Strong story and frequent updates. NOT A REVENGE STORY, but one filled with positivism and objectives. Villains reach a level of entertainment where I always have to wonder what will be the next f*ck up. This is not the usual "World with Game Mechanics", as you need to be constantly aware that this is something exclusive only to the "people" of Lambda, a system created by the gods in the past to help humans to defeat the Demon King who invaded the world 100K years ago.... more>>

Another way to explain it is, this is a story about the unluckiest man in the world, sure you may have seen this a lot in other stories, most likely turned into a comedy where the MC finds super strong people that he defeats comedy style with their cheat, but this one is more serious, MC is unlucky, thus he leaves nothing to chance, he works his way through and makes sure he gets what he wants.

The world building and Lore is strong, and they are not "just irrelevant more info", the past plays a very important and significant role, lots of things happen between gods and other characters in the multiple worlds too, and all MC wants it to live in peace with his family, and be allowed the freedom that he never had in his previous lives. He is a big hard worker.

Although it's not exclusive, Generic Isekai novels tend to give the character a new life where he has no parents or known people, so they are free to go anywhere, and with their cheats, they are always superior to the local people, so everything is carefree. This is not one of those Isekai, this is one that has a big focus on the concept of "family" and "friends", the number of characters is immense and you may need to make notes to keep up with all of the. This is not a story where Revenge is the main moving machine although it still exists, as in, if MC had a chance to kill that damn God, oh he certainly would, but if he had to chose between killing his enemy and reviving his mother, there would be no waste of time in his decision, saving his mother is the absolute priority.

Unlike other novels where modern knowledge and food are instantly used for greater success, because he doesn't really know much of technology, he tries to use his limited type of magic to create some useful stuff, although they are made of magic, and he can't create everything he would like, and for food, although there is a focus on food on some arcs, it's also explained that it was days, if not months of Trial and Error. The novel likes to skip some unimportant details with a small comment and move on, still, it's a very long story, the chapters are very above average.

Although the translation is pretty good, it unfortunately strips out many quirks from the characters speech, leaving an generic impression to characters that are not like that. If you wanna join the RAW/MTL team, join LNB's Discord Server, or start from /r/DeathMage , we can help. :) <<less

Quite similar to Death Mage in many ways, excelling in some points, lacking in others... Well, since this one is much older, I guess I should compare Death Mage to this one instead (In fact, according to DM's Author, Tomoki, one of the hateful characters, served as inspiration to Vandalieu, as in, Vandalieu will act the exact opposite to that piece of shit, well, he didn't explicitly say so, but it did feel like he was talking about this novel).... more>>

MC is summoned by a super nice God of the Moon, who reveal this summoning is due to the past of his parents, so it's either him or his sister to be summoned, MC is a completely average guy with the exception of his ability as an Archer, where he basically has developed raw pure skill. The goddess who was supposed to receive him banishes him to the "end of the world" after kidnapping 2 other "like-minded" people as her heroes.

Besides the OP cheat gained by super friendly Tsukuyomi, MC is abhorred by the Goddess of the world due to his looks, received the ability to communicate with anyone but humans as a compensation (Yeah, this is cheat in itself), so slowly getting the trust of the monsters like Orcs, when it's to deal with humans, because of his looks some think of him as a monster, or a half one (The goddess made the humans in this world to be guaranteed handsome/beautiful), as such, his best friends are all people that would be called monsters or demi-humans, while the human supremacists are related to the Goddess.

The "harem" is related to MC's ridiculous luck, which made him meet to legend-level entities and fight them into submission in a short amount of time, thus we get the Mist Dragon Shen, and the Black Calamity Spider, which end up in a pact with MC, but because MC started super OP, the best contract they could make was one similar to s*ave, where they receive more benefits instead of giving it to MC as they intended. He did get benefits though, as he was able to "create another world" with unique food and freedom, so basically all his friends can live much better lives there than even the humans who dominate most of the known world.

Well, you could treat all this as a prologue of sorts, the story from there on starts with MC taking advantage of this unique backing of his to work as a merchant, and then there are the 2 heroes who are working to kill the demons/demi-humans for the sake of human supremacy, because clearly humans are being killed by them, and not the reverse, even though humans have an overwhelming larger population, the blessing/curse of the goddess, which basically powers up humans and powers down the non-humans.

I think the setting may abuse opportunism a little too much under the pretext of "luck", however, it's a good story with a lot of character growth, and enemies that are easily dis-likeable, but while MC's pov is usually ok, chapters based on the 2 heroes can be annoying. <<less

This is a parody. There is this guy who is a ridiculously big fan of "power in the shadows", this means stuff like spies, ninjas, or anything related tho these mysterious characters that are actually super strong, but otherwise, they are just mob that you never noticed.... more>>

He trained physically and spiritually to reach incredible heights (earth), but his body is still human and limited, for example, he would still die against a Nuke, which goes against the "Power in the Shadows" he believes in, so he needed something else: The supernatural, and so he went with crazy/ridiculous methods to achieve it, until he was able to reach 2 orbs of light, thus ending up killed by truck-kun.

Reincarnated in this new world, no cheats, no gods, he is simply born into a family of nobles known for making great Knights, but his older sister always tr*shes him in their trainings thanks to her great magic capabilities, meanwhile MC is the Mob.

Yes, the tutorial chapter is skipped, but he has power and skill, but to achieve the "Power in the Shadows", he needs to be a mob, he searches for mobhood while also filling his dreams of replicating events of a proper "Lord of the Shadows", still as a child he creates technology and saves 7 victims of a "demon possession", being shunned from their villages, he explain his circumstances to them, making up an "impossible" plot based on local myths with a Demon Lord, Hero, curses, descendants, demon cult, and the victims actually believe him, even more, soon after they find more clues about such hidden cult and their deals with others like them, as such, this made up plot ends up growing beyond the MC's expectations (Not that he cares, after all, he made up everything, he guesses the girls are just going more chuuni on him), and the small group grows into an extremely powerful by the time MC had to go to school simply because the girls replicated many of the vague stuff he told them about his former world knowledge, now labelled as "Wisdom of the Shadows".

Imagine a super chuuni Zero from Code Geass building up his Black Knights organization, but instead of MC being pretty smart, he is just an idiot who somehow always gets the right answer due to luck!? Hilarity ensues.

Don't expect realism or a super serious character, MC is one that strives the path of the mob, while also keeping a batman-like hidden identity. Also don't expect much from the Harem tag, yes, there are multiple woman in love with him (Mainly the Seven, with more later on), but he is a mob first and foremost, his dreams take priority, so love has no space in his heart, it's all about the Power in the Shadows. <<less

Before dying, MC is blackmailed by his perfect little sister into playing a super hard TRPG Otome game with robots and stuff, then he dies and reincarnates into that game. No cheats, no gods, he is just there, in a random mob family, he expects to live a normal life, no need for knowledge from another world or stuff. However since it's an otome game, women are treated as superior by society, and MC almost ends up sold to some 50+ hag by his step mother, just for him to go to war and die, and for her to receive the pension. It's that terrible.... more>>

How he survives? Before reaching adulthood, he risks his life into reaching a certain place he knows from the game, a drop point for the DLC's he bought, and he finds it, a ship akin to a spaceship and declares this unknown place as his own, as such, being freed from his family. However, due to how society in this Kingdom works, he is forced into the school of the game, where he meets all the characters from the game, but he follows through the way of the mob, however, things are not happening as they should, a new character appeared out of nowhere and is stealing all of the heroine's events, which is bad news, since her power is needed for the sake of killing the final boss. So our MC, originally a Mob, needs to deal with these events since at least now he has a cheat-like OP unit.

As a note, there is more than 1 reincarnated individual, so you can guess the sort of stuff that could happen. There is some really interesting backstory there too. <<less

One of the best executions I have seen of the game isekai cliche. As expected, our super player that is a big fan of a game is invited to the game and finds himself as one of the mob fat weak and "villainous" characters. The villainous however may be a bit too much, because the original character was just more of a creepy stalker with his childhood friend, and from some of his actions he is expelled from adventurer school.... more>>

This story happens in modern times, in an alternative Japan with Dungeons, so our MC who is reincarnated in the game knows all the tricks and stuff, but now faces a world where all those characters from the game are real, and not only that, the original character that he is replacing still exists inside of him, not as an independent mind, but as a feeling, which gives attachment for our MC towards other characters and events of the story, including the said childhood friend, and more importantly, his family.

Most Isekai stories have a protagonist in isekai with no constraints of a family, but this is NOT one of them.

And here we have the best little sister in such story. She is not the typical brocon type of imouto heroine, she is just someone who respects her brother a lot, and her admiration further progresses as the story goes, with her becoming her own cheat character alongside MC, but don't worry, there is no in*est here, and she still teases him that, although she admires his knowledge and ability, the famous handsome adventurer from TV is more of her type.

Meanwhile, the gorgeous childhood friend has little space here. Because MC hides his power not to change the story (more explained later), he basically doesn't go after her (so that he doesn't get expelled), and the girl joins the game protagonist's party.

With knowledge of the game, our MC is worried about some of the more catastrophic events, having guessed that, maybe the reason he didn't knew of his family in the game may have been because they died in one of the events, and in this life, he plans to train them to the best of his ability to get them to survive, so although the little sister is the recurrent character, mom and dad are also grinding and helping in the background.

And the reason MC is hiding his abilities is to keep the game story unchanging to the best of his ability, because if it changes too much, he won't know or be able to prepare for when such catastrophes happen... Too bad there are other players, and although a couple are friendly, some have their own interests or problems to deal with.

Regarding the question of "Is the MC OP", the answer is, for the most part, he is not. The thing is that, his status started bad, but by using shortcuts and knowing grind spots, he is able to level up faster than normal, but there would still be many adventurers around the world stronger than him even like that.

The "advantage" players have regarding the natives are 2:

* They each have a unique skill with some bad drawbacks, but very good growth potential. For example, the MC has a skill called Glutton, which raises his hunger more than normal (thus it's very hard for him to slim down, and very easy for him to fatten up), lowers his Agility and Attack power by quite a lot, but for every level up, he gains a lot of bonus in HP and Defense.

* They can use skills *equipped* in their original game characters, however, there is a drawback: The MP consumption remains the same, so when MC uses one of those skills as a Lvl 2~3, his falls unconscious due to lack of MP, and people believe he was beaten by Slimes. The "equipped" also limits which skill are available, so if they had unlocked all skills for a character in the past, that doesn't mean they can use everything.

Worldbuilding is also very strong in the story, with a strong emphasis on how dungeons work and its limitations (for example, levels and magic items only work inside the area of influence inside dungeons, so if you are far away from dungeons, everyone is normal, magic mithril becomes simple silver and so on.

However, what happens when technology was able to replicate the effect of dungeons in a portable format? How does society and governments deal with this phenomena? How does society itself changes? Why are the people from Class E so ridiculously bullied by the seniors? Everything has a logical explanation.

I have been eagerly waiting for new chapters every week, for both the webnovel and manga (although it has changed some details, some for the better, some for "stranger"), and waiting for more LN releases <<less

Great execution and a bunch of trope subversion. An isekai to a real yuri world with magics and races, where girls can get pregnant with a magical kiss, and a matriarchal society and men have little to no space in this.... more>>

Don't misunderstand it, the World is certainly Yuri, but this is a full Isekai Shonen Harem story, with a protagonist that reminds me of a mix between Konosuba and The World God only Knows protagonists: Both are very direct with their preferences and are able to respond to most arguments against them, yet can be extremely s*upid and gullible when things look to go too well.

The world building is great, and so are the characters.

I wrote a review with a bit more information on the details. https://www.novelupdates.com/fdrev/?comid=404730&sid=50100 <<less

This is an Isekai, but the swords and magic here has space technology, but Magic may be more limited than one would expect. MC dies frustrated with his life and is sent to another world by a semi-divine like entity called "The Guide" , deal is, this Guide feeds on his negative emotions, and so as MC's life start, the Guide is just waiting for him to be happy to then introduce him to despair... Problem is, it doesn't seem to be working as expect, in fact, the Guider is losing strength because the backfiring is leading the MC to offer many positive emotions.... more>>

And what about MC? He is someone that doesn't want to repeat the failures from his past life, so instead of being the good guy, he wants to be the Evil Lord, why? Because good guys only get tricked in the end like his old self. And so he is born in a noble family with a solar system under his control, ironically, he is a really hard working person who gives importance to relationships (although he mistrusts all humans), he trained his body from an young age, besides having reached a unique sword style born from a street trick that even his fake-master can't understand "how the hell it happened!?"

The humans in this universe are also different, you can think of them more akin to Elfs from other stories: They are ridiculously long-lived, with 30yo being equivalent to about 10yo.

The MC's growth also reaches unreasonable territory, if you read "To be a Power in the Shadows", it's even more unreasonable than that, and it only goes up, partially thanks to MC's very focus in getting better at his swordsmanship, and also partially thanks to the guider whose traps backfire, usually rewarding MC with a unique super rare item that makes it look like he is loved by the God of Luck.

Talking about Gods, there doesn't seem to be any here. We have the Guider, who seems to be the closest entity with this sort of abilities, but he never self-declares himself as one, and considering his weaknesses, it's hard to call him one. <<less

I usually don't have a problem if the MC of the story is OP or not, as long as the story is good, in this one, the MC is "mankind's weakest", however, thanks to this Goddess, he learned a way to basically act as a Glass Cannon, meaning, although his defenses suck, and his methods of attack are limited, he has a way of defeating anyone. He is still weak everywhere else though.... more>>

Another point is that this is not a revenge story, yes, it's something like the usual "weak classmate ignored by all the stronger ones", but in this one, he has at least one good friend that helps him, and in return, is helped too. The people that ignored him learn that they made a mistake, and the "Nominated Hero" guy is actually his friend too. So although there are bullies, they are not really that active, and there is not much focus on that.

In regards to Harem... Well, not all girls end up falling in love with MC, in fact, there are many who don't, and the first 2 to join (His first isekai friend, and his childhood friend) are plenty aware of his "dense harem hero" nature, and try to make sure to get rid of any other potential interests. How well it goes is to be seen though, buuuuut, it's still a harem novel, no doubt about it. MC could be easily be categorized as a wimp, because usually such "moments" are either avoided (He doesn't want to do with a problematic person), or "ruined" by a third party (like someone arriving in the room with great timing to call him for something), however, another explanation could be given being his Mental Unique Skills, so for the same reasons he can be calm in danger nor can be charmed  by the goddess, it seems he has been treating this second life too much like a game because of the skill "RPG Player".

In regards to the plot, it's something like this: 1K years ago, the Hero defeated the Demon Kings, at present time, the classmates were not exactly summoned by a King, rather, they died, and somehow appeared in a Temple, why? How? That's unknown, and everyone gained special skills, but the Demon King was announced by the Gods to revive, and among the classmates, the legendary Light Hero skill appeared, so the countries take in the classmates they want, while leaving the weaker ones behind. They can live in the temple for 1 year for free, and have to leave after, so MC, the sole one left behind, studies as much as he can during this time.

Well aware of his weakness, he has to be smart, no overpowering enemies, just has to learn how to efficiently use his magic, and eventually is called by the said Goddess of the title, who requests his trust, and at his own request for a mission, she suggests that he could save her.

The mythology of this world is similar to Greek Mythology: There were Titans, and Jupiter sealed all of them, and his children now guard the human world, with the Zero-Believer Goddess being the youngest Titan who received a different treatment from the other ones.

The story grows from there, but overall, it's a very satisfying story with things going over the top most of the time. <<less

A cute story of an overprotective "dad" with some orphaned children who he ends up recognizing as the protagonists of a game he vaguely knew in his previous life. He has an evil-like face, but is kindhearted and, although he is not OP, he is very strong.... more>>

He has his own story of life, having been reborn in this different world not knowing what, and making his way to life, meeting friends and creating his own reputation. His meeting with the protagonist ended up being a complete surprise.

Because the protagonist has no much knowledge of the game, he has no idea how his actions will change the future, in fact, considering all the children, the only ones he knew were relevant were the MC and the heroine by his side, he didn't recognize any of the other characters.

So as he changes history unconsciously, the story also ends up showing glimpses of the game story, such as what the protagonist was doing, just to give the reader an idea that in the end, those won't happen because MC already crushed everyone.

Oh yeah, and don't expect a tame MC, his main method of attack is beheading people. Really, heads fly around him.

Oh, and he was part of a party before going solo, and the female party mate who was his friend made a new party and they became super famous and stuff, but they are still on friendly terms with MC... Yes, he is extremely dense towards this one, but it's funny. :x <<less

The story is relatively short, and it's an interesting take on the Otome genre. If I were to compare it it would be with two novels on this list: "Katahane no Riku" and "Demon Noble Girl".... more>>

It's a play on the generic Isekai Otome Game good villainess bad heroine, however, the main character in the story is the villainess, not the girl reincarnated as the villainess, but the original girl who had her body taken over (So that's the resemblance with Katahane no Riku, although the relationship here is not negative as in there).

So, what's special with this villainess character? Unlike the reincarnated girl Emi, the villainess Remilia isn't exactly the nice girl, in this regard, she can be very vicious towards her enemies, but always keeping a "saintly front" towards others (Which is a similar behavior to the protagonist of Demon Noble Girl).

And her objective is revenge, but that's not to say the Remilia wants revenge against people who she technically never interacted with (The one in possession of the body, who did all the interactions was Emi), rather, Remilia wants to destroy those who betrayed Emi. This is not an explicit Yuri story, however Remilia has absolute adoration towards Emi.

And again, this is a short story (13 chapters), with after story chapters that can be divided into "the main story from the perspective of other characters" but also legit after story events on how Remilia went to live on after the events. <<less

Although considered as generic and cliche, it's one of the few cliches with a good execution. NOT A REVENGE STORY, although it may look like it at first. The major positive point of this story is the objective: To return home. This is almost exclusive to every other generic isekai harem novel, and unlike others that may find itself with a similar objective but they give up later, this one stays through to that.... more>>

As such, every time I hear Arifureta as "generic harem" I know this person has not read it and probably dislikes the harem genre (Most likely because of other sh*t novels, I can't deny that). All I can say is that I don't judge my novels by the number of wives, be it one, be it multiple, be the main character female and there are or aren't waifus or whatever, a well executed story is a well executed story.

You should start from the LN, and after you finish all chapters, look for the WN and resume from where the story left of (There is simply no reason to start from the WN besides masochism). <<less

First, there are two versions of the story. The older and abandoned Syosetu version (Still being fantranslated), which has about 190 chapters, and this new Rewrite version, which is basically the author moving to another website (Kakuyomu) and deciding to fix some problems in the story, and make it better, stuff like that.... more>>

For those who know the original story, I will surmise the changes here: This version treats some characters much better than the previous version, specially the Childhood Friend and the Hero's little sister, their disregard for normal people's lack of abilities is rewritten, with the Childhood Friend not being a complete b*tch, and the little sister being more "noble", in a positive way I should add.

Some other details are also more explicitly said, like who has a "direct relationship" with the Hero and who has not, likely to avoid misunderstandings among the reader towards the Hero's Harem party, which caused some of them to be hated a lot in the previous version. But there are many other details (mostly related to the "innapropriate behavior" of the characters) that are removed, so it's seems that MC is not getting free orgies anymore, or at least, they are not explicitly said.

Another improvement in the story is the "concept of beauty", maybe I'm remembering wrong, but from memory, all the isekai people were described as beautiful and handsome, including MC, it gave an impression that "beauty" was one dimensional in this story, but now, MC is not described as super handsome anymore, rather, he is "an ordinary face, but looks good", the concept is still mostly the same, but it doesn't feel as ridiculous as before at least.

Another "point of disbelief" that you may need to care about is that, unlike the theory of evolution where people are attracted to characteristics of their own species, in this story, "All sentient beings are attracted to 'human characteristics'", this means that, although female goblins exists, Goblins are attracted to Humans because they are more beautiful, the same for Orcs, Merman, all the Evil Gods (males are attracted to them, females are jealous). There are also male-only races like Centaur and Minotaurs, who, of course, are also attracted to Humans mainly. There is a bit of lore into that, so there are reasons, so only more scientific minds may find it unreasonable.

Another 2 more significant changes in the story is that we have a mini-arc to introduce the MC and the Hero's Party that doesn't involve them fighting each other from the start, and later on, the Demon King's Daughter is added to a fight where she originally didn't appear. And the RAWs have already surpassed the Syosetu version, meaning, that version is now compltely obsolete, and in my opinion, a waste of time.

In regards to the translation, I would be wary, I read the current translated chapters along with the raws, and noticed a bunch of details absent in the raw, those were not negative though, and just added more context to the story, the problem is when the translator gets something wrong, or, what I found later, is just not a patch up from the old version (One of the side chapters contains names that don't exist in the new version, thus leading to this suspicion that there may be parts ignored in the new version because they got copipasted without proper revision of the changes).

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Now with these points explained, for those who read the previous version, it's mostly the same, still you should read from the start either to remember the characters, or to get in touch with the revisions made on the relevant characters.

The author seems to be a big fan of mythologies, and has written extra documents related to the world building of the world, meaning, if you liked it, you have more to read on how that society works.

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And so, let's go to the story.

Kuroki is an introvert boy, with all the normal characteristics of a "healthy boy", as in, a bit pe*verted but meek. He has a childhood friend, Shirone, whom he likes, and they practiced Kendo in her parent's dojo together. At school however, there is Reiji, who is a Chad: Everything he does goes well, he is the best in athletics, he is the best in studies, he is the best in looks, and all the girls are attracted to him, literally, with basically no exception (the only exceptions are his little sister [no in*est, she respects him though] and her maid [very loyal to little sister]). At one point, Kuroki actually had a duel with Reiji, it was reiji's first time with a sword, yet he won, and thus Kuroki gave up after a fight he had with Shirone, and they hardly talked to each other again.

An unspecified amount of time later (maybe a few months? Maybe a couple years?), Kuroki is summoned by the Demon King, who is the most powerful God of that world, but there is a prophecy that he will be killed by the Hero if he fights, but there is a prophecy that he would summon someone capable of stopping the Hero.

Kuroki appears, confused with the situation, and specially, for being on the "villain side", then he finds out the Hero is none other than Reiji, and his party members (all girls) are those who were close to him during the summoning, including Shirone, and that they have been acting for about a year, yet, it certainly wasn't that much time since Kuroki knew Shirone had gone to Reiji's villa where they were likely summoned from.

The Demon King promised a good reward to Kuroki if he could protect him and his wife (the main target), and ended up accepting due to other events, but he hid his face and voice, and faced Reiji, expecting a fast defeat, ironically however... He won, and accidentaly almost killed the Hero to boot. This is essentially the prologue of the story.

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From here on, we get to learn more about the world:First, the Demon King Modes is a really good guy, and he is actually in good terms with the Lord of the Gods of Ellios, Odis (A mix of Zeus and Odin), but the one who summoned the Hero is Goddess Arlena.

Modes had actually proposed to Arlena when he was still in Elios, but she denied, not only that, things escalated among the goddesses who hated the ugly gods, and he and other "Evil Gods" were exiled, so Modes, who was innocent from the accusations, although still a bit pe*verted, worked a bit, and was able to make a clone of Goddess Arlena that loved only him, named Mona (MOdes + arleNA), and hid her from everything, yet, she was somehow found by the related pwerson. So Arlena summoned the Hero Reiji, who fell in love with her, and made him work to the bone to power up and kill Modes, their reasoning is that the monsters are all under Modes control, and they attack people, meaning, humans are in constant attack by the Demon King.

Kuroki learns the truth of the story, certainly, the Demon King has control over all monsters in his territory, but those outside are unrelated, meaning, he is blamed for nothing. Not only that, the story of the world told in human society is actually made up, and the truth is quite the opposite of what they would like.

So, here we have something like a passive rivalry between a natural genius (Reiji), who can do everything in his first try, and the hard worker (Kuroki), who after facing defeat and shame, instead of giving up, just focused on himself, working hard in his objectives, and without being self-conceited, earned the abilities he gained.

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Many people may have already heard about this story over the NTR trope, since Childhood Friend Shirone is part of the Hero's Harem. In this rewrite version of the story however, Shirone is explicitly said to not have romantic feelings for Reiji, and more of an awe for his character as "a special person". So in this regard, although it's explicit that there is no direct NTR, I understand the feeling some may face.

However, there is Netori (The other side of NTR), since the Goddess Arlena, who the Hero aims for, well, she got "taken" by someone else. <<less

This is a great novel, if you want a "happy ever after" ending, stay away, however, I found the ending quite fitting and positive to what I originally expected. This is not a "bad ending" either, just something that maybe, someone who is expecting a perfect impossible solution to the super complex problem given, well, won't have their expectations answered, there is a reason why a perfect impossible solution is impossible in the first place.... more>>

Also, I should bold it here, but from the multiple titles, take this as the main one: Barusak Chronicles ~ Riku the One-Winged and Rook the Silver. So keep in mind that we have 2 protagonists, although Riku IS the main one, with Rook being kinda of an Antagonist, it's important to keep in mind that Rook is still a protagonist in this story. Both as siblings from the Barusak family.

First, the world of the story. this is an isekai in a Galge, meaning, it's a (likely le*d) game where the male protagonist can raise flags to get the heroines to like him, and in this game, there is also the harem route. The world itself is the usual medieval one, with the caveat that Magic is quite limited, in fact, only exorcists (translated as spiritualists in the fantranslation) can use it, and only by embedding their "attribute" on a weapon, so don't expect fireball, ice spears or the like, and ironically, while the Demons have long lifespan and longer body, only the exorcists on the human side can use this magic.

For the plot, it's the typical war between humans and demons, with humans actually having the upper hand (because they can use exorcist arts that are super effective on Demons' weakness), and our 2 isekai protagonists are born in one of the big exorcist families. But unlike everyone in the family, our Main Protagonist Riku can't use exorcist magic, although she somehow was born with some sort of super strength. Her "very harsh" father threw her from a cliff expecting her to awaken some sort of power in such time, but that didn't happen, and since she had red hair (bad luck) with no ability in one of the most important families, she was treated as never existing.

Rook, her younger brother, who at the time was 4 years old couldn't... Or didn't do anything to stop that, because Riku wasn't really that useful nor cute heroine for his desired harem, he planned to hasten his training and achievements for the sake of the plot in the game in the future. But, MC does live, and thanks to a God of Death, she sells the soul of the isekai person parasitizinng her for a wish, thanks to that, she finds a place to live, and loses the isekai protagonist trait: She loses the memories of the japanese person, although her original memories still remain.

This is essentially the start of the prologue.

In regards to personality, Riku is ruthless, having found a savior, she is completely devoted on him, and although facing hardships being a human in demon territory, she is given the chance and shows her ability raising ranks and earning great allies. In her heart, besides serving her savior, she also wishes to get revenge on her family, and indirectly on all exorcists.

This leads her to kill many people, if you expect her to be fighting for the sake of justice, stay away, although she usually saves her allies and kills her enemies, there was at least one case where the enemy actually tried to apologize, but was never able to say it before being killed by her soon after recognizing Riku. There are multiple reasons for the "Tragedy" tag to be there. If you expect the "heroines" to be all deceitful and wicked girls, although it may look like that sometimes, from another point of view, they may just be earnest ones instead.

Again, Riku does not fight for justice, she is not a Hero.

Rook is the protagonist of the galge, thanks to his isekai knowledge, he advanced the story of the game, and was aiming for the best ending. His original counterpart was supposed to end the conflict, so Rook had no doubt he was going to do it, from both human and demon sides, he looked for the heroines of the game to raise their flags and save the world. But for some reason that he doesn't know why, things start getting wrong, and he really has no idea why, as he is falling into despair and even hating the demons for all his losses.

If I were to compare Rook with other characters, he would be a mix between the "Sword Hero" Ren from Shield Hero, plus Death Mage's Heinz and Bellwood. Because Rook is looking at everything like a game like Ren did, it was only after losing everything that he learned that this was real life. Like Heinz, once he learns of all the lives lost by his immaturity, he wants to atone, but considering how heavy his "sins" are, you will have to read to see his answer. <<less

Since I'm a big fan of Death Mage, I'm sorry for comparing it, but it's almost like a big similar premise, with quite a number of plot twists ahead. What I feel can be compared is mostly about the base plot.... more>>

The Goddess Philia summoned a Hero to save the people from the Demon King, and after defeating it, that Demon King revealed the existence of another continent where the Great Demon King existed, so the Hero went to the continent of monsters with a Holy Dragon and defeated the new Demon King with his party.

The story starts over a hundred years after that, with the new Demon King being born, but who learns of the story and decides to investigate, after all, he wants to avoid having to confront the Hero, so it would be good to avoid problems that could lead to the summoning, however, there are many strange mysteries in this story that don't make sense, which means he has to investigate the myths while at the same time doing his work at the Demon King.

Although there is "Reincarnation", it's a little subtle, since although our MC is originally the soul of a human, it was heavily modified, so many of the usual senses that a human would have are changed, as such, the MC is more ruthless, having no problem with things like death, but at the same time, aiming to make a good place for the Mazoku who he reigns over. As a Demon King, he certainly has strong fight potential from the start, however, his action time is more limited, so he is not a character that is constantly showing his superiority against enemies, and since he wants to avoid wars, it's better to deal with people with words rather than force.

The "race" of Mazoku (which can be translated as "Demon race") are that of monsters (Mamono), demons (Majin) and Majuu (Demon plants), and although all of them have a disposition for fighting, and they have superior capabilities for that, at the same time, they have instinctual predisposition to the Demon King, who is treated almost like a deity, and in that regard, he also has the utmost desire to protect all of them.

Meanwhile the humans, who are composed of humans, beastmen, pseudo-elves (Sylphid) and pseudo-dwarves (Metalio), including one Sylphid that is still alive and who was member of the Hero's party, are now facing a new problem: Human Supremacists, and while the Demon King doesn't care about that, somehow, things are happening that could cause a misunderstanding, that could lead to the Hero summoning, as such, they must be investigated and hopefully resolved before the humans decide to summon a Hero.

The story is very plot driven, rather than character driven, meaning that, it's not written in first person, and there are many sub-arcs in each volume unrelated to the MC, it can be a little of a chore sometimes, but although some of the characters who are unrelated to MC, so it may feel like a chore, but it's not that bad, as such, the Point of View for each relevant subarc will follow the main character, or a mix of them, as long as they are related, which can be the MC, his Maids, the "Hero", the Spy and the Student with a lot of potential, the former Hero Party member, the current villains, or, the best girl, the charismatic General of the Eastern Army, a muscle head in the form of a super nice but s*upid girl, you can always get a laugh with her in action.

Well, I will leave it like this for now, but what else is similar to Death Mage?

- Multiple individual Gods are normal in stories, but usually, they act as a Pantheon, meanwhile here, they are more individuals like in DM, besides, what could be considered one of the antagonist could be treated as a somewhat compentent version of Alda mixed with Rodcorte, and when I say it's mixed, it's one the level of "What a twisted god of order could do if he had the power of souls to reincarnate".

- The previous Demon King that was killed by the Hero can be understood like a Guduranis, but there are unexpected surprises ahead.

- Although there are attributes and respective gods for them, there are no limitations in regards to who can use what magic.

- The Mazoku are treated as monsters, and are said that the Demon King controls every monster, and while that can be true for the ones around him, it's not for those unrelated, and besides, as the story progresses, the Mazoku can show quite a lot of civility, although usually in ironic ways. <<less

This is a somewhat short novel. Although it follows many cliché tropes of this type of story, the reversal here is that the MC is the native prince rather than the reincarnated villainess. What difference does it make? For a shoujo story, the lead is male, so it should be easier for the male audience.... more>>

The villainess is something of an idiot, while the prince is something of a perfect guy that has little interests in the outside, the self-proclaimed villainess tries to be evil but all she can do is get more charming to the prince who finds her interesting. Bertia is the villainess and the prince's fiancée, but due to the development of the game story, she, who loves the prince, wants to make sure that the heroine will get him, because that's the ending where he is the happiest, so she wants to follow the story through as a "beautiful flower of evil", a proper "first-rate villainess".

So she tells him first and forehand all of her actions, and he "helps" her when they diverge from the original "scenario", of course, this help is not exactly what she expects, although she doesn't notice the differences, so the supposed "game scenario" will not follow her expectations. <<less

An interesting story, although not completely translated, I have finished it myself. I got tricked by the summary a long time ago, so when I read it because I have been interested by the author's works, well, they are still interesting. I do recommend to check his other works too. I made a review with a more in-depth explanation of the story, so you can check here: https://www.novelupdates.com/fdrev/?comid=258022&sid=4354... more>>

Now, what's interesting to put this on the list:

We read many stories, with the protagonist either being the Hero or Anti-Hero, sometimes he is the small guy, something happens and he leaves the party, and then he becomes a Hero or something. The protagonist here is the Saintess of the Party, although the party itself isn't that relevant to the story, besides, she is the one who kinda selected them.

The story has a lot of world building and explanations on how the world (and multi-verse) works, as a Demon, she likes to eat tasty souls, so although she also protects people as the saintess, she is more than happy to have enemies and bait them in to hate her more, you can treat it as her spicing up the soul for when she eats it. So you have developments that she will intentionally not fix, leading to unique developments.

Also unlike many stories, the family has quite some relevance in the plot, she cares for her parents and maids (all those around her), and later on other relatives, she is born from the "hidden mistress that is her father's true love", and there is the whole cliche of the main wife that hates such child, how this is "resolved" however may be quite a surprise to others.

There isn't much romance, although some of the ending partners can be guessed from early on, the 4 main supporting characters treat MC as their mother, and because she is depicted as absolutely beautiful, although she charms many, few have the courage to reach her. <<less

This is a somewhat short story (1 Volume, still not fully translated). A japanese girl that hardly had love in her life was killed by her own father, reincarnates in a family that doesn't love her because of the color of her skin, which is dark because she has the protection of the Dark Spirit King, which, as the title says, doesn't mean she is Bad or Evil, the problem relies on a certain legend which talks about a previous Dark King Spirit user that saved the country, then was betrayed, and cursed the land.... more>>

You could say "So treating this girl bad is idiotic, right?", yes, but what nobody can control is their fear. The control of a Spirit King is not related directly to Magic: To the Spirit Kings, spirits have no such thing as MP, they are part of nature, as such, even as a baby, the Strongest Dark Spirit King has power to destroy the country, as such, decapitation could be done instantly.

So our MC, knowing that and trying to change her fate, decides to be the better person. So from there on it follows some of the usual clichés based on the shoujo manga it follows. However, there is a unique twist that felt really fresh later on, which is why I recommend it. <<less

Maybe I'm in the mood as I just finished reading it, but all I can say is that this is one of the best shoujo novels I have read. I had checked the comments before starting and felt dubious, but the manga had shown some promise, and now I can heavily recommend it.... more>>

Now, this is a very easy to read Shoujo novel for males. Similar to White Pig just below, this is not a novel where the MC relies on a bunch of men all around her for everything, nor does she act like a frail victim, much less as an invincible happy go lucky cheat. Also in regards to the plot, both don't really deviate too much from the original plot devised by the manga/novel/game that they read before they reincarnated:

A common trope of "reincarnated in Otome world": Usually when the Main Character reincarnates as a villainess in the story, she acts in reverse, goes to school and everyone likes her, in some cases, when the heroine is another reincarnator, she is turned into a loser who believes the story is still going even though she missed all the flags because MC is liked this time. This story does not do that, and the reason is simple: If the villainess doesn't go to the same school, then there will be no plot with her, and that should be all, right?

But the story wasn't just about the villain suffering, as she is also "stolen" from, meaning, the Heroine not only has nothing stopping the flags from happening (meaning, on her side, the story goes basically smoothly), it's also in her interest to find the villainess to her that which she would receive once winning. It also doesn't take much to reveal that if MC thought her best friend would never betray her, upon merely seeing the heroine, the one she trusted the most actually could betray her for no reason, as if the story was being forced upon.

As the MC is aiming to be an adventurer, this is a more action oriented story (Which is why its easier on males, I guess), and she has cheat powers, but that's not to say she didn't go into arduous training, so don't expect a frail mage that can do anything with a finger flick, she is a cheat compared to normal people, but strong people in the world are just as strong as her, and she trained a lot to be able to essentially turn into a ninja mage.

The plot also involves some politics, but nothing too complicated, this is not a story about a daughter raising a fief, she is not a Duke's daughter either, and although her family is prestigious, as an Earl, her family is not that much influential (her father and maternal grandmother are to some extent, but that feels to be more on their individual prowess rather than their family names).

The plot is somewhat fast paced, and although I read in a comment that it was mostly fluffy, I didn't feel like it at all. Certainly there are some tension breakers in the story, but they don't last that long, and the story advances fast after that. There is also some comedy that seems quite inspired in "Average Girl" novel, but they are not as constant as there, and are usually limited to tension breakers, although they are important, as they also give more explanation about the background characters and their positions in the story, and most of them will be recalled later.

My conclusion is that this is a great story, a hidden gem of sorts that is not that long, fun to read while not being that hard with... If there is one problem, is that the translations are... "annoying". Up until a point it was acceptable or at least passable, but as it advances, translated names are all over the place, genres are sometimes wrong too, it's like they just went with some MTL and edited it. <<less

Similar yet so different from Death Mage. Spider-san has to survive in the dungeon, and then finds out that the world is in clear danger,... more>> and as someone good with survival, she will try to fix it for her own sake even if a lot of people have to die for it. It's this type of story. Oh, there are also some other reincarnators, one is super cute, the majority is useless, and then there is Hero Boy. <<less

This is a relatively short story on the Mob character genre changing the story of an otome game by becoming close to the villainess. It has most of the usual tropes: Villainess in the game was bad for reasons, so without them, she is a good person, and the Heroine is a bad person because she is also a reincarnator aiming for the Harem route.... more>>

What's different then?

MC is a mob who is a hardworker, he has nothing special besides knowledge of the game, so from early one when he recognizes, he starts planning on getting some specific skills from places he recognizes, although he is not sure if everything will be there, for example, in one of the places, the event that would allow the skill could not yet happen because the related characters hadn't prepared it yet, however, due to his timing, he actually reached the place just as it was going to happen, and he got an even bigger prize.

So by no means MC is Overpowered, however, he trains, and with modern knowledge, he creates cheat weapons, like a plane and guns.

But the main differential here, in my opinion, is MC's family. It's usual for stories to ignore one's family, either because they are already stable by themselves, or because they are completely unrelated. But in here, MC lives only with his mother, and becomes the main breadwinner, so without him, his good mother would have to work low paying jobs just to sustain them.

Thus, this story is one that revolves around family a lot, both his own, and also that of the villainess.

This is also a story with elements of war, so MC who only fought against monsters will have to accept that, sometimes, there is no other choice but to kill other humans, and the way it progresses is natural and good.

So it's a very good read, not very long, easy to digest, with an interesting ending. <<less

I think this is best treated as a Parody story. It tries to break most of the usual tropes of the generic otome isekai story, by basically using a game addict muscle head OP main character. Unlike most shoujo stories where the problem all relies on feelings and stuff, Yumelia is more like Dio going "RODOORORAA DA!" and punching her enemy though it.... more>>

About the main character, she is the villainess of a game otome game with RPG elements... And by that I mean grind, and so she wants to grind from a very young age, reaching Lvl 99 through what others would consider suicidal methods, however to herself, it's all normal and efficient.

Of course, the story of the game changes, but it's not about her being friendly with everyone while the heroine of the game faces the opposite, rather, with her overpower ability and her lack of common-sense, but still willing to help others, she causes more problems than originally necessary, although she also has the power to break all of them, this is also the reason for the subtitle "I'm not the Demon King but the Hidden Boss"

When I try to find similar characters, Mash Burnedead from the manga Mashle may be the closest I could find: Both are ultra strong, both lack common-sense but treat themselves as normal, both are good people, but all of their normal is completely out of the norm to everyone else, and both don't show their emotions in their face. It also reminds me of Vandalieu from Death Mage, as besides the expressionless face, both have a very weird sense of aesthetics.

About the plot... From the arc and a half currently translated, I don't know what to expect of the future. The game story ends by the end of the first arc, with a very surprising ending. The second arc seems to be more of an after story, but there is likely going to be a plot that hasn't been revealed yet. Checking the raws, it has been a long time since the epilogue of the 3rd arc was posted, and an extra chapter was posted some time after it... Maybe the story has ended already?

So, if you are in the mood for some non-sense comedy with a dumb protagonist that is prone to the wrong answer over her own lack of common sense, this is a good read. <<less

When he was about 15 years old, MC was summoned to another world, with no special ability, he was sent to the front with nothing special to protect himself, but he survived and awakened his skills, from there on, he was at the front of pretty much every battle to save the Kingdom, and 17 years later, after the death of his wife, he defeats the Demon King, and then is returned to his world just like that. Now, over 30 years old back on Earth, that missed 17 years of technology and history, thought as a hikikomori that closed himself for all that time, with too much strength to properly be able to do... more>> any delicate work, and just one year after his wife was killed not indirectly related to himself, our MC doesn't even care about the shitty life, and considers it as repentance for the death of his wife.

This is the MC. And from there on, the story develops with the strongest hero that will kill anyone that threatens his world, even if those are to be his former dear comrades from the other world.

And there are girls (and women) who want him to be their Papa, and they are all crazy Fathercons. <<less

This is a Parody story. MC and Heroine are trying to go back home, but to do that they need to survive in this world that has a "Game-like system" that didn't work with them, as such, they are pretty much the weakest people in the planet... If not for MC who can kill anything instantly.... more>>

Think most generic tropes of the usual isekai, but many of them are reversed: The King that you would think is an as*hole may be a good guy, the summoner who would usually help and assist is actually the jerkest of jerks, summoned people exist all around thanks to gods (who are also jerks), the planet destroyer entity that finally was going to destroy the world and is treated like some mob, and so on and so forth. And everything can be instantly killed by MC, they think that they have prepared all defenses, yet they just drop dead in an instant leaving the allies to wonder "how?". And those jokes may even affect the story itself, that "world destroyer"-level entity that was killed and affected the entire world? People may not know what caused it, but they know something very strange happened.

Hilarity ensues. <<less

This is a Parody story. Also if you are easily triggered by s*xual jokes and so on, don't read it. Meet Tanaka, a virg*n ugly... more>> 36yo that got the cheat of superior Recovery magic, why? Because he is very paranoid of STD. Really. You think that he is the ugly guy with a heart of gold? But you are wrong, he is just as ugly inside. So now he is in another world, what is his objective? Find a way to live, and of course, find a girl to live with, however it can't be anyone (there is a reason why he is still a virg*n), and things escalate from that. Hilarity ensues. <<less

This is a Parody story. Think Arifureta, but take the rest of the world to extreme heights: Rather than a class, it's the whole school. Rather than being bullied for no reason, he actually smells that bad. Rather than everyone being beautiful while he is ugly, it's that it's a school for celebrities, so studying is not even their strength.... more>>

And during the summoning, he is isolated and falls into a super hard dungeon rather than the Summoned Kingdom, jokes on them though. So MC has to survive, due to the amount of time without taking a bath, his clothes are now deadly weapons (That's how much he smells), and eventually gets taken as the husband of a super strong gorilla (Actually a monster called Kaizer Kong), who despite appearances, has all the abilities of a perfect housewife... But she is a gorilla.

Thus MC and Gorilla have to leave and survive, thus learning of the problems in the world, befriending people, and trying to help them, which usually results in god-like abilities being created and executed by mistake, which leads to unexpected positive consequences to his allies and negative to deadly consequences for enemies.

Unfortunately the MC is not very as decisive, many of the jokes are based on his race: At first he was less than a human, then with the fruit of evolution he was a human, but when he finished his final evolution, he was "Human?", so MC wants to be recognized and to act as human, but his results are broken most of the time. Still, the humor could be hit & miss, but if it's a hit, you will like it from there on. <<less