On paper, the idea at the center of I'm the Strongest in This Zombie World, But I Can't Beat This Girl! sounds like it might have something fresh to offer: a zombie apocalypse has broken out and our ordinary high school protagonist, Yuuma Kousaka, gets bit. But he soon finds out that he's able to hang on to his consciousness, which further leads to him being able to jump between his zombie and human states as though he were flipping a switch. But that's more or less where interesting things in this novel begin and end.

I buried the lede about something in that plot description: Yuuma doesn't just realize on his own that he's able to switch between being a zombie and human at will. He only figures this out because by happenstance, he runs into his childhood crush, Haruka Hyuuga, whilst he's savoring what he assumes will be his final moments. Both parties assuming that Yuuma is about to die, Haruka agrees to be his girlfriend. But then, as the zombification is taking hold, Yuuma is overwhelmed with the desire to protect Haruka. And in the moment, this burning desire is framed as the miraculous force that allows him to hold onto his human consciousness.

So the obvious conclusion to be drawn from this is that Yuuma loves Haruka, right? Honestly, I can't tell. As the novel progresses, Yuuma and Haruka meet more cute girls that they intend to survive with. And after meeting them, Yuuma starts treating Haruka like she's an afterthought. The worst of it is when one girl asks Yuuma if he has a girlfriend, and he says he doesn't. We soon learn it's because Yuuma assumed on his own that the agreement for Haruka to be his girlfriend was null and void since he didn't die. This comes in spite of how openly flirty Haruka is toward Yuuma, and how she throws herself at him every chance she gets. While this probably comes more from a place of good old fashioned anime-protagonist-obliviousness than maliciousness, it still doesn't make him look good either way.

Aside from the whole zombie thing, Yuuma is the character equivalent of white bread and unseasoned chicken. So it's ironic that he's half-zombie, because as both a character and protagonist, he's absolutely lifeless. But compared to Haruka, he may as well exist in the same main character hall of fame as, say, Luffy, Spike Spiegel, and Lelouch. She's a textbook example of the typical, wish fulfillment-y female protagonist who has no personality and exists only to be in Yuuma's orbit and provide fanservice. Despite having only come back into contact with Yuuma at the beginning of the novel, he pretty much instantly becomes her one and only driving force. I get that in a dangerous situation like the one she's in she'd probably want to cling to him, but there's nothing suggesting that she's acting this way out of a desire for safety. And Haruka's not the only girl like this—while there's shallow attempts to give them at least one discernible trait per person, the other girls that Haruka and Yuuma run into later are much the same in that despite just having met him, most of what we learn about them (which isn't much) is only in relation to them falling in love with Yuuma. I get the sense author Ryou Iwanami doesn't know how to write women outside of this generic, protagonist-loving-box.

While it's been pretty heavily alluded to, it's worth saying plainly that the writing in this novel simply isn't good. The character writing, in particular, stands out as the worst of it, but even outside of that there's nothing spectacular in this first volume. It's an uninspired zombie apocalypse setting, with no particular rhyme or reason behind its cause. And while it's not to say they aren't present, there's virtually no tension in the survival elements of it all because Yuuma's ability to turn himself into a zombie whilst maintaining his human consciousness at-will is so blatantly overpowered. And making the writing feel all the worse is a painfully stiff translation that, especially in the dialogue segments, feels absent of editorial help.

But while the writing is pretty bland, I don't get the impression that originality or a robust narrative is what it was going for in the first place. After all, there's something to be said about how when done right, being generic can sometimes make something feel familiar and charming (although I don't think I'd put this novel in that category). Instead, this volume is much more concerned with being a horny teenage romcom. In this case, that's shorthand for saying it's yet another title where every woman within eyeshot is head over heels for a boring protagonist.

Maybe this is just a me thing, but I just don't think a zombie apocalypse is a good setting for this kind of romcom. Like, sure—it's pretty strategic because it gives you plenty of excuses to manufacture situations where, say, Yuuma has to stand in tight spaces with other girls, or the girls have to wear swimsuits, for example. But also, they feel as manufactured as they so plainly are. And some readers might find some hilarity in this, but I just couldn't get into it, and I think I think it has a lot to do with just how insufferable the main characters are.

Because none of the characters are particularly likable, it makes it hard to like this volume as a romcom of any sort. After all, why root for any of the characters, when they all feel like the same character but with an only slightly different coat of paint? For that matter, while I can rationalize why girls plausibly could fall for Yuuma—they're in a stressful environment, and while they don't know why, as far as they know he's just a capable survivalist who's helping them out tremendously—that doesn't magically make him more charismatic.

Simply put, this novel isn't exactly going to be in line for any awards any time soon. But if you're in the mood for an equal parts horny and canned romcom light novel with a zombie flavor, you might have fun with this one. But as for me, I'm not exactly dying to read more of it.