Add another notch for a great find at my local library.
After working herself to death in a prior life, Azusa wants a laid-back and lazy life in her next one. Another story would dangle this goal like a carrot in front of her to make for a dramatic and tension fueled story. This one does exactly the opposite, which is fun and relaxing comedy. Indeed, this is a great example of a slice-of-life story.
This is for the manga version by the way, not the original light novel.
This story explores new ground in the Reincarnated-Isekai genre (from my experience at least). There is no grand adventure awaiting Azusa when she reincarnates, as is the case in many Isekai stories. But neither does the story go into a deconstruction by showing her have similar real-life problems in her second life as she did in her first, and it doesn't go into a dark-and-edgy angle either. Azusa literally spends 300 years killing slimes, gardening, and making medicine for a local village. She might have continued doing that forever if she didn't discover, on a whim, that she had become an almighty witch simply from killing slimes.
See, this world works on RPG Mechanics. Killing monsters grants experience points, which increase one's level, which improves stats such as magical power. Azusa requests "immortality" as a reincarnation bonus, so she reaches the level cap simply by killing the weakest of all monsters every day for three centuries. This makes her a celebrity, and people seek her out once word of her maxed level gets out, from those seeking to test their strength against the best to those who want to learn from the best.
So the entire conflict of the story is Azusa trying to preserve the laid-back and lazy life of obscurity she enjoyed for three hundred years (by the way, Living Forever is Awesome).
One such manifestation of this conflict is the group of adventurers that seek her out to challenge her, dojo-style. First, she tries to dissuade them by making up a sad story about how she got drunk on her own power in the past and killed people and so she has sworn off fighting, when the truth is she hasn't fought or killed anything other than slimes. It sounds like a parody of a sincerely tragic atoner story, and the adventurers totally buy it.
At the same time, this story is not quite a Status-Que-Is-God sort of story. It definitely has a progression to it, and Azusa's life has definitely changed by the end of the volume, because killing slimes for three hundred years has not been entirely consequence free.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "I've been killing slimes for three hundred years and maxed out my level" manga volume 1 an A+
To read my review for the light novel version (volume 1) click here.
Click here for my next book review: Avatar Tales
Click here for my previous book review: Aria volume 1 the masterpiece edition
Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
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