Re:Monster

*Spoiler Alert* (Though the are minor)

So let's begin with the story. It seems that the whole "reincarnation" trope is making huge headway recently, with the MC being overpowered.

That's fine. I've got nothing against that. What I do hate though is when a reincarnation manga comes along, and its just so boring when it easily had the potential to be great! This is a power fantasy of the mangaka's. They clearly don't know how to make an interesting OP story. I honestly think that they saw the success of manga's such as "One Punch Man", and "Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari", and thought that they could cash in.

These mangaka's don't know how to write a good OP MC. Take Overlord's, Ainz Ooal Gown, written by the excellent author Kugane Maruyama. He knows that, put in any fight, Ainz will win. So what does he do to make the story interesting. He makes the side characters fascinating, he does wonderful world building, he makes Ainz work towards complex end goals in interesting ways. Does Re: Monster have any of these? Not really. I can only think of two times when Rou has faced any challenge. The first being when he fought a bear, just before he turned into a ogre, and the second time was when he fought that brave warrior. This is not a good thing at all.

As for the side characters - they are basically there to make Rou look cool - which I don't mind if done right. What I do mind is that apart from MAYBE Kichi, the rest are as dull as a shadow cast from an ant! That is to say, that they have none. All the women (and I mean all the women) in this world want to bang Rou... and that is the extent of their personalities. This, however, is more of a problem with most harem manga's. The only exception to this rule would be, of the top of my head, something like "Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari". The men on the other hand, want to emulate Rou. I singled out Kichi, because of ONE frame. When Rou passes Kichi in his new ogre form, Kichi seems upset that he can't keep up with his friend, and honestly, that is all the personality that we see from him.

The next major issue that I have with this manga was the way the mangaka's tell the story. In my personal experience, a good manga should have a something like a 60%/40% art - to - writing ratio. What I mean by this is that, as the reader, I should be able to look at the frames on the page, and understand what is happening. The writing should be there to elaborate the art. This is a hard skill to master, but take for example, Kentaro Miura's wonderfully (and I mean breath taking) work, "Berserk". If you flip to any page in any chapter in Berserk, you will have a rough idea of what is happening. However, with this manga, I honestly felt at times that I was reading a book. That said, the art is pretty decent, with the mangaka not afraid to try out some interesting techniques. That is really, the only complement that I can give this dreadful manga. Please do not read it! If you must read it, then just read it up to the point Rou becomes an ogre, because after that, it become so very boring!

If you want to read a somewhat better (its about 6/10 IMO) reincarnation manga, try the manhua "Tales of Gods and Demons", written by "mad snail". Or if you want to read a better OP MC thats transported into a fantasy world (a 9/10 IMO), read Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari by Aneko Yusagi.

The premise was really intriguing, I was sick of the usual reincarnation stories where they become a cute genius kid that can do anything and get whatever he wants, so being reincarnated into a goblin was certainly a new approach. Sadly they went down the same route anyway, with cheat like abilities the MC becomes the strongest and does whatever he wants.

The art was certainly different but kind of plain and boring, didn't enjoy it. Though the human girls, the elvish girls did look cute. Action scenes were a pain to follow and the facial expressions were almost non-existent beyond angry and horny.

Characters were annoying. There were far too many important characters and it was very messy trying to follow all the relationships in it, the MC had a harem for seemingly no reason other than he is the MC and even the relations between his tribe and other tribes were stupid and came from nowhere.

I honestly really enjoyed it at first because of my initial excitement about him rising up as a goblin and reforming the tribe but that died off fast and I quickly became uninterested in what would happen next.

Boy, I wish Goblin Slayer would show up to end this travesty.

MC is from a world where people have super powers or something, and his power is being able to obtain other powers/abilities by eating body parts from other beings with powers. He is stabbed by a crazy bitch and dies. He then wakes up as a baby goblin, the next day he grows up to a pre-teen goblin and goes out to the woods to hunt, he befriends a dumb goblin (most of them are dumb but this one is especially dumb) and they form a team to hunt unicorn rabbits, the MC is the brains, the dumb goblin is the muscle, they take down rabbit after rabbit, they are unsopable, boy do they shine on the battlefield. The MC fashion a prison shiv out of rabbit horn, attains some useless skills from eating the rabbits and then befriends a female goblina who is basically his biggest fan, who'd have guessed the first female lead is going to be all over the mc? They keep killing, getting abilities, fashioning better weapons and armors, they evolve into hobgoblins, and that's where the manga gets it's success from, monster evolution (rip off pokemon much?).

And that's literally all there is to it, they just keep killing and evolving and eating and getting better weapons till they are literally gods. Oh there's also goblin rape, but the girls eventually like it because the MC is a literal god, so it's ok.

Re:Monster is not a very ambitious kind of manga, being quite generic with almost everything, however it is fun and easy to read - i can recommend it to anyone who is interested in manga with mmorpg fantasy setting. Ok, lets break the whole thing down.

Story - 7
In my opinion, the biggest shortcomings (at least for the starting chapters) of most 'stuck in mmorpg world' stories are:
-how/why did the protagonist wind up in the situation that he's in this world
-what makes the protagonist special
Those 2 subjects are usually done pretty lazily, because the story doesn't plan on going back to them *ever*. Unfortunately the Re:monster is the same in this case, with very unattractive introduction. That's why the story doesn't deserve higher score.
What's good about the story - being slow-paced, it explores thoroughly the aspect of forming a growing society of warriors with the main protagonist as the leader. Considering that the story of 23 chapters so far is taking place only in the forest they were all born in which already seems like a huge limitless place, makes you feel the story has indefinite ways of developing, which is a pretty great perspective.
Character - 6
The only interesting character in the story is the very MC himself, the rest is unfortunately pretty bland. I like some of the relations between Rou and his subordinates, which seem to give some characteristic to other characters, however it seems to be too little. One irritating thing is
Art - 8
It's pretty good, on the level of all good manga published nowadays. It's characters are drawn pretty nicely - my only problem is the lazy attitude towards backgrounds. It's full of background effects, lacking almost any real backgrounds, making it sometimes pretty hard to actually imagine the area the action takes place in.
Enjoyment - 8
What's to say - i liked it :P Didn't rock my world, didn't bore me, it was fun to read and it feels it has good perspectives for development.
Overall - 8
To summ up, the manga has it's shortcomings and it's pretty simple, however it is interesting to read if you like this kind of setting.

At this moment, 28th of August 2014, there are only 5 chapters of Re:monster out with english translations.

Re:Monster is a very easy and simple story. The story begins from strech due to the MC's reincarnation. From that moment the new life of the MC begins to develop its path and continues to grow on doing so.

Reasons why Re:Monster is a Strong 8:

- It's a good story, even if the plot isn't that grand or deep in the beginning.
- The MC is not a idiot. He is a logical thinker and has a quick understanding of things around his new life as a goblin.

-It contains some RPG features. so if you into that genre, it is even more enjoyable to read.

Hope to know your opinion about it.

-Kovebau

it is a unique thing.
Goblins and ogres, and new creatures come to be introduced in a new light.
and like what seems to be a very popular area that's taking over,
this manga has taken a good adaptation to a new fantasy.
A world of creatures like goblins and magic and sorcerers is nothing new,
But we are reading and being introduced to the lives of the ogres/goblins.

But one thing that gets this manga so well, is the power building thing,
that game-like scenario that just seems so popular in my own opinion.
In mahnwa, manga, chinese comics, it doesn't matter.
If it involves a story that has a scenes of game characters in it, then it's a hit

If you love those thing, then this is good read for you.
There is a good chance you won't stop reading at the first chapter.

But like any other, there is always something to criticize.
We are of course, as readers, have the responsibility, if there is one to share, opinions.
It's not only this one but to some shounen/boy manga.
Since the targeted readers are boys, the stories in it cater the desires/love/fun for kids of xx chromosomes (Don't know if that's the right formula or even the right representation for male genes).
But yeah. you can probably get what I mean.
And wouldn't you say some of this are, let's just say, in my own opinion, inappropriate to advertise, be encouraged, and so influence people

Pardon, but I was not sure about the genre so I checked, and it didn't seem to say shounen.
Shounen or seinen, I think we could both agree it certainly isn't for women.
I mean, I know there is some issue with the gender equality thing that is being portrayed in some manga but some including this one is apparent.

Always, I believe, the more close to reality, the more it is to be relatable, and so more entertaining, doesn't always so but it usually is.
In fantasy, this idea is very important.
When fires come out from a character's eyeball, writers must think things through to humanize them, so one thing I observe is make it hard for them, characters, achieve this magic skill, a good way for them to be relatable to us, is it usually how things go in the real world.

So when I notice things that are so not gonna happen in that kind of circumstances/scenario, I get irritated.
I mean, you get it right?
When a character so easily beats them with little training, while others just spend so much blood and sweat to achieve it, we usually get irritated, and not root for that character, unless he makes up some things that make him more relatable.

Here is the thing. this manga portrays women as helpless and indolent.
They are shown to us that would not normally act in reality but in a boys wet dream.
That's one of the clue why this manga are for the dudes/ kids/ and some might say, the less imaginative, less thinking crowd.
This kind of thing is so obvious on some manga I read.
And some is understandable, if they go with a bit of realism on that regard,
But I highly doubt the motivations of authors, just catering for some other desires for their expected readers.
One thing i do recognize, that would more likely to go international, and break away the norm and the mediocre behind are manga that caters a wide array of audience.
Those that are more of this time.
Those that don't depict women as dolls/useless baggage.
Women are strong, they are capable, and they are unique.
In fact, it's stupid to state this but everyone is unique, special.
And if manga and any other media like books, movies, anime can so perfectly depict an individuality of their characters, that caters the modern ideology/culture of the current time,
even if it's from a story of base on the past,
Then it is a more of a good chance of success. More can relate, thus more would read/watch.

All said, though there is that, this manga did answer what I really like.
Just like it was answered by Gamers, Log Horizon, Overlord,
Interesting power ups, adventures, a game-like feel to the story,
and battling with monsters,
But though there is this brilliant idea of a goblin be a mc for a change,
It only stops right there, since life experience, modern ideas like gender, race, and some philosophies followed by many isn't here.
but it sure is fun reading the level ups and power gain from adventures, and with this new change of pace for a mc, but beside that, there is little difference to the cracks I noticed from the other media I noticed, mostly, from the country that dominated this form of entertainment, a culture thing, I assume. But those that isn't like that, sure can cross borders.

ReMonster started out ok, it was a bit boring but it moved along at a decent pace and the development of the civilisation was interesting. The protagonist got rid of the goblin's rape camp and life generally improved for them. Then within literally three issues it descends into harem group sex and the main character capturing humanoids to turn into drugged up sex slaves to be raped. Apart from being generally repellent it comes entirely out of left field as the MC has spent a big chunk of time removing that system. Its also at this point you realise every issue is the same story but at a slightly higher power scale. Pity, it could have been good.

I guees you chould say Re:Monster is a mix between Goblin Slayer and That time i got reincarnated as a slime, and in a way also The Gamer but Re:Monster is just "more" of all of them.
How is that possible? you may ask, well my reasoning behind that statement is because it has the core horror elements of Goblin Slayer, and not just because there are goblins in both series, this manga is actually more disturbing and horrifying and Goblin Slayer is.

On the other end of the spectrum, it is a lot like That time i got reincarnated as a slime and The Gamer with an OP main character, a game-like system where the charaters "level up", but the whole thing with knowing how the world works, is not as rushed as TTIGRAAS, so all the "powerups" dont happen so suddenly, and the "powerups" are smaller rather than just only being big "powerups" all the time, it is also a lot more "grindy" than TTIGRAAS, however this is where it is a lot like The Gamer if you are into that type of story progression, it is not as "light-hearted" as these two series tho.

Overall however i would say that the fact Re:monster does all the things mentioned above, and sort of like has this idea of doing everything but more extremely is only a good thing, is it like an "ideal" isekai manga, kinda like how Black Clover is an "ideal" shounen manga.

The only 3 negative aspects of recomending this manga however stems from the fact that no charaters beside the main is very interesting, and that the story can get quite linear at times, since it´s has this "grindy videogame-like" system.

The last thing i would say before recomending this to anyone would be that it can be very very disturbing and graphic, so it might not be for everyone, but it is definitely worth reading if you are just looking for an isekai to not really think a whole lot about but more just enjoy it for what it is.

I started out really liking the manga it had an interesting premise and from my name you can guess why i gave it a look. But i regret it I made a rule for myself don't interact with anything with re: in the title i wish i stuck to that when i dropped it the show was just harem and he accationaly feels like slaughtering people in entirly one sided battle for boose and then takes all the women and makes them his slaves.

Its just a harem manga its all just harem and this entire manga as far as i can tell is just poorly written story, characters, and just ends up focusing on sex.

Never before have I read a story, that is so obviously the writers own wish fulfillment fantasy.

The story starts out pretty good and is actually legimitately pretty interesting. The MC has flaws, and there are both downsides and upsides to what hes going through. His character is somewhat interesting and he has reasons for his actions.

This quickly changes though and it turns into whatever mess the author was able to string together. It ends up as a sort of really short summary of what the MC did whatever which day, and what he ended up gaining. Theres nothing driving the plot and the characters development. If anything the character is dedeveloping. His character is actually managing to become less and less interesting the further you read in the story. His reasons for his actions suddenly dissapear and he goes against his own beliefs, but theres nothing said about that, and he doesn't even seem to notice himself.

The quality of the writing seems to follow the trend of bad writing somehow getting popular because people are interested in the content behind. And I can follow that, but the story quickly loses it's interesting content when the author turns it into a bland and meager plot that is driven by his own fantasies. It's clear that the author has comitted the basic mistake of inserting yourself in the protagonists role.

But even though I say all this, I would still say you should give it a read. It's solidly interesting for at least 10 chapters, and it doesn't have all that many chapters as a whole either, so it's not like you waste a lot of time by reading it.

Re:Monster is, without a shadow of a doubt, the single purest distillation of escapist power fantasy media I've ever encountered. This shit is literally just "guy shows up to fantasy world that's good at everything and never loses ever, gets every ridiculously overpowered ability in the universe and fucks every hot babe that crosses his line of sight".

And for that, it's a pretty good time.

I'd compare the experience of reading this thing to the experience of leveling up/getting new gear/progressing in a bog standard RPG. There are no stakes, the characters all exist in service of the protagonist, and the prose is beyond beige. Almost every chapter SOLELY consists of the main guy describing exactly how he's constantly demolishing every enemy he comes across + fucking every babe he comes across (they like it and he has a big dick btw) + explaining every new ability he gains + explaining every "strategic" move he makes in explicit detail.

Explicit, /painstaking/ detail. Pages upon pages of text just explaining what new powers and titles he's acquired.

In a way, this extremely plain and straightforward progression is sort of satisfying, dullness in its storytelling notwithstanding.

Nothing suspenseful happens. 50 chapters in and the overarching narrative beyond his (and his clan's) personal progression is all but nonexistent.

Still a good time though, despite all of that. Re:Monster is hyper-aware of the power fantasy that it is, and is more than unabashed about it. It's very indulgent in every aspect of this guy's absolute ridiculousness, and for that it's actually enjoyable.

Just don't expect anything beyond that.

Rou's got a magic d*ck which forcefully plunders the hearts of young maidens.

Kichi's got a d*ck that was born for Rou to use.

Mi's got a d*ck and an obsessive love of Rou since day one.

Walline is human yet loves Rou's green magic d*ck.

Jii is old and got cuckold by Rou, yet still adores him.

Sato is female so is obviously in love with Rou.

Aoi Kirimine was in love with Rou before Rou was Rou.

Emery is female (see above).

Sei: female, Rou, above.

E is ugly, so naturally she gets handed to Kichi.

As the characters evolve the story devolves. From character-piece to power-grind to goblin erotica. And don't get me wrong, I like a bit of goblin erotica as much as the next guy, but Re: Goblino is some pretty bad erotica:

"teh penis in, out, in, out, Rou so big strong s*xy green, goblin god, no human jesus, christ. Done he finish, me finish five million times, since rou so big strong s*xy, green goblin, I finish more than he, because he green big strong s*xy, I super hot but nobody has ever touched, me. Because im so precious and hot and have high standard, but he green strong s*xy so it fine, he is better than me, yet im better than everyone else, Shrek so strong green big"

That's the extent of the erotica. The most offensive bit is the fact that Rou doesn't share his s*x slaves, like, my brother, these are community s*x slaves, why are you f**king them all by yourself?!? Poor man Jii has been pinning for an elven ride for half the novel and little Rou decides to grow three meters, piss around the entrance of the s*x slave dungeon, and expound righteously about how only his penis is fit for the heathen elves. That sh*t ain't fair. And not only does he monopolize the s*x slaves but he also f**ks every other female in the vicinity, be it human, goblin or tree thing it gets d*cked. My gramps Jii is a tragic hero, imagine spending nineteen years of your life creating children only for one of them to grow up and castrate you, damn sad.

I don't know what I was expecting to be honest. 1/10

If you're looking for something deep, then this is definitely not the manga for you. It has an interesting premise and fairly decent art, but is crippled by the characters, lack of story, and harem bait.

The main character Rou is too OP to take seriously. His personality was interesting to begin with, but slowly devolved into wish fulfillment character he has very sketchy views on morality. The rest of the characters aren't all that special either.

The harem he has is mostly forgettable personality wise. Literally, their characters are cliche cardboard cut outs who do nothing to enhance the plot, save Mi. I liked Kichi and E, but they are not the main focus of the series.

In short, if you don't like wish fulfillment fantasy that revolved around an OP main character, then this is probably not the manga for you.

With that being said, I do enjoy reading it for fun, but I have to turn my brain off first. There really isn't an ongoing story as far as I can tell (might be different for the Light Novel) and it mostly seems to equates to Rou spending his days either fighting, eating, or spending time with his harem.