From the artwork on the cover, I was expecting that "The Girl, the Shovel, and the Evil Eye", volume 1 by Chouchouhassha and Kayatamaru, would be isekai manga full of fanservice that I would not enjoy, but it was far from it!

The artwork on the inside is a lot more accessable than I had thought it would be and I instantly enjoyed the RPG-style of the isekai land that the main character, Tsuguto, had ended up in. The way he ended up there is pretty traumatic but also gives his charcter purpose and a goal: to get stronger. Which also just happens to be the point of the RPG-style land he is in. He is helped in his endeavour by a young sheepfolk girl, Loulier, who acts as his guide and mentor in the first few chapters before it is clear that she is a solid friend. I adored Loulier by the end of this first volume and would kill for her, which Tsuguto may just end up having to do!

I liked the characters, the world building, the action, the friendship, and the small elements of comedy thrown in to this first volume, and I very much want to know what happens next!

Not bad for another isekai. I find the world they built up to be interesting enough, and the general writing is well done enough. My main concerns lie with the main character-- He's as bland as they come with very little personality or quirks. His backstory is interesting but the personality can be easily interchanged. The girl on the other hand, while her personality is the deadpan troupe, she still has more personality than him. Considering the boy and the girl are the only two main characters at this point in time, I hope there's no implied romance between them and they remain platonically friends since she is way underage. There's certainly potential behind this series and I'll be keeping an eye on it, but future volumes need improvement.

I really enjoyed this and really hope that there will be a second volume. The storyline was really nice and that ending left me wanting more.

I received an eARC of this title through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I thought this was a cute start to a manga. Tsuguto is an interesting character. Before his death, there is not a lot known about him. However, it seems like he has become tired of being bullied so maybe the second volume will add to this storyline. However, the way this "afterlife" world acts is like a DnD game. Everyone has stats and special abilities. Tsuguto knows nothing about this until he meets Loulier, a sheepfolk girl who is also in debt to someone. However, all she wants to do is pay off her debt and become a hero. These two team up and form a cute sibling bond.

I think this manga introduced the series in an appealing way and explained what it needed to for the audience to somewhat understand the world. I think it is a great manga for those interested in gaming nods and fantasy action genre.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

The Girl, the Shovel, and the Evil Eye, Volume 1 by Chouchouhassha and Kayatamaru was a charming and adventurous isekai manga about a high-schooler who dies and is reborn into a fantasy world where he makes friends and enemies and learns how to survive in the new world. I haven't read much isekai before, so this was a refreshing read compared to all the shoujo I'm used to. I'm also a big softie for child characters in manga and anime. That ending was !!!, I'm definitely gonna have to continue this series at some point.

This a great manga to read if you love to play video games! After dying from a bus accident, our main character wakes up in a new fantasy world full of magic, monsters and an adorable little sheep girl who wants to become an adventurer.

I really liked this! I loved the story once we really got to know more about the world and how everything operates. The monster hunting and the adventures were definitely my favourite parts and I can’t wait to see more of those aspects in future volumes. I also really ended up loving the friendship that was forming between Tsuguto and Loulier! She’s so adorable!

My only complaint is that there are some unnecessary panels in the manga that were definitely meant to be suggestive and sexual. It was not needed and took a lot of my enjoyment away from the overall story. I hope they stop those in the next volume.

Overall, this was a fun new manga series and I plan on continuing in the future!

3.5/5⭐️

TW: child abuse, slavery, blood.

I'm a fan of reading Isekai manga, I love reading about people who die in the regular world and wake up in one full of magic. The Girl, the Shovel and the Evil Eye is everything that I love in Isekai and so much more. High schooler Tsuguto Sumihara has a horrible habit of being far too nice, and being nice and giving up his bus seat to a hoodlum is what lead to him dying. But just as Tsuguto was dying he saw that the person that he had given his seat to on the bus was not only laughing and making fun of him for dying but was filming him as well. In that moment Tsuguto gave the hoodlum the worse evil eye he has ever given with his dying breath. Just when Tsuguto thinks he's dead he wakes up in a strange cave full of magic rocks, and soon he finds out that he's in a completely other world that he knows nothing about. Luckily Tsuguto soon meets Loulier and she shows him the ropes, how to tell his skills like his cursed eye, and devises a plan for both of them to make their way in the world. Can these two misfits make their way in this magical world?

This was a surprising start too a series I can see myself tracking down in physical form. Thank you NetGalley for accepting my request to read this ARC.

Great manga!
Can't wait for the vol.2.
Like the idea of the computer game and the sheep girl.
Ending was good, makes you want to read more ASAP.

The beginning of the manga was intriguing, I was interested to see how the world building was going to progress. That enthusiasm fell away a little when I realised the video game parallel that is being set up. The word building became less of the focus, instead it was set up for the dungeons and coming quests. I do hope that the exploring of the world, the tower, etc will be picked up again as that was interesting.

Character wise there isn’t a lot to say, Loulier's easy to like (so cute) and Tsugoto is fine enough. I think as a first volume The Girl, The Shovel, and the Evil Eye is a good start but I’m hoping volume two expands on the story and word building.

Thanks Netgalley and Kodansha for giving me volume 1 of this nice Isekai. Loulier is so adorable like the idea with her and Tsuguto teaming up fitting nicely to the story! It definitely is worth reading folks if you like your fantasy genre!

Review to come in a week.

I received this manga from Netgalley/Kodansha in exchange of an honest review.

SO the cover was what sparked me along with the title. I mean, The Girl? The Shovel? and the Evil Eye? A very specific title. It sounded like an isekai, and while I a tad tired of all the isekais at times, I also knew I couldn't let this one slide by.

In this one we meet a teen named Tsuguto. He is a very nice guy... maybe a bit too nice because as you can read in the blurb he died in a bus accident (he was the only one standing and so wasn't prepared when the bus hit something). We see how he is reincarnated in a new world. A fantasy world and then specifically a mining camp. I loved seeing him discover the world and how it works. From tags to currency to mining and levelling. And he isn't alone, because during his first day he meets with a cute girl named Loulier and together they go through their daily lives and try to get stronger. I really liked both characters, Tsuguto who is trying to be tougher and less nice (though he still plenty of nice, he is just doing it at the right times instead of all the time). Loulier who is adorable but who has a past, but is also tough. I mean, not many girls would stand up to an evil dude, but she does, even if she knows the consequences. :(

There were a couple of times that it was a tad gruesome. There is some violence (that evil dude really will go far), but also how the monsters were killed in dungeons, HOLY CRAP, can we just go back to less over the top stuff, haha, my stomach is still not better. XD I mean eyes plopping out, a shovel through a spider, and to have proof we saw them cut off parts. Normally not so squeamish, but I just didn't expect it.

Also, while I am OK with pushing someone to eat their veggies, I was a bit eh on the pushing a sheepfolk (or well, I think maybe I had it with anyone) to eat meat. To specify, I am not a pushy vegetarian, heck I cannot even be fully vegetarian due to health, but it just feels a bit weird to push someone to eat meat. If they really don't want it, just leave it.

The ending, OMG, why are all the manga I read today ending on a cliffhanger. XD This is my fourth manga and so far all of them had this. ARGH. Could I just get a break?

The art was pretty good! I liked the character designs and how the world looked!

All in all, I really enjoyed this manga, a bit gruesome at times, but in overall very fun and I love Loulier and Tsuguto together, discovering the world, earning money, and more.

I received a copy of this manga through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It was sweet, mangas usually are, and interesting. It was also sort of random, I guess it’s totally normal to die and end up in a fantasy computer game world with levels and powers for our main character…🤔😃
I’m not in with gaming, so it was a bit difficult to understand but I mostly enjoyed the story and the characters. With the cliffhanger in the end being as insane as it was I’ll try to read next volumes as well! 😉

Ok, this isn't quite the usual vein of manga that I normally read and it took some time for me to warm up to it, but when I DID, WOW did it grab me and not let me go! THAT ENDING, GUH!

No romantic love, just that of friendship. The beginning is a LOT gruesome, so be warned. And that bully was a HUGE jerk. I HEART the MC and hope that he can somehow save his friend, she's just too adorable and sweet for words!

So warning: cliffhanger ending.

4, solid I want the next one NOW and I'm pouting, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Tsuguto tries to turn a new leaf and not cause trouble, even though he is being bullied. Tsuguto gives up his seat and then due to an unforeseen accident he dies; although when he wakes up he is iseki’d to another world. At first he is tagless until he meets a sheep folk, who helps him discover where to dig; to get a tag; register as an adventurer; and tries to protect him. I like how Tsuguto tries to help Loulier out, even though he doesn’t know much about her. 

In this world, they mine for ore in the dungeons. We learn the dungeon repairs itself overnight and the ore “regenerates” after a couple of days. Besides the ore in the dungeon, there are also monsters that the adventures defeat for the miners. It follows the norm for an iseki; however, I feel like I am left with a lot of questions about this world and what his power all entails. Then there is what is Tsuguto’s purpose is in this world, where most have some sort of goal but there is not one mentioned. It ends on a cliffhanger which I'm curious what ends up happening to Loulier.
Thank you netgalley
and kodansha for the opportunity to read this volume!

ARC Copy...I have feeling this may or may not been a light novel serial in previous life (hehe previous life) or not. Shows some unique-ness narrative promise in comparison to many "reincarnated" light novel fantasy I have read so far.

The Girl, The Shovel, and the Evil Eye is quite a solid fantasy with the "I died and woke up in a fantasy land equipped with powers" approach. The manga doesn't offer anything new really, but does what it does OK. Tsuguto was your basic guy, who let people boss him around in the real world. Then he died because of it and now suddenly finds himself very much alive in a fantasy world. He works up the rules of the place quite fast and gets to know Loulier, a sheep-like kid. This first part is them becoming adventurers and saving money mostly and we get know about curses a little. Since of course Tsuguto has some weird evil eye power. Loulier's character is quite interesting and a mystery yet still, which is nice. Tsuguto then has no real persona and is basically just analyzing stuff like a game voice. I wish he'd be more interesting, since he's the main character after all.

The art looks good and works for the series. Nothing too fancy, but lively and we get to see the world too, which is great and very much needed in fantasy series. I'm still waiting for this series to show me something different though, so it would'be like a copy of all the other ones like this. This setting seems to be really popular now. A solid series still that hopefully surprises.

Thank you to Kodansha Comics and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This was a very sweet story!
Somehow the second reincarnation story I managed to pick up this week, and they're very enjoyable to read indeed! Our protagonist wakes up in this fantastical world, and with his sheep-girl (yes I said sheep-girl) companion they set out to become stronger together.

I really liked the setup of this world. Being an avid fan of video games and complex point systems, it was very interesting to read about this new world and its own rules. Although I felt like that was a lot of what this volume did, a setup for the future volumes of which I don't know how many there are and how big the story is in general.

The character's goals: for the sheep girl they're pretty clear and straightforward, while for the protagonist I wasn't always so sure. Because he does state one but then acts completely in opposition to it. Or I guess acts toward his goal from a very backwards way.

But in conclusion, this was very fun to read. It was a short adventure setup for this fantastical world, and delivered exactly that.

It's an Isekai about a low level guy with a crazy power. The characters are ok, but it's kind of basic.

Thanks to Kodansha and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Tsuguto takes a lot of crap and gets killed for his troubles. Since this is Japan, however, he’s reborn in a fantasy world. With a young sheep girl (you heard me) named Loulier as his companion and his newly acquired, oddly nebulous, ability, he’ll try to start over and stand up for both himself and others, but that’s never as easy as it sounds.

What a strange book. This first seems like it’s going to some grim places - our hero is bullied out of his seat on a bus and then killed for his troubles - but seems content to divert down the well trodden path of many other titles instead. It seems like we’re headed for grim town and then get lost on the way.

I do like this opening, actually, because it gives at least a smidgen of personality to our lead and it has the interesting wrinkle of implying that his own rage is directly responsible for the special cheat power he gets when he goes to the other world.

Then we start to get not only world building but an incredibly laborious explanation of the monetary system in this place, which is so boring even over the span of a single panel that it felt like I’d been whisked away to another world made entirely of economics classes.

Basically Tsuguto needs to learn mining and this lets him meet Loulier, who is very young but also quite street smart and helps Tsuguto figure out how to survive. I think if this book gets by it does so largely on the shoulders of Loulier and her relationship with Tsuguto, even if she comes across as off-brand Noelle from the <i>Cheat Pharmacist</I>.

Loulier functions as adorable mascot and brave urchin all in one and that’s pretty important because she is far and away the best character in the book and Tsuguto is at his most likeable when paired with her or looking after her (it sure isn’t when he’s browbeating an old woman out of her profit margins).

I am putting into effect as of this volume a new law entitled ‘Mark’s Maxim of Isekai’, which states that my interest immediately begins to flag the moment that status screens pop up for no good reason. I think the only time this is justified is the venerable ‘trapped in a game’ genre and the only time I’ve seen it have a point outside of that might be the <I>Roll Over & Die…</I> series.

The adventuring stuff is okay, largely serving to set up the rather effective cliffhanger that ends the volume. The book also doesn’t pull its punches much in terms of violence, which does sell the stakes, though poor Loulier gets really wailed on at a couple points. The combat is not flashy but gets the job down.

I do wish we’d had more explanation for Tsuguto’s ability - it’s right in the title but doesn’t really get much page time. The obnoxious villain of this book, whose scheme is actually pretty sharp, gets his comeuppance… maybe? It’s implied that Tsuguto’s ability has left him utterly helpless, but that seems at odds with how things go as the story progresses.

3 stars. Oh I don’t know. I might do another volume of this just because that cliffhanger really has me curious and I do think Loulier is an interesting character. That said, there are a lot of isekai out there and this is, indeed, one of them. It just kind of exists in a popular space and takes up some of it.