Tate no Yuusha has become tied with Sword Art Online as my favorite Japanese Light Novel as of writing this review.

The basis behind Tate no Yuusha is fairly simple. Four heroes are summoned from different Japans in order to fight against the invasion of monsters from something called the "Wave." At periodic intervals marked by a special hourglass, the monsters will attack and it is up to the four summoned heroes to defeat the monsters. However, what separates it is the fact that the main character, Naofumi, is rejected as a hero and quickly chooses to become an anti-hero due to circumstances. We also see how pride and pre-existing beliefs cause problems. These beliefs are criticized and called into question on multiple occasions. Over time though, he begins to develop some of the more heroic qualities and we see how people change over time, something that a lot of series fail to do properly. Tate no Yuusha does a good job of showing Naofumi's growth and connects events together fairly well.

Since this is a light novel, there's not much art, but the ones that are there are great. They show off the characters at key points in the story and their faces and expressions in these pages contribute greatly to the feeling of the story. Also, they're not always focused on the action sequences, which is a nice break from what other light novels often try to do.

The character development in this series is one of the best by far. The series follows Naofumi and it shows how he goes from someone with good intentions to a complete jerk who only shows traces of the kindness that existed in his heart before. However, he begins to recover over time, and we get to see the events that lead to him slowly becoming a heroic figure that is gradually earning the respect of the people. This limits the number of out of character moments despite being quite a long series so far. Each character also has to deal with the consequences of his or her own actions, and this leads to some interesting moments.

Overall, I recommend this series to people. It does not seem like a lot of people read it, and I believe more people should. It shows how an anti-hero can be created, but how an anti-hero can also become a true hero.