The Fall 2024 Light Novel Guide

No One Gets Past This Gatekeeper: The Unwanted Warrior Guards His New Post

What's It About? 

Sieg's defensive power is through the roof, and he's proven himself to be a rock-solid foundation for a heavy-hitting party, holding every last ounce of monster aggro. But that's not enough to prevent his party from kicking him right out the door! Who needs defense when you've got devastating attacks, right? Them, apparently—without their tank, the losses keep piling up! Sieg, on the other hand, lands a job as a gatekeeper at the royal capital and starts rising quickly through the ranks. Can he defend against the hordes of attackers, earn the trust of his squadron and the lovely but quirky ladies within, and untwist the problems of the besieged city—all at the same time?

No One Gets Past This Gatekeeper: The Unwanted Warrior Guards His New Post is written by Kametsu Tomobashi with illustrations by Heiro. English translation by A. V. N. Wilson. Published by J-Novel Club; PublishDrive edition (September 27, 2024).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

What's the best thing about this book? It doesn't spend pages and pages painstakingly going over the same old RPG-based worldbuilding that many other similar light novel has. Author Kametsu Tomobashi trusts that their readers are familiar with the basics: guilds, knights, adventurers, all of that. They all get a mention, but none of it is exhaustively explained. It may be a sad statement to say that this is a major draw, but alas, this is where we are at present.

Other aspects of the story are somewhat less wonderful, although they fall much more easily under the “your mileage may vary” heading. The most serious barrier to credulity is the fact that Sieg was removed from his party at all. Unlike most party members who are unceremoniously kicked out, Sieg's role in the group was a tank – he quite literally took all of the damage when the group was out monster-killing, enabling the rest of them to get rid of the monsters. But Nacht, the party leader, managed to convince himself and the other two members that Sieg was just a slow idiot and that his taking all the damage was evidence of his lumbering pace and low intelligence. He said he and the ladies were carrying Sieg. Interestingly enough, the concept of “tank” doesn't seem familiar in the story's world, although everyone who hears that Sieg was kicked out of the Crimson Fangs is incredulous, they also don't understand what he does. This is almost certainly an attempt by Tomobashi to differentiate their world from countless others, but it backfires when all of the other RPG basics are firmly in place.

In any event, Sieg is a genuinely nice guy (not a Nice Guy), and his decision to apply for a post as a city guard in the capital is at least partially based on his determination to put his skills to use. Does he end up the only man on the Fifth Squadron with all of his female comrades forming a de facto harem? Naturally. That feels less grating than it might be because watching him take down bandits and bad guys is fun. He's ludicrously skilled, but his heart is in the right place, and he's also got a keen eye for mildly amusing observation, such as his take on one of his new colleague's decision to wear bikini armor because “it's easier to move in.” Things begin to drag around the middle of the book when Sieg joins the Fifth Squadron, but the ending, which deals with what happens to Nacht, largely makes up for it. This may not be anything particularly new, but it does the old well and it's a breezy read.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. Yen Press, BookWalker Global, and J-Novel Club are subsidiaries of KWE.