Moon Blossom Asura: The Ruthless Reincarnated Mercenary Forms the Ultimate Army: Volume 2 - Dropped in the second chapter of the volume. Downplayed sexual assault. When the victim reported the incident to their guild leader she even praised the perpetrator for it. When asked why he did that to the girl the following conversation happens: “Good job, Reko! If you’d groped Salume, I would’ve gotten actually mad at you. If you’d touched Lumia, she would’ve punched you. Iina’s Iina. Your judgment was sound.” “Eh heh heh.” Reko looked happy. “WHY ARE YOU PRAISING HIM?! I thought you were gonna scold him!”.
Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! Volume 4 - This series is has a meek MC that is scared of monsters even though she is overpowered and has nothing to fear, just like Campfire Cooking. But compared to Campfire Cooking here MC is endearing and the “oh I’m scared”-schtick isn’t annoying. Reading through this volume I was trying to feel out where the difference is and I think it’s because MC isn’t dumb. She knows that she would be perfectly fine, she’s just scared of bugs and doesn’t want to go into a place where there are giant versions of it. Anyway, the characters are likable and are slowly fleshed out. Especially the female sidekick got more background info this volume with the introduction of her family. - 7/10
D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared Volume 4 + 5 - It’s been a while and I completely forgot how jarring, frequent, and on-the-nose the obscure references are. The picture of the author I have in my head from reading this series is someone who interrupts everyone mid-sentence in the most condescending tone to correct some tidbit they said. The “Uhm Akshually…” type. That’s how this series reads. Here is an spoiler free excerpt as an example:
“I know she’s an employee of the GIJ, but what’s the story on how the JDA wound up recommending her?” I eyed the No. 103 noodles, rethinking how a porous bronze-cut pasta would pair with tonight’s sauce, and returned them to the pantry in favor of Buitoni No. 71, which I added to the pan.
In my mind, there were two brands that ruled the home-meal pasta heap—the smooth Buitoni, and the rough and porous De Cecco. Ever since Nestle Japan’s cessation of direct-market sales of Buitoni, the former had been hard to come by, which had put De Cecco on top, as it was both tasty and cheap.
“Well, she has an FGA diploma from the Gemological Association of Great Britain and a Graduate Gemologist degree from the Gemological Institute of America. She’s supposedly a gifted appraiser.”(5)”
Why the fuck is there a tangent about noodle and their sales distribution in the middle of a completely unrelated discussion. And that’s just one example. The entire series is this way. I could have opened a random page and there would be a good chance for some pseudo-sophisticated rambling. I like the idea of building a company around the emergence of dungeons well enough, but the prose is just unbearable.-3/10 dropped again (until I forget that I dropped it an pick up the next volume in a year)
I wouldn’t quite go that far. That whole book burning thing is a touchy subject where I live and there are series that are a lot worse in that regard (cough MT cough), but when something makes me feel uncomfortable reading it I rather drop it. I don’t think that those kind of LNs are intellectually challenging enough that I would gain anything worthwhile from reading them even though I’m uncomfortable.
That D-Genesis excerpt is rough. What the hell is the point of that? I wonder what the translator must be thinking when they see something like that. This tangent reminds me of a while back when I was reading Moby Dick and there is a whole section of that book that reads like a wikipedia page on sperm whales. I ended up just losing interest during that portion of the book and moving on to a different one. However, I will say that at least information on sperm whales was not completely unrelated to the main plot of the book.
And talking about sperm whales isn’t a brand sponsorship. Just like the noodle brands there was another part a little later that stood out like an ad:
Dean grabbed his Jabra Evolve 80 headset and switched to video call. He had purchased the headset because he was enthralled by its active noise-canceling capabilities, but around his family’s home in Kingston, there was hardly much noise to cancel. About all it was good for was covering up the sounds of his air conditioner or computer fan, and music alone would drown those out. Still, he rather liked the headset, including the busy light, currently reflected in the window and visible only to him.
When I read this I had to think about the movie Wayne’s World with the jokes about brand sponsorships. Who knows, the author might have a sponsorship with Buitoni and Jabra. Maybe there is a 75% off code for 3 years of Nord VPN and a special offer from Raid Shadow Legends.
Moon Blossom Asura: The Ruthless Reincarnated Mercenary Forms the Ultimate Army: Volume 2 - Dropped in the second chapter of the volume. Downplayed sexual assault. When the victim reported the incident to their guild leader she even praised the perpetrator for it. When asked why he did that to the girl the following conversation happens: “Good job, Reko! If you’d groped Salume, I would’ve gotten actually mad at you. If you’d touched Lumia, she would’ve punched you. Iina’s Iina. Your judgment was sound.” “Eh heh heh.” Reko looked happy. “WHY ARE YOU PRAISING HIM?! I thought you were gonna scold him!”.
Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! Volume 4 - This series is has a meek MC that is scared of monsters even though she is overpowered and has nothing to fear, just like Campfire Cooking. But compared to Campfire Cooking here MC is endearing and the “oh I’m scared”-schtick isn’t annoying. Reading through this volume I was trying to feel out where the difference is and I think it’s because MC isn’t dumb. She knows that she would be perfectly fine, she’s just scared of bugs and doesn’t want to go into a place where there are giant versions of it. Anyway, the characters are likable and are slowly fleshed out. Especially the female sidekick got more background info this volume with the introduction of her family. - 7/10
D-Genesis: Three Years after the Dungeons Appeared Volume 4 + 5 - It’s been a while and I completely forgot how jarring, frequent, and on-the-nose the obscure references are. The picture of the author I have in my head from reading this series is someone who interrupts everyone mid-sentence in the most condescending tone to correct some tidbit they said. The “Uhm Akshually…” type. That’s how this series reads. Here is an spoiler free excerpt as an example:
Why the fuck is there a tangent about noodle and their sales distribution in the middle of a completely unrelated discussion. And that’s just one example. The entire series is this way. I could have opened a random page and there would be a good chance for some pseudo-sophisticated rambling. I like the idea of building a company around the emergence of dungeons well enough, but the prose is just unbearable.-3/10 dropped again (until I forget that I dropped it an pick up the next volume in a year)
Okay, um…maybe book burnings aren’t as bad as I thought.
I wouldn’t quite go that far. That whole book burning thing is a touchy subject where I live and there are series that are a lot worse in that regard (cough MT cough), but when something makes me feel uncomfortable reading it I rather drop it. I don’t think that those kind of LNs are intellectually challenging enough that I would gain anything worthwhile from reading them even though I’m uncomfortable.
I’m being a tad sarcastic, but that’s still a big fucking yikes.
That D-Genesis excerpt is rough. What the hell is the point of that? I wonder what the translator must be thinking when they see something like that. This tangent reminds me of a while back when I was reading Moby Dick and there is a whole section of that book that reads like a wikipedia page on sperm whales. I ended up just losing interest during that portion of the book and moving on to a different one. However, I will say that at least information on sperm whales was not completely unrelated to the main plot of the book.
And talking about sperm whales isn’t a brand sponsorship. Just like the noodle brands there was another part a little later that stood out like an ad:
When I read this I had to think about the movie Wayne’s World with the jokes about brand sponsorships. Who knows, the author might have a sponsorship with Buitoni and Jabra. Maybe there is a 75% off code for 3 years of Nord VPN and a special offer from Raid Shadow Legends.