Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Harem, School Life, Isekai

Seiichi Goes Gorilla Speed Dating!

Fourth review of the week, this time it’s a series I’ve been looking forward to for a while. A series filled with action, comedy and transforming gorillas!?

Fruits of Evolution stars Seiichi, a fat and ugly high-school student who’s transferred to another world alone instead of with his classmates. With his Luck stat clearly at zero, he’ll have to fend off killer monkeys, wolfs and starvation, and that’s all before he catches the eye of a Kaiser Kong named Saria.

Having finished the volume, I’ve got to admit that this is going to be one of my new go-to guilty pleasure series from now on. It reminds me of those late 2000s – early 2010s harem hijinks series in all the best ways possible as Seiichi lands himself in one problematic situation after another.

Seiichi, the main protagonist, is generally an engaging point of view to read from when he isn’t bringing himself down. His down-to-earth nature and unfiltered thought process work well given this type of novel. His reactions to absurd situations feel natural as he faces one deadly opponent after another – from the smaller wolfs and monkeys to Kaiser Kongs and undead mages. This is then turned up a notch once he ends up settling in with Saria.

Saria is certainly an interesting choice of first love interest and there’s a good bit of novelty to her originally being a Kaiser Kong. She’s a fun character if a little one-note and their first set of co-habitation scenes can wear a little as it can sometimes feel as though Stockholm Syndrome is setting in. It all works out in the end though as Saria’s ‘tragic’ sacrifice emboldens Seiichi’s true feelings for her.

Outside of the two main characters, we also get the perspective of Seiichi’s classmates. Whilst most were bullies to Seiichi, he did have some good friends in the mix, which is a nice surprise for this type of exclusionary series. It’ll be interesting to see what happens once they meet each other again.

Finally, I’d like to talk about the great job Hanashi Media did with this volume. For their first attempt, this is a very high-quality translation and you can tell they’ve taken their time to get things right. My only nitpick is that the italicised writing can come over as quite small in the ebook version, that said, I’m looking forward to their attempts going forward and where they’ll take this endeavour.

Overall, The Fruit of Evolution is a fun and wacky series that turns normal isekai tropes up to eleven. I’ll be waiting in anticipation for the second volume, which will finally see Seiichi and Saria explore the world beyond the forest.