While I have always been a huge fan of manga, the light novel bug hadn’t bit me until maybe the last year or two. Seeing novel adaptations of some of my favorite anime and manga, such as Tenchi Muyo, Ah! My Goddess and Slayers is what drew me in, and from there, I fell in love with the medium, and started buying and binge reading more light novel franchises from there. So to introduce the newest category on the site, The Light Novel Shelf, I had the idea to write about a newer series that currently has me hooked, the series is none other than the lengthy titled Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense.
Bofuri started its Japanese run in 2016 by two individuals, with the story being written by Yuumikan, and art for the series being handled by Koin. The series spent its first year as a web novel, before being picked up in 2017 by Kadokawa Books, releasing the series physically as a light novel. As of right now, an impressive fourteen volumes of the franchise are currently in circulation in Japan. Stateside, the series has been brought over to North America and translated by Yen Press, with six volumes of the series available in English at the time of posting this review. The series has also received a thirteen episode anime series from the studio Silver Link, which adapts the first four volumes of the light novel series. The series also has received a manga adaptation in 2018, that follows the story of the light novel, but in the medium of manga. The series has also received a mobile game called Bofuri: ~LINEWARS!, which is a tower defense game that features the characters from the series.
The story of Bofuri follows Kaede, a young girl who has been introduced to a new virtual reality MMORPG game called New World Online by her friend Risa. Kaede is not a big gamer at this point, but joins the game at the insistence of her real-life pal. Once logged in, Kaede picks the screen name Maple (which will be used to refer to Kaede for the remainer of this review), and begins to select her character’s class, as well as assigning her character’s stat points, in typical RPG game fashion. Maple gets the idea that she doesn’t want her character to get hurt at all, so she opts to pour all of her stat points into defense. Once Maple’s avatar is created and has her stat points assigned, she quickly learns that her great shielder class build is completely unorthodox when compared to what other players typically play. Upon adventuring in the first area, she finds that no monsters in that area can harm her, and the repeated action of being hit but taking no damage grants Maple more defense-enhancing skills. With Maple’s creativity in taking down her foes, along with her impregnable defense, she quickly earns a reputation of one of the game’s most talked about and feared players. A few days after Maple starts the game, Risa, who goes by the in-game handle Sally, logs in, and has some catching up to do! Despite this fact, Sally is excited that Maple has grown to love the game, and the two of them form a party to take on events and delve into dungeons together.
The setting is your standard fantasy role-playing game fare, and anyone familiar with RPG games or has read a gaming-themed manga like .hack// will feel right at home with Bofuri. The initial area that Maple finds herself in is a small fantasy village with a green field and forests to explore, but as the story progresses, Maple and company find themselves in a variety of other settings, such as a jungle, a haunted world, a guild versus guild battleground, and even a world made out of clouds. As someone who grew up playing and loving JRPG games, Bofuri captures what makes the different locations of a role-playing game so memorable, and the different challenges that come with each new area are a blast to read about. One other neat touch I enjoyed about the storytelling, is that while the narrative primarily focuses on Maple and her adventuring party, the perspective will periodically shift for a brief period of time, focusing on either an anonymous message board based around the game, with its posters discussing Maple, or the game developers and administrators, observing how broken of a character Maple has become, and their admiration of how she used different skills in tandem to create effects not even the developers of the game could have thought of. These brief glimpses into alternate perspectives make the community of players surrounding New World Online feel alive, and all the more akin to a real MMO game, adding to the immersion.
The characters of the series are another highlight, with each of them filled to the brim with charm. We briefly touched on Maple, but diving deeper, she is a girl who isn’t really too fond of games until Sally introduces her to New World Online, which Maple falls in love with quickly. This shows her growth as someone who is a casual gamer, into a more seasoned player, and while her unconventional choices at the beginning of the game may have come from the mind of a novice player, Maple’s choices for her character become much more thought out and creative as her level of investment into the game increases. Sally is already a gaming fanatic at the start of the series, opting frequently to forgo homework or other school obligations in favor of getting some game time in. Seeing Sally’s competitive nature come into play when seeing her friend who was until recently, a casual gamer, turn into one of the most revered players of New World Online is another interesting aspect of her character. Along the way, Maple and Sally meet a variety of other characters, both with unique, specialized builds, as well as more by-the-books players with more straightforward, orthodox character loadouts. Seeing all the different character’s approaches to the game, and how these all intertwine to create Maple’s adventuring party makes for some memorable moments.
While text is the primary way light novels convey their stories, there are pieces of art interspersed within the chapters. The art of Bofuri has an adorable charm to it, that gives you not only a visualization of what each character’s design, but also makes the story as a whole all the more endearing. Light novels are a unique medium where the page of art in each chapter can help the reader put a face to the name they are reading, and that inclusion in Bofuri is a treat. The art style has a new school flair to the stylings, and has a level of cuteness and polish to it that make it a delight to see when the pages of art come around. The character designs also do a great job of reflecting each character’s class, the mages have a design where you can tell they were a mage the instant you see them, and the same principle rings true for the vast amount of other classes in the world of New World Online. Another aspect of the art I really enjoy about the series are the character sheets at the beginning of each volume. They have a character portrait and their stats, much like the pause menu screen of a JRPG game, which is a neat touch in making the story feel more game-like, as well as being able to see how each character has progressed their build since the last volume, if you need a refresher.
Bofuri is a series I would recommend to anyone looking for a new novel series to read, who has an interest in adventure stories of video games, as what Bofuri has to offer scratches both of those itches. There is also a manga adaptation if you want to relive the story in a more image-focused medium. In my recent delve into the world of light novels, Bofuri has been a stand out for me, and I am excited for each new volume release.
