Shadow over Ziral

I'm the Bad Guy!?

By: Kenneth Arant

Narrated by: TL Barnett

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Why, oh why couldn’t he have plot armor?

After waking up as a "bad guy" inside his favorite anime, stopping a royal kidnapping, and headbutting one of his character's bullies, Aren was finally ready to begin his academy arc...but then the plot screwed him over.

Something is stirring in the mountains, and it’s driving the native monsters wild, forcing them to migrate toward the academy. And not even the academy, with all its enchantments and defensive barriers, could survive unscathed if they decided to attack.

To make matters worse, the students of the academy are acting strange. They're treating Aren like he's the villain he was written to be, and he can't imagine why. Only Kami has remained by his side through it all. If they somehow manage to survive the horde of monsters heading their way, Aren and his fellow students will soon be forced onto an entirely different battlefield.

But, hey, at least Aren is the only one who knows the truth of a far-off future and can act to prevent the worst from coming to pass...right?

From Kenneth Arant, best-selling author of All-Knowing Novice (Clanless Cultivator) and A Snake's Life, comes a new adventure that takes every anime trope and flips them on their head!

©2022 Shadow Alley Press Inc (P)2022 Shadow Alley Press Inc

Please make the next book longer!!!

I love Isekai. I want more western writers to delve into this genera more. And this book does that. While showing love to the Japanese origins.

The MC continues on his way to becoming completely OP. And I'm all for it. His abilities are at least being given time to get fleshed out. Nice characters, that are getting developed. Small world space so far. I'm sure things will get more developed when the author takes the time to make a longer book. This one should be combined with book 1. Because both are just to short. There wasn't enough story here. I was disappointed when it was suddenly over. There wasn't anything huge to end this part of the story off with. It's like the author just got bored with the story, and said: "Screw it". So he just ended it, and moved on to something else.

The narrator is a perfect example of why women do the voices of boys in anime. It would also be nice if he knew how to pronounce wyvern correctly. He isn't the best or worst I've heard. A lot of the time, it sounds like he is holding his nose to do a female voice. But the quality really drops in areas! I mean... really drops. Obviously no one bothered listening for errors. Especially when it suddenly sounded like it was being recorded from the other side of the room on speakerphone.

Still good

It’s longer than the first witch is a big plus as that was the only thing wrong with the first one. It’s not Amazing, but a really good series. Solid on all fronts and excels in most. The story is good! The narrator does good for most of it but the princesses voice. That is a little weird.

Mok's review

I enjoyed the story. The thing I did not like is that he left his enemy alive at the end. That will inevitably come back to bite him in the rear. It is one of those stupid always done in story plot lines leading to something disastrous happening to the character in the future.

Audio is bad. Story is okay.

there is some forced drama, abandoned plot lines, and forced hate towards our protagonist. the story is okay, if the author had more practice and took more notes then this could have been a good story. i enjoyed the interactions with kami, and the lack of awareness of his talent. is enjoyable. other than that its kida shit.

can't wait for next

overall I thought it was a decent book the only real complaint I have is there are parts where the FL sound grainy and kind of nasally ... I will still listen to the next book

Great isekai!!

I love anime, especially isekai. I also am usually mixed about ones that have the person show up in the villain role, but I really love how the author progressed the story line. I am looking forward to the next book.

Favorite audio book in 2023

Great story,good narration,third part can’t come out soon enough! The plot in the ten minutes of the story only increased my excitement.

Much better then the first book

But with the run times, they should have been bundled into 1 book/purchase. They together make a full part one of the story.

Good but some issues.

It’s an excellent story, though the recording leaves a bit to desire. Unfortunately, there are several points in the recording. It sometimes loop back on itself then sometimes it is very difficult to understand and it sounds like it’s being recorded under the water or in a tank. The story also feels different than it did in the first book. I’m not sure of any better way to put it. It almost feels like a different person wrote the next book or maybe they just had a lot more experience.

Amazing book

This book had me engaged from beginning to end. It does have some of your standard isekai themes but Arant has definitely at least in my experience added a few interesting scenarios that I have yet to see anyone else o in an isekai setting do. The book is an awesome read/listen and I look forward to booking #3.

Notes/constructive feedback:
There are at least 2x instances where the editor had the same line repeat right back to back
Additionally, the narrator was not consistent with the character's voices, and would I would say 85% of the time it was fine but there was a few time that it took me a few seconds to figure out who the narrator was speaking as.