It Is Dangerous to March Alone! Read These Catchups.

[myskaros]

Are you prepared venture further into the unknowns of March 2024? You may want some companions, but don't worry: J-Novel Club has you covered!

What could be more heartening than the support of a final boss at your side? You've got a couple here to choose from! First is Lufas Maphaahl, a black-winged angel! She was originally a player-made MMO character, but now she's inhabited by her player 200 years after her in-game RP death, looking for answers in the game brought to life! You can find her CV in these documents: A Wild Last Boss Appeared!

Next up is Yumiella, a gloomy teenaged girl who loves RPGs and grinded her level up to 99 when she was just a child. She may be lacking in social skills, but her brute strength won't leave anything to be desired! Comes with a dragon. Read more about her in Villainess Level 99, or check out the currently airing anime!

Continuing, if you're good on power, maybe you'd like to have someone a bit more... insightful. Alphina offers just the thing: the ability to hear people's thoughts! She'll allow you to walk away from encounters with other travelers without any risk. Warning: It might be wiser not to ask how she got this ability. Instead, just read these reference materials: The 100th Time’s the Charm: She Was Executed 99 Times, So How Did She Unlock “Super Love” Mode?!

What's that? You're just looking for a fun travel companion and don't care about any abilities? We've got Yotsuba, an average high school girl who appears to be very popular with her female classmates. Her file can be found in Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta. Next is Acer, a 120-year-old high elf. He's gotten bored of the uneventful elven lifestyle and is looking for a bit of adventure. You can learn more about him in Enough with This Slow Life! I Was Reincarnated as a High Elf and Now I’m Bored.

Finally, we have an average high school boy by the name of Takatou. His entire class was somehow transported to this fantasy world. He seems pretty chill, likes Monster Hunter and keeping his head down. His file is titled... My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! —AΩ—? And there's an anime too? Hm. But there's no way someone could have such a convenient superpo—

[kuali]

There's a few familiar names in this list, I see.

We've got The 100th Time's the Charm: In only 99 more drafts, I'll come up with a decent ending! Started out as an okay series - some questionable bits, but mostly entertaining. But things started going downhill in the second volume... My recommendation: Read the first volume, then imagine the cast sailing off to grand adventures. Whatever you imagine will probably come out better than volume 2 did.

Then there's Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Diabetic Coma. A love story about a not-too-bright schoolgirl and her increasingly large cloud of infatuated lesbians. I struggled to read that one, it was like trying to survive on an all-ice-cream diet.

Third up is Enough with This Slow Life! I Was Reincarnated as a High Elf and Now I'm going to live a slightly different slow life! This series was... interesting. The central idea, of how Acer's lifespan affects his interactions with the world around him, is quite interesting. But Acer just struck me as kind of bland, I guess? And I've seen better takes on OP Isekai. Either way, I didn't dislike reading it, but I wasn't really invested enough to keep coming back for the subsequent books.

Last up, we have Density Level 99: I may not be the Demon Lord, but I am accidentally destroying the world one Black Hole at a time!. Its an Otome Villainess Isekai, but not one of the ones where she makes a harem of the main cast or turns up hyper-fixated on romancing a particular character. Sadly, it suffers from the same fate that My Next Life as a Villainess did, with the quality seeming to hold only until it finishes the plot of the Otome Game. Though I think it's also been finding its feet again as of books 4 and 5. (Side note: I would also recommend the anime. It seems a pretty solid adaptation - even improving on some of the characters by adopting elements from the manga.)

[Lily Garden]

I loved Wild Last Boss, it has some amazingly over-the-top battles

Yuri-tama was great and super cute, I can't wait for the next volume...

[marcus_atticus]

@kuali I agree with your assessment of the main character for Slow Life Elf. I recommend this read for those who are enjoying Frieren anime.

[HarmlessDave]

@kuali - I'll second third your opinions of Slow Life and Villainess Level 99.

Slow Life is slow, but if you can accept that the MC is often a bit detached from the short-lifers around him I still found it enjoyable. It's never felt like later volumes of Grace of the Gods for me where I kept waiting for something interesting to happen and eventually drifted away. As @marcus_atticus mentions it has a similar feel to Frieren

Villainess 99 has the problem for me that the MC apparently suffered massive brain damage off-screen in between volumes. She started off smart but socially inept and somewhat obsessed, then in later volumes she started to behave like an idiot whenever the author wanted to set up a comedy bit. Character consistency went out the window, and whether I enjoyed any particular part depended on how well the latest joke landed.

I'd still recommend reading both of them, just go in knowing what to expect because knowing is half the battle.

[PuckGoodfellow00 0]

I was really hoping for the Light Novels of Instant Death this month. Not the Manga...

There's a few others I'm definitely looking to read.

[Travis Butler]

I admit, this month’s are mostly meh for me.

I try to give every series at least 2-3 parts to catch my attention, but I can’t remember anything about Slow Life or Instant Death. :(

Yuri-Tama and Level 99 are both stories where I enjoyed the first volume, but lost interest after the MC started losing INT points. Level 99 was particularly bad; Yuri-Tama just got dull, while Yumiella’s move from smart-but-socially-clueless to brain-dead was actually offensive for me.

Wild Last Boss was amusing cotton-candy fluff, but didn’t really draw me in. Was something mildly entertaining to read when there wasn’t anything else.

100th Time’s the Charm… as others said, the first volume was fun, the second one took a left turn into loonyland. Disappointing. ;_;

[topgnu]

The last several months of catch-ups gave me the long awaited opportunity to catch up on my other reading lists, so I guess thank you in a way? This month seems to keep the trend.

This month I don't see significant difference in opinion compared with those who posted before me.

I had Wild Last Boss on my list to read when they come up for catch-up. I've read the first two volumes over the weekend - and I find it only slightly underwhelming. Readable with acceptable characters and a few moderately entertaining twists. I especially like it how there is no god-level build, and even the maxed out, top characters had to make choices picking their strengths and areas of specialization and accept they will always need party members to complement them. The author tends to stretch violence scenes way beyond the point where they bring anything to the story, but with me having already maxed out skip! it is not a significant demerit.

Villainess 99 was very good up to
(Mild spoiler, open at your risk if you haven't read the novel)

spoiler

but then it descended to Dolkness to the power of 99 over the course of a volume or two, so I dropped it at some point in Volume 3 and won't be returning.

100th time the charm - barely made it through the first volume and ran away screaming.

I did not make it past the first word in the title of Yuri Tama, but I see people liking it, so I'll take a peek if time permits.

Slow life was too slow for me to bear with it - and worse, I could not make myself care about any of the cast. I'd rather sit in my backyard and wait for the fireflies to come out (they first arrive in early June where I live).

I quite like the —AΩ— manga, but at the pace it's being released I'll hold for a decade or two before coming here to read the whole thing.

[saidahgilbert]

So this month I'll mainly have only Wild Last Boss to read. I'm already caught up on Yuri Tama and Villainess 99 and I don't want to read Instant Death manga because I don't like the art style. I've already read The 100th Time's 1st volume and have no interest in the second. I have been hearing that Slow Life is too slow so my interest in reading this series is low. But if I have time, I may try a volume or two. After all, slow can mean different things to different people.

[saffire]

Wild Last Boss - Pretty good. It takes a while to really get going, but the ending escalates in a hilarious way that you don't see too much. It's worth a try.

100th Time's the Charm - Liked the first volume, bailed on the second.

Yuri Tama - I'd like to try again if I have time. The concept is funny but dealing with Yotsuba on a weekly basis just kinda sucked.

Villainess Level 99 - Currently reading. Halfway through volume 2, not sure if I'm going to get through this.

Bored High Elf - Aiming to read. I've seen a few comparisons to Frieren which has my attention.

[Dawnaxis]

I’d be willing to add another recommendation in favor of “A Wild Last Boss Appeared!”, especially for anyone still sitting on the fence about giving it a try. I looked at it somewhat skeptically a few times before I finally tried it myself (maybe when it was last on catchup? I don’t quite recall) and am glad I did.

It’s not my favorite JNC series, or the most captivating read. But if you’re having trouble finding new titles to keep yourself in books, it can still be an entertaining and engaging story.

One of the things that’s surprised me about it is that it has remained entertaining, even on my second, third, fourth rereading. Sometimes you enjoy a light novel series the first time around, when everything is new and you don’t know what direction the story will take. But the second time you pick it up, you can’t find the same energy in the narrative, and things seem to get bogged down within the first volume or two and you wind up dropping it. “Wild Last Boss” still has a bit of that “amateur author” feel, but any flaws in the writing generally don’t feel egregious or tedious to me. And there is some variety in the settings and the direction of the plot as the volumes go on, without it turning into a “flavor of the week”, “on today’s episode of ‘A Wild Last Boss Appeared!’…” kind of feeling.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I like it enough that I felt it deserved an extra shout-out

[pcj]

It's a shame that so many people are dropping Villainess Level 99 after volume 2 or 3, but I can definitely understand why. Though those two volumes did kinda suck (2 sucked worse than 3 did in my opinion), the author did seem to find their groove again by volume 4, and volumes 4 and 5 have been significantly better. Still not a masterpiece, but the Yumiella we know and love is mostly back. And Eleanora is better than ever in volume 5.

[kuali]

@pcj Speaking of which, is there anyone out there who'd be willing to try books 4 or 5 if they didn't have to read 2 or 3 first? I'm thinking we could produce a quick recap to stop people getting lost if there's a demand for it...

[Lily Garden]

@kuali 🙋🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

[TheWickerMan]

@kuali If it helps, I can vouch for enjoying volume 2 & 3 quite a bit myself. My main enjoyment from this series comes from the absurdly over-the-top comedy moments, there are few series that give me a genuine laugh like this one often does. And those 2 volumes might actually have the most of such moments.

I can understand what a lot of people didn't like about them though, I think it's definitely the case that the author isn't very good at maintaining character consistency. I'd argue vol 4/5 Eleanora is even further diverged from her vol 1 personality than vol 2/3 Yumi was from hers in vol 1 (I'm in the minority of preferring the latter here as Yumi's changes made her funnier while Elle's have made her less funny). And then there's the fact they completely rewrote Alicia for the manga/anime.

[PuckGoodfellow00 0]

I made it through Wild Last Boss, and read through volume 5 of Reborn as a High Elf. I haven't dropped High Elf, but I wasn't interested in reading it when it first streamed. Volume 5 was better than I expected.

As for volume 2 of 100 times... I briefly thought about rereading it, but decided to pretend that there is only one volume in the series.

I wonder if volumes 2 and 3 of Villainess lvl 99 suffered because the author was distracted by Anime prep... Development does take a while, and if they were contracted after the first volume...

[radiantmemories]

Welp, J-Novel finally sucked me in. I only had a subscription for AoB prepubs, but I was taking a break to avoid burnout and I didn't have a ton to do, so I started digging into all the stuff I hadn't read before. A friend recommended Villainess Level 99, and it happened to be on catch up, so I tried it and ended up liking it a fair amount. That caused me to dig into other things I thought looked interesting, and I ended up finding way too many things I like. So I'll probably be reading the catchups each month now, if I have time. These topics look like fun too. My very late contribution:

A Wild Last Boss Appeared!: Genderswap stories aren't really my thing (usually too much uncomfortable humor), so I skipped it for now.

Villainess Level 99: More comedy than I usually go for, but it was actually quite good. I like Yumiella and Patrick a lot, and the story was fairly interesting too. The series is also good at coming up with new situations where Yumilla is challenged but doesn't lose any of her strength. A couple things here and there were a bit weird for example

spoiler

but overall the plots are interesting and enjoyable. Which is surprising for a series where the MC starts out so overpowered right off the bat. I've heard there's an anime too (that has one small but potentially important plot change that might really affect things later!) but I haven't watched it yet. I probably will eventually.

The 100th Time’s the Charm: I had avoided this at first because it seemed like a harem one, but apparently it's not. It does seem to get quite heavy in regards to unwanted advances though (to the point no one is caring about her feelings at all), so it doesn't seem like my thing.

Yuri Tama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta: I'm not a fan of either love triangles or Yuri, so I know just from the description that I'm not the target audience.

Enough with This Slow Life! I Was Reincarnated as a High Elf and Now I’m Bored: This is definitely more slice of life, but I actually really liked this one. I think the author did a great job in capturing the differences in how a High Elf (even a more human one) would perceive things. The way Acer's concept of time is so relaxed (for lack of a better word) that he thinks it's nothing to spend 20 or 30 years leaning something is very fitting, and creates a completely different feeling to the story. I also like that he gets so interested in learning things, and it's cool to see his enthusiasm and learn about new things with him. And things in general in the story are dealt with pretty intelligently (the basics of how the world functions aren't smoothed over for an easy story (experience/expertise still takes time and ignorance of the world is remedied through learning instead of just handwaved)). It's a bit interesting that, so far, this story seems to be a bit opposite of Frieren though. Acer values his friends, but he still lives according to his own time wandering through the world. He knows they'll get old between visits, but he doesn't change his priorities to reflect that and instead continues to live more at the pace of a High Elf than a human. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just different. Sadly, I somehow missed that this series was on catchup this month despite wanting to read it after I came across it earlier this month, so I unfortunately didn't get a chance to read all the volumes in time. I'll have to do it whenever it comes back around. Unless I break down and end up buying it first.

My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!: Quite dark in tone (it instantly starts off with several deaths and seems to be continuing down that route) and I don't like stories where people dying is meaningless, so this one definitely isn't for me.

[myskaros]

Sorry for the inconvenience, but the April catchup switch will be slightly delayed. We hope to have it changed before end of US business, but it should definitely happen by tomorrow at the latest. Thank you for your patience!