Ishura, Vol. 1

The New Demon King War

By: Keiso, Kureta, David Musto - translator

Narrated by: Chris Guerrero, Emily Bauer

In a world where the Demon King has died, a host of demigods capable of felling him have inherited the world. A master fencer who can figure out how to take out their opponents with a single glance; a lancer so swift they can break the sound barrier; a wyvern rogue who fights with three legendary weapons at once; an all-powerful wizard who can speak thoughts into being; an angelic assassin who deals instant death. Eager to attain the title of “True Hero,” these champions each pursue challenges against formidable foes and spark conflicts among themselves. The battle to determine the mightiest of the mighty begins.

It was long, but good

I highly recommend it for good listeners. In my opinion, read along if you have the book. I picked up the book because it this series is introducing all the characters. Additionally, both these voice actor are truly spactacular! Their performance enthralled me.

A Truly Unique Tale

A world like no other, as it contains all that is discarded. Ishura is so good man, like you gotta read it. Even a passing interest will get you hours of entertainment. Every character is likable and has understandable goals, so knowing that these characters will clash, and some will die, leaves you legitimately unable to guess what happens.

The voice work from both actors is incredible, but I will say that some of the "s" sounds the lady voice actor puts out aren't mixed perfectly and sometimes peaks my speakers, but outside these few issues it was nothing but a 10/10 performance that captures the emotion of every line.

Please check out Ishura, as it only keeps getting better from here.

Don't Get Too Attached... This Story is War!

Ishura volume 1 audiobook is probably the best, most intense war based light novel volume I read since Realist Hero volume 2. Probably moreso here, since the stakes and the body count are a bit higher than Realist's.

Plot, which sees two nations pit against each other over a claim to freedom vs supremacy and over a potential claim to the title of Self-proclaimed Demon King, focuses on a lot of characters on the evil or selfish scale of morality, folks that are power hungry, crazy, or selfish. There's no one focus character, and a little over half the volume is setting up the cast before the conflict (not to say there aren't some intense moments and even some character death before that). I know that can be jarring, but I think listening in audio helped a bit so I could just let the plot clue me back into who we were following. Since it's a war, of course there's some characters who for various reasons fight for one side or another, so it's helpful to have some kind of notes to follow all that.

The story has a lot of lore and character backstory hinted at and not fully revealed, which is enticing for future volumes. I'd kind of like to see an Ishura 0 prequel that explores some of what happened before this current conflict.

I'm really fearful about what's going to happen to the characters that did manage to survive this conflict. I think there's three that I really like, and then the rest can die in a fire. That sounds negative, but I'm that person that likes to see terrible character's motives explored. I'm not looking forward to if this becomes a more standard Tournament Battle series like I think it might, I was actually really surprised volume 1 was more of a war for control and independence than a battle royale.

I read the audiobook version, which had very good performances / very vocal performances (be prepared for some screaming characters and death cries). My reservations would only be 1) They mispronounced Oreisha (I don't even know if I'm spelling it right because it's pronounced 3 different ways), 2) while there was a lot of range, I felt like some of the older character voices tended to blend in with each other (wise old men characters and Higuara in particular could blend).

Overall, definitely interested in continuing this one.

Excellent Voice Acting

I love this story already, but the voice acting takes it to another level. The readers bring the story to life immersing you into the scenes.

Entertaining Ensemble Cast

Despite some dark content this light novel ended up being a surprisingly fun binge listen. The story is centered on a large ensemble cast of characters who vary greatly in their moral standards- this reads as a nuanced world rather than one with a standard good vs evil narrative. Another delightful element is the large variety of fantasy races. The author had some fun with it, building a more vibrant world rather than falling back upon only the standard fantasy race tropes.

This volume also manages to utilize overpowered characters is ways that some other light novels fail to accomplish. Using many characters of comparable strength in two opposing sides in a war allowed for tense action scenes where it is not evident who will emerge from the battle alive. The clashes in the second half of the book were an especially enjoyable experience.