And I had such high hopes for this manga at the beginning.
This was predictable after the author went so far as to greenlight turning Angela into one of the Loli Brigade. Predictable indeed: most JP authors, apparently, believe strongly that holding back in a high-stakes physical conflict--especially ones in which one can easily believe wagers the lives of the combatants--isn't a solid way to end up either crippled or dead. It's done especially badly here, in a way that's nevertheless common: if Masaru was actually strong enough to dismiss that fight as one he doesn't need to take seriously, he shouldn't have been taking any serious damage.
In addition, most JP authors believe just as strongly that muscular development has value inversely proportionate to the degree of that development in comparison to a character--usually an MC--devoid of such muscular development. The moment their swords broke, I knew immediately that Masaru would win. Why? Because he's smaller. No other reason.
But hey--at least there are flatchests, right? Four of them, now? Five of them? Whatever. Speaking of, place your bets on the fight with Francesca. (And Ms. Beastfolk was getting salty over the truth: Masaru IS weak, narrative contrivances such as "blessings" aside.)
Mostly agreed, JP authors compared to Korean or even Chinese are becoming more and more foreign to me. Either i became much older and can't accept their mentality or JP authors are getting worser and worser (I think they becoming worser). I started to read/watch JP content 16y ago. Started to dislike typical harem series about 10y ago. This one was that typical one but had some major frustrating point taken out of equation i.e. Indecisive MC towards harem members (i dislike this type of fetish where before they kiss someone enters the room, seen it over 1000 times literally).
But despite that everything else that comes with your typical harem rom-com is here, I know these Isekai mangas typically portray "losers" of Japan in order to ponder to their main audience i.e. losers and outcasts (during school years). But sometimes you read some great mangas, novels, light novels and then you step to this shit.
In any case Masaru is weak, personality wise, while his cheat skills make him strong, this stupid move to make his opponent stomp on him is a bad move from the authors, what about other people who he defeated who were so called "S" rankers?
The worst part this edgy Francesca will potentially become a new harem member.
Before chapter 31 (3 years ago) I rated it 5/5 in my library, now it is 3.5/5, It had hope to diverge from your typical stupidity yet it followed through even more strongly after that. They only difference between any other carbon copy of Action/Fantasy/Harem is that harem members are actually wifes and had crossed the line of "holding hands".
What I utterly dislike though these types of mangas portray japanese people in a very bad light, if my only source of information were harem type isekai mangas I would despise and disrespect anything japanese. These type of MC's are NTR fetish MC's, you simply want to take their girls and do the deed while he watches. They are so "good" and "selfless" that it makes me wanna puke, simply because those points are surface level goodness and selflessness. If you dive deeper in philosophy and psyche these types of MC's are the very people who let the evil run rampant in our and fictional world.
These types of mangas are literally made for hikikomoris and outcasts who are weak and in their head they have this running thought : I'm a good and kind person, so why am I rejected by the world, it's not fair. The worst part they unrealistically portray how these "females" are attracted to them. He showed "goodness and kindness" next moment she is head over heels in love with him. Women like kind men, but they like when this kindness is directed towards them and is not shared with everyone as a hot item on a sale.
P.S. Sorry for the long rant, but I always get frustrated when something with potential flops very hard, I thought it will jump a little bit higher than other fantasy/harems only to see it fall in line with others even more strongly than many others. Chinese are much better at harems, MC's are most of the time are overly arrogant but at least they have a thing called self respect which japanese MC's in most fantasy/harem(basically in all harems) types lack.