"Some, such as Anubis, Dullahan, Xolotl, and Valkyrie are figures of legend, and then there is Pax.
— The Narrator
Reaper is an English-language prose written in the tradition of the Japanese light novel. It is written by Ivan Navi
, edited by Yosuke Imagawa, and illustrated by Kiyoichi.
The story follows Pax, a grim reaper on vacation as a human in order to get a better grasp of humanity. Things get a little out of hand when he meets Softi, a girl with an odd power. They quickly find themselves embroiled in a centuries-old magical conspiracy involving magicians, other reapers, and Life & Death.
Tropes:
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Valdis has shades of this. She realizes that and pulls back admitting she has not right as she’s not a girlfriend and she’s being mean.
- Cosmic Entity: Life and Death. They are the actual concepts who have chosen to look human but exist everywhere all at once. Life even admitting he was the first thing born in the Universe and that he would remain to watch the Universe die.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: Played with.
- Subverted in that most reapers are rather pleasant. Most reapers make an effort to be accommodating to the newly dead to make the process of moving on as easy as possible.
- Played straight with some reapers such as the actual Grim Reaper who other reapers are weary of.
- Death is actually rather polite and kind if a bit snarky. She truly cares about her reapers and those who die. She even has a loving relationship with Life who calls her Deatz.
- Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age: Valdis carries a sword she got from a hero. It’s a Xiphos sword, a type of sword used by Ancient Greeks.
- Functional Magic: There are those with Inherent Gift. Rule magic is alluded to. Force magic is hinted at with the ley lines. There are some examples of device magic. Theurgy magic is played with in how they bind Death. Life is hinted to have some connection to wild magic.
- Happily Married: Life and Death seem to truly love each other even after being married for literally for centuries.
- Kiss of Life: Valdis gives on to Pax to save him. Using up some of her power to keep his soul from moving on and reconnecting to his body.
- Lemony Narrator: The narrator certainly has strong shades of this. Noting that they lost track of their metaphor, pointing out the irony of the situation, and his own frustration in a character’s actions.
- Meaningful Name: Pax is Latin for peace which Pax helps provide the newly dead. Valdis is an Icelandic name derived from Old Norse words valr “the dead” and dis “goddess” which is fitting for a reaper.
- True Sight: Sofi can look past spells the appearance beings chose to appear as.
- Weirdness Censor: The narrator says that most people will just ignore the global magical events and come up with mundane explanations.
