ダンジョンに出会いを求めるのは間違っているだろうか

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Light Novel #1

by Fujino Omori, 大森藤ノ, Suzuhito Yasuda (Illustrator)

迷宮都市オラリオ──『ダンジョン』と通称される壮大な地下迷宮を保有する巨大都市。未知という名の興奮、輝かしい栄誉、そして可愛い女の子とのロマンス。人の夢と欲望全てが息を潜めるこの場所で、少年は一人の小さな「神様」に出会った。　「よし、ベル君、付いてくるんだ！　【ファミリア】入団の儀式をやるぞ！」「はいっ！　僕は強くなります！」　どの【ファミリア】にも門前払いだった冒険者志望の少年と、構成員ゼロの神様が果たした運命の出会い。　これは、少年が歩み、女神が記す、──【眷族の物語（ファミリア・ミィス）】──　大森藤ノ×ヤスダスズヒトのコンビが贈る、GA文庫大賞初の≪大賞≫受賞作、ここに開幕！！　

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Manga, Adventure, Fiction, Romance, Action

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 11, 2013

About the author

OOMORI Fujino
Name (in native language): 大森藤ノ
Associated Names:
OHMORI Fujino
OMORI Fujino
ŌMORI Fujino

Reviews

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I still don't yet know how to "grade/mark" comic/graphic/manga novels as I haven't read many. I've judged it on my enjoyment, the drawing and the story itself. And so for those reasons I've given it 4 Stars ⭐️.
The story was fun and kept me interested (not just the way it is going, but the characters involved and the idea of all the various Gods (Northern and Southern European to Asian)), the drawing was excellent; I loved the dungeon fight scenes and also the city scapes. The story is an interesting one, and I must admit I'm interested in seeing where it goes.

I still don't know if these types of books are for me, but for the time being I'm enjoying the experience

[Kenchiin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's be honest: the writing isn't the reason why I read this, so I couldn't care less about that.
Nice world setting.

[Wint · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do not read this if you hate the following:
- Swear words
- Yuck stuff
- Blood (Even pic of bloods)
So if you hate some of the stuff above then DO NOT READ THIS. Thank you.

[Quiet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolute garbage; some of the worst writing, or at least translation, I've ever come across.
And yet--- I had a lot of fun reading this.

This book will be appreciated by hardcore gamers only. Otherwise, drop this thing and run, as it's, objectively, trash. But for those 'in the know' of its elements, particularly those familiar with the JRPG, and a good splash of Harem Anime, then this book is stupid, silly, and satisfying fun.

[Ilias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and an easy read

[Niquie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before I go into the plot and my feelings about it I just wanted to make it clear that my sense of humor… well I there are times I don’t find things funny that other people do. When watching a comedy I notice I usually laugh if there’s a laugh track, but no laugh track leads me to not realize a joke was being made.

Why am I mentioning this? Well there was no laugh track in this book, so even though I know it’s humorous, I wasn’t sure what exactly was. I pretty much took this book seriously (except a scene or two) and as a result some things went over my head. This may (or may not) be reflected in my review.

Now, how to describe Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? It’s basically about a boy named Bell who’s actually a rabbit. His sole goal is to create a harem (thanks to his grandfather who raised him) and believes the only way to do that is to become an adventurer. Then he falls in love.

But it’s complicated. Plus a bunch of other girls are interested in him, but thanks to his low self esteem he doesn’t notice. He also has a cheaty skill he doesn’t know about thanks to the Goddess he serves. That’s pretty much it.

To make it even simpler, Bell tries to get stronger as random girls think of him.

I guess I’ll start with the biggest problem I had. The changes from 1st to 3rd to 1st to 3rd person POV. Sometimes that works, but here I just didn’t understand it. Bell’s POV is 1st person, character’s not Bell are in 3rd (side note: usually their POV had something to do with Bell). Okay, I understand that.

But then Bell’s POV switched to 3rd midway through the book and at the end of the book. Why? I don’t understand Fujino Omori. If Bell was going to be randomly written in 3rd person POV why use 1st at all? What’s worse is Omori seemed more comfortable writing 3rd than 1st, at least to me. But more on that later.

I usually don’t talk about world building, but the world building here stood out. It was so simple. This pretty much takes place in a fantasy setting similar to a JRPG. There’s a dungeon, monsters (who even spawn fully grown in the dungeon), a guild, leveling up, etc.

Gods and goddesses are introduced, but they seem heavily inspired/based on existing norse and greek gods. What’s weird is some of the goddesses were based on gods. Take Hephaestus and Loki, they’re women in the book but the gods they are based on are men. It seemed odd, but I don’t really know much about this subject and the author has the right to take liberties. I just wish Omori had been more creative with the gods and goddesses then.

Now to be super picky:

- I found the whole reason the gods and goddesses decided to mingle with humans pretty boring.

- There were words mentioned that stood out as off in this kind of world. Like taxi and bull fighting (taxi more). They seemed randomly mentioned and more like the author was taking a short cut to explaining what was going on/being done.

I guess I feel like Omori took the easy way out creating this world.

Now there is a harem in this book. It feels pretty weak since Bell spent so much time fighting than hanging out with the girls who like him. If it wasn’t for some of the girl’s POVs I might not have realized they liked him. Also, Bell says he wants a harem, but it feels like he’s all talk.

Bell’s appeal seems to be his cute rabbit like personality and appearance. I guess in this kind of world he comes off as different, like a breath of fresh air. I personally found him naïve, I don’t want to say stupid, but he sure seemed pure and innocent. I did like that even though he had a cheaty skill it didn’t take away from him having to put in effort.

Overall the other characters felt underdeveloped. I didn’t really like the goddesses. They came off as catty and immature, though Hephaestus was the least annoying. I love Eina, she didn’t show up much, but I’ve always liked her type. Then there’s Aiz, the girl Bell falls in love with. Her POV gets shown too, and she just seemed interesting. I wouldn’t mind her getting more chapters.

Now my absolute favorite part of this book was the status updates. Whenever I play JRPGs I spend a lot of time leveling up. I get so into it I’ve actually burned myself out, but I love it so much, it’s so much fun. So whenever the goddess recorded Bell’s updated status I was happy.

It was interesting learning what each letter meant (I = lowest), but I did find it strange that the level system was so tough many adventurers never make it to level two. But no biggy.

I found the author’s writing improved towards the end of the book. I hope Omori just drops the 1st person POV or is more consistent with Bell’s POV next time.

Final Rating: Overall this was okay, just not for me.

[atmatos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this irritated me, but I took it for what it was and just enjoyed the ride.

[Patrícia⁷ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was just... bad on so many levels.

So. Why did I read this book, when it was objectively bad almost from the get-go.

Well, I've watched the anime (all seasons out) and it keeps getting better, but even the first season, that was focused on the whole pick up girls thing was better than this book.

What was bad:
- The writing: it was like reading the actual script for the anime. There were literally parts where the dialogue went as such: "Gwraaht", "!", "...". I have no idea what any of this means, I guess the first one is monsters growling I suppose

- The fact that Bell, the main character was 14 YEARS OLD and all the women interested in him were adults and/or hundreds of years old goddesses. And they referred to the humans as "children" which made it creepier

- The over sexualization of the women by focusing on physical attributes, like Hestia's "ridiculously big boobs" and her childish face

- It's basically a tween's fantasy, but written for adults and that is seriously creepy.

- The plot was nonsensical and thin.

[Cole Reihing · Rating 3 out of 5]

This didn’t really feel like a book, more like a dream I had when I was 14. I was watching a lot of anime, and had never been remotely close to a girlfriend. I think that guy would have loved this book.

I bought this based on title alone, as I was browsing through the manga section of a bookstore. And, to its credit, the title is engaging, as much as it is confusing. I think trying to understand exactly what it was asking from me was the selling point for me. It’s as if the book itself wanted me to enter it’s world and confront deep questions about the ethics of some of these classic fantasy tropes, where men, in exchange for bold acts of violence, receive a gf as a prize. Or possibly, should you attempt to routinely risk your life for the fleeting attempt that you may find your true goal along the way.

If you want a book to satisfy your deep criticisms of the patriarchy, and the things humans do for love, don’t read this book. There’s nothing for you here.

This is a book where every woman in the world is hot, has a massive chest, and loves the main character. The goddess, Hestia, is called Loli Big Boobs. The main characters life altering advice is “every man needs a harem.” This is just the kind of world we’re in for. If you’re cool with that, it’s a fun read.

And, to its credit, there’s a lot of creativity in the world building. Regular life has video game mechanics here. You always know what the stakes are, because the book tells you. MC is level one, but the monster is level five. Danger. Hot girl knight is level five, so she kills monster to save him. That’s the prologue. When the main character grows, his stats get higher. The world being designed around these mechanics is fun to see, and the way that gods create different cartels doing whatever the god wants because they want to have fun with mortals is a really cool idea.

In fact, there are some really good moments in this book. The final few paragraphs really confused me because they were such a turn, and I went from reading this book as a meme to being engaged and really curious where it would go, even to the point of considering buying the next one just to understand what I read. The benefit of having simple characters is when they deviate from expectation it can be really engaging, but only if it’s done well.


Should you read this? Maybe. If you’re like me in the past, a 14 year old guy looking for wish fulfillment, I think it’s fun. And I did enjoy my time in the world, and I’m curious where it will go from here. I know there’s an anime that’s currently on Netflix, so I might just watch that. It’s campy, sometimes it’s predictable, but there’s certainly a place for art like that. 2020 sucks. Things suck a lot. This book is fun, and funny, whether or not it’s intentional, and that’s what I wanted. I’m really glad I read it. So if you have a few hours, it’s a good time.


But come on, Loli Big Boobs?

Actually, now that I think about it, best book ever made.

[Doug Bolden · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a part of me that is mostly just angry that I didn't get much chance to read books like this when I was a horny teenager. It would have been perfect for 16-year-old Doug, no doubt. All the women have big boobs and just immediately fall in love with a scrappy loser who, gosh darn it, tries his best despite sucking in most ways (including recognizing that every female character who has talked to him for more than 10-seconds is hungry for that teenage loser flesh). That's the kind of thing that I could have used in my then-life.

Scrappy loser wakes up on a couch and a she-looks-like-a-kid-with-big-boobs-but-she-is-really-a-god goddess is big-boobs all up on his chest while he is embarrassed? HA! Yessir. It would have been heavenly.

Forty-something Doug is less amused by such antics despite sharing some of teenager Doug's appreciations. What I did like, though, is just the world itself. I am a sucker for metagaming and JRPGs. This book combines them in spades. There is a dungeon, called Dungeon, that adventurers travel down and fight monsters and level up. The Dungeon literally spawns the monsters from its walls proper random encounter style. Adventurers bind with a god who grants them the ability to be adventurers by inscribing stats on the adventurers' backs using godblood like ink. Just that alone is golden to me. Characters with literal character sheets on their back going into a Dungeon with monster spawns to grind and level up? And when the monsters die they drop shards and sometimes other bits of loot before fading away? And this series makes this "world within a literal game-of-gods" make something like sense? Ah...so good.

Unfortunately, for current me (and what would have been fortunate for younger me), the world building takes backseat to the various horny antics and often overly-extended middlin' dialogue. I'm into the series, no doubt, but every time person-with-[big]-boobs shows up and insta-falls for scrappy loser who tends to bumble I found myself mostly wishing there was more Dungeon-delving going on. A somewhat glitchy, maybe over-literal translation does not help this imbalance. There's a line where the central goddess falls out on the floor with her butt in the air and the translation is something literally like, "The goddess was laying on the floor in a naughty pose." Good lord.

In other words, I am definitely going to dive more into this series and see how the world building goes and generally wish all these young, beautiful, oblivious people good luck towards getting their horny on. Ah, youth. Wasted on 'em, am I right?

For those who do like purposefully cringey romantic comedy with a fantasy twist, you will no doubt get even more enjoyment out of this one. I'm talking to you, 16-year-old Doug, you sweaty, confused bastard.

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really very happy to see that light novels have finally begun to gain somewhat of a foothold in the English markets. Initially the only works that North America received were the ones that were already extremely well known and received in the United States like the Haruhi series (also released by Yen Press), but it's nice to see something new.

This is a pretty cute series overall and one that I have to admit is fairly cleverly done. DanMachi (as it's known overseas) is pretty much a story about an RPG experience (leveling up, slaying monsters, drop items) without it actually being a group of kids playing a game online, which is the normal way that stories like this tend to unfold. The mechanism for everything is fairly well thought out- you can only level up if you are part of a goddess's house and even then it's difficult to get into said houses. Our main character of Bell is kind of a loser when it comes to adventuring, as he isn't particularly strong and has shown himself to be somewhat unwilling to do some of the things to improve his other stats (reading to raise his intelligence, for example). If you've ever read a manga, light novel, or an anime of any type, you can guess that obviously, Bell does begin to grow stronger for seemingly no reason at all, but the author has given us a fairly good reason for this. (Which I'm not going to divulge because spoilers.)

As this type of light novel was aimed at teenagers, this book doesn't really have anything truly objectionable in it. There are some slightly perverted actions here and there (one girl groping another girl's top half) but it's done for laughs and not for titillation. So far this doesn't seem to be that sort of book, and even though I know that there will be some more mention of things like that, it won't really have anything that parents need to be overly cautious about. It's a pretty good read for teenagers, adults, or mature younger readers (as there is some slightly graphic description of monster fighting).

I whole heartedly recommend this work.

[Shannon Luchies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got the Yen Press edition of the Light Novel

It's... uhm... it's a very ODD fusion of a sword and sorcery novel with modern slang and RPG elemwnts. And the mix is very jarring, frankly. Didn't like, no plans to buy book 2.

[Liam || Books 'n Beards · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man that was trash. Fun trash, but trash.

[Wilker Sousa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amor demais essa novel ❤️

[MC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? takes place in the city of Orario in a fictional world where gods and goddesses of myths are very much real, though perhaps slightly different from hoe we would recognize them in the actual myths. On top of this, many of the concepts common to RPGs is essentially an integral part of life for the economy, culture, so forth of the city.

As the story opens, our young hero, Bell Cranell, is fleeing for his life from a massive Minotaur. With only a few weeks on the job as an "adventurer", he is a tad behind where he ought to be so far. He certainly is not prepared to face a Minotaur (or anything else, for that matter) that is from a dungeon far lower than where he is adventuring currently.

However, Bell's whole life is about to change when he is saved by the beautiful, and perhaps one of the most talented adventurers alive, Aiz Wallenstein. Feeling overwhelmed and terrified, Bell flees without thanking her. Still this does lead to an interesting development, in that Bell is very much smitten with Aiz, and so dedicates himself to rising as fast as he can so he can be at her level, and thus be worthy of her.

Of course, none of this sits well with his goddess sponsor, and head of their tiny (at only the two of them) familia, Hestia. In this setting, a familia is a group run by a god or goddess. You see, many years ago in the story, the gods and goddesses grew bored and decided that they wished to come down and live among the "children" as they call the mortals. Be they human, demi-human, animal person, or other creatures, all of these mortals had lives that fascinated the deities. Hence they came down to the lower world and made a pact to not use a their powers other than to bless those who associate with them and form familia with them. True to the name, the familia are very much like informal families that stick together through thick and thin to serve their patron god or goddessgoddess and each other.

Anyways, Hestia has a huge crush on Bell. In fact, she might even be in love with him. Of course Bell is completely ignorant of this fact, and for good reason. It isn't stated whether this is true or not, but I get the feeling that the gods and humans being together is not common in this fictional world. Hence, the reason for Bell not knowing of Hestia's feelings for him.

Add to all of this, his incredible naivete and early weakness, and he doesn't seem to be the most promising prospect for an adventurer. But Bell has a secret ability, that only Hestia knows about. Even Bell doesn't know he has this talent. It's called the Realis Phase. Essentially, the more he determined he becomes to succeed, the stronger he'll get. And rapidly, for that matter.

So essentially, he has being the "Determinator" as an actual power. This is the charm of the story. Or at least, part of the charm. Bell is relatable, in a very real way. He's not an instant expert at anything. True he has a super power of rising unnaturally fast, but the story of hard work really is a good moral and presents a charactrer you can root for.

In fact, it seems his naïveté, niceness, hard work, so on, are seen as impressive in-story as well. His woobieness is something that makes others want to protect him.

Now, he isn't completely pure, though. As the title suggests, part of Bell's desire to become an adventurer patrolling Dungeons is to rescue beautiful girls and start a harem. I kid you not. It starts out like a cleaner version of High School DxD, and then rapidly switches direction.

The other impressive part of the tale was how the author took various RPG elements and made them into a workable and remarkably believable part of the fictional world. Anyone likes RPGs, or certain Japanese media dranchises like Log Horizon, Sword Art Online, so on, will really like this story.

The characters are funny and really draw you in as well. You find yourself cheering for Bell and Hestia, and hoping that Eina, Bell's half-elf advisor, and Aiz pay attention to him. Also, seeing how much Belle and Hestia sacrifice for each other is really cool.

One of the pics in the front gallery might make you think this isn't your type of story. But don't worry, it is more about one goddess being a bully and not about some weird story. Just a warning so folks don't get the wrong idea, and refrain from reading a good fun book.

I can't wait until volume 2 is released at the end of April so I can continue the adventures of familia Hestia.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon is the rare book that I didn't like, but also have no desire to eviscerate. It's cheerful and breezy, but I just thought it was kind of stupid. I mean, after the length of the whole book, the hero should notice that the girls- and by this, I mean every girl in the book- is into him, and with all of the video game-style nonsense they describe, I'm not sure why the author didn't just go for an "in the game" style light novel. Those aren't real narrative problems, though. They just kind of annoyed me.

What this book does have going for it is that almost everyone is just really gosh-darned nice. Bell is fabulously nice, Hestia, his protector goddess, is very sweet, and most of the townspeople greet the main characters with smiles and waves. Even the unapproachable pretty girl has an aura of unmistakable niceness. Most of the bad guys are, at worst, being snarky at parties, and even the major villain of the book acts out of misdirected emotion, not malice. It makes for a weirdly pleasant fictional bubble world.

I didn't at all like the narration of this book, though. It switches between first and third person so casually that it's not always clear at first who's talking, and though Bell is the only first person narrator, it inexplicably talks about him in third person for at least one passage. It's an odd, sloppy, and confusing narrative device, and it drove me crazy.

Really, if you want to read a fluffy book about nice people trying to help each other, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon isn't appalling. The narrative style is bizarre and the lead is miraculously dense, but rather than being truly bad, it just wasn't to my taste. I can see a lot of people really enjoying it.

[Selena Pigoni · Rating 2 out of 5]

So normally, "Yen On" (as the Yen Press light novel offshoot is called) does a pretty good job translating light novels.

I know this is a first printing that I'm reading, but dear lord, did anyone proofread this thing? There are typos everywhere. And not just simple, easily missed typos, like letters being swapped or the wrong letter being used. I mean typos like dropped words, repeated sentences (though, that may have been on purpose, since it was a separate paragraph all on its own), wrong words (their instead of there), etc. I've never seen such an awful printing from Yen Press. This is the kind of thing I'd expect from Tokyopop back in the day, but not from Yen Press.



Moving on...

Story-wise, this is meh. The characters aren't particularly likable for me, the premise itself is on thin ice...

About the only thing that saved this from being a 1 star is the world building. It was fascinating how the author took common video game tropes like leveling up and monsters in dungeons and made it work in a non-video game world.

Not my thing, I'm afraid.

[Emmanuel Nevers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched the anime this is based on and fell in love with this word, its lore and all the characters. So I decided to start reading the light novels. Everything is so well fleshed out and everything is explained (i.e the magic system how familias work, the gods and power levels. This enhances the whole experiece of Bell Cranell's journey to becoming a hero!! Highly recommend this!!

[Misterious Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

It sure is not wrong, as the male character proves himself worthy

[Tarl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.

There is a lot that is done right with this book. Even through the protagonist is a uniquely haired kid (white hair, red eyes), with a hidden power that has huge potential, he doesn't really fall into the typical Mary Sue brand of character that most anime protagonists do. Instead, he often spends his time running away from the situation and trying to find the courage to change his character in order to impress a girl he likes. (while, in typical anime fashion, ignoring the girls who DO like him)

Another element that is done really well is the way the world building is done. Everything centers around the dungeon and the city around it. From the festivals, money, etc, all has to do with the dungeon and the adventurers who go into it. It's an interesting little dynamic which runs a lot of how Bell handles his life and the people around him. I found myself often wondering what it would be like if such a thing existed in our world.

Now, I will say, the writing in this book is very much like the other light novels on the market. Certain rules in writing get broken, and for those not used to it, it can be extremely distracting and disruptive to the read. It does read like it is for a younger audience, but then again, light novels are mainly geared for the YA audience. So just be aware that if you have never read a light novel before, there is a certain learning curve to it. This novel isn't as bad as some I have read, but it's still there.

In the end, this is a wonderful start to the series. Plenty of action, lots of intrigue, and a group of characters who will keep you involved as the story progresses. You can't help but fall in love with Bell and Hestia, and just where their stories will take them.

[Tani · Rating 3 out of 5]

We picked up a copy of this at an anime convention earlier in the year because my husband is a huge fan of the anime. I enjoyed the anime as well, so I figured I would give the light novels a shot.

As others have mentioned, this is a complicated book to review. Grammatically and stylistically, it's strange. The perspective makes strange shifts throughout the book, going from Bell's first person POV, to a variety of other characters in third person. There are also some blatant editing misses scattered throughout the book, ranging from missing words to repeated lines to spelling errors. Having read some other light novels in the original Japanese, I can say that it's likely that the stylistic issues are inherited from the original text, but I wish that the simple editing issues had been fixed prior to publication, as they were a detractor.

Other than that, I enjoyed the book. Bell is a very enjoyable character, and I liked having a more in-depth look at what's going on in his head. I think I felt a bit more of an emotional connection in this part of the story thanks to having watched the anime previously. The world-building is a lot of fun, and I felt like there was more detail given than I had gotten from the anime, so that was appreciated. And, of course, as with any light novel, the text itself is short and fairly fast-paced, which is always good.

We own the first three of this series, so I intend to start on the second one right away.

[Jorge Rosas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, easy to read, light with a simple plot and a good background world, this book serves as a base because by itself it would have been disappointing but knowing that there are many others ahead give me another point of view about it.

[Felo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fights were quite bad in this book (you have to imagine like 70% of what's happening), but other than that it was a pretty cool read.

[AB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually good. I hope it gets better.

[Jay Semeniuk]

again, you dont see this if you know me but tbh it was actually really interesting

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is the sole purpose for an adventurer to go into a dungeon each day? Indeed, to pick up women.
Wait a minute... since when is that a fortune-hunter’s goal?
Apparently it is for the protagonist of ‘Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?’, a light novel written by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda.


Story:
The story is about Bell, a fourteen-year old adventurer, who ventures daily into the Dungeon. Where others do it to gain wealth and glory, he does it to pick up girls.
During one of his trips below the ground he gets caught in a perilous situation, only to be saved by a lovely mysterious lady. This let’s him realize the dangers of his job and reconsider some things.
From that moment on, he wants to become stronger in order to never let that happen again.
The story in and of itself is quite enjoyable to read. The characters are quirky in their own ways and the world is well-built, it can make one even think of games such as ‘Kingdoms of Amalur’ or ‘World of Warcraft’.
Despite Bell starting out as a person who only seems to care about women, he slowly but surely turns into a boy who genuinely want to become stronger and better so that he can provide for his Familia (a family/group founded by a god/goddess which consists of adventurers). He and Hestia barely manage to scrape by, but they are content with living together, no matter the bad circumstances. You can feel the love in their relationship and feel bad for Hestia when she wants to become more than what they are.
The humour is a bit on the dry side, but if you (like me) have a sense for that, you are in for a treat and will crack a smile.
Overall, a fun and interesting tale which makes the book hard to put down.
Art:
The art is simplistic, yet portrays each character’s special features well. These unique aspects keeps things from getting all mixed up and make it clear who is who.
In my opinion, the art does not add much to the story other than giving each persona a definitive look and prevents, as I said before, persons from being mistaken for another.
Style & Atmosphere:
The story is written in short sentences and the book itself is fairly thin, which makes it easy to read. This also helps you in getting through the book rather quickly, but you will not be bored throughout it, I promise you.
Every now and then one can find a grammatical error, but it cannot be helped since this is a translation and very small mistakes can be easily overlooked.
Even though the world is well-built, not much is known of it. Only that Gods and Goddesses came from Tenkai (the realm of gods) to Gekai (the realm of mankind), several different races are living together in a society and that there is a Dungeon (of which its origins are unknown). It is only through little notices in the story that you get a quick glimpse of the world’s history and the way it is built. Perhaps more will be revealed in later volumes.
Conclusion:
All in all, I had a blast reading this. This was my first time reading this kind of story and I honestly thought I would dislike it (I refrain from anything that has to do with harems and men only interested in women), but I was proven wrong. From the first until the last page I enjoyed reading the tale and was easily immersed in the fantasy world.
If you are looking for a hilarious fantasy book to pass a bit of time with, then pick up ‘Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon?’.
However, this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who are looking for more after reading the first volume: there are more volumes (11 as of this moment), a manga (8 volumes, published by Square Enix) and an anime adaptation (13 episodes, produced by GENCO).
For the more serious among us who want more of a deep story, I would suggest not to pick this up and instead look at more in-depth fantasy books such as ‘The Duellists Trilogy’ by Julia Knight (which is amazing ).

[Julian Patton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great story with a lot of potential down the road. The world is captivating and the characters personalities, motivations, and struggles interesting. The only few bad things I have with this book is that the book tries too hard to cater to obvious demographic(people who love anime) with stereotypical anime tropes and memes. The other problem I have is with the main character Bell himself. The many things that happen around him are interesting,but honestly he himself is not that interesting. He's just your stereotypical shy male protagonist that all the females want to sleep with( well most of them do anyway) but he is not only blind to their obvious affection, he is also hesitant with his sexuality. Which is annoying because the main reason he became an adventurer in the first place was to pick up chicks. Bell's personality just doesn't mix with his goals and he supposedly wants a harem even though he is only chasing after one girl. Personally I would have preferred if Bell spent some of his down time practicing seduction techniques from some in universe form of pick up artistry. Granted I know most of that stuff doesn't work it would at least make it seem like he actually tries to pick up girls and mixed with his shy awkward character it would actually make him a more interesting character overall. I digress this series has a lot of potential, I just hope Bell himself actually changes as a person as the series continues.

[Russell Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

In anticipation of the second season of DanMachi, rather than rewatch the first season I'm reading the books. As common for many translated novels, the prose is fairly basic but solid. This isn't the type of story that you would reread paragraphs to appreciate the word choice, this is the type of story where you just sit back and enjoy the characters, world, and story. In those respects, this was an enjoyable book.

The setup involves three circumstances: 1) the Gods of various pantheons have become bored with their immortal lives in the heavenly realms and have descended to the world of mortals to mingle and be entertained. 2) There is a labyrinth that spawns monsters underneath a particular city which is where this story takes place. 3) The Gods have agreed to seal their powers while in the mortal realm, but have the ability to 'bless' a mortal with a spark of divine power that allows them to grow in strength, speed, intelligence, and even develop magic powers in many cases.

This basically sets us up for a Gamelit style dungeon delving story, but with a bit of a different flavor with the Gods running around.

I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys fantasy adventuring stories or Gamelit/Litrpg. The main struggle with these light novels is feeling like you get your money's worth since they tend to be a bit on the shorter side for a novel, but be a bit more expensive since you are paying for the translator's efforts as well as the original author's.

[Susie Toman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited when I received a free copy through a Goodreads Giveaway. On the surface it seemed to have a lot going for it. I expected a silly Dungeons and Dragons themed story where the main character is reminiscent of Tenchi Muyo with plenty of girls fawning and fighting over him.

I'm sure that's probably what it is once you get into it...but I found the barrier to entry incredibly thick and abandoned it 1/3 of the way through.

I could handle the info-dump about how leveling up works, and it isn't the first time I've encountered a book that changes from first person narrative to third person narrative. That I could handle.

What drove me away was the lack of dialogue tags. The book literally reads like someone took a manga, wrote out the action on the page, and just plopped the dialogue down in quotations. Nothing was more frustrating than reading a page and realizing I had lost track of who was speaking. This became increasingly upsetting when there were more than two characters all interacting at the same time. I feel that some of the nuances in the original Japanese that would have allowed a reader to follow along may have been lost in the translation.

In any case, my suggestion would be to shy away from the novel format and pick it up in its manga incarnation. No doubt everything is much more clear that way.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well what a long title. After watching last month the anime I was interested in the light novels. With 8 out there in english and more in Japanese I try to read it so I could dwell more on that world.

I must say that this first book convert the first three episodes of the anime. Very very entertaining reading material. As almost alll light novels it's not literature and in my opinion is not even on the same level of 40K or Warhammer fantasy novels BUT they serve their purpose... giving us images and dwelling a bit farther on the world of Warhammer.

The novel is told in two perspectives. One Bell (which is told in the first perspective) and then some entrances from other characters (in the third perspective). It was very interesting to read about the leveling system, the world and the gods. There is also some information about other characters we only glimpse on the anime. I expected more BUT I was satisfied with the result. I read very quickly.

Unfortunately due to the original being in Japanese I can hardly say what is wrong with the pace, flow.... Is it problem with the translator OR the writer? We will never know... Nevertheless, try it if you like the anime OR if you want something light... (sorry for the pun).