(L) Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu [Web Novel/Light Novel/Manga]

[hyuugalegacy]

So far somewhat enjoyable. But typically how many times does he end up having to be killed before he picks up a method of aversion?

[aohige]

This is one of those series that's really good, but overlooked in favor of more generic dime-a-dozen harem novels.
It is possibly the best "Zero to Hero" type story in all of Narou. And I've read hundreds of Narou novels.

First arc isn't much, second arc is still introducing and developing... but the third arc is where it really takes off, and it's freakin' incredible. The story just gets better and better from there.

I really wish good novels like this get more attention.

Originally Posted by XFire

Where's my despair? I WAS PROMISED DESPAIR!!!!!

There's a bit of it in the second arc, but the TRUE despair begins with the third.
Not just "dying", but sense of helplessness as everything around you crumble. Of course, we as the reader know he has the "reset button", but even that reset button ends up being the cause of yet another despair. (a tragedy becomes permanent once you reset the reset point...)
I suspect the author to be truly sadistic, never giving him a break.

He doesn't even go easy on the readers either, like writing a what-if chapter in the future if things went differently, to rub the salt in.

[sasuke706]

Originally Posted by aohige

This is one of those series that's really good, but overlooked in favor of more generic dime-a-dozen harem novels.
It is possibly the best "Zero to Hero" type story in all of Narou. And I've read hundreds of Narou novels.

I like the story and all, but the series is still lacking in several ways. Like how every conversation is lead by one person who knows everything about the topic and the other conversational partner is a bumbling idiot who only parrots words or grunts in surprise (usually Subaru, and somehow he's supposed to be an intelligent protag despite how frequently stupid he is about serious subjects). Many other stories do this as well, which is why I make it a point to note when a series actually has decent conversations between characters instead of explanations for the readers' sake.

There's also the part where he'll give Subaru a very promising buff, then it turns out said buff is actually completely useless. It's happened like 3 or 4 times. I can get wanting to keep your protagonist weak compared to the powerhouses (literally almost everyone else introduced in the story), but this bait-and-switch is annoying.

I could go on about more minor annoyances, but like I said, I do like the series. The two above things just particularly bother me when I'm reading it, though the second one doesn't really come up that often.

Spoiler for Current arc:

I mean really. He finally saves up enough mana with Beatrice over the span of a year and uses it all in one fight he barely made out of alive from. It's not like he discovered the enemies' weaknesses either, it was literally just a waste of a year worth of effort.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by sasuke706

somehow he's supposed to be an intelligent protag despite how frequently stupid he is about serious subjects

Whoa, hold up. What even gave you that impression?
The protagonist is NOT intelligent, he is a fool. This was established in the story from early on, and never once was it suggested otherwise. He even knows he's a fool. Everyone knows he's a fool. Heck, he's even been pointed out as a fool numerous times in the story by other characters.

There's also the part where he'll give Subaru a very promising buff, then it turns out said buff is actually completely useless. It's happened like 3 or 4 times.

Again, huh??

Spoiler:

The black magic cloud he gets served him very well, got him out of many situations before him losing his gate.
The Invisible God hand continues to be Subaru's sole ability to use offensive, and has been useful all the way to current chapters.
The Dragon blood infection is a curse, has barely been introduced, and as of yet we don't know what consequences it has.

Only thing I can think of that applies is his contract with Beatrice, which was only useful once as of yet.

I think you're actually bothered with one specific thing, and trying to fit everything else to that judgement.

[sasuke706]

Originally Posted by aohige

Whoa, hold up. What even gave you that impression?
The protagonist is NOT intelligent, he is a fool. This was established in the story from early on, and never once was it suggested otherwise. He even knows he's a fool. Everyone knows he's a fool. Heck, he's even been pointed out as a fool numerous times in the story by other characters.

Subaru states at a couple points he leans more toward the intellectual type, and everyone relies on him for his knowledge (gained through his Return by Death) than his nonexistent fighting prowess. That said, for someone who's died like over 20 or so times, he gets shocked by the most trifling things that he honestly could and should have figured out on his own at many points.

Originally Posted by aohige

Again, huh??

Spoiler:

The black magic cloud he gets served him very well, got him out of many situations before him losing his gate.
The Invisible God hand continues to be Subaru's sole ability to use offensive, and has been useful all the way to current chapters.
The Dragon blood infection is a curse, has barely been introduced, and as of yet we don't know what consequences it has.

Only thing I can think of that applies is his contract with Beatrice, which was only useful once as of yet.

Spoiler for :

The dark spell gets him out of like 2 situations and bought time for like 1 other, and was useless like 2 others at critical points. Which it should be useless, since he started out being unable to move after using it once and it barely got better before getting worse. This however leads to him breaking his gate, leading to the whole problem where he can't provide Beatrice mana for shit, not to mention using the dark spell to be even worse of an idea than it was already. And for the record, the dark spell helped him more after breaking his gate. He wasn't even able to pretend to be able to use magic for long before it got nerfed.
The invisible hand has helped him like what, twice? With Tigerboy and Greed, and it didn't even change anything with Greed and only made Wrath want to do questionable things to him. And each time Subaru notes that it's not something he should be using since it's an evil influence to him or something cryptic and greatly mentally fatigues him right after one swing. Which compared to its original owner, where each hand had far more power than Subaru's and the guy could summon over 99 more than Subaru's 1, it's a pretty shitty power up.
I didn't even bring up dragon blood, nor do I really care about it at the moment.
And Subaru spends a year learning how to use a whip and do parkour to essentially show he can beat a few nameless thugs and pretend to be Indiana Jones, and otherwise still be useless in a real fight.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by sasuke706

Subaru states at a couple points he leans more toward the intellectual type, and everyone relies on him for his knowledge (gained through his Return by Death) than his nonexistent fighting prowess. That said, for someone who's died like over 20 or so times, he gets shocked by the most trifling things that he honestly could and should have figured out on his own at many points.

He said he's more about thinking than acting. Which is true, by comparison, due to the fact he's even more of a weakling than a fool.
Doesn't change the fact he's a fool, and the novel does a very good job at presenting him as a fool, including reminding us that he is a fool through dozens of times getting directly pointed out.

I swear, you seem to put more emphasis on single incidents rather than overwhelming counter examples. Do you skip through them or something?
I mean holy shit, he basically mulled over like a few dozen chapters crying about how stupid he is, after he made a fool of himself in front of everyone, and made terrible choices. If anything I figured THAT would get on your nerves, not the other way around!

Spoiler for :

The dark spell gets him out of like 2 situations and bought time for like 1 other, and was useless like 2 others at critical points. Which it should be useless, since he started out being unable to move after using it once and it barely got better before getting worse. This however leads to him breaking his gate, leading to the whole problem where he can't provide Beatrice mana for shit, not to mention using the dark spell to be even worse of an idea than it was already. And for the record, the dark spell helped him more after breaking his gate. He wasn't even able to pretend to be able to use magic for long before it got nerfed.
The invisible hand has helped him like what, twice? With Tigerboy and Greed, and it didn't even change anything with Greed and only made Wrath want to do questionable things to him. And each time Subaru notes that it's not something he should be using since it's an evil influence to him or something cryptic and greatly mentally fatigues him right after one swing. Which compared to its original owner, where each hand had far more power than Subaru's and the guy could summon over 99 more than Subaru's 1, it's a pretty shitty power up.
I didn't even bring up dragon blood, nor do I really care about it at the moment.
And Subaru spends a year learning how to use a whip and do parkour to essentially show he can beat a few nameless thugs and pretend to be Indiana Jones, and otherwise still be useless in a real fight.

Then we'll have to agree to disagree.
I feel they have helped great deal, but I guess if you're used to the hax cheat heroes around, the new skills not curvestomping enemies would feel useless. They aren't useless at all, and neither is the story about the hero being hax. It's precisely the opposite if anything.

[sasuke706]

Originally Posted by aohige

I swear, you seem to put more emphasis on single incidents rather than overwhelming counter examples. Do you skip through them or something?

...I summarized a concept the first time, then you brought up specific single incidents for said concept, and I responded how I feel about those specific situations.
And I don't feel annoyed about him mulling over how he's an idiot, since I was thinking he was a complete moron all the while reading the section leading up to it. And I hardly find them to be "overwhelming counter examples." His abilities have been useless at least as much as they've been useful, except he often can't use them because of how limited their use is.

I do think it would be nice if Subaru's experiences actually had a stronger effect on how he acts or thinks. Like sometimes he'll be prepared to die to learn something about a loop, and then a death or two later he'll be bringing up about how afraid to die he is. Though it is nice he takes the Rem thing seriously rather than being a pure happy-go-lucky fool about it.

Originally Posted by aohige

Then we'll have to agree to disagree.
I feel they have helped great deal, but I guess if you're used to the hax cheat heroes around, the new skills not curvestomping enemies would feel useless. They aren't useless at all, and neither is the story about the hero being hax. It's precisely the opposite if anything.

I'm more annoyed that he gets these hyped-up but turn out to be almost useless 'upgrades'. And it happens with each and every one of them, too, like a running gag. I'm fine with Subaru not being an overpowered character; everyone else aside from like 3 other named people fill that role well enough. You're completely misreading my intentions.
I just can't consider using an ability that causes more self-harm (the hand or dark spell) than good to be too useful. I honestly would have rather him just not have gotten the abilities, since it would encourage more creative solutions than basically hoping his unreliable abilities would somehow help outside of perfect situation for them.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by sasuke706

...I summarized a concept the first time, then you brought up specific single incidents for said concept, and I responded how I feel about those specific situations.

Huh? You responded to me, not the other way around.
And I'm pointing out that he was never "supposed to be intelligent but acting dumb".
He's supposed to be "dumb and acts like it."

And I don't feel annoyed about him mulling over how he's an idiot, since I was thinking he was a complete moron all the while reading the section leading up to it. And I hardly find them to be "overwhelming counter examples." His abilities have been useless at least as much as they've been useful, except he often can't use them because of how limited their use is.

Again, I don't think we're even on the same page.
My "counter example" I'm talking about is the novel making it painfully obvious that he is NOT supposed to be that bright. I have no clue what you're talking about, doesn't even sound like we're discussing the same thing.

I do think it would be nice if Subaru's experiences actually had a stronger effect on how he acts or thinks.

They DO. Just not at the speed you like.
The current arc is the perfect example of his growth.

I'm more annoyed that he gets these hyped-up but turn out to be almost useless 'upgrades'. And it happens with each and every one of them, too, like a running gag. I'm fine with Subaru not being an overpowered character; everyone else aside from like 3 other named people fill that role well enough. You're completely misreading my intentions.
I just can't consider using an ability that causes more self-harm (the hand or dark spell) than good to be too useful. I honestly would have rather him just not have gotten the abilities, since it would encourage more creative solutions than basically hoping his unreliable abilities would somehow help outside of perfect situation for them.

Like I said, you just have a different expectation of speed of growth and "usefulness".
I kinda feel like you maybe just too used to the "overcome small obstacle, gain uber buff" that nearly every single other novel in Narou are guilty of.
The lack of minimal challenges rewarding unreasonably convenient reward is exactly the reason why I LIKE this series.
The dude has to work really hard toward getting a small advantage. You don't like that. I do.

[vasizhi]

Hey, just wondering if this is still being translated?
Really interesting manga, and I do like the sound of a protagonist that truly suffers from his mistakes.

[Lord C]

Originally Posted by vasizhi

Hey, just wondering if this is still being translated?
Really interesting manga, and I do like the sound of a protagonist that truly suffers from his mistakes.

I heard the WN is being translates, but I don't have the link

[Silentwolfie]

Spoiler for Spoiler image:

Heroine is as adorable as heck. The artist has some skillz, also quite interested in reading this some time soon (so many things to read...) to see if there's any difference between the LN and the Webnovel.

This is from the traditional chinese version of the LN.

[Amario]

So yeah just and went released the raw scans for the second volume of the light novel. Will upload the others whenever I am bothered.

[Diamona]

Huzzah! Another series I want to read! I can't read other languages, but hopefully peoples' interests build in this! Huzzah!

…In the meantime, I will resist the urge to use Google Translate. For now. I need to prepare myself by meditating under a waterfall for 20 hours if I am to steel myself mentally for the braincell-killing botch-job of G.

[tsunade666]

I haven't checked anything yet but I already downloaded the translated manga but haven't read it yet.

I'm interested on what Aohige said about trainwreck of despair but I'm more concern if this is actually being translated or not. The novel I mean. Its just that, it would just make me upset if I start reading it but ended up getting my hopes high but ended up crashing because there is no one translating it.

Sorry for invoncinience. Just asking. Someone said(the translator?) that chapter 1 translation is being pushed but I'm not even sure if its being planned to be translated or if he/she is the translator.

[Prongs]

I read this manga a while ago....

aaannnddd this is one of good protag....

and I love his optimism. not like some MC. always worry for nothing... but do nothing in return..

even he know that he will die, he still has his optimism, and he willing to save the heroine. even when they underestimate him....

with his optimism alone this story already capture my heart....

good job. already tired of hax MC that totally useless....

[vasizhi]

Originally Posted by tsunade666

I'm interested on what Aohige said about trainwreck of despair but I'm more concern if this is actually being translated or not. The novel I mean. Its just that, it would just make me upset if I start reading it but ended up getting my hopes high but ended up crashing because there is no one translating it.

I would keep this one on hold for a while. The prologue translation was released November last year, and as far as I know... the translator of it isn't exactly prioritizing this LN in particular, rather focusing on other projects.

With that said, we can all hope someone will wholeheartedly pick this up.

That's what I hold my fingers crossed for. Don't hold any expectations, though

[aohige]

Yeah the living (er, I mean dying) hell isn't until the third arc.

[DevilHighDxD]

So did anything happened between the MC and the heroine? Specifically their relationship, won't mind spoiler.

[Karoshi]

In terms of translations, I might get chapter 1 done by next week. All our team members have been swamped with exams and irl drama so translations have been extremely slow. Translating isn't our priority, it's something we do in our spare time for fun so I apologize for the slow releases and hopefully you guys will understand. We always welcome new translators for our projects and hopefully we can find someone dedicated enough to give regular releases.

[tsunade666]

Originally Posted by Karoshi

In terms of translations, I might get chapter 1 done by next week. All our team members have been swamped with exams and irl drama so translations have been extremely slow. Translating isn't our priority, it's something we do in our spare time for fun so I apologize for the slow releases and hopefully you guys will understand. We always welcome new translators for our projects and hopefully we can find someone dedicated enough to give regular releases.

Its fine. I'm just asking for confirmation and sorry for the trouble too. If only I had time to even learn it. sigh. its hard to learn new language if your already working. Doesn't have much free time.