Shinigami wo Tabeta Shoujo

First things first, this is one of my favorite novels, and I've already read a lot of them, darker fantasy is definitely a theme worth to read, because of the more mature story-telling and well thought out realism.

"Shinigami wo Tabeta Shoujo" (The Girl Who Ate a Death God/Girl Who Ate Death) tells the story of a young, cheerful, but twisted girl seeking out revenge, one that clearly centers around a ruthless female lead. Little by little, as the journey progresses we come to know that Shera was only one more of those pitiful victims created by the corrupted parts of the war raging throughout the lands. In simple terms, a menace birthed out of man's own cruelty.

Tags: Dark, Fanaticism, Female Protagonist, Gluttony, Magic, Military, Politics, Protagonist Strong from the Start, Ruthless Female Lead, Strong Female Lead, War Records, Wars

Story: The main focus of the novel is the horrible elements around war, how people suffer through death, injury and starvation and the strife that comes after, as well as living on to the best of one's ability. It includes the nastiness of politics and how inept leadership becomes because of it, commanding thousands of people. As it goes on it does have many heroic moments and feats, but it also does well to include the other side. Well, what that means should be as clear as day, numerous tragic moments and much suffering especially near the end. Please understand when reading this, war is gruesome and bloody, but "Shinigami wo Tabeta Shoujo" portrays fascinating that the world is not just black and white, but comes in many shades of gray. One often finds oneself caught up in or entangled by a single question, who to sympathize with during the conflict?

The setting is rather modest, but by no means bad, you'll find yourself easily captivated. A kingdom under civil war, with a rebellion against a tyrannical government. There's even more to it, as not everything is as simple as it seems to be. The rebellion of the supposed to be good "Liberation Army" isn't as righteous as they make themselves out to be, warping information and committing acts of war crimes. The surrounding countries look at the inner dispute with greedy eyes and hands, waiting for their chance to rise.

Character: As I said before, our heroine is the byproduct of war. She, and her warped nature, came to existence because she was always starving and on the brink of being killed when her village was pillaged, what followed was pure hatred. That's why Shera joined the military for two simple reasons, consume tasty food and the lives of the rebels, which became her sole raison d'être.. literally endlessly hungering. Be that as it may, she eats with all her cheerfulness but her taste is directly affected with her emotions, to the point where it became symbolism - the food is a direct representation of the circumstances in which they were given.

Shera gets a lot of comrades fighting beside her, and makes many enemies. Some try to pull her to their political struggle, some wish for her to fall in combat, and yet others glorify the little girl as a living incarnation of death - worship that borders on fanatism. A death god, mowing down enemies left and right like the crops on a wheatfield. Still, Shera slightly opens up to her comrades-in-arms, whom become something along the lines of family for our beloved heroine. The character development is adequate and well thought out, you can't help but root for her, but read for yourself - the feelings are real!

Enjoyment: To cut a long story short, an absolute satisfying read from the beginning to the end, great fights and emotional roller coaster ride, magnificent story development and world building, including character progress, as well as their interactions with one another.

The novel is one of several works from the same author, named Nanasawa Matari. All of them share one universe, and they are very well-written. Give them a try!

TL;Dr: I like the novel, but it has some hiccups at the beginning. Nice ending and some adult storytelling.

NO SPOILER SECTION:
Why should you read this novel?

First and foremost (as a rarity among LNs/WNs) the story is complete and has a satisfying ending. The concepts in this world are very grounded in reality with a low fantasy aspect for it being a classical Medieval Fantasy world. Some plot twists are good, and the ending especially really got me thinking.

What problems could you have with this novel?

At the beginning the author starts right into the action, without the reader knowing whats going on, followed by a huge info dump with names, Locations and the history of the whole land. While world building is good and appreciated, it happens too fast. I was pretty confused up until half of the novel which place is which, what army is fighting whom, and why i should care.

In addition, the main character is very shallow, and gets often reduced to "i am a small girl that wants to eat and can fight good". You basically dont have any character development on her during the whole series. the side characters are more fleshed out.


All in all a recommendation to read, if you can survive the beginning first chapters. I have enjoyed it alot.






LIGHT SPOILER SECTION (WONT GO INTO PLOT TWISTS AND CENTRAL EVENTS, BUT DONT READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO GO BLIND)





Some additional critic. The concept of "Demons" and "Monsters" is never really explained. In addition we have a "B-plot" with a heroine that gets revived? reincarnated? reawakend? who only appears for one chapter and is never mentioned again, she served purely as a plot device for our MC to learn that she can eat demons (which never appear again, except once).

The concept of magic is not really explained, it is used sparingly (which can be good), but you have no rules. For example you have a Necromancer who can raise corpses and explodes them (but nothing more?) and only 2 at a time, but she can do this infinitely?

I enjoyed this story, it is by far a lot closer to being a regular book, which means its written better than most light novels.

I didnt like that the main character didnt really seem to progress much during the story. She remained pretty much the exact same throughout and I think that is a big missed opportunity. The side characters do progress some.

You can track the affect the MC had on others in the story but the villains werent really fleshed out, well none of the characters were too much.

This mostly consists of running from basttle to battle with time skips, and there wasnt any tension since the book tells you how everything turns out like 2 chapters in.

What I love about this novel:
1. It is beautifully written! The title is literally what the story is about, a girl who ate a grim reaper-like existence and is now immortal. The flow of the plot from battles to character development to inner thoughts is perfectly paced.

2. The complex characters have serious yet soft moments. Because the MC has a bit of a twisted character due to her childhood experiences, that doesn't stop her from cherishing her subordinates/friends. The relationship/loyalty between the MC and subordinates that develop over the courseof survival/battles is poignant yet tragic. The feels are real.

3. Because of how complex yet simple the MC is, it is easy to sympathize and understand the MC's train of thoughts. Since the story revolves a life-or-death atmosphere, the atmosphere goes from light to tense back and
The only issue I had with the novel is the ending. I found it a bit too open ended, so it felt unsatisfying. Overall, instead of going through a roller coaster, the story was more of a drop tower coaster type of feel. The build up moment was exciting and the drop down moment was just as exciting, but after everything is over, you're kind of left with a bittersweet feeling.