Volume 23 (Premium Edition): 2 Bonus Short Stories & A Column by the Author The Five Princesses Mother’s & Daughters Author's Column: Crafting Games

For all those wondering how future volumes are handled at J-Novel Club, please see the links in my post signature.

Thank you

I decided to check the first part of this out on a whim today, and it actually ended up being pretty good! I’m definitely sad I didn’t give this one a chance when it was on catch up back in December, because now I’ll probably have wait another half a year to a year or so for it go on catch up again.

Just going to post the link to the future volume release thread since it came up:

https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/3477/future-volume-release-schedule

Technically it is also in my signature…

@TheGrimLich said in Smartphone Vol. 21 Discussion:

See, he would've noticed the calendar was different here faster if there were 16 23-day months, so I'm thinking the months are approximately the same length as your standard Earth month (30-31 days), just... with four more of them tacked on at the end.

I’m not so sure about that. In the section where his fiancé’s confront him over the difference between one world and the next, he specifically says he didn’t really pay much attention to the passage of days and just relied on his phone to tell him, and didn’t notice anything was amiss at all until it read off a month that he didn’t recognize. Given that, and the fact that he also specifically notes that the lack of reliable seasons due to the influence of spirits in that world gave him no other markers, I don’t think we can reliably say that he would have noticed one weeks worth of lower day counts.

Even as speculation goes, though, this is all fairly irrelevant, as in the end his brides do not seem to age faster relative to the number of that world’s years than a similar person on earth does. Whether they are the same number of days old as a 16-year-old on earth despite being only 12 in that world doesn’t mean much if they don’t show a commensurate level of development (physical, mental, etc.) to go with it.

I am not saying anything in particular

@LegitPancake

Boowkorm and Seirei

~~The users dictate which series get that treatment.

No one has really brought it you here, even then it would have to be a few people who collectively ask for that to be implemented.

To an extra all non volume related discussion (as in WN content) doesn’t belong here...~~

@LegitPancake going forward there will be an outright ban on all WN discussion in all volume discussions in Members Only.

@BlueDragoon Oh yeah. That should've been "bit too early". That's my bad. Editor must've missed it.

@robert-rodriguez The translator/editor usually check the prepubs topic only while the volume is still being published weekly. For errors in the published epub you should email directly support ;)

I've read up to 9 volumes now, and my vote definitely goes for Leen now. Her being an ageless fairy is a huge plus for me (a trait which of course isn't without it's demerits though), but her more mature personality with a tinge of naughtiness to it is easily my favourite as well. She doesn't go too far with the teasing and isn't immune to being teased herself either thankfully. Her calling Touya "darling" seriously melts my heart (I just hope she says the same in the raws as well, like Kancolle's Kongou and Monmusu's Miia).

She has admitted to not loving Touya as much as the other girls, but that is only better in my view. While falling in love easily does not necessarily make that love any bit worse than love that slowly grows with time, but to me, at least in case with Smartphone, Leen's (currently) weaker love feels much more real and with the thought of it growing stronger with time, a much more rewarding form of love. In the end, love attained without effort just doesn't feel as satisfying.

Follow ups would be Cesca and Karen, if they were actual brides that is. As they are not, I'd say Yumina and Lu.

Volume 16 (Premium Edition): A Mini story originally produced for in store exclusive, A Column by the Author Friends And More Friends Author's Column: Mysteries of Old

@Steiner Hey, whenever you can: I'm processing vol.14 for the character guide, and I think the final version of the book has an inconsistency with one of the pillar spirits, who is called both the Stone Spirit (“It doesn’t matter if you convinced stone-bro! We’re more than enough for a puny god like you!”) and the Earth Spirit (The Water, Earth, Fire, Wind, and Dark Spirits raised their hands into the air and joined the spirit of light in their pledge.) -- or at least I think they refer to the same character. Which one should I use?

@terabyte Gotcha, thanks

spoiler

Volume 12 (Premium Edition): Am essay by the Author, A Mini story originally produced for in store exclusive. Essay: Fear of Death Mortal Gods

Volume 11 (Premium Edition): 2 Mini stories originally produced for in store exclusive. A Knight’s Tale Author Column: Tabletop Games

@bartzbb While I do agree almost completely with both of you, I can't deny having a sneaking suspicion that the harem in Isekai Smartphone is used as a crutch to not have good character development. That the author chose quantity over quality when it comes to characters (and I think you'll agree that there's a feckton of characters if we count the ones that just get a single appearance).

Don't get me wrong, I love harems. I love when harems actually end as harems and not just one heroine getting picked and all the others get fecked abandoned. If you build a harem (even unintentionally), take responsibility and make them all happy, am I right? But I can't ignore the fact that it's used in many works as a substitution for good characters. I think that this story would benefit from having focused on only one or two heroines that are well developed, but I understand that writing even a single good character is much harder than nine shallow stereotypes.

But Isakai Smartphone is still enjoyable so props to that. Shows that no matter how bad something is when you analyze it, if it has good "chemistry" that makes it enjoyable then it's enjoyable. Simple as that. I've read a few books where I thought "This story is so good, but why the feck am I so bored..?" which proves this to me.

@alvinobrooka Oh, I get your problem now. I read the post too fast and missed the could/couldn't difference.

I think that couldn't is referred to mass producing them in the Babylon Workshop specifically. The workshop can't apply neither gravity nor modeling to Phrasium, only Touya can. Maybe the paragraph can be updated to mention the workshop to clarify it.

Finished the volume and posted a discussion on /r/LightNovels for anyone else interested in discussing it. https://redd.it/8imk8r