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REVIEW: Reborn to Master the Blade Novel 1




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mnordhoff



Joined: 04 Sep 2012
Posts: 15
Location: US
PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 2:45 pm Reply with quote
I've been reading this series on J-Novel Club. (They're up to mid-volume 2, but this post shouldn't have any spoilers past volume 1.) I still have mixed feelings about it. It's always refreshing when a fantasy light novel has a moral center, but that only makes it clash more when it goes in directions that make me uncomfortable.

I can't get over the whole situation around Rin: spoiler[She's an ACTUAL HUMAN (probably) WOMAN, who gets turned into a monster, and then gets turned into a team mascot pet that jumps in girls' cleavage. It's serious horror, and leans into old sexual harassment cliches, but it's all treated as a gag. What the heck.]

There's also a conflict at the core of the series: On the one hand, the characters and story are strongly moral and political. On the other hand, Inglis's driving goal is to fight stuff good and avoid getting bogged down in politics again. It's early days, and the story seems to be handling that fine so far, but it could be a problem going forward -- or at least make me personally lose interest in the story.

I just can't get a read on its lighthearted-slash-serious tone or tell if it's going to address the issues it raises or ultimately blow them off.

(I'm a cis man, I can't comment on the gender part of the story. I think it seems like the author wants to write a decent 'anime gender bender' story without getting transphobic, but I dunno.)

(This is completely personal, but I'm not into blood knight characters -- or mysterious masked men -- so the series might not be my cup of tea anyway.)
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5840
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:32 am Reply with quote
Quote:
the obligatory bath scene where Rafinha gropes her breasts is met with much more discomfort on Inglis' part than we usually see


The review has made me interested in reading this one, but I don't know why Rafinha didn't get a sword in his gut, considering who he was victimizing. Guess I will have to read it to find out why.

Just had to add this, if Rafinha is indeed some sort of love interest, someone needs to throw him into a swamp full of alligators, put him in a pit of slime monsters, or slowly roast him for an Orc family. Still think Inglis Eucase should have put a sword in his gut for what he did.
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
Posts: 600
Location: J-Novel Club
PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:55 am Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
Quote:
the obligatory bath scene where Rafinha gropes her breasts is met with much more discomfort on Inglis' part than we usually see


The review has made me interested in reading this one, but I don't know why Rafinha didn't get a sword in his gut

Rafinha is a girl and Inglis's best friend.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5840
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:20 am Reply with quote
Quote:
they all very much want her to marry her cousin Rafael. Since the book ends with her still fifteen, that's largely still just a pipe dream on the part of her parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin Rafinha, but what's more interesting is the way that Inglis reacts. She's not thrilled with the idea, but not because Rafael is her first cousin; it's because, as she puts it, “her tastes haven't changed” since her past life. We're meant to understand this to mean that she's attracted to women


Well I guess this is what threw me. I guess the societal culture in this new world, is much more open than ours.
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@



Joined: 14 Feb 2006
Posts: 3498
Location: IN your nightmares
PostPosted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 11:22 am Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
Well I guess this is what threw me. I guess the societal culture in this new world, is much more open than ours.
Thank you, I got quite a giggle from you not realizing Rafinha is female. Inglis is a veteran warrior, I don't think any men would be anywhere near her bath let alone close enough to grab her chest. But 2 or more women in the bath together is more like a staple story element. That's my explanation, anyway for why it was immediately obvious to me Rafinha's a girl.
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Kitsu Kyouno



Joined: 22 Dec 2018
Posts: 170
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:57 am Reply with quote
I really like, has potentially a yuri plot in the future, rarely do you have a man turned into a woman who decides to keep his tastes because in general he ends up falling in love with his best friend or his transformation is not usually permanent but temporary (until now in novels).
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