Woo! New Cooking with Wild Game. Good week.

<Reincarnated as a Poor Farmer in Another World: I’ll Use My Modern Knowledge to Build My Own Kingdom> - Volume 1 by Cancellara - ★★★☆☆, 164 MynePages™ - Very simple story, but good enough for an evening. Characters take his unique powers a bit too nonchalantly. Would be nice if they even questioned his common-sense-breaking powers from time to time instead of just accepting them as is.

<The Tiny Witch from the Deep Woods> - Volume 4 by Yanagi - ★★★☆☆, 189 MynePages™ - Filler volume. It was okay, but I’ll have forgotten it in 2 days.

<Al the Adventurer: That Magic Shouldn’t Work!> - Volume 1 by Lemon - ★★★★☆, 224 MynePages™ - Good new series. While nothing special, it was very entertaining. One nitpick is that the reasoning the author comes up with to push the plot in certain directions is a bit flimsy at times. It also has a nice setup for the next volume, so I’m looking forward to that.

I’m okay with demon lords and magical girls, but some hikkikomori just getting a teaching job is where they lost me.

Was this an anime original? I don’t remember Diablo picking them up in the demon realm, just that he showed up with them at some point. Or was that maybe form bonus story? Then again, It’s been years since that part in the LN so I might have just forgotten.

Look at it this way: Why start with something divisive like this adaptation instead of something universally beloved like the 1995 movie? I also highly doubt that anyone not familiar with the setting would be able to follow what’s happening (at least in this first episode).

Most people outside this fandom don’t even know that it is based on a manga, yet even people who don’t usually watch anime know the movie. It’s iconic and, alongside Bladerunner, defined the look and tone of countless other works in the general “cyberpunk” genre.

The aerial combat scenes are sick.

There is one cut that was especially great, where they are fighting inside the clouds and Tanya’s computational orb and the fighter’s tracer rounds are lighting up the clouds around her from the inside. Some of the best compositing I’ve seen in a long time.

The hollywood “adaptation” shits all over GitS

I hate that one as well.

It’s not for you. But its hardly offensive to the franchise.

That depends on what you define as “the franchise”. If you define it as “the manga”, this might well be true. But if you see the franchise as “the old anime movie and series”, then it’s a different discussion. The themes in GitS exist in a lot of works that aren’t GitS. What defines the franchise is not its themes alone but a combination of all the aspects it’s made of. The underlying themes are just one of those. And I would argue that the tone and art style are a lot more defining in this particular series than some esoteric plot points. The art style and tone of the 1995 GitS movie, as well as Bladerunner, have been a defining feature of the entire cyberpunk genre. So, from my point of view, this is definitely offensive to the franchise. It’s like turning John Wick into a pastel colored show about a petting zoo and saying that it’s still the same because the theme of him liking dogs is still intact.

Also, just to reiterate, even if it weren’t GitS I wouldn’t like it. It’s not “uhh, it doesn’t look like the movie, so I don’t like it”. It’s “I don’t like it because everything about it is shit AND on top of that, it doesn’t even share the aesthetics of the movie”. I honestly can’t understand how someone could like this first episode. Exposition, plot, pacing, narration, animation, score, cinematography, editing. It was all over the place. It’s just not a good episode. And it’s an even worse GitS episode.

I love those behind the scenes shots.

Here is the finished ending sequence for comparison

The only thing about it that I consider positive was the opening song. I dislike everything else, from character designs, art style, pacing, cinematography, color palette, character expressions, choreography, plot structure, exposition, score, to animation, and whatever else there is.

And before someone uhmakschually me, I am aware that this is based on the manga, but the anime movie is a lot more iconic than the manga, and to me GitS is the 1995 movie. This version here, I hate, and no “Uhm, but the manga…” does change that.

And just to be extra clear, even if this wasn’t an existing iconic IP, I would still criticize all the same points. Being so different from the iconic movie just gives it that extra push from “Not for me; I don’t care” to “This shits all over something that I like; I hate it”.

What do you expect? The Woobie was told to stay in the carriage, so she stays in the carriage. Otherwise, how else could Prince Perfect rescue the oblivious saint of convenient plot devices?

One of those extra slow characters.

she could also just derail everything by just saying something after being rescued:

“Oh hey, by the way, that fugly bitch over there? Yeah, she wants to kill me and my lifeblood to curse some princes or whatnot that are in the line to the throne before her little bastard son. Would be swell if y’all could stop her. thankies.”

But, noooo. Better stay silent and be upset that the guy who rescued her spoke a lie about her virginity.

Also, get a better executioner for Christ’s sake. What type of axe can be knocked of course so much by a stupid goblet?

Yep. I hate this exactly as much as I expected I would hate it. Maybe a little bit more.

She professed herself the pupil

That series was not for me. There was a similar series that I read at roughly the same time and I liked that one better. Something like Ultimate Last Boss Queen or something, like that IIRC.

Weakest tamer

The frist 1-2 volumes were entertaining enough but then I lost interest completely during the 3rd. Not bad, but couldn’t hold my attention.

Spice and Wolf

A classic. The Holo figurine on my shelf is smugly suggesting that you have better taste than me. Well, not really, but I can almost hear her comment anyway.

SEIZON SENRYAKU!

This is burned into my brain like Chitanda Eru’s “Watashi kininarimasu!”. I mean it’s been 15 years and the first thing my mind does when reading “mawaru penguindrum” is screaming the catchphrase.

Good first episode. Seems quite faithful so far.

Can I interest you in <Cooking With Wild Game>? I’m not sure if I mentioned it here already, but that’s the one I always recommend someone coming from Bookworm. The plot itself is very different, but the core elements are all the same:

• Non-op MC that builds connections based on their earth knowledge (shampoo and books for Myne, cooking techniques and recipes for Asuta). No special power, no isekai cheat skills, nothing except what they know.
• slow-paced story that focuses on individuals and their relationships more than big world-changing plot devices. (gaining the trust and help of MC’s peers instead of “and then the demon lord stole the princess”)
• a class divide at the core of the plot (commoners vs. nobles vs. archdukes in Bookworm and forrest people vs. town people vs. nobles in Wild Game)
• a cast of supporting characters that is as interesting to read about as the main cast. Even more so than in Bookworm.
• The stakes are starting very low, but MC’s actions are ripples growing to involve ever larger plot points.

I highly recommend it to everyone who isn’t looking for fast-paced action.

If you’re looking for something funny, I recommend <Tearmoon Empire>, which isn’t as good anymore since the translator change, but man, those first 8 (or was it 9?) volumes sure had some of the wittiest prose I’ve read in light novels.

Looking for something with an interesting premise? <Zilbagias the Demon Prince: How the Seventh Prince Brought Down the Kingdom> would be my pick there. The basic premise is that a hero who goes on a suicide mission to kill the demon lord is killed in said mission by said demon lord. The fates are cruel, though, and the hero gets reincarnated as the 7th son of the demon lord. He is now set to destroy the demon kingdom from the inside. Which is already unique enough, but to make things more interesting, it turns out that many of those demons are genuinely likable. To the point where I’m rooting more for the demons than for the humans as a reader. And the psyche of MC is fucking torn to shreds. MC has to come to terms with questions like “do I kill those human POWs to make my own standing inside the demon hierarchy stronger?”. And those are just the simple ones. It’s extremely dark, which isn’t normally my kind of tea, but the premise keeps me looking forward to every new volume. I need to know how this will resolve at the end.

For fluffy, I like <By the Grace of the Gods> (got one anime season a few years back but the adaptation was only okay-ish) and <The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects> (currently airing, the first episode was a bit rushed, and exposition got hamfisted). Both have this nice low-stakes comfy feel with the MC’s building something up from nothing and doing some adventuring on the side as a change of pace. Grace of Gods did fall off in the last couple of volumes, but Frontier Lord is still going strong.

If you want something non-light novel (tsk…) but still very much in the same style, then you could give Robert Asprin’s Myth Adventures Series a go as a palate cleanser.

To my knowledge its the first 5 volumes adapted in the anime. So you’re getting new content beginning with volume 6.

Don’t worry. It’s very different apart from that tropey setup.