A short summary: Keima gets isekai'd and now has to build/manage a dungeon (Overlord-style) so he doesn't die. Abuse the magic system, fend off invading heroes, exploit the loopholes, duel other dungeons. And, most importantly, do everything so it all works on its own so Keima can just chill - 'cause all he really wants to do is to sleep.
I remember starting it somewhere around the time I just got into weeb stuff, when it had like 2/5 volumes of the web novel (yup, the original one) translated. 2016-2017, maybe? I would get so excited whenever a new volume got translated I just binged it disregarding sleep, university and whatnot. Dunno, this concept with town building, mind games, doing stuff not as intended and exploring was just scratching the itch I never knew I had (it still does). And the industry wasn't really plagued with isekais then, so it was still feeling fresh I guess. Then, just as
Fast-forward a bunch of years later to 2023. I decided to check how LDM's doing and managed to find the treasure I was hoping to find all this time - the full translation of the light novel version. And, well, I just kinda-binged it from start to finish in three weeks (guess being unemployed has its merits). And yeah, it's alright.
I feel like it did have a paradigm (hehe) shift in its focus starting somewhere around the part I've stopped reading in the past - from being mostly about town management and exploiting loopholes to almost exclusively adventuring and politics. Don't get me wrong - it's not that it's a bad shift, but it just wasn't the reason I've fallen in love with it all those years ago. The later parts weren't as interesting to me personally, but I still wanted to observe this story - to know what comes next, how Keima will wiggle his ass out of problems and when will he finally just get to chill.
LDM shifts more into a stupid power fantasy the further it goes. Sure, there are some questionable loophole exploits in the earlier parts of the novel - what else the weak-ass Keima is supposed to do? It WAS fun anyway - unlike the later parts where it's just "either simply overpower or be saved by a whimsical plot armor side-character". The last volumes also felt quite rushed - though, that might be me thinking "oh no, it's already ending" or just because in one of the afterwords the author complains about being forced to end the series soon. Though even if the author had more volumes to write, it would likely not bring anything new to the table, so I'm mostly fine with it.
The ending... is certainly an ending of all time. (real spoilers, beware)
The conclusion?
Objectively... I don't care about being objective.
Be it nostalgia, having spent most of the month reading the novel, or whatever the reason - I now feel like a part of my life was torn away. Ah, this bittersweet feeling that hurts so good.
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