Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! Volume 2 Review

Last year I checked out the first volume of new isekai adventure Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! which followed reincarnated protagonist Kanata Aldezia in her quest to tame extremely fluffy creatures. Now with Volume 2 in hand, it’s time to find out how Kanata is getting on in her pursuit of furry companions. 

As we reunite with Kanata, we find she’s successfully registered with the guild after proving her strength in defeating the powerful monsters that were attacking Zaggy. Zaggy is the Demon Lord Zaggiel stuck in the form of a fluffy cat-like creature that Kanata has now tamed, although very little of this concerns Kanata, who simply wants to spend her days stroking his fur. 

Now officially an adventurer, Kanata is eager to take on her first quest which she decides will be to clean the capital’s sewers. Due to the nature of the job this quest has gone ignored for so long that people are beginning to fall ill from the poison leaking out and even the guild attendant begs Kanata to reconsider, but our plucky protagonist can’t possibly leave anyone to suffer and accepts it regardless of the advice. 

And as it turns out, Kanata’s light magic makes purifying the poison incredibly easy – all she needs to do is walk through the sewers. So, of course, that means she cleans the whole system in a single day and heals everyone currently poisoned, which astounds both the guild and the Water and Sewerage Department head, who realises they can’t pay Kanata the promised reward for completing the quest (a problem the guild master sympathises with)! In the meantime, her reputation as a saint grows, but Kanata only wishes to be known as a Beast Tamer and asks that people inform her of any fluffy creatures they happen to see. She even tasks a blacksmith with creating some armour not for herself but for Zaggy! 

Away from Kanata’s saintly antics, we also find out why Zaggy got turned into this cat-like creature. Here we learn that a Goddess was unhappy with Zaggy after he unified the demon realm and showed no interest in invading the humans’ land. This poses a problem for the goddess as they rely on human souls for sustenance and need humans to die fighting demons until a hero defeats the current demon lord, only for the cycle to begin anew once a new Demon Lord is born. With Zaggy refusing to play along, a curse is put upon him and then he’s swiftly kicked out of the demon realm by his second-in-command who takes his position! 

To lift the curse Zaggy has to learn to love and be loved, so much so that he has the love of a million. That’s no easy task in his current form and while he’s desperately trying to accomplish that, the demons are gearing up for a fight against humanity. A fight that will, of course, end up involving Kanata and Zaggy. 

Volume 2 of Passing Beast Tamer has something for everyone. At heart, it’s a comedy for people who want to watch Kanata overcome anything that stands in her way with ease, but author Inumajin has put a lot of thought into the world-building too. Our plucky protagonist might not care about the demons, goddesses and anything else that stands between her and the ultimate fluff, but Zaggy is very central to all of that so we’re still getting an interesting storyline developing around the two. 

I think the key thing here is that it’s a well-balanced series. Neither the comedy nor more serious undertones overshadow one another and instead work in harmony, offering plenty for all kinds of readers to sink their teeth into. Kanata and Zaggy are both such good characters that it’s easy to find yourself invested in both sides of the story and I think Kanata’s more unhinged perspective on life keeps you on your toes, not knowing what to expect next. 

I felt this way back when reviewing Volume 1, but here in #2 I still think the whole thing has been improved by being in a visual medium. This light novel turned manga has some fantastic artwork so far by iidatoy who depicts both the action and comedic moments well and improves upon the original material. There’s a lot more dialogue throughout than there was in the first volume, but iidatoy manages to incorporate it without making it feel like we’re losing page space to too many speech bubbles! 

Coming in at just over 200~ pages this is quite a thick volume, which explains why it reaches the end of the first light novel in terms of story. This presents an easy jumping-off point if you feel you’ve had your fill of Kanata’s adventures, but also presents an opportunity for a change of scenery in Volume 3 as we prepare to embark upon a new storyline. 

Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! Volume 2 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and continues to be translated by Eleanor Summers with lettering by Carolina Herandez. As with the first volume, it reads well with no problems to note.

Volume 3 of the series is due for an English release later this month with #4 following in July, at which point we will be caught up with the Japanese releases!

Overall, Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! Volume 2 continues to offer a highly entertaining read. With plenty of development for the plot counterbalanced by Kanata’s saintly antics, there’s plenty for readers to enjoy here as they watch over her adventures. Certainly, if you enjoyed Volume 1 this poses no reason not to carry on. 

Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Books Distributors UK.