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REVIEW: In Another World With My Smartphone Novel 1




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jesusalcala11



Joined: 08 Sep 2013
Posts: 132
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:22 pm Reply with quote
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Null magic is described as personalized, the kind of magic that can do basically anything based specifically on the person who uses it.

Fuyuhara goes on to say that healing magic doesn't work on menstrual cramps because it's not an illness, but rather a sign that your body is functioning properly.

There better be a Null-magic user that has developed a huge following for being able to reduce the severity of menstrual cramps.

One could test the logic of healing magic by asking if healing magic works on scars, bruises, headaches, fevers, or any other proper function of the human body.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2296
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:24 pm Reply with quote
If I'm reading the original website (and Wayback Machine archives thereof) correctly, this story actually debuted several months after KonoSuba -- 2013-04-08 versus 2012-12-20. It'd be interesting to scrape the entire top-ranking list, sort the stories by start date, and see what trends emerge. (Problem is, you'd have to manually modify some of them, because they've had chapters removed, and some popular stories like Mahouka have been taken off the site altogether.)

The earliest reincarnation fantasy I know of on the site is Knight's & Magic, begun 2010-10-16 and still updating regularly, with 14 chapters in the past 4 months. I wouldn't be surprised if we got that one over here soon too, with the anime coming up.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2902
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:31 pm Reply with quote
jesusalcala11 wrote:


i another isekai series there is this adventures whom has sex left and right including 6p events, she used healing magic to fix herself of aids
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Mojave



Joined: 07 May 2017
Posts: 178
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 6:40 pm Reply with quote
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There's also one bizarre and somewhat troubling moment when Elze and her sister have “girl problems,” which are implied to be cramps so bad that they can't go out. While it's kind of nice to see something so normal (but not talked about) featured in the book, Fuyuhara goes on to say that healing magic doesn't work on menstrual cramps because it's not an illness, but rather a sign that your body is functioning properly. This is a problematic attitude to say the least, and if it isn't precisely used to imply that the girls are somehow weak, it certainly doesn't indicate a proper understanding of reproductive health that it is troubling to see.


That's not problematic, it's a nuanced portrayal of an issue that doesn't get realistically talked about much in manga/anime/light novels. Now, I haven't read the scene in question, so if the tone of the scene makes it clear that it's belittling women and calling them weak, then that would indeed be problematic.

Also, it's not an incorrect understanding of reproductive health. Approximately monthly menstruation is the baseline normal for postpubescent female bodies. Now, if you're trying to say that menstrual cramps so severe that you can't go out aren't part of normal menstruation, that's both right and wrong. The normal side effects of menstruation range across a spectrum, and as long as they're within that spectrum it technically isn't an illness and is in fact just part of a process that is normal for healthy postpubescent female bodies. Some parts of that spectrum are still quite unpleasant to have to experience, but they are still "normal." There are menstrual disorders that do constitute a form of illness, but severe cramping on its own doesn't automatically constitute one of those (of course, I doubt that the novel goes into enough detail about the cramps in question to be able to accurately pin down whether they are on the normal part of the menstrual spectrum or whether they are abnormal enough to constitute a menstrual disorder, and thus fall under the category of illness as far as the novel's logic is concerned). Once again, unless there is a tone here that makes it clear that the novel's portrayal of menstruation here is just a way of calling women weak or flawed, this is a nuanced portrayal that should be applauded, not condemned. Calling it problematic just causes more issues with getting realistic and fair depictions of the subject going forward in the medium.


Last edited by Mojave on Mon Jun 26, 2017 11:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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BlueAlf



Joined: 02 Jan 2017
Posts: 1548
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 7:46 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the review. Remembering things mentioned in the JNC forum, I think this sums up the reasons why the anime announcement was so surprising.

Well, let's see whether the anime would be enjoyable.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2267
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 9:12 pm Reply with quote
I haven't seen a "ha ha, girls have periods and they get cramps/it renders them incapable" punchline since my Slayers days, so this kind of joke feels dated at best and really kind of cruel at worst. But yeah, whoever comes up with the magical equivalent of Motrin is going to make bank in this world. Laughing

That said, maybe it's just because we've had alot of isekai shows to compare this to, but from the review alone, this title sounds a little lost at sea; I feel like the other isekai titles we've gotten thus far have a much stronger through line. This title sounds more like an exploration of a potentially neat idea, but it's really lacking a meaningful hook.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2296
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 10:23 pm Reply with quote
Shay Guy wrote:
It'd be interesting to scrape the entire top-ranking list, sort the stories by start date, and see what trends emerge. (Problem is, you'd have to manually modify some of them, because they've had chapters removed, and some popular stories like Mahouka have been taken off the site altogether.)


Screw it. Started working on a Python script for the automatic part. Unicode is a pain to work with in 2.7; considering reworking for Python 3.

Going solely by date of first chapter listed (in addition to chapters removed, some authors do things like add a character list at the beginning), the oldest story on the list is No Answer, Seems Like It's Just a Fake Hero, the title of which is apparently a reference to a Haruko Momoi album.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13615
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 11:21 pm Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
I haven't seen a "ha ha, girls have periods and they get cramps/it renders them incapable" punchline since my Slayers days, so this kind of joke feels dated at best and really kind of cruel at worst.

That awkward moment when you realize Eric Stuart was talking about periods. In other words, it was James, Brock, and Kaiba talking about periods.
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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 2:14 pm Reply with quote
I admit i was disappointed when, out of all the interesting isekai stories I've read recently (Faraway Paladin, Arifureta, DeathMarch, etc.), that the one to get an adaptation first was Smartphone (the one I hadn't read); doesn't sound like i'm missing much there.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 4:27 pm Reply with quote
Only immature puerile boys would think a girl suffering with menstral cramps was a weakling. Mostly all males, except those that have observed the tension and suffering of their wife, mother and/or sisters, or daughters each month, or who have studied gynaecology, know nothing of the conditions felt by females during this time of their reproductive lives. In short we males don't know we've been born when it comes to this subject. Each female will have their own individual experience and no two period will be the same each month, but whilst severe cramps and bleeding can be a normal occurance. it can also be a symptum of a much more serious illness such as cancers of the ovaries, uterus, or cervex, or benign fibroid tumors in the uterus. Also constant heavy bleeding can cause severe anemia which can cause other conditions and illnesses. In short when it comes to pain females will always be stronger than males.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3019
PostPosted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 11:29 am Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
I haven't seen a "ha ha, girls have periods and they get cramps/it renders them incapable" punchline since my Slayers days


Maybe I'm remembering it with rose-colored glasses, but the whole "Lina loses her powers when she has her period" thing always felt less like a punchline, and more like an ill-conceived and poorly-executed attempt to give a character some sort of "Green Lantern's powers don't work on the color yellow" style weakness.

The "humorous" spoiler[attempted rape scene] at the beginning of the third Slayers light novel was a much, much worse offender.
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Melicans



Joined: 01 Feb 2012
Posts: 627
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jul 09, 2017 7:40 am Reply with quote
I certainly don't see the menstrual cramps as a joke or a punchline as some people have suggested. It is also not as big a plot point as people seem to believe; it is a single paragraph in an epilogue/side-story, and later a single sentence in passing. For clarity, here is the actual mention:

Quote:
We had decided to take the day off since Elze was feeling “under the weather.” It must’ve been tough dealing with... girl problems like that. Even my [Recovery] spell had no effect. Probably because it wasn’t classified as an abnormal status condition, or so I figured. If anything, that kind of pain was proof that her body was functioning properly.


The next sentence goes on to mention a brawl outside the building the character is in. It is not a punchline or a joke. The part of it that is egregious or unnecessary is the last sentence in that paragraph; I certainly have no issue with the rest of it.

The single sentence later on simply mentions that her twin sister also has the same pains a day or two later.
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