February · 2:51pm February 22nd
From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!
A villainess with Big Dad Energy is unique enough, but a protagonist who is a 52-year-old is a rarity in itself. While entertaining, I wish there was a little more conflict. Parents don’t always understand, after all.
And now down into the manga.
List organized in rough order of my most to least favorite.
Below are those manga that I recommend.
I'm a Childhood Friend, and I Want to Remain a Supporting Character, but for Some Reason I Became the Heroine's Love Interest
A reincarnated-in-a-dating-game plot, though a modern setting, doesn't seem to be villainess, and is yuri.
It's an unconventional setup, and if it drops another twist or two it might be pretty good. One chapter so far.
Dungeon Elf: What's a Dungeon without Treasure Chests?
Everyone wonders who puts treasure chests in dungeons. It's an elf who has a lot of time on her hands.
Technically a travel slice of life, but action-focused, with a sprinkle of comedy. A little ecchi.
Lala Lab ⭐︎ Gyaru, Science, and Youth!
Title is plot summary, about fashionable college students doing science.
It's not necessarily about very much, but it's cute. It's a 4koma, though honestly I hardly noticed.
River of Souls
A girl mostly ignores the ghosts she sees, until her best friend ends up dead.
Not many chapters yet, and I thought emo aesthetic like this died fifteen or twenty years ago, but definitely has potential.
Below are those manga that I conditionally recommend.
KISEKAE NINGYOU DE CHU♡
A spinoff of Dress Up Darling that just began. I'm honestly not seeing much of a difference, except this one is a random comedy, like a series of omakes. Slight chibi touch to the art.
A Story About Investing in a Girl at the Workplace
A girl has a crush on a guy and convinces him to spend money on her instead of gacha games.
It's cute, but has that problem where it doesn't explain what the two of them actually see in each other. Short chapters.
So as a joke
A guy pranks his friend by crossdressing. But who pranked who?
I feel like senukin is responsible for about half the crazy things that come across my desktop these days. Wish there was a little more romantic substance, but I guess joke one shots are fine too.
Our "Love" is Disgusting
A girl has an unrequited crush on a classmate, to the point she makes a doll of her out of clay. A coworker is into that.
While I suppose it's good that two people with very specific fetishes have found each other, unfortunately, I sense impending triangle.
Below are those manga that I do not recommend.
A Kat's (GOD AWFUL!!!) Blessing
The gods mess with a Texan high school girl by turning her into a catgirl, so she has to waste her summer break trying to track them down to reverse it.
Apparently that's the plot, anyway. Because of the short chapters, I got bored around chapter 15 when nothing had happened yet.
Whenever I Get Home, There's Always A Kukkoro Waiting For Me.
The usual guy-moves-in-with-a-female-ghost plot, except this time she's also a knight.
Middle of the road as far as the genre goes. Ecchi, and in fact a little rapey.
A Story About A Maid Conquering A Young Lady Within A Year
Title is plot summary.
While I have some reservations about these page-per-chapter-per-day stories, at least they come with a planned ending. That doesn't guarantee they'll be good, though. This one seems to be of the clingy adult on teenager variety.
Tyranno
A rookie cop tags along as his towering female senpai beats the crap out of people.
Kind of a feat to make a plot like that boring. I don't think the issue is the core material, I think the author is just focusing on the wrong things.
Samurai Pizza Cats is getting a video game.
What year is it!?
Not much to add about this season’s crop of shows. Several I’m watching are fine enough, some are meh, one’s crap. The only two that actually impress me are Honey Lemon Soda (haven’t quite seen this take on a relationship before) and Medalist (while the plot isn’t anything special, the production values are great, and the actual skating is impressively smooth).