The World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country's Novice Seeker, Vol. 1 (light novel) (World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country & Dungeon Seekers (light novel))

He has a harem of girls but doesn’t objectify females and yet it still somehow works. A fresh and original isekai story in a genre that has plenty of fodder. It’s in my top 5 and I have almost every series out there…give it a try, you might be surprised

Yet another reincarnated in another world novel. However this one was not bad. I liked how everyone is a reincarnated person who must become a Seeker. Karma plays a greater role in this world. The main character is relatable as a corporate slave. I also like the author's take on demi humans. Demi humans are people who were killed by a monster and came back as a demi human. The demi humans can't talk and they look like someone in a costume instead of the normal way demi humans are usually are portraited. It does have some harem elements so be warned. I look forward to more installments.

I finished this in 2 days. It was hard to put down this book.I enjoyed the manga, but I felt this was even better.This is the only dialogue heavy light novel that I've ever read and I didn't enjoy all of the lengthy chats. They weren't repetitive, but I wanted the author to move the story forward.I enjoyed everyone's personality. I saw my myself in the MC and in the gambler. This book focused a lot on world building and explaining how the world works. What stood out to me, was how the parties worked. There are so many unique classes in this fantasy world. A good party for one floor might not work out so well in a different district. That forces the MC to have to recruit different people for various roles.I also like how the Gambler stayed true to her character. Acting on a whim and making new connections for the group.Lastly, I loved how the MC makes everyone else stronger and that no one is really OP. His abilities only work on others, so limitations apply to him. The icing on the cake was regardless of the enemies that they face, the characters can only level up once per adventure. So no one can become OP. The author put a lot of time into this series and it shows. It's well thought out and makes sense.

To address all the other comments about writing quality: avoid reading light novels if it bothers you, because this is by far one of the better quality writing examples of the genre.Story is basically a rebirth isekai, but revolving around the premise of the other world being purgatory, while also being a level-grindy progression system. The MC does have a very overpowered ability, but what makes this story interesting is how its an overpowered buff rather than a direct power like every other isekai. As the story progresses, he gathers an all female team that utilize his buffs to progress. I would hesitate to call it a harem though, because while there is some wish-fulfillment every-girl-likes-him stuff, the story basically doesn't touch any romance attempts at all, due to the MC's platonic attitude toward everyone. Don't expect to pick a favorite girl for emotional ties, its not that kind of story.

The base concept is a bit new, reincarnated into some type of constructed world. It leads into a harem setup with a pretty diverse group of female characters and a lot of them. Only real downside for me is EVERYTHING goes right for him. It's kind of hard to route for someone when you know he will never fail, never experience struggles. The bulk of the enjoyment in the story ends up being how the encounters are setup because their outcomes are never an issue.

Personally lately I've become a big fan of this taken to another world genre this book has some sameness with similar stories but its original points draw you in. I'm a big fan of the descriptions of the relationships in this book its done in a way different than most similar stories whereas the intentions of the male character are good and don't revolve around resisting temptation presented by his party members or, not that there's not tension but the story is mostly about seeking in dungeons and team building and getting to everyone's goals. but if you like similar stories you will like this story and it will likely stand out to you

The male lead, Arihito Atobe, is the typical overworked office slave turned blandest vanilla hero. He dies in a bus accident alongside his overbearing (female) boss and two high school girls. I would tell you their names but that suggest that they have some agency but really they don't. There are other male characters but the male lead is heterosexual so they barely get any mention. Following the rules of an MMORPG, because raisins, Atobe becomes the titular Rearguard and can now support the female party members with stat boosts that are overpowered. By nightfall we soon discover that these stats boost do not shut-off so Atobe has basically weaponized an "anti-male gaze". A curious side effect of said weaponized anti-male gaze is that the women in his party are energized and simultaneously aroused whenever Atobe is behind them outside of combat, unlike in the West where the opposite is true. Being a light novel for preteens it's all very pg-13. It may sound like I'm dumping on the light novel but despite the many, oh man, many cliches I've enjoyed reading this story twice because of the rich world building and entertaining action pieces. I hope that Towa expands the cast and build on the framework he has created.

This was an interesting start to the series with a nice diverse collection of characters. I also really liked the MC with how level headed he is and seems like a natural born leader. However, I'm quite confused on just how it was that his party members and even his caseworker seemed to just instantly start falling for him except for his former boss that seemed to hint at maybe had feelings in their previous life and Theresia because of his treatment of her. Hopefully things start heating up in the next book with maybe the hope of getting some clues to the MC's mysterious clsss.

Good Isekai series, worth a read even if it isn't an instant classic. Not quite up there with say Jobless Reincarnation though.

I admit I have read the first 30 chapters of the web novel version, but in all honesty I like the official light novel much better and I really can't wait to see more and how each of the characters progress. Would recommend to anyone who likes Isekai but wants to try something a little different.

A very fun read and had some interesting ideas especially around how game like stats, like trust or hp, might affect real people.

Such a good story. Well written and smooth progress. Can't wait for book 2!

I really wanted to like this Isekai. The world was interesting, the levels and powers were interesting, and even the endless pointless nonsensical discussion around how much they really love/miss/want to recreate/devote 500 pages to Japanese food. which is typical in these kind of light novels. was largely held in check. I read the first and most of the second book before giving up on this series.-1 star - Concepts would loop around and be repeated endlessly, there would be 3 paragraphs or even 3 pages of content that could really have been summed up in a 2 sentences. The editing could have used some work to make it suitable for an English reading audience. Spanish novels are the same where they'll take great pride in repeating the same thing 10 times in a row using more and more flowery needless words.This wasn't exceptionally bad or unreadable for this reason, but it was a drawback to read about 'he went down the stairs and saw her behind him' then 'she was going down teh stairs with him in front of her' and by the way there are some stairs and he was in front and she was behind him at that time'...UGHGHGH You already said it!- 3 stars - The dimwitted MC and the endless fan service nonsense and I emphasise how endless it is. I get the harem trope though feel like it is not needed at all...but the sheer amount of pages devoted to NOTHING is absurd. 'Oh did we bump hands?' Time for 6 pages of characters mumbling nothing back and forth and being endlessly 'embarrassed' and the MC promising in their head they are not a 'bad person' or thinking 'bad thoughts' as they stare at and characterise the endless series of huge chested teenagers who surround him.They are not embarrassed, they are severely mentally handicapped to be incapable of the most basic of interactions. Getting flustered is one thing, one very boring and uninteresting thing, but writing about this and endlessly reassuring everyone that the MC is not thinking about sex when they are doing nothing but thinking about sex is.....verrrry verrrry tiresome. There must legitimately be 5% of the words in the book devoted to describe various women's breasts and how they bounce, sway, or break out of clothing/armor. What genre is this again? If it was 'that' other genre, then it'd be a bad version of it.This book puts in over a dozen conversations about bath time and sleep time in less than 2 light novels- I truly and wholeheartedly don't care about this atttt alllllll. Who can see what and who is bathing with whom and whose face has gone red, and who is going to sleep in which bed etc.If the cover of the book had a huge ? over the MC's head as he sat in a bathtub surrounded by female characters...OK...I couldn't fault it for false advertising, but this is billed as a fantasy world of swords and sorcery....but it is not or it is only about 30% or 40% of the time at most. Then back to BAAAATHTHH TIMMee problems!Ok, fine, have the harem, have the conversation about who sleeps where or whatever...but SERIOUSLY. Like legitimately 10 plus bath/sleep scenes in 1 and a half books? I started just skipped 5 and 10 pages at a time reading maybe 10 out of every 25 pages which had any content in it.But nothing was happening and it was becoming increasingly hard to find any story within this book as the MC quickly racked up like at least 10 different females in his harem who follow him around and dote on his every word and spend 10 more pages wondering what that facial expression meant. Ugh...I give up.After reading most of the way into the second book, I realised that this is not an isekai! It isn't a fantasy novel, it is story almost entirely about a squirmy and neurotic MC surrounded by women/teenage girls who just want to bath and sleep with him for no particular reason. WHY is he 29 years old at death for this reincarnation story? Why?The MC's age usually indicates the target audience...a 15 year old MC is going to spend 1,000 pages tongue tied around the exclusively female supporting characters...but why is a 29 year old office worker this way? Also why would anyone want to read that first part about being a bumbling moron? The blank slate, moronic, and clueless MC is just sooo overdone and needs to just go away. Even if it had never ever been done in any other book, write a character who is like that would still be a bad idea!I hope I've given you a good impression of what this book is about and if you want to read hundreds and hundreds of pages about nothing except arguments about who gets to sleep with the MC at night b/c there are never enough beds or who is walking in on him naked or insisting to bath with the MC even though they were terrified to hold hands 2 pages ago...then this novel is for you.But if you're looking for world building, fantasy, gaming, leveling systems, combat, magic, and a reincarnated isekai story....then you'd better look elsewhere - i.e. Reincarnated as a Sword, Sheild Bro, Arifrueta, or even something like Ascendence of a Bookworm for a non-combat centric isekai storyline.