<Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters!> Volume 9 - This was a departure from the first 8 volumes in the sense that MC has now grown up and is leaving the nest, so to speak. She is moving away from her guardians and becoming something of a guardian to another isekai girl herself. I think this shift in perspective is potentially a good thing for the series. This volume was quite weak when I think about how emotional and impactful this could have been if handled differently. Here, this huge step is handled like stepping out for a quick trip to the supermarket.

<I shall survive using potions>

Female protagonist. I’m pretty sick of the mainstream shonen power isekai so I’m jumping around female protagonist stories. Asendance of a bookworm was such a joy.

Starts as a granted power isekai. OP just wants a slow life but gets a power to make potions in a world with basically no magic so she’s chased for her healing potions.

Best part is the MC isn’t some scared timid little girl. She’s fairly smart and gets revenge on people who try to take advantage of her. At the same time she chose potion creation as her power because she wants to help people.

Then she tries to sneakily help people which causes nobles/merchants to hunt her down. It’s a vicious cycle and quite entertaining.

Finished volume 11. They went through a time skip and got a bit of a reset on her being chased for her potions. But once again she can’t live staying under the radar and almost immediately starts getting hunted for potions / money.

<Blade Skill Online: Crushing the Competition with My Abysmal Stats, Useless Class, and Garbage Weapon!>

The MC is bullied meathead boy that gets gender bended into a hot girl character after hitting random.

Why did I read this? Why did I finish it?

I think I mainly enjoyed the underdog story of a MMO player trying to make a broken build work. The AI running the game automatically and basically bugging out. Game mechanics are combined in odd ways to make a functional build and become OP. Then Devs react. Patch notes and all. The community reactions to the dumb build actually working.

Ending was pretty decent I’d say.

<The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life> Volumes 1-6

Finally not an isekai. MC has zero combat ability. If you enjoy crafting themed stories this is a good one. I enjoyed the characters and world building. Solid ending too.

<From Villainess to Healer> Volumes 1-6

Its a female hardcore gamer that gets pulled into the world of the MMO.

She uses her knowledge to become an adventurer, switch classes to a healer, become powerful (mainly pure support) and travel the world.

What’s interesting in game based isekai are how game systems are implemented and how accurate the world is to the game with NPCs/Events.

Seems like the status screen, quests and events exist for everyone but no one understands all the pieces. So people have professions like warrior and mage but no concept of proper builds. Ommiting extra spoilers here.

Then comes a hardcore gamer…

Hey Bookworms! Last week I once again read nothing, but I have good reason!

You see, I’m writing my own LN.

Please check it out, maybe? uwu

I swear I’ll get back to finishing Average Abilities isekai soon though.