What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)

[classicdrogn]

So, a webnovel I've been following recently deserves a rec here. "Blunt-Type Ogre Girl's Way to Livestreaming".

Concur. It's simply smashing!

[ECSNorway]

So, a webnovel I've been following recently deserves a rec here. "Blunt-Type Ogre Girl's Way to Livestreaming".

Concur. It's simply smashing!

*groan*

It's too bad the translator seems to be on hiatus. We'll see how things go. (I may drop into their discord tonight and see if they're online.)

[classicdrogn]

Feel free to tell them just how much I also approve, you know, like one of those totally-unpaid-and-unbiased one line reviewer quotes on the cover of a paperback.

[ECSNorway]

Saw Fate/StayNight - Heaven's Feel part 3 tonight. Watched 1 and 2 at home just before leaving for it.

Wow, what a ride.

[DHBirr]

I was recently made aware (by the Infinite Zenith site) of a light novel turned manga and then anime:  Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear.  (The Department of Redundancy Department needs to have words with the author about that title.)

This is an isekai with a particularly silly twist.  Virtual-reality role-player [surname never given] Yuna, a shut-in whose stock-market genius made her appallingly rich, has quit school at 15 and paid her slacker parents to take a vacation and leave her alone.  Then she gets yanked into a magical world very similar to her favorite game. 

The twist is that she's been stripped of all her previously earned magical items and experience levels, but given a wildly overpowered item of magical armor ... which looks like an outrageously cute teddy-bear-design onesie with bear puppets for mittens.  (The Infinite Zenith commentary includes screencaps.)  She's mortified at the thought of wearing this silly-appearing outfit, but the enhancements it grants (super-strength, super-speed, healing for herself and others, an apparently limitless bag of holding, various combat and utility spells, a pair of giant teddy bears as familiars, etc.) are just too valuable to pass up.

Yuna proceeds to build a terrifying reputation as "the Rumored Bear" who looks adorable but can single-handedly mop the floor with small armies and large monsters.  She also wows the nobility with 21st-Century food recipes that blast their Medieval/Renaissance meals right out of the water.  

Oh, and the "god" who isekai'd her also transferred much of her wealth into the magical world, converting it to local currency.  In the manga, an obstructive bureaucrat demands that Yuna prove she has enough money to afford a place in the capital city's posh district.  The next panels show the official crying, approximately, "Stop!  You won!  I accept that you've got enough!  Stop pouring out all that money!"  If that huge pile of coins is mostly gold, its weight might break the table....

-----
“We’ve had our differences, but he’s seen the light … and I made sure he moved toward it, instead of coming back.”

[classicdrogn]

Well, bears are big scary predators after all, even if they just look like a big dopey ball of floof most of the time. As for the killer joke item, honestly that has "some pervy old wizard's bodyguard's equipment" written all over it. Forget shotguns, magical fetish-wear is where it's at!

[ECSNorway]

Feel free to tell them just how much I also approve, you know, like one of those totally-unpaid-and-unbiased one line reviewer quotes on the cover of a paperback.

Well, 9 has started translating again, with several chapters posted on her discord, although I don't think anything's been posted elsewhere yet.

[Black Aeronaut]

Feel free to tell them just how much I also approve, you know, like one of those totally-unpaid-and-unbiased one line reviewer quotes on the cover of a paperback.

Well, 9 has started translating again, with several chapters posted on her discord, although I don't think anything's been posted elsewhere yet.

Sooo, anyone got a link?  Because ever since this rec was dropped here, I've yet to see a link to anywhere.

[ECSNorway]

Feel free to tell them just how much I also approve, you know, like one of those totally-unpaid-and-unbiased one line reviewer quotes on the cover of a paperback.

Well, 9 has started translating again, with several chapters posted on her discord, although I don't think anything's been posted elsewhere yet.

Sooo, anyone got a link?  Because ever since this rec was dropped here, I've yet to see a link to anywhere.

Ahh, apologies.

https://9ethtranslations.wordpress.com/b...streaming/

[Star Ranger4]

great. Just what I needed when trying to get my punk backside into bed. *sigh*

[ECSNorway]

In other circles, J-Novel Club released the first manga volume of “The Apothecary Diaries” a few weeks ago, and has the preview of the first light novel up on their site for subscribers. Fun stuff. Our Heroine, Maomao, is an apothecary in ancient China, formerly working as a medic for a brothel before she was unceremoniously bundled up and sold off as a menial servant in the Imperial Harem. She spends some time bored stiff doing laundry for the wives and servants, and then her talents come in handy when she recognizes the source of the “curse” threatening two of the consorts who have actually managed to have children. And with that, things take off...

There’s a certain element of “ancient Chinese ‘House, MD’” to it, which I find deeply amusing.

[Black Aeronaut]

In other circles, J-Novel Club released the first manga volume of “The Apothecary Diaries” a few weeks ago, and has the preview of the first light novel up on their site for subscribers. Fun stuff. Our Heroine, Maomao, is an apothecary in ancient China, formerly working as a medic for a brothel before she was unceremoniously bundled up and sold off as a menial servant in the Imperial Harem. She spends some time bored stiff doing laundry for the wives and servants, and then her talents come in handy when she recognizes the source of the “curse” threatening two of the consorts who have actually managed to have children. And with that, things take off...

There’s a certain element of “ancient Chinese ‘House, MD’” to it, which I find deeply amusing.

Seconding this.  I've been reading it on Mangadex, and it's surprisingly fun.

She's kinda crazy in that she's experimented on herself with all kinds of poisons and venoms, and as such has developed an immunity to all kinds of nasty things.  (Not the silly "Tank it like its nothing" immunity - she'll still have the usual reactions.  It's just not immediately lethal to her.)  To the point, in fact, that she considers some poisons to be delicacies for the tongue.

Added fun: Those of you who are reading "Beware of Chicken"?  Maomao in "The Apothecary Diaries" is the basis for Meiling in "Beware of Chicken".

[classicdrogn]

Would you happen to be watching Super Cub? It's a comfy, low-key sort of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime this season, in this case riding the titular small-engine motorcycles. ISTR you do have a liking for that sort of thing, and even I, whose tastes tend more toward typical shonen action usually, find it adorable and the characters engaging. Episodes 1-3 form a decently complete character arc if you have time to give it a try.

[nemonowan]

From this season, I'd recommend "Odd Taxi". It's been compared to a Cohen brother's movie , a slow, dialogue-driven story about a taxi driver, the people around him, and their multiple crime storylines that seem to be in a collision course against each other

[ECSNorway]

Manga review: Himenospia.

Our Heroine is a bullied high-school girl. And when I say 'bullied' I mean 'she wishes she was Taylor Hebert' level of absolute horror.

Until the day she's stung by an odd wasp, at which she suddenly gains the ability to 'sting' others. The 'sting' kills men, but women fall under some fairly serious mind-control and are utterly devoted to her. She promptly takes over the school, turns her bullies into devoted friends, and everything is nice.

And then the government notices her. It seems she isn't the first one of these 'wasp people' they've encountered. There's a special government task force researching it and dealing with outbreaks like hers. Dealing with them extremely violently.

And so things get worse. And every time she seems to think she's settled things and can just get along with her life, they get even more worse.

I will be entirely blunt: If you were turned off of 'Worm' because of the grimderp? This is most definitely not for you. It is 'Worm' turned up to eleventy-leven with a side of porny yuri 'romance'.

If you actually like grimderp oversexualized horror? Go for it. But don't say I didn't warn you.

[classicdrogn]

Thanks for the warning.

[ECSNorway]

For those who enjoyed the Apothecary Diaries manga, a note: Amazon has the first LN for sale, the second hits Mondayish, and the third in September. J-Novel Club has the entirety of the second and the first couple of chapters of the third viewable for members.

[ECSNorway]

For once, something not Japanese in this thread!

Great little British TV series: The Bletchley Circle.
The stars of the show are a group of women who worked as codebreakers during WW2. Years after the war, having more or less dissatisfactorily settled into civilian life, a string of mysterious murders catches the eye of one of them and she starts investigating, applying the skills they learned breaking Nazi codes to tracking the killer. There are two ‘seasons’ covering three separate cases, and a follow-on series which takes two of them to San Francisco and introduces some of their American colleagues in a longer story arc. All while having to juggle their investigations with home and family life and keeping the secrets of their still-highly-classified wartime work.

[ECSNorway]

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/bani...servation/

"Banished Villainess - Under Observation"

Chloe Sereknight, daughter of a Duke, former fiancee of a prince, has been exiled after being accused of harassing the Prince's commoner friend Momo, when she gets replaced by the isekai'jin. Standard Otome Game Villainess Insert setup. And she's off on her way to the convent, and of course a variety of adventures happen.

The gimmick is, the story is told entirely from the perspective of the Prince and his friends, who are observing through a magic widget carried by the knight who is escorting Chloe to her exile.

[ECSNorway]

So, for those who don't know what Xianxia is, it's a Chinese genre that... well, I'm sure you all know Wuxia. If Wuxia is Batman, Xianxia is Superman. It takes all the tropes and turns them up to eleven. It's apparently very popular, especially as a target for isekai stories. Unfortunately it appears that about ninety percent of Xianxia protagonists are, well, total jackoffs.

For a take on the subject that's not going to turn your stomach, I suggest Yrsillar's "Forge of Destiny". It started as a quest on SpaceBattles and has moved on from there.

Our Heroine, Ling Qi, is a commoner street rat and petty thief. She also, apparently, has a talent for developing her qi, which gets noticed by a passing Imperial Minister. Said Minister arranges for her to get admitted to one of the many martial-arts-qi-developing-ancient-chinese-kung-fu-wizard Sects that are the primary setting of most Xianxia stories. Arriving there she finds herself in the company of wealthy noble kids who generally have years of experience with this stuff already while she's a raw beginner. And regarded as something of a small-town hick by most of them. It doesn't help that her roommate is regarded by most of the rest as the local incarnation of Kodachi Kuno.

So off she goes to work her butt off "cultivating" her qi, learning to be an ancient-chinese-kung-fu-wizard, and trying her best not to get casually killed off by offending the wrong noble. (She doesn't quite manage the second half of that last...) And, just maybe, eventually, figure out this whole 'romance' thing. If the world doesn't get destroyed first.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21188/...of-destiny

[nemonowan]

For a take on the subject that's not going to turn your stomach, I suggest Yrsillar's "Forge of Destiny". It started as a quest on SpaceBattles and has moved on from there.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21188/...of-destiny

I'll second the recommendation.

Just a detail though: the SpaceBattles quest is still ongoing, and what Yrsillar posts on Royal Road is the same story a bit more fleshed out. So if you want to know what happens later and inluence the direction of the story, by all means join the quest.

[Norgarth]

Beware of Chicken is another SI-into-wuxia/xianxia story that's pretty good.

Updates M/W/F mostly.

[ECSNorway]

Beware of Chicken is lots of fun. MC gets dropped into the life of a guy who’s just had the shite beaten out of him by his fellow disciples, and decides “fuck this shit, I’m outta here”, and runs off to be a farmer in Nowheresville. Needless to say, Shenanigans have scrambled after him and have just gotten wilder.

I have to add in a rec for The Last Ship in Suzhou as well. Chinese-American teens David and Alice find themselves dumped into Xianxia-land in the ruined temple of a dead Sect which appears to have adopted them anyway. Among other things gives a good view of the difference in perspective that being an immortal kung-fu-wizard qi cultivator gives one. (“Sure, it’s a shit job, but somebody’s got to do it, and the rota only gets you once a century or so, so who cares?” / “Wanna go for lunch?” “Sure, it’s been a decade or two since I ate last, let’s go.”)

[classicdrogn]

So, getting back to anime, one of the shows this season is Kaijin Kaihatsu-bu no Kuroitsu-san, aka Miss Kuroitsu of the Monster Development Department. Basically, it's a Kamen Rider show from the perspective of one of the techs who make the Monster of the Week (who is naturally a cute girl, because anime) as she struggles with conflicting and changing project requirements, deadlines that possibly involve actual death, her irresponsible immediate superior, and the corporate culture of an evil organization aiming for world domination via wacky one-off monsters with superpowers. So, you know, completely relatable to anyone who's ever been a wage-slave. I've only watched a couple episodes so far, but it's funny and cute, so at least a tentative recommendation.

[Black Aeronaut]

Another entry from the Female-Protagonist-Isekai division.  Refreshingly, not an Otome-Villainess or Helpless Healer sub-type, but instead the more rarely seen "Girl is Reincarnated as freakin' Superman".  And one with a seemingly more realistic take, at that.

https://mangadex.org/title/b6f8c7b9-eeae...ou-desu-ne
(English Title: "It Seems My Body Is Completely Invincible")

I'm only a few chapters in, but it looks great so far.  Against the more deconstructionist take, it manages to balance just about the right amount of comedy.  One of my favorites so far is in Chapter 6 where, after a friend mentions to the protagonist that she just said something that the resident musclehead of their cohort would say (and in the process dealing a nearly fatal level of emotional damage), said musclehead literally Beatlejuices them by popping up like a prairie dog (keep in mind, they're on a veranda on the second floor) and going, "You rang?" for a two-gags-for-the-price-of-one double-whammy.

(And it's immediately followed up by the obligatory-personal-maid of the protagonist failing to maintain her composure when said musclehead drops the exact same line the protagonist dropped in the very next page.)

A fun read so far.