u/TrogerHappy

I'm finally getting around to reading "Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki" after watching the second season of the anime in 2024. I just started and finished the first volume today (shout out to the official ENG translator for this volume, Winifred Bird!).

After reading the 7th volume of SNAFU back when I was in high school, I came to realize I kind hate that specific kind of "coming-of-age" stories that tell you mind-numbingly obvious messages, but I'm really happy to say this series is somewhat different from that: this is just a kid that is genuine to himself and others from the get-go. He's just under the impression that things are defined in life and can't be changed (despite not putting any real effort in to improving it). Even though that's just as obvious as SNAFU's themes, I like the progression/gamification of getting to know what that exactly means for Tomozaki and his eventual difference in values with Hinami, and I look forward to catching up to where the second season ended and getting to the fabled volume 12 end.

With all of that being said, Yuki Yaku is such a weird author, man.

On one hand, this guy is really good at writing believable, thought-provoking, and sometimes hilarious high-school dialogue (I'm not even gonna include the unironic, frequent usage of "gamer" 😆 ) throughout this book alone:

>Tomozaki: "I guess so. This [pasta] is delicious, by the way. That is kind of strange."
Hinami: "Why do you think you can tell them apart? ... Here's the answer."
[Hinami] pointed to her mouth. No way.
"... Pasta?"
"Idiot."
Yeah, that was dumb. Sorry.
- Vol. 1, Page 48 (ENG)

Then on the other hand, the descriptions of his character appearances are so underdeveloped and sometimes just wrong??

>"Um, that's Fuka Kikuchi-san, right?
I could give a quick, generic description like "artsy type with fair skin and short black (??) hair," but that wouldn't do her justice."
- Vol. 1, Page 62

>"Now I had to talk to Minami Nanami... She's a classic Japanese beauty -- pale skin, long black (???) hair, and even, defined features."
- Vol. 1, Page 65

I can only guess that Tomozaki is "ugly" because that is his perception of himself, because we never actually read a single defined body trait, other than that Hinami tells him he has an average build. But is that really all the physical details we'll be getting from them. You don't even know what Tomozaki himself (not his choice of clothes) look like until you see Fly's illustration on Page 103. The author does a really good job of giving defining temperaments, tones, and speaking styles for all of the girls, but that's not helping me create a good image of what they are actually supposed to look like. Fly is really doing heavy lifting with their illustrations, because if I hadn't watched the anime or even looked at their illustrations, I could not tell you an actual detail about any of them.

Don't even get me started with the tired LN author trope of having to point out that girls have female bodies 🙄. Yuzu Izumi has a mole on the corner of her mouth and has brown, wavy hair, but none of that is told in the book!?? Instead, we just get the following snippet:

>"She's like a model cool girl. The kind of girl rumored to flirt with all the boys. She's got big big boobs, too. She's nice and tidy and cute, which makes her less intimidating..."
- Vol 1, Page 60
"Still, I could sense how bright and cheery she was just from the perky way she turned toward me. The little gap between her buttons gave me a glimpse of her boobs. The buttons were under stress from her large chest... In other words, her top was so tight I couldn't help picturing the curvature of her boobs. They were huge."
- Vol 1, Page 61

Don't even get me started on how the main character's little sister was introduced, because wtf. I know this is just par-for-the-course of LNs set in high school, but still!! It doesn't help that his entire afterword is quite literally dedicated towards Fly's illustration of Hinami's THIGHS on the cover. This guy needs to be stopped!! (xD)

What do you guys think, though? I honestly don't know if I've become the old man yelling at clouds, or does his ability to write detailed character descriptions actually improve as the series go on?

For the past two and half years, I've been re-reading Danmachi in Japanese, and last year, I finally reached the Deep Floor Dungeon (Ryu's Arc). Even though I had already read this arc twice in English and watched the anime adaptation, reading Cassandra's prophecy in Volume 13 in Japanese recontextualized what this meant to me.

(official ENG translation) \"Do not forget. Seek naught but the light of the reviving sun. Gather the fragments, consecrate the flame, beseech the sun's light. Take heed. Such is the banquet of calamity.\"

When I read it, I translated it as "Do not forget. The light you desire is none other than that of the reviving sun. Gather the shattered pieces, raise the flame, and call to the Sun's light. Prepare yourself. For that is the festival of carnage." There's a reason why I'm not a translator xD (but it's still so cool!!)

But whatever the case, when I read this prophecy again as an adult, I couldn't help but recontextualize it for my own daily life. As a result, I really wanted to make this into a piece of art and hang it in my home! So, I got some ink, brushes, and calligraphy paper and set off on making my masterpiece!!

My first attempt in December 2025 was purely to see how do I even write and make the correct kanji strokes with a ink brush. We all start somewhere...

We're getting somewhere! On this second one, I realized that I most definitely needed the vertical space. Before anyone says anything, no, I didn't watch any calligraphy videos and I'm not using any particular calligraphy style: I'm just free-styling this 😎

My 8th attempt! This is where you start to see the piece starting to come together. Now, aside from how to create the letters with a brush, I started realizing that I need to know how much ink should be in the brush when I do my strokes, and what would happen if I ran out mid-stroke...

My 14th attempt! I actually did another 10 and kept refining my skills, but on the 25th one, I decided that I was good enough to start creating what I would consider a \"showpiece\" (which you'll see next)

Honestly, not bad! This was my first completed \"showpiece\" and last attempt I made in 2025. I thought everything was great, but then I realized all the imperfections I made. I really don't want to go TOO into detail, but you can see areas where my strokes ran out of ink, my lines aren't straight enough, the second line from the right is clearly slanted, etc. So, in Feburary, I decided to redo it.

I did it! The lines are straighter, there are no strokes where I ran out of ink, everything is legible, a striking frame, and it's just a swell day!!... Wait, why are some letters kinda \"meh\"? Why is the 2nd and 4th lines from the right slanted? Aren't some of the kanji kinda big in relation to other ones?... (the beginning of my descent into madness)

From Feburary to June, I had been spending at least 4 hours monthly to fix those miniscule problems. Anyone can do calligraphy, but after a certain point, the thing that separates writing from art are the truly small, annoying imperfections. I would get to the \"Do not forget\" part, and if that wasn't perfect, I would just give up using that paper and restart with another. If you are an artist or creative, you understand exactly what I mean: it's the absolute worst.

By mid-July, I realized that I needed to lock in and truly finish the piece. In total, I had finally used more than 50 calligraphy sheets to create the two pieces you see above (to the left of the framed piece). There were definitely imperfections and inconsistencies in both of them, but they had character! I don't have a picture, but I hung up the very middle piece as my showpiece!!... Can you guess what happened next? (IT CURVES TO THE LEFT UGHHHHHH)

A week later, I realized I needed to free myself from this idea (\"Prepare yourself. For that is the festival of carnage.\": how ironic). It took me 7 months, but I realized that if my lines are always curving left, I just need to force myself to write to the right, even when I feel like it might curve everything to the right. As you can, immediately in my three best attempts above, every single one of these lines are straight. In fact, they look perfect!!... That's what I thought too, but then I realized that on that day, I had switched the right radicals of 惨禍 around (NOOOOOO). As soon as I realized that mistake, I thought I consigned myself to another 2 hours until I made another showpiece-worthy piece, but But then I realized that I'm the GOAT!

It took only two more attempts, but I finally managed to arrive at my magnum opus. Do I still see problems with it? YES. Could I have tried more to make it just a bit more cool? Don't even get me started. But now that I have created this specific piece, the only words that I can think of when I look at it is \"not bad\" (which is such a big compliment to me btw!!). It's not perfect but it has heart and you can tell that all that work wasn't for nothing: just like Danmachi itself.

Here is the past 7 months and more than 70 calligraphy sheets of my frustration and sense of accomplishment on display.

It's quite the journey, I know. Now that I've written it down, I kinda can't believe that I actually did it.

Now that you've made it this far, let me tell how I interpret this in my personal life. I love this quote, because you can take it in a religious way just as much as you can in a secular way: "Life is rough, but you will get through it like you always have - even if you forgot. Well done for making it to the end of the day, and look forward to tommorow." The best part too is that my final showpiece is placed in a way where it can be illuminated by the setting sun, so it just makes the the meaning deeper.

This 30+ hour chapter has finally come to an end, but I've already decided what I want my next Danmachi calligraphy piece to be...>!a certain passage from the very last scene of SO14!< I'm so excited to drive myself insane over that one, too 😅