What BlackAeronaut is Watching (Was Magical Girl Spec Ops)

[classicdrogn]

So, uh... cute girls doin cute things, again. Dangerously cute.

"Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yuurei ni Iyasaretai" just aired its first episode, and is playing to this trope 10,000%, with the titular Shachikjo-san, a cute OL who attracts the attention of the also titular little girl ghost, who has been stealing people's mochi under the impression they're intentionally left as offerings, because Shachiko always has her favorite grilled salmon flavor, and so ghost-girl gets worried about her when she's pressured inyo working late by her jerk boss. Hijinks, naturally, ensue. The credits show a quarte5t of supernatural chibis, the remainder yet unintroduced, so that's a thing.

Honestly I found it to be playing a bit too much into the trope, but that's definitely a YMMV factor, and I'll give it at least another couple of episodes before deciding whether to keep on for the whole season or drop it.

[Bob Schroeck]

Otome games.  [snort]  I was fascinated to discover via Crunchyroll the existence of another otome-game/isekai, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!  (Not fascinated enough to actually watch the entire thing, though.  But maybe later.)  It was the zany title that caught my attention; that, and a promotional image that shows the title character waltzing with another girl.

And I just discovered that the first episode of this has been up on YouTube since last June.

[ECSNorway]

Yeah, it's a fun series.

So, things I've been reading/watching:

The World's Greatest Assassain is Reincarnated as an Aristocrat - MC is an assassin, a professional killer, and a very very good one. He has been raised for this by the unspecified organization he works for - implied to be organized crime but possibly an intelligence agency or both. He's just finished his final job and is on his way to retirement - planning to train up the next generation of killers for his employers - when they decide he's too dangerous to have around and have him killed. He awakens to be interviewed by a Goddess, who tells him that he's going to be sent to a fantasy swords-n-sorcery world - to kill the Hero. (But not until after the Hero has killed the Demon Lord. Apparently the Hero is expected to go on a rampage at some point after that and wreck everything.)

MC is thus reborn to a noble house who have a long history of being great doctors - and the secret assassins who deal with nobles that are a threat to the Kingdom.

So I've watched the anime (12 episodes out so far) and I've gotten about halfway through the first novel and my ghod is the novel shite. It's awful. The anime is actually a significant improvement so far. I'm going to push through to see if it has anything else to offer but so far it's been very much "tell, not show", with just about everything the MC is doing.

Reincarnated As A Sword - Welcome to 'life' as an intelligent magic sword, MC. You have enough mana to fly around for a bit via TK, but beyond that, you're just a lump of metal. Until along comes Platonic Life Partner and Cute Catgirl, Fran, who sword-dude rescues from slavers and partners with to make her a decidedly OP adventurer. They proceed to have fun smashing stuff together, meeting interesting people, and confuddling them. Pleasingly platonic life partners.

[Black Aeronaut]

For the Assassin one, if you wish to get ahead, I recommend the manga, currently being posted to Mangadex at this time.

Same with the Reincarnated as a Magic Sword one.

[Labster]

If you want to read books about an assassin who becomes an aristocrat I recommend anything Discworld with Vetinari in it.

[ECSNorway]

Prison Life is Easy for a Villainess

In which Rachel, a Duke's daughter, is thrown into jail by the Prince after the conniving upstart 'heroine' has him wrapped around her little finger.
Unfortunately for the Prince, Rachel has anticipated this possibility, and indeed embraces it thoroughly. She's had her underlings prepare a cell for her with all sorts of luxuries and considers it a pleasant escape from the busy life of a Duke's daughter who's being prepared to become the next Queen. The Prince does not take this well, but the King is off on vacation and is not due back for a while...

It's a pleasantly cracktastic take on the Otaku Game Villainess genre. More akin to Tom & Jerry or Coyote & Roadrunner cartoons if somewhat less slapstick.

[Black Aeronaut]

I just read the manga adaptation on Mangadex.  Unfortunately, the manga adaptation only goes as far as the King and Queen reluctantly deciding to return to the capitol to final deal with their idiot-of-a-first-son.  But there's still plenty of fun to be had in reading it.

I do love that the main character's parents realize early on that their little girl is a sociopath, but instead of losing their shit over it, they instead make following society's rules and ethical values into a game for her.  Which means she's waaaayyyy more fun than Utena Tenjou as a Paladin in a D&D setting.  Instead, she's more like Dexter if Dexter didn't have an insatiable desire to kill, but was still a sociopath regardless.

To find it on Mangadex, search for the title "Konyakuhaki Kara Hajimeru Akuyaku Reijou no Kangoku Slow Life".

[ECSNorway]

Been digging into a fun Xianxia-esque story of late, Fates Parallel. Lee Jia and An Eui are two outcasts who find themselves thrown together at a multinational Cultivation Academy, both of them starting from scratch and developing their friendship into something special and new. Originally posted on RoyalRoad, the early chapters have been collected into two volumes now available on Amazon - yes, they're in Kindle Unlimited. It's been a fun read so far, the pair of them growing together and making friends, enemies, and frienemies along the way as they develop their powers and skills through a variety of tribulations.

(Oh, and did I say they're a cat-girl and a rat-girl?)

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay.

Who wants some good old fashioned super-hero-super-villain shenanigans?

Okay, how about not-so-good-old-fashioned?

Say hello to Mrs. Sunshine.  She's your typical, drop-dead gorgeous Super Hero.  Along with all that implies with the snide sexist remarks people don't think she hears or notices.

Say hello to Mad Spade - a scrawny, weak-bodied lady Super Villain with a brilliant mind for engineering.  She is somehow oddly endearing for a Super Villain, and even the police think she's an adorable little scamp.

Here's the kicker:  Mad Spade has the most outrageous crush on Mrs. Sunshine.

Other fun things:

Mad Spade is kind of a cloud cuckoo lander that even the other Super Villains find to be adorable.

Mrs. Sunshine is a child abuse victim survivor, and is really not as "pretty" as she appears.  Her hair is actually shorter than it looks, she has vitiligo on her chin, and her default expression tends towards resting-bitch-face.  (Though you can hardly blame her once you see all the bullshit she puts up with.)

Both of them don't know each other's secret identities, and they've become workout buddies at the gym.

And both are Lesbian Asexuals.  (Though Mrs. Sunshine is still in the closet about it.)

This is...  My Sweet Archenemy!
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/my..._no=389754

[classicdrogn]

Cute Girls Doing Cute Things In Magic High School is the kind of trope-laden description that brings to mind lots of sketch comedy, lazy teachers being scolded and harsh ones terrorizing everyone, suggestive misunderstandings and accidents, blushing over having a lunch box accepted, sports festival filler, etc. And, indeed, there's all of that to be found in Akashic Record of Bastard Magic Teacher, but you know what else it has? An absolutely blazing fast level of plot development. Like, the first three episodes go over what might normally be a particuylarly action-oriented season in a show playing it closer to the tropes, and rather than follow that up with filler, the sports festival in 4-6 is just a pretext to get some outside characters on campus for another seasonal arc level adventure. (And set up some jokes at the slacker teacher's expense too, of course.)

I can't say the magic system is anything ground breaking but it does actually go into some of the kind of interesting detail that is skipped over all too often in magic school material, and I haven't even watched the last half of the season yet. I only glanced through the first few manga chapters as well, but it seems quite faithful there, with the only meaningful difference being a cut line about the changing rooms having been switched around since slacker teacher attended that makes it look like he intentionally burst into the girls' locker room in the anime.

Overall, I'm giving this one a solid thumbs up if you haven't watched it yet.

Since this is at least nominally BlackAeronaut's thread and I know you're into Girls With Guns shows too, BA, have you checked out Lycoris Recoil? The first episode just showed up in the usual places, and while I'm not expecting much when it's apparently basing its action on zombie hunting (blegh, I don't even love to hate zombies; they're the penultimate lame-pocalypse, second only to Waterworld) it does at least look pretty and the production company and director don't raise any immediate red flags.