#except set up a little differently given there's no isekai happening here
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pairing: dick grayson x reader
word count: 3.2k (i think?)
warnings: rape mention (as per dick's canon)
notes: i keep thinking of applying one of my favourite manga/manhwa tropes with dick specifically, because it works so well, but i don't particularly care to put in the work of setting up that it'd take for it to land as well as it could. maybe later. as it is, i'll give you the quick rundown because i spent two days writing it lol
something ugly about you has made you undeserving of romance. you have spent your entire life puzzling out what it is and how to fix it. nothing much is special about you: the matter’s far from isolation, or becoming any particular sort of pariah. perhaps that'd be easier to explain. no. people leave you alone, your friends cherish you, your family loves you. it is not that you have not known affection, but that you have and so when you crash against the wall that horrible first time, it hurts all the more.
nothing changes after that. there is always a limit to where your interest can reach, unnamed but palpable. a line you cannot cross. it seems to you as if the entire world has reached a silent consensus during a meeting to which your attendance was not required and your input unnecessary. why would it be? this is not about you. after all, your ability to love has not become impaired. you like people. you’ve fallen in love. but who has ever loved you back?
this one facet of life has been closed off to you entirely, and you’ve been chased away from all attempts to form a romantic bond with unspoken threats of shame and implications of disgust. (a bit much of a display just for the offense of being little old you. you come to regard the matter so as you grow older and start curating some self-respect. it still stings as badly as scrubbing your skin raw under hot water, but not all the loathing is directed inward nowadays.)
regardless, you’ve learnt that you are undesirable, and nothing you can say or do will change that. you must be content with the other shapes that love can take. nothing that you want matters whatsoever.
you meet dick grayson one summer evening under exceedingly normal circumstances. you do not know about heroes or rogues, no batmans or nightwings. the person that crosses the threshold is none other than dick grayson, the handsome young man. suspicion does not cross anybody’s mind, and if it does, it comes only a good couple of thoughts after his darling smile and shapely thighs.
obviously you like him immediately. what’s not to like? he’s gorgeous.
you react to him with the tense wariness of someone hardened by years of useless crushes. trying to avoid him. trying to be normal when you invariably cannot. it’s fine. it’ll be fine.
you still crush on him.
it’s inevitable, at this point. he’s too pretty, too smart, too kind not to draw you in. every interaction comes a rush of exhilarating fear. at times, you manage to subdue yourself into normalcy, hang out with him with as much naturalness as you can muster. but then he does something particularly attractive and you’re back in square one, shoulders drawn together and so short with him he probably gets emotional whiplash. it’s as exhausting for you as it must be for him, and he still reacts to it with grace. it doesn’t help.
through your concerted efforts to be normal, or at least appear as much, you and dick become friends. not great friends, mind you, but good enough that you start hanging out on your own without any of your mutual friends present. and you only spend about three hours total pondering the meaning behind the phrasing of his texts. that’s gotta be some form of progress, right?
he sits at a little table away from the window, and beams when you arrive. coffee’s on him and conversation’s on you. you’ve got more in common than you first thought, but you go back and forth between imagining it must be fate and squashing down delusion, telling yourself you’re blowing it out of proportion.
at one point in time, a beautiful, sultry-looking woman approaches the table.
this sucks, you think, glancing away from dick’s bland mask of politeness. all of it is hopeless and it still sucks.
you and dick tense immediately, like you both know what’s coming. sure as ever, the woman smiles and asks for his number. you look away politely, sip at your drink. the proximity makes it useless to pretend you’re not eavesdropping (though it can hardly be called that when she came to your table), but you take care not to make any faces that’d give away the little storm brewing in your stomach.
you think about running off to the bathroom, get as far as shifting on your seat when dick shoots you a troubled look. the woman’s been at it for a little more than is appropriate. a minute or so more of insistence and she’ll be stretching the boundaries of her own dignity too far. you look away with pressed lips and move your hands under the table.
your alarm beeps.
“oh, shit, dude,” you gasp, hoping to land somewhere in the ballpark of realism. “It’s almost seven. we’ve got to go, or else we’re gonna miss the movie.”
dick gives the woman his apologies and swiftly runs out of the café with you hot on his heels. on the way to the movie theatre, you wanna ask the million questions running through your head—why’d he reject her? didn’t he like her? did he not think she was pretty? who is pretty for him? what’s his taste in partners? is he seeing someone?—but you know it’s a futile endeavor. what will you even get out of that? it’s clear dick didn’t enjoy the interaction either. you make small talk about something else, trying to draw his attention away from whatever conflicted feelings he’s moored in right now. just because you like him doesn’t mean you can’t be a good friend to him.
it’s a short walk. soon enough, he’s all smiles again. in the line for the popcorn stand, another two girls come up to him, this time much younger than you two. he’s nicer with them than he was before, but he rejects them all unequivocally.
“doesn’t it annoy you?” you can’t help but ask. when dick raises an elegant eyebrow, you panic and backpedal so hard you might as well have driven a truck through a storefront.
“a bit,” dick says, ignoring your rambling. you shut your mouth firmly closed when he gives you a sidelong glance, and continues, so very casually, “it’s worse when it comes from a friend rather than a stranger. so many people just try to befriend me because they’re looking for a relationship, or they want access to my body. it’s… tiring. i’m sure you can relate.”
“ah,” you say. your tongue feels numb, but you’re burning up under the weight of his gaze. “no. I don’t really get harassed like that or, um, asked out.”
“huh.” dick blinks. “really?”
“yeah,” you force out. blessedly, the attendant calls your attention. you jostle dick forward. “look, it’s our turn.”
dick orders popcorn. you get a large slushy that you’re not gonna finish. you make him pay. he complies with no question. inside the theatre, you spend all two hours and sixteen minutes of the showing in absolute silence. it is not so strange to be fixated on the movie, but you’re usually a little more chatty. under normal circumstances, you’d eagerly take the opportunity to lean closer to him, whisper something about the main character’s penchant for gummies and its relation to the degradation of the American working class. he’d glance at you and thoughtfully smile, and you’d catch a whiff of his cologne when you straightened. for the rest of the movie, the twinkle of his eye as he forwent the film for your conversation would be all you’d think about.
such is not the case now.
you can tell when you’ve been summarily dismissed. in fact, you appreciate when people are subtle about their rejections. it’s always all the more humiliating when they feel the need to bring it out into the open, like your affections have been so blatant they must be commented on, debated.
the rest of the evening is spent convincing yourself that this is good, that this means it’ll be better for yourself going forward. you’ll be less distracted, if anything. dick’s attempts to discuss the movie with you afterwards fall flat, as the only thing you really want is to get home and stare at your ceiling.
when you’ve reached your apartment door, and are turning to enter after a hurried goodbye, dick calls your name.
“look,” he says, running a hand through his hair unsurely. “I don’t usually do this.”
oh, no. dread fills you up. he’s breaking up with you and you’re not even dating.
you swallow. “dick—”
“I like you a lot,” he interrupts. your teeth clang the way you shut up so fast. in fact, you feel a little dizzy. he continues before you can even process that first sentence. “I think you and I could be really good friends, and I’d love if we could continue seeing each other to, you know, hang out and talk. I do truly appreciate your insight. is that okay?”
you blink fast some three or four times. it must be comical, the face you’re making, because the corner of dick’s lips pulls upward despite him trying to keep a serious air.
“I thought we were already friends…?” you say, at a loss for anything else to say.
“yes!” he beams. “we are.”
“okay,” you respond, perplexed. this is so far out of left field. “um. text me when you’re home?”
“yeah.” he grins. gorgeous grin, to be sure, but why? “for sure.”
“cool.” you give him an awkward thumbs up and scurry inside.
it is… baffling. you spend all of that night wide awake and pondering. dick must’ve misconstrued something, or either you missed a crucial step in your relationship. otherwise the end to that evening makes absolutely no sense. the only thing you can conjure up is that dick must reject a lot of people who, like he said, try to befriend him only to get with him or worse, only to fuck, and it’s not very likely most of those people stay in his life once it is clear he won’t budge on the matter. the fact that you didn’t immediately turn your back on him must’ve come to him as a pleasant surprise.
it’s sad. like, really fucking sad, actually.
that very sadness—and the memory of his handsome, bright grin—turns your outlook inside out. why do you like dick? clearly he’s got the looks and the personality, but do you really know him? what do you know of him? you make a list of things you’ve learned about him in the short time of knowing him. it’s not long.
you come to the conclusion, mortifyingly so, that you don’t, in fact, like dick grayson. that, if anything, the only thing you like is the idea of the boyfriend he could be, which is not the boyfriend that he is (you know nothing about that). it’s the social acumen inherent in bagging such a hottie, and the sparkling sexual attraction bound around it, that really prompt your crushing. it’s not dick as a person. frankly, you think, a little hysterically, could be anyone, really. didn’t even have to be dick. he was just there, the handsomest person in the room. an apt target for the voracious hunger of your heart. you’d mooned and mooned over him for ages and it turns out it wasn’t even about him.
god, you’re such an asshole.
in penance, you endeavor to actually get to know dick without the embarrassment of a crush between you. and it does, in fact, help. dick’s eager to get to know you too, now that you’ve both formally acknowledged you’re friends (such a weird practice, fresh out of kindergarten behavior, but, as you soon find out, dick is weird about plenty and not entirely well-adjusted as an adult). you go on outings together, attend one another’s events, text sporadically throughout the day. you learn which video games dick likes, you tell him which movies are your favorites. it’s fun and light and uncomplicated now that you’ve freed yourself from the constraints of romantic expectation.
not everything’s good. dick’s got bad habits, which grate on you. is it so difficult to put the stupid toilet seat down? can he not learn to chop vegetables in chunks smaller than an elephant’s baby teeth? can he, for the love of god, stop yelling at the tv during horror films? he’s got some serious character flaws, too. you find about those a lot more slowly, but they don’t cause too much trouble.
you fight one or two times due to dick suddenly abandoning you in the middle of an outing with no regard for your safety, and his tendency to get pissy instead of saying whatever’s upsetting him upfront when he knows, you’ve warned him that you’re stupidly thoughtless about your actions at times. all those are things you wouldn’t have come to experience if you hadn’t given the man a chance to actually be a friend. it’s kind of heartening, actually, to have come so far.
sometimes your crush rears up its head in the middle of nowhere. it’s kind of hopeless by now, but you can’t help the fact that dick’s attractive. neither can he, anyway. you just watch him sometimes, the way the sun hits his eyes, lashes sweeping over his cheeks. it makes you go tongue-tied and silly, but the moment always passes. it has to pass. you struggle against it, recall every time dick has upset you or insulted you in one way or the other. some days it’s easy as buttering toast, others you can barely think around the searing heat of your desire. those are bad days for all involved.
one evening, when you’ve grown close enough you’ve begun to think about dick grayson as maybe, possibly, only-if-he-says-so-too your closest friend, he tells you about catalina.
he does it over the phone line, during your almost-nightly calls. over the months, you’ve taken up the practice of teasing him about handsome people he clearly finds attractive in a desperate bid to divert attention and train yourself for when you have to do it for real. this is not one of such cases, and as soon as you realize this, you sober up immediately.
he says it so simply. talks about it like it’s just a hazard of life. there’s a tight hardness at the edge of his voice, but other than that, he speaks like it’s normal Tuesday for him.
not so much for you.
“is it okay if I come over?” you request over the line.
for a moment, the only thing you hear is dick breathe. “yeah,” he croaks, and you’re bolting out the room immediately.
you don’t know how to react to this other than with a shaky sort of desperation. it’s been years since it happened. there’s nothing you can do about it now. there’s something big he’s leaving out, which you notice but don’t point out. a big lump forms on your throat as he speaks. dick tells you when you arrive that the woman is behind bars for an unrelated crime and the only way you stop yourself from wishing ill on her out loud is the fact he looks so politely disjointed, you know your fury will only startle him.
and you feel it so frightfully, the fury.
you love dick, you realize. beyond the fancies and the underlying attraction, you love dick as a person, as a friend. he’s one of yours now.
the evening morphs into a casual sleepover. you don’t interrogate him, and he seems torn between wanting to say more and grateful you’re not prying. you keep yourself open to the possibility, but also try to comfort him as best you can. you make dinner. you put on a movie. you talk and joke and quietly watch. he invites you on the bed with him because his couch is a nightmare to sleep in and his guest room is “unavailable”, whatever that means. you don’t even think about it, just follow.
lying together under the sheets with the lights off, the rest of your feelings bubble up to the surface.
you ask before you clasp his hands between yours and look into his shiny eyes in the darkness. you try to tell him, how this single evening and all those that came before turned over your loyalty to him. how he can come to you for anything he ever wants or needs—your ear, your care, your protection. how much you appreciate his trust and how much you wish you could make anything, everything better for him. how much he deserves it.
“I’ll never leave you now,” you vow with fierce conviction, searching his eyes for any signs of doubt. any other time you would’ve questioned this statement with the sheer weight of infinite possibilities, but not now. tonight, truth is absolute and in your hand. “they will never take me from you. I will always be on your side, by your side. i’m serious, grayson. you’re not getting rid of me.”
a glimpse of a watery smile is the only thing you see before dick throws his arms around you and buries his face in your neck. “couldn’t dream of it,” he whispers into your hair.
you hug him back as tightly as he is, murmuring platitudes and running your fingers through his hair. he falls asleep like that, in the cradle of your arms. he feels secure enough to do so, and you feel both proud and nauseous about it considering the secret you keep.
that he’s told you this at all, that he’s trusted you with such a thing—you know how big it is. you know you can never betray him.
you consider your inherent monstrosity, that little unspeakable thing that bars your from that special kind of love. you understand, firmly, that any desire you feel will never be received eagerly and joyfully. not by him or anyone else. in silent fury, you vow to die before you be like her, to bestow upon this man your grotesque wanting with no regard for his own desire, for the integrity of his being.
that night, you press a kiss to dick grayson’s hair and let him go forever.
.
the next morning, dick watches as you leave. you turn back one last time to wave at him from the parking lot, a bright smile and tussled hair you didn’t bother to brush. you wear out the clothes he lent you to sleep, so harried last night in your haste to come over that you’d simply forgotten to pack pajamas. he suspects you hadn’t planned to stay the night at all, but he’d been damned if he’d let you go yesterday.
you’re pretty. he’s always thought so, but this morning, you’re prettier than ever. it’s the radiance of your heart shining through.
I will always be by your side, you’d said last night. you’d meant it completely, then. dick had been dazed, overcome. he couldn’t take the brightness of your eyes, the surety of your affection. he’d buried his head in your neck and fallen asleep breathing in the smell of your shampoo. in the morning, he’d woken up with your fingers carding through his hair and the gentle warmth of your body against his.
that was nice. he wonders what he has to do to make it happen again.
#dick grayson x reader#dick grayson x you#dc imagine#nightwing x reader#nightwing x you#not that the night life features as anything other than a mention#anyway for those in the know.... this is the chundan 'i like you because you don't have expectations of me'/'im never gonna like ycy' scene#except set up a little differently given there's no isekai happening here#satplotdb
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Mangadex went down so I read alot 1/7
Lets review a bunch of isekai and related stuff I binged because mangadex went down. The scale will be a single thumbs up to a single thumbs down in terms of how much I would consider recommending it in general.
Legend
Chapters 1-51
Pretty straight forward in most aspects. For the best. Nothing crazy bad or good happening, making it surprisingly straight forward for an isekai. [Insert isekai startup here] but this time the MC is given a super magic body and the knowledge of ancient magic. Which he promptly uses to create a griffon buddy. Gets a THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER for just being a nice, believable stay in a world, but I have read some stuff that really has interesting sparks the way this doesnt. MC is brutal at times and General Princess is cute. They make a good pair for each other. Although there are no ecchi situations, that artist really knows how to slide in the lewds, whether its mid combat flourishes or pre chapter artwork.
The Black Create Summoner: Revolt of Reincarnated
All Chapters
Truly is revolting. A resounding THUMBS DOWN. Apparently this was just an advertisement manga, which means that its intentionally incomplete and unsatisfying. Ontop of that, the sketchy artwork was generally rough and got worse to look at the more it went on. [Insert isekai startup here] but this time he has a grimoire that lets him summon stuff he draws. The power isn’t used that much though or in that creative of ways. Characters didn’t really leave an impact except maybe the elf little sister that is stubborn yet knows she is incompotent and recruits a dragon out of stubbornness.
Minotaur’s Sweetheart
Chapters 1-16
So what if a minotaur accidentally seduced the adventurer that was assigned to kill him? This is a good romance manga deserving a THUMBS UP because the pure-hearted minotaur boy and the unmarriageable adventurer girl actually develop a relationship and progress as people. The manga is ultimately about monsters and humans interacting and is fresh due to having a plot that evolves the situation a lot beyond the initial setup of the manga.
Moon-led Journey Across Another World
Chapters 1-64
[Insert isekai startup here] but this time the god of the new world calls the MC ugly and banishes him to the edge of the world to die off. In order to help out the MC, the god of our world (Tsukuyomi) gives him a bit of power. The MC is funny to watch once you realize that he is an incredibly cautious pureboy and expecting every common street thug to potentially end him but in reality he is a god-rivaling cataclysm himself and never realizes. He is so powerful that he recruits the blue haired mist dragon, Tomoe, and accidentally turns her into a weeaboo. Tomoe can read minds and access pocket space with her mist ontop of her sick weeaboo katana skills. She really shines as the most mature person in the story, gaining information that no one else in the story has and carefully withholding it from the MC in order to protect his innocence. She is a DAMN good tomboyish waifu and sarashii is a blessing. Other main girl is yandere spider, Mio, which has shockingly good and well conveyed bouts of emotion. She has an extremely rare “can’t cook at all” joke that is explained due to her “eat literally anything” nature. In terms of plot, the MC hates the god of the world he is in and pretty much plans to do everything she doesn’t want him to. Which means mingling with humans, and eventually, god slaying/usurption. Odd think about this manga is that it’s heavily Japanese-inspired. That may sound odd because its a manga, but generally isekai are most medieval/western skinned than this one which leans in on Japanese mythos. Just look at the god of our world in the manga.
THUMBS UP.
The Unsuccessful yet Academically Unparalleled Sage ~A Cheating S-Rank Sorcerer's Post-Rebirth Adventurer Log~
Chapter 1-10
So lets set up this genre here. This is a part of the “reincarnation” genre, which is a spinoff of isekai. They generally depict a very capable mage who reincarnates themselves into the future of their own world. At which point they realize that although they were pretty strong in their day, they are now practically a god in the deteriorated modern day. This genre will hereby be indicated by [Insert reincarnation startup here]. For this manga in specific, [Insert isekai startup here] but this time the MC could only use lightning magic and was the best at it but failed the gene gacha then [Insert reincarnation startup here] and he fails gene gacha again but is still the walking thunder god. These kinds of manga are always precious when the MC can walk through the world and see the fruits of their past labor. Specifically through Merlin, the MC’s adopted demon daughter who has grown up to be his heritor and bridge human/demon relationships. Truly adorable and heart warming. Lacks a bit of spice from themeing or ongoing plot due to its short length however. THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER.
Older Elite Knight is cute only in front of me
Chapters 1-17.1
THUMBS UP. This is an oneshota manga where shota is a chad with incredibly good tastes. A really good ecchi manga with a light hearted story featuring Haru(the shota) knight that joins Karen’s(the oneesan) knight crew. As with all good romance manga, the main plot isn’t romance. Knight shenanigins are always happening, with a big (and lewd) bad entering recently. Top tier variation on the lewds, even including a princess loli in on the fun. Must read for all oneshota fans.
Lonely Attack on A Different World
Chapter 1-91
[Insert isekai startup forma de classroom here] but this time the MC gets leftover garbage skills and has to learn to survive. Learning to survive thus makes him the most op and he can magic trick his way out of literally anything. Strong start as the whole classroom first tries to get their footing, but after the starting arc is done this manga starts spinning it’s wheels. The manga is kinda lacking in themes, overarching plot and end goals, so stuff just happens to make this a sort of slice of life trap room escape manga. Magic “just works” in this universe so its not very dramatic when the MC pulls out a new trick out of his bag of million tricks. Just kinda stagnates too much for my liking. THUMB IN THE BOTTOM CORNER.
The Unwanted Undead Adventurer
Chapters 1-34
Rentt Faina, the MC, is a good guy with no talent who aspires to be a legendary adventurer. But then he gets turned into a skeleton, giving the chance to evolve his way to greatness, kinda like in Spider isekai or Dragon isekai. The MC is most like Goblin Slayer in his serious and knowledgeable approach to the world, how characters that know him revere him. End goal so far is just him seeing how far he can evolve as he comes across other vampires and vampire hunters. Really want to see him go to the top. Fuckin great art. Girls drawn perfect. Like the hat on the guild girl, but nothing beats the witch Lorraine. THUMBS UP.
Teihen Ryoushu No Kanchigai Eiyuutan
Chapters 1-13
THUMB IN UPPER CORNER.
Pretty funny comedy about a lord of a poor land who wants to be a stereotypical evil lord but can only use healing magic. Therefore he bumbles his way into accepting a heretical cult nun, beast men who hate humans, etc. All the girls are to crazy for him to want to sex them(weak. give the assassin nun your babies). Most interesting parts are aforementioned nun, his fujoshi assistant, and the MC’s willingness to use his power to commit heretical and immoral warcrimes.
The Undead Lord of the Palace of Darkness
Chapters 1-11
Art average, don’t come to this one for spectacle. It’s strength is in the subertfuge that it’s recently-necromanced-back-to-life MC goes through to get his Master killed and to later, probably, evolve into a vampire. MC isn���t evil though, just wants to survive. Main girl on cover was born and raised to hunt vampires but has a compassionate heart. Obviously she goes easy on and relates to MC. Story is still kinda in it’s first arc so the overall trajectory of the story is a bit hard to gauge and not quite satisfying enough by its own right. Probably a thumb up with more chapters but for now THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER.
The Reincarnated Inferior Magic Swordsman
Chapters 1-38
[Insert isekai startup here] but this time.... uh... THUMB SIDEWAYS. Usually I am patient, but 31 chapters with no goal and just barely plot? Wow. Saving grace is uh... I guess the world of “other isekai people existed but they sucked because they didn’t level uncap like MC” could go somewhere but. I take it back, lowering this one to a THUMB DOWN.
The Invincible Sage in the Second World.
Chapters 1-12
[Insert isekai startup here] but this time a pro mmo player in a game called “Broken Balance Online.” Guess what his class, the sage class, was considered in the game? Not far along enough to really pop off but it isn’t horrible. MC is moderately cautious to a healthy degree which is actually rare in most isekai. THUMB IN BOTTOM LEFT CORNER.
The Dark Queen and I Strike Back
Chapters 1-29.5
Although technically an isekai, no isekai startup here. This a battle manga with a big mystery on the backdrop of a war. That is to say, the MC gets teleported to a world to kill the demons but he ends up defending them from the humans with all he’s got. Of special note is the complete seriousness of this manga that whiplashes into debauchery like tentacles, the above cover, oneshota, and even really dark jokes in some of the omake. That tonal lash effect will be either make or break, and it is a HUGE make for me. I love when a single piece can have both absolute serious scenes and utterly lighthearted and fluffy ones. Or in this case utterly lewd ones. May the average-human-amount-of-perverted MC one day slam some demon lord loli. THUMBS UP.
Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers
Chapters 1-24
THUMB SIDEWAYS. Has the feeling of a nerfed slime isekai. Nerfed in all ways except romance. Art surprisingly good.
#Legend#The Black Create Summoner: Revolt of Reincarnated#Minotaur’s Sweetheart#Moon-led Journey Across Another World#The Unsuccessful yet Academically Unparalleled Sage ~A Cheating S-Rank Sorcerer's Post-Rebirth Adventurer Log~#Older Elite Knight is cute only in front of me#Lonely Attack on A Different World#The Unwanted Undead Adventurer#Teihen Ryoushu No Kanchigai Eiyuutan#The Undead Lord of the Palace of Darkness#The Reincarnated Inferior Magic Swordsman#The Invincible Sage in the Second World.#The Dark Queen and I Strike Back#Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers
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Gochiusa BLOOM episode 7 impressions
Previously: 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1
In real world Halloween might have been a month ago, but in the world of Is The Order a Rabbit it’s exactly the season for all things spooky. And maybe things become a little too supernatural for a slice of life show. In the last episode we’ve seen how BLOOM symbolizes the growth of the characters. And as we enter the second half of the season, another meaning is revealed...
But first let’s visit Ama Usa An, where horror-loving Chiya is decorating the traditional Japanese teahouse for Halloween. Since Halloween is decidedly not a traditional Japanese holiday, it looks kinda surreal, but Chiya’s grandmother is more worried about souls of the dead coming back to life, especially that of Chino’s grandfather (see season 2 episode 9 for more of their backstory). Of course the soul of Chino’s grandfather isn’t actually dead, but is inhabiting the body of a rabbit. It’s not clear how exactly this happened and Cocoa might have been involved.
Speaking of Cocoa, we see her practicing with the magic set she bought in the first episode of the season. She tries to make something appear in her hand, but nothing happens. Clearly you can’t just learn to summon matter into existence in Gochiusa world, or can you? Anyway the shot focuses on a candy laying on a table before the opening sequence cuts in. This must be the object Cocoa has tried to summon and it’s also clearly a foreshadowing for something.
Meanwhile, Maya and Megu are trick-or-treating in matching werewolf(?) outfits hoping to score some free candy. Interestingly the tradition of giving out candy on Halloween has descended from a medieval practice of sharing so-called “soul cakes” which represented the souls of the dead.
Meanwhile the staff of Rabbit House are dressed as vampires. The theme of vampires fighting werewolves brings up to mind the Twilight series although I’m sure the idea came up many times throughout history. If you look closer, you’ll notice that Cocoa, Rize and Megu have fake fangs (I think Maya’s is natural), although they’re not consistently drawn between scenes, even though in the manga they’re drawn correctly. Maybe they’ll fix this in BD. The only one whose fang is not shown is Chino, and ironically she is the one who actually bites somebody.
Also the flashback of Chino “roaring” at the mirror reminded me of the scene from Celestial Method where Noel (also voiced by Minase Inori) roars at a dinosaur standee. To be fair it sounds completely different but I just can’t help but compare them.
Also while I was browsing through my copy of volume 6 I found a cute illustration card that seems to be relevant to this episode, but includes Mocha and Cocoa as the wolves and Chino as the vampire (here’s a highres version).
I think I bought this particular volume in Japan on the day it was released. Good times...
Next MaMe go to Fleur de Lapin and are greeted by Sharo dressed as Little Red Riding Hood (bunny version). This costume appeared earlier in an illustration for the rabbit chapter from the previous episode.
This is also a rare scene where other employees of Fleur de Lapin can be seen, as usually Sharo is shown working there alone. Even in the manga, Sharo is the only employee shown in this scene. In the end it turns out that Sharo is a wolf in disguise and craving for some meat. Which is weird because Sharo hasn’t been shown eating or cooking any meat before.
Anyway, next stop is Ama Usa An, which is called the Witch’s Mansion now. Chiya mentions the beginning of the Sabbath, and the manga chapter’s title 今宵は甘兎サバト also mentions the Sabbath. This might be confusing because in Judaism and Christianity the Sabbath is the day of rest and happens weekly (on Saturday or Sunday). However since we’re talking about witches, this actually references the Wiccan concept of sabbat, or one of eight festivals in the Wiccan calendar. In particular, Samhain, one of the four Greater Sabbats pretty much coincides with Halloween and celebrates the beginning of winter.
Chiya does this thing where the protagonist’s hand hurts only to awaken their dark powers, I’m not really sure where this trope comes from but I’ve seen it referenced in anime before and it’s a common chuunibyo stereotype. In this case, Chiya did really just hurt her hand. There’s also some sort of runic circle drawn on her bandages, but if you look closer it says shiratama anmitsu matcha parfait in hiragana.
Maya and Megu agree to help Chiya, and become her “familiars”. Even though familiars are better known as a video game mechanic today (which is what the “level up” scene references), witches were associated with familiar spirits since medieval times. A familiar often took form of a small animal, such as a cat. Unfortunately MaMe don’t even know which animal they are, so clearly they didn’t take their backstory as seriously as Chiya did. Their ears and tails look canine to me, so I can see Megu being a fox spirit, but Maya being a cat is less believable. Also during their confrontation Megu confirms that Maya’s fang is her yaeba (snaggle tooth).
As a revenge for the trick MaMe pulled on her, Chiya gives them a selection of pumpkin tarts, one of which is laced with wasabi (which she calls ”Russian roulette”). This seems like a common thing for her, since she did the same with botamochi in season 2 episode 6, and with green tea in season 2 episode 7 (except she used aojiru instead of wasabi). However this time, it was Chiya’s grandmother who put wasabi in two of the tarts, unbeknownst to Chiya. By the way in the manga it wasn’t shown that Chiya got one of the wasabi tarts.
Chiya goes shopping for some pumpkins, but is helped by Rize, and later Sharo gives her anti-pain medications, reminding her of how Chiya tended for her when she was sick in season 1 episode 12. It’s not mentioned in the anime, but Rize also had a “motivation” for helping Chiya, as she hurt her leg before (see season 2 episode 2). Chiya invites Rize and Sharo to dinner and brings up the wasabi-laced pumpkin tarts. According to Chiya the probability of getting wasabi is 1/3. Initially there were 7 tarts, of which 2 had wasabi. Megu, Maya and Chiya eat one each, with Chiya’s having wasabi in it. That leaves 4 tarts with 1 wasabi, so either Chiya’s calculation is incorrect, or somebody ate one more tart.
Apparently last day was just a warm up to Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve’s Eve?), so next day Megu and Maya come to Chiya again and try to summon something. A larger and slightly different version of the runic circle previously seen on Chiya’s hand starts glowing and we see that the 3 white rabbits correspond to three people holding hands. There’s also Anko corresponding to the black rabbit in the middle. By the way, in the manga the sign on Chiya’s hand was just a hexagram, and the summoning ritual didn’t have any visible symbols.
Anyway, they want to summon a messenger from demon world/hell, and coincidentally Cocoa and Chino come in (dressed as vampires) and try to attack (cuddle) them. Chiya, Maya and Megu form New Chimame-tai which works because Chiya and Chino have the same first syllable. However Chi is written with kanji instead of katakana in this version (because Chiya’s name 千夜 is one of the few given names among Gochiusa characters that’s always written with kanji). This defeats Chino, and Chiya consoling Chino like a big sister defeats Cocoa as well.
Ok let’s move on to part B, which is the really important part of the episode. The streets of the town are filled with people dressed in various costumes. Cocoa’s classmates can be seen among the crowd, and Aoyama and Rin are enjoying a boat ride on River Sanzu.
Our main character have also prepared some new costumes for the occasion. First we see Chino, dressing up as Phantom Thief Lapin, while Rize is going as a police officer. Soon Chiya and Sharo join them, who somehow independently of each other also went with a Lapin costume. At least Sharo had a good excuse. For Chiya, Lapin’s gloves obscure the bandage on her hand, so maybe that’s why she chose this costume. But what about Cocoa?
Well, she kinda got lost and we find her at the location that you will recognize if you read my episode 5 review. Cocoa says it looks a little different than usual, almost like a different world (isekai). Well, there’s a lot of evidence to support this hypothesis. First, in a scene that parallels episode 1, Cocoa finds a lost child and tries to calm her down with a magic trick. However you might notice that the child’s head is literally a pumpkin with a moving mouth.
And her mother is also a pumpkinhead. Cocoa doesn’t encounter any other people during this segment, even though you’d think a spot that overlooks the town like this would be quite popular. Well, she does encounter one more person, a mysterious masked magician with an angora rabbit on her head. She also wears a G-clef pendant indicating some sort of music connection.
Now, since y’all had already watched the episode, it wouldn’t be a spoiler to say that this is the ghost of Chino’s mother, Saki. The rabbit on her head is the ghost of the original Tippy before its body was taken over by Chino’s grandfather. The original Tippy was a female rabbit, by the way, a fact established early on in the series. In Sing for You OVA (for which I wrote a not-very-detailed review by the way) it’s established that Saki was a singer and even had a record released.
Anyway, as a ghost, Saki doesn’t speak (although she still can giggle and such) and doesn’t physically interact with Cocoa (only indirectly, by casting candies at Cocoa). Nevertheless she does teach Cocoa how to do the candy trick correctly.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group tries to call Cocoa’s phone but she doesn’t answer. This is another evidence for isekai theory. Cocoa is just out of range, you see. Rize and Sharo swap their costumes (the most unrealistic part of the episode) and Sharo starts “policing” the Lapins on how the real Lapin would talk. Chiya has a bright idea to shout out for Cocoa and call her big sister. However Cocoa would obviously only react if Chino calls her that, so Rize encourages Chino to say it louder (referencing her training for the choir in Sing for You).
Cocoa and Saki hear Chino, and Saki looks at her daughter from the terrace. Chino also looks up... but doesn’t see anything. She does get a hunch that there’s something up there though, so the group finds Cocoa eventually. Meanwhile Saki feels like her time is up and makes for a quick exit, literally disappearing.
This is where Cocoa returns to the “real world”, as the current Tippy calls out for her. Why was Tippy with Cocoa anyway in the first place? Cocoa looks around and there are in fact lots of people there as expected.
Cocoa thinks that Tippy speaking is an evidence of a ghost, despite her interacting with a real ghost just a few moments before. The 3 Lapins arrive and start arguing who is the real Lapin. Chino says that it’s the one who gets away with everything in the end, implying she will take the whole Cocoa for herself. However Sharo arrests Cocoa for making everyone worry.
On the way back, Chiya recalls the legend which was also mentioned by her grandmother at the beginning of the episode about the spirits of the ancestors coming back for this one day and then returning to heavens. Chino looks up to the sky, while Tippy gives her a solace in the fact that he was once again turned away, implying that he expected to return to heaven with the other spirits.
Tippy also seemed to know what Cocoa was talking about in an earlier scene where Cocoa said she forgot to give thanks to somebody. Just what’s up with Tippy and why is he not allowed to enter Heaven is a big mystery here.
Cocoa also notices Chino being distressed and shows her the magic trick with the candy. It turns out Chino remembers this trick from her childhood, and we get to see a full flashback with Chino’s mother even getting a few speaking lines (delivered by none other but Nana Mizuki). Since the candy was probably a part of the magic set, it’s no coincidence that it has the exact same wrapper in the flashback. The color of the candy matches with Chino’s clothes at the time but you can also think of it as a combination of Saki’s white and Chino’s blue.
By the way, in the manga Cocoa conjures up two candies, and they have a plain wrapping so there wasn’t One Specific Candy like in the anime. Also in the flashback, Chino is carried by her grandfather. His face is not shown, but Takahiro is seen in the background (with Rize’s dad) so by exclusion it had to be him. And in the current scene Chino is the one carrying Tippy like this.
The episode ends with Cocoa asking Chino to tell her more about her mother, while a star is seen rising in the sky, presumably symbolizing Saki’s spirit.
Let’s go back to Cocoa meeting Saki scene one more time. Like I explained, it’s heavily implied that Cocoa isn’t really in the same world as the other characters when she meets Saki’s ghost. Of course Gochiusa had supernatural elements from the start, such as a certain talking rabbit who happens to be Chino’s grandfather. But now we have a ghost of Chino’s mother and Cocoa is the only one who can see her, but Chino can’t? Just what the heck is going on here?
But wait, there is a rational explanation for all of this! Cocoa had a hallucination triggered by all the Halloween celebrations. She imagines helping a lost child just like Chino did before (and told Cocoa about it later) and then imagines the ghost of Saki teaching her magic, because subconsciously she wants to be like Saki. She had seen Saki before on a photograph, but haven’t heard her speak, which is why the ghost can’t talk to her. Hearing Chino call her onee-chan brings Cocoa back to her senses. But how did Cocoa learn the trick if it was just her imagination? Well, consider the fact that she was practicing this exact trick at the beginning of the episode. By the time she shows it to Chino, she has already practiced it a lot of times, but maybe she only realized the crucial part (feint) during the hallucination. Either way, the blue striped candy wasn’t given to Cocoa by Saki, she had it from the start, as part of the magic set! The candies that Saki uses to show the trick to Cocoa all disappear when Cocoa returns to reality.
Saki appears one more time in the bar time scene with Takahiro, who is listening to her record Silver Spoon from Sing for You OVA and then calls her by name. I think this is the only time the name “Saki” is mentioned in the show itself, and it’s not mentioned in the manga at all (unless maybe in some recent chapters which I haven’t read yet). The first time it was revealed was during April Fool’s day Clockwork Rabbit event, as a solution to a “puzzle”. Her name is written in katakana as サキ, however one of possible readings of the word “saki” is 咲き which means “bloom”. Now consider how the last few seconds of the opening animation it cuts from a blooming field of dandelions to Saki:
The dandelions connection to Saki was previously seen in season 2 episode 1 and Sing for You. Saki’s character design doesn’t really say “blooming of dandelions” to me, but consider that a dandelion turns into this:
Now that’s more like it! Although it reminds me of Tippy as well. Anyway, that was a very mysterious episode of Gochiusa BLOOM and let’s see what happens next! Only 5 episodes remain...
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BtT Light Novel Club Chapter 15: Readers’ Choice
Welcome to the special Reader’s Choice edition of the Light Novel Club! This was a great chance for each of us to pick our own novel to read, and it looks like we all had quite a few thoughts on our choices. So without further ado, let’s dive into our books!
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Jeskai Angel’s choice: Log Horizon
For some reason I feel compelled to check my database.
Jeskai Angel: Good: Shiroe is an interesting protagonist. He seems a bit introverted and shy, and refuses to join a guild. On the other hand, he gravitates to the inherently social roles of support and tactician, building his character in a way that demands working with others. It’s a good tension and helps make Shiroe a more well-rounded character. The book also manages to make Shiroe seem smart without falling into the trap of making everyone else an idiot.
Bad: all the characters besides Shiroe seemed pretty one-dimensional. Each one has a niche and sticks to it. Naotsugu is the cheerful pervert, Akatsuki is the taciturn ninja, etc. They lacked complexity and struggled to hold my interest. I didn’t connect emotionally with any of them. Other than general love-your-neighbor philanthropy, why should I care about these characters? This volume doesn’t have an answer.
Good: the world is intriguing. This volume sets up a pretty huge mystery: what exactly happened to transport all these people into the game world, physically transforming them in the process? Hopefully later volumes have some kind of payoff on that front. There are also various smaller mysteries relating to making sense of this new world. For example: is there a secret to cooking tasty food? The point that the former NPCs are now virtually indistinguishable from “human” players also hints at interesting possibilities for the story to explore. The novel does a nice job working through practical ramifications of going from playing a game on screen to physically being present within it. And there’s the backstory of the Debauchery Tea Party to consider. This volume sets up a plethora of interesting plot threads and directions for the narrative to go.
Bad: the info dumping. I realize that the author has a lot of information to share, and the setting is interesting, but it’s important to find an elegant solution, weaving the information into the narrative in such a way that it doesn’t FEEL like a series of info dumps. With this volume, I felt like every so often the author just said “Cut! Now let’s talk about game mechanics for a few paragraphs. * * time passes * * Okay, now back to the story.” At least for me, the info dumps felt more like distractions from the story than contributions to it.
Meh: I’ve heard Log Horizon touted as a superior counterpart to Sword Art Online. However, I confess that after volume 1, I find Log Horizon fine, and…that’s it. The quality of the writing and characterization is acceptable, but unremarkable. It’s not deeper or better written or anything. Of course, the very first volume of SAO isn’t the greatest, either, so that doesn’t mean Log Horizon is a bad series. I’m just saying that given how I’d heard Log Horizon praised, my expectations were a little higher.
In Conclusion: unlike series that pulled me in and had me eager to devour the next volume (Invaders of the Rokujouma, Infinite Dendrogram, SAO Progressive, Abilities Average, etc.), I find myself uncertain as to whether I want to continue with Log Horizon (especially with the hurdle of needing to buy more expensive physical copies since there’s apparently no Kindle version). I enjoyed this volume, don’t get me wrong, and maybe the series builds on its passable start to become something great. Do the non-Shiroe characters become more interesting? Does the big mystery get explored? I would love to hear from anyone who has read the series whether it goes to satisfying places from here.
stardf29: So about that: I will say that the Log Horizon anime definitely took a while to really get going, and that applies for the light novel as well, with the really interesting developments only really starting in vol. 2. It’s only then when the story really seems to figure out what kind of story it wants to be; it definitely felt to me like vol. 1 was really more just setting the basic story beats up. That said, the direction the story starts to go in is very interesting, at least to me. I’d say it’s worth at least going into vol. 2 and seeing its developments to see if it is turning into the kind of story you’d like.
I’ll say that I don’t really like comparing this series to Sword Art Online, because it’s a very different nature of story, especially after vol. 1; if I say I like Log Horizon more than SAO it’s because I like the kind of story LH is more than the kind of story SAO is, not that I think LH does what SAO does better. (It might be worth thinking of LH more like a traditional isekai, which I wouldn’t categorize SAO as.)
Jeskai Angel: Agreed. While there are superficial similarities in terms of the “trapped in a game” premise, SAO is very much still a game, existing in the context of a physical reality much like ours. On the other hand, LH is an isekei story whose world happens to be based on a game. This leads to very different stakes for each story.
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TWWK’s choice: Re:Zero Ex
That’s a cute cat girl on the cover… wait, what?
TWWK: Speaking of popular isekai series, I decided to go with volume one of Re:ZERO Ex. As a fan of the Re:Zero anime, I was excited to read this novel, which among others focuses on one of my favorite characters, Crusch Karsten. And as I started the novel, I thought I’d made a good decision as it seemed to perhaps reveal an epic story about dragons and kings and queens and love lost. There was some of that the story actually, and maybe there’s more in later volumes, but this one ended up being not quite so epic as I hoped. Worse, it was jumbled and at times poorly written. There was a whole lot of “Look! Crusch and Ferris and the new character, Fourier, have a wonderful friendship! Look!” It all felt very forced.
The last half was better than the first though. There was an exciting passage involving Ferris facing his past, and that was far more readable than the first half, so it at least ended on a high note. Have you guys ever read a spin-off light novel?
Jeskai Angel: Sword Art Online Progressive is basically a spinoff of the main SAO series, retconning Kirito and Asuna’s time in the original Aincrad. I think the series is great, possibly even better than the main series.
TWWK: Besides being a good read, did it fill in details that make the original SAO more enjoyable?
Jeskai Angel: SAO Progressive fills in the background of Kirito and Asuna’s relationship in a really satisfying way. In the original novel, their romantic relationship comes across as kind forced and out of the blue. Progressive shows them developing a deep respect and fondness for each other long before the events of the original novel, and the events of SAO vol. 1 are more believable in light of Progressive’s relationship development. Progressive also gives a lot of insight into Kirito’s thoughts — he’s a deeper character than I think he’s sometimes given credit for.
TWWK: That’s really interesting! Re:ZERO Ex gives us a bit more about Crusch’s motivations, which is nice, but doesn’t add any depth to her character like Progressive does with Kirito. Instead, it’s Ferris we learn more about, which would be fine except that I feel he’s an uneven character in the book, written almost like bad fan fiction—he was sometimes the Ferris I recognized from the anime series and sometimes not at all.
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stardf29’s choice: The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life
Of course at least one of us would pick a light novel with a super-long name.
stardf29: I chose this book hoping for another nice, laid-back slice-of-life fantasy story, and at its core that was exactly what this story was. There’s no major conflict; it’s all about the main character Mariela trying to adjust after she wakes up after 200 years of “suspended animation”, with everything and everyone she knew gone or changed drastically. Now, for me, the most important part of a slice-of-life story is its emotional core: getting into the thoughts and feelings of its characters and how the small changes in life affects them. In that sense, this novel does pretty well. It gives a good picture of Mariela’s feelings of being in an unfamiliar place, and the relationships she develops with the people around her, especially Sieg, is very nice. Overall, this novel definitely has a lot of things that would normally make it among my favorite novels, but…
The big issue I had with this novel is that it has a ton of info-dumping. Obviously, as a story about an alchemist, this novel goes into the process of using alchemy, but it really goes into the details of everything: the processes, the background of the ingredients used, and lots of other things. It feels like the author wrote this story mainly to come up with some intricate world of alchemy rather than as a character story. And it definitely had the same issue that Jeskai had with Log Horizon in that it completely interrupts the flow of the story. Though it’s even worse here because, at least with Log Horizon, my interest in gaming makes the actual info being dumped of interest to me. And even in something like cooking novels with lots of cooking-based info dumps that I’m not as personally interested in, at least there’s a sense of “well, maybe this info will be of some use at some point in life”. But with all this alchemy info-dumping, involving magical processes and fantasy plants and animals, there’s absolutely no practical use to this info, so unless you want to be as invested in this fantasy world as the author is, it really drags down the book.
And then there’s the… special thing about this book. Early on in the story, Mariela buys a slave, Sieg, supposedly to save him from a worse fate. Yes, this is another fantasy novel in which the main character is a slave owner. That said, the owner this time is a girl, so at least we can now declare this trope equal opportunity… The flip of the usual gender dynamics does make things a little more interesting, but for the most part it still hits the usual tropes: Mariela doesn’t like slavery but she feels that buying him is the only way to save him, and while he initially appears ragged, with some cleaning up he turns out quite handsome, and of course he falls in love with her. I suppose that, since she at least doesn’t come from our world, she’s at least not expected to follow our society’s view on slavery, though it’s still a bit weird to read how she’s apparently uncomfortable on being waited on when she still orders him around to take care of assorted tasks. And, of course, while the relationship between Mariela and Sieg is otherwise very nice, the whole slave aspect does put a pretty big asterisk next to it.
Jeskai Angel: Can I just say this reminds me of one of my favorite things about the Reincarnated as a Sword series? The two main characters have a policy of “kill on sight” when it comes to slave traders, and all three volumes so far have included at least one occasion for them to kill slavers. It’s refreshing to have such a staunchly negative portrayal of slavery.
I wonder what is the appeal slavery as a plot device in LNs / anime. Obviously, Japan doesn’t have the same history with slavery that we do as Americans, but it’s not as if IRL Japan is pro-slavery. I’m tempted to say “It’s all about power” but that feels trite and inadequate, considering there many ways to write a power fantasy that don’t involve slavery. Is it, hmm, virtue fantasy, as in “Normally slavery is wrong, yeah, but my main character is so good and righteous that they can do slavery right,” perhaps?
stardf29: Going to your first paragraph first: If there’s one thing that does make Mariela’s case just a bit “better”, it’s that Mariela doesn’t really have the power to oppose slave traders. She does have a “cheat” in being the only remaining alchemist we know of, but that doesn’t really give her any combat or (at the moment) political power (it mainly just gives her a lot of money). I probably get most annoyed at cases where the character has the power to oppose the slave trade but chooses not to for some reason.
As for the appeal of slavery as a plot device, I do think it is that combination of power fantasy + virtue fantasy. There’s definitely a sense of “my main character is so good to slaves” while still having that element of power in there. But hey, now that we have a girl with that power, at least now we can throw out the idea that it’s just a “male power fantasy”, right?
Jeskai Angel: I mean, depends. Do women fantasize about having power over men? Or do men fantasize about being slave to a beautiful woman (because the women in these situations are inevitably good looking)? I can’t answer those questions, but if it’s the latter, then even though the scenario may not be strictly be a male power fantasy, it could still be male-oriented fantasy / fanservice.
stardf29: I do think “being a slave to a good-looking woman” does exist as a male fantasy, but I doubt that’s the case here, if only because Mariela isn’t drawn to be particularly attractive; she’s not bad-looking by any means, but she’s not drawn to be sexy or even extra-cute. (That is actually one of the big pluses of this novel; Mariela is a great female main character that doesn’t get caught too much in common female character tropes.)
As for whether women fantasize about having power over men: there’s this other light novel called Sexiled that suggests to me that they absolutely do. (Or at least the power to oppose men.) But if you ask me, both genders like power fantasies, and while I can’t say for sure how many direct their power fantasy specifically toward the opposite sex, I do think that there is an innate psychological desire to have control that plays into why fictional power fantasies are so popular.
TWWK: I don’t want to go too far down this rabbit hole, but I think the slavery aspect touches on sexual fantasies involving the same, as well as the idea of dominating another and of servitude. While none of the series I’m familiar with go down that route necessarily, that might be why this works for the readers and writers—a “kind” slavery relationships seems both palatable and fun.
In the west, the mention of slavery typically ignites a strong, strong sense of disgust. I’m not sure how Japanese audiences feel, however, and what that society’s history is with slavery. I can’t imagine they have near the same on-going societal repercussions as we do.
That’s unfortunate about the info dumping in your two selections, guys. Info dumping can be interesting and stardf29 mentions, or it can be boring. It can be a good plot element or a lazy one. But for the it to be both interesting AND a good plot element, I think it needs to be done on the hands of a very strong writer; plus, light novels readers are maybe used to or expecting such writing, so even with a good writer, this might just unfortunately be part of the game.
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That’s it for our own choices, but what about your choices? Post in the comments about what new novel you read and what you thought about it!
This is our last regular Light Novel Club discussion for the year, as we let people take a break for the end of the year. However, we will have some side content coming, so look forward to that! And join us on January 2nd of the new year, when we announce our next titles! (You read that right: that’s “titles” with an “s”.)
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Volume one of The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life, Log Horizon, and Re:Zero Ex are all available for purchase. Featured illustration by 佐倉おりこ (reprinted w/permission).
#Light Novels#Log Horizon#Re:Zero Ex#The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life#Ikinokori Renkinjutsushi wa Machi de Shizuka ni Kurashitai#Re:Zero#Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu#Re:ZERO: Starting Life in Another World#Sword Art Online#Sword Art Online Progressive#BtT Light Novel Club#Articles#Author: stardf29#Author: TWWK#Author: JeskaiAngel
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First time read through light novel vol. 13. Random thoughts.
Alright, finally got access to this book and can read it. What happened last time?
She was the one who had slain the six Witches now gathered once again in this place. She was the worst of calamities, and one who had nearly destroyed the world.
—This shadow was the Witch of Jealousy.
OH RIGHT THAT!
Also, just some forewarning, I have not yet seen season 2...in part due to my own ignorance. See, when I started reading through the LNs, I was going to wait until season 2 was up to 25 episodes like the first season before I watched it. I never bothered to look and see that season 2 was going to be split in two halves, with the second coming out soon. So I figure after I'm done with the two most recent LNs, then I'll watch the season, wherever it's at currently.
“Also, get it right. We’re not mad at Tella. But we are mad at the Witch. And y’see, Typhon likes Tella, so...”
“Tella... You mean Satella? That’s...the name of the Witch of Jealousy, ain’t it...?”
“...To put it in simple terms, the world remembered Satella as the Witch of Jealousy. However, what was not recorded in history was that Satella had a type of personality disorder.”
...
“—Something like a split personality? That would mean Satella and the Witch of Jealousy are...”
“Perhaps it would be clearer to say that she absorbed a Factor that was incompatible with her, causing a mental abnormality that ultimately created the Witch personality within Satella...not that I personally have any inclination to distinguish between the two.”
Well, that's certainly an interesting bit of info. It would explain why Satella's ways of showing her love tend to be so horrific.
“If I didn’t do anything, what would have changed? Wouldn’t we just end up with horrible futures? If not me, then who?! Who else could’ve gotten this far?!”
Obviously the context is quite different but Subaru's sounding a lot like Light when he was finally caught at the end of Death Note (uh...spoilers):
"Somebody has to do this and when I first got that notebook all those years ago I knew I had to do it. No, I was the only one that could. I understood that killing people was a crime. There was no other way the world had to be fixed. A purpose given to me. Only I could do it. Who else could have done it and come this far! Would they have kept going?!"
I suppose you could make the argument both are just trying to self-justify their actions and play the martyr.
“—I...love you. Because you...gave me light. Because you took my hand, and you taught me about the world outside. Because...when I trembled on lonely nights, you never stopped holding my hand. Because when I felt lonely, you kissed me and said that I wasn’t alone. You gave me so many things... That’s why I love you. Because you...you gave me everything.”
I'm suspecting either time-travel shenanigans or reincarnation shenanigans. I'd like to think it isn't just a case of mistaken identity and Satella dragged Subaru into all this because she genuinely believes he's someone he's not, but I suppose even that could be made to work with a good enough story. I don't really have any real preference on what I think it should be, other than I'd like to know how Al fits into all this. It only occurred to me recently that he didn't know who Rem was upon meeting her and only knew about Ram and that might have had something to do with her getting erased from memory later on, like he came from earlier in the future and didn't realize until he's suddenly faced with the sister of someone he'd only known to be an only child.
What did she say to him just then? After a momentary, silent pause, Jealousy spoke to Subaru.
“—Don’t cry. Don’t hurt yourself. Don’t suffer. Don’t...make such a sad face.”
...
“What happened in the second Trial...? What did you see...?”
Jeez, this is such a good series for someone's mental health and wellbeing (ironically). Subaru was shown all those timelines the aftermath of when he died, and in almost all of them he saw that there was someone who mourned him. He focused so much only on that he'd made them sad and clearly not enough on the fact they were sad because he was gone. His life had value to others beyond just being a coin he could use for RBD. He thinks he has no value outside of the results he produces with RBD but one of my favorite sections of the story is still his final loop during the mansion arc. RBD allowed him to figure out there was going to be a curse killing everyone but he accomplished so much during that loop beyond that. He and the others discovered the shaman. They saved the kids. He survived his mauling and he and Ram went to save Rem. His big heroic moment of standing up to the shaman was one where he could not allow himself to die, otherwise Rem and Ram would never be able to get away, so he fought and was determined to live. Most importantly, he saved Rem by breaking through the complex she'd been holding onto for so much of her life while fully admitting he knew f**k all about what caused it for her. He managed to help her simply because that's something he could do. RBD has given him info and additional insight but it's still Subaru himself who's managed to do so much good and touch so many without needing to suffer and die to do it. Hell, he has even fixed things he thought couldn't be undone. His relationship with Emilia seemed over after their parting in Arc 3 and RBD wouldn't take him back to before he messed everything up. He managed to earn his way back to her side and it wasn't by killing the White Whale or Petelgeuse. He has people who love and care about him and it was Subaru Natsuki, not Return by Death, that made them feel such ways.
“I...don’t know who you are. I don’t know why you told me you love me...and I don’t know the meaning of...you telling me that I saved you.”
“—Ah.”
“But it’s still a fact that you saved me by giving me Return by Death. It’s also true that I’ve relied on it to get me this far.”
“ ”
“To me, Return by Death is...one choice, I suppose?”
“ ”
“And you’re telling me...not to depend on it, but to love myself...right?”
“ ”
“I’m not saying it’s as cut and dry as that. —But there’s no mistaking that you gave me Return by Death because you don’t want me to die.”
That was why...
“Just like you said, I’m going to...try loving myself, just a little more. I’ll take better care of myself. I don’t know what’ll happen because of it, but that’s fine.”
“...It’s all right?”
“Yeah...compared with death, it ain’t nothin’.”
I'M NOT EVEN PAST THE FIRST CHAPTER YET! THIS IS SO F**KING GOOD!!!
“And someday—you will come to kill me, yes?”
Well, f**k.
“—I will save you. You’ll see.”
Attaboy, Subaru.
He recalled how at the Witch’s Tea Party, he had confessed his true desire of not wanting to die. He confessed, too, his greed: His desire to be with the people precious to him was just as strong as his desire to protect them.
And how he yearned to know if the people important to him thought he was something precious to them.
“Who’d have thought you’d be the first one to tell me? —Thanks, Patlash.”
Rem: "Are you freakin' serious?"
Jokes aside, I get what this part meant and I loved it. Again, this is so good for someone's mental health because of course Subaru would have some lingering worries about whether those he loves do actually love him too. He was literally suicidal over it and developing a complex, something that's not easy to get over completely, so he really needed that reassurance.
Also, Subaru's words to Otto remind me a little of something he'd said to Rem about how much Ram cares about her. RBD gives him a variety of perspectives and it's really sweet sometimes what he takes away from those past lives. He knows despite Otto's words that he wouldn't leave him and run (except for the very first time with the White Whale) and he knows how devastated Ram would be over Rem's death (when she can remember her).
“—But of course, for it is I who contracted the assassins to attack the manor.”
—He had just confessed that the mastermind of the incident, the one pulling the strings of the tragedy at the mansion, was none other than Roswaal himself.
When I had first started watching Isekai Quartet, and thus was introduced to the Re:Zero cast, I only knew the basic plot description of the series and thus has made a prediction to myself that Roswaal, this weird magic clown dude, was the one behind Subaru's RBD and the threats he faced in his series. Never did I expect to eventually discover I was half right. Obviously it's been shown that he's been manipulative, from setting things up for Subaru to be allowed into the Royal Selection to this arc's last loop where he admitted he made the villagers afraid of Emilia and drove her into a corner. But this is definitely another level. Subaru even speculates Roswaal was behind his and Emilia's very first meeting, and with the Book of Knowledge guiding him that's certainly not hard to believe.
It's a great scene between the two and weirdly the scariest it gets is when Roswaal is assuring Subaru he doesn't hate him, having been genuinely thrown off by the suggestion . He genuinely believes in these horrors and insanities he's putting into motion.
“Wh-whaddaya mean you can’t...this is just something other people forced onto you!”
“Even so, I’m the one who decided to do it. I have my own goal, and I have to work hard to achieve it...that’s why I’m here right now. I don’t want to make excuses.”
Throughout the LNs I have really enjoyed the parallels the story draws between Subaru and Emilia. The exact details are different but Subaru's words apply to himself even if he doesn't realize it, just as Emilia's resolve is little different from his own.
I somewhat get where Subaru is coming from for why he doesn't ask others for help. After his experience with the White Whale and Witch Cult and being able to get no one to help during the first couple of loops, it's understandable why he'd focus so much on needing proof or being able to make a better case for himself, thus why he only asked Echidna and Roswaal for help, as they know about RBD and thus would know his words are true. But what Otto is headbutting into him is the same thing Rem had showed him when he asked her to run away with him, or that Julius and Ferris showed when he claimed Petelgeuse could hop bodies after death. Proof and a case are good for when dealing with people who hardly know him but he DOES have friends who trust him and that he's already proved himself to. Even if he can't explain how he knows what's to come, they trust him enough to believe he's not crazy or trying to lead them to harm. Flip things around, how much proof would Subaru demand out of Emilia, Otto, or any others he's close to before he'd lend them a hand if they asked?
“What about you, Roswaal? You’re not gonna sulk about your schedule going a little out of whack, now are you? Do you have the guts to push yourself a little for the sake of your successor?”
“...What a roundabout and deeeeply interesting turn of phrase. For the sake of my successor, you say?”
Ram: "Beg pardon?"
Seriously, what has to be going through Ram's head hearing talk like that? Roswaal's successor? Out of context there's the implication someday Subaru will be picking up wherever Roswaal leaves off, presumably inheriting a few things from him, and thus Ram will be taking orders from Subaru.
Back on topic, while it's hard to call Roswaal an outright villain, I do love a good protagonist/antagonist showdown and that bet declaration was freakin' palpable. If Subaru fails to save Sanctuary and the mansion, he'll do whatever Roswaal says, in any life or loop. If Subaru manages to save both, Roswaal throws aside the book whose future predictions he's trying to make come true and fully aid Emilia in becoming king. It's a real clash of wills, with Roswaal even being a good sport about it and giving a three day warning. That they're both doing it with smiles and seemingly no intention from either of them to cheat or not be good to their word makes it feel a lot more tense and exciting.
As I get older I notice I tend to have less and less patience for, what I call, "edgelord nonsense" and more and more appreciation for stories that understand the difference between just having mature elements and actually being mature. All the death, suffering, and horrors Subaru goes through makes the series dark but it's how the story uses such things for character exploration and growth that makes Re:Zero mature. Like his relationship with Julius, Subaru doesn't need to like Roswaal or forgive him for what he's done, similarly with Echidna and Garfiel, but he can put his feelings aside to work towards what's actually important. A couple volumes ago I praised the LN for acknowledging how the biggest gift to Subaru and weight off of him was simply being able to tell Echidna about everything that'd happened to him, something he'd never been able to do with anyone else. Now, we have the best thing Subaru can do for Emilia being for him to just ask her about what the tomb's challenge of her past is putting her through. No need for making deals with devils and witches like Roswaal and Echidna. Just be someone she can lean on and let her get stuff off her chest.
“So the memories you see in the tomb are from before you were frozen...and the forest was frozen when...?”
“Apparently, it was about a hundred years ago.”
“I see, a hundred yea...eh, a hundred years?”
...Is Emilia the Avatar?
“I...kept growing physically while I was inside the ice. That’s why, right after I woke up, it was like being in another person’s body, enough to make me trip and slip up all over the place...”
No, she's Lion-O!
—Emilia was a hundred and fourteen years old, eighteen years old going by outward appearance, and mentally, fourteen years of age.
The mental age somewhat concerns me. I suppose she has commented sometimes on viewing Subaru somewhat younger than he is, such as 12 instead of 17, but that definitely makes the idea of being in a romantic relationship with her somewhat shaky.
“I made a promise with Roswaal.”
His breath caught. That one phrase, promise with Roswaal, sent a shudder through him.
What kind of promise had Emilia, tormented by loneliness in the forest, made with the devil that was Roswaal?
“He made me hold the crest he had...after he made sure the Dragon Jewel was glowing, he spoke about the royal selection, but, I didn’t understand a single thing about the Kingdom of Lugunica.”
Of course she didn’t. There was no way a girl who had lived in the forest since infancy would know about the outside world. So just how had Roswaal lured Emilia out of the forest? That was—
“To me, who understood nothing, Roswaal said this. —If you are able to gain the throne, surely your wish to melt the forest’s ice shall be granted.”
“ ”
Subaru imagined his seething blood blotting his entire vision red.
Roswaal had used Emilia’s pure, innocent wish to lead her out of the forest. That Emilia held the qualifications to join the royal selection was probably written in the book of knowledge.
Not because he held any hopes for Emilia, but merely so that he might add the strongest card fated to appear under Emilia—a card named Subaru Natsuki—to his own deck.
That's a hell of a bomb to drop. It also makes me curious (especially if it's something that was mentioned and I've forgotten about) if Roswaal's acquisition of Rem and Ram was somewhat similar. That the book directed him to take them in either because of how they'd someday tie in to Subaru or something else he wanted.
But jeez, yeah. More of Roswaal being a manipulative monster. While Emilia obviously was too innocent or ignorant to know what was really going on, I'd have to assume Puck would have been at least somewhat suspicious, if not outright seeing through what Roswaal was up to. So was he in on the plan too, perhaps with his own agenda attached? Or maybe he was unable to stop Emilia? Like her mind was too made up for him to keep her from accepting the deal or Roswaal came at a time he knew Puck would be asleep in his crystal to recharge and thus wouldn't be able to interfere.
Of course she had failed. The past was something you regretted, but could not change. There was no way to win against regret.
Stuff like this really does make the past trial Subaru faced even better. Yeah, he regretted his past and couldn't change what'd happened. But he could still move forward from that point of regret. Accept the past and still try to be the person he wants to be; Rem's hero, Emilia's knight, and his parents' son.
Something I've noticed for me as I've been reading these light novel series is my varying interest in the action scenes. Obviously action tends to be more captivating in anime because it's animated. You're getting to see it as opposed to it being explained to you what's happening. Rising of the Shield Hero is a series I quite like but some of its action scenes can feel a little dull in the LNs because there's so much happening and it can be very power-level based. Looks great in animation but somewhat lacking while reading, which is why my favorite fights involved the characters countering each other or bringing back tactics or information they'd learned prior to give them an edge.
All the other LN series I've been reading don't tend to have the same problem. With Overlord, all the main characters are supposed to be completely overpowered, so the point of a fight isn't to see if they can win but rather how insurmountable a wall the Nazarick forces are for the new worlders and the effect such beings have on the world. In Konosuba, the fights are much more comedic, keeping them entertaining even when not action-packed. In Goblin Slayer everyone has very consistent power levels and the battles are more about tactics, prep, and planning, which is more interesting to read about than just a clash of swords. And here in Re:Zero, we have characters like Subaru and Otto where it's made quite clear they have absolutely NO CHANCE of beating most enemies in an actual fight, so their action scenes are less a clash of powers and more about how these people with nothing manage to squeak out a win against such impossible odds through wit, trickery, tactics, and experience from the hardships they've been through. Garfiel could easily kill Otto, that much has been made very clear throughout the various loops. Otto managing to hold Garfiel off, stall him, and even pickpocket him in spite of that is far more interesting to read about than a straight-up fight would be between Garfiel and someone more his equal.
And speaking of Otto, that's a hell of a backstory. I enjoy peace and quiet, so growing up with that much constant noise would be maddening. And then years later some dude getting the idea in his head for some reason that his girlfriend had cheated on him with Otto and then Otto getting beaten up by the man and then nearly killed by assassins sent by the girlfriend AFTER he discovered the truth that she'd actually been with seven other men, none of whom had been Otto. No wonder he's friends with Subaru. They most suffer through intense misfortune, some of which caused by their own social cluelessness.
The blessing had made Otto temporarily distance himself from his family’s love, created a chasm between him and many friends, and had landed him in predicaments others could not comprehend. He bore the suffering of not being able to convey to others words known only to him. He had become resigned to this, which eventually coalesced into despair he felt toward himself.
—This was the same anguish Subaru had harbored before revealing his troubles to Otto.
I suppose that is another thing for Subaru to realize and why he had such trouble asking a friend for help without proof of his claims. People aren't static beings. Otto's existence doesn't just begin and end at "timid merchant" any more than Subaru's does "Boy who loves Emilia". People have their own histories and troubles they've had to deal with. Otto's own, the life he'd had before he'd even even met Subaru, allowed him to near perfectly sympathize with what Subaru was going through. Like with Rem's past making her feel the need to compare herself to her sister and make up for her guilt to the point she nearly has a breakdown, people around Subaru have existences outside of him and those existences can have them more than understand the problems he faces when he brings them to their door.
“Hah! To be honest, Ram cannot understand why he expects so much of Barusu, either. Barusu is weak, useless, and his talent is insufficient even for pouring a single cup of tea. My opinion is the same as yours, Garf.”
“That is going too far......though, on second thought, perhaps not...”
“But when he is most needed, Barusu is a man with oddly good timing.”
Ignoring Otto’s nervous attempt of support, Ram maintained a casual tone as she made that firm declaration.
Her words made Otto widen his eyes, and Garfiel grimace.
“It’s timing. A man who’s there when you need him. That is Barusu.”
Even though, in normal times, he was a useless man with seemingly no redeeming features whatsoever, the human being named Subaru Natsuki was a man who was mysteriously at exactly the time and place you wanted him.
There was nothing attractive about him, and he was without a single shred of charm as a member of the opposite sex. Ram didn’t understand what part of him was any good; indeed, she found him irritating. —When was it that...? At the moment, it didn’t matter.
I'm being reminded of when one of Genie's suggested compliments for Aladdin to give Jasmine is that she's punctual. Also, I'm guessing the memory Ram's having trouble with regarding Subaru was when they faced off against the shaman and other dogs because that event heavily involved Rem.
It occurs to me that, since it's taking place inside her tomb, Subaru and Emilia's shouting match has got to be one hell of a show for Echidna. I'm just imagining her silently munching down on popcorn as she's captivated by the whole thing (though I suppose those little tea cakes would probably be more accurate, huh?).
I've made it no secret that I ship Subaru with Rem more than I do Emilia. Obviously, as I figure Emilia is the main love interest, I do try not to have a bias against that pairing. Stuff like this funny enough does help me like the two of them together a little more. A shouting match, of all things, but I think the big part of why it works is because it's honest. Part of what held the two back as a pairing for me was because they felt a little impersonal towards each other. Like there was this wall of formality between them; neither getting too close to the other as to not upset or lose the other. Heck, Subaru references something like that earlier in the book regarding why he didn't asked Emilia about her past or the trial before, because he didn't want to see the scars. Here though? They're yelling and airing all their honest feelings, positive and negative alike, and Subaru basically saying "Yeah, everything that's been happening does make you look sad and pathetic and weak and so much else but it doesn't matter because I love you, you idiot! And stuff like that isn't going to make me stop loving you!" It's funny how much different it is from Rem's confession to him but it fits his character more to do it like this, and more importantly it's not him just copying Rem because it's what worked for her to help pick him up out of his lowest moment. It's Subaru genuinely learning from and understanding what Rem did for him and thus why he's able to get through to Emilia. If I'm going to want two people to be together romantically, I shouldn't feel like those two are having to hide parts of themselves or walk on glass around the other. Their shouting match is Subaru and Emilia showing their truest selves to each other and being as honest as possible and I like that. It's a massive step forward in their relationship.
Hang in there. Do it. You may not know how or why, but if you stand and run, you’ll get somewhere.
—The inside of his chest was hot.
“Isn’t that right, Garfiel...?!”
He called out the name of the small-looking man before him, eyes swaying weakly.
—The inside of his belly burned.
“Isn’t that right, Emilia...?!”
He called out the name of the girl watching them from behind, the one who was sandwiched between weakness and the threshold of something yet unknown.
—Something from the back of Subaru’s eyes flooded out.
“Hey—isn’t that so, Rem?!!”
He called out the name of the one who’d made him lift his face, open his mouth, open his eyes wide, and stand tall.
The one who had taught him that even when your feet were stopped in surrender, that didn’t mean it was over.
Subaru Natsuki desperately wished for the power she had given him then to somehow reach all the others.
I am such a filthy f**king shipper. I have the biggest smile across my face right now.
Having closed his eyes to so many things and averted his eyes from the future, he could not face Subaru; hence, he had not noticed.
—That where he leaped, invisible hands were waiting.
“This new move sure gives off a bad impression.”
That's probably not good. On the positive side, maybe this means Subaru will eventually be able to "fly" around like Petelgeuse could, all curled up in a ball.
Ram giving a lap pillow is not something I expected in this, or any, lifetime.
I'll be honest, start of this arc, I wasn't expecting much from Garfiel, but I really like what the story's done with him. Beyond just Subaru bringing him down to his level so that they could have a "fair" fight (nice little victory against the non-present Roswaal regarding how the strength Subaru borrows from others helped him beat an impossible obstacle (again)), but his issues regarding his mother and Sanctuary are genuinely compelling. The audience goes from thinking he simply hates his mother for abandoning him to his despairing confession that the trial showed him she died nearly as soon as she left. There's him reverting to beast form because his conscious mind can't bring himself to kill. There's his whole inability or unwillingness to move forward. And then there's his great lines where he finally admits he wants to be wanted. I'm really feeling for the guy.
Also, for whatever reason I really enjoy the dynamic of someone serving proudly under someone they know they're way stronger than, because they respect them that much. I look forward to seeing what happens with "General" Subaru.
“Well, I went inside, okay? So I was in the back there, too...”
“Ahh, so you were.”
“That’s why I saw. The, uh, product of all the general’s hard work.”
Huh?
“N-nooooo...! I forgooot! I mean, I mean... I didn’t expect you’d actually go into the tomb yourself...s-so, if you went in, you...aaaahhh!”
Covering his face with both hands, Subaru squirmed as he fell on the spot.
Shame. Shame strong enough to want to die. Few were the souls who could live with so much shame. That moment, he detested Garfiel, perhaps hating him more than when they’d come to deadly blows.
Uh...
As he rested, exposed to lukewarm gazes, Subaru prayed for Emilia’s good fortune, simultaneously praying that she would not notice the “graffiti” he had left behind.
Now that someone else had seen them, those little love letters had become quite a farce.
UHHHH-!
The pictures were the adorable Pucks that Subaru had drawn many times before. The drawings of Puck had various expressions on them, and surrounding these were writings in I-script, as if they were written by little children.
“Hang in there, you can do it.” “Puck and I are both cheering you on.” “Once this is done, let’s go on a date.” “I’m counting on you, Emilia.” “I love you. That’s why I believe in you.”
“Idiot...idiot, idiot, idiot... Subaru, you...dunderhead.”
Oh, thank god. My mind went to a WAY different place when they started talking about graffiti and shame and "love letters" and I am so happy I was wrong.
“—My name is Emilia...just Emilia. The Freezing Witch who hails from the Great Elior Forest.”
Emilia could tell that naming herself rubbed the Witch the wrong way.
Privately satisfied with that reaction, Emilia jabbed a finger toward the Witch, seemingly shooting right through her into the sky.
“Another Witch’s malice will not affect me. —I am a troublesome woman like that.”
Oooooooh, Emilia is pissed at Echidna for hogging all the fans during season 2 and she's not gonna put up with it anymore. Seriously, this series knows how to end on good cliffhangers, which ironically was my initial fear that kept me from starting the LNs for a time. I was worried the last available book would end with an equivalent to Subaru's third death in Arc 3 and I wouldn't be able to move forward for months until the next book came out.
Thankfully, my procrastination has awarded me with vol. 14. See you there.
Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/kg20wg/novels_first_time_read_through_light_novel_vol_13/
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