Light Novel Discussion Thread

seitora

Well-Known Member
Konosuba Volumes 6 + 7

It occurs to me they really did have to have a movie for LN 5. Not specifically because that warranted a movie (though the set-up did), but because you can't end a season on volume 6! It needs to end on volume 7! Volume 6 and 7 go very much hand-in-hand, and with this weird 10-episodes-a-season thing the first two seasons did, I doubt they'd want to expand it to 15 episodes to capture all of Volumes 5-7. Plus, the very last scene of Volume 7 would be a perfect way to end a season on. It's definitely nice to read these too, since they're what I assume will be in the 3rd season.

Definitely hoping they play up Iris as a cute little sister figure.

Kazuma and Chris teaming up to infiltrate the castle together is a great scene, and very much a day out in the limelight for Kazuma after he gets beat up again for being a 'deadweight weakest-class Adventurer' again. He gets to really show off his skill when he's allowed to break loose. The reason they infiltrate the castle is to steal a dangerous magical relic. It is a body swap artifact. Huh. My ideas for an aged up Iris and Kazuma are already fomenting

There is a scene in volume 7 that I'm pretty certain will not make it into the anime. It's a scene where an adventurer thinks a noble is seducing his female teammate and tries to break them up, only to find out the noble is a homosexual who fancies him and was just asking his female teammate how to get close to him. It's played for laughs and there's no real bigotry, but it's the sort of tired, cliche 'expose your gays' that would be incredibly insensitive nonetheless.

If Volume 5 was Megumin's book in the spotlight, Volume 7 is very much Darkness'.

Something that I find mildly curious is that...Megumin and Aqua always seem to be lacking for money. Aqua pulls an Aqua and buys what is presumed to be a dragon egg (probably a chicken egg, though I'm expecting there'll be some subversion), so she's gold-digging for sure. Megumin is stated at one point to be sending home to her parents, and probably has to buy magic-related stuff from time to time, but it's still curious. They both get equal shares for killing generals like Hans and Sylvia and a hydra in Book 7, and it's really not small change at all. At one point, Yunyun is mentioned to be living at the local inn in Axel. Right now, I go with the KazuMin ship, but if I started to lean towards a KazuMinYun thing for a fic, it'd probably be with Kazuma and Megumin getting Yunyun to come live at the mansion and save on renting a room in Volume 6.

There's a cute, random scene early on in volume 7 as Kazuma is petting Chomusuke, and he lampshades all his manga tropes. He tells her he wouldn't mind if she turned into a cute catgirl who goes 'meow' as a verbal tic and wakes up next to him in his bed one day like that (but then proceeds to tell her even if that isn't the case, he's still happy to have her around and will continue to feed her fish every day).

In other news, I've been downloading these books, but I definitely intend to get the entire set of 17 LNs ordered here shortly to actually support them.
 

MastaofBitches

Well-Known Member
At one point, Yunyun is mentioned to be living at the local inn in Axel. Right now, I go with the KazuMin ship, but if I started to lean towards a KazuMinYun thing for a fic, it'd probably be with Kazuma and Megumin getting Yunyun to come live at the mansion and save on renting a room in Volume 6.
To be fair, Kazuma and Yunyun apparently did go on a few dates in the Webnovel.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Apparently, she was a few years older in the WN? Well, doesn't really matter to me. Megumin and Yunyun are the same age basically, so if the age dynamic is good enough to ship Megumin with Kazuma (as has been mentioned before apparently is the canonical pairing), that should hold true for Yunyun too.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Konosuba Volumes 8 + 9

V8 is all about Chris. And the goddess Eris, too. And how they're one and the same, like that's not a spoiler most people become aware of fairly quickly in the fandom thanks to how so many fics just outright drop that fact in fairly early.

Kazuma is surprisingly able to compartmentalise Chris and Eris...mostly. He still teases Chris from time to time with sexual jibes, but he's noticeably more conservative with what he says to her than he was to other girls, and even apologises to her for having stolen her panties with Steal (though I would have been interested in a scene where he asks Chris why Steal seems to be doing that for him with girls). In turn, Chris actually does seem to separate herself from Eris, ever so slightly. For one, she's occupying a mere mortal body instead of something with the flat-out power that Aqua does. Two, she seems moderately more comfortable interacting with and teasing Kazuma, too. Her not padding her chest also shows how Eris separates out the two personas

The majority of the book involves Aqua trying to usurp an Eris Appreciation Festival and replacing it with an Aqua Festival, instead. Kazuma intercedes and shows his leadership by getting the town's commerce chamber to hold them both together in a larger super-event, and try to play the two off against each other to get the Eris Church and Axis Cult to spend more of their own money. It works, mostly. Kazuma, being Kazuma, lets it get to his head and starts coming up with stuff to satisfy his own interests, like having the salesgirls wear swimsuits. Or letting the succubus wander out in the daylight as 'cosplay' (though to be fair, this could actually be portrayed as a nice guy thing if the succubus girls haven't really been able to wander around in open public much). Then it swings back around again when the Axis Church keeps opening up scammer stalls, at which point Kazuma takes charge and leads them into quickly rebranding into more respectable food stalls in a neat scene where he uses his acquired Cook Skill to open a yakisoba stand.

Also, there's an Eris beauty pageant thing. When it looks like things might fall apart, Kazuma convinces Chris to show up as Eris on stage, which leads to a really impressive in-universe moment. Eris shows up just once and absolutely everybody in the audience is convinced (correctly) that Eris descended to give her blessing. Aqua in ruins because she can't seem to convince anybody she's a real goddess. This also helps Kazuma capture a pervy armour Sacred Treasure that wants to find a girl to wear it. Oh yeah, that was a thing.

Volume 9 seems a little more distracted and over the place. Another demon general is attacking one of the kingdom's forts. Kazuma and co show up and find out the demon general is able to use Explosion. Cue a competition between Megumin and the demon general, and of course they have a little bit of backstory together. It's not quite a Megumin LN, but it definitely leans towards being another book all about her.

There are a few Darkness route flags. But more Megumin route flags. At one point, she even watches him get changed, without flinching. Even after re-reading the scene, I think Kazuma changes literally everything, so he gets full frontal on her. He even lampshades the two routes to Chris, even talking in the whole 'routes' terminology. This finally culminates in the end of Volume 9, where Megumin flat-out confesses to Kazuma, and he actually gets the guts to confess back to her in the same conversation. Of course, they just leave it at that and some cuddling, so now the line of 'will they or won't they' has moved from when they'll confess, to when they'll get intimate. That's not entirely correct, however. They briefly hold hands in Volume 8, and we all know hand-holding is the lewdest, most intimate act in existence.

Anyways, I think I am moving closer to my KazuMinYun idea. I have sketched out a plot progression through LNs 6 - 9 that should work.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
So, not wanting to burn out on just reading straight Konosuba at work, I randomly picked another LN to read. So I read Volume 1 of The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody.

My opinion is it's a hot mess, and do not recommend. So the plot premise is of somebody who becomes the supreme ruler Demon Lord being overpowered and wishing for real friends, not just more enemies he's killed or people who become his underlings because of the power differential, so he reincarnates with his power deliberately scaled back for the new era. When he reincarnates, however, society has gotten weaker, so he's still overpowered.

Issues abound. The main character was the Demon Lord, who is treated as an out-and-out good guy who saved humanity from eldritch gods and just plain overpowered monsters like great dragons, too. Despite being a 'Demon Lord' of humanity, actual 'demons' in the story are all actual enemies of humanity who want to summon said above mentioned eldritch gods. Huh. So was the main character called the Demon Lord because it sounds cool, even if all demons were actually his enemies? Also, he joins the local Magic Academy at one point...then when he tries to hold back once he realises just how weak everyone is now, he still massively outperforms to the point the headmaster is falling over to get him to become a teacher instead. His childhood friend is an elf girl who is super naive to sex. His second friend is a succubus who misinterprets the protagonist's desire to make a hundred friends as a desire to have a harem of a hundred girls, and sets out to recruit girls for this desire. This is the worst kind of power harem fantasy.

Oh, and his parents realised he was the Demon Lord reincarnated once he started showing off his little bit of power. Not because of any prophecy or telltale Demon Lord powers, but because...he was born through an Immaculate Conception. Both his parents were gay and never consummated the marriage, so his mom couldn't have gotten pregnant. Seriously. And this is thrown away in a single paragraph blurb right at the end.

I feel like this was given a single proofread, and that was it. Numerous issues with capitalisation rules for having spoken dialogue, comma, and then finishing the line with non-dialogue.

Really, if stuff like this gets published, it makes me more and more optimistic that if I ever got off my lazy arse and wrote something, I could get published too :eek:
 

chronodekar

Obsessively signs his posts
Staff member
You know, I think I've read that story. At least, read it to a certain point and then abandoned it due to the sheer stupidity being thrown about. It reminds of some visual novels which do not make logical sense i.e. in the early chapters, AAA happens to the protagonist due to BBB kind of events. But later in the story when BBB happens to someone else, its like no-one remembers that AAA is what is normally done. Instead, CCC happens and the plot moves forward.

I find that kind of story-telling, really hard to keep reading.

-chronodekar
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
You know, I think I've read that story. At least, read it to a certain point and then abandoned it due to the sheer stupidity being thrown about. It reminds of some visual novels which do not make logical sense i.e. in the early chapters, AAA happens to the protagonist due to BBB kind of events. But later in the story when BBB happens to someone else, its like no-one remembers that AAA is what is normally done. Instead, CCC happens and the plot moves forward.

I find that kind of story-telling, really hard to keep reading.

-chronodekar
There were other trashy points. Like after the protagonist repels an initial invasion of demons, he gets invited to see the Queen. The Queen then solicits him for a marriage proposal IIRC, only to then basically go 'Just kidding'. In front of lots of nobility.

Anyways.

Read volume 1 of I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level

The anime did a fairly good job of adapting this. The main heroine, Azusa, dies of overwork at the age of 27 (in what is sadly a very real phenomenon in some countries, 'karoshi' being the term in Japan). She gets the chance to reincarnate in another world with magic, with basically no catch. There's no big bad evil demon overlord that she has to fight, no 'war is hell' going on in the background, nothing. Instead, she gets to reincarnate as an immortal witch who basically looks around 17 (both the LN and anime weirdly gloss over how she goes from being ethnically Japanese to your stereotypical European with long blonde hair and blue eyes, and just rolls with it), and gets to live as laid-back a life as she wants, sleeping in and doing almost nothing for 300 years except for gardening, reading, making potions, and killing 25 slimes a day every day for 300 years for money to buy goods in the local town.

300 years later, Azusa checks her adventurer card and finds out she's at Level 99. News spread despite her best efforts to keep it locked down, and then she starts to get a lot of attention as others visit her. Despite that, it stays mostly as a light-hearted slice-of-life isekai. I do kind of like the anime more. It gives Azusa more chances to break out and show off that she is, in fact, Level 99. While the manga does this as well, it doesn't really have as many moments.
 

chronodekar

Obsessively signs his posts
Staff member
Read volume 1 of I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
I've wanted to get into this series (the novels) for some time now. My problem is that there's no romance. It's just too slice-of-life. :( Like, why could the author not give her a nice boyfriend/husband for some fun waffy moments?

-chronodekar
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I've wanted to get into this series (the novels) for some time now. My problem is that there's no romance. It's just too slice-of-life. :( Like, why could the author not give her a nice boyfriend/husband for some fun waffy moments?

-chronodekar
I mean, her hooking up with a husband isn't really the point lol

Anyways, read Volume 1 of A Wild Last Boss Appeared!

The plot synopsis is...somewhat like Overlord. Character gets pulled into a game world as his in-game avatar. His in-game avatar is female, but there's been like...two or three paragraph blurbs total where the protagonist even mentions it, so not even sure why bothering at that point. The game he played had a 'create a story' function that allowed people to populate their characters with backstories, and since he was the #1 player in-game who took over all the countries, he was allowed to make his character's lore pretty overpowered, which carries over to when he gets incarnated in the game world. She's nicknamed as a 'wild last boss', aka a human player who is as powerful as the in-game last boss, hence the title. Right before he reincarnates, he decided to retire his character, so when he appears in the game world, she was supposed to be gone for 200 years. At which point s/he basically decides to go touring, only to have to dig humanity out of the hole it's been pushed into over the last 200 years without its strongest character.

It's a little lackluster so far in the first novel, but it was actually a fairly fun read, so I'll continue at least for a second novel.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Wild Last Boss is great.
It goes places.
That's pretty good to hear! I'm cycling through some series and throwing out the stinkers (as you can see from previous posts), so nice to hear somebody else has read this and recs it.

(if you do read any more LNs in the future, make sure to post in this topic too :p)
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
And overnight finished Volume 2 of A Wild Last Boss Appeared!

Going off the pacing so far, I imagine the next few novels would follow similar plot beats of Lufas meeting old hero buds who are still alive, finding and recruiting some of her 12 Zodiac Star monsters, and killing a few more of the big bad's minion septemvirate. Then there'll probably be a massive change to the massive status quo instead of just following this path straightforward.


I notice when it came to Dina, Lufas was able to realise what was wrong with her...but after defeating Dina, there's another moment where Lufas can tell she's overlooking something. I'm guessing that something would be that Dina was at the tower waiting for her, apparently aware ahead of time that Lufas had re-appeared and was a player incarnation.
 

MastaofBitches

Well-Known Member
I only have up to Volume 6, both LN and Manga.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Yeah. Now that I have money, I want to try moving away from pirating stuff as much (well, unless it's Activision-Blizzard content)
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
After a while away from any LNs, I read volume 2 of I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level

So light-hearted it's really adorable. Most of it gets adapted in the first season of the anime, with one small story and one short omitted.
 

chronodekar

Obsessively signs his posts
Staff member
I got my hands on the first few volumes of "Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is tough for Mobs" .

The premise is that our "hero" recollects memories of himself playing an otome game for his sister. He recognizes the world he lives in as that game world. By definition, this is not a re-incarnation story, but is most certainly written in the same kind of spirit!

Our hero, Leon is not a part of the game and he even recognizes himself as a background character (or "mob"). For the most part, he wants to stay that way - i.e. out of the limelight. Unfortunately, being that the world he lives in is based off an otome game, things do not go according to his wishes. He is supposed to live in a matriarchical society, but I think that that's just an excuse used by the author to setup silly scenarios. Polygamy is a thing in the world. As is the age-old custom of marriage for political/financial benefits. The head of the house, Leon's mother (NOT his biological one), wants to get him married to someone more than thrice his age - this understandably upsets him. So what does he do? He remembers the drop-off point for a pay-to-win item in the game and heads over there. To his relief, the item (a sentient AI robot) is actually present! He uses this as a bargaining lever to get out of the forced marriage.

Unfortunately, his antics also make him eligible to attend the academy where the otome game actually takes place in. He goes there, recognizes most of the game cast - the heroine (Olivia), the villainess (Angelica), the capture targets ...etc. An anomaly is that the heroine is not doing any capturing. Instead, there is this other female (Marie) who seems to have taken her place by capturing the targets instead and heading for a reverse-harem ending.

A pivotal moment comes up where the villainess, Angelica challenges the upstart, Marie to a duel. All 5 of the capture targets choose Marie's side - including (to her public humiliation), her fiancee - the crown prince. This is when our hero, Leon, steps in and volunteers to fight for the villainess. I do not remember why. Either he wanted to avoid the story going the reverse-harem route, or he was just upset with the shenanigans of the capture targets - regardless, it comes as a shock to everyone (including Angelica) that someone was willing to stand on her side.

Thanks to the earlier cheat item, Leon wins the battle. Angelica's honor is kind-of intact, but it gets decided (by her parents and the crown) to cancel her engagement. Additionally, there were 4 other engagements the other capture targets had, which too get cancelled. Marie does get her reverse-harem situation, but is horrified that she won't get to live a life of luxury and ease. As for Olivia, thanks to how kind Leon was to her (i.e. just treating her as a fellow student and being polite), she grows fond of him. About here is where book 1 ends.

Volume 2 continues on with their academy life - school fairs (or celebrations), field trips ... etc. During all this, a trio forms - Angelica, Olivia and Leon. I found the bunch very likeable. Different events take place to discredit Angelica/Olivia with Leon stepping in to help them. After most fights, he becomes something of a mercenary ; i.e. is rather aggressive about collecting wealth. He also gets promotions within the kingdom, effectively becoming an independent noble. Volume 2 ends with Leon becoming serious about pursuing Angelica and Olivia as wives.

Volume 3 ends with the 3 of them becoming engaged. i.e. I skipped the story and jumped to the last chapter. That was just soo sweet! Wanting to see if the relationship went anywhere, I peeked at volume 4, where it turns out Leon *might* get a 3rd fiancee and officially becomes a womanizer. i.e. there were some paragraphs in the last chapter of volume 4 where it looks like Leon is two-timing. That was a turn off for me.

I might actually read volume 3 and 4 later, but not immediately. Overall, I like the story. There are strong hints of Marie being Leon's sister from his time on Earth, but I'm not sure when it becomes official/gets revealed.

Unlike other harem stories, the *world* in which this plot takes place in actually supports such relationships. At least, Leon's relationship situation is not unique. THAT is a personal turn-off for me with harem plots - i.e. only the Main Character collects a group of attractive mates around him/herself.

Speaking of harems, in the world in which Leon inhabits, it is not possible for a half-breed (eg: half-elf) to impregnant a human female. This is taken to the extreme such that many females have them as personal butlers/companions and it is a socially acceptable thing! Heck, none of the 5 capture targets seem to mind that Marie has one of her own. I can't decide if this is a serious thing, or a gag about otome games ... ?

Bottom line: It's a *weird* world. But Leon's story for volumes 1 and 2 is fun to read! :D

-chronodekar
 

MastaofBitches

Well-Known Member
A pivotal moment comes up where the villainess, Angelica challenges the upstart, Marie to a duel. All 5 of the capture targets choose Marie's side - including (to her public humiliation), her fiancee - the crown prince. This is when our hero, Leon, steps in and volunteers to fight for the villainess. I do not remember why. Either he wanted to avoid the story going the reverse-harem route, or he was just upset with the shenanigans of the capture targets - regardless, it comes as a shock to everyone (including Angelica) that someone was willing to stand on her side.
Basically, he wanted to vent his frustrations at how much an issue they were when he was playing the game since they get getting killed in the RPG segments.
 

chronodekar

Obsessively signs his posts
Staff member
:D That does make for a good explanation!

Finished (or at least caught up) with another Light/Web novel,

Title: Villager A Wants to Save the Villainess no Matter What!
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/villager-a-wants-to-save-the-villainess-no-matter-what/
( you can use the above link to find translated chapters - it was done by multiple groups )

The premise is the same as the earlier story - guy living in a fantasy/medieval world "remembers" an otome game he played in a previous life and wants to adjust things to become better.

Our protagonist is a guy named Allen. He lives with his mother in a tiny apartment and around the age of 9, "remembers" the otome game he played. Most notably, he remembered how after the downfall of the villainess the country becomes involved in a civil war which escalates into a larger conflict. His immediate motivation is to maneuver events to avoid war. By this, he remembers that much of the fighting happened right after the crown prince broke off his arranged engagement with the villainess to be with the "official" heroine. For better or worse, the villainess belongs to a family with a lot of power within the kingdom.

Allen accurately reasons that if he could manipulate events so that the villainess's downfall was not so humiliating, the country would have a better chance at stability. He then sets out to better himself as well as to level up as an adventurer and eventually gain admittance into the academy where the otome game takes place in.

Something I like about Allen is that he improves himself - we have chapters of him going out on his own for extermination quests as well as general drain-cleaning. He earns his Adventurer ranks!

The villainess's name is Anastasia. Something which surprises Allen is that she is earnest about her engagement with the crown prince - in the dutiful sense. From his perspective, she is not in love with the prince, but does take the engagement seriously - and is understandably upset when her fiancee flirts with other women (notably the "heroine"). The heroine (named Anna) is a real piece of work - in the bad sense. She is also a transmigrator or isekai idiot who "remembered" the game. Unfortunately, her personality does not match up with the original heroine and she goes out of her way to antagonize Anastasia. The latter, who for the most part tries to ignore the home-breaker.

The Clown Prince on the other hand, regresses to the mental age of 5 and refuses to even acknowledge that Anna might be malicious or mistaken. There are moments in the story where Anna tries to provoke Anastasia, but Allen interjects at just the right moments to prevent a disaster. For example - at one point, Anna positions herself in a corridor with Anastasia and says some really *horrible* things. In anger, the villainess loses her cool and raises her hand to strike the upstart - in that exact moment, Allen coughs loudly and walks by the two of them. It's enough of a distraction for Anastasia to recover and move on - without causing an incident.

Eventually the Clown/Crown Prince breaks off the engagement with Anastasia and a duel is setup. The way this was done really shows off his idiocy - Anastasia indirectly asks what the Prince wants and on his order issues the challenge to Anna ... who the prince then defends (along with 4 other capture targets). Unlike some other stories I've read, the utter lunacy of the situation is presented very well here. Allen (our protagonist) volunteers to defend her and handily defeats the idiot brigade. Unfortunately, this means that he needed to attack the Crown Prince - a move with negative political repercussions.

At that point in the story, Allen leaves the academy and gets prepared to be executed. Our honorable villainess rushes to her father and implores him to save her knight. The latter summons Allen, is impressed with the lad and provides protection to both him and his mother.

It is around this point on that Anastasia begins to consider Allen as a good friend. Events happen that allow the two to grown closer and eventually become a couple. Her father is not happy with a "commoner" being that friendly with his daughter, but Allen does convince him to let him have a chance.

Something I like about this story is that it is not a harem. By and large, Allen appears only interested in Anastasia (in that way) and their moments together are fun to read.

Speaking of reading - in terms of quality this is ... well, what we have is an unofficial translation from an online group. It does not appear to be an MTL translation, but do not expect commercial quality here. I like the story for the theme - a couple growing together. If you like this kind of thing, it might be worth reading. I had fun with it - but not everyone might be so tolerant with the grammar/translated story-telling.

Hmm... perhaps I should consider writing a fanfiction out of this on my own? Hmm...

-chronodekar
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
I read volume 10 of The Devil is a Part-Timer!

I read volumes 1-9 back in 2017 to 2018, and then just kind of...stopped. So I tried picking it up again.

The book was honestly a slog. Some of it is obviously forgetting a lot of details, especially as there's some intrigue going on in volume 9 that carries over into volume 10. This one breaks from the previous volumes by taking place almost entirely in Ente Isla, the magical otherworld where most of the protagonists and antagonists either hail from or previously attempted to invade. It could have been interesting, but it falls into a bog where nothing really happens until the last third of the book where it remembers it needs to wrap up, and suddenly everything moves really fast.

Also, lots of lore dumping. I'm pretty sure it happened in previous books, but it's more obvious here. One of those annoying things is characters 'in the know' talking about stuff for the last several books, but either not spitting it out directly to keep the readers strung along, or people who aren't our protagonists keeping things vague and a secret to string along both the protagonists and the readers. It won't really feel like a payoff when something becomes truly relevant further down the line, when it keeps getting mentioned and then just brushed aside multiple times.

Anyways, the epilogue does suggest book 11 will be a return to form for the series premise of 'demon overlord is working part-time at a fast food restaurant', so I'll still give that a try.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
While randomly trolling through more LNs to read, I decided to read the first volume of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki.

Surprisingly? It was really good.

The basic premise is that the main character (Tomozaki) is a complete social outcast and loser in his day-to-day high school life. He is, however, the single best player in Japan at the uber-popular fighting game Attack Family (Atafami for short), an obvious Super Smash Bros. expy. One day, he plays the second-best player in Japan in an online match. They make plans to meet up in real life, only for him to find out said second-best player is the class social queen, Aoi Hinami.

Plot happens, and then the story turns into something like My Fair Lady, except it's a girl training a guy, it's in modern-day high school in Japan, and instead of training speech, Hinami trains the protagonist Tomozaki on social graces, including improving his expression, posture, and speech. There's also a surprisingly good, in-depth amount of analysis from the characters on social cues in conversations, reading the mood, and understanding how to follow up and manipulate dialogue. Hinami on multiple times goes over things classmates say, and how the course of a conversation progresses, and who is stronger at controlling changes in topics and the like.

Hinami doesn't show any real cruelty, either, merely a relentless drive for being the best in everything she sets her mind to. Hence, being second-best at Atafami, and playing Tomozaki lots outside of her training him on the ways of the classroom. There's a moderate amount of relating the 'game of Life' in terms of video games, both to Atafami specifically and general tropes like Tomozaki gaining experience points by striking up conversations to improve his speech skills. It's surprisingly light-hearted throughout, and very sharply focused with little filler. Except for this random three-page scene in the middle of two girls making out in broad daylight. No, seriously.

I see there is a 12-episode anime. I'll read book 2 I think, and then watch the anime since I assume it covers at least the first two LN, maybe three.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Book two of the above

So the protagonist continues to get pulled out of his reclusive, loner, social outcast shell. Not quickly, of course. Nobody can work overnight miracles like that. But there is a slow, gradual progress forward, with no real setbacks besides that sometimes Tomozaki loses his nerve with some of the goals Hinami sets him, so he doesn't get to it on the target timeline they agree too. Developments in this volume include going out on group outings with other schoolmates, shopping for a birthday present, and attempting to ask a girl out on a date. One gets the sense Tomozaki is still a loser, but now he'd be more called that in jest and with some lighthearted ribbing, instead of outright derogatory condescension or complete ignoring him.

In-between, there's also two major subplots linked together, which are really profound. One is that there's a student president election, which Hinami runs for, and wins very handily. There's another girl, Minami, who runs against Hinami, and she is kind-of sort-of Hinami's friend-rival frenemies opposite. Hinami gets Tomozaki to support this other girl on her campaign, not to sabotage Minami's campaign, but rather to continue to upgrade Tomozaki's own social and participation skills, plus getting him into the good graces of other classmates and actually interacting with them. Hinami dominates the election, so for Tomozaki to have supported her instead wouldn't really have given him any development.

Of course, Minami and Hinami are also on the track team together, and compete academically, and were on rival basketball teams during their junior high school lives. And Minami has come up short against Hinami on every occasion. This is where the other subplot comes in. After losing the election, Minami is driven to defeat Hinami at something, to the point she runs herself ragged at track team training, studies a lot at home, and starts to fall asleep in class. Plot development happens, and there's an interesting conversation about having to respect the effort one puts in, and settling for always trying to improve oneself when you still can't quite match up to somebody else. Hinami is also held up again as a wunderkind like she was in the first book, because she is the type to never settle for second place, no matter how much she might improve on her attempts to hit first.

The series so far hasn't shown the slightest inclination at all for a romantic interest between Tomozaki and Hinami, but if it ever wanted to, that last subplot is a very good starting point. Aoi Hinami respects Fumiya Tomozaki because one of the things she adores, the Smash Bros. expy Atafami, is something that he's better at her than. It's also because he doesn't stay still, but always continues to improve at, so she's constantly trying to catch up. Thus far, he is the only person to be in that position vis-a-vis to her. It's not just a matter of that Tomozaki is better at her at this one thing, but rather that he has the drive and the passion to be that good at something. It's heavily implied that for Hinami, she wants to be good at everything, not just some things. Tomozaki isn't there yet, but I expect as the books go on, he'll be that way at the 'game of life' as well.

Anyways, definitely enjoying this series. The anime looks like it covers the first 3 LNs, not the first 2, so I'll wait to read #3 first.
 
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