Catchup Titles Archive (Updated to November 2022)

Terabyte

Updated the first post with March 2020 catch ups (10 series this time around, lots of single volumes though). I also added a few notes for the complete series. If I got any of those wrong let me know and I'll fix them.

Terabyte

Updated the first post with April 2020 catch ups.

I'm already caught up on everything this time around though, so nothing new to check for me. I think I'll focus on some 7S or YP series I'm behind.

Terrence

Wortenia War and Villainess for catch-up for me. Not gonna worry about them until the 16th though.

xdrfiredogx

Nothing for me this time around... The only two I'd care about are Bookworm and Villainess and I keep caught up with both.

Terabyte

Updated the first post with May 2020 catch ups: 6 series this time.

I'm already caught up on 4 of them and I'm not interested in the other 2 so nothing new to check out this time either.

yumenokage

Anyone want to give me their evaluations for the catchup titles? I've already tried and dropped Kokoro Connect and Magicmaster, and I've read the businessman one (found it to be so-so and probably would have dropped it by now if it had continued), so I'm mainly interested in the other three, Cooking with Wild Game, Outbreak Company, and My Little Sister Can Read Kanji.

Rahul Balaggan

@yumenokage

Cooking With Wild Game is currently my favorite series on J-Novel Club.

It definitely is not for everyone, there is a plenty of cooking related content in every volume. It is not to the point where you have to be a professional chef or even a active cooker to be able to keep up, but if you have no interest in cooking at all you might not like how much cooking these LNs have.

Beyond cooking, this is a slow paced slice-of-life story, a bit of action, some mild humor, sprinkled with romance throughout.

I call it slow paced cause (and I will put it in a spoiler tag, but it is a very mild spoiler that doesn’t take anything away from the story to know before someone chooses to read)

spoiler

Other then that at what Volume did you drop Magicmaster, can’t say that it is the greatest story ever told, but it is a story that I can say it gets better with every volume, the latest translated Volume is in my opinion the best so far.

Some of the biggest issues I had was its the story (2 characters in particular) have finally (to me) stopped becoming major drags on the story.

yumenokage

@Rahul-Balaggan Thanks for the input! How would you say Cooking With Wild Game is compared to the other cooking series JNC has? I like that one decently as a casual read even though I normally don't go for slice-of-life-y things. I've had some cooking-related anime that I've enjoyed too such as Restaurant to Another World.

I think I dropped Magicmaster sometime during the second volume. I'm trying to limit the series I'm following now so I have more time for other things, so unless there was a pretty extreme turnaround I don't think I'll pick it up again.

Rahul Balaggan

@yumenokage

It is quite different from Campfire Cooking.

Campfire Cooking is really heavy on these multiple cooking breaks and a bit of adventure in between. Also to me it seems like it is a bit of a chore in Campfire, and he basically pulls it all out of his a**. Also I agree with you it is a very casual read for me as well, Wild Game would fall more into the drama category though.

Wild Game is less about cooking for the sake of cooking (like a chore) and more about the MC trying to accomplish an objective and he tries to achieve that through cooking.

I would say Wild Game is more similar to Restaurant to Another World then Campfire.

Certainly can’t say it was an instant and dramatic shift, but now looking at V5 now it is very different from V1, and all the characters have changed quite a bit.

Magicmaster is definitely more of an “invest” then other series of it doesn’t click with you right away.

yumenokage

@Rahul-Balaggan Sounds interesting. I'll definitely check out Wild Game, then, although with everything else going on I don't know if I'll make it all the way through this round.

Rahul Balaggan

@yumenokage

I hope you enjoy!

Terrence

Just Wild Game this time for me.

Got all the Middle Age Businessman ones.

Want to buy more Kokoro Connect. SisKan I'm going to buy what I haven't read when the final volume is out.

La mergouille

Hello, I have a quick question about catching up.
Are bonus stories included? Sorry if my question is a bit silly but I just started here.
Thank you in advance

Jaquobus

No, the bonus stories are (if existent) only in the final premium e-pub.

La mergouille

What a cruel dilemma it will be when catching up ... Skip the bonus stories or buy the volume just to read these ...
Rhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
;)

Rahul Balaggan

@La-mergouille

You can find out which titles have bonus short stories come with their premium editions by looking at this list. Not all series come with bonus short stories, this way you can choose which ones you want to read on the site and which ones you want to purchase the premium editions for.

La mergouille

Indeed this list is interesting thank you very much @Rahul-Balaggan

Terabyte

Updated the first post with June's catchups. We have 5 series this time around.

Terrence

3 series I haven't really dug into (Stratos I left off at 3) and Sexiled. Should be a decent month of catching up (though, I got quite a bit on my plate early this month between all my library checkouts).

HarmlessDave

I've been skimming the prepub threads on Infinite Stratos and despite its reported trainwreck nature I might read some of it since I liked season 1 of the anime.

Der Werewolf is great, and Paying to Win is OK (especially "free" on catch-up).

The humor and social commentary in Sexiled is too (ahem) broad for me. (And I do realize that "chicks hate it when you call them broads" :) )

Altina volume 1 was OK, but it kept reminding me of the anime Alderamin on the Sky which I liked better. If I run out of other things to read I might give it another try.