Menou is an Executioner. Her job is to find and kill the people who come to her world from somewhere else, the Lost Ones. They have to die, not because they are bad people, but because their abilities cause untold disaster. After surviving one such disaster, without memories, her home literally erased from the world, Menou trained with a legendary Executioner. Now she is striving to become the best, to protect her world…to kill the most people. So when Menou takes on the task to kill Akari, a Lost One with the ability to manipulate time, Menou knows she’ll do whatever she has to to accomplish her task.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Vol. 1: Thus She is Reborn by Mato Sato, has some very good qualities and some not-so-good qualities. But as the days pass and I found myself thinking about what to say in this review, more that comes to mind is good. That said, this book gets off to a rough start. Being a light novel, the writing often focuses on the wrong things for too long, leaving out key elements that weren’t breasts or stupid clothing. Translator Jenny McKeon does decent work with writing that clearly needed an editor on the Japanese side. This novel will be available in print and digital on March 9 from Yen Press and generally speaking, I think it was more good than bad.

On the good side – and deeply unusual for a light novel – this is some of the most detailed world-building I’ve seen in an not-quite-Medieval Europe-esque fantasy light novel series, which makes it much more original than most. The magic theory in this book is also really solid. I quite like the Pure Concepts and the spellcasting here. Like the magic/science of the Locked Tomb series, the magical theory bore up under scrutiny.Characters here are interesting enough, especially when their backstories are filled in and possible future plot complications are implied. Honestly, had both the art by nilitsu and the story not highlighted breasts as often, I might have actually enjoyed the characters, but the infantile male gaze of the writer and artist was really hard to get past. (Please do not waste your time trying to shame me about this opinion. Both the fetish and people who scream at me about it fail to be entertaining.)

The big reveal on the bad guy was super obvious. Maybe it is supposed to be to us, I certainly hope so. But that heavy-handed foreshadowing, combined with the endless prattle about breast size and clothing that shows hard nipples because apparently if you cannot actually see that they have nipples, they aren’t there, makes me think the intended audience here are no older than 12 or so, something I find difficult to believe was worth an award, even at GA Bunko.  Nonetheless, even centering an extremely infantile male gaze in a story about mostly female characters, this wasn’t a bad book. The one insurmountably negative thing was that the world had no joy at all in it. I’m getting tired of grimdark and this is absolutely a grimdark for the sake of itself book, as the creator writes in the authors note. No one, even people living lives of desperation have no joy or art. The poorest people still sing songs, people living in despair still create art. It’s hard to believe any world in which there is not the slightest hint of happiness, even if you bake that into the story. I just don’t buy it.

The Yuri is…a supporting character, I guess I’d call it. The Yuri is not irrelevant to the story, but this isn’t a romance, and it is pretty obvious where the various affections might end up leading the characters in the next volume. If the author has the chops to carry it off, it could be really good. I can think of a handful of places the current set-up can go, and I’m not even accounting for future characters being introduced.  Its really going to come down to the writing which, on occasion, shows promise.

Ratings:

Art – Blleeeeeccccchhhhhhh
Story – On the magic alone I’d give it a 9, but let’s temper it to an 8 for the grim
Characters – This one is hard. They start about 4, but by the end I’d go for an 8
Service – See art. Yes, I get it, it’s all very exciting that women have tits. /eyeroll/
Yuri – Yes and then Yes! and yes again, and we’ll see.

Overall – 8

If you enjoyed ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight With My Love and My Cursed Sword, I definitely think you will also enjoy Executioner, at the very least. If you thought ROLL OVER AND DIE was too gross for you, and/or had not nearly enough worldbuilding, then you might want to give this series a try; it’s less gross and better built.

And, for those of you already into the series, an anime is on the way. A trailer is up, which mostly features face close-ups of the novel art for Shokei Shoujo no Ikiru Michi (Virgin Road) 「処刑少女の生きる道（バージンロード）」

Many thanks to Yen for the review copy. It was an interesting read.