Dreamysyu

Well, if you like the comedy, then you'll most likely love the next volume then. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, I guess, if I'm not the only person posting in this thread anymore, I guess, I'll post about a few other things that I read recently. So I'm a Spider. So What? I caught up with the localization (currently at volume 6), and the protagonist is still absolutely hilarious, and, moreover, my worries after finishing the second volume were completely unfounded. The plot twists so far were absolutely amazing, Ever17 level of amazing, and I suspect that it will get even better later on. The writing is also surprisingly solid. It definitely has the most complex story structure I've seen in an LN so far. The reader is only shown some parts of the big picture through different perspective, and it slowly starts making more and more sense as the story progresses, and all the little things that the story made you believe so far turn out to be completely false. Which is exactly why you should not look up anything about this series before starting it, since the spoilers are basically everywhere. I managed to avoid spoilers as I was binge-reading it, but after that I accidentally stumbled upon some big reveals that will happen later. And it doesn't help that many people read the WN version (by the way, I looked it up to see how different some scenes were there, but the translation is unreadable, so I'd definitely recommend to follow the official LN translation like I did). Falling In Love With the Villainess. The rating on NU was really high, and even though this WN never had an official LN release, I didn't really consider it a problem since I know a few other great stories that are the same. Sadly, while it was really intriguing in the beginning, it turned into a massive disappointment by the end of the first story arc, and I dropped it by the middle of the second arc. Starting with the good things. Surprisingly, I liked the romance. While the relationship between Rion and Ariel seemed kind of cancerous at first, it turned really sweet later on! Another thing, not many isekais cover the themes of social equality in the Medieval or early Modern societies, but this one did, and it was pretty interesting to see. Sadly, the plot is just trash. First of all, this is the one type of LN that really didn't need an OP protagonist. It doesn't serve any purpose at all and just makes the experience bland. Secondly, the main "villain", just happens to be even more ridiculously OP, which is the opposite problem for most isekais. I mean, all fictional stories need good balance. Just as with the protagonist, if you make the villain so OP that nothing the main characters can do will change the flow of the events, the story turns extremely predictable and boring. I mean, in this particular case this is not even necessarily true, as there are some hits how the MC will be able to overcome these complications eventually. But the way the author decides to show it, with constant foreshadowing of doom and gloom and remarks of how powerless the main characters are, just gets extremely annoying after a while. You know, ironically, this actually could turn into a really good story if it got an official release where the author would have to rewrite these annoying parts. So far, it has potential, but it's just not there. Even Though I’m a Former Noble and a Single Mother, My Daughters Are Too Cute and Working as an Adventurer Isn’t Too Much of a Hassle. Well it's another story with good potential that just doesn't work because the writing sucks. To be brief, the villains are just comically evil and incompetent, while the good guys are just way too OP and just bland. I mean, I'm not to against OP characters if the book follows on comedy and SOL and not on the actual story, but, for some reason, this one decides to actually focus on the story while it would work a lot better as a healing type SOL. Dropped after 3 volumes. Drop!! ～A Tale of the Fragrance Princess～ Well, it's just a very sweet shoujo novel. The story isn't particularly good, but it's an ideal story to relax to after a hard day. Also, the romance is very sweet, even if it's your typical "the girl doesn't realize her feelings, and the boy is too much of a coward to confess".

From the way the OP talked about it, I thought this thread was about a nukige, lol.

Well, on second thought, I'm not sure. I suspected this might be a bit dark for your tastes, but you like Grisaia, and it can get a lot darker at some points in the story. Also, I feel like the dark parts are mostly there just to make the MC into a cynical chuuni edgelord, and it actually shifts towards more comedic direction starting with the second volume. Excluding the fact that the MC doesn't particularly hesitate to kill anyone who stands in his path. I only read the 4 volumes, by the way, so it can make a complete 180 turn later on, of course. I plan to finish it, but I already spent a bit too much money on entertainment this month.

Oh, hey, welcome back!

Confession: I'm actually a cat irl. Meow!

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Oh, well, here we go. I absolutely agree! The story is absolutely beautiful and deep, and there's a very good reason why its rating on NU is so high. I believe, it was something like 4.9? It's probably one of the highest rated novels there. You know, this is exactly why I like Ascendance of a Bookworm, which just happens to have a reasonably good anime adaptation this season, as much as I do. While Myne herself plays the central role in the story, she is just a sickly little girl and can't really do anything without other people helping her. The other characters are still there, they are just living their own lives in this realistic fantasy world. They have their own problems which they have to deal with. And the worldbuilding is amazing. Really, this is my second favorite LNs of all time, people who read it in Japanese say that it gets even better later on, so there's a good chance that it will become the first. There's no romance though. Apparently, there is some romance in the last third of the story, but the story is gigantic. I think, the original WN had something like 700 or 800 chapters, with only ~70 currently translated in the official translation (and the WN fan-translation isn't that far ahead). To be honest, I dropped it after about half of the first volume. While I'm a big fan of these types of "political" stories, I just didn't like the characters and felt like their interactions exist simply to push the story forward rather than to do anything else. There's another light novel with a similar premise that I know, Accomplishments of a Duke's Daughter, and I personally enjoyed this one a lot more. Sadly, only the manga adaptation is officially available in English, and I wouldn't really recommend reading the WN fan-translation for various reasons. I had to drop it after the translation got kind of bad, plus the manga version, which seems to be based on the LN, is just a lot better at establishing the characters and making them stand out. So, I decided to wait before, maybe, some company decides to license the LN too. Though, I guess, since I've already been waiting for two years, maybe it's time to just read the manga or the WN... Overall, judging by the WN version, it seems to have some similar problems as the Realist Hero (like, most secondary characters are just extremely forgettable), but I guess I just like a proud noblewoman for a MC a lot more than some random Japanese guy. There's no real romance in the part of the story that I read, though I can kind of guess who she will end up with. You know, this story is definitely far from ideal. Still, it has so many little things that just happen to appeal to me on a personal level, so I guess this is the main reason why I like it so much. For example, while it's mostly a light-hearted slice-of-life story, it still manages to build a reasonably interesting and unique fantasy world, and I'm very intrigued where the main story will lead in the future volumes. Still, the best thing about this LN is definitely Mile herself. I just love her seemingly contradicting airheaded genius personality. Actually, there are two other LNs by the same author officially available in English, I Shall Survive Using Potions! and Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement. I read a few WN chapters for both before they were licensed. The translation was absolutely terrible, so I didn't really get very far, but they seemed pretty good, though not really as good as Average Abilities. Saving Gold has the most unique gimmick of the three though. PS. Oh, and this doesn't really seem like your type of story, but I'm actually surprised how quickly Arifureta established the main couple. I mean, they are actually in a relationship by the end of the first volume! Not sure if I've seen another LN do that. Most I read have either late romance or no romance at all.

... I guess, Fuwa is not what it used to be anymore. Because I recall there was a rather long period of time when it seemed like almost the entire forum complained how trashy Grisaia was. (Though in reality this was caused by a few users who were just very vocal about it). As for the topic of this thread, yeah, Grisaia is good. I feel like it's a bit overrated, but it's still pretty well written and extremely entertaining. While I can't say it really excels in anything other than comedy (which may or may not be to your liking), it doesn't really have any major drawbacks either. ... before you get to the last part of the trilogy. Which is trash (and I know my opinion about it is rather unpopular, so don't consider my words too seriously). PS. Oh, and and the second half of Amane's route in Kajitsu is also very good.

Arifureta is such a weeby garbage tbh. And that's exactly that makes it so enjoyable. I guess I'm already too far gone...

To be honest, I'd recommend you to read just as much as you want. I mean, in the end they are just entertainment, and there's no real point in making yourself play them more than you want. Most likely, it will just lead to you burning out. That happened to me at some point. That said, in my case it just depend on how much I like what I'm reading. If I'm really engaged and more or less free, I can easily spend every moment of my free time on reading. Though I don't really think this happened in a really long time... Usually it's just one or two hours a day. Right now it's more or less zero.

I don't know, I tried reading a few WN chapters for these two stories, and I personally found them pretty boring. I might give Killing Slimes another try at some point though. When I comes to isekais with female MCs, I'm personally more excited about So I'm a Spider. So what?, though, admittedly, it's a completely different genre from these two.

Well, according to the last Kickstarter update, they encountered some technical difficulties with the patch, so it's still going to take a while before it's finished, sadly.

Sekai said in one of the previous updates that this won't have any stretch goals. Iirc their reasoning was that they always end up delayed for years.