Terrence > Recent Status Updates

Halfway in this one. I am feeling not as into this so far, I think because the appeal for me is the family and wife, but they're mostly sidelined / extra. The title itself is accurate though, it's about a man that specializes in sales in our world (despite his imposing stature and scary face) and he brings knowledge to one of this other world's adventurer's guilds to turn them from a small guild into a big boy guild

Gonna start reading again. =3

Got through the early intro with the adventurer Mizuki meeting the "priestess" Menou. I did read a little further, but I want to reread a little bit (there's an odd flashback after Menou meets the 2nd hero, and primary protagonist, Akari).

World is interesting enough. You have a heirarchy of commoners, nobles, and the church. You have an (irrational?) fear of heroes because of past precedence / unnatural disaster.

Weekend read. =)

Halfway into V1. Gonna try and finish it tonight.

One thing that strike me in the re-read:

Kaito is very much a damsel many times. While he has some good powers of discernment when it comes to tricksters, sometimes inexplicably he trusts a pretty face or doesn't see something coming. When he saves Hina, we do learn that he'd rather die helping a hopeless girl by being tricked by her. Too chivalrous maybe.

Story 2 has a dual perspective between an idol and her obsessive fan. The fan descends into madness, but it felt like they could have agreed on some things if they merely talked casually (Yuma wasn't a fan of the Lolita look that the fan hated, nor her manager caring more about her fame / money than her happiness / life). In the end though, it still came down to crazed possessiveness. Similar to Metamorphosis ending

So made it through the second story. This really seems to be less of a cautionary tale, and more of a "they got theirs" tale about these horrible incel stalkers dying for trying to harm the idols. There is a hint in the 2nd story that the man in story 1 might have survived / woken up a changed man, which could be nice (could also interpret it as the characters not knowing he committed suicide / died to himself).

So made it through the second story. This really seems to be less of a cautionary tale, and more of a "they got theirs" tale about these horrible incel stalkers dying for trying to harm the idols. There is a hint in the 2nd story that the man in story 1 might have survived / woken up a changed man, which could be nice (could also interpret it as the characters not knowing he committed suicide / died to himself).

Still early on the first short story. It is nice to come back to a more traditional real world novel (some of the descriptive elements and allegory / metaphor and stuff that LN doesn't deal in present here).

First story sees an incel having a "Your Name" style event, his body morphing into the idol he idolizes, him having to reflect on his creepy nature when he encounters a similar weirdo stalking him.

Chiharu Oji - director. Beautiful man. Worked on Yosuga his Magnum Opus. Doesn't like name being mocked for feminine sound nor indulgent praise. Abandoned team.
Kayako - assistant to Director. Pitched Fateful Fight: Ryder Light anime.
Osato - Blue Open Toy (BLUTO) director.
Kaede Marino - Designer of anime figures / figma.
Sakomizu - "Genga" (original pictures that are endpoints of cuts in anime) artist.

Every character introduced so far is "insanely good looking" "like a model". I guess I shouldn't get too mad at that or I'm playing into the stereotype they mention of the anime fans who write off a director's work cause he's too pretty. xD

But yeah, things seemed too "perfect" early, and then I hit the hook early which is that production isn't going as planned with the absence of a team member...

So yeah, that's the initial setup. You get to hear a lot of the fun and hardships of anime production, and see all the players, from toy manufacturers, to producers, to the big players in assistants and directors, and all the facets of how they interact with the public and behind the scenes. The Magical girl anime Yosuga is actually like Madoka Magica, dark, bloody, but with some coming of age.

Just started this one. It's a rather girthy Japanese novel that's centered on the anime industry. Kayako, a woman who once was enamored with everything anime spends years in the business becoming disillusioned and bored of what once was magical for her. Then, just like that, a standout magical girl anime titled "Yosuga" by director Chiharu Oji catches her full attention, and that passion comes back for her.

Gonna try jumping back into this series as my casual read for the weekend maybe.

Naden: "Normally I'm the one giving you a ride, but now you're giving me one".

No double entendre there, surprisingly.

For Realist, I'm really just interested to see who or what is leading the demon territory and also to learn how our hero really got to this world (and whether there's some Utawarerumono type stuff going on).

Satirical take on the whole "villainess" thing. Essentially, a gun Otaku (who is also insane) winds up in an Otome game world she's familiar with as the villainess, Astrid. Starts with her as a four year old trying to learn magic (and blood magic) from her instructor. She also happens to be able to commune with magic spirits (lots of Bakarina and FUNA energy in this).

In between all that, there's of course some more slice of life stuff, but also some close contact moments (Shimamura resting her head on Adachi's lap which is a reversal of last volume's scene; Nagafuji kissing Hino on the forehead and staring at her). I think shippers will probably be happy enough with this volume.

Almost done with this one now. I'm going to try and do some kind of video review / overview on it at some point.

There's basically 4 main story parts:

1) Examining Adachi and Shimamura's moms.
2) Adachi and Shimamura's thoughts and anxieties about their relationship with one another.
3) Hino x Nagafuji (examining how much or how little relationships change over the years).
4) Lil Shima x Yashiro / Alien.

Adachi is trying to figure out how to ask Shima out for Christmas.

I liked the little joke where Shima is contemplating going to Adachi's house as Adachi is desperately trying not to get her to go there (cause of her soda shrine) and then Shima thinks "oh, that would be awkward" subtly referencing back to the challenge she made to Adachi's mom.

Hino and Nagafuji remain comic relief problem characters.

Little alien girl gets an interlude chapter where she chases Shimamura's little sister home, then eventually gets more casually introduced at the doorway as Shimamura's "destiny" (I'm still assuming she is born from the love between Shima and Adachi in the future). We find out she's 600+ years old and her companion is 800+, but she looks the same size as an elementary schooler. Lil sis and her become friends.

Adachi to Shimamura 2 opens with the question of what makes a good family unit / a good mother. Shimamura challenges Adachi's mom at the gym to be a better mother by... Eating dinner with her child. I think it's more Shimamura seeing that her own ideal might be different from Adachi's, and that you can't force change on people, it has to happen naturally. Shima's mom is kinda abusive too though. <_<

Close to 2/3 through this one. Only thing stopping me are my commitments to my physical books (library stuff). It started fairly technical in terms of having the lead, Kai, explain a planner's role in creating a game, the character's seriously reacting to the potential of the club being disbanded by reading books on game design, and just generally heavy stuff. Now it's into a lighter mix of RomCom with drama.

Next part I'm up to, he's going to get introduced to his other new club members. There's a second blonde (with pigtails or twin tails) and a slightly insane looking poofy dark haired artist. Dynamic should be interesting.

Kai is conveniently unskilled at anything besides sitting in a chair on a PC, so he's going to have to join this club even if he doesn't want to. The light atmosphere will probably help.

The sandy blonde on the cover is Aoi (Nanaka?), a young woman whom one of the senior staff at the school introduces Kai to. Despite her cute attitude and looks, she's a social game development fan and part of that club (she also thought Kai was "too cool" looking for social games too). The Niigata high school game club is more laid back and zany than Kai's previous "serious" club Kai was in back in Tokyo.

I kinda skipped the prologue as I read it before, but it basically follows a teen who has some trauma related to being the "fall guy" for theft of his social game club's drop rates that's keeping him up at night and forced him to leave his old school. Now in the countryside, he tries to start anew, but the school rules mandate he join a club... His sister also tells him people can't change their routine so easily.

Cooking manga, but the focus is definitely not on teaching the reader how to cook (ingredients are only given sometimes from the blackboard, and not really given much prominence even when legible). The focus is more on this "Gal" girl, who has had others give up on teaching her, finally getting to learn a skill, cooking

Fan service and innuendo present; the instructor is at least kinda trying to act professional

Pretty close to done with this one.

I feel like the narrative structure / writing technique is purposely obtuse to mirror the feeling the staff get with their work (the drifting off into sleep, conversations and random stream of consciousness stuff running into their proofread materials).

I do wonder if the factory has something more nefarious going on (animal cloning; psychological testing, etc).

Early in this one. Gotta finish it by the 15th.

It has a bit of intrigue, with Prince Severin taking interest in a young lady who is the daughter of a Marquess, the lady in question a Lady Michelle iirc. But unfortunately, she's giving signs that she isn't exactly thrilled with this arrangement, perhaps having someone else she wishes to be with?

We meet Severin's sisters as well, more friends for Marielle. =]

A little over 60% through. It's ok, but it is a little bit more of a "what's the deal" kind of story of discovery about why characters are the way they are than "Ah, I see what's going on" kind of thing where you're comfortable with the tropes and already have expectations for characters. A lot of the interactions are banter filled, and that can be both playful, but also a bit spite filled, so not happy go lucky

The scenario will likely have the "real" Touka's personality shine through so brightly that the darkness will be forgiven

It's just cruddy if she misses the irony in "being confessed to by a guy three days after you met him because you're cute is annoying... So I'm gonna confess to you a day after meeting you to be just as annoying and hurtful". Be the change you want to see, don't get dragged down in it.

I can see why the preview ends where it does (preserving the cute Touka image and not ending on a sour note). She really starts this story off on a bad foot.

I'm guessing the "8 guys confessed to me in 3 days, and that annoys me" statement is true, but her threats.. hard to believe we'll come to like her if it was all sincere (especially when there's other women in his life that seem to respect + like him).