It has an interesting turn of events that differs from stories with similar premises.

Villains are the new pirates, which are the new ninjas, which are the new pirates, which are the new ninjas, which are the new cowboys, …

Cooking with Wild Game. My week is saved. Or one evening of my week is saved.

<Zilbagias the Demon Prince: How the Seventh Prince Brought Down the Kingdom> Volume 6 by Tomoaki Amagi - ★★★★★, 316 MynePages™ - Volume 6 is a behemoth of a book in light novel terms with 316 MynePages™. The volume has an epic fight that was a long time coming, and then beautifully blends into a new arc at the end. What stood out in this volume is that Zilbagias has overcome his inner torment and is now in full hero mode. I don’t remember if this shift was explained in the last volume or not.

<I Saved Myself with a Potion!: Life in Another World> Volume 1 by Akira Iwafune - ★★★★★, 172 MynePages™ - This was thoroughly enjoyable. There is just something about the first baby steps of an MC finding out what’s what in a fresh new isekai series. The MC here is likable, and the characters around her are all good people. The very few times she encounters not-so-good people, it gets resolved almost immediately, so all in all, it’s very comfy and relaxing. The pace is a bit too fast for how comfy it is otherwise. I’m not sure how the series will progress in the long run when the MC finishes everything she set out to do in the first volume. Anyway, great start. I’m looking forward to the next one.

I am still waiting for a RPG game where there is a set magic script and you can create your own spells like programming.

That’s a cool idea. I like games that have mechanics that teach kids programming without them noticing. Stuff like FF XII, Unicorn Overlord, or Factorio. There are also some that are more “on the nose” like Human Resource Machine, but for my taste they are too far on the teaching side and not enough on the fun side.

As for magic script, the Ultima series had an actual magic script from which you assembled your spells. It’s not very complex and didn’t exactly reminds one of programming, but I wonder where it could have gone if the series didn’t die with such a framework.

That’s a good point. I think for light novels (where the plot more often than not isn’t entirely planned out in advance), there is a sweet spot somewhere where the author has some freedom, but it still has enough of a structure to not feel arbitrary. Slime Tensei did something in that sense where there is a framework of rules at play, but with a Deus Ex Machina in the form of Raphael, the author can just break free if needed. Sadly it feels a bit inconsistent in later volumes.

Personally, I greatly prefer the planned-out, rigid magic systems as long as the author has the skill to pull it off. Even if the constraints aren’t so well defined, it’s always a huge hype moment when a character can overcome those limitations (ie. Bookworm).

Usually, in most light novels, it’s only “Just imagine it and pour your mana in, and some nanobot or whatever will make it reality”. There are very few that have a clearly defined magic system with defined rules about what is possible and what isn’t. Or they have one, but it gets muddied or retconned once the author reaches a point where it gets inconvenient.

I’m reading one good example right now with Zilbagias the Demon Prince. The bloodline magic in this series has a clear ruleset, which is consistent and still in effect 6 volumes in.

Bookworm is the keyword here. I hate the WIT adaptation with every fiber of my body.

They have a spell drawn over them together, they’re thrown in a heap, Qifrey lifts one, then???

Brimmed Hat mage put a portal spell on the paved stones to lure and trap the girls in the maze/pocket universe. -> After they stumble into the trap, the mage destroys the paved stones to close the portal and keep anyone else from finding them /helping them. -> the girls break the magic seal on the inside that keeps the spell active -> with the spell broken the door back to reality opens and Qifrey can enter and save the girls.

Pssst. Don’t speak its name, or it comes! It brings with it all the cut pages of the Bookworm novel that scatter unused around it until you drown and suffocate in them.

Did you see the clip of the teacher doing a full arm rotation circle on a chalkboard?!

edit: found it

Coco didn’t tell about the encounter with the Brimmed Cap.

Are you talking about the encounter in this episode? Coco wasn’t conscious during it.

I don’t remember het leg getting broke or invisible blips. Must be after volume 4. But I don’t remember much anymore about the series so I might just as well have forgotten. I don’t think though that I would have had such a negative reaction if her damsel-ness could be explained with some broken bones.

I think I love this adaptation just as much as I hate the other one.

Also, when was the last time an anime did skip OP and ED to squeeze 3 more minutes out for the episode? From the shows that I watch it must have been Re:Zero.

My face when my comfy isekai farming anime has fully animated fight scenes with complex camera work.

I checked and it was after finishing volume 4. I dropped it because her inner monologue made her look dumb/oblivious and because the characters were so inconsistent. Here’s a bit of what I wrote at the time:

Also, suddenly she is some damsel in distress who needs to be rescued from some princeling when in previous volumes she was a powerful last boss cheat monster that could annihilate a platoon of bandits that even endangered the army. But no, now some single little prince can manhandle her as he wants. Such fucking inconsistent writing.

And now that I’ve refreshed my memory I think I will stay away, even if there is country building.

Do you hear the anime voices in your head when reading the novel? Happens to me all the time when reading a novel after watching the anime. Strangely enough, this doesn’t work when I read the novel first and then watch the anime between volumes. For example, I don’t read Myne’s lines with her anime voice when reading Bookworm.

Just their country building love inttrests and slice of life stuff.

That sounds like something for me. Maybe I should pick it up again.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this is not a Light novel. I think this series came up before.

I liked the anime of A Journey Through Another World well enough, so I’ll check the LN out. Our Party Nearly Wiped sounds quite harem-y so it’s a “maybe” for me. If the tone is humorous, it could work.