Index NT volume 20 Read:

The 25 light novel series in my good books hall of fame are series I'm committed to read from start to finish so long as they're value added material (ie, not to be found in any superior medium such as anime format) and translated into English.  Today I'm all caught up again with that pledge by finishing off Index NT 20.

In cases where most of a book has been translated but not all of it, I've gone ahead and read those too as far as possible (Haganai volume 10, Oreshura volume 6.5, Eromanga Sensei volume 8, Death March web novel 16, SAO volume 18 and Twelve Kingdoms volume 8)

It would be nice if Japanese light novels were translated more consistently, thoroughly, and swiftly, but there just aren't enough fans of the right novels with the right tool sets to see such tasks through.  It's one of the tragedies of this world that most people speak English but most good art is only in Japanese.

Index is one of those rare series that is both well written and kept up with by translators, so it inevitably bubbles to the top of any value added type book list.  Right now it's ranked #2 just behind SAO, but if SAO's Alicization arc really does get adapted in full, it's likely Index will end up rising all the way to #1.  The #1 must read light novel series coming out of Japan.

Even if Index Season III animated the rest of the OT, that's still 20 NT books left to read plus the inevitable additional sequels that will be coming out in the near future.  It's hard to argue with numbers like that.

Index volume 20 included too many heroes and too few villains so the result wasn't very interesting.  Hopefully volume 21 will course correct like the series so often has before.

Meanwhile, I have a max level character of every class type in WoW -- they even all have decent gear, so I can say I more or less won the game as much as an MMORPG can be won -- an achievement reached just before the expansion yet again raises the level cap and the journey begins all over again.  Efficient timing to say the least.

I added more pictures to my Beautiful Anime Girls permapost.  Hiyo from Ongaku Shoujo was especially lavished with affection, so be sure to check her out.

Permaposts are ever evolving wonders of the world.  My 'top anime rankings' permapost also received an improvement in the chronology section.  Now it's easy to tell how many new franchises were spawned each year because they're highlighted in bold.  Long story short, in 2014 there were 19 new great anime franchises, but in 2018 there were only 2.  Not good.