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Kestral posted:Started reading Souboutei Must Be Destroyed, and I'm struggling with it. Concept is great, and whenever it goes into full horror mode the art is great too, but Takoha is just terrible and Kurenai's not much better. I'm finding myself clicking through pages while only skimming them whenever they're the focus. I'm on Vol 1 Ch 6 - should I continue, or is this just not for me? Yo, I'm the translator and original recommender of the series in this thread. Sooo, you could say I'm one of Souboutei's biggest supporters, haha. I generally tell people to give it 2 chapters and if they're not into it then the series isn't for them. That's because it personally took me until chapter 2 before getting hooked (specifically, the scene with Seiichi). I'm the kind of person who really hates saying things like "it gets better", because beginnings are a vitally important part of telling a narrative and establishing what the storytelling will be like. I've often dismissed series after the first couple pages simply because I hated how the author chose to begin the story [tangent] Mainly when there's some hackneyed 'in medias res' hook that's only there to catch people's attention flipping through the magazine and narratively only serves to (usually) spoil the ending of chapter 1 and ruin any sense of pacing. Please for the love of god start your story at the beginning of the story. Okay sorry, just had to get that out of my system. [/tangent]. And so based on that, I'd *normally* tell you that Souboutei's probably just not your kind of series. However. The main things I'm considering when I ask people to give it a 2nd chapter even if they may not be hooked by the first, are stuff like art style and plot pacing. Because the style definitely takes some getting used to for some people (though I personally adore it). And the pacing of chapter 1 is very disjointed, whereas chapter 2 introduces a more grounded pacing that's more in line with the rest of the series. Your issues are very different though. In fact, you seem to be greatly enjoying the aspects that usually drive people away! So I'm going to respond to your specific issues, and tl;dr my recommendation is that you keep reading. About Takoha, I've certainly heard valid criticism of his character but none that actually address so far early in the series (which is essentially prologue still).Thinking back, I don't really remember how I thought about Takoha when I first read volume 1. Of course I'm not sure why you think he's "terrible" but I can certainly guess at several reasons which I'd find perfectly valid. Everything else aside, Takoha is surely supposed[ to be likable, so there's no doubt the author has failed with you in some way. That being said, characters *do* get development, and you're still in the part of the story where pieces are being set up. And establishing Takoha as more than a reader surrogate is the *last* thing on the author's agenda right now, lol. I can say with certainty that the draw of the series for me was never Takoha's character. And it still isn't (though I do like him). Yet, it's still one of my favorite manga. As for Kurenai, similar things apply. I'm fairly sure you're not expected to be very invested in her, beyond the intrigue of being an exorcist who intends to destroy Souboutei. Plus she gives insight into Rokurou's background and adds intrigue to *his* narrative arc simply by existing. Drawing from my own experience again, I'm fairly sure I wasn't interested in Kurenai as a *person* until a couple volumes in. I *was* interested in her as a narrative element, but yeah. Also, Seiichi and Rokurou are very much main characters on an equal level to Takoha and Kurenai, so if you like those two then you already like half of the main cast. So my conclusion is this: you seem to be enjoying parts of the story that will continue to be in the forefront, and your issues are things that, while they may not stop being issues completely, should not meaningfully impact your enjoyment of the story. There is a LOT more to the story than the characters of Takoha and Kurenai.
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Aug 15, 2020 03:13
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I must say the wish to destroy Souboutei (DESTROY SOUBOUTEI) is incredibly infectious. I just have the most goofy smile on my face while reading it, its great! E:^^ Keep up the good work! e2: Lol at the sass the team gave you though Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Aug 16, 2020 |
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Aug 16, 2020 01:01
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Mr. Steak posted:Can I shill Souboutei Must Be Destroyed...? I just started reading this, and I'm already on Chapter 97. Every time someone says SOUBOUTEI MUST BE DESTROYED I get chills. Everyone has had enough of this house's poo poo. Thank you for the recommendation!
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Aug 17, 2020 01:36
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Rigged Death Trap posted:e2: Lol at the sass the team gave you though lmao those credits pages were so funny. our group leader explains it on the self-congratulations page when we caught up to the raws, but i'll say it with more detail here: that was all some very justified payback for me being having really high expectations of them when they first recruited me (because they wanted the series to get a proper scanlation rather than being solo-scanned by me, lol). at the time, i was really soured by my experience in the previous scan group because they took several months to release each chapter, which is the reason i quit to solo-scan in the first place. also, by then my buffer of completed scripts was already 45 chapters and counting. so I basically entered Death Toll with a whole slew of strict requirements regarding pacing, and pretty much told them outright that i didn't think they'd be able to do it as fast as i wanted (which i now realize came off terribly rude and insulting, but i really want to emphasize how poorly the project had been handled in my last group). the main concerns for me were cleaning and redrawing. because Souboutei, as i'd learned in the previous scan group, is particularly difficult in those areas. the reason it's hard to clean is that the art frequently uses an "ink splatter" sort of effect which can make it very difficult to remove dust from scanned pages while preserving the ink that's intended to be there. and redraws are difficult because the manga frequently uses floating text on top of art, usually on stuff like linework which can't just be clone-stamped. however, Death Toll quickly proved to me that their redrawers very much know what they're doing and considered Souboutei to be, in fact, relatively easy to work on. though there were still concerns about speed due to the sheer *number* of redraws needed in some chapters, it was soon evident that they could easily meet my initial expectations. then fast forward to more recently, and the group had continued to improve their workflow so well that i was finally behind on scripts for the first time. so they took the opportunity to lambaste me endlessly for it in revenge for my earlier actions, lmao.
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Aug 17, 2020 05:42
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Karia posted:Both of those are kind of intense, so let's end with something much more light-hearted. I burned out on Valkyrie 2/3 of the way through the current scanlations, but this one was real good. While the situations get a little repetitive, the chapters short and usually have at least one good gag. About 20ish chapters in the cast starts expanding, and that does a lot to keep things engaging. Also despite being a manga about Shogi, it doesn't really focus too much on how to play the game (it's not one of those cooking mangas were half of each chapter is a recipe) so don't let that deter you if you're looking for a fun rom-com.
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Aug 17, 2020 05:58
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here's a really great one. Asuperu Kanojo (also known as Asperger's Girl or simply Aspergirl)  Yokoi Taku has trouble getting along with people, so he moved to Tokyo as soon as he graduated from high school. He now lives alone, making a living by delivering newspapers and drawing doujinshi, though people totally ignore his non-erotic works. One day, a girl named Saitou Megumi suddenly shows up at his door, claiming that she came all the way from Tottori to meet him because she's a big fan of one of his original works. It ends up that she has faced many hardships herself, and with no intention of leaving, she ends up living with him.   It's a genuinely heartfelt, awkward story of a man and woman who both have some serious problems. It can swing from genuinely hilarious shenanigans to anxiety-inducing panicked scenes at the drop of a hat, and it all works so incredibly well. I really feel for these characters and the series in only a few short volumes so far has made me cry on multiple occasions, it's a really powerful work. It's unabashed with its characters, there are multiple scenes where you will probably be made intensely uncomfortable or embarrassed by their actions, but that's what makes me enjoy these two all the more. It is a somewhat tragic, but ultimately hopeful story, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here. Also, the author has requested english readers petition for an english version if they're interested, via twitter. I'm banned so I can't, but if you can, please do: quote:The author of the manga is requesting people send a message to the editor on Twitter to gauge interest in an official English release. You can find his tweet and the editor's response here Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 20:28
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That one's kind of a hard read. There is some severe mental illness going on there to get through. Probably if that was a real person, it would be a whole assortment of syndromes instead of just Asperger's. Also, I feel like some people will be extremely upset by the dog kicking. Which I guess is probably the point.
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Sep 3, 2020 21:19
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Yes, it's a hard read at times, but it's also really drat good. the dog kicking is really, really rough to see, but it also explores the why, and eventually shows her learning to deal with her issues related to them without violence. also, might be the first time I've seen that fetish mentioned in a manga, and the reaction to it was entirely appropriate
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Sep 3, 2020 21:25
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Captain Invictus posted:also, might be the first time I've seen that fetish mentioned in a manga, and the reaction to it was entirely appropriate What would that be? I'm curious but it doesn't sound like my cup of tea
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Sep 3, 2020 21:26
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101 posted:What would that be? I'm curious but it doesn't sound like my cup of tea "I want a girl to fart in a bag so I can sniff it", I nearly died laughing, I was not expecting that at all Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 21:44
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Some webmanga shorts that I've recently found enjoyable A Manga About The Kind of PE Teacher Who Dies at the Start of a School Horror Film  this is hilarious. a fun twist on the typical trope of big ugly/muscly dude who gets merk'd immediately to show what a threat a horror creature/monster/alien is. Creepy Cat  A nice 4koma about a girl and her creepy, creepy cat in a tim-burton-esque artstyle. Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl  an adorably naive, sheltered girl falls in love with a handsome girl, who has trouble coming out and telling her that she's a girl and not a boy. My First Love Was a Beautiful "Girl"  A boy reunites with the girl he fell in love with as a kid after ten years, only to find out she is actually also a boy, and in charge of a crossdressing club. The Muscle Girl Next Door  unfortunately a short, completed one, about a rail-thin man who falls in love with his super buff neighbor.
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Oct 6, 2020 19:42
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Wow. All of Mangadex is down right now. I wonder if they're getting KissManga'd. Edit: Or did some big chapter of something drop and everybody's flooding the site? Dawgstar fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Oct 6, 2020 |
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Oct 6, 2020 21:58
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Captain Invictus posted:Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl This one gave me Big Trans Feelings. I know neither character is trans, and it's not what the story is about, but the several chapters long song-and-dance of "she thinks I'm a boy but I'm actually a girl, how the hell do I tell her? And if I tell her, will she hate me? Will she leave me? Will she be mad I've deceived her for so long?" feels awfully familiar.
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Oct 6, 2020 22:42
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Dawgstar posted:Wow. All of Mangadex is down right now. I wonder if they're getting KissManga'd. Mangadex goes down constantly
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Oct 8, 2020 06:50
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Anything to recommend out of the current manga Humble Bundle? The only thing I recognize is that NOiSE, the prequel to BLAME!, is a part of it.
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Oct 8, 2020 06:53
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Anything to recommend out of the current manga Humble Bundle? The only thing I recognize is that NOiSE, the prequel to BLAME!, is a part of it. In/Spectre is apparently pretty fun. Gleipnir can be good but it can also feel sleazy, Inuyashiki is by the Gantz guy and everything he makes is technically proficient trash. To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts has a fun premise that it doesn’t live up to
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Oct 8, 2020 07:13
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Mr. Steak posted:Yo, I'm the translator and original recommender of the series in this thread. Sooo, you could say I'm one of Souboutei's biggest supporters, haha. Hello, I just saw this post at the top of the latest page and I want to say thank you for your service and SOBOUTEI MUST BE DESTROYED Seriously, this fast paced fantasy adventure with horror setting is great
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Oct 8, 2020 08:15
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Anything to recommend out of the current manga Humble Bundle? The only thing I recognize is that NOiSE, the prequel to BLAME!, is a part of it. Junji Ito's Cat Diary
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Oct 8, 2020 17:08
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Anything to recommend out of the current manga Humble Bundle? The only thing I recognize is that NOiSE, the prequel to BLAME!, is a part of it. I love zombie stuff that isn't just shamblers/runners, and boy does it go way beyond that poo poo.
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Oct 8, 2020 18:25
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Baron Snow posted:Junji Ito's Cat Diary
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Oct 8, 2020 19:22
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I still haven't read the last volume of Kasane but I thought it was pretty good suspense-drama. Some of the bundle is more cheesy than creepy, and some more splattery than suspenseful, but I think it's a pretty well curated collection overall. And as usual, can't beat that price (unless you read the fan versions for free  )
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Oct 9, 2020 16:24
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there's a manhwa I've recently been following, it's absolutely fantastic. It's called Beware the Villainess, and it's in the typical otome game isekai genre, but don't necessarily let that dissuade you.  It follows the awakened to her reincarnation Melissa Podebrat, villainess of a romance novel series.  she's no shrinking violet or (generally) bumblingly adorable innocent bakarina type; she's sharp, aggressive, and unflinching in the face of the shithead romanceable male leads of the setting.    it's genuinely hilarious and sometimes really intense reading her go at it with the antagonists, never backing down, or if she does so, maintaining her image most of the time. Good at heart but absolutely unwilling to tolerate bullshit. It's a fantastic series and definitely deserves its high rating on mangadex. also I love it whenever she goes into fist of the north star mode.
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Oct 18, 2020 01:04
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Captain Invictus posted:there's a manhwa I've recently been following, it's absolutely fantastic. It's called Beware the Villainess, and it's in the typical otome game isekai genre, but don't necessarily let that dissuade you. I love this series, but I do want to offer one word of caution: it takes a good 20 chapters to get going. However once Melissa starts being proactive it gets awesome and doesn't stop.
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Oct 18, 2020 06:36
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Beastars, formerly one of my favorite series, ended. I really cannot believe how much an incredible series could have poo poo down its own leg until I read Beastars. There's a point after Legosi leaves the academy and starts life in an apartment that is still great, and then after that point, it gets into this immensely tedious and horrible storyline involving the character Melon, an herbivore/carnivore hybrid. So many ideas and plot threads are introduced and immediately dropped(the entire concept of "chimera" and literal loving Stands appears and vanishes in iirc a single goddamn chapter!) you'd swear it was an anthology of short stories trying to string together in the same world rather than one interconnected narrative, and the quality of the series falls off a loving cliff in the last third, with the finale chapters just being downright insulting to the reader. It's incredible, in the literal definition of the word. I will still recommend the series to people, but with the caveat of stopping at a certain point. Man, what a loving bummer. Props to Paru for doing a good job with the first half or so of the series, but boy howdy she should have gone on hiatus or some poo poo instead of trying to force new chapters out constantly when she clearly had no goal in mind. gently caress. Nemo2342 posted:I love this series, but I do want to offer one word of caution: it takes a good 20 chapters to get going. However once Melissa starts being proactive it gets awesome and doesn't stop.
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Oct 19, 2020 02:55
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Captain Invictus posted:I would say it's pretty good even until then, her just dunking on the crown prince is fun as hell. It's not that it isn't good, but it's chapter 21 when she really takes the reigns and the series starts living up to the hype. Before that she's fun, yeah, but largely ineffectual since no one really takes her seriously.
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Oct 19, 2020 04:03
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Captain Invictus posted:Beastars, formerly one of my favorite series, ended. I get the feeling that there was a real struggle with being "Shonen" going on there. The first arcs read more like a Seinen manga than anything else, with the Shonen fights feeling a bit like the worst parts of the whole thing. I can't pin all the fault on Melon, like I've been reading in alot of takes. I actually liked the idea behind Melon and how he and Legosi were set up to mirror each other, but he is poorly used and the plot just falls apart half way through the last arc. Kokoro Wish fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Oct 19, 2020 |
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Oct 19, 2020 07:58
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Kokoro Wish posted:I get the feeling that there was a real struggle with being "Shonen" going on there. The first arcs read more like a Seinen manga than anything else, with the Shonen fights feeling a bit like the worst parts of the whole thing. Every time Melon is set up to be a mirror of Legosi it falls apart because he sucks so much that you actively resent the author for making him a part of the comic. I’m glad I dropped Beastars and I should have dropped it thirty chapters earlier because Melon made it suck so much
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Oct 19, 2020 21:12
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Mr. Steak posted:Can I shill Souboutei Must Be Destroyed...? I've been thoroughly enjoying this but the image hosting is just making GBS threads the bed for me lately. Chapters 60 onward routinely fail to load :/ It's a weird fuckin' ride - I kind of like the stylistic contrast between Tsutomu (who gives me big Monkey Punch vibes), the extremely angular and sharp Seiichi and the more Junji-Ito-ish horror elements. I'm sure there's a bunch of other twists incoming, but there's like a 3 different genres going on that I did not see coming. Fuckin' gestalt-consiousness aliens in a subsumation war merging with humans to fight over a wormhole to a haunted house? What? Alright, let's see where this poo poo goes. McKilligan fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Oct 21, 2020 |
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Oct 21, 2020 02:06
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Captain Invictus posted:
Do you have a recommendation of when that is? I took a break after the first big arc but I was really enjoying it up to that point
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Oct 21, 2020 19:40
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McKilligan posted:I've been thoroughly enjoying this but the image hosting is just making GBS threads the bed for me lately. Chapters 60 onward routinely fail to load :/ Interestingly, Fujita has said he has been inspired by Monkey Punch's art, particularly in the way he drawn shoulders. And I can really see that in Takoha.
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Oct 21, 2020 21:56
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101 posted:Do you have a recommendation of when that is? I took a break after the first big arc but I was really enjoying it up to that point it's a fun ride up until chapter 124, when melon shows up. that's when the deterioration starts there's still a lot of decent moments after, but imo the hard cutoff should be chapter 155 (which is also one of the best in the comic's latter half). there's another character introduced a few chapters after that, and while melon is awful she's the real death knell for the entire story unfortunately there's not really a satisfactory "let's stop here" point anywhere like you'd get from hunter x hunter or something
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Oct 22, 2020 00:52
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I'm gonna throw down some of my favorites here. The Pharmacist's Monologue Mangadex's translation at the beginning is a bit garbage, so by all means seek out the official version. A young woman gets kidnapped and sold into service at the Imperial Court of China as a maid in the imperial harem, and manages to benefit from her extensive pharmaceutical knowledge. I feel like this one has a bit of everything. It has a lot of detective work, but there's not a million murders. It has a lot of romance-associated stuff although that's not exactly the focus. It's funny after it gets rolling, and there's some neat dramatic moments too. The main character, Maomao is mostly unconcerned with romance, and it's a really interesting perspective on detective stories because she's intensely aware of the power structure of the society she lives in and uncomfortable about getting others in trouble. She also likes her job as a food taster a bit too much...    Spy x Family It's a story about a family unit where everybody has secret identities. The father is a spy, and created the family because his new important mission needed a child to be enrolled in a school to help him come into contact with the reclusive father of another student. The mother is an assassin who agreed on the spur of the moment because she needed a cover because an old unmarried woman would arouse suspicion. But it's not Mr. and Mrs. Smith, because the adopted daughter is actually telepathic and aside from just the general farce, a lot of the humor is driven by her reacting and doing goofy kid things in response to the things people are thinking instead of what they're saying. It's really funny.   I Opened a Café in Another World Girl gets spirited away to another world where the food is terrible, so she has to use her amateur cooking knowledge to make a cafe to spread new delicious food! just as the goddess intended There's a lot of isekais out there of varying qualities, and while some are about big adventures with dire stakes, there's a whole lot that are just kind of relaxing, either because their cheat ability removes all tension from the story or because they decide to make a life for themselves that doesn't involve the whole classic murderhobo thing. There's also a lot of them where people have to reinvent earthly cuisine, but I think this one is pretty measured about it. Also the manga does a good job of showing her acclimating to the new world, she gets adopted by a noble couple. It's just nice.     Guns and Stamps This one is more of a comedy, it takes place in sort of an alternate version of Russia called the Grand Duchy that's in some kind of war with the Republic. It's not about the battles though, it's about a logistics department near the front where one paper-pushing soldier is extremely dedicated to her job unlike everyone else around her. It also has a lot of scenes detailing the vehicles of this alternate world if you're interested in that kind of thing, and the author has made a couple other manga with similar themes.   And in a very similar vein, there's The Dragon, the Hero, and the Courier, which is a similar kind of story, except it's about a mailman (mailwoman? mail-elf?) in a fantasy world, and it dives more into economics. 
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Oct 22, 2020 01:56
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     Ikoku Nikki is a manga about an orphaned teenager and her new caretaker, her aunt, who (probably) is autistic and is used to living alone. They both care about each other, but have difficulties coming to terms with the new dynamic. It’s very good and really sharply written. There’s only 32 chapters so far but it’s been hitting home really hard. Lots of cool examinations of interpersonal relationships and how people communicate and feel things differently. It's also pretty funny at times.    
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Oct 22, 2020 21:04
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Ikoku Nikki is seriously good. I got emotional at the part where Asa reads her aunt's writing, and she goes "You have so many beautiful words and emotions inside you, why is it so difficult for you to spare some for me?"
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Oct 22, 2020 22:10
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Are You Really Getting Married? This is a really well-executed version of a familiar trope. Two socially awkward employees of a travel agency decide to get engaged so they can avoid getting transferred to a new office in Siberia. It's pretty early in the series, but I think we all know where it's probably heading. But even though the destination is obvious, that doesn't mean it's not worth going. It's no thematic accident that the main characters work at a travel agency: their job is to plan trips and make the journey as seamless as possible for their clients. Honjouji sets out to plan their wedding with the same degree of attention.  But just like anybody who's traveled can say, the most interesting parts of a trip are always the parts that didn't go quite as you expected. This isn't just a story about Oohara and Honjouji getting married. It's a story about everything that goes wrong on the way.  And on top of that, Oohara and Honjouji are just super down-to-earth and relatable. Honjouji's super into maps. Oohara has a cat (get prepared for high-quality cat butt drawings.) It's a welcome change from the hyper-exaggerated characters of the author's previous series, The World God Only Knows.  Also Mercator Love is a perfect song and I will hear no argument  
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Oct 23, 2020 05:07
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Karia posted:Are You Really Getting Married? The art and visual gags remind me of Chew but without the bad parts.
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Oct 23, 2020 13:15
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been a while. if you've not been following it, the final season of Attack on Titan is currently airing. It is expected to finish nearly simultaneously with the manga, which is ending soon, people are estimating around 5 more chapters. it's quite good, even with the studio change they've maintained the quality and intensity the series is largely known for(barring awkward CGI colossal titan from prior seasons). if it sticks the landing with the ending, it'll definitely go down as one of the all-time great anime series alongside the like Fullmetal Alchemist and such.
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Dec 19, 2020 19:55
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So Attack on Titan's manga ended. It would not be unreasonable to say it has one of the worst endings I have ever seen. People are comparing it to the Game of Thrones ending, but in this case it's a singular chapter that manages to seriously damage the entire rest of the work, the characters, the story, the themes, with what it does. It's honestly impressive how much they hosed it up. It's honestly a shame, since the majority of the rest of the series is so good. It's a marathon runner who was way out ahead of the pack right at the end, then tried to do something elaborate right before crossing the finish line only to poo poo their pants, faceplant into the pavement, and knock themselves unconscious while everyone else passes their body
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Apr 26, 2021 17:33
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Huh, I was meaning to pick that back up. I probably still will, but I guess I'll steel myself for a last minute faceplant.
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Apr 26, 2021 18:51
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Any chance that the adaptation will fix the fuckup?
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Apr 26, 2021 22:00
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