Classless Yet Not Hopeless

The sword & sorcery tale has achieved prolific and prolonged popularity in Japan thanks to the genre constantly redefining itself with minor alterations. The protagonist’s nature and motivations routinely change. The protagonist might be a child or an elderly person; a swordsman, magic user, martial artist, merchant, or politician; a human, a zombie, a vampire, or any other variety of animal or monster. The protagonist may seek fame or fortune or popularity or vengeance or self-fulfillment. Into this menagerie falls author Shichio Kuzu’s 2017-2020 light novel series “Mushoku no Eiyuu: Betsu ni Skill Nanka Iranakattan Daga,” “Hero Without a Class: Who Even Needs Skills?!” The series’ popularity spun off a manga adaptation, coming soon to English language readers from One Peace Books, and even an anime television series. One Peace Books will release the first officially English translated volume of the Hero Without a Class: Who Even Needs Skills?! manga on September 10.

The Scenario:
Young boy Arel grows up in a world where a goddess grants every human a skill or talent upon turning ten-years-old. The world’s human society respects these god-given talents as a sign of status and respect. Those who engage their assigned talent contribute to society. Those with rare talents are revered as elites. Arel, however, believes that hard work and diligent practice build the best skills. And his belief is put to the test when he’s revealed to have received no divine gift. Arel sets off to become a top-class adventurer in a world that already believes him powerless and worthless.

The Manga:
Akio Nanae began adapting Shichio Kuzu’s light novel series into manga form in late 2018. The art design suggests that Nanae’s talent lies in character illustration. Characters are consistently distinctive and physically expressive. Background art is serviceable but not especially common. The manga relies on screentone backgrounds and speed lines to keep its focus frontlined. The first manga volume contains several swordplay action scenes. These scenes do a fine job of orienting the reader to what’s going on; however, the battle scenes are frequently brief and lack some visual detail. The first manga volume contains the story’s first six chapters, two pages of 4-koma omake, an eight-page prose bonus story by original author Shichio Kuzu, and an afterword by manga artist Akio Nanae. The manga is generally suitable for readers of all ages as it doesn’t contain any graphic sex, nudity, or gratuitous violence. The manga’s initial three pages that were originally published in color in Japan are reprinted here in monochrome. But the presentation is rich enough in tone and resolution that the average reader won’t notice the absent color.

The Translation:
I was provided an advance digital copy of the book for review. I was led to believe that the copy I reviewed was identical to the forthcoming retail release.

One Peace Books typically strives to publish respectable, professional quality translations of Japanese literature. The presentation of this first volume of the “Hero Without a Class” manga unfortunately seems a bit sloppy. The translation is mostly fluid and faithful. but occasionally lines are slightly awkward, such as, “Will you show me them, Mom?” rather than a more natural, “Will you show them to me, Mom?” and a questionable use of “onto” instead of “on to.” The book also contains one minor typo, an instance of “and” instead of “an.” But other discrepancies in the translation are more prominent and distracting. Throughout chapter two, multiple characters refer to Reiner as a male, yet, without explanation, in chapter 3 Arel abruptly switches to referring to Reiner as female then switches back to referring to her as a male.

Visual sound effects are retained in original Japanese; however, the in-panel English translations are odd gibberish including “i sbbshi G,” “stvnfi,” and “vs woenfi.”

Font selection and use throughout the book is inconsistent and sadly looks a bit cheap. In some instances, changes in font are used to express differences in tone or expression. However, occasionally word balloons include distracting changes in fonts for seemingly no reason. Even the prose bonus story alternates between different font sizes for no reason.

Summation:

The first manga volume of Hero Without a Class: Who Even Needs Skills?! is a fine story for fans of the sword & sorcery sub-genre. The story is fairly briskly paced, and characters exhibit distinct personalities and quirks that I’m sure will grow more prominent and important as the story develops. The story itself presents a simple yet satisfying theme of hard work and self-confidence overcoming cheaply acquired skills. The manga’s art design varies in quality slightly but always maintains a passable professionalism. Unfortunately, in this instance, One Peace Book’s official English localization comes across a bit closer to an amateur fan translation effort due to a few careless inconsistencies and some small yet distracting flaws in the translation. The presentation means well but would have benefited from another round of editing.