This novel is unique in that there are three minds inhabiting one body. The typical cliche is a child finds an artifact that contains the ghost of a wise and powerful person who guides them. The best part of this novel is that neither of the 2 spirits fit that description. The old man Oka Sanai Sadatoshi (died of old age) is obsessed with fighting and gold. Imagine if Scrooge Mcduck had been born and lived in feudal Japan. There is one scene in the manga where the old man... more>> sees gold and takes control of the body and is literally trying his best to "swim" in gold. The other ghost Oka Masaharu was thinking about which was better between dog or cat eared demi-humans when a truck sent him on a one way trip to another world. The mother of Bard somehow thinks that by trying to push him to the brink of death during combat training everyday will strengthen his will power and keep the other two personalities in check.

I would wait for more chapters to pile up before reading this one. The manga is currently translated up to chapter 26 if you don't want to wait for the novel. <<less

So I will start this review by stating that I'm angry right now and I am ONLY on volume 2 and I plan to continue to read this series so I will come back and update this review appropriately.

Right now I'm incredibly frustrated. I really really want to like this series it seems RIGHT up my ally. I love strong to stronger stories with kingdom building/management elements with a dash of polygamy (if well done). But this series is, and I don't want to cement this in stone right now,... more>> damn near ruined by ONE thing. This SHITTY Japanese comedy.

Maybe it's from years of reading it but it's just not funny. This series particularly it's so bad. And it's so god DAMN distracting. It would be fine if it was toned down a little, if it was done in a realistic manner, if it was even a little funny. And I could handle all the problems with it if it was done just every so often but it is CONSTANT in the story. Every chapter is riddled with dumb unfunny comedy moments and it is EXTREMELY distracting and takes so much out of the story.

It's genuinely frustrating. And it's the same old bullsh*t every single time. There's a misunderstanding and instead of being rational they instantly lash out in violence. A character is a battle freak and wants to fight and the MC doesn't.

It's literally a plot point that his crazy OP mom is a tsundere that doesn't know how to express her doting love for him other than to train him in a way that he would LITERALLY die if he messed up even a little. It has happened constantly and every time it's accompanied by an account of how insane it is that he grew up like that. Not in a normal manner either about how abusive and f*cked up that is. It's more in admiration with a dash "humor."

None of the characters are capable of acting in a rational or realistic manner. I'm not asking for a lot I'm not asking for pure realism or that kind of bullsh*t but this pseudo comedy garbage is so s*upid. This doesn't feel like a serious novel with some comic relief it feels like a comedy series with some serious parts. Except the comedy isn't funny. It's just frustrating and unengaging.

Another example to add is at one point he goes to a female friend's house and her dad, who is an upper noble is there. Now it should be noted that the MC is the son of a well known noble and it seems to be common knowledge that his mom is f*cking scary.

Now the whole thing is the dad was very doting of his daughter and didn't want any men to be messing with her so he had an immediate dislike of the MC. Now this is cool and all but instead of handling like a noble would by putting on airs and feeding him words laced with threats etc. Etc. He instead outright tries to beat the sh*t of our MC and is met with his daughter saying "I hate you!" which leads to a "comedic" 'NOOOOOOO!' from him.

Now again I could get over this if it was an every so often thing but literally every single chapter has stuff like this happen multiple times.

And it's hard to put my finger on it but it feels like serious parts of the story like major plot scenes feel super rushed. On the flip side, all the comedy scenes are dragged out.

Not to even mention the s*xual "jokes" involving minors in this but it's a JP isekai so I guess it's to be expected.

This is just such a huge shame because it's a genuinely interesting concept for an isekai and I want to like it so much but the comedy is so unbearable.

I plan to read more so I can only hope it will get better. But knowing how these things go simply don't see that happening. Usually, things like this are rooted in the core of a series and it would be a massive tonal shift to get rid of them which is something unlikely that an author will do. <<less

One of if not the best isekai/tensei texts.

Main character, Bard, has multiple (literal) personalities: his original young self (who doesn't do much beyond mediation), a money-obsessed Edo period warrior (think Scrooge McDuck but a warrior rather than a deminoble) and a Chuunibyou patient from modern times who fantasised about the isekai/tensei genre and has patchy knowledge on lots of ways to do things, wonders whether dog or cat ears are better, has basic knowledge of diseases and so on. A child intellectual warrior, if you will.

Bard seems to do the... more>> mediation; serving as a go-between for the information and language so the Chuunibyou patient can not only understand it but act on it well until said patient is able to fully understand the language, and uses his knowledge to aid Scrooge McSamuraidono in his schemes to generate a large pile of coinage, whilst performing magical feats that are not really possible without his knowledge when needed; allowing him and McSamurai to have a peaceful cooperative relationship where the trio move as one with their knowledge of common sense (Bard), battle sense, monetary fetish (Sanai), information gathering, information concealment, random Chuunibyou knowledge and anthropomorphism fetish (Masaharu) ; they almost never get a poor time.

Spoiler

In the manga, seeing the trap and reverse trap fawning over each other is easily the best moment.

[collapse]

Regardless, I'd like the TLing of this series to continue well on. Even though the chapters are long (exprect half an hour per chapter) it's engaging. <<less

okay, I just finished reading to v8c4. This is an excellent kingdom-building novel that really helps explain how a kingdom is built. I love the way magic is used (it has rules that it obeys and doesn't just advance randomly). The tech uplift is believable, and its consequences aren't really understated. The harem is well-fleshed out, even characters that lessen in importance never really disappear, instead, it hints that they are still working in the background.

Edited after v14ch3.

The story is great, quite cliche but acceptable.

The translation is amazing. As expected of bakapervet who is such a good translator. (He is a beast)

• Volume 1: interesting concept, don't really understand how he has two different people inside him which seems a little s*upid since author will always pull out the other person when a problem or fight happens.

• Volume 2: Hard to get why volume 2 went downhill compared to the first one. Focus on politics and the typical JP food making, in comes the annoying lesbian girl also.
• Volume 3: By far the worst volume in the series so far.

At first I read the manga and thought: "What a funny read" after a few more chapters I thought about what kind of stories would be in the novel that the manga doesn't have (Novels generally have a more in-depth worldbuilding).

And so I decided to give the first 2 chaps of the novel a read and I must say, it is better to get into and the author is trying his/her best with writing up good stories (at least that's what you can read in the 2 chaps). That's why... more>> I came to the conclusion that I want to read even more of this and hope that a good Translator would pick this gem up.

EDIT:

This novel is finally in good hands and the storyline itself doesnt disappoint me. The world building is also rly good.

I cant rly critizise anything about this novel, except that sometimes the chapters are so damn lang and take at least half an hour of your time. But that can also be seen as something positive.

If you are interested in this novel, just go ahead and read it you wont regret it. <<less

Isekai Tensei Soudouki is a light novel that I find rather hard to praise. The basic concept of the LN is a rather clichéd one, with two people being reincarnated into one body in a fantasy world, with the original personality of that body intact. While the premise was nothing new, it could have set itself apart from the rabble by way of execution, but it failed in that aspect. The ‘three souls in one body’ idea was used in a rather inconsistent manner, and essentially only came up whenever... more>> it was convenient (or whenever the author wanted to go on a rant about the Warring States period).

The story here felt like the author was just jumping from one thought to the next, without properly substantiating on any of them before diving headfirst into the next idea. More often than not, the author ends up glossing over things that actually needs explanations, and going into far too much detail about things that don’t really affect the grand scheme of things. This leads to rushed story arcs and more importantly, rushed ‘character development’.

You often get characters that can essentially be summed up in one word or a short phrase, and they hardly ever even grow beyond that. The story eventually just started to feel like excuses thrown by the author to build the protagonist’s harem, while at the same time raising the protagonist’s fame to ridiculous levels.

As for the enjoyment aspect, I’m a bit torn. I dropped the first volume a couple of times, and stopped for a few months when I finished it. When I saw that it had 6 volumes translated, I just lowered my expectations a lot and went in. I found most of it to be trite, but I will admit that I saw some improvement in volumes 5 and 6.

Just a side note – the translations are alright, but it could definitely do with some proofreading/editing. Not going to complain, since it was translated for free, but just writing this as a warning for those of you who find such translations difficult to read.

On the whole, this Light Novel wasn’t really anything great, and could be skipped without missing out on much. For far better stories with a similar premise, check out ‘Falling in Love with the Villainess’ and ‘Sevens’. <<less

This is a story of a man who rises up to kinghood. The isekai part has one of the, if not, the best use of isekai out of all the novels out there; on par with Realist King. The more you read, the more you are hooked.. Well, it comes with heavy politics and world building so those who looks for fluffy-isekai will not find it appealing here.

What we have instead is a big yet small world of politics, commerce, war, religion, s*avery, discrimination, and the tale of a hero.

Since... more>> the setting is that of a medieval era, MC is surely to have harem. Instead of women filled with flowerfield brains, they have actually have substance.. maybe except for one. And MC clearly recognizes political marriage, which is a breath of fresh air. After all, this is a world where politics "actually" exists.

Characters' experience growth! Not just outside but inside which is great. It allows the story to progress with all sorts of elements; you feel sad, regret, happy, and bitter moments. It is a standout among other novels that has to offer. Although since the cast keeps getting bigger, it cannot be helped that some characters become obscured and be forgotten...

Lastly the MC, which has 3 souls in one body. While not completely unique, but the way the author handles how the three interacts and the results of each is great. MC combines both modern knowledge and warring states martial arts but not in a way that completely breaks the world, but instead gradually accelerates growth, both for the world and the MC. While of course it cannot be helped that the thick Nipponjin culture is there, but by the time one notices it, is no longer detrimental to the story.

If you will read this novel, I advise to start reading the manga first. Read until the chapters before the 2nd Antrim War starts, then read the novel from there. It is the arc where the story really kicks up.

Tl;dr: A good novel to read, if you don't want a bullsh*t MC or a bullsh*t world building.

- Volume 14 <<less

Didn't know bakape*vert picked this series up. I liked the manga and finally I can read the ln.

If you still unsure if you want to read, check out the manga.

It's not only not enjoyable to read, but also annoying.

It really feels like author is doing his best to somehow disgust you.

'Unique' setting is simply MC's severe case of schizophrenia and author's excuse to introduce japanese culture into novel at every opportunity.

... more>> It's also working as the most boring cheat possible.

In case of trouble that protagonist can't resolve himself a convenient personality will simply show itself and save the day. It's too dull and convenient. What kind of suspense can there be when you know that MC can summon his 'amazing grandpa' at any moment?

Worst of all here are side characters though. They are also the main source of my vexation.

• His violent sadistic mother. She is also unreasonable. Author is trying to call her 'tsundere' but 'dere' part doesn't exist. Every time she appears she is beating up someone. She is giving a vibe of some barbarian tyrant who will use his fists if something isn't going his way.
• His father is a muscle-brained self-righteous ret*rd. Incompetent himself yet doing nothing but preaching his own 'justice'. Even forcing it upon MC.
• His maid. Immediately turned into yandere out of nowhere when some random no-name character suggested her that she can be MC's concubine in the future. Now she thinks like she owns MC and is extremely clingy. Meddling into all kinds of protagonist's affairs and relationships even though she is nothing but a lowly maid. Using 'childhood friend' and her own delusions as an excuse for such behaviour. MC almost got killed cause she refused to listen in critical moment.
• Another childhood friend who is also a lesbian muscle-brained tomboy. Her sole aim is to annoy MC to beat him up. Why? Cause she wants to prove something to herself.

Other extras weren't particularly noteworthy, but the bunch above are already more then enough to irate any reader.

And even though it's a light novel, some plot holes are particularly glaring and ridiculous.

Like a flashback to show how MC saved some damsel in distress at the age of nine. At that time he killed 10+ people like butchering pigs without any care. It's already ridiculous enough, but nobody noticed it in the end. Nobody fking noticed 10+ corpses in the city, MC's strange actions, or that people were missing. You would think that this facepalm-worthy situation will stop here, but no. 3 years later when MC will be giving a speech, for a second he will release gas some kind of aura for half a second and his mother + some random dude will notice that he had already killed people!

It's so fcking amazing! Especially if you think about how his mother was beating him up everyday till the verge of death under the guise of training and didn't notice anything strange at all for 3 years.

I'm conclusion I can only say that this novel is boring, annoying and even absurd at times. Dunno how its rating can be 4.6 <<less

It is a great novel. The characters are well done, their interactions are very hilarious. The plot goes in a jovial manner even with many political struggles and schemes that seem to happen in the background, so no extra drama and stuff which I personally prefer.

The harem is still growing and the characters haven't been portrayed too deep (this might be because of the novel is still in its initial stages) but their is a lot of scope for great story that is yet to come.

It's rare that the MC was so affraid of his mom. Even the soul of a samurai and a kemono-mimi otaku boy couldn't help the MC to overcome his mom. Beautifull fiances. Economic struggles. This novel is quite good.

I read the manga at chapter 34... read synopsis at alphapolis. Dang! I hope the translators were in a good health to translate this LN.

It is one of the best reincarnation novels up to 5th volume, but after that it becomes political struggle between extras. We get 1 vs 10 chapters of content having protagonist vs extras per volume. I am not joking, you may say that we get different people as protagonists instead. The tone of the novel also changes a lot - it was fun, but after 5th volume it becomes boring.

Let's say we have 5 stars before 5th volume and 2 after. What is the average?

I recommend to skip all the... more>> volumes after 5 and see the ending scene in v13 to not kill the joy. <<less

Honestly, I liked this story a lot and actually bought the licensed novels up until volume 10. Sadly the author has chosen to go away from the land/military/tech development style of writing that was a big part of the attraction to me from the start and has strayed into the world of power levels and silly OP magical bloodlines.

it’s an ok read up until around volume 7-9 I think. But don’t get to attached like me just to get let down.

Here's a Kingdom Building Isekai where the one unique aspect is that the MC has a fractured soul. Containing: Baldr Cornelius the host body, Oka Masaharu the chuuni Highschool Reincarnator & Oka Sanai an old Edo War General. The way it's handled is fairly unique, but with the true purpose of allowing the MC to handle himself on the battlefield and have enough modern knowledge to revolutionize the kingdom.

Besides his young age this MC has the complete package to almost trivialize any hardships, be it economically, militarily or politically. And... more>> normally this would be a huge negative, but after reading several sadistic Western novels in a row, this Light Novel came as a breath of fresh air. And although the tale of brutal strife and enthronement is pieced together by some absurd coincidences, it doesn't prevent it from eventually becoming a compelling read for those who desire stories of territory enrichment. With a good helping of varied battles, on land and in the high seas.

I just wish the author would've been a bit less gung-ho about cramming any downtime with Japanese harem nonsense. Even if the exasperating harem eventually graduates into genuine romance, before the abrupt hiatus. <<less

It's just your ordinary cliche novel with whole plot filled with plot armour. Everything is glossed over without details. Harem is the biggest cliche with maid, beast ear girl, sadist, princess.... But it's fun to read.

Edit:After reading volume 6 I changed my review from 3 to 5. Volume 6 is the main starting of the story.

This novel is the definition of cliche story and plot but with almost perfect execution by author.

Each chapter feels good to read, author style of languange is not heavy with almost perfect description of everything that it feels like an essay and chore to read and yet it is not a light one either that feels like the author bumbling his way and doing things on the fly. Of course it is also due to the our legendary translator "Bakape*vert". He is really good and his translating speed is lightning... more>> quick with good quality to boot.

Anyway, with the story, although MC had a guide in spirit form of a Warrior and a man from future he is able think by himself and quite a proactive MC not like those who were passive and waiting for them to get problem approaching them but yet somehow pullthrough because sudden powerup bullshit.

Character in this are nothing special, but miracolously Kings in this are not an idiot and dignified. <<less

Tl;Dr: it's an excellent story until Volume 14 where the author just completely loses any and all vision and turns it into a Sci-Fi flick with a bunch of plot holes and reasonableness mixed in.

Okay to start off I think this is a great novel worth reading. The characters are solid in the story building is well done with okay pacing. I feel like the concept is fairly original and that it's not just a straight-up reincarnation story. It takes a unique twist of having multiple personalities and the one... more>> person which also brings demerits of inheriting their fetishes and quirks. But overall it keeps Pace pretty well until the very end when it all falls apart. One thing that doesn't work very well is the timeline. One volume the MC will be fighting with barbed wire and flamethrowers and then suddenly the enemy has the technology to produce rockets even though there was no explanation on how or where they got that information. It's all just explained away as the church's artifacts. So other than some slight plot armor for the enemies even having a chance, take characters make up for it I think.

Now for the bad. Unfortunately this novel seems to be abandoned after going halfway through Volume 14. It feels like the author completely lost their vision for what they were trying to do and just decided to Chuck Volume 14 out there and then gave up on the rest. Volume 13 ended with them almost one-sidedly trouncing the largest country on the continent and instead of being allowed to finish the battle and actually win suddenly a princess from a country that was never even mentioned up until now just shows up as someone almost as strong as the MC and also happens to be reincarnated... Who knows why. And then she goes on to explain the "true history of the beast race"and how that the main character is endangering the tire SpaceTime Continuum or something... Just completely changes gears and it devolves from there.

Other than the devolution of the writing to something like I would find on Wattpad, I also find that a couple of the wives of the MC just don't get screen time anymore. The first girl he was with that literally has been with him through his childhood just hasn't been mentioned in like three volumes even though she was the most devoted. Quite a shame.

Anyways that's my take on this novel it's a good read overall and does way better than most in this genre but overall it leaves a disappointing taste in the mouth. <<less

Okay let me start this started as one of my alltime fav reincarnation novel. It started good withh good jovial interesting characters and I was aiming for it to get better, sadly it took a bad turn and I dropped after Volume 9.

Pros:

It started good, interesting characers. Has story depth and good world development. Hero can actualy think, judge and act. And specially It has mind games.

... more>> Cons:

The conventional garbage of comedy and meaningless tr*sh talk. I mean Important information regarding baldr's 3 lives and king's gate are left out, given less time. But literally every side characters, their minions their story their thaughts and decisions are explained which often seems boring, reptitive and not needed. Above all the interaction between main characters remain just the same as they were introduced first time. There is very little development. And the many main characters are conventional and cringey as hell as you'd expect from a japanese isekai novel.

All in all, to sum it up, it is a good read if you can withstand repitive cringey comedy and one track characters. And if you do withstand, you can then enjoy the world development of thestory. For me it is boring. Have fun read. <<less