Re:Monster
Author: Kogitsune Kanekiru
Illustrator: Haruyoshi Kobayakawa
Publishers: Seven Seas Entertainment
Age Group: Teen
Genre: Action, Isekai
Type: Manga
Content Warnings: violence, rape, suicide, murder
Spoilers ahead
Plot
Tomokui Kanata has suffered an untimely death, but his adventures are far from over. He is reborn into a fantastical world of monsters and magic—as a lowly goblin! But Kanata, or Gob-Ru as he is now named, is not about to let that stop him. With a combination of memories from his old life, a brand new body, and a monstrous appetite, Gob-Rou thrives in this new world where he must devour other creatures to gain their powers. It takes strength, smarts, an a strong stomach to survive in this action-packed fantasy.
Character Development
Gob-Rou is our intelligent protagonist. He has a skill called absorption that allows him to learn other entities (I say entities because it’s literally anything with a heart: monsters and humans). skills by eating them. He’s matter of fact and thinks logically. Though, when it comes to romance he’s a bit of a dunce. That’s not to say he doesn’t get the biology portion of it. He’s bad at picking up hints and body language that a girl likes him. Another part of his personality that is kind of annoying is that while he’s intelligent and likes gaining new abilities, he doesn’t question how they work. If they work, that’s good enough for him. He will do experiments on combining skills and their effectiveness against enemies. As such, he’s not without his flaws. He is an engaging protagonist.
We also have some great supporting characters. Gob-Kichi, a tank, raival, and best friend. We watch him grow up alongside Gob-Rou as his right hand man. Gob-kichi isn’t as intelligent as Gob-Rou, but he is loyal and a great fighter with lots of strength. Our next supporting character is Gob-Mi, a female goblin who’s smitten with Gob-Rou. She’s intelligent and focuses on ranged weapons. Gob-E, is our second female goblin who focuses more on support. She joins his party a little later and is the fourth strongest of their generation.
We also have Hob-Sato, an agility based goblin, and Hob-Sei, the only mage in their clan, both females from the previous generation that were raiders before joining Gob-Rou’s ranks. The last main supporting character is Gob-Gramps (that’s what they call him). He’s the oldest goblin of the tribe. He’s wise but also a major horndog.
World-building
The world-building in this is really cool. While there are levels and skills, it focuses mainly on Gob-Rou’s adventures gaining more skills as he hunts and eats. The story is set-up like a diary with us going through each day that Gob-Rou is alive. He learns a lot of different skills from many monsters. We have your classic fantasy stuff like vipers, spiders, orcs, kobolds, and humans. Most of our world-building comes from Gob-Rou realizing that goblins don’t have much of a societal structure. He makes one instead so our world-building is watching him change things. He makes clothes, weapons, trains other goblins, creates a hierarchy, and establishes a routine for everyone.
Outside of that, we sometimes learn how his different skills work. We also learn that humans are regarded as having no natural predators, but human women are kidnapped so goblins can reproduce since it’s easier to overwrite another species DNA than to breed with each other, which has an unusual high infertility rate. While Gob-Rou understands those logistics, he just can’t bring himself to do it so he protects the human captives that the raiders bring back to their cave. We also find out he’s the one that helped the previous captives to end their lives (you don’t learn that in the anime). It’s a refreshing, different perspective take compared to Goblin Slayer, but the ramifications of this world are the same.
Themes
If I had to choose a theme for this book, it would be survival of the fittest. We see this several times. Anytime Gob-Rou has to go up against a monster that’s greater than himself. Another example is when he goes up against the leader of the previous generation. We’re also told by Gob-Rou himself that most goblins in a generation don’t make it since they don’t know how to properly fight. Which is another reason human captives are needed. Yet, he’s changed all that by creating their own hierarchy. We end with him facing off against the red bear, who we were warned about by Gob-Gramps as the guardian of the forest and not to mess with.
The strongest survive. In our current world, there are many of us that haven’t had to deal with that directly. It really makes you think, could you actually survive in a world like that? What would break you? How do you get stronger in our world when you don’t know how you need to?
Observations & Predictions
We will continue to see changes and dynamics within the hierarchy as goblins and hob-goblins rank up. We will also see deeper dynamics between the complex characters and see them blossom into their ‘final’ forms.
I look forward to the world-building as it’s more complex than the anime portrays. We see how Gob-Rou’s reactions to the world change it and I look forward to how he does this in the future.
Recommendations
Goblin Slayer
By: Kumo Kagyu
That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime
By: Fuse
Overlord
By: Kugane Maruyama
So I’m a Spider, So What?
By: Okina Baba
Bofuri
By: Yuumikan
My Ranking
Plot: 8/10
Character Development: 9/10
World-Building: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
