Zettai ni Hatarakitakunai Dungeon Master ga Damin wo Musaboru made
Lazy Dungeon Master

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A story that starts out pretty boring, but then it turns into something extraordinary. The best thing is, there is a hero in the story, loved and respected by all, but it's not the protagonist. The hero is a random sub-character completely unimportant to the story. I like that.

Story: A lazy young man is summoned to a fantasy world. A Hero? Nope, just a Dungeon Master, the person that decides which monsters that run around in the dungeon, where to put treasure chests and which traps you want, stuff like that. In simple words, he sleeps while monsters fight the invading adventurers. Lazy, ... but cool.

So while this is an isekai story, it's still different enough to make it fresh and interesting. There's no big plot lines like saving the world, or killing the demon king. It's all about creating a home / dungeon to be able to survive. There is a lot of strategizing and it is a fairly slow moving story. The world building is a huge part of the story. If you want see characters grow and become stronger, this is a great story. But if you want fast moving fights with a clear goal, maybe you should buy something else.

Art: The art can be sub-par early on. But it drastically improves after the first volumes. With a good mix of Sexy, Cute and Funny, it's hard to complain. Heck, at volume 10, I'm amazed at how beautiful the art is. It's usually pretty girls being shown, rather than a cool pose by the protagonist. Personally I like it that way.

Characters: Main Heroine, Rokuko, the dungeon core. (literally the heart of the dungeon) She is a typical stupid, big boobed blonde, in the beginning. She slowly learn what to do and how to avoid being destroyed by invaders, and eventually she might even be called dependable. Her not being human makes her cold and calculating. The protagonist has commented on the "psychopathic tendencies" displayed by Rokuko. But she's not THAT bad.... yet? In short, a great heroine.

Main character Keima, sleeps much to help naturalize time skips early in the story, but his personality is surprisingly well made. Not too smart, nor is he a saint that wants to save everyone. Along with his foot fetish, he's among the most natural protagonists I've seen in a long time. He can kill people, when they are douche-bags, but avoids killing whenever it's possible. A typical protagonist with a Dark Hero vibe. (Momonga, Naofumi, etc) Oh, he's ridiculously strong as well. But that's the standard for fantasy stories. But I like him, he somehow feels very relatable. And that is very rare.

Overall, If you like the concept of dungeons and adventurers, this story might be entertaining for you. The world building is perfectly made, not too exaggerated nor boring. All of the arcs are entertaining, and the characters have a nice harmony to them.

I did not enjoy the first volume, there is a huge amount of short time skips, along with a day counter, but the story do get better. So if you buy the first volume, know that it's the worst volume in the series. So if you like it even a little, you will love the series as a whole.

This novel is one I've enjoyed so I thought it deserved a review.

Story - 8/10. The overarching story revolves around the dungeon. The dungeon core known as No. 695 makes a last ditch effort and spins the Gacha (basically summon lotto) and summons the human Kehma to become the dungeon master and protect the dungeon core.

Eventually he drives away the enemies and works to attract adventurers in order to gain Dungeon Points (DP).

For the first arc, which is 13 chapters long, IT IS TERRIBLE. Yeah, gonna warn you now, its utter shite. I even dropped it around chapter 6 before but decided to ... press on at a later date and I'm glad I did.

While the first 13 chapters are boring because it takes a while for anything to happen since he simply maintains a status-quo of not being killed and sleeping the next arc and those onwards are much better and that is the majority of the score. Going to the nearest town, being an adventurer and having some pretty funny misunderstandings.

In short, power through the first arc and ye shall be rewarded.

Art - 8/10. As with all my reviews, the art doesn't count towards it but the art that is sometimes shown in chapters is pretty well drawn so I feel it a disservice not to mention it.

Character - 7/10. I'll mention the three main cast which can be seen from the first arc onwards.

Kehma - A young man called from Japan to serve as the dungeon master of the "simple cave" (later known as the "cave of desires"). All this guy cares about is sleeping. However, he does have good points. For the dungeon it was him who created the plans to use and then later on discard the bandits and it is also him who efficiently gathers DP and makes the dungeon strong.

Dungeon Core No. 695 (Called Rokuko by Kehma) - Rokuko is a Human-type dungeon core. There are two types of dungeon cores, a sentient type who can work together with the dungeon master to improve the dungeon and the dungeon core most people are familiar with which is an orb also known as the heart of the dungeon.

Rokuko is a blonde loli type girl. At first she tries to make herself the master but due to a problem Kehma was recognised as the master instead. Kehma often teases Rokuko saying she has a "goblin fetish" due to her always wanting to summon goblins to act as the attack force of the dungeon. Rokuko always listens to the advice of a senior dungeon core who is similarly a human-type.

Meat - (Yes this is her name, no I'm not joking.) Meat is a black haired dog-eared loli. She was bought as a slave by the bandits and due to various circumstances Kehma managed to save her. Her physical ability is strong and her loyalty to Kehma is the same.

She too becomes an adventurer alongside Kehma and they both quickly rise up the ranks. Kehma however, only really sees her as a hug pillow.

Enjoyment - 9/10. The novel is fun, the dungeon aspects are truly what I read it for, going to war with other dungeons or repelling invaders inside his own dungeon either way its fun to see how Kehma reacts to the situations.

Overall - 8/10. As long as you can press through the first arc the rest is infinitely better. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a novel which deals with dungeon masters however there are at times some politics to deal with so its not all dungeon battles all the time. Regardless, the battles they do have are interesting and fun.

I was drawn to the series because of its unique premise. Although it utilizes tropes common to the Isekai genre, and on its surface seems somewhat similar to That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime, it has a good amount of concepts that I haven't seen before.

In particular, I really enjoyed the concept of Dungeon Cores and how they earn Dungeon Points and build dungeons while hiding their true nature from adventures. But therein lies the main problem I had with this series. The whole time, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. For some adventurers to find out the hidden secret ... that Keima and all his companions are hiding, and for them to realize they've been living under the thumb of Dungeon Cores and monsters all along. I thought seeing that would be really interesting, especially with all the different directions the story could go with that.

But even after Volume 12, that never happens. There are so many strange coincidences and improbabilities surrounding Keima that anyone with a brain would get suspicious of him, but everyone consistently just laughs it off as Keima being Keima. This series seems to uphold the tenant that status quo is god, and thus doesn't dare to explore any of the interesting plots I was looking forward to.

The desire to keep things more or less the same goes so far as to even be tedious. Reokuko and Keima have had feelings for each other since the early volumes, and yet they don't progress their relationship at all for pretty much the whole series. Keima does all he can to avoid telling Rokuko that he loves her and wants to be a couple with her, while Rokuko keeps chickening out on making it clear to him how she feels. It gets quite tiring to read that back and forth after a while.

I'll definitely finish reading the last volume when it comes out in English, because I do love this world and the characters. It's just a shame that so much potential was squandered.