Current Events > Light Novel General v0.01 "Not as good as Mushoku Tensei"

(+) Yeah! (+)

New years bump
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Finished the first book of Maoyu. Didn't expect it to be pure dialogue, but it was a good read.

I'm guessing that's Maoyuu Maou Yuusha? Yeah I really love that series. I was an Economics major after all, and a lot of the economic stuff they talk about was relevant to my background :P. Plus, I believe the author also wrote Log Horizon. Both are terrific

https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Maoyuu_Maou_Yuusha
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Yup, that's it. I loved the show, but it doesn't look like it will get a second season, so I just went ahead and imported all 5 main books. The first book covers all the way up to episode 9.

Reading the Monster Hunter novel (by Yuuki Rin) right now. For a game tie-in novel way back from 2004, it's surprisingly well-written and explains quite a lot about the games' lore. It's also full of gory details during the fighting scenes.

Burp. Monhun LN sounds pretty fun though, but I haven't played the one from 2004. I'm love anything tied to 3, 4, or Gen. The game really plays a lot like a typical LN, too
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There's one called Flash Hunter/Senkou no Karyudo, which is based on MH Tri. The manga version of that novel is being released in English.

I also bought another MH novel, which is based on MH2 and MHF2 (Jumbo and Pokke Villages).

You can also try MH Freedom on PSP if you want to give the 2004 title a try. You'll miss out on Minegarde City where the novel takes place though, since it's PS2 version only and the server was already shut down.

Finished the Justice rebellion arc on Tate no Yuusha. Jesus, that was quite an arc. I still think some characters are a bit TOO detached from reality, but they help the narrative by explaining just how different of worlds each heroes came from
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Man, so close. Raphtalia almost got it, then fucking Sadina drops plot cockblock on us. WHY. WHYYYY
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Gump
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Done with 2409 and Monster Hunter. Here's my thoughts on them (without spoilers):

2409: This might be my second favorite, right behind Kino's Journey. Despite being only 2 volumes long, the in-novel world has quite a lot of interesting lore, and each story arc gives a unique experience. I really wish it was longer though, since the MC still has a lot of "unrecorded" adventures.

MH: Super nice. The novel is super serious during the important moments, but the MH humor is still in there. The hunting scenes are very well written with all the gory details and allusions to real-world hunting. There is also a great deal of character development, especially for the MC . Not to mention the amount of MH lore it gives. A bit lacking on monster descriptions though, but people who played the games shouldn't have any problem.

Maoyu is also great so far, though I'm not past the anime's story yet.

Never heard of 2409. I'll probably have to check it out
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Well, it's not very well known. I only knew it because I was browsing Kino stuff on amazon jp and it was recommended.

I might be busy so I'll just bump now
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Topic sponsored by lemurs
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Alright, found a MH Gen novel. It's called "Monster Hunter Cross Nyanta Life: Tamamitsune Shuryou".
It's a apparently a book for kids though, because the language level is quite simple and it even has furigana.

barnnn posted...

Alright, found a MH Gen novel. It's called "Monster Hunter Cross Nyanta Life: Tamamitsune Shuryou".
It's a apparently a book for kids though, because the language level is quite simple and it even has furigana.

I can only guess it's about the Palicos. Sounds like it could be a fun read
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Jesus, in Tate no Yuusha, I'm at the part with Atla blocking a certain attack and the broken hero's battle right after, but man this shit is getting pretty brutal. They basically destroy the protagonist of Arifureta XD. Not literally obviously, but most of the personalities are straight out of Arifureta
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I finished the Shieldbro part of Tate no Yuusha. What a story. I'll probably do a detailed review of it later since I did thoroughly enjoy it a lot. It's a great story to read if you're tired of the LN conventions, but one could say it ends a lot like most LNs do XD, which honestly, I always enjoy LN endings, so it's not a bad thing.

Meanwhile, the original ending to TnY is shocking to me, that he actually considered ending it there, but conversely, the final battle that happens in the "true" ending is a bit disappointing to me, but hey, it really wasn't gonna go any other way.

I highly recommend it, I think it's just as good on Mushoku Tensei but in a very different way. Whereas MT has a very Lord of the Rings mixed with modern tropes vibe, TnY is deeply rooted in the classic LN culture and light subverts a lot of the tropes of that culture while still retaining itself as a true LN. It can get shockingly graphic to comically PG, so there's a little for everybody here
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lets discuss sword art online
I know its not popular on these boards so if you have nothing to say.....

I am annoyed at how LN licensing has been? Sword art online LN getings licensed and then all of a sudden the translations go offline.

It feels like a huge middle finger to LN readers since I had already ready read past the end of season 2. I want to read ahead again but now I can't because it's licenesed and I have to wait for the translations to catch up.

anyone else feel the same way?
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I won't comment on SAO other than it's below what I'm searching for XP.

But in terms of licensing, it's pretty much free reader's greatest enemy. Lots of LN fan translations have fallen victim to it.

But you know what isn't ever affected? WNs. WN and LN are the same thing in spirit, except WN I think runs off of ad revenue and is just a web hosted series. Lots of popular WNs get an LN rewrite, and those are sold as books, which is why they can be licensed like that. So if you wanna get attached to a series, try for WNs :P
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Well, it's not exactly "legal" for the free-to-read translations to continue after they have been licensed, so it's not like I can complain about that. I'm all for supporting the creators though. Most of them deserve the money and respect.

As for SAO, I'm not really following the main series, but I think I understand how you feel, because I had the same feeling when Overlord got licensed.

At least the US has a pretty solid release schedule for most of them, which is good at the very least. My country's publishers are pretty irregular about this stuff. There are even several series that got abandoned after 1-2 volumes.

Also, publishers taking too long to release translated stuff is also one of the reasons I learned Japanese and started importing the novels.

I may come to disposable income soon, so by then, I'll probably have taken my LN frenzy to irl levels. I think it'd be easier to read these things on a book form, and professionally translated to boot.

Probably with pictures too. I fucking love pictures
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fed up with the extra work of translating the titles

like you can translate an entire LN and get fed up over a slightly longer title
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I dunno about you, but I need to know the entire plot by the time I'm old and finished reading the title of some of those LNs. Otherwise, how am I gonna know how the story ends before I die?
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I may start reading Death March. I've been reading the manga, but I heard it gets pretty ridiculous.

I don't really like the MC all that much per se, but the main girl and a few others are appealing, and the story's not all too bad
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And now for something completely different It's not

Isekai Shihai no Skill Taker Zero kara Hajimeru Dorei Harem (Edit: Translated title is [ Skill Taker's World Domination ~ Building a Slave Harem from Scratch ] hahahahaha)

From what I've heard, it's inoffensive. Doesn't even attempt to do anything interesting or new, just fan service and op shitfest. But hey, those are nice every once in a while
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legendarylemur posted...

Zero kara Hajimeru

lol

the quintessential LN title phrase
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Yeah Isekai too.
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*hic*
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Beginning Death March

http://www.sousetsuka.com/p/blog-page_11.html

Translation of the Web Novel.

So what I read so far, MC is born into a video game that a company he's working for made. He creates a spell called Meteor Shower to help noobs catch up prior to his rebirth. With barely any abilities and 3 meteor showers in his disposal, he uses them to defend himself from an attack from an army of lizards, but the range and power was great enough to boost him to one of the strongest person in that world. Not wanting to stand out, he hides his power to live as quietly as he could in a not-so-serene world.

So far, he's added like 8? girls into his little harem, es Pokemon time yall. But it's not... blatant I guess? His power isn't really all that interesting, the world works like a video game for obvious reasons, but the girls are the main focus thus far. They're all slightly varied enough, and their designs are good. Though obviously that doesn't matter as much in a novel, but it does help with the imagination.
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Was gonna start reading Nyanta Life, but got sidetracked by the novel versions of Pokemon Movie 19 and Your Name. Both of them are almost exactly the same as their film counterparts, so there's not much to talk about.

Also, I just discovered that Yuuki Rin's Monster Hunter Novel has 4 volumes. I didn't notice this at first because the books aren't numbered and all have different titles.
The second volume involves the Kokoto Village Hunter (aka MH1 Player Character), if the story summary on Amazon JP is anything to go by.

Well I'm liking the web novel less than the manga. The main reason is that the manga gives MC a poker face pretty much 24/7, making his reactions seem more... genuine to his true goals of wanting to live in obscurity. But... in the WN, he's kind of a creep and a dick because you actually get to read his thoughts on multiple points. Like he creeps on the soldier girl, who I think is the main waifu, saying he's gonna get an early deposit so that when she gets hotter 5 years later, he can claim her or something along those lines.

In TnY or MT, the MC is always clever and comical in his thoughts, pointing out various inconsistencies or making hilarious observations and jokes. The more the reader likes the MC, the more we care when something suspenseful happens. Not to mention, starting off with ridiculous amount of power takes away from a lot of the conflict, because the only reason why a conflict persists in this story is because the MC simply doesn't want to get involved until he has to. I still sorta enjoy Death March because I'm a sucker for adventure, but I'm cautious of it.
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Review of Tate no Yuusha:

I think it's difficult to give such long series a score, considering these WNs and LNs tend to have really amazing parts and sometimes fairly boring parts, and TnY is no different. However, TnY is still one of the best WN/LN series out there for a huge number of reasons. TnY revels in lampshading the cliche plot set ups of 99% of LNs out there. At multiple points of the story, the protagonist Naofumi encounters the classic LN main character types of characters with seemingly their own rebirth storyline. The initial 3 heroes come from a different type of universe as Naofumi but share the "foreign OP heroes being summoned to save the world" trope, and some spoiler-esque opponents share the same set up, and the resolutions to each of these characters are utterly disgusting, as if the author himself is personally performing gruesome executions on the tired typical plot lines infesting the LN world. For those familiar with the cliches, you will find these nods satisfying.

Naofumi himself is fairly unique as a hero as well. He has absolutely no offensive stats, and his true power ultimately ends up coming from his slaves/friends, though of course this changes on very rare occasion where he is forced to go on the offensive. However, this isn't new. LNs tend to split between either having aggressively overpowered heroes that can just flat out destroy everything that the entire world considers powerful, think One Punch Man but not a satire, or having characters that are powerful in their own right but must rely on more than their own powers to overcome ridiculous odds. Naofumi's powers are clearly meant to be the most opposite of the overpowered types of characters, but I fear he really doesn't stray that far from the latter types of LN heroes. There's also the problem that for too much of the first part of the story, his strategy really doesn't change, but his approaches change, the more complex the story and the opponents become.

However, his personality can come across as unconvincing. His anger is very justified, no doubt, but from his introduction, the shift to his iconic snark personality happens rather abruptly. To top it off, when he ultimately gets his revenge, he doesn't really change and often takes an unreasonable amount of time to realize that some of these people he's skeptical of aren't actually really all that bad. BUT it is sort of explained at one point, and his wrath shield is mostly the cause. However, I can't help but feel like it's only at the very end where I thought, oh... we finally get to see THIS Naofumi.

The story can be preachy, but it does justify its main moral. Characters like Ren or Itsuki or Eclaire exist to drive home that the stronger side ultimately define justice and good. Their moral talks with Naofumi are timed well, usually right after a major conflict, after being placed in a situation where even Naofumi comes to worry about them. The villains act hateful enough that you would want to wish Naofumi's group to be the victor. But therein lies the problem, that TnY is often guilty of creating the boogeyman. Bad guys are just TOO much of bad guys that it's difficult to see any other way, even though the story may claim that they could've been the heroes just as much as they ultimately are.

I'm running out of space, so the most important thing: The girls are amazing, but Naofumi being a dense idiot comes across as... strange in a story attempting to lampshade Japan's classic tropes. Raphtalia is easily the best character in the story due to her coolness and hotness, but the tragedy is that after a certain point, there's just not enough of her in the story. The other girls are likeable, but Sadina, who is ultimately a cool character, comes out of nowhere. Atla is far too much of a yandere that her ultimate role in the story made me cautious. Firo is TOO stupid and violent, and Melty is alright but could benefit from more involvement. Ugh... ok, well I'll make 2 posts (to be continued)
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TnY's "boss battles" are undeniably exciting. We're always made aware of the main crew's gradual growths, and the bosses get enough jobbers to make us aware of their power, that we're not always made certain of the main cast's safety. Ultimately, when the resolution of the boss battle is not clean, plenty of plot follows to satisfyingly wrap up any lingering emotions, that when the arc ends, we're left wanting more. I think Japan's ability to cook an action story in general is not in question, and TnY is even a stand-out amongst that.

However, there's the problem. The parts where they're doing nothing but growing their powers and their own little society can kinda get boring. Despite being able to build the boss battles up with hype and ever increasing stakes, the author seems kind of unsure as to how to write anything but action. Say something like Mushoku Tensei, it doesn't pull any punches with character relationships. Character dynamics are always developing, and outside of action, it becomes something of a very competent romcom or drama. TnY is not a great romcom though it is a good drama. Its great comedy can't be denied, but Naofumi honestly kinda ruins the romantic aspects. I wish the ending epitaphs happened WITHIN the damn story because... well why not? Sadina drops some cockblock plot points at one point, but that plot point never amounts to anything whatsoever, so ultimately... really, why the fuck not? How amazing would it have been to actually know the details of what is written in their epitaph?

Speaking of, the ending is fucking amazing. It really is the "they somehow manage to win it all, despite some sacrifices" type of ending, which I personally love. You'll be satisfied with the way the conclusion happens. though I wish that certain bosses put up a bit more of a fight. However, it seems there was an original ending to the story... and yeah I'm glad he didn't go with that ending. I'm glad enough people had good enough sense to protest against that shit. Aside from that, for the "true ending," I can't quite go further into it without spoilers, but it's worth reaching that point, and you will most likely get everything you wanted out of the story.

I highly recommend TnY. It has highs and lows, and the highs of TnY is so ridiculously high, but some may be unconvinced by its flaws. I don't think the flaws are enough to turn most people off, and I would urge those who have a hard time seeing beyond the negative to push through. You'll get attached to the characters, the world (which I haven't talked enough about, but a short version would be that the author pulls it off well), the frenetic battles, the unconventional approaches, and the humor, that it really is the "ok I'll read one more chapter" kind of series, at the very least in the arcs that have an action oriented conflict. It's one of the best WN/LN out there, go read it!

I haven't read the Spear Hero spin-off by the way. I'm not sure if there's a translation for it, but I think uh... it's an odd choice to make a spin-off for
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Totally unrelated to LNs, but I started playing Pokemon Duel. It's not... offensive. There's actually a slight bit more to this that it seems, cuz it's so easy to lose, that you have to think about how to prevent losing in like 3 turns, then all the duels become a ridiculous stalemate until you do something crazy.

To not report myself for off-topic in my own topic,

Death March is still... shockingly mediocre. The biggest problem as stated by somebody else, the only reason why anything bad happens is because the MC lets it happen. MC is literally Itsuki from TnY
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Oh good god, I just saw Volume 13 LN illustration for Mushoku Tensei. Hnnghhh the long haired Sylphy omfg
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Dear diary,

penbutt

hehehehehehe

I'm slowly going insane actually
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Another very interesting LN/WN that has gotten a manga and an anime.

Youjo Senki

I haven't searched for a translation of the LN yet, but I've been reading the manga for now, and I heard the anime is terrific.

Basically, a businessman whose job was to fire people gets killed by one of the people he fires. When given the choice of Nirvana, he ridicules the idea and is sent to a non-scientific world during war times as a little girl. This is basically his last chance at life, so he decides to become a ruthless commander to help literal Nazis win the world war, and nothing will stand in his/her way.

It's pretty ridiculous, and it's an alternate Earth with magic but many other parallels. I recommend it
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Huh, I think I might have seen a trailer for that some time last year. I kinda remember the main girl's facial details looking a bit weird, the other girl having ridiculously large eyes, and the salt in the comments section from people who expected a gritty military story (lol).

If it's still good by the halfway point I'll give it a shot.

barnnn posted...

Huh, I think I might have seen a trailer for that some time last year. I kinda remember the main girl's facial details looking a bit weird, the other girl having ridiculously large eyes, and the salt in the comments section from people who expected a gritty military story (lol).

If it's still good by the halfway point I'll give it a shot.

They draw the girl to be as adorable as possible, definitely to appeal to the gap between her innocently sweet demeanors and looks and her ruthless soldier attitude (a sort of a moe gap to the extremes), sending undesirables to die in a pointless skirmish so that she frees herself of burden. It's good so far, and I have no clue what the complaints are for quite yet. The MC has charisma, and the story has a lot of historical influences. I'm guessing they want like super nitty gritty grit all over the place, but the story doesn't try to force it.
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Well, the complaints were something like "ruining WWII with flying girls and magic". Something like that. It was on a Facebook page that I don't remember the name of, so I can't exactly dig it up.

Speaking of anime, I just watched Hand Shakers. The series got quite a lot of hate mainly from the bad CGI and excessive fanservice, but I (somehow) thought it looked quite impressive for the most part. I'm a sucker for vibrant landscape art though, so that might be why. And the fanservice doesn't even involve nudity, so I'm mostly cool with that.

On topic, I finished Nyanta life. It's not as serious as Yuuki Rin's MH novel, but that's expected for a children's book. This one does go through the same topic as the other novel though, namely the Hunter Guild's philosophy. The main characters (a prowler, a human hunter, and the hunter's palico) also get a decent amount of development. The illustrations are also pretty sweet.

Waiting for Yuuki Rin's MH volumes 2-4 to arrive right now.

I'm curious as to why you refer to them as children's book. Is it just a simple style of writing or the contents? I actually know a lot about the monster lores of MH, so it's definitely still on my mind until I'm financially secure.

And for Youjo Senki, really, it's a series that has magic instead of pure science. Otherwise, the setting of "little girls in war" simply doesn't work, and there are no other young people outside of her regardless. Flying people essentially replaces the planes and bombers of WWII. The main character exchanges a part of her pride in exchange for greater magical power.



You get stuff like this where she's all dawww look at her being a wittle soldier girl to



DAAAAAAHHH

But yeah, it's definitely not as violent as I thought it'd be, but hell, it's an LN. Surprisingly one of the few man to man violence I've read so far was in TnY, where they gruesomely execute everybody including children and women and elderly involved with one guy that lost a war, with excruciating details here and there, AND they make the guy watch the execution lmfao. No I shouldn't laugh, but it was funny the way he wrote it

And yeah maybe they spend much time with magic, but I think if it were pure military and war, it really wouldn't have been nearly as fun to read, but perhaps it could have been more interesting
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Actually, it's pretty hysterical. The MC of Youjo Senki hates the "Being X" or pretty much God that placed her in that world, but in order to use her power without exploding, she has to do so while praising the name of the lord and all that.

The enemies watch her annihilate everything while praising God and stuff, and along with her appearance, people start praising her like an angel from the heavens exacting some divine justice. It's unabashed irony in some sense
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Nyanta Life is classified as a children's book in one of the Japanese Wikipedia pages for MH, so I just went with that. The language level is low compared to other imports I have read, and the book has full furigana, which is usually used to assist children who don't understand kanji yet.

As for the content, It is pretty light, but there are some heavy moments. Then again, Japanese kids were fine with Kamen Rider Ryuki and Faiz (super dark and depressing plot) back in the day, so I guess the Japanese standards on what's appropriate for kids are pretty high.

The book is also published by Kadokawa Tsubasa, which only publishes children's books. Mostly original novel series, but they also have things like novelizations of anime,games, and Disney movies, simplified versions of popular novels, and translated foreign books.

Interesting, so you do read those LNs in Japanese. I am definitely considering learning it one day, but there are far too much other priorities in my life. Do you ever have trouble with context though? Usually for foreign languages, people have trouble with slangs or references to popular media or small nuances outside the grammatical rules.
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I might have some problem with that, but I can't know for sure because the things I read so far are pretty literal. I am fairly familiar with Japanese pop culture as well, so I should be fine in that regard, but I don't think I can handle heavy puns and/or local jokes yet. The different dialects are also surprisingly easy to handle for the most part.

With that said, I have read only a few novels in Japanese. Most of the stuff I read are translated in my country, then I changed to english-translated ones after I move to the US, and then started importing shortly after joining this thread.

The language is pretty hard to pick up, but you'll be on a roll once you get the basics (kana, basic words and grammar). Remembering all the useful Kanji will take a lot of time, but I can use a dictionary app for them when reading.

I guess Death March manga and WN differs. Maybe... the LN is written so that Satou isn't that big of an asshole and the manga reflects to LN? I'm not sure, but they're essentially the same story but with completely different feel. I recommend the manga, but the progress is far behind
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legendarylemur posted...

Speaking of, the ending is fucking amazing. It really is the "they somehow manage to win it all, despite some sacrifices" type of ending, which I personally love.

It's so bittersweet... i love it, it made me cry too, specially when atlas is killed

I've cried 3 times in my life to anime stuff, the end of the chimera ant arc in HxH, the movie "Your Name" and this novel...

legendarylemur posted...

I haven't searched for a translation of the LN yet, but I've been reading the manga for now, and I heard the anime is terrific.

It is, i'm on ep 4 and its fucking amazing, its one of those "I can't figure the endgame" kind of deals too, like with overlord.
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I think the anime kinda misrepresents Tanya a bit though. She's supposed to be drawn to be a very normal little girl, but the anime makes her out to be too psychotic with that bizarre black eyelash thing. The LN art and the manga art are definitely more fitting to her character.

And yeah her assistant's eyes are just fucking weird. She's also drawn really normally in other media, but it still exudes innocence to subvert Tanya's commands. Considering the subject of looks come up often in writing, I think they kinda dropped the ball.

I'd rather recommend the manga atm
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I just read about an article where this Italian model is touring to give a million people blowjobs for voting no on this thingy.

Could make for an interesting LN tbh. Just literally all about blowjobs and the small intricacies of blowjobs.
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