New Manga Thoughts: Next Life

Synopsis

On moment he was lost in the snowy mountains, the next, Yamada Takeshi finds himself waking up in a world that looks like the game he played. In addition to this he seems to have retained his class. Suddenly he encounters a young woman and he discovers that he in fact doesn’t know the language.

The Good

The series starts off as the rather generic concept of reawakening in a new world theme, but the events that followed after takes a completely different turn from the usual. In most stories similar to this, you expect the hero easily getting himself settled and getting to know the world. Here the hero actually has to start at the basics of language and the fact that he befriends monsters, is a heavy point of interest.

It’s interesting to see how the story develops its characters through their learning from one another and their different interactions.Just the overall presentation of them makes the work enjoyable. The characters and concept are not the only things which make the series strong however, as the story and the way that it was build up also helps matters along. Simply put, the work brings a rather refreshing take on the reincarnation story mixed in with an interesting character and story development.

The Bad

One of the main things to notice in the series is in the action scenes, it’s as if no one takes any damage. Sure enough, you see that the characters are hit by certain attacks, but the aftermath of the battles are far too clean, making the impact that a battle was supposed to leave rather small. It just seems that as smooth as the art is, its clean work seems to lessen the impacts of the action scenes.

Then there are the cliche villains. While it is understandable that it is too early for more complex characters, the villains make certain scenes highly predictable. For as unique as the story is, it does not escape the usual tropes of an isekai story involving a highly powerful character. As there are only five chapters released so far though, there is room for development. Still, little adjustments on the usual tropes would have been nice.

Conclusion

The concept, characters and story structure of the series is strong. However,it also holds the general tropes o tf the reincarnation stories that could have at least been twisted around. For one thing there is the overpowered protagonist and the mysterious but sweet girl with a past, and that is only naming a few. As clean as the art is, it comes of as rather too clean when it comes to the action scenes and leaves a not so great impact in the aftrmath of them. Overall, the series is a solid work in terms of creativity but in terms of execution points? Could use some work.

Rating: 7/10