A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation – Manga First Impression

So lately I’ve been ordering a lot of manga. I’m in the mood to discover my next big manga love story. I’ve also not been reading as much webcomics. At least not family-friendly ones. As such, I figured I would switch my webtoon recommendations for manga first impressions until I build up a nice stock of webtoons to recommend once again. That way, maybe you can discover your next big manga love.

And that’s how I ended up with a box full of isekai. Thankfully manga is a bit more varied in its genres but it seems like 90% of light novels that are coming out lately are isekai and I’m getting a little fatigued. So of course, I read another one! A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation

Why I Picked up A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation

Yeah, that’s a light novel title but I got the manga version. And I got it based on the title. I was hoping it was going to be a sort of travel agent isekai where the bulk of the story was world-building as the main character gave us guided tours! It’s not that but you have to admit, that sounds kind of cool.

Official Summary

When Lizel mysteriously finds himself in a city that bears odd similarities to his own but clearly isn’t, he quickly comes to terms with the unlikely truth: this is an entirely different world. Even so, laid-back Lizel isn’t the type to panic. He immediately sets out to learn more about this strange place, and to help him do so, hires a seasoned adventurer named Gil as his tour guide and protector.

Until he’s able to find a way home, Lizel figures this is a perfect opportunity to explore a new way of life adventuring as part of a guild. After all, he’s sure he’ll go home eventually… might as well enjoy the otherworldly vacation for now!

My First Impression

What this is double isekai… Isekaiception! Also is this BL? This is basically DanMachi but with only pretty boys, I am not against this!

What I liked

So Lizel seems to be a mage that comes from a fantasy kingdom and one day he wakes up in a similar but completely different fantasy kingdom. It really has all the tropes and trappings of every isekai out there, except the main character is already from another world, to begin with. For some reason, that twist just spoke to me. It doesn’t seem to serve much purpose so far but it was enough to make it seem a bit fresh.

Like I mentioned, I thought this was BL for a while. Heck, it might still turn out to be although volume 1 didn’t have any actual romance of any sort. But it also didn’t have any female characters. Like not one. And more than a couple of weird and slightly forced phrasing that would make it super easy to ship the main two characters together. Now maybe this was just because I had finished a very adorable BL doujin right before reading A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation that I was seeing BL everywhere but I think there were at least some implications put in on purpose.

And since I put this in the stuff I liked section, I guess you can say I liked it. I haven’t really read any BL isekai so it was a novel experience.

Any drawbacks?

Basically, everything I put in my stuff I like section can easily go into the stuff another reader will specifically dislike. And honestly, without those little hooks, A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation is a paint by numbers isekai. It’s not bad at all but you’ve most likely seen or read it before.

When all is said and done, a mostly harmless isekai full of pretty boys seems to be just what I was missing at this point because I will be continuing the series. And if anything I have said about it (or the pretty pictures) speaks to you, then why not try a couple of chapters?