Ishura - LN 1-2
Ishura Volume 1 and 2 by Keiso, Illustrations by Kureta. Translated by David Musto. Published by Yen On (Yen Press).
The official synopsis:
In a world where the Demon King has died, a host of demigods capable of felling him have inherited the world. A master fencer who can figure out how to take out their opponents with a single glance; a lancer so swift they can break the sound barrier; a wyvern rogue who fights with three legendary weapons at once; an all-powerful wizard who can speak thoughts into being; an angelic assassin who deals instant death. Eager to attain the title of “True Hero,” these champions each pursue challenges against formidable foes and spark conflicts among themselves. The battle to determine the mightiest of the mighty begins.
It's hard to explain what this series is about without giving away too much of the plot developments, so in some ways, I think it's better to give the anime a try before jumping straight into the light novels. I watched the Ishura anime before reading the novels, so I already knew that I would love this series. The easiest way to describe this series would be "What if every overpowered character imaginable was in a single tournament arc, and also the story is told like Game of Thrones?".
Even though the synopsis for volume 1 (copied above) talks about the battle to become the "True Hero", in reality, Ishura does something that I think is not that common in light novels. It doesn't just skip to the "fun battles", it spends nearly two volumes building up the world, the magic system, the politics, and the cast before even getting to the main point of the series, which is the tournament arc.
Some people are going to hate this, but for me, it was super refreshing to see a series that doesn't resort to the same exact "fantasy rpg game world" setting that is often used in lots of other isekai series. The series also doesn't have a main character with a singular POV. It switches between multiple characters, and even side characters if a specific scene is required. And to be clear, Ishura actually is an isekai series. Many of the characters fighting in the tournament (called Shuras/demons) have been cast out from a place called "The Beyond" which is heavily implied to be our world, but post-apocalyptic with supernatural abilities.
All of the characters abilities are designed to be "overpowered" in their own way, so it's fun to see what happens when people cross paths. Everyone has differing motivations, and the reason why the tournament is even happening isn't fully spelled out until the end of volume 2.
The fact that the anime basically only covers only these volumes (plus half of volume 3) shows that the studio was confident in the source material. And I'm grateful that they didn't rush the adaptation, and introduced me to this great series.
I'm eager to get to volume 3 and beyond, to see not only the tournament fights, but all the political maneuvering and machinations take place. This is definitely one of my new favorite series that I think is quite overlooked and underhyped.