By the Grace of the Gods: Volume 5

By the Grace of the Gods, Book 5

De: Roy, Noah Rozenberg - translator

Narrado por: Ray Greenley

After some unexpected earnings on his first solo journey, Ryoma has opened his second laundromat with his slimes. He safely returns home to Gimul and receives a letter from Eliaria informing him that Gimul's founding festival is approaching. Ryoma and his employees decide to run a stall at the festival that sells foreign food and unique drinks.

©2018 Roy; English translation copyright 2020 by J-Novel Club LLC; Original Japanese edition published in 2018 by Hobby Japan; Cover illustration by Ririnra (P)2023 Tantor

This series does not disappoint!

Fast paced story that carries you through episode one after the other. All too soon you are at the end and looking for the next chapter!

This is a great series.

This story is very enjoyable though it can get a little monotonous when Ryoma starts listing slime species (not in this particular volume). One thing that annoys me, however, is that the author chose to dispense with the side stories of characters like what was going on in Japan, and Eliaria's story. She gets a little bit of focus and that starts to seem like she's getting some traction with her character building, but then, poof. No more about her and her friends.

Why build them up at all if she's a flushable character?

Another note, the depiction of Ryoma in the anime is very different from the ln. He's made to look like a toddler in the former, and his life is so mild mannered that it's natural that the age rating was low. The ln has Ryoma slicing people up when needed, and his dark side from the earth gods makes him a potential serial killer. Not that his own values would allow that, but he's not squeamish about breaking people's bones and punching them to death, poisoning them, or riddling enemies with arrows.

Lastly, I find the annoyance of him constantly mentioning he's older in soul a typical Isekai trope that should have been cut out after a quick mention. Everyone has some level of sexual attraction for others. There's no way even Ryoma would just not have any love interests. That Elia suggestion by position infers a possible future romantic interest. Killing off her story arc feels like the author burying any chance of a romantic track to any of these volumes, at least not with her.