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About this blog

This is a blog primarily focusing on but not limited to VNs.  It is primarily designed to express my opinion on otaku media (jrpgs, anime, manga, LNs, VNs, etc), individual VNs, and otaku community issues.   Most of the posts are related to my VN of the Month and Random VN columns, originally started in threads in the forums. 

As of March of 2017, I'm also looking for people to help with VN of the Month.

Entries in this blog

Japanese literature

The Ups and Downs of Web Novels and Light Novels

I'll go ahead and begin with an intro to my current experience with Light Novels and Web Novels in Japanese.  For the last two years, I've been reading them at a rate of 60-100 chapters a day (faster in the case of below-average size chapters).  I primarily read fantasy with a side of science fiction (no, not just isekai, though I love isekai).  This isn't hard, because fantasy and science fiction make up over three-quarters of all the LNs and Web Novels out there.  This is a bit ironic to my ey
Japanese literature

Random Translation: Anata no Tenshoku wa 'Daiyoukai' Desu Chapter 2

[Hey, your Mom is an evil woman (toxic woman)!] [I... I can't argue with that.] (Move... Move!  Move!  Move, please!  If I don't move now...!!) He tries to move his legs to get away from the three approaching him. However, he can't move. His body won't move an inch.  It is as if he's being tied down by an invisible something. (What is this!?  What is this!?  This is... what is it...?  It's as if I'm being enveloped in something...) At that moment, something was refl
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Web Novel: Isekai Buyuuden Kakutou Ou ga Isekai o Iku (and the sequel)

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n8490cj/ https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4499fl/ This series is the latest gem I came across.  It isn't the only one I came across, but I've decided to only present ones that have gone over 200 chapters without getting boring, which is a very small proportion of the web novel population, lol. In this series, Earth's greatest bare-handed fighter, a master of qi and warfare unmatched on our planet, walks through a tunnel to an alternate version of Earth where ma
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A few WNs

Isekai Tensei ni Kansha wo This is a warmhearted isekai where an elderly gamer with diabetes and other health problems gets reincarnated while playing a full-dive VR game.  In his new youthful body, he sets out to be an adventurer using the skills he purchased at the beginning of the game.  In the process, his kind and wise nature draws in a lot of people and eventually results in his first romantic relationships in his life.   Overall, this story is easygoing and warm-hearted from beg
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Japanese literature

WN: Skill ga Mieta Nidome no Jinsei wa Chouyoyuu, Hatsukoi no Hito to Tanoshiku Sugoshitemasu

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/1177354055057378382 This is a short and complete series about a guy who dies and is reincarnated in a parallel version of himself, where he could see his status and has a skill that rewards him for repetitive actions.  Generally speaking, this story doesn't really have any complex elements.  The protagonist is something of an idiot about things he isn't interested in while being highly effective at learning and mastering things he does have an interest in.  He does
Japanese literature

WN: Ankoku Kishi Monogatari

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/1177354054885318680 This particular WN is one where the protagonist is summoned... by the demon lord to save him from the hero!  The protagonist, Kuroki, becomes a Knight of Darkness and faces off with his trauma - the hero in question - and begins a story of endless misunderstandings and plot twists. That is, in fact, the peculiar flavor of this story.  Over 90% of Ankoku Kishi Monogatari's characters are self-absorbed pricks on some level, with the gods bein
Japanese literature

WN: Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen mochi datta nanode

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3581fh/ This series is the odd one out of my recent reviews.  That is because it is a sci-fi story that contains a bit of Cowboy Bebop, a bit of Outlaw Star, and even a small dose of Tenchi Muyo(albeit a weak version with less mystic elements).  The protagonist, Hiro, wakes up in the cockpit of his ship Krishna from the game he had been playing for the past few years.  He has no memory of how it came to that, and his ship is floating around a random asteroid in a
Japanese literature

WN: Anata no Tenshoku wa 'Daiyoukai' Desu

This particular WN is the first I've read that isn't another world fantasy or isekai.   The first thing I found myself comparing this to was Devils Devel Concept.  Why?  There are a lot of reasons, but a lot of it is that the protagonist is a monster in human skin and most of the characters remind me of the characters from that VN.   The setting is based six hundred years after the near-destruction of civilization earth due to a massive war (basically WWIII), and humans have the option
Japanese literature

WN: Imouto no Iru Seikatsu

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n6442ez/ This particular series is another reincarnation story, but it stands out because the entirety of the story so far is concentrated in his childhood, where he is constantly dealing with problems beyond his abilities, faced with situations where revealing his true abilities would harm his family, and generally trying to keep his yanderish little sister from being lonely.  His name is Alto Cranepot, and he is the bastard son of a noble who married into an Earl
Japanese literature

WN: Seichou Cheat de Nandemo Dekiru you ni Narimashita ga, Mushoku dake wa Yamerarenai you desu

This particular series follows a guy who dies after being trampled by an escaped horse as he is revived in another world and told to live freely.  He is given two major growth cheats right up front (20 times experience gain, plus 1/20 experience to next level) and becomes immensely powerful in a relatively short time, while gathering a group of friends and lovers around him (he only has two lovers, which is pretty low compared to most isekai protagonists).   Throughout most of the story, he
Japanese literature

WN: Sairin Yuusha

To be honest, Sairin Yuusha is one of the worst WNs I've ever read.  I kept reading until it cut off because I thought it would eventually get good, but the protagonist is weak and there is never any real progress with the heroine.  The story itself is a revenge story about a hero who is murdered by his own party right before he is about to fight the Demon King.  Thirty years later, he is summoned again and starts on a journey of revenge, forming an alliance with a former demon queen and general
Japanese literature

WN: Maou-gun Saikyou no Majutsushi wa Ningen Datta

This particular WN is remarkable for a lot of reasons.  The protagonist of this story is reincarnated in another world as the adopted son of a lich general in the service of Dairokuten Maou (lol, if you can guess who else got reincarnated, I'll clap in congrats), and he joins the demonic armies as a commander while hiding the fact that he is human behind a skull mask and lich's robes.  The story itself begins after he has already begun to become famous as a conquering commander but before his re
Japanese literature

WN: Cheat Majutsu de Unmei o Nejifuseru

To be honest, this is probably the best of the last six WNs I've read in the last month.  It is also complete.  This one is a 'same world, different protagonist' story from the same world as Elf Tensei kara no Cheat Kenkokuki, and the protagonist of that one is the father one of the two heroines.  However, even if you haven't read the first story, this one stands on its own quite well. The protagonist, Souji, was a player of a game on Earth that was insanely realistic, with time compression
Japanese literature

[Edit] 4 WNs

Niito Dakedo Hello Work ni ittara Isekai ni Tsuretakareta This is a WN by Katsura Kasuga.  An unemployed NEET named Masaru goes to Hello Work (the official Japanese employment agency) and signs a contract for what he thinks is playing a video game, and instead he gets dropped into a world about to be destroyed (or so he is told) and told to test Itou's (apparently that world's god) new skill system for twenty years (incidentally, the amount of time until the end of the world).  If he surviv
Japanese literature

WN: Hell Mode

(Note: To be clear, this is an unfinished VN with over 500 chapters) Hell Mode is the WN I recently began (and finished to the current point) reading.  It is another reincarnation one, where the protagonist was a heavy gamer who is one of those types that loves high-difficulty setups, reveling in grinding, conquering dungeons, and generally indulging in his desire to see more.  He goes to a website where he gets the choice of difficulty and his job, and he picks the hardest difficulty Hell
Japanese literature

WN: Omake Tenseisha

Omake Tenseisha is the story of a girl who lived through hell on earth and had a new hell waiting for her when she was tossed aside by the gods and reincarnated again.  For those who have read a Snake's Life or Kumo, this will be a story that is somewhat familiar.  The protagonist is fairly similar to Kumoko (naturally ruthless, tends to think cheerfully most of the time, ends up eating everything that is her enemy, lol).   The story itself is one long 'driven out of a town', 'ate everythin
Japanese literature

WN: Isekai de Skill o Kaitaishitara Chito no Yome ga Zoushokushimashita

To be blunt, this WN is a straight-out slave harem story in another world.  The protagonist is a run-down salaryman who escaped a black company workplace only to end up summoned to a world where the king was raring to put his summoned heroes to work.  Quite naturally, the protagonist wants nothing to do with this, so he arranges to get himself thrown out of the castle and goes off on his own.   The protagonist, like most summoned heroes, has a unique skill (typical of this kind of story). 
Japanese literature

WN: Hazurewaku no "Joutai Ijou Skill" de Saikyou ni Natta Ore ga Subete wo Juurin suru made

This WN, also published in the West as Failure Frame, is a variant on the 'isekai summoning' genre where the summoner is malicious toward the summoned.  This particular sub-genre has become more common of late (since the straight-up good people summon heroes out of desperation setup has gotten stale), but this one stands out to me for the sheer evil and brutality of the antagonist (the goddess) and the protagonist (who is probably the epitome of an anti-hero in its most brutal form).   One
Japanese literature

WN: Ikidaore no Shoujo o Hirotta to Omottara Mirai no Maou Datta

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7471fo/34/ This is a very short WN I read on a whim over the course of a few hours.  It is complete for what it is, and what it is isn't what you'd think.  The protagonist is a reincarnator who was reborn in a game world, where he became a rootless traveling mage, sightseeing in the fantasy world he knew from the game.  One day, he comes across a collapsed Dragonkin girl, who turns out to be the demon lord from the game. This story is one of romance and redem
Japanese literature

WN: 29sai Dokushin wa Isekai de Jiyuu ni Ikita...katta

This series is a funny little one by the same author as Surviving in another world with Goshujinsama (not to my taste, as the protag is M and a bit of a hetare, but it is really popular in Japan).  The protagonist of this story is randomly transported to another world by a mischievous evil god (Pretty sure her/his real name starts with Nyarl, like most evil gods of this type in otaku stories) and left to his own devices.  Taking advantage of his high growth rate and ability to pick skills to gro
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Japanese literature

WN: Shinja Zero no Megami-sama to Hajimeru Isekai Kouryaku

This particular WN series falls into the set called 'transference', as opposed to summoning or reincarnation.  The protagonist, Takatsuki Makoto and his classmates freeze to death in a bus buried in an avalanche, only to wake up in another world, inside the Temple of Water, where it is explained to them that they have been saved by the mercy of that world's gods.  They all receive skills and are more powerful than the natives... except for Makoto, whose status doesn't rise when he levels and onl
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Blessing from the Goddess and Transfer to Another World

This particular WN falls into a particular sub-genre of isekai where the protagonist is cast out of a group of people summoned as heroes to another world.  This particular genre began to become popular with Shield Hero, but it has evolved significantly since then.   In this WN, the protagonist is summoned along with eight hundred other people from the same school and is one of two people who are not granted a gift from the goddess.  As a result, he is cast out of the castle and driven from
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LN: The Great Cleric (Seija Musou)

Seija Musou, better known as the Great Cleric for its English release (which I haven't read), is an interesting story about an isekai reincarnator who becomes a cleric purely because he wants to die of old age this time around.   In a way, Luciel, the protagonist, is fairly similar to Satou, the protagonist of Death March, in that his goal isn't to save the world but he ends up doing it anyway.  The biggest difference is that Luciel isn't all-powerful (well, at least not until VERY late in
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LN: Yaritsukai to Kuroneko

To be clear, I haven't finished this particular WN series (at over 900 chapters, all of them of reasonable length, that would take a long time).  I have gotten around halfway through the story, enough to get a solid impression of how this is going to go.  Like most of the LNs/WNs I have been reading lately, it is an isekai story.  This particular story has a different approach compared to the ones I've posted about so far.  First, this story doesn't have a specific antagonist or group of antagon
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Japanese literature

LN: Chiyu Mahou no Machigatta Tsukaikata, Magan to Dangan o Tsukatte Isekai o Buchinuku, Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute

These three I'm only going to introduce to yall because they were the most memorable of the Web Novels/LNs that I read through in the last month. Chiyu Mahou Chiyu Mahou has the protagonist, Usato Ken, being summoned by accident along with two heroes.  Usato, being a kind-hearted young man to the core, isn't particularly annoyed or angered by this (Kazuki, one of the two heroes is more bothered by it than he is), but he has the misfortune to have a talent for healing magic, meaning he
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