the morose mononokean

Really good story. Takes a breath away from the typical protagonist and has its grounds based more in darker, morose, and macabre side of humanity with the main lead. A fresh sort of twist on an Isesaki

Friends, I must say that I was drawn to this story originally by the cover art. The author owes the artist a huge "Thank You." The story isn't overly morose. I'd say that it is about Average—so far—but that beautiful illustration of the protagonist, his dragon and his panther all smiling and seeming SO HAPPY, sets the tone and makes the whole story seem so upbeat! It is an upbeat story. The Protagonist is REALLY OP. He almost levels up from tying his boot laces in the morning—No, not quite, but almost. I LIKE these kind of stories, I wouldn't want EVERY STORY to be so straightforward and bereft of challenges—but sometimes it is refreshing. GOOD STORY!

I originally found the same fanfic translated by a different person on the site before being referred by the comments to this version, because quite frankly the other version sucked. The writing quality, and descriptions in this novel are genuinely good. The prose flows smoothly for the most part, a teensy bit choppy during some character interactions but leagues better then a majority of the trash on this site. It's slow paced and has plenty of slice of life elements at the moment but I can definitely see it ramping up in intensity soon. I really enjoy the system in this fanfic as well, the main character has to make genuine effort to get any rewards out of his 'cheat' and the abilities he has morose just give him situational buffs. Overall it's an enjoyable time waster, which just so happens to have some of the better writing I've seen on this site lol.

How can I say it? This story is written incredibly well; the description, the world building, the feeling the author can invoke on readers ... it's all amazing ... but falls flat when it came to the MC, Lee. 5 chapters in and he's pretty ... bland and conflicted? He hates that his sister is engaged, hating and nursing the fact that he's alone, but when his mom comes up with a matchmaker, he goes bonkers. Dude, you can't lie in misery and expect things to work, go out and look for someone if you're lonely or just shrug and be apathetic to the normies. Don't be so ... wish-washy with you emotions. I mean, if you look at it from one perspective, I guess it makes sense if you consider his age - I'm assuming he's a young ****, I don't think it was told just how old he is, like specifically - but at the same time, he seems to have matured very quickly so he shouldn't be like this ... ya'know. And that comes to the other point on character designs: the other characters, including his mom, are only there to make his life insufferable. This really gets me cause - look, I'm not a parent, but I have several nephews, and more coming, and, just like how my parents worried (worry) over me, I worry over them. Their lives, their futures, even though the oldest is only 5. And here, I can tell the mom is worried. She's worried about what Lee will face if anything ever happens to her as he's way too dependent on her. But this is never shown from her perspective, it's always from Lee's, which is understandably more ... morose. I think adding little bits, like how Lees mom's eyes glaze with worry as she watches him run away to the fields - or something like that - will add more personality to what seems like one dimensional characters that are simply there just to antagonize how the MC feels. I get that this seems like a rather tragic story, the hints and underline are there ... but you can't just make it seem soo miserable that readers get overwhelmed. My own story is based on tragedy, I've been told it's too dark, but even then, I try to make it lighthearted by showing interactions between the characters. They're some who have a tragic past, but they're cheerful and joke around; this lightens the mood and serves to highlight the good stuff happening while still underscoring that tragedy has and will follow. It's a very delicate balance, one that I can't say I've mastered. But other than that, every thing else is incredible. Grammar is in impeccable, hardly any mistakes, and the description of the story is very vivid, if sometimes somewhat dry, and it's great to read, don't get me wrong. I just can't get behind the MC yet, but maybe time will tell and I'll change my mind.