YEN PRESS
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
MANGA-KA: Yusuke Shiba
ORIGINAL STORY: Kisetsu Morita
CHARACTER DESIGN: Benio
TRANSLATION: Jasmine Bernhardt
LETTERS: Katie Blakeslee
ISBN: 978-1-9753-0916-9; paperback (May 2020); Rated “T” for “Teen”
178pp, B&W, $13.00 U.S., $17.00 CAN
I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level is a Japanese light novel series written by Kisetsu Morita and illustrated by Benio. In June 2017, Square Enix began publishing a manga adaptation of the series produced by Yusuke Shiba in their online website and smartphone app, “Gangan Online.” Yen Press began publishing an English-language edition of the manga in 2019.
[I sometimes shorten I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level as I've Been Killing Slimes...]
I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level focuses on Azusa. Once upon a time, she was an office worker who ended her short, painful life by dying from overworking. She was born again in a new world, reincarnated as an undying witch who also does not age. Azusa vows to live as stress-free and as pleasantly as possible, and makes a living hunting down “the slimes,” the easiest targets she can find. After centuries of doing such a simple job, however, Azusa has ended up being insanely powerful, so how can she maintain her low key life now?
As I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 2 (Chapters 7 to 12) opens, Asuza is living the simple life on an isolated homestead with her two daughters, Shalsha and Falfa, and her apprentice, Laika, a “red dragon” who lives with them in her human form. Asuza's laid-back life is interrupted when a buxom female elf named Halkara comes looking for sanctuary. Why is this elf in such trouble? It seems that Beelzebub is after Halkara for poisoning him. But the nature of Beelzebub is far different from what Asuza and Halkara were expecting.
Then, it's time for Laika to return to her home on Mount Rokko where her dragon clan lives. However, this simple family gathering turns out to be more complicated than Asuza and company expected.
[This volume includes an “Afterword” and “Translation Notes.”]
The I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level manga is another series that is new to me. I had also not heard of the light novel series of the same name by writer Kisetsu Morita and illustrator Benio.
I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Volume 2 is cute and mild entertainment. Although this volume is filled with pretty female characters (and pretty art), writer-artist Yusuke Shiba offers very little fanservice, and what is offered is quite tame. My reading of this second volume of I've Been Killing Slimes... is that the series is like a middle grade readers version of the manga, Hayate the Combat Butler, and that is not a bad thing. I love Hayate, and for the time being, this is all I can say about I've Been Killing Slimes...
6 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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