Re:Monster

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

What happens when you let a teenage otaku suffering from chuunibyo, write his own light novel? Re:Monster would be that answer.

Well I'm not sure if it is a kid who wrote this mess of a novel but it definitely matches the storytelling that one of my younger cousins would come up with when they were in their early teens.

Re:Monster is another fantasy/re-incarnation tale that I've just started reading having come across this series as recommendation after reading Gun-Ota, Mushoku Tensei and Souen no Historia(novels that also have re-incarnation as a theme).

So going back to my first sentence, Re:Monster really feels like a kid had ... wrote it and the story-telling itself feels like a copy of a walkthrough you'd find at GameFAQ/dot/com(no...seriously). Everything is narrated like as if the main character was in a game(even though he isn't) and the way he levels up is so stupid that if this was actually a game, the game company would have gone bankrupt before end of volume 1.

One of the reasons why I rate this series poorly is due to that; no matter how much you try to paint the MC as a hero(or anti-hero) or even a villain, he is anything but due to having no plot and the repetitiveness of his antics has pretty much gone stale by volume 2. To make matters worse, he has a harem of (human)women suffering Stockholm-syndrome who is meant to be in love with him. I won't go in to detail so as not to spoil for any potential reader, but one thing I will say is that that part of the series felt like I was reading hentai for a moment. Like really...

Anyways...back to the review; Re:Monster is not recommendable for all. Some may like it or are only their for the M18+ moments but to be honest, even those occasions are dry after his second time.

Overall Rating: 3/10

Re: Monster is definitely one of the most enjoyable novels I have read in a long time. Firstly I should mention that the writing style is similar to a diary and everything is viewed in first person. Dialogue we see is few and the readers only view characters as the way Rou perceives them (Most of the time)... can also be certain instances where we get POV of others but it is few. With that said besides Rou we don't get much of other characters but I still really like Rou and his power so it is fine for me but if you don't like ... the cold calculating anti-hero type then avoid Re:Monster. Next is the story and in this novel it takes an approach where there isn't one huge goal but more of whatever the MC feels like doing he will do, you might think that gets boring but his antics are one of the best parts (without spoiling much I will just say he is very greedy and always wants to improve his abilities and position in the new world. Examples being going into a fight he only believes he has a 30% chance of victory just because he wants the abilities of the monster or using addictive lotion on nobles so they always have to come back to his massage shop...) There is sex in this story but it isn't descriptive and he also has several wives so warning for the people who don't want that. Art isn't very involved as it is a novel but a manga version of this is out and it is done pretty nicely. I would recommend this to people who are looking for a story about a character who starts at the bottom and travels to the top.

Now for the flaws as I did have a few I want to mention. Firstly is like I said earlier how it is all written like a diary, it is definitely a double edged sword and it makes me feel less connected to other characters. Secondly is the fact that it has great story potential but it isn't used to its fullest and what I mean is how he was reincarnated and his blessing by a greater god. They aren't delved into much even by day 190 (vol 5) so guys who like epic stories definitely will dislike the feeling of such wasted potential. I had a few other issues but none worth mentioning.

Conclusion is that I really enjoy it and will continue reading as long as it keeps going. I also want to mention since bakaupdates (the site most people know of) doesn't update when new chapters are translated and I don't know why. On the wiki you can read all of volumes 1-5 in english that was translated by Pacem community translations. For the hardcore fans of this series who are looking for some like it I would also recommend checking out Royal Road Legend or Japtem as they have hundreds of Fanfics just off this novel, which isn't surprising as the world concept is epic!

Rou's got a magic d*ck which forcefully plunders the hearts of young maidens.

Kichi's got a d*ck that was born for Rou to use.

Mi's got a d*ck and an obsessive love of Rou since day one.

Walline is human yet loves Rou's green magic d*ck.

Jii is old and got cuckold by Rou, yet still adores him.

... Sato is female so is obviously in love with Rou.

Aoi Kirimine was in love with Rou before Rou was Rou.

Emery is female (see above).

Sei: female, Rou, above.

E is ugly, so naturally she gets handed to Kichi.

As the characters evolve the story devolves. From character-piece to power-grind to goblin erotica. And don't get me wrong, I like a bit of goblin erotica as much as the next guy, but Re: Goblino is some pretty bad erotica:

"teh penis in, out, in, out, Rou so big strong s*xy green, goblin god, no human jesus, christ. Done he finish, me finish five million times, since rou so big strong s*xy, green goblin, I finish more than he, because he green big strong s*xy, I super hot but nobody has ever touched, me. Because im so precious and hot and have high standard, but he green strong s*xy so it fine, he is better than me, yet im better than everyone else, Shrek so strong green big"

That's the extent of the erotica. The most offensive bit is the fact that Rou doesn't share his s*x slaves, like, my brother, these are community s*x slaves, why are you f**king them all by yourself?!? Poor man Jii has been pinning for an elven ride for half the novel and little Rou decides to grow three meters, piss around the entrance of the s*x slave dungeon, and expound righteously about how only his penis is fit for the heathen elves. That sh*t ain't fair. And not only does he monopolize the s*x slaves but he also f**ks every other female in the vicinity, be it human, goblin or tree thing it gets d*cked. My gramps Jii is a tragic hero, imagine spending nineteen years of your life creating children only for one of them to grow up and castrate you, damn sad.

I don't know what I was expecting to be honest. 1/10

Honestly, this might be the worst piece of litterature I have ever laid my eyes on in my life. It's clear that this author is very bad at his craft. It seems to follow the recent trend of where authors with bad writing, manage to get popular by either following a popular topic, like being reborn in a different world, or where they get popular by the story. And I guess this kind of fits into both categories, and at least in the beginning, the story is very interesting.

However it quickly goes down hill when the summaries get even shorter, and it's basicly nothing ... but the authors personal wish fullfilment fantasy. The writing is in journal form, so theres almost zero dialogue in the entire story. This is bad as theres nothing that drives the development of the characters.

Though it's clear that the author doesn't care from the way he almost dedevelops his characters. The MC starts out with an interesting personality, but quickly gets bland and goes against his very own opinions. Like they never existed in the first place.

It's nothing but an OP wish fullfilment fantasy and it only gets clearer and clearer the further you read. I would recommend reading the manga instead because even though it also gets bad as time goes on, it's at least a decent work for a few chapters.

Story has a nice idea, but unfortunately it's being done better already by Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken. Whilst Re:Monster has a nice idea, and is does have it's perks of being slightly darker than Tensei, it has numerous flaws that Tensei and many others of the reincarnation genre do not.

Number 1: The writing style, Re:Monster feels like it is the diary of a chuunibyou child with a god complex. The constant actions and notes of the thoughts of the main character make this series feel like it was written by a chuuni, who psychopathic in nature, has been gifted with ever growing god like ... power. The story also frequently uses annoying phrases like "by the way" "with regards to" "oh by the way" and "Oh just so you know", which may not sound bad, but after reading those exact words at the start of a paragraph for the 600th fucking time, you will be aggravated as well. Not to mention these words completely destroy the flow of the story, and are often followed by convenient plot points the author couldn't bother to insert naturally. It often leaves us feeling like this was written by a child telling a story of how he saved the world. And frankly makes the main character seem like a moron, who has a strange habit of forgetting extremely important details, or has had his past edited to fit his needs.

Number 2: The characters are completely and absolutely flat. No character aside from the protagonist has any depth. They are flatter than a stick note. None of them go through any significant character growth, and we scarcely get to see in their minds and learn anything notable about them. The most character we get from them is lust or their actions. Rou, the protagonist and only character with depth (which only can be said since we view the story from his perspective), is a psychopath, completely devoid of emotion and empathy. He completely disregards all life not directly related to him, or unlikely to influence his life, or the lives of those affiliated with him. While I don't think these things automatically means he's a bad character quality wise, but with the already poor writing, it feels like a magnifying glass that amplifies the size of the overall poor quality of the series. As he seems like an uninteresting character as he shows almost no genuine concern for his supposed lovers or children, and when he does, it looks and feels extremely superficial and contrived. Which reminds me, it seems like half the people related to him are suffering some perverse Stockholm Syndrome. They all seem to love him even though he is technically their enslaver. Yea he gives them the opportunity of freedom, and "protects them", but he sure as hell has done nothing to earn their love.

Number 3: The world system. The world in which Rou lives is like a game, in which levels and jobs are extremely prevalent to both monsters and humans, I won't go into depth of the system mainly because it was never explained as well as it could and should have. Yes, the system regarding the world, namely the "Book of Psalms" or what ever has had minimal memorable explanation, and translation in regards to those specifically has either been poor at best, or simply incomprehensible in the English language. The world system when translated to English makes very little sense, and seems extremely gimmicky and unnatural. Honestly, I don't like when this kind of system is put into a reincarnation / isekai series unless it is a genuine game. It feels gimmicy and makes the world seem less natural unless executed especially well, the Slime isekai I mentioned earlier is no exception.

Number 4: The story, or rather lack of. There is zero story, and zero plot. It's only about Rou's and his group's "growth", aside from that, the stories are episodic, which can easily be good, but this series drones on and gets repetitive real damn fast. And as mentioned in the first complaint, a vast majority of the "plot points" feel extremely contrived, and like the world was edited to fit his needs simply because the author was too shit to remember them, or insert them fluidly or naturally.

Anyways, my actually scoring for this series are as follows:

Story: 1
It's pathetic really, it's just Rou fights this, gets stronger, then fights an even bigger thing and gets stronger. Oh and picks up a new harem member or kid along the way. I'll be somewhat fair and say, it is very difficult to stay interesting as an episodic series. Keeping the reader's interest is no easy task or at least readers who have no particular attachment to isekai.

Art: 6
Average, the art in the story are what you'd expect from most light novels. I will grant that the covers are usually quite well done.

Character: 1
A total joke, none of the supporting characters have any depth, and Rou struggles to feel two dimensional, let alone three.

Enjoyment: 1
At first, for the first give or take 50 chapters, I enjoyed it, seeing a character get strong from the ground up as well as develop their environment, but it quickly fell into repetition and lost it's appeal. It's also very hard to make short term growth feel realistic or genuine as very few things in human life provide such a degree of instant gratification.

Overall: 1
It's a nice concept, but poor in execution, especially in character, writing style and story... Whoops, that's everything.

PS, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT WHAT THE FOOD TASTES LIKE, MY GOD, FUCK OFF WITH CONSTANT RECOUNTS OF HOW AMAZING EVERY SINGLE YOU EAT TASTES, NO ONE GIVE A DAMN!
Rant aside, it's always the same thing, this thing tastes better than the last thing I ate, but it has a different texture.

A good start that starts to meander and get dragged on by politics. Spoilers below.

Storywise, the MC has the ability to gain abilities of anything he eats, and his rpg world makes the applications of his chimera ant-like powers very interesting. I liked watching him fight weaker monsters, eat them, then use their powers to beat and eat bigger monsters. Along the way he levels up, helps expand his tribe and strengthen his allies, and he develops weapons from monster carcasses like a turtle shell shield as well as gain weapons from other uses. The various job classes and combination abilities he has are pretty ... cool too, and his growth to eventually challenge the legendary heroes/dungeons and become a force to be reckoned with is pretty cool, as well as his later ability to do various summons.

The problems is that after about 125 days or so, he starts focusing on certain missions for the princess and setting up shops in the cities. This is hugely boring and also fairly meainingless, because he has the abilities luck/golden rule/overcharge/etc that allow him to rip off merchants and always win overall at gambling. In addition, his power level means he can challenge numerous dungeons and got a ton of money from his loot. In fact, with his power, hes able to kill the entire city just about if he wanted. So theres little reason to spend so many days talking about the shops and the chump change he gets from it. Its a large detour from the start when he focused on getting abilities and becoming stronger, which was much more interesting. The level up and rank up after 100 levels was interesting too, though I did feel they leveled up really quick compared to the power level of other monsters/humans.

Another issue was the politics involed with the princess and the kingdom. It was handled almost as badly as in Mushiku Tensei. It was largely boring, waiting around day after day when he had a near infinite (several thousand) undead soldiers and golems that he could spawn and yet he wouldnt attack with them. This drawn out battle was extremely boring.

Theres also many days spent just drinking or lounging around his base. While the base is interesting, it started to get dull because he would gloss over the details and focus on the elven wine/other alcohols.

The characters arent all that developed and a bit stereotyped, but it didnt bother me much as Im not a character guy. I still found the MC more likeable than, say, Rudeus.

I still enjoyed reading this for the rpg and battles/abilities/dungeons and other rpg aspects, but I didnt care for a lot of the above. I also found his recruitment and usage of his enslave ability a bit too convenient for some troops, like Avenger. The auto activations of psalms and his storyline didnt make much sense and I thought things were awfully convenient falling into place too. I think Idve preferred if he left his village and traveled the world rather than set up shitty bases in towns that he could easily conquer. Anyway, overall a solid read for the rpg world its in but gets much worse after he starts to venture to the human world and embroiled in unnecessary boring politics. The fire volcano dungeon was semi interesting, but him fighting the dragon solo was a bit much.