Let’s Run an Inn on Dungeon Island (In a World Ruled by Women) Vol. 1 & 2 Manga Review (Spoiler‑Free)

Synopsis:

Sanada Shirou was stuck in a toxic corporate job. However, when forced to take a client out fishing on his day off without overtime pay, he catches a magic fish that grants him the ability to create things with magic! It comes with just one catch: he’s transported into a matriarchal society where women are far more powerful than men and are the only ones who can perform magic. He eventually ends up on an island, running an inn and welcoming many of these amazingly powerful ladies to stay there.

The Good:

Let’s get real and talk about what is most important for a moment: the hot, tall, strong ladies we are supposed to drool over in the book do look rather attractive! Readers picking up a story like this know what they are signing up for, so knowing the art looks nice (which goes for some of the backgrounds too) is surely a good thing. The sex scenes in the book though are censored, so don’t expect anything too lavish on that front.

Having an actual menu screen like in a video game for magic in an isekai is so overdone I nearly groaned out loud upon seeing it. But I have to admit, it was used for a joke that made me actually chuckle, so I might offer a slight bit of mercy on this point.

There was even a moment that resulted in fascinating world building involving something being so normal in our world being something extremely flustering to see a man do in this world ruled by women. Caring enough to change gender norms and expectations beyond just having women be super strong and able to do magic was a nice touch.

The Bad:

Oh ha ha! What a curious little quirk of our world, how women go about raping the men and just getting to do what we want! Only the biggest, strongest, kindest women don’t go about forcing themselves onto people. Isn’t this subversion of expectations such a funny joke? What? It isn’t? Well then you’ll be struck flipping through a lot of pages trying to find anything to laugh at.

It’s not like different and outright unfair power dynamics between genders can’t make for interesting stories. The massive popularity of Alpha/Beta/Omega (ABO) stories shows how posing difficult questions about consent can be quite compelling!

The writer may be trying to do something with these clumsy jokes, targeting what is likely largely a male readerbase. The idea might be to make readers consider how women must feel when similar bad comments are made about them, how horrible it’d be to have someone force themself on you, and perhaps get folks identifying with our self-insert MC when they feel these fears to experience empathy. While this might be overly charitable, I do not want to unfairly dismiss the option, especially as Shirou himself actually says something along these lines during a chapter.

The reason I think this might be overly charitable is because all of the women who want to simply use Shirou as a sex doll are depicted as stereotypically “ugly.” There’s something strangely puritanical about how only the super hot ultra sexy girls treat our guy proper and nice, while the girls who seem to be ugly on the inside and out are depicted as almost feral rapists. That’s a level of incel culture misogyny I can’t get past even while holding my nose.

Then there comes the problem this presents storywise. Outside of these potentially insensitive jokes, what else distinguishes this from other typical isekai? Dominant women? A weaker main character than usual? It’s not nothing, but it’s certainly not enough to leave me chomping at the bit to read more.

The Verdict:

Let’s Run an Inn on Dungeon Island left me in a confusing spot as a reviewer. I enjoy a light horny read now and then and am not above indulging in what some might describe as “just another isekai.” The story is fine enough for what it is, though I certainly wouldn’t mind fewer rape jokes. However, the story also has quite the weak protagonist who likely will never match up in strength to the powerful women around him. This makes it tough to recommend to readers who typically dive into isekais like this to enjoy a power fantasy.

This uniqueness means it may be worth recommending to certain readers. Those who enjoy this style of isekai story and are looking for something a bit different than usual, or anyone with the fantastic taste of loving a femdom-styled kind of harem, may also find something fun within its pages.

For me personally, this book that was supposed to be a bit self-indulgent was too peppered with questionable humor and eyebrow raising symbolism to let me properly relax into reading it. While this makes sense, as this book wasn’t written with a queer woman like me as the intended audience, it’s sad that big strong muscly girls can’t be for people like me too! This book will have an audience out there that would thoroughly enjoy it, however, I won’t be going out of my way to read future installments.

If you liked Let’s Run an Inn on Dungeon Island (In a World Ruled by Women) Vol. 1 & 2 you might also like…

• Virgin Knight: I Became the Frontier Lord in a World Ruled by Women by Kotatsu Yanase
• My Room is a Dungeon Rest Stop by Takoya Kiyoshi
• The Horny Elf and the Gentleman Orc by Tomokichi

Credits:

Story: Bunzaburou Nagano
Art: Shinichi Yuhki
Character Designs: Tenmaso
Translation: Jess Leif
Adaptation: Patrick King
Lettering: Cedric Macias
Cover Design: H. Qi
Proofreader: Hayame
Production Designer: George Panella
Published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment

Special Thanks: Thank you to Seven Seas Entertainment for providing a review copy. Receiving this copy did not affect the reviewer’s opinions as expressed here.

Article edited by: Adam Wescott