One thing Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town by Toshio Rito proves it that some light novels have titles that are way too long.
I came upon it in my never-ending quests for escapist fluff for decompression reading (And Japanese light novels are a great resource for that) Lloyd Belladonna is the weakest person in his isolated, rural village and goes to the capital to become a soldier in order to make a difference. Of course, his village is the basically at the gateway to the realm of the demon lords and everyone there has been fighting Eldrich abominations for generations so that's just Tuesday for them. Lloyd, even as the weakest person in the village, is still a cross between Superman and Doctor Strange as far as the rest of the world is concerned. And he never twigs to that fact.
A lot of light novels I look at are driven by high concepts, ideas that are fresh, unique and compelling. (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a good example) Suppose is not one of the light novels. The concept of a country bumpkin who comedically and unknowingly overwhelms more sophisticated folks is a saw so old it is literally folklore. Robert E Howard's Breckenridge Elkins is just one of many examples and I'm using it just because its fun to remind people that Conan the Barbarian's creator also wrote funny westerns.
Suppose definitely has some weak elements. The omniscient narrator regularly breaks down the fourth wall to explain the jokes, which is definitely not a strong writing technique. There are times when it feels like Rito was writing a manga script and trying to use a thousand words to convey what would make sense in a single wordless panel. With that said, when the author actually focuses on the story and the characters, Suppose get much better.
While Lloyd is more overpowered than many examples of the trope, that's not what makes Suppose interesting. What kept me reading Suppose was the characters. While not particularly deep, everyone is very distinct and the half of the fun that isn't Lloyd doing something ludicrous is watching the different personalities bounce off of each other.
While its hard to argue that Lloyd doesn't have a lot of Mary Sue qualities, he manages to remain sympathetic been his earnest desire to help people and his absolutely crushing low self esteem. That last one is essential to making the story work. We need to be able to believe that Lloyd can’t understand that he is a walking force of nature.
The other characters are also distinct in speech patterns and motivations. Like I said, they aren’t particularly deep but you don’t have any problem mixing them you up. You get to watch personalities ricochet off each other like a box of bouncy balls.
Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town isn’t brilliant but it works as comfort food.
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