Wait wtf why did I put musume? Fixed the title and cutlisted the wrong title
Edited by TrueShadow1 on Nov 13th 2019 at 8:35:44 PM
Did some grammar clean up on the page.
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Another recent favorite: Aru Droid no Ohanashi (English: A Story About a Droid).
In a futuristic, apparently cyberpunk-ish world that may or may set in the middle of a (civil) war, an artificially intelligent combat droid takes pity on an abandoned baby boy and decides to take him in.
First problem: Baby is scared of the droid's completely mechanical appearance and cries even louder.
Solution: Don "flesh-type skin" (read: an artificial mask that perfectly resembles the exterior of a human head, complete with hair and all that) that the droid was carrying around for camouflage purposes.
Result: Baby almost instantly calms down.
Fun fact: The mask is a "female-type" one.
Thus begins the slice of life adventure of a gynoid and her adoptive son.
Edited by MarqFJA on Nov 13th 2019 at 2:22:35 PM
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Unwanted Undead Adventurer is out now on your book e-book purchase site of choice. Check it out, it's very good.
So I've checked out the first chapter of Spy × Family to see what the fuss was about…
Yeah… it's… it's pretty damn good. By far the best opening chapter I've read all year.
(I know it's not exactly "under-the-radar" considering how fast it exploded, but there's no thread yet, so…)
Phew. Been reading A Stepmother's Marchen. I was worried the MC was going to be paired off with her stepson since they're almost the same age, but it looks like her love interest is probably this new guy who just showed up and beat up her brother. That's a-ok with me, don't need the incest, hence the phew.
We don't know his name yet but I assume he's probably the son/grandson of the Duke that's been helping her out.
Incidentally it's also a really interesting story so far. Anyone else reading it?
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
X4 Looks good, the premise reminds me off Somali and the Forest Spirit.
Edited by Zarastro on Nov 23rd 2019 at 1:57:01 PM
Forever Gorgeous
I haven't read it but it seems interesting. Gonna give this a shot.
x3: Lynedith, you threw me off for a loop for a sec because that smug Anya picture has been my avvie for all my social medias for a while now, lol.
Yep, Spy x Family in my book is possibly my favorite current, ongoing manga. It's such a fun premise with cool characters and sleek art. And it seems like the manga community at large is in agreement in this regard, considering the popularity + sales explosion you mentioned. Shueisha really has something special in their hands.
It also has this confidence to it that makes me, as a reader, confident that it's gonna stay good for the foreseeable future? Like, I get the feeling that Endou-san knows what he's doing, where he wants the story to go and how he wants to get there.
Edited by mrsunshinesprinkles on Nov 24th 2019 at 8:17:31 PM
"Curry killed the pussy hoping that I could kill the hate in you" - Curry, D. "TABOO | TA13OO." TA13OO, PH, 2018
I was torn between using Anya or Hishiro from ReLIFE as a "FRIENDLY SMILE", but Anya's won, barely. 
I'm currently in chapter 8.5, and it's still every bit as glorious. Dat punch man… Anya's a fast learner (kinda)… Just hoping for Yor to get a bit more development, as I feel she's been in the background compared to the other two.
What manga is this Anya from, btw?
Forever Gorgeous
Spy X Family
"Curry killed the pussy hoping that I could kill the hate in you" - Curry, D. "TABOO | TA13OO." TA13OO, PH, 2018
All chapters availabe for free on Mangaplus if you don't live in the US (yeah, it makes sense, probably).
We have a page for it, now, at Spy X Family.
While not free, the series in full is also on US Shonen Jump. Subscription is, I think, just a $1.99 a month.
A few I've run across recently. First two are a "Reincarnation where the reincarnation's actually relevant" story, the third is in a similar vein but no reincarnation, and the fourth is its own thing. I'm assuming the lengthier titles are probably light novels.
Foldered to keep this post from being a wall of text
Seijo ni Narunode Nidoume no Jinsei wa Katte ni Sasetemoraimasu ~Outaishi wa, Zensei de Watashi wo Futta Koibito Deshita~, or...
A woman was dumped by her lover in her past life, and died of illness not long after. In her next life, she's a commoner but found to possibly have the power of a saint, even though such individuals are marked by black hair and eyes and she's an albino. As if dealing with snooty Saint candidates isn't bad enough, she discovers the lover who jilted her has also reincarnated as the land's prince and remembers everything as much as she dies... and doesn't get why she's pissed at him.
Wakeari Akuyaku Reijou wa, Kon'yaku Hakigo no Jinsei o Jiyuu ni Ikiru, Wakeari akuyaku reijō wa, kon'yaku haki-go no jinsei o jiyū ni ikiru, or...
The prince annuls his Arranged Marriage to the main character Letizia after she launches a campaign of subtle bullying against a girl who likes the prince as well. Afterwards she's exiled to a far off home as punishment. The catch? That's exactly what Letizia wanted.
As the prince's younger brother realizes, she saw that her marriage to the crown prince would disrupt a balance of power within the nobility and likely lead to civil war, and deliberately made the prince annul the engagement. The second prince asks her to aide him in helping protect the kingdom and, between Letizia's political savvy and the recalled memories and skillset of a past life as a Japanese nurse, joins him even though she would much rather live a life of lazy leisure.
On top of all this character also retains memories from a past life, after the king's falling ill awoke her to her past life as a nurse.
Saigo ni Hitotsu Dake Onegaishite mo Yoroshii Desu ka?, or...
Again, a prince annuls his arranged marriage with the main character, Scarlet. In this case, Scarlet, nicknamed the "Ice Rose", is completely innocent. The prince is just a spoiled brat who wants to dump her in favor of another girl. As she is being publicly humiliated, Scarlet makes only one request: "My I make this stupid bitch fly?"
She then proceeds to beat the everliving shit out of every single person in the room, reminding them all of her previous nickname, the Mad Dog Princess. She had held herself back for years, even with the idiot prince's abuse of her, and now she's letting herself cut loose.
In the aftermath, it's discovered that her beatdown was a Spanner in the Works for a plot to put the idiotic prince on the throne as a figurehead and she's brought in to help finish the job she started.
In the vein of The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess, Maybelle has lived under an abusive household, with a brother who is actively attempting to kill her. When she discovers she's not her family's natural-born child, she flees to find her true father, the Archmage Rykell. She reasons that, despite Rykell's horrible reputation, there is no way being with him would be worse.
She's right. It's not as immediately happy as Leslie and the Salvatore's, but The Fair Folk who live in her father's home all take to her and her father, while aloof and a little bit unsure how to act around Maybelle, clearly cares about her. He's also perfectly willing to take a more direct approach when he discovers how far Maybelle's abuse went (such as not giving her the setting's equivalent of vaccinations).
Of the bunch, I find For Certain Reasons, the Villainess Noble Lady Will Life Her Post-Engagement Annulment Life Freely the most interesting. As mentioned, the reincarnation is relevant, in that it gives Letizia an additional skillset with her knowledge of modern medicine, but also becomes more so with a later reveal that another character is experiencing the "I reincarnated in an Otome game" side of things. However, while the reincarnation conveys useful skills and knowledge, it doesn't 'overwrite' Letizia herself. She was savvy at royal intrigue before regaining her knowledge and remains so after. She regards her past life as a whole other person, and the knowledge from it as useful skills. At most her desire to live a lazy life is partly motivated by how busy she was in her old life and wanting to be different about it this time.
That said, I have a soft spot for May I Ask One Final Thing? for the sheer unexpectedness of the first chapter twist.
If you enjoy Monster Duchess, you'll probably like Archmage's Daughter, too.
Edited by sgamer82 on Nov 24th 2019 at 11:26:42 AM
I heard that first one has a stupid reveal as the reason for their past life breakup, so I've been avoiding getting into it. But I've been thinking about checking it out anyway.
The second one has been fun so far. Full Springtime for Hitler going on here and it seems to actually be a manga first villainess isekai rather than a LN/WN adaptation, meaning I don't already know in advance where it's going. Well, apart from the obvious like 'second prince is her love interest' and so on. And like you said it's interesting that the isekai'd heroine is not in any way a bad person even as she followed the game's script. Letizia bullied her, so she assumed everything was exactly the same as in the game and when Letizia clarifies why she's perfectly happy to work together.
I found myself thinking that Scarlet's brother was a real asshole for expecting her to just put up with the constant abuse from the prince. No, you are not the Only Sane Man, you are complicit in your little sister being harassed for years by an abusive asshole. Stop acting like you're the only normal person here.
Archmage's Daughter is another of what I've begun to think of as an adoption fantasy story where an abused child is whisked away by kinder adults and then spoiled to make up for their upbringing up to this point as well as getting revenge on the abusive parent figures. This is at least the third one I've seen so far after after Monster Duchess and I Am A Child Of This House.
I like that kind of story. It's very cute. And also super blatantly emotionally manipulative but whatever man manipulate me all you want.
Oh, new chapter for Charlotte Has Five Disciples. Story is that the greatest archmage who ever lived defeated the demon king in single combat when she was young and received the blessing of the spirits to halt her age. Over the years she took five disciples and raised them up to become archmages in their own right. When she's about 130 years old, despite her immortality she's still visibly showing her age and very tired, but people keep pressing her to keep working. She manages to sneak off on her own and plans to just release all her lifeforce and mana back into nature, which will put an end to her life. Her last thought is that she has no regrets... apart from the fact that she never had any kind of love life.
This last regret somehow causes her to basically wind back her own time to her childhood, including replacing an eye she lost somehow. At the same time, everyone out there who knew her suddenly receives her suicide note and senses her mana leave the world. Turns out her disciples were less independent than she thought and freak the hell out when she's gone and start doing weird things. She goes under the care of another old acquaintance who clearly has a crush on her, which she doesn't notice, and they work out a plan for her to be able to avoid all her past life baggage and live how she wants for once. At this young age she can't use magic properly, though, so instead she trains in hand to hand fighting. But her past life baggage (obviously) seems to be harder to avoid than she thought.
Edited by Arha on Nov 24th 2019 at 12:35:08 PM
I like that kind of story. It's very cute. And also super blatantly emotionally manipulative but whatever man manipulate me all you want.
The trope for that kind of story is Changeling Fantasy, if that helps at all.
Edited by sgamer82 on Nov 24th 2019 at 11:36:59 AM
I figured we must have a trope like that, but I hadn't really gone looking for what we called it here. Anyway, yeah, it's cute. I've noticed that a lot of the 'reincarnated as a princess' stories seem to work in a similar vein even if they're not quite a Changeling Fantasy.
I appreciate that those three stories are all Korean and therefore the little girls are just cute without being sexualized.
Edited by Arha on Nov 24th 2019 at 12:45:43 PM
Since I'm officially translating the ReLIFE webcomic, I thought I would watch the anime to know the main beats of the story in advance so that I can catch all the bits of foreshadowing.
And man, knowing that the anime is a massively Compressed Adaptation (especially the OVAs), I can't wait to translate the non-compressed version because the ending almost made me cry.
Edited by Lyendith on Nov 25th 2019 at 1:49:05 PM
Oh wow I didn't realize the prince would figure out as soon as chapter four why the past life shenanigans went badly. He's like "Hey can we talk I think you and I have had a serious miscommunication" and she throws a hissy fit and leaves. He's been mature and responsible about this whole affair, leaving me to feel like the protagonist is not worth his time.
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
May I Ask For One Final Thing? and The Archmage's Daughter are also among my favorites. Nice to see there are others here who like it.
Not really sure about all the hate for Scarlet's older brother, however. Just because the king wasn't okay with the second prince being made his heir or the Prime Minister's scheming and corruption doesn't necessarily mean that the king himself is a good person; IINM it's the royal family that approached Scarlet's family for the Arranged Marriage and implicitly wouldn't take no for an answer, so logic dictates that the king had a hand in essentially forcing the engagement between his second son and Scarlet, ergo that it's more than likely he'd not react well if things didn't go his way, thus Scarlet's older brother probably had a good reason to grudgingly persuade his sister every way he can to bear with the abuse (perhaps what retaliation the whole family or just Scarlet herself would suffer would've been far worse than what she was already suffering at the second prince's hands).
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Her brother was forcing her into an abusive relationship and chastises her whenever she defends herself.
Sincerely I Became A Duke's Maid: Chapter thirty. "Wow, how odd for the duke to die without payoff on the servants becoming uncomfortable with Alejandro crushing on Ibelina. Oh, wait, you say his face was unrecognizable due to falling off the cliff and his body was cremated on the spot? Uh huh, yeah, he's totally dead all right."
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Correction: Their father was the one who forced her into the abusive relationship (and presumably still isnote )... with he himself more or less saying it outright that he was being essentially strongarmed into this by the potential consequences should he reject the offer. Combine that with the early modern European
feel of the setting, and it makes sense that her older brother would do what he did, including reprimanding her whenever she physically defended herself: Her behavior is flagrantly flouting so many of the standing social norms regarding how women are supposed to behave, which is a very big no-no among most aristocracies.
To put it in another way, the guy's behavior is shaped by the time and culture he was raised in, and he more or less doesn't know better and would find our values to be utterly alien. And he has to deal with a younger sister who almost constantly defies the social norms in a manner that he gives him ulcer-inducing stress trying to clean up after her messes lest the family falls from grace.
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Did you not actually read it? It sounds like you're going off second hand information and missing the point entirely.
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't read it. Hell, the confusion is because I read it and still don't see why everyone harps on the way the author wrote Leo's character with respect to Scarlet's suffering. It's like they either missed the entire context provided by the setting or subscribe to the thought school that a character's narrative quality/merit/whatever-you-want-to-call-it must be judged by modern moral mores regardless of any Values Dissonance caused by the time and place that the story is set in.
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Yes. Musume is daughter.
Edited by sgamer82 on Nov 13th 2019 at 6:30:44 AM