I know I haven’t written about much else other than The Apothecary Diaries lately. I’d like to blame it solely on the holidays, but honestly, the single episode manhwa recaps were starting to get a little tiresome. Writing and cleaning screenshots is a surprising amount of work.
That’s not to say I’ll stop doing them; I just need an extended break. So what did I do instead? Pick up another webtoon to add to my already ridiculously long list! But let me tell you: I am shocked, SHOCKED, about how much I enjoyed reading Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine.
First Season Recap
In the original world of Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine (or Perks for brevity), there’s a massive increase in deaths and disappearances attributed to some type of transmigration phenomenon. Strangely, everyone affected by this phenomenon receives a spam text message about life insurance right before their unexpected death.
Our main character (MC), whom we only know as Reader 1****5617, is one such soul. She wakes in a purgatory where assessors assign souls to dimensionalized worlds based on fictional novels. Despite wanting to be placed in a childcare romance fantasy novel (guuurl, SAME), she’s assigned to an S-class action fantasy time loop story called Infinite Returns to Save the World, a novel she read back in middle school.
Thrown into her new world, MC wakes up in the body of a minor side character named Ailette Rodeline, a ten-year-old pink-haired, green-eyed girl living as a servant with her older brother Prinz and her father Leonard at Count Gilette’s castle. Being a transmigrator, Ailette can interact with pop-up panels only visible to her that provide her with vital information. And since Ailette purchased the full insurance package upon her death, albeit accidentally, MC is granted several top tier transmigrator perks including a mandatory tutorial period, blessing of extreme growth, and a one-time cash deal.
Ailette’s also given access to a transmigrator shop where she can purchase various non-combat and combat skills with her insurance money. She starts off purchasing a few non-combat skills like cooking and alchemy, and thanks to her extreme growth perk, she levels up quickly and impresses everyone around her.
One night, Ailette re-reads Infinite Returns to jog her memory of the plot, and she learns about her ill-fated future. To protect herself, she decides to purchase her first combat skill: the power to heal. However, the transmigration system errors out because she first needs to complete a quest of a thousand consecutive days of morning prayer.
She starts praying to the Gods of the Transmigration Bureau (or TM Gods, as she calls them), and her prayer is so heartfelt that she activates the “Gods’ Response” skill. Several gods begin interacting with Ailette through more pop-up prompts, but the one Ailette forms a particular bond with is the Voice that Shapes the World (“Lord Voice”).
Ailette becomes fast friends with the daughter of Count and Countess Gilette, Bianca “Bia” Gilette. One day, while in the library, the two are suddenly transported to an underground cemetery dungeon located right below the estate. Necromancer Baron Ardiman, the dungeon master, insists on keeping at least one of the girls, so Bia tries to negotiate their freedom.
When the negotiations fail, Bia attempts to sacrifice herself for Ailette’s sake, but Ailette already has a plan. For compensation of ending up in this dungeon, Lord Voice grants Ailette the use of his own power through the “Divine Advent” skill. She easily defeats Ardiman, but because she used divine power far greater than her current skill level, she’s afflicted with a case of Holy Fever and must sleep for 48 hours to recover.
After her Holy Fever subsides, Ailette realizes the potential for the dungeon space, and after purchasing the farming skill from the transmigrator shop, she turns the area into vast farm land for herbs. MC then turns the remaining skeleton henchmen into farm hands to tend to the land in her stead.
Some time later, Ailette runs into Cardinal Cartelaya Gilette on the estate, and after helping the holy woman overcome an issue of her own, she gifts Ailette with a necklace. She also takes the girl to the Vatican after Ailette asked the cardinal for the favor.
At the Vatican, Ailette is approached by the main protagonist of Infinite Returns named Tesilid Argente. He tells her that the cross necklace she’s wearing is the Holy Relic of Saint Agnes, and Ailette is in disbelief that the cardinal would give her such a precious item. Suddenly, Tesilid and Ailette, along with all the other children, are transported into an S-class dungeon called the Toy Mansion. In the original Infinite Returns, Tesilid is the only one to make it out alive, but with the help of Ailette’s potions and her S-class transmigrator status, this time everyone is saved.
Because of Ailette’s interference with the novel’s events, Hestio and Ephael, Tesilid’s friends and fellow stigma bearers, will now be alive for each one of Tesilid’s loops. Ailette, however, learns from Lord Voice that since her world is set in the 17th loop, even though she may have changed the fate of Hestio and Ephael, no one else but Tesilid will remember that she exists outside of the 17th loop.
After her experience in the Toy Mansion, Ailette’s determined to build her stamina and grow stronger. She purchases the Aura combat skill from the shop, yet before she can use such skill, she first needs to become a sword master. Lord Voice tells her that she needs proper guidance, and luckily for her, she already has a teacher – Saint Agnes.
The ghost of Saint Agnes, who was residing within the necklace the cardinal gave her, awakens. The former Vatican Drill Master sets a rigorous training regimen. Ailette chooses a sword and a whip as her primary and secondary weapons, much like Saint Agnes herself who mastered the powerful technique and coined it the whip sword.
In addition to training her sword skills, Ailette and Bia’s business venture of selling alchemy potions has taken off, and with the money they’ve made, Leonard takes Ailette and Prinz on a trip to their old home. When Ailette asks about their mother, her father tells them that she just disappeared one day. Prinz, however, reveals an important detail: on the night of their mother’s disappearance, he saw her head out with a hoe and plow, saying that some livestock had gotten out of their cages and she’d be back.
Later that night, Ailette goes to investigate a suspicious clearing that turns out to be a C-Class dungeon called Black Salt Desert. Ailette literally runs into a large muscular man, collapsed in the dungeon’s sand, and she feeds him one of her alchemic treats. When he regains his composure, he mistakes Ailette for his daughter, whom he has been searching for the last two months.
The two of them (three if you count Saint Agnes) continue their journey further into the dungeon and come across a rundown temple. At the center, they find a group of monsters petrified in rock, and within that group, stood a lone petrified female figure.
The large man identifies the woman as his daughter, and he hugs her solidified figure in tears. As she’s watching the scene unfold in front of her, Ailette realizes that the stone woman is gripping a hoe and a plow, the very same tools Prinz said he last saw their mother holding. Turns out the petrified woman is her mother, and the big man crying over her stone form is apparently her grandfather.
Using her divine powers, Ailette purifies her mother’s form and breaks the petrification curse. Elthea, recognizing Ailette immediately, realizes she’s been gone for six years, and she tearfully embraces her daughter. Elthea’s reaction to her father, the Grand Duke of Heathfenrir, however, is anything but tender. Remembering how they last parted, Ailette’s mother wants nothing to do with the man standing before her. But Ailette, feeling a lot awkward, tells her mom that she’d appreciate being able to see their grandpa sometimes. And Elthea, begrudgingly gives in.
Back outside, Ailette hears her father and brother calling her name. She runs towards them, and before she can explain where she’s been, Elthea steps out from behind the bushes. The Rodeline family is finally reunited.
Highlights and Critiques
There’s a couple of places where Perks could have followed a few tired tropes, but it didn’t. They could have made Ailette and Bia’ friendship as well as Ailette’s relationship with her father and brother antagonistic, but I was happy to see both storylines didn’t veer in that direction.
Because the dungeons and their dungeon masters pose enough of a problem, Ailette doesn’t really need Bia or her family to be villains. Sure, she has to deal with the bratty Nellie and the spoiled Romdero, but they aren’t a major part of the plot. Not being overloaded with antagonists help keep the story light and fun.
Ailette is also an entertaining MC. Some consider her to be too OP, but that’s the point. She bought the full insurance package, so of course she’s granted all these perks that help her succeed in her new world. Her back story in her original world was tragic – orphaned at a young age, she was forced to live with relatives that treated her as a nuisance – yet despite having the sad history, the author didn’t continue to pile on hardship after hardship. I’ve come across one too many overly melodramatic characters in webtoons lately, and it’s such a turn-off.
The audience does see glimpses into Ailette’s past with her original real family. In fact, there’s even a suggestion that her current family in Infinite Returns might actually be the family she lost in her original world. I love that! And I hope that’s where the story is heading. Can’t say I’ve ever come across another manhwa that took a plot in that direction, so the originality would be welcomed.
I’m particularly fond of the idea that Prinz may be her brother in more than just this lifetime. When Ailette makes an off-hand comment about playing dolls for 100 hours to Prinz, she realizes that’s something she said in her past life to her little brother. She attempts to brush it off, but the comment has Prinz feeling some type of way.
Tesilid’s character is so well written in the brief amount the audience has seen him so far in season one. I wish Infinite Returns was an actual book so I could read it, that’s how invested I’ve become in Tesilid as a character. Ailette says a few times that Tesilid’s story is tragic and frustrating, and I normally don’t like stories of that nature. But the author has made the stigma bearer so interesting, I’m looking forward to seeing more of him in the coming episodes.
I’m also very curious to learn more about his powers. Ailette explains that Tes has a unique buff and debuff ability called the “Commandment of the Seven Heavenly Virtues and Seven Deadly Sins” and that his powers do not allow him to speak of his obligation. It’s clear that he’s powerful for his age, even his friends begrudgingly admit his strength, so I’m looking forward to seeing more of what he can do.
The Transmigration Gods are hilarious. I have never been more entertained by divine characters, and they only appear as text in the story! If the author ever created a webtoon based on them, I’d be the first one to buy it. Imagine a workplace-based webtoon about the TM Gods working at their bureau, handling all these dimensionalized worlds. Even though the audience (and the MC too) only interacts with the TM Gods via the pink pop-up game panels, they still manage to exude so much character and personality. You can almost put faces to these gods, just from the way they talk to each other and to Ailette.
The art of Perks is impressive. The character drawings are consistent and proportional. The backgrounds are detailed and beautiful. And I love how the characters can go from badass to comedic in just a span of a couple of panels. Just take a look at Rodrigo from the Toy Mansion dungeon above. Scary to cute. It takes talent to switch so seamlessly.
Perks does such a phenomenal job balancing the funny with the dramatic. Let’s take the scene where Ailette and Tesilid are in the Toy Mansion dungeon, and Tesilid wants to know who Ailette is. He grabs her arm when she tries to touch him, and asks her a serious question. But instead of answering him, she pulls at his arm and points to his wound, saying his injury is the bigger issue at the moment.
And this is just one of many scenes where Perks does that delicate balance. Ailette is such an endearing MC that her actions towards the other characters, especially Tesilid, come across as natural. I love that Agnes, while initially thinking that Tesilid must be Ailette’s first love, starts to doubt that assumption after realizing that Ailette treats Tesilid more like a grandmother would treat her grandchildren by trying to feed him all the time. I think we all know where this story is eventually headed in terms of Ailette’s and Tesilid’s relationship, but it’s sweet to see their relationship play out this way for now. Plus, in all of season one, they’re still kids, and they act like kids.
Clearly, there’s a whole lot that I like about Perks, so what don’t I like? Well, since this is a newer genre for me to read, I honestly don’t have much criticism in terms of plot. If I did have to nitpick something, one transition between episodes 33 and 34 was a little jarring. It’s where the story jumps from Ailette and her alchemy potion business to Fenrir, a well-revered town muscleman.
Fenrir seems out-of-place, until a few episodes later and you realize who he really is. It was similar to the earlier chapters when the reader is suddenly presented with some knights and a king who are discussing what they want to do after returning from battle. Then, the dungeon master Ardiman appears and the reader realizes, “Oh, these dudes are the skeletons when they were alive.”
Another thing that irked me, but just a little, was Fenrir’s backstory with Elthea. It felt like an exposition dump, if I’m being honest. Did the reader really need to know all that detail of Fenrir and Elthea’s history? At the same time, though, I don’t think Elthea’s immediate negative reception of her father would have had as much weight if the reader didn’t know how Fenrir treated Elthea in the past. So including their long backstory was a better choice than leaving it out.
Final Thoughts
Perks is a must read, especially if you’re looking for a humorous romance fantasy novel that hits all the right notes. There are just a couple of minor spots where the story hits a snag, but otherwise, Perks is a great read. The characters charm their way into your heart, the art captivates with its brilliance, and the plot unfolds as an intriguing and engaging journey. Overall, Perks effortlessly strikes the right chords for a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
