REVIEW: ‘Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin,’ Volume 1

Ah, overpowered main characters. They’re a dime a dozen in anime, manga, and light novels, so it takes really good writing to make one actually likable. In Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin Volume 1, author Kennoji fails to do this completely, creating one of the most unlikeable main characters I’ve seen in recent media. Hazure Skill Volume 1 is published in English by Yen Press, with translation by Jan Mitsuko Cash and illustrations by KWKM.

Hazure Skill Volume 1 follows Roland, an assassin with a skill that most would find completely useless. Overcoming the odds, however, Roland is able to use this skill to incredible effect, making him one of the most powerful people in the world. After he easily defeats the demon king and makes her his companion, Roland sets out to live a normal life away from adventuring.

For the most part, Hazure Skill takes place in a generally generic fantasy setting. If you’ve seen one fantasy world, you’ve seen this one. Magic, monsters, demon kings… this light novel has all the tropes you’ve seen before, and unfortunately, it doesn’t do much with them.

Pretty much all of Hazure Skill Volume 1’s issues lie within how unlikable Roland is. It’s clear that Kennoji is trying to create humor through Roland’s amazing skill, but everything just sort of falls flat. It isn’t fun watching a character achieve all of their goals effortlessly, especially when we are given next to no indication of how he got there.

Hazure Skill Volume 1 isn’t bad because of Roland’s power, but rather because of Kennoji’s failure to put him in any interesting situations. Look at One Punch Man, for example. Saitama is literally unbeatable, but he’s still a loveable protagonist. Roland’s dry personality just isn’t likable, and he doesn’t even seem like a very good person. One might argue that the story could be about him becoming a better person but, at least in the first volume, it just isn’t.

None of the other characters introduced within Hazure Skill Volume 1 are very likable either. Most of the main cast are women throwing themselves onto Roland. Instead of being completely oblivious to this like many other protagonists, Roland seems to revel in it. There are multiple instances where he just has sex with a main or minor character — almost always because he is so powerful that they just need to have sex with him – and they all just feel gross.

Hazure Skill Volume 1 also lacks direction. Most chapters feel relatively disconnected and episodic, making them mostly a bore to read. It feels as if the story could go anywhere or nowhere, and I can’t say I’m compelled to dive back in for a second volume. At the very least, this light novel is competently written and well translated.

I really can’t recommend Hazure Skill Volume 1 to anyone. If you’re going to be spending your time reading a light novel, you owe it to yourself to read something better than this. With one of the most unlikeable main characters in media and a story that lacks direction, you’re better off reading just about any other light novel with a ridiculously long title than this one.

Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin Volume 1 is available now wherever books are sold.