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

Sub-Tags: OP, Episodic, Strong Lead, Dungeons

A World Reliant on Drops!

Filled with veggie drops, bunny girls and seed grinding, my first of three promised reviews looks at the Kodansha series My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1.

A Novel Concept

Episodic by nature, this series tells the story of Ryota as he dungeon dives in another world for a living alongside his housemate, hammer-wielding Emily.

It follows in the licensed footsteps of similar series within the genre, such as Drugstore in Another World and Killing Slimes. Similar day-to-day formulas and ways of adding new side characters with twists added as a way to set each other apart.

This series chooses to set itself apart from the competition in its novel style of world-building. In Unique Skill’s isekai world, every aspect of life is reliant on dungeons; from the food they eat to the materials they use, it all comes from monster drops found in the dungeons.

These unique concepts are built on further within the volume. Firstly, it’s shown in the way that Ryota has to upgrade his skills. Within the city exists a dungeon with no drops, Nihonium. Ryota discovers that rather than the usual drops, it creates seeds for otherworlders allowing them to skill up.

The second instance takes the form of a magic storm. For regular, brief periods, storms that inhibit magic ability form. As a result, the country’s economy faces uncertainty as mages are unable to work and items dropped by monsters only susceptible to magic can’t be collected.

It’s these types of details that can really grab the reader’s attention, investing them in the overall intricacies of the world. Furthermore, it’s nice to see a bit of experimentation on behalf of the author, changing the underlying properties of isekai dungeons beyond the usual tales of heroism and monster stampedes.

Hammers and Carrots

As for the series’ main characters, there are two standouts to take away from the first volume. Emily is the first person that Ryota meets in the new world, and they quickly form a friendship. It is clear that the author is attempting to set up a romance between the two as they quickly form into a husband and wife-duo.

Eve is the second highlight. A strong adventurer in a bunny suit, she quickly grows attached to Ryota and Emily after discovering that Ryota’s carrot drops are the tastiest in the city. A bit of an oddball, I can see there’s plenty of development potential for her subsequent visits in future volumes.

The Missing Link

Unfortunately, Unique Skill’s opening volume has a glaring problem – details! Important information is often missed or completely skipped over. Take, for example, the very start of the story, where Ryota and Emily first meet. Within a couple of pages, they’re already moving in together completely skipping over the moments in the dungeon when they grow close to each other.

This continues to happen several times throughout the volume, such as Ryota’s introduction to a city in another world or how Erza falls in love with him. These are crucial story points overlooked for seemingly no reason. Consequently, at no fault of the translator, the volume sometimes ends up losing its flow. Hopefully, the author will fix this before the next volume.

Overall, My Unique Skill is a tale of two halves. The first consists of novel and interesting world-building, twisting what it means to have dungeons within another world. The second is the unfortunate lack of character dynamic, developments, often skipping over important moments in their interactions. Thus, this series becomes increasingly difficult to recommend without knowing how the series pans out in subsequent volumes.