Various Thoughts

DIARY OF A TEENAGED MIMIC

Starting off like a progression fantasy, this series quickly abandons that path to become a romance-heavy multi-genre series instead. There are a few things to be aware of going in: First is that it’s extremely graphic in both its language and violent aspects, second is that it becomes highly sexual with frequent references to wanting to have or having had sex (although there’s only like one actual sex scene), and third is that the pacing is all over the place due to each chapter covering a day or less of in-universe time. On a more personal note, I had to force myself through much of the third book, as it revolves around a hamfisted and exceptionally nonsensical Covid plotline.

OTHERWORLDY ANARCHIST

To be honest I’m not really sure what to say about this series. The protagonist is overpowered, but not glaringly so; she’s discriminated against, but also privileged; her enemies are almost cartoonishly evil, yet their actions still feel realistic. It’s a strange composition. As an aside, it also happens to have some interesting early parallels with Dragoneye Moons.

Amber the Cursed Berserker

This series jumps between ensemble scenes and Solo Leveling scenes, while mixing standard system progression with cultivation. It shouldn’t work, and yet it somehow does… assuming you like overpowered protagonists getting exponentially more overpowered.

RISE OF THE Living Forge

A crafting-heavy ensemble progression fantasy with significant romance aspects, recent pseudo-kingdom-building aspects, and a fairly interesting setting. My only real complaints at this point are that it features generic gamified dungeons and the depressingly common ‘protagonists steamroll enemies twice their level for ~reasons~’ trope.

Reincarnation Gone Wrong

A self-aware progression isekai where things keep going wrong for the protagonist in both amusing and tragic ways. Though nominally a comedy, it goes to some pretty pitch-black places at times.

THE DEMON EMPRESS

A pretty fun (tragic backstory aside) overpowered protagonist isekai that reminds me a little of Leadale. You may want to give it a pass if you’re looking for something to follow reliably however, as it seems to only update about twice a month.

BLAKE PUDDING

Started off well enough, only to deteriorate following the first boss fight. Why did she suddenly start trying to fight like a human? How could she not know the difference between a magical and physical ability? Why didn’t she ask the goddess about swapping/removing skills? By the time the undead chimera finally died it became too painful to continue.

Royal Princess of Blood

Think I tapped out after two paragraphs. The protagonist’s narcissism was just overwhelming.

Final Boss Best Friends

Formerly known as Endless Apocalypse, the events of this story felt scripted. Maybe if the plane had crashed directly into the dungeon it would’ve been tolerable, but as it is there’s just too many overly convenient (antagonistic) plot developments strung together.

BROKER

Got increasingly invested over the course of the first chapter only to become completely disgusted the moment her inexplicable new abilities activated at the end. Just zero interest to see how/if that got justified.

reign of villainy: Akemi

I get that she treats the world like a game due to the whole reincarnation thing, and it was fun enough up until she enters the town, but that’s no excuse to take the dumbest actions possible.

Apocalypse: Reborn As A Monster

Forgot to mention this series in the previous web novel roundup. Wasn’t a fan of the protagonist’s ‘arrogant noble’ archetype and took an instant dislike to the System implementation after it awakened.

Saintess Summons Skeletons

I actually read a bit of this quite some time back, somewhere around when I was looking for the web version of Journey of Black and Red, and forgot about it. Basically, the pacing’s much too fast and the protagonist is random in a bad way.