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.

<The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey> Vol. 6 - What a melancholic volume. The series has become so much better in making the reader feel what the author wants them to, compared to how it was in the first volume.

<Disowned but Not Disheartened! Life Is Good with Overpowered Magic> Volume 2+3 - This practically stays the way the first volume was. I really like this type of confident MC that gets thrown into the trope-y situations. It’s also refreshing to see an MC that isn’t an unsociable loner and has healthy support from friends and family. Really looking forward to the next volume.

<Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord: Production Magic Turns a Nameless Village into the Strongest Fortified City> Vol. 7 - The war arc is over, and we finally go back to city building again. That’s when the series is best.

The way I see it they are destroying everything that makes the series great and even anime onlies should see that something is missing. For example there is talk about how important the Starbinding is and that this could result in her real family getting killed. Then they cut to the Starbinding and everything just works out perfectly. They left out all the work she puts into this to reach that point. In the anime this is unearned. It has no worth. No meaning. If it’s like that it would be better if there wasn’t an adaptation at all.

Apparently it was on purpose, every episode is going to have a distinct artstyle.

Thanks for the heads up. I was coming here to rant about it.

I don’t know what other people think,

I hate it to an unreasonable degree. They skip everything.

Both are so likeable that the harem route is the only way where half of the viewers wouldn’t be pissed off, but it also means that it’s just a compromise for everyone.

They put the R (short for “Returns”) at the end of the title to indicate that is is the second season.

Personally, I prefer my anime without drugs. So I hope the current state doesn’t change.

Absolutely. The anime adaptation adds so many details. You can really see the passion the studio has for the series.

Just for reference, here’s the part from the manga:

Some positive news about last season’s Journal With Witch

‘Journal with Witch -Ikoku Nikki-’ has Officially won the Galaxy Award March 2026 in the television category! The last Anime to win the Monthly Galaxy Award before ‘Ikoku Nikki’ was ‘Ranking of Kings’ 4 years ago, March 2022

The Japanese Broadcast Critics Association honor is similar to the Emmy Awards, and given to outstanding television, radio programs, individuals, and organizations.

source

Well deserved. If it weren’t for Frieren it would have been my anime of the season.

Hoping for Kinako anime

That character reminds me of the vtuber MinikoMew.

I wish I had come up with that.

PEAK!

Another Easygoing Territory Defense. I wonder if the anime adaptation makes me like the novel less now.

<Ascendance of a Bookworm: Hannelore’s Fifth Year at the Royal Academy> Volume 2 - Myne is off-page rampaging through Yurgenschmidt’s history. I swear to Mestionora, if there won’t be a new series from Myne’s POV about this, I will run amok.

<Fluffy Cafe in Another World> Vol. 1 - This is exactly what you would think it is. If you read the title and think you know how this will play out, you can predict the entire volume. To the letter. But that also means that you get exactly what you want if that was what you were looking for. I actually enjoyed reading it.

<Disowned but Not Disheartened! Life Is Good with Overpowered Magic> Volume 1 - Very pleasantly surprised by this one. It starts with a very trope-y “MC is a disowned noble girl who gets bullied by evil stepsister”, but then completely flips the script by making the MC competent, confident, and giving her overwhelming support from her foster family and friends. Every time one of the usual bully tropes even starts to form, they get stomped into the ground. Amusing.

<The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects> Volume 13 - Illuk village does some covert operation into the beast nation to quell an insurgency. Obviously, that’s less chill and comfy than usual, but it was written in a way that made it not so bad.

It continues to baffle me how bad this adaptation can be. How can they miss the target so completely. It’s like adapting The Lord of the Rings and then cutting all the travel parts between the big events. It just has no worth whatsoever when it isn’t shown how those “big events” are earned. Fuck whoever was in charge of this adaptation at WIT.

WTF is that abomination?! I would expect that in an episode of King of the Hill, but not something a Japanese high-schooler casually eats on a date.

Poor Otakun. I wouldn’t be able to choose either.

Honestly, everything that isn’t a (battle) shounen should be great. The most important thing is to firmly establish that anime is a “medium” and not a “genre”. And since almost every outsider thinks every anime is a battle shounen, it’s important to correct that misconception early on.

AnoHana would be my recommendation. It’s short for a series, it doesn’t take any Japanese cultural knowledge to enjoy it, and the themes are universal regardless of personal background, age or gender.