Title: BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense Vol. 1
Author: Jirou Oimoto (Art), Yuumikan (Story), Koin (Character Design)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 164
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy
Publication Date: May 4, 2021
The Story
I’m in love with Kaede.
Now that we’ve established that, onto the review!
BOFURI centers around a girl named Kaede who isn’t really keen on playing video games. One day, her friend Risa sweet talks her into playing a game called New World Online… a VRMMO. First off, THANK YOU FOR NOT BEING ANOTHER ISEKAI! I will take a good ol’ fashioned video game fantasy any day of the week over a series where the character has been reincarnated, summoned, transported, etc. to another world.
When Kaede enters the world, she uses the English translation of her name and becomes Maple. Here, she’s afraid of taking damage so she puts all of her points into Vitality. She gets +VIT gear, learns some skills, and finds a way to circumvent the system to where she becomes incredibly overpowered from a defensive standpoint.
Then, something unexpected happens. She lights the game forums ablaze and begins to gain a cult following of people who just want to watch and protect her. She enters an in-game event and performs rather well there, too. This is after she became the first player to solo complete the game’s first dungeon, thus earning her even more overpowered skills. Risa finally joins her in-game as the character Sally. She decides she will try to compliment Kaede by becoming an evasion tank. The first volume ends with the two of them heading off to the game’s next floor together.
Characters
Okay.
Kaede.
I don’t think I’ve seen a character this pure and cute in quite some time! Everything she does is just so naïve and innocent that you can’t help but adore her. The fact that she has fans in the series that adore her as well really accentuates just how amazing she is. Once she realizes that nothing hurts her, she just playfully dances around with monsters until they fall over dead from her defense or she eats them. Yes… eats them.
Since she has 0 skill points anywhere else except for Vitality, she’s slow, can’t swim, trade skills take forever for her, etc., etc. However, this has earned her the nickname The Walking Fortress by her admirers. With a shield that devours enemies, converting them to Mana Crystals which allows her to use her hydra powers from solo clearing the first dungeon, on top of the fact that she can’t any damage, she is probably one of the strongest players in the entire game and she’s not even close to max level yet. When you sprinkle in a happy, cute, and naïve attitude that you just want to hug and hug and hug, you get this incredible mix that is both polarizing, yet, cohesive at the same time. It really makes her out to be a great, likable, and lovable character!
Risa is a bit sassier. I would liken her to a tomboy type more than anything. She can’t join Kaede in the game at first because of her real-life commitments, but she eventually is able to do so and finds out that she has a way to go to catch up to Kaede. She’s shocked, too, because she didn’t think Kaede would get hooked on New World Online like this. Still, Risa is a great friend that despite her minor brashness, she is also caring, patient, and understanding when it comes to Kaede. These two make the perfect duo and I can’t wait to see how the two of them progress.
There are a few minor characters such as Chrome… a high-ranking player that befriends Kaede and starts the appreciation group with two other (yet to be named) characters… and Iz… the blacksmith who will eventually be crafting a new set of armor for Kaede…. For 1,000,000 g. Oof.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to check out this series because I had heard great things about it. After reading the first volume, I can easily tell what all of the hype was about. I’ve stated it many times already but Kaede is insanely cute in both her looks and actions. You can’t help but what to protector and the fact that Chrome heads up a group that feels the same way is kind of like a projection of the reader into the story itself. It’s a bit pretentious to think that all readers will feel the same way and, perhaps, some readers don’t… and that’s fine. That piece of the story will be just that… a piece of the story for them. To those who do adore Kaede, that piece of the story almost makes you feel like you are an extrinsic part of that group.
While this has a comedy tag on it, the comedy doesn’t come from any one-liners, or punchlines… but rather Kaede’s actions. The things she does and the attitude she has towards them are so innocent and pure that they are what is served up as the comedy portion of this series. You can’t help but laugh at her actions and her reactions to certain things… such as when she acquires poison resistance and he asks the bee to sting her in another area because that part of her body could benefit from a massage. Just still like that is so innocent that it makes you laugh naturally.
Overall, this was an incredible first volume and I am really looking forward to Vol. 2. In fact, I might actually go pick up the first season of the anime from Funimation. That’s how much this first volume hooked me!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
