Independent female characters with their own personalities and drives that are not always centered around reacting to or pleasing male characters.

Mother characters are a sure way to my heart. Miki Arakawa in "I'm a Genius" has me hooked although I wish we saw more in her head than just reacting to/pleasing her son. I'd like to know more about who she was before she gave birth. Something must have prepared her to bring all the ideas Kouki comes up with to life.

This is one of those series where the author is writing it as a web novel but it's clearly not their day job. He only updates the webnovel with a new chapter once every other week, so it takes him about 1 year to finish a volume's worth.
There is already enough material for 1 more volume, but maybe they are waiting to put out v6 for some other reason.

@amicus JNC has "Catch Up Months" where a few series are available as pre-pubs in their entirety. There are also some series that are always available to read.

@sam-pinansky Thank you for clarifying that. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Seems I was right, I made a new topic for May catch up if you want to discuss it: https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/1060/catch-up-titles-may ;)

@the-green-death said in Q+A: Rikako Akiyoshi, author of Dark Maidens (Submit Questions on Justus R Stone's YouTube Until May 10th):

@terrence it annoys me that Yen’s Slice Of Life/Romance books have been physical only... Fingers crossed this and SNAFU make their way to digital.

I'm guessing this has something to do with them testing the waters? Or needing a better way of tracking sales? =[

The physical order I cancelled was two bucks less than it will be if I order it again. So now I'm waiting on a sale or something, idk (Manga Monday sale someday maybe if Amazon price matches).

@the-green-death said in Why is there so much "wry smiling"?:

My translation bette noir isn’t one phrase so much as when translators add letters to words to show shouting but add letters that make no sense if spoken such as “benddddddd!!” Or something like that. How would that sound? I can see adding vowels but rarely are constanents doubled like that.

I think there's a very significant difference between "Beeeeend" and "Bennnnnd," but I agree that "Bendddd" makes no sense :x

@legitpancake said in Gamers (Japanese Language Novel) on sale for 30 JPY right now on Bookwalker (30 hour sale).:

$1.42 for 5 books is a sweet deal. I won't be able to read them, but I bought them anyways :P

I bought the first two so far with my change. Probably get the rest.

I think I'm also going to get that one I asked for in the license requests earlier since it is 255 JPY.

https://bookwalker.jp/de0b28479e-b371-4d2b-96cf-52585c26b8b7/?acode=WpfPW3yk

@terrence yeah looks exactly like it. That thing was so cute and adorable.

@shrike_al First half of volume 5 has a long "harem maintenance" Chapter.

ok, thank you for clearing that up

@drone205 My personal favorite SAO variation is "Kirito missed that Ragout Rabbit". Talk about a game changer.

@swhp yes, in the beginning he used the dagger to Slap, but later on, after they go back to train he mentions getting the sap as a secondary weapon, so he still fights with the dagger but wields the sap on his off-hand to Slap.

The Save / Load "cheat" I mentioned earlier, I found the LN I was actually thinking about. It is on Syosetu. It has a manga adaptation on Bookwalker too.

「俺の現実は恋愛ゲーム？？　～かと思ったら命がけのゲームだった～」読んだ！ https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4565dq/ #narou #narouN4565DQ

"Is my reality a love game? What? ~ I thought it was a life-saving game ~"

The other WN mentions the possibility of taking lecherous action before the dude decides he's too kind to do that, but this LN / manga protag actually does cross that line. I don't know how I feel about that (kind of hoping he suffers karmically really badly later in this story for his actions). xC

So I think I'm at the halfway point with White Album 2. I know what happens because I've seen the anime, but yeah, the drama is starting (and some potentially awkward romantic dialogue I have to read aloud or skim through for my recordings is too).

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I'm unabashedly team Kazusa. =]

I may get the light novels if they're still available on Bookwalker when I finish up with the VN, though I already have enough on my plate that I'm not reading from there (I've got some triangle romance novels there; maybe I'll check those out someday soon).

Preferred the adaptations: The Disappearance of Haruhi, Death Note anime (first half), Ghost in the Shell

Preferred the original: Tales of Earthsea, Harry Potter, Golden Compass, Fate Stay Night, Discworld, Ace Attorney

Both brought something to the table: Grimgar, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, H2G2