Drinking age in Japan is 20, and US is 21, so if we're measuring how reasonable and responsible a country's laws are by that the US wins.

(ok so actually legal drinking age in the US can vary by state, though all states still restrict drinking to 21, but some with exceptions, and you need to be 21 to buy alcohol in the entire country except Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands)

My old driving instructor used to say, if you can't get boozed up before you can drive, you will absolutely underestimate the effect alcohol has on your mental faculties.

With the US driving age being 16 compared to a drinking age of 21, I'd argue the laws here in Germany (ICYMI on the last page, drinking in accompaniment can start as young as 14, driving age is somewhere between 14 and 18 depending on the type of vehicle) are more reasonable and responsible than the US's.

Maybe I’m weird for wanting it, but there’s nothing like the thrill of digging into the twisted psychology of a screwed up villainess. Most of these villainess stories are cute, but I abandon them ‘cuz they’re just tsunderes in fantasy settings. Not much real villainy.

tbf, most "villainesses" aren't really die-hard villains but more on-the-ground antagonists or (romantic) rivals without any special powers.

And in this case, it just uses the "villainess start" template to get the plot moving, she isn't even "evil", she just has powers that are rare and come from an odd source and is just married off for the purpose of a convenient political union when she can't inherit the family name due to being a product of her father not being able to control his loins.

Theatricalities of this chapter aside... the thing Yuni said at the end at least has a point.

Even if Nanase ended up lying about it, saying her GF was the most important thing to her would've felt reassuring to Yuni to some degree, but she didn't.

Are you serious? She just discovered that her girlfriend is cheating, and she is still cheating right in front of her and you expect her to reassure Yuni? That ship has sailed long ago.

Yup. Even if shit is falling apart right in front of her, even if it will ultimately fix nothing at all and they're still going to split apart, she could at least fucking TRY. Instead, she plays defense again and that what makes me so fucking frustrated at her.

LOL at the idea that someone is “in the right” in this series.

This.

Theatricalities of this chapter aside... the thing Yuni said at the end at least has a point.

Even if Nanase ended up lying about it, saying her GF was the most important thing to her would've felt reassuring to Yuni to some degree, but she didn't.

I've read multiple works of this author and I say without a hint of irony... this might've been her best in a while.

"oblivious, straight women"...

Uh, Hiroko-san, not to be that person, but...

These stories are built on the proposition that the characters the main duo got transmogrified into are, per se, fictional characters with no agency of their own because they're, again, fictional characters, who are usually static because they exist only at the stroke of a pen of the author and have no inherent agency in and of themselves. The dynamic that these stories have in common would be comparable to say, someone from our world being transmogrified into, say, Prequel-era Anakin Skywalker and using their knowledge of the universe to stop everything that happens at the end of Revenge of the Sith.

That's pretty much the opposite of every isekai I've read?

It's unique to these isekai that reincarnate their protagonist as characters in works of fiction, but all of them work on the principle that there is a character that has no agency until the interference from "our" world happens at which the "other" world shifts from "fiction" (i.e., static,choices can be inferred by the reader but are not acted on, immovable unless an outside force wills it) to "reality" (i.e. dynamic, choices are not externally inferred but actually present, events can be shifted by people within the world).

"Villainness Isekai" is very much the poster child for that, the idea is always "I am now this character who is destined to die because of how the story plays out but now that the story is no longer a story I am able to shape it at will".

I don't really see what the isekai element adds.

I mean, if this plays out like various other isekai manhua (and even some manga like The fed-up OL wants to serve the Villainness), it's going to be about them using their knowledge of the work they're in to find a way to evade the fate the work has placed upon them, in this case likely social ostracization for the villainness and death for the Demon Lord.

But you don't need isekai for that. The villainess already faces ostracization if anyone finds out she's faking her magic; the demon lord already risks a lot because she's a street urchin going to an elite magic school that presumably will contain a bunch of classists. There's plenty of conflict already without adding in a "fate itself is against our protagonists" element.

These stories are built on the proposition that the characters the main duo got transmogrified into are, per se, fictional characters with no agency of their own because they're, again, fictional characters, who are usually static because they exist only at the stroke of a pen of the author and have no inherent agency in and of themselves. The dynamic that these stories have in common would be comparable to say, someone from our world being transmogrified into, say, Prequel-era Anakin Skywalker and using their knowledge of the universe to stop everything that happens at the end of Revenge of the Sith.

But if you want to stick to strictly in-universe logic, I guess you could argue that, because they have a connection they did not have in the original novel from their previous lives (we don't know if there's any relationship between the demon lord and villainness outside of them being antagonists), them being isekai'd gives them the ability to recognize each other as their previous selves and use that connection to find a new forward.

last edited at May 2, 2023 12:24AM

I don't really see what the isekai element adds.

I mean, if this plays out like various other isekai manhua (and even some manga like The fed-up OL wants to serve the Villainness), it's going to be about them using their knowledge of the work they're in to find a way to evade the fate the work has placed upon them, in this case likely social ostracization for the villainness and death for the Demon Lord.

last edited at May 1, 2023 11:23PM

^who is which though - I'd argue that both aren't lacking in either trait.

I mean, they can acknowledge it, whether they can actually also act on it is probably another matter, due to the age gap and their professional relationship...

but when has a romance manga ever given a flying fuck about either?

Hello, FBI? It's that tanned girl over there.

It was only a kiss... it was only a kiss.

I wonder if Diana has a last name. The duel in chapter 2 was announced as "Diana vs Tenebrae", and in chapter 3 the teacher addressed them as Diana and Lady Tenebrae. What's up with that?

It varies from culture to culture, but many pre-modern societies didn't have surnames for the general populace and some fictional works tend to use that as a shorthand to delineate the character's standing in the general social hierarchy. Diana, coming from a common background, doesn't have a surname as a result, while Lapis is referred to by the name of her noble house.

It may be possible for either our heroine or Diana to gain a last name if they become nobility, depending on the setting.

Nice! Glad it's a continuation of previous one, plus now it's official that Koga has her bedroom in top of the CD store; one that.....is not soundproof it seems hahaha tho they were being loud hahaha
Now Im curious (tho not important) how is that place constructed, but given Aya reaction, it's in a way that doesn't resemble like you're "passing" from a store to a "house", that or Aya was just to angry to care hahaha

I’m guessing it’s a mixed-use building. The first floor is the shop, while the second floor is an apartment with a bedroom or two.

I mean, mixed-use, family-owned buildings where the people who run the downstairs business live upstairs are still quite common in Japan (and various other parts of the world, particularly in Asia and Europe).

This also reveals that Koga is - for some reason - living with her uncle instead of her parents.

Tsukushi pretty much gonna be like

Where is this from?

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/less_than_friends_ch04#4

Top row: Mai Sakurajima (Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai), Haru (Beastars), Nanachi (Made In Abyss), Hikaru Usada/Rabi-en-Rose (Di Gi Charat)
Middle Row: Yoshino (Date A Live), Tewi Inaba, Reisen Udongein Inaba (both Touhou Project)
Bottom: Pekora Usada (hololive)

Can't suggest Tags for some of them, so use the names as a guide. All from left to right.

Raimon: "... who said that?"

You did. Just now. Well, if you want to be technical about it, you didn't so much SAY it as SHOUT it in anguish.

I don't think this is just the price for the pizza itself. The flyer called it a "gourmet set", so it's likely more akin to a dinner combo deal you'd get at a chain restaurant with additional dishes on the side. It's also for an L-sized menu item.

I know this is four years old, but it's always nice to see NanoFate.

So Dahlia is in on whatever is going on behind the scenes? Is she secretly the demon lord from another timeline or something?

Spoilers from the manhua:
No, the demon lord is an entirely different person from Dahlia altogether and her role overall seems still unexplained. The actual demon lord should show up in the next chapter or two of the novel.

That description of the dream was way hornier than in the manhua.

Also it seems the EN translation of the novel is slowly catching up to the manhua and now I'm curious about how it will handle the next plot line.

Ooooh, more Kamen Rider references:

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/after_school_re_reincarnation_ch10#5

That card gun is VERY similar to KR Diend's Diendriver from KR Decade. Also the Spirit Golem is clearly inspired by old-school mecha anime (and more modern revivals of that like SSSS.Gridman which this specifically reminds me of).

Huh. I figured that was supposed to be a Yu-Gi-Oh reference.

Cards are how the Riders in Decade (aired in 2009) transform and also activate their powers. Tsukasa Kadoya, the main rider uses a belt called "Decadriver", and Daiki Kaito, the secondary Rider uses a gun-shaped tool named "Diendriver". By loading cards collected from other Riders, both can utilize their powers, which for Diend includes summoning monsters.

Another KR series involving a card motif is Kamen Rider Blade (aired 2004) and it also features a gun with cards, the Garren Rouzer used by Kamen Rider Garren, but since the function here is closer to the Diendriver's, I think this is what sometime was referencing.

Ooooh, more Kamen Rider references:

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/after_school_re_reincarnation_ch10#5

That card gun is VERY similar to KR Diend's Diendriver from KR Decade. Also the Spirit Golem is clearly inspired by old-school mecha anime (and more modern revivals of that like SSSS.Gridman which this specifically reminds me of).

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/alcohol_and_ogre_girls_ch12#8

Small correction: The spirits in a classic martini are Gin and Dry Vermouth, for some reason it says "Dry Belmont" here?