The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Fed Up With Being the Spoiled Queen's Genius Butler, I Ran Away and Built the World's Strongest Army

What's It About? 

Leet isn't just any butler. His mistress, Princess Kilik, demands the impossible--and he delivers it, seven times before breakfast. But one day, Leet decides enough is enough, and he flees for a neighboring land where the talented rise up through the ranks instead of languishing in thankless, dead-end jobs. Under a new name, Lilt, he enrolls in a training and job placement program, and rapidly discovers that, easy as "wax on, wax off," his butlering skills make him a valuable asset!

Fed Up With Being the Spoiled Queen's Genius Butler, I Ran Away and Built the World's Strongest Army is a manga by Reiga, adapted from a light novel series of the same name by Skyfarm. Irene Nakano (piyo) translated this volume. This volume was lettered by Dietrich Premier, and published by Kodansha Comics (April 30, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

At least it's not an isekai, I suppose. Our main butler character, Leet, does transition from one "world" to the next, but it's from oppression and overwork under Princess Kilik in the Aslelita Kingdom to working hard to enter the military in the Garderd Empire (as Lilt). He's not hit by a truck, summoned in a white light, or reborn as an infant with adult memories, or anything like that. By the point in his life that we join his story, he's already an extremely competent butler who appears to keep the palace running singlehandedly. Understandably, he's sick of the Princess' unreasonable, vague, changeable, and capricious demands. She even reduces his vacation entitlement when she's displeased!

Lilt finds himself eligible for and excelling in the Garderd Empire's military entrance exams by a series of fortuitous coincidences. He meets just the right adventurer on the way, gets just the right castle guard to give him a letter of recommendation (after witnessing Lilt's fight against the adventurer), and also finds himself at the exact correct time and place to save Garderd's princess from a stray magical attack. That the princess turns out to be the exam's invigilator, who protects him against an accusation of cheating, is perhaps a coincidence too far.

All of this purely circumstantial plot progression is extremely lazy. While I suppose it's fun to see how Lilt will inadvertently succeed his way out of another contrived situation, the schtick is already getting old, and this is only the first volume. We've even got an arrogant blonde nobleman (Bhadra) who irrationally picks on Lilt, Draco Malfoy style, only to receive a predictable comeuppance. It's storytelling by cliché and coincidence, and we never once feel that Lilt is in any danger of not succeeding at whatever he sets his goal to.

Military examiner Giln reminds me a lot of Rose from The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, with her formidable stature and injured eye. Still, she demonstrates little in terms of personality. Lilt's new friend, the adventurer Awen Lisch, isn't much more than a typical meat-headed male sidekick at this point, either. I can predict exactly where this story is going even from this slim volume, and there isn't a lot here to convince me of the merit of sticking around to find out if I'm right.

The only interesting aspect is that by volume's end, Lilt's former employer has located him, so perhaps she could add some interesting complications, but based on the already formulaic story structure, I'm not too confident.

At least the art is reasonable, with some attractive characters and effective battle scenes. I do like the design of Garderd's princess, and Lilt's cool and collected body language is often funny in context. In general, I did enjoy the gently comedic tone. Unfortunately, I don't feel strongly enough to give this anything more than a middling recommendation.

Do you love manga about hyper-competent characters? In the tradition of One-Punch Man, Ya Boy Kongming!, and Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto comes Fed Up With Being the Spoiled Queen's Genius Butler, I Ran Away and Built the World's Strongest Army. Behind the word salad of a manga title is Leet, a butler who is so successful at everything he attempts that he's probably capable of world domination (although this cinnamon roll would never)!

Leet has the world's worst boss: a spoiled, sadistic queen who delights in changing her orders at the very last minute to make Leet jump through hoops. Though he makes serving her look easy, on the inside, he's as frustrated as you might expect. His lighthearted adventure begins when he decides to run away—an easy feat considering that no other palace staff member is as capable as he is. After changing his name to Lilt, he decides to take the test to become a certified adventurer (this is a fantasy world, after all). The rest of this too-short volume documents his at times hilarious, action-packed progress through the exams.

You see, antagonists constantly pit themselves against Lilt because they assume they have a chance. Lilt is a petite, baby-faced man in a butler outfit, so nobody realizes he's a genius at combat and studying alike. Though his competence would have you assume that there aren't any close calls on his journey, the sheer number of challenges the plot throws at him makes it interesting (or at least simply funny). The manga has great comedic timing that lines up jokes in one panel to pay off in the next—not to mention Lilt's gallery of funny facial expressions. He kicks ass and looks like a real Silly Billy while doing it. (Seriously, get ready to take screenshots for your reaction image folder!)

Exam arcs are always fun, but I have high hopes for this story, even after it's over. The one content warning I can think of is a nearly-nude Morrigan parody in one backdrop (along with a Jason Statham cameo, but we probably don't need a CW for him).