Hey all, Sam here.
Wow, it is Monday once again…and that must mean that I’m back to talk about manga some more. That’s right, if you’re new around here, every Monday is Manga Monday, so this is a series where I review one volume of a manga I’ve been reading each week. That’s it. I enjoy it, and I enjoy reading manga and watching anime. It’s fun, and it’s a different reading format from novels and the like.
Because of how manga is presented, having a bunch of art–much like comic books and graphic novels do–I read them very quickly. I actually don’t read manga all the time. Usually I end up doing a binge-read marathon and I’ll read 4-10 manga at once, and then I might not pick any up again for a couple months. But that still works out nicely. Actually, picking up things like manga is something I always like to recommend for someone trying to participate in a readathon. Manga are quick easy reads, you can start your readathon with a few manga, and in just a couple hours you can have like 4 books completed, and for me at least, it just makes the reading challenge feel very successful from the beginning.
Anyway, for the past month or so, I’ve been reviewing a couple cute female-led isekai I’ve been enjoying, and that’s not changing today. Oh, for anyone who doesn’t know what an isekai is…it’s basically someone from our world who is transported (usually after dying, but not always) to another world–although I have seen a few isekai that are characters from a fantasy world being transported to our world. Most of the time isekai tend to involve the protagonist being the Savior/Chosen One, or the protagonist is an adult who gets reincarnated in this new magical world and has to figure out their new lives.
Okay, that’s enough for the introduction. Let’s jump into today’s review:
Tsukina has been keeping her great magical powers under wraps, content to spend her time with her book cafe and her fiancee, Il. And now that a new Savior, Youta, has arrived, she figures she can leave all the heroics to him. But when Youta develops a crush on Tsukina, it throws everything off balance! When monsters attack, Youta sees it as his chance to shine.. but is he up to the challenge?
My Thoughts
Rating: 5 stars
This series just continues to be cute and cozy, and honestly I’m a little sad that Volume 5 is the final book of the series. But it makes sense. Even with the relationship drama and jealousy and attempt to introduce a love triangle, it’s pretty clear that Tsukina and Il have been meant to be this whole time.
With this installment we see that the newest Savior to this region of the world might also turn out to be a problem, just in a different way from the last problematic Savior. Youta seems eager to learn and to jump in and to try his best, but his earnestness might not be for the best. It leaves him open to being deceived or manipulated.
Plus, add in the fact that he is actually pretty powerful magic ability-wise, AND shows that he isn’t the greatest at reading social cues…like Tsukina is engaged to Il and is just a nice person, but Youta is mistaking the polite niceness as being interested in him. It’s clear that it’s going to cause problems…even if it’s just minor problems (since, obviously, Tsukina and Il are two peas in a pod and belong together).
I will say that I really enjoy that Tsukina has been able to make this cozy little life for herself, that she has her book cafe and is just allowed to have that and it be enough. Like, sure, we only see a couple people come to/use the book cafe, but that doesn’t seem to bother Tsukina much either. It’s honestly kind of nice to see this workaholic character be brought to another world and instead of continuing to push on and idolizing the hustle and grind mentality, we get to see a workaholic who uses this change of circumstances to do what they want and have more of a relaxation and happiness mentality.
Most isekai tend to have protagonists who are either workaholics or who are those uber-geeky outcasts (which, can we just stop acting like geek is some sort of outlier weirdo; geeks have become more normal and popular in the past decade, so perhaps it’s time to drop the social outcast concept). And sadly, with most isekai I tend to pick up, we see the workaholic protagonist be transported to this magical world and given magic…and they continue to hustle and grind and work, work, work. Why are we still idolizing the workaholic mentality?
So, needless to say, I really really appreciate The Savior’s Book Cafe Story in Another World because Tsukina wants to have a chill life with a book cafe and just relaxing and reading books. And okay, fine, occasionally she has to use her magic to save her little corner of the world. But other than that, she gets to just exist and that’s fine.
Well, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 