When Words Aren’t Enough For Light Novels
One of the big distinguishing points between “light novels” and “regular novels” is that light novels are born into a multimedia ecosystem. They aren’t made up of text alone—they have insert illustrations and distinct anime-esque character designs, making it easy for them to make the leap from book to screen. Kadokawa’s business strategy revolves around […]
Bunch of Updates!
I’ve been quiet on this blog for a while, and by the end of this post you will understand why. (It’s all good news, don’t worry!) I Translated a Mushoku Tensei Book! So… After I left ANN, I got into the manga and light novel translation sphere. Translation was always something I dabbled in, like […]
Don’t Get the ‘Banished Hero’ Anime Mixed Up…
When light novel titles swap the same couple dozen keywords between them, I wouldn’t blame you for getting them mixed up. Last season, there was an anime called Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, and this season there’s one called The Banished Former Hero Lives as […]
Anime’s New Great Detective
The first arc of The Apothecary Diaries begins and ends with a mystery that relatively few people in modern Japan have to reckon with: why would a baby die before their first year of life? It’s a stark window into a time when high infant mortality rates were seen as an unavoidable fact of life. […]
Top 5 New English Light Novels of 2023
It’s that time of the year again! Looking back on this year’s English light novel debuts, there were a handful of titles that I was really looking forward to but which ultimately disappointed me (Agents of the Four Seasons, The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey, and Days With My Stepsister, to name a few), but […]
The Pig Isekai Light Novel Is Heartbreaking, What the Hell?
I am shook. I am trembling as I write this post. I did not expect Butareba: The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig to actually be a good series. I did not expect it to tug on my heartstrings and leave me staring blankly at the ceiling for a long while after I […]
The Anti-Slut-Shaming Anime
In the afterword of Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me‘s first volume, author Makiko Nagaoka remarked: “If I got lucky enough to date a beautiful voice actress I admired, would I give up on the idea if I found out she wasn’t a virgin? There’s no way I would…” She has […]
Why I’m In Love With the Villainess Is Such a Cult LGBTQ+ Hit
At first glance, the I’m In Love With the Villainess anime isn’t a huge game-changer. It takes the oversaturated “villainess” trope and applies a yuri twist to it, which is, like…neat, but not unheard of in anime. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! and The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated […]
I’m Gonna Be Honest About Liar, Liar
Liar, Liar is a pretty darn half-baked anime. Like a lot of trend-chasing works of fiction that don’t really understand the appeal of the things they’re copying, you can easily identify which popular series each story element was directly inspired from: Perhaps the one halfway compelling idea is that the protagonist has to maintain his […]
Reign of the Seven Spellblades Is Not As Generic As It Seems, Trust Me
I don’t want to write another post-mortem about a light novel anime adaptation. The Reign of the Seven Spellblades anime technically isn’t a bad adaptation; unlike the Spy Classroom anime it covers all the plot points in a coherent manner. While the production values are modest, there are some action highlights here and there, like […]