excellent narration that saves a middling story

overall this was a pretty enjoyable tale, setting an interesting scene..it is very much wish fulfillment but has some odd inconsistencies.

first off - the narrators do a fantastic job, really bringing each character to life. they imbue them with such personality and charm, which is also a credit to the writing.

the negatives are the purple prose and the pacing. the author leans into very flowery language, dwelling on details of foods and the nature of moonlight in a scene, but speedruns through combat and dramatic moments. I think this is an attempt to parody the animes this is based on (given those tend to really dwell on the food and the emotional indecisiveness of the characters) - if that's the intent, it does it well.

surprisingly, given how much depth the food gets (near erotic in its descriptions) combat is a lot of naval gazing and given what we know of the main character before it doesn't quite gel. also, for someone from an office environment he has an inconsistent knowledge of how offices actually work (surely he knows what a copier is?!) also we don't actually see him do much in his role of security specialist. aside from a climactic fight at a point which could, arguably, be seen as a failure as he DIDNT do his job.

my final critique is... the sex scene was really vanilla and rushed. given how florid and descriptive the author was around EVERYTHING ELSE it felt really perfunctory and disappointing, uncreative. I'd still suggest giving it a listen as it will hopefully be a scene setter for a longer, more in depth series, but be prepared to be mildly frustrated at the repeated earnestness and food descriptions. but stay for the great characters and world building.

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