Procrastination Report №3

The other night, I had a dream that I had finished my next etymology article; when I awoke, there was nothing but an outline and a bibliography. This was greatly demotivating.

Once Upon a Witch’s Death (ある魔女が死ぬまで) is a modern fantasy slice-of-life drama anime about Meg Raspberry, an apprentice to Faust of the Seven Sages who was told on her 17th birthday that she will die in a year. The one hope she has is to construct a seed of life by collecting a thousand tears of joy, which conveniently sets up an episodic plot of her helping people to solve problems and overcome worries; it’s similar to Wandering Witch (魔女の旅々 [7/10]). Meg is generally very optimistic, often giving situations a more comedic tone, despite her impending death. In particular, she constantly proposed marriage to her best friend Fine Cavendish, I like to think she’s bisexual (you can call her interactions with Fine just friends messing around all you want, that scene where she washed Inori’s feet isn’t going away). I watched the English dub and it’s pretty well done, the voicing is spot on for the characters, especially Meg’s constant energy and occasional perversion showing very well. The ending theme slaps, the ending of the season doesn’t as much… big cliffhanger for her grand journey around the world. Will this push me into reading the light novels? I don’t know, does she kiss Fine in the novels?¹ Anyway it was a fun watch while doing chores and stuff so 6/10.

Isshun de Chiryou Shiteita no ni Yakutatazu to Tsuihou Sareta Tensai Chiyushi, Yami Healer to Shite Tanoshiku Ikiru (一瞬で治療していたのに役立たずと追放された天才治癒師, 闇ヒーラーとして楽しく生きる) is an anime about the coolest, hottest, strongest healer in the whole country of healers, Zenos. He’s so cool that he isn’t even licensed as a healer; he’s so hot he’s got a harem of orcs, werewolves, lizardmen, and elves from the first episode; he’s so strong he can cast healing without incantations and he’s a wicked good fighter. I turned on the first episode while I was folding laundry, then turned it off when I was done. It has one of those premises where some guy gets kicked out of the hero’s party because he’s “useless,” but in reality it was just because they’re all shallow assholes. I don’t really care for this setup, though I did manage to watch Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou sareta Beast Tamer, Saikyoushu no Nekomimi Shoujo to Deau (勇者パーティーを追放されたビーストテイマー、最強種の猫耳少女と出会う [5/10]) and dropped Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita (真の仲間じゃないと勇者のパーティーを追い出されたので、辺境でスローライフすることにしました [5/10]) halfway through ‘cuz I got bored. I’ll give this the benefit of the doubt at give this one a 3/10.

I finished catching up on Forced to Sell Myself to the Female Lead After Killing the Male Lead (干掉男主的我被迫把自己卖给女主) which I mentioned last time… turns out that the story is finished now. That explains why the chapters were all from 2024 and there weren’t many left, I was kind of worried that it would be on hiatus or something, but the last arc definitely felt like a last arc.

Bocchi the Rock! (ぼっち・ざ・ろっく) is a slice-of-life 4-koma manga about the socially anxious Bocchi (Gotoh Hitori) stumbling her way into joining a band. I realized I’m pretty far behind on serialized manga lately, so I started off with a strong note, catching up to ch. 89 of BTR. The anime covers Bocchi’s initial inspiration for getting into music (wanting to join a band to become popular despite her anxiety), the early formation of Kessoku Band (Nijika scouting Bocchi as a substitute guitarist), and some of their early performances. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say the band becomes increasingly successful throughout the series, so much of the later arcs are about signing to labels, working with other bands and venues, and the changes in their daily lives as they graduate school. Basically nothing earth-shattering has happened in the series lately, but nobody told me that the series got a cover spot in an issue and the art was Kita painting Bocchi’s nails? To quote my wife: “BoKita canon???” Anyway it’s still a 10/10, plenty more questionably diegetic nervous reactions from our pal Bocchi to be had.

Momoiro Montage (ももいろモンタージュ) is a slice-of-life manga about Tamamon (Tamaki Mone), an erotic artist. The scanlations were on hiatus for a whole year now, so only two of the four volumes were available; now, there’s one more chapter… anyway two volumes is nothing so I reread it. The story takes place when she’s in art school, following a sort of episodic format of her facing challenges in her art and perspective with each assignment, kind of like Blue Period (ブルーピリオド [8/10]) but focused entirely on nude portraits. Tamamon’s relationship with Hina is, uhh, well Tamamon obsesses over eroticism and Hina is, y’know? Willing? It’s pretty well established how this all goes right from ch. 1. I really do hope the translators manage to stick through the next couple volumes, I’ve read a bit of the raws but it’s not like I’m actually literate in Japanese (to be fair like 70% of the dialogue is just エッチな this and スケベ that). I give it a 7/10.

I Want to Become a Beautiful Girl, Be Spoiled, and Live Life on Easy Mode! (美少女になってちやほやされて人生イージーモードで生きたい！) is a slice-of-life gender-bender reincarnation web novel about a VTuber, like a Japanese version of Basement-Dwelling Loser VTuber (방구석 찐따 버튜버 [5/10]) that happens to be 3-4 years older. I came across it once again because I opened up the NU page for I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper (萝变的我绝不向死神小姐屈服 [5/10]), hesitated to re-read it, and looked at the recommendations section; I was a bit off-put by the mess of translations, there’s like three different groups listed for the early chapters, then anything past ch. 12 seems to have been purged because NU doesn’t allow pay-walled links (if you expect me to read a web novel on Patreon you ought to get your brain checked). I do have to wonder how much Basement-Dwelling Loser VTuber derived from this series, it has the same komyusho (コミュ障, “communication disorder”) protagonist with the same debuff of sharing the same class through all three years of high school. The pacing feels a tad rushed, at least in the initial setup of her becoming a VTuber, which I suppose is to be expected of a web novel. The manga adaptation actually reads a lot smoother, but is sadly on hiatus after the first volume; the addition of the art (which is very good) and the additional characterization and relationships between characters shown at the beginning definitely make it a more enjoyable experience than the web novel. So I’ll give the web novel a 4/10 at ch. 12 (if I liked it more I’d go read the rest on Syosetu) and the manga a 5/10 at ch. 5.

I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper (萝变的我绝不向死神小姐屈服) is a slice-of-life gender-bender yuri web novel. Depending on your definition, it is isekai, particularly of the sort NicoNicoPedia calls 異世界 → 現実もの (isekai > genzitu mono, “other world to reality”)² like The Devil is a Part-Timer! (はたらく魔王さま！[5/10]) or Gabriel Dropout (ガヴリー ルドロップアウト [6/10]). I’d previously read up to ch. 315 but the series is completely translated now so I’m rereading from the start to finish it. What I mainly think about this series is that it has vibes. I mean, it is slice-of-life, but I think it just does it particularly well. Most of the plot is about Yin Nuo’er making ends meet while having the “grim reaper” Yin Xiamo clinging to her the whole time. It’s full of coincidences, like when she’s looking for a new apartment and finds someone looking for a roommate only to find out that the listing was posted by her former editor. Then there’s the whole reason Xiamo popped up to claim Nuo’er “died” and then turned her into a girl, all being tied to events in the other world and Nuo’er’s past life as the “hero.” Read up to ch. 122 this time, just not the vibe at the moment.

The Apothecary Diaries (2025) (薬屋のひとりごと) is a historical detective drama about Maomao, the adopted daughter of an apothecary, being sold into the imperial court, working her way up to a trusted lady-in-waiting to Concubine Gyokuyō, then helping the administrator Jinshi solve various oddities throughout the rear palace. The second season has been completely dubbed in English, so I can watch it as I did the first season [8/10]: in the background while working on stuff. I don’t know if my memory of the first season is just rose-tinted, but I feel like there’s a significant dip in animation quality here. Particularly, there’s the common issue of consistency in the characters’ faces, especially in daily life scenes that likely get less attention. If you want a sort of similar setting Raven of the Inner Palace (後宮の烏), which I never finished, also takes place in a Chinese palace, but it is a bit heavier on the romance. The recommendations on AniDB also list Snow White with the Red Hair (赤髪の白雪姫 [5/10]), which made more sense when I remembered Shirayuki is something of an apothecary, but again it’s very explicitly a shoujo romance series, just with a western fantasy rather than eastern historical setting. Just based on vibes, if you’re accepting western fantasy settings, Apothecary Diaries does feel a bit similar to Ascendance of a Bookworm (本好きの下剋上 ～司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません～ [8/10]), enough for some to confuse the two (shoutout Hermea), but Bookworm is even less focused on romance.³ Anyway, the story still bangs, so I’ll give it a tentative 7/10 thus far for the lower quality; I haven’t finished it because I was busy going on a date with my wife, going outside, being confused about how little fare is left on my transit card, buying books.

Ruri Dragon (ルリドラゴン) is one of the books I bought, a supernatural modern slice-of-life manga about a young girl named Ruri, who wakes up one day to find she has dragon horns. I started reading it when it first started publishing on MANGA Plus, because it’s a cute story about a girl being awkward about random changes in her body. The series went on hiatus when the author fell ill for quite a while, but it has since continued, though I haven’t kept up with it much because I randomly uninstall MANGA Plus when I forget why I installed it in the first place.⁴ It sort of reminds me of Machikado Mazoku (まちカドまぞく [7/10]) with the initial premise, but it doesn’t have the same “GL subtext” as it were. Apparently, it’s up to the third volume in Japan now, I should catch up on that, but I picked up the first volume at Kinokuniya while there. I give it a solid 7/10 as far as I have read.

I did start reading Fake Saint of the Year (理想の聖女？　残念、偽聖女でした！ ～クソオブザイヤーと呼ばれた悪役に転生したんだが～) yesterday, since I was on the train and wanted to read an e-book so it wouldn’t fail to load in tunnels. Officially translated gender-bender!? What!? Just a shame that it isn’t yuri. I’m only a couple chapters in so I don’t have much to say about it other than the fact that Japanese novels sure speedrun the setup in their prologues. Also, is it better to say the protagonist definitely worked really hard for a decade off screen to become powerful than just saying they’re the coolest, hottest, strongest girl in the whole universe? Anyway, I’m totally, actually, very much so going to write that thing about “thing” for next week. I’ll bet this chocolate baumkuchen on it… oh, wait, I just finished eating it.

Footnotes