Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Drama, Slice of Life, Isekai, Tragedy

Reincarnated as a Villager, Speed Mode!

Bet you didn’t expect another light novel review so soon! The second new license pre-pub from J-Novel Club to finish this week, Isekai Tensei brings boss battles and beast taming to the proceedings.

Following protagonist Tenma, the story has him reincarnated into a village with a struggling population, bereft of young people. Adopted into a loving former adventurer family, Tenma shows a talent for magic and beast taming early, which is lucky, given the troubles he’ll end up going through from the very beginning. From assassins to corrupt soldiers and zombie dragons, Tenma’s new life will be anything but quiet.

The best way to look at this first volume is as a pretty standard isekai series that starts in a village, only done on speed mode. It seems very clear from the outset that the author is trying to get to the actual start of the story in volume two and this almost acts as a prologue.

On the positive side, this speedy approach means that the first volume is action-packed, especially once Tenma picks up on his beast-taming skills. The first big event involves a group of assassins trying to take Tenma’s Fenrir to fulfil an upper-class lord’s request. The second has the village fall under immense danger as a zombie horde and a zombie dragon appear.

Both action scenes are generally well-directed and are given the correct level of intensity. Most importantly, they also served as a way to showcase Tenma’s magic growth as well as the skill of former adventurers in the village.

There are also some great comedic moments with some of the Gods of this world. Tenma’s scepticism towards them and his handling of a bowl with violent intent serve as a good opener. This can also be said of the closing short story, detailing Merlin’s life and tumultuous relationship with his family, which will likely come for Tenma down the road.

On the negative side, however, a lot of development feels overlooked throughout the volume. This is most evident in the crooked soldiers’ storyline whose leaving the village feels more like a hap-handed way to leave the village without resources for the final battle. The hap-handedness is also seen with the death of Tenma’s parents. There’s a lot of development and nice characterisation between these characters and it feels odd just to have them killed here when there’s so much more the series could’ve explored.

Overall, Isekai Tensei is flawed but still very much engaging. With the prospect of opening up the series in the second volume, building up Tenma’s abilities and showcasing the types of fights that we could see in the future was a good idea from the author. I look forward to seeing what direction this series will take next!