“...would you like to become my servant... or something...”
This is no fantasy world. No superpowers exist, neither does magic. He’s an ordinary middle school student. He doesn’t have any hobbies, nor anything to look forward to as he lives his tedious and unchanging life every day.
Normally, there would be no point telling his story.
However, one day, something strange happens. He accidentally stumbles upon a strange girl. Immediately he notices her unusual appearance—one of her eyes is concealed under a black eyepatch.
Caught up in utter confusion, he barely notices when the girl asks him to become her ‘servant’, but doesn’t give him any time to respond as she runs away.
As it turns out soon, the girl appears to be completely detached from the real world. She pretends to be strong and tough, but it doesn’t take much to reveal her bashful and cowardly side.
The protagonist—Fujioka Takao—initially driven by curiosity, decides to put up with the eccentric girl, but at some point, the situation gets out of his control.
Thus begins his story, which quickly proves to be the story of his youth.
*
- This is the first novel I’m ever writing, so expect a lot of mistakes, especially in the first chapters. I think I’m trying my best, though.
- This is primarily a slice of life story, so it may be slow at times. I really apologize for that.
- Character on cover made in charat.me/avatarmaker
As the author said, this story is inspired by Chuunibyou Koi Ga sh*tai, but describing it as so is selling it short.
To start it, the MC, Fujioka Takao, suffers from social anxiety (different from Yuta, who is quite confident and reliable), which he doesn't really like to admit when he's not stressed out from socializing. In the first chapter, he mentions that he doesn't answer his best friend when they talk because he's not interested, but when he takes initiative to ask this friend of his about Lumiya, he lets it slip that he might be "a little" troubled, plus he is deathly afraid that said friend will get loud and announce to the whole class that he might have a thing for some girl. The crux of the matter is that to Takao, the "embarrassment" of having such a thing said out loud would not be as simple as it would be for most people, it would really hurt.
By the way, can we appreciate how much of a bro Takao's friend (sorry I forgot your name) is? Despite being loud, he is well aware of the MC's troubles and it can be seen that he is happy to help however can. That time they hang out with some random people, I have the impression that the chad picked out some guys who were friendly and respected personal space. After all, Takao did hint that despite the discomfort, the meeting hadn't been a horrible thing.
Another different thing is that the FL, Lumiya, is trying to get into the whole thing, in contrast to Rikka from Chuunibyou, who was already a lost cause from the start. Although it is most probable that she has the same anxiety problem as Takao, the focus is on how she struggles to share her hobby.
"Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga sh*tai" can come across as a little more of a fantasy since the story is focused around the main cast, which is mostly dominated by patients of the syndrome (and it was more about revisiting a past stage), "Lumiya Is A Weirdo, So What?" is giving the opposite vibes, the two leads are much too aware of the pressure of society. The fact that Lumiya gives me the impression that she is more of a roleplayer than a chuuni is not that important.
Anyway, from the two chapters I've read, it can be said that this is a journey of self-discovery and acceptance. Takao, who has no drive and trails on a road filled with bumps; and Lumiya, who has more of a persistent hobby than fantastic delirium, and struggles to bring it to life. Their fated meeting, set by the Creator since the beginning of time, blossoms into... some awkward story that is quite cute?
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Rating [3/5] - Reading this gives the impression that the author is purposely trying to make the chapters longer (As the author has stated in the summary).
Doing this though makes the novel suffer. If the author trims even half of the unnecessary inner monologue this would have been rated 4.2/5 for me.
The dialogue between the characters is the part I enjoyed the most. There is not much of that though.
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