I randomly found the first volume of the manga at a local comic book store and immediately got hooked when I picked it up; gonna have to add the novels to my Kindle account. I grew up with the Harry Potter novels,note though I've fallen out of love with the series as an adult due to its various Unfortunate Implications and the author's behavior and Reign brings back quite a few good memories but with enough of its own spin to be distinct.
Oliver Horn hits all my buttons as a protagonist—a Nice Guy who's a natural team player and isn't afraid to get tough when he has to—but I particularly love the shenanigans with Nanao Hibiya, the slightly-crazy samurai Fish out of Water. ("You had a plan to deal with that troll, right?" "I had no such thing!" *implied facepalm*) And I like that it's a circle of friends instead of a guy-and-harem setup (even if there is a Love Triangle developing), the Harem Genre has gotten way oversaturated recently.
Additionally, while Reign presents a Crapsack World with a lot of Fantastic Racism, all its negatives appear to be quite deliberately written-in, and the activists trying to improve matters have real support and make real progress even if they're not necessarily the majority, rather than being presented as Soapbox Sadies who need to grow up a la Hermione and the whole House-elf debacle.
Harry Potter and the Amorous Samurai
I randomly found the first volume of the manga at a local comic book store and immediately got hooked when I picked it up; gonna have to add the novels to my Kindle account. I grew up with the Harry Potter novels,note and Reign brings back quite a few good memories but with enough of its own spin to be distinct.
Oliver Horn hits all my buttons as a protagonist—a Nice Guy who's a natural team player and isn't afraid to get tough when he has to—but I particularly love the shenanigans with Nanao Hibiya, the slightly-crazy samurai Fish out of Water. ("You had a plan to deal with that troll, right?" "I had no such thing!" *implied facepalm*) And I like that it's a circle of friends instead of a guy-and-harem setup (even if there is a Love Triangle developing), the Harem Genre has gotten way oversaturated recently.
Additionally, while Reign presents a Crapsack World with a lot of Fantastic Racism, all its negatives appear to be quite deliberately written-in, and the activists trying to improve matters have real support and make real progress even if they're not necessarily the majority, rather than being presented as Soapbox Sadies who need to grow up a la Hermione and the whole House-elf debacle.
Overall, definitely a series on my follow list.