くまクマ熊ベアー 1

A decent story, but great for a first novel in terms of difficulty.

I had read novels before but very slowly due to having to look up so many words. Prior to that I'd only ever read manga (typically shounen manga with lots of furigana). Coming from there this book was very easy to pick up and I could read it quite quickly which made it more fun than struggling through 10 or so pages a day with something more complicated. Especially if you are reading it on syosetu.com with yomichan, looking up words you don't know is super fast. There's also lots of repeated vocabulary here so once you are through the first 3 or 4 chapters, there won't be much you need to look up. You'll learn words like 討伐 and 解体 very quickly.

A short summary of the start of the book: As far as the content of the story goes, it's pretty generic as far as isekai goes. Yuna is a 15 year old girl who someone how has managed to play the stock markets just right and become super rich. With everything sorted for her she leads a hikkikimori life playing her favourite VRMMO all day. One day she logs in after a new update. Before entering the game she finds she's been awarded a random prize. She recieves a full set of bear related armour (a reversible bear onsey, complete with little bear puppet gloves) that has some pretty nice buffs that level up with her. Too embarrassed to actually wear it however, she just wants to get back into the game, when she finds herself in a completely different place with her bear gear fully equipped and her level and inventory completely reset. Soon Yuna finds out that this isn't the game she'd been playing but actually another world (that just happens to have very similar systems to the game she played). Initially wanting to find other clothes to wear, she keeps finding reasons she needs the powers of her onsey, eventually giving up and becoming that weird overpowered adventurer that goes around in a bear costume.

It has it's funny moments however. I'm sure it get's old as the volumes go on, but Yuna's exasperation at how far the forced bear theming of her magic is, as well as the reactions of the people around her regarding her outfit and actions is quite humerous. I especially liked the comments the other adventurers at the guild make about her behind her back when she starts getting a reputation.

The Kuma House also had me smiling. Yuna is very practical with her abilities.

All in all, I'd say that it's a good entry point for anyone looking to get into light novels due to the repeated vocabulary and simple grammer. The story is amusing at points but don't expect to be gripped by it or anything.

Oh it's also free to read all of it (on syosetu) which is pretty nice.