Fair point. How can I change my name to Hartmut on Lemmy?

I thought the entire day about this and I don’t really can think of any isekai world I would reincarnate into when I don’t have control over where I end up and with what talent/skills/race/etc.

In the end I think I chose Konosuba’s world and you the Axis cult just to be on the save side. I always thought I would make a good cult member. And if I get lucky and get reborn into the crimson demon clan, I would make an even better chuuni.

So I’m a Spider so What?

Chances are you’d get eaten by your spider mom seconds after hatching.

Making magic was one that I thought about as well. I would like to live on the flying island as a dragonkin or angelkin (forgot their correct name) but I would be pissed if I reincarnate as a peasant in some random kingdom.

I thought about Tempest but ultimately decided that it’s too war-torn for my taste and the amenities are mostly just reproductions of what we have here on shitty earth. It’s like dying and just getting the same shit just left behind even if specialized knowledge could put you on a higher caste compared to here.

Could that harem route thing be around volume 3? I could see myself dropping it because of that.

I have that series sitting at 70% read of volume 3. I don’t remember if I dropped it or just something else came up and I never finished it. My notes don’t reach that far back either. Maybe I should pick it up again one of those days.

So You Want to Live the Slow Life? A Guide to Life in the Beastly Wilds, Volume 4 - About 5% actual story and 95% preserves recipes. I like the first 5% well enough, but the ratio between stroy and recipes is just too lopsided.

My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World: Volume 9 - The entire volume there is the question of whether or not this volume’s guest character is a spy. The usual comfiness never gets a chance to develop. I hope the next volumes will be back to form without having to second-guess every word.

For ongoing series only Isekai Tensei and Territory Defence. For the new series Lacey Longs for Freedom sounds like my kind of LN and Hero Syndrome looks to have an interesting premise.

Good point about Frieda and her benefactor. I don’t remember, was he ever named?

Regarding Ferdinand, I agree that he is a compelling character and he certainly didn’t deserve to end up with Detilinde, but I’m still not convinced that Myne is the best solution here either. I am internally fighting with me because on the one hand there is a guardian marrying his ward, but on the other side there are so many unconventional circumstances around this that it turns into a “yeah … but …” argument in my mind. Did he ever saw her a a child after learning of her previous life? Did Myne for that matter? I feel like her Urano memories are more like knowledge without the accompanying emotions behind it. Did she ever miss her Motosu family the same way she missed her Ehrenfest one? Would Ferdinand reading young Myne’s memory come away with the impression that she is an “adult in a child’s body” or that she is a “child with knowledge of an adult”.

This reminds me of my Ascendance of a Bookwyrm scenario for this Midweek Discussion a while back.

I don’t think I’ll reread the series anytime soon but I have grabbed the first volume of the manga and I’ll keep this in mind when I start reading it.

You also made a good point there about characters needing some antagonistic traits. I’ll steal that and throw it into the pool of Midweek Discussion questions.

Also did you get an obsessive love from Ferdinand when he was saying how he views Myne at the start of the final volume? It sounded like he was obsessed with Myne rather than in love with her.

I had to reread that part. I interpreted it not so much as “obsessed” with her but with what she and her family have. Myne and her family represent the very concept of familial love he desperately craves. Since he was brought up as a simple tool to be discarded it is not surprising that the scenes he witnessed (and re-witnessed here) with Myne and her family deeply affected him. To protect this he would even blackmail a literal Goddess (how awesome was that scene?!).

That’s why I’m okay with the MxF non-romantic ship, but I felt like from Myne’s side she might have romantic feelings for Ferdinand and doesn’t know it yet since she is so inexperienced. In a potential sequel, I can see Myne realizing her feelings and the relationship turning to romance. Honestly, I don’t see a scenario where I would say that I agree with that outcome. But then again, I didn’t think there would be an agreeable marriage between Myne and Ferdinand in the first place and here I am thinking it’s okay the way it is. In the end, I should just trust in Ms. Kazuki.

Characters

There are so many likable (or loveable) characters.

It’s no secret that Bookworm is my favorite series and that I have opinions. No wonder that I have some about Bookworm as well. So here are some unsorted points:

• I like how the last volume cleverly turned into a reprise of Myne’s entire journey so far. With the possibility of a sequel series, I’m even okay with the card cut in the story and the unresolved sub-plots (Philine x Damuel for example). It’s the end of her life in Ehrenfest and we might get to see how the characters fare in a new series in Alexandria. We know that Miya Kazuki isn’t the type that writes as the fancy takes her and instead meticulously plans ahead, so I have faith in the sequel teaser at the end of the book. I might be huffing copium but that’s what I roll with.
• One of my least favorite points in the entire story was when the whole Rozemyne x Ferdinand thing started to crystalize. The thought alone made me feel icky. Myne was mentally always an adult and with her induced growth her body mirrored her mental age, but to Ferdinand, she is the little girl he was the guardian of. In the end, I thought it was an “okay for now” solution to simply not have them have romantic love for each other for the moment. That being said, if there is a sequel it will be an uphill battle to bring me around on a romantic relationship.
• Lutz x Tuuli is another pairing I wish I knew more of. It feels like there is an untold story there and I would absolutely love to see a spinoff novel to see their point of view. More so than Hannelore’s but ultimately doing a pov from someone of a completely different dutchy might be more interesting.
• I found it strange how Georgine got built up over several years as the big bad antagonist and then got killed off more or less off-screen (off-page?) by a side character. Sure Myne got her fight against Grausam at the same time, but I would have expected the main character to not just fight a minion.
• My favorite smaller moment was during part 4 with Ferdinand being tricked into playing a concert and Myne making a killing by selling collectible idol cards of him. And when Myne reunites with her commoner family right at the end. Might be recency bias but it was such a sweet moment that made me tear up and Kamil’s bewilderment made me laugh at the same time.
• Lessy is love, Lessy is life. Down with all the Lessy haters. But Myne is my favorite human character. My second favorite is Justus. My least favorite is unsurprisingly Detlinde.
• I am impressed with how every volume seems better than the last one. There was up to the penultimate volume only a linear ramp-up in both the plot and my enjoyment instead of the usual up and downs other series have. I read a lot and I can’t think of any other series that manages to only get better.
• I’m happy that the series managed to snatch such a great illustrator who stuck with it over the entire run. It’s also interesting to go back to the first volume and compare how much You Shiina has improved over the past decade.
• I think it’s unfortunate that the friendship between Myne and Frieda (granddaughter of Merchant’s Guild guildmaster) didn’t pan out. I wonder what happened to her.

That’s everything that comes to mind right now.

Soup Forest:

Yeah, the title is definitively a bad choice that gives a negative first impression.

Land Mines and Blacksmith. Witch and Mercenary sounds interesting as well. And maybe I get into the mood for something shitty and continue Mythical Hero.

Tearmoon Empire: Volume 13 - Mushroom Princess Mia has lost a lot its charme since the translator switch, but plot-wise it feels like the author has written themself into a corner with the current arc. Time travel stories are always tricky but in the current arc, we now have 3 time traveling characters from 3 different timelines and eras. I hope the story can be resolved somehow.

Cooking with Wild Game: Volume 25 - wonderful volume. It feels like all the connections built over the past 24 volumes could really shine here. Very heartwarming.

Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 5 Volume 12 - I would guess that writing a satisfying conclusion to a series must be one of the hardest parts of writing a story. Just ask Pat Rothfuss or GRR Martin. What Miya Kazuki did here was have a chapter in Mynes life come to an end and have her take her farewells from the people she met along the way. And the readers get to say farewell as well. It’s a neat way to organically meet the characters again and have them reminisce about the past. With the memory searching in the beginning, the farewells in the middle, and the reaffirming of her goals at the end this volume turned into a walk down memory lane which made me tear up at several points, and in the epilogue, I wasn’t able to hold back the tears anymore. I honestly can’t think of a better way to end the series.

And speaking of endings, the way this ends with a new chapter of her life starting made me think that this is the perfect setup for a sequel series. And what would you guess is the very last thing written?

“I also have plans for more side volumes and maybe something of a continuation of the main series." -Kazuki, Miya

There’s light at the end of the tunnel just when I was about to fall into post-series depression.

On a side note: new volumes of my Top3 LN in the same week only happened once before.

Honestly, I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to translate a humorous work so dependent on wit. I still hope to someday get someone who’s fluent in Japanese and English to compare a volume of Tearmoon. I want to know how much of that wit is in the source material and how much is added by the translator. And what the source witticisms are. Does Japanese for example have animal allegories for courage and the lack thereof? Would the source maybe use different animals? Is there a Tiger- and Dragon-hearted Mia in the source that only reaches a cat-heartedness that miows?

My initial thought for #2 was Realist Hero because of the minister of agriculture, but the demon king was a strike against it. After reading the answer I remembered the position Beelzebub had.