I dropped it after a few dozen chapters.

The setting was great, and the plot (at least as far as I got) was decent.

The problem is that the author feels the need to constantly remind us how hot the MC's body is by mentioning her ti*s every chance he gets.

The main character also comes off as a complete idiot when it comes to the girl whose body he is in. He has her on such a pedestal of purity that he considers himself to be dirty for even seeing it when... more>> he takes a bath.

Spoiler

Come on dude! You had ONE SINGLE conversation with her before you died, and in it she told you that she wanted to take you to a love hotel! I'm not saying that she's not worth saving, but you clearly don't know the first thing about her! She straight out told you that she wanted to f*ck you, so stop blushing every time you see her/your tits!

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It's a novel that wants to be an ecchi doujin. Everything exists as a vehicle to promote the protagonist's sexiness, but without art to uh.. Appreciate, so it falls flat on it's rather disappointing mess of a story.

All in all, it's a tolerable novel that gets sadly worse as it goes on. Expect to be reminded constantly about the protagonist's large breasts and flawless skin in ever more awkward, and sweaty, detail. Expect to see her (his) devastating beauty get her into ever more ridiculous situations, then get into a... more>> powerup scene where we are reminded, again, about her breasts and how darn much she seems to sweat. Her clothes are constantly in danger of showing her naughty bits and there's a mountain of mentally, and morally deficient weirdos all over the place to provoke her lewdness out. You are absolutely only reading this for the ecchi, and the latest chapter I read, ch57, is particularly bad for it. <<less

Well I am surprised that this golden egg finally got picked! As for the detail of my review, since I just reached somewhere around the early part of vol 2, I don't think I can tell much. However, I can definitely assure you all that the characters all have unique personalities (Lol, in my word, funny weirdo!) while each having a clear background and distinct story plot. Sadly, this is why I couldn't convey much of my thought in this, since this reading material requires high level of Chinese understanding,... more>> thus preventing from comprehending much as I read deeper.

So I am happy to know that this novel got picked now and hopefully the Re;Library and Silva will keep up their good job translating this novel! <<less

This novel has all the cliche scenes as expected from a gender bender series, like the scene where the protagonist explores her body or the scene where she was too embarrassed to look at herself. And though this series has many cliche scenes where you can easily predict what is going to happen next, you just can't help but look forward to it, since those are the types of "good cliche" you just can't seem to get enough of.

Also, the protagonist seems to be the smart and cautious type, though... more>> she can also be a knucklehead at times. I especially like how the protagonist had the mindset to avoid getting tangled up in the cycle of hatred, but she's no stranger to danger either. If people come making trouble for her, she'll deal with it accordingly. The protagonist has a likable personality so far, I've just been getting tired of protagonists that were too proud for their own good and got into trouble because of their personality, so this is a nice change of pace. For now, I am expecting good things from this novel. <<less

I'm very happy that Silva has decided to pick up this unpolished diamond. Although (tragically) I cannot read or write Chinese with only the capability of speaking it, Demon Sword Maiden is intriguing and undoubtedly a welcomed new addition to the ranks of novels.

The only problem I have to up to now is confirming whether or not this gender-bender novel has Yuri since I can 't trust the tags on Novelupdates. At all. Another thing that deserves my salutations is that despite the author being Chinese, (as stereotypically;... more>> Chinese and Japanese people hate each other) they have clearly done their research on Japan. <<less

Tried reading it because of the high ratings but as of somewhere in volume 2, I got sick of it.

First, the backstory is weird. Girl confessing to a creepy stalker, the stalker's sudden noble desire to preserve the dignity of the girl's body, acting ashamed, etc (feels like the sudden opposite of a stalker's state of mind.) But let's ignore the backstory for a moment, its simply there to set up the background, motivation, etc. Let's talk about the general route this story is taking. Motivation for level up... more>> montages : Check
Cheats: Check (umbrella)
Idiotic and unreasonable villains/troublemakers: Check (A girl wanting to destroy two mountains because it reminds her of her flat chest, villain 'fell in love' with the MC and decided the best thing to do is harass her.) And now, we got another woman immediately trying to do yuri things upon first appearance.

Its like the author decided to take whatever excites people (female protag, ero stuff, training montages) and mix them into a cauldron without caring about characters in general. The best character he had in this story so far is the dead father turned into a monster trying to protect his daughter. Even then, that entire part felt set up and then thrown away in a flash. (MC received daughter's clothes as a gift, gets saved by the daughter's zombie father, followed by getting said clothes torn few chapters later because why not?)

Translations good though. <<less

Came for the genderbender, stayed for the yuri.

-1 star because more of the shallow 2D hypocritical enemies and plot commonly found in Chinese novels.

Justified self defense or even a fair duel. The moment you defeat/insult/kill 1 guy, then their entire relatives, clan, friends, etc or even someone unrelated all come at you scheming and hounding you to the end of the world. Rinse and repeat, except with increasing powercreep.

The novels is extremely is extremely and I mean sexist to the point that they are demeaning the whole female gender. Moreover, if there is a named BEAUTIFUL enemy woman she won't ever die, they will either join the MC, fall in love with the MC or be saved by the MC even if they have tried to kill her, rob her, r*pe her, or her cherised ones. I repeat, if they are a woman they won't die, so read with this in mind.

The only thing that the MC has... more>> is luck. The fights in volume one are impressive be it against demons or humans, but, later they are only extremely good when they are against monsters and demons. On the contrary, if the enemy is a human the enemies will suddenly use mystic and any methods for the MC to have a 2 chapter extended chapter when she could kill with a single slash, Not recommended if you are easily frustrated or if you are a girl. Another thing is that sometimes her blows can annihilate 50 people at once, but other times, the struggles against the same amount of people after the power up to put dramatic effects. I'm not angry, I'm just extremely disappointing with this, and that is why I'm making this review.

To end with my tirade, the most absurd thing is the obsession of the MC with his/her (is a genderbent nobel) supposed "love" who hasn't said a single word since chapter 10m and this novel has already almost 600 translated chapters. She is just a tool for the MC to be adverse towards the love that other females throw to her. I mean, the other females literally sacrifice their self-being, have saved her life N times, given her protection and much more while the supposed "love interest" is lying on a bed unconscious ALL the time. The worst thing is that MC likes them, but, she doesn't answer their love because this shitty reason. I've reached the limit of my tolerance in this last volume. <<less

While I'm only quite at the beginning of the novel (vol2 arc1 chapter 18 - the curent highest available free chapter), I'd call this novel a hidden gem!
But before I begin to swoon over the novel let's point out its weaknesses:
-The story takes place in the ancient Japan where men rule supreme. Still, as this is a yury story there are quite many - of course beautiful, young and powerful - women in leading positions.

- As this is a "wuxia" story we have the thing called blood feud.... more>> Meaning, because the weak child of a unimportant branch family lost to and is hurt by the MC, members of the branch family, then the main family and later even a leader wish to kill the MC. A small stone thrown into a pond causes ripples that get bigger and bigger. All that because of a nobody / useless child, while the MC has the name of a powerful family, shows incredible growth (normally impossible without the backing / genes of a powerful family) and has increasingly mighty backings. This has logic gaps, but the story requires enemies and a reason for the MC to get stronger quickly and this is an easy way for story building.

- And last my main peeve: Once the action is rolling the author seems to sometimes forget the (currently more unimprotant) story threads / characters. For example the MC rushes after her friend after a "fight" and tells her companion he/ she'll be back in no time, but the companion should call for help if he/she is not back at a certain time. The MC reaches and rescues the friend, but decides to stay with her family for some time instead of going back or even informing her companion at home.
Of course the MC needs to stay there for some action only a few chapters later and of course the MC need to be "missing" from home for some time for another story thread to play out. Still, I don't like how the MC seems to completely forget the companion and how this companion currently got so little story focus / remains sallow and in the background.

Now, lets get on to the swooning:
- It is a Chinese novel that takes part in Japan and does a good job at painting a halve way realistic picture and in no way (at least so far) will it bash the Japanese people or culture.

- What sets DSM apart from other novels is, that while it is constrained by its main themes yuri, gender bender and wuxia it does a good job to not adhere to these limits very strictly.
* It really shows a world where the women (mostly) have no say in important decisions and are seen as the weaker gender.
* The soul of the MC, being a man before coming to this world, is interested in girls. While the body he resides in is that of a woman, who of course was interested in men. Most gender bend yuri novels completely ignore this discrepancy and just set the soul as dominant, so that the now female MC will like women still. DSM though tries to give this situation some thought. While the soul is still dominant and the MC will therefore like women, he/ she can't help but blush and get a bit excited if she sees a beautiful man or gets helped by a warrior.
* The MC no longer behaves just like a man, nor does he behave and feel perfectly like a woman. The body remembers how to move, so (intuitive) actions are done mostly girlish while he/ she still has to learn some etiquette. Especially interesting is, that in DSM the MC does get influenced by the body (?) over time - meaning he for example starts to like buying and wearing several woman’s cloths and makeup.

- The MC comes from our peaceful time / world and is thrown into a world with ghosts and fighting. It takes time for the MC to adjust to this. While still a boy the MC was shy and quite weak, but as the story progresses he grows in character. The MC will not immediately like fighting / hurting people, but he also doesn't remain afraid of hurting or even killing other people. The growth is a bit fast, but still told in a believable fashion.

- What also sets this novel apart from others is, that the MC has needs! An inconvenient topic that most novels steer clear of as it does not fit well with heroic stories in a beautiful fantasy world. Or as a certain arch wizard once said "Crimson magic clansmen don't need to use the washroom". Well, in this story / that age there are no convenient flush toilets and showers - especially not in the wildness and the MC is now in the body of a woman. The story deals with and describes this topic quite well.

- As all yuri novels the girls around the MC are interested in her. Still in DSM the girls each have quite a character and won't be satisfied with only looking at eh MC. The story shies away from being R-18, but it is quite descriptive and does touch upon the topics.

- And of course, there is love! It is nicely told how the MC tries to stay true to his love for Lily, while all the while also falling for another girl in this world. (Also, according to the tags, the MC also won't get attached to the other girls liking her and the story won't become a typical harem.)

All in all, while it has its weeknenes (same as other stories of similar kind and mostly even less than those) - mostly caused by it contrains - its a great story that takes a realistical approach, is fast paced and has great action scense, but also has its comedy moments. It is a gender bend yuri story and doesn't fear to be a bit more descriptive than most <R-18 novels. As for character development, not only the MC is growing, but also the persons around the MC (though so far we only got shot flashes of the character of the probable love interest and the sotry focuses on only the growth of one of the girls around the MC). Finally the mysteries of the world and around the MC are continuously growing and I trust the author to connect and explain them well.

Oh, as for the translation, its very well done! Silva is giving explanations where necessary, but makes sure to keep them as well as comments to a minimum as not to break the reading flow. The flow and tone of the interactions / story is well preserved. <<less

Such a strange feeling to see what could have been a great novel be ruined by pseudo-r*pe every few chapters.

Every time she encounters a woman they end up almost having s*x until Lily suddenly decides to remember her everlasting love towards senior sister.

From the beginning the mythological Japanese setting creates such a poignant atmosphere. So unique and fantastically executed but it pains me so much to see these ridiculous scenarios that completely destroys all immersion.

On that point, other than these moments, Lily is actually quite a good character yet it’s... more>> simply impossible to appreciate.

This may be a bias towards Japanese culture from my part but Lily has one of my favourite set of abilities and most fitting that I’ve seen in a long time. Well this is coming from someone who has read a lot of xianxia/xuanhuan which most of the time does a horrible job at this but that’s besides the point.

Basically this is a novel on the verge of being great but it’s very difficult for me to find the greatness when 66% of the novel is a fetish-fest. <<less

This novel has great translations and is your typical martial arts progression type of novel so it's an enjoyable read. The only issue is the author keeps ruining the mood by adding lines about how sexy the main character is and the author goes overboard on talking about the scent and how sweaty women are in this novel, many impactful scenes have been ruined by lines talking about how sweaty her breasts are...

Some other issues with this novel are...

• Pretty much every single female in this story is into yuri and every single one wants the MC... I get having yuri theme but the author goes overboard. While it's normal for stories like this the issue is everything just feels faker, one way you can tell if it's a well-written thought-out novel is if someone other than the main character gets a relationship. This isn't something I would say is negative about the book but this book would be a lot better if the author at least made a reason like "All the men of this era are brutes who don't care about women so, therefore, most women like other women" would have made the story better.
• The main character starts out with a mysterious mirror (which is for the plot) and an umbrella which is a shinigami. The shinigami teaches her spirit power and they give hints that this is going to be an insanely powerful tool but after the beginning, it is just never spoken of again. She sometimes uses it as an umbrella but that's pretty much it. There was no need to create an item with a will if that will is irrelevant once the main character gets powerful
• Volume 2 ->
  Spoiler

  The author added a character that gets really possessive over the main character. The main character is in love with her senpai and says she will stay loyal but every time another girl makes advancements on her she just allows it to happen. While I can ignore the occasional teasing shimizu starts to get really possessive and the main character does absolutely nothing to stop it.

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Overall the novel is one of the better ones on novel updates so I'm giving it 4 stars (Seriously people, don't give low ratings to decently written books because you disagree with 1 aspect of the book) This novel would be so much better if the author wasn't such an unbearable pervert... Without the constant ecchi scenes that just destroy the mood and makes the story bend over backwards to accommodate it would be an amazing story.

The story is interesting. Even though the story is a gender bender from a chinese author, I like how the author kids different themes unlike other Chinese cultivation novels. The story is a good pick for people who are interested in cultivation, gender bender, a bit of Yuri, and training to be strong in Japan. The author also did a lot of research in Japan's culture and demons.

The novel so far is very simple, and follows a pure storyline with nothing too extravagant, which is a much welcomed change from all the other novels out there with exagerated scenarios.

Lily is funny, relatable, smart and extremely hardworking, also lowkey incredibly smart, very much enjoying the novel so far and can't wait to get further in the story.

This review contains spoiler up to vol 16.

In terms of how much I enjoyed this novel its a full 5/5, however, I've had my own set of complaints against this novel so I've had to drop the actual rating to 4/5. Lots of sexualisation of the girls (not that I mind), almost all the girls are gay (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). It is set in 11th century japan after all so all the sh*t that comes up that some people don't like is perfectly reasonable. But since the author knows... more>> what they're doing and knows what the readers want, there's no r*pe, nothing that makes people want to drop the novel immediately if you know what I mean.

Amazing world-building, power-scaling is very well done and consistent, no plot holes or discrepancies in the writing and the reason why our MC is so overpowered (relative to others at the same realm) is explained later on. Although this novel is basically a xianxia, it contains an overarching theme and plot. While the power levels and settings scale up, nothing is particularly repetitive but is fresh. Almost every chapter has a purpose (almost (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) and each volume focuses on expanding and revealing parts of the mystery until everything starts coming together. Every character has a distinct personality, especially the antagonists who are absolutely amazing. Well for the raws at least, the english translation hasn't even gotten up to the main antagonist of the mortal realm yet. YURI FOR THE WIN. I'm just gonna say this now Lily gets married to her harem as the wife (not the other way around, so she's the wife to multiple other girls), forever bottom lol.

Best arc: vol 12, worst arc: vol 3 fuji mountain arc, made me feel really anxious the whole time dunno why.

Anyway, for those that don't want to wait 10 years for translations and the mystery to be unravelled, I have edited the fandom so go take a look <<less

Doesn't absolutely deserve a 4.2 rating.

The MC constantly makes the same mistakes with an overwhelming desire to protect her beloved but always for no reason doesn't take fight seriously gets binded into some soft gore bondage p*rn scene 10 times where she could die any second 29 chapters later she swears to be more careful and author highlights how much more careful and more determined she is only to make the same mistakes again like a donkey. Literally nerfing herself on purpose and almost dying despite being so worried about... more>> the safety of her senior sister that she meaninglessly basically makes a 99.99% survival rate situation a 0.01% survival rate situation just because she is so f*cking idiotic. The story is so good otherwise I would have dropped this 400 chapters ago. <<less

Let's just make this short, since the other reviews here pretty much discussed both the pros and cons.

The story is great, especially the Japanese folklore involved but the MAJOR downside is that the author keeps on emphasizing the beauty of the MC and the MC can be pretty annoying at every chapter.

Although it can be understandable that the MC develops some weird quirks being in a female body, the fact that he constantly attributes it to the body just feels frustrating.

Another important downside is that the MC is pretty much... more>> a hypocrite most of the time. Especially since he seems to denounce the discrimination against females yet he himself discriminates. <<less

TLDR: Where it's good it's very good but after ch 200 it went downhill 4 stars

This was like reading a Kurasawa movie. A really fun look at Japanese myths and samurai culture, with a dash of echi thrown in. The characters are well developed and rather fun. The translation is superb, and the world building is marvelous.

I just wish it didn't run out of steam

Great background, good fighting scenes, good descriptions, good plots and so-on etc- The author has a great writing technique. That's just enough for five stars.

I'll skip all the minor details.

I can relate to the reviewers below. Dropping off in early chapters due to; the author keeps reminding how the MC is so hot, MC is harrassed consistently, heh, I can relate.

I'm sure that women's s*x drive doesn't work as the story describes. So this story is more of a yuri-fantasy and it's HILARIOUS. The author didn't disappoint cause', I just... more>> had so much fun reading the yuri-fantasy. The author's imagination going beyond the expectations I had ever imagined. I REPEAT, I'M SURE WOMEN'S s*x DRIVE DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.

So, yeah. Hmm. I just can't recommend this story to women. I can't even recommend this story to men if they were to take transgender novels so seriously. I can recommend this to readers fond of transgender stories.

If I weren't immune to TG descriptions I would've also dropped off in disgust.

So, read at your own risk! <<less

This is one of my favourite genderbender novel. The story is mysterious, the plot get revealed slowly and I just can't help but want more chapters

If you think of the plot of the story as a whole it is kinda cliche but the types we love.i don't know what others think but I think the author is a degenerate and a genius at the same time because he can make simple tasks like walking in the woods and drinking tea sound like a beautiful poem and I am not exaggerating. The pacing is good and although there is the problem most gender benders have where all the things that have dicks and balls are evil... more>> there are guys that you would respect for the things they do for their people and the pc that is a good point I think and the characters are really detailed which makes it easier to think of them as real people. Thats what I think of this light novels and also the author is kinda perverted and has weird fetishes like sweats and stuff but I like it :) 👍 <<less