Have you ever heard of the Atelier games? They’re a series of JRPG Crafting Sims that see you playing as a girl alchemist, gathering ingredients in the wild, brewing potions, making sentient alchemical pies, and all that good stuff. They typically have a lighter and softer tone that can be more described as cute, where you’re worried about running a shop rather than some demon king bringing about the end of the world. The first game in the series is Atelier Rorona: the Alchemist of Arland, but nowadays most people are more likely to know the more recent Atelier Ryza games and their fanservice-pleasing heroine.
Management of a Novice Alchemist is so completely like that – in its pitch, its themes, and even its visual style (all the way to the costuming) – that it’s frankly more shocking that this isn’t a straight adaptation of an Atelier game. Technically, though, this is an entirely separate work, based on a Light Novel… even if its inspiration seems fairly clear.
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