Roll that Review: It’s Not Easy to Be a Man After Traveling to the Future

 

The two of them walked the familiar path through the Ling family mansion and pushed open the study door. Hearing them come in, Ling Xiao lifted his head, and with a warm smile, he said, “Ling Lan, you’ve come …” Just like an extremely patient father who had been waiting unbelievably patiently for his own playful child to return home after playing their fill …
Ling Lan even had the mistaken feeling that, in these days which she had been absent, had Ling Xiao been sitting alone behind his desk all this time, just waiting for the moment she would open the door and walk in?
Ling Lan felt a pang run through her heart and her lips trembled. Finally, one word escaped her lips, “Daddy!” Although this cry was very soft, in this silent and tranquil study, it was unmistakably clear.

Today we are going to take a look at “It’s Not Easy to Be a Man After Traveling to the Future”, a sci-fi mecha genderbender/cross-dressing action light novel! Woo! I like this one! A lot! Hurray! As someone who doesn’t normally read any sort of mecha light novel or manga, this one surprised me. It’s pretty dang good.

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Title: It’s Not Easy to Be a Man After Traveling to the Future
Author: Madam Ru
Series: Standalone
Rating: ★★★★★★★ (7 1/2 stars)

After dying from a strange terminal illness, Ling Lan was reborn into a world 10000 years into the future. Although she dearly wished she could just live a peaceful and uneventful life in her new healthy body, fate had other plans …

Forced to disguise herself as a boy just so she could inherit her deceased father’s premium military benefits, Ling Lan’s journey to adulthood was full of challenges. After much difficulty, she finally turned sixteen when she could drop the charade. But before she could grasp her newfound freedom to get married and start her own family, a twist of fate results in her being thrown into the Federation’s top military boys’ school.

With these twists of fate, Ling Lan had little choice but to walk further and further down a path of no return, one of cold and aloof dominance …

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From this point on I’ll call “It’s Not Easy to Be a Man After Travelling to the Future”, It’s Not Easy.

Positives of It’s Not Easy:

Immersion: I’m all for immersion, especially a world that you can really dig your teeth into. I wasn’t expecting much out of it at first because usually, I don’t like Mecha worlds for one reason or another, mostly because the immersion just doesn’t feel right. The era set for the story is a futuristic world and it certainly shows it. The integration of man and machine and the usefulness of devices really bring it home that the world is set in the future. The author doesn’t lack for details when describing key points while also not dragging their heels. It feels like I am there observing the characters and I can honestly cheer for all of them. Even the situations where I want to just strangle a villain I can’t help but be drawn in by the author’s wordplay. Of course, sometimes the immersion is broken, it’s not always perfect, but it’s good enough for me.

The build-up might be slow but if you think about it… you and the main character are in the same boat. The main character, for the most part, is experiencing most of the beginning of the story at the same time you are. Her experiences are yours as well, a clever thing, I think. Most of the time when I read these stories the main character might be learning things for the first time but it doesn’t feel as genuine as some of what Ling Lan feels. The reactions of the characters are well geared, making it easy for you to get lost in their dialogue, truly living in their world for that chapter, seeking to sink your teeth in more.

 

Characterization: I absolutely adore Ling Lan, she’s ruthless, cool-tempered, and unyielding while all at the same time caring, curious and even a bit hopeless. She doesn’t have to grow as a character in the beginning but her character changes and fluctuates like how I feel a living person could. A living person when strong can become arrogant, they can feel pity or disgust and have so many emotions and that’s exactly how it goes with not just Ling Lan but also Qi Long, Luo Lang, Han Jijyun, Li Lanfeng and others. All of them have personalities and all of them are dynamic, changing as the story goes on, their own wills wavering, their nature adjusting as they grow older. It’s an evolution of character for everyone and not just two or three characters. If the character is exposed enough you will see how they change over time.

There are a lot of characters too, but they all have different personalities, wants or desires, and actions. They all feel genuine and it’s nice to read.

 

Story: As far as the story goes, there’s clear intent. The author has an outline and is following it, even if something might seem a little boring I believe everything has a purpose. So far the author hasn’t wandered around blindly, they carefully take care of this story and it’s showing. The main character, Ling Lan, is a transmigrated human who is reincarnated into a new identity using her old name. Her father, a god-class mech operator, ‘passes‘ away during a battle and following her birth,  she is revealed to be highly capable as though following her father’s footsteps. Yet in this world men reign supreme as the women are viewed as physically weaker. That stigma is most likely to change as Ling Lan herself proves that she, as a woman disguised as a man, does her best to shoulder the future of those she cares about.

Everything that happens in the story is sure to have a closure, whether it’s a quick closure or one that goes over for a long time, but so far while reading the machine translation up to chapter 650+, it is all in line. It just feels right, the story and how the author goes about it. Even if it’s at a point where you might not like it, it’s necessary and not some sort of foolish gap to fluff up chapters. Even if you don’t want to hear about other characters it’s still important because it’s for the sake of continuing a story with as little discrepancy as possible. I want to know more about the characters, I want to be enveloped in everyone’s story. I wouldn’t be able to have closure if everything was handled half-heartedly. I enjoy the time taken to expand the story to include more than just the main character’s life, I like knowing about the supporting characters.

 

Technology: Technology is something I’m hesitant about, it either can make or break something, but the technology in It’s Not Easy is honestly…. exciting! I love the implementation of the wrist communicators that act like smartphones, bank cards, locating devices and even forms of identification. It’s an all-in-one device. I’m not sure when they get it or how they get it, but I sure wish I had one! Even the hover cars are something that we are grasping but haven’t had a commercial use for exactly. I’m not sure when everyone will be able to have one but I will hazard a guess it won’t be as intelligent of a system as the ones in It’s Not Easy at the start. Sure makes me wish I had one of those too…

The Mech’s are also very interesting, normally the mechs I’ve seen show them having various types of joysticks or the person standing with faux exercise bands determining how their mecha moves. This one is moved using the dexterous nature of one’s own fingers, including a clutch or joystick feature. But even that’s not the only limit. You have to be extremely fit and have the proper strength to even get in one. If you’re too weak you’d be crushed by the pressure and have internal injuries, which is usually what limits women from being any stronger than an occasional Ace mech operator. You have to have the dexterous mind and physical body as well as a hardy being.

Speaking of the levels of Mechs there are different levels which are usually marked by the skill implementation, dexterous fingers or physical and mental strength. The first level is Initiate/Beginner Mecha, Intermediate Mecha, Advanced Mecha, Special Mecha, Ace Mecha, Imperial Mecha and God-class Mecha. It’s a lot of ranks but it’s understandable, one mecha can’t beat all of them… well, might beat most depending on who pilots it, of course.

The health system is also phenomenal, the Dragonball-esque healing pods are in full force in this story. It isn’t as defined as the mechs are, obviously, but the technology put into healthcare is clearly superb if a broken shoulder would only take a month of laying in a healing pod would make you as good as cured for the average person, if you’re special you can take a (rather painful) fast route and be healed in just 5 days. Just the thought of having injuries healed in minutes, hours, days or months when now it takes days, months and years for even something that’s not all that threatening like cuts, broken feet or some sort of internal injury. Man, I’m jealous of this world and its technological advancements.

Budding romance: Even though romance is not centric on this story, it’s more about the life and growth of Ling Lan from a budding child all the way to adult (and beyond I’m sure), the romance is done fairly well in my opinion. It’s slow and steady but its acceptable. The Male Lead Li Lanfeng isn’t condescending and stronger than Ling Lan, he’s not quiet and anti-social with others. Li Lanfeng is loyal to a fault to Ling Lan, he would do almost anything for her. To him, she is his world. He doesn’t even really know her all that well as when they first met all they knew was what mecha they commanded, but when they met face to face Li Lanfeng still sort of knew that she was important to him, even when their identities weren’t confirmed. When he knew who she was he was astounded, so proud of his rabbit, anything that he can do to help her, even self-sacrifice, he would do it without complaint.

He is however not always well received but I rather like the slow and innocent route that Li Lanfeng is doing, even if it’s a bit ‘annoying’ to some. His whole-hearted sweetness and devotion towards Ling Lan, even realizing her thoughts without her voicing it out, something which her little fellows who knew her for over 10 years can’t do is endearing. She matters to him, and in turn, he matters to her because he’s the first person who she can perfectly relate to for various reasons. He’s her first true friend and she values that, even if their friendship grew without knowing the other’s identity. Plus, it’s really sweet that he never forgot about her over the 7 years she was in ‘hiatus’ because of one reason or another. I mean the guy had his mecha space be a rabbit mecha, which is the first mecha Ling Lan used. How cute~!

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These Negatives are not the only ones, but I am unable to think of them at the moment. For the most part, the story is solid and there are not many missing leads. Other than forgivable things such as whether the action is good or bad, I like it, the fighting is better done than some novels.

It’s Not Easy negatives:

 

The number of characters: This isn’t exactly a negative, but there are a TON of characters, some of which have similar sounding names. It’s a bit taxing to remember them, sometimes you also don’t even remember who the character was in the first place because they hadn’t yet been fully integrated into the story. It’s worse in that some characters names are almost the same. Lan Loufeng, Li Lanfeng, Ling Lan, Li Shiyu, Li yijie, etc ect etc. So many L names. But maybe it’s also bad because I’m also currently reading the automatic machine translation. That’s a scream, I love it though.

 

Author 4th wall breaking: I don’t like the 4th wall being broken. It’s nice to know that the characters are fine and that cool things happen to them in the future, but we can leave that for the future, or have a specific part where all the future events happen all at once. It’s neat that the MC was helpful and had someone advance their career, but if its so far in the future that the character only reveals they were helped by something the main character says when they die, I am not sure I exactly wanna hear it when the character is 18-20 years old during the story. Sometimes a nice touch though.

 

Obligated cheat assistant: Granted, I don’t mind Little Four as much as I hate other ‘cheat assistants’, I still don’t quite like him. He’s supposed to be all knowing and super smart but he’s childish. I get that he’s still adapting and growing as AI, but somehow he just doesn’t perfectly sit right with me. I guess that it’s because he’s supposed to help her through every situation but somehow neglects to tell her key points? Like if there’s a group of people he says “oh there’s no one strong” and one of them turns out to be as strong or stronger than Ling Lan, please make up your mind Little Four.

Oh well, if I was a 24-year-old stuck in the body of an infant and had to re-live my life with all my past memories intact after being reincarnated into a future world, I guess I’d like a chatty childish chat box too.

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Feel free to recommend a story! I’ll take a look when I have time~!

This week’s recommendations:

Goblin Kingdom – With a hideous visage, they came to be known as goblins.
Hunted day after day, trampled, and crushed, these creatures lived with no other lot than to be killed.
But all that changed when the king was born.
This is a tale of a king’s revolt against the gods. And the humans and monsters that follow him.

It’s actually one of the first light novels I’d read. It’s sort of like Re: Monster, but instead of a diary where a horny harem goblin turns into some kind of OP beast in like, 10 chapters, this guy works for it and becomes OP less fast… sort of. I just remember it was not terrible and I enjoyed reading it when I first started reading Light Novels. It’s just kinda ok though.

Lazy King – By the time I realized it, I had reincarnated into another world.
I kept sleeping, and at some point, I became a Demon Lord.
Even though I never wished for it.
But for me to not have to work, this world is the best. It must be true that good things happen to good people.
The flavor of Sloth is as sweet as honey. Glory, diligence, virtue, or honor. I have no interest in anything like that.
What’s there to hide? The Lazy king is… none other than me.

I wish I could be Liege, I really do. I’d love to sleep all day, get fed, washed and taken care of expertly by people. I mean, I don’t want that, no. absolutely not. I liked this story, it was fairly unique out of the stories that I had read. Having the sins be clans with different natures according to their particular sin was pretty cool, plus the idea of possible cross skills depending on what clan you’re in? Neat. Or even the ownership of more than one skill. I just wish there was more of it. It was one of my top lists when I first started, granted it’s not as high now but probably in the top 15.