-paced this one was, I would have been happy to read it once it was complete, but the abrupt stop in the middle of things getting interesting pretty much killed any fondness I might have had. Isekai Shihai no Skill Taker This one is by the same writer as Rettougan and literally cuts off in the last volume (much to my frustration). However, as summoning isekai go, this one is notable for the protagonist being a pretty fascinating martial artist, as well as a kichiku character with a fondness for tentacles and beautiful women. I honestly enjoyed everything about the story, and while I nearly flew into a rage when I saw it cut off literally in the last part of the story, I can imagine what was likely to happen next fairly easily. The protagonist of this one has a tendency to indulge in 'enlightened self-interest', which means he is generally selfish but realizes that the world doesn't revolve around him and he is willing to take action to make things better around him. [Edit] Maou to Ryuuou ni Sodaterareta Shounen wa Gakuen de Musou suru you desu I started this WN last night and finished the ten volumes that have come out so far about ten minutes ago. It was too early for me to make a new post, so I chose to include this one in this post. This story follows a young villager who gets trapped in the seal containing the Maou and Ryuuou from three hundred years before. Unlike them, he is not permanently trapped, so they decide to train him (despite his lack of talent), a task that takes several subjective centuries (time passes slower on the outside than it does on the inside, to the point where a year outside is three hundred inside). The villager, Ruisha, has an intense desire for power, which reaches the levels of madness at times, and as a result, he gladly spends the next three hundred years learning from his teachers (who become closer to surrogate mothers and wives to him as time goes by). The above chapter is actually the first volume of the WN, and once it was over, he went back into the world and headed for the Kingdom, where he accidentally enrolls in the Magic Academy, where he pretty much does the same thing every op protagonist in this kind of story does... forms an accidental harem and turns the school castes upside down. This story is incomplete and the writer has slowed down his releases significantly in recent months. However, what is there is fairly high quality. In particular, the quality of the romance/ichaicha is extremely high, as is that of the battle scenes.

Irotoridori is the only surprise on that list... I'd more or less given up on seeing anymore Favorite games being translated. Hopefully, Sakura Moyu will come eventually (Favorite's best work).

*a member of the Untranslated Liberation Army aims his Nihongorifle at Zakamutt and fires off a round of depleted Japoranium into Zaka before jumping into the sea of information* On a more serious note, I'm glad to see this come out where people can read it other than us elitists.

(Note: To be clear, this is an unfinished VN with over 500 chapters) Hell Mode is the WN I recently began (and finished to the current point) reading. It is another reincarnation one, where the protagonist was a heavy gamer who is one of those types that loves high-difficulty setups, reveling in grinding, conquering dungeons, and generally indulging in his desire to see more. He goes to a website where he gets the choice of difficulty and his job, and he picks the hardest difficulty Hell Mode (where everything is 100x harder than Normal Mode) and the high-difficulty job, Summoner. The world he ends up in is one where people see jobs as 'talents' and talent determines how far a person can go (if they aren't a noble) in life. However, it is also a world threatened by a demon lord, and much of the story past the first fifth of what has already been written is war against the demon king's forces. The protagonist has terrible 'gamer's brain' and thinks of everything in terms of gaming, to the point where he examines every aspect of his skills, those of his companions, the tools at hands, the powers of his enemies, etc. One of the running jokes of the series is how he keeps dragging his friends into grinding in dungeons to gain levels and skill levels and their reactions to it when he passes certain limits. Honestly, this one was a fun read, and I'm looking forward to him finishing the latest volume (probably sometime in September, judging by his writing speed and how fast his previous entries were completed). I have the feeling that there will be at least two more volumes after the one he is writing now, so give it a year to a year and a half, and this series will probably come to a conclusion. One thing that might make people lose interest is that the protagonist has absolutely no interest in romance or the opposite (or same) sex in that way. While there are a lot of indications that girls around him are infatuated with him, he doesn't even notice one way or the other. So don't expect there to be any romance on his end or ecchi situations. This is a story about a guy who loves figuring out how the world works and making it work for him and gains great joy from difficult situations. Edit: There are other elements that made it attractive for me. In particular, the existence of a friendly rival in the form of the hero Hermios, whose existence is oddly humorous despite the seriousness of the situations they meet in. In addition, the main antagonist (so far) Kyuber is a surprisingly decent villain character who gives off the proper aura of the shadow behind the throne with his own agenda you want to see in any similar situation. A major downside I failed to mention is that the growth in the story is all grinding (as fits with the MMO-addict's methodology the protagonist loves), which sometimes made it a bit hard to follow the protagonist's gleeful heavy gamerism.

Honestly, I think you'd be best off looking for it on amazon, since it came out when Jast USA was the only major localization company. https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Inferno-Artist-Not-Provided/dp/B00006JU7J/ref=sr_1_2?crid=290VN3B43AZ6K&keywords=phantom+of+inferno&qid=1652171878&sprefix=phantom+of+inferno%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-2

Omake Tenseisha is the story of a girl who lived through hell on earth and had a new hell waiting for her when she was tossed aside by the gods and reincarnated again. For those who have read a Snake's Life or Kumo, this will be a story that is somewhat familiar. The protagonist is fairly similar to Kumoko (naturally ruthless, tends to think cheerfully most of the time, ends up eating everything that is her enemy, lol). The story itself is one long 'driven out of a town', 'ate everything that got in my way', 'accidentally screwed up the gods' plans', etc. Basically, the protagonist's appearance (black hair, black eyes) makes her a cursed child in the eyes of her new world, and she is inevitably driven out of any town she tries to stay in. She also kills and eats anything she can without any real discrimination (especially after she learns how to transform matter into mana in her stomach), and gets ever more overpowered as the story goes along. She also knocks her fellow reincarnators' lives off the rails the gods put before them on a fairly regular basis (without them or her knowing it). That brings me back to the gods... think of the gods of her new world as a bunch of sociopaths that think of the souls they reincarnate as characters in a reality tv show and you'll get the picture. Generally a fun and hilarious read with a somewhat hyperactive writer.

Devils Devel Concept's protagonist is as far from a doormat as it is possible to get. It's not translated though. Ayakashibito is translated and the protagonist, while he tends to cry a lot more than most, is suitably strong-willed and is willing to do what is necessary based on the situation. Phantom of Inferno's protagonist is a brainwashed assassin. The only unfortunate aspect of the game is that the only English version is a weird DVD that plays like a video. On the upside, that version has all the lines - dialogue or not - voiced. Grisaia's Yuuji and the Phantom Trigger male protagonist. The downside to Yuuji is that he is mentally unstable, so he might irritate you depending on the path. Anything else I would suggest wouldn't be translated, unfortunately.

Japanese and Asian Mythology Waka-sama no Zasuru Sekai Kamisama no Shippo LoveKami (the original) Natsu no Owari no Nirvana Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary Madohi Shiroki no Kamikakushi Ayakashibito Western/Mixed Aoi Tori (Christian) Eushully's Dir Lifyna games (in a roundabout way, since most of Earth's gods are dead when the series begins) Tokyo Babel The Soleil series by Skyfish (primarily Norse, with some other pantheons mixed in and Cthulhu Mythos at times)

To be blunt, this WN is a straight-out slave harem story in another world. The protagonist is a run-down salaryman who escaped a black company workplace only to end up summoned to a world where the king was raring to put his summoned heroes to work. Quite naturally, the protagonist wants nothing to do with this, so he arranges to get himself thrown out of the castle and goes off on his own. The protagonist, like most summoned heroes, has a unique skill (typical of this kind of story). In his case, it allows him to take apart and restructure the skills of himself and his slaves (the first of which is the last Mazoku, Cecille). He makes a ton of weird skills during the story that are nonetheless incredibly effective (usually in an amusing way), making his slave wives ever more powerful while seeking to find a way to live the easy life without ever having to work. This is a story about a guy who saves the world repeatedly by accident while doing his best to avoid becoming famous, getting involved with nobility or royalty, and take care of his adoring wives. I will say that the story goes off on a tangent a lot, and there a ton of side-stories that break the flow of the story as a whole. While the harem ichaicha was generally good, I got pretty frustrated with the way it never really got serious, even at moments when it probably should have. A lot of it was because he kept creating skills that made his ever-growing harem more and more powerful whenever he got the least bit worried about where things were going (and usually ended up just overpowering the enemies without any real trouble).

This WN, also published in the West as Failure Frame, is a variant on the 'isekai summoning' genre where the summoner is malicious toward the summoned. This particular sub-genre has become more common of late (since the straight-up good people summon heroes out of desperation setup has gotten stale), but this one stands out to me for the sheer evil and brutality of the antagonist (the goddess) and the protagonist (who is probably the epitome of an anti-hero in its most brutal form). One thing I liked about this story was that Mimori Touka (the protagonist) is extremely self-aware. He knows the blackness of his own heart and revels in it at times, without being malicious toward good people. Rather than calling him a hero, it would be more appropriate to call him a man who takes joy in brutalizing those he thinks are like himself (evil, cruel, brutal, etc). In contrast, he is quite kind - if not gentle - toward those of good heart, unwilling to bring harm to them even if it would bring him some kind of advantage. This leads to most of the characters misunderstanding his motivations to one extent or another, as those close to him tend to interpret his actions in a positive way. This story is incomplete, but it is approaching completion pretty rapidly. I estimate that it will probably be complete early next year, for those who prefer to not have to wait.

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7471fo/34/ This is a very short WN I read on a whim over the course of a few hours. It is complete for what it is, and what it is isn't what you'd think. The protagonist is a reincarnator who was reborn in a game world, where he became a rootless traveling mage, sightseeing in the fantasy world he knew from the game. One day, he comes across a collapsed Dragonkin girl, who turns out to be the demon lord from the game. This story is one of romance and redemption, as a clumsy man approaching middle age does his best to be a friend to a girl who has lost everything. To be honest, there were several times even in this short story that I cried, simply because the writer was so good at creating the character interactions between Spika and Sanson. As Spika regains her humanity, it turns into an adorable romance that you can't help but cheer on.

This series is a funny little one by the same author as Surviving in another world with Goshujinsama (not to my taste, as the protag is M and a bit of a hetare, but it is really popular in Japan). The protagonist of this story is randomly transported to another world by a mischievous evil god (Pretty sure her/his real name starts with Nyarl, like most evil gods of this type in otaku stories) and left to his own devices. Taking advantage of his high growth rate and ability to pick skills to grow (something the natives don't have), he tries to live freely... but life isn't going to let him be. Before he knows it, he ends up drugged and in bed with an aggressive but incompetent adventurer girl named Marl, and soon after, the country takes interest in him. Generally speaking, this story is basically a power trip where the protagonist plays hero for a while before ending up as the lord of his own territory with a harem of women who control his life for the most part. It is funny, fun to read, and while the protagonist does struggle at key points, when it comes down to it it remains a power trip to the last. There are a few points in the story that would probably sicken people who don't like barbaric behavior (one particular incident in the first part), and some people won't like the way the women take over his life. However, I found it an amusing story, and it has the advantage of being complete and available on Shousetsuka ni Narou for free. https://ncode.syosetu.com/n9814bu/ Oh and the protagonist has a really wide strike zone, lol.

On another note, I love wunderwaffels. I just also enjoy stories where there is no wunderwaffel. I'm an isekai junkie in general... though it is a huge letdown when a real action story that is serious has a protagonist who is too overpowered for there to even be a struggle or strife. It's one thing if he ends up that way towards the end (like with Hajime in Arifureta Shokugyou), but most attempts to do serious plots and action with an op protagonist tend to fall apart near the end. The exception is when the main antagonist is just as op as the protagonist.

He doesn't have a wunderwaffel... he is just ridiculously hard-working (training in his sleep, and twelve hours of training every day while awake).

This particular WN series falls into the set called 'transference', as opposed to summoning or reincarnation. The protagonist, Takatsuki Makoto and his classmates freeze to death in a bus buried in an avalanche, only to wake up in another world, inside the Temple of Water, where it is explained to them that they have been saved by the mercy of that world's gods. They all receive skills and are more powerful than the natives... except for Makoto, whose status doesn't rise when he levels and only three skills 'Beginner Water Magic' 'Mental Stability' and 'RPG Player'. Since he has almost no magical power and no way to grow through normal methods, he is seen as useless and weak. He is approached by the goddess Noa, who asks him to be her follower, only to find out she is an evil god who is only allowed to have a single follower at any given time. This story, as you might think, is one about a guy overcoming a lot of obstacles through guts, sheer will, and dedication (well, and an incredible recklessness born of the latter two skills he gets at the beginning). One thing that I loved about this guy is that there is literally no point in the story where he isn't working his ass off with a smile on his face. Makoto is so dedicated to improving his magic (and his control gets ridiculous as the story goes on) that he is constantly startling those who get to know him. Oh and there is a harem... but it is closer to the 'classic-style' harem where circumstances always converge to keep the protagonist and the girls from actually going all the way (it gets seriously ridiculous there towards the end). This is as opposed to the harem type that has become more common in recent years, where the protagonist is perfectly happy to partake in the pleasures of the flesh wherever he can get them. The heroines of the story tend to be cheery on the surface while their love is a bit heavy if you look at it from an objective perspective (think more than a little bit of dependence, verging on near-yandere at times). The yandere-ism is hidden, but the girls who actually settle down as heroines all have reasons for becoming dependent on Makoto (and Makoto is your classic dense as lead harem protagonist most of the time, mostly because he finds training and adventuring more interesting than the female body 90% of the time). Fortunately, this series recently completed the final arc of the WN, so it is possible to read it from beginning to end (as opposed to most, where it just goes on and on). Since it only finished the main story a week ago, it will probably be a while before the after-story becomes sufficiently large to satisfy, but that is a relatively minor downer considering how few series even get this far.

I tried reading monster tamer (the japanese version) but it was almost as depressing as Kuro no Maou, without the high-quality writing. My favorite western sci-fi is Honor Harrington. My top three series are 1. Honor Harrington by David Weber 2. Foreigner by CJ Cherryh 3. The Vorkosigan Saga by Stephen Brust

I won't spoil it, but Nanairo Reincarnation has revenge aspects on certain paths. Toshiro Kashima of Vermilion Bind of Blood was an avenger for a time and pursues it during some of the paths. Ryakudatsusha no In'en is a vengeance story. Ryuukishi Bloody Saga is his life afterward. Venus Blood Hollow is a vengeance story.