It's time for the Duchy of Brunhild to host a national festival, and Mochizuki Touya is smack-bang in the middle. World leaders are in attendance, nobility, traveling adventurers... And even God himself has seen fit to grace the mortal realm with his presence. What will Touya do when the big man upstairs comes downstairs for a change? More importantly, will he have enough dessert?! Meanwhile, in the Reverse World, tragedy strikes... An unusual purple Gollem surfaces alongside a strange, depraved woman... Their actions paint an otherwise calm marketplace deep crimson... Put on your party hats for a tale of swords, sorcery, and tasty snacks!
If someone were to ask me what would be the most generic representation of the current light novel trends in Japan, I would point them to Smartphone without a doubt. 13 volumes in and Smartphone remains just as recognisable as it is in its debut.
The scattershot approach to the story remains strong with the MC going from organizing a pseudo-Olympics to beating back a psychotic murderer and ending things off with heart-warming romantic moments without letting the steam up.
Indeed, this approach really tends to be close to 'bad writing' and I'm surprised that 13 volumes in, Smartphone somehow still retains my interest. While many may feel the writing gets disjointed and the author's penchant for skipping descriptions or jumping temporally when he doesn't feel like writing more can be 'lazy', I guess it does help to keep the interest from waning when you know that current events are probably resolved in the next 20 pages or so.
Smartphone remains a guilty pleasure for me, it's basically the junk food light novel, one you know that's really kinda bad and not at all good, but there's something in it that you just can't stop savouring, once in a while.
If you're this far into this series you pretty much already know what kind of things to expect there isn't really anything aside from a small attempt to keep the enemy interesting. Overall there was less combat in this volume and only minor story advancements, the main character doesn't do any of the "inventing" he normally does and while he spends time with his various wives there are just too many for the story to have the time to advance very much in a volume, though like I said at this point that's expected. The series is mostly a slice of life plus and if it were an anime this would be the equivalent of the school festival episode though on a global scale. Events seem to have slowed down a lot but it feels like the author needs to resolve the main story conflict sometime soon so they are trying to create another to continue the story afterwards. Overall it was an alright read and exactly the kind of thing you would be reading this series for.
This volume seem a little vague. It did have several important things. However, I dislike how everything seems easy for Touya. No real struggles. I feel like the author in this volume was force to include so many events. I feel like they could of been spread out.
Touya's daily life continues with an impromptu festival in Brunhild and a visit to the mirror world looking for a spot for a gate and a golem guardian. Much like previous volumes in the series, it is a slice-of-life with a slow burn overarching plot with a decent (if somewhat simple) world building and characters and no real threat to Touya's powers. The crowd of characters is getting a bit big and with the author trying to pay attention to all is causing all characters to suffer. Still, for me it was an enjoyable read, nothing unique or special, just a fun quick read.
Touya hosts a National Festival. He tosses it together after seeing that the young King of Palouf doesn’t have any strong Shogi opponents. There’s a Baseball tournament and fighting tournament as well.
God comes down to observe the festivities, and the divinity enhanced Phrase make their move.
Meanwhile, Touya goes to Reverse World and finds some Gollems of his own.
Finally, Touya helps out with a magic train.
I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The anime series got me going on this series and I haven't regretted it in the least. The development of characters and magic defiantly draws one into the world of My Smartphone.