Trash of the Count’s Family(TCF) is the typical shounen "nakama" novel. Its riddled with overused cliche troupes but this will appeal to some readers. Personally i find it hard to immerse myself into the story and struggle to maintain interest further in.
In TCF the protagonist is transmigrated into the novel he was reading thus has knowledge about future events. Unfortunately TCF did a poor job with the butterfly effect. What changes MC did to the timeline only results in simple deviations in the future, most famous being future events get pushed earlier than intended time. Its disappointing but than again theres hardly any novel that properly capitalize the butterfly effect.
The setting and world building is not the TCF's strongest suite, it is bland, tasteless. Author doesn't focus much on the presentation of the world so a lot of information like the magic & power system, geopolitical situation, history, landscape, the world's laws as well as technical details and such are barely touched on. Moreover the setting and backdrop is kinda cliche stuff and uninteresting.
TCF has quite a number of side characters however i feel that they lack a soul. They look unique and cool on the surface but at the core they are basically copy pasted stories, the companions are lost kittens picked up by the MC and the antagonist are the archetypal villians. Author neglected creating interesting backstories, circumstances, attitudes and personalities, motives and agendas for each of them. Consequently character development also suffers, it is lacking and each character follows the same development template. Although they maintain reasonable presence throughout the novel, limelight is still primarily on the MC. In addition their interactions and relationships feel very corny and cringy, also lack synergy. I believe this was an attempt at comedy and invoking emotion but i feel it misses its mark.
Main character is special, he is like a tsundere character. He pretends to be uncaring, apathetic, only believing in using people but is actually the classic shounen protaganist who cares for his companions(more like pets), has outstanding morales, responsible, righteous, you get the idea. Pretty disappointing cos its one of the most boring and dull character types in novels. He is not overpowered in the beginning but gets powerful later on as he steals fortuitous encounters from other characters(novel reasons these powers are useless to the original owners. Righhhtttt...). Oh, and he is technically supposed to be a side character in the novel the world is based on but ends up stealing the fame, opportunities and limelight of major characters and also the protagonist. I won't say he is the intelligent and cunning type either as most of the credit is due to him knowing the future from the novel he reads. Even later on when events go beyond that novel, he is basically reliant on good luck and fate rather than meticulous analyzing, calculated plans and intelligent decisions. Also MC's goal is to lead a peaceful slacker life but he keeps getting dragged into thick plots basically because he is a nosy, busybody. Its been hinted many times that he can lead a slacker life if he just stopped putting his dick into everything. Dude transmigrated into a rich family far away from conflicts.
The plot itself isn't anything amazing. So far it fails to differentiate itself from other novels, its predictable, is not engaging enough nor intriguing. Don't expect any brilliant plotlines, events are uninspiring and feel like they are missing the impact factor. The narrative feels monotonous and narrow. Theres some nice foreshadowing but it does not have solid storytelling to back it up or follow up with.
Despite the high ratings, i think its over exaggerated. Am definitely not impressed but rather TCF is only average and is like every other within its genre. Granted if this novel was released a decade ago then i feel it'll be a worthy pioneer in its genre. But in the current trending, its very mediocre.
(-13)
