February Catchups
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If you've got some long, lonely nights coming up in February, there's nothing better than to curl up with a few books!
One minute he's having a drink after work, the next Liam's suddenly the son of a noble. He decides to pursue his dream: learning magic! But will this spontaneous decision somehow revive his collapsing house? Find out in I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic! And check out the anime airing now!
All Lucia wants is an atelier to make her own beautiful clothes. When her friend Dahlia asks her to make a special piece of cloth, that chance finally arrives! Follow as Lucia navigates her sudden promotion with style in Lucia and the Loom: Weaving Her Way to Happiness!
Have you heard of The World's Least Interesting Master Swordsman? His name is Sansui, and he wants to be all-powerful! Unfortunately, he'll have to earn it... one tiny step at a time. When Sansui is suddenly drawn out of isolation after centuries of training, he'll find that his current ascetic mindset makes his isekai adventure very different from what he expected.
A dying dragon finds an abandoned human child and decides to raise her with his final years. But he's done too good a job, and now... she can resurrect him as a skeleton. With a tenuous new unlife, can the dragon find a way to stabilize his daughter's control on magic before his bones give out (again)? Read all about their travels in The Skull Dragon's Precious Daughter.
Ryuichi, an expert strategy RPG player, finds himself reincarnated into his favorite game. Not as the hero, though, but as the minor villain Erhin who is killed in the game's prologue! Even though he can cheat by using game systems, things look grim without an army. Watch how Erhin overturns his fate in Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up!
Finally, hundreds of years before Hajime set foot in Tortus, another group of unlikely heroes challenged the world order and became legends in their own way. Discover the truth from another perspective as Oscar and Miledi go on a journey to bring down the gods in Arifureta Zero. This spinoff of the popular anime starts intertwining with the events in the main Arifureta story's volume 7!
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Pinned by
myskaros
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I'm looking forward to reading Lucia and the Loom since people here tell me it has much less of the binge drinking that made Dahlia a slog for me. Based on others' recommendations it's the star of the month.
I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin is trash, but the first couple of volumes were at least entertaining. Keep your expectations low and you might enjoy it.
The World's Least Interesting Master Swordsman is somewhat true to its title, and it sometimes feels a little like an old anime or cartoon with all the one-trick superweapon people ("I have mastery over sand! I'm full of grit!" -- not a real example). You might find it boring or interesting depending on how the slow pace and low-motivation MC hits you.
Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up I didn't find the story or the strategy game mechanics as interesting as in Her Majesty's Swarm or Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra and I drifted away after the first volume, but your mileage may vary.
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@myskaros said in February Catchups:
If you've got some long, lonely nights coming up in February, there's nothing better than to curl up with a few books!
I was a fan of Dahlia, and I’m also a fan of Lucia. It’s fun to see a story from a rather different perspective. It’s not just Lucia dealing with mass-producing Dahlia’s inventions, though. How long of a wait will it be before the next Lucia? At least a Dahlia book is currently in progress here on JNC. I’ve bought this series (Dahlia, too).
The story’s fun, and the art’s wonderful (and very detailed). Some sad moments when we meet papa dragon’s kids, but also plenty of happy times. The mantra/magic focus that she learned of “Cash. Connections. Constitution.” is adorable. A little girl (with lots of magic) grows up with the help of a lot of mostly-nice people and a number of dragons, dead and alive. I’ve been buying this one, too.
I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic
I forced myself to finish the first book, in the hope that it would get better. It didn’t. I had no interest in watching someone getting more powerful without much effort, and enslaving ladies to make them better physically/magically. He starts a new country in no time flat. But he’s humble? Uh, no.
The World's Least Interesting Master Swordsman
Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level UpNever even sampled them, so no strong opinion. They just didn’t sound interesting enough to squeeze into my busy JNC pre-pub/forum reading schedule.
Never tried the parent series, so no reason to try this one.
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@HarmlessDave said in February Catchups:
I'm looking forward to reading Lucia and the Loom since people here tell me it has much less of the binge drinking that made Dahlia a slog for me. Based on others' recommendations it's the star of the month.
It helps that Lucia's the resident comedic lightweight of the Dahlia cast - she simply can't drink as much as Dahlia can.
(For those wondering what we're talking about, Lucia and the Loom is a spinoff from Dahlia in Bloom. Lucia doesn't require you to read Dahlia to make sense of it, though - it covers enough of the basics to make sense without reading the parent series, to the point that at least one of the forum regulars read the entire first volume without realising it was a spinoff at all!)
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@Ingraman said in February Catchups:
How long of a wait will it be before the next Lucia?
Lucia v3 released in Japan on 25th December, 2023 (same date as Dahlia v9). V4 has not yet even been announced. So... a long one.
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@GeorgeMTO said in February Catchups:
@Ingraman said in February Catchups:
How long of a wait will it be before the next Lucia?
Lucia v3 released in Japan on 25th December, 2023 (same date as Dahlia v9). V4 has not yet even been announced. So... a long one.
That was probably stated at the end of the Lucia v3 thread, but thank you. ;)
Will we have a wait for the next Dahlia book, too, or is there a bigger pile of those still pending? Probably stated then, too. :p
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@Ingraman Dahlia has a much bigger backlog. V10 & V11 already out, v12 out later this month iirc, plus a short story volume released in there somewhere too.
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The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter is adorable, and not much of a time investment. Would highly recommend.
I got back into Dahlia the last time it was on catch-up, so I might try Lucia too if I can scrounge up the time.
