The unwanted undead adventurer vol 1 by Yu Okano

Adapted by Haiji Nakasone
​
Rentt is a mediocre adventurer trying to get ahead in a dungeon, when he accidentally finds a dragon on a level where there should be no dragons. He wakes up much later, but his body is strange, and his voice isn't working. He realizes that he has woken up as a skeleton after the dragon has finished devouring him! Unsure of why he was reborn this way, Rentt puts his (absent) nose to the grindstone yet again in order to level up, but this time as a monster. He hopes he can level far enough to gain back a body and a voice. Along the way, he stumbles across another adventurer from his guild who he hopes can help him re-integrate into society and possibly figure out why he woke up as a monster.

---

This is another adaptation from a light novel, which could explain why the manga was so exposition-heavy. There was a lot of “telling” and hardly any “showing” in this narrative. We skipped swaths of time in the main character’s training and struggling, both as a human and as a monster. There could have been a lot more scenes and development, especially when Rentt comes into contact with other characters. Instead, the whole thing is very montage-heavy, and we get huge swaths of development in the span of a few pages. This might be good for readers who don't like the slow, methodical pace of The Faraway Paladin because this title skips a lot of what Paladin goes into in detail.

There is a lot of fantasy violence in this one and you do see lots of things die on the page. J-Novel recommends this for teen readers.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Publisher: J-Novel Club
Publication Date: September 21, 2021
ISBN: 9781718358201 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 6/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Fantasy, Action Adventure, Dungeon, ​J-Novel Club