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Young magical girls, violence and suffering – not really an outliner these days but rather par of the course.

Nogi Wakaba does have an additional theme and that is a fight against government that is oppressive against its subjects but in a way that one could say that objectively they are doing it for a perceived greater good rather than hiding a greedy objective. In other words, the power of propaganda used as a morale boost in otherwise pretty grim situation.

Now the issue is that there is not much confrontation there. While it’s understandable that bunch of teenage girls won’t usually do much against ... “the system”, they still are much too headbowing for my standards. Not only are teenage years the prime age for some rebelling against authority, those girls hold the strongest bargaining cards of being the only ones available for saving humanity, yet we don’t ever see them using this chip to bargain, not even an attempt at bluff of no longer helping with the fight. Even if it would fail I strongly feel that at lack of even an attempt of doing so breaks the suspension of belief for me. So despite strong opening with highlight of censorship and possible government overreach, the novel does little with the topic, which is a pity.

What is on the other hand overdone is the angst and how bitter is the general population shown to be. While hero being confronted with juxtraposition between their heroic deeds and the still bad lives of common people is a common trope for a reason, here the behavior feels really rushed, like there’s a volume of development missing, as there isn’t much justification for people turning against the heroes co quickly. Yes, people will get unreasonably angry, but they in generally wouldn’t be so unreasonable as to do a 180 of their behavior towards literally the only people keeping them alive after one failure. Sure, possible symbolism and all that, but the plot element just feels way too hamfisted in and not prepared for enough. But credit when it’s due, the writing does really good job at making you hate the hateable characters, so you do end up clashing with your rational side telling you it is too over the top while the emotional side is enjoyably wishing for downfall of the fools who dared to hurt the protagonists.

Overall, this title doesn’t do anything other titles didn’t already do, so I’d recommend it mainly for fans of the franchise – it is a supplementary prequel work after all.

This novel cost me many almost sleepless nights. Each evening, I would plan to read a chapter of so before falling asleep. Each time, I would suddenly come to senses after finishing a volume and realizing it’s around 3 A.M.. I would not learn from this and I would do this mistake again and again. This should already speak tremendously about how catchy Ascendance of a Bookworm is.

Isekai is a genre that at this point feels like an overused old rag that is more likely to dirty the floor more than to clean it. Yet still, once in a while there is a gem that ... makes it worth trying out all the various titles to find it. However, Honzuki excels not above the isekai genre alone, but above the light novel medium in general. Truly, reading through it made me realize again just how much the usual LN lacks in writing department – having only the barebones content, barren dialogue and not much to lead the reader’s imagination through. Honzuki is the direct opposite to that, the scenes and situations are so vividly and colourfully written I was simply lost in the fantasy world in portrayed, as if I was actually watching in, perhaps even as if I was actually there. This really is one of those amazing books that just transport you inside them. It’s quite fitting that a book about bookworm offers such genuinely nice feelings towards bookworms, offering them exactly one the ideal fantasy book should do.

At the core of Honzuki is its protagonist Myne, and she serves as a good example how well the characters of the novel work out. Being isekai’d is not just a plot device to transform a relatable protagonist into a fantasy world, no, it’s a major plotpoint thanks to which Myne is able to function in the new world as more than just commoner. She doesn’t get some superpower or cheat items handed out though, no. She doesn’t even get an explanation about what is going on and has to put it all together herself. On the contrary of getting a cheat item, she straight out receives a debuff, being reborn into a weakly body. So while she can use her knowledge of our world to gather profit and status in the new world, she’s definitely unable to do it on their own, and has to depend on others to do the work. Of course, others won’t do what she says simply because they sense out her being a protagonist, she actually has to earn the trust, loyalty and resources. This works so much better than an universally likeable MC by anyone else than the obvious villain, which is the usual case. It also gives the secondary characters a chance to shine, as they have their own goals and motivations and stand out as actual people, not just background cardboard cut-out.

Even Myne’s ability to be able to actually recreate items from our world is explained (as a reminder, average person from our world wouldn’t know how to make everyday items despite using them), and this serves not just as an excuse for the plot to work, but also as a writing tool to deepen and showcase her relationship to others. Later in the story some might claim that Myne Is turning into an overpowered Mary Sue, but I’d have to heavily disagree with that. Firstly, her abilities were once again not simply handed out to her, but mostly earned through her actions and decisions, even is sometimes unintended by Myne. Secondly, considering the situations she finds herself in and her already existing debuffs (or perhaps at this point one could call them well written character flaws) makes it that the current Myne isn’t OP – it’s more that she has the bare minimum resources to be able to survive, both socially and literally.

This ties in to the main themes of the novel, as some might be surprised this is mainly about business and politics. Again though Honzuki stands out by doing things differently – the protagonist isn’t a genius ‘I’m already 500 moves ahead of you fool” protagonist. She simply has her goal and being involved in business and politics was a by-product of trying to achieve it (thanks to which the inclusion of these elements feel completely natural) and has to take literal lessons to be able to navigate through those unfamiliar systems. Honzuki isn’t the type of novel where you see clever schemes and plans and execute them to the reader’s satisfaction, although you might observe the other characters doing exactly that. No, rather than that, Myne is an oblivious but resourceful girl that serves as ball of unintended chaos wrecking plans of others and not even noticing it many times, to reader’s great amusement. So while Honzuki might not be so great for readers who seek mainly action based series, I would suggest it even to those usually not fond of politics-based series as it has quite unusual approach to it. And fear not, there are action scenes here too, and when one comes, it gives some really nice thrill. Both the politics and the battles are written in exciting way that really describes the tension well and you are celebrating the victory or mourning the losses together with the characters.

Regarding other characters, I’ve already mentioned how they actually have their, well, characters. This I can prove by me actually remembering the names even of minor ones despite Honzuki having a huge character cast and despite me usually struggling with remembering names – though that usually being caused by the non-main characters being boring, and this isn’t the case here. Honzuki is even the rare occasion for which I would absolutely recommend reading the side stories too (which are thankfully included in the English licensed volumes), as they delve even more into the side character side of thins and actually complement the main plotline greatly. I’m usually inclined to skip side stories, but those here are delightful to read, and it’s also fascinating how much more can you learn about characters when told through non-protagonist point of view and how much depth that can add to both the characters, the story and the worldbuilding. As an additional note about characters, Honzuki also has amazing villains, the type that you just love to hate, trust me.

And yes, finally the worlbuilding, the other biggest strength of Honzuki next to the characters. I’ve already mentioned how you can imagine the world really well while reading this series, and this is thanks to not only to how it’s written, but also thanks to it consistent worldbuilding that just keeps making sense. This isn’t just medieval Europe with magic thrown in like with most fantasy worlds, this truly feels like other world and even makes it a point multiple times how our common sense simply doesn’t apply – point so big you could even call it a plotpoint, considering how this affects Myne’s behaviour and progress. Indeed, Myne has to consciously try to not come off as, using her own words “creepy little girl that knows too much” to others that actually have common sense of the new world, not of our. Also, any “infodumping” is not done through a narrator but through the characters themselves in a way that feel natural (although situations of apprenticeship and scholarship do help with adding a natural infodumping). And it’s not always “this Is what you should known Protagonist”, sometimes we learn things about the world because same as us, the protagonist did not know something, made a mistake do to that and only came to know the information as a way to learn from her mistakes. Again, she is far from being a Mary Sue.

I could point out much more specific scenes that made me love the novels, but this review is already long enough and I would also like for you to discover them themselves. I of course recommend this series without a hesitation, though I should also warn you it might become quite addictive, and you might be even become desperate to seek and wish for new content, especially after you finish reading the series.

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to read this side story collection years after finishing the original manga. Or maybe it was. You see, I believe side stories should still have some merit on their own. Something more than just „oh yeah I recognize those characters from the parent work“.

Bonus Track is, in its core, just a mild melodramatical brief look into selected characters life. Slightly better than the more tame of Harlequin’s romances, but not by much. The last chapter is technically speaking a sort of epilogue, but doesn’t really do much more than the original epilogue of the original work. So, it ... didn’t exactly deliver on the additional value over just featuring the characters from the franchise.

The art is functional, but not the best. It has the typical lack of shading and backgrounds, and so comes off as lazy with some of the panels.

Ultimately I’m quite sure people are gassing up this title because of its relation to the franchise, not based on the content itself.

To give proper justice to Solo Leveling anime, the animation must be top notch. The action scenes are the main attraction here and one would it’s the only one.

So the first episode set quite a rough start. Somehow, A-1 Pictures managed to turn everything more… bland. And I’m not just talking about how they Kiritoized Jinwoo. The whole setting just screams generic, the lightning is all wrong and dull. And it’s not just the first episode, the fights aren’t engaging for a good half of the series. Now to give credits where due, the fight against Kang had a few good moments and the ... final fight against Igris was all good. But here lies the problem the level of quality the studio finally managed to achieve in the last to the final episode should have been the bare minimum for all fights to even have a chance to be a decent adaptation.

Okay, I get it, I’ll stop with only comparing it to the original. So, how fares just the story? Very obviously it’s a power fantasy, and not very inspired one. The absolute most weakling gets chosen by the system, steroided up and suddenly he’s getting more and more overpowered, desired by the women while sticking to the sigma grindset (can’t show him actually pursuing the girls as that would break the literally me immersion). Not great, but not exactly terrible. It clearly aims for the younger teenager audience and if you belong in that demographic and enjoy Solo Leveling, you’re not wrong doing so. However, the audience that already had their fill of this kind of storytelling is unlikely to get satisfied with just that. It certainly doesn’t help that some parts of the already unsatisfying worldbuilding got cut off to simplify the anime.

I’ll be honest, I’m not anything like a diehard fan of the original – but the potencial for a great action packed series was certainly there, especially if they go off by the novel rather than the webtoon. What it needed was some change to the ambience and framing to make the tone more sinister and dangerous, and slap some really good storyboarding on the action encounters. There are plenty of moments that could be great if they got some classic ufotable treatement. Or really at least more sakuga moments in general.

Talking about changes, the Japanese localization is silly. It’s usually Japan that gets localized, but they are the perpetrators this time. Changing the character names to random Japanese names makes no sense. Like, not even on surface level of “there is no reason to do this”, there is actually a large story significance to the main cast being Korean while some other characters being Japanese. At first I thought this meant the studio would for sure have no plan to adapt that part of the story and we’ll only get one season. But 2nd part was already announcent, so this might be… interesting.

Basically they took a work that already desn’t have the best of stories and gave it the generic isekai seasonal treatement. It's mediocre, but there is an audience for it. Though personally I think the overall ratings would be much lower if this didn't have an already pre-eexisting fanbase.

An existential crisis and questioning of what it even means to be a human within the first pages, now this is what Ghost in the Shell is truly about.

In this collection of stories you get the good old mixture of action and philosophy, the cyberpunk techtopia mystery the franchise is known for. Despite each part being by a different author, the stories feel quite consistent in its word and writing, and while they range in quality, the quality range keeps within good to great.

While we see some familiar characters from Section Nine, most of the protagonists are new, which is welcomed as it explores new ... concepts regarding the cyberbodies and such.

The writing style for all parts lends itself well to describe the action flow and the scenes well enough that this is some of those books when you can just see the imagination movie of it playing in your head while reading it.

If you’re looking to cleanse your palette after the disappointment that SAC 2045 was, this is certainly the title to go to see that modern GiTS still has potential.

Hyouge Mono is the kind of work that’s just so unique for it to be no real equal. It’s a combination of a niche topic and a quality writing you just won’t see elsewhere. It is pieces like this that make me glad I started reading manga, as otherwise I’d completely miss out on this.

The protagonist s delightfully relatable. He’s simultaneously self-centered and human-like greedy, and looking for a bigger purpose in his life. He lives, learns and adjusts accordingly.

Furuta molds the story and the story is molded by him, the complete opposite of a one-dimensional character. The stormy youth, the midlife crisis, the ... elderly wisdom, Furuta keeps changing while remaining a consistent character. At some point you are guaranteed to relate to him.

While being set in Sengoku Era, unlike most such works Hyouge Mono uses war as more of a backdrop to the characters lives rather than the central focus, in a way that feels quite more realistic. Rather than war, the central theme is one that is sure to be relatable to many anime watchers – the question “What is a masterpiece?”

Beyond philosophies that are still applicable to this day, this manga also offers intriguing look into the art of the time period, in a way that shows the reader just why exactly the potteries not unlike one that you can get in best buy nowadays used to be treasured so much, and just how the techniques of craft have developed thanks to technological advances. And the art featured in this manga is either inspired by real historical pieces or literally is real historical pieces.

If I had to pick up one flaw, it’s that if you make big pauses between reading the volumes, are might get lost in the smaller subplots and who are all the minor characters and their significance. Especially since as mentioned, the characters do change gradually.

The arstyle is captivating with its mixture of rough and detailed. While most of the time the art depicts simply characters talking, once in a while there is a dynamic page that tears through the page to reach the reader, one that would make an action manga jealous. And it’s not just battle scenes where this technique is used, sometimes a character walking or such are depicted this way and it’s the perfect fit with the charismatic eccentrics. Talking about eccentrics, the character design is also really good here, with many varying designs that completely dodge the same face issue while still staying within the realm or normal non-supernatural humans. And not only do the facial features and expressions serve greatly the personalities, there is additional thing that is quite rare to see. It’s the realization that you can see character’s lineages. Not to the silly extent of a child being 1:1 of a parent or exactly half of each of the parents, but that you can see similar (yet still distinct as a standalone character) features within the blood related families. As Hyouge Mono story dips into lineage-related politics, this helps greatly with keeping the world feel reals.

So yeah, if you’re even slightly interested in either history or just manga for mature audience in general, absolutely do pick up this one. Now that it’s finally completely translated.

Note that this review is mainly for the first 5 novels. While that might sound like a tiny portion out of the over hundred ones, this is because only those are properly translated. The rest is currently only available through machine translation.

When I picked up the first volume, I was a bit disappointed at first. It felt just like a very generic fantasy novel with nothing much interesting. However, after the first third or so of the volume, the more intriguing part of the story and worldbuilding started coming. So at the very least I would suggest finishing the first volume if you ... want to get into the series. Of course, Guin Saga might have some big expectations to fill – it might not be that famous in west, but in Japan it’s a legendary work and not only because of its length.

Okay, okay, that’s enough of the preface, what is actually good about it? Well, it mixes the classic macho conan-like fantasy elements that are simply cool with high fantasy and intriguing political and warfare plots. The specific point when I realized I actually quite like it would be the realization that almost 3 volumes were spent on description of basically a single battle encounter – and it was done with amazing description and explanation of strategy that was not overcooked enough to feel like overcooked badly written military genius but rather felt like reading the Art of War again. A delightfully written conflict with the proper context given to the motivations and the decisions behind both the tactics and the character motives. A battle that furthered both the plot and the character development. I fell in love.

The characters too are strength of Guin Saga, each with their own goals and personalities, helping the world feel alive rather just being a background to protagonist’s antics. Hell, sometimes you can’t even be sure who is truly the protagonist. The clash of the personalities, goals and methods of approach make for a great conflict and more than just black and white good vs. bad story.

That is also why I yearn for proper translation, as some of the changes the characters go through are so very interesting (well, it is a long series after all), but a text where “Doal” is changed to “doll”, “chapters” become “episodes” and the text can’t decide on genders of the characters it feels more struggling having to read every sentence with extra care to discern the original meaning. It’s better than no translation at all, but I feel like it’s more of a starting point for a quality check by human and in it’s current form it’s only for the most desperate. It’s truly a shame that the English release got axed as I feel that with proper marketing this would be sure to find audience among fans of classic western fantasy novels. But that is info simply for people looking to read this, the quality of translation is not something I take into consideration when giving score to a series.

„We have Holo no Graffiti at Home“
The Hologra at home:

Look, I get that it’s poor manners to center a review around comparing the work to some other work, but in this case it’s just a straight up blatant rip-off. The execs saw the success of the Hololive shorts and set out to imitate it. And it’s a mild, low-hanging imitation that utterly fails at what made the original great. It’s tame, the jokes don’t land and it *really* hinges on you already liking the characters instead of featuring comedy that can stand on its own. This feels like one of those bootleg movies from $1 ... bins that hope you get them on an accident instead of the actual movie you wanted to get.

I don’t think I’ve laughed even once during all of the episodes, so as a comedy this utterly failed for me. That said, comedy is hardly an universal experience, so maybe there will be someone who did actually like this?

The usual unexpected girlfriend trope, this time with an „android substitute princess inseki fantasy“ twist. Well, I say twist, but the content is really mild. Don’t expect some deeper themes or engaging dialogue from this one.

Fake Fake princes is simply some daydream content with light comedy to it. It doesn’t do much, but it also doesn’t attempt to do much. I’m not really hating on it as it doesn’t pretend to be better than i ti. It’s simply the sidedish of the medium, a non-heavy non-pretentious piece of fiction to lend few glances to. It’s not bad, it’s not good, it just is. Were ... it longer, it would most likely be too obnoxious to read through, but as a short read it still manages to fit within the real of „okay“.

Still, there isn’t much of specific things to comment on for this title, neither praises nor critiques.

Under the guise of night, a poorly drawn handjob is being given in a car. A few sentences that try to have a deeper meaning, but only serve as a background to bishounens kissing so the readers wouldn’t feel embarrassing that they are reading simple pure porn. A hint of possible story, but nothing specific enough to actually make the character stand out. Guns on the cover and badass poses which are both just a clickbait and wholly irrelevant to the few pages of content this doujinshi actually has.

Well, basically just another bl one-shot in long line of meaningless fanservice bl one-shots.