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REVIEW: The Ideal Sponger Life GN 1


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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 5120
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 12:17 pm Reply with quote
Theron Martin wrote:
This volume won't blow anyone away, but it does provide a surprisingly enjoyable read.

If it wasn't for the last sentence of the first paragraph, then I would have thought that he was damning with faint praise.....
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melmouth



Joined: 19 May 2012
Posts: 167
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 1:04 pm Reply with quote
Most young men's dream come true...WITH lots of care in preliminary world-building and setting up details to make the whole deal plausible and capable of being developed interestingly later.

I'm very interested!
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 1:09 pm Reply with quote
I liked the first volume. Liked the art and found it enjoyable.
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kinghumanity



Joined: 03 Nov 2014
Posts: 365
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 7:23 pm Reply with quote
I've never heard of the term "sponger" being used to refer to a guy laying about doing no work. Aren't they called NEETs?
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
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PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 8:06 pm Reply with quote
kinghumanity wrote:
I've never heard of the term "sponger" being used to refer to a guy laying about doing no work. Aren't they called NEETs?

"NEET" means "not in education, employment, or training." In the Japanese title, Risou no Himo Seikatsu, "himo" refers to a man who is financially dependent on a woman, i.e. a leech or a sponge. It's a very specific term. You could think of it as a subcategory of NEETs.
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ZODDGUTS



Joined: 27 Oct 2003
Posts: 600
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 9:25 pm Reply with quote
The LN is pretty good, it sorta goes against the grain of Isekai LN's of this past decade. The MC not wanting a harem, the lead female being competent and strong on her own. The MC also changes to help her out with the political stuff. While the manga is good it does cut down a lot of the background info.
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Minos_Kurumada



Joined: 04 Nov 2015
Posts: 983
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 10:10 pm Reply with quote
This is the only non-comedic Isekai that I have read that really liked

My favorite part it's...

spoiler[When the possibility of an harem surfaces, MC politely shuts it down because goes against his principles and at this point he is genuinely in love with Aura... just for it to become a political crisis explained in a realistic and believable way, so, they have to device a plan to avoid the problem]

It's like the thing it's making fun of other isekai that take the matter too lightly in a quite clever way.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still a scapism just the the review says, but it's smartly written.
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2345
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 10:46 pm Reply with quote
myskaros wrote:
kinghumanity wrote:
I've never heard of the term "sponger" being used to refer to a guy laying about doing no work. Aren't they called NEETs?

"NEET" means "not in education, employment, or training." In the Japanese title, Risou no Himo Seikatsu, "himo" refers to a man who is financially dependent on a woman, i.e. a leech or a sponge. It's a very specific term. You could think of it as a subcategory of NEETs.

The closest thing I can think of in English that is actually used would be used would be gigolo but that isn't really whats going on here so.
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melmouth



Joined: 19 May 2012
Posts: 167
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2019 7:23 am Reply with quote
"Sponger" is a common term in American English for an adult man who doesn't work and lives off someone else.

Or at least it was when I was young, many years ago.
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Alan45
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Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2019 7:44 am Reply with quote
the phrase I remember is to "sponge off" someone. Not used much now.

Here from Macmillan's online dictionary.
[sponge off someone] to ask for money and other things from someone such as a friend or relative and make no effort to give them anything or to pay for anything yourself
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2019 8:19 am Reply with quote
Alan45 wrote:
the phrase I remember is to "sponge off" someone. Not used much now.

I'm also one that knows this saying, so the title of this one clicked for me.

Another term is "scrub", for those that remember TLC.

I do like what people have to say about this series, I just wish the LN was licensed instead of the manga. No guarantee that the manga is going to cover the story till the end.
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Adrian Robotnik



Joined: 13 Sep 2017
Posts: 31
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2019 10:29 am Reply with quote
I've found it rather boring. Ok it has an interesting premise at all, but soon all fall flat, I couldn't really enjoy the plot, the characters, almost anything. Even the art is nothing special.
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JacobC
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Joined: 15 Jan 2008
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Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2019 12:22 pm Reply with quote
This exact discourse on what the hell you even call this kind of guy in English was going through my mind when trying to come up with the front-page blurb for this review. "Sugar baby" refers more to women and sometimes twinks, but it was the only term I could think of. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2019 1:54 pm Reply with quote
JacobC

IIRC, in Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden the narrator (At the end? I forget.) describes herself as "a kept woman". So perhaps Zenjiro Yamai could be described as "a kept man"?

My above analogy is not exact.....
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3426
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2019 2:27 pm Reply with quote
nobahn wrote:
JacobC

IIRC, in Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden the narrator (At the end? I forget.) describes herself as "a kept woman". So perhaps Zenjiro Yamai could be described as "a kept man"?

My above analogy is not exact.....

This discussion would be a lot easier if the genders were reversed. Probably because there wouldn't be much of a discussion. How many times has there been a male lead whose significant other has been written into more or less a passive character in the background only good for showing off, especially in settings involving medieval times and nobles/royals?
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