“I want to Live Peacefully in the Parallel World”- Syndrome

Intro To the Story

This story started with our MC, A Japanese middle-aged guy (wait, did I already spoil something? Hell, you did. Aw c’mon, it’s not a big deal! Let me spoil this one thing! It’s not that important anyway!……………)

*After a few moments of internal brain conflict………….

Pardon guys. First of all, I rarely to put any ratings before the intro of the story. But, allow me to rate this story as 10/10, 100 of 100, A of A. It’s very COOL! KEWL! You name it! This story is so a page-turner! It has the same vibe like AoT in the aspect of having the great Grand world-concept setting and how the readers are being revealed of the mystery of the world one by one, but instead of the MC having special powers, the MC here doesn’t have those kind of gifts. I thought AoT has already the best in terms of story-telling, until I read this. This is masterpiece. The world is keeping so much mystery and we thought those mystery is out of our reach, but this series is telling us that our MC is ABLE to reach out to reveal those mystery, and he is MAKING moves to reveal them, and the best part is that the MC doesn’t need any OP powers, magic, skill, level, blessing, gift, or turning to giant to do this. (RO, slow down. The readers will stop reading at this rate)

Alright! Let’s back to the review, shall we? Where was I? Right, the middle-aged Japanese guy. This guy suddenly woke up in a forest, full of monsters. And the most deadly one is…SLIME. Not Rimuru! But apparently in this world premise, SLIME is a unique monster so powerful it killed one of Demon King in the past! (yes, the demon king is not only one, but we’ll talk about it later). So he encountered one but luckily, he managed to escape, as he walked around the forest, he found berries, found some scary looking guys (no way I’m messing around with bandits) and lastly, he managed to lead his way to a town. But here comes problem number one, the people here doesn’t understand our language so the guards put him into the jail. Poor luck, so he thought. But not for long, because a beautiful girl with blonde hair and blue eyes came to see him. She even took him out of the cell. Aww how kind, she is. Only one drawback, she literally put him into a Santa bag and took him to outside of prison. Next thing he found himself inside some kind of church and there he met a Priestess who has a talisman that can convert foreign words into local language (All hail Doraemon). So finally he can introduce himself and the ladies responded by introducing themselves too. The lady knight is called Ilyas Razzel and the priestess is called Maia, and this place is called Tayeez Kingdom. He told them about he was originally not from this world and awoke in the forest nearby. He also learned that he actually also had mana (magic power) but his mana capacity is so little so apparently the talisman needs to be “recharged” by Maia periodically. But Ilyas was surprised by his story that back in the forest, he spotted a band of thieves. It appears that the knights have been troubled by this Dokora Brigand for some time for their swift action and cunningness to fool them each time.

So she immediately called for her unit and deployed to the forest. Guided by our MC, they managed to find the thieves but it was apparently only a part of the band. Nonetheless, with their brute strength, the knights have no problem capturing the thieves. The next day, Ilyas asked him to interrogate the thieves because the knights failed to obtain any information about the Leader, Dokora. Our MC managed to obtain the information but through trickery and ways that does not fit the chivalry.

I : “I appreciate your helping the knights but your way is so……”

MC: “…doesn’t fit chivalry, huh?”

I : “You looked like you understand Trickery and Foul acts. Only one who has walked that path that can only act like that…”

MC: “… I just lived a peaceful life back then”

I : “That doesn’t sound like-“

MC: “Ilyas, what does it mean to live peacefully? In my world, there are many means to get information about other people. Eventually we get to know who is good and who is evil. I just did my best to live a life without foul reputation and utilized my knowledge to not get on bad people’s bad side. That’s what means to live a peaceful life.”

I : “I don’t get you. Which one is the real you? The one speaking to me and Maia? or the one interrogating the thieves?”

MC: “Either is true. It’s just a matter of how to behave.”

I: “But I don’t particularly change my attitude like yours.”

MC: “That’s because you behave the same. You behave as a knight, whether in front of the citizen, or in front of your fellow knights. In my case, I just changed my way to act and behave depending on my environment”

I : “You mean that when facing evil, then you behave as evil too?”

MC: “I behave that way BECAUSE I understand evil”

I : “…. I see. You lived a life like distorted mirror”

MC: “All I want is just to live a peaceful life”

~ “I want to Live Peacefully in the Parallel World”- Syndrome~ vol 1.

A few days after he started to live under the same roof with our Lady Knight, he already moved to expand his community like the protagonist in persona series. He got acquittanced with the restaurant old man, merchant guild old man, homeless old man, knight old man…. Don’t fret. Of course he met girls too. Anyways, just like Lelouch in Code Geass trying to asses his power after he obtained it, our MC is trying to asses his community power, he wants to know whether he can live a peaceful life or not in this world. (Title drop!)

Not long, our beloved Lady Knight and along with other Knights’ unit, they got Dokora cornered and our MC got to meet the Leader of the thieves. After some chit chat, the knight rallied and crushed the thief band. And they live happily ever after. FIN

Okay it’s a bad joke. The leader told our mc before he drew his last breath to secure his treasure before the knight do. So he went to the thief hideout and found a book titled “Demon Lord Observation Log”…. and it’s in Japanese.

And this is the starting point of our MC to live a peaceful life, but alas, the world won’t let him. It is fated from the moment he is summoned to this world.

All he wants is just to live a peaceful life, but it’s just getting far form his grasp.

What is the Charm of This Series?

A. Your Name (Not the Movie one)

Okay. You may realized already that in the intro I’ve introduced a few character’s name but not the MC. It’s because it is not REVEALED, at least as far as I read. There are some points it’s revealed, but not disclosed to us (readers). Then how does the conversation go without calling name? Referring to Goblin Slayer, all the characters are called by profession name or race name. While in here, the MC are called DIFFERENTLY by all the characters. I bet the translator will have a hard time translating this because there are several character will call him in a constant terms such as : A will always call him as “young lad”, B will address him as “teacher”, or C call him as “Sir Advisor”. But, there are characters will address him not in a clear terms, such as D will call him “kimi“, E will call him “omae“, F will call him “anata“. THIS will give the translator DEEP SH*% because the last three one means “you” in english.

*SPOILER ALERT* As you have read the intro, that the MC had this “way of behaving changes depends on the environment” thing. Yes, he will change his way of addressing himself. Sometimes in “Ore“, sometimes “watashi“, sometimes “boku“. And they all has DIFFERENT ROLES and ATMOSPHERE. I do wonder how the translator can convey THAT to readers. Good luck.

B. Don’t call me Hikki…

The MC is clearly not a fighter type. His physical traits are so weak that after hanging out with Ilyas going for a walk somewhere, he can have a backpain in the next day. But as you can see, he has this thing about “behaving”, which means he has the ability to “understand” or “comprehend” people and things very well, thus can asses situation and people swiftly. It sounds not cool whatever, but when I read his way of facing enemies, it gives me the chill. This guy IS scary.

After reading this far, I think his character quite resembles Hikigaya Hachiman from “oregairu”. Hikigaya used to spend his recess time in class with “observing” his classmates and he indeed can asses his surrounding so well, BUT due to his past trauma, he chooses not to associate with others. While our MC here doesn’t reject others’ approach or closing himself from his surroundings, but he observes people in the same style. Hikki (Don’t call me Hikki) is similar in keeping his distance from people he don’t like and somehow can fit quite easily into personal space of people he admitted. How he converse so sarcastically yet not filled with hatred with Yukino, resembles how the mc talks to other people. Personally, the mc is kind of Hikki if he didn’t get to be with the any girls in oregairu, become a private eye and spend the rest of his life single.

C. Shone Jump style

I like how the world is being revealed slowly as the story progressed. It’s like RPG, you will open a new map after you finished some quests. He will eventually go to another Kingdom, another City, heck into the Demon Realms too.

The MC will also gather party members, like in a RPG. I’m sure I had mentioned that he will engage relationship with many people. His community will eventually take form in supporting him when he face enemies. And oddly, the author seems to adopt Shonen Jump’s style where some enemies will join protagonist side after we beat them. I like how the author apply that pattern in his story. It’s not cheesy like in Shonen Jump. I just love to read how the boss from last chapter who is described so scary, wicked etc, but then when he/she turned into an ally in the next chapter, he/she turned tsundere, or stupid, or wacky etc.

D. It’s Harem!?????

I’ve told you in the intro that he will meet gurrllllzzz. A Lady Knight, obedient Disciple, unfortunate Priestes, energetic tailor, dem- (SHHHH! Don’t spoil it yet), right sorry! It’s not that all will have love affection to him. On the contrary, they will look like close to him but not as we thought. But personally, I wish he will be a thing with the lady knight. If you’ve read it, please tell me who’s your favorite.

Conclussion

• If you like grand world concept story with many plot twist, you should read this.
• If you like how normal people like us can brave the world full of OverPowered Beings, you should read this.
• If you think you’re a normie with great community like Persona mcs, try read this.
• If you think you have lived a peaceful life, try read this and think twice.
• If you can live without knowing Kyon’s true name after watching Haruhi, you should read this.

Other Media

• This series also released a manga adaptation drawn by Sasamine Kou (笹峰コウ). Currently they have released volume 03 (per this posting date). But they also released a web comic version which is updated periodically at Mag Comi (Try it. It’s FREE!)

Links

Light Novel is currently released vol 01 – 03 by Hifumi Shobo（一二三書房）under the label of Saga Forest（サーガフォレスト）per this posting date. You can buy them officially through booklive.com by clicking the link here.

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This series also released a manga adaptation which is published by MAG Garden (マッグガーデン) under the label of MAG Garden Comics Beat’s Series (マッグガーデンコミックスBeat’sシリーズ). The author is Sasamine Kou (笹峰コウ). Currently they have released volume 03 per this posting date. You can buy them officially here.

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