Talk about your recent reads here with your fellow community members!
Everyone is welcome to discuss and share ideas on what they’ve been into this past week/month. This is where you can get suggestions for new manga while also connecting with those reading the same series.
Feel free to write a whole essay or just a sentence. Ask for recommendations and/or give them. Just comment on whatever you feel. The goal is to get users talking so the more the merrier. Just remember to be respectful because we’re all here to talk about what we love and have fun while doing so.
Over the past fortnight I have focused catching up with series (mostly isekai, I have a problem) that I had read partway and then let slip by the wayside for one reason or another. I have listed a selection of those below. However, before that I just want to encourage more people to read Atsumare! Fushigi Kenkyu-bu as it has been consistently great for a long time. With that out of the way, some selected series I have been catching up on in no particular order:
- Konjiki no Word Master - Yuusha Yonin ni Makikomareta Unique Cheat: I have read up through what is translated of the WN for this series and enjoyed it. The manga is a good portion through the story that I have read (if memory serves). Overall, I like the art in this one and the story is good enough to keep my interest though the pacing can be a bit uneven. The most recent chapters have really reinforced my opinion that Eveam is best girl.
- The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic: I have not read any of the source material for this story. I had stopped keeping up with the manga during the arc (trying to keep it spoiler-free) centering around trying to save a disappearing princess. Overall, I think the ensemble and MC of this story is good, but it tends to have a bad habit of splitting the party and only focusing on the MC and 1-2 other characters. The story has not been as interesting in my opinion since the MC left on his journey to be a letter carrier.
- Reincarnated as an Aristocrat with an Appraisal Skill: This story is a weird one. I actually like the characters individually and the interactions when they are together, but all of that feels out of place with the rest of the world that the story is set in. This story feels like if you take the characters from a slow-paced iyashikei series, but then puts them in a pretty dark world full of the horrors of war. The setting just feels discordant with the characters.
- Saihate no Paladin: I had dropped this one when it entered its city-building, dwarf-training phase. However, after picking it back up again, I am pretty on board with the dragon-hunting arc. In particular, I think this series really benefits when it focuses less on the supporting characters and more on Will and his moral dilemmas. As an example of what I mean, I especially loved Chapter 47 and the conversation with Stagnate. It had similar vibes to Bilbo/Gollum from The Hobbit.
- Lv2 kara Cheat datta Moto Yuusha Kouho no Mattari Isekai Life: Honestly, I caught up with this one, but might just drop it. It still hasn’t hooked me with the most recent arcs. I think this story is one which would be better served by focusing on the fluffy, feel-good relationship side of things and less on the serious world-at-war storyline. The main couple is great, but we only get glimpses of them being a couple because the rest of the world and its story that I don’t care much about keeps intruding.
- Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita: I have not been a fan of the arc in which they go to some island undergoing a revolution and had dropped this series early on in that arc. However, after forcing myself to get past it, the story has picked back up. This is a series that is at its best when it focuses on the relationship between Fran and her sword. The island arc just expanded the cast too much and made Fran into a bystander while other people lived out their stories. I am fully back on board now that since we are currently in a (cooking) tournament arc, so you know it will be good.
There are other series I have caught up on but I frankly don’t feel like writing more, so I have included very short impressions below, but can expand if there is interest:
- Otomege Sekai wa Mob ni Kibishii Sekai desu: Not a huge fan
- Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni: This one deserves all the razzing it gets
- Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear: Still cute and fun in its own way
- Yondome wa Iya na Shizokusei Majutsushi: Interesting story, but can’t help but feel there is important plot lost in the adaptation from LNs
- The Modern Strongest Hero Who Came Home: This one isn’t really stupid fun…just remains pretty stupid
- Finally, last and also least Kanojo, Okarishimasu: One of the things I miss the most from reddit are the many, many ways /r/manga used to shit on this series. Once even they were tired of beating that dead horse I let this series go. I am proud to report that, after catching up, it remains just as bad as before.
I also miss dunking on Kanojo, Okarimishimasu. It’s not even bad in a fun way by itself. I only read more so because people making fun of it was funny.
I also am really enjoying Healing Mage. I don’t know how far you are, but currently, it seems to be building a pretty solid main party different from the one it introduces if that might make it better. But tbf, I didn’t have much of a problem with the party splitting in the first place, so idk.
I need to start reading the paladin one again. Eventually.
Yeah, I think I just wasn’t really a fan of the disappearing princess arc because I have enjoyed the series more since they moved past it. I think I also just enjoyed the opening cast of characters so much (Rose and the other healing mages in particular), that I am missing them. I am really looking forward to the anime adaptation in Winter as the first part of the story was my favorite part.
The Dragon, The Hero, and The Courier, and Mage and Demon Queen are two completely different series I’m currently reading among others. I hope somebody else out there enjoys at least one of them as much as I do.
I’ve been slowly reading The Dragon, The Hero, and The Courier. It’s enjoyable and pretty unique but not something I can binge. There’s far too many words and dialogs. In some mangas, I don’t mind skipping dialogs here and there (eg when the author spends 2-3 pages on some backstory that I don’t really care for), but I feel every piece of dialog here is important or funny.
I agree it’s hard to binge. Which is a good thing for me because I’m like a cat and if I can binge I’ll binge till I choke and die. Too many details for me to eat too fast here. This is one of the only manga where I’ll actually read the end of chapter fun facts/non story stuff and learn.
The Dragon, The Hero, and the Courier looks interesting, definitely going on the to-read list!
Its great, has some nice historical facts, impressive world building and lots of making fun of bureaucracy, i can highly recommend it
Keeping up with some weekly stuff, but heres my favorite of this week: Watashi no Musuko ga Isekai Tensei Shitappoi. Yes, it had Isekai in is title, but don’t let that fool you. Its mainly about a mourning mom, whose child died in an accident, and her coping mechanism is that he actually got isekai-d, and trying to find a way to bring him back. Its pretty heavy, and more about the mind working through grief, but its just makes you feel, you know?
I hadn’t heard of this one before, but the premise is super interesting. As somebody that reads way too much isekai (see my wall of text in this thread), most of them waste a huge potential of the genre that this one focuses on. Namely, the whole premise of (most) isekai is that there is one or more people that vanish from their world. However, we usually never see anything about the people and places that were left behind. This is one of the reasons why I am of the firm belief that most isekai are just fantasy stories that have the unneeded addition of the reincarnation/summoning/whatever isekai element added to them.
I’ve been working my way through Yuru Camp. Nice and light and fun. I plan on watching the anime after I wrap up reading.
https://mangadex.org/title/1ee97895-4796-4bcf-bcd1-5ef99c011f8b
Witch hat Atelier and Dai dark
Service Wars - saw discussion posts quite regularly but I typically only read manga with at least 20 chapters already, so didn’t start on this one until recently. Only on chapter 6 so far but holy crap it’s hilarious and the gags have been plenty and mostly unexpected. Looking forward to seeing how the author can keep things fresh.
Kimi Janakya Dame na Dorei Shoujo - unexpectedly wholesome with light humor. This is pretty standard stuff, and the art is good, not great. But the execution is superb so far
I am mostly into Jujutsu Kaisen these days, both the current arc in the manga and the anime are just brilliant, and has everything I could ever want from a shounen. Not going to bring up any spoilers, just going to mention how hyped I am at the current manga, I keep rereading chapters 223 to the current one so many times because of how epic it is.
I also like Martial Master Asumi, it’s got really nice MMA stuff and nice grappling.
Of course, One Punch Man is always entertaining, and I keep getting excited every time a new chapter pops up.
