Synopsis

• Author/Artist: Toowa/Rikizo
• Chapters: 5
• Status: Ongoing
• Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Isekai
• Serialization: ComicWalker

A salaryman, Atobe, and his manager, Kyouka, are inexplicably sent to another world after getting in a bus accident. In this world, society is built around seekers who enter the labyrinth and fight monsters. Seekers create their character based on whatever job title they choose to give themselves (mage, thief, blacksmith, etc). Our ex-salaryman protagonist decides to give himself the title of Rearguard.

If It's not Fun, Why Bother?

When you're making a world that functions on game-like mechanics, it's important to make those mechanics look fun enough that you would want to play it was it a real game. Personally, I think "Sekai Saikyou no Kouei" does accomplish this. You see, as a rearguard, Atobe has various skills that allow him to assist allies while positioned behind them. Of course, it is already standard practice to place support units in the backlines, but this mechanic puts a lot more stress on making sure that formation never gets broken.

Strength in Creativity

I do find it the slightest bit overpowered that Atobe gets a flat true damage buff skill at level 1. No matter how much damage the base attack does, 10 extra damage will always be added on. It's a very organic way to make your protagonist strong because the ability makes sense in a game world. Basically, it's the same as Master Yi's Wuju Style from League of Legends. The difference is that Atobe gives it to allies. This also solidifies that he can't really stand on his own and needs his party.

Most other manga just give their characters growth steroids to explain away why they're strong. Atobe's attack buff just means that anybody in his party can always do some armor-piercing damage so nothing is unbeatable. It's still a struggle to fight strong enemies and takes good tactics. The skill ceiling for the party is raised without lowering the skill floor. That's so much more fun than watching someone who's arbitrarily stronger than someone else because their level is 100 times higher than everyone else.

Anything Can Happen

In the synopsis, I brought up that seekers can create their class through the name that they choose for it. I love how this works because I remember how Sword Art Online had that idea where certain conditions can create an infinite number of potential skills. This was a good idea since it could always create new and exciting experiences for the characters. You could never tell how they would grow and what challenges they would face in the future. Unfortunately, SAO had absolutely no nuance to its skill system and game mechanics whatsoever.

"World's Strongest Rearguard" has a very clear idea of what it means for characters to be a team. What it means for the members of a party to have roles. And what it means for characters to put their lives in each other's hands. This is the perfect kind of author to give the infinite skills concept to. I only hope that it will go better than when Reki Kawahara was on the reins.

Long Road Ahead

Both the manga and the light novel are still quite early in their story so far so I don't want to make too many judgments about it yet. What I will say is that nothing in this story so far has made me call the author incompetent yet. Most of the time, after reading this far into an isekai manga, I would feel that I despise some aspect of the author's personality. Whether it's insecurity, virtue signaling, laziness, or contempt, I just felt none of it in Toowa's writing. Maybe some from Rikizo's art, but more on that later.

The world building is done largely through coherent dialogue and visuals rather than exposition. Smaller, introspective conflicts between characters are being explored while hinting at larger schemes lurking in the shadows. If nothing else, this is as flawless of a start to a fantasy adventure story as you can get. But I want to stress that it can all come tumbling down in an instant. Plenty of stories with starts as good as this have fallen apart before.

A Lack of Sausages in the Party

If I had to point out any complaints I have, I'd say that I would've preferred a One Piece kind of format. The core three members of Atobe, Theresa, and Kyouka come together well. After that, another 3 members join immediately. Kyouka's story was completely rushed and I was still looking forward to learning more about Theresa. But all of that is now drowned in this flood of new characters that we really didn't need. They're just two nondescript characters and one girl with a betrayal redemption kind of backstory.

Also, if we absolutely need to have this huge party out of nowhere, I wish there could have been some male presence here. In the light novel, there are five women in Atobe's party with him as the only man. This could have made everything better but it's also not as bad as it could have been. Only one (maybe two) of them have been hinted at having any romantic feelings towards Atobe in the slightest. Granted, the art style of the manga is also very exploitative. Clothes cling to the curves of the women. Legless dresses, heavy amounts of cleavage, and every other kind of tantalizing imagery possible.

Those are my thoughts on "World's Strongest Rearguard". I think it's starting off on a very strong foot. I feel like I'm on the same wavelength as the author and I'm feeling the same love of gaming as we've seen from classic masterpieces like Log Horizon. With that said, the insane number of characters at the very start is a bit of a problem. I'm also not the biggest fan of the direction that the manga artist has taken. Let me know if you have any thoughts about "World's Strongest Rearguard" in the comments below.