Easily the most disappointing day of Oprah’s life

Lol had to try 🤷‍♂️

Depending on how you look at it, this might be kinda the opposite of what you’re asking for, but I thought I’d throw it out anyway in case you may still be interested: The Ideal Sponger Life is about a Japanese salaryman who gets isekai’d (willingly and intentionally, for a change) and marries the queen of a desert nation who needs a husband for political reasons but is reluctant to marry any of her statesmen (again, for political reasons).

The manga/novel (hasn’t been animated just yet) mainly focuses on the political relationships between the nations of the isekai world, and the MC struggling to figure out how to reconcile his cultural differences while also being a decent diplomat for the sake of his nation and his wife.

Part of that is the fact that MC’s marriage was initially purely political, but he and the queen grow to genuinely love each other. However, polygyny is the common practice in this new nation, especially among aristocrats, so MC is basically required to have a harem of wives, even though he very much doesn’t want any other than the queen. This results in him having to find clever, politically acceptable ways to avoid advances from (shrewd, surprisingly well written) women who want to join his harem to garner power for their families.

In summary: It’s a political fantasy story that is only technically a harem, and even then it’s not ecchi/oblivious MC/blah, but an integral part of the political intrigue in the story. Don’t know if that’s still a deal breaker for you, but just give the first volume or two a shot. I went in with very low expectations and was blown away with how well the worldbuilding and characters were executed.

Divine Gate was exceedingly mid (not surprising, it’s based off a mobile game), but its OP One Me, Two Hearts is a banger

For manga, I’ve always purchased from Barnes & Noble and Books a Million, mainly because they’re near my house and I’m more of an in-store shopper, but they’ve got solid online presences and a satisfying catalogue. Plus, both have pretty good membership reward programs (B&N in particular is $40/yr and gives you 10% off pretty much everything, free shipping, and a $5 reward for every cumulative $100 spent, plus some other stuff).

And if those places don’t have what I’m looking for, there’s always Amazon

Good chapter, but man, I’m never reading mangadex comments again. People can be so whiny and fragile over the smallest thing.

I regret to inform you that your girlfriend is a robot

This is my favorite type of one-shot. Profoundly casual, and yet casually profound. 10/10

I’m a writer rather than an artist, but I think I experience some similar frustration when I’m working on stories of my own. I know how I want the story to go in my head, but when I put pen to paper it comes out wrong somehow, or just not quite how I imagined it, and I end up scrapping it and starting over a million times.

I don’t know how feasible this advice is for art, but I can share a lesson I’ve learned the hard way: Just put something on the paper. That’s all you need to do. Even if you hate it, at least it’s something. Once you’ve got something, you can work with it, mold it into the shape you want it to be, or at least something close. The temptation to edit your work as you create it is powerful, but it must be avoided at all costs. Perfection is the enemy of progress.

Like I said, I’m not sure how well that advice transfers over to drawing/visual art (or maybe I just completely misunderstood the issue in the first place, lol), but I hope that helped somehow 🙂

“Bleach-blonde fuckboi” had me cackling

Oh damn, you’re definitely right about Fairy Tail. It’s been so long since I’ve watched it I completely forgot about all the fanservice. It’s bizarre though, because if it wasn’t for that it’d fit right in with other “Saturday morning” kids anime like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon

My Hero Academia is also violent, but it’s a bit less graphic than Demon Slayer, and it’s themed around super heroes/villains so the concept may be more approachable for a child. It’s one of my personal favorites, but fair warning: The themes do get somewhat more mature as the show goes on.

If your kid has an interest in science, Dr. Stone could be a great fit. Contains some violence, but it’s mostly about a super genius recreating modern technology using primitive resources after an apocalypse.

Another one in the science vein, Cells at Work tells the story of anthropomorphic cells living and doing their jobs in a human body. Again, some violence, but it’s mostly cartoonish and shouldn’t be much of a worry for a kid.

Fairy Tail is also a good choice, especially since its audience skews younger than the other recs I’ve given here. It follows a group of wizards at a famous guild as they take on quests and go on adventures. Very kid-friendly with a huge backlog of episodes.

On second thought, maybe give Fairy Tail a miss due to the fanservice. I apparently blocked all those scenes from my memory when watching as a kid.

The Kit-Kat test is a tried and true method of spotting a psychopath in the wild

This is one of my faves for online reading right now. Always excited to see a new chapter (and that final page was excellent!)

Def the cutest thing I’ve read in a while. And the fish puns were troutstanding!

Not stolen. Harvested.

I’ve had Apothecary Diaries sitting on my shelf for quite a while now; for some reason I just never got around to it. I’ll try and pick it up this week. Thanks for the rec!

I’m two weeks late but I don’t see another post for this week so I guess I’ll jump on this one.

I read the first couple volumes of Sword of the Demon Hunter today, which I’ve heard described as a “darker Samurai Jack”. Basically it revolves around a demon slaying samurai named Jinta from the 1800s who (somehow) ends up in the modern age (it’s kinda hard to give a good synopsis without spoilers, plus I still haven’t read far enough to get a lot of the details). The first two volumes focus on Jinta’s past, so I’m not too sure about the modern-day Samurai Jack aspect yet, but oh boy does it get dark. Overall it’s a great story with good characters that play well off of each other (I especially like Jinta and Kiyomasa’s super gruff “frenemy” vibe), but if you pick it up, you should prepare yourself for some emotional turmoil.

I also read the first volume of Chained Soldier, and… I don’t think I’ll be continuing it. It was just a little too ecchi for me, and the pacing of the story felt way off (the first chapter alone felt like someone was giving me a haphazard synopsis of what the whole series was going to be about). I may pick up the second volume someday if I get too bored, but I wouldn’t count on it.

In other news, Delicious in Dungeon continues to be a bastion of phenomenal worldbuilding and character development, and I picked up the new Zom 100, so I’ll be getting into that soon. I’m also on the hunt for Fairy Tale Battle Royale vol 2; I read the first volume like a year ago and really liked it, but I didn’t seek out the second for whatever reason, so now seems like as good a time as any!

Started in on Delicious in Dungeon today, after seeing someone recommend it here a couple weeks back. I was bit put off by the simplistic art style at first, but it’s grown on me, and the colorful characters are an absolute riot! I’ve already gone out for the second volume, and I’m sure I’ll be putting more in my B&N cart soon.

I also started reading Shy last week. I’ve only read the first volume so far, but I’m enjoying it. It’s about a super shy, unconfident girl who moonlights as an equally shy, unconfident super hero, among a few other heroes scattered across the world. Based on the cover art and some of the story elements (plus I think the author stated they were really into Power Rangers as a kid), it’s got a kinda super sentai-ish vibe, which I’m not normally into, but I’m enjoying the ride so far.

Other honorable mentions include Goblin Slayer vol 12 (finally!), and Chained Soldier (haven’t gotten to it yet but I’ve heard good things).

Got into Sakamoto Days last weekend. Loved the first volume; going to pick up the next few later this week. For how goofy the story is, the art is actually really stunning, and it’s one of the few fighting-based shounen manga where I can actually follow the action without getting confused. Also, looking forward to picking up Dandadan vol 4 as well!