Anime Sunday: HameFura Episode 01 Impressions

This week for Anime Sunday I’m back with a Spring 2020 series. It’s my HameFura Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot: The plot of this first episode is typical for this particular sub-genre of the Tensei genre. There are plenty of series where a female lead is reincarnated into the villainess of an Otome Game, but HameFura is an adaptation of one of the more popular takes on that particular plot hook. It does a great job of it, though it does have a little bit too much comedy for this first episode, at least in my opinion. Maybe later episodes will be better.

Characters: Catarina is our main character and she’s pretty neat, although she’s not that talented and is incredibly dense at times in this first episode. The rest of the cast is pretty hilarious though.

Art: The art is pretty great, with Silver Link being the Animation studio for this adaptation. It’s not nearly ufotable quality, but it’s not Studio DEEN levels of terrible either.

Music: The musical score of this first episode is appropriate enough, but not too outstanding at least to me.

Overall: A decent series, though if you dislike main characters who are incredibly dense it may not be your cup of tea.

For those who like: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Fantasy, School Life, Fun Plot, Hilarious Cast of Characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Bookish Wednesday: Temple of Sorrows by Carrie Summers

This week for Bookish Wednesday I’m back with another LitRPG. It’s Temple of Sorrows, Stonehaven League Book 01, by Carrie Summers!

Plot: The plot of this book is fairly good, with Devon being our main character and point of view. The book splits the in game and out of game portions pretty well, although they are pretty much seperate storylines. While this isn’t the best LitRPG I’ve read it’s definitely above most of the others I’ve read, including any of the Russian LitRPGs. That being said the actual game mechanics aren’t this book’s strong points.

Characters: Devon is our lead character and she’s a smart, snarky and no nonsense gal who I enjoyed greatly. The rest of the cast is okay, but Devon really steals the show. She uses her wits and communication skills to power through the game’s challenges which is a nice change from most of the other LitRPGs.

Overall: A fun book with a very strong female lead character.

For those who like: LitRPGs, GameLit, Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Strong Lead Characters, Good Plot and Cast of Characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

TNT: Bu ni Mi Volume 01 by Akashi Kakkaku

This week for Translation Necessary Thursday I’m back with another web novel series I read a few years back. It’s Bu ni Mi Volume 01 by Akashi Kakkaku!

Plot: This is a mix between the typical reincarnation genre from Japan and the more martial arts oriented Wuxia genre from China. It’s actually quite a good plot, guy dies of old age with two regrets, he didn’t master his martial arts and he didn’t get to see his adopted daughter and disciple, an elf girl, grow up to be happy. Then he gets reborn as an elf, and learns he’s now posthumously famous because his “daughter” is a bad ass who took his teachings and became a world wide hero.

Characters: Slava is our main character and is pretty decent, although he is a battle maniac so take that into consideration. The rest of the cast is okay, but it mainly revolves around Slava, Sheryl and Alma in this first volume.

Overall: This is a fun series that mixes two of my favorite genres in fiction and does a pretty decent job of it.

For those who like: Tensei, Wuxia, Martial Arts, Action, Decent Cast of Characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Anime Sunday: Cautious Hero Episode 01 Impressions

Hey all I’m back with another series from the Fall 2019 season for this week’s Anime Sunday. It’s my Cautious Hero Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot: This is almost pure satire, and it’s pretty funny. It pokes fun at pretty much every single gaming and Isekai stereotype out there. The plot was pretty slow in this first episode, but given that this is based off a Light Novel series I can’t help but think that it was in the adaptation’s favor to do so, although I haven’t read the original Light Novels.

Characters: Rista and Seiya are our two main characters and they are pretty hilarious. Rista is the typical goddess on the outside, but she’s pretty snarky in her own thoughts and speech, which was a nice deviation from the standard trope. Seiya is a really cautious guy, and overprepares for EVERYTHING. A friend gives him some lunch? He’ll check for poison. I personally thought that was hilarious, although the gag might get annoying later on if it continues. So if they keep playing it up it might annoying.

Art: The art is pretty good, White Fox did the animation and they did pretty damn good, but still not up to my gold standard of ufotable.

Music: The musical score is decent, and the theme was at least catchy. It wasn’t overly memorable, but it wasn’t terrible either.

Overall: This might be really good, this first episode was pretty funny, although if they keep playing the overly cautious gag all the time it might get annoying.

For those who like: Isekai, Action, Comedy, Overpowered Heroes.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Bookish Wednesday: The Beginning by Vasily Mahanenko

This week for Bookish Wednesday I’m back with another LitRPG. It’s The Beginning by Vasily Mahanenko!

Plot: The plot is pretty bad. Honestly our main character Yaropolk is incredibly unlikable and the plot doesn’t back him up all that much. The basic premise is that the world is a game and only a few people actually know that fact. Everyone else is just screwed.  Our main character finds out and starts out on this quest to become a “Player”. It’s been done before and usually is done much better than this. It might just be that the translation is bad, which is a thing I’ve noticed with Russian LitRPGs. Honestly Russian LitRPGs are super disappointing in general and if I wasn’t trying to clear out the backlog of books I’ve read for this column I wouldn’t even bother looking up the book again to see the main character’s name that I forgot because I disliked him that much.

Characters: The cast is bland and full of a bunch of jerks. Honestly there’s really not a single likable character in this entire book.

Overall: Stay clear of this and any other series from this author, you’ll just be disappointed.

For those who like: Mediocrity and Disappointment, you masochists.

Not for those who don’t like: Either of the above, or just have standards in general.