It’s a slow burn for sure.

The anime was cute, maybe I give romance LN another try.

Good questions. I’m sooo gonna steal them ;)

None come to mind but how many classic board game have any lore that could be used as a setting? Maybe something like Alice in Wonderland based on cards?

The Water Magician: Arc 1 Volume 2 - I like the volume. There is less of that Marvel-style banter in this volume and what is there feels more natural and less forced than in the first volume. I also like the addition of some romance to the plot. I would have liked it better if it weren’t the love-at-first-sight type, but at least the love interest is competent and not a damsel in distress. There are a couple of negatives though. The translation is riddled with typos and grammatical errors (stuff like "Thankfully, skeletons don’t literally blood.” or “Also in the eastern woods…well, deeper in the words, a little south.” Just as examples. There are a lot of those types of errors. I hope they fix whatever is happening at Jnovel.club because the translations from them have a lot of mistakes in the last couple of months and this book was one of the worst offenders in that regard.

The Otome Heroine’s Fight for Survival: Volume 1 - Love that murder hobo brat. The rest of the story is a bit cliche so far, but it gets effortlessly carried by MC. Since I bitched about too-good-to-kill-MCs a while back I’ve been picking up series with ruthess MCs and little Alicia here might very well be my favorite of the bunch. Makes sense since the author seem to have the same thought about those too-good MCs. Here’s a quote from the afterword:

I noticed this tendency for the protagonist to become overly merciful halfway in my other stories too, so I decided to write one who would never show her enemies any mercy at all.

nice.

The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects: Volume 4 - Okay, so there are little baby-baals and puppies now in Iluk village. Cool I guess, but: Where. The. Fuck. Are. The. Illustrations?! I want to see cute baby baals and puppies but there isn’t a single illustration of the most central plot point of this volume. Not on the cover. Not in the color pages. Not in the b/w illustration mid chapter. Nowhere. In the words of my favorite goblin slayer: “Horseshit”.

Min-Maxing and Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! for me. That reminds me, wasn’t there supposed to be an anime of this? Am I too impatient or was this scrapped?

Only Japanese ones. This one seems to be Korean. Correct me if I’m wrong.

wrong community and wrong post. But sounds interesting.

I’m interested in the quality of the translation. I hope this service doesn’t just use the AI translation as is. I use AI translations for my work and it became really good in the last 2 years or so with little additional human correction necessary. But an editorial pass is still necessary even if it’s just a little.

That being said I only ever worked with generalized models and who knows how feasible a specialized model can be for this task. And whatever the result will be, the simple fact is that it’s only getting better from that point on. So I’m looking forward to (timely) access to a lot more light novels in the future.

Would you say the book has deep plot intensity like Acendence of a Bookworm or is it more of a quick read? Have had this book on my radar.

No, it’s nothing like Bookworm. It’s somewhat unique in that it’s a power fantasy but mixed with a “fish out of water” story. You have your typical OP MC craving fights (you know the type that wants to fight demi-gods for a light workout) but MC is thrust into a situation where all that power doesn’t help her (in this cast TV broadcasts). So as far as plot intensity goes you switch from battle -> TV work -> battle -> TV work… while Bookworm’s plot is a steady climb that culminates in the grand finale. Charted on a graph Lia Niston is a sine wave while Bookworm is a line.

The quality of the prose itself is also nowhere near Bookworm. I Hope that helps.

I skim through all the pictures first (if the book is drm free like jnovel I unzip it and look through the image folder, else I look through fandom or skim for images).

I do not think that’s any better than reading the afterword first. My initial thought is that it’s even worse TBH. At least with the afterwords, you have a chance not to get spoiled.

Great point. The end of volume manga in Bookworm are always something to look forward to.

Speaking about adaptations is a hit-or-miss thing for me. If it’s just news about an anime coming out soon, for example, then by the time I get to read the translated volume years later, I often think to myself something like, “Look at you, all giddy and hyped up, you sweet summer child. If only you knew how terrible your anime will turn out. Ohohohohoho (best ojousama impression).” But if they talk a bit about the actual process of adapting the novel, for example, I’m all for it. Also tidbits like meeting VAs.

The track list made me chuckle. But the Walkman Fu was using was from 1979, so the production team get a bonk for not using songs from the right year. Or maybe it took 1-2 years for the songs to reach Japanse shores. In which case I haven’t said anything.

No, definitely wouldn’t have made it better. But I still feel unsatisfied with such an important point just omitted. Aya died in her mid 60s so there could have been a lot of possible explanations given for her passing, but at the same time it’s young enough that I am left wondering what the reason was.

They could have made it even worse. They didn’t say why Aya passed away at such a young age. Let me spin you a story:

Since she obviously didn’t make it big time and only played a single concert in a shady club in NY, she got disillusioned when hear dream didn’t come true. She found solace in drugs and an abusive boyfriend who pimped her out. One of those customers beat her to death in a drug induced rage when she tried to steal some of his drugs for her own addiction. The club owner only has her guitar because she pawned it off early on. As to why it was special to him… he was the boyfriend how pimped her out and he’s remorseful for indirectly causing her death. 3 days after Fu brought back those memories a he gets found by those band members we saw in the episode with an overdose and a suicide note saying just “sorry”. And it could all have taken a different turn if only Fu had confided in Aya back then.

Unwanted Undead Adventurer and Let’s Get to Villainessin’ for me. Maybe I pick up Free Live Fantasy Online again. I’m back 4-5 volumes or so.

Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden Volume 2 - The constant focus on how weak everyone else is and how MC could beat them easily is really grating on me. Yes, you’re strong, we get it. There is no need to have that the only thought bouncing around in that head of hers. Honestly, I think I would enjoy the series more with just the Magivision plot. I like series where people build up something from ground and building a fantasy TV network is something fresh.

Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden Volume 3 - Same as above. Had to roll my eyes at the power creep. Really a kick created a shockwave faster than the speed of light? And said shockwave just destroyed some slime eggs while keeping the slime core safe? I somehow think the author should watch one of those science videos that put things like the speed of light into easily understandable perspective.

Making Magic: The Sweet Life of a Witch Who Knows an Infinite MP Loophole Volume 8 - The Witch makes a new friend in this volume. I expected more traveling and adventure shenanigans but a good chunk of the volume is just more comfy lounging around with the new cast member. I’m not sure if I like this or not since I’m not against comfy series, but I would have liked the volume to be more creative with the new environment. In the end, the world-building for the new place only boils down to what type of coffee is served at a cafe.

I loved the first episode. It felt so fresh for the isekai genre. But now by episode 3 I’m over the gimmick and bored. The introduction of those cliche villains at the end there wasn’t helping either. The demon daughter (I assume) was the only thing I found interesting this episode.

I really like that Aqua got humanized. So far he only came across as this calculating revenge machine without any human emotion. To me he’s always been an unlikeable character. But showing him now actually suffering from losing his mom, makes him more likable to me. It’s not nice to say “hey, I like you better with PTSD” but it is what it is.

Akane seems like a genuinely good person to me and I hope her love will be returned at some point.