It’s interesting to see people reframe real engineering in the context of settings which lack that technology, from Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court on up to modern isekai.
Obviously the author did their research, the production of the katana is as best I know factually accurate, but… why? The blacksmith‘s weapons are already impossibly sharp and durable, able to cut through steel and a human body without a scratch or blemish. The purpose of using a core steel and differential hardening is to make a blade more durable, how much more durable does a sword benefit from being?
There’s always the narrative arms race common in manga, where every weapon and spell has to be better than the last one until everyone’s nuking countries. I guess we need a sword to cut through the adamantium golem. From a crafting perspective there is also something to be said for doing things traditionally, but all this just strikes me as strange. A big part of craftsmanship, whether that’s blacksmithing or woodworking or pottery or baking or whatever, is understanding how a product is going to be used or consumed and working around that idea. Craftsmen have limited time, a key element of technology is getting better results with less time or effort. This sword will be, for all purposes we have seen, no more effective or durable than other swords MC’s already made and took more work.
I only thought about this because the second half of this chapter is fermenting bread, which makes total sense. Bakers ferment bread to give better texture and softness. Secondarily, how it’s fermented can impact flavor. It’s super reasonable to use fermented apples, or whatever source of yeast you can find, to make bread better. If you were already able to make fluffy apple bread, on par with a Japanese or French boulangerie, would you then make a version fermented with wild apple yeast? Probably not.
I recognize this is a ridiculous critique for a manga that’s mostly cute girls and general overviews of food and blacksmithing technologies.
