She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man (Light Novel) Vol. 1

She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man Light Novel #1

by Ryusen Hirotsugu, りゅうせんひろつぐ, fuzichoco (Illustrator)

Sakamori Kagami was one of the top players in the VRMMO Ark Earth Online as Danblf, a veteran summoner with the gravitas to match his elite status. When he falls asleep playing one day, he's transported to a world where the game is reality—but instead of his all-powerful avatar, he's stuck in the body of a cute young girl! He can't let anyone know that this little cutie is really Danblf, so he takes the name "Mira" and claims to be Danblf's disciple. If this gets out, he'll never live it down!

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Adventure, Manga, Magic, Slice Of Life, Comedy

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 30, 2014

Reviews

[Niall Teasdale · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for something which explores gender dysphoria in a deep and meaningful manner... well, you've never read a light novel. This is a fun fantasy romp about a guy who gets stuck in a fantasy video game world in the body of a little girl, and when you get down to it, that's about all you can say about it.

The central twist (male in a female body) is played for laughs. Anything deeper is left for other aspects of the plot. Why have a bunch of people been incarnated into a real version of a game? (And I suspect the name of the game, Ark Earth Online, is a big clue to that one.) Why are demons attacking? Will the castle maids ever get tired of dressing Mira up as a Gothloli? Okay, that last one isn't very deep.

The main issue I have with this story is that Mira (the protagonist) is primarily a class of magician called a Summoner. As the name implies, Summoners summon various monsters to do their bidding, including the fighting. Mira is dual-class and has martial arts/magic skills too, but she mostly stands around and watches while her summons carve up the opposition. As such, while the fights are described well enough, they tend to be a bit boring.

This light novel has an anime adaptation coming out soon, which is one reason I decided to pick this up. I suspect that will heavily feature Mira being mortified at her treatment as a dress-up doll, but it may also manage to make the battle scenes a bit more exciting, if only due to having a bigger effects budget.

I may read more in the series, which is about as big an endorsement as I generally give.

[Samuel Faraday · Rating 1 out of 5]

37%

I wouldn’t recommend this book.

The pacing is the biggest blunder here. At 37% and 169 pages I realized, what, if anything, had actually happened in the story? The answer was nothing of note. Everything drags. Scenes go on for far longer than needed and so too do dialogues and the MC’s dwelling thoughts. The author needs to learn to cut things away or simply make things more concise. Then, and only then, would this book be somewhat passable.

I understand that a story can be a slice of life, but slice of life does not mean a perpetual nothingness. Yet, this story is a nothing burger with a shiny paint.

[Christopher Debono · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!

I was extremely excited for this and it didn't disappoint! I love the concept and the world seems really interesting. I need to give a special shoutout to fuzichoco the artist. The colour images at the start are breathtaking and the internal illustrations are great. Each of the covers that I've seen for this series are also really really nice.

[Chivonne Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was just....okay.

There were quite a few spelling errors that should have come up with a simple spellcheck. For example 'theit' instead of 'their'. I've been reading a lot of fantasy so I truly paused and wondered if I had missed when they explained what a 'theit' is until I realized it was a spelling mistake.

I usually skip past or ignore them, but after a while they did get annoying. There was also a part in the book where the characters thinks something and someone responds. That was weird.

Anyways, I'm not really eager to pick up book 2, but if someone gave it to me as a gift I wouldn't have an issue continuing.

[Nick Leins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cite

Not bad for an Isekai in a time where they're rather prolific, not bad at all. The adorableness of the MC is definitely a good draw, the battles are rather interesting, and the gender end adds hilarity and heartwarming moments.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good Isekai so far. The first book was a little slow but never lost my interest. The MC is OP but so are other characters all in their own way and they still have obstacles that don't seem easy to beat coming up. I look forward to the second book

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The anime was a mess in my opinion but could tell there was something there, fortunately the book is much better. Not to be taken too seriously this is isekai comedy after all. I like that the book had lifted letters on it. Not sure if I’ll read the others in the series yet but I’ll consider it.

[Bobby Emanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun

Enjoyable and cute. The tale progressed well and ha. some interesting ideas. I will buy more of the series. Definitely worth the money

[Brian Wilkerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wiseman - Volume 1

I picked this book up after reading the first season of the anime. It has an intriguing title. I was expecting a story about a girl attempting to follow in her mentor's footsteps. Haha, no. That turns out to be a coverstory. She is the "wiseman", herself.

Sakamori Kagami is "Danblf" in the game Ark Earth Online, a classic aged wizard with the associated with wrinkles and long white beard. On a lark, he decides to alter Danblf's apearance to a classic magical girl instead, small and delicate with long silver hair. At that very moment, after he finishes the alterations but before he can click "cancel", a supernatural occurence materalizes the game into full reality. So now Kagami is no longer "Danblf" but "Mira", who is Danblf's pupil. Saying anything else is too much trouble, both for Mira and the suddenly real kingdom she wants to protect.

In other words, this is an Isekai, but so far few of the usual cliches have shown up. This book is much more interested in world building than harem antics or power-fantasies.

Indeed, much of this book is concerned with world building. In fact, this book does what few others do and gives details about the world that Kagami left when he became Mira in the world of Ark Earth Online. It was a world with fully realized virtual reality. It was used for as much business applications as possible - office space no longer existed in physical reality because the same effect could be achieved virtually (think COVID-19 web conferences, but without any of the downsides). Then, the author uses that to contrast with the pros and cons of the medieval-europe analog of the game-turned-reality.

We see the history of this game world, the events and conflicts that shaped its kingdoms. We see player politics both before and after the supernatural event. We see the development of both mechanical engineering and the magical arts. We see management of dungeons for public safety. We see how Early Game Hell has stiffled the development of summoners now that summoning must be learned in real life. Even the climax battle is less of a "oh no! How will our hero ever survive?!" suspensful confrontation and is more of a "I wonder what would happen if I did this" experimention and examination of the new world's rules.

And yes, the reason that "Danblf" must go by "Mira" has a detailed discussion behind it, and it is very fun.

Also, yes, the author does get a lot of mileage out of Kagami adjusting to life as a girl.

Trickster Eric Novels gives "She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wiseman - Volume 1" an A+

[Hidekisohma · Rating 3 out of 5]

So i wasn't entirely sure where i wanted to put this book on a rating scaled. I've been reading a lot of light novels recently and wanted to give a "guy reincarnated as a girl" one a shot. and this was apparently one of the better ones according to the internet. and... it was fine for what it was.

short version, guy who plays a lot of an MMO is a super powerful magician (like the stereotypical old man look) changes his look to be a young girl just to see what it would look like and gets sucked into the world. Realizes it's been 30 years since he got sucked in and soon realizes that some of his old friends got sucked in too.

He now basically has to travel around pretending he's his old character's apprentice while also saving the kingdom and reuniting the other 7 missing super powerful people. that's essentially the plot.

It's kinda generic, but the twist of "Becoming a girl" i guess is the story's real selling point as the "guy realizing he's a girl now and doesn't act like a girl" is focused on heavily. One of the weird things about this one is for some reason they talk a lot about her going to the bathroom a bunch. which is weird. yeah i mean, i guess the idea of a guy having to learn how to bathroom as a girl would be weird, but do we really need like 4 mentions of it? i don't know, just felt odd to me.

the main characters so far are Mira (main girl/guy) solomon the king (another player) and some other girl played by a guy that's one of the 9 people ( i forgot her name) and they're all FINE if not a little generic. i can't say i'm LOVING this story, but it's interesting ENOUGH that i'll want to read a volume 2.

Basically Mira has a lot of summoning magic and is super strong, but it's hard to honestly say WHAT i think about these characters as Mira isn't..that great of a character. she likes rare items... is interested in learning magic and um... hates wearing dresses? like the MC is so bland it's hard to get a read on them. I suppose they'll talk more about it later but just... this character is so bland i'm having trouble.

All in all, not BAD and i want to give it a second volume shot. not in a RUSH for volume 2, but i'll read it.
3 out of 5.

[Gioia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read all the light novels currently available in this series, and I can say with confidence that if it weren’t for the fanservice, this would be a 5-star fantasy I’d recommend to anyone.

The isekai premise isn’t the most original, but the execution is brilliant: friendships portrayed in a touching and realistic way, mystery, a true sense of adventure and discovery, action scenes balanced with cozy slice-of-life moments, decently written characters… and then there’s that 10% of cheap fanservice that adds absolutely nothing worthwhile to the story. The anime adaptation is even worse in this regard.

My advice is to still give this series a try, at least the first volume, and just hold your nose through that 10%. I love this series, even though I know it’s not perfect.

[maribel frias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read. Mira was a likeable character. The game world had an interesting concept: hidden knowledge and skills that could only be discovered by playing the game, then the eco-system it created of unique characters with unique skills. Unfortunately, at least in the first volume, it was introduced but you don't get to explore it more. It is somewhat continued once Mira gains consciousness within this game world, but that could have still existed anyways because of limitation that are bound to happen if such a thing occurred.
Other than that, fun read.

[Enzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one definitely is different for a Light-Novel. The main character decides to mess around with his character just to find out that his timing was totally wrong. Turns out his Virtual World suddenly becomes the real world and he is now a cute Women.
Now as a female he is learning how bad he really messed up. His friends from the original game still exists and he is trying to survive his new life.

[Dantegideon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately the characters were quite dull and the plot was very shallow.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great start to a story. We've seen similar fantasy, stuck in a rpg game, type of genre. But this has a fresh style with much plot to it. So much to be discovered and admired

[Ddspears · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't fisnish entire book, no any interesting point make me want continue to read. Boring book ever I read

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

偏無聊，花很多篇幅反覆強調女性主要角色(特別是米菈、露米娜莉亞)的外型多麼吸引人，劇情跟戰鬥還好，屬於讓人沒什麼動力繼續往後看的類型。

[Hulda Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was just straight up boring

[Pieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sakamori Kagami had been playing a VRMMORPG for some time, spending great care on his character in a game that allowed the players much freedom, acquiring much fame within the game from both fellow players and NPCs. On a lark he temporarily rebuilds his character as a young woman, only to loose consciousness and to wake up in the game as his character, now a girl and not the elderly wise man he always played. After having dealt with the crisis of whether he is dreaming or really in the world of the game, he sets out to find his friends and to learn what is going on. What follows is an entertaining story of an OP isekai MC honestly struggling with the situation she is in, not only with the mystery on how he ended up in the game world, but also being a woman.

The story contains many of the tropes of the genre, but it is different enough for me to draw me in the story. Sure, the maids want to dress him up and there are the typical bath scenes of the oversexed woman (another male player with a female avatar), but the MC seems to be genuinely struggling with the situation - most of it practically, but at some point he purposely stops thinking about more long term issues to deal with (when talking about becoming a father). Some of it made me smile, nothing made me outright cringe. I found the characters and world building interesting and likeable. The magic/skill system is mostly left to the imagination of the reader, for me that was a bit of a disappointment, not necessarily because I like character sheets and game mechanics (even though I do), but because it creates a rather soft power system, not just magic but even physical skills. No dues-ex-Machina a wizard did it saves yet, but the potential is there.

All in all, an entertaining read, nothing ground breaking, but entertaining enough to keep reading.

[Lee Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

的确挺厕纸的。只记得女孩子怎么在野外上厕所；小胖次的描写。总结起来就是诲淫不诲盗。故事设计没啥魅力。大叔少女心，有点独特。插图美。居然有60千字，2天才读完。轻小说一般都40-60千。半部百年孤独。