Light Novel Thursday: Campione! by Taketsuki Jou

This week for a Light Novel series I thought I’d go over one that I enjoy a lot, Campione! by Taketsuki Jou.

Plot Synopsis: Godou Kusunagi, a recently graduated middle schooler, is asked by his grandfather to return a stone tablet to a friend in Sardinia named Lucretia Zola. After meeting the demonically manipulative sword-mistress Erica Blandelli, he encounters a god of war, Verethragna. After killing the god, Godou becomes a Campione, or god slayer. His duty is to fight heretical gods who start changing things to suit themselves, usually at the expense of the people in the area. One of the problems associated with being a Campione, is that his status keeps attracting attention and difficult girls. Blandelli, who strongly professes her love for him, usually creates awkward and misunderstood situations for him in particular.

Plot: This series takes the characters from many different world mythologies and uses them spectacularly and it’s informative in an interesting way that textbooks never can be. The plot is pretty standard battle stuff, but it gets more interesting in later volumes.

Characters: Godou is probably the least interesting of all the characters, but Erica has most definitely earned her title of “Diavolo Rosso”. Plenty of familiar gods make appearances in this series, and that’s not counting the other 6 Campione that are out in the world.

Art: From what we see in the volumes it’s alright, but it’s nothing amazing either. The real hook in this series is the plot and characters.

Overall: It’s pretty good and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes mythology.

For those who like: Epic battles between gods and godslayers, Harem situations in which the male is thicker than usual, Mythology.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.