The Otome Heroine's Fight for Survival - Vol. 5 Ch. 20

Dex-chan lover
Joined
Sep 26, 2023
Messages
197
What is she cooking?
Let's just say she isn't happy people have threatened her master.

Even though I already read it in the LN, it's still funny to see somehow Aria is behaving more like an assassin than the actual assassins.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Jan 19, 2023
Messages
6,699
This story is refreshingly enjoyable when the MC isn't so overpowered. She's strong and will become stronger, but there are everywhere people who are more powerful, which she needs to keep in mind, all the time. I wish the story was more detailed about her schemes. That would make this even better.
I think it strikes a good power balance, and a good reason for always having a stronger opponent to fight. She thrives fighting stronger opponents, and uses her wits and skills to defeat them, not just overpowering them with haxor skillz. But yeah, you're going to have to read the novel to get more details, seems like.

Her flawless appearance is one of the weapons she utilizes, so she'd certainly try to avoid that sort of thing. But if she were to wind up gaining a scar, then I'd imagine she'd find a way to use it to her advantage.
Yeah, it's a tool in her box, but she wouldn't be emotionally invested in it. I also think her supernatural charm will make it into not a disadvantage anyway.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Dec 18, 2023
Messages
701
Even though I already read it in the LN, it's still funny to see somehow Aria is behaving more like an assassin than the actual assassins.
Shes not a collection of crazed murderers, shes an assassin. One is a Job, and the other is Mental Sickness.

Professionals have standards. Be polite, be efficient, have a plan to kill everyone you meet (except your lovely wife)
 
Last edited:
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Aug 16, 2020
Messages
567
Damn, Aria was merciless with Guy. Just you would expect from a top assassin.
Thanks for the TL!

Offtopic, but could anyone tell me why so many manga (including this one) have chapters when you can see a layer of squares in characters' clothes or hair or even backgrounds? Is it a problem of the digital edition of the manga? Or are Japanese publishers bad with editing and that's why so many of those series end up that way?
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Oct 25, 2018
Messages
1,726
Whew. Eaten alive by dungeon bugs. In comparison she almost did a kindness to the slaving shmucks- they got a pretty relatively clean death in comparison. But I guess thats the difference between vermin and combat.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Sep 26, 2023
Messages
197
Whew. Eaten alive by dungeon bugs. In comparison she almost did a kindness to the slaving shmucks- they got a pretty relatively clean death in comparison. But I guess thats the difference between vermin and combat.
It's also pragmatic now I think about it. Despite the poison is taking effect, Guy is shown to still able to swing his dagger unlike the other 3. What Aria did, intentional or not, is killing Guy without putting herself at risk while the bugs will "clean up" the bodies.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Sep 9, 2020
Messages
223
Hrm... Question for the TL, because I genuinely can't remember: Is the RAW of "Cinderella" the Katakana, or is it something like "Ashkaburi-hime"? Because, if the latter, please preserve that, for two reasons...

1) It's fun for people to learn that "Ash-Covered Princess" was the original name for Cinderella, and 2) It's also quite literally her name for the good reason of smearing ash into her hair to hide the colour.

Anyway, yeeee, the assassin arc starts in earnest!
Damn, Aria was merciless with Guy. Just you would expect from a top assassin.
Thanks for the TL!

Offtopic, but could anyone tell me why so many manga (including this one) have chapters when you can see a layer of squares in characters' clothes or hair or even backgrounds? Is it a problem of the digital edition of the manga? Or are Japanese publishers bad with editing and that's why so many of those series end up that way?

This is a screentone effect, used to make a gradient. Specifically, this is called kakeami, and it comes in several flavours, such as noughts and crosses, clawmark hatching, and, indeed, The Boxes. There's a lot of different screentone types, not just the dots (which were originally for saving ink at the printers.)

Basically, it's a form of shading largely unique to manga.

EDIT: And props to the people who can actually work with it. I've tried, and it's an absolute sonuvabitch, with no tutorials I can find on how to do it well... :shamihuh:
 
Group Leader
Joined
Jul 5, 2023
Messages
100
Offtopic, but could anyone tell me why so many manga (including this one) have chapters when you can see a layer of squares in characters' clothes or hair or even backgrounds? Is it a problem of the digital edition of the manga? Or are Japanese publishers bad with editing and that's why so many of those series end up that way?
Basically, that's due to the shading (which gives different textures to objects in monochrome manga to simulate colour) getting absolutely fecked due to being exported to a lower resolution than necessary to properly display that shading. This makes it so the details in the shading get compressed, which usually shows up as weird intermittent lines.

Low resolution raws are common for manga released online for free on a weekly/monthly basis. The full resolution version comes out later as a volume. That's why you tend to see that corrupted shading so often.

For a good comparison, look at the first chapter of this manga and compare the fan translated version to the official J-Novel Club that's available for free. They are using the official images so their resolution is much higher.

As a side note, you can actually see this shading decimation in real time if you open a manga image that has a significantly higher resolution than the screen you're viewing it on. By zooming in and out you'll see the shading change (it's easier to see on a phone while pinching), because your screen is physically not capable of displaying the details of the shading, so details are lost. You can also get a similar effect by zooming waaaay out, making the image tiny on the screen.

I tried searching for such an image online to give you, but haven't found a single one that worked because what most people call "high resolution" is just the same free web version but upscaled, which doesn't bring back the original details that were previously lost (the first fan translated volume of this manga is actually upscaled, so it didn't help much, as you can see). Also, it heavily depends on the type of shading, since not all of them produce this effect. It's mostly those that are patterns added by digital programs, not manual shading.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Sep 26, 2023
Messages
197
Shes not a collection of crazed murderers, shes an assassin. One is a Job, and the other is Mental Sickness.

Professionals have standards. Be polite, be efficient, have a plan to kill everyone you meet (except your lovely wife)
True, she is ruthless, but she doesn't enjoy the killing.

Now I think about it, she is pretty similar to Sheddy from Apotheosis of a Demon (Haru no Hi's other work). Their methods are quick, efficient and often brutal, but they did it out of survival and necessity.
 
Group Leader
Joined
Jul 5, 2023
Messages
100
Hrm... Question for the TL, because I genuinely can't remember: Is the RAW of "Cinderella" the Katakana, or is it something like "Ashkaburi-hime"? Because, if the latter, please preserve that, for two reasons...

1) It's fun for people to learn that "Ash-Covered Princess" was the original name for Cinderella, and 2) It's also quite literally her name for the good reason of smearing ash into her hair to hide the colour.

Anyway, yeeee, the assassin arc starts in earnest!


This is a screentone effect, used to make a gradient. Specifically, this is called kakeami, and it comes in several flavours, such as noughts and crosses, clawmark hatching, and, indeed, The Boxes. There's a lot of different screentone types, not just the dots (which were originally for saving ink at the printers.)

Basically, it's a form of shading largely unique to manga.
We replied at the same time. :haa:

EDIT: Also, you're correct about the raw not being Cinderella.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
May 13, 2019
Messages
312
I'm sorry, am I the only one who literally can't read this character as anything other than a butch girl?
kIcAHhX.png
yes! actually sad to see the character go
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Sep 9, 2020
Messages
223
We replied at the same time. :haa:
Answer the question posed to you by me, defendant! :LOL:

EDIT: Then please, if you aren't able to fix it this time, please keep "Ash-Covered Princess" in future, because there is a reason for it being literally that. Nobody in that world except the isekai'd folks (maybe, they show no signs of knowing the OG name for Cindy in the WN) knows the name Cinderella.
 
Last edited:
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Sep 9, 2020
Messages
223
It is indeed 灰かぶり姫. Though I prefer translating it to "Ash-crowned Princess". Sounds cooler.

Very true, it does sound cooler, and indeed, it makes more sense in the context of her mostly doing it with her hair.

I find the defendant... Guilty (because I saw dat bubble!), But Repentant! (Shuba shuba shuba!)

EDIT: Does do a bit of a disservice to the author being a smartass with the reference though, on consideration.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top