English Release: This series is currently being published in English by Yen-Press so please pick it up if the series interests you.
I feel like I have to reframe my way of thinking about this series. If I see it as it’s own thing with a plot I want to see completed, then the lack of progress in the story is frustrating. If I see it as a collection of side stories set in the Aincrad Arc, I think I’ll be able to enjoy it more. After all, we’ve already seen how this story ends. I guess it doesn’t matter how long Progressive takes to get there. With all that said, if you see this as a story you want to finish, this volume will frustrate you. They don’t even go to a new floor in this volume and instead return to the fourth floor. This volume is spent on continuing the elf tribes plot thread and on finding a way to reverse Kirito’s vampiric transformation from the last volume. The series has had such a long hiatus (it’s been almost four years since volume 8!) that I barely remember any elf character who isn’t Kizmel so I found large chunks of this volume to be a drag to get through. There were some bits that I liked - like Kirito using his vampire powers to tame a kelpie, and there’s a really cute KiriAsu moment. The ending also got me pumped for the next volume. Hopefully I’ll be able to get into a different frame of mind about this series by the time it’s released and will enjoy it more.
Yen Press Wraps Up 2024 with Fourteen New Licenses
Yen Press Wraps Up 2024 with Fourteen New Licenses #manga
Wrapping up 2024, Yen Press has announced fourteen new title acquisitions, filled with romance, brave heroes, magical schools, and more.
Releasing in June 2025, this lineup includes eight manga (Sword Art Online Unital Ring, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class, Isekai Samurai, Convenient Semi-Friend, The Heroic Tale of the…
Anime Expo 2024: Yen Press announces over a dozen new licenses
Anime Expo 2024: Yen Press announces over a dozen new licenses #manga #animeexpo #animeexpo2024
Fresh off the heels of its last batch of acquisition announcements just three weeks prior, Yen Press held its annual Industry Panel at Anime Expo, announcing the upcoming release of thirteen more titles. With familiar authors such as Yuu Morikawa, creator of My Gemini, and Ghost Mikawa, author of Days with My Stepsister and Looks Are All You Need, Yen Press will be publishing eight manga titles…
Antigua and Barbuda’s New Electoral Commission Chair
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister has named a new Chair for the country’s Electoral Commission: Arthur Thomas, a Director of FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange created by convicted felon Sam Bankman‑Fried.
The parliamentary opposition has denounced the appointment.
I discussed the ethical and international implications, with Algernon Watts, in a live interview on Antigua’s Observer Media Radio.
Yen Press Starts Off 2024 with New Licenses #manga #comics #comicbooks #graphicnovel
Yen Press has announced nine new titles joining its June 2024 lineup, including seven manga (A Sinner of the Deep Sea; Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra; Sister and Giant: A Young Lady Is Reborn in Another World; Penguin Highway; Senpai, This Can’t Be Love!; Sword Art Online: Kiss & Fly; This Monster Wants to Eat Me), one novel (Demons’ Crest), and one artbook (Visions 2023__Illustrators Book).
English Release: Yen-press is currently releasing this series in English so check it out if the series interests you.
My Score: 3/5
Once again, I found myself asking throughout this volume why Unital Ring and Return to Underworld aren’t seperate arcs. The two never feel related at all and both plotlines have new elements introduced this volume that complicate them even further and make the story harder to follow. It doesn’t help that large chunks of this volume felt made up of explanations of previous events. I think both stories really would have benefited from being seperate arcs and I just hope that Kawahara is able to connect the two plotlines in a way at the end of the arc to justify them being told at the same time.
Anyway, this volume opens with the Underworld team (Kirito, Asuna, and Alice) being reunited with Selka, Tiese, and Ronie who have just awoken from their deep sleep. Kirito and Asuna are kicked out of the Underworld soon after they wake up because of the time limit but Alice is able to stay for longer so the volume is split between Kirito, Asuna, and the others in Unital Ring, and Alice in the Underworld. In the Unital Ring plotline, the gang has progressed to the second floor of UR and there’s some further potential connections to Aincrad revealed. In the Underworld plotline, Alice learns why everyone decided to go to sleep until Alice’s return and it turns out that there are people other than Selka, Ronie, and Tiese who were frozen in time. We learn more about what happened during Kirito’s and Asuna’s time in the Underworld and there’s some fun reveals there with regards to romance. There’s also the introduction of another plotline in which Kikuoka is working on developing a cat AI product but the cat keeps on acting in a non-catlike way so he requests Kirito and Asuna to find a cat in the Underworld so that they can use it to work on the product. He also gives the prototype to Asuna to look after. This plotline isn’t brought up again after it is introduced but I have to assume that it will become relevant in a later volume.
This volume had some really interesting plot points and character moments but for me it was ruined by the further complication of an already confusing plotline. Again, my hope is that Kawahara is going to do something to connect the plotlines and justify them happening at the same time but, for now, it feels like a bit of a mess.
I will say that this volume did make me want to read Moon Cradle though. I haven’t because I’ve never been that interested in Ronie and Tiese, it seemed skippable, and I assumed it would get adapted into an OVA or something but this volume succeeded in making Ronie and Tiese interesting to me so maybe I’ll finally read them. I do also want to read the first volume of Demons Crest, Kawahara’s new series that just came out, so I’ll do that soon. But first, time to read the new Astrea Record spin-off of Danmachi.
#Repost @abecbrasil with @let.repost
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A ABEC Brasil convida você para o próximo Diálogos ABEC, que acontece no dia 08 de novembro, a partir das 14h! As inscrições estão abertas e podem ser feitas através do site pelo link na bio.
Com o tema “Parentalidade e viés implícito: implicações para a diversidade, equidade e inclusão na publicação científica”, será apresentado um minicurso, conduzido por Fernanda Staniscuaski, UFRGS | Fundadora e Coordenadora do Movimento Parent in Science, e Letícia de Oliveira, Universidade Federal Fluminense -UFF / RJ.
Cultured Meat, Without the Slaughter, Is Slated to Get a Big Boost
Cultured Meat, Without the Slaughter, Is Slated to Get a Big Boost
A tidal wave of real, fake meat may soon be coming our way. Intentions to construct the world’s biggest facility for cultivating meat from animal cells were announced on Wednesday by San Francisco-based company, Good Meat. Read more…
English Release: Yen-press is currently releasing this series in English so check it out if the series interests you.
My Score: 3/5
Art Notes: It’s been 26 volumes and Liz finally earns an (albeit small) space on the cover. Also, Silica’s first time on the cover since volume 2 and she’s more than earned it with her role in this arc.
This volume continues off from the last one, with Kirito, Asuna, and Alice discovering that Selka, Ronye, and Tiese have been voluntarily turned to stone in the Cathedral for the last 200+ years waiting for their returns. They also meet Airy, the elavtor operator who Kirito and Eugeo met back in Alicization Rising. She tells them that before he returned to Earth, he sealed away the method for waking Selka and the others on a different star and the ship only takes two passengers so Kirito and Eolyne travel to that star while Asuna, Alice, Airy, Steika, and Laurannei (I definitely romanized those names wrong but I’m talking about Ronye and Tiese’s descendants) stay behind at the cathedral. So the story is split between the Underworld, with Kirito’s adventure with Eolyne taking the main focus with a couple of chapters from Asuna’s POV while she waits with the others, and Unital Ring, with Silica being the main protagonist there while she gets more development where she’s unable to rely on Kirito and Asuna like she usually would so she has to learn how to stand on her own, with a few chapters from Sinon’s POV.
The Unital Ring part was definitely my favourite part of this volume. Silica’s bloomed into such a great character in this arc and it was great to see the development continue. The battles were also so exciting, which was why it was annoying to see it interspersed with scenes from the Underworld and I would lose a bit of the tension when the plots would switch. While I’m sure that the purpose of the Underworld plot in this volume was to build up the bond between Kirito and Eolyne, I found that part of the volume felt like filler where the author needed to draw out this plot point more and this was the best way they could think to do this. There were some good moments in there but I found it hard to care about.
I ended up rating this volume 3 stars because despite some good moments, and despite how good the Unital Ring half of this volume was, I found it hard to care about the other half of this volume and I don’t feel like the plot progressed much at all in this volume so it ended up feeling like filler. It was still enjoyable though I look forward to reading the next volume.
Sword Art Online: Progressive tendrá nueva película en 2022
La página web oficial de Gekijō-ban Sword Art Online: Progressive Hoshi Naki Yoru no Aria, la película de animación de la serie de novelas Sword Art Online: Progressive, ha anunciado una nueva cinta titulada Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Kuraki Yūyami no Scherzo, cuyo estreno está previsto para 2022. La primera película se estrenó el sábado, 30 de octubre.…
Tráiler de la película de Sword Art Online: Progressive
La página web oficial de Gekijō-ban Sword Art Online: Progressive Hoshi Naki Yoru no Aria, la película de animación de la serie de novelas Sword Art Online: Progressive, ha publicado un tráiler de la cinta. Su estreno está previsto para el 30 de octubre. Las nuevas voces anunciadas son: Inori Minase como Mito Ayako Kawano (Kuroshitsuji: Book of the Atlantic, Haifuri, Nanatsu no…
