Currently Reading - 異世界のんびり農家 / Farming in Another World

Jenn - To say the market is saturated in 異世界 narratives is an understatement. There are so many of them in Japan that Kodansha had to ban them from their yearly novel contest in 2017.

But I still love them all the same!

When I saw this in the book shop I just really, really wanted to read it. Weirdly enough I love farming narratives. Stories like のうりん and 銀の匙 are great at scratching this itch I sometimes get for farming stories. It might be because I grew up in the rolling countryside of the UK. Or because I went to work on farms in Japan for a few months the first time I ever went to Japan. So there's a lot of nostalgia factor for me. Or just because I'm really weird.

Either way, I was really excited to read this book!

But then I started reading it and it's... not what I excepted.

I'm about 1/3 into the book and the main character is SUCH a Gary-stu.

The prologue has the protagonist, a man in his 40s who just died of a crippling illness. God says they'll send him to another world but not be re-born, just younger, and asks what he wants. He says he'd like to be a farmer with a body that never gets sick. God also gives him a magical 「万納農具」 a hoe which can transform itself into ANY farming tool.

When the protagonist gets to the new world he basically Minecrafts for about 50ish pages. He makes a shelter, toilet, well, cuts down trees and tills the land. Without getting hungry or tired.

He just does everything with ease and without being faced with any trials or tribulations.

It's actually quite boring.

The narrative doesn't even try to make it interesting. It doesn't describe what the new world looks like in much details (besides the fact that he's in a forest). It doesn't really say how he feels about it all either. It's just "he digs a hole and then he digs a hole in a tree and then he digs a toilet and then..."

I am (really) hoping the narrative starts picking as more characters are introduced and that we start seeing conflict.

On the plus side I'm using a lot of farming vocabulary I've previously forgotten! And it's a fairly easy read with quite simple sentences and descriptions.

Fingers crossed it picks up.

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