Mercuri

Take this illustration for example in direct contrast to the Fran one I talked about earlier

Oh, that's definitely a good illustration and even uses that "split screen" stuff I'm so fond of. I'm not going to argue that all the bookworm illustrations are bad because they're obviously not. Just that one in particular stood out to me as just feeling so wrong and out of place. L2 brought up this image and while it is definitely of the composition variety it doesn't feel nearly as awkward, probably because there's no fourth wall break and everyone is standing in roughly an acceptable spot

Your second Fran/Teacher example there is actually something I dislike a lot when artists do that.

It's interesting because I specifically picked that image BECAUSE it was more generic, just to show that even Llo's generic renderings are well done IMHO. But if we want to talk about scenes which include an enemy, there's plenty of good examples too

And now that you mention the "composition" style of art, Llo also has a good share of that as well.

I like this approach since it gives me the information I want.

I think this just goes to show how insanely bad some of the indie art is, especially on Anime Trope System. It's so bad that even I couldn't tell you which characters are depicted on the covers. I'd rather have the Solo-Leveling cover art where it's just just pretending to be a leather book than the horrible mess of characters depicted on those covers.

Oh neat! I guess I haven't gotten to that part yet. I love how she kept the huge tail after Ferdinand told her to make it smaller because it was a waste of mana XD

Yeah, I'm currently reading those volumes and there's no depiction of her in the highbeast in the castle. There's not even a depiction of anyone actually INSIDE her highbeast anywhere. What l2 showed is the closest.

Okay, worst illustrations... I'm still annoyed by how bad this illustration was in Ascendance of a Bookworm.

Style-wise, there's nothing wrong with it. The rendering is fine and the proportions are all right. What I dislike is how... AWKWARD it is. And not in a "oh, Myne's feeling awkward" but more like just how awkwardly it's drawn. Myne's breaking the fourth wall and staring at the reader. Lutz is behind her instead of on the other side of the pot where he would normally be if he was, you know, actually helping. This is clearly a case of the artist just drawing something as described rather than trying to capture a moment of the story in time.

Compare that to Llo, who I think EXCELS at capturing story moments in time.

There's so much movement in a still picture. It's so dynamic you almost feel like you're there watching it yourself. And even in slower moments there's incredible amounts of emotion.

Llo's use of the split-screen is fantastic. It allows you to get multiple perspectives in a single image without it ever feeling forced or awkward. Just, absolute next level stuff.

I'd also like to talk about KWKM. Their art is fantastically detailed with very unique embelishments that I don't normally see in fantasy-style art.

I used this photo before when we were promoting our pics for the 2024 awards but I want to bring it up again. It's just so detailed with amazing highlighting and tone. Frequently an artist who is good at B&W fails to adequately do color well but that's not the case with KWKM. Their art is so detailed and just breathtaking. Speaking of B&W art, they also shine there as well.

Just all-around great art. Although it's very clear that their strength is in drawing people since very little of their art depicts scenery. Here's another good color spread:

Anyway, those are all pretty big publications with A-tier artists so I'd also like to talk about some more indie novels. One of my favorite indie LNs is The False Hero and the author uses art from a variety of sources. The main artist who does the covers is actually pretty good. Sure, it's not Llo amazing, but I'd say it's better than 95% of the art in other indie novels.

The issue is that Unholysoul27 doesn't do all the art in the book. My guess is their commission prices are higher than others so they're reserved for covers and the best color inserts. But seriously, that second piece of art... amazing. There's a lot going on in the story at that moment and it depicts it so subtly that I STILL think about that piece of art long after I've finished reading the book.

BUUUUUT then there are other artists that contribute to the book and their styles don't always mesh with Unholysoul27. Take this for instance:

She looks absolutely derpy and nothing like the character depicted in the text (who is a sulty tsundere vampire). For reference: this is the same character:

and this:

And it doesn't get any better from there. These next images all depict the same character:

Now you might be thinking "well, it's definitely a mis-match of styles but overall the quality is pretty good." But then they throw in some low-tier art like this:

You might notice that every image I've linked as been in color. And that's because every image in the novels IS in color! That's one thing I actually do enjoy. Like I said, this is still one of my favorite LNs, and probably my favorite from an indie author.

Now for some really pathetic art. Lets talk about The Anime Trope System. This is trash LN at its finest. The author basically decided to parody every trope from Japanese LNs and put it in one series and it's actually pretty hilarious. You have OP characters. You have stupid amounts of power creep. You have children's card games. You have a MASSIVE harem of like 20+ girls (all but 1 who were virgins before meeting the MC) that doesn't feel stupidly awkward and doesn't devolve into orgies and all the people fighting for sexy time. Seriously, it's one of the best written harems I've seen... and it's a PARODY! Anyway, this isn't about the story but the art. The books don't really have any art outside of the covers but the author decided to change artists mid-way through the series and OMG did the cover art get so much worse.

Here's the art for the first couple novels. Each basically depicts a new character being introduced (who inevitably becomes part of the harem)

It's cute and it does a VERY good job at showing us what these characters look like.

Then the artist changes and we get... whatever this is:

Then afterwards it becomes a rollercoaster as each cover is done by a different artist. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're awful. Here's a better one.

A similar thing happens with Rise of the Weakest Summoner except the juxtapositionis SO much worse. At least with Anime Trope System they're all in an anime style. Not so here. This is the cover of book 1:

This is the EXACT SAME CHARCTER on the cover of book 7

Anyway... I've droned on long enough. Enjoy the art.

Sorta. Each book is about $10-15, which isn't a lot by itself. But A full series can be dozens of volumes which quickly adds up. And you can consume it at a pretty rapid pace.

With KCD2, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and MH:Wilds all back to back I’ll have a hard time finding time to read as well.

First, I was like, "wow, that title sounds stupid."

Then I was like, "Hold up, the PV actually looks pretty cool with nice style."

Finally I was, "But now the summary makes it sound stupid again..."

What a rollercoaster.

I had volume 14 still sitting at 12% read and thought I could finally finish the volume now that Unrivaled in Another World reset the scale.

Sometimes I feel like you just read trash to make other trash more palatable.

Oh I am literally just starting Part 3 Volume 4 myself.

What's up bookwyrms. I didn't write last week because I was too busy reading Ascendance of a Bookworm. Oops.

Anyway, over the past two weeks I finished Part 2 and up to Part 3 Volume 3. I started Volume 4 this week and preemptively ordered Volume 5 already.

I know I said before that the book felt like an Extended Directors Cut considering all the extra content that wasn't in the anime but WOW it really exploded at the end of Part 2. Just SO much extra stuff happening. Even the final blessing before Myne becomes Rosemyne. In the anime it was like "oh hey, that's kinda neat" but in the book it really dives into the significance and the impact it has on everyone and everything. I knew that Myne had a lot of mana but I initially just thought she had as much as like, a higher level noble. The anime didn't really emphasize just how much mana Myne had (which is a stupidly humongous amount).

The anime also made the end of Part 2 seem like a final farewell between Myne and the rest of her family, but no. She still gets to see them and interact with them, just that they cannot acknowledge their relation.

Speaking of the final farewell, I knew it was coming. I KNEW it was going to be sad. I thought I was prepared for it. After all, I've watched the entirety of the anime numerous times.

I was not ready.

I cried like a teenage schoolgirl at a Taylor Swift concert. And the tears just would not stop.

And all that was JUST finishing up Part 2! I'm three volumes in on Part 3. It's all new content for me. And I've absolutely loving it. I love how Rosemyne is fitting in to noble society. She's following all the rules and mannerisms but also skirting the edge of what's appropriate at all times. But because she's so freaking AMAZING by nature of having been trained by Ferdinand she's able to pull everything off. I definitely enjoyed it when she finally got to mingle with other noble children and she realized that she was leagues ahead of everyone. Definitely a typical Myne Moment.

Speaking of typical Myne Moments, can we talk about her highbeast? Everything about it from its design to how she impossibly fixed it was just nuts. I can't wait for her to enter the academy to see what other shenanigans ensue.

The one thing that I found a bit off was how she dealt with Hasse. Yes, it was in line with Myne's values and yes, it was Ferdinand testing her, but I half wanted her to pull a Leon Bartfort (from Trapped in a Dating Sim) and just CRUSH her enemies. Still, the trap she ended up setting was pretty good even if it was seemingly haphazard.

And on the topic of new content and challenges for Myne, I love that we learned part of the reason why Myne is always so sickly. What a massive revelation that was!

Anyway, I'm going to continue reading more Bookworm. Apologies in advance if I go AWOL again.

Grea Asgeir from Rise of the Weakest Summoner. She starts out as this eccentric professor at the summoner academy and the only one who gives the titular character a chance, which is fine. What isn't fine is when she devolves into a raging self-proclaimed slut even though she was a virgin before the MC and then tells everyone (including royalty) about how she's riding dragon dick with the most foul-mouth and the most dialog of any character in the harem despite being like the the seventh one added. She then robs the life out of every other character by being so painstakingly over-the-top at all times.

Killed the series for me.

I hope this show doesn't... suck.