くまクマ熊ベアー 1

I've been trying to learn Japanese over the past few years and after grinding a variety of resources and learning material I finally felt up to the challenge of a "real" book for natives, so my reaction to this book will probably be somewhat different to someone just reading an English version for kicks. This came highly recomended due to being a supposedly easy read and because much of the vocabulary is repeated frequently, and not only was it excellent for that aspect, but it was also just a plain fun read. The opening chapters were hellish but the famous "10 pages rule" certainly did apply and while some reading days were easier to read than others, I eventually was able to more-or-less smoothly enjoy the characters and their world even if I did have to double-check my grammar and reading on a frequent basis.

Basically this girl gets brought into the world of her favorite RPG and has stupidly overpowered abilities and powers, but in order to use them she has to wear the most absurd bear outfit possible. There's a lot of good humor from this setup, Yuna has kind of a snarky personality and as she gets tired of people making fun of her outfit she decides to basically cut loose and accomplish things in the most absurd ways possible. There's a lot of fun imagery with how her powers are written and the humor gets a bit darker than you might expect at times which always caught me off guard for a good gag. My favorite bit being when she tests out a particular spell on an unfortunate wolf and the results are a bit messier than she expected.

As far as the plot, it's pretty freeform, and it does feel like you're reading the exploits of an RPG going on missions, butting heads with bureaucracy and unlocking new, even more absurd abilities. There doesn't seem to be a real overarching narrative aside from her daily adventures and quests, but the approach works well here and keeps the story from being too dense.. I've been playing a couple open-ended JRPG's lately and it reminds me a lot of those (with a nice overlapping vocabulary to boot!).

Even with my beginner-ish level Japanese the tone and style in Japanese was pleasant and low-key, with wonderfully dry situational humor. Truth be told this probably isn't the type of book I would normally seek out if it was in English, but the fact that I was able to complete an entire book in another language and have a fun time doing so was deeply satisfying, and I'm hoping that by the end of this series I'll really be doing well.