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What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#51
Is the Order a Rabbit? (Gochūmon wa Usagi Desu ka?)  Two seasons are available on Crunchyroll.   
Warning:  Dangerously high levels of cuteness and WAFF.  No violence, although one girl does have a habit of leveling a Glock pistol (perhaps a non-firing replica) at people.  Mostly slice-of-life, except that another girl's apparently-deceased grandfather currently inhabits the body of an Angora rabbit, and can somehow talk with his own voice using the rabbit's vocal cords.  Only his son and granddaughter know this.  

Every named character is Japanese, but the town's architecture is mostly based on the Alsace-Lorraine area, especially Colmar with a bit of Strasbourg (that's Word of God), and several shop signs are seen to be in French and German ... and at least one in English.

Further oddity:  Rabbits freely roam the city, showing no fear whatsoever of humans.  The main character loves to pick them up and cuddle them, and the rabbits aren't bothered by this at all.

Fifteen-year-old Hoto Cocoa moves to this town to attend high school, and quickly catalyzes several girls, most of whom barely knew each other, into becoming a close-knit circle of friends.  The main group is composed of Cocoa; stoic middle-schooler Kafuu Chino; military-oriented Tedeza Rize; Ujimatsu Chiya, who's a touch too flaky to be a true Yamato Nadeshiko; and impoverished but aristocratic-seeming Kirima Sharo (or Syaro, depending on the Romanization).  Chino's classmates Jouga Maya and Natsu Megumi soon meld into the circle ... and then there's the kinda-airheaded best-selling novelist Aoyama-san....  Just in case anyone didn't notice, those names are all in some usually punning way linked to beverages.

Recommended if you'd like a light and fluffy series to relieve the tensions of life.
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"The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that this was some killer weed."
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#52
My "relieve the tensions of life" standby is Girls und Panzer, but thanks for the recommendation.
Sucrose Octanitrate.

Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#53
I've been watching 'Didn't I say to make my abilities average in the next life', which is an isekai story where a high school girl gets trucked and asks the god isekaiing her to, well, make her average so she doesn't have to deal with the isolation of being an above average person again.

Of course, said god makes her average by picking the middle point between between bacteria and the supreme draconic overdeity of awesome of the setting. She's now dealing with it.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#54
Now that's an entry for the Literal Genie page at All The Tropes.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#55
A fourth-wall-obliterating infodump by the whatever-the-heck-it-is that acts as a familiar to the girl explains that her new "average" is 6800 times more powerful than almost all humans in the setting.
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"The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that this was some killer weed."
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#56
Yeah, I've read the first couple of LNs of Please Make My Abilities Average - I enjoyed the story, the MC is far from perfect and makes a few big mistakes, including one that... well, I'm not sure how the anime covered it, so I'll leave it there and make a note to watch the show. The infodumping in the books is handled a bit more smoothly, it seems, at least.

Ascendance Of A Bookworm looks like all kinds of fun, but I've only watched the first episode so far. The MC's anguish at landing in a world without anything to read... well, I can really sympathize with the poor girl.

I managed to borrow a set of the novels for Arifureta and I'm reading through to see if things are any better than Edgy McEdgeLord of the anime, so far.... Mmm. A little.
Sucrose Octanitrate.

Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#57
Anyone else watched Doctor Stone yet? Gotta say, it's A LOT better than I thought.

Take Mark Watney, give him an even bigger ego, stick him a version of Earth over 5,000 years after everyone was turned to stone, with not even a stitch of clothing, and he has to science the fuck out of everything in order to restore humanity.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#58
I watched some uPotato's review that praised it highly, but it didn't really look like it'd be my thing and after actually taking a look at all the fansubs I've been tossing into my storage drive "for later" there's like 1700 hours of backlog before even looking at bookmarked or downloaded fanfic and ebooks, so I figure I'm set for a little while.
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‎noli esse culus
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#59
Bwahahaha!  The thread is alive, Igor!

Just the other day, I discovered (although I'd seen a few previous references to it) Yurucamp △, a.k.a. Laid-Back Camp.  High-school girls going on camping trips, solo or together.  (The little triangle in the title has been stated somewhere to represent a tent.)
Slice of Life, Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, with a hearty helping of Shown Their Work Scenery Porn.  Mount Fuji on a mostly-clear night ... and the moon is full, with a trail of silver shining on the lake.... 
Also a bit of Food Porn, as Nadeshiko's enthusiasm for the curry ramen Rin shared makes it seem tastier even to Rin herself.  
Apparently, a lot of people find "comfy" the catchphrase to describe this series.  
Don't miss the pine cones squeaking, "Cone-nichi wa!" when people pick them up.  And don't be fooled by the rocket tent in the opening credits.

In/Spectre — the Japanese title, Kyokou Suiri, translates directly as Invented Inference, which apparently didn't convey the supernatural aspect enough for the American market.  Youkai kidnapped a rich child and begged her to be their "Goddess of Wisdom":  arbitrator of disputes, investigator of things that bewilder the spirit world.  (Why her?  If that's explained anywhere, I haven't seen it.)  She agreed, and doesn't seem to consider the amputation of her left leg and removal of her right eye too high a price for the benefits, such as they are.  
Now, in her late teens, she's joined forces with a young man who can have prophetic visions ... but only when he's on the brink of death.  Since he's got a more potent healing factor than Wolverine's, that's really not all that much of a problem.  Oh, and pretty much all youkai, ghosts, devils, etc., find him nightmare fuel.  
Though she's aggressively trying to make their relationship more intimate, he treats her more like an annoying little sister.  Mostly because at nineteen, she still looks like a middle-school girl.  He says people already give him "You pervert" glares for associating with her.
WARNING:  Some viewers find this one far too "talky."  They gripe that the "Goddess," Kotoko, will spend most of an episode explaining a concept or plan of action, then re-explaining it in slightly different words, then lather-rinse-repeat ... five times in all, according to one such complaint.  I didn't have any problem with it, so maybe I'm just dense.
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"The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that this was some killer weed."
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#60
So, just completed this week is season one of "Bofuri", known to some as "Shield Art Online", actual title translated as "I don't want to get hurt so I'll set my defense to maximum".

Kaede is an average high-school gamer girl, having played a few games before but new to brand-new VRMMO "New World Online". She wasn't going to bother but her friend, Risa, was massively enthused about it, and Kaede decided to get into it on her recommendation. Unfortunately Risa has some things going on that mean she won't be able to join for a couple of days, so Kaede starts without her.

And so Kaede, starting on her own, decides to go Ultimate Tank. She chooses the class of "Great Shielder" and invests all of her stat points into "Vitality" (Hit points, endurance, etc). She then proceeds to get into all sorts of amusing situations, stumble on a few things that just stack incredible amounts of synchrony, ending up with a just totally ridiculously OP build. And then her friend joins in and managers something equally OP. And then they recruit -more-.....

There is no overarching conspiracy, no horrible monster waiting in the wings, no great secret enemy. It's just a bunch of kids having fun playing a video game.
Sucrose Octanitrate.

Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#61
Eh.  Not my cuppa.

I just go watch Lily Pichu instead and laugh as the tiniest adult woman you could imagine with the cutest, squeakiest voice makes all kinds of reactions.

(EDIT: The lines she recorded for The Screaming Roomba are freakin' hilarious when you hear them in her voice.)
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#62
Popping by because this reccomend seems relevant to this thread, even though it's a game.

Say hello to Mahou Arms: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1165870/Mahou_Arms/

It's like someone took the aesthetics of Metal Gear, Nier: Automata, and Resident Evil, and then made the main characters mahou shoujo ala Magical Girls Spec Ops Asuka.

It's on early access for now, but it looks pretty sweet already.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#63
Huh. One of the images on that page looks like she's running through Rockefeller Plaza in NYC, heading from 5th Ave toward the statue of Prometheus (where they have the ice rink in the winter).
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#64
So, yeah, "MobuSeka" is a thing. Full title: "The World of Otome Games Is Hard For Mobs".

A 'mob' is, of course, the unnamed side characters who aren't important to the plot. 'Otome games' for the few of you who haven't heard are female-player-oriented dating sims.

Fan translations of the five extant LNs were available but have been taken down as the series has been licensed for US release. Fanslations of the manga are still around at the usual places.

The main character is only known by his post-isekai name, "Leon Fou Bartford". ('Fou' being a noble prefix that indicates a border-marches noble who primarily fulfills their feudal duty via military service). Just prior to his first death, Leon - then an average Japanese salaryman - had been blackmailed by his sister into playing through this particular otome game. Not surprisingly, when he wakes up he's in the said game world. As the third son of a minor baron, his prospects are poor and he spends more time working the land than doing noble-type stuff. Then, when he's turning 15 and getting ready to apply to the Noble Academy where all the in-game action happens, Baroness Bartford returns from her opulent life in the capital to announce that she's arranged a betrothal for him with the daughter of a friend of hers along with enlistment in the military, so he won't be going to the academy - she'd have to give up some of her fun to pay for it, after all, and we can't have that.

(Said daughter is 50+, fat, and ugly, and has already had seven husbands who were pushed into the military and died "heroic" deaths. This is not a good omen for poor Leon.)

Leon can see just how bad an idea this is, so he begs a gun, some supplies, and a small airship from his father and decides to earn the money for the Academy himself, in the time-honored tradition of nobles of the kingdom: Adventuring!

He succeeds (in spades) thanks to remembering where a certain secret item was in the game, breaks ties with Bitchy McStepMom, and upon applying to the Academy discovers that the Crown has decided to reward his success by making him a Baron in his own right.

And then he finally arrives at the Academy, and the real action begins... as someone else has usurped the game's protagonist's relationship with the Prince and his retinue. Uh-oh....

There are two decent fanfics of the series already.
"99 Problems" over on SpaceBattles features three fanfic authors inserted into Leon's place as triplet brothers, and
"Care and Feeding of Neglected Otomes" on Questionable Questing, by our very own Drakensis, with a CYOA take on an AU side-story of the original.
Sucrose Octanitrate.

Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#65
Otome games.  [snort]  I was fascinated to discover via Crunchyroll the existence of another otome-game/isekai, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!  (Not fascinated enough to actually watch the entire thing, though.  But maybe later.)  It was the zany title that caught my attention; that, and a promotional image that shows the title character waltzing with another girl.  

The main character recovers past-life memories from her life as a Japanese teenager, and realizes she's been reborn as an antagonist character in an otome game she played before.  Specifically, as the completely unlikable aristocrat Caterina Claes, whose destiny in all the Good endings is to be stripped of wealth and titles, and exiled from the country.  In the Bad endings, protagonist Maria Campbell's love interest will kill Caterina while defending Maria from the aristo-bitch's cruelty. 

Naturally, Our Villainess doesn't want this to happen.  So she begins training herself to earn a living when deprived of her riches, practices sword-fighting to protect herself from Maria's various love interests, and even carries a toy snake for distracting one of her possible killers (he's phobic about snakes).  Through all of this, she fails to notice that, because her sweet personality from the past life effectively overwrote Evil!-Caterina, now nobody will want her dead or exiled, so she's wasting her time on the contingency plans ... but making lots of friends and admirers.

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“We’ve had our differences, but he’s seen the light … and I made sure he moved toward it, instead of coming back.”
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#66
Huh. Sounds like fun.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#67
From what I've heard, Bakatarina managed to turn the Otome game's harem on itself. Not only is she friends with every love interest in the game, every love interest is in love with her. Including the game's protagonist.

And Caterina is missing every sign of it on account of being as dense as a harem protagonist.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#68
Hah.

There's three Otome-Isekai mangas that I've been reading over on Mangadex (an ad-free not-an-aggregator site - Zephyrus from SV is one of the mods there).

The first one is called *takes a deep breath* The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen Who Will Become the Source of Tragedy Will Devote Herself for the Sake of the People.  (Just gotta love these titles - you know exactly what's in the tin.)

In this one, within minutes of "regaining her memories", completely derails the storyline of the Otome game by saving her father's life, and swearing to herself that she will be a good older sister to the younger sister (who is the Otome Game protagonist), among other things...

Only a few chapters have been translated thus far, so there isn't much to go off of.  But what we do have so far is pretty good stuff, and points towards lots of turning of tragedies into warm and fuzzy feels.

---

The next we have is called *another deep breath* I'm Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness Doesn't Mean I'm a Bad Person!  Again, exactly what it says on the tin.

Here, a girl is reincarnated into the world under the Dark Spirit's protection.  This is clearly evident by her chocolate-brown skin, dark eyes, and black hair.  (Meanwhile, everyone else is fair skinned and either blonde or red-heads.)  Unfortunately, she's about as accepted as you might imagine - even among her own family.

The only thing she has going for her that is making people give her the benefit of a doubt is that one of the people responsible for the founding of the kingdom was someone like her - except that at the very end they went crazy and went on a killing spree until their best friend, the new king, put them down.  But, despite her knowing that she's practically doomed (and being suitably depressed over the matter), she sallies forth and makes some very loyal friends... who are, ironically, the protagonist's friends in the otome game.

Plot twist?

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Finally, we have a much more generic entry in the form of *yet another deep breath* I Won't Become a Villainess. I'm Just a "Normal" Duke's Daughter!

The person in question here has a bookworm of an older brother who is very much into horticulture, a bedridden mother, and a father who is never home because he's kept so busy at the palace.  Knowing her fate, she sets to turning everything right by:
  • Socializing her older brother
  • Getting her mother to eat her vegetables and exercise
  • Upon discovering WHY her father is always so busy, modernizes the bureaucracy of her father's office by introducing the concept of forms as well as filing and sorting.

Also, hijinks ensue because apparently guardian spirits seem to really like her for some reason.

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Some honorable mentions that are not based in otome-isekai scenarios:

Two Saints Wander Off into a Different World

Chiharu and Maki - two best friends who work at the same company - just got dumped by their boyfriends and spend a night "celebrating" by getting rip-snorting drunk.  And then are immediately summoned together to another world.  (You can imagine the reaction where they immediately review their evening's drinks right afterwards.)

What they are supposed to do is actually very simple.  Just stick around so their very presence clears the miasma from the underworld that plagues the various nations.  Thing is, though, this means they are coddled quite a bit.

No way, Jose!  These are working women!  They're gonna go out, get jobs, make their own money, sample all the delicious food and alcohol they can find, travel the world to do so, and maybe find some boyfriends along the way.

Another great one is Yakuza Reincarnation, in which an old-school Yakuza - the kind that actually support their community by supporting the downtrodden and keeping the dope off their streets - winds up getting killed and reincarnates....

.....As the youngest Princess in an Empire that seems to have all the problems that he is very much familiar with.  And thus, he knows exactly how to solve them - by punching the right people into next year.

Read it.  It's great, if for nothing else than to see the Princess's retainers all go spare with her sudden shift from "proper little lady" to "tomboy thug with a heart of gold".
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#69
It does seem to be the big new genre.

I'll add a new one I've been enjoying and eagerly awaiting more of. May I Ask For Just One Final Thing stars Scarlet vanDimon, daughter of a duke, fiancee of a prince, who has been set up for the villainess role by the prince's commoner new girl. The Prince announces it at a major social event, accusing her of all sorts of things, and that evil little smirk on the new girl's face is just infuriating.

Her response has earned her the nickname of "Princess Punchface" in my mind.

[Image: tVqbGuY.jpg?1]
Sucrose Octanitrate.

Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#70
This is also a fun one: Middle Aged Man's Noble Daughter Reincarnation, where a middle aged civil servant from Japan suffers an accident and is left comatose yet is somehow interacting with his daughter's otome game as a key villainess. And then promptly does the 'fatherly polite civil servant' thing to everybody, like when being introduced to the game's protagonist, a commoner with great potential, to praise the clear and abundant love her parents have for her by giving her this opportunity.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#71
(06-23-2020, 04:03 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: Another great one is Yakuza Reincarnation, in which an old-school Yakuza - the kind that actually support their community by supporting the downtrodden and keeping the dope off their streets - winds up getting killed and reincarnates....

.....As the youngest Princess in an Empire that seems to have all the problems that he is very much familiar with. And thus, he knows exactly how to solve them - by punching the right people into next year.

Read it. It's great, if for nothing else than to see the Princess's retainers all go spare with her sudden shift from "proper little lady" to "tomboy thug with a heart of gold".

The art in this one is really good, I have to say. And, well, the princess is pretty much dead-on my strike zone for attractive females, so... yeah. MC wasn't an ugly dude pre-issekai, either. I do like how aside from like a page and a half of WTF face, there's no carrying on over being channed or wanting to go back to the modern world, etc., she just gets to work on the situation as it stands. Part of that of course is that violent punks dealing in drugs and prostitution isn't an unfamiliar situation, but still. The world building and visual designs are creative, even background characters generally all have distinct faces and outfits, there's a whole lot to like here.
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‎noli esse culus
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#72
I have one more to look out for: Futago no ane ga miko toshite hikitorarete, watashi wa suterareta kedo tabun watashi ga miko de aru

Translated: My twin sister was taken as a miko and I was thrown away but I'm probably the miko

Aside from the descriptive title, the best summary I can give is "A little girl is adopted by various magical creatures and beast-people after being abandoned by monsters in the forest." Badassery is basically nonexistent, but Luruna asymptotically approaches being the cutest thing ever and the art is at least above the waterline, so check it out if you see it and have the time.
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‎noli esse culus
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#73
And one more: Tsundere Akuyaku Reijou Liselotte to Jikkyou no Endo-kun to Kaisetsu no Kobayashi-san
translated: The Play-By-Play Commentator Endo-kun and Colour Commentator Kobayashi-san's Live Commentary on the Tsundere Villainess Liselotte

It's available both as a manga and web novel, though I didn't find the WN until just now myself so this only covers the former. Both are currently being translated by "Mistakes Were Made" and listed on novelupdates and mangaupdates as being unlicensed for the English market. Basically, this one is what happens when the prince starts hearing a pair of earth teenagers commenting on the story, and their attempts to guide things to a happy ending by speaking to him after the controller stops working and only an uncopyable suspend file can be made, not normal save files... though it seems the original MC magical commoner is on a max-level NG+ as well, and there was a single page in there of some other person who couldn't understand why the game would only play normally for them. It's great fun, like a fix-fic ascended to pro quality art.

e: Also, the namesake tsundere "villainess'" name is pronounced "lies-a-lot," because Japan is all about the puns Big Grin
e2: For the benefit of anyone else giving it a try, I'll add that WN ch19 picks up where the (current) last translated manga chapter (#9) ends
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‎noli esse culus
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#74
I'm gonna toss in a rec for the LN series "Otherside Picnic", of which three volumes are available in English. It's about the adventures of two girls - Sorawo and Toriko - who engage in investigations and adventures of an Underhill-style realm of mystery, populated by creatures inspired by modern internet creepypasta. With a little slow-burn romance along the way.
Sucrose Octanitrate.

Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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RE: What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)
#75
So, a webnovel I've been following recently deserves a rec here. "Blunt-Type Ogre Girl's Way to Livestreaming".

Our Heroine, Nanako, is an orphan working three part-time jobs just to get by. When all three employers simulteneously go under, she's left flat out of hope... until she gets an invitation from a childhood friend, Rinne, who happens to be an e-sports pro and veteran game livestreamer. Rinne invites Nanako to join her team for a new VRMMO that's just been launched.

Nana becomes quite swiftly popular in the game, for someone who doesn't do flashy magic or sword tricks -- she's playing a Kishin, or Oni, and her preferred combat method is to just smash stuff with a big metal club. And she's very good at it. (The fact that the two are clearly becoming a couple, and their streaming audience can see this, doesn't hurt.)

Not quite sure where the plot is going aside from the slow-burn romance and the girls having fun with the game, but there are hints that there's more to the game than it seems. We'll see how things go. Wink
Sucrose Octanitrate.

Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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