Walker, a man reincarnated as an adventurer, is suddenly attacked in a dungeon by a high-level monster and realizes he's in the dark fantasy world of a manga he read in his previous life. Not only that, but he isn't the protagonist…he's an ill-fated side character, meant to die alongside his party to establish the setting's grim tone! Walker fights tooth and nail for his friends, and although he loses a leg and an eye in the process, he manages to avert everyone's terrible fates. But as he adjusts to a new life with an injured body, his female comrades begin to act strangely toward him!

Our Party Nearly Wiped and Then Everything Went Downhill has a story by Ameria and art by kodamazon. This volume is translated by Leah Surgent. Published by Yen On (April 28, 2026).

Erica Friedman
Rating:

Our Party Nearly Wiped and Then Everything Went Downhill was emotionally inconsistent, plotless, repetitive, and crushingly dull. I kept reading with the faint hope that, having spent so many words building the set-up, something, anything might happen, but no.

Having established that Walker has been reincarnated into a “dark fantasy” manga in which male characters are mangled, tortured, and killed, and female characters are raped, tortured, and killed, we are periodically reminded of this in case we might forget. We did not, because absolutely nothing else happens to take our attention away from this.

Walker has been reborn as a side character in the world of a manga with which he is familiar…and doesn't much like. Because he knows how gruesome it is, he's determined to change the outcome. When his actions leave a void in the plot of the story, instead of being rewarded, his sacrifice is met with a deadly silence from the authorities. The only thing left is the toxic possessive attachment every single woman in his party, and his life develops for him. I know the world itself is supposed to be the horror in this light novel, but the way every woman around Walker acts felt pretty damn creepy. Immature ideas of romance and sex are just so incredibly dull. Bonus negative points for every one of the female characters being a tedious light novel stereotype, built with a hefty helping of misogyny and a little light racism for fun.

By the third or fourth emotional breakdown, instead of something happening, I just checked out. It was impossible to care about these people, the world they lived in, or what happened to them. Hard pass from me.