'Three Cheats from Three Goddesses' sounds like something for me.

<This Alluring Dark Elf Has the Heart of a Middle-aged Man! Vol. 1> - What I expected was something like the "Bureaucrat to Villainess" anime where the MC approaches problems with the assuredness and wisdom that comes with age, but instead the MC in this is crippled by a extreme lack of self esteem and general lack of confidence rooted in his age. Every single page there is somehting about him thinking if he should even talk to that group of young adventurers because "on the inside he's an 40 year old" or if he's allowed to eat at that place because "on the inside he's an 40 year old". Or maybe if he is sticking out badly because "on the inside he's an 40 year old". You get the drift. MC is the worst kind of milktoast characters that is even afraid to answer a perfeclty normal question asked in good faith while getting lost in the mazes of their insane inner monologue all because "on the inside he's an 40 year old". This is probably the type of character I dislike the most. And MC here is a especially bad case. Take an early example: MC is in in the adventurers guild browsing the job board when a group of archetypical thugs show up and start harrassing MC as if their existence depended on being as cliche as possible. They then proceed to drag MC ouside and MC just thinks that becasue "on the inside he's an 40 year old" he should probably prostrate themself on the floor and ask for forgiveness. Then they try to rape MC (remember he's in a bombshell dark elf body) and he reists by using non-leathal magic. Here is a quote with what comes next: “A sigh of relief escaped me at the realization that I’d overcome this hurdle, but it was almost instantly followed by self-loathing. I had just deliberately attacked others. I felt sick about it.” Again just to drive the point home: Some thugs ahve dragged MC ouside into an alley and tried to rape MC and then he feels self-loathing for having defended himself. You can't make that shit up. Maybe it's just my western mentality and a typical Japanese reader would just nod their head as if this was normal, but to me this is like nails on a chalkboard. 0/10

<I Shall Survive Using Potions! Vol. 10> - The series is growing a bit stale. For the last volume or two it's basically exactly the same with the town's and support character's names changed. It's still entertaining to read but the series is at a point when it absolutely needs a bit of a twist or refresh. 6/10

<The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey, Vol. 5> - I love how cou can see the author's progress with each volume. The general direction of the series didn't change, but in the first volume the emotional manipulation was forced and on the nose as if written with a sledgehammer on the hide of a dead horse. In the following voumes it was still there but less and less ham fisted. In the last one you had to look for it and in this voume it feels entirely organic. Looking forward to the next volume. 8/10

<Magic Stone Gourmet: Eating Magical Power Made Me the Strongest Volume 8> - The entire volume is more or less 3 fights one after another. And let's just say the author isn't very good at writing fights. Instead of some epic and hype conclusion to the past 7 volumes each fight reminds me more of the sword fights in Secret of Monkey Island if instead of witty oneliners there were entire chapters of exposition between sword strikes. Here is a line form one of those fights after a character was hit by a surprise attack: “Huh?! What?! Why has a blade pierced my chest?!” totally normal reaction when you get suddenly pierced by a sword. No grunt of pain or angry scream, instead one describes what has happened. And that's how the entire volume was to read. Just those incredible badly wirtten fights one after another that are drawn out for way to long to have the characters spill all their backstory like a Bond villain. 3/10

Adding my recommendations (just because):

• Tattoine Rhapsody (episode 2): K-On! if Hokago Tea time was employed by Jabba the Hutt.
• The Village Bride (episode 4): Like an mix of an TNG episode and the Eupha arc in Metaphor:RePhantazio
• Lop and Ocho (episode 8): Star Wars coded Family drama. The best episode in my opinion.

It's the same as "Redo of Healer" and "The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time". At least in anime form you're not forced to read the deranged thought processes of the characters.

My main problem (apart from the general low quality) with those 3 series is that the META of the story indicates that the authors see this as normal and acceptable. It's hard to explain because it's the intent between the lines. It's not portrait as something bad the character do, but glorified as if it's the righteous thing to do. If regular power fantasies are written for introverts that feel powerless, these three are written for those of them that are fantasizing about burning the school down with the classmates inside. You know the type that looks at school shootings and think "yeah, they had it coming". Or to stay anime specific, those that think burning down an animation studio is the right thing to do because they stole their idea.

One of my all time most hated light novels I've ever read. I lack the vocabulary to fully explain how much I hated it. I think the closes thing would be "sawnay" which is the phonetic spelling of the Hebrew word for biblical hate. You know Old Testament shit. That's how much I hated that series.

Something along the lines of “be nice” or “don’t be a dick”. Very broad, but really just a kinder way to say “use your common sense” and “don’t piss me off”.

How awesome would it be if, by the end of the season, the song was sweet and light and she had a partner?

There are few things in anime that I love more than when openings change with plot progression.

I would like to know what anime only watchers think of Ann with an e? I've read the book it is based on and the original anime was a childhood anime of mine, so I have a preconceived impression of Anne and I'm wondering if I wouldn't see her as emotionally manipulative if this were my first contact with the story.

Great frist episode. I feel a bit like they shoved the product placement a bit too blatantly in your face but other than that I really liked it.

Another good episode. With this the show cleared the 3 episode hurdle for me and will surely be one of the few that survive throughout the season. I liked the story about the mascot best. I wonder if we get some reveal at the end about who is in the suit. Maybe the teams owner?

OMG the gaming references in the first half. I was constantly looking out for Isabelle making out with DoomGuy in the background but I absolutely did not see the Ryu Ga Gotoku reference coming. It's are that I actually lough out loud, but that shot with the Kamurocho gate and the iconic Kazuma suit did it for me. In the shot with Kaneda's bike they should have brought in the slide somehow to make it complete. I'm unsure if that futuristic city was supposed to be Neo-Tokyo (like the bike suggests) or Night City to stay within the gaming theme. But then I thought the neon yellow jacket would be a must. Anyway, as an avid gamer I was enjoying this episode immensely.

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I hope next week is better for you. Personally I would pick something else since there is too much struggle and antagonism in Bookworm. But I'll put that question into the midweek pool. )I'm running out of questions there)

<Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools Volume 9> - The main romance seem to slowly (very slowly) pick up some steam. Dahlia expands her reportoire even further and her debut ball is on the horizon (next volume). 7/10

Only The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey for me.

I checked some of my favorites and I think Tearmoon Empire did a great job:

The sky was soaked in the crimson light of the setting sun that glared angrily from the horizon onto the Grand Square of the Imperial City. At the center of this famed square loomed a guillotine, its crude and rusty blade dripping red.

For once it follows the same structure as one of the opening lines I spoke of in my earlier post that immediately hooked me:

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” (from Neuromancer, William Gibson)

Just as the sky is usually not looking like static, the sun shining down on something is usually associated with something positive, but here the sun is angry. Makes you immediately think that something is wrong.

And if the "angrily" in the first line wasn't enough to instill a sense of foreboding in the reader, the next line about the guillotine with the red blade is the point where I sit up a bit straighter and want to know what's happening. Great opening lines. 10/10

Great post. Exactly what I was hoping for!

When I wrote that question, I was thinking about the beginning of two regular novels that had me hooked in the first lines. I thought that until this question came up I would have found some light novels with incredible opening lines, but I completely forgot, and haven't come upon some that were so great to make me remember this question.

But just so this post doesn't stay empty I'll post something that I just came across while playing with a new Myne function. I present you with this masterpiece:

I was nothing but code, a collection of 1s and 0s, until the day they started calling me Myne.

Aww.... so close.... not. MUHAHAHAHAHA No One can beat my Myne!

I agree about both "mysteries". But I like the aesthetics of the show and feel like those to leads could develop a good dynamic. I hope those two were just introductory and the next mystery has some more meat to it.

Yep. Still great. Definitively a highlight of this season for me.