Noa lives at home with his 4 adoptive sisters, who are immensely powerful in their roles. From Swordmaster Raiza to Fam, the powerful mage, they each train with Noa, despairing of his lack of skill. Unable to live up to their standards, Noa sneaks away and finds that he is among the most powerful of adventurers, thanks to their training.

Worthless at Home, Whiz to the World has a story by kimimaro and art by Mokyu. English translation is done by Mana Z. Published by J-Novel Club; PublishDrive edition (September 15, 2025).

Erica Friedman
Rating:

I've read a bunch of “Aw shucks, I ain't that powerful”-type power fantasies thus far, and I've found a lot to like about them, despite the generic quality of the plot. Give me a magic user, trying to figure out how their particular magic will solve the problem, or a fighter learning new skills. Give me endless training scenes, please. I was raised on kung-fu flicks.

But you must have a story, some kind of story to keep my attention. A light novel that is just slapping your boring bow down into a world where he acts shocked at how important and powerful he is, in adventure after adventure, with no particular meaning, isn't bog-standard…it's the bog.

Combine this with obsessive sisters, that weird, benevolent, yet wholly objectifying, sexism that is inherent to so many light novels, and all you have is Gomer Pyle, USMC (Underdeveloped Story, Mind-numbing Copycat,) isekai edition.

Guys. You need to do better. Swordfighting and magecraft are important, but personality is also a skill! Develop one. You can even go the insufferable evil route if you want to hobnob with goblins and orcs, but pick something!

Noa (Sieg) chooses to be a passive observer of his own story, and that is exactly as uninteresting as it sounds. He just happens to have been trained by the top-level master in the kingdom, who happens to have shaped his body and mind to a perfect level of immaculate skills. It just happened. He blunders into millions of gold coins, which are paid out in piles of money. It just happens that his party runs into impossibly rare and difficult opponents. And it is not until the very end of the book, when Sieg (no longer Noa) takes the initiative to learn something new, that he develops past his sister-master.

Let this be a lesson to us all.