This chapter felt a lot more villainous, in large part because Magenta's reactions were relatively normal, unlike Azul who enjoys it and Sulpher who fights back. It was basically just Baiser and Leopard abusing a kid.

I have rarely seen art that was so aggressively intent on invading my personal space. It has more close-ups than an Indian soap opera. While it does wonders in giving me very distinct impressions of the women's emotions, it also destroys the pacing. It has been two chapters and yet I felt like barely anything happened at all.

This one will be worth it at the very least for the art, but I would love if there was a little more substance.

To be fair, that's because both chapters have only covered a small part of a single photoshoot, so very little time has passed.

Is there a reason she hasn't just told Evie about the system yet? I mean, if you can't actually see it, it's a weird claim to hear, but is it any weirder than the tsundere thing she has going on or some of the tasks she's been given?

This was cute, but the scene with the makeup really bothered me, probably more than it reasonably should. It feels like she's telling the OL to just paper over the signs of her problems, so she'll present a more pleasant outward appearance for others, without really caring about or addressing the underlying causes; a bit like a guy telling a girl to smile because it makes her look pretty.

Obviously, in this case, it was just one interaction in a string of interactions and there's no real way a random high school girl could do anything to meaningfully help an unrelated adult working at a black company, so maybe it was more about helping the OL feel good about herself despite the sleep deprivation.

I don't know. Something about the way things were worded just rubs me the wrong way.

I can't not see Ami and Rei in this.

Why do we need to anthropomorphize Queen Tyr'ahnee she already looks good enough as it is.

So she fits the art style?

Ortlinde is fun to tease and Vinci is a known troll?

Sakurako has the otome isekai 3d asset bedroom

I was about to comment on how barren her bedroom looked. It's almost like a hotel room, but with even less in it. She doesn't have anything like a writing desk, entertainment (aside from the one book on her bedside table), art. It doesn't feel like a room someone would live in, let alone a wealthy person in the modern world.

Well, the sentient car theory just became a bust.

I seem to have missed this theory. What about a sentient car?

Page 2 is highly relatable. There have been plenty of times when I've had the best idea in the history of ever, only to find it's completely vanished by the time I get somewhere where I could write it down. :/

I feel like I've seen that picture of the two of them together on the last page somwehre before... hmm...

USB dictaphones are awesome for this. You can hang em off a keychain, and whenever you have a thought or idea, just click it on and record a note. Only real issue is you look weird muttering to yourself :P

Is there a reason to get a standalone dictaphone over just using a smartphone app?

Hiyama confesses to the protagonist nearly every chapter, even going as far to say she's not into the boy and yet kimura still has the audacity to keep saying "I can't believe this completely straight girl is after my crush".

That's not what she said.

Her mental narrative is about how she is unworthy/inadequate to stand next to the protagonist. She holds Hiyama up as someone who, at least outwardly, has the attributes she thinks she needs to have before she can confess, and the other girls' comments merely reminded her of that discrepancy. That Hiyama herself doesn't have any interest in the protagonist is completely irrelevant, because this is a self-esteem/self-image issue, not a confusion over who's in a relationship with who.

I played Genshin, briefly, on launch and I can say the gacha definitely hurts it, whether or not you can progress without it. Good weapons are locked behind the gacha, but the game needs to give you loot, so you get piles of worthless garbage and duplicates. Characters are locked behind the Gacha, so there's a good chance you won't be able to play with the characters you want to, but so are character abilities, which makes everything feel very static and repetitive, even as you're levelling up.

If it was a full priced game, with properly paced unlocks, I'd definitely recommend it. As is, I'd recommend staying away.

Kiana posted:

What the heck is that supposed to mean?

I'm wondering the same. Feels like there's something lost in translation.

I think it's pretty clear though?

The "lies" will be revealed later probably, but what she means is that inside a tale, things must be true. There's no need to lie.

Something like, the flower fairies mentioned in Ch5 are kissing, but she pretends, inside the story, that it's not because they are in love, but because of some made up reason. Or whatever awakens isn't love. Or something like that.

So, she's lying.

And Mizuki can probably detect the lies, because she knows what Nana has in mind. That novel is probably a projection.

That or the message/theme behind the story is a lie that the author doesn't believe and that insincerity comes through to the reader.

Why is the title on Dynasty different from the title on the third page?

This series is starting to remind me of The Real Her.

Clearly her "mistake" was writing her own name first. Although I can see the logic in this having much less impact on Elsa's reputation than doing it the other way around.

I was about to point out, there's an interesting discrepancy between the manga and novel. In the novel, she writes "Elsa ❤ Yvonne", while here she writes "Yvonne loves Elsa". The former allows some ambiguity as to who wrote it, especially if the translator also translated the ordering of the English version. In particular, it allows the other students to assume that Elsa is the one going overboard with a weird crush. This ordering, however, makes it clear that Yvonne wrote it.

Interestingly, the novel ordering also makes it clear why Yvonne would want to avoid dragging someone else in, since putting their name first invariably opens them up to ridicule. Conversely, if Elsa's name were first, it would be fairly easy to keep the bullying targeted at her by making it look like she's chasing after someone who's "clearly" out of her league. Somewhat ironically, that probably would have worked with Yvonne, given her status at the start of the story, so she actively chose the least damaging combination, for Elsa, at her own expense.

Gee, I wonder why Elsa thinks Yvonne really loves her. ...

On a completely unrelated topic, I also have a new (highly unlikely) theory for why the story isn't going the way Yvonne remembers:

What if the original version was a Yuri light novel, not a hetero gacha game. The reason the version Yvonne is familiar with doesn't include that route is because the publisher pushed the author into making it a more profitable gacha game, and the original love interest got exiled to the hinterlands as a result. The System, then, is trying to enforce the Publisher's vision, not the original story.

Then again, Elsa does say "Aren't you in this situation because of me?", in both version, so it might be that they're both from the 'real' world and Elsa recognized the villain acting completely out of character and put 2 and 2 together.

really like the part where the author uses Yvonne as a mouthpiece to rag on exploitative gacha games and how you should spend your money on excellent indie games instead haha.

But yeah this is a great translation and it goes a lot more in depth about Yvonne's thought processes and how the world generally work in regards to the system and everything, it'll be fun to read this alongside the manga if the novel translation is continued of course

Given the number of times I've seen people complain about how there are no good games anymore, and studios are only putting out repetitive and exploitative garbage, because they're only looking at AAA titles, I can definitely relate to her sentiment.

Half-dwarf teacher is absolutely adorable, and I love her giant glasses… but she was directly touching the lenses when she adjusted them! She was straight up gripping them nearly in the middle of the lens! Maybe they’re special magical smudge-proof lenses…?

Well, they certainly seem to be floating there without ear pieces.

Given 3.5, I feel like there needs to be a discussion about having a wider circle of friends and a support network that consists of more than just one person, regardless of how much you like them. Fortunately, I don't think Saki's going to leave it at that.

"Usually." Hee hee.
I love that isekai stories and reincarnated-into-a-game-world stories have become so common that one can talk casually about what people would "usually" do in those situations.

I hate that. It was always a stupid premise. Not that there never should have been any of 'em, but a few would have been enough. How did it come to this?!

Have you ever watched a show or played a game and thought about how you'd change things if you were there, especially if you got protagonist powers? Ever wanted to scream at the main cast because they just wouldn't act like sensible people? Ever wanted to ruin the villain's day after getting to see a scene where they're planning to hurt the heroes or some innocent bystanders? Ever just thought to yourself "Man, I wish I could [fly/do magic/shape shift/go to space/you get the drift]"?

That's why there are so many isekai stories.

Now the real question is "Why are none of these sci-fi stories? Why do none of the protagonists get mecha?!"

Wait, ELSA doesn't realize why Yvonne is blushing? Isn't she actively trying to get Yvonne to fall in love with her?

Our protagonist here is not portrayed as a completely naieve fool. At the end of each chapter she does either slightly reciprocate or give a disgruntled reaction, completely unlike the unaffected Shoujo protagonist she is made out to be. I cannot suspend my disbelief that someone with these reactions will reset her expectations every chapter. In the first chapter she implied that this has been going on for a while and that it bothers her. Her inner monologue nearly completely avoids ever addressing her relationship with the "rival", instead forcing the focus on her crush and his relation to the rival.

Are you sure she's truly resetting her expectations between every chapter?

Hiyama has been shown to be rather ... extra. She tends to go well beyond what is reasonable, in both her reactions and her attempts to woo Kimura. Even if Kimura understands that Hiyama is, ultimately, harmless and that she only wants to get closer to her, it's still understandable that she'd meet declarations like "Be ready tomorrow. I won't let you get away with this." with some dread. She may not need to worry about getting hurt, but the same cannot be said about Hiyama hurting herself or accidentally embarrassing her. Case in point: Having your desk covered in lavish gifts as a public tribute is pretty embarrassing and having Hiyama spend that kind of money on her isn't good for either of them.

Additionally, it seems that Hiyama is rather loud and forceful in her manner, which can be extremely off putting, even if you're expecting it and you know the other person doesn't mean any harm. I mean, just on the first page of chapter 4, we see Hiyam cornering Kimura, slamming a hand right next to her head, and then shouting in her face. I'd cringe back from that just because of the loud and thing moving rapidly near my eyes and ears.

... I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, I'm happy to see it translated and on Dynasty. On the other hand, it's a series of pictures of text and that hurts me, deeply.

I'm not being serious, of course. I'm genuinely glad the novel version is being translated and that it's here, but I do wish Dynasty could support actual text posts.

It's possible that the game was going for something artsy with this "arc" and your perspective shifts to the Villainess until it's over, hence Evie getting the CGs. She mentioned the game being very micro-transactiony, so that could also be how SSR routes are handled.

Are we sure she's not just a mathematician?

Sadly this image was originally posted back in March 2017, before the actual comics were published so it's probably just. Not only that, the original comics were deleted from the author's Pixiv so it's probably been cancelled for good.

Aww. This series was great, though I feel this picture came from a VERY different universe.