By KUROKATA and KeG. Released in Japan as “Chiyu Mahou no Machigatta Tsukaikata: Senjou wo Kakeru Kaifuku Youin” by MF Books. Released in North America by One Peace Books. Translated by Kristi Fernandez.
Last year I was at Anime NYC, and happened across the One Peace table. I admitted I had not reviewed any of their books, and asked which one they would recommend (not Shield Hero). This was the one they picked, so I picked up a copy. A year later, I’m about to head to Anime NYC again, and I felt, you know, I’d better read this or the conversation at the table’s going to be really awkward. The book did not really win me over from the start. Any time our main character starts a bo0ok by telling us how drab, generic and normal he is, I resist the urge to simply stop reading. As it turns out, though, there’s a few interesting ideas going on with this book, and by the time we’re one day into the fantasy world we know one thing for absolute certain: He is not remotely normal at all. That is a bald-faced lie.
Usato is (groan) An Ordinary High School Student (TM). One rainy day he runs into classmate and resident pretty boy Kazuki and student council president and perfect girl Suzune. Since someone took Usato’s umbrella, they walk with him … and suddenly a magical circle appears under them, and they’re summoned to another world to be heroes! Well, Kazuki and Suzune are summoned to be heroes. Usato was accidental. Kazuki has rare light magic! Suzune has powerful lightning magic! They decide to test Usato as well, because why not, and find… he has HEALING magic? Suddenly everyone in the throne room is terrified, and we soon find out why: Usato is abducted by an incredibly strong woman named Rose, who announces she’s going to be training him to be a healer! Of course, Rose’s training puts spartans to shame. What the heck is going on here?
This book knows exactly what genre it’s contrasting itself with. The king and his ministers are horrified and apologetic when Usato is accidentally summoned, and his isekai power turns out to be incredibly valuable. It’s the opposite of all those “useless power and thrown out of the castle with no money” books. Rose’s reason for the spartan training comes up near the end of the book, and it works psychologically. As does Usato’s dogged determination, as he finally gets a great opportunity to not just be some nebbish high school student. Best of all is Suzune, who turns out, once summoned, to be a massive otaku who had to hide it from everyone as she was a rich ojou-sama. Here she gets to live out her isekai fantasies, fire off cool final attacks with her lightning bolts, and flirt with the guy she likes. The last of these does not go well, alas, as Usato has Protagonist Syndrome, so thinks she’s kidding.
So I’m not incredibly sad I missed this when it came out – it is a very common genre, and I try not to read the standard ones unless they have a weird thing going on – but it was pleasant enough, and if I get a gap in my schedule I may read more. For isekai fans.
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