Reincarnated as the Mastermind of the Story

9.4/10

…sorry in advance for the long review

I’ve long fallen in love with the “reincarnated into a game” trope, but even putting aside my bias, this is one of if not the best manga I’ve read due to the gradual, seemingly small, minute details in the plot, characters, and pacing or development. 

Initially, the plot starts off with how every manga of its trope starts off: Some ridiculous event happens, and now the mc got isekai’d with some sort of plot device/armor. However, this manga pulls away from the rest of the flock in its developments and necessary incorporations of events. To put it simply, the story within the plot are unforced and have meaning beyond its singular use of conflict. Whether it causes a chain reaction in the development of the characters or the story, not one event was forcefully applied by the author to solely create drama while having a smooth transition into each corresponding development.

Characters easily make or break a manga; the formula goes as follows: If the main character is dislikable and every other character provides nothing of relevance and difference in the story, then there’s no reason or desire to read said story, no matter how good or original the plot may be. Due to this knowledge in mind, the characters in this manga, mainly the main character, all have a substantial, distinct personality, causing the manga to be engaging and for the mysterious elements to “pop” out. There’s also no forced “villain that is only evil for the sake of being evil,” which further elevates the difference between this manga and the typical isekais with a standard plot. To quickly note on the main character, he is incredibly likable and somewhat realistic with his character and actions towards others, mainly his sense of responsibility and reason towards his family. 

I don’t want to make this review too long, but it would be an injustice to not comment on this manga’s flow or pacing, since it has one of if not the best utilization of time skips into world-building and development in a story. Most of the time, authors misuse time skips to quickly brush past development while making it seem like they “tried,” however, this manga did everything right; the main character was the subject of most time skips, spurring gradual changes within his small time skips such as a clear indication of growth in power, or there have big time skips, after the background or world was developed to an adequate amount, to further extract as much personality and growth from the main character. The power development of the mc also is incredibly engaging and thought out, as he earns his power through dedication and subtle growth; in other words, he isn’t spoon fed by the author and overcomes his struggles slowly. 

To quickly retort on the world building, the manga does it in an enjoyable way via dialogue and monologue or while incorporating it alongside character introductions that’s rent overbearing on the engagement.

Possibly my longest review I’ve done, however, there was so much more I wanted to comment or praise about this manga, but the review would’ve been longer than the actual manga itself, which I would h&te to do, since any more time w&sted reading this review, would be the longer you’d have to wait reading one of the best transmigration mangas of all time. To recap, there’s not one absurdly great originality this manga incorporates, but the acc*mulation of the nitty gritty lovables make the reading experience of his manga far surpass its counterparts. 

Reading Rankings (Portnoy inspired + A Huang-Teizan Original)
10 – God’s penmanship
9 – Must-read. Drop everything else.
8 – Instant bookmark
7 – Entertaining
6 – Good to pass time
5 – Why are you reading this?
4 – Bad. 
3 – Typical garbage. 
2 – My head hurts. 
1 – Retirement is a thought.
0 – “Did they even give you a story?!”