After-School Dungeon Diver: Level Grinding in Another World Volume 1 - Oh boy, where to start with this one. MC is an extremely overpowered mage who is extremely scared of everything (think MC from Campfire Cooking if MC had the power of the Fenrir). He’s also an EXP grind fanatic but he only grinds away on the save levels of the dungeon. His entire inner monologue switches only between how scared or how horny he is. Which brings me to my main gripe: the series could tone it down by a metric ton with the strange and off-putting fan service. The saving a “damsel in distress” every couple of chapters (who are all super strong btw but become pathetic for just the 2 minutes MC needs to save them) is one thing. But when they are covered in jizz from a boar monster (not kidding) that’s in an entirely different ballpark. I mean, why? I’m also not a fan of the “witty banter” in this one. Feels stilted and forced. There is one interesting thing though. It’s an isekai story but completely ignores how MC is able to jump between worlds. It completely skips the whole setup other isekai stories have and you know what? It works. It didn’t hurt the story one iota and made me think how many poor Truck-kuns could have been spared the trauma of crushing MCs if more authors would just go with this “it is what it is, deal with it” approach. The actual reason given towards the end of the book was pretty stupid though so my point stands that it was better when it was treated as just given. I give a bonus point though for the illustrations. I love that derpy art style. - 3/10
By the Grace of the Gods: Volume 14 - Yeah, 7 months between releases is just too much. I remember jack-shit of what was happening, and going by how the volume starts right in the middle of an encounter it’s even more jarring. The volume came out over a year ago in JP. And then it barely breaks 200 pages with a totally messed up pacing. The first half of the volume feels like it should have been part of volume 13 and the second half feels like aimless unorganized filler without any particular purpose other than filling pages. Together with the slow translation it feels like too little too late. It also doesn’t help that the quality of the translation is very bad. What is wrong with J-Novel club lately where the editors are so incapable? Who let things like “Are you a Sever stan?” slide in a fantasy novel? The whole translation reads like a terminally online teenager translated it and the editor didn’t do more than run a quick typo correction over it. It’s such a shame to see yet another favorite of mine go down the drain just because of the translation getting bad. 5/10
Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 21 - The antagonist had a good way to deal with power creep but returned in te end to just the usual level vs. level brawl. Could have been clever but I guess you can’t have everything. The end was a stretch though and I think I’m going back to Otherworld Hero next just to cleanse my palate of those “too good to hurt even the villains” characters (at least that gave me the idea for the next Midweek Discussion, so huzzah!). Anyway, it’s as entertaining as usual, but I’d like to see some “back to the roots” of the more comfy adventuring in the next volumes. - 7/10.
After-School Dungeon Diver
In retrospect, yeah true. When I was reading it weekly it didn’t feel that bad.
Maybe I should try the second volume via the pre-pubs. they hint at a reverse-isekai at the end of the volume, so I’m at least partially interested and I have that j-Novel.club subscription that goes mostly unused. But whenever I tried one of the pre-pubs I wasn’t a fan of the rough draft style and missing formatting.
I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! vol 1 - I didn’t like this one. The isekai set up where some evil entity isekais MC into some sort of Sci-Fi world but the entity destroyed his previous life and wants to destroy this one as well just doesn’t sit with me. MC is a doormat manipulated by everyone around him for the benefit of his domain or to exploit him depending if the reader ought to like the particular character. There is also the dog that manipulates the strings of fate to the benefit of MC. Reader is not privy to the fights of some higher beings. For me the worst part was that the gratitude towards evil beings will destroy them. My worldview and my beliefs are to opposed against author’s to continue reading.
I was hoping for high level of exploration of S-risks but there is nothing there. I should have dropped it after first chapter as my gut feeling was telling me to.
3/10P.S. re-reading Bookworm part 2 as I have some sort of flu.
I think volume 1 doesn’t get the tone right so it’s a pretty rough read. It’s hard to tell how serious the author is about the story. When I read volume 2 it was more obviously comedic. There isn’t an amazing redemption or anything, but it became readable as a turn-off-your-brain dumb isekai.
Ah, that sort of tells me what I need to know. If it had started to get more serious with the empire building / character development I would’ve wanted to continue with it but if it just goes into comedy / gag bits then probably not for me.
Haha, I picked up vol 1 of that as well to check it out since I couldn’t find much info about it. I feel like the only sci-fi
isekai(I guess it isn’t technically one, but I mean sort of close / fish out of water) I think is really good is The Galactic Navy Officer Becomes an Adventurer but both the LN and WN stopped years ago and never made it West afaik. I read Reborn as a Space Mercenary instead as at least that is still going, though it does have its own flaws. Evil Lord was definitelyyyyy not exactly my cup of tea though I’m not sure if I should completely write it off, I’d be at least curious where it’s going with the antagonist isekai god stuff since I haven’t seen that often in a story before… Oh well, besides Death Mage Doesn’t Want a Fourth TimeDoesn’t sound like I would like it either. I take it as a warning if I’ll ever get bitten by the Sci-Fi bug.
Get well soon.
Thanks. Today or tomorrow I will be fully recovered as majority of a previous week I spent in bed.
P.S. re-reading Bookworm part 2 as I have some sort of flu.
You haven’t got the devouring have you?
I’m racing to get ahead of the anime on Misfit of Demon King Academy. And by racing I mean reading slowly.
Misfit of Demon King Academy vol 4 act 2: This volume is really where this series shows that the LN works better because what was a confusing clusterfuck in the anime is an interesting climax to the whole Avos Dilhevia arc. Obviously not an actual problem for Anos to overcome, but there’s so much of the world and characters tied into the result that it becomes really good.
Misfit of Demon King Academy vol 5: I mean, Anoshu going to school is a stupid concept but pretty funny. I appreciate the redemption of Emilia and the hero academy students, and people being confused about Anos trivially killing gods will never not be fun for me. Kind of a scattered, weird volume, but I enjoyed it on the whole.
Spice and Wolf - Vol.01 to Vol.02 [Audiobook]
I started to listen to the audiobooks at work as I am caught up with my podcasts.
Story - I can’t remember much of the story, I only retain about 20% of what I listen to when working. But I have watch the original Anime so I am not too concerned about the early story line, I am mainly listening to see if there are any changes from the Anime.
Narrator - The narrator is clear and easy to listen to, But Holos voice is terrible. He just doesn’t manage to give the haughtyness / pridefulness that she has in the Anime. The 3rd volume has introduced Holos English voice actress but so far she hasn’t used the same voice and is lacking as well.
Death March to another world - Vol.20
With the new volume out I have moved up a volume. I still enjoy this series a lot.
Reborn as a Space Mercenary Vol 8 - Finished this one finally a few days ago, just in time since vol 9 came out so picked up that and will be the next one I read. This was one of my favorite volumes right below vol 6. I think the author does a good job with action scenes, both in space combat or on the ground, and describing them in easy ways to visualize which helps a lot.
Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra Vol 1 - Working through this one, having trouble sitting down and reading it. I want to like it, I think, as I liked the manga. I sort of see it as an alternative Overlord, except maybe less grim dark? Although that might be early on, it feels like being the “evil” faction is more like a cosmetic pack and set faction affinity. Not unlike a real RTS / Turn-based strategy. Like the zerg in starcraft sure seem bad but when you’re just playing the game it’s more just a different cosmetic for the same units. I sort of like it that way in this story, whereas Overlord was more cruel / suffering this has, started out at least, way more focus on nation and resource building. Edit: That’s not to say there isn’t some dark / psychological horror stuff, it just isn’t the main focus.
Edit: Accidentally hit enter before I even typed anything besides a title out so have been editing this quickly to fill things in, caught myself off guard there 😓
