"Eromanga Sensei" volume 2 by Fushimi Tsukasa. There is more "eromanga" in this volume in this volume than the previous one, but mostly it's about novel writing, and continues to excel in character development.
The eromanga bits are best explained by this line: "It's the kind of scene where if an old man was doing the same thing, he would get arrested right away." This volume includes two very vivid scenes of Sagiri making live sketches two other girls in embarrassing poses. These were detailed accounts of both the artist and her subjects, as told by the narrator who described the awkward moments as if time stood still. It was truly memorable, and we see the stroke of genius in casting the little sister as the illustrator.
The novel writing bits are just as exciting as the illustration bits, which centered around a fierce rivalry between Masamune (narrator) and Muramasa (bestselling author, left-handed). I thought it was going to the most depressing competition fueled by ancient grudges, but actual back story was quite surprising. The ending was totally unexpected, even though it was carefully arranged to resemble volume 1.
The appearance of this new Muramasa character was carefully arranged to start on the negative side, and slowly developed to have a more positive image. There were other characters in this series that followed the same pattern, where they appear to be quite flawed at first, but the author worked his ways to get the readers to slowly like them. All events in this novel contributed to this character development cause, even those fanservice scenes helped in making Sagiri more open to the world outside her room. Following these developments was the most rewarding part in reading this volume.
Then there are these bonus references to real world novels that I am sure will tickle all light novel fans. "Read Or Die" was included in the list of gateway novels (totally agree), and I thought the devious proposal of lending someone the full Marimite series except volume 11 was especially brilliant (I am so glad I read Marimite past volume 11).
This has been a very fun and eventful volume, looking forward to volume 3.
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Next (2015-12-11): TRICK 2015