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Review

by Rebecca Silverman,

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash

Novel 1

Synopsis:
The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash Novel 1

Ivy was born with vague memories of a past life, something that doesn't seem all that important until her new life goes sideways. Her aptitude test at age five shows that she's a very low-level tamer with no additional magical skills, and her parents promptly disown her, throwing her out of the house. When Ivy, thanks to “Past Me's” knowledge, manages to survive, the village threatens to hunt her down and kill her, so she sets off to find a safer existence somewhere else. Along the way she does manage to put her skill to use and tame a very odd slime, and living garbage heap to town dump, she begins to find that her life isn't quite as hopeless as it seems.

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash is translated by Benjamin Daughety and adapted by M. B. Hare.

Review:

If there's any one piece of this novel that stands to be controversial, it's the fact that it's isekai. That's not because isekai is inherently bad or a divisive topic in general; by this point I daresay all of us know where we stand on the genre. No, the question likely to be raised is whether or not The Weakest Tamer needs to be isekai in the first place, because most of the story doesn't hinge on Ivy having been reincarnated in a fantasy realm from what seems to be our world; it's largely just a swords-and-sorcery fantasy story about a plucky little orphan girl. But there's an argument to be made that without her past life knowledge lurking in the back of her mind, Ivy wouldn't have survived.

That a five-year-old (later eight in the greater part of the novel) would need special knowledge to survive in the first place says a lot about how dark the book starts out. In Ivy's world, all five-year-olds have to undergo a ceremony to learn what their magic level and career aptitudes are, ranging from zero to three stars. Ivy is a tamer, which isn't in itself a bad thing; later plot points indicate that tamers are in no way looked down upon in the story's world. No, the issue is that she's a no-star, a person with incredibly limited mana. In her village that's considered shameful, and since Ivy doesn't even have a backup aptitude like some people, her parents promptly disown her. At first they just act like she's not there, still allowing her to sleep in the house, but eventually even that stops, and the little girl is forced to survive in the forest. The village oracle brings her food and books (and possibly teaches her to read), but after the old woman dies, Ivy overhears that her father and the village head are planning to kill her. Not wanting to die, Ivy takes off to find safer ground, as the oracle told her to do before her untimely death.

Ivy's early survival is due to both bits of information she gleans from what she calls Past Me and the oracle's care, and while there was probably a different way to go about it, the fact that she has been reborn in a fantasy world from ours is the easiest way to give her that edge. Does that make it a lazy attempt to gain popularity by making “isekai” a keyword for the book? Possibly, but it works out and after the first fifty-odd pages, Ivy's past self becomes largely irrelevant, at least in this volume. It's an authorial shortcut that doesn't outlive its welcome, so while we can debate its necessity, it ultimately doesn't have much bearing on how good the story is as a whole.

And it is a decently good story. Ivy's got gumption in spades, and she does her absolute best to figure out how to survive and do it well. The title – The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash – is a little misleading, because although she tames Sora, a slime who eats trash, that's hardly the purpose of her trip; she gets clothing, potions, and other necessities from village trash heaps, so she's not out there tending to the environment – she's surviving on what's been thrown away. Even when she begins to make money as an informant for the two major guilds (adventurers and merchant) and by selling meat she's trapped, dumps are a source of things she wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. Adults she meets do their best to help her as much as she'll let them, but without the dumps, she would be in serious trouble.

After the horrors of her hometown, it is nice that the other adults she meets in other areas do all try to take her under their wing. Ivy is understandably wary, especially when she learns that her hometown is on the verge of implosion because of the actions of the village head who, along with his crony (her dad), wanted her dead – she's terrified that she'll be sent back to die. Interestingly enough, it's mostly men who try to help her, about half of whom realize that she's a girl, a fact she tries to hide. So far the one woman who has offered her help on the road is highly suspicious, and while that's likely neither here nor there, it's worth noting as an oddity of the text. Ivy of course also has her slime, Sora, and later a monster that sounds like a mountain lion, and that she's managed to tame at least one of them (and probably the other via Sora) indicates that her father may have grossly misunderstood her level of power.

The novel is written in short chapters, most of which are in Ivy's first-person narration. We do get a few other perspectives towards the end, and Honobonoru500's writing is decent enough that it does sound like different voices, at least more than other light novels that attempt the technique. Nama's illustrations are appropriately cute, and the book is readable and well put-together. It's a comfortable read, albeit one with some very dark underpinnings, and with the limited nature of its isekai elements, it's worth checking out if you're looking for a basic fantasy.

Grade:
Overall : B-
Story : B-
Art : B

+ Ivy's got pluck for days, cute illustrations. Isekai element is very take-it-or-leave-it. Tamers are not undervalued as a class.
Darkness can feel a bit odd with the rest of the story, isekai element may turn some readers off. Slight disconnect between chapters at times.

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Production Info:
Story: Honobonoru500
Licensed by: Seven Seas Entertainment

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Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash (light novel)

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