To be fair, the crop is unusual. My hint was that it looked like a stagecoach, and I didn’t see anyone holding the reins.

A third person sitting in front of the girl, leaning forward with the head and arm cut off by the image crop. At least that would be be my interpretation of the picture without any context.

Yeah, I would say it’s around volume 28 when it started to get sloppy. The cover for 29 was okay again, so I thought it was just a one-off thing, but 30 and now 31 are just sloppy.

And the insight illustrations aren’t faring much better. Here is Rimee Ruu in volume 31 and 3.

Everything is just off-model and that’s especially jarring when you have read a series for such a long time. A series that excells at making the reader care for the characters.

So, basically it’s like “yup, that’s FUNA.”

That’s the most FUNA thing to say.

But joking aside, he got his style and runs with it regardless of series. If you like it you can literally pick up any other of his series and feel right at home.

Furry Foodies this week for me.

<In Another World with Household Spells> Volume 3 - There are 3-4 shotacon references in the volume (like when describing a classmate, she says that he’s too old for her taste, etc.). If they were to remove those completely unnecessary parts, it would be an okay series. They don’t add anything to the plot at all. All they do is make MC unlikable. I am still unsure whether this is a problem with the translation or not. In the west the term “shotacon” has a clear sexual connotation, but I don’t get that from MC here at all in the context. I think using the shotacon term in the translation might be an error since there is a different meaning over here. To put it differently, the use of the term makes you expect Rudeus from Mushoku Tensei, but the prose and actions of the MC give you Takanashi from Working!. As I said, it’s kinda unnecessary and sticks out negatively in an otherwise good series.

<Cooking with Wild Game> Volume 31 - End of the Observers Arc. I didn’t like this arc much, but I’m looking forward to the next arc since EDA is hyping it up in the Afterword. As a sidenote, I wish the illustrator would get his shit together again. Illustrations have become so rough and off-model. Look at this volume’s cover

and then compare it to volume 3, for example

(same peopleon the cover). Usually, the illustrations get better with time, but I consider this a step back. This is my favorite still-running series, so I wish the illustrations would get more care.

<Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World> Volume 12 - I don’t have much to say about this volume. List the last couple of volumes, it’s kind of boring. Feels like the series is treading water and the author is just trying to get something onto the page to fill the page requirements for a volume. Go into the dungeon with a different party. Then go into the same dungeon solo. Then go into the same dungeon again with MC’s own party. Then start discussing marriage with the in-laws. Then discuss the marriage with the royals. Then discuss the marriage with Mc’s grandparent. Then discuss the marriage with your close friends. Then discuss the marriage with another group of friends. Then, announce the marriage officially at a gala. Then discuss the marriage with the group of girls they had kept it secret from. And so on and so on. It’s boring to read the same thing again and again, and it honestly feels like a chore.

had an idea for an arc, and then after the arc was like “whelp… now what?

It’s what I always describe as “the story leading the author” type of writing. I have the mental image of a small kids being dragged around by a hyperactive, large dog trying to hold onto the leash for dear god. No clear say about where the story should go to and more often than not it really shows in how hard they fall after the first few volumes. Isekai Smartphone is one of the worst offenders from the top my head. On the other hand it really shows when a series follows a clear outlined path and gets only better with each new volume (Bookworm, Silent Witch).

Headhunted to Another World, from Office Worker to Big Four

That’s about my recollection of that anime. I think I gave it the ye olde 3 episode try and then forgot it happened until now.

Thanks NordVPN!

yes I hear they even implement negative ping tech.

Raul and Ray are friends? (The letter Raul sent to Monica was great)

I wouldn’t mind it if the next spinoff were about their shenanigans off-screen.

Well, he didn’t get any time to shine this time around. Just waking up doesn’t get a standing ovation from me. I’m sure to praise him in the next volume.

To hear that there’s an overarching plot bumps it up a few notches.

Even better. It’s an overarching plot that progresses without the protagonist. Too often, side characters seem to stop existing the moment the main character’s gaze is pointed somewhere else. Like a NPC in a bad video game. In Silent Witch, the overarching plot is progressing without any MC input, and she is just made aware of it in hindsight. Things happening behind the scenes become clearer with each volume but they are not things that MC has any active role in. It’s more like the actions MC takes are casting ripples, and those ripples have an effect on the big subplot. It’s good and I want to see where this is going. MC is also getting a lot less annoying in the later volumes. I initially dropped the first volume because I hate timid characters, but I’m happy that I picked it up again. Definitely one of the better series.

3 for me this week. Cooking with Wild Game, Nia Liston and Isekai Peddler.

<Chronicles of an Aristocrat Reborn in Another World> Vol. 1 - Had deja vu since the prologue and turns out this is the LN of the 2023 anime “The Aristocrat’s Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far”. I dropped the LN once I realised it’s the same because I didn’t really enjoy the anime.

<Secrets of the Silent Witch> Vol. 7 - I really love how the series has a main plot that is steadily continuing forward without falling into the LN trap of just idling to fill as many volumes as possible. This feels a lot like Bookworm in that regard. And not just because there is a main plot, but also in the way it feels like it’s well thought out in advance and not just what the author comes up with in the moment. It’s also a good one that keeps me wondering what might happen next. And speaking of the overall plot, in this volume, the picture just became a lot clearer.

<Heir to a Monstermancer> Volume 1 - Male MC is unnecessarily prickly towards female MC up to the point where it’s actually annoying and off-putting. He fights a monster in the woods, gets almost killed, and she saves him, reattaches his arm, and all he does is verbally attack her every chance he gets because she’s too beautiful for him to cope. Like a little kid in Kindergarten who pulls on the hair of the girl he likes. It’s not behaviour I want to read about from a fully grown adventurer. The second chapter is great, though. I think it was that chapter that made it win an award, and the reason it was picked up for publication. So if anyone gives the series a read, wait until you finish the second chapter before making a judgment.

<The Wicked Princess and The Twelve Eyes: The Legendary Villainess and Her Elite Assassins> - Okay, let’s play through my thoughts during the first page:

“SERENA ROSENBERG, I HEREBY BREAK OFF MY engagement with you!” a loud voice boomed. The Rosewood Academy’s graduation party, a grand and festive affair, was also a means for the royals and nobles enrolled at the school to make their societal debuts. I was in attendance when Crown Prince Edward declared that he would be breaking off our engagement.”

Oh God, another one of those… I think I’ve read a hundred of the same novels by now.

Half a page later:

“The king cast judgment upon me, and I was sentenced to death. My harsh sentence was due to the overexaggeration of the little pranks that I’d played on the saintess. I mean, all I’d done was try to drop a flowerpot on her head from the second floor, mix some sort of drug into tea to force her to drink it, hire a ruffian to plan a kidnapping, feign an accident to run her over with a carriage, and hire an assassin take her out!”

Oh? OOoohhh? An actual villainess and not just someone framed by the Prince’s new love interest? You got my attention now!

Renge from Non Non Biyori and Matsuri from Ichigo Mashimaro.

Nah, I’m going to judge every volume going forward on how much page-time my favorite two Goddesses get. What’s it called in English when you have been completely assimilated into a cult religion? I’ve become that. All Hail Karion and Urion.

<Take These Talents Elsewhere: A Delightful Demotion to the Countryside> Volume 1 - See this post.

<The Abandoned Reincarnation Sage: Building a Mighty Empire With Monsters Within the Monsters’ Forest> Volume 02 - some higher powers start to stir shit up and MC’s monster village of Beresdral is attacked by a human army. The volume isn’t bad, but there is some strange pacing. Some leading-up fights are unnecessarily lengthy and detailed, while more “boss” type of fights where you would expect a bit more hype and tension are quickly done and over with.

<Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody> Vol. 24 - Terrible volume. Just a single mention of Karion and Urion in a byline. Makes the volume barely worth the ink. Also, I guess Hiro Ainana is losing his patience with people calling it a harem because in this volume he isspelling it out twice and very clearly that Satou is not interested in anyone other than Aaze. I mean it was always that way but it hadn’t been spelled out that clearly if memory serves.

Volume 11 sucked. I mean, not the worst thing I’ve ever read but I really didn’t enjoy it. The ENTIRE book is from the perspective of side characters.

That’s the one where I dropped it. I always hated the chapters from the human’s POVs.

Actually the author marks the lewd chapters with heart emojis so you can skip them.

That’s actually something I like when authors do that. For example, in Campfire Cooking the recipes are marked so that readers can skip them if they don’t want to replicate them.

Take These Talents Elsewhere: A Delightful Demotion to the Countryside - I am currently reading “Take These Talents Elsewhere: A Delightful Demotion to the Countryside”. Sounds like a typical comfy slow-life LN, right? Maybe not:

<The Amazing Village Creator: Slow Living with the Village Building Cheat Skill> Volume 1 - Very simplistic in every regard, but since Anno 117 is constantly crashing on me and Easigoing Territory Defense is stuck in the War arc, I need to get my city-building fix from somewhere. There is some off-putting part in the beginning with two girls thirsting for 12-year-old MC, but luckily that particular plot point is dropped after a while (for the most part) once there is more happening in the village.

<Zilbagias the Demon Prince: How the Seventh Prince Brought Down the Kingdom> Volume 5 - Conceptually, this is still the most interesting series I know. The dark tone and subject matter aren’t my usual kind of thing, but the struggle of the main character here is so interesting that I’m waiting for the next volume anyway. Reminds me a little of how Subaru in Re: Zero slowly degrades mentally, but without the silly slapstick humor.

<Flung into a New World? Time to Lift the 200-Year Curse!> Volume 2 - See this post

<The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects> Volume 11 - Dias befriends another race. This time, it’s a bit confusing, though, since they are called “goblins” even though they are shark-demi-humans. Every time I read the word “goblin” I have a completely different picture in mind than what is written. Good volume otherwise.

<Victoria of Many Faces> Vol. 3 - Okay-ish volume. The spy-centric parts of the first two volumes take a backseat to the generic parenting parts. Towards the end, it gets spy-y again.

<The Isle of Paramounts: Reborn into a Slow Life Among the Strongest in the World> Volume 1 - You know the guy from the meme? That’s basically the protagonist here, who gets his extremely blatantly basic wish fulfillment harem isekai. Complete with becoming the most powerful being in the entire world and the usual slew of underage girls of all races that fall in love with him. The only positive thing is a vampire loli-hag that just gets off on messing around with everyone to get rom-com emotions out of them (she feeds on emotions instead of blood and is extremely bored). I thought she was entertaining, and though she looks like a loli, she didn’t become a harem member.