Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 1 by Hiro Ainana

One of the things I appreciated the most about the story was the main character. As far as deconstructions go, this is probably one of the best I have read, poking and prodding at genre tropes that are not always poked and prodded as well as video game mechanics as a whole. As such, the book would be best appreciated by those who read (or watch) stories involving characters stuck in another world, particularly stuck in video game like worlds – a genre known as isekai in Japanese. Unfortunately, trouble finds Satou anyway and he must decide how to best use his over-powered status to fight his way to freedom, defeat unknown and extremely powerful enemies, and protect those in his care.ĭeath March to the Parallel World Rhapsody is a deconstruction of the genre, and very good one at that. (See? A dream, obviously.) Instead of setting out on an adventure or diving headfirst into trouble, Satou decided to use this dream (he’s not stuck in another world) as vacation, spending much of his time sightseeing and steering clear of anything that looks like trouble. With enemies approaching, he uses the easy-mode special abilities he added to the game only a few hours earlier … and quickly jumps up roughly three hundred levels in skill. Then Satou finds himself in another world entirely – a dream, he insists, because the alternative is simply too farfetched to fathom. After a grueling release with last minute issues Satou falls asleep beneath his desk, too exhausted to bother going home and with the release of a second title looming on the horizon. The main character, Ichirou Suzuki or Satou as he is known in-game, is a programmer white labeling for a video game company.

It is a light novel I highly recommend, and an anime I highly anticipate within the coming year. While bearing a different sort of humor and extremely different main characters, Death March is just as excellent a deconstruction of the genre the light novel Konosuba. Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody by Hiro Ainana is one of my all-time favorites within the genre. High fantasy, light novels, manga, stuck in a video game, or fallen through a wardrobe – I read them all. I have read a lot of stuck in another world type fantasy. This review originally found on Looking Glass Reads.

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 1 by Hiro Ainana