This is, somewhat, the continuation of My History With Anime as promised.
As I’d mentioned, I started to read quite a few LNs (Light Novels). Some, I’ve started because I saw the anime and wanted to read the source material. Indeed, there is a bit of an in-joke in the anime community that you can tell an anime has a light novel as its source because the title is lengthy, possibly absurd, and pretty much gives away the basic premise of the story.
Just as a couple of (excessively?) silly examples (and, no, I’m not providing links for these – you can search them up if you are curious and have not even a shred of personal pride):
- I, a Demon Lord, Took a Slave Elf as My Wife, But How Do I Love Her?
- The Results From When I Time Leaped to My Second Year of High School and Confessed to the Teacher I Liked at the Time
- Enough with This Slow Life! I Was Reincarnated as a High Elf and Now I’m Bored
- My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1
These are truly just random examples. I am neither endorsing nor condemning any of the above – simply using them to demonstrate the principle.
Ones I Read / Have Read
For the most part, I don’t think the ones I’ve chosen to read are quite that absurd, title-wise.
- Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World (this is Ningen Fushin, which I mentioned as being my “hidden gem” when I talked about Winter 2023 Anime.
- Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest
- Ascendace of a Bookworm
- Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party (all right, this one has a bit of an overly obvious title)
- Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter
- So I’m a Spider, So What?
- Strike the Blood
- The Saga of Tanya the Evil
- The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat (all right, this one’s also a bit too obvious)
Harems? Yep, We’ve Got ‘Em
One of the standard tropes of many LNs is that a male protagonist will wind up collecting a harem of attractive and amusing female characters around him. This process may or may not be intentional and may or may not be desired also. [There are, of course, also those which feature a female protagonist with a “reverse harem”, where she is surrounded by a collection of male characters.]
By way of example, from the list above (of the 9 LN series I’m reading), 4 of them have some sort of harem element. [By the way, lest I be misinterpreted, I am not saying I dislike harems. When done well (or at least not horribly), they can be fun and, of course, everyone gets to have their own personal favorite among the harem members. [Side note – Private Tutor is a “fun” read and, honestly, I would not be annoyed if it got an adaptation at some point. With a good animation studio behind it, some of the magic / fight scenes could be absolutely spectacular.]
These sorts of LNs might or might not intentionally be romcoms. I don’t recall how often I’ve mentioned that I happen to really enjoy reading those. I know I’m a bit of a sucker for these, but what can I say?
The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten
And, finally, I am able to get to where I’d planned to go with this. Over on BookWalker (still not shilling for them), I noticed when the first volume of this series was released (in English).
The cover was cute. [No matter what anyone says, it is fairly common to judge a book by its cover, certainly when it comes to LNs because it definitely is a representation of some character or scene from the story.] I read the free sample and enjoyed it, so I decided to get it.
Once I had read it, I was in love with the book and couldn’t wait for the next translated volume to be released. It was quite clear that this story was going to be a fairly standard slow-burn romcom – where both characters are clearly falling for each other but aren’t able to admit it, either to themselves or to each other.
When the anime adaptation for it was announced, I was absolutely thrilled! I liked it, I liked the characters in it, and it was … well … super-cute. I knew that it was likely it would be forever until these two actually accepted their feelings about each other and even longer until they admitted it to each other.
When Volume 4, much to my surprise, ended with the … beginning? … of that mutual confession, I was intrigued. This was significantly earlier, relatively speaking, than I had expected.
Volume 5 was recently released and I finally was able to start reading it.
Boy, oh, boy! While, yeah, it’s been a slow-burn to get here, but damn, the payoff is sweet. Sweet to the point that, barely a few chapters in and I’m already getting serious brain-diabetes.
I particularly am enjoying how Mahiru, because their (romantic) relationship has suddenly become public, is now viewed by all of her classmates as more of a “normal girl” and has, thus, become more approachable.
I am absolutely loving this series and am very happy there’s still several volumes already written (in Japanese) and are, presumably, in the pipeline for translation and release in English.
