Legend of the Far East’s Savior Volume 1 Review

Growing up, I used to enjoy sci-fi and mecha anime and manga, but then my preferences changed, keeping me away from these genres. Legend of the Far East’s Savior seemed a good re-starting point to get back into it, and I’m so glad it didn’t disappoint!

Keita Kawakami is a 15-year-old boy who has memories of his past life on a parallel Earth—our Earth. The world he lives in now is overrun with demons and demonkin, after a demon was summoned during WWII by a country that was losing the war (it doesn’t explicitly say which country, but readers can guess). This demon called upon other demons and started converting humans into demonkin to do their bidding. Not everybody agreed to let demons rule over them, and so each country is independently at war with demons, demonkins and the monsters they also created. Keita has been orphaned and the only thing he wants to do is protect his 12-year-old sister Yuna so she can grow up peacefully and have the opportunity to go to university, which in this world can only happen if you’re rich.

In fact, in the year 2055 on this Earth, the military takes centre stage as they are the only ones capable of defeating the demons and their affiliates, thanks to the use of Monster-Armored Combat Units, or mechs for short. These combat units resemble robots and are created with parts of slain monsters —only a few humans who can respond and adapt to magicite, an element brought in by demons, are able to command them and fight with them. Keita has an unusually strong adaptation rate, so he ends up at the military school with a new mech prototype, Mikage, which is the combination of the two standard mech types: humanoid and beast. Mikage is something that has never been seen before, created by an up-and-coming engineering company and only Keita is able to utilise its full potential, thanks to his memories of watching mecha anime in his past life.

The story is narrated through various points of view and interludes, giving the reader an omniscient view of what’s going on through various characters and their thoughts, even if the protagonists don’t know the facts yet. There’s a lot to unpack in this first volume as the author Hotokeyomo gives much information to explain this world to the readers and sets up for volumes to come through the characters’ narration and interludes. Although the story takes place on Earth, it’s almost like a parallel Earth that’s not as advanced as the one we know due to the advent of demons during World War II. It establishes a blend of the paranormal and technological in a way that doesn’t create confusion or leave the readers wondering ‘why is that happening? It doesn’t make any sense’.

For example: the mechs, which can be considered robots in the same vein as the mecha in Gundam or Aquarion. These mechs are built with parts of the monsters killed by the National Defence Force, the military in charge of dealing with demons, demonic humans and the monsters in Japan. They are not just a scientific innovation, but actually a mix of the supernatural with applied knowledge of the science that exists in this parallel Earth.

Quite a few characters are introduced in the first volume, and even though not all of them play a major part in the development in the story (yet), the readers get to know them leaving the readers guessing what part they will play the more the story goes on. Keita’s classmates are all from military backgrounds, wanting to build up their reputation and military credit, and while some realise Keita’s abilities can be an asset, others are envious of him, especially for all the fame he’s gaining by fighting on the frontline when he’s just an orphan from a non-military background. What they don’t know yet though is that Keita and his sister were part of a scientific experiment… What that entails is still a mystery, but it seems Keita’s little sister Yuna knows more that she lets on.

The novel has a few illustrations by Kurogin that depict characters and scenes in the novel. It’s thanks to this that readers can get a sense of how Mikage, Keita’s hybrid mech, looks. The illustrations are quite basic and not fully detailed, but they are still a nice addition.

Although there’s a lot of scientific terminology in the story, I didn’t feel that it interrupted the flow of the narration, which is smooth. What I appreciated the most is the timeline background at the beginning of the book which breaks down for the readers everything that happened from WWII and the advent of the demons to the ‘present’ of the story when Keita appears.

Legend of the Far East’s Savior is published by Yen On in print and digital format in the English language with Haydn Trowell’s translation. There is no release date for the second volume yet.

Our review copy was supplied by Edelweiss and Yen On.