- Mangaka : Yasohachi Tsuchise & Hagure Yuuki
- Publisher : Seven Seas
- Genre : Comedy, Fantasy, Light Novels
- Published : June 2020
Introduction
In various stories, novels, and series, there is that certain ultimate weapon from the legends. The main character or a group of main characters will often scramble about the entire world just to get their hands on this powerful weapon. The reason could be the cliched saving the world or perhaps to destroy it. Stories are getting more and more clever nowadays. Nonetheless, it’s always fun to see the heroes’ journey to acquire this tool. More often than not, there is great satisfaction in both the characters and us, readers, when the fated moment finally happens. However, what if an invincible tool--let’s say a shovel--is given to the main character right off the bat? Well, let’s find out.
Contains Spoilers
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
The Invincible Shovel digs the story of Alan, a miner by trade, who brings an invincible shovel with him. By invincible, we mean invincible. Heck, his trusty old pal-e can even shoot beams. No, we’re not kidding. He annihilated a group of thugs who were harassing a pretty and young lass. This brings us to the second character, Lithisia. Lithisia is a princess who is out on a mission. She’s trying to save her kingdom by collecting seven different colored orbs that are scattered across the globe. According to legends, a wish will be granted once all seven orbs are assembled. How will a wish be granted? Will a green dragon by the name of Shenron come out of the gathered orbs? That, we do not know.
1. Quirky Humor
The authors definitely did not slack off when writing the story. The jokes and mishaps in the story are not half-assed attempts to be funny. In fact, most, if not all, jokes managed to steal a giggle out of us. Fine, we admit that we’re not really that hard to crack, but that’s still a great plus in our book. Take the scene wherein Lithisia bugs Alan for what reward he wants in exchange for helping her acquire all seven orbs. Alan, after living several hundreds of years, thinks logically. He simply wants to have a successor for his mining prowess. That’s actually a very reasonable request. Lithisia, with all the innocence or stupidity she has, takes that as Alan asking her to make a child for him. By make, we mean that kind of making. Of course, Alan didn’t really mean that. He simply wants a successor from the empire, streets, anywhere.
1. Overpowered Shovel
By the title alone, it isn’t really hard to figure out that the entire light novel will revolve around a super-duper strong shovel or its wielder. However, the limits of that super-duper awesomeness are still quite vague at first glance. This can actually stretch from being unbreakable or actually being able to grant miracles like making a green dragon appear. However, this shovel is actually borderline omnipotent. As such, there aren’t many scenes of action or anything a typical shovel should be doing. In fact, we are able to sneak a peek to the shovel’s absurd capacity when Alan dug a tunnel in a mountain to create a shortcut. With a single word, he was able to create a tunnel ranging hundreds of miles. Well, actually Alan did say that he practiced it for hundreds of years. In fact, it’s actually not about the shovel, but more of the wielder. Nonetheless, all the action still ends after uttering a single word.
Final Thoughts
The Invincible Shovel is an interesting story with a vague sense of familiarity. We mean, what are the odds of needing to gather seven drago-- err, colored orbs to grant a wish. On the other hand, we’ve never actually read or watched about a miner practicing shovel wielding for hundreds of years. The plot and the way it was delivered are definitely not something that can be considered typical to other novels in the market. It’s actually quite refreshing to read since there are a lot of jokes and banters strewn everywhere. In addition to that, there are seldom any action scenes, so there’s less need to imagine how the characters are doing nor how they look like. All in all, it’s a great light novel. If you have the time, go give it a try. After that, come back here and tell us what you think about it.
Author: Christian Markle
