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When a young man begins life anew as a lowly goblin, he forges past all obstacles with a combination of strength, smarts, and a monstrous appetite in this action-packed shonen fantasy manga!

Tomokui Kanata has suffered an early death, but his adventures are far from over. He is reborn into a fantastical world of monsters and magic—but as a lowly goblin! Not about to let that stop him, the now renamed Rou uses his new physical prowess and his old memories to plow ahead in a world where consuming other creatures allows him to acquire their powers.

180 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2012

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Kogitsune Kanekiru

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5 stars
137 (37%)
4 stars
124 (33%)
3 stars
72 (19%)
2 stars
21 (5%)
1 star
13 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Doc.
1,959 reviews31 followers
July 21, 2017
Re:Monster is rated Older Teen so parents looking to get this book be sure you are alright with Goblin/hobgoblin pant bulges, insinuations of non-consensual intercourse with women who are kept to breed goblins, some cannibalism, references to booze, some strong language, murder, an....okay wait a sec there. Now that I think of it although it doesn't really show the worse of the above things but maybe you better leave this book to the big kids.

Tomokui Kanata is not your average human but that does not stop him from meeting an untimely death at the hands of someone he considered like a sister and before he knew it he is reborn into the body of a lowly goblin in another world unlike his old sci fi like world. However he has retained his memories from his previous life and he still has one of his rarest skills that will help him rise in the ranks and change how things have been going on the old goblin den. Join Tomokui (now known as Gob-Rou) and his new friends as they spin their little world into something bigger.

My favorite part of the book would have to be Gob-Rou waking up with not only a human girl that he rescued from some of the older generation but Gob-Bi which is one of his female hobgoblin friends sleeping on both of his arms and every hobgoblin or goblin seeing him in the situation either cheered him on quietly or didn't want to bother him when he really needed help because his arms were numb. :)
Profile Image for R.
258 reviews18 followers
January 3, 2020
This volume contains day 1 to 34. (Ch. 1 to 10)

Ecchi Meter: Low. So far nothing explicit is shown but we can see a harem slowly being built around the character.

Mature Content: Cannibalism, gluttony, rape and torture.

Synopsis: The protagonist, Goburou, has been reincarnated as a lowly monster, a goblin. But he carried forward his power from his past life, Absorption. This power allows him to absorb power from whatever he devours.


Ratings: (out of 10)

Story: 6
Fast Paced but a bit repetitive at times. Train, Kill, Eat, Craft, Repeat. Maybe a bit too fast paced. Not everything was given enough time to develop.

Character Development: 2
Didn't particularly feel that there was any character development. So far, no depth to the characters and Goburou, though charming, is a monster after all. I prefer good guy protagonist or at least anti-heroes.

Art: 8
The saving grace of the series. The art is really well drawn and the monsters look good.


Should you read: Even though there are a lot of similarities with Slime, I'd like to point out that the novels that this adapts came before the novel that Slime adapts. So it is not just something that is riding the Slime hype. It is good on its own right. That said, this is not for everyone.

Will I read next volume: Yes
Profile Image for Rachel.
49 reviews6 followers
May 30, 2018
I read all the currently available chapters of this. I kind of hate myself for it.

Re:Monster started out kind of interesting and could have been a fun world/civilization-building series, but it turns into a "let's see what stupidly strong monster will go down after a single encounter with the main OP character, plus obligatory harem nonsense where we don't know the names of 5 out of 6 girls" festival. Not at all my style. There's minimal plot, things go too fast even for his supposedly super-quick-growing species , and there's almost no plot except for "[subspecies name this chapter]Rou is so great at literally everything and can never fail."

Pretty low-level another world stuff. If you're not into this kind of wish-fulfillment with not much else going for it besides the decent art, I'd give it a skip.
Profile Image for Storm.
2,324 reviews6 followers
March 28, 2025
Read this first volume of Kogitsune Kanekiru's Re: Monster Manga Series for Reddit Fantasy's 2024 Bingo Square Orcs, Trolls, and Goblins - Oh My! This qualifies for hard mode as the protagonist starts out his life in another world as a lowly goblin, that later evolves into something much greater! Yes, this is a standard power fantasy harem isekai with a different kind of main character, so of course there's an anime, which I'm ashamed to admit I watched.
description

In a prologue of sorts, protagonist Tomokui Kanata was stabbed to death by his stalker who he considered his sister.

Day 1
Upon waking the first thing he sees is the wrinkled green face of Gobiji (the "grandfather" goblin) quickly realizing he's been reborn as a lowly goblin, named Goblin Rou (Goburou in the anime) and not happy about it since It seems that I, a strengthened man with special powers, have been nerfed.

Day 3
The goblin babies grow so fast they can now hunt. He forms a party, makes his first kill, then the RPG system voice lets him know he's obtained his first item, a horned rabbit horn weapon!
description

Day 5
Another kill and Gobrou realizes he's kept his Esper ability of absorption, meaning ... he can eat anything without ill effects (poison etc.) AND gains the abilities of whatever creature he consumes. Oh My God. We are about to blow through some insane power leveling because of his broken Over Powered ability. He invites Gobbi-chan to join their hunting party, she's so grateful to have NOT fruits and nuts that she's pretty much going to be lady #1 in his soon to appear harem.
description

By now we know the pattern is set and the rest follows the formula - Hunt. Eat. Gain New Skills and equipment. Level Up, Evolve. Gain power. Get more followers and women in the harem. Rinse and Repeat. This volume contains day 1 to 34. (Ch. 1 to 10) so we see all this play out.

By chapter 4, Gobrou has become a Hobgoblin and from the picture below we learn he will later evolves into an Ogre, which is perfect for the Orcs, Trolls and Goblins hard mode square.
description


Overall this was not a bad read. It's a straight up power fantasy isekai, fairly "mid" with nothing special besides the fact that he starts out as a lowly goblin. The writing is serviceable. The story is fantastical. We just want to see how this plays out as he gets more powerful. That's about it. This totally fits Anituber Mother's Basement's description Yummy Trash but with some politically incorrect triggers. One small problem - shoot, the author had the skill to end this volume on a cliffhanger, now I'm going to have to read the next volume.
Profile Image for Elinor.
1,380 reviews37 followers
May 16, 2017
Très agréablement surprise par ce premier tome ! On m'en avait dit du bien mais je n'étais pas sûre d'aimer... au final c'est vraiment sympa bien qu'un peu verbeux, mais au final ça fonctionne bien quand même. L'histoire prend un point de vue original en suivant cet homme réincarné en goblin. J'aime beaucoup son intelligence et son côté stratège, et sa façon de faire évoluer sa tribu.
Le rythme n'est pas des plus soutenus mais il se passe assez de choses pour que la lecture n'en pâtisse pas. Quant à la fin, elle nous réserve un petit cliffhanger inattendu au vu du rythme global du tome.
Finalement je suis convaincue par ce titre et je lirai la suite avec intérêt, comme quoi on ne devrait pas toujours se fier à ses préjugés basés uniquement sur la couverture et les mots "réincarné en goblin" ! ^^
Profile Image for Mark Wizärd Wandera.
10 reviews31 followers
October 23, 2024
I'm impressed with a telling of a story where a goblin/hobgoblin/ogre is a hero/MC. Thats a fresh perspective. I however do not understand how Goblin Ruo, I forget his human name, died then came back to life, I guess this will be explained later on. I don't like the graphics, considering it is a recent manga, but the story is alright. Thus far, the ogre is exploring the outspan areas of the forest seeking to venture outside, I hope that will have an interesting arc. I also liked the tree with the dryand(?) kinda reminded me of the Tree of Magic in Shadowslave, same concept. Let's see how it goes
Profile Image for John Beliveau.
24 reviews
March 20, 2018
Re:Monster as of how much is out now, is a decent Isekai series with just about the same concept as That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime where a kirby-like seemingly underdog character reincarnates in a fantasy world as a weak monster and quickly works their way up with a combination of plot armor and their completely over powered ability. It's enjoyable to read if you don't over-analyze it but in terms of critiques, it's severely lacking. What it does currently have is a lot of potential and good art, so we'll see where this goes.
Profile Image for Darnell.
1,457 reviews
August 23, 2017
Though horribly over-narrated, the visuals make the story somewhat less lifeless. That isn't enough to save it.
Profile Image for Ahmed El-Sharawy.
140 reviews4 followers
March 17, 2020
Was surprisingly good and different and thus i have high hopes for the next volumes
Profile Image for Justin.
700 reviews2 followers
April 26, 2024
The problem, with discovering older works much later than the release is that your assumptions are that it is derivative work when it is intact an original.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Bob Ly.
5 reviews
June 12, 2017
This was very interesting. I like the characters, and how this has more in depth details than the graphic novel versions. Which I also read. This is interesting to me because I am interested in reincarnation aspect of games, people, and books.
Profile Image for Séverine.
547 reviews8 followers
June 9, 2016
Kanata est un humain. Renforcé par plusieurs opérations, il possède aussi un pouvoir d’absorption : il gagne des compétences en mangeant des objets, animaux, humains et créatures. Mais un soir, après une beuverie, Kanata est tué par une de ses amies et se réincarne dans le corps d'un bébé gobelin qui va vite grandir...

Adaptation d'un light novel, autant le dire tout de suite, je ne suis pas convaincue et j'ai bien l'impression d'être passé à côté de l'histoire. Cela vient surtout du fait que je me suis demandée pendant toute ma lecture "Et maintenant, il va se passer quoi ?". Kanata se réincarne, devient Gobu-Rô, un gobelin qui va très vite évoluer, il va chasser, se faire des vêtements, gravir les échelons... Mais c'est tout. Quel est son but ? Que va-t-il faire de concret, d'intéressant ? En réalité, il ne se passe pas grand chose en dehors de ça.

Et je ne suis pas convaincue non plus par le fait qu'il garde son pouvoir d'absorption alors qu'il a perdu tout le reste à sa mort, ni qu'une voix dans sa tête lui indique qu'il gagne un niveau quand il évolue (là, j'ai pas compris pourquoi...), ou quand il a de nouvelles compétences, qu'on ne nous explique pas à quoi elles servent (même si certaines sont assez compréhensibles), des compétences qui s'accumulent et qu'il gagne en grand nombre très facilement, donc on en oublie très vite les trois quart.

Je reste sceptique face à l'évolution des gobelins (ils peuvent évoluer en... vampire, ou en minotaure par exemple), ni même comment ils sont présentés. Dans tous les jeux, livres, univers, j'ai toujours vu les gobelins comme des petites créatures, souvent à la peau verte, qui compensent leur manque de force par leur vivacité et leur intelligence. Des bestioles jamais gentilles, toujours sournoises. Alors que là, c'est limite si il ne faut pas leur expliquer par quel bout il faut tenir une épée (j'exagère, mais l'idée est là).

Sinon la narration est originale, elle est à la première personne et n'offre que peu de dialogues. Graphiquement, ce n'est pas époustouflant, c'est bon, mais sans plus.

En bref, j'ai l'impression d'être passée à quelque chose, mais même après une relecture du manga, je reste autant peu convaincue par l'histoire de Kanata. Ce premier volume me fait l'effet d'un gros prologue qui traine en longueur, mais qui ne m'a pas assez captivée pour me donner envie de lire la suite.
Profile Image for Rebecca.
4,359 reviews69 followers
December 2, 2016
This is definitely one of the odder "taken to another world" stories, and unfortunately I feel like the manga version is not doing it justice. The plot, which revolves around a super-powered human who is killed and reborn as a goblin in a fantasy world, is interesting, if only for its focus on goblins. The hero, renamed Gob-rou in his new life, is grossly overpowered but efficient, and doesn't appear to be a typical LN or harem lead. The problem is more that it feels like a lot of world-building, specifically about Gob-rou's human life, has been left out, so we have no real idea of what his work was or why it required him to have powers, both of which feel important in terms of his new life. An even bigger issue is that the adapters appear not to have understood what "show not tell" means - the whole volume is narrated in text boxes by Gob-rou, making it feel like an abridged version of a closed first-person prose novel. Why retell it in manga if that's the way you're going to present it? It feels like a waste.

Other things worth mentioning are the threat (although no actual) of sexual goblin-on-human violence and that there's a lot of blood and hunting. It's gory, but not horribly so. Also Gob-rou's talents make him seem like a human version of Naofumi's shield in the Rising of the Shield Hero novels, which can make this a little weird if you read them too close together.

Long story short: the story has potential, but the format does it no favors. Maybe wait for the original novel on this one.
Profile Image for Jina.
371 reviews7 followers
January 19, 2026
Watching the anime before reading the manga, makes me favor the anime artwork over the manga although in general I find the manga artwork not as appealing as other series. However, it's one of the few cases where the story is so appealing that I can get over my dislike over the artwork enjoy the manga.

Yes, I'm aware that I'm a visual snob. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
8 reviews
November 10, 2015
You get immersed in this world through rou (main character) and the rise of the goblin clan.
Profile Image for Billy Joe.
3 reviews2 followers
July 15, 2016
Nothing happening. constant OP and level up with no challenges.
Profile Image for Ceres.
640 reviews
December 26, 2016
Un manga très spécial, plutôt original, avec déjà un côté sombre mais aussi avec pas mal d'humour. Pas mon style de base, mais je l'ai trouvé plutôt bien foutu!
Profile Image for Sabiq.
3 reviews22 followers
January 17, 2017
this manga is representative by novel. but i am read this manga first than the novel. it's good too. i think
Profile Image for Knicols.
5 reviews
December 16, 2022
Un isekai con i mostri. Ignorante al punto giusto agli inizi, poi diventa troppo ripetitivo.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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