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異世界の沙汰は社畜次第 / Isekai no sata wa shachiku shidai - manga #3
The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (Manga), Vol. 3
Although summoned to a fantasy world, with a new title and a stunning knight captain by his side, Kondou’s life is on the up and up! Or so it seems from the outside. But three meals a day, rest breaks, no overtime...it irks Kondou to no end! But when danger looms and Kondou realizes he’s not in Japan anymore, can Aresh break through his bitter shell and show him there’s more to life than just work?!
178 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2022
51 people are currently reading
447 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
May 23, 2023
This is exactly the flavor of gay and stupid that I love.
Kondou: *works out that Aresh is not having sex with him for purely altruistic reasons*
also Kondou: for professional reasons, I will now be participating when we have medically necessary sex. Is this sending mixed messages? Who knows, I have budgets to do.
Kondou: *works out that Aresh is not having sex with him for purely altruistic reasons*
also Kondou: for professional reasons, I will now be participating when we have medically necessary sex. Is this sending mixed messages? Who knows, I have budgets to do.
February 8, 2025
Aresh has got it so bad for Kondou. It's so cute!
November 8, 2023
The translation is superb. Can't wait to see where the story is heading.
August 10, 2023
I'M LEFT WITH A CLIFFHANGER ONCE AGAIN funny how the supposed extra is doing something much more relevant than the holy maiden. i just want to see kondou to rest his overworked ass istg
July 4, 2024
I LOVE THIS SERIES. I love Kondou and Aresh’s relationship even though they’re both oblivious DUMMIES.
December 26, 2023
I felt confused many times while reading this, and there wasn’t enough sex healing if I’m being honest 😂
May 21, 2025
I really like the plot of this series. I’m actually really invested in the story and I wasn’t even mad that the relationship didn’t really progress that much in this volume!
December 29, 2024
3.5/5stars
still very fun but idk how this plot is really making sense lol like why is our mc involved with all of this
still very fun but idk how this plot is really making sense lol like why is our mc involved with all of this
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October 1, 2023Here I am, writing a review for a manga adaptation of a light novel, a review that I’ve put way more thought into than the genre can probably justify. It’s called a light novel, Alex. The clue is in the name. But I’m getting married in a couple days and my brain copes with stressful situations by hyper-fixating on trivial subjects. QED, I’m on Goodreads writing an unnecessarily detailed review with an unnecessarily detailed explanatory introduction, instead of you know MY MARRIAGE VOWS [laughing/crying emoji].
Cards on the table, I haven’t read a lot of manga. Because I don’t really enjoy it. And I find it confusing. I can’t tell if it’s a cultural disconnect, and I think that may be a part of it, but obviously there are plenty of non-Japanese people who enjoy manga. But I find most of it completely bewildering. And then I feel mildly guilty for feeling like it was written by extraterrestrials, because that seems uncomfortably xenophobic. But as with most things I don’t understand, I can’t help ruminating on why I don’t understand it or like it, instead of shrugging and moving on like a less obsessive person would do.
This volume of the series is, unfortunately, a good example of characters acting in ways that are nonsensical to me. Volume 1 & 2 were silly and enjoyable, but all of a sudden in vol. 3 Aresh is doing all this unjustified yelling and weird overprotective stuff that was too much. I mean, Kondou was ambushed and attacked by a group of disgruntled knights at the beginning of this volume and left for dead, so you’d think the author could have used that angle if they wanted to give Aresh reason to be (even more) protective. But instead he’s freaking out over Kondou styling his hair differently than usual for the ball or whatever (…and bro, I’m here to tell you it didn’t even look that different). And as a character trait, I don’t find “yelling at someone who’s been physically assaulted recently over their hairstyle” endearing.
Another part of the me-not-enjoying-manga thing is the ratio of UST to whatever the opposite of UST is. Sexual catharsis? So many mangas seem to treat the UST as the point of the narrative and I just don’t enjoy that. There’s got to be a measured build up, probably with some spikes and dips along the way, but ultimately with a payoff that makes the tension feel earned. Without that, I get bored and frustrated and the whole things feels pointless.
What’s intrinsically baked into this plot structure is the “they have to have sex because magic” trope. Which, to my mind, exists to showcase strangers having to negotiate physical and emotional intimacy in a way that isn’t possible in reality because it would be rape-y. It’s like the fake-dating trope to the power of 1000. The entire point of stories like this is that two characters are forced to have Feelings with a capital F together, but these two barely discuss anything at all ever. They each individually speculate about and obsess over what the other’s motivation is, but don’t ask the simple questions that they have ample opportunity to ask each other. And I would appreciate them talking to each other because I don’t actually know anything about either of them other than Kondou is a workaholic and Aresh is intimidating. Imagine. Two characters having a conversation that establishes their history, state-of-mind, goals, insecurities, likes, dislikes, regrets, sexual orientation, past relationships, strengths, short-comings, literally anything about them, for both the audience and the other characters. So that they can establish, I don’t know, a relationship or something. That’s a thing that romance stories typically have. But no, I still don’t even know if either of them actually enjoys the sex they’ve had on multiple occasions. Which is a problem. I can deduce that we’re supposed to assume they do enjoy it, but I’m not reading this fluffy fantasy BL manga for the opportunity to make cognitive leaps, okay. So far this has been a cycle of interpersonal conflict, tension, out-of-the-blue sex, and fruitless speculation, which was fun at first but is steadily wearing out it’s welcome.
Maybe all the whining I’m doing stems from the fact that, in general, I appreciate explicitness in love scenes over the “tasteful” pan-away, behind-closed-doors approach. In a romance, I’m here to get to know the characters and enjoy watching their relationship unfold. And sex generally tells you a lot about a character or a relationship. To my mind, it’s a very important part of that whole sïtuàtiōn and unless the author handles the story just right, it can feel jarring when it’s completely absent. And when about 50% of the interactions between the characters involve sex that isn’t depicted and then is never discussed between them, I’m nonplussed by what we’re meant to be doing here.
Also, the author chose to introduce a bunch of new characters and world-building in this volume which were not as well integrated as in the previous two. But I do like the art, which sounds condescending after I just complained all over the book, but I actually do. The style is clean and incisive and the expressiveness of the illustration works for the angsty brooding scenes, the over-the-top melodramatic scenes, and everything in between.
Has this entire review been a pointless attempt to parse my negative reaction to a highly successful form of entertainment that is ultimately not for me and is doing just fine without people like me “getting” it?
….Who can say.
Cards on the table, I haven’t read a lot of manga. Because I don’t really enjoy it. And I find it confusing. I can’t tell if it’s a cultural disconnect, and I think that may be a part of it, but obviously there are plenty of non-Japanese people who enjoy manga. But I find most of it completely bewildering. And then I feel mildly guilty for feeling like it was written by extraterrestrials, because that seems uncomfortably xenophobic. But as with most things I don’t understand, I can’t help ruminating on why I don’t understand it or like it, instead of shrugging and moving on like a less obsessive person would do.
This volume of the series is, unfortunately, a good example of characters acting in ways that are nonsensical to me. Volume 1 & 2 were silly and enjoyable, but all of a sudden in vol. 3 Aresh is doing all this unjustified yelling and weird overprotective stuff that was too much. I mean, Kondou was ambushed and attacked by a group of disgruntled knights at the beginning of this volume and left for dead, so you’d think the author could have used that angle if they wanted to give Aresh reason to be (even more) protective. But instead he’s freaking out over Kondou styling his hair differently than usual for the ball or whatever (…and bro, I’m here to tell you it didn’t even look that different). And as a character trait, I don’t find “yelling at someone who’s been physically assaulted recently over their hairstyle” endearing.
Another part of the me-not-enjoying-manga thing is the ratio of UST to whatever the opposite of UST is. Sexual catharsis? So many mangas seem to treat the UST as the point of the narrative and I just don’t enjoy that. There’s got to be a measured build up, probably with some spikes and dips along the way, but ultimately with a payoff that makes the tension feel earned. Without that, I get bored and frustrated and the whole things feels pointless.
What’s intrinsically baked into this plot structure is the “they have to have sex because magic” trope. Which, to my mind, exists to showcase strangers having to negotiate physical and emotional intimacy in a way that isn’t possible in reality because it would be rape-y. It’s like the fake-dating trope to the power of 1000. The entire point of stories like this is that two characters are forced to have Feelings with a capital F together, but these two barely discuss anything at all ever. They each individually speculate about and obsess over what the other’s motivation is, but don’t ask the simple questions that they have ample opportunity to ask each other. And I would appreciate them talking to each other because I don’t actually know anything about either of them other than Kondou is a workaholic and Aresh is intimidating. Imagine. Two characters having a conversation that establishes their history, state-of-mind, goals, insecurities, likes, dislikes, regrets, sexual orientation, past relationships, strengths, short-comings, literally anything about them, for both the audience and the other characters. So that they can establish, I don’t know, a relationship or something. That’s a thing that romance stories typically have. But no, I still don’t even know if either of them actually enjoys the sex they’ve had on multiple occasions. Which is a problem. I can deduce that we’re supposed to assume they do enjoy it, but I’m not reading this fluffy fantasy BL manga for the opportunity to make cognitive leaps, okay. So far this has been a cycle of interpersonal conflict, tension, out-of-the-blue sex, and fruitless speculation, which was fun at first but is steadily wearing out it’s welcome.
Maybe all the whining I’m doing stems from the fact that, in general, I appreciate explicitness in love scenes over the “tasteful” pan-away, behind-closed-doors approach. In a romance, I’m here to get to know the characters and enjoy watching their relationship unfold. And sex generally tells you a lot about a character or a relationship. To my mind, it’s a very important part of that whole sïtuàtiōn and unless the author handles the story just right, it can feel jarring when it’s completely absent. And when about 50% of the interactions between the characters involve sex that isn’t depicted and then is never discussed between them, I’m nonplussed by what we’re meant to be doing here.
Also, the author chose to introduce a bunch of new characters and world-building in this volume which were not as well integrated as in the previous two. But I do like the art, which sounds condescending after I just complained all over the book, but I actually do. The style is clean and incisive and the expressiveness of the illustration works for the angsty brooding scenes, the over-the-top melodramatic scenes, and everything in between.
Has this entire review been a pointless attempt to parse my negative reaction to a highly successful form of entertainment that is ultimately not for me and is doing just fine without people like me “getting” it?
….Who can say.
August 6, 2025
Je vais devoir attendre pour lire la suite 😩 Trop hâte de les voir plus interagir cependant genre qu'ils deviennent amis, confidents etc
November 11, 2023
Es terminar un tomo y necesitar el siguiente 🫣
November 4, 2023
Ich liebe die Charaktere immer noch, nur war dieser Band etwas zäher für mich. Trotzdem freue ich mich darauf, weiterzulesen.
March 26, 2024
While I do continue to love both Seiichiro and Aresh I felt like this book had too many moving parts and in doing so never really got to focus on any one moment for long enough.
The first two volumes tended to be a bit slower but I guess this was the point where they figured they had to pick up the pace of the plot because boy did things go fast.
It definitely wasn't a deal breaker but I guess to me it just felt way too rushed. I am looking forward to the next volume and I also did manage to snag a copy of the light novel so I'll hopefully be reading that soon as well!
I did enjoy the bonus chapter though! It was a nice break from the drama of the rest of the book.
The first two volumes tended to be a bit slower but I guess this was the point where they figured they had to pick up the pace of the plot because boy did things go fast.
It definitely wasn't a deal breaker but I guess to me it just felt way too rushed. I am looking forward to the next volume and I also did manage to snag a copy of the light novel so I'll hopefully be reading that soon as well!
I did enjoy the bonus chapter though! It was a nice break from the drama of the rest of the book.
June 1, 2023
Aresh and Kondou are so cute together. You can see the feelings blooming as their time together increases. I hope the idea to deal with the miasma works. These two deserve to have just a normal relationship and break from the madness.
September 17, 2025
Amo tanto está historia 🥹💖
June 8, 2024
Plot-wise, things are definitely picking up. Sadly, the plot is just so generic that it not really keeping my attention. The romance is the only thing that's driving me at this point - I like that we're seeing the love interest starting to fall for our MC, but he can be a bit over-bearing at times.
February 25, 2025
3,5/5
J’aime vraiment bien mais c’est surtout que pour un isekai je suis pour une fois intéressée par l’histoire et les perso sont mimi MAIS je trouve toujours très chelou cette façon -18 de soigner une maladie magique :’)
J’aime vraiment bien mais c’est surtout que pour un isekai je suis pour une fois intéressée par l’histoire et les perso sont mimi MAIS je trouve toujours très chelou cette façon -18 de soigner une maladie magique :’)
June 15, 2023
Everyone gets super aggressive for no reason.
June 21, 2023
I love how Kondou is gaining confidence and acting like a boss. Love that for him.
August 8, 2023
Moe, Moe, Moe, anyways, what’s this guy up to????
December 6, 2023
4,5 ⭐️
February 10, 2024
Yeah this is some good storyline
March 30, 2024
Oh my days. Kondou isn’t learning. Aresh gets more overprotective. The prince & royal family are AHs. This premise for healing and such is kinda wild.
August 2, 2024
I love this series. That's all
September 18, 2024
Your honor, I LOVE THEM.
Read
October 8, 20243.25-3.5
Es un buen plan pero me parece un lol qe no se les haya ocurrido antes la verdad.
Es un buen plan pero me parece un lol qe no se les haya ocurrido antes la verdad.
January 8, 2025
4.75⭐s
August 24, 2025
Los amo...
September 5, 2025
Ah, logic in a fantasy world - dangerous.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews