Apr 22, 2020
Hisshou Dungeon Unei Houhou - Story 8, Art 8, Characters 7, overall 8
This is a surprisingly good manga that shines with its world building and politics while also being silly and strange. You might be upset by its low score and other reviews, but if you like the mentioned aspects and are able to cope with some harem and ecchi stuff you will be rewarded with an interesting story and an unique take on the Isekai formula. Just note that it still is an isekai that is mostly concerned with the main setting even if it includes a political story and world building .
+ Main
...
points: Interesting political story, enough amount of world building, Characters are given realistic stories, Art
- Weaknesses: Strange genre combination, Expects readers to have a basic understanding of politics, Some characters are unecessary, Basic Isekai concepts are not explained
Since this review is mostly in defense for this manga i will try to explain why some of its apparent weaknesses are actually worthwile features. Spoilers are marked with *
Story and overall premise:
Basic premise is that the MC is in charge of a dungeon and gets entangled into political complications early on while trying to build a safe town out of his dungeon. This premise is a bit confusing at start since one might not expect the story to take on a political direction so early. But it ensures that there will be enough world building, characters and difficulties to make the story interesting from the beginning. Certainly the basic story is nothing unique or extraordinary, but it is presented and arranged in a interesting and unique style. In the first few chapters (chapters 1-4) you have enough political corruption, confusion and parties involved that would be enough for more than one volume. From there on the story slows down a bit to make room for character introductions and harem scenes, which are mostly fine (chapter 5-10). In between are some smaller story arcs that enrichen the overall setting (11-16). And it will evolve into more complex political story arcs after that (chapter 17-19). Overall the story is fine and serves the purpose of the world building and management of the village which are the main focus of this manga. Also the story advances at a very quick pace.
If you are not convinced of the quality of the story by this abstract overview, i will give a short summary of the events of the first few chapters in the following (there are spoilers for some chapters, so please skip the next paragraph if you are not interested in it; marked within **)
*The first story arc resolves around a captured princess that is the victim of a political coup. This princess did get targeted by a neighboring nation because of her title as a holy maiden that is standing beyond other maidens. After accompaniying a unit of soldiers devastating a village against her will, she gets caught by those former villagers. She is brought by those villagers to the dungeon to get rid of her. After MC saves the princess and solves the misunderstandings of the different parties the princes and the villagers return to the capital to find out about the circumstances of the coup. The princess saves herself and her sister from a new assault and is hiding inside the dungeon with the MC. The king launches an attack against the dungeon in order to save the princesses. The dungeon master manages to defeat the soldiers, inform the king about the corruption, defeat the corrupted politician and secure his position within the realm. After that MC starts to rebuild part of the lost villages inside his dungeon with various slaves. It is from then on that the stories turns more into an slow paced city management and harem story. Later this will be enriched with more political stories. (Note this is the story of chapters 1-5. I did rearrange the story in order to make it easier to understand.)*
Pacing:
The story progresses very quickly in the first 4 chapters. This is in some sense a weakness and a redeeming quality. The weakness is that the manga expects you to understand a large number of events that is thrown at you in an instant and conclude relevant information from it. Maybe this is something readers that are not interested in more political oriented mangas will not understand and the explanations will appear to them confusing or nonsensical. This is not primarily the fault of these readers, since the manga does not aid much with some of the more complex explanations. I still think that one should not critize it unnecessary, since it does explain most relevant things even if not very carefully. You probably should just read it slowly and be focusing on the political intricancies.
Because the manga throws alot at you in a short time, it also might look like it is not able sustaining this large amount of information. Like some mangas that fail with their world building because they never use the settings again and do not show its relevance or expand it. This is not the case with this manga. Some information will become unecessary due to changes in the setting, but it will expand other aspects. This of course might change later and the series might become a full harem comedy if it is not treated with care, but at the current it does not look like that.
World building:
The world building is done better than in most other Isekais. This is not because the world is unique or especially interesting, but because it is explained enough, expanded upon and tied within the story of the characters. Other Isekais often skimp on this parts of the world building and just leave it at the scenery and mention some interesting details. This is why Isekais like 'Bofuri', 'Only sense Online' or 'Sword art Online 1' fail to have significant world building. They have some interesting concepts and ideas but do not utilize them and invest into them. 'Hisshou' does most of it better without being in need of an unique setting.
If you compare the world building and political story to other Isekais then it is most similar to Shield hero (minus the shield hero and the other unique stuff). It probably is on par with the beginning of Re:zero manga number 3, while re:zero of course evolves into a bigger series later. You will be fine with this one If you feel comfortable somewhere around these marks.
Genre combination and strange stuff:
One thing that affects the quality of the manga is the difference between it complex political events and the feeling it preserves of being a silly harem manga that does not take itself too serious. It certainly is a strange combination and it sometimes runs into difficulties sustaining the balance between this aspects. It still manages to tie in both together on a regular basis and make the harem scenes appear as a more or less natural part of the setting.
The manga also does expect you to have read one or more other dungeon master, MMO or Isekai mangas and an economical or political manga, since it does not explain some of the core concepts of adjusting a dungeon, getting dungeon points, interacting with adventurers and managing a city state society very well. This is certainly a weakness of the manga. Since it does not have to explain all of the basics that one might already understand, the manga is able to advance very quickly as I mentioned earlier. So it might also be a good aspect of it.
One other strange part is the ability of the MC to use items from modern japan to have a technological advantage, like using cellphones during warfare or a armored vehicle for traversal. This is sometimes just for comedic reasons or silliness (bathroom and food), but also has the power creep component at its core. This is not unusual for Isekais and it is not used in any redundant fashion. MC does not use his advantage in most relevant events, but tries to use the things around him. So it is an obvious component, but it is less relevant than his special abilities due to being a dungeon master and having princesses as capable advisors.
It is strange that this manga does only have an average score while doing some interesting things. One of the reasons probably are its mislabeled genres. It is labeled as action fantasy harem while it mostly is a slice of life political manga. The harem aspects are not solely about comedy and are more in accordance with seinen harems, which also might irritate some readers (like portraying difficulties in partnerships and expectations). Also a lack of an useful synopsis might be irritating. Lastly its strange combination of genres is probably its main oversight. These are all things that are not mainly a failure of the manga, but a difficulty within the community. I guess, that the part of the community that would be interested in this, did not find out about it or is appaled by some of its strange genres. Also there are some things, that just do not appeal to individual persons like the lolis or realistic warfare. It still manages to appeal on many levels and should be given credit for this. And if you look at the scores of the novel you see that it is a bit more lenient and stays around 7 points (taken from the stats site of the novel), in my view a better assesment.
All in all this manga does a strange combination of requiring the reader to be attentive and interested in a political setting while dismissing some of the expected seriousness for its harem comedy. If you are able to appreciate these different aspects of it, you might be very pleased with this one. If you do not like slice of life world building and political stories or do not like ecchi harem and silly Isekai juice you might be iritated by the inclusion of one or the other.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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