By LeonarD and Won. Released in Japan as “Doku no Ou: Saikyou no Chikara ni Kakuseishita Ore wa Biki-tachi wo Shitagae, Hatsujou Harem no Aruji to Naru” by HJ Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Boris Lecourt.
This wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d hoped, alas. For the third of my “go back and try a JNC series I skipped”, I decided to try this series, which kind of repulsed me when I saw it licensed. I was supposed to be explicit, and I was expecting a lot of ridiculously bad prose. Alas, only one or two speeches really lived down to that, and for the most part it was a standard ecchi power fantasy. And so, in the spirit of not ordering a milkshake at Home Depot, I will review this for what it is rather than what it is not. What is it? It’s a series to read if you like cool guys using martial arts and poison powers to kill bad guys, and also using pheromones to seduce all the women around him and take them to bed. Where it will cut away right before the actual act. Sorry, there’s always AO3.
Years ago, the hero’s party, including a man and his wife, defeat the evil poison queen. Sadly, as she dies, she curses the wife, who is now dying herself. Their “friend” Faust (subtle this book is not) has a solution: the wife is pregnant with twins, so they can all survive if one of the twins gets the curse. What no one expects is the twin to survive. Thirteen years later, the wife is dead, and our hero, Caim, is living in a hovel outside a village, where he is abused every day for being cursed. His dad threw him out when his mother died. The only friend he has is his very very loyal maid. Then one day Faust comes by with a possible cure… and he meets the Poison Queen, who tries to possess him. When she fails, he ends up now being able to control his powers and aging five years. Time to go get some payback.
So, how to sell this series… Aside from some overwrought monologues when Caim is killing bad guys, which read more like him being a chuuni than anything else, and another girl pissing herself in fear (a trope I hate, and which the author admits in the afterword is there for fetish reasons, so bleah), this is not all that different from a typical male power fantasy book. Caim, after his plot-relevant age-up, is cool and powerful but also does not lose occasionally acting like the 13-year-old he was until recently, especially when trying to deal with love (not sex, love) or fantastic panoramic landscapes. The love interests, so far, are a) devoted maid, b) noble princess turned into enthusiastic hedonist, and c) tsundere girl who loves being spanked/insulted. They’re actually not too bad. They don’t turn meek, and he doesn’t take any advantage of him they don’t want to, except when his pheromones are doing what the plot requires. And he also punches some Nazis… erm, nobles. I always like that.
Basically, if you are looking for a book with a lot of sex, this will probably frustrate you. If you are looking for a book with a lot of boobs, suggested sex, and a cool guy living his best life, this is certainly one of them. You could do worse.
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