Various Thoughts

The sixth Madougushi Dahlia novel immediately gets (some of) the food rhapsodizing out of the way to introduce a semi-dramatic plotline focusing on making a particularly complex tool for her best friend. It also both closes up the loose ends with her ex-fiancé and puts the the seemingly slow romantic development in perspective; only about four months have passed since the start of the series.

The lengthily-titled Tensei shite High Elf ni Narimashita ga, Slow Life wa 120-nen de Akimashita is a bit misleading in its description. He does not actually abandon living a slow life, just slightly alters the magnitude of how slow it is; he has no trouble spending decades advancing his hobbies (blacksmithing, swordfighting, eating, and finally magic).

While it in general reminds of Kino no Tabi (with an actually powerful protagonist who can drive change), the timescale ends up the defining feature with this first book covering roughly thirty years. And I certainly hope it continues at that scale if for no other reason than the apparently impending introduction of a child character.