Review
The hero died eight years ago after defeating the demon lord but how did he die? That is the question for the reader and which the main narrator who sets out to collect information for an official account of the hero’s deeds seeks to answer. To that end the narrator sets out to interview members of the hero’s party as well as those who knew him before he became the hero.
It’s got some very good use of multiple perspectives used in a light novel. I think the reason it works, is because it’s all centred around recounting the hero’s fate. It’s similar to how in durarara! the stories of all the different characters come together so it doesn’t feel disjointed.
The official translation has yet to released but the web novel already has a shoddy translation. I recommend you to wait until the official translation is out, however it’s good, so I would recommend you buy it.
The novel is pretty light on detail probably due to its short length but I pretty much understood what kind of characters all of the hero’s party were. There is a slightly sadistic priestess called Maria, a friendless snobbish genius mage called Solon, a formerly arrogant noble swordsman called Leon, and then there’s the hero “Ares” who despite lacking in strength and despite facing the initial rejection from his comrades doesn’t give up on his quest to defeat the demon lord.
The first volume is a complete story and pretty much answers the question raised by the novel’s title. However it appears that there is at least one further volume announced on Yen Press. I just don’t see how they could continue this story without it turning into a generic fantasy light novel given that it’s already expended it’s unique premise. (This has happened to other stories like the Shield Hero and for example). I suppose they could expand more on the battles in the past, for example it’s never made clear how the hero’s party defeated the demon lord despite the hero being genuinely weak. In fact, there really aren’t any long or epic battle scenes.
I have rambled on for too long, basically if you want to read a light novel set in “a world after the demon lord has been defeated” with a bit of mystery spliced in about the hero’s past and present fate then this isn’t a bad read at all.
Analysis of the Message
I have seen more than one reader describe this story as “bitter-sweet” but honestly there is not that much dark about the novel, or maybe I have read too many “dark” stories to be affected.
I suppose if there is a “thema” to this story is that it’s deconstructing these Dragon Quest inspired stories which make being the hero seem like a great thing, when in fact it would be a great burden, especially if you are forced to do it just because of some prophesy out of your control. Many of the characters other than the hero also seem to be trapped in burdens which come with their roles as nobles, saints and royals.
This “prophesy” to select the hero itself turns out to be and is deconstructed to be nothing more than trial and error. Nevertheless we never see the hero look back or despair over his burden or fate… In classic JRPG fashion it is hinted that the ultimate villains are the gods, who use the world as a battleground to stage their proxy-wars and have thus put this unjust burden on the seemingly hapless hero.
Maybe some readers might object to how pure and selfless the protagonist is, and to a certain extent, I do too. I do like however that his earnestness and desire to be the hero is not rooted in some abstract self-lessness towards everyone unconditionally but due to an incident which led him to become the hero.
With all that said I basically agree with the sentiments expressed by the novel that basically man is a noble creature and life is worth living.. Of course it might not have expressed those things in exactly those words but that’s the gist of it.
If there is one criticism that I have is that the protagonist has this typical Japanese mentality that you must try the hardest, of course there are Japanese protagonists who deliberately are not like this like Captain Tylor from the Irresponsible Captain Tylor, but my personal view is that if you are doing something that doesn’t work it doesn’t matter how hard you try. At no point did the hero have to change his approach from being anything other than study the hardest, strike where others are weak, and learn as much as possible.
On the other hand I will say that even if it was pure chance that the hero was able to defeat the demon lord despite lacking talent to be the hero, if he had given up hope and hesitated then that chance would be gone too.
