Thank you for checking out this episode of Cafe Manga. If you enjoy the show, please sign up to the newsletter for more content not included in the show. You can sign up at https://cafemanga.substack.com or see the link in the episode description.

Hi everyone, welcome back to Cafe Manga.

If you're listening to this episode, then that means that you weren't put off from listening with my previous episode. So before I get started, I just want to mention one thing that I forgot to include in the previous episode. I forgot to discuss the release schedule for episodes of this show.

Now, since this podcast is actually related to a Substack newsletter that I currently run, I actually don't have a set schedule of when I will be releasing episodes of this podcast. Now, usually podcasts will tell you, oh, this podcast releases every Wednesday at such and such time.

But due to my own busy schedule, and also due to the fact that, again, this podcast is an audio component of a Substack newsletter that I'm running, I don't have a set schedule for when these episodes are going to come out.

So if that is an issue for you, then I completely understand if you are not going to continue listening to the show. But if it doesn't bother you that much, then great. I hope you will check out my future episodes.

Today we’re talking about…

So in this episode, I'm going to briefly talk about a few titles that I am actually pretty excited to watch this year. One show that I'm actually currently watching because as I record this, literally episode two just came out this weekend.

Seventh Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married To Her Worst Enemy

It's called Seventh Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married To Her Worst Enemy. This was originally a light novel published on the pretty well-known Japanese website Shōsetsuka ni Narō and there has been so far six published volumes of the light novel. There is also a manga adaptation and of course there is an anime series based on it.

The basic premise of the story is that the main character is a young woman named Rishe who is born the daughter of a duke. She was originally engaged to be married to the crown prince of her country, but due to circumstances, the prince cancels their engagement and she suffers huge public humiliation.

And you would think that she should be completely upset. But actually, she has this, I really don't care, I am out of here kind of attitude. And the reason why she has this attitude is because this is her seventh time experiencing this exact situation. And that's because she's apparently stuck in a time loop, not all that different from Groundhog Day.

But at any rate, so she's currently in her seventh time living this life. And you get brief glimpses of what she did in the previous six go-arounds. And because she's reliving her life, and she's also remembering her previous go-arounds. She's actually accumulated a lot of knowledge and a lot of skills that hopefully is going to help her with her seventh go around. And she's very determined to not die again.

And the thing is that what keeps happening is that she experiences the public humiliation where the crown prince basically dumps her. And about five years after her engagement ends, she dies and her life gets started all over again. And for her seventh go around, she is determined to not die five years in the future. So she's hoping that all these skills and knowledge she's accumulated so far is going to help her.

But the interesting thing is that for her seventh go around, because she makes one slight change from what she did the last six times she's done this, she creates a really interesting new future for herself. And the thing is that in her previous six go rounds, the reason why she dies is that in some way directly or indirectly, she dies because of a war that happens in the future. And the war is started by a prince who later becomes the emperor of his kingdom, Prince Arnold Hein.

And the thing is that in particular in her sixth life, which was literally the one she lived before present incarnation that she's going through right now, she was crossdressing as a man hiding her true identity and she trained to be a knight. And in that life as a knight, she actually fights in a completely lopsided battle against Arnold Hein and he kills her.

And then in the seventh life, because she makes one small change that deviates from the previous six times. She ends up running into Arnold Hein. And not only does she run into Arnold Hein, she catches his interest. And now she becomes his fiancé. But yeah, she's now engaged to the man who in a previous life killed her.

As I said, the second episode only just recently aired and so far I'm enjoying it. And incidentally, I am also reading the light novel and the light novel is also really good. So I highly recommend this series if you haven't read it and if you haven't watched yet.

Fluffy Paradise

Another series that actually, again, just like with 7th Time Loop is literally airing right now, it just started, is actually this super adorable show called Fluffy Paradise. And again, it is a light novel. I actually did consider getting the light novel, but because I have 15 other series that I have on my read list, I haven't actually picked up this one yet, but I will now. It is a light novel, it is a manga, and of course now it is an anime series, and it is super adorable. I highly recommend it, but just so you know why I highly recommend it.

So the premise is you have a woman named Midori who, like a typical office worker in Japan, dies from overwork. And she gets an opportunity to get reincarnated into another world. So this is an isekai. And in her new life, she gets born with a special ability granted to her. And the special ability is that basically, all animals that she encounters will automatically like her and be open to befriending her, which creates some very interesting situations.

And I gotta say it is super adorable because when you first meet Midori as her new persona, She gets reborn as a daughter of a noble family called Nefertima, or as a lot of the characters start referring to her as Nema. The thing is that because of this ability to attract the affection of animals. She creates all sorts of interesting situations for herself and for the people around her.

It's a really adorable, funny show, and I just cannot wait to see what happens in the next two episodes. And I really will have to get the light novel because I just can't help it. This just sounds so good. I'm enjoying it so far.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Another show that is gonna be coming out this year that I am pretty excited about is the third season of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.

Now, I will have to make a confession. I actually didn't watch the show until last year. I like basically binge watched it and I feel stupid like why did I not watch this show sooner? It is what it is. I am starting to read the light novel and yeah the show is really interesting if you're not aware of what this title is about.

It is another isekai story so you basically have this character this guy named Satoru who dies and he gets reincarnated as a slime in another world. And when he was being reincarnated as a slime, he was inadvertently given a unique ability specifically to him and to no other slime or any other monster. He was granted this unique power called Predator.

Which basically means that as a slime, if he was to absorb things or absorb another monster, he can actually gain their powers and he also has the ability to temporarily change his form so he looks like some of those animals and monsters that he consumed. All sorts of craziness happens along the way.

It's a very popular title, very popular show, of course, which is why they're doing a season three. And I am starting to read the light novel. I am very excited for the new season because I've basically caught up to everything about it at this point. I even watched Slime Diaries, which is really hilarious, very funny side stories in the Reincarnate as a Slime universe. Definitely recommend both.

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash

There are a couple other shows that I am pretty interested in, but they haven't been released just yet. But I am also pretty interested in checking out The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash is again another light novel series and it's got a lot of potential to it. I actually haven't read the light novel yet. I may consider getting a copy of it and checking it out before the show starts airing.

But basically it's again another isekai where you have this person who gets reborn in another world and they get reborn as a girl named Ivy and she ends up having adventures.

Solo Leveling

Another series that I'm interested in checking out is a series called Solo Leveling. Which, interestingly enough, is actually not Japanese in origin. It's actually a Korean series that got turned into a Japanese anime, and it's an interesting premise. If I have the ability to find the light novel, I am probably going to read it as well.

So basically the premise is that you have these humans who have supernatural abilities and they have to protect humanity from monsters by fighting them with these abilities. And you follow this main character who is a very weak hunter. And he ends up in a situation where he suddenly is able to gain a really unique and rare ability that allows him to level up and become way more powerful. And he goes on his adventures.

So it sounds like a very interesting premise that I'm really interested in checking out. But yeah that's just a few of the many shows that are coming out. In future episodes if I actually check out anything else other than these I will definitely update you all.

Conclusion

So before I end the episode I will say that if you have any anime series that you are eagerly waiting to check out as well this year.

Feel free to head to my Substack and leave some comments and share what anime shows coming out in 2024 you are really eagerly waiting to come out or it's currently airing right now and you are eagerly watching it.

So thanks for checking out this episode and see you next time.

Thank you for checking out this episode of Cafe Manga. If you enjoy the show, please sign up to the newsletter for more content not included in the show. You can sign up at cafemanga.substack.com or see the link in the episode description.

Welcome everyone to the very first episode of Cafe Manga. My name is Liz and as you would imagine in a first episode, this is where I basically explain to you what the show is about, who the heck I am, and a very brief history of how this podcast even got started.

What is this show about?

If you couldn't guess from the name of the show and even the show description information, this is a podcast where I talk about all things related to anime, manga, and light novels. Very straightforward.

Who am I?

As to who I am, my name is Liz and I am a longtime fan of all three of those things. I'm a more recent fan of light novels, since I've only been aware of them since about 2019. But once I got into them, I became completely obsessed. I fell down the rabbit hole and at least half of the books I read now are light novels, along with regular standard novels.

How did this podcast get started?

Now, as to how this podcast got started, well, it is a bit of a long story, but I will give you the short version of the story. So actually, before this podcast, I was actually previously a co-host on another podcast that I had done with two other women who I originally met on, believe it or not, Tumblr. But that's a long story, which I'm not going to get into here.

But at any rate, most episodes I would record with my two co-hosts. But every once in a while, due to various circumstances, we sometimes couldn't all get together. There would even be instances where even two of us couldn't get together. So we started introducing the occasional solo episode where just one of us would record an episode to our listeners. And when it was my turn, to do solo episodes. Some of those solo episodes were actually related to either anime, manga, or light novels. And in one instance, it was a sort of all the above.

Interestingly enough, on the old podcast, when we released those particular solo episodes, they weren't the most downloaded episodes on our show, but they weren't the worst. But there were a decent number of listeners who checked out those episodes.

But eventually, my previous show ended because of all three of us no longer had the time to meet up and record together. So we ended the show. And funny enough, actually, not too long before the show was ending, I had already had in my head an idea of like eventually doing a solo podcast. But of course, due to the amount of time it took to produce the other show with my two co hosts, I never really had the time to work on it. But funny enough, because that show ended now I have the time. And the crazy part is that this podcast was not actually the original idea I was going to do.

Wait what?

Actually, the original solo podcast I was going to work on, and I am still actually working on it, is for, of all things, the Game of Thrones universe. As I said, I am actually working on that and I'm aiming to have the first episodes come out in the beginning of April with the intention that the first season of that podcast will be released before season two of House of the Dragon comes out. But in the event it doesn't, I'm hoping that at least a majority of those episodes are released.

But anyway. The point is, though, why I bring this up is that with my big plans of doing that show, in no way, shape, or form did I ever expect that I would think of doing a second podcast along with that, because why the heck would I do that?

It's a lot of work. And yet, here we are.

And the reason why it happened was because of, strangely enough, Medium.com.

Medium? What?

I had been a member of medium.com, which for those of you listening who don't know what that is, it's basically a website where you can read articles about a whole variety of different topics. And for the longest time, I was just a casual reader. Because every once in a while when I would do Google searches, articles that are on Medium would sometimes pop up in the search results and you can only read a certain number of articles every month for free and then you're paywalled and you can't access them.

So eventually I was like you know what let me just get the paid membership so I can access all the articles I want. And for the longest time, I actually didn't realize that not only can you be a reader on the website, you can actually be a writer on the website. And once that light bulb actually flickered on in my head, I started writing articles, essays on there.

And as of this recording, I actually have about 240 followers, which, unlike most social media platforms, the number actually doesn't matter. It's a bit like whose line is it anyway? The points don't matter. The follower numbers don't matter. But what did matter was the fact that I had engagement on the stories that I wrote, which is awesome.

Now, you might be thinking, okay, what does this have to do with this podcast that I'm listening to right now?

Yeah what DOES Medium have to do with this podcast?

What I discovered on Medium when I was like interacting with other writers and reading other people's articles was that quite a few writers on Medium started newsletters on the side.

The two most popular news writing platforms that I saw amongst the various writers that have newsletters like this, they are either on ConvertKit or they are on Substack.

So being the curious person that I am, I decided to investigate the two platforms just to see what was up with these two. Like why are so many writers on either one? And ultimately, I came to the conclusion that if I were to start a newsletter, and I had to pick one or the other platform, my conclusion was I was going to start on Substack.

Yeah we know you’re on Substack…

And there are some pros and cons to using Substack. But the two things that ultimately convinced me to go with Substack was number one, you can start a newsletter on Substack totally for free, which is great. And the only time you actually have to pay Substack for running your newsletter is when you start paywalling your newsletter, and then they take a cut out of the subscription fees. But I had no plans on actually paywalling anything. At least not at this point in time, January 2024. I currently have no plans of paywalling at this time, but who knows? Maybe, maybe down the road, but not at this time.

The other thing that I like about Substack actually is the fact that you have all these different abilities to get your newsletters noticed by other writers on Substack. Which is great, but little did I realize there was actually a another little perk that I realized is the fact that on Substack, you can create a podcast. Substack is actually a podcast hosting platform. It doesn't get talked about a ton, but it is, which I found really fascinating.

And as a side note, my Game of Thrones podcast I'm working on, actually, I'm going to be hosting it on a completely different hosting platform that is not Substack.

But anyway, now that we're talking about Substack. I started a newsletter, which I made a reference in the intro before the theme song started. And the newsletter, after at least two or three months of like kind of ruminating what type of newsletter I would start if I ever started one.

I ultimately decided let me do an anime/manga/light novel one because I felt like there were aspects of Substack that would make it a little bit more interesting for me to find and interact with people who are also interested in anime, manga and stuff like that.

I started the newsletter and I'm enjoying it so far. I don't have too many stories on there at the moment, but I am slowly making my way to producing more. And as I spent time thinking about what articles, what stories to write for this anime, manga, light novel newsletter. Which by the way, the name of the newsletter is Talk Nerdy To Me.

So as I keep thinking about what stories I want to write for Talk Nerdy To Me, I came to the realization that actually some of the ideas I was coming up with, not all of them were necessarily going to work.

So the general idea is that some of the episodes on this podcast will be complimentary audio content to the written content on the newsletter. Some of it will be audio exclusive content where you will only get it through this podcast. You're not going to be able to read written articles on the newsletter about it. And some of the content on this podcast may actually lead up to a written article in the newsletter.

That's why I would say and I'm not just saying this to promote it but I'm just saying is that if you end up enjoying this podcast I really do recommend that you sign up to the newsletter because again. It is a free newsletter. You don't have to pay me anything to check out the content of my Substack newsletter. You are more than welcome to check it out.

Conclusion

Hopefully I've convinced you, but if you haven't been convinced yet, stick around, check out the next couple episodes, and hopefully by the time you finish episode two or episode three, you will be convinced to not just follow this podcast, but also to sign up to the newsletter. Because again, some of the stuff that is on this podcast may appear in the written newsletter, but not everything in the written newsletter will necessarily also be in the podcast.

At any rate, thanks for checking out this episode and see you next time.