This Isekai could have been a Fantasy novel
Over Limit Skill Holder / Aura the Guillotine / The Girl from the Other Side / Digital Minimalism / Yakui The Maid
Light Novel Review: Mikami Yasuaki – Over Limit Skill Holder
At the beginning of this year, I did extensive research into light novels and looked for popular titles as well as ones I haven’t heard anyone talked about. Browsing through the Kindle Unlimited library, I found two light novels with an unsurprisingly long title: Genkai koe no Sukiru wa, tensei-sha ni shika atsukaenai (Only the reincarnated can “conquer the over limited skill orb”) or Over Limit Skill Holder. Nothing about this lengthy title suggests anything else than a run of the mill Isekai power fantasy. I was surprised however to find out that the series was in fact a decently written, solid fantasy story.
The first volume starts with the 10 year-old boy Reiji1 and Larc, a girl three years his senior who treats him like his younger brother, entering a mine. It turns out the two are slaves, and because of their small bodies they are forced to go into narrow path adult slaves cannot fit into. But what they are looking for is neither coal nor metal. This mine contains skill orbs, which are the source of military and thus political power in this world. Every human or humanoid race has 8 slots for Skill Orbs, with some of the rarer orbs taking up 4,5 or even 8 of these slots.
When an earthquake erupts, the aristocrat who controls the slaves with the use of contract magic, dies buried under rocks and the slaves, now free from their shackles, take gruesome revenge on their tormenters by absorbing the power of the Skill Orbs and use them for their own purpose. The contract spell not only kept the slaves peaceful and obedient, it also suppressed their memories. This is when Reiji remembers his human past as a 16-year-old Japanese boy who died in an accident and was reborn into this world. While the slaves riot, Reiji is unable to get his hands on a Skill Orb, until he finds one that contradicts the logic of this world: It is called World Ruler, an orb, which takes up 10 slots, so no human could actually use it. But Reiji can, because, as a someone reincarnated from another world, he has 16 slots, twice as much as everyone else.
World Ruler allows it’s owner to instantly understand everything he sees, from natural phenomena to other skill orb abilities, which he can then replicate. This sounds like the typical overpowered skill that would allow its user to effortlessly overcome any hurdle, but Mikami does a fantastic job at balancing this power out. Reiji is still just a 10-year-old boy and more than that an escaped slave. He got separated from Larc, who herself has obtained a powerful skill orb, and left the mine ahead of him. No matter how strong Reiji’s ability might be, the world he inhabits is hostile towards him, both the human society and the wilderness, which is filled with monsters. Now all alone, Reiji joins the Silver Scale, a group of adventurers whose members are all outsiders of human society, because of their race or due to illness.
At this point I want to note that Mikami goes to extraordinary lengths to establish the fact that Reiji’s black hair and eyes make him a pariah in this fantasy world. It is for this reason his parents almost killed him, which made him run away and end up as a slave in the first place. He even dyes his hair to light brown in the course of the novel. I am not sure whether the author wants to avoid discussing real-life issues like anti-Asian racism in his work or if this really is the only scenario he could come up with in which his protagonist, a stand-in for Japanese audiences, becomes the target of discrimination.2
At some point reading the first novel I asked myself: Why does this even have to be an Isekai? You could easily come up with a different reason for the protagonist’s ability to wield the World Ruler-orb. Reiji’s past memories hardly play a role in his new life, he doesn’t benefit from them and there is no indication he might return to the world he used to live in. I actually liked Reiji a lot more before he regained his memories, because they change him from a good boy into an insufferable distanced “cool” LN protagonist. More than that, before the revelation of Reiji’s reincarnation, Over Limit Skill Holder reads like a classical fantasy light novel (if you ignore the video game lingo). There is fanservice, by the way, but it feels as unnecessary and forced as the whole Tensei setup does.
The story of volume concludes with a battle against a ferocious dragon, which ties up the plot lines of the various members of the Silver Scale. Not to spoil too much, but Reiji will leave the group and move on to his next adventure in search of Larc. Since I read the second volume as well, here is a short summary: Four years have passed since the events of volume 1 and Reiji now serves as the bodyguard of Eva, the 12-year-old daughter of an aristocrat whose life he saved. Instead of reusing the setting introduced in volume 1, Mikami introduces another kingdom with different hierarchical structures, a completely new cast of characters and a protagonist who has grown both stronger and more mature. And by God I would die to wear his uniform.
Hoping to find out more about Larc’s whereabouts, he gets caught up in a political conspiracy, fights against a terrifying snake monster and ultimately leaves everything behind again after gaining some hints about how he can get closer to his objective.
Apparently the series was discontinued after volume 2, but there are 4 more arcs and an epilogue of the web novel, which predates the Light Novel release, and the manga adaptation of the first two volumes is still ongoing.
Ultimately, this series shows how dominant and pervasive the Isekai/Tensai trope in Light Novel fiction has become. I got curious and read through some comments from Japanese readers. Some said it felt like a light novel from long forgotten times. Quite a few praise the thought that went into the worldbuilding as well as the execution of the various plot lines. Maybe this is, because Isekai has lowered the bar for light novel writing, but I can’t help but feel reminded of a time, when light novels represendet an intersection between popular culture and literary fiction. When author’s like Nisioisin (Zargoto series) or Ōtarō Maijō (Asura Girl) both won literary awards and the hearts of anime/manga fans at the same time.
Character Design Showcase: Aura the Guillotine
Aura from Sōsō no Frieren (Frieren – Beyond Journey’s End in English) is a member of the Seven Sages of Destruction and the first strong enemy Frieren and her group have to face on their new journey. Aura’s trademark is her pink bob (?), which is tied up at the ends into three braids on both sides each. The sheer volume of hair3 makes her face look smaller, which, believe it or not, is a beauty standard in Japan. There is no doubt she would have won against Frieren, if her Scales of Obedience measured hair volume instead of magical energy.
Maybe it’s her sadistic nature, but for some reason Aura reminds me of Welwitschia from episode 3 of the fabulous anime Flip Flappers. Also, I believe Aura’s design would be perfectly suited as a VTuber model, and I’m not just saying this because of her resemblance to a certain horned Vtuber. Maybe it’s just because I want this design to live on in some form, since I love it so much and we haven’t seen anything from Aura since volume 3 of the manga.
On a side note: Aura’s voice actress Taketatsu Ayano manages to convey the sassy hubris without the obnoxiousness that often comes with characters of this type.
Manga: Nagabe – The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún
Totsukuni no shōjo (known as The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún in English) is one of the most aesthetically perfect manga I know. I picked up the second volume a year ago, because volume 1 wasn’t available at that time and I’m a bit shocked it took me so long to catch up with the first volume.
The story is about an abandoned girl who starts to live in a place called the Outside with the “Doctor”, whom a curse has turned into a black humanoid creature with horns and a tail. What secret does he harbour and why has the girl been left alone?
The dark picture book aesthetic is hauntingly beautiful and looks particularly stunning on paper. This is the kind of series I want to own as a physical set and put on my bookshelf. Luckily the German edition by Tokyopop looks and feels gorgeous, and the translation is excellent. There is an anime film as well, which I have yet to watch.
What else I’ve been reading: Cal Newport – Digital Minimalism
Cal Newport is an associate professor of computer science and author of multiple bestsellers, who writes articles for the New Yorker, has his own newsletter and Podcast/Youtube channel. You might be surprised to learn that what he preaches is the exact opposite of hustle culture and overwork. Instead, focussed session of undistracted , meticulously planned over long periods of time, he claims, are the secret behind his success and productivity.
Newport argues:
The urge to check Twitter or refresh Reddit becomes a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life.
Digital Minimalism focusses on removing distractions, but not by the means of digital detox or by completely rejecting new technologies (there is a pretty insightful chapter on the Amish and their use of technology in his book). What Newport suggests is a 30 day period of abstinence from social media, streaming, video games etc. as long as it isn’t crucial for your job. After this period you ask yourself: Which of these sites did I miss during that period and what precisely were the benefits? Then you try to figure out a way to maximise the benefits, while minimising the deficits. For example, I want to stay on top of the latest anime and manga news. I can achieve this by refreshing my social media feeds for 8 hours every day, or I could just create a feed for Natalie.mu that I check once a day/week/month.
Another example, I use a feed reader to inform me whenever a Youtube creator I like (7 at this moment) uploads a new video. This prevents me from opening the site directly to check, which more than often leads me to getting caught up in the algorithm and ending up at places I never intended to go. Like watching Piers Morgan debate Andrew Tate. What the hell?
What I’ve been listening to: Yakui The Maid – Futility
I am a big fan of everything Shoegaze, so it might have been only a matter of time until I’d fall down a rabbit hole and end up at a genre called Maidcore. This strange amalgamation of genres seems to be created mostly by a community of Russian doomer weebs. Anyway, this track by Yakui the Maid is pure magic.
That’s it for this issue of The Taisho Café. I hope to get back to writing more regularly. I plan to focus my web presence on this newsletter in the future, instead of social media sites.
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Actually his name is written Rage in the character introduction but thats’s just a bit too cringe and secondly, rage is the exact opposite of what the good-hearted and kind Reiji embodies.
I am aware that historically black hair has been used to discriminate against groups of people, but I am pretty sure that this is not what Mikami refers to here.
It’s not just me who’s obsessed with Aura’s hair. It has become a point of ridicule among Japanese audiences.