For a while there, I was scared that Sayumi would fall to the devil (Sagami) but she managed to keep to the 'straight and narrow path'. Whew! I'm glad. So I guess after this volume we can stop pretending it's a supernatural battle story and call it what it really is: a high school harem romcom. I guess this is taking the path where there will be a single winner rather than all agree to share him. Which means I probably have quite a bit of romantic angst to read through in the following volumes.

I am still laughing at their antics. The best scenes for me are where they all interact with each other. It reminds me a bit of Haruhi Suzumiya but with a nicer (dare I say cooler) male protagonist/ narrator.

FYI the series page for this shows this volume as having bonus stories, but I'm pretty sure it's just a copy-paste from volume 6. Certainly the copy I downloaded doesn't have any. I was gonna buy it anyway so I don't mind, but probably best to get that corrected.

@sailorarashi oh man that makes me so happy. It was like a burr under the saddle when I read that and plus I really love that part with the artist

I know it's already published but I'm reading it on catch-up right now.

This may be nitpicking but I just wanted to clarify something. In volume 5 for all the chapter titles, it's supposed to be X years old and not the Xth year, right? It's the same construction that makes this the 21st century even though all the numbers start with 20XX.

Question from part 4 (chapter 4 Kiryuu at 21 years old- the second tome)
I just learnt to drive and as far as I know you're supposed to keep your foot on the brakes when the car is stopped. If you put it in neutral while the car is stopped, you normally take your foot off the pedals directly. How did Kiryuu manage to push down on Hitomi's leg and cause her to press the gas?
Ah, nevermind, I figured it out. Writing this out caused me to remember that there are some people who use both feet on the pedals so one would always be on the gas pedal.
Though, another question comes up, can the gas pedal be pressed while you're pressing the brakes? Or did Hitomi stop the car, leave the gear in drive and even take her foot off the brakes while having her other foot hovering over the gas?

@saidahgilbert - with anime you almost have to ignore it if you dislike it when considering reading the LN, since so many anime end up throwing away the parts of the LN that make it unique or good.

Abilities Average cut away the good bits from the academy and hunter's school and added its own comedy bits that failed for me, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear tossed a huge amount of the fun and endearing content to cram in 5 volumes(!), Death March missed the point of him being a tourist, on and on.

I guess I'll have to give this a try now too :)

Five years after the party 😄 on my first read.

Just finished the part with the promotion exam. If I was ever subjected to such infuriating treatment, I'd wait for as long as necessary to return the guild the chance to grow and become stronger without me if they one day they truly needed me and called me to help. I am one to remember a grudge for life.

@MrsBinks because v9 has only just finished up this week, and LN prepubs are typically only announced on the day the first part is released (some exceptions, but on average it's the same day). It'll likely have next week at least off.

@LightningLeaf said in Brilliant Healer Vol. 2 Discussion!:

I was wondering if Zeno's mentor tried to resurrect Afred and raised something else entirely, perhaps himself, perhaps not.

That was a thought I had too. In the manga chapter that just dropped, Zenos's mentor was very confrontational when Zenos started to try to use healing magic on a corpse. Like, if you don't know resurrection magic is impossible, his reaction looks... over-the-top, to say the least. If you know, however, that researching resurrection magic is hella taboo, then... well, suddenly his reaction comes across as someone who broke that taboo and had massive unintended consequences happen to him. And not just the "lost your job" type. The "came back wrong" type. The "what knocked at the door at the end of The Monkey's Paw?" type.

To borrow a phrase from the labor movement, "magical taboos are written in blood."

The further into the re-read I go, the more I feel like Mary isn't really dense per se, its more to do with where her priorities lie. She just has to stop lying to herself and accept that she'll always go out of her way to help those she cares about (though yes, she really needs to learn some self awareness!)

Ended up slowly re-reading the series again, forgot how much this book is the evolution of a certain maid from 'doting admirer' to a 'big sister' role in how she looks after Mary. ^^

@TheWickerMan said in Butareba Vol. 2 Discussion!:

Amused me that we get 5 pretty interesting sounding series described, but the 5th one, at least to me, the most generic sounding in title and premise, gets by far the most effusive recommendation. Between that and this series itself it's not hard to see where the author's personal tastes lie.

Would really like to get that Seiyu Radio series licensed - it's the only one that ranked above Buta, and also seems to be the only other one still ongoing, with 9 volumes. Also has an upcoming anime. Yen have licensed the 2nd one, which is a one-shot. The rest of them seem to be either short and complete or cancelled - the war one got only 1 volume, dystopia and fox-girl got 2 each and Bristol 3.

Out of the list I’ve only read the last series, Overwrite. There is a good fantrans of the series. I’d say that it’s completed at 3 volumes without dangling plot points. The author has also written another series with supernatural elements (also completed at 3 volumes). It’s refreshing to see authors attempting shorter completed series instead of focusing on those with extended runs which requires a much higher commitment to get into.

Overwrite is basically a coming of age story set in Bristol, which is interesting for its insight into a place and culture foreign to most of us (I’ve only been to London, and know next to nothing about graffiti other than having heard about Banksy the artist). If you’ve read Sayonara Piano Sonata (different author), you’ll have a feel of the troupes. It brings the arts to life in a way that even laymen can appreciate.

@sorvani - FUNA followed the age-old formula of "cute girls doing cute things" with a splash of "cute MC is heavily OP" borrowed from Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear.

As of volume 4 (Kodansha volume 3) of 80,000 Gold I agree with ranking that series first, though volume 1 of Abilities Average is my favorite of FUNA's work, with all of the comedy in the two schools and figuring out how "god" chose to understand the term "average."

Potions started strong for me but declined over time. "Season 2" was a chance to start fresh but I don't think FUNA has done a good enough job with the new characters to make them relatable and fun for me. Aside from the Spec Ops Orphans :) and they haven't gotten enough page time.

I just read this and I enjoyed it well enough. There's places where I wish it had improved, maybe more development than love at first sight, but I like Zeke so whatever haha

One page in and I'm done, looks like the memory thing takes books to resolve so I'm gonna pass and be done here.

Thematically, for most of V1 I was reading this as a screed against imperialism and colonialism (think James Cameron's "Avatar") with the leader of the Reincarnators eventually revealed to be some sort of undead combination of King Leopold II of Belgium, Hernán Cortés, and a corrupt corporate CEO.

But the reveal of the identities of the original colonists and the Reincarnators has led me to reconsider; I now think this is, thematically, an attack on transhumanism rather than colonialism. Dill's repeated criticism of the very idea of immortality fits with that as well. I know it's dangerous to confuse a character's voice with the author's voice, but in this case I think Dill is speaking from the author's viewpoint.

I swear, whoever the orphanage director was originally must have been a reincarnated SAS officer or something, the kids are downright terrifying. xD

Runa is adorable in the last part of this volume. Seeing her grow to understand both what she missed with past relationships and what she has now is touching.

Now onto stuff I didn't want to put into the opening post, since this'll probably be revised a lot:

How I was thinking of organising this was roughly:
Major Arc -> Minor Arc -> Chapter -> Parts

So as an example, some chapters from Volume 1 could end up placed as:

Shi Clan Hougong Stint 1 Cacao The Unsettling Matter of the Spirit Part Two The Threat

With the major arcs being the Shi Clan (volumes 1-4), Shaoh (5-7), and the Locusts (8+)

And the minor arcs being each change in Maomao's base location (e.g. her first stint in the Hougong, her time with Jinshi in the Outer Court, her return to the Hougong, and her time as a kidnapee for the Shi Clan arc)

Though I'll give everyone a chance to respond to the proposal before I try writing up an exhaustive list for minor arcs!

I see a bit of a development contradiction with Mikhail’s character. Up to this point he seems complete repentant and is finally able to put himself in Ryoma’s and Helena’s shoes. Following this, it seems it would be more in line with his new mindset to act with sadness and regret to see Ryoma and Helena together, saying something like “I see, so you two really have been conspiring. To the very end the consequences of my arrogance come back to haunt me.”

Good grief, these volumes are always so short...
Anyway, looks like we finally have some antagonists that are actually a threat to Abel. And after the teasing in the previous volumes, our protagonist got his first girlfriend...the first of many, I suspect.