Kuitsume Youhei no Gensou Kitan

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Japanese: 食い詰め傭兵の幻想奇譚

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Information

Type: Light Novel

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Mar 23, 2017 to ?

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Serialization: None

Authors: Mine (Story), peroshi (Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.24¹ (scored by 334 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #6120²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #15419

Members: 1,245

Favorites: 13

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7.24

Ranked #6120Popularity #15419Members 1,245

Light NovelMine (Story), peroshi (Art)

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Synopsis

One by one, the mercenaries who raised Loren fell in a terrible, bloody battle. The lone survivor in a hard world with only his wits and his sword to his name, Loren hires himself out as an adventurer. His new party, however, proves all too willing to run headlong into danger using him as their meat shield. Only Lapis, the party's sly priest, sees his true worth, just as Loren sees hers. They must rely on each other, or else neither of them will live to see the end of their first adventure.

(Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

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BackgroundKuitsume Youhei no Gensou Kitan has been published digitally in English as The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary by Seven Seas Entertainment under the Airship imprint since April 29, 2021, and in print since August 3, 2021.

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Loren

Main

Lapis

Main

Nim

Supporting

Kras

Supporting

Quartz

Supporting

Ritz

Supporting

Jack

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 13, 2023

Crimson_Law

Recommended

Preliminary (1/? eps)

Is it worth a read? Yeah, it is.

It's one of those that's interesting enough to keep you invested in it, even though you know it might not be that "OMG MASTERPIECE" kind of series. The story doesn't try to over-complicate things way too quickly, and instead sticks to exactly what the title suggests - the strange adventures of a broke mercenary. It takes a little while to roll into the meat of the story, and if you don't like a series that burns kinda slow and low (it takes three whole books before you get introduced to a hint of a large scale plot), you ...

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Jun 12, 2021

PowerUpOrDie

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (6/? eps)

Saying "Hooray! It's competent!" is a textbook example of condemning with faint praise, but such is the state of fantasy light novels that even checking off the most bare basics of storytelling is enough to be noteworthy.

STORY

The plot of the first novel is an origin story and those tend to be the weakest parts of a long running series, so I'll cut it a little slack. As an origin story, it does check all the boxes of establishing the main characters' backstories and motivations, setting up a solid framework for future installments. I do have a complaint about the world-building, however, in that it's extremely ... bland. Tolkien was a professor of linguistics and mythology, Mine seems to have played a few fantasy video games and the difference shows. As an example and without giving too much away, a significant portion of the story is spent exploring some ancient ruins and all we are told is "These are ancient ruins" with no further detail. Ancient ruins don't exactly come in just one flavor, and while I don't need a 10 page infodump on the civilization which built those ruins, I at least want enough description so that I can imagine the scene a bit better. If things go well, this story could be a fun, swashbuckling tale of a pair out to make a buck and the fantastical adventures they keep getting roped into - but there is still the possibility of this story turning into somebody reciting their "thrilling" D&D campaign.

ART

Given that there are only a few illustrations, I'll keep my comments here brief. The art is competent for a professional work. The illustrations are all character-focused with little to no background detail, and image composition was straightforward without anything unexpected. I do like the two main characters' designs, but a major part of that is simply personal aesthetic preference (I'm a sucker for the leading lady's archetype, such as Kotori from "Sweetness and Lighting" and Yuki from "Oregairu").

CHARACTERS

Main man Loren can best be described as "We have Guts at home". Huge hulking he-man mercenary with a gigantic sword (that's even described as nearly dull on a few occasions) and has a special ability where he goes berserk - anybody want to take bets on where Mine got the idea? But hey, if you're going to copy, copy the best. At least Loren has to put some effort and strategy into his wins, although I hope his berserk ability doesn't become the story's instant Deus Ex Machina in the future, it mentions some possible negative trade-offs for using the ability but has yet to follow through on those consequences. Lapis is established so that it appears her story will be the one pushing the plot forward. It's a very similar to "Dororo", but it does give our pair a reason to go and do things. The two have a functional set-up for their working (and inevitably romantic) relationship, but I hope that they will develop strong chemistry going forward. the other cast members shown so far are as straight-off-the-shelf as characters come, but they stay in the background and do their jobs.

ENJOYMENT

I read this book over the course of two days. After the first day I was halfway through and while I wasn't about to consider it the end of the world if I didn't know how the story ended, I at least DID want to see the story through to the end. Considering that most fantasy light novels can't get me to read more than the back cover blurb (and some not even more than the title) that's a small accomplishment on it's own.

OVERALL

"Broke Mercenary" hasn't yet achieved excellence, but it has at least demonstrated the potential.

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	This series is over. Randodox - Sep 19, 2023	5 replies	by Randodox »» Sep 19, 2023 11:11 PM
	Poll: Kuitsume Youhei no Gensou Kitan Chapter 4 Discussion Mithdran - Jan 10, 2019	0 replies	by Mithdran »» Jan 10, 2019 3:08 AM

Kuitsume Youhei no Gensou Kitan
The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary
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Kuitsume Youhei no Gensou Kitan
The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary
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