Old Anime and Some Heart for September Catchups!
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As temperatures begin to cool (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least!), we bring you 5 catchup series that have nothing to do with that at all!
By the author of Full Metal Panic! comes a modern fantasy about money, fairies, and rollercoasters: Amagi Brilliant Park stars a stuck-up genius who's coerced, at gunpoint, to help save a failing amusement park from bankruptcy! Read the novels that inspired the anime! Another series adapted to anime, and that we've finished translating, Demon King Daimaou takes place in a future where magic has become commonplace. Akuto wants to become High Priest, but when his aptitude is checked, he's prophesied to become the Demon Lord?! Follow along on Akuto's journeys as he tries to change his destiny... but also discovers why he might want to let it happen.
Our Heart titles have been very popular, and now it's time to check out why! Kiara realizes she's been dreaming of memories of another world, where she's playing a game with a villain named "Kiara"... but wait, that's her!!! Wanting to avoid an untimely death, all she wants to do is tell the hero is "I Refuse to Be Your Enemy!" And with less death and more conspiracy, the so-called Bibliophile Princess, Elianna, witnesses her fiancé flirting with another woman, which sets off an unravelling of mysteries to reveal a singular truth.
Last, from Kodansha's Legend novels, read about the story of another world... that had already been saved, and corrupted, by the influences of a hero from Japan. Protagonist Eiji now has to clean up after the hero's mess and restore the other world to its natural state in Isekai Rebuilding Project.
That's 30 volumes for members to catch up on! Stay safe, and stay healthy!
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I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! is a more serious version of Bakarina and I've enjoyed the first two volumes.
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@HarmlessDave Ooh, I will have to check in out then, Thank you
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I’ll probably give the first volume of Isekai Rebuild a try. How is Bibliophile? I’m not always a huge shojo fan, but I love Holmes of Kyoto, so I’m willing to give it a shot.
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@the-green-death the main character is insanely intelligent but a bit naive (especially when it comes to romance). Watching her humiliate haughty nobles (sometimes without even realizing it) and solve mysteries is really fun. Especially in the more recent volumes when she gets a better grasp on her own confidence.
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@the-green-death @pcj to paraphrase a review of Bibliophile princess I read somewhere, our leading lady has a quiet strength to her that does not diminish by her budding romance but is strengthened by it. I like that she is a strong female character without being brash or bold (not that I dislike bold female characters, quite the opposite but it's nice a to have a character that exhibits her strengths in a different way)
If you liked Holmes of Kyoto I think you might like Bibliophile Princess, I feel Ai and Holmes have a similar dynamic to Eli and Chris
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Thank you both! I think I'll read Bibliophile first, sounds really good!
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I might have to give Amagi Brilliant park a chance, I watched the anime which was funny, so it might be right up my alley. Otherwise I’m not really sure what else there is to read.
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I like Bibliophile enough that I have the ebooks. It can be a bit exasperating at times honestly due to her self-doubt over her being good enough to marry the prince and so many others having doubts over the marriage as well. But over time her confidence is growing and it's no spoiler to say that they really do care for one another. Expect plenty drama though, it's not as laid back as a Holmes of Kyoto by any means.
I refuse to be your enemy has been really good as well. It's far more serious than most of these kind of series, but handles it well. I'm still impressed that when she's forced to deal with fighting and killing... it seriously upsets her. She reacts like you'd expect a actual person to react and doesn't just take it all in stride.
Amagi Brilliant Park is actually the series that pushed me into becoming a member. I loved the anime (RIP, Yasuhiro Takemoto) and liked FMP back in the day so I couldn't pass it up. It mostly tends to be wacky hijinks between all the cast members, and to not take itself too seriously. I mean, we are taking a series where the main character is named Kanie Seiya (ie, Kanye West), his assistant and main romance interest is Isuzu Sento (50 Cent) and they both work for Princess Latifah. But... every 2nd or 3rd volume someone pulls the drama tag and I'm surprised all over again at how good it is when it's not all jokes.
So, probably no catching up yey again for me this month but that's because there are some really good series in here that I've already read so I recommend folks go read them!
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@xdrfiredogx Question, would you recommend starting from the beginning, or (if you watched the anime) starting from where the anime ended?
“Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.“- Stephen Hawking
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@Argonauts Start at the beginning. There are things that were done differently in the anime to save time. The anime covered just the race to meet the deadline, so some events that, in the LN, occurred after that were pushed forward. And some things that were in the anime were added to the LN. And some character attributes that are important plot points are missing from the anime.
If you start where the anime ended, you'll see plot holes that weren't really there. And the ending shown in the anime has not actually happened in the existing LNs.
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Yeah, @SomeOldGuy is spot on.. start from the beginning. There isn't a ton that's actually changed but plenty that was left out for time constraints and stuff reordered as well that would make picking up in the middle rather awkward.
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@SomeOldGuy
Alright that’s what I’ll do then, looks like I’ve got things to read this month. Thank you very much. -
I've already read Bibliophile, and binged through I Refuse pretty quickly with vigor. Read the first volume of Isekai Rebuild and started the second, but then reminded myself that I don't have to finish things I don't like and dropped it.
Haven't started Amagi or Daimaou, and don't think I could get through both in the next two weeks since they're quite a few volumes each. I liked FMP when I watched its anime years ago, so Amagi being by the same author is promising; but it looks like there hasn't been a new volume in years - is it in infinite hiatus? Meanwhile Daimaou is complete and the premise sounds up my alley, but I heard it gets worse as the series goes on?
Penny for your thoughts, if anyone has a rec for one over the other.
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@MasterLillyclaw Take my answers with a huge grain of salt but they may be worth a penny; I've only seen their respective anime and glanced at the last few volumes of Daimaou because I wanted to continue it but heard similar rumors...
Daimaou: Off-the-rails Gainax ending that I suspect will leave you regretting you ever started it. I don't know which volume/chapter to stop at to pretend their adventure continues in a more satisfying direction...
Amagi: If you liked the first FMP series and Fumoffu you should like Amagi. But yeah he hasn't released a new book of anything in years, instead it looks like he's been working on anime and games. And he ran his mouth off last year so... Anyway the series is stuck in a bit of a cliffhanger position and I don't personally know if he's still working on it or not.
My talking sword has a point. And is also right.
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@Gamen @MasterLillyclaw For what it's worth, he did tweet earlier this year that he was working on volume 7 of Cop Craft and volume 9 of Amagi. Which is far from a guarantee of course, but it's something.
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All of the links for Bibliophile are broken for me
The other LNs seem fine
reported in website bugs threadI'm reading too many LNs to fit the titles into 255 chars >.<
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@Caerold I believe this was already answered in the other topic, but for anyone reading this one, JNC does not have the rights to distribute our translations for Ichijinsha series in Japan, so Bibliophile Princess, Marielle Clarac, Bakarina, and Beast Head are unavailable to readers in Japan. We apologize for the inconvenience.
