Iwatani Naofumi is one of four "Saints" summoned from (probably) our world to this new world in order to fight an evil called Calamity. He is the hero of the Shield - a defense player with very high resistance against damage. the other Saints are the heroes of the Lance, the Bow and the Sword. Amongst the four he seems to have the weakest stats, so the local warriors join up with all the other heroes except for him.

In the end a beautiful woman named Mein Sofia joins up, just so he has someone on his side. He receives his portion of gold from the King, which is to be used as his operating budget. She teaches him the basics of this new world and takes him to the local arms merchant to weapon up and get him a set of chain mail. He is pretty happy with the way things turned out this strange first day.

As he wakes up the next morning, he finds his gold and chain mail gone, and is accused of attempted rape. Mein testifies that she went to the a bar, met with one of the other heroes, who happened to be the guy she originally joined up with, and when she got back to the room, drunk, the shield hero attacked her. Hearing her scream, the lance hero guy rescued her. He happens to be wearing the chain mail, claiming that Mein gave it to him.

The hero cannot simply be replaced, since all four heroes must die for a new set to be summoned. The hero then is released but the King makes sure that the whole village knows of his foul deed.

The hero is pissed. Really pissed and vows to make things right and see the truth out. He scrapes together enough money and points to buy a meager outfit and buy a low level slave to use as an attack character. Unfortunately she is weak and timid, but she's all he can afford. They set off.

It didn't even take a trip to the refrigerator to see the whole problem with the false accusation. Once he met up with the arms dealer again, who shows some pity even as he reproaches the falsely accused hero, he could have brought him before the King and testify that he sold the hero the chain mail, thereby shooting one hole in the accuser's credibility right away. After that doubt was cast, he can ask why no one else but the lance hero heard Mein screaming for help (how far away was this bar, anyway)?

Meh, I guess they needed to set up his reputation and circumstance and couldn't come up with anything better.

In the latest (overused) example of game themed stories, this one at least only uses what is necessary to help the plot along. The hero gets to see how he powers up, accumulates items, and etc. Interestingly, the other heroes recognize much of this world because of games they have played. They already sense how they need to act. Our hero, an otaku, gets sent to this world through a book in a bookstore, not a game.

He learns pretty fast as he goes on, and he is shown to be harsh on his slave, but mostly because he needs her to shape up. He shows kindness when she does well and surprises her with his attitude of rewarding her and knowing that a cooperative helper will perform better than a beat upon slave. He senses that much of her problem is centered on her past.

We are only about three chapters translated so far, but the path of discovery for both of them is underway.


Many of the common tropes for the move to anime are in place. The game based theme, a main character who has been wronged and must redeem himself, an enemy that scares the crap out of any who are familiar with the potential, allies who will back stab, and the great potential for redemption and resolution.

The main character is more interesting than the usual nice guy who can't say no. His anger and desire to get back at those who have wronged him are both dark and driving. He hates this world and what it has done to him. He is fair, however. He makes sure to pay back the arms dealer who took pity on him and gave him some meager clothes. He wises up real fast and doesn't take any crap from some local guys trying to scam him or recruit him for less than honorable tasks.

Yet his sense of fairness and justness hasn't gone away. He sees his slave as wishing she could play and tells her its okay. He gives her a better meal than he himself has, because she looks at the plate with such desire. She is stunned that he won't beat her for smiling.

It is too soon to see where this goes. It could fall apart at any given time (Tora Kiss, I'm looking at you). It will take awhile for enough story to be built up for a season,  but apart from the awkward accusation scene, it is doing well so far.

Posted by: topmaker at 02:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 876 words, total size 5 kb.