Isekai Kenkokuki read:

The Isekai Kenkokuki manga doesn't update very often and I love the story, so I decided to read the novel version which is ahead of the manga.  I also thought it was only proper that I would know as much as possible about Almus, a character in my fictional character hall of fame.  If he's worth honoring he's worth reading about.

Unfortunately the novel version isn't fully translated either.  About half of the series is translated, and the translation is annoyingly spotty, with some chapters missing even within the translated portion.  It somehow feels like the missing chapters have all of the most important plot points too.  There's no hope of the situation improving either, the last update of the novel translation was five months ago.  Clearly the work has been abandoned.  This is the fate of most Japanese light novels, and why I hate this hobby compared to anime or video games.

What was translated was really good.  It's a very detailed account of war and domestic politics in an era with low populations and small land areas, such that your actions really can make a big impact.  A small group of friends in a world of 8 billion people can't do anything to change the world, but in a population of 200,000?  And when those friends also have magic powers that multiply their abilities 100 fold over the common man?  Or are just way smarter than the average opponent?  Suddenly building an empire from scratch is a lot more feasible.  Since everything is explained in minute detail Almus' rise to power always seems reasonable and feasible, there are no suspensions of doubt required.

I also like Almus' lovey-dovey scenes with his two wives, Julia and Tetra.  In this primitive era a king sticking to two wives is quite conservative, but for the author to be willing to write about it in the face of modern day censoriousness is quite refreshing.  I like any story that pushes back against the modern taboos, none of which have any basis in morality.  We live in an era where it's somehow wrong for a man to love two women but okay for a man to become a woman.  It's absolutely absurd and unnatural.  The more artists who chip away at this artificial consensus, showing that there can be a better path for mankind, the sooner humanity returns to its senses.

The stupidest hypocrisy of the modern era is how it's perfectly okay to marry, divorce in two months, and then marry a new girl, but God forbid if you married them both at once.  An eternal loving bond with two women is morally depraved, but a temporary fling with one person, followed by another temporary fling with another person, is perfectly alright.  It's eye rolling.  I don't want any culture on Earth that allows divorce and remarriage to complain one whit about polygamy.  The only difference is the polygamous family stays together while the divorcees split apart.  How is the second group superior?

Reading Isekai Kenkokuki has been a productive couple of days but sadly now it's all over.  It's still ten days until Xenoblade Chronicles 3 comes out.  On the 22nd the Switch has the Live A Live remaster available, a game whose soundtrack is already well respected in my music hall of fame, so it might be worth playing.  I could also read more of the Snow visual novel, though I swear all the heroines I'm supposed to choose between are retarded. . .

Meanwhile, Honzuki's third season, which only finished airing a few weeks ago, is already out in blu-ray.  What a difference compared to Selection Project.  I went ahead and downloaded it from nyaa.si.  I might actually rewatch it soon, since I'm mostly caught up rewatching the other ranked series.