Tamer: Trash-Tier to Top-Tier Volume 1 Review

My last One Peace Books review was for My New Devil Wife, which was a fantasy story. And now I’m here to take a look at Tamer: Trash-Tier to Top-Tier, which is another fantasy manga, but this time with an isekai twist. Does it prove an interesting read? Let’s find out!

The story begins with an unnamed man who wields one of the ultimate classes in his world: Tamer. Unfortunately for him, his storage magic goes wrong, and he is reborn in another world as a boy called Varius. And rather than being a strong class, in this world, the job of tamer is looked down upon by all. When our protagonist first awakens as Varius, he’s being bullied by a group of young boys, but they’re then attacked by a powerful monster, and it’s Varius who steps up to protect them all.

Luckily for Varius, the storage magic he had in his past life still works in this world. Better yet, it contains the powerful staff he’d recently obtained as well as a cloud-like item that lets him fly around. After successfully defeating the monster, the kids are rescued, and Varius begins to learn more about the new world he’s found himself in. He even discovers that there’s going to be a local training group for new tamers! But when he arrives, he soon sees that monster-taming in this world is nothing like where he came from. The kids are beating up monsters and then forcing them to submit with magic, whereas Varius has always made conversation with his prospective partners and created a contract after that discussion.

Upset both by how tamers are looked down upon and their conduct in this world, Varius decides he needs to become the strongest and change the world’s view on the class. So, he sets out to tame a powerful partner of his own (a three-horned stag beetle), and together they train and prepare themselves for the challenges ahead.

So far, so standard isekai, I hear you cry. Well, that’s certainly not wrong. Varius is overpowered, thanks to the items that were in his storage, his past-life knowledge and the monster he teams with here. In fact, I was preparing to write this off as your standard average fare as well, but there’s a little more to this one.

Like many of these manga, this is based on a light novel by Tamaki Yoshigae (who has several other titles to their name but nothing licensed) and from reading the manga, you get the sense that the author has put considerable thought into the overall worldbuilding. It’s the little things, like the mechanics of how monster-taming differs between worlds and the fact that storage magic can whisk people off to other worlds. Varius makes it sound like this is a well-known problem with it, so I wonder if that will be relevant later in the story. Perhaps with another character who has found themselves living a second life? Even if that’s not the case, the fact that these things are laid out in detail makes this more interesting than other similar titles.

Mangaka Niwa Rhythm (this appears to be their first work) has done a great job with the artwork as well. The fight scenes are compelling, and I really liked seeing the designs for the different monsters. There’s not a lot in terms of background, and it took me a bit to get used to the way Varius was drawn, as there’s just something off about his expressions. But on the whole, I think Rhythm does a good job of conveying the important parts of this story.

As mentioned, Tamer: Trash-Tier to Top-Tier Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to One Peace Books. Unfortunately, there are no English localisation credits whatsoever. But this release reads well, and there’s a good variety of lettering, so whoever was responsible did a good job! This release includes a short story by the original author as an extra, but sadly, no colour pages, which is a shame, as at least the Japanese eBook has some.

The manga is still ongoing in Japan with seven volumes currently available. Here in English, Volume 2 is due for release in June, with #3 following in December. No sign of the original light novels being licensed at this point.

Overall, Tamer: Trash-Tier to Top-Tier has all the makings of your usual overpowered isekai story, but there are enough interesting mechanics that if you’re into the genre, it’s well worth giving a go. Sometimes, even an incredibly average series can be fun.

Our review copy from One Peace Books was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).
©Niwa Rhythm/Tamaki Yoshigae/OVERLAP