Every time I look at some of these fantasy manga I feel their titles get more and more ridiculous. Yet, maybe that is the selling point in a strange way. When we here at SunsetNerdVerse were given a review copy of—hold on for this title—The B-Rank Adventurer with a Scary Face Becomes a Father for the Hero and His Friends by the incredible One Peace Books, I immediately jumped on board to review it. The title alone is hilarious but when I began to read the first volume I quickly discovered this wasn’t just another long hooking title but one with a surprising amount of depth and heart. I won’t spoil my review here though! If you want to see if The B-Rank Adventurer with a Scary Face Becomes a Father for the Hero and His Friends Volume 1 is worth picking up, then you know what to do! Keep reading and join me as I review Volume 1! Big thanks once more to One Peace Books for the review copy!

Art Style

At first, the art style on the cover seemed very simple. You have the protagonist, Gray with teeth that could scare a shark—again nothing I haven’t seen in series like Kaiju No. 8 and even My Hero Academia—holding a very happy little girl. Oddly though, the art screams wholesome bizarrely enough and I quickly discovered that like the title, the art has a deeper design than one might anticipate.

I could almost say The B-Rank Adventurer with a Scary Face Becomes a Father for the Hero and His Friends has a shounen art style with our cool-looking protagonist and how he handles himself in various fights. The central characters also get a lot of detail and really meld the idea of this being a game world our protagonist has been seemingly isekai’d into. If I had any problems with the art, and this is only a minor one, it would be with how often distant characters/monsters/backgrounds become super simplified. There’s a particular scene early on where a monster is running away and they look almost like a blob in one panel then are hyper detailed in the one right below. Still, I really loved the art here—probably because I love JRPGs and RPGs so much—so even this small problem doesn’t dampen my opinion. The series looks great and is quite original when it wants to be, which is one of its strengths without a doubt.

Story and Characters

Here’s where Volume 1 really grabbed me in the heart and kept ensuring I’d read until the end. Gray is our B-rank protagonist—again, the title explains that—who as an adventurer must take on missions daily. One of said missions brings him to a small village where he quickly discovers a family in need, one of which is the world’s protagonist. We already got some hints that Gray hails from another world but here is where we piece together the story a bit more and realize this is a world he knows about from his past life and that he’s indeed been summoned/reincarnated here…I can’t spoil which one it is though for story purposes. What you do need to know though is that Gray might seem to be a scary big buffed adventurer but he’s like a literal dad and protector. I won’t deny, this hit my emotions quite hard!

The story is engaging and surprisingly heartfelt but that is in part thanks to the characters. Gray by himself seems to be a fusion between Guts from Berserk and Isshin Kurosaki from Bleach. He can be terrifying—thus why his appearance plays such a big role—but when he helps others and is just being kind, his demeanor and persona become father-like. The other characters like his new “family” and some of the quirky adventurer allies we meet aren’t as robust but they do a good job of bringing a focus to Gray and why he’s so layered. Near the end of Volume 1 we also learn more about Gray’s past life with his former party members but only a glimpse of it. I’d like to see future volumes elaborate more, but as it is, this first volume gives enough to rope you in and keep you wanting more.

Pacing

Volume 1 seems to go at a quick but to-the-point pace. Gray goes from being a single adventurer to a dad for orphans to owning a home and living with his new family, all in one book. This pacing would worry many manga readers but let me ease your heart a bit, it works well. I personally felt the pacing removes a lot of the unnecessary fluff these types of stories have. Months fly by in the story but they don’t feel rushed and we aren’t forced as readers to endure the usual backstory padding many fantasy series do. I feel Volume 2 will slow things down a bit to let Gray’s new family rise more, but I’m confident in how it will be handled after this first entry.

Panel Layout and Flow

Kind of like the pacing, the panel layout and flow work exceptionally well despite the speed the story is going. Every panel syncs to the next without issues and I never felt a need to re-read a section to absorb all that the panel offered. Gray is one second slashing at an opponent and then their head is lopped off in the next, excellently shown and comically pixelated to avoid being too graphic.

Themes and Tones

The title again makes it feel like this is going to be a story that isn’t serious, possibly comical and maybe just a tad goofy. However, when I finished the first volume I was left in awe. The themes are strangely relatable—where you have a father figure trying to raise a family that isn’t his own. Equally, we see hidden agenda behind Gray’s actions that could stem from his past and maybe he thought of himself as a failed father figure or parent in general. The themes of parenting and being given another chance in life aren’t foreign to manga but in this series they work incredibly well. This melds with the tones that nothing here is hard to believe—aside from the isekai aspect—but are real tones found in everyday life. It’s wild but Volume 1 takes a generic theme with tones I’ve seen numerous times before and plays with them in ways I’ve not seen in a while.

Conclusion

Honestly, The B-Rank Adventurer with a Scary Face Becomes a Father for the Hero and His Friends Volume 1 is one of the better manga I’ve read in a while. The first volume gives just enough to tease the readers while showing this world’s central protagonist and his adventures. I want more from this series, that much I can say, because there’s so much untapped story such as Gray’s original life—which seems tragic but I’m not 100% sure—and his former days running with his party. I also feel more characters added in will help push the story further, but even if it only ever focuses on Gray and his adorable new family, I’d be perfectly happy. If you like fantasy stories with substance and a heartwarming story, this is a must-own for your collection when it releases this September! Big props to Cogeme, Enji, and character designer Kazuhiro Hara for doing a fantastic job—I can’t wait for future installments!

ーAaron