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Lout of Count’s Family Vol 2 by Yu Ryeo-Han, Cover by LOKOnity. Translation by Henry Shin, NoeKun, and Amy Cho. Published by Seven Seas.

This isn’t a mystery series, so sometimes it’s a little frustrating to read the book, knowing that Cale is making important decisions based on information that readers don’t get to know about until after it’s already happened.

There’s a war coming, and he’s doing everything in his power to prepare. In this book, he spends the majority of the time gathering allies and laying groundwork for his future plans. 

One of the major premises of this series is that we see Cale/Roksu foiling the plot of the original “The Birth of a Hero” novel with his previous knowledge. It’s pretty integral to the setup, so I’m surprised that by the end of the book, Cale has run out of his “future knowledge”. I honestly thought it would take longer to get to this point. 

Minor frustrations aside, I do enjoy reading about the prep work. Of course, Cale also ends up charming a bunch more side characters, who are convinced of his goodness. Although Kim Roksu maintains his “selfish” self-image, it’s clear from his actions that he clearly cares about his family, his new found friends, and his children (all of the young strays he’s picked up here and there). Everybody is actively working to get stronger so they can protect each other.

In other series, the “war arc” usually happens towards the end, and it’s a massive spectacle with multiple moving characters with differing motives. It’s also a chance for the heroes to show off their new abilities that they’ve trained. In this series, the war arc seems to be coming up fast, and Cale absolutely is not the type to fight. While both he and his found family are definitely becoming stronger, I’m curious about how he’ll end up “winning” the war and coming out on top.

Also: I realized that the series name is actually “Lout of Count’s Family” instead of “Lout of the Count’s Family”, which honestly is probably grammatically incorrect? It sounds weird and doesn’t flow as well. Anyways, I fixed the tag, but left the 1st post as is since I think it’s funny.

Expedition Cooking with the Enoch Royal Knights Volume 6 by Mashimesa Emoto, Illustrations by Tera Akai. Translated by Emma Schumacker, Published by Cross Infinite World.

First of all, if you are curious about the series this far in, but haven't been spoiled for anything, I strongly encourage everyone to NOT READ the official synopsis for this one, as it contains huge spoilers.

After the introduction of the "Legendary Hero" character (forgot his name, sorry), I wondered if they would manage to introduce someone to the cast in this volume as well. Luckily, that wasn't the case. This volume spent some much needed time with the cast, not only out doing expeditions, but developing their personal lives as well. We got to see more of Vice Captain Velrey, and even the wedding ceremonies for Captain Ludtink and Marina as well as Garr (and his fiancee). 

Mell really had some introspection in this one regarding her self-deprecation, and I feel like we learned new things about Zara as well (such as his views on himself and "gender"). Although this series has been cheesy, it's been such a cozy comfort read, with heartwarming characters. The next book is the last one, and I'm dying to read it!

The rest of my impressions are spoilery, so beware!

Now, if you happened to avoid the synopsis spoilers, please avoid this section as well until you've read this volume.

The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life Volume 5 by Usata Nonohara, Illustrations by OX. Published by Yen On (Yen Press).

This is pretty much the penultimate book in the series. Which was somewhat surprising for me because there’s still Volume 6!

The entirety of Volume 5 covers the Labyrinth Corps expedition into the Labyrinth, as well as their preparations for the final push to defeating the monster who’s attacking Endalsia and saving their city. This volume is one LONG war arc basically. It’s tense, and I wasn’t sure who would end up making it out alive (other than the main characters, but that’s somewhat of a given). 

The series has been pretty consistent in showing that Mariela is not a fighter in any capacity, but it had some interesting world-building regarding putting alchemists on the front lines (it makes sense, it’s like having doctors on the front lines too, it’s useful for recovery). Mariela worked her butt off making high-grade potions to use in the final battle, and the utility of that is clearly shown here. 

Everyone that Mariela has met pitches in for the final battle, and it’s awesome to see. There are numerous fight scenes that show how far everyone has come, and I was totally hooked once the war started.

It’s the culmination of everyone’s efforts that bring about a satisfying conclusion to the series.  The main plot is tied up nicely, and Mariela finally achieves the Quiet City Life that she’s dreamt of, no longer having to fear being the only alchemist in the city. 

I was happy with the series ending here as it’s a satisfying conclusion, but there’s actually one remaining plot point at the end of the book that’s left distinctly unaddressed regarding Mariela’s master, Freyja, and her true goals. It seems like the next volume is an expansion of a short story that addresses that plot point, so I guess I’ll have to see what that’s all about. 

Either way, I’m glad I stuck with this series. It was a fun ride, and an entertaining read. 

Ishura Volume 3 by Keiso, Illustrations by Kureta. Translated by David Musto. Published by Yen On (Yen Press).

With this volume, we’ve finally surpassed the anime!

I didn’t realize just how far the anime covered Volume 3. Luckily, there’s a very conspicuous stopping point in the book. It’s almost as if the author planned it that way.

Anyways, we get into the politics of actually running the tournament, as well as the fights that we’ve been waiting for. There are 16 competitors in total, so presumably there will be 15 matches. 

In this book, there were two matches, which started around the half-way point of the book. I’m somehow impressed and also concerned that they blew through that many. At this pace, we will roughly cover 3-4 matches each book, assuming they all play out “fairly”. 

And as we know from this series, that’s not necessarily the case. Even with the sabotage, the fights were truly nail-biting, and I had no idea who would come out on top in the end. The author does a great job with the fight scenes, and since no character is truly the “main” character, there isn’t any obvious plot armor to give away who is about to win. It’s great stuff, I hope there’s a continuation for the anime.

I’m curious to see how the existence and death of The True Demon King will play into finding the “True Hero”, and whether it really means anything. Honestly, I find the concept of the world to be the biggest mystery of all. Why do Visitors keep getting sent here from the “Beyond”? Why does this world exist at all? 

This truly is a unique series, and I’ve got the next book lined up. 

Lord of Mysteries: The Clown Part 1, Volume 1 by Cuttlefish That Loves Diving. Cover by OSSS, Illustration by an uncredited artist at Guangzhou Tianwen Kadokawa. Translation by Webnovel. Edited by amixy and Ivan Liang. Published by Yen On (Yen Press). 

I feel like before I even get into my thoughts about this book, there’s a ton of preamble that I need to start with.

First of all, I initially discovered this series through the donghua (Chinese anime) that is airing currently. At the time of this post, 8 episodes have released. The first season aims to adapt all of “The Clown”, the 1st arc of the series, which has been released in 3 books. In total, the “Lord of Mysteries” is a completed series with a total of 18 books. 

I greatly enjoyed the donghua, which is what inspired me to start reading the series to begin with. I also knew that this was a highly recommended series among Chinese webnovel enthusiasts. I might have even seen a comment somewhere cheekily comparing it to One Piece in terms of world-building prowess.

Therefore, I certainly wasn’t coming into this book blind, with zero expectations. I was already spoiled for some of the events of the book, and I was already interested in the series as a whole. This is all important to know, so you at least know what frame of mind I’m coming at this from. 

I think this is a situation where having all of this knowledge ahead of time is extremely helpful. While I am familiar with some slower paced light novels series (early Ascendance of a Bookworm being one of them), this is by far the slowest and most methodical series I’ve ever read in this sphere. 

The series is about a man named Zhou Mingrui. He’s a developer(?) who runs into a spat of bad luck, which prompts him to try a ritual he discovered in an old Chinese ritual book. While the ritual seems unsuccessful, it transmigrates him in the middle of the night into the body of one dead Klein Moretti, who just recently committed suicide for unknown reasons. Trapped in this new world with only basic fragments of Klein’s memories, Mingrui must navigate occult incidents and encounters with mysterious power-wielders called Beyonders in a steampunk Victorian-England inspired world. 

The first book is almost 600 pages, and the entirety of the novel is spent building up various aspects of the world. The currency system, the history, the magic ‘system’, how various organizations are founded and continue to run to this day, and even taxes are brought up. If this was your first exposure to this series, I would hardly blame anyone for thinking that this was a dry and boring introduction. 

However, all of it was extremely compelling. One of my favorite aspects of One Piece is how mysteries about the world are slowly revealed over time. This series is almost like that on steroids. It’s entirely about the mysteries. The mystery of why the main character got isekai’d/transmigrated to this new world, the mystery of how the powers and magic system works, the mystery of why previous eras of history are completely unknown! There’s so much to learn, and even the main character is yearning for this knowledge, in order to find a way back home. It’s a simple premise with brilliant execution.

Another thing to note, is that the translation quality is much better in the physical release by Yen Press, than the digital version on Webnovel.com. Unfortunately, Webnovel is holding onto the digital publication rights, so there is not an ebook version. The physical book seems to have had an editing pass to ensure readability in English, as well as more “British” word usage. I did a comparison of the two, and found the Yen Press edition to be a much more comfortable and fluid reading experience. The prose is not amazing, but wasn’t objectionable either. 

Since the Webnovel.com version does not currently use the updated text (that might change in the future), I definitely think the Yen Press physical is the way to go to consume this series. 

Although it was a long book, I was hooked from the beginning, and am dying for the next book in the series. The 2nd book is out in December, so it’s going to be an eternity until I can find out what happens next!

I ended up impulse buying a Nintendo Switch 2.

I was frequently checking the stock indicator on the Nintendo website, to see if it was in stock near me so that I could conveniently pick it up in-person. I had been checking quite frequently, since I really wanted the version without Mario Kart World included. I was adamant, since I knew that I definitely wouldn’t play that game.

On one particular Friday, I got the invitation to purchase one from Amazon, as well as finding out that it was actually in-stock at the Walmart near me. It was actually during the evening, so I wasn’t sure if it was actually there, but I figured there was no harm in checking. If it wasn’t there, I could just order it online. When I got there, it was actually in-stock! There were only two left. The person manning the counter in the tech section even remarked on how she was surprised that the scalpers hadn’t come by that day to clear out the units. Lucky me!

Originally, I wanted to wait until there was a special edition that I really wanted, but after looking at all the special editions released for the original Switch, the only one I ended up liking was the Animal Crossing edition. Was I going to wait 1-2 years for a Switch 2 special edition that I may not even like?

Here are the list of excuses reasons that I had for buying a Switch 2

1. I can customize it using accessories from Geekshare (rather than waiting for a special edition). These accessories offer a wider range of color options, often with much cuter designs than the existing special editions. I can also change these as much as I want by buying a new cases.
2. I can play my current switch games with higher fidelity/frame rates.
3. The screen is much bigger, and therefore easier to see (I’m getting old lol)
4. I play mostly handheld, and the kickstand makes it easy to play with just the joycons, rather than supporting the whole console. I don’t have a Switch OLED, so this is a big upgrade for me. No more hand/wrist pain!
5. The speakers are louder/clearer.
6. I wanted to buy one earlier, in case tariffs in the US cause the price to go up even more.
7. I had cash rewards from my credit card that I could use to bring the price down.
8. I deserved a treat for what I had just put up with at work.
9. I would use my gaming budget, and buy less games for the rest of the year.

In the end, I wanted to play Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time with better resolution. It’s quite playable on the original Switch, but blurry. Combined with the camera being a little far away (and the zoom function is too close for normal play), I honestly felt like it was straining my eyes to play. I don’t even have any close-vision issues!

The Switch 2 Upgrade for Fantasy Life is only 3 USD, and it’s totally worth it (obviously you need a Switch 2 of course). Unfortunately, I bought my physical copy of the game too early, back when I didn’t have a Switch 2 and the Switch 2 physical edition of the game wasn’t even announced yet. Luckily, the cost of the upgrade wasn’t too bad.

I still haven’t bought any new Switch 2 specific games yet, since many of the 3rd party games are game key cards. There also haven’t been many games announced that have truly caught my attention. I am interested in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, but I never got that far in Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. I want to actually complete that game, and maybe wait for a mild discount on Grand Bazaar before I pick it up.

While I am hopeful that maybe more games will get proper Switch 2 physical releases, I have an enormous backlog of Switch 1 games that I will happily play on my new Switch 2. Even if there aren’t obvious patches to improve the games, they run better just by having more processing power available to them. I’ve had a Switch for 7 years, and my current Animal Crossing one for at least 5 years.

I feel it was time for an upgrade anyways.

 

The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life as a Noblewoman Volume 2 by Kamihara, Illustrated by Shiro46. Translated by Hengtee Lim, Edited by Ruuri. Published by J-Novel Heart (J-Novel Club).

I'm fully intent on reading this series "as it was intended", so J-Novel's decision to split up the volumes means that I had to wait a until the 2nd part was out in order to read them together. It's annoying, but I understand, since these books are huge for light novels. We at least get a new art (a new cover!) for part 2. 

There's really no way to talk about these books without spoiling the plot. More to the point, the book's official synopsis (both parts) pretty much tells you what happens. Does that mean that these plot points aren't spoilers? I don't know, but I'll do my best to give impressions without totally giving up the plot.

The domain of Conrad is attacked by unknown assailants in this book, and Karen's life turns completely upside down. Most of the Conrad household and domain is brutally attacked, leaving few survivors. Through the hard work of her protectors Karen is barely able to escape. 

This was such a harrowing arc, and for me it was just as shocking as the "Red Wedding" in Game of Thrones. I'm sorry I keep comparing this series to A Song of Ice and Fire, especially since I've never read it, but I was a big fan of the TV show (until they ruined it) and it's pretty much my only point of comparison for how horrible events end up stacking up top of each other. The first domino falls, which leads to everything cascading down. Karen is barely able to keep her wits about her as she deftly navigates the difficult political situation. 

And also, I'm NOT sorry about the Game of Thrones comparison because there's literally a scene in this book that's the equivalent of the duel between The Mountain and Oberyn Martell. I'm pretty sure that one of the named characters that joins the group later is also a reference to some pretty recognizable GOT characters. Is the author a fan of the series? I hope so, otherwise I'd feel like I was going crazy. 

Anyways, the political situation becomes even more complicated, as the country basically falls to ruin. Karen originally decided to emigrate to the Empire when the time had come (and had secured the means to do so in the last book), and this is the volume where that happens. The second half of the book is basically about how she starts to build a new life in the Arrendle Empire. This seemed to be a pretty low-fantasy setting, but there is indeed magic in the world, as shown by the mage Six and his abilities. While he's a pretty mysterious character, there's more of the magic system being displayed in this book, and I'm curious to find out more.

Karen's relationship with Reinald also develops in this book, and it's obvious to everyone except her that she has feelings for him. From a viewer perspective, it's also obvious to the reader that Reinald feels the same way about her, and he tries to take some small steps forward. They are both pretty level-headed, and consider the practicality of their relationship more than anything, which is why there hasn't been any big developments. But it's nice to see them start to depend on each other. However, I also have some mixed feelings about this, since circumstances lead to Karen being pretty dependent on Reinald's resources and political standing. This ends up leading to more issues and obstacles for her though, as it's a bad look, and I'm at least satisfied that he's not simply "saving the day" for now. It's pretty integrated into the plot, so I'm happy to follow along to see how they overcome their next hurdle. 

I honestly think that this series easily stands with the best of them, as the plot developments are fast and furious. There's never a dull moment, and some of the twists are pretty shocking. Also, the author loves cliffhangers, so there is of course a crazy development at the end of this book that will leave you itching for the next one.

Although this topic is applicable to all kinds of things (shows, books, etc.), I will mainly be focusing on games here.

I have an account on HowLongToBeat.com. If you’re unaware of this website, it’s a website that allows you to catalog games and give them a status, such as playing, backlog, completed, or retired. It’s like Letterboxd, but for games. Also, because games are more variable experiences than movies, it calculates the average time it takes to beat a game based on the recorded times entered by its users, hence the name of the site.

Sometimes, when I look at all the games I have in my backlog, I get nervous. I’m a fan of genres that tend to have longer play times, such as RPGs and Visual Novels. When I look at the “Avg Time to Beat” and “Total Time to Beat” stats on my account, I realize my own mortality. Will I die without having played some of these games? Especially the ones that I actually bought, and spent my hard-earned money on.

To complicate things, I like collecting games (as you may know by now). As a physical game collector nowadays, there’s an impetus to buy games before they become unobtainable or too expensive. I’ve looked back on when I obtained games, versus when I actually got to play them, and it can take upwards of 2-3 years before I finish a game. I am definitely acquiring games faster than I can complete them. The only thing that helps my numbers is that I tend to complete shorter indie games as I buy them.

I don’t really like forcing myself to play games, so I play whatever I’m in the mood for. Recently, I decided I wanted to sort my games into collections (a feature where you can make custom lists of any kind) just to see how many games of each genre I’ve played.

I was shocked to find out that I’m actually a fake JRPG fan. It’s true that I love visual novels and adventure games (I’ve played 48 of them!) but although I thought of myself as a JRPG fan, I’ve only actually finished 16 games. Out of that total, 3 of them are a Dragon Quest game, 3 are a Pokemon game, and 2 are Loathing series games. I have a piddling few other games, like Atelier Ryza, and Live a Live.

How can this be!! Am I actually a fake fan??? When I check my other lists, it becomes obvious what’s going on. Even if I spend the same or more amount of time on this particular genre, because the games are so long, it takes forever to complete them. I’m definitely interested in JRPGS, but they are basically 3 to 4 times as long as any other game genre. Newer games also tend to go for much longer, it took me 150 hours to play through DQ11S all the way to completion (I don’t consider Act 3 optional, as it contains the “true” story ending).

I can see why people hate these types of games, and feel like they’re padded out. But I love the slow paced approach to story telling, and I find these types of games super cozy. I don’t mind chipping away at games, and switching to whatever I’m in the mood for.

Right now, I have 10 games I’m playing, 37 games paused, and 138 games on my backlog. I’ve only completed 111 games in my entire gaming life, and have also retired 35 games due to various reasons. Although I get anxious about it occasionally, I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a hobby that I do in my free-time, not a job.

Sure, it sucks that I maybe wasted some money if I never get to the game, but I could always sell the games later (this is why it’s good to go physical!). In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that expensive either, and not worth worrying about it.

One unfortunate ER visit costs more than 2 years of game purchases (for me). My house could burn down someday. A life changing accident could happen tomorrow, at which point I’m going to have way bigger concerns than my gaming backlog. I just want to enjoy my time on this planet while I still can.

Agents of the Four Seasons, Dance of Summer Part I and II, Written by Kana Akatsuki, Illustrated by Suoh. Translated by Sergio Avila, Published by Yen ON (Yen Press).

Dance of Summer is another two-part story, this time focusing on the Agents of Summer, Ruri and Ayame Hazakura. In the last installment, we were dealing the kidnapping of Autumn and the subsequent rescue. This book contains the fallout from some of the events in the previous book, including Ruri's resurrection by Autumn. 

Now that there are two Agents of Summer, everyone is happy, right? Unfortunately not. There are scumbags in each Season's Town that are blaming the agents and guardians for taking the drastic actions to rescue Autumn, and most of the conservatives (who call themselves Doyen Turtle) would rather kill off the Agents and "start fresh" with a new set of impressionable children. 

The book dives heavily into some of the politics of how the Towns function, including how the seclusion of each seasons' society leads to rampant abuses of power. As always, each character is struggling just to get by and keep their sanity. None of the Agents are safe in the outside world, with terrorists targeting them at every chance they get, but this installment shows that the Agents aren't safe inside their supposed safe-haven either. 

While we follow Ruri and Ayame, we also meet their grooms-to-be in these volumes as well, including Renri Rouo (pictured on Dance of Summer I with Ayame) and Raicho Kimikage (on Dance of Summer II with Ruri). The stories of romance in this series are just as heart-rending as expected, and every scene with Renri just about made me cry for both Ayame and Renri, who are both going through some truly difficult emotions. Raicho and Ruri's meeting was more humorous, and matched their personalities well.

These volumes also contained more development for Sakura and Itecho as well, as Itecho is finally realizing why he doesn't want to let go of his place in Sakura's life. 

We also met a new "divine" being in these books, Kaguya Fugeki, who is the Archer of Twilight. Just like the seasons, it seems the day/night cycle in this world isn't a natural occurrence either. It's built on the sacrifices of the Archers who must climb a sacred mountain and fire their arrows at the appointed time, meaning that they can never stray more than a half-day away from their job, and never take time off. Kaguya is a grown adult, and it was nice to see a reasonable person want to protect the child Agents he comes into contact with. 

I have to warn people that some of the abuses suffered by the characters are a little too real. (One scumbag even says that Ruri would have been better off dead) Multiple characters are suicidal, but I'm glad that it's treated with sincerity and gravity. These young kids never chose to have their job, they're just trying to fulfill it to the best of their abilities while trying to live a "somewhat" happy life. It's infuriating to see the people who are supposed to be protecting them, abuse their positions and take advantage of their kindness. Honestly, I feel like if the outside world knew what was happening to their beloved Seasons, they would charge the towns with child abuse and revoke their authority for management of these divine beings. 

I'm glad we achieved a happy ending here, the characters definitely deserve it, as it was hard fought. I won't spoil it, but I'm sure it's pretty obvious based on the covers of these books haha. I'm really invested in this series and characters, and the next volume will be about the Archer of Dawn, Kaya Fugeki. I already have the book, but who knows when I'll be in the mood to read it. This series is definite a heavy read, not "light" at all despite being a light novel. I always have to have tissues ready.