Mmm, there’s clearly a subset of readers who turn straight to the 解説 when they pick up a book, as a sort of “sell me on why I should read this book”, I guess – it’s pretty common for the 解説 author to include a bit talking to that kind of reader, saying they’ll avoid giving away an ending or straight-up suggesting they should really turn to the front of the book and start reading.
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Love that the 2nd one is to 深い森 (which incidentally is kinda bland, way too focused on Sesshoumaru, and not very spoiler-y)
As an aside, I like Sesshoumaru’s more feminine vibe in the manga better
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As a Sesshomaru stan, this sentence doesn’t make sense to me.
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No, last. I read it when I got to it.
(Also, I usually don’t even read them at all, but this time I was curious)
Edit:
So, after grading, the book landed on level 41. Note that I purposefully ignored the poetry part, since it can be ignored while reading (the way I did). Also, I have no clue how to even take it into account anyway (I’m incapable of reading it; I don’t even know enough classical Japanese to parse the structure)
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I started reading 暇と退屈の倫理学 | L30?? this week. This is fairly easy to read pop science philosophy about the concepts of leisure and boredom. So far it seems to mainly be bringing together a line of argument from various notable thinkers (Bertrand Russell, Pascal, William Morris all feature in chapter one).
What I can’t remember is how it got on to my wishlist in the first place. It seems likely that it was a forum recommendation from somebody but I can’t find it in forum searches. The other possibility would have been as a jpdb deck but I can’t find it there either…
The other weird thing about my copy is that it doesn’t have an obi, but the cover is printed in a way that makes it look like it has one.
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Finished リバーズ・エンド (電撃文庫 は 2-9) | L27 (… a while ago now). Loved it, but also have a pretty strong bias towards these sorts of … nihilistic, anti-癒し系 sorts of stories that showed up a lot in LNs/manga in the late 90s/early 00s, where a lot of the story is spent just being a regular slice-of-life, school life, or romance type story which is then undermined and ultimately ruined by the science fiction element. Wish there was a recognised genre name for that.
I’m halfway through 鳥籠荘の今日も眠たい住人たち〈1〉 | L34?? - probably not something I would normally read, but I like the author’s other stuff. It’s good, but just when I start getting invested in the storyline it abruptly shifts to something else, so I don’t feel a strong urge to keep reading. Same reason I’m bad with short stories.
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As a self appointed connoisseur of short stories I think some of the worst shorts are ones that feel like first chapters or novel teasers. Give me something that feels complete!
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I finished “last night” (aka at 1 am this morning) 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ~今日から自由な職人ライフ~ 1 | L30. It was pretty good! It’s supposedly a 男性向け light novel, but it has the 女性向け look and feel 
It’s like the polar opposite of 追放悪役令嬢の旦那様 | L27 (女性向け with a 男性向け style).
About the book itself, I like the main character. For once we have an isekai’d character that does not act weird (I mean, okay, I have seen other series do that, but still, it’s rare enough to be noted). I also like the dynamic with the “love interest”. Her former fiancé broke up with her the day before their marriage so that he could marry another girl instead, so she is a bit burnt out on the whole romance thing. Literally two days later she meets the hottest dude to have ever walked the Earth but he also not interested in a romantic relationship (since he always gets harassed by women in general; one even drugged him when he was younger and would have sexually assaulted him if not interrupted). It’s not the first time I see LN trying to take into account what would happen if a character has almost supernaturally good looks, but those book were all in the 女性向け category so far, which increase even more my impression that the categories are a bit mixed on this one
In other news, when I went to Booklive to purchase the next volume, a special offer thingy caught my eye: a bunch of isekai manga are half price with the first volume free to read for a few days. It’s all 青年 so there’s a lot of absurd bust sizes and revealing “armor”. Among the bunch, I noticed a series that is often featured in the “dirt cheap” category (as in, 5 jpy for the first volume), my assumption being that it is literally garbage, so you are paying for what you get. But hey, I’m tipsy at 1 am and it’s free this time. What could go wrong with satiating my morbid curiosity?
Well, I should have remembered that curiosity did kill the cat. Satisfaction did not bring it back, it’s a lie. I’m trying to keep a light-ish tone, but I seriously don’t feel well.
Venting (TW: r*pe, horrible misogyny)
The plot (which is full of holes, but I don’t even want to get there) involves a character being summoned to fight in a war, but ending up having a garbage skill (as in JRPG skill) and thus being sent to the “coliseum” to fight for the entertainment of the masses. The thing about that coliseum is that it’s always a fight between a man and a woman (skills/magic close the strength gap; it doesn’t matter guys are on average physically stronger when their opponent can just summon a meteor strike). If the guy wins, he gets to “breed” the woman and keep her as a sex slave 
(I did say I won’t comment on plot holes, but I can’t stop; weren’t you short on soldiers to fight in the war to the point on spending absurd amount of resources on summoning people? Why create that system rather than sending them to the front line? Some of the fighters are absurdly strong and would single handedly make a difference, while popping babies would take decade to have an impact… if it has one at all, skills have no genetic component, it’s highly possible that you are trading in a strong fighter for a bunch of kids without any relevant abilities).
Now, what if the woman win, you ask. You probably did not, but I will tell you anyway. The guy gets magically turned into a woman, the woman magically gets a penis and breeds him instead (and keeps him(?) as a slave, like the other way around). Why would they do that? The first woman the character fights says she likes to humiliate her opponent (which, err, says a lot of what the author think of women in general, I guess, if it wasn’t obvious before), but still, I feel like that would not work well when most of the population is straight…
The gender swap is permanent, but the genital change isn’t I guess, because the armor of those women leaves nothing to the imagination. The second woman the main character fights is only wearing a sort of front flap (so she is completely naked from the back) that is somehow form fitting despite not being attached to her body except around her neck.
Behold the cover of volume 2, or don't, you know
転生コロシアム 2 ~最弱スキルで最強の女たちを攻略して奴隷ハーレム作ります~ 転生コロシアム ~最弱スキルで最強の女たちを攻略して奴隷ハーレム作ります~ | L26??
Ah, I guess it doesn’t auto expend behind a detail tag. Well, good, you have one more chance to change your mind.
Anyway, main character makes “creative” use of his garbage skill (that should not have worked against his opponent, but whatever), and does the breeding. That part is basically p*rn I guess. I don’t really know why since I just skipped but somehow she becomes much nicer after being r*ped for days. Great. Gotta love that the whole plot is the main character putting strong women (who somehow all happen to be evil) into their place (sex slaves, I guess?).
I mean, it’s not like I know for sure. I started just flipping forward halfway through (once the main character “wins”), reading maybe one speech bubble out of 10. Somehow, I still feel like I could follow the plot just fine.
Anyway, I was mostly enraged at the time of reading, but not that I have slept on it, I find it terrifying instead. Like, there are people out there who have this kind of worldview. I mean, it’s not like it comes as a surprise in itself, but it’s just a weird feeling to see it in such a prominent place… again, it appears regularly in the top section of the “激安” category of Booklive. I guess that means they have some issues selling it, which is at least a small comfort, but still.
Anyway, after that, instead of just buying volume 2 of 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ~今日から自由な職人ライフ~ | L30 I ended up rage-buying 10 volumes plus 10 more from other stuff. They got me.
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I’d love to hear if down the line she never gets together with him or anyone else, though I know it’s unlikely. I’m generally fed up with the “woman has to fall in love because there’s a man in her vicinity” stuff, so finding something that doesn’t fit into that is amazing, but sadly rare.
(That’s not to say I didn’t mind a good romance; I think it’s just how the book is advertised. If I’m brought in by the premise “woman finds her own way in life”, it feels like falling for some dude just completely wrecks that setup, insofar as the majority of times I’ve seen it happen, it didn’t feel justified; just felt like it was there because it was obligatory or something. Anyway; my own rant over.)
I’m so sorry
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See, up until this everything seemed pretty boring and standard. Congrats, it has now fallen into stupid. 
You must’ve been beyond tipsy to see volume one and still read it. Those covers are…reeling in the intended audience, presumably.
Publishers love this one weird trick!
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I’m also curious about that (and I guess I will find out, now that I bought almost all available volumes…). So far, it seems like it’s more people around them who want/expect them to get together (which is also the case in real life; it’s like you can’t be single and friend with a person of the opposite sex, why can’t people mind their own business).
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That made me laugh and somehow feel generally better. So thank you for that!
I have seen the cover of the first volume pop on the “super discounted” section for literally years now. I got pretty blasé about it (and I haven’t seen the other covers until Booklive provided the link to volume 2 at the end of volume 1). Plus, I have seen some 少年/青年 stuff with really horny covers or content, like エア・ギア | L26 or GANTZ | L24 but still had a fun plot. That’s what I expected: the main character would somehow get the attention of all the girls, who are, for some reason, wearing skimpy armors instead of normal ones, but that’s about it. Fan service but nothing beyond (and have a good laugh about it before going on with my life). I should have remembered all that TL that is somehow marketed as “Josei” and understand that “Seinen” can mean a lot of things. But even then, I was not prepared for the, let’s say, worldview expressed by the author.
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I heard the ダリヤ anime wasn’t so well done, so good to hear that the LN is worth the read. Maybe I’ll try reading it in Feb/March, when I’m done w/ the current reads
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魔導具師ダリヤ, I was not amused by the development 
. Disclaimer: my knowledge is (as it is often) just from watching the series last summer.
I liked the show/story as far as it was about her inventing magic tools and building up her business, which was described very well and detailed. But then there sneaked in that budding romance and I got it more and more that everything what I liked about it might have just been stage building for something else which might finally become the main story.
Rant: so all in all, the same problem as with 本好き, which also started with the girl re-inventing things and building up a business in S1, and then drifts away to completely different, for me uninteresting themes. In short: making a promise and not delivering.
So I didn’t end up hating ダリヤ but I‘ll still not want to watch an S2 if it might come out or want to read the books.
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Aaaaaah, don’t break my hopes and dreams.
Hopefully the LN is better, but I assume plot goes the same way.
I am not checking those spoilers until I feel I am same. Do you know how many volumes were adapted into the anime series?
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You might have other hopes and dreams, so no problem. No, I don’t know how far the anime is going, but what you described might be the first half of it, may be one third.
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Acc to a subreddit: “Anime finish season 1[21 Sep, 2024], At chapter 23 in the mange and At end of volume 2 in the light novel.”
“The animation was so bad it did the story dirty, the mange is MUCH more expressive, and the light novel is also very good.”
So make it that what you will, I guess
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Thanks! Good to know.
Alright, I will speed run volume 2 then and check those spoilers 
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This site also backs that up. 
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I read a bit of the manga (5 volumes) and regarding the romance:
It is still very much a “will probably happen, but neither wants anything right now”
Also, I read it before the anime was even announced and curiosity got me to watch a random episode (ep 5 or so?) and stopped after a few minutes, that’s how bad I found it 
I quite like it, so I am happy to see people show interest in it 
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Finished マリア様がみてる 13 真夏の一ページ | L29 - so I’m 1/3rd through the series (37 books). Overall I’m absolutely in love with it, enough to keep reading it exclusively, till I’m done (tho I’ll probably read this month’s Yurihime when it comes out). That said I didn’t really like vol 13 as much
I’m into the part that corresponds to S3 now, and watching Yumi become more proactive, and a bit craftier, has been enjoyable - and makes things more interesting overall
I do kinda of missing hopping between series and posting all of them here though. So I look forward to doing that again sometime next month(?), when I’m done with this & the companion series お釈迦様もみてる | L28?? (helpfully only 10 volumes).
Actually I’m considering doing this for マリみて going forward, just so I have level expectations about the story topics. Each book usually has 2-3 stories, and I find it difficult to switch gears sometimes. The author always references people doing this as well
Read the second story in 花物語 上 | L39 - and wow that was rough! Extremely long sentences with tons of new vocab and description. I had to read it twice in my lesson. I’m curious to see how story 3 compares next week, and will maybe try to preread it before my lesson. Example sentence:
私の母は長崎の蘭医の娘だったので、と母は亡くなる少し前からはなしたの、それはねえ、海が紫の絹糸を引いたように遠くかすんで、オランダ船が、もの悲しい笛を鳴らして、流離の海路の旅を愁う、船唄のように響くのだったよって、オランダ船が赤い帆柱を立てて港へ入って来たとき、浜へ出て行くと、大粒の朝鮮卵が籠からこぼれるほど盛ってあったり、異国のお酒をいっぱい入れた土瓶が、船子たちの飲むにまかせて砂地に据えてあるのに、名も知らぬ蔓草が巻きついて、小さな白い、ほろろさびしげな花が咲いていたりしてね。
Like that could really be a good 3-5 sentences. And the story is full of those. One thing that’s interesting about this book is that (especially with the story endings) it leaves quite a bit to implication/imagination. You have to really connect the dots.
The long drifty sentence style is kinda fitting for a sea voyage story
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Uh, that part makes no sense to me. Two は in the same (sub)sentence ? (alsoからは is a bit strange) 下のwhat? 
